Table of Contents
The place of the adpositions relative to the nominal head is not fixed in Denden and all adpositions can be used either as pre- or as postpositions.
Southern Colloquial Charyan has postpositions, while Northern Colloquial has prepositions, and whether the Denden adpositions are used prepositionally or postpositionally seems in some measure to be determined by the mother tongue of the speaker or author.
However, in the Denden as spoken in Broi, postpositionally used particles generally form a phonological unit with the head noun, while prepositionally used particles have a more independent status. It is interesting to note that Broian Denden is currently in a transitional phase, moving from an SVO to an SOV word order; it seems likely that the prepositional usage of particles is in part motivated by an analogy with verbal constructions, i.e. prepositionally placed particles can be interpreted as more verbal in nature.
Whether the postpositionally used case particles are in reality affixes or independent elements of the noun-phrase is a difficult question. As noted about, for instance, New Indo-Aryan (Masica 1991 : 212), “'...the line between such analytic elements and agglutinative affixes is uncertain...” The Denden case particles are in, what Masica (op. cit.), at Zograph's (1976) instigation, terms paradigmatic contrasts. The whole system of forming complex elements of noun phrases must be examined, especially when the analytical elements can just as well be analysed as suffixes, since they form, when one takes the stress patterns into account, a phonological unity with the head noun.
Adpositions often function as "case" particles (Blake 1994, 9-13), and we can distinguish between particles that indicate direct verbal arguments, such as the instrumental particle hye INST and the dative particle lye DAT (note that the core arguments, subject and direct object are not marked by any case particle), the particles indicating relationships beween nominals, such as the genitive oib GEN or the possessive lua POSS, and locative particles, such as the locative ar LOC or the inessive particle yo(murin) INESS.
The following table presents all case particles:
Table 5.1. Case Particles
| Verbal Arguments | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Name | Form | Label | Gloss |
| Instrumental | hye | INST | with |
| Dative | lye | DAT | to |
| Nominal Relationships | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Name | Form | Label | Gloss |
| Genitive | oib | GEN | of |
| Possessive | lua | POSS | of |
| Comparative | logh | COMP | like |
| Relative | tan | RTV | n/a |
| Ornative | dax ~ daxa | ORN | n/a |
| Sociative | dandir | SOC | together |
| Comitative | quat | COM | with |
| Enumerative | y | ENU | and |
| Privative | tu | PRIV | without, lacking |
| Locational particles | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Name | Form | Label | Gloss |
| Location | |||
| Locative | ar | LOC | at |
| Proximal Locative | yobal ~ yobar | NLOC | close by |
| Interior | |||
| Inessive | yo(murin) | INESS | in, inside |
| Exterior | |||
| Adessive | wau | ADESS | at, close by, near |
| Exessive | nil | EXESS | out, outside |
| Position | |||
| Frontive | atal ~ atahl | FRONT | in front of |
| Postive | qe ~ ke ~ che | POST | behind of |
| Intrative | canuin ~ can | INTRA | through, between |
| Tegimentive | tayr | TEG | around, covering |
| Superessive | yülis ~ yülish | SUPER | on top of |
| Subessive | naha | SUBESS | under |
| Source | |||
| Partitive | cu ~ zu | PART | from (amongst) |
| Elative | o | ELA | from (place) |
| Ablative | ob | ABLA | out, out of |
| Destination | |||
| Illative | ca | ILLA | into, onto, inserting into |
| Augmented Illative | cashe | ILLA2 | deeply into |
| Allative | yohal | ALLA | towards |
| Finalitive | lya | GOAL | towards |
| Path | |||
| Translative | swaran | TRANS | through |
| Perlative | matan | PERLA | (being or going) alongside |
| Tangentive | par | TANG | going along, while touching |
| hye | INST |
The instrumental adposition hye INST marks an instrument distinct from the agent of the sentence. It can also indicate a cause or a comitative. However, the sociative particle dandir SOC is also used in a comitative sense, as is, of course, the comitative particle y COM. Causal clauses can be subordinated using the instrumental, but more often using the particle tan TAN.
The instrumental hye marks the instrument with which the agent of a sentence does something:
. lananir.é hon ka, tau.layet, gerran mimir.ir hye layet.ju
taste.PT1 after TOP NEG.tasty meat pepper.DUP INST tasty.CRT
If you've tasted [it], [and it] isn't tasty, you will certainly
make the meat tasty with peppers.
. seri basuse seri hye ghijas!
2sHGH wash 2sHGH INST shit
You wash yourself with shit!
. kaulon Denyal tiran.ini davain hye tyras.as e.da
big_house Denyal catch.HAB birds INST hand.DUP poss.3sMGH
Denyal from the big house catches birds with his hands
. koran hye ka yadir dox ga lyan ga
veil INST TOP woman all NOM beautiful NOM
With a veil, every woman is beautiful
. chaka.hau rai semor e.dos hye!
beat.IMP 3pLGG knife poss.1pMGH INST
Let's beat them up with our knives!
In this example, chaka 'to beat' is used, and not menar, to cut, to indicate that this is a proper fight, not a knifing from behind.
. soi hye sümzi ka, tan dasir hod'shulas ga, daha.
wine INST drunk TOP TAN 3pfMGH head.mist NOM tomorrow
They're drunk with wine, they'll have a misty head, tomorrow.
Due to the composite nature of Denden, there is great freedom in constructions. The following examples were taken from Hinadanzi's native grammar:
. garal.al garalbay hye hyahya
hair.DUP brush INST brush
garal.al hye garalbay hyahya
hye garalbay garal.al hyahya
garalbay hye garal.al hyahya
the hair is brushed with a brush
. Yai hye e.do leham teshit.é yo maile,
2sLGH INST poss.1sMGH money buy.PT1 that shirt
yo maile e.do ga!
that shirt poss.1sMGH NOM
You've bought that shirt with my money, it's my shirt!
Causative constructions with hye are rare, and the usage is almost completely confined to the southern parts of Charya.
. dabbe ca qiri.ri e.do penresh hye tau.qireze.za
paint into eye,DUP poss.1sMGH spatter INST NEG.see.EXP
Because the paint spattered into my eyes I couldn't see.
. ram kisen.onai hye zipaisan hye sero dotyuan.
money steal.PERF INST army INST 1sHGH poor
Because the army stole [my] money, I've become poor.
Related to the causative usage of hye INST is the figurative usage which indicates which factor made a situation possible:
. canoran seras daxa ga hye serir kaulon ca nahan tau.yindad
key 1sHGH ORN NOM INS 1pHGH house ILL go NEG.able_to
Because he had the key on him we couldn't enter the house.
The comitative usage of hye INST is purely coordinative, and never indicates enumeration:
. sero hakaq.aq hye Hamal, Hamal qendor, sero qendor,
1sHGH fight.HAB INST Hamal Hamal win 1sHGH win
tarna turantos tau.qendor.zi.
but nobody NEG.win.AUG
I regularly fight a bout with Hamal, Hamal wins, I win,
but nobody ever wins out.
. Manud yo adan tau.adan ga! da yumir'beru hye qenan,
Manud that man NEG.man NOM 3sMGH wife.first INST make_love
xong.zi, xong.zi na da yumir'verai hye qenan
tired.AUG tired.AUG so 3sMGH wife.second INST make_love
tau.yindad. E.da yumir.ir dilogh qenan!
NEG.can poss.3sMGH wife.DUP REFL make_love
That man Manud, he isn't a man! If he makes love with his first
wife he's very tired, he's so tired he can't make love with his
second wife. His wives must make love amongst themselves!