Middle Voice Construction in Burushaski: from the Perspective Of
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MIDDLE VOICE CONSTRUCTION IN BURUSHASKI: FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF A NATIVE SPEAKER OF THE HUNZA DIALECT Piar Karim, B.A. Thesis Prepared for the Degree of MASTER OF ARTS UNIVERSITY OF NORTH TEXAS May 2013 APPROVED: Timothy Montler, Major Professor Shobhana Chelliah, Committee Member Haj Ross, Committee Member Brenda Sims, Chair of the Department of Linguistics and Technical Communication Mark Wardell, Dean of the Toulouse Graduate School Karim, Piar, Middle Voice Construction in Burushaski: From the Perspective of a Native Speaker of the Hunza Dialect. Master of Arts (Linguistics), May 2013, 88 pp., 21 tables, references, 29 titles. This study is about voice system in Burushaski, focusing especially on the middle voice (MV) construction. It claims that the [dd-] verbal prefix is an overt morphological middle marker for MV constructions, while the [n-] verbal prefix is a morphological marker for passive voice. The data primarily come from the Hunza dialect of Burushaski, but analogous phenomena can be observed in other dialects. This research is based on a corpus of 120 dd-prefix verbs. This research has showed that position {-2} on the verb template is occupied by voice-marker in Burushaski. The author argues that the middle marker is a semantic category of its own and that it is clearly distinguished from the reflexive marker in this language. The analysis of the phenomenon in this study only comes from the dialect of Hunza Burushaski, so a lot of research remains to be done on the other three dialects of Burushaski: Yasin dialect, Nagar dialect and Srinagar dialect. Copyright 2013 by Piar Karim ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ......................................................................................................... v CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Background ............................................................................................................. 5 1.2 Goals ....................................................................................................................... 7 1.3 Research Data and Methodology ............................................................................ 7 1.4 Organization of the Thesis ...................................................................................... 8 CHAPTER 2 THE BURUSHASKI LANGUAGE ........................................................................ 9 2.1 Language Information ............................................................................................. 9 2.2 Burushaski Phonology .......................................................................................... 10 2.2.1 Consonantal Inventory .............................................................................. 10 2.2.2 Vowels ...................................................................................................... 10 2.3 The Burushaski Verb ............................................................................................ 11 2.3.1 Noun Classes ............................................................................................. 12 2.3.2 Case Marking ............................................................................................ 14 2.3.3 Pronominal Prefixes at Position -1 of the Verb Template ........................ 16 2.3.4 Variations in the Pronominal Prefixes at Position -1 of the Verbal Template ................................................................................................... 18 2.3.5 Dd-prefix Verbs ........................................................................................ 20 2.3.6 Previous Linguistic Research on the dd-Prefix Verb ................................ 21 CHAPTER 3 MIDDLE VOICE: LITERATURE REVIEW ....................................................... 25 3.1 Linguistic Research in the Middle Voice.............................................................. 25 3.2 Semantic Contexts of Middle Voice ..................................................................... 32 3.2.1 Middle Domains or Middle Situation types .............................................. 33 3.2.2 Middle Marking Systems .......................................................................... 36 CHAPTER 4 DD-PREFIX VERB FORMS AND THEIR SEMANTICS IN BURUSHASKI .. 39 4.1 The Corpus ............................................................................................................ 39 4.2 Classification of the dd-prefix Verbs .................................................................... 40 4.2.1 Bound Stem dd-prefix Verbs .................................................................... 40 iii 4.2.2 Inflectional dd-prefix Verbs ...................................................................... 43 4.2.3 Complex Predicate dd-prefix Verbs .......................................................... 44 4.2.4 The Lexical dd-initial Stem Verbs ............................................................ 50 4.2.5 Lexicalized dd-verbs ................................................................................. 51 4.3 The Semantic Domain of the Dd-prefix verb In Burushaski ................................ 52 4.3.1 Body Action Middles ................................................................................ 53 4.3.2 Indirect Situation Types ............................................................................ 56 4.3.3 Cognition Middle ...................................................................................... 57 4.3.4 Complex Mental Event ............................................................................. 60 4.3.5 Spontaneous Events .................................................................................. 61 CHAPTER 5 REFLEXIVES, RECIPROCALS AND MIDDLES IN BURUSHASKI .............. 64 5.1 Reflexives and Middles......................................................................................... 64 5.1.1 Case Marking with the Reflexive Marker ................................................. 66 5.2.2 Reflexive Verbs and Middles.................................................................... 67 5.2 Reciprocals and Middles ....................................................................................... 71 5.3 Conclusion ............................................................................................................ 73 CHAPTER 6 MIDDLE VOICE AND PASSIVE VOICE .......................................................... 74 6.1 Middle Voice and Passive Voice in Burushaski ................................................... 74 6.1.1 Marking Patterns for the Bound Stem dd-prefix Verbs and Passives ....... 78 6.1.2 Marking Pattern for Inflected dd-prefix Verb and Passive Voice ............ 79 6.3.1 Questions and Answers ......................................................................................... 81 REFERENCES ............................................................................................................................. 86 iv LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS 1 First person 2 Second person 3 Third person ABL Ablative (Case) ABS Absolutive (Case) ADJ Adjective C Countable Noun CAUS Causative COM Comitative CON Converb DAT Dative D Discrete Nouns, e.g. [ddan] ‘stone’ EMPH Emphatic ERG Ergative F (Human) Female GEN Genitive IMPER Imperative IPFV Imperfective (Aspect) INDF Indefinite (Article) INF Infinitive LOC Locative M (Human) Male v MM Middle-Voice Marker NEG Negation, Negative OBJ Object OPT Optative PASS Passive PFV Perfective PL Plural PRES Present PROG Progressive PST Past PTC Particle PTCP Participle Q Question (particle/marker) REFL Reflexive RECP Reciprocal SG Singular U Uncoutable vi CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION This thesis represents my understanding of the voice system in Burushaski, focusing especially on the middle voice (MV) construction. I claim that the [dd-] verbal prefix is an overt morphological middle marker for MV constructions, while the [n-] verbal prefix is a morphological marker for passive voice. My data primarily come from the Hunza dialect of Burushaski, but analogous phenomena can be observed in other dialects. The middle marker (MM) means the grammatical device used to “indicate that the two semantic roles of Initiator and Endpoint refer to a single holistic entity” (Kemmer 1993: 47). In the view of that definition, I look at a middle marked verb in Burushaski and illustration follows the example: I use 1GGh spelling exclusively for writing Burushaski here. 1. hiles dd-i-íl-imi boy MM-3SG-soak-3SGM ‘The boy drenched’. In (1), the semantic structure of the dd-prefix verb (middle voice morphology) takes two 2semantic macroroles: EFFECTOR and LOCUS. The suffix [-imi] on the dd-prefix verb 1 In May 2011, fellow linguist Tyler Utt and I devised a Roman Orthography we called GGh Girmiyar Ghattayar spelling or Spelling for reading and writing. In this orthography: there are five short vowels {a e i o u} pronounced as in Italian; long vowels are shown by double letters. The consonants {b d f g h j k l m n ng p r s t w y z} have roughly the same values as in English ({g} is always “hard” as in give). {c} represents a coronal affricates; its basic value is [ts]. {d t} are intermediate between alveolar and retroflex places of articulation, while {dd tt} represent dentals (n.b. not geminates). {gh} is a voiced velar fricative [ɣ]. {h} represents aspiration in {ch crh cyh kh ph th tth}. {q} is a voiceless uvular stop [q]. {r} represents retroflex articulation in {cr