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Kamang Antoinette Schapper Universität zu Köln

1. The language scene ....................................................................................... 224

2. Phonology ...................................................................................................... 225 2.1. Vowels ....................................................................................................................... 225 2.2. Consonants................................................................................................................. 226 2.3. Phonotactics ............................................................................................................... 227 2.4. Stress .......................................................................................................................... 229 2.5. Morphophonemics ..................................................................................................... 230

2.5.1. Reduplication ...................................................................................................... 230 2.5.2. Prefixes ............................................................................................................... 232 2.5.3. Suffixes, enclitics and gemination ...................................................................... 232

3. Basic clausal syntax ...................................................................................... 233 3.1. Predicate types ........................................................................................................... 234

3.1.1. Verbal predicates ................................................................................................ 234 3.1.2. Non-verbal predicates ......................................................................................... 236

3.2. The post-predicative slot ........................................................................................... 238

4. Noun phrases ................................................................................................. 240 4.1. Attributes and relative clauses ................................................................................... 240 4.2. The numeral phrase.................................................................................................... 241 4.3. Demonstratives and articles ....................................................................................... 243 4.4. Possessors .................................................................................................................. 244 4.5. NP-appositional slot .................................................................................................. 244

5. Pronouns ........................................................................................................ 246 5.1. Basic pronouns .......................................................................................................... 247 5.2. Reflexive pronouns .................................................................................................... 248 5.3. Possessive pronouns .................................................................................................. 249 5.4. Quantifying pronouns ................................................................................................ 249 5.5. Focus pronouns .......................................................................................................... 250

6. Agreement and locational prefixes ............................................................... 251 6.1. The agreement (AGR) slot.......................................................................................... 252

6.1.1. Obligatorily prefixed verbs ................................................................................. 253 6.1.2. Unobligatorily prefixed verbs ............................................................................. 254 6.1.2.1. Valency-preserving prefixation ........................................................................ 254 6.1.2.2. P-adding prefixation ........................................................................................ 256

6.2. The incorporated (INCORP) slot ................................................................................. 257 6.2.1. mi- ‘IN’ ................................................................................................................ 257 6.2.2. wo- ‘AT’ .............................................................................................................. 259

6.3. The self-benefactive (SBEN) slot ............................................................................... 259

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7. Suffixal morphology: dynamicity, aspect and dependency marking ........... 261 7.1. Verbal auxiliary suffix ............................................................................................... 261 7.2. Aspectual suffixes ...................................................................................................... 262 7.3. Dependency-marking suffixes ................................................................................... 263

7.3.1. Dependent uses ................................................................................................... 264 7.3.2. Independent uses ................................................................................................. 265

8. Complex predications and serial verb constructions .................................... 267 8.1. The light verb me ....................................................................................................... 267 8.2. Aspectual serialisation ............................................................................................... 268 8.3. Causative serialisation ............................................................................................... 270 8.4. Resultative serialisation ............................................................................................. 271 8.5. Adverbial serialisation ............................................................................................... 271 8.6. Motion serialisation ................................................................................................... 272

9. Discussion ..................................................................................................... 273

References. ........................................................................................................ 274

1. The language scene1 Kamang (ISO identifier: woi) is spoken by around 6,000 people in north-central Alor. The figure of 16,500 speakers given in the Ethnologue (Lewis 2009) is inflated. It subsumes several closely related languages under the label ‘Kamang’. In actuality, the Kamang language, as designated by speakers and their neighbours and as clearly divisible on linguistic grounds, is limited to the north-western area of the region marked as Kamang on the Ethnologue map.2 There are three main dialects of Kamang: Western Kamang, Lowland Kamang and Upland Kamang. Each is characterised by certain sound changes and by a range of distinct lexemes. Speakers of western Kamang typically also speak Abui and their dialect shows substantive lexical influence from that language.

Traditionally, the Kamang people lived in the central mountainous area of the island. However, during the 1970s many villages were compelled by Indonesian administrators to move down to the lower lying coastal areas. According to community elders, Kamang culture has been considerably eroded since resettlement. Today, the Kamang language is severely endangered. Kamang children and adolescents are rarely more than passive speakers of their language. Whilst parents and elders may speak amongst themselves in Kamang, child directed speech is typically in the local variety of Malay. In the several domestic settings I have observed, even where children are spoken to in Kamang, they invariably answer in Malay. 1 Field work on Kamang was supported by a small grant from the Foundation for Endangered

Languages and the project grant 08-EuroBABEL-OP-O25 from De Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek. I am very grateful to Wim Stokhof for his generous and enthusiastic support of my work on Kamang. Many thanks go to him, as well as to Ger Reesink, Hein Steinhauer and Marian Klamer who all commented on early drafts of this sketch. All errors are of course mine.

2 See the map at URL: http://www.ethnologue.com/show_map.asp?name=IDN&seq=90. The Kamang-marked area on the Ethnologue’s map covers five groups: Kamang. Suboo, Moo, Tiee and Manetaa (also known as Manet or Manetee).

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Language materials and preliminary description of Kamang grammar and culture are found in Stokhof (1976, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1982, 1983) under the name Woisika.3 More recently, aspects of Kamang morphosyntax have been discussed in Schapper (2011), Schapper & Klamer (2011), Schapper & Manimau (2011), and Klamer & Schapper (2012).

The data in this sketch come from linguistic fieldwork undertaken by the author in 2010 and 2011 on the Lowland Kamang dialect as spoken in Atoitaa and Sama villages and the Upland Kamang dialect as spoken in Takailubui. The corpus is composed of a lexicon of approximately 1850 words and nine hours recording encompassing ten natural speech texts, numerous responses to different picture and video stimuli, and several hundred elicited sentences. I also make use of some examples taken from Stokhof’s work, as marked throughout the text. The glossing and morphological segmentation of these is, however, from my own analysis.

2. Phonology

2.1. Vowels Kamang has ten vowel phonemes, five short and five long (Table 1). Short and long vowels contrast chiefly in duration; quality differences are found to be minimal (contra Stokhof 1979).

Table 1: Kamang vowel phonemes

FRONT BACK HIGH i iː u uː MID e eː o oː LOW a aː

Minimal pairs illustrating the phonemic contrastiveness of long and short vowels are presented in (1). Long vowels are represented in the practical orthography used here by the doubling of the vowel graph (e.g., /a:/ is represented as {aa}).

Minimal pairs for vowel phonemes (1) /i/ ≠ /iː/ : /asi/ ‘faeces’ ≠ /asiː/ ‘salt’

/e/ ≠ /eː/ : /te/ ‘go up’ ≠ /teː/ ‘dig’ /a/ ≠ /aː/ : /apa/ ‘this’ ≠ /apaː/ ‘shadow’ /o/ ≠ /oː/ : /ko/ ‘yam’ ≠ /koː/ ‘stay’ /u/ ≠ /uː/ : /su/ ‘three’ ≠ /suː/ ‘heavy’

Word-final short vowels are typically followed by a partial glottal closure [ʔ] when they

occur in phrase final position with a falling pitch contour. This glottal is purely phonetic and drops away when the lexeme is suffixed or where the lexeme occurs in non-phrase-final positions with a continuing pitch contour. 3 This name is not used here as it is recognised neither by the Kamang speakers themselves nor by

other Alorese ethnolinguistic groups as a name for a language or people. ‘Woisika’ means ‘Stone Stack’ (< woi ‘stone’, sika ‘stack’) in Kamang and refers to a village within the Kamang area. Today, Woisika is a desa officially known as ‘Waisika’ due to an early spelling mistake on the part of Indonesian administrators.

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In Lowland Kamang there are a few lexical items in which non-final /u/ can be realised as either [u] or [i], as in the example lexemes in (2). Examination of cognates in related languages points to [u] being etymologically prior.

Lexemes with alternations in realisation of /u/ (2) /sube/ ‘chicken’ [sube] ~ [sibe]

/munaːu/ ‘which’ [munaːw] ~ [minaːw] /tulen/ ‘divide’ [tulen] ~ [tilen] /tui/ ‘mouse’ [tui] ~ [tiː]

Final /i/ in bisyllabic words of the shape (C)VCi where V is either /a/ or /i/ are frequently dropped in all varieties of Kamang. Examples are given in (3).

Lexemes with dropping of final /i/ (3) /ami/ ‘breast’ [ami] ~ [am]

/api/ ‘fish’ [api] ~ [ap] /wati/ ‘sun’ [wati] ~ [wat] /ili/ ‘water’ [ili] ~ [il] /iti/ ‘call’ [iti] ~ [it] /bini/ ‘seed’ [bini] ~ [bin]

2.2. Consonants Kamang has 14 consonant phonemes: six oral stops, three nasal stops, two oral fricatives, two glides and one liquid (Table 2). In addition, there are two glottal consonants (bracketed) which have only a very marginal phonemic status (discussed further below). Most consonant phonemes are represented orthographically with the graph that is identical to the IPA representations. Differences are noted in angled brackets.4

Table 2: Kamang consonant phonemes

BILABIAL ALVEOLAR PALATAL VELAR GLOTTAL PLOSIVE p b t d † k g‡ (ʔ) <'> FRICATIVE ɸ <f> s (h) NASAL m n ŋ <ng> GLIDE w j <y> LATERAL l

† {r} is used for the [r] allophone of /d/ ‡ {w}is used for the [w] allophone of /g/; {y} is used for the [j] allophone of /g/ and for /j/

Minimal pairs illustrating the contrastiveness of Kamang consonant phonemes are presented in (4):

Minimal pairs for consonant phonemes (4) /p/ ≠ /b/ ≠ /ɸ/ ≠/m/: /pe/ ‘pig’, /be/ ‘cricket’, /ɸe/ ‘go down’, /me/ ‘come’

/t/ ≠ /d/ ≠ /s/ ≠ /n/: /taː/ ‘ON’, /daː/ ‘song’, /saː/ ‘ko. trap’, /naː/ ‘NEG’

4 These orthographic choices have been made in consultation with speakers of Kamang and are

heavily influenced by Indonesian spelling norms. Nevertheless, they are judged by them to be the best possible representation of the sounds of the language and are adhered to here. Underlying forms of phonemes are provided for the reader in an extra line of glossing in the examples.

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/k/ ≠ /g/: /ket~ket/ ‘k.o. sound’, /get/ ‘3.OTHER’ /k/ ≠ /ŋ/ ≠ /n/: /=ak/ ‘DEF’, /aŋ/ ‘that.NKWN’, /an/ ‘THUS’ /m/ ≠ /n/ ≠ /l/: /maː/ ‘depart’, /naː/ ‘NEG’, /laː/ ‘burn’ /b/ ≠ /w/: /=beː/ ‘also’, /weː/ ‘blood’ /g/ ≠ /j/ ≠/w/: /gaː/ ‘rice bushel/, /jaː/ ‘reach’, /waː/ ‘mushroom’

Comparative evidence shows that the Kamang glottal consonants /ʔ/ and /h/ originate in historical allophones of /k/ and /s/ respectively. Synchronically, there are no minimal pairs contrasting /ʔ/ with /k/, and /h/ with /s/, and the distribution of both pairs is largely complementary. That is: /ʔ/ is limited to non-final codas after short vowels in Lowland Kamang dialect,5 while /k/ occurs almost exclusively in onsets and final codas, and only a few medial codas; /s/ occurs almost exclusively in onsets and only a handful of word-final codas, while /h/ is limited to final and non-final codas and changes to [s] when suffixed with /-iŋ/ ‘SETTING’, but not other suffixes with the shape -VC. In short, the glottal consonants can only be considered very weakly phonemic in Kamang.

Four Kamang consonant phonemes have conditioned allophony. This is set out along with the conditioning environments of the allophones in (5). Unless otherwise mentioned, consonant phonemes closely conform to their IPA values.

Consonant allophony (5) a. /d/ > [d] ~ [r ] / V_V e.g., /kadiː/ ‘house’ [kadiː] ~ [kariː]

> [d] / elsewhere /dum/ ‘child’ [dum] b. /g/ > [w] / _ [+back vowel] e.g., /gobaleː/ ‘too’ [wobaleː] > [g] ~ [j] / elsewhere /ga/ ‘3.AGT’ [ga] ~ [ya]

c. /k/ > [k] ~ [x] / V_V e.g. , /bakai/ ‘break’ [bakaj] ~ [baxaj] [k] / elsewhere /kai/ ‘cheer’ [kaj] d. /w/ > [w] ~ [β] / V_V e.g. , /tewe/ ‘go up’ [tewe] ~ [teβe] > [w] / elsewhere /weː/ ‘blood’ [weː]

2.3. Phonotactics The vast majority of Kamang roots are of two syllables in length, but there also small numbers of monosyllabic and trisyllabic roots.

Kamang allows syllables of the shape (C)V(C). Codas are, however, highly restricted in terms of the consonants that they can contain. Table 3 presents an overview of the distribution of the individual consonants. We see that bilabial consonants, voiced stops and oral fricatives do not occur in medial or final codas. The velar nasal is the only consonant to be restricted from occurring in onsets. Bracketed segments refer to historically restricted allophones (discussed in section 2.2).

5 In Upland Kamang, the glottal stop phoneme is lost, but the preceding vowel shows compensatory

lengthening, e.g., LK -paʔta ‘wing’, but UK -pa:ta ‘wing’ (cf. Abui -baːkai ‘wing’ where k is preserved).

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Table 3: Consonant phoneme distribution in roots

Initial Medial onset

Medial coda

Final

p + + - - b + + - - t + + + + d + + - - k + + (ʔ) + g + + - - ɸ + + - - s + + (h) (h) m + + - - n + + + + ŋ - - + + l + + + + w + + - - j + + - -

Sequences of vowels are permitted in Kamang. In sequences of two vowels where the second vowel is a high vowel, /i/ or /u/, these are realised as off-glides, [j] and [w] respectively. The first vowel in the sequence may be long or short. Examples of the observed combinations are given in (6) for vowel sequences with /i/ surfacing [j] and in (7) for vowel sequences with /u/ surfacing as [w].

