Kokota Grammar

CHAPTER 9: IMPERATIVES AND INTERROGATION

CHAPTER 9: IMPERATIVES AND INTERROGATION 9.1 Imperative clauses Imperative clauses are employed for commands, exhortations, and requests. No formal marker of second person imperative clauses exists. The imperative clause has normal declarative clause structure, with the restrictions that the clause must be in irrealis mood, no preverbal topicalized argument may occur, and only second person or first inclusive subjects are possible. Imperatives are typically distinguishable from declaratives by clause-final rising-falling intonation. 9.1.1 Positive imperatives As with positive irrealis declaratives, the subject-indexed particle may occur in positive imperatives (as in [9.1]a.), but is typically omitted ([9.1 ]b.): (9.1) a. 0 la ka=ni=na fagi-mi 2s go 100k=3SGO=IMM REFL-2PLP 'Go and look at him yourselves!' b. ke mai ago PFV come youSG 'You come here!' The subject may be overtly expressed, as in (9.1), but is often unstated: (9.2) zaho lea go INIT 'Go away!' First inclusive imperatives also have the form of an irrealis declarative clause: (9.3) da age kae=di=u 1INCS go see=3PLO=CNT 'Let's go and see hae fa au=re n-e hure=ri hinage=re maneri where SBD exist=thoseN RL-3s Carry=3PLO boat=thoseN they where they carried the boats!' However, first inclusive imperatives usually open with the special particle aria: (9.4) aria d-age nhura=i jifupogu 1INC.IMP 1INCS-go destroy=3sGo PNLOC 'Let's go and destroy Fitupogu!' CHAPTER 9 As with second person, first inclusive imperative subjects may be overtly stated. Some aspect and tense modifiers may occur in imperative clauses. The continuous aspect enclitic occurs commonly with first inclusive imperatives, as (9.3) illustrates, though it is not obligatory. The perfective marker and present tense marker also occur: (9.5) a. t=au la aria da-ke pulo SBo=exist CND IINc.IMP IINCS-PFV return 'Ifthat's so then let's go back!' b. o-ge lao ge tahe la=ri bla 2S-PRS go and tell gO=3PLO LMT 'Just tell some more [stories] [now]!' The use of present tense with irrealis modality, discussed in §7.5.2.8, gives the sense that the event will happen immediately. In (9.5)b. the use of present tense occurs because the speaker wants the addressee to tell further stories straight away. The future tense marker ginai appears not to occur in imperative clauses. 9.1.2 Negative imperatives Kokota has two negative constructions (see §8.7). One employs the negative particle ti, the other is a subordinating construction with the negative existential verb teo. Both constructions occur in second person negative imperatives: (9.6) a. 0-1; lao sare gilu 2S-NEG go thereP inside 'Don't go in there!' b. leo g-o rnai ago not.exist NT-2s come yOUSG 'Don't you come!' First inclusive irrealis negative imperatives appear to allow only the subordinating construction, as in (9.7)a. Clauses with the negative particle, as in (9.7)b., appear not to permit an imperative interpretation: (9.7) a. leo ge-da age=u 332 not.exist NT-I INCS gO=CNT 'Let's not go!' b. da-I; lelegu=na gila IINCS-NEG go.fishing=IMM weINC 'We won't go fishing today.' goinode today IMPERATIVES AND INTERROGATION 9.1.3 Politeness in imperatives No specific politeness or respect marker exists comparable to English please. However, where a second person pronoun subject is overtly realized it may be marked with the focus marker si. The absence of the focus marker in this situation, as in (9.6)b., is not regarded as respectful (see discussion in §8.S.2.4.). 9.2 Interrogation Interrogative clauses in Kokota fall into three distinct types, on both formal and functional grounds: (9.8) a. Polar and option interrogatives-morphologically and syntactically identical to declarative clauses. b. Constituent interrogatives-seek details of an event or its participants using interrogative proforms. c. Contextual interrogatives-'how' and 'why' questions, involving the event expressed as a clause separate to the interrogative form. 9.2.1 Polar and option interrogatives Polar interrogatives have the structure of a declarative clause, but are distinguished from declaratives by clause-final rising intonation, in contrast with the falling intonation of declarative clauses. Thus the clauses in (9.9) are syntactically identical to declaratives: (9.9) a. n-e fa mai=ni bo...