A Grammar of Berbice Dutch Creole 9783110885705, 3110137364, 9783110137361

Citation preview

Mouton Grammar Library

Kouwenberg A Grammar of Berbice Dutch Creole

Mouton Grammar Library 12

Editors Georg Bossong Wallace Chafe

Mouton de Gruyter Berlin · New York

Silvia Kouwenberg

A Grammar of Berbice Dutch Creole

1994

Mouton de Gruyter Berlin · New York

Mouton de Gruyter (formerly Mouton, The Hague) is a Division of Walter de Gruyter & Co., Berlin.

© Printed on acid-free paper which falls within the guidelines of the ANSI to ensure permanence and durability.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication

Data

Kouwenberg, Silvia A grammar of Berbice Dutch Creole / Silvia Kouwenberg. p. cm. — (Mouton grammar library ; 12) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 3-11-013736-4 (alk. paper) 1. Creole dialects, Dutch—Guyana —Berbice River Valley — Grammar. I. Title. II. Series. PM7864.G95K68 1993 439.3M7 —dc20 93-35516 CIP

Die Deutsche Bibliothek — Cataloging-in-Publication

Data

Kouwenberg, Silvia:

A grammar of Berbice Dutch Creole / Silvia Kouwenberg. — Berlin ; New York : Mouton de Gruyter, 1993 (Mouton grammar library ; 12) ISBN 3-11-013736-4 NE: GT

© Copyright 1993 by Walter de Gruyter & Co., D-10785 Berlin. All rights reserved, including those of translation into foreign languages. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Printing: Werner Hildebrand, Berlin — Binding: Dieter Mikolai, Berlin. Printed in Germany.

Acknowledgements

Among the people and institutions I want to thank for the support which I received from them, pride of first place has to be shared between my supervisors at the University of Amsterdam, Pieter Muysken and Norval Smith, and my teachers of Berbice Dutch Creole Mrs Hilda Adolphe, Mrs Albertha Bell, Mr Beresford Causway, Mr Amos Clarke, Mrs Ellen France, Mrs Amelia Hartman, Mr Hennie Hartman, Mr Arnold King, Mr Ernest King, Mrs Amy Thomas, and Mrs Rita Thomas. I owe much more than my present knowledge of the grammar and vocabulary of this language to all of them. A great deal of thanks goes to Ian Robertson for several reasons: for his discovery of Berbice Dutch Creole, for showing me the way in Guyana / the Berbice River area, for personally introducing me to the people whom he knew to speak the language, and for his confidence in my approach to the language and the people who speak it. Many people in Guyana, in the Berbice River area and elsewhere, have helped with transport, housing, advice, and friendship. I would like to especially mention Mrs Estelle Thomas, Juliet St Clair, Desmond, the LIDCO people (most of all my second father), June and Derek Mendes, and Erla Hercules. Advice and moral support were generously given by my parents, my sister Yvon, Mervyn Alleyne, Hans den Besten, Gregor Benton, Tom Cook, Haime Jones, Salikoko Mufwene, Gerdy van der Stap, Jeanine Treffers, Kay Williamson—who also provided me with unpublished material on Ijo such as Owiye (1987)—and the Young Upcoming Creolists in the Department of General Linguistics at the University of Amsterdam. Thanks also to the Brethren and Lutheran Church communities in the Berbice River area, Jacques Arends, Bernard Comrie, J. van Donselaar, Maureen and Melvin Gladston, Wilfred and Georgina Grimmond, Rupert Hartman and family, Bunty Rahaman, Sydney Robinson, the late Captain Alexander, and the crew of various tugs on the Berbice River. The financial burden of this research was bom by the Netherlands foundation for the advancement of tropical research (WOTRO), and financial assistance towards publication was given by the Netherlands organization for scientific research (NWO), which is hereby gratefully acknowledged. eke pi jende altna groto danggi!

Contents Acknowledgements List of tables Plates Map of Guyana Introduction

Part I

V

xiii XV

xviii 1

Introduction to the grammar of Berbice Dutch Creole

1.

Background and methodological aspects 1.1. Remarks on methodology 1.1.1. General remarks on fieldwork 1.1.2. Vocabulary elicitation 1.1.3. Elicitation of grammatically judgements 1.2. Some background information 1.2.1. Life on the Berbice River / Wiruni Creek 1.2.2. An introduction to the speakers of Berbice Dutch Creole 1.3. Transcription and abbreviations 1.3.1. Selection and format of examples 1.3.2. Transcription and special symbols 1.3.3. Abbreviations

9 9 9 11 12 16 17 20 29 29 29 30

2.

Word order and movement 2.1. Introduction 2.2. Question formation 2.2.1. Question formation without movement 2.2.2. Question-word questions 2.2.3. Properties of question-word question formation 2.3. Dislocation 2.3.1. Dislocation of subjects 2.3.2. Dislocation of objects 2.3.3. Properties of dislocation 2.3.4. Other resumptive devices 2.4. Extraposition 2.4.1. Extraposition of relative clauses 2.4.2. Extraposition of complement clauses

33 33 34 34 36 44 47 48 49 50 54 55 55 57

3.

Structure of the clause 3.1. Tense, Mood, and Aspect 3.1.1. The TMA system 3.1.2. Auxiliary verbs

61 61 62 74

viii Contents 3.2. 3.2.1. 3.2.2. 3.2.3. 3.2.4. 3.2.5. 3.3. 3.3.1. 3.3.2. 3.3.3. 3.3.4. 3.3.5. 3.3.6.

Negation Introduction General properties of negation Scope problems related to indefinite quantifier phrases Scope problems related to embedding Negative adverbs and other negative words Adverbs and adverbial clauses Introduction Temporal adverbs Place adverbs Manner adverbs Degree adverbs Conditionals

85 85 87 91 96 100 101 101 103 110 112 113 114

4.

Copular sentences 4.1. Introduction 4.2. Copular predication 4.2.1. Equative and attributive copular constructions 4.2.2. Location / existence 4.2.3. TMA marking 4.2.4. Negation 4.2.5. Extraction 4.3. Presentation 4.4. Other ways of expressing copular meaning 4.4.1. Copular verbs 4.4.2. Epistemic modals 4.4.3. The 'have' existential

117 117 118 118 120 126 127 128 131 132 132 133 136

5.

Minor 5.1. 5.1.1. 5.1.2. 5.1.3. 5.2. 5.2.1. 5.2.2. 5.3.

137 137 137 138 144 144 144 144 148

6.

The Noun Phrase 6.1. Modification of the noun 6.1.1. Definiteness and proximity 6.1.2. Adjectival modification 6.1.3. Possessives

sentence types Coordinating conjunction Introduction Conjunction of phrasal categories Alternative strategies Comparative constructions The form of comparative constructions Evidence for wh-movement in comparative constructions Imperatives and prohibitives

151 151 151 157 159

Contents 6.2. 6.2.1. 6.2.2. 6.2.3. 6.3. 6.3.1. 6.3.2. 6.3.3. 6.3.4.

Conjunction of NPs Coordinating conjunction of NPs Disjunctive conjunction of NPs Gapping in conjoined NPs Pronouns and their distribution Personal pronouns Empty positions Reflexive pronouns and reciprocal pronouns Demonstrative and indefinite pronouns

ix 163 163 166 166 169 169 178 181 188

7.

Adpositional structures 7.1. Introduction 7.2. Prepositional structures 7.2.1. Use and properties of prepositions 7.2.2. Summary 7.3. Postpositional structures 7.3.1. Adverbial use of postpositional nouns 7.3.2. Prepositional use of postpositional nouns 7.3.3. Use and properties of postpositional nouns 7.3.4. Summary and discussion

191 191 192 194 202 203 204 205 206 225

8.

Morphology Affixational morphology 8.1. 8.1.1. Nominal derivation 8.1.2. Nominal inflection 8.1.3. Reduplication 8.2. Category conversion 8.2.1. Verbs and nouns 8.2.2. Adjectives and verbs 8.2.3. Transitive and intransitive verbs Compounding 8.3. 8.3.1. Nominal compounds 8.3.2. Temporal and location compounds

229 229 232 238 240 246 248 250 260 266 266 273

9.

Phonology 9.1. Segmental phonology 9.1.1. Vowel phonemes and their distribution 9.1.2. Consonant phonemes and their distribution 9.1.3. Segmental processes: assimilation 9.2. Suprasegmental phonology 9.2.1. Stress assignment 9.2.2. Syllable structure 9.2.3. Syllabification and resyllabification 9.2.4. Deletion of unstressed vowels

277 277 277 283 286 288 289 293 294 298

χ

Contents

9.3. 9.3.1. 9.3.2.

Part Π

Cliticization Clitic morphemes Clitic environments

300 300 303

Specific constructions

10. Purposive and resultative constructions 10.1. Purposive constructions 10.1.1. Properties of puiposive constructions 10.1.2. Purposive construction versus/u^i'-complementation 10.1.3. Scope of negation over purposive constructions 10.1.4. Grammaticalization of the connective 10.2. Resultative constructions 10.2.1. The interpretation of resultative constructions 10.2.2. Properties of the affirmative resultative construction 10.2.3. Properties of the negative resultative construction

307 307 309 313 314 315 316 317 319 320

11. Complement clauses 11.1. Introduction 11.2. Interrogative complements 11.2.1. The distribution of interrogative complements 11.2.2. Properties of interrogative complements 11.3. Full complement clauses 11.3.1. Utterance verbs 11.3.2. Psychological verbs 11.3.3. Perception verbs 11.4. Reduced complement clauses 11.4.1. Purposives 11.4.2. Modality verbs 11.4.3. Properties of reduced complement clauses 11.4.4. The origin of fu/fi 11.5. Exceptional complements 11.6. Small Clause complements 11.6.1. Case-assignment 11.6.2. The categorial status of SC complements

323 323 327 327 329 329 331 336 338 345 346 347 349 350 351 354 355 356

12. Relative clauses 12.1. Introduction 12.2. Free relatives 12.2.1. The distribution of free relatives 12.2.2. The relativizable positions in free relatives

361 361 363 365 368

Contents 12.3. Headed relative clauses 12.3.1. On wh-movement in relative clauses 12.3.2. General properties of relatives 12.3.3. Relativizable positions 12.3.4. The distribution of headed relatives 12.4. /w-relativization

xi 369 370 373 376 380 385

13. Serial verb constructions 13.1. Introduction 13.1.1. Non-serial constructions: consecutive action predication 13.2. Argument introducing serial verb constructions 13.2.1. The dative construction 13.2.2. The 'take' construction 13.2.3. The locative construction 13.2.4. The complementizer construction 13.3. Modifying serial verb constructions 13.3.1. The completive construction 13.3.2. The action—result construction 13.3.3. The directional construction 13.4. Doubtful cases 13.4.1. The causative construction 13.4.2. Directional verbs introducing a clausal complement 13.5. Discussion 13.5.1. Scope of aspect and negation 13.5.2. Main verbs and serial verbs

389 389 390 393 394 396 402 403 407 407 410 412 415 415 417 419 419 421

14. Focus and predicate cleft constructions 14.1. Introduction 14.2. Focus constructions 14.2.1. Focus of NPs 14.2.2. Focus of PPs 14.2.3. Focus of Adverbs 14.2.4. Focus of wh-phrases 14.2.5. Sentential focus 14.2.6. Focus and the first position 14.2.7. Focus and wh-movement 14.3. Predicate cleft constructions: focus of verbs 14.3.1. Type 1 cleft constructions 14.3.2. Type 2 cleft constructions 14.3.3. Type 3 cleft constructions 14.3.4. Discussion

423 423 424 424 428 429 430 431 432 432 436 438 440 443 444

15. Passive constructions 15.1. Introduction

449 449

xii

Contents 15.2. 15.2.1. 15.2.2. 15.2.3. 15.3.

Passivization in Berbice Dutch Cases which are inaccessible to passivization Transitive/intransitive verb pairs Cases which are accessible to passivization The interaction between passivization and other syntactic processes 15.3.1. Passivization and other foregrounding strategies 15.3.2. Passives and relativization 15.3.3. Passives and the resultative construction 15.4. Concluding remarks

Part ΠΙ 16. Texts 16.1. 16.1.1. 16.1.2. 16.1.3. 16.2. 16.3. 16.3.1. 16.3.2. 16.4. 16.4.1. 16.4.2. 16.4.3. 16.4.4. 16.4.5. 16.4.6.

472 472 474 475 476

Texts and basic vocabulary Personal history The Hartmans Arnold King Ernest King: logging and worksongs Lukuba: Tigri mete skelpata (Albertha Bell) Local legends Queen of Sheba (Hilda Adolphe) Di manggiapu (Arnold King) Various texts A sweet song (Albertha Bell) A case of burglary (Rita Thomas) The shop (Amos Clarke) Making kumudi and wida (Ellen France) An accident (Beresford Causway) The first time on a bicycle (Albertha Bell)

17. Basic vocabulary 17.1. Introduction 17.2. Swadesh 100 and 200 word lists of basic vocabulary 17.3. A discussion of some selected semantic domains 17.3.1. Parts and functions of the human body 17.3.2. Kinship terms Part IV

451 454 456 458

481 481 481 489 490 497 502 502 508 515 515 515 518 519 521 524 529 529 531 538 538 542

Vocabulary

Introduction Word lists

549 553

References Index

679 691

List of Figures and Tables I.1. 2.1. 3.1. 3.2. 3.3. 3.4. 4.1. 4.2. 6.1. 6.2. 6.3. 6.4. 6.5. 7.1. 7.2. 7.3. 8.1. 8.2. 8.3. 8.4. 9.1. 9.2. 9.3. 9.4. 10.1. II.1. 11.2. 11.3. 12.1. 12.2. 12.3. 13.1. 15.1. 15.2. 15.3. 15.4. 15.5.

Speakers of Berbice Dutch Creole Question words Tense, Mood, Aspect markers Combinations of Tense, Mood, Aspect markers Auxiliary verbs Scope properties of temporal adverbs Copular constructions TMA distinctions Definiteness contrasts Berbice Dutch pronouns Reduced forms of pronouns Distribution of pronouns Modification of pronouns Prepositions and their complement types Stranding and pied-piping erf prepositions The distributional properties of postpositions Berbice Dutch suffixational rules Causative verb forms Conversion rules The interpretation of aspectual distinctions Vowel phonemes Feature specification of vowels Allophony of vowels Consonant phonemes Properties of mu / kumu The distribution of complement clauses Complement types Complementation types attested with bifi 'say' and pama 'tell' Interrogative pronouns in interrogatives, free relatives and wh-relatives wati relativization: relativizable sites Distribution of complex NPs Scope properties of Serial Verb Constructions Judgements on passivization of verbs with affected themes Judgements on passivization of theme-altering verbs Judgements on passivization of verbs which describe change of location Judgements on passivization of miscellaneous verbs A summary of data on passivization

27 37 62 64 74 105 117 126 154 169 171 172 173 193 202 204 230 231 247 258 277 278 281 283 308 326 330 334 363 376 381 421 462 466 469 471 471

xiv

List of Tables

17.1.

Numbers of words derived from each source language in the Swadesh 200 and 100 word lists 17.2. Terms for the head and face 17.3. Terms for parts of the body 17.4. Terms for the organs 17.5. Terms for genitals 17.6. Terms for functions of the human body 17.7. Gender and age 17.8. Generations 17.9. Close family 17.10. Other kinship terms

530 538 540 541 541 542 543 544 545 546

Mrs Hilda Adolphe & Mrs Albertha Bell: the youngest and oldest speakers of Berbice Dutch Creole

Berbice River mode of transportation

xvii

Mr Beresford Causway

Map of Guyana. Shaded area indicates area in which Berbice Dutch Creole is spoken. Line drawing by Wycliffe Ho-Shing (School of Printing, UWI, Mona).

Introduction

Berbice Dutch Creole (henceforth BD) is the only uncontroversial Dutch-lexicon Creole still spoken today (Bruyn—Veenstra 1993; Robertson 1989). For a long time, it was assumed that Dutch colonization of Caribbean territories had somehow been different from English or French colonization in that it had not given rise to the development of Creoles lexically related to the colonial language. Whereas in (former) British and French colonies English- and French-related creole languages are spoken, the various Creole languages of Surinam (former Dutch Guiana) are lexically related to English and to a lesser extent to Portuguese, while in the Netherlands Antilles we find a creole which is lexically related to Portuguese/Spanish in the leeward islands, and Englishlexicon creole in the windward islands. A Dutch-lexicon creole Negerhollands, now extinct, was at one time the vernacular of St. Thomas, St. John and St. Croix (the former Danish Antilles, now the U.S. Virgin Islands), but this was never a Dutch colony. However, in 1975, Ian Robertson, then at the University of Guyana, discovered that Dutch-lexicon creole languages had been the vernaculars of the former Dutch colonies Berbice and Essequibo (pronounced as ['to:"bis] and ['es3kwibo] respectively). These languages, which became known as Berbice Dutch and Skepi Dutch respectively, had gone into oblivion after the Berbice and Essequibo became part of British Guiana (now Guyana), and the communities in which they were spoken became relatively isolated. Guyanese Creole (GC), a coverterm for a continuum of varieties ranging from "deep" Creole (lexically related to English) to standard Guyanese English, is now the vernacular of Guyana. Skepi Dutch is extinct, and Berbice Dutch is rapidly dying out. Robertson (1989) contains a comparison of the basic vocabulary of the two languages. In 1914, Hugo Schuchardt discussed and discarded the possibility that Dutch creole existed in the Berbice River area (1914: xiii). His discussion was prompted by Dance's (1881) Chapters from a Guyanese Logbook, in which the author asserts that "Creole Dutch" is alive and well in Berbice River communities, and reports the following conversation: I remember seeing him [i.e. Willie, the son of the proprietor of plantation Peereboom on the Berbice River—SK] at a wedding party encouraging the Arawak Indian maidens and matrons to drop their bashfulness for a time, and busily engaged in initiating them into the mysteries of knives and forks. ... Roars of laughter ensued when, on one Arawak patriarch, a little elated, calling out in Creole Dutch, "Echeh habu sarapa ca"—I have no three pronged arrow (meaning a fork to take up his meat with), Willie archly advised him "Dake de wioacache ne?"—to use his one pronged arrow instead. (Dance 1881: 51) Schuchardt comments that he is unable to interpret these words "either with the help of English or of Dutch" (translation Gilbert 1985:47). And Schuchardt was right: there is little evidence of Dutch lexical contribution in this fragment. Below, the utterances are rendered in modern BD with the source language of each item. Most of the content

2

Introduction

words, with the exception of habu 'have' and eke Τ are derived from languages other than Dutch. (1)

eke habu lsg have D D Ί don't have

sarapa ka(ne) 3-arrow NEG AR EI a three pronged arrow.'

/ / / /

deki di wajakal ni? take the 1-arrow no? EI D AR D 'Take the one pronged arrow, no?'

The only other published source of nineteenth century BD is Swaving (1827), who describes a conversation between himself and his African mother-in-law. Had Schuchardt known of this source, his position would undoubtedly have remained the same. The pertinent passage follows. I tried once to convert my black mother-in-law to Christian faith, and naturally started out with the birth of our Saviour, because she appeared to interpret her Abadi as the same Supreme Being to which we have given the name of God, in spite of the contradictory properties which follow from her heathen fallacies. The conversation was held in Creole. But hardly had I commenced my proselyting speech, hardly had the word Abadi habe enne tobbeke come out of my mouth, or she interrupted me: "nenne, nenne, de grotte Abadi kante habe tobbekes ka," and when I intended to continue telling her about the Virgin Mary and what happened in Bethlehem, she angrily walked out of the house, muttering that I was fooling her. (Swaving 1827: 267-268; my translation)1 Swaving's brief exchange follows in a modern BD rendering, with the etymological source language of each item. We may note that this fragment, like the fragment in Dance (1881), cannot be interpreted with the help of Dutch alone. (2)

Abadi habu en toko God have one child EI D D EI ηεηε, ηεηε, di groto Abadi kanti habu no no the great God cannot have D D D D EI D D 'God has a child.' 'No! no! the great God cannot

toko ka(ne) child NEG EI EI have children.'

Some of the present day speakers of BD were secretive about their knowledge of this language, and none of them would volunteer the information that they knew this language. This is due, at least in part, to pressure from missionaries who founded the educational system of these areas. For instance, Dance (1881) describes the way he ran a school on the Berbice River in which he forbade the use of Creole Dutch. Most of the people quoted in this grammar attended a school on the Wiruni Creek which was founded by missionaries of the Plymouth Brethren Church. They too were told not to speak "broken Dutch". As a result, most young«· people in the environment of the speakers of BD, even family members, were anaware of the fact that they knew any

Introduction

3

language other than GCE. In view of this, the extraordinary efforts made by Ian Robertson, which led him to Rita Thomas and other speakers, cannot be underestimated. If it had not been for his tenacity, the last speakers of BD would have lived and died unnoticed. With this combination of grammar, texts and vocabulary of Berbice Dutch Creole (BD), we hope to satisfy the need for such material on the one hand, and give an impetus to further study of this language on the other. In parts I and II, general as well as specific aspects of BD grammar are discussed. Part III contains texts and a discussion of BD basic vocabulary. The word lists are contained in part IV. The large number of examples included in the grammar and vocabulary as well as the addition of texts will, we hope, serve as a resource for linguists. This should make it possible to confront aspects of BD grammar which are insufficiently addressed here, and to challenge the interpretations of the data and the conclusions drawn here. The grammar is divided in two parts, part I being an introduction to general aspects of the grammar, part II containing elaborate discussions of specific constructions. Following an account of methodological aspects and an introduction to the speakers of BD that have provided the data for this grammar (chapter 1), part I is organized in such a way that we begin with the discussion of issues pertaining to the sentential level (word order and movement in chapter 2) and end with the discussion of issues pertaining to the segmental level (phonology in chapter 9). The chapters in between are concerned with general aspects of the structure of the clause (3), copular sentences (4), minor sentence types (5), the noun phrase (6), adpositional structures (7), and morphology (8). Part II contains discussions of specific clause types (purposive and resultative constructions in 10, complement clauses in 11, relative clauses in 12, serial verb constructions in 13), and of foregrounding constructions (focus and predicate cleft in 14, passive constructions in 15). To some extent, the choice of constructions subjected to detailed discussion in part II follows from language specific considerations, to some extent it follows from central issues in creole linguistics. An example of the former is focus as compared to dislocation and extraposition: focus is much more frequent than either of the other foregrounding strategies, has different forms, and interacts with other movement processes. In other words: not only are there more focus constructions than dislocation and extraposition constructions to be found in spontaneous language use, they are also of more obvious interest. An example of a construction of which detailed discussion was prompted by creole linguistic debates is the passive construction. The passive is a marginal construction, i.e. there are few passive constructions to be found in spontaneous language use. Therefore, the discussion in the pertinent chapter relies heavily on elicited judgements. The texts in part III (chapter 16) were selected in such a way that they would represent a variety of speech situations. Also, we have been careful to include at least one sample of text from all of the speakers that are quoted in the grammar. It is important to note here that none of the texts represents a natural speech situation: speech was always addressed to me, even if other speakers of BD were present in that situation. In addition, part ΠΙ contains a discussion of basic vocabulary; "basic" is understood here in the sense of the Swadesh 100 and 200 word lists, as well as in the sense of pertaining to fundamental concepts. Therefore, chapter 17 contains an analysis of the

4

Introduction

Swadesh word lists as well as discussion of the domains of the human body and of kinship terms. The word lists in part IV are preceded by an explanation of the format of the entries. Rickford (1987: 2—4) mentions four areas of linguistic theory in which the study of Creole languages has come to be recognized as important. These are language contact and change, sociolinguistic variation, language acquisition and processing, and grammatical theory. This grammar is intended mainly to contribute to the area of grammatical theory: it is an important aim of this grammar to present BD data, or rather, a particular interpretation of these data, in such a way that these may be of significance for the advancement of grammatical theory. We have attempted to write the grammar in such a way that it is as free as possible of theory specific jargon. In addition, BD is of obvious interest with respect to the area of language contact and change, in particular because of the evidence for significant substratal influence in the formation of BD. Indeed, one of the central concerns of creole linguists with respect to BD is the Eastern-Ijo (EI) contribution to (basic) vocabulary and grammar which was first noted by Smith—Robertson—Williamson (1987), and which makes BD unique among Caribbean creole languages: it is generally the case that African-derived vocabulary in creole languages, though sometimes abundant in peripheral parts of the lexicon, are not found in basic vocabulary. Also, although recent work has suggested that the number of West African languages which played a significant role in the genesis of creole languages in the Caribbean may have been much smaller than generally assumed (Smith 1987), this still does not translate into easily recognizable contributions by such substrate languages to the grammars of these creole languages. Adherents to the substrate hypothesis have postulated a "generalized West African grammar" to deal with the problem of identification of substrate features (Alleyne 1980). BD gives us a unique opportunity to test the substrate hypothesis without recourse to generalized grammars. However, the exploration of these issues is not an aim of this grammar. For a discussion of the importance of the substratal element in BD for models of creole genesis and language contact, the reader is referred to Smith, Robertson and Williamson (1987), Smith (1987), Robertson (in press) and Kouwenberg (1992). And finally, not mentioned by Rickford who is concerned with creole languages which are not threatened by extinction, we need to mention the potential significance of BD for the study of language attrition and language death. All speakers of BD are bilingual in BD and Guyanese Creole English (GCE), and all are GCE-dominant. The speech of every single speaker of BD shows evidence of loss of vocabulary items, both in the area of content vocabulary—even in those areas which supposedly belong to basic vocabulary—and in the area of functional vocabulary; loss of the latter type of vocabulary items entails loss of competence. In some cases, this is attended by creative processes of change, in some cases it is not. Creative change involves the incorporation of GCE-derived patterns in BD grammar, whereas loss involves the simple replacement of BD words and structures by GCE words and structures. The dividing line between these two processes is thin, as also indicated in work by Robertson (1982, 1983). We find the reflection of these processes to different extents in the speech of different

Introduction

5

speakers. All of them are well aware of the extent to which GCE has intruded in BD, and have told me so on many occasions: (3)

alma di wotap das habu kalikali ingli\i all the word-PL HAB have small-small English 'All the words have a bit of English in them.' [AC 86]

benjanga inside=LOC

As a result, this grammar is partly a theoretical construct which exists for no single speaker, partly a description of a system in decay. The elaboration of these issues is not a central theme of this grammar, but wherever possible, I point at evidence for such processes.

Notes to Introduction 1. The original Dutch text is as follows: Ik beproefde eens om mijne zwarte schoonmoeder tot het Christelijk geloof over te halen, en begon, zoo als van zelve spreekt, met de geboorte van onzen Heiland, want zij scheen door haren Abadi hetzelfde Opperwezen te verstaan, als dat aan hetwelk wij de naam van God gegeven hebben, hoezeer die attribution, uit hoofde harer Heidensche wanbegrippen, daar regelregt tegen inliepen. Het gesprek was in het Kreoolsch. Dan naauwelijks had ik mijne prosylitische redevoering begonnen, naauwelijks was het woord: Abadi habe enne tobbeke uit mijne mond, of zij viel mij oogenblikkelijk in de rede: "nenne, nenne, de grotte Abadi kante habe tobbekes ka," en toen ik wilde voortgaan met haar over de maagd Maria en het gebeurde te Bethlehem te onderhouden, liep zij driftig mijn huis uit, en mompelde dat ik den gek met haar scheerde.

Part I Introduction to Berbice Dutch Grammar

1. Background and methodological aspects

1.1. Remarks on methodology The aim of my first fieldwork, in 1986, was to meet speakers of BD, to elicit as much of the BD vocabulary as possible, and to find out if a more in-depth study of the language would be feasible. The modesty of these objectives made it possible to gradually build up insight in various aspects of the grammar of BD while gaining fieldwork experience at the same time. This approach has paid off in later fieldwork in 1988 and 1990, when my research questions had become more complicated and pertained to specific phenomena of interest. Preparations for my first fieldwork were based on Robertson's descriptions of aspects of BD vocabulary and grammar in his pioneer studies (in particular Robertson 1979). At the time, my fieldwork experience was limited to work with highly educated native speakers of Saramaccan and Papiamento in Amsterdam. I was well aware that fieldwork: in the Berbice would be different, but had not quite anticipated the extent to which it would be. My experiences with regard to methodological issues are discussed below; general issues, and issues specific to vocabulary elicitation and to grammaticality judgements, are discussed in separate sections.

1.1.1. General remarks on fieldwork Logistics turned out to be a decisive factor for the success of my fieldwork; the relatively isolated situation of my teachers' homes—a factor which contributed to the very survival of the language—posed problems, at least initially. My first base was at some distance from the Berbice River. It was a great help when the Lutheran minister allowed me to stay in his house on the Berbice River. From there, I could visit people without complicated and time-consuming transportation arrangements—most people I knew at the time lived at paddling distance from my new base. As a result, I could spend more time with my teachers, and we got more used to each other. Also, I got to know the community and the way of life of the river, i.e. the context in which BD is spoken. In addition, I met Estel Thomas and her family, who provided me with a home on the Berbice River during my fieldwork in 1988 and 1990, and also assisted in transportation and various other aspects of my fieldwork. The intermediary language. The barrier posed by the difference between the fairly standard dialect of British English that I started out with, and my teachers' Guyanese English (mostly within the mesolectal range) proved to be easy enough to overcome in conversation—according to Berbice River people I now speak English "without an accent"—but remained a problem where I needed translations for BD utterances to interpret them, but did not really know how to interpret the translations which were given in Guyanese English. To reach a stage at which one can do without translations,

10

1. Background and methodological aspects

and rely entirely on language-internal evidence, takes a long time. It took me up to my last fieldwork in 1990 to get near to that stage. Even now, I feel that there is still a lot to learn. Spontaneous speech. Throughout my fieldwork I alternated specific questions with dialogues which I recorded, and I encouraged informants to tell me something in a monologue form. This served several objectives: in conversation with informants, I learned to speak and understand the language, many phenomena of interest surfaced in these recordings and provided the basis for the development of research questions, and discourse phenomena (which cannot be elicited) surfaced. The importance of learning to speak the language one studies cannot be overemphasized for this kind of research. How could I expect informants to speak BD if I persisted in speaking English? How could I expect informants to take my questions seriously if I did not even practice what they had taught me? The more my control of BD advanced, the less attention needed to be paid to making sure that we understood each other, and the more relaxed and informative these conversations became. We would talk about family history, about aspects of life such as farming, housekeeping, raising children, church, travelling on the river, et cetera. Because of the nature of the conversations I gained insight into various aspects of Berbice River life as well as aspects of BD grammar. I also posed questions pertaining to the existence of mythical beings and asked each speaker for fables. In these areas, being a newcomer turned out to be a serious disadvantage. If one is ignorant and has nothing to offer, one deserves to be kept in the dark. My introduction to mythical creatures of the bush and waterpeople did not come about until after I had picked up some names by coincidence and started to ask specific questions about these; even then informants would find out how much I knew to decide how much to tell me, and they would be on the alert for signs of disbelief on my part. Thus, one informant would typically start by saying something like "long ago, before civilization came, people used to believe...". Something similar goes for storytelling: as soon as one informant decided to tell me fables, others followed because I could proudly tell them that "Aunt Bertha gave me Anancy stories", and because I retold the fables for them in BD. Also, after one male informant had told me about his work in logging and sang some worksongs, I played these for others and thus collected more. In short, getting information means giving information first. Interview setting. I have worked with most informants on an individual basis. At first I thought that it would be a good idea to get informants together: two heads may know more than one, and I was looking forward to recording dialogues between native speakers. I underestimated the conditioning influence of 40 or more years without active use of BD. Informants might exchange a greeting and a few sentences in BD, but they never really conversed in the language. Also, one person may be dominant, leaving the other with little opportunity to take active part in conversation. During my fieldwork in 1986,1 always interviewed HA and AT together. I lata" realized that AT had dominated these interviews, whereas HA remained in the background. Not every native speaker is a natural linguist. Speakers of BD are not aware of the mixed history of their language, and refer to it simply as "Dutch" or as "taki taki Dutch".1 My Dutch background provided an obvious legitimation for my interest in the language. As a result, the people whom I asked to teach me the language were

Remarks on methodology 11 generally willing to do so, not realizing that I was going to be a demanding pupil. All of my teachers had to get used to the kinds of questions I asked as much as I had to get used to the way they looked at language and dealt with it, but with some people it just did not work out. EF was among them: she had lived isolated for a long time, even from her own community, and had had little exposure to strangers since her childhood. She had to get over her shyness to talk to me, and got quite put out by questions such as "can you say...". We therefore limited ourselves to conversation and vocabulary elicitation. At the other end of the scale, AC rather enjoyed discussing the grammaticality and interpretation of various constructions, but would often refuse to converse in BD. In general, the character, mood and way of life of an informant determine the success of fieldwork to a great extent. BB for instance, would sometimes reject every test sentence because of a headache or tiredness, whereas she would seriously consider these on another occasion, when she felt better.

1.1.2. Vocabulary elicitation Irrelevant words. I went armed with long lists of words ordered in semantic domains and expected to find BD equivalents for most of these. I was often disappointed by informants who told me that di langgi titi kenapu (lit. 'the long ago people', i.e. the generation of people who used to speak BD at the time that they were small) had had no need for such a word at all, or that they had never heard it called by anything else but an English name. In some cases, the BD equivalents did surface, although sometimes not until in fieldwork a couple erf years after. However, many of the words in my list were really eurocentric and quite irrelevant to Berbice River life, or conceptualized in a eurocentric or irrelevant way. Thus, there is no word for 'cloud' in BD. To express the equivalent of "it is overcast", or "rain is threatening" one says εηε kalte 'rain has gathered' (lit. 'rain has shut up'). What matters is not the cloud itself but the promise of rain. The intermediary language. The language which mediated between my word lists and Berbice Dutch was Guyanese English. Many words have meanings in Guyanese English different from the ones that I was familiar with, and this sometimes posed a problem for me to figure out. For instance, there is no such thing as a 'bend' in the river; but there is a 'bucket' (BD boktu) and a 'point' (BD huku): the outer and inner parts of a bend respectively. Even Guyanese from other parts of the country may be confused by the specialized terminology which is part of Berbice River life. Thus, a new schoolteacher—unaware that a canoe is called a 'boat' by Berbice River people—had given children the word 'canoe' to spell, and was disappointed to find that they reacted as if it were a foreign word to them. Eliciting words. I usually started out by asking an informant for a translation of an English word or definition. I tried to create a favourable environment for success by defining a semantic domain (for instance, things around the house, parts of the body, working in the field), and by starting out with the more obvious words in this domain. In fact, an informant would often come up with the more obvious words as soon as I had defined the semantic domain.

12

1. Background and methodological aspects

If asking for the BD equivalent of an English word yielded no results while I had been given a form by another informant, or was familiar with a form from Robertson's work, I would offer that. If the informant knew it, I would ask what it means, if the form is correct, and how it sounds (so as to get a repetition of the word). If the form proved to be unknown, I would offer it in the context of a sentence and give a tentative translation. If none of this was succesful, I assumed that the word was unknown to this informant, until the assumption was proven wrong, for instance if the word surfaced spontaneously in conversation. Words which have grammatical rather than semantic content are the hardest to elicit. Reduced forms of verbs which are used only as grammatical morphemes are in this category. Thus, me/me are reduced forms of mja/mje 'make, do'; they appear in causative constructions but are not recognized independently. Also, allomorphs, even if used regularly, are not usually recognized. Thus, all speakers use a as an allomorph of ο (3sg pronoun), but except for RT, they do not recognize it independently. (See the relevant entries in the vocabulary for a discussion.) Words and contexts. In compiling a lexicon, context is as important as the words themselves. Informants hardly ever gave me a word in isolation. If I asked how to call 'house', the response would be an utterance such as eke ha en kali wari Ί have a small house'. If I asked how to say 'cut', the response would be an utterance such as eke kapa branhautu Ί am cutting firewood'. In the latter case, imperfective aspect has been suffixed on the verb and the final vowel of the verb has been suppressed (kapa < kapua). To elicit the full form I would either have to ask if kapu is right (the epithetic vowel can be predicted fairly accurately for Dutch-derived words), or elicit an irrealis form, as in eke ma kapu branhautu dalki Ί will cut some firewood just now'. This practice of offering sentences rather than words had the advantage that the sentences could serve as introduction to further conversation on the topic and this in tum could lead the informants to use words associated with the topic which were not in my list or just difficult to elicit out of context. "Dialectal" variation. Through doublechecking words with different informants as much as possible, I found that for some speakers of BD apocope (i.e. the loss of a final vowel) has applied to a subset of the lexicon. Based on this difference, we can divide the speakers of BD in two groups: speakers who use full forms (e.g. birbili 'river') originate from the Wiruni Creek, whereas speakers who use reduced forms (e.g. birbi\) originate from the Berbice River. Also, there are some differences between these groups in the pronominal system, and in the choice of a few lexical items. In the introduction to the speakers of BD below, their "dialectal" affiliation is mentioned. As far as I can tell, there are no differences of syntactic relevance between the two groups as such, although each speaker has her/his idiosyncracies. These too will be mentioned below.

1.1.3. Elicitation of grammatically judgements Basic working principles. To find answers to specific research questions, I used test sentences which I discussed with informants. The information I wanted was of two

Remarks on methodology 13 kinds: whether a certain construction was part of a certain speaker's grammar and/or what its interpretation was. Unfortunately, informants' reactions cannot always be taken at face value. If a sentence is accepted, it does not necessarily mean that the construction which is being tested is accepted, and if a sentence is rejected, this does not necessarily mean that the construction which is being tested is rejected. Nevertheless, in the following chapters, I sometimes rely on elicited judgements. In my use of elicited judgements, two working principles ensure that these are reasonably reliable: 1. Sentences which an informant accepted but would not repeat, and those that an informant accepted and repeated are distinguished. Only the latter are put down as "accepted"; acceptability of the former remains doubtful. 2. Primacy is given to "spontaneous" use of language over elicited judgements; if a construction surfaces in conversation or monologues, it is assumed to be part of the speaker's grammar. If it surfaces only in elicitation, it may not be part of the speaker's grammar. After all, "a test situation ... may very well elicit reactions that are not typical of [the speaker's] normal processing of linguistic forms" (Labov 1975:121). Therefore, if I have to rely on elicited judgements without spontaneous utterances to support the acceptability of a construction, this is always indicated. Some of the factors which complicate elicitation, and often make elicited judgements less than reliable, are discussed here. Note that it is not my intention to suggest that elicitation of grammaticality judgements is a futile effort. I have learned a great deal from discussions with informants, and even if the information I got was not always an answer to the question I had in mind, at least the question had led to a discussion from which I gained other insights; therefore, formulating it had not been a wasted effort. Below, I first present some of the factors involved in not getting the right answer to the right question, followed by some of the reasons for claiming that discussing test sentences with informants is worthwhile, in spite of everything. Structure versus content. The acceptability of a test sentence is dependent upon its content rather than its structure. A perfect sentence (in terms of its structure) may be rejected because of an illchosen word. It is therefore important that the sentence is offered in a context in which its content is acceptable. The best context is one which presents a situation which is familiar to the speaker and refers to real persons and events. On the other hand, the informant tends to pay more attention to the persons and events the realer they are, and to forget that all I wanted is to find out if this particular sentence is acceptable. For instance, in a conversation with BC, I constructed a context in which somebody had planted corn which was growing well and nearly mature when somebody else's cows broke the fence and ate out a good bit of the com. What I wanted to know is if one can say (the equivalent of) 'the corn has been eaten'. BC ignored the question—he probably never even heard it—and completed the story instead: you have to go and see the owners of the cows and tell them to catch their cows and restore the fence. Then you go to the Captain and tell him what has happened; he will inspect your cornfield and decide on the height of the compensation which these people will have to pay you for the damages. A beautiful follow-up in BD, but without the information I was looking for. I did not have the heart to repeat the question. So cm I go with a new context and a new sentence.

14

1. Background and methodological aspects

Marginal constructions 1. Some BD constructions, notably passive and predicate cleft, can be called marginal by the infrequency with which they are used: they surface less than once per hour of recorded speech. As a result, one can never extract sufficient information cm these constructions from recordings. Elicited judgements are therefore indispensable, but the marginality of these constructions is also reflected in a tendency among informants to reject them. Part of the problem is that I do not know enough about the factors which determine the acceptability of marginal constructions. Thus, I have offered informants their own sentences in the same context in which these were produced, and still met with a rejection. Consider for instance AK's attitude to cleft constructions. The following utterance by AK contains two clefts, the first one nominalized, the second focussed. (1)

di flor wato bi ςηαραη flortek hor the lose what=3sg say 3poss=gun lose-PF=lsg hear da furkopso furkop BE sell=FOC=3sg sell 'Rather than having lost his gun, as he claims, I heard he sold it.' [AK 290488:p6]

Although AK produced these and other clefts occasionally, he maintained a strong resistance against any clefts which I tried to discuss with him for a long time. When, by coincidence, we came to discuss the same event again which triggered the utterance in (1), I offered this construction, and saw it rejected. I did not give up on cleft constructions because spontaneous use indicated that they are part of BD grammar, and in the last month of my 1990 fieldwork AK changed his attitude: he reconsidered earlier judgements, and gave me very insightful comments on the interpretation of different cleft constructions. Marginal constructions 2. Another example which illustrates the problems in elicitation of (judgements on) marginal constructions involves the passive construction. In this particular case, I wanted to find out if verbs which derive from adjectives can passivize. Thus, kurkuru 'black', which is basically an adjective, is also used as a verb. (2) shows that it may appear with a subject only (which bears a theme role), whereas (3) shows that it may be used as a transitive verb, with a subject and an object. (2)

(3)

eke Iura di ene kurkurte lsg see-IPF the rain black-PF Ί saw that it had overclouded.' (lit. Ί saw that the rain had blackened') [BB 88] ju kurkurte di sere 2sg black-PF the sore 'You have blackened the sore.' (referring to a funeral custom) [!BB 260290:p2]

I tried to elicit a passive interpretation for the following utterance, deriving from the transitive use of kurkuru in (3); since blackening a sore is always undertaken by an agent, I assumed that accepting it would mean accepting passivization.

Remarks on methodology 15 (4)

?di sere kurkurte the sore black-PF 'The sore has been blackened.'

It was accepted in this context by BB (260290:p2) but rejected by HA (220190:pl6), who commented on the oddness of the utterance, saying that it was as if the sere was on top of the kurkuru·, what she was pointing to is, I think, the fact that the context excluded a "by itself" interpretation, and that all that was left to her was an interpretation in which the sere was actually the agent of kurkuru, an interpretation which cannot be reconciled with reality. Variation in judgements. This example also shows that informants may disagree in their judgements. If such disagreements are consistent, they may be indicative of idiolectal dialects; thus, HA's consistent refusal to repeat resultative constructions (which she said were fine) led me to scan her unelicited language use for this construction, to find that it was absent. If disagreements are inconsistent, or if informants disagree with their own judgements, something may be wrong with the test situation itself. For instance, the context may not be well constructed. However, there are many cases where the reasons for disagreements are mysterious, for instance in variation in judgements on marginal constructions. Where relevant, such variation will be mentioned. The interpretation of judgements. A rejection often has to be gathered from an informant's reaction; people tend to offer alternative utterances rather than give an outright NO. For one because they may not even hear or be able to identify where my sentence goes wrong, but also because they may not be aware that their sentence is at all different from mine. I found that this happened a lot with marginal constructions. I could repeat a predicate cleft construction such as da muso mute [BE go=FOC=3sg go-PF] 'he really went' as often as I wanted, I could explicitly state that there was an extra mu in front, and BB—as obstinate as me—would say again and again: "same thing, ο mute" [3sg go-PF] 'he went'. Inevitably, to get around an initial rejection of a construction by a speaker, one leams to use tricks. One is to offer a rejected construction again with a slightly different content, for instance a different subject; since people are more intent on content than structure, they rarely notice that you are really asking for the same thing again. For example, after my com story went down the drain with BC, I tried the same passive with another product. Another is to repeat the same construction with a different tense reference, for instance by asking "and if you want to do this tomorrow, can you say...". If all else has failed, one can still ask "but if I say so-and-so, what does it mean?" This strategy turned out to work very well with AK, who finds it easy to identify meaningful elements and compare different constructions. It also worked sometimes with BB, but not at all with other informants. Besides requiring a certain level of sophistication, it has the additional disadvantage of not prompting the informant for a repetition of the sentence, whereas repetition is the only sure diagnostic for a positive judgement. In short, to get reliable judgements is time-consuming work. For the discussion of one simple sentence, one can easily count on spending as much as 15 minutes, and this

16

1. Background and methodological aspects

investment may not even pay off in the sense of yielding an answer to that specific question. If informants' judgements had been the sole basis of this grammar, many issues would not have been included. We have here an illustration of Labov'sprinciple of validity, which says: "[w]hen the use of language is shown to be more consistent than introspective judgements, a valid description of the language will agree with that use rather than introspections" (1975: 112). He notes that people's judgements do not necessarily have a direct relation to the grammar which governs their speech, and concludes: "[t]his puts us in the somewhat embarrasing position of knowing more about a speaker's grammar than he does himself" (107). However, this is not to say that my attempts to elicit judgements on specific research questions were a waste of time. There are phenomena which would not have surfaced had I not looked for them. If I had attempted to extract all information for this description from spontaneous speech samples, inevitably some things would have remained undescribed. One of them is the use of passive verb forms in the resultative construction, as in di toko kon fente [the child RESULT find-PF] 'the (lost) child was found'. Another is (the interpretation of) multiple suffixation as in di tokapje < di tokoapu-je 'the children's*. Also, I needed to establish what the limitations of certain constructions are, and what constructions are unacceptable in BD. After all, spontaneous language use does not provide us with negative evidence. Thus, there is no such thing as middles in BD, witness the unacceptability of (5). Had I not tried to elicit middle constructions, the best I could have done here is to say that middles have not surfaced in my recordings. (5)

*di kujara doka lekti the canoe pull-IPF light 'The canoe pulls easily.'

Theoretical bias. My questions were raised and formulated within a theoretical framework, that of Government & Binding (GB) or Extended Standard Theory. In my opinion, it is because I formulated theoretical questions and tried to get answers to them, that I have been able to get thorough insight in the structural properties of BD. Each time I discussed test sentences with informants contributed something to this insight, brought up new empirical data, and raised new questions, although often not in the way I had hoped or anticipated. Also, in many cases where the answers to research questions were right there, in recorded conversations and monologues, they became "visible" or interpretable only after I had questioned them separately. Elicited judgements and interpretations have made it possible for me to analyse spontaneously used constructions more reliably.

1.2. Some background information The fieldwork among speakers of BD on which this description of BD grammar and vocabulary is based was carried out in three periods over a five year period: three months in 1986, eight in 1988, and another three months in 1990. The material which

Some background information

17

is presented here was gathered in fieldwork with eleven informants whom I believe to be competent speakers. Examples and texts are used only of those eleven speakers. In addition, I have spoken with a number of people whose speech evidences a stage near to complete loss of competence in the language. After a discussion of various aspects of life on the Berbice River and Wiruni Creek, the speakers of BD are introduced to the reader.

1.2.1. Life on the Berbice River and Wiruni Creek Inhabitants of the Wiruni Creek are of predominantly Amerindian extraction, whereas those of the Berbice River in the Wiruni area are more usually of African or mixed ancestry. There are also a few people of Indian ancestry (descendants of contract labourers from India) in the community. In this part of Guyana, the river/creek is very important: it supplies water for drinking, bathing, washing clothes and wares, etc. To go anywhere, people usually travel on the water. If the distance is short (for instance to school or to the shop) they paddle a canoe or a pram; if the distance is long (for instance to town), they beg a lift with a launch or bauxite tug, or travel on the Berbice River Steamer. A few people own outboard engines. Houses are surrounded by rainforest, but in several places, one can walk through the forest and reach savannah area. In the dry season, walking is preferred by many people since the meandering course of the river makes river journeys longer than walking tracks. Building canoes. The canoes (BD kujara) which are used nowadays are so-called dug-outs: a tree trunk is cut to the right length and shape and hollowed with the use of a cutlass; the kujara gets its eventual shape and width in the heat of smouldering dry leaves and twigs. Depending on the type of wood, an unpainted canoe may last between three and ten years. In former times, bark canoes (BD apara) were more usual. These were made from the bark of certain trees. They are easier to build and lighter to pull, but do not last long. The paddles (BD skepre) of the Berbice River have a peculiar property: there are male and female models, to suit male and female ways of paddling. In former times, twosided paddles (BD jalu) were used as well. Like the apara, these are no longer seen on the Berbice River. Building a house. In a home built in Amerindian fashion, the walls consist of wattle (BD klara), made of the trunks of the manggwala, patwala, or ite palms. (See the relevant entries in the vocabulary.) The roof is thatched with palm leaves (usually of the dalibana palm). A thatched roof is cheap and can last up to 25 years, but it has the disadvantage of requiring regular repair, and offering a home to hoards of (biting) insects. The flow is usually a wooden floor, and slightly raised to keep dry in the rainy season and to keep creeping vennin out. The partitioning between the living area and the sleeping area is usually made of boards as well. The living area is largely open. The kitchen is built in the same fashion, except that it is not raised, and does not usually have a wooden floor. The alternative to an Amerindian house is a home built of boards, which can be built on blocks, slightly raised off the ground, or on stilts; the use of stilts allows one to

18

1. Background and methodological aspects

raise the house far off the ground, so that a high dry area is created underneath which may be used for various purposes. The roof consists either of boards or of zink sheets; the latter last much longer and do not leak as quickly, but they make the house rather hot during the day, and the noise created by rain falling on the roof is deafening. The kitchen may be separate, and built in the Amerindian fashion which is much cheaper than using boards, or it may be attached to the house. Furniture may be simple (plain, selfmade benches, tables and beds) or elaborate (cushioned chairs and beds from the shops in town). Elaborate furniture is never found in an Amerindian style house. And in fact, a lot of people care more about the size of their house than about its furnishing, as evidenced by the fact that some families have put up large houses with verandas and attached kitchens, but with no more than a few chairs inside. Cooking and eating. There are various ways in which cooking is done: either on woodfire, on a coalpot, or on a kerosene stove. The latter two methods are more expensive because of the cost of coal and kerosene; also, supply of these is unreliable. Cooking on woodfire means having to go out to gather wood and chop it; because of the scorching heat of a woodfire, it is the most unpleasant way of cooking. Both woodfire and coalpot tum the kitchen black as soot; this, combined with fire hazard are the main reasons for building kitchens separate. The staple is white rice. Other than that, the following starch products are important: wheat flour products, bitter cassava and other "ground provisions" (i.e. plantains and all tuba's, such as sweet potato, tannia, yam, etc.). Those who can afford to buy flour use it to prepare something for the morning meal; this meal is called "tea" in Guyana. Amerindians make cassavabread (BD kika) out of the bitter cassava (see vocabulary for a description of this process). Meat and fish are always in short supply. Children like to go fishing and catch a few small fish now and then. Sometimes, a fish ends up in a fish pen or fishing basket. Every now and again, somebody who has killed a pig or a cow, or a hunter who has brought home some game, sells meat. Most families have some fowl around the house for the eggs. Subsistence farming. Virtually every family has a field in which they grow ground provisions and maybe some vegetables for their own consumption. A few people also grow their own rice. Many people do some farming for commercial purposes; the main products are peanuts, corn, beans and plantains. The yield is very much dependent on factors beyond human control, such as the rain. Thus in early 1990, the yield of all agricultural products was between one half and a tenth of that of the year before because of continous rainfall in what was supposed to be the dry season. Also, the prolonged rains made it impossible to cut and burn new fields: traditionally, people cut a field in the forest in the dry season, bum the trees, and plant on the ashes. A new field has to be burnt every other year. To cut a field in the forest, one needs help, and therefore calls on friends and neighbours; one has to provide them with food and drinks after the job is finished. The same practice is follwed when building a house. The practice of reward for this kind of cooperative work in the form of a celebration with a meal and drinks is called matriman.

