The ‘COMP’ Position Event Sentences

b. Fata ly-polatania li-siki-fa › -eretho myn? How.much his-money he-give-FUT › his-wife to ‘How much of his money will he give his wife?’ c. Halhan ly-polatania li-siki-fa › l-eretho myn. all his-money he-give-FUT › his-wife to ‘All of his money he will give to his wife.’ 151 a. Alikan myn li-siki-fa halhan ly-polatania ›? who to he-give-FUT all his-money › ‘Who will he give all his money to?’ b. L-eretho myn li-siki-fa halhan ly-polatania ›. his-wife to he-give-FUT all his-money › ‘To his wife he will give all of his money.’ Unlike English, however, Arawak does not have lexical complementizers such as ‘that’ or ‘for ... to’ which can occupy the COMP position. Instead, the language marks the verb of the subordinate clause with the subordination suffix -n. 152 Na-dykha to firobero dalhidi-n-bo konoko-nro. they-see the tapir run-SUB-CONT forest-toward ‘They saw that the tapir was running toward the jungle.’ Also unlike English, Arawak does not allow COMP-to-COMP movement of question words or relative pronouns. All movements to the position labeled COMP in Arawak seem to be clause bounded. 153 a. Alikan by-dykha ›? who you-see › ‘Who did you see?’ b. Alikan by-dykha › soko-thi Jan? who you-see › hit-WH.SUBJ John ‘Who did you see hit John?’ c. Alikan by-dykha › soko-n Jan? who you-see › hit-SUB John ‘Who did you see hit John?’ d. Alikan by-dykha Jan soko-sia ›? who you-see John hit-WH.OBJ › ’Who did you see John hit?’ e. Alikan by-dykha Jan soko-n ›? who you-see John hit-SUB › ’Who did you see John hit?’ 64 Noun Phrase and Sentence Syntax 154 a. Wa-dykha li wadili li Jan soko-sia ›. we-see the man the John hit-WH.OBJ › ‘We saw the man who John hit.’ b. B-eitha li wadili wa-dykhy-sia › Jan soko-sia ›? you-know the man we-see-WH.OBJ › John hit-WH.OBJ › ‘Do you know the man who we saw John hit?’ c. B-eitha li wadili wa-dykhy-sia › soko-thi Jan? you-know the man we-see-WH.OBJ › hit-WH.OBJ John ‘Do you know the man who we saw hit John?’ The apparent COMP position of the sentence in Arawak can contain only a single constit- uent. For example, in the above examples, when a time word or phrase like miaka ‘yester- day’ occurs at the beginning of the sentence, it occupies this position, and no other constituents of the sentence can be fronted. 20 155 a. D-othiki-fa tho-jona mothi. I-receive-FUT its-price tomorrow ‘I will get paid tomorrow.’ b. Mothi d-othiki-fa tho-jona. tomorrow I-receive-FUT its-price ‘Tomorrow I will get paid.’ c. Tho-jona d-othiki-fa mothi. its-price I-receive-FUT tomorrow ‘I will get paid for it tomorrow.’ d. Mothi tho-jona d-othiki-fa. tomorrow its-price I-receive-FUT ‘Tomorrow I will get paid for it.’ e. Tho-jona mothi d-othiki-fa. its-price tomorrow I-receive-FUT its-price ‘Tomorrow I will get paid for it.’ Constituents in what I have labeled the COMP position seem to represent highlighted new information and, if present, generally receive the center of intonation of the clause. 21 In this respect they seem to represent a type of ‘focus movement’ Prince 1981. Though 3.2 Sentence Structure 65 20 It is possible, however, for a time phrase to occur in TOPIC position see Section 3.2.1.2, in which case the sentence has a major intonational break between the TOPIC and the rest of the sentence. For example, Mothi, tho-jona d-othiki-fa. tomorrow its-price I-receive-FUT ‘Concerning tomorrow: that is when I will get paid for it.’ 21 Constituents such as relative pronouns in the COMP position of a subordinate clause do not receive the center of intonation. Question words in the COMP position of independent clauses sometimes do and sometimes do not. their use is frequent, it is most common in discourse contexts such as asking questions, or answering them, and when presenting unexpected or contrastive information.

