[This document can be acquired from a sub-directory coombspapers via anonymous FTP and/or COOMBSQUEST gopher on the node COOMBS.ANU.EDU.AU] The document's ftp filename and the full directory path are given in the coombspapers top level INDEX file] [This version: 4 August 1993] -------------------------------------------------------------------------- File 5. There are 9 parts of this thesis: from 0 to 8 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- A Grammar of Garadjari, Western Australia by Anna Kristina Sands 1989 Bachelor of Arts Thesis Department of Linguistics, Faculty of Arts Australian National University, Canberra ACT 0200 5 SYNTAX 5.1 Word Order Word order in Garadjari is free with the verb and other constituents of the sentence appearing in any order. There does, however, appear to be an unmarked, or predominant, order of AVO which occurs when no emphasis is being placed. This is determined as the unmarked order simply on the number of occurences in the texts as just under fifty percent of the sentences in the texts which contain both an overt subject and object seem to follow this order. AVO as an unmarked order differs from in the majority of Australian languages where the unmarked order is AOV. Note that Djaru, however, a closely related language, has the unmarked order of AOV alternating with AVO [ Blake, 1987 ] . It is, therefore, quite possible that Garadjari actually has a similar set up, of two alternating unmarked word orders. But, with the rather limited examples of complete sentences in the texts, it is rather difficult to determine what is actually happening. In intransitive sentences the unmarked order appears to be SV, ie. the intransitive and transitive subjects seem to categorise together grammatically in both appearing before the verb. Some examples of how free word is are as follows : AVO : (1) waradja-lu rub ma-rnu wiriman one-ERG pull out(AUX)-PAST long one of them pulled out a long one AOV : (2) walaguru yulbi wura-nju-ra hawk firestick work-PAST-COMP the hawk worked the firestick ( for fire ) OAV : (3) wiru warayin-dju diar djinda-rnu leaf another-ERG diar break-PAST the other diar broke off a leaf OVA : (4) mirling bala-rnu banji-ngka warayin-dju diar spear pick up-PAST hand-LOC another-ERG diar the other diar picked up the spear in his hand SV : (5) bargara ya-rnu-ra turkey go-PAST-COMP the turkey came up VS : (6) gurga dja-rnu-gu ngura arise(AUX)-PAST-PURP ground the ground rose up I have insufficient examples of verbs which take a third grammatical relation to determine the unmarked order and we seem to get the third relation ( indirect object ) in any position. eg. (7) yu-ngu-ra mayibaru nalgumidi yalwa-lu give-PAST-COMP herbage Nalgumidi Yalwa-ERG Yalwa gave Nalgumidi vegetables (8) marungu-gu maru-gu ya-ra-djanagu man-DAT song-DAT go-CONT-3 Pl D he went in search of men for his song 5.2 Missing Constituents Within the texts it is quite rare to find a complete sentence with a verb and noun phrases to fill all of its valency slots, as in Garadjari constituents that are already known to the speaker are most often omitted as noun phrases though they are cross-referenced on the verb. It is thus usual to find the subject slot empty in a sentence and very often the object slot is also empty. We can take an example from a text: (9) djula bargara ya-rnu-ra , ma-rnu warmingarbidi, ya-rnu-ra blind turkey go-PAST-COMP, take-PAST fish sp. , go-PAST-COMP nguru nguru ma-rnu djungku , bara ma-rnu-gudji steal steal(AUX)-PAST fire, run(AUX)-PAST-then #wigaman njirani, djinga-rnu-gudji #chicken-hawk behind, pursue-PAST-then a blind turkey came along, he picked up a fish, he went along, he stole the fire and thereupon ran away. # A chicken-hawk came up behind him and thereupon he ran away Here we see that in the English translation the underlined components are missing from the Garadjari text. It is only at the #, when the subject of the action changes, that a subject is reintroduced into the Garadjari text. Note, however, that the subject is not left completely unstated as it is still cross-referenced on the verb. In this example, however, the cross-referencing marker is zero, for third person singular, and thus has no overt marking. 