Clause chaining and switch-reference in Aikanã and Kwaza

Abstract

In Aikanã and Kwaza, neighbouring endangered isolate languages of Rondônia, Brazil, sentences can include chains of medial clauses and end with a predicate in a matrix sentence mood, such as declarative, interrogative etc. In Kwaza, traditional narratives may even consist of a single long string of medial clauses, terminated by a fixed formula in the declarative mood. In both languages, subject (dis)continuity is expressed by a switch-reference system that indicates on the predicate of the current clause whether the subject of the next clause will be different or not. In this descriptive article I present similarities and differences between the systems of switch-reference in Aikanã and Kwaza. Among the differences, I discuss cases of formally marked switch-reference that appears to express topic discontinuity rather than subject discontinuity, in Kwaza. Also, I analyse the unusual anticipatory nature of the Kwaza system. As a special feature of this article I include two versions of a traditional mythological narrative, originally told in Aikanã and later retold in Kwaza, to illustrate clause chaining and switch-reference through a coherent and culturally relevant text.

Termos de partes do corpo na língua Aikanã (Isolada)

“…Já os dados secundários foram extraídos do Dicionário da língua Aikanã, quando um termo ou outro não tivesse representação gráfica junto à lista elicitada, ou ainda, na medida em que fosse necessária sua análise num contexto linguístico maior, como apresentado por Silva (2012), ao trazer como exemplo a aplicação de cada entrada inserida num enunciado. Por fim, vale salientar que esse estudo descritivo-observacional apoia-se fundamentalmente em poucos, porém relevantes estudos sobre a gramática e o léxico da língua, tais como: Birchall; Voort; Aikanã; Aikanã (2017); Silva; Aikanã; Aikanã; Aikanã [s/d]); Vasconcelos (2002) e Voort (2013Voort ( , 2015Voort ( , 2021.…”