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121) considers this to be an unproductive prefix in Linda meaning ‘domesticated animal’.
The words which include this form in Mono however are broader in semantic scope than
this. In any case, it is clear that this form is not productive in Mono.
7.1.2 Verbal morphology
Mono verbs can be modified by the addition of one of several prefixes, by
reduplication of the first syllable of the verb, and by changes in the tone on the verb (and
the preceding pronoun). Most constructions require a combination of these modifications,
and so I will discuss the constructions in turn. But first, a few preliminaries.
The prefixes that modify a verb are shown in (20). I consider these to be prefixes
on account of the fact that there are no attested intervening words between these forms
and the verb roots. There can, however, be an intervening reduplicant of the verb root.
(20) Mono verbal prefixes
a. ( ( ( ( ‘infinitive’
b. ‘conditional’
c. F=( F=( F=( F=( ‘repetitive’
In the infinitive form, the prefix always bears a H tone and all of the syllables of
the root bear L tones (21a-b). The infinitive form of a compound verb includes the tones
of the second element of the compound (21c). The forms of the conditional and repetitive
will be discussed below.
(21) Sample infinitive verbs
a. (= (= (= (= ‘to go’
b. (H (H (H (H ‘to eat’
c. ( ( ( ( @( @( @( @( ‘to want’
I also analyze verbal reduplication as a case of prefixation. That is to say, a
reduplicant is prefixed to the verbal root, rather than suffixed. There are two arguments
for this interpretation. First, prefixation is the most common form of morphological
modification in Mono, and so we would expect that to be the first choice for an
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