AMA about Haneko

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Ossicone
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Re: AMA about Haneko

Post by Ossicone »

Yes. I love conhistory lessons. [:D]
Boehijt
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Re: AMA about Haneko

Post by Boehijt »

How does Haneko deal with modality?

Also, what does it do with aspect and tense?
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Micamo
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Re: AMA about Haneko

Post by Micamo »

Boehijt wrote:How does Haneko deal with modality?

Also, what does it do with aspect and tense?
Initially I decided to ignore this question because I felt I had answered it satisfactorially in my post on verb morphology: However, I realize now I neglected to talk about the contribution of dependent verb roots to aspect, so it's worth talking about.

Haneko allows for the incorporation of some verb roots, which changes the meaning of the predicate:

pito nahinai ahiwako, heke itinei ayakahinawahai ema
pito na-hina-i ahiwa=ko heke itinei ayaka-hina-waha-i ema
run AUX-REM.NWIT-SG.F tree=COLL PROX die-NOM.NMLZ-SG.F sing-REM.NWIT-find-SG.F sad
She ran into the forest, where she mourned until she died. (lit. "found her death by sadly singing repeatedly")

Now, some of these incorporable verbs are in a process of semantic bleaching, where they can be used with their literal meaning, or with a more abstract, adverbial or aspectual meaning:

tipetiyaketewahaka mayake komehira
ti-peti-y-akete-waha-ko-a maya=ke pain-ADVZ:NEG
REFL-leg-cut-ITER-REC.WIT-SG.M axe=INST
He hacked his own leg repeatedly with an axe, feeling no pain.

Here the verb waha "find" takes an iterative meaning: Finding a thing by performing an action means performing that action over and over again until you find what you're looking for. The iterative interpretation bleaches away the search part, leaving only the repeated action.

I don't have a complete list of incorporable verb roots (I'm thinking that it's becoming more productive over time), or a complete list of aspectual/adverbial meanings these roots can have. I sorta just make new ones when I see a need for it. But here's some examples:

wetinake enimania.
wetinake eni-mani-a
alcohol drink-HAB-SG.M
He's always drinking alcohol. (literal: He wakes up to drink alcohol)

yome oyamawaikako.
yome o-yama-w-aika-ko
house 1s.A-make-EPEN-QUICKLY-REC.WIT
I hurried to get the house built. ("aika" literally means "pounce")
My pronouns are <xe> [ziː] / <xym> [zɪm] / <xys> [zɪz]

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