This glossary includes only terms that are either (i) unique to Algonquian linguistics, such as initial, or (ii) used in a special way in Algonquian linguistics, such as mode. The glossary does not include general linguistic terms that are used in their standard sense in Algonquian linguistics. The definitions are concise and are not illustrated with examples. (The long-term plan is to add links to separate essays explaining each concept in more detail.)
- Absolute inflection
- A pattern of verb inflection in the independent order in which either (i) peripheral agreement is absent or (ii) peripheral agreement indexes the same argument that central agreement indexes. Compare with objective inflection.
- Abstract final
- A final that determines the stem’s category and, for verbs, its argument structure and the gender of one of its arguments, but does not contribute any additional lexical meaning.
- Actor
- A term that is sometimes used (e.g. by Bloomfield, and in the definitions in this glossary) to denote the sole argument of an intransitive verb and the external argument of a transitive verb. The term subject is also frequently used in this sense, but the use of actor avoids analytical questions involving the nature of subjecthood.
- Animate
- One of two grammatical genders or noun classes. Nouns denoting humans, animals, and spirits are normally animate, but various notionally inanimate nouns belong to this class as well. Animate third persons are conventionally notated as 3 (vs. 0 for inanimate).
- Animate intransitive verb (AI)
- A verb whose stem selects an animate actor. Most such verbs do not take an object (but see animate intransitive plus object verb).
- Animate intransitive plus object verb (AI+O)
- A verb whose stem selects an animate actor and can or must also take a secondary object.
- Central agreement
- In prefixless forms, this term is equivalent to central suffix. In forms with a person prefix, the term central agreement can be used as a shorter version of Goddard's (1969) term central-participant marker, denoting the combination of the person prefix and central suffix, which typically work together to express the person and number of the same argument.
- Central suffix
- An inflectional suffix that appears on possessed noun forms and all verb forms, expressing person and (often) number of the noun's possessor or the verb's actor and/or animate primary object.
- Changed conjunct
- A conjunct verb form to which initial change has applied.
- Clausemate obviation
- The constraint that at most one of the animate third-person arguments of a verb can be proximate; any others must be obviative. See also possessor obviation.
- Concrete final
- A final that determines the stem’s category and, for verbs, its argument structure and the gender of one of its arguments, and also contributes additional lexical meaning. Some concrete finals are segmentable into a prefinal and an abstract final.
- Conjugation class
- A set of stems that share a particular underlying morphological shape (e.g. stem-final n) that triggers a characteristic pattern of allomorphy when inflection is added.
- Conjunct order
- An order whose central agreement is sharply distinct in shape from that of a possessed noun. Typically used in embedded clauses.
- Dependent noun
- A noun that obligatorily occurs with possessor agreement (prefix and central suffix). Such nouns typically denote body parts, kinship relations, or certain personal possessions.
- Direct
- An agreement pattern that appears in some TA verb forms in which the actor outranks the primary object on the person hierarchy. Central agreement always indexes the actor in direct forms. See also inverse.
- Final
- The component of a stem that determines its category (noun, verb, particle) and, for verbs, its argument structure and the gender of one of its arguments. Finals may also contribute additional lexical meaning to the stem, but to a more constrained degree than the initial. See also abstract final, concrete final.
- Goal
- A term that is sometimes used (e.g. by Bloomfield) to denote the internal argument of a transitive verb. The terms primary object and secondary object are more precise.
- Imperative order
- An order whose central agreement does not resemble that of either a possessed noun or conjunct verb. Used in commands, hortatives, and sometimes optatives.
- Inanimate
- One of two grammatical genders or noun classes. All nouns in this class denote notionally inanimate entities. Conventionally notated as 0 (vs. 3 for animate third persons).
- Inanimate intransitive verb (II)
- A verb whose stem selects an inanimate actor. Such verbs usually do not take an object.
- Independent order
- An order whose central and peripheral agreement closely resembles that of a possessed noun. Typically used in main clauses (but see subordinative mode).
- Indicative mode
- The least marked mode in its order, lacking any special mode morphology.
- Initial
- The component of a stem that provides its basic lexical meaning. Can be a root or an existing stem. See also medial, final.
- Initial change
- An ablaut process that alters the first vowel in the verb complex. Applies to conjunct verb forms in certain syntactic contexts. See also changed conjunct.
- Inverse
- An agreement pattern, including a characteristic inverse theme sign, that appears in some TA verb forms in which the primary object outranks the actor on the person hierarchy. Central agreement always indexes the primary object in inverse forms. See also direct.
- Long-distance agreement
- A phenomenon in which an embedding verb agrees with an embedded argument as though that argument were the verb’s own object. Also known as copy to object, raising to object, and cross-clausal agreement.
- Medial
- An optional component of a stem, roughly equivalent to an incorporated noun. When a stem includes a medial, the medial appears between the initial and the final.
- Mode
- Within an order, a mode is a paradigm of verb inflection (covering all relevant verb classes and argument features) that marks some category of tense, aspect, modality, or clause type. The modes of a particular order share the same basic morphological shapes and are usually distinguished by the addition of a mode sign (e.g. the indicative and preterit modes of the independent order, which share the same basic independent morphology, to which the preterit adds a preterit mode sign). See also subordinative mode.
- Mode sign
- An inflectional suffix that marks a particular mode (e.g. preterit).
- Object
- See primary object, secondary object.
- Objective inflection
- A pattern of verb inflection in the independent order in which peripheral agreement is present and indexes a different argument from that indexed by central agreement. Compare with absolute inflection.
- Oblique
- A phrase that is a verbal dependent but not a core argument (i.e. not an actor, primary object, or secondary object).
