[Lingtyp] “at last” and “only now”
David Gil
gil at shh.mpg.de
Wed Feb 24 21:39:33 UTC 2021
Dear Alex (and all),
Just to confirm that all of Alex's examples of the prioritive in Mwotlap
and Bislama work also with Indonesian /dulu/ (including even its
first-person usage in polite leave-taking). I share Alex's awe at the
resilience of the pattern, as manifest not only in its horizontal
diffusion from the Austronesian languages of Vanuatu to Bislama, but
also in its apparent genealogical conservativity as suggested by its
presence in relatively distantly related Austronesian languages such as
Mwotlap and Indonesian.
An interesting question for Austronesianists would be exactly how wide
the distribution of the priorative is. My impression is that in
Tagalog, the various subfunctions of the prioritive listed below are
divvied up among two or more different forms.
David
On 24/02/2021 20:23, Alex Francois wrote:
> dear David,
>
> Interesting example. I agree with you that this /dulu/ construction
> also involves a combination of phasal aspect and pragmatics; and I
> agree that its mechanism is different from the TimeFocus of Vanuatu
> languages.
>
> In fact, among the 25 TAM categories of its system, *Mwotlap *has not
> only the TimeFocus /qoyo/, but another TAM construction that I think
> is even closer to Indonesian /dulu/ : this is a (compound) morpheme
> /bah en/, which I've glossed the *Prioritive*.
>
> Its usual gloss would be Eng. /first/, but as you said, its pragmatic
> range goes beyond that translation.
>
> One typical use is in a diptych presenting two sequential actions:
> { *_First_ P, then Q* } — whether in the realis or the irrealis:
>
> (1) Gēn in */bah/* na-ga */en/*, tō gengen.
> 1in:pl drink Prio1 Art-kava Prio2, then eat
> (Past interpretation) “We _first_ drank kava, then we had dinner.”
> ~ (Future interpⁿ) “_First_ we'll drink kava, then we'll have
> dinner.”
>
> Under a future interpretation, the apodosis (2nd clause) would often
> have a TimeFocus /qoyo/, meaning “then and not earlier” [cf. my
> earlier post]:
>
> (2) Gēn in */bah/* na-ga */en/*, tō */qoyo/* gengen.
> 1inc:pl drink Prio1 Art-kava Prio2, then TmFoc eat
> (Future interpⁿ) “_First_ we'll drink kava, and /_only then_/
> shall we have dinner.”
>
> A sentence like (2) thus combines two morphemes entailing a pragmatic
> focus, with complementary semantics:
>
> * Prioritive: { event1 is a priority, before anything else }
> * TimeFocus: { event2 happens at time T, and not earlier }
>
> Those diptychs, with a protasis in the Prioritive and an apodosis in
> the TimeFocus, are common in conversation. (cf. François 2003: 284)
>
> Etymologically, /bah/ is a verb “finish”, and /en/ a Topicalizer,
> which makes sense for (1-2) [/we *finish *drinking *TOP*, then eat/];
> but this combination has grammaticalized into a construction (à la
> Construction grammar) that is not always compositional, as you'll see.
> ______
> In a way similar to Indon. /dulu/, the Prioritive /bah... en/ is
> also commonly heard on its own, i.e. on a protasis without apodosis:
>
> (3) Gēn in */bah/* na-ga *en *!
> 1inc:pl drink Prio1 Art-kava Prio2
> “_First_ (before anything else) let's have kava !”
>
> In such cases, there is no Sequential reading, but a hortative
> interpretation.
> This *Prioritive hortative* entails a phasal focus on “/now (and not
> later)/”; it contrasts with the ordinary hortative, which lacks such
> entailment:
> (3') Gēn in na-ga**!
> 1inc:pl drink Art-kava
> “Let's have kava !”
>
> When used with a 2nd person, the Prioritive sometimes has an
> interpretation of a *polite imperative*:
> (4) Nēk mōkheg */bah/* *en *!
> 2sg rest Prio1 Prio2
> “Why don't you (first) rest?”
>
> With a 1st person, it also serves as a polite way to downplay the
> negative impact of one's actions. (Forgot how to call this in English:
> attenuative?):
>
> (5) Nok van */bah/* li-sto *en *!
> 1sg go Prio1 Loc-store Prio2
> “Let me (first) go to the store.”
> [= sorry to leave you, I'll be right back.] — suggesting our
> convo is bound to continue soon.
> (In actual fact, those Prioritive utterances are often a polite way to
> take leave.)
>
> I described the various uses of the Prioritive (“le Prioritif”) in
> François (2003: 278-301).
>
> o François, Alexandre. 2003. /La sémantique du prédicat en
> mwotlap (Vanuatu)/ Collection Linguistique de La Société de
> Linguistique de Paris, 84. Paris, Louvain: Peeters.[ direct
> link to section
> <http://alex.francois.online.fr/data/AlexFrancois_Mwotlap-Predicat_2003_SLP.pdf#page=298>
> ]
>
> ______
> Once again, the Creole *Bislama *has calqued the category of the
> Prioritive through relexification.