Some background information

19

Instead of growing crops in the bush, there are also people who grow products in the savannah: no cut-and-bum there, but one needs fertilizer to plant in the savannah, which is not easy to get and relatively expensive. There are a few real commercial fanners on the Berbice River; they plant in the savannah, use fertilizer and pesticides, and employ seasonal labour. Other sources of income. Many of the men and a few women are involved in the making of materials or in logging. The area where the right trees for either activity are found, is a good distance up the creeks. Usually, the men spend a minimum of three weeks in a camp which consists of temporary shelters. Making materials is done on an individual basis or on a small family basis (by father and son or by husband and wife). It involves cutting walaba trees and making materials out of these (posts, shingles, poles). Some families are in the logging business. This involves cutting trees which are used for building purposes and selling them to the sawmills. There is a great demand for wood for building purposes, which makes logging a profitable business. Logging requires investments (a tractor, a launch) and is therefore usually done by a larger and reasonably well-off family, possibly with additional labour employed. The only industrial employer on the Berbice River is the bauxite company at Kwakwani; this however is hardly relevant to people in the Wiruni area, unless they go to Kwakwani for shorttime jobs. Public services. Public facilities such as health care and education are free but unreliable, on the Berbice River as elsewhere in the interior of Guyana; the government finds it increasingly difficult to motivate anybody with the proper training to work in isolated areas under difficult circumstances on an income which cannot possibly support a family. A few common complaints can be treated by the "medix" (someone trained to diagnose and treat simple complaints) on the river, if present; for the treatment of other complaints one has to go to a hospital, either in Kwakwani or in New Amsterdam (at the mouth of the Berbice River). In addition, some Berbice River men are snake doctors, i.e. they treat snake bites. Knowledge about snakes and the cure for snake bites is handed down orally to a selfchosen successor. Although there is a cure for every snake bite, the succes of treatment depends on the speed with which one gets it and whether the snake was seen and recognized. Some of the snake doctors have knowledge of the treatment of other complaints as well. Children in the Wiruni area attend a primary school at Saint Lust. If all vacancies are filled, the teaching staff consists of a headmaster or headmistress from outside the area, for which a house is provided, and two assistants from the area. Up to 85 children aged between 5 and 15 may attend, depending on the weather (no child paddles through heavy rain fall), the season (children assist their parents in their farming activities), and the condition of the family (mothers do not send their children to school if they do not have food for them). For further education, children have to be sent to town. There is no electricity supply on the Berbice River except at Kwakwani, where electricity is supplied by the bauxite company. A few families who own discos or shops on the Berbice River have generators. Churches. The denominations represented in this area are the Episcopal Brethren Church, the Lutheran Church and the Seventh Day Adventists. The Adventists are new

20

1· Background and methodological aspects

to the area and have very few followers as yet; they had just started putting up a church building in 1990, after having congregated at the homes of members for a few years. The Brethren have been present in the Berbice since the first half of the 19th century, and most Wiruni people belong to this church. Benjamin (1988) presents evidence that the settlement at Matara on the Wiruni Creek in fact originates from Kumakoo on the Berbice River; following an old Amerindian custom, the entire community moved from Kumakoo to Matara after an important man, viz. the Brethren missionary priest, died. A church was established at Matara, but moved down the creek, first to Baramuru on the Wiruni Creek, eventually to the Berbice River, at the mouth of the Wiruni Creek. In spite of its present location, the majority of churchgoers still come from some distance up the Wiruni Creek. The church has dwindled somewhat since the late seventies, when missionaries were no longer allowed to enter Guyana. The church at Wiruni Station is now run by laymen; a priest is requested to come from town only for marriages. The Brethren used to have a school at Matara and later at the mouth of the Wiruni Creek; many of my informants learned to read and write there. The Lutheran Church is the oldest established church on the Berbice River; it has been present since the mid 18th century. With overseas funds it has also succeeded in setting up and maintaining primary schools in different parts of the Berbice River; these were made into public schools by the government in the mid seventies. Thus, the school at Saint Lust on the Berbice River was originally built by the Lutherans. Most people who live on the Berbice River in this area belong to the Lutheran Church. The continuous presence of a minister, who is responsible for a good many parishes on the Berbice River but lives at Saint Lust, is an important advantage for the church. The Berbice Lutherans boast two martyrs: one catechist known as Brother Tom was killed toward the aid of the last century, apparently by "hostile aboriginal Indians who resented their Christian admonition", and in 1905 catechist Benjamin Blair was killed, allegedly by the poisonous arrows of an Amerindian "to whom he had oft times spoken about the indecency of his relationship with a woman and her daughter".2

1.2.2. An introduction to the speakers of Berbice Dutch To the reader, the speakers of BD who have provided the data for this work are AC, AH, AK, AT, BB, BC, EF, EK, HA, HH, RT. To me, they are my teachers Uncle Amos, Aunt Amelia, Aunt Amy, Daddy King, Aunt Bertha, Uncle Berry, Aunt Ellen, Mister King, Auntie Hilda, Uncle Hennie, and Auntie Rita respectively. Many of the examples are extracted from conversations about their family history, the people they have known, the way they live, the changes they have witnessed, river gossip, our personal relationship, the things they know of the world, et cetera. Isolated excerpts from transcriptions cannot possibly do justice to them. The introductions below will tell you when and where my teachers were born and raised to adulthood, to what extent their control of BD can be called complete or incomplete, and to what extent the person is a "good" informant. What these introductions cannot tell you, is how good it feels to know each of these persons and to have spent so much time with them. But

Some background information

21

then again, you may have been a fieldworker, and you'll know exactly what I am talking about. Hilda Gertrude Adolphe (HA), born 1923. HA is the youngest fluent speaker of the language. She was bom at Matara on the Wiruni Creek, of predominantly Arawak parents. She moved to Baramuru (towards the mouth of the creek) when she first married at the age of 16, and remained there for most of her life. She married twice and had one daughter in her first marriage. Although she did not teach her daughter BD, she understands it very well. HA's speech shows many unnecessary intrusions from GCE. In particular, she hardly ever uses BD past tense marking, employing a GCE marker instead. She sometimes told me stories in BD as well as GCE. The GCE version was always told in much greater detail than the BD version, which was really only a summary. She obviously feels more at home in GCE than in BD, and is quick to return to GCE. HA tires easily of grammaticality questions, and I believe she is often not sure how to react to them. She tends to just accept a sentence when she finds it wrong but cannot identify the defect. As a result, it has taken me a long time to find out that her grammar does not include the resultative construction, which she always accepted, but would never repeat. Because of the division of labour between standard negation and the negative resultative, this has consequences for negation in her grammar. (See 3.2 on negation.) Albertiia Bell (BB), born 1903. BB was born and grew up at Matara (Wiruni Creek). Her parents were of mixed Arawak-African ancestry. She is HA's greataunt. She lived with her husband at Ida Sabina on the Berbice River until he died. She then moved back to the Wiruni area on the Berbice River. She had no children of her own, but looked after a boy who came to regard her as his mother. She never felt comfortable living alone, and whenever I went there, there was always somebody she shared her house with. She has a remarkable insight into human nature and takes an interest in every person. Without leaving her home very much, she knows of everything that is going on in the area; we were never short of topics in our conversations. I have spent many hours with her, and besides helping me to unravel the secrets of the BD language, she also adopted me as her ννε/ε toko 'white child'. She was the first who told me fables in BD, after which other speakers got over their reluctance. If the term "basilectal" can be used at all in describing such a small number of speakers, one could certainly say that BB is one of the most basilectal speakers of BD. She employs those features which are supposed to be typical of the basilects of Caribbean creole languages, such as predicate clefting and serialization of verbs, at a higher frequency than other speakers. Also, she tends to be more resistant against intrusions of GCE models in BD syntax than most other speakers. She can be a very patient teacher, with clear intuitions on what is and what is not acceptable in BD. However, her state of mind tends to influence her grammaticality judgements a lot, and if she doesn't feel well she will reject almost anything.

22

1. Background and methodological aspects

Beresford Causway (BC), bom 1917. BC is of predominantly Arawak descendance; he was born and grew up at Maria Henrietta on the Berbice River. He travelled a lot when he was quite young, going far into the interior parts of Guyana and even to Surinam, Brazil and Venezuela to work. He eventually returned and married a woman from the Wiruni Creek who spoke BD, and lived there for some time before moving back with her to the Berbice River. His wife, who died shortly before I first went to the Berbice River, was one of Ian Robertson's teachers. She brought two sons into their relationship, and had one son with BC. Though both speakers of BD, they did not teach their children the language. BC has a good sense of humour, and this is what has helped him survive many personal disasters. Like most people of his age, he has to keep on working to provide for himself. This is not easy when your legs are letting you down and your eyesight is getting steadily worse through cataract. The early age at which BC left the Berbice River may be the cause of his rather poor control of certain aspects of BD grammar. He often resorts to GCE tensemarking, uses GCE pronouns, and his intuitions on grammaticality are not very well developed. He may be more properly classified as a semi-speaker, but he speaks the BD language with zest and imagination. In spite of his exposure to different peoples and different ways of life, BC is not a very good storyteller. He draws from a small store of accounts of incidents, which he repeats over and over again. Amos Johannes Clarke (AC), born 1912, died 1989. AC has lived all his life on the Berbice River. He married twice and had two sons in his first marriage. He had a serious stroke in 1988, and was bedridden until he died over a year later; his wife, exhausted from the continuous strain of looking after him, died around the same time. His greatgrandfather on his mother's side, apparently a white man by the name of Modderman, came from Surinam and married a mulatto woman on the Berbice River. Some modern Dutch-derived and even some Sranan words trickled down the generations. Thus Amos Clarke is the only one who knows the word adaplu 'potato' (from Dutch 'aardappel'; these do not grow in Guyana and were never imported during the time of Dutch colonization of the Berbice), and calls a soldier skotu, which is a Sranan word; other speakers use solati. I was introduced to AC by Ian Robertson in 1986, who also warned me that he is not an easy person to work with. AC is an intelligent man, speaks BD fluently, formulates with care and precision, and has no problem in responding to questions about grammaticality of sentences. In spite of this, he does not seem to be very fond of speaking the language. I often found myself speaking BD to him while he spoke GCE to me, and Ian Robertson has had the same experience. As a result, my store of recorded conversations with AC is relatively small. One day, when I was just about ready to leave, he decided to tell me two fables. They are among the best in my collection, but even in telling me these I sometimes had to prompt him back to BD. It was the last time we worked together: he had the stroke which crippled him two days after. Hilda Ellen France (EF), born between 1915 and 1920 (my estimate), died in 1989. EF is of Ackowai Amerindian origin. She was brought to Wiruni from the Demerara

Some background information

23

when she was very small, and grew up at Matara. Although Wiruni people (themselves of Arawak Amerindian decent) believe the Ackowai to be vicious people, EF is a modest woman, shy towards strangers. As a young girl, she spent scene time with the Taylor missionairies at the mouth of the Wiruni Creek. Although these missionaries ran a school, they apparently failed to teach her to read and write. When I met her, she had lived rathw isolated for a long time, sharing a household with her son and his family a good distance up the Wiruni Creek at Barabaraka. I visited her once at Barabaraka, but because of the distance (nearly 2 hours paddling) we usually met whenever she came to the Berbice River. Wiruni Creek inhabitants never fail to tum up on steamer day (the Berbice River Steamer Service is a fortnightly service from New Amsterdam which carries goods, a postoffice, passenger accomodation, and traders), and have to come to the Berbice River if they want to attend church. Possibly because she never attended school, she would get confused when asked for translations, or when confronted with a question such as "can you say ... in BD?". We spent most of our time discussing the meanings of words and just conversing about various topics. She never took the initiative in conversations, but was quite ready to respond to my questions as long as I stuck to familiar topics. Amelia Hartman (AH), born 1903, died in 1991. Her husband Hernie Hartman (HH), estimated year of birth 1895, died in 1990. Both are of Arawak descendance. AH grew up at Matara (Wiruni Creek), HH at Maria Henrietta (Berbice River). HH had children with another woman before he married AH. They had five children together. The family lived at the mouth of the Wiruni Creek, but HH was often absent for prolonged periods of time because he worked in balatableeding and logging. Because of sickness, they moved in with a son at Kumaka Mines, Demerara River, in the early sixties. Kumaka Mines can be reached quite easily from Georgetown if one owns a fourwheel drive vehicle; since I had to hitchhike, I did not get to interview them as often as I would have liked to. Although both fluent speakers of BD they did not use the language among themselves any more, and did not teach it to their children. In spite of this, the son that they lived with at Kumaka Mines understands quite a bit of the language. When I first visited them in 1988, HH was already getting deaf and rather sickly. However, his qualities as a storyteller had not diminished, and he needed very little encouragement to tell two beautiful fables. When I returned in 1990,1 found him bedridden; he died lata" that year. AH did not like storytelling, but enjoyed conversation. Trying to get grammaticality judgements was out of the question with HH because of his deafness; neither did a discussion of test sentences work very well with AH. She is not a very imaginative speaker; after half an hour of conversation one notices that the same patterns and standard formulations keep cropping up. Possibly because of her husband's influence, she uses both igi and en\i for the first person plural pronoun, the Wiruni Creek and Bo-bice River forms respectively. (See 6.3.1 on personal pronouns.) Arnold King (AK), born 1914, grew up with BB's family after both his parents died in what he referred to as "the big flu" of 1918/1919. They are first cousins, and he shares her mixed ancestry, although his appears to be more predominantly Arawak. AK

24

1. Background and methodological aspects

still lives on the Wiruni Creek, a little below Matara. He grew up in a family where reading was encouraged, and reading is still among his favourite passtimes. Both AK and his wife are hardworking people, in spite of their age. AK occupies an important position in the Brethren Church. Several of his children are also actively involved in the church. I met AK in 1988. Because of the distance to his home, I did not meet him very often then. As a result, I did not get to know and appreciate his qualities as an informant until my fieldwork in 1990. AK tends to use strongly reduced forms of words more than other speakers. This makes it hard to follow him at first; indeed, having gotten used to the careful speech of BB and AC, my first impression of him was not altogether favourable. However, I soon discovered that he is a very competent speaker, easily identifies meaningful elements, and does not find it difficult to compare different sentences. This made our discussions most instructive, and qualifies him as my best informant. He was very keen on giving me correct judgements, and would carefully consider sentences. He is the only one who would sometimes tell me that he had reconsidered something that we had discussed on a previous occasion and found it to be different. Unfortunately, his preoccupation with "correctness" sometimes made discussions a little difficult. Because of the extent of his reading, he told me tales from books (Cinderella and Gulliver's Travels) instead of fables. He has an enormous store of knowledge concerning things to be found in the bush, savannahs and creeks, much of which he readily shared with me; I always left him feeling that I had learned a good deal more, both about BD and about the things that matter in the community which has shaped this language. Ernest Harold King (EK), born 1911, died 1989. EK is an older brother of AK. After the death of his parents, EK worked on the Berbice River with a floating shop. Later he worked in logging, far up the river. He married a woman from Sandhills, where he lived the rest of his life. His wife gradually became blind, which made him responsible for keeping the house going until he died. They had four children. One of their sons is the Captain of the Amerindian community at Sandhills/Hitia. Although I had heard of EK in 1986, I never got to visit him until 1988, when a family in a nearby area invited me to stay with them. Like his younger brother, EK likes to read and maintains a keen interest in developments around him as well as in the world at large. Our conversations covered topics as widely apart as the building of canoes and the Second World War. EK is my favourite storyteller: a wonderful diction, superb sense of timing, and the use of gestures with the stories make them unforgetable. Also, he told me about his work in logging as a young man, and sang several 'timberbos' (timber work songs), one in a mixture of Dutch Creole and English Creole. His vocabulary is larger than that of any other speaker, and he is the only one who, when asked what a word means, would try to explain it in BD. EK did not respond very well to grammaticality questions. Amy Thomas (AT), bom between 1905 and 1910 (my estimate), died 1986. She was born of Arawak parents and grew up at Matara (Wiruni Creek). All her life she lived

Some background information

25

on the Wiruni, first at Matara, later at Baramuru. BD was still very much in use at the time she was a young woman, witness the fact that her husband Juju Thomas learned enough BD aft«· he married her to follow any conversation in the language. AT is second cousin to HA, BB and the Kings. AT was one of my teachers when I first went to Guyana in 1986. She does not lack selfassurance, is a very outspoken woman, dominates conversations easily, and likes to laugh a lot. I always interviewed her and HA together; they had known each other for years, were close neighbours and good friends. Because of AT's dominant personality, HA would inevitably fall into the background in these conversations. AT would very often, when I had again posed some question which she deemed unanswerable, point out to me that di langgi titi kenapu (literally "the old time people") did not have such things or use such words. She thus forced me to always ask questions which were relevant to the there-and-then. Rita Thomas (RT), born 1908, died in 1986. She is of mixed Arawak and African descent. RT grew up and lived all her life on the Berbice River, for the most part in the Maria Henrietta area. Part of her childhood she spent with her grandmother who knew to speak BD as well as GCE, and taught her BD. She was Ian Robertson's first and most important teacher, and without her cooperation we would probably never have found out that BD is still spoken. Ian Robertson personally introduced me to her. RT is sister-in-law to Amy Thomas (they married brothers), and first cousin to BC (their mothers were sisters). She had no children of her own, but looked after a boy and raised him to adulthood. She was very patient with me, as she had been before with Ian Robertson. RT has a natural talent for teaching, gradually building up the complexity of her utterances, while at the same time gradually leaving off the translations into GCE. Unfortunately, when I met her, I had not developed sufficient skills to profit fully from her talents. RT's speech differs in some respects from that of other speakers, and I believe that these may be idiosyncracies which she inherited from her grandmother; since she was never much exposed to BD as the language of a (small) community, it is possible that these idiosyncracies became frozen features of her speech. Notably, she frequently uses a as the third person singular pronoun in subject position, while it surfaces very seldom in the speech of others, who don't even recognize it as an independent form; it is an allomorph of ο in their speech. (See 6.3.1 on personal pronouns.) It is work with these eleven people that formed the basis for this grammar and vocabulary of BD. In addition, I have collected material from a few other people which is either unreliable, or evidences a stage near to complete loss of competence in the language. I will briefly mention them here. Isaac Freso grew up at Baramuru (Wiruni Creek). He learned BD through his mother, who was not a native speaker of the language. She was of Ackowai origin and had learned to speak BD as a second language. I met with IF once in 1986; he impressed me as a poor speaker of the language: his vocabulary is reduced, he speaks hesitantly, and needs prompting. His wife Gracie Freso, born 1923, was brought up at Baramuru

26

1. Background and methodological aspects

by an aunt who spoke BD. She visited me of her own accord midway during my fieldwork in 1990. She had to overcome her bashfulness to talk to me, and the few interviews I had with her are of poor quality as a result. I believe she is quite a fluent speaker, but I have not spent enough time working with her to be able to qualify this impression. Shirley Freso married one of their sons. She is HA's only daughter, and learned some BD from her mother. Because they share a house, Shirley Freso was present at many of our conversations in 1990, and sometimes participated in them. Although she can follow BD fairly well, her active control is limited. Jesaya Clarke is AC's younger brother. I spoke with him several times in 1988. Although his vocabulary appears to be quite sufficient and his grammaticality judgements are consistent and appear to be reliable, he claims to be unable to really speak BD; the most he would do was to exchange greetings in BD and repeat test sentences which he deemed correct. Herbert Molyneaux. We met in 1988. Our first conversation was very promising: he told me a long story in BD about how he once got lost in the bush with a gang of balatableeders. I thought of him, with his 63 years, as possibly the youngest speaker of BD. Until I looked closer at his speech and noticed his inconsistent TMA marking, limited vocabulary, and the many GCE intrusions. On subsequent occasions, when he wasn't as well prepared, he proved to be unable to keep up a conversation in BD, and when I attempted to discuss test sentences with him, it turned out that he has no intuitions on grammaticality. He learned BD from his mother; his father came from Demerara. His younger sister, Ireen Melville, only remembers a few words and formulaic utterances; we would exchange greetings in BD. I also met his wife, Mrs Molyneaux in 1988. Although she is related to RT and BC and grew up with BD-speaking grandparents, she never learned much of the language. Her vocabulary is very limited, and every utterance requires a great effort. Christian Sauers. I spoke with him on three occasions in 1986, at Paradise on the Berbice River. Mainly because of his family relations to RT and BC (first cousins) I hoped that he would have at least as much control of BD as them. He was reluctant to talk to me at first, and turned out to be a very poor speaker. In my estimate, his active vocabulary comprises no more than 50 words, some incorrect; I often had to prompt him to remember words. He does not formulate sentences above a four word level. George Sertema. Although born at Wiruni, he spent most of his childhood at Kalkuni on the confluence of the Berbice River and Wikki Creek. He and Christian Sauers live fairly close and are old friends. Like him, George Sertema is a rather poor speaker. Captain Abel Alexander. In spite of his handicap (he had been blind for many years when I met him), Captain Alexander never liked to stay in one place for a long time. As a result, I only met him in 1988, when he was spending some time with family on the Wiruni Creek. His speech shows the same signs of near complete loss of active competence as noted above for Mrs Molyneaux, Christian Sauers and George Sertema. John Hope. His father came from the Wiruni Creek; John Hope is therefore related to just about everybody who grew up at Matara. He grew up at Sandhills on the Berbice River, where BD died out a generation before it did in the Wiruni. Possibly because

Some background information

27

of his longstanding close friendship with EK and EK's parents-in-law (they were neighbours), John Hope can still speak some BD, although with considerable difficulty. When I visited EK, he was usually present and enjoyed hearing our conversations. He tried hard to remember what he could of the language; he in fact used "correct" forms such as ηεηε 'no' and ja 'yes' where fluent speakers of the language use the GCE equivalents. Estel Thomas. Her father, like John Hope's, spoke BD. She grew up on the Berbice River in a non-BD speaking area. She returned to the Wiruni area of the Berbice River as an adult woman, where she married one of AT's sons. Like John Hope, she can produce some acceptable utterances in BD and understand conversations by others. Walter Jones is one of HA's eldest sister's children. He, and probably his siblings too, understand some BD and know to exchange greetings in the language. Table 1.1 summarizes some of the information given above. Speakers are listed in alphabetical order. The speakers which have provided the data for this grammar and vocabulary are starred. Table 1.1 tells you if the person originated from the Wiruni Creek or the Berbice River, the year of birth (or an approximation), the years in which I worked with the person or spoke with her/him. In addition, an appraisal is given of the person's quality of speech and of the person's ability to react in an informative way to questions on grammaticality and interpretation. The range of possibilities is: ++ excellent (i.e. good diction, imaginative speech and as free as possible from GCE intrusions / reliable grammaticality judgements, capable of identifying meaningful elements in an utterance, informative comments on different constructions), + good, ± mediocre, - poor, — very poor (i.e. very limited vocabulary, speech production limited to some standard formulas such as greetings / no intuitions on grammaticality), ? cannot be determined. Note that RT and AT both died before I had developed sufficient fieldwork skills to be able to profit from their knowledge to the full.

Table 1.1 Speakers of Berbice Dutch Creole Origin

Bom

Fieldwork

Skill in language

Skill in judgement

Hilda Adolphe (HA)#

Wiruni

1923

1986-90

+

±

Abel Alexander

Wiruni

±1915

1988

Albertha Bell (BB)*

Wiruni

1903

1986-90

-H-

Beresford Causway (BC)*

Berbice

1915

1986-90

±

-

Amos Clarke (AC)*

Berbice

1912

1986-88

+

+

Name

—

—

+

28

1. Background and methodological aspects Origin

Bom

Fieldwork

Jesaya Clarice

Berbice

±1917

1988

Ellen France (EF)*

Wiruni

±1910

1988

+

Gracie Freso

Wiruni

1923

1990

±

Isaac Freso

Wiruni

±1925

1986

—

—

Shirley Freso

Wiruni

±1950

1990

—

—

Amelia Hartman (AH)*

Wiruni

1905

1988-90

+

±

Hennie Hartman (HH)*

Berbice

±1895

1988-90

++

?

John Hope

Berbice

±1915

1988

-

—

Walter Jones

Wiruni

±1930

1986

—

—

Arnold King (AK)*

Wiruni

1914

1988-90

++

++

Ernest King (EK)*

Wiruni

1911

1988

++

Ireen Melville

Berbice

±1930

1986

—

Herbert Molyneaux

Berbice

1925

1988

Mis. Molyneaux

Berbice

1929

1988

Christian Sauers

Berbice

±1915

1986

George Sertema

Berbice

±1930

1990

Amy Thomas (AT)*

Wiruni

±1910

1986

+

+

Rita Thomas (RT)*

Berbice

1908

1986

+

+

Estel Thomas

Berbice

±1910

1988

±

Name

Skill in language

Skill in judgement

?

—

±

-

?

-

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

Transcription and abbreviations

29

1.3. Transcription and abbreviations 1.3.1. Selection and format of examples In the selection of examples in the texts that follow, I draw from recordings of spontaneous speech of eleven speakers (see 1.2 above). In the selection of elicited examples and judgements I have relied mostly on AK and BB's judgements: their judgements are reasonably consistent and impress me as more reliable than those of other speakers. In addition, I occasionally quote judgements obtainedfromAC and HA. In the chapters of part I and II, the choice of examples is dictated by their relevance to the subject. The inclusion of "messy" examples, i.e. examples which contain pauses, repetitions, et cetera, is unavoidable there. In the vocabulary of part III, the choice of examples is dependent only on the presence of the pertinent item and there, the least messy examples are included. The format of examples is always the same: on the line beneath the BD text (in italics), a morpheme gloss is given and on the following line a free translation into standard English is given (in inverted commas), directly followed by an indication of the findspot in square brackets. In cases where two (or more) BD versions are given, they may be followed by a single free translation which holds for both. The findspot consists of the initials of the speaker, date of recording, and unit of transcription (in the case of transcripts converted to computer documents) or page of transcription (indicated as 'p'). Unless otherwise indicated, examples are taken from transcripts of spontaneous language use. If the example was elicited rather than produced spontaneously, this is indicated by Μ' in the findspot. Thus, a findspot such as [AK 250288:7] means that the example was extracted from the transcript of a conversation held with Arnold King, 25 February 1988; the pertinent utterance can be found in unit 7 of the document. A findspot such as [!BB 190190:pl2] means that the example was elicited from Albertha Bell, 19 January 1990; the example can be found on page 12 of the handwritten transcript. Occasionally, examples are extracted from fables (indicated as lukuba) or notes (indicated as 'notes').

1.3.2. Transcription and special symbols In the transcription of BD examples, I have opted to use a largely phonemicized transcription, while staying as close as possible to actual speech. Thus, I indicate major intonation breaks, pauses, repetitions, and cliticization. Note in particular that blanks separate phonetic words, rather than meaningful units, and that commas represent intonation breaks, and do not usually correspond to any syntactic segmentation. As a result, examples sometimes look rather messy, and it may not be easy to read them. In general, phonetic detail is not represented, except that voicing of voiceless consonants, the loss of voice for voiced consonants, fricativization of plosives, emphatic length, emphatic stress, and reduction of vowels to Schwa are always represented.

30

1· Background and methodological aspects

The symbols which I use follow IPA guidelines, except for 'ng' which represents the velar nasal consonant, and 'Z' which represents the postalveolar voiced fricative. Chapter 9 contains inventories of BD vowels and consonants, as well as a description of processes of lenition which may apply to these (9.2). Often, no attempt is made to give the phonetic representation of GCE words in BD utterances; such words are cited in their English orthography in inverted commas, unless (i) there is reason to assume that these words should be thought of as part of the BD lexicon, or (ii) the GCE item is part of a larger phonological word which contains BD affixes or clitics. The following special symbols are used in the morpheme glosses: - indicates suffixation; = indicates cliticization, resyllabification over syntactic word boundaries, or compounding; , commas represent major intonation breaks (note that these are often of no syntactic relevance); .. two dots represent a pause; this is not reflected in the free translation; ... three dots represents either an unintelligible sound or omitted material (such as ehms); this is reflected in the free translation; ? indicates rising intonation; ( ) anything contained in parentheses in the original BD text is material that I am not sure of, due to unintelligibility; ( ) anything contained in parentheses in the morpheme glosses is again material that I am not sure of, due to cliticization phenomena; ( ) anything contained in parentheses in the free translation either contains irrelevant information (in the case of halting speech and repetitions), or gives extra information, relevant to the interpretation of the utterance; ( ) anything contained in parentheses in elicited examples contains optional material.

1.3.3. Abbreviations Abbreviations are used to refer to speakers (1), to languages (2), and to grammatical classes (3); in addition, abbreviations are used for some of the morpheme glosses (4). As much as possible, functionwords are glossed as content words; for instance, the use of bi(fi) 'say' as a complementizer is translated as 'say', the use of fujfi 'for' as a prepositional complementizer is translated as 'for'. Those function words which either do not correspond to content words, or would go unnoticed if they were given their content word translation, are given a special capitalized translation (see abbreviations 4 below). It is important to mention here that although glosses in general fall short of representing the meanings of words accurately, there is one case in which this may result in misunderstandings: for reasons of space and legibility, nimi is consistently glossed as KNOW, which suggests a stative interpretation, whereas it is a non-stative verb, meaning approximately 'acquire knowledge'.

Transcription and abbreviations

1. Speakers AC Amos Clarke AH Amelia Hartman AK Arnold King AT Amy Thomas BB Albertha Bell BC Beresford Causway EF Ellen France EK Ernest King HA Hilda Adolphe HH Hennie Hartman RT Rita Thomas 2. Languages AI American Indian, i.e. source is probably either Arawak or —ultimately— another American Indian language AR Arawak BD Berbice Dutch Creole D Dutch Ε (Standard) English EI Eastern Ijo GCE Guyanese Creole English WA West African, i.e. source is probably a West African language, though which one is not clear or not relevant ? unknown 3. Grammatical classes and distinctions adjective adj adv adverb art article conj conjunction dem demonstrative emph emphatic determiner det intr intransitive η noun num numeral postposition po singular sg

pre pron rel tr ν wh

31

preposition pronoun relativiser transitive verb question word

4. Abbreviations used in morpheme glosses pronouns eke lsg first person singular ju 2sg second person singular on, o, a 3sg third person singular \i 3poss third person singular possessive en\i, igi lpl first person plural jende 2pl second person plural eni, ini 3pl third person plural other morphemes angga LOC e n c l i t i c locative postposition PL plural suffix -apu -a(re) IPF imperfective aspect suffix PAST preverbal past tense bin marker (GCE-derived) BE focus or presentational da HAB preverbal habitual aspect das marker NEGHAB preverbal negative dasn habitual aspect marker NOM nominally er -ye ka(ne) NEG enclitic sentence-final negator kon PURP purposive construction introducer RESULT resultative kon construction introducer ma/sa IRR preverbal irrealis mood markers PURP purposive construction mu introducer nimi KNOW acquire knowledge

32 noko

sa/so -te wa

1- Background and methodological aspects not-RESULT negative resultative construction introducer FOC enclitic focus marker PF perfective aspect suffix PAST preverbal past tense marker

5. Other symbols suffixation = cliticization, resyllabification over morpheme boundaries, or compounding * unacceptable % judgements on acceptability show variation + accepted but not repeated by speaker OK accepted and repeated by speaker

Notes to Chapter 1 1. Takitaki is the common name for the Creole language of Surinam which we know as Sranan. Many Guyanese associate "Dutch" with Surinam. By the same token, Berbice Dutch Creole is associated with the vernacular of Surinam. 2. From: The Southern Cross (journal of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in British Guiana); quotes from the issues of Spt-Oct 1968, plO and Nov-Dec 1948, p6-7.

2. Word order

2.1. Introduction The order of the elements in a sentence reflects their syntactic functions. In each of the following examples, the subject (eni 3pl, eke jerma 'my wife', ο 3sg, respectively) occupies the position preceding the verb; the object (o 3sg, di gutu 'the thing') occupies the position following the verb. These examples illustrate the basic word order of BD, which is Subject Verb Object (SVO). In this respect, BD patterns with other Caribbean Creole languages. (1)

(2)

(3)

en korja so 3pl work-IPF there 'They work over there.* [EK 050688:3-1] eJc jerma kan mjo lsg woman can make=3sg 'My wife can prepare it.' [AK 290488:86] ο sarte di gut 3sg pour-PF the thing 'She poured the stuff.' [HA 080390:p27]

BD does not employ overt morphological case-marking. Pronouns are invariant for case, with the sole exception of a restriction on the distribution of third person singular pronouns in genitive case positions (see 6.3 on the distribution of pronouns). Thus, in (2) above 3sg ο appears in the position of direct object, while in (3) it appears in subject position. Nor does BD impose restrictions on its arguments in terms of categories such as animacy or humanness, except those imposed by pragmatic considerations and context. In (4), (5) subjects appear which are not human and not thought of as being capable of undertaking willful action. (4)

(5)

\i toro lahanto 3poss eye leave-PF=3sg 'Her eyes have failed her.' (i.e. she has become blind) [EK 050688:1-3] di wende kuto danga the wind catch-PF=3sg there 'The wind got hold of her there.' [HA 080390:p35]

The basic differentiation of arguments is expressed by word order. To express a given meaning in BD only one word order is possible; other word orders have a different meaning. Whenever we find word orders which differ from the standard SVO order we assume that movement of some sort has taken place. Processes which result in word orders different from the basic SVO order, will be discussed below in separate

34

2. Word order and movement

sections. Question formation, will be addressed in 2.2, dislocation in 2.3, and extraposition in 2.4. Besides these, we will examine focus constructions and predicate cleft constructions in considerable detail in chapter 14. Passivization, which also results in a word order different from the basic SVO order, will be discussed in chapter 15.

2.2. Question formation We can distinguish yes/no questions, alternative questions, tag-questions and question word questions. Although we will be concerned mostly with the formation of interrogatives that involve wh-movement, i.e. question word questions, we will first pay some attention to the other types.

2.2.1. Question formation without movement Yes/no questions are distinguished from statements only by rising intonation. No other change is associated with the formation of yes/no questions. Thus, for each of the following examples, there is a corresponding statement which differs from the question only in its intonation pattern. (6)

(7)

ju waltz ju bara? 2sg wash-PF 2sg hand? 'Did you wash your hands?' [HA lukuba4:pl] Jen ha en andi sosro? 2pl have one other sister? 'Do you have another sister?' [AK lukubal:p8]

Negative yes/no questions serve a purpose other than an invitation for an answer. They may be used as confirmative or rhetorical questions in discourse, which prompt the hearer to agree with the assumption enclosed in the question. Thus, in (8), the hearer is supposed to agree with the speaker on the issue of the eating habits of wild bush people. In (9), the rhetorical question is used for discourse purposes. (8)

(9)

en jefjo grun so ka? 3pl eat=3sg raw so NEG 'Don't they eat it raw?' or 'They eat it raw, don't they?' [RT 86] wel feli minito ka? jes, feli minite kombi well fish swallow-PF=sg NEG yes fish swallow-PF opossum 'Well didn't a fish swallow him? Yes! A fish swallowed Opossum.' [BB Iukuba2:p4]

Also, positive statements are frequently given a rising final intonation, thus functioning in discourse as a device to check whether knowledge is shared between speaker and hearer. In this way, in the following example, the hearer is prompted to

Question formation

35

give some confirmation that the information contained in the statements is known to be correct. (10)

batafta J. dote.? an, di andri, oko mute? but=after J. die-PF and the other too go-PF den ο komte were hiri then 3sg come-PF again here 'But after J. died? and the other one also left? then he came here again.' [BB 290390:pl]

Alternative questions of the form 'did she do A or did she do B?', as illustrated in the following example, are uncommon. Some more examples may be found in 5.1. Embedded alternative questions are discussed in 11.2. (11)

en jenda hiri gajana, nosen, eni oko mute, 'overseas'? 3pl be=there here Guyana, or=3pl, 3pl too go-PF, overseas? 'Are they here in Guyana, or did they, they too go overseas?' [RT 280186:67]

Tag-question particle ni is used to form tag-questions·, these function as polite suggestions, as in (12), or polite invitations to confirmation, as in (13). GCE tagquestion particles are also used by some informants; these are wa and no (see entries in vocabulary). Again, no change in word order is involved. Tag-questions have rising final intonation. (12)

i\ jefi ni? lpl eat no 'Let's eat, shall we?" [HA Iukuba2:p3] (13) ju lahan ju bita 'careless'ni? eni mute meto 2sg leave 2sg clothes careless no 3pl go-PF with=3sg 'If you leave your clothes carelessly, right? they run off with them.' [BB 88]

Also, 'you know' is frequently used, either as an interjection or as a tag as in (14), and 'you know how' is occasionally used as a tag, as in (15). (14)

(15)

da moi jagihond ju ninte be good hunt=dog you KNOW-PF '(It) was a good hunting dog you know.' [AK 010390:15] ο dekten fu stup meto, ju ninte. hoso? 3sg take-PF=3pl for stay with=3sg, 2sg KNOW-PF how? 'She took them (in her house) to live with her, you know how?' [EK Iukuba2:p6]

36

2. Word order and movement

2.2.2. Question-word questions Questions which ask for information rather than confirmation or rejection are formed by the use of question-words; rising final intonation is optional for question-word questions. The question-words of BD are listed in table 2.1. Some of these can be analyzed as consisting of wa and something else; in the terminology of Muysken—Smith (1990), those question-words consist of a question particle and a questioned semantic unit. The question particle is wa, presumably a reduced form of wati 'what'. For instance, wasutu 'what sort (of)' consists of question particle wa 'what* and questioned semantic unit sutu 'sort'. Other question-words cannot be analyzed as consisting of smaller units; these are referred to as opaque. An example is wanere 'when', which is a direct reflex of a Dutch form. Following Muysken—Smith (1990), the BD question-word system can be characterized as partly transparent, partly opaque. In the column 'analysis' of table 2.1, the BD question-words are analyzed into smaller units if possible. Some of the question-words in the table are used by one informant only; these are given in parentheses. Thus, huso 'how' is used by AC, whereas all other speakers use hoso. BC sometimes uses watiti 'what time' instead of wanere 'when', which is used by everyone else. Also, he tends to use the reduced form wan whereas other speakers tend to use the full form wanere or reduce this to waner. RT could not remember weleke 'which', and substituted wati 'what' (e.g. watidaka [what day] 'which day' [RT 86]).

2.2.2.1. Transparency of question words Two question-words, wangga 'where' and waskolo 'why', appear to represent the reflex of a questioned element and a questioned semantic unit but are not—or no longer— transparent, as shown in (16). The etymon of BD angga is a noun in the substrate language meaning 'side, place', but it functions as a semantically empty locative postposition in modern BD; compare also dangga 'there' which similarly derives from *da=angga. The question-word of reason or cause, waskolo, can be compared to diskolo 'because of Ais, through this cause', but there is no *skolo or *kolo to mean 'cause, reason' (compare skolo 'credit' (in the sense of 'buy on credit') and kolo 'fool'(v)). The derivation of waskolo and diskolo is a matter of speculation, as shown by the two options in (16)b. (16)

a. wangga < *wa= angga [what=location] b. waskolo ?< *wa=skolo [what=cause] / *wa=sa=kolo [what=FOC=cause]

Question formation

Table 2.1. Question words type

question word

gloss

analysis

object

wa

what

Q

wati

what

what

watjapu

what (pi)

what-PL

wi

who

who

wijapu

who (pi)

who-PL

(wati)

which

what

weleke

which (one)(n/adj)

which

welekejapu

which ones (n)

which-NOM-PL

wangga

where

(Q=LOC)

wanggaji

where

(Q=LOC)=side

wanggajikandi

where

...=side

(watiti)

what time, when

Q=time

wansre, (wan)

when

when

time: duration

hulanggi

(for) how long

how=long

purpose/reason

fu/fi wati

what for, why

for what

cause/reason

waskolo

how come, why

(Q=cause?)

manner

hoso, (huso)

how

how

quantity

hufele

how many, how much

how=many

type

wasutu

what type (adj)

Q=type

possessor

wi

who (adj)

who

wije

whose (n)

who-NOM

wijapu

whose (n,pl)

who-NOM-PL

person

choice

place

time: moment

37

38

2. Word order and movement

Some of the question words are polymorphemic eventhough they are not transparent in the sense of consisting of a question particle and a questioned semantic unit: - fulfi wati is composed o f f i i l f i 'for' and wati 'what*. It is not unreasonable to assume that this is a caique on the GCE equivalent (which shows similar variation between fu and ft) rather than an original BD wh-phrase, in particular because of the near synonymy with waskolo. - hufele can be compared to so/εΐε 'so many, so much' and /ε/ε 'much' (used by AC and AK only), although there is no *hu 'how'; hu may be a reduced form of huso/hoso 'how'. - hulanggi similarly consists of *hu and langgi 'long' (in duration). - wanggali and wangga\ikandi are composed of wangga 'where', JV 'side' and kandi 'side'; compare these forms to danggali and dangga\ikandi 'over there', which are similarly composed of dangga 'there', \i 'side' and kandi 'side'. - there are nominalized and plural forms of some question words, e.g. wije 'whose', which is a nominalized form of wi 'who'. In the following, the use of the question-words listed in table 2.1 will be illustrated; in each case, both questioning of matrix clause constituents and of embedded constituents will be illustrated, if possible. Note that verbs which may take interrogative complements are restricted to certain classes, viz. those of utterance verbs, psychological verbs, and perception verbs. The distribution of interrogative complements is the subject of discussion in 11.2. Restrictions on the formation of question-word questions will be explored in section 2.2.3 below.

2.2.2.2. Questioning of adjectival predicates There is no question-word which corresponds to the class of adjectives, hence there is no straightforward way in which the adjectival predicates of (17) can be questioned. Instead, one can question the complement of the existential copula jen(da), as in (17)'a, or the complement of the copular verb sete 'stay', as in (17)'b.

(17)

di wari

gu

/ bam / hau

(17)' a. hoso

di

wari

jwda?

b. hoso

di

wari

sets?

the house big / nice / old 'The house is big / nice / old.' how the house be=there? 'How is the house?' (i.e. 'What state is the house in?')

how

the

house stay?

'How is the house?' (i.e. 'What does the house look like?') This is illustrated in (18) below for embedded questions.

Question formation (18)

39

a. eke ma fragi A. hoso jenda lsg IRR ask A. how=3sg be=there Ί will ask A. how it is/' (i.e. 'what state it is in).' [BB 260288:47] b. ek ni hos dida sets ka lsg KNOW how that stay NEG Ί don't know what it looks like' (lit. how it stays) [AK 050390:17]

Nor does BD have a question word for degree. When asked for a BD equivalent for 'how big is this house', informants were at a loss. Some gave a literal translation, as in a. below, some gave the translation b., which reflects the fact that hoso questions manner adverbials. (19)

a.

?hoso gu di wari di? / b. ?hoso di wari di gu? how big the house this / how the house this big 'How big is this house?'

2.2.2.3. Questioning of human referents In (20), the subject of a verbal predicate is questioned, while in (21) it is the subject of an embedded adjectival predicate. In both examples, the wh-phrases appear with focus marking (see chapter 14 on focus). (20)

wisa das kom hir kom.. mja di bzrap di who=FOC HAB come here PURP do the story-PL this 'Who comes here to do these things?' [AH 010788:8] (21) ju ninte wisa wa moi were? 2sg KNOW-PF who=FOC PAST good again 'Do you know who was good too?' [BB 110688:26] There is one example in the data in which wati 'what' is used to question what appear to be human referents: the question is about the identity of the Dutch queen, but it is not inconceivable that wati refers to the institution of government. (22)

wat lefa nau dangga, wat rula jende? da wi? what live-IPF now there what rule-IPF you (pi) BE who 'Who is living there now? who is ruling you? who is it?' [AK 280288:p3]

Nominal question words (wati 'what', wi 'who' and weleke 'which') optionally take plural marking; in the majority of cases, a plural referent is not reflected in the question word. Below an example of plural marking on wi 'who'. Examples (20) and (23) come from the same story and refer to the same persons, but no plural marking appears on wi in (20); the plural identity is known to the storyteller, though not yet to the hearer.

40 (23)

2. Word order and movement sukwa β nimi wi, wiapsa das kum danga want-IPF for KNOW who who-PL=FOC HAB come there '(He) wants to know (who), who (it) is (that) comes there.' [AH 010788:9]

2.2.2.4. Questioning of non-human referents The examples below illustrate questioning of non-human referents. In (24) a subject is questioned, while in (25) and (26) an object is questioned. Note that focus marking appears on the wh-phrase in (24), but not in (25) and (26). (26) illustrates questioning of an embedded object. (24)

(25)

(26)

ο bi wasd hapn hiri 3sg say what=FOC happen here 'He said: what is happening here?' [AH 010788:8] wat ju nintdbotau what 2sg KNOW-PF=about=snake 'What do you know about snakes?' [HA 020490:47] en das haben gut ek furget wat, wat en rupo 3pl HAB have=one thing lsg forget what what 3pl call=3sg 'There is (lit: they have) something, I have forgotten (what), what they call it.' [AK 250488:p4]

On wati too, plurality is not usually marked. The following example was elicited. (27)

watjap ju bringte? what-PL 2sg bring-PF 'What (things) did you bring?' [!AK 210788:notesl]

2.2.2.5. Questioning of choice Similarly, elicited judgements indicate that nominal weleke 'which one' optionally takes plural marking, as illustrated below. (28)

a. weleJcapsa ju ma ba? [which-PL^FOC 2sg IRR kill] b. weleke/apu ju ma ba? [which-NOM-PL 2sg IRR kill] c. welekje ju ma ba? [which-NOM 2sg IRR kill] d. weleksa ju ma ba? [which=FOC 2sg IRR kill] 'Which ones will you kill?' (referring to hens) [!AK 210788:notes]

Attributive use of weieke is illustrated in (29).