Off-glides formed out of /i/ (6) /ai/ : /aɸai/ ‘gully’ [afaj]

/aːi/ : /bai/ ‘great’ [baːj] /ei/ : /atei/ ‘seed’ [atej] /eːi/ : /aleːi/ ‘k.o. garden’ [aleːj] /oi/ : /woi/ ‘stone’ [woj] /oːi/: /moːi/ ‘sun’ [moːj] /ui/ : /bui/ ‘chop’ [buj] /uːi/: /wuːi/ ‘slave’ [wuːj] Off-glides formed out of /u/

(7) /au/: /auka/ ‘dry’ [awka] /aːu/: /kaːu/ ‘kapok cotton’ [kaːw] /ou/ : /kou/ ‘raw’ [kow]

Note that the vowel /u/ does not form become a glide preceding a front vowel; the sequences /iu/, /i:u/ and /e:u/ are not attested in Kamang at all. The vowel sequence /eu/ is attested only once in the lexeme /ɸeuŋ/ ‘pigeon’, but the vowels syllabify into different syllables [fe.uŋ]. The sequence /oːu/ is also not attested, but its short counterpart is found (e.g., /kou/ ‘raw’ given in 7); this lack may just represent a sampling deficiency, rather than a systematic gap in the language.

When the second vowel in a sequence is long, it does not become a glide: for instance, /a.iː/ ‘rain’ is realised as [a.ˈiː] and /auː/ ‘pestle’ as [a.ˈuː].

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2.4. Stress Stress in Kamang is largely phonemic, with weight sensitivity playing a role in the stress assignment of only a portion of disyllabic roots. Although unpredicatbale, stress carries a low functional load in the language with no stress-differentiated minimal pairs being found between monomorphemic words. As such, stress is not marked outside this sub-section.

On dysllabic roots, stress assignment depends on the presence of heavy syllables in the word root. A heavy syllable is a syllable with a consonant (including glides) in the coda and/or a long vowel in the nucleus. Light syllables lack both codas and long vowels. Where a disyllabic root has a heavy syllable, stress is non-phonemic and regularly falls on the heavy syllable (8a). Where a disyllabic root is composed of only light syllables, stress is phonemic and is lexically assigned to either syllable (8b). Disyllabic roots in which both syllables are heavy are rare, but stress appears to be phonemic (8c).

Stress on disyllablic roots (8) a. LH /kamaŋ/ ‘Kamang’ [ka.ˈmaŋ]

/iten/ ‘ripe’ [i.ˈten ~ i.ˈton] /piaː/ ‘different’ [pi.ˈaː]

/kateː/ ‘eat’ [ka.ˈteː] /tapui/ ‘crab’ [taˈpuj] /matei/ ‘bat’ [maˈtej]

HL /likka/ ‘firmly’ 6 [ˈlik.ka] /muːlma/ ‘fragrant’ [ˈmuːl.ma]

/-paʔta/ ‘wing’ [ˈ-paʔ.ta ~ ˈ-paː.ta] /kaita/ ‘trap’ [ˈkajta] /kaŋpi/ ‘firefly’ [ˈkaŋ.pi] /luːka/ ‘chili’ [ˈluːka]

b. ˈLL /ˈsibe/ ‘chicken’ [ˈsi.be ~ ˈsu.be] /ˈkine/ ‘knife’ [ˈki.ne] /ˈtama/ ‘sea’ [ˈta.ma] /ˈuda/ ‘bird sp.’ [ˈu.ra] /ˈsela/ ‘saddle’ [ˈse.la] /ˈdaɸe/ ‘needle’ [ˈda.ɸe]

LˈL /suˈe/ ‘come’ [su.ˈe ~ ˈseː] /piˈe/ ‘crocodile [pi.ˈe] /waˈte/ ‘coconut’ [wa.ˈte] /kuˈme/ ‘snake’ [ku.ˈme] /puˈna/ ‘smoke’ [pu.ˈna]

/kuˈda/ ‘horse’ [ku.ˈra] c. ˈHH /ˈtaːŋsok/ ‘formerly’ [ˈtaːŋ.sok] /ˈuːtiŋ/ ‘pot’ [ˈuː.tiŋ]

/ˈkaupai/ ‘buffalo’ [ˈkaw.paj] /ˈlaŋsal/ ‘bird sp.’ [ˈlaŋ.sal] /ˈlaːwaŋ/ ‘bee’ [ˈlaː.waŋ]

HˈH /maːˈɸaŋ/ ‘brave’ [maː.ˈɸaŋ] 6 This is one of only two items in the corpus where /k/ appears in a non-final coda. The other is the

onomatopoeic /takkeː/ ‘house gecko’. LK /likka/ ‘strong’ is /lilka/ in UK, and so the geminate /k/ appears to have arisen through an original liquid consonant /l/ harmonising with the following /k/.

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/teːˈkaŋ/ ‘pole’ [teː.ˈkaŋ]

On the small number of trisyllabic roots in the corpus, stress is phonemic. Heavy syllables do not attract stress. Examples are given in (9).

Stress on trisyllablic roots (9) a. Initial /ˈumakiː/ ‘quail’ [ˈu.ma.kiː]

/ˈtakabau/ ‘frog’ [ˈta.ka.baw] /ˈsopale/ ‘snail’ [ˈso.pa.le] /ˈmaukubai/ ‘cat’ [ˈmaw.ku.baj]

b. Medial /kaˈwasa/ ‘rich’ [ka.ˈwa.sa] /taˈɸoda/ ‘iron’ [ta.ˈɸo.ra] /kaˈkisiŋ/ ‘ant sp.’ [ka.ˈki.siŋ/ /aˈwiŋga/ ‘door’ [a.ˈwiŋ.ga]

c. Final /tapkiˈdi/ ‘spider’ [tap.ki.ˈri] /taoˈmaŋ/ ‘crazy’ [ta.o.ˈmaŋ]

Suffixes never cause stress shift, but prefixes can. All prefixes except the patientive series

appear to attract stress (see Stokhof 1979: 87-88). It is only in the presence of such stress shifting prefixes that I have observed any stress-differentiated words (but not roots!) in Kamang, for instance, /teːˈkaŋ/ ‘pole’ versus /teː-kaŋ/ [ˈteːkaŋ] CMN.DAT-good ‘be good to one another’ or /si=jaː/ [siˈjaː] 1PL.INCL.AGT= reach ‘we go, reach’ versus /si-jaː/ [ˈsijaː] 1PL.INCL.GEN-stool ‘our stool’.

2.5. Morphophonemics Kamang displays a wide range of morphophonemic changes triggered by the attachment of affixes and clitics to roots. In this section, I outline only the most frequent processes.

2.5.1. Reduplication Kamang has three patterns of reduplication: (i) CV reduplication of verbs; (ii) full reduplication of nouns and adjectives, and; (iii) irregular partial reduplication of numerals.

CV reduplication applied to verbs denotes durative aspect and/or intensity of action depending on the lexical semantics of the reduplicated verb. In this kind of reduplication, the first two segments on the left edge of the word are reduplicated, as in (10).

CV reduplication of verbs (10) a. /tadak/ > /ta~tadak/ [taˈtarak]

close.together RDP~close.together ‘very close together’ b. /-sol/ > /-so~sol/ [-soˈsol]

begin RDP~begin ‘very beginning’ Where the V of the root is a front vowel, then the copy vowel of the reduplicant is /u/, as in (11a-b). Where the first V of the root is a long vowel, the copy vowel of the reduplicant is a short vowel, as in (11c). Similarly, where there is a diphthong (i.e., VG), only the V is copied in the reduplicant, as in (11d).

(11) a. /ɸewe/ > /ɸu~ɸewe/ *ɸeɸewe

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go.down RDP~go.down ‘keep on going down’ b. /bisik/ > /bu~bisik/ *bibisik

snap.off RDP~snap.off ‘snap right off’ c. /poː/ > /po~poː/ *poːpoː

break.off RDP~break.off ‘snap right off’ d. /waisin/ > /wa~waisin/ *waiwaisin

hear RDP~hear ‘keep on listening’

Full reduplication applies to nouns and adjectives. With nouns it denotes plurality of kinds, as in (12). With adjectives it denotes intensification, as in (13).

Full reduplication of nouns (12) a. /taːu/ > /taːu~taːu/

where RDP~where ‘wherever, different kinds of places’ b. /atoi/ > /atoi~atoi/

bird RDP~bird ‘different kinds of birds’

Full reduplication of adjectives (13) a. /sosaŋ/ > /sosaŋ/~ /sosaŋ/

handsome RDP~handsome ‘very handsome’ b. /buʔsei/ > /buʔsei~buʔsei/

strong RDP~strong ‘very strong’

Finally, numerals have an irregular pattern of partial reduplication to create distributive numerals. These are set out in Table 4. With the numerals ‘one’ to ‘three’, it is the initial (C)V that is reduplicated. With ‘four’, the initial CV.V redupulicates, but with /i/ becoming a glide in the reduplicant such that it is only monosyllabic [bje~]. The numerals with initial wesing (five to nine) repeat the CVCV [wesi~]. Where a numeral is a complex expression (being made up of multiple independent numeral words), then only the last element of the complex numeral is reduplicated, as illustrated for ‘100’ to ‘1000’.

Table 4: Kamang distributive numerals

1 by 1 /no~nok/ 2 by 2 /o~ok/ [oˈʔok]

3 by 3 /su~su/ 4 by 4 /bie~biat/ [bjebiˈjat] 5 by 5 wesi~wesiŋ 6 by 6 wesi~wesiŋnok 7 by 7 wesi~wesiŋok 8 by 8 wesi~wesiŋsu 9 by 9 wesi~wesiŋbiat 10 by 10 ataːk no~nok 20 by 20 ataːk o~ok 100 by 100 ataːk nok waːl no~nok 1000 by 1000 ribu no~nok

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2.5.2. Prefixation Agreement prefixes of the PATIENTIVE inflection have two forms, full and reduced (see section 4.4 and section 6.1 on the functions of the inflection on nouns and verbs respectively). Full forms retain the /a/ vowel in the singular of the paradigm and are used productively on consonant- and vowel-initial roots. Reduced forms have lost the /a/ vowel in the singular of the paradigm and are only found on a small number of vowel initial roots. There is no rule which can predict which vowel initial roots will take the full or the reduced forms of the inflection. Examples of both paradigms on vowel initial roots are provided in Table 5.

Table 5: Forms of the PATIENTIVE prefixal paradigm

FULL /-ai/ ‘vagina’

/-oː/ ‘birth’

REDUCED -ouko ‘mother’

-eh ‘bite’

1SG /na-/ /na-ai/ /na-oː/ /n-/ /n-ouko/ /n-eh/ 2SG /a-/ /a-ai/ /a-oː/ /Ø-/ /Ø-ouko/ /Ø-eh/ 3 /ga-/ /ga-ai/ /ga-oː/ /g-/ /g-ouko/ /g-eh/ CMN /ta-/ /ta-ai/ /ta-oː/ /t-/ /t-ouko/ /t-eh/ 1PL.EXCL /ni-/ /ni-ai/ /ni-oː/ /ni-/ /ni-ouko/ /ni-eh/ 1PL.INCL /si-/ /si-ai/ /si-oː/ /si-/ /si-ouko/ /si-eh/ 2PL /i-/ /i-ai/ /i-oː/ /i-/ /i-ouko/ /i-eh/

2.5.3. Suffixation, encliticisation and gemination A suffix or enclitic of the shape VC is reduced to a simple C when it attaches to a vowel final root, as illustrated in (14).

Suffix-enclitic reduction (14) a. /ko:/ + /-ih/ > [ko:h]

‘stay’ ‘CSEQ’ ‘stay such that...’ b. /pe/ + /=al/ > [pel]

‘pig’ ‘CONTR’ ‘a pig (not another animal)’

The enclitic =ou ‘RESTR’ also often reduces to simply /u/ when it attaches to a vowel-final root. Thus:

Reduction of =ou (15) /kine/ + /=ou/ > [kineu]

‘knife’ ‘RESTR’ ‘a knife (and only a knife)’

Gemination of final consonants occurs when a suffix or enclitic of the shape V(C) attaches to a consonant final root, as in (16). All word-final consonants except /ŋ/ can geminate on suffixation. In these cases, /ŋ/ is realised as [n], as in (16c).

Final consonant gemination (16) a. /bilen/ + /-ih/ > [bilennih]

‘write’ ‘CSEQ’ ‘write such that...’ b. /dum/ + /=a/ > [dumma]

‘child’ ‘SPEC’ ‘a (specific) child’

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c. /boŋ/ + /=ak/ > [bonnak] ‘tree’ ‘DEF’ ‘the tree’

3. Basic clausal syntax The basic clause in Kamang is composed of a predicate (PRED) and its arguments (ARG). A predicate is the clausal element that may host suffixal morphology (-AUX and -ASP) when in the final predicate position. Kamang predicates may be avalent (that is, take no argument), but more frequently are monovalent or bivalent. An argument always precedes its predicate. The predicate may be followed by an item in the post-predicative slot (END). Thus, a basic, mono-predicative clause in Kamang has the structure given in (17). Optional elements are given in brackets.

Mono-predicate clause structure (17) [(ARGNP) (ARGNP) PRED(-AUX)(-ASP) (END)]CLAUSE

The examples in (18) illustrate the difference between a predicate and a post-predicative element. In (18a) the clausal negator naa ‘NEG’ occurs in the END slot following the monovalent verbal predicate, -bo'ra ‘die’, which is marked with the imperfective aspect suffix -si ‘IPFV’. Moving the aspectual suffix onto the clause-final, but non-predicative negator as in (18b) is ungrammatical.

(18) a. Dumma gabo'rasi naa. dum=a ga-bo'da-si naa child=SPEC 3.PAT-die-IPFV NEG ‘The child is not dying.’

b. *Dumma gabo'ra naasi. dum=a ga-bo'da naa-si

child=SPEC 3.PAT-die NEG-IPFV

A Kamang clause may also have more than one predicate (see section 8). In this case, final and non-final predicates are distinguished, as represented in the template in (19). A final predicate can host an aspectual suffix (-ASP), either with or without the addition of the verbal auxiliary suffix (-da ‘AUX’; see section 7.1). Non-final predicates cannot host any suffixes.

