Tumata/Grammar

Tumata is an inflectional agglutinative language. This means that, nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs are inflected to show grammar, but these inflections, as well as derivation, are shown by the addition of affixes. Tumata is nominative-accusative, which means that it uses those two noun cases to signify the subject and the object. Tumata has three numbers and four persons.

_TOC_

Case
There are sixteen inflected cases for nouns.


 * Nominative/Vocative - This denotes the subject or agent of a verb./This names the addressee.


 * Accusative - This denotes the direct object or patient of a verb.


 * Dative - This denotes the indirect object or recipient of a verb.


 * Genitive - This shows relationship and posession.


 * Partitive - This is used for amounts.


 * Instrumental - by means of, with the aid of


 * Benefactive - for, for the benefit of, intended for


 * Causal - because, because of, due to


 * Comitative - in company of, with


 * Privative - lacking, without


 * Locative - location (in/on/at/between/etc.)


 * Lative - motion to (into/onto/to/etc.)


 * Ablative - motion from (from in/from on/from/etc.)


 * Prolative - motion via (by way of, through)


 * Temporal - time (before/during/after/at)


 * Stative - state (into being/while being/from being/as being)

Adjectives
Adjectives are inflected in the same way as nouns, by case and by number. They can also inflect to show comparison in the same way that adverbs do.


 * Sublative - i.e. "Least fast."


 * Negative - i.e. "Less fast."


 * Positive - i.e. "Fast."


 * Comparative - i.e. "Faster"


 * Superlative - i.e. "Fastest"

Tense
There are five inflected tenses for verbs.


 * Past - An action which happened in the past


 * Recentive - An action which just took place


 * Present - An action which is happening or happens


 * Prospective - An action which is about to take place


 * Future - An action which will take place in the future

Aspect
There are five inflected aspects for verbs.


 * Telic - An action which is complete


 * Atelic - An action which is incomplete


 * Progressive - An action which is in progress


 * Frequentative - An action which is repeated


 * Momentane - An action which is single or short lived

Mood
There are nine inflected moods for verbs.

Realis Moods: 
 * Indicative - A statement of fact.


 * Generic - A generic statement of fact. The difference between this and the indicative is the difference between saying "A/The rabit is fast" as opposed to "Rabits are fast"

Irrealis Moods: 
 * Energetic - A statement which the speaker strongly believes or wishes to emphasize.
 * Dubitative - A statement which the speaker doubts, or of which the speaker is uncertain.


 * Potential - A statement which the speaker considers likely or probable.


 * Conditional - A statement whose realization is dependent upon another condition.


 * Desiderative - A statement which expresses the speaker's wishes or desires.


 * Imperative - A statement expressing direct commands, requests, and prohibitions.


 * Interrogative - A yes or no question.

Causativity

 * Anticausative - Forces an object to lose its subject (i.e. The vase broke vs. John broke the vase. The first is an anticausative)

Polarity

 * Negative - Expresses the fact that the verb is not taking place.

Number

 * Singular - One


 * Dual - Two


 * Plural - More than two

Person

 * First Person - I/We


 * Second Person - You/You


 * Third Person - He/She/It/They


 * Fourth Person- One (It is also used to form passive-voice-like statements)

Adverbs
Adverbs inflect to show comparison in the same way that adjectives do.


 * Sublative - i.e. "Least quickly."


 * Negative - i.e. "Less quickly."


 * Positive - i.e. "Quickly."


 * Comparative - i.e. "More quickly."
 * Superlative - i.e. "Most quickly."