Clitics: Overview |
Kashaya Grammar |
A clitic is a short grammatical element that "leans" on an adjacent word. Its basic property is that it must be pronounced together with another word in a phrase. The most important examples of clitics in Kashaya are (to use a more technical term) enclitics, which means that they occur after the word to which they are attached. This makes them similar to a suffix, which has to be attached to a root or stem, but the difference is that a clitic is more loosely connected than a suffix is, and there are fewer phonological interactions in the way the stem and clitic are pronounced. Sometimes the status of a clitic is indicated by an equal sign, as in =tol, as opposed to a suffix that is indicated by a hyphen, -do.
Below are some major types of clitics in the language. See also the discussion of pronunciation changes that occur with clitics, as well as the many clitics that are built on the common assertive verb.
These are similar in meaning to English prepositions (on, in, from) except that they occur after ("post") the noun phrase.
Nouns can be marked as plural in several ways. This is usually optional, but to some degree it depends on the context.
The clitic /yac/ occurs in related forms to mark several meanings; without any added material, it is pronouned yaʔ. It can indicate that a person, animal, or thing is acting as an agent, in control of a situation; or that the person is important and deserving of respect. It can also simply indicate one or more individuals that fit some description.
Although some verb forms indicate the negative "not" using the suffix /tʰ/, with other verbs and with non-verbs it's necessary to use a clitic. Its basic form is /tʰin/ but occurs as /ʔtʰin/ when a sonorant consonant /m n l w y/ precedes.
Some meanings that would be expressed in English by an adverb or conjunction correspond to clitics in Kashaya.
Various other grammatical markers are also clitics.
More than one clitic can occur in a row, depending on the desired meaning.
The following examples show how clitics can be added one after another to construct a complicated meaning.