SYNTAX & SEMANTICS - Rice Universitypwd/sands06.pdf · FOCUS: PALAUAN 3 (b) *Ng-kiltmekl-ii a Peter a ulaol [3.Sg-clean-3.Sg Peter floor] If the EVENT/Verb is a ditransitive one,

Chapter 6

The Constitution of FOCUS: Palauan

1. IntroductionWe have examined two Verb initial languages (Bella Coola & Yogad) and

found them to be, in fact, FOCUS initial with a strong preference forassociating FOCUS with the EVENT/Verb. In Haida, we have found thatmarking FOCUS initially does not require the language also to be Verb initial.Wolof also uses sentence initial position for placing its strongest FOCUS, but itwould seem to be SVO if assigned to some word order class.

2. Palauan Preliminaries1

1 Georgopoulos (1991.21) writes, “Palauan is spoken in the Republic of Palau, a cluster of200 beautiful islands in the Western Carolines of the Pacific. Palau is located about 800 milessouthwest of Guam, 600 miles east of the Philippines, 1890 miles south of Tokyo, and 4500miles west-southwest of Honolulu ... Palauan is a member of the Western Austronesianlanguage family ... Palauan has about 17,000 speakers, of whom about 80% live in theRepublic of Palau.”

Information on Palauan comes from several primary sources. The richest collection ofPalauan remains Josephs’ (1975) Palauan Reference Grammar. Lemaréchal (1991), who,like me, has not done fieldwork on Palauan and who likewise draws heavily from Josephs(1975), describes that work as a “véritable mine d’exemples ... Nous lui emprunteronspresque tous nos exemples” (11). Preceding Josephs’ work on Palauan, Arthur Capell was inPalau “from November 1947 to February 1948, inclusive” (Capell 1949.1 and Josephs1990.li) and produced a 75 page report entitled A Grammar of the Language of Palau. Thecopy of Capell’s Grammar that I consulted had the original legal sized pages cut in halfcrosswise before being bound. The pages are unnumbered. When I refer to this source below,I will reference the physical pages counting from the “Prefatory Note” as page 1. CarolGeorgopoulos’ 1985 UC San Diego dissertation, The Syntax of Variable Binding in Palauan,derives from work on Palauan done between 1981 and 1985 in San Diego with visits to Palauin 1984 and 1985. The dissertation was published as Georgopoulos (1991). Robert Gibsonproduced a 1993 University of Hawaii dissertation, Palauan Causatives and Passives: Anincorporation analysis. Gibson’s contact with Palauan began “in a field methods class taughtat the University of Hawai‘i at Manoa by Lewis Josephs, and continu[es] ... to the present[1993] ...” (Gibson 1993.5). Hagège (1986), La Langue Palau: Une curiosité typologique, isbased on six weeks’ fieldwork from mid-September to the end of October, 1976 (Hagège1986.14): “Il a consisté en une série d’enquêtes ponctuelles destinées à élucider les faitsinsuffisamment traités et a résoudre les problèmes demeurés en suspens dans les ouvrages[précedants] ...” Hagège’s 133 page grammar has the first 98 devoted to phonetics,(morpho)phonology, and morphology. The 35 pages on syntax is based on approximately129 cited sentences. There has been other work on Palauan (cf. Hagège 1986.13-14,Georgopoulos 1985.30-32), but these are now the most important sources for data on Palauan

2 SYNTAX & SEMANTICS

We turn now to consider FOCUS in a third Verb-initial language. Palauanhas been described as being VOS, but it has a second grammaticalorganization to its utterances that depends upon the presence of a (see sections5 and 6 below). (Georgopoulos 1986.187):2

(1) (a) T-oltoir a katu a beap[3.Pl-chase cat mice]‘The mice are chasing the cats’

(b) T-oltoir a katu a beap[3.Pl-chase cat mice]

%‘The cats are chasing the mice’

(2) (a) Ng-kiltmekl-ii a ulaol a Peter[3.Sg-clean-3.Sg floor Peter]‘Peter cleaned the floor’

grammar. I have also consulted Tkel-Sbal’s (1996) Conversational Palauan, intended, as thetitle suggests, for language instruction. It consists of model conversations and exchanges andcontains no descriptive comments on the language.

As far as I can determine, there are only two short texts published. They are in Hagège(1986). Other work on Palauan ethnography are Smith (1983) and Parmentier (1987).

2 There are some differences in the transcriptions among the workers on Palauan. Josephs(1975.4) uses ch to note a glottal catch whereas Georgopoulos (1986) will use '. Josephs(1975.19) projects a schwa for Palauan in a six vowel system including i, u, e, o, and a. theschwa is written as . He observes (19 & 21) that “The Palauan vowel e has a very restricteddistribution, since it occurs only in unstressed syllables ... Because e therefore results from(or is derived from) any of the full vowels, some linguists would argue that it is not aseparate phoneme but merely one of the allophones of each of the full vowels.”Georgopoulos (1991.23) reports that “The Palauan orthography employs letterscorresponding to phonetic symbols in most cases. The inter-dental consonants arerepresented by d and t, the velar nasal by ng, and the glottal stop by ch. / / and /e/ are notdistinguished orthographically.” Georgopoulos follows the orthography in not distinguishinga schwa from other vowels. Lemaréchal (1991.21-23) reviews the vocalic alternations andthen employs the same notation as Josephs (1975). Hagège (1986) produces still anotherorthography. His phonological analysis distinguishes six short vowels (including schwa), andall except schwa are paired with a long equivalent (19). His consonantal system (16) consistsof b, m, , t, s, r, rr , l, ll , k, , and .

Rather than trying to resolve the practices among researchers, I shall cite forms as thevarious authors have written them. I have, however, on occasion, modified the second line ofgrammatical glosses. Where the Palauan lexical items have not been glossed in the originalsources (e.g. Josephs 1975), I have entered an English equivalent, and where the English isnot apparent, I have consulted Josephs (1990). I have also parsed the verb forms trying toidentify inflectional affixes, but I have passed over derivational morphemes, e.g. bail‘clothes’ and oubail ‘to wear clothes’. Finally, I consistently gloss arbitrarily as‘Linker’ and e as ‘and’. The element a is unglossed. See section 5.

FOCUS: PALAUAN 3

(b) *Ng-kiltmekl-ii a Peter a ulaol [3.Sg-clean-3.Sg Peter floor]

If the EVENT/Verb is a ditransitive one, e.g. msa ‘give’ or ‘teach’,either order of objects is possible (Josephs 1975.347):

(3) (a) Ak-mil-sa a Helen a molange[1st.Sg-give-3rd.Sg. Helen souvenir]‘I gave Helen a souvenir’

(b) Ak-mil-sa a molange a Helen[1st.Sg-give-3rd.Sg. souvenir Helen]‘I gave a souvenir to Helen’

The Object agreement, where present, is with the first object:

(4)[1st.Sg-will-give-2nd.Sg money]‘I’m going to give you some money’

The Direct Object, when not immediately after the Verb as in (3a), must notoccur with (the one Palauan preposition) and it must be indefinite. TheIndirect Object, if not immediately after the Verb, should be singular. Theplural Indirect Object following the Direct Object (Josephs 1975.348) is“rather awkward ... which some Palauan speakers accept, but others reject ...”

For utterances which are V initial, Palauan is mostly VOS, and this placesPalauan in a typological minority.3 But does the oddity originate in the S or

3 Georgopoulos (1986.194) observes that “... subjects in Palauan are ordered rigidly withrespect to objects ..., but they may occur either before or after oblique phrases.” With respectto the OS ordering, Georgopoulos (1985.49) notes that

It appears that sentences with VSO order are marginally acceptable, when noambiguity of the grammatical role of the NPs is possible. Some speakers do notaccept VSO sentences at all.

Capell (1949.53) writes, “The object normally follows the verb, either directly after atransitive form, or indirectly with er after an intransitive,” but his first example of a transitiveclause (50) is:

(i) ng-milmés a ngálek er a bilis[3rd.Sg-see boy Prep dog]


the O or in both? That is, is it the S which is strange for falling after VO __, oris it the O which is unusual because it appears in V__S? Or can we tell?Consider these utterances involving additional constituents (Georgopoulos1986.194 and Georgopoulos 1991.45):

(5) (a) Ng-'illebed-ii a buik a sensei[3.Sg-hit-3.Sg boy teacher

er askuul el oba a kerrekarPrep school Linker use stick]

‘The teacher hit the boy with a stick’

(b) Ng-'illebed-ii a buik er a skuul[3.Sg-hit-3.Sg boy school

a sensei el oba a kerrekarteacher Linker use stick]


(c) Ng-'illebed-ii a buik er a skuul[3.Sg-hit-3.Sg boy school

el oba a kerrekar a senseiLinker use stick teacher]


(d) ng-milsa a Sabeth[3.Sg-see(give) Sabeth]‘Sabeth saw (gave) something’

(e) *Ng-'illebed-ii a sensei a buik er a skuul el obaa kerrekar

(f) * Ng-'illebed-ii el oba a kerrekara buik a senseier a skuul

Without, for the moment, knowing more about what the semantics of wordorder may be in Palauan, the unacceptability of (2b) and (5e)/(5f), plus thegloss of (1b), indicate that any strictness in the sequencing of terms in V__centers upon the O. That is, when the Transitive O is manifest by a Noun, itmust occur immediately after the Verb. There is no other option. When the

‘The boy saw the dog’

FOCUS: PALAUAN 5

transitive Object a buik ‘boy’ follows the Verb in (5), it must follow the Verbdirectly. The Transitive Agent sensei ‘teacher’, however, demonstrates somefreedom in where it can appear: either just after the Transitive O, or after theprepositional phrase er a skuul, or after the instrumental expression el oba akerrekar, or right after the Verb itself when there is no overtly expressedTransitive O as in (5d). It just cannot usurp the immediately post-verbalposition from the Transitive O.

