A SYNOPSIS OF ROLE AND REFERENCE GRAMMAR 63do not affect the choice of which argument will be pivot with a transitive
verb in Amele; only the actor can be syntactic pivot with a transitive verb.
An extended example of switch-reference from Yagaria, a Papuan language
(Renck 1975) is given in (46); it should be mentioned that Yagaria has
anticipatory subject marking, i.e. when the subject changes, the person and
number of the new subject are indicated on the verb of the previous clause.
(46) Abade y uva-magi yao-vinaga hei-da ha fusu
girl group-PL forest-in go.up-3pL.ss mushroom fusu
eligi-da gu-pi-vi' ei-da hali
break.off-3pL.ss netbag-their-in push-3pL.ss firewood
hale-le-da ga age hi-da emi-da e-da
break.up-PFv-3pL.ss converse-3pL.ss down-3pL.ss come-3pL.ss
hali bele-le-da gu-pi sei-da
firewood put-PFv-3pL.ss netbag-their take.off-3pL.ss
bele-le-da ha eli-d-a-ma' ha-mo
put-PFv-3pL.ss mushroom take-PAST-3pL-NMz mushroom-coN
akoupa hi-da b-ei-ma-to' p-oubilï h-i-ga-ni
sort.out-3pL.ss live-3pL-NMzcND them-tiredness do-3sG-Ds-3sG.Ds
legepa abade bogo p-agavei-na h-ei-ma' abade-mo
big girl one them-lead-3sG.ss go.up-3sG-NMz girl-coN
ouha-e-ga-pi legi' a'i-lo' p-ou' he-d-a-e.
sleep-3sG-Ds-3pL.Ds truly that-Loc them-sleep-PAST-3pL-iND
"The girls went up into the forest, collected fusu mushrooms and
put them into their netbags, then [they] broke up firewood,
talked, and came down, and put down the firewood, took their
netbags off and put them down, and while [they] were sorting out
the mushrooms they had collected, they became tired, and the
one big girl that had taken them up fell asleep, and so they all
slept at that place."
This is a single complex unit (whether it should be called a sentence or a
paragraph is an interesting question), and the primary participants, abade
"the girls", are introduced in the first clause and then referenced by pro
nominal affixes thereafter. There are distinct pronominal forms for use in
same-subject linkages, e.g. -da "3PL.SS", and in different-subject linkages,
e.g. pi "3PL.DS," these being the anticipatory subject markers. Even though