Download Ling 127 Reader

Introduction to Syntactic Typology
Course Reader
C OMPRISING MATERIALS DEVELOPED BY
E D K EENAN
H AROLD T ORRENCE
A NOOP M AHAJAN
T IM S TOWELL
REVISED AND EXTENDED BY
M ARTIN WALKOW
The University of California
Los Angeles
2014
Contents
Contents
3
List of Tables
9
1
2
Preliminaries
1.1 What is Typology? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1.1.1 Syntax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1.1.2 Morphology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1.1.3 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1.2 Universals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1.2.1 Implicational and Non-Implicational Universals
1.2.2 Approaches to Universals . . . . . . . . . . .
1.3 Sampling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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Classification & Sampling
2.1 Language Classification . . . . . . . . . .
2.2 Discovering Families . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.3 Variation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.4 Distribution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.4.1 Khoisan . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.4.2 Niger-Congo (Niger-Kordofanian)
2.4.3 Nilo-Saharan . . . . . . . . . . .
2.4.4 Afro-Asiatic . . . . . . . . . . .
2.4.5 Caucasian . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.4.6 Indo-European . . . . . . . . . .
2.4.7 Uralic-Yukaghir . . . . . . . . . .
2.4.8 Altaic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.4.9 Chukchi-Kamchatkan . . . . . .
2.4.10 Eskimo-Aleut . . . . . . . . . . .
2.4.11 Dravidian . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.4.12 Sino-Tibetan . . . . . . . . . . .
2.4.13 Austric . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.4.14 Austronesian . . . . . . . . . . .
2.4.15 Indo-Pacific . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.4.16 Australian . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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2.5
2.6
3
4
5
2.4.17 Na-Dene . . . . . . .
2.4.18 Amerind . . . . . . .
Others . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.5.1 Pidgins and Creoles .
2.5.2 Isolates . . . . . . . .
2.5.3 Signed Languages . .
‘Sprachbund’ . . . . . . . . .
2.6.1 The Balkan Spachbund
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Basic Concepts
3.1 Lexical Classes . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3.2 Roles and Relations . . . . . . . . . . .
3.2.1 Roles and Relations . . . . . .
3.2.2 Marking Grammatical Relations
3.3 Sentence Types . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3.4 Pragmatic Notions . . . . . . . . . . .
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Word Order
4.1 Word Order Typology . . . . . . . . . . . .
4.2 Greenberg’s Universal 1 . . . . . . . . . .
4.3 Greenberg’s Universal 2 . . . . . . . . . .
4.4 Greenberg’s Universal 12 . . . . . . . . . .
4.5 Verb Final Typology . . . . . . . . . . . .
4.5.1 Basic Word Order . . . . . . . . .
4.5.2 Morphology . . . . . . . . . . . .
4.5.3 Internal Structure of the NP . . . .
4.5.4 Internal Structure of the Verb Phrase
4.5.5 Sentence Level Syntax . . . . . . .
4.6 Verb Initial Typology . . . . . . . . . . . .
4.6.1 Basic Word Order . . . . . . . . .
4.6.2 Internal Structure of the NP . . . .
4.6.3 Predicate Structure . . . . . . . . .
4.6.4 Sentence Level Syntax . . . . . . .
4.7 The Verb-Medial Typology . . . . . . . . .
4.8 Nonconfigurationality . . . . . . . . . . .
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Case
5.1 Case . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
5.2 Case Alignments . . . . . . . . . . .
5.3 Syntactic Ergativity . . . . . . . . . .
5.4 Case beyond S, A and P . . . . . . . .
5.4.1 Non-Canonical Subjects . . .
5.4.2 Differential Object Marking .
5.5 Other Systems of Argument Marking .
5.5.1 Topic Marking Languages . .
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5.6
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5.5.2 Direct-Inverse Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
Case: A summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
Questions
6.1 Typology of Wh-Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
6.2 A Wh-Movement Language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
6.3 No movement to the left edge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
6.3.1 Class 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
6.3.2 Class 2: No movement, but question marker . . . . . .
6.3.3 Class 3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
6.3.4 Summary: Patterns of movement and in-situ questions
6.4 Multiple Wh-Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
6.5 Two Types of Multiple Fronting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
6.6 Partial Movement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
6.6.1 Particle marked partial movement . . . . . . . . . . .
6.6.2 Naked Partial Movement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
6.7 Other Questioning Strategies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
6.7.1 Clausal Pied Piping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
6.7.2 Wh-Copy Constructions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
6.7.3 Movement to focus position . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
6.8 Wh-Words . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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Relative Clauses
7.1 Relative Clauses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
7.1.1 What’s a relative clause . . . . . . . . . . . . .
7.1.2 How could relative clauses differ typologically?
7.2 Word order correlations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
7.3 Representation of the head . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
7.3.1 Gap Strategy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
7.3.2 Resumptive Strategy . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
7.3.3 Relative Pronoun strategy . . . . . . . . . . .
7.4 Less Common . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
7.4.1 Internally Headed Relative Clauses . . . . . .
7.4.2 Correlatives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
7.5 The Accessibility Hierarchy . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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Valency Alternations
8.1 Changing Valency . . . . . . .
8.2 Passive . . . . . . . . . . . . .
8.2.1 Impersonal Passives .
8.2.2 Adversity Passives . .
8.3 What passivizes? . . . . . . .
8.4 Passive Morphology . . . . . .
8.4.1 Periphrastic Passive . .
8.4.2 Morphological Passive
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8.5
Antipassives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
8.5.1 The Phenomenon . . . . . . . . .
8.5.2 Absolutive Case . . . . . . . . .
8.5.3 Unifying Passive and Antipassive
8.6 Applicatives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
8.7 Causatives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
8.7.1 Analytic Causatives . . . . . . . .
8.7.2 Morphological Causatives . . . .
8.7.3 Lexical Causatives . . . . . . . .
8.8 Semantics of Causatives . . . . . . . . .
8.8.1 Direct versus Indirect Causation .
8.8.2 Permissive versus Causative . . .
8.8.3 Sociative Causation . . . . . . . .
8.9 Grammatical Roles . . . . . . . . . . . .
8.9.1 Intransitive Verbs . . . . . . . . .
8.9.2 Transitive Verbs . . . . . . . . .
8.9.3 Ditransitive Verbs . . . . . . . . .
8.9.4 Doubling of grammatical relations
8.9.5 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . .
8.10 Grammaticalized
Causatives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208
Reflexivity
9.1 Reflexives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
9.1.1 Introducing Reflexives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
9.1.2 The morphosyntax of reflexive markers . . . . . . . . . . .
9.1.3 Non-Reflexive uses of reflexive markers . . . . . . . . . . .
9.2 Local vs long distance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
9.2.1 Typological properties/tendencies of long distance reflexives
9.3 Logophors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
10 Negation
10.1 Expressing Negation . . . . . . . . . .
10.1.1 Higher Verb Strategy . . . . . .
10.1.2 Negation with an auxiliary . . .
10.1.3 Negative Particles . . . . . . . .
10.1.4 Affixal negation . . . . . . . . .
10.1.5 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . .
10.2 Negative Clauses . . . . . . . . . . . .
10.2.1 Tense/Aspect Neutralization . .
10.2.2 Realis Marking . . . . . . . . .
10.2.3 Emphasis Marking . . . . . . .
10.2.4 Suppletion . . . . . . . . . . .
10.2.5 Case Changes . . . . . . . . . .
10.2.6 Word and Affix Order Changes
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185
185
187
189
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200
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200
202
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204
207
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215
215
215
218
223
225
228
233
237
237
239
240
244
247
248
249
249
251
254
254
255
255
10.3 Double/Multiple Negation . . . . . . . . . . . .
10.3.1 Double Negation and Negative Concord .
10.3.2 Double Negation and the Jespersen Cycle
10.4 Expletive Negation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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11 Morphology
11.1 Morphological Typology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
11.1.1 The atoms of morphology . . . . . . . . . . . . .
11.1.2 Typological tendencies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
11.2 Word Structure Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
11.2.1 Synthesis: Isolating vs (Poly)Synthetic Languages
11.2.2 Fusion: Fusional vs agglutinating languages . . . .
11.2.3 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
11.3 Tense, Modality, and Aspect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
12 Pidgines and Creoles
12.1 Language Contact . .
12.2 Pidgins and Creoles .
12.3 Origins . . . . . . .
12.4 Features of Pidgins .
12.4.1 Fanagalo . .
12.4.2 Isicamtho . .
12.5 Creoles . . . . . . .
12.5.1 Creolization .
12.5.2 Properties . .
12.6 Illustrations . . . . .
12.6.1 Sranan Tongo
12.6.2 Krio . . . . .
12.6.3 Tok Pisin . .
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257
257
259
261
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263
263
263
265
268
269
274
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285
285
288
290
291
294
297
298
298
299
304
304
306
307
Appendices
308
A Greenberg’s Universals
311
13 Bibliography
315
7
8
List of Tables
1.1
1.2
A simple typology of question formation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Noun, Demonstrative, and Adjective Ordering Correlations. . . . . . 15
2.1
2.2
2.3
2.4
2.5
2.6
2.7
2.8
2.9
2.10
2.11
2.12
2.13
2.14
2.15
2.16
2.17
2.18
2.19
2.20
2.21
2.22
2.23
2.24
Some Indo-European Cognates. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Some Nootkan correspondences. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Some sound correspondences in some Bantu languages. . . .
Geographic distribution of Khoisan languages. . . . . . . . .
Geographic distribution of Niger-Congo languages. . . . . .
Geographic distribution of Nilo-Saharan languages. . . . . .
Geographic distribution of Afro-Asiatic languages. . . . . .
Geographic distribution of Caucasian languages. . . . . . . .
Geographic distribution of modern Indo-European languages.
Geographic distribution of Uralik-Yukagir languages. . . . .
Geographic distribution of Altaic languages. . . . . . . . . .
Geographic distribution of Chukchi-Kamchatkan languages.
Geographic distribution of modern Eskimo-Aleut languages.
Geographic distribution of Dravidian languages. . . . . . . .
Geographic distribution of Sino-Tibetan languages. . . . . .
Geographic distribution of Austric languages . . . . . . . .
Geographic distribution Austronesian languages. . . . . . .
Geographic distribution of Indo-Pacific languages. . . . . .
Geographic distribution of Autralian languages. . . . . . . .
Indigenous languages of North America. . . . . . . . . . . .
Indigenous languages of Central America. . . . . . . . . . .
Indigenous languages of South America. . . . . . . . . . . .
“Dog” across Niger-Congo. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Properties of other Sprachbunds. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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22
23
23
27
28
28
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
47
4.1
4.2
4.3
Summary of results from surveys of word order. . . . . . . . . . . .
Variant basic word orders for single languages. . . . . . . . . . . .
Comparison of two consistent (i.e. well-behaved) VO and OV languages: Thai and Japanese . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Summary of Greenberg’s word order correlations. . . . . . . . . . .
Adpositions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Noun+Relative Clause. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
64
66
4.4
4.5
4.6
9
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70
89
91
91
5.1
5.2
5.3
5.4
5.5
Finnish Cases. . . . . . . . . .
Latin case morphology. . . . .
3-clitics in leísta Spanish . . .
Two analyses of topic marking.
Frequencies of Case Marking.
6.1
6.2
6.3
Wh-movement and headedness . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Patterns of movement and in-situ question formation. . .
Summary of Properties of Type 1 and Type 2 Multiple
Languages. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
7.1
Word Order and Relative Clause Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
8.1
8.2
8.3
8.4
Valencies and subcategorization frames of some English verbs. . .
Agency/Control and Case. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Demotions in the Causative. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Causatives and grammatical relations of the causee in some Indian
languages. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
9.1
9.2
9.3
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99
100
112
116
119
. . . . . . 123
. . . . . . 129
Fronting
. . . . . . 138
. 173
. 202
. 205
. 214
Daiyari -tadi and intransitive syntax. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220
Sources of Reflexives in Some Languages of West Africa. . . . . . . 222
Geographic Distribution of Non-Verbal Reflexive Marker Sources. . 223
10.1 Negative Auxiliaries in some Uralic-Yukaghir Languages. . . . . . 241
10.2 Summary of Types of Negative Marking Strategies . . . . . . . . . 248
10.3 Negation in Lewo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 262
11.1 Latin case morphology. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
11.2 Prefixing vs. Suffixing in Inflectional Morphology
11.3 Pirahã pronouns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
11.4 Inflectional Synthesis of the Verb . . . . . . . . .
11.5 Turkish (Altaic; Turkey) nominal morphology. . .
11.6 First person affixes in Classical Arabic. . . . . .
11.7 Russian case morphology . . . . . . . . . . . . .
11.8 Exponence of Selected Inflectional Formatives . .
11.9 Exponence of Tense-Aspect-Mood Inflection . .
11.10Relation of Fusion and Synthesis. . . . . . . . .
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264
266
267
273
275
276
276
277
278
278
12.1
12.2
12.3
12.4
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288
289
292
295
Chinese Pidgin English Dialogue . . . . . . . .
Sample of Jamaican Creole. . . . . . . . . . .
Worldwide Distribution of Pidgins and Creoles.
Fanagalo pronouns. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
10
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.
Chapter 1
Preliminaries
1.1
What is Typology?
• A definition of the subject matter of typology:
The classification of languages or components of languages based on
shared formal characteristics
(Whaley 1997)
• Basic Question of Typology:
– What kinds of human languages exist?
– Why do these kinds exist and not others?
• Other Basic Questions:
– How do we figure out what kinds exist?
– How often do we find the different kinds?
1.1.1
Syntax
• Where do question words (wh-words) occur in a question?
(1)
a.
She will come in the afternoon.
b. When will she come?
(2)
a.
(Mandarin Chinese, Sinitic)
ta xiawu
lai
3SG afternoon come
‘she will come in the afternoon’
b. ta shenme shihou lai
3SG what
time come
‘when will she come?’
11
1.1. WHAT IS TYPOLOGY?
Move one wh-word
Move multiple wh-words
CHAPTER 1. PRELIMINARIES
Chinese
English
Bulgarian
Unattested
*
*
X
*
X
X
*
X
Table 1.1: A simple typology of question formation.
• We can construct a ‘typology’ of in situ versus wh-movement languages.
– In in-situ languages, question words and non-question words occupy the same
surface position.
– In wh-movement languages, question words (typically) occur on the left edge
of a clause, while non-question words need not occur on the left edge of the
clause. (The origin of the name ‘wh-movement’ is not relevant.)
• We can construct a finer grained taxonomy or classification of wh-movement
languages, for example, by looking at multiple wh-questions:
– In some wh-movement languages, only one of the question words occurs on
the left edge of a clause.
(3)
a.
Who said what?
c. * what who said?
b. * Who what said?
– The ‘*’ symbol means ‘unattested’ (i.e. ‘not found’). In synchronic grammar
this means ‘ungrammatical,’ i.e. not found in the language.
– In some wh-movement languages, all of the question words occur on the left
edge of a clause.
(4)
a.
(Bulgarian, Slavic)
koj kavko e kazal
who what has told
‘Who said what?’
b. kto kogo ljubit
who whom loves
‘Who loves whom?’
• Table 1.1: A simple typology of wh-questions
• Wh-movement is related to other properties:
– VSO languages tend to have wh-movement
– SOV languages tend not to have wh-movement
12
CHAPTER 1. PRELIMINARIES
1.1.2
1.1. WHAT IS TYPOLOGY?
Morphology
• How are words formed? What kinds of morphemes are found in languages?
• Isolating versus agglutinating languages:
– In some languages, isolating, most (never all) of the morphemes are free.
(Yay2 , Diac; China)
mi4 ran1 tua4 Nwa1 lew6
not see CL snake CMPLT
‘He did not see the snake’
(5)
(Whaley 1997)
– In some languages, agglutinating, most (never all) of the morphemes are bound.
(6)
Oneida (Almosan-Keresiouan; USA)
yonuhs -atho:lé
3NEUT. PAT-room-epenthetic-be.cold.STAT
‘the room is cold’
1.1.3
Summary
• Typology involves the comparison of languages
• Typology involves grouping languages or constructions/components of languages
• Typology involves the formal features of language
• Some typology papers we could write:
– Syntactic correlates of agglutinating morphology
– The Placement of Question Words in VSO Languages
– etc. . .
• In looking at typologies, much of our interest will be in correlations, strict or weak,
between the presence, absence, or characteristics of certain formal properties of
languages.
Example: The relation between word order and presence of wh-movement mentioned above.
2
The superscript numbers on vowels are tones.
13
1.2. UNIVERSALS
1.2
(7)
CHAPTER 1. PRELIMINARIES
Universals
Universal : A property that holds across natural human languages.
• Types of ‘universals:’
(8)
Absolute Universal : A property that holds of every language, without exception.
• Examples:
– All languages have consonants and vowels
– All languages have at least one stop consonant
(9)
Universal Tendency/Non-Absolute Universal : A property that is found in most
languages of the world or in those of a given type
• Examples:
– A property found in most languages of the world: the subject precedes the
object
There are languages exception to this:
(10) kanawa yano toto
canoe took person
‘the man took the canoe’
(Hixkaryana, Carib)
– It is the case that in OV languages auxiliaries follow the main verb:
(11) te
uthai yabuci acambi
now at.once act
must
‘now I must act’
(Manchu, Altaic)
• (Unless otherwise stated, we will focus on pragmatically ‘neutral’ sentences in
which nothing is being emphasized.)
14
CHAPTER 1. PRELIMINARIES
1.2.1
1.2. UNIVERSALS
Implicational and Non-Implicational Universals
• Many of the most interesting universals relate one property to another. An implicational universal is one stated in the form of a conditional:
(12)
p→q
‘If p holds then q holds,’
‘If the property p is present, then property q is present’
• Examples:
– If a language has nasalized vowels, then it has plain (oral) vowels too.
– If a language has first/second person reflexives, it also has third person reflexives.
• As we will see, many of the famous Greenbergian universals are stated as implicational universals:
(13) If a language places the demonstrative after the noun, then it will place the
adjective after the noun.
[N Dem] → [N Adj]
(14)
Fijian (Austronesian):
a.
a
ART
b. vanua suasua
place wet
cauravou yai
youth
this
‘this youth’
‘wet place’
• Consider a larger sample of languages (Dryer 1989): Table 1.2.
N Dem and N Adj
NDem and AdjN
Afr
Eura
A-NG
NAm
SAm
Total
28
1
14
2
8
0
8
1
5
0
63
4
Table 1.2: Noun, Demonstrative, and Adjective Ordering Correlations. (Afr = Africa,
Eura = Eurasia, A-NG = Australia, New Guinea, NAm = North America, SAm =
South America)
Of the 67 languages in the sample, in 63 cases (94%), when NDem obtains, NAdj
obtains.
• It is important to notice that the inverse of Greenberg’s Universal 18 does not hold.
That is, p → q does not imply q → p.
15
1.2. UNIVERSALS
CHAPTER 1. PRELIMINARIES
– The presence of [N Adj] orders does not imply [N Dem] order.
– A similar example: If a language has nasal vowels, it also has oral vowels.
6→ If a language has oral vowels, it also has nasal vowels.
• The universals that have been found can be stated superficially:
(15)
a.
In all languages, in which adjectives are inflected, nouns are inflected as
well.
b. No language coordinates two noun phrases with a preposed conjunction
(e.g. *and John Mary for John and Mary).
• Universals may also be stated in theoretical terms:
(16) There are no languages that have unbounded rightward movement.
(17)
Heavy NP shift in English:
[To give such an expensive gift to Sue] is a mistake.
DO PP-order
b. [To give to Sue such an expensive gift] is a mistake.
Heavy NP shift
a.
c. *[To give to Sue] is a mistake such an expensive gift.
Long distance Heavy NP shift
(18)
Hypothetical unbounded rightward wh-movement:
a.
Whok did Bill think [tk said [that Peter likes pizza]]?
b. *Bill thought [that tk said [that Peter likes pizza]] whok ?
1.2.2
Approaches to Universals
1.2.2.1
Typological View
• Associated with Joseph Greenberg
• Deals with ‘surface’ forms, e.g. if a language is seen to exhibit VSO word order,
then it is taken to have VSO order
• Primarily purely descriptive
• Not strongly driven in its analysis by any general, over-arching theory
16
CHAPTER 1. PRELIMINARIES
1.2.2.2
1.2. UNIVERSALS
Generative Approach
• Chomsky’s basic approach is that all humans are born with an innate language
faculty, consisting of knowledge of universal principles that structure language.
Why might we conclude this?
– All known cultures, societies, and peoples have a language
– There are no primitive languages
– Language acquisition (no special instruction, poverty of stimulus, similar stages
of acquisition)
– Critical period
– Brain damage (physical damage induces linguistic impairment)
– Creativity, expressiveness
– Creoles have similar properties
– Languages of the world can shown to be quite similar
• Strongly theory driven approach
• Typically abstract analysis, rather than surface patterns
Example: Don’t look at VSO/SOV word orders as primitives, but as the result of
a syntactic derivation
• Attempts to look for abstract universal principles
– *[SV]O: No language has an underling constituent structure that groups the
subject and the verb together to the exclusion of the direct object
– There may be theory-internal reasons why VSO cannot be a basic word order.
∗ Locality of selection
∗ Locality of Θ-role assignment
∗ Semantic composition
If so, then it is derived from something else.
– Why do verb-initial languages have similar properties?
∗ Typically have prepositions rather than post-positions
∗ Often have prefixal morphology
∗ Typically have wh-movement
• The Typological and Generative approaches are not mutually exclusive
• Typological work informs theoretical work
17
1.2. UNIVERSALS
1.2.2.3
CHAPTER 1. PRELIMINARIES
Functional Approach
• A functional (or external) approach to language universals looks outside of the
linguistic system per se.
• A functional explanation might look to the function of language, communication,
as a basis for universals. Thus, a functional approach could say the discourse
plays a role in determining which linguistic properties are universal.
Example: All languages have ways of making questions.
• Functional explanations may posit processing as having an influence on which
structures occur in language. Thus, processing could be a reason why so-called
center embedding is so rare:
(19)
a.
The dog chased the cat. → the [cat [the dog chased]]
b. [The rat [the cat [the dog chased] ate] died].
‘the rat died that was eaten by the cat that the dog chased’
c.
People people see see.
• Another external cause for language universals or typologies has to do with
redundancy and predictability.
– In English, an overt subject is usually obligatory, however in Spanish, it is
usually not. Spanish is a pro-drop language, while English is a non-pro-drop
language.
(20) com-ieron
eat -3PL . PAST
‘they ate’
(Spanish, Romance)
– Notice that the Spanish verb is inflected for person, number, and tense.
– The phenomenon of ‘pro-drop’ is often found in highly inflected languages:
– In Spanish other languages with a lot of inflection, using an overt pronoun is
highly redundant because the verbal inflection tells the hearer that the subject is
3PL.
– The typological distinction between pro-drop and non-pro-drop languages could
boil down to a functional distinction between what is predictable and what is
not predictable. If something is predictable, don’t mention it, unless you are
doing something special, like focusing.
18
CHAPTER 1. PRELIMINARIES
1.3
1.3. SAMPLING
Sampling
• How do we establish what is universal?
– Sample the languages of the world
– Look at large number of languages, but this is not enough
– Make sure that we sample from different genetic stocks
• Related languages, almost by definition, have similar morphosyntactic properties.
e.g.
– Polynesian (Hawaiian, Tongan, Samoan, etc.) languages are VSO and have
similar case marking systems (ergative).
– Bantu languages all have systems of noun classes
The sample of languages has to include many not genetically related languages
• Make sure that we sample from different geographic stocks
– Languages from a geographic region, by contact, often converge on similar
properties.
– Example: the Balkans. Noun-final definite markers:
(21)
Language:
Form
Albanian (Albanian)
mik-u
‘friend-the’
Bulgarian (Balto-Slavic) trup-at ‘body-the’
Romanian (Romance)
om-ul ‘man-the’
– A group of languages that (i) share linguistics properties, (ii) are not genetically
related, but (iii) are spoken in close geographic proximity of one another is
called a Sprachbund.
• Two questions arise:
– How do we know two languages are related to one another?
– How much to we need to worry about Sprachbunds?
These questions are addressed in the next.
19
1.3. SAMPLING
CHAPTER 1. PRELIMINARIES
20
Chapter 2
Language Classification and
Sampling
2.1
Language Classification
• Basic Questions:
– What does it mean to say that two languages are “related”?
– How do we know when two languages are members of a single family?
– When is a language considered to be a fully independent language rather than
just a dialect of some other language?
– How much evidence of the right kind is necessary to decide these questions?
• In linguistics, as in biology, when we say that two languages are “related” we
mean only that the languages descend from a common ancestor.
• When we say that language x is more closely related to language y than it is to
language z, this means that the last common ancestor of x and y existed more
recently than the last common ancestor of x and z.
• A genetic, as opposed to a typological, classification of languages is essentially a
subgrouping of languages into “genetic nodes,” defined on a tree diagram.
(22)
X
Y
Example:
Z
French
Spanish
Portugese
• A genetic node is a set of languages (potentially containing only one member)
more closely related to each other than to languages outside of that genetic node.
21
2.2. DISCOVERING FAMILIES CHAPTER 2. CLASSIFICATION & SAMPLING
(23)
Language family X
A
B
D
I
C
E
G
F
J
K
H
L
In the tree diagram above, language K is more closely related to language L than
it is to language J.
2.2
Discovering Language Families
• How can we figure out whether one language is related to another?
• The principal means of determining whether two languages are related is by establishing correspondences using the Comparative Method, looking at similarities
in vocabulary, and examining similarities in syntax.
• In the Comparative Method, the linguist is basically looking for regular sound
correspondences between languages.
English
Greek
Latin
Old Church Slavic
Sanskrit
brother
phrater
frater
bratre
bhrater
(thou) bearest
phereis
fers
berasi
bharasi
mead
methu
—
mid
medhu
is
esti
est
yeste
asti
Table 2.1: Some Indo-European Cognates.
• Correspondences in Table 2.1: Word initial b in English corresponds to wordinitial
– ph in Greek (ph≈[F])
– f in Latin
– b in Old Church Slavic
– bh in Sanskrit
• The existence of such correspondences makes sense if there was a single language
in the past from which the contemporary languages descend.
– The ancestor language had variation, just as contemporary languages do.
22
CHAPTER 2. CLASSIFICATION & SAMPLING2.2. DISCOVERING FAMILIES
– Dialects or varieties of a language, if given enough time and isolation, will follow distinct evolutionary pathways, the result usually being distinct languages.
– The common ancestor language is a “proto-language”
– Historical/comparative linguists can (usually) “reconstruct” the proto-language,
with varying degrees of certainty.
• The correspondences are used to group languages by shared innovations:
Example: Table 2.1.
– Latin, Greek: Initial segment in ‘brother’ is fricative
– Sanskrit, Old Church Slavic: Initial segment in ‘brother’ is stop
Latin and Greek form a group separate from Sanskrit and Old Church Slavic.
What about English?
• The Comparative Method can be used to establish genetic affinity even if the
ancestor languages were not written, as in most Native American and African
languages (but, it’s much harder!):
‘beaver’
Nootka qataxw
Nitinat qataxw
Makah qataw
‘crane’
‘rotten’
‘medicine’
qanis
qalis
qw alis
qič
qič
qw ič
quyi
quyi
quyi
Table 2.2: Some Nootkan correspondences (Pearson 1977).
Mongo
Oli
Kole
Isu
‘tree’
‘to scratch’
‘child’
‘age group’
‘diarrhea’
áwelé
áwelé
gberé
gbèlé
kwátá
kwátá
kpátá
kpátá
mwána
mwána
Nwánà
Nmána
mwembá
mwembá
nwèmbá
Nmembá
kúáwako
kúgbako
kúwako
Table 2.3: Some sound correspondences in some Bantu languages.
• Contemporary related languages may exhibit very different morphological and
syntactic properties.
– Hindi and English are related, but the basic word order in Hindi is SOV, while
in English it’s SVO.
– Tale 2.1: English has b in brother as a secondary innovation. It is actually
closer to Latin and Greek than to Sanskrit and Old Church Slavic.
• What it comes down to is:
23
2.3. VARIATION
CHAPTER 2. CLASSIFICATION & SAMPLING
– In linguistic classification, if two languages descend from a common ancestor
language, they are related.
– If two languages do not descend from a common ancestor language, they are
not related.
– Do not be fooled by the writing systems, borrowing, or geographic nearness.
∗ Chinese and Japanese are not related (although Japanese uses Chinese characters in writing (Kanji))
∗ Japanese and Korean are related, but they use different writing systems
– Borrowing may obscure ancestry (Vietnamese and southern Chinese languages)
2.3
Variation in Language
[. . . ] it will be seen that I look at the term “species,” as one arbitrarily
given for the sake of convenience to a set of individuals closely resembling each other, and that it does not essentially differ from the term
“variety,” which is given to less distinct and more fluctuating forms. The
term “variety,” again, in comparison with mere individual differences, is
also applied arbitrarily, and for mere convenience’ sake.
Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species
• It is simply a fact of the world that languages exhibit variation:
(24)
a.
English
b. Wolof
c.
Spanish
Standard
[kænt] ‘can’t’
Non-Standard [kaInt]
St. Louis
gis
Mauritania jis
‘see’
Standard [nosotros]
‘we’
Honduras [nohotros]/[nohotro]
• Darwin was inadvertently pointing to something that is very important in typological linguistics and linguistic taxonomy, namely the distinction between a “dialect”
and “language.” It turns out that often the distinction between “language” and
“dialect” is arbitrary or determined by non-linguistic factors.
• There are often no sharp grammatical boundaries that allow us to distinguish one
language from another
• Example: Romance. Variation is “continuous”, as opposed to “discrete:”
(25)
French A B C D E F G H I J Italian
24
CHAPTER 2. CLASSIFICATION & SAMPLING
2.3. VARIATION
• If it is true that we usually find continuous variation in language and not discrete
variation, when is a language considered to be a fully independent language rather
than just a dialect of some other language?
• Non-linguistic factors affect what is commonly called a ‘language’ or a ‘dialect’
A language is a dialect with an army and a navy.
• Examples of non-linguistic factors determining ‘language’ status:
– Chinese “dialects” (Mandarin, Wu, Hakka, Szechwan, Fu Zhou, etc.) are not
mutually intelligible. But, they do have a common writing system.
– Ditto for Arabic (Syrian Arabic, Gulf Arabic, Egyptian Arabic, Sudanese
Arabic, etc.), but not as divergent as the Chinese languages.
– Serbian and Croatian represent mutually intelligible dialects that used to be
called “Serbo-Croatian” before the war. Serbian is written in the Cyrillic
alphabet, Croatian with the Latin alphabet. (Serbs are Orthodox Christians,
Croats are Catholic).
• The non-linguistic factors include the fact that, depending on the language, certain
types of variation may be considered “bad”, “ungrammatical”, or “not really
language X”. Some variation is not widely noticed:
(26)
English
Colloquial
What all did you get for Christmas?
Irish English What did you get all for Christmas?1
• Other instances of variation are highly stigmatized:
(27)
English
Standard
Non-standard
Nobody can read the sign.
Can’t nobody read the sign.
• A Common view:
When two speech forms are mutually unintelligible, they are separate
languages.
– Of course intelligibility is not an absolute
– Dialect continua
• So, how many languages are there in the world today? Roughly 5,000–7,000
1
From McCloskey (no date).
25
2.4. DISTRIBUTION
2.4
CHAPTER 2. CLASSIFICATION & SAMPLING
Areal-Genetic Distribution of the World’s Languages
• Ethnologue Languages of the World (www.ethnologue.com)
• Maps from:
– Wikipedia
– Ruhlen, Merritt. 1991. A Guide to the World’s Language. Volume 1: Classification. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press.
2.4.1
Khoisan
Number of extant languages:
Geographic center:
Number of speakers:
Better-known languages:
31
South Africa, Namibia, southern Angola,
Botswana, northern Tanzania, Table 2.4
120,000
Nama, Hadza, !Kung
It is thought that the Khoisan languages were originally spoken throughout most
of southern Africa. This is because of the existence of Hadza and Sadawe, which are
spoken in Tanzania, far from the other languages of the family. The expansion of the
Bantu-speaking peoples and the arrival of the Dutch have greatly reduced the area in
which Khoisan languages are spoken. The Khoisan languages are famous for their
click consonants. Most Khoisan languages are endangered.
2.4.2
Niger-Congo (Niger-Kordofanian)
Number of extant languages:
Geographic center:
Number of speakers:
Better-known languages:
1600
Sub-Saharan Africa, Table 2.5
181,000,000
Bantu (Swahili, Zulu, Xhosa), Yoruba, Igbo
The Niger-Congo phylum is the largest language family in Africa in terms of
number of languages.
For your pleasure, the word “dog” in some Niger-Congo languages: Table 2.23.2
2.4.3
Nilo-Saharan
Number of extant languages:
Geographic center:
Number of speakers:
Better-known languages:
2
140
central Africa, Table 2.6
11,000,000
Kanuri, Luo, Maasai, Songhai
The Proto-Niger-Congo is *buli ‘dog.’
26
CHAPTER 2. CLASSIFICATION & SAMPLING
2.4.4
2.4. DISTRIBUTION
Afro-Asiatic
Number of extant languages:
Geographic center:
Number of speakers:
Better-known languages:
241
Northern Africa, Middle east, Table 2.7
175,000,000
Amharic, Ancient Egyptian, Arabic, Hausa,
Hebrew, Somali
The Afro-Asiatic languages are found across northern Africa from the Atlantic
coast (Morocco and Mauritania) to the Red Sea in Egypt, the Sudan, Ethiopia, and
Somalia. In Africa, the Afro-Asiatic languages are spoken from the Mediterranean
in the north into northern Nigeria in the south. Languages of the Semitic branch are
spoken in much of the Middle East. Five of the six branches of Afro-Asiatic are
found exclusively in Africa (except Semitic), suggesting that the family originated
in Africa.
Table 2.4: Geographic distribution of Khoisan languages.
27
2.4. DISTRIBUTION
CHAPTER 2. CLASSIFICATION & SAMPLING
Table 2.6: Geographic distribution of
Table 2.5: Geographic distribution of Nilo-Saharan languages.
Niger-Congo languages.
2.4.5
Caucasian
Number of extant languages:
Geographic center:
Number of speakers:
Better-known languages:
38
Caucasus, Table 2.8
5,000,000
Chechen, Georgian
Table 2.7: Geographic distribution of Afro-Asiatic languages.
28
CHAPTER 2. CLASSIFICATION & SAMPLING
2.4. DISTRIBUTION
Table 2.8: Geographic distribution of Caucasian languages.
The Caucasian languages are found in the Caucasus mountains in the southern
former USSR (Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Russia). The Caucasian languages
are divided into a northern and southern branch. The unity of the southern branch,
also called Kartvelian, is generally accepted. However, the northern branch may
not constitute a real genetic node. The Caucasian languages, especially those of the
Kartvelian (Southern) branch are renowned for their large consonant inventories.
29
2.4. DISTRIBUTION
CHAPTER 2. CLASSIFICATION & SAMPLING
Table 2.9: Geographic distribution of modern Indo-European languages.
2.4.6
Indo-European
Number of extant languages:
Geographic center:
Number of speakers:
Better-known languages:
144
Europe, southwest Asia, India, Americas, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, Table 2.9
2 billion
English, French, Spanish, Russian, HindiUrdu, Farsi, Sanskrit, Irish, Greek, Kurdish,
Pashto, Punjab
There are approximately 2 billion speakers of Indo-European languages, although
they constitute a rather small proportion of the world’s languages. The family
stretches from Ireland in the west to western China (Tocharian) in the east. The
Tocharian and Anatolian (Hittite, Lydian, Palaic, Luwian) are extinct. The Anatolian
languages were spoken in present-day Turkey (i.e. Anatolia).
30
CHAPTER 2. CLASSIFICATION & SAMPLING
2.4. DISTRIBUTION
Table 2.10: Geographic distribution of Uralik-Yukagir languages.
2.4.7
Uralic-Yukaghir
Number of extant languages:
Geographic center:
Number of speakers:
Better-known languages:
2.4.8
24
Finland, Estonia, Hungary, Russia, Table 2.10
22 million
Hungarian, Finnish, Saami (Lapp), Estonian
Altaic
Number of extant languages:
Geographic center:
Number of speakers:
Better-known languages:
63
Central Asia, Turkey, Korea, Central Siberia,
Japan, Table 2.11
250,000,000
Turkish, Japanese, Korean, Uzbek, Uighur, Azeri, Mongolian
Members of the vast Altaic family are found from Turkey in the west to just
west of the Kamchatka peninsula in eastern Siberia (Russia). The unity of the Altaic
family was controversial for a long time, but is now accepted by most scholars.
However, exactly which languages belong in Altaic and the internal subgroupings
within Altaic are subject to intense debate.
2.4.9
Chukchi-Kamchatkan
Number of extant languages:
Geographic center:
Number of speakers:
Better-known languages:
5
northeastern Siberia (Russia), Table 2.12
23,000
Chukchi
31
2.4. DISTRIBUTION
CHAPTER 2. CLASSIFICATION & SAMPLING
Table 2.11: Geographic distribution of Altaic languages.
The Chukchi-Kamchatkan languages are spoken in northeastern Siberia on or
near the Chukchi and Kamchatkan peninsulas.
2.4.10
Eskimo-Aleut
Number of extant languages:
Geographic center:
Number of speakers:
Better-known languages:
10
Alaska, northern Canada, Greenland, northeastern Siberia
85,000
Eskimo, Aleut, Table 2.13
Aleut is spoken on the Aleutian Islands of western Alaska and the Commander
Islands of Russia. Several Eskimo varieties of Eskimo-Aleut are spoken around the
northern perimeter of North America from Alaska to Greenland and in northeastern
Siberia. The Eskimo languages are divided between the Inuit (or Inupiaq) branch
spoken from east of Norton Sound on the west coast of Alaska to Greenland, and
Yupik, found from west of Norton Sound and in Siberia.
2.4.11
Dravidian
Number of extant languages:
Geographic center:
Number of speakers:
Better-known languages:
28
southern and eastern India, southern Pakistan,
Table 2.14
145,000,000
Telugu, Kannada, Tamil, Malayalam
The Dravidian languages are concentrated in southern India, but there are isolated
groups found in eastern India and southern Pakistan (e.g. Brahui). The extinct language Elamite (from circa 2000BC-500BC), spoken in southwestern Iran is thought
32
CHAPTER 2. CLASSIFICATION & SAMPLING
2.4. DISTRIBUTION
Table 2.12: Geographic distribution of Chukchi-Kamchatkan languages.
to be Dravidian language. The largest Dravidian languages, Telugu, Kannada, Tamil,
and Malayalam account for over 95% of the Dravidian-speaking population.
2.4.12
Sino-Tibetan
Number of extant languages:
Geographic center:
Number of speakers:
Better-known languages:
258
China, Tibet, Nepal, India, Burma, Thailand,
Laos, Table 2.15
1 billion
Tibetan, Mandarin, Cantonese, Wu, Burmese
33
2.4. DISTRIBUTION
CHAPTER 2. CLASSIFICATION & SAMPLING
Table 2.13: Geographic distribution of modern Eskimo-Aleut languages.
The Sino-Tibetan languages have nearly a billion speakers in total. However,
except for some of the Chinese languages, most of the Sino-Tibetan languages do not
have many speakers. The so-called Chinese “dialects” (Mandarin, Wu (Shanghaiese),
Yue (Cantonese), Southern Min, Xiang, Kejia, Gan, and Northern Min, etc.) are
really groups of related languages, none of which is mutually intelligible. It is
purely for historical and political reasons that these are usually called “dialects”.
The situation is akin to what one finds in Romance in that within each of the major
Chinese languages we find a continuum. That the Chinese (or Sinitic) languages
even constitute a major branch within Sino-Tibetan is not clear. The fact that the
Chinese languages have a long written tradition and long-standing cultural unity
seems to have influenced scholars’ opinions as to the exact position of the Chinese
languages within Sino-Tibetan.
34
CHAPTER 2. CLASSIFICATION & SAMPLING
2.4. DISTRIBUTION
Table 2.14: Geographic distribution of Dravidian languages.
2.4.13
Austric
Number of extant languages:
Geographic center:
Number of speakers:
Better-known languages:
1,175
southeast Asia, northeastern India, southern
China,Vietnam, Table 2.16
293,000,000
Vietnamese, Khmer, Thai, Lao
The existence of Austric as a genetic grouping is controversial. Traditionally,
Austric is divided into Miao-Yao, Austroasiatic, and Daic (= Kadai). The MiaoYao languages are found in fragmented islands across southern China and northern
Vietnam, Laos, and Thailand. The Miao-Yao languages include a number of Hmong
“dialects” which are not mutually intelligible. There are about 150 Austroasiatic
languages. The family is split between the Munda languages spoken in northeastern
35
2.4. DISTRIBUTION
CHAPTER 2. CLASSIFICATION & SAMPLING
Table 2.15: Geographic distribution of Sino-Tibetan languages.
India and the Mon-Khmer branch found throughout southeast Asia, particularly in
Laos, Vietnam, and Cambodia, but also in Thailand, Burma, the Malay Peninsula,
and the Nicobar Islands in the Andaman Sea. The Daic languages are spoken in
Thailand, Laos, northern Vietnam, Burma, and southern China. Technically, The
Austric phylum includes the Austronesian languages.
2.4.14
Austronesian
Number of extant languages:
Geographic center:
Number of speakers:
Better-known languages:
1,000
Easter Island to Madagascar, Polynesia, Micronesia, Melanesia, Indonesia, Table 2.17
180,000,000
Hawaiian, Tagalog, Samoan, Maori, Malagasy,
Bahasa Indonesia, Javanese, Balinese
The Austronesian languages were formally known as “Malayo-Polynesian.” They
are spoken across a vast area from off the east coast of Africa (Malagasy) to the
eastern Pacific (Easter Island) and from Hawaii in the north to New Zealand in the
south. Several Austronesian languages are or were native to Taiwan (Formosa).
36
CHAPTER 2. CLASSIFICATION & SAMPLING
2.4. DISTRIBUTION
(b) Geographic distribution of
(a) Geographic distribution of Miao-Yao languages, Mienic (c) Geographic distribution of
Daic/Kadai languages.
and Hmong groups.
Austro-Asiatic languages.
Table 2.16: Geographic distribution of Austric languages
(a) Malayo-Polynesian
(b) Oceanic
Table 2.17: Geographic distribution Austronesian languages.
2.4.15
Indo-Pacific
Number of extant languages:
Geographic center:
Number of speakers:
Better-known languages:
731
New Guinea, islands to the east of New
Guinea, also Timor, Andaman Islands, Table
2.18
2,735,000
Tasmanian (extinct), Asmat
The Indo-Pacific languages are found on or near New Guinea, New Britain,
New Ireland, Bougainville, the Solomon Islands, the Reef Islands, and Santa Cruz.
Although there are approximately 700 languages in the family, the total number of
speakers is less than 3 million. This speaks to the extreme language density found in
New Guinea.
37
2.4. DISTRIBUTION
CHAPTER 2. CLASSIFICATION & SAMPLING
Table 2.18: Geographic distribution of Indo-Pacific languages.
2.4.16
Australian
Number of extant languages:
Geographic center:
Number of speakers:
Better-known languages:
170
Australia, Table 2.19
30,000
Walpiri, Dyirbal
All but approximately 50 of the Aboriginal languages of Australia are headed
for extinction in the next generation or so. The language with the greatest number of
speakers is the Western Desert language, with approximately 5,000 speakers. Thus,
all of the native Australian languages are extremely endangered.
2.4.17
Na-Dene
Number of extant languages:
Geographic center:
Number of speakers:
Better-known languages:
34
Alaska, western Canada, Oregon, California,
Arizona, New Mexico, Table 2.20
202,000
Navajo, Apache
The Na-Dene family is made up of three independent languages (Haida, Tlingit,
and Eyak) and the Athabaskan languages. The family is found in northwestern
38
CHAPTER 2. CLASSIFICATION & SAMPLING
2.4. DISTRIBUTION
Table 2.19: Geographic distribution of Autralian languages. Non-Pama-Nyungan
languages are spoken in the north of Australia.
North America and southwest of the United States. The largest Na-Dene language is
Navajo, which is also the only native American language north of Mexico with more
than 100,000 speakers.
2.4.18
Amerind
Number of extant languages:
Geographic center:
Number of speakers:
Better-known languages:
583
North, Central, South America, Tables 2.20,
2.21, 2.22
18,000,000
Lakhota, Wichita, Mohawk, Cherokee,
Quiche, Kakchiquel, Quechua, Nahuatl,
Zapotec
The Amerind phylum, proposed by Joseph Greenberg is highly controversial and
probably not accepted by the majority of Americanists. The phylum stretches from
northern Canada to Tierra del Fuego. The Amerind group is composed of numerous
subgroups.
39
2.5. OTHERS
CHAPTER 2. CLASSIFICATION & SAMPLING
Table 2.20: Indigenous languages of North America.
2.5
2.5.1
Others
Pidgins and Creoles
Number of extant languages:
Geographic center:
Number of speakers:
Better-known languages:
2.5.2
Many
Worldwide distribution
?
Gullah, Jamaican Creole, Crio, Palenquero,
Papiamento, Saramaccan
Isolates
• Examples: Basque, Sumerian, Etruscan, . . .
40
CHAPTER 2. CLASSIFICATION & SAMPLING
2.6. ‘SPRACHBUND’
Table 2.21: Indigenous languages of Central America.
2.5.3
Signed Languages
• Worldwide distribution
2.6
Sampling and the ‘Sprachbund’
(28) Sprachbund : A group of geographically overlapping or adjacent languages
that have many features in common
• “Sprachbunds” (/spôAkbUnd/) and the importance of good sampling
– In typological work, it is important to have a sample that varies both genetically
and geographically.
– Languages that have been in close contact for long periods of time tend to end
up with similar features, perhaps because of the presence of a large bilingual
population (proportionally).
• The most well-known sprachbund is found in the Balkans in southeast Europe
2.6.1
The Balkan Spachbund
• Here, we compare three Indo-European (IE) languages that come from three
distinct IE stocks:
– Albanian (Albanian)
41
2.6. ‘SPRACHBUND’
CHAPTER 2. CLASSIFICATION & SAMPLING
Table 2.22: Indigenous languages of South America.
– Bulgarian (Slavic)
– Romanian (Romance)
• Property 1: Suffixal definite article
(29)
a.
(Albanian)
student i mire
student M good
‘a good student’
b. student-i
i mire
student-DEF M good
‘the good student’
42
CHAPTER 2. CLASSIFICATION & SAMPLING
Sub Family
Subgroup
2.6. ‘SPRACHBUND’
Language
Attestation
Seereer
áox
Bijogo
e-bo
Mende
n-gila
Boko
gbE
Tegem
bE-bui
Eliri
bw-ak
Dogon
Tintam
Nw-E
Ijoid
Kalabari
o-biri
Kru
Seme
buo
Gru
Moore
bara
Daagare
bare
Chakali
vaa
Adamawa
Yungur
bwe
Ugangian
Nzakara
bana
Kwa
Nyangbo
ébu
Gen(gbe)
àvún
Edoiod
Uhami
àbùà
Platoid
Yeskwa
e-bu
Jukunoid
Kpan
i-bu
Bantoid
Mbe
bo-g
Bantu
Proto-Bantu *bV́à
Atlantic
Mande
Kordofan
Benue-Congo
Duala
m-bo
Table 2.23: “Dog” across Niger-Congo.
(30)
a.
(Bulgarian)
sestra-ta e
tam
sister-DEF be.3 S there
‘the sister is there’
b. kniga-ta e
za d@cerja-ta
book-DEF be.3 SG for daughter-DEF
‘the book is for the daughter’
43
2.6. ‘SPRACHBUND’
CHAPTER 2. CLASSIFICATION & SAMPLING
(31) student-ul vine
la aeroport
student-DEF come.3 SG to airport
(Romanian)
‘the student is coming to the airport’
– (Most?) other Slavic languages lack articles
– Other Romance languages have pre-nominal definite articles
• Property 2: Syncretism of genitive and dative cases
(32) Syncretism: Two members of a morphological paradigm have the same
phonological form
– Example: Syncretism of the second person singular and plural in English.
Person:
Singular:
Plural:
1
2
3
I
you
he/she/it
we
you
they
(33)
The second person is syncretic for/between singular and plural.
– Genitive case: The morphological marking of possessors. Similar to English
possessive -s
– Dative case: The morphological marking a recipient or beneficiary (usually).
(34)
a.
Recipient:
Er gab de-m
Mann das Buch.
he gave the-DAT man the book
‘He gave the book to the man’
(German)
b. Beneficiary:
Er band de-m
Kind die Schuhe zu.
he tied the-DAT child the shoes closed
‘He tied the shoes for the child’
– Balkan languages: The morphological marking of possessors and recipients/beneficiaries
is the same
44
CHAPTER 2. CLASSIFICATION & SAMPLING
(35)
a.
2.6. ‘SPRACHBUND’
Recipient:
mesues-i
ia
jep
libr-in
(Albanian)
teacher-DEF 3 SG . DAT /3 SG . ACC give.3 SG book-DEF. ACC
student-it
student-DEF. GEN / DATIVE
‘the teacher gives the book to the student’
b. Possessor:
ky eshte vellai
i Petrit-it
this be.3 SG brother.DEF M Peter-DEF. GEN / DAT
‘this is Peter’s brother’
(36)
a.
Recipient:
gostite
lista
kelner@t
donasja na
waiter.DEF bring.3 SG DAT / GEN guest.DEF. PL menu
‘the waiter brings the menu for the guests’
(Bulgarian)
b. Possessor:
šofor@t
otvarja
vratata na
rejsa
driver.DEF open.3 SG door.DEF DAT / GEN bus.DEF
‘the driver opens the door of the bus’
(37)
Recipient::
eu dau
carte-a
doctor-ului
1SG give.1 SG book-DEF doctore.DEF. DAT / GEN
‘I give the book to the doctor’
(Romanian)
• Property 3: Inflected verbs in control constructions
– Control constructions:
∗ A form of embedding where an argument of the matrix clause (here the
subject) is identical to that of the subject of the embedded clause
(38)
a.
Peter wants [to eat].
(Peter = eater)
b. Peter wants [him to eat].
(Peter 6= him)
c. * Hei wants [that hei eats].
∗ English (and many other languages): When the matrix and the embedded
subject are the same, the embedded clause has to be non-finite, without a
complementizer and the downstairs subject is unpronounced.
– Balkan languages: Control verbs embed finite clauses with overt pronominal
subjects
45
2.6. ‘SPRACHBUND’
(39)
a.
CHAPTER 2. CLASSIFICATION & SAMPLING
deshir-oj [te
shk-oj ne kinema sonte]
wish-1 SG COMP go-1 SG in cinema tonight
‘I wish to go to a cinema tonight’
(Albanian)
pi-ni]
b. çka do-ni
[te
what want-2 PL COMP drink-2 PL
‘what do you want to drink?’
(40)
a.
az iskam
[da
1 SG want-1 SG COMP
‘I want to read’
b. ti
iskaš
[da
2 SG want.2 SG COMP
‘you want to read’
c.
četa]
read.1 SG
(Bulgarian)
četeš]
read.2 SG
čete]
tja
iska
[da
3 SG . FEM want.3 SG COMP read.3 SG
‘she wants to read’
cumpǎr-ǎm un
apartament]
(41) încerc-ǎm [sǎ
COMP buy-1 PL
INDEF apartment
try-1 PL
‘we are trying to buy an apartment’
(Romanian)
• Property 4: The formation of the future
(42) do
te
FUT COMP
shkoj-me ne bjeshke
go-1 PL in mountain
(Albanian)
‘we shall go to the mountain’
(43)
a.
o
sǎ
FUT COMP
plec
mâine
leave.1 SG tomorrow
(Romanian)
‘I shall leave tomorrow’
b. o
sǎ
FUT COMP
plec-ǎm mâine
leave-1 PL tomorrow
‘we shall leave tomorrow’
(44)
a.
(Bulgarian)
az š’e četa
1SG FUT read.1 SG
‘I will read’
b. ti
š’e četeš
2SG FUT read.2 SG
‘you will read’
46
CHAPTER 2. CLASSIFICATION & SAMPLING
2.6. ‘SPRACHBUND’
• In sum, even though they come from different branches of Indo-European, they
have some strikingly similar properties. It can be seen that these are properties
shared by more closely related languages.
• Some other Sprachbunds: Table 2.24.
Area:
Languages
Families
Sprachbund Features
Southeast Asia
Chinese, Thai,
Lao, Burmese,
Vietnamese,
Hmong
Sino-Tibetan,
Tai,
Mon-Khmer,
Miao-Yao
tones (?), monsyllabic
morphemes, strongly
isolating, noun
classifiers, extensive
compounding
clicks
Southern Africa Zulu, Xhosa,
!Xoo
Niger-Congo,
Khoisan
Table 2.24: Properties of other Sprachbunds.
• Noun classifiers (also called numeral classifiers): Markers that appear with numerals in some language that differ by choice of noun. Typically numeral classifiers
are used for classes of nouns that share some semantic property (shape, animacy,. . . ), but some arbitrarity is possible.
– Something similar to numeral classifiers in English:
(45)
a.
12 sheets of paper
b. 15 heads of cattle
– True noun classifiers:
(46)
Noun classifiers:
a.
(Yagua; Peru)
tın-kïï vaturu˛
1-CLS woman (married)
“one married woman”
b. tin-see vaada
1-CLS egg
“one egg”
(Payne 1997:108)
47
2.6. ‘SPRACHBUND’
CHAPTER 2. CLASSIFICATION & SAMPLING
48
Chapter 3
Basic Concepts
3.1
Lexical Classes
• Noun (dog, cat, relativity, diameter)
• Verb (hit, arrive)
• Adjective (big, tall, red)
• Preposition (to, for, in, on)
• Postposition (none in English, but hypothetically, the table on = on the table)
• Adposition (prepositions and postpositions together, as a class)
• Auxiliary verb (a verb that occurs with another verb)
• Determiner (the, a, some; encode definiteness, specificity)
• Demonstrative (picks out an object in space or time)
• Adverb (modifies verb, adjective, or adverb; heterogenous class)
• Conjunction (and, but, either, or)
• wh-word (who,what, when, where, why, how, how many, how much, which, how
come)
• How to determine lexical class? Tests (, but we’re not going to worry about that
here.)
