The POSS-Final Suffix Order in Dagur∗

The POSS-Final Sufﬁx Order in Dagur Gong

The POSS-Final Sufﬁx Order in Dagur∗ 2 Background on Dagur • Dagur is an endangered Mongolic language of northern China spoken by about 132,000 people Mia Zhiyu Gong, Cornell University with 24,300 monolinguals (Ethnologue 2019). [email protected] • There are four (mutually-intelligible) dialects of Dagur: Buteha, Qiqihar, Hailar, and Ili/Xinjiang.

The 50th Annual Meeting of the North East Linguistic Society • The data in this paper comes from Buteha and Hailar dialects. October 26, 2019 2.1 Background on Dagur Nominal Morphology ...... • The head noun can be followed by three types of suffixes (in this order): PL, CASE, POSS. 1 Introduction j • This talk: (2) Merden (minii) guˇc -sul -d -min ˇašGen ši -sen Merden 1S.GEN friend -PL -DAT -1S.POSS letter write -PST ⊲ Dagur possessive constructions ‘Merden wrote a letter/letters to my friends’ ⊲ The stem-CASE-POSS (POSS-final) order as in (1)1 (1) Merden (maanii) guˇc -d -maan j ˇašGen ši -san • The basic possessive morphology in Dagur is illustrated with (3): Merden 1PL.GEN friend -DAT -1PL.POSS letter write -PST (3) a. (minii) biteG -min j b. *minii biteG ‘Merden wrote a letter to our friend’ 1S.GEN book -1S.POSS • In (1) ‘my book’ ⊲ The DP our friend is marked for dative case ⊲ There is person and number agreement between the possessor (marked as genitive case) and the ⊲ The dative marker precedes the 1PL.POSS suffix possessive (POSS) suffix. ⊲ • All (attested) case and POSS suffix in all person-number combination follow this order 2. The prenominal genitive possessor is optional. ⊲ The POSS suffix is obligatory. • Analysis for the POSS-final order in (1), based on the behavior of coordinated DPs under suspended affixation: 2.2 The POSS-final order ⊲ Suspended affixation is base-generated, i.e., a “low coordination” structure in which the sus- • When the possessive construction is marked for case, CASE suffix precedes POSS suffix. The pended affix attaches to the entire coordinate phrase in Dagur, and should not be analyzed as reversed order is ungrammatical. ellipsis. ⊲ The surface order is due to a postsyntactic Lowering operation (Embick and Noyer 2001), which (4) a. Šii (minii) biteG -ii -min j uˇ -sen -ši lowers K0 to adjoin to D0. you.NOM 1S.GEN book -ACC -1S.POSS look -PST -2S ‘You read my book’ • The rest of the talk is organized as follows: b. *Šii (minii) biteG -min j -ii uˇ -sen -ši §2 Background on Dagur you.NOM 1S.GEN book -1S.POSS -ACC look -PST -2S §3 Dagur possessive constructions under suspended affixation §4 A Lowering + low coordination analysis • The systematic POSS-final order contrasts with the more common stem-POSS-CASE (CASE-final) §5 Summary order in e.g., Turkish:

(5) Turkish ∗I thank the Dagur speakers whom I have had the opportunity to work with in Morin Dawa, Hailar, and Hohhot. I also thank Miloje Despic,´ John Whitman, Sarah Murray, and friends and colleagues at Cornell Linguistics for their valuable a. Kitab -ım -ı oku -du -n feedback. Fieldwork for this project was funded by the East Asia Program Research Travel Grant and the Mario Einaudi book -1S.POSS -ACC read -PST -2S Center International Research Travel Grant at Cornell University. Unless otherwise cited, all data comes from the author’s ‘You read my book’ ﬁeldwork. Any error is the author’s responsibility. 1Abbreviations used in the gloss are as follows: 1/2/3 -ﬁrst/second/third person, ACC -accusative case, CONJ - b. *Kitab -ı -(ı)m oku -du -n conjunction, DAT -dative, GEN -genitive case, LOC -locative, NOM -nominative, PL -plural, POSS -possessive, PST -past book -ACC -1S.POSS read -PST -2S tense, S -singular 2See Appendix A.

