Details

General

Morphemic form: V{-ðau}V
New orthography: -taavoq, -saavoq, -gaavoq
Old orthography: -tauvoĸ, -sauvoĸ, -ssauvoĸ, -gauvoĸ
Combinations: Click here
Constituents: V{-ðaq}N, N{-u}V,
See also: V{-ðakcau}V, V{nəqaq}V,
Left sandhi:
Truncative,
Irregular,
Right sandhi:
Default/none,
Inflection sandhi:
Default/none,
Stem type: Vowel stem
Diathesis: Subjective
Valency change: Decreasing
Valency:
Monovalent,

Description and behaviour

Form and usage:

This affix is formed by a combination of passive participle V{-ðaq}N and copula N{-u}V. This combined affix is used to create a stative passive construction: It only makes sense on divalent stems, and it reduce the valency to yield a monovalent stem.

Stative passive contrasts with dynamic passive, which is expressed with the affix V{nəqaq}V. The stative passive focuses on the state of having been Vb'ed, whereas the dynamic passive focuses on the Patient being Vb'ed. This difference is very clear in Greenlandic, and also in a language like Danish, but unfortunately not in English. It can be illustrated thus:

In stative passive, the meaning is 'is/was', so it denotes a state of being, whilst in dynamic passive the meaning is 'is/gets', which instead denotes a transition to a new state. See the AITWG, chapter 9, for a detailed description of the difference between these two kinds of passive constructions.


Left sandhi:

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


Right sandhi:

Right sandhi is inherited from the right-most component, N{-u}V. See this for details.


Inflection sandhi:

Inflection sandhi is inherited from the right-most component, N{-u}V. See this for details.


Meanings and examples

  • qimmeq toqutaavoq, the dog is/was killed
  • asasaavoq, he is (be)loved

References