iti / kadagiti

Marking Places and Other Participants

Level 1

iti commonly marks singular or nonplural oblique reference; kadagiti marks plural reference.

How It Works

Place iti or kadagiti before the whole common-noun phrase. Number marking does not license inventing a repeated plural form for every noun; established noun forms still matter.

With an actor-focus buying verb, iti can introduce the thing bought. In a giving construction, iti or kadagiti can introduce recipients. Iti also marks location or time in appropriate constructions and can introduce a locative modifier inside a noun phrase. Added expressions such as para specify further relations.

Compare iti ubing, a child as an oblique participant, with kadagiti estudiante, plural student participants. Translating iti mechanically as in would lose a recipient reading. Personal names instead take personal oblique marking; geographic destinations often use locative expressions such as idiay. Selecting an oblique participant as the central participant requires the appropriate voice and marking, rather than merely moving the unchanged phrase to the beginning.

Examples (4)

  1. Gumatang ni Lito iti libro.

    Lito will buy a book.

    Iti introduces the unfocused object.

  2. Itedko daytoy iti ubing.

    I will give this to a child.

    Iti introduces a recipient; ko is joined to its verb host.

  3. Itedko daytoy kadagiti estudiante.

    I will give this to the students.

    Kadagiti marks plural recipients.

  4. ti maestra iti away

    the teacher in the countryside

    A noun-phrase fragment containing a locative modifier.

How It Connects

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iti / kadagitiLevel 1Marking Places and Other Participants

Learn This First

Read the marker with its predicate to identify the participant's role.

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Patterns that build on this one.

Words in This Pattern

kadagiti