On closer inspection of the data below, it emerges clearly that Kam is enormously rich in particles. The frequent usage of particles, as a matter of fact, could be attributed to the different syntactic, semantic and discourse functions they possess in this particular variety. Understanding the differences between particles requires taking the functional notion into account; the functions of particles in Kam, as illustrated in the following subsections, range from “asking for information”, through “seeking confirmation”, “asking for involvement”, “expressing aspect and interrogation”, “conveying modality”, to “coding pragmatic presuppositions and assertions”.
(1)
The excessive reliance of Kam on particles in the above examples (1A-1I) aptly illustrates the weight and important roles that such devices possess in the syntax and discourse structure of Kam. As can be seen, there are two sets of particles, namely, grammatical and discourse. The following two subsections are devoted to gaining a better understanding of these particles, along with their contextual functions.
Grammatical particles make up one of the largest word classes in this variety. Indisputably, their significance cannot be exaggerated as they offer much expressive power at the utterance or sentence level. On the face of it, they are extensively used to express interrogation, aspect and modality.
1) Interrogative Particles
Interrogative sentences in Kam feature neither wh-fronting nor subject-verb inversion. As a consequence, such sentences typically end in particles signaling the speaker’s desire to seek information from the questioned receiver. Typical examples of this phenomenon can be seen in (1A) and (1H). In these examples, we can see that the particle ac is placed at the end of the sentence to fulfill the interrogative function. Many other particles such as ax, bac, and eel are used to express interrogation as well.
Besides the particles signaling the speaker’s desire for information, Kam is rich of particles signaling the speaker’s desire to get a confirmation of the propositional content of the utterance, as shown in (2).
(2)
Wordform: nyac kongp yox xeengl lol
WfGloss: 2S tag questions know row boat
WfPOS: pro mkr v v comm
Eec baos mags baov liax
Truth telling older brother big say asking for response
Part adj int adj int v part
FT: “You know how to row a boat, come on, don’t you ?”, the oldest one said.
It is worth noting that tag questions in Kam are not different from those used in English in terms of function; they are merely used when the speakers are practically certain about the response, but they are just seeking a confirmation of their statements. However, it is apparent that word order in this variety remains unchanged in all types of questions.
2) Aspect Particles
Turning back to the particles exemplified in (1), it is evident that the sentence-final particles used in (1D) and (1E) are meant to express the perfective aspect. In these examples, unless the particles daeux and laoc are used, perfective-imperfective distinction remains impossible. The following examples introduce some other particles used to express perfective in Kam.
(3)
A. Wordform: gaeis xis ac keep xus bail lac
WfGloss: NEG be two they then go PERF
WfPOS: adv aux num comm adv v asp
FT: That was it and they went on.
B. Wordform: yocyih guangl xus maenv mal xeds
WfGloss: slightly bright then those vegetable all
WfPOS: adv adj int adv pro comm num
Jenxbiil lail laeuc,
Prepare good PERF
V adj part
FT: All the food was ready at dawn.
The particles lac and laeuc indicate the completion of the acts bail “go” and jenxbiil “prepare”. It is also not difficult from the examples presented above to tie together the perfective aspect particles with events of short duration.
3) Modality Particles
In Kam, modality is expressed by particles, too. Nevertheless, it should be mentioned that modality meanings expressed by particles in Kam are heavily restricted compared to the wide range of meanings associated with modality in most languages all over the world. As shown in (1C) and (1I), modality particles such as lis are used to express either ability or disability. Once again, the use of particles to express mood reflects the weaknesses of Kam’s verbs to fulfill this function.
Besides grammatical particles, Kam is abundant in discourse particles, which are mainly used to express agreement, uncertainty, suggestions, pauses, anxiety and supposition. Accordingly, discourse particles do not contribute much to the propositional content of the utterances. Rather, they are used to convey various attitudes and direct or redirect the flow of conversation. In other words, discourse particles are employed to convey the speaker’s stance or state of knowledge. As a general remark, grammatical particles occur at sentence level, as this is normal environment for them to fulfill their functions. Discourse particles, which contribute much to organizing and structuring the discourse, need an environment that goes beyond the sentence level. It is important to note that discourse particles usually have strong attitudinal or emotional component, an issue that reflects more complex workings on the levels of cognition, semantics and pragmatics ( Parrott, 2001: p. 1 ). Thus, the communicative intent of the sender significantly affects the choice of the linguistic/discourse devices.
Example (1B), for instance, presents three discourse particles that realize distinct pragmatic functions. The first two particles juc “as you know” and liax “asking for response”, which have nothing to do with sentence structure, are used to request the receivers’ involvement and to show that the sender’s message is a fact rather than an opinion. By using such particles, the sender assumes that the receiver already knows and accepts, as part of mutual knowledge, the propositional content of the sentence or utterance. Consequently, the ultimate goal of using such particles is to make the receiver take the conveyed propositional content for granted.
