Re: going without "without"

On Tue, 17 Aug 1999, Irina Rempt-Drijfhout wrote:

> > Tokana has the same rule.  Compare:
> >
> >   Ne      Tsion nelhotun
> >   the.Abs John  leave-Neg-Pst
> >   "John didn't leave"
>
> I like "the John"! Is the article only for case marking, or is it
> always used (except when talking *to* John, I presume)?
Determiners are used with all definite noun phrases, including proper
names:

  ne             "s/he, this/that one"
  ne iha         "the woman"
  ne kekua iha   "each woman" (lit. "the each woman")
  ne Tsion       "John" (lit. "the John")
  te Tenmothai   "Tenmothai" (lit. "the Tenmothai")

"Ne" is the absolutive case form of the 3rd person animate determiner,
while "te" is the absolutive form of the 3rd person inanimate
determiner.  (Tenmothai is the name of a Tokana settlement.)

When names are used in addressing someone, the determiner is dropped,
and (usually) replaced with the vocative particle "ia":

  ia Tsion       "John!" (used when addressing him)

> > [Note: The verb prefix "e-" indicates that the preverbal noun
> > phrase "tunton" is in focus.  There's a rule in Tokana which
> > restricts negative quantifiers like "never" and "nobody" to the
> > preverbal focus position.]
>
> Can "never" be a noun phrase in Tokana (for instance, a time noun in
> the locative)? Or does this go for all negative quantifiers?
"Never" is sort of a noun phrase.  It's "intuiakme", where "iakme"
means "anything" or "something", "tu-" is a negative prefix, and
"in-" is a prefix which forms temporal adverbials.  So "intuiakme" is
literally "at not anytime".

Matt.