Low-density language selection: Kinyarwanda and Malagasy Jason Baldridge Wednesday, October 27, 2010 Low-density languages Languages discussed in the proposal: Encompasses a wide range of typologically diverse, primarily African, languages. We propose to work on Kinyarwanda and Malagasy © 2010 Jason M Baldridge 2 MURI Kickoff, October 2010 Wednesday, October 27, 2010 Why Kinyarwanda and Malagasy Two families, with many related languages: Kinyarwanda: Niger-Congo / Bantu Malagasy: Austronesian / Malayo-Polynesian Both connected to Swahili (Kinyarwanda: genetic, Malagasy: uses Swahili loan words) Both well studied in the linguistics literature: access to expertise and informants Access to monolingual data. Together, they cover all the major linguistic issues discussed in the proposal, namely morphology, word order, grammatical categories, voice systems, serial verbs, and more. © 2010 Jason M Baldridge 3 MURI Kickoff, October 2010 Wednesday, October 27, 2010 Kinyarwanda Niger-Congo family, Bantu sub- family Spoken in Rwanda (official language), Uganda, DR Congo. Est. 7.5 million speakers in Rwanda, 20+ million overall © 2010 Jason M Baldridge 4 MURI Kickoff, October 2010 Wednesday, October 27, 2010 Kinyarwanda data sources in hand Monolingual texts available online Sites, e.g. www.izuba.org.rw Kinyarwanda Wikipedia (111 articles) Access to experts and native speakers through UT Austin Extensive linguistics literature (especially Kimenyi 1980) Kigali Memorial Centre 200 survivor testimonies of the Rwandan genocide: Kinyarwanda, English, and French 340 transcripts from Radio Télévision Libre des Mille Collines. © 2010 Jason M Baldridge 5 MURI Kickoff, October 2010 Wednesday, October 27, 2010 Human Rights Documentation Initiative http://www.lib.utexas.edu/hrdi/ © 2010 Jason M Baldridge 6 MURI Kickoff, October 2010 Wednesday, October 27, 2010 Complex morphology Concatenative morphology: word formation adds many affixes to verb roots to indicate subjects and objects and to mark agreement, tense, aspect, mood, and shifts in meaning. kuba yagarutse byaanshiimiishije The fact that he returned made me happy. ku-ba y-a-garuts-e by-aa-n-shiim-iish-ije it-be he-PAST-return-ASPECT it-PAST-me-thank-CAUSE-ASPECT The fact that he returned made me happy. © 2010 Jason M Baldridge 7 MURI Kickoff, October 2010 Wednesday, October 27, 2010 Morphologically induced argument alternation Some morphemes change the argument structure of verbs, e.g. causative -iish- and benefactive -ir-: umugabo a-ra-andik-a ibaruwa n’i-ikaramu man he-TENSE-write-ASPECT letter with-pen The man is writing a letter with a pen. -iish- umugabo a-ra-andik-iish-a ikaramu ibaruwa man he-TENSE-write-CAUSE-ASPECT pen letter The man is writing a letter with a pen. (lit: The man is causing a pen to write a letter.) © 2010 Jason M Baldridge 8 MURI Kickoff, October 2010 Wednesday, October 27, 2010 Dependencies Agent Instrument Patient umugabo a-ra-andik-a ibaruwa n’i-ikaramu man he-TENSE-write-ASPECT letter with-pen The man is writing a letter with a pen. Agent Instrument Patient umugabo a-ra-andik-iish-a ikaramu ibaruwa man he-TENSE-write-CAUSE-ASPECT pen letter The man is writing a letter with a pen. © 2010 Jason M Baldridge 9 MURI Kickoff, October 2010 Wednesday, October 27, 2010 Grammatical categories Kinyarwanda has 16 noun classes, which can be thought of as extensions of the idea of gender classification to a much wider set of distinctions, e.g. humans, animals, plants, inanimate objects, abstract concepts, etc. Classes must agree for subjects and objects with verbs, and within noun phrases. abagabo ba-riho ba-ra-som-a Class 2 men they-are they-PRESENT-read-ASPECT The men are reading. ibitabo bitatu bishya byaa Karooli Class 8 books three new of Charles The three new books of Charles. © 2010 Jason M Baldridge 10 MURI Kickoff, October 2010 Wednesday, October 27, 2010 Serial verbs Kinyarwanda employs sequences of verbs that are not quite embedded and not quite conjoined; in series they lose their usual meaning and express tense, aspect and/or modality instead. baari batuuye basaanzwe bajya bakuunda gupfa kuduhamagara they-be they-dwell they-join they-go they-like to-die us-call They usually at least called us. musigaye múgeenda múheerako múdusubiza you-stay you-walk you-start you-us-answer Now you respond to us immediately. Note: subject noun classes (cl 2, ba; 2nd person, mu) spread across verb sequences © 2010 Jason M Baldridge 11 MURI Kickoff, October 2010 Wednesday, October 27, 2010 Word-order freedom Information structure can lead to different