(47)
a.
big
b. bigg-er comparative
c.
bigg-est superlative
49
3.1. LEXICAL CLASSES
CHAPTER 3. BASIC CONCEPTS
If an item can be suffixed with the comparative -er or superlative -est suffix, that
item is an adjective.
• All languages differentiate nouns and verbs as lexical classes.
• The presence of other lexical classes varies cross-linguistically.
• Many adjectives in English
• Wolof (Senegal, Atlantic) has one adjective (that I know of):
(48) xale bàjjo
child poor
(Wolof)
‘a poor child’
• What are adjectives in English pattern with verbs in Wolof:
(49)
a.
(Wolof)
xale b.u xonq
child CL.u be.red
‘a red child’ (lit. ‘a child who is red’)
b. xale b.u xonq-oon
child CL.u be.red-PAST
‘a formerly red child’ (lit. ‘a child who was red’)
c.
xale b.u lekk-oon
child cl.u eat-PAST
‘a child who ate’
d. xale bi di-na
xonq
child the IMPERF -3 SG be.red
‘the child will be red’
e.
lekk
xale bi di-na
child the IMPERF -3 SG eat
‘the child will eat’
• Consider reflexive pronouns:
(50)
a.
xale bi begg-ne bopp-am
child the like-PERF head-his
‘the child likes himself’ or ‘the child likes his body’
b. xale bi begg-ne tééré-ém
child the like-perf book-his
‘the child likes his book’
50
(Wolof)
CHAPTER 3. BASIC CONCEPTS
(51)
a.
3.2. ROLES AND RELATIONS
nkwadaa no pE ne hũ
child
the like his body
(Asante Twi, Kwa; Ghana))
‘the child likes himself’ or ‘the child likes his body’
b. nkwadaa no pE ne nhoma
child
the like his book
‘the child likes his book’
3.2
Basic Categories and Relations
3.2.1
Roles and Relations
• The relation between the verb and the noun phrases and prepositional phrases in a
sentence can be described in various ways.
• Grammatical and semantic roles and relations.
3.2.1.1
Grammatical Relations
• Consider the English sentence:
(52)
John gives Mary books.
• Traditionally, we say that the grammatical roles/relations in (52) are as follows:
– John is the subject
– Mary is the indirect object
– books is the direct object
• What does it mean to be a “subject?” (or object, indirect object,. . . )
Grammatical roles/relations are defined by morphological or syntactic properties,
e.g.
– Position with respect to the verb and other elements of the sentence
Example: The subject John in (52) is to the left of the verb
– Agreement with the verb
(53)
a.
John gives Mary books.
(singular subject)
b. John and Paul give Mary books.
– Morphological form of the nominal (morphological case)
51
(plura; subject)
3.2. ROLES AND RELATIONS
CHAPTER 3. BASIC CONCEPTS
• Similarly: The direct object and indirect objects bear a particular relation to the
verb too. Canonically, in English, the direct object and indirect object follow the
verb, while the subject precedes it.
• Consequence: Tests for subjecthood and objecthood are often language-specific.
• There are other grammatical roles, e.g. oblique, applied object, etc., which we
will see as we progress.
• There is no universal consensus on what grammatical roles exist. It has been
claimed, for example, that some languages lack the “subject” role. That is, there
is no grammatical role that corresponds to what we ordinarily call “subject” in a
language like English.
• Are notions like ‘subject’ or ‘object’ primitives of the grammar?
– Labels like ‘subject’ or ‘object’ are often adopted as convenient shorthands for
referring to the arguments of a sentence
– Some theories and linguists assume/argue that they are primitives of grammar
– More likely: Different aspects of “canonical subjecthood” are the result of
several grammatical properties that often travel together, but can part ways
(54)
a.
There had arrived three horse drawn carriages.
b. Into the room walked a man.
3.2.1.2
(presentational there)
(locative inversion)
Semantic/Thematic Relations
• We can also talk about the noun phrases in (52) according to their semantic
roles/relations:
(52)
John gives Mary books.
– John is the agent
– Mary is the recipient or benefactor
– books is the patient or theme
• The characterization of the semantic roles:
– Classes of thematic roles have clear cases, but fuzzy edges or overlap
(55)
a.
Sandy rolled Mike down the hill.
b. Mike rolled down the hill.
52
CHAPTER 3. BASIC CONCEPTS
3.2. ROLES AND RELATIONS
∗ In (55a), Mike is what we would call a patient.
∗ In (55b), Mike appears as the subject of roll, but he could be just a patient or
he could be the instigator of the event, which is a property of agents.
– A popular proposal for agent and patient (Dowty 1991):
(56) Contributing properties for the Agent Proto-Role:
a.
volitional involvement in the event or state
b. sentience (and/or perception)
c.
causing an event or change of state in another participant
d. movement (relative to the position of another participant)
e.
(exists independently of the event named by the verb)
(Dowty 1991:572)
∗ An example to illustrate (56/58e):
(57)
John wrote the letter.
(58) Contributing properties for the Patient Proto-Role:
a.
undergoes change of state
b. incremental theme
c.
causally affected by another participant
d. stationary relative to movement of another participant
e.
(does not exist independently of the event, or not at all)
(Dowty 1991:572)
∗ An incremental theme patient:
(59)
John mowed the lawn.
– Agent, patient, experiencer, beneficiary, instrument, and locative are the most
important semantic roles typologically.
– Experiencer: The argument that experiences or perceives the event. The arguments of verbs of emotion, perception or cognition.
(60)
a.
Susanna loves cookies.
b. Syntax frightens Jim.
– Beneficiary: The entity for whom the action occurs
53
3.2. ROLES AND RELATIONS
(61)
CHAPTER 3. BASIC CONCEPTS
He backed Jason a cake.
– Instrument: The entity with which action occurs
(62)
Patrick hacked the computer apart with an axe.
– Location: Place where action occurs
• There are other semantic roles, e.g. source, goal, etc., which we will see as we
progress
3.2.1.3
Argument Structure: The relation between thematic and syntactic
roles
• A language may mark a particular grammatical role (English subjects control
agreement on the verb.) and/or a language may mark a particular semantic role (for
example, a language may always mark a beneficiary with a dative case marker.)
• Canonically, subjects are agents,
– Whichever argument of a transitive verb has more Proto-agent properties in
(56) becomes ‘the subject.’
– Where being the subject correlates with certain (morpho)syntactic properties
• There is no inherent relation between being an agent and being a subject.
Example: English allows non-agents to be subjects
(63)
a.
Lightening destroyed the house.
b. The boys are hungry
c.
(natural force)
(experiencer)
This table seats four people.
(location)
• Some languages do not allow fully non-agentive subjects. This is especially true
of experiencers:
(64)
I feel cold.
(65)
We heard the mango fall.
54
CHAPTER 3. BASIC CONCEPTS
(66)
a.
3.2. ROLES AND RELATIONS
Mir
ist kalt 6= Ich
bin kalt
1 SG . DAT is cold
1 SG . NOM is cold
(German)
“I feel cold” vs “I am cold (to the touch)” or “I have low temperature”
b. Uns
ist kalt 6= Wir
sind kalt
1 PL . DAT is cold
1 PL . NOM is
cold
“We feel cold” vs “We are cold (to the touch)” or “We have low
temperature”
– German (and other languages):
∗ Does allow experiencer subjects in contexts other than (66)
(67) Ich
spüre die Kälte
I.NOM feel the cold
“I feel the cold”
(German)
∗ More properly: In contexts without an argument in nominative case (the case
of subjects of finite clauses), there are never agent arguments.
(68) Ekom de me
hunger de me
‘I am hungry’
(Asante Twi)
(69) questo mi
piace molto
this
1 SG . DAT pleases much
‘I like this a lot’
(Italian)
– (Compare: This pleases me. )
(70) boku-ni eigo-ga
wakaru
I-DAT English-NOM understand
(Japanese)
‘I understand English’
• Other languages allow for agentive and non-agentive subjects, but overtly mark
the difference between them:
(71)
Eastern Pomo:
55
3.2. ROLES AND RELATIONS
a.
CHAPTER 3. BASIC CONCEPTS
agentive subject
há mípal šák’a
I him killed
‘I killed him’
b. wí ċexelka
non-agentive subject
‘I’m slipping (accidentally)’
c.
agentive subject
há ċexelka
‘I’m sliding (deliberately)’
• Reference to both grammatical roles and semantic roles is necessary:
(72)
a.
Mary opened the door with a key.
b. The key opened the door.
c.
The door opened.
– (72):
∗ Syntax: Mary, the key and the door are subjects
∗ Thematic relations:
· Mary is an agent
· the key is an instrument
· the door is a patient.
– Consider the passive sentence:
(73)
The door was opened by Mary with a key.
∗ the door is the patient and the subject
∗ Mary is still the agent, but expressed with a by-phrase
∗ The instrument the key is still expressed with a prepositional phrase
• Languages may have more than one way of grammatically encoding the same
semantic role:
(74)
a.
I gave John the book.
b. I gave the book to John.
56
CHAPTER 3. BASIC CONCEPTS
(75)
a.
3.2. ROLES AND RELATIONS
lekk-e
-naa
ceeb bi kuddu
eat -INSTR-1 SG . PERF rice the spoon
instrument as NP (Wolof)
‘I ate the rice with a spoon’
b. lekk-naa
ceeb bi ak kuddu
eat-1 SG . PERF rice the with spoon
instrument as PP
‘I ate the rice with a spoon’
• The relation between thematic roles and syntactic relations:
– There are mapping principles that assign thematic roles to syntactic relation of
an active verb. One proposal:
(76) Argument Selection Principle: In predicates with grammatical subject and
object,
i) The argument for which the predicate entails the greatest number of ProtoAgent properties will be lexicalized as the subject of the predicate;
ii) The argument having the greatest number of Proto-Patient entailments will
be lexicalized as the direct object.
(Dowty 1991:576, presentation adapted)
– Valency changing operations (passive, anti-passive,. . . ) manipulate the mapping
from thematic relations to syntactic relations
3.2.2
Marking Grammatical Relations
• Three traditional diagnostics for grammatical relations:
– Word order
– Agreement morphology in the verbal system
– Case morphology on elements in nominal constituents (determiners, adjectives,
nouns,. . . )
3.2.2.1
Word order
• In many languages, subjects (and objects) often occur in a fixed position. For
example, the noun that occurs immediately before the verb is the subject in
English:
(77)
a.
Mary stole the book.
b. The book, Mary stole.
57
3.2. ROLES AND RELATIONS
CHAPTER 3. BASIC CONCEPTS
• However there are many languages for which this kind of test cannot work:
(78)
Walpiri (Pama-Nyungan; Australia):
a.
ngarrka-ngku ka wawirri
panti-rni
::::::::
man-ERG
AUX kangaroo spear- NON . PAST
‘the man is spearing a kangaroo’
b. wawirri
ka panti-rni ngarrka-ngku
::::::::
‘the man is spearing a kangaroo’
c.
panti-rni ka wawirri
ngarrka-ngku
::::::::
‘the man is spearing a kangaroo’
3.2.2.2
(adapted from Hale 1983)
Agreement
(79) Morphological Agreement:
Morphological covariation between the morphosyntactic properties (e.g. person, number, gender,. . . ) of a word or phrase, and a morpheme
• Subjects often control agreement with a particular morpheme in the sentence,
often part of the verbal complex
• Example: Swahili (Bantu, east Africa),
– Subjects agree with the first morpheme in the verbal complex
– This is agreement in noun class, which is conceptually similar to grammatical
gender
(80)
a.
singular subject, SV (Swahili)
kisu ki- me- anguka
knife AGR-PERF-fall
‘the knife has fallen’
b. visu vi- me- anguka
knifes AGR-PERF-fall
‘the knives have fallen’
plural subject, SV
– The subject very often precedes the verb as in (80), but need not do so:
(81) ki-
singular subject, VS (Swahili)
me- anguka kisu
knife
‘the knife has fallen’
AGR- PERF-fall
58
CHAPTER 3. BASIC CONCEPTS
3.2. ROLES AND RELATIONS
– Agreement between the subject and first morpheme in the verbal complex is
independent of word order
• The verb may also agree with an object, but in a different morpheme in the verb
complex:
(82) watoto wa- na- mpiga Sally
::
:::::
children AGRS -PRES-AGRO -hit Sally
(Swahili)
‘the children hit Sally’
• (An aside: Some languages realize object and subject in the same morpheme)
(83) dÓÓ˛Ó˛
they:us-saw
(Kiowa)
“They saw us”
(Adger and Harbour 2007)
• We can see that the agreement in Swahili is related to grammatical role and not
semantic role because a passivized object cannot trigger object agreement, even
though it has the same semantic role:
(84)
a.
na- (*m)- pig-wa na watoto
Sally aSally AGRS -PRES-AGRO -hit -PASS by children
(Swahili)
‘Sally is hit (by the children)’
b. * Sally wa- na- pig-wa na watoto
Sally AGRS -PRES-hit -PASS by children
‘Sally is hit (by the children)’
Watoto, ‘the children,’ cannot trigger agreement on the verb, even though it is the
agent in (84).
3.2.2.3
Morphology
• Arguments of the verb appear with particular morphological marking
– This is typically called morphological case1
• Latin:
– Subjects are (typically) marked with nominative case, which can be morphologically ∅
1
Morphological case is distinct from the abstract Case that you may have encountered in syntax
classes. Abstract case is typically written with an upper case C.
59
3.3. SENTENCE TYPES
CHAPTER 3. BASIC CONCEPTS
– Objects are marked with accusative case. The morphs for accusative singular
always contain an m in Latin
(85)
a.
puer
homine-m planxit
boy.NOM man-ACC hit.3 SG
‘the boy hit the man’
b. homo
puer-um planxit
man.NOM boy.ACC hit.3 SG
‘the man hit the boy’
• (Subject case being morphologically ∅ is a common pattern)
• English pronouns vary according to their grammatical role:
(86)
a.
I hit him.
b. I was hit by him.
c.
He hit me.
d. Me and him bought cigarettes.
– “I/he” occur as subjects (86a/b)
– “me/him” occur elsewhere (86c/d)
3.3
Sentence Types
• Declarative: Makes a statement
• Interrogative: Asks a question
• Active: Agent is the subject
• Passive: Non-agent is the subject
(87)
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
Bill left.
Did Bill leave?
When did bill leave.
Bill ate the cookie.
The cookie was eaten (by Bill).
60
declarative
interrogative
interrogative
active
passive
CHAPTER 3. BASIC CONCEPTS
3.4
3.4. PRAGMATIC NOTIONS
Pragmatic Notions: Topic and Focus
• Topic and comment:
– A topic specifies the theme or center of a discourse
– A comment makes some kind of statement about the topic
(88)
Topic
Comment
In summer, I always recopy my linguistics notes.
(Side Note: the names used to refer to topics and foci can be very confusing!)
• As the name implies, the focus of a sentence is what is new information, or what
is being emphasized or contrasted:
• In English, focalization can be done with intonation alone:
(89)
She saw BILL (not mary)
• The reason why we care about topic and focus is that these processes may affect
the word order:
(90)
a.
b.
c.
d.
She saw Bill.
Bill, she saw.
Bill, she saw him.
As for Bill, she saw him.
neutral statement
focus (technically topicalization)
topic and comment
topic with marker + comment
• Crosslinguistically, wh-words (e.g. who, what, when, how, how much) often have
special positions (typically these are the same as for foci or topics).
(91)
a.
question (German)
Was hat Peter gekauft?
What has Peter bought
“What has Peter bought?”
b. EIN BUCH
hat er gekauft
a
book.FOX has he bought
“He bought a BOOK.”
• In many languages, there are specialized positions (and/or particles) for topics
and foci:
61
3.4. PRAGMATIC NOTIONS
(92)
Mustapha saw BILL.
(93)
a.
CHAPTER 3. BASIC CONCEPTS
SVO
(Wolof)
SVO neutral
mustapha gis-ne
bill
Mustapha see-PERF Bill
‘Mustapha saw Bill’
b. * mustapha gis-ne BILL.
– (93b): No English-style prosodic topic/focus marking
(94)
a.
bill la
mustapha gis
Bill FOC Mustapha see
‘It’s Bill that Mustapha saw’ or ‘Mustapha saw BILL.’
b. bill {de / nag / gaa} mustapha gis -ne -kó
Bill {TOP/ TOP/ TOP} mustapha see-PERF-3 SG
‘as for Bill indeed, Mustapha saw him’
OSV
object focus
OSV
– Topics/foci (i) appear in sentence initial position, (ii) accompanied by special
particles.
• Just like some languages move topics or foci to the same positions as wh-words,
there are languages that use the same particles to mark topic/focus constructions
and questions
62
Chapter 4
Word Order
4.1
Word Order Typology
• Primary Observation: if the languages of the world are classified according to the
order of subject, verb, and object, this yields six logical possibilities:
(95)
a.
SOV (Turkish, Altaic; Turkey)
hasan okuz-u aldi
Hasan ox-ACC bought
“Hasan bought the ox”
b. Bill climbed the mountain.
c.
SVO (English)
VSO (Welsh, IE)
lladdodd y ddraig y dyn
killed
the dragon the man
‘the dragon killed the man’
d. nahita ny mpianatra ny vehivavy
saw
the student
the woman
VOS (Malagasy; Austronesian)
‘the woman saw the student’
e.
toto yahosiye
kamara
man it-grabbed-him jaguar
OVS (Hixkaryana, Carib; Brazil)
‘the jaguar grabbed the man’
f.
OSV (Panare, Arawakan; Brazil)
anana
nota apa
pineapple I
fetch
‘I fetched the pineapple’
• All possible orderings of S, V, and O are attested.
• Greenberg (1966) first suggested that it might be useful to classify languages
according to the ordering of S, O, and V. He showed that there are massive
distributional differences between the language types.
63
4.2. GREENBERG’S UNIVERSAL 1
CHAPTER 4. WORD ORDER
Greenberg 1966
Mallinson & Blake 1983
Tomlin 1992
Sample size
30
100
402
SVO
SOV
VSO
VOS
OVS
OSV
43
37
20
0
0
0
35
41
9
2
1
1
42
45
9
3
1
0
Table 4.1: Summary of results from surveys of word order. (Results in %)
• Greenberg’s “basic” typology is centered around correlations between three sets
of items:
(96)
a.
preposition versus postposition
b. order of S, V, O
c.
order of A and N
– Another popular factor: Order of possessor (called the genitive) and noun:
(97) Peter’s
house
possessor noun
4.2
Greenberg’s Universal 1
(98) Greenberg’s Universal 1 :
In declarative sentences with nominal subject and object, the dominant order
is almost always one in which the subject precedes the object.
• It seems that Greenberg’s Universal 1 holds to a significant degree, Table 4.1.
• Question: Why do the data pattern in this way and not some other way?
• Why the differences in the results from study to study? Possible factors
– Sample choice: In Greenberg’s sample, 1/3 of the languages were IndoEuropean, 1/4 from Africa.
– Historical factors: Larger language families have larger influence on the results.
Let’s look at Africa:
64
CHAPTER 4. WORD ORDER
4.2. GREENBERG’S UNIVERSAL 1
∗ Khoisan languages: approximately 30
∗ Niger-Congo languages: approximately 1,000–1,600
– Genetically related languages are likely to belong to the same type. How
should Khoisan and Niger-Congo be weighted? There is no obvious first choice.
Typologists has spent a lot of time trying to figure this out.
– Areal factors: We saw earlier in our discussion of the notion of sprachbund
that languages that have been in close contact for long periods come to display
significant convergence in linguistic traits. E.g. the Balkans, Southeast Asia
• Note also that in Greenberg’s original paper, there are some “language” problems.
(But it is not clear that this is his fault.)
– He cites the “Algonquian” language as SVO, postpositional, possessor-noun,
and noun-adjective. However, “Algonquian” is a family of languages, most
members of which are not SVO.
– “Zoque” and “Zapotec” also represent language families, not single languages.
Greenberg counts “Zoque” as SVO. However, it does not appear that any of the
Zoquean languages is SVO. Instead, they are all verb-initial.
– Most of the “Mandingo” (i.e. Mande) languages are basically SOV, not SVO.
• Basic Problem in word order typology: How do you determine the “basic” word
order?
(99)
a.
Bill ate the pancake.
SVO
b. The pancake, Bill ate.
c.
OSV
The pancake, Bill ate it.
Topic SVO
d. What did Bill eat.
OAuxSV
• Typically, the basic word order is said to be the one that is stylistically unmarked,
or neutral, i.e. nothing is being emphasized, highlighted, or focused.
See Table 4.2 for an illustration of disagreements on making this identification.
• In other cases, there does not seem to be any non-arbitrary way of deciding what
the basic word order is:
– Clitics
65
4.2. GREENBERG’S UNIVERSAL 1
Hungarian
Tagalog
Diola-Fogny
Tongan
CHAPTER 4. WORD ORDER
Mallinson &
Blake 1981
Ultan 1969
Steele 1978
Greenberg 1966
SVO
V-initial
—
VSO
SOV
VOS
VSO
VSO
—
VOS
SVO
VOS
SOV
VSO
—
VSO
Table 4.2: Variant basic word orders for single languages.
(100)
a.
(Italian)
SVO
Gianni ha mangiato il formaggio
Gianni has eaten
the cheese
“Gianni ate the cheese”
b. Gianni l’=2 ha mangiato
Gianni it=has eaten
“Gianni ate it”
SOV
– Split Ordering
(101)
a.
Johann sah den Mann
Johann saw the man
‘Johann saw the man’
b. Sally sagt [dass Johann den Mann sah]
Sally says that Johann the man saw
‘sally says that johann saw the man’
(German)
SVO matrix clause
SOV embedded clause
(Yes, I’m cheating. The requirement in German matrix clauses is that the verb
be in second position. It is a “V2” language.)
– Clause Type
(102)
a.
(Wolof)
VSO
togg -na -ñu ceeb bi
cook-PERF-3 PL rice the
‘they cooked the rice’
togg -na -ñu ceeb bi
b. xale yii
child these cook-PERF-3 PL rice the
‘the children cooked the rice’
VSO or SVO?
• Keeping these problems in mind, we classify languages according to word order.
• The most significant results of Greenberg’s study are the correlations that he
discovered between basic word orders and the orders of other elements in a
language.
2
‘X=Y’ X and Y are phonologically bound to one another, but neither is an affix.
66
CHAPTER 4. WORD ORDER
4.3
4.3. GREENBERG’S UNIVERSAL 2
Greenberg’s Universal 2
(103) Greenberg’s Universal 2 :
In prepositional languages, the genitive almost always follows the governing
noun.
• That is, the possessor follows the possessed thing:
(104)
a.
(Wolof; Atlantic)
ci
taabal ji
prep table the
‘on the table’
b. taabal-u Ayda
table-u ayda
‘Ayda’s table’
4.4
Greenberg’s Universal 12
(105) Universal 12 :
a.
If a language has dominant order VSO in declarative sentences, it always
puts interrogative words or phrases first in interrogative word questions;
b. if it has dominant order SOV in declarative sentences, there is never
such an invariant rule.
(106)
Irish (Indo-European; Ireland)
a.
leanann
an t-ainmni an briathar i ngaelige
in irish
follow.pres the subject the verb
‘the subject follows the verb in Irish’
b. cé aL
dhíol an domhan
who PART sold the world
‘who sold the world’
c. * bhuail cathal cad
hit.PAST charles what
’what did charles hit?’
VSO
(Oda 2002)
• In VSO languages, wh-words occupy a position different from the corresponding
non-wh-word. The position of wh-words is almost invariably on the left edge of a
clause.
67
4.4. GREENBERG’S UNIVERSAL 12
(107)
a.
raam-ne yeh ciiz khaa-ii
raam-ERG this thing eat-PERF
CHAPTER 4. WORD ORDER
SOV (Hindi, Indo-European; India)
‘Raam ate this thing’
b. raam-ne kyaa ciiz khaa-ii
raam-ERG what thing eat-PERF
‘what thing did Raam eat?’
c.
kyaa ciiz raam-ne khaa-ii
what thing raam-ERG eat-PERF
‘what thing did Raam eat?’
(Mahajan, i.a.)
• In Hindi, a wh-word or wh-phrase may or may not occupy the same position as
the corresponding non-wh-word.
• Remember: Greenberg considers the relation between the order of S, O, and V
and
1. Noun-Adjective ordering
2. Noun-Adposition ordering
3. Noun-Genitive ordering.
• In Greenberg’s sample, OVS, VOS, and OSV account for only 1% of the word
orders, so they are ignored in the formulation of the universals at the end of his
study.
– This leaves, SVO, SOV, and VSO.
– 3 word orders x 2 (NA, AN) x 2(NP, PN) x 2(NG, GN) = 24 potential possibilities
– Surprisingly, only 15 are attested (why not all of them?)
the unattested correlations in Greenberg are:
(108)
a.
b. SVO/NP/NG/AN
VSO/PN/GN/NA
VSO/NP/GN/NA
VSO/NP/GN/AN
VSO/NP/NG/AN
VSO/NP/NG/NA
c.
SOV/PN/NG/AN
SOV/PN/GN/NA
SOV/NP/NG/AN
• More surprisingly, 4 of the remaining types are far more common than the other
11. These are:
VSO: PN NG NA
68
CHAPTER 4. WORD ORDER
4.5. VERB FINAL TYPOLOGY
SVO: PN NG NA
SOV: NP GN AN
SOV: NP GN NA
– VSO and SVO differ only in the placement of the subject. Thus, the basic
opposition seems to be VO vs. OV
– This makes OV and VO look very close to mirror images (though SOV with
NA may be a problem)
In sum, of the 24 possible patterns two are really significant and they are mirror
images of one another.
• Oftentimes V-initial languages are called “head-initial” because, for example, the
head of a prepositional phrase precedes the noun (PN) and the noun precedes the
adjective (NA), etc.
• V-final languages are often called, “head final” because, for example, the head of
a postpositional phrase follows the noun (NP) and the noun usually follows the
adjective, etc.
• (If you have had a syntax course, you do not want to confuse the theoretical
definition of “head” with the traditional or typological meaning. “The tall man” in
traditional terms is a noun phrase. However, in linguistic theory it is a determiner
phrase.)
(109) Adjective
taller
4.5
Marker of
Comparison
than
Standard of
Comparison
Mary
Verb Final (Head Final) Typology
• Example data
– Japanese examples from Kuno (1973a,b), Akiba (1976), Dunn and Yanada
(1958)
– Chickasaw examples from Gordon (1987) glosses adapted.
– All other examples from Ed Keenan.
– Accents of various kinds are omitted throughout.
69
4.5. VERB FINAL TYPOLOGY
CHAPTER 4. WORD ORDER
Thai (Daic, Thailand)
Japanese (Altaic, Japan)
Verb and object
daeng beet pratuu
Daeng open door
‘Daeng opens the door’
taro-wa inu-o
mita
taro-TOP dog-ACC saw
‘taro saw the/a dog’
Possessor and
possessed
nangsuuu khoong daeng
paper
of
Daeng
‘Daeng’s (news)paper’
taro no inu
taro GEN dog
‘taro’s dog’
Adjectives and
nouns
dek dii
child good
‘good children’
ookii inu
big dog
‘a big dog’
Nouns and
relative clauses
phuuying [thii phom hen]
woman REL I
see
‘the woman I saw’
[niku-o
tabeta] inu
meat-ACC ate
dog
‘the dog that ate the meat’
Adpositions
caak Krungtheep
from Bangkok
‘from Bangkok’
Tokyo kara
Tokyo from
‘from Tokyo’
Comparison
marker and
standard
suay kwaa
daeng
pretty MARKER Daeng
‘prettier than Daeng’
neko yori
ookii
cat MARKER big
‘bigger than the cat’
Auxiliary and
verb
dam aat-ja maa
Dam may come
‘Dam may come’
taro-wa aruite iru
taro-TOP walking be
‘taro is walking’
Table 4.3: Comparison of two consistent (i.e. well-behaved) VO and OV languages:
Thai and Japanese
4.5.1
Basic Word Order
• The basic, pragmatically unmarked word order is: S Oblique DO V
(110)
a.
(Japanese)
SV
Masao-ga nak-u
Masao-SBJ cry-NPAST
“Masao is crying”
70
CHAPTER 4. WORD ORDER
4.5. VERB FINAL TYPOLOGY
b. Sora-ga aoi
Sky-SBJ blue
SV
“The sky is blue”
c.
Masao-wa gakkoo-de benkyo-o sur-u
Masao-TOP school-in study-DO do-NPAST
S Obl OV
“Masao studies in school”
d. Masao-wa gakusei-desu
Masao-TOP student-be
“Masao is a student”
e.
Watasi-wa isya-o
denwa-de yobimasu
I-TOP
doctor-DO phone-by call
“I call a doctor by phone”
f.
Masao-ga Yooko-ni hon-o
watashi-ta
Masao-SBJ Yooko-to book-DO hand-PAST
“Masao handed a book to Yooko”
g. Masao-ga Yooko-to
basu-de gakkoo-e it-ta
Masao-SBJ Yooko-with bus-by school-to go-PAST
“Masao went to school with Yooko by bus”
h. Masao-{ga /wa /ni} eigo-{ga
/*o} dekir-u
Masao-{SBJ/TOP/IO} english-{SBJ/DO} be.capable-PAST
“Masao is capable of (speaking) English”
i.
Masao-ni-wa imooto-ga
ar-u
Masao-to-TOP younger.sister-SBJ be-NPAST
“Masao has a younger sister”
j.
Tsukue-no -ue -ni
hon-ga
ar-u
desk -GEN-top-LOC book-SBJ be-NPAST
“The book is on the desk”
k. Ame-ga hutte4 imasu
rain-SBJ fall
AUX
“It is raining”
• The order of preverbal NPs is typically fairly free, with different orders signaling
differences in topicalization, emphasis, or focus. (However, such differences may
also/instead be indicated by morphological differences.)
4
The basic verb is hut-; -mas(u) is a polite form; i(ru) is a form of ‘be’; -te iru forms continuous
resultative habituals.
71
4.5. VERB FINAL TYPOLOGY
(111)
CHAPTER 4. WORD ORDER
Topicalization with -wa
a.
(Japanese)
hon-wa
Masao-ga kat-ta
book-TOP Masao-SBJ buy-PAST
OSV
“the book, Masao bought”
b. * hono-o -wa Masao-ga kat-ta
book-DO-TOP Masao-SBJ buy-PAST
“the book, Masao bought”
c.
Yooko -to -wa Masao-ga pinpon-o
shi-ta
Yooko-with-TOP Masao-SBJ ping.pong-DO do-PAST
PP-SVO
“with Yooko Masao played ping pong”
d. [kono hon-wa] [dare-ga kaita ka] wakara-nai
this book-TOP who-SBJ write Q understand-not
Oi [S_i V]V
“this book, we don’t know who wrote it”
e.
sakana-wa tai-ga
ii
fish-TOP
red.snapper-SBJ good+be
“as for fish, red snapper is best”
• The word order may become rigidly SOV in subordinate clauses
4.5.2
Morphology
• Suffixing is more common than prefixing
4.5.3
Internal Structure of the NP
• Adpositions:
– Postpositions are far more common than prepositions. There may also be
morphological case marking on the Ns, which is always suffixal (and may
follow an ergative pattern).
(112) Masao-ga Yooko-to
basu-de gakkoo-e it-ta
Masao-SBJ Yooko-with bus-by school-to go-PAST
“Masao went to school with Yooko by bus”
– Different postpositions (sometimes along with verb choice) may correspond to
different affixal case marking.
72
CHAPTER 4. WORD ORDER
(113)
a.
4.5. VERB FINAL TYPOLOGY
(Latin)
ab
urb-e
from city-ABL
“from the city”
(ABL = ablative case)
b. ad urb-em
to city-ACC
“to the city”
(ACC = accusative case)
• Adjectives
– Demonstrative, numeral, and modifying adjectives usually precede the common
noun, in that order (Dem Num Adj N), but there are many exceptions to this
claim.
(114) kono omosiroi hon
this interesting book
“this interesting book”
(Japanese)
– Adjectives agree with the common nouns that they modify in number, gender,
and case more often than in verb initial languages
(115)
a.
simulacr-um
alt-um
statue.N-NOM . N . SG tall-NOM . N . SG
b. imperator-es
clar-i
commander.M-NOM . PL famous-NOM . M . PL
(N= neuter gender)
(M= masculine gender)
– Modifiers of adjectives (e.g. very in “very tall”) usually precede the adjective.
(116) totemo omosiroi
hon-o
yonda
very
interesting+be book-DO read
“(I) read a very interesting book”
(Japanese)
• Articles:
– Often non-existent
– There may be no definite article distinct from a demonstrative
– There may be no indefinite article distinct from the numeral ‘1’;
– There may be no article specific to common nouns as opposed to proper nouns
or plural as opposed to singular nouns.
• Genitives: The possessor N normally precedes the possessed N (e.g. “Basma’s
smile” as opposed to “the smile of Basma”).
73
4.5. VERB FINAL TYPOLOGY
(117)
a.
CHAPTER 4. WORD ORDER
ano ooki-na UCLA-no
tatemono
that big-be UCLA-GEN building
(Japanese)
“that big building of UCLA”
ano ooki-na tatemono
b. UCLA-no
UCLA-GEN that big-be building
“that big building of UCLA”
• Relative Clauses:
– Commonly, the restricting clause precedes the common head noun (i.e. “prenominal” relative clauses)
(118)
[kono kinoo
katta] hon
this yesterday bought book
“this book which (I) bought yesterday”
– Commonly the relative clause is non-finite (e.g. “participial”). That is, the verb
in the relative clause has a different form from that of a simple main clause
verb, and usually the agreement and/or tense-aspect morphology is reduced
(119)
der [in seinem Büro arbeit-ende] Mann
the in his
study work-ing
man
“the man (who is) working in his study”
(German)
(120)
[John-‘un Mary-ye ver-dig-i]
patates-i yedim
John-GEN Mary-IO give-v:noun-his potato-DO ate+I
“I ate the potato that John gave to Mary”
(Turkish)
– True relative pronouns (i.e. those whose form is specific to relative clauses and
related structures) are never used
– Resumptive pronouns are almost never used if the relative clause is prenominal.
– The relative clause sometimes occurs postnominally, in which case it may
include resumptive pronouns and be finite.
(121) der Mann [der in seinem Büro arbeit-et]
the man REL in his
study work-3 SG . PRES
“the man (who is) working in his study”
(German)
(compare (119))
– Internally headed relative clauses may be present (and are largely restricted to
verb final languages).
74
CHAPTER 4. WORD ORDER
4.5. VERB FINAL TYPOLOGY
(122)
[tl’eedaa’ hastiin yalti-ee]
alhosh
last.night man
speak-REL sleep
“the man who spoke last night is sleeping”
(Navajo)
(123)
Chickasaw, Muskogean
ofi ’ipita-kaash
-oot]
malit
kaniya-tok
[Jan-at
Jan-NOM dog feed -mentioned-FOC : NOM running go.away-PT
“the dog Jan fed ran away”
– There may be co-relatives (e.g. “John woman-REL saw, that my sister” = “My
sister is the woman who John saw”).
(124)
Hindi-Urdu
[jis a:dmi-ka kutta bema:r hai], us a:dmi-ko mai-ne dekha
is,
that man-DO I-ERG saw
REL man- GEN dog sick
“I saw the man whose dog is sick” (lit. “which man’s dog is sick, that man I
saw”)
• Conjoined NPs:
– Discontinuous conjunctions are usually postnominal: [John and Bill and].
(125) [Taroo to Hanako to] -o syootaisi-ta
Taroo and Hanako and-DO invite-PAST
“(I) invited Taroo and Hanako”
(Japanese)
(. . . to. . . to cannot be used to coordinate sentences. Note that -to = ‘with.’)
– [John and Bill] may appear as [John Bill and], in which case ‘and’ may be
“homophonous” with the comitative postposition ‘with.’
• Sentential Complements of Ns:
– Ed Keenan: “little studied”
– Expected to precede the head, e.g. “[John left] claim = “the claim that John
left”
(126)
[Masao-ga hitori-de Amerika-e itta toyuu] jijitsu
Masao-SBJ alone-with America-to went COMP fact
“the fact that Masao went to America alone”
• Names
– Ed Keenan: “suggested, but not extensively studied”
75
(Japanese)
4.5. VERB FINAL TYPOLOGY
CHAPTER 4. WORD ORDER
– Family names usually precede given names, e.g. Smith John rather than John
Smith
• Numbers
– Ed Keenan: “suggested, but not extensively studied”
– Number names between 11 and 19 usually have the tens number before the
units: thus ‘13’ is ‘ten + three’.
(127) ju shichi
ten seven
“seventeen”
4.5.4
(Japanese)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_numerals
Internal Structure of the Verb Phrase
• Suffixation: Categories expressed by suffixes to the verb root include:
– Passive, reflexive, reciprocal, inchoative, causative
(128)
a.
Yooko-ga Masao-ni nagur-ate -ta
Yooko-SBJ Masao-by hit -PASS-PAST
“Yooko was hit by Masao”
passive (Japanese)
b. Masao-ga Yooko-o
nak-ase -ta
Masao-SBJ Yooko-DO cry -CAUSE-PAST
“Masao made Yooko cry”
causative
c.
Masao-ga Yooko-ni tegami-o yom -ase -ta
causative
Masao-SBJ Yooko-IO letter-DO read-CAUSE-PAST
“Masao let Yooko read the letter”
d. Potential:
Yooko-ni sono chiisa-na doresu-ga ki -rare
-ta
Yooko-ag that little-be dress-SBJ wear-{PASS/POT}-PAST
i. “Yooko was able to wear the little dress”
(preferred reading)
ii. “the little dress was worn by Yooko”
(possible reading)
– Speech acts: question, imperative, exclamation, declarative
(129)
a.
Taroo-wa kita-ka
(Japanese)
Taroo-TOP came-Q
“did Taroo come?”
b. Masao-ga Yooko-o
nagut-ta -ka-doo
-ka-o sir -a -nai
Masao-SBJ Yooko-DO hit -PST-Q -whether-Q -DO know-AF-NEG
“(I) don’t know whether Masao hit Yooko or not”
76
CHAPTER 4. WORD ORDER
4.5. VERB FINAL TYPOLOGY
– Speaker attitude: doubt, certitude, hearsay, eyewitness, deference
(130) Masao-ga Yooko-to
kekkon-shi -soo -da
Masao-SBJ Yooko-with marry -DO-likely-be
“Masao is likely to marry Yooko”
(Japanese)
(131) th e
dorma-la
tCyne toNgja Sy -ma -soN
(Tibetan)
horse Dorma-ACC never kick hit-NEG-EVID
“The horse never kicked Dorma (the speaker saw it)” (EVID = evidential)
– honorifics, politeness, desiderative, volitional
(132)
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
f.
chichi-ga ki
-mas -u
father-SBJ come.to.here-POLITE-NPAST
“Father will come”
kore-wa hon da
this-TOP book is
“this is a book”
kore-wa hon des-u
this-TOP book be-PRES
“this is a book”
kore-wa hon de
gozai-mas -u
this-TOP book being be -POLITE-PRES
“this is a book”
ar-u
kore-wa hon de
this-TOP book being be-PRES
“this is a book”
Watasi-wa sono keeki-o/ga
tabe-ta
-i
I-TOP
that cake-DO/SBJ eat -NPAST-want
“I want to eat that cake”
(Japanese)
Informal
Polite
Superpolite
Formal Writing
desiderative
– Modals: may, must, should, might, ought
(133)
a.
Masao-wa sono keeki-o tabe-temoyoi
Masao-TOP that cake-DO eat-may
“Masao may eat that cake”
(Japanese)
b. Masao-wa sono keeki-o tabe-tewaike-nai
Masao-TOP that cake-DO eat -must -not
“Masao must not eat that cake”
c. Masao-ga sono keeki-o tabe-ta -nighigainai
Masao-SBJ that cake-DO eat -PAST-must
“Masao must have eaten that cake” (= I am sure that Masao ate that
cake)
77
4.5. VERB FINAL TYPOLOGY
CHAPTER 4. WORD ORDER
d. boku-wa Hanako-o nagur-are -sase -te
oita
I-TOP
Hanako-DO hit -PASS-CAUSE-CONTIN kept
“I let Hanako be hit”
– Mood: indicative, conditional, counterfactual, subjunctive
– Aspect: inceptive, completed, ongoing, generic-habitual
(134)
a.
Masao-ga Yooko-o
nagur-i -hajime-ta
inceptive (Japanese)
Masao-SBJ Yooko-DO hit -GER-begin -PAST
“Masao began hitting Yooko”
b. Masao-ga Yooko-ni tabe-sase
-hajime-ta
inceptive causative
::::
Masao-SBJ Yooko-IO eat -CAUSE-begin -PAST
“Masao began to make Yooko eat”
– Tense: present, past, future, future in the past
– Negation (though this is often preverbal)
(135) hon-wa
aka-ku ari-mas -en
book-TOP red-NEG be -POLITE-NEG
“the book is not red”
(Japanese)
• Postposed Auxiliaries:
– If any of the notions under suffixation are expressed by independent verbs,
auxiliaries, or particles, they normally follow the verb.
(136) Rahul-ne
kitaab par.h-ii
thii
Rahul.M-ERG book.F read-PFV. F be.PST. F. SG
‘Rahul had read the book.’
(Hindi-Urdu)
– There are two important exceptions:
∗ Negation, if not bound to the verb, is often preverbal
(137) Atif sku:l nahı̃: ja: raha: hai
Atif school NEG go PROG bePRS
“Atif is not going to school”
(Hindi-Urdu)
∗ Auxiliaries, which may carry tense/aspect and person/number markings may
occur in sentence-second (“Wackernagel”) position
• Preverbal object clauses:
78
CHAPTER 4. WORD ORDER
4.5. VERB FINAL TYPOLOGY
– Sentential objects of verbs of thinking and saying as well as embedded question
clauses commonly occur preverbally, in the DO position.
(138)
a.
(Japanese)
watasi-wa
I-TOP
[Masao-ga Amerika-e itta koto-o] shit -te-ir -u
Masao-SBJ america-to went that-DO know-te-be-NPAST
“I know that Masao went to America”
b. watasi-wa
I-TOP
[Masao-ga Amerika-e ik-u
toyuuno-o] kii-ta
Masao-SBJ america-to go-NPAST Comp-DO hear-PAST
“I heard that Masao went to America”
– But they may occur postverbally more frequently than do lexical NP objects
(139)
a.
Peter hat [die Zahl] gesagt
Peter has the number said
“Peter said the number”
b. Peter hat
gesagt [was die
Zahl ist]
Peter has said what the number is
“Peter said what the number is”
(German)
• Preverbal adverbs: Adverbials, manner, and others usually occur preverbally.
(140)
a.
sono keeki-o tabe-ru
Masao-wa ashita
Masao-TOP tomorrow that cake-DO eat-NPAST
(Japanese)
“Masao will eat that cake tomorrow”
b. motto yukkuri aruke
more slowly walk+IMPER
“walk more slowly!”
• Comparison: In expressions of comparison the normal order is: standard +
comparative marker + predicate, e.g. John Bill-from tall = John is taller than Bill.
(141) Taroo-wa Hanako
yori zutto
wakai
Taroo-TOP Hanako
than far
young+be
standard comparative marker predicate
“Taroo is younger than Hanako”
79
(Japanese)
4.5. VERB FINAL TYPOLOGY
4.5.5
CHAPTER 4. WORD ORDER
Sentence Level Syntax
• Speech act indicators: Usually sentence final (e.g. (129))
• Wh-questions:
– There is usually no Wh-movement.
– In wh-questions, the wh-word may simply replace the constituent being questioned
(142)
a.
Taroo-wa sono okane-o
dare-ni yatta ka
Taroo-TOP that money-DO who-IO gave Q
“who did Taroo give that money to?”
(Japanese)
wh-in situ
b. [NP & Wh]:
[Taroo-to dare-to ]-ga kekkonsita ka sitte
iru ka
Q knowing be Q
Taroo-and who -and -SBJ married
“do you know who Taroo and [e] got married?”
– Occasionally: wh-element is placed in an immediately preverbal “focus” position.
(143)
Hindi-Urdu:
a.
Atif-ne
kal
Mona-ko tohfaa diy-aa
S-IO-DO-V
Atif-ERG yesterday Mona-DAT present give-PFV. M . SG
“Atif gave a present to Mona yesterday.”
b. raam-ne vah kitaab kis-ko dii
Raam-erg that book who-ko gave
“who did Raam give a book to?”
S-DO-IO-V
• Subordination
– Markers of subordination occur sentence finally or suffixed to the (final) verb.
These include nominalizers, complementizers, and subordinate conjunctions
such as ‘when’ ‘because’, etc.
(144)
a.
kono diken-wa gozyutten tor-eba, pasu dekiru
this test-TOP 50.points take-if pass can
“you can pass this test if you get 50 points”
(Japanese)
b. bukka-ga agat-ta
node, minna-ga komatte iru
suffer be
price-SBJ rise-PAST since all-SBJ
“because prices rose, all are suffering”
c.
Taroo-wa tosyokan-ni itta noni,
hon-o
yomanakatta
Taroo-TOP library-to went although book-DO read+neg
“Taroo, although he went to the library, didn’t read the books”
80
CHAPTER 4. WORD ORDER
4.5. VERB FINAL TYPOLOGY
– The main verb in a subordinate clause is commonly finite.
– Subordinate expressions commonly precede that to which they are subordinate:
thus, adverbial subordinate clauses precede the main verb, restrictive relative
clauses precede their heads, and sentence complements precede the verb.
(145)
a.
[bukka-ga agar-i,] minna-ga komatte iru
price-SBJ rise-GER all-SBJ
suffer be
“prices rising, all are suffering”
(Japanese)
b. [bukka-ga agat-te,] mina-ga komatte iru
price-SBJ rise-CONT all-SBJ suffer be
“prices having risen, all are suffering”
• Coordinate sentences:
– Commonly these appear as [S and S], sometimes as[S S and], in which case
both Ss may be non-finite.
– Often translation equivalents of English coordinate Ss appear with the first S in
a non-finite subordinate form.
(146)
Coordination:
a.
(Japanese)
[Masao-ga nasshi-o
yon-da,] [Yooko-ga shimbun-o
Masao-SBJ magazine-DO read-PAST Yooko-SBJ newspaper-DO
yon-da]
read-PAST
“Masao read a magazine, and Yooko read a newspaper”
b. “neutral” coordination
[Hanako-ga Huransu-ni it-ta]
[Taroo-ga Amerika-ni ik-i,]
go-PAST
Taroo-SBJ america-to go-GER, Hanako-SBJ france-to
“Taroo went to America, Hanako went to France”
c.
“subordinate” coordination
[Taroo-ga Amerika-ni it-te]
[Hanako-ga Huransu-ni it-ta]
Taroo-SBJ america-to go-CONT Hanako-SBJ france-to
go-PAST
“Taroo went to America and then Hanako went to France”
– Backwards Gapping: Typically, VO languages have forward gapping while OV
languages often display backward gapping.
(147)
a.
Bill read a book, and Mary
b. Bill
a poem.
= forward gapping
a book, and Mary read a poem.
= backwards gapping
81
4.6. VERB INITIAL TYPOLOGY
CHAPTER 4. WORD ORDER
(148)
[
Masao-ga
zasshi-o], [Yooko-ga
shimbun-o(Japanese)
yonda]
Masao-SBJmagazine-DO Yooko-SBJ newspaper-DO read
“Masao a magazine and Yooko a newspaper read”
4.6
Verb Initial (Head Initial) Typology
• Main Sources of information on Berber
– personal consultant work by Ed Keenan (limited)
– Written sources: Penchoen (1973), Guerssel and Hale (1987), Keenan (1988),
Ouhalla (1988)
– Note: The sources here are often glossed, but not translated, so the use of “the”
vs. “a” is often creative.)
– Notation
∗ I make no attempt to unify transcription from different sources
∗ I write the voiced uvular fricative, [G], as “gh”
∗ The underlying “.” on t’s often omitted
∗ Penchoen (1973) and Guerssel and Hale (1987) present the Tamazight dialect
of Berber. Ouhalla (1988) concerns the Tarifit dialect.
4.6.1
Basic Word Order
• In the least pragmatically and syntactically marked clause types, the verb occurs
initially.
(149)
a.
idda
PERF+he+go
ghŁr-igran
uryaz
man(+c) to-fields
VSPP (Berber)
“the man went to the fields”
b. ad-yawŁl
mŁmmi tarbatt
PROJ -he+marry son
girl
VSO
“my son will marry the girl”
c.
isgha
tamizart i-tŁrbatt
PERF+he+buy shawl
for-girl
VOPP
“he bought a/the shawl for the girl”
d. igw Łt
aghyul s-isŁlli
PERF+he+strike donkey with-stone
VOPP
“he struck the donkey with a stone”
e.
immut
uryaz n-tmŁttutt
PERF+he+die man of-woman
“the woman’s husband died”
82
VS
CHAPTER 4. WORD ORDER
4.6. VERB INITIAL TYPOLOGY
• The most common word order is [V S DO Oblique]. In some cases, the ordering
of NPs after the verb is very free.
(150) Pa:ta:
mu:sa: bani:
PIsra:Pi:la Pal-kIta:ba
brought Moses children Israel
DEF -book
(Classical Arabic)
‘Moses brought the (holy) book to the children of Israel’
(Wright 1874a:53, translations MW)
• In some cases, the least marked word order is V DO S. In this case, obliques occur
between the DO and S or after S.
4.6.2
Internal Structure of the NP
• Case Marking:
– Affixal case marking is less common than in verb final languages.
– Where affixal case marking is present, it is more likely to be prefixal than in
verb final languages. However, suffixal case marking is not uncommon.
(151)
a.
na’e alu ‘a-tevita ki Fisi
PAST go ABS -david to fiji
‘David went to Fiji’
b. na’e tamate’i ‘a-kolaiate ‘e-tevita
::
ABS-goliath ERG -david
PAST kill
‘David killed Goliath’
(Tongan Polynesian; Tonga)
S = ‘a
P = S = ‘a, A = ‘e
– Case marking may be ergative (see (151)).
– Separable adpositions are much more likely to be prepositions than in verb final
languages (e.g. (149a/c/d/e)). However, the total number of adpositions is often
less than in verb final languages.
– It is very common that verbs carry affixes indicating the presence of instrumental, goal locative, benefactive, etc. arguments. The NP itself is not associated
with an adposition or case marker.
• Adjectives:
– Demonstrative, numeral, and modifying adjectives usually follow the common
noun, either in that order or its mirror image.
83
4.6. VERB INITIAL TYPOLOGY
(152)
CHAPTER 4. WORD ORDER
a.
aryaz-ad ghur-s tafunast
man-this to-him cow
“This man has a cow”
(iga) Husa
b. ism uryaz-ad
Husa
name man(+c)-this is
“This man’s name is Husa”
(153) rbŁa n-mŁddŁn
four of-people
(Berber)
(Berber)
– If the dominant order of adjectives is post-nominal, quite frequently, there is a
small class of adjectives which occurs pre-nominally.
(154)
a.
(Berber)
aryaz amŁqqran
man big
b. tarbatt tamŁqqrant
girl
big
– Adjectives agree with the common noun less often than in verb final languages,
especially for case.
• Articles:
– The presence of definite articles distinct from demonstratives (although historically derived from them) is much more likely than in verb final languages.
(155) haDihi l-
(Modern Standard Arabic)
zija:ra
DEM
ART -visit
‘this visit’
(Ryding 2005:317)
– There may be several different types of articles for definite, indefinite, specific,
plural, and proper nouns.
(156)
Modern Standard Arabic:
a.
Pal-xubz ‘the bread’
(Ryding 2005:156)
b. baItu-n ‘a house’
(Ryding 2005:162)
• Genitives: The possessor NP usually follows the the possessed NP (i.e. the hat of
John’s rather than John’s hat).
84
CHAPTER 4. WORD ORDER
(157)
a.
4.6. VERB INITIAL TYPOLOGY
(Berber)
axam uryaz
tent of+man(+c)
“the man’s tent”
b. tadutt wulli
wool of+sheep
“sheep’s wool”
c.
taddart n-tmŁttutt
house of-woman
“the woman’s house”
d. illi-s
uryaz-ad
daughter-his man-this
“this man’s daughter”
e.
bba-nna ‘n-tŁrbatt
father-her of-girl
“the girl’s father”
• Relative Clauses
– RCs are almost always postnominal. Prenominal relative clauses are never the
dominant mode of relativization.
(158)
a.
aryaz nna iddan
ghŁr-igran
man REL go+PERF to-fields
“the man who went to the fields”
mŁmmi
b. tarbatt nna ittawŁl
girl
REL he+ PROJ +marry son
“the girl that my son will marry”
c.
(Berber)
tarbatt nna mi isgha
tamizart
girl
REL for PERF+he+buy shawl
“the girl for whom he bought a/the shawl”
d. isŁlli nna sŁ igw t
aghyul
stone REL with he+PERF+strike donkey
“the stone with which he struck the donkey”
e.
tamŁttutt nna miimmut
uryaz
woman REL he+PERF+die man
“the woman whose husband died”
– Personal pronouns may appear in the relativized position (i.e. where in English
there is commonly a gap: the man that Bill saw yesterday).
85
4.6. VERB INITIAL TYPOLOGY
CHAPTER 4. WORD ORDER
(159) Pal-maka:nui [l:aDi: taqsQ Idu-hui ] huna:
the-place
REL seek.2 SG . M -it here
‘The place you seek is here’
(Modern Standard Arabic)
(Ryding 2005:325)
– Relative pronouns are rare, but less so than in verb final languages.
– There are never co-relatives (compare (124)).
– There are never internally headed relative clauses (compare (122)/(123)).
• Sentential Complements of Nouns: When attested, these follow the head, as in
English
• Conjoined NPs:
– Usually just [N and N].
(160) la ttŁawan i- uryaz-Łnns
ext she+help to-man -her
(Berber)
i- [thŁrratt d6 -umwŁr
d-urwa]
in-plowing with-harvesting with-threshing
“she helps her husband plow, (and) harvest, and thresh”
– Rarely one finds [and N and N].
– The order [N N and] does not occur.
4.6.3
Predicate Structure
• Affixation:
– There is more prefixation than in verb final languages and may be some infixation. However, there is always some suffixation.
