84 [p. 82]
CHAPTER THREE. COMPOUNDS.
———————
120. By ‘compounds’ are here understood expressions which form a unit thus in effect one word, such as
becomes clear when derivations are made thereof
1
but which are compounded from two or more heterogeneous elements which also occur independently; in the latter case however not always in precisely the same form, as it
occurs repeatedly with compounds that in order to promote unity, the compounding elements undergo certain changes. These modifications are of two sorts: a omission of prefixes, thus shortening of one of the two members,
2
and b prenasalization of the modifying word. Examples follow below. In general it is not easy to determine the border between compounds and non-compounds. Whether one has to
do with a notional unity or duality is often very difficult to make out.
3
Just because two words stand in closer relationship to each other than with the rest of the sentence does not mean that they therefore form a compound.
Also it is not always easy to ascertain an accent pattern, because in such a case one has to do with one or more secondary stresses, and in practice the difference between primary and secondary stress is difficult to hear. The
connection in which the compounding elements bind together can have all sorts of grades of fixity, so that it goes without saying there are many border cases. That I should have always made a correct judgment in the following
presentation is hard to believe. In many cases, however, such as shall emerge below, a useful criterion for Mori is the place where the suffixed personal pronoun attaches see § 143 ff.. In Dutch grammar people are in the habit of
speaking of ‘separable’ and ‘inseparable’ compounds; in my opinion only the latter deserve the label ‘compound’; the former would be better called ‘com-spellings’.
[p. 83] The compounds can be divided into
COPULATIVE
and
DETERMINATIVE
.
COPULATIVE COMPOUNDS.
121. Copulative compounds do not play a very large role in Mori. Some examples are:
ngkoraane ngkoramai ‘here and there, hither and thither’ kontahane ngkoloane ‘up and down, to above and to below’
tuwu mate to-lako-mo koa
live die 1
PLN
-go-
PERF
just ‘whether we should live or die, let us go on’
1
[footnote 1, p. 82] To this end accent is insufficient in my opinion, but must be accompanied by conceptual unity. Otherwise any enclitic for example mo ‘already’, po ‘just’, etc. should stand in compound relationship with a word to which it
is appended, which seems to me to be in conflict with the actual situation.
2
[footnote 2, p. 82] Herewith the possibility must be mentioned that in certain cases there was no such prefix, or else it did not have the same meaning, in the period during which the compound in question originated.
3
[Postscript, p. 82] Drawing a border between compounds and non-compounds is complicated by the fact that in so many cases the language sometimes does make a compound, and then other times does not. That aside, whether or not one has to do
with a compound or not can still be determined by the placement of particles such as mo to, po, and koa § 244, the placement of the personal pronouns of series I § 145, etc.
mo’i-mo’ito molo-molowulu
REDP
-black
REDP
-green ‘greenish-blackish a little bit green and a little bit black’
mongku-mongkuni mororompute moro-morompute ‘yellow white’ The word bembereke, in Pamona ‘short and stocky’, means ‘fat, corpulent’ in Mori; the word is not felt to be a
compound in that the constituent elements are not separately known. Also one can mention the compound numerals such as:
ho-pulu ka opaa one-ten and
four ‘fourteen’
asa-’etu ka nomo-pulu
ka opitu
one-hundred and six-ten and seven
‘one hundred sixty-seven’ Compare for example hopulu ka opaa ambau ‘fourteen carabao’, also ambau hopulu ka opaa, less frequently
hopulu ambau ka opaa, thus without compounding.
DETERMINATIVE COMPOUNDS.
122. With determinative compounds, as a rule the modified element is first, the modifying element second.
They are to be divided into the following groups: a compounds in which a substantive is modified; b compounds in which an adjective is modified, and c compounds in which a verb is modified.
Compounding in which a substantive is modified.
