Grammatical Categories of Verbs

Abstract

Grammatical categories in Prinmi are largely expressed by clitics and, to a lesser extent, copular auxiliary constructions. According to the functions, verbal clitics are classified into four groups: (1) the aspect group, which encompasses aspectual and modal clitics, (2) the sentence-type group, which comprises negative and interrogative clitics, (3) the evidential group, and (4) the attitudinal group. Verbal clitics impart a new meaning such as marking a question or a surprise to a clause. The imperfective aspect in Prinmi conveys three kinds of grammatical meaning: progressive, habitual, and generic/gnomic situations. Occurring at the end of an utterance, attitudinal clitics usually inject extra information into the sentence about the speaker's attitude or emotional state at the time of speaking. The meaning they convey is typically subtle and the kind of emotion experienced is not as punctual or intense as that expressed by an interjection.Keywords: attitudinal clitics; interrogative clitics; modal clitics; verbal clitics