言 語 研 究(Gengo Kenkyu)110(1996),1～27 1 Lexical Prefixes of Bunun Verbs Motoyasu NOJIMA (Graduate School, University of Tokyo) Keywords: Bunun, lexical prefixes, derivational affixes, `classi- ficatory prefixes', `verb classifiers' 1. Introduction Bunun1) is one of the Austronesian languages, spoken in the central part of Taiwan. It has a rich repertoire of verb-deriving prefixes, which are called lexical prefixes2) in this paper. The use of lexical prefixes is quite productive in the formation of verb stems. They productively combine with various types of root morphemes (bound or free) to add semantic modification to them. They are very lexical in meaning in that they denote concrete events such as `dying', `dreaming', `burning', or ac- tivities such as `running', `hitting', `cutting', `giving', which might be achieved by the use of independent verbs in other languages. Verbs with a lexical prefix can roughly be classified into three groups according to the semantic relation between the prefix and 1) The Bunun language consists of three major dialects: Northern, Central, and Southern (Li 1988). The following description is based on data from the Southern dialect. Bunun (Southern dialect) has fourteen consonant phonemes: p, t, k, ' [?], b, d, s, h [x], v, z [*], m, n, g [*], and I[I]. The s and t are palatalized before i. There is phonemic contrast between /'/ and zero only word-medially. Bunun has a three-vowel system: a, u, and i. Each may occur both long and short. Stress is not distinctive: it usually falls on the penultimate syllable of a word. 2) The term `lexical prefixes' might be reminiscent of the `lexical suffixes' in the 'Mosan' languages in the Northwest Coast of North America, which are contrastively nominal in nature, however. 2 Motoyasu NOJIMA the root morpheme: (a) Verbs in which the lexical prefix signifies an activity, and the root morpheme denotes its resultative state, as in pit-zaipuh (cook-soft) `soften by cooking'. (b) Verbs in which the root morpheme expresses in what manner the action or event named by the lexical prefix occurs, as in makus-usha (appear-suddenly) `appear sud- denly'. (c) Verbs which express activities involving the referent of the nominal root, as in ka-huzas (do-song) `sing'. Each of these types will be further illustrated later. Morphologically, Bunun lexical prefixes are very similar to what is called `classificatory prefixes' in the description of some Austronesian languages. The term `classificatory prefix' is used by some authors to refer to stem-forming prefixes that indicate the modes or causes of the action or event expressed by the verb stem, or indicate the manner of ac- tion or motion (Ezard 1978: 1170, Ezard 1992: 163, Osumi 1995: 118). Tsuchida (1990) reports that the Tsou language, one of the Austrone- sian languages spoken in Taiwan, has more than two hundred deriva- tional prefixes. Syntactically, Bunun lexical prefixes in some constructions can be viewed as doing similar task to what is served by so-called 'classifiers'. For example, if one wanted to translate into Bunun the English phrases `shout again' , `hear again', or `give (something) (to someone) again', one would have to use three different words for `again', as in: (1) a. tu-hna-un ma-la'la LP (verbally) -again-PO AO-shout `shout again' b. 'it-uhna-un ta'aza LP (hear) -again-PO AO.hear `hear (something) again' c. sau-hna-an ma-naiv LP (give) -again-LO AO-give `give (something to someone) again' Lexical Prefixes of Bunun Verbs 3 This paper presents material illustrating the use of Bunun lexical prefixes3), and their function as `verb classifier' in certain construc- tions. Before examining the lexical prefixes, let us briefly look at several aspects of Bunun grammar which will be necessary for understanding the language material quoted in this paper. 2. Grammar Notes 2. 1. Basic Clause Structure Prototypically, a predicate comes first, which may optionally be followed by one or more nominals. The following examples illustrate this: (2) m-ataz a maluspigaz=a. AO-die PV woman = PV.that `The woman died .' (3) na ma-tapul = ta mas bunuaz= tan. IRR AO-pick = PV.1 PLINC OBL plum = NPV.this `Let's pick these plums .' (4) tug-habin naia sia tastas = tia. LP (hide) -hide PV.they LOC waterfall =NPV.that `They hid themselves behind the waterfall .' Nominals are generally marked by a prepositional particle (called articles4) here) and/or an enclitic demonstrative. There are three ar- ticles, a (or maaz= a), mas, and sia, which are used to mark syntactic or semantic function of each nominal. The article a, as in (2), indicates the pivot status of the following nominal. The articles mas and sia, on the other hand, mark the non-pivot status of the following nominal. 