Computational Verb Compiler
Select morphemes below or click on the inventory block to dynamically reconstruct complex Bantu verbs.
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"Select structural units to translate..."
MORPHOLOGICAL TIMELINE & STRUCTURAL SLOTS
Negation, Conditional, Hortative
Subject Agreement (6 pers)
Tense-Aspect-Mood
Object Agreement
Lexical Meaning
Derivational Extensions
Voice (Passive, etc.)
Mood & Aspect Markers
Locative, Limitative
Morpheme Inventory by Slot
Click any morpheme row to assign it directly to the Verb Compiler and watch how the morphological architecture re-aligns.
EDUCATIONAL NOTES
How Bemba Verbs Construct Syntactic Reality
Unlike Western languages that construct thoughts via isolated syntactic sequences (Subject + Verb + Object + Prepositions), Bantu languages like Chibemba utilize a magnificent polysynthetic agglutinative format. A single word behaves like an entire structured sentence.
Crucial Phonotactic Phenomena: Vowel Harmony & Sandhi
When compounding elements, Bemba incorporates morphological harmony rules:
1. Nasal Harmony (S6 Extension 1): The applicative extension -el- or -il- changes to -en- or -in- respectively if the preceding syllable contains a nasal consonant (m or n). E.g., -temw- matches with -en- instead of -el-.
2. Vowel Conalescence: Two consecutive vowels (e.g., S2 u- + S3 -ali-) resolve seamlessly according to high-order Bantu phonological rules, compressing to form readable clusters.
The Verb Equation — BTS‑E100‑115 (V9SLOT)
Operationalized in relational database tables as abs_verb_types (BTS‑V100).
Slot Taxonomy Matrix
Metadata| Slot | Identifier | Meaning & Content Description |
|---|---|---|
| S1 | PreInit | pre‑initial (negation ta-, relative markers) |
| S2 | SM | subject marker (noun‑class / person agreement) |
| S3 | TAM | tense / aspect / mood |
| S4 | OM | object marker |
| S5 | Root | the verb root — the lemma anchor |
| S6 | Ext1 | first verbal extension (applicative, causative…) |
| S7 | Ext2 | second/stacked extension (e.g. passive) |
| S8 | FV | final vowel (-a indicative, -e subjunctive…) |
| S9 | Loc | locative enclitic |
The Formula Invariance Axiom
"The key insight verified in the corpus data: all 39 distinct verb types share the exact same 9‑slot formula (distinct v9slot_formula = 1)."
What distinguishes each Verb Type (VT) is its slot signature — specifying exactly which structural nodes are actively projected.
Real Signatures from abs_verb_types
Click any signature below to load its morphological configuration directly into the Interactive Compiler:
Structural Variants in the Spec
Polar Negation Pattern
ta- + SM + TAM + ROOT + FV
Extended Template
S1...S5 + Ext1 + Ext2 + S8...
Relative Clause Construction
REL_MARKER + V9SLOT
Imperative Command Format
ROOT + FV / ROOT + -eni
Infinitive Nominal Phrase
uku + ROOT + FV