The Ethnology of the Khezhas & The Khezha Grammar
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| Part 2: Language |
Morphology
Linguists who had worked in different Naga languages
classified morphology in these languages into two broad divisions: noun and
verb. Adjectives have been treated as a closed class of word and labeled under
noun morphology. While at the same time claiming that the adjectives in the
respective languages they had worked share the base of verb, if not a sub-class
of verb. The cardinal question is, what are the constraints that restricted
them in their morphological expansions so that they could not be considered as
open class of words? It would have been more proper and explicit, if the
adjectives are truly a sub-class of verb, they could have been analyzed as part
of verb and examine in what context they are alike with verb in their semantic,
morphological and syntactic domains.
The
present work is a major departure from the generally locepted view about the
characteristics of adjectives as a sub-class of verb or noun. The main emphasis
here would be that the adjectives in Khezha have their own morphological base
and they are pontential in morphological extension, though may share the
grammatical properties with both noun and verb in some instances. This does not mean however that they have
lost their identity as open class of word since even nouns and verbs also in
return share the properties of adjectives in many instances, in their
morphological operations. Thus, they are simply reciprocal and supplementary to
one another since one cannot exist without the other. On this ground, the present
work classified Khezha morphology into three broad divisions: noun, adjective
and verb.
3.1. NOUN
3.1.1. Classification of Noun
Nouns in Khezha may be broadly classified into two
groups: animate and inanimate. Although there is no particular marker to
indicate the difference between animate and inanimate nouns, their differences
can be observed in the semantic context.
For example, Khezha has two allomorphs for adjective ‘old’ such as keshé
and ketre, where the former occurs as modifier to the animate nouns,
while the latter to those of the inanimate nouns, eg.,
èmi keshé
‘old man’ : èmi keshé dah ‘The
man is old’
èvo keshé ‘old pig’ : èvo keshé dah ‘The
pig is old’
razhu ketre ‘old shirt’ : razhu ketre dah ‘The shirt is old’
èkie ketre ‘old house’ : èkie ketre dah ‘The house is old’
The animate nouns may be further divided into human and
non-human. The difference between them
may be distinguished by the occurrence or nonoccurrence of genitive marker –we. All the human nouns can take it, whereas
non-human nouns cannot, eg.,
áwe ‘mine’
ìwe ‘yours’
pùwe ‘his/hers’
lǘmiwè ‘girl’s’
meriwè ‘Mary’s’
but not,
*èvowè (pig’s)
*ròcǘwè (bird’s)
*tshübówè (tree’s)
The human nouns may be further sub-classified into
professional and non-professional, where the professional nouns show gender
distinction. Similarly, the non-human
nouns may be sub-classified into three groups:
animal, bird and insect. Both the
animals and birds show such a distinction. They may be demonstrated by tree diagram:
NOUN
Animate
Inanimate
Human Non-human
Professional Non-Professional Animal
Bird Insect
Neuter Masculine
Feminine Neuter Male
Female Neuter Male Female
3.1.2. Gender
Gender
distinction plays a very limited role in Khezha. Pronouns never show any gender
distinction. Thus, the word, pù,
for instance, is used for both ‘he’ and ‘she’.
Even in case of nouns, the grammatical category of gender is applicable
only to a few classes of nouns. Nouns
that take gender marker show a three-way opposition such as neuter, masculine
and feminine. While the base form itself
indicates the neuter gender, the masculine and feminine genders are overtly marked
wherever applicable. The gender of these types of nouns, however, never shows
any gender agreement with any other grammatical class in a sentence. Below are the nouns that show gender
distinction:
3.1.2.1. Human Gender:
Human gender in Khezha may be classified into two
categories, viz., personal name and name of profession.
(i) Personal
Names : While personal names
referring to the male beings are not marked, all the names referring to female
are marked with the feminine gender suffix –è. The following are some of the Khezha personal
names :
Male Name Female Names
Diló Dilóè
Wete Weteè
Throtsò Throtsoè
Lhikhah Lhikhahè
Nìkhahló Nìkhahlóè
(ii) Names of
Profession : A few names referring to certain professions
show a three-way opposition in gender:
neuter, masculine and feminine.
The neuter gender denotes both male and female engaged in the profession
where nouns are optionally marked with a suffix –mi. The masculine
gender is marked with the suffix –pfü, while the feminine gender with –pì.
Neuter Masculine
Feminine
kìetshünö (mí)
‘neighbour’ kìetshünöpfü kìetshünöpì
kiekète (mi) ‘servant’ kiekètepfü kyekètepì
trüta (mi) ‘leader’ trütapfü trütapì
sekepú (mí) ‘speaker’ sekepúpfü sekepúpì
kezü (mí) ‘friend’ kezüpfü kezüpì
seta (mi) ‘lawyer/judge’ sètapfü sètapì
kahkepú (mi) ‘teacher’ kahkepúpfü kahkepúpì
3.1.2.2. Animal Gender :
As
in the case of human nouns, animals and birds too, have a three-way opposition
in gender, viz., neuter, male and female, where the neuter gender is unmarked.
Animals are distinguished by the presence and absence of
horns, while birds are distinguished by colour.
Poultry and majority of female animals show a distinction between the
ones tha are already bred and the ones, which are unbred; while some other
animals and birds do not show such a distinction. The unbred female animals are further
distinguished between unbred female animals with horns and unbred female animals
without horns. Also, some animals like
elephant, for instance, do not show gender distinction.
èlü ‘male
animals without horn’
medó ‘male
animals with horn’
ènie ‘unbred
female animals without horn’
elǘ ‘unbred
female animals with horn’
‘unbred female poultry’
ètrǜ ‘bred
female animals and poultry, also both bred and unbred
female birds’
köjǘ ‘male
birds’
Examples :
Animals Male Female
With
horn without bred unbred
èvo ‘pig’ - voolü votrǘ vonie
ètshü ‘dog’ - tshüǜlü tshütrǘ tshünie
köthö `cat’
- köthö èlü köthötrǜ köthö enie
èzhú ‘rat’ - zhú
èlü zhútrǜ zhú ènie
kélè ‘squirrel’ - kélè
èlü kélètrǜ kélè ènie
èkhù ‘tiger’ - khù
èlü khùtrǘ khúnie
ètsè ‘cattle’ tsè medó - tsètrǘ tsèlǘ
èthe ‘deer’ the medó - thetrǘ thelǘ
èthra ‘reindeer’ thra
medó - thratrǘ thra thelǘ
èzhü ‘sambar’ zhü medó - zhütrǘ zhü thelü
eli ‘buffalo’ li medó
- litrǜ -
èprù ‘elephant’ - - - -
èmǜ ‘goat’
mǜ medó - mütrǘ -
èkwè ‘shee’ kwè medó
- kwètrǘ -
lóhéle
`rhiroceros’ -- - -- -
Birds Male Female
bred unbred
èfü ‘poultry’ fǘjǘ fütrǜ fülü
èrí ‘pheasant’ ri
kojü ritrǜ -
kodò ‘bulbul’ - kodu ètrǜ -
tèthricü ‘sparrow’ - - -
refü ‘jungle fowl’ re
fǘjǘ re
fǘtrǜ -
pikok ‘peacock’ pikik köjǘ pikiktrǜ -
As we have discussed in the Chapter of Khezha phonology,
noun class of words in this language always prefer a minimum of two syllable
length of words. Therefore, when the base consists of single syllable, it must
be preceded by a vowel prefix e- when uttered alone. However, when they
are uttered together with other words in phrasal or sentential construction the
prefix is often silent in normal flow of speech. Presumably, this is only to
establish phonological weight to syllable.
In the case of male animal without horn we may observe
two ways of morphological operation. For domesticated animals such as pig and
dog, the morpheme èlü is conjoined with its head noun, and thereafter its vowel
prefix is assimilated to its adjacent vowels. In other cases, the masculine
gender marker functions as attributive to the head. A complexity arises here
for the case of cat, because it behaves like a non-domesticated animal. No
plausible answer is immediately available at present. The more satisfactory
answer could be that, cats are never treated as valuable domesticated animals
by the Khezhas as discussed in the Chapter-1. As such, its owner hardly bothers
whether male or female except that providing them some food so that they may
not permanently stray away.
In the case of reideer and sambar, they are identified as
the same family of deer, hence their gender identity. Rare animals such as rhinoceros and elephant
are rarely called by gender. Similarly, in the case of sheep and goat, the
identity between bred and unbred females is rarely distinguished, because
traditionally, Khezhas never reared these animals. Similar case is the birds
except domesticated fowls.
3.1.3. Pronoun
Pronouns
in Khezha may be classified into six categories, viz., personal pronoun,
demonstrative pronoun, interrogative pronoun, relative pronoun, reflexive
pronoun, possessive pronoun and adjective pronoun.
3.1.3.1. Personal Pronoun :
Khezha has three personal pronouns, viz., 1st
person, 2nd person and 3rd person. All the personal pronouns have a four-way
opposition in numbers such as singular (Sg), dual (Dl), plural (Pl) and
unspecific human (Uh). The exclusive, although, does not specify the
number of referee, yet it always implies more than one. Except singular number, no other number has
nominative(Nom)-accusative(acc) opposition.
Person Sg Dl Pl Uh
Nom Acc
1st person Nye ahwe ánhi aro ami
2nd person nò ìwe nònhi noro nomi
3rd person pù pùwe pùùnhi pùuro pùmi ‘he/she’
As illustrated above,
first person singular has two allomorphs such as nie and a. The former is nominative form, while the
latter is accusative, which is suppletive allomorph of the former to which are
added various suffixes to give respective forms. Similarly, 2nd personal pronoun
singular has two allomorphs no and i, where the former is
nominative form, while the latter is used as accusative. As in the case of 3rd personal
pronoun pu, it has single allomorph for all the cases.
The morphemes a and i are also used as
possessive, eg., ahwe ‘mine’, ìwe ‘yours’, a eli ‘my
buffalo’, i eli ‘your buffalo’, a
kezü ‘my friend’, i kezü ‘your friend’ and so on. The morpheme –we is bound morpheme used as
genitive marker, used predicatively; the detail of which is discussed later.
2.1.3.2. Demonstrative Pronouns :
The demonstrative pronouns in Khezha may be
sub-classified into three groups: (1) nominal demonstrative, (2) spatial
demonstrative and (3) demonstrative determiner. There are four demonstrative
roots that give anaphoristic expression and have listener-speaker proximate and
remote references and also deictic and non-deictic relations.
hy- ‘speaker-proximate’
tsü- ‘listener-proximate’
whö- ‘deictic’
shü- ‘non-deictic’
2.1.3.2.1. Nominal Demonstrative Pronoun:
The nominal
demonstrative pronouns are suffixed by the number inflections such as –no,
-nhi, -ro and –mi.
speaker-proximate : hyno ‘this’
heenhi ‘these (Dl)’
hyro ‘these (Pl)’
hymí ‘these (Uh)’
listener-proximate : tsüno ‘that’
tsünhi ‘those’
tsüro ‘those’
tsümi ‘those’
deictic : whöno ‘that’
whönhi ‘those’
whöro ‘those’
whömi ‘those’
non-deictic : shüno ‘that’
shüénhi ‘those’
shüro ‘those’
shümi ‘those’
2.1.3.2.2. Spatial Demonstrative Pronoun:
The spatial
demonstrative pronouns take spatial adverbs such as ba `implies
proximity’, pah `implies side of the dissection, boè `implies
point of location’, eg.,
speaker-proximate : hybá ‘this side’
hypah ‘this part of dissection’
hyboè ‘this point of location’
listener-proximate : tsübá ‘that side’
tsüpah ‘that part of dissection’
tsüboè ‘that poin of location’
deictic : whöbá ‘that
side’
whöpah ‘that part of
dissection’
whöboè ‘that poin of
location’
non-deictic : shübá ‘that
side’
shüpah ‘that part of dissection’
shüboè ‘that point of location
2.1.3.2.3 Demonstrative
Determiner:
Khezha has
demonstrative determiners such as hi, zü and shü, which are complimentary
distribution with reference to the time and space,
hi implies
deictic reference of the speaker,
zü’ implies
the referee is either with the listener, or that the speaker refers some past
experience,
shü implies
non-deictic reference, or that the speaker is repeating the referee which had
been referred earlier by the listener.
Examples:
1. Leshida hi
book det.
‘This book’ (book
with the speaker)
2. I tele hi
your-manner det.
‘Your behavious’ (I can’t stand this of your manner)
3. I sepu
zü’
your-word det.
‘Your word’
(The speaker refers the
utterance uttered by the hearer earlier, and the speaker presumes that the
addressee is still conscious of it)
4. Meri
zü’
axe det.
‘The axe’
(The axe is either with
the addressee or the speaker refers the one they had experienced with it
earlier)
5. Meri
shü
‘The axe.’
(The speaker either
refers the axe, which the addressee had mentioned before, or that something had
had happened to the axe).
6. I sepu
shü
‘Your word’
(The speaker refers the
utterance of the addressee)
3.1.3.3. Interrogative Pronoun:
Khezha has three types of interrogative pronoun roots
such as thú, di- and dá-. While di- and dá- are bound
morphemes, which need a number to compound with. However, the root thú is a
free morpheme implying the meaning ‘who’: thú nhíe `to whom?’
Furthermore, it has selectional restriction,
that is, it cannot take singular –no or plural –ro other than
dual number –nhi:
*thuno `who (Sg)’
*thuro `who(Pl)’
thunhi `who(Dl)’
There are various ways
of expressing interrogation by using varied interrogative pronoun.
thú ‘who’
thúmi ‘who’
dibyketshüro `who(Pl)’
dibydátshüro ‘how’,
‘in what way’
disüro ‘why
(use as single word interrogation)’
disürö ‘why
(when used with sentece as in, disürö ahwe è ko ah dii? `why
calling me?)’
diby ‘what’
dibyketshünhie or
diysünhie ‘when’
dizhe ‘how
many’
dicy ‘how’
dábá ‘where’
dázhe ‘how
much’
dáno ‘which
(Sg)’
dánhi ‘which
(Dl)’
dáro ‘which
(Pl)’
dámi ~ dábámi (Uh) ‘who
(belong to what village)’
dáby ‘what
(type)
dácy ‘what
(way)’
dápah ‘what
(part of dissection)’
dáboè ‘where
(asks specific point of location)’
Interrogative pronouns
denoting human noun can also take genitive –wè:
thúwè ‘whose’
thúnhiwè ‘whose’
thúmiwè ‘whose’
dibyketshürowè
`whose(Pl)’
3.1.3.4. Relative Pronoun :
The relative pronoun (Rpr) root zü needs a number suffix
–no ~ -Ø, -nhi, –ro and -mi to indicate the relative pronoun as züno (Sg),
zünhi (DL), züro (Pl) and zümi {Excl), the relative clause is then closed by a
demonstrative determiner.
7. I
kezü iwe eh zü rö
leshi phrü ah züno zü’
or
I kezü iwe eh
zü rö leshi phrü ah züØ zü’
Your friend you loc with conj book read
part Rpr-Sg det
‘Your friend who studyed with you.’
8. I
kezü iwe eh zü
rö leshi phrü ah zünhi zü’
Your friend you loc with book
read Rpr-Dl that
‘Those two of our friends who studyed with you.’
9. I
kezü iwe eh
zü rö leshi phrü ah züro
zü’
Your friend you loc with conj book read part Rpr-Pl that
‘Those of your friend who studyed with you.’
10 Leshida tsadzü ah züno zü’
Book fall part
Rpr-Sg that
`The book that fell down’
11 Leshida tsadzü ah zünhi zü’
Book fall part
Rpr(Dl) that
The books that fell down
12 Leshida tsadzü ah züro zü’
Book fall part
Rpr(Pl) that
Those of the book tha fell down
13 Nò nü afé puh ah züno zü’
you
nom before tell part Rpr(Sg). That
`The one, which you mentioned before’
14 Nò nü afé puh ah zünhi zü’
you
nom before tell paret Rpr(Dl). That
`Those (two), which you mentioned before’
15 Nò nü afé puh ah züno zü’
you
nom before tell part Rpr(PL) that
`Those, which you mentioned before’
(The determiner zü
can be replaced by another determiner hi or shü depending on the situation and
event of discourse.}
3.1.3.5. Reflexive Pronoun :
In Khezha, the reflexive èlé
is used for all the persons in referring back to the subject of the sentence,
eg.,
Sg Dl Pl Uh
1st Nyeèlé ánhièlé aroèlè amièlé
I-self we-self we-self we-self
‘myself’ ‘ourselves’ ‘ourselves’ ‘ourselves’
2nd nòèlé nónhièlé noroèlé nomièlé
you-self you-self you-self you-self
‘yourself’ ‘yourselves’ ‘yourselves’ ‘yourselves’
3rd pùèlé pùúnhièlé púuroèlé púmièlé
he/she-self they-self they-self they-self
‘him/herself’ ‘themselves’ ‘themselves’ ‘themselves’
3.1.3.6. Possessive Pronoun :
All the possessive pronouns in Khezha are suffixed by
possessive inflection –we.
Person Sg Dl Pl Hn
1st person áwe ahnhiwè arowè amiwè
possessive ‘mine’ ‘ours’ ‘ours’ ‘ours’
2nd person iwe nónhiwè norowè nomiwè
possessive ‘yours’ ‘yours’ ‘yours’ ‘yours’
3rd person pùwe pùúnhiwè pùurowè pùmiwè
possessive ‘his/hers’ ‘theirs’ ‘theirs’ ‘theirs’
The possessive pronoun of 1st person ahwe
‘mine’, 2nd person iwe ‘yours and 3rd person pùwe
‘his/hers’ are homophones of the personal pronoun accusative ahwe ‘me’, iwe
‘you’ and pùwe ‘him/her’, respectively.
All the possessive pronouns can be interpolated by the
morpheme kwé ‘together’ to indicate as ‘possess together’. In some cases, kwéwè (together possess) is
also used as an independent word of possessive pronoun without specifying the
person. This is used in the cases when
there is no necessity to particularize the possessor, otherwise it is used in
the following ways :
ánhikwéwè (we-Dl-together-possessor)
arokwéwè (we-Pl-together-possessor)
amikwéwè (we-together-possessor)
nónhikwéwè (you-Dl-together-possessor)
norokwéwè (you-Pl-together-possessor)
nomikwéwè (you-together-possessor)
pùúnhikwéwè (they-Dl-together-possessor)
pùurokwéwè (they-Pl-together-possessor)
pùmikwéwè (they-together-possessor)
3.1.3.7 Adjective Pronoun :
The following words may be categorised as adjective pronoun
in Khezha. The adjective pronoun occurs in place of noun and provides
indefinite number of participants. Thus, whenever adjective pronoun occurs it
implies a minimum number of two participants. In other cases they can also
occur immediately after the noun they modify.
keme ‘some
(out of many)’
medö ‘all/everyone’
ketòh ‘any/whatever/whoever/whichever’
kelele ‘each’
(reduplication of kele ‘one’)
kedzü ‘other’
katrö ‘many’
ketseh ‘few’
cína ‘little
(less than few)’
cínapörí `tiny’
One special
charateristic of adjective pronoun in Khezha is that, whether it occurs alone
in place of noun or after the noun it modifies, it never allows number marker
to occur in the noun phrase,
keme `some’: leshidah
keme `some books’
*kemeno;
*kemenhi; *kemero
: *leshida kemeno; *leshidah kemenhi;
*leshidah kemero.
ketseh `few’ : leshida ketseh `few books’
*ketsèno; *ketsènhi; *ketsèro
: *leshida ketseno; *leshida ketsenhi;
*leshida ketsèro.
3.1.4. Number
There are four number markers in Khezha, viz., singular –no,
dual –nhi, plural –ro and unspecific human -mi. However,
as discussed earlier, not all the noun classes take singular suffix or
unspecific human. Only the roots of demonstrative pronouns hi, tsü, shü, whö
and relative pronoun root zü can take any number marker. Other nouns are unmarked morphologically for
singular number. Similarly, unspecific
human –mi, which is derived from the morpheme èmi `person/people’ can
occur with only human noun. The dual suffix –nhi is derived from the
numeral kènhi ‘two’ and can occur only when number specification is
required.
Sg Dl Pl Uh
hyno ‘this’ hèénhi hyro hymi
tsüno ‘that’ tsünhi tsüro tsümi
shüno `that’ shüenhi shüro shümi
whöno `that’ whönhi whöro whömi
züno `that, who, which’ zünhi züro zümi
Concrete nouns do not
take singular suffix:
mekhi ‘seat’ mekhinhi mekhiro
lèchè ‘fruit’ lèchènhi lèchèro
tshübó ‘tree’ tshübónhi tshübóro
ròcü ‘bird’ ròcünhi ròcüro
lümi ‘girl’ lüminhi lǘmyro
leshi `book’ leshinhi leshiro
Abstract nouns do not
take number suffix
lido `idea’ *lidonhi *lidoro
sepu `word, expression’ *sepunhi *sepuro
sètsa `agreement’ *sètsanhi *setsaro
lizhe `sadness’ *lizhenhi *lizhero
kenü `hapiness’ *kenünhi *kenüro
mèku `lie (falsehood)’ *mèkunhi *mèkuro
Unlike in English, for
instance, a noun consisting of two or more elements do not give number
expression even though that its existence is significant, eg.,
tsübu ‘scissors’ *tsübunhi, *tsǜburo
menie ‘trousers’ *menienhi, *meniero
lashe ‘stairs’ *lashenhi, *lashero
tetróbó ‘upstairs’ *tetróbónhi, *tetróbθro
tomhí ‘flies’ *tomhínhi,
If numbers are added to
the noun, it gives different meaning as,
tsübunhi ‘two pairs of scissors’
tomhini ‘two
files’
tsüburo `three or more pairs of scissors
tomhíro ‘three or
more flies’.
In the cases where numeral classifiers occur with nouns,
the number suffixes are deleted, eg.,
katrö ‘many’ : tsübu katrö ‘many
pairs of scissors’
pedi ‘four’ : menie pedi ‘four
pairs of trousers’
keme ‘some’ : menie keme ‘some
pairs of trousers’
leshída ‘book’ : leshída pedi ‘four books’
leshída katrö ‘many
books’, etc.
However, when three or
more objects are perceived as single entity, say they are bundled or piled up
together, occurrence of plural number is possible after numeral
16. Leshída pedíro zü’
book fours
det
`those
of the four books’
17. Leshída pangöro hi
book fives det
`these
of the five books’
Similar deletion
applies in the sentential constructions, eg.,
18. Pùuro
lümi kewe
they-Pl girl good
‘They are good girls’
19. Lümínhi
hi zòwe a
girl-Dl det.
beautiful part
‘These two girls are beautiful’
20. Leshida
hyro hi ahwe a
book
these-Pl det mine
‘These books are mine’
21. Lümí whónhi hi a tèpí a
girl that-Dl
det.my sister
‘Those two girls are my sisters’
When adjective is used, the number suffix is attached to
the adjective rather than two the noun, eg.,
22. Lümí
zòkewero
girl beautiful-Pl
‘beautiful girls’
23. Mekhi
kecynhi
seat small-Dl
‘small seats’
26. Leshída kewero
book good-Pl
‘good books’
Whereas in the cases
when both the adjective and demonstrative pronoun occur together, the latter
takes the number suffix, eg.,
25. Lümí
zòkewe whóro
girl beautiful
that-Pl
‘those beautiful girls’
26. Mekhi
kecy hyro
seat small
this-Pl
‘these small seats’
27. Leshídah
kewe tsüro
book good that-Pl
‘those good books’
This indicates that
number marker must always be attached to the final component of noun phrase.
