The Case for Fewer Cases in Pre-Chukotko-Kamchatkan: Grammaticalization and Semantics in Internal Reconstruction" (2011)
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Studies on Language Change. Working Papers in Linguistics No. 34
DOCUMENT RESUME ED 286 382 FL 016 932 AUTHOR Joseph, Brian D., Ed. TITLE Studies on Language Change. Working Papers in Linguistics No. 34. INSTITUTION Ohio State Univ., Columbus. Dept. of Linguistics. PUB DATE Dec 86 NOTE 171p. PUB TYPE Reports - Evaluative/Feasibility (142) -- Collected Works - General (020) EDRS PRICE MF01/PC07 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS Arabic; Diachronic Linguistics; Dialects; *Diglossia; English; Estonian; *Etymology; Finnish; Foreign Countries; Language Variation; Linguistic Borrowing; *Linguistic Theory; *Morphemes; *Morphology (Languages); Old English; Sanskrit; Sociolinguistics; Syntax; *Uncommonly Taught Languages; Word Frequency IDENTIFIERS Saame ABSTRACT A collection of papers relevant to historical linguistics and description and explanation of language change includes: "Decliticization and Deaffixation in Saame: Abessive 'taga'" (Joel A. Nevis); "Decliticization in Old Estonian" (Joel A. Nevis); "On Automatic and Simultaneous Syntactic Changes" (Brian D. Joseph); "Loss of Nominal Case Endings in the Modern Arabic Sedentary Dialects" (Ann M. Miller); "One Rule or Many? Sanskrit Reduplication as Fragmented Affixation" (Richard D. Janda, Brian D. Joseph); "Fragmentation of Strong Verb Ablaut in Old English" (Keith Johnson); "The Etymology of 'bum': Mere Child's Play" (Mary E. Clark, Brian D. Joseph); "Small Group Lexical Innovation: Some Examples" (Christopher Kupec); "Word Frequency and Dialect Borrowing" (Debra A. Stollenwerk); "Introspection into a Stable Case of Variation in Finnish" (Riitta Valimaa-Blum); -
287374128.Pdf
This is the accepted manuscript of the article, which has been published in Kittilä S., Västi K., Ylikoski J. (eds.) Case, Animacy and Semantic Roles. Typological Studies in Language, 99. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 2011. ISBN 978-90-272-0680-0. https://doi.org/10.1075/tsl.99 Is there a future for the Finnish comitative? Arguments against the putative synonymy of the comitative case -ine and the postposition kanssa Maija Sirola-Belliard University of Tampere 1. Introduction The core meaning of the comitative is Accompaniment, although cross- linguistically the same form can also be used for encoding Instrument or Possession, for example. The comitative is prototypically used to combine two nominal phrases which represent two human participants in a situation where one is accompanying the other. This relationship is not symmetrical: one of the participants in the situation is the main actor, so called accompanee, while the other, the companion, is more marginal and can be involved in the action only indirectly, i.e. through the accompanee. (Stolz et al. 2006: 5; 2009: 602f.) Across languages, Accompaniment can be expressed by adpositions, case affixes and serial constructions, among other means (Stolz et al. 2009: 602f.). In Finnish, the principal means are an inflectional case and several postpositions governing the genitive case. The comitative case marker is -ine, which, when 1 attached to a noun, is obligatorily followed by a possessive suffix that refers (in most cases) to the accompanee. The case marker is formally a plural since the plural marker -i- has been grammaticalized as a part of the affix. -
The Strategy of Case-Marking
Case marking strategies Helen de Hoop & Andrej Malchukov1 Radboud University Nijmegen DRAFT January 2006 Abstract Two strategies of case marking in natural languages are discussed. These are defined as two violable constraints whose effects are shown to converge in the case of differential object marking but diverge in the case of differential subject marking. The strength of the case bearing arguments will be shown to be of utmost importance for case marking as well as voice alternations. The strength of arguments can be viewed as a function of their discourse prominence. The analysis of the case marking patterns we find cross-linguistically is couched in a bidirectional OT analysis. 1. Assumptions In this section we wish to put forward our three basic assumptions: (1) In ergative-absolutive systems ergative case is assigned to the first argument x of a two-place relation R(x,y). (2) In nominative-accusative systems accusative case is assigned to the second argument y of a two-place relation R(x,y). (3) Morphologically unmarked case can be the absence of case. The first two assumptions deal with the linking between the first (highest) and second (lowest) argument in a transitive sentence and the type of case marking. For reasons of convenience, we will refer to these arguments quite sloppily as the subject and the object respectively, although we are aware of the fact that the labels subject and object may not be appropriate in all contexts, dependent on how they are actually defined. In many languages, ergative and accusative case are assigned only or mainly in transitive sentences, while in intransitive sentences ergative and accusative case are usually not assigned. -
The Subject of the Estonian Des-Converb1
