A Grammar of Trio, a Cariban Language of Suriname

586 Pages·2.45 MB·

by  Carlin E.

A Grammar of Trio

Eithne B. Carlin

A Grammar of Trio
a Cariban language of Suriname

Table of Contents
List of Tables......................................................................................................xv
Acknowledgements............................................................................................xix
Abbreviations and symbols..............................................................................xxiii
Inventory of grammatical morphemes............................................................xxvii
Map of Suriname showing the location of the Cariban groups......................xxxiv
1 The Trio .........................................................................................................1
1.1 The people and their environment..........................................................1
1.2 Present day economy and subsistence....................................................5
1.3 Classification of the language.................................................................7
1.4 Variation within Trio..............................................................................9
1.5 The status of Trio today........................................................................11
1.6 Formation of the Trio nation.................................................................12
1.7 History of contact.................................................................................17
1.8 Languages for specific purposes I: ceremonial dialogue......................20
1.8.1 The form of the dialogue...............................................................23
1.8.2 Intermezzo: Notes on the names of the dialogue...........................26
1.9 Languages for specific purposes II: Trio-Ndyuka pidgin.....................29
1.10 Cultural aspects of language usage.......................................................31
1.10.1 What’s in a name?.........................................................................31
1.10.2 The Trio worlds and reconciliation between them........................35
1.11 Former studies on Trio..........................................................................38
1.12 Collection of data..................................................................................39
1.13 Spelling and abbreviation conventions.................................................41
1.14 Typological overview of Trio...............................................................42
2 Phonology....................................................................................................45
2.1 Introduction..........................................................................................45
2.2 Phoneme inventory: the consonant phonemes......................................45
2.2.1 General characteristics...................................................................45
2.2.2 Stops..............................................................................................46
2.2.3 Nasals............................................................................................46
2.2.4 Fricatives.......................................................................................47
2.2.5 Liquid............................................................................................49
2.2.6 Glides............................................................................................49
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2.3 The vowel phonemes............................................................................49
2.3.1 Vowel length and vowel sequences...............................................51
2.4 Distribution of consonants....................................................................53
2.4.1 Consonant clusters.........................................................................54
2.4.2 The h + plosive cluster..................................................................55
2.4.3 Suffix consonants..........................................................................57
2.4.4 Distribution of the vowels.............................................................57
2.5 Syllable structure..................................................................................58
2.5.1 Stress and syllable structure..........................................................59
2.5.2 Reduplication and syllable structure..............................................60
2.5.3 Vowel assimilation........................................................................63
3 Lexical categories........................................................................................67
3.1 Major categories...................................................................................67
3.1.1 Noun..............................................................................................67
3.1.2 Verbs.............................................................................................68
3.1.3 Postpositions..................................................................................68
3.1.4 Minor categories............................................................................68
3.1.5 Adverbs.........................................................................................68
3.1.6 Interrogatives.................................................................................69
3.1.7 Particles.........................................................................................69
3.1.8 Ideophones and interjections.........................................................69
3.2 Person-marking across word classes: Preliminaries.............................70
3.2.1 Vowel alternation in bases before person marking........................71
3.2.2 Glide-insertion...............................................................................74
3.3 Person marking.....................................................................................76
3.3.1 Absence of argument and person-marking....................................78
3.4 The persons...........................................................................................80
3.4.1 The first person..............................................................................80
3.4.2 The second person prefix: ë/:.........................................................81
3.4.3 The 1+2 prefix kï-..........................................................................82
3.4.4 The third person prefixes i- and tï-................................................83
3.4.5 Person 1+3.....................................................................................85
3.5 Reflexive marking across word classes................................................87
3.6 Plural marking of the personal prefixes across word classes................87
4 Nominal morphology...................................................................................91
4.1 General characteristics of nouns...........................................................91
4.2 Noun classes.........................................................................................92
4.3 Inflectional Morphology.......................................................................93
4.3.1 Possession......................................................................................94
4.3.2 Possessive prefixes on nouns.........................................................94
4.3.3 Stem alternation rules....................................................................96
4.3.4 Vowel-initial nouns and the CV-prefixes......................................99
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4.3.5 The second person prefix.............................................................100
4.3.6 The 1+2 prefix and the third person coreferential prefix.............100
4.4 Plural marking of the personal prefixes on nouns...............................101
4.5 Possessive suffixes.............................................................................103
