Handout

is ill’ lit. ‘(that) my brother told me that my mother is ill is not so, he
told (about it) my father is ill’
[E.026]
In fact, the negator naha can be used in the sentence above, but the construction
will have sequential reading which makes no sense as illustrated in
COMPLEMENT CLAUSES IN ABUI (NEGATION)
(21a). The construction can be fixed by placing the negator naha in the cc, as
illustrated in (21b).
(21) a. ne-nahaa
[1s.al-y:bz
ba,
sim]
ne-ya
[1s.al-mother
do-wa
3i.rec-like.md.cnt
ha-rik
3ii.pat-ill
haba,
but]
no-k
1s.rec-throw
maama
[father
fangi
tell.cpl
ha-rik
3ii.pat-ill]
naha
not
sequential reading: ‘because my brother didn’t tell me my mother is
ill but my father is ill’
[E.029]
b. ne-nahaa do-wa
no-k
[1s.al-y:bz 3i.rec-like.md.cnt 1s.rec-throw
ne-ya ha-rik naha haba, maama
[1s.al-mother 3ii.pat-ill not] CC but [father
fangi
tell.cpl
ha-rik
3ii.pat-ill] CC
ba,
say] MC
‘my brother told me that my mother is not ill but my father is ill’
[E.030]
It is not Abui clear, prosodical whether contour: Abuiba speakers LH%(#) ever allow for the negation in mc to
scope over the subsequent cc.
Summary.
Friday, February 17, 12
42
In Abui, ccs do not require any marking. Optionally ccs can be