cws
Greetings Guest
home > library > journal > view_article
« Back to Articles » Journal
Word Formation and Affixes
0▲ 0 ▼ 0
This public article was written by [Deactivated User], and last updated on 17 Feb 2017, 18:12.

[comments] Menu 1. Nominalizers 2. Forming new nouns by using old ones 3. Verbalizers 4. Adjectivalizers 5. Other affixes
One of the most important parts of Cathilean morphology is to change the part of speech of a word. In this article I will mention most of them and breefly explain how to use them. It should also be mentioned that there are much more going on than just affixation, so check out this article to learn some more about the Cathilean morphophonology.

[top]Nominalizers

Nominalizers are used to turn words into nouns. These are as following:

-o - turns a verb into an uncountable abstract noun. All nouns formed by this ending are third declension nouns.
mèr- (to love) -> mỳro (loving, love)
tanc- (to sing) -> tanco (singing)

-(e) - turns a verb into a countable abstract noun, or the generic object of the verb. the <e> is only used when the verb stem ends in a consonant or consonant cluster that is not allowed at the end of words. All nouns formed by this ending are first declension nouns.
mèr- (to love) -> mèr (love, beloved one)
tanc- (to sing) -> tancque (song)

-r - turns a verb into an animate being that carries out the action. All nouns formed by this ending are second declension nouns.
mèr- (to love) -> mèrr (lover)
tanc- (to sing) -> tancr (singer)

-ell - turns a verb into an object that is used to carry out the action. All nouns formed by this ending are first declension nouns.
menc- (to smell) -> mencquell (nose)
bhaoelm- (to write) -> bhaoelmell (pen)

-ieð - turns the verb into the location where the verb occurs. All nouns fomed by this ending are first declension nouns.
tèr- (to sleep) -> tèrieð (bedroom)
cael- (to learn, to teach) -> caelieð (school)

-u - turns an adjective into an abstract noun. All nouns formed by this ending are fourth declension nouns.
cheaìomh (dark) -> cheaìommu (darkness)
mol (deep) -> molu (depth)

[top]Forming new nouns by using old ones

-ac - turns a noun into another noun that consists of a group af the original noun.
hand (house, home) -> handac (town, village)

-vèr, -aoèr - turns a noun into another noun that represents a more abstract collection or community of the original noun. The first affix is used when the word ends in a vowel, and secon one is used when the word ends in a consonant.
centr (person) -> centraoèr (community)
handac (town, village) -> handaqaoèr (region that consists of a society of towns or villages)
Notable excepiton: If this affix is used on the word hon (tree), it gives the meaning of just a collection, and not a society:
hon (tree) -> honaoèr (forest)

[top]Verbalizers

Verbalizers are used to turn nouns and adjectives into verbs.

- turns a noun or and adjective into a verb that says that something is the noun or adjective, or that someone makes someone else become the noun or adjective.
hon (tree) -> hon- (to be a tree, to make someone become a tree)
taran (red) -> taran- (to be red, to redden)

-av- - Puts a noun into possession of something. I will explain mor in depth how to use this suffix later in the article. This affix and the two next ones are the only instances where object incorporation are allowed, when the verb still is a verb, and not nominalized. If the noun is plural, use the prefix li- (some) instead of the regular ending.
mìra (cat) -> mìreav- (to have a cat)
hon (tree) -> hunav- (to have a tree)

-eþ- - Puts a noun as the location of the subject. If the noun is plural, use the prefix li- (some) instead of the regular ending.
hand (home) -> handeþ- (to be at home)
hoþrmindr (boat) -> hoþrmindreþ- (to be in a boat)

-op- - Makes a noun be something that is created by the subject. It's also used with nominalized sentences to show causatives. If the noun is plural, use the prefix li- (some) instead of the regular ending.
hand (house) ->handop- (to make a house)
nophtonnemh (that I hear, my hearing) -> nophtonnymmop- (to make me hear)

-ad- - Makes it so that the noun is liked. If the noun is plural, use the prefix li- (some) instead of the regular ending.
mìriaegh (cats) -> limìread- (to like cats)
lympo (drinking) -> lympuad- (to like drinking)

[top]Adjectivalizers

Adjectivalizers turn verbs and nouns into adjectives. This is the largest group of PoS-changing affixes.