3) There is something to be gained about Bunun lexical prefixes from Jeng (1969, 1971), He et al. (1986), Li et al. (1988, 1990), Nihira (1988), and Tsuchida (1988). 4) What is called article here corresponds to "case marker" or "case-marking particle" in previous studies (Jeng 1977: 117, Li 1994: 271). 4 MotoyasuNOJIMA Nominals introduced by sia denote spatial relations such as location or direction, as sia tastas = tia `behind the waterfall' in (4). Nominals preceded by mas are `oblique' in the sense that they are neither pivot nor locative, as mas bunuaz= tan `these plums' in (3). Bunun has two sets of enclitic demonstratives: the pivot set used in pivot nominals, and the non-pivot set used elsewhere. In (2), for exam- ple, = a `that, over there' is a form from the pivot set; =tan `this, here' in (3) and = tia `that, over there' in (4) are forms from the non-pivot set. 2. 2. Orientation (So-Called `Focus') System Bunun has the Philippine-type voice system, which is referred to as orientation system in this papery . A verb is agent-oriented (AO), patient-oriented (PO), location-oriented (LO), or instrument- oriented (IO) . These values are realized in verbs either by affixation or zero-marking. For example, one can derive the following four different forms from the verb-root panah `shoot'; AO m-anah, PO panah-un, LO panah-an, and IO 'is-panah. (For a more detailed discussion on mor- phological pattern of orientation marking, see Jeng 1977.) In Bunun, verbs and nouns cannot be syntactically distinguished, but they can be subclassified on the basis of morphological properties. A verb not only depicts a situation (including event, action, process, and state), but is also used as an expression of the `oriented' participant of the situation named by the verb root/stem. For example, the AO verb m-anah signals the `shooter' when it is used as a referential expression, while PO verb panah-un denotes `the thing/person which is/was shot' in nominal use. When a verb is used as the predicate of a clause, the orientation marker can be considered to function as so-called `voice' marker. Con- sider the following pair of sentences showing different types of 5) The term `orientation' is used in Himmelmann (1996). This system is traditionally called `focus' system in the Austronesian linguistics. Lexical Prefixes of Bunun Verbs 5 orientation6) : (5) AO clause rya-pataz kaimin mas hagvag. AO-kill PV.IPLEXC OBL deer `We (excl .) kill a/some deer.' (6) PO clause pataz-un dau = s 'isbabanal a maaz = a 'ivut. kill-PO HS = OBL 'Isbabanal PV PV snake `They say (a member of) the 'Isbabanal tribe killed the snake .' In (5) above, the AO prefix ma- indicates that the referent of the pivot nominal of the clause (`we') stands in the semantic relationship of `agent' of the action named by the predicate verb ('kill') . In (6), on the other hand, the PO suffix -un marks that the referent of the pivot nominal of the clause Cthe snake') stands in the semantic relationship of `patient' of the action depicted by the predicate verb ('kill') . In this way, the orientation value of a predicate verb affects the marking of its dependent nominals. Voice alternation is determined by syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic factors, which are too complex to be described here. 2. 3. Clause Chaining Verbs (or verb phrases) sharing a co-referential agent can be con- catenated with no overt marking of linkage. (7) [siza],1 naia mas tai = tia [m-aun]v2. AO.get PV.they OBL taro=NPV.that AO-eat `They took those taros , (and) ate (them).' 6) We treat orientation as a system of the clause as well as of the verb. 6 MotoyasuNOJIMA (8) [na m-u-suhis]v1=ta [siza]v2 mas batu. IRR AO-LP (INTR) -return= PV. IPLINC AO.get OBL stone `We'll go back to get a stone .' Bunun has a syntactic restriction that prohibits sequences of more than one PO or LO verb in a clause. Consider the examples (9) and (10) below. In (9), the verb tanam-un is the main verb of the clause, while the verb ma-kulut is the dependent verb. Similarly, the syntac- tically dependent verb m-aun in (10) appears in an AO form. (9) mais na m-aun dau = s titi hai, when IRR AO-eat HS = OBL meat CONJ [tanam-un]v1 dau [ma-kulut]v2 at, try-PO HS AO-cut and '(It is said that) when they want to eat meat , (they) cut it a little as a test,' (10) mais ma-simal hai, [pataz-un]v1 saia [m-aun]v22 when ADJ-fat CONJ kill-PO PV.it AO-eat `If (the animal) is fat , (they) kill it and eat (it).' This type of clause chaining is employed also to express `adverbial' meanings.