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5.1.5. The left-dislocation position

Left-dislocated elements appear at the beginning of the sentence, preceding the topic (if any), and separated from the rest of the clause by a rising intonation followed by a slight pause (indicated here by a comma). The set of constituent types which can be left-dislocated is somewhat heterogeneous, though in most cases the function of left-dislocation is to call attention to an entity, situation, etc., which was not previously salient in the discourse. Among those phrases which can appear in the left-dislocation position are the following:

(1) Switch-reference topics: The function of a switch-reference topic is to highlight a particular entity as a new subject of discourse. Switch-reference topics often correspond to phrases in English of the form as for X or as far as X is concerned:

Ne
suhpana        Elim, imai  hielen          inlotka
the:Abs
brother-the:NA Elim  I:Dat see-Pst-him:Abs yesterday
"As for Elim's
brother, I saw him yesterday"
or "Speaking of Elim's brother, I
saw him yesterday"

In this sentence, the speaker is introducing (or reintroducing) Elim's brother as a new topic of conversation. Note that switch-reference topics are only felicitous in situations where the participant in question has not been mentioned recently in the discourse. Switch-reference topics are especially common in contexts like the following, where they serve to set up a contrast with a previously-mentioned topic (here the speaker contrasts Han with herself):

Imai  henka maka
kauen,  le  na      Han, touta eiasoti     te
I:Dat like  meat
chicken but the:Erg Han  never Foc-eat-Neg it:Abs
"I like chicken, but
as for Han, (he) never eats it"

(2) Temporal adverbials: Temporal expressions such as inlhai "now", iaslò "today", pehisu "next", often appear in the left-dislocation position, especially when they serve to set up a contrast between the time frame of the present utterance and that of a previous utterance:

Iaslò, ten        talpe tsuniakma
today
the:Pl:Abs field till-we:NA
"Today we'll till those
fields"

Sai      suehma  kete antè
lò, le  hatham, niokta
they:Abs be:away for  many-Dat day but
soon    return
"They have been away for many days, but soon (they)
will return"

(3) Adjunct clauses: As in English, clausal adjuncts in Tokana - especially those headed by aun "if", aunim "when, whenever", and im "when, as" - are often fronted to the left-dislocation position:

Aun etanne         Han tahat,    kima   sepa  ante
uehon
if  go-Dep-the:Abs Han visit-Dep we:Erg drink much
wine
"If Han comes to visit, we will drink a lot of wine"

Im   etanne         Han tahat,    kima   sepa  ante
uehon
when go-Dep-the:Abs Han visit-Dep we:Erg drink much
wine
"When Han comes to visit, we will drink a lot of
wine"

Aunim sukankat   tsuohante, nai
muelhoksoina ie   klotat
when  do-try-Dep too:much   he:Abs
tired-become with quick-Dep
"Whenever [he] tries to do too much, he
tires quickly"

Aunintsama    iokmelat,    kima
ie   klotat    isikespa
in:most:cases Arb-help-Dep we:Erg with
quick-Dep Foc-harvest
"Usually if people help, we can finish the
harvest quickly"
or "If people help, we can usually finish the
harvest quickly"


5.2. Dependent clauses and topic raising

Word order in dependent clauses is much the same as in main clauses, except that dependent clauses lack positions for topics and left-dislocated elements. The template for dependent clauses is given here:

Operator - Focus - Verb Phrase

The following sentences show examples of preverbal operators and focused elements in dependent clauses (notice that the verb is prefixed with the focus marker i-, just as in main clauses):

Imai  untsepa melh
n'isulhtanna           Mafe
I:Dat wonder  where
Qu-Foc-live-Dep-the:NA Mafe
"I wonder where Mafe lives"

Imai  iona na      Han isepine                   miote
uehon
I:Dat know the:Erg Han Foc-drink-Dep:Pst-the:Abs all
wine
"I know that it's Han who drank all the wine"

Imai  iona tun aku     isepoteià
uehon
I:Dat know not you:Erg Foc-drink-Neg-Dep:Pst-the:Abs
wine
"I know it's not you who drank the
wine"

In the first sentence, melh n'isulhtanna Mafe "where Mafe lives" is an embedded interrogative question acting as the complement (or 'object') of the verb untsepa "wonder"; here, melh "where" is occupying the operator position of the dependent clause. In the second sentence, na Han is in the focus position of the dependent clause, and in the third sentence, aku is in the focus position (note the use of the negative focus particle tun in this sentence; see 3.3.1, 5.4.4).

