Bare intransitive clauses Unmarked order: VS

7 THE CLAUSE 149

7.1.1. Bare intransitive clauses

The following examples illustrate bare intransitive clauses on the basis of simple intransitive verbs. These verbs may belong to any of the three verb classes distinguished in 4.3. 1 ao-wule I am tired 1sR-tired 2 o-suli-mo? have you come back already? 2sR-return-PF 3 no-ere saowalahano he leaves at dawn 3sR-leave dawn 4 ne-langke it is high 3sR-high Complex intransitive verbs in intransitive clauses are illustrated in the following examples: 5 miina-ho da-ko-ana they do not have children not.yet 3pI-HAVE-child yet 6 o-ko-doi? have you got any money? 2sR-HAVE-money 7 do-se-riwu there are a thousand of them 3pR-one-thousand 8 ta-pe-raa-fulu there are about twenty of us 1eR-ABOUT-two-ten A special type of intransitive clause is the ambient clause. Ambient clauses make statements about the weather. The verb used in these clauses has a defective paradigm in that it can only be inflected for the third person singular subject. This subject is comparable to the English dummy subject it. Ambient clauses typically consist of only a verb. In some cases the addition of a full nominal subject is possible, but in most cases this is semantically impossible. 9 no-ghuse it is raining 3sR-rain 10 no-tondu there is thunder 3sR-thunder 11 no-bhibhito there is lightning 3sR-lightning 12 no-rindi it is cold 3sR-cold 13 a. no-hine-mo it has stopped raining 3sR-stop-PF 150 A GRAMMAR OF THE MUNA LANGUAGE b. o ghuse no-hine-mo the rain has stopped ART rain 3sR-stop-PF 14 a. no-ko-olu it is cloudy 3sR-HAVE-cloud b. o lani no-ko-olu the sky is cloudy ART sky 3sR-HAVE-cloud

7.1.2. Unmarked order: VS

When a subject NP is present, it may either precede or follow the verb. I take the order Verb-Subject VS to be the unmarked order for the following reasons: 1. It is found much more frequently than SV. 2. It is the normal order in fixed expressions. 3. It is the only possible order in subordinate constructions with kaawu after. 4. Many SV orderings can be explained by syntactic factors see 7.1.3. 5. For the remaining cases pragmatic factors seem to be responsible 7.1.4. Each of these reasons will be treated in detail below. 1. VS is more frequent than SV. In a sample of 155 intransitive clauses in 10 short texts, the proportion was as follows: VS 107 69 SV 48 31 Examples of VS clauses with full NPs: 15 ne-panda-mo gholeo the sun is already low 3sR-low-PF sun 16 no-koghendu-mo robhine nagha the woman was startled 3sR-startle-PF woman that 17 no-tende tora dahu the dog ran again 3sR-run again dog 18 no-wule-mo katogha the crow was already tired 3sR-tired-PF crow 19 no-ngari-mo lalo-ndo they were fed up 3sR-bored-PF heart-their 20 do-si-mo-ghae-ha-mo ko-to-tolu-ha-ndo 3pR-SI-CA-cry-HA-PF KO-RED-three-HA-their all three of them cried 21 no-pada se-wula a month had passed 3sR-pass one-month 7 THE CLAUSE 151 22 no-bhari seakito there are many black ants 3sR-many black.ant 2. VS is the order in fixed expressions. a. descriptions with lalo heart to refer to mental states and emotions: 23 no-bhela lalo-ku I am sad 3sR-wounded heart-my 24 no-rungku lalo-ku I am happy 3sR-touched heart-my b. statements about time or weather: 25 no-pana gholeo it is hot 3sR-hot sun 26 no-pute wula it is full moon 3sR-white moon 27 no-ghindotu gholeo it is noon 3sR-zenith sun 3. VS is the order in subordinate constructions with kaawu after see 9.7.2: 28 no-mai kaawu moghane-no, no-ghondo-e-mo 3sR-come after man-her 3sR-look-it-PF when her husband came, he looked at it 29 no-mate kaawu ghule amaitu, andoa do-si-suli-ha-mo 3sR-dead after snake that they 3pR-SI-return-HA-PF when the snake was dead, they went home together When the order VS in the subclause is changed to SV, the result is ungrammatical: 30 moghane-no kaawu no-mai, no-ghondo-e-mo man-her after 3sR-come 3sR-look-it-PF

7.1.3. SV order: syntactic factors