Nouns Nouns inflect for case (nominative vs. non-nominative) and number (singular-plural). Case is tonal and is very regular, while number formation is quite irregular, with plural being signaled in a variety of different ways, including various plural suffixes, changes in the [ATR] specification of the vowels of the stem, or changes in the tonal pattern of the stem. Moreover, each noun in the language has two different forms, called “primary” and “secondary” forms in the literature. For example, the primary form of the word for ‘bird’ in Kipsigis is
tàríit, while its secondary form is
tàrìityét. Nouns have primary and secondary forms in both the singular and plural number. The semantic difference between these two forms is currently not well understood. Hollis (1909) characterized the primary and secondary forms as indefinite and definite forms of the noun respectively, but this is not the correct treatment of these forms according to Toweett (1979) and Creider (1989). The former author refers to the primary form as an ‘inclusive’ form, and to the secondary one as an ‘exclusive’ form, while the latter author simply explains that it is not clear what the correct characterization of these forms is. The language has no overt articles and it seems like these two forms are related to definiteness and/or specificity in some way. Derivational and inflectional affixes associated with nouns are always suffixes, with the exception of the prefixes kip – and
che:p -, which denote male and female gender respectively. Gender is not expressed in all nouns, and does not participate in agreement.
Verbs The verbal morphology of Kalenjin is extremely rich. Moreover, nouns and adjectives follow the verbal inflection paradigm when they are predicates. Kalenjin verbs show a distinction between past and non-past tense, with three degrees of past being distinguished (based on distance from the present). Moreover, there is a difference between perfective and imperfective aspect, and within each one of these aspects there is a further distinction between simple and perfect aspect. In the non-past only, the perfect aspect also shows a distinction for simultaneous versus non-simultaneous actions. The verb agrees with both the subject and the object in person and number. The order of morphemes is that of tense – subject agreement – (aspect) – stem – (aspect), with a lot of aspectual work being done by changes in the tonal pattern and/or vowels of the subject agreement prefix and/or the verbal stem. Finally, there is a series of suffixes that can be attached to the verb to change its argument structure or add extra meaning. Toweett (1979:129) gives for Kipsigis the following list of verbal suffixes and other phonological changes that target verbal meaning: •
–tʃi:
applicative morpheme (it introduces and applied argument, such as a recipient or a
beneficiary) •
tonal and/or vowel change of the stem: the action is towards the speaker •
–aan: action and movement towards the speaker •
–ta: action is ‘off’ the speaker •
–ak: used for dispositional middles (and possibly other middles and/or some
anticausatives) •
–: there are two events of what the verb denotes which take place simultaneously •
Reduplication of the stem (with a vowel intervening between the two occurrences of the stem): the action is repeated several times •
–iis/-sa:
antipassive •
-een:
instrumental (it introduces an instrument) •
-ya: there are two or more agents involved in the event denoted by the verb •
-kee:
reflexive or reciprocal • '''''':
comitative The above suffixes show different behavior with respect to ATR harmony (some take the ATR value of the vowels of the stem, while others change the ATR value of the vowels of the stem). The above suffixes can co-occur on the same verb, yielding complex meanings. ==Syntax==