Glossing and Morphology

Navajo verbs have notoriously complex morphology. We gloss the component morphemes (meaningful parts) in their order of appearance. We include the basic meaning of the stem (=inflected root) with its mode, the arguments (indicated by integers 1, 2, 3, and 4 for first, second, third, and fourth person), the plural prefix (da-) if it is present, any incorporated postpositions, and any derivational prefixes that affect the valence or meaning of the verb significantly. We do not gloss every morpheme posited in the analyses of, for example Sapir & Hoijer (1967), Faltz (1998), or Young & Morgan (1987).

Navajo sentences are provided in the conventional orthography. Navajo verbs are polysynthetic, meaning that it is difficult to divide them into their component morphemes without considerable abstraction. We do provide glosses for significant morphemes, but we do not attempt to indicate morpheme boundaries within the conventional orthography. Those interested in morphological analysis are directed to Kari (1973) and Faltz (1998), in addition to Young (2000), Young & Morgan (1987), and Young, Morgan, & Midgette (1992).

In our verb glosses, hyphens indicate boundaries between morpheme glosses. Periods are used to gloss a single Navajo morpheme that requires more than one English word or abbreviation to gloss. Subject, object, indirect object, and object of an incorporated postposition are indicated by morpheme order: Indirect object or object of a postposition appear first, followed by a direct object, with the subject appearing last.

Example (i) is an intransitive verb. The numeral 4 indicates that the subject is fourth person. I indicates that the mode is imperfective. The verb stem is the final syllable (-taał). The initial syllable (da-) indicates that the verb is plural.

Example (ii) is a transitive verb. The object prefix precedes the subject prefix, thus the gloss indicates that the subject is first person and the direct object is third person. The mode is perfective, as indicated by P.

Example (iii) has three arguments. The indirect object precedes the direct object, which precedes subject. This verb is classificatory: SSO indicates that part of the verb’s meaning is that a slender, stiff object is being handled. For this verb, the SSO corresponds to the direct object. The mode of the verb is perfective.

Example (iv) consists of a transitive verb that has an incorporated postposition, which itself has an argument. The order of prefixes is object of postposition (3), followed by a postposition (from), followed by direct object (3), followed by Subject (1), followed by the verb stem (take.OC.P). P indicates that the verb is in the perfective mode. OC indicates that the direct object is handled in an open container.

There are no verbs in Navajo that have both an indirect object and the object of an incorporated postposition. Nor are there any verbs with more than three arguments.

(i)
dahojitaał
pl-4-sing.I
They are singing
(ii)
bidánééł’į́į́’
3-1-look.at.P
I looked at it
(iii)
Shiidiitsi
1-3-3-point.SSO.P
S/he pointed it at me
(iv)
Bits’áníką́
3-from-3-1-take.OC.P
I took it (in an open container) away from it

Glosses used

Glosses for Arguments

gloss meaning English Navajo morpheme
1 first person (speaker) I sh
2 second person (spoken to) you ni
3 third person (spoken about) he/ she/ it ∅ (yi/bi)
4 fourth person (spoken about) one ji (ho)

Glosses for Modes

CI
Continuative Imperfective
F
Future Mode
I
Imperfective Mode
N
Neuter Mode
NI
Neuter Imperfective Mode
NP
Neuter Perfective Mode
P
Perfective Mode
Prog
Progressive Mode
R
Iterative Mode
SPN
Si-Perfective Neuter Mode
U
Usitative Mode

Glosses for Classificatory Verbs

AnO
Animate Object
FFO
Flat Flexible Object
LPB
Load, Pack, Burden
LUG
Anything carried on one’s back
MM
Mushy Matter
NCM
Non-Compact Matter
OC
Open Container
PlO1
Plural Objects1 (several large objects)
PlO2
Plural Objects2 (profusion of small objects)
SFO
Slender Flexible Object
SRO
Solid Roundish Object
SSO
Slender Stiff Object
STREAM
Anything moved by streaming or pouring

Other glosses

dpl
duo-plural (two or more)
du
dual (two)
NEG
negative
pl
plural (three or more)
Q
question particle or enclitic
TOP
topic