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    BIAK Verb Focus

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    Krystel Ballo
    This document summarizes Biak verb morphology and focuses on the use of affixes to indicate: 1. Agent - expressed by pronominal s- 2. Instrument - expressed by prefix k- 3. Beneficiary - expressed by prefix m- 4. Location - expressed by prefix far- 5. Patient - expressed by infix -eve- (passive)

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    BIAK Verb Focus

    Uploaded by

    Krystel Ballo
    38 views3 pages
    This document summarizes Biak verb morphology and focuses on the use of affixes to indicate: 1. Agent - expressed by pronominal s- 2. Instrument - expressed by prefix k- 3. Beneficiary - expressed by prefix m- 4. Location - expressed by prefix far- 5. Patient - expressed by infix -eve- (passive)

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    verb morpohology: biak verb focus

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    This document summarizes Biak verb morphology and focuses on the use of affixes to indicate: 1. Agent - expressed by pronominal s- 2. Instrument - expressed by prefix k- 3. Beneficiary - expressed by prefix m- 4. Location - expressed by prefix far- 5. Patient - expressed by infix -eve- (passive)

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as doc, pdf, or txt
    38 views3 pages

    BIAK Verb Focus

    Uploaded by

    Krystel Ballo
    This document summarizes Biak verb morphology and focuses on the use of affixes to indicate: 1. Agent - expressed by pronominal s- 2. Instrument - expressed by prefix k- 3. Beneficiary - expressed by prefix m- 4. Location - expressed by prefix far- 5. Patient - expressed by infix -eve- (passive)

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    of 3

    BIAK VERB MORPHOLOGY: FOCUS

    Krystel Ballo
    July 19, 2010

    • Verbs are characterized by a combination of syntactic and morphological


    properties.
    • Sentential accent is an important indicator of focus.

    1. Agent

    • Pronominal s- in the example below, s- expresses the agent of the


    predicate mun 'kill.'
    Ex.
    (Snonkakusya) smun inko.
    snonkaku=s-ya s-mun inko
    human.being=3PL.AN-SPC 3PL.AN-kill 1.PL.EX

    'They (the people) will kill us.'

    2. Instrument

    Prefix k- ‘use’

     Is found with both transitive and intransitive verbs.


     It is used to express that the action expressed by the verb is performed
    with the use of an Instrument.

    Ex. i (3sg) + kam ‘hammer’ + k- ‘use’ > ikkam ‘use a hammer to hammer’

    Vín anine dúf kamkamya fa ikkam diwr


    ben anya
    vin an-i-ne d-úf kamkam=ya fa i-k-kam diwr ben
    an-ya
    Female GIV-3SG.SPC-this 3SG-pick.up hammer=3SG.SPC CONS 3SG-use-hammer shatter plate
    GIV-3SG.SPC

    'This woman takes a hammer to use it to hammer and shatter the plate.'

    3. Beneficiary
    Prefix m-

     Are either intransitive verbs or transitive verbs that allow for context-
    independent object elision.

     m-prefixed verbs and corresponding verbal affixes

    m-prefixed (transitive) verb postverb (intransitive)

    muk 'be in two' uk 'in two'


    mkir 'have hole(s)' kir 'make hole(s)'

    Ex.
    Kruvn anine imkir.
    kruvn an-i-ne i- mkir
    cloth GIV-3SG.SPC-this 3SG-have.a.hole

    'This cloth has / gets a hole.'

    4. Location

    Prefix far-
     It forms verbs in which the subject is not the initiator of the event
    expressed by the predicate, but rather affected by it.
     The majority of verbs formed with far- are intransitive. It usually has a
    negative connotation, and may signify iterativity
     Verbs formed with prefix far, expressing negative affectedness of S

    Ex. Far-prefixed (possibly reduplicated) verb


    verbal stem
    farkarar 'break at many places' kar 'break'
    farvya 'swollen at many places' vya r
    'swollen'

    5. Patient

    Infix -eve- (passive)


    Ex. Ankraibon anya vyevepówe.
    ankrai-bon an-ya v<y>eve-pów
    orange-fruit GIV-3SG.SPC <3SG>PAS-peel

    'The orange is being peeled.'

    Reference:
    van den Heuvel, W. (2006). Biak: Description of an Austronesian Language of
    Papua. Netherlands: LOT.
    Retrieved June 24, 2010, from LOT Publications:
    http://www.lotpublications.nl/publish/articles/001950/bookpart.pdf

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