Re: Comments? Applicative and Noun Incorporation

> From: Elliott Lash
>
> In my morphology class we've recently started discussing
> applicative movements and noun incorporation. Applicative
> refers to things like the English dative shift:
>
> "He gave the book to Mary"  >  "He gave Mary the book"
>
> or a "locative" shift:
>
> "He loaded the hay onto the wagon  > "He loaded the wagon with hay"
Well AFMCL amman iar has an applicative voice operator that works as
follows:

\f He gave Mary the book = alan eleth aen i mariel erannaen i parmen

\t alan            eleth             aen
\m al   =an   -0   el-        -eth   aen
\p 3per =gnd  -nom mood-      -tense ptp
\g it   =masc -[A] assertive- -past  agt/pat
\x he              did               to

\t i   mariel
\m i   mar  =iel -0
\p det n    =gnd -abs
\g the Mary =fem -[P]
\x Mary

\t erannaen                      i   parmen
\m er-  anno -ae      -n         i   parma -en
\p agt- v    -val     -vc        det n     -dat
\g do-  give -agt/pat -actn/proc the book  -[Obl]
\x give                          the book

This is the canonical form for ditransitives, i.e. Agt/Pat/Vb/Thm.
Unlike English, the verb must undergo a voice transformation using the
applicative operator to change the argument structure to
Agt/Thm/Vb/Pat/.  The applicative promotes the underlying oblique
argument to P-function and expresses the underlying P-function argument
obliquely, thus

\f He gave the book to Mary = alan i parma erdolannien eleth aen
mariellen

\t alan            i   parma
\m al   =an   -0   i   parma -0
\p 3per =gnd  -nom det n     -abs
\g it   =masc -[A] the book  -[P]
\x he              the book

\t erdolannien
\m er-  tol-    anno -ie      -n
\p agt- voice-  v    -val     -vc
\g do-  applic- give -agt/thm -actn/proc
\x give

\t eleth aen mariellen
\m el-        -eth   aen     mar  =iel -en
\p mood-      -tense ptp     n    =gnd -dat
\g assertive- -past  agt/pat Mary =fem -[Obl]
\x did               to      Mary


Note that the valency of the lexical verb in the first instance is
agt/pat (-ae) since the P-function argument (mariel= Mary) of that
construct is patientive and in the second instance the valency of the
lexical verb is agt/thm (-ie) since in this construct the P-function
argument (parma=book) is the theme.  Note also that the auxiliary
(eleth) and patient/theme particle (aen) follow the patientive argument
(mariel-Mary) to oblique position in the applicative construct.

The locative shift is handled in an analogous manner.

Stay curious,
David

David E. Bell
The Gray Wizard
www.graywizard.net
AIM: GraWzrd

"Wisdom begins in wonder."