The Semantics of Complement Clause Types in Xɨmt’aŋa

Abstract

This paper examines the semantic features of complement clause types in Xɨmt’aŋa. Specifically, it describes, (1) the semantic relationship between the complement types and their complementizers, (2) the semantics of complement clause types based on their degree of reduction of information, (3) the manner of syntactic relation of complements to the matrix clauses in complement relation, and (4) the grammatical status of the complement predicates, in the language. The necessary data were collected from the native speakers using the elicitation technique. Then, the data have been analyzed qualitatively following the functional-typological approach.

In this paper, based on mood distinctions, the indicative and subjunctive complement clause types are identified. The meaning of the complement clause type in Xɨmt’aŋa is characterized by the choice of complementizer. The complement clause types of Xɨmt’aŋa also differ in their degree of reduction of information. The manner of syntactic relation of the notional complements to the matrix clause in complement relation of the language is hypotaxis in which both the main and the complement clause involve a single assertion, but not paratactic construction in which two separate assertions are involved with main and complement clauses. Depending on the function of the complement type, the grammatical status of the indicative and subjunctive complement predicates are coded as verbs; whereas, the participle complement predicates are coded as adjectives, and the nominalized complement predicates as nouns.