Multi-predicate clause structure (19) [… (PREDNON-FINAL) (PREDNON-FINAL) PREDFINAL(-AUX)(-ASP) (END)]CLAUSE Examples (20) and (21) illustrate the distinction in aspectual marking between non-final and final predicates. In each case only the final (third) predicate hosts an aspectual suffix; the suffixation of a non-final (first or second) predicates would result in ungrammaticality. (20) Tama wooseh we yaasi.

tama [ goo-seh]PRED1 [ we]PRED2 [yaa-si]PRED3 sea 3.AST-lower go depart-IPFV ‘The sea lowers and goes way out.’

(21) Peu yeeng see akmi lokma. pe=ou geeng [sue ]PRED1 [ ak=mi]PRED2 [lok-ma]PRED3 pig=RESTR 3.RESTR come here=IN dig.up-PFV ‘Pigs have came here and dug up the earth.’

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3.1. Predicate types Kamang distinguishes morphologically between verbal and non-verbal predicates. Verbal predicates are those predicates that directly host aspectual suffixes when in the final predicate position. A non-verbal predicate is one that must first be suffixed with the verbal auxiliary before it can host an aspectual suffix in the final predicate position (see section 7.1).

For instance, compare the suffixing behaviour of the monovalent verbal predicate poo ‘be broken’ in (22) and the adjectival predicate piila ‘be sharp’ in (23). In the (a) examples we see that both items types can occur as simple predicates without any aspectual marking. However, in the (b) examples we see a difference between the behaviour of the predicates when marked with the perfective aspectual suffix -ma ‘PFV’. While the verbal predicate directly hosts the suffix (22b), the adjectival predicate must be first suffixed with -da ‘AUX’ before it can host the same suffix (23b).

Verbal predicate (22) a. Bong pa poo. b. Bong pa pooma. bong=apa poo bong=apa poo-ma

wood=THIS broken wood=THIS broken-PFV ‘This wood is broken.’ ‘This wood is already broken.’ Adjectival predicate

(23) a. Bong pa piila. b. Bong pa piilarama. bong=apa piila bong=apa piila-da-ma (*piila-ma)

wood=THIS sharp wood=THIS sharp-AUX-PFV sharp-PFV ‘This wood is sharp.’ ‘This wood is already sharp.’

The types of verbal predicates and non-verbal predicates will be discussed and illustrated in section 3.1.1 and section 3.1.2 respectively. Discussion will be limited to mono-predicative clauses for now. Explicit treatment of complex multi-predicative clauses will be reserved for section 7.

3.1.1. Verbal predicates We saw above that verbal predicates are those predicates that directly host aspectual suffixes when in the final predicate position. Verbal predicates can be preliminarily divided into classes on the basis of three morphosyntactic properties:

(i) valency: the number of arguments for which each verb subcategorises, zero to three arguments, and;

(ii) flagging of arguments: the obligatory marking of an argument NP with the light verb me ‘TAKE’, either P or T.

(iii) argument agreement: the presence of an agreement prefix indexing an argument, one of S, P or R.

Table 6 summarises the verb classes that arise out of these criteria. Each of these verbal predicate types is discussed and illustrated below.

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Table 6: Overview of Kamang verb types’ argument encoding

VERB TYPE ARGUMENT ENCODING Avalent • V Monovalent • NPS V

• NPS ARGS-V Bivalent • NPA NPP V

• NPA NPP ARGP-V Defective bivalent ~ trivalent • NPA NPP me V

• NPA NPT me NPR ARGR-V

Avalent verbs form a small class which semantically denotes times of the day. Examples of two such verbs are given in (24). Kamang does not use a “dummy subject”, such as is necessary in the English versions of such predications. As they are without arguments, these verbs obviously do not have any argument flagging or agreement.

Avalent verbs (24) a. Itunma. b. Mitafeensi.

itun-ma mi-tafeeng-si late.afternoon-PFV IN-day.break-IPFV ‘It’s late afternoon.’ ‘It’s becoming day’

Monovalent verbs subcategorise for a single argument, S. There are two primary lexical classes of monovalent verbs, those that do not obligatorily prefix S and those that do, such as the verbs in (25a) and (25b) respectively. S is never flagged.

Monovalent verbs (25) a. Unprefixed S b. Prefixed S

Markus mu'tanma. Markus gamanteima. Markus mu'tan-ma Markus ga-mantei-ma Markus fall-PFV Markus 3.PAT-thirst-PFV ‘Markus fell already.’ ‘Markus is thirsty already.’

Bivalents verbs subcategorise for two arguments, A and P. There are two primary lexical classes, those that do not obligatorily prefix P and those that do. The unprefixing type is illustrated in (26a), while the P prefixing type is illustrated in (26b).

Bivalent verbs (26) a. Unprefixed P b. Prefixed P

Na Markus bo'nama. Na Markus gatakma. na Markus bo'na-ma na Markus ga-tak-ma 1SG.AGT Markus hit-PFV 1SG.AGT Markus 3.PAT-see-PFV ‘I have hit Markus.’ ‘I have seen Markus.’

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The verbal predicates we have looked at thus far have had no argument flagging. So-called “defective” verbs are a minor class of polyvalent verbs (around 10 members) that require the light verb me ‘TAKE’ flagging one of their arguments (for more details of the status of me with these verbs, see Klamer & Schapper 2012). Trivalent verbs in Kamang are always defective. They invariably flag T with me and index R with an agreement prefix on the final verb. For instance, in (27a) and (27b) the verbs -tulen ‘divide’ and -n ‘give’ both have me flagging T and at the same time index R with locative and genitive inflections respectively (see section 6.1 on the different prefixal inflections).

Defective trivalent verbs (27) a. A T R AGRR-V

Markus patei me dumma wotulen. Markus patei me dum=a go-tulen Markus corn TAKE child=SPEC 3.LOC-divide ‘Markus divides corn amongst the children.’

b. A T AGRR-V

Maria falak me nen. Maria falak me ne-n Maria cloth TAKE 1SG.GEN-give ‘Maria gives me a cloth.’

Whereas all trivalent verbs are defective, only a handful of all the bivalent verbs in Kamang are defective. Defective bivalent verbs flag P with me, but never index P with an agreement prefix. The pattern is illustrated by the two defective verbs pidak ‘bury’ and mota ‘discard’ given in (28a) and (28b).

Defective bivalent verbs (28) a. A P V

Na yeok me mota. na ge-ok me mota 1SG.AGT 3.GEN-two TAKE discard ‘I throw the second one away.’

b. A P V Marten bakaa itonak me pidak. Marten bakaa iton=ak me pidak Marten betel.nut ripe=DEF TAKE bury ‘Marten buries the betel nut.’

The appearance and alignment of agreement prefixes on verbs is treated in depth in section 6.

3.1.2. Non-verbal predicates The definition of a non-verbal predicate given above is any predicate that cannot directly host aspectual suffixes. There are three major types of non-verbal predicates in Kamang: predicates headed by adjectives, predicates headed by postpositions, and nominal predicates. These

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elements act as predicates in their own right; Kamang has no copula with which to “support” non-verbal predications.

Adjectival predicates are of two types. First, there are simple adjectives which take one argument, such as suu ‘heavy’ in (29). Second, there are labile adjectives which can take either no argument or a single argument. Semantically, labile adjectives depict properties that can be attributed both to a specific entity and to an ambient weather condition. For instance, the adjective kamal ‘cold’ can be used with a single argument in predications about the temperature of an entity, such as ili ‘water’ in (30a). Equally, kamal can occur without an argument to express that the ambient temperature is cold, as in (30b). Often ambient weather predications occur with a postpositional phrase (PP) denoting the location at which the temperature is found, but this is not obligatory (see Schapper forthcoming a).

Simple adjectival predicate (29) Taas pa suu.

taas=apa suu (*suu-si / *suu-ma) bag=THIS heavy heavy-IPFV heavy-PFV ‘This bag is heavy.’ Labile adjectival predicate

(30) a. Ili pa kamal. ili=apa kamal (*kamal-si / *kamal-ma) water=THIS cold cold-IPFV cold-PFV ‘This water is cold.’

b. Buk taa mi kamal. buk taa mi kamal mountain above IN cold ‘It’s cold on the mountain tops.’

Adjectives do not ever occur with an obligatory agreement prefix indexing their argument. They can, however, optionally occur with a locative agreement prefix indexing their argument in order to express greater affectedness. This pattern is also found with monovalent verbs and is discussed in section 6.1.2.1.

Postpositional predicates are headed by one of the four Kamang postpositions (mi ‘in’, taa ‘on’, ii ‘under’, and wo ‘at’) and take an NP complement (i.e., PP = [NP POST]PRED), as in (31).

Postpositional predicate (31) Nal Aapui mi.

nal Aapui mi (*mi-si / *mi-ma) 1SG Apui IN IN-IPFV IN-PFV ‘I’m in Apui.’

Nominal predicates consist simply of two NPs juxtaposed to one another, as in (32).

Neither predicate type can directly host aspectual suffixes.

Nominal predicate (32) Epaa almakang.

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e-paa almakang (*almakang-si / *almakang-ma) 2SG.GEN-father person person-IPFV person-PFV ‘Your father is a human.’

See section 7.1 on the use of the verbal auxiliary -da allowing non-verbal predicates to

host aspectual suffixes.

3.2. The post-predicative slot: negation and intensification The three items that can occur in the post-predicative slot are given in Table 7. Typically, only one item can occupy the slot at any given time.7

Table 7: Items in the post-predicate slot

GLOSS FUNCTION naa ‘NEG’ general clausal negator gee ‘PROH’ negative imperative borang ‘VERY’ clausal intensification

Clausal negation is expressed in Kamang by means of the negator naa ‘NEG’ following the

predicate, as in (33). The same negator is used for all types of predicates. Negative imperatives are marked with gee, as in (34). (33) Nal isei maa katee naa.

nal isei maa katee naa 1SG game edible eat NEG ‘I don’t eat meat.’

(34) Ala wobalee posansi yee.

al=a gobalee posan-si gee 2SG=SPEC too arrogant-IPFV PROH ‘Don't you be so arrogant!’

Intensification of a clause is expressed with borang ‘VERY’. This item occurs with

monovalent verbal and adjectival predicates, as in (35a) and (35b). (35) a. Verbal Predicate

Ili tutunma borang. ili tutun-ma borang

water fire.hot-PFV VERY ‘The water’s already really hot.’

b. Adjectival Predicate Ili bebarama borang. ili beba-da-ma borang

water hot-AUX-PFV VERY

7 Kamang also has adverbs, but the class is much larger than those found in post-verbal slot. The class

includes temporal, manner and aspectual adverbs. In contrast to the items discussed here they all occur before the (final) clausal predicate, such as wobalee in (34).

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‘The water’s already really hot.’

3.3. Elevational marking An omnipresent feature of Kamang spatial discourse is elevation marking. Events and motions are persistently located in space by means of “elevationals” and “elevational motion verbs’. Elevationals express that a location is at a certain elevation relative to the deictic centre, while elevational motion verbs denote that a motion occurs over or from/to a particular elevation. The Kamang elevational terms are given in Table 8.

Table 8: Kamang elevation terms

ELEVATION DIRECTION † DISTANCE ‡ Elevationals Elevational motion verbs From DC To DC

LEVEL mung we me

HIGH DIRECT tung te taang

INDIRECT NEAR mutung wete metaang FAR tumung tewe taangme

LOW DIRECT fung fe yaang

INDIRECT NEAR muhung wehe

yaangme FAR fumung fewe

† Direction has to do with the angle of the path taken or referenced location relative to the angle of the slope. Using a DIRECT elevational term means that the path taken follows the angle of the slope directly (i.e., at its steepest), whilst an INDIRECT elevational term means that the path traverses across the angle of the slope or that the referenced location is off to the side of angle of the slope.

‡ Distance is concerned with whether the path taken is short or long or the referenced location is near or far. Thus, using a NEAR elevational term means traversing across a slope for a short distance, while using a FAR one traversing across a slope for a long distance.

While elevational motion verbs behave simply as verbs, the Kamang elevationals are

notable in that they constitute thei own word class and accordingly have their own peculiar syntax. They occur in three syntactic positions in the clause. The first is immediately before a verbal predicate where it denotes the location at or from which an event takes place, as in (36) where mutung denotes the location from which the calling takes place. In the second position the elevational follows a motion verb specifying the resultant location of the motion, as in (37) where the elevational tung follows its corresponding elevational verb te. The final position is before an NP to denote the location of the NP referent, as in (38) where tung gives the location of wuleh ‘slope’. (36) Nok sue koo mutung woitisi. nok sue koo mutung go-iti-si one come stay LEVEL 3.LOC-call-IPFV ‘Somebody was calling him from over there’.

(from Stokhof 1979)

(37) Nal te tung. nal te tung 1SG go.HIGH.DIRECT HIGH.DIRECT ‘I go up top.’

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(38) Markus tung wuleh sama kawailama. Markus tung guleh sama kawaila-ma Markus HIGH.DIRECT slope middle stumble-PFV ‘Markus stumbled slope up (which is) up there.’

See Stokhof (2012: 33-47) for more discussion of Kamang elevational-marked items.

4. Noun phrases The template of the Kamang noun phrase (NP) is presented in (39). The NP is maximally composed of a head noun (NHEAD) followed by its attribute (ATTR), a numeral phrase (NUMP), a relative clause (RC), a demonstrative (DEM) and an article (ART). Adnominal possessors are expressed by an agreement prefix on the head noun; a possessor NP (outside the NP) may optionally co-occur with the prefix to explicitly identify the possessor. Finally, the Kamang NP can occur with a range of items co-referential with it in a slot outside the NP, called here the NP-appositional (APPOS) slot.

