80 Jarawara Complement Clauses
197 Faya faya
so mee
mee 3pl.poss
ati ati
voice yana
yana start
nete na-hete
aux-rp.n+f mee
mee 3pl.poss
awineke awine-ke
seem+f-decl+f yimawa
yimawa knife.f
tama tama
hold onto ni
na.nfin aux
ini ini
name+f mee
mee 3pl.a
hiri hiri
say na
na+f aux
mati. mati
3pl.a ‘They spoke, speaking about having a knife.’
In conclusion, although it is certainly true that NFCs can occur along with both inalien- ably possessed nouns and adjectives, as I see it the possessed nouns and adjectives in these
cases should receive very diferent analyses. In the next subsections I consider several other syntactic contexts in which NFCs occur
outside of the central contexts listed in table 2.
3.2 Copular clauses
As Dixon 2004 notes, there are two copular verbs in Jarawara, toha and ama. Although both verbs can be translated ‘be’ ama always so, and toha often, along with ‘become’,
there are signiicant syntactic diferences between the two verbs, and in the context of NFCs, their respective behavior is quite diferent. As we have seen, toha behaves as an
intransitive verb when it is an MC verb with a subordinate NFC. More precisely, it is an intransitive raising verb.
But toha can be the NFC verb, too, and in this case it appears to be a copular verb with two arguments, a subject and a complement. In the previous section we saw 198,
repeated from 185 above, an example of control, in which the irst person singular A of the MC nofa ‘want’ controls the copular subject of the NFC verb toha ‘become’, and the
NFC also has a copular complement, i.e. towisawa ‘chief’. 198 towisawa
towisawa chief.m
tohi to-ha.nfin
ch-be onofa
o-nofa 1sg.a-want
okare. o-ka-re
1sg.a-decl-neg+f ‘I dont want to become chief.’
In contrast, the other copular verb, ama, is never the NFC verb; that is, there is no non-inite form of ama. It can occur as the MC verb, and in this case it often has two
arguments, as in 199 and 200. 199 Ifa
ifa this+f
mee mee
3pl.s haa
haa call
ni na.nfin
aux ama?
ama be
‘Is that them calling?’ 200 Faya
faya enough
oko o-kaa
1sg.poss-poss hiyari
hiyara.nfin speak
amake ama-ke
be-decl+f ‘Im inished talking.’
Comparison construction with nima 81
These examples are straightforward. In 199 the subject is the demonstrative ifa ‘this’, and the copular complement is the NFC mee haa ni. In 200 the NFC oko hiyari is the
subject, with faya ‘enough’ being a predicate adjective. We may also cite 19 in the introduction, in which both the subject and the complement are NFCs.
It may be the case that some sentences with NFCs and ama have only a single argument, for example 201.
201 Okomi o-kaami
1sg.poss-poss-mother.f haa
haa call
ni na.nfin
aux amararani.
ama-ra-hara-ni be-neg-ip.e+f-bkg+f
‘Thats not my mother calling.’ There is an adjective associated with the copular subject in 202, i.e. yokana ‘true’.
Probably yokana should be considered a predicate adjective in this case, but Im not sure. 202 Bati
bati 3sg.poss.father.m
yaka yaka
walk ni
na.nfin aux
yokanano yokana-no
true-ip.n+m amaka.
ama-ka be-decl+m
‘He walks just like his father [lit., it is his fathers true walking].’ In any case, it is clear that there is never either raising or control with sentences involv-
ing NFCs with ama as the MC verb. In fact, there are no transitive NFCs occurring with ama. As we have seen, transitive NFCs can occur with toha, as in 190 above.
3.3 Comparison construction with nima
NFCs can also occur as components of a special comparison construction containing nima ‘like’. Prototypically, nima is attached to one phrase, while the auxiliary na is attached to
the other phrase. Normally the arguments are regular NPs with noun heads, as in 203, or pronominals, as in 204.
203 Kate kate
macaw sp.m ati
ati voice
nima nima
like owati
o-ati 1sg.poss-voice
nara na-hara
aux-ip.e+f oke.
o-ke 1sg.poss-decl+f
‘I spoke like a macaw [lit., my voice was like the voice of a macaw].’ 204 Himata
himata what?
nima nima
like onahaba?
o-na-haba 1sg.s-aux-fut+f
‘What should I do lit., what should I be like?’ Dixon 2004:505f. analyzes the phrase with nima as an adjunct, and considers na to
be an intransitive verb, and I agree with this basic syntactic framework.
39
39
Dixon considers only -ma to be the marker of the adjunct, and ni to be a nominalization of the auxiliary na; I am agnostic on this part of his analysis at this point. He also says the main verb na should be identiied
with the intransitive verb na ‘exist’, whereas I prefer to identify it with the auxiliary na. Neither of these points makes a diference in the present discussion.
82 Jarawara Complement Clauses
As Dixon 2004:507 notes, NFCs can occur in either position in this construction, either with nima or as the S of na. Both may be NFCs, as in 205, or one phrase may be an NFC
while the other is an NP, as in 206. 205 fara
fara same+f
otaa otaa
1ex.s kobo
kobo arrive
nami na-ma.nfin
aux-back nima
nima like
koba koba
copaiba.f sika
sika pour
tonihi to-niha-na.nfin
ch-caus-aux na
na aux
tohaharo to-ha-haro
ch-aux-rp.e+f amake
ama-ke sec-decl+f
tabo tabo
steel drum.f yaa.
40
yaa adjnct
‘Every time we came back we poured copaiba oil into drums.’ 206 Aiyao
aiyao airplane.m
eebotee ehebotee
big fara
fara same+f
yama yama
thing.f wee
wehe light+f
nima nima
like kami
ka-ma.nfin gocome-back
ne na+m
aux awaka.
awa-ka seem+m-decl+m
‘Big airplanes come every day.’ In 205, nima is attached to the NFC fara otaa kobo nami ‘every time we came back’,
and the auxiliary is attached to the NFC koba sika tonihi ‘the pouring out of copaiba oil’. This is another instance of a detransitivized verb. In 206, nima is attached to the NP
yama wehe ‘day’, while the auxiliary is attached to the NFC kami ‘its coming’. This phenomenon is just one more instance of the NP-like behavior of NFCs.
As an interesting aside, this context provides another instance in which an intransitive clause receives the character of an Oc clause when occurring with an adjunct, similar to
the cases with namoni and tabiyo mentioned in section 2.2 above. In 207, the auxiliary, which we have analyzed as intransitive, receives hi-.
207 Fare fare
same+m ati
ati voice
nima nima
like nisori
nisori 3sg.poss.younger brother.m
mee mee
3pl.a hinematamonaka.
hi-na-himata-mona-ka oc-aux-fp.e+m-rep+m-decl+m
‘His younger brothers did just as he said.’ Furthermore, unlike the cases we have seen so far, the auxiliary agrees in gender with
the phrase with nima rather than with the S. In this sentence the older brother is referenced by the NP with nima, i.e. fare ati, while the younger brothers are referenced by the S, i.e.
40
The toha in 205 is not the copular verb referred to above, but is the auxiliary ha. The function of the auxiliary in this sentence is to signal the “iterative” construction Dixon 2004:278, meaning that the
action occurred many times.
forima na 83