{"history":[],"article":{"id":"c52a1356-cdf7-44a5-aa43-01d986115f63","title":"Sotho deficient verbs","slug":"sotho-deficient-verbs","content":":::summary\n:::\n\n# \nIn the [Sotho language](https://bliptext.com/articles/sotho-language), the **deficient verbs** are a special subset of [Sesotho verbs](https://bliptext.com/articles/sesotho-verbs) that require a subordinate or complementary verb to complete their action, and which are used to form many tenses and to impart certain shades of meaning to the [predicate](https://bliptext.com/articles/predicate-grammar).\nThese verbs form part of multi-verbal conjugations comprising a string of verbs (each with its own [subjectival concord](https://bliptext.com/articles/sesotho-concords)) and [verbal auxiliaries](https://bliptext.com/articles/sesotho-grammar).\nDeficient verbs, being \"deficient\", are never used alone.\nMany of them are irregular in form and have irregular inflexions.\nMany of these verbs seem radical in nature, while others (especially those with complex implications) are obviously derived from certain extant normal verbs (but are used with slightly different meanings).\nWhat distinguishes the deficient usage of these normal verbs is the fact that they are followed by another verb and affect its meaning (and only the main verb may carry an [objectival concord](https://bliptext.com/articles/sesotho-concords)).\n\n# Multi-verbal syntax\nDeficient verbs are used to alter the meaning of complementary normal verbs, which have to follow the deficient verb(s) in word order.\nThe following diagram represents the general shape of a typical multi-verbal conjugation (\"In vain I edit them all\"):\n(The bullets • are used here to join the parts of single words which would have been written separately in [the current disjunctive orthography](https://bliptext.com/articles/sesotho-orthography))\nApart from [the verbal complex](https://bliptext.com/articles/sesotho-verbs), researchers of [Bantu languages](https://bliptext.com/articles/bantu-languages) have noted that when the main verb is followed by its (first) direct object then this structure creates a \"verb phrase\" (or \"prosodic phrase\"), which may be treated as one phonological unit or domain by some grammatical processes.\nFor example, many languages with unbounded tonal shift or spread laws (unlike Sesotho's bounded spread — see [Sesotho tonology](https://bliptext.com/articles/sesotho-tonology)) may often shift or spread a high tone underlying in the verbal complex all the way to the final, penult, or antepenultimate syllable of the following word, but only if that word is the verb's object.\nOne Sesotho tonal law that's mildly sensitive to the verb phrase is the finality restriction (FR), which is not applied if the verb is immediately followed by the object.\nThe structure created by deficient verbs followed by a normal verb is unique in a few ways:\n\n# Classification\nEven though many other Bantu languages have some deficient verbs, the system used in the [Sotho–Tswana languages](https://bliptext.com/articles/sotho-tswana-languages) is unusually intricate and specialized, with a rather large number of verbs that may be used deficiently.\nAlthough the deficient verbs themselves may usually be used in various moods and tenses, the main verb is limited to only a limited number of moods and tenses, and it is the job of the deficient verb to reflect any changes in these parameters (if it supports them).\nIf multiple deficient verbs are used then each verb affects the mood of the following.\nBy examining the mood and tense of the main verb, deficient verbs may be classified into six groups according to the type of complement they govern.\nIt is clear that most groups are followed by participial or subjunctive moods, which are precisely the moods often used when forming sequences of verbs or subordinate clauses using non-deficient verbs.\nWithin the groups, the verbs tend to have similar forms, but often vastly differing conjugation possibilities and behaviours.\nSome of the verbs are only used in a handful of tenses and moods; some verbs indicate negation by negating the deficient verb itself, some by negating the main verb, and some may do either (or even both at the same time).\nWithin Groups IV to VI, there is no set number of members and different speakers and communities may differ in the verbs they regularly use.\nBasically, a verb may become deficient if it used in certain consecutive constructions with a slightly modified meaning that disappears when the verb is used alone.\nSince the modified meaning does not make any sense when the verb is used alone, the deficient use is marked by having the complement follow the verb directly and with no pause (thus creating a multi-verbal phrase).\nIn the example sentences under the following sections, the entire verb sequence is **bold** while the complement verb to the deficient verbs is **bold** and underlined .\n

