Conjoint verbs in argument focus

In another example from 09 Ákalimanya below, there is a very unusual sentence in Makonde where we have S V S 1 . The first subject in default position is munu aju ‘this person’, and the postposed marked subject is mwene ‘he-himself’. Without mwene, S 1 , this would be a topic-comment sentence: ‘…this man will go one of these days’. But it is already discourse-established information that the protagonist Ákalimanya will have to leave the village. The question is whether he needs to be thrown out or not, so the elders respond, “no,” leave him alone, “He will go one of these days ‘he himself’,” i.e., of his own accord. 09 Ákalimanya 37a. Vanangolo kupakanila Old.ones agreed.together 37b. kushidoni said. thus, 37c. mene nneke “no, leave.him 37d. ila munu aju andauka mwene S repeat liduva linji lyo only person this he.will.leave he.himself day other that But the elders got together and said, “No, leave him alone; one of these days he’ll decide to go of his own accord…

6.3.2 Conjoint verbs in argument focus

Conjoint verbs are a linguistic feature of the P group of Bantu languages; Makonde is P23. Conjoint verb forms are shortened forms of the verb forming a single phonological unit with a following constituent: the semantic value of the verb is downgraded while the following constituent, either an object or an adverb, is given extra prominence. 46 By using a conjoint verb, the verb is excluded from the focal domain. Conjoint verbs are commonly used in questions, giving focus to the sentence-final question word. In sentences, they often indicate argument focus, although they are also found in predicate focus sentences, where there is a focus peak or a dominant focal element. The example below is from the opening of the inciting episode in 03 Hyena and Pied Crow, where Pied Crow tells Hyena that they are vila ‘onlycontinuing’ friends. The verb twadana ‘we follow each other’ means ‘we are friends’. This is normally used without any pejorative meaning, as can be seen by comparing it with kwadana ‘to be friends’ in sentence 6 of the same text. Here, however, ‘we follow each other’ is the conjoint present verb twadana with the complement vila. The information that they are friends was established right in the first sentence of the text, and the focus is the addition of vila, which throws that information into doubt. That is, to say we’re ‘only’ friends in this way in Makonde is to ask, “Are we in fact friends at all?” 03 Hyena and Pied Crow argument focus construction with conjoint verb 2b. --- kumwaulila doni: told.him thus, 2c. Nyaa wako namu nangu twadana vila. “friend you with me we.follow.each.other only. …Pied Crow told his friend, “Listen, there’s a problem with us being friends, you and me.” 46 Leach, M.B. 2010, section 5.3 Conjoint vs disjoint structures, and van der Wal, J. 2009 p. 235. In the example from 08 Archbishop below, the conjoint structure is the past conjoint vaaleke ‘they came’ with its complement mundege ‘in an aeroplane’. The fact that they came is already established information, both from sentence 2, where it states Nangolo bispo …kwida akuno ‘the bishop came here’, and also in the tail-head construction starting this sentence, liduva lyavaleke ‘the day that they came’. So, what is being identified is how they came, which was in a plane—a very prestigious mode of transport— and one which led to the greeting procession which is so firmly squashed in the story. 08 Archbishop argument focus construction with conjoint verb 3a. Napanelo liduva lyavaleke vaaleke mundege vila So day that.they.came they.had.come in.aeroplane onlycontinuing 3b. mpaka ndagwilila mushiwanja akulá. until and.landed on.airstrip there. So they came by plane, and after a long journey landed over there on the airstrip. In clauses 30a–b of 09 Ákalimanya below, the villagers are complaining directly to the protagonist about his selfishness in keeping the elephant meat all for himself. The conjoint structure comes into the first part of the sentence with the conjoint anterior verb twimbile ‘we dug’ and its complement pamo ‘together’. This is all discourse-established information. Pamo ‘together’ is given prominence in order to contrast with what the protagonist is doing; that is, claiming all the meat as his own, which is similar to example 09 Ákalimanya 35a–b immediately above. In that case, however, a similar complaint—where villagers are speaking to each other—uses a post-posed subject rather than a conjoint verb. Also worthy of note is that in 30b below utenda is also a conjoint verb form, with davo as its complement. Since this paper is a description of narrative information structure, there is no formal analysis of the use of the conjoint in questions, but it is interesting to note that the conjoint is, in fact, very commonly used in questions, especially in short questions ending with a question word. 09 Ákalimanya argument focus construction with conjoint verb 30a. Ba da wetu S inembo ai lipondo O twimbile pamo Aa, question word] we elephant this hole we.dug together 30b. mwaa shani wako utenda davo? reason which you you.doing thus? “What Didn’t we dig the hole for this elephant? What are you behaving like this for?”

6.3.3 ‘Ni’ structures in argument focus