home edit page issue tracker

This page pertains to UD version 2.

It appears that you have Javascript disabled. Please consider enabling Javascript for this page to see the visualizations.

UD for Bororo

Tokenization and Word Segmentation

Bororo uses 17 UPOS, adj is not used.
Tokenization and segmentation in Bororo is straightforward. There are no multiwords that require spaces or dashes.
Words are delimited by whitespace characters.
According to typographical rules, many punctuation marks are attached to a neighboring word. These are tokenized as separate tokens (words).

Mapping UPOS to XPOS Bororo

UPOS	XPOS
ADV	adv
INTJ	intj
NOUN	n
PROPN	ppn
VERB	v, vi, vt
ADP	pp
AUX	aux
CCONJ	cc
DET	det
NUM	num
PART	pcl
PRON	pron, bi (bound index)
SCONJ	sc
PUNCT	punct
SYM	sym
X	x

Morphology

POS

Bororo POS is a straight forward question: lexical roots are not marked if used referentially, but marked in case they function as predicates, independent of semantics (object-, property-, or action-word). Depending on the function Croft (2022: chap. 2).

Imuga
i=muga
1.SG=mother
My mother

Imugare
i=muga-re
1.SG=mother=IND
I have a mother/there is my mother/My mother exists

The same with an activity predicate, which could be taken as a possessive or existential predications.

Irekodyre
i=rekody-re
1.SG=run=IND
I ran/there is my running/My running exists

PART is used for some morphemes, such as the conditional particle ma, the focal particle na

Gender

The gender of nouns in Bororo follows the natural gender of the animate nouns, i.e., males are masculine and females are feminine, but this is not morphologically marked. Inanimate nouns are genderless but morphologically they follow the masculine pattern (in case there are modifiers). Modifiers mark gender (by agreement), but only the feminine singular is marked.

Imedy koadyrewy
imedy koady-re-wy
man single-IND-REL
Single man

Aredy koadyrewydo
aredy koady-re-wy-do
woman single-IND-REL-F
Single woman

Ime koadyrewyge
ime koady-re-wy-ge
men single-IND-REL-PL
Single men

Are koadyrewyge
are koady-re-wy-ge
women single-IND-REL-PL
Single women

Number

There are different ways of forming the plural of nouns in Bororo: deleting the last syllables of nouns ending in -edu, substituting the last vowel by -e, adding e to the singular form, adding -doge to the stem, adding -ge to nouns ending in -rewy, -wy, -epa, -are, adding -mage to some kinship terms. There are also instances of irregular plural forms, ablaut with change of final vowel, and some forms that do not vary in the plural. What all plural forms have in common, is the ending -e of all plural forms.

There are words which have irregular plural forms, being shorter in the plural than in the singular.

imedy ‘man’ ime ‘men’ aredy ‘woman’ are ‘women’

Person indexes

Person	Before consonant	Before vowel
1S	i-	it-, in-, ik-
2S	a-	ak-
3S	∅, u-
3Anaf	tu-, pu-	t-, tud-, pud-,
1PL.EX	ce-	ced-, cen-, ceg-
1PL.IN	pa-	pag-
2PL	ta-	tag-
3PL	e-	et-, en-, ek-
3Anaf	tu-, pu-	t-, tud-, pud-,

The first plural of person indexes distinguishes between the values Ex (exclusive) and In (inclusive) for the feature Clusivity

Nouns are either possessed or unpossessed. Possessed nouns are either alienably o inalienably possessed. Inalienably possessed nouns in Bororo are kinship terms, body parts and natural phaenomena.

