[Lingtyp] A query on comparative correlative clauses

[Benjamin Brosig]

Dear Theodor and Masha,



I just elicitated some patterns from a single speaker and then set out to
find related sentences in actual corpus data.



One pattern is CLAUSE1dir.act-x-iiŋ xer-eer CLAUSE2dir.act in (1). nIC=429
(which, here and below, includes doublets found on multiple websites). This
construction is found with a relative limited set of verbs that one could
(with Croft 2012) characterize as directed activities such as ‘change’,
‘grow’, ‘intensify’, ‘develop’, ‘improve’ etc., overall less than a dozen
of frequently occurring verbs (though there are some instances of less
common verbs, too). In both sub-clauses.



(1) Амьдрал дээшлэхийн хэрээр хэрэглээ нарийсч, сонголт нямбай болдог.

*Amʲdral deešle-x-iiŋ xer-eer xereglee nariis-č, songolt nyambai bol-dog*.

life move.up-fut.ptcp-gen extent-ins usage become.narrow-cvb choice fine
become-hab.ptcp

‘To the extent that life improves, usage narrows down and choice becomes
[more] fine-grained.’



The next pattern is CLAUSE1dir.act-x tusam CLAUSE2dir.act. nIC=3016. Note
that as- in (2) is not a directed activity, so we the the use of the adverb
*ulam* ‘more’ (modifying adjectives and verbs) to turn it into one.
However, this pattern is more variable. However, this second pattern does
not share the lexical restrictions of the first pattern in that it seems to
favor, but does not require directed activity predicates. There seems to be
an alternative interpretation ‘at every instance’ which allows for the
relatively wider semantic range, cf. (3)-(4).



(2) Түүний гар доошлох тусам түүний хүсэл улам асна гэдгийг сана.Бас нэг
зүйл.

*Tüün-ii ɢar doošlo-x tusam tüün-ii xüsel ulam as-an*[.]

dem.dist-gen hand move.down-fut.ptcp the.more dem.dist-gen wish more
turn.on(intr)-pot

‘The more his hand goes down [while embracing you], the moe his desire is
awaking.

(3) Гайхалтай яруу найрагч ... Үзэх тусам сэтгэл сэргэдэг тэгээд хэдэн ч
удаа үзээд уйддаггүй кино гэж байдаг даа.

‘An amazing poet. Every time you see it, your mind awakens. And it is a
movie that, however often you watch it, never gets boring.’

*Üz-ex tusam setgel ser-ge-deg*.

see-fut.ptcp the.more mind awake(intr)-[through outer influece]-hab.ptcp

‘Every time you see it, your mind awakens.’ / ‘To the extent you see it,
your mind awakens.’

(4) Харин та олон туршилт хийх тусам таны туршилтын алдааны магадлал буурна

*Xariŋ ta oloŋ turšilt xii-x tusam tan-ii turšilt-iiŋ aldaan-ii magadlal
buur-an*[.]

but 2sg.hon many experiment do-fut.ptcp the.more 2sg.hon-gen experiment-gen
error-gen probability do.down-pot

‘But once you do many trials, the probability of error for your trials goes
down.’

(5) УИХ-ын сонгууль ойртох тусам Монгол орон тэр аяараа хоёрдугаар
хоолойтнуудаар дүүрч байна.



In the two first patterns, the first clause ends in a participle that
relates to the subsequent conjunction-like element, but the third pattern (n
IC=483) uses two adverbials in conjunct finite clauses. The word *činee *seems
to be a noun in that it occasionally shows up with genitive case (to
connect it to a subsequent element) or with instrumental (to adverbialize
it, which however in the majority of instances is achieved without any case
suffix at all here). The first pattern thus contains the adverbials *xedii
činee(geer)* in the first sentence and *tödii činee(geer)* in the second
sentence, and both sentences must end in the potential suffix -n (Brosig
2015).



(6) Нөхцөл байдлаа хэдий чинээ сайн судална, гаргах шийдвэр төдий чинээ зөв
байна.

*nöxcöl baidl=aa xedii činee saiŋ sudla-n, ɢar-ɢa-x šiidwer tödii činee zöw
bai-n*.

circumstance situation=rposs how.much degree good study
emerge-caus-fut.ptcp decisiion only.so.much degree correct aux-im.prs

‘To which extent you study the circumstances well, the resulting decision
will be correct to that extent.’

‘The resulting decision will be correct to the extent that you study the
circumstances well.’



For glossing, see e.g. Brosig et al. (2019).



Best

Benjamin





2015. Aspect and epistemic notions in the present tense system of Khalkha
Mongolian. *Acta Linguistica Petropolitana* XI.3: 46-127.

Brosig, Benjamin & Foongha Yap & Kathleen Ahrens. 2019. Assertion,
assumption and presupposition: an account of the erstwhile nominalizer YUM
in Khalkha Mongolian. *Studies in Language* 43(4): 896-940.
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