Template of the Kamang NP (39) PSRNP [AGRPSR-NHEAD ATTR NUMP RC DEM ART]NP APPOS

The various elements of the NP and the NP-appositional slots will be exemplified briefly in the following sections.

4.1. Attributes and relative clauses Attributes and relative clauses both modify a NHEAD, but they differ in their precise marking of it, as will be outlined in this section.

Attributes are simple adjectives or stative monovalent verbs that provide information about characteristics of the referent. There are no morpho-syntactic differences in the behaviour of attributes that are adjectival (40a) or verbal (40b). (See section 3.1 on the differing suffixal behaviour of adjectival predicates and monovalent verbal predicates).

(40) Adjectival attribute Verbal attribute

a. alma puk b. arita aleen person big leaf wilt ‘big person’ ‘wilted leaf’

Attributes occur directly following the head noun, preceding numerals, numeral classifiers and relative clauses in the NP. In (41) we see the numeral nok ‘one’ following the attribute saak ‘old’. In (42) we see the attribute kiding ‘old’ precedes a relative clause.

(41) Kata saak nok yedumma ganeng.

[kata saak nok ]NP ge-dum=a ga-neng hind old one 3.GEN-child=SPEC 3.PAT-with ‘There was only a grown-up hind with her stag.’ (from Stokhof 1978)

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(42) Dum kidingbo faa parong mi, kui yera suboitamah ...

[dum kiding=bo faa padong mi]NP kui geda suboita-ma-ih child small=REL earth mud IN dog 3.CONTR jump-PFV-CSEQ ‘Then the child who was in the mud, his dog jumped up such that...’

Relative clauses in Kamang are restrictive; they identify a referent by restricting the head noun’s scope of reference to a single entity or set of entities. The head of a relative clause appears at the front of the RC marked with =bo ‘REL’ (also a general clause linker). The head is gapped (signaled with Ø) inside the RC, as seen in (43) and (44).

(43) Dumbo wosol gaoo yaangme pie.

[dum=bo go-sol Ø ga-oo yaangme]NP pie child=REL 3.LOC-begin 3.PAT-born exit crocodile

‘The child that first came out was a crocodile.’ (44) Mateus yepateibo si aia wobun.

Mateus [ge-patei=bo si Ø ai=a]NP go-bun Mateus 3.GEN-corn=REL 1PL.INCL.AGT take=SPEC 3.LOC-hidden ‘The corn of Mateus which we took is hidden.’

4.2. Quantification Kamang lacks a coherent class of quantifiers. Quantification is done by a range of items from multiple word classes. In this section I discuss those quantificational items not discussed elsewhere in this sketch. The plural word nung occurs in the NP appositional slot and is accordingly discussed in section 4.5. Quantifying pronouns are discussed in section 5.4.

4.2.1. Numeral quantifiers and the numeral phrase A numeral phrase is composed of a classifier (CLF) and a numeral (NUM). The classifier precedes the numeral. A classifier may be specific to a class of entities. We see in (45) that the head noun pee ‘pig’ can take the large animal classifier tuk (45a) or the default classifier uh (45b). (45) a. pe [tuk su]NUMP b. pe [uh su]NUMP pig CLF three pig CLF three ‘three pigs’ ‘three pigs’

The NUMP has two positions: (i) its unmarked position within the NP closed off by the article on the left periphery (46a), and; (ii) a marked position where the NUMP is post-posed into the NP-appositional slot outside the NP (46b). The latter position is less frequent and pragmatically marked, functioning to topicalise the enumerated referent. See section 4.5 for more on this NP-external position.

Syntactic positions of the NUMP (46) a. sibe uh sua [ sibe [uh su]NUMP=a]NP

chicken CLF three=SPEC

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‘the three chickens’ b. sibea uh su

[sibe=a]NP [uh su]NUMP chicken=SPEC CLF three ‘the chickens, the three ones’

Kamang has an inflecting numeral classifier used exclusively in human reference. The inflectional pattern of the human classifier -ning ‘CLF.HUM’ follows that of the PATIENTIVE inflection (section 6.1). Examples (47) and (48) show the human classifier with a 3rd person and a 1st person exclusive inflection respectively. (47) Male ganing su oi yefe.

male ga-ning su oi ge-fe woman 3.PAT-CLF.HUM three thither 3.GEN-go.down ‘Those three women went down there.’ (from Stokhof 1978)

(48) Nining su kon ako.

ni-ning su kon ako 1PL.EXCL.PAT-CLF.HUM three only be.here ‘We are only three people here.’ (from Stokhof 1978)

4.2.2. Non-numeral quantifiers Kamang does not have a syntactic class of non-numeral quantifiers; items denoting many, few, a little etc. are adjectives and occur in the ATTR slot of the NP, i.e., to the left of the NP-defining article. Non-numeral quantifiers such as adu ‘many/much’ occupy the ATTR slot within the NP and cannot be postposed out of it, as seen in (49). (49) a. sibe adu=a b. *sibe=a adu chicken many=SPEC chicken=SPEC many ‘the many chickens’

Kamang also has a suffix marking associative plurality, -lee ‘ASSOC’. This suffix can occurs on kin terms or proper names, as in (50) and (51) respectively. Nouns marked by –lee cannot be modified by any other NP elements.

Kamang associative plurality marking

(50) ..., gerumlee see silanta malii. ge-dum-lee sue silanta malii 3.GEN-child-ASSOC arrive mourn mourn ‘…, her children and their associates come to mourn.’ (51) Martenlee nat tak. Marten-lee n-at tak Marten-ASSOC 1SG-from run ‘Marten and his associates run away from me.’

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4.3. Demonstratives and articles Table 9 provides an overview of the Kamang’s demonstratives and articles. Kamang has a three-way demonstrative system, with the “that” demonstratives being distinguished from one another in terms of (non-)knowledge (‘KNWN’/‘NKNWN’) of the referent.8 The articles mark specificity (‘SPEC’) and definiteness (‘DEF’).

Table 9: Kamang demonstratives and articles

Form Gloss Demonstratives apa† ‘this’ pang ‘that.KNWN’ ang ‘that.NKNWN’ Articles =a ‘SPEC’ =ak ‘DEF’ † This demonstrative can surface as pa adnominally.

The full form (apa) can appear both adnominally and pronominally.

A demonstrative may occur in the NP both modifying a head noun (52a) or independently

with no other NP constituents present (52b). (52) a. Gera koo sukuu ang miilai.

geda koo [sukuu ang]NP mi-ilai 3.CONTR stay hole THAT.NKNWN IN-look ‘He stared into that hole.’

b. Gera koo ang miilai.

geda koo [ang]NP mi-ilai 3.CONTR stay THAT.NKNWN IN-look ‘He stared into that.’

As per the NP template, demonstratives and articles have distinct NP slots and can co-

occur, as for instance in (53) and (54). (53) Male saak anga koo yeeisi. [male saak ang=a]NP koo yeei-si

female old THAT.NKNWN=SPEC stay laugh-IPFV ‘That’s a woman laughing.’

8 It is beyond the scope of this sketch to discuss demonstrative semantics in any detail. The

“knowledge” difference between pang and ang can be summarised as follows: pang can refer to items accessible/proximal to the addressee, or to items which are either visible or well-known to both speaker and addressee; ang can only refer to items outside the immediate sphere of the speech participants, that is, to items which are either not visible or whose identity is not well-known to the speaker and addressee.

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(54) Si kadii pak woehsi. [si kadii apa=ak]NP go-eh-si

1PL.INCL house THIS=DEF 3.LOC-measure-IPFV ‘We will measure this here house.’

4.4. Possessors Kamang has a three-way possessive split. The three classes of nouns are: alienably possessed nouns, obligatorily possessed nouns, and inalienably possessed nouns. The three possessive classes of nominals are distinguished by (i) the inflection used to mark the possessor on the possessed noun, and (ii) the obligatoriness of a possessor. Table 10 presents an overview of the Kamang possessive classes.

Table 10: Kamang possessive classes

Alienable possession

Obligatory possession Inalienable possession

Marking of possessor GENITIVE GENITIVE/COMPOUND PATIENTIVE Occurrence of possessor

Optional obligatory obligatory

Alienably possessed nouns constitute an open class of nouns. The majority of nominals in

the language belong to this class and new nouns are readily integrated into it. In this class, nouns may occur without the expression of a possessor, as in kui ‘dog’ (55a). Where a possessor is expressed, it is encoded with the genitive prefix (55b). (55) a. Kui pang tini tuurama. kui pang tini tuu-da-ma

dog that.KNWN dirty whole-AUX-PFV ‘That dog is all dirty.’

b. Nekui pang tini tuurama. ne-kui pang tini tuu-da-ma 1SG.GEN-dog that.KNWN dirty whole-AUX-PFV ‘My dog is all dirty.’

Inalienably possessed nouns are nouns which must occur with a possessor marked with a patentive prefix, as seen with -pai ‘belly’ in (56a). Such noun roots cannot exist independent of an inflection (56b). Inalienably possessed nouns constitute a closed class of nouns. Semantically, it is overwhelming comprised of human body part nouns, but there are also a few animal body part nouns, bodily and emotional condition nouns, kinship nouns and locative nouns.

(56) a. Napai aru baai. na-pai adu baai

1SG.PAT-belly big great ‘My stomach is very big.’

b. *Pai aru baai.

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belly big great

Obligatorily possessed nouns (such as waa ‘egg’ in 57) are a small class of around a dozen nouns whose morpho-syntactic properties are intermediate between those of inalienably and alienably possessed nouns. Like inalienably possessed nouns, an obligatorily possessed noun must occur with a possessor. Depending on the lexical identity of the obligatorily possessed noun, there may be two ways of expressing the possessor. Like alienably possessed nouns, the possessor can be expressed using a prefix of the genitive inflection (57a). Alternatively, the noun can occur in a possessive compound with another noun expressing the possessor (57b). Simply omitting a possessor is not lexically permissible (57c). (57) a. ne-waa

1SG.GEN-egg ‘my egg’ (said by an anthropo-morphosised chicken)

b. sibe waa chicken egg ‘chicken egg’

c. *waa egg

4.5. NP-appositional slot The appositive slot is not in the NP, but is, as the name suggests, syntactically apposite to the NP. Three kinds of item can occur in the NP-appositional slot: (i) a pronoun co-referent with the NP head (58a), (ii) a plural word quantifying the referent of the NP (58b), or (iii) a numeral phrase, also quantifying the referent of the NP (58c). The NP-external position of the slot is seen by the fact that items in the slot occur to the right of an article where one marks the NP.

Items in the NP-appositional slot (58) a. Pronoun

almakang=ak gera people=DEF 3.CONTR ‘the {specific group of} people’ b. Plural word

almakang=ak nung people=DEF PL ‘the {multiple} people’

c. Numeral phrase almakang=ak uh biat

people=DEF CLF four ‘the people, four of them’

The apposition between an NP and an item in the NP-appositional slot is tight: there is no intonational break or pause between NP and the appositional item; no free items may intervene between them. Despite this tightness, NP enclitics, such as the restrictive focus enclitic =ou ‘RESTR’ in (59), still attach to the NP and not the item in the appositional slot, thereby illustrating the NP-external status of the appositional slot.

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(59) Peu yeeng see akmi lokma.

[pe]NP=ou geengAPPOS sue ak=mi lok-ma pig=RESTR 3.FOC come here=IN dig.up-PFV ‘It was pigs that came here and dug up the earth.’

5. Pronouns Kamang has multiple paradigms of independent pronouns (Table 11). Pronouns show the same feature distinctions as agreement prefixes. That is, they distinguish 1st, 2nd, 3rd and COMMON persons.9 There is an additional inclusive and exclusive distinction in the 1st person plural. All but the quantifying (dual, universal and group) pronouns distinguish singular and plural numbers in all persons except for 3rd person. The majority of pronominal paradigms are not marked for grammatical relation. That is, the primary function of the different paradigms is not to mark grammatical roles like subject or object. The details of the use of the different pronominal paradigms will be discussed in the following sections.

Table 11: Kamang pronominal paradigms

BASIC PRONOUNS REFLEXIVE POSSESSIVE AGENT UNRESTRICTED PRONOUNS PRONOUNS 1SG na nal needu neen 2SG a al eedu een 3 ga gal geedu geen 1PL.EXCL ni nil niidu niin 1PL.INCL si sil siidu siin 2PL i il iidu iin CMN ta tal teedu teen QUANTIFYING PRONOUNS ALONE DUAL ALL GROUP 1SG nallou -- -- -- 2SG allou -- -- -- 3 gallou gannok gaima geifu 1PL.EXCL nillou ninnok niima niifu 1PL.INCL sillou sinnok siima siifu 2PL illou innok iima iifu CMN tallou tannok -- -- FOCUS PRONOUNS RESTRICTIVE CONTRASTIVE OTHER 1SG neeng nera net 2SG eeng era et

9 The “common” person in Kamang is used variously for generic person ‘one(’s)’ and reciprocal ‘each

other(’s)’. The related inflections in other TAP languages have similar labels, e.g., ‘distributive’ in Adang, or ‘all inclusive’ in Blagar.

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3 geeng gera get 1PL.EXCL niing nira nit 1PL.INCL siing sira sit 2PL iing ira it CMN teeng tira tet

5.1. Basic pronouns The “basic” Kamang pronouns are so called because they do not carry any especially marked semantic or pragmatic meaning as the other pronouns do. They are the most frequently used pronouns in Kamang discourse and can thus also be viewed as statistically “basic”. I distinguish two basic pronoun sets: (i) the “agent” pronouns, and (ii) the “unrestricted” pronouns.

An agent pronoun (glossed with ‘AGT’) encodes a semantic agent, that is, a participant which is volitional and controlling; they occur in the syntactic role of either S (60a) or A (61a). In accordance with this restriction, agent pronouns cannot be used to encode either a non-agentive S (60b) or a P (61b).

