Some notes 9/22/11

Some notes 9/22/11

1. 
   Generally SVO – is this right?? //Cf. PJS comment: “나마어는 주어 목적어 동사를 주요 어순으로 하는데 어순은 좀 자유롭게 변화할 수 있습니다.”
   
   1. 
      Does the pragmatic status of nominals determine the order of constituents? (non-specific, indefinite first?)
      
   2. 
      To look out for: does order vary with respect to tense or definiteness of object?
      
      1. 
         Yend sènonjo [wèngem alet]
         

I now [go-1sg fut hunt]

‘I’m going hunting now’

2. 
   Enjela, nansi, saman [alet fengèm]
   

Angela Nansi Saman [hunting go-pst]
‘Angela, Nansi, Saman went hunting’

// Btw, is ‘alet’ a V? Could it be a N?

3. 
   Verb final in some imperative constructions? 
   
   1. 
      Tane buk tenuman
      

My book bring-IMP

//Really? If so, this is very strange…

2. 
   Head-final (with postpositions?)
   
   1. 
      Examples of postpositions?
      
      1. 
         Gimb təkem jamɛ təndon
         

Pig put(down it) mat, sign beside, side

//is this a postposition?

//distinguish between LOC Case markers and postpositions.

//if a language has case markers, the distinction between case markers and adpositions may be problematic.

2. 
   GEN precedes head noun:
   
   1. 
      Táf Elisabet -ene ámbirosi sú ghèrarean
      

During Elizabeth-of ? pregnant months

2. 
   What about Táf? Is this language also prepositional?
   

3. 
   (Strong) evidence to verify head-finality: (look for the following: )
   
   1. 
      Does Relative Clause (RC) and Numeral precede N (e.g., "[[책상위에 있는] 연필]")?
      
   2. 
      Is Causative expressed by suffixation or by light verbs (e.g., Korean ‘-하다’)?
      
   3. 
      Is there a question particle? (So far, no)
      
4. 
   Also, a suffixing language. No prefixation (so far) ~ no head-initiality
   

3. 
   Weak evidence for wh in-situ; no strong evidence for wh-raising (YET...)
   
   1. 
      Especially, why (namamè) & how (namamèn) in-situ? //Check general WO – SVO or SOV?
      
      1. 
         Fa namamèn nekwu yam?
         He why angry be-3sg pr
         
      2. 
         Fa namamèn euan yam?
         He how happy be-3sg pr
         

4. 
   Wh-phrases:
   

whose	who	what	which	Where	when
endene	Efe	nama	arkamunum	ande? / nai?	njam
how	how many	why
namamèn	yènam	namamè

5. 
   Case markers:
   

-an	‘in’	LOC	akw-an ‘morning-in’ ndawan ‘garden-in’
-on	‘in’	LOC	mong-on ‘house-in’
-am	‘on’	LOC	kitarakitar-am ‘shelf-on’
-mun	‘from’		nai-mun ‘where(+wh)-from’ mata-mun ‘Mata-from’
-ot	‘to’		ndaw-ot ‘garden-to’ mong-ot ‘house-to’ yuw-ot ‘region-to
-am		SUBJ (Nom/Erg?)	amaf-am ‘mother(+subj) mbermber-am ‘wind(+subj)
-ene	‘of’	GEN	Elisabet-ene ‘Elisabeth’s’
-efaf	‘to’ roughly	DAT?	yàràitamànt Josef-éfaf ‘engaged to Joseph’

6. 
   Ergativity?
   

7. 
   Verbal constructions I: Dative/double object construction
   
   1. 
      Ngánjánam yáfáretam enjol Gabril mèrèsoefaf Najareèt Galili yuw-ot.
      

God sent angel Gabriel to virgin

8. 
   Verb conjugations
   

	SINGULAR			PLURAL
	1sg	2sg	3sg	1pl	2pl	3pl
PRESENT	-an	-e	-e	-am	-ati?	-at
PAST	-un	-am (5) -eng (3)	-am(5) -eng (3)	-um		-end
FUTURE	-g-	-g-	-g-	-g-	-g-	-g-

Identifying syncretisms in verbal morphology: 

	SINGULAR			PLURAL
	1sg	2sg	3sg	1pl	2pl	3pl
PRESENT			
PAST			
FUTURE			

9. 
   Observations concerning verbs:
   
   1. 
       2sg 3sg syncretism in the present tense (13/23 = 57%)
      
   2. 
       2sg 3sg syncretism in the past tense (12/23 = 52%)
      
   3. 
       2sg 3sg syncretism in the future tense (14/23 = 61%)
      
   4. 
      n-/k- alternation.
      
      1. 
         Does /k-/ prefix mark past?
         
   5. 
      Verbs seem to categorize into either ye- type or nu-/ne- type.
      
      1. 
         Is ye- some sort of object agreement? //I think so.
         
      2. 
         Nu-/ne- seems to be one-place predicates…verify.
         
   6. 
      –n for singular; -m for plural?
      
   7. 
      Analytic marking: yend, fa, fem morphemes before some plural verbs.
      
   8. 
      What is the w- morpheme?
      

9. 
   Present  Past:
   
   1. 
      n/k alternation
      
   2. 
      /k-/ prefix = PAST
      
   3. 
      /n/ = ELSEWHERE
      
   4. 
      n/k/t alternation
      
10. 
    Future tense:
    
    1.