3.1.5. Numeral
:
Khezha numeral system is decimal based. The numerals in this language may be defined
as that of grammatical class which form a sub-class of nominal capable of
taking case markers and number markers.
In many cases, the numeral itself form the nucleus of a noun phrase,
eg.,
28. Kelero
zü pfo kehrhü de
one-Pl det take mix
imp.
‘Add together those ones.’
29. Keleèro
nü chuti dah
one-Pl nom leave
‘The 1st (standard students) are on vacation.’
Khezha numerals may be classified into four categories,
namely: ordinal, cardinal, fraction and
numeral adverb.
Ordinals:
There is no
morphological form for ordinal numbers in Khezha. They are realized at the
syntactic level only as in,
Kele eh (one
in) ‘first’
Kènhi eh (two in) ‘second’
Ketshü eh (three in) ‘third’
Pedi eh (four in) ‘fourth’
Pangö eh (five in) ‘fifth’
When specifying first
or last, it is expressed as,
Keri kelé (front last) `top’
Kenö kelé (back last) `buttom’
In natural expression,
they are expressed as,
Keri kelé tshü a (front last do part) `N does top most’
Keri kelé eh beh a (front last in exist pasrt) `In the top most’
Kenö kelé tshü a (back last do part) (N does buttom most’
Kenö kelé eh beh a (back last exist part) `In the buttom
most.’
3.1.5.2. Cardinals:
Cardinal numerals in Khezha may be classified into
two: (i) those consisting of absolute
form, i.e., single morpheme and (ii) those consisting of two or more
morphemes. The former may be designated
as primary numerals and the latter as secondary numerals.
(a) Primary Numerals :
There are fourteen
primary numerals available in this language,
kele ‘one’
kenhi ‘two’
ketshü ‘three’
pedi ‘four’
pangö ‘five’
sahrü ‘six’
seni ‘seven’
tecie ‘eight’
takö ‘nine’
cirü ‘ten’
meki ‘twenty’
cherü ‘thirty’
etri ‘hundred’
enye ‘thousand’
(b) Secondary Numerals :
All the numerals in
Khezha except the ones listed above under the primary numerals are secondary
numerals. The constituents of a
secondary numeral may have different types of relationship with the other
constituents. Depending upon this
relationship the secondary numerals in Khezha can be further sub-group into
four. These sub-groups along with their
relationships among the constituents are described below :
(i)
the constituents showing the relationship of summation as in,
círü
kele ‘eleven’
círü
kenhi ‘twelve’
Likewise, all the
numerals from eleven to nineteen are formed.
(ii)
the constituents showing the relationship of multiplication with decimal
notation lha ‘ten’ and ètri ‘hundred
lha x pedí > lhapedí ‘fourty’
lha x pangö > lhapangö ‘fifty’
etri x kenhi > etri kenhi ‘two hundred’
etri x ketshü > etri ketshü ‘three hundred’
The multiples of ten
from fourty to ninety, and the multiples of hundred show this type of
relationship between their constituents.
(iii)
The first two constituents showing the relationship of multiplication
and the resultant form showing the relationship of summation with the third
one. In such a case, the multiplication
requires the conjunction rö ‘and’ to allow the summation to occur after it,
eg., Nu x Nu rö Nu,
30. Lhapedí rö kele
ten x four and one
‘fourty one’
31. Lhapedi rö takö
ten x four and
nine
‘fourty nine’
32. Lhatecie rö tecie
ten x eight and eight
‘eighty eight’
(iv)
The hundred and thousand usually introduce a morpheme pu ‘seed’
which acts as additive marker. But after nine, it becomes unnatural if the
additive pu is used, eg.,
33. Etri rö
pu kele
100 and seed 1
‘hundred one’
34. Etri rö
lhatakö rö takö
100-and 10 x 9-and
9
‘hundred and ninety nine’
35. Etri tecie rö pu pedi
x 8-and seed 4
‘eight hundred and
four’
36. Etri tecie rö mekí rö
pedi
100 x 8-and 20
and 4
‘eight hundred twenty four’
37. Enye kele rö etri
1000-1-and 100
‘one thousand one hundred’
38. Enye kele rö pu takö
1000 1 and seed
nine
One thousand nine.
39. Enye kele rö etri tecie rö lhatecie rö tecie
1000 x 1 and 100 x
8 and 10 x 8 and 8
‘one thousand eight hundred eighty eight’
40. enye lhapedi rö pedi rö
etri seni rö lhaseni rö tecie
1000 x 10 x 4 and 4 and 100 x 7 and 10 x 7 and 8
‘fourty four thousand seven hundred seventy eight’
3.1.5.3. Fraction
:
Fractions are not extensively used by the Khezhas in doing
calculations. The word parha
‘half’ and theze `share’ are fractions available in this language, eg.,
parha kele ‘one half (½)’
parha knhi ‘two
out of three parts of division (2/3)’
The phrase parha
kele is used when there is more quantity of numbers, which are divided into
two parts. But, in the case of single quantity or one measure, one basketful
for example, to be divided into two parts it is expressed as, kele parha.
The word medzüde is also used in the sense of multiples by preceding the
numeral, eg.,
medzüde pedi ‘four times higher’
medzüde tecie ‘eight
times higher’
The smaller units of
fractions are expressed in aphoristic manner,
41 Theze
pedi tshü rö theze
kele
share four do and
share one
‘one by four ( ¼ )’
42. Theze
seni tshü rö theze
pedí
share seven do and
share four
‘four by seven (4/7)’
43. Theze
tecie rö theze pedí
èló theze kele
share
eight-and share four
from share one
‘eight and one by four (8 ¼)’
3.1.5.4. Arithmetic Numerals :
There are four basic terms used in Khezha for doing
calculation. They are: kehrhü (add) ‘addition’, meteh (cause to
go) ‘minus’, we `number of time/multiplication’ and kezé (divide)
‘division’.
Addition :
For addition or
adtogether, the word kehrhü `add’ is optionally used, that is, without
it the morpheme le [é] `and’ takes care of the communication
requirement,
44. Kele le kenhi kehrhü ketshü
one and two plus
three
‘One plus two is three’
or
Kele
le kenhi ketshü
one plus two three (1+2=3)
45. Kenhi le ketshü (kehrhü) pangö
two and three plus five
‘Two plus three is five.’
But for larger numbers, it is more preferable
to occur with kèrhü:
46. Etri kènhi le
etri ketshü kehrhü etri pangö
Hundred two and hundred
three add hundred five
200+300=500.
Subtraction:
The For
subtraction, it is used two types of expression: èló
--- mète `to let go’ and èló ---- teh deh eleh `from --- if remove’. The former
is used as imperative, especially at the time of teaching, while the latter is
used at the time of discourse or questioning. The instrumental case pfo
is optionally used:
47. Pedí
èló kele (pfò) meteh deh
four from one minus imp.
‘Minus one from four!’
48. Pedí
èló kele (pfò) tè deh eleh ketshü
by ede
four from one (take) go in case three
only will
`It will become three if one is taken away from four.’
49. Ètri pangö èló
lhapedí (pfò) meteh hí
Hundred five from 10xfour (take) let go
`Minus fourty from five hundred (and see what it will
be)!
50. Ètri pangö èló
lhapedí (pfò) teh deh éleh dazhe di
Hundred five from 10xfour (take) let go if how much imp.
`If fourty is taken away from five hundred how much will
it be?
Multiplication:
The word we or va
implies number of times. However, it cannot occur alone without expression by
zǘ (type that) which acts as connective of the two numbers as well as
supplement to the multiplication. Hence,
it can take care of the entire expression of multiplication by itself without
we:
51. Pedi
by zü’ (we) pedí
cirü sarü
four type that
time four ten
six
‘four times four is sixteen’
52. Pedí
by zü’ (we) kenhi
four that multiply
two
‘four multiply by two’
53. Pedí
by zü (we) sahrü
four that multiply
six
‘four multiply by six.’
Division:
In doing division, the
collocation of the instrumental case pfo and verb keze `divide’ is
always essential,
54. Kenhi pfo
seni keze hi!
two take seven
divide imp
‘Divide seven by two!’
55. Pedí pfo
tecie keze hi!
four take
eight divide imp
‘Divide eight by four’
3.1.7. Postposition:
All the postpositions (post) in Khezha follow the
noun. The difference between case
markers and postpositions is that, the former give expression about the
syntactic-semantic relationship of the sentence, while the latter do not give
expression of such relationship, but operate within postpositional phrase:
patö ‘above, on’
eh `in’
throe ‘under,
underneath’
lethro ‘below’
nhie ‘at/near/with’
lue ‘inside’
loe ‘in, into’
zhipfho ‘side’
phe ‘on’
chy ‘after/behind’
jü, mhöjü
`before, in front’
56. A kie
patö
my house post
‘above my house’
57. Ekie eh
house in
`in the house.’
58. Bera
phe
chair post
‘on the chair’
59. Ezü
throe
bed post
‘under the bed’
60. Etso
nhie
stone post
‘near the stone’
61. Neilo
nhie
Neilo post
‘with Neilo’
62. Keba
seni nhie
hour seven at
‘at seven o’ clock’
63. Leshikie
lethro
school below
‘below the school’
64. Labu
loe
box post
‘in the box’
65 Keri’
zhipfho
river post
‘by the side of the river’
66. Ekie
chy
house post
‘behind/after the house’
67. Kiele
lue
hole
post
‘inside the hole’
68. Kielé loè kerhü hi
hole
into insert
`Insert
into the hole.’
69. Kiele eh beh a
hole in exist
`It
is in the hole.’
70. Pu
nü a throe beh a
He
nom my post exist
‘He is under me’
71. Pu nü
a patö beh a
me
post
‘He
is above me.’
72. Pu nü
a li loe beh a
he nom me mind post exist
‘He is in my mind’
73. A kelhi
pu ba eh beh a
my life his hand
post exist
‘My life is in his hand’
or
`My fate depends on him.’
ADJECTIVE
3.2.1. General
Discussion
Various linguists had done much amount
of descriptive studyes in Naga languages. However, as far as the grammatical
status of adjectives is concerned, the opinions are not consistent. Majority of
them made observation that the adjectives in the language they have worked are
a subgroup of verb without having grammatical properties of their own. Thus,
according to them, there are only two open classes of words such as noun and
verb in these languages.
Gowda
(1975), for instance, in his Ao Grammar, observed that the adjectives in this
language do not have a marker of their own. According to Giridhar (1980), the
adjectives in Angami, like Japanese, has no morphological form class. He did
the same observation in his Mao Grammar (1994) and treated those of the
attributives as noun class of words. The rest of the adjectives that occupy
predicate position and function as predicate head are treated as stative verbs.
In the work of Sreedhar, in his Sema Grammar(1980), he has treated the
adjectives as a subclass of invariables. The other sub-classes of invariables,
according to him, are postpositions and case relations. Thus, he has treated
the adjectives in this language on par with closed classes such as
postpositions and case relations. Abraham, in his Apatani Grammar (1985),
another Tibeto-Burman language spoken in Arunachal Pradesh of North-east
India, also observed that there is no separate class of words that
are adjectives as such, but there are certain verbs, which are used as
adjectives. Similar opinion has been made by Arokianathan, in his Tangkhul Naga
Grammar (1987), a Naga language spoken in Manipur. Locording to him, the
following attributives as to be attributive verb rather than adjectives,
nawping
khüni
(pup
two) `two pups’
fu
khümatha (dog
beautiful) `beautiful dog’
in the sentence,
fu
khümatha hiwuy nawping khüni hili lüyyü.
dog
beautiful of pup two
here part
`Here
are two pups of beautiful dog.’ (p.52)
Notwithstanding some differences in
their observations, none of these scholars treat adjectives in the respective
languages they have worked significantly different from verbs. Bhat (1991),
who, while attempting to make general observations on the common
characteristics of adjectives in Tibeto-Burman languages, also arrived at
conclusion as, “unlike Dravidian languages, these do not have adjectival bases
functioning as a distinct word-class, and further, unlike Indo-Aryan languages,
these have adjectival bases functioning as a subgroup of verbs rather than that
of nouns (Bhat 1991, p.673.)
However, there are also
some scholars who had worked in some of the languages belonging to the same
family made a somewhat different observation. Acharya (1980),in his Lotha
Grammar, observed as, the adjectives in Lotha, though used predicatively,
cannot be considered as verbs since they do not take tense, aspect or mood.
Sastry, for example, in his Mishmi Grammar (1984), another Tibeto-Burman
language spoken in Arunachal Pradesh makes explicitly as, the adjectives in
Mishmi, as a class, consist of all such words whose function in the languages
is to modify nouns. The adjectives in this language, according to him, can
contain a stem or a combination of stems with various affixes such as single
stem adjectives, which are not analyzable. Similar observation is made by
Prasad, in his Mising Grammar (1991), another Tibeto-Burman language spoken in
Arunachal Pradesh, who classified the adjective in Mising into two categories:
adjective and adjectival. The adjectives can be both free and derived:
free form: aping
`all’; isi `this’; aro `truth’; bott `great.’
derived form: miglune `blink’ < amid
`eye’ + alumne `round’; aipe `good’ < ainam `virtue’ + pe `at’.
The adjectivals,
according to him, are all derived and are functionally adjectives, but
categorically refer to other grammatical classes. Kapfo, in his Descriptive
Analysis of Khezha (thesis), another Naga language of Tibeto-Burman family,
too, considers the adjective in Khezha as open class of words sharing
properties of both noun and verb in some cases, but not in all the cases.
Singh, who, while attempting to redefine the existing written system and
grammar in his Descriptive Analysis of Standard Manipuri (thesis), also made
similar opinion as, although the adjectives in Manipuri share the properties of
nouns and verbs, yet cannot be considered as taking the same kind of base structure
as nouns and verbs. While there is more elaboration of aspect markers in this
language, the tense maker is not clear (p.51), although adjectives show mood
and aspect (p.126).
The
significant difference of the characteristics between verbs and adjectives in
Khezha is that, no verb can take an intensifier a’ [á], the
property apecifically assigned for adjectives. Thus, one possible criterion in
identifying the adjectives in Khezha from verb is the intensifier á implying
the meaning as `extremely, extraordinarily, incredibly and so on.
we `good’ : We a’ `extremely good’
hah `red’ : Hah
a’ `extraordinarily red’
tshüh `painful’ : Tshüh
a’ `extremely painful.’
meku `dishonest’: Meku a’ `extremely dishonet’
meky `cold’ : Meky á `extremely cold (adj)’
reh `difficult’ : Reh
a’ `Extremely difficult’
thah `long’ : Thah a’
`extraordinarily long’
No
verb can take the morpheme in any context:
tshü
`do’ *tshü a’
nüh `laugh’ *nüh a’
meke `bite’ *meke a’
to `eat’ *to
a’
One important point to
consider is that, role players in the syntactic-sematic relations are
imperative in classifying the classes of words. Thus, the significant
difference between verb and adjective is that, in case relations, for example,
verb play central role, whereas in the case of adjective it cannot establish
case relation with another class of word.
Even in other context,
although both verb and adjective take modifier she `very’, a verb always
requires at least one grammatical morpheme, except imperative sentence, whereas
in the case of adjective, the phrase can be closed by itself. Furthermore, a
verb very often takes more than one grammatical morphemes that are, in most of
the cases conjugated, when describing about the activities of a noun, whereas
the adjectives are less potential in taking such conjugated grammatical
morphemes. Thus, the lexical items, for example, we `good’, thah
`long’ and meku `dishonest’ in the sentences 74 are adjective, and not
verb as such; while tshü `do’ in sentence 75 and nüh `laugh’ in
the sentence 76 are verb, though both can take modifier she `much’.
74a. Pu
we
he good
`He
is good.’
Pu
we she
‘He
is very good.’
75 Pu emhe tshü she ah
he thing do very
part
`He is really working (hard)’
*Pu emhe tshü she
In the sentence where the subject takes nominative nü,
both verb and adjective take confirmative particle a. In such a case,
however, the adjective cannot take modifier she, though verb do take.
76(i) John nü emi we a
nom person good conf
`John is a good person.’
*John nü emi we she a
(ii)a. John nü emhe to a
food
eat
`John ate food.’
John
nü emhe to she a
`John
ate food so much.’
Though it is very rare, certain verb can frame the phrase
without a particle. In such cases, however, the meaning conveys become more or less
adjectival, because it limits the scope of information it provides as in,
77 Pu awe eh mehla she
he
me loc insult very
`He
humiliated me (with obvious intention).’
Furthermore, though both adjective and verb can be
causativised by causative me-, they behave differently in the syntactic
paradigm. Any principal verb, whether transitive or intransitive, can freely
take modal particles, but there is certain constraint for causative derived
from the base of adjective to take modal particles:
78
a A pfü nü awe eh leshi mephrü a
my father nom me loc
book cause-read part
`My father allowed me
to study.’
Or
`My father sent me to
school.’
b. *A pfü nü awe eh mewe a
cause-good
However, 79 and 80 are
both possible,
79. A pfü nü awe eh metshü de
my
father nom me loc cause-do will
`My father will allow me to do.’
80. A pfü nü awe eh mewe de
cause-good will
`My father will make me become good.’
or
`My father will allow me to attain what is good for me.’
As we will discuss
latter in more detail, causative verbs derived from the base of adjectives are
always preceded by an action verb either tshü `do’ or bo `touch’ as in,
thah `long’ : tshümethá
`cause to become long’
trö `white’ : tshümetrö `cause to become white’
tshü `do’ : metshü `cause or allow to do’
zoh `see’ : mezo `cause or allow to see’.
3.2.2. Types of Adjectives:
In this section, I would survey a typological
description of the adjective classes in Khezha on the basis of their semantic
properties in the same vein as suggested by Dixon (1982).
Age: keshe
`old (animate)’; ketre `old (inanimate)’; ketsé `aged’; ketshé `new’; kecǜ
`young’; muh `riped’; noh `tender’; tsé `matured’, etc.
Dimension:
dye `big’; thah `long’; merüh `narrow’; cy `small’; jüh `short’; tseh
‘less’; cina `little’; shü `thick’; tshö`fat’; pfüh `thin’, etc.
Colour(basic): hah `red’,
nengo `blue’; mehjo`green’; trö `white’; tsü `black’; mezü `yellow’; züh
`dark’, etc.
Physical property: thrü
`hard’; köh`strong’; menè `soft’; meshüh `heavy’; metshah `light’; mèphrü
`smooth’; tshüh `hot’; ly `warm’; meky
`cold’; thrüh `sweet’; throh `sour’; khö `bitter’; etc.
Human Propensity: zòró `jealous’; chi `envious’; ny `happy’;
thö `cheerful’; patsü `parsimonious’; tshòwe `conceited, egoistic’; zhówe
`kind’; zhósü `cruel or rude’; mehra
`proud(behavior)’; nikhù `impolite’; táwe `generous’; mehzhi `ticklish’, tshüh
`pain’, zòwe `beautiful’ zòsü `ugly’, etc.
Also, many compound words carrying metaphorical
meanings may be grouped under this category:
thrödye (brain-big) `insensitive or indifferent
to criticism or insult’; nechühah (eye-red) `destructive minded’; bathah
(hand-long) `habitual stealing’; ketithah (mouth-long) `chatty’ or
`chatterbox’; thöba meshüh `buttock heavy) `laggard’.
Value: we `good’; sü `bad’;
tsüh `costly’; mehla `cheap’, metsheh `clean’, metshǘ `clear (water), nye
`rich’, whöh `absent’, kètowhö `poor’, etc.
Speed: tewe `fast’; tesü `slow
(walk)’; mehze `fast’ (action); mehcho `sharp, restless’; meroh `brittle’’; `
mehro `smart (jumping, esp. sport); she `slow(general)’; zá `slow (action); mheeh
`sudden, quick’; zhüüh `immediate’; thyi `slow(fly)’; etc.
A large majority of speed adjectives are
expressed with reduplicated words: mhemheh `quick’; sheshe `slow and steady’;
prypry `rapid’; praprah `brittle’; thsüthsüh `frail’; nanah `elastic’; phrüphrüh
`slippery’; sheshe `slow’; zázá `steady’, zazah, frail, prépré `hot-temper’,
etc..
Position: tetró `high/tall’; tenö
`low’; tèphe `horizontal’; tètrhe `up (road)’; tèshu `steep (road)’; thezá `plain; mesé `even’; mezhé `uneven’;
whú `curved/bend’; khù `zig-zag,’; lètsa `steep (rock)’; etc.
Other Adjective Types:
Other adjectives type which Dixon said to pose particular difficulties
for comparative studyes are: reh `difficult’; melöh `easy’; mehla `simple’; zhe
`same/similar’; ledye `different’; tsoh `complete’; ty `sure, certain’; meyíe
`famous, popular.
3.2. 3. Attributive
Most
of the adjective can function as attributive except few cases of human
propensity and position adjectives. In the cases where the adjective base is
monosyllabic word, it uniformly becomes disyllabic by derivational prefix ke-
reh `difficult’ : mhetho kereh `hard word’
cy `small’ : ekye kecy `small house’
sü `bad’ : thromi kèsü `bad boy’
muh `riped’ : leche kemú `riped fruit’
we `good’ :leshida kewe `good book’
whöh
`absent’ :èmhe kèwhöh ``poverty’
:èmhe
kèbè `richness’
tsüh
`costly’ :emhe ketsǘ `high
price’
trö
`white’ :èrah ketrö `white cloth’
hah
`red’ : èrah kehá `red cloth’
But when the base of adjective carries
two-syllable length, it does not take derivational prefix,
melöh
`easy’ : mhetho melöh
`easy task’
mehla
`simple’ : kweshün mehla
`simple question’
meyíe
`famous’ :
emi meyíe `famous person’
ledye
`different’ : pen ledye
`different pen’
tetro `high’ : èli tetro `high thinking’ (self-esteemed)
mehjo
`green’ : tshǜbó
mehjo `green tree’
nengó
`blue’ : menie nengó
`blue pant’
mezhy
`naughty’ : nöcǘ mezhy
`naughty child’
tezhy
`feeble’ : èmi tezhy
`feeble person’
kölö
`cripple’ : ephe kölö
`cripple leg’
mehra
`proud’ : lǘmí mehra
`proud girl’
In the cases when an adjective is consisted of
more than one base, the base that carries information nucleus takes derivative
ke-
zhòwe
`swift (fly)’ : röcǘ
zhokewe `fast bird’
misü
`ungentle’ : thromi mikèsü `ungentle boy’
mereh
`costly’ : ena mekereh
`costly dress’
mheche `wise’ : minö mhekeche `learned person’
zowe `beautiful’ :
lümi zokewe `beautiful girl’
lidye `stubborn’ : nocü likedye `disobedyent child’
lithah `patient’ :zöpí liketha `patient mother’
zhomo `improper’ :emhe
zhokemo `improper act’
Attributive can also be derived from both
transitive and intransitive verb:
ba `wear’ : era keba `cloth for
wearing’
khah `ask’ : emhe kekhá `asking thing’
to `eat’ : eye keto `edible
vegetable’
tshü `do’ : merö ketshü `play
toys’ or `play game’
tsǘ `give’ : prisa kètshü `money for
offering’ or `donated money’
puh `tell’ : emhe kepú `message for
conveying’
teh
`go’ : emi kète
`going person’
nüh
`laugh’ : sepu
kenǘ `laughable word’
wöh
`come’ : emhe kèwö
(coming thing) `income’
pre
`emerge’ : emhe kepre
(going thing) `expenditure’
mhah
`go(field)’ : emi kèmhá `person to go the field’
Attributive phrase can also take number marker.