Question formation

(29)

41

weleke King? which King 'Which of the Kings?' (King is a family name) [AC 230288:13]

2.2.2.6. Questioning of location and direction Questioning of location and of direction is illustrated in the following examples, respectively. (30)

(31)

ba wanggekd ma fendo but where=lsg IRR find=3sg 'But where am I going to find it?' [BB 290288:38] ο bi ο ni wangga ο mute ka 3sg say 3sg KNOW where 3sg go-PF NEG 'He says he doesn't know where it has gone.' [BB 230288:15]

As shown in table 2.1, there are three forms which correspond to English 'where'; of these, wangga is the most frequently used. There do not appear to be any differences in interpretation of the different forms. Below, the use of wangga\i is illustrated. (32)

wangga jiso ju fente di toko? where=side=FOC 2sg find-PF the child 'Where did you find the child?' [!AK 270190:p27]

2.2.2.7. Questioning of time In the examples below, the questioning of time adverbials is illustrated. (33)

(34)

waner ek ma jefi nau? when lsg IRR eat now 'When am I going to eat?' [HA lukuba4:pl] wanes d ju ma Ritanga? when=FOC 2sg go-IPF Rita=LOC 'When are you going to Rita's?' [BB 110386:12]

2.2.2.8. Questioning of reason, cause and purpose waskolo and fulft wati both question reason, and appear to be freely interchangeable in this domain. The following examples are extracted from a fable in which the same question is repeated a couple of times, but phrased somewhat differently each time: in (35), waskolo questions reason, while in (36) fu wati performs the same function. Note that in (36), only wati 'what' appears in the initial position, while fu 'for' (which

42

2. Word order and movement

appears as fo here) has been stranded. This phenomenon is not peculiar to question formation: Ju just happens to be one of the BD prepositions which allow prepostionstranding. (See 2.2.3 for further discussion.) (35)

(36)

man, alma fa jende manggja? waskolo jende manggja? man all of 2pl run-IPF why 2pl run-IPF 'Man, all of you are running? why are you running?' [AC Iukuba2:p3] wasd jende manggja so fo? what=FOC 2pl run-IPF so for 'Why are you running like this?' [AC Iukuba2:p2]

However, to question cause, only waskolo is available, as in (37), whilefutfi wati can be used specifically to question purpose, as in (38). waskolo mja [what=cause make] can be compared to diskolo mja [this=cause make], which is a combination expressing cause. (See entries in vocabulary.) (37)

(38)

en bi waskol nau, mjato pelts solkandi,... 3pl say why now make-PF=3sg cut-PF so=side=side... 'They say what made him cut through over there,...' (i.e. 'what made him choose a certain route') [AK 250190:35] ekudd pa\ musu boko, β wati? lsg=could care many hen for what Ί could have had many hens, but what for?' [BC 86]

hoso 'how' is exceptionally used to question reason in the following example. (39)

hos ju dekte di frustuje? how 2sg take-PF the rusty-NOM 'Why did you take the rusty one?' [EK Iukuba2:p5]

2.2.2.9. Questioning of manner (40) and (41) are examples of questioning of manner adverbials, of a main clause adverbial in (40), of an embedded adverbial in (41). (40)

(41)

näsi, ba nansi, hoso ju krikite ju selfu so? Anancy but Anancy how 2sg get-PF 2sg self so 'Anancy, but Anancy, how did you get yourself like that?' (i.e. in that state) IHH lukubal:p9] govnd ma., suka β nimi, hosa ju krikiteke governor IRR want-IPF for KNOW how=FOC 2sg get-PF=lsg 'Governor will want to know how you got me.' [AH 010788:23]

Question formation

43

2.2.2.10. Questioning of quantity In (42), questioning of an optional complement of quantity by means of hu/εΐε is exemplified. Attributive use of hu/εΐε is illustrated in (43). (42)

(43)

hu/εΐε ju sukwa foju kujara? how=much 2sg want-IPF for 2sg canoe 'How much do you want for your canoe?' [AT 86] hojele feme ο ma deki? how-many person 3sg IRR take 'How many people will it carry?' [BB 150190:12]

2.2.2.11. Questioning of type Questioning of type is illustrated in (44), (45); both are examples of dependent interrogatives. (44)

(45)

at ni da wak, wasd tau ka lsg KNOW be what(=kind) what=sort snake NEG Ί don't know (what), what kind of snake it was.' [HA 050488:19] wel di jefjsk ni wa, wasot jefsen jefi ka well the food=lsg KNOW what what=sort food=FOC=3pl eat NEG 'Well as to food, I don't know (what), what sort of food they eat.' [AK 080390:p8]

Note that wasutu is used attributively, and cannot take plural marking. (46)

wasotu gutwap? / *wasotwap gutwap what=sort thing-PL / what=sort=PL thing-PL 'What sort of things?' [!AK 210788:notes]

2.2.2.12. Questioning of possession In contrast, AK found plural marking on wi 'who' used attributively acceptable, in a context in which it is known that ownershop is claimed by a group of people. (47)

da wijap gutwap waten bring? BE who-NOM-PL thing-PL what=3pl bring 'Whose things are they bringing?' [AK 210788:notes]

(48) is an example the use of the singular nominalized form:

44 (48)

2. Word order and movement ate ni da wije ka lsg KNOW be who-NOM NEG Ί didn't know whose it was.' [BB 030490:pl2]

2.2.3. Properties of question-word question formation

2.2.3.1. In situ questioning It occurs very seldomly that a wh-phrase remains in situ, as in the rather idiomatic (49) (which functions as a tag-question), and in (50) and (51). (49) ju ninte huso? 2sg KNOW-PF how 'You know how?' [AC 260288:20] (50) aji en mangite mangte mute wanga? if 3pl run-PF run-PF go-PF where 'If they fled, they would have gone where?' [AC 090488:30] (51) ju mwa bofii, an ju ma kom warn? fridak? 2sg go-IPF top=side and 2sg IRR come when Friday 'You are going upriver, and you are coming back when? Friday?' [AK 120788:p4] There is also an example in my data of an embedded in situ question: in (52), nimi 'acquire knowledge' is followed by a copular complement clause, which contains an in situ wh-phrase which questions purpose. (52)

eke nim dida da fu wati ka lsg KNOW that be for what NEG Ί don't know what that is for.' (lit: that is what for) [BB 230290:p2]

Informants reject sentences with a wh-phrase in situ when put to them; nor do they accept multiple questioning of the type 'who gave what to whom' and 'who went where' as in (53). (53)

a. *wi who b. *wi who

pits wi wati? give-PF who what mute wangga? go-PF where

Question formation

45

2.2.3.2. Extraction from copular complements The locative/existential copula Jen (da) allows extraction of its complement. This is exemplified below for locative use in (54) and (55). The wh-phrase appears with focus marking and is preceded by a left-dislocated subject in (54). Note null realization of the locative copula in (55); see 4.2.5 (extraction from copular constructions) for further discussion. (54)

(55)

ori wangsa jenau j&ida di.. kumbu\ ben 2sg where=FOC be=now be=there the kitchen inside 'She, where is (she) now? (she) is in the kitchen.' [AK 030688:p4] man bi, wangga di namblo? man say where the horse 'The man said: where is the horse?' [HH lukubal:p8]

In contrast with jen(da), the equative copula da appears not to allow extraction of its complement. Thus, in (56), wh-movement is blocked, and there is no (56)' to (56); see 4.2.5 for further discussion. (56)

tigri da e\ti tiger be first 'Tiger was first.' [AC 120488:31] (56)' *wati tigri da? what tiger be •'What is Tiger?'

2.2.3.3. Long distance extraction Long wh-movement of the type 'who did you say you saw?' or 'what do you think she did?' does not occur in spontaneous speech. Judgements on long distance extraction of wh-phrases are difficult to elicit. Informants tended to accept such utterances, but would not repeat them. The few utterances that were actually repeated follow. In (57), the subject of the embedded clause has been extracted, in (58) the direct object. The bridge verb in these examples is the utterance verbpama 'tell'. (57)

(58)

da wisa ju pamats dati djas bortd BE who=FOC 2sg tell-PF say just pass-PF 'Who did you say that just passed?' [!AC 260288:notes] wati ju pamats bi dati ju bringgite fu ju sosro? what 2sg tell-PF say that 2sg bring-PF for 2sg sister 'What did you tell (me) that you brought for your sister?' [!AC 260488:p6, !BB 160488:p6]

46

2. Word order and movement

The so-called ifof-trace effect, i.e. the effect that a NP cannot be extracted from the position following complementizer that in English, appears not to hold for BD, judging by the acceptability of (57) above. However, one positive judgement is very little to go on. An elicited example of long-distance extraction of a subject wh-phrase out of an object clause follow. The bridge verb in (59) is the perception verb kiki 'see'. (59)

da watsa ju kikte bate di oboko BE what=FOC 2sg see-PF kill-PF the hen 'What did you see kill the hen?' [!AK 310588:p5, !AC 260288:notes]

2.2.3.4. Pied-piping Except for the fairly frequent use o f f u wati to question reason or purpose, questioning of PPs or complements of Ps hardly occurs. An unelicited example follows, tutu 'until' does not allow preposition stranding; as shown by the unacceptability of extraction of its complement in (60)' pied-piping is obligatory. (60)

tutu waner ekikju morko were? until when lsg=see=2sg tomorrow again 'Until when do I see you, tomorrow again?' [BB 150190:63] (60)' *wanere eke kiki ju tutu when lsg see 2sg until •'When do I see you until?'

Other prepositions (fu/ß 'for', fan 'from', mete 'with') allow preposition stranding, i.e. wh-movement can remove the object of the preposition, while the preposition is left stranded in its original position. Alternatively, the entire PP may be fronted. In other words: for these prepositions, pied-piping is optional. The facts are more complicated where postpositional structures are involved. These issues are discussed in detail in chapter 7. Extraction out of NPs is not allowed. Thus: *which woman you saw her child? is as impossible in BD as it is in English. In questioning a possessive such as dijerma Ji toko [the woman 3poss child] 'the woman's child', pied-piping is obligatory, i.e. the entire NP has to be moved. (61)

a.

*weleke ju kikite di jerma \i toko? which 2sg see-PF the woman 3poss child b. *weleke jerma ju kikite \i toko? which woman 2sg see-PF 3poss child c. weleke jerma Ji toko ju kikite? which woman 3poss child 2sg see-PF 'Which woman's child did you see?'

Question formation

47

However, speakers sometimes accept wh-movement out of fan partitive structures, as shown by (62), where pied-piping has applied, and (62)', where it hasn't. (62)

hofel fan di kika ju furkopte? how-much of the cassavabread 2sg sell-PF 'How much of the cassavabread have you sold?' [!AK 290390:pl2] (62)' hofsle ju furkopte fan di kika? how-much 2sg sell-PF of the cassavabread 'How much have you sold of the cassavabread?' [!BB 290390:pll]

2.2.3.5. Wh-movement and the first position A wh-phrase is not necessarily the very first element in a sentence. Thus, in (63) sentence introducing particle wel (here reduced to we) precedes the wh-phrase, and in (64), sentence introducing particle keke 'as if, like' introduces the interrogative complement. (63)

(64)

WE hos eni wa tim fu ni well how 3pl PAST able for KNOW 'Well how could they have known?' [BC 240488:17-18] ekantim pama ju hos, keke hoso seie ka lsg=cannot tell 2sg how like how=3sg stay NEG Ί cannot tell you (how), like how it stays.' (i.e. what it looks like) [AH 210390:16]

In (65), a left-dislocated subject on [3sg] precedes the wh-phrase. Note that whphrases appears more often than not with focus marking, i.e. introduced by focus da and/or followed by the enclitic focus particle sa; the latter appears in (65). Note that whether or not focus applies is independent of the type of wh-phrase, of the matrix verb, of the embedded verb, of whether the question is negative or positive, etc. Focus of wh-phrases is briefly discussed in 14.2.4. In 14.2.6 and 14.2.7, focus and whmovement are compared. (65)

ori wangsa jsnau jenda di.. kumbuJ ben 2sg where=FOC be=now be=there the kitchen inside 'She, where is (she) now? (she) is in the kitchen.' [AK 030688:p4]

2.3. Dislocation In dislocated structures, an NP appears in left-most or right-most position, while a coreferential pronoun appears in an argument position; this pronoun —referred to as a resumptive pronoun—shows agreement with the dislocated constituent in person/

48

2. Word order and movement

number specifications. BD allows both left-dislocation and right-dislocation, although the latter is not as frequent. In the following, we will first look at dislocation of subjects and dislocation of objects, and thai turn to some general properties of dislocation. In addition to the use of personal pronouns as resumptive pronouns, there are other resumptive devices. These will be discussed in the last section.

2.3.1. Dislocation of subjects Some examples of dislocation of main clause subjects follow. The examples show that there are no constraints on the complexity of the dislocated NP. In (66), the dislocated constituent is a simple NP, while in (67) it is a conjoined subject NP. Note that the resumptive pronoun in (67) is the lpl pronoun i\i: it shows agreement in person and number with the dislocated constituent. (66)

(67)

ek lsg 'My eke lsg 'Me

ni hiri, a se, dasereke knee here 3sg (hurt) HAB=hurt=lsg knee here, it (hurt), hurts me.' [RT 280186:54] me di potman, i\i boro en pleke dang with the old=man lpl pass one place there and my husband, we passed by a place there.' [AH 210390:23]

(68) and (69) are instances of left-dislocation of a complex subject NP. Again, the resumptive pronoun which appears in subject position shows agreement with the dislocated constituent: ο 3sg in (68), eni 3pl in (69). (68)

(69)

di gu swamp, di gu minggi wat ju wd das muj the big swamp the big water what 2sg PAST HAB go benjang ο drokote inside=LOC 3sg dry-PF 'The big swamp, the wide water that you were travelling on, it has dried up.' [AK 290488:p5] di mantokap wati ha snapa, so en, so en pantenji the man=child-PL what have gun so 3pl so 3pl tell-PF=lpl 'The boys who have guns, (so they), so they told us.' [RT 280186:15]

There are few instances of dislocated subjects of copular predicates. The examples below are of the complex subject of the locative copula jen in (70) and of the complex NP subject of the equative copula da in (71). Note that the resumptive pronoun eni 3pl (here reduced to en) has cliticized on the last element of the dislocated constituent in (70).

Dislocation

49

(70)

ju η intε, da gutap kek diden das onli jen 2sg KNOW-PF the thing-PL like that=3pl HAB only be minggi ben sotn, sotn titi water inside certain certain time 'You know, things like that, they are under water only for a (certain), certain time.' [AK 010390 clause 9] (71) di e\tijz wat wa jen dang, ο wa den.. lombojerma the first-NOM what PAST be there 3sg PAST be=one bad warm 'As for the first one who was there, she was a bad woman.' [BB 150190:63] Adjectival predicates also allow dislocation of their subjects, as in the example below. (72)

di andri wat dotorl. moi the other what die-PF=3sg good 'The other one that died, he was good.' [BC 160190:45]

And finally, dislocation may apply to a passive subject, as in (73), (51). (73)

dd sem A. wat dot:ο bugraftd da ηd the same A. what die-PF=3sg bury-PF there now 'The same A. who died, she got buried over there.' [AK 290488:p2]

The few instances of right-dislocated subject NPs in my data do not show the kind of complexity which we find for left-dislocated subject NPs; the examples that follow are of a conjoined NP, and a simple NP. Note again the agreement in person and number specifications between the dislocated NP and the coreferential pronoun in subject position: plural in (74), singular in (75). (74)

(75)

en das mu mu jagi, ori me Zi jerma 3pl HAB go go hunt 3sg with 3poss woman 'They would go to hunt, he and his wife.' [AK 250190:38] ori nimtd mja di jermaje, di papa 3sg KNOW-PF make the woman-NOM the father 'He knows to make the female type, his father.' [BB 260388:16]

2.3.2. Dislocation of objects Below examples of dislocation of main clause objects. The left-dislocated object is a pronominal in (76), and a complex NP in (77). (76)

ori ek bugrafto 3sg lsg bury-PF=3sg 'As for him, I buried him.' [AK 180190:6]

50

(77)

2. Word order and movement

di wari wato wa lefa danga, ο kikjo babaka the house what=3sg PAST live-IPF there 3sg see=3sg any more=NEG 'As for the house that he had been living (in) there, he doesn't see it any more.' [HH lukubal:p4]

Left-dislocation of a conjoined object NP is exemplified below. Note that while the resumptive pronoun is a singular pronoun in (76) and (77) above, it is a plural pronoun here. (78)

bakofo mete., kukrit, ju kä jefeni ka banana with coocrete 2sg can eat=3pl NEG 'Bananas and coocrete palmnuts, you cannot eat them.' [BB 230290:pl]

Right-dislocation is also possible, although again, complex NPs are not attested in right-dislocated position. The right-dislocated NP in (80) is coreferential with the object pronoun. (79)

(80)

eke. ma ka\o, di doro lsg IRR shut=3sg the door Ί will shut it, the door.' [BB 260288:4] di man bijte, bi da., orsa furkoptor, di.. mantoko the man say-PF say BE 3sg=FOC sell-PF=3sg the man=child 'The man said that it was he who had sold him, the boy.' [BB 230290:p9]

2.3.3. Properties of dislocation

2.3.3.1. Dislocation of pronouns The data show that dislocation of pronouns is restricted in several respects: it applies only to 3sg pronouns, it is limited to left-dislocation, and the dislocated pronoun is invariably ori, while the resumptive pronoun has to be the short form ο or a. Dislocation of the lsg / 2sg, and of the plural pronouns is impossible, unless a modified pronoun is dislocated, as in (81) below: the lsg pronoun ate is part of a leftdislocated conjoined NP. (81)

en malek meiek tokap, ig., kapa en tun one time=lsg with=lsg child-PL lpl cut-IPF one field 'Once, I and my children, we were cutting a field.' [AK 010390:12]

There is one example in which a lsg pronoun appears preceding an utterance which contains a lsg subject. The use of ek? here appears to be some kind of exclamation, rather than an instance of left-dislocation.

Dislocation (82)

51

ο bi de? hosek ma liki? 3sg say lsg how=lsg IRR lie 'He said: me? why should I lie (to you)?' (lit: how will I lie?) [HA 020490:32]

Dislocation of 3sg subject pronouns is especially frequent in the speech of RT; in fact 'ori, a...' sequences are rath«· typical of her speech, as in example (83). Other speakers use ο rather than α as a resumptive pronoun, as in (84). See 6.3.1 (the distribution of personal pronouns) for some comments on the use of ο - a. (83)

(84)

ori a mwa moi 3sg 3sg go-IPF good 'As for him, he is doing well.' [RT 280186:37] ο bi ori ο noko redi noko ka 3sg say 3sg 3sg not=RESULT ready yet NEG 'He said: as for him, he wasn't ready yet.' [AH 010788:37]

The following is an instance of left-dislocation of an object pronoun. (85)

ori ek bugrafto 3sg lsg bury-PF=3sg 'As for him, I buried him.' [AK 180190:6]

It is hardly surprising that the 3sg long form should be the one that appears in dislocated position. But note that while the long form ori can also be used as resumptive pronoun of dislocated constituents with 3sg reference, ori is not attested as the resumptive pronoun of ori.

2.3.3.2. The form of the resumptive pronoun I have come across a few examples in which the resumptive pronoun is a modified pronoun. In (86), the right-dislocated NP is coreferential with the modified pronoun eni alma 'all of them' in subject position; in (87), the left-dislocated NP is coreferential with the emphatic subject pronoun enije (reduced to enj'e), and in (88), both the leftdislocated NP and the coreferential subject pronoun are modified by the adverbial oko. (86)

(87)

(88)

eni alma ma sets bu di manjapo 3pl all IRR sit drink the man-PL 'All of them will sit down (and) drink, the men.' [BB 230290:p7] di junggu 'generation 'ap nau enj'e kriktz weldri the young generation-PL now 3pl-NOM get-PF wild 'The young generations, THEY became wild.' [AK 250190:3] en bi oprop oko, ori oko moi ka 3pl say pig too 3sg too good NEG 'They say pig too, it too isn't good.' [BB 230290:p2]

52

2. Word order and movement

2.3.3.3. Left-dislocation and the first position Wh-movement and focus cannot move a constituent over sentence-introducing particles such as wel (see 2.2 and chapter 14, respectively). In contrast, a left-dislocated constituent can precede such particles, but does not have to. Thus, in (89), the dislocated constituent precedes wel, whereas it follows it in (90). (89)

(90)

di man me \i jerma, wel eni, saba en.. kreke the man with 3poss woman well 3pl cross one creek 'The man and his wife, well they crossed a creek.' [BB 290390:p9] wel di.. twe jung jerm wat je di wari ben well the two young woman what be the house inside en das dres musu 3pl HAB dress much 'Well, the two young women that live in the house, they dress up a lot.' [AK 030688:p4]

This also applies to sentence-initial temporal adverbials such as en mali [one time] 'once': wh-phrases and focussed constituents cannot precede en mali, whereas dislocated constituents can. Below follows an example in which a left-dislocated constituent precedes en mail·, (81) above is an example in which it follows. (91)

an di potman, en mali ο sete ο bi dath,... and the old=man one time 3sg sit 3sg say that... 'And the father, once he sat down, he said that...' [AK 210788:8]

Similarly, in the following example, the left-dislocated subject NP precedes the temporal adverb nau 'now'. (92)

di lek waL. en wa justu lef benjanga, nau ο kalte the lake what 3pl PAST PASTHAB live inside=LOC now 3sg ditfF 'The lake that they used to live inside, now it has gotten overgrown.' (lit: it has shut up) [AK 020490:pl]

Not only can a left-dislocated constituent precede sentence-initial adverbs, it can also precede focussed constituents. In (93), the left-dislocated subject NP is followed by a focussed object; in (94), it is followed by a focussed (or clefted) verb. Although there are no relevant examples, I assume that left-dislocated constituents can also precede wh-phrases.

Dislocation (93)

(94)

53

bika\i mama me \i papa, da disen, because=3sg mother with 3sg father BE this=FOC=3pl enidi jus tu bifi 3pl=this PASTHAB speak 'Because her mother and father, (it) is this (they), THEY used to speak.' [RT 280186:64] an ju ninte, di potman da., blendso biginte blende and 2sg KNOW-PF the old=man BE blind=FOC=3sg begin-PFblind 'And you know, the father, he started to really get blind.' [AK 210788:10]

2.3.3.4. Dislocation of embedded arguments Dislocation can apply to embedded arguments. For instance, in (95), a left-dislocated NP is coreferential with the pronominal subject of the complement clause of bi 'say'. (95)

an di en wati trots nau, eni bi ori jen mo fa:rd and the one what marry-PF now 3pl say 3sg be more far 'And the one that married now, they say she lives even further.' [BB 230288:30]

In the following utterance, the dislocated constituent is coreferential with a resumptive pronoun inside the complement clause of luru 'look'. (96)

titek lursek lur di Hondo bol, time=lsg look=so=lsg look the dog lie sem hondo, wato bi jagi luro bola so same dog what=3sg say hunt look=3sg lie-IPF so 'When I looked over there I saw the dog lying down, (the) same dog that he said was hunting, (I) saw it lying down over there.' [AK 010390:14]

(97) is an example where the dislocated NP is coreferential with the subject pronoun inside a temporal adverbial clause. In (98), the resumptive pronoun is an embedded subject. (97)

(98)

an dim, jerma tito hor di, 'commotion' nau, and the woman time=3sg hear the commotion now o.. pringt \i kujar ben 3sg jump-PF 3poss canoe inside 'And as for the woman, when she heard the commotion, she jumped into her canoe.' [AK 250190:8] an di, 9 man, \i kal slem wato ha, ... and the ehm man 3poss small sense what=3sg have... 'And the man, (with) his little bit of sense that he had, ...' [AK 250190:42]

54

2. Word order and movement

2.3.4. Other resumptive devices There are a number of cases in which the resumptive device is not a personal pronoun: demonstrative pronouns are often used as resumptive pronouns for non-human referents; also, complex temporal and place adverbials are sometimes resumed in the form of an adverb. Below follow some utterances in which a demonstrative pronoun appears which is (»referential with a preceding NP. Note that the demonstrative shows agreement with the preceding NP for number: plural in (99), singular in (100). Note also that the demonstrative is a focussed embedded object in (100). (99)

di twe foro bwapo, ο fragite dija the two front foot-PL 3sg ask-PF this-PL 'The two front feet, he asked for those.' [HH lukubalrpl] (100) di gutu wati mute gugwana ege bi da dida ju hortd the thing what go-PF Kwakwani lsg say BE that 2sg hear-PF 'The thing that wait to Kwakwani, I said it is that you heard.' [BC 160190:35] In the following utterance, the initial NP precedes a sentence initial particle wel, which in turn is followed by a coreferential demonstrative in focus position. (101) wati kori ο wa mja, wel dideke nim what work 3sg PAST do well that=lsg KNOW bikek wa forda meto because=lsg PAST not-be=there with=3sg 'What kind of work he was doing, well that I (don't) know because I wasn't there with him.' [HH lukubal:pl] In the example below, the object pronoun alma 'all' is coreferential with a preceding NP. (102) di sokapu watek wa habu eke plants alma the sucker-PL what=lsg PAST have lsg plant-PF all 'As for the suckers that I had, I planted all.' [!BB 190190:p7] And the last examples are of adverbials which appear to be "doubled": a temporal adverbial clause is doubled by the adverbial dana 'then' in (103), a locative is doubled in (104), (44). (103) da afta ο trote di jerma wato habo danga? BE after 3sg marry-PF the woman what=3sg have there? wel dana ο lahante di, di 'Dutch language' well then 3sg leave-PF the the Dutch language '(It is the case that) after he married the woman that he has there, well then he left the Dutch (Creole) language.' [BB 260288:29]

Dislocation

55

(104) di wari wat je dang da en fanek tokap jenda the house what be there BE one from = l s g child-PL be=there 'The house which is over there, (it is) one of my children lives there.' [AK 250288:38]

2.4. Extraposition Extraposition optionally moves a relative clause from the head NP to rightmost position. The result is a discontinuous NP. Also, clausal complements can appear in rightmost position, and I will assume that this is similarly the result of extraposition. These two types of extraposition will be discussed separately. Extraposition is a phenomenon which does not lend itself to elicitation. An utterance such as the following will occasionally be used by every speaker, but was invariably "corrected" to (105)' (where the relative clause directly follows the head noun) when I tried to elicit interpretations for extraposed constituents. In this respect, extraposition is no different from dislocation, which also does not lend itself to elicitation. In both cases, data from natural speech samples have to provide the basis for a description. Extraposition is however less frequent than dislocation, and the data are insufficient for a discussion of possible constraints on extraposition. (105) di tei famate watck a bwa the tea finish-PF what = lsg PAST drink-IPF 'The tea finished that I was drinking.' [RT 86] (105)' di tei wati eke wa bwa famate the tea what lsg PAST drink-IPF finish-PF 'The tea that I was drinking finished.'

2.4.1. Extraposition of relative clauses There is no constraint in BD which disallows complex NPs in normal NP positions. Therefore, cases in which extraposition has applied contrast with utterances of equal complexity where it has not applied. Note however that extraposition is favoured when the complex NP appears in subject position. (See 14.3.4.) Nor are there restrictions on extraposition associated with different predicate types. Thus, in the following example, extraposition has affected the subject of the locative copula, while in (107), the subject of an adjectival predicate is involved. (106) musu kakau wa jends dang wat eke papaplante much cocoa PAST be=there there what lsg father-PL=plant-PF 'Lots of cocoa trees were there that my father c.s. had planted.' [BB 070390:p6]

56

2. Word order and movement

(107) di pleke bam wang Jen lefa the place nice where 2pl live-IPF 'The place is nice where you live.' [AK 250288:62] In the example below, the discontinuous NP is the subject of a verbal predicate. Note that the head noun andrifan en 'some of them' appears in focus position (marked by so)\ there are no other such examples. (108) somtitandri fan enso krikte tern, wat korja alabot savan peihaps=some of 3pl=FOC get-PF tame what work-IPF all about savannah 'Perhaps some of them got tame, that are working everywhere in the savannah.' [EK 050688:27] Extraposition has moved the relative clause across particle nau in (109), and across an adverbial ('there') and a tag ('you know') in (110). (109) so andi kalkal pudjap kumte nau so some small=small monkey-PL come-PF now waten rup sakumingki what=3pl call sakuminki 'So some little monkeys came, which they call sakuminki monkey.' [AK 250190:25] (110) eni haws alma soto gutu dang9 ju no, watini lefa mö? 3pl keep-IPF all sort thing there 2sg know what=3pl live-IPF with 'They keep all sorts of things there you know, that they live with.' [AH 060588:4,12] In the examples above, extraposition affects subject NPs. Extraposition of the relative clause of an object NP is visible only if the object NP is not in last position. Thus, in (111), the place adverb dangga 'there' (reduced to dang) appears between the head gutu 'thing' and the relative clause; if the relative clause had not moved, dangga would have followed the complex NP, and could also be interpreted as an adverb of the relative clause, as in (111)'. (Ill) di hilang dang, habo keg, gutu dang, the heel=LOC there have like thing there waL. mo di kiro ben what go the ground(o?) inside 'At the heel there, (it) has like, something there, that goes into the ground.' [HA in AK 250190:22] (111)' gutu wati mu di kiri ben dangga thing what go the ground inside there 'Something that goes into the ground there.'

Extraposition

57

In (112) the place adverb dangga appears between the head of the object NP and the extraposed relative clause. (112) in ha, musu kenap dang wat biga di.. arwak 3pl have many person-PL there what speak-IPF the Arawak 'There are many people there who speak Arawak.' [HA 050488:15] Extraposition of relative clauses which do not contain a relative pronoun is unusual, and virtually restricted to HA. In (113) extraposition affects an object NP, and is visible because of the presence of the adverb dangga. In (114), the extraposed relative clause modifies the subject alma 'all*. (113) bat, in hab kwap dang bihi? but 3pl have person-PL there speak 'But there are people there who speak (this language)?' [HA 050488:16] (114) alma da en famili jendanga all be one family be=there 'All belong to one family, who live there.' [HA 050488:32] Similarly, in (115), a zero-headed relative clause has been separated from the head en itebom 'an ite palm', which is the subject of the object clause of kiki 'see', through extraposition. (115) ju kiki en itebom jenda danga hangite? 2sg see one ite=tree be=there there hang-PF 'Do you see an ite palm over there (that) has bent down?' [BB 230488:p5] Extraposition of relative clauses is also discussed in 12.3.4.

2.4.2. Extraposition of complement clauses Rightward movement is not limited to relative clauses. It may also apply to complement clauses, and it applies in particular to complement clauses of a negated matrix verb. Thus, in the following examples, the complement clause of the main verb nimi 'acquire knowledge' (reduced to ni) appears in right-most position, following the sentence-final negator ka. (116) wel ek nim ka a\u nim di gut waten rup makaro well lsg KNOW NEG if=2sg KNOW the thing what=3pl callpalmnut 'Well I don't know if you know the thing they call makaru palmnut.' [EK Lukuba2:pl] (117) ek wa noiti nikd, solok ber kek di sa hapn lsg PAST never KNOW=NEG such story like this IRR happen Ί never knew such things could happen.' [AK 010390:pl0]

58

2. Word order and movement

It is possible that extraposition serves to reduce processing problems which result if the distance between the negator and the negated main verb is too large. Note however that this is optional, as shown by the following example where the presence of a complement clause of similar complexity has not resulted in movement: (118) B. nimi fa bu kali an kom wari ka B. KNOW for drink little and come house NEG Έ . doesn't know to drink moderately and come home.' [BB 050488:p9] Extraposition may also apply in non-negative utterances, as in (119) and (120), where the presence of the particle nau shows that the purposive clauses have been moved to extraposed position. (119) ekrikte en manau β nai εk blarufi ek lsg=get-PF one man=now for sew lsg leaf for lsg Ί got a man to sew my (thatch) leaves for me.' [!AK 220190:p23] (120) or, deki se\ weki nau fu, pote 3sg take six week now for old 'It takes six weeks to mature.' [AK 090388:p7] Examples of extraposition of purposive complements are in fact restricted to affirmative sentences, while extraposition never applies to purposive complements in negative sentences, irrespective of the complexity and length of the purposive clause, as in the following example. (121) at ha en gut fu bendek tibi β ku.. ku ming bofka lsg have one thing for tie=lsg head for catch catch watertopNEG Ί have nothing to tie my head (to catch), catch the water on.' (i.e. a headshawl) [HA 050488:23] The following examples show extraposition of a PP; extraposition is visible in (122) because of the presence of the particle nau which intervenes between the head noun and the PP complement, in (123) because the extraposed PP follows the negator. (122) en bi tit,, di apara ma pu nau, fan di, di bom lefu,... 3pl say time the skin IRR burst now from the the tree body,... 'They say when the bark is going to burst, from (the), the treetrunk,...' [AK 050390:6] (123) eke timi fu sets, ka, sondro bita lsg able for stay NEG without clothes Ί cannot live, without clothes.' [AT 86] The last examples of this section involves extraposition of a PP which modifies a NP, rather than extraposition of a relative clause.

Extraposition

59

(124) Governor dan\i mete en kene mere ka ju ninte Governor dance with one person more NEG 2sg KNOW-PF bat di jerma but the woman 'The Governor dances with nobody else you know, but this woman.' [HH lukubal:p7] (125) ek suk en gut ka ba di e\tp.. taka, lsg want one thing NEG but the first-NOM branch wa tit ju draja, di e\ti taka wat dZamte ju what time 2sg turn-IPF the first branch what hit-PF 2sg Ί want nothing but the first one, branch, that when you are coming back, the first branch that hit you.' [AK 030688:p5] In this case there is a clear motivation for movement. If the extraposed PP followed the head noun immediately, the result would have been a very odd utterance, in which disjunctive bat would have forced scope of negation over 'the woman' in (124) and over 'the branch' in (125); this is shown here for (124). (124)' *G. danji mete en kene mere bat di jerma ka G. dance with one person more but the woman NEG 'The Governor dances with one other person but not the woman.'

3. Structure of the main clause

3.1. Tense, Mood, and Aspect BD does not have agreement according to number or gender: the form of the verb is immutable for these categories, and a change of subject is not reflected in the form of the verb. In this respect, BD conforms to the Creole pattern. There is however some verbal inflection for aspectual categories, which is uncommon among Creole languages. Illustrated below are the perfective aspect form, the imperfective aspect form, and the uninflected form of mu 'go'. (1)

(2)

(3)

ο mute, stati andaka 3sg go-PF town other=day 'She went to town the other day.' [HA 020490:2] en mwa krek ben 3pl go-IPF creek inside 'They were going into the creek.' [HA 020490:6] idi kene kan mu \angga dang every person can go 3poss=LOC there 'Everybody could go to him there.' [HA 020490:45]

BD also has preverbal modification. The example below contains two propositions. In the one, the verb kumu is preceded by ma, a marker of Irrealis; in the other, the verb baku is preceded by mu, here used as a modal auxiliary verb (the full form is muti). Both ma and mu belong to closed classes, those of Tense/Mood/Aspect (TMA) markers and modal auxiliary verbs respectively. (4)

en 'cat' ma kum hiso, en pu\, ju mu b.ako one cat IRR come here=so one cat 2sg must beat=3sg Ά cat will come here, a cat, you must beat it.' [EK Iukuba2:p9]

What auxiliary verbs share with TMA markers is their dependency. TMA markers cannot be interpreted meaningfully except in relation to a verb; they appear in fixed positions, either directly preceding the verbal complex, or suffixed on the main verb: (5)

*o ma 'it will'

Similarly, auxiliary verbs cannot be interpreted meaningfully unless in relation to a main verb: (6)

*o muti 'he must*

62 3. Structure of the clause Auxiliary verbs will be discussed in 3.1.2, while the BD TMA system will be considered first, in 3.1.1 below.

3.1.1. The TMA system The BD TMA system is described in some detail in Kouwenberg—Robertson (1988). In addition, Bruyn—Veenstra (1993) contains comments on and corrections of this description. A brief outline will suffice here, therefore. Tense, Mood and Aspect are marked by preverbal particles and suffixes. The categories which are distinguished in the BD TMA system will be referred to as in table 3.1. The labels used here follow Comrie (1976, 1985). BD has an absolute tense system: past, marked by preverbal wa, contrasts with nonpast, which is not marked. The overt signalling of past reference by means of wa is discourse-dependent (see 3.1.1.2.). Preverbal ma /sa mark subcategories of Irrealis (as defined by Comrie 1985); the different tasks of these two particles is briefly discussed in 3.1.1.4. Note that ma may mark future reference, a subcategory of Irrealis, but that this does not show the discourse dependency noted for PAST. Aspectual distinctions are signalled by means of suffixes (PF/IPF/ITERATIVE), as well as preverbal particles (various realizations of HAB). The latter represent a GCE contribution to the BD TMA-system. A more "original" TMA system, i.e. the system presented in Table 3.1 without the GCE-derived habitual markers das/dasn and jus tu, presents a neat division of labour between preverbal particles and suffixes: the former mark Tense and Mood, while the latter mark Aspect. If combined, the order is as in Table 3.1, i.e. Tense precedes Mood precedes Aspect, except for the position of preverbal aspect markers, which follow the Tense marker.

Table 3.1. Tense, Mood, Aspect markers Tense

Mood

Aspect

wa V PAST

ma V IRREALIS (IRR)

V-te

PERFECTIVE (PF)

sa V IMPROBABILITY (IRR)

V-arz

IM PERFECTIVE (IPF)

V-V

ITERATIVE

das/dasn V

HABITUAL (HAB/NEGHAB)

justu V

PAST HABITUAL (PASTHAB)

Tense, Mood, and Aspect

63

Among the suffixes listed in Table 3.1 there is one which seems somewhat different: the - V suffix, which represents the reduplicative morpheme. Reduplication of the verb root marks repetitive or iterative aspect. The reduplicated verb behaves like a monomorphemic verb with respect to TMA marking: it can be preceded by preverbal particles, and it can take an aspectual suffix. An example containing a perfective reduplicated form of fiiru 'steal' follows. We will return to reduplication in 8.1; see also Kouwenberg (1991), where it is argued that BD reduplication is a special case of suffixation. (7)

di tokap furfurtek buku the child-PL steal-steal-PF=lsg book 'The children stole my books.' (i.e. not all at once, but over a period of time) [EK 080688:143]

The TMA system is supplemented by the completive serial verb construction which is discussed in 13.3.1. GCE influence extends into the system of tense marking to an extent which varies for different speakers. Thus, as noted above, every speaker signals habitual action by preverbal das (tense-neutral), its negative form dasn, or its past form justu. These markers are so obviously part of the modem BD TMA system that they are included in Table 3.1. In addition, some speakers signal past tense by means of preverbal GCE bin. This is rather idiosyncratic (used by BC and HA), and appears to correlate with lesser competence in BD; it is therefore not included. An example of use of bin follows in (8). In addition, HA sometimes uses GCE was as a past tense copula, as in (9). (8)

(9)

Queen of Sheba, bin da en pots boko jerma Queen of Sheba PAST be one old Amerindian woman 'Queen of Sheba was an old Amerindian woman.' [HA 100390:1] \i papa kurkur an J/' mama was., andre kens 3poss father black and 3poss mother was other person 'Her father was black and her mother was another (kind of) person.' [HA 050488:12]

3.1.1.1. Combinations of TMA-markers Combinations of these markers are used to signal subcategories of Tense, Mood and Aspect, as shown in Table 3.2.

6 4 3. Structure of the clause

Table 3.2. Combinations of Tense, Mood, Aspect markers PAST V-PF

->

Anterior

PAST V-IPF

->

Past imperfective

PAST IRR V

->

Future-in-the-Past

In the following examples, Anterior and Future-in-the-Past are illustrated. In (10), la 'arrive' is marked for Anterior by a combination of PAST and PF. In (11) and (12), kumu 'come' and ku 'catch', respectively, are marked for Future-in-the-Past by the combination of PAST and IRR; note that in (11), the event described actually took place, whereas in (12), it did not. (10) (11) (12)

en moi jermatoko wa late hiso one good woman=child PAST arrive-PF here=so Ά nice girl had come here.' [EK Iukuba2:p7] pudi wa ma kom monkey PAST IRR come 'Monkey was to come (here).' [HA lukuba4] ek wa sa kute.. en or twe fan eni an tem eni lsg PAST IRR catch-PF one or two of 3pl and tame 3pl Ί would have caught one or two of them, and tamed them.' [AK 250190:17]

The Anterior tense combination (PAST + PF) acquires a counterfactual interpretation in a conditional clause and in a main clause modified by a counterfactual conditional clause. Thus, in (13), the speaker refers to an accident which could have taken place, but luckily didn't. Normally, the combination of PAST and PF would have meant that it had taken place, as shown in (13)'. (13)

aso wa krikito hiri, ο wa bato doto if=3sg PAST get-PF=3sg here 3sg PAST kiU-PF=3sg dead 'If he had gotten it here, it would have killed him.' [BB 110788:24] (13)' ο wa krikito hiri I ο wa bato doto 3sg PAST get-PF=3sg here / 3sg PAST kill=PF=3sg dead 'He had gotten it here.' / 'It had killed him.'

Tense, Mood, and Aspect

65

3.1.1.2. Constraints on tense reference There are some constraints on overt tense reference: preverbal wa cannot appear with a perfective verb form unless to create an Anterior (see above), and the overt marking of PAST is to some extent discourse-dependent. As indicated in Table 3.2, the combination of PAST and PF signals Anterior tense. Thus, in (14) below, if past tense reference were to be marked overtly, the combination of PF and PAST on grui 'grow up' would lead to an Anterior interpretation. Note that out of context, PF is usually interpreted as selecting a past tense reference. Thus, (14) would be interpreted as having past reference even out of context. (14)

ο gruite dang me di telap 3sg grow-PF there with the Taylor-PL 'She grew up there with the Taylors.' [AK 090388:p7]

This also holds for (15) below: out of context, it would be interpreted to mean approximately 'in about four years it matured'. However, in the specific context of (15), the speaker does not refer to the completed maturation of a specific tree, but to general characteristics of coffee trees; draite [tum-PF] is used here with an indefinite tense reference. In other words: an appropriate context is required for a non-past interpretation; besides indefinite tense reference, in an appropriate context, present or future reference may also be selected. (15)

dbau firi jar draite gu bom about four year turn-PF big tree 'In about four years it matures.' (referring to coffeetrees) [AK 090388:p8]

In contrast, the perfective verb form of nimi 'acquire knowledge', which is used in (16), is always interpreted relative to the time of speech; it does not select past reference unless in an appropriate context. In the case of nimi, the perfective form which refers to the result of the process described by the verb, means approximately 'having acquired knowledge' or 'know'. In other words: the out-of-context interpretation of a perfective verb form is dependent on semantic characteristics erf the verb itself. (16)

ju ninte 2sg KNOW-PF 'You know.'

The difference in out-of-context interpretation of the perfective form of verbs such as grui 'grow' on the one hand, and nimi 'acquire knowledge' on the other, is similar to the difference noted for the out-of-context interpretation of the bare form of nonstative and stative verbs in some other Creole languages. In other words: the perfective form of grui is interpreted as having past reference, similar to the bare form of a verb like waka 'walk' in S ran an, and the perfective form of nimi is interpreted as having

66 3. Structure of the clause present reference, similar to the bare form of a verb like sabi 'know' in Sranan (Voorhoeve 1957). Note that Alleyne (1980, 1987) regards these bare forms in Sranan and other English-related Caribbean Creoles as perfective verb forms. Besides the restriction noted here on the use of overt tense marking with a perfective verb, the overt marking of past reference is also a discourse-dependent feature. Among the examples which illustrate this description of BD grammar there are many which have no overt past reference (and no perfective which induces past reference), but are translated as if they did. Robertson (1990: 169) notes that time values are not obligatorily marked within the verb system but may be signalled by temporals or, more importantly, may be clarified by features of the discourse context shared by the participants in the conversation. See also Kouwenberg—Robertson (1988) for a statement to the same effect. BD is not alone among Creole languages in this respect: it is an oft-noted feature of creole languages, sometimes erroneously referred to as "tense instability". However, it is not the case that leaving tense unmarked is simply a matter of establishing a past reference by some means or other, after which the speaker may opt to do without such reference in following utterances. The precise moment in discourse where a speaker switches from overt to unmarked tense reference, as well as the moment at which overt tense reference is reintroduced, is governed by principles governing discourse structure which to date are ill-understood. In order to establish such principles requires an in-depth study of a large body of texts, a task which I will not undertake here. In the following, I will present a few fragments of text which are reasonably clear and give us a first indication of these principles. Consider for instance the fragment in (17). The utterances a.-d. serve as an introduction to the story that follows: they establish the background for the events by establishing the main characters (a.-c.), as well as the problem which is purported to be the immediate cause of the events that follow (d.). In each of these background utterances, past reference is overtly marked, either by means of preverbal wa (a.-c.) or through the use of the past form jus tu (d.). Between d. and e., there is a switch from background to foreground: e. describes event 1 of a series of events which are described in chronological order, until their dramatic conclusion (a total of twelve text units, of which only the first four are represented here). As can be noted here, utterances e.-i. do not contain overt reference to tense, neither by means of preverbal particles, nor by means of adverbials. Nor is tense reference reintroduced anywhere in the following text units, in which the account of the course of events is continued. See Givon (1982) for an elaboration of the background / foreground distinction. (17)

a. ek wa jenda lsg PAST be=there b. an... di jerma and... the woman ofrd di savana over the savannah

dangga there papa, ο wa ha \i tun father 3sg PAST have 3poss field

Tense, Mood, and Aspect

67

c. an en.. potd kuliman wa Jen dang, and one old East-Indian=man PAST be there, ...hab \i korimanjap ...have 3poss work=man=PL d. an en justu mu mui.. and 3pl PASTHAB go go plagi di potman J7 gutwap, ... trouble the old=man 3poss thing-PL ... e. so di potman bif meteη en suk hor ka so the old=man speak with=3pl 3pl want hear NEG f. an di potman mut mu, mui.. twa slanggi dang and the old=man go-PF go go put snake there g. wel di en kuliman so, ο so slem well the one East-Indian=man so 3sg so clever h. datito mute β mu mu... dek potman \i guts that=time=3sg go-PF for go go ... take old=man 3poss thing i. ο kikte di gut, wa di potman twate da 3sg see-PF the thing what the old=man put-PF there BACKGROUND (establishing the setting): Ί was over there. And ... the woman's father, he had his field across the savannah. And an old East-Indian man lived there, who had his workmen. And they would go (and) trouble her father's things...' FOREGROUND (chronological account of events): 'So the father spoke with them. They did not want to listen. And the father went (and) put a snake there. Well the one East-Indian man, he was clever enough, that when he went to ... take the father's things, he saw the thing that the father had put there.' [AK 210788:1-41 The fragment has been selected such that at the "switch" from marked to unmarked past (between utterances d. and e.), there could be no motives for leaving past reference unmarked other than those dictated by principles governing deictic reference in discourse: the verbs used in e. do not carry PF, hence, the use of preverbal wa would not yield an inappropriate Anterior. Compare (17) to the historical present of languages such as Dutch and English: a switch from past to present between utterances d. and e. is simply impossible in these languages. The background which licenses a switch to understood past reference may be set sentence-internally, by a temporal adverbial. Consider the following example: the use of 'long ago' in (18) sets a background for the following foreground proposition. Outof-context, i.e. without the adverbial, the construction (18)' is interpreted relative to the time of speech. (18)

langtiti ju ha/ doko met skepre an mo long=time 2sg have-to paddle with paddle and go 'In the olden days you had to paddle and go (all the way).' [EK 050688:2,14]

68 3. Structure of the clause (18)' ju haf doko met skepre an mo 2sg have-to paddle with paddle and go 'You have to paddle and go (all the way).' Something similar appears to hold for the first utterance in the following excerpt: in a., the adverbial en mali sets a background for the following foreground proposition, and licenses the understood past reference of the utterances a. and b. Overt past reference is introduced in utterance c.t which does not describe a next stage in the chronological account of events, but again serves to set a background for the next stage, viz. the foreground event in d., where past is not marked ('while we...'). The speaker then interrupts the account to give some more background information in e., which again contains oval past reference; the same thing happens in h. All other utterances following h. form part of the chronologically ordered description of the events, and do not contain overt past reference. The excerpt given here consists of the first two of a total of ten text units. (19)

a. en one b. so so c. ig lpl d. a and e. ...

malek metek tokap ig.. kapa en tun time=lsg with=lsg child-PL lpl cut-IPF one field ig.. kuruda, ondd di bo\ lpl underbrush-IPF under the bush wa kuruda PAST underbrush-IPF wailig kunuL.. while=lpl underbrush jagihonds, twe faneni ig wa haben moi lpl PAST have=one good hunt=dog two of=3pl f. an, ek toko pant bif, dadi, bi jes and lsg child tell-PF say daddy say yes g. ο bi, hor di hondo j:agi 3sg say hear the dog hunt h. welig wa ha no nama di sem titi ka well=lpl PAST have no meat the same time NEG i. hor di hondd jagi hear the dog hunt j. an, ek bi wangli and lsg say where=side (BACKGROUND:) Once, me and my children, (FOREGROUND:) we were cutting a field. So we were cutting the underbrush. (BACKGROUND:) We were cutting the underbrush, (FOREGROUND:) and while we were cutting (BACKGROUND:) —we had a good hunting dog, two of them— (FOREGROUND:) and my son told (me) 'Daddy', (I) said 'Yes', he said 'Hear the dog hunts' (BACKGROUND:) —well we didn't have any meat at the same time— (FOREGROUND:) 'Hear the dog hunts', and I said 'Where?' [AK 010390:12-13]

Tense, Mood, and Aspect

69

3.1.1.3. Constraints on the use of PF Constraints on the use of PF are of a very different nature: no extra-sentential considerations, but only structural aspects of the sentence are relevant here. PF cannot appear within the scope of negation. PF qualifies the event/process described as having been completed, whereas negation qualifies it as a non-event. Therefore, PF and negation are semantically incompatible. Consider the following examples: in the first part of (20), nimi 'acquire knowledge' appears with PF marking (reduced to η in due to suffixation), while in the second it appears without in a negative sentence (reduced to ni). Similarly, in (21), where nimi appears twice: once as negated matrix verb without PF (reduced to ni), once as affirmative embedded verb with PF. (20)

(21)

eke nintek atete lsg KNOW-PF=lsg grandmother batek ni ek awawa ka but=lsg KNOW lsg grandfather NEG Ί knew my grandmother, but I didn't know my grandfather.' [HA 140788:p2] eke ni hoseni.. n. imte. dida ka lsg KNOW how=3pl KNOW-PF that NEG Ί don't know how they knew that.' [AH210390:29]

As shown in (22), negation is incompatible with the perfective verb form nimite. This is also true of the negative resultative construction: whereas PF is obligatory in the affirmativeresultativeconstruction, it cannot appear in the negative resultative in (23). We will return to these constraints in the chapter on BD negation (3.2), where we will see that presence or absence of PF helps to determine scope of negation, and in the relevant sections of chapter 10.2 on the resultative construction. (22) (23)

*eke nimte dida ka lsg KNOW-PF that NEG en wa noko la noko kam 3pl PAST not=RESULT reach yet NEG 'They hadn't arrived yet.' [BB 160488:pl]

PF is obligatory in the affirmative resultative construction. In this construction, a resultative is introduced by the auxiliary kon. In the affirmative resultative, the following verb is a perfective, as shown here for mu 'go'. This construction will be discussed in chapter 10.2. (24)

en tirte fu eke hiri an eke ko mute 3pl send-PF for lsg here and lsg RESULT go-PF 'They sent for me here and I went.' [BC 090488]

70 3. Structure of the clause 3.1.1.4. The division of labour between the Irrealis markers The Irrealis mood markers ma and sa are listed in table 3.1 as marking Irrealis and Improbability, respectively. Kouwenberg—Robertson (1988) demonstrate that ma covers a much wider area of modality than sa. They remark that the difference between the two markers appears to lie in the degree of commitment that is conveyed: ma expresses a higher degree of commitment than sa does. Thus, in (25), the use of ma assures the hearer that the boy will become pastor, while the use of sa entails a "perhaps" reading. Similarly, in (26), according to HA the use of ma means that you are sure of finishing the job, while the use of sa means you are not so sure. (25)

(26)

a. ο ma drai domni b. ο sa drai domni 3sg IRR turn pastor a. 'He will become pastor.' / b. 'He might become pastor.' [!AK 220290:pl6j a. ek ma famo morko b. ek sa famo morko lsg IRR finish=3sg tomorrow a. Ί will finish it tomorrow.' / b. Ί might finish it tomorrow (if nothing interferes).' [HA 020490:pl3]

ma is used to mark future, irrealis, desiderative, and inductive generalization; these are frequently used modalities (see Kouwenberg—Robertson 1988). sa can be used to mark events which are either improbable or strongly undesirable; these modalities are used much less frequently. The following utterances exemplify these uses of sa. (27)

(28)

a\u no if=2sg not 'If you don't ο noit 3sg never 'It has never

pamen km ka, ju sa krik tell=one person NEG 2sg IRR get tell anybody, you might get (the treasure).' [AK 050390:pl9] biti en kene ka bato sa biti bite one person NEG but=3sg IRR bite bitten anybody, but it might bite.' [AK 020490:p37]

The non-committal nature of sa also makes it the correct marker for "bad news", as in (29), (189). Although the speaker and hearer are aware of the truthfulness of the proposition and the inevitability of the event, death is not something one wishes to talk about in very direct terms; the use of sa in (29) can thus be seen as marking an undesirable event. (29)

ju ηΓ wanerske so doto ka 2sg KNOW when=lsg IRR die NEG 'You don't know when I might die.' [BB 170190:pll]

sa is also used in polite requests, as in (30), and promises as in (31)—apparently, the noncommittal character of sa does not disqualify it for this purpose.

