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4 FUNCTION OF ROTOKAS WORDS

4.0 The Term "Function" Discussed

A comparison kas been made (Dik 1968:148-149) between lexical and grammatical items, and actors performing a play. The actors are individuals who belong to specific~elasses (male-female, young-old, good-bad, etc.) irrespective of the play in which they are performing. Each individual actor, when performing, represents particular role or function which is defined by the overall structure of the play itself and not by the actors relation to his co-actor. These roles or functions may be played by any actor, although a role is normally restricted to a particular class of actors. This is to say that the structure dependent upon any one cast.

The comparison points out that to a large extent the functional patterns of a linguistie performance are independent of the lexical or grammatical items which manifest them. It is because of this independence that the present paper makes the attempt to desoribe both the forms and the functions of the Rotokas words as completely as possible at this stage of the total analysis.

Not all linguists feel that this type of description is necessary. Bloomfield states (1943:103-104): To earlier students, language appeared to have a third aspect, intermediate between form and meaning; this aspeet was usually called function. Thus, a word like apple_.not o°ly meant a certain kind ot' fruit, but also functioned as a noun, serving as the subject of verbs, and the object of prepositions andtransitive verbs, and so on. Careful study, however, showed that features like these are a part of the form; they are•the formal features which come finto being when two or more forms are combined in a larger form...A form 's privilege of oceurrigg in any one position is a function of that form, and all its various functions together mSke up its function. In sum, the function of a speech form consists merely ot -Yormal features which appear as it serves as part óf a more inclusive form.

Chomsky and the transformational schooll propose a different approaeh yet to the notion of "function." The functions of "subject," "predidate," "object," etc. are "inherently relational notions" (Chomsky 1965:68) and merely show certain relationships which occur in the same linguistie structure.

Thus, a statement like John is the subject of the.sentenee John is,reading a book would mean no more than The lexical item Thn, which fis an NP, is directly dominated by S, which, dominates the wkole sentence John is ~readin£ a book.' The definition of the function subject-of is, accordingly, given as follows (Chomsky 1965:71):

(5) Subject-of: %NP,S%.

If this were possible for all grammatical functions, there would, again, be no need to specify these functions separately in the structural description ...(Dik 1968:147), Tagmemics, on the other hand, incorporates the notion of , "function" in the basie element of the descriptive statement, the tagmeme, i.e., it (the tagmeme) is the correlation of a function (or 'slo.t') and the class of items by which it can be fulfilled ("fillers") (Pike 1967:490-492) Longacre defines function as "the of the, play is not particular office or role of one distinguishable part of a construction type in relation to other parst of the same construction" (Longacre 1965:65).

In the description of the functions of Rotokas words, one will readily recognize that the author subscribes to this latter notion of "funetion." In faet, the "distinguishing" features of the "parts" (or syntactical components) include the relator particles which signal a particular "relation" of that part "to other parts of the same construction." It is in the area of elaborating upon the "distinguishing feaatures" that this paper may differ from the traditional tagmemic statement and, moreover, the dependenee upon this elaboration to simplify the "tagmemic" description of the syntax later on.

Martinet, in discussing the "moneme," i.e., the smallest segment of speech that has some meaning attached'to it, (Martinet 1962:22) points out a threefold distinction among monemes in relation to the criterion of syntactie autonomy (the identification of the functions of syntactie components). First, there are the autonomous monemes such as yesterday that "carry within themselves the indication of their own function." Secondly, there are the dependent monemes which "do not imply any definite relation to the rest of the utterance,"•and therefore are dependent upon "position" or some other element to identify their function. Finally, he describes the monemes "which secure autonomy for other monemes to which they are attached, by indicating their function." These are called functional monemes and correspond to prepositions, conjunctions, and case endings (Martinet 1962:45).

Within this basie framework provided by Martinet, the functions of Rotokas words will be examined and described. The classification of some nominals as Temporals and Locatives (autonomous monemes) and the identification of relator particles (funetional monemes) already give a groundwork on which to start.

4.1 Syntactic Components of the Rotokas Text

The comment was made that the description of "functions" completes the statement of Rotokas morphology; however, it is ineluded also as a basis for the syntactic statement to be written at some future date. It is at this point in the total description of the language, then, that the taxonomic terminology of morphology and the grammatical terminology of syntac intersect and the correlation between morphology and syntax is made.

The Text will once again be examined, this syntactie components. Particles relevant at the ser':.ence level will not be taken into account in thls procedure. The utterances will be listed in the order of eomplexity from the simple to the complex. (Unless otherwise indicated, 'we' is 'we two' and past tense is remote.)

