Ngiyambaa (Pama-Nyungan)

Mismatch: morphosyntax: transitivity

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Ngyiyambaa has three conjugation classes: the L-, R- and Y-conjugations:

	L-conjugation	R-conjugation	Y-conjugation
IMP	-: ~ -ya:	-ra:	-DHa ~ -ga
PST	-(i)yi	-yi	-NHi
PRS	-ɽa ~ -ya	-na	-NHa
IRR	-laga	-raga	-yaga
PURP	-li	-ri	-giri

(p. 158)

Transitive verbs of the L- and R- conjugations regularly form intransitive counterparts by switching to the Y-conjugation:

transitive (R-conjugation)				intransitive (Y-conjugation)
ŋadhu=nu:	dhu-raga	mura-gu		ŋindu	dhuri-yaga	mura-gu
I.NOM=2.OBL	spear-IRR	spear-INS		you.NOM	spear-IRR	spear-INS
'I will spear you with a spear.'				'You will get speared by a spear.'

(p. 169)

transitive (L-conjugation)						intransitive (Y-conjugation)
winar-u	bura:y	ŋulu	ga:nb-iyi	biduɽa:-dhu		bura:y	ŋulu	ga:nba-nhi
woman-ERG	child.ABS	face.ABS	wipe-PST	cloth-INS		child.ABS	face.ABS	wipe-PST
'A woman wiped a child's face with a cloth.'						'A child wiped (its) face.'

(p. 170)

(Note that, in Donaldson's (1980) description, the nominative case in pronouns is equivalent to the ergative and absolutive in other nominals.)

On the basis of such alternations, it looks as if the L-/R- conjugations indicate that the verb transitive, and the Y-conjugation that it is intransitive. This is true for the class of bound verb roots which form compound verbs (p. 155); there are 21 of these, and this is a highly productive means of verb formation (p. 152). However, among the free verb roots, there are a considerable number of mismatches between conjugation class membership and transitivity: some verbs belong to the L-conjugation but are intransitive, and some belong to the Y-conjugation but are transitive. The statistics are as follows:

conjugation class	number of roots	% transitive
L1	200	70%
L2	40	66%
R	2	100%
Y1	110	40%
Y2	16	63%

(p. 154; L1~L2 and Y1~Y2 represent subclasses of the given conjugation classes)

Thus, approximately 31% of the L-conjugation roots are intransitive, and 43% of the Y-conjugution roots are transitive. Additionally, there ar two more restricted deviations (p. 154):

• one root is found in both the L- and Y- conjugtions, and is transitive in both: winaŋa-l 'listen, hear' and winaŋa-y 'think about, remember'.
• one Y-conjugation root can be used both transitively and intransitively: waŋaɽa- 'forget'.

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References

Donaldson, Tamsin. 1980. Ngiyambaa: the language of the Wangaaybuwan . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.