Klon language
| Kelon | |
|---|---|
| Klon | |
| Native to | Indonesia |
| Region | Alor Island, East Nusa Tenggara |
|
Native speakers
|
5,000 (2008) |
|
Trans–New Guinea
|
|
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | |
| Glottolog | kelo1247 |
Kelon, or Klon, is a Papuan language of the western tip of Alor Island in the Alor archipelago of East Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia. It is closely related to the Adang language, spoken across Kalabahi Bay to the north.
Klon has split-S alignment. The alignment can be considered agentive. In Klon, the only argument of an intransitive clause (S) is sometimes treated the same as an agent-like argument of a transitive clause (SA=A), and sometimes treated the same as a patient-like argument of a transitive clause (SO=O).
Whether S patterns with A or with O depends on the properties of the S argument, as well as the lexical class of the verb. In one class of verbs, S is coded like A, in another class of verbs S is treated as O, and in the third class of verbs, S can align with A or O, depending on the agentive properties of the S argument. The first verb class, the one which invariably aligns S as A, is the largest class. Only the third class of verbs exhibits fluid S alignment.
For the third verb class, when S has characteristics of an Actor, it patterns like A. When it has characteristics of an Undergoer, (more specifically, when S is an affected participant, but not a volitional and controlling participant) it patterns like O.
The argument of an intransitive may be realized in several ways. A full NP can be used alone, a full NP can be used in combination with a pronoun, or only a pronoun can be used. In all cases the free pronoun is only used with SA arguments, and the bound pronoun with SO arguments. Grammatical relations are not morphologically indicated when arguments are full NPs. Klon has multiple pronominal paradigms. Free pronouns mark A and SA arguments, while bound pronouns indicate O and SO arguments.
In example 1 below, the A argument is indicated by the free pronoun ini, while the O argument instead has the bound pronoun g-.
In example 2, the SO argument is indicated with the bound pronoun n-, and the A argument is represented by the free pronoun na.
In example 3, SA is indicated by the free pronoun ini.
Anaphoric co-reference
When co-referring A and SA arguments occur in paratactically conjoined clauses, the argument in the second clause can be either reduced to a pronoun or deleted.
Similarly, co-referring O and SO arguments which occur in paratactically conjoined clauses allow reduction or deletion of the argument in the second clause.
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