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<P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New">Dear Pål,</FONT>
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<P><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New">In Wolaitta (Omotic, South-west Ethiopia) the meteorological predicates<I> wont-</I> 'be light',<I> t'um-</I> 'be dark' take<I></I></FONT><I></I><I> <FONT FACE="Times New Roman">sa</FONT><SPAN LANG="en-gb"><FONT FACE="IPAKiel">/</FONT><FONT FACE="Times New Roman">á</FONT></SPAN><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New"></FONT></SPAN></I><SPAN LANG="en-us"> <FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New">'earth/ground' as subject (cf:</FONT><I> <FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New">sa</FONT></I></SPAN><I><SPAN LANG="en-gb"><FONT FACE="IPAKiel">/</FONT><FONT FACE="Times New Roman">á-n</FONT></SPAN><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New"></FONT></SPAN><SPAN LANG="en-gb"> <FONT FACE="IPAKiel">/utt-a<FONT FACE="Courier New"> </FONT></FONT></SPAN></I><SPAN LANG="en-gb"> <FONT FACE="Times New Roman">'sit on the ground' (earth/ground-LOC sit-2SG:IMP))</FONT></SPAN><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New">. </FONT></SPAN></P>
<P><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman">(1a)</FONT></SPAN><SPAN LANG="en-gb"> </SPAN><SPAN LANG="en-us"> <FONT FACE="Times New Roman">sa</FONT></SPAN><SPAN LANG="en-gb"><FONT FACE="IPAKiel">/</FONT><FONT FACE="Times New Roman">áy t’um-iísi<BR>
</FONT></SPAN><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman">earth-M:NOM be_dark-3MS:PF<BR>
‘It became dark’</FONT></SPAN>
<BR><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman">(1b) </FONT></SPAN><SPAN LANG="en-gb"> <FONT FACE="Times New Roman">sa</FONT><FONT FACE="IPAKiel">/</FONT><FONT FACE="Times New Roman">áy wont-iísi<BR>
</FONT></SPAN><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman">earth-M:NOM be_light-3MS:PF<BR>
‘It became light’</FONT></SPAN>
<P ALIGN=JUSTIFY><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New">Seasons are expressed in a similar way as in (2a, 3a). However, the onset of seasons is expressed by using the name of the season or event (in the case of rain) and common intransitive verbs such as gel- 'enter', kíy- 'go out', etc. (cf. 2b, 3b, c). </FONT> </SPAN></P>
<P><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman">(2a) sa</FONT><FONT FACE="MS UI Gothic">ʔ</FONT><FONT FACE="Times New Roman">á-y balgó<BR>
earth-M:NOM rainy.season:ACC<BR>
‘It is the rainy season (winter)’</FONT></SPAN>
<BR><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman">(2b) balgó-y gel-iísi<BR>
rainy.season-M:NOM enter-3MS:PF<BR>
‘The rainy season started’</FONT></SPAN>
<BR><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman">(3a) sa</FONT><FONT FACE="MS UI Gothic">ʔ</FONT><FONT FACE="Times New Roman">á-y bone<BR>
earth-M:NOM dry.season:ACC<BR>
‘It is the dry.season’</FONT></SPAN>
<BR><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman">(3b) bóneé kíy-iisi<BR>
dry.season-M:NOM go.out-3MS:PF<BR>
‘The dry season started’</FONT></SPAN>
<BR><SPAN LANG="fr"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman">(4a</FONT></SPAN><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman">) </FONT> <FONT FACE="IPAKiel">/</FONT></SPAN><SPAN LANG="fr"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman">í</FONT></SPAN><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman">ra</FONT></SPAN><SPAN LANG="fr"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman">-y </FONT></SPAN><SPAN LANG="en-us"> <FONT FACE="Times New Roman">wó</FONT><FONT FACE="IPAKiel">ëë</FONT></SPAN><SPAN LANG="fr"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman">-iisi<BR>
rain-M:NOM descend-3MS:PF<BR>
</FONT></SPAN><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman">‘I</FONT></SPAN><SPAN LANG="fr"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman">t rained</FONT></SPAN><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman">’</FONT></SPAN>
<BR><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman">(4b) </FONT> <FONT FACE="IPAKiel">/</FONT><FONT FACE="Times New Roman">íráy bukk-iísi<BR>
rain-M:NOM beat-3MS:PF<BR>
‘It is raining’<BR>
</FONT></SPAN>
<BR><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New">In case the fonts don't come out right, I attached a PDF with the examples.</FONT></SPAN>
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<P><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE=2 COLOR="#000000"> <<Wolaitta%20Meteorological%20predicates[1].pdf>> </FONT></SPAN>
<BR><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New">With best wishes,</FONT></SPAN>
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<P><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New">Azeb</FONT></SPAN>
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<P><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">Azeb Amha<BR>
African Languages and Cultures; LUCL<BR>
Leiden University, The Netherlands</FONT></SPAN>
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<P><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New"> </FONT> </SPAN>
<BR><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New">----- Original Message ----- </FONT></SPAN>
<BR><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New">From: <p.k.eriksen@ILN.UIO.NO></FONT></SPAN>
<BR><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New">To: <LINGTYP@LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG></FONT></SPAN>
<BR><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New">Sent: Thursday, February 14, 2008 9:25 PM</FONT></SPAN>
<BR><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New">Subject: "World" subjects of meteorological predicates</FONT></SPAN>
