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Both independent pronouns and pronominal prefixes are useds to indicate person and number reference in WP.
| ind pro "agent" | ind pro "patient" | prefix | |
| 1sg | nang | naing | na- |
| 2sg | hang | haing | ha- |
| 3sg | gang | gaing | ga- |
| 4sg | ang | a'ang | a-/'- |
| 1pl.inc | ping | pi'ing | pi- |
| 1pl.dist | -- | taing | ta- |
| 1pl.exc | ning | ni'ing | ni- |
| 2pl | hing | hi'ing | hi- |
| 3pl | ging | gi'ing | gi- |
| 4pl | ing | i'ing | i- |
The distribution of independent pronouns follows an agent-patient alignment system (see Mithun 1991). Controlling arguments of intransitive verbs are indexed with agentive pronouns,
while non-controlling arguments are indexed with patientive pronouns.
With transitive verbs the agentive pronoun references the more controlling argument and the patientive pronoun references the less controlling argument. If both arguments are non-controlling then two patientive pronouns may be used.
Agentive pronouns may occur with nominal adjuncts, without an emphatic reading.
allang Bu Manema gang asang thus B.M. say 'thus Bu Manema said'
g-iar gang gaddi ma ga-nia kanna 3sg-father 3sg make come 3sg-give already 'his father made (a bow) and gave it to him'
The distributive pronoun refers to each one of a group.
hang taing gaddi maniang 2sg.agt 1dist.pat make embarrass 'you embarrassed each of us'
It often occurs as the default plural form in nominalizations such as the following
taing dimmang si kang mussang 1dist.pat oppress that hit destroy 'we destroyed our oppressor (that which oppressed each of us)'
Notice that there is no first person plural distributive agentive pronoun.
Pronominal prefixes may occur with intransitive or transitive verbs, but not all verbs admit pronominal prefixes. Where they do occur, pronominal prefixes may co-occur with a co-referential noun phrase or independent pronoun, as in the following examples.
nang duang ga-niaka 1sg.agt snake 3sg-niaka ‘I saw a snake’
nang Hen ga-niaka 1sg.agt H. 3SG-see ‘I see Hen’
nang na-lama ta 1sg.agt 1sg-go IMPF ‘I’m going’
duang haing ha-niaka snake 2sg.pat 2sg-niaka ‘the snake saw you’
The choice between reference with independent pronoun, pronominal prefix, or both, is quite complicated and depends in part on the verbal semantics. However, one characterization which is possible is that referents indexed via pronominal prefixes are less affected. Some evidence for this hypothesis can be gleaned from transitive verbs which do not permit P arguments to be indexed by both prefixes and pronouns. For such verbs an alternation is possible between pronoun and prefix, and there is a preference for independent pronoun over pronominal prefix with more highly affected referents. That is, the patientive independent pronoun signals greater affectedness of P than does the pronominal prefix. Thus, the use of a pronoun with the verb diti ‘stab’ below indicates a more severe stabbing than does the form with a pronominal prefix.
nang gaing diti 1sg.agt 3sg.pat stab ‘I stabbed him’ (severely)
nang ga-diti 1sg.agt 3sg-stab ‘I stabbed him’ (superficially)
For a certain large class of transitive verbs a pronominal prefix is obligatory and references the P (i.e., less controlling) argument. Verb roots in this class inlcude:
-lu ‘chase’ -ammu ‘suck’ -ssi ‘bite’ -pa’ang ‘different’ -walaing ‘hit, strike’ -puli ‘persuade’ -walang ‘wait for’ -sising ‘stare at’ -bili ‘drag’ -sidding ‘haul’ -riang ‘care for’ -boya ‘swing’ -allas ‘persuade’
One of the typologically unusual features of the WP person marking system is the ability of the pronominal prefixes to reference any semantico-syntactic macro-roe (A,S,P). For example, in the following three examples the first person singular pronominal prefix na- references the S, A, and P macro-roles, respectively.
na-golang ta 1sg-return before 'I am returning (home)'
tabaku na-uddang ma ga-nia tobacco 1sg-buy come 3sg-give ‘I bought tobacco for him’
duang na-niaka snake 1sg-see 'the snake saw me'
Unlike many of the Alor languages, WP lacks aspectual stem variation. That is, verb do not obligatorily inflect for aspect via stem mutation. For example, Abui distinguishes as many as four aspects via stem mutation (Krachovíl 2007).
| inceptive pung 'grab' |
completive pun 'grabbed' |
continuative puna 'hold' |
The cognate WP verb pinni 'hold' remains unchanged in all aspects.
Two aspectual marking prefixes may occur, marking progressive and inceptive aspect. These prefixes are semantically and grammatically complementary, that is, they do not co-occur. The location of the aspectual prefix depends on the morphological status of the verb root. With bound roots the aspectual prefix precedes the obligatory pronominal prefix.
John na-i-ga-niaka J. 1SG-PROG-3SG-see ‘I saw John’
With free roots the aspectual prefix precedes the root and follows the pronominal prefix, if present. Both aspectual prefixes a- and i- are optional.
