Language Contact and Documentation: Contacto Linguistico y Documentacion

328 Ulrike Mosel
(4) b. Me=paa vahuhu bona taonim a si iana.
and=tam give.birth.to art five art dim fish
‘And gave birth to five little fish.’
Vaahuhu va-kavara vai ri bari
give.birth advr-finish now 3pl.objm 4pl.pron
‘Having given birth to them,’
me=paa varavihi ri bari koma- n= a
and=tam hide 3pl.objm 4pl.pron inside- 3sg.poss= art
boon …
mangroves
‘hid them inside the mangroves …’
(Ata_01E1.01)
The next example shows how a simple paratactic construction is transformed
into a Tail-Head construction by adding the Tail to the first clause:
(5) a. Merau me Moogee paa hee bona bona kariapa.
then and Monkey tam give 4sg.pron art kariapa
‘And Monkey gave him a kariapa fruit.’
Me=paa an va-kavara me=paa nao.
and=tam eat advr-finished and=tam go
‘And (he) finished eating (it) and went.’
(Ter_01R.22)
(5) b. Me Moogee paa hee habana koa bona
and Monkey tam give again just 4sg.pron
‘And Monkey again gave him'
bono peho vua karipa me=paa an,
art one fruit kariapa and=tam eat
‘a kariapa fruit and (he) ate,’
an va-kavara
eat advr-finished
‘finished eating,’
me=paa nao vaha bana vaan te-ve
and=tam go back again village prep-3sg.pron
‘and went back again to his village.’
(Ter_01E.18)