4.11 First degree of complexity: a single component

4.16 Information Provided Text

An investigation of the Text broken down finto its component parts shows that, aside from sentence-level particles such as affirmatives, exclamatory morphemes and introducers, basically th e components are either verbs, nominals, or conjunctions. These components funetions are varied: to describe action, to describe condition or state of being, to name the subject, object, indirect object, time of action, place of activity, etc. The verbs and nominals may be notified. The verbs may occur in subordinate or coordinate relationships. The nominals may occur in an appositive string or in, a coordinate series.

A eloser look at the components made up of nominals will also reveal the importance of the relator particles mentioned in section 3.78, but left until now to be explained. These relator particles,."prepositions, post-positioned relators, functionals, or whatever one wants to name them will provide the most useful means of identifying the functions of the components. Order of components will be of little help.

Beginning with these observations and using the Rbtokas coneordanee to complement the data, a "framework" for the description of funetional components of Rotokas syntax will be attempted. To be sure, when the syntax itself fis fully investigated there will be subsequent adjustments and additions to the description given in this paper.

4.2 The Rotokas Predicate

4.2.1 The Simple Predicate

4.21.1 Type I, The Simple Intransitive Predicate

The simple predicates of this type in the Text are listed according to the verb stems: ava 'to go, kare 'to return', aata 'to swim," vore 'to go back,' ira 'to precede, ipa 'to aseend',topa 'to continue on', and koata 'to enter', vera `to beach', and kae 'to raise up'.

4.21.2 Type II, The Simple Transitive Predicate

Predicate Type II expresses a transitive action which is neither preceded nor followed by a Comment, but there may or may not be an overt Object of the action. The Type II predicate is manifested by Class II verbs which may or may not be modified. Examples are:

The simple transitive predicates in the Text are listed according to the verb stems: rugu 'to swim for something,' koto sto hang, rita sto spear,' purg -„to do/make," toko 'to .break,' kaepie 'to lift," roro sto search for, kae 'to'carry," utu 'to follow,' ??? aio 'to eat,' pitu 'to hold,' varovaro 'to retrieve,' tovo 'to put,' roko 'to penetrate,' ato 'to get (something) down,' kavu 'to leave behind,' ou 'to get,' aivaro 'to conjoin,' tavuru 'to bundle,' ru 'to envelop,' verapie 'to beach/anchor,' siare to disembowel,` voto 'to press,` ruru 'to move around,° vurevure 'to shake,' karukaru 'to open repeatedly,' upo.1to hit/fight."

4.21.3 Type III, The Simple Quotative Predicate

Predicate Type III expresses the act of communicating either by audible articulation or mental exercise. The "Quote," i.e., the message to be communicated nearly always precedes or follows this predicate type. The "Addressee," i.e., the one receiving the message parallels the "Object" of the Predicate Type II, and is an optional component associated with this Predicate. The Type III predicate is usually readily identified by the co-occurrence of the nominal oisio 'like this' which is an appositive relationship with the Quote. For example:

oisio PURAROVERE irau 1soon he will say t,his, like-this say-he-will precede-you "you go first' oa iava oisio VOVOUPARAI I-about like-this thinking-am-I I am thinking about it like this' ragai TAVIREVORA eisi osia told-he like-that as he told me like that weeks ago now Examples of this predicate type in the Text are as follows: tavi 'to tell,' pura 'to say,' reo 'to talk, aue 'to consider,' aru Sto summon," rugorugo 'to think,' rugopie 'to remember.'

4.21.4 Type IV, The Simple Stative Predicate

Predicate Type IV expresses existence, condition, or state of being. Existence (Type IV-A) is expressed by the verb stems: tou to exist,' epao 'to be,' ??? 'to be,' and -a 'to be'. They are all exemplified in section 3.24.24. The expression df condition (Type I-B) is made by verb stems such as the following: roru 'to be happy', ovoi 'to be enough', ruipa 'to desire'. Some examples of the expression of condition are as follows:

The predicate which expresses state of being is a construetion of adjeetive stem followed immediately by the Type IV-A morpheme (d sto be.' Examples are given in section 3.24.24 in addition to those given here:

4.22 Compounded Predicates

Two or more Simple Predicates may co-occur in either dependenta or independent relationships. Predicates occurring in dependent relationships may be identified by the dependent verb markers described in section 3.23.42, i.e., -sia, -oro, and -arapa. Those vi TAVITAVIPAAVOI you telling-am-l as I am telling you oecurring in an independent relationship with another predicate may be identified by either the presence of the anticipatory mode marker -iva (3.23.52) or by the occurrence of conjunctions conjoining the predicates either coordinately or subordinately.

