Syntactic Object Marking in Tapo

Abstract

Opuuo refers both the language and the people. The speakers call themselves ɔpɔɔ and their language t‘aa pɔɔ. It is a Nilo-Saharan language, classified under the Koman sub-family (Bender 2000, Ehert (2001). This paper has described syntactic object marking with original field work carried in Wanke village in the Ethiopian side. Tapo has relatively flexible word order in both the transitive and intransitive clauses. The basic word order is Agent-Verb-Object in transitive and, Subject-Verb in intransitive. The other word order varieties are Verb-Object-Agent and Object-Agent-Verb in transitive verbs and Verb-Subject in intransitive verbs. These syntactic constituents marked through positioning. Consequently, the language does not have a major morphological case system, except the comitative that marks mainly oblique. Tapo marks object based on semantic hierarchy of entities belong to human, animal and inanimate. The most dominant hierarchy being human entities as a beneficiary placed following the verb, followed by animate and inanimate entities that would take secondary object position whenever the object constituents are composed of animate and inanimate entities, Human > Animate > Inanimate. A predicate has indirect OB and direct OB constituencies, the first being a beneficiary or indirect object and the second direct OBJ, human followed by in animate. If this order changes to inanimate > human, become a possessive clause. Similarly animals follow the verb as a beneficiary and inanimate entities follow the beneficiary as a direct OBJ. In case in which both objects are inanimate, the consumer as a beneficiary preceded the consumed. If indirect OB and direct OB reversed, yields a Noun-Noun phrase.