[Lingtyp] historical change from a complementizer to a temporal adverbial

Tue Feb 6 13:50:19 UTC 2024

Dear Yongtaek,

The most direct link between the two semantic functions seems to be
something like this: 'whether (or not)' <> 'if' <> 'when' <> 'as soon as'
-- the implication being that anything that has both of the functions you
described will also have conditional (protasis) functions. In my study of
conditionality in Australian languages, I found that both 'whether' and
'when' functions are adjacent to 'if', but there aren't many examples of
languages that have both 'whether' and 'when' functions on the one marker.
('As soon as' usually doesn't constitute a separate category from 'when'.)

The only Australian languages where I can say for certain that one marker
can cover both meanings are Yawuru (Nyulnyulan; Hosokawa 1991) and
Djinang–Djinba
(Pama-Nyungan: Yolngu; Waters 1989). In Djinang–Djinba, the *bilang *'FRAME'
particle (a kind of topic marker) covers both 'whether' and 'when' , and in
Yawuru, *ngadyi* (glossed as 'whether') can cover 'if' and 'whether', but I
don't have examples of 'when'-only interpretations. I can't say for certain
what the directionality between the functions would be. I would analyse
both markers as conjunctions (and not complementisers, as there is no
evidence that the clauses are themselves arguments).

Djinang–Djinba *bila(ng)* 'FRAME':

*Conditional*
*galngbuy, bilang galbi-wili nyumili-nyi-rr gaypi-nyir, ...*
meat.taboo *FRAME *lots-PL 2du-ACC-1sgERG take.from-TPI
‘(It’s) taboo meat; *if* there were lots (of people) I would deprive you of
it (but here you are alone so you can eat it)’  (Waters 1989: 102)

*'Whether'-complement*
*nyabin mi-mili-wi marlu-ny nya-ngi bilang bi wirni-dji kiri-0*
how.about DIST-look.around-IMP daddy-ACC see-FUT *FRAME *towards return-FUT
PROG-FUT
‘How about you look around to see *if *daddy is returning to (us)?’ (Waters
1989: 56)

*Circumstance*
*ngunum bila nyabini buluki lidji nya-nyiri*
over.there *FRAME *how.many cattle 2plERG see-RPI
‘*When *(you were) over there, how many cattle did you see?’ (Waters 1989:
102)

Yawuru *ngadyi* 'whether':

*Conditional*
*ngadyi wal-a-0-ngayu kamba, nyamba nga-na-ng-ga-0-dyuyu.*
*whether *2FUT-TR-give-1ACC that(ABS) this(ABS) 1-TR-EN-FUT-give-2ACC
‘If you give that to me, then I’ll give you this.’ (Hosokawa 1991: 453)

*'Whether'-complement*
*nga-ny-dyiba-nda-dyina bibi-yi ngadyi i-nga-rn mabu.*
1-EN-ask-PF-3DAT mother-DAT *whether *3-be-IMPF good
‘I asked him whether his mother is all right.’ (Hosokawa 1991: 465)

*Ambiguity between Conditional and Circumstance*
*ngadyi wa-ng-ga-bula, nga-na-ga-dyiba-dyina.*
*whether *3-EN-FUT-come 1-TR-FUT-ask-3DAT
‘*If/when* he comes, I will question him.’ (Hosokawa 1991: 473)

Hope this helps, and good luck with your analysis! Let me know if you have
trouble with the glosses or would like access to the source material.

Hosokawa, Komei. 1991. The Yawuru language of West Kimberley: A
meaning-based description. Canberra: Australian National University. (PhD
Dissertation.)
Waters, Bruce. 1989. *Djinang and Djinba: A grammatical and historical
perspective. *Canberra: Pacific Linguistics

Best,
Ellison Luk

On Tue, 6 Feb 2024 at 13:24, Kim, Yongtaek <ykim791 at gatech.edu> wrote:

