‘Whether one does or one doesn’t’ paratactic relator ‘Either or’ paratactic relator ‘Rather, instead, on the contrary’ sentence relator

u-ki p ʏn di-la juŋ-ken bet. TE52 that-GEN sisterbrother DEF-DAT come-NMLZ;CONJ AUX ‘If someone’s married sister has become childless, then in fact both the obligation to perform post mortem rites for her and the right to own her kitchen utensils go to her siblings.’

18.12.5 ‘Whether one does or one doesn’t’ paratactic relator

The following example comes from a text in which a leader argues that manure is needed in the fields. If there is no manure your fieldwork is in vain. In English the relation is ‘whether one does…or one does not’. Neither of these clauses is independent though it looks like each has a finite copular verb. They are in paratactic relationship to each other. 18.242 t ɕhaa-mik-ki le ta tɕhi-na ak bet. manure-NEG-GEN work EMPHP do;VBZR-NFNT1 INCLN COP mat-t ɕhi-na ak bet. TE46 NEG-do;VBZR-NFNT1 INCLN COP ‘Whether one works in the field of no manure or does not work, it makes no difference.’

18.12.6 ‘Either or’ paratactic relator

The next example illustrates how Lhomi uses concessive relation to communicate such English relations as ‘either or’, ‘whether it is this or whether it is that’, ‘whether it is here or whether it is there’. In this kind of copular or existential constructions there may be up to three or four paratactic clauses and then the final one is with concessive marking. In this example two clauses underlined here are in paratactic relation to each other. The latter one is an adverbial clause with concession reading and it modifies the main verb in the end. 18.243 hi-ni u-ki mat- ʈhak-na kaŋɕe this-ABL that-ERG NEG-become.well-NFNT1 animal.sacrifice ra hin luk hin-na ak t ɕik-ki tɕhøk-ken bet.TE49 goat COP sheep COP-NFNT1 INCLN one-ERG placate-NMLZ;CONJ AUX ‘Then if he does not become well by that sacrifice chicken, the shaman placates the deity with a larger animal sacrifice, either a goat or a sheep.’ Lit ‘…whether it is a goat or a sheep.’

18.12.7 ‘Rather, instead, on the contrary’ sentence relator

The sentence relator boora marks a kind of substitutive contrastive relation between two clauses or two sentences or even higher syntactic units. The relation is either contrastive or corrective. This word makes the proposition of the current sentence preferable to the proposition that precedes. It is of some interest to realize that Kham has buru for this sentence relator Watters 2002:349. English equivalents are various contrastive conjunctions like ‘rather’, ‘instead’, ‘on the contrary’. There is one more illustration of this marker in 18.109. The following example is from an argumentative text in which the speaker argues that to get sheep dung in the field is necessary. The contrastive corrective relation goes to the previous sentence which has two paratactic clauses. 18.244 t ɕhaa-mik-ki le ta tɕhi-na ak bet. manure-NEG-GEN work EMPHP do;VBZR-NFNT1 INCLN COP mat-t ɕhi-na ak bet. NEG-do;VBZR-NFNT1 INCLN COP boora u-le ta sø-le instead that-COMP.BASIS EMPHP survive-NMLZ ʈhe taŋ-a ga-a juŋ-ken bet. TE46 chop IMMED-NMLZ;Q be.glad-COMP2 come-NMLZ;CONJ AUX ‘Whether one works in the field of no manure or does not work, it makes no difference. Instead it would be much better to slash and burn.’ Slash and burn is a method Lhomis use to have some new fields in steep slopes but they do not really produce very well. Speaker’s point is that unless the villagers agree to have sheep manure in the fields they will have poor harvest. I have borrowed the term adversative correction relation for this from Halliday and Hasan 1976:242–243.

18.12.8 Exception sentence relator ma di