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<DIV>May 12, 2006</DIV>
<DIV>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p> </o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">Dear LingTyp list members,</P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p> </o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">On April 30th I posted a request
for cases of perception verbs (e.g. 'see') that have been grammaticalized as a
'deictic presentational' particle or anything functionally close to that sort of
thing. I was very pleased by all the responses that people sent me. Thank you
very much! In case it is of interest to others, here is a summary of what people
sent me:</P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p> </o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><B>Some pointed me to examples in
several languages of </B><st1:place><B>Europe</B></st1:place><B>. </B>Besides
French and classical Greek referred to in my original posting, people mentioned
cases from Catalan, Czech, Hungarian, German dialects, and
English.<B><o:p></o:p></B></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p> </o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">The French cases of <I>voici
</I>and <I>voilŕ </I>are well know (I had previously referred to Lambrecht
2000:646, but neglected to cite the work: Lambrecht, Knud. 2000. “When subjects
behave like objects: An analysis of the merging of S and O in sentence-focus
constructions”. Studies in Language 24(3).611-682.). Bernard Fradin recommended
an important work on <I>voici </I>and <I>voilŕ:<o:p></o:p></I></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><I><o:p> </o:p></I></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in">Morin Yves-Charles. 1985.
"On the two subjectless verbs voici and voilŕ". Language 77:777-820.</P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p> </o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">Hortčnsia Curell reports the case
of <I>goita </I>in some dialects of Catalan from the (now ‘old-fashioned’) verb
<I>guaita</I> ‘look’:</P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">“It is used like French "voilŕ",
with a reduction of the initial diphthong, resulting in "goita":</P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">"Goita ma mare" Here/there is my
mother..</P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">"Goita-la", where "la" is
unambiguously accusative.”</P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p> </o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">Viktor Elšík posted detailed data
from colloquial Czech which feature four forms based on the imperative of the
verb HLEDJ-ET 'to look'. He wrote that “The verb itself is bookish and not used
in colloquial Czech (which employs DJÍVAT SE or KOUKAT SE instead), while the
deictic <B><I>is</I></B> typical of the colloquial register.” He summarized
saying that “Czech HELE etc. deictic appears to fulfill functions intermediate
between the imperative of a perception verb and a presentational particle of the
VOILA/VOICI type.” For more detail see the letter that he posted to the list on
May 2.</P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p> </o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">László Honti and Edith Moravcsik
both reported one or more Hungarian deictic particles based on the verb
<I>néz</I> ‘see’ including <I>ne, nesze</I> and <I>ne'zd </I>(apologies if I may
have messed up the spellings or special characters here). László Honti pointed
me to this Etymological Dictionary:<o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p> </o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in">Loránd Benkö (Hrsg.),
Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Ungarischen. Band II. Akadémiai Kiadó,
<st1:City><st1:place>Budapest</st1:place></st1:City>. 1995. 1018, 1027</P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p> </o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">László Honti also suggested there
might be something in Veps (Finnic) based on<I> nähdä</I> ‘see'.</P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p> </o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">René Schiering reported that some
“German dialects use contractions of 'see' + softener particle as deictic
presentational particles, e.g. Ruhr German 'kuck mal' ~ 'kumma' and Kölsch 'loor
eens' ~ 'loorens'. The following NP would be in nominative case in both cases.”
“‘Loor’ is the imperative of 'looren', which goes back to Old High German lôgęn,
which can be translated as - and is related to - English 'look'. It's traceable
from Old High German to Middle High German to present German dialects, from Old
Saxon to Lower German and from Anglo-Saxon to English, so it's pretty
West-Germanic. 'Eens' seems to be related to the numeral ONE, cf. 'een', so it's
similar to 'one' ~ 'once' in English.</P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p> </o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">Nicholas Ostler suggested one
take a look at <I>lo</I> (<look!) and <I>hark</I> (<hearken!), and
possibly <I>list</I> (<listen!). For ‘lo’ at least, I see that the Oxford
English Dictionary and other dictionaries seem to confirm that it comes from a
perception verb (from old English LÓCIAN 'to look, see'—but from the little I’ve
read so far I still only have a very sketchy picture of its history). It is in
any case clear that ‘lo’ in both middle and modern English can or could be used
to direct the hearer’s attention to “the presence or approach of something, or
to what is about to be said” (The Oxford English Dictionary).</P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p> </o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><B>Several people also suggested
examples from languages outside of
</B><st1:place><B>Europe</B></st1:place><B>.<o:p></o:p></B></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p> </o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none">Kees Hengeveld
reports that ‘there is such a construction in Kpelle (Welmers 1973)’ which I
understand is also described in Hengeveld 1992. </P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none"><o:p> </o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-layout-grid-align: none">Welmers, William.
