Effects of Animacy on Existential Sentences in nDrapa

Abstract

The nDrapa language (Sichuan, China: Tibeto-Burman) has multiple types of existential sentences, which convey various readings. The reading of a sentence is determined by the existential verb stem, the suffix and/or auxiliary, the constituent order, and the animacy of the arguments. In this article, I describe existential sentences in nDrapa, paying special attention to the correlation between the animacy of arguments and the readings of the sentences. Among the six existential verb stems, the implications of the stem ˉnʌ, in particular, change depending on the animacy of the arguments. A ˉnʌ-existential sentence requires an animate argument either as the subject or the locative noun phrase (NP). If the subject is animate, the ˉnʌ-existential sentence conveys the reading of narrowly defined existence. On the other hand, if the locative NP is animate, the sentence conveys a specific “distributing/gaining” implication; that is, someone distributes the subject to the locative NP, or the locative NP gains the subject. Other existential verb stems generally form sentences that indicate possession if the locative NP is animate, except that the stem ˋɕɨ implies that the animate locative NP wears the subject if the subject is alienable.