Language Contact and Documentation: Contacto Linguistico y Documentacion

Putting oral narratives into writing 337
Why the editor chose hata vakavara lit. ‘completely bad’ instead of the anticausative
form taboha vakavara ‘be completely broken’ is not clear.
5.3.2 Serial verb construction > paratactic Tail-Head construction
Similar to (14), the serial verb construction in (15a) is split up so that each of
the two verbs functions as the head of a verbal predicate.
(15) a. (A giant had swallowed a group of children. But one of them had a
sharp piece of shell which they used to cut the Giant's stomach from
inside.’)
me=paa pee poro bene roosuu.
and=tam cut burst art giant
‘and cut the giant so that he burst open.’ (lit. ‘and cut burst the giant’)
(Mor_02R.080)
But while the first verb pee remains a transitive verb, the second verb becomes
intransitive, e.g. taporo ‘burst’, and the former object bene roosuu ‘the giant’
becomes its subject e roosuu. The two clauses are linked by a Tail-Head construction.
(15) b. me=paa taneo tea pee maa bona koma-n=e
and=tam start compl cut dir art stomach-3sg.poss=art
roosuu.
giant
‘and started cutting the giant's stomach.’
Pee vasihum koa maa
cut a.little.bit just dir
‘Just cut a little bit,’
me roosuu paa ta-poro.
and.art giant tam anticaus-burst
‘and the giant burst!’
(Mor_02E.076)
5.3.3 Ditransitive construction > paratactic coordinate construction
The resolution of a ditransitive clause of the structure ‘Agent affects Patient
with Instrument’ into two coordinate clauses ‘Agent takes Instrument and affects
Patient’ is exactly the reverse of the merger described in § 5.2.3.