Iia
i=ia
1SG=mouth
my mouth

Aparo
a=paro
2SG=axe
Your axe

A set of nouns are used in classifier functions in order to make unpossessed nouns possessed:

o ‘property’

ke ‘food’

aku ‘domestic animal’

imo ‘ornament’

kuie ‘necklace’

kudawy ‘rug, clothe’

Ike pobo
i=ke pobo
1SG=food water
My water

Roots fuctioning as predicates may combine with the following sufixes:

Aspect

The progressive aspect is marked by -nu, which is always followed that the indicative mood marker -re

bybytynure
bybyte-nu-re
rain-PROG-IND
It is raining

Mood

The indicative mood (declarative + realis) marker -re is used with any lexical root in predicative functions

ityre
i=ty-re
1.SG=go-IND
I went

Are boe maky
a=re boe ∅-maky
2.SG-IND thing 3.SG-give
You gave something

The subjunctive mood is marked by -wo.

Padywo
pa=ty-wo
1.PL.IN=go-SUBJ
Let's go!

The optative mood is marked by -ia

Taregodyia
ta=aregody-ia
2.PL=arrive-OPT
'May you come'

Status (Tense)

Bororo does not have a tense marker, but the future is expressed by the irrealis status marker -mody followed by the indicative marker (-re), resulting in -mode. The negation, -ka, intervenes between status and mood.

Imode arego
i=mody-re a=reko
1.SG=IRR-IND 2.SG-run
I will take you

Emodykare
e=mody-ka-re
3.PL=IRR-NEG-IND
The won't go

The reason why -mody cannot be a tense marker is that it is also used with non-future conditional clauses.

Akore akaregodymodyie
∅-ako-re a=aregody-mody-ie
3.SG-speak-IND 2.SG=arrive-IRR-RS
He said you would arrive

Voice

While the active voice is unmarked, the passive voice is marked by -dy

Makydyre
maky-dy-re
give-PASS-IND
Was given

Akaiwododyre
a=aiwo-do-dy-re
2.SG-look-CAUS-PASS-IND
I was made to look

The causative voice is marked by -do.

ure imaragodydo
u=re i=maragody-do
3.SG=IND 1.SG=work-CAUS
He made me work

Syntax

Bororo is an ergative language. S, A, and O are marked by the same set of bound indexes. But the construction where S and O appear are the same, i.e, they attach to the predicate.

S is always marked by a bound index which carries TMA and negation markers, detached from the predicate.

Imaragodyre
i-maragody=re
1SG-work=IND
I worked

The A argument of transitive verbs is indexed on the mood or aspect marker, and the O argument is bound to the verb.

adygore emage ewido
adygo=re emage e=bito
jaguar=IND they 3.PL=kill
The jaguar killed them

adygore ewido
adygo=re e=bito
jaguar=IND 3.PL=kill
The jaguar killed them

Ure ewido
u=re e=bito
3.SG=IND 3.PL=kill
The jaguar killed them

Note, from the 3 previous examples above, that S as well as O are cliticized to the predicate, only A isn’t. This is the reason why Bororo is considered an ergative language.

In transitive clauses, nothing may intervene between the A argument and the O-predicate slot. Adjuncts follow the predicate and if they are fronted, they are morphologically marked, they have their own mood/illocutionary force.

There is a clear preference for subordinate clauses to precede main clauses, as one would expect from a head-final language, although this is not obbligatory.

Nonverbal predication distinguish the following semantic types:

Attributive: formed by juxtaposition of a Verbless Clause Complement VCC, a modifying word, combined with the declarative speech-act marker followed by a Verbless Clause Subject VCS.

Ekurire
e=kuri-re
3.pl-big=decl
They are big

Identificational / specificational: requires the aspectual nu and the indicative marker attached to the predicating element followed by the subject

Boenure imi
boe-nu-re imi
person-prog=ind I
I am Bororo

Equational: subtype of identificational predication.

Existential: IF morpheme is attached to the predicating element.

Karere
kare-re
fish=decl
There is fish

Treebanks

There are N Bororo UD treebanks:

Instruction: Treebank-specific pages are generated automatically from the README file in the treebank repository and from the data in the latest release. Link to the respective *-index.html page in the treebanks folder, using the language code and the treebank code in the file name.