Table 2.12. Olo demonstratives prefix
gendernumber demonstrative
l- m
-epei near
t- md
-epe mid
n- f
-iye distant
m- fd
-inei spatial question
p- pl
Previous referent Olo has a special modifier that is used to specify a previous referent, elpesi ‘previous’. The word is
used to refer to participants in the discourse who recur, but for whom the listener may not be able to make an immediate connection, or might think a new referent is being introduced. The word is also
used as a general adjective for certain previously built items. It does not occur often in either stories or conversation. Examples of both uses are given in 66a and 66b.
66 a. le
nele l-epe
le l-ingo-wo
malfingo fei
metine elpesi
and one.m m-this he
3m-follow-3m trail
now man
PRV
And the other one he followed the trail which now the same man woso
l-inu l-anpo
nafle n-epe
l-au-ye
SBD
3m-before 3m-shoot.3f
bird f-this
3m-come-
EMP
who before shot the bird came to. b. pe
p-alowi p-inge
tisi elpesi
kolo they
3p-cut 3p-follow
road
PRV NEG
They are not cutting the road along the old road.
2.3.2.7 Adverbs
Olo has a few adverbs. Included among those are words which describe the speed or manner of the event. Examples are frou ‘quickly’ and malye ‘slow, easy, without force’. Adverbs occur immediately
before the verb or immediately following it. While this class is called adverbs, it needs to be clearly stated that while they have some characteristics in common with English adverbs, they cannot be
thought of as identical.
67 ye
telpalo Ø
-untuluw-epe ara
pe-iki you.
SG
carefully 2s-look.after-3p
money
PL
-1s You carefully looked after my money.
2.3.2.8 Prepositions and subordinators
There are two prepositions in Olo: ite ‘of’ and iti associated ‘with’. The first -ite is used for kinship re- lations 68a, ownership 68b, and depiction 68c. The form has two possible prefixes, l- ‘third-per-
son masculine’ and p- ‘non-masculine-singular’. 68 a.
wau p-ite
Kowi grandmother
nms-of Kowi
grandmother of Kowi
2.3 Grammatical Characterization 25
b. tom l-ite
Marieta string.bag
3m-of Marieta
the string bag of Marieta c.
ki k-ini-epe
il p-ite
lulem le-iki
I 1s-tell-3p
talk nms-of nephew 3m-1s
I tell the story of my nephew. The second preposition is used for material composition, and associated use.
69 a. pora
l-iti wom
basket 3m-
ASS
coconut basket made from coconut fronds
b. lom p-iti
liom fence
nms-
ASS
garden the fence for the garden.
The same morpheme is also used to introduce subordinate clauses. If this subordinator is used it means a habitual characteristic.
70 mete
p-iti p-eila
p-otei men
nms-
ASS
3p-lift 3p-self
men who lift themselves men who praise themselves
The other subordinator, wuso, does not have the habitual sense, but is used for attributions, or iden- tifications with single events.
71 a. mete wuso
lipi lepe
p-e men who
big these
3p-go The men who were big go.
b. metine wuso
l-esi-ene nafle
n-epe l-au
man who
3m-heldflew-3f birdplane
f-this 3m-come
The man who flew this plane came. When a superlative oli is suffixed onto wuso to form wusoli, the clause it introduces becomes the rea-
son of a reasonresult pair. 72
ki tur-iki,
wusoli ki
k-ulu-wo tutu.
I afraid-1s
because I
1s-see-3m snake
I was afraid because I saw a snake.
2.3.2.9 Conjunctions and discourse particles