A Matrix Analysis of Bontoc Case-Marking Particles

Abstract

There is a class of particles in Central Bontoc , the members of which indicate the syntactic relationship between the substantive phrases which they introduce, and the predicate of the clause in which they occur. We call these particles case-marking particles. The purpose of this paper is to show how the field structure of these particles as revealed by the use of matrix techniques l enables us to set up two contrastive sub-classes of case-marking particles--topic and referent--and to indicate the implications of this dichotomy with reference to Bontoc substantive phrases.