Fijian and English/Contrastive Grammar

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Noun Phrase Structure

  • In a Fijian NP, adjectives, demonstratives, relative clauses modifying the head noun, if present, must follow the head noun, while in English, adjectives and demonstratives precede the head noun and relative clauses follow the head noun.

(fij) a ’oro vina’a yai → (eng) this good village (gloss: ART village good this)

(fij) a<art> ’oro<n> vina’a<adj> yai<dem> → (eng) this<det><dem><sg> good<adj><sint> village<n><sg>

  • An NP in Fijian has to begin with an article: a for common nouns (which becomes na after a preposition) and o for proper names and pronouns (which is dropped after a preposition). The articles in Fijian roughly corresponds to the definite article the in English, and there's no indefinite article in Fijian. The indefinite article in English can be translated through the number "one".

(fij) e dua a ’oro → (eng) a village (gloss: 3sg-subj one ART village)

(fij) e<prn><pers><sg><p3><subj> dua<num> a<art> ’oro<n> → (eng) a<det><ind><sg> village<n><sg>

  • Possessive structure with the possessor be a pronoun and the possessed be a bound noun

(fij) a mataqu → (eng) my eye (gloss: ART eye-1sg)

(fij) a<art> mataqu<n><pos><sg><p1> → (eng) my<det><pos><sp><p1><mf><sg> eye<n><sg>



Predicate Structure

  • The major clause type in Fijian always has a predicate at the beginning of the clause, usually with a verb as the head and a obligatory subject pronoun in the initial position of the predicate; all other NPs (subject NP, object NP, object pronoun, etc.), which are optional, follow the predicate. An English clause generally has an SVO word order, and a pronoun and a full NP with the same reference cannot co-occur as the subject of a verb.

(fij) Era la’o a gone. → (eng) The children are going. (gloss: 3pl-subj go ART child)

{{transferMorphTest|fij|eng||the{{tag|

  • Tense marker