[Lingtyp] Zero verb root in Papuan languages

[Guillaume Jacques]

Dear Joe and colleagues,

Another example of zero root outside of Papua is found in Ojibwe, where the
transitive animate verb *izhi* "say to" in the independent order has some
forms where the root is zero when the inverse suffix -*ig* is present, for
instance *indig* "he says to me" (*ind-ig* 1-INV).

I find this discussion very stimulating, this is the type of data that is
not always easy to come by when reading grammars, it is great to benefit
from our collective knowledge !

Guillaume

Le mar. 27 févr. 2024 à 11:37, Alexandre Arkhipov via Lingtyp <
lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org> a écrit :

> Dear Joe,
>
> If you do not limit yourself to the Papuan languages, zero verb roots
> should be occasionally found in many languages, I guess (although I don't
> have many examples).
> E.g. the Russian verb *вынуть *"take out" is considered to have no root
> due to historical changes (вы- is a regular prefix "out(wards)", -ну is a
> regular suffix (semelfactive), and -ть is the infinitive suffix).
> Some forms of Basque auxiliaries should probably be analyzed as having no
> root, e.g. zen (Past 3SG of the intransitive auxiliary, where both z- and
> -en appear elsewhere as past markers).
>
> All best,
> Alexandre
>
> 27/02/2024 05:26, Pun Ho Lui via Lingtyp пишет:
>
> Dear All, and 哈佬 Hilario,
>
> Thank you for all the responses.
>
> To slightly summarize (which is already claimed by Comrie and Zamponi
> 2019), the zero verb root/allomorph can be found in Trans New Guinea (e.g.
> Horokoi by Wesley Kuhron Jones). Those verbs tend to be semantically light,
> e.g. ‘hit’, ‘come’, ‘give’ and ‘be’ (e.g. Menggwa Dla).
> It also seems like such phenomenon can be found in other languages, e.g.
> Yawuru (Nyulnyulan) and Bardi in Australia, and potentially Ket.
>
> Warmest,
> Joe
>
> Pun Ho Lui <luiph001 at gmail.com> <luiph001 at gmail.com> 於 2024年2月24日 下午2:06
> 寫道：
>
> Dear All,
>
> Recently I am interested in the “zero verb root” in Papuan languages, that
> is, the meaning of the verb(s) are indicated by a root that has no
> phonological expression (Comrie and Zamponi 2019), as in (1).
>
> (1) Selepet (McElhanon 1973)
> Ø-nek-sap
> see-1sGO-3SGS.IMMPST
> 'He saw me’
>
> The Papuan languages (potentially) with zero verb root I have collected so
> far are: Abau, Abun, Coastal Marine, Edolo, Kalamang, Main, Nimboran,
> Amele, Yeri, Yima, Whitehead, Awe,Siroi, Gahuku, Bukiyip, Anêm, Kâte and
> Selepe.
>
> I am wondering do you know of other Papuan languages with this feature.
>
> Thank you.
>
> Warmest,
> Pun Ho Lui Joe
>
> References:
>
> Bernard Comrie and Raoul Zamponi. 2019. Verb Root Ellipsis. In Matthew
> Baerman, Oliver Bond, Andrew Hippisley (eds.): Morphological
> perspectives: Papers in honour of Greville G. Corbett, 233–280.
> Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
>
> McElhanon, Kenneth A. 1972. Selepet Grammar. Part 1: From Root to Phrase. Canberra:
> Pacific Linguistics.
>
>
>
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-- 
Guillaume Jacques

Directeur de recherches
CNRS (CRLAO) - EPHE- INALCO
https://scholar.google.fr/citations?user=1XCp2-oAAAAJ&hl=fr
https://langsci-press.org/catalog/book/295
<http://cnrs.academia.edu/GuillaumeJacques>
http://panchr.hypotheses.org/
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