Features by language
| id | language | clausal | phrasal | plural | tense | extraction | raising | circumfixes | infixes | cumulation | suppletion | irregular | grammatical | nominal | syntactic | morphosyntactic | predominantly | morphologically-stem | morphologically-affix | phonologically-stem | phonologically-affix |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | Bantawa |
Arguments in Bantawa are cross-referenced on the predicate in accusative alignment (Doornenbal 2009: 12): their person and number properties are expressed by means of referential markers, that are hierarchical in nature, on transitive predicates (Doornenbal 2009: 144ff.). Referential markers are obligatory, but independent arguments are not, as is apparent from example (1). This means that Bantawa shows cross-reference. Doornenbal (2009: 376) (1) mɨ-poy-a 3PL-grow-PST ‘There they grew up.’ |
Bantawa does not have agreement in the phrasal domain, as illustrated by example (2). Doornenbal (2009: 296) (2) toppo chapkami big writer ‘big writer’ |
Bantawa shows optional plural concord. Plural is marked on nouns by means of a suffix -ci. This is common on human nouns, preferred on non-human animates, and optional on inanimates. Hence, a noun without this marker is not necessarily singular; for concepts and objects, number may simply be unspecified (Doornenbal 2009: 72). The numeral system in Bantawa is highly defective (Doornenbal 2009: 112), but independent numerals at least up to three. Furthermore, there are numeral prefixes, to which the so-called ‘counter’ -ka- is optionally attached, which functions as a linking element. A classifier is obligatory with independent and prefixed numerals, distinguishing between humans and various categories of non-humans (Doornenbal 2009: 113). After quantifiers, -ka- and classifiers are optional (Doornenbal 2009: 114), as shown in (4) below. With numerals and with quantifiers, the plural suffix can be expressed, as illustrated in (3) and (4). Since the expression of plurality in general is optional, plural concord is optional as well, as illustrated by example (5) in which the plural suffix is dropped even though the noun involves humans. Doornenbal (2009: 215) (3) hwa-tet gadi-ci two-CLF car-PL ‘two cars’ Doornenbal (2009: 115) (4) baddhe himsale kutiwa-ci many crazy dog-PL ‘many crazy dogs’ Doornenbal (2009: 112) (5) nəu-ka-paŋ mɨna nine-COUNT-CLF man ‘nine persons’ M. Doornenbal (personal communication, September 18, 2013) stresses that a plural suffix is only used to stress plurality. If the numeral is expressed, the expression of plurality is no longer necessary, so that plural concord is allowed, but presumably marginal. |
There is no tense copying in Bantawa. Embedded clauses are obligatorily nominalised by -ʔo (Doornenbal 2009: 202). Even though nominalisations can express tense, they are not backshifted under the influence of the tense of the main clauses, as illustrated in example (6). Doornenbal (2009: 202) (6) ram-ʔa sarima-ʔa dhir-u-ʔo bakhra R.-ERG disease-ERG find-3.U-NMLZ goat syam-ʔeda in-u-ʔo iŋka kha-Ø-t. S.-LOC sell-3.U-NMLZ 1SG see-PST-1SG ‘I saw Ram sell a sick goat to Syam.’ |
Extraposition and extraction are not allowed in Bantawa (M. Doornenbal, personal communication, September 18, 2013). | There is no raising construction in Bantawa. In example (7), it is clear that the first person singular is the subject of the main clause, whereas Syam is the subject of the embedded clause, as Syam has an ergative case marker. However, in (8), Syam is the Undergoer, functioning as the object of the main clause or the embedded clause, but seeing that word order is the same, it is unlikely that Syam belongs to the main clause rather than to the embedded clause. Of course, this is not conclusive evidence, as word order in Bantawa is strongly based on pragmatics. However, word order does not seem to have any pragmatic effects here. Therefore, I will assume that Bantawa has no argument raising. Doornenbal (2009: 202)(1) ɨŋka Syam-ʔa kələm pɨ-Ø-ʔo kha-Ø-ŋ. 1SG S.