2 The POSS-Final Sufﬁx Order in Dagur Gong The POSS-Final Sufﬁx Order in Dagur Gong

• Other languages or language families in which some variants of the POSS-ﬁnal order is attested: • There are two types of analysis for suspended afﬁxation:

⊲ Finnish (Pierrehumbert 1980), Mari (Guseva and Weisser 2018; McFadden 2004), Mordvin (McFadden (8) ellipsis analysis 2002, 2004), (proto-)Uralic in general (Nichols 1973), Mangghuer (Slater 2005), Evenki (Nedjalkov [[ A -suffixes ] & [ B -suffixes ]] 2014), etc. (9) low coordination analysis • Next, I present further data on the POSS-final order in Dagur and propose an analysis to account [ A&B ] -suffixes for such order. (10) Distribution of suspended affixation in Dagur nominal conjunction3 3 Dagur possessive constructions under suspended affixation (Recall from (2) that the canonical suffix order is stem-PL-CASE-POSS)

• Previous morphological analyses proposed for POSS-final order a. N-PL & N-PL b. N-POSS & N-POSS ⊲ McFadden (2004): hierarchical operation (Lowering) c. N-CASE & N-CASE ⊲ Guseva and Weisser (2018): linear operation (metathesis) d. N-PL-CASE & N-PL-CASE e. N-PL-CASE & N-PL-CASE • Approach to investigating the POSS-final order – suspended affixation f. * N-PL-CASE & N-PL-CASE ⊲ Suffixes exhibit various morphological patterns under suspended affixation g. N-PL-POSS & N-PL-POSS ⊲ Provides clues to the underlying structure h. N-PL-POSS & N-PL-POSS i. * N-PL-POSS & N-PL-POSS ⊲ e.g., Guseva and Weisser (2018) on Mari j. ??/* N(-PL)-CASE-POSS & N(-PL)-CASE-POSS Dagur exhibits different properties from Mari under suspended affixation k. * N(-PL)-CASE-POSS & N(-PL)-CASE-POSS Guseva and Weisser (2018)’s metathesis analysis for Mari cannot be extended to Dagur. See l. N(-PL)-CASE-POSS & N(-PL)-CASE-POSS Appendix B for discussion. m.* N-PL-CASE-POSS & N-PL-CASE-POSS n. * N-PL-CASE-POSS & N-PL-CASE-POSS 3.1 Background on suspended affixation in Dagur

• Suspended affixation: one grammatical ending serves two or more parallel words (Lewis 1967). • Dagur suspended affixation generally observes the right edge condition (REC) • Two types of coordination/conjunction: with or without an overt coordinator (11) The right edge condition (REC): • Both types allow suspended affixation. The elements omitted due to suspended affixation must be at the right edge of the non-final conjuncts. (6) with an overt coordinator • ... with one exception: suspending POSS while preserving CASE degrades the grammaticality (10j). [seb boloor šeb j -sul] ir -sen teacher CONJ student -PL come -PST 3.2 Dagur suspended affixation is low coordination, not ellipsis ‘teachers and students came’ • I argue that Dagur suspended affixation should be analyzed as low coordination, not ellipsis: *‘a teacher, and students came’ (12) [ XP1 & XP2 ] -suffix1-suffix2-suffix3 (7) without a coordinator 3.2.1 Suspending 3S.POSS suffix -inj in definite environments [gungren, tareeˇcin, seb, šeb j -sul] ir -sen worker, farmer, teacher, student -PL come -PST • In possessive constructions, the POSS suffix can be freely suspended:

‘workers, farmers, teachers, and students came’ (13) [tereG, mori -min j] (14) Merden -ii [xukur boloor mori -in j] *‘a worker, a farmer, a teacher, and students came’ vehicle horse -1S.POSS Merden -3S.GEN ox CONJ horse -3S.POSS ‘my vehicle and (my) horse’ ‘Merden’s ox and (Merden’s) horse’

3See Appendix C for selected examples.