In such a case, the marker is attached to the attributive rather than to the
noun. This is simply to maintain rule of attributive phrase construction so
that no element occurs between the head noun and the modifier, hence it has
nothing to do with syntactic relation.
81 Kewero
book good(Pl)
good
books’
82. Leshída
ketshéro
book
new(Pl)
`new
books’
83. Leshída
ketshé kewero
book
new good (Pl)
`good
new books’
84. Leshída
kewe ketshüro
book
good three
`three
good books’
85 . Leshída
ketrö kewe pediro
book white good four(Pl)
`four
good white books.’
86 . Kar
ketshé mezü tekewe pediro
Car new yellow fast four(Pl)
`Four
new fast yellow cars’
Attributive either
verbal or adjectival can function as nominal head and take both dual and plural
number as in,
kewero (good+pl) `good
ones’
kewenhi (good+dl) `good
(two)’
mejoro (green+pl)
`green ones’
mehjonhi (green+dl)
`green (two)’
pedíro (four+pl)
`fours’
pedínhi (four+dl)
`fours (tso)’
This is because, in the process of conversation
when the identity of noun is already established, reiteration of noun becomes
redundant. Thus, adjective itself serves the target achievement.
3.2.4. Ordering of modifiers
Like in English and predictably in most of the
Naga languages, two or more adjectives can occur together to modify a noun.
With regard to their positional variance in English, Dixon (1982)’s has
reported that most of the subjects, in his investigation, preferred the
ordering of slow old and quick new, but opinions were divided in
the case of ordering of slow new and new slow. He then suggests
as “There seems to be an implicit cultural-semantic connection between new
and quick and between slow and old” (Dixon 1982. p.25).
English and Naga languages are opposite in
ordering of word. The modifier precedes noun in the case of the former, while
it is reverse in the case of the latter.
87.(i) Kar
ketshé tekewe
car
new fast
`a
fast new car’
(ii) Kar
tekewe ketshé
car
fast new
`a
new fast car’
88.(i) Kar
ketre tekèsü
car slow old
`a
slow old car’
(ii) Kar tekesü ketre
car
slow old
`an old slow car’
89.(i) Kkar
ketshe tekewe
car
new fast
`a fast new car’
Kar
ketre tekewe
car
old fast
`a
fast old car.’
Thus,
orderings below are unnatural, though possible,
Kar
ketshe tekesü `a slow new car’
Kar
ketre tekewe `a fast old car’
Dixon (1982) speculates that
they are the case of “an implicit cultural-senmantic connection”, which
probably true in every human language. He also suggests that value adjective
qualifies not the head noun, but some other adjective in the case of English.
In Khezha, however, the value adjective appears to modify the entire stretch of
proposition as a whole rather than just a particular property of adjective.
This may be the factor that, the value adjective always occur in the final
position and close the phrase,
90. Menie
ketshe kewe
trousers
new good
`a
good new trousers’
implying the meaning as, `new trousers is good’
and not that the trousers is new therefore it is good. For, all new trousers
may not be always good. Therefore, the following construction is possible,
91. Menie
ketshé kèsü
trousers
new bad
`a
bad new trousers’
(trousers, although new, yet it is a
sub-standard one)
Thus, in Khezha, we can have the following
orderings, but the meaning does not seem to change
92. Kar
ketshe tekewe kewe
car
new fast good
`a good fast new car’
Both have the same cognitive meaning as, `a new
fast car is good’. Similarly, numeral
adjective must occur in the final position and close the phrase to quantify the
entire stretch of proposition as a whole, rather than just a particular
component.
93. Kar
ketshé tekewe kewe kenhi
car new fast
good two
(two good fast new car)
3.2.4. Adverb Derivation
Various
types of morphemes can be derived from the base of adjective to function as
modifier to various types of adjectives.
(i) Two types of intensifier such as á
and she ~ shé can be derived from a large majority of adjectives
to give certain degree of intensity. The former provides higher degree of
intensity implying the meaning as `extremely, incredibly’ while the latter
provides a lower degree of intensity implying English equivalent `very’ or
`very much’
we `good’ :
we she `very good’ : we a’ `extremely good’
tewe `fast’ :
tewe she `very fast’ :
tewe a’ `extremely fast’
towe `tasty’ :
towe she `very tasty’ :
towe a’ `incredibly tasty’
mehra `proud’ :
mèrah she `very proud’ : mehra a’
`exceedingly proud’
nikhù `impolite’ : nikhù shé` very impolite’ :
nikhù a’ `exceedingly
impolite’
In the case of she, however, it is often
followed by affirmative morpheme a implying the meaning `affirm,
confirm, attest, certain’ and so on.
we
`good’ : we she a `very good’: we
á `extremely good’
trö `white :
trö she a `very white: trö á `is very white’
zowe `beautiful’ :zòwe she a `very beautify’: zòwe á `extremely
beautiful’
wah `bright’ :
wah shé a `very bright’` : wah a’
`extremely
bright’
dye `big’ :
dye shé a `very big’ : dye
a’ `extremely big’
menie `shameful’: menie shé a `very shameful’ : menie a’ `extremely
shameful’
reh `difficult’ :
rè shé a `very difficult’ : rè a’ `very difficult’
tewe `fast’ :
tewe a `very fast’ : tewe a’ `incredibly fast’
tewö `comfortable’ : tewö shé a `very
comfortable’ :
tewö a’ `extremely comfortable beyond one can
imagine’
In a few instances, some adjectives take only
either morpheme, or in some instances do not take both. In other cases, they
take a morpheme of their own to give some intensity of meaning near to `very’;
hence difficult to generalize. They may be considered as unique,
meky `cold’ : meky
züü `totally/completely cold’
:meky a’ `extremely/very cold’
cina `little’ :
cína pörí `very little’ : *cínah pörí a’
ly `warm’ :
ly muuh `slightly warm, less than very, but feel
comfortable’
*ly muuh
a’
ly
lö `slightly warm, and less than the stage to feel comfortable’ :
ly a’ `extremely warm (climate)’
töra `stripe(color)’ : töra she `having so much
bands of color’: *töra a’
(ii) In many instances, the adjective also can
derive its own morpheme to get modified. That is, these morphemes are unique
since they can occur only in one situation. Further, in many cases, they
involve partial reduplication,
mesé `even’ :
mesé merüh `evenly level’
patsü `stingy’ :
patsü paré `minutely stingy’
kedzü `excess’ :
kedzü kedo `excessively abundant’
meyé `popular’ :
meyé melö `prominently popular’
thonhi `reluctant’ : thonhi thore `reluctantly’
However, in some other situation, they take
suffixes, which are not reduplicated form,
menie `shy’ :
menieryi `shyly’
mèlhü `hungry’ : mèlhütrí `hungrily’
trö `white’ :
trömeyí `brightly white’
mekhú `deep’ :
mekhúbù `deeply’
mehla `cheap’ :
mehlapah `cheaply’
(iii) Adjectives also derive adverb morpheme mezo
to give the expression implying the meaning in the construction as, we mezo
`too good’. In some other situation it also implies as it serves to the
satisfaction of the speaker, tthough may not be the highest degree as,
`sufficiently good, need not be better than this.’
zòwe `beautiful’ : zòwe mezo `quite beautiful (should be satisfied
with that level)’
metsheh `clean’ :
metsheh mezo `quite clean (need not worry)’
hah `red’ :
hah mezo (i)too red;(ii) sufficiently red
dye `big’ :
dye mezo (i) too big (can’t enter);
(ii) sufficiently big (may be satisfied with
that level
of size)
tetró `high’ :
tetró mezo `too high’
However, in some context when occuring after
some types of adjective, for example, dimension adjective, adjective carrying
negative meaning or metaphorical meaning, it is automatically understood as
beyond the limt as in,
trö `much quantity’ : trö mezo `too much (beyond the limit)’
cy `small’ :
cy mezo `too small (smaller than normal)’
thah `long’ :
thah mezo `too long’
tseh `less’ :
tseh mezo `too less’
thrödye `thick-skinned’ : thrödye mezo `too insensitive’
bathah `stealing’ : bathah mezo `too untrustworthy, always steals’
mehra `proud’ :
mehra mezo `too proud (exceeding the limit)’
mekú `lie’ :
mekú mezo `telling too much lies’
nikhù `impolite’ : nikhù mezo `too impolite’
The morpheme mezo can also take
affirmative particle a. Whenever the adjective take this morpheme, it
always implies the meaning as it exceeded the limit.
we `good’ :
we mezo a `too good (not necessary to be this good)’
thah
`long’ : thah mezo a `too long (not
fitting)
mehjo `green’ :
mehjo mezo a `too green (not proportionate)
reh `difficult’ :
reh mezo a `too difficult (beyond the capacity to tackle)’
melöh `easy’ :
melöh mezo a `too easy (should be more difficult)
zòwe `beautiful’: zòwe mezo a `too beautiful (not matching me)
tèci `clever’ :
tèci mezo a `too clever (can’t cope up with)’
zhówe `kind hearted’ : zhówe mezo `too kind (should have been more
strict
than that)’
The morpheme mezo can occur with any
type of verb form adjectival phrase. In such a case, however, it always
requires an adjectival particle dah to close the phrase. Semantically,
it always leaves the impression of some negative consequence.
tshü `work’ :
tshü mezo dah `done or worked too much (it may create some negarive consequence)’
khah `ask’ :
kha mezo dah `demanded repeatedly beyond once can
tolerate’
khah `cook’ :
khah mezo dah `over cooked).
nüh `laugh’ :
nüh mezo dah `laughed too much (may cry afterwards)
teh `run’ :
teh mezo dah `run too fast (may stumble and fall)’
phrüh `read’ :
phrüh mezo dah `read too much (may forget what had
been read)
puh `tell’ :
puh mezo dah (i) `spoken the same thing
too much (may irritate the listeners) ;
(ii) repeated too much, there is something vested interest in that.’
3.2.5. Classification of noun by Age
Adjectives:
The intensifiers shé and á never occur with age
adjectives. The following are not possible.
ketshe `new’ :
*ketshé shé *ketshé á
ketre `old’ :
*ketre shé *ketre á
ketsé
`old (human)’ : *ketsé she *ketsé á
muh
`riped (matured)’ : *muh shé *mù á
kecüh `young (human)’ : *kecüh shé *kecǜ á
A special characteristic of age adjectives
however is that they give classification of nouns. They show the distinction
between animate and inanimate. The aged adjective `old’ show a distinction between
human and non-human. Similarly, the aged adjective ‘young’ shows a distinction
between vegetable, stem and fruit from human, animal and bird. They may be
demonstrated as under:
Age
Animate Inanimate
young old new old
ketshé ketre
human/
stem fruit Human Non-human
animal/
bird
old
aged animal/
fruit
plant
corn
others
kecüh
enò
mehjo keshé ketsé keshé tsé
muh
The age adjective ketshé, for example,
can thus be analysed as,
ketshé -
animate
-
advanced
+,
- abstract
It functions not only as modifier, but also
assigns the head it modifies, either as concrete or abstract noun as in,
1. New, not old:
razhu ketshé `new shirt’
2. Lately produced, recent origin:
gari ketshé `new vehicle’
3. Previously existing but never or hardly
seen, encountered:
emi ketshe `new person’
4. Newly experiemced, unfamiliar, unaccustomed
earlier:
èdzé ketshé `new story’
5. Alteration (changed for the better):
kelhí ketshé `new life’
6. Entered into new position:
kam ketshé `new post’
7. Distinct from the former one:
èzhó ketshé `new habit’
8. Novel, fashionable that is different from
the existing one:
lephre ketshé `new tone’
9.Crops that are harvested premature:
alu ketshé `new potato’
10.
Additional:
nocü ketshé `newly born child’
3.2.6.
Degree of Comparison:
Khezha has various types of
expression to give different degrees of comparison (comp). The degree of comparison in Khezha may be
categorized into (i) comparative degree and (ii) superlative degree.
(i)
Comparative degree:
The
comparative degree in Khezha gives expression three different degrees with the
structure,
NP nom NP jü Adj level of degree
where
jü has English equivalent of
comparative `than’. The degree are,
Ø
which does not give degree level
(ii) phöh
~ -mehdé ~ nie
indicates slightly higher in degree,
(iii) she’
indicates higher degree `much
more than’ implying the meaning as incomparable; the difference is wide apart.
94. A leshi nü i leshi jü we a
my book nom your book comp good part
‘My book is better than your book.’
95. A leshi nü i leshi jü we phöh/nie/mehdé a
my book nom your book comp good adv part
‘My book is slightly better than
your book.’
96. A leshi nü i leshi jü we shé a
my book nom your book compgood adv
part
‘My book is much more better than
your book.’
97. Elí
nü ètseh jü
dye a
buffalo nom cattle comp big part
`Buffalo is bigger than cattle.’
98. Elí nü ètseh jü dye phö/nie/mèdé a
`Buffalo is slightly bigger than cattle.’
99. Elí nü ètseh jü dye she’ a
`Buffalo is much more bigger than cattle.’
100.
Etseh nü elí jü cy a
`Cattle is smaller than buffalo.’
101. Etseh nü elí jü cy phöh/nie/mehdé a
`Cattle is slightly smaller than
buffalo.’
102. Etseh nü elí jü cy she’ a
`Cattle is much more smaller than
buffalo.’
Sometimes
an adverb morpheme lah `still’ is added to imply the meaning as, even so
it is much more; therefore no worth comparing:
103. Etseh nü elí jü cy lah a
(Even so cattle is still smaller
than buffalo)
104. Etseh nü elí jü cy phöh/nie/mehdé a
(Even so cattle is slightly smaller
than buffalo)
105. Etseh nü elí jü cy she’ lah a
(Even so cattle is much more smaller
than buffalo)
(ii)
Superlative degree:
The
superlative degree (sup) introduces an adverb morpheme lo to precede
adjective superlative morpheme after the adjective. There are two levels of
degree of superlative with the construction as,
ló adj
mede gives English equivalent of superlative
degree implying highest degree among two or more participants, but less
emphatic
ló
adj kelé gives more emphasis of superlative implying
as the difference of degree is distinct and there is no more beyond that to
compare with.
106. Hyro
tèna ah a leshi ló we
mede
these among my book adv
good sup
‘My book is the best among
these.’
107. Hyro
tèna ah aleshi ló kewe
kelé
good
sup
‘My
book is the best among these (there is other book to `compare with by book)’
108. Leshikephrüro
tèna ah jon lo mece mede
students among
John adv. bright sup
`John is the brightest among the
students.’
109. Leshikephrüro tèna ah jon lo mece kelé
students among
John adv. bright sup
`John is the brightest among the
students (there is no one to compare with him.)’
In
normal flow of speech, the morpheme lo is often reduced to ‘o:
110. Lümiro
tèna ah pù ‘o zowe
mede
girls among
she adv beautiful sup
‘She is the most beautiful among the
girls.’
111. Lümiro
tèna ah pù ‘o zòkewe
kelé
‘She
is the most beautiful among the girls (there is no other girl who is as
beautiful as her).’
Bill
jü John ‘o thah nie lah
Bill
comp John adv long part
`John
is slightly taller than Bill.’
Diloe jü Khaloe ‘o zowe nie a
Diloe
comp Khaloe adv beautiful part
‘Khaloe
is slightly more beautiful than Diloe.’
Diloe
jü Khaloe ‘o zowe she’ a
`Khaloe
is much more beautiful than Diloe.’
3.3. VERB
3.3.1. Classification of verb:
The
main characteristic of verb in Khezha is that, like any other human
languages, it gives expression about existence, occurrence and action in the
sentences indicating their time, truth, certainty, probability, modality and so
on. Semantically therefore, verbs play role in describing about the activities of
noun as opposed to adjectives that give description about quality, quantity, or
other properties of noun it modifies.
In morphological
domain, it provides forms necessary for predication. Khezha being a
non-inflected language, its internal morphological structure is not as complex
as those of the inflected languages, English, for example. The grammatical
morphemes that play role in the verbal phrase are always isolable and their
etymology is always apparent even when they are conjugated with any other grammatical
categories. While in syntactic domain, it plays central role in establishing
semantic-syntactic relations with other class of words to give full expression
necessary for language communication.
On the basis of
morpho-syntactic characterization, Khezha verbs may be classified into five
groups: (i) principal
verb, (ii) motion verb,
(iii) causative verb, (iv) auxiliary verb and (v) modal particles.
3.3.1.1. Principal Verb:
The principal verb may be further sub-classified into intransitive
verb and transitive verb. The
transitive verb takes at least one object, whereas the intransitive verb does
not, eg.,
Intransitive verb :
115. Mary
wöh ah
Mary come part
‘Mary is coming.’
116. Mary nü
meló ah
nom moan
‘Mary is moaning.’
117. Mary ní
bera phe tetseh ah
chair on
sit
‘Mary is sitting
on the chair.’
118. Mary
tre ah
cry
‘Mary is crying.’
119. Mary
teh dah
go
‘Mary went.’
Transitive verb :
120. Lehnü nü
a phe medu dah
snake my-leg bite
part
‘The snake has bitten my leg’
121 Mary nü
pùwe eh meme a
Mary him acc
kiss
‘Mary kissed him.’
122 Mary nü
lèchè to ah
fruit eat
‘Mary is eating fruit.’
123. Mary nü
awe eh de ah
me beat
‘Mary is beating me.’
124. A pfü nü
awe eh prisà
tsü a
my-father me acc
money give
‘My father gave me money.’
125 A kezü nü
àwe eh ce ah
my-friend me acc
tease
‘My friend is teasing me.’
3.3.1.2. Motion
Verb:
The direction may be either physical or mental. All the motion verbs carry the meaning either
‘go’ or come depending on the situation, each having its own cognate direction
of location or destination. When a
motion verb expresses about mental activity, it is often preceded by an action
verb for indicating the action of the agent, eg.,
126. Mary
throh a
go (up)
‘Mary came/went up.’
127. Mary
dzü ah
go(down)
‘Mary is going/coming
down.’
128. Mary
phé ah
go(horizontal)
‘Mary is going/coming.’
129 Mary pre ah
go(out)
‘Mary is going/coming out.’
130 Mary
lu ah
go(in)
‘Mary is coming/going in.’
Motion verb can co-occur with an action
verb to give the expression of the manner of action and direction.
131. Mary
tethrò ah
walk up
‘Mary is coming/going up (walking).’
132. Mary tedzü ah
walk down
`Mary is coming down.’
133. Mary nü
mesülu ah
think-in
‘Mary is concentrating.’
(lit. Mary is
thinking deep down)
134. Mary nü
puthroh ah
tell-up
‘Mary is coming/going by speaking.’
or
‘Mary is relating up.’
135. Nye pu mehse tshüphé de
I him place
do-across will
‘I will act equally with him (challenge).’
(I will go on doing the same as he does)
3.3.1.3. Causative Verb:
Khezha is rich in causative verbs. There are various ways
in expression causative verbs and are very complex in nature, because in many
instances they cannot be decided by morphological criteria alone, but have to
be taken into account all the four angles such as phonology, morphology, syntax
and semantic considerations.
(i) The morpheme me-
can derived causative verb from both verb and adjective consisting of single
syllable length of word:
bo `touch’ : mebo `cause to touch’
thsü ‘do’ : metshü ‘cause to do’
te ‘go (as by walk)’: meteh ‘cause to go’
teh ‘run/go away’: meté ‘cause to run race’
ezhò `fly’ : mezhó `cause to fly’
to ‘eat’ : mèto ‘cause
to eat’
puh ‘tell’ : mepú ‘cause
to speak’
khah ‘ask’ : mekhá ‘cause
to ask’
de ‘beat’ : mede ‘cause
to beat’
thri ‘buy’ : methri ‘cause to buy’
nüh `laugh’ : menǘ `cause to laugh’
we `good’ :
mewe `cause to become good’
hah `red : mehá `cause to become red’
thah `long’ : methá `cause to become long’
tshüh `painful’ : metshǘ `cause to become painful’
reh `difficult’ : mere `cause to become difficult’
Causative Phrase:
In the case of causative verbs
forming with the morpheme me-, it can also be preceded by an action verb
forming phrasal construction to give information about manner of action. In
these case, the preceding morpheme plays role as causer and following morpheme
gives information about the resultant affect:
136. Tshü mèto
do cause to eat
‘prepare and cause
(patient) to eat’
Here, the word tshü
`do’ gives information about manner of action, while the following mèto
`cause to eat’ provides information about the resultant affect. The manner of
action is `perform’ and the resultant affect is `eat.’ Similarly, in the
construction 137, the manner of action is `perform’ and the resultant affect is
`free from illness.
137. Tshü terhó
do free from
illness
`cause to get well’
In this way, a
causative verb can be preceded by an action verb to give effect to manner of
action and its resultant affect.
138. Puh
menü
tell cause to laugh’
`tell (joke) and let
laugh’
In example 138, the
manner of action is `tell’ and the resultant affect is `laugh.’ In the same way, phrasal construction can be
formed for any causative verb to give the information about the manner of
action caused and its resultant affect.
139. Tshü merhí
do
cause to survive
`cause to let survive by performing
something’.
140. Thrü metrö
wash cause to become white
‘cause to become white by washing’.
141. de mètre
beat cause to cry
`Cause to cry by way of beating.’