(161)
Modern Standard Arabic: Prefixes, infixes and suffixes
Pal- Ã<u>è<u:>d-u
Pal- ma- bD<u:>l
-at -u
DEF -< PL >effort
-NOM DEF-PART-<PASS>exert-F. SG-NOM
‘The extorted efforts’
(Ryding 2005:114)
– Usually the same categories indexed on the verb in verb final languages may be
similarly marked in verb initial languages.
• Auxiliaries:
6
In Berber, coordination is usually done with the preposition d ‘with.’ Usually just the first NP
triggers subject agreement on the verb.
86
CHAPTER 4. WORD ORDER
4.6. VERB INITIAL TYPOLOGY
– If any verbal categories are expressed by independent words, they are much
typically preverbal rather than postverbal.
(162)
Berber:
a.
Future (The future is formed with a “projective” marker):
idda ad-iddu
go PROJ-go
“he’s going to go”
b. Stative: perfect of ‘be’ + perfect of stative or intensive of action verb.
illa imŁqqur
be grown.up
“he is grown up”
c.
Past: perfect of ‘pass, pass by’ + perfect of V:
kk-ix
ssŁnx
pass-1 SG know-1 SG
“I used to know”
– Auxiliary elements often display independent verbal morphology, such as
agreement marking (also (162c)).
(163)
Modern Standard Arabic
kæ:n-a
Pal- Paula:du ja-tara:kidQ -u:na
was.3 SG . M DEF-children 3- race.around-PL . M
‘The children were racing around.’
(Harbert and Bahloul 2001)
∗ This is especially true of negation, modals, desideratives, and volitionals.
∗ This may also be the case for tense/aspect, passive, inchoative, and causatives.
(164)
Modern Standard Arabic:
(continuation)
DQ al:-a
hæ:Si m-uni ta- taqad:amu bi =hii Pas:in:-u
kept -3 SG . M Hashim-NOM 3 F-progress on=him DEF.years.F-NOM
‘Hashim was growing old’ (literally: ‘Hashim, the years keep progressing on
him’)
(Cantarino 1975:265)
• Object Clauses and Complements:
– Sentential objects always follow the subject and are often finite.
(165)
zri-x [is t-essudem Tifa Idir]
saw-I that she-kissed Tifa Idir
“I saw that Tifa kissed Idir”
87
(Berber)
4.6. VERB INITIAL TYPOLOGY
CHAPTER 4. WORD ORDER
– Complements of verbs like want, try, etc. always follow the main verb and are
often finite
• Adverbs Manner adverbs(, if they are a distinct category) follow the main verb
• Comparison The normal word order is [comparative marker + standard], with
the comparative marker being either a verb or a preposition, e.g. tall John from
Bill or tall John exceed Bill = John is taller than Bill.
4.6.4
Sentence Level Syntax
• Speech act indicators: (e.g. question particles) usually sentence initial, though
other positions are possible.
(166)
Berber:
a.
ghŁr-ssuq asŁkka
is ur nt-tŁddu
Q not PROJ +we+go to-market tomorrow
yes/no-question
“aren’t we going to market tomorrow?”
b. idd amŁqqran ag-ga
Q
big
that-PERF+he+be
yes/no-question, no verb
“is he important?”
• Subject positions: In verb initial languages, it is always possible to have the
subject in initial position in a clause. This is always pragmatically marked, e.g.
emphatic, contrastive, focussed, etc. When such a word order occurs, a particle or
some element often occurs between the subject and the rest of the clause.
(167) aryaz, [idda
gher-ssuq]
man PERF+he+go to-market
SVO (Berber)
“the man, he went to the market”
• Wh questions: Commonly formed by fronting of the question word. In situ
and rightward “moved” question words are also attested. However, there is no
tendency for the question word to appear in the canonical direct object position.
(168) ur-ssinŁx
ma-mi issiwŁl
not-I+know [who-to spoke]
embedded question (Berber)
I don’t know to whom he spoke”
• Subordination:
88
CHAPTER 4. WORD ORDER
Universal:
1
3, 4
2
4.6. VERB INITIAL TYPOLOGY
Parameter:
Correlation
V-O
prepositions
N-G
O-V
postpositions
G-N
N-M
M-N
N-RelCL
RelCl-N
22
16
9
12
main clauses
adpositions
genitive (possessor)
and head noun
head noun and modifier
relative clause and
head noun
comparatives
inflected auxiliaries
question particles
question words
Adj-Mkr-Std
Aux-V
sentence-initial
sentence initial
27
affixes
prefixes
Std-Mkr-Adj
V-Aux
sentence-final
sentence initial or
elsewhere
suffixes
17
24
Table 4.4: Summary of Greenberg’s word order correlations (Payne 1997:72).
– Markers of subordination such as nominalizers, complementizers, and subordinate conjunctions typically precede the subordinate clause.
(169) [ms d-idda
asŁkka] an-nkrŁz
if near-PERF+he+go tomorrow PROJ-we+plow
“if he comes tomorrow, we’ll plough”
(Berber)
– The main verb in a subordinate clause is typically finite
– Subordinate expressions invariably follow that to which they are subordinate
(see (165))
– Subordinate adverbial clauses normally follow the main clause
(170) ittŁr
i-rbbi tarwa
[mqqar at-tŁg
tahzizt]
to-god progeny though PROJ-she+be bastard
“he asked God for children even though they are bastards”
PERF+he+ask
• Coordinate sentences:
– These commonly appear as [CP and CP].
– The order [CP CP and] is not attested.
– The existence of overt clause-level coordinate conjunctions, especially or, may
be less common than in verb medial languages.
89
4.7. THE VERB-MEDIAL TYPOLOGY
4.7
CHAPTER 4. WORD ORDER
The Verb-Medial Typology
• The common wisdom: SVO languages tend to be “mixed” in their properties.
– SVO languages are intermediate between V-initial and V-final languages
– Very few, if any, V-initial languages that have postpositions.
– Greenberg: there are a fair number of V-medial languages with prepositions
and postpositions.
• In Dryer (1991): Are SVO languages intermediate between V-initial and V-final
languages?
– (perhaps) 603 languages
– SVO languages admit many exceptions to the correlations we saw on head
initial and head final languages
– There are some exceptionless generalizations about SVO languages that do
seem to hold, among them:
(171)
SVO Universals:
a.
SVO languages have clause-initial complementizers
b. SVO languages lack internally headed relative clauses
c.
SVO languages never have ergative case systems
• Clause-initial complementizers contrast with clause-final complementizers:
(172)
a.
we wondered [if he would arrive late].
b. [kono diken-wa gozyutten tor-eba], pasu dekiru
this test-TOP 50.points take-if
pass can
(Japanese)
“you can pass this test if you get 50 points”
• (We will deal with both head internal relative clauses and ergative case systems in
the very near future)
• How do SVO languages compare to V-initial and V-final languages?
• The Table 4.5 shows that SVO languages are overwhelmingly prepositional, just
as V-initial languages are. (I have put larger numbers in bold.)
• Dryer’s methodology: Languages are grouped into genera, each of which is
to correspond roughly to the subbranches of Indo-European (Slavic, Romance,
Germanic, Greek, Celtic, etc.)
90
CHAPTER 4. WORD ORDER
4.7. THE VERB-MEDIAL TYPOLOGY
Africa Eurasia SEAsia& Oc Aus-NewGui NAmer SAmer Total
V-fin& PoP
15
V-fin& PrP
3
proportionPoP .83
22
2
.92
5
0
1.00
16
0
1.00
23
0
1.00
16
97
0
5
1.00 avg.96
V-int&PoP
0
V-int&PrP
5
proportionPoP .00
0
1
.00
0
6
.00
0
1
.00
2
15
.12
2
3
.40
4
31
avg.09
V-med&PoP
3
V-med&PrP
15
proportionPoP .17
1
5
.17
0
12
.00
0
4
.00
0
4
.00
2
2
.50
6
42
avg.14
Table 4.5: Adpositions (Dryer 1991). PoP = postposition, Prp = preposition, “Africa”
includes the Semitic languages of southwestern Asia. “Eurasia” includes Europe
and Asia except for southeast Asia.
Africa Eurasia SEAsia&Oc Aus-NewGui NAmer SAmer Total
5
8
.38
11
4
.73
2
2
.50
2
4
.33
2
11
.15
3
3
.50
25
32
avg.43
V-med&RelN 0
V-med&NRel 19
% RelN
.00
0
5
.00
1
11
.08
0
3
.00
0
2
.00
0
2
.00
1
42
avg.01
V-int&RelN
V-int&NRel
% RelN
0
1
.00
0
3
.00
0
0
—
0
9
.00
0
3
.00
0
21
avg.00
V-fin&RelN
V-fin& NRel
% RelN
0
5
.00
Table 4.6: Noun+Relative Clause.
– All of his numbers represent the number of genera that have languages of a
given type, not to numbers of languages.
– The genera are split geographically.
– These measures are intended to correct number-of-languages bias and geographic bias.
– It is possible for a single genus to contain member languages that fall into
different typological groups. For example, a genus could contain languages that
are V-final and postpositional and languages that are V-final and prepositional.
In such cases, that genus is counted more than once in the tables.
Adpositions: The VO or OV is the relevant parameter
• Noun + Relative Clause: Table 4.6. SVO languages overwhelmingly pattern like
V-initial languages in showing a very strong tendency for prenominal relative
clauses.
91
4.8. NONCONFIGURATIONALITY
CHAPTER 4. WORD ORDER
• Order of Standard of Comparison and Adjective: V-medial languages pattern like
V-initial languages.
• Adverbial Subordinators and Clauses: SVO and V-initial languages pattern similarly
• Ways in which SVO and V-Initial Pattern Differently
– Order of Genitive and Noun: SVO languages seem to be mixed overall, while
V-initial shows a strong tendency for NGen.
– Position of Question Particles: While V-initial languages usually have clauseinitial question particles, V-medial languages seem to be mixed.
– Position of Interrogative Words: V-initial languages are almost always whmovement languages, while SVO is mixed.
• Summary: SVO is a weird head initial configuration
– Correlations between SVO and other properties is less strong
– Never ergative case systems
4.8
Nonconfigurationality
• Some languages seem to have very very free word order:
(173)
Passamaquoddy (Algonquian, Maine & New Brunswick)
a.
n-siwehs n-kisi- mil -a -n -ol
psite
oqitonu-l
::::: :::::::::
1-brother 1-PERF-give-DIR-N-INAN P all canoe-INAN P
‘I gave my brother all the canoes’
b. n-kisi- mil -a -n -ol
n-siwehs psite
oqitonu-l
::::: :::::::::
1-PERF-give-DIR-N-INAN P 1-brother all canoe-INAN P
‘I gave my brother all the canoes’
c.
psite
oqitonu-l
n-siwehs n-kisi- mil -a -n -ol
::::: :::::::::
all canoe-INAN P 1-brother 1-PERF-give-DIR-N-INAN P
‘I gave my brother all the canoes’
92
CHAPTER 4. WORD ORDER
(174)
4.8. NONCONFIGURATIONALITY
Warlpiri (Australian)
a.
ngarrka-ngku ka
wawirri panti-rni
man-ERG
PRES . IMPERF kangaroo spear- NON . PAST
‘the man is spearing the kangaroo’
b. ngarrka-ngku ka panti-rni
wawirri
ka ngarrka-ngku
wawirri
ka panti-rni
panti-rni
ka ngarrka-ngku
panti-rni
ka wawirri
wawirri
panti-rni
ngarrka-ngku
wawirri
ngarrka-ngku
‘the man is spearing the kangaroo’
(Legate 2002:17–18, attributed to Hale 1983:3)
• Nonconfigurational languages: Australian, Algonquian, many languages of the
Americas.
• Properties on nonconfigurational languages:
1. “free” word order
2. null anaphora
3. discontinuous “constituents”
– Free word order in (173)/(174)
– Null Anaphora is the absence of argument nominals. That is, the subject or
object (or both) can be omitted. In that case, the omitted items are interpreted
as pronominal:
(175) purra-nja -rla
nga-rnu
(Walpiri)
cook -INF-PRIOR C eat-PAST
‘having cooked (it), (he/she/it) ate (it)’
(Legate 2002:18, attributed to Laughren 1989:326)
(176)
a.
ngarrka-ngku ka panti-rni
man-ERG
aux spear-NON . PAST
‘the man is spearing it’
(Walpiri)
b. wawirri ka panti-rni
kangaroo AUX spear-NON . PAST
‘he/she is spearing the kangaroo’
c.
panti-rni
ka
spear-NON . PAST AUX
‘he/she is spearing it’
(Legate 2002:25, attributed to Hale 1983:7)
93
4.8. NONCONFIGURATIONALITY
CHAPTER 4. WORD ORDER
– Discontinuous “Constituents”
(177) maliki-rli -ji
yarlku-rnu wiri-ngki
dog -ER-1 SG . OBJ bite-PAST big-ERG
‘a big dog bit me’
(Walpiri)
(Legate 2001:89)
• Understanding many of the interesting properties of non-configurational languages
requires a background in syntax. So, we will not discuss them here in class.
However, for those with the background, here are some other properties of nonconfigurational languages.
Constituency.
• In many non-configurational languages, the verb and its object do not seem to
form a constituent. Warlpiri has a second-position AUX (really a C, Topic/Focus,
or T- position). Multiple words can precede the auxiliary as long as they form a
constituent. However, a verb and its object cannot precede AUX:
(178)
a.
warru- pu -ngu kala =lu kuyu
yapa -palu-rlu (Walpiri)
around-kill-PAST PAST=PL animal.ABS person-PL -ERG
‘the people used to kill animals all over’
b. * warru- pu -ngu kuyu
kala =lu
around-kill-PAST animal.ABS PAST=PL
c. * kuyu
warru- pu -ngu kala =lu
animal.ABS around-kill-PAST PAST=PL
– The order of pre-AUX verb and its object is irrelevant since both orders are
ungrammatical.
Binding and Corefernce.
• It is also difficult to find subject/object asymmetries in non-configurational languages. This is the reason that it was thought that these languages lacked phrase
structure.
– For example, in Warlpiri, Condition C does not show subject/object differences:
94
CHAPTER 4. WORD ORDER
(179)
4.8. NONCONFIGURATIONALITY
Walpiri
a.
jakamarra-kurlangu maliki
ka
nyanungu-rlu
J-POSS
dog.ABS PRES he-ERG
wajilipi-nyi
chase-NON . PAST
*”hei chases Jakamarrai ’s dog”
b. jakamarra-kurlangu maliki-rli ka
nyanungu wajilipi-nyi
J-POSS
dog-ERG PRES he.ABS
chase-NON . PAST
*’Jakamarrai ’s dog chases himi ’
(Legate 2002:232, attributed to Simpson 1991:181)
– In both cases, binding (or coreference) is impossible.
One interpretation of this pattern is that the subject c-commands the object and
the object c-commands the subject. This will guarantee a Condition C violation in
both cases.
• In the opposite way, Mohawk, an Algonquian language, a name contained inside
of the direct object can be coreferential with the subject:
(180)
Mohawk:
a.
wa’t-
ha- ya’k -e’
FACT. DUP - 1 S .S-break- PUNC
[N P ne thika Sak rao-a’share’]
ne that Sak M S P-knife
‘hei broke that knife of Saki ’s’
b. ro- ya’takehnh-a [N P thika ne Sak rao-a’share’]
MsO-hel
-stat
that ne Sak M S P-knife
‘that knife of Saki ’s is helping himi ’
– In Mohawk, it appears that Condition C is not operative. (However, the effects
of Condition C can be detected in other areas of the grammar.)
• However, it turns out that there are always some subject/object asymmetries.
(181)
a.
kurdu-jarra -rlu ka -pala-nyanu paka-rni
child -DUAL-ERG PRES-3 D S-REFL O strike-NON . PAST
‘the two children are striking themselves/each.other’
b. # ngarrka ka -nyanu -∅
nya-nyi
man.ABS PRES-RELF O-3 SG O see-NON . PAST
*‘himselfi sees the mani ’ (OK: ‘he sees himself as a man’)
95
(Warlpiri)
4.8. NONCONFIGURATIONALITY
CHAPTER 4. WORD ORDER
• The patient/object can be referentially dependent on the agent/subject, but the
subject cannot be an anaphor dependent on the patient/object. The reflexive
element in the examples above is a clitic, while the subject is an overt NP in
ergative case.
96
Chapter 5
Case
5.1
Case
• Languages have ways of marking nouns, pronouns, and other elements that is
connected to the grammatical role of noun phrases and/or their semantic role
• Case can be realized in various ways
(182) Suppletive forms for English pronouns:
a.
She loves him.
b. He loves her.
c. *She loves he.
d. *He loves she.
(183) Affixal casemarking:
a.
(German)
Der
Hund beisst den
Mann(German)
the. MASC . SG . NOM dog bites the. MASC . SG . ACC man
‘the dog bites the man’
b. Den
Hund beisst der
Mann
the. MASC . SG . ACC dog bites the.MASC . SG . NOM man
‘the man bites the dog’
97
5.1. CASE
CHAPTER 5. CASE
(184) Adpositional case marking:
a.
(Turkish)
hasan-∅
ol-du
hasan-NOM die-PAST
‘Hasan died’
ol -dur -du
b. ali-∅
hasan-i
ali-NOM hasan-ACC die-CAUSE-PAST
‘Ali killed Hasan’
c.
mudur-∅
mektub-u imzala-di
director-NOM letter-ACC sign-PAST
‘The director signed the letter’
imzala-t
-ti
d. ali-∅
mektub-u hasan-e
ali-NOM letter-ACC hasan-DAT sign -CAUSE-PAST
‘Ali got Hasan to sign the letter’
(185) Suprasegmental case markers:
a.
(Maasai, Nilo-Saharan; Kenya)
áN
E- tnyrr-á
en-kínè
(nominative goat)
3 SG-PERF-love-PERF FEM . SG-goat\NOM home.ACC
‘The goat has loved home’
b. E- tnyrr-á
en-kíné
âN
3 SG-PERF-love-PERF FEM . SG-goat\ACC our
‘he/she has loved our goat’
(186)
Somali (Afro-Asiatic; Somalia)
a. libàax ‘absolutive’
b. libaax ‘subject’
c. libááx ‘genitive’
• Languages differ in the number of cases that they have.
– (English: 2)
– Classical Arabic: 3
– German: 4
– Latin: 6
– Sanskrit, Avestan: 8
– Finnish (Finno-Ugric, Uralic): Table 5.1.
98
accusative goat
CHAPTER 5. CASE
5.1. CASE
Name
Affix
Example
Translation
nominative
genitive
essive
inessive
adessive
abessive
partitive
translative
ellative
illative
allative
ablative
comititative
instrumental
∅
-n
-na
-ssa
-lla
-tta
-(t)a
-ksi
-sta
-an, -en
-lle
-lta
-ne-n1
talo
talo-n
talo-na
talo-ssa
talo-lla
talo-tta
talo-a
talo-ksi
talo-sta
talo-on
talo-lle
talo-lta
taloi-ne-ni
talo-n
‘house’
‘of( )a house’
‘as (a) house’
‘in (a) house
‘at/in (a) house)
‘without a house’
‘house’ (as object)
‘to a house’
‘from a house’
‘into a house’
‘to (a) house’
‘from (a) house’
‘with my house’
‘with (aide of) a house
Table 5.1: Finnish Cases.
1
How to distinguish genitive from instrumental? I don’t
know Finnish.
Note: Finnish has either no prepositions or only one. Some of the ‘case markers’
in Table 5.1 do the kinds of things that appositions do in other languages.
• Common names for case common categories:
– Nominative (NOM): The case of subjects in finite clauses
– Accusative (ACC): The case of NP/DP complements of verbs with a single
NP/DP complement (devour, kill,. . . ), and nominative subjects
– Genitive (GEN): The case of possessors
– Dative (DAT): The case of recipients and beneficiaries
(see below for ergative and absolutive)
• Dependent elements may agree in case with the things that they depend on. This
is often called concord between the noun and its dependents:
(187)
German
a.
Der
liebe
Mann
the.M . SG . NOM dear.M . SG . NOM man.M . SG . NOM
hat die
Ente gegessen
has the.F. SG . ACC duck eaten
‘the dear man ate the duck’
99
5.1. CASE
CHAPTER 5. CASE
Case
nominative
vocative
accusative
Singular
genitive
dative
ablative
Plural
nominative
vocative
accusative
genitive
dative
ablative
‘master’ (masc)
‘mistress’ (fem)
domin-us
domin-e
domin-um
domin-ī
domin-ō
domin-ō
domin-a
domin-a
domin-am
domin-ae
domin-ae
domin-ā
domin-ī
domin-ī
domin-ōs
domin-ōrum
domin-īs
domin-īs
domin-ae
domin-ae
domin-ās
domin-ārum
domin-īs
domin-īs
Table 5.2: Latin case morphology. (v̄: long vowel)
b. Den
lieben
Mann
the.M . SG . ACC dear.M . SG . ACC man
hat die
Ente gegessen
has the.F. SG . NOM duck eaten
‘the duck ate the dear man’
c.
lieben
Mannes hat
Die
Ente des
has
the.F. SG . NM duck the.M . SG . GEN dear.M . SG . GEN man
das Telefon
gegessen
the telephone eaten
‘the dear man’s duck ate the telephone’
d. Dem
lieben
Mann(e)
the.M . SG . DAT dear.M . SG . DAT man
habe ich eine
Ente gegeben
have I a.F. SG . ACC duck given
‘I gave the dear man an duck’
• Case markers may be combinations of various features, Table 5.2. In Latin, the
case markers conflate case, gender, and number.
• Languages with extensive case systems often have rather free word order
• Case can interact with other aspects of syntactic structure:
– “Genitive of Negation” Construction (Russian, Polish, Lithuanian):
100
CHAPTER 5. CASE
(188)
5.2. CASE ALIGNMENTS
a.
(Polish)
mam
czas
have.1 SG time.ACC
‘I have time’
b. nie mam
czas-u
not have.1 SG time-GEN
‘I have no time’
– Modality affecting case marking (Japanese, Hindi-Urdu,. . . ):
(189)
a.
john-ga
nihongo-{o
/*ga}
hanas-(r)u
John-NOM Japanese-{ACC/ NOM} speak-(r)u
‘John speaks Japanese’
(Japanese)
b. john-ga
nihongo-{o
/ga}
hanas-(r)e-ru
john-NOM Japanese-{ACC/NOM} speak -can -(r)u
‘John can speak Japanese’
c.
5.2
john-ni
nihongo-{*o /ga}
hanas-(r)e-ru
John-DAT Japanese-{ ACC/NOM} speak -can -(r)u
‘John can speak Japanese’
(Kuno 1973)
Case Alignments
(190) Case Alignment: Pattern of morphological case marking on the nominal
arguments of transitive and intransitive verbs.
• Some terminology:
– S = Subject of an intransitive V
– A = Subject of a transitive V (the actor)
– P = Object of a transitive V
(191)
a.
Mary left.
Mary = S
b. Mary helped Bill.
Mary = A, Bill = P
• In English, subjects, S and A, appear in the same form. That is, they have the
same case:
101
5.2. CASE ALIGNMENTS
(192)
a.
CHAPTER 5. CASE
She left.
she = S
b. She helped bill.
she = A
• The case of a subject is different from the case of the object:
(193)
Bill helped {her / *she}.
her = P
• Nominative-accusative case alignment:
– Morphosyntactic coding of S (intransitive subject) and A (transitive subject) is
the same
∗ Both have the same case (nominative)
∗ Both agree with the same morphemes on verbs and auxiliaries
∗ Both appear in the same positions in the sentence
– Morphosyntactic coding of P is different from that of S/A
∗ The case of P in this system is called accusative
(194) Nominative-accusative case alignment:
A
P
S
Nominative Accusative
– Canonically, in nominative/accusative systems, nominative is the morphologically unmarked case.
(195) Cahuilla (Uto-Aztecan; Riverside County, California)
a.
S:∅
nichill chengenqa
woman dances
’the woman dances’
b. naxanish kukupqa
man
sleepy
‘the man is sleepy’
c.
S:∅
naxanish nichi’ll-i
nemiqa
::::::::
man
woman chase
‘the man chases the woman’
102
A : ∅, P : -i
CHAPTER 5. CASE
5.2. CASE ALIGNMENTS
– Distribution: European Indo-European languages, Niger-Congo, southeast Asia,
Semitic
• Ergative-absolutive alignment:
(196)
a.
(West Greenlandic, Eskimo-Aleut; Greenland)
oli
sinippoq
oli.ABS sleep-IND . INTR .3 SG
‘Oli sleeps’
neqi
neri-vaa
b. oli-p
:::::
oli-ERG meat.ABS eat-IND . TR .3 SG .3 SG
‘Oli eats meat’
– S and P, the subject of intranstive verbs and the object of a transitive verb have
the same morphosyntactic coding (case, agreement, position)
– The case of S and P is called absolutive
– A, the subject of a transitive verb, appears with different morphosyntactic
coding from S/P.
– The case of A is called ergative.
– In ergative/absolutive systems absolutive is typically morphologically unmarked
(197)
Yalarnnga (Pama-Nyungan, Australia):
a.
intransitive subject = absolutive
kupi waya kunu-Nka
fish that water-LOCATIVE
‘that fish is in the water’
b. kupi-Nku milNa t, aca-mu
fish-ERG fly
bite-PAST
‘the fish bit the fly’
c.
transitive subject = ergative
transitive object = absolutive
Na-tu kupi wala-m
I-ERG fish kill-PAST
‘I killed the fish’
(adapted from Mallinson and Blake 1981)
(198) Ergative-Absolutive alignment:
A
P
S
Ergative
Absolutive
103
5.2. CASE ALIGNMENTS
CHAPTER 5. CASE
– Startling (possible) fact: There are no SVO ergative languages. Only verb
peripheral languages have ergative case alignments.
– Distribution: Australian languages, Indo-Aryan languages of south Asia, Dravidian, Caucasian
• The S, A, and P group together in five ways.
– The most common are: Nominative-accusative and Ergative-Absolutive
– Other alignments are rare or unattested
• 3-way Marking (aka tripartite or mixed system):
(199) 3-Way System:
A
P
S
– S 6= A 6= P
– 3-way systems are very rare and reported only for the Pama-Nyungan language
Wangkumara.
– Two other Pama-Nyungan languages, Duungidjawu and Dhalandji, are reported
to be approximate 3-way systems:
(200)
a.
kan, a-ulu kalka-Na t, it, i-n, an, a
man-ERG hit-PAST dog-FEM . ACC
‘the man hit the bitch’
b. kan, a-ia
palu-Na
man-NOM die-PAST
‘the man died’
(???, Pama-Nyungan)
(Mallinson and Blake 1981)
• A system in which A, P, and S are all marked in the same way is unattested:
(201)
Unattested system:
A
P
S
– Or very common, depending on the analysis.
104
CHAPTER 5. CASE
5.2. CASE ALIGNMENTS
– If we just look at case, all languages without morphological case are like this
– We will see later that case alignment correlates with many other properties
– No language treats S, A and P the same for all these other properties
• A system in which A and P are marked the same, but S is marked differently is
unattested:
(202)
Unattested system:
A
P
S
• Summary:
– Of the five possible alignment systems, only 2 are robustly attested. Two are
unattested.
– Alignment is introduced here in terms of morphological case, but alignments
systems affect many properties that we will see later on.
• Active(/Stative) System: And now something completely different
– Active(/Stative) systems are also called,“Split Intransitive” or “Split S” languages.
– Intransitive verbs split into two classes.
(203)
a.
bere-k imgars
child-k 3 SG .cry
‘the child cries’
b. bere-∅
oxori-s
doskidu
::
child-NOM house-DAT 3 SG.stay
‘the child stayed in the house’
c.
(Laz, Kartvelian; Caucasus)
skiri-s
cxeni-∅
baba-k mec, caps
::
father-k 3 SG.give.3 SG .3 SG child-DAT horse-NOM
‘the father gives a horse to his child’
– Many Caucasian (Kartvelian branch) languages, languages of the Americas
(Guarani, Siouan (e.g. Lakhota) have active systems.
– In most split intransitive languages of the New World, the active/stative distinction is not marked on nouns generally. Instead, the verb morphology encodes
the case distinctions.
105
5.2. CASE ALIGNMENTS
CHAPTER 5. CASE
– The properties that determine which intransitives fall into which class varies
– Guarani: The basis of the intransitive split is (lexical) aspect:
(204)
a.
(Guarani, Tupi, Paraguay)
a-xá
‘I go’
b. šé-rasí
::
‘I am sick’
c. a-gwerú aína
‘I am bringing them now’
d. šé-rerahá
::
‘it will carry me off’
∗ Verbs that denote dynamic events occur with a- subject marking, (204a).
· Same marking as for A: (204c)
∗ Verbs that denote states occur with šé- subject marking, (204b).
· Same marking as for P (204d)
– In Central Pomo, the intransitive split is conditioned by agency.
∗ Participant subjects viewed as “performers, effectors, instigators, and controllers” occur with P a.
(205)
a.
P
a phdíw P e
‘I jumped’
b.
P
a mutu P éyčadiw
‘I chased him away’
c.
P
(Central Pomo, Hokan; California)
a béda P čháw
‘I live here’
∗ Participants viewed as not being agents take to marking.
(206)
P
to
thál
::
‘I’m sick’
P
b. mul to
éyčadiw
::
‘he chased me away’
c. to
lóya
::
‘I fell’
(207)
a.
a.
(Central Pomo, Hokan; California)
P
a čhném
‘I ran into it’
b. to čhném
‘I bumped into it (not watching)’
(Central Pomo, Hokan; California)
• Other sources for this handout: Bruening 2004, Manning 1996.
106
CHAPTER 5. CASE
5.3
5.3. SYNTACTIC ERGATIVITY
Syntactic Ergativity
• We have been discussing ergativity in terms of the morphology on nominals.
• Languages where only nominal morphology or verbal agreement are ergative/absolutive
are called morphologically ergative
• “Syntactic” ergativity exists when there are syntactic rules or processes that are
sensitive to the ergative-absolutive distinction
• Agreement: Hindi-Urdu
(208)
a.
Agreement with nominative subject:
ve
lar.kiyã: akhbaar
par.h-tii
thı̃:
(Hindi-Urdu)
those girl.F. PL newspaper.M read-HAB . F be.PST. F. PL
‘Those girls used to read (a/the) newspaper.’
b. No agreement with ergative subject:
Rahul-ne
kitaab par.h-ii
thii
Rahul.M-ERG book.F read-PFV. F be.PST. F. SG
‘Rahul had read the book.’
(Bhatt and Walkow 2013:954)
– Disclaimer: Agreement is about the only syntactic process that ergatives are
excluded from in Hindi-Urdu. Otherwise Hindi-Urdu is a morphologically
ergative language
– Finding that verbal agreement is the only syntactic process sensitive to the
ergative/absolutive distinction is not unusual.
∗ Agreement is often with the morphologically least marked argument.
∗ In ergative/absolutive languages that is the absolutive.
• Wh-movement: Mam (Mayan)
– The transitive patient (absolutive) can be wh-questioned:
(209) alkyee-qa x-hi
tzaj ttzyu -7n Cheep
who-PL REC . DEP -3 PL . ABS DIR 3 S . ERG-grab-DS jose
“who did jose grab?”
(Mam)
– The transitive agent (ergative) cannot be wh-questioned:
(210) *alkyee saj
ttzyu -7n kab’ xiinaq
who REC . DEP.3 SG . ABS . DIR 3 SG . ERG-grab-DS two men
“who grabbed the men?”
107
(Mam)
5.4. CASE BEYOND S, A AND P
CHAPTER 5. CASE
– To wh-question a transitive agent, it be turned into an absolutive by an additional
process.
• Relative clause formation: Tongan
– Absolutives can be relativized using the gap strategy similar to English
(211)
Tongan (Polynesian; Tonga)
a.
Relativized absolutive object:
ko
e hā
‘a e me’a na’e hoko
ki
PRED the what ABS the thing PST happen to
he tamaikii [na’a ke taulu’I
i]
the children PAST 2 SG scold
“what is the thing that happened to the children that you are scolding?”
b. Relativized absolutive subject:
na’a ku fie
lea
ki he sianai [kuo ‘alu
PERF go
PST 1 SG want speak to the man
“I wanted to speak to the man who has gone”
i]
– Ergatives must be relativized using a presumptive pronoun
(212)
Tongan (Polynesian; Tonga)
a.
Relativized ergative subject:
na’a mau
tuli
PST 1 PL . EXCL chase
e tangatai [na’a *(nei ) kaiha’asi ‘a e telefisi]
3 SG steal
ABS the television
ABS the man
PST
“we chased the man who stole the television”
‘a
– Relativization with presumptive pronouns does not involve movement. So the
contrast suggests that ergatives cannot be moved.
5.4
5.4.1
Case beyond S, A and P
Non-Canonical Subjects
• Case marking languages often have constructions with “non-canonical” case
marking
• What does it mean to be a subject if you don’t have “subject case” (or control
subject agreement, or appear in “subject position”?)
108
CHAPTER 5. CASE
5.4. CASE BEYOND S, A AND P
• Two examples of using other diagnostics to determine subject status:
– Control infinitives: Dative subjects in Hindi-Urdu and Icelandic
– Honorification: Dative subjects in Japanese
• Dative “subjects:” Hindi-Urdu vs Icelandic
– Experiencers occasionally appear with the dative case in both languages:
(213)
a.
Ram-ko Mona-∅
pasand aa-ii
Ram-DAT Mona.F-NOM like
come-PFV. F
“Ram liked Mona.”
b. Henni leidd-u-st
þeir
she.DAT was.bored.by-3 PL they.NOM
‘She was bored with them’
(Rajesh Bhatt, p.c.)
(Taraldsen 1995:307)
∗ Case: The theme appears in nominative case
∗ Agreement: the theme controls agreement with the verb
∗ Order: Hind-Urdu: SOV, Icelandic: SVO
Subject properties are split between the dative and the nominative
– A subject diagnostic: Absence in control infinitives
∗ A form of embedding where an argument of the matrix clause (here the
subject) is identical to that of the subject of the embedded clause
(214)
Peter {wants/tries} [to eat].
(Peter = eater)
∗ English (and many other languages): When the matrix and the embedded
subject are the same, the embedded clause has to be non-finite, without a
complementizer and the downstairs subject is unpronounced.
– Hindi-Urdu and Icelandic differ in control environments:
(215)
a.
Dative remains in control infinitives:
mãı̃i [Ram-ko
nahı̃: caah-taa
i pasand aa-naa]
I.M Ram-DAT
like
come-INF NEG want-HAB . M . SG
‘I don’t want Ram to like me.’
(Rajesh Bhatt, p.c.)
b. Dative omitted in control infinitives:
Viði
reyndum [ i að leiðast hún
ekki]
we.NOM tried.1PL
to be-bored she.NOM not
“We tried not to be bored with her.”
(Taraldsen 1995:322)
– This suggests that the experiencer datives in Icelandic are true dative subjects,
and that those in Hindi are not
109
5.4. CASE BEYOND S, A AND P
CHAPTER 5. CASE
• Japanese:
– Japanese is a case marking language, with something like a nominative/accusative
system.
(216) Ken-ga
Ai-ni
hon-o
yat-ta
Ken-NOM Ai-DAT book-ACC give-PST
‘Ken gave a book to Ai’
(Japanese, Altaic)
– Japanese also has a set of verbs (and verb-like elements) that occur with dative
subjects, not nominative subjects:
(217)
a.
boku-ni (wa) okane-ga
hituyoo da
I-DAT TOP money-NOM necessity be
‘I need money’
(Japanese)
b. Ken-ni
(wa) eigo-ga
hanas-e
-ru
Ken-DAT TOP english-NOM speak -POTEN-PRS
‘Ken can speak English’
– Although they display dative case, there is evidence that dative-marked subjects
are indeed subjects, not indirect objects.
∗ Japanese has special honorific affixes that occur on verbs when the subject
refers to someone worthy of respect: the verb is replaced by the verbal
complex o-V-ni naru, literally, “to become V-ing.”
(218)
a.
sensei-ga
ik-u
teacher-NOM go-PRES
‘the teacher goes’
b. sensei-ga
o- iki-ni
nar-u
teacher-NOM HON-go-ADV become-PRES
‘the teacher goes’
Plain (Japanese)
Subject Honorific
∗ Objects trigger a different form of honorification: The verb is replaced by
o-V suru, literally, “do V-ing”.
(219)
a.
Ken-ga
sensei-o
tauke-ta
Plain (Japanese)
Ken-NOM teacher-ACC assist-PAST
‘Ken assisted the teacher’
b. Ken-ga
sensei-o
o-tasuke
si-ta
Object Honorific
Ken-NOM teacher-ACC HON-assist do-PAST
‘Ken assisted the teacher’
c. # Ken-ga
sensei-o
o- tasuke-ni
na-ta
Ken-NOM teacher-ACC HON-assist -ADV become-PAST
‘ken assisted the teacher’ (Ken is honorified, not the teacher)
110
CHAPTER 5. CASE
5.4. CASE BEYOND S, A AND P
– Dative subjects trigger subject honorification, while dative objects trigger object
honorification:
(220)
a.
Ken-ga
sensei-ni
at-ta
Dative Object (Japanese)
Ken-NOM teacher-DAT meet-PST
‘Ken met the teacher’
b. Ken-ga
sensei-ni
o-ai
si-ta
Object Honorific
Ken-NOM teacher-DAT HON-meet do-PST
‘Ken met the teacher’
(221)
a.
sensei-ni
(wa) eigo-ga
wakar-u
Dative Subject
teacher-DAT TOP English-NOM understand-PRESENT
‘the teacher understands English’
b. Subject Honorific
sensei-ni
(wa) eigo-ga o- wakari
-ni
na-ru
teacher-DAT TOP English HON-understand-ADV become-PRESENT
‘the teacher understands English’
– The fact that dative subjects and objects trigger honorification, just like nominative and accusative subjects and objects suggests that they are subjects and
objects, even though they have unexpected case marking.
• Summary:
– “Non-canonical subject” may lump together very different phenomena
– “Subject” is not a monolithic concept:
∗ Properties of case and agreement may be separated from positional properties
∗ Other (morpho) syntactic processes can be adduced to determine subject
status
5.4.2
Differential Object Marking
• Differential object marking: Case morphology may depend on properties like
animacy or specificity.
• Differential marking for specific objects:
(222)
a.
hasan
okuz-u aldi
Hasan.nom ox-ACC buy.PAST.3 SG
‘Hasan bought the ox’
b. hasan
bir okuz aldi
Hasan.NOM a ox buy.PAST.3 SG
‘Hasan bought an ox (some ox or other)’
111
(Turkish)
5.4. CASE BEYOND S, A AND P
c.
CHAPTER 5. CASE
hasan
bir okuz-u aldi
Hasan.NOM a ox-ACC buy.PAST.3 SG
‘Hasan bought a certain ox’
(223)
Spanish (Romance, Indo-European)
a.
estoy
buscando un estudiante
1SG . PRES . PROG look.for a student
non-specific
‘I’m looking for a student’ (I need someone to help me with these
packages)
b. estoy
buscando a
un estudiante
1 SG . PRES . PROG look.for ACC a student
specific
‘I’m looking for a student’ (I need to return her homework to her)
(224)
Persian/Farsi (Indo-European; Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan)
a.
b. hasan yek ketāb did
hasan a book saw
hasan ketāb-rā did
Hasan book-ACC saw
‘Hasan saw the book’
‘hasan saw a book’
• Differential marking based on animacy: Varieties of Leíata Spanish (Ormazabal
and Romero 2007)
– Two types of object pronoun, one animate, one unmarked
Acc.:
Animate:
Unmarked:
Dat.:
Masc.:
Fem.:
le
lo
la/le
la
le
Table 5.3: 3-clitics in leísta Spanish (Ormazabal and Romero 2007:320).
– (Animate pronoun is syncretic with dative, which is common)
(225)
a.
lo
3ACC[−Animate]
“I saw it”
b. le
3ACC[+Animate]
“I saw him”
(varieties of leísta Spanish)
vi
saw
vi
saw
(Ormazabal and Romero 2007:231)
112
CHAPTER 5. CASE
5.5. OTHER SYSTEMS OF ARGUMENT MARKING
– In certain contexts, use of the animate pronoun is blocked and the unmarked
one is used
• Differential object marking based on multiple properties is also common
Example: Hindi-Urdu: Specific objects tend to receive differential marking.
Animate objects tend to get differential object marking.
• Summary:
– The grammatical relation between verbs and direct objects can be affected by
additional factors
– This makes identification of a case marking pattern more difficult
Taken together, non-canonical subject marking, split case systems, and differential
object marking can substantially complicate the picture of morphological case in
a language
5.5
5.5.1
Other Systems of Argument Marking
Topic Marking Languages
• The Western Austronesian languages, especially the Philippine languages like
Tagalog, the Formosan languages of Taiwan, and languages like Malagasy are
famous for their “voicing” systems.
• Roughly, the form of the verb encodes which nominal is a topic or prominent in
some way.
– The different verb forms are referred to by a number of names. The “nominative
pivot” in (226a) is also called the “actor topic”, “active voice”, etc.
• Malagasy (Austronesian; Madagascar):
– Often described as a VOS language
– Roughly, Malagasy verbs have five forms: nominative pivot (NOM P), accusative
pivot (ACC P), dative pivot, circumstantial pivot (CIRC P), and translative pivot
(TRN P).
(226)
Malagasy
a.
Pivot = agent
mamono akoho amin-‘ny antsy ny mpamboly
NOM P.kill chicken with-the knife the farmer
‘the farmer kills the chicken with the knife’
113
5.5. OTHER SYSTEMS OF ARGUMENT MARKING
CHAPTER 5. CASE
b. Pivot = patient
vonoin-‘ny
mpamboly amin-‘ny antsy ny akoho
ACC P.kill-the farmer
with-the knife the chicken
‘the chickens, the farmer is killing (them) with a knife’
c.
Pivot = instrument
amonoan-‘ny mpamboly akoho ny antsy
CIRC P.kill-the farmer
chicken the knife
‘the knife, the farmer is killing the chickens (with it)’
d. Translative pivot (instrument)
nadidin -’ny vehivavy ny mofo ny antsy
PAST - TRN P.cut-the woman the bread the knife
‘the knife, the woman cut the bread (with it)’
– Circumstantial and translative pivot: Preposition ami that appears with the pivot
otherwise is missing.1
– (Notice that the word for “the” is often attached to the preceding word, even
though it does not “go with” that word, e.g. vonoin-’ny “accP.kill-the”.)
– In terms of the pivot morphology, the language is V. . . Pivot
• Tagalog:
– The form of the verb varies according to what is the topic. This is very much
like Malagasy.
– Agents and patients marked with ng, unless they are topics. Topics occur with
ANG - prefix.
(227)
Tagalog (Austronesian; The Philippines)
a.
Actor topic:
mag-salis ang babae ng bigas sa sako parasa bata
A -will.take TOP woman ng rice
P sack BEN
child
‘the woman will take rice out of a/the sack for a/the child’
b. Patient topic:
alisin
ng babae ang bigas sa sako parasa bata
O .will.take ng woman TOP rice
P sack BEN
child
‘a/the woman will take the rice out of a/the sack for a/the child’
1
(i)
Compare for (226d):
Pivot = agent
n-andidy
mofo tamin-’ny antsy ny vehivavy
PAST - NOM P.cut bread PAST-with -the knife the woman
‘the woman cut bread with the knife’
114
(Malagasy)
CHAPTER 5. CASE
5.5. OTHER SYSTEMS OF ARGUMENT MARKING
c.
Location topic:
aalisan
ng babae
ng bigas ang sako parasa bato
TOP sack BEN
child
LOC .will.take ng womanh ng rice
‘a/the woman will take rice out of the sack for a/the child’
d. Benefactor topic:
ipag-salis
ng babae ng bigas sa sako ang bata
BEN -will.take ng woman ng rice
P sack TOP child
‘a/the woman will take rice out of a/the sack for the child’
– Topic marking affects interpretation:
∗ Nouns without topic marking can be read as definite or indefinite
∗ Topic marked nouns are read as definite or topical. E.g. babae in (227) a. vs
b.
(This is common across languages: Indefinites are bad topics)
– Unlike in Malagasy, there is no interaction between word order and topic
marking
• In Tagalog, as in Malagasy, there are a number of syntactic effects related to which
verb form is used. For example, in Tagalog, it is not possible to form wh-questions
on non-topics:
(228)
a.
sino ang hinalikan ni Maria
who ang DT.kissed ni maria
“direction topic” (Tagalog)
‘who did Mary kiss?’
b. * sino ang humalik si Maria
who ANG AT.kissed si maria
“actor topic”
‘who did Mary kiss?’
• For languages like Tagalog, there are two principal analyses.
– The “nominative/accusative” analysis:
∗ The alternation in (227) a. vs b. is active/passive.
∗ The marker ang is nominative.
∗ Under this view, (227b) is a passive sentence because the patient has been
“promoted” to nominative.
– The “ergative/absolutive” analysis:
∗ ang as a marker of absolutive case.
∗ Thus, the verb agrees with the absolutive nominal.
115
5.5. OTHER SYSTEMS OF ARGUMENT MARKING
Analysis:
CHAPTER 5. CASE
Nominitive/Accusative
Ergative/Absolutive
active
passive
antipassive
active
Actor focus:
Patient focus:
Table 5.4: Two analyses of topic marking.
∗ Under this analysis, (227a) is “antipassive” (a construction we‘ll discuss
later). “Antipassive” is a process that takes an ergative nominal and “promotes” it to absolutive, similar to the way “passive” takes an accusative
nominal promotes it to nominative.
∗ Facts like (228) would be related to bans on questioning ergative arguments
Table 5.4 summarizes how the two types of analyses treat actor and patient focus.
• While many languages have special strategies to mark topics (special positions,
special morphology), morphosyntactic systems of pivot or topic marking like
Tagalog or Malagasy seem to be restricted to Austronesian.
5.5.2
Direct-Inverse Systems
• A Direct-Inverse system of nominal marking is built around a nominal hierarchy:
(229)
1st /2nd person pronoun
3rd person pronoun
proper name/kin term
human
animate
inanimate
– Similar hierarchies affect splits in split ergative languages (Silverstein 1976).
– The hierarchy is sometimes called the Silverstein hierarchy
• Direct/Inverse marking
– “Direct” verbal marking is used when an entity higher on the hierarchy acts on
or affects an entity lower in the hierarchy.
– ”Inverse” verbal marking is used when an entity lower on the hierarchy acts on
or affects an entity higher on the hierarchy.
(230)
a.
I attacked it.
(direct context)
b. It attacked me.
(inverse context)
116
CHAPTER 5. CASE
5.5. OTHER SYSTEMS OF ARGUMENT MARKING
• Direct-Inverse languages are not common, but the Algonquian languages of North
America are well-known for their direct-inverse systems. In addition, directinverse systems are found in some Australian, Tibeto-Burman, and Nootkan
languages.
• Algonquian languages additionally order person categories: 2nd > 1st > 3rd
(231)
Plains Cree (Algonquian; Canada, USA)
a.
Direct
ni-wāpam-ā -w
1- see
-DIR-3
‘I see him/her’
b. ni-wāpam-ikw -w
1- see
-INV-3
Inverse
‘s/he sees me’
• An additional “wrinkle” in many Algonquian languages: Proximate/obviative
distinctions
– In transitive clauses with two third person participants there is a distinction
between “obviative” and “proximate” 3rd persons.
– The terms “proximate” and “obviative” roughly refer to entities that are given
or known in a discourse (proximate) and those that are not given or new in a
particular discourse (obviative).
(232)
a.
asam-ē -w napew-∅ atim-wa
feed -DIR-3 man-PROX dog-OBV
‘the man feeds a dog’
(Plains Cree)
b. asam-ekw-w napew-wa atim-∅
feed -INV-3 man-OBV dog-PROX
‘a man feeds the dog’
– Proximate/obviate marking:
∗ (232a): napew, “man,” is more established in the discourse than atim, “dog.”
napew “man” gets direct marking, atim, “dog,” gets inverse.
∗ (232b): Status and marking of the two arguments is reversed.
– Direct/Inverse marking:
∗ (232a): Proximate subject and obviate object lead to direct marking.
∗ (232b): Proximate object and obviate subject leads to inverse marking.
Proximate arguments are treated as being higher on the hierarchy, but they
receive the higher status from their role in discourse, not inherent properties
like animacy or humanness.
117
5.6. CASE: A SUMMARY
CHAPTER 5. CASE
• Direct/inverse marking interacts with wh-movement:
– Direct: Only agent can be questioned
– Inverse: Only patient can be questioned
5.6
Case: A summary
• Different systems of argument marking are sensitive to many of the same distinctions:
– Silverstein hierarchy describes relevant distinctions in ergative splits and direct
inverse systems, differential object marking.
– Discourse status/definiteness/indefiniteness affect differential object marking,
direct/obviative marking and Austonesian-style topic marking
– Only some arguments are available for all syntactic processes (absolutives,
topics)
Grammars have different systems of argument marking, but the different systems
are sensitive to similar kinds of distinctions.
• Systems of argument marking often designate one argument that is available for
all kinds of syntactic operations, and others that are unavailable
– Absolutives can be agreed with/extracted, ergatives cannot
– Pivots/Topics can be agreed with/extracted, non-pivots topics cannot
– Direct/inverse shifts whether A or P can be extracted
Notions like “subject” and “object” can be problematic across languages, but
argument marking systems seem to designate certain arguments that are available
for grammatical processes, and ones that are not.
• Table 5.5: Some numbers on the frequency of case marking systems and where
the case is marked.
– Nichols’ sample includes 155 languages
– Siewierska’s sample includes 237 languages.
One language can get counted multiple times if it has making on pronouns and
nouns for example.
• Findings from Nichols (1992) and Siewerska (1996):
– Nominative/accusative systems are the most common, followed by ergative/absolutive.
– Direct-Inverse is exclusively marked on the verb, never on the noun.
118
CHAPTER 5. CASE
5.6. CASE: A SUMMARY
Pronoun
Nominative
Ergative
Active
Direct-Inverse
Tripartite
65
11
0
0
4
Noun
Verb
Total
Pronoun
Noun
Verb
Total
45
29
0
0
0
88
15
22
8
1
198
55
22
8
5
82
28
1
0
6
63
41
0
0
4
131
15
13
4
0
276
84
14
4
10
(Nichols 1992)
(Siewierska 1996)
Table 5.5: Frequencies of Case Marking.
– Active-Stative/Split-S is almost always marked on the verb, not nouns or pronouns.
– Tripartite is almost always marked on the nouns or pronouns, but rarely on
verbs. But, given the sample size, it is not clear what to make of this.
119
5.6. CASE: A SUMMARY
CHAPTER 5. CASE
120
Chapter 6
Questions
6.1
Typology of Wh-Questions
• A “wh-question” is a question that involves a “wh-phrase” (or “wh-word”).
– The set of wh-phrases in English includes: who, what, when, where, why, how,
how many, which, etc.
(233)
Mary saw Bob.
declarative
b. Who did Mary see?
wh-question
a.
– In (233b), the wh-word who corresponds to the direct object Bob in (233a).
– In English, wh-words typically appear in clause-initial position. As can be seen
by comparing (233a) to (233b), the wh-word occurs in a different position from
a non-wh direct object like Bob.
• Not all languages are like this:
(234)
a.
SVO declarative (Mandarin Chinese)
ni mai-le niu-nai
you buy-perf milk
“you bought milk”
b. ni mai-le shenme
you buy-perf what
SVO question
“what did you buy?”
c. * shenme ni mai-le
what
you buy-perf
*OSV question
“what did you buy?”
• English is a wh-movement language
121
6.1. TYPOLOGY OF WH-QUESTIONS
CHAPTER 6. QUESTIONS
• Mandarin Chinese is a wh in-situ language
• Some languages seem to have optional wh-movement
(235)
Babine-Witsuwit’en (Athabaskan; British Columbia)
a.
SOV
Lillian dus yunket
Lillian cat 3 SG.bought.3 SG
“Lillian bought a cat”
b. * dus Lillian yunket
cat Lillian 3 SG.bought.3 SG
*OSV
“Lillian bought a cat”
c.
SwhV
Lillian ndu yunket
Lillian what 3sg.bought.3sg
“what did Lillian buy?”
d. ndu Lillian yunket
what Lillian 3sg.bought.3sg
whSV
“what did Lillian buy?”
(236)
(Denham 1997)
Lebanese Arabic (Semitic; Lebanon)
a.
Saft
miin mbeeriè
see.PERF.2 SG . MASC who yesterday
wh in-situ
“who did you see yesterday?"
mbeeriè
b. miin Saft
who see.PERF.2 SG . MASC yesterday
“who did you see yesterday?”
(237)
a.
kofi dii
nsuo nam
kofi eat. PAST water flesh
wh clause-initial
(based on Aoun and Choueiri 1999)
(Asante Twi, Kwa; Ghana)
“kofi ate a fish”
b. kofi dii
den
kofi eat. PAST what
wh in-situ
“what did kofi eat?”
c.
wh clause-initial
den na kofi diiye
what na kofi eat. PAST
“what did kofi eat?”
122
CHAPTER 6. QUESTIONS
Wh in-situ:
Initial wh:
Proportion wh-in situ:
6.1. TYPOLOGY OF WH-QUESTIONS
V-Final
SVO
V-Initial
56
26
71%
31
21
42%
6
23
16%
Table 6.1: Wh-movement and headedness (Dryer 1991).
• General Typological Remarks:
– While there are many languages that move a wh-phrase to the left (or to a
sentence initial position) to form wh-questions, there are not any well-studied
cases of languages that move a wh-phrase to the right to form wh-questions.
That is, if a wh-phrase moves to form a wh-question, it moves leftwards and
not rightwards.
– There is a rough correlation between word order and wh-movement: OV
languages are much more likely NOT to move a wh-phrase to form questions
than VO languages. This is essentially Greenberg’s Universal 12, (238).
(238) Universal 12 :
a.
If a language has dominant order VSO in declarative sentences, it always
puts interrogative words or phrases first in interrogative word questions;
b. If it has dominant SOV order in declarative sentences, there is never
such an invariant rule.
(Greenberg 1966)
– Dryer (1991) found that Greenberg’s Universal 12 holds as a tendency, Table
6.1.
• There are some languages, where wh-questioned subjects occur on the right edge
of the clause. In a number of West Chadic (a subbranch of Afro-Asiatic) languages,
in particular those in the eastern part of the West Chadic area, this is exactly what
happens in simple monoclausal wh-questions.
