Basque grammar
Encyclopedia
This article provides a grammar sketch of the Basque language
, the language of the Basque people
of the Basque Country
or Euskal Herria, which borders the Bay of Biscay
in western Europe. Basque verbs are covered by a separate article
.
is structured in a way quite different from noun phrases in most Indo-European languages
.
and quantifiers play a central role in Basque noun phrase structure. The key elements we call "articles
" are best treated as a subset of the determiners.
and two numbers
. Zu must once have been the second-person plural pronoun but is now only found as the polite
singular, having partially displaced the original second-person singular pronoun hi which is now a markedly familiar form of address. Zuek represents a re-pluralised derivative
of zu and is now the only second-person plural pronoun.
The function of third-person personal pronouns may be filled by any of the demonstrative pronouns or their emphatic counterparts in ber-.
Besides these ordinary personal pronouns, there are emphatic (or intensive
) ones, whose forms vary considerably between dialect
s, e.g. for the first-person singular: neu, nerau, neroni or nihaur.
determiner
s (see above) may be used pronominally
(as indeed can all the determiners except for the articles). There are also emphatic (intensive
) demonstrative pronouns beginning with ber-.
It has often been noted that in traditional usage (but less so among modern speakers), there is often an explicit correlation between the three degrees of proximity in these demonstrative forms and the three grammatical persons, such that hau is made to correspond to ni, hori to hi/zu and so on. One manifestation of this (others lie beyond the scope of this sketch) is the now old-fashioned mode of addressing
persons in social positions commanding special respect (such as a priest, for example) using third-person verb forms and, for the personal pronoun, the second-degree intensive demonstrative berori (see the above table).
it is in (i.e. playing roughly the role of prepositions in English). The most basic cases are shown here, for convenience divided into three main groups: nuclear, local (or locative
) and others.
Case suffixes are attached to whatever element (noun, adjective, determiner...) comes last in the noun phrase according to the rules already given. The different forms or "declension
s" of each case suffix given in the following tables are selected in accordance with the nature of the nominal element to which the case ending is attached, as will be explained below.
From the above it may be deduced that the essential formal characteristics of the Basque cases are as shown in the following table:
Personal pronouns and demonstratives display some irregularities in declension
. The personal pronouns ni, hi, gu, zu form their possessive genitive by adding -re rather than -ren: nire, hire, gure, zure. These are the pronominal possessives:
As we have already seen, the demonstratives each have three stems: one for the absolutive singular (hau, hori, hura), another for all other singular cases (hon-, horr-, har-), and one for the plural, all cases (haue-, horie-, haie-). In the plural they take a -k suffix in the absolutive, as does batzuk 'some').
noun phrases). An inessive, allative or ablative relation affecting such noun phrases may be expressed by using the suffixes inessive -gan, allative -gana, and ablative -gandik, affixed to either the possessive genitive or the absolutive, e.g. nigan 'in me', irakaslearengana 'to(wards) the teacher' (irakasle 'teacher'), zaldiengandik 'from the horses' (zaldi 'horse'), haur horrengandik 'from that child', Koldorengana 'to(wards) Koldo'.
Any such adjectivalised forms may be used without an overt head noun, and in this case is likely to appear with a suffixed article, e.g. haurrentzakoa '(the) one for (the) children' [child-for.PLURAL.ART-ko-ART], haurrentzakoak '(the) ones for (the) children' [child-for.PLURAL.ART-ko-PLURAL.ART]. Such nominalised adjectival forms may further take case suffixes of their own, e.g. haurrentzakoarekin 'with the one for children' [child-for.PLURAL.ART-ko-with.ART], euskarazkoentzat 'for the ones in Basque' [Basque-INSTRUMENTAL-ko-for.PLURAL.ART], etc. While the potential to generate and understand (in a reasonable context) such complex forms is built into Basque grammar and perfectly intelligible to speakers, in practice the use of very complex constructions of this type is not too common.
Many other adverbs may be adjectivalised with -ko. Some may take certain other case suffixes (usually from set 4), particularly ablative -tik/-dik, e.g. atzotik 'since yesterday', urrundik 'from far away'.
substance and grammatical
autonomy to be treated as separate words (unlike the case suffixes) and which specify relations. They are so called because they follow the word or phrase whose relation they express (compare prepositions which precede a word or phrase; but Basque does not have prepositions).
The most typical Basque postpositions are built on nominal structures; for example, -aren gainean 'on top of' centres around the word gain 'top'. But not all postpositional nuclei consist of nouns that can be used independently of the postpositional construction(s) in which they participate.
One subset of postpositions that express spatial relationships (again exemplified by gainean) have a lexical stem whose syntactic behaviour is roughly noun-like but limited to a much narrower range of possible patterns (in the grammars of some non-European languages such elements are called relational noun
s or relationals
). Some Basque relationals are:
There are a few relationals, such as kanpo- 'outside', goi- 'up' and behe- 'down', that cannot be preceded by a complement of the kind described but have an adverbial uses resembling these, e.g. Kanpora noa 'I'm going outside', Goian dago 'It is above', etc. The irregular allative of goi is gora 'up(wards)'.
and superlative
of many adjectives and adverbs are formed by adding the suffixes -er and -est respectively (from big, for example, bigger and biggest are formed). Basque adjectives and adverbs similarly take such suffixes, except that in Basque there are three morphologically derived degrees of comparison, e.g. from handi 'big' we can form handiago 'bigger', handien(a) '(the) biggest' (where -a is the article) and handiegi 'too big':
Comparative, superlative and excessive adjectives may be used in the same syntactic frames as adjectives in the positive (basic) degree, e.g. compare mendi altuak 'high mountains' [mountain high.PLURAL.ART] and mendi altuagoak 'higher mountains' [mountain higher.PLURAL.ART]. But the noun preceding a superlative often takes the partitive suffix -(r)ik, thus either mendi altuenak or mendirik altuenak 'the highest mountains'.
Occasionally such suffixes may be added to other word forms, e.g. from gora 'up' (irregular allative of the relational goi-, hence literally 'to above') we may form gorago (for gora + -ago), 'more up', i.e. 'higher'. Just as English has a few irregular forms of comparison such as better and best (from good or well), so does Basque, e.g. on 'good' but hobe 'better'. Other ways of comparing quality or manner, in both Basque and English, involve using a separate word, such as hain handi 'so big'.
Special words are used to compare quantities (how much or how many of something): here we may mention in particular gehiago 'more', gehien(a) '(the) most', gehiegi 'too much, too many' which follow the noun quantified, e.g. liburu gehiago 'more books', gatz gehiegi 'too much salt', and hainbeste 'so much, so many' which precedes the noun, e.g. hainbeste diru 'so much money'. All of these can also be used adverbially (comparing the extent to which something occurs or is the case), e.g. Ez pentsatu hainbeste! 'Don't think so much!'.
Comparisons may involve reference to a standard (of comparison): compare English is easier (no standard mentioned: we don't specify easier than what) to English is easier than Basque (where Basque is referred to as the standard of comparison). Here English puts the word than in front of the standard. In Fish is as expensive as meat, meat is the standard, indicated here by the second as (compare Fish is as expensive or Fish is so expensive, where no standard is mentioned). Comparisons of the as...as type are called equative
. With superlatives, as in Donostia is the prettiest city in the Basque Country, on the other hand, the Basque Country is not really a standard but a domain or range within which the superlative applies. The structures used in such comparisons in Basque are as follows (the second table shows examples); the word orders shown are the most common and considered basic, although certain variations are also possible.
, periphrastic tense
formations predominate. Up to three arguments
(subject, direct object and indirect object) can be indexed morphologically on single verb forms, and further sets of synthetic
allocutive forms make for an even more complex morphology. The verb is also an area of the language subject to a fair amount of dialectal variation. Given the complexity of this subject and its traditional centrality in descriptions of Basque grammar, it is the subject of a separate Wikipedia article.
al content (information) in utterance
s. Focus is a feature
that attaches to a part of a sentence considered to contain the most important information, the "point" of the utterance. Thus in different discourse contexts the same (basic) sentence can take the focus on different parts, giving rise (in a language like Basque) to different grammatical forms. Topic, on the other hand, refers to a part of a sentence that serves to put the information it contains into context, i.e. to establish "what we are talking about". Basque word order
involves in a very basic way two rules, the "focus rule" and the "topic rule", as follows:
Compare, for example:
Basque is sometimes called an SOV (i.e. subject–object–verb) language, but as we can see the order of elements in the Basque sentence is not rigidly determined by grammatical roles (such as subject
and object
) and has to do with other criteria (such as focus and topic). In Basque the SOV is more common and less marked
than the OSV order, although each is appropriate in different contexts (as are other word orders). That is to say, it is more common and less marked (other things being equal) for the subject to be topic and for the object to be in focus than vice-versa. This may be explained by intrinsic qualities of the concepts "subject" and "object". It is compatible with the cross-linguistic tendency for topichood to be a characteristic feature of prototypical subjects
, for example.
with no (or no focused) non-verbal constituents
, only perhaps a topic-subject, as in 'He knows' or 'John is coming' (in contexts where 'he' or 'John' are not focused). Of course there my be other constituents, as long as none of them are focused, e.g. 'She has money' (where the point of the utterance is not to tell us what she has, but whether or not she has it). This type of sentence is sometimes described as one in which what is in focus is not so much the verb as the affirmation of the predicate
; i.e. 'She has money' does not really stand in contrast to, say, 'She eats money', but only to 'She doesn't have money'. For the present practical purpose this distinction may be ignored and the term "verbal focus" will be applied to such cases.
