Nuosu noun case usage

2.5.4 Nuosu noun case usage

2.5.4.1 Subject and Object Nouns used as subjects can optionally be marked by any of three subjectnominative case-marking particles, of which one is strictly for literary style. The other two are interchangeable. Such use allows the object to be fronted for emphasis Fu 1997:194. The original position of the object may also be occupied by the 3 SG pronoun Fu 1997:196. The subject marker is often the only marker used to distinguish agent-patient relationships when the predicate has a direct object and no indirect object Fu 1997:196. 67 3 lo 3 ho 3 m̩ 1 ka 2 n ɯ 1 m̥a 1 v ɿ 2 da 3 t ʂu 2 lu 1 la 2 dze 1 ndu Lo-ho M-ka SUBJ Ma Vz-da Chu-lu La-dze hit ‘Lo-ho M-ka is hitting Ma Vz-da and Chu-lu.’ 68 3 lo 3 ho 3 m̩ 1 ka 1 m̥a 1 v ɿ 2 da 2 le 3 t ʂu 2 lu 1 la 2 dze 3 d ʒɨ̟ 1 ndu Lo-ho M-ka Ma Vz-da SUBJ Chu-lu La-dze mutually hit ‘Lo-ho M-ka, and Ma Vz-da are hitting Chu-lu.’ 69 3 lo 3 ho 3 m̩ 1 ka 1 m̥a 1 v ɿ 2 da 3 t ʂu 2 lu 1 la 2 dze 3 d ʒɨ 1 se Lo-ho M-ka Ma Vz-da Chu-lu La-dze mutually fight ‘Lo-ho M-ka, Ma Vz-da, and Chu-lu La-dze are fighting each other.’ When there are two objects, the direct object precedes the indirect Fu 1997:196. 2.5.4.2 Dative and accusative Nuosu has two dativeaccusative case-marking object particles for animate objects, which are only used with a small number of verbs Fu 1997:196: • tell • ask • give • present • borrow • exchange • protect For ditransitives with two animate objects, they mark the indirect object. One exception is that the particle 3 die marks the inanimate direct object for the verbs ‘give’ and ‘present’ Fu 1997:197. 70 2 ŋa 2 n ɯ 2 tçio 2 he. I you OBJ speak ‘I speak to you.’ Fu 1997:196 71 2 ts’ ɿ 2 t’ ɯ 2 ʒ̩ 2 ts’ ɿ 2 dze 2 die 2 ŋa 2 l̩ 2 o he book this CLF OBJ I present recent past ‘He has presented this book to me.’ Fu 1997:197 2.5.4.3 Vocative Nuosu has a vocative particle, 3 a Fu 1997:93, 194. 3 Numerals Numerals must always be followed by a classifier, with very few exceptions, among which are arithmetic tables and book titles, such as “I Corinthians” Matisoff 1973:87. The number ‘one’ occurs in eight special constructions where no other numeral can occur Matisoff 1973:87. See section 3.2 . For numbers larger than ten, a larger number followed by a smaller number usually implies addition. For example, ‘ten-three’ = 10+3. A smaller number followed by a larger one usually implies multiplication, such as, ‘three-ten’=3X10 Fu 1997:137. The number 21 is literally ‘two-ten-one’, which reflects the regular system through 99 Fu 1997:138.

3.1 Bisu numerals