Slot #1: Anchoring

The general purpose of that proclitic slot is to indicate which clausal nesting level the word belongs to, i.e. where the word does ‘anchor’.

This slot is always empty on the sentence's main verb (the root verb), unless it initiates a parenthetical sentence, in which case the parenthetical Anchoring ⟪ñï꞊⟫ is prepended to it.

• The null/empty form of this slot indicates that the word is anchored to the current clause level.

• ⟪m⟫, the syllabic nasal clitic, expressing the ‘Injective’ Anchoring. This syllabic nasal is preceded by an unwritten glottal stop. Furthermore, it may assimilate in place of articulation with the following consonant, becoming ⟪ŋ⟫ or ⟪n⟫ (see § Phonotactics for details).
  This ‘Injective’ clitic may occur on nouns and adverbials and indicates that the word is a complement of the predicate underlying the immediately preceding contentive word, as opposed to being an independent complement of the main predicate of the current clause. It is usually used for providing an argument to the verb underlying a preceding noun, similarly to certain usages of the English particle “of” as in “the destruction of the village”.

  ┌───────────────  
  │ ◆ Ukóyu tıñú ŋkastíñu.  
  │ ❖ U-     √kóyu  t-  ı- √ñú   ŋ꞊  k- a-  √stíñu
  │   ASR.REC-dog   NTR-ERG-eat  IJV꞊ACC-NTR-prepared_food  
  │ ➥ It was a dog, the eater of the meal.
  │   (the one who ate the meal)  
  └─  
  ┌───────────────  
  │ ◆ Oqʰá cïlú kïłqʼáı ntaqʰácʰol.  
  │ ❖ O−     √qʰá    c-  ï- √lú   k-  ï- √łqʼáı
  │   ASR.RPT-cause  ERG-EV-flow  ACC-EV-undergoes_destruction
  │   n꞊  t-  a-  -qʰáčʰol
  │   IJV꞊NTR-NTR-settlement  
  │ ➥ I heard that the water caused the destruction of the
  │   settlement.  
  └─  

• ⟪ʎï⟫, the Coinjective, indicates that the word has the same anchoring as the preceding word bearing Injective ⟪m⟫ Anchoring.

• ⟪θa⟫, the Post-subordinative, indicates that tagged word is anchored immediately after the end of a subordinate clause, and serves the purpose of explicitly marking the termination point of said subordinate clause. The tagged word therefore belongs to the immediate parent clause of the terminated subordinate clause.

  ┌───────────────  
  │ ◆ Oqʰá caweotïƛúru tačʰóqa θakïłqʼáı ntacʰól.  
  │ ❖ ASR.RPT-cause  ERG-ELU-RCS-RSM:EV-shake  NTR-NTR-ground
  │   PSUB꞊ACC-EV-undergoes_destruction  IJV꞊NTR-NTR-building 
  │ ➥ I heard that it was an earthquake that caused the
  │   destruction of the building.  
  └─  

• ⟪θu⟫, the Preset Anchoring, indicates that the tagged word is anchored to an outer syntactic level that has been preselected with the ⟪kʰwaı⟫ Preset Anchoring Tag, described in the last section at the bottom of this page.

• ⟪ʎo⟫, the Medial Coordinative, initiates the right-hand wing of a Forethought Coordination phrase.

• ⟪ñï⟫, the Parenthetical, indicates the beginning of a parenthetical sentence or group of sentences, terminated with the particle ⟪ñaʼ⟫, inserted into the current sentence.

  ┌───────────────  
  │ ◆ Uneyı̋pa caqahwéa, ñïmukıθunčáwa ñaʼ, kaoθakwáı.
  │ ❖ ASR.REC-1:DAT-say_to  ERG-NTR-named_after_property:NTR-is_wind
  │   PAR꞊PQ꞊2:ERG-EXO:ACC-familiar_with  EOP
  │   ACC-DCS꞊EXO:NTR-is_true
  │ ➥ I remember that Wind (do you know them?) told me that it's true.
  └─  

The Preset Anchoring Tag

Additionally, a ‘Preset Anchor Tag’ clitic ⟪kʰwaı⟫ may replace or immediately follow a Anchoring clitic, and set the current clause level as an anchoring point for a following ⟪θu⟫ Anchoring clitic it C-commands.

A related mechanism is that of the ⟪Echo-Resumptive⟫ role, described in the Other Roles section.