has unwittingly brought home is a demon. The non-verbal cl. 3 muzimu ‘demon’ is followed by the demonstrative yugwo ‘that’. In other words, ‘That thing he has brought home, is a demon.’ Besides
functioning as the non-verbal predicate, yugwo functions as the relativizer for the relative phrase yugwo aleeta ‘that thing which he has brought’.
71 Muzimu
yugwo aleeta.
A demon that one he has brought.
‘It’s a demon, that one which he’s brought.’ 09
4.6.3 Negative focus copula
With the negative focus copula, the expectation is that one element of the proposition will be identified, but in fact that element does not exist. It should be noted that in Fuliiru, the verbs used in the positive
and negative forms of identificational articulation are similar. For example, for cl. 2, the positive form would be bo ‘he’s the one’, while the negative form would be ndaabo ‘they do not exist’.
In 72 when the man gets home, the wife is expecting him to bring a caregiver for the children. The husband answers by quoting her people, who said ndaaye mulezi ‘there is no caregiver’. In other
words, there is none that he can identify. 72
Uyo mushosi, anagendaga imwage, mukaage anamúbuuza:
“Hayi ho wasigaga umulezi?”
That man went
home. His wife asked him
Where did you leave the caregiver?
Yiba anamushuvya:
“Nanga bemwinyu banyima umulezi, badeta
kwo
The husband answered her No your people failed to give caregiver they said that
ndaaye mulezi.”
there is no caregiver.
‘That man went home. His wife asked him, “Where did you leave the caregiver?” Her husband answered her, “No Your people failed to give me a caregiver. They said that there is no
caregiver.” ’
4.6.4 Identificational articulation in question form
As previously alluded to, in question forms, an element is assumed to be known. The question is what or who, etc. is that element? For example, assuming that ‘something was given to me’, the question would
be ‘What did he give me?’ A fuller version of former with the relative clause marked by ‘that’ is also possible: ‘What is it that he gave me?’ In 73 there is a person standing there. The question is ‘Is this
the one who is the wife of the doctor?’
73 Iri
akahika hambere abandu banamúyimangika, banadeta:
“Ka muka Muganga
uyu?”
When he arrived ahead people stopped him
and said Question wife of doctor this one?
‘When he arrived on ahead, they stopped him, and said, “Is this the one who is the wife of the doctor?” ’
4.6.5 Text displaying identification articulation
