UD for Bororo
Tokenization and Word Segmentation
- Bororo uses all 18 UPOS.
- Tokenization and semgmentatoin in Bororo is straightforward. There are no multiwords that require spaces or dashes.
- Words are delimited by whitespace characters. .
- According to typographical rules, many punctuation marks are attached to a neighboring word. These are tokenized as separate tokens (words).
Mapping UPOS to XPOS Bororo
UPOS | XPOS |
---|---|
ADJ | adj |
ADV | adv |
INTJ | intj |
NOUN | n |
PROPN | ppn |
VERB | v, vi, vt |
ADP | pp |
AUX | aux |
CCONJ | cc |
DET | det |
NUM | num |
PART | pcl |
PRON | pron, bi |
SCONJ | sc |
PUNCT | punct |
SYM | sym |
X | x |
Morphology
POS
Bororo POS is a straight forward question if one bear in mind a tyological approach, for example, as in Croft (2022: chap. 2). The basic princple is that either roots function work as predicates or as arguments. Depending on the function, they will appear in a specifi slot and combine with specific morphology. This issue is made simpler if one considers that different types of predication are collapsed in Bororo into a single construction. In the example below, the predication could be takes as possessive or existential.
Imugare
i=muga-re
1.SG=mother=IND
I have a mother/there is my mother/My mother exists
The same with an activity predicate, which could be taken as a possessive or existential predications.
Irekodyre
i=rekody-re
1.SG=run=IND
I ran/there is my running/My running exists
Gender
The gender of nouns in Bororo follow the natural gender of the animate nouns, i.e., males are masculine and females are feminine, but this is not morphologically marked. Inanimate nouns are genderless but morphologically they follow the masculine pattern (in case there are modifiers). Modifiers mark gender (by agreement), but only the feminine singular is marked.
Imedy koadyrewy
imedy koady-re-wy
man single-IND-REL
Single man
Aredy koadyrewydo
aredy koady-re-wy-do
woman single-IND-REL-F
Single woman
Ime koadyrewyge
ime koady-re-wy-ge
men single-IND-REL-PL
Single men
Are koadyrewyge
are koady-re-wy-ge
women single-IND-REL-PL
Single women
Number
There are different ways of forming the plural
of nouns in Bororo: deleting the last syllables of nouns ending in -edu, substituting the last vowel by -e, adding e to the singular form, adding -doge to the stem, adding -ge to nouns ending in -rewy, -wy, -epa, -are. There are also instances of irregular plural forms, ablaut with change of final vowel, and some forms that do not vary in the plural. What all plural forms have in common, is the ending -e of all plural forms.
There are words which have irregular plural forms, bein shorter in the plural that in the singular.
imedy ‘man’ ime ‘men’ aredy ‘woman’ are ‘women’
Tags
Person indexes
Person | Before consonant | Before vowel |
---|---|---|
1S | i- | it-, in-, ik- |
2S | a- | ak- |
3S | ∅, u- | |
3Anaf | tu-, pu- | t-, tud-, pud-, |
1PL.EX | ce- | ced-, cen-, ceg- |
1PL.IN | pa- | pag- |
2PL | ta- | tag- |
3PL | e- | et-, en-, ek- |
3Anaf | tu-, pu- | t-, tud-, pud-, |
The first plural of person indexes distinguish between the values Ex
(exclusive) and In
(inclusive) for the feature Clusivity
- Nouns are either possessed or unpossessed. Possessed nouns are either alienably o inalienably possessed. Inalienably possessed nouns in Bororo are kinship terms, body parts and natural phaenomena.
Iia
i=ia
1SG=mouth
my mouth
Aparo
a=paro
2SG=axe
Your axe
Instruction: Specify any unused tags. Explain what words are tagged as PART. Describe how the AUX-VERB and DET-PRON distinctions are drawn, and specify whether there are (de)verbal forms tagged as ADJ, ADV or NOUN. Include links to language-specific tag definitions if any.
PART is used for a conditional particle ma
, for a focal particle na
Bororo has no copula and no auxiliary verbs.
Features
*
Instruction: Describe inherent and inflectional features for major word classes (at least NOUN and VERB). Describe other noteworthy features. Include links to language-specific feature definitions if any.
Roots fuctioning as predicates may combine with the following sufixes:
Aspect
The progressive aspect
is marked by -nu, which is always followed that the indicative mood
marker -re
bybytynure
bybyte-nu-re
rain-PROG-IND
It is raining
Mood
The indicative mood
(declarative + realis) marker -re is used with any lexical root in predicative functions
ityre
i=ty-re
1.SG=go-IND
I went
Are boe maky
a=re boe ∅-maky
2.SG-IND thing 3.SG-give
You gave something
The subjunctive mood
is marked by -wo.
Padywo
pa=ty-wo
1.PL.IN=go-SUBJ
Let's go!
Status (Tense)
Bororo does not have a tense marker, but the future is expressed by the irrealis status marker -mody followed by the indicative marker, resulting in -mode. The negation intervenes between status and mood.
Imode arego
i=mody-re a=reko
1.SG=IRR-IND 2.SG-run
I will take you
Emodykare
e=mody-ka-re
3.PL=IRR-NEG-IND
The won't go
The reason why -mody cannot be a tense marker is that it is also used with non-future conditional clauses.
Akore akaregodymodyie
∅-ako-re a=aregody-mody-ie
3.SG-speak-IND 2.SG=arrive-IRR-RS
He said you would arrive
Voice
While the active voice
is unmarked, the passive voice
is marked by -dy
Makydyre
maky-dy-re
give-PASS-IND
Was given
Akaiwododyre
a=aiwo-do-dy-re
2.SG-look-CAUS-PASS-IND
I was made to look
The cuasative voice is marked by -do.
ure imaragodydo
u=re i=maragody-do
3.SG=IND 1.SG=work-CAUS
He made me work
Syntax
Bororo is an ergative language. S, A, and O are marked by the same set of bound indexes. But the construction where S and O appear are the same, i.e, they attach to the predicate.
S is always marked by a bound index which carries TMA and negation markers, detached from the predicate.
Imaragodyre
i-maragody=re
1SG-work=IND
I worked
The A argument of transitive verbs is indexed on the mood or aspect marker, and the O argumend is bound to verb.
adygore emage ewido
adygo=re emage e=bito
jaguar=IND they 3.PL=kill
The jaguar killed them
adygore ewido
adygo=re e=bito
jaguar=IND 3.PL=kill
The jaguar killed them
Ure ewido
u=re e=bito
3.SG=IND 3.PL=kill
The jaguar killed them
Note, from the 3 previous examples above, that S as well as O are cliticized to the predicate, only A isn’t. This is the reason why Bororo is considered an ergative language.
In transitive clauses, nothing may intervene between the A argument and the O-predicate slot. Adjuncts follow the predicate and if they are fronted, they are morphologically marked, they have their own mood/illocutionary force.
There is a clear preference for subordinate clauses to precede main clauses, as one would expect from a head-final language, although this is not obbligatory.
- Nonverbal predication distinguish the following semantic types:
Treebanks
There are N Bororo UD treebanks:
Instruction: Treebank-specific pages are generated automatically from the README file in the treebank repository and
from the data in the latest release. Link to the respective *-index.html
page in the treebanks
folder, using the language code
and the treebank code in the file name.