Sentence analysis
| Line | |
|---|---|
| Text: | Nunaqarfinnit assigiinngitsuneersut meeqqat 14-it missaat skolehjemmimi najugaqarput. |
| Translation: | About 14 children from different settlements live in the school dorm. |
| nunaqarfinnit | assigiinngitsuneersut | meeqqat | 14-it | missaat | skolehjemmimi | najugaqarput | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| {nunaqaq}V | V{(v)vik}N | N{ABL.pl} | {accəgiik}V | V{ŋŋit}V | V{ðuq}N | N{ABL.pl} | *{-Vq}V | V{ðuq}N | N{ABS.pl} | {miiraq}N | N{ERG.pl} | {?} | N{ERG.pl} | {mikcə}N | N{ABS.3pl/pl} | {?} | N{LOC.sg} | {najugaqaq}V | V{IND.3pl} |
Comment
The modifier Nunaqarfinnit assigiinngitsuneersut is rather complicated. It should be analysed thus:
- Nunaqarfiit assigiinngitsut, 'different settlements' (plural).
- Nunaqarfinnit assigiinngitsunit, 'from different settlements' (ablative plural).
- Nunaqarfinnit assigiinngitsuneer-, 'are from different settlements' (verbalisation of ablative with *{-Vq}V).
- Nunaqarfinnit assigiinngitsuneersut, 'someones that are from different settlements' (with V{ðuq}N in plural, and with /ð/ ⇒ /t/ by the ð-rule, and then with assibilation of /t/ to /s/ following the [i] sound in the preceding stem).
Note that the verbalisation of the ablative actually has scope over both words, since they belong together, even though it is only added to the last word. We can represent this with brackets:
- [Nunaqarfinnit assigiinngitsune]ersut
The whole phrase is then used as a modifier of meeqqat 14-it, specifying who the 'someones' are, namely the fourteen children. Again, represented with brackets:
- [[Nunaqarfinnit assigiinngitsune]ersut meeqqat 14-it]
This whole noun phrase then acts as the possessor of missaat, 'approximation', so it is in the ergative case (i.e. ergative plural). Thus:
- [[[Nunaqarfinnit assigiinngitsune]ersut meeqqat 14-it].ERG.pl missaat].ABS.pl
This whole noun phrase is the Subject of najugaqarput, 'they live (in ...)', and skolehjemmimi is the location specification, given in the locative case.