Tuesday, December 23, 2014

Tatediem: Verbs as Adverbial Attributes

Tatediem verbs can form a kind of adverbial by simply taking the object/adjective that is congruent with the subject of the participle-adverb. These verbs cannot take objects with any congruence marking - an object will be directly after the adverbial verb, and will not be preceded by any affixes.

ne-hus-ðéspa Marwuq  e-yurme Dasti
3sg.m-silently-walk Marwuq 3sg.m(obj)-sleep Dasti. 
Marwuq walks silently, Dasti sleeping. (Here, a 'because' would be inferred.)
These verbal adverbs often relate causes, things going on simultaneously or in relation to the main verb, things resulting from the main verb, or even contrasting to the main verb. Whether the main verb or the adverb is the main semantic content can vary - a fronted adverb of this kind generally is the most important verb from a semantic point of view, pragmatically speaking.
ko e-sekarm Karum, ne-sekarm Siŋun.
Karum not guarding, Siŋun guards.
(Depending on context, this could be parsed as 'why can't Karum guard, when Siŋun does his duty as a guard?', or 'Karum sucks at guarding, pick Siŋun for guard duty instead', or 'It isn't Karum guarding right now, it's Siŋun'. The last alternative is maybe the least likely one, as this is a somewhat marked construction - the quite neutral statement would simply coordinate the statements that Karum does not guard, but Siŋun does so.)


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