14.1 NP coordination 703d. i-ndabw-\a-hi-\n
3MaSgS-reject.PerfP-\0-lSg-\Centrif,
[naekk d ara-tasn] [daer nae-rojj]
[lSg with child-MaPl] [in Sg-bush]
'He (=my husband) abandoned me, me and the children, in the
bush.' [K]Of course such contexts normally call for simple plural pronominals ('he
saw us', 'he brought it for you-Pl'). These examples do not seem to be very
idiomatic and most of them were obtained by elicitation. In (878.a) and
(878.c), the pronominal clitic denotes only the first referent, while (878.b)
already has an inclusory pronominal clitic.14.1.2 'or' (mer) and 'nor' (waeld)The 'or' particle (disjunctive coordinator) is mer. In careful speech it is heard
as accented, while the following NP has its own independent accentuation
(including Default Accentuation on the initial syllable of an unaccented bi- or
mono-syllable), but in rapid speech the double accentuation is often simplified.
It does not induce Prefix Reduction in a following noun. A pronominal
coordinand (right as well as left) takes independent pronoun form.(879) a. ae-halas mer t-a-maett
Sg-man or Fe-Sg-woman
'a man or a woman'b. nsekk mer kaeyy
lSg or 2MaSg
'me or you-MaSg'When the disjunction focuses on a modifying participle ("adjective") with
the noun held constant, the usual construction is to replace the noun with a
demonstrative stand-in in the second disjunct.(880) t-erse maell-aet mer [t-1 kaswael-ast]
sheep white-Partpl.FeSg or [Fe-Dem.Sg black-Partpl.FeSg]
'a white sheep or a black one' (= 'a white or a black sheep')(738.e) in §12.1.6.2 expresses 'a man who eats with it, or (one) who drinks
with it'. There we have two indefinite relatives with the same logical head
noun. An indefinite demonstrative ι is optionally used as internal head of the
second relative clause in this construction.
mer is often treated as external to a following clause for purposes of clitic
positioning. Therefore the first following word functions as clause-initial, for