Tense, Mood, and Aspect (30)

(31)

71

ate sa poko β... lsg IRR like for... Ί would like to...' a t . sa set nok bek met ju lsg IRR stay yet little with 2sg Ί will stay with you a little longer.' [AK 120788:p4]

The only area which ma and ία appear to share is that of Future-in-the-Past, although sa is much preferred here judging by the frequency with which it is used for this purpose. One of the very few instances of this use of ma was given in (11); another example follows here as (32). Compare (33) below, where sa appears. (32)

(33)

as wa da keneso wa lahanto dangga? if PAST BE person=FOC PAST leave-PF=3sg there eni wa ma kom fjo 3pl PAST IRR come for=3sg 'If somebody had left it there, they would have come for it.* [BB 030490:pl3] ek wa sa sete mere langgi lsg PAST IRR stay more long '(If...) I would have stayed longer.' [BB 260290:notes]

3.1.1.5. Allomorphy I have come across allomorphs mo and so for ma and sa respectively. This allomorphy is rather confusing because of homophony with a possible realization of mu 'go' and the adverbial so 'so', respectively. In (34) this use of mo [IRR] is exemplified, so [IRR] appeared in (29) above; it appears in (35) too, but this case is not straightforward: here, so can also be interpreted as the adverbial 'so'. (34)

(35)

en bi dat, ο mo blendeni 3pl say that 3sg IRR blind=3pl 'They said that, he would make them blind.' [AK 210788:7] a J di potman kan drai di gut, I..J en so bli if the old=man can turn the thing /.../ 3pl IRR/so? happy 'If the old man could tum the thing around /.../ they would be happy / they are so happy.' [AK 210788:6]

3.1.1.6. Preverbal marking versus suffixation There are differences to be noted between preverbal marking on the (me hand, and suffixation on the other which show that the structural relations between these forms of TMA marking and the verb are different: nothing can possibly intervene between the verb and a suffix, whereas some material may intervene between the verb and

72 3. Structure of the clause preverbal markers. Also, constraints on TMA-marking affect preverbal markers and suffixes differently. The position between the preverbal particles and the verb is highly restricted: besides the adverbs noiti 'never', alwes 'always' and djas 'just', everything else is barred from this position. An example of use of djas intervening between the HAB marker das and the verb deki 'take' is given in (36). However, djas may also appear in other positions, for instance between the subject and the following verbal complex; in this position it precedes preverbal particles, as in (37). (36)

(37)

eni bi e das djas.. deki gutu findi ju toro so? 3pl say 3pl HAB just take thing open 2sg eye so 'They say they just take something (and) open your eye (with it).' [BB 110688:11] eke djas wa suka si... lsg just PAST want-IPF see... Ί just wanted to see...' [BB 150190:56]

We find alwes 'always' in the position between the preverbal particles and the verb only in AK's speech. Two examples follow, one in which it intervenes between the IRR marker ma and the verb suku 'want', and one in which it intervenes between the PAST marker wa and the verb lai 'load'. (38)

(39)

di jertok bi aju prüf di gudi, the woman=child say if=2sg taste the thing=this ju ma alwesuko 2sg IRR always=want=3sg 'The girl said if you taste this stuff, you will always want it.' [AK 090388:p7] ig was., alwes lai pondo lpl was always load punt 'We were loading punts all the time.' [AK 080390:1]

Compare this with the following utterance by BB, in which alwes appears in initial position. (40)

alwes, di hari das jenda, bäja di toro always the hair HAB be=there cover-IPF the face 'The hair always covers the face.' [BB 290288:40]

The use of noiti 'never' in the same position is again attested in AK's speech, as in (41) below. Other informants use noiti directly following the subject, but because those utterances happen to be free of preverbal particles, it is not possible to ascertain the position of noiti relative to such particles.

Tense, Mood, and Aspect (41)

73

ix wa noiti kop, tei fan di \apap ka lpl PAST never buy tea from the shop-PL NEG 'We never bought tea from the shops.' [AK 090388:p8]

The constraints on TMA-marking referred to are the following: a. Perception complements: aspectual suffixation is the only TMA-marking allowed in perception complements. An example of IPF and PF marking —on mu 'go' and paka 'come out, exit'— respectively, follow. See 11.3.3 on this construction. (42)

(43)

ju ma t:ana lureni mwa meto 2sg IRR stand=and look=3pl go-IPF with=3sg 'You stand and watch them go off with it.' [BB 110190:11] Ch. wa kikito pakate Ch. PAST see-PF=3sg exit-PF 'Ch. had seen it come out.' [BB 090488:p4]

b. Serial verb constructions: whereas preverbal particles appear only with the first verb of a serial verb construction, but have scope over all verbs, verbs may show agreement for aspectual marking, as shown below for IPF and PF, respectively: in (44), IPF is suffixed on the verb sequence rei kumu 'ride come'; in (45) PF is suffixed on the verb sequence deki mja 'take make'. There are even some examples of different TMA marking on verbs in a serial verb construction. See chapter 13 for further discussion. (44)

(45)

titjo koma nau ο rejar, reja koma nau time=3sg come-IPF now 3sg ride-IPF ride-IPF come-IPF now 'When he comes, he comes riding.' (on horseback) [AK 030688:p6] ο dekto mjate \i papa 3sg take-PF=3sg make-PF 3poss father 'She took him for her father.' (lit: she took him made (him) her father) [BB 040388:p2]

c. Predicate conjunction: preverbal particles may appear with the first conjunct, but not with the following, although they have scope over all conjoined predicates. In contrast, the verbs in the conjuncts may "agree" with respect to aspectual specification, as in (46) below. Also, aspectual suffixation sometimes appears in the second conjunct independent of the first. See 5.1.2 on these issues. (46)

...kapkapteni an, t.rokten da fortek en kunu ...cut=cut-PF=3pl and dry-PF=3pl there before 3pl stink '(They) chopped them up and dried them there before they would stink.' [AK 250190:12]

d. Small Clause predicates: as noted in 11.6, there are complements which contain a subject and a predicate which is a complement to the higher predicate; these appear to qualify as Small Clause complements. However, within this class erf complements, we

7 4 3. Structure of the clause

find some which describe a state of affairs and some which describe an event; while the former do not appear with TMA marking, the latter may contain aspectual suffixation, as in (47). Which of the two types of complements may appear, seems to be largely dependent on the main verb. (47)

ek lasanto bila dang / eJc lasanto bilate lsg leave-PF=3sg sink-IPF there / lsg leave-PF=3sg sink-PF Ί left it sinking there.' / Ί left it sunk.' [!AK 050490:p37]

That the contrast illustrated under a.—d. above is not a contrast between aspect on the one hand and tense and mood on the other, can be shown by the behaviour of the GCE-derived preverbal markers das [HAB] and Justu [PASTHAB]: these are aspectual markers, but behave as expected from preverbal markers. Nor is it the case that aspectual suffixation is totally independent, as can be seen from the fact that infinitivals do not allow TMA-marking, including aspectual suffixation. All of this suggests that the relation between suffixation and the verb is more intimate, structurally, than that between preverbal particles and the verb.

3.1.2. Auxiliary verbs The BD system of auxiliary verbs can be subdivided as in Table 3.3:

Table 3.3. Auxiliary verbs ability

neutral: kan, (timi) negative: kante/kanti, kantimi

obligation

mu(ti), ha, hafu/hafi, haftu, (juda)

necessity

mu(ti), ha, hafu/hafi, haftu

probability

masi

possibility

kan

irrealis

(wuda)

result

ko(n) [RESULT]

Tense, Mood, and Aspect

75

fuda and wuda are both GCE mod als, and I hesitate to call them part of the BD auxiliary system because of the very low frequency with which they occur, and the fact that there are BD alternatives for both: for wuda there is the Future-in-the-Past which was discussed in the preceding section (see example (33), while modal mufti) covers a range wide enough to include that of \uda, as shown in (48). In the following discussion, we will not include Juda and wuda (see entries in vocabulary for examples of their use), but even apart from these, GCE has obviously contributed tG the class of auxiliary verbs: masi (ultimately from English 'must') as well as haju/haß and haftu derive from GCE. These cover different areas than mu(ti). (48)

ju mu jefi, ju mu talma jefi 2sg must eat 2sg must dish out food 'You must/should/ought to eat, you must/should/ought to serve yourself.' [EK Iukuba2:p4]

Not included in is fu/ß 'for'. It is occasionally encountered as a modal verb, as in the following example (where it appears reduced to vd). It is also, much more frequently, encountered as a preposition and as a prepositional complementizer. In 11.4.4 I argue that BD fu/ß is a loan from GCE. Its modal use is so very limited, that I do not consider it part of the BD auxiliary system. (49)

tit A. vd doto ponigd lombo time A. for die=3sg 'punish' bad 'When A. was to die, he suffered a lot.' [AK 290488:pl]

Below, we will first describe the functions that the modal auxiliaries in table 3.3 perform, and then discuss evidence for calling these forms auxiliaries rather than verbs. The use of kon, which introduces resultative predicates, will not be discussed here; see chapter 10.2 on this construction.

3.1.2.1. Obligation and necessity The forms which fall in this area are mufti) 'must' and various 'have' forms, viz. ha 'have', ha/u/hafi [have=for] 'have to', and haftu 'have to'. The full form muti is hardly ever used; mu is very much preferred by all speakers. Of the various 'have' forms, hafiilhafi is preferred, though ha and haftu are used regularly too. In the area of obligation, there is a clear division of labour between mufti) and the 'have' forms: the former refers to imperatively imposed obligation, while the latter refer to social obligation and necessity, mufti) is typically used to describe what one is told to do; it can refer both to orders and to suggestions. Thus, from the context of (50) it is clear that it is an order, while (51) is a friendly warning.

76 3. Structure of the clause

(50)

(51)

pam bi ju mu pa\ di boki di fi ekh tell say 2sg must care the money this for lsg 'Told (him): you must guard this money for me.' [AK 050390:13] ek bi ju mu pal lsg say 2sg must care Ί said: you must be careful.' [AK 010390:4]

There are two examples in my data where mufti) appears preceding an adjective. In both cases, it does not express obligation, but rather necessity: in both (52) and (53), the speaker draws a conclusion based on facts which he presents. (52)

(53)

ο muti tarki no 3sg must strong no 'She must be strong, no?' [AK 290488:pl] masi musu, da en famili, en heJe famili, so en mu musu must many BE one family one whole family so 3pl must many '(There) must have been many, one family, one whole family, so they must have been many.' [AK 250190:47]

In (54), mu is used in a negative utterance. There are very few such cases, mo is a possible realization of mu, as in (55). (See 9.1.1 on allophony of /u/.) (54) ju mu, mu fanek, faniji, tz di dunggru di ka 2sg must go from=lsg from=lpl ? the night this NEG 'You mustn't leave me, us, tonight.' [AK 030688:pll] (55) eni mo pako fan dangga 3pl must exit=3sg from there 'They have to bring her out of there.' [BB 200290:p7] The 'have' forms are used to describe that which is normally done or prescribed by custom or by social pressure, or to describe that which is necessarily imposed by force of circumstance. There is no further distinction among the various 'have' forms; all can be used in these functions. Examples of the first usage follow in (56)—(59): descriptions of how to prepare something typically tell you what is normally or customarily prescribed, as in (56) which is part of a description of how to prepare waterhare; ha is used here. (57) is an example in which social pressure is described; haju/fi is used. (56)

(57)

dd titju bat nau ju ha findi.. di bol an Ii darum the time=2sg kill-PF now 2sg have open the belly and 3poss mtestines 'When you have killed it you have to open the belly and its intestines.' [AK 030688:pl9] sek da haf pi eni stediste so=lsg HAB have-to give 3pl steady-steady 'So I have to give to them regularly.' [AK 090388:pl]

Tense, Mood, and Aspect

77

An example of necessity, imposed by circumstances, follows: the circumstances referred to in (58) are beyond human control, haftu appears here. (58)

ο haftd wenggi bika idri gut mut lasan 3sg have-to walk because every thing go-PF leave 'She had to walk because everything deserted her.' [AK 030688:pll]

Custom or tradition can also prescribe what things not to do. Thus, in the following example, foodtaboos related to cases of death in the family are described. However, such examples are scarce, and following the utterance in (59), the speaker uses mu to complete his description of food-taboos, as shown in (60). This suggests that the use of 'have* forms in negative utterances is very restricted. Negative imperatives (see 5.3), mu(ti), and kan and related forms can be used instead, kan and related forms are discussed in the next section. (59)

(60)

jd ha mo jefi kokriti ka, jd ha mo jefi awara ka 2sg have go eat palmnut NEG 2sg have go eat palmnut NEG 'You shouldn't eat coocrete palmnuts, you shouldn't eat awara palmnuts.' [AK 220290: p9] en bi dat ju mu jef.. aboko ka 3pl say that 2sg must eat hen NEG 'They say that you shouldn't eat chicken.' [AK 220290:p9]

Last, one instance of rather peculiar use of hafii 'have to' needs to be mentioned here: in (61), it is followed by an adverbial complement, in a position where we normally expect to find the locative copula. (61)

andrd mut so,... en ham faru some go-PF so... 3pl have-to far 'Some went that way, ...they must be far away.' [EK 050688:3,21]

3.1.2.2. Possibility and probability These areas are covered by kan (possibility), and masi (probability). While epistemic use of kan is only one of its functions, masi is purely an epistemic modal, kan describes possible avenues of action, or, in negative utterances, avenues which are closed to the agent, masi describes probable accounts of reality, of ways in which reality can be perceived. In (62), kan introduces an avenue of action (viz. 'shut the lake') which is opened once the condition described in the preceding clause has been fulfilled. In the negative utterance (63), the speaker explains that finding ochroes is made impossible because people pick them all the time.

78 3. Structure of the clause (62)

(63)

aftd pak, den ju kan.. ka\ di lek after(=3sg) come out then 2sg can shut the lake •After (it) comes out, then you can shut the lake.' [AK 080390:5] ju kä fends gurma ken käfa stedi 2sg can find ochroe NEG=3pl pick-IPF steady 'You cannot find any ochroes, they are picking (them) all the time.' [AK 080390:12]

In the following example, masi appears twice (reduced to mas), followed by a verbal predicate and by a copular predicate respectively. A situation is described which appears to the speaker as the most probable explanation of a boy's disappearance, although he cannot be sure that this is what really happened. (64)

en mas dekto mut bof ben, mas, jen meten tut nau 3pl must take-PF=3sg go-PF bush inside must be with=3pl untilrrw 'They must have taken him into the bush, (he) must be with them until now.' [AK 270190:12]

Similarly, in (65), the most probable cause for the dying out of cocoa trees on an old plantation is described. In (66), masi appears in a relative clause. (65)

(66)

di gutap masi dot: ε bai di plek:rikte pote the thing-PL must die-PF by the place=get-PF old 'The things must have died because the place got old.' [EK 050688:1,17] \i 'sweet soap'ap wati ju masi pijo 3poss sweet soap-PL what 2sg must give=3sg 'His sweetsoaps which you must have given him.' [BB 100788:p5]

In contrast with the abundance of examples containing epistemic kan in negative utterances, I have found very few instances of masi in a negative context. They follow as (67)-(69). Although masi in (67) is contained in a negative clause, it is outside the scope of negation: scope extends only over the following predicate. Similarly in (68), where masi precedes the negative resultative auxiliary complex, and in (69). (67)

(68)

anau weren mas ha en gutu were ka and=now again=3pl must have one thing again NEG 'And now again, they must have nothing again.' [BB 200290:p8] ο masi noko la noka 3sg must not=RESULT reach yet=NEG me di mama nokum nokokd make the mother not=RESULT=come yet=NEG 'He probably hasn't arrived yet, which is why his mother hasn't come yet.' [BB 110190:pl]

Tense, Mood, and Aspect (69)

79

ο masi suko.. bifi meid di mama fu wan ka 3sg must want=3sg speak with the mother for true NEG 'He probably did not want him to speak with his mother, really.' [BB 170190:pl7]

masi sometimes appears in a position where we expect to see the equative copula da, as in the following example. This use of masi and its relation to da will be discussed in 4.4.2. (70)

so dida masi di.. bof gutap so that must the bush thing-PL 'So that must be the., bush thing-PL.' [HA 020490:35]

3.1.2.3. Ability In this area of modality, we have to distinguish between neutral and negative use: kanteJkanti and kantimi are reserved for negative use only, while kan and timi are neutral in this respect, and can appear in negative as well as affirmative utterances. In addition, we may distinguish physical from non-physical (dis)ability: timi, kante!kanti and kantimi may be used in either context, while my examples of this use of kan all refer to non-physical (dis) ability. However, in discussions with informants, I was told that all forms can be used interchangeably. timi 'be able' is not an auxiliary verb, as shown by (71) and (72). It is included here because its usage covers the same semantic area as the auxiliary forms. (71) shows that timi is a transitive verb, while (72) shows that it can be used independently, i.e. without complements. (71)

(72)

ek timet di hogo skunap ababaka lsg able=with the high shoe-PL any more=NEG Ί cannot cope with high-heeled shoes any more.' [HA 140788:p27] eke plandi ababaga, timi ababaga lsg plant any more=NEG able any more=NEG Ί don't plant any more, (I) am not capable any more.' [BB 86]

timi is used almost exclusively in negative contexts, i.e. describing disability rather than ability, timi in (73) refers disability that follows from lack of knowledge, while it refers to physical disability in (74). (73)

(74)

ek tim pama ju hoso dida kumte ka lsg able tell 2sg how that come-PF NEG Ί am unable to tell you how that has come about.' [AH 210390:29] ο wa ti, timi wing kane 3sg PAST (able) able walk NEG 'He was unable to walk.' [HA 020490:33]

80 3. Structure of the clause RT uses the complementizer fi following timi, as in the following example; although other speakers do not or hardly ever use overt complementizers following timi in unelicited examples, they accept such utterances in elicitation. BB sometimes even rejected the use of timi without an overt complementizer following it. Thus, she found (76) unacceptable without fit. (75)

(76)

eke timi β wengi langi ka, lsg able for walk long NEG nidd eke timi β sete aswele langi ka neither lsg able for sit too-much long NEG Ί cannot walk very long, nor can I sit down very long.' [RT 280186:54] eke timte *(fu) mja di lsg able-PF for do this Ί am capable of doing this.' [!BB 090488:pl]

(77) and (78) exemplify the use of kan in an affirmative and negative utterance, respectively. (77)

(78)

ekanel eni gut fa hisa tut pata ben lsg=can=nail any thing from here=so until path inside Ί could nail anything from here until in the path.' [EK 050688:3,9] an pabadi self kan mjo.. arum ababaka and God self can make=3sg poor any more=NEG 'And even God cannot make him poor any more.' [HA 100390:16]

The following is an example of elicited use of kan referring to physical ability: (79)

di kene blendo kan kiki kane the person blind=3sg can see NEG 'The person is blind, she cannot see.' [!HA 270488:notes]

Besides kan, there are some specifically negative forms: kante, kanti and kantimi. The latter is translated by informants as GCE /kyaan ebl/ 'can't able', a translation which suggests that it is bimorphemic. One wonders at the reasons for developing such a combined form, and what its relation is to kanti and kante: these are allomorphs, but it is not clear which of the two is the base form. There are basically the following possibilites: either truncation of the longer form has yielded the shorter forms, or compounding of the shorter forms has yielded the longer form. Schematically: (80) (81)

a. b. a. b.

kan=timi [can=able] —> kantimi kante=timi [cannot=abIe] —> kantimi kantimi —> kanti - kante kan-te [can-PF] —> kante ~ kanti

Tense, Mood, and Aspect

81

(80) shows two possible derivations of kantimi, (81) two possible derivations of kantelkanti. The derivation in (80)-a. is compatible with both (81)-a. and b., whereas (80)-b. is compatible only with (81)-b. (81)-a. is problematic because alternation which we find elsewhere between final /ε ~ i/ always has the lei form as the base form, which suggests that kante is the base form, not kanti. (See 9.1.1 on allophony.) (81)-b. produces kante as the base form, but is problematic because kante is a negative form, and PF cannot appear in the scope of negation (see 3.1.2). For this derivation, we would have to assume that kante was not originally a negative form. The alternative, assuming that the constraint on the cooccurrence of PF and negation did not always hold, is even more unattractive in view of the very likely substratal base for this constraint: the BD PF marker derives from the EI PF marker, and with respect to negation, it behaves similar to its EI etymon. Alternatively, there is a possible derivation of kante/kanti from Dutch kan niet [can not], as follows: Dutch [kanit] —> Proto BD *kaniti —> BD kanti. Note however that the kante form does not follow from this derivation, and that this development includes the loss of the medial syllable in kaniti, which is a stressed syllable; this is an unusual development. Below follow some examples of the use of the negative forms. (82) refers to lack of knowledge; (83) refers to physical inability. (82)

(83)

ekantim pama ju lsg=can=able tell 2sg Ί can't tell you how, what m.usu kenapu mute many person-PL go-PF 'Many people went there 260288:1]

hos, keke hoso sete ka how like how=3sg stay NEG it is like.' [AH 210390:16] dang fu breke an kanti breke kane there for break and cannot break NEG to break (it), and (they) cannot break (it).' [AC

The following is an example in which kantelkanti is followed by the overt complementizer fu/fi. This is in contradiction with its status as an auxiliary verb, but since it is the sole example, we cannot conclude that kantelkanti is to be treated as a main verb. (84) ju kant fd dok lasan ka 2sg cannot for paddle leave NEG 'Because you cannot outpaddle (it).* (i.e. you cannot paddle faster than it) [AK 290488:p2] Not all informants accept kantelkanti: BB rejects kante (!090488:p2), and so does HA (!270488:notes); but note that BB uses kante in (85). (86) exemplifies the interchangeability of the various forms.

82 3. Structure of the clause (85)

(86)

en jermatoko phamateke, bi one woman =child tell-PF=lsg say en ken alen kante mu hukuhuku dangkan one person alone cannot go angle-angle there=NEG Ά girl told me that nobody can go fish there alone.' [BB 040388:p2] a. en kenalen kanti mu huku dangga ka b. en kenalen kan mu huku dangga ka c. en kenalen kantimi mu huku dangga ka one person=alone can(not)=able go angle there NEG 'Nobody can go fish there alone." [!BB 090488:p6]

3.1.2.4. Properties of auxiliary verbs Auxiliary verbs are "defective" as verbs. As indicated earlier, they cannot appear unless as part of a verbal complex which includes a main verb. This is illustrated for muti in (6) above. Similarly, independent use of kan is impossible, i.e. *o kan 'it can* is unacceptable. Compare this with the acceptability of (87), where timi appears independently (in the repeated part); see also (72) above. (87)

eke timi spuku ka, eke timi ka lsg able vomit NEG lsg able NEG Ί cannot vomit, I can't.' [BB 050488:p2]

Auxiliary verbs do not take aspectual suffixes. Thus, while the main verb jefi 'eat' in (88) takes the PF suffix, overt agreement with the aspectual form of the main verb is not possible for the auxiliary masi, as shown in (88)'. (88)

so en bi di.. tigri masi jefte di tok so 3pl say the jaguar must eat-PF the child 'So they said the tiger must have eaten the child.' [AK 270190:6] (88)' *di tigri masite jefite di toko the tiger must-PF eat-PF the child Compare the following examples: ha as main verb in (89) can take the PF suffix, ha as modal auxiliary of obligation cannot take PF, as in (90)'. (89)

(90)

kesrix hate moi kirki yesterday=lpl have-PF good church 'We had a nice service yesterday.' [AK 040588:p5] SK: ο daswem dangga AK: ehe, ha tandä SK: 3sg HAB=swim there AK: yes have climb= there SK: 'Did it use to swim there?' AK: 'Yes, (it) had to climb up there.' [AK 080390:25]

Tense, Mood, and Aspect (90)'

*hatε have-PF

tandi climb

83

dangga there

In contrast, timi 'be able* patterns with other main verbs in this respect, as illustrated here. Note that (91) provides an argument for saying that there is no semantic restriction prohibiting the combination of particles and auxiliary verbs, since timi covers partly the same semantic range as the auxiliary verbs. (91) ju pakori, hau musu ju timte fi draki 2sg stack=3sg how much 2sg able-PF for carry 'You stack it, as much as you are capable of carrying.' [AH 060588:4,46] Where the placement of preverbal particles is concerned, masi contrasts with kan and hafiilhafi, while mu(ti) contrasts will all other modals: hafulhafi and kan are preceded by preverbal particles, whereas masi is always followed by such particles, and mufti) does not cooccur with preverbal particles. Consider the following examples: in (92), the auxiliary, which refers to actions prescribed by tradition, is preceded by the habitual marker; in (93), the auxiliary, which refers to circumstantial obligation, is preceded by the past tense marker. (92)

(93)

en das havd.. mu walen toro 3pl HAB have-to go wash=3pl face 'They would have to go wash their faces.' [AK 080390:1] en wa hafo hoso di, di grev, foreni twa di kafh 3pl PAST have-to bail the the grave before=3pl put the coffin 'They had to bail (the) the grave, before they could put the coffin.' [BB 200290:p2]

Similarly, in (94), kan, which refers to possibility, is preceded by the past tense marker wa. (94)

sa eni wa kä soko dangga kan so 3pl PAST can dig there NEG 'So they couldn't dig there.' [BB 200290:pl]

The placement of preverbal particles relative to hafiilhafi and kan is identical to that relative to main verbs, such as timi in the following example. (95)

ο ninte dateke ma timi. mja di kumbuli 3sg KNOW-PF that=lsg IRR able do the kitchen an den lur di toko ka and then look the child NEG 'He knows that I will not be able to do the kitchenwork and then look after the boy.' [BB 190190:p4]

84 3. Structure of the clause Compare this to the following examples: in (96), masi is followed by the habitual marker das, and in (97) it is followed by the irrealis marker ma. (96)

(97)

di man masi das pjo boki, bringi kom pi, the man must HAB give=3sg money bring come give pi di tokap give the child-PL 'The man must have been giving her money, for the children.' [BB 200290:p7] mas ma kri boki fi di man must IRR get money for the man 'Must be that (they) will get money for the boy.' [AK 270190:10]

Note also the following example, in which masi is followed by a predicate which contains the habitual marker das and the auxiliary kan. The position of masi preceding preverbal particles reflects its position with respect to scope of these particles: masi is outside their scope, just as it is outside the scope of negation, (see examples (67)-(69) in the section on probability). (98)

di andap mas das kan helpu the others must HAB can help 'The others are probably able to help out.' [HA 130788]

mu(ti) cannot cooccur with preverbal particles. Thus, the past tense marker wa cannot appear in (99), preceding nor following the auxiliary verb. (99)

ju mu jefi 2sg must eat 'You must eat.' [EK Iukuba2:p4]

(99)'

*ju 2sg

wa PAST

mu must

jefi eat

/ *ju mu wa jefi / 2sg must PAST eat

The special status of auxiliary verbs is further corroborated by assimilation phenomena which are peculiar to auxiliary verbs which end with n: the final η in kon [RESULT] and kan 'can' optionally assimilates to the place of articulation of the initial consonant of the following verb, whereas final η in other words does not assimilate to following consonants. Assimilation applies frequently to the final η in kon (see chapter 10.2 on the resultative construction) and less frequently to the final η in kan, as in (100). (100) ο kang krikjur kam 3sg can get=cure NEG 'He couldn't get treatment.' [HA 020490:44]

Tense, Mood, and Aspect

85

Auxiliary verbs may be followed by a conjoined predicate. The only examples I can present here are of hafiilhafi. See (95) above for an example of timi followed by a conjoined complement. (101) ο faro, lang titi ju haf doko met skepre an mo it far long time 2sg have-to pull with paddle and go 'It is far, long ago you had to paddle and go (all the way).' [EK 050688:2,14] (102) haf mu purkar an ba di kenap have-to go fight and kill the person-PL '(They) had to go fight and kill the people.' [AK 250190:9] muti may be used as answer or comment expressing probability; compare this to masi, which cannot be used in this way. Nor can timi, although it can be used independently, appear in this way (but compare time\i 'perhaps, may be' < timi=*\i where *fi may have been a form derived from Dutch zijn 'to be'): (103) a. muti 'must be, probably* b. *masi c. *timi

3.2. Negation 3.2.1. Introduction After a short overview of the different ways in which negation can be expressed in BD, and the extent to which GCE has intruded in this part of BD grammar, we will tum to general properties of negation and the distribution of negatives (3.2.2), scope properties of negation over indefinite quantifier phrases (3.2.3), scope over embedded clauses (3.2.4), and the use of negative adverbs and other negative words (3.2.5). The different ways in which negation can be expressed in BD are illustrated in (104)(107) below. In all cases, ka or kam appears in final position; this is the BD negator. The first example is a simple case of sentence-final negation; besides kam no other negators appear. This type of negation will be referred to as standard negation. (104) ο habu bwa kam 3sg have leg NEG 'It doesn't have legs.' [AC 090488:34] In addition to the sentence-final negator, BD has a preverbal negator which appears with the sentence-final negator in the resultative construction, as in (105). This construction will be referred to as the negative resultative. It will be discussed in 10.2

86 3. Structure of the clause on the resultative construction. Therefore, in this chapter, only general properties which this construction shares with other negatives will be discussed. (105) titi ori kumte en wa noko la noko kam time 3sg come-PF 3pl PAST not=RESULT reach yet NEG 'When he came they hadn't arrived yet.' [BB 160488:pl] There are two kinds of negative verbs in BD: there is a negative existential/ locative copula, and there are negative auxiliary verbs which refer to incapability/impossibility. The latter type is illustrated in (106), where kanti appears in conjunction with the sentence-final negator. This type of negation will be referred to as negative verb negation. Some of the properties of negative auxiliary verbs will be examined in this chapter and compared to neutral (i.e. not inherently negative) auxiliary verbs, while the negative existential/locative copula will be discussed in chapter 4. on copular sentences. However, properties of negative verb negation as such will be discussed and compared with those of other negative constructions below. (106) en kanti lefu.. sautu mingi anga ka 3pl cannot live salt water LOC NEG 'They cannot live in salt water.' [AC 090488:30] The negative adverbial noiti 'never' appears between the subject and the verb, as in (107); this will be referred to as adverbial negation. (107) eke noiti hor en jefi dida ka lsg never hear 3pl eat that NEG Ί have never heard (that) they eat that.' [AC 090488:37] Before we turn to a discussion of the properties of BD negation, we need to note the extent to which GCE has intruded in this part of BD grammar. This intrusion takes several forms: (a) GCE forms are introduced, as for instance in (108), where the negative counterpart dasn of the habitual particle das appears, and also in (109), where the GCE negator no appears. (108) en dasn Mlen ken das bumeni 3pl NEGHAB eat=3pl NEG=3pl HAB throw=3pl 'They don't eat them, they throw them away.' [AK 270190:16] (b) GCE distinctions are introduced, as for instance in (109), where no marks constituent negation, immediately preceding a noun. (109) welig wa ha no nama di sem titi ka well=lpl PAST have no meat the same time NEG 'Well we had no meat at the same time.' [AK 010390:13]

Negation

87

(c) BD forms of negation are lost, as for instance in (110), where the BD negator ka(ne) has been "emitted". Compare this with (108) and (109), where the GCE negators appear in conjunction with the BD sentence-final negator. (110) eni wangs di tok mute 3pl=KNOW where=FOC the child go-PF 'They didn't know where the child had gone.' [HA 270190:p22] The effects of erosion and corruption of the BD system of negation are visible in some of the examples in this chapter. BD negation differs radically from the pattern of negation common among creole languages, viz. that of a single negative morpheme which appears preverbally as well as preceding other constituents. Besides BD, among Caribbean Creole languages, sentence-final negation exists only in Palenquero, where it may be combined with preverbal negation, depending on discourse-pragmatic considerations (Schwegler 1991); outside the Caribbean, the Portuguese Creoles of the Gulf of Guinea use discontinuous negation, i.e. a negative particle preceding the verb appears with a negative particle at the end of the utterance (Holm 1988:173). Discontinuous negation has evolved into sentence-final negation in the Portuguese creole of Principe, where the preverbal negator has disappeared in many environments. I have found no indications of the existence of negative verbs in other creole languages.

3.2.2. General properties of negation The sentence-final negator appears as kam or ka; I will refer to the first as the full form, to the latter as the reduced form. The reduced form appears much more frequently than the full form, in agreement with a general tendency to use reduced forms of grammatical morphemes. The relative frequency of the two forms is to some extent dependent on the speaker: AC and BB, for instance, tend to use non-reduced forms of grammatical morphemes more than other speakers, which also means that kam is more frequent in their speech than in that of others, although occurrences of ka still outnumber occurrences of kam. AK, on the other hand, tends to use reduced forms as much as possible, and hardly ever uses kam. The distribution of the two forms is independent of the nature of the main verb; nor is it the case that in different types of negative constructions (standard, resultative, adverbial and negative verb negation) the one is more likely to appear than the other, except that again the reduced form is more frequent than the full form; nor is the full form an emphatic form. (Ill) and (112) are examples in which the reduced form and the full form of negation appear with the same main verb, viz. suku 'want' (reduced tos«* in (111)).

88 3. Structure of the clause (111) ek suk mu lasan eni ka lsg want go leave 3pl NEG Ί didn't want to leave them.' [AK 290488:p4] (112) ο suku nati \i bwa kam 3sg want wet 3poss foot NEG 'He doesn't want to wet his feet.' [AC 120488:5] The negator never bears sentential stress. It is optionally encliticized on the preceding constituent; this applies especially to ka, as in (113): [boka] is the result of encliticization of ka on boki 'money'. (113) a\d pamen kenau dm jum, ju kä krik di boka if=2sg tell=one person=now then 2sg 2sg can get the money=NEG 'If you tell anybody then you, you can't get the money.' [AK 050390:pl8] The position of the negator is invariant. There are two cases in which something can follow the negate»·: a. Sentential tags follow the negator. This is exemplified in (114), where the tag 'you know' follows the negator. (114) en kan sefc dangga ka ju ni 3pl can stay there NEG 2sg KNOW 'They can't stay there you know.' [AH 210390:9] b. A constituent which is moved to extraposed position follows the negator. Thus, in (115) the complement clause 'such things could happen' follows the negator rather than preceding it; extraposition of complement clauses is discussed in 2.4.2. (115) ek wa noiti nikd, solok ber kek di sa hapn lsg PAST never KNOW=NEG such story like this IRR happen Ί never knew such things could happen.' [AK 010390:21] There are no constraints on standard negation related to sentence types: in the following examples, standard negation negates a verbal sentence, a copular sentence, and a sentence with an adjectival predicate, respectively. (116) nasi ha bita kekeke ka Anancy have clothes like=lsg NEG 'Anancy doesn't have clothes like me.' [HH lukubal:p3] (117) domni wa jenda kan pastor PAST be=there NEG 'There was no pastor.' [BB 150190:9] (118) didap loi ka that-PL lazy NEG 'Those aren't lazy.' [AK 010390:pll]

Negation

89

The negative resultative construction and the negative existential conform to constraints which also hold for their non-negative counterparts, as will be discussed in the relevant chapters. While non-negated sentences can be conjoined/disjoined, so can negated sentences. It is however not usual. An examples follows. (119) is an instance of adverbial negation: noiti appears preverbally, in combination with the standard negator in final position. Scope of the negative adverbial is over all conjoined constituents, as shown by the impossibility of the interpretation where only the first part is negated. (119) a f u wa noiti bu an drunggu an mono kck so ka if=2sg PAST never drink and get drunk and sleep like so NEG 'If you had never drank and gotten drunk and slept like this.' [AK 190290:14] NOT: 'If you had never drank, and (if you had) gotten drunk and slept like this.' However, partial repetition of the clause is more usual for negatives, as in (120): (120)

f apuhabu ri \ i kans, habu meli ka, habu bakljau ka shop have rice NEG have flour NEG have saltfish NEG 'The shop doesn't have rice, doesn't have flour, doesn't have saltfish.' [AC 230288:9]

Negative sentences are not excluded from any positions that affirmative sentences can appear in. Below an example in which a negative appears as the complement of the preposition fan 'from'. (121) ο bi datani.. wctc kcna bin kumte fan.. 3sg say that=some white person-PL PAST come-PF from ck ni wangji kan lsg KNOW where=side NEG 'He said that some white people had come from I don't know where.' [HA 050488:38] Negatives may also appear as adverbial clauses. In (122), the negative is a conditional clause introduced by a j i ' i f . In (123), it is a temporal clause, introduced by titi 'time'. (122) aj fane wa noko mu.. mangi gau fu mo., helpo ka, if person PAST not=RESULT go run quick for go telp=3sgNEG di gutu wa nunto the thing PAST pull-PF=3sg 'If somebody hadn't gone, run quickly to help him, the thing would have pulled him down.' [AH 210390:35]

90 3. Structure of the clause (123) tit ju, nuno gau ka ο das frot di minggi ben time 2sg pull = 3sg quick NEG 3sg HAB rot the water inside 'If you don't pull it out quickly, it rots away in the water.' [AK 190190:pl7] BD negation has scope over NPs, while constituent negation as such does not exist. Thus, the equivalent of (109) (repeated here as (124)) without GCE constituent negation would be (124)' below, with standard negation. (124) welig wa ha no noma di sem titi ka well= lpl PAST have no meat the same time NEG 'Well we had no meat at the same time.' [AK 010390:13] (124)' /f wa ha nama ka lpl PAST have meat NEG 'We didn't have meat.' Nevertheless, utterances such as (125)-(127) below, where a constituent appears independently, i.e. not as the argument of a verb, with the sentence-final negator, seem to suggest that BD does have constituent negation. (125) is an answer to a question, while (126) serves as contrastive specification of a known object. (125) dungru, bidaka kane night daylight NEG 'At night, not during the day.' [AC 090488:33] (126) da gugujap ju nintc, kalkal tau ka BE big-big-NOM-PL 2sg KNOW-PF small-small snake NEG '(Those) are big ones you know, not small snakes.' [AK 260290:p4] In (127), the elliptical form is a comparative. (127) ο \ud moi, kck di en wat bi jenda dangka 3sg should good like the one what PAST be=there there=NEG 'He should be all right, unlike the one that was there.' [HA 140788:p27] These utterances are more appropriately described as sentence fragments or elliptical forms, than as negated constituents. This can be seen in utterances such as (128): here the statement 'my ID card doesn't have the date' is followed by a further specification of 'the date' as referring to the date of birth of the speaker. This part of the utterance consists only of a complex NP and the negator, whereas the NP is not interpreted as being negated; clearly the negation of the preceding 'full' utterance is carried over into the sentence fragment.

Negation

91

(128) ek 'ID card' hab di, di det ka, lsg ID card have the the date NEG di det waner ek bante ga the date when lsg born-PF NEG 'My ID card doesn't have the date, my date of birth.' [HA 140788:p26] NOT: '...not the date of my birth' Similarly, the/t-clause in (129) is an elliptical form which specifies the NP oli 'oil', and contains a negator, whereas the clause is not interpreted as a negative clause. (129) in ha oli ka, fi twa in lampwang ka 3pl have oil NEG for put 3pl lamp=LOC NEG 'They didn't have oil, to put in their lamp.' [HA 140788:pl2] NOT: '...not to put in their lamp' Also in (130), the fragment di doro ka expands on the request given in the first part of the utterance. (130) ju mu ka\i di 2sg must shut the wel di.. di doro well the the door 'You mustn't shut the 260288:pl]

en 'window'ka, di fcnsrc ka, one window NEG the window NEG ka NEG one window, the window, well, the door.' [BB

3.2.3. Scope problems related to indefinite quantifier phrases Problems of ambiguity may arise where indefinite NPs and other indefinite quantifier phrases are involved: these tend to get a negative interpretation irrespective of their position in the sentence, though this is not obligatory. (131) below for instance, is ambiguous for speakers. In the a. interpretation, negation has scope over the subject NP, which is interpreted to be indefinite and non-referential; in the b. interpretation, the quantifier has higher scope, and the subject NP is interpreted as indefinite but referential. Note that emphatic stress makes no difference: informants tended to stress en in both the a. and the b. case. The a. interpretation is preferred, however, and attested in spontaneous usage; the b. interpretation was not used spontaneously. (131) en fan eni frustan ka one of 3pl understand NEG a. 'Not one of them understands.' [!BB 090488:pl] b. 'One of them doesn't understand.' [!AC 090488:pl]

92 3. Structure of the clause Similarly, informants indicated that (132) is ambiguous between negation of the referentiality of the subject, which is a quantifier phrase, and predicate negation. Here too, there is a preference for the a. reading. (132) alma (di kenap) nokum ka all (the person-PL) not=RESULT=come NEG a. 'Not all (the people) came.' b. 'All (of the people) did not come.' (i.e. none came) [!AK 250190:p36, 1AK&HA 270190:p29] In general, negative sentences which contain indefinite NPs or other indefinite quantifier phrases (henceforth QP) are potentially ambiguous between the interpretation in which negation has scope over the QP, and the interpretation in which it doesn't. If negation has scope over the QP, the referentiality of the QP is negated; if not, the QP is referential. The first is the preferred interpretation. English 'all of them did not come' is ambiguous in much the same way as is BD alma di kenap nokum ka: for a number of speakers of English, 'all of them did not come' may have either the reading equivalent to 'not all of them came* or the reading equivalent to 'none of them came' (see judgements in Carden 1976 and Lakoff 1971 on similar constructions). In the first reading, negation has scope over the quantifier, in the second, it has scope over the predicate; these are referred to as NEG-Q and NEG-V respectively (Carden 1976); of these, the NEG-Q reading appears to be much preferred. However, if negation has higher scope than the quantifier, it is possible in English to attach negation to the quantifier, as in 'not all of them came' and in the English translations (131)a. and (132)a. Thus, English has the option of expressing the NEG-Q reading unambiguously. This phenomenon is referred to in the literature as neg-incorporation (Klima 1964:272), construal of negation with the quantifier (Carden 1973), and negative attraction (Labov 1972). In BD, scope of negation over a quantifier (a NEG-Q reading) cannot result in the actual attachment of a negator to the quantifier: it merely results in a negated quantifier interpretation. As a result, surface structures cannot be disambiguated. I will adopt the term negative attraction to refer to the phenomenon that an indefinite QP tends to get a negative interpretation in a negative sentence. Below, we will first examine the behaviour of indefinite NPs with respect to negative attraction, and then turn to other quantifier phrases.

3.2.3.1. Indefinite NPs and negative attraction (133) and (134) are examples of negative attraction: the indefinite subject NP is negated. These utterances are unambiguous because the interpretation in which negation does not have scope over the indefinite NP (i.e. the NOT interpretation, in which the indefinite NP is referential) is improbable in the context of these utterances.

Negation

93

(133) en ken ε kan.. kapo ka ju ni? one person can cut=3sg NEG 2sg KNOW? 'Nobody can cut it down, you know.' (referring to a certain tree) [AH 210390:41] NOT: One person cannot cut it.' (134) en gutu mje ju ka one thing do 2sg NEG 'Nothing harms you.' [AH 210390:32] NOT: 'One thing doesn't harm you.' However, we do find cases where an indefinite NP in subject position is used referentially. This is the case in (131)b. above (an elicited example), and also in (135) below (an unelicited example), which shows that the indefinite subject en can be interpreted as being referential; that this is the correct interpretation is clear from the exchange which preceded this utterance. (135) en ma kareke ka one IRR suffice=lsg NEG 'One will not be enough for me.' [AT 190386:p8] In the following example, negative attraction applies to an indefinite object NP. Note that the negated NP in (136) is of considerable complexity. (136) at... ma ha en gut moi fu prusinti ju fortit ju muka lsg... IRR have one thing good for present 2sg before 2sg goNEG Ί ... will have nothing nice to give you before you go.' [AK 120788:p5] Ambiguity is not restricted to cases where subject NPs are concerned. (138) shows that (137) is potentially ambiguous between higher scope of the quantifier, as in (138), and scope of negation over the indefinite object NP en, as in (137). However, the interpretation where negation does not have scope over the quantifier surfaced only in elicitation. (137) eke sei ha en ka lsg self have one NEG Ί myself don't have any.' [BB 11068:20] (138) eke suk en ka, ek suk mere lsg want one NEG lsg want more Ί don't want just one, I want more.' [!AK 250190:p36] In (139), negative attraction applies to an indefinite NP which appears as a locative complement. In contrast, in (140) (an elicited example), the indefinite NP en pleke is not interpreted as being negated.

94 3. Structure of the clause (139) eni kum en pleke ka 3pl come one place NEG 'They come nowhere.' / 'They don't come anywhere.' [BB 120488:p3] NOT: 'They don't come to one place.' (140) at ma stup en plek alen ka 3sg IRR stop one place alone NEG Ί won't stop in one place only.' (but in different places) NOT: Ί will stop in no single place.' [!AK 050490:p39] The following example shows that attraction is not limited to one indefinite NP per sentence, a phenomenon sometimes referred to as multiple negation (not to be mistaken for negative spread): (141) contains two indefinite NPs, subject and object respectively, both of which are negated. (141) en kene pi eni en gutu ka, idri gut en hafu kop one person give 3pl one thing NEG every thing 3pl have-to buy 'Nobody gives them anything, everything they have to buy.' [BB 100788:p5] In the negative resultative, which serves specifically to assert that the event described by the matrix verb did not take place on the particular occasion referred to, negation has scope over the predicate and noko marks the left-edge of this domain: it appears immediately preceding the matrix verb. However, as with standard negation, a negative interpretation attaches to an indefinite NP in a larger domain than that marked by noko, viz. that of the sentence. Thus, the indefinite object NP in (142) is negated, and so is the indefinite subject NP in (143) below. As with indefinite NPs in standard negatives, there is potential ambiguity between a NEG-Q and a NEG-V interpretation, as shown in (143); these correspond to a. and b., respectively. The NEG-Q interpretation is the preferred one, as with standard negation. (142) or nok gui en gutu dang noko ka 3sg not=RESULT throw one thing there yet NEG 'He hasn't thrown anything down there yet.' [HH Iukuba2:p4] (143) en kene noko kum ka one person not=RESULT come NEG a. 'Nobody came.' b. 'One person didn't come.' [!AK 250190:p36, !BB 180290:p30] Similarly, in negative verb negatives, an indefinite NP also attracts negation, as for instance the subject NPs in the examples below. (144) en km mer furda ka one person more not-be=there NEG 'There is nobody else.' [AK 180190:25]

Negation

95

(145) en kene furda fi helpo ka one person not-be=there for help=3sg NEG 'There is nobody there to help him.' [BB 090488:pl]

3.2.3.2. Indefinite quantifiers and negative attraction BD quantifiers are: alma 'all', musu 'many, much', en 'one', enen [one-one] 'some', idri 'every', eni 'any', astwele 'too many, too much', and Λ ε/ε 'whole'. Not all of these are negatable: enen 'some' and eni 'any' are not attested in negative contexts. In this section, we will discuss the interpretation of negatable quantifiers in negative sentences. The quantifier alma 'all' in the subject position of a negative allows both the NEG-Q reading (in which negation has higher scope than the quantifier), and the NEG-V reading (in which the quantifier has higher scope than negation), as shown above (see example (132)). Similarly, while in (146) negation has scope over alma, in (147), the quantifier has higher scope. (147) is one of the few unelicited examples where negative attraction does not apply. (146) alma nok furkop noka all not=RESULT sell yet=NEG 'Not all have been sold yet.' [!AK 010390:pl2] (147) almek.. aka moi babnaya, in daserdc, all=lsg tooth good any more=NEG 3pl HAB=hurt=lsg so ek suka nun alma so lsg want-IPF pull all 'All my teeth are no good any more, they hurt me, so I want to have all extracted.' [AK 030688:p2] The following example, in which alma appears in object position (reduced to aim), suggests that negative attraction is obligatory in other than subject position: the NEG-Q reading ('you can eat some, but not all') is obligatory; the NEG-V reading, which would approximately mean 'you cannot eat any of it', is impossible. (148) ju kan jefi aim enkekd 2sg can eat all one=time=NEG 'You cannot eat all at once.' [AH 210390:4] Compare also the following example with (146) above: in the active construction below, alma appears in object position, and only one interpretation (viz. the NEG-Q interpretation) is possible, while in the passive construction (146), alma appears in subject position, and the utterance is ambiguous. In object position, negative attraction to alma is obligatory, while this is not the case if it appears in (passive) subject position.

96 3. Structure of the clause (149) eJc nok furkop alma noka lsg not=RESULT sell all yet=NEG Ί haven't sold them all yet.' (i.e. Ί have sold some, but not all') [!AK 010390:pl2] Negative attraction is obligatory for idri 'every': it does not allow the interpretation in which it is outside the scope of negation. (150) idri kene nokum ka every person not=RESULT=come NEG a. 'Not every person came.' (i.e. many came, but not all) b. *'Every person didn't come.' (i.e. nobody came) [!BB 180290:p30] In the following utterance, negation has higher scope than the quantifier hele 'whole'; however, I have no data to show that this interpretation is obligatory. (151) di hele plek nokrik di potoko minggi ka the whole place not=RESULT=get the mud water NEG 'Not the entire place got the muddy water.' [!AK 100390:p28] NOT: 'The entire place did not get the muddy water.' Although there is also potential ambiguity in the use of musu 'many, much', the difference between 'many did not come' and 'not many came' was not recognized by my informants. Some examples follow in which musu appears in non-subject position in a negated sentence; in both cases, negative attraction applies obligatorily. (152) dakta pante bi ο mo jefi musu sautu ka doctor tell-PF say 3sg must eat much salt NEG '(The) doctor said that she mustn't eat much salt.' [BB 260288:13] (153) enoiti furu fani[ i\ ha musu oboka 3pl=never steal from=lpl lpl have many hen=NEG 'They never stole from us, we don't have many hens.' [EK 050688:3,2] We may conclude this section by saying that negative attraction to indefinite quantifiers is favoured in subject position, though it is not obligatory; negative attraction appears to be virtually obligatory for indefinite quantifiers in object position.

