Download Morphology squib_Moore Language

LING213_ Morpho-syntax squib_Moore language
Jinxiao Song
1. Clause structure
The constituent order of a pragmatically unmarked sentence is Subject-VerbObject/Complement, as in sentence (1) below. But the data also shows that clefting is very
common in Moore.
(1) Alamos
Alamos
wẽ
hit.PRES
(2) Mubil-a
Car-DEF
fõ
hit
(3) Alamos
Alamos
mubili.
car
‘Alamos hit the car’
Alamos
Alamos
‘The car hit Alamos.’
fõ - me.
hit
(4) ruk –a
Jar –DEF
wã ga –me
broke – DEC
(5) Alamos
Alamos
wã :g – a
break-PAST
‘Alamos got hit.’
‘The jar is broken.’
ruk-a
jar-DEF
‘Alamos broke the jar. ’
Sentence (1) and (5) has no markers on the subject of a transitive verb. Sentence (2) has a
definitive marker or nominal suffix on the subject. In sentence (3), the patient is marked (-ø)
when it appears as subject of an intransitive, but sentence (4) is marked differently.
The grammatical relations in sentences (1) to (5) would be:
Case
marking
S
Alamos –ø
ruk – a
A
Alamos –ø
mubil – a
O
ruk – a
mubili – ø
Alamos –ø
This table fails to show a significant difference on these noun suffixes. On one hand,
the agentive subject of intransitive clause is marked the same way as the single argument
of an intransitive clause. On the other hand, the subject is also marked the same with the
object of transitive clause. But generally, we do see ‘-a’ has a nominative suffix function. So
I would still like to conclude Moore to be nominative –accusative kind of language, though
word order is more obvious than case marking.
A sentence can have only a verb, without subject and object being surfaced. In this
kind of short sentences, the auxiliary ‘mè ’ or ‘la mè ’ is often used after predicate, or
combined with predicate to form a complete sentence.
(6) pid- a
fill – IMPV
– ḿè
- PRES
‘It’s full’
1
(7) am
1st sg. subj.
kwe
kill
ĺàḿè
(it)-DEC
‘I kill it’ (means ‘I killed it’)
2. Pronominal System
Moore pronouns have two dimensions, number and person. More pronouns have is
different from English pronouns. It also has length differences.
a. Number: There are singular and plural pronouns. As examples in the data below,
unlike English, verbs do not show morphological or lexical agreement with subject.
b. Person: The difference on person is similar with English. There are first person, second
person and third person.
Singular
Plural
Person
Short
Long
Short
Long
1st
m /am
fo/of /i
a
mam
ɲam
Ø
id
fo
ob
tond/toŋdo
2nd
3rd
subject
bam/bamba
object
Mam; fo; a; ɲam ; id; toŋ; ob;
Mam; bamba; tonŋdo; fo
⑧Alamos
Alamos
ɲo:k – a
catch – PAST
toŋdo
3rd.pl.
⑨fo
2nd sg.
ɲo:k –a
catch – PAST
1st.
‘Alamos caught us.’
mam
sg.
‘You caught me. ’
c. First person. Often times ‘mam’ ‘am’ and ‘m’ are used interchangeably in clause initial,
subject position, they are connected to the word that immediately follows them. However,
(i) ‘mam’ is the default 1st person object pronoun. The data never show ‘am’ or ‘m’
occurs in object position.
(ii) ‘mam’ carries emphatic meaning. Short form ‘m’ is mostly unemphatic. In order
to put emphasis on a pronoun, one would change short ones into long versions,
especially before NP objects. For example, in sentence (10) and (11) below,
(10) a
3rd sg.
(11) m’
1st sg.
ja
is
baba
father
mam
1st
ne
and
nwã g-a.
lover – DEF
sg.
ʔm
1st . sg.
ma
mother
‘He is my lover. ’
‘My father and my mother.’
d.
Second person. There are different familiarity degrees connected with different forms
nd
for 2 person sg. ‘you’. ‘fo’ appears more often in both declarative and imperative
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sentences than the other second person pronons. Length is corresponded with social
dimension and degree of familiarity. Justine indicate that ‘fo’ is a default choice, while ‘i’
and ‘ɲam’ sounds more respectful. Generally, longer forms are found more formal than the
short ones. ‘of’ is seen in folk lore and interrogatives. ‘ɲam’ is only used as subject and is
more respectful then ‘fo’. Another respectful ‘you’ is [ì]. It appeared once in the sentence ‘ ì
nã :nti karma sebre’ (you will read a book).
e.
