The rules for classifying base-words in te reo

Words are classified according to how they are habitually used. That is, classification is determined by usage, not viceversa. This means that the classification of a word may change with changes in its use.

The English word ‘‘text’’, for example, may have been classified as a noun and only a noun prior to the advent of cellphone messaging, but now it seems to have found acceptance also as a verb.

At the same time, the classification of a word according to its current usage does provide a helpful key to understanding the construction and meaning of sentences.

In English, many words are used as either verbs or nouns: ‘‘dance’’, ‘‘talk’’, ‘‘book’’ and indeed, thousands more; but many other words, such as ‘‘speech’’ and ‘‘song’’, are used only as nouns.

Much the same applies in te reo Ma¯ ori. Often an appropriate English translation of the word waiata will not be ‘‘sing’’ (a verb) but ‘‘song’’ (a noun): Ka waiata/nga¯ wa¯ hine/i te waiata (The women/ sing/the song).

The word pai may translate as a verb ‘‘to be good’’, or as a noun ‘‘goodness’’: Ka nui/te pai! (‘‘Big/ the goodness’’ = ‘‘Terrific!’’).

The word ko¯ rero can be ‘‘speak’’ (verb) or ‘‘speech’’ (noun) or ‘‘talk’’ (the English word ‘‘talk’’ also can be either verb or noun).

But those base-words in te reo which are classified as nouns are not (not currently at least) used as verbs.

For instance, the base-word ika (‘‘fish’’) is not used in the same manner in which the English word ‘‘fish’’ is used in ‘‘To fish for trout’’. The word ika is classified as a noun.

In te reo, verbs for ‘‘to fish’’ or ‘‘to go fishing’’, are such words as hı¯ (to fish with a line) and hao (to fish with a net): E haere ana/au/ki te hı¯ ika (‘‘I/am going/fishing’’)

In Bruce Biggs’ Let’s Learn Ma¯ ori (section 16), five types or classes of base-words in te reo Ma¯ ori are distinguished. These are two different types of verbs – verbs of doing and verbs of being (and many of both types are also used as nouns) – and three types of nouns, none of which are used as verbs.

The next column will be concerned with how base-words are used in teo reo as the equivalent of English adjectives.

David Ka¯ rena-Holmes is a New Zealand-born writer currently living in Nelson. A tutor of grammar since the 1980s, he is the author of Ma¯ ori Language: Understanding the Grammar (Pearson), and is examining te reo grammar in a series of fortnightly articles.