The most notable verb-focusing strategy in Basque grammar is use of the affirmative prefix ba-. Attached to a synthetically conjugated
finite verb
, this has the effect of putting that verb (or its affirmation, if one prefers) in focus, thereby implying that whatever (if anything) precedes the verb is not in focus. Thus the use of ba- looks as if it blocks application of the general focus rule which assigns focus to an element in pre-verbal position.
The affirmative use of ba- (not to confused with the homophonous
subordinating prefix meaning 'if') is normally used with synthetic finite forms, thus also John badator or Badator John 'John is coming' (as opposed to John dator 'John is coming'), Badu dirua (or in western Basque Badauka dirua) 'She has money'. In most varieties of Basque, affirmative ba- is not so used with compound tenses or compound verbs, however.
To place a compound verb form (or its affirmation) in focus, it may be enough to place the main sentence stress
(which normally goes on the focused item) on the first component of the verbal compound expression. Here it seems that the auxiliary
part of the expression is treated as representing the "verb" in the general focus rule, thereby predictably throwing the focus onto the preceding component, which is now the main verb. In western dialects an alternative procedure used to emphasise the placement of focus on the verb is to make this a complement
of the verb egin 'do'.
Systematic exceptions apart, focus assignment (as defined in the preceding sections) is an obligatory feature of Basque clauses. Because it is obligatory and automatic, such focus assignment need not be pragmatically marked
and does not necessarily signify emphatic focusing or foregrounding
. This observation is particularly applicable when focus is assigned in accordance with predictable or prototypical patterns, such as when the direct object takes the focus position in a transitive clause, or when the verb is formally focused in an intransitive clause.
In some varieties or styles of Basque, e.g. in poetic diction, one may achieve more emphatic focus (even on an object) by inverting the usual verb-auxiliary order: Txakurrek hezurrak dituzte jaten. In ordinary colloquial usage many speakers do not allow this, but some allow other such "inversions", e.g. with compound verbs (light-verb constructions), e.g. normal Irakaslearekin hitz egingo dut 'I'll speak to the teacher' (ordinary focus on irakaslearekin) versus more marked Irakaslearekin egingo dut hitz (emphatic focus on irakaslearekin).
A topic may be backgrounded (although arguably still remaining a topic) by placement at the end of a sentence rather than at the beginning, e.g. Hezurrak jaten dituzte txakurrek, roughly 'They eat bones, dogs'; so also Ez dakit, nik 'I don't know', where nik is no doubt a topic of sorts since if it weren't there would be no need to mention it at all (unmarked: Ez dakit).
There are two question markers: al for straightforward yes-no questions, and ote for tentative questions of any kind (yes-no or not). Both al and ote are placed immediately in front of the finite verb
form. The question marker al is not used pan-dialectally. In some dialects the same function is performed by a suffix -a attached to the finite verb form (thus the equivalents of the above examples are John ikusi duzu(i)a? and Badakia?). Still other dialects lack either interrogative al or interrogative -a.
Word order
in wh-questions (i.e. those with question words) is fully accounted for by the general rules of Basque word order, granted a further rule for Basque (shared by many other languages) which states that interrogative word
s and phrases (e.g. nor 'who?', zein etxe zuritan? 'in which white house?', zenbat diru 'how much money?', etc.) are obligatorily focused.
Basque language
Basque is the ancestral language of the Basque people, who inhabit the Basque Country, a region spanning an area in northeastern Spain and southwestern France. It is spoken by 25.7% of Basques in all territories...
, the language of the Basque people
Basque people
The Basques as an ethnic group, primarily inhabit an area traditionally known as the Basque Country , a region that is located around the western end of the Pyrenees on the coast of the Bay of Biscay and straddles parts of north-central Spain and south-western France.The Basques are known in the...
of the Basque Country
Basque Country (historical territory)
The Basque Country is the name given to the home of the Basque people in the western Pyrenees that spans the border between France and Spain on the Atlantic coast....
or Euskal Herria, which borders the Bay of Biscay
Bay of Biscay
The Bay of Biscay is a gulf of the northeast Atlantic Ocean located south of the Celtic Sea. It lies along the western coast of France from Brest south to the Spanish border, and the northern coast of Spain west to Cape Ortegal, and is named in English after the province of Biscay, in the Spanish...
in western Europe. Basque verbs are covered by a separate article
Basque verbs
The verb is one of the most complex parts of Basque grammar. It is sometimes represented as a difficult challenge for learners of the language, and many Basque grammars devote most of their pages to lists or tables of verb paradigms...
.
Noun phrase
The Basque noun phraseNoun phrase
In grammar, a noun phrase, nominal phrase, or nominal group is a phrase based on a noun, pronoun, or other noun-like word optionally accompanied by modifiers such as adjectives....
is structured in a way quite different from noun phrases in most Indo-European languages
Indo-European languages
The Indo-European languages are a family of several hundred related languages and dialects, including most major current languages of Europe, the Iranian plateau, and South Asia and also historically predominant in Anatolia...
.
Articles, determiners and quantifiers
DeterminersDeterminer (class)
A determiner is a noun-modifier that expresses the reference of a noun or noun-phrase in the context, rather than attributes expressed by adjectives...
and quantifiers play a central role in Basque noun phrase structure. The key elements we call "articles
Article (grammar)
An article is a word that combines with a noun to indicate the type of reference being made by the noun. Articles specify the grammatical definiteness of the noun, in some languages extending to volume or numerical scope. The articles in the English language are the and a/an, and some...
" are best treated as a subset of the determiners.
| Some determiners | Some quantifiers | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
|
|
|
etc. |
The "articles" take the form of suffix Suffix In linguistics, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns or adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs... es. See the following description of their uses. The forms -a, -ak, -ok correspond to the absolutive Absolutive case The absolutive case is the unmarked grammatical case of a core argument of a verb which is used as the citation form of a noun.-In ergative languages:... case Grammatical case In grammar, the case of a noun or pronoun is an inflectional form that indicates its grammatical function in a phrase, clause, or sentence. For example, a pronoun may play the role of subject , of direct object , or of possessor... ; in other cases, -a(r)-, -e-, -o- are used, followed by a case suffix. The negative-polar article, often called the partitive Partitive case The partitive case is a grammatical case which denotes "partialness", "without result", or "without specific identity". It is also used in contexts where a subgroup is selected from a larger group, or with numbers.... suffix, does not combine with case suffixes. When glossing examples below, these elements are referred to collectively as ART. |
The demonstrative Demonstrative In linguistics, demonstratives are deictic words that indicate which entities a speaker refers to and distinguishes those entities from others... stems, like the articles and unlike other nominal Nominal (linguistics) In linguistics, a nominal is a part of speech in some languages that shares features with nouns and adjectives.- Examples :Nominals are a common feature of Indigenous Australian languages, many of which do not categorically differentiate nouns from adjectives.Some features of nominals in some... elements, show irregular allomorphy between singular and plural Plural In linguistics, plurality or [a] plural is a concept of quantity representing a value of more-than-one. Typically applied to nouns, a plural word or marker is used to distinguish a value other than the default quantity of a noun, which is typically one... and, in the singular, between the absolutive (hau, hori, hura) and other cases (hon-, horr-, har-). The same forms function both as demonstrative determiners and demonstrative pronouns. |
|||
The articles Article (grammar) An article is a word that combines with a noun to indicate the type of reference being made by the noun. Articles specify the grammatical definiteness of the noun, in some languages extending to volume or numerical scope. The articles in the English language are the and a/an, and some... -a, -ak, -ok, -(r)ik, demonstrative Demonstrative In linguistics, demonstratives are deictic words that indicate which entities a speaker refers to and distinguishes those entities from others... s hau, hori, hura and some of the quantifiers follow the noun Noun In linguistics, a noun is a member of a large, open lexical category whose members can occur as the main word in the subject of a clause, the object of a verb, or the object of a preposition .Lexical categories are defined in terms of how their members combine with other kinds of... they determine or quantify. |
|
|
Other determiners and quantifiers, including beste 'other', the interrogatives and numeral Number names In linguistics, number names are specific words in a natural language that represent numbers.In writing, numerals are symbols also representing numbers... s above one or two (depending on dialect Dialect The term dialect is used in two distinct ways, even by linguists. One usage refers to a variety of a language that is a characteristic of a particular group of the language's speakers. The term is applied most often to regional speech patterns, but a dialect may also be defined by other factors,... ) precede the noun. |
|
|
A normal noun phrase Noun phrase In grammar, a noun phrase, nominal phrase, or nominal group is a phrase based on a noun, pronoun, or other noun-like word optionally accompanied by modifiers such as adjectives.... with a common noun as head Head (linguistics) In linguistics, the head is the word that determines the syntactic type of the phrase of which it is a member, or analogously the stem that determines the semantic category of a compound of which it is a component. The other elements modify the head.... must contain either one (and only one) determiner or one (and only one) quantifier, and not both, as in the above examples. However, the numerals may co-occur with a determiner. |
|
|
The items beste 'other' and guzti 'all' do not 'fill' the determiner or quantifier position and therefore require an article, other determiner or quantifier. |
|
|
