Details

General

Description and behaviour

Form and usage:

The meaning of this stem is 'Agent is (present) with Patient' or 'Agent stays with Patient'. According to Kleinschmidt [SK71], it is usually used to express 'he is with him', but where {aippaq}N + N{-gə}V, 'he goes with/accompanies him', and {ila}N + N{-gə}V, 'he has him in his company' do not fit. Thus, the meaning of this stem seems rather to indicate that the Agent is present with the Patient, maybe to console him or to share a significant moment with him, rather than simply accompanying him on a journey somewhere.

A speciality of this stem is that it has several different HTR-forms, depending on which dictionary is consulted:

• According to Kleinschmidt [SK71] and Oqaatsit [CBBJRPIKJR97], the normal HTR-stem is formed with V{ði}V, i.e. najuivoq, 'he is present (with someone@INS)'. This can be used with the instrumental case in the normal way to indicate the suppressed Patient role.

• Kleinschmidt [SK71] also mentions the alternative form najornippoq, seemingly irregularly formed with V{nnek}V. He translates this as 'he is present with someone', e.g. as an eye-witness, and with this stem, the suppressed Patient can apparently either be indicated in the instrumental or the locative case. However, it is not clear how this meaning is different from the other HTR-construction.

  Furthermore, according to Schultz-Lorentzen [CWSL58], the meanings are actually synonymous and mean 'he is present (to witness) a special occasion'. However, in the Oqaatsit dictionary [CBBJRPIKJR97], this construction has a more specific meaning: 'he witnesses a birth'.

• Lastly, according to Schultz-Lorentzen [CWSL58], the form najorliivoq is synonymous with the two other HTR-constructions and seems to have been formed with two different HTR-morphemes.

When the stem is used intransitively without a HTR-morpheme, the meaning becomes 'he is present' (mentally as well as physically). It seems that this form should be understood as a reflexive construction, 'he is present with himself', since if the stem were agentive, no HTR-morpheme would be necessary to obtain the intransitive meaning. We therefore record the stem here as reflexive.

Notable forms:

• HTR-form: {najuq}V + V{ði}V ⇒ /najui/
  

  This is the usual HTR-form, mentioned both in Kleinschmidt [SK71] and Oqaatsit [CBBJRPIKJR97].

• HTR-form: {najuq}V + V{nnək}V ⇒ /najuqnək/
  

  This HTR-form is only mentioned in Kleinschmidt [SK71] and Schultz-Lorentzen [CWSL58], but seemingly lexicalised with a special meaning. The construction is irregular, and it is not clear why the first /n/ from the HTR-morpheme is not present, and the affix instead has been added onto the stem-final /q/.

• HTR-form: {najuq}V + V{(k)liq}V + V{ði}V ⇒ /najuqlii/
  

  This HTR-form seems to combine two HTR-morphemes. This form is mentioned in Schultz-Lorentzen [CWSL58] as synonymous with the other HTR-forms, but in Oqaatsit [CBBJRPIKJR97] it is given a separate entry, where it is lexicalised with a different meaning: 'he observes a birth'.

• Passive participle: {najuq}V + V{-ðaq}N ⇒ /najugaq/
  

  This formation is regular and has a special, lexicalised meaning: 'address', cf. {najugaq}N.

Meanings and examples

Search the corpus for further examples.

Tags

• Thematic grouping / Uncategorised

References

• [MFSJLK10] Michael Fortescue, Steven Jacobson, Lawrence Kaplan (2010): Comparative Eskimo Dictionary (2ED).
• [SK71] Samuel Kleinschmidt (1871): Den grønlandske Ordbog.
• [CWSL58] C.W. Schultz-Lorentzen (1958): Den Grønlandske Ordbog.
• [JP67] Jonathan Petersen (1967): Ordbogêraĸ.
• [CBBJRPIKJR97] Christian Berthelsen, Birgitte Jakobsen, Robert Petersen, Inge Kleivan & Jørgen Rischel (1997): Oqaatsit.