Objects
The object of a non-specific verb must end in a suffix that indicates its syntactic role:
- Piitamik takuvit? Do you see Peter?
The object of a non-specific verb takes one of the suffixes below, depending on its number:
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Indefinite suffixes Singular -mik /m/ nasalises a preceding consonant Dual -rnik deletes any preceding consonant and doubles the length of the preceding vowel Plural -nik /n/ nasalises a preceding consonant
A film-inspired example using the verb taku- - to see - and inuviniq - dead person:
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Singular: Inuvinirmik takujunga I see a dead person. Dual: Inuviniirnik takujunga I see two dead people. Plural: Inuvinirnik takujunga I see dead people.
To say "I see the dead person" or "I see the dead people" requires a specific verb, which is described in the section below.
Read more about this topic: Inuit Grammar, Non-specific Verbs
Famous quotes containing the word objects:
“The objects of a financier are, then, to secure an ample revenue; to impose it with judgment and equality; to employ it economically; and, when necessity obliges him to make use of credit, to secure its foundations in that instance, and for ever, by the clearness and candour of his proceedings, the exactness of his calculations, and the solidity of his funds.”
—Edmund Burke (1729–1797)
“We are all instruments endowed with feeling and memory. Our senses are so many strings that are struck by surrounding objects and that also frequently strike themselves.”
—Denis Diderot (1713–84)
“A man is but a little thing in the midst of the objects of nature, yet, by the moral quality radiating from his countenance, he may abolish all considerations of magnitude, and in his manners equal the majesty of the world.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)