Biak Language - Morphology - Pronominal Affixes

Pronominal Affixes

In Biak pronominal Affixes can combine with verbs in three possible inflection patterns (given in the table below), which are partly phonologically conditioned.

Due to the person marking nature of these affixes, the need for the presence of a core noun phrase in the same clause is negated. Thus the following sentence is still grammatical without NP Rusa nanine, as the verb has a pronominal affix that gives the same information.

(1)	(Rusa	nan-i-ne)	d-ores
	"This deer stood."

These pronominal makers are person markers and are found in the final position of the noun phrase they determine. They attach to verbs along with a specifier that attaches after the pronominal affix; due to their distribution properties these markers should be considered clitics. There are two specificity markers, -ya and –i, where –ya can be used in all positions and -i is restricted to positions before pauses. In the example below the article attaches to the verb vebaya, rather than the verb ifrúr because it is the final verb in the noun phrase headed by for.

(2)	i-frúr	for	ve-ba=ya
	"He made a big fire."

Nonspecificity, which refers to entities that do not yet exist in this world, or is used to question or deny the existence of an entity, is marked with the articles –o for singular and –no for plural noun phrases. This is shown in the examples below:

Non-specific

(3)	I-fúr	yuk=o	fa	y-ún	i	ve	Waranda.
	"He is making/will make a ukulele so that I can take it to the Netherlands"

Specific

(4)	I-fúr	yuk=ya	fa	y-ún	i	ve	Waranda.
	"He has made a ukulele so that I can take it to the Netherlands"