[Lingtyp] Narrative relative clauses

[Timur Maisak]

Dear Juergen,
I am not sure this is exactly what you are looking for, but among
Nakh-Daghestanian languages, at least in Aghul (Lezgic) headless
participial clauses can be used for encoding temporal precedence. Here are
two examples, both with the perfective participle (NMLZ is the
nominalization marker, absolutive singular).

(1) [*dad qaj.i-f*],  šünükː-ar  sekin  x.u-ne.
father return.PFV(PTCP)-NMLZ  child-PL  quiet  become.PFV-AOR
'As soon as father came, children became quiet.'

(2) aχpːa  fi  q’.a-j-e  mi,
then  what  do.IPFV-CONV-COP  this(ERG)
[*nac’.u-ʕ-di  š.u-f*],
river-INTER-LAT  go.PFV(PTCP)-NMLZ
fatːarx.a-j-e  gada  hage  nac’.u-ʕ-di.
fall.down.IPFV-CONV-COP  son  that  river-INTER-LAT
'When what she does... after she approached the river, she drops her baby
into the river.'

Participial clauses are also the main type of relative clauses in these
languages (e.g. 'a boy who went away' will be expressed as 'go.PFV(PTCP)
boy'). The 'converbial' ('narrative') use of participial clauses is not
very common, though: it is more usual to use converbs proper for this
function. Similar use of participles is also mentioned for Bagwalal (Andic)
by Kibrik et al. (2001: 508-509). In Bagwalal, however, there is an
additional marker on the participle in the 'converbial' function.
Unfortunately, there have been no in-depth studies of these constructions,
as far as I know.

Best,
Timur Maisak
http://iling-ran.ru/main/scholars/maisak_en
https://www.hse.ru/en/org/persons/34918643

2018-05-08 22:10 GMT+03:00 Bohnemeyer, Juergen <jb77 at buffalo.edu>:

> Dear colleagues -- I’m looking for any leads regarding both in-depth
> single-language and typological studies on a phenomenon one might refer to
> under the makeshift labels ‘narrative relative clauses’ or ‘eventive
> relative clauses’. I will stick here to the former label (NRCs), since the
> latter is more ambiguous. NRCs are a type of non-restrictive RCs that
> distinguish themselves from other kinds of non-restrictive RCs by standing
> in a narrative rhetorical relation to the matrix clause (or put
> differently, by advancing a narrative story line to which the matrix clause
> also contributes). Based on European languages, some subtypes could be
> distinguished based on (i) the “antecedent” of the RC - the matrix clause
> referent the RC picks up - and (ii) the expression of the semantic relation
> between the matrix and RC events:
>
>         • Antecedent is a participant of the matrix event; event relation
> implicit:
>           Sally gave the cup to Floyd, who smashed it to pieces
>         • Antecedent is the matrix event itself; event relation implicit:
>           Sally gave the cup to Floyd, which irritated Sam
>         • Antecedent is the matrix event itself; event relation explicit:
>           Sally gave the cup to Floyd, whereupon Sam left the room in
> disgust
>
> B and C are presumably structurally distinct from ordinary
> (non-restrictive) RCs. On the other hand, A-type NRCs are interesting for
> the form-meaning mismatch or semantic-pragmatic mismatch they involve. A
> more technical definition of NRCs might be as follows:
>
>         • Constructions involving a matrix clause and a dependent clause;
>         • The dependent clause should share some of the language-specific
> properties of RCs that set them apart from other types of dependent
> clauses/predications in the particular languages;
>         • The matrix clause event and the dependent clause event are
> causally related and/or spatio-temporally contiguous.
>
> I fully expect that the pragmatic functions of NRCs can be partially or
> wholly fulfilled by other clause combination constructions that do not have
> the language-specific trappings of RCs. Such functionally related
> alternative means are very much part of the interest driving this
> investigation.
>
> Thank you in advance for any leads on this topic! -- Best — Juergen
>
> --
> Juergen Bohnemeyer, Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Studies
> Department of Linguistics and Center for Cognitive Science
> University at Buffalo
>
> Office: 642 Baldy Hall, UB North Campus * Mailing address: 609 Baldy Hall,
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>
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