Magin_Edward-thesis

165
‘because of him.’ If the pronoun was excluded, the reader would have the understanding
of, ‘My heart is distressed because he is angry at me’ versus ‘My heart is distressed
because of him.’ As it stands, wî refers to dustê min, ‘my friend.’ Without the anaphor wî,
the default reference would be the anger of the dust, ‘friend.’
Below is another context that does not allow for ellipsis of an object pronoun. At
the end of Nalbend’s Kiçkek Me Divêt, ‘We Want A Girl,’ the final four lines are spoken
by one person to Ehmed. In line 33, the woman states Ma min tu vîyayî, ‘Did I love
you…?’ Here the object pronoun tu, 2D, is included. She repeats the same words in line
36, albeit in a different order. One would think that the context at this point would allow
for object pronoun ellipsis. However, according to my consultant, a person can never say
only min vîyayî and have it mean ‘I loved you.’ The 2D pronoun tu, ‘you,’ must also be
used. Perhaps some verbs allow for ellipsis while others do not. This is an area for further
research.
(257) Ma min tu vîya-yî bu milik u mal-î (AN5:33-36)
QP 1O 2D love.PST-2SG for land and home-OBL.M
‘Did I love you because of land and belongings (money)?’
Ez bu-m=e xidam bu…..
1D become.PST-1SG=DIR slave for
‘I became a slave for…’ 103
Eḧmed tu bi-zan-e ey riḧ-a min
Ehmed you IRR-know.IMP.SG O soul-EZ.F me
‘Ehmed, know, O soul of mine.’
Min vîya-yî tu jiber…
1O love.PST-2SG 2D because
‘I loved you because…’
5.4.1.2.3 Ellipsis of anaphoric pronoun in a prepositional phrase
Speakers of Northern Kurdish sometimes have an option to leave out an anaphoric
pronoun in a prepositional phrase―again, depending on the context of conversation.
Recall example (236), repeated below in (258). In the second phrase of the line, the 3SG
103 Two lines at the end of this poem are missing the final words in the original text.