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

Wed Feb 7 01:39:46 UTC 2024

Dear Ellison,

I greatly appreciate your kind explanation and the crucial data provided.

I fully agree with your analysis regarding the directionality of 'whether (or not)' <> 'if' <> 'when' <> 'as soon as.'

The works by Hosokawa (1991) and Waters (1989) seem very interesting.

Thank you so much again for your help!

___________________________________________________

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: Ellison Luk <ellisonluk at gmail.com>
Sent: Tuesday, February 6, 2024 8:50 AM
To: Kim, Yongtaek <ykim791 at gatech.edu>
Cc: Kofi Yakpo <kofi at hku.hk>; lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org <lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org>
Subject: Re: [Lingtyp] historical change from a complementizer to a temporal adverbial

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<mailto: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<mailto:ykim791 at gatech.edu>

________________________________
From: Lingtyp <lingtyp-bounces at listserv.linguistlist.org<mailto:lingtyp-bounces at listserv.linguistlist.org>> on behalf of Kim, Yongtaek <ykim791 at gatech.edu<mailto:ykim791 at gatech.edu>>
Sent: Tuesday, February 6, 2024 7:07 AM
To: Kofi Yakpo <kofi at hku.hk<mailto:kofi at hku.hk>>
Cc: lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org<mailto:lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org> <lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org<mailto: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<mailto:ykim791 at gatech.edu>

________________________________
From: Kofi Yakpo <kofi at hku.hk<mailto:kofi at hku.hk>>
Sent: Tuesday, February 6, 2024 5:22 AM
To: Kim, Yongtaek <ykim791 at gatech.edu<mailto:ykim791 at gatech.edu>>
Cc: lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org<mailto:lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org> <lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org<mailto: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
————
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Recently published:

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On Tue, Feb 6, 2024 at 7:37 AM Kim, Yongtaek <ykim791 at gatech.edu<mailto: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<mailto:ykim791 at gatech.edu>

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