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This page pertains to UD version 2.

UD for Bororo

Tokenization and Word Segmentation

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

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.



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.