Chapter 173Glossary of Grammatical Terms

173.1 How the terms are used

This glossary explains the descriptive terms used in the grammar. Some identify observable distributions; others belong to competing analyses. A label such as ‘fourth person’, ‘formal noun’, or ‘perfective’ does not imply that all authors analyze the relevant forms alike. The linked chapters compare those differences. Abbreviated gloss labels are listed in Chapter 174 (Abbreviations and Glossing Conventions).

173.2 Arguments and alignment

Oblique

A participant expressed outside the core argument pattern, often through a postpositional phrase. Its semantic relation and grammatical status depend on the construction.

Argument

A participant licensed by a predicate, such as the person who sees or the thing seen. Arguments can be understood without an overt noun phrase.

S, A, O

Comparative role labels: S is the sole argument of an intransitive verb; A and O distinguish the more agent-like and more patient-like arguments of a transitive verb. Their actual meanings depend on the verb.

Valency

The number and grammatical arrangement of a predicate's arguments. It is distinct from how many noun phrases happen to be spoken.

Transitive and intransitive

Verb classes distinguished by argument structure and person-marking behavior. A transitive verb can appear without an overt object noun phrase.

Alignment

The grouping of S, A, and O in marking or syntax. Ainu person series and constructions show different groupings; a single label does not describe every part of the system.

Head marking

Marking a grammatical relationship on its head, as when a verb indexes participants or a possessed noun marks its possessor.

Case and postposition

Case concerns grammatical relations; a postposition follows a nominal expression and specifies a relation. These are different kinds of description, even when the same construction is discussed under both.

See Chapter 36 (Verb Classes, Arguments, and Person Marking) and Chapter 62 (Person Marking and Argument Roles) for the Ainu diagnostics and competing alignment descriptions Bugaeva (2012: 472–475).

173.3 Person and reference

Inclusive and exclusive

First-person plural reference including or excluding the addressee. The morphological distinctions and their other uses vary regionally.

Fourth person

A conventional label for a person-form series. Depending on construction and dialect, it can express inclusive, indefinite, impersonal, honorific, or narrative reference.

Indefinite and generic reference

An indefinite expression leaves an individual unspecified; generic reference concerns a class or people in general. The two need not have identical grammar.

Logophoric reference

Reference associated with the person whose speech, thought, or perspective is represented. Accounts differ on how Ainu quotation and narrative forms should be analyzed.

Honorific use

A form selected to express respect toward a participant. Grammatical plurality can have singular respectful reference.

Zero marking

The absence of an overt marker in a paradigm cell. An unmarked verb is interpreted within its construction; imperatives, for example, need not refer to a third person.

The paradigms and interpretations are compared in Chapter 67 (Fourth-Person Forms and Their Uses), Chapter 68 (Fourth Person in Respectful Address), and Chapter 150 (Narrative Person and Reported Speech).

173.4 Words and nominal constructions

Portmanteau

A form expressing a combination of grammatical values without a separate segment for each, as in some person-interaction analyses.

Morpheme, stem, affix

A morpheme is an analytical unit of form and grammatical or lexical function. A stem is a base for further morphology; an affix attaches to a base.

Clitic

An element dependent on a neighboring host, often with a distribution different from ordinary affixes. The term requires grammatical and prosodic evidence; this grammar's equals sign alone does not establish clitic status.

Concept and affiliative forms

Terms for noun forms distinguished in descriptions of possession and related dependence. An affiliative form commonly denotes something in relation to a possessor; suffix patterns and usage vary by noun and dialect.

Alienable and inalienable possession

Descriptive categories for contrasting possessive constructions, often associated with ordinary ownership versus inherent relationships. A noun's actual construction cannot always be predicted from that semantic contrast.

Locative or spatial noun

A noun expressing a position or region relative to another entity. Its nominal behavior matters in distinguishing it from a postposition.

Formal noun

A traditional descriptive term for a noun-like dependent expression with a grammatical role, often after a modifying clause. Different accounts give these forms different category boundaries.

Relative clause

A clause modifying a nominal head, with a semantic relationship between that head and the clause. Ainu also permits modifying clauses whose relationship is established more broadly by context.

Copula and existential

A copula relates a subject to a nominal predicate; an existential predicates existence or location. Ainu ne and an/oka(y) belong to different constructions.

Nominal and verbal number

Nominal number concerns individuals or groups denoted by a noun phrase. Verbal number can concern participants, actions, or situations, depending on the verb and analysis.

