Noun Individual discussion of word classes

44 A GRAMMAR OF THE MUNA LANGUAGE For Muna I propose the following ten word classes, of which several will have subdivisions: 1. Noun 2. Verb 3. Pronoun 4. Numeral 5. Quantifier 6. Adverb 7. Preposition 8. Conjunction 9. Particle 10. Interjection There is a primary division between noun and verb on the one hand and all the other word classes on the other hand. Noun and verb are open classes comprising several thousands of members and continually expanding because of borrowing. The other word classes are all closed classes, the members of which can be listed. Also, nouns and verbs have a wide array of derivational possibilities, whereas derivation is impossible for many of the others quantifier, adverb, preposition, conjunction, particle and interjection or very limited pronoun and numeral. The differences can be shown in the following chart: openclosed derivational possibilities noun open many verb open many pronoun closed few numeral closed few quantifier closed none adverb closed none preposition closed none conjunction closed none particle closed none interjection closed none There is an element of arbitrariness in this classification with respect to the status of class and subclass. Pronouns could also have been considered a subclass of nouns because of their syntactic function, while negators now under adverbs could have been treated as a separate class, as is done by Silzer for Ambai Silzer 1984.

3.3. Individual discussion of word classes

In this section I will give operational definitions for noun and verb and illustrate the other word classes.

3.3.1. Noun

Morphologically, nouns form the basis of the following derivations, among others: a. ka- + reduplication of N diminutive noun 10.2.19 3 WORDS AND WORD CLASSES 45 kabhawo mountain , ka-kabha-kabhawo hill b. ko- + N havepossess N 10.2.21 ana child, ko-ana have a childchildren Syntactically, nouns show the following properties: a. they can be modified by other elements, such as the article o, possessive suffixes and demonstrative pronouns; b. they are negated by suano not; c. they can fill the position after a preposition; d. they can function as subject, direct object and indirect object in a clause. Examples of nouns are lambu house, kampufu youngest child both simple nouns, ka-pindalo desire and ka-lente-ha place of birth both complex nouns. Within the set of nouns a number of subsets can be distinguished, such as: 1. proper nouns names 2. classifying nouns classifiers 3. measure nouns 4. the reflexive-emphatic noun wuto. Nouns are further discussed and illustrated in Chapter 5. The derivational possibilities of nouns are treated in 5.2 and in Chapter 10.

3.3.2. Verb