Details

General

Morphemic form: {uŋasik}V
New orthography: ungasippaa, ungasippoq
Old orthography: ungasigpâ, ungasigpoĸ
Sources: [SK71], [CWSL58], [CBBJRPIKJR97]
Combinations: View list
Constituents: {uŋa}N + N{-sik}V
Right sandhi: Assibilation (t⇒s)
Inflection sandhi: Default/none
Stem type: k-stem

Description and behaviour

Form and usage:

The meaning of this stem is 'Actor is distant', in a physical/spatial sense; i.e. there is a great distance between the speaker and the Subject of the sentence. It can also be used in a temporal sense, although this seems less common than the spatial sense.

According to Schultz-Lorentzen [CWSL58], the stem may also be used transitively, i.e. with both a subject and an object, although this usage does not appear to be common. In this case, the meaning is: 'Agent is distant from Patient'. If used intransitively, the Patient role can be specified in the allative case (which is also uncommon). Note in particular that the allative case is used, even though we in English would say 'is distant from something', rather than 'is distant to something'.


Right sandhi:

Right sandhi is inherited from the right-most component, N{-sik}V. See this for details.


Meanings and examples

Usually in a spatial sense, but in some constructions it may instead be used in a temporal sense.

  • Maniitsoq ungasinngilaq, Maniitsoq is not far away [CB96, stk. 5]

    With V{ŋŋit}V.

  • Aamma atuarfimmut pisiniarfimmullu ungasinngilaq, Also, it [a house] is not distant from the school and the store [CB96, stk. 7]

    Notice how the Patient role is here indicated in the allative case with atuarfimmut and pisiniarfimmut.

  • miilitut ungasissigaaq, it is as distant as a mile

    Old orthography: ungasigsigaoĸ, with V{təgə}V. The example illustrates that the true /i/ in the base indeed can cause assibilation of a following /t/ to /s/ by the t-to-s rule.

  • ungasinngitsukkut, recently [CBBJRPIKJR97, Lexicalised phrase.]

    From {uŋasik}V + V{ŋŋit}V + V{ðuq}N + vialis singular N{kkut} to indicate time, so literally '(via) something that is not distant (in time)'.


Search the corpus for further examples.


References