The result of fronting

b. Ma-siki-n th-a no. PRIV-give-SUB she-dummy it ‘She didn’t give it’ c. Thy-jokara no da-myn. She-sell it me-to ‘She sold it to me.’ 164 a. M-andy-n l-a jokha waria? PRIV-arrive-SUB he-dummy hunt from ‘Hasn’t he come back from hunting? I thought he had.’ b. M-andy-n l-a koan. PRIV-arrive-SUB he-dummy yet ‘No, he hasn’t arrived yet.’ Similarly, dummy verb sentences starting with adverbials can also be used to answer questions, especially when the adverbial in some way contrasts with presuppositions in the question. 165 a. Ly-dalhida konoko loko-nro? he-fun forest in-toward ‘He ran into the jungle?’ b. Manin, basadare l-a kona-n tho-loko-nro. no slowly he-dummy walk-SUB it-in-toward ‘No, SLOWLY he walked into it.’ In addition to occurring in question-answer environments, dummy verb sentences starting with adverbials tend to occur near the climax of a narrative, or in vivid accounts of events where the adverbial is the new, important, or startling information. For example, in a story about an adventure with a jaguar see the appendix, the narrator of the story relates that he was quietly working in his planting ground cutting trees. His brother-in-law had a sugarcane field nearby, and had come there with his grandchildren to work. Unknown to the narrator at the time, a jaguar attempted to attack his brother-in-law. At the point in the story where the narrator gets his first inkling that something is wrong, he in- troduces his listeners to that fact with the following sentence: 166 Abare la-a simaky-n suddenly he-dummy shoutyell-SUB ‘Suddenly he screamed’ This contrasts with the neutral form for this sentence where the adverb follows the verb. 26 167 Ly-simaka abaren. he-shout suddenly ‘He screamed suddenly.’ 3.2 Sentence Structure 69 26 When manner adverbials occur in their unmarked position after the verb and the constituents for which the verb is subcategorized they end in n. When they are fronted, this disappears. Presumably this is the same subordinating morpheme -n ‘SUB’ found on verbs in subordinate clauses. In addition to discourse contexts, there are also several structural peculiarities in dummy verb sentences that support the idea of a fronted verbal or adverbial element. As can be seen in the previous examples, two of which are repeated below, if the sentence starts with a negative event verb, and if that verb is transitive, its subject precedes the dummy verb and its object or objects follow the dummy verb, not the lexical verb Any locative postpositional phrases associated with the fronted verb also follow the dummy verb. 168 a. Ma-siki-n l-a iniabo by-myn ?. PRIV-give-SUB you-dummy water you-to ‘Didn’t he give water to you?’ or ‘He didn’t give water to you.’ b. M-osy-n b-a forto-nro ?. PRIV-go-SUB you-dummy town-toward ‘Aren’t you going to town?’ or ‘You aren’t going to town.’ This is unusual, since, except when a constituent such as the direct object of the verb is fronted, nothing other than a negative particle ever seems to separate a verb in Arawak from its arguments. Arawak verbs, apparently, cannot carry their NP arguments or their tense suffixes with them when they are fronted. The previously mentioned discourse contexts in which dummy verb sentences occur all argue for the landing site being the COMP position. This is further supported by the fact that the COMP position in these sentences cannot be filled by another element. For exam- ple, sentence constituents which one can normally front to the COMP position, cannot be moved there in dummy verb sentences. 27 169 a. Ma-siki-n th-a iniabo by-myn tanoho ?. PRIV-give-SUB she-dummy water you-to today ‘Didn’t she give water to you today?’ or ‘She didn’t give water to you today.’ b. By-myn ma-siki-n th-a iniabo › tanoho ?. you-to PRIV-give-SUB she-dummy water › today Iniabo ma-siki-n th-a › by-myn tanoho ?. water PRIV-give-SUB she-dummy › you-to today Tanoho ma-siki-n th-a iniabo by-myn › ?. today PRIV-give-SUB she-dummy water you-to › ‘Didn’t she give water to you today?’ or ‘She didn’t give water to you today.’ 70 Noun Phrase and Sentence Syntax 27 However, just as is the case with other event sentences in which the COMP position is filled, the phrase in COMP position can be preceded by a TOPIC phrase. Again, if this phrase in the TOPIC position happens to be a direct object, a resumptive pronoun is required. To iniabo, ma-siki-n th-a no by-myn? the water PRIV-give-SUB she-dummy it you-to ‘Concerning the water, didn’t she give it to you?’