1. Example of three predicates, two of which are in a dependent relationship with the third:

   voa-va PUTERAGAPAIVA vooriro here-from passed-by-,7'ust-they these-Yoods KAVUPAORO UKOPASIA while-leaving water-to-be-getting they just passed by from there years ago leaving these cooked foods, to get water

2. Example of two independent predicates in subordinate relationship:

   vosia kovoavai TOUPAIVOI rakoru-ia if work-may be existing-is snake-by-means-of oire ragai- TAVIRI Qkay-then i tell-you if perhaps there is work (power) in this snake, then you tell me

3. Examples of two independent predicates in coordinate relationship:

   oira TUSIVOIVA oira IPAPIEPASIVA ghe tied-they-and she ascend-made-they (the) two men tied her and they made her go up years ago" rera OVOIRO ora oira OVOIO he enough-he-is ana she enough-she-is "he is (mature) enough, and she is (mature) enough"

4.3 The Functions of Rotokas Nominals

Having established that the Rotokas Predicate as the fundamental utterance may express a complete thought, e.g., subject and action, condition, or state of being, the next step is to observe instances of the fundamental utterance plus some complementary component. Proceeding through the list of section 4.12, one notes the following components in addition to the Predicate: Agent, Object, Subject, Location, Axis, Quote, Accompaniment. Others are present in the utterances of section 4.13: Indireet Object, Topie, Time; and finally in section 4.14 and 4.15: Reason, Comment and Conjunction.

Each complementary component except the conjunction is a function of the Rotokas nominal. In the deseription of the Rotokas Predicate it was seen that the single functions of Predicat'e had various sub-types according to the Class of verb, i.e., transitive action, intransitive action, quotative, condition, or existential. It will be noted, however, in the description of the non-verbal eomponents there is a single group of words, the nominals, with various functions. The question now arises, which was not present in the discussion of the Predicate, baw can the various functions be identified when they are manifested by only a single group of words, the nominals?

As was mentioned previously (section 4.16) the relator particles will provide the key to the identification of the functions. Granted, there will be overlap and some ambiguities, but, in addition, co-occurrences of particular verb classess and nominals and, to some degree, order will help in the identification process. As a brief review the relator particles are given here again: -pa Sfor," -re 'to/for,' -ri 'over there,' -va 'from/with,' are Sto/towards," iava 5from/about/after," tapo(ro) 1with/too/also,r vo and -ia which may be translated by nearly alt of the prepositions known in European languages, like: in, on, at, to, from, withh, by, about, because of, during, for. (In faet, they are very much like the Neo-P4elanesian long.)

4.3.1 Nominals As Accompaniment

4.32 Nominals As Addressee

The Rotokas Addressee component names the person(s) or item(s) to which the Quote is directed. It is identified by the optional relator particles -pa 'for,' -re 'to' and iare 'to,' but more commonly by its usual position, i.e., immediately preceding the Quotative Predicate. The Addressee is manifested by all of the optionally modified nominals (except temporals and locatives) and/or by relative clauses, GAUOVIA VAO-IA OA-IA agasioe cry-water-is this-here which-with filled-she-was kakate bamboo this here is (the) cry-water (tears) by which (the) bamboo (tube) was filled' RARIROVA-IA iparaepa oisiri-re Landrover-by means of ascen.ed-I over there-to agirikoturo sitesin a ricultural Station I went up years ago by landrover to (the) agricultural station over there visi RAGAI-RE tavitai oisio kole uposia you 1-to tell-you like-this pig to-kilt uriouvere come-you-will you all tell me this, "you will come to kill pigs" apui-ia RASITUVU-IA orakipuparoepa hole-in mud-with himself-painting-he-was in (the) hole he was painting himself with mud years ago (See Text utterances: 3, 4, 12, 43, 60, 97•)

4.33 Nominals As Agents

The Rotokas Agent component names the means by which an intransitive or transitive action may take place. The identifying relator particie is -ia 'with/by means of` which may be suffixed to these optionally modified nominals: classified noun, personal, demonstrative, interrogative and relative pronoun; and/or relative clause which may or may not occur in an appositive string.

(See Text utterances: 71, 82, 100, 101, and 103.)

4.3.4 Nominals As Axis

The Axis component co-occurs with Type IV Predicate only. It names the object of an emotional response or, to some extent, the reason for that response. The identifying relator particles are: -ia (any preposition), -re Sto,' -Pa %for,' and -iava 'about.' A11 nominals may manifest this function and/or a relative elause. The appositive string construction is again optional.