word orders: e.g. in noun phrases, the modifier that carries new information comes last. ibitabo bitatu bishya byaa Karooli books three new of Charles The three new books of Charles. ibitabo bitatu bishya byaa Karooli ibitabo byaa Karooli bitatu bishya ibitabo byaa Karooli bishya bitatu The parallel in English is intonation: Which of Billʼs three books did John lose? Billʼs three NEW books. Whose three new books did John lose? BILLʼs three new books. © 2010 Jason M Baldridge 12 MURI Kickoff, October 2010 Wednesday, October 27, 2010 Definiteness Some arguments, such as subjects, datives and benefactives are always definite or generic: i.e., they are familiar to both hearer and speaker. umwaana aralira child he-is-crying The child is crying. (Not: A child is crying.) Indefinites are introduced with the existential hari and a relative clause: hari umwaana urira it-be child he-is-crying-RELCLAUSE A child is crying. (Lit:There is a child that is crying.) Interestingly, the definiteness restriction makes it impossible to translate “a man gave the book to a girl” with a single sentence. © 2010 Jason M Baldridge 13 MURI Kickoff, October 2010 Wednesday, October 27, 2010 Malagasy Austronesian family, Malayo- Polynesian sub-family Relevant for many languages of the Philippines. Spoken in Madagascar (official language). Est. 20+ million speakers © 2010 Jason M Baldridge 14 MURI Kickoff, October 2010 Wednesday, October 27, 2010 Malagasy data sources in hand Monolingual texts available online Sites, e.g. http://www.lakroa.mg Malagasy Wikipedia (2557 articles) 1865 translation of the Bible (http://www.madabibliq.org/) Extensive linguistics literature © 2010 Jason M Baldridge 15 MURI Kickoff, October 2010 Wednesday, October 27, 2010 Voice alternations: morphology and argument structure In Austronesian languages, verbal morphology indicates one of the arguments as the trigger, which fills a specified role. The trigger argument appears on the right edge of the clause: m-aN-vono mamono akoho amin’ny antsy ny mpamboly Actor Topic AT-kill chicken with-Det knife Det farmer The farmer kills chickens with the knife. vono-in vonoin’ ny mpamboly amin’ny antsy ny akoho Theme kill-TT Det farmer with-Det knife Det chicken Topic The farmer kills the chicken with the knife. aN-vono-an Amonoan’ ny mpamboly akoho ny antsy Circumstantial kill-CT Det farmer chicken Det knife Topic The farmer kills chickens with the knife. © 2010 Jason M Baldridge 16 MURI Kickoff, October 2010 Wednesday, October 27, 2010 Special properties of triggers (a.k.a subjects) Specificity: there must be an entity to which they refer Extraction: only triggers may be extracted (e.g. wh-questions and relativization) Actor Topic iza no mividy ny osy ? who PART AT-buy Det goat actor? Who is buying the goat? mividy ny osy i Soa AT-buy Det goat Det Soa Soa is buying the goat. } theme? *inona no mividy i Soa what PART AT-buy Det Soa ✖ (for: What is Soa buying?) Theme Topic vidin’ i Soa ny osy theme? inona no vidin’ i Soa TT-buy Det Soa Det goat what PART TT-buy Det Soa Soa is buying the goat. What is Soa buying? © 2010 Jason M Baldridge 17 MURI Kickoff, October 2010 Wednesday, October 27, 2010 Word order: reversal and emphasis Some particles like dia and no shift the order of subject and predicate dia: emphasizes truthfulness of the statement no: excludes alternatives to the trigger mpianatra i Koto nianatra tany Amerika aho student Det Koto study in-Det America I Koto is a student I studied in America. tany Amerika aho no nianatra i Koto dia mpianatra in-Det America I PART study Det Koto PART student It was there in America (not elsewhere) that I Koto really is a student studied. Note: the same restriction as extraction on triggers applies to this reordering. © 2010 Jason M Baldridge 18 MURI Kickoff, October 2010 Wednesday, October 27, 2010 Demonstrative doubling Demonstratives are obligatorily doubled, surrounding the noun or noun phrase they modify. ity boky ity this book this this book ity boky malagasy ity this book malagasy this this Malagasy book © 2010 Jason M Baldridge 19 MURI Kickoff, October 2010 Wednesday, October 27, 2010 Morphology: reduplication (both Kinyarwanda & Malagasy) Intensification (or diminuation) Kinyarwanda: vuba “fast” -> vubavuba “very fast” Malagasy: lavitra “far” -> lavidavitra -> “rather far” Repeated action Kinyarwanda: guhonda “to knock” -> guhondahonda “to knock repeatedly” Malagasy: mandeha “to wander” -> mandehandeha “to wander all the time” © 2010 Jason M Baldridge 20 MURI Kickoff, October 2010 Wednesday, October 27, 2010.