-igh - turns a noun into a general adjective that associates with the noun, similar to the English -y or -ish.
àþoìdh (water) -> àþoìðigh (watery, wet, thin (used about soups etc.))

-(a)gu - similar to
cunn (friends) -> cquinnagu (friend-like)

-elm - full of
àþoìdh (water) -> àþoìðelm (full of water)

-nor - -less
ðòbh (thing) -> ðòbhnor (empty)

-oð - together with
cunnaegh (friends) -> cunnaighoð (together with friends)

-unn - active participle, used to turn verbs into adjectives that describes that the action is done by the noun it describes when the noun is the agent, the enabler, the experiencer or the theme of the action (AGNAgentive (case)
active or volitional case
, EFFCEffectuative (case)
initiator of chain of actions
, AFFCAffective (case)
experiencer
or OBLOblique (argument)
indirect or demoted object
respectively). It may also be used for the patient (PTNPatientive (case)
passive or nonvolitional case
), however, this can cause some ambiguity.
gàl- (to walk) -> gàlunn (walking)

-ið - passive participle, works like the one above, but for the patient.
þierg- (to die, to kill) -> þierghið (dying, killed)

Auxillaries
Auxillaries in Cathilean are in fact just adjectivalizers that imply additional meanings to the verb. These are then verbalized back for futher conjugation. In other words, they work just like if we said "I am walkable" instead of "I can walk". These are as following:

-et - can, to be able to, -able
nìdh- (to be good) -> nìðet (able to be good)
fòbh- (to see) -> gfòvet (blind, invisible, able to not see)

-eoph - want
ngapht- (to gather) -> ngaphteoph (wanting to gather)

-æc - must, have to
cquieul- (to work) -> cquieulæc (having to work)

-iqoinn - need
tèr (to sleep) -> tèriqoinn (needing sleep)

-aþren - be used to
mìreav- (to have a cat) -> mìreavaþren (used to have a cat)

[top]Other affixes

g- - used on verbs to imply negative, and on adjective to imply the opposite ov what the adjective means. This affix is pronounced /gə/, even if it stands before vowels. This means that it does not trigger lenition if it's placed in front of a front vowel. If you attach this affix to a word that already begins in a velar consonant or an allophone of a velar consonant, it's pronounced /də/.
cònaiobh (still) -> gcònaiobh (not anymore, no longer)
ila (he goes) -> gila (he doesn't go)

caþ- - a prefix that is used for what the old Cathileans found precious and/or associated with themselves.
àren (language) -> caþàren (Cathilean)
navailleon (yellow) -> caþailleon (gold)

-idh - diminutive
hoþr (sea) -> hoþridh (lake)

-ov - augmentative
cimm- (laugh) -> ciummov- (laugh very highly)

Grade prefixes
There are seven grade prefixes. These have different meanings when they are attached to different parts of speech, so here is a table that shows them and how they work:

Nouns SGSingular (number)
one countable entity
Nouns PLPlural (number)
more than one/few
VerbsAdjectives
ai-all of [the/a], [the/an] entireall-entirely
titer-too much of [the/a]too manytoo much, too oftentoo
ter-much of [the/a]manymuch, oftenvery
li-some of [the/a]somesometimes-
mor-a little bit of [the/a]fewa little, not so oftennot so
mumor-too little of [the/a]too fewtoo littletoo little, not ... enough
ao-none of [the/a]no-not ... at all


Comments
privacy | FAQs | rules | statistics | graphs | donate | api (indev)
Viewing CWS in: English | Time now is 29-Mar-24 11:10 | Δt: 945.2181ms