272 A GRAMMAR OF THE MUNA LANGUAGE
once upon a time the jin and the mouse deer held a competition in staying awake longest
c. In a fast sequence of actions without conjunctions the second verb may lack -mo:
309 kamokula amaitu no-sangke-mo pandanga-no, no-tonda-mo lima-no old that 3sR-lift-PF spear-his 3sR-take-PF hand-POS
ka-bua-bua maka do-kala te ko-ghule-ha-no girl then 3pR-go loc HAVE-snake-LOC-A.PART
the old man lifted his spear, took the girl by the hand and then they went to the place where the snake was
d. When the verb is followed by a derivation consisting of ngka- + redupli- cation indicating simultaneity 10.2.19:
310 no-filei-mo ngka-pode-podea she ran away screaming
3sR-run.away-PF WHILE-RED-scream The demand that the verb presents a new and completed action accounts for the
fact that -mo is not present in clauses providing background information and in negative clauses.
Special mention must be made of clauses that are repetitions, rewordings or further specifications of preceding clauses. Sometimes the verbs in such
clauses also take -mo, and sometimes they do not, the reasons for which are not clear.
311 no-kawi-ane-mo anahi anagha; no-kawi-ane-mo Wa Ndaipitu 3sR-marry-her-PF child that 3sR-marry-her-PF Wa Ndaipitu
he married the child; he married Wa Ndaipitu 312 do-kala-mo tora do-owa-e; no-kala no-owa-e tora o
3pR-go-PF again 3pR-bring-it 3sR-go 3sR-bring-it again ART ka-kamo-kamokula
DIM-RED-old they went again to bring it; the little old woman went to bring it
again This last example is a case of self-correction by the narrator.
Although the main outline of the usage of -mo is fairly clear, it certainly remains an area of research that needs much more attention.
9.22. The clitic -a
Since the clitic -a cannot be analysed as a derivational affix and since it makes crucial reference to notions higher than the word, it is treated here as
part of the complex sentence. This clitic, whose function is rather elusive, can be attached to virtually
any word of whatever word class, except for prepositions and conjunctions.
9 THE SENTENCE 273
It does not have a clear meaning, but its usage can possibly best be described under the following three headings.
a. It optionally co-occurs with negators see 8.5, in which case it follows
the negated constituent. If there is more than one verb following a negator, both verbs can receive the clitic:
313 miina-ho siaghe da-bhari-a mie there were not yet many people
not.yet too 3pI-many-CL person 314 pa nae-mbali-a
it is not possible FUT.not 3sI-can-CL
315 suano ka-ghosa-no pikore-a it was not the birds strength
not NOM-strong-POS k.o.bird-CL 316 miina na-[m]ooli-a no-foni-si-e-a
he was not able to climb it not 3sI-able-Cl 3sR-climb-TR-it-CL
b. It optionally occurs in exclamations and questions. This is especially the case with the demonstrative itu in exclamations and questions 5.5.6:
317 ka-ghindotu-no gholeo itu-a the sun is at its height
NOM-zenith-POS sun that-CL greeting at noon
318 o hae-no ini-a? what is this?
ART what-its this-CL 319 peda hae itu-a?
how is it going? like what that-CL
320 aitu maka no-tifu-li-e-mo ani-a now EMPH 3sR-sting-REP-him-PF bee-CL
he was terribly stung by the bees c. The usage of the clitic -a that is most difficult to describe is its
function as a pausal clitic in a certain speech style. It occurs at certain natural boundary points in the flow of speech and has a marked
effect on the intonation. The -a is drawn out considerably two to three times the normal length of a vowel and the whole word is pronounced at mid-
high, level intonation. By this special intonation the idea is conveyed that the speaker has not finished his sentence or speech yet. After such a word
there usually is a slight pause which starts a new breath group. At the end of a sentence it is much more rarely found than within a sentence.
Its most appropriate use seems to be in traditional speaking styles, such as meetings of village elders, when participants express their viewpoints
one by one. The lengthening of the vowel may be functional in such circumstances, as it allows some time for the speaker to formulate his
thoughts for the next clause while at the same time strongly indicating that he is still in the middle of his speech.