-ERG pen give-PST-NMLZ see-PST-1SG ‘I saw that Syam gave a pen.’(2) ɨŋka Syam kələm ɨ-pu-ʔa-ʔo kha-Ø-ŋ. 1SG S. pen 3.A-give-PST-NMLZ see-PST-1SG ‘I saw someone give Syam a pen.’ | Bantawa has circumfixes, e.g. the predicate markers tɨ-…-ci ‘2DU.NPST’, tɨ-…-in ‘2PL.NPST’, and tɨ-…-aci ‘2DU.PST’ (Doornenbal 2009: 145). | Bantawa has what Doornenbal (2009: 70) after Bickel and Nichols (2006) calls interpositions: “formatives placed between the two parts of a bipartite stem” (Doornenbal 2009: 70). An example is given in (9).Doornenbal (2009: 71)(9) ɨŋ-mɨk-mɨwa my-eye-hair ‘my eyebrow’Interpositions should be seen as a subtype of infixes, that are special as they are inserted into morphological units rather than phonological ones. The difference between interpositions and infixes is thus analogous to that between prepositions and prefixes, and postpositions and suffixes. To me, the difference between an interposition and an interclitic is unclear, but I will not address this matter further, since it is not relevant for the analysis of transparency. There is also a regular infix in Bantawa. <-sa> ~ <-so> is a pronominal marker that is inserted between certain third person pronouns and ergative or genitive case endings, e.g. o-ci ‘this-PL’, o-sa-ʔa ‘this-PRN-ERG’ (Doornenbal 2009: 101ff.). | Bantawa has an extensive predicate marker paradigm, in which portmanteaus combine person, number, tense and polarity, e.g. man-…daca ‘NEG.PST.1DU’. (Doornenbal 2009: 145, 147ff.). Case is marked by affixes that do not express other semantic categories. | There is no morphologically conditioned stem alternation in Bantawa, such that it would result in a many-to-one relation between meanings and stems. | There is no morphologically conditioned stem alternation in Bantawa, such that it would result in a many-to-one relation between meanings and stems. | Bantawa does not display grammatical gender. There is nominal classification (Doornenbal 2009: 66ff.), but this involves a defective, semantically conditioned classification that is purely marked by means of suffixes on specific nouns, while it has no repercussions for agreement. |
There are no nominal expletives in Bantawa, as proven by example (10). Doornenbal (2009: 469) (10) wa ta water comes ‘It is raining.’ |
In transitive clauses in Bantawa, an Actor receives ergative case and an Undergoer is marked for absolutive case. Undergoers are almost always cross-referenced on the predicate. Actors can be marked on the predicate as well, as in (11), but this is infrequent. Doornenbal (2009: 122) (11) naŋsi-ʔa ɨ-catt-a-ŋ hailstone-ERG 3.A-hit-PST-1SG ‘The hailstone hit me.’ In intransitive clauses, independent Actor arguments, if expressed, get absolutive case marking (Doornenbal 2009: 213) and, as example (12) shows, so do Undergoers. Furthermore, examples (12) and (13) show that it is optional to cross-reference an Actor or an Undergoer on the predicate in intransitives. Doornenbal (2009: 213) (12) samba ker-a bamboo.ABS break-PST ‘The bamboo snapped.’ Doornenbal (2009: 122) (13) mɨkmɨkmɨkwa khaw-a profusely cry-PST ‘He cried profusely.’ In sum, semantic role is expressed in transitive clauses by means of case-marking, and optionally by means of predicate markers. In intransitive clauses, semantic role is neutralised, since both Actors and Undergoers receive absolutive case. Predicate marking is also not informative on semantic roles of arguments. Therefore, a syntactic function Subject must be postulated. Furthermore, there is an antipassive construction in Bantawa (Doornenbal 2009: 225ff.), so that there is a second reason to assume a syntactic function Subject. An example is given in (14). Doornenbal (2009: 226) (14) a. nam-ʔa mɨ-hɨt-yaŋ sun-ERG 3PL-scorch-PROG ‘The sun is scorching us.’ b. kho-ci-ʔa kha mɨ-hɨt 3-PL-ERG ANTIP 3PL-scorch ‘They burn.’ |
