b. D-eikasia to
onikhan ama
l-anda ›
amyn. I-forget
the creek
what he-arrive
› atby
‘I have forgotten the creek which he arrived at.’ c. D-eikasia
to onikhan
alon l-anda
› amyn.
I-forget the
creek where
he-arrive ›
atby ‘I have forgotten the creek where he arrived at.’
Perhaps what is of concern is how closely a postpositional phrase is associated with the verb. Arawak appears to only allow stranding of the postposition of the postpositional
phrase most closely tied to the verb—the indirect object postposition myn. One piece of ev- idence in Arawak that the indirect object is more closely tied to the verb is that Arawak
verbs of motion subcategorize for, but do not absolutely require, the presence of a locative postpositional phrase. The subcategorization of the verb seems to be stronger for the indi-
rect object than for a locative phrase. For example, sentences such as
223 a. L-osa. he-go
‘He wentleft.’ b. L-anda.
he-arrive ‘He arrived.’
without locative phrases are acceptable even without a discourse context.
8
Verbs like sikin ‘to give’, on the other hand, can omit mention of their indirect object only if the previous
discourse context makes it perfectly clear who the recipient indirect object is. Thus, the sentence
224 Li-sika
athaha. he-give
alcoholic.drink ‘He gave drink.’
is acceptable only in a context such as one where it is preceded by a question like: 225
Ama li-sika na-myn?
what he-give them-to ‘What did he give to them?’
One other related possibility for explaining the acceptability of stranding the indirect ob- ject postposition, but not locative ones within the VP, is to consider exactly what is being
subcategorized for by the verb. Motion verbs subcategorize for an entire locative phrase, postposition and all. The specific locative information given by the postposition is crucial
to the meaning of the clause. In the case of ditransitive verbs, however, the indirect object postposition seems to add nothing to the meaning of the sentence. It is only the object of
that postposition which is important.
Perhaps one way to represent these facts syntactically is to propose that the indirect ob- ject NP is a semantic complement of the ditransitive verb and therefore directly governed
94 Relative Clauses
8
However, semantically, a very generic locative notion like ‘here’ or ‘there’ is still present.
by it—in spite of the presence of the postposition myn. For motion verbs, on the other hand, it is the entire postpositional phrase which is the complement, and the verb governs
that entire phrase.
9
4.4.4.2 Strategies to avoid postposition stranding
Arawak has at its disposal several strategies that can be employed to avoid stranding of postpositions. One of these strategies seems equivalent to what, in English, has been called
“Pied Piping” Ross 1967. That is, instead of stranding the postposition, the whole postpositional phrase can be fronted to the LSAP position of a clause. In all such cases in
Arawak, the relative pronoun representing the object of the postposition e.g. ama ‘what’, alikan
‘who’, alon ‘where’ must be used and is found in the normal position for that object, i.e. immediately preceding the postposition.
226 a. Adiakema siokon
to hala
[[ama diako] Jan
balyta ›].
very small
isthe bench [[what on] John
sit ›]
‘The bench on which John sat was very small.’ b. To
kodo [[ama
loko] th-othika
to polata
›], kawa-ka.
the gourd [[what
in] she-find
the money
›] absent-indicative
‘The gourd in which she had found the money iswas gone.’ c. B-itha
na wadili-be
[[alikan oma]
wa-diadiadyn ›]?
you-know the
man-PL [[who
with] we-chat ›]
‘Do you know the men we were chatting with?’ Pied Piping can also occur with indirect object postpositional phrases, even though the
indirect object postposition myn can be stranded see discussion in 4.4.4.1. 227
To hiaro [alikan myn li-sika ly-polatania ›], kia
to ly-dike-fary-koana. the female [who to
he-give his-money ›] that.one is his-footprint-kill-thing
‘Concerning the woman to whom he gave his money, that is his wife one who wipes out footprints perhaps so spell can’t be cast on husband.’
Another strategy for not stranding a postposition is to turn the postpositional phrase into a stative verb phrase. As mentioned previously,
10
postpositions may be used as stative verbs. This kind of verb can be used as the main verb of a two-argument stative clause. The object of
this stative clause can then be relativized in much the same way as the direct object of a transi- tive event clause—basically, by moving it and adding the suffix -sia ‘WH.OBJ’ to the verb. The
4.4 Constituents Accessible to Relativization 95
9
Thus one finds locative words which are equivalent to whole locative phrases, for example: L-osa
malhikhotoa-sikoa ninro.
he-go learn-house
to ‘He went to school.’
L-osa jon.
he-go there
‘He went there.
10
See Section 2.4.2.2 on derived stative verbs and Section 3.2.3.2 on stative clause structure.
relevant relative pronoun ama ‘what’, alon ‘where’, or alikan ‘who’ must appear in the LSAP position of this relative clause unless other adjustments are made to the clause see below.
228 a. Jan balyta to
hala diako.
John sit the
bench on
‘John sat on the bench.’ b. To
hala [ama
diako-sia Jan
balyty-n]... the
bench [what on-WH.OBJ John
sit-SUB] ‘The bench on which John is sitting...’
229 a. Li wadili jolhida
koba to
sikoa lokhodi.
the man
smoke.tobacco PAST
the house
in ‘The man smoked in the house.’
b. To sikoa
[ama lokhodi-sia
koba li
wadili jolhida-n]...
The house [what in-WH.OBJ
PAST the man
smoke-SUB] ‘The house in which the man smoked ...’
It is possible to omit the relative pronoun in the LSAP position of the above relative clauses only if one adds a ka- ‘ATTR’ or ma- ‘PRIV’ prefix
11
to the verb, i.e. the verb formed from the postposition. Significantly, no such requirement holds for relative pronoun omis-
sion in the case of non-derived stative clauses. 230 a. To
hala [ka-diako-sia
Jan balyty-n]...
the bench [ATTR-on-WH.OBJ
John sit-SUB]
‘The bench on which John is sitting...’ b. To
kodo [ka-loko-sia
to kasiri]...
the gourd [ATTR-in-WH.OBJ
the cassava.beer]
‘The gourd the cassava beer is in ...’ c. To
kodo [ma-loko-sia
to kasiri]...
the gourd [PRIV-in-WH.OBJ
the cassava.beer]
‘The gourd the cassava beer is not in ...’ Why this ka- or ma- is required in the above clauses when the relative pronoun is omitted
and what it is syntactically is a bit of a puzzle. 96
Relative Clauses
11
These prefixes are labeled attributive and privative because they appear to be similar in function to the ka- and ma- which can be used to derive an attributive or privative stative verb from many nouns. In the case of
stative verbs derived from nouns, they signal that the subject of the clause is in the affirmative or negative state of having or possessing whatever the prefix ka- or ma- is attached to. See Section 2.4.2.2 on derived stative verbs.
For example,
Ka-sikoa-ka-i. ATTR-house-INDIC-he
‘He is with house i.e. he is in the state of having a house.’
Ma-sikoa-ka-i. PRIV-house-INDIC-he
‘He is not with house i.e. he is in the state of not having a house.
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