5.3 Noun Phrases 5.3.1 Possesive Noun Phrases 5.3.1.1 Alienable Alienable possession is marked in Garadjari by the suffix -gura which is added to the possesor noun phrase. The possessed object may precede or follow the possessor, however, the possessed precedes a pronoun possessor, but usually follows a nominal possessor. eg. Pronoun : (10) djarndu ginjangka-gura woman he-POSS his wife (11) djina-nguru ginjangka-gura foot-ABL he-POSS from his foot Nominal : (12) yalgi-gura bidi goanna-POSS hole the goanna's hole (13) warnarn-gura gabara Warnarn-POSS pitchi Warnarn's pitchi basket but : (14) bidur warnarn-gura stick Warnarn-POSS Warnarn's stick 5.3.1.2 Inalienable Inalienable possession is marked simply by juxtaposition of the elements. The possessor generally follows the possessed. eg. (15) djina djulbugu foot rat the rat's tracks (16) ngama gurdayinj milk mother mother's milk (17) djidja banji nail arm arm's nail = fingernail In the texts the things that are inalienably possessed seem to be body parts and products ( such as milk and eggs ) as well as tracks. Land, of a tribe, may be inalienably or alienably possessed. ie. we have : (18) njangamarda-ngka ngura = inalienable possession Njangamarda-LOC land in the Njangamarda's land (19) njigini-gura-ngka ngura = alienable possession Njigini-POSS-LOC land in the Njigini's land I have two examples of inalienable possession where the verb intervenes between the the two components. ie. (20) marungu marlu njanga-njari-djinja-ra djina man many see(AUG)-CONT-3 Pl S-COMP foot he saw the tracks of many men (21) djungku yaga-lgu bani fire leave-FUT eye he left the glowing coals These are the only examples in the data of noun phrases with split constituents, though they still clearly make up a noun phrase. 5.3.2 Adjectives Adjectives, or nominal modifiers, including numbers, generally immediatly precede the noun that they modify, eg. (22) djula bargara blind turkey blind turkey (23) wurdu djurar big salt water the big sea (24) warayinj warlibi another camp another camp though I do have two examples where the adjective follows the noun. ie. (25) mirling yargalju spear hidden the hidden spear (26) wurdu bidi warayinj big hole another another big hole Note, however, that as there is no syntactic grounds to separate the adjectives from the nouns, we can say that we actually have two nominals in juxtaposition and this looks very much like the inalienable possessive construction. As an adjectival quality is generally a quality that the noun "possesses" as a part of itself, this is not suprising. Note that the adjectival "possessed" quality generally precedes the nominal "possessor" just as is found in the true inalienable possesssion. It may, however, not be quite appropriate to look upon an adjectival expression as possession of the adjective as it is the noun and not the modifier that is the head. In (15), for example, the 'foot', the possessed quality, is the head of the noun phrase whereas in (22) it is the 'turkey' or the possessor that is the head. We can therefore look at both of these constructions in an alternate way that states that the inalienably possessed thing or the adjectival modifier is actually a delimiter of the noun it appears with. In (15) we have a rat and we are limiting our outlook to its' foot ( or tracks ), while in (22) we have turkeys in general ( note that plural marking is not obligatory in Garadjari ) and we are interested in the one that is blind. I have only one example in the data of a modifier of an adjective and this immediatly precedes the adjective. ie. (27) yidja mingur yiragulu truly heavy spear a really heavy spear 5.3.3 Co-ordinated Noun Phrases Two nouns or noun phrases may be co-ordinated with the suffix -ba ( see section 3.2.6 ) . -ba is generally added to each of the nouns to be co-ordinated and can be translated as 'and'. eg. (28) marungu-ba djarndu-ba wubayinj-ba man-and woman-and child-and men, women and children Co-ordination may also