> The Bislama Prioritive is an adverb */fastaem/ *(< Eng. /first time/),
> which is very common in conversation.
> The structural isomorphism with Mwotlap is again striking:
>
> (1') Yumi trink kava /*fastaem*/, ale kakae.
> 1in:pl drink kava PRIOR then eat
> (Past interpretation) “We _first_ drank kava, then we had dinner.”
> ~ (Future interpⁿ) “_First_ we'll drink kava, then we'll have
> dinner.”
>
> (2') Yumi trink kava /*fastaem*/, ale *jes *kakae *nao*.
> 1inc:pl drink kava PRIOR then TmFoc eat FOC
> (Future interpⁿ) “_First_ we'll drink kava, and /_only then_/
> shall we have dinner.”
>
> (3") Yumi trink kava /*fastaem*/ **!
> 1inc:pl drink kava PRIOR
> “_First_ (before anything else) let's have kava !”
>
> (4') Yu spel /*fastaem*/**!
> 2sg rest PRIOR
> “Why don't you (first) rest?”
>
> (5') Mi go lo sto */fastaem/***!
> 1sg go PREP store PRIOR
> “[excuse me for a sec…] Let me (first) go to the store.”
>
> From what David described, it seems that Indonesian /dulu /would be
> used in similar contexts. I think his description would fit well the
> Prioritive in its politeness functions:
>
> /While in (1) the further activity is overtly expressed, in (2) it
> is merely implied, which has the effect of softening the
> imperative/hortative meaning and thereby rendering it more polite. /
>
>
> If so, this semantic category of Prioritive, and these phraseological
> strategies, might well be typically Austronesian (??). It would have
> survived structurally in the systems in spite of many layers of
> language change, incorporating phonological material both through
> language-internal relexification [Mwotlap] and through language
> contact [Bislama].
>
> I am often impressed by the resilience of semantic categories in spite
> of the renewal of their phonological content. I wonder if that is
> universal, or specific to Pacific languages, and linked to their
> particular linguistic ecology…
>
> best
> Alex
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Alex François
>
> LaTTiCe <http://www.lattice.cnrs.fr/en/alexandre-francois/> — CNRS–
> <http://www.cnrs.fr/index.html>ENS
> <https://www.ens.fr/laboratoire/lattice-langues-textes-traitements-informatiques-et-cognition-umr-8094>–Sorbonne
> nouvelle
> <http://www.univ-paris3.fr/lattice-langues-textes-traitements-informatiques-cognition-umr-8094-3458.kjsp>
> Australian National University
> <https://researchers.anu.edu.au/researchers/francois-a>Academia
> Europaea <https://www.ae-info.org/ae/Member/François_Alexandre> –
> Academia.edu <https://cnrs.academia.edu/AlexFran%C3%A7ois>
> Personal homepage <http://alex.francois.online.fr/>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
> On Wed, 24 Feb 2021 at 12:03, David Gil <gil at shh.mpg.de
> <mailto:gil at shh.mpg.de>> wrote:
>
> Dear all,
>
> Sergey's query, and especially Alex's recent response on Vanuatu
> languages, have given me new insights into the Indonesian word
> /dulu/, which I now realize also belongs to the same general
> category of "phrasal/focal particles". While the "literal meaning
> of /dulu/ is something like "first", it is used in a wider range
> of contexts than, say, English /first. / The first example shows
> /dulu/ in a narrative past context:
>
> (1) Dia makan dulu baru pulang
> 3 eat DULU new go.home
> 'He/she/they ate and then went home'
>
> The next example shows /dulu/ in its very common use as a polite
> imperative or hortative:
>
> (2) Makan dulu
> eat DULU
> 'Please eat' / 'Let's eat'
>
> In both cases, /dulu/ combines a temporal/aspectual with a focus
> meaning. However, whereas Alex's Vanuatu examples involved
> restrictive focus (X but not Y), Indonesian /dulu/ involves
> additive focus (X and also/then Y). Thus, in both examples,
> /dulu/ bears the implication that after eating, some other,
> unspecified activity will occur. While in (1) the further
> activity is overtly expressed, in (2) it is merely implied, which
> has the effect of softening the imperative/hortative meaning and
> thereby rendering it more polite.
>
> David
>
>
> On 23/02/2021 20:20, Sergey Loesov wrote:
>>
>> Dear colleagues,
>>
>> Are you aware of cross-language or /einzelsprachlich/studies of
>> the semantics/pragmatics of particles like “*at last*” “*only
>> now*”, and similar. I.e., ‘particles’ that combine phasal and
>> focus semantics.
>>
>> Best wishes,
>>
>> Sergey
>>
>>
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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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--
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
Mobile Phone (Israel): +972-526117713
Mobile Phone (Indonesia): +62-81344082091
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