[Lingtyp] 'If you say/ask why' > because

[Eric Melac]

Dear Jeremy (if I may), 

Standard Tibetan has a common phrase that
means 'because' that is literally "if you ask/say what/why" (_gang yin
zer na_ = what + copula + say + if). Tibetan is an SOV language, but
this is not a conjunction, but rather a parenthetical you use before
giving a reason. The conjunction 'because' is _tsang_ (origin unknown as
long as I know), and is thus placed right after the verb (at the end of
the subordinate clause and before the main clause). 

Best, 

Eric


Eric Mélac  
Maître de conférences en linguistique  /  Associate
professor in linguistics 
Département d'études anglophones 
EMMA (EA
741) 
Université Paul Valéry Montpellier 3 
https://emma.univ-montp3.fr


Le 09/11/2024 16:16, Jeremy Bradley via Lingtyp a écrit :

> Dear
all,
> 
> I am looking at the conventionalization, eventually
grammaticalization 
> of phrases meaning something along the lines of
'if you say/ask why' as 
> causal conjunctions 'because', in the
languages of the world. I'm 
> currently aware of this happening (with
some variation in the exact 
> structuring) in:
> 
> Mari (Uralic)
>
Udmurt (Uralic)
> Chuvash (Turkic)
> Buryat (Mongolic)
> Lezgian
(Northeast Caucasian)
> Tamil (Dravidian)
> Middle Indo-Aryan (IE)
>
Japanese
> Korean
> 
> ... which all have in common that they're SOV
languages; it strikes me 
> as plausible that this is a pattern that
easily arises when an SOV 
> language "needs" a mechanism for a
postposed causal clause. But two 
> things I'm curious about:
> 
> 1)
Does anybody know of other languages that do this, esp. 
>
non-SOV-languages?
> 
> 2) Does anybody know about any systematic
research on this process?
> 
> Best,
> Jeremy
> 
> -- 
> Jeremy Bradley,
Ph.D.
> University of Vienna
> 
> http://www.mari-language.com
>
jeremy.moss.bradley at univie.ac.at
> 
> Office address:
> Institut EVSL
>
Abteilung Finno-Ugristik
> Universität Wien
> Campus AAKH, Hof 7-2
>
Spitalgasse 2-4
> 1090 Wien
> AUSTRIA
> 
> Mobile: +43-664-99-31-788
>
Skype: jeremy.moss.bradley
> 
>
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