[Lingtyp] query: cumulative songs

[David Gil]

Dear all,

A cumulative song is one in which each unit, or stanza, introduces an 
additional layer of syntactic embedding, such as the following ...

    This is the house that Jack built.

    This is the malt that lay in the house that Jack built.

    This is the rat that ate the malt
    That lay in the house that Jack built.

    This is the cat
    That killed the rat that ate the malt
    That lay in the house that Jack built.

    This is the dog that worried the cat
    That killed the rat that ate the malt
    That lay in the house that Jack built.

... and so forth.  Perhaps the earliest example of a cumulative song is 
the Jewish Aramaic hymn /Had Gadya/.

My query: Is anybody familiar with examples of cumulative songs from 
other non-WEIRD cultures and languages.  While my main interest is in 
"indigenous" attestations, I would also be interested in successful 
adaptations and translations of western cumulative songs into other 
languages.

(Background to the query: I am interested in exploring variation in the 
propensity of different languages to make use of syntactic embedding.  
My focus is on languages such as Malay/Indonesian, which have various 
tools to construct embedded clauses but generally choose not to make use 
of them in natural discourse.  I would like to test the hypothesis that 
such cumulative songs are absent or otherwise less successful in such 
languages.)

Thanks,

David


-- 
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): +62-082113720302
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