lang patterns 2

relative clause

a term used in describing a language for a specific pattern or patterns where a clause modifies a noun within a noun phrase. The modified noun is called the head. The modifying clause is called the relative clause

accessibility hierarchy for relativation

subject > direct object> indirect object> oblique argument> possessor> object of comparison

resumptive pronouns

a personal pronoun that appears inside a relative clause or wh-dependency to “resume” or restate the sentence’s antecedent

Tense

a grammatical pattern in a language for locating a situation in time.

Aspect

a grammatical system for signaling whether a situation is beginning, continuing, ending, repeating, etc.

a

Na-Dene

B

Algic

C

uto-aztecan

E

Iroquoian

A

Mayan

B

oto-manguean

A

Quechuan

B

Cariban

C

Tupi-Guarani

All the language families in africa

Niger-congo, Nilo-saharan, khoisan, Afro-asiatic, and austronesian

Evidentials

This grammatical pattern describes how the speaker came to believe the proposition

Modality

the phenomenon shows degrees between negative and positive

Past

grammatical aspect/tense that expresses actions or events that occurred before the present moment

perfect

grammatical aspect or tense that expresses a past action or event that has current relevance to the present

perfective

a grammatical aspect or tense that describes an action as complete, single whole

Simple Present

Present progressive (t/a)

simple past

describes actions or events that started and were completed in the past

past event

an action or event that happened and was completed prior to the reference point

present progressive (m)

indicates that an action is on going or unfinished around the reference point

direct causitives

causee has some control over the event

indirect causitives

ex: the nurse made the child eat

applicative

an affix on a verb used to add a benefactive object

Voice

a grammatical device in a language for shifting the perspective of a sentence from, for example, the subject to the direct object

valency

the number of arguments a word takes

transitive verbs

verbs that transmit an action to a direct object

intransitive verbs

verbs that are complete without a direct object

mood

a grammatical pattern in a language for indicating the speech act function of a sentence