142. Nüh mètre
laugh cause to cry
`cause to secrete tears by laughing’
Semantically, action verb bo
`touch with hand’ behaves differently from other action verbs. When it occurs
in the preceding position of another verb, it loses its etymological identity,
hence coalesced with the adjacent morpheme to give a completely different
information:
mètre ‘cause to cry’ : bomètre ‘cause to cry
by some means either by
action,
utterance or any manner’
menü
`cause to laugh’ : bomenü `cause to
laugh by some means such as
telling
jokes, tickling, absurd behavior, etc.’
tetsü
`mentally matured’: botetsü `(i) cause to recover from faint by some
means
such as by providing food, water and so on; (ii) cause to become wiser or more
prudent in perceiving things’
mèla
`cheap’ :bomèla `cause to become
cheaper or lower in public estimation by some means such as due to false
accusation, insult in public place, etc.
kesö
`waste’ : bokesö `cause to diminish in
careless way’
mezhe
`uncomfortable’ : bomezhe `cause to
become uncomfortable,
esp. creating burden’
medè
`shock’ : bomedè `cause to get nervous
shock by some act’
lèna
`disturb (work)’ : bolèna `cause to
get disturb (work)’
kebvü
`disturb (mental)’ : bokebvü `cause to get mentally disturb’, cause
to become illusion’.
tehci
`clever’ : botehci `cause to become
clever (animal)
mezhy `naughty’:
bomezhy `cause to become naughty
(esp.
parents not disciplining
children).
ketry
`error’ : boketry `cause to commit
error’, cause
to make mistake’
Action verb tshü `perform’
can also precede a causative verb to give its resultant effect, but unlike the
verb bo `touch’, it always retain its etymological meaning; hence it
builds up phrasal construction as in the case of other action verb rather than
as a word.
nengö
`blue’: tshü nengö `cause to become blue by performing’ kenhü nengö
`paint blue’
metro
`cause to become white’: tshü metro
`cause to become white by performing something’
metha
`cause to become longer’: tshü
metha `to make longer by performing
something’
merhi
`cause to survive’: tshü merhi `cause to survive by performing something
(by doctor,
for example).
There are certain verbs
with vowel prefix e-. They appear to carry some sort of causing meaning that is
without the influence of external force, but potent internally. Further
investigation however is required for conclusive evidence. They required an
action verb to replace the vowel prefix to become a full-fledged causative
verb,
èle
`fall (self)’ : bole `cause to drop by
way of touching with any other parts of
the body and not
necessarily with hand.’
cile `cause to fall by kicking’, etc.
èwa
`tear’: bowa `cause to tear by some
means’
süwa `cause to tear by pulling’, etc
èpra
`break’: bophra `cause to break by some means such as due to carelessness
in handling, by
dropping, etc.’
kedzüphra `cause to break by hitting
at, break by dropping’, etc
ela `stand’: bokela `raise’, `cause to erect’, `uplift’
pfokela
`cause to stand by way of holding’
èzhí `fall down
(human/animal)’ : bokezhí `cause to fall
down’,
pfokezhí `cause to fall when holding’
etsüh
`be lazy’: boketsüh `cause to become
lazy.’
Here,
etsüh `lazy’, for instance, is caused by internal force, while boketsüh
is caused by external force.
3.3.1.4. Auxiliary Verb:
There are no lexical elements that
function as auxiliary verbs. However, there are some composite words that play
the role of auxiliary and convey some sort of information about the attitude of
the speaker either positive or negative.
maha
`have to, must, no other alternative’:
Tshü maha `have to do’
Puh maha `have to say’
To maha `have to eat’
esü
`can’t, shouldn’:
Tshü esü a `shouldn’t do’
Puh esü a `shouldn’t say’
To esü a `shouldn’t eat’
to
esü ‘can’t eat’ (mouth is blistered)
Te esü ‘can’t walk’ ( leg is pain)
Puh esü ‘can’t say’ (tongue is pain)
Khah esü ‘can’t ask’ (feeling shy).
yiwe
(also good) ‘may’ :
To yiwe ‘may eat’
Lo yiwe ‘may own’
Puh yiwe ‘may say’
Chy deh yiwe ‘may die’, ‘could die’
sü’ ‘shouldn’t’:
Mekú sü’ ‘shouldn’t tell alie’
Mezhy sü’ ‘shouldn’t be naughty’
Mehra sü’ ‘shouldn’t be proud’
Tsü sü ‘shouldn’t be lazy’
échü ‘can’ :
Köh échu ‘can win’
We échü ‘can become good’
Dìe échü ‘can become big’
Ngö échü ‘can see’
éha ‘can’t’ :
Köh éha ‘can’t win’
Sö éha ‘can’t burn’
Dìe éha ‘can’t become big’
Tseh éha ‘can’t be short (quantity)’
ezü
pha’ ~ ezü mehse:
Keshéro eh rhuh ezü pha’ `Should
respect elders.’
No
rhí tshu rö leshí phrüh ezü pha
(or mehse) You
out-most do book read
det pot
‘You should study very hard.’
malesü
`must’:
Emhe tshü malesü (thing do must)
`must work’
Neso malesü (honest must) `One must
be honest’:
Kelele eh thro malesü (each-each acc
love must) `must love each other’
de
`will(resolute)’:
We de `it will be alright’
Tshü de `will do’
Khah de `will ask’
Puh de `will say’
do
`will (irresolute):
We
do `could be alright’
Wöh do `could possibly come’ or
`would come’
Puh do `could speak out (don’t
trust)’ or would say and see what would
be the reaction of the hearer’
The desiderative (des) ni,
implying the meaning as `desire, want, wish, and also functions as auxiliary
rather than mood particle or principal verb since it cannot occur alone without
another verb and more over its position is fixed after principal verb. It can
neither be treated as mood particle since unlike other particles, it can be
extended as in 144,
143. John nü a
mhe lo ni ah
John nom my thing get des
part
`John wants my property.’
144. John nü mhe lo ni mezo a
John nom thing get des adv part
`John is too greedy.’
145. John nü meri eh lo ni ah
John nom Mary acc get des part
`John wants to marry Mary.’
(John wants to own Marry)
146. John nü kàpuché to ni a
John nom apple eat des conf
`John likes apple.’
Desiderative ni, can also be
distinguished from other mood because it has its own lexical meaning and can be
nominalised by derivation as in,
147. Bèhú mècy yi kàpuche lo to kèni kele’
exist-much though also apple adv eat
des most
Although there are many, yet (N)
like apple most.’
148. Mhe to kèni katrö beh a
Thing eat des many exist part
`There are many things (I) want to
eat.’
149. Nye leshi phrüh kèni by ketseh beh a
I
book read des
type few have part
`I have few books I like to read.’
3.3.1.5.
Modal Particles
The terms “particle” and “marker”
have been used inconsistently by researchers due to the absence of universally
recognized classification of uninflected forms. In this work, I used the term
particle for those that are not inflected but remain free form as free morpheme. They appear to have
lexical meaning, but unlike open class or words, their lexical meanings become
transparent only when they are used in the sentence and function as role player
in the syntactic relation with other class of words. They are designated as
“modal particles” since they are non-inflected form. As for the term “marker”,
they can be either free or bound morpheme. Thus, a free morpheme can be both
particle and marker; while on the other hand, a bound morpheme cannot be
treated as particle. It is only a marker.
It appears to me that pausing factor
between two elements has been adopted as one of the criteria in the
transcriptions of earlier scholars. Because in most of the cases, pause between
function word (word like unit that has no lexical meaning) and lexical word
that occur together in the phrases and sentences can hardly be noticed in
natural flow of speech even in Khezha. And I believe this is true in most of
the unwritten languages, or recently developed orthographical system but
without fully explored grammatical patterns, or analyzed dictionary. To my
experience, the pause between two elements is not important factor in
distinguishing between inflected and uninflected form, their functional
identity is paramount important in demarcating between free and bound morpheme.
Another major problem is use of
terminology. The terminologies I used here may not be always agreeable to some
readers, because some of the elements I discovered are difficult to be assigned
to the terminologies presently I am aware with. Reportage, for example, cannot
be assigned as narrative, because the semantic value they provide is specific
and limited, emitting adjectival meaning in some way or other either negative
or positive attitude of the second speaker that reiterates rather than simple
narration. I have assigned them to the term I thought nearest and
communicatively more tangible so as to clear off the ambiguity.
There are four basic modal particles
with which varieties of meanings are expressed. These modal particles may occur
alone to achieve a specific goal, or in some other cases two elements may
coalesce together to achieve a common goal. Except, in a rare case, not more
than two elements can coalesce together. These particles are tricky and often
difficult to define lucidly, though the differences of their meanings are
apparent. Therefore, I have grouped them together under one roof for a discreet
discrimination between different particles and differentiation of various
influences in the communication.
(i)
Tense and Aspect
Irrealis:
ah, habitual, progressive;
eda, future, implying as it has
been delayed in realization affirm for the realization;
edah, non-future, implying
action or event had begun but not realized yet;
elah, non-future, implying the
action or state has been started since long and anticipate that it may be
realized soon;
Realis:
dah, action or state is realized, completed,
perfect;
Future:
Resolute
Future: de, future
implying anticipation, prediction, after the present moment.
(i) Aimminent Future: dia,
dewa, deweh.
(ii)
Recursive Future: delah
Irresolute
Future: do, future
irresolute
(ii)
Mood
Imperative:
hi! implies tentativeness, to act as testing and
see the consequent result;
ri!
implies the addressee did before and is again
requested to do the same;
eh! implies gradual activity
deh! implies no more delay further;
lo! implies as do, act and be accomplished;
ere! implies casual command or request;
ley! implies three meanings: (i) that the speaker
has no objection to the request, (ii)
that the addressee is delaying action and the speaker orders him for immediate
action, (iii) that the addressor perceives some danger and warns if the
addressee dares to do.
Optative:
leeh
, implies sincere expression of wish, it is
used only when pleading to some form of spirit or God.
Subjunctive:
(i)
Notinal
di, implies anticipation;
nie, implies hypothetical,
probability;
dimö, implies regret, but cannot
be recovered;
Conditional:
le’ implies disjunctive with English equivalent
‘because’;
maleh implies condition as ‘if it is not so’;
eleh implies as ‘in case’;
lo’ implies as ‘if it is so’ (often reduce to
‘o);
Optional:
leh gives option whether A or B. Sometimes it can
be used interrogative asking
addressee
for option. In such a case, it stresses vowel so that the acoustic duration
becomes longer. But this is only the case of intonation and not phonemic as
such as in,
Nye nü tshü de leh?
I nom do will subj
`Shall
I do? (or should you or someone else will)
mo’ implies alternative;
Confirmative:
a, implies confirm, authentic,
certain.
Potential:
lo, potential, expresses ability, possibility, obligation or
compulsion. Its basic pitch level is mid tone, but becomes high after low or
high tone (see tone section) in normal flow of speech, but the potential
particle lo is constantly unmarked so as to avoid confusion with conditional
subjunctive mood.
Concessive:
shay, the speaker concedes with
some reservation;
shyi, indicates something is
incomplete or missing;
dishy implies the speaker concedes with great
dissatisfaction;
Reportage:
díro, indicates that the speaker is the first
informer and there is truth in the statement.
The message is conveyed in the form of forewarning;
meeh, indicates that the speaker received
information from some source and transmits that information to the third
person;
shya, implies that the speaker is simply repeating
the exact statement made by someone else and whether it is true or false, he
has no concern about it;
rey, implies surprise state or that what the
addressee perceives is contradictory to the fact;
(iii) Interrogative:
State-Interrogative:
ro?
and le?, do not specify the attitude of the speaker
and can be used in
any
situation. The different being that ro?
is mostly used by adults, while le? is often used by minors or adults
talking to children,
di?
~ dia?~ dio? implies that
there are more than one proposition and the addressee is given option to select
one of them for future course of action,
dii?, indicates the speaker has
certain feeling, but unable to decide what it must be, or what it should be!
dey?, implies that there are several even
possibilities occurred prior to the present moment and the speaker wishes to
know which one out of several possibilities,
lay?, indicates that the same event had occurred
several times and the speaker wishes to know that occurred again;
ey?, implies that the speaker presumes that the
addressee is able to give information,
yo?, implies that the speaker presumes that the
addressee too, does not know the answer,
but simply making query indicating the meaning ‘who will know it’. In this case, the expected answer from the
addressee is, che ma ‘Don’t know.’
ya?,
la?, implies that the speaker is least bother to
know about the fact.
tse? implies that the speaker has forgotten and
expect that the addressee still remembers it.
Yes-No
Interrogative:
dire?, the speaker has already
proved the information as fact and anticipates addressee to say `yes’.
yaa?, nyo?, is used when the speaker has direct contact with the act
of addressee;
ya?, ni?, ny?, the speaker has
received a reliable information from some source, but unsure whether it is
factual or not.
mo?, the assumes as probable, yet doubtful.
nie?, the speaker presumes
something factual and is very near to clearing the doubt.
yow?, the speaker is in the state
of surprise to know or hear about something.
momi?, the speaker heard some
rumor or senses that something unusual
has had happened and is curious to verify the fact.
leh?, such a kind is unusual and
the speaker is rather unconvinced.
Concordial
Interrogative
you?, the speaker invites the
addressee to simply agree with the suggestion being initiated by the speaker.
denyou?, a very polite form as `will
you please?’
Echo-question:
i?, the speaker is almost sure
what the addressee had just expressed, hence simply reiterate by way of
echo-question;
tse?, the speaker failed to
recall the past experience and wants the addressee to said once again;
she?, the speaker fail to fully
comprehend, hence reiterate or rephrase the sentence by way of echo-question.
3.3.2. Tense
The concept of tense is generally
understood as providing information about notion of time sequence. The concept
of succession of points of time, each one occupying a fix position of the
linear order either preceding or following other discrete points in the
sequence. The definition of “tense”, however, is controversial and is often
difficult to demarcate explicitly from the domain of aspect since both have relation
with notion of time. The traditional grammar considers tense as part of verb
morphology for the fact that the inflected forms in the conjugation of a verb
give indication of a particular time, past, present and future; also the
continuance (imperfect) or completion (perfect), English, for example. In the
contrary, however, in Japanese, the term “tense’ is used to represent a
syntactic category (Nakau, 1976), rather than confining to verb morphology.
In recent years, many scholars who
had worked on new languages that are still under developed had discovered
varieties of morphological behavior of tense across the languages of the world.
Basing on these findings, some of the scholars brought in a view that it is
wrong to assign tense as belonging to the verb morphology since there are some
languages in which tense does not belong to the verb alone, but also to the
noun as well, Nootka for example. These scholars suggest that tense should be
regarded as a category of the whole proposition of the sentence. Another view
suggests however that the traditional grammarians assigning tense to the verb
may be correct since the verb is necessarily within the scope of tense, because
noun phrase arguments of a verb are often outside the scope of the tense
Comrie (1985) presents a convincing
suggestion for viewing the notion of tense as, it cannot be defined by looking
simply at one direction and offers defining tense in general term as “the
grammaticalisation of location in time.” According to him, the sum total of expression
for locating in time can be divided, in terms of their importance for the
structure of the language, into three classes, viz., lexically composite
expressions, lexical items and grammatical categories. The first and
predictably the largest set is that composed of lexically composite
expressions. He gave example from English as, “last year” is a lexically
composite expression, whose meaning can be calculated compositionally from the
meaning “last” and the meaning of “year”. The second set is the set of lexical
items in the language that expresses location in time, which includes such
items as now, today, yesterday. The
third set has at the most the following grammaticalised expressions of location
in time: present, past, future, pluperfect and future perfect. The precise
dividing line between the first and the second however is different from
language to language, while the third class is the least sensitive of the
three. Grammaticalisation, according to him, refers to integration into the
grammatical system of a language, while lexicalisation refers merely to
integration into the lexicon of a language, without necessary repercussion on
its grammatical structure. A given grammatical category may have more than one
meaning such as a basic meaning and a number of peripheral meanings or uses,
but the basic meaning of a lexical item may be definable in terms of a
prototype, i.e. in terms of the most characteristic instance, rather than in
terms of necessary and sufficient conditions. These three points are often
interrelated (cf. Comrie, 1985).
Strictly speaking, however, there is
no morphological marking for tense in Khezha except future tense, which is
marked with particle de `will (resolute) and do `will
(irresolute), though semantically the concept of time sequence such as past,
present and future are possible through the manifestation of lexical elements
of temporal adverbs on the axis of demonstrative determiners, zü, hi
and shü. For this matter, Comrie (ibid) advises, as it is misleading to
use collocation with time adverbials as a mechanical test for establishing the
meaning of tenses. “Although collocation of tenses with time adverbials can be
an important tool in investigating the meaning of tenses, it should again be
emphasized that this tool cannot be applied mechanically, since the
intervention of other factors many upset any simple correlation between tense
and time adverbials (Comrie 1985: 30)”
This is a very powerful forewarning
and one needs to be extraordinarily careful in using temporal adverbs as a test
tool. Nevertheless, for languages like Khezha, where temporal adverbs play
central role, using them as a tool test is not only unavoidable, but the only
option. Firstly, the temporal adverbs in this language that have
relation with past and present time can take deictic determiner zü’, hi
and shü, respectively, but future tense never takes such a
determiner. The reason may be that future tense has its own lexical marking. Secondly,
the temporal adverbs can take modifiers toh implying point of reference
and nie implying approximation of time. The future tense does not such a
modifier. Thirdly, auxiliary
future de `will’ provides information about future location in time. In
the contrary, the past and present shares confirmative a, irrealis ah
and realis dah. These particles establish relation with the temporal
adverbs to provide information about location in time either past or present. Fourthly,
the demonstrative determiners play vital role in this language: zü’
indicates deictic past; hi deictic present and shü indicates
non-deictic past as well as present. Consider the following sentences:
150. John nü afeh toh zü’ heh phe a
John nom before here come
(horizontal) part.
`John came here just before.’ (John
ate food that of before)
*John nü afeh toh hi heh phe’ a
*John nü afeh toh shü heh phe a
151. John nü afeh zü’ heh phe’ a
`John ate food before.’
*John nü afeh hi heh phe’ a
152a. Leshida atsa tsadzü eh züno hi pfo mizhü phe
khe hi eh!
book now fall part Rpr
det take table pp put imp
`Keep the book on the table that
fell down just now!’
b. Leshida afeh tsadzü eh züno zü’ pfo
mizhü phe khe hi eh!
c. *Leshi afeh tsadzü eh züno hi pfo mizhü
phe khe hi eh!
The temporal afeh `before’
and hi `deictic present’ cannot collocate in the same sentence. However,
atsa `now’ can collocate both. In such a case, zü’ is perceived
as prior to the cut-off point of the present moment, hence past; while hi is
perceived as cut-off point of the present moment, hence present.
The non-deictic shü can
collocate both temporal adverb atsa `now’ and afeh `before’, but
restrained to occur with irrealis ah, hence 153c is ill-formed sentence:
153a Leshida atsa tsadzü eh züno shü pfo mizhü
phe khe hi deh malesü diro
The book that fell down now has to
be kept on the table.’
b. Leshi afeh tsadzü eh züno shü pfo mizhü
phe khe hi sa
`Don’t keep the book that fell down
on the table.’
*Leshi
afeh tsadzü eh züno shü pfo mizhü phe khe hi ah (present)
c. Leshi afeh tsadzü eh züno zü’ pfo mizhü
phe khe hi ah (past)
`The book that fell down before is
kept on the table.’
We
may also test them with modal particles ah (irrealis) and de
(future):
154. Nye atsa toh nü mhe to ah
I food eat
`I am eating food just now.’
155 Nye atsa hi mhe to ah
`I am eating food now.’
The
future thenoh `after’ for instance, can neither collocate with the
modifiers toh and nie nor the determiners zü’ or hi.
The sentence 156b, c and d are not possible:
156. John nü thenoh emhe to de
John nom after food eat will
`John will eat food afterward.’
b. *John nü thenoh toh mhe to de
c. *John nü thenoh zü’ mhe to de
d. *John nü thenoh hi mhe to de
The tense system in Khezha therefore
does not operate within the scope of verb alone, but involves the entire
proposition of the sentence. Except future, there is no overt morphological
marking for past and present. On this basis, Khezha tense system may be
distinguished between future and non-future.
3.2.2.1.
Non-future Tense :
As
discussed above, the non-future can be distinguished between past and present
on the basis of their morpho-syntactic relation. The temporal adverbs of past
tense can be determined by deictic past is zü’ as well as non-deictic shü,
while on the other hand, the temporal adverb of present tense can only be
determined by deictic present hi as well as non-deictic shü. All
the past and present tenses can take modifiers toh and nie, which
provides information about point of reference. Basically, there are three types
of modal particles a, ah and dah that can have relation with
temporal adverbs: in different context.
These modal particles often carry two meanings: basic meaning and
“implicature” (c.f. Lyons1977; Comrie 1985). The particle a provides basic meaning is
“confirmative” (conf), rather than tense, implying the meaning as what has been
referred is over and that it is confirmed. It establishes tense relation in the
sentence only when a temporal adverb is introduced. The second ah
carries basic meaning as irrealis that implies as, the event has not been
realized; while the basic meaning of the third dah provides past
location in time. It also provides information as the action or event has been
realized.
(i)
Past Tense:
Past
tense in Khezha can be tested by sequence of past events, the information
carried by the temporal adverbs. The temporal adverbs indicating past events
may be distinguished into two categories: absolute and relative. The focal
difference between them is that the absolute past cannot take modifier nie,
whereas the relative past takes both the modifiers nie and toh
(also see p.195). Only the adverbs that can be determined by deictic (deic)
past and show tense relation are presented here:
Absolute
past: khözha `last night’, ejah `yesterday’, `jache `yesterday morning’, duzhü
`previous night’; duni `day before
yesterday’, dunichini `prior to day
before yesterday’, wökedethrü `last
month’, duníkö `last year’, kerikö `previous year’.
Relative
Past: afeh
`before’, afe’ `prior to before’
(prior to afeh), afeh nie `a short while ago’, afe’
nie `a considerable span of time ago’, duezhü
`sometime prior to previous night’, duenì
`sometime prior to yesterday’, wökedeba
`in the past’, dunhíe `in the past
(prior to wökedeba)’.
The
sentence can be extended in this way,
157. Pù nü
methíche to a
he
nom orange eat part
‘He ate orange.’
158. Pù nü
afeh methiche to a
he
nom before orange eat part
‘He ate orange before.’
159. Pù nü
afeh zü’ methíche to a
he
nom before deic orange eat part
‘He ate orange before.’ (He ate orange that of before)
Relative
past afe’ cannot take modifier toh. Hence, the sentences b in 160 and 161 are
not possible.
160a. Pu nü
afeh toh zü’ methiche to a
he
nom before deic orange eat part
‘He ate orange before.’
b. *Pu nü
afe’ toh zü’ methiche to a
161a. Pù nü afeh toh zü’ nü methíche to by a
`He ate orange just before.’
(He ate orange only just before, not
long ago)
b. *Pu nü
afe’ toh zü’ nü methiche to by a
In the sentence 161 above, the element
nü plays role as nominative, while the following one plays role as time
indicator that has agreement with adverb by `just’. What is interesting is that, the sentence 162
also can take the element by, but gives different implicature as in,
162. Pù nü
methíche to by a
he
nom orange eat part
‘He ate orange only.’
