Saliency

┌───────────────────────┬──────┐  
│ Elucidative focus     │  aw  │  
│ Presupposition marker │  ay  │ 
└───────────────────────┴──────┘  

• The Elucidative Focus ⟪-aw-⟫ serves the purpose of indicating the part of a clause that expresses new information, the part that answers an interrogation of the audience, be it an explicit question, of an implicit, assumed one. In English, this function can be expressed either with an emphatic intonation on the focused word, or by using a syntactic cleft of the form ⟪it is [focus] which/who ……⟫, for example, ⟪it was me who took it⟫, which may be a suitable answer to the question ⟪who took it?⟫.
  When a clause does not contain an Elucidative Focus, the clause's verb plays the role of indicating the most salient new information.

  • Iθutákı cawanayá.
    ı=      θu-     tákı   c-  aw-a-   na-   yá
ASR.SEN=EXO:ACC-√draw  ERG-EF-NTRᵢ-1:NTR-√thing
    It is me who drew it.

  • Ukeθuqáoqʰıya cañaʎúkaıwa.
    u=      ke-   θu-     qáoqʰıya       c-  aw-a-   ña-  ʎúkaıwa
ASR.REC=2:DAT-EXO:ACC-√teach_how_to  ERG-EF-NTRᵢ-NAME-√Lyukaiwa
    It is Lyukaiwa who taught me how to do it.

• The Presuppositional Marker, or Background Marker, ⟪-ay-⟫, indicates elements that are presupposed to exist, or presupposed to be true in the sentence. Presuppositions stand out more in non-assertive sentences, such as interrogative sentences:

  • Inayá tayewaθutákı.
    ı=     -na-  yá       t-  ay-ew- a-   θu-     tákı
ASR.SEN-1:NTR-√thing  NTR-BG-CUQ-NTRᵢ-EXO:ACC-√draw
    All who drew it is me.
    / The one who drew it is me.

  • Ikayá tayaθutákı.
    ı=      na-   yá      t-  ay-a-  θu-     tákı
ASR.SEN꞊1:NTR-√thing  NTR-BG-NTRᵢ-EXO:ACC-√draw
    Are you the one(s) who drew it?
    ⸨Presupposition: someone drew it.⸩

  • Mułčʼé tayakolcʰuʎún.
    mu=łčʼé  t-  ay-a-   ko-   lcʰu-    ʎún
PQ꞊√ill  NTR-BG-NTRᵢ-2:EXT-same:ACC-√biological_parent
    Is your (biological) sibling ill?
    ⸨Presupposition: you have a (biological) sibling.⸩

  • Mukıtʰú kayaoθıraoθı̋čıl.
    mu=kı-   tʰú      k-  ay-ao= θı-     rao-θı̋čıl
PQ꞊2:ERG-√expect  NTR-BG-DCS꞊EXO:ERG-RET-√give_birth
    Do you know that she has given birth?
    ⸨Presupposition: she has given birth.⸩