Re: "Bird in Tree" translation (was: Re: milimpulaktasin)

Roger Mills wrote:

> >(3) What is the morpheme breakdown for "tingaska"?
> tingas 'look at, view; examine' + -ka 'imperative' ['ti.Ngas.(@)ka]; tingas
> of course is related (anciently, by infixed-nasal intensification) to tikas
> 'see'.  The homophony of /-ka/ (no stress shift) '1. imperative 2. yes-no Q
> marker' was originally an oversight; but I decided it was reasonable.
Cool-ness.  Are questions and imperatives distinguished by intonation?  By the
presence/absence of subject agreement?  By context?  Or more than one of the
above?

Wearing my linguist hat, I would be tempted to analyze /-ka/ as a single
morpheme rather than homophones, maybe some sort of marker of non-indicative
mood.  Or perhaps a kind of speech-act morpheme which signals "the clause to
which I am attached is not a statement".

I love syncretisms!

Matt.