4.5.1 Verb Types
As noted above (4.1.4), there is a class of words in Diyari and Dhirari which inflect for tense or mood (see 4.5.4.4) and which may be termed ’verbs'. Verbs may be sub-categorized into two groups, 'main verbs' and 'non-main or Auxiliary verbs'. The criteria for making such a division were mentioned in (4.1.4). They are:
a) Main Verbs may be marked for aspect (4.5.4.2) and
occur in all clause types containing a non-stative predicate (5.1.2).
b) Non-Main (or Auxiliary) Verbs are homophonous with certain other main verb roots (see 4.5.7.2) but are never marked
with any of the stem forming affixes (4.5.4). AUX verbs cannot occur in IMPLicated subordinate clauses (5.2.1). Their morphology is described at 4.5.7 below.
Note that Main Verbs have a lexical (semantic) meaning whereas AUX Verbs have a tense or modal function only (4.5.7). Main Verbs are also sub-categorized for the case roles of the NPs which occur in the clause with them (4.5.3, 5.1.5) whereas AUX Verbs are not.
For purposes of description we will require the following terms defined for both dialects as:
entered in the lexicon1
Stem - a verb stem consists of a verb root followed by one or more of the (optional) stem forming affixes (4.5.4) to which an inflectional affix will be attached (4.5.5). If no stem forming affixes are selected by the speaker then stem and root will coincide.
Word - a verb word consists of a verb stem plus one of the inflectional affixes (4.5.5).
A verb phrase constituent in the Diyari dialect (see 5.1.1.1)
consists of one, two or three main verbs (for sequences of main verbs see 4.5.6) followed (optionally) by one of the non-Main (or AUX) Verbs. The Dhirari dialect is slightly different in that the pufi-AUX is obligatory (see 1.1.4 and 4.5.7.1) and may itself be followed (optionally) by one of the other AUX verbs (4.5.7.2).
4.5.2 Reduplication
Reduplication involves the repetition of the first CV(C)CV of the element to be reduplicated (see 3 04). The reduplication of a verb root has one of two semantic effects:
a) with 'punctual’ verbs it makes the action described iterative, that is, repeated a number of times. Consider the following
1 It may be claimed that verb roots, which always occur suffixed in ordinary speech, nevertheless do have some psychological reality for speakers of Diyari.(Sapir (1949: 46) discusses the concept of "psychological reality" in relation to phonology). Any verb which occurs in one of the corroboree songs (see Appendix B) consists of the (uninflected) root only, suggesting that the notion of a verb root has some motivation outside of a descriptive framework.
examples1:
Reduplicated Root Root
n a n d r a n a n d r a - 'to hit repeatedly, knock about'
n a n d r a - 'to hit, strike'
d a k a d a k a - 'to pierce
repeatedly, to peck'
d a k a - 'to pierce, stab'
k u 1k u k u 1k u q a - 'to jump about repeatedly, jump up and down'
k u 1 k u q a - 'to jump'
with 'process' verbs (Chafe (1970), Lyons (1977: 483)) it makes the action or event described a durative or continuing process extending over some period of time. Some examples are:
Reduplicated Root Root
q a m a q a m a - 'to be sitting
(for some time)'
q a m a - 'to sit'
y a t a y a t a - 'to converse' y a £ a - 'to speak'
n a y i n a y i - 'to watch’ n a y i - 'to see, look'
q a r a q a r a - 'to listen' q a r a - 'to hear, listen
These semantic effects of reduplication tie in closely with the aspectual uses of -Jari- DURative described below (4.5.4.2).
l Roots and uninflected stems are cited with a following hyphen indicating
There are some verb roots which are inherently reduplicated and differ radically in meaning from their unreduplicated counterparts. An inherently reduplicated root cannot be reduplicated by the productive process described above. Some examples of inherently reduplicated roots (together with corresponding unreduplicated roots) are the
following (for ’transitivity' see 4.5.3):
Intransitive
p a 1 i p a 1 i - 'to drown' p a 1 i - 'to die' k u t i k u t i - 'to deny (doing
something)'
k u i i 'to hide'
k u p k a k u Q k a - 'to grunt' k u Q k a - 'to limp'
Transitive
k a r a k a r a - 'to feel' k a f a - 'to tie (up)' d a w a d a w a - 'to prevent1' d a w a - 'to hunt away w a r a w a r a p a - 'to disparage,
run someone down'
w a r a p a - 'to relate (a story)'
There is one pair in the corpus which differ in transitivity:
Transitive Intransitive
kafkakarka- ’to ask (someone), karka- 'to call out,
invite (someone)' shout'
The reduplication of nominal roots is described at 4.2,10 above.
1 This verb takes an IMPLjs complement (5.2.1.6.2) whose subject (S or A NP) is coreferential with the main clause object (0 NP).
4.5.3 Main Verbs
All main verb roots are strictly sub-categorized (Chomsky (1965; 95)) into one of three (mutually exclusive) classes according to their inherent
' transitivity':
a) Intransitive roots which occur in clauses containing an NP in S function (see 5.1) coded as NOMinative or ABSolutive case (4.2.4). Intransitive roots cannot take the stem forming affixes - J a r i -
REFLexive, - m a l i - RECIProcal or - i p a - ALTruistic (see 4.5.4.1.2, 4.5.4.2).
b) Transitive roots which occur in clauses containing an NP in A function (coded as ERGative case (4.2.4)) and one NP marked for 0 function (coded as Accusative or ABSolutive (4.2.4)) as
described at 5.1 below. Transitive roots may form intransitive stems by the addition of various suffixes (4.5.4.1.2).
c) Di-Transitive roots which occur in clauses containing an NP in A function and two NPs marked for 0 function (5.1). The two 0 NPs can, however, be distinguished syntactically as shown at 5.1.9 below. Di-Transitive roots may take the 'de-transitizing' stem forming affixes (4„5.4.1„2)„ There are four Di-Transitive verbs in the corpus:
y i q k i - ' to give something to someone
wandra- 'to show something to someone
Qapt^a- ' to call by a kinship term'
4.5.3.1 Classification of Intransitive Verbs
Intransitive verb roots, as defined above, may be classified into five mutually exclusive groups according to their occurrence with the transitivizing affixes (see 4.5.4.1.1) -Ika-, — ipa1 - and -ma. The five groups (numbered 1 (for intransitive) A to E) have the characteristics set out in Table 23. Notice that no verb root occurs with both the -ma-
transitivizer and either of the other two transitivizing suffixes. This classification is morphological (and syntactic) but we may recognize the following semantic characteristics of each class:
a) Class 1A roots are basically verbs of rest or motion2 which take an'actor'as their S NP (see 5.1.5).
b) Class IB roots are also verbs of rest or motion (see Table 27 ). c) Class 1C roots are a mixed group semantically but all seem to
take a semantic 'experiencer' (Fillmore (1968), Chafe (1970), Foley (1976)) as their S NP. So, for example, we have parawara-
fto be drunk’, punka- ’to grow', pampi- 'to wear a belt' and
parupara- 'to be surprised'.
d) Class ID roots are a very heterogeneous group which seem to share little in common semantically. The S NP for this class ranges from 'actor' with ya£a- 'to speak' to 'experiencer' with wanpi-
1
2
The -ipa- aspectual affix homophonous with this transitivizer cannot be added to intransitive roots as noted above (see also 4.5.4 below).
There are three roots which do not verbs. They are:
seem to be semantically rest or motion
ki para- 'to urinate (on)'
kuna- 'to defecate (on)'
y i n d r a - 'to c ry (for)'