Theiling Online    Sitemap    Conlang Mailing List HQ   

Re: THEORY: two questions

From:dirk elzinga <dirk.elzinga@...>
Date:Friday, March 24, 2000, 20:40
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