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<P><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New">> Dear colleagues,</FONT></SPAN>
<BR><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New">></FONT></SPAN>
<BR><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New">> I am currently doing research on expletive subjects, and in connection</FONT></SPAN>
<BR><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New">> to that I am very interested in languages where meteorological predicates</FONT></SPAN>
<BR><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New">> ("to rain", "to blow", "to be cold/warm", etc.) require, or at least often</FONT></SPAN>
<BR><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New">> occur with a subject meaning "world", "place", "surroundings", "sky", etc,</FONT></SPAN>
<BR><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New">> or which in other ways somehow refers to the locational/geographical</FONT></SPAN>
<BR><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New">> background of the weather phenomena (or even to a temporal background,</FONT></SPAN>
<BR><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New">> like "day") .</FONT></SPAN>
<BR><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New">></FONT></SPAN>
<BR><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New">> Givón (in "Syntax Vol. I", 2001, p. 119) mentions that "the world" is</FONT></SPAN>
<BR><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New">> used as the dummy subject for meteorological predicates in some</FONT></SPAN>
<BR><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New">> languages across the globe, and gives an example from Palestinian</FONT></SPAN>
<BR><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New">> Arabic (where the subject is "dunya" ("world")).</FONT></SPAN>
<BR><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New">></FONT></SPAN>
<BR><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New">> Apart from this observation, I have found a number of examples in</FONT></SPAN>
<BR><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New">> different grammars:</FONT></SPAN>
<BR><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New">></FONT></SPAN>
<BR><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New">> - Nikolaeva & Tolskaya ("A Grammar of Udihe", 2001) shows that in the</FONT></SPAN>
<BR><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New">> Tungusic language Udihe a noun meaning "place outside" or "world" may be</FONT></SPAN>
<BR><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New">> used as the dummy subject for a number of meteorological predicates</FONT></SPAN>
<BR><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New">> (though not by all).</FONT></SPAN>
<BR><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New">></FONT></SPAN>
<BR><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New">> - Watters ("A Grammar of Kham", 2002) shows that in the Himalayish</FONT></SPAN>
<BR><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New">> language Kham a noun meaning "sky" is the meteorological dummy</FONT></SPAN>
<BR><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New">> subject.</FONT></SPAN>
<BR><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New">></FONT></SPAN>
<BR><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New">> - Keenan ("Remarkable Subjects in Malagasy" in Li (ed.) "Subject and</FONT></SPAN>
<BR><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New">> Topic", 1976) mentions that in Malagasy meteorological predicates</FONT></SPAN>
<BR><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New">> normally take a word meaning "day" as their subject.</FONT></SPAN>
<BR><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New">></FONT></SPAN>
<BR><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New">> - Næss (p.c.) has told me that in Äiwoo (possibly Austronesian,</FONT></SPAN>
<BR><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New">> Eastern Solomon Islands) a word most often translated as "surroundings" is</FONT></SPAN>
<BR><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New">> found as a subject for meteorological predicates, and that the</FONT></SPAN>
<BR><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New">> neighbouring Polynesian language Vaeakau-Taumako similarly employs a word</FONT></SPAN>
<BR><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New">> meaning "land".</FONT></SPAN>
<BR><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New">></FONT></SPAN>
<BR><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New">> Still, it is hard to find examples of this phenomenon, mostly because</FONT></SPAN>
<BR><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New">> many grammars don't even address the issue of expletive subjects and/or</FONT></SPAN>
<BR><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New">> the structure of meteorological sentences. Consequenty I would be very</FONT></SPAN>
<BR><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New">> happy for any other example you can give me, of languages with this type</FONT></SPAN>
<BR><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New">> of phenomenon.</FONT></SPAN>
<BR><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New">></FONT></SPAN>
<BR><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New">> Many thanks in advance,</FONT></SPAN>
<BR><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New">></FONT></SPAN>
<BR><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New">></FONT></SPAN>
<BR><SPAN LANG="en-us"><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Courier New">> Pål Eriksen </FONT></SPAN>
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