Transnumerality

Number neutrality: an unmarked nominal expression can refer to one or more entities where context permits.

Nominalization

The use or formation of an expression with nominal properties. Whether a particular Ainu construction involves a nominalizing affix, a separate nominal head, or another analysis is source-dependent.

Property predicate

A predicate describing a quality or state. Many corresponding Ainu words show verbal behavior; the status and extent of an adjective class are disputed.

See Chapter 43 (Possessive Constructions and Alienability), Chapter 52 (Relational Nouns, Spatial Forms, and Quasi-Incorporation), Chapter 101 (P and Pe: Participants, Content, and Clause Endings), and Chapter 37 (Property Predicates and the Adjective Analysis).

173.5 Derived predicates

Causative

A construction introducing causation, often adding a causer to the argument structure. Ainu productive causatives and lexical transitive pairs require separate treatment.

Applicative

A derivation giving an associated participant a core relation to the verb. Ainu e-, o-, and ko- have construction-specific meanings and restrictions.

Reflexive and reciprocal

Reflexive interpretation identifies participants within a predicate; reciprocal interpretation relates members of a group to one another. Ainu si-, yay-, and u- have uses beyond a single English reflexive or reciprocal paraphrase.

Antipassive

An analysis in which an object is demoted or left unspecified while the actor remains central. The range and historical interpretation of Ainu i- are disputed.

Noun incorporation

A construction combining nominal material with a verb in a complex predicate. Wordhood, argument structure, and possessor behavior help distinguish its subtypes.

Quasi-incorporation

Satō’s analysis of certain noun–verb combinations as one lexical unit even when they remain two morphological words. He tentatively extends this analysis to a locative noun with a case particle, including or ta.

Satō’s proposed extension to locative constructions remains hypothetical Satō (2021: 89–94; 97, §6). Tamura discusses related noun–verb constructions under 連他動詞 Tamura (1997: 15). The distinctions and examples appear in Chapter 90 (Incorporation, Quasi-Incorporation, and Word Structure).

173.6 Time, evidence, and discourse

Switch-reference

Marking that tracks whether participants in linked clauses are the same or different. Proposals applying this to Ainu connectives require qualification; hine and akusu do not form an exceptionless same-subject/different-subject pair.

Tense

Grammatical location of a situation relative to a reference time. Ainu can express time without obligatory tense inflection.

Aspect

The presentation of a situation's temporal course, including continuation, completion, repetition, and resulting state.

Perfective and perfect

Perfective presents a situation as bounded or complete; perfect commonly relates an earlier situation to a later reference point. These labels belong to competing accounts of Ainu a and related forms.

Modality

Meanings involving possibility, necessity, intention, or the speaker's assessment and stance.

Evidentiality

The expression of the basis or source of information. Ainu constructions with ruwe, siri, hawe, and humi also have discourse and modal uses whose analysis differs by author.

Mirativity

The presentation of information as newly discovered, unexpected, or surprising. Its relationship to Ainu evidential and aspectual forms remains an analytical question.

Topic and focus

Topic concerns what an utterance is about; focus concerns the information singled out within a relevant set of alternatives. Their expression depends on context as well as particles and syntax.

Register and genre

Register concerns language associated with a situation or social use; genre concerns a type of discourse or performance. A poetic feature need not occur in every verse genre or be absent from prose.

For the competing analyses, see Chapter 111 (A, Rok, and Aan: Earlier Situations and Discovery), Chapter 120 (Formal Nouns and Evidential Constructions), and Chapter 149 (Oral-Literary Genres and Their Regional Names).

173.7 Sound structure and language change

Phoneme

A contrastive sound unit within the analysis of a particular variety.

Allophone and allomorph

An allophone is a phonetic realization of a phoneme; an allomorph is a variant form of a morpheme.

Pitch accent

A word-level contrast or pattern expressed through pitch. Varieties without distinctive word accent can still have sentence intonation and pitch variation.

Polysynthesis

A typological characterization of languages with complex word formation, often including incorporation or extensive participant marking. Its definition varies; it does not by itself decide the boundary of an Ainu word.

Grammaticalization

The development of grammatical functions from lexical expressions or constructions. Proposed historical stages require evidence beyond present-day similarity.

See Chapter 160 (Hokkaido Dialect Variation in Sound and Grammar), Chapter 56 (The Verb Word and Its Boundaries), and Chapter 158 (Internal Reconstruction and Grammaticalization).