Abstract

In this talk, I will be looking at the semantic and pragmatic functions of two enclitics ye and no in Sumi, a Tibeto-Burman language of Nagaland. The enclitic no typically marks actors in transitive clauses that display a high degree of agentivity, i.e. volitionality and purpose, while the enclitic ye typically marks actors in transitive clauses that display a low degree of agentivity. In addition to these functions, no can mark contrastive focus on an argument, while ye can mark the topic of a non-transitive clause, placing contrastive focus on the predicate. However, it will be shown that it is not always easy to tease apart the semantic and pragmatic functions of these two markers. An analysis of no and ye is complicated by the fact that both markers (or arguably, homophonous markers with the same pragmatic functions) can occur with non-core arguments.

Biography

Amos Teo is a Visiting Research Fellow at the Australian National University. He holds an MA in Linguistics from the University of Melbourne. His thesis looked at tone in Sumi, a Tibeto-Burman language of Nagaland. He is currently involved in an ELDP-funded project documenting traditional agricultural songs and practices of the Sumis. He has taught undergraduate courses in Phonetics, Syntax and Morphology at the University of Melbourne.

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