Marking of function A on nouns (Northern Mansi)

Neutr: Case alignment is neutral: the functions S, A, and P are not marked morphologically.

AAff: The function A is marked with affixation.

NoAMark:The function A is not explicitly marked, while S, P, or both are marked. A is therefore marked with a zero (∅) morpheme.



(1) āmp sāli kinsi.
dog reindeer look_for.prs.3sg

‘The dog is looking for the reindeer.’ (S. D.)


(2) āmp χājtyγti.

dog run_around.prs.3sg

‘The dog is running around.’ (S. D.)


(3) āmp taj kinsi-te.

dog that.acc look_for-prs.obj.3sg

‘The dog is looking for that.’ (S. D.)


(4) ńawram oma-te-n ti-tta-we.

child mother-3sg-lat eat-caus-prs.pass.3sg

‘The mother is feeding her child.’ (S. D.)


Regarding agent marking in Northern Mansi, active and passive sentences have to be distinguished. In active sentences, the A is marked by a zero morpheme (1), just like the S (2). Nouns do not have accusative suffixes, thus nominal P-s are unmarked (1), and hence their case distribution is neutral (Riese 2001). If the object is expressed by a pronoun, a suppletive form codes the accusative case, so the agent is marked by a zero suffix (3). In passive sentences, the agent takes the -n lative-dative ending (4), which morphologically distinguishes the agent and the patient functions (Riese 2001).

Author: 

Szilvia Németh