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

[Jocelyn Aznar]

Dear Luis,

Responding in particular to this example:

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.

I've seen this practice in other languages, in particular in the context 
of oral transmission/narrative telling/explanations. For instance in 
Beja's narratives (see https://doreco.huma-num.fr/languages/beja1238n / 
BEJ_MV_NARR_14_sijadok_testmorph.eaf), it is a recurring practice, and 
you get sometimes sequences such as "she said, they said".

I don't have any grammatical interpretation to provide (but look at 
Martine Vanhove's work), but on a rhetorical level, this practice seems 
quite common in oral traditions. By doing so, the speaker 
presents/acknowledges that the words they says are not theirs, but 
simply passed down through generations.

Best regards,
Jocelyn

Le 25/09/2024 à 21:07, Luis Ulloa via Lingtyp a écrit :
> 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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