roo uko- Intransitive clause

15.18 juu-paa kurik-ki t ɕheppa-la guu-pa bet. village-HUM2 all-ERG rain-DAT wait-NMLZ;Q AUX ‘All villagers waited for the rain.’ This verb requires dative marked O whether the object is animate or inanimate. The basic order is S-O. In the following example the basic order is also S-IO. 15.19 gotta ŋ-e ki-la dʑii-soŋ. 3SG ISG-GEN dog-DAT be.afraid-PST.VIS ‘He got afraid of my dog.’ 15.20 tuwa nøtt ɕa-la ɕoŋ-soŋ. porridge pot-DAT fit-PST.VIS ‘The porridge fitted into a pot.’ The pot was large enough. Example 15.21 illustrates how some verbs typically use locative case marker rather than dative to mark the location, IO. However it is an obligatory argument. 15 .21 ŋ-e ama jampu-tu døk-kuk. 1SG-GEN mother Kathmandu-LOC stay-PROG;VIS ‘My mom lives in Kathmandu.’ Type ST2 has two obligatory arguments. The one marked in absolutive is the subject. The second noun or NP is an obligatory source argument. The verb ‘to fall down’ requires an obligatory source which is the IO, falling down from a tree, from a cliff, etc. 15 .22 ŋa doŋpu-ni tshar-tɕuŋ. 1SG tree-ABL fall.down.from-PST.EXP ‘I fell down from a tree.’ Type ST3 has two arguments: absolutive marked subject and comitative case marked IO. The basic order is S-IO. These are obligatory arguments.

15.23 roo uko-

taŋ dza-ken bet. 3SG that-COM be.close.with-NMLZ;CONJ AUX ‘He is like that person.’ Or: ‘He lives in harmony with him.’

15.4 Intransitive clause

Intransitive clause I has only one grammatical role which is the subject. It is always marked in absolutive case. 15 .24 daku loŋ-soŋ. friend rise.up-PST.VIS ‘The friend rose up.’ 15 .25 phitsa ŋʏ-soŋ. child weep-PST.VIS ‘The child wept.’ This is a volitional verb. Lhomi has other ways to construct an unvolitional crying. The subject of the next example is the left-most noun. The lexically empty verb d ʑak gets its meaning from the preceding noun which in this case is grammatically a predicate nominal. 15 .26 ŋa ŋe-ɕikpa dʑak-kuk. 1SG strength-undoing VBZR-PROG;VIS ‘I am fainting, totally exhausted.’ 15 .27 nam loŋ-soŋ. darkness rise.up-PST.VIS ‘The sun rose.’ For Lhomis it is the darkness that rises up when there is a sunrise. This noun nam occurs only in some meteorological idioms like this. Some Tibetan-English dictionaries have listed the entry nam with the English meaning ‘night’ see e.g. Das et al. 1902:736. The Lhomi word has apparently lost its original meaning and refers only to ‘darkness’ now. 15 .28 ŋima tɕhøn-soŋ. sun go[HON]-PST.VIS ‘Sun begins to set.’ Lit. ‘Sun has gone.’ In this example the noun ‘sun’ is the subject of the honorific agentive verb ‘to go’. Lhomis have in the past worshipped the sun as the god of creation. They use this idiom when the sun has gone behind the surrounding hills, one or two hours before sunset. Obviously this idiom is applicable only in local hilly environment. This honorific verb typically occurs with human subjects and then requires a dative marked IO, e.g. ‘to go to a village’. However in this example the IO is suppressed. It is recoverable because it refers to the sun which has gone behind the surrounding hills. 15 .29 ŋis-so tɕhaa-tɕuŋ. 1PL.EXCL-PL1 feel.cold-PST.EXP ‘We felt cold.’ Or: ‘We began to feel cold.’ 15 .30 ŋa khaa-soŋ. Or: ŋa khaa-tɕuŋ. 1SG become.tired-PST.VIS 1SG become.tired-PST.EXP ‘I got tired.’ Evidentiality strategy of experienceparticipation is reduced with this clause and therefore both forms are acceptable. 15.31 tuwa tshø-tuk. porridge become.cooked-PRF.VIS ‘Porridge or rice has become well cooked.’ 15 .32 nam seŋ-soŋ. sky clear.up-PST.VIS ‘Sky became cleared up.’ It has been overcast and then it clears up. 15.33 tøn ɕar-soŋ. fall.season start-PST.VIS ‘Fall season started.’

15.5 Copular clauses