be signalled simply by juxtaposition of the elements with no suffixation. There does not seem to be any difference in meaning betwen a co-ordinated noun phrase with or without the suffix -ba . eg. (29) marungu djarndu wubayinj man woman child men, woman and children 5.3.4 Demonstratives Unlike many Australian languages which make great usage of demonstratives, Garadjari uses them very sparingly. In fact I have found only one example of a demonstrative modifying a noun. ie. (30) djugur-du balaya djugur-du djinda-rnu boy-ERG that boy-ERG break-PAST that boy broke it As we have the noun here repeated both before and after the demonstrative it is impossible to tell whether the demonstrative precedes or follows the noun. There are arguments for either position, ie. grammatically, in all other noun phrases where a case is marked on only one of the constituents it appears on the first. This would argue for balaya as appearing after the first occurence of the noun. However, pragmatically, we might expect that the speaker would first mention the boy and then clarify that by modifying the boy. Also, adjectives generally precede the noun. These argue that the noun follows the demonstrative. With no further examples it is impossible to clarify the point. 5.3.5 Relative Clauses Relative clauses in the texts are not common and in fact I have only two examples. ie. (31) nja-ngu-bula-djinja [ gardungu rarb-gadja ] see-PAST-3 Du S-3 Pl O [ locust rasp-like ] they saw [ locusts making a rasping noise ] (32) djayi-nju [ wurdu ngura dja-rnu marimari-lu ] come-PAST [ big land put-PAST Marimari-ERG ] he came to [ a big land put down by Marimari ] Note that here the status of the bracketed sections as relative clauses is not quite clear. In (31) we have gardungu rarb-gadja . This may stand as an individual verbless clasue ( ie. 'the locust made a rasping noise' ), however, as it is a verbless clause we could perhaps take this as a noun phrase, ie. 'rasp-like locusts'. In (32) we have a certain subordinate clause with verb and subject. However, the relationship of this clause to the main verb ( djayi- ) is not marked. We can compare (32) with a sentence with a non-sentential noun phrase, ie. (33) djayi-nju warlibi-nga come-PAST camp-LOC he came into camp Here we have the locative case on the noun phrase and might expect that if the bracketed portion of (32) were acting as a relative clause, ie. a noun phrase, we would also get the locative case on this. If the two sentences above, (31) and (32), do contain relative clauses we see that there is no special syntax to a relative clause but a clause that may stand on its own is simply appended to a sentence, though it appears that its relation to the verb may not be signalled. One further relative clause like construction is the use of the ergative suffix with the locative or ablative suffix. eg. (34) gulja-ngu-lu south-ABL-ERG he from the south... This, however, will be discussed in section 6.2 where I suggest that this is actually an example of a simultaneous action clause. 5.3.6 Case Marking and Noun Phrases Case marking on a noun phrase may appear either on all elements of the noun phrase or on the first only. There does not appear to be any difference in the marking on the core or outer cases, eg. first element only : (35) mira-ga-ngu [ wurdu-gu yaranga ] look(AUX)-PAST big-DAT spear he looked for a big spear (36) gala wayini dja-rnu-djinja [ warayinja-ngka warlibi ] then frightened put-PAST-3 Pl S another-LOC camp then he frightened them in another camp (37) [ waradja-ngka barda ] wiridjardu nga-njari-djinja one-LOC day completely eat-CONT-3 Pl O he ate them all up in one day all elements : (38) [ djarin-dja barda-ngka ] yilba-gu-djinja every-LOC sun-LOC throw-FUT-3 Pl O every day he threw them (39) [ wurdu-gu djanba-gu ] ya-rnu-ra-la big-DAT Djanba-DAT go-PAST-COMP-3 Sg D he went along the tracks of a big Djanba man (40) gala yarda-rnu bagubagu [ gungu-lu mirlin-dju ] then kill-PAST Bagubagu short-INST spear-INST then he killed Bagubagu with a short spear In co-ordinated noun phrases the case suffix appears on