The article -a, -ak acts as the default Default (computer science) A default, in computer science, refers to a setting or value automatically assigned to a software application, computer program or device, outside of user intervention. Such settings are also called presets, especially for electronic devices... determiner, obligatory with a common noun Noun In linguistics, a noun is a member of a large, open lexical category whose members can occur as the main word in the subject of a clause, the object of a verb, or the object of a preposition .Lexical categories are defined in terms of how their members combine with other kinds of... in the absence of another determiner or quantifer (even in citation forms, in popular usage). |
|
|
The article -(r)ik, traditionally called a partitive Partitive case The partitive case is a grammatical case which denotes "partialness", "without result", or "without specific identity". It is also used in contexts where a subgroup is selected from a larger group, or with numbers.... suffix (cf. French de), replaces -a, -ak in negative-polar contexts, especially with indefinite noun phrases in negative Grammatical polarity Grammatical polarity is the distinction of affirmative and negative. In English, grammatical polarity is generally indicated by the presence or absence of the modifier not, which negates the statement. Many other languages contain similar modifiers: Italian and Interlingua have non, Spanish has... sentences. It is never treated as grammatically plural. |
|
|
A noun phrase with a proper noun Proper noun A proper noun or proper name is a noun representing a unique entity , as distinguished from a common noun, which represents a class of entities —for example, city, planet, person or corporation)... or a pronoun Pronoun In linguistics and grammar, a pronoun is a pro-form that substitutes for a noun , such as, in English, the words it and he... as head need not and usually does not contain either a determiner or a quantifier. |
|
|
The absence of any determiner or quantifier from a common-noun-head noun phrase is only possible in certain specific contexts, e.g. in certain types of predicate Predicate (grammar) There are two competing notions of the predicate in theories of grammar. Traditional grammar tends to view a predicate as one of two main parts of a sentence, the other being the subject, which the predicate modifies. The other understanding of predicates is inspired from work in predicate calculus... or in some adverbial Adverbial In grammar an adverbial is a word or a group of words that modifies or tells us something about the sentence or the verb. The word adverbial is also used as an adjective, meaning 'having the same function as an adverb'... expressions. |
|
Genitive and adjectival constructions
| A genitive Genitive case In grammar, genitive is the grammatical case that marks a noun as modifying another noun... noun phrase precedes its possessed Possession (linguistics) Possession, in the context of linguistics, is an asymmetric relationship between two constituents, the referent of one of which possesses the referent of the other .... head to express possessive or similar relationships. |
|
|
The possessed noun phrase retains the same determination and quantification features described above for noun phrases generally. |
|
|
The head Head (linguistics) In linguistics, the head is the word that determines the syntactic type of the phrase of which it is a member, or analogously the stem that determines the semantic category of a compound of which it is a component. The other elements modify the head.... noun of a possessed noun phrase may be omitted. In this case the article or other determiner is still retained, now attached to the genitival element. |
|
|
Noun phrases are turned into genitives by the addition of one of two genitive case suffixes, -(r)en or -ko (see below on declension Declension In linguistics, declension is the inflection of nouns, pronouns, adjectives, and articles to indicate number , case , and gender... suffixes). |
|
|
The genitive formation of personal pronoun Personal pronoun Personal pronouns are pronouns used as substitutes for proper or common nouns. All known languages contain personal pronouns.- English personal pronouns :English in common use today has seven personal pronouns:*first-person singular... s is irregular Irregular Something that is irregular does not follow the expected pattern. The term is used in many different fields, with quite different meanings.-Canon Law:... . |
|
|
-Ko (or -go) can be suffixed to a wide range of other words and phrases, many of them adverbial Adverbial In grammar an adverbial is a word or a group of words that modifies or tells us something about the sentence or the verb. The word adverbial is also used as an adjective, meaning 'having the same function as an adverb'... in function, to form adjectival expressions which behave syntactically Syntax In linguistics, syntax is the study of the principles and rules for constructing phrases and sentences in natural languages.... just as genitive phrases do. |
|
Adjectives
| Lexical Lexicon In linguistics, the lexicon of a language is its vocabulary, including its words and expressions. A lexicon is also a synonym of the word thesaurus. More formally, it is a language's inventory of lexemes. Coined in English 1603, the word "lexicon" derives from the Greek "λεξικόν" , neut... adjective Adjective In grammar, an adjective is a 'describing' word; the main syntactic role of which is to qualify a noun or noun phrase, giving more information about the object signified.... s, in contrast to adjectival expressions (see above), immediately follow the head noun but precede any article, determiner or quantifier. |
|
|
When adjectives, adjectivals or genitives are used as predicates, they usually take the article (singular -a, plural -ak). |
|
Number
Basque has three numbers Grammatical number In linguistics, grammatical number is a grammatical category of nouns, pronouns, and adjective and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions .... : singular, unmarked Markedness Markedness is a specific kind of asymmetry relationship between elements of linguistic or conceptual structure. In a marked-unmarked relation, one term of an opposition is the broader, dominant one... and plural Plural In linguistics, plurality or [a] plural is a concept of quantity representing a value of more-than-one. Typically applied to nouns, a plural word or marker is used to distinguish a value other than the default quantity of a noun, which is typically one... . Unmarked appears in declension Declension In linguistics, declension is the inflection of nouns, pronouns, adjectives, and articles to indicate number , case , and gender... when it is not necessary to specify singular or plural, for example, because it is a proper name, or it is besides a determiner Determiner (class) A determiner is a noun-modifier that expresses the reference of a noun or noun-phrase in the context, rather than attributes expressed by adjectives... or a quantifier. Plural markers Marker (linguistics) In linguistics, a marker is a free or bound morpheme that indicates the grammatical function of the marked word, phrase, or sentence. In analytic languages and agglutinative languages, markers are generally easily distinguished. In fusional languages and polysynthetic languages, this is often not... occur in two parts of Basque grammar: in some pronoun Pronoun In linguistics and grammar, a pronoun is a pro-form that substitutes for a noun , such as, in English, the words it and he... s, determiners Determiner (class) A determiner is a noun-modifier that expresses the reference of a noun or noun-phrase in the context, rather than attributes expressed by adjectives... and quantifiers, and in argument Verb argument In linguistics, a verb argument is a phrase that appears in a syntactic relationship with the verb in a clause. In English, for example, the two most important arguments are the subject and the direct object.... indices on verb Verb A verb, from the Latin verbum meaning word, is a word that in syntax conveys an action , or a state of being . In the usual description of English, the basic form, with or without the particle to, is the infinitive... s (see Basque verbs Basque verbs The verb is one of the most complex parts of Basque grammar. It is sometimes represented as a difficult challenge for learners of the language, and many Basque grammars devote most of their pages to lists or tables of verb paradigms... ). Nouns and adjectives are strictly invariable for number: for example, etxe means indifferently 'house' or 'houses'. Since, however, a noun such as etxe rarely occurs alone and normally appears within a noun phrase Noun phrase In grammar, a noun phrase, nominal phrase, or nominal group is a phrase based on a noun, pronoun, or other noun-like word optionally accompanied by modifiers such as adjectives.... containing either a determiner or a quantifier, its number is likely to be indicated by this element: |
etxea 'house' |
(singular because of -a) |
etxeak 'houses' |
(plural because of -ak) |
|
etxe hau 'this house' |
(singular because of hau) |
|
etxe hauek 'these houses' |
(plural because of hauek) |
|
etxe bat 'one/a house' |
(singular because of bat) |
|
etxe batzuk 'some houses' |
(plural because of batzuk) |
|
hiru etxe 'three houses' |
(plural because of hiru) |
|
Transitive verbs add a suffix Suffix In linguistics, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns or adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs... or an infix Infix An infix is an affix inserted inside a word stem . It contrasts with adfix, a rare term for an affix attached to the end of a stem, such as a prefix or suffix.-Indonesian:... , for example -it-, when the object Object (grammar) An object in grammar is part of a sentence, and often part of the predicate. It denotes somebody or something involved in the subject's "performance" of the verb. Basically, it is what or whom the verb is acting upon... of the verb is plural. |
osaba bat dut 'I have an uncle' [uncle one I-have]| |
hiru osaba ditut 'I have three uncles' [three uncles I-have] |
Most determiners, including the article, have distinct singular and plural forms (the latter ending in a k in the absolutive case Absolutive case The absolutive case is the unmarked grammatical case of a core argument of a verb which is used as the citation form of a noun.-In ergative languages:... , cited here). Most quantifiers (except bat versus batzuk) do not show such morphological Morphology (linguistics) In linguistics, morphology is the identification, analysis and description, in a language, of the structure of morphemes and other linguistic units, such as words, affixes, parts of speech, intonation/stress, or implied context... variation, but many (including the numerals above one, of course) have intrinsically plural lexical Lexicon In linguistics, the lexicon of a language is its vocabulary, including its words and expressions. A lexicon is also a synonym of the word thesaurus. More formally, it is a language's inventory of lexemes. Coined in English 1603, the word "lexicon" derives from the Greek "λεξικόν" , neut... meanings. |
Singular:
|
Plural:
|
|
Sometimes the grammatical number of a noun phrase can only be deduced from general context or from verbal indexing, |
|
|
|
or from the lexical or semantic noun type: |
|
|
Personal pronouns
The personal pronouns differentiate three personsGrammatical person
Grammatical person, in linguistics, is deictic reference to a participant in an event; such as the speaker, the addressee, or others. Grammatical person typically defines a language's set of personal pronouns...
and two numbers
Grammatical number
In linguistics, grammatical number is a grammatical category of nouns, pronouns, and adjective and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions ....