E. 1973. African language structures.
<st1:City><st1:place>Berkeley</st1:place></st1:City>:
<st1:place><st1:PlaceType>Univ.</st1:PlaceType> of
<st1:PlaceName>California</st1:PlaceName></st1:place> Press.</P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-layout-grid-align: none"><o:p> </o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-layout-grid-align: none">Hengeveld, Kees.
1992. Non-verbal predication: Theory, typology, diachrony,
<st1:State><st1:place>Berlin</st1:place></st1:State>, Mouton de Gruyter.</P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none"><o:p> </o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none">Martine Vanhove
shared this: “Dialectal Arabic (at least Moroccan, Tunisian, Algerian and some
Yemeni varieties, for those I know of) have grammaticalized a verb meaning 'see'
as a 'deictic presentational' particle, but also often as an aspectual marker.
There is a vast literature on the subject. Here is one where you'll find other
references:”</P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none"><o:p> </o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-layout-grid-align: none">Caubet,
Dominique. 1992. Deixis, aspect et modalité : les particules hA- et RA- en arabe
marocain. in Morel, M.-A. et Danon-Boileau, L. (éds.), <I>Actes du colloque : La
deixis</I>. <st1:City><st1:place>Paris</st1:place></st1:City>: PUF, p. 139-149.
</P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none"><o:p> </o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none">David Gil
suggested there might be a case in Hebrew of the imperative <I>re’eh</I> (as
well as <I>harey</I>). I have since found that one of the standard scholastic
dictionaries on classical Hebrew (The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old
Testament by Ludwig Koehler & Walter Baumgartner) essentially confirms this.
There are, for example, parallel passages in the Hebrew Bible where in one
version of a story <I>re’eh</I> ‘see!’ is used and in another version
<I>hinneh</I> is used. <I>Hinneh</I> in turn is recognized as a presentative
particle by Andersen 2003, who also points out the parallels with <I>re’eh
</I>(Andersen, Francis I. 2003. ‘Lo and behold! Taxonomy and translation of
Biblical Hebrew [hinneh].’ Hamlet on a hill: Semitic and Greek studies presented
to Professor T. Muraoka on the occasion of his sixty-fifth birthday, ed. by M.
F. J. Baasten & W. Th. van Peursen, <st1:place>Leuven</st1:place>:
Peeters.).</P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none"><o:p> </o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none">Alex François
provide a very interesting example from Mwotlap of north
<st1:country-region><st1:place>Vanuatu</st1:place></st1:country-region>.</P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none"><o:p> </o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 13.5pt; COLOR: #660000; FONT-FAMILY: 'Book Antiqua'">In
Mwotlap, an Oceanic language (1800 sp.) from north
</SPAN><st1:country-region><st1:place><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 13.5pt; COLOR: #660000; FONT-FAMILY: 'Book Antiqua'">Vanuatu</SPAN></st1:place></st1:country-region><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 13.5pt; COLOR: #660000; FONT-FAMILY: 'Book Antiqua'">, there
is a deictic presentational particle of the form /ete/.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 13.5pt; COLOR: #660000; FONT-FAMILY: 'Book Antiqua'">It is
most probably the combination of two morphemes, /et/ 'to see/look' + /e/
'Deictic'. </SPAN><SPAN
style="COLOR: #660000"><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 13.5pt; COLOR: #660000; FONT-FAMILY: 'Book Antiqua'">/et/ is
both the radical form of 'see', and also the form of the imperative:
/et!/= 'Look!'</SPAN><SPAN style="COLOR: #660000"><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 13.5pt; COLOR: #660000; FONT-FAMILY: 'Book Antiqua'">/e/ ~
/en/ is a general situational deictic which can be glossed 'there', and is now
mostly used as an anaphoric particle and definite marker. It is thus
neutral with respect to distance, although it is probably cognate with /nen/,
the mid-distance (or addressee's sphere) deictic. </SPAN><SPAN
style="COLOR: #660000"><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 13.5pt; COLOR: #660000; FONT-FAMILY: 'Book Antiqua'">In other
