Lahu postnominal clausal particles

49 ʔmìqvẃ tjhə̀ má dí má tjàq mà ìq son-in-law one CLF OBJ TOP feed not abide ‘They couldn’t abide feeding the son-in-law.’ 50 ʔnə́ bɛ̀ átsá pí ha thíà you TOP what do continuing EMPH ‘But what are you doing?’ Björverud 1998:144

2.3.4 Nuosu noun particles

2.3.4.1 Subject Nuosu has two interchangeable subjectnominative case-marking particles a third is literary. It is often the only marker used to distinguish agent-patient relationships. 2.3.4.2 Object Nuosu also has two object dativeaccusative case-marking particles for animate objects, which are only used with a small number of verbs Fu 1997:196: • tell • ask • give • present • borrow • exchange • protect 2.3.4.3 Vocative Nuosu also has a vocative particle, 3 a Fu 1997:93, 194. For more on case usage, see section 2.5. 2.4 Postnominal clausal particles 2.4.1 Bisu postnominal clausal particles Several of the Bisu noun particles described in section 2.3.1 fill the same semantic roles as the postnominal clausal particles described in Lahu section 2.4.2 . These Bisu noun particles, however, seem restricted in their syntax to phrasal modifiers and not clausal modifiers. One example of the semantic overlap between the two languages is the Bisu particle used for “informal minimizing ‘onlyjust N ’,” in 2.3.1.4, example 36. This corresponds semantically to the Lahu postnominal clausal particle used in indicate “minimizing ‘justsimply’ ” as described below in section 2.4.2 point 2, particle 3.

2.4.2 Lahu postnominal clausal particles

Some clausal particles can occur after both NP s and VP s and other particles and certain adverbials. This flexibility is reflected in Matisoff’s term, “unrestricted” particles 1973:45. In Lahu there are three kinds of postnominal clausal particles: • “final unrestricted particles,” which occur only after a final NP necessarily in a sentence without a verb or after a final VP • “nonfinal unrestricted particles,” which occur only after a nonfinal NP or a nonfinal VP in a compound sentence • “universal unrestricted particles,” which occur after either final or nonfinal phrases and are always ordered before the other two types of “unrestricted particles” Matisoff 1973:46, 168–169 2.4.2.1 Universal unrestricted particles Several universal unrestricted particles may follow a noun, and their ordering is fixed: 1. Temporal ‘when’ N 2. Extentive ‘as much as’ N 3. Minimizing ‘justsimply’ N 4. Either causal ‘because it’s an’ N or assertive ‘this very’ N One postnominal particle that can also occur after an NP falls outside of these considerations. It is the genetivizing particle similar to possessive apostrophe -s in English, called “the most important of all universal unrestricted particles” Matisoff 1973:173, which is unique in also occurring between NP s in genitive constructions. 2.4.2.2 Nonfinal unrestricted particles Several nonfinal unrestricted particles may potentially follow nonfinal nouns and any associated universal unrestricted particles in a prescribed order: 1. Topic-contrasting ‘as for’ N or weaker topic clarifying N ‘now’ 2. Stronger topic-clarifying N ‘now’ or weakest topic-clarifyingspace-filling ‘well’ N , or ‘alsoeven’ N one of two with the same meaning, or colloquial ‘even’ N , or suspensive coordinating ‘and’ N 3. Only after colloquial ‘even’ N , the second-position ‘alsoeven’ N may follow in third position 2.4.2.3 Possible sequences of universal and nonfinal unrestricted particles Table 4. Possible sequences of Lahu universal and nonfinal unrestricted particles Matisoff 1973:181 Universal nonrestricted particles Nonfinal unrestricted particles Temporal ‘when’ N Extentive ‘as much as’ N Minimizing ‘justsimply’ N Causal ‘because it’s an’ N or Assertive ‘this very’ N Topic- contrasting ‘as for’ N Stronger topic-clarifying: N ‘now’ or weakest topic-clarifying N space-filling ‘well’ N ‘alsoeven’ N either of 2 colloquial ‘even’ N ‘alsoeven’ N either of 2 Weaker topic-clarifying: N ‘now’ Suspensive coordinating ‘and’ “Sequences of more than three unrestricted particles within a single NP are rare.” Matisoff 1973:180 Example of a relatively large number of particles: 51 K ɔ́lɔ́ cɛ tí t ɛ̀ qo ɔ̄ te mâ p ə̀ Thai as much as only just because it’s as for well domake not finish tù h ɛ́ will FUT maybe dubative ‘If it’s really only the Thai doing it, they’ll probably never get it finished.’ Matisoff 1973:181

2.4.3 Lalo postnominal clausal particles