Advances in Role and Reference Grammar

A SYNOPSIS OF ROLE AND REFERENCE GRAMMAR 113

b. Artwe-0 alye-lhe-(me)-rlenge ayenge petye-me.

man-NOM sing-DTR-(NPP)-DS lSG.NOM COme-NPP

"I'm coming while the man is singing."

Even though both verbs are marked for tense, the absolute tense interpre­
tation for the sentence is a function of the tense marker on the final verb;
the tense marker on the verbs bearing SR marking is a relative tense
marker, i.e. it is interpreted with reference to the absolute tense of the
other verb. In coordinate nexus, each unit can be (but need not be) inde­
pendently specified for the relevant operators, as in the Amele examples in
(96). This is further illustrated in the following pairs of examples.
(107) a. Roto-mé tá-a  - tá-a ? Kewa
stick-ERG hit-3sG.PAST or what-ERG hit-3sG.PAST or
"A stick hit him, or what hit him?"
b. Tekeke?e:k s?a:pa-ta ke-yase-w Tonkawa
in.that.bush hide-ss lscoBj-watch-iMP
"Hide in that bush and watch me!"
(108) a. Gid-ip gör-meli-yiz. Turkish
gO-SUFF See-MOD-lPL
"We ought to go and see."
b. Muzik dinle-yerek uyu-yabil-ir-im.
music listen-suFF sleep-MOD-AOR-lsG
"I can sleep listening to music."
(109) a. Fu kai fu-one -fie va. Barai
3sG friend 3SG-POSS call-listen continue
"He continued calling and listening for his friend."
b. Fu vazai ufu furi  .
3sG grass cut finish pile throw.away
"He finished cutting, piled, and threw away the grass."
(107a) is an example of clausal coordination in Kewa, and the two clauses
have different illocutionary forces; the first conjunct is an assertion and the
second a question. In (107b) from Tonkawa (Hoijer 1949), a Native Ameri­
can language, the two clauses are linked by a same subject marker, and
there is only one imperative suffix, appearing on the final verb; both clauses
are interpreted as being commands, thereby indicating that the illocutio­
nary force operator has scope over the whole construction, unlike (107a).