[Lingtyp] Applicative and preposition
Martin Haspelmath
haspelmath at shh.mpg.de
Wed Oct 17 15:04:40 UTC 2018
I think the answer to Adam's question is that a construction is an
applicative only if the new object is coded like the P-argument of a
basic transitive construction.
Thus, Simon Musgrave's example (1c) from Taba (based on Bowden 2001) is
an (instrumental) applicative:
npun-ak kolay peda
kill-APPL snake machete
But when the instrument 'machete' has its instrumental preposition (ada
peda 'with a machete'), it is not an applicative, from a typological
perspective (= as a comparative concept).
There is no "official" definition of the (typological) term
"applicative", of course, but it is my understanding that most people
use the term in this way. The Wikipedia article reflects this by
speaking about promotion to "(core) object":
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Applicative_voice.
(Maria Polinsky's WALS article is vague and speaks just about
"increasing the number of object arguments by one", without making
precise what is meant by "object", https://wals.info/chapter/109. But
her examples and the discussion make it clear that she means objects
coded like P-arguments.)
This does not mean, of course, that the description of Taba should not
use the term "Applicative" for the suffix -ak in all cases – but this
would be a language-specific descriptive category, somewhat like Dative
is used in Russian-type languages also when the case in question is not
used in its definitional function (recipient of 'give').
Best,
Martin
On 17.10.18 16:45, Adam James Ross Tallman wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I know of some phenomena that is similar to this (I think) in Chácobo
> and other languages. But I have a question about terminology here. Why
> is it still an applicative if a (n oblique?) postposition is marked on
> the "promoted" argument? What are the criteria that identify it as
> "promoted" in this case (non-repeatability, position in clause
> etc...). Or is there some type of semantic criterion at work here?
>
> best,
>
> Adam
>
> On Wed, Oct 17, 2018 at 9:36 AM Françoise Rose
> <francoise.rose at univ-lyon2.fr <mailto:francoise.rose at univ-lyon2.fr>>
> wrote:
>
> Dear Simon,
>
> Thanks for your query, it’s very interesting.
>
> I just gave a talk at SWL8 on an applicative construction of
> Mojeño that is correlated with the presence of verbal classifiers
> that refer to a location. When such a verbal classifier is
> present, the “coreferential” NP can be expressed as an object
> rather than an oblique (i.e. it loses its preposition, as in the
> second example below). Interestingly, there is some variation. The
> preposition can be maintained in the locative phrase, even when
> the verbal classifier is present, but there is then no valency
> change (so the construction does not count as an applicative).
> Intransitive verbs take a 3^rd person subject t-prefix, while
> transitive verbs take some semantically more specific prefixes for
> 3^rd person when the object is third person also (as in the second
> example). So this case is not exactly what you were looking for,
> but the presence of three alternates here is interesting: the
> construction of example 3 could well be an intermediate step in
> the development of the applicative effect of classifiers.
>
> t-junopo=po
>
>
>
> *te*
>
>
>
> to
>
>
>
> smeno
>
> 3-run=pfv
>
>
>
> *prep*
>
>
>
> art.nh
>
>
>
> woods
>
> 'S/he ran *to/in/from* the woods.'
>
> ñi-jumpo*-je*-cho
>
>
>
> to
>
>
>
> smeno
>
> 3m-run*-clf:interior*-act
>
>
>
> art.nh
>
>
>
> woods
>
> S/he runs *inside* the woods.
>
> t-jumpo*-je*-cho
>
>
>
> *te*
>
>
>
> to
>
>
>
> smeno
>
> 3-run*-clf:interior*-act
>
>
>
> *prep*
>
>
>
> art.nh
>
>
>
> woods
>
> S/he ran inside the woods.
>
> The slides from my presentation can be downloaded from SWL8 website.
>
> Very best,
>
> Françoise ROSE
>
> Directrice de Recherches 2^ème classe, CNRS
>
> Laboratoire Dynamique Du Langage (CNRS/Université Lyon2)
>
> 16 avenue Berthelot
>
> 69007 Lyon
>
> FRANCE
>
> (33)4 72 72 64 63
>
> www.ddl.cnrs.fr/ROSE <http://www.ddl.cnrs.fr/ROSE>//
>
> *De :*Lingtyp [mailto:lingtyp-bounces at listserv.linguistlist.org
> <mailto:lingtyp-bounces at listserv.linguistlist.org>] *De la part
> de* Simon Musgrave
> *Envoyé :* mercredi 17 octobre 2018 07:16
> *À :* LINGTYP at listserv.linguistlist.org
> <mailto:LINGTYP at listserv.linguistlist.org>
> *Objet :* [Lingtyp] Applicative and preposition
>
> Dear Lingtyp members,
>
>
> I am posting this query on behalf of one of my PhD students. We
> will post a summary of responses in due course.
