grammaticalization query: 'see' to 'VERIFY'

[Joseph T. Farquharson]

As a lexical verb, English *see* and its Jamaican Creole (which is an
English-lexified creole) counterpart *si*, has this verificative sense.
This, I guess, is in keeping with the "seeing is believing" notion, where
one can verify for oneself that something is true by seeing it. This can at
least account for the starting point of the process of grammaticalisation
and how this verb in another language could come to be used as an affix
bearing verificative meaning/function.

Joseph


On 28 July 2013 16:01, Michael Daniel <misha.daniel at gmail.com> wrote:

> Dear all,
>
> in two Lezgic (East Caucasian) languages, Archi and Agul, there is a(n
> apparently rare) morphological category of verificative, or verificational.
> Its meaning is 'check whether P is true', where P is the lexical verb with
> its dependents. Here is an Archi example, with VERIF in the infinitive:
>
> qalal-a          jašul      adam       i-r-k:u-s
> palace-IN     inside   person     4.be-INTRG-VERIF-INF
> '(He went inside) in order to see whether there was anyone inside the
> palace. (4 is the agreement class)'
>
> The following Agul example with VERIF in the past tense shows that VERIF
> introduces its own argument ('one who checks'):
>
> gadaji           ruš    qušunaj-čuk’-une.
> boy(ERG)    girl    go_away.PF.RES-VERIF-AOR
> 'The boy checked, whether the girl has gone away.'
>
> (See also this handout for further details:
> http://lingvarium.org/maisak/publ/Maisak_Leipzig2009.pdf)
>
> In both languages, the construction seems to result from
> grammaticalization of the verb 'see' (Archi ak:u- and its Agul cognate).
> The development seems to be historically and areally independent.
>
> Although there is a number of grammaticalization paths in which this
> verbal meaning is involved (see Heine and Kuteva 2004: 269-270; and other
> developments, including evidential-like meanings), we are unaware of the
> verb 'see' grammaticalizing into categories similar to Archi/Agul
> verificative. We would be happy to learn of any comparable, in functional
> semantics terms, evidence from other languages.
>
> Michael Daniel and Timur Maisak
>
> (if convenient, copy both of us when replying to this message)
>



-- 
*Joseph T. Farquharson*
*Lecturer
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*Trinidad & Tobago, West Indies *
*
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