each component of the phrase, ie. we could say that the co-ordinated noun phrase does not form a single noun phrase but is simply a series of linked noun phrases. eg. (41) mira-gari-nju-djanagu [ marungu-gu-ba djarndu-gu-ba look(AUX-CONT)-PAST-3 Pl D man-DAT-and woman-DAT-and wubayinj-gu-ba ] child-DAT-and he looked for the men, women and children (42) djinka-rnu [ lagayiba-gu dugul-gu ] kill-PAST fat-DAT ochre-DAT he killed ( animals ) for fat and red ochre 5.4 Clause Types 5.4.1 Intransitive Intransitive clauses consist of an intransitive verb plus a subject in the absolutive case. This subject noun phrase is optional and may be deleted though cross-reference marking on the verb remains. eg. (43) bargara ya-rnu-0-ra turkey go-PAST-3 Sg S-COMP the turkey came up (44) bara ma-rnu-bula-gudji run(AUX)-PAST-3 Du S-then thereupon they ran away 5.4.2 Transitive Transitive clauses have a transitive verb with a subject in the ergative case and an object in the absolutive. Both the subject and object noun phrases are optional and need not be included but cross-referencing on the verb is obligatory. eg. (45) ngayidju-lu mulal njanga-nja 1 njundu I-ERG not see(AUG)-PRES 1 Sg S you I do not see you (46) mirin 2 gadi bu-ngu garliguru Mirin cut(AUX)-PAST bullroarer Mirin cut off a bullroarer (47) marimari-lu ga-ngu-0-djinja Marimari-ERG carry-PAST-3 Sg S-3 Pl O Marimari carried them (48) guyi djinga-rnu-0-0 animal kill-PAST-3 Sg S-3 Sg O he killed animals (49) nga-rnu-bula-O eat-PAST-3 Du S-3 Sg O they ate it 5.4.3 Verbless Many existential and equational clauses in Garadjari do not have a verb, ie. any clause that in English has the verb 'to be' remains verbless in Garadjari. We have the following types : 5.4.3.1 Existential Subject noun in the absolutive. eg. (50) djarndu marungu gudjara djarndu warandja marungu woman man two woman one man there were women and men, two women and one man (51) galaya djungu djarla then fire now so, there is fire now 5.4.3.2 Locational Subject noun in the absolutive plus predicate location noun or noun in the locative. eg. (52) ngardu balaya someone there someone is there (53) ginjangkarangu-lu warlibi-djangka they Pl-ERG camp-LOC they were in the camp (54) mulal lani ginjangkudjara not close they two they were not close, those two 5.4.3.3 Possessive Possessed noun subject in the absolutive with possesive suffix plus noun in the absolutive. eg. (55) ngayidju-gura djilbir minburu I-POSS djilbir minburu the djilbir and minburu are mine ( by right ) (56) mulal ngayidju-gura daldji not I-POSS daldji the daldji stick is not mine 5.4.3.4 Equational Subject noun phrase in the absolutive plus predicate adjective or noun phrase in the absolutive. eg. (57) gaga njundu-gura rawari mother's brother you-POSS dead your mother's brother is dead (58) ngayidju wurdu warara gurlu I big old man disabled I am a big old man who is impotent In addition you get phrases, especially clauses of 'going', where the verb is ellipsed. Where a direction is indicated, ie. north or east, we most often get the direction without overt case marking though the case is understood as allative. eg. (59) gagara gagara east east he went eastwards (60) ngayidju gulja I south I am going south Where an actual location is indicated the locational direction appears with the allative case. eg. (61) gara djurar-gardi west saltwater-ALL he went west towards the sea (62) gala nadja guna-gardi so here end-ALL so here we are towards the end Note that in (62) there is no physical motion of the subject but implied motion or forward movement of time. 5.4.4 Negatives Negative clauses are formed with the negative particle mulal . Where a verb is negated the verb is in the irrealis tense and the negative particle immediatly precedes the verb. eg. (63) mulal nja-wa-ya-bilinja-gudji birimala not see-IRR-3 Pl S-3 Du O-then birimala thereupon they did not see the birimala objects (64) mulal nga-la-djinja not eat-IRR-3 Pl O he did not eat them The negative particle may also be used to negate other parts of speech. It always immediatly precedes the word that it is to negate. eg. (65) mulal