'like'/'manner' as Purpose clause marker

Tue Aug 23 18:57:10 UTC 2011

Dear Yvonne,

in some East Caucasian languages one can find converbs that combine manner
and purpose meanings (though I am not sure that the manner meaning is the
same that you need). I can give you examples from two Lezgic languages,
Lezgian and Agul.

In Lezgian, there is a converb in -wal which, when added to participles,
forms a purpose/manner converb. Examples of purpose use from Haspelmath 1993
(I cite only the translations): ‘Read aloud, so that I, too, may hear it’ or
‘My brother asked, quietly, so that Nadja wouldn’t hear him…’. Examples of
manner use in what Haspelmath calls ‘as’ clauses: ‘As can be seen from these
examples…’, ‘He did as his mother has said’, ‘Just like nature is glad when
there are bright days…’. For details see Haspelmath 1993 (A grammar of
Lezgian), pp. 392-393, 400.

In Agul, there us a marker -χildi which also attaches to participles and
forms converbs with purpose or manner meaning. The examples of use are close
to those found in Lezgian; let me cite just two from our Agul Corpus:

(1)       za-k-as                       ha-mi-sa-l
sa        dar       x.u-raj,

            I-SUB/CONT-ELAT  ha-DEMM-LOC-SUPER     one      tree
become.PF-JUSS

            …baw                         da-q-ag˳.a-χildi

            mother            NEG-RE-see.IPF-MNR

            ‘Let me become a tree here, so that my (step)mother does not see
me.’

(2)       za-s               qatːaq’.a-χildi            ze
dad-ar –
baw-ar.i…

            I-DAT             retell.IPF-MNR          my       father-PL
mother-PL(ERG)

            ‘As my parents told me… (there were only three classes in our
school before)’

Such manner/purpose converbs are not the only (and not primary) means of
expressing purpose in these languages. These forms are not used in
complement clauses, and are not used with nouns (‘like N’).

Best,

Timur Maisak

Institute of Linguistics, Russian Academy of Sciences

http://lingvarium.org/maisak/

2011/8/16 Yvonne Treis <yvoennche at gmail.com>

> Dear colleagues,****
>
> ** **
>
> I am looking for languages in which a morpheme meaning 'like' or 'manner'
> is used to mark purpose clauses.****
>
> ** **
>
> Here are some examples from Kambaata (Cushitic, Ethiopia) to clarify what I
> am looking for. In Kambaata, the enclitic morpheme =ga 'like' is used, among
> others, in the following constructions:****
>
> ** **
>
> Noun=‘like’ means 'like / in the manner of Noun'****
>
> (1) ****
>
> *adanch-o=ga                      ga'l-a*                     agg-oomm****
>
> cat.SG-fGEN=LIKE            shard-mOBL       drink-1sPFV****
>
> 'I drank from a shard *LIKE a cat*.'                ****
>
> ** **
>
> Relative clause=’like’ functions as a complement clause e.g. with verbs of
> cognition ('know'), perception ('hear'), utterance ('say'), manipulation
> ('tell s.o. to do s.th., cause s.o. to s.o.)****
>
> (3)****
>
> *ayeeti-la                              y-itaanti-'e=ga*
>                 dag-aamm****
>
> who.PRED-DISBELIEF      say-2sIPFV-1sO.REL=LIKE             know-1sIPFV***
> *
>
> 'I know *THAT (lit. "like") you will say to me "Who is [this]?!"*.****
>
> ** **
>
> Relative clause=’like’ functions as a purpose clause ('in order to'/'so
> that')****
>
> (4)****
>
> *mann-u                [...]         hoog-umb-o=ga*
> iyy-itaa-s****
>
> people-mNOM                 become_tired-3mNEG.REL-mOBL=LIKE
>                 carry-3fIPFV-3mO****
>
> 'They [= horses] carry people so that (lit. "like") they don't become
> tired.' ****
>
> (A translation that better reflects the Kambaata word order: *'So that
> (lit. "like") people do not become tired*, they [= horses] carry them.')**
> **
>
> ** **
>
> Cross-linguistically, it is widely attested that 'like' can grammaticalise
> into a complement clause marker (usually via a quotative function) but I
> haven't come across many examples of 'like'/’manner’ being used as a marker
> of *PURPOSE* clauses outside of Ethiopian languages. (In Ethio-Semitic,
> North Omotic and East Cushitic languages, however, it is quite common to use
> ‘like’/’manner’ as a purpose clause marker.) The only non-Ethiopian example
> I could find so far is quoted in Schmidtke-Bode (2009: 76).****
>
> ** **
>
> Supyire (Gur: Mali, Carlson 1994: 586)****
>
> Pi            na           wyige
> turu                       *ba*           pi            gu           m-pyi
> ****
>
> they       PROG    hole.DEF              dig.IMPF              *like*
> they       POT        FP-do****
>
> si             lwOhO  ta            mE****
>
> SUBJ      water    get         like****
>
> 'They are digging the hole in order to get water.' (lit. "They are digging
> a hole as if they were to get some water.")****
>
> (NB: In the example above, tone marking was left out; E = open 'e', O =
> open 'o')****
>
> ** **
>
> Do you know of other languages in which 'like' or 'manner' is used as a
> marker of purpose clauses? I’d be interested to know about languages that 1)
> use ‘like’/’manner’ in purpose but NOT in complement clauses, 2) languages
> that use ‘like’/’manner’ in purpose AND complement clauses, 3) languages
> that use ‘like’/’manner’ as the primary means to mark purpose clauses, 4)
> languages that use ‘like’/’manner’ as one out of several means to mark
> purpose clauses, etc.****
>
> ** **
>
> Any comments and references would be much appreciated! I will post a
> summary if there are enough responses.****
>
> ** **
>
> Regards,****
>
> Yvonne Treis****
>
> ** **
>
> ** **
>
> References:****
>
> Carlson, Robert 1994. A grammar of Supyire. Berlin, New York: Mouton de
> Gruyter.****
>
> Schmidtke-Bode, Karsten 2009. A typology of purpose clauses. Amsterdam,
> Philadelphia: Benjamins.****
>
> ** **
>
> ** **
>
> **************************************************************************
>
> ** **
>
> Dr Yvonne Treis****
>
> Postdoctoral Research Fellow****
>
> LLACAN - UMR 8135 du CNRS ****
>
> Centre Georges Haudricourt, Bat. C ****
>
> 7, rue Guy Môquet B.P. 8 ****
>
> 94801 Villejuif Cedex****
>
> FRANCE****
>
> ** **
>
> http://cnrs.academia.edu/YvonneTreis  ****
>
> ** **
>
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