words, /ete/ is a perfect parallel to Fr. /voilŕ/.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 13.5pt; COLOR: #660000; FONT-FAMILY: 'Book Antiqua'"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 13.5pt; COLOR: #660000; FONT-FAMILY: 'Book Antiqua'">Syntactically,
/ete/ is sometimes attested with only an NP: /<I>Ete n-ęmw mino hag gęn</I>/
'Voici ma maison lŕ-bas' = 'There's my house, over there'</SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 13.5pt; COLOR: #660000">. </SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 13.5pt; COLOR: #660000; FONT-FAMILY: 'Book Antiqua'">As
Mwotlap is not a case-marking language, I can't tell you if it's followed by a
nominative or accusative.</SPAN><SPAN
style="COLOR: #660000"><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 13.5pt; COLOR: #660000; FONT-FAMILY: 'Book Antiqua'">It is
also attested alone (/<I>Ete!</I>/ 'Voici!' = 'There it is! ~
Look!')<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 13.5pt; COLOR: #660000; FONT-FAMILY: 'Book Antiqua'">... or
preceding a whole <Subject+Predicate> clause: </SPAN><SPAN
style="COLOR: #660000"><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 13.5pt; COLOR: #660000; FONT-FAMILY: 'Book Antiqua'">/<I><U>Ete</U>
kę no-togtog van agôh</I>/<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: #660000; FONT-FAMILY: 'Book Antiqua'">/Presentat.
+ 3sg:subj + Stative-stay:Dup + Direc + Dx:Prox/<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 13.5pt; COLOR: #660000; FONT-FAMILY: 'Book Antiqua'">'(Look)
here's where she lives.' </SPAN><SPAN
style="COLOR: #660000"><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none"><o:p> </o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none">Rik van Gijn
reports that in Yurakaré (unclassified, central
<st1:country-region><st1:place>Bolivia</st1:place></st1:country-region>):</P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none"><o:p> </o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-layout-grid-align: none">“both the
presentational demonstrative and the verb for 'to see' seem to be derived from
one and the same root, and not one from the other. The form for 'to see' is
bëjta, which contains the form bë, also found in the causative counterpart of
'to see' bëjche 'to show' (the -ta vs. -che non-causative-causative
opposition is rather regular, it occurs with other verbs), and in bëbë 'search,
look for'. There is also an enclitic particle =bë which, among other functions,
is used to draw the attention of the hearer:</P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-layout-grid-align: none"><o:p> </o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-layout-grid-align: none">am=chi
bata-m=bë</P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-layout-grid-align: none">WH=DIR
head.off-2SG.S=ATT</P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-layout-grid-align: none">'Hey! Where are
you off to?'</P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-layout-grid-align: none"><o:p> </o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-layout-grid-align: none">There are two
demonstrative forms bëna 'this here' and bëti 'that there', which are variants
of ana 'this' and ati 'that'. These variants also contain the element bë, almost
certainly related to the bë in bëjta. They have a wider use than just
presentational, as they can also simply refer to something in the immediate
visible (!) or linguistic context without presenting it, but it is one of their
uses:</P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-layout-grid-align: none"><o:p> </o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-layout-grid-align: none">bëna
meme,
ani
li-tütü mi-nńu</P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-layout-grid-align: none">this.here
mother
dem:loc delimited.space-be
your-child</P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; mso-layout-grid-align: none">'Look here
mother, here is your child.'</P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none"><o:p> </o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none">Thank you
everyone for your help. I am also grateful to those who kindly shared other
things, such as examples of deictic or deictic presentational particles which
are probably not derived from perception verbs, or the use of an perception
imperative for things other than deictic presentationals.</P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none"><o:p> </o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none">Nick
Bailey</P></DIV></BODY></HTML>