| A
set of sentences showing these case relationships are given below
: |
| nom. |
ino
akģlo wś |
`I
went home’ |
| Acc. |
Ino
li ithulu |
`I
saw her’ |
| |
1
2 3 |
1
3 2 |
| Dat. |
ino
ana lakhģ li c wya |
`I
gave her a daughter’ |
| |
1
2 3 4 5 |
1
5 4 3 2 |
| Gen. |
li
kģ |
`her
house’ |
| |
1
2 |
1 2 |
| Instrumental |
ino
aks
lakhģpe li heqhi |
`I
beat her with a stick’ |
| |
1
2 3 4 5 6 |
1 6 5 4 3 2 |
| location |
niye
alulo mla ceni |
`I
work in the field’(lit. I field in do habitual) |
| |
1
2 3 4 5 |
1 2
3 4
5 |
|
|
| A
brief discussion of the individual case relationships in Sema follows: |
| 1.
Nominative : |
| The
nominative case usually indicates the subject of the sentence. In
Sema the nominative case indicates the logical subject of the sentence,
i.e., the nominative case marker is obligatorily taken by the logical
subject when the logical subject ceases to be the grammatical subject,
whereas when both the logical and grammatical subjects are identical,
the case marker may or may not be used. no marks the nominative case
relations. as in : |
| ino
akģlo wś |
`I
went home’ |
| asbono
akģ wlawya |
`the
tree damaged the house’ |
| akģye
asbono
welawya |
`the
house was damaged by the tree’ |
| niye
acno
mikiwą |
`I
was bitten by a dog’ |
|
|
| In
the last two illustrative sentences, the logical subjects were the
grammatical objects of the respective sentences. Despite that, the
logical subjects showed the nominative case relationship is otherwise
indicated by the structure of the sentence. The nominative case marker
is usually not taken in the following five situations. |
| (a)
When the noun/pronoun functioning as the subject is in construction
with the definite particle hu, as in : |
| asbohu
kusolu anģ |
`the
tree is yonder’ |
| 1
2 3 4 |
2 1 4 3 |
| anuhu
thuś anģ |
`the
child is growing’ |
|
|
| (b)
When the noun functioning as the subject is in construction with a
demonstrative adjective. as in : |
| timģ
hipaqó qhemFai |
`those
men are tall’(lit. man that (PI) tall’ |
| 1
2 3 4 |
1 2 3 4 |
|
|
| (c)
When the subject is a third person in the singular, as in : |
| li
khilamu kha |
`she
is nowhere’ |
| pa
likģ wśwya |
`he
went to her house’ |
|
|
| (d)
When the predicate is a locative verb phrase as in : |
| opu
hbile anģ |
`your
son is here’ |
panó ł
tile śwya |
`they
went there’ |
|
|
| (e)
When the subject takes a focus marker, as in : |
| niye
alulo mla cenģ |
`I
work in the field’ etc. |
|
|
| It
may be pertinent to mention a few words about the use and function
of the focus marker ye in relation to the nominative marker no. The
difference in the use of the two forms, viz., ye and no lies basically
on whether or not the noun concerned is in the focus, i.e., when a
noun or pronoun is used in a general sense, the form no is used, whereas
if the noun/pronoun concerned is to be brought to the focus, for instance,
to a query `who went’ to the house?’ if the reply need to focus that
it is I and not someone else who went to the house, the focus marker
ye rather than no is used with the pronoun for I. |
| When
a sentence is in the passive construction, the grammatical subject
invariably takes the focus marker, the nominative case marker being
taken by the logical subject, as in : |
| liye
ino hiqhewyį |
`she
was beaten by me’ |
| akģye
inaino sie |
`the
house was built by Inai’ |
| niye
acno
mikiwį |
`I
was bitten by dog’ |
| akģye
asbono
welawya |
`the
house was damaged by tree’ etc. |
|
|
