Details

General

Description and behaviour

Form and usage:

This is a combination of passive participle V{-ðaq}N and N{-qaq}V. This combination is one of the ways in which something like indefiniteness may be conveyed in Greenlandic. The 'passive noun' created with V{-ðaq}N, which represents the Patient role of the verbal action, can be incorporated with N{-qaq}V to create a completely indefinite construction, corresponding to 'some/any' in English. The indefinite N (or Ns) may optionally be specified in the instrumental case as a modifier For example:

• takuara, 'I saw it', from {taku}V, 'Agent sees Patient',
• _takusaq, 'something seen', with V{-ðaq}N,
• takusaqarpunga, 'I saw some(one/thing)',
• angutinik takusaqarpunga, 'I saw some men', with angutinik ('men', INST.pl) as defocused, stranded object modifier,
• angutinik takusaqanngilanga, 'I haven't seen any men' with negation affix V{ŋŋit}V,

and so on. Note how the meaning changes from 'some' to 'any' with the addition of the negation affix V{ŋŋit}V. Compare this with

• angutit takuakka, 'I saw the men'

where angutit (ABS.pl) is a direct object, and hence has focus, which signals definiteness in Greenlandic.

Left sandhi:

Left sandhi is inherited from the left-most component, V{-ðaq}N. See this for details.

Meanings and examples