Details

General


Morphemic form: V{-ðau}V (Combinations)
New orthography: -taavoq, -saavoq, -gaavoq
Proto-eskimoic root:
Constituents: V{-ðaq}N + N{-u}V
Morpheme type: Verbal modifier
Left sandhi: Special (see description)
Right sandhi: None

Description


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:

The first component, V{-ðaq}N, has some very peculiar left-sandhi rules, so see it for examples and explanations.


Verb stem


Right sandhi: Regular
Valency: Valency-reducing
Diathesis: Subjective (intransitive)

Meaning(s)


Meaning Notes
Patient is/was Vb'ed Examples