Overt Relation Markers in Maranao

Abstract

Maranao is a member of the Tagalog family of Philippine languages; these, together with the Visayan languages, are members in turn of the Malayopolynesian family. These languages are characterized by verbal inflection to indicate not only time, kind of action, and psychological point of view of the speaker, but also certain grammatical relations between the verb and the topic of the sentence. When a substantive phrase is not the topic, its grammatical relation to the verb is indicated either by particles or by certain pronoun forms.l In some of these languages, position in the sentence signals such relations, but in Maranao position carries little functional load. The grammatical relations of actor, direct object, indirect object, and instrument are marked in Maranao by the particles o, sa, and ko. Cutting across the grammatical relations marked by these particles is another, indicating that a certain substantive is the topic of the sentence, or has a primary relation to the verb. In Maranao this primary relation is indicated by the particle so (or substitutes for so phrases).2 Wherever so introduces a phrase related to the verb, that phrase is the topic of the sentence. The topic in turn may have various relations to the verb, depending on what is required by certain verbal affixes: one affix indicates that the topic is the actor; another affix indicates a direct object; a third indicates an indirect object or referent; and a fourth indicates that which is used to bring about the action, or that which causes the action. These verbal affixes have been called voice markers.3 They were treated in the monograph already mentioned.4 Verbal affixes thus mark grammatical relations between verb and topic which intersect the relations marked by particles used with other than topic substantives. Thus, when the actor is not the topic, it is indicated by the particle o; when the direct object is not the topic, it is indicated by the particle sa; and so on. We turn now to the particles that mark these grammatical relations. The particle so not only marks the topic, but also may introduce a phrase in a position of special emphasis before the verb. Such a phrase has the same referent as a pronoun which occupies the position normally filled by the phrase. Note the following example: (So mama') na kataoan (ian) so kokoman5 (the man