Imparting new information Clitics

luk joŋma matɕu khajet di ɖo-ken bet. TE13 sheep other flock plural DEF go-NMLZ;CONJ AUX ‘Actually only if the leader sheep goes, the other sheep, the whole flock, will go.’ It is the non-finite conditional clause that is modified by =raŋ. The enclitic =raŋ co-occurs often with the counter-expectation particle ka. This clitic makes the conditional clause here highlighted, meaning ‘only if…’. 10.5 hi-ko khit- raŋ-ki=raŋ ha khoo-soŋ. this-head 2PL-self-ERG=FOC aud.impact hear-PST.VIS ‘You yourselves personally heard this.’ Speaker claims that his hearers had just heard something directly from another speaker, no middle men, no rumour, no messenger. The following formula shows that the contrastive focus clitic is typically the last element of a NP: NP FOC QUANT DEF Case FOC

10.1.2 Imparting new information

One of the ways Lhomi marks the new information is to attach the enclitic =o NEW.INF to the finite verb or its auxiliary. The scope of this clitic is the whole clause; therefore, I do not treat it as a verbal suffix. Speaker imparts new information to hearer about an event or state of affairs about which the hearer is either ignorant or has wrong information, or which he has forgotten or has not paid attention to. Speaker assumes that the hearer does not know and he marks his statement accordingly. The information flow is from speaker to hearer or from writer to reader. I treat this grammatical feature in this section because the grammatical meaning of this enclitic seems to fit better with what the other particles and enclitics with the finite verb do. This marker combines with verbs of all types, also with negated clauses. Often the appropriate gloss in English is “I inform youhim, or I tell you.” This enclitic signals also that the speaker has just been informed about the state of affairs. The following examples illustrate the use of this enclitic. 10 .6 ŋ-e tɕalak u-ko gam-na jøt=o. 1SG-GEN thing that-head trunk-IN EXIST.EXP=NEW.INF ‘I just want to tell you that the thing of mine is in the trunk.’ Speaker is writing to his brother who is in the village. He wants his brother to send him something and he informs him where it can be found. He assumes that his brother does not know it or may have forgotten. 10.7 aku ʈhillen hi-tu jampu-na lit-tɕuŋ=o. uncle Thillen this-LOC Kathmandu-IN arrive-PST.EXP=NEW.INF ‘I inform you that uncle Thillen came here, in Kathmandu.’ Speaker is writing a letter to his brother and assumes that his brother cannot possibly know about uncle Thillen’s coming to Kathmandu. 10.8 u-ki ki- i hek joŋ=o. that-GEN dog-ERG bite intend=NEW.INF ‘I inform you that the dog is going to bite.’ Speaker knows that the dog bites. He also knows that the hearer is ignorant of it. He warns him. 10.9 roo-ki mit-lok si-kuk=o. 3SG-ERG NEG-go.back say-PROG;VIS=NEW.INF ‘I inform you that he says, “I do not return home.”’ Writer of the letter tells his father, the recipient of the letter, that his son is not going to return home. He uses quotative. Writer knows that father’s assumption is that the boy will soon return back home. 10 .10 ha aliŋ-ki le-tɕʏ ʈhup-soŋ=o. TE9 now corn-GEN work-information end-PST.VIS=NEW.INF ‘My information about the work of corn has now finished.’ This is from a story where a farmer tells about different kinds of fieldwork throughout a year. Speaker assumes that the hearer, being a foreigner, knows nothing about this particular work. New information clitic never combines with questions and is always the last morpheme of a finite verb. The following formula describes its use: NEG- V AUX AUX=o

10.1.3 Speaker’s embarassment and frustration