WHAT vs. WHO

[Cliff Goddard]

Dear all,

I also was interested in this question for the purposes of my study
on lexico-semantic universals, which was published in 2001.

Goddard, Cliff. 2001. Lexico-semantic universals: A critical
overview. Linguistic Typology 5-1, 1-66.

I append the relevant paragraphs from that article.

best regards,

Cliff.


==

Almost all languages appear to have separate words for 'someone' and
'something' (cf. Haspelmath 1997). Sometimes the same words are used
as interrogatives or as so-called "knowledge complements", i.e. in
constructions like I don't know who did it or I know what happened,
as with Acehnese soe 'who/someone' and peue 'what/something' (Durie
et al. 1994). More commonly, one set of forms will be morphologically
basic and the other(s) will be built upon it. Occasionally the
expressions for 'someone' and 'something' are phrasemes, as with
Kayardild ngaaka dangkaa 'someone' and ngaaka thungalda 'something'
(Evans 1994). In some polysynthetic languages, the equivalents of
'something' and 'someone' are bound morphemes. For example, in
Koasati (Louisiana) na:si- 'something' and a:ti- 'someone' are
normally bound morphemes appearing as the first element of a verbal
word (Kimball 1985: 106, 135-9).

Very occasionally, it may appear that the same expression is used to
cover both 'someone' (who) and 'something' (what). This is the case
in Lithuanian where the relevant form is kas. But Tatjana Bulygina
(Anna Wierzbicka, pc) argues that kas is polysemous: kas1 =
'someone', kas2 = 'something'. Her arguments include the fact that
kas1 and kas2 have different agreement patterns; for example, Kas
linksmas, tas mielas 'who(ever) is cheerful is nice' (adjectives with
masculine agreement) does not equal Kas linksma, tai miela
'what(ever) is cheerful is nice' (adjectives with feminine/neuter
agreement). The two meanings also exhibit different behaviour in the
genitive case. Kas2 'something' has a single genitive form ko, which
is used for the full range of functions of genitive case. Kas1
'someone', however, also has a special genitive form kieno 'whose, by
whom', which is used to denote possession and to mark the subject of
a passive verbal construction, with ko being used for other genitive
functions (cf. Dambriu at nas et al 1966: 285).

Another language which at first seems to lack a lexical distinction
between 'someone' and 'something' is Wambaya (Australia). The same
stem gayini is used for both, but the distinction is made by choice
of different gender suffixes (Nordlinger 1998: 120-122): with the
inanimate gender suffix gayini means 'something', with an animate
gender suffix it means 'someone' (the masculine animate being used
when the actual gender of the referent is unknown).


--
-----
Professor Cliff Goddard
Linguistics
School of Languages, Cultures and Linguistics
University of New England
Armidale NSW 2351 AUSTRALIA

Phone: 02-67733309 (within Australia); +61 2 67733309 (from overseas)
Fax: 02-67733735  (within Australia); +61 2 6773735 (from overseas)

http://www.une.edu.au/arts/LCL/disciplines/index.htm

Check The NSM Homepage:
http://www.une.edu.au/arts/LCL/disciplines/linguistics/nsmpage.htm
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