When expressing 3rd person singular object ‘him/her/it’, one need to use the word for
‘man’(roɣa), ‘woman’ (paʁa), or ‘things’ (tero) instead.
3. Nouns
3. 1 Number.
Noun class in Moore is marked by different suffixes and is reflected through
singular and plural forms. Nouns and adjectives such as color terms both perform a lot of
regularities between singular and plural forms. [1]
(1) Nouns and adjectives that have /a/ in the root, and end in –ga, -ka, -na. The
plural form is to change –ga, -ka, -na into ‘–se’; Besides, ‘-se’ is found the most frequently
used plural suffix for most of the nouns in Moore.
Noun class
Gloss
Singular
Plural
-ga (-ɣa, ʁa)
Mossi (The people) muaga
mose
-ka
sheep
buʁa
buse
-na
house
zaka
zakse
leg
karga
karse
foot
katnina
katnise
small/short
kidga
kidse
(2) Nouns and adjectives have /i/ or /o/ in the root, and also end in –go, -gu, -ku, bo. The plural form is to change these into ‘-do’.
Noun class
Gloss
Singular
Plural
-go/-gu (-ɣo, -ɣu,
food
ribo
ribdo
data missing
-ʁo, -ʁu)
meat
ɲemdo
-ku/-ko
elephant
wobogo
wobodo
-bo/-bu
red
migu
mido
(3) Nouns and adjectives have /e/ in the root, and also end in –le, -ɾe. The plural
form is to change –le, -ɾe, -li, ɾi into ‘-a’
Noun class
Gloss
Singular
Plural
I referred to Alexandre, H. P. 1953. La langue moré. Dakar: Institut Français d’Afrique Noire. Volume 1, pp.44-59 for rough
classifications of noun classes in Moore.
[1]
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-le / -li
-ɾe / -ɾi
shoe
egg
ear
old
Ĩdɾe
gelle
tubɾe
kudɾe
Ĩda
gela
tuba
kuda/ kudɾa
(4) Nouns end in –de, -di. Plural form is to change ‘de, di’ into –a, -na, -ma.
Noun class
Gloss
Singular
Plural
-de
-di
corn
knee
Kamã nte
rũ di
Kamã na
rũ ma
(5) Mass nouns (mostly end in ‘–m’) perform the same surface form in both singular
and plural. There is no specific plural form for mass nouns.
Noun class
Gloss
Singular
Plural
mass noun
(Class M)
fire
water
bugum
kʰó ḿ
bugum
kʰó ḿ
(6) Some nouns are treated as collective nouns, the plural form is to add
‘damba/bamba’ at the end of the root. We also observed ‘bamba’ as a way of saying 3rd
person pl. ‘them’. As in ‘Alamus ɲṍ ka bamba’ (Alamus caught them)
Noun class
Gloss
Singular
Plural
collective nouns
window
fish
kweliŋ –ga
zima
kweliŋdamba
zimdamba
(7) Other nouns. There are other nouns that are found in neither categories above.
Potential Noun class
Gloss
Singular
Plural
Nouns end in -k/-g, with
out /a/ in the root ;
change –ka to –sa/-ta
Nouns end in -gu, with out
/i/ or /o/ in the root.
Change gu  se
Other forms that needs
further investigation
jar
room
ruka
roɣa
ruksa
rosa/rota
hand
nugu
nuse
eye
woman
nina
paʁa
nifu
paʁaba
Apart from these observations, I also noticed likely definite articles and indefinite
articles. A lot of nouns are transcribed with /-a/ or /-ã / at word final position. It is likely
that this suffix is a way to express definiteness. For example, the word for ‘jar’(sg.) and
‘jars’ (pl.), obviously we have the root /ruk/, /-sa/ is added as plural form, /-a/ is another
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suffix for definiteness. This is seen in sentene (12) through (15) below. What’s more, in
sentence (15), the numeral ‘five’ (/nṹ /) perform the same definiteness as the noun ‘ruk’ (jar).
(12)
Alamos
Alamos
wã :g-a
broke-PAST
(13)
kõ m – a
water- DEF
(14)
am
1st sg
(15)
ruk –sa
jar – pl.
taɾa
have
ruk-a
jar – DEF
‘Alamos broke the jar. ’
ruk –a
kõ ga–me.
jar – DEF broke–PRES
‘The water jar is broken’
ruk–sa
jar - pl.
nṹ - a
five –DEF
nṹ / nṹ -a.
five /five – DEF
bè
at
ká .
here.
