Membership of the three verb classes

54 A GRAMMAR OF THE MUNA LANGUAGE 21 ome-buri you are writing 2sR-write 22 de-kadiu 1. we are taking a bath 13pR-bath 2. they are taking a bath ao-verbs : 23 ao-tehi I am afraid 1sR-afraid 24 omo-lowu you are drunk 2sR-drunk 25 no-lolu he is stupid 3sR-stupid

4.4. Membership of the three verb classes

The existence of three verb classes automatically raises the following ques- tion: are there factors which determine or predict to which class a given verb will belong? Phonological conditioning is ruled out. Compare the following three verbs which all have the same initial two phonemes, yet belong to three different classes: 26 a. a-losa I emerge, come through b. ae-lobhi I hit c. ao-lowu I am drunk We have to look in the direction of the syntactic and semantic properties of the verb in order to discover conditioning factors. In the following section a sample inventory for each verb class will be given, using the distinction that was made in Chapter 3 between transitive, dynamic intransitive and stative intransitive verbs. Then follows a discussion of the correlation between the morphological division and the syntactic-semantic division. When only a few examples of a certain category are given, this indicates that there are not many examples of this type. A. Class a- has the following members: 1. dynamic intransitive verbs: dadi live kala go foni go up, climb leni swim futaa laugh linda dance gaa beget married monifi dream horo fly suli go home, return 2. stative intransitive verbs: ambano ashamed kamokula old baru happy kodoho far bughou new mente suprised fanaha warm moito itchy 4 VERBAL INFLECTION 55 3. transitive verbs: fumaa eat foroghu drink B. Class ae- has the following members: 1. transitive verbs: ada borrow ghani hide ala take ghome wash basa read haro sweep buri write kulusi peel dodo cut, slice lengka open 2. dynamic intransitive verbs: dea defecate ghohi tell a lie ghoghora urinate late live, dwell Some of these verbs have a reflexive meaning: kadiu take a bath lembo wallow in the mud 3. stative intransitive verbs: langke high, tall ngkonu round mpau sleepy ware broad C. Class ao- has the following members: 1. stative intransitive verbs: aha thirsty kengku dried up bhee crazy kolo sour bhie heavy maho near dea red meme wet hali difficult rombu fat 2. dynamic intransitive verbs: ghae cry ndawu fall lodo sleep 3. transitive verb: bhalo answer In order to obtain some idea of the correlation between the verb classes and their member verbs I have taken the first 200 verbs of the Muna dictionary file and classified them as belonging to one of the subgroups as specified above. The result is as follows: Class a-: transitive 5 2.5 dynamic intransitive 46 23.0 =33 stative intransitive 15 7.5 56 A GRAMMAR OF THE MUNA LANGUAGE Class ae-: transitive 80 40.0 dynamic intransitive 13 6.5 =48 stative intransitive 3 1.5 Class ao-: transitive 1 0.5 dynamic intransitive 5 2.5 =19 stative intransitive 32 16.0 ____ _____ 200 100.0 A few conclusions can be drawn from this chart. Transitive verbs have a strong preference for the ae-class, whereas dynamic intransitive verbs are usually but not always members of the a-class. Stative intransitive verbs prefer the ao-class, although a fair number of them are also found in the a-class. In other words, there are some strong tendencies that point to the following correlations: class a- dynamic intransitive verbs class ae- transitive verbs class ao- stative intransitive verbs The many exceptions force us to handle this rule rather loosely. The main pattern is clear, but there are many unexpected counterexamples. So far only basic underived verbs have been discussed. Derived verbs also belong to one of the three verb classes. Notice the following points about verb-class membership of derived verbs: 1. Verbal affixes determine the verb class. Examples: a. The causative prefix fo- moves a verb to class ae- see 10.2.6: ao-ndawu I fall ae-fo-ndawu I drop b. The reciprocal prefix po- moves a verb to class a- see 10.2.41: de-lobhi they hit do-po-lobhi they hit each other 2. Reduplicated verbs without other affixes always belong to class ae- see 10.3: a-kala I go ae-kala-kala I walk 3. Verbs derived from nouns through zero-derivation transposition are either ae-verbs or a-verbs see 10.5: bheta sarong ae-bheta I wear a sarong bhose paddle no-bhose he rows a boat 4 VERBAL INFLECTION 57 4. Transposition also occurs between verbs of different classes, in which case there is an unpredictable difference in meaning: ala 1.ae- take 2.ao- popular, in demand asi 1.ae- like, love 2.ao- have pity with, care about lembo 1.a- a. flow b. urinate in bed during sleep 2.ae- wallow in mud-hole buffalo

4.5. Realis and irrealis