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verbs , respectively: the free forms like kIIi-p (he/she-3.SG.M:TH) he or tií-ta (I-
1.SG:TH) I , the thematic affixes -p (3.SG.M:TH) or-ta (1.SG.TH), the rhematic
affixes -pà (3.SG.M:RH) or -tà (1.SG:RH), the non-topical subject affix type -pi
(3.SG.M:NTS), as well as the verbal object affixes-pi (3.SG.M:OBJ) him or -te
(1.SG:OBJ) me , as well as the demonstrative particle ?i. (the passive -he is historically
an object affix).
Two other pronominal items can be found in extended argument expressions, which will
be called pronomoid (like tií (1.SG)) and possessive (like tíi (1.SG)).
(26) tií kai ?ao-ta
I big man-1.SG:TH
I, this great man
(27) hoa tíí xuu-m
all my thing-3.PL.COMM:TH
all my things
The free form tií-ta (I-1.SG:TH) is evidently composed of the pronomoid tií and the
thematic affix -ta. However, there is no corresponding pronomoid *kIIi- in kIIi-p
(he/she-3.SG.M:TH) he .
The full set of pronominal items is illustrated below:
(28) The system of Nama pronominal forms
Pronomoid; Possessive; Enclitic: OBJ NTS TH/NRH RH; Free f.: TH/NRH RH
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tií tíí -te -ta(1) -tà tií-ta tií-tà
saá sáá -tsi -ts(2) -tsà saá-ts, ..-tsà
-pi -pi-i/ -p(3sm) -pà kll?i-p, ..-pà
-si -si -s (3sf) -sà kll?i-s, ..-sà
(-he pass ) ?ì (3.SG.N particle)
The general sequence in referential expressions is the following:
Pronomoid , Quantor, Demonstrative, Possessive, Numeral, Qualifier, Nucleus,
Person/Gender/Number/Case-Inflection.
(29) tií-ta
I-1.SG:TH
I
(30) tií kai ?ao-ta
I big man-1.SG.TH
I, this great man
(31) hoa tíí xuu-m
all my thing-3.PL.COMM:TH
all my things
(32) nee !ona xuu-m
this three thing-3.PL.COMM:TH
these three things
(33) nee tií ?ixa tara-s
this my beautiful wife-3.SG.F:TH
this, my beautiful wife
As we can see in these examples, none of the attributes carries any inflection; the person
inflection marks the entire phrase. This is different if the attributes follow the nucleus.
Then every item has to be marked by the same person inflection: The order after the
nucleus is rather free, but it tends to be a mirror image of the preposed order:
(34) tara-s ?ixa-s tií-s nee-s
wife-3.SG.F:TH beautiful-3.SG.F:TH my-3.SG.F:TH this-3.SG.F:TH
this, my beautiful wife
Equivalents of relative clauses may also appear before or after the nucleus, but notice
the inversion of the tense marker in (35), where the tense marker can be regarded as a
clitic (cliticisation will henceforth be marked by = ; for the delimination of cliticisation
see below):
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(35) nllae=ra ?ao-p
sing=PRES.IMPF man-3.SG.M:TH
the man who is singing
(36) ?ao-p ra nllae-p ke
man-3.SG.M:TH PRES.IMPF sing-3.SG.M:TH ASS
it is the mán who is sínging
Inversion and permutations are the most striking feature of Nama syntax, and we cannot
adequately deal with the question of word classes unless we understand the mechanisms
which sometimes cause confusion with respect to the inflectional capacity of word
forms in Nama.
In Nama every constituent can be fronted into thematic (or non-rhematic ) position.
(37) ?ao-p ke //?ari tara-sà ko muu
man-3sm:TH ASS yesterday woman-3.SG.F:RH REC.PAST see
the man yesterday saw the woman
As we saw above, in the ordinary construction, a prototypical human topic will be
followed by an assertion marker, an adverb, a referential nominal undergoer in its
rhematic or predicative form, a tense marker and a plain verbal predicate.
If for pragmatic reasons the undergoer phrase should become part of the thematic or
non-rhematic phrase, the undergoer expression is fronted and stacked before the
original pronominal subject ending. The original nominal subject or theme , however,
will turn into a rhematic NP, with a pronominal ending which is corefential with the
subject place-holder. In other words, one still knows what is the real subject under
standard conditions. I have set off the two pronominal endings on the first phrase by
means of a sign for cliticisation, since they clearly stand for two different constituents:
(38) tara-sà=p ke //?ari
woman-3.SG.F:RH=3.SG.M:TH ASS yesterday
?ao-pà ko muu-si
man-SG.M:RH REC.PAST see-3.SG.F:OBJ
as for the woman [tara-sà], he [=p], i.e. the man [?ao-pà], saw her yesterday
It is also possible to front the action expression as in (39). Again, the real subject is
still indicated by the subject pronominal. The tense marker will be left stranded :
(39) muu-si=p ke //?ari ?ao-pà
see-3.SG.F:OBJ=3.SG.M:TH ASS yesterday man-3.SG.M:RH
tara-sà ko
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woman-3.SG.F:RH REC.PAST
lit. as for seeing her, yesterday he, the man, it is the woman (he) did
The tense marker can also hop to the front, right next to the assertion marker:
(40) muu-si=p ke ko //?ari
see-3.SG.F:OBJ=3.SG.M:TH ASS REC.PASTyesterday
?ao-pà tara-sà
man-3.SG.M:RH woman-3.SG.F:RH
Lit. 'seeing her he did yesterday, i.e. the man the woman'
(41) n//ae=p ke ko
sing=3.SG.M:THASS REC.PAST
as for singing, he did (it)
In a next step, the tense marker can be attached right to the fronted verbal predicate, and
the entire complex is stacked in front of the subject pronominal .
(42) n//ae=ra=p ke ?ao-pà
sing=PRES.IMPF=3.SG.M:TH ASS man-3.SG.M:RH
being singing he is, i.e. the man / singing he is, the man
(43) muu-si=ko=p ke ?ao-pà
see-3.SG.F:OBJ=REC.PAST=3.SG.M:TH ASS man-3.SG.M:RH
having seen her, he is, i.e. the man / having seen her did the man
Now at this particular moment, it is not so easy to know what the subject affixes stand
for and where they belong to. Constructions like nlIae=ra=p and muu-si=ko=p (which
above are interpreted as clauses with a cliticised pronoun) are also expressions which
can be interpreted as the one singing and the one having seen her , respectively.
(44) n//ae=ra=p ke ?ao-pà
sing=PRES.IMPF=3.SG.M:TH ASS man-3.SG.M:RH
the one singing/he, singing, is the man
(45) muu-si=ko=p ke ?ao-pà
see-3.SG.F:OBJ=REC.PAST=3.SG.M:TH ASS man-3.SG.M:RH
the one having seen her/he, having seen her, is the man
Since the different readings of the same surface constructions are clearly similar, we see
that there is a squish between simple cliticisation and lexical or derivational
morphology.
There are also other unclear cases between lexical morphology and syntactic processes:
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(46) khoe-p man
(47) khoe-s woman
(48) muu-p eye ( seer )
(49) muu-s little eye
(50) kao-p ruler
(51) kao-s rulership / that (so.) rules
For instance, in ordinary nouns like khoe-p (person-3.SG.M) man vs. khoe-s
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