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In
linguistics Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...
, andative and venitive (
abbreviated An abbreviation () is a shortened form of a word or phrase, by any method including shortening, contraction, initialism (which includes acronym), or crasis. An abbreviation may be a shortened form of a word, usually ended with a trailing per ...
and ) are a type of verbal
deixis In linguistics, deixis () is the use of words or phrases to refer to a particular time (e.g. ''then''), place (e.g. ''here''), or person (e.g. ''you'') relative to the Context (language use), context of the utterance. Deixis exists in all known na ...
: 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 ...
s or verbal
affix In linguistics, an affix is a morpheme that is attached to a word stem to form a new word or word form. The main two categories are Morphological derivation, derivational and inflectional affixes. Derivational affixes, such as ''un-'', ''-ation' ...
es, and may in turn be grammaticalized to aspectual morphemes. Many languages of
Siberia Siberia ( ; , ) is an extensive geographical region comprising all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has formed a part of the sovereign territory of Russia and its predecessor states ...
(such as Itelmen, Forest Nenets, Chukchi, Alyutor),
California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...
,
West Africa West Africa, also known as Western Africa, is the westernmost region of Africa. The United Nations geoscheme for Africa#Western Africa, United Nations defines Western Africa as the 16 countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Gha ...
(such as Akan), the
Caucasus The Caucasus () or Caucasia (), is a region spanning Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is situated between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, comprising parts of Southern Russia, Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan. The Caucasus Mountains, i ...
-Mideast-North Africa ( Akkadian, Sumerian), and
Oceania Oceania ( , ) is a region, geographical region including Australasia, Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. Outside of the English-speaking world, Oceania is generally considered a continent, while Mainland Australia is regarded as its co ...
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 East Baltic languages, East Baltic language belonging to the Baltic languages, Baltic branch of the Indo-European language family. It is the language of Lithuanians and the official language of Lithuania as well as one of t ...
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 historically by the small population of Swains Island (or Olohega) in American Samoa. It is closely related to Tuvaluan and is related to Samoan and other Polynesian languages. Tokel ...
, the Polynesian venitive and andative particles ' and ' have evidential uses, and are used in aspectual constructions, ' for continuative aspect ("going on") and ' for
inchoative aspect Inchoative aspect (list of glossing abbreviations, abbreviated or ), also known as inceptive, 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 lang ...
("coming to be"). The
Vanuatu Vanuatu ( or ; ), officially the Republic of Vanuatu (; ), is an island country in Melanesia located in the South Pacific Ocean. The archipelago, which is of volcanic origin, is east of northern Australia, northeast of New Caledonia, east o ...
language Lenakel 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 A finite verb is a verb that contextually complements a subject, which can be either explicit (like in the English indicative) or implicit (like in null subject languages or the English imperative). A finite transitive verb or a finite intra ...
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, 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 (m ...
processes often obscure underlying forms, and that in some verbs - e.g. -''lɔ'', "to enter" - the centrifugal direction is unmarked.
CTFG:"centrifugal" (away from the speaker or topic) CTPT:"centripetal" (toward the speaker or topic)
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 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 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