Examples

Meaning

Agent says that Patient Vb

Kalaallisut Translation Notes
apinerarpaa he says it is snowing The 3.sg object is here the 'dummy' object 'it', which refers to the Actor of the underlying, avalent stem apivoq, 'it is snowing'.
tikissimannginnerarpaat they say (that) he has not arrived yet Here 3.sg object 'he' refers to the Actor of the underlying monovalent stem tikippoq, 'he has arrived'.
takunerarpara I said that I saw him From the underlying divalent stem taku-, i.e. takuara, 'I saw him'. Here the Agents coincide and the Patients coincide.
ilinnut takunerarpara I said that he was seen by you A double-transitive construction where the underlying Agent of the stem (Agent1) is different from the Agent of the affix (Agent2), and hence is not specified in the verb ending. Instead, it is added in the allative case (ilinnut).

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