Knowledge base · Part XVIII — Information Structure, Sentence-Final Particles, and Minor Classes · this topic as a network

142. Pragmatic Word-Order Permutation, Dislocation, and Argument Ellipsis

How does Hokkaido Ainu adjust word order for information structure, moving phrasess or omitting arguments, while keeping the verb final?

3 sentences from 14 sources · every sentence names the pages it rests on

Overview

What is the basic clause-level word order constraint in Hokkaido Ainu, and how free is the order of preverbal phrases?

Word order in Ainu is generally free and pragmatically motivated. (Bugaeva 2015: 57)

Topic-initial order and left-fronting

How does Hokkaido Ainu signal topical noun phrases, and does it place them clause-initially?

When context or semantics prevents misinterpretation, inversion of basic SOV order to OSV occurs in both Classical and colloquial Ainu. (Shibatani 1990: 22)

a=kor seta anakne i=oyakke oma ka somo ki p ne kusu i=sam ta ukasuy ipe=an

4.A=have dog TOP 4.O=leave approach even NEG do NMLZ COP PURP 4.O=side LOC together eat=4.S

‘My dog, as for it, never left my side, so it ate with me.’

ILCAA Ainu materials 1976 · SAR

ku=nukar seta anakne ney ta ne yakka a=nukar seta ne noyne siran

1SG.A=see dog TOP where LOC COP even 4.A=see dog COP seem exist

‘The dog I saw looked like a dog you would see anywhere.’

Ainu Koraci 1991 · SAR

Seta anakne a=kor ikor ne kusu onne wa isam pakno pirkano kasi a=oyki kuni p ne na

dog TOP 4.A=have treasure COP PURP die.old CONJ absent until well properly 4.A=care COMP NMLZ COP FIN

‘Dogs are our treasure, so one must care for them well until they die of old age.’

Ainu Koraci 1991 · SAR

Focus preposing and allative-marked IO fronting

Can focused constituents be fronted in Hokkaido Ainu, and how are indirect objects marked when moved?

ku=macihi orun topenpe ku=kore

1SG.A=wife ALLAT sweets 1SG.A=give

‘To my wife I gave the sweets (not to anyone else).’

· constructed· SHI

Right-dislocation and the afterthought construction

How does Hokkaido Ainu form right-dislocation or afterthought constructions, placing arguments after the verb?

Ainu has a right-dislocation construction in which a nounless verb phrase is produced first and its subject or object is subsequently disambiguated by placing it as an argument of the transitive light verb ki 'do'. (Bugaeva 2022: 1.4)

he=tuk-pa pa a=mat-ne-po-utar-i a=po-utar-i ki pa pe ne kusu

body=grow-PL PFV 4.A=wife-COP-child-ASS-POSS 4.A=child-ASS-POSS do PFV NMLZ COP PURP

‘They all grew up — the daughters and the children — because the children did so.’

Bugaeva 2022 · CHI