Compare this last with pande mepau, said of a small child that can prattle, also meaning ‘clever in speaking’ and with pande montutulu ‘good with words, eloquent’, neither of which are compounds.
One has a different relationship between compounding elements in cases such as: mepulu dinui
sticky sago.paste ‘sticky as sago paste’, also ‘do up with pulu dinui glue made from sago paste’
mo’ahi n-towu delicious
LG
-sugar.cane ‘delicious like sugar cane, sweet’
Again another relationship occurs in: kona ampa
hit bamboo.stake ‘tread on a sharpened bamboo’
kona ulasi-o-mo tehu
hit snare-3
SG
-
PERF
rat ‘the rat was caught in the snare’
kona n-sere ng-kilala hit
LG
-cut
LG
-k.o.grass ‘cut by kilala grass’
This last is the same as tesere ngkilala. See further § 230.
132. . C
OMPOUNDS OF AN ADJECTIVE WITH THE PARTICIPLE FORM OF A VERB
. Although aiwa is formally an adjective, nevertheless cases such as:
onae aiwa in-ema-ku
3
SG
.
INDEP
come
PASS
-request-1
SG
.
POS
‘that’s what I’ve come to ask’ belong entirely at home under the heading “compounds of a verb with another verb” treated below. Compare:
soso ba i-towoki
kita a
n-sala, nahi
k.o.bird if 3
SG
-cross 1
PLN
at
LG
-way
NEG
to-po-hawe anu lako in-ungke-to
1
PLN
-
TRI
-encounter
REL
go
PASS
-seek-1
PLN
.
POS
‘if a
soso bird crosses our one’s path, we one will not obtain that which we one goes seeking’ [p. 90]
133. . C
OMPOUNDS OF AN ADJECTIVE WITH ANOTHER ADJECTIVE
. Also with compounding of two adjectives the relationship can be of a varying nature, such as appears from the following examples:
motaha motu’a ‘dark red’ motaha mongura ‘light red’
mahaki doito ‘suffering from angst-sickness convulsions’ mate ntekewoi ‘die of heartache, yearning’
langkai hala or kodei hala ‘moderately sized’ hala-hala ondau or hala-hala owowa ‘moderately long’
tehala langkai ‘extremely guilty’ In this last case, either tehala langkai aku or tehala aku langkai ‘I am extremely guilty’; the latter is not a
compound. na-p-i meene
n-silolonga
NEG
-
INCOMP
-3
SG
bright
LG
-unclear ‘it is not yet good light, the day has not yet dawned’
However one can also say without compounding: meene-o-mo n-silolonga
bright-3
SG
-
PERF LG
-unclear ‘it has become completely light’
On the same basis mate umolo ‘die of hunger’, umari moiko, umari nsilolonga, umari ntekowali ‘completely finished, well done’ may or may not be treated as compounds, though in any case the prenasalization remains. As
one can see, the modifying adjective among others has the function of an adverbial modifier. It thus becomes prenasalized, as the case may be, but this is nothing other than one of the features which tends to occur with
compounding; see further § 141.
Compounding in which a verb is modified.
134. Verbs which are compounded with a modifier can be classified as follows: a compounds of a verb with a
substantive, and b compounds of a verb with another verb, an adjective, etc.
135.
α. C
OMPOUNDS OF A VERB WITH A SUBSTANTIVE
. Chief among compounds of a verb and a substantive are those in which the second element indicates similarity such as:
moturi bonti ‘sleep like a wild pig’ without a mosquito net mo’engke mokole ‘take on the airs of a member of the nobility mokole’
But other relationships between the compounded elements are possible, such as in: lumako bungku ‘go outside’
mo’asi ngkeke ‘carry under the arm’, literally ‘clasp under the armpit keke’ mepare awu ‘coiled up’ as it were, ‘rolled up lying or sitting by the hearth awu’ said of a homebody;
the stem pare is used of the coiling of rope m-pelempa-wongi ira
PL
-set.off-night 3
PL
‘they went at night’ mon-tonda bungku
PART
:
TRI
-follow back ‘go behind someone, who has set off prior’
Compare the construction with definite object:
19
i-tonda bungku ira
3
SG
-follow back 3
PL
‘he went behind them’ [p. 91]
The transitive verbs with indefinite object, which are discussed comprehensively below § 221, must also have originated from compounding, and rightly of an intransitive verb with a modifier. The present language however no
longer treats them as such.
136. . C
