4.4.2.1 Time adverbials
The following temporal adverbials occur typically in environment 2, between the arguments and the agreement forms. However, some of these adverbials may also occur between arguments or preceeding the arguments. These adverbial phrases are marked by a prefix a- attached to its first element and the obligatory clitic =a attached
to its last element, which is typical also for other adverbial phrases that occur in environment 2.
a anghlai=a ‘a lw a y s ’ b ayu-yii=a ‘s o m e tim e s’ c aksiik-a ‘in the b e g in n in g ’ d aksuk-ksuk=a ‘at very first’ e akpaih naa:k=a ‘at la st’ f ahuna=a ‘at o n c e ’
The following example shows the adverbial phrase following the subject argument. (136) Mnaka sun ahunat=a lai lo-kti.
dragon DEM at.once=CF arrive DlR:come=NON.FUT T h e dragon arrived im m ediately.’
4.4.2.2 Manner adverbials
Most manner adverbials are derived from verbs as the following list of examples shows. They also have the a[ ...]=a construction mentioned above.
A dverbial V erb
a akjaa:ng=a ‘q u ic k ly ’ ja a .n g ‘ q u ic k ’ b akdo=a ‘w e ll’ do ‘b e .g o o d ’ c aksa:ng=a ‘truly’ sa.ng ‘b e.tru e’ d a ng te-a ‘e q u a lly ’ ngteh ‘b e .e q u a l’ e ampyu—a ‘se c r e tly ’ mpyuu.k/mpyu- ‘s te a l’
Manner adverbs can occur together with temporal adverbs functioning as conjunctions as shown in example (138)
(138) Asunkon=a Pan sun angse:ng-a do.ng be=kti.
afterwards=LOC Pan DEM quickly=C F run b ack—n o n.f u t
‘Afterwards Pan run back quickly.’
These adverbial phrases may appear to occur in environment 1, but only when there is no explicit argument present in the clause like in (139). In this case environment 1 and 2 are identical.
(139) Aksa:ng=a nah pyen vai.
truly=CF s .a g r : 2 s speak irr
Example (140) shows that the adverbial follows the argument which is present in this clause.
(140) Na:ng Ling, aksa:ng=a nah pyen vai.
2s Ling truly=CF s .a g r : 2 s speak irr
‘You Ling, you should s p e a k th e truth.’
Example (141) is ungrammatical, because these kinds of adverbials do not occur preceding an argument.
(141) *Aksa:ng—a na.ng Ling, nah pyen vai.
truly=CF 2 s Ling s .a g r : 2 s sp eak SUBJ
Manner adverbs can be intensified by rut:, sa:. and occasionally by pa: as shown in the following examples.
(142) Khe:ng=noh akyap nu:=a i:m ah shak.
Khe:ng=ERG n ic e ly MODF:very=CF h o u se s.a g r:3s build ‘Kheng built his h o u se very nicely.’
(143) Ah kkhyu: sun ampyu sa:=a
p o s s :3 s w ife d e m secretly MODF:very—cf
ah hnu=a lak=kti.
p o s s :3 s behind=LOC follow-NON.FUT ‘His wife followed him very secretly .’ (144) Ngshe sun akpyan-bit pa:=a
horse DEM well.fed Mo d f:very—cf
pha lo be-kti.
arrive d ir:c o m e back=NON.FUT T h e horse arrived back very w ell-fed ’
4.4.2.3 Expressives
Expressives (in which words are reduplicated) are an interesting phenomenon found in Southeast Asian languages. A variety of terms have been used for this feature. Schulze (1987) calls them ‘intense action adverbials’. Migliazza (2003) gives a whole list of expressions, including: echo-word reduplication, sound symbolism, size-sound symbolism, and intensification. Migliazza also suggests that ‘expressives’ could be described as a special class of the lexicon. I will describe expressives as a sub-category o f adverbs.
According to Migliazza’s definition it is the idea of expressives that the speaker wishes to convey extra sensations, like emotional feelings, visual impressions and sounds that usually cannot be captured with the normal vocabulary range of a language. They describe the appearance, sound and feel o f something happening.
In Daai some expressives occur in environment 2, others in environment 3. Some expressives have either an onomatopoeic source or are still onomatopoeic forms. Onomatopoeic forms are usually - but not exclusively - found in environment 3, following the verb. All expressives occur in reduplicative structures. Most expressives are limited to a single semantic domain and many even to a single verb.
Colour expressives
It has already been mentioned in 4.3.1 that colours are treated as verbs. Some colours occur as adverbs in environment 2 and are intensified by ‘colour-specific’ expressives as shown in the examples (145) and (146)
(145) Nghnaai-ktheih ta a n g ’aai jak-jak=a hmin=kti.
Mango-fruit FOC y e llo w is h ly INTENSF:very=CF ripe—NON.FUT ‘A s for the m an go fruits they are very yellow ishly ripe.’
(146) Kho-ngmei aboo.k lik-lik=a ngtoon lo-kti.
c lo u d w h itish ly lNTENSF:very=CF rise.up ASP:start= NON.FUT T h e clou d s start to rise very whitishly.’
Other expressives
The following are some examples of expressives that occur in environment 2 and precede the main verb. The expressive lon-lon ‘loudly’ (147) occurs only with verbs belonging to the semantic domain of ‘shouting’.
(147) Hnashen sun lon-lon—a ngpyaang—kti.
ch ild DEM loudly=CF shout=NON.FUT T h e child sh ou ted loudly.’
The expressive meih-meih is associated with activities like work or eating. (148) Meih-meih=a khilui: ni-ba
diligently=LOC w ork DU-IMP ‘Work diligently!’