The order of elements following the verb is pretty much as in main clauses (section 5.1.1): The subject precedes the object. Note that in embedded clauses, just as in main clauses, non-specific object noun phrases must immediately follow the subject, as shown below:

Imai  iona uthminna
Han homa  isai       ihai
I:Dat know give-Dep:Pst-the:NA Han bread
the:Pl:Dat woman-Dat
"I know that Han gave bread to the
women"

Imai  iona uthminna            Han ihai
te      homa
I:Dat know give-Dep:Pst-the:NA Han woman-Dat the:Abs
bread
"I know that Han gave the bread to (some)
women"

In the first sentence, the non-specific direct object homa "bread" must precede the specific indirect object isai ihai "(to) the women". In the second sentence, it is the indirect object which is non-specific, and so the order is reversed. When both direct and indirect object are specific, both orders are possible:

Imai  iona
uthminna            Han te      homa  isai       ihai
I:Dat know
give-Dep:Pst-the:NA Han the:Abs bread the:Pl:Dat woman-Dat
"I know
that Han gave the bread to the women"

Imai
iona uthminna            Han isai       ihai      te      homa
I:Dat
know give-Dep:Pst-the:NA Han the:Pl:Dat woman-Dat the:Abs bread
"I
know that Han gave the women the bread"

Note that even though embedded clauses lack a preverbal topic position, it is quite possible to topicalise an argument of an embedded clause verb by moving it into the topic position of the main clause - or, to put it another way, the main clause topic may to be 'linked' to a position in the embedded clause. For instance, consider the following sentence:

Ionama    henkat
upam  inai    eitheina         Sakial
know-I:NA like-Dep apple
the:Dat horse-Dat-the:NA Sakial
"I know that Sakial's horse likes
apples"

Here the topic field is empty, so we construe this sentence as simply presenting a situation, without presupposing any previously-mentioned discourse referent to which that situation applies. But suppose we wanted to predicate this sentence of Sakial's horse - i.e. suppose we wanted to make the assertion that Sakial's horse has the property such that I know that he likes apples. In order to express this, we move "Sakial's horse" up to the topic position of the main clause, leaving a gap in the subject position of the embedded clause:

Ne      eithena
Sakial ionama    henkat   upam
the:Abs horse-the:NA Sakial know-I:NA
like-Dep apple
"Sakial's horse is such that I know that (he) likes
apples"

Here ne eithena Sakial "Sakial's horse" is interpreted as the topic of the entire sentence. As in previous examples, the gap in the embedded clause (viz. the empty position where the subject would normally occur) acts a 'placeholder' for the topic. Paraphrasing the above sentence in the manner of formal logic, we see that the gap fulfills the same function as the variable X:

Topic
Predicate

Ne eithena Sakial...
ionama henkat upam
"Sakial's horse X... (is such that)   I know
that X likes apples"

Notice that in this example, there is a case mismatch: The topic ne eithena Sakial "Sakial's horse" appears in the absolutive case, even though the verb henka "like" assigns dative case to its subject (see 3.8.3). It is a general rule in Tokana that whenever a topic corresponds to the subject, object, etc. of an embedded verb, it will appear in the absolutive case by default. (This may be because, in some sense, the topic is acting as though it were the object of the main clause verb: We might paraphrase the sentence above as "I know of Sakial's horse that (he) likes apples", where "Sakial's horse" is the object of the verb "know".)