3. Palauan Verb a YThe syntax of sentences (1) - (5) takes the shape Verb a Y, where the Verb

has at least an agreement marker for the S and the content following the Verbis initiated with an a. There may be multiple occurrences of the a Y as well asprepositional phrases introduced by er. Verb a Y is an abbreviation for all thatvariety. The semantics of the Verb-initial grammar effectively selects theinflected EVENT/Verb itself as the FOCUSED element, and when other content,not preceded by a, replaces a lexical EVENT/Verb, that content assumes thesemantics of FOCUS. Capell (1949.50-51) reports the following of the initialEVENTS/Verbs:

In the following questions and answers, the emphasis lies in the question onthe interrogative word, which thus comes first, and in the answer on the action, sothat the verb comes first:

Ngará ke dmung? Dimlák kdu ngaráng. What did you say? I didn’t sayanything.

Ngará 'l dilúng? Ngulegér er a nglam. What did he say? He asked yourname.

Ngará is the interrogative (cf. below). Dimlák kdu is the negative verbalexpression ‘I didn’t say ...’, and Ng-ulegér is the third person singular of ‘ask’.Both the questioning form and the answer to it alternately occupy initialposition.

Hagège (1986.102) concurs with Capell’s interpretation of the initial Verbin Verb a Y. Writing of the Palauan ‘Your friend hascome’, Hagège says:

... [le pronom] «il» est développable, et cela donne un énoncé qui équivaut à unénoncé français comme il est venu, ton ami, où ton ami, expansion de il , suit est

venu, alors que il ne peut, à l’affirmatif, que le précéder. Cette expansion qui suit

le prédicat est à considére comme un rappel thématique du sujet il . Il s’agit, en

effet, d’une portion d’énoncé qui n’apporte pas d’information nouvelle, mais


rappelle ce dont il est question ici, à savoir, dans l’exemple, ton ami, élementd’information qui appartient déjà soit à la situation soit au contexte linguistique

précédent, et dont le rhème est venu dit quelque chose qui représente l’information

principale.

Hagège’s rhème, ng-mla mei in this example, is the equivalent of FOCUS, here,and it constitutes the principle information of the utterance (“représentl’information principale”). 4

Josephs (1975.412), in his “derived by the process” mode of description,characterizes the semantics of the Verb a Y form of the wh-question ascarrying the “connotation of exhaustiveness” (415):5

... since a question containing ‘who?’ asks for the exhaustive identity of theperson or persons involved in a particular event, action, etc., then it is only naturalthat is whould be derived [sic] from a source sentence which has this veryconnotation ...

Forgetting the derivation part, it is clear that the initial wh-words have thestigma of FOCUS.

As we have just seen, Verb a Y is commonly employed to ask wh-questions. The question word ‘who’ or ‘what’ is placed initially and isinflected as the Verb (Georgopoulos 1991.88 & 1986.192), Josephs 1975.412& 416) and Tkel-Sbal 1996.54 & 122):

(6) (a) ng-ngera a le-silseb-ii a se'elil[3rd.Sg-what 3.Sg.IRR-burn-3rd.Sg friend-his]‘What did his friend burn?’

(b) ng-te'a a kileld-ii a sub[3rd.Sg-who heat-3rd.Sg soup]‘Who heated up the soup?’

4 We must enter a cautionary note that instead of placing a Palauan utterance in the contextof other Palauan utterances in order to elucidate it, Hagège relies rather heavily on the Frenchglosses. We have seen in Chapter 1, in the discussion of Makah, that this can be a danger.

5 Georgopoulos (1991.73) suggests “a more literal gloss” for (6b), ‘It is who that heated upthe soup?’

FOCUS: PALAUAN 7

(c) ng-te'a a l-ulekod-ir a rubak[3rd.Sg-kill 3rd.Sg.IRR-kill-3rd.Sg old.man]‘Who did the old man kill?’

(d) ng-ngera el rum a lulngetmoki[3rd.Sg-what Linker room IR-3-IM-clean

er ngii a WillyPrep it Willy]

‘Which room did Willy clean up?’

(7) (a) Ng- a sensei kau[3.Sg-who teacher Prep you]‘Who is your teacher?’

(b)[3rd.Sg-who go Prep party]‘Who went to the party?’

(c)[3rd.Sg-who 2nd-Sg-see Prep party]‘Who did you see at the party?’

(8) (a) Ng-techa a outelau[3rd.Sg-who wear.earrings]‘Who is wearing earrings?’

(b) Ng-ngara a urer-el a sensei[3rd.Sg-what job-his/her teacher]‘What is the job of a teacher?’

3.1 Pronoun a YWhen the response to a wh-query is a personal Pronoun, the answer

follows the syntax of the question, i.e. the Pronoun occurs sentence initially(Josephs 1975.81):

(9) (a) Ng- a mo a stoang[3.Sg-who go Prep store]‘Who is going to the store?’


(b) A Droteo ng-mo

(c) Ngak a mo a stoang[I go Prep store]‘ ’m going to the store’

(d) Ak-mo a stoang[I-go Prep store]‘ ’m góing to the store’

And although Josephs (1975.78f.) calls forms such as ngak in (9c) ‘emphatic’

Non-emphatic Emphatic

1 ak kede (Incl) ngak kid (Incl) aki (Excl) kemam (Excl)

2 ke kom kau kemiu3 ng te ngii tir

Table 1: Palauan pronouns.

(cf. Table 1 and Josephs 1975.79), he (1975.80) remarks:

In ... [(9a), the questioner] assumes that (or knows) that from a certain group ofpeople, one person is going to the store; his question ... asks for the identity of thatone person. [The answer] uses the emphatic pronoun ngak ... to emphasize the factthat it is he himself (and not Droteo or Toki, or anyone else who might be around)who is going to the store. In other words, the use of an emphatic pronoun assubject [i.e. initially, pwd] implies a contrast (or opposition) between the personwho actually perform [sic] some activity and any other persons who might beavailable to perform it but who for some reason do not. This kind of contrastiveemphasis is indicated in the pronunciation of the English equivalent ... by anespecially strong stress on the subject pronoun (the accent mark is used to pointthis out).

Sentence (9c) is also appropriate to correct a mistaken expectation asexpressed in (9b).6 The form Ng diak ‘No’ answers (9b), which is then

6 Josephs (1975.81) notes that a shorter response is possible:

FOCUS: PALAUAN 9

followed by (9c). Sentence (9d), although an acceptable Palauan utterance,does not respond appropriately to (9a) or (9b).7

3.2 Demonstrative a Y

In addition to Verbs, interrogative wh-words, and answering/correcting‘emphatic’ Pronouns, that occur initially in the Verb a Y template, a fourthsemantic class of forms may appear initially in the Verb a Y model:Demonstratives. Of Demonstratives (Josephs 1975.465-466):

Palauan has a special group of words which speakers use when they wish to pointout or draw attention to a particular person, animal, or things. Suchdemonstrative words ... are used in simple (equational) sentences ...

The Demonstratives are not preceded by a, and like ‘emphatic’ Pronouns, theydo not accept the inflection of Verbs (Josephs 1975.466):

(10) (a) Tia a olechesek[this pencil]‘This is my pencil’

(b) Se a blil a Droteo[that house Droteo]‘That is Droteo’s house’

(i) Ng-ngak[3rd.Sg-me]‘It’s me’

or ‘ am’. The inflection is optional.

7 Although Josephs does not explicitly say so, his description implies that the Verb a Ystructure

(i) Ng-mo a Droteo er a stoang[3rd.Sg-go Droteo Prep store]‘Droteo went to the store’

is not a proper answer to (9a).


(c) Ngka kid a Droteo[this.person Droteo]‘Here is Droteo’8

The inherent content of the demonstratives is “point out” or “draw attentionto” ... when used initially, and they occur in initial position as answers in theway of the ‘emphatic’ Pronouns (Tkel-Sbal 1996.138):

(11) (a) Ng-ngar er ngii a beot[3rd.Sg-be Prep 3rd.Per cheap

a cher-al er tiang price-its Prep this]

‘Is there a cheap one?’9

(b) Ng-diak. Tiai kid a kot[3rd.Sg-not.exist.this most

el beot a cher-alLinker cheap price-its]

‘No. Thís is the cheapest’

Compare the pairing of (11a) with (11b) to that of (9b) with (9c).

3.3 Inflected Noun a YIn addition to responses composed of ‘emphatic’ Pronouns and

Demonstratives, we find that Nouns, as well, can occupy the sentence-initialposition as an answer (Tkel-Sbal 1996.47, 88, 78):

(12) (a) Se ngarang[this what]‘What is this (pointing to head of a third person)?’

(b) Ng-bdel-ul[3rd.Sg-head-his/her]‘It’s his/her head’

8 “The word kid is added to an equational sentence when the speaker wishes to emphaticallypoint out the location of someone or something” (Josephs 1975.522).

9 Ng-ngar er ngii is a fixed Palauan expression for existence: ‘there is/are’ (Josephs1975.281-283).

FOCUS: PALAUAN 11

(13) (a) Tiang ngarang[this what]‘What is this?’

