Coast Tsimshian Language - Syntax

Syntax

Coast Tsimshian is an ergative–absolutive language. Although nominal and verbal marking allows syntax to be freer than English, word order is still an important aspect of the phrase. The basic word order for transitive and intransitive sentences is:

Intransitive: TEMPORAL MARKER, verb, absolutive.

• yagwa baas Meli
  TEMP run Mary
  "Mary is running."

Transitive: TEMPORAL MARKER, verb, ergative, absolutive, indirect object, instrumental/benefactive/locative.

• ɫadm ḵ'ag̲a 'yuuta liksoog̲ada haḵ'ag̲a
  TEMP open man door key.INSTRUMENTAL
  "A man is about to open a door with a key."

Inversions to this order are permitted. To place specific emphasis on the ergative noun (topicalization), it may be moved to the front of the phrase with the subsequent changes: temporal marker + /-t/ and /in-/ + verb. However, this order is only permitted if the topicalized ergative is a pronoun (independent, demonstrative, interrogative or relative). Proper nouns are never placed first in the sentence, except in a vocative sense. Any absolutive noun may be topicalized as well with the following changes: temporal marker + /t/ and verb + /da/. (Dunn has shown that the affixed particles on the temporal marker and the verb are falling out of use among the younger generation. It now is quite "formal" to use either in speech.)