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Download (7MB) - "SMALL" TALK: THE FORM AND FUNCTION OF THE DIMINUTIVE SUFFIX IN NORTHERN EAST CREE by © Amanda Cunningham A thesis submitted to the School of Graduate Studies in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Department of Linguistics Memorial University of Newfoundland May 11, 2008 St. John's Newfoundland and Labrador Abstract Diminutivization is a morphological process that is commonly attested among the world's languages. Though it has been studied in numerous languages belonging to a variety of language families, there has been a limited amount of research conducted on the diminutive in Algonquian. This thesis examines the diminutive suffix in Northern East Cree (NEC), a subdialect of Cree-Montagnais-Naskapi which is a Central Algonquian language spoken in Quebec. Comparisons, where possible, are made with other Algonquian dialects for which there is diminutive data. The phonological, semantic, and morphosyntactic properties of the particle, nominal, and verbal diminutive in NEC are described. There is a particular focus on the verbal diminutive, the investigation of which analyzes its distribution by identifying what elements of the sentence (subject, object, and/or verb) it modifies within each of the four Algonquian verb classes. The extent to which the Algonquian diminutive behaves like inflectional morphology is also discussed. 11 Acknowledgments Completion of a project of this magnitude can never be achieved by just one individual. I owe my success to a number of people and organizations. First, and foremost, I must acknowledge the amazing team of faculty, administrative staff, and graduate students that comprise the Linguistics Department at MUN. Together, they create a relaxed, friendly and supportive, yet academically challenging environment. In particular, I am indebted to Dr. Marguerite MacKenzie for giving me access to her expertise and research, for performing fieldwork on my behalf, and for her willingness to help make my life outside of the university more pleasant. I could not have asked for a better supervisor than Dr. Julie Brittain, a brilliant writer and researcher for whom I have a great deal of respect. She frequently put my insecurities at ease and supported me unconditionally. She also collected fieldwork on my behalf and gave me access to her research notes, both of which I am grateful for. I would also like to extend my gratitude to Will Oxford for being my "go-to guy" for technical support, and for always doing it with a calming smile. I, literally, could not have written- rather typed- this thesis without him. I am grateful to both Will and Erin Swain for their eagerness to pass along tidbits of information that they thought would benefit my research. As I am an out-of-province student, with significant debt from my Bachelor's degree, I would not have been able to complete my program without significant financial support. I am extremely grateful to the Linguistics Department for allocating teaching assistantships lll to me for each semester of my program, to the MUN School of Graduate Studies for their two-year fellowship, to the CURA project for providing me with part-time work, to the CCLAS project for funding my fieldwork, and to the ELRC at MUN for summer employ­ ment. On a more personal note, I need to thank Margot Hiltz, Kathy Moulton, Jennifer Thor­ burn, Ahmad Assiri and Coleen Porter for giving me the one thing I surely could not have survived this experience without: their friendship. Finally, I want to dedicate this thesis to my oldest and dearest friends Greg Brown and Rozelle Winter, and to my family - Sheryl, Vince, Dave, and Kris - for always being by my side. IV Contents ABSTRACT 11 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 111 LIST OF TABLES Vlll LIST OF FIGURES X LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS XI 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 About the Diminutive 2 1.2 Cree-Montagnais-Naskapi ..... ..... 6 1.2.1 Classificatory Features of CMN Dialects . 7 1.2.2 Language Viability . 7 1.3 East Cree . 9 1.3.1 Potential Non-Linguistic Factors Contributing to Dialect Differen­ tiation in EC . 11 1.3.2 Northern East Cree .. .. .. .. ..... 13 1.4 Some Grammatical Features of Algonquian Languages 14 1.4.1 Verbs . 15 1.4.2 General Features 23 1.5 Scope and Objectives 26 1.5.1 Particles 26 1.5.2 Nouns ... 27 1.5.3 Verbs ... 30 1.6 Data and Methodology 34 1.6.1 Textual Data . 35 1.6.2 Elicited Data . 36 1.6.3 Other Sources of Data 37 1.6.4 Presentation of Data . 37 1.7 Literature Review . .... 39 1.7 .1 Literature Pertaining to Northern East Cree 40 1.7 .2 Literature Pertaining to the Algonquian Diminutive Suffix 41 v 1.8 Outline of Thesis . 41 2 THEORETICAL ISSUES 44 2.1 The Diminutive as Derivation . 