User:Julien Daux/old intro

| Subpages

Classification roots
1. See for a starter, with categories for type of object (SSO, SFO, NCM...), and cross-cutting categories for type of motion (handle, propel, positional, extensional).

2. What about secondary classificatory roots like :
 * : SSO extends (pole,ladder, bluff, line of a polygon, buildings, trees)
 * : FFO hangs, waves, careens.
 * : sth moves suspended, or to carry sth suspended, by a cord, a string, a handle.
 * :in addition to movement of SFO,also movement of body catching a ball, of pairs of objects, migration / emerging of plurality of animals (band, clan, tribe, herd,)
 * : amorphous / gaseous substance floats, drifts, wafts, as air, clouds, a balloon, but also, a disease, a shadow,... the stiff body of a lying man...
 * : handle SSO, stick, dig, shovel.
 * : scratch, but also: toss sand, snow, bucket of scrub water, must, pinyons,...
 * : carry on one's back, heavy stuffs (LPB)
 * : SFO moves, pierces, sticks out, protrudes, perforates
 * : lie/lay AnO, SSO, SFO
 * : root for "propel PlOb / OC", and "PlOb / OC moves", but also "FFO is at rest"  and "keep FFO at rest" ?  (skirt, rug, ocean, vegetation bed) : sikaad / séłkaad ? The usual root for these is TSOOZ.
 * :shiłk'aazh : lie in a heap, like a heap of stones
 * : root for "FFO moves" (sheet, shirt, paper, sack + content), but also : sheet of liquid flowing over a surface (waterfall, diarrhea, leak), crawl (moving flat), spread / catch a disease, peels off (paint, skin)...
 * : swift movement of elongated objects : licking tongue, lizard, fish, train... Also: spread of fire or oil
 * : cover with a FFO (as a blanket)
 * : SFO extends (wire, line, rope, line of people, also: time,space, institution, activity )
 * : act with rigid sticklike object, poke spear, stick, to stick thermometer in mouth, ...
 * : objects lying in parallel position : rails, pôles, pencils, bars, jets of water
 * : sliding movement of boulders, herd or crowd..
 * : movement of horde, crowd, army, or swarm of bees, birds, animals).
 * :movements of scattering, sprinkling of granular matter as sans, seeds, salt, or drops of liquid as blood, water.
 * : 1. rapid fall of a light object through the air (feather, cloud, snow, leaves, sparks,...). 2. Person or vehicle dashes, rushes, darts.
 * : movement of bulky objects that one drags : Boulder,...
 * : 1. movement of PlO2,, rocks, sand, dust, by streaming, sliding or dribbling, like landslide, avalanche,...  2. movement of SSO, boards, logs, poles, legs... to assume juxtaposition, parallel position one to another

Roots and stems derivation
→ Navajo roots and stems derivation (appendix)

One of the key complexities of Navajo is variability of the roots across modes (Imperfective, Perfective, Future, Iterative, Optative) and aspects (Momentaneous, Conclusive, Continuative, Conative, Semelfactive, Repetitive, Diversative, and many many more...). It looks a random cast of endings, vowel, length, tone and nasality changes across the board.

This essay tries to shed some light on the underlying reasoning behind this variability, the focus being more synchronic-statistical-computational than diachronic-historical-crosslinguistic, while using historical clues is not outruled.

The roots and stems matrix allows you to see how similarly some roots can behave, and some general patterns can emerge out of it: what vowels are allowed in certain syllable structure? Is there a relation between perfective and imperfective regarding tone and length? Are optative forms predictable based on knowledge of other modes?