Word-class changes and double membership Conclusion

48 A GRAMMAR OF THE MUNA LANGUAGE

3.3.8. Conjunction

Conjunctions are a closed class of words whose function is to connect clauses and sentences, for example bhe and, while, rampahano because. Conjunctions are treated in the chapter on interclausal syntax, Chapter 9.

3.3.9. Particle

There are two monosyllabic words in Muna that do not fit into any of the above categories, the article o and the plural marker ndo. They share the feature of pre-nominal position, but otherwise differ markedly from each other. These particles are treated in 5.6 as part of the nominal phrase.

3.3.10. Interjection

Interjections form a closed class of words that are aberrant in their syntactic behaviour from other word classes in that they constitute single-word clauses. The following types of interjections can be distinguished: 1. emotive interjections, for example adede ouch expresses pain 2. interjections to call or chase away animals, for example sio call to chase away chickens 3. the word uumbe yes. For a fuller list of interjections see 7.12.2.

3.4. Word-class changes and double membership

In this section I want to mention several issues that are connected with word classes, without treating these issues in any detail. 1. There are regular processes by which words can change from one class to another, usually through the addition of morphological material. Rules describing morphological processes must therefore specify the input and output in terms of word classes, as is done in Chapter 10 on derivational morphology. Examples of word-class changes: a. ana child noun ko-ana have a childchildren verb see 10.2.21 b. tolu three numeral nae-tolu in three days verb see 5.7.2 c. rimba quick, fast verb feka-rimba fast manner adverb see 10.2.5 d. bheta sarong noun bheta wear a sarong verb see 10.5 2. Some words are members of more than one word class or seem to have a derived usage in another word class. Such words are best considered to have a basic word-class membership and a derived one through a process which is irregular and lexically determined. Examples: 3 WORDS AND WORD CLASSES 49 bhe 1. with preposition 2. and, while conjunction sigaa 1. part noun 2. sometimes adverb

3.5. Conclusion

A comparison of Muna and, for example, English shows that the category verb is often used in Muna where English has other word classes. This is not only true for the English category adjectives but also for such words as no-langka rarely, ne-nturu often, no-nea usually. Morphologically they are verbs because of the subject markers ne- and no-, but semantically they correspond to adverbs in English. To this category also belong words such as nae-tolu in three days, nae-fato in four days, verbs which are based on numerals. Another example is provided by manner adverbs marked by feka-, which are optionally inflected for subject see 7.10.3 and 10.2.5. Other words that can optionally receive subject inflection include conjunctions such as kansuru at once and the preposition peda like 6.2.4. Finally, it should be mentioned that the division into word classes is both necessary and meaningful for basic - that is, underived - words. With certain derived words problems arise, however. Participles, for example, retain some verbal features, acquire a number of nominal characteristics and have other unique properties. The following chart shows the spreading of some of these features over the basic categories of noun and verb and the active and passive participles: noun pass.part. act.part. verb 1. function as subject + + + - 2. basis of co-derivation + + - - 3. negator suano pata pata miina 4. person marking P P - S 5. modified by demonstrative + + + - or descriptive attribute Notes: 1. Verbal subjects parameter one do occur, but are very rare. 2. For ko-derivations, see 10.2.21. 3. For negators, see 8.5. 4. In the fourth parameter person marking P stands for possessive inflection 4.9, while S signifies subject inflection 4.1. Active participles are not marked for person. 5. For demonstratives see 5.5, for descriptive attributes 5.9.2. The conclusion must be that passive participles are very noun-like in their syntactic behaviour, more so than active participles. Both, however, have unique properties because of their special negator pata. Other derivations take up other intervening positions. The terms noun and verb should therefore be used with caution with respect to derived categories. In discussions of the participles the terms noun and verb will therefore be avoided. Chapter 4 Verbal inflection This chapter deals with verbal morphology, one of the most complex aspects of Muna grammar. More specifically, it is restricted to verbal inflection. First, subject inflection is discussed with its complexities, such as the three different paradigms for subject markers 4.3, 4.4, the influence of the irrealis mood on subject inflection 4.5 and the so-called definiteness shift 4.6. A first analysis of these topics is given in Van den Berg 1987. Direct and indirect object inflection are treated in 4.8. The chapter ends with a discussion of inflection in morphologically complex words 4.9.

4.1. Subject inflection