(He
did not eat any other thing, he ate only orange, do not mistake him.)
The imperfect tense provides
information about state or activity that is not yet completed, hence always
requires a temporal adverb to indicate location in time. Without a temporal adverb it is understood as
irrealis aspect rather than tense. For instance, the sentence 203 below is
irrealis and not past imperfect since it does not provide location in time.
163. Pù
nü methíche to ah
he
nom orange eat part
‘He is/was eating orange.’
Whereas
the sentences below are past imperfect,
164. Pù nü
afeh methíche to ah
he
nom before orange eat part
‘He was eating orange before.’
165. Pu nü
afeh zü’ methíche to ah
he
nom before orange eat part
‘He was eating orange before (that
reference point of time).’
The past imperfect does not take the
modifier toh. The reason for such constraint may be that the morpheme toh
carries information about point of reference in time, which is contradictory to
the information provided by the modal particle ah. The sentences below
are unnatural.
*Pu
nü afeh toh zü’ methíche to ah
*Pu
nü afeh toh zü’ heh wöh ah
But
it can take confirmative a since it does not give time reference,
Pu nü afeh toh zü’ methíche to a.
`He ate orange just before.’
Pu nü afeh toh zü’ heh wöh a. `He came here just before.’
Near
Past and Distant Past:
The
determiner zü’ and ablative lo give distinction between near past and
distant past as in,
166 John teh dah
John go part
`John went.’
167 John nü teh dah
John nom go part
`He has gone.’
168. John nü afeh zü’ teh dah
John before from go part
`John has gone (just) before.’ (near
past)
169. John nü afeh lo teh dah
he nom. before from go part
`John has gone since before (and his
presence is almost
vanishing from the memory).’ (distant past)
170 John afeh zü heh beh a
here exist conf
`John was here before (I saw him
just now).’ (near past)
171 John nü afeh lo heh beh a
`John
has been here since before (he came long before and still not leaving)’
The morpheme –toh carries
information about the immediate location of time, hence cannot collocate with
the ablative lo since the later provides information about distant location of
time. In the sentences below, the sentences in b are ill-formed,
172a. John nü afetoh zü’ teh dah.
`He has gone just before.’
*John nü afetoh lo teh dah.
173a. John nü afetoh zü’ awe eh rhaka cirü tsü a
me acc rupee ten give part
`John gave me rupees ten just
before.’
b. *John nü afetoh lo awe eh rhaka cirü
tsü a.
174. John nü afetoh zü’ awe eh rhaka
cirǘ tsü dah
“John has given me rupees ten just
before.’
b. *John nü afetoh lo awe eh rhaka cirü
tsü dah.
(ii)
Present Tense:
The present moment atsa `now’
can be dissected into two parts. For the first part, there is literal location
of present moment in time, yet conceptually crossed cut-off point of the
present moment as per the knowledge of the speaker, but unsure about its
viability, hence determined by deictic past zü’ For the second part,
there is not only literal location of the present moment in time, but also
conceptually within the range of cut off point of the present moment,
potentially viable and manifests latency to extend the span of the present
moment, which takes deictic present hi.
175. Pù nü atsa zü’ beh a
he nom now deic exist conf
`He was present.’
(He was present now and still is
present I believe)
176. Pù nü atsa hi beh a
he nom now deic exist conf
`He is now present.’
The basic meaning for the particle a
is confirmative rather than tense. Hence, perceived as it is within the range
of the present moment when temporal adverb is not used. The tense do not play
role in the sentences below:
177. Pu nü mehra a
He nom proud conf
`He is proud.
178. Pu nü mehra ah
He nom proud ir
`He is acting proud.’
179. Dil;hi nü etshü to a
Dilhi nom meat eat conf
`Dulhi ate meat.’
180. Dilhi nü etshü to ah
`Dilhi eats eat.’ Or `Dilhi is eating meat.’
181. Nò mhenye a
you rich part
`You are rich.’
182. Pu yi awe eh zürö te a
he also me acc. with go conf
`He is also coming with me.’
183. Pu beh mo a
he exist no conf
He is not present.’
184. Pu beh mo dah
`He is no more
We
may further test with temporal adverb atsa `now’ for all the categories,
185. John nü atsa hi methíche to ah
John nom now deic orange eat part
`John is eating orange now.’
*John nü atsa hi methíche to a
186. John nü atsa zü’ methíche to a
`John ate orange now.’
187. John nü atsa hi teh dah
John nom now deic go part
`John has gone now (but will be
back)’,
The
sentence 187, though the particle gives information about past perfect, the
point reference in time is neutralized by the deictic determiner hi by
sustaining its viability. Thus the cut-off point of the present moment is
latent and its viability is not ceased.
3.3.2.2.
Future Tense :
Khezha has temporal adverbs to
indicate both absolute and relative future time reference:
Absolute: atsazhü `this
evening’; theduche `tomorrow morning’, thejah
`tomorrow’,
theduzhü `tomorrow evening’; theduni `day after tomorrow’; theduni
chíni `the following day of day after tomorrow’; athínì thrü `this
month’; whöno thrü `next month’; a`thy `this year’ (short form of
atsathy); teka `next year’, chyki `the following year of
next year’.
Relative: thenoh `after’; thenoba
`tonight’; theecheba `sometime tomorrow morning’; theduniba
`sometime after tomorrow’; chykiba `sometime after next year’.
Generally, languages have opposition
between future perfect and imperfect. In Khezha, this does not work well, because
of the involvement of the attitude of the speaker. Even the semantic criteria
in distinguishing between basic meaning and implicatures failed to give
explanation in an explicit way. Khezha
future tense may be sub-grouped into two types, which I term them as (i)
resolute future, (ii) irresolute future. The difference being that the
irresolute future cannot take conjunction erö ~ shyrö. (The conjuction erö
and shyrö are synonym and can replace each other without affecting the
meaning)
188. Pu nü Delhi eh throh de erö damedzü ah
he nom Delhi loc go fut con. ready part
`He is getting ready to go to Delhi.’
(He will go to Delhi so he is making preparation)
*Pu nü Delhi eh throh de erö damedzü ah
(i) Resolute Future:
The
future perfect is marked with model particle de, implying resolute,
firm, absolute and complete.
189. Nye nü
tshü de
I do
fut
‘I will do it.’
(lit. I will definitely do, there is
no question of withdrawing the decision)
190. Tshübo hyno hi weh hí eleh heh lelu de.
tree this det cut if in case fall-in fut
`If this tree is cut it will fall
down here.’
191. Nò àwe eh thröhy de shyrö mesü a nì?
you me acc help tense likewise think
ir inter
`Are you thinking to help me?’
(Are you thinking that you will help
me?)
192. Nye nü puh de erö mesü
a ne’ by dah
I
nom tell will con think conf but stop part
`I thought of telling but
withdrawn.’
(I will tell likewise think but is
withdrawn)
In the sentence 192 it is future
time when the thought took place. The particle dah that closes the
sentence provides resultant information. Thus, this sentence contains four
sequential locations in time. The moment when the thought was conceived, the
future perfect of that moment, the future point of location in time that the
resultant effect took place, and lastly the present moment when the expression
is emitted. Unlike English, for instance, the future perfect is always explicit
and constant, and has to be followed by the connective particles either erö
or shyrö when the reference point of location in time is the past event.
The
resolute future marker de `will’ can be extended into two types, which I
termed them as,
Imminent
future, dia, deweh, or dewa,
Recursive
future, de lah.
(a)
Imminent Future:
The imminent future
is marked with dia, deweh, or dewa. The three indicate the same
meaning such as affirm, confirm, ascertain, assure and so on. The morphological
difference being due to dialectal variances. I will use dia here.
193. Nye nü
tshü dia
‘I am going to do.’
194. Nye
athínì Delhi eh
throh dia
today
Delhi go
fut
‘I am going to Delhi today.’
195. Menöh maleh etshü nü iwe eh meke dia
careful unless dog nom you acc bite
fut
‘The dog is biting you unless
careful.’
Or
`Unless careful the dog will bite
you.’
(b) Recursive
Future:
196. Nye tshü
de lah
`I will do it again.’ Or `I
will still do it (although there are some other
things to do)’
197. Nye
athinì Delhi eh
throh de lah
`I will go to Delhi (leaving other works in abeyance)’
198. Nye Delhi eh
throh meri de lah
`I will first go to Delhi (then do other
things).’
199. Etshü nü iwe eh meke de lah
`The dog may bite you again (it bit
someone before).’
(ii)
Irresolute Future:
The
irresolute future tense is marked with a modal particle do, implying
sudden outburst of passion, but irresolute, and random. Since the decision is
irresolute it can be withdrawn if there is objection. The morpheme do,
can also refer future tense of the past event. The difference between “de” and
“do” is that, the former can be followed by the connective particles either èrö
or shyrö when the reference point of location in time is the past event, but
the latter is restricted to the connective shyrö.
200. Nye
nü puh do shyrö mesü a
ne’ by dah
I nom tell tense con think conf but
stop part
`I (randomly) thought of telling but
withdrawn.’
(I will tell likewise think but is
withdrawn)
*Nye nü puh do erö mesü a ne’ by dah
Since the anticipation is random and
irresolute, it is more acceptable if it is followed by mood hi to imply
tentativeness, act and see the result what actually would be:
201. Nye nü
tshü hi do
I
nom do md fut
‘I shall do (and see the resultant effect).’
202. Nye nü puh hi do
I
nom tell md fut
`I shall tell (and see what would be
the reaction).’
3.3.3. Aspect
Aspect is generally understood as
category of verb denoting primarily the relation of the action or state to the
passage of time, especially in reference to completion, duration, repetition,
prediction and so on. In the semantic space of aspect, it always involves some
element of tense in terms of establishing a point of reference along sequential
time. Khezha aspectual system has a basic modal distinction between realis (re)
and irrealis (ir). The realis refers to
situations that have actually taken place or are actually taking place, while
irrealis is used for more hypothetical situations, including situations that
represent inductive generalizations, and also predictions, including also
predication about the future (c.f. Comrie, 1985:45 for definition).
3.3.3.1. Realis:
The
realis takes a modal particle dah, which implies that action or event
has been realized.
203. Nye mi mhe
wu mo dah
I person
thing steal no re
‘I do not steal anymore.’
204. Nye
by dah
stop re
‘I stopped (already)’
In the above sentences, the
time-axis is now, and the speaker asserts the termination of the habit at some
time prior to that time-axis. Consider
some more examples below :
205. A kiemi
terho’ dah
my wife well re
‘My wife got recovered (from
sickness).’
206 Nye
tery dah
thirst re
‘I am thirsty.’
207. Nye
ekah che mo dah
meaning know not re
‘I did not understand the meaning.’
208. A pfü keshe dah
my father old re
‘My father is (already) old.’
209. Pu
teh dah
he
go re
‘He has gone.’
210. Emiro nü afe’ lo wö
iwe eh khwe rö beh dah
people nom before since come you acc
wait conj stay re
`People have come and waiting for
you since then’
It can also be conjugated with
irrealis ah [à] that becomes e [è] forming compound particle edah [èdà], to
imply as action or event that was anticipated before has been realized by now:
211. Mary nü atsa hy mhe tshü edah
Mary nom now det thing do re
`Mary is working by now.’
(Mary was refusing to work before,
but now she has obliged and had begun working)
212. Mary nü mhe to edah puwe eh keshü sa’ by deh
Mary nom food eat re her
acc scold don’t adv imp
`Mary has begun eating so don’t
scold her any more!’
3.3.3.2. Irrealis:
There
are two ways to express irrealis aspect:
ah
[à],
implies the action or event is in progress and is confirmed;
eda
[èda], implies with English equivalent `must have been or could have been’
Irrealis
ah
213. Mary nü
leshí phrüh ah
Mary book read ir
‘Mary is studying.’
214. Mary nü
hindi che ah
Hindi know ir
‘Mary knows Hindi.’
215. A nö
terho’ ah
my child well ir
‘My child is well.’
216. Etseh nü
eprü to ah
cattle grass
eat ir
‘The cattle eat grass.’
217. Pù nü
ofisü loe kam ah
he
nom office in work ir
‘He works in the office.’
218. Ekhù etseh tsü to ah
tiger cattle catch eat ir
`Tiger (killed cattle and) is eating
cattle.’
The difference between realis and
irrealis is apparent even in the complex sentences below where the punctual
verb in 219 still allows irrealis, whereas the state verb in 220 obligatorily
takes realis dah,
219. Nye
wöh ezü nhíe Mary nü leshí phrüh ah
I
come det at Mary nom book
read ir
‘Mary was studying when I came.’
(lit. Mary was reading the book at the time of my
coming)
220 Nye
wöh ezü nhíe Mary nü leshí phrüh dah
`Mary studied when I came.’
221a. *Nye
wöh ezü nhíe Mary nü ekah
che lo ah
b. Nye wöh ezü nhíe Mary nü
ekah che lo dah
meaning
know part re
‘Mary has understood the
meaning/answer when I came.’
Irrealis
eda
222. Pù nü
teh eda
he go
ir
‘He must have gone.’
(lit. It is definite, he will not be there
anymore,)
223. Nye
mhe tshü eda
I
thing do ir
‘I will work (I will not remain idle
any more)’
(lit. I was not working before, but now I have
decided to work)
224. Pù nü
puh eda
he
nom tell ir
‘He will speak out (he cannot keep
it for longer) ’
(lit. He will not keep it, he will certainly
disclose it)
225. Nye the eda
I
go ir
`I will go (I will not wait any
more).
The preceding element of irrealis eda
appears to involve sandhi rule with the base of ah [à] that is conjoined with
the base of future marker de to become eda (à+de> èda). Because, this
is constant when it is conjoined with other elements to give irrealis concept.
elah
[èlà] , it
was begun and still will be continuing;
de
elah [de
èlà], the projection was partly executed and affirms that
the
remaining part will be executed after a span of time,
ede [ède], must be in process,
ede lah
[ède là], the
projection has been commenced and affirms that it will still be continued
without interruption.
226. Mary nü
kecü elah
Mary nom young ir
‘Mary is still young.’
227. Nye nü
mhe tshü elah
I
nom thing do ir
‘I am still working’
228. Nye nü
leshí phrüh elah
I
nom book read
ir
‘I am still studying.’
229 Pù atsa hi yi tshü ede
he now det also do ir
`He must be doing even at this
moment.’
230. Np nü awe eh likhö ede
you nom me acc angry ir
`You must be angry with me’ (though
you did not say anything)
231. Nöcü melhü ede
child hungry ir
`The baby must be hungry.’
232. Pu nü
mhe to de elah
he nom food eat will ir
‘He is going to eat food (and will
be further delay).’
233. Pu nü
khölo eh mha de elah
he
nom field to go will
ir
‘He will still be going to the
field.’
Or
`He is going to the field (and hence
will be further delay).’
234. Nye mhe tshü ede lah
I
thing do ir
‘I am working (and will be
continuing).’
235. Nye
khönele khah ede
lah
I rice-pot cook ir
‘I am cooking rice (and will still
be cooking till it is accomplished).’
236. Pu leshí phrüh ede lah
he book read ir
‘He was studying (and must be still
continuing even at this moment).’
237. Nye hyno
hi tshü meri ede lah
I this det
do ahead ir
`I would do this before hand.’ (I
will be finishing this before engaging
other work)
238. Nye hyno hy tshü ede lah
I
this det do ir
`I will be doing this (for some more
time).’
239. Pu nü atsa yi züh ede lah
he nom now also sleep ir
`He must be still sleeping even at
this moment.’
3.3.4. Mood
Like
any other human languages, mood (md) in Khezha is the most complex grammatical
category and practically very difficult to demarcate them since almost every
grammatical element such as aspect, tense, interrogative and other auxiliary
verbs, including manner adverb always emit out some sort of the mind-set of the
speaker. A somewhat complexity is minimized when the terms between mood and
modality is distinguished as in the cases of the distinction between tense and
time, number and enumeration, and gender and sex as suggested by Palmer (1986);
the former being grammatical and the latter notional or semantic. While applying in this direction, mood in
Khezha is also considered as a grammatical category of verb, which expresses
opinion or attitude of the speaker as propounded by Lyons (1977).
Like
tense and aspect, Khezha also does not have inflectional mood. Various types of
modal particles indicate mood in this language. The rest of the closed classes
such as interrogative, auxiliaries and manner adverb that emit out the attitude
of the speaker are considered as simply implicatures rather than their basic
meanings. On this basis, the category of mood in Khezha is classified into six
types, viz., imperative, optative, subjunctive, confirmative, potential,
concessive, and reportage.
3.3.4.1. Imperative:
Imperative
mood (imp) expresses command, request or advice in a non-declarative sentence
with varying degrees of humility and politeness. The imperative particles are however very mobile
and can be found in various types of sentences. The reason for such mobility
may be that their origins are in most of the cases is from other sources,
though may not be readily transparent. Almost every particle can be used for
command, request, advice and so on, while at the same time freely occurring in
any other context to give information about the attitude of the speaker.
Presently, I have identified seven (7) different types of imperative particles
in Khezha, each implying different range of meaning. The sentences with
imperative particles do not indicate addressee or the subject of the sentence,
but is readily understood as it means for second person only.
Imperative
sentence can also be expressed without a marker when the speaker does not show
any specific attitude and somewhat impolite form as in
240. Leshida pfòwö !
Book bring
`Bring book!’
241. Heh phe !
here come
`Come here!’
Certain
markers are used when the speaker wishes to convey some information about his
attitude or opinion, which are the main concern of discussion here:
hi! implies tentativeness, to act as testing and
see the consequent result;
ri!
implies the addressee did before and is again
requested to do the same;
e! implies gradual activity
deh!
implies no more delay further;
lo! implies as do, act and be accomplished;
ere! implies casual command or request;
ley! implies three meanings:
(i)
that the speaker has no objection to the request,
(ii)
that the addressee is delaying action and the speaker orders him for immediate
action,
(iii)
that the addressor perceives some danger and warns if the addressee dares to
do.
Examples:
242(a) Tshü hi! ‘Do
it !’ (and see the resultant effect)
b Tshü ri! ‘Do it (again) !’
c. Tshü e! ‘Do
it !’ (don’t stop, keep on)
d Tshü deh! ‘Do it !’ (don’t wait further)
e. Tshü lo! ‘Do it (and be accomplished or be
satisfied
yourself)!’
f. Tshü ley! ‘Do it !’ (i) (I have no objection);
(ii)
(why delaying?);
(iii)
(if you dare)
g. Tshü ere! ‘Do it !’ (and continue, if it is not too
difficult
for you)
In
most of the cases these particles can take another element or occur together to
achieve a common goal.
243a. Puh hio!
‘Please say and see what will be the result !’
b. Puh hi ley! ‘Say and see what will be the result !’
(i) I have no objection. (ii) don’t further
delay.
(iii)
if you dare.
c. Puh hi ere! ‘Please speak (and observe what will be the
result)!’
d. Puh eo!
‘Please continue saying!.’
e. Puh eley! ‘Continue saying!.’
f. Puh deley! ‘Say (don’t hide any further)!.’
g. Puh eriley ! `Keep on speaking (don’t stop)!’
Or
`Continue
speaking (though you may be tired)!’
h. Puh erio! ‘Keep on saying if you dare!’
3.3.4.2. Optative:
Optative
mood (Op) leeh gives expression of wish or desire of the speaker. It implies sincere expression of wish and is used
only when pleading to some form of spirit or God.
244. Mapö
lo i pheh tekhe
khe hi leeh.
God let you on
bless cast imp Op
‘May God bless you.’
(lit. Let God cast blessing on you)
245. Tèrü
wöh leeh.
rain come Op
‘May it rain (I sincerely pray)’
246. Awe eh
lo kö lo
mehdzü leeh.
me-let win
permit Op
‘Make me to win.’
3.3.4.3.
Subjunctive:
Subjunctive
mood (subj) refers to a verb form or sentence/clause type used to express
conditional, optional, uncertainty, or hypothetical action, state or
event. It can either function as
conjunctive and conjoins two or more clauses or in some cases conclude the
sentence by itself. In the cases, when a subjunctive particle concludes a
sentence it indicates that the message the speaker intends to express is
discontinued halfway. Subjunctive mood in Khezha may be divided into three
types on the basis of their semantic properties: notional, conditional and
optional.
3.3.4.3.1. Notional:
The
notional mood provides information that a remark or an opinion expressed by the
speaker is somehow fanciful or whimsical, and is not well founded. Four
particles are identified to express this type of mood. Etymologically, the origin of the first two
is from interrogative, hence they carry some sort of query always whenever
expressed.
dí implies feeling as if
something is going to happen, some sort of premonition;
nie,
implies hypothetical, probability
dimö,
implies regret, but cannot be recovered;
(i) Notional Subjunctive di:
247a. Aro mepö di
we meet subj
‘We might have meeting.’
b. Aro
mepö di keba pangö nhie wö ley!
we
meet subj hour five at come
imp.
‘Come at five! We may have meeting.’
248a. Therü di
rain
subj
`It might rain.’
b. Therü di enaro pfo
kezhò phrüh deh!
rain
subj materials take keep adv imp
‘Keep things safely! It might rain.’
249. Tekaba
ehri wöh di aro damedzü rö beh
malesü a
next-year war come subj we
prepare and remain must part
‘We must be prepared as there might
war next year.’
250. Kewumi wöh dí deri rö
beh toh male
theft come subj alert and remain always adv
‘Robbers may come unless we always
keep alert.’
(ii) Notional Subjunctive nie:
251. A zö thejà wöh de nie
my mother tomorrow come will subj
‘My mother may come tomorrow.’
252 A zö wöh de nie eh beh rö khwe eh!
my mother come will subj remain and wait part
‘Wait! Mother may come.’
253. Noro
mepö nie
you (pl) meet subj
‘(I believe) you had meeting.’
254. No
meku ah nie
you
lie part. subj
‘(Perhaps,) you are lying.’
255.
Hyno hi nü whöno jü zü we nie eh
this det nom that than that good
subj part
`Perhaps, this is better than that.’
(iii) Notional Subjunctive dimö
256. No
etarö a nhíe puh eleh we dimö
you before-hand me at tell if good subj
‘It would have been good if you told
me before hand.’
257. Pu nü
awe eh thro dimö chy zhye mezo dah le’.
he nom me loc love subj die early too-much subj
‘Although
he loved me, yet he died too early.’
258 Mary nü mhetshüwe dimö a kie wöh mü le’.
Mary nom hard-work subj my house come neg subj
‘Although
Mary is hard working woman she doesn’t want to marry me.’
3.3.4.3.2. Conditional:
The
conditional mood expresses condition circumstance, prerequisite, disjunction
and so on.
le’ implies disjunctive with English equivalent
‘because’;
maleh implies condition as ‘if it is not so’;
eleh implies as ‘in case, if’ and soon;
lo’ implies as ‘if it is so’ (often reduce to ó),
(i) Conditional Subjunctive le’
259. No nü metso le’ ìwe eh merö tsü de
you
nom good subj you loc toy give will
`I
will give you because you are good.’