(b) Ng-kob[3rd.Sg-cup]‘It’s a cup’

(14) (a) Ng-tela a tuangeler[3rd.Sg-how.many door

a klas kemiuclassroom you.Pl]

‘How many doors are there in your classroom?’

(b) Ng-teblong a tuangeler a klas kemam[3rd.Sg-two door classroomour]‘There are two doors in our classroom’

Even Josephs (1975.43, 494) has such examples:

(15)[3rd.Sg-room Prep Pl-teacher]‘It’s the teachers’ room’

(b)[3rd.Sg-Toki or Droteo]‘It is Toki or Droteo’

It is clear that Palauan Nouns can accept verbal inflection, and that theyfunction as FOCUSED content in that usage. Georgopoulos (1991.66-67)corroborates this grammar:10

(16) (a) ng-'oboku-k a mla merng-ii[3rd.Sg-brother-my PST hit-3rd.Sg.

a se'eli-kfriend-my]

‘It’s my older brother who has hit my friend’

10 Georgopoulos (1991.66) identifies these forms as “pseudoclefts”.


(b) ng-se'el-ik a bla le-berng-ii[3rd.Sg-friend-my PST hit-3rd.Sg.

a 'oboku-kbrother-my]

‘It’s my friend who my older brother who has hit’

but there is no report that the response to a question such as (6b), Ng-te'a akileld-ii a sub ‘Who heated up the soup?’ can be Ng-sensei a kileld-ii a sub‘(The) teacher heated up the soup’, although we may expect it as a possibleanswer.

4. Palauan FOCUS: A Second DegreeThe wh-question words introduced in section 3 have all occurred in

sentence initial position, and in that usage that have an accrued sense of‘emphasis’ (Capell 1949.50-51) or ‘exhaustiveness’ (Josephs 1975.415). Thesame question words have an alternate syntactic position in which they appearin the same location in which their non-interrogative congeners would occur:one question that is identified with sentence-initial position and a second, thatis signaled by content in situ.11 Georgopoulos (1986.194-195) writes:

WH-words need not appear clause initially, or question initially, but may be foundin situ — in whatever argument position they would normally occupy ... In fact,question words may be found in situ in all NP positions ...

4.1 Alternative questioning in PalauanGeorgopoulos (1986.194 & 1991.69) provides these examples in which

an S is questioned by placing the wh-question word in the appropriate post-verbal position;

(17) (a) ng-rirebet er tebel a ngerang[3rd.Sg-fall Prep table what]‘What fell off the table?’

(b) ng-ngilmed-ii a ulaol a te'ang[3rd.Sg-clean-3rd.Sg floor who]‘Who cleaned up the floor?’

11 For example, “... the question word ‘who?’ merely occupies the position normallyoccupied by sentence objects...” (Josephs 1975.416).

FOCUS: PALAUAN 13

(c) ng-osiik er ngak a te'ang[3rd.Sg-look.for Prep I who]‘Who is looking for me?’

Alternate questiong of the O is similarly possible (Josephs 1975.416, 419):

(18) (a) Ng-techa a cho-milsa er a party[3rd.Sg-who 2nd.Sg-see Prep party]‘Whom did you see at the party?’

(b) Ke-milsa a techa er a party[2nd.Sg-see whom Prep party]‘Whom did you see at the party?’

(19) (a) Ngara ng-mirruul a Droteo[what 3rd.Sg-do/make Droteo]‘What did Droteo do/make?’

(b) Ng-mirruul a ngara a Droteo[3rd.sg-do/make what Droteo]‘What did Droteo do/make?

Georgopoulos (1986.69) provides (20a) to which Josephs (1975.416) adds(20b):

(20) (a) ng-omele'a a ngera er a mlai a Sabeth[3rd.Sg-put what Prep car Sabeth]‘What is Sabeth putting in the car?’

(b)[2nd.Sg-wait Prep who]‘Whom are you waiting for?’

There are examples of other functions being questioned in this way(Josephs 1975.417, 419-421):

12 ”When preceded by the specifying word or the relational word , the question word ‘who?’ cannot be introduced by a. The reason for this restriction is unclear.” (Josephs

1975.519).


(21) (a)[3rd.Sg-use what Toki Linker cut

Prep meat]‘What did Toki use to cut the meat?’

(b)[3rd.Sg-die Prep what]‘What did he die from?’

(c) Tia a ngarang

[this what]‘What is this?’

(d)[2nd.Sg-carry book Prep who]‘Whose book do you have?’

Time and Space have similar interrogative expressions (Josephs 1975.80-81 & 426):

(22) (a)[2nd.Sg-go Prep where]‘Where are you going?’

(b)[2nd.Sg-see friend-my Prep when]‘When did you see my friend?’

Time joins Space in “usually” occurring in sentence-final position (Josephs1975.425).13 Content expressing Space — both question and answer — neveroccurs initially.14

13 Ker ‘where?’ “always appears in a relational phrase in sentence-final position” (Josephs1975.424), and oingara ‘when?’ “usually appears in sentence-final position as part of therelational phrase er oingara ‘when?’” (Josephs 1975.435).

14 Josephs (1975.424) states, “This question word [ker ‘where?’], which cannot beintroduced by a, always appears in a relational phrase in sentence-final position.”Georgopoulos (1991.70 & 85), however, has:

FOCUS: PALAUAN 15

The scattered comments by Josephs (1975) suggest a covert pattern interms of the propensity of content to occur in questioned form in sentence-initial position or in its normal declarative position. As noted above, Josephssees the contents of Time and Space in their questioned forms as having apropensity for occurrence in final position. In complementary fashion, thecontent of S seems to prefer initial postion when questioned, and to appear inquestion form post-verbally either not at all or less so (Josephs 1975.412):

If we try to explain the sentences of ... [(7b), (8a), (9a), etc.] in a superficial, non-technical way, we might say that ‘who?’ must be preceded by ng insentence-initial position when a question is being asked about the identity of thesentence subject.

Additionally, Josephs cites no wh-questions of the form (17), thatGeorgopoulas includes.15 There is implicit in this a declining affinity ofcontent for initial FOCUSED position when questioned:

S < O & others < Time/space

Figure 1: The presence of FOCUS in propositional functions.

That is, S is the most difficult to question. It is inherently the least FOCUS-likefunction and requires the semantics of initial position to facilitate its

(i) ng-ker a le-bilsk-au a buk er ngii a Ruth[3rd.Sg-where 3rd.Sg.IR-give-2nd.Sg book Prep it Ruth]‘Where did Ruth give you the book?’

(ii) ng-oingerang a ‘o-bomerek el me-lu'es er a babileng-em[3rd.Sg-when 2nd.Sg.IR-finish Linker write Prep paper-2nd.Sg]‘When will you finish writing your paper?’

15 Tkel-Sbal (1996), which is an instruction manual in Palauan built solidly on askingquestions and answering them, has ample examples of non-initial wh-word questions, butnone on the model of Georgopoulos’ (17). Tkel-Sbal (1996.127) contains the question:

(i) Tiang ngarang[this what]‘What is this?’

but none with an initial Verb, e.g. méi ‘arrive’ or omúkel ‘cut down’.Notice that (31b) below has the wh-question word in non-initial position, but that example

is not parallel to (17) and is not an example of a wh-questioned S in non-initial positionbeing discussed here. Sentence (31b) falls into another kind of pattern, one in which theEVENT may be initial — the (a)-sentence of (31) — or non-initial — the (b)-sentence, i.e. a YVerb. Cf. section 4.2


questioning. Time/Space in themselves have an absence of precision thatpermits them to appear comfortably as questions without occurring initially.Unlike S’s, they do not require augmentation of the semantics of initialposition to achieve interrogation. The functions of O and others areintermediate in this context, accepting either expression.

4.2 The Semantics of Non-initial PositionThe semantics of the contrast between the two forms of wh-questions is

only obliquely addressed by Josephs and the others. We might expect thecontrast of initial and non-initial wh-questions to parallel the contrast of othercontents which can occur initially as well as non-initially.

The ‘emphatic’ pronouns constitute such an example since they may occureither initially or non-initially. When the ‘emphatic’ Pronouns appear outsidesentence-initial position, they lose the ‘emphasis’ (Josephs 1975.84):

(24) Ke-melasem er ngak?[2nd.Sg-challenge Prep 1st.Sg]‘Are you challenging me?’

Josephs (1975.85) remarks “although we have been speaking of the emphaticpronouns in object position [as in (24)], the specific pronoun objects ... do notseem to have the implication of contrastive emphasis which we observed foremphatic pronouns in subject position [i.e. sentence-initial position such as(9c) since Josephs believes that Palauan is essentially SVO].” This, of course,again isolates initial position itself as being the mark of ‘emphasis’, or FOCUS,not the pronoun itself, nor, for that matter, anything else that can appearinitially. There seems to be no content that must be invariably sentence-initialwhen it is present.

Secondly, the class of Demonstratives shares the dual syntactic possibilityexhibited by the ‘emphatic’ Pronouns. We saw in sentences (10) and (11) insection 3.2 that the Demonstratives occur initially “to point out or drawattention to a particular person, animal, or things.” This ‘pointing out’ and‘drawing attention to’ is the contribution of the grammar of sentence-initialposition alone since the same demonstrative forms appear outside thatposition, and in that non-initial occurrence, they lack such ‘pointing out’ and‘drawing attention to’ (Josephs 1975.46 & 470):

FOCUS: PALAUAN 17

(25) (a) a Toki a milil er sei[ Toki play Linker there]‘Toki is playing there’

(b) Ng- a lil eches-ii tia el hong[3rd.Sg-who write-3rd.Sg this Linker book]‘Who wrote this book?’

