GET as a past marker (fwd)

[Spike Gildea]

Date: Wed, 27 Oct 1999 16:57:11 +0200 (MET DST)
From: Tania Kouteva <ama07 at campfire.rrz.Uni-Koeln.DE>
To: funknet at rice.edu
Subject: GET as a past marker

Dear FUNKNET subscribers,

We are currently finalizing a reference book on grammaticalization
developments in the languages of the world ("A short lexicon of
grammaticalization") which includes cases of grammaticalization that
have occurred in more than one language family. In selecting the data, we
have set absolutely no restriction in the kind of linguistic transmission:
it could be grammaticalization that has to do with continuous transmission
within a given language as well as grammaticalization that can be shown to
be due to borrowing or pidginization or creolization.

We would be very grateful if the subscribers to this list could help us
out with the following.

In Khmer the verb BAAN 'to get, to receive, to obtain' has developed into
a past tense/'already' marker, as has been shown by Haiman (1999:
156-157), cf.:

Khmer (Haiman 1999: 156)
...haaj baan haw  Thombaal mook kuap
   and  past call T.       come meet
'...and summoned Thombaal to a meeting.'

In addition to Khmer, Bisang (1996: 569) demonstrates that in Hmong the
verb TAU 'to get, to receive' has also taken on the function of a past
tense marker. Likewise, in Thai, DAJ 'to get, to receive' has come to mark
past tense (Bisang 1996: 570).

/We apologize for not being able to mark the diacritics here/

Do you know of other languages where a similar development can be
observed?


Thanking you in advance,

Bernd Heine and Tania Kuteva

REFERENCES

Bisang, Walter 1996. Areal typology and grammaticalization: Processes of
grammaticalization based on nouns and verbs in East and Mainland South
East Asian Languages. STUDIES in LANGUAGE 20: 3. 519-597.

Haiman, John 1999. Auxiliation in Khmer. The case of BAAN. STUDIES in
LANGUAGE 23:1. 149-172.