Nominal categegories
8.1 Spatial postpositions
Table 8.1 displays the spatial postpositions and the cases they govern (in the last column).
Most postpositions govern the genitive case, which is typical for Dargwa varieties. Post-positions can be inflected for directional cases. The inflected postPost-positions in brackets
Table 8.1: Spatial postpositions
lative essive ablative directional case
‘in front’ sala sala-b sala-r(-ka) sala-b-a gen
‘in front, ago’ sa sa-b sa-r(-ka) — gen/abs
‘behind, after’ hila hila-b hila-r(-ka) hila-b-a gen
‘after, behind’ hitːi hitːi-b hitːi-r(-ka) (hitːi-b-a) gen
‘at the bottom, down, under’ xːari xːari-b xːari-r(-ka) xːari-b-a gen
‘at the top, above, on, about’ qari qari-b qari-r(-ka) qari-b-a gen
‘on’ či či-b či-r(-ka) či-b-a gen/loc
‘between, in the middle’ urkːa urkːa-b urkːa-r(-ka) urkːa-b-a gen/abs
‘in(side)’ b-i b-i-b b-i-r(-ka) b-i-b-a loc/in/gen
‘aside, next to’ šːule šːule-b šːule-r(-ka) (šːule-b-a) gen
‘outside’ tːura tːura-b tːura-r(-ka) tːura-b-a gen
8.1.1 sala ‘in front of’
The postpositionsalahas only spatial meaning, but the cognate adverb has spatial and temporal readings (e.g.salar(ka)‘formerly, in former times’). It governs the genitive.
(2) a. hež-i-la this-obl-gen
sala in.front
ka-b-iž-aq-a,
down-n-be.pfv-caus-imp hej=ra!
this=add
‘Put (it) before of this, and this also!’
b. χːuˁrba-la tomb.obl.pl-gen
sala-b in.front-n
pirma farm
te-b=uw?
exist-n=q
‘Is there a farm in front of the graveyard?’
8.1.2 sa ‘in front, ago’
The postpositionsais a cognate ofsala. When having a spatial reading it governs the genitive (3a). With the temporal meaning ‘ago it governs’ the absolutive (3b). The abla-tivesar(ka)is more commonly used as temporal adverb with the meaning ‘before, earlier, until’ (§7.2).
(3) a. uc-ib-le
catch.pfv.m-pret-cvb
qːačuʁ-a-l
bandit-obl.pl-erg
susm-a-la throat-obl-gen
sa-w in.front-m
‘the bandits caught (him) by the throat’
b. χatːaj-la
grandfather-gen xːunul woman
r-ebč’-ib-il=de
f-die.pfv-pret-ref=pst
ʡaˁb-c’al three-ten
dus year
sa-r ago-abl
‘Grandfather’s wife died 30 years ago.’
8.1.3 hila ‘behind, after’
The postpositionhila, which governs the genitive, has spatial and occasionally temporal uses. It is sometimes followed byhitːiand it is widely used as a spatial and temporal adverb (§7.1.2).
‘I carried (the cheese) behind the house and fed it to the chicken.’
b. tum-la
‘There behind the hill there is immediately something like a field.’
c. marka-la
‘a rainbow after the rain’ (E)
8.1.4 hitːi ‘after, behind’
This postposition has spatial and temporal semantics. There are examples that allow for both readings, e.g. (5b) is a sentence from theFamily Problems Picture Task(San Roque et al. 2012) and it can refer to the spatial ordering of the pictures on the table or to the temporal ordering of the events that the pictures are illustrating. There are two examples with spatial meaning: in both exampleshitːiis preceded byhilaand thus it might behila that, in fact, provides for the spatial interpretation (5c). It governs the genitive and mostly occurs with a preceding demonstrative pronoun and the meaning ‘after this/that’, e.g.
hežila hitːi. There are also lexicalized variants of such phrases, e.g.helila hitːi>helilitːi.
(5) a. caj-na
‘Once after the rain (she) went up to sweep in front of the house.’
b. het-i-la
‘After this (one) must put these, these where they steal.’
c. urči-la
‘(He) tied it behind the saddle.’
In addition, hitːiis widely used as a temporal adverb (§7.2), including temporal ad-verbial clauses (§18.2.5), and the short encliticized version=itːioccurs within compound verbs (§12.2.2, example 20).
8.1.5 xːar(i) ‘down, at the bottom, under’
This postposition has exclusively spatial meaning ‘to the bottom, down, under’ and gov-erns the genitive (6a–6c). It is semantically close to the spatial case-gu(§3.4.2.5) and the spatial case marker can be suffixed to the postposition in which case the meaning is solely ‘under’.
‘I put the cup under the table/to the bottom of the table.’ (E) b. w-ag-la
‘From the waist down I (masc.) was wet.’
c. heχ
‘I was going to the hospital down at the sea ...’
8.1.6 qari ‘at the top, above, on, about’
This postposition, which governs the genitive, means ‘at/on the top, above’ and is the counterpart toxːar(i)(7a–7c).
(7) a. hel
‘In those times upwards from our village there was another village.’
b. il
‘At that time the puppy began to jump to climb up the tree’s top.’
c. lampːučkːa
‘The lamp hangs above the table.’ (E)
In combination with the postpositionči(§8.1.7) it is also used to express the topic of a conversation or the contents of thoughts (8a), (8b).