260. Pu beh mo
le’ teh eda.
He
exist no subj go part
`I
will go because he is not there.’
261. No nü zowe le’
mehra ah
you nom beautiful subj proud
part
‘You are proud, because you are
beautiful.’
(ii) Conditional Subjunctive maleh:
262. No nü metso maleh iwe eh merö tsü eha
you
nom good subj you loc toy give neg
`I
will not give you unless you behave well.’
263. No
leshikie wöh maleh tata maha
you
school go subj cultivate must
‘If
you don’t go to school, you have to cultivate (there is no other
option)’
264. Emhe tshü maleh tekhö eda
thing
do subj
need part
`We
will become needy unless we work.’
265. Pu nü
beh maleh Nye yi beh
eda
he nom remain subj I
remain part
‘I will stay if he is not present.’
266. No nü
zowe maleh mehra eha
you
beautiful subj proud neg
‘You cannot be proud if you are not
beautiful.’
(iii) Conditional Subjunctive eleh
267. Dilo nü
mehpö eh beh eleh Nye nü teh eda
Dilo
nom meeting in remain subj I nom go will
‘I will go away, in case, Dilo is in
the meeting.’
268. Dilo nü
mehpö eh beh eleh Nye nü beh eha
Dilo
nom meeting in remain subj I nom remain neg
`I cannot be there if Dilo is in the
meeting.’
(I will not attend the meeting if
Dilo is attending)
269. Therü hi eleh we she de
rain pat subj
good very will
‘If will be very good if it rains.’
or
‘In case, if it rains.’
270. Meku ah eleh seso puh ded!
lie part
subj truth tell imp
`Tell
the truth if you are lying.’
(iv) Conditional Subjunctive lo’
271. No beh lo’ Nye nü teh eda.
You
stay subj I nom go part
`I
will go if you stay.’
272. Therü hi lo’ khölo eh ejüh beh eda
rain
part subj field in water remain
will
‘There will be water in the field if
it rains.’
(The field will be dried if it
doesn’t rain)
273. Pu
wöh lo’ khöne chi pfo puwe eh tsü
shay
he
come subj food take inst him loc give conc
‘(I) may have tol serve him food if
he comes.’
274. Mary nü tshü tö dah lo’ a nhie phe shyrö
puh hi!
Mary
nom do finish re subj me at come report tell imp
Tell
Mary to come to me if she has finished the job!’
The
conjunctive shyo also functions as conditional mood in some context, but
in other contexts it is not conditional. In the sentences below 275-7 are not
subjunctive, but 278 and 279 are conditional subjunctive.
275.
No
mehpö eh wöh de shyo wö deh ley
you
meeting in come will conj go part
‘You go if you are going to the
meeting.’
276 No
leshi phrüh de shyo phrü deh
you
book read will conj read imp
‘Go and study if you want.’
(lit. You are saying that you will study, so you go
and study
without
further delay.)
277. Pu nü tshü de shyo metshü deh
he
nom do will conj let-do imp
`Let
me do if he is willing.’
278. Pu nü tshü de shyo Nye nü tshü mo eda
he
nom do will subj I nom do no part
`I
will not do if he is doing.’
279. Pu beh shyo Nye nü teh eda.
He
stay subj I nom go part
`I
will go if he is there.’
3.3.4.3.3. Optional:
The
optional mood in Khezha is expressed with leh and mo’ implying
alternative `or’, to open option whether A or B as in.
(i) Optional Subjunctive leh:
280. No leh Nye ro?
you
subj I inter
`You
or me?’
281. Leshi
phrüh de leh tatah de di
book
read will subj cultivate will inter
`Whether
study or cultivate?’
282. We leh sü ya mesü mo dah
good
subj bad inter remember neg part
`Didn’t
remember whether good or bad.’
(ii) Optional Subjunctive mo’:
283. Pu nü
beh mo’ nye nü bè shay.
he
nom remain subj I nom stay part
‘I will stay if you don’t.’
284. Pu nü tshü
mo’ no nü tshü malesü a.
he
nom do subj you nom do must part
`You
must do it if he doesn’t.’
285. No nü mha mo’
Nye nü mha de
you go(field) subj I
go will
‘If you don’t go to the field I will go.’
286. Pu nü
beh mo’ no nü beh
he remain subj you
sit
‘You may stay if he doesn’t.’
3.3.4.4.
Confirmative:
For
so long I have been baffled by a morpheme a, which I mistook it as to be
a bound morpheme in my Ph.D. thesis. Later, I realized that the origin of this
morpheme was found to be everywhere. It sometimes functions as tense marker,
past as well present, while in some other context it also functions like a
category of mood, expressing about the attitude of the speaker. Therefore, it
is sometime difficult to decide whether the goal it achieved is time or mood or
both. Its mobility does not end here. Phonologically, its basic tone is mid,
can easily be assimilated to the pitch of its adjacent tone either high or low
in normal flow of speech, hence often confused with irrealis habitual ah,
especially when its preceding vowel is a low tone. They can only be
distinguished by their semantic property. With regard to its semantic value,
whether it is expressed negatively or positively it always conveys the
information as confirmed, certain, authenticate and so on. On this basis, I
have termed it as “confirmative” (conf), which I think would be the nearest:
287. A ze nü
Dilo a
my
name Dilo conf
‘My name is Dilo.’
288. John nü a jü thah a
John
nom me comp long conf
‘John
is taller than me.’
289. John a
John
conf
`It
is John.’
290. We a
good
conf
`It
is good.’
291. Menie a
shame
conf
`Feeling
shy.’
292. Tewöh a
comfortable
`Nice! (comfortable)’
293. Too a
eat
conf
`(N)
ate it.’
294. Phe a
come (horiz) conf
`(N) came.’
295. Tre a
cry
conf
`(N)
cried.’
296 A nö nü
kömo terho a
my
child body well conf
‘My child is healthy.’
297. A nö nü
mheche a
wise conf
‘My child is wise.’
298. A nö nü
kömó terho a ne’ leshi phrüh mü a
my
child nom healthy conf but book read neg conf
`Although my child is healthy he
never wants to study.’
(My
child is healthy but refuses to read book)
299. Jon nü elekshün loe lu ni ah ne’ mhe whòh
a
John
nom election in enter want ir but poor conf
`John
wants to enter into election but has no wealth.’
Or
`John
is willing to enter into election but has no wealth.’
300 A nö nü meku a
lie ccnf
‘My child is dishonest.’
301. Pu nü
heh beh a
he
nom here exist conf
`He
is here.’
302. Pu nü afeh heh beh a
before
`He
was here before.’
303. Pu
nü atsa heh beh a
now
`He is here now.’
304.
Nye nü khöne
to a
I nom
food eat conf
‘I
ate/eat food’
305. No tre a
dire
you
cry conf inter
`You
cried, didn’t you?’
306. Tre mo a
cry no conf
`No, (I) didn’t cry.’
307. Mo a, no
tre ty a
No
conf, you cry surely conf
`Yes,
you surely cried.’
308. Tre pimo a
cry
adv no conf
`Not
at all.’ Or `Never!’
309
. Pu prisa beh a shy ya
he
money have conf say interrogative
`Did
he say that he has money?’
310. Beh mo a, shy a
have
no conf, say conf
`No!
That is what he says.’
3.3.4.5. Potential:
Potential
mood (pot) lo, expresses ability, possibility, obligation or compulsion. The
basic tone of lo is mid but becomes high after low or high tone (see tone
section). They are however constantly unmarked.
311. Pu nü
awe eh penü lo ah
he
nom me loc defeat pot ir
‘He uses to defeat me.’
312. Mary nü
lhe tshö rö lhepre ketseh
ngö lo a
Mary
nom business do and profit few see pot part
`Mary
made some profit by doing business.’
313. Emhe to lo
lo’ mhe ketseh tshü pe hi ri dyey
food
eat pot subj thing few do more imp again okay
`Please
work a little more after you finished food, okay?’
314
Ketöyi whöno phe hi melepre lo eleh
Nye nü prazü tsü de
anyone
that-Sg on det climb pot subj I nom prize give will
`I
will give a prize if anyone can climb up over there.’
315. No dábálo
Billy eh pfothru lo dia?
you
how Billy loc pull-down pot inter
`How
can you pull Billy down?’ (in wrestling)
or
`How
can you beat Billy?’ (you have no such potentiality)
3.3.4.6. Concessive:
Concessive
mood (conc) expresses a state o of concession, that the speaker has some
reservation and lacks enthusiasm, but conceding by some force. There are two morphemes to mark concessive
mood,
shay, the speaker concedes with
some reservation;
shyi, indicates something is
incomplete or missing;
dishy implies the speaker concedes with great
dissatisfaction;
(i) Concessive shay:
316. No nü
mehci yi tshü shay
you
nom lazy conc do conc
‘You have to do, even if you may
feel lazy.’
317a. No lhoeda ne’ hyno hi tshü malesü lah.
you tired but this-Sing det do must adv
‘You must be tired, but you still
have to do this.’
318. I shay
yes
conc
“Okay.” (have to)
319a. A pfü wöh lo’ no nü puwe eh mhetshü meto hi
shay
my father come subj you nom him loc
cater let-eat imp conc
‘You may please serve food to my
father when he comes.’
b. I le’
yes
adv
`Yes,
of course.’
(ii) Concessive shyi:
320. Pu nü awe eh zòmèzhe echü rei ne’ beh mo
shyi
he
nom me loc pity can pot but present no conc
`He
can show me mercy but he is not present.’
321. Pu nü
tshü echü dimö atsa beh mo shyi
he
nom do pot subj now exist neg conc
‘Although he can surely do it, what
to do he is not here now!’
322. No pre mhe kadie tshü echü a ne’ leshiphrü
mehcy shyi
You
emerge thing big do pot conf but study
lazy conc
`Although
you have potentiality to become a great man, yet you are lazy to study.’
(iii) Concessive dishy:
323. Nye puh hi
yi pu nü a se zü eha, ne’ dishy!
I tell imp adv he nom my word follow neg but
conc
`Even
if I said he will not obey me (so what can I say).’
324. Nye
nü thehrü de ezü che mo le’
dishy!
I nom rain will that know
not md conc
‘What to do, I didn’t know that it
was going to rain.’
325. Nye yi kechemi tshü ni ah ne‘ leshiphrü
terho lo mo dah le’
I adv learned-person do want ir but study
high pot neg re subj
dishy!
Conc
`I
also want to be a learned person, but I did not study high, so what can I
say!’
3.3.7. Reportage
Some
scholars used the term “quotative” or “narrative” in describing this kind of
expression. However, this does not suit well to Khezha situation. The reason is
that, it is not necessarily be reiteration of what has been said. In some
cases, the speaker may be the original utterance of the expression in the way
of reporting the fact to the addressee or what is anticipated to happen or not
going to happen. Secondly, it is part of
mood, because every utterance carries the information about the attitude or feeling
of the speaker. On this ground, I have used the term “reportage” (rep). There
are four types of elements that form reportage sentence. They are,
díro indicates that the speaker is the first
informer and there is truth in the statement.
The message is conveyed in the form of forewarning,
meeh indicates that the speaker received
information from some source and transmits that information to the third
person,
shya implies that the speaker is simply repeating
the exact statement made by someone else and whether it is true or false, he has
no concern about it. It is mostly used in giving clarification to someone’s
query as `What does it say? It says ……’
rey implies surprise state or that what the
addressee perceives is contradictory to the fact;
(i) Reportage diro:
326. Dilo
nü Delhi eh throh dewa diro
Dilo nom Delhi
loc go fut rep
`Dilo
is going to Delhi
(I am reporting if you have anything to entrust
him).’
327. Theni ah
diro
sunshine ir rep
‘It is sunshine (I am reporting if
you have anything to do with).’
328. John nü
meku a diro
John nom liar conf rep
‘John is a crook, be ware (I am
reporting).’
(ii) Reportage meeh:
329. John nü
meku meeh.
John nom liar rep
‘(It
is reported that) John is a crook (so one has to be careful with him.’
330. Theni ah
meeh
sunshine ir rep
‘It is sunshine (someone reports).’
331. Dilo nü
Delhi eh
throh dewa meeh
Dilo
nom Delhi
loc go fut rep
`Dilo is going to Delhi (that’s what it says).’
(iii) Reportage shya:
332. Dilo nü
Delhi eh
throh dewa shya
Dilo
nom Delhi
loc go fut rep
`Dilo is going to Delhi (It says).’
333. John nü
meku ah shya
John nom liar rep
‘(John is lying (that’s what it
says).’
334. No Delhi
eh throh dewa eleh pu nhie puh hieh shya
You
Delhi loc go
fut subj him at
tell imp rep
`I
am told that you have to inform him if you are going to Delhi.’
(iv) Reportage rey:
335. Dilo nü
mi we rey
Dilo
nom person good pot
‘Dilo is a good man (you probably
have mistaken him).’
336. Mary nü
emhö züh a ne’ ezho we by rey
Mary nom face dark conf but manner
tender rep
`Mary not tht polite but she has a
tender heart.’
337. Nye nü puh ni ah rey ne’ awe eh mepu mvü
le’
I nom tell want ir rep but me loc let-say neg
subj
`Of
course, I wanted to say but I was not allowed to.’
3.3.5. Interrogative
Interrogative sentences stand in
contrast to declarative sentences. The interrogative sentences in Khezha are
always overtly marked with different interrogative markers. These markers always indicate the attitude of
the speaker in some way or other. Hence,
interrogative in Khezha may be considered as part of mood expression. However,
the occurrence of these markers are often conditioned by different types of
interrogation, and on the basis of their selectional restrictions, the
interrogatives in Khezha are classified into three (3) groups: question word
interrogative, yes-no interrogative, and echo-question
3.3.5.1. Question
Word
Interrogative
pronoun thu ‘who’ can be used for asking question with or without
interrogative marker, whereas da- and di- require at least a
suffix to form question word. When these
question words are used without an interrogative marker, they do not indicate
the attitude of the speaker, eg.,
(i) Question word thu with interrogative marker:
338a Thuwe `whose?’
b. Thumi `who (out of several persons)?’
c. Thunhi `who(two out of several
persons)?’
thu can take only dual and
unspecific human number. It indicates singular when it is not attached with any
number marker. For plural it is expressed in different ways as in the section
discussed with Interrogative Pronouns.
(ii) Interrogative with da-
339. Daba? ‘Where ?’
340. Dapa? ‘Which
side ?’
341. Daboe? `Where (point of location)?’
342. Dano? ‘Which
one ?’
343. Danhi? ‘Which
one ?’ (out of two)
344. Daro? ‘Which
one ?’ (out of several)
345. Dacy ‘In
what way ?’
346. Danhíe `Near where?’
347. Dazhie ‘How
much (quantity)?’
348. Datha `How much (length)?’
349. Dache `How (size)?’
(iii) Interrogative with di-
Diby?
‘What ?’
This
can be further expanded with pronominal ketshü as in,. Diby ketshümi? `Who
(profession)?’ Diby ketshüro? `Who (plural)?’ Diby ketshü nhie?
`When?’ (is often shorten as in Diy’tshünhíe?, Diy’sünhie?) Diby ketshü chy? `After when?’ Diby
ketshü jü? `Before when? Diby ketshü tro? `What group?’ and so on.
351. Disüle? `Why?’
352. Dizhie ‘How
many (numerical)?’
The
interrogative pronoun thu can take eight different particles for
interrogation, each indicating some sort of the attitude of the speaker. These
particles also often indicate sequence of event:
ro? and le? do not specify the attitude of the speaker
and can be used in any situation. The
different being that ro is mostly used by adults, while lé is often used by
minors or adults talking to children,
di? ~ dia?
~ dio?, implies that there are more than one
proposition and the addressee is given option to select one of them for future
course of action,
dey?, implies that there are several even
possibilities occurred prior to the present moment and the speaker wishes to
know which one out of several possibilities,
lay? indicates that the same event had occurred
several times and the speaker wishes to know that occurred again,
ey? implies that the speaker presumes that the addressee
is able to give information,
yo? implies that the speaker presumes that the
addressee too, does not know the answer,
but simply making query indicating the meaning ‘who will know it’. In this case, the expected answer from the
addressee is, che ma ‘Don’t know.’
ya? ~ la? implies that the speaker is least bother to
know about the fact.
tse? is used in the situation
when both the speaker and the addressee had the same experience and the speaker
think that the addressee still remembers it.
354. Thu ro? ‘Who?’ or ‘Who is that ?’
355 Thu di? ‘Who (choose one)?’
Very
often the vowel is lengthened when the speaker is paying full concentration to
the query so as to make up by himself without anybody’s help as in, Thu dii?
`Who this must be?’ in circumstance when someone had destroyed something and
not able to identify the culprit.
356 Thu dey? ‘Who (out of many possible
persons) ?’
357 Thu lay? ‘Who (again, I am so fed up) ?’
358 Thu ey? ‘Who (I believe you know)?’
359. Thu yo? ‘Who (it must be, can any body
tell me) ?’
360 Thu ya? ‘Who (let it be anybody, I am
least bothered about)?’
Thu
tse? `Who is that, I didn’t remember, do you remember?
Likewise,
all the interrogative pronouns can take any of the following interrogative
particles for questioning,
362 Diby ro? ‘What ?’
363 Diby ey? ‘What (I believe you know)?’
364 Daba yo? ‘Where (can anybody say )?’
364 Dano ey? ‘Which one (I believe, you know it) ?’
365 Dazhe ya? ‘How much (let it be any, it is
not my concern) ?’
366. Dazhe tse? `How much was that?’
In
the case of the sentences where a verb phrase is used, the marker is attached
with the verb, eg.,
367. Ekhu nü
daba lo etseh mekethru dah ro?
Tiger
nom where from cattle killed part inter
‘From where did the tiger killed the
cattle?’
368. Diby nü
iwe eh meke dah yo?
what nom you loc bite part inter
‘What did it bite you? (it is so puzzling)’
369 No danö
puh ah ya? Nye che mo dah
you which say part inter I
know not part
‘I don’t know which one you mean.’
The
sentence like ‘What is your name?’ is restricted to some particular markers,
eg.,
370. I ze
thu le? Or I ze thu ro?
your name who inter
‘What is your name?’
While
the sentences below are not possible since the markers that indicate the
attitude of the speaker do not agree with the situation, eg.,
*
I ze thu día?
*
Ize thú lay?
*
I ze thu yo?ó
*
I ze thu dey
The
sentence like, I ze thu la?/ya? is possible, but very impolite and arrogant as
in,
371. I ze thu ya? `What must your name? (it
cannot be so fascinating)
Kemetha-e
nü puh ezü zü’ diby shy tse?
Teacher nom say that det what adv inter
`What
is that the teacher told?”
Similarly,
the interrogative di? can be used by lengthening the vowel in the
situation when the speaker tries to recall the name as in, Emi whöno ze zü’
thu di-i?
Also,
the sentence like, I ze thú ey?
‘What is your name?’ is possible, but impolite form. It is used when the situation is tense and
the speaker needs to know his identity immediately. Similarly, it is only possible in the context
when giving a nickname to the person as in,
373. I ze thú tho di/día
your
name who to name inter
‘What
name shall (I) give you?’
In
the case when the speaker is unable to decide or make out what it must be or
what it should do as in, the vowel can be lengthened. The difference of which
is intonation, rather than different morpheme as in 340h and 348,
374. Nye leshíkie eh
wöh de leh mo di?
I school
to come will or no subj
‘Should I go to school or not?’
3.3.5.2. Yes-No
Interrogative:
The
yes-no interrogatives in Khezha are simply the reflection of the previous
information, which is being conveyed, but yet to prove as fact by the
speaker. In other cases, the speaker has
proved it as fact and demands the addressee to agree with the fact. There are nine such markers,
(i) Yes-no Interrogative dire:
This
particle implies that the speaker has already proved the information as fact
and demands agreement from the addressee.
375. No
Mary eh ny ah dire?
you
Mary loc love part inter
‘You are in love with Mary, aren’t
you ?’
376. Pu nü
mhekechemi dire?
he
nom learned-person inter
‘He is a learned person, isn’t he?’
377. Noro ejah
Kewhu eh dzü dire?
You (pl) yesterday Kohima to go
inter
‘You went to Kohima yesterday,
didn’t you?’
(ii) Yes-no Interrogative ya? ~ nyo?:
This
particle implies that the fact of information is clear with the speaker and
that he casually asks just to get spontaneous reply ‘yes’ from the
addressee. The marker is frequently used
in the situation when the speaker sees the addressee performing some continuous
activity, and social convention demands that one should not simply by-pass him
without uttering a word. This is the most
polite form of interrogation and most frequently used.
378. Emhe tshü ah ya?
thing do part inter
‘Working?’
379. Mehre ah ya?
busy part inter
‘Busy?’
(lit. You seem to be very busy,
don’t you)
380. I
pfü wöh dah ya?
your father come part inter
`Did your father arrive?’
(iii) Yes-no Interrogative ni?:
This
particle implies that the speaker has received a reliable information from some
source, but unsure whether it is factual or not. It is also implies that the question is
casual are not very polite.
381. Pu
wöh dah ni?
he
come part inter
‘Has he come?’
382. No
leshíphrü mo ni?
you
study no inter
‘Didn”t you study?’
383. Leshiphrü ah ni?
book read part inter
‘Are you studying?’
(iv)
Yes-no Interrogative mo? :
This
particle indicates doubtful, uncertainty.
384. No
mezhy aa mo?
you
naughty part inter
‘You appear to act mischief, do
you?’
385. No
lesü ah mo?
you ill part inter
‘You appear to be unwell, are you
alright?’
386. No Dilo nö
ah mo?
your name Dilo part inter
‘(I believe) You are Dilo’s son, do
you?’
387. Atsa
hi nü pu yi wöh dah mo?
now
nom he also come part inter
‘(I hope) he has come by now, isn’t
he?’
388 John le
Marynhi körö te dewa mo?
John
and Mary-Dl together go fut inter
`
(I have a feeling) Are John and Mary getting married?’
(v) Yes-no Interrogative níe?
I
This
particle mplies that the speaker presumes something factual and is very near to
clearing the doubt.
389. No melhü ah níe?
you hungry part inter
‘You must be hungry? (I believe)’
390. No
mehre ah nie?
you busy patrt inter
‘You busy (I suppose)?’
391. A zö
wö dah nie?
my mother come part inter
‘Mother has come (I suppose)?’
(vi) Yes-no Interrogative yow?:
This
particle implies that the speaker is in the state of surprise to know or hear about
something.
392. No nü
Mary eh ny ah yow?
you
nom Mary loc love part inter
‘You love Mary, right?’ (I didn’t
know)’
393. John nü cirü eh beh yow?
John nom ten exist
inter
‘John is in Class X (how fast he has scaled up)?’
394. John nü cirü eh beh by lah yow?
only still inter
`John is still in Class ten (I
thought he had crossed that grade0?
(vii) Yes-no Interrogative momi?
