Details

General

Description and behaviour

Form and usage:

The meaning of this affix is 'Subject supposedly Vb'. This can also be interpreted as 'the speaker thinks that Subject (someone else) Vb'.

Kleinschmidt and Schultz-Lorentzen [9, 11] both note that the affix often is combined with V{-qə}V, but used in the same meaning; cf. V{qquuqə}V. This meaning is also similar to several other affixes, especially V{yuknaq}V and V{sima}V (in one of its senses).

Schultz-Lorentzen [11] also mentions a second affix, -rĸôrpâ, i.e. of the same form as the present affix. He does not translate this, but only gives three examples, all involving the verb tusaqqoorpaa:

• erinaa tusaqqoorpara, 'I keep hearing the tune keeps playing in my ear',
• nipit tusaqqoorpara, 'I keep hearing thy voice',
• tusaqqoornarpoq, 'it sounds awful' (maybe: 'it is such that the tune keeps sounding in my ear'?)

In Oqaatsit [14], the word tusaqqoorpaa, tusaqquuivoq is translated as 'he keeps hearing it (imagined)', and this word is obviously derived from tusarpaa, 'he hears it'. Thus, the meaning of this morpheme seems to be something like 'keeps Vb'ing (in an imagined way)'. However, in all of Oqaatsit, tusaqqoorpaa is the only word that contains this morpheme. Thus, what this morpheme is, and whether it is related to the present affix, is entirely unclear. Here, we shall not record this possible second meaning of the present affix.

Meanings and examples