CHAPTER XIII.

OF THE SYNTAX.

PRELIMINARY REMARKS.

Before we proceed to the consideration of the Syntax of Maori, it will be necessary 1st. to explain some terms which we shall be obliged to employ, and 2ndly, to make a few remarks on the general features of Maori sentences. Some further remarks on this subject, we shall reserve till we come to treat on the verbs.

The _subject_ of a proposition is that concerning which anything is affirmed or denied. The _predicate_ is that which is so affirmed or denied of the subject. Thus, in the following sentence, Kua mate a Hone, _John has died_, _Hone_ is the subject, and _mate_ is the predicate.

NOTE.--We can scarcely recognize the verbal particles as copulas. We believe that their exclusive use is, to denote time.

Propositions, or sentences, we divided (page 37) into _simple_ and _compound_. Another division is here necessary; viz., into _complex_ and _incomplex_. An _incomplex proposition_ is that whose subject and predicate are simple terms; e. g., He hoiho tenei, _this is a horse_.

A complex proposition is that which contains some qualifying, or otherwise modifying, term in connexion with either _subject_ or _predicate_; e. g., I mate a Hone _ki reira_. _Ki reira_, here, qualifies the predicate _mate_. He tokomaha nga Pakeha i Akarana, _many are the foreigners in Auckland_. Nga Pakeha i Akarana is the _subject_, and tokomaha the _predicate_.

He aroha no te Atua i ora ai tatou. This placed in due order, is "I ora ai tatou, he aroha no te Atua," _we having been saved was a love of God_. Here, _I ora ai tatou_ is the subject.

Ko tou utu tena mo to hanganga i te whare? _Is that your payment for your having built the house?_ Here, we conceive, _ko tou utu mo to hanganga i te whare_ is the _subject_, and _tena_ the _predicate_.

In examining the nature of Maori propositions, the student will soon notice that they are characterized by a remarkable _brevity_ and _abruptness_, as well as by the frequent occurrence of ellipses. As a New Zealander is generally unequal to a train of consecutive thought, so also is his language inadequate to exhibit with accuracy the various processes of the civilized intellect, such as comparing, abstracting, &c., or indeed any ideas beyond the simple and monotonous details of his daily life. It is, if we may so speak, an animated sketching, intended for general effect, the more delicate lines being but faintly touched.

The student has already seen that Maori is defective in particles of _illation_, _comparison_, and _copulation_. The want of a verb substantive, which is so useful as a _copula_ in other languages, will often, where accuracy is desired, cause both clumsiness and obscurity of construction.

The process by which a New Zealander constructs his sentences, is very similar to that of a child who is just beginning to speak. For example: if the latter wishes to express, "Is that a horse?" "Give me some bread," he will, most probably, say "a horse that?" "me bread." He has the ideas of _himself_ and _bread_, and, by pronouncing the one in immediate succession after the other, attempts to convey the idea of their mutual connexion. So also will Maori, when it wishes to express the dependence of two or more ideas on each other, place them in close connexion, as distinct existences, and leave the hearer to deduce their intended relations. From hence it may, _a priori_, be collected. 1st. That Maori inclines to the _substantive form_. 2ndly, That it will have a peculiar tendency to the _indicative mode of statement_. 3rdly. That it delights in short sentences. 4thly. That it will often, in consequence of the frequent occurrence of ellipses, present constructions which will appear _strange_ to the student of only polished languages, and even occasionally seem to defy analysis. 5thly, That the clauses of the sentence, will, like its words, be often thrown together without any connecting particles, and that we shall often notice in their construction a frequent occurrence of _epanorthosis_.

On some of these heads we shall have to remark hereafter. The last-mentioned feature is, however, of such importance in the investigation of some of the difficult points of Maori, that we must beg the student's leave to bring it here prominently before his notice.

_Epanorthosis_ is a figure of frequent occurrence in all languages, but particularly in those of the East. It is "the qualifying a former clause by the addition of another"[32] e. g., Ka tae te hohoro o ta tatou kai, _te pau_! what great haste our food has made; (I mean) _the being consumed_. Here _te pau_, is a clause qualifying the preceding; e rua tahi enei, _he roa kau_, there are two here, _nothing but long_; ringihia mai, _kia nohinohi_, pour me out some, _let it be little_, (i. e., pour me out a little); e rite tahi ana ia kia koe, _te ahua_, he is like you, (I mean,) _the countenance_; no reira a Ngatihau i tino mau ai, _te karakia ai_, that was the cause why Ngatihau were quite established, (I mean,) _the not adopting Christianity_. I riri au kia ia, _kihai nei i whakaaro_, I was angry with him, (I mean,) _he did not exercise thought in that matter_. Ko te tangata tenei, nana nga kakano, this is the man, _his are the seeds_; (i. e., _this is the person whose are_, &c.) He aha tau e mea, what is yours (actively) (I mean,) _are doing_? i. e., _what are you doing?_ Haere ana Hone, me tana hoiho. Ka puta pea tena ki raro, _e tihore ana_. So John started and his horse. He has perhaps reached to the northward, (I mean,) _is peeling_, (i. e., going along at a peeling, or rapid rate).

6thly. The student may be prepared to find the defect of the verb substantive supplied in various ways in Maori--by the article, the pronoun, the preposition, the adverb, and the verbal particles. Instances of ellipsis he will find in almost every page--ellipsis of the verb, of the noun, of the pronoun, &c., and, particularly, in our illustration of the preposition _ki_.

As distinctions between gender, number, case, and person, are very rare in Maori, and as, moreover, a main business of syntax consists in the adjusting of their several claims, we may hope that our work here will be neither complicated, nor extended.

[32] "Est sui ipsius quasi revocatio, qua id, quod dictum est, e vestigio corrigitur."--Glass. edit Dathe, page 1350.