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The Concept of Intentional Action in the Grammar of Kathmandu Newari

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THE CONCEPT OF INTENTIONAL ACTION IN THE GRAMMAR OF KATHMANDU NEWARI by DAVID J. HARGREAVES A DISSERTATION Presented to the Department of Linguistics and the Graduate School of the University of Oregon in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy August 1991 ii APPROVED: Dr. Scott DeLancey iii An Abstract of the Dissertation of David J. Hargreaves for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Linguistics to be taken August 1991 Title: THE CONCEPT OF INTENTIONAL ACTION IN THE GRAMMAR OF KATHMANDU NEWARI Approved: Dr. Scott DeLancey This study describes the relationship between the concept of intentional action and the grammatical organization of the clause in Kathmandu Newari, a Tibeto-Burman language spoken primarily in the Kathmandu valley of Nepal. In particular, the study focuses on the conceptual structure of "intentional action" along with the lexical, morphological, and syntactic reflexes of this notion in situated speech. The construal of intentional action consists of two distinct notions: one involving the concept of self-initiated force and the other involving mental representation or awareness. The distribution of finite inflectional forms for verbs results from the interaction of these two notions with a set of evidential/discourse principles which constrain the attribution of intentional action to certain discourse roles in situated interaction. iv VITA NAME OF AUTHOR: David J. Hargreaves PLACE OF BIRTH: Detroit, Michigan DATE OF BIRTH: March 10, 1955 GRADUATE AND UNDERGRADUATE SCHOOLS ATTENDED: University of Oregon Michigan State University DEGREES AWARDED: Doctor of Philosophy, 1991, University of Oregon Master of Arts, 1983, University of Oregon Bachelor of Arts, 1977, Michigan State University AREAS OF SPECIAL INTEREST: Syntax and Semantics Tibeto-Burman Historical Linguistics Cognition and Language Processing Discourse and Rhetoric Second Language Teaching PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE: Instructor, English Department, Eastern Oregon State College, La Grande, 1990-91 Instructor, Department of Linguistics, University of Oregon, 1990 Instructor, U.S.I.S., American English Language Institute, Kathmandu, Nepal, 1988-89 Teaching Assistant, Department of Linguistics, University of Oregon, Eugene, 1987-1988 Research Assistant, Psychology Department, University of Oregon, 1986-87 Instructor, American English Institute, University of Oregon, Eugene, 1986 Instructor, Northrop University Language Institute, Inglewood, California, 1985-86 Instructor, U.S.I.S., American English Language Institute, Kathmandu, Nepal, 1984-85 Instructor, Northrop University Language Institute, Inglewood, California, 1983-84 Teaching Assistant, Department of Linguistics, University of Oregon, Eugene, 1982-1983 PUBLICATIONS: Gernsbacher, M.A., and D. Hargreaves (1988) "Accessing Sentence Participants: the Advantage of First Mention," Journal of Memory and Language 27, 699-717. Gernsbacher, M.A., and D. Hargreaves (to appear) "The Privilege of Primacy: Experimental Data and Cognitive Explanations," in D. Payne, ed., The Pracpatics of Word Order Flexibilit y, , John Benjamins, Amsterdam. Gernsbacher, M.A., D. Hargreaves, and M. Beeman, (1989) "Building and Accessing Clausal Representations: the Advantage of First Mention Versus the Advantage of Clause Recency," Journal of Memory and Language 28, 735- 765. Hargreaves, D. (1983) "Evidentiality in Newari," Paper presented to the 16th ICSTLL, Seattle, Washington. Hargreaves, D. (1984) "Case Marking and Nominalization in Classical Newari," Paper presented to the 17th ICSTLL, Eugene, Oregon. Hargreaves, D. (1986a) "Independent Verbs and Auxiliary Functions in Newari," Berkeley Linguistics Society 12, 401-412. Hargreaves, D. (1986b) "Interacting coding systems in a Newari oral narrative," Pacific Linguistics Conference 2, 187-202. University of Oregon, Eugene. Hargreaves, D. (1988) "Literature as Looking-Glass: Review of Halasz (1987), Literary Discourse: Aspects of Cognitive and Social Psychological Approaches," in Contemporary Psychology 33:9, 818-19. Hargreaves, D. (1989) "Relative Clauses in Late Classical and Kathmandu Newari," Paper presented to the 17th ICSTLL, Honolulu, Hawaii. vi Hargreaves, D. (1990) "Indexical Functions and Grammatical Subsystems in Kathmandu Newari," Chicago Linguistic Society 26. Hargreaves, D. (to appear) "The Conceptual Structure of Intentional Action: Data from Kathmandu Newari," Berkeley Linguistic Society 17. Hargreaves, D. and M.A. Gernsbacher (1990) Functional Approaches to Sentence Production: Review of Shridhar (1988), Cognition and Sentence Production: a Cross- Linguistic Study, in American