‘I have 5 jars’
‘5 jars are here’
3.2 Noun Phrase structure
(1) Head + Dependent. The most usual way of forming a noun phrase is head +
dependent. Associative modifier including possessive, genitive are placed precede the
head. But adjectives and numeral, deictic are placed after the head noun, with the
quantitives in final place.
(16) Jõ ma
yìbú ‘one year’
Year-ADJ
one
(17) Niõ -(sa)
Cat.pl
sã́ bɾ - sà
black-pl.
jṍ pwè
seven
‘seven black cats’
(2) Possessive noun phrase. Unlike the sequence of head noun + dependent, pronouns are
put in front of the head noun. The structure is ‘pronoun + noun’, such as ‘m ma’ (my
mother); ‘mam nuga’ (my hands)
3.3 ‘-a’ — Nominal modifier/Definite article/ Topic marker
The nominal suffix ‘-a’ is found intertwined with definite article and topic marker. There
are many examples showing the suffix ‘-a’ after subject and sentence topic. It also appears
after adjectives. For example, by adding ‘-a’ to the word for water, the noun will be able to
modify another noun ‘jar’.
(18) Alamus
kù :
buʁ-a
‘Alamus killed the sheep.’
Alamus kill
sheep-DEF
(19)
4. Adjectives
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(1) Agreement. Adjectives also have plural forms, they are found agreeing with plural
head nouns. Color terms are always agreeing with the number of the head noun. Besides,
the word for ‘small’, ‘big’ and ‘old’ also undergo this change.
(20) Puʔ
kude-ɾe
‘an old woman’
Woman.
old-sg
Pu ʔ
Women
(21)
kud-ɾa/kuda
old- pl.
‘old women’
(2) Reduplication. Some adjectives can appear in a repeated fashion to express degree.
I’m not quite sure if this reduplication, cause it is not related to verb agreement or other
grammatical process. To indicate a stronger degree, one need to repeat one word no less
than 5 times. The first four times will use a shortened form of the adjective. These
adjectives are: bidɾe ‘big’; kidga ‘small’; ʊsgu ‘a lot’
(22)
mam
kom-a
ja
ʊs-ʊs-ʊsgu .
1st person sg. SUBJ water-ADJ
is
a lot more
‘My water is a lot, a lot , a lot’
5. Aspect
There are two aspects observed in Moore, the perfective and imperfective. Aspects are
interacting with tense.
(1)The perfective is unmarked, but we do see marked form for imperfective. There is no
grammatical element to indicate perfective, but it is indicated by the lack of the
imperfective suffix. The perfective aspect indicates that at the time referred to, the action
has already been completed, or the state of being referred to have already been achieved.
For example in sentence (23) below. By adding adverbials such as ‘masmasa’ to an
unmarked sentence such as sentence (27) below, one can also indicate progressive aspect.
(23) am
room. ’
Alamos
pa q – a
open – PRES
roɣ-a
‘Alamos open the
door– DEF
(2) The imperfective marker. By adding suffix /-da/ to a verb, the sentence would indicate
that at the time referred to, the action is continuing, as in sentence (24) below. With time
adverbials, an imperfective sentence can also express habitual meaning, as in sentence (27).
With past tense marker, a sentence can express past progressive.
(24)
am
karm –da
sebre da:r fã
1st sg
read-IMPF
book
day all
‘I read book everyday evening.’
zabre.
night.
(25)
ɲam
‘You read a book now’
karm –da
sebɾe
6
2nd person sg.
read – IMPF
book
(26)
Am
1st sg. subj.
dagən
PAST
karm-da
read- IMPF
(27)
am
karm – da
1st sg
read-PROG
sebɾe masmasa.
book
sebre.
book
‘I was reading a book.’
‘I am reading a book now’
now
6. Tense
(1) Present tense does not show obvious morphological changes. Usually the verb is
unmarked. Example is in sentence (29). Another way to express a state is to add ‘me’, ‘lame’
and ‘dame’ to the verb or adjective roots. These suffixes are found in present tense
sentence final rather frequently. As in sentence (28) shows.
