Nankôre: Difference between revisions

The first group of pronouns are used in intransitive clauses.  They consist of both independent and cliticized forms.  The animacy of each pronoun is arranged in the following hierarchy:  

The following table lists the forms of the simple pronouns:

 

 

 

If used as a core argument, the intransitive singular forms and the plural short forms may appear just before the clause-final auxiliary ''itá'',e.g. ''Nitori kā 'itá!'' (You are a fool); or the clitic form of the pronoun attaches to the main verb, e.g.  ''Nitoriká 'itá!''.  They may also be used to emphasize a noun, in which case the pronoun precedes the noun linked with the connective ''si='', as in ''tā si=naho'' (She/Her, the mother).

 

In contrast to the intransitive forms, there are no clitic forms for the transitive pronouns.

As earlier stated, nouns in Nankôre are not inflected, nor are case clitics attached to them to indicate case relations. Transitive verbs take two NPs as core arguments. The case relations of the two arguments are determined by the position of the noun in the animacy hierarchy; the core argument that is higher in the animacy hierarchy is assigned the Agent role, and the other argument is assigned the Patient role.  However, an inverse affix ''tā=/tāh=/ta=/t='' is prefixed to the primary verb, as well as a redundant ''ta-'' affix that is added to the auxiliary to alter the argument structure and promote the lower-animacy argument to Agent role.

Obliques cannot be inserted into the verb complex.  If oblique arguments appear outside their clause, they must be joined to it with the connective clitic ''si=''.  Context alone determines the semantic role of the oblique.  To illustrate, the sentence ''Maska si=ohipna koykare ekán itá'' (anthill=CONN twig boy twist COP.PST), i.e. "The boy inserted the twig into the anthill", the oblique noun ''maska'' (anthill is marked with the clitic ''si='' to join it to the rest of the sentence.