. Zu must once have been the second-person plural pronoun but is now only found as the polite
Politeness
Politeness is best expressed as the practical application of good manners or etiquette. It is a culturally-defined phenomenon, and therefore what is considered polite in one culture can sometimes be quite rude or simply eccentric in another cultural context....
singular, having partially displaced the original second-person singular pronoun hi which is now a markedly familiar form of address. Zuek represents a re-pluralised derivative
Derivation (linguistics)
In linguistics, derivation is the process of forming a new word on the basis of an existing word, e.g. happi-ness and un-happy from happy, or determination from determine...
of zu and is now the only second-person plural pronoun.
| Reconstructed Linguistic reconstruction Linguistic reconstruction is the practice of establishing the features of the unattested ancestor of one or more given languages. There are two kinds of reconstruction. Internal reconstruction uses irregularities in a single language to make inferences about an earlier stage of that language... proto Proto-language A proto-language in the tree model of historical linguistics is the common ancestor of the languages that form a language family. Occasionally, the German term Ursprache is used instead.Often the proto-language is not known directly... -system |
Attested present-day system |
|---|---|
hi 'you (singular)' zu 'you (plural)' |
hi 'you (familiar singular)' zu 'you (polite singular)' zu-ek 'you (plural)' |
The function of third-person personal pronouns may be filled by any of the demonstrative pronouns or their emphatic counterparts in ber-.
| Singular | Plural |
|---|---|
ni 'I/me' hi 'you (very familiar)' zu 'you (polite or neutral)' hau, hori, hura, bera 'he/him, she/her, it' |
gu 'we/us' zuek 'you' hauek, horiek, haiek, bera(ie)k, eurak... 'they/them' |
Besides these ordinary personal pronouns, there are emphatic (or intensive
Intensive
In grammar, an intensive word form is one which denotes stronger or more forceful action relative to the root on which the intensive is built. Intensives are usually lexical formations, but there may be a regular process for forming intensives from a root...
) ones, whose forms vary considerably between dialect
Dialect
The term dialect is used in two distinct ways, even by linguists. One usage refers to a variety of a language that is a characteristic of a particular group of the language's speakers. The term is applied most often to regional speech patterns, but a dialect may also be defined by other factors,...
s, e.g. for the first-person singular: neu, nerau, neroni or nihaur.
Demonstrative pronouns
The demonstrativeDemonstrative
In linguistics, demonstratives are deictic words that indicate which entities a speaker refers to and distinguishes those entities from others...
determiner
Determiner (class)
A determiner is a noun-modifier that expresses the reference of a noun or noun-phrase in the context, rather than attributes expressed by adjectives...
s (see above) may be used pronominally
Pronoun
In linguistics and grammar, a pronoun is a pro-form that substitutes for a noun , such as, in English, the words it and he...
(as indeed can all the determiners except for the articles). There are also emphatic (intensive
Intensive
In grammar, an intensive word form is one which denotes stronger or more forceful action relative to the root on which the intensive is built. Intensives are usually lexical formations, but there may be a regular process for forming intensives from a root...
) demonstrative pronouns beginning with ber-.
| Singular | Plural | |
|---|---|---|
| Ordinary | hau 'this' hori 'that (near hearer, general)' hura 'that (in the distance, not present)' |
hauek 'these' horiek 'those (near hearer, general)' haiek 'those (in the distance, not present)' |
| Intensive | berau 'this' berori 'that (near hearer, general)' bera 'that (in the distance, not present)' |
berauek 'these' beroriek 'those (near hearer, general)' beraiek 'those (in the distance, not present)' |
It has often been noted that in traditional usage (but less so among modern speakers), there is often an explicit correlation between the three degrees of proximity in these demonstrative forms and the three grammatical persons, such that hau is made to correspond to ni, hori to hi/zu and so on. One manifestation of this (others lie beyond the scope of this sketch) is the now old-fashioned mode of addressing
Style (manner of address)
A style of office, or honorific, is a legal, official, or recognized title. A style, by tradition or law, precedes a reference to a person who holds a post or political office, and is sometimes used to refer to the office itself. An honorific can also be awarded to an individual in a personal...
persons in social positions commanding special respect (such as a priest, for example) using third-person verb forms and, for the personal pronoun, the second-degree intensive demonstrative berori (see the above table).
Other pronouns and correlative adverbs
| Pronouns | Place adverbs | Manner adverbs | Time adverbs |- |
Demonstrative | (see above) |
|
|
|
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Interrogative |
|
|
|
|
|||||
| Indefinite |
|
|
|
|
|||||
| Negative polarity |
|
|
|
|
Further forms
- All the demonstrative pronouns and adverbs may be extended by the suffix -xe (-txe) which lends further emphasis, e.g. hauxe, hementxe, honelaxe, oraintxe....
- The pronouns can all be declined in any caseGrammatical caseIn grammar, the case of a noun or pronoun is an inflectional form that indicates its grammatical function in a phrase, clause, or sentence. For example, a pronoun may play the role of subject , of direct object , or of possessor...
(see below). The personal and demonstrative pronouns exhibit allomorphAllomorphIn linguistics, an allomorph is a variant form of a morpheme. The concept occurs when a unit of meaning can vary in sound without changing meaning. The term allomorph explains the comprehension of phonological variations for specific morphemes....
y between absolutive and non-zeroZero (linguistics)A zero, in linguistics, is a constituent needed in an analysis but not realized in speech. This implies that there is a lack of an element where a theory would expect one. It is usually written with the symbol "", in Unicode .There are several kind of zeros....
cases. The adverbs can be adjectivalised by addition of
- There are two further series of indefinites, as illustrated by
- Negative pronouns and adverbs consist of the negative polarity series together with
The cases
Basque noun phrases are followed by a case suffix which specifies the relation between the noun phrase and the clauseClause
In grammar, a clause is the smallest grammatical unit that can express a complete proposition. In some languages it may be a pair or group of words that consists of a subject and a predicate, although in other languages in certain clauses the subject may not appear explicitly as a noun phrase,...
it is in (i.e. playing roughly the role of prepositions in English). The most basic cases are shown here, for convenience divided into three main groups: nuclear, local (or locative
Locative case
Locative is a grammatical case which indicates a location. It corresponds vaguely to the English prepositions "in", "on", "at", and "by"...
) and others.
Case suffixes are attached to whatever element (noun, adjective, determiner...) comes last in the noun phrase according to the rules already given. The different forms or "declension
Declension
In linguistics, declension is the inflection of nouns, pronouns, adjectives, and articles to indicate number , case , and gender...
s" of each case suffix given in the following tables are selected in accordance with the nature of the nominal element to which the case ending is attached, as will be explained below.