This
particle implies that the speaker heard some rumor or senses that something
unusual is happening/ has had happened and is curious to verify the fact.
395. I zö terho mo dah momi
your mother well no part
inter
‘Is your mother unwell ?’ (I hope not)
396. No leshikie eh wöh mo dah momi
you school loc come no part inter
‘Didn’t you go to school?’ (I hope you did)
397. No
tshübo weh ah momí
you
tree cut part inter
‘I hope you are not felling the
tree?’
398. Nye ketry dah momi
I
sin part inter
‘Am I wrong ?’ (I hope not)
(viii) Yes-no
Interrogative leh?
This
particle implies that such a kind is unusual and the speaker is rather
unconvinced.
399. No awe
eh che mo leh?
you me loc know not inter
‘Don’t you know me?’ (I can’t
believe it)
400. Nye
meku ah leh?
I lie
part Inter
‘Am
I telling a lie?’
401. No emhe to mo leh?
you food eat neg int
‘Didn’t you eat food?’
402. Mary wöh dah leh?
Mary come part inter
`Has Mary come?’
3.3.5.3. Concordial Interrogative
Khezha
has two types of interrogative particles that are used in a very polite form.
They can neither be assigned to any of the terminology presently available with
us. The question demands the consent of the addressee. It is neither yes-no
interrogative nor echo-question.
Therefore, I have termed them as “concordial interrogative”, the term I
thought to be the most suitable on the basis of their semantic properties. They
are,
(i) Concordial Interrogative you?
This
particle implies that the speaker invites the addressee to simply agree with
the suggestion being initiated by the speaker.
403. Anhi
mha you?
we go(field) inter
‘Shall we go to the field? Is that
be okay for you?’
404. Hyno hi
puwe eh meto you?
this him
let-eat inter
‘Let him eat this, will that be all
right to you? ‘
405. No mehcy yi awe eh thela hi you?
You lazy also me loc help det inter
‘It may certainly be troublesome for
you, but still shall you help
me
carrying the load?’
(ii) Concordial Interrogative denyou?
This
particle is used to ask the opinion of the addressee whether agreeable or not
to the suggestion. It is asked in a polite way and at the same time indirectly
giving indication that the addressee would not say no to the suggestion or
question.
406. Leshi zü’ awe eh melha zü denyou?
book
det me loc reach with inter
`Shall
you please pass me the book?’
407. No awe eh zomezhe rö rhaka pedi tepu zü
denyou?
you
me loc pity conj rupee four lend with inter
`Will
you please lend me four rupees?’
408 Zomezhe rö a kejó we zü denyou?
pity conj my sin forgive with inter
`Will
be considerate enough to forgive me?’
3.3.5.4.
Echo-Question :
Echo-question
is an interrogation asking for confirmation of previous statement. Khezha has three particles i?, tse?
and she?, which are used in the form of echo-question.
i?
does not demand reiteration of full sentence for the answer of question. It
only requires simple answer I! `Yes!’
sheh? is used when the speaker
did not understand what had been said and wants the addressee to repeat the
statement.
409. Pu nü
leshíkie eh wöh dewa
I nom school to come part
‘He
is going to school.’.
Pu
nü leshíkie eh wöh dewa sheh?
Thus,
we can have the following expressions:
410.
Question: I ze thú she?
your name who inter
`What is your name (What
did you say)?’
411.
Answer: John
412.
Question: John I?
413.
Answer I `yes (John).’
Whenever
the morpheme sheh? is used for questioning, it demands reiteration of
full sentence as in,
414.
Question: Pu nü leshikie eh wöh dewa sheh?
415.
Answer: Ya, pu nü leshikie eh wöh dewa
`Yes, he is going to
school.’
Demonstrative
roots take only sheh?,
416. Daba
sheh?
where int
‘Where did you say?’
(Where?
Where did you say, will you please repeat?)
*Daba I?
417. Diby sheh?
What?
What did you say, will you please repeat?
*Diby I?
418. Dano sheh?
Which(sg)
inter
`Which
one? Please repeat?’
419. Dapa sheh?
which-side
inter
`Which
side? What did you say?
420. John nü London loe pre dewa
John
nom London pp
go-up part
`John
is going to London.’
421. John nü London loe pre dewa sheh?
`John
is going to London?’
(I didn’t hear properly, what did you say?)’
422. John nü London loe pre dewa I?
`John
is going to London?
(That’s what you said?)’
3.3.6. Negative
Negative
(neg) is a grammatical form that expresses a contradiction of fact. The opposite pole of negative is affirmative
or positive. The negative may express a
contradiction of some fact or all the facts in the sentence. For instance, the presence of negative marker
in an action sentence does not mean that an action did not take place, even
when a sentence contains negative marker the action might still be carried
out. However, the negative sentences are
always conditioned by the selection of the negative markers.
Khezha
has various types of negative that give indication about the attitude or
opinion of the speaker, in addition to conveying opinion of negation. At
present, I have no ready-made terminologies under which they may be described.
However, I realized that I cannot do justice to them in my analysis unless they
are categorized since they do not simply negate the fact, but just like in the
case of mood, the negatives in Khezha also show various level of attitude of
the speaker, yet a somewhat different from the nature of mood. The
terminologies I used may seem odd for some of you, but you only have to bear
with me.
(i) Dispirit Negative eha:
The
negative particle eha [éha] indicates inability, impossibility,
immobility, lacking potential to achieve the goal, and so on.
423. Nye
thejah leshikie eh wöh eha
I
tomorrow school pp come neg
‘I will not go to school tomorrow.’
Or
`I can’t go to school tomorrow.’
424 Athiny
mehpö eh emi wöh tö eha
today meeting pp person come all neg
‘All the invitees cannot come to the
meeting today.’
425. Mary nü
leshiprhüh metseh mezo a yi pasüh eha
Mary nom study
less adv conf adv pass neg
‘Mary cannot pass because she
studied too less.’
426. Noele puh throh puh dzü eyi Nye nü kenü
shü eha
You-self
say up say down adv I nom ear thick neg
(Even
if you tell up and down it cannot thicken my ear)
`I will not bother me even if you
keep on repeating.’
427. No
leshiphrü terho lo male kamü ngö eha
You
study high pot subj
job see neg
`You
can’t get job unless you study higher.’
(ii) Negative Imperative Command sa!:
The
negative particle sa! [sá] gives prohibitive command with English
equivalent “don’t”:
428. Tshü sa! `Don’t
do it!’
429. Puh sa! `Don’t
say!’
430. Mezhy sa! `Don’t
be naughty!’
431. Khah sa! `Don’t ask!’
432. Teh sa
diey! shyo no nü teh dah le’
go neg okay conj
you nom go part subj
`I said, don’t go! But you have
left.’
(iii) Negative Imperative Advice sü! And esü!:
The
negative particle sü! [ǘ] indicates advice, counseling with English
equivalent ‘shouldn’t’, mustn’t, can’t’ and so on. When the advice refers to individual or
specific situation, or when the speaker refers himself, the imperative sentence
is closed with confirmative particle a. When it refers in general point of view
the sentence is closed without confirmative particle.
433a. Meku sü a!
‘I shouldn’t tell a lie!’ Or `You
shouldn’t tell a lie!’
Meku
sü! `No one should lie!’
434a. Puwe eh
mehli esü a!
Him
loc trust neg conf
`Can’t
trust him!’ or `Shouldn’t trust him!’
Puwe
eh mehli esü!
`Can’t
ever trust him!’
435a. Gari eh te
sü a!
vehicle gol neg conf
‘Shouldn’t go by vehicle!’
Gari
eh te sü! `No one (of you) should go by vehicle!’
435a. Gari eh te
esü a
‘Can’t go by vehicle.’ (due
to some problem)
Gari eh te sü a!
`Shouldn’t
go by vehicle!’ (it may meet accident)
436. Teh deh sü
diro! shyo no nü
teh by dah le’
go
part neg rep conj you nom go
adv part subj
`Don’t go away! I said, but you
simply went away.’
(iv) Statement Negative mo:
The
statement negative mo `no’ is used to negate the statement. (Sometimes,
mo becomes ma by way of assimilation as, mo+a > ma during natural flow of
speech.)
437. Nye
eja leshíkie eh wöh mo dah
I
yesterday school pp come neg part
‘I had not gone to school
yesterday.’
438. Nye eja
leshikie eh wö mo a (ma)
‘I did not go to school
yesterday’
The
sentence below is not possible,
* Nye eja
leshikie eh wöh ma dah
However,
both sentences in 354 are acceptable as in,
439a. Nye nü i
ze che mo a
I nom your name know
neg part
b. Nye nü i
ze che ma
I
nom your name know neg
‘I don’t know your name.’
440. Mary
heh beh mo a (ma)
Mary here exist neg
‘Mary is not here.’
(iv) Compliant Negative mü:
The compliant negative mü expresses
refusal to comply.
441. Pu nü a
se zü mü a
he nom my word obey neg part
‘He doesn’t obey me.’ Or `He refuses
to obey me.’
442. Pu nü
leshikie eh wöh mü dah
He nom school pp
go neg part
‘He refused to go to school.’
443. Maryi nü
a kie wöh mü a
Mary
nom my house neg part
‘Mary refuses to marry me.’
(v) Slug Negative mehci:
The
slug negative indicates refusal to comply under some constraint such as the
speaker is lazy, lethargic, having no spirit, or simply because his conscience
does not permit him to comply with: The
sentence like,
444a. No awe eh
throhy ley!
you
me loc help part
‘You help me!’
b. Mehci a
neg
part
‘No.’ (I feel lazy)
445a. Anhi mimhe
wu de leh?
We-Dl
person-thing steal will inter
`Shall
we rob someone?’
b. Mehci a
Neg
[art
`No,
(I wouldn’t do that).’
446. Nye
athini leshikie eh wöh
mehci dah
I
today school pp
come neg part
‘I felt lazy to go to school today.’
447. Nye pu se
zü mehci dah
I his word follow neg paert
‘I am fed up of obey him any more.’
(I used to obey him, but never get
any outcome from that, so I
am
now tired to obey him any more)
(vi) Existential Negative whöh
The
particle whöh negates the expression of existential. This has to be treated separately from other
negative markers, because unlike other morphemes, the negative whöh
itself can represent verb phrase in the sentence as in the case of the word, beh
mo (exist no) ‘not have’, ‘absent’, etc. Thus, they are synonymous. As
discussed earlier, the statement negative beh mo can also become beh
ma (mo+a > ma)
448a. Pu nü
keto whöh a
he nom food absent part
b. Pu nü
keto beh mo a
have no part
‘He is poor.’ (lit. He does not have thing to eat)
449a. Pu nü lido
whöh a
b. Pu
nü lido
beh mo a
idea
`He does not have idea.’
450. A prisa
whöh dah
my money lose part
‘My money is lost.’
451. John beh mo a
John
exist neg conf
`John
is absent.’
3.3.7. Adverb
Adverb
(adv) in Khezha are mostly dependent on individual adverbs and in many
instances, they are phrasal construction rather than single lexical item. Unlike the categories of noun and verb,
adverbs in Khezha are a rather mixed lexical class, semantically, morphologically
and syntactically, hence difficult to generalize on the basis of morphological
system alone. Adverbs in Khezha may be
classified into four categories, viz., manner adverb, time adverb, place adverb
and number adverb.
3.3.7.1. Manner
The
main role of manner adverb is modifying either adjective or verb or the whole
chunk of the sentence. In addition to that, they also provide implicatures
(additional meanings that accompany with the core meaning) about the attitude
of the speaker. There are various
lexical elements playing the role of manner adverb. Further, there are also
several onomatopoetic words derived from aping the sound, manner of action and
so on and function as manner adverb. In this section, I have however discussed
only the lexical element other than that are derived from aping of sound,
action, etc. (For onomatopoetic adverb you may refer Section of
Word-formation).
(i) Manner Adverb zho:
The
manner adverb zho, implies surely, certainly, definitely. It often takes
future de `will’;
452. Nye leshikie wöh zho de
I
school come adv will
‘I will definitely go to school.’
453. Athiny
therü zho de
today rain adv
part
‘It definitely will rain today.’
454. No
fel zho de
you fail adv part
‘You will certainly fail.’
455. No fel zho dewa hyi
you
fail adv part adv
`It
appears you are surely going to fail.’
(ii) Manner Adverb ty:
The
manner adverb ty, implies firmly, certainly, surely, adhesively (both
physical and mental as adhesively attached to my mind, or adhesively attached
on the wall);
456 No
meku ty
you
lie adv
‘You surely lie (there is no doubt
about it).’
457. No
wu ty
you
steal adv
‘You have stolen (there is no doubt
about it).’
458. No nü
puwe eh dethru ty
you nom him loc kill adv
‘You surely murdered him (there is
no doubt about it).’
Sometimes,
zho and ty are synonymous as in,
459. No köh zho de
or
No
köh ty de
`You
will surely win.’
460. No we zho de
or
No
we ty de
`You
will certainly good.’
461. No zhí zho de
you
fall adv will
`You
will surely fall.’
But
not,
*No zhí
ty de
462. Tre pimo a
Cry adv part
`Didn’t cry at all.’
(iii) Manner Adverb pimo:
The
manner adverb pimo implies never, not at all (the tone [i] changes to
high and sometimes low).
yi, `also’
mitsü `as you know’.
rhitshü,
`to do or
act with utmost capacity’
463 Meku pimo
lie adv
`Not
lying at all.’ Or `(I) never lie.’
464. Nye athini mhe to pimo
I today food eat adv
`I
didn’t eat food at all today.’
465. Jüh pimo
short
adv.
`Not
short at all.’
466. Trö pimo
White
adv
`Not
white at al.’
(iv) Manner Adverb by
and bi’:
The
manner adverb by implies simply; casually; and bí’ implies as`by
any means’(obligatory). They give contrastive meaning: by is used
indicates optional, while bí’ indicates obligatory.
467. No a loh eh mha by
you
my field in go adv
`You
work in my field only.’ (not in others’ field))
478. No we eh throhy bi’ malesü a
`You
must help me (you have no option).’
479. No terho
bi’ lo malesü a
you
well adv pot. must part
`You
must get well (by any means),
but
not,
*No terho by ló malesü a
(v) Manner Adverb she:
The
manner adverb she implies very, really, truly:
480. I leshi
we she ah
your book good adv part
‘Your book is very good (and it
remains the same)’
481. No we she
you
good adv
`You
are very good.’ Or `You are really good.’
482. Pu rhitshü
she ah
He
adv adv part
‘He is (trying/doing) very hard.’
483. Emi mepö she ah
people
meeting adv part
`There
are lot of people in the meeting’
(lit.
people in the meeting is very)
(vi) Manner Adverb hyi
The
manner adverb hyi implies possibly, viable but uncertain.
484. Ekhuh hy ba wöh a hyi
Tiger
this-side come adv
`(It
appears a tiger came this side.’
485. Metrita tse’ eh dewa hyi
Maize
ripe part fut adv
`(It
appears maize is going to be matured.”
486. Noro mepö ah hyi
You-Pl
meet part adv
`(It
appears) you are having meeting.’
(vii) Manner Adverb toh
The
manner adverb toh implies always, often, regularly and so on.
487. Etseh nü wöh a metrita to toh by rey
Cattle
nom come my maize eat adv adv md
`The
cattle always come and simply eat up my maize.’
488. No nü awe eh ce toh
You
nom me loc tease adv
`You
always tease me.’
489. John nü I nhie beh toh
John
nom you at exist adv
`John
is always with you.’
(viii) Manner Adverb lah
The
manner adverb lah, implies still, recurring again and so on.
490. John nü heh beh lah
John
nom here exist adv
`John
is still here.’
491. John wöh ah lah
John
come part adv
`John
is coming again.’
492. Pastor nü ese puh de eh lah
Pastor
nom word speak will part adv
`Pastor
is going to preach again.’
(ix) Manner Adverb rhitshü
The manner adverb rhitshü implies to do or perform
with utmost capacity, with the best.
493. Rhitshü rö ese puh hi!
Adv subj word tell imp
`Give
the speech with (your) best capacity.’
494. Nye nü rhitshü sonü a nömiro eh keku ah
I nom adv
conj my children loc care part
`I
am taking care of my children with my best capacity.’
495. A kiemi nü rhitshü rö a ny tshü ah
My
wife nom adv conj my like do part
`My
wife is trying her best to make me happy.’
(x) Manner Adverb tsöö
The manner adverb tsöö implies perfectly, smoothly,
nicely, completely to perfection without leaving anything undone as if it has
become slippery and so on.
496. Mary nü era jüthu tsöö dah
Mary
nom cloth wash adv part
`Mary
has washed the cloth nicely.’
497a. Dilo nü lüzo temo phrüh tsöö lo ah
Dilo nom poetry memory read
adv pot part
`Dilo uses to read poetry perfectly
by heart.’
b. Dilo nü nhie tsöö shyerö zhi dah
Dilo
nom step adv conj fall part
`Dilo fell down by slipping off.’
498. Pu nü
ekie metsheh tsöö dah
he nom house clean-adv part
‘He has washed the house very
neatly.’
499. Pu nü
tshü tsöö lo’ ah
he nom do-adv pot part
‘He uses to do nicely.’ (He is
capable to do nicely completely)
(xii) Manner Adverb che’ ~ tö’,
The
manner adverbs che’ and tö’ are synonymous implies complete, utter, whole and
so on.
500. Nye
nü ekie metsheh che’ dah
I nom house clean-adv part
‘I have cleaned the house
completely.’
501. Pu nü tshü che’ lo’ ah
he nom do adv pot part
‘He uses to do completely’
502. Etseh ebo eh lu tö’ dah
Cattle
shed pp enter adv part
`All
the cattle had entered into the shed.’
(xi) Manner Adverb mitsü:
The
manner adverb mitsü implies as `you know it’, `you also saw it” and so
on.
503. Nye nü
ekie metsheh che’ dah mitsü
I
nom house clean-adv part
‘I have cleaned the house completely
(you saw it.’
504. I kiemi nü
rhitshü rö i ny tshü ah mitsü
Your
wife nom adv conj your like do part adv
`You
know, your wife is trying her best to make you happy.’
505. Bill nü Delhi eh throh dewa mitsü
Bill
nom Delhi pp go fut adv
`Bill
is going to Delhi (don’t you know it?)’
3.3.7.2. Temporal
Adverb:
Time
adverbs characterize the entire state/event, and thus bring the entire sentence
under its scope, eg.,
506. Pu nü
ejah lo’ wöh dah
he nom adv since come part
‘He has already come yesterday
itself.’
507. Pu nü
afeh lo’ teh dah
adv since go part
`He
has already gone before.’
508. Nye nü
thejah ìwe eh zü kechü do
I nom adv
you loc with meet will
‘I
will meet you tomorrow.’
509. Nye nü
dunikö heh beh a
I nom adv here exist part
‘I lived here last year.’ (I was
here last year)
3.3.7.3.
Spatial Adverb:
Place
adverb takes the entire sentence under its scope rather than pertaining only to
the verb or verb phrase. Sentence below
show that, although, the nouns at the core of locative constructions are
semantically nouns of location, yet adverbs are the particular construction
that enter syntactically, rather than a particular lexical item.
510. A tepi
nü Delhi ba lo emi mhetho tshü ah
my sister nom Delhi-adv
person work do part
‘My sister is working for someone in
Delhi.’
511. Nye
nü afeh ledie ba lo puwe eh ngö a
I nom adv road-adv from
him loc
see part
‘I saw him in the street before.’
512. Anhi
pu whöpa phu lo tase ketha tshü
dah
we(Dl) his house from talk long
do part
‘We talked at length over there.’
or
‘We had a long discussion from that
place.’
513. A zö nü
ketsü zhiphfo lo’ tsüche tah ah
my mother nom garden adv from
chilly cultivate part
‘My mother is growing chilly at the
corner of the garden.’
3.3.7.4. Number
Adverb:
Number
adverbs are formed by allowing a lexical element we (or va)
`counting of time’ in the preceding position cardinal numerals indicating the
counting of time, eg.,
We kele ‘once’
We kènhi ‘twice’
We ketshü ‘thrice’
We pedi ‘four times’
We sàrü ‘six times’, and so
514. We kele Nye nü puwe eh ngö a
adv one I nom him loc see part
`I saw him once.’
515. Edu we kele ami netho eh etra wöh meeh
long-ago adv one our village loc
famine come report
`It is said that once
there was famine in our village.’
516. Rocü whöno hi we kenhi whöboe we dah
bird that-one det adv
two there wade part
`That bird waded twice
over there.’
517. Rocü whöno hi atsa we kenhi whöboe hi we ah
bird that det now adv two there
det wade part
`That bird wades twice
over there this time.’
518. We ketshü puh hi yi che mo eleh puh pe sa’
by deh
adv three tell imp also
know neg if tell more don’t part
`Don’t tell any more if
(N) does not heed even after telling thrice.’
The number adverb we
can also take dizhe `how-many’ to give information about number of times as in,
519 . No we dizhe leshida hyno hi phrüh ro?
you adv how-many book
this det read inter
`How many times did you
read this book?’
520. Pu we dizhezhe yi meku puh dah ya?
he adv how-many-many
also lie tell part inter
`How many times had he
told a lie?
521. No we dizhe awe eh thröhy dewa ey?
you
adv how-many me loc help part inter
`How
many times are you going to help me?’
3.3.8. Conjunction
The
conjunction conglutinates two or more clauses to form a complex sentence. The difference between conjunction and
subjunctive mood in Khezha is that, the latter plays role in giving expression
about the attitude of the speaker, whereas the primary role for conjunction to
play is conjoining phrases and clauses to form larger chunk of sentence, rather
than providing information about the attitude of the speaker. The conjunction
and subjunctive are, in fact, interrelated and often difficult to demarcate
since in most of the cases, the conjunctive markers also emit out some sort of
opinion or attitude of the speaker
(i) rö ~ sonü conveys the same meaning:
522. Pu nü
mha rö lewöh dah
he
nom go(field) conj return part
or
Pu nü mha sonü
lewöh dah
‘He went to the field and came
back.’
(1. He went to the field. 2. He has
come back.)
523. Pu nü
mhe to rö beh a
food eat conj remain part
‘He is eating food.’
(He eats food and remains eating)
524. Pu nü
Delhi
eh throh ni rö tre ah
Delhi
loc go want conj cry part
‘He is crying because he wants to go
to Delhi.’ (He
wants to go to Delhi.
2. He is crying for that.)
(ii) shyrö ~ erö, implies likewise, in
that manner:
525. Pu nü
awe eh zü leshiphrü de shyrö
puh a
me loc with study will
conj say part
or
Pu nü awe eh zü
leshiphrü de erö puh a
‘He says that he will study with
me.’
526. Pu nü
elekshün loe lu de shyrö
rhü ah
election in enter will conj plan part
‘He is planning to contest in
election.’
