"ing" endings?

[Kiki]

I was wondering what the equivalent of "ing" is in Na'vi...

[omängum fra'uti]

In what sense?

If you're talking about -ing as in an action currently happening, it's the imperfective <er> infix.
Ikran tsw<er>ayon
The ikran is flying

If you're looking for a destriptive adjective rather than an actual action...
Oe-l ikran-it a-tsw<us>ayon tse'a
I see the flying ikran

Note that the second sentence could also be written in terms of the imperfective as well...
Oe-l tse'a ikran-it a po tsw<er>ayon
I see the ikran which is flying

[Carborundum]

I was just reading up on my participles on the Learn Na'vi wiki, and I came across something I find a bit odd. In one of the emails from Frommer, he explains how to create a gerund (in English, that's a verb functioning as a noun, and it seems the Na'vi usage is similar). The example given is:

The point of participles in Na'vi is that they're ONLY used attributively. If you want a gerund, use a tì- nominalization:

    1. Tìtaron lu lehrrap. 'Hunting is dangerous.'

I don't see where the -ing ending comes from. Why isn't this just "(the) hunt is dangerous"?
Indeed, in another section on the wiki, it's stated that a gerund is created by adding tì- to a participle, which I find to be much more logical. The source for the second method is the Good Morning America show, and specifically the sentence koren a'awve tìruseyä 'awsiteng, the first rule of living together.
Anyone know which way is correct?

[kewnya txamew'itan]

Participles behave as adjectives, to make it work like a noun, it needs tì- as well, hence rìruseyä (he needed to be able to make it genitive).

As for the first bit "hunting is dangerous", again, it needs to be a noun but doesn't actually need to be participial before that to make sense.

[Carborundum]

Yeah, I got all that, except the part where tìtaron is hunting, and not just the noun hunt.

[Kì'eyawn]

Indeed, in another section on the wiki, it's stated that a gerund is created by adding tì- to a participle, which I find to be much more logical. The source for the second method is the Good Morning America show, and specifically the sentence koren a'awve tìruseyä 'awsiteng, the first rule of living together.
Anyone know which way is correct?

I'd actually missed that in the wiki, but after i saw Karyu Pawl gloss tìrusey as "living," i did a little grammar dance of happiness, and thought, "Huzzah!  We have a gerund!"

As far as i can tell, this is the breakdown (linguists, please shut me down if i err)

taron -- verb, hunt  ("We hunt at dawn")
tìtaron -- noun, to hunt ("To hunt is dangerous") -- i've been thinking of this as the infinitive, but IDK
tusaron -- adj., hunting ("A hunting thanator is dangerous") -- would this be a present participle?
tìtusaron -- noun, hunting ("Hunting makes me happy")

Then, as far as i know, we still don't have a past-participle ("A hunted yerik runs fast")

Yes?  No?  Maybe?

[Carborundum]

What about tìpawm question (from pawm ask)? Why isn't tìpawm to ask/asking then?

[Kì'eyawn]

What about tìpawm question (from pawm ask)? Why isn't tìpawm to ask/asking then?

Hmm...  I think you're right that i need to amend my understanding of tì- to mean (for example) "to hunt" OR "hunting."

Maybe glossing tìpawm as "question" is just a defect of trying to translate into English--maybe it's more literally "a questioning," or "an asking."  But then we also have tìrey as "life"...  You know what, i'll just admit i'm confused and leave it to better minds.

[omängum fra'uti]

That crossed my mind.  And why can't life be "A living"?

[Kì'eyawn]

That crossed my mind.  And why can't life be "A living"?

Hmm...  That's true, as long as we don't get hung up with the English idiomatic "living" = profession.  So maybe i'm not completely daft.

Well, okay, so i probably still am, seeing as i chose the life of a grad student, but that's a non sequitur...

[Steftxawyu]

About nominalisation of verbs to substantive forms (i don't know which term is more appropriate),
you can try to get inspiration from those:
hawnu - protect
tihawnu - protection
kin - need (v)
tikin - need (n)
fmetok - test (v)
tifmetok - test (n)
ftang - stop (v)
tiftang - stop (n)
extrapolate:
kim - spin (v)
tikim - spin (n)

I like the last one:
in english "the spin" (i guess it's called substantive form) and gerundive form "spinning" can't be used the same way.
I guess it's the same for hunt

but:

tìtusaron -- noun, hunting ("Hunting makes me happy")

in that case, Frommer said (see other message)

The point of participles in Na'vi is that they're ONLY used attributively. If you want a gerund, use a tì- nominalization:

   1. Tìtaron lu lehrrap. 'Hunting is dangerous.'

So we wouldn't use tìtusaron here

I'm more curious about something like:
They denied hunting me
or
I quit hunting