Details

General

Morphemic form: {tunnəjut(ə)}V
New orthography: tunniuppaa, tunniussivoq
Old orthography: túniúpâ, túniússivoĸ
Sources: [14]
Combinations: Click here
Constituents: {tunə}V, V{-(cc)ut(ə)}V,
Right sandhi:
t(ə) sandhi,
Inflection sandhi:
Default/none,
Stem type: t(ə)-stem
Diathesis: Reflexive (BP)
Valency:
Increasing,
Trivalent,
HTR-morphemes: V{ði}V

Description and behaviour

Form and usage:

This is a non-standard combination of {tunə}V and V{-(cc)ut(ə)}V, where the latter has caused gemination of /n/ in the stem.

Note the extra /j/ added after the /ə/ in {tunə}V, because this /ə/ will not change to [a] even though it is followed by /u/ in the construction. Thus, this /j/ is just an artefact of the notation; it will never be written.

The meaning of this stem is 'Agent gives Patient (to someone)'. Thus, the stem is trivalent, like {tunə}V, and with a similar meaning. However, the effect of adding V{-(cc)ut(ə)}V is to switch the focus of the Patient and secondary Object. Agent and Patient are marked in the ending as usual, whereas Object is optional and is indicated in the allative case (-mut, -nut). Hence, in this construction, focus is on the giver and the given thing, thereby giving them a definite meaning, whereas the recipient is defocused, thus giving it an indefinite meaning (an Object). See also {tunə}V for a construction with the opposite focus.


Right sandhi:

Right sandhi is inherited from the right-most component, V{-(cc)ut(ə)}V. See this for details.


Inflection sandhi:

Inflection sandhi is inherited from the right-most component, V{-(cc)ut(ə)}V. See this for details.


Notable forms:

Meanings and examples

Agent and Patient are marked in the ending. The recipient is optional and is indicated in the allative case. According to Kleinschmidt [9], if the stem is used intransitively without a HTR-morpheme, the meaning becomes reflexive: 'Agent gives himself (to something)'.

  • Piitamut tunniuppaa, he gives it to Peter

    Here Peter is the optional recipient, indicated in the allative case.

  • atuagaq Piitamut tunniuppara, I gave the book to Peter