**Group I** contains a small number of essential verbs, without some of which it would be impossible to form certain meanings in Sesotho.\nIn form they seem to be contracted perfects, ending with the vowel instead of the usual.\nEach verb only has one form (the three forms of -be are treated separately) with no change in tense or mood, but the complement may assume a variety of participial tenses.\nThese deficient verbs may be compounded to form certain tenses, and they may be contracted as well.\nThe firn -se comes from -setse, the perfect of -sala (remain behind), and this form is often used in the [Northern Sotho](https://bliptext.com/articles/northern-sotho) languages for the same purpose as the Sesotho form.\nExamples:\n
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**Group II** contains three verbs.\nTwo of these look like normal verbs ending with -a, while the other is obviously the perfect -ile of the verb -ya ('go').\nThese verbs behave very differently from each other, but are united by the fact that they take only a past subjunctive complement.\nThe morpheme -ile forms the bi-verbal past tense.\nBasically, using a verb with this deficient verb is an alternative to using the perfect form of a verb, but the use of the deficient verb definitely has a more \"completed\" (definite past) — though not perfect — feel to it.\nWith stative verbs the perfect form actually gives a present-perfect stative tense, and this differs from the use of this deficient verb as it gives a completed past tense meaning.\nThis may be compounded with most Group I verbs (except the simple subjunctive -be) to form perfect, past exclusive, past potential, and past future (\"will have done\") tenses.\nThe Group I verb appears first, with -ile following pronounced with participial sub-mood tones.\nThe morpheme -ka is used in two tenses — remote past indicative (-kile), and present potential (-ka ka) — and is connected with the simple [verbal auxiliary](https://bliptext.com/articles/sesotho-grammar) infix -ka- used to form the potential mood.\nThe remote past form is highly irregular and is basically an alternative to the -ile deficient verb (indeed, the negative of the -ile forms is constructed with this verb); the present potential emphasises the use of the simple infix -ka-.\nAs with the simple infix, the first person singular subjectival concord ke- becomes a syllabic (written ⟨n⟩ and attached to the following k) by dissimilation.\nAn alternative to -kile is to compound -ka with -ile.\nThis construction is very frequently contracted.\nThe morpheme -tla is only found in the positive present potential (it has no negative) with a meaning of \"lest\" or \"or else\", used in a type of consecutive construction.\nThe verb is obviously connected with the normal verb meaning \"come\", but used deficiently with a modified meaning.\n
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**Group III** contains a small number of verbs, all with irregular forms ending in the vowel.\nFour of the verbs signify habitual actions, with very minor semantic differences between them, another is occasional in the positive but habitual in the negative (it also forms the negative of -ye which has no negative of its own), and yet another simply the serves the same function as Group II -ile.\nNote that, apart from a rare consecutive past habitual construction, the only time the perfect subjunctive mood may be used is after these deficient verbs.\nTo form past, future, and potential tenses the Group -ne, -tla be, and -ka be are used by most of these verbs to form tri-verbal forms.\nExamples:\n
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**Group IV** verbs are rather special in that they may be used in a variety of tense forms, but the form of the deficient verb influences the form of the complement.\nNo one verb may be used in all these configurations and the verbs differ in their uses.\nMost of them have non-deficient counterparts and end with the normal -a, but some conjugate slightly irregularly.\n(The table below gives the normal verbs' meanings, if any, in brackets)\nExamples:\n
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**Group V** contains several normal looking verbs with regular inflexions, most of which have non-deficient uses.\nSeveral tense forms exist for the deficient verbs, while the complement is usually present participial though some of the verbs may also have a perfect participial complement.\nExample:\n
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**Group VI** contains a number of verbs used with an infinitive complement and which give certain shades of meaning.\nThe infinitive complement is basically a direct noun object (infinitives and imperatives are not verbal moods), and indeed many other verbs may be used this way but are not considered deficient as their meanings do not change slightly when they are.\nExamples:\n