>
> From existing studies of applicatives, only two Austronesian
> languages, Taba and Indonesian, have been documented to
> unexpectedly retain a preposition when an applicative affix is
> used to promote a previously non-core object to core.
> Bowden, in his grammatical description of Taba (2001), states that
> it is possible for the same idea to be expressed using three
> possibilities. Firstly, that the third entity is introduced by a
> preposition, secondly that the applied object is marked by an
> applicative morpheme and thirdly that the applied object can be
> marked by an applicative morpheme and preposition, as the
> following examples show.
>
> (1)a. Ahmad npun kolay
> Ahmad 3SG=kill snake
> ‘Ahmad killed a snake.’
>
> b. Ahmad npun kolay ada peda PREPOSITION
> Ahmad 3SG=kill snake with machete
> ‘Ahmad killed a snake with a machete.’
>
> c. Ahmad npunak kolay peda APPLICATIVE
> Ahmad 3SG=kill-APPL snake machete
> ‘Ahmad killed a snake with a machete.’
>
> d. Ahmad npunak kolay ada peda BOTH
> Ahmad 3SG=kill-APPL snake with machete
> ‘Ahmad killed a snake with a machete.’ (2001:204)
>
>
> Sometimes Indonesian clauses with applicative verbs suffixed with
> –kan retain the preposition directly following the verb when it is
> expected to have been lost according to conventional grammar
> rules, as shown in 2.
>
> (2)a. Yang penting saya sangat men-cinta-i Sandy
> REL important 1SG very meN.love.APPL Sandy
> dan meny-enang-kan atas semua ke-jadi-an itu
> meN-senang-kan
> and meN-pity-APPL on all event that
> ‘What is important is that I love Sandy and regret everything
> that happened.’ (Musgrave 2001:156)
>
> b. Kami juga sudah mem-bicara-kan dengan
> pem-erintah pusat
> 2PL also already meN-talk-APPL with government
> central
> di Jakarta soal rencana men-ambah beasiswa Jerman
> in Jakarta matter plan meN-increase scholarship
> German
> untuk Indonesia…
> for Indonesia
> ‘We have also spoken with the central government in Jakarta
> about the plan to increase German scholarships to Indonesia.’
> (Quasthoff & Gottwald 2012: indmix_565272)
>
>
> Previous studies of Indonesian have noted the co-occurrence of
> applicatives and prepositions and have usually made passing
> comments often speculating that this feature is prevalent in
> non-standard Indonesian.
>
> Our query is whether any list subscribers know of other languages
> which show this phenomenon and has anyone written about it?
>
> Thanks in advance for any information which you can share!
>
> Best, Simon
>
>
> References
> Bowden, John. 2001. Taba: Description of a South Halmahera
> language. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.
> Musgrave, Simon. 2001. Non-subject arguments in Indonesian. The
> University of Melbourne. (PhD thesis).
> Quasthoff, Uwe & Sebastian Gottwald. 2012. Leipzig corpus
> collection. (Ed.) Uwe Quasthoff & Gerhard Heyer. University of
> Leipzig. http://corpora2.informatik.uni-leipzig.de/.
>
>
> --
>
> --
>
> *Simon Musgrave *
>
> Lecturer
>
> *School of Languages, Literatures, Cultures and Linguistics*
>
> Monash University
>
> VIC 3800
>
> Australia
>
> T: +61 3 9905 8234
>
> E: simon.musgrave at monash.edu <mailto:name.surname at monash.edu>
>
> monash.edu <http://monash.edu/>
>
> Secretary, Australasian Association for the Digital Humanities
> (aaDH <http://aa-dh.org/>)
>
>
> Official page <http://profiles.arts.monash.edu.au/simon-musgrave/>
>
>
>
>
>
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>
>
> --
> Adam J.R. Tallman
> Investigador del Museo de Etnografía y Folklore, la Paz
> PhD, UT Austin
>
>
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--
Martin Haspelmath (haspelmath at shh.mpg.de)
Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History
Kahlaische Strasse 10
D-07745 Jena
&
Leipzig University
Institut fuer Anglistik
IPF 141199
D-04081 Leipzig
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