A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE ...

involving isa above, these conclusory expressions employed the use of mii-clauses as
well. For the Kegg collection (Kegg 1991), there were only three such occurrences.
These closing expressions are given below.
(75) Closing mii-phrases without isa
a) Mii i’iw. (lit. ‘that is it’, but idiomatically to end a discourse)
that it
‘That’s it’
b) Mii eta go imaa minik gezikwendamaan.
that only EMPH there amount what I remember
‘And that’s all I remember of that.’
c) Miish eta imaa minik gekendamaan.
and that only there amount what I remember
‘That’s all I remember.’
While explicit propositional content may form the basis of a closing, mystery particle isa
shows that it may carry much of the burden that a purely propositional expression may
have. With the exception of the idimatic expression in (75a), the amount of burden
carried by isa is evident, for without it (at least for these examples), more propositional
content appears in order to do the work of concluding, or giving up the floor.
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