| A. sede=S | S stand |
| B. sede=A=O | A stand O (up) |
We’ll start with the ambi-transitive verb sede ‘stand’. As an intransitive, the subject is the person or thing standing upright. As a transitive, it acquires a causative meaning, with the object being the person or thing standing and the subject is the cause. A number of verbs in Xunumi-Wudu follow this pattern.
A note on word order: Word order of phrases is free. Word order within phrases is less so. The verb phrase consists of a head verb, like sede, possibly followed by an auxiliary verb (more later), with the last verb suffixed with a tense and evidentiality suffix (which I will ignore for now). The verb phrase then takes required pronominal clitics marking subject, then object. There are two sets of pronominal clitics, the A set used for subjects (S and A) and the O set used for objects (O). It gets a little more complicated with some verbs, as sometimes, especially with intransitive constructions, an O clitic can be used for a subject. When this happens, it signals that the subject is non-volitional or reluctant.
Peripheral arguments can also occur, though these are never marked in the verb phrase. Instead, these consist of a noun phrase of some sort, tagged with one of four enclitics: su, du, pe, or ne. With sede, the location where one is standing, or where one stands something up, is marked with su.
Auxiliary verbs include ones can change the valency of the verb, including causative and passive constructions. Since sede is ambitransitive, these auxiliaries can only be used with sense B. A causative adds an argument, A, relegating the original A to an O position so A makes O stand X up. X is relegated to a peripheral phrase marked with du. It makes no sense to use a passive with B, as sense A already covers making the O in sense B into S. Applicative and anti-passive constructions are rare, and do not require auxiliaries.
Sede can form a verb phrase with the adverb goli: goli-sede=S which means ‘dwell’.
Sede is also used as a copula and as an auxiliary.
| C. sede=CS | CS is (CC, adjective, peripheral phrase) |
| D. auxiliary V-sede | V-ing |
More on that tomorrow.