[Lingtyp] Locative-comitative homophony

[Yi-Yang Cheng]

Thanks so much, Silvia!

I probably should have given more examples, but the "locative" usages are
not restricted to recipients.

For example, when not occurring in a sentence with 1PL actor, *ki Hayung*
could be interpreted as: "to Hayung", "from Hayung", or even "at Hayung's
place", covering a wide range of "locative" functions.

In any case, I'll definitely look into Stolz et al. 2006, along with the
other references Daniel provided earlier!

Cheers,
Yi-Yang

On Tue, Feb 22, 2022 at 11:17 AM Silvia Luraghi <luraghi at unipv.it> wrote:

> Dear Yi-Yang,
> from the examples you give it looks that rather than locative-comitative
> you're speaking of recipient-comitative. This type of syncretism is very
> rare in the world's languages, see Stolz, Stroh, Urdze 2006: 114-119 (he
> uses the term 'benefactive' to also include recipients).
> Silvia
> Silvia Luraghi
> Università di Pavia
> Dipartimento di Studi Umanistici, Sezione di Linguistica
> Strada Nuova 65
> I-27100 Pavia
> tel.: +39/0382/984685
> Web page personale: https://studiumanistici.unipv.it/?pagina=docenti&id=68
>
>
> Il giorno mar 22 feb 2022 alle ore 20:06 Michael Daniel <
> misha.daniel at gmail.com> ha scritto:
>
>> 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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