(8) a. ʡaˁrz
‘She is complaining about him.’
b. cinna
‘to talk about what had happened’
8.1.7 či ‘on, above’
This postposition, which is often pronounced together with the complement nominal as an enclitic, normally governs a spatial case, the loc-series (9a), (9b) (§3.4.2.2), but it can, in principle, also be used with the dependent noun bearing the genitive (9c). When the loc-series is used, then the direction markers of the case and of the postposition need to coincide, i.e. both are marked for the essive (9a), lative, or ablative (9b). The postposition can be encliticized toqariwhen referring to the content of conversations or thoughts (8a), (8b).
‘They are making food on a gas cooker.’
b. urči-le-r
‘He fell down from the horse into a deep pit.’
c. dubur-ra
‘There is fog on/above the mountain.’ (E)
Since Sanzhi also has a preverbči-with a very similar if not identical meaning (§11.6.1) it is sometimes not easy to decide whether an occurrence ofčifunctions as postposition/
adverbial or as preverb. Thus, instead of (9b) withči-ras postposition, we can also write it together with the verb and interpret it as preverb (10). But we can also manipulate the constituent order in (9b) and place the verb before the postpositional phrase (11) or have both the postposition and the preverb (12). In (11) and (12),či-ris unambiguously a postposition.
(10) urči-le-r horse-loc-abl
či-r-ka-jč-ib
spr-abl-down-occur.pfv.m-pret
‘He fell from the horse.’ (E) (11) ka-jč-ib
‘He fell from the horse.’ (E) (12) urči-le-r
horse-loc-ablči-r
on-ablči-r-ka-jč-ib
spr-abl-down-occur.pfv.m-pret
‘He fell from the horse.’ (E)
8.1.8 urkːa ‘between, among, within, in the middle’
The postpositionurkːahas spatial and temporal meanings. For the spatial reading only genitive marking on the dependent noun is admissible. When used with nouns and noun phrases denoting a plurality it means ‘between, among’ (13a–14a).
(13) a. ca-b
‘(The sun) itself came out of the middle of the clouds.’
b. k’ʷel=ra
‘A stone kept between two rocks or the like is up there.’
c. na
‘Now the women are whispering among themselves.’
However, it can also occur with singular nouns and the meaning ‘in’. The following minimal pair illustrates the difference:
(14) a. qul-b-a-la
house-pl-obl-gen
urkːa-w=da between-m=1
‘I am between the houses.’ (E) b. qal-la
house-gen
urkːa-w=da between-m=1
‘I am in the house.’ (E)
With the temporal reading the postposition governs the genitive (15a) or the absolutive (15b). When reduplicated the postposition can be used as an adverb with the meaning urkːa urkːa-b‘from time to time, sometimes’.
(15) a. žumaˁʡ-la
‘After two months they were doing (the medical treatment) ...’
8.1.9 b-i ‘in, inside’
The postpositionb-i, which only has spatial meanings, contains a gender/number prefix agreeing with the absolutive argument of the clause to which the postpositional phrase belongs. In all examples from natural texts the postposition governs the in-series or the loc-series (depending on the noun employed, see §3.4.2.4 and §3.4.2.2) (16a), (16b).
However, in elicitation the genitive is also available (16c).
(16) a. lak’
‘(It) threw the boy and the dog into the water.’
b. du
‘I (masc.) am inside your box.’
c. qal-la house-gen
r-i-r=da f-in-f=1
‘I (fem.) am inside the house.’ (E)
8.1.10 šːule ‘at side, next to, near’
This postposition exclusively expresses spatial meanings. It requires the dependent noun to appear in the genitive case. Examples (17a–17c) show the postposition inflected for the essive case. In (17d), the postposition bears the ablative case suffix.
(17) a. šːi-la
‘Next/near to the village down at a stone wall, there is our graveyard.’
b. tup
‘The grave was near the top.’ (E) d. c’il
‘Then these boys passed by from his, the father’s, side.’
This postposition probably originates from the nounšːal‘side’. Although it looks like it could be the case of this noun, this is synchronically not the case, since the loc-lative of the noun isšːal-leand notšːu(l)le(18). Nevertheless the origin from a spatial noun explains why the postposition governs only the genitive.
(18) a
‘And I am at the side of Isakadi, at this end.’
8.1.11 tːura ‘out, outside’
This postposition governs the genitive (19a–19c). However, it more frequently occurs as an adverb and as a spatial preverb with preceding nouns in the in-ablative or loc-ablative (§7.1.2, §11.6.1).
‘Hungry and wild, we went out of the village.’
b. qːapu-la
‘From outside the gates an evil scream was made.’
c. heχtːu
‘also all people outside of the village’
The postpositiontːuraalso expresses the non-spatial meaning ‘apart from, except for’.
In this case the governed nominal can be not only in the genitive (20a), but also in the loc-ablative (20b), (20c). For instance, if a demonstrative pronoun precedes the postposition the whole phrase reads as ‘besides, and what is more, moreover’.
(20) a. il-i-la
‘If I can tell you now (something else) apart from this, …’ (E) b. ile-rka
‘Moreover, he defamed (him) and wanted (him) to be beheaded.’
c. Rasul-la
‘Apart from Rasul I also brought another one.’ (E)