Chapter 91Manner Compounds and Adverbial Incorporation

91.1 Manner expressed inside a verbal stem

A complex verb can include an element describing how its event proceeds. Nakagawa calls this adverbial incorporation while observing that much of it is structurally verb incorporation: a property verb supplies an adverbial meaning inside another verbal stem Nakagawa (2024: 492–493). His introductory comparison is:

The incorporated form has pirka where the separate adverb has pirka-no. The added manner component leaves the recipient of feeding available as an object. This differs from incorporation of an object noun, which fills a participant position; see Chapter 88 (Object Noun Incorporation).

91.2 Property verbs and lexical combinations

Shibatani likewise observes that adverbs derived with -no occur inside these compounds in their basic verbal form. He gives an Itadori example containing a-moyre-caka “I opened it slowly” and another with tunas “fast” within a causative-applicative predicate Shibatani (1990: 71–72, example 129). These descriptions concern particular compound patterns; Ainu also has an independent adverb class.

A separate adverbial paraphrase is not always attested. Nakagawa's Saru a=pirkaonnere describes enabling one's fathers or forefathers to live out their natural lives. He presents a hypothetical separate-adverb version to explain the construction, while stating that he has not found that alternative in use Nakagawa (2024: 492, example 1126). Lexical meaning and constructional possibility therefore need to be distinguished from a recorded alternation.

91.3 An apparent exception with no

Nakagawa discusses monoa, in which mono accompanies “sit.” Its interpretation involves sitting with the knees bent. A segmentation into mo-no would make it an example retaining the adverbial suffix inside the compound Nakagawa (2024: 492–493).

He also considers mono a possible lexical unit, since independent mo has restricted use. Tokachi mona, contracted from the longer form and meaning simply “sit,” supplies a further comparison ‹contested› Nakagawa (2024: 492–493). The analysis does not support a universal rule deleting every -no in a complex verb.

91.4 Temporal nouns and the productivity question

A temporal noun can also appear within a verbal stem. Satō gives a daytime-sleep example and describes this type as uncommon Satō (2008: 220–221).

The broader productivity of adverbial incorporation is disputed. Shibatani describes relatively free incorporation of adverbs, subject to the basic-form restriction. Satō instead emphasizes its lexical character and rejects productive adverbial incorporation as a general Ainu process ‹contested› Shibatani (1990: 71); Satō (2023: 46–47, note 12). The attested constructions establish possible combinations without settling how freely speakers could create new ones.

Refsing reports no comparable verb–adverb compounds in her Shizunai material Refsing (1986: 40). This limits the evidence supplied by that study without invalidating the examples from other descriptions.