In the previous post on Bixwá's verb system, I talked about grammatical affixes, aspect and valency. This post will cover affixes that are more lexical, though the direction prefixes are used for some aspectual refinements. The verb so far:
Aspect - STEM - VoiceInstrumental Prefixes
I got the idea for the instrumental prefixes, once again, from Native languages of North America, though not Athabascan for a change. Instrumental prefixes are fairly common in unrelated languages across a wide area, from Haida in British Columbia to the Siouan languages of the plains. The
Bixwá set is larger than some, but is by no means the largest.
The instrumental prefix comes to the left of any aspect prefix. The instrumental prefix will be separated from the verb stem by any aspect prefix, and I use a dash in the lexicon as a reminder,
ró-má read (from
ró- by/with words, language and
má see).
In Bixwá the instrumental prefixes can cover a range of meanings, not all of which are really instrumental. For several of them, such as
kwí- by thought, by contemplation, by planning, the significance can be pretty metaphorical, as in
kwí-'ééz rage from
ééz burn.
All verbs with instrumental prefixes are transitive (a habit sometimes seen in natural languages with these). Any noun stem is converted to a verbal meaning when taking one of these prefixes.
A lot of fun lexical derivation can go on with these:
| olo-'éke bore someone to tears | olo- by falling, by dropping, éke head |
| olo-míír to cast a shadow, shade something | olo- by falling, by dropping, míír shadow, shade |
| nóó-ját write | nóó- by color, by dye, ját sign, mean |
| ró-nó'ó interrupt someone speaking | ró- by language, speaking, nó'ó to break off |
| thahe-nó'ó burn, cauterize something off | thahe- by fire, heat, nó'ó to break off |
| xaa-nó'ó cut off | xaa- by edge, by blade, by arm, nó'ó to break off |
| bii-vích spit something a distance | bii- by mouth, vích to take flight, to enter the air |
| thahe-vích to rise into the air from heat | thahe- by fire, heat, vích to take flight, to enter the air |
Direction and Mode
To the left of any instrumental prefix come the direction prefixes. Most of the time they are oriented to the speaker, but the focus of orientation can shift in a narrative. Bixwá has the usual set,
chu- for
away from the speaker and
ní- towards the speaker. These give direction to basic verbs of motion, such as
áá which without other marking can mean either
go or
come.
These prefixes interact with the aspect prefixes to give some refinements. With stative verbs (which do the job of adjectives in Bixwá),
chu- with the perfective
ho- gives the inchoative,
né chuhochis I got sick (from
chis to be ill, weak). With any verb type,
ní- with the conclusive perfective
isii forms the experiential perfect,
| né | maa | áka | ní-ró-'isii-má |
| ISG | that | book | away-by.language-CONCL.PF-see |
| I have read that book |
The prefix
lii- is a deictic marker that situates the action in some communications technology, usually some online social sphere. It goes into the same slot as the direction prefixes. Rarely it can co-occur with one of them, and will be to the left, but more likely it will drive any direction prefix away.
| jóné | ová' | lii-ho-xod |
| 1PL | together | online-PFV-speak |
| We talked together. |
The Verb Template
After all of that, the full template for verb affixes is:
Direction - Instrumental - Aspect - STEM - VoiceNext I'll cover the preverbs, which will always occur before the verb complex I've given above. They're not counted part of the affix chain, since their phonology precludes their use as prefixes.
I should not bash Toki Pona too much, but I do think that its simplicity is deceptive. It lacks the mechanisms to create words like Unabsteigbarkeit and instead has to form very intransparent constructions. I think the Toki Pona speakers traded one form of complexity for another one and while that might be a useful tradeoff to them, it looks disadventageous to me.
