Locus in the verb phrase (Northern Mansi)

VMk: Neither the agent nor the patient is marked, but they are both marked on the verb. (Agreement is shown with both the unmarked agent and the unmarked patient.)  

VDepMk[ONonA]: The patient is marked as such, while the agent is not. Both the unmarked agent and the marked patient are marked on the verb. (Two­way agreement is shown; the agent is unmarked.)


(1) saša nataša erupti-te.
Sasha Natasha love-obj.prs.3sg
‘Sasha loves Natasha.’ (S. D.)


(2) saša tawe erupti-te.
Sasha she.acc love-obj.prs.3sg
’Sasa loves her.’ (S. D.)


In Northern Mansi, the determinate conjugation indicates the person and number of the subject, and the number of the object. If the object is expressed by a personal pronoun, it is morphologically marked and also reflected in the verbal morphology (2). In other cases, the object is unmarked and only the verbal suffix refers to it (1) (Kálmán 1976, Riese 2001).

Author: 

Szilvia Németh