Speaker is arguing that fields need sheep dung. The problem is that it does not come free. Those who need to be given food and beer are the sheep shepherds who with their flocks pass across the village
twice a year on their way to higher pastures. The finite question clause also has a counterfactual particle which anticipates a negative answer.
18.256 ma di khit- raŋ pʏn ta bet de ek.
CONTR1 DEF 2PL-self brother EMPHP COP SCP INCLN kurik
ɖas-si duk. all be.alike-INTNS EXIST.VIS
ɕen tɕik-ki men-na ak otherwise one-ERG NEG.COP-NFNT1 INCLN
t ɕik-ki ta tɕhip-pet ka wa ni. TE47
one-ERG EMPHP do;VBZR-INCH CEP MIR DM ‘For sure you are truly brothers. You are all alike. Otherwise if one wasn’t, he would
actually do it.’ Speaker is reprimanding his own uncles in this written text. They have not been looking after their
own mother.
18.12.13 ‘Tail-head’ sentence relator
In the next example there is a temporal linkage with some causal overlay. This kind of chaining is typical in oral narratives and travel reports. The previous event is linked to what follows. Often the only purpose
is to lower the information load for the hearer. In the following example the sentence relator clause is an adverbial clause with causal overlay to what follows. The relevant parts of the two sentences are
underlined.
18.257 hi-ni t ɕheppa dʑap-tɕuŋ.
that-ABL rain VBZR-PST.EXP t
ɕheppa dʑap-ni pha-la tsa tir thuk-moŋ. TE3 rain VBZR-NFNT2 cow-DAT grass give be.able-NEG.PST.EXP
‘Then it rained. Since it rained I was not able to give grass to the cows.’ 18
.258 makpa khaluŋ-ni mal-la hi-ni rukkama-la ɕuu-pen. makpa khalung-ABL down.there-DAT this-ABL rukkama-DAT enter-1PST
rukkama-la ɕuu-ni pimpa ŋøruk-ki khim-la phim-pen. TE3
rukkama-DAT enter- NFNT2 pimpa ŋøruk-GEN house-DAT go.come[PST]-1PST
‘I descended down from Makpa Khalung and then entered Rukkama village. After I had entered Rukkama I went to the house of Pimpa Ngøruk.’
This illustration comes from an oral travel report in which the narrator often for discourse- pragmatic reasons repeats the last event before he proceeds to the next one. This “tail-head” linkage is
very common in oral narratives but not so common in written texts.
18.12.14 Groundsreason sentence relator
The groundsreason sentence relator is actually an adverbial clause, khan ʈa hin sin-na, which literally
means ‘saying what is’ or ‘as for what is’. I have usually translated this clause as ‘The reason is that’, ‘because’, or ‘it is because’. This sentence relator gives the prominent reason or explanation for previous
events or arguments which typically cover the previous sentence but may cover a larger syntactic unit than a sentence.
18.259 u- ni ŋa aku passaŋ tɕaa-la phin-na
that-ABL 1SG uncle Passang at-DAT go.come[PST]-NFNT1 aku-
raŋ ŋorin dʑuu-let=te tɕhi-pen. uncle-self service run-SCI=EMPH say-1PST
khan ʈa hin sin-na u-p-e ʈhø ak-pokma
what COP.EXP say-NFNT1 that-PL2-ERG plan evil-ADJVZR t
ɕhip-pa di ŋ-e ha khoo-tɕuŋ. TE58 do;VBZR-NMLZ;Q DEF 1SG-ERG aud.impact hear;understand-PST.EXP
‘Then I went to uncle Passang and told him, “Uncle, please do the service work of Ngorimpa” This was because I realized the evil plan which they villagers had made.’
This is a written text telling how the old administration used to work in the Lhomi area. Without his consent and knowledge the writer was elected to be a servant of a village leader. He certainly did not
want that because there were all kinds of implications and responsibilities with that job. He realized that he was deliberately trapped. Therefore he goes to his own uncle and asks him to do it on his behalf. The
grounds clause of this example gives the reason for the preceding syntactic unit which is larger than just a sentence.
18.260 rika di-la ʈhik tshuu-na ni ʈhʏk-ken di-pa-la
forest DEF-DAT bring be.able-NFNT1 DM drag-NMLZ;CONJ DEF-PL2 le lhaa
juŋ-ken bet. work easy come-NMLZ;CONJ AUX
khan ʈa hin sin-na rika-la ʈhok-ken di
what COP.EXP say-NFNT1 forest-DAT take-NMLZ;CONJ DEF gak mit-
juŋ-ken bet. TE65 many NEG-come-NMLZ;CONJ AUX
‘If a man is able to take a bride for himself in a forest, then it will be easier for those who drag her away. This is because in a forest there are not many who would attack
and try to take her forcefully back.’
If a man has to drag the bride from inside her home, it is going to be difficult since there are so many family members who would attack and try to take her back.
This example is from a story which tells how a young Lhomi man takes a bride for himself forcefully and typically without her or her parents’ consent. He has companions who literally drag her away. Her
family members attack and try to take her back home. The reason clause gives the grounds for the preceding argument.
18.13 Coordinate structures