Word order is quite consistently based on pragmatic considerations (Doornenbal 2009: 13). I have not found evidence for an influence of complexity on morphosyntactic placement. M. Doornenbal (personal communication, September 18, 2013) also suspects that it does not play a role. | Bantawa is an agglutinative language, as it has extensive affixation (Doornenbal 2009: 12), but few clitics and particles (Doornenbal 2009: 306ff.). Therefore, I consider it a predominantly head-marking language. |
All Bantawa verb stems have two allomorphs. The first phoneme of the attached pronominal suffix determines allomorph selection: if this is a consonant, the so-called pre-consonantal stem form is used, if the suffix starts with a vowel, the pre-vocalic stem allomorph is selected (Doornenbal 2009: 126ff.). This stem alternation process is phonologically determined and therefore discussed in Section 2.4.8, but the form that the different stem forms take is morphophonologically determined and should therefore be addressed here. Verbs can be divided over three classes on the basis of the way that the stem allomorphs are formed (cf. Doornenbal 2009: 129ff.). In class 1, the pre-vocalic stem can be derived from the pre-consonantal stem by adding a -t, e.g. hek-ma ‘cut-INF’ vs. hekt-u ‘cut-3SG’. In class 2, the pre-vocalic stem has an added -s, e.g. nu-ma ‘heal-INF’ vs. nus-u ‘heal-3SG’. Class 3 stems do not take an extra consonant; rather, if a consonant-initial suffix is attached to a pre-consonantal stem ends in a consonant, that consonant is either changed or deleted. If a class 3 pre-consonantal stem ends in a vowel, this vowel is retained in the pre-vocalic stem and will coalesce with the suffix-initial vowel. Since it is not possible to predict the precise alternation that occurs on the basis of the phonological shape of the verb stem, this is non-transparent, morphophonologically based alternation (Doornenbal 2009: 131). |
In some third person pronominals, the pronominal marker -sa~-so has to be inserted, e.g. o-ci ‘this-PL’, o-sa-ʔa ‘this-PRN-ERG’. According to Doornenbal’s informants, this marker has no meaning, but is obligatory in some contexts since it ‘sounds better’ – apparently, there is a prosodic motivation (Doornenbal 2009: 101). Furthermore, this syllable undergoes vowel assimilation, e.g. o-sa-ʔa ‘this-PRN-ERG’, o-so-ʔo ‘this-PRN-GEN’ (Doornenbal 2009: 54). Another case of morphophonologically determined allomorphy is a Bantawa demonstrative that shows vowel assimilation, e.g. mu-ju ‘that-LOC.low’, mo-ja ‘that-LOC.level’ (Doornenbal 2009: 54). |
There are quite some phonologically conditioned stem alternation processes in Bantawa. I do not have space to go into all of them, so I will discuss the most important ones only. Firstly, a syllable in Bantawa must always have an onset. If a vowel-initial suffix attaches to a vowel-final stem, or a vowel-final prefix attaches to a vowel-initial stem, a glottal stop or glide is inserted to fill the onset, e.g. ɨ-uk-n-ɨŋ ‘NEG.NPST-peel-NEG-1SG, I did not peel it’, is pronounced [ɨʔuknɨŋ] (Doornenbal 2009: 29). Furthermore, as explained, all Bantawa verb stems have two allomorphs: a pre-consonantal and a pre-vocalic form. The choice for one of these depends on the first phoneme of the pronominal suffix selected, e.g. hek-ma ‘cut-INF’ vs. hekt-u ‘cut-3SG’, and nu-ma ‘heal-INF’ vs. nus-u ‘heal-3SG’ (Doornenbal 2009: 127ff.). Hence, the phonological shape of the suffix determines the phonological shape of the stem. A nasal turns into a nasalised vowel before an /s/ or a /j/, e.g. /wensi/ ‘raspberry’ is pronounced [weĩsi] (Doornenbal 2009: 47). Geminates arising at morpheme boundaries are realised as long consonants, e.g. *hen ‘stay’, *kham ‘place’, *ma ‘big’ becomes [hɛnkham:a] ‘world’ (Doornenbal 2009: 40). If the first, stem-final consonant is voiceless, it is voiced, resulting in a voiced geminate: bop ‘round’, bojoŋ ‘*termite’, -ma ‘F’ is pronounced [bobbojoŋma] ‘termite’ (Doornenbal 2009: 41). |
Phonologically based assimilation processes described above apply to stems and affixes alike. |
| 5 | Tamil |
Tamil has cross-reference, as shown in (1). Finite verbs are obligatorily marked for tense, person and number (e.g. Steever 2005: 61). Expressing the argument independently is optional, as long as the referent is clear from preceding discourse (Lehmann 1989: 173). Asher (1982: 53) (1) (raaju) va-nt-aaru (R.) come-PST-3SG.HON ‘Raju came.’ |
