SOAS Working Papers in Linguistics Vol. 17 (2015): 49-76 Associated motion with deictic directionals: A comparative overview Aicha Belkadi
[email protected] 1. Introduction This paper focusses on deictic directionals and their rarely discussed function as markers of Associated Motion (henceforth AM). AM is a term generally used to refer to a category of verbal affixes exhibited by a number of indigenous Australian, North American and South American languages, whose function is to indicate that the event encoded by a verb is framed with respect to a motion co-event (Koch, 1984; Wilkins, 2005; Guillaume, 2009 amongst others). The most characteristic systems of AM involve complex paradigms, where affixes are each paired with specific and quite sophisticated types of motion. Specifications may encode information about the direction and orientation of the motion event, a defined temporal relation with the verb’s event, and particular aspectual notions. The examples below from the Australian languages Mparntwe Arrernte and Adnyamathanha illustrate some of the possibilities. (1) Mparntwe Arrernte (Australia: Wilkins, 2006) angk-artn.alpe-ke speak-QUICK:DO&GO.BACK-pc ‘Quickly spoke and then went back.’ (2) Adnyamathanha (Australia, Tunbridge, 1988) yarta veni witi-nali-angg-alu ground very pierce-CONT.COMING(sic)-PERF-3SG.ERG ‘It (a piece of iron hanging down from a truck) poked into the ground all the way (to here).’ The affix -artn- in (1) marks that the event of speaking, lexicalised by the verb, is followed by a motion of the subject directed away from the deictic anchor. In addition, it also provides some information about the speed in which this event enfolds.