106 A GRAMMAR OF THE MUNA LANGUAGE
the examples given above amply show that o can occur in combination with other modifiers. Notice also the following example, where the first two nouns which
are unmodified take o, whereas the last two nouns, which are modified by a clipped participle see 5.9.2 and 10.2.28, do not:
185 tabea o podiu, o feili, lalo me-taa, but ART character ART disposition heart A.PART-good
lalo mo-asi heart A.PART-pity
[what counts] is character, disposition, a good and loving heart
5.6.4. Variation in usage
What was said in 5.6.1 and 5.6.2 is true for the speech of most people and is consistent with a fair number of texts. However, in a few texts, o is found
much more frequently than can be explained by the criteria set up above. The following sentences from such texts illustrate these cases:
186 o pikore ne-tudu o karambau na-[m]oroghu ART k.o.bird 3sR-admonish ART buffalo 3sI-drink
the bird admonished the buffalo to drink 187 no-foni dua o oe
the water also rose 3sR-rise also ART water
188 no-mate-mo ina-ndo o anahi-hi 3sR-die-PF mother-POS ART child-PLUR
the mother of the children died These examples show the use of o modifying a postverbal object 186, a post-
verbal subject 187 and a dependent noun after the possessive linker 188. When these sentences were checked with other informants, some of them reacted
against the use of o in these contexts. All these informants came from basi- cally one dialect area, although there were age differences.
In order to find out to what extent the usage of o was subject to individual preference, a random test was organized. Clauses from texts containing the
article in an unexpected place were transformed into an exercise for filling in o. Every NP was given a blank space before it in which informants could
indicate whether o was obligatory +, impossible -, or optional ±. The following syntactic positions were distinguished each position was
represented by at least three sentences; overall order was random: 1. preverbal Subject S;
2. preverbal Object O; 3. postverbal S intransitive verbs;
4. postverbal O; 5. postverbal S transitive verbs;
6. dependent nouns after the possessive linker; 7. nouns after a preposition.
Some of the results of this test a few clauses for four informants are as follows:
5 THE NOMINAL PHRASE 107
A B
C D
1. preverbal S: a. o karambau no-mente
the buffalo was amazed +
+ +
+ b. o oe no-sampu dua
the water also went down +
+ +
+ 2. preverbal O:
c. o karambau no-talo-e pikore the buffalo was defeated by the bird
+ +
+ +
3. postverbal S: d. no-foroghu-mo dua o pikore
the bird also drank -
± ±
± e. no-sampu kaawu o ure
when the low tide came -
± -
± 4. postverbal O:
f. no-salihi o karambau he admonished the buffalo
- -
± ±
g. ne-gholi-mo o pae she bought rice
- ±
± ±
h. de-fo-naando o rompu-ha they organized a meeting
- -
± ±
5. postverbal S transitive verbs: i. o karambau no-talo-e o pikore
the buffalo was defeated by the bird -
± ±
± 6. dependent noun:
j. amba-no o pikore the bird said
- -
- +
k. no-rato-mo kala-ha-no o kahepu then came the turn of the youngest
- ±
± ±
7. after preposition: l. we o wiwi-no kaghotia
at the sea shore -
- -
- The following observations can be made:
1. With all informants o is obligatorily present with preverbal nouns. 2. With all informants o is obligatorily absent after prepositions.
108 A GRAMMAR OF THE MUNA LANGUAGE
3. Informant A is a strict user of the article, only allowing for preverbal nouns; D on the other hand is a lax user, allowing the article in all
positions except before prepositions. 4. There is variation within positions 3, 4 and 6. This variation cannot be
accounted for by syntactic rules. To sum up our conclusions concerning the article, the following rules governing
the application of o can be stated: 1. NPs in certain positions require the article: single-word utterances,
enumerations, preverbal nouns. 2. The article cannot be combined with the possessive suffix in the same NP,
nor with an identifying demonstrative, a prenominal measure phrase or a quantifier.
3. There is much idiolectal variation in the application of o to other NP functions such as postverbal nouns and dependent nouns.
These observations point towards the fact that o signals relative syntactic freedom within the clause of the NP which it modifies. Single-word clauses and
enumerations are typical examples of free positions, and a preverbal subject is in intransitive clauses the marked position see 7.3. Postverbal nouns
are more bound in whatever sense to the governing verb or to the clause as a whole than preverbal nouns, at least in Muna, where the preverbal position is
reserved for special pragmatic marking. O in itself, however, does not have a pragmatic meaning, as is clear from the examples. But this binding theory
does not explain the co-occurrence restrictions with, for example, possessive suffixes.
Another problem is the variation that exists. Possibly the use of o is linked up with other features such as animacy or the intervention of adverbs between
the verb and the postverbal subject. Possibly, too, this variation is connected with speech tempo. One informant suggested that in slow, careful speech the use
of o is more appropriate with postverbal nouns than in normal speech. This points in the direction of intonational binding as an explaining mechanism. I
was not able to confirm this hypothesis by independent recordings. Clearly, this aspect of Muna grammar still needs much research.
5.6.5. The particle ndo
