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2.3.3.2 Sentences with overt verbs
Marshallese has stative and non-stative verbs. These two types of verbs seem to behave
in very similar ways, and so far I have not uncovered any syntactic differences between
the behaviors of these two types of verbs. Both may take verbal suffixes and prefixes and
occur with the subject agreement clitic.
(28), repeated here as (182) shows that basic word order of Marshallese sentences
with overt verbs appears to be Subject Verb Object. However the situation is much more
complicated and will be discussed great detail in Chapter 3 and Chapter 4.
(182) Herman e-lukkuun kōnaan men in mour.
Herman 3s.agr-really love thing of life
'Herman really loves animals.'
2.3.4 CP level syntax
This section discusses complementation and questions, both direct and indirect.
2.3.4.1 Complementation
As with many other Micronesian languages, Marshallese has two non-relative clause
complementizers corresponding to English that: ke and bwe. 15 Oda (1976) states that the
selection of a Micronesian complementizer is often based on the speaker's presupposition
as to the truth-value of the embedded sentence, meaning that, in Marshallese, if the
speaker is uncertain as to truth value of the embedded clause, bwe is used; on the other
hand, ke is used when the speaker knows the embedded clause to be true, as is illustrated
by sentence (183).
15 Other Micronesian complementizers include the Kosraean- lah and muh; the Pulo Annanese- na and
bwa; and the Ulithian- la and bo.
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