Some Word Formation

There are several productive word formation processes in Tepa. What they all have in common is that they take an existing base and create a new root. In some cases, the category of the base will change; examples are processes which derive nominal roots from verbal bases. In others, the category will not change, but a new root is formed of the same category, such as process which derives causative/benefactive/applicative verb roots from existing verbal bases. In Nominal Derivation I discuss processes which derive nominal roots, and in Verbal Derivation I discuss processes which derive verbal roots. Compounding is another available strategy for word formation. There are three distinguishable types of compounding in Tepa: 1) verb + noun compounding, which I will refer to as "incorporation"; 2) noun + noun compounding, and 3) other compounds, usually noun (or verb) + postposition; compounding is discussed in Compounding.

Nominal Derivation (->N)

In this section I will discuss various ways that a nominal root can be derived from an existing base.

Agent/Patient

To derive an agentive noun from a verb in Tepa, the infix -am- is placed immediately before the first vowel of the verbal base: tepa 'speak' -> tamepa 'speaker'. If the base is vowel-initial, the infix will appear as a prefix: utu 'sing' -> amutu 'singer'. The result is a nominal root, which can be inflected for number and possession as described in Inflectional Morphology of Nouns.

To derive a patient noun (a noun whose referent undergoes the action described by the verb) the same infix -am- is used with the l-grade of the verb: telpa 'speak:L' -> tamelpa 'addressee'.

Instruments

Infixing -un- immediately before the first vowel of a verbal base derives a nominal root denoting the instrument with which the action of the verb is carried out. Again, for vowel-initial verbs, the infix will appear as a prefix. Examples are: tika 'count' -> tunika 'counter, pebble'; pai 'dig' -> punaya 'tool for digging, shovel'.

Abstract Nouns

Abstract nouns can be formed from Tepa verbs in two ways: 1) zero derivation, and 2) -sui suffixation.

zero derivation:

This is the most usual method of forming nouns from verbs. The verb base is simply inflected as a noun; stative verbs are nominalized in this way to describe a person or thing which has the property expressed by the verb stem: qaha 'be big' -> qaha 'one who is big'; sati 'be full' -> sati 'one who is full'. Other examples include tepa 'speak' -> tepa 'speech'; taleka 'hunt' -> taleka 'activity of hunting'.

-sui suffixation

The suffix -sui is attached to the verb base; this is used mostly to denote abstract properties from stative verbs which can be inflected as nouns. Some examples are: qaha 'be big' -> qahasui 'largeness'; naa 'be good' -> naasui 'goodness, virtue'. Nouns formed in this way are always bound in phase.

Verbal Derivation (->V)

In this section I will discuss various ways that a verb root can be derived from an existing base.

Causative/Benefactive/Applicative

The causative/benefactive/applicative construction has the effect of adding an argument to a predicate. For the causative, this means adding another agent; this additional agent is called the "causee" since it is the argument which is compelled or persuaded to carry out the action of the predicate. For the benefactive it means adding an indirect object--someone or something on whose behalf the action is performed. For the applicative, this also means adding an indirect object, usually an instrument by means of which an action is performed. In all three cases, the morphological process is the same; qa"- is prefixed to the verb base. If the verb base begins with a consonant, the consonant is obligatorily geminated (this gemination is reflected in the orthography). This creates a transitive predicate from an intransitive, and a ditransitive predicate from a transitive. When inflecting the derived transitive, the added argument is treated as a direct object and the argument prefixes are used as they would be for an underived transitive or ditransitive:

(1)   le-  qa"- lupa  [leqalluva] <leqallupa>
      2>1- CBA- run
      'You made me run.'

(2)   0-    qa"- tupa yee tiwi  [qattuvayeeciwi] <qattupa yee tiwi>
      3>3'- CBA- fall egg bird
      'The bird made the egg fall.'

However, for the ditransitives, not all of the arguments can be encoded by means of argument prefixes; only the agent of the predicate and the (ultimately) affected argument are considered. This means that for a causative construction like (3), the only a rguments encoded in the prefix are the causer and the patient; the causee is expressed as an object following the verb.

(3)   le-  qa"- kawe suu  [leqakkawesuu] <leqakkawe suu>
      2>1- CBA- bite dog
      'You made the dog bite me.'