Helen Plado The Subject of the Estonian des-converb1 Abstract The Estonian des-construction is used as both an implicit-subject and an explicit-subject converb. This article concentrates on the subjects of both and also compares them. In the case of implicit-subject converbs, it is argued that not only the (semantic) subject of the superordinate clause can control the implicit subject of the des-converb, but also the most salient participant (which can sometimes even be the undergoer) of the superordinate clause. The article also discusses under which conditions the undergoer of the superordinate clause can control the implicit subject of the converb. In the case of explicit-subject converbs it is demonstrated which subjects tend to be explicitly present in the des-converb and which are the main properties of the structure and usage of explicit-subject des-converbs. 1. Background A converb is described as a “verb form which depends syntactically on another verb form, but is not its syntactic actant” (Nedjalkov 1995: 97) and as “a nonfinite verb form whose main function is to mark adverbial subordination” (Haspelmath 1995: 3). The Estonian des-form is a non- finite verb form that cannot be the main verb of a sentence. It acts as an adjunct and delivers some adverbial meaning. Hence, the Estonian des- form is a typical converb. One of the main questions in the discussion about converbs is the subject of the converb, consisting of two issues: whether the subject is explicitly present in the converb and if not, then what controls the (implicit) 1 I thank Marja-Liisa Helasvuo, Liina Lindström, and two anonymous reviewers for their highly valuable comments and suggestions. -
A Crosslinguistic Approach to Double Nominative and Biabsolutive Constructions
A Crosslinguistic Approach to Double Nominative and Biabsolutive Constructions: Evidence from Korean and Daghestanian∗ Andrei Antonenko1 and Jisung Sun2 Stony Brook University1,2 1. Introduction Distribution of case among distinct grammatical relations is one of the most frequently studied topics in the syntactic theory. Canonical cases are, in accusative languages, subjects of both intransitive and transitive verbs being nominative, while direct objects of transitive verbs are usually marked accusative. In ergative languages, subjects of intransitive verbs share properties with direct objects of transitive verbs, and are marked absolutive. Subjects of transitive verbs are usually ergative. When you look into world languages, however, there are ‘non-canonical’ case patterns too. Probably the most extreme kind of non-canonical case system would be so-called Quirky Subject constructions in Icelandic (see Sigurðsson 2002). This paper concerns constructions, in which two nominals are identically case-marked in a clause, as observed in Korean and Daghestanian languages. Daghestanian languages belong to Nakh-Daghestanian branch of North Caucasian family. Nakh-Daghestanian languages are informally divided into Nakh languages, such as Chechen and Ingush, spoken in Chechnya and the Republic of Ingushetia, respectively; and Daghestanian languages, spoken in the Republic of Daghestan. Those regions are located in the Caucasian part of Russian Federation. Some Daghestanian languages are also spoken in Azerbaijan and Georgia. This study focuses on Daghestanian languages, such as Archi, Avar, Dargwa, Hinuq, Khwarshi, Lak and Tsez, due to similar behaviors of them with respect to the described phenomenon. 2. Ergativity in Daghestanian Aldridge (2004) proposes that there are two types of syntactically ergative languages, based on which argument is performing functions typical for subjects. -
Dative (First) Complements in Basque
Dative (first) complements in Basque BEATRIZ FERNÁNDEZ JON ORTIZ DE URBINA Abstract This article examines dative complements of unergative verbs in Basque, i.e., dative arguments of morphologically “transitive” verbs, which, unlike ditransitives, do not co-occur with a canonical object complement. We will claim that such arguments fall under two different types, each of which involves a different type of non-structural licensing of the dative case. The presence of two different types of dative case in these constructions is correlated with the two different types of complement case alternations which many of these predicates exhibit, so that alternation patterns will provide us with clues to identify different sources for the dative marking. In particular, we will examine datives alternating with absolutives (i.e., with the regular object structural case in an ergative language) and datives alternating with postpositional phrases. We will first examine an approach to the former which relies on current proposals that identify a low applicative head as case licenser. Such approach, while accounting for the dative case, raises a number of issues with respect to the absolutive variant. As for datives alternating with postpositional phrases, we claim that they are lexically licensed by the lower verbal head V. Keywords Dative, conflation, lexical case, inherent case, case alternations 1. Preliminaries: bivalent unergatives Bivalent unergatives, i.e., unergatives with a dative complement, have remained largely ignored in traditional Basque studies, perhaps due to the Journal of Portuguese Linguistics, 11-1 (2012), 83-98 ISSN 1645-4537 84 Beatriz Fernández & Jon Ortiz de Urbina identity of their morphological patterns of case marking and agreement with those of ditransitive configurations. -
