In Abu', sentences consist (in this order) of an actor-subject phrase argument (A) and a predicate. The nominal actor—subject—phrase
may consist of an optional number of adjectival adjuncts and a head noun. The noun may belong to one of the different classes each with a different nominal concord affix, which can itself be singular or plural. Adjectives agree in number and class with the modified noun, taking corresponding singular and plural nominal affixes.
The predicate contains (in this order) a nominal concord actor prefix marker, which obligatorily occurs as the left-most constituent, (which can itself show corresponding singular and plural affixes), an aspectual prefix tense, and a verb stem. In the case of transitive verbs, an objective case m r f e r which must again be selected by the number and class of the subject nominal) occurs as the right-most constituent. This morphological ordering is manifested by an actor-verb-undergoer or subject-verb-object for reference these morphological ordering will be labelled A-V-U/S-V-O). This linear ordering is obligatory, and it makes Abu' different from most Papuan languages, whose word ordering is typically manifested by an A-U-V or S-O-V ordering. This syntactic ordering is also found with free object noun phrases.
A pervasive feature of many of the Papuan languages of Papua New Guinea is overt case marking, a feature that is not found in Abu'. The absence of any overt case marking morphemes are compensated for by the strict S-V-0 grammatical word order. The subject and object of a sentence are indicated by their positions in the sentence.
5 . 4 - 1 . 1 Noun p h r a s e
The c o m p o s i t i o n a l s t r u c t u r e o f t h e NP o f t h e a r g u m e n t p a r t o f t h e s e n t e n c e c a n be s u m m ar is e d i n a b s t r a c t i o n a s f o l l o w s :
NP — > (N(gg / p l ) (DEM) (NUM) (ADJ)
The a bo ve a b s t r a c t f o r m u l a r e p r e s e n t i n g t h e c o m p o s i t i o n a l s t r u c t u r e o f an NP o f t h e a r g u m e n t p a r t o f an Abu' s e n t e n c e s h o u l d be r e a d a s : N e q u a l s noun ( m a r k i n g t h e a c t o r o r a g e n t ) w h i c h c a n t a k e on t h e p l u r a l s u f f i x wh i c h must a g r e e i n c l a s s w i t h t h e h e a d n o u n , a s mu st s u b s e q u e n t a d j u n c t s (ADJU). DEM s t a n d s f o r d e m o n s t r a t i v e , NUM s t a n d s f o r nu mb er , ADJ s t a n d s f o r a d j e c t i v e . An NP t h u s c o n s i s t s o f a h e a d noun and a d j u n c t s . B e c a u s e o f t h e c o m p u l s o r y r u l e o f p r e f i x i n g v e r b s t e m s ( e x c e p t i m p e r a t i v e s e n t e n c e s wh i ch o c c u r w i t h no o v e r t s u b j e c t m a r k e r i n t h e s u r f a c e s t r u c t u r e ) , t h e noun o r f r e e - p r o n o u n t h a t c o n s t i t u t e s t h e h e a d n o un o f t h e l e f t m o s t NP n o d e , a s w e l l a s i t s m o d i f y i n g a t t r i b u t i v e f o r m s , a r e o f t e n o m i t t e d . An e x a m p l e o f a f u l l y s p e c i f i e d NP i s : a l e m a n a - n - a a t e - n - a u b a h - i - n - e - r - i
man DEM-NCE-pd NUM(one)-NCE-EV ADJ(big)-CV-NCEM(SG)-EV-EC-dd
1 2 5 4
man t h i s one b i g
a l i a l - i - n - e - r - i n - a - n - i
d a r k -CV-NCEM (SG)-CV-EC-dd NCEM (SG)-DEM-NCEM(SG)-dd
5
6
d a r k v e r y
I n v i ew o f t h e f a c t t h a t t h e Abu' do n o t h a v e a n y a u x i l i a r y v e r b s , t h e n o m i n a l m o d i f i e r a d j u n c t s do n o t d i s t i n g u i s h b e t w e e n a t t r i b u t i v e and p r e d i c a t i v e f u n c t i o n s o f noun m o d i f i e r s e x c e p t t h a t one i s a s e n t e n c e and t h e o t h e r i s n o t . Hence t h e a bo v e NP t h e n c a n be i n t e r p r e t e d a s ' T h e one v e r y b i g d a r k man' o r ' T h e man i s v e r y d a r k
3*4.2 The verb phrase
A typical verb phrase in Abu' consists of the verb stem., which forms what I will designate here as the verbal phrase 'core'. In the scope of the core are the left and right positions which I will prefer to designate as pre-core and post-core respectively. Occurring in the pre-core position are (in this order) (i) the actor-subject pronominal prefix marker (a pro-form) which varies to agree with the class of the actor-noun but which can itself show the singular and plural; (ii) the aspectual marker which specifies completed and potentially completed events into a realis (r) an irrealis (iR) dichotomy andO'\) tense marker. The 'past' and 'non-future' are not marked hence the zero morpheme \-ft\ is being adopted to represent both tenses. The future
(FUT) tense marker is {—k— }.
In the post-core position, an adjunctive form marking the undergoer may be suffixed to the verb stem, provided that two pre-requisites are met. These are (a) the verb must be transitive and
b) that the nominal undergoer-marker suffix, if appended, is not redundant (because of the occurrence of the full NP).
Having said that, I think further remarks and illustrations of all that has been said on the nature and structure of ' endocentric constructions'^ might be pertinently discussed if the reader is first made aware of the sentence types in Abu' .
t
^Those Abu' constructions with a group of syntactically related words in which one of the words acts as the definable'head' inside the group and which has the same distribution as the whole. The A b u ’ NPs and VPs with the head noun and the verbal stem acting as definable 'heads’ of a given sentence can be collectively considered as good examples of endocentric constructions. See e.g. Lyons 1968:chapt.4.
3*4.3 Abu' sentences
Abu' speech utterances constituting sentences are rendered by-
three main types: fragmentary, simple and complex.
3 . 4.3.1 Fragmentary sentences
Abu' Arapesh's fragmentary speech utterances are typified by
verb-less phrases that are uttered in response to interrogations or
uttered when meeting friends. These include free-forms consisting of
exclamations and greetings.
Table 3-12: Exclamative forms
Affi r m a t i o n : 0 ! , a ! 'yes' ! Negation: u w a ' ' n o ' ! Interjection: ata' ! 'w a i t '! dau' ! 'e n o u g h ' ! mete' ! 'be q u i e t '! h i ' i ! 'c o m e ' ! hu' u ! go ! faan ! 's i t , stay' !
Exclamation: awomia ! 'woe !, a l a s '!
ei' ! 'h i '!, attention'
a h a ' ! 'watch o u t '!
us ! 'give w a y '!
u wo hu ! 'okay' !
u ho u' ! (you) 'come' !
^Narakobi (pers.com. 1984) contends that the Arapesh forms of greetings are indigenous to the culture, but it appears to the author that they are either mere loan translations from Tok Pisin verbal greetings or their syntematization can be attributed to indirect influence from
the popular usage of Tok Pisin greetings. These were borrowed wholesale from the Buki in the 1950s and have been used ever since.
GREETINGS