4.5.1 Anti-genitive suffix –rï................................................................104
4.5.2 Intermezzo:
-rï anti-genitive versus roots with syllable-final rï or tï...............105
4.5.3 Tense and possession...................................................................108
4.5.4 Negative possessive suffix –nna ‘without’..................................112
4.6 Possession and negation.....................................................................113
4.7 Number and nominal plural marking..................................................113
4.7.1 The plural marker -tomo (–ton)...................................................113
4.7.2 Collective marking......................................................................115
4.7.3 Plural suffix –kontokomo............................................................118
4.8 Nominal derivational suffixes.............................................................119
4.8.1 Size categories augmentative –imë and diminutive –pisi(kë)......119
4.8.2 Augmentative -imë......................................................................120
4.8.3 Diminutive -pisi(kë)....................................................................121
4.8.4 The suffix –hpije ‘having in great amounts’................................123
4.8.5 The facsimile suffix –me.............................................................123
4.8.6 Grammaticalization of the suffix –me.........................................130
4.8.7 The suffixes –sepï, –se:-me ‘pleasing’........................................133
4.8.8 The suffix –pe(ke) ‘not pleasing’................................................134
4.8.9 The suffix –rïpï ‘useless’.............................................................135
4.9 Compound nouns................................................................................136
4.10 Nouns and negation............................................................................136
4.11 Lists of body parts and kinship terms.................................................137
5 Pronouns....................................................................................................143
5.1 General...............................................................................................143
5.2 Personal pronouns: Speech act participants........................................143
5.2.1 Emphatic pronouns......................................................................147
5.3 The third person pronouns..................................................................148
5.3.1 Animate pronouns.......................................................................148
5.3.2 Inanimate and demonstrative pronouns.......................................151
5.4 The pronouns and tense......................................................................155
5.5 Independent possessive pronouns.......................................................157
5.6 Coordination of pronouns...................................................................160
5.7 Reflexive particle ëikarë.....................................................................162
6 Postpositions..............................................................................................165
6.1 General remarks..................................................................................165
6.1.1 Formal and structural characteristics of the postpositions...........165
6.1.2 Person marking............................................................................168
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6.1.3 Morphotactic restrictions.............................................................170
6.2 Locatives and directionals..................................................................172
6.2.1 General locative –po ‘in, at’........................................................173
6.2.2 Directional –pona........................................................................176
6.2.3 Interior location –(h)tao, -hkao, and -awë...................................176
6.2.4 Container locative –(h)tao...........................................................177
6.2.5 Motion towards container –(h)ta(ka)...........................................179
6.2.6 Motion through: -tahkarë.............................................................180
6.2.7 Interior liquid locative –hkao......................................................181
6.2.8 Motion towards liquid interior -hka.............................................181
6.2.9 Interior locative -awë...................................................................182
6.2.10 Location in fire: -renao................................................................182
6.2.11 Location in time: -po, -(h)tao, -mao............................................183
6.2.12 ‘Outside’ locative awaintao.........................................................184
6.2.13 Contact locative –pë(kë)..............................................................185
6.2.14 Postpositions derived from –pë(kë).............................................187
6.2.15 General directional -pona............................................................188
6.2.16 Anterior locatives........................................................................188
6.2.17 Posterior locatives.......................................................................191
6.2.18 Superior contact locative –juwë..................................................194
6.2.19 Superior non-contact locative –epoe...........................................195
6.2.20 Inferior non-contact locative -epinë ‘under’................................195
6.2.21 ‘Beside’ –ekatao, -ekunë, -ekunme.............................................196
6.2.22 Specific location: -enao, -npo, warunao......................................197
6.2.23 Other locative and directional postpositions................................198
6.2.24 In the middle of: -rowë; -rawë.....................................................200
6.2.25 Environment-specific location.....................................................201
6.2.26 Perlatives –tae; -awëe: -etae........................................................203
6.2.27 Source postposition -pëe..............................................................205
6.3 Non-locative postpositions.................................................................207
6.3.1 Comitative postposition -akërë....................................................208
6.3.2 Instrumental postposition -ke......................................................209
6.3.3 REASON meaning with -ke...........................................................211
6.3.4 The postposition –poke ‘with taste, with smell’..........................212
6.3.5 The postposition apo ‘like’..........................................................213
6.3.6 Desiderative -se (-je)...................................................................215
6.3.7 The goal postposition –:ja............................................................219
6.4 Postpositions of cognition and perception..........................................221
6.4.1 The cognizers –warë and –wame(ke)..........................................221
6.4.2 The postposition –:no ‘shiver from fear or cold’.........................224
6.4.3 The postposition –pïnë ‘love’......................................................225
6.4.4 The postposition -eire ‘dangerous to, angry at’...........................226
6.4.5 The postposition –epo ‘fitting’....................................................226
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6.4.6 The postposition –epona ‘believing’...........................................227
6.4.7 The comparative postposition –wae ‘more than’.........................227
7 Interrogatives and question words.............................................................229
7.1 Polar questions....................................................................................229
7.2 Alternative questions..........................................................................231