The verb prefix a- marks inceptive aspect. Its interpretation is dependent on the implied tense. With past situations this prefix generally marks events which have just begun, just started to happen. With non-past situations this prefix marks events which are about to occur.
tame a-dia ga’ai? where INCP-go 3SG.GEN ‘where did she (just) go?’
a-kanna ga? INCP-finish PERF ‘[are you] (about to finish) finished?’
wakke bogga ye kalau eu ye a-haggi ga’ai child young.man one if woman one INCP-take 3SG.GEN ‘if a young man is to marry a girl,’ [marriage006]
aname tawagang mising hala-b a-bloppa ta-b person middle sit FOC-SEQ INCP-shoot IMPF-SEQ ‘it’s the people sitting in the middle who will start to shoot first’
The inceptive prefix can also have an inchoative reading, indicating a coming into being. This is the case in the following textual example, in which the character Imam Blegur is introduced.
Imam Blegur, I.B. ‘Imam Blegur’ aname Lamma tapi gang pau-m asa Baram mising person L. but 3 SG.AGT below-LOC so B.-LOC sit ‘was from the Lamma clan but he stayed down at Baranusa’ as Islam ya dia so I. toward go ‘so he entered Islam’ Latuna wala. L. person ‘he came from Latuna’ raja. chief ‘[he was] a chief’ tapi pau-m Bara-m mising. but down-LOC B-LOC sit ‘but he lived in Baranusa’ Bara-m mising, B-LOC sit ‘living in Baranusa’ Bara eu haggi as Islam ya a-dia B. woman take so Islam toward INCP-go ‘[he] took a Baranusa wife so entered Islam (became a Muslim)’ [airmama]
In the third line the phrase Islam ya dia occurs meaning ‘enter Islam, go toward Islam’. This same phrase is repeated later in but with an inceptive prefix emphasizing the inchoative sense.
The verb prefix i- marks progressive aspect.
depang wang i-dekang si kauwa ging gakkang ga ladder exist PROG-descend go NEG 3PL.AGT 3SG-hit PERF ‘before he could descend the ladder they assaulted him’ [tonuburi041]
n-iu ang me i-golang 1SG:POSS market LOC PROG-return ‘my mother is returning from the market’
The progressive prefix is homophonous with the fourth-person plural prefix i-. However, unlike the fourth-person prefix, the progressive prefix triggers gemination of stem-initial consonants of short verb stems. The progressive prefix may co-occur with pronominal prefixes, in which case it follows the pronominal prefix and triggers deletion of the prefix vowel. In particular, with consonant-initial verb stems which lack the progressive prefix there is a contrast between first singular and first exclusive plural pronominal prefixes, as in nama ‘I come’ versus nima ‘we (exc.) come’. However, when the progressive prefix is present this contrast is neutralized, as in nimma ‘I/we(exc.) have come’. Nevertheless, the presence of the progressive prefix is clear from the gemination.
ni-ar ni-hauwang n-i-mma ganung saiga 1EXC-father 1EXC-order 1EXC-PROG-come just PROX.VIS ‘our father is ordering us to come here’ [tonu036]
The progressive prefix may have an evidential function, asserting the truth of an utterance in spite of a lack of direct evidence,. In the following example i- functions similarly to a hearsay evidential marker.
n-iu n-iaku i-ga-aulang 1SG.POSS-mother 1SG.POSS-sibling PROG-3SG-bathe ‘my mother is bathing my brother [but I can’t see it]’
n-i-mising 1SG-PROG-sit ‘I am sitting [but you can’t see me]’
The preceding examples also demonstrate the contrast in the position of the progressive prefix. With bound transitive roots such as -aulang ‘bathe’ the progressive prefixes precedes the pronominal prefix indexing the less agent-like argument. With free roots (transitive or intransitive) such as mising ‘sit’ the pronominal prefix follows the pronominal prefix.
In a serial verb constructions only the final verb may be marked with a mode prefix. This is exemplified in the following excerpt were the SVC wena me ‘get ready’ is repeated in the second intonation unit with an additional verb, thus wena me lamala ‘get ready completely’. The location of the irrealis prefix shifts from me to lamala, accordingly.
dul hi-wena a-me, immediately 2PL-prepare INCP-be.located hi-wena me a-lamala. 2PL-prepare be.located INCP-do.completely ‘all of you get ready immediately, get ready completely’ [pubila305]
yinani ba i-asang
what REL PROG-say
‘what is it that he is saying?’
| ta | imperfective |
| ga | perfective |
| gatta | sequential |
| kanna | 'to complete' |
| ti'ang | 'to remain, continue' |
Last modified December 2006 by Gary Holton at the University of Alaska Fairbanks
Cite this page:
Holton, Gary. 2007. Verbs and verb morphology. An overview of Western Pantar.
Online: http://www.faculty.uaf.edu/ffgmh1/pantar/verbmorph.html