Rel: relational
| Values: | Cont | NCont | Abs |
Rel is a class of prefixes that combine with certain subclasses of roots. They are no longer productive. Rel=Cont and Rel=NCont occur with nouns, postpositions, and intransitive inactive verbs. They signal, respectively, the adjacency (contiguity) and non-adjacency (non-contiguity) of a head and its dependent, i.e., possessor-noun, object-postposition, and verb-subject. Rel=Abs is limited to nouns. It signals that the noun is used absolutely, i.e., it does not govern a genitive complement.
Cont: contiguous
Contiguity is associated with certain subclasses of nouns, verbs, and postpositions.
Examples
- se ruka “my house”
- ne retama “your city”
- se ruakí “near me”
- se rurí “I’m happy”
- kunhã ruka “the woman’s house”
- paranã ruakí “near the river”
NCont: non-contiguous
Non-contiguity is associated with certain subclasses of nouns, verbs, and postpositions.
Examples
- suka “his/her/its house”
- setama “his/her/its city”
- suakí “near him/her/it”
- surí “He/she/it is happy”
Abs: Absolute
Absolute is associated with certain subclasses of nouns, being phonetically empty (zero alomorph) in some cases.
Examples
- aintá usikí aé tetama suí (O Novo Testamento em nyengatu, Acts 14:19, apud Avila 2021) “they dragged him outside the city”
- Yané kupixawa apekatú uka suí (Hartt, 377, apud Avila 2021) “Our plantation is far from home.”
Rel in other languages: [aqz] [arr] [eme] [gn] [gub] [mpu] [myu] [tpn] [urb] [yrl]