[Lingtyp] Applicative and preposition

Martin Haspelmath haspelmath at shh.mpg.de
Wed Oct 17 20:18:58 UTC 2018


On 17.10.18 20:52, Peter Arkadiev wrote:
> There are languages, most notably Northwest Caucasian and Kartvelian, 
> where arguments introduced by applicatives are coded as ditransitive 
> Rs rather than as monotransitive Ps. We can certainly invent a 
> different comparative concept for this (e.g. "version", to adapt the 
> traditional Caucasological term), but the similarities between 
> "applicatives" and "versions" seem to be more important than 
> differences, so it would be better to have a common comparative 
> concept subsuming both 

OK, so here's a proposal: "applicative" is a construction in which a new 
P-like object is added, and "versiative" is a construction in which a 
new (indirective-)R-like object is added (inspired by Russian "versija", 
or version). They are both subtypes of a more general concept, perhaps 
called "objectative".

One could also have another subtype, e.g. "adpositive", for a verbal 
marker that adds a new adpositionally marked argument. Then Simon 
Musgrave's original examples would be objectatives, both of the 
applicative and the adpositive sort.

These neologisms may sound strange, but it's actually just a historical 
accident that we don't have such terms in common use. The fact that 
"applicative" is a commonly used term does not mean that there must be a 
natural cross-linguistic phenomenon that corresponds to the term.

