grammaticalization query: 'see' to 'VERIFY'

[André Müller]

Dear Michael & Timur,

Although not quite as high on the grammaticalization scale as the Archi and
Agul examples, and with a slightly different meaning, a similar
construction does exist in Mandarin Chinese. I don't have Heine & Kuteva
2004 at hand, so I'm not sure if they mention this.
The full verb 看 (kàn, lit. 'to see') is used – often in reduplicated form –
after other verbs to convey the meaning 'to check out', so 吃看看 (chī kànkan,
lit. 'eat see') means 'to try', referring to food, 听看看 (tīng kànkan, lit.
'listen see') means 'to check out by hearing'.

This construction isn't verificational in the strict sense, as it doesn't
verify a previous statement. It can be used for "checking out" something
unknown, but it can also be used for statements. 你吃看看，那个是不是太辣。 (Nǐ chī
kànkan, nèi ge shì bú shì tài là; lit. you eat see~see, that CLF is not is
too spicy) "Eat and try if this is too spicy."

Greetings,
- André Müller
(MPI EVA & Uni Bamberg)


2013/7/28 Michael Daniel <misha.daniel at gmail.com>

> 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)
>
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