I also considered the possibility that ‘me’ and ‘lame’ being illocutionary markers that
express a declarative sentence. Further data still needed to investigate this.
(28)
buʁ - a
zwẽ - me.
‘The sheep run’
sheep –DEF run.- PRES
(29)
bõ ŋbũ
wẽ
Alazuma.
‘Something hit Alazuma’
something hit.PRES
Alazuma.
(2) Past tense. The suffix /-a/ or /da/, and word /dagən/ are found in Moore to express
past tense. /-dagən/ is found to co-occur with imperfective, to express imperfective
meaning.
(30) Am
karm-a
sebre.
‘I read a book.’
1st sg. subj. read- PAST
book
(3) Future. An uxiliary /nã́ / is used to indicate future tense. It is translated as ‘will’, ‘about
to happen next’. A particle /ti/ can be added to indicate immediacy, that is, the action is
going to happen from the time of the utterance.
(31)
Id
nã :n ti
karm-a
sebre
1st Pl. will particle read-PRES book
‘we will read a book.’ (from now on)
(32)
zina nã́ :
ɲõ k-a
fo.
The spirit
will
catch-PRES 2nd sg. obj
‘The spirit will catch you’ (in the future)
7. Verbs
7.1 Stative verb
The verbs ‘taɾa’ (have); ‘ja’ (be); ‘be’ (at) are never found undergoing tense, aspect
changes. They are stative verb. But ‘taɾa’ has a shortened form of ‘ta’ when it is used in
negation. ‘ja’ is the ‘be’ auxiliary in Moore, it does not have specific morphological
variations. Another auxiliary is ‘la’, which is also used as ‘be’.
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(33)
(34)
am taɾa
mwẽ́
st
1 sg. have rice
am
zaka
bè Tampoe.
1st sg. house
at
T
‘I have rice’
My house at T ( I live in T)
7.2 Transitive and intransitive verb
kṍ õ̀ ‘to give’
8. Negation and question formation
1) Negation is marked by the ‘pa-’ [pʰá] prefix. It is used after the subject, before the verb,
to express negation. The verb will change to a shorter form in negation sentence. ‘pa-’ is
also found co-occur with the particle ‘je’ which is found in sentence final position. But ‘je’
does not mean negation. It is also found occur in interrogative sentence final.
35
m
pa-ta
mwẽ́ ‘I don’t have rice’
○
1st sg. subj
NEG-have
36
○
mam
jo:m-a
my age-DEF
37
○
mam
my
rice
tà
equal.PRES
fo
you
jo:m-a
pa-ta
age-DEF NEG- equal to
‘My age is the same with yours’
fo
you
je
NEG
‘My age is not the same with yours’ (I am younger than you)
38
○
wamb-a
ɾib-a
kà
bì
Monkey-DEF food-DEF NEG ripe
je.
NEG
‘The banana is not ripe’
2) WH-word questions.
So far we have come across question asking ‘where’ ‘what ’and ‘who’. WH-word is
found naturally in situ in object position. It follows the Subject + verb+ Object sequence.
But it can also be in clause initial position.
Where
39 Kamba
bè :
jɛ?
‘Where are the children?’
○
jɛ
children
at
Where
40 Fo
ɾik – da jɛ?
‘Where are you going?’
○
nd
2 sg. go-PROG
Where
Who
41 Fo
○
anda/anna
2nd sg.
ja
anda?
be
who
8
‘who are you?’
42 anna
○
What
bwẽ
how
la
fo?
‘who are you?’
who
be
you?
43 anda
dib – ta
kwoloŋgo?
‘Who are going to school?’
○
who
go –PROG
school
44
fo
jo
la
bwẽ ?
‘What is your name?’
○
2nd sg. name be
what?
45
fo
pak-da
bwẽ ?
‘What are you opening? ’
○
nd
2 sg. open-PROG what
boɣo
how old are you
3) [bí:] and [là:] the question markers
Two question markers [bí:] and [là :] are observed in the data. Both of them are found in
sentence final position.
Mwẽ́ ja
Rice is
kwologa
bi
bi?
almost
ready Q
Fo
karma-da
nd
2 sg. read-PROG
sebre masmasa
book now
‘Is the rice almost ready?’
la ?
Q
‘Are you reading a book now?’
9. Conclusion
Abbreviations:
Reference:
[1]
[2] Alexandre, H. P. 1953. La langue Moré. Dakar: Institut Français d’Afrique Noire.
[3]
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