> Dear all,
>
> I apologize for writing the wrong recipients when forwarding the email
> from Kofi to my co-researchers.
>
> Sincerely,
>
> ___________________________________________________
>
> Yongtaek Kim, Ph.D.
>
> Associate Professor of Korean and Linguistics
>
> Director of Korean Program
>
> School of Modern Languages, Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts
>
> Swann 309
>
> ykim791 at gatech.edu
> ------------------------------
> *From:* Lingtyp <lingtyp-bounces at listserv.linguistlist.org> on behalf of
> Kim, Yongtaek <ykim791 at gatech.edu>
> *Sent:* Tuesday, February 6, 2024 7:07 AM
> *To:* Kofi Yakpo <kofi at hku.hk>
> *Cc:* lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org <lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org
> >
> *Subject:* Re: [Lingtyp] historical change from a complementizer to a
> temporal adverbial
>
> 以下の彼の本の１０．５．７に出ている’ＷＥ’はＡｄｖｅｒｂｉａｌとComplementizerのBorderline
> caseなので、役に立つと思います。
>
> ___________________________________________________
>
> Yongtaek Kim, Ph.D.
>
> Associate Professor of Korean and Linguistics
>
> Director of Korean Program
>
> School of Modern Languages, Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts
>
> Swann 309
>
> ykim791 at gatech.edu
> ------------------------------
> *From:* Kofi Yakpo <kofi at hku.hk>
> *Sent:* Tuesday, February 6, 2024 5:22 AM
> *To:* Kim, Yongtaek <ykim791 at gatech.edu>
> *Cc:* lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org <lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org
> >
> *Subject:* Re: [Lingtyp] historical change from a complementizer to a
> temporal adverbial
>
> Dear Yongtaek,
>
> In the African Caribbean English-lexifier Creole Pichi, spoken in
> Equatorial Guinea, and probably in related varieties in the region
> (Nigerian Pidgin, Cameroon Pidgin), the polyfunctional subordinator 'we'
> (possibly sourced from English 'where', although this is not sure),
> functions as a relativizer and adverbial (chiefly temporal) subordinator,
> and may additionally function as a complementizer to complement-taking main
> verbs like 'hear', 'feel sorry' etc, though the latter use is less frequent.
>
> See this book <https://langsci-press.org/catalog/book/85>, sec. 10.5.7,
> 10.6, 10.7.
>
> Best wishes,
> Kofi
> ————
> Dr Kofi Yakpo • Associate Professor
> Chair of Linguistics <http://www.linguistics.hku.hk/> • University of
> Hong Kong <http://arts.hku.hk/>
> My publications @ zenodo
> <https://zenodo.org/search?q=yakpo&l=list&p=1&s=10&sort=publication-desc>
> •  My Page <http://hub.hku.hk/cris/rp/rp01715>
>
> Recently published:
>
> Reciprocal constructions in multilingual contact
> <https://doi.org/10.1075/jpcl.00118.yak>
>
> The indigenization of Ghanaian Pidgin English
> <https://doi.org/10.1111/weng.12635>
>
> Two types of language contact involving English Creoles
> <https://doi.org/10.1017/S0266078421000146>
>
> Social entrenchment influences the amount of areal borrowing
> <https://doi.org/10.1177/13670069211019126>
>
>
> On Tue, Feb 6, 2024 at 7:37 AM Kim, Yongtaek <ykim791 at gatech.edu> wrote:
>
> Hello,
>
>
> I'm Yongtaek, a linguist specializing in the contrastive analysis between
> Korean and Japanese at the Georgia Institute of Technology.
>
>
> Currently, I have been working on the historical change of the Japanese
> ya-ina-ya (interrogative-NEG-interrogative) from a complementizer usage
> meaning 'whether or not' to the temporal adverbial-clause-linking usage
> meaning 'as soon as.'
>
>
> After an extensive search for typological evidence, I have been unable to
> locate any datasets that directly address the evolutionary shift from a
> complementizer to a temporal adverbial function in any language.
>
>
> I was just wondering if you know of any typological data where 'X-NEG-X'
> has changed from a complementizer ('whether or not') to a temporal
> adverbial ('when' or 'as soon as').
>
>
> I would greatly appreciate it if you could share any such typological data.
>
> ___________________________________________________
>
> Yongtaek Kim, Ph.D.
>
> Associate Professor of Korean and Linguistics
>
> Director of Korean Program
>
> School of Modern Languages, Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts
>
> Swann 309
>
> ykim791 at gatech.edu
> _______________________________________________
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