Introduction

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=82 BGCOLOR="#006699" TEXT="#080000" background="0a4fd521erlcgo.jpg"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><B>Dena' ina Language Guide</B></FONT><B>     |     </B><A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Dena ina Language Guide"><U><B>home</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id2.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Region"><U>Region</U></A>   |   <B>Introduction</B>   |   <A HREF="id3.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Syntax and Verb Morphology "><U>Syntax and Verb Morphology </U></A>   |   <A HREF="id45.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Tense"><U>Tense</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id15.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Chart Concept"><U>Chart Concept</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id44.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Answer"><U>Answer</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id43.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Verb Stem Dictionary"><U>Verb Stem Dictionary</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id42.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Verb Stem"><U>Verb Stem</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id41.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Stem Aspect"><U>Stem Aspect</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id40.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Prefix Positions"><U>Prefix Positions</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id39.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Imperfect/Perfect/Future/Progressive"><U>Imperfect/Perfect/Future/Progressive</U></A></div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" width=210 BGCOLOR="#FFCC66" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="0a3d2993.jpg"> <bR> <div> <B> </B><A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Dena ina Language Guide"><U>Dena' ina Language Guide</U></A></div> <div> (Home)</div> <bR> <div> Begin with </div> <div> <A HREF="id3.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Syntax and Verb Morphology "><U>Chart</U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id43.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Verb Stem Dictionary"><U>Verb Stem Dictionary</U></A></div> </td> <td valign="top" height=398 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <I>Introduction</I></div> <div> <B>INTRODUCTION TO DENA'INA VERBS</B></div> <div> (Draft: Please do not reproduce without the author's permission.)</div> <bR> <div> <B>I. INTRODUCTION</B></div> <div> <B>A. Sentence Word Order and Basic Grammatical Sturcture</B></div> <div> The word order of a Dena'ina sentence consists of a subject (a noun), an object (also a noun) </div> <div> and a <U>verb </U>(sov or subject, object, verb).  In Dena'ina you would say </div> <div>       </div> <div>         `Bill home went' while in English you would say `Bill went home.'  </div> <bR> <div> Dena'ina subjects and objects are nouns that can be obtained from Jim Kari's </div> <div> "Dena'ina Noun Dictionary" (dnigi=moose, bejex=caribou etc.),  </div> <bR> <div> Like English verbs, Dena'ina verbs express either action (I <U>shot</U> the moose.) or some condition the subject is in (I <U>am</U> sleepy.)   </div> <bR> <div> In addition to verbal (action related) information, Dena'ina verbs may express many attributes that in English </div> <div> are part of the subject or other grammatical structures (adjectives, adverbs, pronouns, etc.) such as gender, </div> <div> whether an object is round, square, etc., who is talking and who is listening. Unlike nouns, verbs are structurally very complex. </div> <div> They are composed of a stem and up to 19 prefixes each of which is a bound morpheme.   </div> <bR> <div> <B>B. The Concept of a Morpheme</B></div> <div> To understand Dena'ina verbs, you must understand the concept of a <U>morpheme</U>.  </div> <div> Morphemes are one level of the codes of a language and are a sound or set of sounds that convey meaning at a conscious level.   </div> <div> Often a morpheme is a single word.  For example the English word `walk' is a morpheme.  </div> <bR> <div> Since the word can be understood by itself, it is a <U>free morpheme</U>. </div> <div> However, the word `walked' has two morphemes and would be written this way: </div> <bR> <div>      `walk + ed'  </div> <bR> <div> "Walk" is a free morpheme and "ed" is a <U>bound morpheme</U> because "ed" makes no sense by itself. </div> <div> It only conveys meaning when it is attached to a free morpheme.</div> <div> Some words contain several bound morphemes morphemes like `uninterestingly' which would be written</div> <div>      `un + interest + ing + ly.' </div> <bR> <div> Each affix (prefix or suffix) changes the meaning of the root word.  The following English sentences is written as morphemes:</div> <bR> <div>      Sally walked to the store.</div> <div>      Sally + walk + ed + to + the + store.</div> <bR> <div> Dena'ina verbs are largely composed of bound morphemes that are prefixes to a verb stem. </div> <div> Neither the stem or the prefixes make sense by themselves.</div> <div> Only when they are combined in a specific way (the rules of Dena'ina grammar) does the verb make sense.</div> <bR> <div> <B>C. Derivational and Inflectional Morphology</B></div> <div> If the addition of an affix (prefix or suffix) changes the category of the word, the process is called <U>derivational morphology</U>.  </div> <div> If the addition of the affix does not change the category of the word, it is called <U>inflectional morphology</U>. For example, </div> <div> in English to add 'ism' to 'magnet' changes 'magnet' to 'magnetism' yet both are still nouns.  Thus, the addition of "ism" </div> <div> is said to be inflected.  However, to add 'ize' to make 'magnetize' turns the noun into a verb which is a derivational process.</div> <div> Because affixes play such an important role in Dena'ina grammar, the process of inflectional and derivational verb morphology </div> <div> is extremely important in Dena'ina.  These features give the language the basis for its rich nuance of meaning. </div> <bR> <div> <B>D. Dena'ina Verbs and Morphemes</B></div> <div> The Dena'ina verb consists of a <U>stem</U> which must have at least one prefix before it to make a word.  </div> <div> The stem is a morpheme which cannot stand alone (i.e. a bound morpheme).  </div> <div> The prefixes are morphemes which also cannot stand alone (also bound morphemes).   </div> <div> There are 19 prefix positions numbered from right to left before the verb stem like this:</div> <bR> <div>      19, 18, 17, 16, 15, 14, 13, 12, 11, 10, 9, 8 , 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, stem</div> <bR> <div> Note: seldom will a verb have all 19 prefixes.  Most commonly a verb will have 1-5 prefixes.</div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>