Note on Garawa verbs

Most of the verbs in the Garawa data consist of two elements: the verb stem and the first person singular pronoun ngayu. Sometimes these elements appear to be written as separate words, and at other times they are written as one word. The recording seldom provides clear guidance as to the division of these elements. In the transcriptions in the \ft field, we have followed the word divisions in Flint’s original transcription.

The "elicitation form" for verbs appears to consist of a verb in its "unmarked" inflection followed (or occasionally preceded) by the first person singular subject pronoun ngayu. This "elicitation form" is usually given in response to the English "to verb" or "I verb". In the few instances where ngayu precedes the verb, it is interesting to note that Flint has said "I verb" rather than "to verb" in his elicitation. There are a number of items for which the informant has (at least in his first utterance) omitted the pronoun.

In our analysis, we have written the verb and the pronoun as separate words, in keeping with the practice of other sources (Furby & Furby 1977; Belfrage 1992; Osborne 1966).

References

Belfrage, H. 1992. Aspects of Verb and Pronoun Morphology, Semantics and Syntax in Garrwa. (Honours Thesis, University of Melbourne).

Furby, E.S. & C.E. Furby 1977. A Preliminary Analysis of Garawa Phrases and Clauses. Pacific Linguistics Series B - No. 42. ANU.

Osborne, C. 1966. Garawa field notes (photocopy of manusript). Held in the AIATSIS Library, Canberra.