Adverbial and Tense Particles, and Time Words

There are several tense particles in Arawak, in addition to the tenseaspect affixes men- tioned in the discussion of verb structure. These particles all establish times relative to the time of speaking; and therefore they seem to indicate absolute tense Comrie 1985. 60 114 bi ‘immediate past the last 6 hours or so’ bona ‘intermediate past two or three days ago’ koba ‘distant past years ago’ There are also a number of other time words available in the language. These, however seem to be more noun-like. 115 wakhili ‘ancient times time of forefathers’ abahan ‘once past or future’ wakharo ‘nowadays, at this moment’ ykha ‘now’ tano ‘today’ miaka ‘yesterday’ miakaboan ‘day before yesterday’ mothi ‘tomorrow’ motheboan ‘day after tomorrow’ The following example is the introductory sentence of a story, and illustrates the use of some of the above time words. 116 Abahan koba, wakharo sabo kho to, d-osa da-koba-n soka-nro. once dist.past, nowadays more not is, I-go my-planting.ground-POSS chop-toward ‘Once, a long time ago, I went to cut open my planting ground i.e. cut down the jungle trees to clear a field.’ 2.6 Functors 51 60 See also the discussion of tense and aspect in discourse Chapter 5.

Chapter 3 Noun Phrase and Sentence Syntax

3.1 Noun Phrase Structure

Noun phrases serve as the subject or object of a clause, as the object of a postpositional phrase, or as appositives. Their structure see Figure 12 consists of an optional determiner DET, an optional quantifier phrase QP, an optional possessor noun phrase NP or rela- tive clause Sø, a head noun N, and an optional relative clause Sø. 1 NP ® DET QP Sø N Sø NP Figure 12. Arawak Noun Phrase Structure Each of the constituents of the noun phrase is discussed in some detail below. The discus- sion on relative clauses here is limited to how they function as constituents of a noun phrase; fuller discussion of their internal structure is deferred to Chapter 4 which deals specifically with relative clauses.

3.1.1 The Determiner

The determiner DET of the noun phrase may be an article or a demonstrative adjective. Its presence seems to be obligatory when mentioning any referent already introduced into the dis- course. This means that for Arawak, determiners are even used with proper names. 117 a. li falhetho the white.man b. toho hiaro that woman 52 1 Arawak does not seem to allow noun phrase complements equivalent to English “a story about John.” Such concepts in Arawak are expressed by a relative clause based on a postposition used as stative verb for example: aba diahy li Jan khonan-tho one story the John be.about-WH.SUBJ ‘a story which is about John’ c. li Wim Bill

3.1.2 The Quantifier Phrase

A quantifier phrase QP may consist of a number or a phrase such as minkho johon ‘very many’. Only one quantifier phrase is allowed in a noun phrase. 118 a. to kabynthian kodibio the thirteen bird ‘the thirteen birds’ b. minkho johon kodibio-be very many bird-PL ‘very many birds’ A quantifier phrase rarely co-occurs with a determiner. When it does, the noun phrase containing it is in a topicalized, sentence-initial position before the subject of the main clause, or is a subject or object appositive following the nucleus of the sentence. In both of these cases, a determiner is obligatory. 119. To na-dykha-n to kabadaro, na-dalhida bahy-nro, to bian da-mathia-be. the they-see-SUB the jaguar they-run home-toward the two my-friend-PL ‘Concerning their seeing the jaguar, they ran home, both of my friends.’

3.1.3 Possessive Noun Phrases

A single embedded noun phrase can precede the head noun of a noun phrase. 2 120 a. to firobero yda the tapir skin ‘the tapir’s skin’ b. to falhetho bejokha the white.man musical.instrument ‘the white man’s instrument i.e. radio, record player, etc.’ As might be inferred from the ‘tapir skin’ example 120a, when a noun phrase occurs before the head of the noun phrase, it is understood as the possessor of the head noun. Only one such possessive noun phrase can modify the head noun. If more than one noun phrase occurs, each is understood as the possessor of the following one. 121 a. to de lhyky-koana the my cut-instrument ‘my scissors’ 3.1 Noun Phrase Structure 53 2 This embedded noun phrase may, however, be internally complex.