The phenomenon illustrated above, where a noun phrase in the topic field corresponds to the subject, object, etc., of an embedded verb, is called topic raising. Topic raising is particularly common with verbs which take an embedded clause as their only argument (see section 3.8.2). The following sentences illustrate topic raising with tiyla "seem", mahtha "taste" and hiela "see, appear" (concerning the latter two verbs, see the discussion of verbs of perception in 3.8.3):

Tiyla moutanne         Han
seem  sick-Dep-the:Abs
Han
"It seems that Han is sick"

Ne
Han tiyla moutat
the:Abs Han seem  sick-Dep
"Han seems to be
sick"
or "Han is such that it seems that (he) is
sick"

Mahtha paienane
sati
taste  delicious-Dep-the:Abs food
"(One can) taste that
the food is delicious"

Te      sati mahtha
paienat
the:Abs food taste  delicious-Dep
"The food tastes
delicious"
lit. "The food, (one can) taste that (it) is
delicious"

Hielama  kestantsa
latie
see-I:NA happy-Dep-the:Pl:NA children-Dat
"I see that the
children are happy"
or "It looks to me like the children are
happy"

Se      lati     hielama
kestat
the:Abs children see-I:NA happy-Dep
"The children look
happy to me"
or "The children, I see that (they) are
happy"

In each of these pairs of examples, the first sentence presents a situation (e.g. "It seems that Han is sick"), while the second sentence predicates a property of some presupposed entity (e.g. "Han seems to be sick" or "Han is such that it seems that (he) is sick").


5.3. Ellipsis in embedded clauses

Related to topic raising is the phenomenon of embedded argument deletion under coreference with the topic, first discussed in section 4.4.2: When an argument (subject, object, etc.) of an embedded clause is coreferential with the topic of the sentence that contains it - that is, when it denotes the same entity as the topic - then the embedded argument obligatorily deletes. Compare:

Imai  iona
moutanke
I:Dat know sick-Dep-you:Abs
"I know that you are
sick"

Imai  iona moutat
I:Dat know
sick-Dep
"I know that I am sick"

In the second example, the absence of a clitic on the embedded verb moutat "be sick" indicates that the subject of moutat is the same as the topic of the sentence, namely the first person subject of the verb iona "know". (If the first person clitic determiner -me were attached to moutat in the second example, yielding moutanme, the sentence would be ungrammatical.) Consider also this pair:

Inai    Hane    iona moutanne
the:Dat Han-Dat know
sick-Dep-he:NA
"Han knows that he (i.e. someone else) is
sick"

Inai    Hane    iona
moutat
the:Dat Han-Dat know sick-Dep
"Han knows that he (i.e.
Han) is sick"

In the first sentence, the embedded subject clitic -ne must refer to someone other than the topic (i.e. "he" cannot refer to Han). In the second sentence, the embedded subject is phonetically null; here it must refer to the same person as the topic (i.e. "he" must refer to Han). Tokana differs from English in this respect: Whereas the English sentence Han knows that he is sick is ambiguous, the Tokana sentences above are not.

Note that if the subject of the embedded clause is elided, then the embedded object determiner may not attach to the verb as a clitic, as shown in the second sentence below:

Inai    Mafè     opa   kuolunana
ne      moiha
the:Dat Mafe-Dat think meet-Dep:Cpl-he:NA the:Abs
girl
"Mafe thinks that he (i.e. someone other than Mafe) has met that
girl before"

Inai    Mafè     opa
kuoluna      ne      moiha
the:Dat Mafe-Dat think meet-Dep:Cpl
the:Abs girl
"Mafe thinks that he (i.e. Mafe) has met that girl
before"

Here, the determiner ne is prevented from cliticising onto kuoluna by the presence of a 'gap' in the embedded subject position which refers back to the topic inai Mafè.

The following examples show a null embedded object referring back to the topic:

Inai    Mafè     opa   hielinna           Elime
nai     inlotka
the:Dat Mafe-Dat think see-Dep:Pst-the:NA Elim-Dat
him:Abs yesterday
"Mafe thinks that Elim saw him (i.e. someone other
than Mafe) yesterday"

Inai    Mafè
opa   hielinna           Elime    inlotka
the:Dat Mafe-Dat think
see-Dep:Pst-the:NA Elim-Dat yesterday
"Mafe thinks that Elim saw him
(i.e. Mafe) yesterday"

The second sentence is literally "Mafe thinks that Elim saw yesterday". The absence of an overt object here indicates that the person seen by Elim is the same as the topic of the sentence - viz. Mafe.

