b. le l-alei
luom l-ire
nimpu he
3m-eat.3m water
3m-with gnetum.leaves.
He ate dried sago andwith gnetum leaves. The conjunction -ire is also used for accompaniment and instrument, although the latter use is fairly
rare. It does not occur in the text body used in this work. 74 a.
metine l-ire
moto roum
m-e man
3m-with wife
they.fd fd-go
The man with his wife, they went. b. ki
k-elele nimpe k-ire tomiyo
I 1s-fell tree
1s-with ax
I fell a tree with an ax. Olo has a two groups of discourse markers. They are used to link two or more sentences into larger
groups. The discourse markers are given in table 2.13. Table 2.13. Olo discourse linker
sequencers le
sequence so
close link sequence lo
loose sequence wo
ordered sequence leye lo
major sequence eventresult
yo non causal result
leso causal effect
eite reason result
2.3.3 Noun phrase
There are three different types of noun phrases in Olo: the general, the possessive, and the genitive. Each type of noun phrase has a unique morphological structure and realizes different semantic
constructions.
2.3.3.1 General noun phrase
All modifiers in Olo noun phrases follow the head noun Staley 1994b. Examples of this are given in 75–79.
75 mete
lipi Noun + Adjective
men big.
PL
big men 76
metine- éwuso l-esi-ene
nafle n-epe… ù Noun + Relative Clause
man ëwho
3m-old-3f bird 3f-
DEM
û The man who held this bird
The man who flew this plane… 77
mete winges
neliyeye Noun + Numerals
men two.m
one.m three men two + one
2.3 Grammatical Characterization 27
78 metine
l-epe Noun + Demonstrative
man 3m-
DEM
this man 79
pora él-iti
wom ù
Noun + Prepositional Phrase basket
ë3m-of coconut û a coconut leaf basket
Olo speakers resist loading their noun phrases with many elements. If the information is new, then it is apt to be introduced in multiple clauses. If it is not new, the native speaker will try to use reference
management schemes to avoid a large NP. AN NP with more than two elements in it is considered large. However, the order for a fully specified noun phrase is: Noun or embedded Noun Phrase, Ad-
jective or Adjective Phrase, Numeral, Relative Clause or Prepositional Phrase, and Demonstrative.
2.3.3.2 Possessive noun phrase
The possessive noun phrase in Olo is distinguished from other NPs by the inclusion of the compound possessive pronoun. The order is possessed nominal, possessor nominal, and finally possessive pro-
noun. The possessor does not need to be expressed by a nominal in the possessive noun phrase, but it cannot be expressed by anything else.
80 a. ila
moto le-ne
knife woman
m-3f the woman’s knife
b. ila le-ne
knife 3m-3f
her knife c.
ila le-iki
knife 3m-1s
my knife The possessive noun phrase is also used to realize kinship relations. The head of the possessive noun
phrase, the first nominal is always a kin term, and the second nominal is optional. 81 a.
ninge Rita
le-ne son
Rita m-3f
Rita’s son b. paliene
le-iki grandson
3m-1s my grandson
2.3.3.3 Genitive noun phrase
The genitive noun phrase in Olo realizes part-whole and class-member relationships. Syntactically, it is distinguished from the possessive noun phrase by the lack of the possessive pronoun and by both
the nouns being obligatory. Modification of either noun is ungrammatical, although the genitive can fill the head position of the noun phrase and the whole construction can be modified as in 82c.
82 a. nimpe
oru tree
head the top branches of a tree
28 The Olo Language
b. nimpe ili
oru tree
big.m head
c. nimpe
oru ili
tree head
big.m the big top branches of a tree
the big tree top
2.3.4 Adjective phrase