Illustrations :
1. a. eə
naha ŋè ‘he saw the child’
b. naha ea ŋè ‘child was seen by him’
2. a. nàŋə hana
ŋè ‘you saw the child’
b.
haha nàŋa ŋè ‘the child was seen by you’
Though the above type is the regular type of passive
construction, in Konyak passives, like elliptical sentence, are used. They usually have the structure NP-V. That means subject is not mentioned nor the
instrument is the passive construction.
For instance,
əte pha ‘I
was given’
In the sentence əte ‘to me’ is goal NP. Here ‘subject’ is absent.
Similarly,
əte lokne təm
‘I was made t sing’
The active counterpart will be
təwə hémcà lòk ‘I sang a song’
As here the ‘agent of force’ is not expressed the subject
of singing gets the ‘goal case’ marker.
There is one more type of passive constructions similar
to the above type, but takes instrumental passive case marker a. Here the active object takes a. But here a conveys a sense of passivity. Also these sentences are elliptical in the
same sense that agent is not expressed, eg.
:
təwa ŋè
‘I was seen’
təwa ha? ‘It
was eaten’
nòka sò ‘house
was completed’
héma lòk
‘song
was sung’
héma lòklək
‘song will be sung’, etc.
3.3.4.5. Relativization
In Konyak
at least there are two distinct sub-types of relativization. First is one in which embedded sentence is
placed preceding the matrix sentence and the second, in which embedded sentence
is embedded within the bounds of matrix sentence. Along with this, there will be addition of
certain elements to the verb of the embedded sentence. Also, the position of the object (NP1)
gets shifted. For instance, the relative
construction –
eə ompu ña? ya cannàŋ
1 2
3 4 5
6
‘she cooks the fish which he caught’
5 6 4 3
1 2
This construction has in its deep
structure two simple sentences-
eə ña? om ‘yaə ña? cannàŋ
‘he caught fish’ ‘she
cooks fish’
embedded (sentence) matrix
(sentence)
The embedded sentence either 1) always precedes the matrix sentence or 2)
gets embedded within the bounds of the matrix sentence.
The above simple sentences becoming into one, i.e.,
relativized construction, is shown below-
eə ña? om yaə ña? cannàŋ
NP NPi V NP Npi V
[[su Npi V]s [X Npi Y]s] Equi-NP
s s s deletion
1 2
3
4 5
6 =
u
Ø V X Npi Y
1 2 3 4 5 6
[[su
Ø V]s [X NP Y]s]NPi
Movement
s s s
1 2 3 4 5 =
[[uph V NPi]ph [X Y]s]
pu insertion
s s
s
1 2 3 4 5 =
u V NPi X y
1 2 4 3 5
[[uph V+pu NPi]ph V [sX Y]s]
s
s
NP V+pu NPi NP
V
eə ompu ña? ya cannàŋ
1 2
3 4 5
6
‘she cooks the fish which he caught’
5 6 4 3
1 2
In the following instance relative pronoun
is used –
eə əwhite əlek phaya?pəy? təwnawya təwə sɨnnàŋ
1 2
3 4 5 6 7
‘I know the girl to whom he gave the fruit’
6 7 5 2
1 4 3
The underlying sentences are the following
–
eə əlek nawyate pha ‘he
gave fruit to a girl’
(embedded
S), and
təwə təwnawya sɨŋ ‘I know the girl’
(matrix S)
The following steps take us to the
relativized construction instead of providing bracket, etc., simple explanation
will be provided here.
Underlying constructions :
eə əlek nawyate pha təwə təwnwya sɨŋnàŋ
NPi NPi
1 2
3 4 5 6 7
‘he gave a fruit to a girl’ ‘I know the girl’
(embedded
S) (matrix S)
Stage I
: Replacement of NPi by relative
pronoun so-
eə ələk əwhite
4 5 6
7
1 2
3
But there will be interchange of positions between 2 and
3, so
1 3
2 4 5
6 7
Stage II : Addition of ya?pəy? to the verb (no. 4), so-
1 3 2
4 5 6
7
(V+ya?pəy?)
State III: NP movement :
1 3 2 4
5 6 7
so
1 3 2 4
6 5 7
The terminal nodes are:
eə əwhite
əlek phaya?pəy? təwnawya/təwə sɨnnàŋ
1 2
3 4 5 6 7
By this the relative clause entirely
precedes the matrix sentence.
There is another situation where in as stated earlier,
the embedded clause occurs within the matrix sentence. Then the structure will be as follows-
a) eə lem həŋhikaye phawte
ŋóyya?pəy? təw sɨŋ
1 2
3 4 5 6 7 8
‘he knew the
path through which I entered the forest’
1 5 2 4 8
7 6 3
b) imannə acà həŋhikaye pe
ák ya?pəy? təw ŋè
‘they saw the
axe with which I cut the tree’
Here the underlying sentences of the
second construction are-
“matrix S” “embedded
S”
imannə acà ŋè təwə acakaye/phəy ák
‘they saw an axe’ ‘I
cut the tree through/with an axe’
[[sNP NPi V]s
[NP NPi NP
V]s]
s
s
i) Relativization
of Equi-NP and transposition of NPi:
imannə acà ák həŋhikaye
ŋè təwə pe ák
ii) Transportation
of the matrix S to the end of the construction:
imannə acà həŋhikaye
təwə pe ák ŋè
iii) adding
of –ya?pəy? to the embedded verb :
imannə acà həŋhikaye təwə pe
ák ya?pəy? ŋè
iv) Transportation
of the embedded subject NP:
imannə acà həŋhikaye pe
ákya?pəy? təw ŋè
If steps ii and iv are clubbed together then three
steps will take us to the terminal nodes.
In this way relativization takes place in Konyak.
3.3.5. Minor Sentences
As stated earlier, that sentence which does not contain a main clause
constitutes a minor sentence. In such a
situation a subordinate clause, or a verb phrase or a word which occurs in
isolation forms the minor sentence.
The difference between a minor setence and a subordinate
clause, a verb phrase or a word is that the former occurs in isolation while
the latter occurs as parts of bigger constructions.
The following types of minor sentences are noted in the
data :
A verb is treated as a minor sentences when it occurs by
itself as in imperatives when the subject is covert, eg. :
i. command : ləyttəw? ‘go’
ha?təw? ‘eat’
phɨt təw? ‘run’
ii. request : leytkhù ‘go’ (please)
lòkkhù ‘sing’ (please)
pəykhù ‘come’ (please)
In
conversations very frequently as answers to questions single words are
used. In such situations they function
as sentences. These are treated as minor
sentences, eg. :
təw əwkowəypoŋ sí? ‘whose
horse is it?’
Ans : əcɨŋ ‘mine’
ecɨŋ ‘his’
áŋ
‘king(s)’
nàŋə nahalan həŋsin ŋo?nàŋké
‘how many children do you have?’
Ans : pɨlí ‘four’
numannə əmme ŋo?nàŋkè
‘where do you live?’
Ans: maysurme ‘at/in Mysore’, etc.