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Some consider statives to be in between nouns and verbs, others to be a superclass of nouns and verbs. Either way they can take markers from both, depending on what function they serve.
When a stative modifies a noun, it agrees in case (noun suffix position 5) if it is not directly adjacent to the left of the noun. If it acts as a head noun in an NP it has the meaning "someone/something [stative]", like "the blue one", "the big thing", it can then take all the noun-markers.
All statives have an intransitive verb-meaning: "to be_[stative]", like "to be big", "to be blue". They can always carry verb-markers for evidentiality, certainty and tense. Through causation, an agent can make something else enter/leave the [state], show that the [state] is changing or change the [state], that is, gain a transitive meaning. A verb derived from a stative acts like any other verb, carrying any verb-marker, except as noted in Verbification below. Finally, statives can act as adverbs by modifying verbs.
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stative stem - 1 - 2 - 4 - (Noun case)
stative stem - 1 - 2 - 4 - (All noun-suffixes)
stative stem - 1 - 2 - (All verb-suffixes except causatives)
stative stem - 1 - 2 - 3 - (All verb-suffixes)
stative stem - 1 - 2 - 4
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Only statives are ever marked for duration with this set of markers.
| -ri(þ) | temporary, partial |
| -la(gh) | permanent, complete |
The long forms are used if followed by a vowel as in example 1a), or nothing as in example 1b). The short forms are used if followed by a consonant, as in example 1c). Usually it is the following marker that adapts to what precedes. When this is not the case, as here, Taruven grammarians talk of a weak/tame marker, a vüjo.
-lagh is less marked than using the sentence-word sella. It is rarely used together with tense-markers.
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Only statives can be marked with the comparison-markers.
| -eìrinn | negative excessive |
| -eìre | negative superlative |
| -e | negative comparative |
| ∅ | neutral |
| -a | positive comparative |
| -arre | positive superlative |
| -arrinn | positive excessive |
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In English, as exemplified below...
Using the terms defined by Stassen (1985), "John" is the comparee NP, "renowned" is the comparative predicate and "Mary" is the standard, or comparison.
This is the most frequent way of comparing.
Using a conjunction is less frequent than using case, but is preferred in some dialects. The conjunction itself is optional.
Comparison with verbs is rare but is considered to be of a higher register than the others. The verbs faìre to be equal and egie to be different are both complemented verbs, with the standard of comparison being the subject and marked as such with -el and the comparee being the non-clausal complement marked with the benefactive. However, the non-clausal complement must be plural, and using the clausal variant is somewhat unstandard.
garel faìre ī aið ū
gar -el faìre ī a -ið ū
strong -CSUBJ equal 3s and -BEN 2s<
Strength is an equality between he/she and yougarel faìre suìðhe
gar -el faìre suìðhe
strong -CSUBJ equal 3q.BEN
Strength is an equality between usoverview | structure | duration | degree | comparison | verbification | tense
| -r(e) | intransitive: instantaneous change of state |
| -l(a) | intransitive: gradual change of state |
| -ge | causation (transitive verb) |
| -geke | causation (ditransitive verb) |
| -aš | causation (complemented verb) |
The change of state markers usually implies that its subject enters into the state. If the subject leaves the state, the state is negated, as seen in the examples below. Note that ekuir is merely a worn form of ëkuìr.
As with the duration-markers, the change of state markers are vüjo.
Note that an intransitive or complemented verb (examples 9b,c) and f) below) derived from a stative can take inanimate subjects, the only limitation on the subject (and on the object in the transitive case) is that it is capable of being in the specified state. While a beneficiary is optional, as it is with regular verbs, example 9e) makes the beneficiary mandatory. Finally, example 9g) is a shorthand version of example 9h).
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Statives can be marked for tense just like verbs.
| -ra | past, former, ex- |
| ∅ | present/generic/undefined, current |
| -su | future |
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ī kuìlla ī kuì -l -ra 3s be_alive -COS.gradual -PASThe/she gradually became alive
ī vararra ī var -a -r -ra 3s be_blue -more -COS.sudden -PASThe/she suddenly became bluer
ū geàlarrinn tlaaþin ū geàl -arrinn tla -aþ -in 2s be_big -too_much clothes -PAT -PAUCALyou're too big for the clothes
falarrinn fal -arrinn water -too.mucha flood
šarraagenn šarra -a -ge =enn diversity -more -CAU -doersomebody who increases diversity
vafirge yár šaỳegadaþ va- firr -ge yár šaỳe -ge =adh -aþ IMP- cold -CAU warm-colored flat -CAU -result -PATcool the red-hot flattened object
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