(Meadow Mari)

CpW=6

CpW=6: The maximum of inflectional categories per word value is 6.

(1)tudoə-ne-žtuneməl’e
(s)heNEGDES3SGstudy.CNGAUX
’(s)he wouldn’t have liked to study (T. E.)

(2)tudoə-štunem
(s)heNEG.PST13SGstudy.CNG
‘(s)he was not studying’ (witness past) (T. E.)

(3)tudotunem-enogəl
(s)hestudyPST2.CNGNEG.3SG
‘(s)he was not studying’ (non-witness past) (T. E.)

(4)vuč-en-at,dašə-mtol.
waitPST22SGandNEG.PST11SGcome.CNG.
’You were waiting and I did not come.’ (T. E.)

(5)təjvuč-en-at,daməjtol-ən-am.
youwaitPST22SGandIcomePST21SG
‘You were waiting and I was coming.’ (T. E.)

Meadow Mari verbs can have morphological marking for tense, mood, the number and person of the subject, aspect (4)─(5), evidentiality (2)─(4) (the latter two using different past tense forms) and polarity. Tense and mood cannot both be present on the verb making 6 the maximum number of categories per verb. In example (4) the analytic verb form šəm tol is morphologically marked for the person and number of the subject (-m), polarity made up of the negative verb and the connegative form of the verb, and past tense also showing evidentiality (as opposed to the verb vučenat in the second past form, which can express either witness or non-witness past meanings) and perfective aspect (as opposed to example (5) where the second past form indicates progressive aspect).

Author: Bogáta Timár


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