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Dating archaicness in IndoEuropean languages: various issues concerning alignment change Junichi Toyota Lund University ([email protected]) Aimes To provide overview of historical changes from Proto-Indo-European (PIE) to its descendants To identify crucial features which are crucial in diversity in the Indo-European (IE) languages. To explain the diversity coherently. Table of contents 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Origin of IE: PIE Residues of PIE: case Residues of PIE: gender Case marking Perception and spontaneity Tense-aspect and passive Word order and topicality 8. Transitivity 9. Summary of various features 10. Alignment 11.PIE: language with activ alignment 12. Sumamry 7. 1. Origin of IE: PIE (Lehmann 1993; Gamkrelidze and Ivanov 1995) Basic structure is based on the nominal binary feature between active (marked with *-os) and inactive (*-om) nouns. Some examples of active nouns: *t’ent -s ‘tooth (NOM)’, *t’ent -m (ACC); *p et’-s ‘foot (NOM)’, *p et’-m (ACC). Inactive nouns normally have the identical ending for nominative and accusative, e.g. *yuk’-om ‘yoke (NOM, ACC)’. Verbal structure Verbs also have the active-inactive distinction. These two forms are preserved differently in modern IE languages. Two forms are often mixed in the conjugation, making them suppletive verbs, e.g. Old English he is, he bi ‘he is’. a. b. c. d. Active *b uH- ‘be’ *k ei- ‘lie’ *or- ‘stand’ *set’- ‘sit’ Inactive *es- ‘be’ *ses- ‘lie, sleep’ *st -aH- ‘stand’ *es- ‘sit’ Verbal predicate Earlier predicate required the active actor. Inactive nouns could not be an actor, until the innovation of an infix -nt -, which turned the inactive noun into the active one. a. Active alignment b. Inactive alignment Actor Predicate Undergper Actor Predicate Undergoer 1SG Active -V-mi- ActiveIn 1SG Active -V-Ha- In 2SG Active -V-si- ActiveIn 2SG Active -V-t Ha- In 3SG Active -V-ti- ActiveIn 3SG Active -V-e- In Person Kills animal Person moves stone 2. Residues of PIE: case Case marking system often reflects on the earlier active-inactive nominal distinction. Hittite Howi-s ‘sleep (NOM)’ *Howi-m (ACC) swesor-s ‘sister (NOM) swesor-m (ACC) Sanskrit Latin b húh ‘hand (NOM)’ b húm (ACC) d t ‘giver (NOM)’ d t ram (ACC) lupus ‘wolf (NOM)’ lupum (ACC) equus ‘horse (NOM)’ equum (ACC) 3. Residues of PIE: gender Some languages have identical forms for both nominativ and accusative only in neuter. Serbian Masculine Feminine Neuter Nominative sin ‘son’ žena ‘woman’ selo ‘village’ Accusative sina ženu selo Masculine Feminine Neuter Old English Nominative wer ‘man’ Accusative wer cwen ‘queen’ scip ‘ship’ cwen scip Words refering to a child or a little girl are often considered neuter, e.g. German Mädchen ‘girl’; Tamil makavu ‘child’, Konkani (Indic) ed ‘child’; Serbian dete ‘child’. Konkani bayl ‘woman’ and awoy ‘mother’ are feminine when referring to an older woman, and neuter referrring to a younger woman. Neuter is used when referents are considered incapable to reproduce. The ability to initiate an action in the active noun can be extended to ability to reproduce something, e.g. PIE *Hap - ‘water, river, stream (as moving element, i.e. active)’, *wot’ort ‘water (as a non-living element, i.e. inactive)’. Names of fruits are often neuter, but their trees are either masculine or feminine, e.g. Latin pirus ‘pear tree (MASC)’, malus ‘apple tree (MASC)’, but pirum ‘pear (NEUT)’, malum ‘apple (NEUT)’. 4. Case marking Old English and a and then folgode feorhgeni lan follow.PST deadly.foes.ACC ‘and then he pursued his deadly foes.’ (Beo 2928) Old English him folgia fugöas he.DAT follow.PRS bird.PL scyne fair ‘Fair bird shall follow him.’ (Whom 11.197) Case marking pattern in older IE languages Latin NOM ACC DAT GEN VOC LOC ABL INSTR ILLA ADESS ALLA OCS Old Lith Prt-Germ Case marking pattern in modern IE languages French NOM ACC DAT GEN VOC LOC ABL INSTR ILLA ADESS ALLA Serbian Lith English German 5. Perception and spontaneity Perception does not necessarily require volitional action. It is normally considered spontaneous. Earlier IE languages had the middle voice, but they disappear. The middle voice was primarily used to denote spontaneous events. Perception became expressed with impersonal verbs, i.e. experiencer is in the dative case. Middle voice Sanskrit Vidyam adatte knowledge.ACC take.3SG.MID ‘He acquires knowledge.’ Gothic Allai inmaidja-nda all change-1PL.MID ‘We shall all change.’ Classical Greek Loúo-mai Wash-1SG.MID ‘I wash myself.’ Impersonal verbs Old Lithuanian Nie ti mi itch I.DAT ‘I feel itchy.’ Hittite [kued]aniiki meerzi someone.DAT disappear ‘Someone disappears.’ Latin Mihi displicet I.DAT dislike.PRS.3SG ‘I dislike’ Latvian kam niet’ who.DAT itch ‘Who itches.’ Russian Mne nravitsja kniga I.DAT like book ‘I like the book.’ 6. Tense-aspect and passive Earlier languages had an aspectual distinction between perfective and imperfective. Tense was later developed, e.g. perfective turning into the past (cf. Bybee et al. 1994); and it was often divided into two, past and non-past. The passive was poorly developed earlier, but the middle was used more frequently. Some exceptions: Proto-Germanic so-called preterite-present tense Proto-Germanic wáit ‘I know’ is derived from PIE *weyd- ‘see’. The aspectual meaning ‘I have completed seeing’ was not shifted to the past tense ‘I saw/have seen’, but rather to ‘I know’. Similar examples are: kann ‘I know’ from ‘I have recognised’; g ‘I fear’ from ‘I have suffered in spirit’. From aspect to passive Old Church Slavonic ast’ post-a part fast-GEN preminu-l-a est’ pass.PRF-PST.PRT.ACT-FEM COP ‘A part of the fast-time has passed.’ Old Church Slavonic prišel jest come.PRF.PST.PRT.MASC be.IMPRF.PRS.3SG vasilisik Basiliscus ‘Basiluscus has come.’ (Suprasliensis 20.2) Are they passive? Russian a. On he.NOM napisal zto kartino paint.PST.PRT.ACT this.ACC painting.ACC ‘He painted this picture.’ b. Zta this.NOM kartina bila painting.NOM was napisana im paint.PST.PRT.PASS he.INST ‘This picture was painted by him.’ Bosnian a. On he.NOM je slikao ovu sliku is paint.PST.PRT.ACT this.ACC picture.ACC ‘He painted this picture.’ b. Ova this.NOM silka je slikana (*od njega) picture.NOM is paint.PST.PRT.PASS from he.ACC ‘This picture was painted.’ Split ergative Constructions like b-example from Bosnian can be considered a case of splitergative. Celtic languages and Indo-Aryan languages (such as Hindu) are known to have this pattern of tense-aspect. 7. Word order and topicality (cf. Li and Thompson 1972) Topic prominence: topic notion integrated into basic sentence structure: topic and subject distinct. Subject prominence: topic has become integrated into case frame of verb as a subject; subject and topic often indistinct, sentences with clear topics are highly marked. The dummy subject is common in subjectprominent languages. Diachrony of Word order and topicality Older IE languages were topic prominent, and they had a flexible word order. The basic order was SOV. Prominence can shift over periods of time between subject and topic prominence (cf. Figure 1). English Italian Romanian Slovak Lithuanian Irish Promin Subject Subject Topic Topic Topic Subject Flexibility Rigid Rigid Flexible Flexible Flexible Rigid Case Absent Absent Present Present Present Absent Bsc order SVO SVO SVO SOV SOV VSO 8. Transitivity Transitivity is a term referring to transfer of energy from actor to undergoer. The IE languages seem to operate in two different ways, i.e. semantic and syntatic transitivity. Semantic transitivity Transitivity can be gradient, and there are some ambiguous cases. She left. I like cakes. He broke the window. a. Participants - - + b. Kinesis + - + c. Aspect + - + d. Punctuality + - + e. Volitionality + - + f. Affirmative + + + g. Mode + + + h. Agency + - + i. Affectedness of object - - + j. Individuation of object - - + Syntactic transitivity It is easier to tell whether a sentence is transitive or not by the presence or absence of direct object. So this type is less ambiguous than semantic one. a. A crazy man shot people on the street. b. Police shot at demonstrators. c. We’ll shoot as soon as all the cameras are ready. d. He was shot by the police. 9. Summary of various features English Italian Romanian Russian Serbian Lithuanian Irish Word odr SVO SVO SVO SOV SOV SOV VSO Flexibility Rigid Rigid Flexible Flexible Flexible Flexible Rigid Subject Subject Topic Topic Topic Topic Subject Semantic Syntactic Case Imprs V Dummy S Promin. Passive Mid/Ref 10. Alignment Alignment: any one of several grammatical systems for classifying noun phrase arguments in the sentences of a language, i.e. the pattern of treatment of subjects and direct objects, referring to the distribution of morphological markers or of syntactic, semantic or morphological characteristics. Different types in alignment (cf. Figure 2) Accusative alignment: Subjects in transitive and intransitive constructions are treated identically. Ergative alignment: the subject in intransitive construction and the direct object in transitive construction treated identically. Active alignment: this type splits intransitive subject into two groups, often the active-cumpseudo-transitive subject and the stative/inactive-cum-transitive object. Demonstration of alignment types Accusative a. I punched him in the stomach. b. He punched me in the stomach. c. I run. Ergative a. I punched him in the stomach. b. He punched me in the stomach. c. Me run. Active a. I punched him in the stomach. b. He punched me in the stomach. c. I run. (dynmaic intransitive) d. Me stay. (stative intransitive) Characteristics of active alignment (Klimov 1977: chap. 3; Nichols 1992: 9-10) Lexical properties: 1. Binary division of nouns into active vs. inactive (often termed animate and inanimate or the like in the literature). 