draft manuscript - Linguistics - University of California, Berkeley

2.3.1 Basic Clause Structure
Omagua main clause alignment follows an active-stative pattern with AVP, S A V and VS P word
orders. 66 An additional order S P V is also attested, but is less frequent. Arguments may be encoded
by nouns, free pronouns or phonologically bound pronominal proclitics (see §2.2.1), but pronominal
proclitics must have a rightward phonological host. Omagua verbs are maximally two-place
predicates, and all oblique arguments (including indirect objects) must be licensed via a series of
phonologically bound nominal enclitics (described as postpositions in §2.3.3).
Contrastive topic subjects encoded via full NPs appear at the left edge of the clause, in which
case they are followed by an intonation break and doubled by a pronominal proclitic phonologically
bound to the verb. Focus is typically marked in situ via intonation, but see §2.3.8. Highly topical
third-person objects may be deleted; subjects are obligatory. The realization of a full NP, free
pronoun, pronominal proclitic or, in the case of third-person objects, null, is governed by a givenness
hierarchy in the vein of Gundel et al. (1993), which we will not treat here (see Sandy and O’Hagan
(2012a) and Michael et al. (in prep)). Adverbs tend to occur clause-initially.
2.3.2 Nominal Modification
In Old Omagua, nouns may be modified in one of three ways, via (a combination of): 1) prenominal
elements that include demonstratives (§2.3.2.1); 2) another noun (§2.3.2.2); and 3) a nominalized
stative verb (§2.3.2.3).
2.3.2.1 Demonstratives and Quantifiers
The ecclesiastical texts exhibit a small number of demonstratives and quantifiers in comparison
to both modern Omagua and Proto-Omagua-Kokama, for three main reasons: 1) neither Proto-
Omagua-Kokama or modern Omagua possess a large number of demonstrative pronouns and/or
quantifiers to begin with; 2) these texts do not require the range of deictic reference that would
invoke the use of both proximal and distal demonstratives (only the proximal is attested); and 3)
demonstratives differ along genderlect lines and, given that the texts are written exclusively with
masculine genderlect forms, no female speech demonstratives are attested. Below we first summarize
demonstratives and quantifiers in modern Omagua, and then discuss those forms attested in the
ecclesiastical texts, before turning our attention to a small set of historical questions concerning the
evolution of these forms from Proto-Omagua-Kokama.
Table 2.14 gives the demonstratives in modern Omagua. Demonstratives may stand alone as
arguments, in which capacity they may also take nominal morphology (see §2.2.2). They may also
function as determiners, modifying nouns without additional derivation, in which case any nominal
morphology attaches to the noun itself, and not to the demonstrative. 67
Out of the forms in Table 2.14, only aikiaRa dem.prox.ms, of which akia is a reflex, is attested. 68
This demonstrative is shown as an argument with plural marking in (2.35).
66 A = subject of transitive verb; S A = single argument of active intransitive verb; S P = single argument of inactive
intransitive verb; P = object of transitive verb.
67 The syntactic distribution of demonstrative pronouns varies significantly between Omagua and Kokama-Kokamilla.
In the latter (at least with proximal demonstratives), both nominalized and non-nominalized demonstratives may
modify nouns, but the latter appear to encode only spatial deixis, whereas the former appear to encode levels
of dicourse givenness (“discourse deixis”). Only nominalized demonstratives may take nominal morphology (e.g.,
number marking), and stand alone as arguments (see Vallejos Yopán (2012:215-222) for more explanation).
68 See footnote 156 for a discussion of unexpected form of Old Omagua aikiaRa.
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