3.2.1.2 The TOPIC Position

In addition to the focused element but distinguished from it, a sentence may contain a TOPIC phrase. This phrase may be of almost any sort, including an entire nominalized sub- ordinate clause. 22 Unlike the COMP, the TOPIC phrase bears no grammatical relation to the rest of the sentence; it is not associated with a gap and therefore should be considered base generated in its leftward position. There is always an intonation break between the constit- uent in TOPIC position and the rest of the sentence. 156 a. To l-andy-n bahy-n, l-eretho donka-bo hibin. the he-arrive-SUB house-at his-wife sleep-CONT already ‘Concerning his arriving home, his wife was already sleeping.’ b. To boado-tho hala, by-thikida-ma. the rotten-WH.SUBJ bench, you-fall-HABIL ‘Concerning the rotten bench, you may fall.’ That the TOPIC and ‘focus’ COMP positions are distinct can be shown by the fact that the positions can both be filled at the same time. 157 a. To w-osy-n-fa forto-nro, miakaboan i w-osy-fa jon › i . the we-go-SUB-FUT town-to day.after.tomorrow i we-go-FUT there › i ‘Concerning our going to town, the day after tomorrow we will go there.’ b. To w-andyn jon, minkho johon hime i w-othika › i . the we-arrive there very many fish i we-get › i ‘Concerning arriving there, we caught lots of fish.’ Also, since the phrase in the position labeled COMP always corresponds to a gap and the TOPIC position does not, the distribution of what can occur in the two positions is differ- ent. For example, it is possible to have a time word in TOPIC position, and a direct object NP in the COMP position, because the time word does not necessarily imply a later gap. That is, the verbs do not typically select time phrases. 158 Miaka, to sikalho wa-lhyka. yesterday the sugarcane we-cut ‘Concerning yesterday: we cut the sugarcane.’ However, the converse is not possible. That is, it is not possible to place a direct object NP in TOPIC position and leave a gap. If one wishes to topicalize a direct object, a resumptive pronoun must also be used in the normal position for the direct object. 159 a. To sikalho, miaka wa-lhyka. the sugarcane yesterday we-cut ‘It was sugarcane we cut yesterday.’ 66 Noun Phrase and Sentence Syntax 22 Nominalized clauses in this position typically begin with to. Their main verb receives the subordinating suffix -n. b. To sikalho, miaka wa-lhyka no. the sugarcane yesterday we-cut it ‘Concerning the sugarcane, yesterday we cut it.’ Unlike the phrases in COMP, the phrases in the TOPIC position always seem to be old, given, or presupposed information, and they in some sense set the stage for the following information. They set forth what the sentence will be about.

3.2.1.3 Event Sentence Structure

Taking the preceding discussion of the COMP and TOPIC positions into account and ignoring, for the moment, the internal structure of the core of the sentence, the structure of the sentence including the TOPIC and COMP positions might be something like that found in Figure 14. This structure per- haps needs to be modified somewhat to account for the “dummy verb” sentences discussed below. [XP [COMP [S] ] ] S Sø S Figure 14. Sentence Structure with TOPIC and COMP

3.2.2 Dummy Verb Sentences

In addition to event sentences like those discussed above which have an SVO structure, Arawak has others which, at first glance, seem to have a different structure and which con- tain a semantically empty dummy verb. 160 a. Abare l-a simaka-n, li d-aithi. suddenly he-dummy shout-SUB the my-son ‘Suddenly, he, my son, shouted.’ b. M-osy-n b-a forto-nro ?. PRIV-go-SUB you-dummy town-toward ‘Aren’t you going to town?’ or ‘You aren’t going to town.’ These sentences are, semantically, event sentences in that they describe events or pro- cesses. Like other event sentences, their main verb the dummy verb can receive the tenseaspect suffixes normally found on event verbs. 161 Basadare l-a-bo kona-n forto-nro. slowly he-dummy-CONT walk-SUB town-toward ‘Slowly he walked to town.’ Dummy verb sentences have a consistent surface structure see Figure 15. The first part of such sentences consists of a manner adverbial or a subordinate event verb which usually has the privative or negative prefix ma-. 23 The second part is the main verb of the clause. It is a 3.2 Sentence Structure 67 23 Although I have no examples of spontaneous occurrences of a dummy verb sentence starting with a non-negative verb, when questioned some speakers do accept a sentence like the following as grammatical: ?Osy-n l-a-bo forto-nro ? ?go-SUB he-dummy-CONT town-toward ?‘Is he on his way to town?’