2. Binary division of verbs into active and inactive. 3. Classificatory verbs or the like (classification based on shape, animacy, etc.). 4. Active verbs require active nouns as subjects. 5. Singular-plural lexical suppletion in verbs. 6. The category of number absent or weakly developed. 7. No copula. 8. “Adjectives” are actually intransitive verbs. 9. Inclusive/exclusive pronoun distinction in first person. 10. No infinitive, no verbal nouns. 11. Etymological identity of many body-part and plant-part terms (e.g., “ear” = “leaf”). 12. Doublet verbs, suppletive for animacy of actant. Characteristics of active alignment (Klimov 1977: chap. 3; Nichols 1992: 9-10) Syntactic properties: 13. The clause is structurally dominated by the verb. 14. “Affective” (inverse) sentence construction with verbs of perception, etc. 15. Syntactic categories of nearer and farther object rather than direct and indirect object. 16. No verba habiendi. 17. Word order usually SOV. 18. Direct object incorporation into verb. Characteristics of active alignment (Klimov 1977: chap. 3; Nichols 1992: 9-10) Morphological properties: 19. The verb is much more richly inflected than the noun. 20. Two series of personal affixes on the verb: active and inactive. 21. Verbs have aspect or Aktionsarten rather than tense. 22. The noun has possessive affixes. 23. Alienable-inalienable possession distinction. 24. Inalienable possessive affixes and inactive verbal affixes are similar or identical. 25. Third person often has zero affix. 26. No voice opposition (since there is no transitivity opposition). Instead, there can be an opposition of what is called version in Kartvelian studies (roughly, active vs. middle in the terminology of Benveniste 1966, or an opposition of normal valence vs. valence augmented by a second or indirect object, or an opposition of speech-act participant vs. non-participant in indirect-object marking on the verb). 27. Active verbs have more morphological variation or make more morphological distinctions than inactive verbs. 28. The morphological category of number is absent or weakly developed. 29. There are no noun cases for core grammatical relations (no nominative, accusative, genitive, dative). Sometimes there is an active/inactive case opposition. 30. Postpositions are often lacking or underdeveloped in these languages. Some of them have adpositions inflected like nouns. 11. PIE: language with active alignment (cf. Gamkrelidzeand Ivanov 1995) Binary nominal and verbal distinction No tense, but aspect between perfective and imperfective No transitivity as a central grammatical organisation Impersonal verbs with dative subject The basic word order was SOV The voice distinction between active (active) and middle (inactive). There was no passive. Development into modern IE languages Word order became rigid, keeping subject in a certain slot in a clause. This creates a subject prominence, and the case became redundant. The subject prominence created a ground for the passive to develop, provided that an earlier resultative/perfective construction is replaced by a new one. Further development: transitivity Change of alignment also means the emergence of transitivity. Among two types of transitivity, semantic one appeared first. This type can be found in some modern IE languages. Syntactic one is newer of the two, found mainly in Romance and some Germanic languages such as English. 12. Summary Various changes we have seen can be attributed to the change in alignment from active to accusative one. The key element in the development is the emergence of the transitivity, especially from semantic to syntactic one. Development of different features is at varying stages according to each language, and this variety allows us to judge archaicness of some languages. Selected references Bybee, J., Perkins, R. & Pagluica, W. 1994. The evolution of grammar: tense, aspect, and modality in the languages of the world. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Gamkrelidze, Thomas V. and Vja eslav V. Ivanov 1995. IndoEuropean and Indo-Europeans: a recpnstruction and historical analysis of a proto-language and proto-culture (part 1): text. (English version by Johanna Nichols). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Harris, Alice C. and Lyle Campbell 1995. Historical syntax in cross-linguistic perspective. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge Lehmann, Winfred P. 1993. Theoretical bases of IndoEuropean linguistics. London: Rutledge. Li, Charles N. and Sandra A. Thompson 1976. ‘Subject and topic: a new typology of language’, in Li, C. N. (ed.), Subject and topic. Academic Press, new York, 457-489. Nichols, Johanna 1992. Linguistic diversity in space and time. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.