[Lingtyp] Query: 'come here' > 'hey' > 'you' path of grammaticalization

[Adam Schembri]

Dear David,

That’s very interesting! 

In the sign languages I know best (British Sign Language and Auslan – from the same sign language family), the attention-getting sign we gloss as HEY (a handshape with all fingers and thumb extended and held apart, palm oriented downwards, bending downwards at the wrist, held within eye-shot of another signer), the sign BECKON/COME-HERE (either the extended index, or all of the fingers, held palm upwards, bending repeatedly at the knuckles), and the second person pronoun (index finger pointing at the addressee) are all distinct signs that appear to have lexicalised/grammaticalised from related gestures used by hearing non-signers. 

Is there any similarity between a beckoning/attention getting gesture used by Papuan non-signers and the sign variety you are studying?
Best wishes,

Adam

 

 

---

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From: Lingtyp <lingtyp-bounces at listserv.linguistlist.org> on behalf of David Gil via Lingtyp <lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org>
Reply to: David Gil <dapiiiiit at gmail.com>
Date: Thursday, 12 December 2024 at 10:54
To: "LINGTYP at LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG" <LINGTYP at listserv.linguistlist.org>
Subject: [Lingtyp] Query: 'come here' > 'hey' > 'you' path of grammaticalization

 

Dear all,

 

A few months ago I posted a query asking about a possible path of grammaticalization from 'come here' to an attention-attracting particle 'hey'.  The query was motivated by the apparent existence of such a grammaticalization path in a Home Sign system that I am currently exploring in Papua.

 

Subsequent work suggests that in the Papuan Home System in question, the same form may be undergoing further grammaticalization, assuming the role of a 2nd person pronoun or index.  The entire path of grammaticalization may thus be represented as

 

'come here' > 'hey' > 'you'

 

My question: Is anybody familiar with other examples, from either signed or oral languages, of a similar path of grammaticalization, in which a 2nd person pronoun or index is derived from an attention-attracting particle and/or an expression meaning 'come here'.  (For what it's worth, no such cases are listed in Heine and Kuteva's "World Lexicon of Grammaticalization".)

 

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: dapiiiiit at gmail.com
Mobile Phone (Israel): +972-526117713
Mobile Phone (Indonesia): +62-082113720302
 

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