(60) a. Agentive S

Na maa. na maa 1SG.AGT walk ‘I walk’

b. Non-Agentive S * Na kawaila.

na kawaila 1SG.AGT stumble ‘I stumble’

(61) a. Agentive A Na falak sine. na falak sine 1SG.AGT cloth weave ‘I weave cloth.’

b. P * Markus na bo'na.

Markus na bo'na Markus 1SG.AGT hit Intended: ‘Markus hits me’

‘Unrestricted’ pronouns are so called because they are not limited to encoding participants

of any particular syntactic role or semantic theme. Unrestricted pronouns can occur in all contexts where the agent pronouns cannot. Examples of an unrestricted pronoun encoding the non-agentive S and the P of a main clause verb are given in (62a) and (62b) respectively. Pronouns of this paradigm are glossed simply with their person-number-clusivity feature status.

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(62) a. Non-agentive S Nal kawaila.

nal kawaila 1SG stumble ‘I stumble’

b. P Markus nal bo'na. Markus nal bo'na

Markus 1SG hit ‘Markus hits me’

Unrestricted pronouns can also encode agentive S and A, as in (63) and (64) respectively. (63) Gal wehe me sukuu wooi gesilang.

gal wehe me sukuu wo-oi ge-silang 3 go.down come hole 3.LOC-towards 3.GEN-descend ‘She went down into a hole.’

(64) Genoklee gal Aribei saak pa ge'baasi...

ge-nok-lee gal Aribei saak=apa ge'-baa-si 3.GEN-friend-ASSOC 3 Aribei old=this 3.SBEN-say-IPFV ‘Her friends said to old Aribei...’

An unrestricted pronoun can also encode peripheral roles such as those introduced by medial serial verbs or in postpositional phrases. In (65) unrestricted pronouns are used as the complement of the postposition mi. In (66) an unrestricted pronoun is used to encode the P of the medial verb me ‘TAKE’. Also unlike agent pronouns, unrestricted pronouns can encode the subjects of non-verbal clauses, as with the postpositional predicate in (67).

(65) Nok al misilang, nok nal misilang.

nok al mi-silang nok nal mi-silang one 2SG IN-descend one 1SG IN-descend

‘One will follow you, one will follow me.’ (66) Dumma gal me mu'tansi.

dum=a gal me mu'tan-si child=SPEC 3 TAKE fall-IPFV ‘A child pushes him over.’

(67) Nil karii mi. nil kadii mi. 1PL.EXCL house IN ‘We are in the house.’

5.2. Reflexive pronouns Reflexive pronouns reduce the valency of the verb and denote that the action is reflexive, that is, that the A is acting upon itself. In (68a) geedu ‘3.REFL’ denotes that the single participant Leon is acting upon himself. A reflexive pronoun can also be used as an emphatic pronoun

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reinforcing the agency of A. For instance, in (68b) there are two participants and geedu emphasises the agency of Leon in carrying out the event. The reflexive pronoun cannot be used to emphasise a P (68c).

(68) a. Leon geeru bo'na.

Leon geedu bo'na Leon 3.REFL hit

‘Leon hit himself.’ b. Leon geeru nal bo'na.

Leon geedu nal bo'na Leon 3.REFL 1SG hit ‘Leon hit me himself.’

c. Nal Leon geeru bo'na. nal Leon geedu bo'na

1SG Leon 3.REFL hit ‘Me, Leon hit.’, *‘I hit Leon.’

5.3. Possessive pronouns Kamang possessive pronouns are true pronouns in the manner of English mine, yours etc (cf. possessor prefixes in section 4.4). The identity of the referent of the possessive pronoun must be retrieved anaphorically or from the discourse context, as for instance in (69) and (70).

(69) Anna yeen kou ai yen, niinbo balenna katee.

an=a geen kou ai ge-n niin=bo THUS=SPEC 3.POSS raw take 3.GEN-give 1PL.EXCL.POSS=REL balen=a katee cook=SPEC eat ‘So theirs (which was) raw was given to them, ours that was cooked was eaten.’

(from Stokhof 1978) (70) Topi pang een, apa neen.

topi pang een apa neen. hat that.KNWN 2SG.POSS this 1SG.POSS ‘That hat is yours, this one is mine.’

5.4. Quantifying pronouns Quantifying pronouns are special pronominal paradigms which express that their referents have a certain quantity. Those paradigms which highlight their referents quantify as being more than one lack singular number forms (i.e., 1st and 2nd person singular, following a similar inflection pattern to that of the human numeral classifier, section 4.2.1).

Kamang has pronominal paradigm denoting that the referents number precisely two. These “dual” pronouns are co-indexed by plural agreement prefixes, as in (71). (71) Maau innok imauusi?

maau innok i-mauu-si who 2DU 2PL.GEN-war-IPFV

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‘Who are you two warring with?’

Kamang has a set of pronouns denoting ‘all X’. An example of an ‘all’ pronoun is given in (72).

(72) Siima mooia kate!

siima mooi=a katee 1PL.INCL.all banana=SPEC eat ‘Let us all eat the bananas!’

An ‘alone’ pronoun expresses that its referent is without companion in the situation. The

pronouns follow the pattern of unrestricted pronouns supplemented with /lou/. An example of an ‘alone’ pronoun is given in (73).

(73) Kui nallou noka'dima.

kui nallou no-ka'di-ma dog 1SG.ALONE 1SG.LOC-bark-PFV ‘The dog barked at me alone.’

A group pronoun expresses that the referents act together as a group in the situation, as in

(74).

(74) Iifu taa?

iifu taa 2PL.GRP sleep ‘Are you sleeping together?’

5.5. Focus pronouns Focus pronouns encode referents whose identity is evaluated against a set of possible alternative participants or referents.

A restrictive focus pronoun identifies its referent as precisely the one for whom the proposition expressed by the predicate holds. A restrictive focus pronoun encodes an argument with either an S or an A role, as in (75) and (76) respectively.

(75) Apa yeeng wet masela.

apa geeng wet masela this 3.RESTR place beautiful ‘This is a beautiful place.’ (from Stokhof 1978)

(76) Neeng Markus paanma. neeng Markus paan-ma

1SG.RESTR Markus kill-PFV ‘It was me who killed Markus.’

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A contrastive focus pronoun refers to an entity in the discourse and contrasts it with another entity. For instance, in (77) geda ‘3.CONTR’ introduces the two (groups of) participants in the sentence and directly contrasts the actions of the one group going home with that of the other group who continued on up the mountain.

(77) Nung gera yeiyaa, nung gera wete.

nung geda ge-iyaa, nung geda wete PL 3.CONTR 3.GEN-return PL 3.CONTR go.up ‘Some (people) went home, some climbed up.’ (from Stokhof 1978)

An additive focus pronoun denotes that the referent is in addition to another participant. In

other words, these pronouns introduce a further or additional participant into a situation or event. For instance, in (78) get ‘3.ADD’ is used to introduce a second participant into the second of two juxtaposed clauses. This ‘other’ participant wakes up the first participant already established as sleeping in the first clause. Additive focus pronouns are also frequently marked with the enclitic =bee ‘also’, as in (79). (78) Alma nok yetaa dii, kul nok yet sue gatan.

alma nok ge-taa dii, kul nok get sue ga-tan. human one 3.GEN-sleep lie again one 3.ADD come 3.PAT-wake

‘One person is lying sleeping, then another comes along and wakes him up.’ (79) Nitbee isei maa kateesi.

nit=bee isei maa katee-si 1PL.EXCL.ADD=also game cooked eat-IPFV

‘We also are eating meat.’

6. Agreement and locational prefixes There are three prefixal slots on a Kamang verb. The template is given in (80). The first slot, closest to the verb root, is the AGREEMENT SLOT (represented as “AGR” in the template) which takes an agreement prefix typically indexing either S or P, but not A. The second slot is the INCORPORATED SLOT (INCORP) hosting an incorporated postposition, either mi- or wo-. The final slot is the SELF-BENEFACTIVE SLOT (SBEN) where a self-benefactive inflectional prefix occurs indexing an agentive S or A.

Maximum verb prefix template (80) SBENS/A-INCORP-AGRS/P-V Note that there is one co-occurrence restriction between the INCORP slot and the AGR slot of the prefixal template: The prefix wo- never cooccurs in the INCORP slot with an agreement prefix of the LOCATIVE inflection in the AGR slot. This may be thought to indicate that the LOCATIVE inflection in fact occurs in the INCORP slot of the template. However, this analysis is rejected here, since it is not possible for a single root to have both a prefix of the LOCATIVE inflection alongside that of another inflectional agreement, as in (81). More likely, is that there is a historical relationship between the INCORP prefix wo- and the LOCATIVE inflection in the AGR slot (which is also realised as wo- in the 3rd person).

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Examples of the template are given below. In (81) the verb root -bei occurs with the SELF-BENEFACTIVE prefix ni'-, the INCORPORATED prefix wo- and the AGREEMENT prefix ta- (marking reciprocity). In (82) the verb root -apoo hosts a SELF-BENEFACTIVE prefix ne'- and a INCORPORATED prefix mi-, while in (83) the verb root -pang hosts the INCORPORATED prefix mi- and a AGREEMENT prefix noo-. (81) Ninnok ni'wotabei.

ninnok ni'-wo-ta-bei 1DU.EXCL 1PL.EXCL-AT-CMN.PAT-promise ‘The two of us promise something to each other.’

(82) Nal isei maa ne'miapoo.

nal isei maa ne'-mi-apoo 1SG game edible 1SG.SBEN-IN-break.off ‘I stole meat away for myself.’

(83) Ganeiak minoopanma

ga-nei=ak mi-noo-pang-ma 3.PAT-name=DEF IN-1SG.AST-forget-PFV ‘I forgot his name.’

Whilst these examples show that it is possible for the prefixal slots to be filled simultaneously, it is actually relatively rare in Kamang that more than one slot to be occupied at a time. As such, in the following sections, I will discuss the slots of the Kamang prefixal template in isolation from one another.

6.1. The agreement (AGR) slot Table 12 gives an overview of the inflections of agreement prefixes appearing in the AGREEMENT SLOT of the template in (84). The PATIENTIVE and the GENITIVE inflections have already been discussed in their role marking possessors on different classes of nouns (Section 4.4).

Table 12: Agreement prefixes of the AGREEMENT SLOT

PATIENTIVE (PAT)

GENITIVE (GEN)

LOCATIVE (LOC)

DATIVE (DAT)

DIRECTIVE (DIR)

ASSISTIVE (AST)

1SG na- ne- no- nee- nao- noo- 2SG a- e- o- ee- ao- oo- 3 ga- ge- wo- gee- gao- woo- 1PL.EXCL ni- ni- nio- nii- nioo- nioo- 1PL.INCL si- si- sio- sii- sioo- sioo- 2PL i- i- io- ii- ioo- ioo- CMN ta- te- to- tee- tao- too-

Each of these prefixal inflections can index either S or P. That is, Kamang has a so-called

‘split-S alignment’ where the single argument of a monovalent verb (S) is sometimes coded like the agentive argument of a bivalent verb (A) and other times like the patientive argument of a bivalent verb (P). However, Kamang doesn’t just have one ‘split’ in the prefixal coding of

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S and P but multiple splits, since there are multiple inflections which can index S and P depending on the verb root. Yet not all AGR slot inflections can index these arguments. In addition to S, A and P as defined above, it is necessary to distinguished between P and applied P (APPL.P). While a ‘true’ P is the second subcategorised argument of an underived transived verb, an applied P is a derived second argument introduced by an inflection onto a basically intransitive verb. In Table 13, we see that the PATIENTIVE inflection co-indexes S and P but not APPL.P. LOCATIVE and GENITIVE inflection index all three. The LOCATIVE and GENITIVE inflections each have only one verb root that indexes P, while the ASSISTIVE inflection has two members that index S and one that indexes a P. As such, DATIVE, DIRECTIVE and ASSISTIVE inflections are effectively limited to marking APPL.P.

Table 13: Range of participants encoded by inflections in the AGR slot

The primary morphological divide between Kamang verbs is on the basis of lexical class. Two main classes can be differentiated:

(i) Verbs with obligatory prefixation: an AGR prefix is required on the verb root in order to be well-formed, and there is no apparent semantic motivation for the choice of which inflection goes with which verb root (section 6.1.1). Roughly 35% of verb roots in the Kamang corpus are of this type.

(ii) Verbs without obligatory prefixation: verb roots that do not require an AGR prefix to co-index one of their arguments, and where prefixes are added to these verb roots they have semantic transparent functions (section 6.1.2). Roughly 65% of verb roots in the Kamang corpus are of this type.

The appearances of the individual prefixes in the different classes are discussed in the following sections.

6.1.1. Obligatorily prefixed verbs In Kamang, there is no flexibility in the choice of prefix on verb roots requiring a prefix to index either S or P. That is, verb roots with obligatorily prefixation are distributed into lexicalised inflectional classes.

For instance, consider the examples in (84) to (86). In the (a) examples we see an monovalent verb encoding S with a prefix, while in the (b) examples we see a bivalent verb in which P is encoded with a prefix. In each of the example sets, the PAT, LOC or GEN inflection cannot be left off the respective verb or replaced by a prefix of another inflection. There is no semantically transparent reason why one prefixal inflection is used with one root and another inflection with another root. The relation between prefix and root is simply lexically fixed. (84) a. S-marking PAT inflection b. P-marking PAT inflection

Namaitansi. Leon nataksi. na-maitan-si Leon na-tak-si 1SG.PAT-hunger-IPFV Leon 1SG.PAT-see-IPFV

PAT GEN LOC DAT DIR AST S () P () () () APPL.P

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‘I’m hungry.’ ‘Leon sees me.’ (85) a. S-marking GEN inflection b. P-marking GEN inflection

Nelaitasi. Leon nefaneesi. ne-laita-si Leon ne-fanee-si 1SG.GEN-shy-IPFV Leon 1SG.GEN-shoot-IPFV ‘I’m shy.’ ‘Leon shoots at me.’

(86) a. S-marking LOC inflection b. P-marking LOC inflection

Nobieesi. Leon nowaasi. no-biee-si Leon no-waa-si 1SG.LOC-angry-IPFV Leon 1SG.LOC-cover-IPFV ‘I’m angry.’ ‘Leon conceals me.’

