A Grammar of Miya - UCLA Department of Linguistics

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384 A Grammar af Miya 2.4. Couuterfactual and hypothetical conditionals: bd ... [kii]. Counterfactual and hypothetical conditionals are marked by clause initial bit, which behaves syntactically like td(n) (§2.1.2) in certain respects: (i) the TAM in a bit clause may be Perfective or Imperfective, affirmative or negative; (ii) pronominal subjects precede ba but nominal subjects are postverbal (as with other adverbial subordinate clauses, semantic subjects can be placed preclausally as topics-§ 1.2); (iii) clause final kd is present only when the clause is affirmative. ll The verb in the main clause has a suffix -iy. I have treated this as a distinct Counterfactual TAM marking of the verbal system (S:§2.1.4), glossed Cfin examples. All my examples of counterfactual sentences have this TAM in the main clause. I did not check to see whether other TAM's are possible in this environment. a 12 ba ba-thjn ka, • kiy-fy s-awihi taatlan-ay Pf if come-IeP PRM Cf come-Cf Tot-stuff their-Tot 'if they had come, they would have taken their stuff away' mgn ba zar-tlan ka, • buw-iy-tlan biy tsaga-tlgn-ay if call-them PRM Cf come-Cf-ICP Prt sit-Iep-Tot 'if I had called them, they would have come and sat down' b. zar-tlan aa Kasham ka, a buw-iy-tlan biy tsaga-tlgn-ay if call-them PS Kasham PRM Cf come-Cf-ICP Prt sit-Iep-Tot 'if Kasham had called them, they would have come and sat down' ba kir ba mar viy aa-gatab ka, daal3 a z-iy-ta s-ay one who theft if find door state-open PRM "cr' Cf enter-Cf-ICP Tot-Tot 'if the thief had found the door open, he would have entered' ba daw aa ghansa heevana ka, da. miy mar-iy mara zuw mbamban-na if fall P S God last year PRM "Cf' we get getting sorghum good-m 'if it had rained last year, we would have gotten good sorghum' ba na biy daw(a) aa ghansa hawiya muku ka, daa miy mar-fy mara zuw if Ipf Prt fall PS God this year PRM "cr' we get-Cf getting sorghum mbamban-na good-m 'if it were to rain this year, we would get good sorghum' 11 As an explanation for the absence of c1ause final kd in negative and concessive tarn) clauses, I suggest that the PRM kd would be inconsistent with non-events, i.e. negative clauses (cf. fn. 4), and the indefiniteness resulting from the implied alternative in concessives. Since the propositions in counterfactual and hypothetical clauses, by definition, express non-events, use of kd would thus seem inconsistent with any such clauses, affirmative or negative. However, sentences containing such clauses propose a hypothetical world, and in that world, the conditions expressed by an affirmative clause are "definite" in the sense used here. 12Note that the 3rd person Perfective auxiliary precedes the conjunction bd just as pronoun subjects do-ef. §1.1. 13 Daa in this and several examples below is a counterfactual marker borrowed from Hausa, which typically repeats the counterfactual marker at the beginning of both the conditional and main clauses. As other examples here show, this is not an obligatory part of the Miya construction, 14. Adverbial Clauses and Phrases (§3) bit oahgm ma tgmakwly niywasg, • ram-iy-an rgma zuw-ay if tie NEG sheep his Cf eat-Cf-to me eating sorghum-Tot 'if he had not tied up his sheep, they would have eaten up my sorghum' fa ba baruw-wam ma-w, da. mgn mb-iy m(a) aacan-nuwn-uw you if help-me NEG-NEG "Cf' I finish NEG work-roy-NEG 'if you had not helped me, I would not have finished my work' mgn b1l san hi } fa ba san ka { iI ba san aa Kasham ka 'had I only known ... ' } { 'had you only known ... ' 'had Kasham only known ... ' Cf. fn. 12 for the Perfective auxiliary a preceding bii in the last example. 