|
ami si xedu,
|
‘the cat
(proximate) cries’
|
|
cat det. cry-asp.
|
|
aki h
pido
|
‘the dog (remote)
barks’
|
|
dog det. bark-asp
|
|
s
ddu
|
‘cattle
grazes’
|
|
cattle graze-asp
|
|
aki h
paro si mi cibne
|
dog det. hen
det. acc. catch-p.t.
|
|
‘the dog caught
the hen’
|
|
|
|
tiger det. pig
det. acc. kill-p.t.
|
|
‘the tiger kiled
the pig’
|
|
|
|
| When the adjective
that follows the headnoun is present, the determiner follows the adjective. |
myu run
h
hime ako mi membne
|
man mad det.
boy one acckill-p.t.
|
|
‘the mad man
killed the boy’
|
|
|
|
| A similar difference
is maintained in interrogatives pronouns also. A suffix ‘na’ is added
to differentiate the referent from those that are in the vicinity
of the speaker. See the section on interrogative pronouns. |
The distinction
in the spatial situation is found in imperative construcitons
also. If the place of action of second person is proximate to
the speaker ‘to’ is added to the imperative verb and if the
place of action of the second person is remote ‘ e’
is added to the imperative verb. |
|
yasi bito
|
‘give water
(proximate)’
|
|
water give-det.
|
|
yasi bie
|
‘ve water (remote)’
|
|
water give-det
|
|
api
bipe
|
‘give (for)
me rice(proximate)’
|
|
rice give-pur.
|
|
|
o duyepe
|
‘drink (for)
me beer (remote)’
|
|
beer drink-det.-pur.
|
|
|
|
| Case
System |
| The case identifies
the syntactic function and the semantic role of the noun phrases in
a sentence. In Apatani, this is done through different case markers.
As mentioned already, the case signs follow the headnoun. If the adjective
is present it follows the adjective. If the determiner is present
it follows the determiner. If the numeral adjective is present, the
case sign follows it. As mentioned earlier, the case sign is treated
as a post position. When they occur with first and second persons
(singular), they are (uttered as single lexical item). The following
list gives the different case signs that are found in Apatani. |
|
Nominative
|
...
|
unmarked
|
|
Accusative
|
...
|
mi
|
|
Dative
|
...
|
mi
|
|
Locative
|
...
|
o
|
|
Instrumental
|
...
|
lo
|
|
Purposive
|
...
|
pa...
|
|
Genetic
|
...
|
ka/k
|
|
|
