Re: Fluid-S pivot in Old Albic

From: "Jörg Rhiemeier" <joerg_rhiemeier@...>
Sent: Monday, August 08, 2005 9:40 PM
Subject: Re: Fluid-S pivot in Old Albic

 > Hallo!

Hallo!

 > I am not even sure whether "switch reference" is the
 > correct term
 > for it.  The switch reference morphemes in Amerindian
 > languages
 > mostly have to do with subordinate clauses, it seems,
 > though
 > I haven't really understood those switch reference systems
 > yet.

Coincidentally, I've got Describing Morphosyntax right next
to me on my desk, and Th. Payne writes the following (heck,
that's 3 pages!):

 From pp. 322 ff.:

<<  A prototypical SWITCH REFERENCE system is verbal
inflection that indicates whether the subject of the verb is
coreferential with (i.e., the same as) the subject of some
other verb. For example in Yuman languages, such as
Maricopa, the verbal suffix _-k_ indicates that the subject
of the verb is the same as the subject of the next verb in a
sequence. The suffix _-m_ indicates that the subject ids
different from the subject of the vnext verb (examples
courtexsy of Lynn Gordon):

(50) Maricopa (Yuman, southwestern United States)
     a. Nyaa '-ashvar-*k* '-iima-k.
        I    1-sing-SS  1-dance-ASPECT
        "I sang and I danced."

     b. Bonnie-sh  0-ashvar-*m* '-iima-k.
        Bonnie-SUB 3-sing-DS  1-dance-ASPECT
        "Bonnie sang and I danced."

  In Maricopa, switch-referencemarkers are distinct from
verb agreement, i.e., they are a different inflectional
category (not that both verbs "agree" with their subjects by
way of prefixes). hence there is a lot of redundancy.
Sometimes, hoever, coreference markers are incorporated into
the system of verb agreement. In this case the category of
"third person" is subdivided into two, one for same
reference and another for switch reference. Various
terminology is used to refer to such systems, e.g.,
reflexive, fourth person, recurrent, etc. Yup'ik exhibits
such a system:

(51) a. Dena-q   quya-uq        Toni-aq  cinga-llra-*0*-ku.
            -ABS happy-INTRNS-3     -ABS greet-because-3/3-DEP
        "Dena(i) is happy because she(j) greeted Tony."

     b. Dena-q quya-u-q Toni-aq cinga-llra-*mi*-ku.
                                           -SS
        "Dena(i) is happy because she(i) greeted Tony."

  The second clause in example 51a takes the standard verb
agreement marking for third person acting on theird person
transitive verbs. The interpretation of 51a is that the
actors mentioned in the two clauses are different. The
second clause in 51b, on the other hand, takes a special
suffix, _-mi_, which indicates that the actor of theis
clause is the same as the actor of the previous clause.
Sometimes this suffix is called the "fourth person".

Table 11.1 KÂTE SWITCH-REFERENCE MARKERS

     | Overlap ("while") | Succession ("then")
  ---+-------------------+--------------------
  SS | -huk              | -ra
  DS | -ha               | -0

Table 11.2 PANARE SWITCH-REFERENCE MARKERS

  Operator | Temp. rel.  | Reference  | Other rel.s conveyed
  ---------+-------------+------------+---------------------
  -séjpe   | succession  | AGT == AGT | purpose
  -sé'ñape | succession  | ABS == PAT | result
  -ñépe    | succession  | AGT != AGT | movement/purpose
  -npan    | overlap     | AGT == AGT | none
  -tááñe   | overlap     | AGT == AGT | none
  -jpómën  | anteriority | AGT == AGT | reason

  [NOTE: "AGT" is "actor" in the original]

  More complex systems of switch reference occur in the
languages of highland Papua New Guinea. For example, Kâte,
illustrated in table 11.1, has a switch-reference system
consisting of four markers (Longacre 1972).

(52) a. Fisi-*huk* na-wek
        arrive-SS  ate-3sg
        "As he(i) arrifed, he(i) was eating."

     b. Fisi-*ra*  na-wek
        arrive-SS  ate-3sg
        "He(i) arrived, then he(i) ate."

     c. Mu-*ha*-pie  kio-wek
        speak-DS-3pl weep-3sg
        "As they spoke, he was weeping"

     d. Mu-*0*-pie   kio-wek
        speak-DS-3pl weep-3sg
        "After they spoke, he wept."

  Some systems are even more complex than this. For example,
in Panare, operators thatindicate same- or switch-reference
relations between clauses alos indicate several temporal or
logical relations. Table 11.2 illustrates these operators
and the various relations they express (T. Payne 1991).

  This table shows that interclausual coreference marking
need not be based on the grammatical relation of subject
only. Several languages, especially those that employ
morphological ergativity as a basic case-marking strategy,
have complex switch-reference systems in which some
operators are anteceded by subjects while others are
anteceded by objects or absolutives. This phenomenon has
been documented in Australian languages (Austin 1980) and in
Amerindian langauges (Jones and Jones 1991 on Barasano).

  The following is an extract from Kanite, a Papuan
language. Not only does this language employ a special
different subject morpheme, _ke_, but each medial clause is
inflected for the subject of the *next* clause (Longacre
1972):

(53) a. his-u'a-*ke*-'ka,
        do-we-DS-you
        "If we do this,"

     b. naki a'nemo-ka hoya   ali-'ka,
        so   women-you garden work-you
        "you women work the garden,"

     c. naki ali  ha'anoma hu-ne'atale-'ka,
        so   work finish   do-COMPL-you,
        "when the work's finished"

     d. popo hu-'ka, (e.) inuna kae-'ka,
        hoe  do-you       weeds burn-you
        "hoe and burn the weeds"

     f. naki ha'no  hu-talete-*ke*-ta'a
        so   finish do-COMPL-DS-we
        "when that is finished,"

     g. 'naki viemoka-ta'a keki'yamo'ma ha'noma ...
        so    men-we       fence        finish
        "we men will finish building the fence"

        ... ne-his-i-*ana*
            FUT-do-it-1pl

_-ana_ in clause g marks the end of the chain.

  Clause 53a is marked with _u'a_, indicating its own
subject. Then _-ke_ indicates that the next clause will have
a different subject, and finally, _-'ka_ indicates that the
next subject will be second person. Each of the following
four clauses is marked with _-'ka_ indicating that the
following clause will ahve a second person subject. Same
subject is indicated with zero. In clause f we have the
_-ke_ marker again, indicating that the final cluase will
have a different subject. After the _-ke_ comes the form
_-ta'a_, indicating that the final cluase will have "we" as
its subject. Clause g is the only final verb in this series.
ALl others are medial, i.e., they cannot stand alone as full
propositions. This is probably because of the _-'ka_
markers. Notice that 53g has a tense marker, whereas none of
th eother verbs do. >>

Sorry for such a long quotation, but I didn't know where to
[snip].

Carsten

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