4.3.5 Nominals As Comment

The Comment component functions as a bracketing device which relates the verb to an entire commentary, usually more sentence in length. The nominals which function as relative pronouns oisi(o) and eisi 'like this' and 'like that' respectively. The relator partieles which may occur identifying this function, though rarely do they occur, are -ia 'about' and iava 'about'. The most common occurence of this component is at the close of a narration as in utterances 94 and 115.

(See Text utterancess: 91, 94, and 115.)

4.3.6 Nominals As Direct Object.

Other than the Predicate, the Object component is the most common one to be found in the Text. The function of the Object is to name the receiver of the transitive action. In only five of the 54 occurrences of the Objeet in the Text is the component identified by a relator particie. The identification of the Object is mainly dependent upon "order." In all but three of the 54 occurrences in the Text, the Object immediately precedes the verb stem of the follows the Predicate. In the remaining instance, he Object is a part of the Predicate. Although the ordering of the components of the Rotokas elause is not by any means "set," there is a general pattern which can be formulated for clauses with transitive Predicates, i.e.,

+ Subject + Indirect Object + Direct Object + Predicate Type II

It is especially important to notice that the Subjeet precedes the Object, which immediately precedes the Predicate. Neither Subject nor Object are commonly identified by relator partieles, and when both Subject and Object are of the same number and gender, there is no other way to distinguish them since the person marker (Subject) of the Predicate would agree with both, e.g., Pita Raupeto tapareva (Peter Raupeto hit-he-remote past) 'Peter hit Raupeto years ago.'

When relator partieles (-ia, -re, -pa) are used with the Object there is usually a correlation between the relator partiele and the particular activity described by the verb, i.e., in the Text No.9, OPURUVA-RE rororagaraepa (CANOE-FOR I searched in vain) searched in vain for (the) canoe.,

The reciprocal action marker ora- identifies the combined subject-object relation of the person marker of tha „--1, +n ^^-^ Predicate. in two of the three exceptions, the Object immediately than one Comment are the (See Text utterances: 91, 94 and 115.) Sthey ovirovu tootooara vikiivora vo VIGEI-PA instances, e.g., ORA-upo-A-epa (REC-fight-THEY-remote past) VAO fought themselves years ago." The reciprocal action marker prefixed how mapy lives threw-they here us-for this OIRARA VAO VO ROTOKASI-IA to the Subject component may indicate in a similar fashion the people this Tiere Hotokas-at this people of subject-object relation, e.g., ORA-VAITEREI-IA garowa tusiva how mapy threw their lives away for us, (t he) Rotokas herc' (REC-TWO(M)-ON rattan-vine tie-they (2)-remote past) 5(the) two men tied themselves together (with) rattan vine." Other examples of the Direct Object component are as follows: OAVU ITA ouava RIGATOA WANA VAARO another again got-1 writing Ffana it-poss I gpt another letter again from Wana" vosia viapau VA vearovira tokipari ra vuria iY no T well care for-you tren evi karekepe arise-will if you are not taking care of it well, then evil will arise/develop IGEI-RE utuaepa Japan We-to followed-they (the) Japanese followed us years ago vegeivipa RIROA vatesi SIRAOA poor us-for big-thing give-you(2) sorrow both of you give to both of us "poor ones" much sorrow" AUE ERAO TAU VAVAE AUE KOLE KARE OA uPorevora W twenty-five 0 pigs wFich killed-he va jare pupipa --for 1'east twenty-five pigs, them he killed for (the) feast"

(See Text utterances: 4, 7, 8, 12, 18-20, 22, 23, 28 30, 31, 38, 39, 48, 50, 52, 56, 64-66, 68, 69, 72, 76-78, 80, 82, 88, 89, 91, 92, 94, 96-99, 104, 105, 109-113.)

4.3.7 Nominals as Indirect Object

The Indirect Object component names the one(s) receiving the Direct Object of the Predicate. The two most common identifying relator particles are -re 'to' and -pa for. Occasionally -ia 'to/for' and jare 'to' are also used. Alt nominals except locatives and temporals may manifest this function as weli as relative clauses. These may or may not occur in appositive strings.

(See Text utterances: 48 and 83.)

4.3.8 Nominals as Location

The Location component names the area in which an action is taking place or a condition is present, or the area towards which or from which an action is taking place. The most common identifying relator particles are: -ia (any prepositional), iare 'towards,' ava 'from', and vo (any preposition). To a lesser degree -re 'to', -va 'from' and -ri 'over there' are used. Alt nominals except temporals may manifest this function as well as relative clauses. These may or may not occur in apposition strings.