Finally, consider the pair of sentences below, where the second sentence shows coreference between an indirect object topic and an embedded direct object:

Inai    mikale  itsema       tahanoma        ne
ifoi      lolhampute
the:Dat boy-Dat say-Pst-I:NA visit-Subj-I:NA
him:Abs then(Fut) week-Dat
"I told the boy that I would visit him
(someone other than the boy) next week"

Inai
mikale  itsema       tahanoma        ifoi      lolhampute
the:Dat
boy-Dat say-Cpl-I:NA visit-Subj-I:NA then(Fut) week-Dat
"I told the
boy that I would visit him (the boy) next week"
lit. "The boy is
such that I said (to him) that I would visit (him) next
week"


5.4. Particles

In this section I use particle as a catch-all term for words which occupy a fixed position within the clause. Phonologically, these words tend to be short (a few are inherently unstressed). Semantically, they tend to be interpreted as operators which take scope over - or range over - a part of the clause (or the clause as a whole).

There are four kinds of particles in Tokana:

Discourse particles (Disc):
	ampefai, temai, teuk, etc.
The
question particle (Qu):			ni
The
evidential particles (Evid):		nie,
lo, hio, tia, lue, mo
The focus particles (Foc):
	tiefu, husu, ala, tun

At most one particle from each of these categories can occur in a given sentence. Referring back to the word-order template in section 5.1, we can add slots to indicate the positions of these particles in the sentence:

Topic Field - Disc - Operator - Qu - Evid - Foc - Focus - Verb Phrase

I discuss the functions of these particles in 5.4.1-5.4.4. Then in 5.4.5 I discuss the vocative/quotative element ia, which I will treat as a particle even though it does not occupy a fixed position in the clause.


5.4.1. Discourse particles

The discourse particles are so called because their function, roughly speaking, is to link together clauses and indicate the relationship that holds between them (e.g. a discourse particle might indicate that the clause in which it occurs is an exception to, consequence of, etc. the previous clause or sentence). The set of discourse particles includes the following:

ampefai    "also, furthermore,
moreover"
kufu       "by contrast,
on the other hand"
nemmai     "yet,
on the other hand"
otohkai
"however, in spite of that"
pehisu
"then, and then, next"
temai
"then, thus, so"
teuk
"therefore"
usna
"instead"

Discourse particles occur immediately after the topic field and before the operator position. This is illustrated in the following examples, with ampefai and temai:

Nai     kuolotunma,       ki  te      esianna     ampefai
fana
him:Abs meet-Neg-Cpl-I:NA and the:Abs name-his:NA furthermore
be:unsure:of
"I have never met him, and furthermore (I am) unsure
about his name"

Aun nioktotia      hatham, nai
temai etulhkakim kypesat
if  return-Neg-Dep soon    her:Abs then
go-must-we look for-Dep
"If (she) doesn't return soon, then we must go
look for her"

Ikoi    temai imè'n
inelhahma?
you:Dat then  when-Qu Foc-leave-intend
"So when do
you intend to leave?"
or "When do you intend to leave,
then?"


5.4.2. The question particle

Yes/no questions in Tokana are marked with the particle ni. Compare the following sentences:

Na
miua fiuaten           osek
the:Erg cat  catch-Pst-the:Abs
mouse
"The cat caught the mouse"

Na
miua ni fiuaten           osek?
the:Erg cat  Qu catch-Pst-the:Abs
mouse
"Did the cat catch the mouse?"

The question particle occupies a position following the topic field and the operator position, and preceding the focus position. The fact that ni precedes focused elements is shown by the sentence below (where na Han is the topic and kamana suhpaina is in focus):

Na      Han ni
kamana     suhpaina           isatanie?
the:Erg Han Qu for-the:NA
brother-Dat-his:NA Foc-cook-Pst
"Is it for his brother (as opposed to
someone else) that Han cooked?"

