Nouny tail-head linkage: The anaphoric sentence-connector pronoun of Bora
Bora is an endangered Witotoan language spoken in the Amazon regions of Colombia
and Peru. As a sentence connector Bora systematically employs a certain type of
anaphoric pronoun in genres such as narratives and procedurals. Based on a large and
diverse corpus of Bora collected by the author this paper discusses the properties of this
sentence-connector pronoun and addresses issues such as the interaction of clause-level
syntax with topicality and the parallels of this strategy to connect sentences with tailhead linkage.
A Bora connector pronouns is formed with the stem aa- (examples 1-4) and has a fixed
sentence-initial position (word order is otherwise very free in Bora). It obligatorily
combines with a class marker which shows grammatical agreement in noun class and
number with an antecedent (examples 1-4). The referent of the antecedent is topical in
the new clause, but it is not necessarily the main topic. Thus, an inanimate participant
can be referred to by aa- (e.g., a stick in example 1, line 3), even though other
participants may be more topical (e.g., he and them in line 3 of that example). Highly
topical animate participants are usually (additionally) tracked by subject marker on
verbs (e.g. example 1, line 1). The connector pronouns formed with aa- are
syntactically tightly integrated into the new clause: they may be the dependent of a
genitive phrase (example 2) and they are often case-marked according to their syntactic
function in the new clause (example 1, line 3 and example 3, line 2). The use of aa- is
thus a strategy to express topicality - also of non-subjects (note that Bora lacks passive)
- quite independently of clause-level syntax.
In their pervasiveness and systematicity in certain genres, the Bora sentence-connector
pronouns are reminiscent of tail-head linkage in languages of New Guinea. The crucial
difference is that it is verbs that are repeated sentence-initially in these languages. This
is related to a general tendency to avoid noun phrases in these languages, which is in
sharp contrast with Bora, where noun phrases abound. Interestingly, the connector
pronoun (unlike other nominal expressions in Bora) may also include some verbal
morphology, such as the frustrative marker (example 4, line 2). Often, the connector
pronoun combines with the inanimate class marker, which then usually refers to the
general situation described before, instead of a particular referent (example 3, line 1),
another clear parallel to verby tail-head linkage.
The sentence-connector pronouns are also the host for second-position clitics, which
express TAM notions, including evidentiality (examples 1-3, Figure 1). They may also
combine with further morphology which establishes, e.g., temporal relations between
clauses (example 3, line 1). A fully expanded sentence-connector pronoun (Figure 1)
thus provides a whole array of discourse relevant information, packed into the first word
of a sentence.
(1)
í-cujcú-i
ékéévéco-obe níjco-obe
POS.3-walking_stick-CL.stick grab-CL.MASC.SG smear-CL.MASC.SG
tee-ne
mahní-ba-ri
pɨ́ru tee-ne
3.INAN-CL.INAN tar-CL.INAN-INST all 3.INAN-CL.INAN
áá-i-rí=va
dii-té-ke
píllúhcúco-obe
CON-CL.stick-LOC=QUOT 3.ANIM-CL.ANIM.PL-ACC glue-CL.MASC.SG
‘‘He grabbed his walking stick, he smeared it, with tar, all (over), it. And to it (i.e.
walking stick) he glued them.’
(2)
[áá-mó
úníu-rí]=váa
pe-híjcyá-mé
pe-híjcyá-me
[CON-CL.river edge-LOC]=QUOT.REM go-REP-CL.ANIM.PL go-REP-CL.ANIM.PL
‘And along it (i.e. river) they walked, they walked’
(3)
áá-ne-tú=ne
ɨnááve-ebe
i-wábyá
cááme-u
CON-CL.INAN-ABL=REC tie-CL.MASC.SG 3.POS.hammock high-ADL
áá-be-ké=ne
mɨhbajyúneecu […] aamú
CON-CL.MASC.SG-ACC=REC fish_sp
[…] hit
‘And then (lit. from that) he tied his hammock high up. And him the fish hit’
(4)
étsihdyu
lláhaájtsɨ-tu wáámenéjúco-obe díí-lle-ma
From_there patio-ABL fly-CL.MASC.SG.
3.ANIM-CL.FEM.SG-SOC
á-ro-llé=vá=pe
úmehéé-néj pɨɨnéúré i-íllityé-ne
ihjyúcunú
CON-FRUS-CL.FEM.SG=QUOT=REM tree-PL
middle 3-feaer-CL.INAN scream
‘From the patio he flew with her. But she, in the middle of the trees, was
frightened and screamed’
(temporal) relation between two clauses
mode previous clause
evidentiality etc.
wrt. new clause
áá (-ró) -bé(-ke) (-tsi) (=vá) (=pe)
NP
CON(-FRUS)-CL(-CASE)(-TEMP)(=TAM)(=TAM)
-->] [-->
syntactic rel. w/ predicate new clause
new clause
previous participant
(agreement)
verb
same participant (thematic)
Figure 1: MULTIPLE RELATIONS ESTABLISHED BY aa- ‘CON’