1. The NP immediately dominated by S is the subject and
the nP immediately dominated by VP is the object.
1.
aiŋ
moyon
haŋa
aku-ke-iŋ
sa?p - k-i - a
I
one
tall
robber-case-PT
catch-past-cop
‘I caught a tall robber’
In this sentence aiŋ
is the NP which is immediately dominated by S. moyon haŋa akukeiŋ
is the object of the sentence, which is immediately dominated by VP.
2. The subject may be grammatical subject or a logical subject. This kind
of distinction may be seen in the active and passive sentences.
2.
aiŋ
haia-ke
om - l-i - iŋ
I
fish-case
eat-past-PT
‘I ate fish’
3.
am
toa
nu?u - l - a - m
You
milk
drink-past-cop-PT
‘You drank milk’
4.
ako
baba
ir - l - a - ko
they
paddy
reap-past-cop-PT
‘They reaped paddy’
The above sentences are active sentences. The subject of
these sentences aiN, am, and ako are
grammatical subjects as well as logical subjects.
The following sentences are passive constructions for
the above-mentioned active sentences.
5.
haia
aiŋ-te
jom - len - a
fish
I-case
eat-past
participle-cop
‘The fish was eaten by me
’
6.
toa
am - te
nu?u-len - a
milk
you-case
drink-pp-cop
‘The milk was drunk by you’
7.
baba
ako-te
ir-len - a
paddy
they-case
reap-pp-cop
‘The paddy was reaped by them’
The constituents of the above passive sentences, haia,
baba and toa are the grammatical subjects and the constituents aiŋte, amte and akote
are the logical subjects.
i?
- k-i - a
am
haŋa
a-ke