3.2.4. Scope problems related to embedding There is potential ambiguity of scope of negation where embedding is involved. There are several types of complex structures which need to be examined in this respect: complement clauses, purposive constructions and serial verb constructions. Scope of negation over purposive constructions and serial verb constructions will be discussed

Negation

97

in the relevant chapters (11 and 13 respectively). In (154), which contains a complement clause, there is a potential problem in determining whether the negator is main clause negator or embedded clause negator: is a surface string of the form I know who drink NEG to be analysed as a. or b. below? (154) 1 know who drink NEG a. [ I know [ who drink ] NEG ] Ί don't know who drank it.' b. [ I know [ who drink NEG ] ] Ί know who didn't drink it.' As it turns out, surface strings of this kind are usually unambigous because of the presence of perfective aspect marking: as discussed in 3.1.2, a perfective verb form cannot appear within the scope of negation. Thus, in the following example, the matrix verb nimi 'acquire knowledge' appears without PF, while the embedded verb bu 'drink' appears with PF. Therefore, the matrix verb is within the scope of negation, while the embedded verb is not. (155) eke nimi wisa buto fama lsg KNOW who=FOCUS drink-PF = 3sg finish Ί don't know who emptied it.' [BB 160488:p5]

ka NEG

In (156) and (157) the reverse holds: the matrix verb carries PF, and is therefore outside the scope of negation; negation has scope over the embedded clause in these cases. Note that in both (156) and (157), the embedded clause is introduced by bi 'say', which subcategorizes for a full clause, i.e. a finite clause. We will see below that for non-finite complement clauses a different pattern holds. (156) eke ninte bi en ma kumorko ka lsg KNOW-PF say 3pl IRR come=tomorrow NEG Ί know they will not come tomorrow.' [!AK 250190:p35] (157) ο pantek bi ο kom ababaga 3sg tell-PF=lsg say 3sg come any more=NEG 'He told me that he isn't coming back any more.' [BB 86] From the incompatibility of PF with negation, it follows that ambiguity may arise only where both the matrix verb and the embedded verb do not carry PF aspect, and both can be interpreted as either negative or affirmative. Only stative verbs comply with these conditions, suku 'want' and Jen 'be' are such verbs. Informants'judgements on the following utterances indicate that there is an ambiguity in the use of the locative copula jen which is contained in an adverbial clause inside the complement clause of suku 'want': jen can either be interpreted as being negated or as not being negated; however, in either case, the matrix verb is within the scope of negation.

98

3. Structure of the clause

(158) eke suku lsg want Ί don't want (159) ek suk lsg want 4 I don't want

mu tito jenda ka go time=3sg be=there NEG to go when he is there.' [!AK 250190:p35] mu tidi man jenda wari ka go time=the man be=there house NEG to go when the boy is not at home.' [!AK 020490:p36]

The spontaneous utterances which inspired me to ask these questions were the following, recorded on different occasions but discussing the same topic with the same person. From the context of these utterances, it is clear that in the first one, both the main clause and the embedded clause are interpreted as being negated, which is not the case in the second one, where the speaker used GCE dasn to disambiguate the utterance: (160) a.

eke suku mu titi, ori jendsks lsg want go time 3sg be=there=NEG Ί don't want to go when he is not there.' [BB 110190:7] b. eke dasn poko mu titi enjalen jenda ka lsg NEGHAB like go time 3pl=alone be=there NEG Ί don't like to go when they alone are there.' [BB 150190:p4]

The negated interpretation (as in the a. example above) is more clearly expressed by use of the negative locative copula, as in (161). (161) eke suku mu tito fori ka lsg want go time=3sg not-be NEG Ί don't want to go when he is not there.' [!AK 250190:p35] Alternatively, the non-negated interpretation of (158) can be unambiguously expressed by moving the adverbial clause outside the domain of negation through extraposition: (162) eke suku mu ka tito jenda lsg want go NEG time=3sg be=there Ί don't want to go when he is there.' [!AK 250190:p35] Additional evidence that negation, in sentences in which a matrix verb is negated, also has scope over the embedded clause, comes from the use of indefinite NPs in embedded clauses: these get a negative interpretation, as do indefinite NPs in main clauses. Consider the following examples, in which the indefinite NP en pleke [one place] is contained within the complement clause of suku 'want'; in both cases, the referential!ty of the indefinite NP is negated.

Negation

99

(163) ek suk stup en plek ekalen ka lsg want stop one place lsg=alone NEG Ί don't want to stay anywhere by myself.' NOT: Ί don't want to stay in one place alone.' [!AK 050490:p39] (164) ο dasuk ig mu en pleka 3sg HAB=want lpl go one place=NEG 'He doesn't want us to go anywhere.' [HA 140788:p25] NOT: 'He doesn't want us to go to one place.' Another case in which a matrix verb does not appear with PF, is when it is preceded by an auxiliary verb which refers to unrealized events, such as mu 'must', kan 'can' (and related forms), and 'have' forms (see 3.1.2 αϊ auxiliary verbs). This then, is another case in which there may be ambiguity in the interpretation of negation. Thus, in the following example, the matrix verb bi 'say' is preceded by kan, which describes ability /possibility. Both the matrix verb bi and the embedded verb habu 'have' are negated. (165) man man 'The right

giri, ο kan bi ο habu ka stingy 3sg can say 3sg have NEG man is stingy, he cannot say he doesn't have.' (i.e. he does not have the to say he doesn't have) [AK 270190:p25]

Overt evidence that negative operators appear in the embedded clause comes from the co-occurrence of standard negation in the matrix clause with resultative negation in the embedded clause in the following example; there are no other such examples in my data: (166) eke ni hosiji noko kjant ka lsg KNOW how=lpl not=RESULT cant NEG Ί don't know how we didn't turn over.' (i.e. how this was prevented from happening) [BB 110788:11] Lastly, there is the following example of an embedded conjoined clause, where negation has scope both over the main clause and over one part of the conjoined constituent: (167) eke ni α J ju ma laki ar ju ma laki ka ju ninte, lsg KNOW if 2sg IRR laugh or 2sg IRR laugh NEG ägKNOW-IF bat da laki bere but BE laugh story Ί don't know if you will laugh or you will not laugh you know, but (it) is a funny story.' [HH Iukuba2:p5] Examples such as (167) and (166) must be assumed to contain two negators underlyingly, as shown here for (167):

100

3. Structure of the clause

(167)' [eke nimi [aji (ju ma laki ] ar (Ju ma laki ka ]] ka ] [lsg KNOW [if [2sg IRR laugh ] or [2sg IRR laugh NEG ]] NEG ] Still, only one negator surfaces. As shown below, two negators cannot surface adjacent to each other; nor can extraposition of an embedded negated clause result in the surface realization of two negators: (166)' lsg (160)' *eke lsg [!AK

ni hosili noko kjant ka ka KNOW how=lpl not=RESULT cant NEG NEG suku mu ka tito jenda ka want go NEG time=3sg be=there NEG 250190:p35]

We may conclude that although there is evidence that an embedded clause is within the scope of negation, there is no evidence that it can be within the scope of negation to the exclusion of the main clause, unless of course if the embedded clause is a tensed, subject-containing clause; examples of this type are embedded clauses introduced by complementizers bi 'say', as in (156) and (157), and dati 'that', as in (168), or by verbs such as bi(fi) 'say', nimi 'acquire knowledge', as in (169). Complement clauses are also discussed in chapter 11. (168) en bi dat ju mu jef.. aboko ka 3pl say that 2sg must eat fowl NEG 'They say that you mustn't eat chicken.' [AK 220290:p9] NOT: 'They don't say...' (169) eni bi di pleke danga, so moi ka 3pl say the place there so good NEG 'They say that place isn't very good.' [AH 210390:33] NOT: 'They don't say...'

3.2.5. Negative adverbs and other negative words BD has one negative adverb, viz. noiti 'never'. It is used with sentence-final negation and it appears immediately following the subject, i.e. it intervenes between the subject and the verbal complex. In the resultative construction, noiti precedes the negative resultative auxiliary complex, as in the following example. See also 3.3.2 (on temporal adverbs). (170) eke noit noko kikjo ka lsg never not=RESULT see=3sg NEG Ί have never seen it.' [AC 090488:10] The inherently negativeababa 'any more' appears in VP-final position. It is therefore immediately followed by ka(ne), with which it forms one phonological word, ababa

Negation 101 combines with any type of negation. The following is an example of negative verb negation. See 3.3.2 for further discussion. (171) ba didap dot:ε nau ju ni, en fori ababka but that-PL die-PF now 2sg KNOW 3pl not-be any more=NEG 'But those died out you know, they are not here any more.' [EK 05068:3,26] Other inherently negative words are neks 'nothing' (refers to possession) and nimdali 'gratis, without charge'. (172) eke habu (en) neks ka lsg have (one) nothing NEG Ί have nothing.' [!BB 120488:notes] (173) ο ma mja di gutu fi nimdali 3sg IRR make the thing for nothing 'He will do it free of charge.' [!AK 050490:p39] Last to be mentioned are some utterances in which sondro 'without' conveys a negative interpretation to its complement: a NP in (174), a clausal complement in (175) and (176). (174) ju kan kum sondro en gutu ka 2sg can come without one thing NEG 'You cannot come empty-handed.' (lit: without anything) [HA 180190:p3] (175) sondro ju plagjo mja ju en gut ka without 2sg trouble=3sg do 2sg one thing NEG 'As long as you don't trouble it, it won't do you anything.' [AK 050390:pl7] (176) keko wa ma mja andri gut, sondro.. kap di mabalen like=3sg PAST IRR do other thing without cut the honey=alone 'As if he was going to do something else besides just cut the honey.' [AK 050490:pl7]

3.3. Adverbs and adverbial clauses 3.3.1. Introduction In this chapter, adverbs and adverbial clauses (henceforth adverbs) of time, frequency, place, manner and degree will be discussed. Besides distinguishing adverbs on these semantic grounds, I will use a distinction based on scope properties: wide scope adverbs and narrow scope adverbs will be distinguished. Wide scope adverbs are those which take the entire sentence in their scope (also called sentence adverbs), while narrow scope adverbs have only the verb or verb phrase in their scope (see for instance

102

3. Structure of the clause

Givon 1984:77-79). The difference between wide scope and narrow scope adverbs is most clearly illustrated with certain time adverbs. Consider for instance the following contrast: langgi has wide scope in (177), i.e. it characterizes the time reference of the entire event, while in (178), it has narrow scope, i.e. it modifies the meaning of the verb by characterizing the duration of the activity described by the verb. (177) l:anggi eke drumto long lsg dream-PF=3sg Ά long time ago I dreamed of him.' [BB 230290:pl] (178) ..latopori, dekto mute minggjangga, tabuto dangga kvnggi lift=3sg take-PF=3sg go-PF water=LOC immerse-PF=3sg there long '(They) picked him up, carried him to the waterside, held him in the water there for a long time.' [BB 200290:pl3] Note that the different scope properties of langgi in (177) and (178) appear to correlate with different syntactic positions: langgi appears in initial position, preceding the subject, in (177), where it has wide scope, whereas it appears in VP-final position, following the verb, in (178), where it has narrow scope. (179) shows that langgi indeed appears in a VP-final position, not in absolute sentence-final position: the negator follows. (179) en bi a na lef langka 3pl say 3sg not live long=NEG 'They say he didn't live very long.' [AK 250190:44] In addition to the time adverb, a place adverb dangga 'there' appears in (178). Place adverbs can similarly be distinguished on the basis of their scope properties: place adverbs may characterize the location of the event (wide scope), or modify the meaning of the verb (narrow scope). Thus, in the following example, dangga is a subcategorized complement of mu 'go'. It appears in VP-final position, following the verb, as it does in (178). However, the place adverb in (178) characterizes the location of the event, while the place adverb in (180) modifies the meaning of the verb by characterizing the destination of the motion described by mu. (180) di man mute danga the man go-PF there 'The man went there.' [RT 280186:44] This difference is not reflected in different syntactic positions. Instead, the difference in scope for place adverbs such as dangga correlates with the optionality of their presence: an optional place adverb has wide scope, as in (178); a subcategorized complement has narrow scope, as in (180). This distinction is irrelevant to other types of adverbs, which are never subcategorized complements. In the following, we will discuss temporal adverbs, place adverbs, manner adverbs and degree adverbs in that order. In addition, we will pay some attention to conditional

Adverbs and adverbial clauses

103

clauses. Temporal adverbs will be divided into time and duration adverbs, frequency adverbs, and "order of events" adverbs.

3.3.2. Temporal adverbs

3.3.2.1. Time and duration The difference noted above for the use of langgi in initial or VP-final position can also be noted for some other adverbs. In the case of en mali 'one time', the VP-final position is even associated with an entirely different meaning: in initial position, where the adverb has wide scope, it defines a point in time at which the event took place, as in (181); in final position, where the adverb has narrow scope, it means 'at once, right away, immediately', as in (182) (mali is reduced to mal here). (181) en mali, ig wa korja... one time lpl PAST work-IPF... 'At one time, we were working...' [AK 080390:24] (182) ο krikte riki en mal 3sg get-PF rich one time 'She got rich all at once.' [EK Iukuba2:p5] Some adverbs which are restricted with regard to the positions they can appear in are somtiti 'sometimes', which always appears in initial position, as in (183), and stedi 'steady', which always appears in final position, as in (184). somtiti is a wide scope adverb, while stedi is a narrow scope adverb; their syntactic positions thus reflect this difference. (183) da somtiti ju hafd nunu wedri blarwap an... BE sometimes 2sg have-to pull wild leaf-PL and... '(It is the case that) sometimes you have to pull off wild leaves, and...' [RT 86] (184) da sosen blende stedi BE thus=3pl blind steady 'This is how they keep getting blind.' [AK 210788:13] However, we also find examples of adverbs which do not appear in positions concurrent with their scope properties. Thus, dunggru 'night' in (185) characterizes a point in time at which the state described held (wide scope), but we can also find dunggru as a wide scope adverb in final position as in (186). (185) dunggru A. wa jenda hiri night A. PAST be=there here 'At night A. was here.' [BB 210386:1]

104

3. Structure of the clause

(186) ο mute mu.. jagi dunggdr 3sg go-PF go hunt night 'He went to hunt at night.' [AK 080390:13] Similarly, andaka 'the other day', which, unlike langgi 'long (ago)' does not lend itself to a durational or non-punctual interpretation, can be found in different positions with the same scope interpretation. Consider the following examples: both describe a state of affairs which held at some point in time (wide scope), but that point in time is described by andaka in initial position in (187), in final position in (188). (187) andaka i\i wa habu boki other=day lpl PAST have money 'The other day we had money.' [BB 110788:14] (188) a wa liki lombd andaka 3sg PAST ill bad other=day 'He was very ill the other day.' [RT 280186:34] And a verb such as doto 'die', which does not appear with non-punctual adverbs, allows langgi in final position with a wide scope interpretation. (189) ο dot langka 3sg die-PF long=NEG 'She died not very long ago.' [AK 180190:5] All this suggests that the division which we made for temporal adverbs between wide scope/initial position and narrow scope/final position which we made on the basis of examples (177) and (178), needs considerable refinement. The data reveal an interplay of characteristics of verbs and adverbs: if a non-punctual verb is combined with a potentially non-punctual (durational or iterative) adverb, the initial division holds; however, if a non-punctual interpretation is ruled out, because of the nature of the verb, the adverb, or both, the division does not hold. Schematically:

Adverbs and adverbial clauses

105

Table 3.4. Scope properties of temporal adverbs Verb

Advert)

Position erf adverb

Scope

Examples

non-punctual

-non-punctual

-initial -final

wide narrow

(177) (178), (179), (184)

-punctual

initial/final

wide

(181), (185), (187) / (186), (188)

irrelevant

initial/final

wide

(29), (189)

punctual

The following examples also illustrate this. The time adverb nau 'now' is used in initial and final position, respectively. It appears in either position as a wide scope adverb, since it can never be interpreted as a (narrow scope) durational adverb.1 (190) wel, ek ni a\ nau en sa mja dida ka well lsg KNOW if now 3pl IRR make that NEG 'Well I don't know if nowadays they will do that.' [AK 080390:12] (191) ju glofte nau? eke bi jes eke glofte nau 2sg believe-PF now lsg say yes lsg believe-PF now 'You believe (it) now? I said yes, I believe (it) now.' [AH 210390:26] Below some examples of NPs in adverb positions: the adverb appears in initial position in (192), in final position in (193), and characterizes the time reference of the event/state of affairs in both cases (wide scope). Note that (193) is a negative, and that the negator follows the adverb, which again confirms that the 'final' position available to adverbs is a VP-final position. (192) ju ninte di.. tidang ϊς das justu kori... 2sg KNOW-PF the time=there lpl HAB PASTHAB work... 'You know in those times we would work...' [AK 120788:p2] (193) welig wa ha no nama di sem titi ka well=lpl PAST have no meat the same time NEG 'Well we didn't have any meat at the same time.' [AK 010390:13] Similarly, indefinite NPs which are used as adverbs also appear in initial as well as final position, as in the following examples.

106

3. Structure of the clause

(194) en sondak fruko sete one Sunday morning=3sg sit 'One Sunday morning he sat down.' [AK 080390:20] (195) a djas dekinte en, en, tapis stima tafh 3sg just take-in-PF one one afternoon=eh(?) steamer afternoon 'He just took in (ill) one afternoon, steamer afternoon.' [AK 180190:2] noiti 'never' appears in a VP-internal position in AK's speech, as shown in (196), where it intervenes between the PAST marker wa and the verb kopu 'buy'. Although noiti appears in a position between the subject and the verb in the speech of other informants, as in (197), there are no such utterances which contain preverbal particles; it is therefore impossible to ascertain whether this position is an idiosyncratic feature of AK's speech. (196) ix wa noiti hop, tei fan di \apap ka lpl PAST never buy tea from the shop-PL NEG 'We never bought tea fron the shops.' [AK 090388:p8] (197) ek noiti kik hawela kori bai \i sei lsg never see hoe work by 3poss self Ί have never seen a hoe working by itself!' [EK Iukuba2:p7] Similarly, AK uses alwes 'always' frequently, and it appears in the same position as noiti. Thus, in (198), it appears between the IRR marker ma and the verb suku 'want'. Other speakers hardly use alwes, and if they do, it appears in a position external to the VP, as in (199). (198) a\u prüf di gudi, ju ma alwesuko if=2sg taste the thing=this 2sg IRR always=want=3sg 'If you taste this stuff, you will always want it.' [AK 090388:p7] (199) alwes, di hari das jenda, bäja di toro always the hair HAB be=there cover-NOM the face 'The hair always covers the face.' [BB 290288:40] Temporal adverbial clauses are headed by titi 'time', and always have wide scope, i.e. they characterize the time reference few the event or state described. Although titiclauses usually appear in initial position, they can also be found in final position. Both position are exemplified below. (200) tit doto klupte so ο stil dots lahan alma di boki time death knock-PF so 3sg still die leave all the money 'When death knocked he still died leaving all the money.' [EK 080688:p20] (201) ο bi di ming k.auto tito borte da 3sg say the water cold=3sg time=3sg pass-PF there 'He said the water was cold when it passed there.' [AK 080390:7]

Adverbs and adverbial clauses

107

RT uses clauses headed by tutu as temporal adverbial clauses instead of ftVi-cIauses. These always appear initially, as in the following example, tutu is normally a preposition meaning 'until'; although tutu 'until' may take a complement clause, none of the other speakers uses tutu in this particular way: for other speakers, tutu is one of the prepositions which can be used to delimit temporal space; this will be discussed in section 3.3.2.3 below. (202) tuta wa lef α jus tu pameke... when=3sg PAST live 3sg PASTHAB tell=lsg... 'When he was alive he would tell me...' [RT 280186:28]

3.3.2.2. Frequency Frequency adverbs can be constructed by means of idri 'every'; these adverbs always have wide scope, and appear mostly in initial position. Two examples follow: in (203), idri daka 'every day' is used iteratively; in (204), idri titi 'every time' is used with durational interpretation. Note that it appears in focus position. (203) idri. daka nau mai, ma krik tukuma fd \i jefi every day now IRR IRR get palmworm for 3poss food 'Every day (she) would get palmworms to eat.' [AK 090388:p7] (204) da idri titsa ο das jenda ka BE every time=FOC 3sg HAB be=there NEG 'It isn't always available.' [AK 250488:p4] aftm 'often' is always used in VP-final position, as in (205). It is a narrow scope adverb; it cannot be used as a wide scope adverb (in contrast with its English cognate 'often'). (205) eke das timi β mu aftsn ka lsg HAB able for go often NEG Ί am unable to go often.' [RT 280186:57] Two more examples of the use of frequency adverbs follow: a wide scope adverb in initial position in (206), a narrow scope adverb in VP-final position in (207). The adverb in (206) is formed as Ν afta N\ dunggru afta dunggru 'night after night' is another example of this type of adverb. (206) titjaftiti da sos di gut, hapn met so time=after=time BE thus the thing happen with so 'Time after time this is how this thing happened with (him).' [AK 210788:9] (207) ο pamateke Ave maliju nirtte foro doto 3sg tell-PF=lsg two time 2sg KNOW-PF before=3sg die 'He told me twice you know, before he died.' [BB 200290:pl]

108

3. Structure of the clause

3.3.2.3. Order of events The prepositions fan 'from', tutu 'until', foro 'before', afta 'after' may take clausal complements with temporal reference; between them, they divide temporal space. The adverbials thus formed are narrow scope adverbials: they characterize the duration of the event/state of affairs described by the predicate. (208) and (209) illustrate use of temporal fan in initial and final position respectively. (208) fan tito bants ο no laki noho ka from time=3sg born-PF 3sg not laugh yet NEG 'From the time she was bom, she has not laughed yet.' [HH lukuba2 p.3] (209) mus fan en, dot: d fan titju mute many from 3pl die-PF from time=2sg go-PF 'Many of them died from the time you left.' [AK 180190:8] Temporal tutu is found in final position, as in the following example, and in initial position in a minority of cases. (210) so ek bi ekan pa\en tuten dot so lsg say 1 sg=can care=3pl until=3pl die 'So I said I can take care of them until they die.' [AK 290488:p4] foro is restricted to final position. AK uses foroteki 'before' in addition. While foro can also be used for spatial delimitation, foroteki is purely temporal. However, none of the other speakers knows foroteki, and its etymology is unknown; it appears to be an idiosyncratic form. Examples of both foro and foroteki (reduced to fortek) follow. (211) a

dot die for eke ban 3sg dead-PF before lsg born 'She died before I was bom.' [BB 110386:24] (212) gut masi jeftandi fan en, forteken krik mus thing must eat-PF=some from 3pl before=3pl get many 'Something must have eaten some of them, before they multiplied.' [AK 250190:18] Temporal afta is attested in initial position, as in the following example: (213) aftd pak, den ju kan.. kaJ di lek after come out then 2sg can shut the lake 'After (it) has come out, then you can shut the lake.' [AK 080390:5] Monomorphemic adverbs which mark the order of events are e\ti 'first', and den/dan/dana 'then, following that'. e\ti is a wide scope adverb in (214), where it takes the initial position and characterizes the temporal reference of the event. Compare this

Adverbs and adverbial clauses

109

to its use in final position in (215), where it has narrow scope, and characterizes the order in which objects are affected by the verb doto 'die'. (214) e\to dekto prufto, bute first=3sg take-PF=3sg taste-PF=3sg drink-PF 'First he took it (and) tasted it, drank (it).' [BB 200290:pll] (215) di bwa:, di en wati wa \iki, ori.. dotote e\ti the leg the one what PAST ill 3sg die-PF first "The leg, the one that was ill, it died first.' (i.e. it got numb) [BB 200290:p3] dm is used much more frequently than dan/daw, they all mean 'then, following that', but den is obviously a GCE form, while dana is more likely to be an "original" BD form, and dan a reduced form, dana is virtually restricted to BB. In the following example, BB uses both dan and dm. (216) tutu ο ri\i gu, dan ju ma dekjo were den Ju ma nidd until 3sg swell big then 2sg IRR take=3sg again then 2sg IRR knead(=3sg) 'Until it has risen well, then you take it again, then you knead it.' [BB 110386:37] In addition, AK uses fan dangga 'from there' with temporal reference; this is not done by other speakers, for whom it is only a place adverbial (see for instance (224) below). In the following example, fan dangga and den appear. (217) fan dangga nau, ο mja \i mama kap dB, dB ite bomapu, from there now 3sg make 3poss mother cut the the ite tree-PL an den idri däka nau... and thai every day now... 'From then onwards, she made her mother cut (the) the ite trees, and then every day ....' [AK 090388:p7]

3.3.2.4. Current relevance noko 'still' and ababa '(not) any more' are adverbs which indicate whether the event or state described is of current relevance or not. Their position is always VP-final. (218) and (219) exemplify the use of noko in an affirmative and in a negative utterance, respectively. In both cases, the speaker indicates that no change has come in a certain situation: in (218), no negative change, in (219), no positive change. Note that noko directly precedes the negator, and forms one phonological word with it in (219).

110

3. Structure of the clause

(218) a jenda wiruni noko, a lefa noko 3sg be=there Wiruni still 3sg live-IPF still 'He is still at Wiruni, he is still alive.' [RT 280186:34] (219) di tok mute tut fandako nok pak noka the child go-PF until today=3sg not=RESULT come out yet=NEG 'The child disappeared, until today it hasn't reappeared yet.' [AK 270190:7] ababa is inherently negative. It appears directly preceding the negator and usually forms one phonological word with it. ababa characterizes the event or state as one that is no longer relevant, or as one that no longer holds, as in the examples below. (220) ka:n mu danga\ikandi babaga cannot go there=side=side any more=NEG '(I) can't go over there any more.' [BC 120286:pl0] (221) ba didap dot:ε nau ju ni, en fori ababka but that-PL die-PF now 2sg KNOW 3pl not be any more=NEG 'But those died out you know, they are not here any more.' [EK 05068:3,26] BB is the only speaker who sometimes allows another adverbial to intervene between ababa and the negator: a place adverb in (222), a time adverb in (223). (222) so, eni gutu hap η ababa hiri ka so any thing happen any more here NEG 'So, nothing happens any more here.' [BB 290288:pl3] (223) ju ma kum ababa tit ju mute ka 2sg IRR come any more time 2sg go-PF NEG 'You won't come back any more when you leave.' [BB 90]

3.3.3. Place adverbs We will distinguish between subcategorized and non-subcategorized place adverbs in BD. As noted in the introduction, the first are necessarily narrow scope adverbs; the latter are usually, but not always, wide scope adverbs. Place adverbs appear in VPfinal position, whether optional or subcategorized.

3.3.3.1. Subcategorized place adverbs The two occurrences of fan dang in (224) are examples of directional complements with narrow scope: these adverbs modify the main verb by specifying the direction of the movement described by the verb. Note that the directional complement directly follows the verb. Obviously, dangga 'there' (reduced to dang) is not inherently directional in nature; it is its use with directional verbs (mu 'go', Jima 'move') and prepositions (fan 'from') which gives it a directional interpretation.

Adverbs and adverbial clauses

111

(224) hau langgi enok paka, enok mufan dang, how long 3pl=not=RESULT come out 3pl=not=RESULT go from there \ima fan dangka, alma fanen ma blende move from there=NEG all of=3pl IRR blind '(For) as long as (lit: how long) they don't come out, they don't go from there, move from there, all of them will get blind.' [AK 210788:12] Both mu and jima optionally subcategorize for a directional complement, i.e. they may also appear without a directional complement, as illustrated here for mu. (225) ekef, mute fi fangeni ang ba di en mute lsg(=f) go-PF for hold=3pl LOC but the one go-PF Ί went to grab hold of them, but the one disappeared.' [AH 010788:32] twa 'put' is an example of a verb which obligatorily subcategorizes for a theme and a location, which normally appear in that order. The location arguments in the following example are both postpositional phrases. Note that the second occurrence of the location argument appears in focus position. Again, the location arguments are not inherently locative. (226) ο twate en kurkur spek, di fini.. 3sg put-PF one black speck the fire laik fini ben ο twaten kal like fire inside 3sg put-PF=one small 'It put a black speck between the flames, as if black speck.' [AK 210788:9]

tosn, between kurkur spek black speck inside the flames it put a small

The locative copula jen / furi optionally subcategorize for a locative complement. The locative complement is a PP in (227), and appears in focus position. (227) wel, da metoriso wa jenda well, BE with=3sg=FOC = 3sg PAST be=there 'Well, (it) is with her (that) she was staying.' [BB 200290:p5] The following is an example of a locative free relative, headed by wangga 'where', which appears as the subcategorized complement of a directional verb. Note that adverbial clauses can also appear in the complement position of verbs which do not take place arguments. Free relatives are discussed in 12.2. (228) en das mu di, wang di pleke gu 3pl HAB go the where the place big 'They go to (the), where the place is wide.' [AK 290488:p5]

112

3. Structure of the clause

3.3.3.2. Optional place adverbs Place adverbs which are not subcategorized are usually, but not always, wide scope adverbs. The verbs skiti 'shoot' and habu 'have' for instance, do not subcategorize for a place adverb. The place adverb which appears in (229) has wide scope, i.e. it characterizes the location of the event. Similarly, the place adverb in (230) characterizes the location at which the state described holds. It directly precedes the negator. (229) di manjap wa skitc en wiruni ben dangz the man-PL PAST shoot-PF one Wiruni inside there 'The men shot one in the Wiruni creek there.' [AK 030688:pl8] (230) en kene ha snapan hir ka one person have gun here NEG 'Nobody has a gun here.' [BB 110190:11] But note that di pata bibjä in (231) is an optional place adverb with narrow scope: rather than specifying the location of the event, it modifies lasan 'leave' by specifying the location at which the children were left. (231) lasan di twe tokap nau di pata bibjä leave the two child-PL now the path mouth=LOC '(They) left the two children at the beginning of the path.' [AK 270190:1] Optional adverbial clauses may similarly have narrow scope, as in (232). (232) tok pitc en kap djes wanga di tibi la\tc hisa child give-PF one cut just where the head join-PF here=so mc di.. badi with the body '(My) son gave (it) a blow just where the head is joined with the body.' [AK 010390:17]

3.3.4. Manner adverbs Manner adverbs are always optional constituents of a sentence. They modify the verb in some way or other, and therefore fall into the class of narrow scope adverbs. BD has very few of them. The most general is so, as in the following example. It appears in VP-final position. (233) eni bi e das djas, deki gutu findi ju toro so? 3pl say 3pl HAB just take thing (for=)open 2sg eye so 'They say they just take something (to) open your eye like this.' [BB 110688:11]

Adverbs and adverbial clauses 113 soso always appears in focus position, as shown in the following examples. It is probably a frozen form of so with the enclitic focus particle sal so. Note that it is preceded by the particle so in (235); this particle is not to be confused with the manner adverb.2 (234) soso ju hafit mja thus 2sg have-to do 'This is what you have to do.' [AH 210390:30] (235) so da sosen das.. tandi an käja di gurma so BE thus=3pl HAB climb and pick-IPF the ochroe 'So this is how they climb (on land) and pick the ochroes' AK 080390:12 A rather idiomatic use of lombo is exemplified below; it is usually a degree adverb (see following section). (236) ο bin bola lombo 2sg PAST lie-IPF bad 'He was lying down in a bad way.' (viz. with his bottom up) [HA 020490:31] gau 'quick' modifies a verb of movement in the following example; its semantic opposite 'slow' does not exist in BD as a single lexical item. (237) ο nokrik t:iti /a tandi alandi ka, 3sg not=RESULT=get time for climb on land NEG djd hau di gut kumt so gau just how the thing come-PF so quick 'He didn't get the time to climb on land, because of how the thing came so very quickly.' [AK 080390:8] keke X [like X] constructions are used as adverbial manner expressions. (238) ju ma blaZ djas kek hoZu bla fa hizo 2sg IRR blow just like how=2sg blow-IPF here=so 'You will breathe just like how you are breathing here.' [AK 080390:18] (239) α (des timi fi mu kerki keke e fti ka,... if=lsg able for go church like first NEG... 'If I cannot go to church like before,...' [RT 280186:56]

3.3.5. Degree adverbs Like manner adverbs, degree adverbs have a close relation with seme other constituent; they are therefore always narrow scope adverbs. In the following examples, lombo and moi indicate the extent to which the situation described by the verb holds; they always appear in VP-final position.

114

3. Structure of the clause

(240) ο suwa kik ju lombo 3sg want-IPF see 2sg bad 'She wants to see you very badly.' [HA 050488:25] (241) or ninte di, ninte di lan\i moi 3sg KNOW-PF the KNOW-PF the language good 'He (knows the), knows the language well.' [AK 090388:p4] mere an mere 'more and more' characterizes a steady increase in the extent to which the situation described by the verb holds, as in the following example. It always appears in initial position. (242) mer an merdce toroko, mwa lombo more and more=lsg eye=too go-IPF bad 'More and more my eyes are also getting bad.' [BB 110688:14]

3.3.6. Conditionals Conditional clauses describe a condition which has to be fulfilled before the main clause event can take place. This entails an order in which events take place: that of the conditional clause before that of the main clause. The position of conditional clauses tends to reflect the chronological order: conditional clauses are usually initial. An example of a conditional clause, introduced by a\i 'if' follows. (243) ajen fente di bjaka oko en jefi di bjaka if=3pl find-PF the corn too 3pl eat the com 'Once they have found the corn they eat the corn too.' [RT 280186:12] Note PF on the verb fends 'find' in the conditional clause in (243), which clearly marks the fulfillment of the condition. This is however not necessary, as shown by the following example from the same text; note that these examples were extracted from one conversation, and that (244) actually preceded (243). (244) ajen fends di bjaka bruma en das nunu di blomki if=3pl find the com 'broom'-IPF 3pl HAB pull the flower 'If they find the com flowering, they pull out the flowers.' [RT 280186:11] (245) is an example of a conditional in final position. (245) en daskitjo, a\e krikja kandikandi ju ninte 3pl HAB=shoot=3sg if=3pl get-IPF side-side 2sg KNOW-PF 'They shoot it, if they get very close (to it) you know.' [AK 030688:pl8] GCE if is sometimes used instead of aji, as in the following example. Note again the PF cm doto 'die' in the conditional; the situation described here is very hypothetical:

Adverbs and adverbial clauses

115

the speaker refers to a custom which was maintained until about the turn of the century. (246) if kcne dot:ε fandaka hiri? alma fanen mute if person die-PF today here all from=3pl go-PF 'If somebody died here today, all of them would have left.' [HA 100390:5] As shown in (247), the fulfillment of a condition can also lead to a negative result. Or a condition can be stated in negative terms, as in (248). (247) wcl a j a pamen kenau dcn,jum,jukä krik di boka well if=2sg tell=one person=now then 2sg2sg can get the money=NEG 4 Well if you tell anybody, then (you), you cannot get the money.' [AK 050390:15] (248) ajeke timi β mu kerki.. keke e\ti ka, a ko kum hiri i f = l s g able for go church like first Ν EG 3sg come(?) come here 'If I am unable to go to church like before, he will come here.' [RT 280186:56] as is often used instead of a\i. Even though it could be a reduced form of afi, it is also possible that it represents the introduction of a GCE form. (249) is an example of its use. In this example, counterfactuality is marked by the use of a combination of PAST and PF marking. The speaker refers to an accident which could have taken place, but luckily didn't. The combination of PAST and PF marks Anterior normally (see 3.1.1.), but Anterior acquires a counterfactual interpretation in a conditional clause, as well as in a main clause modified by a counterfactual conditional clause. In the same way, PF may be marked in the conditional clause and in the main clause modified by such a conditional, without referring to a completed event. In (250) below, the effects of a disease are described in an obviously hypothetical context. (249) aso wa krikito hiri, ο wa bato doto if=3sg PAST get-PF=3sg here 3sg PAST kill-PF = 3sg dead 'If he had gotten it here, it would have killed him.' [BB 110788:24] (250) aju krikt, krikito keke fandaka, morko dunggru, judotote if=2sg get-PF get-PF = 3sg like today tomorrow night 2sg die-PF 'If you (got) got it for instance today, by tomorrow evening, you would be dead.' [BB 260288:34] The equivalent of a conditional is often expressed without the use of an overt conjunction. Thus, in (251), the initial part skitjo gaugau in fact describes a condition for the second proposition.

116

3. Structure of the clause

(251) skitjo gaugau ju ma bo shoot=3sg quick=quick 2sg IRR kill=3sg 'Shoot it quickly (and) you will kill it.' [AK 030688:pl8] All of the conditionals above could be expressed in this way, although the PAST + PF combination could not be used, since it would have to interpreted as Anterior tense, and the use of PF would give rise to ambiguity, as the following example, a mutilated form of (246), shows. An appropriate intonation, viz. rising intonation on the first proposition, as the speaker also employed in the original example, could help to indicate a causal relation between the two propositions. (246)' kene dot.e fandaka hiri, alma fanen mute person die-PF today here all from=3pl go-PF a. 'Somebody died here today, all of them have left.' b. 'If somebody died here today, all of them would have left.' Sentences introduced by a\i also appear as exclamations, as in (252). The presupposition of the exclamation is that 'if you had seen it' you would have been surprised, delighted or flabbergasted. (252) α Ja kiki fe\i, wato bringgite if=2sg see fish what=3sg bring-PF 'If you had seen (the amount of) fish that he brought!' [BB lukuba2:4]

Notes to Chapter 3 1. Note that most occurrences of nau do not represent temporal adverbial usage, but particle usage. In its function as a particle, nau is semantically empty; it appears on the right edge of constituents, as on the adverbs in (i) and on the object NP in (ii). (i) den tafnau, tito komo β dunggru nau, ju ninte... thai afternoon =now, time=3sg come for dark now, 2sg know-PF... 'Then in the afternoon, when it is getting on to evening, you know...' [AK 120788:p2] (ii) lasan di twe tokap nau di pata bibjä leave the two child-PL now the path mouth=LOC '(They) left the two children at the beginning of the path.' [AK 270190:1] 2. Frequently, so occurs not as a manner adverb, but as a sentence introducing particle, much like English 'so' in this position. An example follows: (i) so ek bi ekan pa\en tuten dot so lsg say lsg=can care=3pl until=3pl die 'So I said I can take care of them until they die,' [AK 290488:p4]

4. Copular sentences

4.1. Introduction In this chapter, we will examine copular constructions, and other constructions which have copular meaning. The distinctions which are made are listed in Table 4.1.

Table 4.1. Copular constructions Basic distinctions: equation/attribution of nominals

da

presentation

da

location/existence

neutral Jen negative furi

Other ways of expressing copular meaning: existence

ha(bu) 'have'

copular verbs

sets 'stay* drai 'turn' kriki 'get'

probability/possibility

mu(ti) 'must' masi 'must' (hafii/fl 'have to')

Basically, BD follows the three-way distinction between nominal predicates (equation/attribution), locative/existential predicates and adjectival predicates, which creolists have noted for other Creole languages. Those who assume the existence of a

118

4. Copular sentences

class of adjectives in Creole languages, sometimes also assume the existence of a "zero" copula for adjectives. For instance, the utterance in (1) would have an underlying abstract copula, represented here as 0. Although I believe that a class of adjectives exists in BD, and that these appear as adjectives in predicative position (see 8.2), I will not assume that there is a need to postulate an abstract copula without phonetic content. Therefore, adjectival predicates will not be discussed here. (1)

idri gu wato das mja, watjapo das mja, [0] bam every thing what=3sg HAB make, what-PL=3sg HAB make, nice 'Everything that he makes, whatever he makes, is nice.' [AK 120788:p5]

In the following, we will first discuss "real" copular predication (i.e. equation/attribution and location/existence), including the properties of these predicates with respect to TMA-marking, negation, and extraction. We will then examine presentation, copular verbs, and the category of probability/possibility.

4.2. Copular predication 4.2.1. Equative and attributive copular constructions The equative/attributive copula da indicates a relation between a subject nominal and a predicate nominal. If the relation is one of absolute identity, it may be referred to as equation. If the relation is one in which the nominal predicate attributes some property to the subject, it may be referred to as attributive equation. The distinction is illustrated by the contrast between (2), whore da expresses equation, and (3), where da expresses attribution. In the following, examples of equation and attribution will be used to illustrate properties of da without differentiation. I will refer to both uses as equative use. (2)

(3)

ο bi ju da di sem jerma 3sg say 2sg be the same woman 'He said: you are the same woman.' [AK 030688:pl3] eke da boko jerma lsg be Amerindian woman Ί am an Amerindian woman.' [BB 110386:21]

The examples below show that the equative copula is invariant for numb«-: singular nouns are equated in (4), plural nouns in (5). (4)

dd hatbej da di boje the bushdeer be the bush-NOM 'The bushdeer is the bushtype (among deer).' [AK 090388:p2]

Copular predication 119 (5)

on \L. awawap da mosli, kurkuru, kurkur kenap 3sg 3poss grandfather-PL be mostly black black person-PL 'Her grandparents are mostly black, black people/ [AK 280288:p2]

Complex NPs, free relatives, names, and PPs may be related by use of da. Thus, in (6), the predicate is a complex NP. Note that the particle which marks PAST precedes the equative copula. (6)

di wa da en man ha \i jerma this PAST be one man have 3poss woman 'This was a man (who) had his wife.' (i.e. 'This was a man who was married') [EK lukuba2:pl]

In (7), the subject is a free relative, the predicate a place name; in (8), the predicate is a free relative. (7) (8)

wang Hilda lefa da Baramuru where Hilda live-IPF be Baramuru 'Where Hilda lives is Baramuru.' [BC 86] di bom da wa di papa brekte, tito kuma the tree be what the father break-PF time=3sg come-IPF 'The tree is what the father broke off, when he came.' [AK 030688:pl5]

PPs are treated as nominals: in (9) and (10), prepositional phrases headed by afta 'after' and fan 'from' respectively, are predicated of the equative copula. (9)

(10)

dondaka da., afta morko Thursday be after tomorrow 'Thursday is after tomorrow.' [BB 200290:p4] dida da van dat\ man titi di gutu jwdd da that be from Dutch man time the thing be=there there 'That is from Dutch men time (that) the thing is there.' [AC 260288:22]

There are also some examples in my data of infinitival fu/fi clauses and one of an infinitival clause without an overt complementizer which are predicated of the equative copula. Infinitivais are also treated as nominals in this respect. (11)

(12)

so nau dida da Φϊhau di, so now that be for keep the di bato foro fan., paka di minggi ben the boat front from come-out the water inside 'So that is to keep the boat from coming out into the water.' [AK 290488:p4] wangek mu da djas mu kori, di birbil bofu, fi.ru where=lsg go be just go work the Berbice top far 'Where I went was just to work upriver, far.' [AK 290488:p4]

120

4. Copular sentences

The following is a case where the predicate itself contains a small clause; I have found no other similar examples. (13)

igi wa da en balahu fold 2pl PAST be one punt full 'We were a punt full.' (i.e. we were so many that we filled a punt) [BB 290288:60]

Cardinal and ordinal numerals are also treated as nominals, as shown here: (14)

(15)

tigri da e\ti tiger be first Tiger was first.' [AC 120488:31] alma fan en da en all of 3pl be one 'All of them are one.' (i.e. all of them belong to one family) [HH 060588:2,6]

We often encounter encliticization of the equative copula da onto the subject demonstrative pronoun, forming dida, as in (17). In the following example, the form dida appears twice: the first time with a nominal predicate, the second time with an adjectival predicate. BD distinguishes the deictic forms di 'this' and dida 'that'; encliticization of da onto these yields dida in both cases. Since the two occurrences in (16) obviously have the same reference, and since the second occurrence of dida cannot be analyzed as *di=da (adjectival predicates do not appear with a copula), we may assume that the form dida 'that' is involved here. (This analysis is in line with other BD cliticization facts; see 9.4 for a discussion.) (16)

widobi\ir dida di widobijiri dida=da di savannahdeer that=be the 'The savannahdeer, that one 090388:p2]

kalkal sut nau dida mer, mer kokrd kali-kali sutu nau dida mere mere kukuu small-small type now that more more black is the small type, that one is blacker.' [AK

4.2.2. Location / existence Here, we need to distinguish two forms: the negative copula furi and the copula which is neutral with respect to negation jen. Both are often, but not always, followed by a dummy complement da 'there'. This dummy complement is optional, except where a verbal complement follows jen. If furi is followed by da it appears as furda or forda (see 9.2 on u - ο allophony), if jen is followed by da it appears as jenda. Note that da 'there' is only rarely used independently, i.e. as an adverb independent of jen or furi; its independent use is virtually restricted to AK. An example follows.

Copular predication 121 (17)

weJ dida nau, di minggi.. haws da langgi well that now, the water keep-IPF there long 'Well that one, the water was keeping (it) there for a long time.' [AK 010390:9]

Whereas independently used da is locative, dummy da appears both in locative and in existential predication. The use of the dummy complement is independent of the appearance of a real complement, whether locative or existential. Thus, in the following examples, jenda appears with a locative complement in (18), and without a complement in (19). Both are examples of locative use. (18)

(19)

a jenda wiruni noko 3sg be=there Wiruni still 'He is still at Wiruni.' [RT 280186:34] wel ori masi korija nau, masi mja di mama jenda nokd well 3sg must work-IPF now must make the mother be=there still 'Well he must be working now, must be because of this that the mother is still (there).' [BB 110190:6]

In contrast, in the following example, a reduced form je appears, with neither a real complement, nor a dummy complement. The relative frequency of forms with and without the dummy complement da is different for different speakers: AK tends to use short forms more than other speakers do; this is also reflected in the fact that he uses jen (or an even more reduced form je, as in (20)) relatively often. (20)

ix pote kenap bi dato jus je lpl old person-PL say that=3sg PASTHAB be 'Our old folks said that it used to be/exist (in this area).' [AK 040488:p3]

The types of complements that jen and fiiri will be discussed separately for location and existence. Since locative predicates appear more often in spontaneous language use, there are more data on locative use.

4.2.2.1. Location In this section, the use of jen/jenda and furilfurda with location complements is illustrated. The location complement is a NP complement in (21), an adverbial complement in (22)-(23). (21)

(22)

lorn ken jendd idri pleke bad person be=there every place 'Bad people are everywhere.* [AK 180190:5] dunggru A wa jenda hiri night A. PAST be=there here 'At night A. was here.' [BB 210386:1]

122

4. Copular sentences

(23)

ο wa furda faru ka 3sg PAST not-be=there far NEG 'He wasn't very far.' [!AK 270190:p29]

In (24), a PP complement to jenda appears in focus position. A postpositional phrase is the complement of jen in (25); the locative predicate is contained in a free relative in (25). (24)

(25)

wel, da metoriso wa jenda, well BE with=3sg=FOC=3sg PAST be=there afto pakate fait. di hospital? after=3sg come-out from the hospital 'Well, (it) is with her she was staying after she came out of the hospital.' [BB 200290:p5] ο sukwa lu was jen di 'canister' ben 3sg want-IPF look what=FOC be the box inside 'He wanted to look at what was inside the box.' [EK Iukuba2:pl0]

Examples of use of jenda and furda without a complement follows. (26)

(27)

ken jenda bato no kiki kene person be=there but=3sg not see person 'There are people there but she doesn't see them.' [EK Iukuba2:p2] en das haben plek wanggen jenda, 3pl HAB have=3pl place where=3pl be-there bat nau en fords babaka but now 3pl not-be=there any more=NEG 'They used to have their place where they would stay, but now they are no longer there.' [AK 040488:p3]

Affirmative contexts predominate; as a result, there are many more instances of use of jen/jenda than of furi/furda. In addition, negative utterances are not the exclusive domain of furi: because jen is neutral with respect to negation, it can also be used in negative contexts, as in (28)-(29). For some speakers,ye« may be more frequent than furi in negative contexts; this is the case few AC. (28)

(29)

no, ο jenda mete di man ka no, 3sg be=there with the man NEG 'No, she isn't with her husband.' [BB 230288:28] baten ben dasn jenda minggi ondro ka ju ninte but=3pl say=3pl NEGHAB be=there water under NEG 2sg KNOW-PF 'But they say they don't live under water you know.' [BB 290288:44]

Besides nominal, adjectival and PP complements, jm may take verbal complements which describe what the subject is doing or experiencing. Thus, in (30), the subject NP

Copular predication 123 'he and his wife' is also the agent of 'spearing fish'. Similarly, in (31), 'you' is the agent of 'pulling'. In all of the examples of this construction, the form jenda appears, which suggests that the use of the dummy complement seems to be obligatory in this construction. Note also that in (30) and (31), IPF aspect appears on the verbal complement. This is the case for all unequivocal instances of this construction, and this may also be considered obligatory. (30)

(31)

di man bi ori me \i jerma jenda, kapwa fej the man say 3sg with 3poss woman be=there cut-IPF fish 'The man said he and his wife were (there) spearing fish.' [BB 090488:p3] hau lang di lag nox la mingkandi ka, or di timba, how long the log not=RESULT reach water=side NEG or the timber ju jwda, nuna.. tut ju la mingkan 2sg be=there pull-IPF until 2sg reach water=side 'For how long the log hasn't gotten to the waterside, or the timber, you are pulling until you get to the waterside.' [AK 120788:p2]

The negative copula cannot take verbal complements: (32)

en jenda korja / *eni furda kori ka 3pl be=there work-IPF / 3pl not-be=there work NEG 'They are (there) working.' / "They are not (there) working.' [!AK 290390:pl3]

A locative complement may appear between jenda and the verbal complement, as in (33). The locative complement is the site of the activity described by the verbal complement. (33)

ο habu en sosro jenda.. Georgetown korjd 3sg have one sister be=there Georgetown work-IPF 'She has a sister (who) is in Georgetown, working.' [BB 200290:p5j

From judgements on this construction, it appears that there is a clear locative interpretation, even if there is no locative complement. Thus for instance, AK accepted the following utterance, on condition that 'he is at home waking'. (34)

ο jenda naja di blaru 3sg be=there sew-IPF the leaf 'He is sewing the leaves.' [!AK 220190:p23]

There is one example in my data which is not agentive: in (35), the speaker describes a special property of the hair of waterpeople, viz. that it is long and always covers the face.

124

4. Copular sentences

(35)

alwes, di hari das jenda, bäja di toro always the hair HAB be=there cover-NOM the face 'The hair is always (there) covering the face.' [BB 290288:40]

The following example is of special interest, since the subject dida 'that' is the theme NP of riper 'repair', in other words: jenda introduces a process passive in (36). (36)

keke dida kom kan, masi jenda ripera like that come NEG must be=there repair-IPF 'As if that one isn't coming. (It) must be under repair.' [BB 110788:2]

4.2.2.2. Existence Existential predication may merely assert existence, but, more usually, either describes what state the subject is in, or describes in what quantity the subject exists. An example of existential predication which refers to state are the standard formulae which are used in answer to the question 'how are you?'. The a. version is that of Berbice River speakers, the b. version is that of Wiruni Creek speakers. (37)

hoso mete ju? how with 2sg? 'How are you?' a. eke jenda moi lsg be=there good 'I am all right.'

b.

ate jenda bekso baren lsg be=there little=so all-right Ί am doing reasonably well.'

The two versions in (37) show that existential jenda may take complements which describe the state the subject is in. This is also illustrated in the following examples. (38)

(39)

ο fori moi ka 3sg not-be good NEG 'It isn't nicely done.' (referring to hair style) [HA 140788:p25] ο jenda moimoi nau, kikja 3sg be-there good-good now see-IPF 'She is all right now, seeing (again).' [BB 110688:36]

Examples of existential predication without a complement follow. Of these, (41) is ambiguous between an existential interpretation and a locative interpretation: the context is one in which the speaker hasn't heard mention of 'those' for a long time; that they died out is inferred from this fact. Both a locative and an existential interpretation are compatible with this.

