b. To sikalho,
miaka wa-lhyka
no. the
sugarcane yesterday
we-cut it
‘Concerning the sugarcane, yesterday we cut it.’ Unlike the phrases in COMP, the phrases in the TOPIC position always seem to be old,
given, or presupposed information, and they in some sense set the stage for the following information. They set forth what the sentence will be about.
3.2.1.3 Event Sentence Structure
Taking the preceding discussion of the COMP and TOPIC positions into account and ignoring, for the moment, the internal structure of the core of the sentence, the structure of the sentence including
the TOPIC and COMP positions might be something like that found in Figure 14. This structure per- haps needs to be modified somewhat to account for the “dummy verb” sentences discussed below.
[XP [COMP
[S] ]
] S
Sø S
Figure 14. Sentence Structure with TOPIC and COMP
3.2.2 Dummy Verb Sentences
In addition to event sentences like those discussed above which have an SVO structure, Arawak has others which, at first glance, seem to have a different structure and which con-
tain a semantically empty dummy verb. 160 a. Abare
l-a simaka-n,
li d-aithi.
suddenly he-dummy
shout-SUB the
my-son ‘Suddenly, he, my son, shouted.’
b. M-osy-n b-a
forto-nro ?. PRIV-go-SUB
you-dummy town-toward
‘Aren’t you going to town?’ or ‘You aren’t going to town.’ These sentences are, semantically, event sentences in that they describe events or pro-
cesses. Like other event sentences, their main verb the dummy verb can receive the tenseaspect suffixes normally found on event verbs.
161 Basadare l-a-bo
kona-n forto-nro.
slowly he-dummy-CONT
walk-SUB town-toward
‘Slowly he walked to town.’ Dummy verb sentences have a consistent surface structure see Figure 15. The first part of
such sentences consists of a manner adverbial or a subordinate event verb which usually has the privative or negative prefix ma-.
23
The second part is the main verb of the clause. It is a 3.2 Sentence Structure
67
23
Although I have no examples of spontaneous occurrences of a dummy verb sentence starting with a non-negative verb, when questioned some speakers do accept a sentence like the following as grammatical:
?Osy-n l-a-bo
forto-nro ?
?go-SUB he-dummy-CONT
town-toward ?‘Is he on his way to town?’
single word which consists of a morphologically bound subject pronoun, a meaningless morpheme a,
24
and optional event verb suffixes see Section 2.4.1.3 for suffixes. Following the dummy verb are subordinate verbs, complements, and other constituents.
manner adverb dummy.verb
verb+SUB …
PRIV+verb+SUB dummy.verb
… Figure 15. Surface Constituent Order in Dummy Verb Sentences
162 Ma-siki-n
l-a iniabo
by-myn ?. PRIV-give-SUB
he-dummy water
you-to ‘Didn’t he give water to you?’ or ‘He didn’t give water to you.’
3.2.2.1 The result of fronting
There are a number of factors that make it look as if dummy verb sentences are, in some sense, derived from previously discussed event sentences. That is, dummy verb sen-
tences are probably best analyzed as event sentences with fronted manner adverbials or fronted negated verbs, and when such elements are fronted, the dummy verb a appears.
One of the factors that leads one to this conclusion is that the discourse contexts in which these sentences are used are similar to those in which elements such as direct objects are
moved to the position labeled ‘COMP’ in other event sentences. As mentioned previously when discussing event sentences 3.2.1.1, fronting to the COMP position seems to highlight new in-
formation. The contexts in which one finds dummy verb sentences are compatible with this notion. Furthermore, as in other sentences where a constituent is fronted to the COMP posi-
tion, the fronted element in dummy verb sentences receives the center of intonation for the sentence. For example, dummy verb sentences starting with negative verbs tend to occur as
questions
25
or as answers to questions. When used in this way, it is the negated verb which is being questioned or affirmed, or, perhaps, the negation itself is being emphasized.
163 a. Ma-siki-n th-a
hime by-myn
tanoho? PRIV-give-SUB
she-dummy fish
you-to today
‘Didn’t she give you any fish today?’ 68
Noun Phrase and Sentence Syntax
No firm conclusion has been reached to explain why negation should be related to the appearance of the dummy verb and the fronting of the main verb. I can only mention in this connection that languages like English also do
unusual things with sentences when they are negated, and that, in the case of English, these things involve ‘do support’ in both statements and questions.
John walks to town. John does not walk to town.
John not walks to town? Doesn’t John walk to town?
24
Like most other event verbs, the dummy verb has a basic-stem form and an a-stem form see Section 2.4.1.1 on verb stem forms. Almost all contexts in which the dummy verb occurs are ones where the morphological
difference between the two is not manifested, and therefore a is used see Section 2.4.1.1.1 on basic and a-stem forms. However, the basic-stem form, -o-, does show up with the future suffix -fa as in:
Ma-mykydy-n-i-ma l-o-fa
to ibihi?
PRIV-swallow-SUB-EPEN-HABIL he-dummy-FUT
the medicine
‘Won’t he be able to swallow the medicine?’
242424
25
As is the case for other sentences, rising sentence-final intonation changes a statement into a yes-no question.