In the context of non-initial position, Demonstratives are a component inexpressing “modifier cosntructions ... then the speaker wishes to identify aperson, animal, or thing in terms of where it is located with relation to himselfand the hearer” (Josephs 1975.469).

Thirdly, we discover that EVENTS/Verbs themselves are not constrained tosentence-initial position.EVENTS and their attendant PARTICIPANTS mayfollow some other sentence-initial element. Consider these, in which the (b)-sentences illustrate the alternative (Josephs 1975.410-412, 415 &Georgopoulos 1991.156-158):

(26) (a) Ng-mla mei a Droteo[3rd.Sg-PST come Droteo]‘Droteo has arrived’

(b) A Droteo ng-mla mei[ Droteo 3rs.Sg-PST come]‘Has Droteo arrived?’

(27) (a) ng-omele'a a 'elu' er a mlai a Toiu[3rd.Sg-put gas Prep car Toiu]‘Toiu is putting gas in the car’

(b) a Toiu ng-omele'a a 'elu' er a mlai[ Toiu 3rd.sg-put gas Prep car]‘Is Toiu putting gas in the car?’

(28) (a) ng-mengelebed er tir a sensei[3rd.Sg-hit Prep them teacher]‘The teacher is hitting the kids’


(b) a sensei ng-mengelebed er tir[ teacher 3rd.Sg-hit Prep them ]‘The teacher is hitting the kids’

(29) (a) ng-lileng a bebiler a udoud[3rd.Sg-borrow some money

er bangk a dem-akPrep bank father-your]

‘Your father borrowed some money from the bank’

(a) a bangk ng-lileng a bebil er a udoud[ bank 3rd.Sg-borrow some Prep money

er ngii a dem-akPrep it father-your]

‘Did your father borrow some money from the bank?’

(30) (a) Ng- a a Droteo[3rd.Sg-be.pretty wife Droteo]‘Droteo’s wife is pretty’

(b) A Droteo a[ Droteo 3rd.Sg-be.pretty wife]‘Is Droteo’s wife pretty?’

(b') A a Droteo[ wife Droteo 3rd.Sg-be.pretty]‘Is Droteo’s wife pretty?’

(31) (a)[3rd.Sg-who go Prep party]‘Who went to the party?’

(b)[ go Prep party 3rd.Sg-who]‘Who went to the party?’

The (a)-sentences illustrate the grammar of Verb a Y. The (b)-sentences havethe inflected EVENT/Verb (and its PARTICIPANTS) in non-initial positionfollowing an initial a Y, and all such configurations are always heard as yes-

FOCUS: PALAUAN 19

no questions. The (a)-sentences may be yes-no questions or not dependingupon the intonation (Josephs 1975.409):

The question ... is distinguished from the statement by the intonation (or pitch) ofthe voice: while the statement is uttered with a fairly low, even pitch, fallingslightly at the end, the question is spoken with a steadily rising intonation, whichremains high at the end.

Utterances of the shape Verb a Y, illustrated by (26a) through (30a), require anadditional grammatical mark of intonation to make them questions.16 Theinverted Verb a Y (b)-sentences differ in that they, by that grammar alone, arenecessarily yes-no questions. The inflected Verb in the (b)-sentences islacking the pointed semantics provided by sentence-initial position, and theEVENT is now so uncertain in its assertion that it requires confirmation. Thatis, a Y Verb expressions are questions.17

Elsewhere, Josephs (1975.519) contrasts the initial vs. non-initialalternative in (32), with (32a) repeated from (21d):

(32) (d)[2nd.Sg-carry book Prep who]‘Whose book do you have?’

(b)[3rd.Sg-who 2nd.Sg-carry book

Prep him/her]‘Whose book do you have?’

and concludes that (32b) is “a more complicated way of expressing thisquestion.”

If we assemble all the ways in which a sentence-initial something contrastssemantically with its non-initial appearance, we have the proportions ofFigure 2. The first observation is that ‘in situ’ questioning is but a small pieceof a larger syntactic pattern that exploits the contrast between sentence-initialand sentence non-initial positioning. In that larger context, in situ wh-questions lack the pointed exhaustiveness and urgency that the sentence-initial

16 Cf., for example, Capell (1949.54) and Josephs (1984.128).

17 I have not discovered any discussion of the contrasting semantics between the two formsof yes-no questions.


questions have. Shortly, the strong FOCUS is elsewhere.

POINT OUT MODIFY

ASSERTION QUESTION

CONTRASTIVE EMPHASIS

ABSENCE OFCONTRASTIVE EMPHASIS

EXHAUSTIVE ?

Pronouns

Demonstratives

EVENTS / Verbs

Wh-words

Sentence Initial Position

Sentence Non-initial Position

Figure 2: Some semantic contrasts between sentence initial & sentence non-initial postioning.

There are then several ways to frame a question, where the difference liesin what is chosen for FOCUS. In (33), the boldface identifies the content thatcarries the semantics of FOCUS (Josephs 1975.419-420):

(33) (a) Ngara lurruul er ngii a Droteo[what make Prep it Droteo]‘Whát did Droteo make?’

(b) Ng-mirruul a ngara a Droteo[3rd.Sg-make what Droteo]‘What did Droteo máke?’

(c) A Droteo ng-mirruul a ngarang[ Droteo 3rd.Sg-make what]‘What did Dróteo make?’

The contrast between such sentences must be something similar to the Englishglosses provided, in which placement of sentence accent implements strongFOCUS.18 Such grammar shows that FOCUS is not tied to the expression of

18 Recall from the discussion of (9) above that Josephs (1975.80) himself uses sentenceaccent to give English expression to the meaning of sentence-initial position: “This kind of

FOCUS: PALAUAN 21

wh-questions in Palauan and that the two semantics are orthogonal andintersect in the same way that EVENTS (e.g. in [33b]) or other PARTICIPANTS

do (e.g. [33c]). Interest turns now to the possible answers to these questions. Can they

exploit the same range of syntax as the questions, or are there limitations uponthem?

4.2 Alternative answering in PalauanHaving discussed the alternative ways of composing wh-questions in

Palauan, we now turn to the expression of answers to those alternatives.Josephs (1975.80-81) discusses the contrasting answers to the questions of(34a) and (35a), repeated from (9) above

(34) (a) Ke-mo ker[2nd.Sg-go Prep where]‘Where are you going?’

(b) Ak-mo a stoang[1st.Sg-go Prep store]‘I’m going to the store’

(35) (a) Ng- a mo a stoang[3.Sg-who go Prep store]‘Who is going to the store?’

(b) Ngak a mo a stoang[I go Prep store]‘I’m going to the store’

We already know that the answer of (35b) “implies a contrast (or opposition)... This kind of contrastive emphasis is indicated in the pronunciation of theEnglish equivalent ... by an especially strong stress on the subject pronoun”(1975.80). In (34) (Josephs 1975.82):

A is not asking B to single out the particular person who, from among a certaingroup of people, is performing some activity; therefore B’s answer [(34b)] doesnot provide this kind of information. Instead A simply wants to know where B isgoing: automatically assuming that B is the only person involved in the activity, A

contrastive emphasis is indicated in the pronunciation of the English equivalent ... by anespecially strong stress on the subject pronoun (the accent mark is used to point this out).”


concentrates on finding out the place B is going to. In his response, B uses thenon-emphatic pronoun ak ‘I’ because he does not need to provide A with any newinformation about the subject of the sentence; ak ‘I’ is merely old information,and the new information of ... [(34b)] is supplied by the relational phrase

‘to the store’.

Josephs’ description suggests that er a stoang is ‘old information’ in (35b),but ‘new information’ in (34b). If so, the distinction derives from thedifference between a stoang occurring in the Verb portion of an a Y Verbstructure (‘old information’) and in the a Y portion of a Verb a Y structure(‘new information’). Josephs’ remarks are consistent with his earlierstatements above that Time and Space are comfortable in sentence-finalposition, i.e., they are in and of themselves capable of constituting bothquestions and answers without the augmentation of the strong FOCUS of initialposition. Tkel-Sbal (1996.56, 118) has these confirming examples in (35) and(36):

(35) (a) Ke-milecherar a bil-em er ker[2nd.Sg-buy dress-your Prep where]‘Where did you buy your dress?’

(b) Ak-milecherar er a Town House[1st.Sg-buy Prep Town House]‘I bought it at Town House’

(36) (a) Ng-mo er ngii a test[3rd.Sg-go Prep it test

er a oingerangPrep when]

‘When is our test?’

(b) Ng-mo er ngii a test[3rd.Sg-go Prep it test

er a Ongeim el lureorPrep Friday]

‘We’re going to have a test on Friday’

These extend the pattern to the functions of O and Instrument (Tkel-Sbal1996.82):

FOCUS: PALAUAN 23

(37) (a) Ak-oudenguael mo er a techang[1st.Sg-call Linker go Prep who]‘Who am I calling?’

(b) Ke-oudenguael mo er a shechel-im[2nd.Sg-call Linker go Prep friend-your]‘You are calling your friend’

(38) (a) Ak-mesuld a chim-ak el oba[1st.Sg-wipe hands-myLinker use

a ngarangwhat]

‘What am I wiping my hands with?’

