[PapuanLanguages] Etymology of WANT

[f.lichtenberk at AUCKLAND.AC.NZ]

Hi Hilario and Wayne,

I think the person in Germany Andy Pawley has in mind is Olesya Khanina, who was working on a cross-linguistic study of 'want' a few years ago. She was at the Max Planck Institute in Leipzig at the time, and her address was khanina at eva.mpg.de.

Frank Lichtenberk

-----Original Message-----
From: papuanlanguages-bounces at anu.edu.au [mailto:papuanlanguages-bounces at anu.edu.au] On Behalf Of Andrew Pawley
Sent: Thursday, 28 May 2009 1:37 p.m.
To: Papuan languages discussion list
Cc: an-lang at anu.edu.au; Wayne Lawrence (ARTS ASI); papuanlanguages at anu.edu.au
Subject: Re: [PapuanLanguages] Etymology of WANT

Dear Hilario and Wayne

There are probably many other comparative sources but I suggest you start with a look at Cliff Goddard and Anna Wierzbicka (eds), 1994.  Semantic and Lexical Universals,  387-421.   Benjamins: Amsterdam.  This has essays on various languages that describe how 'want' and the editors' 50 or so other putative universals are expressed.   

In the Papuan (Trans New Guinea family) language I know best, Kalam, 'X wants something' is expressed literally as 'X says "I get something!" ', or X says 'we get something!", using the hortative of the verb d- 'get, have, control, etc.' (where an alternative literal translation for 'I get something' might also be  'let me get something'. That is, in Kalam someone's thought processes are expressed as internal quoted speech, and wanting is viewed as a thought process. My paper in that volume is "Kalam exponents of lexico-semantic primitives." I think this mode of expressing want is widespread among Papuan languages of New Guinea.


A few years ago a PhD student in Germany wrote to me saying she was looking at the origins of 'want' expressions in Fijian and Polynesian languages, maybe just at the history of the peverbal desiderative particle Fijian via, PPn *fia.  Unfortunately I forget her affiliation, maybe it was at one of the MPIs.  I have the impression that in Oceanic languages, as in Tok Pisin, desiderative 'want' is likely to be expressed by, or come from a verb of liking.  Not surprising, but kind of boring for a typologist looking for extreme sourrces.


Andy

----- Original Message -----
From: Hilario De Sousa <hilario.desousa at usyd.edu.au>
Date: Thursday, May 28, 2009 7:00 am
Subject: [PapuanLanguages] Etymology of WANT
To: papuanlanguages at anu.edu.au, an-lang at anu.edu.au
Cc: wp.lawrence at auckland.ac.nz

> 
> *sorry for cross-posting*
>  
> Dear Austronesianists/Papuanists,
> 
> Wayne Lawrence (wp.lawrence at auckland.ac.nz) is looking into the 
> grammaticalisatin of 'desideratives' (both lexical and grammatical).  
> For instance, English «want» is grammaticalised from an original 
> meaning of 'lack'.  An interesting case is the Japanese verbal suffix 
> «-tai», which is said to come from «itai» 'sore, hurts', via 
> 'extremely'
> (the earliest instances of -itai, in the late Heian period, have the 
> interpretation of 'very'.  The path SORE --> EXTREMELY is also found 
> in German «sehr» 'very', c.f. English «sore»).  Do you know of any 
> other examples of EXTREMELY --
> > 
> WANT?  The etymology of WANT in other languages would also be hugely 
> appreciated.
> 
> Hilário de Sousa on behalf of Wayne Lawrence 
> _______________________________________________
> PapuanLanguages mailing list
> PapuanLanguages at anu.edu.au
> http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/papuanlanguages

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