Qlarochai Verbs & Alignment
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How Larochaian alignment works.
This public article was written by [Deactivated User], and last updated on 25 Aug 2017, 21:48.
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This article is a work in progress! Check back later in case any changes have occurred.
This article is a work in progress! Check back later in case any changes have occurred.
Qlarochai has an alignment system very close to what is, on Terra, known as Austronesian alignment. It is common to most of Larochai's family.Before getting into exactly what everything means, let's look at the cases and verbal marking paradigms of Qlarochai.
Cases:
| Ergative | Direct | Accusative |
|---|---|---|
| -yo | - | -ku |
Verbal Marking:
| 1 SG | 2 SG | 3 SG | 1 PL | 2 PL | 3 PL | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Intransitive: | -kuv | -li | - | -nga | -`do | -jo |
| Agentive: | -kiv | -dho | -ci | -ngiv | -we | -ma |
| Patientive: | -kl | -lau | -njl | -go | -`du | -ye |
The grammatical explaination of how to use cases with each paradigm is fairly simple, as long as one understands the difference between nominative-accusative and ergative-absolutive systems. Intransitive verbs use the intransitive suffixes, and their subjects take the direct (unmarked) case; transitive (and ditransitive) verbs can take either the agentive or patientive suffixes. If given an agentive suffix, the agent takes the direct and the patient takes the accusative; if given a patientive suffix, the agent takes the ergative and the patient takes the direct. This choice can be used in ways roughly equivalent to the distinction between active and passive voice in English, but unlike with the active-passive distinction neither is more basic than the other, but the choice between agentive and patientive can take on a number of different meanings which are difficult to express in English depending on context.
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