(iii) ne’ ~
neshyi ~ nele, implies but, nevertheless, even
though and so on:
527. Pu nü
elekshün loe lu ni ah ne’
mhe whöh a
election pp enter want part conj
poor part
‘He wants to contest in election,
but he is poor.’
528. Pu nü a
pen pfò ah ne’ mheliema
my-pen take
conj nothing
‘He is using my pen, but it is
okay.’
(iv) kedzüdzüémo,
because, for the reason that, due to the fact that:
529. Nye nü
puwe eh mehli ah kedzüdzüemo
pu nü neso le’
I
nom him loc trust part
conj he nom honest subj
‘I trust him because he is honest.’
530 Nye nü leshíphrüh ah kedzüdzüemo
leshiphrü maleh thechy
I nom study
part conj study subj
future
mezhie
eda
suffer part
‘I
am studying because if I don’t I would suffer in future.’
(v) yimoyi,
implying persistency, unyielding such as even if it so:
531 Noele awe eh sekhe yimoyi Nye throh de
you-self me loc stop conj I
go will
`I will go even if you stop me.’
532. John nü leshiphrü yimoyi pasüh eha
John
nom study conj pass neg
`John
can never pass even if he studied.’
533. Nye meníe yimoyi puh nhíe khah de
I shame
conj he at ask
will
`I
will ask him although it is shameful.’
(vi) Conjunction lee’ `and’:
534. Mary lee’ Johnnhi nü teeprümi a
Mary
conj John-Dl nom brother-and –sister part
`John
and Mary are brother and sister.
535. No pen lee’ leshi beh leh? Mo ro?
You
pen conj paper have inter neg inter
`Do
you have paper and pen or not?
536. Ketöyi seso lee’ zhowe ketsüro mi nü rhuh
a
Anyone
honest conj gentle nomz people nom respect part
`People
respect those who are gentle and honest.’
537. Phezhü lee’ muzha pfü lo!
Shoe aconj
sock ccrry imp
`Put
on socks and shoes!’
3.4 Word Formation
Word formation refers to various
processes whereby new words are formed from existing words, or roots by either
compounding two or more basic words or deriving from another class of words.
Khezha word formation system can be
considered as non-inflational language, because even the function words are
isolable in most of the cases. Lexical
words in this language may consist of a root or a root with one or more affixes
and less complex as compared to function words.
A verb may consist of a single syllable length, but a noun needs a
minimum of two-syllable length. It is
therefore, a noun consisting of monosyllabic word always takes a vowel prefix e-
to establish the required phonological weight of syllable; a common typological
feature found among the tone in many other tone languages. Very interestingly, when its root is
compounded with another element, the prefix is either dropped or assimilated to
the adjacent vowel.
Another interesting feature of
Khezha word formation is that, no basic word, either noun or verb, is found
consisting of more than disyllabic length.
Words consisting of more than two syllable lengths are always
isolatable; hence they are either compound words or derived words in some way
or other.
The word formation system of Khezha
may be broadly classified into four categories:
(i) compound word, (ii) derived
word, (iii) reduplication, (iv)
onomatopoetic word.
Compound Word
Compound words in Khezha may be
sub-classified into (i) free morpheme +
free morpheme and (ii) free
morpheme + bound morpheme.
3.4.1.1. Free morpheme
+ free morpheme
Two or more basic words are
compounded to form another class of word.
The compound words of this type may be divided into five
categories: (i) noun + noun,
(ii) noun +
verb, (iii) noun
+ adjective, (iv) verb + verb, and (v)
verb + adjective.
1. Noun
+ Noun
The
N + N may
be divided into two groups: (a) genitival or attributive construction and
(b) coordinate construction.
(a) Genetival or
Attributive Construction:
In
this kind of construction, the preceding noun acts as the head of the
construction and the following constituents as attributive to it, eg.,
a.
ekie ‘house’+ eci ‘horn’> kieci ‘house-horn’
b.
kieci + ekie > kiecikie ‘type of house having house-horn.’
c.
kiecikie+ ena’ ‘material > kiecikie na’ ‘material used for construction
of house-horn’
When a noun consisting of single
syllable is expressed it requires the prefix e- to build up disyllable length
of word, but when it is expressed together with other words the prefix is
deleted as in c above.
In the example (a), the preceding
noun is the head of the construction and the following noun is attricutive to
it. While in the case of the example
(b), both the components kieci coact as the head and the final
component -kie attributive to them. Similarly, in the example (c), all the three
components of kiecikie coact as the head of the construction, while na
acts as genitival attributive to them.
However, in some other cases, a
compound noun may itself act as attributive to another compound noun, eg.,
d.
etshü ‘wood’ + sheh ‘to erect’ > tshüshe ‘pillar’
e.
kiecikie + tshüshe > kiecikie
tshüshe ‘pillar of kiecikie.’
In this case, although, both the
head and attributive are themselves compound words, the preceding word (e) acts
as the head of construction, while the following word attributive to it. Consider some more examples,
ezho ‘bee’ + ejüh ‘water’> zhojü
‘honey’
ejüh + eqa ‘way’
> jüqa ‘water channel’
ekie + ezo ‘beauty’>
kiezo ‘beauty of house.’
ketsü ‘head’ + etheh
‘hair (head)’ > ketsüthe
‘head hair’
emhy ‘feather/body
hair’ +
edoh ‘butt (sump)’ > mhydo ‘root of feather or body.’
leshi ‘paper’ + kephrü
‘reading’+ enö ‘child’
+ emi ‘person’
>
leshkephrünömi ‘student’
(b) Coordinate Construction
:
In
the case of non-genetival construction, both the constituents are themselves
heads of the construction, a hyphen is inserted between them, eg.,
Tethri ‘wind’ + therü
‘rain’ > tethri-therü
‘tempest’
Khöne ‘cook rice’ +
khuwe ‘curry’ > khöne-khuwè ‘food’
(with
both rice and curry)
kiedi ‘prttico’ + kiehu ‘interior area of the house’ >
kiedi-kiehu ‘home’
tadze ‘game’ + tale ‘outing’> tadze-tale ‘outing with friends’
keto ‘eatable’+ keso ‘drink’
> keto-keso
‘food’ (usually used in
the
sense of wealth)
thromi ‘boy’ + lümi ‘girl’ > thromi-lümi ‘youth’
2. Noun
+ Verb :
A noun can be compounded with a verb
to form another noun; while in other cases, a verb is derived by N +
V compound, eg.,
N + V become
N
eloh ‘field’ + chu ‘sow’>
lochu ‘seedling’
emhe ‘material’+ che
‘hear/know’ > mheche
‘knowledge’
ese ‘message’+ kèzhe ‘transmit’ > sezhe ‘rumour’
erah ‘cloth’ + zhu ‘insert’ > razhu
‘shirt’
ebe ‘paddy’ + thu ‘hit’ > bethu
‘uncook rice’
ephe `leg’+ zhü `put on shoes’ > phezhu
`shoes’
N +
V become V
ledie ‘road’+ te ‘go’>
lediete ‘to
walk’
ejüh ‘water’+ de ‘beat’ > jüde ‘swim’
emhe ‘thing’+ tshü ‘do’ > mhetshü
‘to work’
ketsü ‘head’+ tshü > ketsütshü
‘to cut hair’
emhe `thing’ + to ‘eat’ > mheto
‘to dine’
eloh ‘field’ + qa ‘to saw’> loqa ‘to harvest’
leshi ‘paper’ + phrüh
‘read’ > leshiphrü
‘study’
3. Noun
+ Adjective
A
noun can be compounded with an adjective form another noun giving an adjectival
expression, or in some cases adjective,
eg.,
N +
Adj become N
ejüh ‘water’+ meku
‘cool’ > jüku ‘cold water’
echo
‘fresh’+ die‘big’> khödie
‘fish reared from fishery pool’
eli ‘mind’+ sü ‘bad’> lisü
‘dearth/sentiment’
taco ‘ant’ + hah ‘red’>
coha ‘red ant’
taco + tsü ‘black’> cotsü
‘black ant’
lehnü ‘snake’+ mehjo ‘green’ > nüjo ‘a name of green
snake’
N +
Adj > Adj
emhö face’+ wah `bright’> mhöwa ‘polite’
meli ‘heart’ + die ‘big’ >
melidie ‘brave’
ezho’ ‘rule/behaviour’ + we
‘good’ > zhowe ‘mild/gentle’
ezho’ + sü ‘bad’ > zhosü
‘cruel’
eleh ‘pot’+ die ‘big’ > ledie
‘pot that is large’
ekhuh
`tiger’ + die `large’ > khudie
`tiger that is exceptionally big and dangerous’
As
in, ele ledie `big pot’: ekhuh khudie `large and ferocious tiger’
4. Verb
+ Verb :
Two or more verbs consisting of one
syllable length of words can be conjoined to derive another verb,
V +
V become another Verb
le ‘to pour’+ khe ‘to discard’> lekhe
‘discard’
de ‘to fire (gun)’ + weh ‘to shoot at’ > dewe
‘shoot (gun)’
süh ‘to pull’+ wa ‘tear’ > süwa
‘to tear (cloth)
menia ‘to fine’ + to
‘eat’ > meniato ‘to get benefit from getting fine’
de+we+to > deweto ‘to get thing to eat by shooting with gun’
to `eat’ +tsa `disjoin’ > totsha `to interrupt someone’s speech’
In
a few cases, compounding two verbs may derive a noun. This case is very rare,
however.
V +
V become N
do
‘to entangle’ + lhö ‘to remove’> dölhö ‘a king of for spinning thread’
zhoh
‘fly’+ ci ‘kick’ >
zhoci ‘long-jump’
teh
‘run’+ rheh ‘to draw line’ (+ci ‘kick’) >
terhe (+ci) ‘long-jump’
5. Verb
+ Adjective
An adjective can be derived by verb
+ adjective compound :
V +
Adj becomes Adjective
te
‘go’+ we ‘good’> tewe ‘fast’
te
`go’+ thah ‘long’> tetha ‘long journey’
zoh`look’+ we > zowe
‘beautiful’
zoh
+ sü > zosü ‘ugly’
che
‘know/hear’ + reh ‘difficult’ > chere ‘difficult to understand’
3.4.1.2. Free morpheme
+ bound morpheme
In Kheza compound words, there are
many instances that a basic word is compounded with a bound morpheme. The bound morphemes in Khezha can be
distinguished between the one, which occurs with noun and the one, which occur
with verb. The former normally occurs
with a particuar noun in a particular situation, while the latter can occur
with several verbs to give the expression of different meanings.
1. Noun
+ Bound Morpheme
In most of the cases, the bound
morphemes, which occur after noun are unique, in the sense that, they can occur
only in a particular environment. In
other word, these words appear to be single morpheme at first instance, but
they behave as compound words, because they can be segmented into different
elements. Consider a word, lydo ‘idea’.
The identity of the first syllable
of the word above li- is obvious. It
belongs to noun stem èli ‘mind’.
The origin of the following element –do, however, is not traceable, but
it obviously carries its identity of meaning as
-do indicates mental state. In
other word, the word lydo is different from the following:
lytsü ‘power of thinking’
lyshe ‘sensetiveness’
lykhö ‘anger’
lytro ‘temper’
lynhi ‘hesitate’
As in the case of –do, the morphemes
–tsü, -she, -khö, -tro and –nhi are individually unexplainable. Similarly, there are other instances that the
meaning of the following segments below are difficult to explain:
eba ‘arm’ : bashu ‘elbow’
bazhü ‘paw’
batsü ‘finger’
baco ‘wrist’
balí ‘upper arm’
bapfo ‘forearm’
bathrü ‘hand’
ephe ‘leg’ : phezhü ‘foot’
pheco ‘leg between ankle and calf’
phetsü ‘small toe’
phenio ‘thigh’
eleh ‘pot’ : lepra ‘frying pan’
eta’ ‘fodder’ : tazhu ‘fussy in
eating’
tale
‘the urge of eating’
erö ‘health/spirit: rökwe ‘soul’
röta
‘epidemic’
rözü
‘dreaded spirit’
ebö ‘dung’ : bözhü ‘loose motion’
bözü
`sewer’
bökwe
`hard stool (excreta)’
emhe ‘thing’ : mhetho ‘work/job’
lehnü ‘snake’ : nütra ‘a
kind of greenish snake’
nübvo ‘a kind of brownish poisonous snake’
nüvü ‘kind of black and very short poisonous
snake’
2. Verb
+ Bound Morpheme
Unlike bound morphemes which occur
after a particular noun only, the bound morphemes which occur with verbs can
occur after several verbs to give different meanings. For instance, the
morpheme –thru, which implies the meaning ‘cause to become lifeless’ can
occur after different action verbs, eg.,
bo
‘touch’: bothru ‘to kill by touching’ (eg., by evil spirit)
to
‘eat’ :
tothru ‘to kill by eating’ (eg., by bacteria)
meke
‘bite’: mekethru
‘to kill by biting’ (eg., by tiger)
mehha ‘choke’ : mehathru ‘to get killed by choking’ (eg.,
drown)
de
‘beat’: dethru
‘to kill by beating’
In this case, all the preceding
syllables are action erb which give the expression of the manner of
killing. The action expressed by the
verb is governed by a particular agency of causer when they are compounded with
the morpheme –thru. Hence, they may be
illustrated as the following :
causer
> human
action >
beat
dethru > cause to dead
causer >
devil
action >
touch
bothru > cause to dead
causer >
bacteria
action >
eat
tothru > cause to dead
causer >
animal
action >
bite
mekethru > cause to dead
causer >
object in the throat
action >
choke
mèhathru > cause to dead
Examples
below however adverbial rather causative:
tshü ‘do’: tshüthru
‘to exhaust energy completely by working
excessively’
tshüthrö ‘to
assist in work’
tshübo ‘to make half-done’
tshüchü ‘to be lucky by doing at the right moment.
thsübah ‘to do disproportionately’
tshürhah ‘to
do unsystematically’
3.4.2. Derivation
A Khezha word can be derived from
another words either by derivational prefix or by tonal alteration.
3.4.2.1. Words Derived by Derivational Prefixes
Many Khezha nouns are derived from
another class of words by derivational prefixes such as ke-, ta-
and è-. Note that tonal
variations play role in this kind of derivation. Therefore, tones are maked to
show how they function in derivation.
Derivational
Prefix ke-
tè ‘go/run’ : keté ‘race’
rhè ‘to draw’ : kerhé ‘drawing’
we ‘good’ : kewe ‘goodness’
hà ‘red’ : kehá ‘redness’
se ‘to cover’ : kese ‘lid’
khwe ‘wait’ : kekhwe ‘waiter’
lì ‘warm’ : kelí ‘heat’
khà ‘ask’ : kekhá ‘prayer’
rè ‘difficult’ : kerè/keré ‘difficulty’
pù ‘say’ : kepú
‘speech’
Derivational
Prefix ta-
to ‘eat’ : tato ‘way of eating’
te ‘walk’: tate
‘way of walking’
nǜ ‘laugh’: tanü
‘way of laughing’
meníe ‘shy’: tànie
‘shyness’
thelé ‘roam’: tale
‘company with peers’
èse
‘message’: tàse ‘conversation’
Derivational Prefix
è-
te ‘walk’: ète ‘track of animal’
bö ‘to clear excreta’: èbö ‘dung’
zü ‘sleep’: èzü
‘bed/cot’
tu ‘to amass/gather: ètu
‘lump’
chè ‘artful’: èche
‘design’
tshè ‘to loop’ : ètshe ‘loop’
dìe ‘big’ : èdie/èdíe ‘width/breadth’
thà ‘long’: ètha
‘length’
zò ‘to look at’ :
èzo‘look (N)’
3.4.2.2. Word Derived from Tonal Alternation
An interesting feature in Khezha is
that many nouns are derived from verbs or adjectives by simply changing their
tone levels. Khezha, as discussed
earlier, has a disyllabic noun formation system. This may be the reason that, verbs and adjectives
having two syllable length of word do not undergo further expansion of
syllables, but simply alter their tone levels.
Consider the following :
Underlying Form Derived Form
a.
menö ‘to deliver baby’: mènö ‘child delivery’
b.
mewé ‘to grow’ : mèwe
‘growth’
c.
melí ‘heart’ :
mèli ‘faith/believe’
d.
nesó ‘honest’ : nèso ‘honesty’
e.
mejü ‘to lay egg’ : mejü ‘egg’
f.
menhí ‘be powdery’ : menhi ‘powder’
g.
mezü ‘to urinate’ : mezü ‘urine’
h.
pfüwe ‘to fart’ : pfüwe ‘gas of fart’
i.
merü ‘to vomit’ : mèrü ‘object of vomit’
j.
melö ‘to foam’ : mèlö ‘foam’
k.
meke ‘to bite (dog)’ : mèke ‘biting
fight(e.g., dog)’
The
total alternations of the above examples are observed as follows :
(i) examples
a-d : MH > LM
(ii) examples
e-g : MH > MM
(iii) examples h-k : MM > LM
It is observed that the phonological
and morphological representations do not give any clue to a
generalization. Therefore, it may be
tentatively concluded that their variation is due to the semantic content. For examples a-d are abstract nouns, while
examples e-g refer to concrete objects.
Examples h-k appear to refer to
relatively abstract nouns, and not absolutely concrete objects.
3.4.3. Reduplication
Reduplication refers to the
morphological process involving the repetition of any formative element of
word. In Khezha, there are many
instances that, words are either partially or completely repeated or
reduplicated to give an expression of different meaning.
3.4.3.1. Complete Reduplication
For this type of reduplication, the
entire syllable of the word is repeated in the case of monosyllabic words,
while in the case of disyllabic words, the following syllable is repeated by
dropping the initial syllable.
This type of reduplication gives two
different meanings : it implies ‘too much or excessive’ when it is
followed by negative imperative -sá whereas it implies ‘sometimes’ if it is
followed by imperfective aspect –à, eg.,
pù ‘say’: pùpù sá
say-say-imp
‘Don’t
say/speak too much.’
pùpù à
say-say-asp
‘(N) says
sometimes.’
to ‘eat’ : toto sá
eat-eat-imp
‘Don’t eat
too much.’
toto à
eat-eat-asp
‘(N) eats
sometimes.’
tre ‘cry’ : tretre
sá ‘Don’t cry too much.’
tretre à
‘(N) cries sometimes.’
tèci ‘cunning’: técici sá ‘Don’t be so cunning.’
técici à
‘(N) uses to be very cunning sometimes.’
mekú ‘lie’: mekúkú sà ‘Don’t lie too much.’
mekúkú à
‘(N) lies sometimes.’
merú ‘to
rear(animal)’ : merúrú sá ‘Don’t
rear too much.’
pù nü ètsè
merúrú à
he nom cattle rear-rear
part
‘He
sometimes rears cattles.’
Two reduplicated words can also be
conjoined to give the expression of mixture of quality or quantity or state of
confusion, disharmony and so on. They
behave like coordinate construction.
Thus, a hypen (-) is marked between them.
ketháthá-kadiedie
long-long-big-big
‘long and big’
ketháthá-kejüjü
long-long-short-short
‘unequal length’
kadiedie-kecycy
big-big-small-small
‘unequal size’
katrötrö-ketsètsè
many-many-few-few
‘unequal quantity’
kewewe-kèsüsü
good-good-bad-bad
‘unequal quality’
kèprepre-kèlulu
out-out-in-in
disorderly, half-hazard, disharmony,
different opinions, etc.
kètretre-kenünü
cry-cry-laugh-laugh
state of confusion by noise, ups and
downs of life.
3.4.3.2.
Partial Reduplication
Some
of the khezha words are partially reduplicated. These partially reduplicated
words are binary in feature in the sense that both the constituents carry equal
weight of syllables. The preceding
constituents are free morphemes which behave as the head of the construction,
while the following constituents are always bound morphemes which are simply
the element for modifying relationship to the head. The bound morphemes are unique, in the sense
that, their positions are fixed, they cannot be juxtaposed nor do they occur in
any other situation, i.e., they can occur only in one particular
environment. Furthermore, their meanings
are undefinable in all the cases.
However, they always behave as coordinate construction, hence a hypen
(-) is marked between the two constituents:
metshü ‘cause to pain’: metshü-menü ‘torture/infliction’
ketö
‘any’ : ketö-kerè ‘ordinary’, ‘careless’
tethrü
‘amazing’: tethrü-tètre
‘incredible’
methö
‘free of cost’: methö-merè
‘valueless’
meyé
‘famous’ : meyé-melö ‘glorious’ (event that cannot be hidden)
tèci
‘cunning/wicked’: tèci-tèkö ‘wickedness
(adopting various ways to deceive others’
kèhi
‘to demand petulantly’: kèhi-kèza
‘unceasing demand/
prayer’
kedzü
‘excess’ : kedzü-kedo ‘abundant’
thoná
‘minor’ : thoná-thorà ‘very minor (worthless)’
3.3.4. Onamotopoetic Word
Many Khezha words are derived by
aping the sound or feeling of the element referred that is uttered by the
verb. An onomatopoetic word in Khezha
has to be preceded by a verb to give conjuring effect of the verb that
precedes. It is expressed as adverbial expression in either single morpheme or
a complete reduplicated form. When it is
expressed in single morpheme its meaning indicates spontaneous, whereas it
indicates subsequent feeling/sound when it is reduplicated. In most of the cases,
when it is reduplicated it gives effect to adjectival meaning. In such a case,
the reduplicated onomatopoeia stands as a word by itself, eg.,
-trùe
‘feeling or sound of liquid’ :
botrùè
(touch+trùe) ‘feeling/sound of liquid-like form inside when touching’
bo
trùètrùè (touch+truètruè)
nhietrùè (tread+trùè)
nhie
trùètrùè
-thy ‘feeling of softness’ :
bothy (touch + thy)
‘feeling of softness when touching’
bo thythy
zhòthy (fly+thy)
‘fly smoothly softly’
zhò thythy (fly-thythy
‘fly smoothly softly one by one’
-rè ‘feeling
or sound of breaking dry leaves’ :
nhierè (tread+rè)
nhie
rèrè
-trù ‘feeling of subsequent sound, eg., steps’
:
tetrù (walk + trù)
‘sudden subsequent stepping sound of group of
people/animal’
te trùtrù `sound of marching’
tsatrù (fall + trù)
‘sudden subsequent sound of falling, eg., fruits from
the tree’
tsa trùtrù ‘sound of falling one by one’
-nà ‘feeling
of softness and enchaining, entangling’ :
sünà (pull + nà) eg., pulling of rubber
sü nànà (pull + nana)
Some
other Naga languages, Angami for example, has overt morphological
markings for imperfective aspect between habitual and progressive: i. Mithu e nha cü ya (cattle nom
grass eat part) `A cattle eat grass’ (Habitual). ii. Mithu e nha cü ba (cattle nom grass eat part) `A cattle is
eating grass’ (Progressive).
Such distinction is not possible in Khezha, though both
belong to the same language family of Naga group: Etsè ni èprü to aà
(cattle nom grass eat part) `A cattle eats grass’ Or `A cattle is eating grass.’
(Irrealis)
