, nating enclitic -go, which typically goes on verbs, may also attach to nouns, yielding the meaning 'being X', as in dinik*ehgo 'beingNavajo,intheNavajoway'. VerbalMorphology. TheNavajoverbtypicallyconsistsof astemprecededbytwoormore(uptonine)prefixesinase- Basic Morphology quentialordertiiatproduce alexicalunit. Verbprefixes may be divided into two broad classes: paradigmatic and deriva- Noun Morphology. Navajo nouns range from the simplest tional-thematic(YoungandMorgan 1987).Paradigmaticpre- ncmainalfiHmSfStennouns, suchasdil, 'blood,' orgah 'rab- fixesidentifyverbalarguments,mode,aspect,degreeoftran- bit,*tocomplexnominalizationssuchasbee HI'ada'agizitsin sitivity andnumber.Derivational-thematicprefixesincludea i widerangeofelementsthatcontributetolexicalmeaning,in- bighqqh de' dhigii 'screwdriver,* lit. 'that which is used to cludingdirection,manner,location,andaspect.Manythematic twist things away outofsightthatis attachedto wood.' Be- prefixes have lost their historical meaning and have simply tween these two extremes are various combinations that are becomepartofaverbtheme, andmaybeseparatedfromthe todayfullylexicalizedforspeakersasasinglenotunincluding stem by other more productive prefixes, as in yd~ ...ItV 'to historically compound forms such as kek'eh M- 'foot* plus speak': ydshtV 'I speak*, ydntttV 'you speak', ydtti' 's/he k'eh 'place': 'footprint',aswellasnominalizedverbssuchas speaks' (seeTables3and4onthenextpage). nimasii: nimaz, 'it is round' plus -» (nominalizing enclitic). Navajoverbsaredividedintotwoclasses:"active"and"neu- Whateverthehistoricalpathofgrammaticization,Navajonouns ter". Active verbs may be conjugated in three to six different arenotmarkedformuchgrammaticalinformationexceptpos- "mckfes" ofparadigms, including the imperfective, perfective, session, whichmay be forfirst, second, third, orfourthper-, futuWprogressive,usitative/iterative,andoptative.Neuterverbs son, orindefinitely possessed (by"someone"). Somenouns, mayonlybeconjugatedinoneparadigm,eitherimperfectiveor suchasbodyparts,areinalienablypossessed.Somemayalso perfective.Imperfectiveneutersdenoteattributesorqualitiesof be pluralized with the distributive (dist) plural prefix along theirsubject,asinthefollowingexamples:tibd'itisgray',nidaaz withapossessiveprefix,suchthattheyarepossessedbysev- 'itisheavy', 'alhosh'oneisasleep'.Perfectiveneutersdenotea eral: danihima 'our mother', although otherwise plurality is completedaction,asinthesubjectbeinginposition,orinastate alwaysmarkedontheverb.Therearealsoafewkinshipterms ofrestresultingfromsomeaction.Bothactiveandneuterpara- thatmaybepluralizedthroughthe additionofthe suffix -ke: digms (especiallyintheperfective)maybefurthersubdivided ashiike 'boys',afeedki, 'girls',etc. intoasmanyasfourdifferentconjugationsdependingonwhich Verbsmaybenominalizedthroughthe additionofvarious prefix,ifany,theytakeinposition7(0,y/-,«/-orsi-). nominalizing/relativizingenclitics,including(1)4i'onewhich Transitivityismarkedontheverbthroughasetofprefixes is(hastheinherentqualityofbeing)':mq'ii'theroainer,e.g., (fourofthem: 0,/, /,d)called"classifiers"(Young andMor- coyote'; (2)-i'onewhichis'; and(3)themoreparticulariz- gan1987),or"transitivityindicators"(Kibrik1993, 1996).The ing -igii'theoneinparticularwhichis',thus:sidd 's/hesits', literature does employ the term "passive" for constructions siddhi'sitter',siddhigii'theonewhoissitting'*Thereisalso involvingdetransitivizingclassifiers(/,d) thatencode asup- another enclitic -yqe, meaning 'that (previously mentioned) pressedagent. Similarly,muchoftheliteraturediscusses the one,' or 'theonewhichisgone':dxn€vy$e 'thosepeople'. use of the classifier that signals increased transitivity as a Nounsmayalsobemodifiedthroughtheadditionofasmall causativizingdevice.Forphonologicalreasons,andduetothe CVC setofdirectionalenclitics,suchas-g66'towards',-d44 'from' factthata"peg"prefix(prefixthatfillsoutthe structure etc. atthebeginningofverbstemswhennecessary)oftenappears There are also interrogative suffixes: -sh and -shqq 'how ineithersubjectorobjectpositions,activeand"passive"con- aboutX',aswellasamodalencliticofuncertaintyshu. 'maybe structionsoftenappearidentical. Bothactiveandneuterverb X',andanegativecircumfixdoo-...-da'notX'.Thesubordi- classesmaybe"passivized"inthisway: 508 Navajo Table3: Basic PrefixPosition Template 1 ' Adverbstypicallyprecedetheverbstheymodify : Tm ts(iigoyishwol runningfast. fast-subI-run Adjectivesandpostpositionsfollowthenounstheymodify: chidiiichif nahdlnii' carred-oneI-bought-it *Iboughttheredcar.' Ch'ahshaayinfq hatme-tohe-gave-it 'Hegavethehattome.' Field,Margaret. 2001. Navajo. In Garry,Jane, andCarlRubino (eds.) FactsAbouttheWorld'sLanguages:AnEncyclopediaof theWorld's W MajorLanguages: PastandPresent. NewYork: H. Wilson.