[Lingtyp] retrolative

[Alex Francois]

dear Christian,

As a point of reference, it may be interesting to note that the semantic
feature of retrolative would be expressed analytically in languages with
(certain types of) verb serialization.

For example, consider the Papuan language Kalam, as described in Pawley
(2009)
<https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Andrew-Pawley/publication/300841393_On_the_origins_of_serial_verb_constructions_in_Kalam/links/58d0fd8b4585158476f36662/On-the-origins-of-serial-verb-constructions-in-Kalam.pdf>
:

   - Pawley, Andrew. 2009. On the origins of serial verb constructions in
   Kalam. In Talmy Givón & Masayoshi Shibatani (eds.), *Syntactic
   complexity: Diachrony, acquisition, neuro-cognition, evolution*
   (Typological Studies in Language v. 85), 119–144. Amsterdam ; Philadelphia:
   Benjamins.

Pawley cites various examples of this type
<https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Andrew-Pawley/publication/300841393_On_the_origins_of_serial_verb_constructions_in_Kalam/links/58d0fd8b4585158476f36662/On-the-origins-of-serial-verb-constructions-in-Kalam.pdf#page=4>
:

(1) *am *mab pu-wk      d   *ap*    agl   kn-la-k.
       *go    *wood  hit-break.up get  *come  *ignite  sleep-3PL-PAST
     “They gathered firewood for the night.”
    [lit. ‘They went and gathered firewood and brought it, made a fire and
slept.']

The retrolative semantic component is here encoded analytically, using
distinct (serialized) verbs “go...  get... *come*...”.

Pawley calls such event-types “collecting expeditions”, and shows that the
serial pattern is grammaticalized, i.e. linguistically entrenched in the
phraseological / formulaic routines of Kalam. On p.135
<https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Andrew-Pawley/publication/300841393_On_the_origins_of_serial_verb_constructions_in_Kalam/links/58d0fd8b4585158476f36662/On-the-origins-of-serial-verb-constructions-in-Kalam.pdf#page=18>
he provides the recipe for the pattern:

[image: image.png]

Similar analytic strategies for the retrolative meaning can be found in
other serializing languages, at least in those where the sequence of
clauses iconically reflects a sequence of (sub)events.
[NB:  In another type of serializing languages, all verbs must reflect
simultaneous facets of a single event; they would not work in the same way.]

Think also of constructions in -て来る *-te kuru  *[-Converb  come]  in
colloquial Japanese:
e.g.
(2)  買い物に行って*来*るよ。
      *Kaimono=ni   it-te    ku-ru      yo.*
        shopping=OBL    go-CVB   *come*-Npst  PTC
      “I'm going grocery-shopping.”    [lit. I'll go shopping *and come*.]

best
Alex
------------------------------

Alex François
LaTTiCe <http://www.lattice.cnrs.fr/en/alexandre-francois/> — CNRS–
<http://www.cnrs.fr/index.html>ENS
<https://www.ens.fr/laboratoire/lattice-langues-textes-traitements-informatiques-et-cognition-umr-8094>
–PSL <https://www.psl.eu/en>–Sorbonne nouvelle
<http://www.univ-paris3.fr/lattice-langues-textes-traitements-informatiques-cognition-umr-8094-3458.kjsp>
Australian National University
<https://researchprofiles.anu.edu.au/en/persons/alex-francois>
Personal homepage <http://alex.francois.online.fr/>
_________________________________________


---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Christian Lehmann via Lingtyp <lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org>
Date: Thu, 8 Aug 2024 at 10:19
Subject: [Lingtyp] retrolative
To: <LINGTYP at listserv.linguistlist.org>


Dear colleagues,

I was told occasionally that there is a local relation - let's call it
retrolative - consisting of a movement to reference point R and back to the
point of departure. In the languages that have it in their grammar, it
would be in a paradigm with ablative, allative, perlative. Unless I am
mistaken, English only has it embodied in the meaning of *fetch*, and
likewise in German *holen*.

   1. Is retrolative the right term, or is the relation known under a
   different term?
   2. Please give me a representative example of the type 'Jane went to R
   round-trip' or 'Jane fetched the axe from the shed' using a retrolative
   case or adposition or a retrolative formative in some other structural
   category.

Thanks in advance,
Christian
-- 

Prof. em. Dr. Christian Lehmann
Rudolfstr. 4
99092 Erfurt
Deutschland
Tel.: +49/361/2113417
E-Post: christianw_lehmann at arcor.de
Web: https://www.christianlehmann.eu
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