(239)
a.
Bamoi à
kàppà
mòrâo
Bamoi 3 SG plant.fut millet
SVO (Bole, Chadic; Nigeria)
“Bamoi will plant millet”
b. ǹ kàppū mòrâo
I plant millet
SVO
“I planted millet”
c.
VOS[wh]
kàppū mòrâo lò
plant millet who
“who planted millet?”
123
6.2. A WH-MOVEMENT LANGUAGE
6.2
CHAPTER 6. QUESTIONS
A Wh-Movement Language
• Example: English
• In simple clauses: Wh-movment is obligatory for all wh-types:
(240)
Subject questions:
a.
Bill left
b. Who left?
– Wh-movement cannot be detected in subject questions in main clauses in
English
(241)
Object questions:
a.
John saw Mary.
b. Who did John see?
c. #John saw who?
(242)
(X as echo question)
Relative clauses:
a.
the man [who Bill saw]
b. *the man [Bill saw who]
– (242b) would be a head-internal relative clause
(243)
Pied piping and preposition stranding:
a.
Bill gave a book to John.
b. To whom did Bill give a book?
c.
Who did Bill give a book to?
pied piping
preposition stranding
– Pied piping is more common than preposition stranding
(244)
Adjunct questions:
a.
John left yesterday. vs When did John leave?
b. John left because he was angry. vs Why did John leave?
c.
John left by boat. vs How did John leave?
124
CHAPTER 6. QUESTIONS
6.2. A WH-MOVEMENT LANGUAGE
• Complex Clauses: Long distance movement is necessary
(245)
a.
John thinks [that Bill saw Mary].
b. Who does John think [that Bill saw]?
c. #John thought [that Bill saw who]?
(echo question only)
d. *John thought [who that Bill saw]
(246)
The that-trace Effect:
a. * Who did John think [that
b. Who did John think [
saw Mary?]
saw Mary]?
– Subjects cannot move if the complementizer that is present
– Subject movement is detectable in long distance movement
(247) Who did John [think that Mary gave a book to
(248) How did Mary think [that John fixed the car
?]
?]
(249) Who did John think [that Mary said [that Bill saw
?]]
(250) Who did John think [that Mary said [that Bill believes [that Terry saw
]]]?
• Indirect questions: Wh-phrases move, but not to the beginning of the matrix
clause.
(251)
a.
John knows [that Bill saw Mary].
b. John knows [who Bill saw].
c. *John knows [Bill saw who.]
(252)
a.
John thinks [that Bill asked [who Mary saw
b. *John thinks [who Bill asked Mary [saw
.]]
]].
c. * Who does John think [that Bill asked [that Mary saw
125
]]?
6.3. NO MOVEMENT TO THE LEFT EDGE
6.3
CHAPTER 6. QUESTIONS
Languages without Wh-movement to the left edge
• Some languages do not move wh-phrases to an IP edge position. These are wh
in-situ or wh-movement languages. There are three subclasses.
– Wh in-situ languages:
1) Without question marker
2) With question marker
3) Wh-movement to a preverbal position
6.3.1
Class 1: No movement & no question marker
• No wh-movement and no overt question (scope) marker
(253)
Bangla (Indo-European; Bangladesh)
a.
jon kon
boi-Ta poRlo
John which book-CL read
SOV
“which book did John read?”
b. jon [ke cole gæche] bollo
John who left gone
said
“Who did John say left?”
(254)
a.
SVO (Mandarin Chinese)
ni kanjian-le Pingping
you see-PERF Pingping
“You saw Ping Ping?”
b. ni kanjian-le shei
you see-PERF who
“who did you see?”
c.
ni renwei [ta weishenme bu lai]
you think
he why
not come
“Why do you think that he will not come?”
d. wo xiang-zhidao [Lisi mai-le
shenme]
I wonder
Lisi buy-PERF what
“I wonder what Lisi bought”
• Basic generalization: languages like Chinese and Bangla do not move a wh-phrase
to a clause-initial position.
126
CHAPTER 6. QUESTIONS
6.3. NO MOVEMENT TO THE LEFT EDGE
• Mandarin may be cheating. It does have a particle, ne, that can appear at the right
edge of a wh-question. However, it is not clear that it marks wh-questions per se.
(255) xiǎofú xiǎng māi shénme (ne)
Xiaofu want buy what
Q
(Mandarin, Sino-Tibetan)
“What does Xiaofu want to buy?”
– The particle seems to make the inquiry stronger.
6.3.2
Class 2: No movement, but question marker
• No wh-movement, but a question particle is present
(256)
Sinhala (Indo-European; Sri Lanka)
a.
SOV
chitra ee pot@ kieuwa
chitra that book read
“chitra read that book”
b. chitra mon@wa d@ kieuw-e
Q read-e
Chitra what
“What did Chitra read?”
(257)
Miskito (Misumalpan; Honduras, Nicaragua):
a.
yang maria ra buk kum yab-ri
I
maria to book one give-1. PAST
S-IO-DO-V
“I gave a book to maria”
b. sasmalkrika ba bui naha tuktika wal dia dauk-bia ki
teacher
the SUBJ this child with what do-FUT.2 Q
“what will the teacher do with this child?”
(258)
a.
taroo-ga hon-o
katta
taro-SUBJ book-OBJ bought
SOV in declarative (Japanese)
“Taro bought a book”
b. taroo-ga nani-o
kaimasata ka
Taro-SUBJ what-OBJ bought
Q
“What did Taro buy?”
c.
John-wa naze kubi-ni nataa no
John-TOP why was fired
Q
“Why was John fired?”
127
SOV in interrogative
6.4. MULTIPLE WH-QUESTIONS
CHAPTER 6. QUESTIONS
d. Bill-wa [John-ga
naze kubi-ni natta tte]
itta no
Bill-TOP John-NOM why was fired
COMP said Q
“why did Bill say that John was fired?”
• Japanese appears to be similar to Chinese, in not having movement
– but differs in that it employs a Q marker which appears in the position where a
complementizer would appear
– (Remember, in a verb final language, we expect complementizers to on the
right edge of the clause.)
6.3.3
Class 3
• Languages with movement of a wh-phrase to a preverbal (IP/TP-internal position).
• Hindi-Urdu (Indo-European; India): Normally, S IO DO V order
(259)
Hindi-Urdu:
a.
Mona-ko tohfaa diy-aa
Atif-ne
kal
S-IO-DO-V
Atif-ERG yesterday Mona-DAT present give-PFV. M . SG
“Atif gave a present to Mona yesterday.”
b. raam-ne vah kitaab kis-ko dii
Raam-erg that book who-ko gave
S-DO-IO-V
“who did Raam give a book to?”
• Outside of questions, DO-IO order is not easily achieved in Hind-Urdu
6.3.4
Summary: Patterns of movement and in-situ questions
• Table 6.2: A summary of the major patterns of question formation
• Wh-movement may also be accompanied by particles. Often these have other
functions related to focus.
6.4
Multiple Wh-Questions
• In English, multiple questions are possible. One and only one wh-phrase can
move to the clause initial position in a given clause.
128
CHAPTER 6. QUESTIONS
6.4. MULTIPLE WH-QUESTIONS
Wh-question
Movement
Wh-in-situ
Left Edge: Preverbal Position:
Naked :
Particle marked :
wh. . . . . .
. . . whV
. . . wh. . .
. . . wh. . . Q
e.g. English
e.g. Hindi-Urdu
e.g. Mandarin Chinese
e.g. Japanese
Table 6.2: Patterns of movement and in-situ question formation.
(260)
a.
Who saw whom?
b. *Who whom saw?
c. *Whom who saw?
(261)
a.
Who gave a book to whom?
b. *Who to whom gave a book?
(262)
a.
Who thought that Mary saw whom?
b. *Who whom thought that Mary saw?
c. *Whom who thought that Mary saw?
• There are many examples of such languages: Scandavian languages, most Romance languages (except Romanian), etc.
• There are languages without multiple wh-questions
(263)
a. *cé aL
rinne caidé
who COMP did what
(Irish, Celtic; Ireland)
“who did what?”
b. * caidé aL
thug sé do cé
who COMP gave he to who
“what did he give whom?”
129
6.4. MULTIPLE WH-QUESTIONS
CHAPTER 6. QUESTIONS
(264) *chi ha scritto che cosa
who has written what thing
(Italian, Romance; Italy)
“who wrote what?”
• Multiple wh-fronting languages: Languages that require all wh-phrases in simple
sentences to appear in a sentence initial position.
Examples: Bulgarian, Romanian, Czech, Serbo-Croatian, Polish,. . .
• Example: Bulgarian (Slavic; Bulgaria)
(265)
a.
(Bulgarian)
kogo si-vidjal
who 2 SG-saw
“who did you see?”
b. * ti
si-vidjal kogo
you 2 SG-saw who
no wh in-situ
“you saw who?”
c.
kogo misliš
[če e-vidjal
who think.2 SG that 3 SG-saw
]
long distance movement
“who do you think that he saw?”
d. * misliš
[če e-vidjal kogo]
think.2 SG that 3 SG-saw who
“who do you think that he saw?”
e.
ne znam
[kogo si-vidjal]
neg know.1 SG who 2 SG-saw
“I don’t know who you saw”
(266)
indirect questions
(based on Rudin 1986)
Multiple Wh-Questions:
a.
monoclausal (Bulgarian)
koj kogo e-vidjal
who whom 3 SG-saw
“who saw whom?”
b. * koj e-vidjal kogo
who 3 SG-saw whom
“who saw whom?”
c.
koj kogo misliš
[če e-vidjal]
who whom think.2 SG that 3 SG-saw
“who do you think saw whom?”
130
biclausal
CHAPTER 6. QUESTIONS
6.4. MULTIPLE WH-QUESTIONS
d. * misliš
[če koj e-vidjal kogo]
think.2 SG that who 3 SG-saw whom
“who do you think saw whom?”
[če e-vidjal kogo]
e. * koj misliš
who think.2 SG that 3 SG-saw whom
“who do you think saw whom?”
(267)
Indirect questions:
a.
ne znam
[koj kogo e-vidjal]
not know.1 SG who whom 3 SG-saw
(Bulgarian)
“I don’t know who saw whom”
b. * kazvaš [če koj e-vidjal kogo]
say.2 SG that who 3 SG-saw whom
“you said who saw whom”
• Other languages behave like Bulgarian:
(268)
a.
(Bulgarian)
koj kogo vižda
who whom sees
“who sees whom?”
merge
b. cine cu ce
who with what goes
(Romanian)
“who goes by what?” (i.e. by what means of transportation)
c.
(Serbo-Croatian)
ko koga vidi
who whom sees
“who sees whom?”
d. kdo koho videl
who whom saw
(Czech)
“who saw whom?”
e.
(Polish)
kto co
robil
who what did
“who did what?”
131
6.5. TWO TYPES OF MULTIPLE FRONTING
(269)
CHAPTER 6. QUESTIONS
Hungarian (Finno-Ugric):
a.
Péter
felemelte
a zongorát
peter.NOM particle.lifted.3 SG the piano.ACC
“peter lifted the piano”
‘mit
vállalt
b. ki
who.NOM what.ACC undertook.3 SG
“who undertook what?”
• Note that Hungarian is a bit more complicated because it does have wh-questions
in which not all of the wh-words are fronted. However, these have subtly different
interpretations than “simple” multiple fronting, as in (269b).
6.5
Two Types of Multiple Fronting Languages
• Type 1: Bulgarian, Romanian vs.
• Type 2: Serbo-Croatian, Polish, Czech
• Wh-Movement in Biclausal Environments:
– Type 1 (Bulgarian and Romanian):
∗ All wh-phrases must move to the closest +wh SpecCP.
∗ Wh-phrases cannot remain in situ or in the SpecCP position of a noninterrogative clause:
(270)
a.
koj kǔde misliš
[če e otišǔl]
who where think.2 SG that has gone
“who do you think (that) went where?”
[če e otišǔl kǔde]
b. * koj misliš
who think.2 SG that has gone where
c. * kǔde misliš
[če koj e otišǔl]
where think.2 SG that who has gone
d. * koj misliš
[kǔde (če) e otišul]
who think.2 SG where that has gone
e. * kǔde misliš
[koj (če) e otišul]
where think.2 SG who that has gone
132
(Bulgarian)
CHAPTER 6. QUESTIONS
(271)
a.
6.5. TWO TYPES OF MULTIPLE FRONTING
boris na kogo kavko kaza [če šte dade]
boris to whom what said that will give.3 S
“what did boris say that (he) would give to whom?”
(Bulgarian)
kavko]
b. * boris na kogo kaza [če šte dade
boris to whom said that will give.3 SG what
na kogo]
c. * boris kavko kaza [če šte dade
boris what said that will give.3 S to whom
d. * boris na kogo kaza [kavko če šte dade]
boris to whom said what that will give.3 S
e. * boris kavko kaza [na kogo če šte dade]
boris what said to whom that will give
– T YPE 2 (Serbo-Croatian, Polish, and Czech): In embedded multiple questions,
only one wh-phrase fronts. The rest of the wh-phrases stay in-situ and cannot
move to the nearest SpecCP.
∗ Serbo-Croatian (SVO)
(272)
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
f.
ko želite
[da vam šta kupi]
who want.2 P to you what buy.3 S
“who do you want to buy what for you?”
šta želite
[da vam ko kupi]
what want.2 P to you who buy.3 SG
“what do you want who to buy for you?”
* ko šta želite
[da vam kupi]
who what want.2 P to you buy
[da vam kupi]
* šta ko želite
what who want.2 P to you buy
[šta da vam kupi
* ko želite
who want.2 SG what to you buy
*šta želite
[ko da vam kupi]
what want.2 P who to you buy
(Serbo-Croatian)
∗ Polish (SVO but scrambling)
(273)
Matrix clause:
a.
ktgo
kogo
zobaczyl
who. ACC who. NOM saw
“who saw who?”
b. kogo ktgo zobaczyl
“who saw who?”
133
(Polish)
6.5. TWO TYPES OF MULTIPLE FRONTING
(274)
CHAPTER 6. QUESTIONS
Embedded clause:
komu
maria chce zeby janek kupil
a. * co
what who.DAT Maria wants that Janek buy
“what does Maria want Janek to buy for whom?”
b. * dlaczego co
janek mowil ze studenci cytaja
why
what Janek said that students read
“what did Janek say the students read why?”
(Polish)
• Interrupting the string of wh-words:
– T YPE 1 (Bulgarian and Romanian): String of wh-words cannot be interrupted
by clitics
– Clitic: Working definition
∗ Phonologically weak: Typically unstressed, typically does not affect stress
placement
∗ Phonologically bound: Syllabified with and adjacent content word
∗ Morpheme: Pronoun (very common), auxiliary, question particles
Examples in English:
(275)
a.
It did-n’t ring.
([dIdn]contracted negation)
>
([laIkm]
reduced object pronouns)
b. I like-m.
c.
(276)
He’s here.
(reduced auxiliary)
Pronominal clitics
a.
koj kakvo ti
e kazal
:
who what you has told
“who told you what?”
(Bulgarian)
kakvo kazal
b. * koj ti
:
who you what told
(277)
Clitic auxiliaries:
a.
koj kavko na kogo e:
dal
who what to whom has given
“who has given what to whom?”
b. * koj kakvo e:
na kogo dal
who what has to whom given
c. * koj e:
kakvo na kogo dal
who has what to whom given
134
(Bulgarian)
CHAPTER 6. QUESTIONS
6.5. TWO TYPES OF MULTIPLE FRONTING
– T YPE 2 (Serbo-Croatian, Polish, Czech): Clitics (weak elements) interrupt the
sting of wh-words.
∗ Serbo-Croatian and Czech: Clitics appear after the first wh-word
(278)
wh (clitics) wh (*clitics) wh (*clitics) V
(279)
a.
ko mu
šta dao
je
:::
::
who him has what given
“who gave him what?”
b. * ko šta mu
je
dao
:::
::
who what him has given
(Serbo-Croatian)
(280)
a.
ko je
što kome
dao
::
who has what who.dat given
“who has given what to whom?”
kome
dao
b. * ko što je
::
who what has who.dat given
c. * ko što kome
je
dao
::
who what who.dat has given
(Serbo-Croatian)
(281)
a.
kdo ho
kde
videl je nejané
::
who him where saw is unclear
“who saw him where is unclear?”
ho
videl je nejasné
b. * kdo kde
::
who where him saw is unclear
(Czech)
(282)
a.
(Czech)
komu
ho
kdy dali
nikdo neví
::
who.dat him when gave.3p nobody know
“nobody knows when they gave him to whom”
b. * komu
kdy ::
ho dali
nikdo neví
who.dat when him gave.3p nobody knows
∗ Polish: Clitics appear after the first wh-word, or after all of them
(283)
a.
wh (clitics) wh (*clitics) wh (clitics) V
komu
jaka
napisal ksiazke
b. kto by
::
who would who.dat what.kind write book
“who would write what kind of book for whom?”
c. * kto komu
by
jaka
napisal ksiazke
::
who who.dat would what.kind write book
d. kto komu
jaka
by
napisal ksiazke
::
who who.dat what.kind would write book
“who would write what kind of book for whom?”
135
(Polish)
6.5. TWO TYPES OF MULTIPLE FRONTING
CHAPTER 6. QUESTIONS
• Adverb Positions:
– T YPE 1 (Bulgarian and Romanian): Adverbs cannot appear between the whwords.
(284)
a.
zavisi
ot tova koj kogo prǔv
e udaril
::::
depends on this who whom first has hit
“it depends on who hit whom first”
(Bulgarian)
kogo e udaril
b. * zavisi
ot tova koj prǔv
::::
depends on this who first whom has hit
– T YPE 2 (Serbo-Croatian, Polish, and Czech): Adverbs can appear between the
wh-words.
(285)
a.
ko je koga prvi
::::
who has whom first
“who hit whom first?”
koga
b. ko je prvi
::::
who has first whom
“who hit whom first?”
udario
hit
(Serbo-Croatian)
udario
hit
• Order of Wh-words:
– “Superiority” effects: (very roughly) the subject wh-word has to precede a
non-subject wh-word.
(286)
a.
Who saw what?
b. *What did who see?
– T YPE 1 languages exhibit Superiority:
(287)
a.
koj kogo vižda
who whom see
“who sees whom?”
b. * kogo koj vižda
whom who sees
c. koj kogo na kogo e pokazal
who whom to whom has pointed.out
“who has pointed out whom to whom?”
(Bulgarian)
d. * koj na kogo kogo e pokazal out
who to whom whom has pointed.
In Bulgarian, the nominative wh-word must precede the accusative wh-word.
136
CHAPTER 6. QUESTIONS
6.5. TWO TYPES OF MULTIPLE FRONTING
– T YPE 2 languages do not exhibit Superiority effects.
(288)
a.
ko koga vidi
who whom sees
“who sees whom?”
b. koga ko vidi
whom who sees
“who sees whom?”
c. ko je što kome dao
who has what whom given
“who gave what to whom?”
(Serbo-Croatian)
d. Free order of wh-words on Serbo-Croatian:

ko
je kome
što
dao

:::::



što
je ko
kome
dao

:::::
što
je kome
ko
dao
“who gave what to whom?”
:::::


kome je što
ko dao

:::::


kome
je
ko
što
dao
:::::
In Serbo-Croatian the order of the wh-words does not seem to matter.
– Note on superiority: There are differences between single wh-movement
languages in whether they respect superiority (English: yes, German: no), and
even within English not all superiority violations are the same:
(289)
a. *What did who see?
b. ?Which car did who see?
• Wh-Islands:
– T YPE 1 (Bulgarian and Romanian): Wh fronting is immune to wh-islands.
(290)
Bulgarian:
? koja ot tezi knigi se-čudiš
[koj znae [koj prodava
which of these books wonder.2sg who knows who sells
“which of these books do you wonder who knows who sells?”
]]
– T YPE 2 (Serbo-Croatian, Polish, and Czech): Wh fronting is sensitive to whislands.
(291) *šta si
me pitao [ko može da uradi
what AUX .2 SG me asked who can to do
“what have you asked me who can do?”
137
] (Serbo-Croatian)
6.6. PARTIAL MOVEMENT
CHAPTER 6. QUESTIONS
Type 1
Type 2
Bulgarian
Romanian
Serbo-Croatian
Polish
Czech
Multiple wh
fronting:
+
+
+
+
+
Multiple wh
extraction from
embedded
clause:
+
+
–
–
–
Clitics follow
first wh word:
–
–
+
+
+
Parentheticals,
adverbs,
particles after
first wh word:
–
–
+
+
+
Free nom-acc
word order:
–
–
+
+
+
Table 6.3: Summary of Properties of Type 1 and Type 2 Multiple Fronting Languages.
• Summary: Table 6.3.
– Type 2 languages appear to use two processes to bring about ‘multiple whmovement’
∗ One process that moves the first wh-word and that behaves much like whmovement in English
∗ A second process for the other wh-words that is (i) Unavailable in embedded
clauses, (ii) places wh-words in a lower position.
– Type 2 languages seem to treat the string of wh-words as a unit.
6.6
Partial Movement
• Partial movement occurs in some languages where a wh-word from an embedded
clause does not appear in the expected position:
(292)
Bahasa Indonesia (Austronesian; Indonesia)
a.
Bill tahu [Tom men-cintai siapa]
Bill know Tom men-love who
in situ
“Who does Bill know that Tom loves?” (which person has the following
property, Bill knows that Tom loves that person?)
138
CHAPTER 6. QUESTIONS
6.6. PARTIAL MOVEMENT
b. siapa yang Bill tahu [Tom cintai]
who FOC Bill know Tom love
full movement
“Who does Bill know that Tom loves?” (which person has the following
property, Bill knows that Tom loves that person?)
c.
Bill tahu [siapa yang Tom cintai]
Bill know who FOC Tom love
partial movement
“Who does Bill know that Tom loves?” (Which person has the following
property, Bill knows that Tom loves that person?)
(293)
a.
Tom thinks that Bill loves Mary.
b. Who does Tom think [that Bill loves
c. *Tom thinks [who does Bill love
]?
full movement
]?
partial movement
d. #Tom thinks Bill loves who?
in situ
• Two Types of Partial Movement
– Particle marked partial movement
– Naked partial movement
6.6.1
Particle marked partial movement
• Example: German.
(294)
German:
a.
Full movement:
Wen
meinst du [CP Peter Hans
who.ACC think you
Peter Hans
vorgestellt hat]
introduced has
“who do you think Peter introduced to Hans?”
b. Partial movement:
Was meinst du [CP wen
Peter Hans vorgestellt hat]
what think you
who. ACC Peter Hans introduced has
“who do you think Peter introduced to Hans?”
– The “partially” moved wh-phrase, wen, appears on the left edge of the embedded
clause.
– In the matrix clause, an expletive wh-word, was appears in the position where
the real wh-word, wen, appears with full movement.
139
6.6. PARTIAL MOVEMENT
CHAPTER 6. QUESTIONS
– Also called “scope marking” or “wh-expletive” construction
(295) kak vy
dumaete [kto čto čitaet]
how you.pl think
who what read
(Russian, Slavic)
“who do yall think read what?”
– Recall that Russian is a multiple fronting language, as can be seen in the
embedded clause.
– German is like English in only putting one wh-word on the edge of a clause.
• Particle marked partial movement is found in many typologically diverse languages:
(296)
Romani (Indo-European)
so
misline
[CP savo filmi o Demiri dikhla]
what you.think
which film o demir saw
“which film do you think Demir saw?”
(297)
(McDaniel 1989)
Iraqi Arabic (Semitic)
a.
shi-tsawwarit
Mona [CP Ali raah ween]
what-think.3 SG . FEM Mona
Ali went where
"where did Mona think that Ali went?"
Mona [CP ween ali raah]
b. shi-tsawwarit
what-think.3 SG . FEM mona
where ali went
“where does mona think ali went?”
(298)
Warlpiri (Pama-Nyungan)
nyarrpa-rlu -ngku yimi-ngarru-rnu Jakamarra-rlu
how
-ERG-2 SG speech-tell-PAST jakamarra-ERG
[CP kuja
FACT. C
nyiya pantu-rnu Japanangka-rlu]
what spear-PAST japanangka-ERG
“What did Jakamarra tell you Japanangka speared?”
(299)
(Wahba 1991)
(Legate 2002)
Passamaquoddy (Algonquian)
keq iTom [CP wen-il
nimiy -ac
-il]
what say
who-OBV IC.see-3 CONG-PART. OBV
“who did he say he saw?”
(Bruening 2004)
140
CHAPTER 6. QUESTIONS
(300)
6.6. PARTIAL MOVEMENT
Hungarian (Finno-Ugric)
mit
mondtak, [CP hogy kit
hívott fel Mari]
what.ACC said.3 PL
that who.ACC called up Mari.NOM
“Who did they say that Mary had called up?”
(Horvath 2000)
• Typically, the expletive wh-word is what, but it is sometimes how (e.g. Warlpiri
and Russian above):
(301)
Polish (Indo-European, Slavic; Poland)
jak myslisz
kto wczoraj do nas przyszedl
how think.2 SG who yesterday to us came
“who do you think visited us yesterday?”
• It’s possible to have particle marked partial movement from deeply embedded
clauses:
(302)
a.
Was glaubst du [wen
Irina liebt]
what believe you who.ACC Irina loves
(German)
“Who do you believe Irina loves?”
Irina liebt]]
b. Was glaubst du [was er sagt [wen
what believe you what he says who.ACC irina loves
“Who do you believe that the says that Irina loves?”
– For many speakers of German, the expletive wh-word, was must appear on the
left edge of each embedded clause.
(303)
Albanian:
a.
a mendon [se çfare thote maria [se ka
sjelle burri]]
Q think.2 SG that what says maria that brought her
husband
“what do you think that maria says that her husband brought?”
b. a mendon [se maria thote [se çfare ka
sjelle burri]]
Q think.2 SG that maria says that what brought her
husband
“what do you think that maria says that her husband brought?”
– In the Albanian examples, the wh-word çfare, “what,” can appear in the most
embedded clause or in the intermediate clause.
141
6.7. OTHER QUESTIONING STRATEGIES
6.6.2
CHAPTER 6. QUESTIONS
Naked Partial Movement
• Bahasa Indonesia: (292).
(304)
Iraqi Arabic:
mona raadat
tijbir
mona raadat
tijbir
mona raadat meno tijbir
Mona wanted (who) FORCE
tis’ad meno ]
[su’ad
]
[su’ad meno tis’ad
[su’ad
tis’ad
]
Suad (who) help (who)
wh in-situ
“Who did Mona want to force Suad to help?”
• Naked partial movement always coexists with full wh-movement and a wh in-situ
strategy.
• If a construction is grammatical with naked partial movement, it is also grammatical with the wh-phrase in-situ.
6.7
6.7.1
(305)
Other Questioning Strategies
Clausal Pied Piping
Basque (isolate; Spain (the Basque Country), France)
a.
jon-ek miren
ikusi ban
jon-ERG miren.ABS seen had
“jon saw miren”
b. se
penzate su [idatzi rabela jon-ek]
what think
you written had
Jon-ERG
“What do you think Jon wrote?”
penzate su
c. [se idatzi rabela jon-ek]
what written has
John-ERG think
you
“what do you think jon wrote?”
wh-movement
clausal pied piping
• Quechua (Imbabura dialect) (Andean, Quechuan; Peru, Bolivia)
– Basic word order is SOV
– Subject [embedded clause] V
142
CHAPTER 6. QUESTIONS
(306)
6.7. OTHER QUESTIONING STRATEGIES
Imbabura Quechua:
a.
ima -ta -taj maria-ka [juzi
miku-shka -ta] kri-n
what-ACC-WH maria-TOP Jose
eat -NOM-ACC believe-AGR
“what does maria believe that jose ate?”
wawa miku-chun-taj] maria
muna-n
b. [ima-ta
what-ACC child eat -FIN -WH maria
want-AGR
“what does maria want that the child eat?” (more literally, “that the child
eat what does maria want?”)
– For subjects, only the clausal pied piping option is available:
(307)
Imbabura Quechua:
a.
kri-n
[pi chayamu-shka -ta -taj] maria
who arrive -NOM-ACC-WH maria
believe-AGR
“who does maria believe arrived?”
b. * pi-taj
maria-ka [
chayamu-shka -ta] kri-n
who-ACC maria-TOP
arrive -NOM-ACC believe-AGR
“who does maria believe arrived?”
• Malayalam (Dravidian; south India)
– In Malayalam, a wh-word cannot be moved by itself from an embedded clause
into the matrix clause.
(308) *nii aar-@
paRaññu [nii
you who-ACC said
you
“who did you say that you saw?”
kaNDu enn@]
saw
COMP
– To ask this kind of question, there are two strategies:
(309)
a.
aar-@
aaN@ [nii [nii
kaNDu enn@] paRññ-at@]
who-ACC is
you you
saw
COMP said- NMLZR
“who is it that you said you saw?”
cleft
b. avan ninn-ooD@ [avan-e aar-@ talli enn@] PaRaññu
Clausal
he
you-to
he-ACC who beat COMP said
Pied Piping
“who did he say to you that beat him?”
– Note that embedded clauses in Malayalam typically follow the main clause.
This is how we know that (309b) is an instance of clausal pied piping.
• German: Only in non-finite clauses.
143
6.7. OTHER QUESTIONING STRATEGIES
(310)
CHAPTER 6. QUESTIONS
[Wen
einzuladen] wurde dir Spass machen
who.ACC invite.INF would you fun
make
(German)
“who would it be fun for you to invite?”
• English: some dialects/speakers, only in very restricted circumstances
(311)
a.
Who do you think [ will win ]?
b. [Who’ll win] do you think?
6.7.2
Wh-Copy Constructions
• A wh-word is “copied” and appears in multiple clauses
(312)
a.
[CP wer
glaubst du, [CP wer
Recht hat ]]
who.NOM think you
who.NOM right has
(German)
“Who do you think is right?” (more lit. “who do you think, who is
right?”)
(Höhle 2000)
b. [CP wêr
tinke jo [CP wêr’t
Jan wennet]]
where think you
where’that Jan resides
(Frisian)
“where do you think Jan resides?”
c.
(Hiemstra 1986)
[CP waarvoor dink julle [CP waarvoor werk ons]]
where.for think you
where.for work we
“What do you think we are working for?”
d. [CP kas misline
[CP kas o Demìri dikhlâ]]
who you.think
who the Demiri saw
(Afrikaans)
(du Plessis 1977)
(Romani)
“Who do you think Demir saw?”
• Typological distribution unknown
6.7.3
Movement to focus position
• It is not uncommon for head final languages to have a special position for focused/emphasized elements immediately to the left of the verb.
• Hindi (Urdu in Pakistan) (Indo-European; India, Pakistan)
– SOV language
144
CHAPTER 6. QUESTIONS
(313)
6.7. OTHER QUESTIONING STRATEGIES
a.
raam-ne
kis-ko dekhaa
Raam-ERG who-ko saw
“who did Raam see?”
dekhaa
b. us-ko kis-ne
him-ko who-ERG saw
“who saw him?”
c. ? kis-ne
us-ko dekhaa
who-ERG him-ko saw
“who saw him?”
d. raam-ne kitaab parhii (akhbaar nahii)
raam-ERG book read newspaper not
“Raam read the book (not the newspaper)”
(Hindi-Urdu)
‘kitaab’ in focus
– Hindi also has something like particle marked partial movement:
(314) siitaa-ne kyaa socaa [CP ki Ravii-ne kis-ko dekhaa] (Hindi-U.)
that ravi-ERG who saw
sita-ERG what thought
"Who did Sita think that Ravi saw?"
(Mahajan 1991)
• Malayalam (Dravidian; south India)
– Malayalam has basic S IO DO V word order.
– In an ordinary sentence, wh-words in Malayalam occur in the immediate preverbal position.
(315)
a.
(Malayalam)
nin-ne
aar@ talli?
you-ACC who beat.PAST
“who beat you?”
talli
b. * aar@ nin-ne
who you-ACC beat.PAST
“who beat you?”
(316)
a.
(Malayalam)
awan ewiDe pooyi?
he
where go.PAST
“where did he go?”
b. * ewiDe awan pooyi
where he
go.PAST
“where did he go?”
– Note that Malayalam also has a cleft construction:
145
6.8. WH-WORDS
CHAPTER 6. QUESTIONS
(317) aar@ aaN@ [nin-ne talli-(y)at@]
who be
you-ACC hit-NMLZR
“who was it that hit you?”
(Malayalam)
– In a multiple wh-question, all of the wh-words end up in front of the verb:
(318)
a.
aar@ aar-ooD@ ent@
paRaññu?
::::
who whom-to what said
“who said what to whom?”
aar-ooD@ paRaññu
b. * aar@ ent@
::::
who what whom-to said
c. * aar-ooD@ ent@
aar@ paRaññu
::::
whom-to what who said
(Malayalam)
– Only one ordering of the wh-words is acceptable: S > IO > DO.
6.8
A Note on wh-words cross-linguistically
• Although we have not discussed it, it is important to note that it is very common
cross-linguistically for wh-words to be found in sentences that are not questions.
• This can be seen in (at least) two ways.
• It is not uncommon for wh-words to be found in exclamative sentences:
(319)
a.
What a fool!
b. How tasty!
c.
How I love peaches!
d. # How do I love peaches!
e.
What a proposal he made!
f. * What a proposal did he make!
(320) que colocho!
what curly
(Spanish)
“how curly!”
146
CHAPTER 6. QUESTIONS
6.8. WH-WORDS
(321) quina dona
{tan/ mes } antipatica
what woman {so / more} nasty
(Catalan)
“what a nasty woman!”
• Wh-words are often used as indefinite pronouns or for indefinites to be built from
wh-words:
(322)
anyhow, somehow
(323)
a.
question (German)
Was hast Du gekauft
what have You bought
“What did you buy?”
b. Du hast was gekauft
You have what bought
wh-word as indefinite
“You bought something”
(324)
a.
(Sinahala, Indo-European)
mokak d@ wætun-e
what Q fall-e
“what fell?”
b. mokak d@ wætun-a
what Q fall-a
“something fell”
(325)
a.
hadín ki˛h
náágole’?
(Western Apache, Athapaskan, Na Dene)
who house 3 SG . IMPERF.build
“who is building a house?”
b. hadín-shi˛
ki˛h
náágole’
who-UNCERT house 3 SG . IMPERF.build
“someone is building a house”
(McDaniel 1986, cited in Höhle 2000)
• ‘wh-words’ used as quantificational expressions: Japanese indeterminate pronouns
(e.g. Kratzer and Shimoyama 2002):
147
6.8. WH-WORDS
(326)
a.
CHAPTER 6. QUESTIONS
dare “who”
(Japanese)
b. dare-ka “someone”
c.
dare-mo “everyone”
d. nani “what”
(327)
e.
nani-ka “something”
a.
dare-ka-ga
hon-o
katta
who -Q -NOM book-ACC bought
(Japanese)
“Someone bought books”
kita
b. dare-mo-ga
who -mo-NOM came
“Everyone came”
c.
john-ga
nani -ka-o
katta
John-NOM what-Q -ACC bought
“John bought something”
• Wh-word and negative polarity item:
– Negative Polarity Items: Words and phrases that, roughly, appear after negation
(328)
a.
He hasn’t bought anything.
b. *He has bought anything.
(any itself is polyfunctional: He buys anything that glitters.)
– Some languages use the same morphemes as question words and negative
polarity items:
(329)
a.
(Mandarin)
ta xihuan shenma
he like
what
“what does he like?”
b. ta bu xihuan shenma
he NEG like
what
“he doesn’t like anything”
148
Chapter 7
Relative Clauses
7.1
7.1.1
Relative Clauses
What’s a relative clause
• Relative clauses are a type of embedded clause
• Embedded clauses that aren’t relative clauses:
– Embedded clauses that can be true or false
(330)
a.
John believes [that Mary is a crook].
b. John denied [that Mary is a crook].
c.
John told me [that Mary is a crook].
d. [That Mary is a crook] is unlikely.
e.
[If Mary comes to the party], John will get excessively drunk.
f.
John got excessively drunk because [Mary came to the party].
– Indirect/Embedded questions
(331)
a.
John wonders [whether Mary will come to the party].
b. John knows [what Mary will bring to the party].
• Headed relative clause (RC): a clause that modifies a noun
(332)
a.
I saw the dog.
b. I saw the dog [that the man ate].
c.
I saw the man [who ate the dog].
149
7.1. RELATIVE CLAUSES
CHAPTER 7. RELATIVE CLAUSES
– (332b): dog is the ‘head’ of the relative clause
– (332b): that the man ate is the ‘relative clause.’
• We say that dog has been “relativized” in (332b) and man has been “relativized”
in (332c).
– (332b): the direct object has been relativized.
– (332c): the subject has been relativized.
• There are two broad types of headed relative clauses
– Restrictive relative clauses help us single out the individuals we talk about.
They cannot be paraphrased by an independent sentence.
– Nonrestrictive/appositive relative clauses: provide additional information. They
are not needed to single out the individuals we talk about. They can be paraphrased by an independent sentence.
(333)
a.
I liked the dog [that John ate].
restrictive
6≈ I liked the dog and John ate that dog.
b. I liked John, [who ate the dog].
nonrestrictive/appositive
≈ I liked John, and he at the dog.
∗ (333a): The relative clause restricts or determines which dog we are talking
about.
∗ (333b): The relative clause does not restrict who we are talking about. We
are just talking about John.
– There are a number of differences between restrictive and appositive relative
clauses.
– The typology of relative clauses deals almost exclusively with restrictive relative
clauses.
• Many languages have relative clauses that lack finiteness morphology and only
have a verb in a participial form
(334)
a.
the bus [driven past the school]
b. der [in seinem Büro arbeit-ende] Mann
the in his
study work-ing
man
“the man (who is) working in his study”
150
(German)
CHAPTER 7. RELATIVE CLAUSES
7.1. RELATIVE CLAUSES
• Free relatives:
– Look like relative clauses minus the head
– Appear in argument positions
(335)
a.
I ate what was on the table.
≈ I ate the objects that were lying on the table.
b. Whoever stole my sandwich has to give it back immediately!
≈ The person that ate my sandwich should give it back immediately.
– They can differ in various ways from headed relatives:
Example: English, what only appears in free relatives:
(336)
a.
I ate [what was on the table].
b. I ate the food [{that/which} was on the table].
c. *I ate the food [what was on the table].
7.1.2
How could relative clauses differ typologically?
• Position: Where does the head noun occur with respect to the relative clause?
– The relative clause may follow the head:
(337)
a.
Bill put the anchovy in the chili.
b. I did not notice the anchovy [that Bill put in the ice cream].
postnominal RC
– The relative clause may precede the head:
(338)
Japanese (Altaic; Japan)
a.
yamada-san-ga
sa’ru-o
ka’t-te
i-ru
yamada -mr. -SUBJ monkey-DO keep-PART be-PRES
“mr. Yamada keeps a monkey”
b. [yamada-san-ga
ka’t-te
i-ru]
sa’ru
yamada -mr. -SUBJ keep-PART be-PRES monkey
“the monkey that Mr. Yamada keeps”
151
prenominal RC
7.1. RELATIVE CLAUSES
(339)
CHAPTER 7. RELATIVE CLAUSES
Marathi (Indo-European; south India)
sādı̄]
surekh
āhe
[[tū pāt, hawlelı̄]
you send.PAST. PART. SG . F sari.SG . F beautiful is
“The sari that you sent is beautiful”
– The relative clause mat be at the edge of the sentence: Corelatves
(340)
Hindi (Indo-European; India)
[jis larkii-ko tum-ne dekhaa thaa]
us larkii-ko raam
REL girl-ko
you-erg see-PERF be.PAST that girl-ko Raam
jaantaa hE
know be.pres
“raam knows the girl you saw” (lit. “which girl that you saw, that girl Raam
knows”)
• The head may be inside of the relative clause:
(341)
Mesa Grande Digueno (Hokan; California): Internally headed RC
a.
chepam
[’ehatt gaat akewii]=ve =ch
dog cat chase =DEF=SUBJ get.away
“the cat that the dog chased got away”
b. [’ehatt gaat kw- akewii]=ve =ch
nye-chuukuw
dog cat REL-chase =DEF=SUBJ 1 OBJ-bite
“the dog that chased the cat bit me”
– The internally headed relative clause in (341) is ambiguous.
• Representation of the head:
– Gaps
(342)
the man [that I saw
]
– Resumptive pronouns
(343)%the mani [that Mary saw himi ]
– Relative pronouns
(344)
the man [who I saw
]
152
CHAPTER 7. RELATIVE CLAUSES
7.2. WORD ORDER CORRELATIONS
• Accessibility Hieararchy: Which elements of the clause can be relativized?
(345)
the book [that I read the story in
]
7.2
Word order correlations and relative clause types
• In verb-initial languages, postnominal RCs are quite generally the only type found:
(346)
Garifuna (Arawakan; Honduras, Guatemala, Belize)
a.
eiha l- umu -tu rob abby
see P 3-TRAN-T 3 F Rob Abby
VSO
“Rob saw Abby.”
b. subusi n- umu -tu wuri
[tó
anugu ba-ni
irahu]
know P 1 S-TRAN-T 3 F woman this.M carry ba-N 3 M baby
“I know the woman who carried the baby”
– (In the Garifuna example above, the P3 is a form of subject agreement and T 3 F
is a form of object agreement with a feminine object.)
• Verb-final languages are more heterogenous. They may present pre- or postnominal RCs, although, it is traditionally believed that prenominal RCs are more
common.
(347)
Miskito (Misumalpan; Honduras, Nicaragua)
a.
yang maria ra buk kum yab-ri
I
maria to book one give-1. PAST
SOV
“I gave a book to maria”
b. Prenominal RC
[papiki
atk-an]
araska na karna sa
my.father buy-3. PAST horse the strong is
“the horse my father bought is strong”
c.
Postnominal RC
bip.mairin [waitna
ik-ata
ya] ba yang duki kancow
man
kill-3. PAST REL . PRO the I thing be
“the cow that the man killed was mine”
– Prenominal RCA (as a dominant strategy) occur exclusively in OV languages.
153
7.2. WORD ORDER CORRELATIONS
CHAPTER 7. RELATIVE CLAUSES
Afr
Eur
SEAsia/Oc
Aus/NG
NAm
SAm
Total
OV+RelN
OV+NRel
%RelN
5
8
38
11
4
73
2
2
50
2
4
33
2
11
15
3
3
50
25
32
43%
SVO+RelN
SVO+NRel
%RelN
0
19
0
0
5
0
1
11
8
0
3
0
0
2
0
0
2
0
1
42
1%
VO+RelN
VO+NRel
%RelN
0
5
0
0
1
0
0
3
0
0
0
0
0
9
0
0
3
0
0
21
0
Table 7.1: Word Order and Relative Clause Type (Dryer 1991).
• In SVO languages, postnominal RCs are the most common RC type.
• In languages with both pre- and post-nominal Rcs, the prenominal strategy is
much more constrained than the postnominal strategy
– In prenominal RCs the verb inside of the relative clause is almost always in
some nonfinite form, with either absent or reduced tense/aspect morphology:
(348)
Tibetan (Sino-Tibetan)
[[john-‘un mary-ye ver -dig
-i] patates-i] yedim
John-GEN Mary-IO give-V NOM-his potato-DO 1. SG.eat.PAST
“I ate the potato that John gave to Mary” (literally, “I ate the potato of john’s
giving to mary”)
∗ Tibetan is an SOV language. The fact that RCs are non-finite may simply be
a consequence of the fact that subordinate clauses are non-finite in general in
the language.
∗ (We don’t know if subordinate clauses are non-finite in Tibetan.)
– In postnominal RCs, the verb inside of the relative clause typically appears in
the same form that it would in a matrix clause.
• Distribution of relative clause types: Table 7.1.
– The sample Dryer used contains 603 languages.
– Remember that Dryer counts genera, not languages.
• SVO and V-initial languages (“VO” in Table 7.1) pattern alike in that prenominal
relative clauses are almost never found as the principal relative clause type.
154
CHAPTER 7. RELATIVE CLAUSES 7.3. REPRESENTATION OF THE HEAD
7.3
The representation of the head in of the relative
clause
• Two ways of representing the head inside the relative clause:
– Gap
– Resumptive pronoun
• Relative Pronouns
7.3.1
Gap Strategy
• In the gap strategy, there is a gap in the position where the relativized noun would
otherwise appear:
(349)
a.
I saw the man
b. Bill talked to the man [that I saw
].
• Prenominal and postnominal RCs may use the gap strategy
• The gap strategy is overwhelmingly the most common strategy in prenominal
RCs.
7.3.2
Resumptive Strategy
• In the resumptive strategy, the relativized noun is represented inside of the relative
clause with a “resumptive” pronoun.
(350)% the mani [that Mary saw himi ]
(351)
Hebrew (Semitic; Israel)
ha-sarii
[she= ha- nasi
shalax otami la=mitsraim]
the-ministers that=the-president sent
them to=Egypt
“the ministers that the president sent to Egypt”
• The resumptive strategy is very common in postnominal RCs.
• In some languages, prenominal RCs may occur with resumptive pronouns, but
this is not at all common
• The possibility of having a resumptive pronoun depends on the grammatical role:
It is not common for relativized subjects to occur with resumptive pronouns
155
7.3. REPRESENTATION OF THE HEAD CHAPTER 7. RELATIVE CLAUSES
(352) *ha-ishi [she-hui makir oti]
the-man that-he knows me
(Hebrew)
relativized subject+resumptive pronoun
“the man who knows me”
(353)
a.
(Urhobo, Kwa; Nigeria)
o.
vbere
she sleep
“she is sleeping”
b. john mle ayei
[l-o.i
vbere]
John saw woman that-she sleep
relativized subject +
resumptive pronoun
“John saw the woman who is sleeping”
• Generally, if a relativized noun phrase occurs with a resumptive pronoun, it is
“easier” to relativize that position:
– English marginal resumption:
(354)
That’s the key [that I wonder whether you opened the door with *(it)]
– Relative clause formation: Tongan
∗ Absolutives can be relativized using the gap strategy similar to English
(355)
Tongan (Polynesian; Tonga)
a.
Relativized absolutive object:
ko
e hā
‘a e me’a na’e hoko
ki
PRED the what ABS the thing PST happen to
he tamaikii [na’a ke taulu’I
i]
the children PAST 2 SG scold
“what is the thing that happened to the children that you are scolding?”
b. Relativized absolutive subject:
na’a ku fie
lea
ki he sianai [kuo ‘alu
i]
PST 1 SG want speak to the man
PERF go
“I wanted to speak to the man who has gone”
∗ Ergatives must be relativized using a presumptive pronoun
(356)
Relativized ergative subject:
na’a mau
tuli
PST 1 PL . EXCL chase
(Tongan, Polynesian; Tonga)
e tangatai [na’a *(nei ) kaiha’asi ‘a e telefisi]
the man
PST
3 SG steal
ABS the television
“we chased the man who stole the television”
‘a
ABS
156
CHAPTER 7. RELATIVE CLAUSES 7.3. REPRESENTATION OF THE HEAD
Relativization with presumptive pronouns does not involve movement. So the
contrast suggests that ergatives cannot be moved.
7.3.3
Relative Pronoun strategy
• Relative pronouns are pronominal elements that occur in relative clauses and are
(typically) distinct from ordinary (personal) pronouns:
(357)
the man [who you saw yesterday]
• Morphologically, relative pronouns are often related demonstratives, interrogative
pronouns, or both:
– English: Relative pronouns (who, where, when, which, why) are homophonous
with wh-words.
(358)
I read the book [which you gave me].
(359)
Bahasa Indonesia/Indonesian (Austronesian; Indonesia)
a.
kapada siapa yang ali memberi ubi.kentang itu
to
who FOC Ali give
potato
this
“To whom did Ali give the potato?”
b. perempuan [kapada siapa ali beri ubi.kentang itu]
woman
to
who Ali give potato
this
“the woman to whom Ali gave the potato”
– German: Relative pronouns are homophonous with demonstratives/definite
articles (M=masculine, F=feminine, N=neuter)
(360)
a.
Ich habe den (da) gekauft
I
have that there bought
“I bought that one”
demonstrative den (German)
b. der
Mann [den
Marie liebt]
the.M . NOM . SG man
RELPRO . M . ACC . SG Marie loves
“the man who Mary loves”
c.
die
Frau
[die
er liebt]
the.F. NOM . SG woman RELPRO . F. ACC . SG he loves
“the woman who he loves”
d. das
Mädchen [das
er liebt]
the.N . NOM . SG girl
RELPRO . N . ACC . SG he loves
“the girl who he loves”
157
7.3. REPRESENTATION OF THE HEAD CHAPTER 7. RELATIVE CLAUSES
– A combination of a wh-word and a demonstrative marker
ich gsehe hab]
(361) de Mann [de wo
the where I seen have
the man
‘the man that I saw’
(362)
(Pfalz German)
a.
(Tzeltal, Mayan; Mexico)
mač’a la
smah te
anze
who PAST hit
DEM woman
“who hit the woman?” or “who did the woman hit?”
b. te
winike [te
mač’a la
smah te
ziake]
DEM man
DEM who
PAST hit
DEM Ziake
“the man who Ziak hit” or “the man who hit Ziak”
– Relative pronouns can also be distinct elements from wh-words or definite
articles
(363)
Modern Standard Arabic:1
fi: l- Ãals -at-aini
l- la -at -aini
nQaqad-ata:
in the-session-F -DUAL . GEN DEF-REL-F -DUAL . GEN held-DUAL
Pamsi
yesterday
“in the two sessions that were held yesterday”
(based on Ryding 2005:323)
∗ Wh-word: man, ‘who,’ definite: l, demonstrative haDa:ni ‘these two,’ relative
pronoun: la
• Relative pronouns may agree with the head of the relative clause in gender, number,
and case. This is typical of relative pronouns.
– (363): Relative pronoun agrees in gender, number case, (and possibly definiteness)
– (360): Relative pronoun agrees in number and gender with head, but shows
case assigned to the relativized position in the RC.
• Relative pronouns are found only in postnominal RCs.
• The relative pronoun strategy is found in many European Indo-European languages. Otherwise, it is not a common relativization strategy.
• Relative pronouns almost always occur on the left edge of the relative clause.
– This is always the case if the relative pronoun is independently an interrogative
pronoun.
1
The relative pronoun may still contain a definite marker.
158
CHAPTER 7. RELATIVE CLAUSES
7.4. LESS COMMON
– Even if the relative pronoun does not appear on the left edge of the relative
clause, it typically does not occur where ordinary pronouns or noun phrases
occur:
(364)
a.
omukazi ya-kuba omusajja
woman she-hit man
“the woman hit the man”
b. omusajja [omukazi ::::
gweya- kuba]
man
woman RELPRO-she-hit
“the man who the woman hit”
(Luganda, Bantu; Uganda)
• Some languages use both the relative pronoun strategy and the resumptive pronoun
strategy:
(365)
Czech (Slavic; Czech Republic)
a.
Resumptive Pronoun
jan videl toho mužei [co hoi to devče uhodilo]
Jan saw that man
C him that girl
hit
“jan saw the man that the girl hit”
b. Relative Pronoun
jan videl toho muže [ktereho to devče uhodilo]
Jan saw that man whom that girl hit
“Jan saw the man whom the girl hit”
– Resumptive pronouns and relative pronouns can even be used simultaneously:
(366)
7.4
Modern Standard Arabic
al- maka:nui [l:aDi:
taqsQ idu-hui ] huna
REL . M . SG 2 SG . M -seek -it
here
theplace
“The place which you seek (it) is here”
(Ryding 2005:324)
Less Common Relative Clauses
• Typically:
(367)
. . . head [RC . . . . . . ] . . .
(head initial)
b. . . . [RC . . . . . . ] head . . .
(head final)
a.
These are sometimes called adnominal relative clauses
159
7.4. LESS COMMON
CHAPTER 7. RELATIVE CLAUSES
• Internally headed relative clauses: . . . [RC . . . head . . . ]. . .
• Corelative: [RC head. . . . . . ]. . . head. . .
7.4.1
Internally Headed Relative Clauses
• Internally Headed Relative Clauses (IHRCs)
(368)
Ancash Quechua (Quechuan;Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador)
a.
Externally headed relative clause:
[nuna ranti-shqa -n] bestya alli bestya-m
ka-rqo -n
man buy -PERF-3 horse good horse-EVID be-PAST-3
“the horse that the man bought was a good horse”
b. Internally headed relative clause:
[nuna bestya-ta ranti-shqa -n] alli bestya-m
ka-rqo -n
man horse-ACC buy -PERF-3 good horse-EVID be-past-3
“the horse that the man bought was a good horse”
(369)
[peem-e
thep khii-pa]
the
ne yin
Peem-ERG book carry-PART the.ABS my be
(Tibetan)
“the book that Peem carried is mine”
(370)
Lakhota (Siouan; South Dakota)
[mary owiža wa kağe] ki he
ophewathu
Mary blanket a make the DEM 1 SG.buy
“I bought the quilt that Mary made”
• In Tibetan and Lakhota, the relative clause occurs with determiners or determinerlike elements.
– (Note that in Tibetan the definite determiner the is in the absolutive.)
– The determiners are outside of the IHRC.
– Quite generally, definite determiners, if they exist in the language, do not occur
inside of an IHRC:
(371)
IHRC-English
a.
I have the [Mary bought book]
b. *I have [Mary bought the book]
160
CHAPTER 7. RELATIVE CLAUSES
7.4. LESS COMMON
• Internally headed relative clauses are found principally in SOV languages.
• Therefore, many languages with internally headed relative clauses also have
prenominal relative clauses.
• Generally, the head of an internally headed relative clause is not marked by a
special morpheme.
– That the head is often not marked can lead to ambiguity:
(372)
Digueño (Hokan; California)
P
[xat@kcok wi:-m
tuc -pu -c]
ny iLy
dog.DO rock-COMITATIVE 1 SG.hit-DEF-SUBJ be.black.PAST
a.
“the dog that I hit with the rock was black”
b. “the rock that I hit the dog with was black”
– But there are exceptions where the head is marked:
(373)
a.
ne ye
to
ye
I PAST horse see
“I saw a horse”
min
ye] san
b. tye ye [ne ye so
::::
man PST I PST horse REL see buy
“the man bought the horse that I saw”
(Bambara, Mande; Mali)
– (I do not know why the word for horse changes from to to so)
7.4.2
Correlatives
• So far: The relative clause and its head form a syntactic constituent.