3 4 The POSS-Final Sufﬁx Order in Dagur Gong The POSS-Final Sufﬁx Order in Dagur Gong

• Non-possessive usage of 3S.POSS suffix -in j: (anaphoric) definite environment (19) pii boloor ˇcas pen CONJ paper ⊲ The 3S.POSS suffix -in j often appears with anaphoric definite DPs, with no possessive interpre- ‘pen and paper’ tation. (20) a. Merden seb beitleen tašikui daa (15) a. Udiš nek biteG1 au -sen -bi. ... Merden teacher CONJ principal yesterday one book buy -PST -1SG. ‘Merden is a teacher and a principal’ ‘Yesterday I bought a book.... b. ene ger engel beitleen geGeeken j b. ...Merden [biteG1 -ii -in ] uˇ -sen this room spacious CONJ bright Merden book -ACC -3S.POSS look -PST ‘this room is spacious and bright’ ‘...Merden read the book.’ c. pinguee -ii id -sen beitleen moil -ii (baa) id -sen -bi c. ...Merden [biteG (-ii)] uˇ -sen apple -ACC eat -PST CONJ hackberry -ACC also eat -PST -1S Merden book (-ACC) look -PST ‘I ate apple and (also) ate hackberry’ ‘...Merden read (a) book.’ • The 3S.POSS suffix -in j turns an adjective into an argumental DP • Ellipsis analysis predicts that [stem-POSS & stem-POSS] is allowed regardless of the meaning of POSS (21) a. nek xulaan pinguee ⊲ Example (16b) shows a coordination of two definite nouns followed by -in j one red apple ‘a red apple’ (16) a. Udiš xukur1 aol -d iˇci -sen. Mori2 hudee -d iˇci -sen. ... b. xulaan -in j yesterday ox mountain -DAT go -PST. horse grassland -DAT go -PST. red -3S.POSS ‘Yesterday, the ox went to the mountain. The horse went to the grassland.’ ‘the red one’ j j b. ...Ene udur, [xukur1 -in , mori2 -in ] xaˇir -sen c. xulaan -ii -in j id -sen -bi this day ox -3S.POSS horse -3S.POSS return -PST red -ACC -3S.POSS eat -PST -1S ‘Today, the ox and the horse returned. ’ ‘I ate the red one’ ⊲ For some speakers, suspending -in j on the first conjunct in (16b) is ungrammatical: d. *xulaan -ii id -sen -bi red -ACC eat -PST -1S (17) %...Ene udur, [xukur , mori -in j] xaˇir -sen 1 2 Int.‘I ate the red one’ this day ox horse -3S.POSS return -PST ‘Today, the ox and the horse returned. ’ • A [ AP-in j & AP-in j ] coordination requires argument coordinator boloor, not predicate coordina- ⊲ However, the same speakers allow suspended affixation of regular possessive suffix. tor beitleen (22a)-(22b). a. stem-in j & stem-in j ✓ regular possessive 4 • However, suspending 3S.POSS suffix on the first conjunct requires the predicate coordinator (22c), b. stem-in j & stem-in j ✓ (18) and is ungrammatical with the argument coordinator (22d). c. stem-in j & stem-in j ✓ -in j as “definite marker” d. stem-in j & stem-in j % (22) [ context: there are many apples on the table ] • The pattern in (18) is unexpected under the ellipsis analysis a. xiG -ii -n j boloor xulaan -ii -n j id -sen -bi big -ACC -3S.POSS CONJ red -ACC -3S.POSS eat -PST -1S 3.2.2 Interaction between suspended affixation and different types of coordinate structures ‘I ate the big one and the red one’ • In Dagur there are two types of coordinators: b. *xiG -ii -n j beitleen xulaan -ii -n j id -sen -bi c. xi beitleen xulaan -ii -n j id -sen -bi ⊲ boloor conjoins argumental DPs (19) G big CONJ red -ACC -3S.POSS eat -PST -1S ⊲ beitleen conjoins predicates (20) ‘I ate the one that is big and red’ *‘I ate the big one and the red one.’ 4Note that the representation in (18a-b) is a simplification. Overt possessor is often required for 3S.POSS suffixes in j possessive constructions. d. *xiG boloor xulaan -ii -n id -sen -bi