gurdayinj not mother without a mother (66) mulal djarla mulal mangkarnu djarla not now not angry now not now, I am not angry now (67) mulal yalinj mulal nga-la-djinja-gu not more not eat-IRR-3 Pl O-PURP no longer, don't eat them (68) mulal ngayidju-gura daldji not I-POSS daldji it is not my daldji stick 5.4.5 Questions Questions are formed with question words. These are : ngana - what ngana-gu - why, ie. what-DAT wandja-djangka - where, at what place wandja-gardi - towards where wandja-nguru-lu - whereabouts, ie. while being where wandja-gadja - in what manner, ie. where like ngardu - who wai - Question Particle From the form of these we can see that the question words take case marking, however, they can only take a limited range of cases. ie. we have a stem ngana used with 'what' or 'why', wandja for locational or manner questions and ngardu for people questions. Wai is used where in English we do not use a question word but invert the word order. Questions are formed by putting the question word at the beginning of the sentence followed by the rest of the sentence including the verb, if there is one. Very often the verb may be suffixed with one of the suffixes -ngala or -nnga ( see section 4.7.5 and 4.7.6 ) . It seems that these suffixes are used when the question asked is more theoretical and it is a question of what 'might' happen rather than of what is happening ( Note that the meaning of -ngala. is very often the potential 'might' ). eg. (69) ngana nja-nku-ngala what see-FUT-might what might we see ? (70) wandja-gardi ya-nnga where-ALL go-might where might I go ? We can compare these to the more definite questions : (71) ngana nadja mama what here brother what's here brother ? (72) ngana-gu mundju gari-nja-ra what-DAT lie tell-PRES-COMP why do you tell a lie ? (73) wandja-gadja wanardi where-like staying in what manner does he remain ? We can see that in the second set of questions a definite action is being asked about. 'There is something here, but what is it ?' This compares to the first set which ask 'if we went to have a look, what would we see ?' In questions utilising the question particle wai the wai may appear before any constituent of the question and indicates that this is the thing in question. The verb form and the rest of the sentence remains as it would in a non-questioning sentence. eg. (74) njundu-lu ga-njari-n you-ERG carry-CONT-2 Sg S you were carrying it --> njundu-lu wai ga-njari-n you-ERG QP carry-CONT-2 Sg S were you carrying it ? --> wai njundu-lu ga-njari-n QP you-ERG carry-CONT-2 sg S were you carrying it ? 5.5 Verb Phrases 5.5.1 Auxiliary Verb phrases may be formed by placing an auxiliary after the verb and this auxiliary has a meaning that may generally be translated in English as 'could'. In the data I have examples of this construction only in the negative, ie. combined with the negative particle mulal . It therefore remains uncertain whether this is an accident of the data or whether the negative is a necessary part of the construction and we could say that the combination mulal maraya actually means 'could not'. Within the verb phrase the auxiliary takes the subject - object cross-reference markers while the verb itself takes no other suffixes but what I will call a participle suffix. I have examples of verb phrases with an auxiliary in only three of the four conjugations but the form of the participle suffix is -ra for the -l-conjugation, -njara for the -ng-conjugation and -nja for the -0- conjugation. ( Note that the verb nja- 'to see' takes the augmented root njanga- before the participle suffix. This is to be expected as all other suffixes starting with -nja take the augmented root. ) Tense marking of the verb phrase is unknown as I have examples only in the past tense and there is no suffix within the verb phrases that matches past tense suffixes elsewhere. It is therefore unknown whether the auxiliary, or even the verb, would take a different form in a different tense or if tense marking is left unspecified for a verb phrase of this type. The form of the auxiliary is maraya . Some examples