Appendix:Kazakh verbs

The verbal system of Kazakh language contains complex inflection for agreement in both person and number. Kazakh language does not display agreement for noun-class or canonical grammatical gender. Kazakh also has a system of tense and aspect, exhibiting multiple present, past, and future tenses that are differentiating forms based on evidentiality, durative/iterative aspect, and volitionality.

Kazakh infinitives

Usually, the infinitive of Kazakh verbs features a suffix of ‘у’ which is pronunced either [ʊw] or [ʉw] depending on the phonetic characteristics of the vowel in the verbal root. Specially, the suffix of infinitive is changed to ‘ю’ when the last letter of the verbal root was ‘й’. Most Kazakh infinitives can also act as nouns, which is similar to the gerunds in English.

Examples of Kazakh infinitives

• алу (alu, “to take”)
• бару (baru, “to go”)
• сөйлеу (söileu, “to speak”)
• ішу (ışu, “to drink”)

Examples of compound Kazakh verbal infinitives

In addition to simple verbs composed of a verbal root, Kazakh also has many compound verbs that are formed in combination with a noun or an adjective. Noun or adjectival compliments to a compound verb are usually tied semantically to the verb.

• ән салу (än salu, “to sing (literally ‘to place/set a song’)”)
• дем алу (dem alu, “to breathe (literally ‘to take breath’)”)
• түс көру (tüs köru, “to dream (literally ‘to see a dream’)”)
• аман болу (aman bolu, “to be/become healthy”)
• мыж-мыж болу (myj-myj bolu, “to get wrinkled”)

Voices of verbs

The voice of a verb describes the relationship between the action (or state) that the verb expresses and the participants identified by its arguments (subject, object, etc.). There are five voices in Kazakh language: active, passive, reflexive, causative and reciprocal voice.

Active voice

There is no specific affix for active voice.

Passive voice

The passive voice is employed in a clause whose subject expresses the theme or patient of the verb. Verbs in passive voice often feature affixes of either ‘-л-/-ыл-/іл-’ or ‘-лын-/-лін-’.

• жазу (jazu, “to write”) ——— жазылу (jazylu, “to be written”)
• байқау (baiqau, “to beware; to watch”) ——— байқалу (baiqalu, “to be watched; to be exposed”)
• деу (deu, “to tell”) ——— деліну (delınu, “to be told”)

Reciprocal voice

The causative voice indicates each of the participants occupies both the role of agent and patient with respect to the other.Verbs in reciprocal voice often feature affixes of ‘-с-/-ыс-/-іс-’.

• айту (aitu, “to talk”) ——— айтысу (aitysu, “to talk to each other”)
• ату (atu, “to shoot”) ——— атысу (atysu, “to shoot each other; to engage; to quarrel with each other”)

Reflexive voice

The reflexive voice is used when the semantic agent and patient are identical. In some cases it is translated into passive or mediopassive voice in English. Verbs in passive voice feature affixes of ‘-н-/-ын-/-ін-’.

• улау (ulau, “to poison”) ——— улану (ulanu, “to be poisoned”)

Causative voice

The causative voice indicates that a subject either causes someone or something else to do or be something or causes a change in state of a non-volitional event. Verbs in causative voice often feature affixes of ‘-т-’ or ‘-дыр-/-дір-/-тыр-/-тір-’ or ‘-ғыз-/-гіз-/-қыз-/-кіз-’.

• жазу (jazu, “to write”) ——— жаздыру (jazdyru, “to make sb/sth write”)
• сену (senu, “to believe”) ——— сенгізу (señızu, “to make sb believe”)
• түстеу (tüsteu, “to recognise”) ——— түстету (tüstetu, “to make sb recognise”)

The causative affix can be combined with passive, reflexive and reciprocal affixes.

• активтеу (aktivteu, “to activate”) (active) ——— активтелу (aktivtelu) (passive) ——— активтену (aktivtenu) (reflexive) ——— активтендіру (aktivtendıru) (reflexive + causative) ——— активтендірілу (aktivtendırılu) (reflexive + causative + passive)