proto-southwestern-tai revised: a new reconstruction - seals 22

40 Kitima Indrambarya
Adverb: yàaŋrûatrɛw ‘quickly’
(6) a. kháw dəən yàaŋrûatrɛw pay sathǎanii
he walk quickly go station
He walked quickly to the station.
b. pay sathǎanii nàʔ› kháw dəən yàaŋrûatrɛw
go station TOP he walk quickly
To the station, he walked quickly.
As illustrated in (3) – (6), preposition kàp ‘with’ and noun bâan ‘house’ cannot be left at
the end of the sentence while the verb sɨ́ɨ ‘to buy’ and the adverb yàaŋrûatrɛw ‘quickly’
can.
Now that we can see how prepositions and nouns are different from verbs and
adverbs, the following sections will discuss how to distinguish nouns from prepositions,
and verbs from adverbs.
2.2 Criteria to identify nouns
I propose that one should use two tests: the determiner test and the quantifier test to
distinguish nouns from prepositions.
2.2.1 The Determiner Test
According to Savetamalaya, (1989:103), determiners are, for example, n¤¤¤ii ‘this’, nán ‘that’,
day ‘which’ and nǎy ‘where’, ʔɨ̀ɨn ‘other’. I will use only the determiners day ‘which’ and
ʔɨ̀ɨn ‘other’ as a test for nouns since the determiners n¤¤¤ii ‘this’, nán ‘that’ and nǎy ‘where’
have homophonous pronouns which could be misleading if used as a test.
The Determiner Test:
Only nouns can be followed by determiners day ‘which’ and ʔɨ̀ɨn ‘other’.
Preposition: kàp ‘with’
(7) a. * dɛɛŋ khuy kàp day
Dang talk with which
Which with did Dang talked?
b. * dɛɛŋ khuy kàp ʔɨ̀ɨn
Dang talk with other
Dang talked with others.
Noun: sìŋ ‘thing’
(8) a. thəə pràatthanǎa sìŋ day
you wish thing which
What do you wish for?
b. thəə pràatthanǎa sìŋ ʔɨ̀ɨn
you wish thing other
You wish for other thing.