Erromangan Simple Sentences: Verbal Clauses

Crowley, T. (1998). An Erromangan (Sye) grammar. Oceanic Linguistics Special Publications 27: 201-204.

The basic constituent order in verbal clauses is SVO. Sentences such as the following, which
contain both nominal subjects and objects surrounded by square brackets, illustrate this pattern:

[Nompcahi] y-omol.
pig 3SG:DlSTPAST-BR:fall
'The pig fell down.'

[Ovon kuri] nduchi (<ndu-ocoh-i) [hai sanwis nmah].

PL dog 3PL:DlSTPAST-BR:see-CONST INDEF wild.boar big
'The dogs saw a big wild boar.'

Pronominal objects to unsuffixed verbs also enter into this kind of construction, for example:

[Natmonuc] y-etipe [kimi].

chief 3SG:DISTPAST-BR:appoint 2PL
'The chief appointed you all.'

Locational nouns generally do not occupy the syntactic slots of verbal subject or object. When
such nouns are associated with the semantic roles expressed by subjects or objects, they are generally -
though not obligatorily - apposed to the common generic noun nur 'place', as in:

[Hai nemetagi orog] yi-ta-i [nur Vila].

INDEF cyclone big 3SG:DISTPAST-BR:strike-CONST place Vila
'A great cyclone struck Vila.'

With suffixed verbs involving pronominal patients, there is no post-verbal object phrase, as the
object is marked by means of a verbal suffix. Compare unsuffixed etipe 'appoint' above with the suffixed
verb ta- 'strike':

[Hai nemetagi orog] yi-ta-cum.

INDEF cyclone big 3SG:DISTPAST-BR:strike-2PL
'A great cyclone struck you all.'

With pronominal subjects, the subject position is normally unoccupied, with the full load of
marking the various pronominal categories falling on the verbal prefixes. This means that a verbal clause
can consist minimally of just a verb and its accompanying subject and object affixes, for example:

Y-omol. Yi-ta-coh.
3SG:DISTPAST-BR:fall 3SG:DISTPAST-BR:strike-lPL.INCL
'It fell.' 'It struck us.'
 There is a small set of ditransitive verbs with which two unmarked noun phrases can follow the
verb. The only verbs of this type are set out in Table 1, with the semantic roles of the first and second
objects as indicated. A pronominally marked object expresses the roles listed in Table 1 under the heading
for the first object. Thus:

Y-ovog-i [Nompwat] [nvag].

3SG:DISTPAST-BR:give-CONST Nompwat food
'(S)he gave the food to Nompwat.'

Y-ovon-[oc] [nvag].
3SG:DISTPAST-BR:give-2SG food
'(S)he gave you the food.'

Yac-anpog-i [ovonyan] [hai uvuvu itetwai].

lSG:FUT-MR:tell-CONST PL:child INDEF story traditional
'I will tell the children a traditional story.'

First Object Second Object

ovog- ‘give’ RECIPIENT OBJECT GIVEN

en(u)pog- ‘tell’ RECIPIENT UTTERANCE
ovrog- ‘call’ ENTITY CALLED NAME
atovni- ‘name’ ENTITY NAMED NAME
Table 1 Ditransitive Verbs

Cuvrogi (<cu-ovrog-i) [nur ma] [Telauvat].

3PL:RECPAST-BR:call-CONST place that Telauvat
'They called that place Telauvat.'

Cw-atovni-n [nevyarep ma] [Nompwat].

3PL:RECPAST-BR:name-CONST boy that Nompwat
'They named that boy Nompwat.'

With monotransitive verbs, the recipient is expressed by the dative preposition pog-. This
preposition cannot be used with verbs belonging to the subset of ditransitive verbs. Thus, compare the
monotransitive verb tamul- 'send' in the following example:

Yi-tamul-i nvat pog-kam.

3SG:DlSTPAST-BR:send-CONST money DAT-1PL.EXCL
'(S)he sent us money.'

*Yi-tamul-cam nvat.
3SG:DlSTPAST-BR:send- 1PL.EXCL money

with the ditransitive verb ovog- 'give' in the following examples:

Y-ovog-kam nvat.
3SG:DlSTPAST-BR:give-lPL.EXCL money
'(S)he gave us money.'

*Y-ovog-i nvat pog-kam.

3SG:DISTPAST-BR:give-C0NST money DAT-1PL.EXCL

It was pointed out that no lexical constituent can appear between a transitive verb and its object.
This restriction does not hold with ditransitive verbs, however, which do allow adverbial constituents to
appear between the verb and the first object. Thus:

Yac-ampog-i marima [Nompwat] [nvag].

lSG:FUT-MR:give-CONST now Nompwat food
'I will now give Nompwat the food.'

The subject slot can be occupied by a free pronoun to express contrastive stress. However, an
active verb carrying third person plural subject marking can be used to express a non-specific agent, with
the subject slot being obligatorily empty. Sye, like many Oceanic languages, has no passive, and this
construction allows the expression of semantically agentless clauses. Thus, compare the examples just
given with the following:

Cucohcoh (cu-ocdh-coh).
3PL:RECPAST-BR:see-1PL.INCL
'We have been seen.'

Cum-amprog-i nur ma nur Telauvat.

3PL:PRES-MR:call-CONST place t hat place Telauvat
'That place is called Telauvat.'

If the independent pronoun iror 'they' occupies the subject slot, this can only be interpreted as
expressing contrastive stress with a referential subject. Thus:

Iror cucohcoh (<cu-ocdh-coh).

3PL 3PL-RECPAST-BR:see-lPL.INCL
'They saw us.'