[Lingtyp] Term needed

[Nicholas Evans]

Hi Tom

Nikolaus Himmelmann (2006, in our [Ameka, Dench & Evans') 'Cathcing Language' volume on grammar writing) uses the term 'potentive' in a very similar sense, interestingly also for one sense of the Tagalog prefix ma-. Would be worth checking this out to see how far it corresponds to what you're looking at (at first glance it looks like it does).

Best Nick


Nicholas (Nick) Evans

Director, CoEDL (ARC Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language)

Coombs Building, Fellows Road
CHL, CAP, Australian National University

nicholas.evans at anu.edu.au

I acknowledge the Ngunnawal people as custodians of the land on which I work, and pay my respects to their elders, past and present. Their custodianship has never been ceded.

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From: Lingtyp <lingtyp-bounces at listserv.linguistlist.org> on behalf of Tom Payne <tpayne at uoregon.edu>
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Cc: Voltaire Oyzon <v.oyzon at gmail.com>
Subject: [Lingtyp] Term needed

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Greetings. We have recently come across two constructions in a Philippine language that we need a good term for. These are morphosyntactic constructions involving a dependent verb form and unusual case marking. The meaning of both constructions is that the actor accomplished the activity after overcoming some obstacle. With one construction, the obstacle is understood as internal/psychological, while with the other the obstacle is more external. Translation into English is challenging, but the senses lie somewhere in the areas of “be able to VERB” and “manage to VERB”, though there is a distinct abilitive construction. We are considering the term “vincentive” for these constructions, based on the Latin verb vincere. We would appreciate any and all suggestions on this term, or other possibilities. Also, if anyone else has encountered such a construction, we would very much like to hear about it.

Thank you.

Tom Payne and Voltaire Oyzon
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