[Lingtyp] query: cumulative songs

Mon Feb 13 14:27:15 UTC 2023

Dear David – Fwiw, the Cinco cacao story does involve a form of syntactic recursion, though whether it involves recursive embedding is another matter.

With every new character, the old woman recounts the growing backstory as rationale for their appointed mission. This results in a chain of causal clauses. At its peak, the chain comprises nine causal clauses:

‘Deer, go kick me the old cow, because the old cow, she doesn’t want to kick me the old mule, because the old mule, she doesn’t want to kick me the old cow, because the old cow, she doesn’t want to drink water, because the water, it doesn’t want to put out the fire, because the fire, it doesn’t want to burn the wood for me, because the wood, it doesn’t want to hit me the dog, because the dog, it doesn’t want to bite me the cat, because the cat, it doesn’t want to catch me the mouse, because the mouse, it stole five cacao from me.’

However, I do not consider these clauses to be embedded. Briefly, the evidence is that the sequence involves lots of overtly marked topicalizations, represented as left-dislocations in the translation above.

HTH! -- Juergen

Juergen Bohnemeyer (He/Him)
Professor, Department of Linguistics
University at Buffalo

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From: Lingtyp <lingtyp-bounces at listserv.linguistlist.org> on behalf of David Gil <gil at shh.mpg.de>
Date: Monday, February 13, 2023 at 8:14 AM
To: lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org <lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org>
Subject: Re: [Lingtyp] query: cumulative songs

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<mailto: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<mailto:gil at shh.mpg.de>

Mobile Phone (Israel): +972-526117713

Mobile Phone (Indonesia): +62-082113720302

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