Details
General
| Morphemic form: | V{nəqaq}V |
| New orthography: | +neqarpoq |
| Old orthography: | -neĸarpoĸ |
| Combinations: | Click here |
| Constituents: | V{nəq}N, N{-qaq}V, |
| See also: | V{-ðau}V, |
| Left sandhi: | Default,
ə-eliding,
|
| Right sandhi: | Default/none,
|
| Inflection sandhi: | Default/none,
|
| Stem type: | q-stem |
| Diathesis: | Subjective |
| Valency change: | Decreasing |
| Valency: | Monovalent,
|
Description and behaviour
Form and usage:
This affix is formed by a combination of abstract participle V{nəq}N and N{-qaq}V. This combined affix is used to create a dynamic passive construction: It only makes sense on divalent stems, and it reduce the valency to yield a monovalent stem.
Dynamic passive contrasts with stative passive, which is expressed with the affix V{-ðau}V.
The dynamic passive focuses on the Patient being Vb'ed, whereas the stative passive focuses on the state of having been 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:
- 'the dog is/gets killed (by someone)', dynamic passive
- 'the dog is/was killed (so we need a new one)', stative passive
In dynamic passive, the meaning is 'is/gets', so it denotes a transition to a new state, whilst in stative passive the meaning is 'is/was', which instead denotes a state of being. See the AITWG, chapter 9, for a detailed description of the difference between these two kinds of passive constructions.
The characteristic feature of a passive construction is that an Agent role is removed from a divalent verb stem, and the Patient role is promoted to subject.
Consider the examples:
- Piitap qimmeq toquppaa, 'Piitaq kills the dog' (active),
- qimmeq toqunneqarpoq, 'the dog was killed' (passive).
In a passive construction, the Agent is removed, thereby reducing the valency of the stem, and the Patient is promoted to subject of the resulting verb.
In the active construction Piitap qimmeq toquppaa, qimmeq is the direct object, referring to the Patient role.
In the passive construction qimmeq toqunneqarpoq, the dog is promoted to subject, but it is still the Patient of the verbal action (i.e., it still gets killed), whilst the former Agent, Piitaq has been removed.
The underlying Agent can optionally be reintroduced in the ablative case (here with the singular ending N{mət}):
- qimmeq Piitamit toqunneqarpoq, 'the dog was killed by Piitaq'.
By reintroducing the Agent in the ablative case, this information is still included in the sentence, but the focus in the passive construction is still on the dog and the fact that it was killed, compared to the active construction where focus is on both Piitaq and the dog."
Left sandhi:
Left sandhi is inherited from the left-most component, V{nəq}N. See this for details.
Right sandhi:
Right sandhi is inherited from the right-most component, N{-qaq}V. See this for details.
Inflection sandhi:
Inflection sandhi is inherited from the right-most component, N{-qaq}V. See this for details.
Meanings and examples
- qimmeq toqunneqarpoq, the dog is/gets killed
I.e. it transitions from one state (being alive) into a new state (being dead). Compare this with the static passive qimmeq toqutaavoq, 'the dog is/was killed', which instead denotes that the dog is now in a state of having been killed.
- qimmeq Piitamit toqunneqarpoq, the dog was killed by Piitaq
References
- [4] C.W. Schultz-Lorentzen (1958): Den Grønlandske Ordbog.
- [8] Christian Berthelsen, Birgitte Jakobsen, Robert Petersen, Inge Kleivan & Jørgen Rischel (1997): Oqaatsit.