5 6 The POSS-Final Sufﬁx Order in Dagur Gong The POSS-Final Sufﬁx Order in Dagur Gong

• When there is no suspended afﬁxation, boloor is required, indicating that it is argument coordina- • The Lowering operation unites syntactic terminals which are phonologically spelled together but tion. not joined in overt syntax: the head X0 lowers to Y0, the head of its complement.

• When there is suspended affixation, the predicate coordinator beitleen is required, and is ungram- (26) Lowering of X0 to Y0 matical with the argument coordinator. 0 0 0 0 [XPX ...[YP...Y ...]] −→ [XP...[YP...Y + X ...]] • If suspended affixation is ellipsis, the suspended construction should be underlyingly [ big-3S.POSS ( Embick and Noyer 2001) & red-3S.POSS ] like (23) and would require the argument coordinator boloor. 0 0 • But we see the predicate coordinator is obligatory, which requires that the structure is underlyingly • Under this analysis, at the PF branch K lowers to D , forming one single complex head: (24), not (23). (27) KP (28) KP • This is expected under the analysis where suspended affixation is low coordination. ′ ′ (23) (24) K K

0 & 3S.POSS DP K DP tK0 3S.POSS 3S.POSS big & red D′ D′ big red 0 0 =⇒ Suspended afﬁxation in Dagur is not ellipsis, and should be analyzed as low coordination. NP D NP D

4 A Lowering + low coordination analysis K0 D0

The current proposal accounts for:

(10l) [stem & stem-CASE-POSS] • Unexpected suspended afﬁxation patterns in [stem-CASE-POSS & stem-CASE-POSS] coordination: (29) tereG boloor mor j -eer -min j ir -sen -taan j vehicle CONJ horse -INST -1S.POSS come -PST -2PL ⊲ Suspending CASE is ungrammatical ‘you came on my vehicle and on my horse’ (10k) * stem-CASE-POSS & stem-CASE-POSS ⊲ Suspending POSS degrades the grammaticality (10j) ??/* stem-CASE -POSS & stem-CASE-POSS • This is straightforwardly captured by the coordination of the two stems and K0-Lowering. ⊲ Suspending both is grammatical (30) (10l) stem -CASE-POSS & stem-CASE-POSS K(CASE) D0 (25) The grammar 0 0 0 K D (POSS) syntactic derivation stem & stem

(Spell-Out) (10j) ??/*[[stem-CASE] & [stem-CASE-POSS]] j j j Morphology (31) ??/*terG-eer boloor mor -eer -min ir -sen -taan vehicle-INST CONJ horse -INST -1S.POSS come -PST -2PL Int. ‘you came on my vehicle and on my horse’ PFLF (adopted from Embick and Marantz (2008): (2))

7 8 The POSS-Final Sufﬁx Order in Dagur Gong The POSS-Final Sufﬁx Order in Dagur Gong

• This surface form cannot be derived because it requires DP>KP, while in Dagur KP>DP. ⊲ Both alternatives predict [stem-CASE] & [stem-CASE] should be ungrammatical or degraded, contrary to (35). (32) * ⊲ The current analysis makes correct prediction of other two coordination possibilities. D0 ⊲ It predicts that a [stem-CASE] & [stem-CASE-POSS] coordination constructed based on (35) KP &0 KP should be degraded: The following sentence (36) intends to give the reading in which the 2S.POSS sufﬁx -šin j scopes over both conjuncts. stem K0 stem K0 The degraded judgment is expected under the current analysis.