- Obviative
- A non-default form of third-person inflection, assigned to all third-person referents besides the one designated as proximate. Animate obviative is conventionally notated as 3′ or, less commonly, 4 (vs. 3 for animate proximate).
- Order
- A complete set of verb inflection (covering all relevant verb classes, modes, and argument features) that is sharply distinct in morphological shape from other such sets. See also mode.
- Participle
- A conjunct form that functions as a relative clause. Initial change applies and there is a peripheral suffix indexing the head of the relative clause.
- Particle
- Cover term for all words that don’t inflect.
- Peripheral suffix
- A word-final inflectional suffix that appears on nouns and on many third-person verb forms, expressing gender, number, and obviation (and absentation in some languages).
- Person hierarchy
- A ranking of (pro)nominal features that is held to govern the distribution of direct and inverse verb forms and possibly other aspects of verb inflection: 1st/2nd > X (impersonal) > 3 (animate proximate third) > 3′ (animate obviative third) > 0 (inanimate third).
- Person prefix
- An inflectional prefix that appears on possessed noun forms and many independent verb forms, expressing person.
- Possessed theme sign
- A suffix that must be added to certain noun stems before possessor agreement can be added.
- Possessor obviation
- The constraint that when an animate noun has a third-person possessor, the possessed noun must be obviative. See also clausemate obviation.
- Prefinal
- The portion of a concrete final that contributes lexical meaning, in cases where the concrete final is segmentable.
- Prenoun
- A particle that immediately precedes the noun stem and is in some sense compounded with the stem. Prenouns often function as adjectives.
- Preverb
- A particle that immediately precedes the verb stem and is in some sense compounded with the stem. Preverbs can function as tense/aspect markers, negators, complementizers, adverbs, directionals, and control predicates. See also verb complex.
- Primary derivation
- Creating a stem with an initial that is not itself a stem (e.g. [Initial Root] + Final). Called "primary" because the resulting stem doesn't contain anything that could itself stand alone as a stem.
- Primary object
- An object whose gender is selected by the verb stem: the object of a TI or monotransitive TA verb or the recipient argument of a TA+O verb. See also secondary object.
- Pronoun
- A nominal function word that expresses (some of) the same features that nouns inflect for. Algonquianists tend to classify demonstratives and the word for 'other' as "pronouns" even though these items can occur adnominally.
- Proximate
The default form of third-person inflection, normally assigned to the most topical third-person referent in a given span of speech. Animate proximate is conventionally notated as 3 (vs. 3′ or 4 for animate obviative).
Note: There is no connection between proximate (an inflectional feature normally associated with more topical third persons) and proximal (a deictic category expressed on demonstratives, e.g. 'this'). A proximal demonstrative can be either proximate or obviative.
- Relative preverb
- A preverb whose root is a relative root.
- Relative root
- A root that contributes to the stem a valency that must be filled by a stem-external oblique phrase. A relative root can be thought of as something like an incorporated adposition.
- Relative root complement
- The oblique phrase that fills the valency contributed by a relative root.
- Secondary derivation
- Creating a stem with an initial that is an existing stem (e.g. [Initial Stem] + Final). In other words, deriving one stem from another. Called "secondary" because the resulting stem contains something that could already stand alone as a stem. Secondary derivation is the Algonquian equivalent of what is simply called derivation in other languages.
- Secondary final
- A final that is used in secondary derivation, combining with an existing stem to create a new stem with a different category and/or meaning. A secondary final is the Algonquian equivalent of what is called a derivational suffix in other languages.
- Secondary object
An object whose gender is not selected by the verb stem: the object of an AI+O verb or the theme argument of a TA+O verb. Secondary objects can only be third person (of either gender) and are less prominent than primary objects in terms of morphology, syntax, and semantics.
Note: There is no relation between the terms secondary object and secondary derivation.
- Stem
- The lexical portion of a noun or verb, to which inflection is added.
- Stem class
- The morphosyntactic class to which a noun or verb stem belongs: animate noun (na), inanimate noun (ni), animate dependent noun (nad), inanimate dependent noun (nid), AI verb (vai), II verb (vii), TA verb (vta), TI verb (vti). The class of a verb stem is determined by the final (or the rightmost final, if secondary derivation has applied), except for suppletive stems that lack a segmentable final.
- Subordinative mode
- A mode of the independent order that exists in Eastern Algonquian languages, distinguished formally from the indicative mode not by a mode sign, but rather by the absence of a peripheral suffix and the use of n-initial allomorphs of the central suffix across all AI, TI, and TA forms, as well as the use of a person prefix in animate third-person forms that lack a prefix in the indicative. Unusually for an independent mode, the subordinative is used in a subset of embedded contexts.
- Theme sign
- A suffix that immediately follows the stem in TA and TI verb forms and some possessed noun forms. See also possessed theme sign.
- Transitive animate verb (TA)
- A verb whose stem selects an animate primary object. The actor may be either animate or inanimate.
- Transitive animate plus object verb (TA+O)
- A verb whose stem selects an animate primary object (semantically a recipient) and can or must also take a secondary object (semantically a theme). The actor may be either animate or inanimate.
- Transitive inanimate verb (TI)
- A verb whose stem selects an inanimate primary object. The actor may, in principle, be either animate or inanimate, although some languages disallow forms in which both the actor and object are inanimate.
- Transitive inanimate minus object verb (TI-O)
- A verb with TI derivational and inflectional morphology that nevertheless takes only an actor. Also called objectless TI (OTI).
- Unspecified-actor form
- A verb form whose actor is generic or impersonal (conventionally notated as X) and cannot be overtly expressed. The unspecified-actor form is functionally equivalent to an agentless passive. Also known as indefinite-actor form or passive form.
- Verb complex
- The verb plus any preverbs.