The vast majority of root lexicalised prefixes are from the PAT (~50%), LOC (~35%) and GEN (~10%) inflections, as in the above examples. As stated already, there are only a handful of verbs (<5) in Kamang which require a DAT, DIR and AST inflection to index an argument. The main function of these inflections is to add Ps, here called an “APPL.P”, to monovalent roots (see 6.1.2.2).

6.1.2. Unobligatorily prefixed verbs Verb roots which can occur without inflection may still host verbal agreement prefixes. Optional inflections have semantically transparent functions on the verb roots they appear on. They occur in two contexts: (i) valency-preserving prefixation (section 6.1.2.1), and (ii) P-adding prefixation (section 6.1.2.2).

6.1.2.1. Valency-preserving prefixation Valency-preserving prefixation is where a prefix can optionally co-index an argument that is part of the verb’s basic sub-categorisation frame (i.e., occurs with that verb regardless of whether there is a prefix co-indexing it or not). Table 14 summarizes the patterns of valency preserving prefixation found in Kamang.

Table 14: Kamang patterns of optional prefixation marking an existing argument

Argument type indexed

Prefix Semantics of prefixed root

S LOCATIVE property words (stative verbs & adjectives) S GENITIVE motion & posture verbs

P LOCATIVE verbs denoting affected location

The first (S LOCATIVE) pattern is illustrated in (87) and (88). The monovalent verb saara ‘burn’ can occur either without a prefix (87a) or with a LOCATIVE prefix expressing that the burning persists over time consuming S (817). Similarly, in (88) when a locative prefix is added to the adjective suusa ‘be in difficulty’ can occur without a prefix encoding S (88a), but also with a prefix of the LOCATIVE inflection encoding S (88b) where it indicates that a greater

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amount of misfortune experienced by S. In both examples the difference between (a) and (b) is the level of affectedness. The inclusion of the LOCATIVE prefix denotes that S is highly affected, that is, undergoes a more persistent change in its condition than where there is no prefix.

(87) a. S-marking no prefix b. S-marking LOC inflection

Kik nok saara. Kik nok wosaara. kik nok saara kik nok go-saara palm.rib one burn palm.rib one 3.LOC-burn ‘A palm rib burns.’ ‘A palm rib burns down/on.’

(88) a. S-marking no prefix b. S-marking LOC inflection

Marten suusa. Marten wosuusa. Marten suusa Marten go-suusa Martne be.in.difficulty Marten 3.LOC-be.in.difficulty ‘Marten is in a bit of strife.’ ‘Marten is mired in strife.’

The second (S GENITIVE) pattern is illustrated in (89) and (90). Here the GENITIVE

inflection is used on verbs denoting motion and posture to signal that the S is more patientive. There are two typical interpretations. First, the GENITIVE prefix can be used to indicate that there was an external cause for the motion or posture. For instance, whereas (89a) without the genitive prefix on tak ‘run’ signals that there is no specific cause for the dog’s running, in (89b) the S marked by a genitive prefix indicates the dog’s running away was caused by an external event, such as someone kicking at the dog. Second, the GENITIVE prefix can indicate that the motion or posture was maintained for a long period. For instance, in (90a) the verb nih ‘sit’ is unmarked for S and may denote either a static (‘be in a seated position’) or a dynamic (‘seat oneself’) event. In (90b) the GENITIVE prefix marks that the sitting position denoted by nih is sustained over a long period. Accordingly the somewhat lexicalised meaning of this verb with a GENITIVE prefix is ‘live, reside’.

(89) a. S-marking no prefix b. S-marking GEN inflection

Kui tak. Kui yetak. kui tak kui ge-tak dog run dog 3.GEN-run

‘The dog runs.’ ‘The dog ran off (was forced to run).’

(90) a. S-marking no prefix b. S-marking GEN inflection Dumma nih. Dumma yenih. dum=a nih dum=a ge-nih child=SPEC sit child=SPEC 3.GEN-sit ‘The child sits.’ ‘The child sat/lived (there for a long time).’

The third pattern involves alternations of no prefix for P and a LOCATIVE inflection for P.

This prefix alternation encodes a difference between Ps that are true undergoers that are affected or effected by an event (no inflection), and Ps that are locations at which an event takes place (LOCATIVE inflection). For instance, the verb tee ‘dig’ occurs without a prefix

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where the substance which is dug is the P, as in fining ‘earth’ in (91a). Where the referent of P is an area that is dug and is itself not the entity that suffers the digging (i.e., the shovel doesn’t dig out wood from the tree, but from the ground), tee takes the locative prefix for P. This is seen in (91b) where the P bong ‘tree’ is the location at or around which the digging takes places. Similarly, the verb wuleh ‘light’ occurs with no inflection for P where the referent of P is the effected object or result of the act of lighting, as with at ‘fire’ in (92a). Where P refers to an implement that is lit to host fire, it is co-indexed on wuleh with a locative prefix, as in (92b). The absence or presence of the LOCATIVE prefix with the wrong kind of P results in a clause being judged by speakers as not well-formed.

(91) a. P-marking no prefix b. P-marking LOC inflection no prefix

Nal fining tee. Nal bong wotee. nal fining tee (* go-tee) nal bong go-tee (*tee)

1SG earth dig 3.LOC-dig 1SG tree 3.LOC-dig dig ‘I dig the ground.’ ‘I dig out the tree.’

(92) a. P-marking no prefix b. P-marking LOC inflection no prefix

Nal at wuleh. Nal langpu wowuleh. nal ati wuleh (*go-wuleh) nal langpu go-wuleh (*wuleh) 1SG fire light 3.LOC-light 1SG lamp 3.LOC-light light ‘I light a fire.’ ‘I light the lamp.’

6.1.2.2. P-adding prefixation An optional prefix can function as an applicativiser, adding a P to a basically monovalent verb so long as the verb does not already have a prefix for S. For instance, the monovalent verb silanta can appear by itself (93a) or with different prefixes encoding different semantic kinds of P participants (93b-d). As these examples show, all inflections except the PATIENTIVE and the GENITIVE can occur adding a P to such a verb.

(93) a. No P, no prefix b. P-marking LOC inflection

Markus silanta. Markus nosilanta. Markus silanta Markus no-silanta Markus wail Markus 1SG.LOC-wail ‘Markus wails.’ ‘Markus wails over me.’

c. P-marking DAT inflection d. P-marking DIR inflection Markus neesilanta. Markus naosilanta. Markus nee-silanta Markus nao-silanta Markus 1SG.DAT-wail Markus 1SG.DIR-wail ‘Markus wails in want of me.’ ‘Markus wails on account of me.’

e. P-marking AST inflection Markus noosilanta.

Markus noo-silanta Markus 1SG.AST-wail ‘Markus wails with my assistance.’

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6.2. The incorporated (INCORP) slot The INCORP slot is the prefixal slot that occurs on predicative verbs in between the SELF-BENEFACTIVE slot and the AGREEMENT slot. The two items occurring in the INCORP slot are discussed in this section: mi- ‘IN’ in section 6.2.1. and wo- ‘AT’ in section 6.2.2.

6.2.1. mi- ‘IN’ The most frequent use of mi- is to add a semantically locative P argument. This can occur either on verbs that are bivalent or monovalent. On bivalent verbs, mi- denotes that the referent of P is the location into which the action denoted by the verb is done. For instance, ilai ‘look at’ is a simple bivalent verb denoting that A directs his sight towards P (94a). Marked with mi-, ilai remains bivalent, and denotes that A directs his sight into the interior of P (94b).

(94) a. No marking b. Marking with mi-

Leon sukuu ilai. Leon sukuu miilai. Leon sukuu ilai Leon sukuu mi-ilai Leon hole look.at Leon hole IN-look.at ‘Leon looked at the hole.’ ‘Leon looked into the hole.’

On monovalent verbs, mi- can function as an applicative, enabling a locative P to be added. For instance, maa is an intransitive motion verb (95a), but marked with mi- it is a transitive verb denoting putting on pants (or any kind of garments that required the legs to be inserted into or through) (95b).

(95) a. No marking, monovalent b. Marking with mi-, bivalent

Na maa. Na bong gaweh mimaa. na maa na bong gaweh mi-maa 1SG.AGT walk 1SG.AGT tree fork IN-walk ‘I walk.’ ‘I put on trousers.’

Literally, ‘I step into my trousers.’

The second function of mi- is to signal that the event denoted by a verb occurs ‘back’, ‘in return’. The exact interpretation of the prefix depends on the lexical semantics of the verb on which the prefix occurs and the discourse situation. For instance, tafe is a transitive verb meaning ‘plant’ (96a). When marked with mi-, tafe denotes not simply a repetition of the planting process (e.g., as takes place every year), but specific replanting to replace plants that have failed to grow (96b).

(96) a. No marking

Marten patei milaa pa tafesi. Marten patei milaa=apa tafe-si Marten corn garden=THIS plant-IPFV ‘Marten is planting this corn crop.’

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b. Marking with mi- Marten, patei milaa pa mitafante! Marten patei milaa=apa mi-tafa=nte Marten corn garden=THIS IN-plant.PFV=FIRST ‘Marten, replant this corn crop (in the spots where the corn has failed)!’

The third function of mi- is to signal that the event or situation denoted by a verb produces

parts by division, breaking and similar acts of separation. For instance, in (97a) without mi-, bilakai ‘take apart’ denotes that the books are taken and sorted into distinct piles, while (97b) with mi- the sorting out involves breaking up and dispersing the piles of books.

(97) a. No marking

Na buku tubuita bilaiki. na buku tubui-ta bilaiki 1SG.AGT book pile-STAT take.apart ‘I put the books into piles.’

b. Marking with mi- Na buku tubuita mibilaiki. na buku tubui-ta mi-bilaiki 1SG.AGT book pile-STAT IN-take.apart ‘I take apart the piles of books.’

Finally, mi- appears on verbs denoting generally experienced events. A “generally

experienced event”’ is an event which is not experienced by a single individual or single set of individuals but over a whole region. In the corpus there are two predicate types with this kind of marking with mi-: (i) weather predicates where the weather event is seen to be a generalised experience effecting the whole of the ambient surrounds, as in (98), and; (ii) speech act verbs, where there is no specific addressee but the speech event is intended for all in a general location as defined by the discourse context, as in (99).

(98) Deling mikaraat.

deling mi-karaat sky IN-thunder ‘The whole sky sounds with thunder.’

(99) Miitingsi, almangkanga tooita yaa nuaa fun. mi-iti-ing=sih, almangkang=a too-ita yaa nuaa fun. IN-call-SET=CONJ people=SPEC CMN.AST-fill.PFV go.until thing hold

‘Make an announcement so that the people come together and work.’

In sum, there are four functions performed by the prefix mi- ‘IN’ when it occurs on verbal predicates in Kamang. They are: (i) adding a locative P to a mono- or bivalent verb; (ii) denoting an action occurring ‘in return, back’; (iii) denoting the division or seperation of P, and; (iv) signalling that an event has a generalised effect or is generally experienced.

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6.2.2. wo- ‘AT’ The INCORP prefix wo- ‘AT’ is much less frequent than its counterpart mi- ‘IN’. It has just two functions when it occurs on verbal predicates. They are: (i) introducing the theme of a cognitive or emotion event, and; (ii) denoting that an action is repeated.

In its first use, wo- is used to add a theme NP to a monovalent verb denoting a cognitive or emotion event. For instance, the verb -lai ‘be glad’ is basically a monovalent verb which occurs with a PAT inflectional prefix indexing S, as in (100a). The prefix wo- is used to add an extra NP denoting the stimulus for the glad feeling to the clause, as in (100b), but this is not an obligatory argument.

(100) a. Monovalent use b. Bivalent use with wo-

Nemung galai. Nal mooia wonalai. ne-muhung ga-lai nal mooi=a wo-na-lai 1SG.GEN-inside 3.PAT-glad 1SG banana=SPEC AT-1SG.PAT-glad ‘I am glad’ ‘I enjoy bananas.’ Literally, ‘My insides are glad.’

In its second use, wo- signals that an event denoted by a verb is repeated in order to bring a situation to completion. Compare the examples in (101). In (101a) there is no marking of -tfa ‘shoot’ with wo- and the number of times the shooting takes place is unspecified. In (101b) wo- signals that it was necessary to shoot Seb one more time in order to order to kill him; the implication being that the initials shots were not successful in taking him out entirely.

(101) a. Without wo-

Na Seb gatfa ipaa. na Seb ga-tfa ipaa 1SG.AGT Seb 3.PAT-shoot dead ‘I shot Seb dead.’

b. With wo- Na Seb wogatfa ipaa. na Seb wo-ga-tfa ipaa 1SG.AGT Seb AT-3.PAT-shoot dead ‘I shot Seb again so that he was dead.’

6.3. The self-benefactive (SBEN) slot The SELF-BENEFACTIVE slot is filled by an agreement prefix from the SELF-BENEFACTIVE inflectional paradigm given in Table 15. The referent of a SELF-BENEFACTIVE prefix is semantically an agentive participant who acts in its own interest and syntactically fills either S or A role of a verb. A SELF-BENEFACTIVE prefix is never obligatory.10

10 There is one exception to this is that the root -baa ‘say’ that takes the SELF-BENEFACTIVE prefix

to encode its P, the addressee of the speaking.

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Table 15: Self-benefactive prefixes

1SG ne'- 1PL.EXCL ni'- 2SG e'- 1PL.INCL si'- 3 ge'- 2PL i'- CMN te'-

A SELF-BENEFACTIVE prefix neither prevents the expression of P nor introduces an additional new participant into the clause. In the examples in (102) and (103), we see that a SELF-BENEFACTIVE prefix co-occurs with an overt P and that it is necessarily co-referent with A.

