A SYNOPSIS OF ROLE AND REFERENCE GRAMMAR 139(126) a. * Wichása etq wótapi echúhq, w(yq ki mni
man some 3pL.eat while woman the water
iwichakicu he?
3SG.3PL.bring.for
"While some men were eating, did the woman bring them
water?"
b. * Wichása etq wótapi echúhq, w\yq ki mni iwichakicu.
"While some men were eating, the woman brought them
water."
Wichása eyá wótapi echúhq, w \yq ki mni iwichakicu.
some[+sPEc]
"While some men were eating, the woman brought them
water."
d. Wichása eyá wótapi echúhq, w\yq ki mni iwichakicu he?
"While some men were eating, did the woman bring them
water?"The contrast in grammaticality between (124a) and (124b) shows that it is
the presence of the IF operator he in the clause that licenses the occurrence
of etq, and the grammaticality of (124a) indicates that the complement
clause is within the PFD of the IF operator. The situation in (125) and (126)
is strikingly different: the sentences with etq are ungrammatical regardless
of whether he is present or not, and this shows that the definite restrictive
relative clause in (125) and the adverbial subordinate clause in (126) are
outside of the PFD of the sentence. This conclusion is reinforced by the
results from the test involving felicitous answers to yes-no questions, as in
(127).
(127) a. Wichása ki ]^sqka wq igmú eyá wicháyaxtake] ki le] wqyqka he?
(=125d)
"Did the man see the dog that bit some cats?"
b. Hiyá, wqyqkesnilw\yq kil mathó wq (wqyqke)//
no, see.NEG/ woman the (see)/bear a (see)/
magá eyá (wicháyaxtake)
duck some (bite)
"No, he didn't see it/the woman (saw it)/(he saw) a bear//(it
bit) some ducks."