| 2.
Accusative case : |
| A
noun/pronoun in the accusative is said to be affected by the action
or state identified by the verb. Functionally, the accusative marks
the object. If the verb is a diatransitive one, the accusative marks
the direct object. This relationship is not available when the predicate
is a locative verb or an intransitive one. |
| Though
there is no overt marker in Sema to indicate the accusative case,
both a noun and a pronoun can show the accusative case relationship.
In Sema, this case relationship is expressed by the place of occurrence
of the noun/pronoun concerned. When the first or second person pronoun
in the singular shows the accusative case relation, an oblique form
without the initial consonant of the respective pronoun appears, i.e.,
the lone vowel being prefixed without pause to the principal verb
of the sentence. Either a single noun or a noun phrase could show
the accusative case relation, but in either instance no inflection
is taken. In a sentence, the noun/pronoun in the accusative immediately
precedes the principal verb of the sentence. A few illustrative examples
of the occurrence of some nouns/pronouns in the accusative are give
below : |
| ino
ilimģ lakhģ ithulu |
`I
saw a girl’ |
| ino
isi ilimģ lakhģ ithulu |
`I
saw a girl today’ |
| 1
2 3 4 5 |
1
5 4 3 2 |
| niye
akģ sie |
`I
built the house’ |
| acöno
imikiwą |
`the
dog bit me’ |
ac no
ni ł
mikiwą |
`dog
bit us’ |
| asbono
akģ welawya |
`the
tree damaged the house’ |
| ino
oithulu |
`I
saw you (sg)’ |
| ino
nokozu ithulu |
`I
saw you (dual)’ |
| li
iithulu |
`she
saw me’ |
|
|
| The
illustrative examples given above are of the verbs in the active voice.
It can be seen form the examples given above that both the noun and
the pronoun, functioning as the object of the verb occur immediately
preceding the verb and if the VP having the societies case relationship
may however, be postponed to another noun/pronoun in the accusative,
as in : |
| niye
asi lisas
cśwya } |
|
| niye
lisas
asi cśwya } |
`I
ate meat with her’ |
|
|
| Thus
when the sentence is in the active, the characteristic features of
a noun/pronoun in the accusative in the Sema are : |
| (i)
Its occurrence immediately before the verb and |
| (ii)
Its shape, viz., the uninflected form of the noun/pronoun, (the I
and II person pronoun in the singular, however, show a form without
the initial consonant). |
|
It would be seen presently, that these conditions change when the
sentence is in the passive. The changes affected involve both the
place of occurrence as well as the shape of the noun/pronoun in the
accusative. These are : |
| (i)
A noun/pronoun showing the accusative relation of a sentence in the
passive in addition to becoming the grammatical subject of the sentence,
takes the focus marker ye. |
(ii)
Both the I and II person pronoun in the singular show the full form
along with the focus marker ye, instead of the lone vowel occurring
in an active sentence.
A few illustrative sentences are given below : |
| liye
ino heqhewą |
`she
was beaten by me’ |
| akģye
inaino sie |
`the
house was built by Inai’ |
| niye
acno
mikiwą |
`I
was bitten by a dog’ |
| akiye
asbono
welawą |
`the
house was damaged by the tree’ etc. |
|
|
| 3.
Dative case |
| The
dative case relationship is associated with the act of giving. The
most typical function of the dative case is that of the recipient,
i.e., an animate being passively implicated by the happening of or
state. In other words, it marks the indirect object. The dative case
relationship occurs only with a limited number of words, viz., diatransitive
verbs. As far as the Sema language is concerned, this relationship
is shown only by the nouns animate being class. |
| The
dative case relationship in Sema is unmarked, i.e., just as in the
case of the accusative, the dative case relationship is also marked
syntactically by the particular place it takes within the VP, a noun/pronoun
in the dative is invariably pre-posed to the noun/pronoun showing
the accusative relation, but an adverb forming a constituent of the
same VP might be pre-posed or post-posed to the noun/pronoun in the
dative relationship. A few illustrative sentences are given below.
|
