[Lingtyp] Query: Elided Intensification

Mon Apr 12 09:03:52 UTC 2021

Dear all,

Here are several more examples from northern Maluku and northwest New Guinea, the region where Papuan Malay and Ambel are spoken:

Ternate Malay (Austronesian > Malayic; Litamahuputty 2012: 175)
“The word sampe ‘arrive[/until]’ may serve to express an evaluative meaning. In this function, sampe occurs at the end of a clause and is often uttered in a specific rising intonation pattern and with lengthening of the final vowel.”

(1)     eh,     tong    lari    sampe!

EXCL    1PL     run     arrive[/until]

'Wow, we ran for our lives!'

Tidore (North Halmahera; van Staden 2000: 230-1)
“Degree and intensity can be expressed by… the addition of the phrase sado... ‘until’ or sodo foo... ‘until ?we’ with a non-final intonation contour. This latter construction type indicates that something occurs ‘without limits’.”

(2)     mina    mo-reke sodo    foo...

3SG.F   3SG.F-cry       until   ?1PL.INC.A

[LA translation]: ‘She cried on and on.’

Ternate (North Halmahera; Hayami-Allen 2001:77)
“This preposition [sigado/sido/sado] means ‘till, until’… This also occurs in the clause-final position and expresses the speaker’s opinion that something has reached the point that is too much. It is common that the last vowel of sido/sado is pronounced long sentence-finally to express the disapproving attitude of the speaker.”

(3)     rehe    cum     sado

flesh   hurt    till

‘(My) muscle hurts very much.’

Biak (Austronesian > SHWNG; van den Heuvel 2006: 408)
“In clause-final position, this lengthened rao: [‘until’] may function as an intensifying adverb.”

(4)     rofan   an-ya   irík    rao:

dog     GIV-3SG.SPC     bleed.3SG       until

'The dog bled on and on.'

Wooi (Austronesian > SHWNG; Sawaki 2017)
The form k(a)ira is glossed as ‘until’ when prepositional, and ‘very’ when clause-final:

(5)     hay     kira    raria

cry.1SG until   noon

‘I cried until noon.’

(6)     kehiow  kira

angry.3SG       very

‘He is very angry.’

All the best,
Laura

Hayami-Allen, Rika, 2001. A descriptive study of the language of Ternate, the northern Moluccas, Indonesia. PhD thesis, University of Pittsburg.

van den Heuvel, Wilco, 2006. Biak: Description of an Austronesian language of Papua. Utrecht: LOT.

Litamahuputty, Betty, 2012. Ternate Malay: Grammar and texts. Utrecht: LOT.

Sawaki, Yusuf, 2017. A grammar of Wooi: An Austronesian language of Yapen Island, Western New Guinea. PhD thesis, Australian National University.

van Staden, Miriam, 2000. Tidore: A linguistic description of a language of the North Moluccas. PhD thesis, Leiden University.

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From: Lingtyp <lingtyp-bounces at listserv.linguistlist.org> on behalf of Guillaume Segerer <guillaume.segerer at cnrs.fr>
Sent: 12 April 2021 08:57
To: lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org <lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org>
Subject: Re: [Lingtyp] Query: Elided Intensification

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Dear all

In Joola (Niger-Congo, Atlantic, Keeraak variety), nɔɔn means 'as' or 'like', as in the following examples :

dɔmɔ fʊtɛm nɔɔn wah warɛɛmɛ
COP.IMPERS smell.IMPERF 'as' thing has-burnt
'it smells as if something has burnt' (French: 'ça sent comme si quelque chose avait brûlé')

hʊkɛn ɩnjɛ ɩ-cɔkɔm barɛ i-sim nɔɔn ɛbɔɔs
yesterday I 1sg-wound.PERF but 1sg-bleed 'like' cow
'Yesterday I got wounded and I bleeded like a cow' (French 'hier je me suis blessé et j'ai saigné comme une vache')

It may also be used as an intensifier :

sɩnaŋas si-suum-e nɔɔn
cooked_rice AGR-be.good-PERF nɔɔn
'the rice is very good'

na-cab-ɛ nɔɔn ɛɬakɛnay
3sg-do.quickly-PERF nɔɔn INF.cook
He did the cooking very quickly

nʊ-ŋəmi-e nɔɔn jabajɔɔraj jala di baɲɩɩlab
2sg-love-PERF nɔɔn INF.scold of at children
'you really love to scold children'

In Joola, qualities are mostly expressed by verbs. As can be seen in the above examples, nɔɔn always appears after verbs, and I have no counterexample (but the number of examples is not that high...). These constructions may be considered as 'elided', since they may often (always ?) be completed by the word bəjəəm, for which none of my consultants could provide a translation... (this reminds me of the French expression 'comme tout' in 'il est gentil comme tout') :
suum-e nɔɔn ~ suum-e nɔɔn bəjəəm
IMPERS.be.good-PERF nɔɔn ~ IMPERS.be.good-PERF as ????
'it is very good'

Unfortunately, my knowledge of the language does not allow me to be more precise. I still hope this may help.