Best,
Martin

> -- 
> Peter Arkadiev, PhD
> Institute of Slavic Studies
> Russian Academy of Sciences
> Leninsky prospekt 32-A 119991 Moscow
> peterarkadiev at yandex.ru
> http://inslav.ru/people/arkadev-petr-mihaylovich-peter-arkadiev
> 17.10.2018, 18:07, "Martin Haspelmath" <haspelmath at shh.mpg.de>:
>> I think the answer to Adam's question is that a construction is an 
>> applicative only if the new object is coded like the P-argument of a 
>> basic transitive construction.
>>
>> Thus, Simon Musgrave's example (1c) from Taba (based on Bowden 2001) 
>> is an (instrumental) applicative:
>>
>> npun-ak kolay peda
>> kill-APPL snake machete
>>
>> But when the instrument 'machete' has its instrumental preposition 
>> (ada peda 'with a machete'), it is not an applicative, from a 
>> typological perspective (= as a comparative concept).
>>
>> There is no "official" definition of the (typological) term 
>> "applicative", of course, but it is my understanding that most people 
>> use the term in this way. The Wikipedia article reflects this by 
>> speaking about promotion to "(core) object": 
>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Applicative_voice.
>>
>> (Maria Polinsky's WALS article is vague and speaks just about 
>> "increasing the number of object arguments by one", without making 
>> precise what is meant by "object", https://wals.info/chapter/109. But 
>> her examples and the discussion make it clear that she means objects 
>> coded like P-arguments.)
>>
>> This does not mean, of course, that the description of Taba should 
>> not use the term "Applicative" for the suffix -ak in all cases – but 
>> this would be a language-specific descriptive category, somewhat like 
>> Dative is used in Russian-type languages also when the case in 
>> question is not used in its definitional function (recipient of 'give').
>>
>> Best,
>> Martin
>>
>> On 17.10.18 16:45, Adam James Ross Tallman wrote:
>>> Hello,
>>> I know of some phenomena that is similar to this (I think) in 
>>> Chácobo and other languages. But I have a question about terminology 
>>> here. Why is it still an applicative if a (n oblique?) postposition 
>>> is marked on the "promoted" argument? What are the criteria that 
>>> identify it as "promoted" in this case (non-repeatability, position 
>>> in clause etc...). Or is there some type of semantic criterion at 
>>> work here?
>>> best,
>>> Adam
>> On Wed, Oct 17, 2018 at 9:36 AM Françoise Rose 
>> <francoise.rose at univ-lyon2.fr <mailto:francoise.rose at univ-lyon2.fr>> 
>> wrote:
>>
>>     Dear Simon,
>>
>>     Thanks for your query, it’s very interesting.
>>
>>     I just gave a talk at SWL8 on an applicative construction of
>>     Mojeño that is correlated with the presence of verbal classifiers
>>     that refer to a location. When such a verbal classifier is
>>     present, the “coreferential” NP can be expressed as an object
>>     rather than an oblique (i.e. it loses its preposition, as in the
>>     second example below). Interestingly, there is some variation.
>>     The preposition can be maintained in the locative phrase, even
>>     when the verbal classifier is present, but there is then no
>>     valency change (so the construction does not count as an
>>     applicative). Intransitive verbs take a 3rd person subject
>>     t-prefix, while transitive verbs take some semantically more
>>     specific prefixes for 3rd person when the object is third person
>>     also (as in the second example). So this case is not exactly what
>>     you were looking for, but the presence of three alternates here
>>     is interesting: the construction of example 3 could well be an
>>     intermediate step in the development of the applicative effect of
>>     classifiers.
>>
>>     t-junopo=po
>>
>>     	
>>
>>     *te*
>>
>>     	
>>
>>     to
>>
>>     	
>>
>>     smeno
>>
>>     3-run=pfv
>>
>>     	
>>
>>     *prep*
>>
>>     	
>>
>>     art.nh
>>
>>     	
>>
>>     woods
>>
>>     'S/he ran *to/in/from* the woods.'
>>
>>     ñi-jumpo*-je*-cho
>>
>>     	
>>
>>     to
>>
>>     	
>>
>>     smeno
>>
>>     3m-run*-clf:interior*-act
>>
>>     	
>>
>>     art.nh
>>
>>     	
>>
>>     woods
>>
>>     S/he runs *inside* the woods.
>>
>>     t-jumpo*-je*-cho
>>
>>     	
>>
>>     *te*
>>
>>     	
>>
>>     to
>>
>>     	
>>
>>     smeno
>>
>>     3-run*-clf:interior*-act
>>
>>     	
>>
>>     *prep*
>>
>>     	
>>
>>     art.nh
>>
>>     	
>>
>>     woods
>>
>>     S/he ran inside the woods.
>>
>>     The slides from my presentation can be downloaded from SWL8 website.
>>
>>     Very best,
>>
>>     Françoise ROSE
>>
>>     Directrice de Recherches 2ème classe, CNRS
>>
>>     Laboratoire Dynamique Du Langage (CNRS/Université Lyon2)
>>
>>     16 avenue Berthelot
>>
>>     69007 Lyon
>>
>>     FRANCE
>>
>>     (33)4 72 72 64 63
>>
>>     www.ddl.cnrs.fr/ROSE <http://www.ddl.cnrs.fr/ROSE>
>>
>>     *De :*Lingtyp [mailto:lingtyp-bounces at listserv.linguistlist.org
>>     <mailto:lingtyp-bounces at listserv.linguistlist.org>] *De la part
>>     de* Simon Musgrave
>>     *Envoyé :* mercredi 17 octobre 2018 07:16
>>     *À :* LINGTYP at listserv.linguistlist.org
>>     <mailto:LINGTYP at listserv.linguistlist.org>
>>     *Objet :* [Lingtyp] Applicative and preposition
>>
