How do dependent and independent verbs work in the Iatmul language?

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Papuan languages Map of the languages found on the Doberai Peninsula of New Guinea.

In the Iatmul language, verbs are categorized into dependent and independent forms to facilitate the chaining of actions within a sentence. This structure typically involves a dependent verb preceding an independent one, with the latter carrying the primary inflectional information.1

Independent Verbs: These verbs possess full inflectional capabilities. They are marked for specific grammatical categories, such as tense and subject. For example, in the phrase və-laa yə-kəyə-ntə ("having seen it, then he will come"), the independent verb yə- ("to come") is inflected with the future tense suffix -kəyə and the subject suffix -ntə ("he").1
Dependent Verbs: These are formally stripped-down verbs that precede the independent verb. They take specific suffixes to indicate their dependent status and the temporal relationship between actions. In the same example, the dependent verb və- ("to see") uses the suffix -laa, which marks it as dependent and indicates that its action precedes the action of the subsequent verb.1

Notably, in Iatmul, the subjects of the dependent and independent verbs must be the same; if the subjects differ, two independent verbs must be used instead.1