North Efate language

Auxiliary verb accessorize main verbs in a pre-verbal complex

The word pi can introduce a predicate nominal or adjective

Ex: mai | pi |afsak

come | be | turtle

Translation: "Then she became a turtle", in this case the predicate nominal "turtle" is introduced by the "pi"

Ex: mai | pi | boring a

come | be | boring

Translation: "It got boring", in this case the adjective, boring, describing the situation is also introduced by the "pi"

This pi also serves as an designation for equative structures that discern the identity of two entities[6]

Ex: nmatu | nen | pi | nmatu | ni | nafet | ofisa

woman | that | be | woman | of | group | officer

Translation: "Those women are the wives of all the officers", where the women (subject) are also being ascribed the identity of wives (predicate)

Words like pi serve as existentials, where they serve a presentative function, announcing novel information into the conversation, while also notifying existence of its deignee

The word "pato" signifies the location of a subject

Ex: pato | Kwinsland | to | namtu | ga | kin | Jeanie

Translation: "He was in Queensland, his wife was Jeanie", note how the pato denotes the location of the subject in Queensland, like a general designation of place

This word is a conjunction that can serve to oppose separate clauses like the word "but" or establish a connection to them like the word "and".[6]

Ex: Spray | traem | wou | ki | me | malkio

Spray | try | tell | PREP | but | not want

Translation: "They tried to get me to use spray, but I didn't want to", notice how the meaning of the "me" is determined by the opposition generated by the last part "not want" which goes against the grain of the sentence effectively signifying the meaning of me as "but"

Ex: Tete | tae | me | tete | tap | tae | mau

Some | know | but | some | NEG | know

Translation: "Some know, but some don't know", again, we see how the "me" is separating the two clauses and signifying an opposition between them because of the negative

Ex: Nlaken| kai | sain | reki | army | nafkal | me | pa

Because| sign | for | army | fight | and | go

Translation: " Because I had signed with the army to fight and then I went". The adherence of the clauses effectively changes the meaning of the "me" in this sentence, since there are no lexical markers signifying opposition of what the clauses are trying to present. Thus me serves to conjoin both the clauses. From this, one can see that the meaning of "me" is largely driven by the context of the words around it .

Intonation plays a crucial role in defining a phrase as interrogative, in this case, a characteristic rise and subsequent fall is observed in the last word (often in English this is seen as a rise in the last word of an interrogative phrase) [6]

Tags accessorize a sentence to add data to the question, often accompanied by the proper intonation cues.[6]

Serving the purpose as "or", and goes to express that the opposite of the phrase or phenomena it follows could in fact be the reality

Ex: lakor | lek | na- map | ko

maybe | look | map | or

Translation: "You might have seen a map, or what?

Serving the purpose as "isn't it", and this word serves as a request a repeat of the information. Note, it can be used independently and carries meaning in and of itself. Often in conversation it used by a party seeking clarification on a certain point

The Efate word 'go' is analogous to the English 'and' in that it connects two clauses [6]

Ex: taos | apap | nigmam | go | mama | nigmam | pak | talmat.

follow | father | 1p.POS |and | mother |1p.POS | to | garden

Translation: We then followed our father and our mother to the garden

Na is a purposive word that indicates the purpose of an action[6]

Ex: totan | na | fam

sit | PURP | eat

Translation: You sit in order to eat

The order of clauses is SVO. A sentence consists most basically of a verb stem with a subject.[6]