The Ongoing Eclipse of Possessive Suffixes in North Saami
Te ongoing eclipse of possessive sufxes in North Saami A case study in reduction of morphological complexity Laura A. Janda & Lene Antonsen UiT Te Arctic University of Norway North Saami is replacing the use of possessive sufxes on nouns with a morphologically simpler analytic construction. Our data (>2K examples culled from >.5M words) track this change through three generations, covering parameters of semantics, syntax and geography. Intense contact pressure on this minority language probably promotes morphological simplifcation, yielding an advantage for the innovative construction. Te innovative construction is additionally advantaged because it has a wider syntactic and semantic range and is indispensable, whereas its competitor can always be replaced. Te one environment where the possessive sufx is most strongly retained even in the youngest generation is in the Nominative singular case, and here we fnd evidence that the possessive sufx is being reinterpreted as a Vocative case marker. Keywords: North Saami; possessive sufx; morphological simplifcation; vocative; language contact; minority language 1. Te linguistic landscape of North Saami1 North Saami is a Uralic language spoken by approximately 20,000 people spread across a large area in northern parts of Norway, Sweden and Finland. North Saami is in a unique situation as the only minority language in Europe under intense pressure from majority languages from two diferent language families, namely Finnish (Uralic) in the east and Norwegian and Swedish (Indo-European 1. Tis research was supported in part by grant 22506 from the Norwegian Research Council. Te authors would also like to thank their employer, UiT Te Arctic University of Norway, for support of their research. -
A Grammar of Tundra Nenets Mouton Grammar Library
Irina Nikolaeva A Grammar of Tundra Nenets Mouton Grammar Library Edited by Georg Bossong Bernard Comrie Matthew Dryer Patience L. Epps Volume 65 Irina Nikolaeva A Grammar of Tundra Nenets ISBN 978-3-11-032047-3 e-ISBN 978-3-11-032064-0 ISSN 0933-7636 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A CIP catalog record for this book has been applied for at the Library of Congress. Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data are available in the Internet at http://dnb.dnb.de. 6 2014 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston Typesetting: RoyalStandard, Hong Kong Printing and binding: CPI buch bücher.de GmbH, Birkach ♾ Printed on acid-free paper Printed in Germany www.degruyter.com Acknowledgment This grammar is the result of many years of cooperation with members of the Tundra Nenets community, whose linguistic intuitions, passion for language, and, last but not least, extraordinary patience in dealing with me made it all possible. I am greatly indebted to all of you. Ңули” сава! I owe a great debt of gratitude to the colleagues with whom I have had the opportunity to work and discuss various intriguing aspects of Tundra Nenets grammar, especially to Farrell Ackerman, Larisa Leisiö and Tapani Salminen. I really miss our joint elicitation sessions; it was a lot of fun! Tapani Salminen was the first to intro- duce me to the language, and his own work on Tundra Nenets has always been a source of inspiration for me. I also thank Tapani and Larisa for their assistance in the practical aspects of my fieldwork. -
THE SUN, the MOON and FIRMAMENT in CHUKCHI MYTHOLOGY and on the RELATIONS of CELESTIAL BODIES and SACRIFICE Ülo Siimets
THE SUN, THE MOON AND FIRMAMENT IN CHUKCHI MYTHOLOGY AND ON THE RELATIONS OF CELESTIAL BODIES AND SACRIFICE Ülo Siimets Abstract This article gives a brief overview of the most common Chukchi myths, notions and beliefs related to celestial bodies at the end of the 19th and during the 20th century. The firmament of Chukchi world view is connected with their main source of subsistence – reindeer herding. Chukchis are one of the very few Siberian indigenous people who have preserved their religion. Similarly to many other nations, the peoples of the Far North as well as Chukchis personify the Sun, the Moon and stars. The article also points out the similarities between Chukchi notions and these of other peoples. Till now Chukchi reindeer herders seek the supposed help or influence of a constellation or planet when making important sacrifices (for example, offering sacrifices in a full moon). According to the Chukchi religion the most important celestial character is the Sun. It is spoken of as an individual being (vaúrgún). In addition to the Sun, the Creator, Dawn, Zenith, Midday and the North Star also belong to the ranks of special (superior) beings. The Moon in Chukchi mythology is a man and a being in one person. It is as the ketlja (evil spirit) of the Sun. Chukchi myths about several stars (such as the North Star and Betelgeuse) resemble to a great extent these of other peoples. Keywords: astral mythology, the Moon, sacrifices, reindeer herding, the Sun, celestial bodies, Chukchi religion, constellations. The interdependence of the Earth and celestial as well as weather phenomena has a special meaning for mankind for it is the co-exist- ence of the Sun and Moon, day and night, wind, rainfall and soil that creates life and warmth and provides the daily bread. -
Lesson 7 | Ntgreek in Session
