[Lingtyp] Grammaticalization of 1SG verb forms

[Aigul Zakirova]

Dear David and Anna,
(I'm sorry, maybe I'm replying to the wrong email chain)

Thank you, this is very interesting, so unexpected uses of 1SG and 2SG
pronouns are also attested as discourse strategies or as specific
constructions.

The phenomenon brought up by David somehow reminds me -- functionally -- of
a traditional ending of Russian fairy-tales. I am not sure whether they are
folk tales or always literary works of writers based on folk tales, but
this is how it looks:

"И я там был, мёд-пиво пил, по усам текло, а в рот не попало".
I was there, / Mead and wine I drank, I swear; / Though my whiskers bathed
in wine, / Nothing passed these lips of mine (translation by Louis
Zelikoff).

This looks to me as if the narrator were also insisting that they were
present and observed the events directly... But maybe there is something
else to it, at least irony, because the narrator leaves room for
uncertainty ("nothing passed these lips of mine). I am not a specialist in
Russian folklore, so this parallel is speculative. But maybe in folktales
of other cultures there are parallels to that.

Best,
Aigul
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/lingtyp/attachments/20211114/c2133f10/attachment.htm>