>>     Dear Lingtyp members,
>>
>>
>>     I am posting this query on behalf of one of my PhD students. We
>>     will post a summary of responses in due course.
>>
>>     From existing studies of applicatives, only two Austronesian
>>     languages, Taba and Indonesian, have been documented to
>>     unexpectedly retain a preposition when an applicative affix is
>>     used to promote a previously non-core object to core.
>>     Bowden, in his grammatical description of Taba (2001), states
>>     that it is possible for the same idea to be expressed using three
>>     possibilities. Firstly, that the third entity is introduced by a
>>     preposition, secondly that the applied object is marked by an
>>     applicative morpheme and thirdly that the applied object can be
>>     marked by an applicative morpheme and preposition, as the
>>     following examples show.
>>
>>     (1)a.    Ahmad    npun    kolay
>>         Ahmad    3SG=kill    snake
>>         ‘Ahmad killed a snake.’
>>
>>     b.    Ahmad    npun    kolay    ada    peda PREPOSITION
>>         Ahmad    3SG=kill    snake    with    machete
>>         ‘Ahmad killed a snake with a machete.’
>>
>>     c.    Ahmad    npunak    kolay    peda    APPLICATIVE
>>         Ahmad    3SG=kill-APPL    snake    machete
>>         ‘Ahmad killed a snake with a machete.’
>>
>>         d.    Ahmad    npunak    kolay    ada    peda BOTH
>>         Ahmad    3SG=kill-APPL    snake    with machete
>>         ‘Ahmad killed a snake with a machete.’ (2001:204)
>>
>>
>>     Sometimes Indonesian clauses with applicative verbs suffixed with
>>     –kan retain the preposition directly following the verb when it
>>     is expected to have been lost according to conventional grammar
>>     rules, as shown in 2.
>>
>>     (2)a.    Yang    penting    saya    sangat men-cinta-i    Sandy
>>         REL    important    1SG    very meN.love.APPL    Sandy
>>         dan     meny-enang-kan    atas    semua ke-jadi-an    itu
>>             meN-senang-kan
>>         and    meN-pity-APPL    on    all    event that
>>         ‘What is important is that I love Sandy and regret everything
>>     that happened.’     (Musgrave 2001:156)
>>
>>         b.    Kami    juga    sudah    mem-bicara-kan dengan    
>>     pem-erintah     pusat
>>         2PL    also    already    meN-talk-APPL    with government   
>>     central
>>         di     Jakarta    soal    rencana    men-ambah beasiswa    Jerman
>>         in    Jakarta    matter    plan    meN-increase
>>     scholarship    German
>>         untuk    Indonesia…
>>         for    Indonesia
>>         ‘We have also spoken with the central government in Jakarta
>>     about the plan to increase German scholarships to Indonesia.’ 
>>         (Quasthoff & Gottwald 2012: indmix_565272)
>>
>>
>>     Previous studies of Indonesian have noted the co-occurrence of
>>     applicatives and prepositions and have usually made passing
>>     comments often speculating that this feature is prevalent in
>>     non-standard Indonesian.
>>
>>     Our query is whether any list subscribers know of other languages
>>     which show this phenomenon and has anyone written about it?
>>
>>     Thanks in advance for any information which you can share!
>>
>>     Best, Simon
>>
>>
>>     References
>>     Bowden, John. 2001. Taba: Description of a South Halmahera
>>     language. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.
>>     Musgrave, Simon. 2001. Non-subject arguments in Indonesian. The
>>     University of Melbourne. (PhD thesis).
>>     Quasthoff, Uwe & Sebastian Gottwald. 2012. Leipzig corpus
>>     collection. (Ed.) Uwe Quasthoff & Gerhard Heyer. University of
>>     Leipzig. http://corpora2.informatik.uni-leipzig.de/.
>>
>>
>>     --
>>
>>     -- 
>>
>>     *Simon Musgrave *
>>
>>     Lecturer
>>
>>     *School of Languages, Literatures, Cultures and Linguistics*
>>
>>     Monash University
>>
>>     VIC 3800
>>
>>     Australia
>>
>>     T: +61 3 9905 8234
>>
>>     E: simon.musgrave at monash.edu <mailto:name.surname at monash.edu>
>>
>>     monash.edu <http://monash.edu/>
>>
>>     Secretary, Australasian Association for the Digital Humanities
>>     (aaDH <http://aa-dh.org/>)
>>
>>
>>     Official page <http://profiles.arts.monash.edu.au/simon-musgrave/>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>     _______________________________________________
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>>     http://listserv.linguistlist.org/mailman/listinfo/lingtyp
>>
>> -- 
>> Adam J.R. Tallman
>> Investigador del Museo de Etnografía y Folklore, la Paz
>> PhD, UT Austin
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> -- 
> Martin Haspelmath (haspelmath at shh.mpg.de  <mailto:haspelmath at shh.mpg.de>)
> Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History
> Kahlaische Strasse 10	
> D-07745 Jena
> &
> Leipzig University
> Institut fuer Anglistik
> IPF 141199
> D-04081 Leipzig
>
>
>
>
>
> ,
>
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-- 
Martin Haspelmath (haspelmath at shh.mpg.de)
Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History
Kahlaische Strasse 10	
D-07745 Jena
&
Leipzig University
Institut fuer Anglistik
IPF 141199
D-04081 Leipzig





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