(149) Thi.ng-kthei byak-byak-a kya lo=kti.
tree-fruit o n o=CF fall DlR:come=NON.FUT T he fruits are falling down with a continuously dropping sound.’ (150) Yo phak-phak=a ngbou=hti.
bam b oo ONO=CF split=NON.FUT T h e bamboo splits sounding ‘phak-phak’.
4.4.3 Adverbs in environment 3
While environment 1 is restricted to adverbs and locative phrases and environment 2 to adverbs only and are therefore clearly definable, this is not the case with environment 3. It is a large slot between the main verb and the event-status markers. In this slot we also find aspectuais, directionals, applicatives, modals and auxiliary verbs that cannot be put together under a common label. Adverbs are interspersed between these other constituents of the verbal complex. There are three groups o f adverbs in this slot: intensifiers, temporal adverbs and expressives.
4.4.3.1 Intensifying adverbs
The following is a list of the most frequently occurring intensifying adverbs.
(151) a pyei: ‘very much’ b kkhiit ‘very much’ c kye:t ‘firmly’ d to.ng ‘too much’ e kolaih ‘too much’
There is a certain overlapping o f collocation for pyei: and kkhiit. A number of verbs can be modified by either o f these two adverbs. But generally pyei: occurs with state verbs like in (152) and kkhiit occurs with activity verbs, as shown in (153).
(152) Ling=noh nukpiii sun ah mpyeen-ei pyei:.
Ling=ERG o ld .w o m a n DEM S.AGR:3s pity v ery.m u ch . ‘Ling pitied the old woman very much.’
(153) Thang=noh buh ei kkhiit=kti.
Thang=ERG rice ea t very.much=NON.FUT 'Thang ate very much rice.’
The adverb to. ng has a semantic range o f various stages of intensity. With some state verbs like je-kyai ‘happy’ and puk-she ‘sad’ the meaning o f to:ng is just ‘very’ and is hardly different from pyei:.
However, in combination with kphya-naa.k ‘love’ the meaning is much more intense: ‘to love so much that one is close to death’. When occurring with some activity verbs like mtheh ‘instruct’ and phyoh ‘weed the field’, the meaning of to. ng is ‘too much’ - so that the activity has a negative result or effect.
(155) Lou: kah phyoh to.ng ni.
field S.AGR:ls w e e d too.much EMPH ‘I w eeded too much [and now I am very exhausted].’
Finally there is a group of verbs that collocate with to. ng and the resulting construction expresses the meaning ‘verb-to-death’. Some of these verbs are kaa.p ‘shoot’, kya ‘fall’,
leh ‘step on’ and khoong ‘throw’.
(156) Kah ni.ng kaa.p to:ng=kkhai.
s .a g r : 1 s o .a g r : 2 s s h o o t to.d eath = F U T ‘I will kill you by shooting you .’
(157) Ui: sa: ksha: kkhyuh kya to:ng=kti.
d og little veranda from fall to.death=NON.FUT T h e little dog died falling from the veran d a.’
4.4.3.2 Temporal adverbs
Temporal adverbs within the verbal complex often contain aspectual components. The following is a list of the most frequently occurring temporal adverbs:
(158) a kshet ‘immediately’ b la:n ‘soon’ c ma ‘first’ d hniih ‘finally’ e shoxat ‘instantly’
These adverbs can occur in different places within environment 3 as shown by the examples below.
(1 5 9 ) Saang, mpa.pum sun kkhom -noh
paddy c o m DEM bear=ERG
ah ei pee:t paih hniih.
s.a g r:3s ea t APPL:mal ASP: c o m p le te ly fin a lly T h e bear ate finally all the paddy and corn (on behalf o f the old w om an).
(1 6 0 ) Tuh-ta kah kshi.ng hniih vee.ng
n o w S.AGR:ls k n o w fin ally M OD:definitely ‘Now I finally know it for su re .’
4.4.3.3 Expressive adverbs
Sound ex p ressiv es
T he fo llo w in g sire ex a m p les o f e x p ressiv es w ith the m ean in g o f the d escrip tion o f sounds.
(1 6 1 ) Kshum ah-nih shuk pyut-pyut.
paddy s.a g r:3d u/pl pound o n o
T h e y pound paddy sou nd in g ‘pyut-pyut’.’
(1 6 2 ) Thang=noh yo sun tu hok-hok=kti.
Thang=ERG b a m b o o DEM cu t.d o w n ONO=NON.FUT ‘Thang cu ts dow n b am b oo with a knocking so u n d .’
(1 6 3 ) Buh ei xop-xop=kti.
rice eat o n o=n o n.f u t
‘He e a ts with a slurping so u n d .’
In ten sify in g ex p ressiv es
S o m e e x p ressiv es have an in ten sify in g function. T h ey are sim ilar to in tesify in g adverbs but have th e m o rp h o lo g ica l form o f ex p ressiv es.
(1 6 4 ) Kah pyen thip-thip.
S.AGR:ls sp eak co m p letely ‘I told [it] all.’ (lit. I said [it] com pletely.)
T he ex p ressiv e bing-bing ‘d e fin ite ly ’ occu rs o n ly in n egative im perative cla u ses and c o llo c a te s o n ly w ith verbs from th e sem an tic d om ain o f ‘sp ea k in g ’.
(165) U=ung phi kah mtheh bing-bing ba.
N obody=D A T a lso NEG te ll d efin itely TAG 'Don’t tell an yb od y at all, will you!’
Summary
[E 1 ] [Arguments] [E 2 ] [Neg ] [Agr] [Verb] [E 3] [TNS/S ] [Emph/Evid]
Generally speaking the schema shown at the beginning of this section and repeated here, promises to describe where adverbs occur and it seems that most adverbs occur in only one o f these locations. There are some exceptions and these were noted in the discussion.