21.1858, Qs: Reduplication as a Valency-Adjusting Strategy

[linguist at LINGUISTLIST.ORG]

LINGUIST List: Vol-21-1858. Sat Apr 17 2010. ISSN: 1068 - 4875.

Subject: 21.1858, Qs: Reduplication as a Valency-Adjusting Strategy

Moderators: Anthony Aristar, Eastern Michigan U <aristar at linguistlist.org>
            Helen Aristar-Dry, Eastern Michigan U <hdry at linguistlist.org>
 
Reviews: Monica Macaulay, U of Wisconsin-Madison  
Eric Raimy, U of Wisconsin-Madison  
Joseph Salmons, U of Wisconsin-Madison  
Anja Wanner, U of Wisconsin-Madison  
       <reviews at linguistlist.org> 

Homepage: http://linguistlist.org/

The LINGUIST List is funded by Eastern Michigan University, 
and donations from subscribers and publishers.

Editor for this issue: Danielle St. Jean <danielle at linguistlist.org>
================================================================  

We'd like to remind readers that the responses to queries are usually
best posted to the individual asking the question. That individual is
then strongly encouraged to post a summary to the list. This policy was
instituted to help control the huge volume of mail on LINGUIST; so we
would appreciate your cooperating with it whenever it seems appropriate.

In addition to posting a summary, we'd like to remind people that it
is usually a good idea to personally thank those individuals who have
taken the trouble to respond to the query.

To post to LINGUIST, use our convenient web form at
http://linguistlist.org/LL/posttolinguist.cfm.

===========================Directory==============================  

1)
Date: 15-Apr-2010
From: Clement Appah < c.appah at lancaster.ac.uk >
Subject: Reduplication as a Valency-Adjusting Strategy
 

	
-------------------------Message 1 ---------------------------------- 
Date: Sat, 17 Apr 2010 12:20:41
From: Clement Appah [c.appah at lancaster.ac.uk]
Subject: Reduplication as a Valency-Adjusting Strategy

E-mail this message to a friend:
http://linguistlist.org/issues/emailmessage/verification.cfm?iss=21-1858.html&submissionid=2626995&topicid=8&msgnumber=1
  


Dear LINGUIST List members,

In the formation of Action Nominals (ANs) in Akan, intransitive verbs are 
nominalized through the prefixation of [a-] (or its +ATR variant [e-] for 
Fante), as in (1), while transitive verbs incorporate (are compounded 
with) their internal arguments. This is the incorporating (INC) type of 
ANs (Koptjevskaja-Tamm, 1993), as in (2).

(1) a. dzidzi           ->     e-dzidzi 
      'eat (intr.)'            '(act of) eating'
     b. saw             ->      a-saw 
      'dance'                   'dancing'

(2) a. dzi   edziban        ->     edzibandzi
      'eat (tr.)food'              'eating'
      b. tow ndwom	    ->     ndwomtow
      'sing song'                  'singing'

In a handful of cases, instead of the incorporation of the internal 
argument, the verb is (re)-reduplicated to form the nominal. Here, the 
(re)-reduplicated forms undergo affixation just like intransitive verbs.

(3)   
     Input                 Derived AN
a. ka     as?m        ->     as?mka 
  'say   matter'            'settling issues'
b. keka ns?m        ->        ns?mkeka	
c. keka keka ns?m    ->      *ns?mkekakeka 
d. keka keka ns?m    ->       a-kekakeka 

I suspect that this reduplication process is the remains of a defunct 
valency altering (de-transitivizing) strategy in Akan where intransitive 
forms of verbs were formed from transitive ones by reduplicating the 
later and that the distinction between the two forms of the verb EAT - 
dzi 'eat (transitive)' and dzidzi 'eat (intransitive)' are the fossilized 
remains of this defunct process. 

Other reduplicated intransitive verbs became lexicalized, as in (4) cf. 
Balmer and Grant (1929).

(4)	kã     	   ->        kekã      
        'to touch'          'to grope' 
	tow         ->       totow	
        'to throw'          'to fish'

I would be pleased to receive information on languages with an active 
process (or even the fossilized remains of such a process) of deriving 
intransitive verbs from transitive ones through reduplication.

I am aware of Bill Palmer's (1999) PhD Dissertation which deals briefly 
with the subject in Kokota.

Please send any responses directly to me: c.appah at lancaster.ac.uk.

Thank you in advance of your assistance,

Clement Appah
PhD Student, Lancaster University

References:

Balmer, William T., and F.C.F. Grant. 1929. A Grammar of the Fante-
Akan Language. London:  Atlantic Press.

Koptjevskaja-Tamm M. 1993. Nominalizations. London/New York: 
Routledge 

Linguistic Field(s): Morphology
                     Syntax
                     Typology




-----------------------------------------------------------
LINGUIST List: Vol-21-1858