[Lingtyp] Lingtyp Digest, Vol 98, Issue 3

[Joshua Birchall]

For motion events in Aikanã, an isolate language from western Brazil, the
verb root *ware* 'go' is often not expressed if a directional morpheme is
also used. This gives the impression that the person markers that are
usually suffixed onto the verb root are actually prefixed to the
directional, which doesn't happen in any other contexts. This seems quite
similar to what Marine mentioned about negation in French in terms of
pragmatics and predictability.

*ware-ka-xüne-**ẽ*
go-1SG-DIR:return-DECL
'I am going back (home)'

Or:

*ka-xüne-**ẽ*
1SG-DIR:return-DECL
'I am going back (home)'

Here are some more examples from a grammar sketch that is coming out in
January (sorry about the formatting):

*baba   hapü-ke-muka-a-na    ka-yã-pü    ka-yã-**ẽ*
father  cover-3.AG-CLF:eye-1SG.PAT-DS 1SG-DIR:hither-SS 1SG-DIR:hither-DECL
‘Father covered my eyes and then I came.’
(van der Voort and Birchall 2023:21)

*ĩwã-are-na   ka-xü-pa-ne-’eyã-re-’ẽ   mama-deri    he-pü*
like.that-SYMP-DS  1SG-DIR:return-TR-PFV-2PL.PAT-FUT-IMP  mother-3.POSS
 say-SS
‘“How unfortunate, let me bring you back!”’ his mother said (to the
girls).’
(van der Voort and Birchall 2023:30)

All the best,

Josh


Date: Thu, 3 Nov 2022 12:57:59 +0000 (UTC)
From: MARINE vuillermet <marinevui at yahoo.fr>
To: "lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org"
        <lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org>
Subject: Re: [Lingtyp] Lingtyp Digest, Vol 98, Issue 3
Message-ID: <1297005634.5547111.1667480279341 at mail.yahoo.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"

French speakers very systematically use t'inqui?te! (REC-worry) 'do? worry'
to actually mean ne t'inqui?te pas (NEG REC-worry-NEG) 'don't worry'. Here
the entire negation is ellipsed, and I see it as a confirmation of it being
a very pragmatic phenomenon where very predictable elements can be left
unspoken without leading to confusion.
Best,
Marine

Marine VuillermetPostdoctoral fellow
-----
University of Z?rich
 Department of Comparative LinguisticsOut Of Asia: Linguistic Diversity and
Population History

"Humans and flies diverged from a common ancestor about 600 million years
ago." (Baum & Smith 2013:5)
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