of how it is used are: (75) mulal muwar yinda-ra maraya not noise say-PART AUX it could not make a noise (76) barnangu-lu mulal njanga-njara maraya-djinja Barnangu-ERG not see(AUG)-PART AUX-3 Pl O Barnangu could not see them (77) mulal bunga-nja maraya not fall-PART AUX they could not make it fall The meaning of the auxiliray can be shifted to 'try to' by adding the potential suffix -ngala 'might' after the cross-reference suffixes. eg. (78) djinka-ra maraya-bula-ngala strike-PART AUX-3 Du S-might they tried to strike it Note that in this example we do not get the negative and it therefore seems likely that the lack of positive sentences above is actually an accident of the data. The form of the auxiliary is maraya and this could possibly be divided into suffixes as ma-ra-ya , ie. -ra is the continuous suffix - perhaps used here in the past tense sense ( see section 4.5.6 ) and -ya is the third person plural subject marker. This division would work perfectly for sentence (77) as this sentence has a third person plural subject and if the auxiliary were a single form maraya there would be no plural marking for the subject. However, in saying that -ya is the third person plural subject marker we run into problems in the other sentences, ie. in (75) we have a singular subject and in (76) we have this combined with the dual subject marker -bula . It, therefore, does not seem possible to divide up the auxiliary. 5.5.2 Causative I have two examples of a causative and these are both of a different construction. ie. (79) yilba-nja maraya guyi-lu throw-PART AUX animal-ERG the animal made them throw ( the spear ) (80) bara-ngu dja-rnu run-PAST put-PAST he made it run away Now in sentence (79) we have an example of a sentence with an auxiliary as described in section 5.5.1. Why this sentence with an auxiliary should be an example of a causative rather than a 'could' sentence is unknown though it is possible that the 'animal' is actually in the instrumental case here and not in the ergative ( Note that the unmarked word order is AVO and thus were this the subject we might expect it to precede the verb, as in sentence (76), whereas as an instrumental it is natural for it to follow the verb.). If this is the case we can literally translate (79) as 'they could throw ( the spear ) with the animal'. If we do not take the instrumental quite so literally we could say 'because of the animal' and this approaches the literal meaning of the sentence as the animal made them throw the spear, not by telling them to throw it, but through its actions. Sentence (80) shows a different kind of causative construction with two verb, both in the past tense, following each other. This looks very much like a compound verb with dja- as an auxiliary and the verb and tense bara-ngu acting as the pre-auxiliary element. 5.5.3 Adverbial Phrases: 5.5.3.1 Time Most adverbs in Garadjari, at least in the texts, are associated with the time of the action. Time specified may either be associated with the time of the action, with the length of the action or the time of the action with respect to another action. eg. (81) yulburu yidja wandi-nju-ngala long time (? ) stay-PAST-might he might stay for a long time (82) wunjur njangamarda-ngka ngura, wunjur yangka-rnu-bula, first Njangamarda-LOC land first hunt-PAST-3 Du S yalinj balaya yandja more there north they were first in the Njangamarda country, they hunted first then they went further north (83) manan gurga dja-rnu-bula morning arise(AUX)-PAST-3 Du S in the morning they arose 5.5.3.2 Manner Adverbs of manner are rare. We have: (84) wiridjardu nga-njari-djinja completely eat-CONT-3 Pl O he ate them all up (85) burarnu bungu-njari sprawlingly fall-CONT he fell sprawlingly (86) gunbulu yun yun-gadja garirala head bob bob-like loosely his head bobbed loosely 5.5.3.3 Place There are a few location words that do not require the locative case. eg. (87) djawa ganing dja-rnu djidja banji mouth inside put-PAST nail arm he put his fingernails inside his mouth (88) mulal dja-ya-dja-n-gu lani not come-IRR-1 Sg D-2 Sg S-PURP close don't come close