3. Cohesion and Seqnence Marking 3.1. Cohesive clauses: daga/dag-ee vs. kwda. A sequence of events in a perfective narrative (6:§3.1) may be initiated by a clause introduced by daga or dag-ee (sometimes dag-dy),14 translatable by Hausa da or English 'when'. This conjunction always introduces an affirmative verbal clause where the verb is in the participle form (4:§2.1.1). The choice between daga and dag-ee seems to be at least in part speaker preference. I have narrative texts from four speakers. In clauses with a third person subject, three of the speakers always used daga, the other always used dag-ee. In elicitation, Vaziya used daga in clauses with a nominal subject, dag-ee elsewhere. With pronoun subjects, ee is repeated both after daga and after the pronoun, i.e. dag-ee man-ee ... 'when I ... '. See 6:§2.2.3.4(1) for discussion and a full paradigm. In terms of restrictions on clause internal verbal TAM as well as function, daga/dag-ee is the perfective discourse counterpart to kwaa clauses as used in imperfective discourse (§2. I. 1.2). Although both kwda and daga/dag-ee clauses can be interpreted as introducing the first event of a (sub)sequence of events in a narrative, they are used in slightly different ways. Unlike kwda clauses, daga/dag-ee clauses as used by speakers in texts almost always have a scene setting function rather than an advancing function. Longacre (1990:2-3), in his scheme of narrative structure, distinguishes between "clauses which report Backgrounded Events which are considered to be preparatory to or resulting from those which are reported on the storyline" (his #2 ranked clauses) and "Cohesive clauses (adverbial) which refer back to previous parts of the storyline, either by reporting a new but script-predictable event or by an anaphoric reference to the former event" (his #7 ranked clauses). I here borrow Longacre's term "Cohesive clauses" for daga/dag-ee clauses, which seem to conflate these two narrative functions. I present examples below under several functional headings. The first most closely resembles Longacre's definition of "Cohesive Clauses", the other his "Backgrounded Events": 141 assume that this conjunction is borrowed from the Hausa locative source preposition daga 'from'. However, its use in Miya syntax is distinct from its use in Hausa, In Hausa, it can take only a nominal or nominalized complement, whereas in Miya, it can take only a clausal complement. Unlike Hausa, Miya never uses daga with a locative complement. This function is expressed with a preposition aa' (11:§1.4.2). 385
I : :1 il I I: I : !i I I 386 A Grammar of Miya Recapitulation of a preceding event ... j-ee baa-za jfy kuw(a) aabfy aa uh pay t-aaManglla. Daga kuw(a) then go-Iep Pet draw water from in pond of-Mangila when draw aabfy, d" kiya ghama-za ... water Sjn take head-her , ... then she went and drew water from the pond of Mangila. When she had drawn the water, she took it on her head ... ' dilw, "Tilway fly wana m"n saw." Dag-dy kiJd'dy fiy air tlarkdy, d" he said bring flour that I-Sjn drink when dip flour into calabash Sjn kiya azOOa waua d" ara-ya uh ... take silver that Sjn put-it in ' ... he said, "Bring that gruel so I can drink some." When she had dipped some gruel into a calabash, she took that silver and put it in (the calabash) ... ' In the second example, the dag-dy clause recapitulates an event implied by the quote. Temporal context Daga aam(a) ee-wfya, 'an ta son n-aaGftuwa dg b-aaz(a) ee kilw(a) when reach anotber(day) wife of man of-Gituwa Sjn go-Iep inorder drawing aabfy aaMangila. water on Mangila 'Sometime later [when one had reached another day], the wife of the man from Gituwa went to draw water on Mangila.' Dag-ee s,niHlan tsir, d" suw bahfy ee rfnj-aabfy-ay. when spendday-ICP two Sjn Tot going in order fishing-water-Tot 'When a couple of days had passed, they went fishing.' Diig-ee g-aa cdmazd, d" buwa-z(a) aa yawun ... when [ ... J night Sjn go-Iep PS elephant 'When night came, the elephant went ... ' The last example uses the apparently nonverbal construction g-da + TIME. This has a parallel in kwda clauses which set temporal context. See end of §2.1.1.2 for discussion. First