There is no phrasal agreement in Tamil. There is a semantic noun classification system and nouns are marked for number, but such information is not copied to modifying units in the phrase (cf. e.g. Asher 1982: 188). An example demonstrating this is given in (2). Andronov (2004: 153) - literary (2) periya kaɳ-kaɭ large eye-PL ‘large eyes.’ |
Plural marking is always optional in Tamil. There is a plural suffix that one can use to individuate the noun, but this is not necessary (S. Sundaresan, personal communication, December 4, 2013). Plurality can still be expressed in combination with a numeral (Schiffman 1999: 28), as illustrated in example (3). Schiffman (1999: 28) (3) reɳɖu manevin-gaɭ=aa? two wive-PL=Q ‘Two wives?’ |
Tamil does not have tense copying, as shown in example (4). The present tense of the original utterance is retained when the clause is embedded and the pronoun is shifted. Lehmann (1989: 374), adapted to colloquial speech by S. Sundaresan (4) avan niiŋ-gal uur-ukku poo-r-iŋ-gal-unnu so-nn-aan he 2-PL town-DAT go-PRS-2-PL-COMP say-PST-3SG.M ‘He said that you would go out of town.’ S. Sundaresan (personal communication, December 4, 2013) states that a past tense in a sentence like (4) is also possible and results in ambiguity: one reading is that the second person has left already by the time of speaking, a second reading holds that the ‘you’ is leaving at the moment referred to in the main clause. Apparently then, backshifting of the embedded tense is semantically motivated – there is no obligatory morphosyntactic sequence-of-tense rule. |
According to Mallinson (1986: 159), extraction and extraposition are not allowed in Tamil: “Under no circumstances can RCs be removed from their heads”. |
According to Andronov (2004), Tamil has argument raising – he gives example (5). Andronov focuses on literary Tamil, but different informants indicate that Andronov’s example is not strange in colloquial Tamil. Andronov (2004: 428) - literary (5) itu-parri avaɭoo-ʈu peeci-v-iʈa veeɳʈum about-this her-with speak-FUT-3SG.F want enru toonriy-atu avan-ukku QUOT seem-3SG.N 3SG.M-DAT ‘It seemed to him that it was necessary to speak with her about it.’ However, the example is not a genuine example of argument raising, since it is not the case that an argument is taken from the complement clause and raised to be an argument of the main clause – rather, the entire complement clause is in subject position. This analysis is supported by an example from Lehmann, given here as (6). Lehmann (1989: 175) (6) kumaar raajaav-ai paarkk-a neer-nt-atu. K. R.-ACC see-INF happen-PST-3SG.N ‘It happened that Kumar saw Raja.’ One might argue that this is an example of argument raising, where Kumar is promoted to subject of the main clause. The translation would have to be ‘Kumar happened to see Raja.’ This would be in line with the case marking (Kumar unmarked, Raja marked for accusative). But the predicate would in this analysis have to show masculine marking instead of neutral. This proves that the subject of the main clause is the entire complement, not Kumar. Finally, S. Sundaresan (personal communication, December 4, 2013) explains that a sentence like ‘John seems ill’ does not have a Tamil equivalent. To translate it, two options exist: a Tamil speaker would either use a copula and an adjectivising suffix, giving something like ‘John is sickly’, or make use of the verb toonri-, meaning ‘to appear’ (and the same suffix). Neither option involves genuine raising, since there is no subordinated clause from which the argument ‘John’ could raise. I will therefore consider Tamil to be a language without argument raising. |
