Graduate Institute of Applied Linguistics Thesis Approval Sheet This thesis, entitled Differential Subject Marking in Wakhi written by Erin Christine SanGregory and submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts with major in Applied Linguistics has been read and approved by the undersigned members of the faculty of the Graduate Institute of Applied Linguistics Michael Boutin (Supervising Professor) Paul Kroeger Joan Baart Date DIFFERENTIAL SUBJECT MARKING IN WAKHI By Erin Christine SanGregory Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate Institute of Applied Linguistics in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts with major in Applied Linguistics Graduate Institute of Applied Linguistics June 2018 © 2018 Erin Christine SanGregory All Rights Reserved CERTIFICATE I that use of acknowledge copyrighted material in my thesis may place me under an obligation to the copyright owner, especially when use of such material exceeds usual fair use provisions. I hereby certify that I have obtained the written permission of the copyright owner for any and all such occurrences and that no portion of my thesis has been copyrighted previously unless properly referenced. I hereby agree to indemnify and hold harmless the Graduate Institute of Applied Linguistics from any and all claims that may be asserted or that may arise from any copyright violation. Signature 2-11-2o13 Date THESIS DUPLICATION RELEASE I hereby authorize the Graduate Institute of Applied Linguistics Library to duplicate this thesis when needed for research and/ or scholarship. Agreed: Sul&uga (student signture) Refused: (student signature) ABSTRACT DIFFERENTIAL SUBJECT MARKING IN WAKHI Erin Christine SanGregory Master of Arts with major in Applied Linguistics The Graduate Institute of Applied Linguistics, June 2018 Supervising Professor: Michael Boutin Wakhi (ISO: wbl) is a Pamir language of the Southeastern Indo-Iranian family that exhibits a rich case inventory. Although previous descriptions of the Wakhi case system posit a case inventory of up to six cases, this thesis proposes an inventory of eight cases: six main cases plus two additional subcases. This thesis describes the case markers / forms and the canonical uses for each case before turning to the issue of canonicity. When evaluating the Wakhi cases according to Corbett's (2008) model, it becomes clear that only one case, the second genitive, is fully canonical, while the remaining cases demonstrate varying degrees of non-canonicity. In Afghan Wakhi, 1SG and 2SG subject pronouns may optionally appear in the accusative 1 (ACC1) case, rather than the nominative case, in the past and perfect tenses. This alternation in the case assigned to the subject of a verb in different contexts is a type of non-canonical case called differential subject marking (DSM) (Malchukov & de Swart 2009: 341). DSM is a dialectically conditioned feature of Wakhi: it is used less frequently in the lower dialect, with usage consistently increasing throughout the middle and upper dialects. Person is also a correlate of DSM, but emphasis is the most significant feature investigated. This thesis proposes that the primary function of DSM in Wakhi is to mark three types of emphasis: contrast, accusations, and responses to accusations and / or unexpected events. DEDICATION Dedicated to Simone Beck (1973–2017), founder of the Wakhi Language Development Program and my colleague, mentor, and friend. Your sacrificial love for the Wakhi people will never be forgotten. 8 February 2018 viii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Although my name is on this thesis, many other people were vital parts of the process. I would like to thank my advisor, Dr. Michael Boutin, for countless hours of discussion and many giant stacks of library books. Your enthusiasm bolstered my confidence, and your attention to detail greatly improved the quality of my thesis. Thank you to the other members of my committee, Dr. Paul Kroeger and Dr. Joan Baart, for your contributions through the revision process. You helped me find and fix the holes that I couldn't see on my own. Thank you to Dr. Steve Walter for running the statistical analyses for me. Although not all of the numbers were significant, your help most certainly was! Adrianne Baumunk helped me understand and describe the results, and Anne Southwood assisted me with many long and complicated functions in Excel so I could get the right numbers to Steve to use for the statistics in the first place. I owe a huge debt of gratitude to all three of you—without your help, this word nerd could never have tamed all the numbers. I would like to express my gratitude to the many Wakhi people who have shared their lives and their language with me. Truly, without you, this thesis would not exist. Qelloghi besyar! I hope it will be my privilege to work with you, my dear friends, for many years to come. I could not have written this thesis without the support and encouragement of my colleagues. I am grateful to my administration—Lynn, Dwight, Mark, Wayne, and ix Sandy—for supporting my thesis aspirations from the beginning and for giving me the time and space (physical, mental, and emotional) that I needed to complete my research. Thank you to Katja, my supervisor and housemate, for many cups-of-tea-hours of verbal processing. Your advice regarding my testing methodology was invaluable, as were our kabob-and-movie nights. Thank you also to David for reading my draft, asking thoughtful questions that helped me clarify several points, and encouraging me to mention points of similarity between Wakhi and related languages. To all of my teammates: You commiserated with my woes and participated in my jubilations. You invited me for meals, played games, took me on outings, and did so many other things to support and encourage me through the past several years. You are my second family. I love you all deeply and thank you from the bottom of my heart. Finally, I would like to thank my parents, Sam and Lisa SanGregory. You taught me to be curious and seek out answers. You instilled in me a love for learning and desire to strive for excellence. You have encouraged me in all my endeavors, academic and otherwise. You have been brave enough to ask me questions about my research, patient enough to listen to me spout incomprehensible linguistic jargon in response, wise enough to advise me to keep going when the going gets tough, and gentle enough to comfort me when I was overwhelmed and discouraged. I love you to the moon and back! 8 February 2018 x TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract ....................................................................................................................... vi Dedication ................................................................................................................. viii Acknowledgements ..................................................................................................... ix List of Tables ............................................................................................................ xiii List of Figures ........................................................................................................... xiv List of Abbreviations ................................................................................................. xv 1. INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................ 1 1.1. PURPOSE ............................................................................................................. 1 1.2. WAKHI: TYPOLOGY ............................................................................................. 4 Phonology .............................................................................................. 4 Morphosyntax ...................................................................................... 10 1.3. LITERATURE REVIEW ........................................................................................ 14 Literature review: Wakhi ..................................................................... 15 Literature review: Case ....................................................................... 20 1.4. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY .............................................................................. 24 Text collection ..................................................................................... 24 Text transcription ................................................................................ 25 Text interlinearization ......................................................................... 26 Testing ................................................................................................. 26 Informed consent ................................................................................. 29 1.5. OUTLINE ........................................................................................................... 30 2. THE WAKHI CASE SYSTEM ....................................................................................... 31 2.1. OVERVIEW: CASE IN WAKHI ............................................................................. 32 2.2. GRAMMATICAL CASES ...................................................................................... 34 Nominative .......................................................................................... 34 Accusative ........................................................................................... 38 Dative .................................................................................................