Second Declension Nouns (Module B) Feminine and Neuter Nouns 7 Morphology: The Nominal System (Part 2) Overview 7.0 Introduction, 7-1 7.1 Second Declension Feminine Nouns, 7-2 7.2 Second Declension Neuter Nouns, 7-7 7.3 Second Declension Paradigm Overview, 7-13 7.4 Review of Second Declension Nouns, 7-14 7.5 Flow Chart For Second Declension Nouns, 7-21 7.6 NTGreek Language Study Tools, 7-22 7.7 Vocabulary Study, 7-23 Study Guide, 7-25 7.0 Introduction The acquisition of a new language is difficult. This difficulty is compounded if it is not heard and spoken on a regular basis. Because of these special challenges, it will take repeated exposures to new elements of NTGreek grammar before it is understood. Make no mistake about it; acquiring a new language and the skills required is a daunting task! Any grammar positing anything different is selling something. Many enthusiastic students soon realize they are swimming—if not perhaps drowning—in information. Out of frustration, they blame themselves and think they are not intelligent enough or too old to tackle Greek. What they do not realize is that this is the natural learning process. Babies are at first engulfed in a sea of meaningless noise before they gradually learn to detect and recognize meaningful sounds as words. Instead of frustration, the proper response is to continue to be enthusiastic and inquisitive about what you are learning just like a child! © 1996 – 2014 by William Ramey The Nominal System (Part 2) NTGreek In Session Lesson 7: The Second Declension (Module B) 7-2 Feminine and Neuter Nouns ________________________________________________________________ Those studying NTGreek on their own may become unsure what they are learning, especially when there is no authoritative source in their immediate vicinity to ask questions and gain needed reassurance that they are on the right path. -
Vowel Harmony in Two Even Dialects Dialects
400 220 Natalia Aralova Natalia Aralova Natalia Aralova Vowel harmony in two Even Vowel harmony in two Even dialects dialects Production and perception Production and perception This dissertation analyzes vowel systems in two dialects of Even, an endangered Northern Tungusic language spoken in Eastern Siberia. The data were collected during fieldwork in the Bystraia district of Central Kamchatka and in the village of Sebian-Küöl in Yakutia. The focus of the study is the Even system of vowel harmony, which in previous literature has been assumed to be robust. The central question concerns the number of vowel oppositions and the nature of the feature underlying the opposition between harmonic sets. The results of an acoustic study show a consistent pattern for only one acoustic parameter, namely F1, which can harmony in two Even dialects Vowel be phonologically interpreted as a feature [±height]. This acoustic study is supplemented by perception experiments. The results of the latter suggest that perceptually there is no harmonic opposition for high vowels, i.e., the harmonic pairs of high vowels have merged. Moreover, in the dialect of the Bystraia district certain consonants function as perceptual cues for the harmonic set of a word. In other words, the Bystraia Even harmony system, which was previously based on vowels, is being transformed into new oppositions among consonants. ISBN 978-94-6093-180-2 Vowel harmony in two Even dialects: Production and perception Published by LOT phone: +31 30 253 6111 Trans 10 3512 JK Utrecht e-mail: [email protected] The Netherlands http://www.lotschool.nl Cover illustration: Even reindeer herder Anatoly Afanasyevich Solodikov, Central Kamchatka. -
322-3-Cultural Identity in Russia
CS 322 Peoples and Cultures of the Circumpolar World II Module 3 Changes in Expressions of Cultural Identity in Northwest Russia, Siberia and the Far East Contents Course objectives 1 Introduction 2 Indigenous and non-indigenous northern identities 4 The impact of media on indigenous peoples 7 Expression of identity and self-determination through media 9 Expression of identity and self-determination through literary and visual arts 12 Family, education and recreation as social institutions for self-determination 16 Indigenous families: the impact of assimilation processes 18 Education systems: indigenous concerns vs. educational practices 19 Recreation 22 Glossary of terms 23 Literature 24 Course objectives Whereas the changes in expressions of cultural identity in the North American Arctic was the main topic of the previous module, this module discusses the changes in expressions of cultural self-determination of the indigenous peoples of the Russian Arctic; often described as Northwest Russia, Siberia and the Russian Far East.1 Complex issues in relation to culture, identity and self-determination were discussed in detail in the first module of this course, which could be seen as an introduction to explain the theoretical background which 1 The Russian Far Eastern Federal District includes all the areas from Vladivostok and Primorskiy Krai right up through Khabarovsk, Amur, Sakha, Magadan, Kamchatka before reaching Chukotka in the north (Sakhalin and Kamchatka further east are included as well). University of the Arctic – CS 322 1 CS 322 Peoples and Cultures of the Circumpolar World II subsequently will be applied in this, the previous and the next module where the case studies of the different regions will be discussed.