123. When a substantive has a modifier with it, whether this modifier consists of an adjective or something else,
by far one can’t always speak of a compound. Only when the two elements together form a single notion, one has to do with a compound. The clearest examples are provided by those cases in which a general plant or animal name
receives a modifier to indicate a species or variety, for example:
bou molori ‘slippery fish’ a very common variety, in Malay called ikan gabus kotuo raha ‘house betel’ a variety of betel
punti wue or punti minama a banana punti species, the so-called pisang pinang punti bange ‘monkey-banana’ that is, a wild banana
The compounds which consist of a substantive with its modifier can be further divided according to the nature of the defining word. Here below shall be treated a compounds of a substantive with an adjective or verb, b
compounds of a substantive with a substantive, and c compounds of a substantive with an expression which itself is compounded.
[p. 84]
124.
α. C
OMPOUNDS OF A SUBSTANTIVE WITH AN ADJECTIVE OR VERB
. The modifying adjective verb sometimes remains unchanged, sometimes loses
4
its prefix, and sometimes becomes prenasalized in the latter case it has no prefix or else loses it. These three cases exhibit a cline of increasingly narrower connection between the
modified word and the modifier. Examples are:
4
[footnote 1, p. 86] See footnote 2, p. 82. This remark shall not be repeated again in what follows.
mia mota’u ‘old people, elders, the old, etc.’, as in mia mota’u-do ‘their elders’ a remaining blood relation of the older generation
rombia molori ‘slippery sago’, a kind of sago palm compare rombia ngkorui below melemba-mongkuni ‘wearing a yellow jacket’
5
uwi meharo or uwi haro ‘sweet potato’ a trailing plant, more precisely uwi meharo is the common name of all varieties of I
POMOEA BATATAS
, not all of which are sweet; compare haro ‘liana’ uwi mekeu, uwi keu ‘cassava’ a shrub; compare keu ‘wood’
pae mo’ito ‘black rice’ pae menapo ‘rice with scratchy hairs namely on the husk’, a variety of rice
mia mate ‘dead person, corpse’ mia hadio ‘the crowd, the people, the multitude’
watu pute ‘white rock’ a variety of rock one pute ‘white gravel or sand’ also the name of certain streams near Tinompo, Sampalowo, and Lembo
Mbelala. In the last two cases the prefix of mopute has been lost unless it was never present, while manu mpute ‘white
chicken’, koro mpute ‘white heron’ and eu mpute ‘white spinach’ have prenasalization. The reason for this difference is not clear, neither is it apparent why next to eu mpute people have eu motaha ‘red spinach’.
6
Compare further:
tonsi kuni ‘name of a small black bird with a yellow patch on its breast’ kotuo lea ‘a kind of betel pepper’; compare molea ‘sharp, hot’
wula ntii ‘full moon’ mokole ntii ‘descended ruler’
pe’olu ntuwu ‘living knot’ that is, one which can be forced open, versus a pe’olu mate mia nse’elu ‘the former people, the ancestors’
rombia ngkorui ‘thorny sago palm’ compare rombia molori above Also words such as our ‘redbreast’, ‘blackhead’, etc. belong herewith. For example:
matarawu ‘blind-eye’, the name of a bird; compare morawu ‘poor of sight’ bungkulosu ‘hunchback’; compare bungku ‘back’
karuowowa ‘short-foot’, an alternative name for bonti ‘wild pig’
5
[Postscript, p. 84] The words melemba-mongkuni do not always form a compound.
6
[Postscript, p. 84] Indeed in everyday speech people use the expression me’one-mpute, or for that matter one mopute, whether or not it can form a compound.
lewe molori ‘slippery leaf’, the name of a plant It is not always certain whether the second element of a compound should be considered an adjective or a
substantive, for example when it is the name of a material or of a people. Thus sinsi nsalaka can be ‘silvery ring’ as well as ‘ring of silver’; taku mala both ‘copper lime box’ or ‘lime box made of copper’; and kuro wita both ‘earthen
cook pot’ as well as ‘cook pot of earth’. [p. 85]
Likewise pido nsina ‘Chinese bottle’ or ‘bottle of the Chinese’ by this is indicated a small sort of bottle, lopo walanda ‘imported lopo a tuberous plant’, or ‘lopo of the Dutchmen,
cum suis’.
125. . C