event moving narrative in a new direction Saa'in nan d" ugma lyaap aa B"gaw, d" mbala-ya-y d" saake pfyaaka At that time Sjn do crime PS BQgaw Sjn depose-him-Tot Sjn repeat replacing ga-ndg Tashay. "indeed" Tashay Biigaw har yanzu. Bagaw again Too, daga well when mfy-uws aa Tashily, yawwa, d" saakee pfyaka die-IeP PS Tashay yeah Sjn repeat replacing 'At that time, Bggaw committed a crime, he was deposed, and they again put Tashay in his place (as chief of Miya). Well, when Tashay died, yeah, they again installed Bggaw another time.' Movement of the actor into a new situation 14. Adverbial Clauses and Phrases (§3) 387 Here one could say that the clause contains the true initiating event of a sequence rather than providing background or cohesion, but the verbs are usually "bland" verbs such as 'go', 'come', 'arise', etc. which add no content or could easily be deduced from the primary action which follows: d-aa gaya 'iyaaliy uiyza. Daga buwd-tlim da 'lyda/!y nlyza, duw ... d}-Ipf wait family her when come-Iep PS family her Qt ' ... she was waiting for herfamily. When her family came, she said .. .' Dilw, "Wiya dzaya!" Daga tl-uwsi d" wiya tiujam d60 gwalfg. Qt jump down indeed when arise-IeP Sjn jump down id into chieftancy 'She said, "Jump down!" When he had risen, he jumped down tan jam into a chieftainship (i.e. a position of wealth).' Perception The daga/dag-ee clause states the actor's perception of some aspect of the preceding event: J-ee b-uwsa dg bfy mar-uwsa. Daga nay-uwsJ aa nakd s;}n n-aaGftuwa, then go-Iep Sjn Prt find-him when see-him PS that man of-Gituwa j-ee u"nga-ya barka aa buwikg. then say-to him welcome with coming 'Then hej went and found himj. When the man from Gituwaj saw himj then hej wished himj greetings on his arrival.' a cam rna wuya ndyaam iladuwn-uw. Dag-dy diJkay(a) aa LaBee, d" Pf love NEG another(t) all world-NEG when hear PS La6e Sjn baa-za d" jfy b;.la maa-za ... go-Iep Sjn Pct tell mother-her ' ... he didn't love anyone else in the whole world. When LaBe heard that, she went and told her mother ... ' 3.2. Sequence marking 3.2.1. Subjunctive. Once a sequence of events is established in a discourse (perfective or imperfective), the simple Subjunctive is the most frequently used method for signaling the events in sequence which move the narrative forward. Subjunctive clauses of this type are not, strictly speaking, subordinate clauses, although they cannot stand independent of the discourse of which they are a part. See 5:§2.2.1 for discussion of Subjunctive form and 6:§§2.4, 3.1 for discussion and illustration of the sequential function of the Subjunctive. Many examples can also be found in clauses following the adverbial clauses discussed in §§2.1, 3.1 above. 3.2.2. Jfy,j-ee in perfective discourse. As noted in the previous section, the simple Subjunctive is the normal form used to continue a sequence already established in a 1
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A Grammar of Miya Russell G. Schuh
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Contents Preface, xvii Cross-refere
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x Contents 3.5. Tones of negative m
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xiv Contents 1.3.3. Pronominal vs.
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Cross-Referencing, Abbreviations, a
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Chapter 1 THE MIYA PEOPLE AND LANGU
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154 A Grammar of Miya PASSAGE 2 ...
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178 A Grammar of Miya Waataw aa Giy
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192 A Grammar of Miya Two kin terms
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208 ndyaan patg 'all' 'all' A Gramm
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A Grammar of Miya - UCLA Department of Linguistics

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