(b) Ke-mesuld a chim-am[2nd.Sg-wipe hands-your

el oba a taorLinker use towel]

‘You are wiping your hands with a towel’

So far the placement of the wh-question word has been matched by a similarplacment of the answering content: sentence-initial wh-paralleled by sentence-initial response and sentence non-initial wh- paralleled by sentence non-initialresponse.19

19 I have found no answers paired with the supposed non-initial questions of the S functionlike those in (17).

Josephs (1975) makes several observations about the use of ‘there is’ in thiscontext, contrasting (Josephs 1975.363-364):

(i)[3rd.Sg-be Prep it knife inside drawer]‘There’s a knife inside the drawer’

(ii)[ knife 3rd.Sg-bePrep it inside drawer]‘The knife is inside the drawer’

Sentence (i) shows the grammar of Verb a Y, and (ii), the grammar of a X a Y. In (i), a oles“is new information for the hearer” (Josephs 1975.364). A oles is “new” because of thesemantics of ‘there is’, which asserts existence. Sentence (i) therefore answers:

(iii)[what 3rd.Sg-be Prep it inside drawer]‘What is there inside the drawer?’


The semantic parallelism is not absolute as these examples from Tkel-Sbal(1996.93, 99) show:

(39) (a) Ng-ngara ke-mo melai[3rd.Sg-what 2nd-Sg-go get]‘What are you going to harvest?’

(b) Ak-mo omadel a teblo er a diokang[1st.Sg-go extract two Prep tapioca

e mengiis a chemutiland dig.up sweet.potato]

‘I’m going to harvest some tapioca and dig up somesweet potato’

(40) (a) Ng-ngara soa-m el menga er ngii[3rd.Sg-what want-you Linker eat Prep it]‘What do you want to eat?’

(b) Ak-mo omadel a teblo er a diokang[1st.Sg-go extract two Prep tapioca

e mengiis a chemutiland dig.up sweet.potato]

‘I’m going to harvest some tapioca and dig up somesweet potato’

In (ii), “this same noun represents old information to which the hearer has already beenintroduced. In other words, ... [(ii)] can only be used when the identity of oles ‘knife’ is clear— i.e. when both speaker and hearer know what particular knife they are talking about”(Josephs 1975.364). Sentence (ii) cannot then answer the question of (iii), but can answer:

(iv)

The question and answer pairings, (iii) with (i) and (iv) with (ii), preserve the question andanswer parallelism in that (iii) and (i) are both Verb a Y, and (iv) and (ii) are a X initial. Theparallelism between (iv) and (ii) must be partial, since there are no questions in Palauan inwhich the a Y of a X a Y can be a wh-word.

It is not so relevant that a oles in (i) is “new information” since “new” there reflects thelexical semantics of the Verb and not the grammar. It is more important that Josephs reports“old information” of a oles in (ii) is attributable directly to the grammar of a X a Y. The glossof (iv) further suggests that a oles there is also “old information”. The hint is that “oldinformation” is associated with any initial a X, regardless of whether it is followed by a Y (ii)or by Verb a Y (iv). But then how would one ask ‘Where’s a knife [to be found]?’?

FOCUS: PALAUAN 25

It is interesting to note that where the parallelism is not maintained, that theEVENTS/Verbs are distinct: ‘get’ vs. ‘extract’ in (39) and ‘want to eat’ vs.‘extract’ and ‘dig up’ in (40). It is as if the speaker ignores the question assuch and goes off on his/her own to offer relevant information, but notinformation that is a direct response. The (b)-sentences are not answers totheir respective questions; they are statements prompted by them. When thesemantic force of the wh-question — strong or weak — is not maintained, it isbecause the response is not a direct one.

Because none of the Palauan researchers addresses the issue face on, theconclusion that the FOCUS of the responses matches that of the questions is atentative one supported only by the examples that have been reported. Theexistence of a second degree of FOCUS is confirmed by the occurrence of wh-questions outside the FOCUS of initial position and by the answers to them.

5. Palauan aThe (inflected) sentence-initial forms seem to serve to establish that

content (as well as denote it as FOCUS). The semantics of ‘establishment’come clearer in the contrast between the presence of a and its absence. It is theabsence of a initially that signals both the presence of FOCUS (the initialposition) and the presence of ESTABLISHMENT (the absence of a). Content thatis perceived as already ESTABLISHED will be preceded by a. Content thatfunctions as a PARTICIPANT is ESTABLISHED, and its existence as such is notin question, as it is in (12b), (13b), (14b), and (15). Thus in (13b), the issue iswhether the content is a ‘cup’ as such, or something else.20 In (41b), which isa response to (41a) (Tkel-Sbal 1996.131):

(41) (a) Te-ngara a mlo kats[3rd.Pl-which PST win]‘Who won?’

(b) A tim er a Mangilao a mlo kats[ team Prep Mangilao PST win]‘The team from Mangilao won the game’

the issue is not whether tim is a team per se.‘Teamness’ or ‘non-teamness’ isnot being established (or questioned) here. ‘Team’ is a given, and it is theidentity of the entity as the winner of the game that (41b) establishes, not that

20 Although we are not told, we must expect that a kob is no answer to (13a).


tim is a team. If one could imagine saying Ng-tim a mlo kats, it should mean‘It is a team that won the game’ as opposed, say, to one individual, e.g. Pele orBeckham, or a collection of unconnected players, i.e. something that wouldnot be a team.21

The contribution of a as marking the substance of the content following itas not-at-issue is further seen in its use before proper names. Without a, thename, e.g. Droteo, is a vocative; that is, the issue of ‘Droteo’ is at play and itis resolved by his acknowledging the hail thereby establishing himself in theexchange. Droteo is not yet set in the context and becomes so by the vocative.With a Droteo, Droteo’s ‘Droteo-ness’ is not an issue; he is alreadyestablished and is prepared for involvement in his context.22

A’s sense of ESTABLISHMENT is further elaborated by what it may notprecede. If a reduces the sense of ‘establishing’ or ‘preparing’ and points tothe fact of ESTABLISHMENT, then a should not be compatible with any formswhose contents, by their very nature, can never be taken as ESTABLISHED, e.g.Pronouns and Demonstratives (Josephs 1975.46):

... pronouns and demonstratives ... are never introduced by a ...

Demonstratives reject a because “because they point out persons or things orspecify where someone or something is located” (Josephs 1975.45), andPronouns constantly (re-)establish their referents’ presence in the context.23

When sentence initial, question words also lack a (Josephs 1975.519, note9). “It is interesting to note that when ngara is preposed in this way [in (42a)],it is not introduced by the word a” :

(42) (a) Ngara ng-mirruul a Droteo[what 3.Sg-make/do Droteo]‘What did Droteo do?’

21 This speculation is, of course, not attested in any source on Palauan grammar.

22 Lemaréchal (1991.67) notes, “les noms propres employés seuls, y sont bien des vocatifs,comme en tagalog, mai ils sont transferés en substantifs par le même translatif a que lesnoms communs, les adjectifs et les verbes.” Without a, these forms are “qualificatifs”, whose“fonction fondamentale” is to be “prédicat”.

23 Of a generally, Josephs (1975.45) says:

Although we can describe the distribution of this word fairly accurately, we willhave trouble saying exactly what it means. It seems that the major function of a issimply to ‘introduce’ certain [?, PWD] Palauan parts of speech when they occur in asentence ...

FOCUS: PALAUAN 27

(b) * A ngara ng-mirruul a Droteo

There are still other contexts that permit us a look at the semantics of thepresence and the absence of a. Consider these (Josephs 1975.410-412 andGeorgopoulos 1991.156-157):

(43) (a) Ng-mla mei a Droteo[3rd.Sg-PST come Droteo]‘Droteo has arrived’

(b) A Droteo ng-mla mei[ Droteo 3rs.Sg-PST come]‘Has Droteo arrived?’

(c) A Droteo a mla mei[ Droteo PST come]‘Droteo has arrived’

(44) (a) ng-omele'a a 'elu' er a mlai a Toiu[3rd.Sg-put gas Prep car Toiu]‘Toiu is putting gas in the car’

(b) a Toiu ng-omele'a a 'elu' er a mlai[ Toiu 3rd.sg-put gas Prep car]‘Is Toiu putting gas in the car?’

(c) a Toiu a omele'a a 'elu' er a mlai[ Toiu put gas Prep car]‘Toiu is putting gas in the car’

(45) (a) Ng- a a Droteo[3rd.Sg-be.pretty wife Droteo]‘Droteo’s wife is pretty’

(b) A Droteo a[ Droteo3rd.Sg-be.pretty wife]‘Is Droteo’s wife pretty?’


( A a Droteo[ wife Droteo 3rd.Sg-be.pretty]‘Is Droteo’s wife pretty?’

(c) A a Droteo a[ wife Droteo be.pretty]‘Droteo’s wife is pretty’

The (a)-sentences illustrate the now familiar Verb a Y grammar. The (b)-sentences have the inflected EVENT /Verb in a non-initial position, and theyare necessarily heard as yes-no questions. The (c)-sentences, which show thegrammar of a X a Y, are never yes-no questions (Hagège 1986.104 &Lemaréchal 1991.73).24

Josephs (1975.353-354 and 1984.133) introduces another pairing whichilluminates the meaning of a:25

24 Josephs (1975) has no example of a yes-no question based on the syntax of a X a Y in his523 pages. The yes-no questions he does describe (Josephs 1975.410-412) are all based onthe grammar of Verb a Y or of a Y Verb. Tkel-Sbal’s (1996) pedagogical text, which employsquestions and answers as a teaching strategy, has no yes-no question on the a X a Y model,but numerous ones of the two sorts Josephs describes. Like Josephs (1975), Georgopoulos(1991.156-158) describes two yes-no questions based on Verb a Y and a Y Verb. She saysthat (ii) is “the corresponding yes/no question [to (i)] having the same word order”:

(i) a re-ngalek a lo-ngelebed er tir a sensei[ Pl-child 3rd.Sg-hit Prep them teacher]‘The teacher is hitting the kids’

(ii) a re-ngalek ng-ngelebed er tir a sensei[ Pl-child 3rd.Sg-hit Prep them teacher]‘Is the teacher is hitting the kids?’

