Subordinate adverbial constructions in Mekens

This article discusses the morphosyntactic strategies employed for forming subordinate adverbial constructions in Mekens, including the specific uses of valence-changing and other derivational morphemes, such as nominalizers and verbalizers. Generally speaking, adverbial constructions in this language take the form of postpositional phrases and derived verb phrases based on nominalized verb forms, although other strategies are also found. Data from both natural discourse and elicitation illustrate the major types of adverbial modification which include those expressing information about time, condition, cause, and purpose of related events in the proposition. Our goal is to contribute to the knowledge of the typological characteristics of the Mekens language, and at the same time permitting its comparison with genetically related languages and those of the region.