The question particle is also used to introduce embedded questions, in which case it corresponds to whether or if in English. Compare:

Ni etahmana
Elime    moke?
Qu go-intend-the:NA Elim-Dat home-Dat
"Does Elim
intend to go home?"

Ami   nesepe  ni etahmanna
Elime    moke
I:Erg ask-Pst Qu go-intend-Dep-the:NA Elim-Dat
home-Dat
"I asked whether/if Elim intends to go
home"

If a yes/no question has a second person subject (e.g. aku, kyina), this subject is often left out:

Ni etahma
moke?
Qu go-intend home-Dat
"Do (you) intend to go
home?"

As discussed in 2.5.1 and 5.1.3, ni is also required in main clause interrogative questions, where it follows the interrogative operator (and contracts with the operator when the latter ends in a vowel, or contracts with the verb if the verb immediately follows ni):

Na      Han mà'n    isatanie     kamana
suhpaina?
the:Erg Han what-Qu Foc-cook-Pst for-the:NA
brother-Dat-his:NA
"What did Han cook for his brother?"

Sa         lihpako        melh
n'isulhta?
the:Pl:Erg sister-your:NA where Qu-Foc-live
"Where
do your sisters live?"

Imè'n   ietahmana
Elime    moke?
when-Qu Foc-go-intend-the:NA Elim-Dat
home-Dat
"When does Elim intend to go
home?"

An embedded clause headed by an interrogative operator may or may not take ni, depending on whether it counts as an embedded question. An example of an embedded interrogative question is given here:

Imai  untsepa imè'n   ietahmanna               Elime
moke
I:Erg wonder  when-Qu Foc-go-intend-Dep-the:NA Elim-Dat
home-Dat
"I wonder when Elim intends to go
home"

Compare this sentence with the relative clause examples in section 2.4, where the operator has a non-interrogative interpretation, and ni is absent.


5.4.3. Evidential particles

Tokana has six evidential particles, nie, lo, hio, tia, lue, and mo. These particles occupy a position in between the topic field and the focus position, immediately after the position occupied by ni.

The purpose of the evidential particles is to indicate whether the speaker knows or believes the sentence s/he is uttering to be true, as well as whether s/he assumes that the listener knows the sentence to be true. The meanings of certain particles can be represented roughly in the form of a table:

  Speaker knows truth of sentence Speaker does not know truth of sentence
Speaker assumes listener knows truth of sentence  nie  lo
Speaker assumes listener doesn't know truth of sentence  hio  tia, lue

The particle nie marks the sentence as asserting something which is 'self-evident', or common knowledge: By using this particle, the speaker is claiming that the sentence is true, and is also claiming that the truth of the sentence should be obvious to the listener:

Na      Han nie
sulhta kuntsai         lihpai
the:Erg Han Evid live
with-the:Pl:Dat sister-Dat
"As you know, Han lives with his
sisters"
or "Han lives with his sisters, of
course"

The particle lo is used to indicate that the speaker is unsure if what he/she is saying is true, and is looking to the listener for possible confirmation:

Na      Han lo
sulhta kuntsai         lihpai
the:Erg Han Evid live
with-the:Pl:Dat sister-Dat
"Han lives with his sisters, doesn't
he?"

By using the particle hio (presumably related to hiò "yes"), the speaker indicates that s/he believes that the sentence is true, but does not expect the listener to know that the sentence is true. This particle is often used when the speaker is revealing new (and perhaps surprising) information to the listener:

Ilohfoi
hio  itskanan       Sakial
tomorrow Evid arrive-the:Abs
Sakial
"As a matter of fact, Sakial is arriving tomorrow"
or
"As it happens, Sakial is arriving
tomorrow"

Hio can also be used as an all-purpose emphatic particle, especially when it precedes a focused element in the sentence:

Na      Han hio  mai    euima!
the:Erg Han Evid
me:Abs Foc-love
"Han loves me!"

