Example 41-2

elispa inda nukutiraa noos
eli-s-pa
3.m-pl-acc
inda
yet
nuku-tiraa
neg-take
noos
1pl
We haven't engaged them yet. OR: We haven't taken them on as regular employees yet.
Comment:
The topic is elis, whose referent was introduced in the preceding sentence in the discourse. The referent of noos is speaker and his relatives who are running a business, and excludes the addressee (who is neither a relative nor involved in the business). Elis-pa illustrates accusative marking on pronominal P, different from A and S. This example also illustrates the unmarked negative, which may refer to present, past or near future time.
Type:
naturalistic spoken
Source:
Smith 1974-5: 1372