[Lingtyp] Truth markers

[Volker Gast]

Perhaps this has been mentioned already: English 'very' derives from 
OFr. 'verai' > MidE 'verray'/'verrai'.

Engl. 'very' is also used as a 'particularizer' ('this very man ...'; 
cf. König 1991, The meaning of focus particles); and particularizers, in 
turn, sometimes seem to develop into intensifiers. So there seems to be 
a chain of the following type (cf. also Riccardo's comments on 
reflexives in Austronesian):

'true' > particularizer > intensifier > reflexive

First transition: 'truly ('verrai') this man' > 'this very man'

The second transition seems to be attested in Breton ('end-eeun'), 
according to the Database of Intensifiers and Reflexives, but I only 
have second hand evidence here (see Press 1986, A Grammar of Breton, pp. 
100-101). In fieldwork done at the beginning of the century I also found 
it in Chalcatongo Mixtec 'máá' 'self', supposedly < máʔá ('very, 
exact'), but that's a bit speculative.

Best,
Volker


On 21/10/2021 20:12, Peter Arkadiev wrote:
> - ajrtallman@
> Dear Mira, dear colleagues,
> I don't remember if the development 'true' > 'however' has been 
> mentioned in this discussion. There was a nice paper by Valentina 
> Apresyan on the Russian "pravda" 'truth' in this respect, see 
> https://publications.hse.ru/en/chapters/78449093
> Best regards,
> Peter
> 21.10.2021, 20:32, "Mira Ariel" <mariel at tauex.tau.ac.il>:
>
>     Thanks, everyone!
>
>     We know of the truth> intensifier evolution. I just had a paper on
>     that in /Studies in Lg / (Bardenstein and Ariel).
>
>     We argue there that you don't actually have a truth marker
>     evolving directly to an intensifier, but rather, through an
>     intermediate stage of what we call 'counter-loosening'. This seems
>     to be the referential marking that Adam is talking about (by the
>     way, reduplication as 'real' can be seen in 'salad salad').
>
>     And yes, 'true' is tricky to define. We take is as something like
>     'corresponding to the relevant state of affairs', our point being
>     that for the most part speakers actually mobilize this marker for
>     OTHER discourse purposes (unexpectedness, agreement and more).
>
>     What we're hoping to find is whether there is a typological study
>     dedicated to truth markers out there. We'd like to know how
>     prevalent it is in the world's languages.
>
>     Thanks!
>
>     *From:*Adam James Ross Tallman [mailto:ajrtallman at utexas.edu
>     <mailto:ajrtallman at utexas.edu>]
>     *Sent:* Thursday, October 21, 2021 5:01 AM
>     *To:* LINGTYP at LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG; Mira Ariel
>     <mariel at tauex.tau.ac.il>
>     *Subject:* Re: [Lingtyp] Truth markers
>
>     Hey Mira,
>
>     Are you looking for referential modifiers or truth marking that
>     scopes over predicates / whole propositions?
>
>     For nouns / referential expressions in Chacobo
>
>     "veridative" is marked through reduplication + -ria. For instance,
>     /honi /'man' vs. /honi honi-ria /'real man' which could be used to
>     emphasize the man-like properties of a person. /-ria /is a
>     'simulative', that by itself marks that something is similar to
>     N... I don't think nominal reduplication occurs outside of this
>     context.
>
>     For propositions, the expression /jabija /[haβiha] 'true', is the
>     closest I can think of. It is /haβi /'custom, tradition, surely,
>     obviously' with (probably) /ha(a) /'yes'...
>
>     But what is the main semantic test for knowing that something is a
>     'truth marker'? There are surely overlapping contexts here, but
>     what 'true' even means seems like a very complicated ethnographic
>     question ...
>
>     best,
>
>     Adam
>
>     On Thu, Oct 21, 2021 at 2:00 AM Mira Ariel
>     <mariel at tauex.tau.ac.il> wrote:
>
>         Hi,
>
>         My student, Shirly Orr, and I are interested in truth markers,
>         such as /true/, /real, right/.
>
>         Are they frequently attested in natural languages?
>
>         We're interested in etymological sources for them, as well as
>         meanings they evolve to express.
>
>         Any leads on literature we can dig up?
>
>         Thanks,
>
>         Mira Ariel
>
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>
>
>     --
>
>     Adam J.R. Tallman
>
>     Post-doctoral Researcher
>
>     Friedrich Schiller Universität
>
>     Department of English Studies
>
>     ,
>
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>     Lingtyp mailing list
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>
> -- 
> Peter Arkadiev, PhD Habil.
> Institute of Slavic Studies
> Russian Academy of Sciences
> Leninsky prospekt 32-A 119334 Moscow
> peterarkadiev at yandex.ru
> http://inslav.ru/people/arkadev-petr-mihaylovich-peter-arkadiev
>
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