(36) ??/*Bi seb -d, guˇc -d -šin j ˇašGen ši -san (10k) *[stem-POSS & stem-CASE-POSS] I teacher -DAT friend -DAT -2S.POSS letter write -PST (33) *terG -min j boloor mor j -eer -min j ir -sen -taan j Int.‘I wrote letter to your teacher and your friend’ vehicle -INST CONJ horse -INST -1S.POSS come -PST -2PL Int. ‘you came on my vehicle and on my horse’ ⊲ In addition, the analysis predicts that suspending both CASE and POSS should be grammatical. This prediction is borne out:

• This is ungrammatical because K0 cannot lower to D0 (37) Bi seb, guˇc -d -šin j ˇašGen ši -san I teacher friend -DAT -2S.POSS letter write -PST • According to the deﬁnition of Lowering (26), a head only lowers to the head of its complement. ‘I wrote letter to your teacher and your friend’

5 Summary (34) • Results from testing a wide range of suspended affixation possibilities reveal that Dagur suspended K0 affixation is base-generated from a low coordination structure, instead of ellipsis. 0 DP & DP • The morphological pattern of Dagur possessive constructions is straightforwardly captured by a Lowering+low coordination analysis ✗ stem D0 stem D0 ⊲ By locating the source of POSS-final order in morphology, this account maintains that Dagur shares the same underlying syntactic structure as CASE-final languages such as Turkish. 4.1 Further Remarks • The current analysis suggests that (10j) ??/*[stem-CASE] & [stem-CASE-POSS] is degraded because Bibliography of the constraint on the syntactic structure. Embick, D., & Marantz, A. (2008). Architecture and blocking. Linguistic inquiry, 39(1), 1–53. • There are some apparent alternatives to explain its ungrammaticality. Embick, D., & Noyer, R. (2001). Movement operations after syntax. Linguistic inquiry, 32(4), 555–595. 1. One could suggest that (10j) is illicit because the language disallow conjoining two KPs Engkebatu, M. (1985). Dawo’eryu huayu cailiao [dagur language material]. Monggol töröl-ün kele 2. One could also suggest that (10j) is illicit simply due to an economy constraint that wants ayalgun-u sudulul-un cuburil. CASE to be elided if possible Engkebatu, M. (1988). Dawo’eryu he mengguyu [dagur and mongolian]. Monggol töröl-ün kele ayalgun-u sudulul-un cuburil. ⊲ In order to sustain the current analysis, it must be independently shown that the language allows Ethnologue. (2019). [stem-CASE] & [stem-CASE] Guseva, E., & Weisser, P. (2018). Postsyntactic reordering in the mari nominal domain. Natural ⊲ In the following sentence, coordinating KPs is grammatical: Language & Linguistic Theory, 36(4), 1089–1127. Lewis, G. (1967). Turkish grammar. Oxford: Clarendon. (35) Bi seb -d, guˇc -d ˇašGen ši -san McFadden, T. (2002). The morphosyntax of finno-ugric case-marking: a dm account. In Proceedings- I teacher -DAT friend -DAT letter write -PST nels (Vol. 32, pp. 347–364). ‘I wrote letter to teacher and friend’

9 10 The POSS-Final Sufﬁx Order in Dagur Gong The POSS-Final Sufﬁx Order in Dagur Gong

