Re: THEORY: Tukang Besi (was Re: THEORY: Cross-Referencing the Arguments of Consecutive Verbs, And Similar Things)

David Peterson wrote:


> All of this is based on a talk that was given at the undergrad.
> typology class I TA'd at UCSD by Mark Donohue (visiting from
> the University of Singapore).  He's an amazing guy.  I'm going
> to try to reconstruct what he said about Tukang Besi (a language
> for which he wrote the grammar) based on his handout, which
> can be downloaded at the following url:
>
> http://ling.ucsd.edu/~djp/dlstuff/verbinitialhandout.pdf
Also available: http://courses.nus.edu.sg/course/ellmd/TkBvoice.pdf
(I haven't yet compared the two.)

>
> Tukang Besi is a language of central Indonesia...
Specifically, on some islands off the SE tip of Sulawesi. The name means
"iron smith/expert", and I've always wondered if, somehow, they were a
source of iron in early times. That could have made the islands an important
trading station.

and is at least
> distantly related to Tagalog.  It has an agreement pattern and
> case marking system that strikes me as really quite fascinating.
> Below are some facts which would lead one to believe that
> Tukang Besi is simply a nominative/accusative language:
>
> (1)
> (a) Ku'ita te ana (na iaku).  /1sg.-see ACC. child (NOM. I)/ "I saw a
> child."
> (b) *Ku'ita na iaku te ana.  For same.  [word order = VOS]
> (c) Kurato (na iaku) di kampo.  /1sg.-arrive (NOM. I) OBL. village/
> "I arrived at the village."
>
> So, essentially, the order is VOS, the language is a prodrop language,
> and oblique arguments follow the subject.
>
> Now here's an alternative way of expressing (1a).
>
> (2)
> (a) Ku'ita'e (te iaku) na ana.  /1sg.-see-3sg. (ACC.? I) NOM.?
> child/  "I saw the child."
> (b) Ku'ita'e na ana te iaku.  Variant word order is grammatical.
Another distinction between the two sentences-- which I don't see
mentioned-- is that (1a) has indefinite object; (2a) definite. This reminds
me of the different verb agreement patterns in Buginese, spoken in SW
Sulawesi.  Buginese is an important language in the area--they were
inveterate wanderers and traders/pirates around Sulawesi, indeed all over
Indonesia.  There are little colonies of them everywhere, and they tend to
control local trade, have great prestige-- and linguistic influence is very
possible.

These would be the Bug. equivalents of the two sentences:
(1a.i) mitaka? ana?
   m-ita-ka?  ana?
 PFX-see-I/subj. child/indef. "I see/saw a child"
You wouldn't ordinarily include the 1s pronoun (iya?)-- if you did, it would
be emphatic (and I don't recall whether the verb agrees in that case). The
m- prefix might best be glossed "active" or perhaps "agent focus"

(2a.i) uitai ana?e
    u-ita-i  ana?-e
   I/subj-see-3/obj. child-def. "I see/saw the child"

And a monovalent (intrans.) verb--
laoka? ri kampong(e)
lao-ka? .....
go-I/subj. LOC village "I'm going to a(the) village"

> The way Donohue characterized these case markers is as follows:
>
> (5)
> (a) di = a general oblique/adjunct marker
> (b) te = marks core terms not marked by /na/
> (c) na = marks one obligatory term in the clause (marks the P or IO
> if the verb has object marking; otherwise, marks S or A)
Well, aside from di (Bug. ri) this is very different from the Bug....
>
> Interestingly, there are several passive markers which tend
> not to be used (or are certainly not as common as the English
> passive) which are rather specific:
>
> (6)
> (a) Noto'ita na ana.  "The child was seen."
> (b) Note'ita na ana.  "The child happened to get seen."
> (c) Nomo'ita na ana.  "The child was visible."
> (d) Nopo'ita'ita na ana.  "The children looked at each other.
Comparable expressions are available (and also uncommon) in Bug. though with
different but (often) cognate morphology; likewise in other languages of SE
Sulawesi, which are more closely related to TkB

>
> In addition to this, there's an applicative marker (and it seems
> to be lexicalized which verb takes which applicative marker).
> So you can get the following (using an intransitive verb):
>
> (7)
> (a) Norato na mori di kampo.  /3sg.-arrive NOM. student OBL.
> village/  "The students arrived at the village."  (Normal)
> (b) Noratomi te kampo na mori.  "The students arrived at the
> village."  (Applicative)
> (c) Noratomi'e na kampo te mori.  "The students arrived at the
> village."  (Applicative + Obj. Marking)
> (d) Notoratomi na kampo.  "The village was arrived at." (Applicative
> + Passive)
This /-(C)i/ suffix is also widespread, with pretty much this meaning (and
often lexicalized). In most languages it (1) transitivizes the verb and (2)
refers to the object-- usually a "location" broadly speaking.

Thanks for posting this really interesting (to me, anyway) material.

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