Freitag, 13.30-14.00
In Kambera, a Malayo-Polynesian language spoken in Eastern Indonesia, speech report (SR) constructions are used in a variety of contexts and functions. Apart from reporting actual speech (1) the construction is also used to express cognitive activities (2) and perception (3). In the latter context the construction signals punctual aspect.
(1) "U" wa-na-nggau
yes say-3sPoss-2sDat
"Yes" he said to you/He agreed with you
(2) Ngatar wa-na-bia-ka
be amazed say/do-3sPoss-just-Prf
He was just lost in amazement (Lit.: "Amaze" he just did)
(3) Jilak wa-na jilak wa-na -ma-ka la Kawau
Rdp- gleam say-3Poss -Emp-Prf Loc Kawau
There was lightning over Kawau (Lit.: "Gleam" it did repeatedly over Kawau)
In addition, the speech verb wa is also used in conventionalised citation forms and as discourse particle. In my paper I will first present an in-depth description of the many functions the SR construction has in this language. Then I will discuss the structural relation between the main clause containing the speech verb and the speech report itself. I will show that the SR is syntactically independent of the main clause, but that semantically, it is dependent. To show this, sentences are discussed that have various layers of embedded RS clauses, cf. the middle part of the following sentence:
(4) "[E, ba namu-ma-nggu-nya na ana njara,
excl Conj remember-Emp-1sPoss-3sDat Art child horse
"Hey, I care for the foal,
["["tobu-nya" wa-nggu]" ba wa-mi],
slaugter-3sDat say-1sPoss Conj say-2sPoss
if you want to kill it (Lit. ""slaughter it," I say", you say)
ai ndia-ma, nda ku-puli-ma-nya]" wa-na
Excl no-Emp Neg 1sNom-release-Emp-3sDat say-3sPoss
oh no, (then) I won't hand it over" he said
e-mail: klamerm@let.vu.nl
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