When the object is a pronoun, it is attached to the verb as a pronominal clitic. Examples of causative/benefactive/applicative are given below:

(4)   ku-  qa"- kaku  =ma yee  [kuqakka3umayee] <kuqakkakuma yee>
      2>3- CBA- break =1  egg
      'You broke the egg for me.'

(5)   wa-  qa"- kuu ken  [waqakkuukee~] <waqakkuu ken>
      1>3- CBA- hit stone
      'I hit him with a stone.'

(6)   wa-  qa"- uqe  [waqauqe] or [waqa'uqe] <waqauqe>
      1>3- CBA- be.red
      'I turned it red.' (lit: caused it to be red)

"Have" and "Become"

Adding the suffix -pa to a noun X creates a verb meaning 'have X'; the resulting verb is intransitive and is inflected as such. Examples include:

(7)   wa- ken   -pa  [wa3emba] <wakenpa>
      1-  stone -HAVE
      'I have a stone.'

(8)   ne- tawitu -pa  [neDawiDuva] <netawitupa>
      3-  horn   -HAVE
      'S/he has a horn.'

Adding the suffix -na to a noun X creates an intransitive predicate meaning 'become X'; this prefix can also be attached to stative verb roots. Some examples are:

(9)   0- anki -na  ['aqgina] <ankina>
      3- fish -BEC
      'S/he became a fish.'

(10)  wa- aiti   -na  [wa'aiZina] <waaitina>
      1-  mother -BEC
      'I became a mother.'

(11)  0- uqe    -na  ['uqena] <uqena>
      3- be.red -BEC
      'It became red.'

In addition to normal inflection, "have" and "become" verbs can also undergo causativization; such a derivation implies an unwillingness on the part of the argument of the original predicate (where this is semantically sensible):

(12)  ku-  qa"- tawitu -pa  [kuqattawiDuva] <kuqattawitupa>
      2>1- CBA- horn   -HAVE
      'You gave me a horn (but I didn't want it).'

(13)  wa-  qa"- anki -na  neqaa  [waqa'aqginaneqaa] <waqaankina neqaa>
      1>3- CBA- fish -BEC woman:B
      'I turned the woman into a fish (against her will).'

Compounding

Verb + Noun Compounds (Incorporation)

By far the most common type of compounding in Tepa is V+N compounding, also known as incorporation. In Tepa incorporation, the direct object of a verb is attached to the right edge of the verb. This attachment is evidenced by the phonology; lenition will operate on the initial consonant of an incorporated noun, but not on the initial consonant of a noun which simply follows the verb as an object. The incorporated object often has the semantic force of a generic noun, and the valency of the resulting complex verb is reduced by one. This means that a ditransitive verb with an incorporated noun becomes a transitive verb, and that a transitive verb becomes intransitive. Some examples are given below:

(14)  wa- naki + tuku  [wana3iDu3u] <wanakituku>
      1-  eat +  meat
      'I eat meat.' (= 'I am a meat-eater.')

(15)  wa-  naki tuku  [wana3itu3u] <wanaki tuku>
      1>3- eat  meat
      'I eat (some) meat.'

(16)  le-  wewii  +  qase  [lewewiiqase] <lewewiiqase>
      2>1- smear:B + grease
      'You smeared me with grease.'

(17)  ku-  wewii   =ma -kan qase  [kuwewiima3aa~qase]
      2>3- smear:B =1  -on  grease                   <kuwewiimakan 
qase>
      'You smeared grease on me.'

Sentences with -pa 'have' and -na 'become' are treated as if the suffix were itself a verb, and the noun to which it is suffixed an incorporated object which leaves behind any modificational material:

(18)  0- tina  -pa   e=  0- hati  suu
      3- tooth -HAVE SS= 3- sharp dog
      'The dog has sharp teeth.'

      tina-pa [e=hati _] suu
       /|\            |
        |_____________|

Noun + Noun Compounds

Noun + noun compounds are not very common; kinship terms provide the largest number of this type of compound, although other compounds exist:

(19)  pee + paku  [peeva3u] <peepaku>
      skin + tree
      'bark'

Other Compounds

Other types of compounds are rare; for the most part, they are lexicalized noun + postposition or verb + postposition compounds whose meaning is very unpredictable. They are treated as separate lexical items and are not usually analyzed into their constituent parts.

Go back to the introduction.