grammaticalization query: 'see' to 'VERIFY'

[E. Bashir]

Yes, as in "Go see whether Joe is upstairs."





>________________________________
> From: Joseph T. Farquharson <jtfarquharson at GMAIL.COM>
>To: LINGTYP at LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG 
>Sent: Sunday, July 28, 2013 3:20 PM
>Subject: Re: grammaticalization query: 'see' to 'VERIFY'
> 
>
>
>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.
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>Joseph
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>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)
>>
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>
>-- 
>Joseph T. Farquharson
>Lecturer
>Department of Modern Languages and Linguistics
>The University of the West Indies, St. Augustine
>Trinidad & Tobago, West Indies 
>
>Telephone: (868) 662-2002 ext. 83493 | Fax: (868) 663-5059
>Email 1: jtfarquharson at gmail.com 
>Email 2: joseph.farquharson at sta.uwi.edu 
>
>Website: https://sites.google.com/site/jtfarquharson/
>New co-edited book: Variation in the Caribbean (2011)
>
>
>Higher than the highest human thought can reach is God's ideal for His children. Godliness--godlikeness--is the goal to be reached. Before the student there is opened a path of continual progress. He has an object to achieve, a standard to attain, that includes everything good, and pure, and noble. He will advance as fast and as far as possible in every branch of true knowledge. But his efforts will be directed to objects as much higher than mere selfish and temporal interests as the heavens are higher than the earth. - E. G. White
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