to me (89) gangara dja-rnu-ya garmilja high put-PAST-3 Pl S corpse they put the corpse up high 5.5.4 Purposive Clause The purposive is formed with the purposive suffix -gu . This is added to the second verb of the sentence and may be translated as 'in order to'. It implies that the first action was carried out so that the second could be achieved. eg. (90) marndi gadjari mulal njanga-nja-gu birimala going far not see(AUG)-PRES-PURP birimala they went far away so that they would not see the birimala object Here the purposive is combined with the present tense, however, it may also be combined with the potential suffix -ngala . eg. (91) bidja ma-nja-ra nuwa ma-ngala-gu search(AUX)-PRES 1 Sg S-COMP same get-might-PURP I will search in order to perhaps get the same Note that here the second clause is tenseless ; a situation that does not occur in a single clause sentence. We also note that the second clause carries no subject cross-referencing marker, and it is thus a non-finite clause with the subject being understood from the first clause. 5.5.5 Potential Clause The potential clause is very much like the purposive clause except that it combines the future ( where the purposive has the present ot potential ) with the potential suffix -ngala . Like the purposive clause this takes its subject from the preceding clause. Semantically this differs from the purposive only in the intentions of the subject. Whereas with the purposive the subject deliberately carries out the action with the specific intention that the second action should follow, in the potential the subject carries out the first action with the knowledge or intention that the second action might follow, but the intentions are not quite so deliberate. It is thus a question of degree only in which they differ. eg. (92) miyara dja-ra-ya nja-ngku-ngala djabur wake up(AUX)-CONT-3 Pl S see-FUT-might dew they woke up so that they might see the dew (93) wardi ma-lgu-nja-ngala guyi djinga-lgu-ngala around take-FUT-1 Pl S-might animal kill-FUT-might let's go around so that we can possibly kill animals 5.6 Sentence Co-ordination Two sentences may be linked using either the verbal suffix -gudji , 'thereupon' or the particle gala , 'then'. Gala alternates with galaya which may also mean 'enough'. -gudji appears on the verb, usually the second in a sequence and indicates that the action took place upon completion of the first action, ie. (94) ginjangka ma-rnu njuma djur djur bardi-nju-gudji he take-PAST egg slide slide descend-PAST-then he took the egg and thereupon slid down Whereas -gudji is used were the second action is in some way connected to, or consequential to, the first, gala ( or galaya ) is used simply to sequence actions. It may occur sentence initially or medially between connected clauses and simply indicates that the second action took place after the first. eg. (95) barnangu yawir galaya ngurnu yawir gala marnda marnda djari-nju Barnangu escape then yonder escape then tired tired become-PAST Barnangu escaped, then flew ( escaped ) yonder, then he became tired (97) walumba lug galaya djibi bara-ngu rumbu-gardi Walumba duck then djibi run-PAST nest-ALL Walumba ducked then the djibi bird ran towards the nest Both particles, gala and galaya , may also be used in a non-connective sense. When used like this gala means 'so' or 'well'. eg. (98) gala ngayidju-lu mira gardi-gu-rna-ra so I-ERG look(AUX-CONT)-FUT-1 Sg S-COMP so, I will go look (99) gala rawari so dead well / so, he is dead Galaya means 'enough'. eg. (100) galaya mabu enough good it was good enough (101) galaya enough the end 1 Note that we would expect a second person singular object cross-reference marker here but we get nothing. As we do not get an example of the second person singular as an object elsewhere in the data, this is perhaps indicative, though not really likely, that the second person singular object cross-reference marker is actually zero. 2 Note that we do not have the ergative case here as would be expected. This is discussed in section 6.1.3. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- end of file