The Partitive Marker in Abma

Abstract

The partitive is traditionally regarded in the literature as a nominal case marker that expresses a part-of-whole relationship. This article examines the partitive in Abma, an Oceanic (Austronesian) language of Vanuatu, in which it is a verbal marker that operates on transitive and intransitive verbs in the affirmative, but also manipulates the semantics of negation and questions. It is further shown that the Abma partitive is grammaticalizing in certain contexts into part of a complex negative marker, and that historically it may also have functioned as a nonspecific article or object case marker.