Copular predication 125 (40)

(41)

helpu forda ka help not-be=there NEG 'There was no help.' [AK 220290:pl4] ba didap dot: ε nau ju rti, en fori ababka but that-PL die-PF now 2sg KNOW 3pl not-be any more=NEG 'But those died out you know, they are not here any more / they don't exist any more.' [EK 05068:3,26]

The examples (37)-(39) almost suggest a distinction between adjectival predication and existential predication along the lines of attribution of inherent and temporary aspects. Thus, the foregoing examples in which moi appeared as a complement to the existential copula can be argued to describe temporary states—as in (37) and (38)—or a newly developed state—in the case of (39)—whereas the following example of adjectival predication refers to inherent qualities of certain beings. (42)

and9 fan eni lombo bat ens, merz fan eni moi some of 3pl bad but 3pl more of 3pl good 'Some of them are bad, but (they), the majority of them are good.' [AC 260288:12]

There are two arguments against such an analysis: the existential copula takes an adverbial complement, not an adjectival complement. This can be shown by the fact that adjectives such as pots 'old' and \iki 'ill' are excluded from this position, as in (43), whereas an adverb such as beki may appear there, as in (37) above. The moi that appears in (37)-(39) must therefore be assumed to be the adverb moi, not the adjective. Also, although the states described with the use of the existential copula are temporary, it is not the case that adjectival attribution always refers to inherent or non-temporaiy properties. The unacceptability of Jiki in (43) is an example of a supposedly temporary state which cannot be expressed by use of existential predication. Instead ο \iki (i.e. adjectival predication) has to be used. (43)

a. *o jmda pots 3sg be=there old attempted reading: 'He is old.' [!AK 050490:p34] b. *o jmda \iki 3sg be=there ill attempted reading: 'She is ill.' [!AK 260290:pl4]

Besides a small class of adverbs, quantifiers may also appear as complements to the existential copula, describing the quantity in which something exists. Note that (44) contains a locative complement ('everywhere') as well as an existential complement ('many'). (45) exemplifies both the use of the negative copula and the neutral one with a quantifier complement.

126

4. Copular sentences

(44)

wariap jenda musu alabot house-PL be=there many all about 'There are many houses everywhere.' [AK 280288:p2] ο fur musu rtau ka, ο Jenda enen 3sg not-be many now NEG 3sg be=there one-one 'There isn't a lot of it now, just a few.' [AK 030688:pl9]

(45)

4.2.3. TMA marking Compare the BD paradigm below with that of English for instance. Whereas in past tense contexts, the past tense marker may appear preceding the equative copula, no other TMA markers may accompany it, including the IRR marker in its future tense use (as in English 'will be'); future reference is expressed not by use of the equative copula, but by use of copular verbs. In contrast, the locative/existential copula may be preceded by habitual and irrealis markers as well as the past tense marker. None of the copular forms allow aspectual suffixation.

Table 4.2. TMA distinctions jen

da

furi

loc.

exist.

loc.

exist.

+

+

+

+

+

was

IRR ma

-

+

+

+

+

will be

IRR sa

-

+

+

+

+

will be

HAB das/dasn

-

+

-

?

-

usually is

PASTHAB justu

-

+

-

?

-

usually was

PF-te

-

-

-

-

-

has been

IPF-are

-

-

-

-

-

is being

PAST wa

Copular predication

127

An example of the use of the past tense marker preceding the equative copula follows. Examples of particles preceding the existential copula are found in the foregoing sections: (22) and (24) are examples of PAST preceding the neutral form, (23) is an example of PAST preceding the negative form. (46)

di Λε/ε pleks matara danga? wa da kofi the whole place Matara there PAST be coffee 'The whole place at Matara over there was (planted with) coffee.' [BB 290288:2]

We have come across one instance of PASTHAB preceding jw in (20), and one of HAB preceding the jmda in (35). We encountered the negative form of the HAB marker, which is referred to as NEGHAB, preceding jsnda in (29). Note however that these are all locative examples, and that the existential use ofJen does not take habitual markers. The various habitual markers are not attested with the negative form furi, hence the questionmarks in table 4.2. An example of IRR with locative jsnda, and an elicited example with locative fiirda follow, sa in this position is not attested in spontaneous speech, but it was accepted by BB, as in (48) (47)

(48)

ek ni hau lang ju ma jenda hisa ka lsg KNOW how long 2sg IRR be=there here=so NEG Ί don't know how long you will be here for.' [AK 280288:p5] ο ma I sa furda wan morko 3sg IRR / IRR not-be=there house tomorrow 'She won't be home tomorrow.' [!BB 260290:p7]

4.2.4. Negation There are no negative equatives in my data, and very few negative attributive equatives. The following are examples of negative attributive equatives. Various examples of negative locatives and existentials are included in the foregoing sections. Note that furi often appears without the sentence-final negator ka(ne): this may well be due to attrition of the negation system (see 3.2). (49)

(50)

dida blaru ka, di \ap wa da blaru that=be leaf NEG the shop PAST be leaf 'That one isn't leaves (i.e. that house doesn't have a thatched roof), the shop is leaves.' [BB 150190:40] eni da dat\ kenap ka, da arwakenapu 3pl be Dutch person-PL NEG be Arawak=person-PL 'They are not Dutch people, (they) are Arawak people.' [BB 260288:30]

There is one case of locative predication which is incompatible with negation, viz. when jen takes a verbal complement. Not only is it the case that furi cannot take a

128

4. Copular sentences

verbal complement, but neither can this contraction be negated: thus, the negative counterpart of (32) would be as in c., not as in b. (32)' a. eni jenda korja 3pl be=there work-IPF 'They are (there) working.' b. *eni jenda korja ka 3pl be=there work-IPF NEG c. eni kori ka 3pl work NEG 'They don't woik' / 'They are not working.'

4.2.5. Extraction At first sight, extraction erf a predicate nominal through wh-movement or focus is not allowed, as shown in (51)' and (51)". (51)

di man \i toko da en jerma the man 3poss child be one woman 'The man's child is a girl.' [EK lukuba2:pl] (51)' *wati di man \i toko da? what the man 3poss child is 'What is the man's child?' (51)" *da en jermasa di man \i toko da BE one woman=FOC the man 3poss child be 'It is a girl that the man's child is.' However, we find examples in which the subject and the predicate nominal appear in "reversed" order. Thus, (52) can be derived from (52)', where dida appears in subject position. (52)

da eke e)ti-ejti mantoko dida BE lsg first-first man=child that 'My very first son, that one.' [HH 060588:2,11] (52)' dida eke e\ti-e\ti mantoko that=be lsg first-first man=child 'That is my very first son.' In 14.2.7, I argue that the initial da in (52) is the focus marker. I assume that the equative copula da allows focus-extraction of the predicate nominal, but that this results in "suppression" of the copula. The following filter applies to the "stranded" copula: (53)

*da /

#

Copular predication

129

Wh-extraction of the nominal predicate is also possible, but restricted to the almost idiomatic constructions of (54)a. and b., whereas c., in which a +human predicate is questioned is not acceptable; a presentational construction can be used instead, as in d. (see 4.3 below). (54)

a. da wi gutu di? BE who thing this? 'Whose is this?' c. *da wi ori? BE who 3sg? 'Who is he?'

b. da wati dida? BE what that? 'What is that?' d. da wi? BE who? 'Who is it?'

Let us now consider extraction from the complement of jen. In the following interrogatives, wh-movement of the locative complement has applied; the copula appears in (55), but not in (56). (55)

(56)

wanggaso jenda? where=FOC=3sg be=there? 'Where is she?' [BB 86] man bi, wangga di namblo? man say where the horse 'The man said: where is the horse?' [HH lukubal:p8]

jen has not been omitted in (56) by mistake: extraction of the complement optionally results in suppression of the copula. Thus, there are two ways to ask 'where is the person?', as shown below. (57)

a. wangsa di kene jenda? where=FOC the person be=there b. wangga di kene? where the person 'Where (is) the person?' [!AK 050390:p21]

jen cannot be suppressed if the subject is pronominal, unless it is given emphatic stress, as in the a. example below; the short form ο is unacceptable in this position. (58)

a. wang ori? b. *wangga o? where 3sg 'Where (is) he?' [!AK 050390:p21]

That suppression of the locative copula is restricted to wh-movement is shown by the contrast between (59) and (60) below: in (59), the locative complement of jenda is questioned and jenda is optionally suppressed. However, in (60), focus of the locative complement of jenda cannot result in suppression of the copula.

130

4. Copular sentences

(59)

wangga Ji wari (jenda)? where 3poss house be=there 'Where (is) his house?' [!BB 030390:p7-8] da wiruni\i di wari *(jenda) BE Wiruni=side the house be=there "The house is at Wiruni.' [!BB 070390:pl4]

(60)

Suppression of the copula is favoured when the questioned constituent gains in complexity. (61)

a. wangga di where the 'Where (is) the b. wangga di where the 'Where (is) the [!BB 030390:p8]

hautu fu mja di wari wood for make the house wood to build the house?' hautwap wati ju bringte wood-PL what 3sg bring-PF wood that you brought?'

Alternatively, the relative clause may be moved to extraposed position, in which case it follows the locative copula; this has applied in (62). (62)

wangga di haut je was ju suka ek bringgi ft ju where the wood be what=FOC 2sg want-IPF lsg bring fcr2sg 'Where is the wood that you want me to bring for you?' [!AK 050390:p21]

The contrast between the following examples seems to suggest that the existential copula behaves similarly to the locative copula with respect to extraction of a whphrase from its complement position: jenda appears in (63), where, if it were suppressed, a short subject pronoun would be exposed; as shown in (58) above, this is impossible. In (64), the subject is a conjoined NP, and no copula appears. However, interrogative existentials are much less frequent than interrogative locatives, and the few examples I have do not form a sufficient basis for conclusions. (63)

(64)

eke ma fragi A. hoso jenda lsg IRR ask A. how=3sg be=there Ί will ask Arnold what state it is in.' (lit. how it is) [BB 260288:47] ho\u mamet jd papa moi? how=2sg mother=with 2sg father good? 'How (are) your mother and your father, all right?' [HA 050488:30]

Note that the BD facts with regard to suppression of the copula are virtually the opposite of those of the Indian Ocean French Creole languages: there, the copula is overt when it is "exposed" clause-finally as the result of the application of movementrules (Come 1980), whereas in BD, obligatory (equative copula) or optional suppression (locative/existential copula) results in that case.

Presentation 131

4.3. Presentation Presentational constructions consist of da followed by some constituent. This construction is not to be mistaken for the focus construction. The differences are the following: 1. Focus moves a constituent in a sentence to focus position; presentation is never followed by a sentence. 2. Focus may or may not be introduced by focus da in combination with focus particle sa; presentational use of da cannot appear with sa. 3. Focus does not apply to adjectives, whereas presentation may apply to adjectives. (65) and (66) exemplify presentation of constituents which cannot be focussed: a verb modified by an adverbial in (65), and an adjective in (66).

(65)

da ho:,

hele

daka

doko

BE who(le) whole day paddle '(It) is (as far as) a whole day paddling.' [BB 110386:14]

(66)

eJc

ni

a\

da

waro

ka

lsg KNOW if BE true NEG Ί don't know if (it) is true.' [AK 280288:p3] (67) is an example of presentation of an adverbial in the form of a negated postpositional phrase, da is preceded by the PAST particle bin, which is interpreted as counterfactual because the construction is a conditional, introduced by if.

(67)

if

bin

da

mingi bofu ka,

somta

wa

sa ku

ini

if PAST BE water top NEG sometimes PAST IRR catch 3pl 'If (it) hadn't been on the water, perhaps (it) would have caught them.' [HA 020490:17] In (68), a purposive /«-clause is the presented constituent, while it is a deverbal noun in (69).

(68) (69)

no

mut

mu.. bital,

da

fd bital ju

ninte

and=3sg go-PF go pay BE for pay 2sg KNOW-PF 'And he went to pay, (it) is to pay you know.' [AK 050390:2]

eni bi

ο

kan koki

moi

bat, da

di

furu

3pl say 3sg can cook good but BE the steal 'They say she can cook well but, (it) is the stealing.' [BB 180290:pll] Presentation may be used as a device for constructing unspecified interrogatives, as in the following cases: these interrogatives cannot be used to question the identity of specific objects or persons.

132

4. Copular sentences

(70)

tigri, two, beri an bi da wati? tiger put ear and say BE what 'Tiger pricked up his ears and said: what is (it)?' [AC 120488:39] ek nin da wasz kend bat,... lsg KNOW BE what=sort person but... Ί (don't) know what sort of person (it) is, but...' [AK 080390:14]

(71)

The question is whether presentational da has properties of a copula, or whether it is a grammatical morpheme or particle, lacking such properties. An indication of noncopular status is the fact that a lexical subject is disallowed in this construction. Thus, (72) is acceptable if the subject is interpreted referentially, as the subject of an equative, but unacceptable if the subject is to be interpreted as a non-referential expletive. On the other hand, da appears with PAST and with negation in (67). Nonverbal elements cannot take tense marking, and constituent negation is impossible in BD (see 3.2); this is indicative of its verbal status. (72)

da... 3sg BE... 'It is...'

4.4. Other ways of expressing copular meaning 4.4.1. Copular verbs In 4.2, we noted that the equative copula cannot be modified by the IRR markers. To express more or less the equivalent of prospective equation, BD uses copular verbs drai (lit. 'turn') and kriki (lit. 'get'). Note that the latter may represent a caique on GCE use of 'get'. Nor can the equative copula be modified by aspectual markers. Again, to express "developing equation" or the completion of that process, the copular verbs drai and kriki may be used. Of these, only drai may take nominal complements, whereas kriki is restricted to adjectival complements. An example of drai followed by a nominal complement follows. (73)

en kriki toko, kriki toko tuten.. draite weldri kenap 3pl get child get child until=3pl turn-PF wild person-PL 'And they got children, got children, until they became wild people.' [BB 200290:pl2]

(74) and (75) are examples of drai and kriki with adjectival complements.

Other ways of expressing copular meaning 133 (74)

(75)

ο ma drai moi wer, an draki moi 3sg IRR tum good again and bear good 'It will become good again, and bear well.' (referring to a fruittree) [AK 250488:p2] man krilg'a drunggu nau man get-IPF drunk now '(The) man is getting drunk.' [AH 010788:27]

sets, lit. 'stay', is used in BD to mean approximately 'be in a (certain) state, look like'. An interrogative example follows. (76)

eke djas wa suka si, nimi dip, kiki di pieke lsg just PAST want-IPF see KNOW the=p(lace) see the place hos di pleke sete how the place stay Ί just wanted (to see), to know the, see the place, what the place looks like.' [BB 150190:56]

4.4.2. Epistemic modals Modal auxiliary use of masi, which is an epistemic modal expressing probability, has been discussed in 3.1.2. In addition, it appears in positions where we normally expect to see the equative copula, similarly expressing probability or assumption. We may distinguish three such uses of masi. 1. masi may appear preceded by a subject and followed by a nominal complement, apparently expressing probable equation between the two. Example (77) illustrates this. (77) may be compared to (77)', where I have replaced masi by the equative copula; masi cannot appear with the equative copula. (77)

so dicta masi di.. bo\ gutap so that must the bush thing-PL 'So that must be the bush things.' [HA 020490:35] (77)' so dida (*masi) da di bo\i gutap so that (*must) be the bush thing-PL 'So that is the bush things.' Similarly, in (78), masi appears with a subject ('it') and a nominal complement ('his wife'). Note that 'it' is not used in an arbitrary sense, but refers to a person in the preceding sentences.

134

4. Copular sentences

(78)

ο masi JV potjermars \i bluru, ar, 3sg must 3poss old=woman=or 3poss brother or andrd kens nunto mut other person pull-PF=3sg go-PF 'It must have been his wife or his brother, or somebody else (who) pulled him away.' [HA 020490:35]

2. masi may appear in a presentational construction, in the initial position where we expect to find presentational da. There are quite a lot of presentational utterances in which masi appears. My data include examples of postpositional phrases, prepositional phrases, NPs, quantifier adjectives, and free relatives. In (79), a PP complement follows masi, in (80) a free relative, headed by wangga 'where'. (79)

(80)

masi bdt, dri daka mute must about three day go-PF 'Probably about three days passed.' [AH 010788:8] mas wanggen fangte ju ninte must where=3pl hold-PF 2sg KNOW-PF 'Probably where they held (him) you know.' (i.e. the sore place is probably the place where they held him) [AK 080390:28]

3. In addition, we also find masi in initial position followed by a sentence; this is the position where the sentential focus marker normally appears; sentential focus is described in 14.2.5. (81)

masi pabadi mjatori ft, fi dun dida must God make-PF=3sg for for do that '(It must be the case that) God made it (to), to do that.' [AH 210390:19]

These different uses of masi correspond to different uses of da: as equative copula, as presentational copula, and as sentential focus marker. There are two possible analyses for masi in these constructions: either we assume that masi is a copulative verb in these constructions, or we postulate the underlying presence of the equative copula in these constructions; in the latter case, we must also assume that the equative copula cannot surface because of the presence of masi. Both analyses account for the complementary distribution of masi and da, but the first has the disadvantage of making it necessary to postulate two lexical entries of masi, one an epistemic modal, the other a copulative verb. In addition, the first analysis cannot account for examples such as the following, where masi appears preceding an adjective, a position which is obviously not a copular position. (82) ju masi hunggru 2sg must hungry 'You must be hungry.' [EK Iukuba2:p3]

Other ways of expressing copular meaning 135 Note that one function of da remains where masi does not appear: that of focus da. However, focus is not marked by da alone: da is part of a focussed complex, in which focus is marked by a combination of da and the enclitic focus particle sa (see chapter 14). Therefore, it is to be expected that masi does not occur in focus constructions instead of focus da. This is corroborated by the following example where masi precedes da in a focus construction; unfortunately, there are no other examples of this type. (83)

masi da di\a orL. waja meto must BE this=FOC 3sg wash-IPF with=3sg '(It) must be this she bathes with.' [BB 100788:p5]

In addition, the locative/existential copula jen appears to be optionally suppressed when masi precedes it. Thus, I have found two examples in which masi appears where we expect to see the locative/existential copula jen, expressing probable location. (84)

(85)

di jermasi mingkandi wafa antso the woman =must water=side wash and=so 'The woman was probably at the waterside, washing and so on.' [AK 250190:7] ige 'language' masi onli hiri lpl-NOM language must only here 'Our language probably exists here only.' [BB 200290:notes]

In contrast, in the following examples masi appears with the locative/existential copula, which shows that there are no co-occurrence constraints. We must assume then, that jen is underlyingly present in (84)-(85). (86)

(87)

di 'stove' masi fordaka the stove must not-be=there=NEG 'The stove is probably not there.' [BB 230288:81 keke dida kom kan, masi jenda ripera like that come NEG must be=there repair-IPF 'As if that one isn't coming. It must be under repair.' [BB 110788:2]

There is one additional fact which is hard to account for unless we assume an underlying copula: presentational constructions where masi appears may be negative, just as presentational constructions where da appears. A negative presentational construction involving a nominal complement follows. (88)

masi lombo tau ka, biko η a mja ek en gut ka must bad snake NEG because=3sg not do lsg one thing NEG 'Probably not a bad snake, because it didn't do me anything.' [AK 040488:p6]

As we have seen in 3.1.2, masi is never in the scope of negation. It is reasonable to assume then that masi cannot carry negation. As we have also seen in 3.2, constituent

136

4. Copular sentences

negation is impossible in BD. Assuming that masi in presentational constructions has the same properties as elsewhere, the negative presentational in (88) cannot be accounted for, unless by the underlying presence of the equative copula.

4.4.3. The 'have' existential ha 'have' (the reduced form of habu) may be used with existential meaning. Compare the following examples: in (89), habu appears as main verb with a subject and an object; it expresses possession of some sort. In (90) on the other hand, there is no subject, and there is no possessor—possessed relation, ha is interpreted as an existential. (89)

(90)

ek habu, dri mantok ba en dot: ε, en jermatok lsg have three man=child but one die-PF one woman =child 4 1 have three sons, but one died, (and) one daughter.' [EK 050688:1-18] ha en ken.au ka have one person=now NEG 'Nobody is there now.' [HA 140788:p.27]

The 'have' existential can be used both in negative and non-negative contexts: (90) above is an example of a negative, (91) and (92) below are affirmative. In (91), the HAB marker precedes ha. The full form habu is not attested in this usage. (91)

(92)

en bi das ha gauto alang me di dat\ boki 3pl say HAB have gold along with the Dutch money 'They say there is gold together with the Dutch money.' [AK 050390:17] ha gati, en so en so have hole one so one so 'There are holes, one here, one there.' [EK 050688:2-9]

Another type of existential use of ha is in the impersonal construction with a 3pl pronoun subject. This construction is frequently used to assert not ownership, but merely the existence of the object which follows. Thus, in (93), the speaker introduces another tree in our conversation, a tree which is found in the bush and is not anybody's property. (93)

en ha en andri bom waten, rup darina 3pl have one other tree what=3pl call darina 'There is another tree which is called darina.' (lit.: 'they have another tree...') [AK 050390:5]

5. Minor sentence types

We will discuss some minor sentence types here: coordinating conjunction, comparative constructions, and imperatives and prohibitives.

5.1. Coordinating conjunction Coordinating conjunctions occur between the elements that they conjoin. The morpheme used for conjunction of sentences or sentence parts in BD is an 'and'. It differs from the morpheme used for conjoining NPs, which is the comitative preposition mete 'with'; conjoining of NPs by use of mete will be discussed in 6.2. BD conjunctions are obviously mostly (Guyanese) English-derived: ar and or < 'or', bat < 'but', noso < 'not so*.

5.1.1. Sentential conjunction For sentential coordination, the morpheme an 'and' is used, as illustrated in the following example. (1)

di man kuma sadaka, fan kwaJcwa, the man come-IPF Saturday from Kwakwani an, ori kuma masi mete di sosro and 3sg come-IPF must with the sister 'The husband is coming Saturday, from Kwakwani, and she is probably coming with her sister.' [BB 150190:34]

Sentential disjunction is expressed by use of ar and or 'or', and less frequently by use of noso 'or'. Two examples of use of noso follow. Both (2) and (3) illustrate exclusive disjunction, i.e. the truth of one of the conjuncts implies that the other is false, noso appears to be restricted to exclusive disjunction. Note that correlative conjunction does not exist in BD, and that a proposition such as 'either they are here, or they have gone overseas' would be expressed as in (2). (2)

en jenda hiri gajana, nosen, eni oka mute., 'overseas'? 3pl be=there here Guyana or=3pl 3pl too go-PF overseas 'Are they here in Guyana, or did (they), they too go overseas?' [RT 280186:67]

138

5. Minor sentence types

(3)

dek di, di hondä mu so, nosdk, di kamudd mo ko take the the dog=and go so or(ak) the boa go catch=3sg 'Take the, the dog and go over there, or, the boa will catch it.' [AK 010390:19]

Although ar / or is also used for exclusive disjunction, witness example (4), the few instances of inclusive disjunction in my data involve ar / or, as in (5); in those cases, both conjuncts may be true. (4)

(5)

ju ma lerek ar eke ma lere ju? 2sg IRR learn=lsg or lsg IRR learn 2sg 'You will teach me or I will teach you?' [HH 060588:1,25] di man e\ti tante, or di jermasi mingkandi the man first climb-PF or the woman =must water=side wa\a antso wash-IPF and so 'The man landed up first, or the woman may have been washing at the water side.' [AK 250190:7]

Adversative conjunction, which is used to show that a contrast exists between the conjuncts, is expressed by use of bat 'but'. Payne (1985:7-8) distinguishes different types of contrast, such as semantic opposition, denial of expectation, preventative. These types are not always easy to identify; (6) is probably of the second type. (6)

musu kenap wa jen dang baten dotote, fama many person-PL PAST be there but=3pl die-PF finish 'Many people lived there, but they died out.' [EK 050688:1-16]

5.1.2. Conjunction of phrasal categories In the following, we will be concerned with the extent to which sentential coordination strategies are permitted at phrasal levels. We will look mostly at α/ι-coordination. an 'and' may be used to conjoin VPs, APs and, occasionally, NPs. Disjunction of phrasal categories does not occur frequently; ar / or may be used for this purpose, whereas noso is restricted to sentential conjunction.

5.1.2.1. Predicate conjunction In the following examples, sentence parts have been conjoined which have coreferent subjects, but no subject is present in the second conjunct. Note that the second conjunct in (7) is a passive construction.

Coordinating conjunction 139 (7)

(8)

ori ok.. dot an bugraf sem pleke 3sg too die(-PF) and bury same place 'She also died and was buried in the same place.' [AK 280288:p2] ο kapa grass? ar plandi ri\i 3sg cut-IPF grass or plant rice 'Is he cutting grass, or planting rice?' [BC 160190:4]

The analyses that have been proposed for this and other seemingly reduced forms of conjoined structures in languages such as English either suppose reduction (through equi-deletion), or suppose that conjunction may apply to different constituents, for instance to VPs or V'-levels. The evidence suggests that reduced conjoined structures of this type are conjoined verbal constituents (i.e. some V'-level) in BD. The evidence consists of (a) the obligatory absence of preverbal material, and (b) the obligatory presence of postverbal material in the conjuncts which follow the first. If preverbal particles are used, they appear with the first conjunct, but not with the following, as illustrated in (9)-(ll) below. In (9), HAB appears with bu 'drink' but not with drunggu 'get drunk', whereas the activities described in the conjuncts are closely linked and both are interpreted as being performed habitually. (9)

kmapam hos ju das bwan drungu person-PL=tell how 2sg HAB drink=and drunk 'People are telling how you drink and get drunk.' [AK 010390:2]

In (10), IRR appears preceding /oJV 'let go', but is not repeated preceding ku 'catch'; in (11), the counterfactual combination PAST IRR appears with ku 'catch', but not with tem 'tame'. Again, the preverbal particles have scope over both conjuncts: in (10), both conjuncts are interpreted as irrealis, and in (11), both conjuncts are interpreted as being counterfactual. (10)

(11)

ο ma lo\ di en an, ku di kalje 3sg IRR loosen the one and catch the small-NOM 'It will let go of the one and catch the small one.' [AK 010390:20] ek wa sa kutst, en or twe fan eni an tem eni lsg PAST IRR catch-PF(=t) one or two of 3pl and tame3pl Ί would have caught one or two of them, and tamed them.' [AK 250190:17]

In contrast, it appears that aspectual suffixation in die second conjunct is independent of the first, even though the verbs in the conjuncts usually agree with respect to aspectual specification. This is the case in (12), where all verbs appear with PF, and in (13), where all verbs appear with IPF. Note that three conjuncts are involved in (12). (12)

eni. kapto an plante idri g.utu an., pito 3pl cut-PF=3sg and plant-PF every thing and give-PF=3sg 'They cut it (viz. a field) and planted everything, and gave her (what they harvested).' [BB 150190:7]

140

5. Minor sentence types

(13)

di Λ ε/ε d.aka di man manggja a wengja the whole day the man run-IPF and walk-IPF "The whole day the man was running and walking.' [AK 250190:40]

There are a few examples in which aspectual suffixation in the second conjunct differs from that in the first. Thus, in (14), IPF appears on kain 'pick' (resulting in käja), but not on tandi 'climb' in the first conjunct. (14)

da sosen das.. tandi an käja di gurma BE thus=3pl HAB climb and pick-IPF the ochroe 'This is how they climb (on land) and pick the ochroes.' [AK 080390:12]

Similar to preverbal particles, if auxiliary verbs are used, they appear with the first conjunct, but not with the second or following. In (15), masi is used to signal probability. In (16), haju is used to express necessity or obligation. (15)

(16)

di kena masi a tan an kikja ju moi the person-PL must PAST stand and see-IPF 2sg good 'The people must have been standing (there) and been seeing you well.' [RT 280186:47] o.. hafo, luru di potman, tjenji bita 3sg have-to look the old=man change=3poss clothes an, wal stedistedi and wash steady-steady 'She has to look after her husband, change his clothes and keep washing.' [BB 150190:6]

Also, in (17), negative kjan 'cannot' has scope over all three conjuncts, but appears only in the first. Note that the number of conjuncts is three in (16) above and in (17), but whereas the conjunction only appears preceding the last conjunct in (16), it appears with all but the first conjunct in (17); the latter is the more usual strategy in BD. Similarly, VP-initial adverbs such as noiti 'never' appear with the first conjunct only, but have scope over all conjuncts, as in the example below. (17) ju kjan.. mu bu an, smoku an mu dälan alsd ka 2sg cannot go drink and, smoke and go dance=and all=such NEG 'You cannot go drink and smoke and go dance and all of that.' [AK 290488:pl] (18) a\u wa noiti bu an drunggu an mono kek so ka,... if=2sg PAST never drink and drunk and sleep like so NEG... 'If you had never drunk and gotten drunk and slept like this,...' [AK 190290:14] The data show that the locus of conjunction follows preverbal particles, auxiliary verbs and VP-initial adverbs. Obviously, equi-deletion cannot refer to non-constituents

Coordinating conjunction 141 such as preverbal particles. It follows then that predicate conjunction applies to a verbal constituent which does not include these. That the constituent-level at which conjunction applies is not V° (i.e. the verb) follows from the obligatory presence of objects. Compare the following example: the object of ku in (19) is identical to that of ba 'kill' and jefi 'eat'; English allows the sharing of the object ('it catches, kills and eats the Amerindians'). This is impossible in BD. Similarly, in (11) above, both ku 'catch' and tem 'tame' appear with an overt object which is «»referential. (19)

ο das, ku di bokap an bain an jefjd 3sg HAB catch the Amerindian-PL and kill=3pl and eat=3pl 'It catches the Amerindians and kills them and eats them.' [EK 050688:3-24]

Note that it is possible that objects remain unexpressed due to discourse-pragmatic strategies (as discussed in 6.3 on the distribution of pronouns). This is not to be confused with the sharing of objects. Thus, in the following example, the object remains unexpressed in both conjuncts. (20)

ο das fanggjä jefi 3sg HAB hold=and eat 'He holds (it) and eats (it).' [BB 150190:4]

Another argument in favour of an analysis of predicate conjunction as VPconjunction follows from the fact that VP-final adverbs do not have scope over all conjuncts. If all conjuncts are to be interpreted as being modified by this adverb, it has to be repeated. Thus, were 'again' appears in both conjuncts in (21). (21) fruko ma hop wer an mo, mu were morning=3sg IRR up again=and go go again 'In the morning he gets up again and (goes), goes on again.' [HA 020490:25] Conjunction of adjectival predicates is not frequent. Nevertheless, examples such as (22)-(23) show that it is possible to conjoin adjectival predicates. (22) also shows that preverbal tense marking occurs only in the first conjunct. (22)

(23)

diw, g:u lemuna? ο wa f:olo, an bjebje the(=w) big lemon 3sg PAST full and yellow 'The big lemon tree? it was full, and ripe.' [BB 200290:pl0] ο bjebje an, anangwa 3sg yellow and and=long 'It is blond (and), and long.' (referring to hair) [HA 050488:51]

The following example illustrates conjunction of verbal complements to the locative copula jen(da).

142

5. Minor sentence types

(24)

tigri jenda, alandi ant lurwa tiger be=there on-land and look-IPF 'Tiger is on land and watching.' [AC lukuba:7]

5.1.2.2. Conjunction of other phrasal categories. Although mete 'with' is normally used for NP-coordination, an 'and' appears instead sometimes, as in the following example. (25)

dd titju bat nau ju hafindi, the time=2sg kill-PF now 2sg have-to=open di bol an \i darum the belly and 3poss bowel 'When you have killed it you have to open the belly and its bowels.' [AK 030688:pl9]

Disjunctive coordination of phrasal categories does not occur frequently, ar / or may be used for this purpose, whereas noso is restricted to sentential conjunction. Some examples follow; these illustrate disjunction of NPs. (26)

(27)

di tafit di eg mait mu, ar morko fruku the afternoon this lsg might go or tomorrow morning 'This afternoon I might go, or tomorrow morning.' [BC 160190:73] ο mosli jenda kandikandi di birbi\ or di wiruni 3sg mostly be=there side-side the Berbice or the Wiruni 'It is mostly at the banks of the Berbice or the Wiruni.' [AK 030688:p20]

bat 'but' is used almost exclusively to conjoin sentences. There are however a few examples of adversative conjunction involving phrasal categories. (28) is an example of adversative conjunction where no subject appears in the second conjunct. This appears to suggest that bat may conjoin VPs. However, it is possible that this is a case of non-realization of a subject for discourse-pragmatic reasons (see 6.3). Note that, while an-conjunction of VPs is more frequent than α/t-conjunction of sentences, this is the only utterance which appears to exemplify Zraf-conjunction of VPs. (28)

di papa das alwes mu stati, stati ä konu. bring the father HAB always go town town and come bring musu bambam gut fu di, fi di step.. Jermatokapu much nice-nice thing for the for the step woman=child-PL ... bat bring noit β.. Cinderella ka ... but bring never for Cinderella NEG 'The father always (i.e. regularly) goes to town, to town and returns with many nice things (few the), for the step-daughters ... but never brings for Cinderella.' [AK 030688:p4-5]

Coordinating conjunction 143 5.1.3. Alternative strategies An account of consecutive actions can be expressed by means of concatenation rather than overt coordination. Two examples follow; note that in (30), the subject is not repeated. (29)

(30)

A kan sets ka, ο kan drai ka A. can sit NEG 3sg can turn NEG Ά . could not sit up, he could not tum around.' [BB 150190:2] ο wenggi manggi wenggi 3sg walk run walk 'He walked (and) ran (and) walked.' [AK 250190:40]

Similarly, in a chronological account of consecutive actions, concatenation of verbal projections is possible. This type of construction is discussed in 13.1.1, where it is compared to serial verb constructions. (31)

eke draite were kute, kandjangga lsg turn-PF again catch-PF side=LOC I turned back again (and) caught the bank (of the river).' [BC 090488]

Adversative coordination can also be expressed without the use of bat 'but', as in the following example. (32)

eke noiti horo bot antobanti ka, eke ninte bot lsg never hear about antobanti NEG lsg KNOW-PF about masakruman, mingimang masakuruman water=man Ί have never heard about antobanti, (but) I know about masacooraman, (the) water man.' [AC 090488:1]

In the case of activity which is iterated or prolonged over a long stretch of time, repetition of a sentence or sentence part is a frequently used strategy in BD, whereas English uses coordination for the same purpose. (33)

(34)

ig mutig mute lpl go-PF=lpl go-PF 'We went on and on.' [HA 190290:p5] ο manggjo manggi, tigri wakti wakti wakti 3sg run=3sg run tiger wait wait wait 'He ran and ran. Tiger waited and waited.' [AC lukuba:14]

In addition, serial verb constructions may express the equivalent of coordinating strategies. See chapter 13 for a discussion of serial verb constructions.

144

5. Minor sentence types

5.2. Comparative constructions We will be concerned here with comparative constructions of the type A is more ζ than Β (is), as in (35), and A is as ζ as Β (is), as in (36), where ζ is the compared phrase. (35)

(36)

hondo mere slem aji tigri dog more smart as tiger 'Dog is smarter than Tiger.' [AC lukuba:51] J* toro.. kalikali kek hagli 3poss eye small-small like hail 'Its eyes are tiny like hail (from a gunshot).' [AK 030688:pl8]

In addition to these, there are mere ζ [more z] expressions which do not form part of a comparative construction, as in examples (37)-(39) below. In (37), the expression forms an attributive AP, in (38), it is an adjectival predicate, and in (39), it is a place adverbial. These will not be discussed. (37)

(38)

(39)

di kal, mer kal tok bi... the small more small child say... "The (small), smaller child said...' [AK 270190:2] dida mer, mer kurkurs that more more black 'That one is (more), darker.' [AK 090388:p2] an mu mer bof eni hab en plek en rup bunjabanab and go more top 3pl have one place 3pl call Bunya Banab 'And more upriver, they have a place (which) they call Bunya's Banab.' [AK 290488:p2]

Nor are adverbial keke X [like X] expressions, as in (40), discussed here, or NPs modified by a comparative phrase, as in (41). (40)

(41)

en biti kek bonds 3pl bite like dog 'They bit like dogs.' [AK 250190:16] ek wa noiti ni kd, solok ber kek di sa hapn lsg PAST never KNOW NEG such story like the IRR happen Ί never knew, such a story as this one could happen.' [AK 010390:21]

5.2.1. The form of comparative constructions There are some variations of the form of the comparatives in (35) and (36) above, as shown here.

Comparative constructions 145 (42)

comparative: A is more ζ than Β A mere ζ ali/den Β A ζ mere ali/den Β

equative comparative: A is as ζ as Β A ζ keJce Β

Instead of ali 'as, than', dm 'than' may be used as the comparative complementizer; although informants agree that dm is GCE-derived, whereas ali is not, den is used more often. (43) illustrates the use of den. (43)

...mere gau den ju ...more quick than 2sg '(It) is quicker than you (are).' [AK 290488:p2]

The constituent following ali/den and keke will be referred to as the compared constituent. Instead of the order mere z, the reverse order ζ mere is used occasionally. (44) and (45) illustrate the order ζ mere; it does not occur often in spontaneous language use, but elicited judgements tend to be positive. (44)

(45)

di mantoko masi nili potepote mere aseke the man=child must nearly old-old more as=lsg 'The boy must be nearly older than me.' [HH 060588:2,10] ο tarki mer aj di tibiliri 3sg strong more as the palmstraw 'It is stronger than palmstraw.' [HA 020390:p20]

The comparative AP may be an attributive quantifier phrase, as in (46), or an attributive quantifier, as in (47). (46)

en mer musu den di.. andd traib 3pl more many than the other tribe "There are more of them than of the other tribes.' (lit. they are more than the other tribes) [EK 050688:3,28] (47) ju fende mere monjap jendd dangalikandi den dilkandi 2sg find more black-PL be=there there=side=side than this=side 'You find (that) more blacks are over there than over here.' [BC 86] (48) and (49) are examples of comparative Adverb Phrases: (48)

ο berli kikja be me, bek mer den ek.. 'natural sight' 3sg barely see-IPF little more little more than lsg natural sight 'It barely sees (a little better), a little better than my natural eyesight.' (referring to glasses which are not strong enough) [AK 250288:50] (49) ju kante jutele moi kekd ek9 2sg cannot converse good like lsg 'You cannot converse as well (in this language) as I.' [BC 86]

146

5. Minor sentence types

(49) is a comparative AdvP of the type A is as ζ as B. A comparative AP of this type follows; in this example the compared constituent is negated. (50)

ο lud moL., kek di en wat bi jenda dangka 3sg should good... like the one what PAST be=there there=NEG 'He should be all right, unlike the one that was there.' [HA 140788:p27]

The examples above have been selected in such a way that A and Β are different entities compared for the same quality; in most such cases, the compared constituent (the constituent following ali/den or keke) consists only of a NP, i.e., of B. If A=B, i.e. if different qualities are compared for one and the same subject, the compared constituents that appear range from adverbs, as in (51), to NPs, as in (52), and clauses, as in (53). (51)

ο kraji keke langgi ka 3sg healthy like long NEG 'She isn't as healthy as (she was) long ago.' [BB 150190:17] (52) ju draki dida mere 'easy' den kweke 2sg carry that more easy than container-basket 'You carry that one more easily than a container-basket.' [AH 060588:4,44] (53) ekd frustan mer as ekan bifi lsg understand more as lsg=can speak Ί understand more than I can speak.' [BC 86] keke 'like' can be modified by sem 'same, just as', as in (54). (54)

ο wete sem keke ju 3sg white same like 2sg 'She was white just like you.' [BB 86]

5.2.2. Evidence for wh-movement in comparative constructions In a comparative construction such as (55) where two entities, in this case buildings, are compared with respect to one property, in this case size, there is a gap following the second entity. The debate on comparative constructions centres around the question what that gap corresponds to: has material following the NP been deleted (Comparative Deletion; see Bresnan 1977 a.o.), or has it been removed in some way or other? (55)

en gu wari, mere gu den di one big house more big than this Ά big building, bigger than this one (is).' [EK 050688:1,27]

Based on the observation that comparative constructions exhibit, to some extent, the same diagnostics as wh-movement, Chomsky (1977, 1981) argues that comparative

Comparative constructions 147 constructions are instances of wh-movement. Direct evidence can be found in some dialects of English which normally have comparatives such as (56) (Chomsky 1977:87), where the wh-phrase 'what' appears. (56)

John is taller than what Mary is

The following BD example similarly provides evidence for an analysis of comparatives as an instance of wh-movement: a wh-phrase hoso 'how* appears (reduced to hos). (57)

ο dasn.. tarki kek hos je hi ka 3sg NEGHAB hard like how be here NEG 'It isn't as firm as the way (lit. how) it is here.' [AK 250488:pl]

Note that the compared constituent is a clause of a different structure than the matrix clause: whereas the compared constituent is a copular construction (je is a somewhat reduced form of the existential copula), the matrix clause contains an adjectival predicate. Note also that BD does not have a question word which corresponds to adjectives, or even one for degree (see 2.2.2 on this matter), hoso 'how', which is used in (57), questions manner adverbials. An unproblematic equivalent of 'how firm is it' does not exist in BD, and (57) appears to represent a solution for the problem that adjectival predicates cannot be questioned. The same applies to (58) below: the matrix predicate is an adjectival predicate, whereas the compared constituent is headed by the copular verb sete 'stay, look like, be like'; the subject of the compared constituent is identical to the matrix subject. (58)

birbi\ skono kek hoso hisa set river clean like how here=so stay '(The) river is clean like how (it) is overhere.' (comparing the upper reaches of the Berbice River with the Wiruni area of the Berbice River) [AK 290488:p5]

Other wh-phrases are not attested in comparatives, and the few instances of such constructions are of equative comparatives such as (57) and (58), not of 'more than' comparatives. This difference between equative and 'more than' comparatives may be the result of different subcategorization properties of the complementizers used in these constructions: keke 'like', which is used in the equative comparative, subcategorizes for a CP, whereas a\i and den, which are used in the 'more than' comparatives, do not. Chomsky (1981:83) refers to comparatives with than·NP, as in (59), as cases of construal; in such cases, a deletion rule applies. We might have to say then, that construal is obligatory in BD for 'more than' comparatives, but not for equative comparatives. (59)

John likes more people than Bill

148

5. Minor sentence types

Other examples which are cited in Chomsky (1981) as cases which cannot be analyzed as wh-movement include split antecedent cases such as the following, where two entities are compared for more than one property; these too are accounted for by a rule of construal. (60)

dida mer stifii an trier tarki dm katun that more stiff and more strong than cotton 'That is stiffer and stronger than cotton.' [AK 250488:pl]

The example below is problematic for a wh-movement analysis: (61) is a complex NP, which contains a compared constituent which is a relativized pronoun ('these that are more upriver'). Pronouns cannot be modified by attributive adjectives, and the compared constituent in (61) does not contain a gap which corresponds to the comparative phrase χ kali [x small]. (61)

mer kali /als den di.. wat jenda mer boj\i more small falls than this what be=there more top=side 'Smaller waterfalls than these that are more upriver.' [EK 050688:2,2]

Bresnan (1977, supported by Partee 1977) argues for a rule of Comparative Deletion instead of wh-movement, which would apply to all cases discussed in the foregoing. Evidence for deletion may be adduced from the following example (quoted earlier as (50)): constituent negation does not exist in BD (see 3.2 on negation); this strongly suggests that some additional material which licenses the appearance of the negator has been deleted (maybe by a rule of VP-deletion). (62)

ο \ud moi..., kek di en wat bi jenda dangka 3sg should good... like the c«e what PAST be=there there=NEG 'He should be all right, unlike the one that was there.' [HA 140788:p27]

5.3. Imperatives and prohibitives There is no special verb morphology involved in conveying a request or command in BD. Requests and commands are formed as declaratives, as in (63), or as imperatives, as in (64). Both examples are of negative utterances, i.e. prohibitives. The declarative in (63) contains a 2sg subject ju. Imperatives as in (64) are asumed to contain an understood 2sg subject. In English, this can be made visible by reflexive imperatives such as 'defend yourself!' (compare the ungrammaticality of *defend you!). There are no reflexive imperatives in BD, but it does not seem far-fetched to assume that the imperative has an understood 2sg subject ju. (63) ju ma landa bu keke jungu kenap ka 2sg IRR follow drink like young person-PL NEG 'You shouldn't continue to drink like young people.' [BB 050488:p9]

Imperatives and prohibitives 149 (64)

eke pants ju bu so/εΐε ka lsg tell-PF 2sg drink so=much NEG Ί told you: don't drink so much.' [HH lukubal p9]

The imperative may be preceded by a vocative, as in (65) and (66). The latter is a prohibitive. (65)

Cinderella lu juje nau C. look 2sg-NOM now 'Cinderella, look at yours now.' [AK 030688:p6] (66) feli bi aw master master ba eke ka fish say oh master master kill lsg NEG 'Fish said: oh master master, don't kill me!' [HH lukuba2 pi] Imperatives may be conjoined, as in the following examples. (67)

(68)

ka\u bibi an sestele shut=2sg mouth and be-quiet 'Shut your mouth and be quiet.' dek di, di hondä mu so take the the dog=and go so 'Take (the), the dog and go over there.' AK 010390:19

Declaratives with imperative use contain a 2nd person subject: either ju [2sg] for singular reference, or jende [2pl] for plural reference; an example containing a 2pl subject follows in (69). Friendly exhortations, which include the addressee as well as the addresser in the activity proposed, contain a lpl subject, as in (70) and (71). (69)

(70)

(71)

ο bi, jen se sut datek hor wa di papkai ma bi 3sg say 2pl stay quiet let=lsg hear what the parrot IRR say 'He said: you be quiet, let me hear what the parrot will say.' [AK 030688:pl3] ig jefi ni? lpl eat no 'Let's eat, shall we?' [HA Iukuba2:p3] dat i\i kopo en let lpl buy one 'Let's buy one.' [BB 110788:18]

6. The noun phrase

In this chapter, we will first consider lexical noun phrases in 6.1-6.2, and then turn to pronouns and their distribution in 6.3. A noun phrase may consist of the formatives listed in (1). '*' indicates the possibility of recursion. The noun may be inflected for number, as discussed in 8.1 (affixational morphology). (1)

{ {

Determiner Possessor

} }

Adjective*

Noun

Demonstrative

Relative clause

Modification of nouns will be addressed in 6.1. Determiners and demonstratives are discussed in 6.1.1 (definiteness and proximity). We then turn to adjectival modification, including quantifier adjectives, in 6.1.2, and to possessive modification in 6.1.3. Although semantically, relative clauses perform much the same function as adjectives —they identify a subset of the class of objects referred to by the head noun (Keenan 1985:142)—relative clauses are discussed with free relatives in chapter 12. In addition to postnominal relative clauses, NPs may be modified by a postnominal comparative phrase of the form keke X. This will not be discussed, but two examples follow. (2)

(3)

ek wa noiti ni ka, solok ber kek di sa hapn lsg PAST never KNOW NEG such story like this IRR happen Ί never knew such a story as this one could happen.' [AK 010390:21] a ha moi bwa kek plati bwa ka 3sg have good foot like flat foot NEG 'It doesn't have normal feet, like flat feet.' [HA 250190:22]

Conjunction of NPs will be addressed in 6.2. Note that conjunction of sentences and other phrasal categories is discussed in 5.1. The distributional properties of personal pronouns, reflexive pronouns, and indefinite pronouns are discussed in 6.3, in separate sections. In addition, we will consider the distribution of empty pronominals.

6.1. Modification of the noun 6.1.1. Definiteness and proximity It is generally accepted that the definite/indefinite and the proximate/non-proximate distinction are discourse-dependent, and interact with such factors as topicality, referentiality, modality, and factivity (see for instance Comrie 1981, Givon 1984,

152

6. The Noun Phrase

1990). It is not the aim of this grammar to explore discourse-pragmatic issues in depth, and we will therefore treat definiteness and proximity somewhat superficially.

