Mocoví Grammar

Page Index

• Introduction
• The Active/Inactive Pronominal System
• The Demonstrative System
• The Verb System
• Follow the digitization path of the Mocoví data

Introduction

Mocoví is a highly inflected SVO language which belongs to the Southern branch of the Waikuruan (Guaycuruan) language family. Its complex morphology shows most prominently in the following systems.

The Active/Inactive Pronominal System

Mocoví has an Active/Inactive pronominal system. It has one set of pronominal clitics for agentive subjects, i.e., an Active set of proclitics, and another set for non-agent subjects and objects, i.e., an Inactive set of proclitics. The set of Inactive proclitics strongly resembles the set of possessive markers on nouns. It also has an Alienable/Inalienable opposition in nouns.

The Demonstrative System

Mocoví has a complex demonstrative system that consists of a set of deictic roots which precede the noun in noun phrases and mark the absence/presence of the noun they modify, as well as motion (coming/going), and position (standing/sitting/lying). These deictic roots can also function as pronominals and as locative adverbs.

The Verb System

Mocoví has a complex verb form with numerous categories expressed as affixes or clitics within that form; these include negation, indefinite agent, person and number, progressive aspect, location and direction, object number, and evidentiality. Mocoví lacks a passive construction, but has an indefinite agent proclitic that occurs within the verb form. It has a set of locative/directional verbal enclitics that express the location and/or direction of the action expressed by the verb.

Mocoví lacks prepositions, but has an oblique marker which introduces oblique noun phrases.

Follow the digitization path of the Mocoví data

1. Get Started Summary of Mocoví conversion
2. Present Text: Stylesheets page (Classroom)
3. Store Text: XML page (Classroom)
4. Encode Text: Unicode page (Classroom)
5. Implement Audio: Audio page (Classroom)
6. Implement Video: Video page (Classroom)

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