Re: THEORY: two questions

On Fri, 24 Mar 2000 myth@INQUO.NET wrote:

> Hey all.  Adam here again.  So lately I've been inspired to spice up
> Doraja a little bit, adding a couple or three more interesting features.
> For instance, I now know that the aspect morphology which previously
> only occured on verbs now also occurs on prepositions; I've also worked
> out a new script which I'll hopefully be able to scan someday.  However,
> before I can continue with this interesting-ization, I have two
> questions for the language experts here on the list.
>
> Question number one. Is there any typological correlation between word
> order and head-/dependent-marking tendencies?  That is, would a
> head-initial language be more likely to be head-marking or
> dependent-marking?  Same question for head-final languages.
Actually, I'm surprised at you, Adam. Asking us a question about
head/dependent marking and word order when you are a student at
Berkeley, home of Johanna Nichols. Indeed, it is we who should
be asking you such questions! :-)

I just looked in Nichol's book _Linguistic Diversity in Space
and Time_, and found the following table which addresses just
this question:

Table 21. Word oder and head/dependent type

                        Word Order
                      ---------------     Unknown
                      V..  ..V..  ..V   none  split   total
H/D type
  head marking        11     7     22     20      4      64
  double, split        8    12     20     10      1      51
  dependent marking    2    10     35      6      6      59
  total               21    29     77     36     11     174

                                                  p < 0.025

She has this to say about the table: "Statistically significant
patterns emerge when we use a two-way breakdown of head/
dependent types and leave out the languages with unknown or no
basic word order; the significance levels shown in table 21 were
determined in this way. Verb-initial order and unknown order or
lack of any basic order pattern together, favoring head marking.
Verb-medial and verb-final order pattern together, favoring
dependent marking." (p 105)

Tepa, being both primarily head-marking and verb-initial, fits
in with these statistical trends.

> Question number two. I've decided that Doraya verbs need to have some
> sort of agreement with their dependent NPs.  However, I'd like to have
> something more original than a simple agreement with the person of the
> subject.  Any ideas for something more exotic?
On Fri, 24 Mar 2000, Rob Nierse wrote:
>
> >>> Barry Garcia <Barry_Garcia@...> 03/24 1:20  >>>
> CONLANG@LISTSERV.BROWN.EDU writes:
>
> Perhaps the verbs and their subjects could agree in number? In Tagalog,
> there are plural forms for the verbs. This according to my book, is not
> considered manditory, but it does exist. Basically, the plural forms can
> be used when using the plural pronouns, as well as if a group of people or
> things does something (like a group of women praying).
>
> Anyway, i think it's exotic. It's different from agreeing with the person
> of the subject at least.
>
> --->
> Reminds me of some languages in North America that have suppletion
> of verbstems depending on the subject being singular or plural .
> That would make it even more exotic ;)
This is a property Uto-Aztecan languages, but the suppletion of
verb stems follows an ergative pattern. That is, for
intransitive verbs, the verb stem will vary according to the
number of the subject, while for transitive verbs the verb stem
will vary according to the number of the object. Here are some
examples from Luiseño:

        sg      pl

        pokwa   Noora    'run'
        wiila   waapa    'fly'
        kwota   waraava  'get up'

        woti    wuva?na  'hit'
        moqna   qe?ee    'kill'

Shoshoni has a three-way distinction for number, adding dual to
singular and plural. This results in three-way suppletions for a
few verbs:

        sg      du        pl

        wyny    tatsakki  topoi    'stand'
        katy    jekwikka  jekwi    'sit'

Most of the time, though, the suppletion is only between the
singular and the plural, with the dual being a reduplicated form
of either the singular or plural:

        sg      du      pl

        jua     jujuua  waiku      'go in, enter'
        jytsy   jojoti  joti       'get up, fly'

But this doesn't really answer your question. I think Matt
suggested animacy as a possible agreement category for verbs and
their objects; another possibility is to have classificatory
verbs, à la Navajo. That is, the verb stem changes depending on
the shape, texture, etc of the object.

Dirk

--
Dirk Elzinga
dirk.elzinga@m.cc.utah.edu