6.1.1.1. Definiteness Taking one noun as representative of the class of count nouns, the forms to be discussed here are the following: (4)

Singular:

di jcrma 'the woman' Plural: dijcrmapu 'the women' en jerma 'a woman / one woman' jcrmapu 'women' jcrma 'woman'

The interpretation of these forms is not straightforward. As we will see below, in certain contexts, certain interpretations may not be available for a certain form, or different interpretations may become appropriate for a certain form. Thus, for a form such as en jcrma, the indefinite interpretation 'a woman' is not available in some contexts (note that the ambiguity of en jcrma is due to homophony of en 'a(n)' and en 'one'), and a form such as di jcrma may refer not to an individual woman, but to womankind in a generic sense, in certain contexts. Consider the following excerpts from a fable. They contain occurrences of referential NPs referring to two persons: a man and his new wife. The man is introduced in (5)a, and referred to again in (5)b/c/d; his new wife is introduced in (5)c and returns in (5)d. In both cases, the first time a person is introduced into discourse, it is in the form of an indefinite NP, whereas following occurrences take the form of definite NPs. (5)

a. di wa da en man ha \i jcrma this PAST be one man have 3poss woman 'This was a man (who) had his wife.' b. an di man J / jcrma dote lahanto and the man 3poss woman die-PF leave-PF=3sg met e:n jcrmatok alen with one woman=child alone 'And the man's wife died (and) left him with one daughter only.' c. wcl di man dektc en andr jcrma well the man take-PF one other woman 'Well the man took another wife.' d. ba di jcrma poko di man J i toko kan but the woman like the man 3poss child NEG 'But the woman doesn't like the man's child.' [EK lukubal:pl]

This example illustrates a strategy also known in English discourse, where newly introduced referential NPs similarly tend to be indefinite: new information corresponds to indefiniteness, old to definiteness. Note that new NPs are usually introduced in

Modification of the noun

153

object position; this is so in (5), as in the great majority of cases. However, BD indefinite referential NPs do not always take an indefinite article, as illustrated in (6). The pertinent NPs refer to a snake. The snake is introduced into discourse for the first time in (6)a, where it appears in the subject position of a sentence, and no article is used. Later, in (6)b, the speaker refers again to the snake, which has now become old information, and appears as a definite NP with the article di 'the', as expected. (6)

a.

tau bito ben \i fe\pcn snake bite-PF=3sg inside 3poss fishpen 'A snake bit him inside his fishpen.' b. di tau bite ft finggrano dot:ε the snake bite-PF 3poss finger=and=3 sg die-PF 'The snake bit his finger and he died' HA 020490:43-44]

The generalization that referential NPs are introduced in discourse as indefinite NPs holds, but what an indefinite NP looks like turns out to be dependent on its position in the sentence: whether it is in subject or object position. In many languages, the subject position tends to be associated with the topic function (Andrews 1985:78). This is also the case in BD. As a result, the subject position in affirmative sentences is virtually restricted to definite NPs, and if an indefinite NP appears in subject position, it tends to be interpreted referentially (Payne 1985:199). Reference to an individual snake may be made in one of three ways, as shown in (7). (7)b is ambiguous between an indefinite interpretation and a definite interpretation: en is either the indefinite article 'a(n)' or the numeral 4 one'. Therefore, en tau in subject position of an utterance such as (6)a is interpreted as 'one snake' (definite) rather than 'a snake' (indefinite). The use of tau instead ensures that the definite interpretation is excluded. But note that (6)a is still ambiguous, viz. between a singular indefinite and a generic interpretation. Topic persistence, i.e. its recurrence in (6)b, disambiguates (6)a. (7)

tau di tau en tau snake the snake one snake 'the snake' 'a snake' or: 'one snake' 'snakes' or: 'a snake' GENERIC INDEF DEF(inite) INDEF DEF NON-REF REF/NON-REF REF(erential) REF/NON-REF REF

This does not always occur, as for instance in the following example: kcnc 'person' similarly allows both a generic and a singular indefinite interpretation. Since there is no topic persistence in this case, the interpretation of (8) is not disambiguated. (8)

fccn jenda bato no kiki kene person be=there but=3sg not see person a. 'People are there, but she doesn't see anybody.' b. 'Someone is there, but she doesn't see anybody.' [EK lukubal]

154

6. The Noun Phrase

In contrast, a definite NP may be used non-referentially, i.e. it may be used as a generic noun, referring to the species rather than to an individual specimen. Thus, in (9), the speaker gives two equivalent ways of expressing a generic statement about the female way of paddling, one using the indefinite/ generic form jerma (reduced to jer), one using the definite form di jerma. (9)

a. jer dok gaugau woman paddle quick-quick b. di jerma doko gaugau the woman pull quick-quick 'Women paddle with short, quick strokes.' [AK 250288:32]

A tentative summary of the foregoing is given in table 6.1 below. It is intended as a basis for further research into these issues.

Table 6.1. Definiteness contrasts (for count nouns which are not inherently definite) form

example

interpretation

di

di tau

'the snake*

di tau

'the snake/snakes'

NOUN

DEFINITE, REFERENTIAL

GENERIC, N O N -

REFERENTIAL

di NOUN-ö/7«

di tawapu

en

en tau

NOUN

'the snakes' 'a snake'

DEFINITE, REFERENTIAL

INDEFINITE,

REFERENTIAL/NON-

REFERENTIAL

NOUN

NOUN-FL/W

en tau (subject)

'one snake'

tau

'snakes'

tau (subject)

'a snake'

tawapu

'snakes'

DEFINITE,

GENERIC,

REFERENTIAL

NON-REFERENTIAL

INDEFINITE,

INDEFINITE,

REFERENTIAL

REFERENTIAL/NON-

REFERENTIAL

Some nouns are inherently definite, and do not normally appear with a definite article. These are name-like nouns such assono 'sun', akalu 'moon', ene 'rain',grotala

Modification of the noun 155 'governor', birbi\i '(Berbice) rive·', dembrari 'Demerara (city)'. Thus, sono 'sun' in (10), where it appears without a definite article, has inherently definite reference, di sono with a definite article in (11) does not refer to the sun itself, but to the effects it has in terms of oppressive heat. (10)

(11)

sono tante sun climb-PF 'The sun is at its zenith.' [BC 160190:17] ate tin deki di sono ka lsg able take the sun NEG Ί cannot cope with the sun.' [BB 86]

Similarly, birbi\i 'river' without a definite article in (12) is inherently definite. (12)

en jenda birbili ka? 3pl be=there river NEG 'Don't they live on the river?' [BB 150190:21]

NPs used as attributive predicate nominals may appear without the indefinite article, as in (13), where boko jerma appears without an article, although (14) shows that this is not always the case: en obja man appears with the indefinite article. (13)

(14)

ate da boko jerma lsg be Amerindian woman Ί am an Amerindian woman.' [BB 110386:21] di pot kuli man da en., obja man the old East-Indian man be one obeah man 'The old East-Indian man was an obeah man.' [AK 210788:5]

Last to be mentioned here is the fact that inalienably possessed nouns often appear with a definite article instead of a possessive pronoun; this is discussed in 6.1.3 below.

6.1.1.2. Proximity Whereas definiteness is expressed prenominally, proximity is expressed postnominally. BD expresses a binary contrast by means of demonstrative pronouns di and dida, [+proximate] and [-proximate], respectively. Demonstratives always modify a definite noun. This is shown for proximate value in (16): the definite pronoun appears prenominally, the demonstrative appears postnominally. (15)

di Ν fdi/dida} the Ν {this/that} 'This/that N.'

156

6. The Noun Phrase

(16)

ο kom haute di twe di ns, di tokap di 3sg RESULT keep-PF the two this now the child-PL this 'She kept these two, these children.' [BB 230288:54]

The defining characteristics of proximity are not clear, but among these appear to be temporal deictic values, which refer to temporal [+proximate] and past [-proximate], spatial deictic values, which refer to observable proximity to the speaker and/or hearer, and discourse deictic values, which refer to topic definition. All of this often yields conflicting and unpredictible results. Compare for instance the following two examples: the NPs di gutwap di and di gutu dida both refer to the subject of discussion. Spatial and temporal values are irrelevant in either case. There appears to be no particular motivation for using either the proximate or distant demonstrative. (17)

(18)

ju kiki 2sg see 'You don't kenap person-PL 'People do

di gutwap di ka the thing-PL this NEG see these things (any more).' [AC 090488:29] das mja di gutu dida HAB do the thing that those things.' [AC 090488:26]

Confusing is also AK's use of the place adverbial dangga 'there' instead of demonstrative dida: although he uses dida elsewhere, he uses dangga to refer to temporal [-proximity], as in (19). Other speakers use dida here, as in (20). Temporal deixis contrasts present with past. There is no distinction between remote past, as in (19) and (20), and near past. For reference to future temporal space, constructions such as di andri weki [the other week] 'next week' or di weki wati kuma [the week what come-IPF] 'the coming week' are used. A phrase such as di weki dida/di weki dangga 'that week' cannot be used with future reference. (19)

(20)

di tit danga ju justu krik m:us 'ammunition' the time there 2sg PASTHAB get much ammunition 'In those days you used to get lots of ammunition.' [AK 290488:p6] di titi dida eke wa kali the time that lsg PAST small 'At that time I was small.' [AH 060588:2,15]

The use of the proximate demonstrative di with a temporal noun requires reference to temporal space which includes the present, as in (21). (21)

ek ma jen wari, di hel weki di lsg IRR be house the whole week this Ί will be at home this whole week.' [AK 280288:p5]

Demonstratives may refer to spatial proximity, as in the following examples: di wari di 'this house' referred to in (22) is the speaker's house and also the place where this

Modification of the noun

157

particular conversation took place, di wari dida 'that house' referred to in (23), is at some distance from the place where the particular conversation took place. Note that the house is the subject of discussion in (23), where it is [-proximate], but not in (22), where it is [+proximate]. (22)

(23)

idri sadaka di papa havu.. 'make up box', every Saturday the fattier have-to make up box an tiri di wari di ben fi. A and send the house this inside for A. 'Every Saturday, her father had to prepare a box and send (it) to this house for A.' [BB 200290:pl0] da orso mfate di sosro k:jamais di wari dida BE 3sg=FOC make-PF the sister build-PF the house that '(It) is he who made his sister build that house.' [BB 150190:29]

A topic may be reintroduced by means of sem 'same', sometimes in combination with a demonstrative. In (24) for instance, sem does not refer to identity with an earlier mentioned egg, but identity with a ritual which was mentioned earlier, which involves an egg and some other things. (24)

θ hat9 dek dd se airi, dek da se airi met, 3sg have-to take the same egg take the same egg with difrent kal gutap, wato ninfc different small thing-PL what=3sg KNOW-PF 'He had to take the same egg (as we just discussed), take the same egg and other little things that he knew about.' [AK 050390:2]

6.1.2. Adjectival modification

6.1.2.1. Attributive adjectives Adjectives appear prenominally, as shown for bam 'pretty' in (25). The adjective is preceded by the determiner, if there is one. A word such as bam may also appear in a position following the noun, i.e. the predicative position, as in (25)'. The status of predicative adjectives is a controversial issue in creole linguistics. I will not discuss predicative adjectives here, but will review evidence for their adjectival status in that position in 8.2 (on category conversion). (25)

έη bam jujerma.. late danga one pretty young=woman reach-PF there Ά very pretty young woman arrived there.' [AK 030688:p9]

158

6. The Noun Phrase

(25)' di jungjerma bam the young=woman pretty 'The young woman is pretty.' More than one adjective may appear, but I have not encountered cases of more than two adjectives. Adjectives which refer to inherent properties, such as colour terms and ethnic affiliation, are always closest to the noun, whereas adjectives which refer to deictic values, such as andri 'other', are always furthest from the noun. (26)

(27)

(28)

en bi da kali wet man 3pl say be small wet man 'They said it was a small white man.' [AK 050390:9] Queen of Sheba, bin da en pote boko jerma Queen of Sheba PAST be one old Amerindian woman 'Queen of Sheba was an old Amerindian woman.' [HA 100390:1] en twate en andri kurkur jerma 3pl put-PF one other black woman 'They appointed another black woman.' [BB 150190:62]

Note that reduplicated adjectives may appear prenominally. Reduplication is discussed in 8.1.3. (29)

musu kenapo dots lahanteni kalkali bebjapu many person-PL die-PF leave-PF=3pl small-small baby-PL 'Many people died (and) left their little babies.' [BB 260288:33]

6.1.2.2. Quantifier adjectives and numerals Numerals appear prenominally, but following the determiner, as in the example below. (30)

wel di.. twe jungjerm wat je di wari ben... well the two young=woman what be the house inside... 'Well the two girls that live in the house...' [AK 030688:p4]

Quantifier alma 'all' appears preceding the determiner position, reflecting its scope properties, as in the examples (31) and (32), or following it, as in (33). However, (33) is a single example of that order, and similar constructions were rejected by informants; it may have been merely a slip of the tongue. (31)

s:eitalma di gutuwaph spoil-PF=all the thing-PL '(He) spoilt everything.' [BB 200290:p8]

Modification of the noun 159 (32)

(33)

ο tamate a:lma ek bitap 3sg pick-PF all lsg clothes 'She picked up all my clothes.' [EK lukubal] das fur i\ aim., lemutia HAB steal lpl all lime '(They) steal all our limes.' [EK 050688:3,1]

idri 'every' appears in post-determiner position, as in the example below. (34)

krikts \i, idri gut wato sukwa, idri gut!, ;et-PF 3poss every thing what=3sg want-IPF every thing L. 'servant' am, \i idri gut waso sukwo krikte 3poss servant and, 3poss every thing what=FOC=3sg want=3sgget-PF '(She) got everything she wanted, everything! her servants and everything she wanted she got.' [AK 030688:pl3-14]

i

musu 'many' and enen 'some, a few' do not appear with determiners. (35)

(36)

an kom bring musu bambam gut and come bring many pretty-pretty thing '...and brings many pretty things.' [AK lukuba] enen mal one-one time 'Sometimes.' [EK 050688:3,6]

The preceding may be summarized as follows: whereas numerals and the quantifier idri 'every' appear following the determiner, alma 'all' appears preceding the determiner, and musu 'many, much' and enen 'some, a few' do not appear with the determiner.

6.1.3. Possessives BD o f f m a choice among three ways of expressing possession: 1. Juxtaposition: i.e. juxtaposition of possessor and possessed, appearing in that order. The possessor may be a full NP or a possessive pronoun; both are exemplified here. (37)

di jerma papa, ο ws ha \i tun ofrz di savana the woman father 3sg PAST have 3poss field over the savannah 'The girl's father, he had his field across the savannah.' [AK 210788:1]

Only for the 3sg person is a separate possessive pronoun form \i available (see 6.3 below on the distribution of pronouns). As shown in the following example, it is in free competition with the general form ori.

160

6. The Noun Phrase

(38)

ori.. mamet \i papa, en mut fan hiso 3sg mother=with 3poss father 3pl go-PF from here=so 'Her mother and her father, they went away from here.' [AK 030688:p2]

2. Dislocated possessive: in the dislocated possessive, a possessive pronoun appears in the position between the possessor and the possessed, coreferential with the possessor. This strategy requires that the possessor either has the form of a full NP, as in (39), or of the 3sg pronoun, as exemplified in (40). (39)

(40)

ο kajte di potman \i toro 3sg shut-PF the old=man 3poss eye 'It blinded (lit: shut) her father's eye.' [AK 210788:10] ori \u. awawap da mosli.. kurkuru, kurkur kenap 3sg 3poss grandfather-PL be mostly black black person-PL 'Her grandparents were mostly black, black people.' [AK 280288:p2]

3. Thefan-construction: in the/a«-construction, a relation between two NPs is signalled by the use of preposition fan 'from'/'of. This relation is usually one of source, as in (41), or a partitive, as in (42). (41)

(42)

masi di ra\i fan di trakta must the noise of the tractor 'Probably the noise of the tractors.' [EK 050688:3,21] skelpata kapte en fa Ji bwa tortoise cut-PF one of 3poss foot 'Tortoise cut off one of his feet.' [BB lukubal:8]

However, informants reacted positively tofan -constructions which express ownership relations. Compare the contrast in AK's judgements on the following two constructions: the fan-NP (fan eke) is a complement to drifu 'drift' in b, but the possess«· of di kali kujara 'the small canoe' in a. (43)

a. di kali kujar fan eke drifute the small canoe of lsg drift-PF 'My small canoe has drifted off.' b. di kali kujar drifute fan eke the small canoe drift-PF from lsg 'The small canoe has drifted away from me.' [!AK 050390:p22]

The following example is the only spontaneous example in my data which seems to evidence the possibility of extraction from a fan-possessive; however, the boy referred to is not the speaker's son, but a boy she looked after. A source interpretation such as 'he died away from me' (i.e. leaving me) rather than a possessive interpretation such as 'my son died' seems plausible.

Modification of the noun

(44)

161

eJce toko dotote fan eke lsg child die-PF from lsg 'My boy has died on me (?)' [BB 180290:pl]

The fact that fan -constructions with possessive interpretation are not used spontaneously—assuming that my interpretation of (44) is correct—is suspicious. It appears that constructions such as (43)a were accepted as extrapolation from the source interpretation as in (41). The expression of inalienable possession by means of a fanconstruction was sometimes rejected, as for instance by BB in the cases presented in (45). (45)

a.

*di bwa fan di jerma serars the leg of the woman hurt-IPF 'The woman's leg was hurting.' b. *di toko fan di jerma kali noko the child of the woman small still 'The woman's child is still small.' [!BB 230488:notes]

Also, utterances such as (46) below, in which the NP following fan appears in focus position, is acceptable only with the source interpretation: the possessive interpretation in which the snake head was cut, but not cut off, is unacceptable. (46)

da en gu tau, watekapte \i tibi fan BE one big snake what=lsg=cut-PF 3poss head of 'It is a big snake that I cut the head off.' [!AK 080390:pl7]

The first possessive construction, juxtaposition, does not bar pronouns from the possessor position, except for the short 3sg forms ο and a (see 6.3 below on the distribution of pronouns). In contrast, the dislocated possessive bars all pronouns from the possessor position, with the exception of the 3sg long form ori. Thus, whereas the dislocated possessive is used in the first possessive in (47), which is a 3sg possessive, this is impossible for the second, which is a lsg possessive. Note that exactly the same restrictions are imposed on dislocation of pronouns (see 2.3 on dislocation): dislocated NPs are usually full NPs; all pronouns are barred from this position, except for the 3sg pronoun ori. This supports an analysis of the possessive pronoun in the dislocated possessive as a resumptive pronoun. (47)

ori \i bwa nangnangwan eke., arum bwa kibakiba 3sg 3poss leg long-long=and lsg poor leg short-short 'His legs are long and my poor legs are short.' [HA Iukuba3:p2]

In addition, there appear to be some restrictions on the complexity of the possessor NP in juxtaposition, which do not hold of the dislocated possessive construction. Thus, [-proximate] is signalled on the possessor NP in the following example of a dislocated

162

6. The Noun Phrase

possessive by means of the postnominal demonstrative pronoun dida. Full NPs which contain demonstrative pronouns do not appear in the possessor position of juxtaposition constructions. (48)

di Jentok dida \i po, papa the woman =child that 3poss fa- father 'That girl's (fa-), father.' [AK 210788:6]

With respect to extraction from possessive constructions, pied-piping is obligatory. This is shown in 2.2.3 for extraction of wh-phrases, and in 14.2.7 for focus-extraction. This holds for the juxtaposition option as well as for the pronominal possessive. Note that in this respect, the pronominal possessive differsfrompostpositional structures (see chapter 7.3). Inalienably possessed nouns, i.e. bodyparts and kinship terms, often appear with a definite article instead of the possessive pronoun. This is restricted to third person singular possessors, and it is dependent on discourse context. The following examples are meant as an indication of the kinds of strategies at work. Consider for instance the following excerpt from a conversation: a person E. is introduced in the first utterance. Her sister is introduced in the second utterance; the kinship relation is marked by the possessive pronoun. In the third utterance, the speaker again refers to her sister, but the kinship relation is no longer indicated; instead, a definite article appears. (49)

Κ E. ο oh Έ.

kumte? \i sosoro oko? I SHAKE OF THE HEAD IN ANSWER I come-PF 3poss sister too di sosrs nokum kam the sister not=RESULT=come NEG has come? her sister too? oh, her sister hasn't come.' [BB 170190:pl]

Similarly in (50), a kinship relation is first introduced by means of a possessive pronoun (here lsg because the speaker uses a direct quote), and then referred to again in the form of a definite NP. (50)

...bi dateke dekjdce papa mu wari, ...say let=lsg take=lsg father go house so ο dekte di papa mu war so 3sg take-PF the father go house '(He) said: let me take my father home. So he took his father home.' [BB 110688:4]

The following example has been extracted from a conversation about a sick person. The first time the speaker mentions his leg, she marks the relation of possession by means of the possessive pronoun; when she refers again to the leg, it appears with the definite article.

Modification of the noun 163 (51)

\i bwa.. wa biginte an, 3poss leg PAST begin-PF swell and di wa.. biginte kurkuru, \i ondro this PAST begin-PF black 3poss under (SK ο ri\te) ehe, di bwa wa ri\d, riste (SK 3sg swell-PF) yes the leg PAST swell swell-PF 'His leg had begun to swell... and, this had begun to become black, underneath it [pointing at foot sole] (SK it had swollen) yes, his leg had (swell), swollen.' [BB 180290:p7]

6.2. Conjunction of NPs In the following, we will discuss coordinating conjunction of NPs and disjunction of NPs. For coordinating NPs, the instrumental/comitative preposition mete 'with' is used. Typological work shows that this is by no means a unique strategy (Payne 1985:29). The sentential conjunction an 'and' partially intrudes into this domain, but is not used very often. An example follows. (52)

dd titju bat nau ju hafindi.. di bol an \i darum the time=2sg kill-PF now 2sg have=open the belly and 3poss bowels 'When you have killed it, you have to cut open the belly and its bowels.' [AK 030688:p9]

Disjunction is expressed by use of GCE ar/or 'or'. Note that there are two conjunctions which may be used for sentential disjunction, viz. ar/or and noso (see 5.1); the latter cannot be used for disjunction of NPs.

6.2.1. Coordinating conjunction of NPs mete 'with' appears preceding the last conjunct; if the number of conjuncts is more than two, it may appear either preceding the last conjunct only, as in (53), or preceding all but the first conjunct, as in (54). (53)

(54)

aim, man, jerme tok all man woman=with child 'Everyone, men, women and children.' [AK 250190:11] fruku di, andi kenap kumte, morning the other person-PL come-PF di mame di papa me di, jungjermap the mother=with the father with the young=woman-PL 'In the morning the others came, the mother and father and the girls.' [AK 030688:p9]

164

6. The Noun Phrase

Instead of a conjunction, simple juxtaposition is sometimes used, as in the second part of the following example. (55)

\i mama me \i papa da disa en, 3poss mother with 3poss father BE this=FOC 3pl enidi justu bifi, atete, awawa, js no 3pl=this PASTHAB speak grandmother grandfather 2sg know 'Her mother and her father, (it) is this they used to speak, (and) (her) grandmother (and) grandfather, you know.' [RT 280186:64]

In the following examples, conjoined NPs appear in subject position and in object position, respectively. (56)

(57)

man met jerma justu bu dang man with woman PASTHAB drink there 'Men and women used to drink there.' [AK 290488:p2] orjokikte di sem guto, dd sem fini, met di sem kurkurgut 3sg=too=see-PF the same thing the same fire with the same black thing 'She too saw the same thing: the same fire and the same black thing.' [AK 210788:11]

There is a tendency to avoid having complex NPs in subject position: conjoined subject NPs often appear as dislocated constituents, as in die following examples. (58)

(59)

en malek metek tokap, ΐς kapa en tun one time=lsg with=lsg child-PL lpl cut-IPF one field 'Once, I and my children, we were cutting a field.' [AK 010390:12] di man me \i jerma, wel eni. saba en kreke the man with 3poss woman well 3pl cross one creek 'The man and his wife, well they crossed a creek.' [BB 290390:p9]

The conjoined NPs need not be of equal complexity, witness the following examples: the underlined conjunct is a complex NP. (60)

(61)

ek met en., kurkur man kumd fan stati lsg with one black man come from town 'Me and a black man (who) came from town.' [AK 250488:p2] a hatd dek dd se airi, dek da se airi met, 3sg have-to take the same egg take the same egg with dijrent kal gutap, wato ninte different small thing-PL what=3sg KNOW-PF 'He had to take the same egg (as we just discussed), take the same egg and other little things that he knew about.' [AK 050390:2]

Conjunction of NPs 165 Since mete, besides being used to conjoin NPs as in the preceding examples, is also used as an instrumental and comitative preposition, one may wonder at the categorial status of mete: is it a preposition in all cases, or does mete have dual category membership, as a preposition and a conjunction? Evidence against a prepositional analysis of mete is provided by the fact that it is not necessary that the conjuncts be located together or act together: although a comitative interpretation is more usual, it is not obligatory. Thus, in the following example, the mother and father left separately, and met each other 'over there'. In this respect, the interpretation of BD mete differs from that of the Papiamento comitative preposition ku 'with', which is similarly used to conjoin NPs, but requires a comitative interpretation (see Richardson 1977). (62)

ori.. 3sg an and 'Her over

mamet \i papa, en mut fan hiso mother=with 3poss father 3pl go-PF from here=so en., dekte mat so\kandi 3pl take-PF mate so=side mother and her father, they went away from here and married each other there.' [AK 030688:p2]

Muysken (1987:90f) presents arguments for an analysis of Saramaccan ku 'with' as a preposition; ku is also used both as a comitative preposition and as a conjunctor of NPs. Arguments for such an analysis include (a) pronouns following ku appear in the pronominal object form; (b) ku cannot conjoin clauses; (c) ku has a very general meaning (which Muysken refers to as 'linking marker'). There is much less evidence available in the BD case: since there are no special forms of pronouns which appear in object positions, no argument can be made equivalent to (a) above. The argument in (b) holds in BD: mete does not conjoin clauses; an 'and' is used for this purpose (see 5.1). Although mete does not have the general meaning noted for Saramaccan ku, it is used with non-comitative meaning in the idiomatic wenggi mete bwa [walk with foot] 'go on foot', wenggi metepata [walk with path] 'go by land', wenggi mete kujara [walk with canoe] 'go by canoe', et cetera, and in the examples below. (63)

(64)

ο glof met.au 3sg believe with=snake 'He believed in snakes.' [HA 020490:42] lur di gugu manjap, wat. fol me hari look the big-big man-PL what full with hair 'Take for instance the giants that are covered with hair.' [AK 050490:p26]

The main evidence in favour of a uniform analysis of mete as a preposition is the fact that it may conjoin wily NPs, not clauses. Nor can mete be used to conjoin adjectives, for which an 'and' is used. In addition, the more general meaning of preposition mete which is evidenced in utterances such as (63) and (64), makes it suitable for use with conjunctive meaning.

166

6. The Noun Phrase

6.2.2. Disjunctive conjunction of NPs The number of conjuncts is usually two, but I have come across an example containing three conjuncts. Note that ar 'or* appears preceding the second and third conjunct. Note also that the conjoined NP in (65) appears in subject position. All other examples involve object NPs.

(65)

ο

3sg

masi

andrd

JV

must

potjermara

\i

3poss old=woman=or

kene

nunto

bluru,

ar,

3poss brother or

mut

other person pull-PF=3sg go-PF 'It must have been his wife or his brother or some other person pulled him away.' [HA 020490:35]

Just as in the case of sentential conjunction by means of ar/or, it may be used both for inclusive and exclusive conjunction. Thus, in (66), either one or both of the conjuncts may be true, whereas in (67), obviously, if one of the conjuncts is true, the other must be false.

(66)

(67)

ο

mosli

jmda

kandikandi di birbil

or di wiruni

3sg mostly be=there side-side the Berbice or the Wiruni 'It is (i.e. it can be found) mostly at the banks of the Berbice or the Wiruni.' [AK 030688:p20]

dida

jermatok

or

man?

that=be woman =child or man? 'Is that a girl or a boy?' [AK 290488:p7]

The following example shows that extraposition of the second conjunct is possible. I have no other similar examples.

(68) hau

lang di

how long the

ju

jmda..

lag nok

la

mingkandi ka,

or di timba,

log not=RESULT reach waterside NEG or

nuna

the timber,

2sg be=there pull-IPF '(For) as long as (lit: how long) the log hasn't reached the waterside yet, or the timber, you are pulling.' [AK 120788:p2]

6.2.3. Gapping in conjoined NPs As shown by the following examples, a possessive pronoun may appear on both conjuncts, or only on the first.

Conjunction of NPs 167 (69)

(70)

dd sem jarek pap metek mam dot the same year=lsg father with=lsg mother die-PF 'In the same year my father and mother died.' [AK 280288:p3] ek papa mete mama dotote 1914 lsg father with mother die-PF 1914 'My father and mother died in 1914.' [EK 050688:1,1]

This holds also for definite pronouns with possessive reference (see 6.1.3 on this use of definite pronouns). Thus, whereas the definite pronoun appears on both conjuncts in (71), it appears only on the first in (72). (71)

(72)

a wail di, di: mam:e di papa jendz tunang,... and while the the mother=with the father be=there field=LOC... 'And while their mother and father were in the field,...' [AK 270190:1] ο frag di pap me ma di tok jendd 3sg ask the father with mother the child be=there 'He asked his father and mother: is the boy there?' [AK 270190:3]

If the definite pronoun does not have possessive reference, as in the following example, it must appear on each conjunct; note that there is no kinship relation between the three brothers and the girl in (73). (73)

di dri blurwapu me di jermatoko di ma mute, the three brother-PL with the woman=child this IRR go-PF ma en pleke go-IPF one place 'The three brothers and this girl will go, be going to meet somewhere.' [HH lukuba2]

There are two possible analyses for sentences such as (70): either the possessive pronoun modifies the conjoined NP, as in a, or the shared material has been deleted in the second conjunct, as in b.

(70)'

a. b.

[ eke [ papa mete mama ] ] [ [ eke papa ] [ mete [ 9 mama ] ] ]

There is some evidence from conjunction/disjunction of compounds that the b. analysis is correct, i.e. that shared material has been deleted in the second conjunct. This process will henceforth be referred to as Gapping. The evidence is presented by examples (74)-(77). Occasionally, shared parts of compounds are deleted in the second conjunct, as in (74): tokapu [child-PL], the head of the compound, has been deleted in the second conjunct. Compare this with the unacceptability of (74)' with the same reading as (74).

168

6. The Noun Phrase

(74)

S. ha m. usu tokap, mantokap mete j.ermz S. have many child-PL man=child-PL with woman 'S. has many children, boys and girls.' [BB 110190:14] (74)' di man mete di jermatoko the man with the woman =child a. 'The man and the girl.' / b. *'The boy and the girl.' [!BB 120488] Similarly in the disjunctive construction (75), the second conjunct lacks some material which is identical to that of the first. (75)

dida jermatok or man? that=be woman=child or man? 'Is that a girl or a boy?' [AK 290488:p7]

Compare (75) to the following examples: again, the second constituent also lacks some material which is identical to material which is present in the first constituent. Only in these cases are the constituents not conjoined: in (76), an equative copular construction, the first constituent is the subject, the second the nominal predicate; in (77), the first constituent is the subject, the second the object of the preposition foro 'before', which forms a temporal adverbial. From the context of (76) and (77), it is clear that the two constituents are to be regarded as having equal status; in other words, the nominal predicate in (76) is the noun jermatoko [woman=child] 'girl / daughter', not simply jerma 'woman'; similarly in (77), the object of foro is mantoko 'boy', not man 'man'. These phenomena are uniformly explained under the assumption that Gapping applies, and that its direction is rightwards, i.e. that identical material may be deleted in the second conjunct, or even in other constructions, such as (76); I have not come across other examples like (76). (76)

(77)

di man \i toko da en jerma the man 3poss child be one woman 'The man's child is a daughter.' [EK lukuba2:pl] di jermatoko dots for di man the woman=child die-PF before the man 'The girl died before the boy (did).' [BB 180290:p5]

In the following example, the head noun does not appear in the second conjunct. Note that the possessive lsg pronoun eke cannot be used nominally; the form ekeje [lsg-NOM] is the nominalized form. There are no other such examples. Note that the utterance is by BC, who is notorious for his imaginative language use; (78) may therefore be atypical. (78)

ori mama mete eke, da twe... sosro tokap 3sg mother with lsg be two sister child-PL 'Her mother and my (mother) are two sister's children.' [BC 160190:13]

Pronouns and their distribution

169

6.3. Pronouns and their distribution We may distinguish the following pronominal categories: personal pronouns, interrogative pronouns, relative pronouns, reflexive pronouns and indefinite pronouns. Interrogative pronouns are discussed in 2.2.2 (on interrogative sentences); see also chapter 12 on interrogative pronouns heading free relatives and relative clauses. Here, we will discuss personal pronouns (6.3.1), empty pronominal positions (6.3.2) reflexive pronouns (6.3.3), and indefinite pronouns (6.3.4).

6.3.1. Personal pronouns

6.3.1.1. Introduction The BD personal pronoun system does not differentiate for features such as gender, animateness, or inclusive. Pronouns are invariant for case, with the exception of the 3sg, for which there is a special genitive form, and restrictions on the distribution of short 3sg forms related to syntactic position. The pronoun forms are listed in table 6.2. There is some idiosyncratic variation in the choice of 3sg short forms, and some dialectal variation in the choice of lpl and 3pl pronouns.

Table 6.2. Berbice Dutch pronouns (BR = Berbice River, WCr = Wiruni Creek) SINGULAR

PLURAL

1.

eke

1.

enli (BR) / i\i, igi, ixi (WCr)

2.

ju

2.

jende

3.

ori (all positions)

3.

eni (BR) / eni, ini (WCr)

ο (subject / object) a (subject) fi (genitive)

The short 3sg form a is used in particular by RT. Although other speakers use it occasionally, RT is the only speaker who recognizes this form when asked; other

170

6. The Noun Phrase

speakers recognize the short form o, but not a. Its occurrence may be the result of alternation between /o/ and /a/, a very restricted phenomenon, as in alternation between oboko mdaboko 'hen' (from an EI etymon *oboko). If this assumption is correct, RT's frequent use of a may be explained as an idiosyncracy of the person who taught her the language, viz. her grandmother, combined with the fact that RT was never much exposed to a community of speakers of the language. Note also that RT always uses aboko with initial /a/, or the reduced form boko, but never oboko with initial /o/.1 The variation in lpl and 3pl forms represents dialectal variation between Berbice River (BR) forms and Wiruni Creek (WO) forms. In addition to a difference in form, there is also a difference in use: the lpl WCr form is sometimes used with singular reference. Thus, in (79) below (a euphemism for going to urinate), the reference is lsg; in (80), the speaker relates of an incident in which she did not take an active role, although she was present. The dialectal affiliation of speakers is given in 1.3. (79)

(80)

ig ma bolang beki lpl IRR bush=LOC little 'We are (i.e. I am) going into the bush a little.' [EK Iukuba2:p4] ig kapare me hauro lpl cut-IPF with cutlass 'We were (i.e. she was) cutting (it) with a cutlass.' [HA 020390:p5]

Personal pronouns cannot be used to refer to abstract concepts, although there is no constraint related to animateness. Compare examples (81)-(83) below. In (81), 3sg ori refers to food, and in (82), ο refers to a bed. (81)

(82)

en bi oprop oko, ori oko moi ka 3pl say pig too 3sg too good NEG 'They say pig too, it too isn't good.' (i.e. to eat) [BB 230290:p2] di bedi, ο masi brete so the bed 3sg must wide so 'The bed, it must be about this wide.' [BB 110688:2]

In contrast, the use of orito to refer to an abstract concept, as in (83), is unacceptable. Instead, either a demonstrative pronoun may be used, or a presentational construction. (83)

a. *o(ri) da lombo bers b. 3sg be bad story 'It is a nasty affair.'

dida da lombo bere / da lombobere that be bad story / BE bad story '(That) is a nasty affair.' [!AK 040488:p2]

There are two processes which reduce the visibility of pronouns: reduction, and cliticization. Reduced forms of pronouns are listed here in table 6.3. The extremely reduced forms ε [lsg], i [lpl], e/i [3pl] are sporadically used, cannot be modified (see below), and are attested only in subject position. The partly reduced forms are used more frequently. The frequency of full forms compared to reduced forms is to some

Pronouns and their distribution

171

extent dependent on the speaker: AK tends to use reduced forms more than other speakers, BB and AC tend to use reduced forms less than other speakers.

Table 6.3. Reduced forms of pronouns SINGULAR 1.

at (frequent)

PLURAL 1.

en\, el (BR; frequent) iL if (WCr; frequent)

ε (sporadical; subject)

i (WCr; sporadic; subject) 2.

(frequent)

2.

Jen (frequency depends on speaker) je (sporadic)

3.

or (frequent) ο (frequent; subject/object)

3.

en (BR, WCr) / in (WCr) (frequent) e (BR, WCr) / i (WCr) (sporadic)

The relation between the 3sg forms ori and ο in contemporary BD may be approached in different ways: the two may be seen as being unrelated, or ο may be seen as the shot form of the full form ori. In the latter case, we may expect to see the same kind of distributional differences that holds for other reduced forms of pronouns as compared to the full forms. This is not the case, however: the partly reduced forms (such as ek) have the same distribution as full forms, whereas ο does not have the same distribution as ori (see below), and the extremely reduced forms (such as ε) have a more limited distribution than does o. On the other hand, this difference between the reduced forms of other pronouns and ο may be ascribed to the fact that 3sg are used much more frequently than are other pronouns. Encliticization of a following constituent to a pronoun may also result in reduction. This type of cliticization is phonologically conditioned, as described in 9.3.2. Thus, a sequence of the form kV##kV, as in the following example, is a favourable environment for encliticization. (84)

ekoriplek

< eke = kori = pleke lsg = work = place 'My work place.' [AK 030688:pl5]

172

6. The Noun Phrase

6.3.1.2. The distribution of personal pronouns The distribution of the 3sg forms is the most interesting, because of the existence of different forms. Their distribution may be summarized as in table 6.4. below.

Table 6.4. Distribution of pronouns ori

0

a

\i

lsg, 2sg

plural pronouns

non-emphatic subject

+

+

+

-

+

+

object

+

+

-

-

+

+

resumptive subject pronoun

+

+

+

-

-

+

resumptive object pronoun

+

+

-

-

-

+

emphatic subject

+

-

-

-

+

+

dislocated

+

-

-

-

-

-

focussed

+

-

-

-

+

+

conjoined

+

-

-

-

+

+

nominalized possessive

+

-

-

+

+

+

modified by reflexive

+

-

-

+

+

+

genitival modifier

+

-

-

+

+

+

a in the object position of a verb would not be distinguishable from the imperfective suffix -a (the reduced form -are), due to encliticization. This seems a good reason for not wanting to use it there; nor is a found in the object position of prepositions, where there are no such disadvantages, however. Note that in positions where both ori and ο may occur, the latter is used much more frequently. Different forms, even when identical in reference, may be used in one sentence, as in the following example, where ori and a have the same reference. (85)

ori mjato \i selfii, an a piteke 3sg make-PERF=3sg 3poss self and 3sg give-PERF=lsg 'He made it himself and he gave it to me.' [RT 86]

Pronouns and their distribution

173

6.3.1.3. Modification of personal pronouns Emphatic, inclusive, possessive, reflexive, and adverbial modification of pronouns, and modification by numerals is summarized in table 6.5 below. Note that although -je is represented here as a suffix, it may be a clitic rather than a suffix; this issue is addressed in 8.1.

Table 6.5. Modification of pronouns Emphatic nominalization

pronounce

Emphatic proximate

pronoun=*ft'

Emphatic plural

pronoun (pi)- Ν

deverbal

A —> V

ingressive

V —> A

resultative

Vjvnt

^ V-J-R

valency augmenting

V]NTR

> VCAUS

causative

It is a misconception that multifunctionality would apply anywhere to any word. Holm (1988:85) points out that "Creoles are not syntactic free-for-alls in which any part of speech can become any other". Thus, the number of BD words which may be used in all major categories is very limited. A few examples follow. In as far as the relations between their different uses are not of the regular types to be discussed below, I will assume separate lexical entries for the different uses of these words.

248

8. Morphology

(65)

a. b. c. d.

dunggru 'dark' (adj), 'get dark' (v), 'night' (n) doto 'dead' (adj), 'die' (v), 'death' (n) \iki 'ill' (adj), 'fall ill' (v), 'make ill* (v), 'illness' (n), 'sick person' (n) fete 'fat' (adj), 'get fat' (v), 'fat' (n)

8.2.1. Verbs and nouns There are three kinds of relations between verbs and nouns: 1. Lexical: doto usually appears as an adjective 'dead' or as a verb which takes a theme subject 'die'. In the examples below, it is used as a noun, with two distinct meanings of 'death'. The different meanings of doto are obviously related to each other. However, whereas 'death' in the sense in which it is used in (67) is arguably derived from the adjectival/verbal use of doto, no such derivation can be postulated for its use in (66). We therefore assume separate lexical entries, at least for the adjective/verb doto, and for the noun doto in (66). (66)

(67)

tit doto klupte so ο stil dotd lahan alma di boki time death knock-PF so 3sg still die leave all the money 'When death knocked he still died leaving all his money.' [EK 080688:p20] doto, ο dasn twa dida ka death 3sg NEGHAB put that NEG 'Deaths, he didn't put those.' (i.e. he didn't register those) [AK 86]

2. Syntactically motivated: verbs which appear in fronted position in so-called predicate cleft constructions appear to be deverbal nouns. Whether these are derived by category conversion in the lexicon or not, is a matter of debate. In whichever way derived, the fact that these deverbal nouns are restricted to this particular construction shows that the rule by which they are derived is syntactically motivated. Predicate cleft constructions are discussed in 14.3, and will not be examined here. 3. Derived: Deverbal nouns can be derived from a verb stem or from a reduplicated verb by zero-derivation. Note that in Kouwenberg (1990), I assumed that there is a rule of category changing reduplication, which, through reduplication of a verb root also effects a category change from verb to noun. However, as we will see below, the iterative interpretation of reduplicated verbs is reflected in the meaning of the derived noun, which suggests that the noun derives from the reduplicated verb, rather than form the verb root. Similar derivations have been proposed for some Sranan reduplicative nominal derivatives based on a verbal root (Smith 1990). Consider the deverbal use of kapu in (68), and of reduplicated kapukapu (reduced to kapkap) in (69). In both cases, the meaning of the deverbal noun and the verbal base are transparently related. Note that in (69), the iterative interpretation of the reduplicated verb is reflected in the meaning of the deverbal noun.

Category conversion 249 (68)

(69)

tok pits en kap djes wanga di tibi laite hisa child give-PF one cut just where the head join-PF here=so me di.. badi an ο d:ot:e with the body and 3sg die-PF '(My) son gave it a real hard cut (lit. 'one cut') just where the head is joined with the body, and it died.' [AK 010390:20] SK: was ju Juso fo? AK: eni kapkap SK: what you use=3sg for AK: any cut-cut SK 'What do you use it (i.e. a certain type of knife) for?* AK: 'Any cutting.' [AK 190290:pll]

The deverbal noun appears with an adjective in (69). Some more examples of deverbal nouns which derive from a reduplicated verbal base follow in (70) and (71); these appear with the definite article, kosokoso 'coughing' in (70), lapulapu (reduced to laplap) 'cuffing, beating' in (71). Note again that the iterative interpretation of the reduplicated verb is reflected in the meaning of the deverbal noun. (70)

(71)

ο izapa beki, di kosokoso 3sg ease=up-IPF little the cough-cough 'It is easing up a little, the cough(ing).' [BB 260288:32] tidi man bin.. dekte di laplap? ο ma., bako stadi time=the man PAST take-PF the cuff-cuff 3sg IRR beat=3sg steady 'If the man had taken the cuffing? she would have beaten him steady.' [HA 230290:p23]

Other examples of deverbal nouns zero-derived from a monomorphemic verbal base follow. (72) illustrates deverbal use of bifi 'speak'; it appears with the plural suffix and is preceded by a (reduplicated) adjective. (73) illustrates deverbal use of koki 'cook'; it appears with the indefinite article and a PP complement. In (74), laki 'laugh' (reduced to lak) appears preceded by an adjective. (72) justu bihi alma kaindd lombolombo bifjap ek torangga PASTHAB speak all kind=of bad-bad speak-PL lsg fe&tOC '(They) used to say all sorts of nasty things in my face.' [BB 040388:pl8] (73) ο dasn sukoki ka, 3sg NEGHAB want=cook NEG so ori das mja.. en koki fijo nau so 3sg HAB make one cook for=3sg now 'He doesn't want to cook, so she cooks everything at once for him.' (i.e. in the morning she prepares all the meals for the day) [BB 290390:p5] (74) di man pu gu lak nau the man burst big laugh now 'The man burst into laughter.' [AK 220290:2]

250

8. Morphology

Among the verbs which I encountered as deverbal nouns derived from a verb stem are utterance verbs bifi 'speak', laki 'laugh' and futele 'converse'; psychological verb gloju 'believe'; inchoative bigin 'begin'; verbs of motion la 'reach', and wenggi 'walk'; and verbs of manipulation of objects bu 'drink', furu 'steal', kapu 'cut', klup 'knock', koki 'cook'. The following utterance illustrates the deverbal use of a verb erf motion. (75)

ix hafts /ende., la β mja, jefi dina di tafh di lpl have-to find reach for make eat dinner the afternoon this 'We have to find (a way to) get home to (make), eat dinner this afternoon.' [HA lukuba3:pl]

There is a wide range of verbs attested as deverbal nouns, especially among those derived from verb stems. Therefore, zero-derivation of deverbal nouns would seem to be potentially productive, and many verbs should be eligible to this operation. These expectations are not borne out: deverbal nouns are seldom used, and resistance to examples which I constructed was high. Of the reduplicated forms which I encountered, only kosokoso is accepted and used by virtually all speakers. Of the non-reduplicated forms, nominal use of kapu 'cut' is accepted by everybody, but nominal kapu appears to be a lexicalized form rather than a derived form, and is also used to mean 'operation'.

8.2.2. Adjectives and verbs The existence of a class of adjectives is a controversial matter in creole linguistics. Words that correspond to adjectives in the European lexifiers have been shown to be verbs in a number of creole languages. This section is concerned with evidence supporting a distinction between adjectives and verbs in BD. Consider for instance the different uses of BD moi 'good' illustrated below: moi appears as attributive adjective in (76), in predicative position in (77), and in predicative position with aspectual suffixation in (78). (76) ju ha moi sampot 2sg have good pepperpot 'You have a good pepperpot.' [BB 110386:9] (77) andre moi, andre lombo some good some bad 'Some were good, some were bad.' [RT 280186:53] (78) den ju ma 'stir stir' dangga tutu titi ju ninte moite then 2sg IRR stir stir there until time 2sg KNOW-PF good-PF 'Then you keep stirring until you know (it) is done.' [BB 110386:17] The question is whether moi as it appears in (76), (77) and (78) is the same word. I will argue that it is not, that moi in (78) is different from moi in (76) and (77), and that it relates to them as a derived form to a base form.

Category conversion

251

I will argue for two rules of category conversion: one which derives verbs from base adjectives, and one which derives adjectives from base verbs. The evidence consists of the following observations: 1. All BD words which are used as adjectives can also be used as verbs with related meaning, but only some BD words which are used as verbs can also be used as adjectives with related meaning. From this it follows that the adjective-verb relation in BD is not a relation of total identity. 2. There is evidence for predicative use of adjectives from different placement of adverbs relative to putative adjectives and veibs in predicative position. 3. There is evidence for a distinction between base forms and derived forms from different distributional properties. These observations will be elaborated below.

8.2.2.1. The attributive position We can begin by making a distinction between words that may normally appear in attributive position, i.e. the position preceding the noun, and words that do not. The assumption that elements which appear in the attributive position are not verbs is uncontroversial. There is a large, open-ended class of words that appear in spontaneous language use in attributive position. Among these are moi 'good', lombo 'bad', nati 'wet', weldri 'wild', pots, 'old', \iki ' ill', bam 'pretty', hau 'ancient', pakra 'worn', sutu 'sweet', kurkuru 'black', gruti 'green, raw', trou 'married', brzkz 'broken', doto 'dead', lefii 'alive'. There is also a large, open-ended class of words that do not normally appear in attributive position. Among these are Stative and non-stative verbs. Elicited judgements show that stative verbs (i.e. suku 'want', habu 'have',poko 'like',/«/« 'feel' (as in 'feel well'), bionto 'believe', glofu 'believe') are unacceptable in the attributive position. Judgements on the acceptability of non-statives such as kain 'pick' in this position are always negative initially, although some discussion about an appropriate context may result in positive judgements, as shown here. Note that the attributive use of a words such as kain involves a resultative reading, as reflected by the gloss 'picked'. (79)

%di kain lemuna jenda dangga the pick lemon be=there there 'The picked lemons are over there.' OK !BB 260290, !HA 230290 / * !HA 230290, !AK 040488

In (80) and (81), elicited judgements on the acceptability of various non-stative verbs in attributive position are given. There is a great deal of variation in judgements (indicated by %), and this variation seems to be random, i.e. predicting whether or not attributive use of a word will be acceptable is quite impossible.

252

8. Morphology

(80)

attributive use of non-stative intransitive and unaccusative verbs: % bana 'run aground', bila 'sink', brandi 'burn',/alu 'fall'.ßoro 'lose, get lost', jagi 'hunt', sara 'drop'; * bionto 'remember', bolo 'lie {davm)', furgete 'forget', mono 'sleep', nimi 'acquire knowledge', wenggi 'walk'. attributive use of non-stative transitive verbs: % ba 'kill', baku 'beat', banggi 'fear', buma 'throw (away), discard', fama 'finish' ,furu 'steal', fende 'find', gui 'fell (of trees)', kain 'pick', koroma 'lay (eggs)', mja 'make', sagi 'saw', skrifu 'write', soko 'dig', tama 'pick up', tembi 'sting', tulu 'bore', wai 'weed'; * bu 'drink', bugrafu 'bury', dakla 'search meticulously', deki 'take', findi 'open', furkopu 'sell', koki 'cook', ku 'catch', jefi 'eat', kapu 'cut', kjama 'build', krau 'scratch', kubri 'gather', nai 'sew', nunu 'pull\plandi 'plant', pi 'give', skiti 'shoot', striki 'press, iron', suku 'search', \ikri 'grate', telma 'repair', wa\i 'wash'.

(81)

Further evidence in support of a distinction between these two classes of words comes from the application of nominalization, i.e. the derivation of a noun from an adjective by suffixation of -je. This process is totally productive over the class of adjectives, but not over the class of verbs. Those words that appear unproblematically in the attributive position, also accept nominalization unproblematically; examples can be found in 8.1.1 above. Words that were identified as being unacceptable or only marginally acceptable in attributive position, do not or only marginally accept nominalization. The following is the only example that I have come across in spontaneous language use of a nominalized verb; note that nunu 'pull' is among those verbs which are not acceptable in attributive position. (82)

dida di nunuje that=be the pull-NOM 'That is the pulling type.' (i.e. a woricsong meant to be sung while pulling) [BC 130688:pl]

In addition, I have collected some elicited nominalized forms. These form a (small) subset of the verbs which informants accepted in attributive position. Below, nominalization of intransitive sara 'drop' and jagi 'hunt', and transitive kain 'pick' are illustrated. (83)

(84)

eke suka kain lemuna alen, ek suk saraje ka lsg want-IPF pick lemon alone lsg want drop-NOM NEG Ί want only picked lemons, I don't want of the type that dropped.' [!HA 230290:pl8] ek suku di käjapu lsg want the pick-NOM-PL Ί want the picked ones.' [!AK 050390:p20]

Category conversion 253 (85)

dida da di jagije that be the hunt-NOM 'That is the hunting one.' (context: pointing at one dog among the others) [!AK 010390:pl6]

The foregoing shows that there is at least a distinction between adjectives that may appear in the attributive position and accept nominalization, and verbs that do neither the attributive use of non-stative verbs such as kain 'pick' is at best secondary to their predicative use. Note that these two classes of words can not be distinguished on the basis of inherent stativity, as is shown by the following observations: - some of the adjectives clearly describe non-inherent properties (e.g. breke 'broken', trou 'married', doto 'dead', pote 'old') and virtually all may appear in attributive position in contexts which require an interpretation of inherent attribution as well as in contexts which require an interpretation of resultative attribution. In the latter case, although the adjective describes a state, this is conceived as the result of a process or event. Thus, (76), was uttered after the speaker had given a description of the preparation of pepperpot (an indigenous dish); she finished her description with the conclusion that after all that trouble, you would have a good pepperpot. - at least some of the words that are unacceptable or problematic in attributive position may refer to a resultant state in the form of a passive construction (see chapter 15 on passive constructions.) Consider for instance the following examples of spontaneously produced passivization of wa\i in (86), elicited passivization of wa\i in (87)a, and rejected attributive use of wa\i in (87)b. The attributive use of wa\i has a passive-like reading: similar to the passive constructions cited below, it refers to the state which follows from the activity described by the active use of waji. (86)

(87)

ο waits moi 3sg wash-PF good 'It had been cleaned nicely.' [AH 010788:6] a. di bitap wajte skono b. *di waji bitap the clothes-PL wash-PF clean the wash clothes-PL 'The clothes have been washed clean.' 'The washed clothes.' [!AK 220190:p26]

Nor is it the case that the attributive position contrasts with the predicative position with respect to stativity. Although the attributive position is a stative position, the predicative position is not necessarily non-stative: - there is a small class of stative verbs (suku 'want', etc.); these appear in predicative position, but are unacceptable in attributive position. (88)

*di suku bita the want dress attempted reading: "Hie wanted (for some purpose) dress.'

