'World' subjects of meteorological predicates

[Paul Hopper]

Meillet (in the "Introduction a l'etude comparative des langues indo-europeennes") also noted for early Indo-European languages that the sky-god (Zeus, Jupiter) appeared as the subject of weather verbs (Juppiter pluit, etc.) 


Paul Hopper





> In response to Pål's query:
> 
> In Ob-Ugric languages Khanti (Ostyak) and Mansi (Vogul), spoken in West 
> Siberia, meteorological verbs are normally used without a subject. Still,
> it is possible to use dummy subjects here: t¾r?m 'sky; Sky god; weather'
> or ?at? 'day; sun'. The following examples are from Kazym Khanty:
> 
> (1a)      Iskat=as
> 
> get:cold=Past:3sg
> 
> 'It got cold';
> 
> (1b)     T¾r?m iskat=as
> 
> sky       get:cold=Past:3sg
> 
> 'It (lit. The weather) got cold'
> 
> (2a)      Patl=?s
> 
> get:dark=Past:3sg
> 
> 'It got dark'
> 
> (2b)     ?at?=?w          patl=?s
> 
> day=Poss1pl    get:dark=Past:3sg
> 
> 'It (lit.: our day) got dark';
> 
> 
> 
> With 'rain' it is possible to use the same stem as dummy subject:
> 
> (3a)      J?rt=??
> 
> rain=Pres:3sg
> 
> 'It rains'
> 
> (3b)     J?rt     j?rt=??
> 
> rain      rain=Pres:3sg
> 
> 'It (lit. rain) rains'.
> 
> 
> 
> [Solovar 1990: 22-24] lists 11 verbs of nature states: j¾l??mt= 'get cool
>  (inside the house)', m?lk?t= 'get warm', iskat= 'get cold (in autumn)', 
> tewan?='get calm', ?t?rm?= 'get clear and frosty', ji?at= 'get cool',
> patl?= 'get dark', j?rt= 'rain', ?O??t= 'crack from heat', now?mat=
> 'dawn', rìm??mt= 'get dark (at dusk)'; the last three can be used only
> without a subject.
> 
> 
> 
> In Mansi the dummy subject is tor?m 'Sky-god, sky, weather', which is
> almost never used in everyday speech. With 'rain', 'snow', 'wind' the stem
> can be doubled; Rombandeeva (1979: 35) considers it a contrasting
> technique:
> 
> (1)       Teli      tujt     tujt=i,                         tui rakw
> rakw=i
> 
> winter   snow    snow=Pres:3sg summer            rain      rains=Pres:3sg
> 
> 
> 'In winter it snows, in summer it rains (lit. snow snows, rain rains)'.
> 
> Note that meteorological sentences often contain a temporal expression or
> a localizer; the localizer kon 'outside' is frequent enough, though it is
> not analyzed as a dummy subject:
> 
> (2)       Kon                 saka    wot=i
> 
> outside             very     wind=Pres:3sg
> 
> 'It is windy outside' (lit. Outside very winds);
> 
> (3)       Kon                 ?ot?l=as
> 
> outside             light=Past:3sg
> 
> 'It dawned outside'.
> 
> 
> 
> More about 'surroundings': the Mongolic language Buryat has a
> construction 'state of environment', consisting of an adjectival predicate
> and a localizer, the most frequent being gazaa 'outside', compare:
> 
> (1a)      Ger      soo      xüjten
> 
> house   in         cold
> 
> 'It is cold in the house';
> 
> (1b)     Gazaa xüjten
> 
> outside cold
> 
> 'It is cold (outside)'.
> 
> 
> 
> Some additional interesting facts: The antonym to gazaa is dosoo
> 'inside', and it is used in a similar construction, but metaphorically -
> with adjectives of emotional states:
> 
> (2)       Dosoo=ny         gansata         xüxüü              bolo=bo
> 
> inside=Poss3sg at once            cheerful become=Past:3sg
> 
> 'He became cheerful instantly'.
> 
> 
> 
> At least one Buryat grammar analyzes gazaa / dosoo as dummy subjects 
> (Dorziev 2005:41).
> 
> 
> 
> References:
> 
> Dorziev, D.-N.D. 2005: Münöönei Buryaad xelen. Sintaksis [Modern Buryat 
> syntax]. Ulaan-Üde: "Belig" xeblel. (In Buryat)
> 
> Rombandeeva, E.I. 1979: Sintaksis mansijskogo (vogul'skogo) yazyka.
> [Mansi (Vogul) syntax.] Moscow: "Nauka".
> 
> Solovar, Valentina 1990: Predlozenie v xantiyskom yazyke [Khanty simple 
> sentence]. Novosibirsk: Novosibirsk state university.
> 
> 
> 
> Best regards,
> 
> Elena Skribnik
> 
> 
> 
> ----- Original Message ----- From: <p.k.eriksen at ILN.UIO.NO> To:
> <LINGTYP at LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG> Sent: Thursday, February 14, 2008 1:25
> PM Subject: "World" subjects of meteorological predicates
> 
> 
>> Dear colleagues,
>> 
>> I am currently doing research on expletive subjects, and in connection 
>> to that I am very interested in languages where meteorological
>> predicates ("to rain", "to blow", "to be cold/warm", etc.) require, or
>> at least often occur with a subject meaning "world", "place",
>> "surroundings", "sky", etc, or which in other ways somehow refers to the
>> locational/geographical background of the weather phenomena (or even to
>> a temporal background, like "day") .
>> 
>> Givón (in "Syntax Vol. I", 2001, p. 119) mentions that "the world" is 
>> used as the dummy subject for meteorological predicates in some 
>> languages across the globe, and gives an example from Palestinian Arabic
>> (where the subject is "dunya" ("world")).
>> 
>> Apart from this observation, I have found a number of examples in 
>> different grammars:
>> 
>> - Nikolaeva & Tolskaya ("A Grammar of Udihe", 2001) shows that in the 
>> Tungusic language Udihe a noun meaning "place outside" or "world" may
>> be used as the dummy subject for a number of meteorological predicates 
>> (though not by all).
>> 
>> - Watters ("A Grammar of Kham", 2002) shows that in the Himalayish 
>> language Kham a noun meaning "sky" is the meteorological dummy subject.
>> 
>> - Keenan ("Remarkable Subjects in Malagasy" in Li (ed.) "Subject and 
>> Topic", 1976) mentions that in Malagasy meteorological predicates 
>> normally take a word meaning "day" as their subject.
>> 
>> - Næss (p.c.) has told me that in Äiwoo (possibly Austronesian, Eastern
>> Solomon Islands) a word most often translated as "surroundings" is found
>> as a subject for meteorological predicates, and that the neighbouring
>> Polynesian language Vaeakau-Taumako similarly employs a word meaning
>> "land".
>> 
>> Still, it is hard to find examples of this phenomenon, mostly because 
>> many grammars don't even address the issue of expletive subjects and/or
>>  the structure of meteorological sentences. Consequenty I would be very
>>  happy for any other example you can give me, of languages with this
>> type of phenomenon.
>> 
>> Many thanks in advance,
>> 
>> 
>> Pål Eriksen
> 
> 


-- 
Paul J. Hopper
Paul Mellon Distinguished Professor of Humanities
Department of English
College of Humanities and Social Sciences
Carnegie Mellon University
Pittsburgh, PA 15232, USA
Tel. 412-683-1109
Fax 412-268-7989