Locative predicates and existential clauses

Vatlongos uses a set of three locative verbs, ti, te, and ta, roughly glossed as ‘stay’ or ‘be at’, to express locative predicates: clauses which predicate the location of the subject. Two of these verbs are also used in existential clauses, asserting the existence of the subject or introducing a referent to the discourse. This is a common functional overlap cross-linguistically (Dryer 2007: 240–241). The locative verb te differs from ti and ta in requiring a locative NP immediately following the verb. This is because it appears to be derived from a combination of ta and the locative preposition e (§3.2.1). Ti and ta are distinguished by more subtle differences in their distribution. Both are lexical sources for continuous auxiliary verbs (§8.2.1), so their lexical and discourse-functional distribution is worth discussing here.

Ti is the most frequent locative verb occurring once every 100 words in the

subcorpus. It usually functions as a locative predicate, followed by an NP or PP expressing a location:

(127) mei lu-di tim

COME 3DU.NFUT-NFUT.stay home

‘They came and stayed at home.’ [20141027a_n01m001_12]

(128) atuli xalu lu-di bien

girl DU 3DU.NFUT-NFUT.stay sea

(129) inou nat-ti Santo

1SG 1SG.PRI-stay Santo

‘I was in Santo.’ [20150219b_n01m001_57]

The kinds of locations that follow ti are usually fairly large, imprecise areas that are readily identifiable in context. When the location is recoverable from the context or discourse, ti can be used independently, as in (130). For this reason,

ti is analysed as an intransitive verb, and any following locative NP does not

function as an object.

(130) lu-mmei tim; mei lu-di,

3DU.NFUT-come home COME 3DU.NFUT-NFUT.stay

‘They came home; they came and stayed [there]’ [20141027a_n01m001_19]

However, even when the location is recoverable from context, a pro-form of the locative preposition can be used:

(131) Xamem ma-di e-n

1PL.EXCL 1PL.EXCL.NFUT-NFUT.stay LOC-3OBJ

‘We stayed in it [a hole]’ [20150219b_n01m001_16]

Ti can also be used without a location phrase, especially at the beginning of

narratives (132) or procedural texts (133), to establish the background for events or procedures. It can be difficult to translate this function into English, but, depending on the context, it can be roughly glossed as ‘live’, ‘be there’ or ‘hang around’.

(132) Mata-di vongien,

1PC.EXCL.NFUT-NFUT.stay night

‘We were there at night,’ [20150303h_n01e106_01]

(133) taem xa ma-di, ma-di

time REL 1PL.EXCL.NFUT-NFUT.stay 1PL.EXCL.NFUT-NFUT.stay

ma tas mes,

then sea 3SG.NFUT.dry

‘When we’re there, we’re there and the tide goes out,’ [20141028b_p02m003_1]

It is also frequently used immediately after the introduction of characters in a narrative, before the events of the narrative begin:

(134) tumen lu, tei ise-n mai,

bird two one name-3SG.POSS pigeon

tei ise-n, na, koh.

one name-3SG.POSS HES heron

Lu-di maa… lu-be bien

3DU.NFUT-NFUT.stay on_and_on 3DU.NFUT-NFUT.go_to sea

‘There were two birds, one was called pigeon and one was called heron. They were living… they went to the sea.’

[20141220d_n01s082_01-03]

(135) mai xal as, lu-di maa…

pigeon with ant 3DU.NFUT-NFUT.stay on_and_on…

‘There was a pigeon and an ant, they were living…’ [20170119h_n01s088_03]

In both these examples ti is followed by the durative discourse marker maa ‘on and on’ (§4.3.2). During a narrative, ti is often marked for durative with

repetition as well to mark the passing of time, without any locative constituent.

(136) La-di la-di

3PL.NFUT-NFUT.stay 3PL.NFUT-NFUT.stay

la-di maa…

3PL.NFUT-NFUT.stay on_and_on

‘They carried on and on...’ [20150226a_n01s098_05]

Ta is less frequent than ti occurring every 217 words in the subcorpus. Parker’s

(1970a: 28, 33) dictionary does not have separate entries for the lexical and auxiliary sense of ti and ta, and his proposed distinctions between ti and ta are discussed in more detail in relation to the continuous auxiliaries in §8.2.1. His observation that ta marks situations as relatively more ‘definite as to time, place or other circumstances’ is perhaps true of lexical ta. Compared to ti, ta is more likely to occur without a locative NP or PP, and instead refers to a place that is definite in the sense that it is accessible from the discourse or wider context of speech. In example (137), the understood location is the location of the speech act, and in (138) it is the current setting of the narrative. In (139), the location, school, is accessible from the previous clause, while in (140) a locative NP is in clause-initial position, and refers back to Tongoa in the previous clause.

(137) xouk a-da

2SG 3SG.NFUT-NFUT.stay

(138) sup taa-ra ti

chief 3SG.NFUT.NEG-NEG.stay NEG

‘The chief wasn’t there.’ [20170222d_n01s152_17]

(139) na-mmei mun skul; ma na-da.

1SG.NFUT-come again school then 1SG.NFUT-NFUT.stay

‘I came back to school; then I stayed there.’ [20170119f_n01s136_27]

(140) Rute nen ak, nine-n tei da

place of_it PROX mother-3SG.POSS one 3SG.NFUT.stay

‘In this same place, an aunt of his lived.’ [20141208a_n01m045_15] Example (510) below shows ta modified with a subsequent verb in an SVC that expresses specific temporal bounds. As a subsequent verb in SVCs (§6.4.4), ta can often be translated as ‘away’ or ‘to one side’, as in (247) below.

Similarly, ta is used to question an exact location: every speaker who decided to translate the title of the frog story ‘Frog, where are you?’ used ta:

(141) frog o-da xavi?

frog 2SG.NFUT-NFUT.stay where

‘Frog, where are you?’ [20150118a_n01m090_15]

Ta also often occurs with the adverbs tang ‘just’ and tamu ‘still’:

(142) mama na-da tang

mum 1SG.NFUT-NFUT.stay just

‘Mum I’m just here.’ [20170220i_n01e149_09]

(143) Nat-ta tamu tim sa-van

1SG.PRI-stay still home CL.DOM-1SG.POSS

‘I was still living at home.’ [20141211a_n01s046_02]

Like ti, ta can be marked for durative and used to show time passing, in example (144) in instructions for growing yam.

(144) ma i-ta i-ta ve…

then 3SG.DFUT-stay 3SG.DFUT-stay on_and_on

‘They it will carry on and on…’ [20141106d_p10e016_10]

Ta can also be used in existential clauses, to assert the existence of the subject

or introduce it into the discourse.

(145) Wajman tei na-metel da

watchman one CL.GEN-1PC.EXCL.POSS 3SG.NFUT.stay

The high frequency and semantically bleached discourse functions of these two ‘stay’ verbs are probably factors in their reanalysis as auxiliary verbs.