[Lingtyp] Locative-comitative homophony

[Yi-Yang Cheng]

Dear Michael,

Thanks so much for following up!

Yes, it appears that this is a case of inclusory pronominal construction.

We may need to do a dedicated elicitation session to find out more, but
based on my impression and experience with the language this is only found
in the first person.

So the markers *ki* and *cku* always have locative usages unless they
appear in a sentence with a 1PL agent/actor, in which case they would be
interpreted as indicating accompaniment "with".

Best,
Yi-Yang



On Tue, Feb 22, 2022 at 11:05 AM Michael Daniel <misha.daniel at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Dear Yi-Yang,
>
> judging from your examples, this may be much more specific than comitative
> / locative homophony. If I understood well, is this not a case of not just
> accompaniment but more specificall an inclusory pronominal construction (we
> X = 'X and I'), somehow restricted to the first person? Are inclusory
> constructions attested elsewhere in the language, with the second and the
> third person, and if yes, how do they look?
>
> Michael Daniel
>
> вт, 22 февр. 2022 г., 20:21 Yi-Yang Cheng <ycheng at ucsb.edu>:
>
>> 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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>>
>

-- 
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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