CLAUSE COMBINING IN NOOTKA^241
force or evidentiality. By main clause I will mean complete clauses that are
not subordinate; this subsumes independent clauses plus absolutive clauses
that enter into clausal cosubordination.
5.1 In quotations
A striking fact is that the markings of main clauses in the two styles, narra
tive and direct discourse, are almost completely different. In the direct quo
tations we find the following types of main clauses in the indicated quan
tities: imperative 40, indicative 32, interrogative 10, quotative 8, inferential
1, and putative 1. The following examples are representative:
Although absolutive forms are frequent enough in these quotations, there
are none that are clearly used as main clauses; mostly they enter into nuc
lear cosubordinations.^12
The only independent marking that is common to both styles is the
quotative (third person ending -wey?in). In these quotations (all occur
rences on p. 26) it indicates an indirect quotation of an absent third person:
(26:7)
5.2 In narrative
In the third-person narrative passages, on the other hand, all of the main
clauses have predicates that are marked as either quotative or absolutive;
the types of indicative, interrrogative, and imperative are absent. There are
160 occurrences of the quotative, four of which are additionally marked for
inferential evidence. The quotative in these passages signals, of course, not
the quoting of a specific individual, but a retelling from the mythological
tradition.
