Filipino Experiencer-focus Verbs

Note: This post has tables with multiple rows and columns. It is best to view the tables using a desktop or laptop computer, not a mobile phone. Not all Filipino verbs with the affix UM and MA are actor-focus verbs. Others are experiencer-focus verbs (pokus sa nakakaranas). If the subject of the sentence is the one experiencing or undergoing the action or event that is described by the verb, then the verb is an experiencer-focus verb. Ramos and Bautista in Handbook of Tagalog Verbs: Inflections, Modes, and Aspects (1986) call the subject the actor-undergoer, which could be persons and animals, or animate objects. They did not call the verb an experiencer-focus verb in their work, but a special type of actor-focus verb. According to them, if the subject is an inanimate object, the verb is an object-focus verb. For the authors, the verb lumamig in the sentence below is an object-focus…

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Mga Aspekto ng mga Pandiwang MA

In my previous posts, I have listed the verbal aspects of actor-focus Filipino verbs with the prefix MAG and those with the prefix or infix UM. Another group of such verbs have the prefix MA. However, not all MA verbs are actor-focus verbs. Filipino verbs with the prefix ma- are of various types and express different things. An easy way to categorize MA verbs is to classify them as transitive verbs or intransitive verbs. In Filipino, transitive verbs are called mga pandiwang palipat, verbs that need a direct object (tuwirang layon) to complete its meaning. A direct object (DO) is a noun or noun phrase (pangngalan o pariralang pangngalan) that represents a person or object that receives the action expressed by the verb. Intransitive verbs are called mga pandiwang katawanin, verbs that do not need a direct object to complete its meaning. Transitive verbs cannot be used alone. They describe…

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