45 2.1.1 Gender Features and the Diminutive Suffix 46 2.2 The Diminutive as Inflection . 54 2.2.1 Diminutives Resulting from Inflection . 54 2.2.2 Inflectional Properties of the CMN Diminutive 57 3 DIMINUTIVIZATION OF PARTICLES 60 3.1 Particle Classes . 62 3.2 Form and Position . 63 3.3 Methodology .. 65 3.4 Results ... 69 3.4.1 Semantic Contributions . 69 3.4.2 Distribution Among Particle Classes 71 4 THE NOMINAL DIMINUTIVE 78 4.1 Methodology 79 4.2 Form . .... 82 4.3 Results . 83 4.3.1 Position 84 4.3.2 Complex Diminutives . 86 4.3.3 Semantic Contributions . 94 4.3.4 Gender .. ..... 97 4.3.5 Countability . 100 4.3.6 Abstract versus Concrete Nouns 101 4.3.7 Lexicalization . 102 5 THE VERBAL DIMINUTIVE 107 5.1 Phonological Form of the Verbal Diminutive Suffix 107 5.2 Methodology . ........ 108 5.3 Results .... ...... 109 5.3.1 Semantic Contributions . 109 5.3.2 Intransitives . 11 2 5.3.3 Transitives . 120 5.3.4 Modification of Finals . 133 5.3.5 Semantically Vacuous Diminutives . 134 5.3.6 The Periphrastic Diminutive . 136 Vl 6 CONCLUSION 141 6.1 Summary of Results . 141 6.2 Topics for Future Research .. .. ... ... ... 145 6.2.1 Topics Arising from the Diminutivization of Particles 146 6.2.2 Topics Arising from Nominal Diminutives . 146 6.2.3 Topics Arising from Verbal Diminutives 147 6.2.4 Cross-Category Topics . 148 APPENDIX: VERB PARADIGMS 151 BIBLIOGRAPHY 156 VII List of Tables 1.1 Diminutive Semantics of the NBC Diminutive Suffix 4 1.2 Other Categories That Undergo Diminutivization .. 5 1.3 Various NEC Words That Are Classified As Particles 14 1.4 Grammatical Gender and NBC Nouns 15 1.5 Verb Paradigms in Cree . 16 1.6 Types of Diminutivized Particles Observed in EC 26 3.1 Comparison of Particle Diminutives in NBC and ShiA . 61 3.2 Allomorphy Exhibited by the Diminutive Suffix in NEC Particles . 64 3.3 Tentative Summary of Diminutive Particles in Salt et al. (2004) . 66 3.4 Comparison of Particle Entries in CMN Dialect Databases . 67 3.5 Semantic and Pragmatic Contributions by the NBC Particle Diminutive 70 3.6 Results of the Diminutivization NBC Particles . 72 4.1 Allomorphy Exhibited by the Diminutive Suffix in NEC Noun 82 4.2 Double Diminutives of Nouns in NBC 89 4.3 Simple Diminutives of Nouns in NEC 90 4.4 Semantic Contributions and Functions of the Nominal Diminutive 95 4.5 Gender Distinction between Semantically Related Nouns 97 4.6 Count Status of Nouns Based on Plurality . 100 4.7 Lexicalized Nouns Referring to the Natural World 103 Vlll 4.8 A Miscellany of Lexicalized Nouns . .. .. ... .. 104 5.1 Semantic Contributions of Action/State-Oriented Diminutives 110 5.2 Stative Intransitive Diminutives with an Obligatory Initial and Diminutive Suffix • 0 ••• 0 •• 0 • • • • 0 • 0 0 •• 0 0 • • 115 5.3 Modification Patterns of NEC Verbal Diminutives 139 6.1 Paradigm for a , e, and i-stem AI verbs 151 6.2 Paradigm for u, and n-stem AI verbs 152 6.3 Paradigm for II verbs •• • 0 • ••• 153 6.4 Paradigm for the TI verb uapatam11 ('see') 153 6.5 Direct Paradigm of theTA verb uapamau ('see') . 154 6.6 Inverse Paradigm of theTA verb uapamau ('see') . 155 ix List of Figures 1.1 Distribution of Cree-Montagnais-Naskapi 6 1.2 The First Nations of Quebec and Labrador 10 3.1 Classes of Particles in Salt et al. (2004) 0 0 0 0 ••••• 63 302 Classes of Particles in the Lab lex Dictionary Database 0 68 303 Particle Diminutives by Class in NEC, ShiA, and BIA 0 74 X - --- --- List of Abbreviations AI Animiate Intransitive IN Incorporated Noun anim Animate in an Inanimate BIA Betsiamites Innu-aimun inc! Inclusive CIN Conjunct Indicative Neutral infl Inflection CMN Cree-Montagnais-Naskapi !NV Inverse theme sign def Definite article masc Masculine derv Derivation NEC Northern East Cree dim Diminutive neg negation DIR Direct theme sign neut Neuter EC East Cree Nom Nominative Case excl Exclusive non SAP Non-Speech Act Participant fern Feminine obv Obviative FUT Future past Past tense Gen Genitive case PC Plains Cree hab Habitual pi Plural IA lnnu-aimun poss Possessive IC Intitial Change/Changed Pqmy Passamaquoddy Conjunct pv Preverb II Inanimate Intransitive refl Reflexive !IN Independent Indicative Neutral SAP Speech Act Participant Xl SEC Southern East Cree sg Singular ShiA Sheshatshiu Innu-aimun TA Transitive Animate TI Transitive Inanimate TS Theme Sign WN Western Naskapi 1 1st person 2lpl Inclusive ' we' 2 2nd person 3 3rd person 3' Obviative xii CHAPTER 1 Introduction The purpose of this thesis is to describe the function of the diminutive suffix in Northern East Cree (hereafter referred to as NEC). NEC is a dialect of the Central Algonquian lan­ guage referred to as the Cree-Montagnais-Naskapi language complex (CMN) and is spoken in west central Quebec (Gordon 2006).
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