[Lingtyp] Locative-comitative homophony

[Daniel Ross]

Hi Yi-Yang,

Stolz et al. (2006:38) write: "Syncretism of LOCATIVE and INSTRUMENT is
especially frequent, whereas the COMITATIVE partakes in syncretism patterns
involving LOCATIVE only if it has the same encoding as the INSTRUMENT
(Stolz 2001a)."

Stolz, Thomas, Cornelia Stroh & Aina Urdze. 2006. On comitatives and
related categories: a typological study with special focus on the languages
of Europe. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110197648

The other paper cited there looks relevant:
Stolz, Thomas. 2001a. To be with X is to have X: comitatives,
instrumentals, locative, and predicative possession. Linguistics 39 (2):
321-350. https://doi.org/10.1515/ling.2001.013

I hope that's helpful!
Daniel

On Tue, Feb 22, 2022 at 9:21 AM Yi-Yang Cheng <ycheng at ucsb.edu> wrote:

> Dear colleagues,
>
> I am working with a colleague of mine on Matu'uwal (Mayrinax Atayal), a
> Formosan language showing a lot of case homophony. When looking at spatial
> locatives, we noticed an interesting case of homophony where markers that
> indicate *location* are formally identical to what can be analyzed as
> *comitatives*.
>
> This is specifically seen in the markers *ki (proper noun)* and *cku
> (referential common noun)*. In the following sentences, they indicate
> participants construed as goals/recipients. To save space, I will not
> include more examples, but the two markers can indicate location and source
> as well.
>
>    - *Muway kuing cu gaghap ki Hayung*. 'I gave some seeds *to Hayung.*'
>    - *Pabuway kuing cu gaghap cku ulaqi' hani*. 'I will give some seeds *to
>    this child*.'
>
> The two markers can also be used to indicate accompaniment, but this is
> possible only when the agent/actor is a first-person plural pronoun. Notice
> that the proper noun vs. common noun distinction is maintained, although
> the latter allows still another marker *kinku* as well. (It looks like
> *kinku* only has the comitative function. It is still unclear whether
> there is any semantic or functional difference between *kinku* and *cku*,
> though.)
>
>    - *Mitaal cami ki Lawsing cu sinku'*. 'We checked on the hunting traps *with
>    Lawsing*.' (We = me and Lawsing)
>    - *Maglu cami cku/kinku xuil musa' i ragiyax*. 'We went into the
>    forest *with the dog*.' (We = me and the dog)
>
> We have been wondering whether we should posit two separate case
> categories here --- spatial locative vs. comitative --- and were wondering
> if anyone can offer us some suggestions or directions.
>
> Is it common for spatial locatives and comitatives to be formally
> identical? Is this an unusual case of case homophony?
>
> Also, if anyone can recommend any readings pertaining to whether a
> morpheme should be analyzed as a case marker instead of a preposition, it
> would be very helpful as well!
>
> Thank you all very much in advance for this!
>
> Best regards,
> Yi-Yang
>
>
> --
> Yi-Yang Cheng (he/him)
> Ph.D. Candidate in Linguistics | University of California, Santa Barbara
> Visiting Scholar | Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies, Harvard University
> Graduate Student Affiliate | Center for Taiwan Studies, UC Santa Barbara
> http://cheng-yiyang.org
>
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