OA IAVA avaraepa ~t from went-1 another male,"(a) boy slept in this house from which I went years ago kepapaiova RIROVA SIOVARA-IA KOKEVA IRIA house-we big(f) inside-at rain a-lic POROOPA i'all(as rain)-she we wara bulldihg (a) house inside (the) heavy rain which was falling rirovira uteoparaera EVOA UKARUMPA-IA greatly cold-l-was there Ukarumpa-at I --was very cold there at Ukarumpa

(See Text utterances: 1, 5, 23, 31, 34, 36, 39, 40, 46, 52, 63, 67, 71, 72, 77, 97, 100, 103, 112.) 83, 85, It co-occurs ???

4.3.9 Nominals as Quote

The Quote component functions much like the Commentary component (4.35) and is manifested in part by the same two nominals, i.e., the relative pronouns, oisi(o) and eisi `like this` and 'like that,' respeetively. The primary difference between the two components is that the Quote is the expression of thoughts, or words, by the Subject of a Quotative Predicate, whereas the Commentary goes beyond these limits in a much more general funetion. The nominals oisi(o) and eisi "bracket" the expression of thoughts or words and simultaneously signal_ their presence in an' appositive string manifesting the Quote component. The expression itself may be an optionally modified word, clause, sentence, or combination, although usually not larger than a single sentence. There are no relator particles used to identify this component, except -ia which occur rarely.

(See Text ut terances: 27, 30, 47, 51, 54, 57, 58, 65, 81, and 90.)

4.3.10 Nominals as Reason

The Rotokas Reason component defines or explains the rational behind an activity, communication or condition described in the Predicate. It is usually identified by the relator particles: -re 1to,' -Pa Sfor,` or iava %because of/about.' The component may be manifested by any of the nominals and/or by a relative clause. A common manifestation is a (relative) clause in a subordinate relationship with the main clause, e.g.,

(Note: The entire utterance up to and including oa iava manifest the Axis component in contrast to the clause in upper case type which manifests the Reason component.

(See Text utterances: 72 and 91.)

4.3.11 Nominals and Signature

The signature component is very restricted in its use and the nominals which manifest the component are only pronouns and Proper nouns. The component functions as- a closure for a narrative which the person named in the Signature has given. There are no identifying relator particles used; however, its position, narration final, and the usually occurring personal pronoun ragai "I" are sufficient to identify it.

4.3.12 Nominals as Subject

The Rotokas Subject component is an optional component of the clause since the Predicate ineludes the person-number marker of the subject of the action in the verb construction. The Subject is manifested by any nominal and/or by a relative clause. The Subject, component is not identified by relator particles, but primarily by its agreement in person and number with the subject marker of the verb construction, and secondarily by its usual position either initial or final in the clause.

(See Text utterances: 1, 11, 12, 21, 27, 30, 31, 47, 52, 53, 55, 56, 81, 83, 85, 91, 93, 94, 99, 104.)

4.313 Nominals As Time

The Time component names the time during which the action is taking place or a condition occurs. The most common identifying relator particles are: -ia 1during/on,' -ri 'back there' and, to some extent, iava 'from.' Only the temporals, Class II demonstrative pronouns, and the locatives siovaraia „inside' and isivaroia 'behind' may manifest the Time component or a relative clause which may or may not occur in an appositive string.

(See Text utterances: 1, 39, 52, 56, 87, 91, 93, 94 and 96.)

4.3.14 Nominals as Topic

The Rotokas Topie.component is the subject matter about which a Quote (spoken or thought) is made. It only oceurs with a Quotative Predicate and is most commonly identified by iava 5about' or -ia `about.' The Topie most often is manifested by a combination of sentences describing an episode. Within the clause, however, the entire episode may be bracketed and signaled by a relative pronoun and the relator particie (as in the second example). To a lesser degree all nominals may manifest this component.

4.4 Summary of Functions

The basie components of a clause consist of types of Predicates manifested by optionally modified verbal constructions and complementary components of the Predicates manifested by optionally modified nominais, clauses, sentences or diseourses, often in appositive strings.

The key to the identification of the Predicate is the verb affixation and, more specifically, the key to the identification of the type of Predicate is the class of verb stems and the co-oecurring complementary components.

The key to the identification of the complementary components manifested by nominals is not as reliable. There are eight relator particles equivalent to the mapy prepositions of English which function in a similar manner. Because of the relatively few identifying particles there is much overlap; however, position of component with in the clause, co-oecurring Predicate type, and type' of nominal'(temporal or locativie) help to resolve some of the ambiguities.

On the following page is a chart showing co-occurrence restrictions which will help to see at a glance the possible complementary components of the Predicates.