(374)
. . . head [RC . . . . . . ] . . .
(head initial)
b. . . . [RC . . . . . . ] head . . .
(head final)
a.
c.
. . . [RC . . . head . . . ]. . .
(internally headed)
• Corelatives: [RC head. . . . . . ]. . . head. . .
– The relative clause appears to be external to the clause that contains the head
– The head is represented twice: Once in the RC and once in the main clause
161
7.4. LESS COMMON
(375)
CHAPTER 7. RELATIVE CLAUSES
Hindi (Indo-European; India)
[jis larkii-ko tum-ne dekhaa thaa]
you-erg see-PERF be.PAST
REL girl-ko
us larkii-ko Raam jaantaa hE
that girl-ko Raam know be.pres
corelative
main clause
“Raam knows the girl you saw” (lit. “which girl that you saw, that girl Raam
knows”)
– The correlative clause “correlates” to a noun in the main clause, us larkii-ko
(called the “anaphoric DP”).
– The bracketed string in (375) is called the “correlative” clause.
– The other clause is the “main” clause.
(376)
[ correlative clause] [ main clause]
– The correlative clause contains the head noun phrase. The main clause contains
an NP associated with the head, usually either a copy of the head or a pronoun
• The head noun phrase is marked in whatever way headed relatives are marked in
the language
(377)
Hindi-Urdu:
a.
Adnominal relative clause:
accha:
mujhe [vo aadmii [jo Sita-ko pasand hai]]
I.DAT that man
REL Sita-ko like
be.PRES . SG like
nahı̃: lag-ta:
NEG seem- HAB . MASC . SG
“I don’t like the man who Sita likes”
b. Corelative:
[jo CD sale pe hai] Ram [vo CD] khariid-egaa
REL CD sale on is
Ram that CD buy-FUT. M . SG
“The CD that is on sale, Ram will buy that CD.”
• The element jis that introduces correlative clauses in Hindi is distinct from the
wh-word (which is kis)
• Both the main clause and correlative clause are finite and appear to have full CP
structures
• However, the correlative clause cannot be a free standing sentence on its own
162
CHAPTER 7. RELATIVE CLAUSES
7.4. LESS COMMON
• While the correlative noun and the anaphoric DP tend to appear in clause-initial
position, this tendency is weak in Hindi. Many other word order possibilities are
attested:
(378)
Hindi-Urdu:
[tum-ne jis larkii-ko dekhaaa thaa]
you-ERG REL girl-ko see-PERF be.PAST
corelative
[Raam us larkii-ko jaantaa hE]
Raam that girl-ko know be.PRES
main clause
“Raam knows the girl that you saw”
• Relation between the correlative noun and the anaphoric DP:
– The head noun can appear in both the correlative and main clauses (also all
previous examples):
(379)
[[jo
REL
laŗkii] khaŗii
hai]
[[vo laŗkii] lambii
girl
standing.FEM be.pres.sg that girl
tall.FEM
hai]
be.PRES . SG
“the girl who is standing is tall” (lit. “which girl is standing, that girl is tall”)
– The anaphoric DP in the main clause can be missing:
(380)
[jis
REL
larkii-ko tum-ne dekhaa thaa]
[us
girl-ko you-ERG see-PERF be.PAST that
-ko Raam jaantaa
-ko Raam know
hE]
be.PRES
“Raam knows the girl you saw” (lit. “[Which girl you saw]i Ram knows
thati ”)
– The head noun of the correlative can be omitted:
(381)
[jis
REL
-ko tum-ne dekhaa thaa]
[us larkii-ko Raam jaantaa
-ko you-ERG see-PERF be.PAST that girl-ko Raam know
hE]
be.PRES
“Raam knows the girl you saw” (lit. “[which you saw]i , Raam knows that
girli .”)
163
7.4. LESS COMMON
CHAPTER 7. RELATIVE CLAUSES
– Both the head noun in the correlative and the anaphoric DP in the main clause
can be missing:
(382)
[jis
REL
-ko tum-ne dekhaa thaa]
[us
-ko you-ERG see-PERF be.PAST that
-ko Raam jaantaa
-ko Raam know
hE]
be.PRES
“Raam knows the one who you saw”
– Hindi-Urdu: If the noun is present in the head of the relative clause and the
anaphoric DP, they have to be identical:
(383)
Hindi-Urdu
*[jis aadmii-se tum bahut pyaar-se baat kar rahe
the],
REL man-with you much love-with talk do PROG . PL be. PST. PL
mujh-pe muqadma Thonk
rakh-aa
[us Tiicar-ne
that teacher-ERG me-on court.case hammer.in keep-PFV
hai]
be.PRES . SG
“The man that you were talking with so nicely, that teacher is suing me.”
(Potts et al. 2009:363)
• Order of main and correlative clause:
– In Hindi, it is possible for the main clause to appear before the correlative
clause:
(384)
Hindi-Urdu:
us larkii-ko Raam jaantaa hE
[jis larkii-ko tum-ne
that girl-ko Raam know be.PRES REL girl-ko you-ERG
dekhaa thaa]
see-PERF be.PAST
“Raam knows the girl you saw”
– (If the correlative clause follows the main clause, as in (384), it is preferred to
leave out the head noun in the correlative clause.)
– If the main clause precedes the correlative clause as in (384), then the main
clause cannot omit the head:
(385) *us
-ko Raam jaantaa hE
[jis larkii-ko tum-ne dekhaa
that
-ko Raam know be.PRES REL girl-ko you-erg see-PERF
thaa]
be.PAST
“Raam knows the girl you saw”
164
CHAPTER 7. RELATIVE CLAUSES
7.4. LESS COMMON
– It is possible to drop the head of the main clause (preceding the correlative
clause), if the correlative clause is also headless:
(386) us
-ko Raam jaantaa hE
[jis
that
-ko Raam know be.PRES REL
thaa]
be.PAST
“Raam knows the one who you saw”
-ko tum-ne dekhaa
-ko you-ERG see-PERF
– Sidenote: Some languages without correlatives may allow for relative clauses
to appear to the right outside of the main clause that contains the head of the
relative
(387)
a.
German:
Ich habe das Buch gekauft, [das Maria gefallen hat]
I
have the book bought that Maria pleased has
“I bought the book that Maria liked”
b. I bought a book yesterday [that Mary had recommended to me].
∗ These types of relative clauses are typically called extraposed relative clauses
∗ Unlike correlatives, they do not allow an instance of the head inside the
relative
(388)
a.
German:
*Ich habe das Buch gekauft, [das Buch Maria gefallen hat]
I
have the book bought that book Maria pleased has
“I bought the book that Maria liked”
b. I bought a book yesterday [that Mary had recommended to me].
• Correlatives are found only in verb-final languages (or those with very free word
order.)
– However, they are not found in strict verb-final languages like Japanese and
Turkish.
– The languages of South Asia are well-known for their correlatives (Hindi,
Bengali, Gujarati, Oriya, Kannada, Punjabi, etc.)
– But, they are also attested in Medieval Russian, Old English, South Slavic
(Bulgarian, Macedonian, etc.), etc.
165
7.5. THE ACCESSIBILITY HIERARCHYCHAPTER 7. RELATIVE CLAUSES
(389)
(Medieval) Russian (Indo-European, Slavic)
zvezdu potrebno bylo nam videt’]
I
[kotoruju
necessary was to.us see
and which.ACC star
tu zvezdu zaslonilo
tucheju cloud
that star
was.covered by.
“the star which we needed to see was covered by a cloud”
(390)
Bulgarian (Indo-European, Slavic)
pari
iska]
tolkova
misli
če šte i
[kolkoto
how.much money she.wants that.much she.thinks that will her
dam
give.1sg
“she thinks that I will give her as much money as she wants”
7.5
The Accessibility Hierarchy and Relativization
• Original proposal: Keenan and Comrie (1977)
• The Basic Idea:
– There is a universal set of principles, expressed as dependencies, that predict
which positions in a language can be relativized.
– The Accessibility Hierarchy expresses the relative ability of a position in a
simple root clause to be relativized.
(391) The Accessibility Hierarchy
SU > DO > IO > OBL > GEN > OCOMP
(SU= subject, DO = direct object, IO = indirect object, OBL = major oblique
case NP2 , GEN = genitive, OCOMP = object of comparison3 )
– X > Y: “X is more accessible than Y for relativization”
– For all languages, there is a relativization strategy that targets the subject.
– If a language can relativize a particular position on the hierarchy, then it can
relativize all positions to the left, using the same strategy.
– A relativization strategy must apply to a continuous segment of the Accessbility
Hierarchy.
2
3
Typically the objects of prepositions.
In “James is taller than the teacher”, “the teacher” is the object of comparison”.
166
CHAPTER 7. RELATIVE CLAUSES7.5. THE ACCESSIBILITY HIERARCHY
• English allows relativization of all of the points on the hierarchy:
(392)
a.
the girl opened the door with the teacher’s key
b. the girl [who
c.
opened the door with the teacher’s key]
the door [that the girl opened
with the teacher’s key]
d. the key [that the girl opened the door with
(393)
e.
the teacher [whose key the girl opened the door with]
a.
the girl [gave the book to the teacher]
b. the teacher [that girl gave the book to
(394)
]
a.
SU
DO
OBL
GEN
]
IO
]
OCOMP
the teacher is taller than the girl
b. the girl [that the teacher is taller than
• Subject Only Relativization:
– Malagasy: to relativize a non-subject, you must first make it into a subject and
then relativize it. Remember those “pivot” forms from Malagasy?
(395)
Malagasy (Austronesian; Madagascar)
a.
nahita ny vehivavy ny mpianatra
saw
the woman the student
“the student saw the woman”
b. ny mpianatra [izay nahita ny vehivavy]
the student
that saw
the woman
“the student that saw the woman”
c. * ny vehivavy [izay nahita ny mpianatra]
the woman that saw
the student
“the woman that the student saw”
d. nohitan’
ny mpianatra ny vehivavy
saw.Patient.PIVOT the student
the woman
“the woman was seen by the student”
e.
ny vehivavy [izay nohitan’
ny mpianatra]
the woman that saw.PATIENT. PIVOT the student
“the woman that was seen by the student”
167
VOS
SU
DO
VOS
7.5. THE ACCESSIBILITY HIERARCHYCHAPTER 7. RELATIVE CLAUSES
– Toba Batak:
(396)
Toba Batak (Austronesian; Sumatra)
a.
VOS
manussi
abit
boru-boru i
wash.ACTIVE clothes woman
the
“the woman is washing clothes”
abit
i]
b. boru-boru [na manussi
woman
that wash.active clothes the
“the woman who is washing clothes”
SU
[na manussi
boru-boru i]
c. * abit
clothes that wash.active woman
the
“the clothes that the woman is washing”
DO
ni boru-boru abit
i
d. diussi
wash.passive by woman
clothes the
“the clothes were washed by the woman”
VOS
e.
abit
[na niussi
ni boru-boru i]
clothes that wash.passive by woman
the
“the clothes that were washed by the woman”
DO
∗ In Toba Batak, subjects and (underlying) direct objects can be relativized
using the gap strategy.
∗ However, in Toba Batak only underlying direct objects have to be promoted
to subjects to be relativized
∗ A resumptive strategy is used for everything else:
(397)
Toba Batak
dakdanak i
child
the
[ima-na
nipaboa ni si
rotua turi.turian-i tu ibana]
namely-that told
by DET rotua story-the
to him
“the child that Rotua told the story to him”
• Subject to Direct Object Relativization:
(398)
Welsh (Indo-European, Celtic; Wales)
a.
y bachgen [a
oedd yn darllen
the boy
who was a reading
“the boy who was reading”
168
]
SU
CHAPTER 7. RELATIVE CLAUSES7.5. THE ACCESSIBILITY HIERARCHY
b. dyma ‘r llyfr [y
darllenais y stori ynddo]
here.is the book that 1 SG.read the story in.it
OBL
“here is the book in which I read the story”
• Subject to Indirect Object Relativization:
(399)
Basque (Isolate; Spain, France)
a.
S-IO-O-V
gizon-a -k emakume-a -ri liburu-a eman dio
man -the-SU woman -the-IO book-the give has
“the man has given the book to the woman”
b. [
SU
emakume-a -ri liburu-a eman dio-n] gizon-a
woman -the-IO book-the give has-REL man-the
“the man who has given the book to the woman”
c.
[gizon-a -k emakume-a -ri
man -the-SU woman -the-IO
eman dio-n] liburu-a
give has-REL book-the
DO
“the book that the man has given to the woman”
d. [gizon-a -k
man -the-SU
IO
liburu-a eman dio-n] emakume-a
book-the give has-REL woman-the
“the woman who the man has given the book to”
• Subject to Oblique Relativization:
(400)
Spanish (Indo-European, Romance)
a.
el hombre [que abrió la puerta]
the man
C
opened the door
SU
“the man that opened the door”
b. el libro [con que
el hombre abrió la puerta]
the book with which the man
opened the door
OBL
“the book with which the man opened the door”
c.
el burrito pesa
mas
que
el chihuahua
::::
:::
the burrito weighs more than the chihuahua
comparative
“the burrito weighs more than the chihuahua”
d. * el chihuahua [que el burrito pesa
mas
que
::::
:::
the chihuahua that the burrito weighs more than
“the Chihuahua that the burrito weighs more than”
169
] OCOMP
7.5. THE ACCESSIBILITY HIERARCHYCHAPTER 7. RELATIVE CLAUSES
(401)
Korean (Altaic; Korean Peninsula, China)
a.
[
kwankyec@l-e
tähäyo malha-n] ki˛ salam
relative.clause-about talk
REL - PART the man
SU
“the man who talked about relative clauses”
b. [hy@nsik-i
ki˛ lä-li˛l
ttäli-n]
maktäki
Hyensik-nom the dog-acc beat-rel-part stick
OBL
“the stick with which Hyensik beat the dog”
• Subject to Genitive: German?
(402)
a.
dem Mann, [dessen Buch ich gelesen habe]
the man
whose book I read
GEN
“the man whose book I read”
der Lehrer
b. weil
ich großer bin als
:::
because I taller am than the teacher
comparative
“because I am taller than the teacher”
c. * der Lehrer [der ich großer bin als
:::
The teacher that I taller am than
]
OCOMP
“The teacher I am taller than’
• Subject to object of comparison relativization:
(403)
a.
I am taller than the teacher
b. the teacher [that I am taller than
]
• Summary:
English
German
Spanish
Basque
Welsh
Malagasy,
Toba Batak
(404) The Accessibility Hierarchy
SU > DO > IO > OBL > GEN > OCOMP
(SU= subject, DO = direct object, IO = indirect object, OBL = major oblique
case NP, GEN = genitive, OCOMP = object of comparison4 )
4
In “James is taller than the teacher”, “the teacher” is the object of comparison”.
170
CHAPTER 7. RELATIVE CLAUSES7.5. THE ACCESSIBILITY HIERARCHY
• Why?
– Argument marking/case: Only the unmarked argument in Malagasy/Toba Batak
can be relativized
– Structure:
∗ All arguments in the clausal domain (subject, object, indirect object) are
more easily to relativize than those in smaller domains (OBL: in PPs, GEN:
in DPs, OCOMP: in comparatives)
Relativization is easier the less structure there is between CP and the relativized position.
∗ C-command relations:
· S c-commands everything else, so it is easiest to relativize
· Passives often change c-command relations (because object moves to
subject position), so the enabling effect of passive or pivot constructions
would follow
171
7.5. THE ACCESSIBILITY HIERARCHYCHAPTER 7. RELATIVE CLAUSES
172
Chapter 8
Valency Alternations
8.1
Valency-Changing Processes
• The term “valency” refers to the number of arguments that a verb can combine
with.
(405)
a.
I am dancing
b. I smoked the cheese
c.
I showed the students the tree
– (405a): The verb dance has one argument, I
– (405b): The verb smoke has two arguments: I, the cheese
– (405c): The verb show has three arguments: I, the students, the tree
• Terms like intransitive, transitive, ditransitive refer to types of valency, Table 8.1.
Subcategory:
Transitivity:
Example:
V[N P
intransitive
laugh
V[N P
V[N P
V[DP
V[N P
V[N P
V[N P
V[N P
]
transitive
hit
transitive
ask
PP transitive rely
NP ]
{N P/CP }]
PP]
N P {N P/P P }]
NP NP ]
NP P P ]
N P {N P/P P/CP }]
ditransitive
ditransitive
ditransitive
ditransitive
give
spare
put
tell
Table 8.1: Valencies and subcategorization frames of some English verbs.
• Other elements that occur in clauses are called arguments:
173
8.1. CHANGING VALENCY
(406)
a.
CHAPTER 8. VALENCY ALTERNATIONS
I am dancing [in the trees].
b. I smoked the cheese [after work].
c.
I showed the students the tree [for Mike].
• Arguments and adjuncts can be distinguished by using constituency tests
• Main typological areas concern changing the valency of a verb, by increasing or
decreasing the valency:
(407)
a.
(Swahili, Bantu; East Africa)
ni- linunu-a kitabu
1 SG-PAST-buy -a book
“I bought a/the book”
b. ni- linunu-li
-a*(john) kitabu
1 SG-PAST-buy -APPL-a John book
“I bought john a book”
(408)
a.
jox-naa
isaa tééré bi
give-1sg.perf isaa book the
(Wolof, Atlantic; Senegal, Gambia)
“I gave isaa the book”
b. jox -e-naa
(*isaa) tééré bi
give-e-1 SG . PERF isaa book the
“I gave (away) the book”, “I donated the book”
– In Wolof when the -e suffix is present, the indirect object is suppressed. Thus,
-e decreases the valency of a verb.
• Some valency-changing constructions we’ll look at:
– Passive
– Antipassive
– Causative
– Applicative
174
CHAPTER 8. VALENCY ALTERNATIONS
8.2
8.2. PASSIVE
Passive
• Typically found in nominative/accusative languages
(409)
a.
Svetlana bought the books.
active
b. The books were bought (by Svetlana).
(410)
a.
at-in-bok (lian)
PAST -2- 1- call I
passive
(K’ekchi, Mayan; Guatemala)
active
x-
“I called you”
b. x-
at-bok-e’
(laat) (in-ban)
PAST -2- call- PASS you
1-by
passive
“you were called by me”
– In the active sentence, A is the subject and P is the direct object.
– The meaning of the passive is basically the same as that of the active.
– Passive:
∗ P is the subject of the clause (and triggers agreement on the verb in (409b),
for example)
∗ The patient has been “promoted” to subject or has “undergone promotion” to
subject.
∗ A, which is optional in the passive and introduced with a by-phrase, has been
“demoted” to an oblique.1
• Descriptions (and analyses) of the passive usually involve:
– Underlying assumption 1: The agent in a canonical, typical, ordinary, transitive
sentence is somehow more “prominent” than other arguments in the sentence.
∗ Functional interpretation: One way of talking about this is to say that the
sentence is “about” the agent.
∗ Structural interpretation: Subjects are higher in the structure than other
arguments, subject case is dependent on finiteness
– Underlying assumption 2:
∗ Grammatical relations (and the case forms that encode them) form a case
hierarchy in which certain cases are higher than others.
(411)
SU > OBJ > IO > OBL
1
Loosely, an oblique is just an element that is not subject, direct object, or indirect object. Usually
oblique arguments are introduced by prepositions or locative, instrumental case markers.
175
8.2. PASSIVE
CHAPTER 8. VALENCY ALTERNATIONS
∗ This hierarchy correlates with the likelihood of a particular argument receiving overt morphological case across languages.
∗ We have already seen a case hierarchy at work when we talked about the
Accessibility Hierarchy for relativization. We saw that SUBJ > DO > IO >
OBLIQUE. . .
What passives do is promote elements low on the hierarchy to higher positions.
• Functionally, passive is a way of make a non-agent more prominent, usually by
promoting it to subject.
– English allows for DO and IO to be passivized:
(412)
a.
Pam showed the students the book.
b. The book was shown to the students (by Pam).
c.
The students were shown the book (by Pam).
DO Passivization
IO Passivization
– For a discussion of these three types of properties across languages: Perlmutter
and Postal (1983)
• Cross-linguistically, canonical “passive” clauses have three properties:
(413)
a.
“demotion” of the agent
b. “promotion” of a non-agent
c.
“special” verb morphology
• In English, we say that the agent has been demoted in the passive because it
is contained in a prepositional phrase (i.e. it has become an oblique) and it is
optional.
• Many languages have passive constructions that are “non-canonical.” That is,
these passive constructions only involve demotion of the agent, without promotion
of a non-agent.
(414)
a.
ta’wá-ci sivá˛atu-ci
˛
pax̂á-pu˛ga
man-SUBJ goat-OBJ kill-REM
(Ute, Uto-Aztecan)
“the man killed the goat”
b. sivá˛atu-ci
˛
pax̂á-ta -pu˛ga
goat-OBJ kill -PASS-REM
“the goat was killed (by someone)” “someone killed the goat”
176
CHAPTER 8. VALENCY ALTERNATIONS
8.2. PASSIVE
– In this construction in Ute, the agent is obligatorily deleted. This type of passive
is sometimes called an “impersonal” passive, because the agent cannot appear.
– The Ute construction allows for various arguments to be promoted:
(415)
a.
ta’wá-ci wií -ci -m
tu˛ká-qa -‘u
man-SUBJ knife-OBJ-INSTR eat -ANT-he
“the man ate with a knife”
b. wií -ci -m
tu˛ká-ta -qa -ax̂
knife-OBJ-INSTR eat -PASS-ANT-it
“someone ate with a knife”
c. mamá-ci
tu˛vu˛pu˛-vwan
‘aví-kya -‘u
woman-SUBJ ground-OBJ-on lie -ANT-she
“the woman lay on the ground”
(Ute, Uto-Aztecan)
instrumental passive
d. tu˛vu˛-vwan
‘aví-ta -qa -ax̂
ground-OBJ-on lie -PASS-ANT-it
“someone lay on the ground”
locative passive
– Thus, the canonical passive that we see in English is one of various kinds of
operations that promote or demote arguments.
– In Ute, there seems to be some relation between promotion/demotion of arguments and valency. The passive in Ute, as in English, has the effect of reducing
the valency of the verb.
• Consider the Bantu language Kinyrwanda, in which the direct object immediately
follows the verb.
(416)
Kinyarwanda (Bantu; Rwanda)
a.
umugore y- ooher-eje umubooyi ku-soko
woman she-send -ASP cook.OBJ LOC-market
“the woman sent the cook to the market”
b. umugore y- ooher-eke -ho isoko
umubooyi locative→DO
woman she-send -ASP-LOC market.OBJ cook.OBJ
“the sent to the market the cook”
c.
umugabo ya- tem-eje igiti
n-umuppaanga
man
HEF -cut - ASP tree. OBJ INSTR -saw
“the man cut the tree with a saw”
d. umugabo ya-tem-ej -eesha umupaanga igiti
instrument→DO
man
he-cut -ASP-INSTR saw.OBJ
tree.OBJ
“the man used the saw to cut the tree”
177
8.2. PASSIVE
CHAPTER 8. VALENCY ALTERNATIONS
– In Kinyarwanda, only a direct object can be passivized.
(417)
a.
umubooyi y- ooher-ej -we
ku-soko
(Kinyarwanda)
cook
he-send -ASP-PASS LOC-market
“the cook was sent to the market”
ry-ooher-ej -we
umubooyi
b. *(ku-)soko
LOC -market it- send - ASP - PASS cook
“the market was where the cook was sent”
c. isoko ry-ooher-ej -we -ho umubooyi
market it- send -ASP-PASS-LOC cook
“the market was sent the cook to” “someone sent the cook to the market”
∗ (417a) shows the direct object, umubooyi “cook”, passivized.
∗ (417b) is ungrammatical because it is an attempt to passivize a non-direct
object
∗ (417c) shows that once the locative has been promoted to direct object, as
indicated by the -ho suffix, it can the be promoted to subject (i.e. passivized)
(418)
a.
umupaanga wa-tem-eesh -ej -we
igiti
saw
it- cut -INSTR-ASP-PASS tree.OBJ
“the saw was used to cut the tree”
b. * igiti u- tem-eesh -ej -we
umupaanga
tree it-cut -INSTR-ASP-PASS saw.obj
“the tree was cut with the saw”
(Kinyarwanda)
∗ (418a) the instrument, which is the direct object, has been passivized to
become the subject.
∗ We know that the instrument was the direct object in (418a) because of the
presence of the -eesh suffix on the verb.
∗ (418b) is ungrammatical because we have attempted to passivize a non-direct
object, in this case, the patient, igiti “tree”.
– The pattern for Kinyarwanda is:
(419) Canonical Passive
Subj > DO > IO > Instr, Loc, etc.
Non-Canonical Passive
– This should be reminiscent of what we saw with the Accessibility Hierarchy.
Recall that in languages like Malagasy only subjects could be relativized.
– As a side note, Kinyarwanda has other passive sentences where it looks like
there are two direct objects:
178
CHAPTER 8. VALENCY ALTERNATIONS
(420)
a.
8.2. PASSIVE
umugaanga a- ruvuur-a
unugore inkorora (Kinyarwanda)
doctor
3 SG-PRES-cure -ASP woman cough
“the doctor is curing the woman a cough” (“the doctor is curing the
woman’s cough”)
b. unugore ara- vuur-w -a
inkorora n-‘umugaanga
woman 3 SG- PRES-cure -PASS-ASP cough
by-doctor
“the woman is being cured a cough by the doctor” (“the woman is being
cured of a cough by the doctor”)
c.
inkorora i- ra- vuur-w -a
umugore n-‘umugaanga
cough
3 SG-PRES-cure -PASS-ASP woman by-doctor
“the cough is being cured a woman by the doctor” (“the woman’s cough
is being cured by the doctor”)
– In addition, seemingly non-transitive verbs can be passivized:
(421)
Kinyarwanda
a.
n-’ishaati
ibifuungu bibiri bifit -w -e
buttons
two CLASS-have-PASS-ASP by-shirt
“two buttons are had by the shirt”
b. perezida y- abaa-w -e
n-‘umugore
president 3 SG-PAST-be -PASS-ASP by-woman
“the president was become by the woman” (“the woman became
president”)
8.2.1
Impersonal Passives
• Canonically, passives involve the promotion of a P to subject and the demotion/deletion of A to an oblique. This may be accompanied by a special verb
form.
(422) Passive: subject
>
direct object
>
oblique
• Impersonal Passives: Passives of intransitive verbs, where A is deleted/demoted,
but no other NP is promoted to subject.
(423) Impersonal Passive: subject
>
179
oblique
8.2. PASSIVE
CHAPTER 8. VALENCY ALTERNATIONS
(424) Es wurde
im Nebenzimmer geredet
it AUX . PASS in next.room
talked
(German)
“there was talking in the next room”
• Sometimes impersonal passives involve insertion of a “dummy” subject:
(425) Er wordt
door de jongens gefloten
it becomes by the boys
whistled
(Dutch)
“there is whistling by the boys”
• Impersonal passives seem to be restricted to intransitive verbs that have agent-like
subjects that control the action, rather than intransitive verbs where the subject is
more of an undergoer and not in control of the action:
(426)
a.
(Welsh)
dannswyd ga y plant
was.danced by the children
“there was dancing by the children”
b. * tyfwyd
gan y plant
(yn sydyn)
was.grown by the children suddenly
“there was (sudden) growing by the children”
(427)
a.
in de zomer wordt
er hier vaak gezwommen
in the summer becomes it here often swum
(Dutch)
“in the summer here, there is often swimming”
b. * in de zomer wordt
er hier vaak verdronken
in the summer becomes it here often drowned
“in the summer here, there is often drowning”
– wordt, ‘become,’ is the passive auxiliary in (427). In other uses, it means
become, hence the translation.
• Impersonal passive is also appear with transitive verbs in some languages:
(428) Transitive Impersonal Passive:
subject > direct object >
oblique
180
CHAPTER 8. VALENCY ALTERNATIONS
8.2. PASSIVE
– Subject is demoted
– Object does not promote to subject, instead remains in accusative
I do not know whether all languages with impersonal passives also have transitive
impersonal passives.
(429) Jetzt wird
den
Rasen gemäht
now AUX . PASS the.ACC lawn mowed
(German)
“Now the lawn is being mowed”
(430)
Gujarati (Indo-arian; Gujarat, India)
Apan-ne bajaar maa jovaa-ya
che
we-DOM market in
see.PASS-PFV. MPL be.PRS .3
“We have been seen in the market”
(Walkow 2012:349)
• Summary: Impersonal passives show that the demotion of the subject and the
promotion of the object are separate processes
8.2.2
Adversity Passives
• Adversity Passives: Superficially combine properties of impersonal passives
– The regular A subject is deleted/demoted.
– No P (or other item) is promoted to subject (objects can remain objects).
with an adversely affected argument
– A new NP is added as a subject.
– The new NP is has no thematic relation with the verb.
(431)
a.
mary-ga
piano-o
hiita
mary-NOM piano-ACC play.PAST
(Japanese)
“mary played the piano”
b. john-ga
mary-ni
piano-o
hik -are -ta
John-NOM Mary-DAT piano-ACC play-PASS-PAST
“John was played the piano by Mary (and was adversely affected by it)”
• Adversity passives also occur with intransitive verbs, and not just those with agentlike subjects (this is why they only superficially resemble impersonal passives):
181
8.3. WHAT PASSIVIZES?
(432)
a.
CHAPTER 8. VALENCY ALTERNATIONS
(Japanese)
tsuma-ga shinda
wife-NOM die.PAST
“the wife died”
b. john-ga
tsuma-ni shin-are -ta
john-NOM wife-DAT die -PASS-PAST
“john was died on by his wife” (“John’s wife died on him”)
8.3
Which arguments can undergo passivization?
• Typically in nominative/accusative languages, the direct objects of transitive verbs
can be passivized, but not always,
(433)
a.
John has a lot of property.
b. *A lot of property is had by John.
(434)
a.
This jar contains sugar.
b.??Sugar is contained by this jar
• In some languages various non-patients can be promoted to subject:
(435)
a.
The girl looked after the old man.
b. The old man was looked after by the girl.
(436)
a.
Someone slept in this bed.
passive
active
.
b. This bed has been slept in
(437)
active
(pseudo)passive
Promoting dative to subject:
a.
john-wa mary-ni
hon-o
ataeta
John-TOP Mary-DAT book-ACC gave
active (Japanese)
“John gave a book to Mary”
b. mary-wa john-ni
hon-o
atae-rare -ta
Mary-TOP John-DAT book-ACC give -PASS-PAST
“Mary was given a book by John”
182
passive
CHAPTER 8. VALENCY ALTERNATIONS
(438)
8.4. PASSIVE MORPHOLOGY
Palauan (Austronesian; Palau)
a.
a
DET
ngelek-ek sme’er
er
a
tereter
child-my sick.intrans with DET cold
active
“my child is sick with a cold”
b. a
DET
tereter al- se’er er-ngiy
a
ngelek-ek
cold
PASS - 3 SG -sick with-3 SG DET child-my
passive
“a cold is being sick with my child”
• Some languages use different structures for promoting different argument to
subject
• German:
– Direct object 7→ subject: auxiliary werden, ‘become’
(439) Tie Tür wurde
geöffnet
the door was.PASS opened
“The door was opened”
(German)
– Indirect object 7→ subject: kriegen/bekommen ‘receive’ (so called recipient
passive)
(440)
a.
Peter
schenkte de-m
Kind ein
Buch
Peter.NOM gifted
the-DAT child a.ACC book
Peter gave the child a book as a gift
(German)
b. Das
Kind bekam ein Buch geschenkt
the.NOM child got
a book gifted
“The child was given a book as a gift”
8.4
8.4.1
Passive Morphology
Periphrastic Passive
• A periphrastic passive is typically composed of an auxiliary verb and a main verb.
(441)
The car was driven by John.
• The main verb is typically in some non-finite form (e.g. “passive participle” in
English)
183
8.4. PASSIVE MORPHOLOGY
CHAPTER 8. VALENCY ALTERNATIONS
• The auxiliary verbs are usually
– Verbs of being or becoming (English and German)
(442)
a.
(German)
Sprit wurde teuer
gas became expensive
“Gas became expensive”
b. Hans wurde von seinem Vater bestraft
has became by his
father punished
“Hans was punished by his father”
– Verbs of receiving (Welsh; English get-passive)
(443)
Welsh (Celtic, Indo-European; Wales)
caffodd wyn ei rybuddio gan ifor
got
Wyn his warn
by Ifor
“Wyn was warned by Ifor”
– Verbs of motion (Hindi-Urdu)
(444)
a.
Ram skuul gayaa
Ram school go.PFV. M . SG
“Ram is going to school.”
(Hindi, Indo-Aryan; India)
b. Ram-dwaaraa khiir
khaayii gayii
ram-by
rice-pudding.F eat.PFV. F go.PFV. F
“Rice-pudding was eaten by Ram”
∗ Possibly related to verbs of becoming. E.g. go used a change of state predicate
in English
(445)
The city went dark.
– Verbs of experience (Vietnamese)
(446) quang bi
(bao) ghet
Quang suffer Bao detest
“Quang is detested by Bao”
(Vietnamese)
184
CHAPTER 8. VALENCY ALTERNATIONS
8.4.2
8.5. ANTIPASSIVES
Morphological Passive
• In a morphological passive, there is special passive inflection or marking on the
verb:
(447) taroo-wa (jiro-ni) koros-are -ta
Taroo-TOP jiro-DAT kill -PASS-PAST
(Japanese)
“Taroo was killed (by jiro)
(448)
a.
active (Swahili)
msichana alifungu-a mlango
girl
CLASS - PAST-open -a door
“the girl opened the door”
b. mlango ulifung -w -a (na msichana)
door
CLASS- PAST -open- PASS-a by girl
passive
“the door was opened by the girl”
(449)
a.
danai equ-um
aedifica-nt
greeks horse-ACC build-3 PL . PRES . ACT
(Latin, Indo-European)
“the greeks build a (wooden)horse”
(a danais)
b. equ-us
aedifica-t -ur
horse-NOM build- 3 SG-PASS by greeks
“A (wooden) horse is built (by the greeks)”
8.5
8.5.1
Antipassives
The Phenomenon
• Consider again the hierarchy of grammatical relations:
(450)
Subject
(agent)
>
direct object
(patient)
>
oblique
• Let us say that the agent is more prominent than a patient or oblique
• If passive is thought of as taking a P and promoting it to subject while demoting the
A to oblique, is there some analogue to passive that we find in ergative languages?
185
8.5. ANTIPASSIVES
(451)
a.
CHAPTER 8. VALENCY ALTERNATIONS
maty umpa-yu kukapi
taca-mu
kangaroo-ERG grass.ABS eat-PAST
(Yalarnnga; Austrailian)
“the kangaroo ate the grass”
-ma
b. maty umpa
kukapi-u taca-li
kangaroo.ABS grass-DAT eat -ANTIP-PRES
antipassive clause
“the kangaroo eats grass”
(452)
Inupiaq (Inuit; Greenland, Canada)
a.
aNuti-m umiaq
qiñig-aa tirrag-mi
man-ERG boat.ABS see-3.3 beach-at
“the man sees the boat at the beach”
b. aNun
umiag-mik qiñiq-tuq tirrag-mi
beach-at
man.ABS boat-MOD see-3
antipassive clause
“the man sees a boat at the beach”
– (452b): The verb morphology reveals that it is intransitive.
– (452b): P is marked with an oblique case, MOD (I’m not sure what is meant by
“MOD”.)
(453) Antipassive:
ergative >
absolutive
>
oblique
– The ergative A of the active is realized as absolutive
– The absolutive P of the active is realized as an oblique
(454)
Chukchee (Chukchi-Kamchatkan; Siberia)
a.
altag-e
keyng-an pernra-nen
father-ERG bear-ABS attack-3 SG .3 SG . AOR
“father attacked the bear”
b. altag-an
penra -tko -g’e
kayng-eta
father-ABS attack-ANTIP-3 SG . AOR bear-DAT
“father attacked the bear”
• Once antipassivization has occurred, P (absolutive argument of active) (typically)
becomes optional, like A in a passive:
186
CHAPTER 8. VALENCY ALTERNATIONS
(455)
8.5. ANTIPASSIVES
Inuktitut/Greenlandic (Inuit; Greenland, Canada)
jaaku
(ujarak-mik) tigu -si
-vuk
jacob.ABS stone-OBL took-ANTIP-IND
“Jacob took (a stone)”
• Some languages have both passive and antipassive:
E XAMPLE: Mam (Mayan)
– Passive: A is realized as an oblique, P remains absolutive and becomes the
subject of an intransitive clause.
(456)
Mam (Mayan; Guatemala, Mexico)
a.
active
ma ∅-jaw
ttx’eePma-n
cheep tzeeP
:::::
PST 3 SG . ABS - AUX 3 SG . ERG -cut
-DIR Jose tree
“Jose cut the tree”
t-uPn cheep
b. ma ∅tx’eem-at
tzeeP
:::::
PST 3 SG . ABS -cut
-PASS tree 3 SG-by Jose
“the tree was cut by Jose”
passive
– Antipassive: P is realized as an oblique, while A becomes absolutive.
(457)
a.
ma ∅-tzaj
ttzyu -Pn cheep ch’it
(Mam, Mayan)
::::
PST 3 SG . ABS - AUX 3 SG . ERG -grab- DIR Jose bird
ergative
“Jose grabbed the bird”
b. ma ∅tzyuu-n
cheep t-iPj
ch’it
::::
::::
PST 3 SG . ABS -grab - ANTIP Jose
3 SG-at bird
“Jose grabbed the bird”
8.5.2
antipassive
The Status of Absolutive Case
• In some sense absolutive more prominent or privileged than ergative
• Typologically, absolutive is the more/most morphologically unmarked case form
in a language:
(458)
a.
yabu
banaga-ny u
mother.ABS return-NON . FUT
(Dyirbal, Australian; Australia)
“mother returned”
b. nguma
yabu-nggu bura-n
father.ABS mother-ERG see-NON . FUT
“Mother saw father”
187
8.5. ANTIPASSIVES
CHAPTER 8. VALENCY ALTERNATIONS
Absolutive resembles nominative in this respect.
• Only the absolutive argument is available for certain syntactic operations:
(459)
Tongan (Polynesian; Tonga)
a.
Relativized absolutive object:
ko
e hā
‘a e me’a na’e hoko
ki he tamaiki
PRED the what ABS the thing PST happen to the children
[na’a ke taulu’I]
PAST 2 SG scold
“what is the thing that happened to the children that you are scolding?”
b. Relativized absolutive subject:
na’a ku fie
lea
ki he siana [kuo ‘alu]
PERF go
PST 1 SG want speak to the man
“I wanted to speak to the man who has gone”
c.
Relativized ergative subject:
na’a mau
tuli
PST 1 PL . EXCL chase
‘a
ABS
e tangata [na’a *(ne) kaiha’asi ‘a e telefisi]
3 SG steal
ABS the television
the man
PST
“we chased the man who stole the television”
d. Relativized oblique:
ko
e siale eni [na’a ku lau ki *(ai)]
PRED the charlie this PST 1 SG refer to
3 SG
“This is the charlie to whom I referred”
– In Tongan, absolutives can be relativized using the gap strategy.
– Ergatives and obliques must be relativized using a resumption strategy.
– This is reminiscent of the Accessibility Hierarchy
• Reference to a deleted NP in coordination
(460)
a.
nguma
banag-ngu [yabu-ngu
bura-n]
father.ABS return-PST mother-ERG see-PST
(Dyirbal)
“father returned and mother saw (him)”
b. nguma
yaba-ngu
bura-n [banaga-ngu]
father.ABS mother-ERG see-PST return-PST
“Mother saw father and he returned” not “Mother saw father and she
returned”
188
CHAPTER 8. VALENCY ALTERNATIONS
8.5. ANTIPASSIVES
• Absolutive, wh-movement and focus: Mam (Mayan)
– The transitive patient (absolutive) can be wh-questioned:
(461) alkyee-qa x-hi
tzaj ttzyu -7n Cheep
who-PL REC . DEP -3 PL . ABS DIR 3 S . ERG-grab-DS jose
“who did jose grab?”
(Mam)
– The transitive agent (ergative) cannot be wh-questioned:
(462) *alkyee saj
ttzyu -7n kab’ xiinaq
who REC . DEP.3 SG . ABS . DIR 3 SG . ERG-grab-DS two men
“who grabbed the men?”
(Mam)
– In order to wh-question a transitive agent, it must first undergo antipassivization,
so that it is absolutive:
(463) alkyee saj
tzyuu-n
ky-e kab’ xiinaq
who REC . DEP.3 SG . ABS . DIR grab-ANTIP 3-PL two man
“who grabbed the men?”
(Mam)
• From these properties, it does indeed look like absolutive is more privileged than
ergative.
(464)
8.5.3
absolutive > ergative > oblique
Unifying Passive and Antipassive
• Consider again a hierarchy grammatical relations and their canonical case realizations in a nominative system:
(465) Grammatical Relation:
subject
>
Case:
nominative
direct object
accusative
>
oblique
oblique
• We said that the subject is more prominent than a direct object or oblique.
– Passive is thought of as taking an accusative and promoting it to nominative,
while demoting the nominative to oblique.
– Antipassive is thought of as taking an ergative and promoting it to absolutive,
while demoting the absolutive to oblique.
189
8.5. ANTIPASSIVES
CHAPTER 8. VALENCY ALTERNATIONS
• Passive and Antipassive look very similar in terms of case relations:
(466)
Unmarked:
Marked:
Oblique
Passive:
nominative
>
accusative
>
oblique
Antipassive:
absolutive
>
ergative
>
oblique
Both passive and anti-passive promote arguments from less ‘prominent’ cases to
more ‘prominent’ case
• However, they differ in terms of grammatical relations:
– Passive promotes a DO to S
(467)
Passive:
subject
>
direct object
>
oblique
– Antipassive demotes a DO to Obl
(468)
Antipassive:
subject > direct object
>
oblique
• Another way of looking at antipassive and passive:
Active
Nominative
agent
Passive
patient, oblique
(469)
Accusative
patient
Oblique
other
agent
(470)
Ergative
construction:
Antipassive
construction:
Ergative:
Absolutive:
Oblique:
agent
patient
other
agent
patient, oblique
190
CHAPTER 8. VALENCY ALTERNATIONS
8.6
8.6. APPLICATIVES
Applicatives
• Applicatives (typically) involve promotion of an oblique to (direct) object:
(471)
Chamorro (Austronesian; Guam, Northern Marianas)
a.
hu tugi’ katta para i- chelu’ -hu
1 SG write letter to
the-sibling-my
“I wrote the letter to my brother”
b. hu tugi’-i
i- chelu’ -hu ni
katta
1 SG write-APPL the-sibling-my OBL letter
“I wrote my brother the letter”
– In the applied construction in Chamorro, the original direct object, katta, is
marked as an oblique and follows the applied object, i-chelu’-hu.
– The applied object appears in a position different from that of the oblique.
– The verb carries a morpheme, -i, indicating that it is applicative.
• Some language retain the original direct object in the applicative without changing
its case
(472)
Indonesian (Austronesian; Indonesia)
a.
mereka mem-bawa
daging-itu kepada-dia
they
TRANS-bring meat-the
to-him
“they brought the meat to him”
b. mereka mem- bawa-kan dia gaging-itu
they
TRANS-bring - APPL him meat-the
“they brought him the meat”
• Applicatives may also occur with intransitive verbs, in that case, they become
transitive:
(473) n-
a- i- zric-i
-a mbuya
FOC - 3 SG - PRS -run - APPL-a friend
(Kichaga, Bantu; Kenya)
“she is running for a friend” (lit. “she is running a friend”)
• In some languages, the applied suffix varies according to the semantic role of the
argument introduced:
191
8.6. APPLICATIVES
(474)
CHAPTER 8. VALENCY ALTERNATIONS
Kinyarwanda (Bantu; Rwanda)
a.
umugore y- ooher-eje umubooyi ku-isoko
woman 3 SG-send -ASP cook
LOC -market
“the woman sent the cook to the market”
b. umugore y- ooher-eke -ho
isoko umubooyi
woman 3 SG-send -ASP-APPL market cook
“the woman sent to the market the cook”
(475)
a.
umugabo ya- tem-eje igiti n-umupaanga
man
3 SG-cut -ASP tree INSTR-saw
(Kinyarwanda)
“the man cut the tree with a saw”
b. umugabo ya- tem-ej -eesha umupaanga igiti
man
3 SG-cut -ASP-APPL saw
tree
“the man cut the tree with a saw”
• The term applicative is traditionally applied to the kinds of constructions discussed
here in Bantu and Austronesian languages.
• In the syntactic literature, the term applicative is used for a group of analyses for
the following types of constructions
(476) Double object construction:
a.
John showed the book to Mary.
b. John showed Mary the book.
(477) Benefactive dative:
a.
John baked a cake for Mary.
b. John baked Mary a cake.
(478) Ethical dative:
No me
li
diguis
mentides
not 1. ETH . DAT 3 DAT tell.SUBJ .2 lies
“Don’t tell him/her lies (on me)”
192
(Catalan)
(Bonet 1991:197)
CHAPTER 8. VALENCY ALTERNATIONS
8.7
8.7. CAUSATIVES
Causatives
• A working definition:
(479) Causative:
A causative is a linguistic expression that contains in semantic/logical structure a predicate of cause, one argument of which is a predicate expressing
an effect.
(Payne 1997:176)
(480)
a.
Bill left.
b. I made Bill leave
(causative)
c.
(causative)
I caused Bill to leave.
(481) causer
I
made
causee
[Bill
leave].
Effect
• Causative morphology Types:
– Analytic/Synthetic
– Morphological
– Lexical
8.7.1
Analytic Causatives
• Analytic causatives are those in which there is a predicate expressing “cause” and
another predicate expressing the “effect”:
(482)
[ I make ] [ the children study]
cause
effect
(483) john làm(cho) mary ąi ho.c
John make
Mary go study
(Vietnamese, Mon-Khmer; Vietnam)
“John made Mary go to school”
• Analytic causatives are superficially ‘biclausal’ structures. The size of the embedded structure can vary from language to language
– French has an analytical causative (see examples below), but unlike in regular
clausal embedding, the cause (subject of the apparent downstairs clause) cannot
appear with regular subject case.
193
8.7. CAUSATIVES
8.7.2
CHAPTER 8. VALENCY ALTERNATIONS
Morphological Causatives
• In a morphological causative, there is one complex (verbal) form that encodes
both the cause and the effect
• The causative form is typically clearly morphologically derived from the noncausative form.
(484)
a.
ali a- li- pik -a mbwa
Ali 3 SG-PST-cook-a dog
(Swahili, Bantu; east Africa)
“Ali cooked a/the dog”
b. ni- li- (m)- pik -ish -a ali mbwa
1 SG-PST-3 SG-cook-CAUS-a Ali dog
“I made ali cook a/the dog”
(485)
a.
atuunk-ü-sü
sleep -ü -NON . M . PRES
(Guajiro, Arawakan; Colombia, Venezuela)
“she sleeps”
-sü
b. atuunk-it
sleep -CAUS-N - M . PRS
“she makes (him) sleep”
(486)
Malagasy (Austronesian; Madagascar)
a.
n-
anka- rary an-dRabe ny paoma anta
PST - CAUS -sick ACC -rabe the apple green
“the green apple made rabe sick”
b. n-
amp- an-didy mofo an-dRabe aho
PST - CAUS -an-cut bread ACC -Rabe I
“I was making rabe cut bread”
c.
izany no n- aha- voa- kapoka azy
that FOC PST-CAUS-PASS-hit
3 SG . ACC
causative passive
“that’s what got him hit” (i.e. “that’s what caused him to get hit”)
– Malagasy is a VOS language, so, na paoma anta, “the green apple,” is the
subject of the clause in (486).
– Note that Rabe has accusative case in (486b/c). We will return to this point
soon.
194
CHAPTER 8. VALENCY ALTERNATIONS
8.7.3
8.7. CAUSATIVES
Lexical Causatives
• Lexical causatives are (apparently) underived verbs that express causation (and
effect):
(487)
a.
kill = ‘cause to die’
b. melt = ‘cause to melt’
(488)
a.
The ice melted.
b. Joan melted the ice.
• In lexical causatives, there is a lack of formal similarity between a basic verb and
its causative counterpart.
(489)
(490)
Japanese
a. kagaru
ageru
b. tomaru
tomeru
c. okiru
okosu
d. neru
nekasu
‘rise’
‘raise’ (i.e. cause to rise)
‘stop’
‘stop (someone)’ (i.e. cause to stop)
‘wake up’ (“become awake”)
‘awaken’ (i.e. cause to become awake)
‘sleep’
‘put to sleep’ (i.e. cause to sleep)
Korean
a. hata
sikhita
b. kata
ponayta
c. calata
kiluta
‘do’
‘cause to do, order’
‘go’
‘send’
‘grow’
‘raise, grow (something)’
• Evidence for syntactic structure in lexical causatives (von Stechow 1996; Pylkkänen 2002): Adverb scope
– Two interpretations of again with lexical causatives
(491)
John opened the door again.
a.
Agent’s action is repeated: John did something again and as a result the
door opened
b. Resultant state is repeated: John did something and as a result the door
returned to its previous state of being open.
195
8.7. CAUSATIVES
CHAPTER 8. VALENCY ALTERNATIONS
(Pylkkänen 2002:102, abbreviated)
– The two readings are disambiguated by word order in German:
(492)
a.
(weil) Ali Baba Sesam wieder öffnete
because Ali Baba Sesam again opened
“because Ali Baba opened Sesam again”
(ambiguous)
b. (weil) Ali Baba wieder Sesam öffnete
(only repeated action)
because Ali Baba again Sesam opened
(von Stechow 1996:87/88)
– What is going on:
(493)
a. ‘open’
b. Repeated state:
c. Repeated action:
S
S
S
CAUSE
open
DO
CAUSE
again
open DO again
CAUSE
open DO
∗ (493): Lexical causatives consist of a causative predicate (CAUSE) that takes
a complement that ascribes a state to the cause
∗ Repeated state reading: again attaches to the complement of CAUSE, (493b).
∗ Repeated action reading: again attaches above CAUSE, (493c).
– The German data show that the ambiguity is indeed syntactic, but the arguments
is a little more involved (see first sections of von Stechow 1996).
• A single language may have different types of causatives:
(494)
a.
(Wolof, Atlantic; Senegal, The Gambia)
dudu jàng-na tééré bi
dudu read-na book the
“dudu read the book”
dudu tééré bi
b. jàng-loo -na-a
read -CAUS-na-1 SG dudu book the
morphological causative
“I made dudu read the book”
c.
tax
-na-a dudu jàng tééré bi
CAUS -na- 1 SG Dudu read book the
“I made dudu read the book”
196
analytic causative
CHAPTER 8. VALENCY ALTERNATIONS
8.8. SEMANTICS OF CAUSATIVES
(495)
a.
ku say-ka
cwuk-ess -ta
the bird-nom die -PST-DECL
(Korean, Altaic; Korean Peninsula)
“the bird died”
b. Morphological causative:
yongho-ka
ku say-lul
cwuk-y
-ess -ta
yongho-NOM the bird-ACC die -CAUS-PST-DECL
“yongho killed the bird”
c.
Analytic causative:
yongho-ka
ku say-lul
cwuk-key hay-ss -ta
yongho-NOM the bird-ACC die-key do -PST-DECL
“Yongho caused the bird to die”
8.8
8.8.1
Semantics of Causatives
Direct versus Indirect Causation
• Causatives differ in the extent to which the causer brings about the effect:
(496) Direct Causation: The causer is directly, instantly, and probably physically
responsible for the effect.
(Payne 1997:182)
(497) Indirect Causation: The causer is removed in time or space from the result,
the result cam about through intermediate steps
(498)
a.
John killed the opossum.
(direct causation)
b. John caused the opossum to die.
(indirect causation)
• In English the distinction between direct and indirect causation is not encoded
grammatically. However, in many languages this semantic distinction is indicated
in the morphology and syntax.
• Russian: The morphological causative is associated with direct causation, while
the analytic causative is associated with indirect causation.
(499)
Russian
197
8.8. SEMANTICS OF CAUSATIVES
CHAPTER 8. VALENCY ALTERNATIONS
a.
Morphological causative:
Anton slomal paločku
Anton broke stick
“Anton broke the stick”
b. Analytical causative
Anton sdelal tak
čtoby paločka slomala-s’
Anton brought it about that stick
broke
“Anton brought it about that the stick broke”
• Nivkh: The morphological causatives with gu- are the productive form.
– The lexical causative expresses direct causation, while the morphological
causative expresses indirect causation.
(500)
a.
lep
če-d’
(Nivkh, isolate; eastern Russia)
bread dry.INTRANS - D
“the bread dried”
b. if lep
seu-d’
lexical causative
he bread dry.TRANS - D
“he dried the bread”
c. Morphological causative:
if lep
če
-gu -d’
he bread dry.INTRANS-CAUS-d
“He caused the bread to get dry” (e.g. by forgetting to cover it)
– (This description is a bit unexpected. Is there really a lexical causative for every
verb in the language to express direct causation? It seems unlikely.)
• Typically: in languages with both analytic and morphological or lexical causatives,
the analytical causative implies less direct causation.
(501)
8.8.2
lexical > morphological >
analytic
More direct
less direct causation
Permissive versus Causative
• Causative constructions may also have a permissive meaning:
(502)
I allowed John to read the book.
198
CHAPTER 8. VALENCY ALTERNATIONS
8.8. SEMANTICS OF CAUSATIVES
– Usually, a canonical causative implies that the effect might not have happened
without the causer:
(503)
We made Mary write a poem.
– A permissive implies that the causer could prevent an effect, but does not
actually do so:
(504)
I let John read the book.
The pure causative meaning and permissive meaning have in common that they
imply that the causer has control over the effect situation.
• Often,
– Analytic causative constructions have distinct predicates for causative and
permissive (make versus let/allow, etc.)
– Lexical causatives imply direct causation.
– Morphological causatives include both causative and permissive meanings.
