be
a combination of the ablative and the nominative case markers, marks the
ablative case relation. The form lawno is used to mark this case relation
only when the noun concerned is an animate being. When the noun refers
to an inanimate being the form taken is lono, which again seem to be a
combination of the locative and nominative case markers. A few illustrative
examples are given below : |
| /lawno/
paye ilawno akuhu |
|
`he
got money from me’ |
| ithulù
|
|
|
ni ùye
anelawno akhic
} |
|
|
| ithulu
cenì } |
|
`we get milk from the goat’ |
paye
inailawno i e |
|
`he came from Inani’ |
|
/lono/ pa akìlono ipei
|
|
`he came out fo the house’ |
| anikaqóye
asölono iq
cenì |
|
`the
leaves fall from the tree’ etc. |
|
|
| lono is also
used in the sense of within, as in : |
| ayikhe |
lakhì
|
do
|
lono
|
iilò |
|
`come
|
within
|
an
|
hour’ |
| 1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 6 |
|
(lit.
|
clock
|
one
|
time
from come imp) |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
1
|
2
|
3
4 5
6 |
|
|
| 7-c.
Locative |
As
mentioned earlier, the locative case relation in Sema indicates the location
of an item/person. In addition, it can also stand for a direction, if
the direction/destination is a noun referring to an inanimate being. The
locative case marker is lo. This case marker does not occur with nouns
animate being class. A few illustrative examples of the use of the locative
case marker is given below : |
| niù
ye aphulo acenì |
`we live in the village’ |
| niye
alulo mla cenì |
`I work in the field’ |
| niye
kitami lulo mla cenì |
`I
work in the other field’ |
| muzothilo
atu anì |
`(there)
is a stone in the mango’ |
| aawhu
aslo
o
anì |
`the
bird is sitting on the tree’ |
|
|
Given
below are two examples of the ablative functions where the locative marker
lo is used |
|
askaye
asmunilo
cpawe |
`the
boat was tied to the shore’ |
| ikìlo
yeolò |
`come to my house’ etc. |
|
|
| (ii)
Post positions |
| In
addition to the post positions which have been discussed so far, there
are other post positions which also have the grammatical or the local
functions of the case. As far as the Sema language is concerned, such
postpositions also have the function of an adverb of place or time, i.e.,
either an adverb of place like tile `ther’ or an adverb of time
like isi `today’ can substitute the entire NP consisting of the
noun/pronoun + the postposition. Semantically they indicate a direction
which may be either vertical or horizontal. Of these the vertical ones
could be further sub-divided into two in terms of absolute direction vs.
relative direction for instance : |
| panó
ùno atukuptu sow |
`they
jump over the fence’ |
| ilhece
anì |
|
acc ye
ku´u anì |
`the
sky is above’ |
|
|
In
the pair of illustrative examples given above, the relationship of location
in vertical direction is indicated by two postpositions, viz., sow and
ku´u. It can be seen from the example that sow appeared when the
vertical direction is relative to another object, viz., atukuptu `fence’
while ku´u appeared when the vertical direction is absolute. Such
a distinction is not found in the case of horizontal direction, for instance
: |
| iphiwilo
olo |
`take
a seat near me’ |
| 1 2 3 4 |
(lit. I near stay imp) |
| |
1 2
3 4 |
ac
ithikhawno  we |
`the
dog went behind me’ |
|
1 2 3
4 |
1
4
3 2 |
| pa
alu puthasa |
`he
went through the field’ |
| 1
2 3 4 |
1 4 3
2 |
| pa
alu homxa ù |
`he
went around the field’ |
| 1
2 3
4 |
1 4 3 2 |
| pa
zbumtha
kuto mlawe |
`he
worked upto midnight’ |
| 1
2
3
4 |
1 4 3 2 |
|
|
| 3.3.
VERBS |
A
verb is the only member of the grammatical class of the verbals in Sema,
A Verb in Sema was defined as that grammatical class which on the paradigmatic
axis is capable of showing opposition in tense, modal and aspect and on
the syntagmatic axis is the nucleus of a verb phrase. Both the morphological
construction |
