[Lingtyp] collective action marking

[Mark Donohue]

There's a nice example of how this isn't a version of reciprocal marking in
Tukang Besi, an Austronesian language from Indonesia.

In Tukang Besi the reciprocal prefix is *po-*; there is agreement marking,
that distinguished number in 1st and 2nd person; and there is another
prefix, *pada-*, glossed as 'multiple subject prefix'. This can be used for
any (verbal) predicate which is "done by two or more people together". The
convoluted wording is to allow for non-actions in there as well; not just
agentive predicates, but non-agentive predicates as well allow for *pada-*
(which is not possible with the reciprocal *po-*). Unlike the Kyrgyz affix,
*pada-* really works best when it implies more than just 2 or 3
participants, so it's not a perfect match; but it's clearly contrastive, in
the one language, with a more garden-variety reciprocal.

-Mark Donohue


On 24 July 2018 at 15:33, Randy J. LaPolla <randy.lapolla at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi All,
> A student in China (Liu Weifeng) working on Kyrgyz asked me for references
> about collective marking on the verb. This marking in Kyrgyz (-ish-) is
> distinct from plural marking, and used together with plural marking, and
> implies the action was done by two or more people together rather than
> individually.
>
> I am aware of the following article, though do not have access to it, and
> don’t even know know for sure whether it documents this phenomenon:
>
> Nedjalkov, Vladimir P. 2007. Reciprocals, assistives and plural in
> Kirghiz. In Nedjalkov, Vladimir (with the assistance of Emma Geniusiene and
> Zlatka Guentcheva) (eds.), Typology of reciprocal constructions, 1231-1280.
> Amsterdam: Benjamins.
>
> I don't know of any other works on this type of category in any language.
> Has this been looked into in any languages?
>
> Thanks!
>
> Randy
> -----
> *Randy J. LaPolla, PhD FAHA* （羅仁地）
> Professor of Linguistics and Chinese, School of Humanities
> Nanyang Technological University
> HSS-03-45, 14 Nanyang Drive | Singapore 637332
> http://randylapolla.net/
> Most recent book:
> https://www.routledge.com/The-Sino-Tibetan-Languages-2nd-
> Edition/LaPolla-Thurgood/p/book/9781138783324
>
>
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