Alternations of Sliammon
| Alternation name | Coded? | Description | Examples | Verbs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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C
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y | The indirective applicative with -ʔəm or -aʔam is one of two productive applicatives in Sliammon. The indirective suffix followed immediately by the control or the noncontrol transitivizer creates transitive stems in which the object refers to a noncore participant in the corresponding form without the indirective suffix. It creates bivalent transitives from monovalent intransitives, and trivalent transitives from bivalent transitives. The participant indexed as the object is often benefactive, but it can also be malefactive. | 38 | |
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C
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y | The causative -stg transitivizes the stem and adds a new agent argument. Causativized stems generally have the meaning 'cause to act/cause to be' or 'let someone act/let someone (something) be'; that is, the function of the causative transitivizer covers both causative and permission. With some roots, mostly those with (trans-)locational meaning, the causative renders an associative sense, thus meaning, e.g., 'take sth./s.o.' (lit. 'make it go with'), 'bring sth./s.o.' (lit. 'make it come with'). | 17 | |
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C
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y | The relational applicative with -mi is one of two productive applicatives in Sliammon. The relational suffix attaches to monovalent intransitive stems. Such intransitive stems include unsuffixed intransitives and the middle stems. The suffix is in turn followed by the control transitivizer. The transitive stem thus formed with the suffix express that the act denoted by the root is performed in some sort of relation to the participant indexed by the object suffix on the stem. With motion verbs, the object is the goal, and with psych verbs, the object is the entity at which the act is performed or the emotion is felt. | 10 | |
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C
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y | The active-intransitive suffix -ʔəm (-aʔam after clusters of two or more consonants) forms agentive intransitive verbs. The verbs formed with this suffix take oblique objects, and hence they are bivalent intransitives. | 32 | |
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C
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y |
The passive suffix is one of three suffixes which can detransitivize a transitive stem. The others are the reflexive suffix and the reciprocal suffix. None of these suffixes attaches directly to the root but follows one of the transitive suffixes. The passive patient is marked by the object suffixes. The logical agent is demoted and expressed, if at all, by an oblique NP. |
20 | |
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C
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y | The control transitive marker -t is one of four suffixes which mark transitive verbs. These suffixes form verb stems that take an object suffix in addition to a Subject marker. The control transitive, in contrast to the noncontrol transitive, depicts the attempt at the action without implying whether or not the action had a result. | 14 | |
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C
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y | In referring to an act performed on the agent’s own body-part, lexical suffixes that refer to that body-part are attached to the verb root. In such a stem, the middle suffix is used, even with roots to which the middle suffix cannot attach directly. | 4 | |
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U
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n | "Unsuffixed" refers to verb forms that are not suffixed with any of the valency markers. It is equivalent to "bare root". These free forms can appear without any morphological operation. Unsuffixed verbs are of two types, depending on the role of their subject: agentive and non-agentive. The subject of the former type is the agent of the predication, and that of the latter type is the patient or the experiencer. | 18 | |
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C
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y | To express a construction like "X causes Y to Vt P" (Vt=transitive verb ), the transitive verb has to be detransitivized, in this case with the active-intransitive marker. The participants now indexed are the causer and the causee. The third participant, i.e., the logical patient, can only be expressed in an oblique NP. | 32 | |
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C
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y |
The middle suffix -Vm forms verbs that express events and states in which no energy or immediate effect is exerted on another entity: if there is an entity that is affected in some manner, that would be the subject itself. The middle verbs do not take oblique objects, and hence they are monovalent intransitive. With some non-agentive unsuffixed verbs, the middle suffix attains the meaning 'susceptible to ..., easy to ...'. There is a limited number of roots that take an intransitive suffix -Vš. These verbs are apparently all monovalent intransitive, and hence for the purpose of the present study, they are treated together with the middle forms. |
14 | |
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C
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y | combination of relational applicative suffix and passive suffix | 3 | |
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C
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y | combination of middle suffix and indirective suffix | 1 | |
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C
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y | combination of indirective suffix and passive suffix | 1 | |
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C
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y | combination of middle suffix and causative suffix | 5 | |
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C
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y | combination of middle suffix and relational applicative suffix | 1 | |
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C
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y | combination of causative suffix and reflexive suffix | 1 | |
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C
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y | combination of the causative suffix and the active-intransitive suffix | 1 | |
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C
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y | The noncontrol transitive marker is one of four suffixes, which can mark transitive verbs. These suffixes form verb stems that take an object suffix in addition to a subject marker. The noncontrol transitive, in contrast to the control transitive, denotes the action actualized and that (usually) there is a result of the action. | 45 | |
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C
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y | combination of causative suffix and passive suffix | 0 |