The particle tia is used to indicate that the speaker is unsure if the sentence is true, and does not expect the listener to know either. Tia marks the sentence as being a matter of general speculation:

Ilohfoi  tia  itskanan
Sakial
tomorrow Evid arrive-the:Abs Sakial
"Perhaps Sakial will
arrive tomorrow"
or "One wonders if Sakial will arrive
tomorrow"

The particle lue is similar to tia, in that it signals that the speaker is unsure if the sentence is true, and does not expect the listener to know either. Lue is used to report hearsay or rumour - i.e. information which the speaker has heard secondhand and cannot confirm:

Ilohfoi  lue
itskanan       Sakial
tomorrow Evid arrive-the:Abs
Sakial
"Sakial is arriving tomorrow, they say"
or "Rumour
has it that Sakial will arrive
tomorrow"

Finally, the particle mo indicates that the sentence represents the speaker's personal opinion or belief:

Na      Sakial mo   uonia      hostanat
the:Erg
Sakial Evid be:good:at dance-Dep
"Sakial is a good dancer, in my
opinion"
or "I think that Sakial is a good
dancer"


5.4.4. Focus particles

The particles tiefu, husu, and ala, together with the constituent negation marker tun, occupy a position immediately before the focus position, and after the topic field (or after the evidential particle, if there is one). Focus particles take scope over (or 'range' over) a following focussed element or verb phrase.

Tiefu is the equivalent of English only (in the sense of "solely" or "exclusively"). Examples of tiefu are given below:

Na      moiha tiefu iase    upam
the:Erg
girl  only  eat-Pst apple
"The girl only ate an apple (and did nothing
else)"

Na      moiha tiefu upam
eiase
the:Erg girl  only  apple Foc-eat-Pst
"The girl only ate
an apple (and nothing else)"
or "The girl ate only an
apple"

Tiefu na      moiha eiase
upam
only  the:Erg girl  Foc-eat-Pst apple
"Only the girl ate
an apple (and no-one else)"

In the first sentence, tiefu scopes over the verb phrase iase upam "ate an apple", and sets up an implicit comparison between this action and other possible actions which did not take place. In the second sentence, tiefu scopes over the object upam "apple", which is sitting in the focus position. In the third sentence, tiefu scopes over the subject na moiha "the girl". The fact that na moiha in the third sentence is sitting in the focus position rather than the topic position is indicated by the presence of the focus marker on the verb (see section 3.6.4).

The particle husu is equivalent to English even or also. The following examples illustrate the use of husu:

Na      moiha husu      iase    upam
the:Erg girl
even/also eat-Pst apple
"The girl also ate an apple (in addition to
doing other things)"

Na      moiha husu
upam  eiase
the:Erg girl  even/also apple Foc-eat-Pst
"The girl
also ate an apple (in addition to eating other things)"

Husu      na      moiha eiase       upam
even/also
the:Erg girl  Foc-eat-Pst apple
"Even the girl ate an
apple"

The sense of English even can be brought out by using husu together with the emphatic particle hio:

Te      halma lhai hio  husu      na      Sakial
imalhun!
the:Abs book  here Emph even/also the:Erg Sakial
Foc-read-Cpl
"This book even Sakial has
read!"

The particle ala is known as the 'distributive' particle. It is used with plural topics (or topics which include a quantifier like kekua "each"), and serves to indicate that the following verb phrase or focused element is distributed over the set of items in the topic: That is, for each element in the set of objects denoted by the topic, there is an individual event (or corresponding object). To see how this particle works, consider first the following sentence without ala:

Sa         lati     sepe      es  mekul
meunu
the:Pl:Erg children drink-Pst one bowl  milk-Abl
"The
children drank a bowl of milk"

This sentence could mean one of two things: Either the children shared a single bowl of milk, or they each drank a separate bowl of milk (where the first reading is probably the preferred one). However, if we insert the particle ala, then the sentence can only have the second meaning:

Sa         lati
ala  sepe      es  mekul meunu
the:Pl:Erg children Dist drink-Pst
one bowl  milk-Abl
"The children each drank a bowl of
milk"