McFadden, T. (2004). The position of morphological case in the derivation. Philadelphia, PA: UPenn • This proposal cannot be extended to Dagur: dissertation. coordinationwithSA Mari Dagur Nedjalkov, I. (2014). Evenki. Routledge. (41) a. stem-CASE-POSS & stem-CASE-POSS ✓ * Nichols, J. (1973). Suffix ordering in proto-uralic. Lingua, 32(3), 227–238. b. stem-CASE-POSS & stem-CASE-POSS * ??/* Pierrehumbert, J. (1980). The finnish possessive suffixes. Language, 603–621. • Key points: Slater, K. W. (2005). A grammar of mangghuer: a mongolic language of china’s qinghai-gansu sprachbund. Routledge. ⊲ Dagur observes the REC in (41a), but violates it in (41b). ⊲ If Dagur POSS-final order is due to linear reordering (on the assumption that suspended affixation Appendix A Selected examples for Dagur POSS-final order is ellipsis), we would expect (41a) to be grammatical, contrary to the fact. j (38) a. Bi (šinii) noGu -eer -šin ai -wei ⊲ The generalization for Dagur is that eliding either CASE or POSS is degraded or ungrammatical I.NOM your dog -ABL -2S.POSS afraid -NPST.1S ⇒ Hard to explain if the order is derived by metathesis ‘I’m afraid of your dog.’ b. Bi (šinii) guˇc -d -šin j ˇaxGen ši -sen -bi • Conclusion: while both Mari and Dagur exhibit POSS-final order, they cannot be captured under I.NOM your friend -DAT -2S.POSS letter write -PST -1S the same analysis. ‘I wrote a letter to your friend.’ c. Šii (inii) seb -tii -n j joo usGul -san -šie Appendix C Selected examples for (10) you.NOM his teacher -COMIT -3S.POSS what talk -PST -2S (42) akaa -sul boloor ekee -sul -šin j ‘What did you talk to his teacher about?’ brother -PL CONJ sister -PL -2S.POSS d. poolee manggil -kaalel -in j tosoor tal j -sen ‘your brothers and sisters’ ball.NOM forehead -ALL -3S.POSS against hit -PST (43) akaa boloor ekee -sul -šin j ‘the ball hit right at his forehead’ (Engkebatu 1985) brother CONJ sister -PL -2S.POSS e. (minii) akaa -ii -min j mori -n j ‘your brothers and sisters’ my brother -GEN -1S.POSS horse -3S.POSS (44) *akaa -šin j boloor ekee -sul -šin j ‘my brother’s horse’ brother -2S.POSS CONJ sister -PL -2S.POSS Appendix B Against a linear reordering account (45) Bi gungren, tareeˇcin, seb, šeb j -sul -tii usGulˇ -sen -bi • Guseva and Weisser (2018) propose that stem-CASE-POSS order is due to linear metathesis opera- I worker, farmer, teacher, student -PL -COMIT talk -PST -1S tion ⇒ cannot be extended to Dagur ‘I talked with workers, farmers, teachers, and students’ (Engkebatu 1988: 479) j • Key facts: Mari suspended affixation violates the right edge condition: (46) Bi seb -sul boloor šeb -sul -tii usGulˇ -sen -bi I teacher -PL CONJ student -PL -COMIT talk -PST -1S coordination with SA (gray suffix is unpronounced) Mari (39) a. stem-CASE-POSS & stem-CASE-POSS ✓ ‘I talked with teachers and students’ b. stem-CASE-POSS & stem-CASE-POSS * (47) *Bi seb -tii boloor šeb j -sul -tii usGulˇ -sen -bi (-CASE suffix involves a subset of cases which G&W refer to as K1 or local case) I teacher -COMIT CONJ student -PL -COMIT talk -PST -1S • Guseva and Weisser (2018)’s proposal: (48) Merden taˇcku -d -maan j boloor ger -d -maan j iˇci -sen Merden school -DAT -1PL.POSS CONJ house -DAT -1PL.POSS go -PST ⊲ Levels of projection: KP>DP ‘Merden went to our school and our house’ ⊲ Suspended affixation is ellipsis which applies postsyntactically. (49) ??/*Merden ger -d boloor taˇcku -d -maan j iˇci -sen ⊲ Metathesis applies after linearization, changing the order between CASE (K0) and POSS (D0). Merden house -DAT CONJ school -DAT -1PL.POSS go -PST ⊲ Order of application ‘Merden went to our home and our school’ Linearization stem-POSS-CASE & stem-POSS-CASE (50) *Merden taˇcku -maan j boloor ger -d -maan j iˇci -sen ⇓ ⇓ Merden school -1PL.POSS CONJ house -DAT -1PL.POSS go -PST (40) Ellipsis (SA) stem-POSS-CASE & stem-POSS-CASE ⇓ ⇓ Metathesis stem-POSS & stem-CASE-POSS

11 12