The strong implication is that there is no other yes-no questioning of the a X a Y grammar of(i), and there are no such examples in her 229 pages. There are also no such examples inCapell (1949), yet Gibson (1993.17) has

(iii) A John a mla mo er a skuul[ John just.now go Prep school]‘Has John just left for school?’

in addition to the “two other ways to form the yes-no questions” (16). Gibson cites no otherexample like (iii), and (iii) is not commented upon. The possible responses to (iii), if it exists,would be significant pieces of information for the syntax and semantics a X a Y, which is thesubject of Section 6.

25 The form is called a “ligative article” (Capell 1949.8), a “complementizer” (Josephs1984.126 & Georgopoulos 1991.42), “dependent clause introducer” (Josephs 1975.429), or a“morphème subordinant” (Hagège 1986.115).

FOCUS: PALAUAN 29

(46) (a)[3rd.Sg-want drink Linker beer]‘I like drinking beer’

(b)[3rd.Sg-want Linker drink beer]‘I want to drink beer’

(47) (a)[3rd.Sg-ability drink liquor]‘Are you capable of drinking liquor?’

(b)[3rd.Sg-ability drink liquor]‘Can you have a drink of liquor?’

Josephs (1975.333) says:

... in ... [(46b)], which has a dependent clause following soak, the action ofdrinking refers to a specific occasion. Therefore, this sentence would be used bythe speaker at the very moment when he has a desire to drink beer. By contrast, ...[(46a)], which has a derived action noun following soak [i.e., , PWD],views the action of drinking beer in a general (or perhaps habitual) sense. For thisreason, ... [(46a)] could be spoke at any time as an expression of the speaker’shabit or preference, but would not be appropriate to express the speaker’smomentary desire to drink beer. In other words, ... [(46b)] would be a suitableanswer to the question ‘What do you like to drink?’, while ... [(46a)] would not.

Of (47), Josephs (1975.354) says:

Example ... [(47a)] is a rather challenging question in which the hearer is beingasked whether he has the ability — i.e. strength or maturity — to drink liquor. Bycontrast, ... [(47b)] is simply an invitation to drink liquor and implies nothingabout the hearer’s “prowess” as a drinker.

Josephs’ comments on the (a)-sentences describe what I have extracted asESTABLISHMENT. In (46a), the drinking is not on some specific occasion, butidentifies the drinking of beer as an ongoing and ESTABLISHED habit. In (47b),the “challenge” follows from the questioning of an ESTABLISHED ability. The

imparts less ESTABLISHMENT and more of the contentiousness of thespecific occasion.


In addition to its use to express “purpose” in (46), has a complex of usesincluding “instrument clauses” (Josephs 1975.304ff.), “accompanimentclauses” (Josephs 1975.308ff.), “specifying clauses” (Josephs 1975.310ff.),“relative clauses” (Josephs 1975.450ff), adverbs (Josephs 1984.142), etc.:

(48) (a)[1st.Sg-dig Prep hole use shovel]‘I was digging the hole with a shovel’

(b)

(c)[ Droteo work paint

house]‘Droteo was working painting houses’

(d)[1st.Sg-hear child cry]‘I heard a child who was crying’

(e) Ngii a mengitaki el ungil[3rd.SG sing good]‘He sings well’

Listing the uses of would be an endless task. Generally, identifies contentwhich occupies the semantic area between the diminished ASSERTION ofinflected, but non-initial clauses and the ESTABLISHMENT of clausesintroduced with a. We thus have the four-way implementation of EVENTS inFigure 3, and there is a Palauan cline of ‘setting forth’ that recalls the cline inWolof. The (a)-expression has the strongest degree, and the (d)-version theweakest. The (a)-sentences establish the content of , while the (d)-sentences refer to that content, already settled and unarguable. The citation of(d) contrasts with the suggested content of in (b), which is heardas requiring (dis)confirmation. The of (b), being put forward withless than full ASSERTION is necessarily arguable/in play, while that of (a) isnot, because it is being strongly ASSERTED and lacks the tentativeness of (b)

FOCUS: PALAUAN 31

which elicits confirmation. The and of (d) are also not

(a) Initial with inflection agreeing with the S: a a Droteo

(b) Non-initial with inflection agreeing with the S:A Droteo a

(c) Non-initial with no inflection following el:

(d) Non-initial with no inflection following aA Droteo a a

a

Figure 3: A cline of ASSERTION in Palauan.

arguable/in play, because they are not being asserted, and because the a marksthem as ESTABLISHED. The (c)-sentences point to a specific place and time,and while lacking the ASSERTION of the (a)- & (b)-sentences, they remainconnected to a given context. The (d)-usages, being established — (46a) &(47a) —, are more generalized and remote from specific place/times.26 Theranking of the (b)-, (c)-, and (d)-types is further confirmed by their interactionwith wh-questions. Consider these (Josephs 1975.416-417, 330, 435, 414):

(49) (a')[ house 3rd.Sg.who burn-3rd.Sg]‘Who burned down the house?’

26 One last example of a from Georgopoulos (1985.116 & 1991.27):

(i) a David l-dese'-ii a bilas,[ David 3rd.Sg-build-3rd.Sg boat

e ng-mou'sis er kidand 3rd.Sg-tell Prep us]

‘If David builds a boat, he will tell us’

(ii) a bilas l-dese'-ii a David,[ boat 3rd.Sg-build-3rd.Sg David

e ng-mou'sis er kidand 3rd.Sg-tell Prep us]

‘If David builds a boat, he will tell us’

The clause a bilas l-dese'-ii a David ‘If David builds a boat’ is introduced by a, and absentASSERTION of the clause, it functions as a supposition, content that is stated, but not asserted.Georgopoulos glosses e with ‘Ptc’ for ‘Particle’.


(a'')[ house 3rd.Sg.-take who Linker come

Prep fund.raising.party]‘Whom did Droteo take to the fund raising party?’

(a''') A Satsko ng-milsuub a ngarang[ Satsko 3rd.Sg-study what]‘What is Satsko studying?’

(b')[1st.Sg-ask Prep Toki Linker Droteo

3rd.Sg-come Prep when]‘I asked Toki when Droteo was coming’

(b'')[3rd.Sg-NEG tell Linker 3rd.Sg-who

go Prep party]‘He didn’t tell me who went to the party’

(c') *[ go Prep party who]‘Who went to the party?’

(c'') *[ 2nd-Sg.-see Prep party who]‘Whom did you see at the party?’

Although Josephs does not comment on the contrasting yes-no questions of(26) - (31) above, he does remark (Josephs 1975.519) on (49a'):

In this ... sentence, the object ... blai ‘house’ ... [has] been preposed. Questions ofthis type seem to be used when things referred to by the objects represent oldinformation for the speaker and hearer — i.e. when they have already beenintroduced into the conversation as a topic of discussion.

27 “... the exact status of kmo is unclear” (Josephs 1975.429).

FOCUS: PALAUAN 33

The difference between (49a') and might be ‘Whomight’ve/could’ve burned down the hóuse?’ vs. ‘Whó burned down thehouse?’, where the former, reflecting the slighter ASSERTION, comes throughas a ponder, while the latter is a more pointed inquiry.28 The (b)-turn ofphrase, with is even mored reduced in its ASSERTION, so much so that it isnot a question as such, but a reported one. The non-existent (c)-utterancesfollow from Josephs’ process description of portions of Palauan grammar inwhich he employs “source sentences” which “undergo processes” (Josephs1975.413 et passim) to yield the sentence being described. Sometimes, the‘source’ sentences are not possible Palauan utterances, but sometimes theyare.29 When he asserts (415) that “the ... subject [which is ] ofthe source sentence [(49c')] is obligatorily shifted to the right of ‘who’,”the conclusion must be that (49c') is not grammatical. “The only difference”between (49c') and (49c'') is a “passive verb” (416); hence, it, too, is not apossible Palauan utterance. The decreasing presence of interrogativity fromthe Verb a Y (a)-sentences to its complete absence in the a X a Y (d)-sentencesmirrors the decline in the presence of ASSERTION.

These characteristics of a:

(i) Absence of a from before demonstratives(ii) Absence of a before a question word initially(iii) Absence of a before the Verb in an independent VOS sequence(iv) Absence of a before an ‘emphatic’ Pronoun(v) Absence of a before a non-initial Verb in as yes-no question

and its place among the forms of Figure 3 suggest that a indicates that whatfollows is an ESTABLISHED PARTICULAR (i.e., not an EVENT, nor a

28 It is not clear what an answer to (49a') - (49a'') would look like, although the response to asimilar questioning of Time uses the V a Y pattern (Josephs 1975.82):

(i)[ Toki 3rd.Sg-work Prep where]‘Where does Toki work?’

(ii)[3rd.Sg Prep bank]‘She works at the bank’

Cf. the discussion of (59) below.

29 A biang a soak ‘Beer is what I like’ is a source sentence for Ng-soak a biang. It is goodPalauan, but it is “used relatively rarely” (Josephs 1975.335).