(102) Nal kamaa nok poo ne'walet.

nal kamaa nok poo ne'-walet (*e'-walet) 1SG sugarcane one break.off 1SG.SBEN-carry 2SG.SBEN-carry

‘I broke off some sugarcane and took it for myself.’ (adapted from Stokhof 1978)

(103) Dum mok wutong ye'fahsi.

dum mok wutong ge'-fah-si (* ni'-fah) child children vegetable 3.SBEN-search-IPFV 1PL.EXCL.SBEN-search

‘The children search for vegetables for themselves.’

The SELF-BENEFACTIVE prefix does not stop a prefix from occurring in the ARGUMENT SLOT. In (104) and (105) we see the SELF-BENEFACTIVE prefix co-occurs with a prefix for S and P respectively.

(104) Ne'nawei.

ne'-na-wei 1SG.SBEN-1SG.PAT-wash

‘I washed for my own benefit.’ (105) Isei si'woosi?

isei si'-go-o-si game 1PL.INCL.SBEN-3.LOC-follow-IPFV

‘Shall we get us some meat?’

The SELF-BENEFACTIVE prefix can only index a semantically agentive participant engaged in a dynamic event. The uses of the prefix in (106) are semantically bizarre and judged ungrammatical by native speakers, because the verbs in the clauses denote non-agentive events. (106) a. *Ne'naiwei. b. * Ili gelas ye'ite.

ne'-na-iwei ili gelas ge'-ite. 1SG.SBEN-1SG.PAT-vomit water glass 3.SBEN-fill

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‘I vomited for myself.’ Intended: ‘The water fills the glass for its own benefit.’

7. Suffixal morphology: dynamicity, aspect and dependency marking Kamang has three different sets of suffixes. They are: (i) the verbal auxiliary -da (7.1); (ii) aspectual suffixes (7.2), and; (iii) dependency-marking suffixes (7.3).

7.1. Verbal auxiliary suffix In section 3, the suffix -da was introduced as a verbal auxiliary which allowed non-verbal predicates to host aspectual suffixes. Yet -da also occurs on predicates without aspectual suffixes, and cannot just be regarded a semantically empty derivational morpheme. Better characterised, -da turns non-verbal lexemes denoting an entity or state into verbal predicates denoting dynamic events. Various sub-uses of -da can be discerned depending on the semantics of the lexeme and construction in which it which it occurs. Table 16 presents an overview of the uses of -da by lexical host/construction type. Each of the uses is discussed and illustrated below.

Table 16: Overview of the uses of the verbal auxiliary

Function Host/construction Directional place names, locational nouns Inchoative predicative nouns in equative constructions Caused state or result final adjectives in SVCs Activity verb deriving predicative nouns with intangible referents

On nouns denoting locations, -da denotes motion towards the location. For instance, the

verbal auxiliary is used on the place name in (107) and the noun in (108) to create a predicate expressing a motion directed toward the location denoted by the nominal base.

(107) Mateus Kalangbaadama.

Mateus Kalangbaa-da-ma Mateus Kalabahi-AUX-PFV ‘Mateus was off to Kalabahi.’

(108) Na baawaidasi. na baawai-da-si 1SG.AGT outside-AUX-IPFV ‘I’m going out.’

On predicative nouns, -da denotes inchoativity. That is, the verbal auxiliary marks that the characteristic denoted by the predicate is in the process of beginning or becoming. The examples in (109) contrast a simple unmarked equative construction (109a) with the inchoative construction where -da marks the predicative noun (109b).

(109) a. Equative construction

Dumma piee. dum=a piee

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child=SPEC crocodile ‘The child is a crocodile.’

b. Inchoative construction Dumma pieeda. dum=a piee-da child=SPEC crocodile-AUX ‘The child became a crocodile.’

In serial verb constructions -da appears on a final predicate denoting the caused state or

result of an action expressed by a preceding verb, as in (110) and (111). (110) Gatoka pel baaida.

ga-toka pel baai-da 3.PAT-belly swell big-AUX ‘His stomach bloated up big.’

(111) Nal ataa baoon solda.

nal ataa baoon sol-da 1SG arrow.shaft heat straight-AUX ‘I heat the arrow shaft to straighten it.’

On nouns referring to intangibles (i.e., not referring to concrete entities in the physical

environment), -da creates activity verbs. In (112) and (113) verbs are derived with -da from the nouns ooring ‘war’ and ketket ‘hooting sound’ respectively. Without -da neither noun can function as a predicate denoting a dynamic event.

(112) Mane ok ooringdasi.

Mane ok ooring-da-si villages two war-AUX-IPFV

‘The two villages are making war.’ (113) Titla iwekai ketketda.

titla iwekai ket~ket-da night owl.sp RDP~hooting.sound -AUX ‘Owls make hooting sounds in the night.’

7.2. Aspectual suffixes Kamang has three aspectual suffixes: (i) -si ‘IPFV’ marking imperfective aspect; (ii) -ma ‘PFV’ marking perfective aspect, and; (iii) -ta ‘STAT’ marking stativity. These suffixes are in a paradigmatic relationship and do not cooccur. The use of aspectual suffixes in defining clauses and verbal predicates have already been discussed in section 3. In this section, the semantics of the suffixes are only briefly illustrated. Section 8.2 discusses aspectual serial verbs and includes information on the interaction between aspectual suffixes and serial verbs.

Marking a clause with the perfective suffix presents a situation as a totality without internal composition, whilst with the imperfective suffix a situation is seen as having an internal structure. Compare the aspectual marking of the clauses in (114). The first clause is

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marked with -si ‘IPFV’. It denotes the sitting event as having duration and this event forms the background for the event depicted in the following clause. The second clause is marked with -ma ‘PFV’ and describes the foregrounded event, namely the punctual getting up and departure of the participant.

(114) Alma nok nihsibo gasarang maama.

alma nok nih-si=bo ga-sarang maa-ma person one sit-IPFV=LNK 3.PAT-get.up walk-PFV ‘A person is sitting and then gets up and goes.’

The stative suffix indicates that the situation expressed by the root has been completely entered into by the referent. For example, kanangsui ‘rust’ is a monovalent verb which, when used without an aspectual suffix, refers to an unbound property (115a). When used with a perfective suffix, the verb can be interpreted as denoting a dynamic or stative event which may or may not be completed (115b). When marked with the stative suffix, kanangsui denotes that the S has the condition of being thoroughly consumed by rust (115c).

(115) a. Kine ang kaningsui.

kine ang kaningsui knife that.NKNWN rust ‘That knife is rusty.’

b. Kine ang kaningsuima. kine ang kaningsui-ma knife that.NKNWN rust-PFV ‘That knife is already rusted/rusting.’

c. Kine ang kaningsuita. kine ang kaningsui-ta knife that.NKNWN rust-STAT ‘That knife is completely rusted.’

7.3. Dependency-marking suffixes Kamang is the only TAP language known to have verbal suffixes marking syntactic dependency between clauses. Two construction types using dependency marking suffixes will be discussed here. They are set out in (116), with the pertinent suffix being represented by the cover gloss ‘DEP’. The dependent construction is the most frequent construction in which dependency marking suffixes occur. The dependency marking suffix always marks the first of the two clauses. The independent construction is much less frequent, with only one in 20 examples in an independent clause, and is therefore considered a secondary use of the suffixes. (116) Dependent construction: [...V-DEP]CLAUSE, [...]CLAUSE

Independent construction: [...V-DEP]CLAUSE

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Table 17 presents an overview of the meanings of the three Kamang dependency marking suffixes in dependent and independent constructions. The different functions are illustrated in the following sections.

Table 17: Functions of Kamang dependency-marking suffixes

GLOSS DEPENDENT MEANING INDEPENDENT MEANING -ih ‘CSEQ’ consequential (intended &

unintended) relations counter-expectation

-ing ‘SET’ setting (“when/if”) relations directives -sa ‘COMP’ complement & “after”

relations explanation, expansion

7.3.1. Dependent uses The suffix -ih ‘CSEQ’ marks a consequential relation between events. This is where X event occurs with the consequence that Y occurs. Purposive relations come under the rubric of consequential relations since they involve one event giving rise to another. In a purposive relation, one participant causes X event to occur with the intention that it should give rise to Y event, as in (117). In other consequential relations, X event occurs and gives rise to Y event without there being any intent for the one event to follow from the other, as in (118).

Consequential (intentional) relations

(117) Ati wolawah gal saara. ati go-lawa-ih gal saada fire 3.LOC-fan-CSEQ 3 burn ‘Fan the fire so that it burns.’

Consequential (unintentional) relations

(118) Yaa wat tanda miisingsuh, geiyaa. yaa wati tanda mi-isingsu-ih ge-iyaa reach sun marker IN-eight-CSEQ 3.GEN-go.home

‘It got to eight o’clock, so (they) went home.’ (from Stokhof 1978)

The suffix -ing ‘SET’ denotes that the event in the clause it marks is the setting or

backdrop against which the event in the following clause takes place or is to be interpreted. For instance, in (119) -ing signals that the coming to look at the water was the setting in which the observation that the water had not filled up (the bucket) was made. In (120) the initial clause marked by -ing describes the installing the drum. This event is the backdrop for understanding the continuing presence of the drum in the village today, as laid out in the second clause.

Setting relations (119) Yaa oi wetang, gewinggak woi baai me kuhma,... yaa oi weta-ing ge-awingga=ak woi baai

until thither go.down.PFV-SET 3.GEN-door=DEF stone big me kuh-ma

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TAKE block-PFV ‘When she had gone down there, the door to the hole was blocked with a big stone, ...’

(120) ..., waima ang ina me see diimangbee waima ang tanaa tung mane milatsima.

waima ang ina me sue dii-ma-ing=bee moko.drum THAT.NKWN now TAKE come lay-PFV-SET=ALSO waima ang tanaa tung mane mi-latsi-ma moko.drum THAT.NKWN still ABOVE.DIRECT village IN-stand-PFV ‘Ever since that moko drum was laid down, it has remained up there in the village.’

The suffix -sa ‘CMP’ has two functions, marking complement relations and “after”

relations between clauses. “Complement relations” is used here to refer to a relation between clauses in which the first clause with a verb marked by -sa establishes an event of thought, perception or speech and the second clause describes the event which was thought about, perceived or said, as in (121). In “after” relations, the first clause with the verb marked by -sa denotes the temporally prior event, while the second clause with no dependency marking denotes the event which occurs subsequently, as in (122).

Complement relations

(121) Nal waisinsak dum nok koo taneisi. nal waisin-sa=ak dum nok koo tanei-si 1SG listen-CMP=DEF child one stay cry-IPFV ‘I hear a child crying all the time.’

“After” relations

(122) Kamaa nok poo ne'waletsa, na kul maa yaa... kamaa nok poo ne'-walet-sa na kul maa yaa sugarcane one break 1SG.SBEN-carry-CMP 1SG.AGT again come reach ‘Having broken off a (piece of) sugarcane, I went off again...’

(adapted from Stokhof 1978)

7.3.2. Independent uses An independent use of these suffixes is where a formally dependent marked clause appears as a complete and independent utterance (as in insubordinate constructions, described for many languages in Evans 2007: 367). As in other languages, independent clauses that are marked dependent in Kamang express assertive attitudinal and discourse meanings.

Independent uses of the consequential relations suffix express counter-expectationality. In (123) the verb is marked with -ih ‘CSEQ’, as the speaker expresses his impatience with a friend who was expected to have already arrived but hadn’t. In (124) we find the same marking followed by a negator with naa. This expresses the speaker’s surprise when he finds against expectation that his bucket still had not filled up with water. (123) Marten, mah!

Marten ma-ih Marten come.PFV-CSEQ ‘Come on, Marten {you should have already been here}.’

(124) Ili awilah naa!

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ili awila-ih naa water fill-CSEQ NEG ‘(It) hasn’t filled with water {as expected}.’

Setting insubordination marks directive speech acts. In (125) the final verb, mete ‘go up’,

is marked with -ing ‘SET’ as the speaker instructs a boy to turn his arms into wings and fly up to the tree tops. Insubordinate directives with -ing are often also marked with -da, as in (126). The inclusion of the morpheme adds a sense of immediacy and urgency to the directive.

(125) Atangak paliin apa'tarangbo metang!

a-tang=ak paliin a-pa'ta-da-ing=bo meta-ing 2SG.PAT-arm=DEF crush 2SG.PAT-wing-AUX-SET=LNK climb.PFV-SET ‘Crush down your arms into wings and ascend!’

(126) I suangda! i sua-ing-da

2PL.AGT arrive.PFV-SET-AUX ‘Get over here, you lot {do it now}.’

Complement insubordination fulfills a discourse function, allowing the expansion and explanation of a previous statement in the discourse. The example in (127) illustrates the use of -sa ‘CMP’ in insubordinations. In (127a) the narrator quotes a hunter’s request for help to carry a slain deer. Then in (127b), without saying what the men’s answer to the request was, the narrator switches straight to saying that the group of men descended together to look for the deer. The final clause of (127b) is marked with -sa, but the clause cannot be clearly assigned to part of the previous discourse. The use of -sa here simply signals that the narrator is continuing with the story and explaining indirectly that the hunter’s request was accepted with the men all going down to look for the deer together.

(127) a.“Auha ak funouna neauhlou waletsilou i nal tolonsi.”

auh=a ak fung=ou=na ne-auh=lou deer=SPEC HERE BELOW.DIRECT=CONTR=EMPH 1SG.GEN-deer=DISC walet-si=lou i nal tolon-si carry-IPFV=DISC 1PL.INCL.AGT 1SG help-IPFV (He said:) “The deer lies here immediately below, so help me to carry my deer.”

b. Anna ganing su oi yefe, ganing su fe yaa auha gataksa. an=a ga-ning su oi ge-fe

THUS=SPEC 3.PAT-CLF:HUM three thither 3.GEN-go.down.DIRECT ga-ning su fe yaa auh=a

3.PAT-CLF:HUM three go.down.DIRECT go.until deer=SPEC ga-tak-sa 3.PAT-see-CMP

‘So the three of them went down there until they saw the deer.’ (from Stokhof 1978)

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8. Complex predications and serial verb constructions

8.1. The light verb me Kamang has a single light verb me ‘TAKE’. It is not a full lexical verb but a historical reduction of met ‘take’. Me rarely occurs in a clause final position, but when it does it cannot host aspectual suffixes (128a) in contrast to a full lexical verb like met (128b).