| Name | Meaning/Use | Forms ("declensions") | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | ||
| Absolutive Absolutive case The absolutive case is the unmarked grammatical case of a core argument of a verb which is used as the citation form of a noun.-In ergative languages:... |
intransitive Intransitive verb In grammar, an intransitive verb is a verb that has no object. This differs from a transitive verb, which takes one or more objects. Both classes of verb are related to the concept of the transitivity of a verb.... subject Subject (grammar) The subject is one of the two main constituents of a clause, according to a tradition that can be tracked back to Aristotle and that is associated with phrase structure grammars; the other constituent is the predicate. According to another tradition, i.e... ; transitive Transitive verb In syntax, a transitive verb is a verb that requires both a direct subject and one or more objects. The term is used to contrast intransitive verbs, which do not have objects.-Examples:Some examples of sentences with transitive verbs:... direct object |
-a | -ak | — | |
| Ergative Ergative case The ergative case is the grammatical case that identifies the subject of a transitive verb in ergative-absolutive languages.-Characteristics:... |
transitive Transitive verb In syntax, a transitive verb is a verb that requires both a direct subject and one or more objects. The term is used to contrast intransitive verbs, which do not have objects.-Examples:Some examples of sentences with transitive verbs:... subject |
-ak | -ek | -(e)k | |
| Dative Dative case The dative case is a grammatical case generally used to indicate the noun to whom something is given, as in "George gave Jamie a drink".... |
recipient or affected: 'to', 'for', 'from' | -ari | -ei | -(r)i | |
| Name | Meaning/Use | Forms ("declensions") | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | ||
| Inessive Inessive case Inessive case is a locative grammatical case. This case carries the basic meaning of "in": for example, "in the house" is "talo·ssa" in Finnish, "maja·s" in Estonian, "etxea·n" in Basque, "nam·e" in Lithuanian and "ház·ban" in Hungarian.In Finnish the inessive case is typically formed by adding... |
place where/time when: 'in', 'at', 'on' | -(e)an | -etan | -(e)tan | -(e)n |
| Allative Allative case Allative case is a type of the locative cases used in several languages. The term allative is generally used for the lative case in the majority of languages which do not make finer distinctions.-Finnish language:In the Finnish language, the allative is the fifth of the locative cases, with the... |
where to: 'to' | -(e)ra | -etara | -(e)tara | -(r)a |
| Ablative Ablative case In linguistics, ablative case is a name given to cases in various languages whose common characteristic is that they mark motion away from something, though the details in each language may differ... |
where from/through: 'from', 'since', 'through' | -(e)tik | -etatik | -(e)tatik | -tik/-dik |
| Local Genitive Genitive case In grammar, genitive is the grammatical case that marks a noun as modifying another noun... |
pertaining to where/when: 'of' | -(e)ko | -etako | -(e)tako | -ko/-go |
| Name | Meaning/Use | Forms ("declensions") | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | ||
| Possessive Genitive Genitive case In grammar, genitive is the grammatical case that marks a noun as modifying another noun... |
possessive/genitive: 'of', '-'s' | -aren | -en | -(r)en | |
| Instrumental Instrumental case The instrumental case is a grammatical case used to indicate that a noun is the instrument or means by or with which the subject achieves or accomplishes an action... |
means or topic: 'by', 'of', 'about' | -az | -ez | -(e)z, -(e)taz | |
| Comitative Comitative case The comitative case , also known as the associative case , is a grammatical case that denotes companionship, and is used where English would use "in company with" or "together with"... |
accompaniment or means: 'with' | -arekin | -ekin | -(r)ekin | |
| Benefactive Benefactive case The benefactive case is a grammatical case used where English would use "for", "for the benefit of", or "intended for", e.g... |
beneficiary: 'for' | -arentzat | -entzat | -(r)entzat | |
| cause, reason or value: 'because of', '(in exchange) for' | -a(ren)gatik | -engatik | -(r)engatik | ||
Sets of case forms ("declensions")
The four sets of forms labelled 1 to 4 in the preceding tables have the following uses and characteristics:| Set | Type | Comments | Examples |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | SINGULAR ARTICLE | Represent the combination of the singular article -a with the case suffixes. Notice the formal absence of any trace of the -a- morpheme Morpheme In linguistics, a morpheme is the smallest semantically meaningful unit in a language. The field of study dedicated to morphemes is called morphology. A morpheme is not identical to a word, and the principal difference between the two is that a morpheme may or may not stand alone, whereas a word,... in the local cases, however. The -(e)- in the local cases occurs after consonants. |
|
| 2 | PLURAL ARTICLE | Represent the combination of the plural article -ak with the case suffixes. Notice the pre-suffixal plural article allomorph Allomorph In linguistics, an allomorph is a variant form of a morpheme. The concept occurs when a unit of meaning can vary in sound without changing meaning. The term allomorph explains the comprehension of phonological variations for specific morphemes.... s -eta- (in local cases) and -e- (elsewhere). |
|
| 3 | NO ARTICLE | Used in the absence of an article, i.e. when another determiner or quantifier is employed (e.g. zein menditan? 'on which mountain?', zuhaitz askori 'to many trees') or occasionally when there is none at all (cf. oinez and sutan above). The -(e)- and -(r)- shown with some suffixes appear following consonants and vowels respectively. Notice also the pre-suffix -(e)ta- in the local case suffixes for this set. |
|
| 4 | PROPER NAMES | Used with proper names Noun In linguistics, a noun is a member of a large, open lexical category whose members can occur as the main word in the subject of a clause, the object of a verb, or the object of a preposition .Lexical categories are defined in terms of how their members combine with other kinds of... . These are identical to set 3 except in the local cases. This set contains the most basic form of each case suffix. The local forms -dik and -go are used after a voiced consonant except r. |
|
From the above it may be deduced that the essential formal characteristics of the Basque cases are as shown in the following table:
| NUCLEAR | |
|---|---|
| Absolutive | — |
| Ergative | -k |
| Dative | -i |
| LOCAL | |
| Inessive | -n |
| Allative | -(r)a |
| Ablative | -tik |
| Local genitive | -ko |
| OTHER | |
| Possessive genitive | -en |
| Instrumental | -z |
| Comitative | -ekin |
| Benefactive | -en-tzat |
| Cause etc. | -en-gatik |
Declension of personal pronouns, demonstratives and bat, batzuk
For the most part, the application of these suffixes to any word in the language is highly regular. In this section, we shall note the main exceptions.Personal pronouns and demonstratives display some irregularities in declension
Declension
In linguistics, declension is the inflection of nouns, pronouns, adjectives, and articles to indicate number , case , and gender...
. The personal pronouns ni, hi, gu, zu form their possessive genitive by adding -re rather than -ren: nire, hire, gure, zure. These are the pronominal possessives:
| Singular | Plural |
|---|---|
nire 'my' hire 'your (very familiar)' zure 'your (polite or neutral)' haren, beraren 'his, her, its bere 'his, her, its (reflexive)' |
gure 'our' zuen 'your' haien, beraien 'their' beren 'their (reflexive)' |
As we have already seen, the demonstratives each have three stems: one for the absolutive singular (hau, hori, hura), another for all other singular cases (hon-, horr-, har-), and one for the plural, all cases (haue-, horie-, haie-). In the plural they take a -k suffix in the absolutive, as does batzuk 'some').
| Singular absolutive | Singular other | Plural absolutive | Plural other |
|---|---|---|---|
hau 'this' hori 'that' hura 'that (distant)' bat 'one, a' |
honek, honi, honetan... horrek, horri, horretan... hark, hari, hartan... batek, bati, batean... |
hauek horiek haiek batzuk 'some' |
hauek, hauei, hauetan... horiek, horiei, horietan... haiek, haiei, haietan... batzuek, batzuei, batzuetan... |
Animate local cases
As a rule, the local case suffixes given above are not used directly with noun phrases that refer to a person or an animal (called animateAnimacy
Animacy is a grammatical and/or semantic category of nouns based on how sentient or alive the referent of the noun in a given taxonomic scheme is...
noun phrases). An inessive, allative or ablative relation affecting such noun phrases may be expressed by using the suffixes inessive -gan, allative -gana, and ablative -gandik, affixed to either the possessive genitive or the absolutive, e.g. nigan 'in me', irakaslearengana 'to(wards) the teacher' (irakasle 'teacher'), zaldiengandik 'from the horses' (zaldi 'horse'), haur horrengandik 'from that child', Koldorengana 'to(wards) Koldo'.
Compound case forms
In addition to the basic case forms given above, further forms are found that are derived from these through the addition of further suffixes or extensions. Some of these additional forms provide for the expression of more nuanced relations; others have the same or similar meanings to the basic forms, with which they merely contrast stylistically or dialectally. Some examples follow:| Basic case | Compound cases |
|---|---|
| ALLATIVE: -ra 'to' |
|
| ABLATIVE: -tik 'from' |
|
| COMITATIVE: -ekin 'with' |
|
| BENEFACTIVE: -entzat 'for' |
|
Adjectival
-ko The -ko suffix (see above) may be added to some case forms to make their syntactic function adjectival.| Case | Primary use | Adjectival use |
|---|---|---|
| Allative |
|
|
| Instrumental |
|
|
| Benefactive |
|
|
Any such adjectivalised forms may be used without an overt head noun, and in this case is likely to appear with a suffixed article, e.g. haurrentzakoa '(the) one for (the) children' [child-for.PLURAL.ART-ko-ART], haurrentzakoak '(the) ones for (the) children' [child-for.PLURAL.ART-ko-PLURAL.ART]. Such nominalised adjectival forms may further take case suffixes of their own, e.g. haurrentzakoarekin 'with the one for children' [child-for.PLURAL.ART-ko-with.ART], euskarazkoentzat 'for the ones in Basque' [Basque-INSTRUMENTAL-ko-for.PLURAL.ART], etc. While the potential to generate and understand (in a reasonable context) such complex forms is built into Basque grammar and perfectly intelligible to speakers, in practice the use of very complex constructions of this type is not too common.