PARTICULAR which is being pointed out/set forth [the demonstrative] orquestioned).30

6. Palauan a X a YWe have so far considered the grammar and semantics of syntactic shapes

Verb a Y and a Y Verb, and in so doing we have encountered, without muchcomment, a third shape a X a Y. Consider these (Tkel-Sbal 1996.69, 107, 54,52, 128). The questioning and the answering content are placed in boldface:

(50) (a) Ng-techa a smecher[3rd.Sg.-who sick]‘Who is sick?’

(b) A Mark a smecher[ Mark sick]‘Mark is sick’

(51) (a) Ng-techang a kot el kmeed[3rd.Sg-who most Linker near

er a chesimerPrep door]

‘Who is closest to the door?’

(b) A Sarah a kot el kmeed[ Sarah most Linker near

30 Capell (1949.7) says of a that “... it simply serves to mark the following word or phrase asa noun,” and later (51), “The nature of this a lies outside the scope of this Grammar.” Hagège(1986.105) claims correctly, I believe, that a list of occurrences of a fails the language: “Il nepeut suffire, en effet, d’énumérer des contextes ... Il faut encore rechercher une explicationqui les relie tous,” but Hagège then proposes a grammatical, not a functional explanation: “Ilfaut ... surtout ... se demander quelle peut bien être la catégorie grammaticale que constitue,en en étant d’ailleurs le seul représentant, ce mystérieux morphème a.” But then discussingthe reasons for the absence of a before Verbs, ‘emphatic’ Pronouns, and Demonstratives,Hagège (1986.106) suggests “que lorsque le palau emploie a, il s’agit d’un morphème ayantpour fonction de spécifier ce qui n’est pas spécifié par nature. En d’autre termes, cemorphème est un spécificateur, catégorie grammatical tout à fait intéressante et peucourante.” On “specification,” Hagège elaborates “lorsque l’on spécifie, on pose comme unêtre ou objet définissable en soi, par des traits internes, et non des traits contextuels comme lesont ceux du verbe en générale dans les languages” and “... malgré cette parenté avec lenominalisateur, [il] n’est pas un nominalisateur tel qu’on l’entend en général ...” This is notquite the direction taken here, that places a in the context of degrees of ASSERTION, assigningit the weakest value, termed ESTABLISHED.

FOCUS: PALAUAN 35

er a chesimerPrep door]

‘Who is closest to the door?’

(52) (a) Ng-techa a ouolbeiungel[3rd.Sg-who wear.necklace]‘Who is wearing a necklace?’

(b) A Mark me a Tina a ouolbeiungel[ Mark and Tina wear.necklace]‘Mark and Tina are wearing necklaces’

(53) (a) Ng-ngarang a oubail a Mary[3rd.Sg-wear wear Mary]‘What is Mary wearing?’

(b) A Mary a oubail skato me a chelechedal[ Mary wear skirt and torso

a bailclothing ]

‘Mary is wearing a skirt and a blouse’

(54) (a) Ng-techang a kot el meduch el[3rd.Sg-who most Linker skilled.at Linker

chad er a iakiu er tiaperson Prep baseball Prep this

el skuulLinker school]

‘Who is the best baseball player in this school?’

(b) A kot el meduch el chad er[ most Linker skilled.at Linker person Prep

a iakiu er tia el skuulbaseball Prep this Linker schoola Mark

Mark]‘The best baseball player in this school is Mark’

The (b)-sentences are composed of two parts. The simplest example in (50b)


is composed of a Mark and a smecher. Sentence (51b) shows a more complexsecond portion, a kot el kmeed er a chesimer ‘the one closest to the door’, and(53b) has a more complex first portion, a kot el meduch el chad er a iakiu ertia el skuul ‘the most skilled baseball play in this school’.

The existence of a X a Y (or its functional equivalent) would seem to bealmost a necessity in the context of Verb a Y. How, for example, in responseto a question such as ‘Who [all] is sick?’ will we managea response that it is Mark? If we respond Ng-smecher a Mark, we have saidthat Mark is sick, but ignored the ‘exhaustive’ claim that no one else is. If werespond Ng-Mark a smecher, we establish the identity of the ‘sick one[s]’ asMark, but we do not enumerate the constitution of the ‘sick one[s]’. Theanswering content Mark combined with a enumerates the information withoutself-referentially asserting its itentity. Now juxtaposing that, i.e., a Mark, witha smecher suffices nicely. But no grammar is so well circumscribed that it willnot have a penumbra of other uses and other senses.

Sentences which show the grammar of a X a Y are (almost?) never yes-noquestions (Hagège 1986.104 & Lemaréchal 1991.73). Judging from theirpaucity in the literature on Palauan, the use of wh-words as the X or the Y of aX a Y is very unusual. Although neither Josephs (1975) nor Hagège (1986) hasan example, Tkel-Sbal (1996.85) has this one:

(55) E kau a ngara a urer-em[And you what chore-your

er a bl-imPrep home-your]

‘And you, what are your chores at home?’

Sentence (55) follows as the third utterance in this exchange:

(56) (a) Ngarang a urer-em er a bl-im[what chore-your Prep home-your]‘What chores do you do at home?’

(b) Ak-meriil, e melemed, e meruul[1st.Sg-sweepand mop.the.floor and cook

a kall, e mengetmoklfood and keep.neat.clean

FOCUS: PALAUAN 37

er a blaiPrep house]

‘I sweep and mop the floor, cook, and keep the houseneat and clean’

Recall from above, however, Josephs’ claim (1975.519, note 9) that “whenngara is preposed in this way [in (42a)], it is not introduced by the word a.”Although a frequent frame for answers, a X a Y is by and large not a commonexpression of interrogation, and that seems to reinforce the suggestion that thesense of a is something like ESTABLISHED. Note that (55) follows upon (56),and the reciprocal questioning appears to treat the ‘What?’ as having beenESTABLISHED in (56a).31 Capell (1949.56) adds (57) to the list, andGeorgopoulos (1991.67) contributes (58):

(57) a k-gie 'r tiáng a ngaráng[ 1st.Sg-stay Prep here what

ke meskák2nd.Sg-give-me]

‘If I stay here what will you give me?’

(58) a rirebet er a tebel a ngarang[ fell Prep table what]‘What fell off the table?’

These are all that I have found in the literature.32

6.1 Hagège and a X a YComposed of two ESTABLISHED components, and lacking an inflected

Verb, the semantics of a X a Y should be distinctly different from thepreceding syntax of Verb a Y and a Y Verb which has been our concern.Although the a X a Y expression is very frequent in Palauan and although ithas been discussed by all who have done fieldwork on Palauan, it remainsunclear precisely what the construction is about. The examples (50) - (54) tellthat it is not the case that either a X or a Y is FOCUS (at least, in any simpleway). Researchers on Palauan have produced different descriptions of a X a Y,

31 Cp. the English “What is it yóu do?”

32 It is also probably relevant to observe that the a + wh-word is the a X in (55), but the a Yin (57) and (58).


sometimes internally contradictory. For our purpose here, Hagège (1986) hasthe most relevant obserations. Hagège (1986.106-107) considers the a X a Ygrammar and concludes:33

Il existe un emploi de a dans lequel le spécificateur cède la place aunominalisateur pur et simple. Il s’agit de la focalisation. En effet, en palau commedans beaucoup de langues, on ne peut focaliser qu’en nominalisant, cetteopération s’ajoutant à un courbe intonationnelle particulière (ici, chute de l’aiguau grave sur la dernière syllabe du mot focalisé). L’élément focalisé, normalement[?] précédé de a, suit un première portion d’enoncé commençant elle-même par a.Si donc, au lieu de l’ordre sujet + prédicat de ceux des énoncés ... [cités ci-dessus]où a apparaît deux fois (je ne prends les autres en considération), on a l’ordreinverse, à savoir a + prédicat + a + sujet, il s’agit alors d’une structure àfocalisation du sujet: au lieu de «X sujet Y prédicat», on a donc «ce qui Y, c’estX», ou «c’est X qui Y», Ex. au lieu des énoncés ... [ «monfrère est professeur»] (où le prédicat est déjà nominal, l’intonation indiquant seulequ’ est focalisé) ou ... [ «il faut lui couper les cheveux»et «tu vas te couper la jambe»] (où permutation + intonationindiquent ce qui est focalisé), on a:

5'. «c’est mon frère qui est professeur»10'. «ce sont ses cheveux qu’il faut couper»11'. «c’est la jambe que tu vas te couper»

What Hagège is claiming is not especially clear, but let us examine his crucial

33 Because of the relevance of Hagège’s statements on this point, I include the followingtranslation:

There is a use of a in which the sense of “specifier” gives way to “nominaliser”pure and simple. It is in the context of focalisation. In effect, Palauan, like mostlanguages, can focalise/focus only by nominalising, this operation combining witha characteristic intonational contour (namely, a fall from high to low on the lastsyllable of the focused word). The focused element, normally [?] preceded by a,follows the first portion, itself beginning with a. If therefore, in place of thesubject + predicate order of the utterances [cited above], where a occurs twice (Iignore the other utterances), one has the inverse order, namely a + predicate + a +subject, it is then a structure that focalises/focuses the subject. In place of “XSubject Y Predicate,”one then has “what is Y is X”, or “It’s X that is Y”, e.g. inplace of the utterances ... [ “my brother is a professor”](wherethe predicate is already a nominal, the intonation alone indicating that isfocused) or ... [ “he has to cut his hair” and“you’re going to cut your leg”](where permutation + intonation indicates what isfocused), one has

