BOAS] HANDBOOK OF INDIAN LANGUAGES CHUCKCHEE 683 



American languages, the relation between subject and predicate is 

 conceived differently in the case of the transitive and of the intransi- 

 tive verb. 



The relation between noun and verb is expressed by inflection of 

 the noun. A subjective form of the noun expresses the subject of 

 the transitive verb and an absolute form designates the subject of 

 the intransitive and the object of the transitive verb. The subjective 

 form is primarily instrumental. It expresses also the object which 

 is used in the performance of an action as: cooiaNG (with) meat. 

 It would seem that the transitive verb has primarily a passive sig- 

 nificance, but this view does not satisfactorily explain many of the 

 forms. 



Locative ideas — in, at, towards, from — are expressed by means of 

 nominal postpositions. These are given extended meanings and are 

 applied to express a variety of relations between verb and indirect 

 object. The genetive relation is not ordinarily expressed by post- 

 positions and is not analogous to a case form, but is rather expressed 

 by derivatives which signify, pertaining to, belonging to. These 

 elements are even added to the personal pronoun to express posses- 

 sive relations. The characteristic American incorporated possessive 

 pronoun is not found. Demonstrative ideas are expressed with 

 great nicety particularly in the Chukchee dialect. The syntactic 

 forms of the personal demonstrative and indefinite pronouns are 

 analogous to the corresponding forms of proper names. 



In the predicate are expressed singular and plural, (in Koryak also 

 dual), tense and modality. There is no distinction made between 

 inclusive and exclusive first person plural. Declarative and inter- 

 rogative have the same forms. Among the tenses only the future is 

 derived from the verb theme in a manner analogous to the formation 

 of modes. A continuative is expressed by a derived form, the 

 verbal theme being expanded by the suffix-/rfc/w. Other temporal 

 concepts are expressed by nominal derivatives, and temporal subor- 

 dination is often expressed by syntactic forms of the verbal noun. 

 Other modes are a subjunctive, expressing conditional and other 

 subordinate clauses — which, however, is very rarely used, — an 

 exhortative and an imperative. 



The verb complex consists of pronominal prefixes which enter into 

 combination with temporal and modal prefixes. These are followed 



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