[Lingtyp] query: instrument voice

[David Peterson]

Hi David,

Don't have time to weigh in at length here, but you may find some relevant
discussion (including Austronesian and Mayan, as well as cases from other
families) in my 2007 applicatives book.

Hope you're well,
Dave

On Mon, Feb 21, 2022 at 9:33 PM Jess Tauber <tetrahedralpt at gmail.com> wrote:

> One can make the Yahgan circumstantial (which IS an applicative- the name
> comes from the 19th century by an English missionary who wasn't exactly up
> on all the grammatical jargon needed to write a grammar aimed at
> specialists) specifically an instrument voice by adding suffix -a:ki to the
> stem. -a:ki has a variety of different uses, so isn't really by itself an
> instrument suffix.
>
> Jess Tauber
>
> On Mon, Feb 21, 2022 at 9:24 PM David Gil <gil at shh.mpg.de> wrote:
>
>> Thanks, Jess.  For this to qualify as instrument voice, it would have to
>> be clear that the instrument is more like a subject than an object;
>> otherwise — cf. Matthew Dryer's comment and my response — it would be more
>> appropriately characterized as an applicative.  Can you confirm this?
>>
>> Also, as you describe it below, the semantics seems substantially broader
>> than that of a pure instrument, though to be honest, there is also semantic
>> leakage in so-called instrumental voice constructions in Taiwan and the
>> Philippines, and perhaps also, though to a lesser extent, in some of the
>> constructions in the New Guinea languages that I mentioned below.
>>
>> David
>>
>>
>> On 22/02/2022 04:05, Jess Tauber wrote:
>>
>> In Yahgan, a nearly extinct genetic isolate from Tierra del Fuego, there
>> is a 'circumstantial' voice prefix I write as T-, with various forms
>> depending on following phonological contexts (that is, it is ch(i:) before
>> /y/, /k/, /g/, /l/, tu: before labial stops or nasal, ts before other
>> alveolar segments, etc., which can ambivalently mark the inclusion of an
>> instrument, another non-core animate participant in the action, locations
>> in space or time, and so forth.
>>
>> Jess Tauber
>>
>> On Mon, Feb 21, 2022 at 8:42 PM Matthew Dryer <dryer at buffalo.edu> wrote:
>>
>>> David,
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Why would you not say that the instrumental construction in Meyah,
>>> Sougb, and Hatam is an applicative, since the A rather than the instrument
>>> controls subject agreement?
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Matthew
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> *From: *Lingtyp <lingtyp-bounces at listserv.linguistlist.org> on behalf
>>> of David Gil <gil at shh.mpg.de>
>>> *Date: *Monday, February 21, 2022 at 7:40 PM
>>> *To: *"lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org" <
>>> lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org>
>>> *Subject: *[Lingtyp] query: instrument voice
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Dear all,
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> In the Austronesian languages of Taiwan, Philippines and Madagascar,
>>> there is a verbal affix that is said to mark "instrument voice"; loosely
>>> speaking, it marks the topic or subject of the clause as bearing the
>>> semantic role of instrument.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Is anybody familiar with similar instrument-voice constructions from
>>> other parts of the world?
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> The reason I ask is that a similar construction is present also in some
>>> languages of the Bird's Head and Cenderawasih Bay regions of New Guinea,
>>> eg. Biak, Roon, Wamesa and Wooi (Austronesian), and Hatam, Sougb, Meyah and
>>> Moskona (non-Austronesian).  What's curious about this construction is
>>> that, unlike the well-known Austronesian cases, it is the only
>>> morphologically-marked voice in each of the languages in question; there is
>>> no "ordinary" morphological passive construction.  My feeling is that this
>>> construction is quite uncommon cross-linguistically, but I would like to
>>> get a feel for the extent to which this is indeed true.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Thanks,
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> David
>>>
>>> --
>>>
>>> David Gil
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Senior Scientist (Associate)
>>>
>>> Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution
>>>
>>> Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
>>>
>>> Deutscher Platz 6, Leipzig, 04103, Germany
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Email: gil at shh.mpg.de
>>>
>>> Mobile Phone (Israel): +972-526117713
>>>
>>> Mobile Phone (Indonesia): +62-81344082091
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
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>>> Lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org
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>>>
>> --
>> David Gil
>>
>> Senior Scientist (Associate)
>> Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution
>> Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
>> Deutscher Platz 6, Leipzig, 04103, Germany
>>
>> Email: gil at shh.mpg.de
>> Mobile Phone (Israel): +972-526117713
>> Mobile Phone (Indonesia): +62-81344082091
>>
>>
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