","current_revision":null,"created_by":"kACnuQmH5k9Nr5VNVEpVeg7XpvUmMctD","created_at":"2025-01-26T10:03:28.484Z","updated_at":"2025-01-26T10:03:28.484Z","search_vector":"'defici':2 'sotho':1 'verb':3","search_content":" \n \n\n# \nIn the [Sotho language](https://bliptext.com/articles/sotho-language), the **deficient verbs** are a special subset of [Sesotho verbs](https://bliptext.com/articles/sesotho-verbs) that require a subordinate or complementary verb to complete their action, and which are used to form many tenses and to impart certain shades of meaning to the [predicate](https://bliptext.com/articles/predicate-grammar).\nThese verbs form part of multi-verbal conjugations comprising a string of verbs (each with its own [subjectival concord](https://bliptext.com/articles/sesotho-concords)) and [verbal auxiliaries](https://bliptext.com/articles/sesotho-grammar).\nDeficient verbs, being \"deficient\", are never used alone.\nMany of them are irregular in form and have irregular inflexions.\nMany of these verbs seem radical in nature, while others (especially those with complex implications) are obviously derived from certain extant normal verbs (but are used with slightly different meanings).\nWhat distinguishes the deficient usage of these normal verbs is the fact that they are followed by another verb and affect its meaning (and only the main verb may carry an [objectival concord](https://bliptext.com/articles/sesotho-concords)).\n\n# Multi-verbal syntax\nDeficient verbs are used to alter the meaning of complementary normal verbs, which have to follow the deficient verb(s) in word order.\nThe following diagram represents the general shape of a typical multi-verbal conjugation (\"In vain I edit them all\"):\n(The bullets • are used here to join the parts of single words which would have been written separately in [the current disjunctive orthography](https://bliptext.com/articles/sesotho-orthography))\nApart from [the verbal complex](https://bliptext.com/articles/sesotho-verbs), researchers of [Bantu languages](https://bliptext.com/articles/bantu-languages) have noted that when the main verb is followed by its (first) direct object then this structure creates a \"verb phrase\" (or \"prosodic phrase\"), which may be treated as one phonological unit or domain by some grammatical processes.\nFor example, many languages with unbounded tonal shift or spread laws (unlike Sesotho's bounded spread — see [Sesotho tonology](https://bliptext.com/articles/sesotho-tonology)) may often shift or spread a high tone underlying in the verbal complex all the way to the final, penult, or antepenultimate syllable of the following word, but only if that word is the verb's object.\nOne Sesotho tonal law that's mildly sensitive to the verb phrase is the finality restriction (FR), which is not applied if the verb is immediately followed by the object.\nThe structure created by deficient verbs followed by a normal verb is unique in a few ways:\n\n# Classification\nEven though many other Bantu languages have some deficient verbs, the system used in the [Sotho–Tswana languages](https://bliptext.com/articles/sotho-tswana-languages) is unusually intricate and specialized, with a rather large number of verbs that may be used deficiently.\nAlthough the deficient verbs themselves may usually be used in various moods and tenses, the main verb is limited to only a limited number of moods and tenses, and it is the job of the deficient verb to reflect any changes in these parameters (if it supports them).\nIf multiple deficient verbs are used then each verb affects the mood of the following.\nBy examining the mood and tense of the main verb, deficient verbs may be classified into six groups according to the type of complement they govern.\nIt is clear that most groups are followed by participial or subjunctive moods, which are precisely the moods often used when forming sequences of verbs or subordinate clauses using non-deficient verbs.\nWithin the groups, the verbs tend to have similar forms, but often vastly differing conjugation possibilities and behaviours.\nSome of the verbs are only used in a handful of tenses and moods; some verbs indicate negation by negating the deficient verb itself, some by negating the main verb, and some may do either (or even both at the same time).\nWithin Groups IV to VI, there is no set number of members and different speakers and communities may differ in the verbs they regularly use.\nBasically, a verb may become deficient if it used in certain consecutive constructions with a slightly modified meaning that disappears when the verb is used alone.\nSince the modified meaning does not make any sense when the verb is used alone, the deficient use is marked by having the complement follow the verb directly and with no pause (thus creating a multi-verbal phrase).