[Lingtyp] 'until' clauses in Africa

Wed Jan 5 17:05:34 UTC 2022

Dear Jesús, all,

In a literary style of Modern Hebrew, one way of marking excessivity is 
with the expression /la-ʕayefa/ 'to-tiredness'; examples cited in the 
website of the Academy of the Hebrew Language make it clear that the 
tiredness is not necessarily meant literally.

Website:https://hebrew-academy.org.il/2015/11/01/%D7%9C%D7%A2%D7%99%D7%99%D7%A4%D7%94/[in 
Hebrew]

The same website attributes this usage to Biblical Hebrew, specifically 
Isaiah 46:1 "כָּרַע בֵּל קֹרֵס נְבו, הָיוּ עֲצַבֵּיהֶם לַחַיָּה 
וְלַבְּהֵמָה; נְשֻׂאֹתֵיכֶם עֲמוּסוֹת מַשָּׂא לַעֲיֵפָה", which, in the 
King James translation, reads " Bel boweth down, Nebo stoopeth; their 
idols were upon the beasts and upon the cattle. Your carriages were 
heavy laden; they are a burden to the weary beast".

However, in this particular Biblical Hebrew verse, "weary" does seem to 
permit a literal interpretation, suggesting that the semantic extension 
evident in Modern Hebrew took place subsequent to the Biblical 
period.But I leave it to those who know more about the history of Hebrew 
than I do to pass judgement on this.

David

On 05/01/2022 18:34, David Gil wrote:
>
> Dear Jesús, all,
>
> In the Papuan dialect of Malay, /sampe/ 'arrive' / 'until' may occur 
> in the following two constructions, which, although not the same as 
> the West African ones, seem to bear a family resemblance:
>
> (1) A sampe
>
> (2) V sampeeeH X
>
> In (1), A is a scalar adjective, and /sampe/ has the effect of an 
> intensifier, 'very A'.This construction occurs only utterance finally, 
> and the intonational peak is on the A, with /sampe/ associated with a 
> low "afterethought-like" contour.
>
> In (2) /sampe/ fuses with an ideophone consisting of a super-long [e] 
> associated with High (or High falling) pitch.The meaning of (2) is 'V 
> for a very long time until X'.
>
> Similar constructions occur also in some of the local languages of 
> North West New Guinea; Laura Arnold has looked at some of these.
>
> These two constructions differ from the West African ones in that they 
> lack an explicit expression meaning 'getting tired':in (1) there is 
> nothing, while in (2) there is an overt expression X that is 
> interpreted literally.However, they share with the West African 
> constructions a somewhat unexpected association between a form meaning 
> 'until' and a notion of excessivity, or, in the case of (2) 'long time'.
>
> I'd be interested in hearing of similar constructions in other languages.
>
> David
>
>
> On 05/01/2022 17:56, Jesus Francisco Olguin Martinez wrote:
>> Dear all,
>>
>> I hope this email finds you well.
>>
>> I send you this message because in my sample there are a couple of  
>> African languages (e.g. Tommo So and Bangime) that have a narrative 
>> construction in which the /until/-clause appears with a verb meaning 
>> ‘to get tired’ (e.g. /I worked I worked until I get tired/). Note 
>> that this clause does not necessarily denote literal weariness or 
>> physical fatigue. Instead, this construction is used in contexts 
>> where speakers express that they carried out an activity for a very 
>> long time (e.g. /I worked I worked for a very long time/). In this 
>> type of construction,  the first clause in linear order denotes a 
>> prolonged activity and is followed by a clause meaning ‘until I got 
>> tired’ emphasizing the extreme prolongation of the first situation.
>>
>> I was wondering if you know any study that has explored this type of 
>> construction or if you know any other African languages that have 
>> this type of construction.
>>
>> Thank you very much in advance.
>>
>> Best,
>>
>> -- 
>> Jesús Olguín Martínez
>> Ph.D. Candidate, Dept. of Linguistics
>> /University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB)/
>> http://www.linguistics.ucsb.edu/people/jesús-olguín-martínez 
>> <http://www.linguistics.ucsb.edu/people/jes%C3%BAs-olgu%C3%ADn-mart%C3%ADnez>
>>
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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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-- 
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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