In
linguistics
Linguistics is the science, scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure ...
, andative and venitive (
abbreviated
An abbreviation (from Latin ''brevis'', meaning ''short'') is a shortened form of a word or phrase, by any method. It may consist of a group of letters or words taken from the full version of the word or phrase; for example, the word ''abbrevia ...
and ) are a type of verbal
deixis: verb forms which indicate 'going' or 'coming' motion, respectively, in reference to a particular location or person. Other terms sometimes seen are itive and ventive, or translocative and cislocative. They generally derive historically from the verbs ''go'' and ''come'' being reduced to
auxiliary verb
An auxiliary verb ( abbreviated ) is a verb that adds functional or grammatical meaning to the clause in which it occurs, so as to express tense, aspect, modality, voice, emphasis, etc. Auxiliary verbs usually accompany an infinitive verb or a ...
s or verbal
affixes, and may in turn be
grammaticalized to
aspectual morphemes. Many languages of
Siberia
Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive region, geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a ...
(such as
Itelmen
The Itelmens ( Itelmen: Итәнмән, russian: Ительмены) are an indigenous ethnic group of the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia. The Itelmen language is distantly related to Chukchi and Koryak, forming the Chukotko-Kamchatkan langu ...
,
Forest Nenets,
Chukchi,
Alyutor
The Alyutors (russian: Алюторцы; self designation: Алутальу, or Alutal'u) are an ethnic group (formerly classified as a subgroup of Koryaks) who lived on the Kamchatka Peninsula and Chukchi Peninsula of the Russian Far East. Today ...
),
California
California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...
,
West Africa
West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of Africa. The United Nations defines Western Africa as the 16 countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, M ...
(such as
Akan Akan may refer to:
People and languages
*Akan people, an ethnic group in Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire
*Akan language, a language spoken by the Akan people
*Kwa languages, a language group which includes Akan
* Central Tano languages, a language group ...
), the
Caucasus
The Caucasus () or Caucasia (), is a region between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, mainly comprising Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia (country), Georgia, and parts of Southern Russia. The Caucasus Mountains, including the Greater Caucasus range ...
-Mideast-North Africa (
Akkadian,
Sumerian), and
Oceania
Oceania (, , ) is a geographical region that includes Australasia, Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. Spanning the Eastern and Western hemispheres, Oceania is estimated to have a land area of and a population of around 44.5 million ...
have such verb forms.
A language with andative and venitive forms may also use them with a verb ''to carry,'' for example, to create the meanings of "bring" (venitive) and "take (away)" (andative).
Lithuanian
The
Lithuanian language
Lithuanian ( ) is an Eastern Baltic language belonging to the Baltic branch of the Indo-European language family. It is the official language of Lithuania and one of the official languages of the European Union. There are about 2.8 mill ...
marks direction towards and away from the deictic centre when movement verbs are used much alike, but even more so, than Slavic languages. This makes up a very important part of Lithuanian grammar, as it is added to many of the most used verbs (movement verbs). In the general sense, the proclitic "at" shows movement towards the listener or the deictic centre and "iš" shows movement from or away from it.
As it can be understood from the examples, the particles "at" and "iš" help Lithuanians specify the relation of the movement intended with the deictic centre. As a result of this, different nuances can be obtained from not using these particles, similar to the feeling provided in English by using "I will go to you" vs "I will come to you".
Several other verbs which can and do use these particles are: eiti (to go by foot), nešti (to carry), skristi (to fly), vairuoti (to pilot, to drive), etc.
Nonetheless, the meanings of these directional particles have widened over time to the point that they bring a different shade of meaning but related to the concept they originally stood for. And this has happened with many other Lithuanian prepositions and prefixes; remarkable is the drift suffered by positional prepositions, which are now also used to express cause in a genuine system which is both complex and unique to the Lithuanian language, and about which comprehensive information can be found at: http://www.lituanus.org/1999/99_1_07.htm.
To provide an example, the meaning of "at" is very likely derived from its Indo-European origin in the particle ''*ád'
meaning "near, at".
As a result of this, this prefix can be used in a derivative way in order to create a new word with a different meaning from an existing word. The meaning of this new word could be more or less similar to that of the original term. Thus, from the verb "pažinti" (to know (as in a person or a fact)), we get "atpažinti" (to tell apart, to know which one it is (from a group)).
Polynesian
Proto-Polynesian language, Proto-Polynesian is reconstructed as having four directional particles used for verbs: venitive ''*mai'', andative ''*atu'', upwards (uphill, inland) ''*hake'', and downwards (downhill, seawards) ''*hifo''.
In the
Tokelauan language
Tokelauan is a Polynesian language spoken in Tokelau and on Swains Island (or Olohega) in American Samoa. It is closely related to Tuvaluan and is related to Samoan and other Polynesian languages. Tokelauan has a co-official status with Englis ...
