helps to-X-constructions

[Vanhove]

Dear Wolfgang,

Roper, E.M. (1928. "Tu Bedawi". An Elementary Handbook for the Use of Sudan 
Government Officials. London) gives, in Beja (Northern Cushitic) for the 
verbal derived form he calls "reciprocal and social" of the so-called 
"weak" verbs the following comment "The reciprocal form may mean to help or 
accompany another in doeing". Unfortunatly the sole example he provides 
belongs to the "accompany" semantic field (baraa Daabenhob henén Daabsamne 
- sorry the diaritics are missing) "when they run we will-run-with-(them).)
But for "strong" verbs (which have a different morphology), under the 
derived formed simply labelled as "reciprocal" he provides the following 
comment (p. 73) "In the singular it means - to assist another in doing. In 
the plural it means - to do to each other." His examples are: aneb amogaada 
"help me throw" (from gid throw), baro amodaarheb "help me to kill him" 
(lit. he.accusative help to kill-me; from gid "kill").

Two French colleagues of mine are working on the subject at the moment, 
they use the label "sociative causative", and you can contact them 
(Françoise Rose : rose at vjf.cnrs.fr, and Antoine Guillaume 
aguillau at ish-lyon.cnrs.fr). They'll present a paper on this topic during 
the next ALT conference in Paris.

Best wishes

Martine Vanhove

A 15:18 22/08/2007 +0200, Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Schulze a écrit :
>Dear Colleagues,
>just a little question: Does anybody has a term for what can be called 
>"helps-to-X"-constructions, as in "Genetic variation *helps to* understand 
>predisposition to schizophrenia"? (horribile dictu: Adjuvative?) And: is 
>there any evidence that this function has become grammaticalized in terms 
>of verbal morphology?
>Many thanks in advance and best wishes,
>Wolfgang
>
>--
>
>Prof. Dr. Wolfgang 
>Schulze
>
>----------------------------------------------------------
>
>Primary 
>contact: 
>
>
>Institut für Allgemeine & Typologische Sprachwissenschaft
>
>Dept. II / F 
>13 
>
>
>Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität 
>München
>
>Geschwister-Scholl-Platz 
>1 
>
>
>D-80539 
>München 
>
>
>Tel.: 0049-(0)89-2180-2486 
>(Secretary)
>
>          0049-(0)89-2180-5343 
> (Office)
>
>Fax:  0049-(0)89-2180-5345 
>
>
>Email: <mailto:W.Schulze at lrz.uni-muenchen.de>W.Schulze at lrz.uni-muenchen.de 
>/// 
><mailto:Wolfgang.Schulze at lmu.de>Wolfgang.Schulze at lmu.de 
>
>
>Web: 
><http://www.ats.lmu.de/mitarbeiter/index.php>http://www.ats.lmu.de/mitarbeiter/index.php 
>
>
>----------------------------------------------------------
>
>Second 
>contact: 
>
>
>Katedra 
>Germanistiký 
>
>
>Fakulta humanitných 
>vied 
>
>
>Univerzita Mateja Béla / Banská Bystrica
>
>Tajovského 
>40 
>
>
>SK-97401 Banská 
>Bystrica 
>
>
>Tel: 
>(00421)-(0)48-4465108 
>
>
>Fax: 
>(00421)-(0)48-4465512 
>
>
>Email: 
><mailto:Schulze at fhv.umb.sk>Schulze at fhv.umb.sk 
>
>
>Web: 
><http://www.fhv.umb.sk/app/user.php?user=schulze>http://www.fhv.umb.sk/app/user.php?user=schulze 
>
>
>----------------------------------------------------------
>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/lingtyp/attachments/20070822/a661c519/attachment.htm>