Local cases with adverbs
The fourth set of local case suffixes (etymologically the primary forms) are incorporated into the place adverbs, giving the following (partly irregular) forms:| Demonstrative | Interrogative 'where?' |
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 'here' | 'there (near)' | 'there (distant)' | |||
| Inessive | 'here, there, where?' | hemen | hor | han | non |
| Allative | 'to here, to there, where to?' | hona | horra | hara | nora |
| Ablative | 'from here/there, where from?', 'this/that way, which way?' | hemendik | hortik | handik | nondik |
| Genitive | 'pertaining to here/there/where?' | hemengo | horko | hango | nongo |
Many other adverbs may be adjectivalised with -ko. Some may take certain other case suffixes (usually from set 4), particularly ablative -tik/-dik, e.g. atzotik 'since yesterday', urrundik 'from far away'.
Postpositions
Basque postpositions are items of sufficient lexicalLexicon
In linguistics, the lexicon of a language is its vocabulary, including its words and expressions. A lexicon is also a synonym of the word thesaurus. More formally, it is a language's inventory of lexemes. Coined in English 1603, the word "lexicon" derives from the Greek "λεξικόν" , neut...
substance and grammatical
Grammar
In linguistics, grammar is the set of structural rules that govern the composition of clauses, phrases, and words in any given natural language. The term refers also to the study of such rules, and this field includes morphology, syntax, and phonology, often complemented by phonetics, semantics,...
autonomy to be treated as separate words (unlike the case suffixes) and which specify relations. They are so called because they follow the word or phrase whose relation they express (compare prepositions which precede a word or phrase; but Basque does not have prepositions).
Most Basque postpositions require the complement Complement (linguistics) In grammar the term complement is used with different meanings. The primary meaning is a word, phrase or clause that is necessary in a sentence to complete its meaning. We find complements that function as an argument and complements that exist within arguments.Both complements and modifiers add... after which they are placed to adopt a particular case form (such postpositions are sometimes said to govern a certain case). Postpositions in Basque furthermore often take a case suffix (or may take several different case suffixes) themselves. To understand this, we may consider the analogy of an English compound Compound (linguistics) In linguistics, a compound is a lexeme that consists of more than one stem. Compounding or composition is the word formation that creates compound lexemes... preposition such as on top of, where of is comparable to the case taken by a Basque noun preceding a postposition (in this case it would be the genitive) and on is like the case suffix (inessive in this case) taken by the postposition (to which top corresponds). The examples on the right show how Basque expresses on top of and a few other postpositional notions. |
|
The most typical Basque postpositions are built on nominal structures; for example, -aren gainean 'on top of' centres around the word gain 'top'. But not all postpositional nuclei consist of nouns that can be used independently of the postpositional construction(s) in which they participate.
One subset of postpositions that express spatial relationships (again exemplified by gainean) have a lexical stem whose syntactic behaviour is roughly noun-like but limited to a much narrower range of possible patterns (in the grammars of some non-European languages such elements are called relational noun
Relational noun
Relational nouns or relator nouns are a class of words used in many languages. They are characterized as functioning syntactically as nouns, although they convey the meaning for which other languages use adpositions...
s or relationals
Relational grammar
In linguistics, Relational Grammar is a syntactic theory which argues that primitive grammatical relations provide the ideal means to state syntactic rules in universal terms. Relational grammar began as an alternative to transformational grammar....
). Some Basque relationals are:
|
|
Typical Basque relationals can enter into two possible relations with the preceding (governed) complement: (1) the complement is a noun phrase in a possessive genitive relation, e.g. |
|
|
|
(2) the complement is an unsuffixed noun (not a noun phrase) in a relation resembling a lexical compound, e.g. |
|
|
|
In these examples, the relational (e.g. gain-) takes the set 1 (singular) inessive case suffix (-(e)an), as in mendiaren gainean and these further examples, |
|
|
|
but other local case suffixes (glossed in capitals) may occur instead of the inessive as sense or usage conventions require, e.g. |
|
|
|
These relationals are often used in an adverbial function without a preceding complement (thus not as postpositions), e.g. |
|
|
There are a few relationals, such as kanpo- 'outside', goi- 'up' and behe- 'down', that cannot be preceded by a complement of the kind described but have an adverbial uses resembling these, e.g. Kanpora noa 'I'm going outside', Goian dago 'It is above', etc. The irregular allative of goi is gora 'up(wards)'.
Comparison
In English, the comparativeComparative
In grammar, the comparative is the form of an adjective or adverb which denotes the degree or grade by which a person, thing, or other entity has a property or quality greater or less in extent than that of another, and is used in this context with a subordinating conjunction, such as than,...
and superlative
Superlative
In grammar, the superlative is the form of an adjective that indicates that the person or thing modified has the quality of the adjective to a degree greater than that of anything it is being compared to in a given context. English superlatives are typically formed with the suffix -est In...
of many adjectives and adverbs are formed by adding the suffixes -er and -est respectively (from big, for example, bigger and biggest are formed). Basque adjectives and adverbs similarly take such suffixes, except that in Basque there are three morphologically derived degrees of comparison, e.g. from handi 'big' we can form handiago 'bigger', handien(a) '(the) biggest' (where -a is the article) and handiegi 'too big':
|
Comparative, superlative and excessive adjectives may be used in the same syntactic frames as adjectives in the positive (basic) degree, e.g. compare mendi altuak 'high mountains' [mountain high.PLURAL.ART] and mendi altuagoak 'higher mountains' [mountain higher.PLURAL.ART]. But the noun preceding a superlative often takes the partitive suffix -(r)ik, thus either mendi altuenak or mendirik altuenak 'the highest mountains'.
Occasionally such suffixes may be added to other word forms, e.g. from gora 'up' (irregular allative of the relational goi-, hence literally 'to above') we may form gorago (for gora + -ago), 'more up', i.e. 'higher'. Just as English has a few irregular forms of comparison such as better and best (from good or well), so does Basque, e.g. on 'good' but hobe 'better'. Other ways of comparing quality or manner, in both Basque and English, involve using a separate word, such as hain handi 'so big'.
Special words are used to compare quantities (how much or how many of something): here we may mention in particular gehiago 'more', gehien(a) '(the) most', gehiegi 'too much, too many' which follow the noun quantified, e.g. liburu gehiago 'more books', gatz gehiegi 'too much salt', and hainbeste 'so much, so many' which precedes the noun, e.g. hainbeste diru 'so much money'. All of these can also be used adverbially (comparing the extent to which something occurs or is the case), e.g. Ez pentsatu hainbeste! 'Don't think so much!'.
Comparisons may involve reference to a standard (of comparison): compare English is easier (no standard mentioned: we don't specify easier than what) to English is easier than Basque (where Basque is referred to as the standard of comparison). Here English puts the word than in front of the standard. In Fish is as expensive as meat, meat is the standard, indicated here by the second as (compare Fish is as expensive or Fish is so expensive, where no standard is mentioned). Comparisons of the as...as type are called equative
Equative case
Equative is a case with the meaning of comparison, or likening. The equative case has been used in very few languages in history. It was used in the Sumerian language....
. With superlatives, as in Donostia is the prettiest city in the Basque Country, on the other hand, the Basque Country is not really a standard but a domain or range within which the superlative applies. The structures used in such comparisons in Basque are as follows (the second table shows examples); the word orders shown are the most common and considered basic, although certain variations are also possible.
| Qualitative | Quantitative | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Construction | Meaning | Construction | Meaning | |
| Comparative | STANDARD baino COMPARATIVE | ADJ/ADV-er than STANDARD | STANDARD baino NOUN gehiago | more NOUN(s) than STANDARD |
| Superlative | DOMAIN-(e)ko NOUN-(r)ik SUPERLATIVE-a | the ADJ/ADV-est NOUN in the DOMAIN | DOMAIN-(e)ko NOUN-(r)ik gehienak | most NOUNs in the DOMAIN |
| Equative | STANDARD bezain ADJ/ADV | as ADJ/ADV as STANDARD | STANDARD adina NOUN | as much/many NOUN(s) as STANDARD |
| Example | Meaning | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Comparative | Qualitative | Ingelesa euskara baino errazagoa da. | 'English is easier than Basque.' |
| Quantitative | Zuk nik baino diru gehiago daukazu. | 'You've got more money than me.' | |
| Superlative | Qualitative | Donostia Euskal Herriko hiririk politena da. | 'Donostia is the prettiest city in the Basque Country.' |
| Quantitative | Arabako lanposturik gehienak Gasteizen daude. | 'Most of the jobs in Araba are in Gasteiz.' | |
| Equative | Qualitative | Arraina haragia bezain garestia da. | 'Fish is as expensive as meat.' |
| Quantitative | Zuk nik adina lagun dituzu. | 'You have as many friends as I (do).' |
The verb
Although several verbal categories are expressed morphologicallyMorphology (linguistics)
In linguistics, morphology is the identification, analysis and description, in a language, of the structure of morphemes and other linguistic units, such as words, affixes, parts of speech, intonation/stress, or implied context...
, periphrastic tense
Grammatical tense
A tense is a grammatical category that locates a situation in time, to indicate when the situation takes place.Bernard Comrie, Aspect, 1976:6:...
formations predominate. Up to three arguments
Verb argument
In linguistics, a verb argument is a phrase that appears in a syntactic relationship with the verb in a clause. In English, for example, the two most important arguments are the subject and the direct object....