Contrast between me ‘TAKE’ and met ‘take’

(128) a. Marten nekine nat me. Marten ne-kine na-at me (* me-si / *me-ma)

Marten 1SG.GEN-knife 1SG.PAT-TO/FROM TAKE TAKE-IPFV take-PFV ‘Marten took my knife from me.’

b. Marten nekine nat metsi / metma. Marten ne-kine na-at met-si / met-ma

Marten 1SG.GEN-knife 1SG.PAT-FROM take-IPFV take-PFV ‘Marten is taking / took my knife from me.’

Me ‘TAKE’ is used to introduce additional NPs into a clause. Three kinds of participant

can be identified. First, me is used to introduced an instrument into a clause. This is illustrated with monovalent and bivalent verbs in (129) and (130) respectively. (129) Lami nok gatanglee gasubu me kideh dii.

lami nok [ga-tang-lee ga-subu me] kideh dii man one 3.PAT-hand-ASSOC 3.PAT-knee TAKE rest lie ‘A guy stays resting on his hands and knees.’

(130) Nal isei maa kii me maunma.

nal isei maa [ kii me] maung-ma 1SG game edible palm.rib TAKE make.hole-PFV ‘I poked the meat with a palm rib.’

Second, a displaced theme can be introduced with me. A ‘displaced theme’ is taken here

to refer to an argument that is viewed as changing location. In the simplest instances, me and the NP introduced by it are serialised with a following motion verb, such as sue ‘come’ in (131). Most often a serialisation with a displaced theme involves me followed by a motion verb and then a bivalent verb. The referent of the NP introduced by me is typically co-referent with the P of the bivalent verb, as in (132), but me is not grammatically required to introduce the P. It is also possible for the P and me to have distinct referents, as in (132) where we have ‘ginger’ and ‘chilli’ as the entities introduced by me and wotta respectively. (131) Daameia tol me sue luuka pa wotta. [daameia tol me] sue luuka=apa go-tta

ginger a.little TAKE come chili this 3.LOC-add ‘Bring me some ginger to add to this chili.’

(132) Al nisibe me yaa wobalkei.

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al [ni-sube me] yaa go-balkei 2SG 1PL.EXCL.GEN-chicken TAKE go.until 3.LOC-sell ‘You go sell our chicken.’

Third, me is used in a causative construction with non-agentive posture and positional

verbs. Consider the examples in (133). The verb laka ‘hang’ is a monovalent positional verb whose S argument, patei ‘corn’, is unflagged in (133a). An extra participant, namely a causer is added to the clause using me in (133b). In this, we have a form of so-called “switch subject” serialisation: the new participant, nal ‘1SG’, is the A of the first serial verb, that is, the light verb me, while the S of the monovalent clause becomes the P of me, but the S of the second final verb, laka. It is not grammatical to have the two participants, causer and causee, without me (133c). (133) a. BASIC MONOVALENT

Patei laka. patei laka corn hang ‘The corn is hanging up.’

b. CAUSATIVE Nal patei me laka. nal patei me laka 1SG corn TAKE hang ‘I hang the corn up.’

c. WITHOUT me *Nal patei laka. nal patei laka 1SG corn hang

8.2. Aspectual serialisation Table 18 presents an overview of the serial verbs which are used in Kamang to mark different kinds of aspect.

Table 18: Verbs used in aspectual serialisation Lexical meaning in

independent use Aspectual meaning in serial use

Syntactic position relative to semantically main verb

koo ‘stay, live’ progressive aspect before dii ‘lie (posture)’ continuative aspect after lai ‘finish’ completive aspect after Koo ‘stay’ is used as a serial verb to encode progressive aspect with dynamic verbs. It

denotes that an event is maintained over a period of time; it is not used with stative predicates. Progressive aspect is a kind of imperfective aspect. In the corpus, koo occurs in the scope of the imperfective suffix -si ‘IPFV’ (134a), though the co-occurrence is not obligatory (134b). Progressive koo does not occur in the scope of the perfective suffix (134c).

(134) a. Aii koo muusi.

aii koo muu-si rain stay fall.rain-IPFV

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‘It keeps raining.’ b. Aii koo muu.

aii koo muu rain stay fall.rain ‘It keeps raining.’

c. *Aii koo muuma. aii koo muu-ma rain stay fall.rain-PFV

As a serial verb, koo appears clause-medially following S/A but before the main semantic

verb and P (if any). The use of koo serialised with a transitive verb is illustrated in (135) and with an intransitive verb in (136).

(135) Yera koo sukuu ang miilai. geda koo sukuu ang mi-ilai

3.CONTR stay hole that.NKNWN IN-look ‘He stayed looking into that hole.’

(136) Dum nok koo taneisi. dum nok koo tanei-si

child one stay cry-IPFV ‘Some child keeps crying.’

The serial verb dii ‘lie’ is used to express that an event is continued and prolonged. Like

the progressive aspect denoted by the serial verb koo ‘stay’, continuous aspect is an imperfective aspect. As such, it is unsurprising that they can appear in the same clause together in a single SVC, with koo before the verb and dii after it, as in (137). Also like koo, serial dii can only occur in the scope of the imperfective aspect suffix (*dii-ma ‘lie-PFV’).

(137) Ni koo maa diisi. Ni koo maa dii-si

1PL.EXCL.AGT stay walk lie-IPFV ‘We were walking continuously.’

Serial dii differs from serial koo in that dii can be used in clauses denoting non-dynamic

events. For instance, dii is often used in serialisation with posture and positional verbs to denote that the stance is held unchangingly over time, as in (138). Koo cannot be used in such contexts. Dii is, however, not limited to serialisation with such verbs. It can also occur with typical activity verbs such as abah ‘pull out’ in (139).

(138) Awinga sul diisi.

awing=a sul dii-si door=SPEC be.open lie-IPFV ‘The door remained open.’

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(139) Sak abah dii yaa itunsibo, ... sak abah dii yaa itun-si=bo grass pull.out lie go.until late.afternoon-IPFV=LNK ‘(He) pulled grass continuously until evening, ...’

Finally, lai ‘finish’ is used in serialisation to indicate that an event has been concluded. Lai follows the main semantic verb of the clause. It occurs in serialisation with both intransitive (140) and transitive (141) verbs. In serialisation with motion verbs, lai indicates not that the motion event in its entirety is concluded but that it has begun. For example, in (142) lai denotes that the departure is completed; it says nothing about the conclusion of the motion.

(140) Arita pang gaima lila luaara laima. adita pang gaima lila luaa-da lai-ma

leaf that.KNWN 3.all fly whither-AUX finish-PFV ‘The leaves all fly down having completely whithered.’

(141) Ga nuaanana baila laisi. Ga nuaanana baila lai-si

3 things buy finish-IPFV ‘They were finishing off buying things.’

(142) Ingkou getak buk piaara lai. ingkou ge-tak buk piaa-da lai.

just.now 3.GEN-run mountain other-AUX finish ‘(They) just ran off to another land.’

8.3. Causative serialisation When used as an independent predicate, -baa (taking a LOCATIVE agreement prefix for P) is a transitive production verb meaning ‘make’. For instance:

(143) Lukas geaassung gekadii wobaa. Lukas ge-aassung ge-kadii go-baa.

Lukas 3.GEN-bivouac 3.GEN-house 3.LOC-make ‘Lukas is making his house (area).’

In serialisation, -baa is used to denote a caused situation. Serialisation is ‘switch-subject’: the P of -baa is the S of a monovalent verboid (verb or adjective) denoting the caused state. The verboid denoting the caused state follow the causative verb -baa. For example:

(144) a. Uncaused situation

Kadii takeka. kadii takeka house collapse ‘The house collapsed.’

b. Caused situation

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Tentara kadii wobaa takeka. Tentara kadii go-baa takeka soldier house 3.LOC-make collapse ‘The soldiers destroyed the house.’

(145) a. Uncaused situation Nebiee. ne-biee 1SG.GEN-afraid ‘I’m afraid.’

b. Caused situation Kume nobaa nebiee. Kume no-baa ne-biee snake 1SG.LOC-make 1SG.GEN-afraid ‘Snakes make me scared.’

8.4. Resultative serialisation Resultative serialisation is where one verb encodes the result of the event denoted by another verb. Result verbs are intransitive and occur as the final verb in the serialisation. They typically denote a position or locative relation.

Serialised with an intransitive verb, a result verb denotes the resultant state/position of S. For example, in (146) the result verb dii ‘lie’ denotes the final location of the banana tree after having fallen down.

(146) Mooi bong nok kok silang dii.

mooi bong nok kok silang dii banana tree one fall.down descend lie ‘A banana tree came falling down.’

Serialised with a transitive verb, a result verb denotes the resultant state/position of P. For

example, in (147) the result verb beela ‘surround’ denotes that at the end of the building of the fence the house is fully surrounded.

(147) Lukas karii wotal beela. Lukas kadii go-tal beela

Lukas house 3.LOC-make.fence surround ‘Lukas puts up a fence around the house.’

8.5. Adverbial serialisation Adverbial serialisation involves a monovalent verb expressing the manner in which the event described by the main semantic verb is acted out. The ‘adverbial’ verb occurs directly before the main semantic verb, as with de'tang ‘limp’ and likka ‘firm’ in (148) and (149). Typically, the main semantic verb in adverbial SVCs is monovalent (148b), but it may also be transitive (149b). (148) a. Main verb use

A de'tang?

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a de'tang 2SG.AGT limp ‘Are you limping?’

b. Adverbial serial verb use A de'tang maasi?

a de'tang maa-si 2SG.AGT limp walk-IPFV ‘Are you walking with a limp?’

(149) a. Kape likka. kape likka fal

rope firm bind ‘The rope is firm.

b. Gal kape likka fal. gal kape likka fal

3 rope firm bind ‘He tied the rope firmly.’

8.6. Motion serialisation In Kamang the serialisation of motion verbs to express complex motion events is very common. Table 19 presents an overview of the most common motion verb serialisation patterns.

Table 19: Types of motion verb serialisation

TYPE OF SERIALISATION Structure motion-action MotionV - ActionV

directional Manner.MotionV - Deictic.MotionV ‘turn of’ events ActionV me ActionV

Motion-action serialisation involves a motion verb and a following verb denoting an

action arising out of the motion. The motion verb slot in motion-action serialisations is most commonly filled by either yaa ‘go until’ (150) or sue ‘come’ (151).

Motion-action serialisation (150) Almakanga yaa nuaa fun.

almakang=a yaa nuaa fun people=SPEC go.until thing hold

‘The people go and work.’

(151) Pukang-pukang gaima sue ak mi totawaah. pukang~pukang gaima sue ak=mi to-tawaah RDP~guard 3.all arrive here=IN CMN.LOC-gather ‘All of the guards come and gather here.’

Directional serialisation involves an open choice of verb followed by a motion verb indicating the direction in which the event denoted by the preceding verb occurs. Most commonly, the first verb is in such SVCs are manner of motion verbs, since these lack

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intrinsic directional orientation. Deictic verbs indicating whether motion takes place to or from the speaker are the most frequent kind of directional verb used in this kind of serialisation. Examples (152) and (153) illustrate the phenomenon.

Directional serialisation (152) Baal sita te. baal sita te

ball bounce go.up.DIRECT ‘The ball bounces up.’

(153) Nal duuh fe. nal duuh fe

1SG squat go.down.DIRECT ‘I squat down.’

The intransitive verb me is a deictic motion verb meaning ‘come’. Me is frequently serialised with verbs of movement and motion to introduce a turn of direction in the motion. In these SVCs, a verb expressing a motion is followed by me and then another verb indicating the new direction. For instance, in (154) the verb -kii occurs as the first in the SVC expressing the motion. This is followed by me and then the verb -waai ‘face’ denoting the intended endpoint of the turning. In (155), wehe ‘go down’ has its direction indicated by a PP headed by -oi.

“Turn of events” serialisation (154) Afunaa yakii me noowaai. a-funaa ga-kii me noo-waai

3.PAT-face 3.PAT-turn come 3.AST-face ‘Turn and face me.’

(155) Gal wehe me sukuu wooi gesilang. gal wehe me sukuu go-oi ge-silang

3 go.down come hole 3.LOC-direction 3.GEN-descend ‘She went down and descended into a hole.’

9. Discussion Kamang stands out most of all amongst the TAP languages for the richness and productivity of its morphology. With seven distinct paradigms of person-number prefixes, two applicative prefixes, three aspectual suffixes and three dependency-marking suffixes and an associative plural suffix, Kamang has the most morphology of any TAP language. Only Abui approaches Kamang in terms of verbal morphology.

Like other central-eastern Alor languages, Kamang also has an elaborate set of different paradigms of free pronouns encoding such things as focus, quantity and possession, to name just a few. Like Kula and Sawila, Kamang has diagonal elevation terms (here named “direct” and “indirect”) but adds the feature of distance as well, making the paradigms more complex (see Schapper forthcoming b for more comparison). Kamang’s stand-out feature in the family

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is its grammaticalisation of enclitics (conjunctions and postpositions) into verbal dependency marking suffixes with not only subordinate but also insubordinate uses.

References Evans, Nicholas. 2007. Insubordination and its uses. In Irina Nikolaeva (ed), Finiteness:

Theoretical and empirical foundations, 366-431. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Klamer, Marian & Antoinette Schapper. 2012. The history of ‘give’ constructions in the

Papuan languages of Timor-Alor-Pantar. Linguistic Discovery 10.3: 174-207. Lewis, M. Paul (ed.), 2009. Ethnologue: Languages of the World, Sixteenth edition. Dallas,

Tex.: SIL International. Online version: http://www.ethnologue.com/. Schapper, Antoinette & Marian Klamer. 2011. Plural words in the Alor-Pantar languages.

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