30.242, Diss: Lakota; General Linguistics; Morphology; Semantics; Syntax; Text/Corpus Linguistics: Jan Ullrich: ''Modification, Secondary Predication and Multi-Verb Constructions in Lakota''

[The LINGUIST List]

LINGUIST List: Vol-30-242. Wed Jan 16 2019. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 30.242, Diss:  Lakota; General Linguistics; Morphology; Semantics; Syntax; Text/Corpus Linguistics: Jan Ullrich: ''Modification, Secondary Predication and Multi-Verb Constructions in Lakota''

Moderator: linguist at linguistlist.org (Malgorzata E. Cavar)
Reviews: reviews at linguistlist.org (Helen Aristar-Dry, Robert Coté)
Homepage: https://linguistlist.org

Please support the LL editors and operation with a donation at:
           https://funddrive.linguistlist.org/donate/

Editor for this issue: Sarah Robinson <srobinson at linguistlist.org>
================================================================


Date: Wed, 16 Jan 2019 10:29:32
From: Jan Ullrich [jfullrich at gmail.com]
Subject: Modification, Secondary Predication and Multi-Verb Constructions in Lakota

 
Institution: Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf 
Program: Department of General Linguistics 
Dissertation Status: Completed 
Degree Date: 2018 

Author: Jan Ullrich

Dissertation Title: Modification, Secondary Predication and Multi-Verb
Constructions in Lakota 

Dissertation URL:  http://www.acsu.buffalo.edu/~rrgpage/rrg/Ullrich.pdf

Linguistic Field(s): General Linguistics
                     Morphology
                     Semantics
                     Syntax
                     Text/Corpus Linguistics

Subject Language(s): Lakota (lkt)


Dissertation Director(s):
Robert D. Van Valin
Johannes Helmbrecht

Dissertation Abstract:

This text corpus based study is the first investigation of secondary
predication in a Siouan language, specifically Lakota. It offers analysis on
the syntactic, morphological and semantic level in the paradigm of Role and
Reference Grammar. It is also the first study on Lakota morphosyntax which
relies on prosodic data.

Secondary predicates are structurally divided into simple, serialized and
complex. I claim that Lakota has been undergoing a diachronic development from
one preferred strategy of expressing depictive and resultative content to
another, which is supported by the fact that the number of stative verbs that
can function as secondary predicates has been decreasing during the time frame
of text documentation (between 1840 and 2018).

The new strategy for expressing depictive and resultative content is one that
involves modifiers derived primarily from stative verbs, but also from active
verbs as well as from nouns, numerals and quantitatives. Within the RRG
framework these modifiers are given the orientation neutral term ‘[derived]
modifier’ (DM). They can function as ad core modifiers (traditionally
‘adverbs’), ad-argument and ad nominal modifiers (traditionally ‘adjectives’)
and rarely as ad nuclear modifiers (traditionally ‘adjectives’). Much
attention is given to the morphophonemic properties of DMs as well as their
orientation (to subject or object, to event or participant), to different
types of DMs, and DMs with various types of lexical composition, such as
modifiers derived from stative verbs, active verbs, nouns, wo- nouns,
numerals, quantifiers, from passive voice construction, etc.

The last part of the thesis focuses on multi-verb constructions, primarily on
Simultaneous Predicate Construction and Purpose Construction. It provides a
detailed discussion of the defining properties, shared features and
contrastive features of these two constructions that have not been clearly
defined and distinguished in the extant literature. The motivation for
including a section on multi-verb construction in this study is that
Simultaneous Predicate Constructions share many important morphosyntactic and
semantic properties with secondary predication.

This thesis, therefore, explores the following four interrelated phenomena of
Lakota syntax: (1) ad-nominal modification with stative verbs, (2)
modification with derived modifiers, (3) secondary predication, and (4)
multi-verb constructions. The study disproves a number of widely held notions
about Lakota, clarifies some outstanding issues, and identifies several
hitherto unknown features in the language.

The investigation also covers other types of modification, such incorporated
premodification. The study provides a novel approach to the analysis of the
Lakota passive voice especially with respect to the status of the passive
actor and the use of the passive for RP-internal and RP-external modification.
The investigation is also concerned with RP linkage, RP cross referencing to
core arguments, noun incorporation and clausal complementation, as all of
these areas are relevant for the discussion of modification and secondary
predication. For instance, under certain morphosyntactic conditions, there is
a structural ambiguity where two identical strings of morphemes can realize
two different syntactic structures. Such structural ambiguity exists, for
example, between secondary modification and clausal complementation. The study
examines RP constituency and discusses many constructions in which Ns do not
constitute NPs.




------------------------------------------------------------------------------

*****************    LINGUIST List Support    *****************
Please support the LL editors and operation with a donation at:

              The IU Foundation Crowd Funding site:
       https://iufoundation.fundly.com/the-linguist-list

               The LINGUIST List FundDrive Page:
            https://funddrive.linguistlist.org/donate/
 


----------------------------------------------------------
LINGUIST List: Vol-30-242	
----------------------------------------------------------