\nIn the example sentences under the following sections, the entire verb sequence is **bold** while the complement verb to the deficient verbs is **bold** and underlined .\n \n \n **Group I** contains a small number of essential verbs, without some of which it would be impossible to form certain meanings in Sesotho.\nIn form they seem to be contracted perfects, ending with the vowel instead of the usual.\nEach verb only has one form (the three forms of -be are treated separately) with no change in tense or mood, but the complement may assume a variety of participial tenses.\nThese deficient verbs may be compounded to form certain tenses, and they may be contracted as well.\nThe firn -se comes from -setse, the perfect of -sala (remain behind), and this form is often used in the [Northern Sotho](https://bliptext.com/articles/northern-sotho) languages for the same purpose as the Sesotho form.\nExamples:\n \n \n **Group II** contains three verbs.\nTwo of these look like normal verbs ending with -a, while the other is obviously the perfect -ile of the verb -ya ('go').\nThese verbs behave very differently from each other, but are united by the fact that they take only a past subjunctive complement.\nThe morpheme -ile forms the bi-verbal past tense.\nBasically, using a verb with this deficient verb is an alternative to using the perfect form of a verb, but the use of the deficient verb definitely has a more \"completed\" (definite past) — though not perfect — feel to it.\nWith stative verbs the perfect form actually gives a present-perfect stative tense, and this differs from the use of this deficient verb as it gives a completed past tense meaning.\nThis may be compounded with most Group I verbs (except the simple subjunctive -be) to form perfect, past exclusive, past potential, and past future (\"will have done\") tenses.\nThe Group I verb appears first, with -ile following pronounced with participial sub-mood tones.\nThe morpheme -ka is used in two tenses — remote past indicative (-kile), and present potential (-ka ka) — and is connected with the simple [verbal auxiliary](https://bliptext.com/articles/sesotho-grammar) infix -ka- used to form the potential mood.\nThe remote past form is highly irregular and is basically an alternative to the -ile deficient verb (indeed, the negative of the -ile forms is constructed with this verb); the present potential emphasises the use of the simple infix -ka-.\nAs with the simple infix, the first person singular subjectival concord ke- becomes a syllabic (written ⟨n⟩ and attached to the following k) by dissimilation.\nAn alternative to -kile is to compound -ka with -ile.\nThis construction is very frequently contracted.\nThe morpheme -tla is only found in the positive present potential (it has no negative) with a meaning of \"lest\" or \"or else\", used in a type of consecutive construction.\nThe verb is obviously connected with the normal verb meaning \"come\", but used deficiently with a modified meaning.\n \n \n **Group III** contains a small number of verbs, all with irregular forms ending in the vowel.\nFour of the verbs signify habitual actions, with very minor semantic differences between them, another is occasional in the positive but habitual in the negative (it also forms the negative of -ye which has no negative of its own), and yet another simply the serves the same function as Group II -ile.\nNote that, apart from a rare consecutive past habitual construction, the only time the perfect subjunctive mood may be used is after these deficient verbs.\nTo form past, future, and potential tenses the Group -ne, -tla be, and -ka be are used by most of these verbs to form tri-verbal forms.\nExamples:\n \n \n **Group IV** verbs are rather special in that they may be used in a variety of tense forms, but the form of the deficient verb influences the form of the complement.\nNo one verb may be used in all these configurations and the verbs differ in their uses.\nMost of them have non-deficient counterparts and end with the normal -a, but some conjugate slightly irregularly.\n(The table below gives the normal verbs' meanings, if any, in brackets)\nExamples:\n \n \n **Group V** contains several normal looking verbs with regular inflexions, most of which have non-deficient uses.\nSeveral tense forms exist for the deficient verbs, while the complement is usually present participial though some of the verbs may also have a perfect participial complement.\nExample:\n \n \n **Group VI** contains a number of verbs used with an infinitive complement and which give certain shades of meaning.\nThe infinitive complement is basically a direct noun object (infinitives and imperatives are not verbal moods), and indeed many other verbs may be used this way but are not considered deficient as their meanings do not change slightly when they are.\nExamples:\n ","revisionCount":0},"hasMore":false,"nextCursor":null}

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