| independent structurally
but semantically it co-ordinates with another independent clause
of the sentence. Some connectives are used to indicate this co-ordination
in a sentence between two clauses. |
| 3.2.1.
Principal clauses: |
| Principal clauses
in Mundari are of two main types, depending upon whether they take
verb roots or not. The first type which takes a verb root has two
subtypes e.g., with transitive or with intransitive root. A transitive
clause will take transitive verb roots, intransitive will take the
intransitive and the copulative clauses will take no verb roots,
rather they will have some form of coupla in order to relate the
subject with its attribute. All the three types of clauses have
some primary, secondary and optional elements. |
| 3.2.1.1.
Transitive principal clauses: |
| The primary elements
structured in the verb phrase have the following composition and
order: |
|
R+V+M+O1/O2+T+C+S or R+V+M+T+O1/O2+C+S
|
| Where R=root, V=voice,
M=mood, O1=direct object, O2=indirect object, C= f.v.m. (i.e. constant)
/a/ and phrase, but the order or elements in respect to each other
is fixed as above. Two alternatives in the order depend upon the
tenses used. Tense markers for transitive roots inveriably take
/d/ in the final position, which however is subject to morphophonemic
changes. The subject in pronominal micro form is suffixed to the
verb phrase after copulative /a/, with the following exceptions: |
(a) Where
the verb phrase is preceded by an y other word or phrase, the subject
is suffixed to the preceding word, as in /kai
omama / ‘I will not give you’ |
| (b) Where
imperfect tenses with /taiken/ are formed, the pronominal subjects
may optionally precede /taiken/ in the verb phrase, as in - |
|
omkadaetaikena ‘he has given
to . . . (not yet returened)’
|
|
alternatively with /omakadtaikenae/
|
| The verb phrase
does not take any marker for the object, that is , it is marked
by zero in case of its being inanimate, for example: |
oma?kiako
|
‘they gave
(it) to two (persons)’
|
|
jomnujadam?
|
‘have you
taken meals?’
|
|
|
| In case of the
animate objects, their positions vary in the following way within
the verb phrase: |
| a) in the
tenses marked by /tan/ and /tan-taiken/, the object is inserted
after the root and before the tense marker as in dalitanae
‘he beats me’. |
| b) in other
tense, the objects are inserted after the tense marker. |
| c) in other
imperfects, the objects stand between the usual tense marker and
the imperfect marker /taiken/. |
| Objects may be
either direct or indirect. Problem arises when both of them are
animate. The verb phrase in Mundari takes only one of the objects,
the other will stand apart with appropriate case marker before the
verb phrase. Otherwise, there will be an ambiguity and it cannot
be decided whether the inserted object is direct or indirect as
in the following example: |
|
lelja?iae
‘he has seen me’ or ‘he has seen for me’
|
| However, there
are certain situations, where indirect objects are marked by the
prefix /a/, in contrast to direct objects within the phrase: |
| (a) in the
tense, indeterminate or future, marked by Ę,
as in /omapeaiN/ ‘I shall
give (it) to you (plural)’ |
| (b) in simple
past with /ked/, as in /lelkedkoae/ ‘he saw (it) for them’. |
