[Lingtyp] query: cumulative songs

[David Gil]

Dear all,

Thanks for all the nice examples of cumulative songs, and do please keep 
them coming in.

I have already learned an important thing from the responses so far.  
While cumulative songs and stories seem to be widespread around the 
world, they kind of recursive syntactic embedding accompanying such 
cumulation that is found in the likes of "House that Jack Built" and 
"Had Gadya", seems to have a much narrower distribution, and so far no 
examples have come to light from other "non-WEIRD" parts of the world.  
Are there really no such cases from elsewhere?

I would like to be able to conclude that such syntactic recursion is a 
characteristic feature of WEIRD languages and cultures, but am sticking 
my neck out in order to invite counterexamples ...

Best,

David


On 12/02/2023 16:13, David Gil wrote:
>
> 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
>
-- 
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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