A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE ...

about, especially at ceremonial dances), the use of bina with aawaaw ‘go ahead’ shows
that their presupposed fear or hesitation was unfounded. My consultants suggest that the
following exchanges are common.
(107) Speaker A: Indaa-bi-nagam ina? (unsure of appropriateness)
can I come sing INTERR
Speaker B: Aawaaw bina!
go ahead DM
Speaker A: ‘Can I come sing?
Speaker B: Go ahead!’ (feeling: Yes, it’s okay, it’s no big deal.)
In (107), the particle aawaaw has the meaning ‘go ahead’ and is being used by the
speaker to respond to Speaker B’s question. Because bina strengthens the proposition
‘go ahead’ represented by aawaaw, the fear quashing attitude it’s no big deal can be
pragmatically inferred, and Speaker B’s hesitations about asking are relieved.
Mystery particle bina is also seen within declarative type expressions as well where
bina strengthens the propositional content of its containing utterance. This usage appears
to be less common than its occurrence with imperatives, but its function remains the
same, strengthening the illocutionary force of its containing proposition. The following
example shows the use of bina with the particle ahaw ‘okay, alright’, which is
commonly used to show receipt of information.
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