10 - Derivation and compounding

Summary

Nominal derivational devices in Tariana fall into the following groups:

1. (a) productive derivational suffixes – see §10.1;

2. (b) semi-productive and non-productive derivational suffixes – see §10.2;

3. (c) deverbal nominalising suffixes – see §10.3;

4. (d) noun classifiers as derivational devices – see §5.1.3 and §10.4.

Compounding is considered in §10.5. Derivational functions of ka- ‘relative, attributive’ and ma- ‘negative’ are discussed in §17.4.

Productive derivational suffixes

Two productive derivational suffixes, -peɾi ‘old:MASCULlNE’ and -peɾu Old:FEMININE’, occur only on nouns with human referents which often also contain a gender sensitive suffix (see §10.2) or a classifier, thus creating a curious situation whereby gender is marked on the head noun more than once, e.g. di-whe-ɾi-peɾi (3sgnf-grandparent-MASC-OLD:MASC) ‘his old grandfather’; na:ka-peɾu (mother-OLD:FEM) ‘old mother’, mawaɾi-sa-do-peɾu (snake+INDF-spouse-FEM-OLD:FEM) ‘the old wife of a snake’, pedalia-ma-peɾu (old-CL:FEM-OLD:FEM) ‘an old adult woman’. Unlike any other suffixes, these suffixes can occur on vocative forms of kinship nouns, e.g. nuitõ-peɾu (daughter, VOC-OLD:FEM) ‘my old daughter!’ In 10.1, -peɾu is used on a nominalised modifier after the animate classifier -ite:

Unlike the suffixes discussed under §10.2, but like classifiers, -peɾi and -peɾu can occur on the specifier article, as in 10.2.

Another productive derivational suffix is -mi ‘remains; something useless or gone’, e.g. heku-kuda-mi (tree-CL:TRUNK-USELESS) ‘a cut-off tree trunk’, diɾa-nite-mi (3sgnf+drink-TOP.ADV+NCL:ANIM-USELESS) ‘the remains of his drink’, di-ñha-nite-mi (3sgnf+eat-TOP.ADV+NCL:ANIM-USELESS) ‘the one who has been eaten and is now gone’.