254

8. Morphology *di bionto here the believe story attempted reading: 'The believed story.' [!BB 090390:notes]

- words such as moi 'good' etc. appear in predicative position with stative inteipretation.

8.2.2.2. The placement of adverbs If adjectives appeared only in attributive position and verbs only in predicative position, the matter would end here. However, those words which I call adjectives also appear in predicative position, and do so with a stative interpretation. But there is a difference to be noted between the use of these words in attributive and predicative position: in attributive position, both inherent attribution and resulting attribution are expressed by the bare adjective (see the discussion preceding example ?). In predicative position, the latter requires the use of the PF suffix. Thus, whereas pote attributes the quality 'old' to the subject in both (89) and (90), the use of PF in (90) signals explicitly that the quality is conceived of as having developed as the result of a process, viz. of getting old. (89)

(90)

man atwel pote β bu so man too-much old for drink so '(The) man is too old to drink like that.' [AK 010390:5] B. moi ababskd, potdtd na, timi kori ababakha B. good any more=NEG old-PF now able work any more=NEG Έ . is no good any more. (He) has gotten old, (he) cannot work any more.' [BB 150190:46]

That pots, in (89) is an adjective in predicative position, whereas pots in (90) is a verb, can be seen from the placement of adverbs: adjectives in attributive position may be modified by an adverb; such an adverb appears preceding the adjective. For instance the adverb moi (not to be mistaken for the adjective) precedes the attributive adjective gu in (91). It also appears preceding a predicative adjective, as in (92). Note that pote is similarly preceded by an adverb in (89); adverbs which may modify a predicative adjective are moi 'good', atwele 'too much', so 'so'. (91)

(92)

ο krikte en.. moi gu goto 3sg get-PF one good big trench 'He got to a fairly big trench.' [AC lukuba:18] bikaso moi pots. because=3sg good old 'Because it is pretty old.' [AC 260288:4]

Category conversion 255 In contrast, when modifying a (stative or non-stative) verb, these adverbs follow the verb, as shown for moi 'good' and atwele 'too much' in the following examples. (93)

(94)

ο fento moi 3sg find-PF=3sg good 'He found it, yes.' [AC 260288:4] ο lurute A atwele 3sg look-PF A. too-much 'She looked after A. too much.' [BB 150190:1]

Similarly, when modifying the PF form of words such aspote 'old'.fete 'fat', the adverb cannot precede: (90)' ο potete atwele / *o atwele potete 3sg old-PF too-much / 3sg too-much old-PF 'He has gotten too old.' (95) da disa mja ju kikjo fa, Α ε, fetete so BE this=FOC make 2sg see=3sg (fat) (?) fat-PF so '(It) is this (that) caused (that) you see she ... has fattened so much.' [BB 200290:p4] Concluding, the relative placement of adjectives and adverbs is the same in attributive and predicative position, whereas the relative placement of PF forms and adverbs is identical to that of verbs and adverbs. This is evidence for the verbal nature of the PF form of words such as moi, and the non-verbal, adjectival nature of the bare form.

8.2.2.3. Aspect So far, we have been gathering evidence for a contrast between putative adjectives and verbs. It is to be noted that there is no contrast with respect to the placement of preverbal particles: these may appear with any of the words discussed here, with the 'bare' forms as well as with inflected forms, and without a difference in the interpretation of the preverbal particles. There is a contrast with respect to the use of aspectual suffixation, both in the acceptability of aspectual suffixation, and in the interpretation of aspectual suffixation. Non-stative verbs such as kain 'pick' may appear with or without aspectual suffixes, either IPF (in affirmative and negative contexts), or PF (in affirmative contexts). An example of IPF use of kain follows; note that it describes an event. (96)

en käja stedi 3pl pick-IPF steady 'They are picking (them) all the time.' [AK 080390:12]

256

8. Morphology

In contrast, aspectual suffixation on stative verbs is much more constrained, suku 'want' and habu 'have' may appear either without any aspect marking or with IPF, but do not accept PF aspect. Moreover, there appears to be no difference in meaning associated with the presence or absence of IPF. (97) illustrates IPF use of suku 'want'; it describes a state of affairs holding of its subject. (97)

bato wa bi ο sukwa mu k:andi di mama but=3sg PAST say 3sg want-IPF go side the mother 'But he said he wanted to go near his mother.' [BB 200290:p2]

poko 'like', glofii 'believe' and fitlu 'feel' (as in 'feel well') show the opposite pattern: they are incompatible with IPF. They may be used with PF, but in that case the perfective verb acquires resultative reading rather than the stative reading that these verbs normally have. The following examples illustrate this. In (98), the speaker describes how her husband-to-be first saw her, and took a liking to her. For the interpretation of (99) it is important to know that the speaker did not feel well when she uttered it. The question in (100) was posed after the speaker had been confronted with convincing evidence. (98)

pokteke, an d dektek like-PF=lsg and 3sg take-PF=lsg '(He) liked me, and he took me.' (i.e. he married me) [HA 140788] (99) ate ma deki ju mwa, titeke fultz moi do lsg IRR take 2sg go-IPF time=lsg feel-PF good though Ί will take you (there), when I feel well (again) though.' [BB 230288:20] (100) ο bi ju gloftε nau? 3sg say 2sg believe-PF now? 'He said: do you believe it now?' [AH 210390:26] With respect to aspect, many putative adjectives behave exactly like poko, glofii and fulu: IPF is unacceptable with words such as moi 'good', and the PF form has resultative interpretation. The examples (101) and (102) are illustrative. Note that although IPF is unacceptable with these words, a process interpretation can still be expressed, viz. by means of a copular verb such as kriki (see 4.4). (101) den ju ma 'stir stir' dangga tutu titi ju ninte moite then 2sg IRR stir stir there until time 2sg KNOW-PF good-PF 'Then you keep stirring until you know (it) is done.' [BB 110386:17] (101)' *o moja / ο krikja moi 3sg good-IPF / 3sg get-IPF good 'It is getting good.' (102) ο potete potete tutu ο dotote 3sg old-PF old-PF until 3sg die-PF 'She got older and older until she died.' [BB 86]

Category conversion 257 (102)' *o pota / ο kriJg'a 3sg old-IPF / 3sg get-IPF 'She is getting old.'

pote old

However, there are also a number of putative adjectives which do appear with IPF as well as PF, as illustrated here for doto 'die', drunggu '(get) drunk' and gu '(get) big*. In other words, this class of words allows for the expression of the resultative state (PF), as well as the process that leads to this state (IPF). (103) papa dota father die-IPF '(Her) father is dying.' [BB lukuba2:ll] (104) lombo pieke, wanggeni bwa drunggwa stedi bad place where=3pl drink-IPF drunk-IPF steady Ά bad place, where they drink and get drunk all the time.' [BB 140386:p5] (105) titi ju gwarz time 2sg big-IPF 'When you are growing up.' [BB 140386:p9] Note that aspectual suffixation is unacceptable in adjectival positions: in the attributive position, as shown in (106), nominalized, as in (107), and in the complement position of copular verbs, as in (108). (106) *di brante bwa / di brandi bwa the burn-PF leg / the bum leg 'The burnt leg.' [!BB 010488:p3, !AC 010488] (107) *di branteje, / di brandije the burn-PF-NOM / the bum-NOM 'The burnt one.' (108) *o droits moite 3sg turn-PF good-PF 'It has become good.' We may summarize these findings as follows; the words heading the columns are exemplary of a larger class of words.

258

8. Morphology

Table 8.4. The interpretation of aspectual distinctions kain 'pick'

suku 'want'

poko 'like'

moi 'good'

gu 'big'

0

event

state

state

state

state

PF

event

-

resultant

resultant

resultant

IPF

event

state

-

-

process/event

The class of words represented by moi 'good' includespote 'old', lombo 'bad', dum 'stupid', bam 'nice', hau 'ancient' et cetera. The class of words represented here by gu '(get) big' includes doto 'die', lefu 'live', breke 'break', drunggu '(get) drunk', \iki '(get) ill', nati '(get) wet', kra\i '(get) well', kurkuru 'blacken'. With respect to aspectual suffixation, the latter class of words behaves as if it was intermediary between the class represented by moi 'good' and the class represented by kain 'pick'. This is also reflected in the ambiguous status of words of the gu class in the construction illustrated in (109): in this construction, a PF form of the directional verbs mu 'go' or kumu 'come' appears, directly followed by an unsuffixed verb. The construction is virtually equivalent to a coordinate structure, and the event described by the following verb is interpreted as being realized (see 13.3.5 on this construction). Thus, in (109), the PF form of mu 'go' appears, followed by the unsuffixed verb twa 'put'. (48)

ο mutz twa en stilkandi ννετε dangga 3sg go-PF put one post=side again there 'She went and put (it) at a post again there.' [BB 110688:35]

However, if the word following the motion verb lends itself to a resultative state interpretation, this inteipretation is usually preferred, as is the case here for tulu 'bore, pierce'; in this case, the construction is not equivalent to a coordinate construction. (49)

ο kumte tulu 3sg come-PF bore 'It arrived bored.' (i.e. with holes) [!AK 050490:p37]

For some words of the gu class, it appears that either interpretation is available, as shown here for trou 'marry'.

Category conversion 259 (111) ο kumte trou 3sg come-PF marry a. 'He came (and) married.' b. 'He came married.' [AK 020490:p31] In contrast, there is no possibility for ambiguity when a word of the moi class appears in this position, as shown here for pots. The unacceptable interpretation has to be expressed by use of a coordinated construction.1 (112) ο 3sg

kumte pots hiri come-PF old here

'She arrived old.' / *'She came (and) got old here.' [BB 190488]

8.2.2.4. Discussion In the preceding sections, I have shown that a distinction between adjectives and verbs is legitimate, and that words that belong to the class of adjectives may appear as adjectives in predicative position. However, these words may also appear in predicative position with aspectual suffixes; here, we have noted that further differentiation in the class of adjectives is necessary, based on the acceptability of aspectual suffixes. This is represented here for moi 'good' andgu 'big'. (113) moi 'good' attributive — inherent / resultative state, as in en moi toko 'a good child' predicative — inherent state, as in di toko moi 'the child is good' — resultative state, as in di toko moite 'the child has become good' process — copular verb construction, as in di toko krikja moi 'the child is becoming good' gu 'big' attributive — inherent / resultative state, as in en gu toko 'a big child' predicative — inherent state, as in di toko gu 'the child is big' — resultative state, as in di toko gute 'the child has gotten big' — process, as in di toko gware 'the child is getting big' / di toko krifg'a gu 'the child is getting big' This may be coupled with the observation that whereas words of the moi class appear in attributive position most of the time, many of the words of the gu class appear in predicative position most of the time. It appears to make sense then, to postulate dual category membership for words of the gu class: these words may be assumed to belong to the class of adjectives as well as the class of verbs. However, words of the moi class appear in predicative position with verbal inflection, viz. the PF suffix, and must also be assumed to be verbs. The difference between moi and gu cannot be accounted few if we assume that both are base verbs. Instead, I postulate a rule of category conversion, which derives verbs from

260

8. Morphology

adjectives. The output of the derivation is an ingressive verb, i.e. one that describes entry into a state; that state corresponds to the state described by the adjective. This derivation in itself cannot account for the constraints on aspectual marking that hold for these verbs. Therefore, I assume that the derivation somehow marks the derived verb as belonging to the same class as poko 'like'. A more sophisticated theory of stativity and ingression than I am familiar with is needed to account for this behaviour in a more principled way. (114) a. moi 'good': A rule 1: A —> V b. gu 'big': A gu 'become big': V If rule 1 applies to a member of the^u class, the existence of the corresponding nonstative verb blocks the derivation. In addition, the fact that verbs such as kain 'pick' are marginally acceptable in attributive position is explained by the opposite rule of category conversion: rule 2 has the effect of deriving an adjective from a verb. That the result is only marginally acceptable is the result of the non-stative character of the base verb. (114) c. kain 'pick': V rule 2: V —> A d. suku 'want': V

8.2.3. Transitive and intransitive verbs In Table 8.3, the following rules of conversion are postulated: (115) VINTR VINTR

> VTR > VCA(JS

For a subset of verbs we find a regular correspondence between intransitive and transitive use. Among these are both base verbs and verbs derived from adjectives. Based on the intransitive/transitive dichotomy, we may distinguish three classes of verbs, viz. transitive verbs without intransitive counterparts, verbs which are both transitive and intransitive, and intransitive verbs without transitive counterparts. We will discuss these classes in turn.

8.2.3.1. Transitive verbs without intransitive counterparts These verbs are unproblematic for the derivation in (115), since this derivation is irrelevant to them.

Category conversion 261 Verbs which subcategorize for two internal arguments (pi 'give', wi\i 'show', twa 'put', tiri 'send') cannot be used as intransitives. Note however that pi 'give' and wi\i 'show' may be used with only an indirect object, and that tiri 'send' may be used without the goal argument. (116) *ori pi 3sg give 'She gives.'

*ori wi\a 3sg show-IPF 'She is showing.'

There is a large group of transitive verbs which are never intransitive. Among these are /ende 'find', bain 'cover', buma 'throw away', deki 'take', telma 'repair', draki 'carry', tama 'pick up', ba 'kill', kjama 'build'. Note that there are no derived verbs or verbs which are also adjectives in this class. (117) *ori fente 3sg find-PF 'She has found.'

*ori kjama 3sg build 'She builds.'

Idiomatic intransitive use, as of fends 'find' in (118), which is normally a transitive verb, is assumed to be lexically specified. (118) ju ma fende 2sg IRR find 'You will find out.' [EK lukuba2]

8.2.3.2. Transitive/intransitive verb pairs Some verbs may have understood objects. These are jefi 'eat', bu 'drink', koroma 'lay (eggs)', and lasan/lahan 'leave' which is understood as reciprocal when used intransitively, as shown below. This valency decrease is typical of a small number of verbs which I assume to be lexically specified for the option of appearing without an object (interpreted as the understood object); valency decrease is irrelevant for the proposed derivation. (119) eni lasante 3pl leave-PF 'They left (each other).' [!AK 290390:pll, !BB 290390:pl2] There are some verbs which usually appear with a subject only, but to which valency increase may apply. This does not affect existing argument structure: the subject of the intransitive verb is also the subject of the transitive verb. Consider for instance the transitive use of kori in (120). It is usually an intransitive verb, as in (121). In both cases, kori assigns an Agent role to its subject; valency increase adds a Theme argument.

262

8. Morphology

(120) ju mu kori di, di ke\i ka 2sg must work the the coffin NEG 'You mustn't build the coffin.' [AK 220290:15] (121) di man di ok ha andra.. monjap Jcorja meta the man this too have other black-PL work-IPF with 'This man too has some black men working with (him).' [EK 050688:3,28] Valency increase has also applied in the case of transitive use of ftutu 'flood' in (122), andgrui 'grow' in (124). A direct object has been added. However, in addition, transitive use of these verbs has an agentive reading which is not present in their normal intransitive use, as illustrated for flutu in (123), for grui in (125). (122) minggi flututo water flood-PF=3sg 'The tide met her.' (lit. 'the water has flooded her') [BB 050488] (123) minggi flutute water flood-PF 'The tide is high.' (lit. 'water has flooded') (124) an titjd sai nau dene ma pu nau an grui di hel tun an time=2sg sow now then=3pl IRR burst now and grow die whole field 'And when you sow, then they burst open and overgrow the entire field.' [AK 090388:p2] (125) ek gruite matara lsg grow-PF Matara Ί grew up at Matara.' [AK 250288:3] Valency increase may also apply to idiom chunks, witness the contrast between transitive (126) and intransitive (127). (126) dunggru ka\to night shut-PF=3sg 'Night fell on him.' [HA Iukuba3:p2] (127) dunggru ka\te night shut-PF 'It has gotten daric.' (lit. 'night has shut') There are many verbs which appear as causative/non-causative pairs. In this relationship between verbal uses, the subject of the non-causative verb is the direct object of the causative verb, and the subject of the causative verb brings about the situation described by the non-causative verb. Among these are breke 'break', brandi 'bum', sara 'drop', grui 'grow', nati 'wet', bila 'sink', bima 'extinguish', wasa 'scatter',kurkuru 'black(en)', blende '(become) blind 'Mi 'shut',sei 'damage'. Below, both non-causative and causative use of grui 'grow' are illustrated.

Category conversion 263 (128) dek gruit meien man, en potman wat gruitek na BE=lsg grow-PF with=one man one old=man what grow-PF= 1 sgnow '(it is the case that) I grew up with a man, an old man who brought me up.' [AK 250288:14] kurkuru 'black, blacken', which belongs to the group of words for which I postulated dual category membership (both adjective and verb), is also attested as an intransitive as well as transitive verb, as in (129) and (130), respectively. This appears to hold of all verbs of dual category membership; some other such verbs are sei 'damage', nati 'wet'. (129) eke Iura di εηε kurkurte lsg see-IPF the rain black-PF Ί saw that it had overclouded.' (lit. 'that the rain had blackened' [BB 88] (130) di jerma kurkurte fi torhari the woman black-PF 3sg eye=hair 'The woman used mascara.' (lit. 'the woman blackened her eyelashes' [HA 86] The following examples illustrate transitive use of blende 'blind' in (131)a, and intransitive use in (131)b. Note that (131)b describes the result of (131)a in the text from which these examples were extracted. (131) a. en bi dat, ο mo blendeni 3pl say that 3sg go blind=3pl 'They said that he would blind them.' [AK 210788:7] b. di potman da., blendso biginte blende the old=man BE blind=FOC=3sg begin-PF blind "The father, he started to really get blind.' [AK 210788:10] Some transitive uses of verbs which are usually intransitive are somewhat unexpected. For instance, in (132), the motion verb paka 'exit, come out' is used transitively. I would have expected paka to pattern with other motion verbs (see below). (132) tito Η>a sukwa β time=3sg PAST want-IPF for paka di tok fan di exit the child from the 'When he wanted to come (and) 200290:p6]

kum.. come wariangga house=LOC remove the child from the house.' [BB

The transitive use of paka in (132) could very well be expressed as in (132)' instead. Comrie (1985:332-333) points out that the distinction between analytic causatives (where a verb such as mja 'make' expresses causation) and morphological causatives (where the causative form of a verb such as paka 'come out' expresses causation) may

264

8. Morphology

correlate with a difference between mediated and direct causation. I have not investigated this matter, but it is true that analytic causatives attested in BD do not express direct causation. (132)' ο wa sukwa mja di toko paka 3sg PAST want-IPF make the child exit 'He wanted to make the child leave the house.'

fan di wariangga from the house=LOC

Also, the transitive use of many verbs leaves one to wonder why other—similar— verbs do not enter into intransitive/transitive relations. Thus, intransitive lombo '(become) bad' assigns a Theme role to its subject; in this respect, befit, 'tremble', weldri ' (become) wild', and ri\i 'swell' are no different. But whereas there is a transitive lombo 'do bad (to someone)', which assigns a Theme role to its object, there are no transitive befu, weldri and ri\i. Transitive lombo is illustrated in example (133) (a line from a song). (133) ju kumu lombo eke 2sg come bad lsg 'You are coming to harm me.' [BB 88] I assume a rule of category conversion for the verb pairs described here. In the case of the increase of valency, the direction of the derivation is clear: the transitive verb derives from the intransitive verb. This is not so clear for causative verb pairs: many of these verbs appear as causative verbs as often as they appear as non-causative verbs. The only evidence against an anti-causative derivation (i.e. an operation which derives the non-causative from the causative) cones from the use of verbs such as lombo '(become) bad', which belongs to the class of verbs derived from adjectives. Since lombo is derived as an intransitive verb, transitive lombo must be assumed to derive from intransitive lombo. The different derivational relations described above (increase of valency and causative) apply to different verbs generally, but one verb appears in both relationships: grui 'grow', as indicated in (134). Note how different the derivations are: the increase of valency appears to refer to Case-assigning relations, viz. Subject and Object, with the same NP appearing in subject position but bearing different thematic roles. In contrast, causative appears to refer to thematic-relations, with the NP bearing the same thematic role, viz. Theme, appearing in different positions. Note that strictly speaking, causative is also an operation of valency increase; I reserve the term valency increase for the non-causative operation for reasons of organisation. (134) grui 'grow': Theme; a. Valency increase: grui 'overgrow': Agentj, Theme b. Causative: grui 'bring up': Agent, Theme; The derivation of transitive grui through valency increase differs from that of the derivation of transitive kori, as in (135), in that the latter involves only the addition of

Category conversion 265 a direct object, whereas the former also involves promotion of the NP which bears the Theme role to the Agent role. (135) kori 'work': Agent; Valency increase: kori 'work, construct': Agent;, Theme The derivation of the causative applies only to verbs with Theme subjects. It follows the same format for all verbs it applies to, as for grui in (134), and for blende 'get blind' in (136). (136) blende 'get blind': Theme; Causative: blende 'cause to become blind': Agent, Theme; A problem is whether the verbs to which these derivations apply should be assumed to be lexically specified for the derivation. After all, both operations apply to a subset of intransitive verbs. The number of verbs for which valency increase is attested is particularly small. On the other hand, the variety of verbs attested as transitives due to valency increase (with Agent subjects, e.g. kori 'work', Theme subjects, e.g. grui 'grow', and idiom chunks, e.g. dunggru kalte 'night has shut') points to the potential of valency increase as an operation which can apply to any verb. Furthermore, the unpredictability of the increase of valency suggests that its application is largely determined by pragmatic considerations. We may therefore assume that it may apply to any verb, and that failure to apply has to do with pragmatic considerations rather than reasons of principle. We cannot call upon pragmatic considerations to account for failure of causative derivation to apply: as we will see below, there is a large number of verbs which are always intransitive, among these verbs such as riji 'swell' and befii 'tremble'. These verbs assign a Theme role to their subjects, just as grui 'grow', breke 'break' etc. Therefore, we must assume verbs to which causative derivation applies to be specified for this derivation.

8.2.3.3. Intransitive verbs without transitive counterparts Motion verbs such as mu 'go', manggi 'run', bolo 'lie (down)', koro 'descend', tan 'stand', appear with a subject and an optional location complement. Again, idiomatic transitivity, as in the case of wenggi 'walk' below, is assumed to be lexically specified. (137) eni wenggite di hele pleke 3pl walk-PF the whole place 'They searched the entire area.' [BB 88] In addition, a large group of verbs which have Theme subjects cannot appear with an object NP. Examples are befit 'tremble', bia 'cook until done', doto 'die', rifi 'swell', kara 'suffice*.

266

8. Morphology

As indicated above, these verbs are problematic for the proposed derivation. Note that blocking as a result of the existence of transitive verbs which express related concepts is available for only some of these verbs. For instance, koki 'cook' and ba 'kill' relate in this way to bia 'cook (until done)' and doto 'die'.

8.3. Compounding There are no compound adjectives in BD. Nor do we find any compound verbs, except perhaps the negative auxiliary verb kantimi 'cannot, not be able'; see 3.1.2 on this matter. Complex numerals—which will not be discussed here—excluded, compounds are always nominal, and rarely consist of more than two members. In the following, I will assume the Right-hand Head Rule for BD, first explicitly formulated for English by Williams 1981, i.e. the rule that says that the rightmost member of a complex word is the head. The head of the compound determines its category and its specification for the feature number. Compounds tend to be endocentric (in the terminology of Anderson 1985:46), i.e. compounds tend to have a semantic function similar to that of one of their parts. Thus, kaukautei and kofitei are both a kind of tei 'hot drink'. (138) kaukau-tei / kofi-tei cocoa='tea' / coffee='tea' 'Hot chocolate.' / '(Drinking) coffee.' We may distinguish between the member of the compound which names a class of objects, tei 'hot drink' in (138), and the member of the compound which differentiates this class or defines a specimen of this class, kaukau 'cocoa' and kofi 'coffee' in (138). I will follow Anderson (1985) in referring to these as the modified and the modifier, respectively. As we will see below, there are some compounds in which the semantic head is not easily determined. BD has very little compounding which is non-compositional, i.e. there are very few compounds the meaning of which cannot be derived transparently from the meanings of their parts. In the following, we will first examine nominal compounds, and then turn to location compounds and temporal compounds. Although the latter also belong to the category of nouns, they have fixed heads, and they may appear in adverbial positions. We will examine the internal structure of compounds, and the semantic function that compounding performs.

8.3.1. Nominal compounds The rightmost member of a nominal compound is necessarily a noun, because it is the rightmost member which determines its category, and there are no exocentric compounds. There is variation in the category of the preceding members of the

Compounding 267 compound. There are NN, VN, and AN compounds, i.e. compounds consisting of two members, the left-hand member being of the category Ν, V, and A, respectively.

8.3.1.1. NN compounds We may distinguish NN compounds with respect to the kinds of relations that exist between the modifier and the modified, as summarized in (139). (139) 1. 2. 3. 4.

modifier: kind of animal gender of whole

modified: Ν kin Ν part

The 'kind of N' type of compounds is illustrated in (140)-(142) below. These compounds are all headed by mama, which literally means 'mother', but has a derived meaning which may approximately be rendered as 'controlling and/or life-bestowing entity'. In this use, a mama is always defined in relation to something else, i.e. it does not exist independent of another entity. In (140), some examples of compounds which describe the inhabiting spirits of waters and trees are given. (140) a. minggimama

< minggi=mama [water=mother] 'essential spirit of the water' (be it creek, river or lake) b. krekemama < kreke=mama [creek=mother] 'essential spirit of the creek' c. kumakamama < kumaka=mama [silvercottontree=mother] 'essential spirit of the silvercotton tree' d. darinamama < darina=mama [darina=mother] 'essential spirit of the darina tree'

(141) illustrates the use of mama to refer to certain insects, and (142) contains miscellaneous examples. Note that the examples of (141) and (142) are not as transparent, semantically, as those of (140). (141) a. mabamama b. tukumamama (142) a. taumama b. pilimama c. enemama d. kamudimama

< maba=mama [honey=mother] 'bee' < tukuma=mama [tukuma=mother] 'the fly which lays the eggs from which come the 'tukuma' larvae' < tau=mama [snake=mother] 1. 'snake' (of a particularly large size); 2. 'snake doctor' < pili=mama [arrow=mother] 'bow' < ene=mama [rain=m other] 'rainbow' < kamudi=mama [anaconda=mother] name given to a girl who was liberated twice from the lethal embrace of the anaconda

268

8. Morphology

mama may refer to humans, as in taumama 'snake doctor', to mythical creatures that are similar to humans, as in minggimama 'water mother', to animate non-human beings, as in mabamama 'bee', and to inanimate objects, as in pilimama. It is not gender-specific, witness its use in taumama 'snake doctor'; the essential spirits of trees are thought to be male too. The examples given above are not exhaustive, and it is clear from the variety represented here, that compounding as in (140) and (141) is quite productive. The compounds in (142) on the other hand have meanings which are not totally transparent, and do not represent productive compounding. In each case, the compound has the semantic function of its head, i.e. it defines a kind of mama. With the exception of (142)d, once its reference is established in discourse, mama can be used without the modifier to refer to the entity described by the compound. This is illustrated here for the essential spirit of a creek.

(143) en bi

di

mama das

je

di

krek bof

3pl say the mother HAB be the creek top 'They say the 'mother' is at the head of the creek.' [AK 080390:3] In some cases, the leftmost element may be nominalized. Thus, in the appropriate context, di kumakaje [the silvercottontree-NOM] 'the silvercotton tree one' could be used to refer to the essential spirit of the silvercotton tree. However, many of the compounds in (140)-(142) are not totally transparent and/or name-like; nominalization of the leftmost member is not possible for those. Some other examples of compounds of which the morphological head and semantic head coincide follow. Note that the modifier noun in (144)c is itself a compound grotala 'Governor'. (145) illustrates gender differentiation. (146) is not totally transparent, since it does not refer to a kind of cow, but to an animal which looks like a cow. For these compounds, except for minggikui, it is also possible to refer to the entity named by the compound simply by use of the head noun, once its referentiality has been established. (144) a. taukapu taukapu

< tau=kapu [snake=cut] 'snake cut' (treatment against snake

< b. kuinama c. grotalaboki < (145) a. jermatoko
/o/. The same development relates gwei to gui 'throw' (Berbice River and Wiruni Creek forms, respectively): this development would have resulted in goi < *guei. Since /u/ is the BD reflex of many etymons containing [o], a subsequent development /o/ -> /u/ which yields gui is not problematic. /io/ as in bionto 'remember, believe', fiolo 'violin', kilioro 'creole'. The high vowel optionally loses syllabicity. /ou/ only in trou 'marry'. The high vowel optionally loses syllabicity. Note that suffixation of PF may result in the loss of the high vowel: troute - trotz (marry-PF). /ui/ as in kui 'cow', buiwari 'prison', gui 'throw'; the /i/ is never syllabic.

9.1.1.3. Allophony of vowels The distribution of vowel phonemes and their allophones over vowel space is illustrated in Table 9.3 below. Table 9.3. Allophony of vowels

•upper boundary of /o/

•lower boundary of /u/

Lines indicate boundaries between phonemes. A symbol on a line indicates that this allophone is shared by the phonemes on either side. Thus, [i] is an allophone of both /i/ and /e/. A dotted line separates /u/ from /of, because the vowels in both fields may surface as allophones of /u/, while only the lower field represents the allophonic variation of /o/. The crossed out parts of the diagram indicate that vowels in those parts of the diagram are neither phonemes nor allophones of Berbice Dutch. The most significant allophony is found in the realisation of the back vowels: /u/ is highly unstable and can surface as any vowel in the range of both /u/ and /o/. Thus, we encounter [jo] for /ju/ (2sg), [toro] for /turn/ 'palm' (sp.), [goi] for /gui/ 'throw', etcetera. This alternation is very frequent and applies in any position, whether wordfinal, word-initial or word-medial. Note that if a word contains various occurrences of /u/, these do not necessarily harmonize in their surface forms. Thus, for /ongluku/

282

9. Phonology

'accident' we may encounter [onggluku], [onggloko], [onggloku] (all recorded from the same informant). As a result of this allophony, distinctiveness of /u/ and /o/ is sometimes lost. For instance, /turn/ 'palm' (sp.) and /toro/ 'face, eye' partly share the same allophones. /i/ and /e/ share [i] as one of their surface forms. This can also lead to loss of distinctiveness, for instance for /win/ 'curse* and /weri/ 'weather* which share [wtri] as a possible realization. Similarly, [tAkA] is a possible realisation of both /taka/ 'branch' and /toko/ 'child'.

9.1.1.4. Vowel alternation There is some highly restricted vowel alternation between /ε/ and /i/ in final position, between /e/ and /i/ in medial position, and between /a/ and /o/. This alternation is lexical, i.e. it is limited to specific lexical items. In the case of /ε/ - /i/ alternation, /ε/ may be assumed to be the base form, since the form with final fi/ sometimes violates constraints on the distribution of /ε/. This is the case in leri 'learn' and weri 'again' (used by BC instead of lere and were respectively). Other than that, this kind of alternation is found for andre - andri 'other', atre - atri 'back', and kante - kanti 'cannot'. Alternation between /e/ and /i/ is restricted to a few words: kerki - kirki 'church', skreki - skriki 'frighten', and eni - ini (3pl). In addition, BB used skiti - sketi alternation for skiti 'shoot' in a fable (sketi normally means 'defecate'); the alternation appears to have been fee· dramatic effect, as shown by the relevant excerpt. (3)

(4)

ori ma skiti nau, Φβ\ΐ, 3sg IRR shoot now fish 'He is going to shoot fish.' ο bifi di jerm igi mu mu, igi mu mu, sketi fe\i 3sg say the woman lpl go go lpl go go 'shoot' fish 'He told the girl we are going to, we are going to 'shoot' fish.' [BB lukuba2:12] dd man hafii mu weres di takatakang, mo sketi wer$ the man have-to go again (=s?) the branch-branch=LOC go 'shoot' again 'The man has to go again upon the branches, to shoot again.' an skiti, sketi, skiti, sketi, skiti, tuto skitite di feli and shoot 'shoot' shoot 'shoot' shoot until=3sg shoot-PF the fish 'And pew! paw! pew! paw! pew! until he shot die fish.' [BB lukuba2:12-16]

Alternation between /a/ and /o/ is restricted to stadi - stodi 'steady' (note that the GCE form stedi is used most of the time), aboko - oboko 'hen', a ~ ο (3sg; ο is much more frequent), sa ~ so (enclitic focus marker; sa is more frequently used), ma - mo and sa ~ so (Irrealis markers; the forms which contain /o/ are very rarely used). There is some alternation between /e/ and /ε/ due to GCE influence. Thus, BD has (English-derived) redi 'get ready', aredi 'already', and (Dutch-derived) eni 'any'; instead, many speakers use redi, aredi, and eni.

Segmental phonology 283

9.1.2. Consonant phonemes and their distribution The consonant phonemes of BD are given in table 9.4 below.

Table 9.4. Consonant phonemes bilabial Plosive: voiced: voiceless:

labiodental

b ρ f

Fricative:

(v)

Liquid:

alveolar

palatal

velar

d t

g k

s

(x)

glottal

(z)

r, 1

Approximate cons.: Cont.: (w)

(j> (?)

Spread: Nasal:

m

η

Symbols given in parentheses represent sounds with a very limited distribution, such that their phonemic value may be called into doubt: /v/ and /z/: these are borrowed phonemes, found only in some words of Guyanese English parentage, e.g. sevn 'seven* (cf. BD sewn 'seven'), kazn 'cousin' (also kasn).

/ς/ and Ixl: these are found only in the Wiruni creek versions of the lpl personal pronoun igi/ixi/ili (enli for Berbice River speakers). Rather than postulating phonemic status, we posit [ς] and [x] as allophones of /J/ for those speakers (or as allophones of /s/ preceding /i/; see below). /s/and/J/: the only near-minimal pair which justifies phonemic contrast of /s/ and /J/ is suku 'want, seek' (with penultimate stress) vs. Juku 'dear child' (with final stress), /s/ and l\l are almost in complementary distribution: f\/ is always found when /i/ follows, whereas /s/ is found preceding any other vowel. Compare birbi\i 'river', a\i 'bait', lima 'move', with saka 'bag', suti 'quiet', sets 'stay*. From these contrasts, it would seem that [J] is a phonologically conditioned allophone of /s/. However, /{/ is found also in lukuli fluku flu (affectionate terms of address for a child), lurum 'dirty, nasty', lepu 'soap', tultul 'brains', watral 'waterhare', and in some words which represent fairly recent loans, e.g. lap/lapu 'shop'. Note that the distributional restrictions hold only for monomorphemic forms; thus we find [si] sequences as a result of cliticization, as in the following example.

284

9. Phonology

(5)

en m:\varek ni wangsin mwa ka 3pl go-IPF=lsg KNOW where=F0C=3pl go-IPF NEG 'They would go, I don't know where they used to go.' [HA 100390:35]

/w/ and /j/: these are in complementary distribution with /u/ and /i/ in syllable-initial position. Rather than posit phonemic status for /w/ and ft/, we may assume underlying /u/ and /i/; the rule of syllabification will syllabify high vowels as onsets.

9.1.2.1. Syllabicity of consonants The alveolar nasal and lateral consonants /n/ and /I/ constitute word-final syllables in a small number of words, /n/ is syllabic in: egn 'own', kosn 'pillow', negn 'nine', sewn 'seven', tafn 'afternoon', tegn 'picture, drawing', and torn 'between'. It is also syllabic for some informants in gosndaka 'Christmas'; this however is the result of lexicalization of a reduced form; the full form is grosondaka. f\j is syllabic in: apl 'orange', tafl 'table' (note that HA and BB sometimes use taflu instead).

9.1.2.2. Allophony of consonants /n/ in the position preceding a velar plosive is realized as [tj]. In the transcription, [q] is represented as ng. Examples are bangki 'bench', dungkwati 'mischievous', minggi 'water',pringgi 'jump'. ganggang 'grandmother' and springhan 'grasshopper' are the only cases in which a velar nasal appears without a following velar plosive. In ganggang, it appears wordfinally, in springhan syllable-finally. These words may be compared to cases in which /ng/ appears in syllable-final position due to reduction (see 9.2.3 below). In such cases, the plosive is underlyingly present, but not realized, as in mingmama 'water mother' < minggi=mama (water=mother), the reason being that voiced obstruents cannot appear in coda position. Similarly, in ganggang and springhan, we may postulate an underlying syllable-final /g/, so that we do not need to postulate phonemic value of [q]. The underlying representations are /gangang/ and /springhan/; as in the reduced form /mingmama/, the /g/ cannot surface because of its syllable-final position. BC is the only speaker who displays allophony of /l/: he freely alternates between [r - 1], in word-initial as well as word-medial position. Some examples are: mereke meleke 'milk', roro - rolo 'roll', brende - blende '(get) blind', boro - bolo 'belly', refu - lefu 'live', ruru - luru 'look'; in each case, the second form is the only form used by other speakers. There are however some words which display consonant alternation between /r/ and /l/; see following section on consonant alternation. /m/ and /n/ alternate in sontiti - somtiti 'sometimes'; the Dutch etymon has m; the occurrence of η in its BD cognate is due to optional assimilation. See 9.1.3 below for a discussion of such assimilation phenomena.

Segmental phonology 285 9.1.2.3. Consonant alternation /r/ and /I/ are distinctive in many words (e.g. ruku 'smell' vs. luku 'jaw'), but we find lexical alternation between /r~V in a small number of words: brur-bluru 'brother' (note: *bruru does not exist), rupu-lupu 'call', fruferi-frufeli 'bother, trouble'. BC is the only speaker who displays free variation between /r~l/ in all contexts. /k/ and /g/ alternate in jaki-jagi 'hunt'; both forms are readily accepted by informants. This may be contrasted with forms which contain [g] as a result of lenition of /k/, and which are not accepted by informants (see below).

9.1.2.4. Lenition Lenition or weakening of obstruents may be characterized by movement to the right along the hierarchies in (6) (Lass 1984:177): (6)

a. stop > fricative > approximant > zero b. voiceless > voiced

Thus, lenition may have the effect that a voiceless obstruent is realized as the corresponding voiced obstruent. This may apply in particular to voiceless obstruents in intervocalic position, as in (7). (7)

k —> g, e.g. ababaga < ababa=ka 'anymore=NEG' f - » v, e.g. levu < lefii 'live' J Z, e.g. blaZi < bla\i 'blow'

A voiced stop may be changed to the corresponding continuant, and fricatives may lose their stridency, resulting in [h]; /f/ may even lose its consonantality in intervocalic position, and be realised as a glottal stop p]· (8)

b —» ß,w (between vowels), e.g. haßu, hawu, hau < habu 'have' ρ —> Φ, e.g. Φoko < poko 'like' (v.) g —> γ, e.g. τautu < gautu 'gold* k —> x, e.g. rexti < rekti 'right' f —» Φ,ΐν (between vowels), e.g. ΜΦϊ, bihi, bi?i < bifi 'speak'

There is also some allophony which is pragmatically motivated. We may distinguish two types of motivation: (i) Emphatic speech optionally results in devoicing of voiced consonants. In terms of the hierarchy in (6), this involves movement to the left, i.e. strengthening or fortition. Other (optional) effects of emphatic speech are the following: lengthening and/or devoicing of the consonant preceding a stressed vowel; emphatic stress and/or lengthening of the stress-bearing syllable in words which carry sentential stress, i.e. main

286

9. Phonology

verbs, nouns and adjectives may be affected. (8) illustrates lengthening of the initial consonant of the main verb drai 'turn' without devoicing. In (9), devoicing of the initial consonant is illustrated: t:rok < droko 'dry'. (9)

(10)

so en hatd d:rai nau so 3pl have-to turn now 'So they had to return.' [AK 250290:30] kapkapteni an.. t.rokten da forteken kunu cut-cut-PF=3pl and dry-PF=3pl there before=3pl stink '(they) cut them up and dried them there before they would stink.' [AK 250190:12]

(11) Emotional speech, which may result in the voicing of voiceless consonants (i.e. lenition). The total effect of emotional speech is the following: it may result in lengthening of the onset of a stress-bearing syllable and/or lengthening of the stressbearing vowel, and/or emphatic stress. In addition, voiceless consonants may be voiced in emotional speech; this is a feature of AK's speech more than anyone else's. In the following example, the affected words are the main verb (baku 'beat') and the object NP (fi papa 'his father'); note that both the possessive pronoun and the noun are affected. (11)

dL mantoko da en lom:antok ju ninte, the man-child be one bad=man=child 2sg KNOW-PF ο jus tu bag \i papa 3sg PASTHAB beat 3poss father (SK bakwo?) bag Zi babd (SK beat=3sg?) beat 3poss father 'The son is a bad son you know, he used to beat his father (SK beat him?) beat his father.' [AK 180190:11]

For a more precise statement about the effects of emphatic speech and emotional speech, and in particular about the constituents which may be affected, a more in-depth study of texts needs to be made.

9.1.3. Segmental processes: assimilation In assimilation, one segment becomes more like another. Assimilation is a very restricted phenomenon in BD: we find assimilation only in NP clusters (N = nasal, Ρ = plosive). In such clusters, the Ν assimilates to the place of articulation of the following P. This applies in monomorphemic words as well as (optionally) ovamorpheme boundaries. In monomorphemic words, we find almost total predictability of the place of articulation of the Ν in NP clusters: bilabial if Ρ is /b,p/, alveolar if Ρ is /d,t/, velar if Ρ is /g,k/. The only exceptions are a few words with /m/ in unpredictable clusters:

Segmental phonology 287 (12)

nimdali 'nothing* hemdu 'shirt' somtiti - sontiti 'sometimes' femtika 'honeycomb' blumki 'flower'

Note that there is optional assimilation in somtiti. Some examples which illustrate the predictability of most NP clusters follow: (13)

Ρ is bilabial Ρ is alveolar lampu 'lamp' kandi 'side' dembrari 'Georgetown' mendle 'waist'

Ρ is velar nanggwa 'long' dungkwati 'mischievous'

Suffixation of PF -te to a verb of which the final consonant is /m/ may result in a /mt/ sequence if the intervening vowel is deleted. In some cases, optional assimilation of the nasal to the place of articulation of the /t/ takes place, as shown in (13). (14)

nimts pamte famte timtE

-

ninte pante fante tints

< < <
a t6 te

Μ I Σ I \ s w I \\ σ, ow a te

ow te

'grandmother'

In the case of words with fixed final stress, we may assume lexical specification of a final strong foot. The following assignment of prosodic structure respects existing structure, i.e. only syllables which are not yet organized into feet are assigned structure. This is illustrated below for \ukuli.

Suprasegmental phonology (30)

/

Ju ku Ii

Μ

Σ, I \ σ. iu ku

291

\

Ii

'dear child'

Note that regular stress in words which contain vowel sequences, as for instance duei 'spirit', is evidence for the application of glide-formation after syllabification and stress assignment: if /i/ were to lose syllabicity before stress-assignment, regular stressassignment would yield *duej. Loss of syllabicity of high vowels must then be assumed to take place at a later stage.

9.2.1.2. Stress in derived words Two types of derived words may be distinguished, viz. suffixed words and compounds. We will first consider suffixed words. BD has the following suffixes (see 8.1): (31)

NOM (suffixed on adjectives and pronouns; but cf. 8.1 for a discussion of a possible clitic status) -apu PL (suffixed on nouns and plural pronouns) -te PF (suffixed on verbs) -are IPF (suffixed on verbs) -X REDUPLICATION (suffixes a copy of the base, either adjective, verb or noun) -je

Suffixation does not normally affect the placement of primary stress. We may conclude that existing structure is preserved throughout the derivation. However, occasionally we find affixed words which display a shift in primary stress placement, as illustrated for the plural form of oboko 'hen' (with penultimate stress) and the PF form of mu 'go' in (33) below. In the first plural form of oboko, the original primary stress is preserved, whereas in the second, primary stress has shifted to the penultimate syllable in the derived word; the latter is used very seldom. In the first perfective form of mu main stress falls on the verbstem, but in the second form, stress falls on the suffix. Note however that in addition to stress-shift, the suffix vowel is lengthened for dramatic effect (the speaker thus indicates that the subject of mute had a long way to go), which is an indication that this particular stress pattern is a strategy reserved for specific discourse purposes. (32)

o'bokapu 'mute

- obo'kapu - mu'te::

. . . Q : ^ . . . ( ^ Λ

a

geminate consonant) or ...CJVJ... (more

usually) We see the result of this in (61) and (62) below. In (61), the sequence pVl=pVl is realized as pV2. In (61), the application of this process in the environment tVl=tV2 results in t:i, which contains a geminate t. (61)

lurekz toka=pa\zkz tokap < toko-apu pa\i=dcz look=lsg child-PL=care=lsg child-PL 'Look after my children, take care of my children.' [BB 050488:1,6]

300

9. Phonology

(62)

lahan=t:igri tokap leave-PF=tiger child-PL '(and) left Tiger's children' [BB lukubal:12]

< lahan-te tigri

In the orthographic representation in (61) and (62), the symbol '=' in toka=pa\eke and in lahan=t:igri separates the phonological words. It is to be noted that in examples throughout this grammar, no such symbol is used in the orthographic representation. Instead, a single representation (which in these cases would have been tokapajeke and lahant:igri, respectively), is used.

9.3. Cliticization The direction of cliticization is left-ward in BD. Cliticization is entirely optional, and there need not be a specific syntactic relation between the clitic and its host. We may distinguish two types of cliticization: the first involves clitic morphemes, the second involves a favourable phonological environment (a clitic environments). These are discussed separately below. The fact that cliticization may apply regardless of the syntactic relation between the clitic and its host, shows that cliticization does not depend on syntactic relations between a host and a clitic morpheme; the fact that clitic morphemes encliticize onto moved constituents shows that cliticization takes place after the application of syntactic processes such as wh-movement and focus.

9.3.1. Clitic morphemes (i) The sentence-final negator ka(ne) optionally encliticizes onto a preceding constituent. The long form kam is not used very often, and when used, hardly shows encliticization; (63) is one of the very few such instances. The short form ka is much more frequent than the long form, and usually encliticizes; in (64), encliticization onto a preceding (suffixed) verb has taken place. (63)

(64)

afta ο dot:e lahanor.Mg ababakam < ababa=kane after 3sg die-PF leave=3sg speak=any more=NEG 'After he died (and) left (him), he doesn't speak (this language) any more.' [HA 050488:7] ...ksk hosekedi a sukwarskd < suku-are=ka ...like how=lsg=this PAST want-IPF=NEG '...the way I had wanted it.' [RT 280186:32]

The following examples illustrate the optionality of encliticization: in (65), the negator has encliticized onto the preceding adverb noko) in contrast, this has not taken place in (66).

Cliticizatioo 301 (65)

di \ip noko kam noka the ship not=RESULT come yet=NEG "The ship hasn't come yet.' [AC 230288:11] (66) on ο noko redi noko ka 3sg 3sg not=RESULT ready yet NEG 'As for him, he wasn't ready yet.' [AH 010788:37]

< noko-ka

(ii) The focus marker sa/so, which appears on the right-edge of a focussed constituent, is an enclitic morpheme. Two examples follow. Many more can be found in chapter 14 on focus constructions. (67)

(68)

da di sent potjermaso draite dida < potjerma=so BE the same old=woman=so tum-PF that '(It) is the same old woman (who) turned into that (thing).' [EK Iukuba2:p7] di man bifte, bi da., orsa furkoptor < ori=sa the man say-PF say BE 3sg=FOC sell-PF=3sg 'The man said, that (it) was him who had sold him.' [BB 230290:p9]

(iii) Vowel-initial personal pronouns cliticize on a host to the left, regardless of what appears there. In the examples below, encliticization of an object pronoun on a preceding verb and on a preceding preposition, respectively, are illustrated. (69)

(70)

a fen sukwa ft to if=3pl want-IPF for put=3sg 'If they want to put it.' [AC 090488:12] ο wa bangi meteke 3sg PAST fear with=lsg 'He feared for me.' [BB 86]

< twa=o

< meie=eke

In (69) and (70) above, there is a syntactic dependency relation between the host and the pronoun. However, such a relation is not in the least necessary for cliticization to take place, as shown below. In (71), the subject pronoun of an adverbial clause has cliticized onto a preceding conjunction (titi-o), and the subject pronoun of the matrix clause has cliticized onto the last element of the preceding adverbial clause, viz. a verb (mu=o). In (72), the object pronoun ju has cliticized onto the preceding vert) sere, while the subject pronoun eke of the following sentence has cliticized onto the preceding object pronoun. (71)

(72)

tito mwo fen hawela < titi=o, mu=o when=3sg go=3sg find hoe 'When she went on, die found a hoe.' [EK lukuba2] eni bi, ο serajeJce bi no ο sereke ka 3pl say 3sg hurt-IPF=2sg-lsg say no 3sg hurt=lsg NEG < sere-a=ju=eke 'They said: does it hurt you? I said: no, it doesn't hurt me.' [BB 030490:p6]

302

9. Phonology

(73) is a fine example of the complexity that cliticized words may reach: in this case, a subject pronoun eke is encliticized onto the last constituent of a preceding sentence, viz. the negator ka\ the negator in tum is encliticized onto a preceding object pronoun eJce, which is encliticized onto the preceding verb Jende. (73)

ο 3sg

kumtano come-PF=and=3sg

fendekek mute tunang find=lsg=NEG=lsg go-PF field=LOC < fende=eke=ka=eke 'He came and he didn't find me (home), I had gone to the field' [HA 140788:p27]

(74)-(76) illustrate encliticization of a subject pronoun onto a moved constituent. The host is the object which appears in focus position in (74), it is an interrogative pronoun in (75), and a focussed verb in (76). (74)

(75)

(76)

alma di maibuljapen \ite fan \i lifu