(25)
ance is common to both uses. In a narrative, when the words of the person whose acts are narrated are given, it is most common to use ti, because of the speaking being in a manner part of the action, not a subsequent occurrence. In the same way, when a person goes and does something for which he goes, and in all cases of the kind; so that ti comes to be very much of a narrative particle, and divested to a great extent of the character of time. Invariable condition is expressed by ti, as of a house in regard to its position, ti taqa a pan matesala, stands beside the road;—A flower or fruit of its season, O gaviga ti tawaga alo rara, flowers in the winter: or its habit, O no paka ti nun saru, ti awisaga gaplot kel, A banian sheds its leaves and soon buds again.
2. After the verb, in its temporal use, ti throws the time a step farther back, makes a pluperfect of a perfect: "He has brought back the book he has been reading," Ni me la kel ma o book ni me vasvasago ti alolona. It is not that in English the pluperfect is always used where ti is thus used in Mota; but that the Mota sentence can probably be always translated with the English pluperfect to give the full sense.
The other modal use of ti is quite distinct from this; as is also another, in which after a verb or substantive it has the sense of still remaining, or yet: Mantagai ti, "There is still a little."
Modal Particles.
Qe.—This particle has no regard to time, but may very well be regarded as marking something like a subjunctive mood: "If I should see him I will tell him," Si na qe iloa na te gaganag munia apena.—"I will do so if it be possible," Na te ge mok sin qe lai. The use is most common with si, 'if,' but qe is used without it: Qe le we qoqo munsei te sike kel we qoqo nania, "Be much given to a man, much shall be required of him again."
Ta is hardly distinguishable in sense from qe, but may
