A Grammar of Miya - UCLA Department of Linguistics

224 A Grammar of Miya
marking new referent topics (all from texts), it is restricted almost entirely to either temporal
phrases, as in (38-39), or to pseudo-cleft-like constructions beginning ham ba ... 'the
thing that ... ', as in (40). I found no examples of new referent concrete nouns marked this
way as topics. Note that although the temporal and pseudo-cleft-like topics usually Contain
relative clauses, it is not the presence of the relative clause itself which conditions the
presence of kd-non-topicalized NP's containing relative clauses usually do not have a
phrase final kd (lO:§5.2).
(36) Aa 'iyka, harn ba na d-aa cfgma niy baahg 11 njg maah, ka, nj-aa bna dlgrkiy.
'Thereupon, what the family will do [is that] she the mother, she will buy a chicken.'
(37) wiy lookaciy ka a rgma rgma bahiy kidi
'sometimes [the locusts] will eat [the crops] up to three [times]'
(38) mukwa na d-aa saa tal ka, dg cfgma sadab
'the day that one will drink beer,12 one will make a sacrifice'
(39) Lookaciy ba aanduw a zaa suw yaayee ka, dg kiy-uwsg aa niy azgk-uwsg.
'At the time that one says [a child] has reached weaning, his uncles take him.'
(40) Ham ba zay d-aa ,[,ma wanka ka, sabooda niywiy t1gn aa mugunta.
'The thing that causes that they do that, [it's] because some [people] have evil ways.'
The topic marking function of kd has been extended beyond noun phrases to various
adverbial clause types, particularly conditional (14:§2.1.1), 'before' clauses (14:§4), and
a few others.
2.2. kiJnlkin. The proximal demonstrative ndbn 'this one' (§3.2.1), the locative 'lyMn
'here' (8:§6.3), and the pro-manner adverbial wdnbn 'thus' (11:§1.10). end in a
formative bn. The low tone form of bn used independently occurs only as part of
proximal presentative sentences (see 11:§1.1O for examples). The distribution of the high
tone kin is also restricted. In all but two of the examples I have found, high tone kin is a
topic marker on a noun phrase introduced by a proximal demonstrative. In this topic
marking usage, kd and kin are in complementary distribution: in addition to the broader
topic marking function of kd described in §2.1.2. if a topicalized NP is modified by a distal
demonstrative ending in -kd, the topic marker will be kd (see (50, 51, 53) below for
examples), whereas a topicalized NP containing a demonstrative ending in -kin will be
marked with kin, as in (41).
UNote that the phrase ham ba " .. 'the thing that ... ', which functions in the pseudo-cleft (12:§4)
construction, is not marked by kd, whereas it is in (40) below. This appears to be a stylistic choice on the
part of the narrator, not something dictated by grammar or discourse structure,
12The text mentions beer earlier. Tit! 'beer' in this phrase is thus ambiguous between "the (previously
mentioned) beer" and "(generic) beer" (cf. en. 6). On the interpretation "the (PM) beer", kd would be vague
between functioning as a topic marker for the full temporal phrase or as a detenniner on tal because of the
TWO kd CONSTRAINT discussed above.
9. Reference, Definiteness, Universality, and Reflexivity (§3)
(41) nabn biy k.n, a kamaata miy buwaa-ma ndyaan ... miy jiy dacfa bahiy aatu
'this water, we should all go ... and dig out [the waterhole] some more'
The only two examples I have found where kim is not functioning as a topic marker of a
X-kiln modified phrase are given in (42) and (43). In the first, where kin appears together
with nind 'today', there is no proximal demonstrative, but this word is semantically (and
perhaps even morphologically) akin to the proximals. Example (43), which is unique in
my materials in that kin is not used in conjunction with any other deictic word, is vague
between whether kin is a topic marker (cf. §2.1.2) for an entire phrase or a previous
reference deictic for the word tilly 'inselberg', which has been previously introduced.
(42) Too nema bn njg rna s(aa) aabiy cfgh-uw.
'Well today indeed she will not drink water out of it.'
(43) Saa'i naka ac.8. tiay kan, waatoo ndyaan dgnanoo kurmi kawai.
'At that time at the base of the inselberg, well it was all trees [it was] only forest.'
2.3. wdna. One speaker, from whom I have only a recorded text but no elicited data,
used a word wana several times. This word is always phrase final in a noun phrase with a
previously mentioned referent, suggesting that it functions like kd as described in §2.1.1,
though in one case, (46). it co-occurs with kd. It is never used with a topicalized noun
phrase.
(44) dg kiya 'azurja wana dg z(a) aataa kgn-was-ay
'he took the silver [ring] and put it on his hand'
(45) miy ggm suw 'gnaa Mamman wana-y
'we met up with that Mamman'
(46) cfg cfgnga wun wana ka duw ...
'she said to that girl that ... '
3. Demonstratives
The demonstratives may be either pronouns or nominal modifiers. As modifiers, they
are initial in the noun phrase with a few exceptions which appear to be fixed phrases. See
10:§2.2 for further discussion of noun phrase syntax with demonstratives.
3.1. ndka (m), tdka (f), niyka (pI)
3.1.1. ndka, etc. as distal demonstratives. The demonstratives ending in -ka are
the distal demonstratives. This function corre1ates with the use of phrase final kd in
presentative sentences (11:§4.7) pointing out distant objects as well as the final -kti in ',ykti
'there'. See lO:§2.2 for examples of the distal demonstrative function.
3.1.2. nti ka, etc. as meaning "previously mentioned". The demonstratives
ending in -kd may indicate previous reference. Here, their function seems to overlap with
225