7.3 General wh- questions........................................................................231
7.3.1 Who, whom, whose?...................................................................235
7.3.2 What/Why?..................................................................................236
7.3.3 Question-related fillers................................................................239
7.4 Where, locative and directional..........................................................240
7.4.1 Locative.......................................................................................240
7.4.2 Source..........................................................................................242
7.4.3 Directional...................................................................................242
7.4.4 Perlative.......................................................................................244
7.4.5 Which?.........................................................................................244
7.5 How?...................................................................................................245
7.6 When, what time?...............................................................................246
7.6.1 Specific time................................................................................246
7.7 Why?...................................................................................................247
7.8 How much, how many?......................................................................249
7.9 The suffix –hpe...................................................................................249
7.10 The syntax of questions......................................................................250
7.10.1 WH-questions..............................................................................253
8 Verbal morphology....................................................................................255
8.1 Verbs as a word class..........................................................................255
8.2 General remarks on the phonological form of verbs...........................255
8.3 Verb types...........................................................................................255
8.4 Verb formation and noun incorporation.............................................261
8.5 Verb valence.......................................................................................264
8.5.1 Intransitive verbs.........................................................................264
8.5.2 Intransitive verbs and split intransitivity.....................................266
8.5.3 Transitive verbs...........................................................................268
8.6 Overview of verbal morphology.........................................................270
8.6.1 Prefixes........................................................................................271
8.6.2 Person marking on verbs.............................................................271
8.6.3 The verb paradigms: Transitive...................................................273
8.6.4 Categories of person: speech act participants..............................275
8.6.5 The first person subject with transitive verbs..............................275
8.6.6 First person object of a transitive verb........................................275
8.6.7 Person 1+2...................................................................................275
8.6.8 The second person.......................................................................277
8.6.9 The third person...........................................................................278
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8.6.10 Person 1+3 ainja..........................................................................279
8.6.11 Object prefixes.............................................................................280
8.7 Verbal inflectional suffixes.................................................................281
8.7.1 Number: plural marking..............................................................281
8.7.2 Plural marking of the third person...............................................282
8.7.3 Combinations of plural markers..................................................283
8.7.4 Tense, aspect and modality..........................................................285
8.7.5 Non-past tenses: present -∅ or -ja; future -ta..............................286
8.7.6 The past tenses.............................................................................289
8.7.7 Immediate past.............................................................................290
8.7.8 Non-recent past............................................................................291
8.7.9 Habitual past................................................................................293
8.7.10 Irregular verbs in the past............................................................294
8.7.11 Little-used tense/aspect markers..................................................294
8.8 Modal categories.................................................................................296
8.8.1 Irrealis -i......................................................................................297
8.9 Evidentiality and the finite verb..........................................................299
8.10 Imperatives.........................................................................................302
8.10.1 General imperative......................................................................303
8.10.2 Dislocative -ta..............................................................................306
8.10.3 Ventive imperative......................................................................307
8.10.4 Hortative......................................................................................308
8.10.5 Prohibitive...................................................................................309
8.10.6 Cessative –ke(pï).........................................................................311
8.10.7 Modality and imperatives............................................................311
8.10.8 Imperative with -sanpa................................................................311
8.10.9 Imperative with _kahta................................................................312
8.10.10 Modal clitic _mo..........................................................................312
8.11 Paradigms of the frequent verbs ‘be’ and ‘come’...............................313
8.12 Verbal derivational suffixes................................................................318
8.12.1 Valency changing suffixes...........................................................318
8.12.2 The causative -po.........................................................................320
8.13 Verb formation from noun..................................................................322
8.13.1 The verbalizers............................................................................322
8.13.2 Reversative -ka............................................................................323
8.13.3 Benefactive -ntë/-htë...................................................................324
8.13.4 Providative -pa.............................................................................326
8.13.5 Inchoative stative -ma..................................................................328
8.13.6 Sensory state –pamï.....................................................................330
8.13.7 Terminative -ta............................................................................332
8.13.8 Non-productive verbalizers –wa, -na, -ma(mï)............................333
8.13.9 Cessative –ke(pï).........................................................................334
8.14 Non-finite verb forms.........................................................................335
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