Here, ala indicates that for each child, there was a corresponding event of milk-drinking. Ala can also be used to distribute over objects. The following sentence, with es mekul meunu "a bowl of milk" in the focus position, emphasises that for each child there was a separate woman that s/he talked to:

Sa
lati     ala  es  iha   ikuoponun
the:Pl:Erg children Dist one woman
Foc-talk:with-Cpl
"The children each talked to a (different)
woman"

Ala may be used in combination with te iat or ne iaton "the other" to express an alternating reciprocal event - that is, multiple participants performing a particular action on each other in turn:

Sa         lati     ala  skonen
iaton
the:Pl:Erg children Dist look:at-Pst-the:Abs other
"The
children each looked at the other(s)"
or "The children looked at
each other (in turn)"

Finally, the negative focus particle tun marks constituent negation:

Na      pyi   tun
ne      iha   ikuoponotun
the:Erg child not the:Abs woman
Foc-talk:with-Neg-Cpl
"It's not the woman that the child talked to
(but someone else)"

Tun na      pyi
ikuoponotunne                 iha
not the:Erg child
Foc-talk:with-Neg-Cpl-the:Abs woman
"It's not the child who talked to
the woman (but someone else)"

Note that when the focused element occurs outside of negation, then the preverbal negative particle tu (combined with the focus prefix i- to form itù) is used in place of tun:

Na      pyi   itù     kuopotunne
iha
the:Erg child Foc-not talk:with-Neg-Cpl-the:Abs woman
"It's
the child who didn't talk to the woman (not someone
else)"

Tun and tu can also be used together, yielding a double negative:

Tun na
pyi   itù     kuopotunne                iha
not the:Erg child
Foc-not talk:with-Neg-Cpl-the:Abs woman
"It's not the child who didn't
talk to the woman (but someone else)"


5.4.5. The vocative/quotative particle

There is an element ia which I will classify as a particle, even though it does not occupy a fixed position in the sentence. This particle appears to have two distinct uses, which may or may not be related:

(1) As a vocative particle: When using a name or title (e.g. a kinship term) to address someone, ia occurs in place of the determiner. Compare the following:

Ne      Han
lhiane
the:Abs Han come:here-Pst
"Han came here"

Ne      kamelihpama  lhiane
the:Abs cousin-my:NA
come:here-Pst
"My cousin came here"

Slune
lhiana,   ia  Han
please come:here Voc Han
"Please come here,
Han"

Slune  lhiana,   ia
kamelihpama
please come:here Voc cousin-my:NA
"Please come
here, cousin"

(2) As a quotative particle: Ia is used with verbs such as itsa "say", nesepa "ask", etc., to introduce direct quoted speech. In this usage, ia may be followed by a single word, a phrase, or a complete sentence:

Ani     itsema        ia   tune
she:Erg
say-Pst-me:NA Quot no
"She said no to me"

Ani     itsema        ia   nelho     ie
klotat
she:Erg say-Pst-me:NA Quot leave-Imp with quick-Dep
"She
told me to leave quickly"
lit. "She said to me: Leave
quickly!"

Ani     nesepema      ia,  Melh  ni
sikà?
she:Erg ask-Pst-me:NA Quot where Qu to
"She asked
me, 'Where (are you going) to?'"

Compare the example above with the one below, where the quotation is indirect, and ia is absent:

Ani     nesepema      melh  n'ietanme
she:Erg
ask-Pst-me:NA where Qu-Foc-go-Dep-I:NA
"She asked me where I was
going"

Note also the use of ia with the verb taksa "be named, be called" in the following example (this is similar to, but distinct from, the vocative use of ia):

Mai   taksa     ia   Elim
I:Abs be:called Quot
Elim
"My name is Elim"
lit. "I am called
'Elim'"

Compare this with the following example, where ia is used in juxtaposition to a noun koin "a person". Here ia serves to introduce the name of the individual denoted by the noun:

Ami   inlotka   kuole
koin   ia   Elim
I:Erg yesterday meet-Pst person Quot
Elim
"Yesterday I met a person called Elim"
more lit.
"Yesterday I met a person 'Elim'"


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