Guillaume

Le 12/04/2021 à 00:35, David Gil a écrit :

Thanks to those who have responded to my query so far, either to me personally or on the list.

I'd like to clarify what I had in mind by "elided" or "incomplete".  I am using these terms grammatically / semantically, to express the intuition that there's something missing after the intensifier, given that forms such as Papuan Malay sampe and (Australian) English as usually occur in construction with another, following expression (or "complement").

I was not implying that the construction in question should "sound incomplete" (to use Ilana's words below).  But it's interesting that she characterizes the Australian English as construction as being associated with a "particular intonation", since the same is true also for the Papuan Malay construction with sampe.  Though the specifics of the intonation contour seem to differ (in Papuan Malay, the peak of the contour falls on the preceding word, while the intensifier sampe is associated with low pitch, sounding like an afterthought).

David

On 12/04/2021 00:58, Ilana Mushin wrote:
I can also confirm ‘sweet as’ in Australian English. I’ve seen it on advertising billboards. I think the construction ‘X as’ can be somewhat productive - eg I’ve certainly heard ‘dumb as’.  There is a particular intonation that goes with the construction - the ‘as’ is lengthened  and has a rise-fall contour so it doesn’t sound incomplete (this is impressionistic - someone may have a better idea of the prosody than me).

Ilana

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On 12 Apr 2021, at 5:27 am, David Gil <gil at shh.mpg.de><mailto:gil at shh.mpg.de> wrote:

Dear all,

I'm interested in exploring the properties and geographical distribution of a novel (well, to me at least) construction type which might be termed "Elided Intensification'.  I'll explain with an example.  In Papuan Malay, property-denoting and some other words may be intensified by the addition of sampe, a word whose other, more basic functions, include 'arrive' and 'until', e.g.

(1)       Enak sampe

            nice SAMPE

            'Very nice.'

My informal "interpretation" of this construction is that it involves, or at least originated in, some kind of understood expression such as "nice arriving (at complete fulfillment)", or "nice until (completion)".  As Papuan Malay is largely head-initial, it kind of feels like something is missing after the word sampe.  (In Malay/Indonesian, this construction seems to be restricted geographically to the north coast of New Guinea and possibly also Northern Maluku; elsewhere it is absent.)

So far, I am familiar with two other potential cases of Elided Intensification.  The first is from Ambel, an Austronesian language spoken in the Raja Ampat archipelago of the northwest coast of New Guinea, in a region where Papuan Malay is also spoken.  As described by Arnold (2018:145, pers comm), aya 'until' is used in a construction closely resembling that in (1):

(2)       Anlómo aya

            bleed.3SG.INAN AYA

            ‘It bled a lot.’

Arnold, Laura. 2018.  A Grammar of Ambel, An Austronesian Language of West New Guinea. PhD Dissertation.  Edinburgh: University of Edinburgh.

The second example, which I just came across, and which prompted this query, is Australian English.  In the Wikipedia entry for Australian English, in a paragraph which deals with the infensification of adjectives, the following rather tantalizing passage occurs:

"In informal speech, incomplete comparisons are sometimes used, such as "sweet as" (as in "That car is sweet as.")."

So here it's comparative 'as' rather than 'arrive'/'until' that comes after the word being intensified, but still, all these cases seem to involve intensification with the elision of some kind of argument associated with the property word and denoting an extreme extent of the property in question.

My questions:

1.  Could speakers of Australian English please confirm the existence of this construction, and comment on it.  Does it occur in other varieties of English?  (It was certainly completely new to me!)

2.  Is anybody familiar with possible cases of Elided Intensification in other languages, in Australia, New Guinea or elsewhere?  On the flimsy basis of three examples, it looks like an Australian / New Guinea areal feature: is this the case?  For the Australia / New Guinea region I'd also appreciate negative data, of the form "no, my language definitely doesn't do this".

3.  Any further comments and suggestions ...

Thanks,

David

--
David Gil

Senior Scientist (Associate)
Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution
Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History
Kahlaische Strasse 10, 07745 Jena, Germany

Email: gil at shh.mpg.de<mailto:gil at shh.mpg.de>
Mobile Phone (Israel): +972-526117713
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--
David Gil

Senior Scientist (Associate)
Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution
Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History
Kahlaische Strasse 10, 07745 Jena, Germany

Email: gil at shh.mpg.de<mailto:gil at shh.mpg.de>
Mobile Phone (Israel): +972-526117713
Mobile Phone (Indonesia): +62-81344082091

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