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Antarctican: Difference between revisions
→Interaction with Focus Marking: Added information on subject pronoun affixes
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===Interaction with Focus Marking=== | ===Interaction with Focus Marking=== | ||
Antarctican has a constraint that every sentence must have focus on either one or two items. This focus falls on nouns in the sentence that are not topicalised, and verbs in the verb-focus form. It does not fall on pronouns, topicalised nouns, and verbs in the verb focus form. | |||
====Intransitive Verbs==== | ====Intransitive Verbs==== | ||
If the subject of an intransitive verb is topicalised (i.e. put before the verb), then that verb cannot take the noun-focus form. So the sentence below is ungrammatical: | If the subject of an intransitive verb is topicalised (i.e. put before the verb) or a pronoun, then that verb cannot take the noun-focus form. This is because there would no longer be anything in the sentence that is in focus. So the sentence below is ungrammatical: | ||
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A soldier died. | A soldier died. | ||
Likewise, the following sentence is ungrammatical, since a verb with a subject pronoun prefix behaves in exactly the same way as a verb with a topicalised subject. | |||
{| class="wikitable" | |||
|- | |||
| daykùevèlùun | |||
|- | |||
| daikɨɦɥɘɦluːɴɦ | |||
|- | |||
| 3SBJ-die.NFCS | |||
|} | |||
He died (ungrammatical) | |||
To make this grammatical, the verb must take the verb focus form e.g. | |||
{| class="wikitable" | |||
|- | |||
| daykivieli-iewn | |||
|- | |||
| daikiɥeliʔeuɴ | |||
|- | |||
| 3SBJ-die.VFCS | |||
|} | |||
He soldier died. | |||
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====Transitive Verbs==== | ====Transitive Verbs==== | ||
However, using a transitive verb in the verb focus form requires that either the subject or the object is topicalised. So the following utterance is ungrammatical: | However, using a transitive verb in the verb focus form requires that either the subject or the object is topicalised (or a pronoun). If not, then there would be three things in the sentence in focus, which is too much. So the following utterance is ungrammatical: | ||
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The soldier is hunting frogs. | The soldier is hunting frogs. | ||
Or, the noun that is the subject can be removed from the sentence and replaced with a pronominal affix on the verb e.g. | |||
{| class="wikitable" | |||
|- | |||
| day-amielaykùe || wùerù | |||
|- | |||
| dai-ʔamelɛicu || wɨɦʁuɦ | |||
|- | |||
| 3SBJ-hunt.VFCS || frog.ABS | |||
|} | |||
He is hunting frogs. | |||
Note that, if a subject pronominal prefix is used on a transitive verb in the noun-focus form, the object cannot be topicalised (if so, then there would be nothing in the sentence that is in focus). So the following sentence is ungrammatical: | |||
{| class="wikitable" | |||
|- | |||
| wùerù || day-amielaeychu | |||
|- | |||
| wɨɦʁuɦ || daiʔamelaikɨɦ || | |||
|- | |||
| frog.ABS || 3SBJ-hunt.VFCS | |||
|} | |||
He is hunting frogs (ungrammatical) | |||
===Topicalisation and Possession=== | ===Topicalisation and Possession=== | ||