(505)
a.
sáBà hà nà
CAUS NR OPT
(Mixtec)
kee
eat
“make him eat” (suggestion)
b. s-kée
CAUS -eat
“feed him”
(506)
Nivkh
morphological causative
ni atik-ax
ph-@m@k
vi -gu -d’
I younger.brother-CAUSEE own-mother go-CAUS-d’
“I made/let my younger brother follow my mother”
(507)
Georgian (Caucasian; Georgia)
mama švil-s čeril-s
ačerineb-s
father son-IO letter-DO write-3 SG
“father makes/helps/lets his son write the letter”
morphological causative
(Payne 1997:178)
• (An assistive “I helped Mary write the poem” seems to combine both causative
and permissive meanings.)
199
8.9. GRAMMATICAL ROLES
8.8.3
CHAPTER 8. VALENCY ALTERNATIONS
Sociative Causation
• “sociatiave” causation is causation that is attained through social interaction:
(508)
a.
hahaoya-ga kodomo-o asoba-se -te
i-ru
mother-NOM child-ACC play -CAUS-CONJ be-PRS
(Japanese)
“mother is getting the child to play”
b. hahaoya-ga kodomo-ni hon-o
yoma-se -te
i-ru
mother-NOM child-DAT book-ACC read -CAUS-CONJ be-PRES
“Mother is having the child read” (not: “making the child read”)
• A continuum of causative semantics
(509)
permission > indirect causation > sociative causation > direct causation
8.9
Valency and Grammatical Roles in Causatives
• What happens to the causee?
– Remember the grammatical relations hierarchy:
(510)
Subj > Direct Object > Indirect Object > Oblique
– The causer almost invariably appears as the subject in a causative construction.
– If the causee is originally a subject, something has to happen. This is because
languages do not (typically) permit more than one noun to be the subject, direct
object, or indirect object.
In languages with morphological causatives, the grammatical role of the causee
changes.
8.9.1
Intransitive Verbs
• Causativization is a valency increasing operation that (typically) demotes the
original subject.
• Canonically, the causee appears as the direct object: S 7→ DO
200
CHAPTER 8. VALENCY ALTERNATIONS
(511)
a.
8.9. GRAMMATICAL ROLES
(Turkish)
hasan
öl-dü
hasan.NOM die-PST
“hasan died”
b. ali
hasan-i˛
öl -dür -dü
Ali.NOM Hasan-ACC die-CAUS-PST
“Ali caused Hasan to die”
(i.e. Ali killed Hasan, Payne 1997:178)
• It may also be possible for the causee to appear as a direct object or as an indirect
or oblique object:
– The distinct case markings of the causee tend to correspond to different
causative semantics.
(512)
Hungarian (Finno-Ugric; Hungary)
a.
én köhög-tet -te -m
a gyerek-et
I cough-CAUS-PST-1 SG the child-ACC
“I made the child cough”
causee in accusative
b. én köhög-tet -te -m
a gyerek-kel
I cough-CAUS-PST-1 SG the child-INS
“I made the child cough”
causee in instrumental
(Payne 1997:186)
∗ (512a) with the causee in the accusative, indicates direct causation or coercion.
∗ (512b) with the causee in the instrumental, indicates that the causer got the
child to cough (perhaps by asking him to do so). Thus, in (512b), the child
still retained control over the coughing.
(513)
Japanese
a.
taroo-ga
ziroo-o
Taroo-NOM Ziroo-ACC
“taroo made ziroo go”
b. taroo-ga
ziroo-ni
Taroo-NOM Ziroo-DAT
“Taroo got Ziroo to go”
ik -ase -ta
go-CAUS-PST
causee in accusative
ik -ase -ta
go-CAUS-PST
causee in dative
∗ When the causee is in the accuative, (513a), more coercion is implied than in
(513b), where the causee is in the dative.
• Table 8.2: Across languages that allow different case marking of the causee, there
is a consistent relation between grammatical relation/case, the causee’s control
over the action they perform and the directness of causation
201
8.9. GRAMMATICAL ROLES
Case:
Relation:
Causation:
Agency:
Control:
CHAPTER 8. VALENCY ALTERNATIONS
Accusative > Dative > Instrumental
DO
> IO
> oblique
more direct
less direct
less agentive
more agentive
less control
more control
Table 8.2: Agency/Control and Case.
8.9.2
Transitive Verbs
• With transitive verbs, typically, the causee is expressed as an indirect object or in
an oblique.
(514)
Turkish (Altaic): Causee as indirect object
a.
müdür
mektub-u imzala-di˛
director.NOM letter-ACC sign-PST
“the director signed the letter”
b. dişçi
mektub-u müdür-e
imzala-t
-ti˛
dentist.NOM letter-ACC director-DAT sign -CAUS-PST
“the dentist made the director sign the letter”
(515)
(Payne 1997:178)
French (Romance): Causee as indirect object or oblique with preposition
a.
Pierre mangea les pommes
Pierre ate
the apples
“Pierre ate the apples”
b. Paul fit
manger les pommes {à
/par} Pierre
Paul made to.eat the apples {≈DAT/P } Pierre
“Paul made Pierre eat the apples”
(516)
Finnish (Finno-Ugric): Causee with oblique case
a.
muurari-t
rakens-i -vat talo-n
bricklayer-PL build -PST-3 PL house-ACC
“the bricklayers built the house”
b. mina rakennut -i -n
talo-n
muurare -i -lla
I
build.CAUS-PST-1 SG house-ACC bricklayer-PL-ADESSIVE
“I had the bricklayers build the house”
202
CHAPTER 8. VALENCY ALTERNATIONS
8.9. GRAMMATICAL ROLES
• In some cases, the causee may retain some subject properties:
– Japanese: the reflexive pronoun zibun can only refer to a subject:
(517) zibun in ditransitives:
watasi-ta
taroo-ga
hanako-ni zibun-no hon-o
taroo-NOM hanako-DAT self-GEN book-ACC hand-PST
a. “Tarooi handed Hanako hisi book”
(Japanese)
b. *“Taroo handed Hanakoi heri book”
(Taroo = male name, Hanako = female name)
– Causatives: Causee appears in dative
(518) zibun in causative
(Japanese)
taroo-ga
hanako-ni
zibun-no huku-o
ki -sase -ta
Taroo-NOM Hanako-DAT self-GEN clothes-ACC wear-CAUS-PST
a. “Taroo made Hanako put on his clothes”
b. “Taroo made Hanako put on her clothes”
– Causative (518): Hanako is not the subject, the reflexive zibun can still refer to
her, as if she were a subject.
• Summary: Generally, If the effect contains S and DO, S 7→ IO/OBL
8.9.3
Ditransitive Verbs
• Turkish: With a ditransitive verb, the causee usually ends up as an oblique,
introduced by the postposition tarafi˛ndan.
(519)
a.
müdür
hasan-a
mektub-u göster-di
director.NOM hasan-DAT letter-ACC show-PST
“the director showed hasan the letter”
b. dişçi
hasan-a
mektub-u müdür tarafi˛ndan
dentist.NOM Hasan-DAT letter-ACC director P
göster-t
-ti
show -CAUS-PST
“The dentist made the director show the letter to Hasan”
c.
adam kadi˛n tarafi˛ndan döv-ül -dü
man woman P
hit -PASS-PST
“the man was hit by the woman”
203
(Turkish)
8.9. GRAMMATICAL ROLES
CHAPTER 8. VALENCY ALTERNATIONS
– (519c): tarafi˛ndan is also the postposition that introduces demoted subjects
(agents) in the passive.
• Notice what happens in Turkish, if a verb idiomatically takes a dative direct object:
(520)
a.
çocuk okul-a
başla-di˛
child school-DAT start-PST
(Turkish)
“The child started (attending) school”
b. öğretmen çocuğ-u okul-a
başla-t
-ti˛
teacher child-ACC school-DAT start -CAUS-PST
“the teacher made the child start (attending) school”
• What Turkish shows is that the demoted subject takes the highest available case
on the case hierarchy.
(521)
Subject > Direct Object > Indirect Object > Oblique
– If accusative is available, as in intransatives, then the original agent becomes
accusative.
– In monotransitive clauses, accusative case is already taken, so the demoted
agent is marked dative.
– In ditransitive clauses, accusative and dative are already filled, so the demoted
agent is marked oblique.
– If the verb takes a dative marked direct object, accusative case is available. In
that case, the original causee takes accusative case.
Summary: Table 8.3.
8.9.4
Doubling of grammatical relations
• Most of the cases that we have looked at so far involve demotion of the cause
into the highest empty case position on the case hierarchy. However, there are
languages in which it there is apparent demotion of the cause into some lower
case position, even if it is already filled.
8.9.4.1
Doubling of an indirect object
• Double indirect objects (in causatives) are possible, but the non-double indirect
object sentences are preferred.
204
CHAPTER 8. VALENCY ALTERNATIONS
8.9. GRAMMATICAL ROLES
Basic
Causative
Intransitive
subject
subject
direct object
Transitive
subject
direct object
subject
direct object
indirect object
Ditransitive
subject
direct object
indirect object
subject
direct object
indirect object
oblique
Verb Type
Table 8.3: Demotions in the Causative.
(522)
Punjabi (Indo-European; India, Pakistan (the Punjab))
a. ? b@nde ne mast@r num’ kàņi mwņd’yam’ num’ swņ-vaa -i
story boys
IO
tell -CAUS-PST
man S teacher IO
“the man made the teacher read the story to the boys”
b. b@nde ne mast@r naļ
kàņi mwņd’yaM num’ swņ-vaa -i
man S teacher INSTR story boys
IO
tell -CAUS-PST
“the man made the teacher read the story to the boys”
(523)
French
claude une pomme au
a. ? J’ ai
fait donner à
apple ≈DAT.the
I=have made give.INF ≈DAT claude a
professeur
teacher
“I made claude give an apple to the teacher”
b. J’ ai
fait donner une pomme au
professeur par
I=have made give.INF a
apple ≈DAT.the teacher
by
claude
claude
“I made claude give an apple to the teacher”
• Doubling of obliques does not seem to be problematic.
205
8.9. GRAMMATICAL ROLES
8.9.4.2
CHAPTER 8. VALENCY ALTERNATIONS
Doubling of a direct object
• Many languages, even those that allow doubling of indirect objects, simply do not
allow direct objects to be doubled (e.g. French, Punjabi, Turkish, Italian, etc.)
• However, a number of languages do allow direct object doubling (in causatives):
(524) er liess seinen Sohn den
Brief
abtippen
:::
:::::
he made his.acc son the.ACC letter type
(German)
“he made his son type the letter”
(525) hij liet zijn zoon de brief schrijven
he made his son the letter write
(Dutch)
“he made his son write the letter”
(526)
Evenki (Altaic; China, Mongolia, Russia)
xuty-wı̄ awun-mı̄ baka-pkān -yn
ynı̄n-in
mother-his son-DO cap-DO find -CAUS-yn
“the mother made her son find his cap”
(527)
Southern Saami (Lapp) (Finno-Ugric; Russia)
-i -b
manne raantjoe-b gierhkeme-m guidtie-ht
ox-DO
cradle-DO
carry -CAUS-PST-b
I
“I made the ox carry the cradle”
• Swahili: Doubled objects are not equal
– Clitic doubling in causatives:
∗ (528a): SVO, with doubling of O in the verbal complex
∗ (528b): Causatives of transitives contain two morphologically unmarked
arguments in the post verbal domain
(528)
a.
msichana a- li- ufung -a mlango
(Swahili)
:
:::::::
girl
3 SG-PST-it-open-a door
“the girl opened the door”
b. mwalimu a- li- {m /*u}fungu-zish -a msichana mlango
:
:::::::
teacher 3 SG-PST-{her/ it}-open -CAUS-a girl
door
“the teacher made the girl open the door”
∗ (528b)The causee msichana, “girl,” can be doubled by an object pronoun
inside of the verb m-.
206
CHAPTER 8. VALENCY ALTERNATIONS
8.9. GRAMMATICAL ROLES
∗ The patient mlango, “door,” cannot be doubled by an object pronoun on the
verb.
While the causee and the object appear with the same morphological marking
(∅), the causee but not the object can be doubled.
– Passivization:
∗ Passivization can demote the agent of the effect predicate:
(529)
Swahili
msichana ali- fungu-zish -w -a mlango
na mwalimu
:
:::::::
girl
3 SG-PST-open-CAUS-PASS-a door
P teacher
“the girl was made to open the door by the teacher”
• Causatives can create the appearance of two direct objects, but syntax still distinguishes them.
• A similar case: English
(530)
a.
John gave Mary a book.
b. Mary was given a book.
c. *A book was given Mary.
d. What did John give Mary
e. *Who did John give
8.9.5
(most north American English)
?
a book?
Summary
• Causees typically demote into a case that is not already occupied
• When two arguments appear in the same case: Doubling of grammatical relations
lower on the hierarchy is easier than of this higher on the hierarchy
– Doubling of subjects is unattested
– Doubling of direct and indirect objects exists, but can be iffy
– Doubling of obliques is widely available
(531)
subject >
impossible
direct object
>
indirect object
207
> oblique
(rather) free
8.10. GRAMMATICALIZED
CAUSATIVES
8.10
CHAPTER 8. VALENCY ALTERNATIONS
Some Causative Systems: Grammaticalized Causatives
• In many of the Indo-European languages of India, verbs have distinct stems for
different kinds of causatives:
(532)
Hindi-Urdu
a. .tuut.-na
‘break’ (intransitive)
b. toŗ-na
‘break’ (transitive)
c. tuŗva-na ‘cause’ to break’
(533)
a.
(Hindi-Urdu)
SiSa .tuut. g@ya
mirror break go-PFV
“the mirror broke”
b. Raam-ne SiSa toŗ
diya
Raam-ERG mirror break give-PFV
“Raam broke the mirror (deliberately)”
c.
Syam-ne
Raam se SiSa tuŗva-ya
shyam-ERG Raam by mirror break+cause-PFV
“Shyam made Raam break the mirror (deliberately)”
– The .tuut stem is the non-causative stem
– The toŗ stem is the “first causative”
– The tuŗva stem is the “second causative”
– The first causative corresponds to a direct causative
– The second causative corresponds to an indirect causative
• Some examples:
(534)
Gujarati (Indo-European; Punjab, India)
Non-cauative 1st causative 2nd causative
a. chut.
b. m@r
c. ut@r
d. h@s
→
→
→
→
chod.
mar
utar
h@sav
→
→
→
→
chod.āw
m@rāw
utr.āw/utr.āwdaw
[email protected]̄w
208
‘loose’
‘die’
‘descend’
‘laugh’
CHAPTER 8. VALENCY ALTERNATIONS
(535)
8.10. GRAMMATICALIZED
CAUSATIVES
Marathi
Non-cauative 1st causative 2nd causative
a. bud.
b. mar
c. bas
d. has
→
→
→
→
bud.av
mār
basav
hasav
→
→
→
→
bud.av-av
mār-av
basav-av
hasav-av/hasav
‘drown’
‘die’
‘sit’
‘laugh’
– Morphology:
∗ First causative forms involve some amount of stem allomorphy
∗ Second causatives tend to be regular affixation
– This is a common pattern: Morphemes that are closer to the root are more likely
to trigger stem allomorphy or suppletion, than ones that combine with bigger
structures:
(536)
a. Lexical causative/First causative
S
CAUSE
√
verb DO
b. Second causative:
causer
CAUSE
causee √
verb DO
• Causatives of Intransitives
(537)
a.
(Gujarati)
chokru h@s-yũ
child laughed-AGR
“the child laughed”
b. mãe
chokrā-ne h@sāv-yo
mother.S boy-DOM laughed/CAUS-AGR
“the mother made the child laugh”
c.
mot.@r cale che
car
run is
“the car runs”
(Cardona 1965, glosses adapted)
d. e mot.@r c@la-we
che
he car
run-CAUSE is
“he drives a car”
(Cardona 1965, glosses adapted)
209
8.10. GRAMMATICALIZED
CAUSATIVES
(538)
a.
CHAPTER 8. VALENCY ALTERNATIONS
(Marathi)
mūļ h@s-@le
child laughed-@le
“the child laughed”
b. āi
ne mūļā ļa h@s
-@v -ı̄le
mother S child DO laughed-CAUS-ı̄le
“the mother made the child laugh”
(539) pitāe
mã
thi bāl@k ne h@sāvr.-āvyo
father.S mother OBL child DO laughed
(Gujarati)
“the father made the mother make the child laugh”
(540)
(Marathi)
vad.ilā ni āi
kad.un mūļā ļā h@s@v-ile
father S mother OBL child DO laughed
“the father made the mother make the child laugh”
– Notice that the nominative in (538) has been demoted to an oblique in (540).
• Causatives of Transitives
(541)
Gujarati
Non-cauative 1st causative
a. dhov
b. k@r
c. lekh
d. phẽk
(542)
→
→
→
→
2nd causative
→
→
→
→
dhov-r.āv
k@r-āv
l@kh-āv
phẽk-ār.
dhov-r.āv-r.āv
[email protected]̄v
l@kh-āv-r.āv
phẽk-ā-d.āv
‘wash’
‘do’
‘write’
‘throw’
Marathi
Non-cauative 1st causative
a. dhuv
b. lih
c. phek
d. vād.
→
→
→
→
dhuv-av
lih-av
phek-av
vād.-av
→
→
→
→
2nd causative
dhuv-av-av/dhuv-av
lih-av-av/lih-av
phek-av-av/phek-av
vād.-av
‘wash’
‘write’
‘throw’
‘serve’
• As expected, the causative morphology is more regular, because the causative
morpheme always attaches above the subject as in (536b).
210
CHAPTER 8. VALENCY ALTERNATIONS
(543)
a.
8.10. GRAMMATICALIZED
CAUSATIVES
(Gujarati)
bāļ@-ke ek kavitā l@khi
child-S one poem wrote
“the child wrote a poem”
/
b. adhyāpa-ke baļ@k {thi/pāse} kavitā {lekh -āv -i
child OBL
poem {wrote-CAUS-AGR/
teacher-S
lekh -āv -r.āv -i}
wrote-CAUS-CAUS-AGR}
“the teacher made the child write a poem”
c.
[email protected]̄pa-ke tič@r
{mārf@t/dvārā} bāļ@k {pāse/thi}
headmaster-S
teacher OBL
child OBL
kavitā
lakh -āv
-r.āv
-i
poem.DO write-CAUS -CAUS -AGR
“the headmaster had the teacher make the child write a poem”
(544)
a.
dhobie
kapd.ā dhoyā
washerman clothes washed
(Gujarati)
“the washerman washed the clothes”
dhov -r.āv -yā
{thi/pāse} kapd.ā
b. rām-e dhobi
clothes.DO washed-CAUS-PERF. AGR
Raam-S washerman OBL
“Raam had the washerman wash the clothes”
c.
pitāe
rām {mārf@t/dvārā} dhobi
{pāse/thi} kapd.a
father.S Raam OBL
washerman OBL
clothes.DO
{dhov -r.āv -yā / dhov -r.āv -r.āv -yā}
{wash-CAUS-AGR/ wash-CAUS-CAUS-AGR}
“the father had Raam get the clothes washed by the washerman”
• Why the ambiguity of between the first and the second causative? Good question.
Similar facts have been reported for Turkish.
• Causatives of Ditransitives
(545)
a.
rām sitā ne ek kāg@ļ l@kh-yo
Raam Sita IO one letter wrote-AGR
(Gujarati)
“Raam wrote a letter to Sita”
b. Vipin-e rām-thi
sitā-ne kāg@ļ
lakh -āv
-r.āv -yo
vipiin-S Raam-OBL Sita-IO letter.DO wrote-CAUS-CAUS-AGR
“Vipin made Raam write a letter to Sita”
211
8.10. GRAMMATICALIZED
CAUSATIVES
(546)
a.
CHAPTER 8. VALENCY ALTERNATIONS
(Marathi)
rām-ni sitā-la p@tr lih-ilei
Raam-S Sita-IO letter wrote-AGR
“Raam wrote a letter to Sita”
b. Vipin-ni rām kad.un sitā-lā p@tr
lih -@v -ilei
Vipin-S Raam OBL Sita-IO letter.DO wrote-CAUS-AGR
“Vipin made Raam write a letter to Sita”
– (No data available on second causatives)
• Ingestive Transitives:
– Verbs of ingestion (literally or figuratively) are a special class in many South
Asian languages.
(547)
(548)
Gujarati
Non-cauative 1st causative
a. dekh
→
dekh-ad.
b. šikh
c. khā
d. bh@ņ
→
→
→
šikh-@w
→
kh@-w-ad./[email protected] →
bh@ņ-aw
→
Marathi
Non-cauative 1st causative
a. sikh
→
b. b@gh
→
c. s@m@dz →
(549)
2nd causative
→
dekh-ad.-aw/
dekh-aw-r.aw
š[email protected]
[email protected]
bh@ņ-aw-ŗaw
‘see’
‘study’
‘eat’
‘study’
2nd causative
sikh-av
→ sikh-av-av/sikh-av ‘learn’
dekh-av
→ dekh-av
‘see’
s@m@dz-av → s@m@dz-av
‘understand’
a.
chokrā-e kelū
khādũ
child-S banana.DO ate
“the child ate a banana”
khavr.awyũ
b. māe
chokrā-ne kelū
mother.S child-IO banana.DO ate
“the mother fed a banana to the child”
c. e
s@nskrut
bh@ņyo
he.S Sanskrit.DO learned
“he learned Sanskrit”
d. mE ņ Eh-ne s@nskrut
bh@ņawyun
1sg S him-IO Sanskrit.DO learned
“I taught him Sanskrit”
212
(Gujarati)
(Cardona 1965:114)
(Cardona 1965)
CHAPTER 8. VALENCY ALTERNATIONS
8.10. GRAMMATICALIZED
CAUSATIVES
– When causativized, the cause in verbs of ingestion is realized as a indirect
object, not an oblique.
∗ IO marker = differential object marker (-ne). This is common.
– Second Causative of Ingestives
(550)
Gujarati
a.
Vipin-e rām-thi
chokrā-ne kelū
{khav-d.aw -r.aw -yũ /
::
Vipin-S Raam-OBL child-IO banana.DO {eat -CAUS-CAUS-AGR/
khav-r.aw- yũ}
eat -CAUS-AGR}
“Vipin made Raam make the child eat the banana”
dekh-ad. -yũ
b. gharmāli-ke egent-thi
rām-ne ghar
::
landlord-S agent-OBL Raam-IO house.DO see -CAUS-AGR
“the landlord had the agent show a house to Raam”
– In the second causative, the second causee is realized as an oblique.
213
Hindi-Urdu
Marathi
Gujarati
Assamese
Bengali
Oriya
Nepali
Kashmiri
Telugu
Kannada
Tamil
Santali
Khasi
Kabui
Kuki
Mizo
Moglum
214
IO
IO
DO
DO
IO
DO (?)
IO (?)
IO
DO (?)
IO (?)
DO
DO
DO
IO
IO
DO
IO
IO
DO (?)
IO
IO
?
OBL
OBL
OBL
OBL, DO
OBL
OBL
OBL
OBL
OBL
OBL
OBL
IO (?)
?
DO
?
IO
IO
DO
OBL
OBL
OBL
OBL
OBL
OBL
OBL
OBL
OBL
OBL
OBL
IO (?)
IO
?
OBL
OBL , DO
OBL
OBL
OBL
OBL
OBL
OBL
OBL
?
OBL
OBL, DO
OBL
OBL
OBL
OBL
OBL
OBL
OBL
Action
transitives
Second Causative of
Ditransitives Intransitives Ingestives
OBL
OBL
OBL
IO
DO
OBL
OBL
IO
DO
OBL
OBL
OBL , DO
IO
DO
IO
IO
DO
OBL
IO , DO
IO
DO
OBL
OBL
DO
IO
Action
transitives
DO
IO
DO
Ingestives
DO
Intransitives
First Causative of
OBL
Ditransitives
8.10. GRAMMATICALIZED
CAUSATIVES
CHAPTER 8. VALENCY ALTERNATIONS
Table 8.4: Causatives and grammatical relations of the causee in some Indian
languages.
Chapter 9
Reflexivity
9.1
Reflexives
9.1.1
Introducing Reflexives
• All languages have grammaticalized devices for referrring to some previously
mentioned or salient entity. These are typically pronouns:
(551)
A: I think that Randyi is interesting.
a.
B: Oh, hei is a nice guy
pronoun
b. B: Oh, I can’t stand the jerki
epithet
B: Oh, Randyi is a nice guy
proper name
c.
– Antecedent: The entity that a pronoun (or epithet) receives its interpretation
from
∗ Antecedents can be
· Linguistic: Supplied by linguistic material (as in (551))
· Non-linguistic: Salient in the discourse, non-linguistic context or supplied
by pointing
∗ Antecedents can be
· Intrasentential:
(552)
Randyi ’s mom thinks hei ’ll win
· Extrasentential: as in (551), all non-linguistic antecedents
– Subscripts (aka indices) are used to indicate the relation between a pronoun and
its antecedent:
215
9.1. REFLEXIVES
CHAPTER 9. REFLEXIVITY
• Simple pronouns in English (he, she, I, you,. . . ) may can take an antecedent in in
the intra- or extra-sentential context:
(553)
Billi thinks that Johnj saw him{i/k/∗j}
– Example (553) could be read in two ways:
∗ Bill thinks that John saw Bill.
∗ Bill thinks that John saw some other person (not mentioned in the sentence).
∗ But it cannot be read to mean Bill thinks that Johni saw Johni .
• Reflexive Pronouns (myself, himself, themselves) are more choosy
(554)
Billi thinks that Johnj saw himself{∗i/∗k/j}
English reflexive need intrasentential antecedents, that c-command them within a
certain structural domain (Principle A of the binding theory).
• More generally: The antecedence requirements for pronouns can be stated in
terms of following template (based on Sportiche et al. 2014:386)
(555) Binding Condition Format:
A DP of type X must (not) have an antecedent within domain Y
– Where the following relations may hold between X and the antecedent (Sportiche
et al. 2014:386):
∗
∗
∗
∗
C-command orientation: A c-commanding antecedent.
Subject orientation: A subject antecedent.
Anti-subject orientation: A non-subject antecedent.
Discourse orientation: Not syntactically determined.
– Where the relevant domains are (Sportiche et al. 2014:386):
∗
∗
∗
∗
Subject domain: Smallest XP with a subject.
Extended subject domain: Smallest XP with a subject and a c-commander
Tense Domain: Smallest tensed clause.
Root domain: Sentence
E XAMPLE : English reflexives must have a c-commanding antecedent in the
subject domain.
• Reflexive pronouns are one instance of reflexive markers (bound or free) that indicate that some argument must be interpreted as having an antecedent introduced
in the root domain (or smaller).
216
CHAPTER 9. REFLEXIVITY
9.1. REFLEXIVES
(556) Reflexive Marker (working definition):
A morpheme (bound or free) that indicates that some argument must be interpreted as having an antecedent introduced in the root domain (or smaller).
• Many of the world’s languages have distinct morphemes that indicate reflexivity:
– Non-verbal reflexives: the reflexive marker is an independent (pro)nominal
element (e.g. English, Japanese, Godié, Ilokano):
(557)
Japanese (Altaic; Japan)
John-ga
Bill-ni
zibun-no syasin-o
miseta
John- NOM Bill- DAT self- GEN picture- ACC showed
“Johni showed Billk a picture of self{i/∗k} ”
(558)
Godié (Niger-Congo (Kru); Ivory Coast)
O bOtO O y@ku
he hit he side
“he hit himself”
(559)
Ilocano (Austronesian; Philippines)
kabil-en ti lalaki ti bagi na
hit-PAT ti boy ti body his
“The boy hit himself”
– Verbal reflexives: Reflexivity is indicated on the verb (Halkomelem, Swahili,
Kalkatungu):
(560)
Halkomelem (Almosan-Keresiouan; Canada)
a.
kw´@l@šT-ámPš
kwT@ sw´@PqeP
AUX shoot-1. OBJ :3. ERG DET man
“the man shot me”
b. ni
kw´@l@šT-@t kwT@ sw´@PqeP
AUX shoot- SELF DET man
“the man shot himself”
(561)
ni
Swahili (Bantu; East Africa)
a.
Sam a- li- mwon -a Jon
Sam 3 SG-PST-3 SG . OBJ-see-a Jon
“Sam saw Jon”
b. Sam a- li- jion -a
Sam 3 SG-PST-REFL-see-a
“Sam saw himself”
217
9.1. REFLEXIVES
(562)
CHAPTER 9. REFLEXIVITY
Kalkatungu (Australian; Australia)
marapai
karri -ti
-mi thupu-ngku
woman.NOM wash-REFL-FUT soap-ERG
“The woman will wash herself with soap”
(NOM = absolutive here)
– Some languages have both verbal and non-verbal markers of reflexivity (e.g.
Kannada)
(563)
Kannada (Dravidian; India)
avan-u tann-annu hoDe-du -koND
-a
he- NOM self- ACC hit -PP-REFL . PST-3 S . M
“He hit himself.”
• Points of Variation:
– Morphosyntax: Bound vs free reflexive morphemes, non-reflexive uses
– For free reflexive morphemes: Where do they come from?
– Antecedents: ‘Reflexives’ with different domains and antecedents
9.1.2
The morphosyntax of reflexive markers
9.1.2.1
Verbal Reflexives
• A verbal reflexive is a marker of reflexivity that is an affix to a verb.
• Verbal reflexives/reflexive verbs occur in a very large number of typologically
diverse languages:
(564) ngani
muduwa-tadi -yi
1 SG . ABS scratch -REFL-PRS
(Diyari, Australian; Australia)
“I scratch myself”
– (Note that in Diyari, the verbal reflexive patterns like an intransitive.)
(565) jussi puolusta-utu -i
John defend -REFL-PST
(Finnish, Finno-Ugric; Finland)
“John defended himself”
218
CHAPTER 9. REFLEXIVITY
(566)
9.1. REFLEXIVES
Imbabura Quechua (Quechuan; Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador)
ispiju-pi riku-ri -rka -ni
mirror-in see -REFL-PST-1
“I saw myself in the mirror”
(567)
Russian (Indo-European (Slavic); Russia, Former Soviet Union)
on
zastrelil-sja
he. NOM shot-REFL
“he shot himself”
• When a language has both reflexive pronouns and verbal reflexives, there is usually
some distributional difference between them:
(568)
a.
lç@- lkoabe-yt’
3 FEM . SG-REFL-3 FEM . SG . ERG-wash -ASP
(Abkhaz, Caucasian)
“she washed (herself)”
b. a-
zbe -yt’a
sark’a-ç’@ s-x@
DET -mirror- LOC 1-head 1. ERG -see- ASP
“I saw myself in the mirror”
– In Abkhaz, when the event is something that is inherently or conventionally
reflexive, the verbal reflexive is used.
– When the action is something that is not inherently or conventionally reflexive,
the reflexive pronoun is used.
• Surprising property: in languages with antipassive, it is very common the the
same verbal morpheme used for antipassive and reflexive
– Diyari: Transitive sentence shows ergative absolutive case marking.
(569)
Diyari:
a.
Transitive:
ngaTu
nana
wila
kalka-yi
1 SG . ERG 3sg.fem. ABS woman. ABS wait.for-PRS
“I wait for the woman”
b. Antipassive:
-yi nangkangu
wila-ni
ngani
kalka -tadi
1sg. ABS wait.for-ANTIPASS-PRS 3 SG . FEM . LOC woman-LOC
“I wait for the woman”
219
9.1. REFLEXIVES
Transitive syntax:
CHAPTER 9. REFLEXIVITY
Intransitive syntax:
A-ABS V-REFL
Reflexive
A-ERG P-ABS V
A-ABS V-ANTIP (P-OBL) Antipassive
Table 9.1: Daiyari -tadi and intransitive syntax (REFL=ANTI=-tadi).
c.
Reflexive:
ngani
muduwa-tadi -yi
1sg. ABS scratch -REFL-PRS
“I scratch myself”
∗ Both anti-passive and reflexive create intransitive syntax: A appears as
absolutive, Table 9.1.
∗ The antipassive/reflexive morpheme appears in two contexts that involve
promotion of and ergative to absolutive, and a change in the realization of P.
∗ Another example of a similar pattern:
(570)
9.1.2.2
waguda-nggu gudaaga wawaa-l
(Yidiny , Australian; Australia)
man-ERG
dog. ABS see-PST
“the man saw the dog”
-u
guda-gala
b. waguuda wawaa-diny
antipassive
man. ABS see
-ANTIPASS-PST dog-DAT
“The man saw the dog”
c. ngayu banggaal-da gundaa-diny -u
reflexive
I. ABS axe-INSTR cut
-REFL-PST
“I cut myself with an axe”
a.
Historical Sources of Non-Verbal Reflexive Markers
• The principal sources of reflexive markers in the world’s languages are:
– Body part names
(571)
Cape Verde Creole (Portuguese based creole; Cape Verde Islands)
manêl ferí sê
cabeça
manuel hurt 3 SG . POSS head
“Manuel hurt himself”
220
CHAPTER 9. REFLEXIVITY
(572)
9.1. REFLEXIVES
Basque (Isolate; Spain (The Basque Country), France)
aita-k
bere buru-a
hil d-u
father-ERG his head- ABS kill 3 SG-have
“father killed himself”
(573) kòfí hù-ù
nè hũ
kofi see-PST his body
“Kofi saw himself”
(Asante Twi, Kwa; Ghana)
(574) Ayda gis-në
bopp-am
ayda see-3 SG . PERF head-3 SG
“Ayda saw herself”
(Wolof, Atlantic)
– A nominal source meaning approximately person, self, or owner
noki-a
-‘a -ha
(575) abono-ra naself-OBJ CAUSE-see -DETR-ASP-THEME
“he sees himself”
(576)
(Paumarí, Arawakan; Brazil)
Korean (Altaic; Korean peninsula, China)
minca-nun ca- ki -(l)ul miweha-nta
Minca-TOP self-body- ACC hate -INDIC-DECL
“Minca hates herself”
– Emphatic pronouns
(577)
a.
Ae saw himself.
b. The king himself fed the dogs.
emphatic reflexive
– Object personal pronouns
(578)
Samoan (Austronesian; Samoa, American Samoa)
ā
fasi ‘o ia ‘e
ia
FUT kill ABS 3 SG ERG 3 SG
“he is about to kill himself”
((578) may be ambiguous and could have a reading “he is about to kill him”)
– Verb meaning return or come back
(579)
Sanuma (Yanoman; Venezuela)
atakusa a-nö
kama nia sapa
ko -pa -so -ma
gun
3 SG-INS 3 SG shoot reverse.DIR return-EXT-FOC-COMPL
“he shot himself with a gun”
221
9.1. REFLEXIVES
CHAPTER 9. REFLEXIVITY
Ebira
Efik
Ibibio
Igbo
Oron
Twi
Bolanci
Bura
Lamang
Lele
Xdi
Hausa
Kwami
Margi
Mina
Family
Reflexive
Source
Kwa
Kwa
Kwa
Kwa
Kwa
Kwa
Chadic
Chadic
Chadic
Chadic
Chadic
Chadic
Chadic
Chadic
Chadic
Nwu
idem
idem
ònwo
òmà
hũ
jiw-o
dzá
ghvà
kùs
vÈá
kâi
kúu
k´@r
tàláN
‘body’
‘body’
‘body’
‘body’
‘body’
‘body’
‘body’
‘body’
‘body’
‘body’
‘body’
‘head’
‘head’
‘head’
‘head’
Table 9.2: Sources of Reflexives in Some Languages of West Africa.
– Word meaning “reflection”
(580) jussi
näki
itse-nsä
(Finnish, Finno-Ugric; Finland))
jussi. NOM see.PST reflection.on.water-3 SG . POSS
“Jussi saw himself”
– Locative prepositions
(581) Zande (Niger-Congo (Adamawa-Ubangi); Democratic Republic of Congo,
Sudan, Central African Republic)
mì˛ ˛ímí tì-rEÈ
1 SG-kill on-me
“I kill myself”
• In the grammaticalization of reflexive pronouns, aereal factors seem to play a role:
Table 9.3.
– Africa: Body parts are almost exclusively the source of reflexive markers, an
illustration: Table 9.2.
This also applies to African languages that are spoken in the same region, but
are genetically unrelated, such as Cape Verde Creole and Wolof (Senegal). The
source language for Cape Verde Creole, Portuguese, does not have body part
based reflexive markers.
– Americas: body parts and person/self are the major sources of reflexive markers.
222
CHAPTER 9. REFLEXIVITY
Africa
N
America
Asia
Austr/Oc
Europe
Total
N
%
N
%
N
%
N
%
N
%
body part
60 84.5
7
person/self 5
emph.pron ∅
∅
1
1.4
soul/spirit
pers.pron
∅
∅
loc.prep.
5
7
return
∅
∅
∅
∅
reflection
other
∅
∅
9
8
1
∅
∅
∅
1
∅
∅
47.4
42.1
5.3
∅
∅
∅
5.3
∅
∅
14
6
6
4
2
∅
∅
∅
1
45.4
18.2
15.2
12.1
6.1
∅
∅
∅
3
3
4
2
∅
2
∅
2
2
∅
20
26.7
13.3
∅
13.3
∅
13.3
13.3
∅
3
3
2
∅
1
∅
∅
1
∅
30
30
20
∅
10
∅
∅
10
∅
89
26
11
5
5
5
3
3
1
60.1
17.6
7.4
3.4
3.4
3.4
2
2
0.7
Total
19
71
%
9.1. REFLEXIVES
33
15
10
148
Table 9.3: Geographic Distribution of Non-Verbal Reflexive Marker Sources.
– Asia: body parts too dominate. However person/self, emphatic pronouns, and
soul/spirit also occur.
– Australia/Oceania: The return and reflection strategies play a role (in other
areas of the world, these strategies are negligible or nonexistent).
– Europe: Only area where emphatic pronouns are one of the dominant strategies
for reflexive formation along with person/self and body parts.
• Summary: Body parts are the overwhelmingly the most common source of
reflexive markers in the languages of the world.
9.1.3
Non-Reflexive uses of reflexive markers
• A typological tendency in reflexives: Reflexive markers in many languages are
used to indicate arbitrary reference.
(582)
Korean (Altaic; Korean peninsula, China)
caki-iy cip-i
hansang gajang alumtapta
self-GEN house-NOM always most beautiful
“one’s own house is always the most beautiful”
(583)
Polish (Indo-European, Slavic; Poland)
swój dom jest zawsze najmilszy
self’s house is always dearest
“one’s own house is always the dearest”
223
9.1. REFLEXIVES
CHAPTER 9. REFLEXIVITY
(584) acolo totdeauna se
lucrează (Moldavian, Indo-European; Moldova)
there always
REFL work. PRS
“There is always working here” (i.e. “people are always working here”)
(how does this fit the idea that reflexives must be bound? It’s complicated.)
• Verbal reflexives are commonly used in certain types of possession, typically
inalienable possession:
(585)
a.
Fula (West Atlantic; Senegal to Sudan)
o hett-ike fedenndu
he cut-REFL finger
“he cut his finger”
b. o hett-ii
fedenndu makko
he cut-ACT. PERF finger
his
“he cut his finger”
(586)
Udmurt (Uralic; central Russia)
a.
anaj
ki-ze
sut -isk -iz
mother hand-ACC . POSS burn-REFL-PST.3 SG
“Mother burned her hand”
b. anaj
ki-ze
sut-iz
mother hand-ACC . POSS burn-PST.3 SG
“mother burned her hand”
(587)
a.
(Russian)
on rasstegnul pal’to
he unbuttoned coat
“he unbuttoned his coat”
b. on rasstegnul-sja
pal’to
he unbuttoned-REFL coat
“he unbuttoned his coat”
• Reflexives, especially verbal ones, are very often used in constructions that are
not strictly reflexive. (These include the so-called incohative/anticausative verbs):
(588)
a.
John opened the door.
(causative)
b. The door opened.
(incohative/anticausative)
224
CHAPTER 9. REFLEXIVITY
(589)
9.2. LOCAL VS LONG DISTANCE
German:
a.
causative
Peter öffnet die Tür
Peter opens the door
“Peter is opening the door”
b. Die Tür öffnet sich
the door opens self
incohative
“The door is opening”
(590) ovi
ava-utu
door. NOM open-REFL
(Finnish)
“The door opens”
(591) pungu-kuna-ka paska-ri -rka
door -PL -TOP open -REFL-PST
(Imbabura Quechua)
“the doors opened”
(592)
a.
kini
sime -n
-er
she. ABS dress.up-REFL-3 SG . PRES
(Yakut, Altaic; Siberia)
“she dressed herself up”
-na
b. mas
tohu -n
stick. ABS break-REFL-3 SG . PST
“the stick broke”
(593)
Yavapai (Yuman; central and northern Arizona, USA)
a.
hmañ-c
kwe -wiv -v
-i
child-SUBJ thing-clothe-REFL-TNS
“the child dressed himself”
b.
P
wa:taP ami-c skwiñ-v
-km
door- SUBJ
lock -REFL-INC
“the door locked”
9.2
Local versus long distance reflexives
• Consider first the distribution of reflexives in English:
– The antecedent has to c-command the reflexive:
225
9.2. LOCAL VS LONG DISTANCE
(594)
CHAPTER 9. REFLEXIVITY
Maryi ’s fatherj saw {himselfj / *herselfi }
– The antecedent for a reflexive in English can be a non-subject:
(595)
Mary told Carli about himselfi .
We will see that this is not true for other types of reflexives.
– Reflexives must find their antecedents in the smallest domain that contains the
anaphor and a subject.
(596)
a.
Maryi said [that Suej saw herself{∗i/j} ].
b. *Johni expected [Mary to like himselfi ]
c.
Johni expected [himselfi to be hurt]
d. [Johni made [Maryj expect {herself/*himself} to be hurt]].
Antecedents in higher finite clauses are ruled
– In English, reflexivization is local
∗ Clause bounded in finite clauses
∗ Antecedent no further away than the next higher subject
More generally, we say that reflexivization is “local” if the antecedent and the
reflexive must be in the same clause.
• Turkish is another language with local reflexives:
(597)
a.
akrep
(Turkish, Altaic; Turkey)
kendi-kenden-i
sok-ar
scorpion self -self - ACC sting-AORIST
“the scorpion stings itself”
b. [Oya-nink kendi-kendin-den{∗i/k} hoşlan-ma
-si]
like -GERUND-3 SG
Oya- GEN self -self -ABL
Ahmed-ii
sevin -dir -di
ahmed- ACC happy-CAUS-PST
“that Oya likes herself made Ahmet happy”
• There are many languages that have non-local reflexives:
226
CHAPTER 9. REFLEXIVITY
(598)
9.2. LOCAL VS LONG DISTANCE
Japanese (Altaic; Japan)
Tarooi -ga michi-ni [Hitomik -ga zibun{i/k} -o suite -iru]-to itta
Taroo- NOM Mich- DAT Hitomi- NOM self- ACC
liking-is -C said
“Taroo told Michi that Hitomi likes self”
a.
Taro told Michi that Hitomi likes Hitomi.
b. Taro told Michi that Hitomi likes Taro.
(local)
(non-local)
– The Japanese reflexive zibun can have an antecedent that is not contained in the
(finite) clause that contains zibun.
– zibun can ‘skip’ its closest subject Hitomi
• Subject reflexives bound from a higher clause:
(599)
Icelandic (Germanic; Iceland):
hæfileika]
Hanni sagði [að sigi vantaði
he
said that self lacked.SUBJ ability
“he said [that self lacked ability]”
(600) Johni -i
[cakii -ka aphuta-ko] malhayssta
John- NOM self- NOM sick-that
said
(Korean )
“John said [that self is sick]”
(601)
Marathi (Indo-European; India)
Lilii samajte [ki aapaņi libral aahot]
Lili think
that self
liberal is
“Lili thinks [that self is liberal]”
• Sometimes long distance reflexives cannot be locally bound:
(602)
Japanese
Takasij -wa [Hirosik -ga zibun{j/∗k} -o kiratteiru koto-o] sitteiru
Takasi-TOP Hirosi- NOM self- ACC
hate
C - ACC know
“Takasi knows that Hirosi hates self”
a. *“Takasi knows [that Hirosi hates Hirosi]”
(local)
b. “Takasi knows [that Hirosi hates Takasi]”
(non-local)
How does this example differ from (598), where local and non-local binding are
possible?
227
9.2. LOCAL VS LONG DISTANCE
CHAPTER 9. REFLEXIVITY
– Matrix subject is topic marked here
– Embedding verb is different (say vs know)
This may be a logophoric use of zibun, see below on logophors
(603)
Kannada
raamuj [shyamuk tann{j/∗k} -annu priitis-utt -aane anta]
Raamu Shyamu self
- ACC love -PRS-3 SG . M that
namb -utt -aane
believe-PRS-3 SG . M
“Raamu believes that Shyamu loves self”
a. *“Raamu believes [that Shyamu loves Shyamu]”
(local)
b. “Raamu believes [that Shyamu loves Raamu]”
(non-local)
• Some languages have pronouns with local, non-local or discourse antecedents:
(604)
Malay (Austronesian; Malaysia)
ahmadi tahu
Ahmad know
[salmahk akan membeli baju
untuk diri-nya{i/j/k} ]
Salmah will buy
clothes for
self-3 SG
“Ahmad knows Salmah will buy clothes for self”
a.
“Ahmad knows [Salmah will buy clothes for Salmah]”
(local)
b. “Ahmad knows [Salmah will buy clothes for Ahmad]”
(non-local)
c.
“Ahmad knows [Salmah will buy clothes for [some salient person]]”
(discourse bound)
9.2.1
Typological properties/tendencies of long distance reflexives
(605) Pica’s Generalization: Long distance reflexives are typically monomorphemic.
• In languages that have both monomorphemic and bimorphemic reflexives, the
bimorphemic reflexives behave like English reflexives:
228
CHAPTER 9. REFLEXIVITY
(606)
9.2. LOCAL VS LONG DISTANCE
Italian
Giannii voleva
Gianni wanted
[che la signora giacesse presso di {sèi / *sè stessoi }]
that the woman should.lie near P {self/ himself}
“Gianni wanted that the woman should lie near himself”
– Monomorphemic sè: Can take non-local antecedent
– Bimorphemic sè stesso: Cannot take non-local antecedent
(607)
Mandarin: Monomorphemic
Zhangsan renwei [Lisi zhidao [Wangwu xihuan ziji]]
self
Zhangsan think
Lisi know Wangwu like
a.
“Zhangsan thinks [that Lisi knows [Wangwu likes Zhangsan]]”
b. “Zhangsan thinks [that Lisi knows [Wangwu likes Lisi]]”
c.
(608)
“Zhangsan thinks [that Lisi knows [Wangwu likes Wangwu]]”
Mandarin: bimorphemic
Zhangsan renwei [Lisi zhidao [Wangwu xihuan ta-ziji]]
he-self
Zhangsan think
Lisi know Wangwu like
a. *“Zhangsan thinks [that Lisi knows [Wangwu likes Zhangsan]]”
b. *“Zhangsan thinks [that Lisi knows [Wangwu likes Lisi]]”
c.X “Zhangsan thinks [that Lisi knows [Wangwu likes Wangwu]]”
• Long distance reflexives are typically subject oriented:
(609)
Japanese
Tarooi -ga michik -ni zibun{i/∗k} -no koto nituite hanasita
Taroo- NOM michi- DAT self- GEN
matter about talked
a.
“Taro talked to Michi about Taro’s matter”
b. *“Taro talked Michi about Michi’s matter”
229
9.2. LOCAL VS LONG DISTANCE
(610)
CHAPTER 9. REFLEXIVITY
Icelandic (Indo-European; Iceland): monomorphemic
Jóni sagði maríuj [að þúk elskaðir sig{i/∗j} ]
John told maria that you loved
self
a.
“John told Maria [that you loved John]”
(non-local subject)
b. *”John told Maria [that you loved Maria]”
(611)
(non-local non-subject)
Icelandic (Indo-European; Iceland): bimorphemic
Égi sendi Haraldik föt
á sjálfan sig{∗i/k}
I
sent Harald clothes for self
self
“I sent Harald clothes for self self”
a.
“I sent Harald clothes for Harald”
(non-subject antecedent)
b. *“I sent Harald clothes for me”
(612)
(subject antecedent)
Marathi:
mini-nej vinu-laak kaLavle [ki aapan{j/∗k} turungaat aahot]
prison.LOC was
mini-ERG vinu- DAT informed that self
“Mini informed Vinu that self was in prison”
a.
“Mini informed Vinu [that Mini was in prison]”
(non-local subject)
b. *“Mini informed Vinu [that Vinu was in prison]”
(non-local non-subject)
• Long distance reflexives are often subject to a “blocking effect” by first person
pronouns:
(613) Zhangsan renwei [wo
zhidao [Wangwu xihuan ziji]]
:::
Zhangsan think
I know Wangwu like
self
a.
(Mandarin)
“Zhangsan thinks [that I know [that Wangwu likes Wangwu]]”
b. *”Zhangsan thinks [that I know that [Wangwu likes Zhangsan]]”
(614) Zhangsan renwei [Wangwu zhidao [wo
xihuan ziji]]
:::
Zhangsan think
Wangwu know I like
self
a.
“Zhangsan thinks [Wangu knows [that I like myself]]”
b. *“Zhangsan thinks [Wangwu knows [I like Zhangsan]]”
c. *“Zhangsan thinks [Wangwu knows [I like Wangwu]]”
230
(Mandarin)
CHAPTER 9. REFLEXIVITY
9.2. LOCAL VS LONG DISTANCE
– Not all languages show this kind of blocking:
(615) la signora dice [che io
giaccia presso di sè]
::
the woman says that I lie.SUBJ near P self
(Italian)
“the woman says [that I (should) lie near her]”
• Non-local antecedents are often impossible if the potential antecedents differ in
person:
(616) wo juede [ni dui ziji mei xinxin]
I feel
you to self no confidence
a.
(Mandarin)
“I felt [that you had no confidence in yourself]”
b. *“I felt [that you had not confidence in me]”
(617) Zhangsan zhidao [{:::
wo/ ni}
dui ziji mei xinxin]
::
Zhangsan think
{I / you} to self no confidence
(Mandarin)
“Zhangsan thought that {I/you} had no confidence in {myself/yourself}”
– Similar behavior has been reported for Korean:
(618) Chelswu-nun [nay-ka casin-ul sarangha-n -ta
-ko]
Chelswu-TOP I- NOM self- ACC love
-PRS-DECL-C
sayngkakha-n -ta
think
-PRS-DECL
a. “Chelswu thinks [that I like myself]”
(Korean)
b. *“Chelswu thinks [that I like Chelswu]”
∗ (I don’t know whether first person intervenes in long distance reflexives in
Korean)
– Italian: Person based blocking of long distance antecedents is reported for
elements like own (e.g. one’s own)
(619) Italian
Gianni suppone [che tu sia inamorato della
propria moglie]
wife
Gianni supposes that you are in.love
with.the self
a.
“Gianni supposes [that you are in love with your wife]”
b. *“Gianni supposes [that you are love with his wife]”
231
9.2. LOCAL VS LONG DISTANCE
CHAPTER 9. REFLEXIVITY
– Person based blocking can be sensitive to the grammatical status of the intervener: Icelandic
∗ Icelandic has true dative subjects, mér in (620), see discussion of noncanonical subjects earlier in the class.
∗ Dative subjects cannot be antecedents for reflexives in their clause:
(620) Olaf
telur
[að mér
finnist
bokin sin goð]
::::
::::
Olaf believes that me.DAT seems.SUBJ book self good
a. “Olaf believes [that I consider his book good]”
(Icelandic)
b. *“Olaf believes [that I consider my own book good]”
∗ Nominative subjects block long distance reflexive readings:
(621) Jón
telur
[að ég
hafi talað við sig]
:::
::
John believes [that I have talked to self]
a. “Jon believes [that I have talked to myself]”
(Icelandic)
b. *“Jon believes [that I have talked to Jon]”
• Long distance reflexives referring to the highest subject tend to be preferred over
intermediate subjects (“Maximality Effect”):
(622)
Mandarin
Zhangsan1 yiwei [Lisi2 zhidao [Wangwu3 xihuan ziji{1>3>2} ]]
Zhangsan think Lisi know Wangwu like
self
“Zhangsan thinks Lisi knows Wangwu likes self”
• Long distance reflexives tend not to be in complementary distribution with regular
pronouns:
(623)
Inuit (Inuit; Greenland)
Kaalii uqar-p -u -q [Paviaj {immi-nit{i/j} / taa -ssu -managa{i/k} }
Kaali say -IND-3 SG-q Pavia {self-ABL
/ DEM-3 SG-ABL}
angi-nir -u -sinnaa-nngi-tsu -q]
big -COMP-be-can -NEG-PRT-3 SG
“Kaali said that pavia couldn’t be taller than self/him”
– This is rather different from local reflexives. In English, pronouns and reflexives
are basically in complementary distribution:
232
CHAPTER 9. REFLEXIVITY
(624)
9.3. LOGOPHORS
Maryk likes {herselfk /*herk }.
– In certain configurations, anaphors and pronouns are not in complementary
distribution:
(625)
The childrenk read {theirk /each other’sk } stories.
• Summary: Long distance reflexives are typically
– Monomorphemic
– Subject oriented
– Sensitive to the properties of the potential antecedents (person, case)
9.3
Another Kind of Reference: Logophors
• Logophoric pronouns: Pronouns that can only be used to refer to people whose
thoughts, words, ideas, feelings, etc. are being talked about.
The following are common antecedents for logophoric pronouns:
– Source: someone (or a DP referring to someone) who is the intentional agent
in a communication. For example normally the subject of the verb say, or the
object of hear from. . . is a Source in this sense (quoted from Sportiche et al.
2014:382).
(626)
Donno SO (Dogon)
a.
Oumar [Anta inyemEñ waa be] gi
Oumar Anta LOG . ACC seen AUX said
“Oumark said [that Anta had seen himk ]”
logophoric pronoun
b. Regular pronoun:
Anta [wo wa Fransi boojE
gO] egaa be
Anta 3 SG SUBJ France go.FUT.3 SG that heard AUX
“Antak heard [that she{k/i} will go to France]”
∗ The presence of the logophoric pronoun forces an interpretation where the
embedded object must be coreferential with the speaker in the matrix clause,
Oumar.
∗ Another example:
233
9.3. LOGOPHORS
(627)
CHAPTER 9. REFLEXIVITY
Ewe (Gbe)
a.
