12.1631, Sum: "Eat" as an Auxiliary

[The LINGUIST Network]

LINGUIST List:  Vol-12-1631. Wed Jun 20 2001. ISSN: 1068-4875.

Subject: 12.1631, Sum: "Eat" as an Auxillary

Moderators: Anthony Aristar, Wayne State U.<aristar at linguistlist.org>
            Helen Dry, Eastern Michigan U. <hdry at linguistlist.org>
            Andrew Carnie, U. of Arizona <carnie at linguistlist.org>

Reviews (reviews at linguistlist.org):
	Simin Karimi, U. of Arizona
	Terence Langendoen, U. of Arizona

Editors (linguist at linguistlist.org):
	Karen Milligan, WSU 		Naomi Ogasawara, EMU
	Lydia Grebenyova, EMU		Jody Huellmantel, WSU
	James Yuells, WSU		Michael Appleby, EMU
	Marie Klopfenstein, WSU		Ljuba Veselinova, Stockholm U.
	Heather Taylor-Loring, EMU	Dina Kapetangianni, EMU

Software: John Remmers, E. Michigan U. <remmers at emunix.emich.edu>
          Gayathri Sriram, E. Michigan U. <gayatri at linguistlist.org>

Home Page:  http://linguistlist.org/

The LINGUIST List is funded by Eastern Michigan University, Wayne
State University, and donations from subscribers and publishers.



Editor for this issue: Marie Klopfenstein <marie at linguistlist.org>

=================================Directory=================================

1)
Date:  Wed, 20 Jun 2001 16:38:13 +0200
From:  Ashild Naess <A.Naess at let.kun.nl>
Subject:  "Eat" as auxiliary

-------------------------------- Message 1 -------------------------------

Date:  Wed, 20 Jun 2001 16:38:13 +0200
From:  Ashild Naess <A.Naess at let.kun.nl>
Subject:  "Eat" as auxiliary

Dear linguists,

last week I posted a query on the list about languages using the verb "eat"
as an auxiliary. I got quite a few responses and would like to thank
everyone that took the time to reply. The responses are summarized below
for those interested.

First of all, Miriam Butt pointed out that the Hindi-Urdu example I gave in
my original posting is actually a case of an N-V complex predicate
construction rather than an auxiliary in the strict sense of the word. She
referred me to T.Mohanan 1994, "Argument Structure in Hindi", CSLI
Publications for information on this construction type in Hindi and to the
handout "The Status of Light Verbs in Historical Change" on her webpage
http://ling.uni-konstanz.de/pages/home/butt/ for discussion on the
distinction between light verbs and auxiliaries in Hindi-Urdu.

Mikael Parkvall and David Fertig referred me to the 1990 article "The
grammaticization of passive morphology" by Martin Haspelmath, in Studies in
Language 14 (1), 25-72. This article mentions the use of "eat" as a passive
marker in Korean and the Munda languages Kharia and Juang.

Katsunobu Izutsu and Jee-Hong Kim also mentioned the construction in
Korean, where "eat" seems to contribute a sense of adversativity or
unexpectedness/accident, and provided examples. (Since this is becoming a
long posting I will not quote any examples here, but I will be happy to
provide them on request to anyone interested.)

Lance Eccles told me Chinese has a number of fixed expressions with "chi"
(eat) + noun, such as "chi ku" (eat bitterness) = "suffer", "chi li" (eat
surprise) "be surprised" and others. Hsieh Feng-fan said Middle colloquial
Chinese used  "chi" (eat) as a passive marker.

Gerjan van Schaaik told me about the use of the verb "yemek" (eat) in
Turkish with the meaning of  "undergo/get" and provided examples. Ivan A.
Dershanski also mentioned Turkish as well as Persian and Bulgarian. I also
got information on Persian from Lameen Souag, Ahmad R. Lotfi, and Johannes
Reese.

John Newman told me of the Tibeto-Burman language Chepang which has
grammaticalized "je?" (eat) to a verbal suffix denoting either emotion with
respect to situation, or completion/finality of the situation. Reference:
Caughley, R.C. 1982. "The syntax and morphology of the verb in Chepang".
Canberra: Australian National University. He also provided an example of
Hausa "shaa" (drink) used as an auxiliary with "frequentive" meaning,
quoting the following reference: Jagger, P. 1977. "The nature and function
of auxiliary verbs in Hausa". In: P. Newman & R.M. Newman (eds.), "Studies
in Chadic Linguistics", 57-87. Leiden: Afrika-Studiecentrum.

Brenda-Joyce Clark mentioned the use of "eat" as an auxiliary in the
Australian language Mara, as noted briefly in Sharpe, M.C. 1976. "Alawa,
Mara and Warndarang", in R.M.W. Dixon (ed.): "Grammatical categories in
Australian languages", 708-734. Canberra: Australian Institute of
Aboriginal Studies.

Finally, Mark Brand alerted me to the use of "eat" in English expressions
such as "to eat humble pie" and "to eat one's hat", all involving various
degrees of humiliation.

Thanks again to everyone who responded.



Åshild Næss


University of Nijmegen
Erasmusplein 1
6525 GG Nijmegen
THE NETHERLANDS

+31 24 3616028

a.naess at let.kun.nl

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
LINGUIST List: Vol-12-1631