'World' subjects of meteorological predicates

[hartmut at RUC.DK]

Scrive Paul Hopper <hopper at CMU.EDU>:

| 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
|
|

Also "Iuppiter tonat" and you would wonder how he did /that/!
Also in Classical Greek: Zeus hu:e: (or hyei or how you want to transcribe it).
The theory I have heard claims that the subject could be left out as
understood, thus turning an action verb into a process verb. I would check this
at least in a good dictionary (I don't have access to Liddel&Scott for Greek
right where I am now, but can check later).

Hartmut Haberland

|
|
|
| > 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
|