Kòfí bé yè-dzó
Kofi say LOG-go
“Kofij said [that hej left]”
b. Kòfí bé è-dzó
Kofi say 3 SG-go
“Kofi said that someone (else) left”
logophoric pronoun
pronoun
(Sells 1987:448)
– Self : Someone (or a DP referring to someone) whose mental state or mental
attitude the content of the proposition describes. This for example would be the
case of the (referent of) the subject of the verb want, or hope, or think (quoted
from Sportiche et al. 2014:382).
(628)
Tuburi (Cameroon)
á
Dīk tí
māy [mà:gā sĒ
kó n sú:
mònó]
˜
PRO think about girl
REL
LOG see
yesterday REL
“Hei is thinking about the girl [hei saw yesterday]”
(Sells 1987:447)
– Pivot: Someone (or a DP referring to someone) with respect to whom (spacetime) location or deixis is evaluated.
(629)
John said: “the book is here”
the meaning of here is evaluated with respect to John. (quoted from Sportiche
et al. 2014:382).
In the language of deixis: pivot=deictic center
(630)
Japanese: Logophoric use of zibun
a.
Takasii -wa
Takasi-TOP
[Yosiko-ga
zibuni -o tazunete-kita
node]
uresigatta.
:::
[Yosiko-SUBJ selfi -OBJ visit-came
because] happy
“Takasii was happy because Yosiko came to visit himi .”
b. * Takasii -wa
Takasi-TOP
[Yosiko-ga
zibuni -o tazunete-itta
node]
uresigatta.
:::
[Yosiko-SUBJ selfi -OBJ visit-went
because] happy
“Takasii was happy because Yosiko went to visit himi .”
(Sells 1987:464/465)
234
CHAPTER 9. REFLEXIVITY
9.3. LOGOPHORS
∗ Direction of kita/itta, ‘come’/‘go,’ is evaluated with respect to Takashi
∗ Only when movement is towards the deictic center, kita ‘come,’ can zibun
take Takasi as an antecedent
There is some debate over which aspects of the distribution of zibun fall under
long distance reflexives, and which ones under logophoricity.
• Note also that some languages encode logophoricity on the verb:
(631)
a.
(AkOOse, Bantu)
a-hObe a a-kag
he-said ? he-should.go
“Hek said that hej should go”
b. a-hObe a m@-kag
he-said ? LOG-should.go
“Hek said that hek should go”
– AkOOse has a special verbal prefix for indicating logophoricity.
– A logophore version of verbal reflexives
• True logophoric systems seem to be found exclusively in Africa.
• Other languages may have “logophoric” uses of some of their pronouns. Japanese
long distance reflexive zibun once more:
(632)
a.
Taroj -wa [Keiko-ga
kare{j/k} -no imato-to
hananshi-o
Taro-TOP Keiko-NOM 3 SG - GEN
young.sister-DAT talk-ACC
sito
to] kita
talked that heard
“Taro head [that Keiko talked to his sister]”
b. Taroj -wa [Keiko-ga
zibunj -no imato-to
hananshi-o
Taro-TOP Keiko-NOM 3 SG - GEN young.sister-DAT talk-ACC
sito
to] kita
talked that heard
“Taro head [that Keiko talked to his sister]”
– (632a): an ordinary pronoun kare, can be used to refer to the hearer Taro, but it
may also refer to someone else.
– (632b): When the reflexive zibun is present, Taro must be the antecedent.
235
9.3. LOGOPHORS
CHAPTER 9. REFLEXIVITY
In a language like Japanese, the reflexive and a non-reflexive pronoun can be
used in the same environments. In a pure logophoric language, there are always
environments in which coreference can only be achieved by using a logophoric
pronoun. That is, long distance anaphors almost always have a wider distribution
than logophoric pronouns.
236
Chapter 10
Negation
10.1
Expressing Negation
• Two (basic) types of negation; here we focus on sentential negation.
(633)
a.
John baked a cake
b. John did not bake a cake
c.
sentential negation
It’s not John who baked a cake
constituent negation
d. John baked, not a cake, but a strudel
constituent negation
• We also find something called meta-linguistic negation, which might also be called
“echo negation” similar to echo questions.
(634)
I didn’t say John was tall. I said he was NOT tall.
• Cross-linguistically, there are four major means by which sentential negation is
expressed:
– Higher verb:
(635)
a.
na’e ‘alu ‘a siale
ASP go
ABS Charlie
“Charlie went”
b. na’e ‘ikai [ke ‘alu ‘a siale]
ASP NEG ASP go
ABS Charlie
“Charlie didn’t go”
– Auxiliary:
237
(Tongan, Austronesian; Tonga)
10.1. EXPRESSING NEGATION
(636)
CHAPTER 10. NEGATION
Ewondo (Bantu; Cameroon)
a.
m@- dí -ya
zoag
1 SG-eat-PERF elephant
“I have eaten elephant (earlier today)”
b. ma-b´@ ki
dí
1 SG-be NEG eat
“I have not eaten (yet/already)”
(637)
Evenki (Altaic; China, Mongolia, Russia)
a.
bi dukuwūn-ma duku-cā-w
I letter-OBJ
write-PAST 1. SG
“I wrote a letter”
duku-ra
b. bi dukuwūn-ma @- c¯@ -w
NEG - PST -1 SG write- PART
I letter-OBJ
“I did not write a letter”
– Negative particle:
(638)
Russian (Indo-European; Russia, former Soviet Union)
a.
imperfective verb
on ne igaet
he NEG play.IMPERF
“He doesn’t play”
b. on ne vyigraet
he NEG win.PERF
“He won’t win”
perfective verb
– Affix:
(639)
Cantonese (Sino-Tibetan; southern China)
a.
keoi zaa-dak li-ga
ce
3 SG drive-dak this-CL car
“He/She is permitted to drive this car”
ce
b. keoi m- zaa -dak li-ga
3 SG NEG-drive-dak this-CL car
“He/She is not permitted to drive this car”
238
CHAPTER 10. NEGATION
10.1.1
10.1. EXPRESSING NEGATION
Higher Verb Strategy
• When negation is expressed by higher verb, this often corresponds to a biclausal
structure.
• Typologically, the “higher” verb strategy seems to be absent in SVO languages.
• Example: Tongan
(640)
a.
na’e ne fai ‘a e ngauue
ASP he do ABS the work
(Tongan)
“He did the work”
b. na’e ‘ikai [ke
ASP
NEG
ASP
ne fai ‘a e ngauue]
he do ABS the work
“He didn’t do the work”
c. * na’a ne ‘ikai [ke fai ‘a e ngauue]
ASP he NEG ASP do ABS the work
“He didn’t do the work”
– The ASP marker is the first element in a sentence.
– (640b): there are two
construction.
ASP
markers. This indicates that this is a biclausal
– (640c): This is not a raising structure where the subject can raise from the lower
clause to the higher one.
The negative sentences look like they are more literally rendered as, “it is not (the
case) that. . . .”
• Fijian (Austronesian; Fiji) also employs the higher verb strategy:
(641) a
sega [ni yaco.mai ena siga vakaraubuka ko jone]
that arrive
on day friday
ART John
(Fijian)
PST NEG
“John didn’t arrive on friday”
– The embedded clause is introduced by the complementizer ni. This suggests
that this is a biclausal construction.
– A complication: Tense can appear preceding either verb, but not before both.
239
10.1. EXPRESSING NEGATION
(642)
a.
e
CHAPTER 10. NEGATION
sega
PCL NEG
[ni a
yaco.mai ena siga vakaraubuka ko jone]
that PST arrive
on day friday
ART John
“John didn’t arrive on Friday”
b. * a
sega
PST NEG
[ni a
yaco.mai ena siga vakaraubuka ko jone]
that PST arrive
on day friday
ART John
“John didn’t arrive on Friday”
– If Fijian negation involved two clauses, we might expect that both tense markers
could surface simultaneously, contrary to fact.
– It is not clear why tense distributes as it does.
Though there appear to be two clauses in negation structures, they do not show all
the behaviors of regular biclausal structures.
• Summary:
– Higher ‘verb’ negation involves an apparent bi-clausal structure
– There need not be an actual ‘verb’ that embeds the negated clause. Sometimes
a carrier for tense is all there is.
10.1.2
Negation with an auxiliary
• Two types:
– “negative” auxiliary
– “neutral” auxiliary
10.1.2.1
Negation with a Neutral Auxiliary
• There are many languages in which negative sentences involve an auxiliary, but
the auxiliary is not itself “negative.”
240
(643)
a.
c.
e.
a.i)
ii)
c.i)
ii)
e.i)
ii)
g.i)
ii)
i.i)
ii)
k.i)
ii)
Nenets
Meadow Mari
Erzja
b. Bill did not bake a cake
Did Bill bake a cake?
d. What did Bill bake?
Bill did bake a cake!
241
kund-an
a kund-an
kund-at
a kund-at
už-am
o-m už
už-at
o-t už
xane-(d)m
ni-(d)m xane
xane-n
ni-n xane
Present:
“I catch”
“I don’t catch”
“you catch”
“you don’t catch”
“I see”
“I don’t see”
“you see”
“you don’t see”
“I trade”
“I don’t trade
“you trade”
“you don’t trade”
j.i)
ii)
l.i)
ii)
f.i)
ii)
h.i)
ii)
b.i)
ii)
d.i)
ii)
kund-yn’
ez-in’ kund-a(k)
kund-yt’
ez-it’ kunda(k)
už-ym
š-ym už
už-yč
š-yč už
xai-manź
ni- manź xaju
xai-naś
ni-naś xaju
Past:
“I caught”
“I didn’t catch”
“you caught”
“you didn’t catch”
“I saw”
“I didn’t see”
“you saw”
“you didn’t see”
“I stayed”
“I didn’t stay”
“you stayed”
“you didn’t stay”
CHAPTER 10. NEGATION
10.1. EXPRESSING NEGATION
Table 10.1: Negative Auxiliaries in some Uralic-Yukaghir Languages.
Bill baked a cake
negative declarative
yes/no question
wh-question
polarity focus
10.1. EXPRESSING NEGATION
f.
CHAPTER 10. NEGATION
I baked a cake and Bill did
(too)
VP ellipsis
• The languages that use neutral auxiliary split into two groups with respect to
whether the auxiliary carries negation or the main verb carries negation:
– Auxiliary hosts the negation: Korean. Additionally, the main verb is in a
nominalized form. When nominalized, the main verb may be case-marked,
(644a).
(644)
Korean (Altaic; Korean peninsula, China)
a.
ku holangi-nun cwu-ci
-(lul) an- h -ass -ta
the tiger-TOP
die -NOMNLZ-ACC NEG-do-PST-DECL
“the tiger did not die”(NOMNLZ=nominalizer)
aux + neg
b. na-nun pale-lul
h -ass -ta
I-TOP laundry-ACC do-PST-DECL
“I did laundry”
– Main verb carries the negation: Lexical verb carries negation, even in the
presence of an auxiliary. In that case, the auxiliary is almost invariably some
form or be or do
(645)
Hixkaryana (Cariban; Brazil)
a.
ono
koso wdeer 1SUB :3 OBJ- eat
“I ate the deer”
b. koso y- ono -hra wdeer 3- eat -NEG 1“I did not eat the deer”
(646)
-ye
-DIST. PST. COMP
exe -ye
be -DIST. PST. COMP
Chukchi (Chukchi-Kamchatkan; Siberia)
a.
tejkev-@k
fight-INF
“to fight”
b. e-
tejkev-ke
it-@k
-NEG be-INF
“not to fight”
NEG -fight
242
(an OVS language)
CHAPTER 10. NEGATION
(647)
10.1. EXPRESSING NEGATION
Miskito (Misumalpan; Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica)
a.
mai suni-sna
you climb-1.be
“I/we climb (up/on?) you”
b. mai sun -ra -s
sna
you climb-PART-NEG 1.be
“I/we do not climb (up/on?) you”
10.1.2.2
Negation with negative auxiliary
• In many languages there are auxiliary verbs that are inherently negative:
(648)
Evenki (Altaic; China, Mongolia, Russia)
a.
-n
nuNan baka-Nkī
he
find -REM . PST-3 SG
remote past affirmative
“He found”
-n
baka-ra
b. nuNan @
-Nkī
he
NEG - REM . PST -3 SG find- PART
remote past negative
“He didn’t find”
c.
conditional affirmative
bi baka-mcā -w
I find -COND-1 SG
“I would find”
d. bi @ -mc@ -w
baka-ra
I NEG-COND-1 SG find-PART
conditional negative
“I wouldn’t find”
e.
imperative affirmative
bak-kal!
find-IMP
“Find!”
f.
imperative negative
@-k@l
baka-ra!
NEG - IMP find- PART
“Don’t find!”
• The negative auxiliary carries the same inflections (person, number, tense, mood)
that main verbs do.
• The main verb appears in a non-finite (“participial”) form.
• do-support like behavior with a negative auxiliary: Modern Standard Arabic
243
10.1. EXPRESSING NEGATION
CHAPTER 10. NEGATION
– Present tense copular constructions do not require verbs
(649)
a.
Pana: lubna:niy:-at-un
I
Lebanese -F -NOM . IND
“I am Lebanese.F”
b. las-tu
lubna:niy: -at -an
NEG .be-1 SG Lebanese - F - ACC . IND
“I am not Lebanese”
(Ryding 2005:642/643)
– In the presence of negation, a special negative auxiliary l-s-j (root) is necessary
– The negative auxiliary l-s-j historically consists of a negation /l/ and a (now
defunct) auxiliary PaIsa (Wright 1874b:96)
• In the Finnic languages (Finnish, Komi, Saami, etc.), except for some dialects of
Estonian, and all of the Samoyed languages (except Selkup), there are negative
auxiliaries that inflect for at least some verbal categories.
• Negative Auxiliaries in some Uralic-Yukaghir Languages: Table 10.1.
– Nenets: the negative auxiliary takes verbal inflection in the present and the past
tenses. The main verb is invariable.
– Meadow Mari: there are two distinct negative auxiliaries, one for present, o, and
one for past, š. However, in both cases, the auxiliary takes the verbal inflection.
– Erzja (Samoyed; Siberia): In the present, the negative, a, is invariable and the
main verb takes the inflection. In the past tense, the negative verb ez, takes the
inflection.
10.1.3
Negative Particles
• Negative particle: A negative element that does not inflect for person, number,
gender, etc.
(650)
Italian (Indo-European (Romance); Italy)
a.
non parl-o
NEG speak-1 SG . PRES
“I don’t speak”
b. non parl-i
NEG speak-2 SG . PRES
“You don’t speak”
c.
non parl-iamo
NEG speak-1pl.pres
“We don’t speak”
244
CHAPTER 10. NEGATION
10.1. EXPRESSING NEGATION
d. {le
donne / gli
uomini} non parl-ano
{the.F. PL women/ the.M . PL men}
NEG speak-3 PL . PRES
“The women/men do not speak”
• These particles may appear in any number of clause types:
(651)
Russian (Indo-European; Russia, former Soviet Union)
a.
imperfective verb
on ne igaet
he NEG play.IMPERF
“He doesn’t play”
b. on ne vyigraet
he NEG win.PERF
perfective verb
“He won’t win”
c.
ne
NEG
imperative verb
igraj!
play
“Don’t play!”
d. on ne durak
he NEG fool
noun
“He’s not a fool”
e.
adjective
on ne molod
he NEG young
“He’s not young”
f.
prepositional phrase
on ne v komnate
he NEG in room
“He’s not in the room”
• It is not uncommon for the negative particle to vary according to the clause type
or what kind of constituent is being negated:
(652)
Vietnamese (Austric; Vietnam)
a.
ông ba không về
viê.t nam
mr. ba NEG return viet nam
active verb/intrans
“Mr. Ba did not return to Vietnam”
b. nó cha ăn gì
ca
he NEG eat whatever all
“He doesn’t eat anything at all”
245
active verb/trans
10.1. EXPRESSING NEGATION
c.
CHAPTER 10. NEGATION
giáp không thong-minh lắm
Giap NEG intelligent very
adjective
“Giap is not very intelligent”
d. con d̄ừng thức
khuya
quá
child NEG stay.awake late.night very
request/command/intrans
“You should not stay up too late”
e.
con chớ ăn nhiều chuối quá
child not eat many banana very
request/command/trans
“You should not eat too many bananas”
f.
ông ba không phai là ngừời mỹ
mr. ba NEG NEG be person America
predicate nominal
“Mr. Ba is not an American”
(653)
Iraqi Arabic (Semitic; Iraq)
a.
perfect negative
ma-shaaf
NEG -see. PERF.3 SG . M
“He did not see”
b. ruuh!
go
imperative
“Go!”
c.
negative imperative
la-
t- ruuh!
NEG - 2 SG -go
“Don’t go”
d. huwwa mu mudarris
3 SG
NEG teacher
predicate nominal
“He is not a teacher”
(654)
Kaqchikel (Mayan; Guatemala)
a.
(ri)-xta Mariya x-xajoh
the-class maria PST-dance
“Maria danced”
b. (ri)-xta Mariya ma(n) x-xajoh
tah
the-? maria NEG1 PST-dance NEG2
“Maria did not dance”
246
man V tah
CHAPTER 10. NEGATION
10.1. EXPRESSING NEGATION
– Ordinary verbal negation involves two discontinuous particles. ma(n) precedes
the verb and tah follows the verb.
– Kaqchikel has two types of imperatives. In negative imperatives, tah does not
occur:
(655)
a.
t-a
c’eyah la umul
IMPER -2 SG hit
the rabbit
“Hit(sg) the rabbit!”
b. man-a
c’ey (*tah) ri umul
NEG 1 -2 SG hit
NEG 2 the rabbit
“Don’t hit (sg) the rabbit!”
ta-imperative
∅-form imperative
– The ka-imperative is negated using the “k-form imperative” or “y-form imperative”:
(656)
a.
man
k-a
NEG 1 IMPER -2 SG
veer (*tah)
sleep NEG2
k-form imperative
veer (*tah)
sleep NEG2
y-form imperative
“Don’t sleep(2g)!”
b. ma
y-a
NEG 1 IMPER -2 SG
“Don’t sleep(2sg)!”
• In terms of position with respect to the verb, negative particles pattern like negative
auxiliaries:
– VO-languages: The negative particle most commonly precedes the verb.
– OV-languages: The negative particle just as likely to precede as to follow the
verb.
10.1.4
Affixal negation
• Affixal negative markers are (typically) prefixes or suffixes to the verb:
(657)
Kunuz Nubian (Nilo-Saharan; southern Egypt)
a.
buru:-g b- ed
-min -i
girl-ACC FUT-marry-neu-NEG-1 SG
“I will not marry the girl”
b. ed -me:s-s -a -n
-de?
marry-NEG -PST-3 PL-INTR
“Didn’t they marry?”
247
CHAPTER 10. NEGATION
+V
Hixkaryana
Miskito
NEG
+ aux
English
Korean
Negative aux.
Nenets
Komi
NEG
Auxiliary
Neutral aux.
Higher verb
Tongan
Fijian
Invariable
Russian
Italian
Particle
Variable
Vietnamese
Affixal
Cantonese
Wolof
10.1. EXPRESSING NEGATION
Table 10.2: Summary of Types of Negative Marking Strategies
(658) hasan kitab-I
oku -ma -di
Hasan book-ACC read-NEG-PST
“Hasan didn’t read the book”
10.1.5
Summary
• Table 10.2 (p.248)
• A single language have multiple strategies:
(659)
Korean
248
(Turkish, Altaic; Turkey)
CHAPTER 10. NEGATION
a.
10.2. NEGATIVE CLAUSES
Neutral auxiliary:
ku holangi-nun cwu-ci
-(lul) an- h -ass -ta
the tiger-TOP
die -NOMNLZ-ACC NEG-do-PST-DECL
“The tiger did not die”
b. Negative particle:
ku holangi-nun an cwuk-ess -ta
NEG die - PST - DECL
the tiger-TOP
V+neg
“The tiger did not die”
(660)
Miskito
a.
mai sun -ra -s
sna
you climb-PART-NEG 1.be
V+NEG aux
“I/we do not climb (up/on?) you”
b. yang mai sun -ra -s
I
you climb-PART-NEG
V+neg
“I do not climb (up/on?) you”
• In some languages, negation may be marked by tone. This can complicate the
identification of the strategy that is used
(661)
Mann (Niger-Congo; Liberia)
a.
ǹ yídò
I know
b. n̂
yídò
I+NEG know
“I do not know”
10.2
Common Properties of Negative Clauses
• In many languages, negative clauses are “asymmetric” in that negative clauses
differ from affirmative clauses in ways other than the presence of a negative
marker.
10.2.1
Tense/Aspect Neutralization
• “Neutralization under negation:” Fewer tense/aspect distinctions in the negative
than in the affirmative.
249
10.2. NEGATIVE CLAUSES
CHAPTER 10. NEGATION
E XAMPLE : Gender distinctions in English third person pronouns are neutralized in the plural:
SG
M
F
N
PL
he they
she they
it
they
• Bafut: The differences between the past and the immediate past are neutralized in
the negative
(662)
Bafut (Bantu)
a.
past
mb1̀N lòó
rain fall
“It has rained”
b. mb1̀N lòò m`@
rain fall IMM . PST
IMM . PST =immediate
past
“It has just rained”
c.
kāā mb1̀N s1
lōò
NEG rain NEG fall
“It has not rained” or “It has not just rained”
• Takelma: the distinction between the future and inferential forms of the verb are
neutralized in the negative.
(663)
Takelma (Penutian)
a.
yana-‘E t’
go-3 SG . FUT
future
“He will go”
b. baxma-‘k’
come-3 SG . INFR
inferential
“He (evidently) came”
c.
negative future/inferential
wede yana-‘k’
NEG go-3 SG . INFR
“he will not go” or “He (evidently) did not go”
• Neutralization of person distinctions: Tzotzil
– In affirmative sentences, completive aspect marker varies according to person:
∗ n- = 1st person, 2nd person, and inclusive
250
CHAPTER 10. NEGATION
10.2. NEGATIVE CLAUSES
∗ i- = 3rd person
(664)
Tzotzil (Huixtec dialect, Mayan; Guatemala)
a.
n-
c.
mú- uk- ši- tál
NEG - SUBJ - COMPL -1-come
“I did not come”
i- Pán
COMPL -1-was.born
“I was born”
b. i∅-t’šáy
COMPL -3- lose
“He got lost”
– In the negative, completive aspect is invariably marked with š- for all persons.
• Generalization: There are never more tense/aspect distinctions in the negative
than in the affirmative.
This is a common pattern in morphological paradigms: Add a morpheme and
distinctions disappear
– Greenberg’s universal 37: A language never has more gender categories in
nonsingular numbers than in the singular.
– Greenberg’s universal 44: If a language has gender distinctions in the first
person, it always has gender distinctions in the second or third persons or in
both.
– Greenberg’s universal 45: If there are any gender distinctions in the plural of
the pronoun, there are some gender distinctions in the singular also.
10.2.2
Realis Marking
• There are languages in which the distinction between affirmative and negative
clauses includes a difference between “realis” or “irrealis” marking.
– Clauses that are assertive/declarative and report events which are realized or
“real” (in some sense to remain suitably vague) are indicative or realis.
– Clauses that report events which are unrealized include irrealis, imperative,
interrogative, dubitative, etc.
E XAMPLE : Blackfoot
251
10.2. NEGATIVE CLAUSES
(665)
CHAPTER 10. NEGATION
Blackfoot (Algonquian; Canada, USA)
a.
nit-á- óoyi
I- DUR-eat
“I am eating”
b. káta’-yá- yo’kaa-waiksaawa
QDUR - sleep -3 PL . NON . AFFIRMATIVE
question
“Are they sleeping?”
c.
máát-omá-yo’kaa-waiksaawa
NEG - yet- sleep -3 PL . NON . AFFIRMATIVE
negation
“They aren’t asleep yet”
d. n-imáát-á- óoyi-hpa
1-NEG- DUR-eat -NON . AFFIRMATIVE
negation
“I am not eating”
• Typological Generalization: There are no languages in which an affirmative clause
is marked as unreal, but a negative clause is marked with realis marking.
• Maung: Negation occurs with the irrealis marker -ji.1
(666)
Maung (Australian)
a.
indicative
Ni-udba
1 SG :3-put
“I put”
b. Niwan-udba
1.SG:3-FUT-put
future
“I shall put”
c.
irrealis under modal
niudba-ji
1 SG:3-put -IRR . NPST
“I can put”
d. marig niudba-ji
NEG
1 SG:3-put -IRR . NPST
irrealis under negated future
“I do/shall not put”
• Alamblak: Negation occurs with the irrealis marker -r-.
1
Glosses: 1 SG :3 glosses a portmanteau morpheme that encodes that there is a first person singular
subject and a third person object.
252
CHAPTER 10. NEGATION
(667)
10.2. NEGATIVE CLAUSES
Alamblak (Indo-Pacific; New Guinea?)
a.
yi -më
-r
go-REM . PST-3 SG . M
“He went”
b. fiñji noh-r -më
-r
NEG die - IRR - REM . PST -3 SG . M
“He did not die”
c.
a-
i -kah -n
-n
HORT -go- IRR -2 SG - DEP
-an -n
hik -r -fë
follow-IRR-IMMED . PST-1 SG-2 SG
“Had you gone (and you shouldn’t have), I would have followed you”
• Imbabura Quechua: Both negative clauses and interrogatives are marked by the
presence of -chu.
(668)
Imbabura Quechua (Quechuan)
a.
juzi iskay kaballu-ta chari-n
Jose two horse-ACC have-3
“Jose has two horses”
b. ñuka wawki mana jatun wasi-ta
chari-n-chu
my brother NEG big house-ACC have -3-NEG/Q
“My brother does not have two a big house”
c.
kan-paj wawki jatun wasi-ta
chari-n-chu
you-poss brother big house-ACC have -3-NEG/Q
“Does your brother have a big house?”
• Chukchi: Negative clauses contain the imperative marker.
(669)
Chukchi
a.
re- čejw@(-GPef)
FUT -go
-NON . DUR
“You will go”
b. q@- čejw@-Gi
2 IMP-go -2 SG . IMP
“Go!”
c.
q@r@m q@- j@lket
-Gi
NEG
2 IMP-fall.asleep-2 SG . IMP
“You will not fall asleep”
253
10.2. NEGATIVE CLAUSES
10.2.3
CHAPTER 10. NEGATION
Emphasis Marking
• There are languages in which the negative marking is the same as that which
expresses emphasis in other clauses.
• Meithei:
– Affirmative: There is a distinction between the and the
∗ non-hypothetical (NON . HYPE): Pragmatically neutral assertion.
∗ “assertive” (ASS): The assertive is makes an emphatic assertion.
Think of the difference between:
(670)
a.
I opened the door.
b. I did open the door.
– The assertive morpheme also appears in the negative.
(671)
Meithei (Sino-Tibetan; India)
a.
t@wwí
t@w-í
do-NON . HYPE
“(She) does”
b. t@wwe
t@w-e
do-ASS
“(Yes, she) has)”
c.
@y fotostat t@wde
@y fotostat t@w -t@ -e
I photostat do -NEG -ASS
“I haven’t made copies”
This looks a bit like do-support in negative and emphatic assertion except that a
bound morpheme is added rather than a free one (do).
10.2.4
Suppletion
• The presence of negation triggers suppletive allomorphy in another morpheme.
• Tera: The perfective marker in affirmative and that in negative sentences differs.
This difference in form does not seem to be predictable.
254
CHAPTER 10. NEGATION
(672)
10.2. NEGATIVE CLAUSES
Tera (Chadic)
a.
ali wà
masa koro
Ali PERF buy donkey
“Ali bought a donkey”
masa goro áa
b. ali n`@
Ali PERF buy kola NEG
“Ali did not buy kola.”
10.2.5
Case Changes
• Genitive of negation:
(673)
Russian (Indo-European; Former Soviet Union)
a.
koška
est vetčin-u
cat.NOM eats ham-ACC
“The cat eats ham”
b. koška
ne est vetčin-y
cat.NOM NEG eats ham-GEN
Genitive of Negation
“The cat doesn’t eat ham”
c.
koška
ne est vetčin-u
cat.NOM NEG eats ham-ACC
“The cat is not eating the ham”
– In the negative, an indefinite (or generic) object of a transitive verb is (typically)
in the genitive, instead of the expected accusative.
– A definite or given direct object in a negative sentence is in the accusative.
10.2.6
Word and Affix Order Changes
• Word order changes
(674)
Dewoin (Kru (Niger-Congo); Liberia)
a.
SVO
O pi
sayÈ
he cook meat
“He cooked meat”
S Neg OV
b. O se
sayÈ pi
he NEG meat cook
“He did not cook meat”
255
10.2. NEGATIVE CLAUSES
CHAPTER 10. NEGATION
• Changes between free and bound realization of other morphemes (think taller vs
more fun)
(675)
Wolof (Atlantic; Senegal, The Gambia)
a.
bound past morpheme
lekk-oon
-na-ñu yaasa
:::
eat -PST-na-3 PL yaasa
“they ate yaasa”
b. lekk-u -ñu :::::
woon yaasa
eat -NEG-3 PL PST yaasa
free past morpheme
“They did not eat yaasa”
– (The -na morpheme of (675a) disappears)
• Garifuna (Arawakan; Guatemala, Belize, Honduras):
– Two forms of the verb stem: citation/base verb stem vs prefixable verb stem
– Citation/base verb stem:
(676)
Garifuna (Arawakan; Guatemala, Belize, Honduras)
a.
Affirmative: agreement prefix
n-éibuga
1 SG-walk
“I walk”
b. meibuga-tina
::
NEG -walk -1 SG
“I do not walk”
Negative: agreement suffix
– Prefixable verb stem: Appears with free morpheme ba.
(677)
Garifuna (Arawakan; Guatemala, Belize, Honduras)
a.
n-eibugu ba leskuelo-u
Affirmative: agreement prefix on stem
1 SG-walk ba school-to
“I will walk to school”
b. m-eibagu
ba-dina leskuelo-u
Negative: agreement suffix on ba
::
NEG -walk ba-1 SG school-to
“I will not walk to school”
256
CHAPTER 10. NEGATION
10.3. DOUBLE/MULTIPLE NEGATION
10.3
Double/Multiple Negation
10.3.1
Double Negation and Negative Concord
• In some languages, the expression of “simple” sentential negation involves multiple exponents of negation:
(678)
French (Indo-European)
a.
J’ ai
mangé le pain
I=have eaten the bread
“I ate the bread”
ai
pas mange le pain
b. Je n’
I NEG=have=NEG eaten the bread
“I did not eat the bread”
(679)
Afrikaans (Indo-European; South Africa)
die voorbereiding neem nie lank nie
the preparation
take NEG long NEG
“The preparation doesn’t take long”
• Lewo (Austronesian; Epi Island, Vanuatu): Table 10.3
• In French, each of the negative exponents occurs independently with negative
force (although ne is found by itself only in frozen expressions):
(680)
French
a.
J’ ai
pas mangé le pain
I=have=NEG eaten the bread
colloquial French
“I did not eat the bread”
b. Je ne sais
I NEG know.1 SG . PRES
“I wouldn’t know”
– (Some caution is necessary with this argument: The two uses of negation are
part of very different registers and may not be part of the same grammar)
– Even though there are multiple negative elements in a single clause, the interpretation is that of a single negation. That is, (678b) does not mean, “I did not
not eat the bread” = “I ate the bread”
257
10.3. DOUBLE/MULTIPLE NEGATION
CHAPTER 10. NEGATION
• A related phenomenon: Negative concord. Negation on a nominal argument in a
clause has to co-occur with sentential negation.
(681)
(Dialectal) English
a.
I ain’t seen nobody.
b. Ain’t nobody seen him.
(682)
Afrikaans (Indo-European; South Africa)
ek krijg geen hulp van niemand nie
I get no help from nobody NEG
“I don’t get any help from anybody”
(683)
Jamaican Creole (Jamaica)
im
nuh gi
di gyal nutn
he/she NEG give the girl nothing
“He/She doesn’t give the girl anything”
– Weak negative concord languages:
∗ The subject can appear as a negative word without a sentential negation.
∗ Negative words in object position have to appear together with sentential
negation.
Example: Italian
(684)
Italian
a.
nessuno ha telefonato
nobody has called
“Nobody called”
b. io *(non ) ho telefonato nessuno
I
NEG have called
nobody
“I called nobody”
– Strong/strict negative concord languages: Negative words for subjects and
objects always appear together with sentential negation
258
CHAPTER 10. NEGATION
(685)
10.3. DOUBLE/MULTIPLE NEGATION
Greek (Indo-European; Greece)
a.
o
petros *(dhen) idhe
kanenan
The Peter
NEG 3 SG .saw nobody
“Peter did not see anybody”
b. kanenas *(dhen) idhe
tom petro
nobody
NEG 3 SG .saw the Peter
“Nobody can see Peter”
10.3.2
Double Negation and the Jespersen Cycle
• In some languages, the double negation strategy arises as a result of the Jespersen
Cycle (so named for Otto Jespersen, a Danish linguist).
The Jespersen Cycle is a series of stages of historical change that leads to the
creation of new and the disappearance of old negative morphemes.
– Stage 1: Weakening. Weakening typically involves the negative morpheme
becoming phonologically bound, phonologically weaker (loss of segmental
material, loss of stressibility)
(686)
Bété (Kru (Niger-Congo); Ivory Coast)
a.
ná dı̄bà ní
kÓkŌ
k2̀
my father NEG chicken have
“My father doesn’t have any chickens”
b. ÒŌÒ
kÓkŌk k2̀
he+NEG chicken have
“he doesn’t have any chickens”
(687)
free negative morpheme
boun negative morpheme
Dida (Kru (Niger-Congo); Ivory Coast)
a.
Zokolilié dialect
e ne kwla ka
I NEG farm have
“I don’t have a farm”
b. é
á wà
I+NEG it like
“I don’t like it”
Lakota dialect
– Stage 2: Strengthening. Another element is added in to “strengthen” the
negation.
∗ Often the added elements refer to minimal amounts or degrees
259
10.3. DOUBLE/MULTIPLE NEGATION
(688)
CHAPTER 10. NEGATION
I didn’t eat {a thing/at all/a crumb/a bit}
∗ The pas part in French ne. . . pas originally meant step
(689)
Old French:
pas aler avant
Ne vus
leist
foreward
NEG you. PL allowed step go
“You are not allowed to go (step) forward”
(Eckardt 2003:3)
– Stage 3: Reanalysis. The additional strengthening element is reanalyzed as the
negation. It is now obligatory and no longer emphatic.
∗ Modern standard French is at this stage
∗ Latin: From Stage 1 to 3
(690) Latin (Indo-European)
a.
ne
dico
NEG say.1 SG
“I do not say”
b. dico
ne oenum
1 SG.say NEG thing
c. dico
n-on
1 SG.say NEG-thing
d. non dico
NEG 1 SG .say
“I do not say”
– Stage 4: The original negation becomes optional and may eventually drop
(stage 5).
(691)
French
a.
Stage 1: Old French
Je ne di
I NEG say
b. Je ne dis *(pas)
I NEG say NEG
c.
(692)
Stage 3: Modern Standard French
Stage 4: Colloquial French
Je dis pas
I say NEG
Colloquial English
a.
Mary didn’t bake jack/squat for the party
b. Mary baked jack/squat for the party
260
CHAPTER 10. NEGATION
10.4. EXPLETIVE NEGATION
– The whole cycle for French negation:
?
(693) ne → ne (pas) → ne pas → (ne) pas → pas
• Both syntactic and semantic/pragmatic proposals have been made to explain the
stages of the Jespersen Cycle.
• The Jespersen Cycle is a common pathway for the rise and demise of negative
markers, but not an inevitable development.
10.4
Expletive Negation
• Expletive negation occurs when there is a negative element that does not seem to
contribute any negative meaning.
– This is superficially similar to what happens in negative concord and double/multiple negation.
– The difference is that no negative meaning is contributed at all by expletive
negation.
(694)
I’m wondering if he had(n’t) already had breakfast.
• French: Expletive negation is associated with the subjunctive, which conveys
either uncertainty or a counter-factual interpretation.
(695)
French
a.
j’ ai
peur [qu’ il (ne) vienne]
I=have fear that=he NEG comes.SUBJ
“I am afraid that he will come” (or “. . . may come”)
b. je suis arrivé avant [qu ’il ne soit
arrivé]
I am arrived before that=he NEG is.SUBJ arrived
“I arrived before he arrived”
• Certain verbs for psychological states require the negative marker ne
(696) timeo
ne veniat
fear.1 SG NEG come.3 SG
(Latin)
“I am afraid that he’ll come”
261
262
naga pe ∅-pa
re
poli
he
NEG 3sg-real.go NEG NEG
“he hasn’t gone”
naga ∅-pano
he
3 SG - REAL.go
“he has gone”
naga ∅-pisa
suniena tai
he
3 SG - REAL.say story
ART
“he told a story”
Realis
Realis
naga pe ∅-pisa
re
suniena tai poli
he
NEG 3 SG - REAL .say NEG story
ART NEG
“he didn’t tell a story”
naga ve
∅-va
re
he
NEG 3 SG - IRR .go NEG
“he won’t go”
Negative
Irrealis: naga ∅-vano
he
3 SG - IRR.go
“he will go”
Affirmative
10.4. EXPLETIVE NEGATION
CHAPTER 10. NEGATION
Table 10.3: Negation in Lewo (Austronesian; Epi Island, Vanuatu).
Chapter 11
Morphology
11.1
Morphological Typology
• Morphology: The study of word structure.
11.1.1
The atoms of morphology
• Morpheme:
– Smallest meaningful unit in grammar.
– An abstract unit.
• Morph: Indivisible pairing of form and meaning.
– A concrete piece of form.
– Can come in various sizes (multi-syllable, individual segments, suprasegmental
(tones, length, pitch contours))
There is often some amount mixup between morpheme and morph in discussions
of morphology
• Free morph: Morph that can stand on its own as a word
• Bound morph: Morph that has to attach to something else that is of a particular
morphological category.
– Affix: A bound morph
• Portmanteau Morphemes:
– Traditionally: A combination of two or more morphemes that are always
expressed together as one morph.
E XAMPLE : Latin case, number and declension class, Table 11.1.
263
11.1. MORPHOLOGICAL TYPOLOGY
CHAPTER 11. MORPHOLOGY
Case
Singular:
Plural:
Nominative
Vocative
Accusative
Genitive
Dative
Ablative
domin-us domin-i
domin-e
domin-i
domin-um domin-os
domin-ı̄
domin-orum
domin-ō
domin-is
domin-ō
domin-is
Table 11.1: Case and number portmanteau morphemes in Latin. (v̄: long vowel)
∗ The morphs that express number, case and declension class are not segment
able into meaningful subparts.
∗ This is a pervasive property of the case/number morphology across the
language. There are in the order of a half dozen paradigms like the one in
Table 11.1, all of them show this inseparable combination of number and
case.
– The term portmanteau morpheme is sometimes used to refer to morphs that
realize multiple morphemes, irrespective of whether the combination of these
morphemes is pervasive throughout the language.
• Clitic: Working definition
– Phonologically weak: Typically unstressed, typically does not affect stress
placement
– Phonologically bound: Syllabified with and adjacent word
– Morpheme: e.g. Pronoun (very common), auxiliary, determiner, question particles
– Distribution:
∗ Syntactically determined, rather than morphologically. This is what sets
them apart from affixes.
∗ Attach outside of all derivational and inflectional affixes.
– Host: The unit a clitic attaches to. Hosts are also determined syntactically, but
the hosting requirements of clitics can be almost as rigid as those of
– E XAMPLE : English possessive ’s
∗ Phonologically weak and bound: Phonologically part of the preceding word,
as shown by assimilation and epenthesis patterns
(697)
a.
the bid’s owner [bIdz]
b. the bit’s owner [bIts]
c.
>
the house’s owner [haUs1z]
264
CHAPTER 11. MORPHOLOGY
11.1. MORPHOLOGICAL TYPOLOGY
∗ Morpheme: Contributes possessive meaning and structure
∗ Distribution is syntactically determined: Appears (by and large) where determiners in English appear. Hosts: Anything that can end a DP
(compare to the homophonous plural -s)
– In glosses, clitics can be separated from their hosts by ‘=’ (this is rarely done in
practice)
11.1.2
Typological tendencies
• Tendencies of which morphemes are free and which ones bound:
– Functional elements (determiners, adpositions, tense markers, etc.) tend to be
bound cross-linguistically
– Lexical elements (nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs) tend to be free morphemes
– There is no strict correlation:
∗ Verbs in Kaqchikel (Mayan) and Korean, (Spanish?, Italian?) are bound.
∗ In Kaqchikel nouns are free. In Classical Nahuatl, nouns are bound:
(698)
Classical Nahuatl:
a.
ocuil-in “worm”
b. teuc-tli “lord”
c.
ilhuica-tl “sky”
· Nouns are said to occur in the “absolutive” form, which consists of a
noun and a suffix. The term “absolutive” has nothing to do with ergative/absolutive case here.
· A few nouns in Classical Nahuatl occur with no suffix:
(699) chichi “dog”
• Correlations with word order:
– Head final languages: Robustly suffixal morphology.
– Head initial languages: Prefixal morphology in addition to suffixal morphology,
possibly some infixation.
– SVO: Mixed.
(700) Greenberg’s Universal 41 :
If in a language the verb follows both the nominal subject and nominal object
as the dominant order, the language almost always has a case system.
i.e. SOV languages always have morphologically marked case.
265
11.1. MORPHOLOGICAL TYPOLOGY
CHAPTER 11. MORPHOLOGY
Value
Representation:
Little or no inflectional morphology
Predominantly suffixing
Moderate preference for suffixing
Approximately equal amounts of suffixing and prefixing
Moderate preference for prefixing
Predominantly prefixing
141
406
123
147
94
58
Total:
969
Table 11.2: Prefixing vs. Suffixing in Inflectional Morphology (Dryer 2013).
• Prefixing and suffixing in inflectional morphology: Table 11.2
• Morpheme order:
(701) Greenberg’s Universal 39 :
Where morphemes of both number and case are present and both follow or
both precede the noun base, the expression of number almost always comes
between the noun base and the expression of case.
– A structural interpretation:
∗ Number is introduced by a syntactic projection above N, but below D (Ritter
1991, 1995).
∗ Case is associated with D
DP
DP
D[CASE]
N UM P
N UM
SG / PL/ DUAL
N UM P
NP
NP
......
......
D[CASE]
N UM
SG / PL/ DUAL
• Person and number:
(702) Greenberg’s Universal 42 :
All languages have pronominal categories involving at least three persons
and two numbers.
– There appears to be only one known counter example: Pirahã.
266
CHAPTER 11. MORPHOLOGY
11.1. MORPHOLOGICAL TYPOLOGY
1st ti
2nd gi / gia
3rd hi
Table 11.3: Pirahã pronouns (Harley and Ritter 2002:501).
• Number:
(703) Greenberg’s Universal 34 :
a.
No language has a trial number unless it has a dual.
b. No language has a dual unless it has a plural.
• Gender:
(704) Greenberg’s Universal 37 :
A language never has more gender categories in nonsingular numbers than
in the singular.
E XAMPLE : English third person pronouns
– Singular: he/she/it
– Plural: they
(705) Greenberg’s Universal 43 :
If a language has gender categories in the noun, it has gender categories in
the pronoun.
There is no reverse English with gender only on nouns, but not on pronouns.
(706) Greenberg’s Universal 44 :
If a language has gender distinctions in the first person, it always has gender
distinctions in the second or third persons or in both.
(707) Greenberg’s Universal 45 :
If there are any gender distinctions in the plural of the pronoun, there are
some gender distinctions in the singular also.
A narrower version of Universal 37.
267
11.2. WORD STRUCTURE TYPES
11.2
CHAPTER 11. MORPHOLOGY
General Word Structure Types
• The morphologies of languages can be categorized along two dimensions
– Synthesis: On average, how many morphemes are there per word?
– Fusion: On average, how many morphemes are there per morph?
• Vietnamese:
(708)
Vietnamese (Mon-Khmer; Vietnam)
nhà này không có
ga.o nếp
house this NEG have rice sticky
“this house doesn’t have sticky rice”
(from Ðình-Hoà 1997)
– Every word corresponds to a single morpheme
– Every morph corresponds to a single morpheme (may be)
• Mohawk and Onandaga:
– Many words are composed of several morphemes
– Some morphs realize multiple morphemes
(709)
Onondaga (Iroquoian; southern Ontario)
hwist- ahtu-P t
-aP ]
pet [waP - ha::
Pat PAST-3 M . SG-money-lost -CAUS-ASP
“Pat lost money”
(710)
Mohawk (Iroquoian; Quebec, Ontario, New York)1
tsi kana’tsera’tatye tho [nu:we- ya’akwa-hurot-ohw
-e’]
::
the canal
there TRANS-FACT-1 P. SG-hose- put -in.water-PUNC
“we put the hose into the canal”
1
Example from Baker and Matthewson 1997. Glosses: FACT: factual mood, P: plural, PUNC:
punctual aspect, S: subject, TRANS: translocative.
268
CHAPTER 11. MORPHOLOGY
11.2.1
11.2. WORD STRUCTURE TYPES
Synthesis: Isolating vs (Poly)Synthetic Languages
(711) Synthesis: How many morphemes appear per word?
a.
(Ideal ) Isolating language: Every word consists of one morpheme.
b. (Ideal ) Synthetic language: Every word consists of multiple morphemes.2
• A strongly isolating language: Vietnamese
(708)
Vietnamese (Mon-Khmer; Vietnam)
nhà này không có
ga.o nếp
house this NEG have rice sticky
“this house doesn’t have sticky rice”
(from Ðình-Hoà 1997)
• A strongly synthetic language: Onondaga
(709)
Onondaga (Iroquoian; southern Ontario)
pet [waP - hahwist- ahtu-P t
-aP ]
::
Pat PAST-3 M . SG-money-lost -CAUS-ASP
“Pat lost money”
• Vietnamese and Onondaga represent points on a scale:
(712)
Isolating
x
x
Vietnamese English
x
Synthetic
Mohawk
• ‘Synthesis’ is really a measure of the amount of affixation in a language.
11.2.1.1
Isolating Languages
• Words consist of single morphemes, i.e. most words contain only a root
(713) ông ba không về
Viê. t Nam
Mr. ba not
return viet nam
(Vietnamese)
“Mr. Ba did not return to Vietnam”
2
A more common definition is a language in which complete utterances correspond to a single
word. This is true of English imperatives, for example, and hence not very useful.
269
11.2. WORD STRUCTURE TYPES
CHAPTER 11. MORPHOLOGY
• Verbs are invariable, not being marked for tense, number, person, gender, etc.
(714)
a.
tôi viết luôn
thơ về
nhà
I write at.once letter toward house
(Vietnamese)
“I wrote a letter home immediately”
b. Ba viết thơ cho ba.n
Ba write letter to friend
“Ba wrote letters to friends”
• Most of the bound affixes in Vietnamese are of Chinese origin. According to
Ðình-Hoà 1997, Chinese derived lexical items account for about 70% of the
vocabulary of Vietnamese.
• No word internal changes to indicate case.
• There are no (known) pure isolating languages:
(715)
Vietnamese
a.
khi
toi den nha ban toi, chung toi bat dau lam
when I come house friend I
PL
I begin do.lesson
“when I came to my friend’s house, we began to do lessons”
b. bất-: Prefix meaning roughly ≈im-, in-, ir-, etc
bất-cân “careless”
bất-công “unfair, unjust”
c.
kha-: Prefix meaning ≈-able
kha-ái
“lovable”
kha-kính “respectable”
d. -sı̃: Suffix meaning ≈-ist, expert
thi
“poetry”
thi-sı̃ “poet”
270
CHAPTER 11. MORPHOLOGY
(716)
11.2. WORD STRUCTURE TYPES
Mandarin
a.
-yuán
Base:
chuán
yánjiū
yùndòng
“boat”
chuán-yuán
“research”
yánjiū-yuán
“sport, activity” yùndòng-yuán
“crew member”
“researcher”
“athlete”
b. -zhě
Base:
xue
lăo
bı̆
“study” xuezhě “scholar”
“old”
lăozhě “old man”
“pen”
bı̆zhě
“author”
• Distribution
– Languages of Southeast Asia: Khmer, Thai, Lao, Miao, Cantonese, Mandarin
– Most creoles are isolating.
• Many isolating languages have complex tonal systems, but this may just be an
areal feature.
• Verb serialization is very common:
– E XAMPLE : Serial verb constructions in Yoruba
(717)
Yoruba
a.
Sentential coordination:
mo mú ìwé; mo sì wá
ilé
I take book I and come house
“I took a book and I came home”
b. Serial verb construction:
mo mú ìwé wá
ilé
I take book come house
“I brought a book home”
(Payne 1997:307–308)
∗ (The sentential conjunction in Yoruba appears to be second position clitic)
∗ In serial verb constructions, there is no independent marking of the subject
of the second verb.
∗ In serial verb constructions, there is no independent tense/aspect marking of
the second verb:
271
11.2. WORD STRUCTURE TYPES
CHAPTER 11. MORPHOLOGY
(718) mò n
mú iwé {bO
/*wá}
I
PROG take book {come: PROG / come: PERF}
“I am bringing a book.”
(Yoruba)
∗ There is no conjunction.
∗ The intonation is characteristic of a single clause.
– English may have a very limited form of serialization, with come and go:
(719)
a.
Come talk to me!
b. Go climb a rock!
c. *Open the package cook!
– A great many Southeast Asian and West African languages have serial verb
constructions.
(720)
Yay (Austric; ?Thailand, ?Myanmar)
may6 faay4 koN2 ma1 rop1 caw3 hay3 ku1
bamboo
bend come stroke head give I
“the bamboo bends down to stroke my head for me”
(numbers indicate tones, Whaley 1997:127)
(721)
Gullah (Georgia, South Carolina)
dem de ca
em fi
di nyong pipl
they are carry it give the young people
“they are bringing it for the young people”
(722)
Asante Twi (Kwa; Ghana)
a.
kofi kOOe baae
kofi went came
“kofi went and came back”
b. kofi de aburow gu nsum
kofi take corn
flow water
“kofi pours corn into the water”
– In those African languages that tend towards the isolating type, serial verbs are
especially common in Kwa, Igboid, and Yoruboid.
– Outside of Africa, serialization is widely attested in southeast Asia, east Asia,
and New Guinea.
• Impressionistically, compounding is very productive in isolating languages
272
CHAPTER 11. MORPHOLOGY
11.2. WORD STRUCTURE TYPES
Value
Representation:
0–1 category per word
2–3 categories per word
4–5 categories per word
6–7 categories per word
8–9 categories per word
10–11 categories per word
12–13 categories per word
Total:
5
24
52
31
24
7
2
145
Table 11.4: Inflectional Synthesis of the Verb (Bickel and Nichols 2013b).
11.2.1.2
(Poly)synthetic or Incorporating Languages
• Synthetic languages are those that make extensive use of affixation. Thus, they
fall on the opposite end of the spectrum from the isolating languages.
(723)
Bare (Arawakan; Venezuela)
nu-khniñani [hme-muduka-na -ka] bı̃ babuka Varela abi
1 P-people
3 P- kill
-PERF-SEQ you around Varela with
“my people shot at you because of Varela”
• A case study (Bickel and Nichols 2013b): Synthesis in verbal inflection
– Look at the most complex inflected form of the verb allowed in the language
– Count the number of inflectional categories indexed on the verb
– Results: Table 11.4.
• Incorporation: An extreme form of polysynthesis. One or more lexical morphemes
form a single morphological word.
(724)
Southern Tiwa (Tanoan; USA)
inkhwian -wia -che -ban seuanide-ba
AGR - doggive -PASS -PAST man-INSTR
“the man gave me a dog”
(725)
Chukchi (Paleo-Siberian; Siberia)
ta- meynga-levta-paght-arkan
1 SG-great- head- ache -IMPERF
“I have a great headache”
273
11.2. WORD STRUCTURE TYPES
(726)
CHAPTER 11. MORPHOLOGY
Inuit
angya-ghllang
-yug
-tuq
boat- AUGMENTATIVE-acquire-DESIDERATIVE-3 SG
“he wants to acquire a big boat”
– Incorporation often shares the property of compounding that the incorporated
material cannot appear with inflectional morphology that it would carry when
used independently.
• Many languages of the Americas display incorporation and/or polysynthesis.
11.2.2
Fusion: Fusional vs agglutinating languages
(727) Fusion: The degree to which morphemes tend to be expressed by single
morphs.
a.
Agglutinative languages: Every morph realizes one morpheme.
b. Fusional Languages: Morphs tend to realize multiple morphemes.
11.2.2.1
Agglutinating Languages
• A word may consist of more than one morpheme, but the boundaries between
morphemes are always clear:
(728)
Haya (Bantu; Tanzania)
omuhyó gw- a- shaz-i
-bw -a kat’ ényama
knife
3 SG-PST-cut -INST-PASS-a Kato meat
“the knife was used to cut the meat by Kato”
(729)
Chichewa (Bantu; Malawi)
mkângo s- ú- na- ká -ngo-wá
-phwány-a maûngu. . .
CL 3.lion NEG - 3 SG - PST -go-just -3 SG . OBJ -smash -a CL 6.pumpkins
“the lion did not just go smash the pumpkins,. . . ”
• Morphs are often invariable or only have phonologically conditioned allomorphs:
274
CHAPTER 11. MORPHOLOGY
(730)
11.2. WORD STRUCTURE TYPES
Swahili (Bantu; Kenya, Tanzania)
a.
ni- ta- piga mbwa
1 SG-FUT-hit dog
“I will hit a/the dog”
b. u- ta- piga mbwa
2 SG-FUT-hit dog
“you will hit a/the dog”
c.
ku-piga “to hit”
ku-lala
“to sleep”
kw-enda “to go”
– (730a/b): No grammatically conditioned allomorphy. Future affixes do not
change as a function of the person of the subject.
– (730c): No lexically conditioned allomorphy. Indefinite prefixes do not change
for different verb bases.
• In the Turkish examples, the noun is always segmentable into a stem, singlular/plural marker (the singular being zero), and a case marker.
Nominative
Accusative
Genitive
Dative
Locative
Ablative
Singular:
Plural:
adam
adam-i
adam-in
adam-a
adam-da
adam-dan
adam-lar
adam-lar-i
adam-lar-in
adam-lar-a
adam-lar-da
adam-lar-dan
Table 11.5: Turkish (Altaic; Turkey) nominal morphology.
• For comparison: See next section.