, the Polynesian venitive and andative particles ' and ' have
evidential
In linguistics, evidentiality is, broadly, the indication of the nature of evidence for a given statement; that is, whether evidence exists for the statement and if so, what kind. An evidential (also verificational or validational) is the particu ...
uses, and are used in aspectual constructions, ' for
continuative aspect
The continuative aspect (abbreviated or ) is a grammatical aspect representing actions that are 'still' happening. English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
P ...
("going on") and ' for
inchoative aspect
Inchoative aspect ( abbreviated or ) is a grammatical aspect, referring to the beginning of a state. It can be found in conservative Indo-European languages such as Latin and Lithuanian, and also in Finnic languages or European derived languages ...
("coming to be").
The
Vanuatu
Vanuatu ( or ; ), officially the Republic of Vanuatu (french: link=no, République de Vanuatu; bi, Ripablik blong Vanuatu), is an island country located in the South Pacific Ocean. The archipelago, which is of volcanic origin, is east of no ...
language
Lenakel
Lenakel is the largest town on the island of Tanna in Vanuatu. It has a population of 1,473.
It is located on the west coast of the island near the administrative capital of Isangel and serves as a major port of entry.
Language
It is the cente ...
has not only a venitive suffix, but also a suffix that indicates that the action is directed towards the person addressed, as well as a neutral suffix that indicates that the action is directed neither towards the speaker nor towards the person addressed.
Sumerian
While the so-called conjugational prefixes of Sumerian have been interpreted in different ways, one of the most common views involves the following analysis:
But:
(*) The prefix ì- has no grammatical or lexical meaning. It is used, because each
finite verb
Traditionally, a finite verb (from la, fīnītus, past participle of to put an end to, bound, limit) is the form "to which number and person appertain", in other words, those inflected for number and person. Verbs were originally said to be ''fin ...
form must have at least one prefix.
The venitive prefix is also frequently used with verbs that do not express a movement:
Currently, sumerologists use the variant term ventive rather than venitive.
Karajá
Karajá
The Karajá, also known as Iny, are an indigenous tribe located in Brazil.[Karaja Indians.]
''Hands Aro ...
, a
Macro-Jê language of central Brazil, is unusual in requiring all verbs to be inflected for direction, whether they semantically imply motion or not.
Two mutually-exclusive directions are marked in Karajá verbal inflection: "centrifugal" (away from the speaker or topic), indicated by the prefix ''d-''; and "centripetal" (toward the speaker or topic), indicated by the prefix ''r-''. Karajá lacks any verbs of inherent (lexical) direction, like e.g. English ''come'' or ''go''; direction marking is entirely dependent on inflection. Examples follow; note that complex
morphophonological
Morphophonology (also morphophonemics or morphonology) is the branch of linguistics that studies the interaction between morphological and phonological or phonetic processes. Its chief focus is the sound changes that take place in morphemes (mi ...
processes often obscure underlying forms, and that in some verbs - e.g. -''lɔ'', "to enter" - the centrifugal direction is unmarked.
Since verbs like ''die'' obviously cannot encode direction as such, the category of "direction" in Karajá includes various conceptually-related distinctions. Verbs marked as centripetal often convey an emotional relevance to the speaker, whereas verbs marked as centrifugal imply detachment (compare the English metaphor of ''emotional distance''). Similarly, imperatives marked as centripetal such as ''bədʊnə̃kɛ'' "sit down!" have a more friendly
hortative
In linguistics, hortative modalities (; abbreviated ) are verbal expressions used by the speaker to encourage or discourage an action. Different hortatives can be used to express greater or lesser intensity, or the speaker's attitude, for or a ...
tone than imperatives marked as centrifugal. Direction marking can also imply a
proximate / obviate distinction, especially in narrative texts, where the most salient character or location is chosen as the deictic centre. It can also convey a certain
evidential
In linguistics, evidentiality is, broadly, the indication of the nature of evidence for a given statement; that is, whether evidence exists for the statement and if so, what kind. An evidential (also verificational or validational) is the particu ...
stance, where progressive verbs marked as centripetal imply that the speaker is a direct witness to an ongoing event: ''nariadɛrɪ'' "he is walking
'm witnessing it, or "look, he's walking".
Notes
References
* Robin Hooper. 2002. "Deixis and aspect: The Tokelauan directional particles ' and ''."'' ''Studies in language'' 26 (2):283–313.
* Edzard, Dietz-Otto: ''A Sumerian Grammar'', Brill Academic Publishers, 2003, .
* Lynch, John: ''A Grammar of Lenakel''. (Pacific Linguistics Series B No. 55) The Australian National University, Canberra 1978.
*Ribeiro, Eduardo Revail: ''A Grammar of Karajá''. University of Chicago, Illinois 2012.
{{Lexical categories, state=collapsed
Verb types