5'. “It’s my brother who is a professor”10'. “It’s his hair that needs cutting”11'. “It’s your leg that you’re going to cut”

FOCUS: PALAUAN 39

statements in turn. First , in an a X a Y expression, “L’élément focalisé,normalement précédé de a, suit un première portion d’enoncé commençantelle-même par a.” That is, it is the a Y that carries FOCUS, and not a X. It isimportant to underscore that “l’élément focalisé” is recognized as such by theFrench gloss c’est X or ce sont X. There is no contextualization provided forthese forms, which might distinguish between them and add substance tofocalisation.34 Second, there is a contrast between Hagège’s examples (withboldface showing the location of ):

(57) (a)[ elder.brother-my teacher]

(b)[ teacher elder.brother-my]

Sentence (57a) is FOCUS initial: “l’intonation indiquant seule qu’ estfocalisé.” The intonation alone signals that FOCUS is found on the sentence-initia even though the French gloss, «mon frère est professeur»,seems non-committal on where FOCUS lies. Sentence (57b) contrasts with(57a) in that it is FOCUS final. See the gloss «c’est mon frère ...» that selects

for . Third , we speculate. Since (57) shows that either order ispossible (teacher + elder brother and elder brother + teacher) and since (57)also shows that the intonational contour may be either on the first or on thesecond term (on either a X or on a Y), there is no reason that the followingshould not also exist:35

(58) (a)[ elder.brother-my teacher]

(b)

Taken together, (57) and (58) indicate that FOCUS in a X a Y expressions issignalled by the intonational contour alone, and whatever the nature of the X

34 On the basis of the French glosses and the identity of the syntax of these forms with thatwhich others have discussed (providing contextualization), I equate Hagège’s focalisationand focalisé with FOCUS and FOCUSED, resp.

35 Indeed, if they are not possible, then a major fact about Palauan grammar has goneunreported by those working on the language.


and the Y may be, both are capable of hosting FOCUS. It makes no differencewhether the term which carries FOCUS is initial of final.36 Although it meanslittle for FOCUS that it can be exploited to point to one rather than anothercontent, it does, however, make a difference for the selected content.37

6.2 The meaning of a X a YIf this conclusion about the nature of the syntax of a X a Y is correct, then

we are left with the question of what the semantic contrast signalled by thedifference in order in (57) might be. Like the Verb a Y grammar that has analternative in a Y Verb, the a X a Y would seem to allow an a Y a X. We knowfrom Hagège that the alternative is fulfilled in terms of FOCUS. But is thecarrier of FOCUS fixed and invariant, or does it, too, allow two alternates. Andhow do we recognize whether we have one or the other? Does

represent the grammar of a X a Y or of a Y a X? Can some content beX but not Y, or Y but not X? These are certainly interesting problems (and theyhave been the subject of some discussion), but because they seem not topertain immediately to the organization of FOCUS, we will not pursue themhere.38

7. ConclusionThere are several lessons to be learned from examination of Palauan

FOCUS, and I shall emphasize three of them. First, Palauan coopts the semantics of ASSERTION for the implementation

of two degrees of FOCUS. To do this, it relies on the Palauan PROPOSITION

with the strongest degree of ASSERTION, the (a)-configuration from Figure 3:Verb a Y. Sentence initial-initial position in the Verb a Y formula (i.e., theVerb) produces the strong (‘exhaustive’) questions and answers, and sentencenon-initial position (i.e. the a Y), the weak in situ questions and answers. Seethe sentences of (17) - (19) and others. The pattern of strong-initial and weak-noninitial FOCUS is confirmed by the a Y Verb configuration (the [b] in Figure

36 Again, as far as I can find in Hagège’s description, these a X a Y expressions will alwayshave his courbe intonationnelle on one or the other component. There is no a X a Y withoutit. This is a fact about Palauan (if true) that is as important as is the existence of all thesentences in (57) and (58).

37 If there were a limitation to the use of FOCUS in a X a Y, then the nature of the content towhich FOCUS was constrained would tell us something further of the constituency of FOCUS.

38 The semantics of a X a Y syntax is yet to be satisfactorily characterized. Since VOICEseems to be heavily involved in a X a Y, we will return to discuss a X a Y and the VOS orderof Palauan in a later chapter.

FOCUS: PALAUAN 41

3), in which the non-initial Verb position of a Y Verb yields a lesser degree ofASSERTION, a yes-no question. The same a Y Verb grammar can be host to aquestion (Cf. the sentences of (49a), but these structures cannot respond to thequestions they express (Josephs 1975.82):

(59) (a)[ Toki 3rd.Sg-work Prep where]‘Where does Toki work?’

(b)[3rd.Sg-work Prep bank]‘She works at the bank’

The response to (59a) is (59b). It cannot be formed on the model of (59a), for that is a yes-no question. Beyond this pointin Figure 3, the presence of ASSERTION is so weakened that it will not supportFOCUS. Interrogatives of the (c)-clauses exist only in some cases(Georgopoulos 1991.153-154):

(60) (a) ng-dilu er kid el kmo ng-te'a[3rd.Sg-say Prep us Linker 3rd.Sg-who

a mo er a partygo Prep party]

‘He told us who was going to the party’

(b) ng-dilu er ngii a Philips el kmo[3rd.Sg-say Prep him Philip Linker

ng-mo mesuub a ngarang3rd.Sg-gostudy what]

‘What did Philip tell him to study?’

Sentence (60a) could mean ‘Who did he tell us was going to the party?’, but itdoes not. And (60b) could mean ‘Philip told him to study anything’, but itdoes not.39 The differences between (60a) and (60b) are complex and will notbe pursued here. The essential point is that the (c)-syntax, which (60)illustrates, begins to support an indefinite sense for the wh-question words andnot a question. See also (49b') and (49b''). In sum, the (a)-syntax of Figure 3

39 Recall Capell’s (1949.51) Dimlak kdu ngarang ‘I didn’t say anything’, where ngarang is‘anything’, not ‘what?’.


supports strong and weak FOCUS (questions and answers). The (b)-syntaxsupports weak FOCUS questions, but no answers. The (c)-syntax of -clausespermits no FOCUS, neither questions nor answers, the interrogatives beingmerely indefinite pronouns.

Second, in expressing a weaker degree of FOCUS using the in situ strategy, there emerges a presence of FOCUS-like meaning contained in thePROPOSITIONAL functions themselves as ranked in Figure 1: S < O & others <Time/space. We know that FOCUS has an affection for certain other semantics(and vice versa), e.g. EVENTS especially, and the O PARTICIPANT-EVENT

relation, and for certain members of pairs, for example, Nouns over Pronouns(Haida), etc. We have seen (Chapter 3, footnote 9) that in Maasai (an EasternNilotic language spoken in Kenya and Tanzania), a question such as (61a) hastwo answers (Payne 1995.458-459) :

[what 3-Perfective-sawFem.Sg-child]‘What did the child see?’

(b)[3-Perfective-saw Fem.Sg-child Fem.Pl-cattle]‘The child saw the cattle’

(c)[Fem.Pl-cattle 3-Perfective-sawFem.Sg-child]‘The child saw the cattle’

Answer (61b) “is the most common answer to a question like ... [(61a)]. The... [(61c)] form is appropriate for asserting that the child saw cattle rather thandonkeys or goats, for example. Thus ... [(61c)], with the preverbal phrase,more closely approximates a focus of contrast situation in which there is alimited set of possible answers, while in ... [(61b)] the set of possible answersextends to the whole universe” (Payne 1995.459). Maasai appears to reservesentence-initial position for FOCUS (Payne 1995.456, 457, 458):

(62) (a)[Neg Fem.Sg-child1st.Sg-have]‘I have no child’

FOCUS: PALAUAN 43

(b')[Neg-1st.Pl-wish-Perfectiveanything]‘We don’t wish for anything’

(b'')[Masc.Sg-blood Masc-your 1st.Pl-wish-Perfective]‘(Only) your blood we wish’

(63)[who Fem.Sg-Perfective-bring-Allative-Perfectiveyou]‘Who brought you here?’

[Masc.Sg-warrior Masc.Sg-Perfective-bring-

Allative-Perfective us]‘The warrior brought us here’

It is not clear that the pattern of (61) holds for S’s as it does for O’s, althoughit is observed “in elicitation, even adverbials are said to be ‘wrong’ whenplaced before the verb in Maasai40 ... Second, although information questionwords are always initial for subjects ..., and preferably preverbal for objects,answers to questions can occur after the verb” (Payne 1995.458). Thecomments on Maasai echo the Palauan pattern of Figure 1. Telugu, in Chapter7, will extend our experience with such languages.

Thirdly, languages such a Palauan make it especially clear that we shouldbe constantly careful not to conceive of the semantics of syntax as ‘categories’or entities of whatever sort. Like language as a whole, FOCUS is a naturalphenomenon, and like other natural phenomena it exists only in its context.What we discover as FOCUS in Palauan or any other language is the result, areaction to a natural environment. As such, it will be indeterminate in variousways, formally and semantically. Being alert to these indeterminacies, and towhat may seem to us inconsistencies, will provide a valuable source forenriching our grasp of language.

[Version: March 4, 2006]

40 Recall Josephs’ claim that Palauan Time and Space are most normally sentence-final.

Documents

SYNTAX & SEMANTICS - Rice Universitypwd/sands06.pdf · FOCUS: PALAUAN 3 (b) *Ng-kiltmekl-ii a Peter a ulaol [3.Sg-clean-3.Sg Peter floor] If the EVENT/Verb is a ditransitive one,