[Lingtyp] Additional functions of connectives

Sun Mar 14 17:41:55 UTC 2021

Dear Jesús,

I don’t know if this is 100% what you are looking for, but the German adverb/connective nachher ʼ later, afterwards‘ and its Dutch near-equivalent straks ’shortly, soon’ have apprehensional-epistemic functions, i.e. they can be used to express that a situation constitutes an undesirable possibility.

(1)		German
		Nachher geht das schief und dann stehen wir dumm da.
		ater goes that wrong and then stand we stupid there

		ʻThat could go wrong and weʼd end up looking stupid.ʼ
		(personal knowledge)

(2)		Dutch
Straks  is         de        winkel  gesloten.
shortl    is         the       shop     closed

ʻThe shop might be closed.ʼ (I am afraid it might be closed)
(Boogart 2020:187)

The relevant references:
Boogaart. Ronny. 2020. Expressives in argumentation: The case of apprehensive ‘straks’ (‘shortly’) in Dutch. In Frans H. van Eemeren & Bart Garssen (Hrsgb.), From Argument Schemes to Argumentative Relations in the Wild. A Variety of Contributions to Argumentation Theory. 185–204. Cham: Springer.

Angelo, Denise & Eva Schultze-Berndt. 2018. Syntactically independent but pragmatically dependent: precautioning temporal markers. Paper presented at the 8th Syntax of the World's Languages Conference. (https://www.research.manchester.ac.uk/portal/files/86929275/Schultze_Berndt_Angelo_temporal_apprehensives.pdf <https://www.research.manchester.ac.uk/portal/files/86929275/Schultze_Berndt_Angelo_temporal_apprehensives.pdf>)

Best,

Bastian

> Am 14.03.2021 um 17:05 schrieb Hajime Senuma <hajime.senuma at gmail.com>:
> 
> Hi Jesús,
> 
> The Ainu language uses several temporal conjunctions (combined with
> basic verbs) as aspectual markers (cf. Kirsten Refsing 1986, section
> 14.9 and Suzuko Tamura 2000, chapter 4), functioning like auxiliary
> verbs in English.
> 
> Most forms are related to "wa"/"híne". "wa" is mainly a coordinator
> ("and") but sometimes used as a subordinator denoting temporal
> successive relations (A wa B = "A, and then B" or "After A, then B").
> On the other hand, the use of "híne" is strictly limited to a temporal
> successive subordinator. Both words are interchangeably used for
> aspectual constructions ("híne" tends to be used in formal and poetic
> contexts). Though less flexible, some other temporal or non-temporal
> conjunctions (such as "while" and "because") have similar
> constructions.
> 
> Several examples of "wa"/"híne" as aspectual markers
> 1. Perfect (or imperfective, according to Refsing): Pon katketmat ek
> wa an. (The young lady comes and-then she-exists. = The young lady has
> come.)
> 2. Perfective: Cep ku=e wa isam. (Fish I-eat and-then it-unexists. = I
> ate up the fish.)
> 3. Completed: e wa okere (You-eat and-then you-finish. = Finish to eat!)
> 4. Exaggeration(?): poro wa okere (It-is-big and-then it-finishes. =
> It's enormous.)
> 5. Gnomic: Pánanpe an, Pénanpe an, híne sír-an (Pánanpe exists,
> Pénanpe exists, and-then the-world-exists. = As famous legends say,
> once upon a time, there were two men called Pánanpe and Pénanpe.)
> 
> As Bernard Comrie (1976) says, using temporal prepositions (combined
> with basic verbs) as aspectual markers is commonly found in Celtic
> languages. For example, in Irish, "I-am after coming in" means "I have
> just come in" (Comrie 1976, p. 106). An interesting property
> (vis-à-vis Celtic) is that because these Ainu words are not
> prepositions but conjunctions, the subjects of two clauses need not be
> formally the same. For instance,
> A=saha an híne oka=an. (My-old-sister exists and-then I-exist. = I
> have been living with my old sister.)
> 
> Since Comrie (1976) does not mention any languages that use temporal
> clause-linkers as aspectual markers, I'd be glad to know if there are
> such languages other than Ainu.
> 
> Best,
> Hajime
> 
> -----
> Hajime Senuma
> PhD student in Computational Linguistics,
> Aizawa Lab, University of Tokyo & National Institute of Informatics, Japan
> 
> 
> On Sun, Mar 14, 2021 at 3:40 AM Jesus Francisco Olguin Martinez
> <olguinmartinez at ucsb.edu> wrote:
>> 
>> Dear all,
>> 
>> 
>> As you know, adverbial clause-linking devices (e.g. ‘when’, ‘after’, ‘until’) are primarily used to establish a semantic relation between two or more situations. However, adverbial clause-linking devices may bear additional functions beside the specific relation they encode (e.g. they may function as switch-reference markers, information structure markers, etc.). To the best of my knowledge, Mauri & Giacalone Ramat (2015) and Mauri (2016) have explored the range of additional functions of devices expressing ‘or’. However, the additional functions of adverbial clause-linking devices are unexplored territory. In the languages of my sample, I have noticed that temporal adverbial clause-linking devices may bear additional functions beside the specific relation they encode. A case in point comes from ‘and then’ devices. They may function as pause-fillers, they may indicate same-subject and different-subject, they may indicate a change of scene, they may express whether a situation is expected or unexpected, and they may express different amounts of time between situations, among others.
>> 
>> 
>> I was wondering if you are aware of any research that has explored the additional function of temporal adverbial clause-linking devices. I was also wondering if you are aware of any languages in which devices expressing when-relations, while-relations, before-relations, after-relations, and until-relations have developed additional functions beside the specific relation they encode.
>> 
>> 
>> Thank you very much in advance.
>> 
>> 
>> Best,
>> 
>> 
>> --
>> Jesús Olguín Martínez
>> Ph.D. Candidate, Dept. of Linguistics
>> University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB)
>> http://www.linguistics.ucsb.edu/people/jesús-olguín-martínez
>> 
>> References
>> Mauri, Caterina. 2016. Connectives beyond connecting: converging evidence in the analysis of disjunction. Paper presented at the 2nd Usage-Based Linguistics Conference, Tel Aviv University .
>> Mauri, Caterina & Anna Giacalone Ramat. 2015. Piuttosto che: dalla preferenza all’esemplificazione di alternative. Cuadernos de Filología Italiana 20: 49-72.
>> _______________________________________________
>> Lingtyp mailing list
>> Lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org
>> http://listserv.linguistlist.org/mailman/listinfo/lingtyp
> _______________________________________________
> Lingtyp mailing list
> Lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org
> http://listserv.linguistlist.org/mailman/listinfo/lingtyp

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/lingtyp/attachments/20210314/9bce9091/attachment.htm>