404 Chapter 12 Adverbs and adverbial clauses
(66) Mon manossa, lo' bisa ng-okor arapa me' pas tombu adha'
if human not can AV-measure why EMPH then grow not.exist
bungkel-la.
root-DEF
‘Humans are unable to figure out why it grows without roots.’
In (65), mon pate ‘if a chief minister’ serves the function of a topic and the ref-
erence is picked up as the subject of the main clause. This is clear from the
comma intonation following jiya. Additionally, it is possible for an overt pro-
noun to occur in the matrix clause, as in (67) and (68).
(67) Biyasana, mon pate jiya, aba'eng kodu seggut a-seba dha’ rato.
usually if minister this he should often AV-face to king
‘Usually the chief minister should meet with the queen frequently.’
(68) Mon manossa,aba'eng lo' bisa ng-okor arapa me' pas tombu
if human he not can AV-measure why EMPH then grow
adha' bungkel-la.
not.exist root-DEF
‘Humans are unable to figure out why it grows without roots.’
This structure can be viewed as an instance of a subordinate clause with a no-
minal predicate, i.e. ‘if someone is a chief minister’, but its function is to high-
light a topic from a clause immediately or closely preceding it.
Finally, a mon phrase can act as a modifier of a noun, as mon mate ‘if
dead’ does in the NP kafan kaangguy mungkos oreng mon mate juwa ‘the
shroud for wrapping a person if he is dead’, (69).
(69) Kafan kaangguy mungkos oreng mon mate juwa, tao ba'eng, pote,
shroud for AV.wrap person if dead that know you white
ta'iya?
TAG
‘The shroud for wrapping a dead person, you know, is white, right?’
3.4 Concessive clauses
Concessive clause are introduced by the subordinators make, maske, maskeya,
najjan, sanajjan, sanare, and tekka'a, all of which can be translated as ‘though’,
‘although’, and ‘even though’. Concessive clauses may precede (70-72) or fol-
low (73, 74) the clause they modify.