Journal of Psychology 103.3, 418-424. Hargreaves, D., M. Lamon t and V. Ramsay (1982) Two Aspects of Classroom Discourse in ESL. Paper presented to the Conference for Oregon Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (ORTESOL), Portland, Oregon. Hargreaves, D. and K. Tamot (1985) "Notes on the History of Some Newari Verbs: Preliminary Evidence," Paper presented to the 18th ICSTLL, Bangkok, Thailand. vii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First, I want to thank my friends in Kathmandu for their encouragement, patience, and good humor as I was learning Newari: Gita Manandhar, Ratna Lal Manandhar, Keshab Karmacharya, Syam Mahajan, Pradip Malla, Chandra Man Shrestha, Madhan Shrestha, Rajendra Shrestha, Ram Hari Shrestha, Suresh Shakya, and Sudersan Suwal. I also want to thank several Newar scholars who were kind enough to discuss their scholarship and share their insights with me during my times in Kathmandu: Dr. T.R. Kanskar, Dr. K.P Malla, and Mr. K. Tamot. In Eugene, my work on Newari would have been impossible without the initial encouragement of Mr. Harsha Dhaubadhel, and later the invaluable insights of Manoj Kanskar, Sunil Nepali, and Daya Ratna Shakya. My understanding of Newari grammar has also benefitted immensely from discussions with Dr. Carol Genetti. My graduate studies at Oregon would have been severely impoverished were it not for the personal and intellectual dynamism of Dr. Morton Gernsbacher and Dr. Talmy GivOn. I also want to thank my committee members, Dr. Colette Craig, Dr. Marjorie Taylor, and Dr. Russell Tomlin, who provided critical suggestions during various stages of my dissertation. The research project itself would have been impossible without the unfailing support, both intellectual and moral, of my advisor, Dr. Scott DeLancey. My research owes much to his groundbreaking work on the syntax and semantics of Lhasa Tibetan. viii Finally, I want to thank my parents, Barrett and Jean Hargreaves, and my dear friend Robin Silver, for the unconditional love that helps keep it all in perspective. ix TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter Page I. INTRODUCTION 1 Grammar and Cognitive/Perceptual Categories 1 Grammar and Social/Cognitive Categories 2 The Concept of Intentionality 4 Agency and Transitivity 5 The Functional Autonomy of the Concept "Intentional Action" 8 The Other Intentionality 11 Goals of This Study 14 Outline of This Study 15 Notes 24 II. THE DISTRIBUTION OF INFLECTIONAL FORMS 25 Verb Inflection 26 Inflection in Simple Finite Clauses 27 Declarative Clauses 27 Declaratives vs. Interrogatives 31 Reported Speech 34 Attributive Clauses and Nominalizations 35 Nominalizations 38 Verb-Auxiliary Constructions 40 Infinitive Constructions ten- get ready/be ready 43 Summary: The Distribution of Inflectional Forms 45 Intentional Action and Epistemic Source 46 Notes 50 III. GRAMMATICAL REFLEXES OF THE CONCEPT "INTENTIONAL ACTION" 53 Verb Classes 55 Control Verbs 55 Fluid Verbs 59 Non-Control Verbs 63 Summary of Verb Classes 64 ya(t)- do and ju (1)- become as Verbal Pro-forms 66 Intentional Action and "Premeditation" 70 Intentional Action and "Awareness" 77 Summary 82 Notes 84 IV. THE CONCEPTUAL STRUCTURE OF INTENTIONAL ACTION 85 On Intentional Action 85 Philosophical Psychology 86 The Childs Concept of Intention 92 Intention and Semantic Representations 96 The Semantic Representation of Intention in Newari 106 The Lexical Structure of Control Verbs 108 The Lexical Structure of Fluid Verbs 111 The Lexical Structure of Non-Control Verbs 116 Summary: Verb Types and Inflection 116 Notes 119 V. CASE 121 Newari Case Marking 124 Core Case and the Source>Goal Schema 125 The Abstract Category of Source: -n0 125 The Abstract Category of Gaol: -(ya)t0 126 Summary: Source: -n0 and Goal: -(va)t0 127 Case, Valency, and Verb Types 130 Single Argument Verbs 130 Two Argument Dative Verbs 133 Ergative Case and Control Verbs 133 Ergative Case with Fluid and Non-Control Verbs 136 Summary: Conceptual Structure and the Morphosyntax 138 Control Verbs 139 Non-Control Verbs 140 The Problem of Ergative Non-Control Verbs 142 Verbs Assigning Ergative Case 143 Verbs Assigning Dative Case 144 Notes 145 IV. CAUSATIVES AND LEXICAL STRUCTURE 146 Reflexes of the PTB Causative Prefix s-. 146 The Causative Suffix -k01-/-k- 148 Effective Causatives 148 Affective Causatives 151 The Argument Structure of Causatives 155 The Semantic Basis for Affective Causative Structure 163 Distinguishing Fluid Verbs from Affective Verbs 171 Notes 174 xi V. ASPECT/MODALITY VERBS 175 Modal/Aspectual Verbs 177 ten- get ready/be ready 179 te(1)- time to/obliged to 181 dhun- finish/be finished 190 Summary: Formal Distinctions and Function Parallels 195 Formal Distinctions 195 Functional Parallels 197 Notes 198 VI. CONCLUSION
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