(subject, direct object and indirect object) can be indexed morphologically on single verb forms, and further sets of synthetic
Synthetic language
In linguistic typology, a synthetic language is a language with a high morpheme-per-word ratio, as opposed to a low morpheme-per-word ratio in what is described as an isolating language...
allocutive forms make for an even more complex morphology. The verb is also an area of the language subject to a fair amount of dialectal variation. Given the complexity of this subject and its traditional centrality in descriptions of Basque grammar, it is the subject of a separate Wikipedia article.
The focus rule and the topic rule
Basque word order is largely determined by the notions of focus and topic which are employed to decide how to "package" or structure the propositionProposition
In logic and philosophy, the term proposition refers to either the "content" or "meaning" of a meaningful declarative sentence or the pattern of symbols, marks, or sounds that make up a meaningful declarative sentence...
al content (information) in utterance
Utterance
In spoken language analysis an utterance is a complete unit of speech. It is generally but not always bounded by silence.It can be represented and delineated in written language in many ways. Note that in such areas of research utterances do not exist in written language, only their representations...
s. Focus is a feature
Semantic feature
A semantic feature is a notational method which can be used to express the existence or non-existence of pre-established semantic properties by using plus and minus signs.Man is [+HUMAN], [+MALE], [+ADULT]Woman is [+HUMAN], [-MALE], [+ADULT]...
that attaches to a part of a sentence considered to contain the most important information, the "point" of the utterance. Thus in different discourse contexts the same (basic) sentence can take the focus on different parts, giving rise (in a language like Basque) to different grammatical forms. Topic, on the other hand, refers to a part of a sentence that serves to put the information it contains into context, i.e. to establish "what we are talking about". Basque word order
Word order
In linguistics, word order typology refers to the study of the order of the syntactic constituents of a language, and how different languages can employ different orders. Correlations between orders found in different syntactic subdomains are also of interest...
involves in a very basic way two rules, the "focus rule" and the "topic rule", as follows:
- Focus rule: Whichever constituentConstituent (linguistics)In syntactic analysis, a constituent is a word or a group of words that functions as a single unit within a hierarchical structure. The analysis of constituent structure is associated mainly with phrase structure grammars, although dependency grammars also allow sentence structure to be broken down...
of a sentence is in focus immediately precedes the verb. - Topic rule: A topic is emphasised by placing it at the beginning of the sentence.
Compare, for example:
TXAKURREK hezurrak jaten dituzte. 'Dogs eat bones.' [dog.PLURAL.ARTICLE.ERGATIVE bone.PLURAL.ARTICLE eat.IMPERFECT AUXILIARY]
|
HEZURRAK txakurrek jaten dituzte. 'Dogs eat bones,' 'Bones are eaten by dogs,' 'It is dogs who eat bones.' [bone.PLURAL.ARTICLE dog.PLURAL.ARTICLE.ERGATIVE eat.IMPERFECT AUXILIARY]
|
Basque is sometimes called an SOV (i.e. subject–object–verb) language, but as we can see the order of elements in the Basque sentence is not rigidly determined by grammatical roles (such as subject
Subject (grammar)
The subject is one of the two main constituents of a clause, according to a tradition that can be tracked back to Aristotle and that is associated with phrase structure grammars; the other constituent is the predicate. According to another tradition, i.e...
and object
Object (grammar)
An object in grammar is part of a sentence, and often part of the predicate. It denotes somebody or something involved in the subject's "performance" of the verb. Basically, it is what or whom the verb is acting upon...
) and has to do with other criteria (such as focus and topic). In Basque the SOV is more common and less marked
Markedness
Markedness is a specific kind of asymmetry relationship between elements of linguistic or conceptual structure. In a marked-unmarked relation, one term of an opposition is the broader, dominant one...
than the OSV order, although each is appropriate in different contexts (as are other word orders). That is to say, it is more common and less marked (other things being equal) for the subject to be topic and for the object to be in focus than vice-versa. This may be explained by intrinsic qualities of the concepts "subject" and "object". It is compatible with the cross-linguistic tendency for topichood to be a characteristic feature of prototypical subjects
Subject (grammar)
The subject is one of the two main constituents of a clause, according to a tradition that can be tracked back to Aristotle and that is associated with phrase structure grammars; the other constituent is the predicate. According to another tradition, i.e...
, for example.
Verbal focus
A possibility seemingly not taken into account by the above focus rule, which states that the focused element precedes the verb, is the circumstance wherein the verb itself is in focus. One situation in which this occurs is a clauseClause
In grammar, a clause is the smallest grammatical unit that can express a complete proposition. In some languages it may be a pair or group of words that consists of a subject and a predicate, although in other languages in certain clauses the subject may not appear explicitly as a noun phrase,...
with no (or no focused) non-verbal constituents
Constituent (linguistics)
In syntactic analysis, a constituent is a word or a group of words that functions as a single unit within a hierarchical structure. The analysis of constituent structure is associated mainly with phrase structure grammars, although dependency grammars also allow sentence structure to be broken down...
, only perhaps a topic-subject, as in 'He knows' or 'John is coming' (in contexts where 'he' or 'John' are not focused). Of course there my be other constituents, as long as none of them are focused, e.g. 'She has money' (where the point of the utterance is not to tell us what she has, but whether or not she has it). This type of sentence is sometimes described as one in which what is in focus is not so much the verb as the affirmation of the predicate
Predicate (grammar)
There are two competing notions of the predicate in theories of grammar. Traditional grammar tends to view a predicate as one of two main parts of a sentence, the other being the subject, which the predicate modifies. The other understanding of predicates is inspired from work in predicate calculus...
; i.e. 'She has money' does not really stand in contrast to, say, 'She eats money', but only to 'She doesn't have money'. For the present practical purpose this distinction may be ignored and the term "verbal focus" will be applied to such cases.
The most notable verb-focusing strategy in Basque grammar is use of the affirmative prefix ba-. Attached to a synthetically conjugated
Grammatical conjugation
In linguistics, conjugation is the creation of derived forms of a verb from its principal parts by inflection . Conjugation may be affected by person, number, gender, tense, aspect, mood, voice, or other grammatical categories...
finite verb
Finite verb
A finite verb is a verb that is inflected for person and for tense according to the rules and categories of the languages in which it occurs. Finite verbs can form independent clauses, which can stand on their own as complete sentences....
, this has the effect of putting that verb (or its affirmation, if one prefers) in focus, thereby implying that whatever (if anything) precedes the verb is not in focus. Thus the use of ba- looks as if it blocks application of the general focus rule which assigns focus to an element in pre-verbal position.
Berak daki. [he.ERGATIVE (he).knows.(it)] 'He knows,' 'He's the one who know.'
|
Badaki. [ba-(he).knows.(it)] 'He knows.'
|
BERAK badaki. (or: Badaki BERAK.) '(As for) him, he knows,' 'He knows, (he does).'
|
The affirmative use of ba- (not to confused with the homophonous
Homophony (disambiguation)
Homophony is from the Greek ὁμόφωνος , literally 'same-sounding,' from ὁμός , "same" and φωνή , "sound". It may refer to:*Homophones - words with the same pronunciation....
subordinating prefix meaning 'if') is normally used with synthetic finite forms, thus also John badator or Badator John 'John is coming' (as opposed to John dator 'John is coming'), Badu dirua (or in western Basque Badauka dirua) 'She has money'. In most varieties of Basque, affirmative ba- is not so used with compound tenses or compound verbs, however.
To place a compound verb form (or its affirmation) in focus, it may be enough to place the main sentence stress
Stress (linguistics)
In linguistics, stress is the relative emphasis that may be given to certain syllables in a word, or to certain words in a phrase or sentence. The term is also used for similar patterns of phonetic prominence inside syllables. The word accent is sometimes also used with this sense.The stress placed...
(which normally goes on the focused item) on the first component of the verbal compound expression. Here it seems that the auxiliary
Auxiliary verb
In linguistics, an auxiliary verb is a verb that gives further semantic or syntactic information about a main or full verb. In English, the extra meaning provided by an auxiliary verb alters the basic meaning of the main verb to make it have one or more of the following functions: passive voice,...
part of the expression is treated as representing the "verb" in the general focus rule, thereby predictably throwing the focus onto the preceding component, which is now the main verb. In western dialects an alternative procedure used to emphasise the placement of focus on the verb is to make this a complement
Complement (linguistics)
In grammar the term complement is used with different meanings. The primary meaning is a word, phrase or clause that is necessary in a sentence to complete its meaning. We find complements that function as an argument and complements that exist within arguments.Both complements and modifiers add...
of the verb egin 'do'.
Bérak ikusi du. 'He has seen it,' 'He's the one who has seen it.'
|
Ikúsi du. 'He has seen it (he has indeed!).'
|
BERAK ikúsi du. (or: Ikúsi du BERAK.) '(As for) him, he has (indeed) seen it.'