11.2.2.2
Fusional Languages
• Also called fusional, synthetic or inflectional (the later two terms can cause
confusion)
• Simply put: Morphemes tend to be portmanteau morphemes. Every morph
expresses multiple morphemes.
E XAMPLE : Allomorphy of first person in Classical Arabic.
– The phonological content as well as prefix/suffix status is determined by a
combination of three properties:
275
11.2. WORD STRUCTURE TYPES
CHAPTER 11. MORPHOLOGY
Imperfective:
Perfective:
Pn-
-tu
-na
SG :
PL :
Table 11.6: First person affixes in Classical Arabic (Wright 1874b).
∗ Person
∗ Number
∗ Aspect
Additional phonologically driven allomorphy may apply.
• Fusion of morphemes in the verbal system:
(731)
Kunuz Nubian
a.
person and number fused
a:g -r -i
have-PST-1 SG
“I had”
b. a:g -r -u
have-PST-1 PL /2 PL
person and number fused
“we/y’all had”
• Fusion of morphemes in the nominal system:
Nominative
Accusative
Genitive
Dative
Instrumental
Prepositional
Singular:
Plural:
Singular:
Plural:
stol
stol
stol-a
stol-u
stol-om
stol-e
stol-y
stol-y
stol-ov
stol-am
stol-ami
stol-ax
lip-a
lip-u
lip-y
lip-e
lip-oj
lip-e
lip-y
lip-y
lip
lip-am
lip-ami
liip-ax
Table 11.7: Russian (Indo-European) case morphology (stol “table” lip “type of
tree”).
• A common pattern: The realization of one morpheme is dependent on the presence
of another morpheme, that is also independently expressed.
– Classical Arabic: Table 11.6. Perfective/imperfective distinction affects that
distinction being expressed by another morpheme in the base that the affixes
attach to (for description of the data Wright 1874b:53ff).
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CHAPTER 11. MORPHOLOGY
11.2. WORD STRUCTURE TYPES
Value
Representation:
Monoexponential case
Case + number
Case + referentiality
Case + TAM (tense-aspect-mood)
No case
Total:
71
8
6
2
75
162
Table 11.8: Exponence of Selected Inflectional Formatives (Bickel and Nichols
2013a)
(732)
a.
Sarhiib
-tu
hIMPidrink-1 SG
“I drink”
b. Pa- Srhaib
1 SG-hPERFidrink
“I drank”(based on description in Wright 1874b:53ff)
(the additional /a/ in the first syllable is possibly epenthetic)
– Spanish: Realization of person/number morphemes is affected by aspect, despite imperfective aspect being expressed by a separate morpheme.
(733)
Spanish (Indo-European)
a.
person,number/tense fused
habl-o
speak-1.SG . PRES
“I speak”
b. habl -ab
-a
::
speak-IMPERF-1. SG . IMPERF
“I used to speak”
person, number fused
– This pattern can arise even in strongly isolating languages. In the discussion
of negation, we saw that Vietnamese has negative markers that alternate with
clause type.
• Many familiar Indo-European languages are fusional
• Which morphemes tend to fuse? Tables 11.8 & 11.9
11.2.3
Summary
• Fusion and synthesis: Table 11.10
277
11.3. TENSE, MODALITY, AND ASPECT
Value
CHAPTER 11. MORPHOLOGY
Representation:
Monoexponential TAM
TAM+agreement
TAM+agreement+diathesis
TAM+agreement+construct
TAM+polarity
No TAM
127
19
4
1
5
4
Total:
160
Table 11.9: Exponence of Tense-Aspect-Mood Inflection (Bickel and Nichols 2013a)
Isolating
Mandarin,
Vietnamese,. . .
Synthetic
Fusional
Latin,. . .
Agglutinative
Turkish,
Japanese,. . .
Table 11.10: Relation of Fusion and Synthesis.
• The two are not independent: Only synthetic languages can properly fusional or
agglutinative
• A hypothetical semi-isolating fusional language:
– Each word is one morph
– Many morphs are portmanteau morphs combining multiple morphemes
– E XAMPLE : There are some number tense auxiliaries that have suppletive
negative versions
∗
∗
PRS 7→
ba, PRES+NEG 7→ ro
PST 7→ si, PST + NEG 7→ ku
Patterns like this exist, but I don’t know if there are languages that use this as their
predominant pattern of word formation.
11.3
Tense, Modality, and Aspect in English
• Generally speaking, concepts associated with Tense, Mood and Aspect may
be realized in various languages in the same ways that we have seen for other
grammatical notions thus far: They can be realized by
– a free-standing morpheme,
278
CHAPTER 11. MORPHOLOGY
11.3. TENSE, MODALITY, AND ASPECT
– an affix on the verb
– an auxiliary verb.
• If all three of these are realized, each of them may be realized differently, but they
generally occur in the same hierarchical order:
(734)
Tense - Modality - Aspect
– In a head-initial language (VSO or SVO), the expected linear order should be
(735)
Tense — Modal — Aspect — VP
– In a head-final language (SOV), the expected linear order should be the opposite
of this:
(736)
VP — Aspect — Modal — Tense
• Tense:
– Tense in English is an affix (if present or past) or an auxiliary verb will (if
future).
∗ If the sentence contains only a tense and a VP, and the tense is future, we get
the expected order in (737a).
∗ If the tense is present or past, the affix is attached to the verb. Either the tense
affix “hops” onto the verb following it, or else the verb moves to attach to
the affix preceding it.
Either way, the verb and affix are joined to form a word, as in (737b) and (737c).
(737)
a.
John will live in Paris.
b. John lives in Paris.
(from: John PRES live in Paris)
c.
(from: John PAST live in Paris)
John lived in Paris.
– Modal verbs in English generally have irregular past tense forms, involving
ablaut or suppletion.
(738)
a.
John may/might live in Paris. (from: John PRES/PAST may live in P.)
b. Susan can/could drive well. (from: Susan PRES/PAST can drive well)
c.
I shall/should go home soon.
(from: I PRES/PAST shall go home soon)
Whether these forms still are expressions of tense in modern English is subject
to debate.
279
11.3. TENSE, MODALITY, AND ASPECT
CHAPTER 11. MORPHOLOGY
– If the sentence contains a modal verb, the tense must be either PRES or PAST.
∗ The auxiliary verb will cannot combine with a modal.
∗ Many semanticists believe that “future tense” is actually a form of modality,
and that this is why will cannot combine with another modal
∗ Double modals are absent in Standard English (though some English dialects
allow certain combinations of modals.)
(739)
a. *John will can live in Paris.
b. *Susan will must go home soon.
– However, English can express the meaning of a future modal by using a different
type of periphrastic construction to express the modal, such as have to or be
able to:
(740)
a.
John will be able to live in Paris.
b. Susan will have to go home soon.
In this case, the modal verb will, expressing tense, always precedes the sequence
expressing modality
– Past tense can also be combined with the future auxiliary verb will, forming
would
∗ In this respect, will/would behaves like a modal verb.
∗ In English and in some other languages, the past tense form of the future
modal can also be used to form the "conditional" mood, used in the main
clause of a conditional sentence as in (741b).
(741)
a.
John will/would often make mistakes.
often make mistakes)
(from: John PRES/PAST will
b. If Susan was/were here, she would help us.
c.
If Bill would keep his mouth shut, I would appreciate it.
∗ (In some dialects, would is used in both clauses of the conditional as in
(741c).)
– English uses a combination of auxiliary verbs and affixes to express aspects
such as perfect and progressive aspect.
– Clauses containing tense may occur as main clauses or as subordinate clauses.
If they are subordinate clauses, they are preceded by the complementizer that
and they display subject-verb agreement in the present tense if the subject is
3rd person singular.
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11.3. TENSE, MODALITY, AND ASPECT
– Tensed clauses are sometimes called finite clauses. A verb bearing a tense affix
(with or without subject-verb agreement) is often called a finite verb.
– Main clauses in English are always finite: they always contain tense. But
subordinate clauses may be infinitives or gerunds instead.
– Some languages have several tense forms, distinguished in terms of distance
from the time of speech:
(742)
Nweh (Bantu)
a.
Atem a
kE? n~da! abe!
Atem AGR P-1 N-cook fufu
“Atem cooked fufu (today)”
past
b. Atem a
k’ la!
abe!
Atem AGR P-2 ∅-cook fufu
“Atem cooked fufu (yesterday)”
c.
Atem a
l’~ la!
abe!
Atem AGR P-3 ∅-cook fufu
“Atem cooked fufu (prior to yesterday)”
d. m¨~ n~Vhu! li!¨ abe!
I
1AGR F-1 eat fufu
“I will eat fufu (today)”
e.
m¨~ n~do! li!¨ abe!
I
1AGR F-2 eat fufu
“I will eat fufu (tomorrow)”
f.
m¨~ n~dE!? li!¨ abe!
I
1AGR F-3 eat fufu
“I will eat fufu (some time beyond tomorrow)”
future
• Perfect:
– The perfect is formed by a sequence of the auxiliary verb have and the past
participle affix (usually -ed with regular verbs; irregular verbs may use ablaut
or suppletion for the past participle.)
– The past participle affix combines with the following verb in the same way that
a tense affix does: either the affix "hops" onto the following verb or else the
following verb "hops" in the other direction onto the affix; either way, they get
combined into an inflected verb form.
(743)
John has/had played cards all evening
from John PRES/PAST have -ed play cards all evening
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11.3. TENSE, MODALITY, AND ASPECT
CHAPTER 11. MORPHOLOGY
– The perfect can be combined with a modal provided that the modal comes first:
(744)
John could have played cards all evening
from John PAST can have -ed play cards all evening
(745) *John had could/canned play cards all evening
from John PAST have -ed can play cards all evening
• Progressive:
– The progressive is formed by a sequence of the auxiliary verb be and the
progressive affix -ing. This affix is combined with the following verb in the
same as the other affixes.
(746)
John is/was playing cards all evening
John PRES/PAST be -ing play cards all evening
(747)
John could be playing cards all evening
John PAST can be -ing play cards all evening
– Both aspects can be combined provided they occur in the order perfect-progressive:
(748)
John has/had been playing cards all evening
John PRES/PAST have -ed be -ing play cards all evening
(749)
John could have been playing cards all evening
John PAST can have -ed be -ing play cards all evening
• Infinitives:
– An infinitive has the particle to (homophonous with the preposition to) instead
of a tense affix.
– This may combine with perfect or progressive aspect, just like a tense affix.
– Infinitives often do not contain pronounced subjects, if they are co-referential
with the subject or object of the main clause; the "silent" subject is often written
as PRO (to represent the "understood" pronoun.
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CHAPTER 11. MORPHOLOGY
(750)
a.
11.3. TENSE, MODALITY, AND ASPECT
I want/expect [ PRO to play cards]
b. I want/expect [ John to play cards]
c.
I want/expect [ John to have played cards]
d. I want/expect [ John to be playing cards]
(751)
e.
I want/expect [ John to have been playing cards]
a.
I want very much [for John to win the card game]
b. We were hoping [for Susan to play cards with us]
– Infinitives may not contain true modal verbs, but as in (740), the meaning of
the modal can be expressed by a periphrastic modal construction (be able to or
have to):
(752)
a.
I want/expect [ John to be able to play cards]
b. We expect [ Susan to have to leave early]
• Gerunds: Gerunds resemble infinitives in many respects, though there are also
many complications and differences that I will not discuss here.
– Instead of the particle to, gerunds use the suffix -ing (like the progressive
aspect).
– As with infinitives, the subject can be “silent” or overt (though “silent” subjects
aren’t always understood to be coreferential with the subject or object of the
main clause)
– The gerund can contain progressive aspect, but only if it also contains perfect
aspect
– English does not allow two adjacent verbs with the same -ing suffix, as (753d)
shows:
(753)
a.
I disapprove of [ PRO playing cards]
b. I disapprove of [ John playing cards]
c.
I disapprove of [ John having played cards]
d. *I disapprove of [ John being playing cards]
e.
I disapprove of [ John having been playing cards]
283
11.3. TENSE, MODALITY, AND ASPECT
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CHAPTER 11. MORPHOLOGY
Chapter 12
Pidgines and Creoles
12.1
Languages in Contact: Pidgins and Creoles
• Multilingualism is a pervasive phenomenon in much (if not most) of the world.
Can we develop a “typology” what can happen in language contact situations?
• There are several potential outcomes when languages come into contact.
• Outcome 1: Vocabulary and grammar borrowing
Extensive borrowing requires the existence of a situation of diglossia, in which at
least part of the language community which is bilingual.
– E XAMPLE : English
∗ After the Norman conquest in 1066, only the nobles and senior members of
their households would have known French. The masses continued to speak
English only.
∗ Over the course of a few generations, the French nobility was bilingual
in French and English, followed by eventual abandonment of French and
monolingualism in English.
∗ It was during the relatively short existence of a French/English bilingual
community, that most of the French words currently in English came into the
language.
– In most of sub-Saharan Africa today, there exist (reasonably) similar communities of bilinguals who are fluent in a colonial language (English, French, or
Portuguese, for example) and some native African language(s). It is this group
that serves as a conduit for borrowing words into African languages.
E XAMPLE : Senegal
∗ All of the education is in French.
∗ This means that educated people have access to the larger French-speaking
world.
Ditto for most of sub-Saharan Africa, where, with few exceptions, institutions
of (higher) education operate in one of the colonial languages.
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12.1. LANGUAGE CONTACT
CHAPTER 12. PIDGINES AND CREOLES
• Outcome 2: Code Switching
– Codeswitching (and language convergence) is a practice in communities with a
high levels of bilingualism; that is, communities where a some portion of the
community knows two or more languages.
– For our purposes, an instance of codeswitching is defined as an utterance that
contains sentences, words, or morphemes from more than one language.
(754)
Wolof-French Codeswitching in Dakar, Senegal
a.
lonkukaay, il-faut
que mu rond
hook
it.is.necessary that 3 SG round
“hooks must be round”
b. structure bi ak contenu bi cent points la
structure the and content the 100 points 3 SG
“the structure and content are one hundred points”
(755)
Swahili-English Codeswitching
-a
labda yeye ha-na vi-tabu
vy-ake father a- li- m- buy -i
maybe he has.not class-book class-his father he-PST-him-buy-APPL-a
“maybe he does not have the book that his father bought for him”
(756)
Swahili-French Codeswitching
(Shaba Swahili)
wa- na- trouver kila mara ma-mots difficiles ndani
3 PL-PRS-find
every time CL-words difficult in.it
“they find every time difficult words in it”
(Gysels 1992)
– Code switching is controlled by syntax (e.g. Woolford 1983): Code switching
often happens at major constituent boundaries (VP, DP, CP,. . . )
• Outcome 3: Language Convergence, Sprachbunds
– As with codeswitching, language convergence requires bilingual individuals.
– Language convergence occurs when languages within a community are adjusted so that they all become more similar to each other. This means that
languages which are unrelated may become more like each other than they are
to genetically related languages.
E XAMPLE : Click sounds have been borrowed into some of the Southern Bantu
languages (Zulu, Xhosa, e.g.) from the Khoisan languages.
• Outcome 4: Pidginization
The first three types of language contact scenarios involve situations in which
some portion of a language community is bilingual. What happens if two language
communities end up in contact, but there is no bilingual community?
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CHAPTER 12. PIDGINES AND CREOLES
12.1. LANGUAGE CONTACT
– Language learning can still take place, but it is “imperfect.” A “pidgin” language
may result from such a situation.
– A pidgin is the result of communicative strategies of adults who already have a
native language, but need to communicate with people who do not share their
language.
– In some cases, pidgin languages are made up on the spot. However, pidgins can
be quite stable. For example, a form of pidgin English has been spoken in the
south west Pacific for at least two hundred years.
• Properties of Pidgin Languages: There are five typological properties that distinguish pidgin languages from other language types.
– Pidgins have no native speakers. That is, pidgin languages are second languages
for everyone who speaks one.
– Pidgins are governed by convention. That is, they have vocabulary and grammatical structures that are accepted by their speakers. Thus, a person can speak
a pidgin well or poorly.
– Pidgins are not mutually intelligible with their source languages. Pidgin forms
of English are different enough from English that native speakers of English
will have to learn the pidgin.
E XAMPLE: Chinese Pidgin English Table 12.1.
∗ The his dialogue from Chinese Pidgin English, which was spoken in Canton,
China from about the late the 17th century until around 1900.
∗ Like many pidgins, Chinese Pidgin English had a very restricted vocabulary,
about 750 words.
∗ Most words in the pidgin were derived from English, but modified to fit the
phonological structure of Cantonese.
– Pidgins have grammars that are simpler than the grammars of their source
languages. Simplicity of grammar is one of the characteristics of pidgins.
– The vocabulary of pidgins is usually highly restricted and contains few, if any
terms for abstract objects.
• Outcome 5: Creolization
– Once a pidgin begins to have native speakers, we call it a “creole.”
– Creolization occurs when a pidgin is acquired natively. This usually occurs
in situations of social upheaval (such as slavery); rapid social change, or high
multilingualism.
– Creoles, unlike pidgins, have the full expressive power of any human language.
– There are a large number of creole languages.
∗ The islands of the Caribbean are home to a large number of the so-called
“Atlantic” creoles, which arose as a result of the transatlantic slave trade.
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12.2. PIDGINS AND CREOLES
CHAPTER 12. PIDGINES AND CREOLES
Chinese Pidgin English:
English
Foreigner: chin-chin fookee?
Chinese: belly well, belly well. Chin chin
whafo my no hab see taipan sot
lanngim?
Foreigner: my wanchee wun pay soo belly
soon.
spose fookee too muchee pigeon:
no can maykee.
Chinese: cando cando: whafo no can: no
cazion feeloo: my sabbee belly
well: can fixee alla popa.
Foreigner: wanchee maykee numba wun
ledda: feeloo no hab eulop ledda?
Chinese:
how do you do, friend?
quite well, thank you sir. so long?
how is it that have not had the honour of seeing you for
I want a pair of shoes soon.
but I fear you are too busy to make
them for me now.
most certainly I can. why not?
don’t be afraid of that. I can make
them all right.
I want a pair made of the best
leather; but perhaps you are out
of european leather?
no cazion feeloo. can skure hab don’t be afraid of that. I can guarnumba wun popa ledda.
antee the leather to be the very
best.
Table 12.1: Chinese Pidgin English Dialogue (From Household Words (1857)).
∗ West Africa is also home to a number of creoles and pidgins.
∗ Large numbers of pidgins and creoles spoken islands of the Pacific (Polynesia,
Micronesia, Melansia, New Guinea).
12.2
Pidgins and Creoles
• Lexifier language: It is often the case with pidgins and creoles that one language
supplies most of the vocabulary. This is the “lexifier” language.
– In many (perhaps most) cases, the lexifier language if one of the European
colonial languages (e.g. Haitian Creole, Hawaiian Pidgin English).
– This need not be the case: The Bantu language Kikongo is the lexifier language
for the pidgin Kituba (spoken in the former Zaire).
• Substrate language: The language from which a pidgin (or creole) derives its
grammar. It is very difficult to demonstrate that a particular language is a substrate
language.
• Pidgins and creoles are almost always considered to be “substandard” in some
sense or “broken.” Presumably, this is related to the fact that speakers of creoles
(pidgins) may be from the lower socio-economic classes of their societies.
• The idea that pidgins, and creoles especially, are “broken” forms of some other
language stems, to some extent, from the existence of lexifier languages.
288
12.2. PIDGINS AND CREOLES
Ling 340/740
5
12/4/07
CHAPTER 12. PIDGINES AND CREOLES
Table 12.2: Sample of Jamaican Creole (Sebba 1997).
(757)
Guyanese Creole English
a.
shi bin/did bung fu riid
“she was obligated to read”
b. shi wuda bin/did sing
c.
“she would have sung”
shi mosii doz gu de
“she probably usually goes there”
d. shi bin/did get fu riid
“she was allowed to read”
• Table 12.2 (p.289): A Sample of Jamaican Creole (from Kowaiti Bay a comic
book created by the Diabetes Association of Jamaica.)
The characters all live in a poor section of Kingston, the capital city. In this
sample, Kan Kan informs her friends that Tata Bishop, who is an unsuccessful
practitioner of obeah (magic healing), has been struck by a car (from Sebba 1997).
• A sample of Tok Pisin (New Guinea Pidgin English) (from Wantok, a news paper
published in Port Moresby, the capital city). This sample is from April 14, 1994.
289
12.3. ORIGINS
(758)
CHAPTER 12. PIDGINES AND CREOLES
Tok Pisin
Helt na envaironment em ol bikpela
samting
health and environment him all big-fellow something
long kantri tude i gat bikpela
wari long
along country today he got big-fellow worry along
ol meri
all woman
en
en
“Health and environment are two of the major things which women in the
country today have big concerns about.”
12.3
Origins of Pidgins and Creoles
• The pidgins and creoles of Africa and the New World have different historical
sources. The African pidgins and creoles arose mainly as
– Trade/seafaring pidgins
– Mine/construction pidgins
– Urban contact vernaculars.
• The West African pidgins originated principally as trade/seafaring pidgins.
– Various West African pidgins have their origins in Sabir, a Portuguese lexifier
pidgin that was brought to West Africa with the advent of trade with Portugal.
– Sabir eventually became the lingua franca of the slave trade and ancestor to
the Portuguese lexifier creoles spoken today in the Cape Verde Islands, Guinea,
Sao Tome, etc.
– Sabir may have been the precursor to the widely spoken West African Pidgin
English (which has become a creolized in some parts of Nigeria).
• Mining and constructions pidgins:
– Fanagalo: A piginized form of Zulu.
∗ Arose as a result of Zulu-European contact in KwaZulu Natal in South Africa.
∗ Its development and spread were due to its role in mining.
∗ Workers returning to their homelands were responsible for the spread of
Fanagalo over much of southern Africa.
– Pidgin A-70: A pidginized form of Ewondo (Bantu), spoken in Cameroon.
∗ Pidgin A-70 came into being in the 1920s, when a railway line was constructed to Yaounde (now the capital of Cameroon). The construction of
the railway brought together workers from many different linguistic backgrounds.
∗ Pidgin A-70 spread as construction progressed from town to town, particularly in markets and along the railway itself and highways.
290
CHAPTER 12. PIDGINES AND CREOLES
12.4. FEATURES OF PIDGINS
∗ Pidgin A-70 is not used outside of public contact situations.
• “Urban contact vernaculars” arise in urban settings where large-scale migration
(from rural areas to a city) has taken place.
– This creates poor communities which may be very linguistically and ethnically
diverse. Youths in particular may develop or create a vernacular language that
has many of the characteristics of a pidgin.
– E XAMPLE : Sheng, spoken in Nairobi, Kenya is one such urban vernacular.
∗ Sheng is roughly a simplified form of Swahili with a very large amount of
English vocabulary, including a great deal of slang or new coinages.
∗ “Jokiness” at the level of vocabulary is one characteristic of Sheng.
∗ Whites are called yuro i.e. “Europeans”, while Africans are called miro, a
play on “you versus me.”
∗ This kind of play gives Sheng a racy and rebellious “feel” and makes it very
difficult for outsiders to understand-one of the main functions of slang in any
language.
• New Word pidgins (and creoles):
– Mostly the result of the plantation faming method employed under colonial
regimes from the 16th-19th centuries.
– Since plantation farming by nature requires large numbers of workers, the
plantation system tended to create situations of heavy language contact (among
slaves, indentured servants, overseers, etc.)
– The plantation system gave rise to a number of pidgins and creoles in the
Carribean and along the Atlantic coast of North and South America.
∗ English lexifier creoles: Jamaica, Georgia and South Carolina (Gullah),
Guyana, Trinidad, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, i.a.
∗ French lexifier creoles: Haiti, Guadaloupe, St. Lucia, and Louisiana.
∗ Dutch lexifier creoles: Virgin Islands and Guyana.
• The numbers of speakers of pidgins varies greatly from a few hundred, to many
thousands (Fanagalo: 10,000; Pidgin Assamese: 500,000; West African Pidgin
English: 20 million).
• Worldwide Distribution of Pidgins and Creoles: Table 12.3 (p.292) .
12.4
Specific Linguistic Features of Pidgins
• Although Pidgins are found in many parts of the world, have arisen at different
points in history, and have different substrate and lexifier languages, they often
share a remarkable number of features. This is one reason that pidgins and creoles
have attracted the attention of linguistics, especially in recent years.
291
8
12.4. FEATURES OF PIDGINS
CHAPTER 12. PIDGINES AND CREOLES
Worldwide Distribution of Pidgins and Creoles
Table 12.3: Worldwide Distribution of Pidgins and Creoles.
The numbers of speakers of pidgins varies greatly from a few hundred, to many
thousands (Fanagalo:100,00 ; Pidgin Assamese:500,000 ; West African Pidgin
English:20 million).
• Reduced morphology:
– Very little or no inflection.
Costa Rica, Nicaragua, etc. French lexifier creoles a spoken in Haiti, Guadaloupe, St.
Lucia, and Louisiana. Dutch lexifier creoles are found in the Virgin Islands and Guyana.
– Number is not marked on nouns, case is not marked at all.
– Concord/agreement is usually non-existent.
Ling 340/740
12/4/07
E XAMPLES :
– If the lexifier language has inflection on verbs for example, the pidgin either
uses a bare verb stem (as in West African Pidgin English) or a single inflected
verb form in the lexifier language for all persons and numbers:
292
CHAPTER 12. PIDGINES AND CREOLES
(759)
12.4. FEATURES OF PIDGINS
Chileno (Amerindian Pidgin Spanish; California)
a.
(Spanish)
tene-mos hambre
have-1 PL hunger
“we are hungry”
b. nosootros tiyeene
aamre
1 PL
have.3 SG hunger
“we are hungry”
(Chileno)
– Pidgins typically have isolating morphology.
∗ Tense and negation are not usually marked on the verb, but indicated by fee
morphemes.
∗ In West African Pidgin English, tense is marked before the main verb, which
is invariable:
(760)
a.
you dey chop “you are eating”
b. you done chop “you have eaten”
c.
you go chop “you will eat”
d. you bin chop “you ate”
e.
you bin dey chop “you were eating”
f.
you bin done chop “you had eaten”
• Probably just as common is that a pidgin will lack tense marking. Instead, tense is
indicated with temporal adverbs:
(761)
Vietnamese Pidgin French
a.
moi bouver thé jour
avant
:::: :::::
1 SG drink tea day before
“I was drinking tea yesterday”
b. demain
moi bouver thé avec ami
:::::::
tomorrow 1 SG drink tea with friend
“tomorrow, I shall drink tea with my friend(s)”
• Pidgins usually lack complex sentences, like relative clauses (“the boy that we
talked to”). Varies greatly.
• Pidgins tend to have sounds that are very common in the world’s languages. That
is, usually, rare sounds are not found in pidgins.
293
12.4. FEATURES OF PIDGINS
(762)
Fijian
[B]
→
[D]
→
CHAPTER 12. PIDGINES AND CREOLES
Pidgin Fijian
[b]
[d]
• Pidgins do not usually have lexical tone, even if the lexifier language is.
– Pidgin Sango is a Pidgin spoken in central Africa. The vast majority of the
speakers of Sango are speakers of languages with lexical tone.
– The lexifier language, also called Sango, is a tone language. However Pidgin
Sango is not a tone language.
• Typically small vocabulary, though this varies greatly.
• Very small inventory of prepositions.
– West African Pidgin English has an all-purpose preposition, for, which is used
for the English prepositions at, on, for, in, etc.
(763)
Nigerian Pidgin English:
a.
my eye see wonder the other day for Yola
“I saw something wonderful the other day at Yola”
b. your executive jet pass us for Argentina
“your executive jet passed us in Argentina”
• Pidgins usually lack definite and indefinite articles.
• Pidgins usually lack passives (“the students were beaten by the teacher”).
• Keep in mind, that most of the features listed above are also found in non-pidgin
languages. SOV languages often lack articles.
12.4.1
Case Study 1: Fanagalo (Fanakalo)
• Fanagalo is a Zulu lexifier pidgin spoken in southern Africa and southern central
Africa.
– It is associated with mining and is used for communication between African
mineworkers and with their European bosses.
– The name Fanagalo probably comes from the Zulu phrase
(764) enza fan ga lo
“do it this way!”
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CHAPTER 12. PIDGINES AND CREOLES
12.4. FEATURES OF PIDGINS
• Fanagalo origin:
– In the 19th century in KwaZulu Natal, but spread following migration patterns
to mine areas. It also became established in the mining regions of Zimbabwe
and Zambia.
– Given the particular circumstances of gold mining in South Africa, Fanagalo
is “reviled” by many southern Africans because of its association with the
Apartheid system.
– After the pidgin arose, the South African Chamber of Mines saw its usefulness
for intergroup communication and trained miners in its use.
• Compared to Zulu, Fanagalo is greatly simplified grammatically.
• While Zulu is strongly agglutinating, Fanagalo is strongly isolating:
(765)
a.
e-
zi- ndl
-ini ze-thu
LOC - PL- house - LOC POSS-our
(Zulu)
“in our house”
b. lapa zi-ndlu
ga
tina
in
PL-house POSS we
(Fanagalo)
“in our house”
• Pronouns: Table 12.4
1
2
3
Singular:
Plural:
mina
wean
yena
tina
wenzonke
yenazonke
Table 12.4: Fanagalo pronouns.
– These pronouns exist in Zulu, but are used mainly for emphasis. In an unemphatic Zulu sentence, verbal prefixes indicate the subject:
(766)
a.
(Fanagalo)
mina bona wean
I
see you
“I see you”
b. ngi- ya- ku- bona
1 SG-PRS-2 SG-see
“I see you”
(Zulu)
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12.4. FEATURES OF PIDGINS
CHAPTER 12. PIDGINES AND CREOLES
– Fanagalo has no morphological subject or object agreement, and consequently
no pronoun drop for subjects and objects.
• Zulu is a strongly agglutinating language with a complex system of tones. As
a Bantu language, Zulu has a number of noun classes and displays extensive
concord.
– In Zulu possessives, the possessor has a concordial prefix that agrees with the
possessed item (CL: Noun class marker):
(767)
a.
aba-ntwana ba-madoda
CL-children POSS . CL -men
“children of the men”
b. izi-nkomo za-madoda
CL-cows POSS . CL-men
“cows of the men”
(Zulu)
– Fanagalo uses only an invariable ga- before the possessor. The ga- prefix does
not exist in Zulu:
(768)
a.
lo msebenzi ga- lo ndlu
the work
POSS-the house
“the housework”
b. motokaki ga-yena
POSS-he
car
“his car”
(Fanagalo)
Fanagalo has no concord between possessive morphemes and possessed nouns.
• Fanagalo has a definite article, lo, unusual for a pidgin. The article lo is of Zulu
origin however, in Zulu it is not an article. Zulu has no articles.
• Plurals:
– Zulu has singular plural pairs like
(769)
a.
in-doda/ama-doda “man/men”
b. inhlanzi/izi-inhlanzi “fish/fishes”.
– Plurals in Fanagalo are typically formed by adding a ma- prefix:
(770) foshol/ma-foshol “shovel/shovels”
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CHAPTER 12. PIDGINES AND CREOLES
12.4. FEATURES OF PIDGINS
– The Zulu (a)ma- noun class prefix has been generalized in Fanagalo.
• Phonetics and phonology:
– Fanagalo allows a number of consonant clusters that are illegal in Zulu:
(771)
a.
stim “steam”
b. streyit “straight”
– Zulu typically epenthesises vowels so words do not end in consonants:
(772)
a.
sirinji “syringe”
b. lampu “lamp”
Fanagalo allows words to end in consonants
– Like Zulu, Fanagalo has clicks. Since clicks are found only in Africa and only
in Khoisan and some southern Bantu languages, this is unexpected.
– Unlike Zulu, Fanagalo is not a tone language.
• Summary: At the level of morphosyntax, Fanagalo differs markedly from its
lexifier language Zulu.
12.4.2
Case Study 2: Isicamtho
• Isicamtho is an urban contact vernacular form of Zulu spoken in Soweto, South
Africa.
– It is usually spoken by young to middle aged urban black males. Significantly,
it is spoken outside the family to other males.
– The use of Isicamtho marks speakers as, "urban, non-rural, hip, sophisticated"
(Childs 1997).
• Used by speakers of different languages; high levels of codeswitching/codemixing:
u- ya- tabalaza
(773) if u- roof-a i-bank ya- se- lokishi -ni
if you-rob -a CL-bank CL-LOC-location-LOC you-TA-struggle
E Z- A -Z Z-E
Z- Z- U
-Z
Z- Z- C
"If you rob a bank in the townships, is that [really] fighting for survival?"
(A: Afrikaans, C: Isicamtho, E: English, U: Urban Zulu, Z: Zulu)
• In Isicamtho, a single marker, drawn from the human plural class in Zulu has
been/is being generalized.
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12.5. CREOLES
CHAPTER 12. PIDGINES AND CREOLES
– Zulu has a human plural prefix aba- (class 2a).
– This corresponds to the Isicamtho animate plural prefix abo(774) abo-bra
ba-khe a-ba-yi-three be-be-daa
aba-ngani ba-khe aba-thathu be-be-lapho
“His three friends were there”
Isicamtho
Standard Zulu
– No change in concord from ba → bo
– bo- can be used for most nouns, no matter what class they belong to in Standard
Zulu.
(775)
bo-ma-shiba
“shops”
bo-m- fowethu
“brothers”
sa-bofour o’clock “four o’clock’ (Class 7 prefix)”
– Two ways to look at this:
∗ A morpheme from the lexifier language is generalized to apply in a wider
context
∗ Concord is lost
12.5
Creoles
• A creole language results when a pidgin becomes nativized, i.e. when the input to
first language acquisition is a pidgin, a creole is the result.
12.5.1
Creolization
• To talk about the origins of creoles, we must first talk about normal transmission
of language.
• By normal transmission, we mean only the normal, common way in which
languages are passed from generation to generation. That is, the common way in
which children acquire language from adults, older children and their peers.
• Under normal transmission, language change is slow and differences between
language varieties only arise after many generations. This is the model of language
change that is tacitly assumed by linguists who traditionally work in historical
linguistics.
• It appears that there are (many) cases where normal transmission did not occur. These include cases where some social change, such as slavery, leads to a
community acquiring a new language in less than one generation.
E XAMPLE : A plantation setting where the first generation of children is born
surrounded by a pidgin.
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CHAPTER 12. PIDGINES AND CREOLES
12.5. CREOLES
• A creole is a language with native speakers that (usually) results from language
contact without normal transmission.
12.5.2
Some Properties of Creoles
• Uniformly SVO, irrespective of the word order in the lexifier language. This is
unlike pidgins, which are much more diverse in their word orders.
• Creoles can systematically encode distinctions between tense, mood, and aspect
(TAM).
– Tense refers to when an event occurs-future, past, yesterday, tomorrow, earlier
today, etc.
– Mood: Think of English modals
– Aspect: Encodes whether the event described by the VP is described as completed or ongoing
(776)
a.
I was eating
b. I had eaten.
• In creole languages, TAM markers (almost) always appear in the order:
Tense–Mood–Aspect
– These markers are (almost) always preverbal.
(777)
Fa d’Ambu (Portuguese lexifier; Equatorial Guinea)
a.
bo bi sa naimna kitsyi
you PST a little
child
“You were a little child”
b. bo ske
a namina kitsyi
you IRREAL a little
child
“You will be a little child”
c. se a
xa
sa iai
and one (of the people) PROG be here
“and one of the people is here”
tense
mood
aspect
d. ineni bi
ske
tabaya
they PAST IRREAL work
‘They would have worked’
tense mood
e.
tense aspect
ineni bi
xa
tabaya
they PAST PROG work
“They worked (habitually)”
299
12.5. CREOLES
f.
CHAPTER 12. PIDGINES AND CREOLES
mood aspect
ineni ske
xa
tabaya
they IRREAL PROG work
“They will be working”
ske
xa
tabaya
g. ineni bi
they PAST IRREAL PROG work
“They would have been working”
tense mood aspect
• Little affixal morphology, but more than one finds in pidgins. Creoles, like pidgins,
typically lack case marking, gender/class distinctions. They tend to be isolating.
– In the absence of affixal plural morphology, oftentimes, a plural pronoun is
used:
(778)
(779)
Haitian Creole (French lexifier)
tab (la)-yo
table (DEF)-PL
‘the tables’
(French eux ‘them’ → Haitian yo)
Jamaican Creole (English lexifier)
di gyal dem
the girl PL
‘the girls’
(English them → Jamaican dem)
• There is movement: Focused constituents can occur in sentence initial position.
• Articles are much more likely to be found than in pidgins.
• Most creoles have relative clauses and relative pronouns.
• Adjectives pattern like verbs:
– Can stand alone as the predicate of a sentence: the book red for “the book is
red.”
– Can appear together with tense and mood morphology.
• The order of yes/no questions and declaratives is identical.
(780)
You have eaten → Have you eaten
There is never anything like “subject-auxiliary inversion” in English
• Presence of abstract nouns. Remember, creoles have native speakers. Thus, they
are fully expressive languages.
300
CHAPTER 12. PIDGINES AND CREOLES
12.5. CREOLES
• Presence of serial verb constructions:
– In Africa, serial verbs were especially common among the Kwa, Igboid, and
Yoruboid languages:
(781)
a.
Kofi kooe baae
Kofi went came
‘Kofi went and came back’
b. Kofi de aburow gu nsum
Kofi take corn
flow water
‘Kofi pours corn into the water’
c.
(Asante Twi, Kwa; Ghana)
Kofi daadaa Amma kooe
Kofi tricked Amma went
‘Kofi tricked Amma into going’
d. Kofi ye-e
adwuma maa
Amma
Kofi do-PAST work
give-PAST Amma
‘Kofi did work for Amma’
e. Kofi gyee
Amma dii
Kofi receive Amma ate
‘Kofi believed Amma
f. Araba á-tO
nsuo-nam á-kyew á-tOn
é-nja
sika
Araba has-buy water-flesh has-fried has-sold has-gotten money
‘Araba has bought fish, fried it, sold it, and gotten money’
– Typologically, serialization is productive and common in West Africa and
Southeast Asia (Thai, Vietnamese, Lao, Khmer, etc.)
– Serialization is not characteristic of the Indo-European lexifier languages of the
Atlantic creoles (English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Dutch).
– Many of the Atlantic creoles are serializing languages:
(782) a bai njam giv dem
‘I bought yams for them’
(Nigerian English Creole)
(783)
(Sranan Tongo; Surinam)
a.
a tyari a nyan gi
mi
he carry the food give me
‘he brought food to/for me’
b. no teki baskita tyari watra
no take basket carry water
‘don’t carry water with the basket’
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12.5. CREOLES
CHAPTER 12. PIDGINES AND CREOLES
(784) a teke nefi koti a meti
he took knife cut the meat
‘he cut the meat with a knife’
(785)
(Ndyuka; Surinam)
Gullah (Georgia, South Carolina):
em fi
di nyong pipl
dem de ca
they are carry it give the young people
‘they are bringing it for the young people’
– The fact that serialization is rather geographically restricted in the Old World
suggests that the presence of serialization in the Atlantic creoles comes directly
from the African languages that the slaves spoke.
• Verb (Predicate) Clefting is found in many of the Atlantic creoles. This is thought
to come from the substrate languages.
– A cleft is a type of focusing or emphatic construction found in many languages,
like English. Clefts often involves some form of the copula, in English be:
(786)
a.
Jenny arrived on time
b. It’s Jenny who arrived on time (not John)
(it-cleft)
c.
(it-cleft)
it is/was X that/who Y
– A verb cleft is a focusing or emphatic construction in which there are multiple
copies of a verb. Verb clefts are found in many West African languages.
(787) işe
l-o işe
(Yoruba, Yoruboid; Nigeria)
work he-is work
‘he is indeed working (not doing something else)’
(788)
a.
me bo-o
Kofi
I hit-PAST Kofi
‘I hit Kofi’
b. bo na me bo-o
Kofi
hit it.is I hit-PAST Kofi
‘I really hit Kofi’
(Asante Twi)
– Many of the Atlantic creoles also have verb clefts:
(789) a tiif Jan tiif di mango
is steal jan steal the mango
‘Jan indeed stole the mango’
302
(Jamaican Creole English)
CHAPTER 12. PIDGINES AND CREOLES
(790)
12.5. CREOLES
(Sranan Tongo)
skrifti mi de skrifti
is write I am writing
I am indeed writing (not doing something else)
(791) de tok i de tok
is talk he is talk
‘he is really talking’
(792)
a.
(Gullah)
is walk Tim go walk
(Trinidad Dialectal English)
it.is walk tim will walk
‘Tim will indeed walk (as opposed to run, drive, etc.)’
b. is walk that Tim walk-ing
it.is walk that tim walk-ing
‘Tim is indeed walking’
– It is unclear whether Trinidad Dialectal English is an English lexifier creole or
dialect of English. In either case, it has verb clefts.
– Constructions similar to verb clefts are not unknown in (some dialects of) the
lexifier languages, but these probably did not play a role in the formation of the
creoles.
– Strikingly, verb clefts are absent in Indian Ocean, Asian, and Pacific creoles.
This suggests that the presence of verb clefts in the Atlantic creoles are of
African origin.
• In many Atlantic creoles, verbs of saying have developed various functions.
– In many Niger-Congo languages, verbs of saying are multifunctional:
(793)
a.
xale
yi ne ma dafa dof
children the say me he.is crazy
‘the children told me that he is crazy’
(Wolof, Atlantic; Senegal)
b. foog-naa ne dafa dof
think-I that he.is crazy
‘I think that he is crazy’
(794)
a.
wa- lini- amb-ia kweli
they-PAST-me-tell -to truth
‘they told me the truth’
(Swahili, Bantu; Kenya, Tanzania)
b. wa- lifikiri kw-amba yeye ana kichaa
that he is crazy
they-PAST-think
‘they thought that he was crazy’
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12.6. ILLUSTRATIONS
CHAPTER 12. PIDGINES AND CREOLES
– That is, the verb say is also used as a complementizer. This use of verbs of saying or talking is also found in many of the Atlantic creoles, but rare (or absent?)
in the lexifier languages (English, French, Dutch, Spanish, Portuguese):
(795) m sab tak a tru
I know talk it’s true
‘I know that it’s true’
(Sranan Tongo)
(796) a no
se yu bizi
I know say you busy
‘I know that you are busy’
(Krio)
(797) de la
se wi tu ol
they admit say we too old
‘they admit that we are too old’
(798)
(Gullah)
They told me say they couldn’t get it
(African American Vernacular English)
12.6
Illustrations
12.6.1
Sranan Tongo
12.6.1.1
History
• Sranan Tongo (i.e. Surinam tongue) is an English lexifier creole is the native
language of about 1/3 of the (half million) population of Surinam on the north
coast of South America.
• Most of the native speakers of Sranan Tongo are the descendents of African slaves.
In the interior, other, related creoles like Djuka aned Saramaccan are spoken.
• History:
– 1651 English planters first settle in Surinam
– By 1665, there were about 1500 English planters and 3000 African slaves,
mostly on small plantations. The majority of the African slaves would have
been African born, i.e. they would have had various African languages as their
native languages.
– In 1667, the Dutch captured Surinam (and kept it by the same treaty that gave
present-day New York to the English).
∗ The Dutch began to import new slaves and the English planters began to
leave, but slowly.
304
CHAPTER 12. PIDGINES AND CREOLES
12.6. ILLUSTRATIONS
∗ By 1675 the new slaves outnumbered those originally brought over by the
English.
∗ By about 1690, no English planters were left in Surinam and the number of
Dutch planters and slaves grew in the colony.
– The Dutch plantation system continued until 1863. Throughout the slavery
period, new slaves were brought to Surinam from Africa to replace the slaves
who had died. Slavery in Surinam was particularly harsh and the mortality rate
for slaves was higher than elsewhere.
– Slaves who escaped into the interior were able to establish an African way of
life for the most part. In Surinam, the descendants of these escaped slaves still
live along the rivers of the interior and speak creole languages such as Djuka,
Boni, and Saramaka Tongo (Saramaccan).
– Surinam remained under Dutch rule until 1975, when it became an independent
state.
Speakers of Sranan Tongo have not had much opportunity to hear English for
over 300 years. At the same time, Dutch and other African languages have been
present in Surinam for much of the same period.
• Unsurprisingly, Sranan does not closely resemble English.
• However, the core lexicon of Sranan is English. Further, we know that all of
the English had left by 1690. This suggests that Sranan, or at least its lexicon,
developed very rapidly.
• The earliest known Sranan texts date from 1718 and look very much like contemporary Sranan. Thus, Sranan Tongo looks like as case of “abrupt creolization.”
12.6.1.2
Some Features of Sranan Tongo
• In Sranan Tongo, either the plural is not marked at all or it is indicated through
the definite article, which has separate singular and plural forms (like many
Niger-Congo noun class languages):
(799)
a.
pikin ‘child,’ ‘children’
(Sranan Tongo)
b. a pikin ‘the child’
c.
den pikin ‘the children’
• As in many creole languages, Sranan has developed preverbal tense markers.
Many of these are of English origin:
305
12.6. ILLUSTRATIONS
(800)
a.
CHAPTER 12. PIDGINES AND CREOLES
mi e waka ‘I am walking’
(Sranan Tongo)
b. mi ben waka ‘I walked’
c.
mi ben e waka ‘I was walking’
d. mi be o waka ‘I was about to walk’
• These markers are similar to the tense markers in West African Pidgin English:
(801)
a.
i bin chop ‘I ate’
(West African Pidgin English)
b. i bin dey chop ‘I had eaten’
12.6.2
Krio
• Krio is the native language of about half million inhabitants of the West African
nation of Sierra Leone.
• Europeans had been trading in the area around today’s capital, Freetown, since the
15th century. It is likely that an English-based pidgin was spoken in the area, just
as in other areas of West Africa where English traders and slavers had an interest.
• By 1772, Sierra Leone slavery was abolished in England and Sierra Leone became
the focus of various projects by abolitionists to repatriate ex-slaves and other
Africans to Africa.
– The Freetown colony was established in 1787 by a mixture of freed slaves of
African descent from England and North America (having won their freedom
by escaping to fight for the Crown against the rebellious American colonists
who founded the United States).
– More ex-slaves from America arrived in 1792 and in 1800 550 Jamaican
maroons (escaped slaves) joined the colony.
• Standard English did not play a significant role in the formation of Krio, except in
the very earliest stages of the creole. The target language of learners has always
been a creole.
• In addition, over the years, large numbers of freed slaves bringing new African
languages with them were coming into the colony. It is possible that a pidgin form
of Krio developed that was used for communication between the newcomers and
the existing community.
• The creole itself may have been creolized, having been acquired by the children of
the newcomers. This cycle may have repeated itself many times as new generations
of freed slaves arrived in the colony.
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CHAPTER 12. PIDGINES AND CREOLES
12.6. ILLUSTRATIONS
• Modern Krio is likely the result of the following stages:
1. Pidginization of English along the African coast.
2. The creolization of Pidgin English, either in Africa or in the Caribbean (on
plantations).
3. Contact between several types of creole (North American, Jamaican, West
African) around the time of the establishment of the Freetown settlement.
4. Repidginization of this creole as speakers came into contact with freed slaves
newly brought from other parts of Africa. Some of these newly freed slaves
only spoke African languages, and some of whom only spoken a creolized
form of English.
5. Recreolization of the pidgin as it became the first language of a generation
born in the Freetown colony.
6. Native African languages continued to have an influence on the creole.
7. Standard English began to influence the creole as Freetown came under British
colonial administration and Standard English became the language of schools
and government.
• Krio is a good example of how pidginization and creolization occur in multilingual
settings. Usually, these settings are of great linguistic complexity.
• If multilingualism continues to be a property of the community, the cycle of
pidginization and creolization may take place again.
12.6.3
Tok Pisin: from pidgin to creole
• Beginning in the 1960s onward, significant numbers of children started to acquire
Tok Pisin as a native language.
– Usually these children were also acquiring other languages too.
– Estimates of the number of native speakers varies greatly (90,000-1,000,000).
• Tok Pisin is interesting because the creole has arisen so recently and the creole
and pidgin exist together.
• The creole shows phonological reduction with respect to the Pidgin:
(802)
Tok Pisin Pidgin
Tok Pisin Creole
dispela
bilong en
long
disla
blem
lo
‘this’
‘of him’
‘at, to, in’
307
12.6. ILLUSTRATIONS
CHAPTER 12. PIDGINES AND CREOLES
• Grammaticalization
– Tok Pisin Creole has has grAmmaticalized the English pronoun him into a
marker of transitive verbs.
(803)
a.
mi kat-im
kopra
I cut-TRANS copra
‘I cut copra’
b. mi kat
I cut
‘I cut’
– In the pidgin baimbai is a future marker (from English by-and-by), as it is in the
creole. However, over time, it has become phonetically reduced as Tok Pisin
has become creolized:
baimbai → b@mbai→ bai → b@.
308
Appendices
309
Appendix A
Greenberg’s Universals
From: Greenberg (1966)
1. In declarative sentences with nominal subject and direct object, the dominant
order is almost always one in which the subject precedes the object.
2. In languages with prepositions, the genitive almost always follows the governing
noun, while in languages with postpositions it almost always precedes.
3. Languages with dominant VSO order are always prepositional.
4. With overwhelmingly greater than chance frequency, languages with normal SOV
order are postpositional.
5. If a language has dominant SOV order and the genitive follows the governing
noun, then the adjective likewise follows the noun.
6. All languages with dominant VSO order have SVO as an alternative or as the
only alternative basic order.
7. If in a language with dominant SOV order there is no alternative basic order, or
only OSV as the alternative, then all adverbial modifiers of the verb likewise
precede the verb. (This is the “rigid” subtype of III.)
8. When a yes-no question is differentiated from the corresponding assertion by an
intonational pattern, the distinctive intonational features of each of these patterns
is reckoned from the end of the sentence rather than the beginning.
9. With well more than chance frequency, when question particles or affixes are
specified in position by reference to the sentence as a whole, if initial, such
elements are found in prepositional languages and, if final, in postpositional.
10. Question particles or affixes, specified in position by reference to a particular
word in the sentence, almost always follow that word. Such particles do not occur
in languages with dominant VSO order.
311
APPENDIX A. GREENBERG’S UNIVERSALS
11. Inversion of statement order so that verb precedes subject occurs only in languages where the question word or phrase is normally initial. This same inversion
occurs ijn yes-no questions only if it also occurs in interrogative word questions.
12. If a language has dominant order VSO in declarative sentences, it always puts
interrogative words or phrases first in interrogative word questions; if it has
dominant SOV order in declarative sentences, there is never such an invariant
rule.
13. If the nominal object always precedes the verb, then verb forms subordinate to
the main verb also precede it.
14. In conditional statements, the conditional clause precedes the conclusion as the
normal order in all languages.
15. In expressions of volition and purpose, a subordinate verbal form always follows
the main verb as the normal order except in those languages in which the nominal
object always precedes the verb.
16. In languages with dominant order VSO, an inflected auxiliary always precedes
the main verb. In languages with dominant order SOV, an inflected auxiliary
always follows the main verb.
17. With overwhelmingly more than chance frequency languages with dominant
order VSO have the adjective after the noun.
18. When the descriptive adjective precedes the noun, the demonstrative and the
numeral, with overwhelmingly more than chance frequency, do likewise.
19. When the general rule is that the descriptive adjective follows, there may be a
minority of adjectives which usually precede, but when the general rule is that
descriptive adjectives precede, there are no exceptions.
20. When any or all of the items — demonstrative, numeral, and descriptive adjective
— precede the noun, they are always found in that order. If they follow, the order
is either the same or its exact opposite.
21. If some or all adverbs follow the adjective they modify, then the language is
one in which the qualifying adjective follows the noun and the verb precedes its
nominal object as the dominant order.
22. If in comparisons of superiority the only order or one of the alternative orders is
standard-marker-adjective, then the language is postpositional. With overwhelmingly more than chance frequency, if the only order is adjective-marker-standard,
the language is prepositional.
23. If in apposition the proper noun usually precedes the common noun, then the
language is one in which the governing noun precedes its dependent genitive.
With much better than chance frequency, if the common noun usually precedes
the proper noun, the dependent genitive precedes its governing noun.
312
APPENDIX A. GREENBERG’S UNIVERSALS
24. If the relative expression precedes the noun either as the only construction or as
an alternative construction, either the language is postpositional or the adjective
precedes the noun or both.
25. If the pronominal object follows the verb, so does the nominal object.
26. If a language has discontinuous affixes, it always has either prefixing or suffixing
or both.
27. If a language is exclusively suffixing, it is postpositional; if it is exclusively
prefixing, it is prepositional.
28. If both the derivation and inflection follow the root, or they both precede the
root, the derivation is always between the root and the inflection.
29. If a language has inflection, it always has derivation.
30. If the verb has categories of person-number or if it has categories of gender it
always has tense-mode categories.
31. If either the subject or object noun agrees with the verb in gender, then the
adjective always agrees with the noun in gender.
32. Whenever the verb agrees with a nominal subject or nominal object in gender, it
also agrees in number.
33. When number agreement between the noun and verb is suspended and the rule
is based on order, the case is always one in which the verb is in the singular.
34. No language has a trial number unless it has a dual. No language has a dual
unless it has a plural.
35. There is no language in which the plural does not have some nonzero allomorphs,
whereas there are languages in which the singular is expressed only by zero. The
dual and the trial are almost never expressed only by zero.
36. If a language has the category of gender, it always has the category of number.
37. A language never has more gender categories in nonsingular numbers than in
the singular.
38. Where there is a case system, the only case which ever has only zero allomorphs
is the one which includes among its meanings that of the subject of the intransitive
clause.
39. Where morphemes of both number and case are present and both follow or both
precede the noun base, the expression of number almost always comes between
the noun base and the expression of case.
313
APPENDIX A. GREENBERG’S UNIVERSALS
40. When the adjective follows the noun, the adjective expresses all the inflectional
categories of the noun. If such cases the noun may lack overt expression of one
or all of these categories.
41. If in a language the verb follows both the nominal subject and nominal object as
the dominant order, the language almost always has a case system.
42. All languages have pronominal categories involving at least three persons and
two numbers.
43. If a language has gender categories in the noun, it has gender categories in the
pronoun.
44. If a language has gender distinctions in the first person, it always has gender
distinctions in the second or third persons or in both.
45. If there are any gender distinctions in the plural of the pronoun, there are some
gender distinctions in the singular also.
314
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