Zona Metropolitana Suburbana Noroccidental

Adverbs that occur in environment 1, at the beginning o f a clause or sentence, are typically time adverbials and provide the setting for an entire event or state. They can be categorized into two groups: adverbials expressing a specific time and adverbials expressing relative time. The adverbials expressing specific time are mostly derived from nouns.

Specific time

The following time adverbials relate to the concept of ‘day’. Adverbials referring to ‘day’

(1 2 2 ) a tuh-ngooi: b shee.p mthan ‘today’ ‘tonight’ c tuh-mthan d mii-ta ‘last night’ ‘yesterday’ e maam f kho-ngooi:

‘the day before yesterday’ ‘tomorrow’

g tik-tuh ‘the day after tomorrow’

h keen ‘in three days’ time’

i kum ‘in four days’ time’

j ma-shang ‘in five days’ time’ k ko-kek ‘in six days’ time’

Example (123) shows the time adverbial occuring in environment 1, at the beginning of the clause.

(123) Kho-ngooi:=a mdi nih aa:t=kkhai.

Tomorrow=LOC thatch S.AGR:lPL.lNCL cut=FUT Tomorrow w e will cut thatch.’

The following list of adverbials refer to certain times o f the day (see also Hartmann: 1987).

a

A dverbials referring to times of the day

ngooi:-la:m ‘in the morning b kho-thaai ‘at dawn’ c kho-mhnuu.p ‘at noon time’ d kho-mii ‘in the evening’

e kho-hmup ‘at the beginning o f dusk’ f kho-mthan ‘in the night’

g mthan-nglung ‘at midnight’

These adverbials also have to precede the arguments of the clause.

(125) Kho-rnhnuii.p—a je=noh

noon=LOC hare=ERG

buh-suu:n ah mhjat-ei lo -k ti

rice-p ack age s.a g r:3s open-AO ASP:inc=NON.FUT ‘At noon the hare started to op en its lunch p a c k a g e .’

Example (126) is ungrammatical because the temporal adverb does not occur in this environment.

(126) *Ah sa: sun ngooi:-la:m—a am thou: khoh

POSS :3s ch ild DEM mom ing=LOC n e g get.u p MOD:able ‘In th e morning his child w a s not able to g e t up.’

The following list shows adverbial expressions referring to the concept of ‘year’. Note that all o f these expressions include the noun kum ‘year’. This group of adverbials behaves like the previous two groups and can only occur in environment 1.

Adverbials referring to ‘y e a r’ a tuh-a kum ‘this year’ b sheeng kum ‘next year’

c mthelo kum ‘the year after next’ d tuh-kum ‘last year’

e ma-ku ‘the year before last’ f pi-kum ‘three years ago’

Relative time

Some o f the relative time expressions relate to the time of speaking - ‘now’ - and not to concepts o f days or years. The following is a list of temporal adverbials and adverbial phrases related to ‘now’.

(128) a tuh ‘now’

b tuh kuu:ng ‘right now’ c su kta ‘a moment ago’ d shee:p ‘in a while’

Some adverbial phrases that refer to a specific time are combinations of the noun

mhniiu.'p ‘day’ and the numeral mat ‘one’.

(129) a amhnuu:p-mat-a ‘the whole day long’ b mhnuu:-mat=ung ta ‘one day’ [in the past] c mhnuiX:p-mat-mat=ung ta ‘some day’ [in the future]

The adverbial shown in the next two examples behaves differently from the other temporal adverbs we have looked at so far. It can occur in environment 1 (130) and within the arguments (131).

(130) Amhnuu:p-mat=a vok sun lou: phyou:=kti.

the.w hole.day.long=L O C p ig DEM fie ld w e e d —NON.FUT T h e pig w e e d e d th e field th e w h ole day long.’

(131) Ui: amhniiu:p-mat=a ksoong=a ngam-ei=kti.

d o g the.w hole.day.long=L O C hut=LOC id 1 e -a o=n o n.fu t

Temporal adverbs functioning as conjunctions

The following conjunctions are found in environment 1 only and are used for anaphoric reference. Most of these temporal phrases function mainly at discourse level and mark the beginning o f a new episode or paragraph. As can be seen from the list below, these temporal phrases are combinations of the demonstrative pronoun asun (see also 5.2.2) and various temporal subordinators and other morphemes.

(1 3 2 )

Conjunctive Adverb Gloss

a asuniing ‘then’, ‘after that’ b asuniingta ‘then, ‘therefore’

c asukba ‘like that’

d asunkon=a ‘after that’

e asut-um=ung ‘during that time’, ‘during that event’

(133) Asukba ngbe-nga=xooi sun

like.that pair.of.brothers=D U DEM

i:m=a lai lo be=kti=xooi.

house=LOC arrive D iR x o m e back=NON.FUT=DU ‘In this way the pair of brothers arrived back hom e.’

Example (134) is ungrammatical because conjuctive adverbs cannot be preceded by arguments.

(134) *Ah mah-pa:-noh asun-kona

POSS :3s master=ERG after.this

ah ui: sun ah te mjoh.

p o s s :3 s d o g DEM s .a g r : 3 s beat e v id ‘After this the master beat his d og.’