Western Basque alternative: (Berak) ikusi egin du. |
Further observations on focus and topic
There are certain exceptions to the general focus rule:"Heavy" Heavy NP shift "Heavy NP shift" is a grammatical phenomenon where a "heavy" noun phrase appears in a position to the right of its canonical position under certain circumstances... constituents may be placed after an unfocused verb even when they are (pragmatically Pragmatics Pragmatics is a subfield of linguistics which studies the ways in which context contributes to meaning. Pragmatics encompasses speech act theory, conversational implicature, talk in interaction and other approaches to language behavior in philosophy, sociology, and linguistics. It studies how the... ) focused. |
Atzo ikusi nuen asto bat betaurrekoekin. 'Yesterday I saw a donkey with (i.e. wearing) glasses.' |
Imperative Imperative mood The imperative mood expresses commands or requests as a grammatical mood. These commands or requests urge the audience to act a certain way. It also may signal a prohibition, permission, or any other kind of exhortation.- Morphology :... verbs often precede other constituents (except for topics). |
|
|
Some subordinate clauses are exempt from certain rules. For example, an unfocused verb is allowed to occur without any focused clause constituent in such clauses. |
|
Systematic exceptions apart, focus assignment (as defined in the preceding sections) is an obligatory feature of Basque clauses. Because it is obligatory and automatic, such focus assignment need not be pragmatically marked
Markedness
Markedness is a specific kind of asymmetry relationship between elements of linguistic or conceptual structure. In a marked-unmarked relation, one term of an opposition is the broader, dominant one...
and does not necessarily signify emphatic focusing or foregrounding
Foregrounding
Foregrounding is the practice of making something stand out from the surrounding words or images. It is “the ‘throwing into relief’ of the linguistic sign against the background of the norms of ordinary language.” The term was first associated with Paul Garvin in the 1960s, who used it as a...
. This observation is particularly applicable when focus is assigned in accordance with predictable or prototypical patterns, such as when the direct object takes the focus position in a transitive clause, or when the verb is formally focused in an intransitive clause.
In some varieties or styles of Basque, e.g. in poetic diction, one may achieve more emphatic focus (even on an object) by inverting the usual verb-auxiliary order: Txakurrek hezurrak dituzte jaten. In ordinary colloquial usage many speakers do not allow this, but some allow other such "inversions", e.g. with compound verbs (light-verb constructions), e.g. normal Irakaslearekin hitz egingo dut 'I'll speak to the teacher' (ordinary focus on irakaslearekin) versus more marked Irakaslearekin egingo dut hitz (emphatic focus on irakaslearekin).
A topic may be backgrounded (although arguably still remaining a topic) by placement at the end of a sentence rather than at the beginning, e.g. Hezurrak jaten dituzte txakurrek, roughly 'They eat bones, dogs'; so also Ez dakit, nik 'I don't know', where nik is no doubt a topic of sorts since if it weren't there would be no need to mention it at all (unmarked: Ez dakit).
Clause-initial verbs
Although the following restrictions on the placement of verbs within the clause are the outcome of the various rules already given, it may be useful to summarise those restrictions here.A finite verb form (a synthetically conjugative verb or auxiliary) cannot stand in absolute clause-initial position unless: (1) it is preceded by affirmative (verb-focusing) ba-... |
Badakit. 'I know.' |
(2) it is preceded by negative ez (see below)... |
Ez dauka dirurik. 'She hasn't got any money.' |
(3) it is imperative (or optative)... |
|
|
(4) certain subordinate clauses... |
datorren astean 'next week' |
A compound verb form (a verb in a compound tense or a compound verb construction) may be clause-initial in cases of verbal focus: |
|
Negation
Negation is expressed by ez preceding the finite verb Finite verb A finite verb is a verb that is inflected for person and for tense according to the rules and categories of the languages in which it occurs. Finite verbs can form independent clauses, which can stand on their own as complete sentences.... form. |
|
|
If there is no finite verb in the clause Clause In grammar, a clause is the smallest grammatical unit that can express a complete proposition. In some languages it may be a pair or group of words that consists of a subject and a predicate, although in other languages in certain clauses the subject may not appear explicitly as a noun phrase,... , such as when the participle Participle In linguistics, a participle is a word that shares some characteristics of both verbs and adjectives. It can be used in compound verb tenses or voices , or as a modifier... on its own is used as an imperative Imperative mood The imperative mood expresses commands or requests as a grammatical mood. These commands or requests urge the audience to act a certain way. It also may signal a prohibition, permission, or any other kind of exhortation.- Morphology :... or in non-finite Non-finite verb In linguistics, a non-finite verb is a verb form that is not limited by a subject and, more generally, is not fully inflected by categories that are marked inflectionally in language, such as tense, aspect, mood, number, gender, and person... subordinate clauses, ez may precede a non-finite verb Non-finite verb In linguistics, a non-finite verb is a verb form that is not limited by a subject and, more generally, is not fully inflected by categories that are marked inflectionally in language, such as tense, aspect, mood, number, gender, and person... . (VN stands for verbal noun Verbal noun In linguistics, the verbal noun turns a verb into a noun and corresponds to the infinitive in English language usage. In English the infinitive form of the verb is formed when preceded by to, e.g... here.) |
|
|
There is a strong tendency for other sentence constituents Constituent (linguistics) In syntactic analysis, a constituent is a word or a group of words that functions as a single unit within a hierarchical structure. The analysis of constituent structure is associated mainly with phrase structure grammars, although dependency grammars also allow sentence structure to be broken down... to follow a negated finite verb, except when topicalised. Thus the general focus rule (see above) does not apply with negated finite verb forms (in the same way as it doesn't apply with verbs with the affirmative ba- prefix, see also above). |
|
|
Compound tense forms of verbs, and also compound verbs, are negated by placing ez in front of the finite auxiliary Auxiliary verb In linguistics, an auxiliary verb is a verb that gives further semantic or syntactic information about a main or full verb. In English, the extra meaning provided by an auxiliary verb alters the basic meaning of the main verb to make it have one or more of the following functions: passive voice,... (or light verb Light verb In linguistics, a light verb is a verb participating in complex predication that has little semantic content of its own, but provides through inflection some details on the event semantics, such as aspect, mood, or tense... ); the other components of the verbal construction are normally placed after the negated finite form. |
|
|
In this construction the postposed verb component(s) may be separated from the finite auxiliary or light verb. Focused constituents, unless somewhat heavy, will be placed between the two. |
|
|
An indefinite subject of an intransitive verb, or an indefinite direct object of a transitive verb, usually take the negative polarity article -(r)ik instead of the normal article -a, -ak in negative (or other negative-polar) sentences. |
|
|
There are no true negative pronouns (or adverbs, etc.) as such. The negative-polar pronouns etc. are used in negative contexts (and other negative-polarity contexts too). All such words may be combined directly with ez (or gabe 'without', which also has an intrinsically negative meaning). Some speakers do accept uses of negative-polar words in isolation, with ez implicit. |
|
Questions
Yes-no question Question A question may be either a linguistic expression used to make a request for information, or else the request itself made by such an expression. This information may be provided with an answer.... s either take the same form as the corresponding statement, or incorporate a question marker Marker (linguistics) In linguistics, a marker is a free or bound morpheme that indicates the grammatical function of the marked word, phrase, or sentence. In analytic languages and agglutinative languages, markers are generally easily distinguished. In fusional languages and polysynthetic languages, this is often not... . |
|
There are two question markers: al for straightforward yes-no questions, and ote for tentative questions of any kind (yes-no or not). Both al and ote are placed immediately in front of the finite verb
Finite verb
A finite verb is a verb that is inflected for person and for tense according to the rules and categories of the languages in which it occurs. Finite verbs can form independent clauses, which can stand on their own as complete sentences....
form. The question marker al is not used pan-dialectally. In some dialects the same function is performed by a suffix -a attached to the finite verb form (thus the equivalents of the above examples are John ikusi duzu(i)a? and Badakia?). Still other dialects lack either interrogative al or interrogative -a.
See Negation above concerning the use of negative polarity items; these may occur in yes-no questions. |
|
|
In choice questions, 'or' is either ala or edo, although the former is often taught as more correct. |
|
|
|
Word order
Word order
In linguistics, word order typology refers to the study of the order of the syntactic constituents of a language, and how different languages can employ different orders. Correlations between orders found in different syntactic subdomains are also of interest...
in wh-questions (i.e. those with question words) is fully accounted for by the general rules of Basque word order, granted a further rule for Basque (shared by many other languages) which states that interrogative word
Interrogative word
In linguistics, an interrogative word is a function word used for the item interrupted in an information statement. Interrogative words are sometimes called wh-words because most of English interrogative words start with wh-...
s and phrases (e.g. nor 'who?', zein etxe zuritan? 'in which white house?', zenbat diru 'how much money?', etc.) are obligatorily focused.
Therefore, wh-expressions must immediately precede the verb, and none of the verb-focusing constructions are possible (since these would result in moving the focus away from the wh-expression). |
|
|
The interrogative phrase is often placed first, but as in other sentences, topics may be foregrounded through fronting and so precede the wh-expression; such constructions are fairly common in Basque. |
|