A good example is the following sentence:
274 A GRAMMAR OF THE MUNA LANGUAGE
321 inodi itu-a, ane a-[m]angkafi ka-pindalo-ku-a, mahingga I that-CL if 1sI-follow-TR NOM-wish-my-CL although
ta-na-mentae-a, paise bhe ka-ngara-ha-ku-a ae-tula-tula UNTIL-3sI-morning-CL FUT.not be NOM-bored-HA-my-CL 1sR-RED-tell
as for me, if I follow my desire, even until it gets light I will not be bored chatting
Since the clitic is a feature of a particular spoken style, it occurs less frequently in written texts. One written text, a traditional folk story, was
surprisingly full of it, but on reading it, other speakers of the language strongly felt it was inappropriate and overdone. Some examples from that story:
322 garaa sa-kundo-no ina-no-a A Ntaapo-apo no-kala-mo dua SURPR WHEN-leave-her mother-his-CL A Ntaapo-apo 3sR-go-PF also
no-po-kalalambu. Kahitela so ne-gau-no ini-a 3sR-PLAY-game maize FUT P.PART-cook-his this-CL
ta-no-runsa-mo. No-suli ina-no no-mai-ghoo ne-galu-a JUST-3sR-leave-PF 3sR-return mother-his 3sR-come-IO 3sR-field-CL
garaa ana-no ini-a naando no-lodo SURPR child-her this-CL be 3sR-sleep
as soon as his mother had left, A Ntaapo-apo went to play. The maize that he had to cook he just left. When his mother returned from
working in the field, she found her child still asleep As was mentioned above, the clitic occurs at certain natural boundary points,
such as the following: - at the end of a clause within a sentence;
- at the end of a preverbal temporal, locative or topic phrase; - at the end of a preverbal subject or object;
- at the end of a clause-initial subject in an equative clause. Some examples:
323 no-kala-mo no-kapihi bhai-hi-no-a dao-maa-e-ghoo 3sR-go-PF 3sR-search companion-PLUR-his-CL 3pI-eat-her-PURP
he went to look for his friends in order to eat her 324 ka-lente-ha-ku-a we Walanda
my birthplace is Holland NOM-born-LOC-my-CL loc Holland
325 o kadondo-a karadhaa-no-a ne-bhenta-li laa-no sau ART woodpecker-CL work-his-CL 3sR-make.hole-REP stalk-POS tree
as for the woodpecker, his work is to make holes in trees
Chapter 10
Derivational morphology
Before giving a full overview of Muna derivational morphology, a number of terminological points and decisions concerning the presentation of the material
must be made clear.
As mentioned in 3.1.3 I maintain a rather sharp language-specific distinction between inflection and derivation. With respect to Muna, inflection
concerns the marking of the category person on verbs and nouns, whereas derivation applies to all other categories. The following morphological
paradigms are therefore not treated in this chapter: subject inflection 4.1, direct and indirect object inflection 4.8 and possessive inflection 5.3,
5.4. The only exception to this division is the realis-irrealis opposition marked by -um- and its allomorphs. Although that is also a derivational affix,
it is also treated elsewhere 4.5 because of its correlation with subject inflection, from which it can hardly be separated. Furthermore, the clitic -a
is not considered part of derivational morphology and is treated in 9.22.
In Muna derivational morphology the following processes occur: affixation 10.2, the most complicated and widely used process; reduplication 10.3;
compounding 10.4; transposition 10.5 and abbreviation 10.6. Affixes are further subdivided into prefixes, suffixes, infixes and circumfixes. A
combination of a prefix and reduplication for example mba- + reduplication I call an affix-combination.
Derivations are formed on bases. The bases can be simple, in which case they are roots, or complex. A derivation can itself become the complex base for a
further derivation. A word can thus show multiple layers of derivation, though in some cases it is difficult or even impossible to determine which is the
intermediate base compare English uncertainty; from certain through certainty or through uncertain?.
In 10.2 the following information is provided for all the affixes, which, for ease of reference, are given in alphabetical order. First the shape of the
affix combination is presented, followed by the word class of the derived word for example a nominal prefix means that the derived word is a noun,
irrespective of the word class of the base. Verbal prefixes are further specified as to the verb class the derived verb belongs to class a-, ae-, or
ao- and its attitude towards -um-infixation: amenable normal rules apply, resistant rules do not apply or blocked rules cannot apply because of the
shape of the prefix, see 2.8.1. The meaning of the affix is given or rather, the abstraction of the meaning of the derived words as against the meaning of
their bases and information is given concerning the productivity of the
276 A GRAMMAR OF THE MUNA LANGUAGE
process. Although I do not discuss fossilized morphology in this chapter, certain affixes or uses of affixes do not seem to be productive.
Subdivisions in the discussion of affixes are made on the basis of both formal criteria different word classes as bases, simple and complex bases,
bound roots and semantic factors. Nowhere are examples meant to be exhaustive. In the examples given, verbal derivations are given in the third person
singular ne- for ae-verbs, no- for a-verbs and ao-verbs; where possible these forms have been translated by infinitives without to. In those cases where a
clausal translation is more appropriate or is the only possibility, I make a choice between he and she, rather than give both equivalents. This is also
true for derivations that have obligatory plural subject inflection: do- and de- are only translated as they, although they can also signal first person
plural inclusive we. As for the roots in the right column on the page, no class membership for verbal roots is indicated.
As a final point, possible further derivations on the basis of the derivation under discussion are provided. If such further derivations are
impossible, this is stated explicitly. If nothing is said concerning further derivation, the available information does not warrant a definitive statement.
Finally a word about the order of affixes within derived words. I am not able to provide a full schema of the various ordering possibilities, for the
simple reason that such a huge project checking all the combinatory possibilities of some fifty derivational affixes was beyond the scope of the
present study. A further difficulty lies in the fact that certain affixes can occur in different orders with corresponding different meanings. Moreover, the
fact that a precedes b and b precedes c does not necessarily imply that a precedes c. Certain sub-orders seem to exist. Finally, a table of affixes must
also specify which combinations do not occur or are extremely marked. At this point there is not enough information available. Hence a full account of affix
combinations cannot be given, although certain patterns can be culled from the further derivations.
10.1. Affixation: summary