3.2.2.2 Manner adverbials versus time and locative phrases

If one compares non-subcategorized time and locative phrases with manner adver- bial phrases like “well” and “slowly,” the manner adverbials seem more closely tied to the verb semantically than time and locative ones are. Time and location adverbials set up the general temporal and spatial framework for the whole of the sentence, while manner adverbs directly modify the action denoted by the verb. Further support of this semantic argument is provided by the fact that, in Arawak, if both manner adverbials and non-subcategorized locative or time phrases are present, manner adverbials occur closer to the verb than non-subcategorized time and locative ones do. 170 a. Ly-jentoa san li-sikoa lokhodi. he-sing well his-house in ‘He sings well inside his house.’ b. Ly-jentoa li-sikoa lokhodi san. he-sing his-house in well ‘He sings inside his house well.’ This being the case, we may suppose that Arawak has a level of structure between the verb and VP—call it Vø. Subcategorized phrases, including direct objects, are daughters of Vø under standard assumptions XP3 in Figure 16. Manner phrases, as modifiers in VP, can be viewed as daughters of VP XP2 in Figure 16. Finally, locative and time phrases can be viewed as daughters of S XP1 in Figure 16. S NP INFL VP XP1 time, location Vø XP2 manner V NP PP XP3 DO IO subcategorized for by verb Constituents marked with ‘’ require dummy verb when fronted. Figure 16. Typical Arawak Event Sentence If one now considers the effect of fronting the various constituents in relation to this proposed structure, one sees that some trigger the use of the dummy verb, and oth- ers do not. As has already been discussed, time P1, location phrases XP1 and XP3, direct objects, and indirect object postpositional phrases can all be fronted without the addition of the dummy verb. Only the fronting of verbs and manner adverbials XP2 requires the use of a dummy verb construction. 3.2 Sentence Structure 71 In the case of manner adverbials, 28 this shows up not just in focus movement, but also in content questions and free relative clauses. 29 171 a. Halika b-o-fa doro-n to oro? how you-dummy-FUT weave-SUB the cassava.squeezer ‘How will you weave the cassava squeezer?’ b. Halika bo-doro-fa to joro? how you-weave-FUT the cassava.squeezer ‘How will you weave the cassava squeezer?’ 172 a. De koborokoa-ka koan [alika th-a-n aba kabadaro hibin bokoto-n de.] I remember-INDIC still [how it-dummy-SUB one jaguar almost grab-SUB me] ‘I still remember how a jaguar almost grabbed me.’ b. …[alika aba kabadaro hibin bokoto-n de.] …[how one jaguar almost grab-SUB me] ‘…how a jaguar almost grabbed me.’ In Arawak, sentences like 173 a. Alikan › andy-fa? who › come-FUT ‘Who will arrivecome?’ b. Alikan by-dykha ›? who you-see › ‘Who did you see?’ are grammatical. One might conclude therefore, that antecedent-government can satisfy the Empty Category Principle ECP in Arawak. If one did so, however, then one would not be able to explain the necessity for the dummy verb in manner questions such as in 174b. 174 a. Alika by-malhithi-fa no? how you-make-FUT it ‘How will you makebuild it?’ b. Alika b-o-fa malhithi-n no? how you-dummy-FUT make-SUB it ‘How will you make it?’ 72 Noun Phrase and Sentence Syntax 28 Content questions for verbs are constructed by recasting the sentence so that the questioned constituent is the complement of the verb ‘do’. Ama b-ani-bo ? what you-do-CONT ‘What are you doing?’ 29 There is some question as to the exact structure of apparent free relative clauses in Arawak. See the discussion in Section 4.2.