Another feature characterizing the discourse in Kam is the use of pause particles such as dil and ac. In the context of pause particles, it is worth mentioning that these particles can be seen as either signals to improve comprehension or traces of production difficulties ( Bestgen, 1998 ). Yet, sometimes, pause particles are purposely used to inform the listener about the presence of a topic or even a topic shift. Moreover, speakers sometimes resort to pause particles when they need to have a time to think of what to say in their turns and at the same time to hold their turn in the conversation, as shown in (4).
(4)
Wordform: laos eanc naih bail heemx dil
WfGloss: enter house this go call (a person) pause
WfPOS: v comm dem v v part
FT: As he went into one of those guys’ house to call.
In addition to the pause particles mentioned above, Kam sometimes uses metadiscourse particles that fulfill a dual purpose of unifying the text and expressing the speaker’s intent or attitude towards the propositional content, as illustrated in (5A and B).
(5)
B.Wordform: maoh yuh nyenh yox liax
WfGloss: 3S again, then also know asking for response
WfPOS: v adv adv v v
FT: He also knew the situation well, right?
Based on the context of usage, the two particles used above (iv and liax) are functionally metadiscourse devices as they do not add anything to the propositional content itself. Rather, they just clarify the sender’s attitude towards the propositional content and/or the receiver. It may go without saying that the use of liax is prerogative to the narrator. That is, only the narrator has the privilege of using it ( Diller, Edmondson, & Luo, 2008 ). To sum up, particles in Kam fulfill several functions at sentence and discourse levels.
On the basis of the examples presented below, there are two sets of classifiers in Kam, viz., nominal and verbal classifiers. The distinction between the two categories is made based on “the closeness of their relationships with a verb or a noun.” ( Lu, 2012: p. 230 ).
As shown in (6), classifiers typically follow numerals when placed before head nouns. Furthermore, classifiers and head nouns are juxtaposed in adjacent positions and not separated by any other element ( Lu, 2012 ).
(6)
A. Wordform: deic wul menl dil xebc naenl
WfGloss: disposable above sky genitive ten CL thing
WfPOS: v adv comm part num CLF
dalmaenl daengl beengv dogl jus naenl bail.
sun come shoot down nine CL thing go
comm v v adv num CLF trans
FT: They shot down nine of the ten suns.
B. Wordform: keep xus dah wul sedl nguap
WfGloss: they then from on tail dog
WfPOS: pro adv prep adv comm Comm
jas yaop lis nadl oux jongs jas,
there search for modal CLF for small things rice seed that
dem v part CLF comm comm dem
FT: They found the rice seed on the dog’s tail.
C. Wordform: waoh baos nyagl maoh jas
WfGloss: classifier for humans older brother small it/him that
WfPOS: CLS comm adj pro mkr
baov jav ac baos mags
say then HON older brother big
v adv part comm adj int
FT: The younger brother, he said: my big brother.
D. Wordform: xus daeic jagc sedl seisgal
WfGloss: then hold CLF general, large stuff tail self
WfPOS: adv v CLF comm ref
jas daengl jenl pangp pangp jas,
that come curl high high that
dem v v adj adj dem
FT: So (he) held (his) own tail curled up high.
Kam’s richness in classifiers is readily observed from the above examples. However, what makes the situation more complex is the use of such classifiers in complementary distribution. Thus, different classifiers are used with different categories of things. General classifiers such as naenl are used for a wide range of things and they do not indicate a particular kind of objects ( Long & Zheng, 1998 ). Specific Classifiers, on the other hand, can be classified into at least four subcategories depending on their domain.
a) Classifiers for humans: jagx/waoh
b) Classifiers for small things: dagc/nadl
c) Classifiers for parts: mangv/seec
d) Classifiers for meals: denv
When nominal classifiers are used to indicate numbers (of things), they combine with numerals to form numeral-classifier phrases such as jus naenl, as exemplified in (6A). Looking more closely at numeral-classifier phrases in Kam, it becomes clear that they are normally situated ahead of the nouns they modify ( Long & Zheng, 1998: p. 94 ).
(7)
eac duc guic
two CLS buffaloes
“two buffaloes”
Drawing on the following example, it is rather inferred that the sender, guided by his/her communicative intent, uses reduplication to realize his/her actual intent. Classifiers can be generally reduplicated to express the meaning of each member/unit of the group.
(8)
a. naenl naenl b. loiv loiv c. denv denv
CLS CLS CLS CLS CLS CLS
each/every one each/every pair each/every meal
Generally speaking, classifiers are not typically verbal. Still, a classifier is called verbal if the event-denoting expression is verbal. The usage of some verbal classifiers is often restricted by the semantic properties of the verbs they co-occur with whilst noun classifiers have less semantic limitations. Unlike nominal classifiers, verbal classifiers are measures for verbs of action that express the number of times and action takes place ( Chao, 1968 ).
(9)
Wordform: biiul saml dads
WfGloss: jump three CLS
WfPOS: v NUM CLS
FT: jump three times
It is also even common in Kam to use verbs as classifiers, as in (10).
(10)
Wordform: huaik yingc huaik
WfGloss: wave several wave
WfPOS: v NUM CLS
FT: wave several times