[Lingtyp] Questions on 'expanded' functions of person marking and pronouns

[Eva Schultze-Berndt]

Hello Luis,

Regarding the impersonal use of the pronouns in Shawi, it is interesting that the different pronouns seem to carry an epistemic component also – the inclusive 1+2 pronoun flagging that this is culturally shared knowledge / habitual action (I have written on a 1+2 pronoun marking shared epistemic authority in the Australian language Jaminjung-Ngaliwurru, though this is not in an impersonal construction).

As for terminology, personally I would go for the boring but transparent ‘impersonal (use of) 1+2 pronoun’ and ‘impersonal (use of) 3pl pronoun’.

Best wishes,

Eva


------------------------------------------
Prof Eva Schultze-Berndt
Head of Department, Linguistics and English Language
School of Arts, Languages and Cultures
The University of Manchester, UK



From: Lingtyp <lingtyp-bounces at listserv.linguistlist.org> on behalf of Françoise Rose via Lingtyp <lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org>
Date: Thursday, 26 September 2024 at 07:48
To: Luis Ulloa <laulloa at buffalo.edu>, lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org <lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org>
Subject: Re: [Lingtyp] Questions on 'expanded' functions of person marking and pronouns
Dear Luis,
I wonder whether your second question could be related to Lichtenberk’s notion of inclusory pronominals.
https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/5/article/25395/pdf [muse.jhu.edu]<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/muse.jhu.edu/pub/5/article/25395/pdf__;!!PDiH4ENfjr2_Jw!DYZqCHET9ZePsKABP9HOLb-ZhphtoCCfHgulm0tcPgOL1DBW1ynytVixzHPKQrfRcAGdzeeHb0rcMxkXMZib3jH3BHzo0KMvdtccWophT9nS$>
Best,
Françoise

De : Lingtyp <lingtyp-bounces at listserv.linguistlist.org> De la part de Luis Ulloa via Lingtyp
Envoyé : mercredi 25 septembre 2024 21:07
À : lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org
Objet : [Lingtyp] Questions on 'expanded' functions of person marking and pronouns

Hello everyone,

I have two terminological questions, in relation to Shawi (Kawapanan, Peru), regarding (1) non-standard? functions of person marking, and (2) a construction used in lieu of NP coordination. Please feel free to recommend papers that deal with these issues. Thanks in advance.
Question 1: How to differentiate two types of impersonal, and what terms should be used for them?

The first impersonal is used for something people, or 'one' generally does, cf. Spanish reflexive/middle, and 'uno'.

ENG: To get to campus, one takes the highway.
SPA: Para ir a la uni, se/uno va por la carretera.

Shawi uses first inclusive (1+2) person marking. This is not a plural. It is its own person category.

Context: An instructional text on making masato (aka manioc beer)
Wenu ya-ni'-patera, pa'-ne ta'shirechin ki'sha wa'te-re.
masato DES-make-SEQ.1+2 go-IND.1+2 morning cassava uproot-IND.1+2
`When one (lit. you and I) wants to make masato, one goes in the morning and pulls cassava (from the ground).'

The second impersonal is used when someone, we don't know or even care who, did something. It seems comparable with passives in this regard.

ENG: Did you hear? They shot Kennedy. / Kennedy was shot.
SPA: Me contaron que asesinaron al presidente / que el presidente fue asesinado.

Shawi uses third person plural marking.

Context: End of a text
Napuatun tuwayu pi'pamutuun-in tu-pi.
therefore sp.bird have.crushed.head-IND.3SG say-IND.3PL
`This is why the tuwayu has a crushed head, they say.'

There is no passive in Shawi. Curiously though, the third person plural Indicative suffix (last suffix in the example above) is formally identical to a resultative nominalizer, whose cognate is used in the passive of a related language. Additionally, third plural Indicative -pi is formally unrelated to other Indicative suffixes (all of which start with -rV). So while there is no passive, there is a connection.

I've seen both types being called 'impersonal passives', but this doesn't apply to Shawi (since it has no passive or middle) and it doesn't differentiate them.

Question 2: There is no NP coordination in Shawi. To refer to multiple participants, one lists them out, and then uses the third person plural pronoun to refer back to them.

Context: A boat is caught in a whirlpool and the young men do nothing
Irui, Kanitu, Santu, inapita=wachi naranka iru-ria-rin.
Eloy Calixto Santos 3PL=ASP? orange suck-ASP-IND.3SG
Eloy, Calixto, Santos--they went on sucking oranges.

The list of participants seems to be extra-clausal, and usually precedes all clausal elements. At the same time, it appears to be in apposition to the pronoun, since the list always directly precedes it (not too dissimilar from the apposition between non-restrictive relative clauses and their heads). The following example has OSV order, even though pragmatically-unmarked order is SOV. (OSV clauses do occur elsewhere when O is pragmatically-marked.)

No context given:
Ite katu-pi, ichi a'na-sa' inapita papa inan-in.
agouti two-CLS.animal sp.monkey one-? 3PL father shoot-IND.3SG
Father shot them--two agoutis, one monkey.

The list of participants is not linked to a specific semantic nor grammatical role. In the previous examples, it was linked S and O respectively, so one might wonder if it is absolutive. In the following example, however, it is linked to A.

Context: On why peach palms now bear fruits high up
[I]pi', ite, shu'mi' inapita=ri ka'-pi.
paca agouti rat 3PL=ERG eat-IND.3PL
[P]acas, agoutis, rats--they would eat them (so the peach palm was made to be taller).

Adverbials can occur before the list of participants.

Context: Kunpanama (a hero/deity) is ordering birds to help him fight a giant snake
Inakeran=wachi peni-sha, ku'pirashi' inapita sha'wite-rin.
then=ASP? sp.bird-DIM sp.bird 3PL tell.ditr-IND.3SG
Then, he told them--the little peni, ku'pirashi (birds)--the same thing.

However, adverbials can also precede constituents that host second-position clitics. Constituents that host second-position clitics are pragmatically-marked and usually clause-initial. This to say that while the list is left-displaced, it is not in the most left-displaced... slot (let's say), exactly like other pragmatically-marked constituents in the language. I would present examples with second-position clitics, but at this point I might be burying the lede.

In any case, the list of participants is likely extra-clausal and in apposition to the pronoun, which is treated as a pragmatically-marked constituent. Has anyone else come across this kind of construction? What would one call it? What would one call this use of the third plural pronoun?
Thanks for reading.

Best,
Luis
--
Luis Ulloa (he/him)
PhD Candidate
Department of Linguistics
University at Buffalo
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