7.11 Class A conjugation, the action verbs

7.1 Active verb classes

Verbs of class A refer to an action. If they are the predicate of the sentence, the subject is the agent of the action. If they are in attribute construction, the head is the agent of the action. They occur with mu-, meanings 1 and 2 (and thus also with mi-, ni-, etc.), mag-, meanings 1 and 2 (and thus also with nag-, naga-, maga-, etc.), maka- in all meanings (and thus also with naka-, ka-, etc.). (See the entries under these affixes for further illustration and explanation.) The entry for palit ‘buy’ illustrates this class; the entry for bisiklíta ‘bicycle’ indicates this class with verbs derived from noun roots, and the entry for hapit,2 ‘drop in s.w.’ illustrates this class referring to verbs of motion.

7.111 Subclasses of the class A conjugation

The numbers which follow the letter A indicate nonoccurrence of affixes. The symbol A1 indicates verbs of the A conjugation which do not occur with the punctual-active set, mu- (mi-, etc.). An example of a verb of this type is ikspidisiyun ‘go on an expedition’. The symbol A2 indicates that the base does not occur with the durative-active set, mag- (nag-, etc.). A verb of this class is sángit ‘catch, snag s.t.’. The symbol A3 indicates that the base does not occur with the potential-active set, maka- (naka-, etc.), e.g. habhab,3 ‘eat away a portion of s.t.’. Two numbers following the letter A indicate the absence of two of the three active affixes. E.g. A12 indicates a base which occurs only with maka- (naka-, etc.) but not with mu- and mag-, e.g. salà.

The symbol A13 indicates lack of mu- and maka- but occurrence of mag-, e.g. dahum ‘expect’.

The symbol S following a number indicates that the base occurs with the prefix represented, but that there is shift (Section 5.11). E.g. dalágan ‘run’ is in class A2S: it occurs with all three sets, but the penult is short when the durative affixes, mag-, etc., are added. Dáwat ‘receive’ is in class A3S: it occurs with all three active sets, but the penult is short when the potential affixes, maka-, etc., are added.

The symbol P following the letter A indicates that the unaffixed root and the root plus pa- have exactly the same meaning and are used interchangeably with the active affixes: e.g. mala ‘dry’.

The symbol A3P indicates that the root occurs with both maka- (naka-) and, alternatively, with makapa- (nakapa-) with no difference in meaning. Further, the base occurs with nonpotential affixes, but with the nonpotential active affixes, pa- cannot be added to the base without changing the meaning. The symbol A123P means that the root occurs only with potential-active affixes (i.e., does not occur with mu- or mag-), but it does occur with maka- and also with makapa- having the same meaning as maka-, e.g. malarya ‘get malaria’.

The symbol N following A or A plus the numbers indicates that the prefix paN- can be added to the base together with the punctual-active affix, mu-, and with the potential-active affix maka- (naka-) but not with the durative affixes, and that the root alone is synonymous with the base plus paN-. That is to say, the form mu- (mi-)[root] and maN- (naN-)[root] are synonymous, and maka- (naka-)[root] is synonymous with nakapaN-[root] and makapaN-[root]. An example of a root of the AN conjugation is sanghid ‘ask permission’.