89 a. Tabysia-ka-i. sleepy-PERF-he
‘He is sleepy.’ b. Bora-ka-n.
sour-PERF-it ‘It is sour.’
Other than these differences, the structure of a stative verb word is the same as an event verb word. Specific affixes and their ordering may be found in Figure 8. Affixes in the same
order class cannot co-occur. +1
+2 +3
+4 +5
stem -n
-thi -ra
-bo pron
SUB WH.SUBJ
EXPECT CONT
-tho -na
-ka WH.SUBJ
UNEXP PERF
-ja PAST.CONT
-fa FUT
-nbia INCH
-› PAST
Figure 8. Stative Verb Structure The meanings of the verb affixes when they are applied to stative verbs are much the same
as their meanings when applied to event verbs see Figure 7. There are some subtle differ- ences due to the interactions between the tense and aspect components of the suffixes and
the semantics of stative verbs. These differences are discussed in Chapter 5.
90 -n ‘SUB’
subordinate -thi
‘WH.SUBJ’ male subject relativizer
-tho ‘WH.SUBJ’
non-male subject relativizer -ra
‘EXPECT’ expected state
-na ‘UNEXP’
unexpected state -bo
‘CONT’ present state which is intensifying or has duration
-ka ‘PERF’
present state -fa
‘FUT’ future state
-ja ‘PAST.CONT’
past state with duration -
nbia ‘INCH’
an inceptive state -›
‘PAST’ past state
40 Phonology and Morphology
Some examples of clauses with stative verbs using some of the various affixes are as follows: 91 a. Nykamy-ka-i.
sad-PERF-he ‘He is sad.’
b. Hebe-fa-n. full-FUT-it
‘It will be full.’ c. Hebe-bo
to keke.
full-CONT the
basket ‘The basket is now full and getting fuller.’
d. Hebe-bia no.
full-INCH it
‘It is becoming full.’ or ‘It will become full.’ e. Hebe-ra-fa
no. full-EXPECT-FUT
it ‘The basket will be full, of course.’
f. Fonasia-› de.
hungry-PAST I
‘I was hungry.’
2.4.2.2 Derived Stative Verbs
There are several means by which stative verbs may be derived from words in other lexi- cal classes.
2.4.2.2.1 Noun + ka- or ma- Stative verb stems can be derived from simple or derived nouns with the attributive prefixes
ka- ‘attributive to have or be’ and ma- ‘privative to not have or not be’. The stative verb
which results can then receive any of the suffixes normally associated with stative verbs. 92 a. ka-sikoa-n
ATTR-house-SUB ‘to have a house’ i.e. opposite of houseless’
b. Ka-balha-ka-i. ATTR-hair-PERF-he
‘He is hairy.’ c. Ma-balha-ka
no. PRIV-hair-PERF
she ‘She is hairlessbald.’
2.4 Verbs 41
d. ka-polata-n ATTR-money-SUB
‘to be rich’ 2.4.2.2.2 Postpositions as Stative Verbs
Arawak postpositions may be used as two-argument stative verbs.
45
93 a. Bahy loko-ka
no. house
in-PERF it
‘It is in the house.’ b. Hala
diako-fa-i bench
on-FUT-he ‘He will be on the bench.’
Unlike other stative verbs, however, for a postposition to occur as the main verb of a stative sentence, it must receive one of the stative tenseaspect suffixes.
94 Bahy loko
no. house in
it ‘It is in the house.’
When postpositions are used as the main verb of a sentence, the noun phrase preceding the postposition is its object, and the one following is the subject.
46
2.4.3 Other Verbs
There are two other verbs in Arawak which deserve special attention. One of these is a semantically empty verb a which I gloss as ‘dummy’. The other is the copula to ‘is’, used in
equative sentences.
2.4.3.1 The Dummy Verb
The semantically empty dummy verb i.e. pro-verb in Arawak behaves in some ways like the English AUX.
47
It is found in sentences with preposed manner-adverbials or pre- posed verbs with the privative prefix ma- ‘not be, not have.’
95 a. Abare l-a
simaka-n li
d-orebithi. suddenly
he-dummy yell-SUB
the my-brother.in.law
‘Suddenly my brother-in-law yelled.’ 42
Phonology and Morphology
45
See sections on postpositions 2.5, and discussions of stative verb structure 2.4.2.1 and postposition stranding 4.4.4.1, 4.4.4.2 for more details.
46
See sections on stative sentence structure 3.2.3 and relativization of objects of postpositions 4.4.4.1, 4.4.4.2 in support of this claim.
47
See the discussion on dummy verb sentences 3.2.2 where this topic is treated in detail.