There are no circumfixes in Tamil (I. Smith, personal communication, August 31, 2011). | There are no infixes in Tamil (I. Smith, personal communication, August 31, 2011). | TAME expression nor case marking is cumulated with other semantic categories (Schiffman 1999: 62 and 29ff. respectively). | I have not found cases of suppletive stem alternation in Tamil. | Some Tamil verbs have an irregular infinitive. While the infinitive is usually formed by means of suffixation of the stem by -kka, these verbs undergo an unpredictable stem alternation, e.g. vaa- ‘come’, vara- ‘come.INF’ and poo- ‘go’, pooha- ‘go.INF’ (Schiffman 1999: 73, 74). A few intransitive verbs can be causativised by means of gemination of their final consonant, e.g. aahu ‘become’, aakku ‘cause to become, make’ (Schiffman 1999: 76). This is a morphophonemic alternation that leads to fusion of the stem and causative marking. |
Tamil nouns are classified as masculine, feminine, or neuter when they are singular, and as human or non-human when they are plural. Gender is not explicitly marked on nouns, but apparent through inflection, as example (7) shows. Andronov (2004: 58) (7) kulantai alu-t-atu child weep-PST-3SG.N ‘The child wept.’ Gender is not an abstract feature but a semantic notion in Tamil, as demonstrated by example (8) in which the noun ‘child’, which usually gets neuter agreement as in (7), triggers feminine agreement because in this case, it refers to a girl. Therefore, this does not qualify as grammatical gender but as semantic gender, and Tamil is transparent with respect to this feature. Note that neuter gender for ‘child’ can be semantically assigned, since it refers to a human that is perceived as not having a biological sex (yet). Andronov (2004: 58) (8) kulantai vicaalam tan takappanaar-iʈam varu-kir-aaɭ child V. own father-LOC come-PRS-3SG.F ‘The girl Vishalam comes near her father.’ |
Weather verbs are expressed in Tamil without pronominal dummies, as illustrated in (9). Asher (1982: 53) (9) maʐ-e pey-r-atu rain-NOM fall-PRS-3SG.N ‘It’s raining.’ |
In transitive clauses in Tamil, the Actor argument is unmarked (or, according to other analyses, has a zero-marker to express nominative case), while an Undergoer is marked for accusative case, as in example (10). Furthermore, the predicate shows person, number and gender agreement with the Actor argument. Lehmann (1989: 27) (10) paiyan caaviy-aal katav-ait tira-nt-aan boy key-INSTR door-ACC open-PST-3SG.M ‘The boy opened the door with a key.’ The Actor/Undergoer distinction is ignored in intransitive clauses, in which both are unmarked, as shown by examples (11) and (12). Moreover, agreement in transitive clauses is with the Actor argument, while in intransitive clauses, an Undergoer triggers agreement too. Hence, semantic roles are neutralised and there is evidence for a syntactic role Subject. Asher (1982: 27) (11) avan neettu va-nt-aan. 3SG yesterday come-PST-3SG.M ‘He came yesterday.’ Lehmann (1989: 27) (12) katavu tira-nt-atu. door open-PST-3SG.N ‘The door opened.’ Furthermore, Tamil has a passive construction, demonstrated in example (13). Asher (1982: 151) (13) a. veeʈan maan-aik ko-nr-aan hunter deer-ACC kill-PST-3SG.M ‘The hunter killed the deer.’ b. maan veeʈan-aal koll-a-ppa-ʈʈ-atu deer hunter-INSTR kill-INF-PASS-PST-3SG.N ‘The deer was killed by the hunter.’ |
Tamil is an SOV language, but if an object is heavy, it may appear in post-verbal position as well. According to both Asher (1982: 99) and Mallinson (1986: 159), Tamil speakers are reluctant to do this, but it is acceptable. |
Tamil exhibits a large number of affixes, i.e. function markers that attach to one type of host only. Asher (1982: 195ff.) and Lehmann (1989: 150) identify some clitics in Tamil as well, most notably modal markers (e.g. =ɳum ‘should’) and pragmatic morphemes (e.g. the interrogative particle =aa, hearsay particle =aam, coordinator =um). I agree with their analysis because these units can attach to hosts of different categories, and because they can appear in different positions, e.g. the interrogative particle can attach to any constituent in the sentence. Hence, there are phrase-markers in Tamil. However, the majority of bound morphemes is head-marking in nature, as for example all case-markers and reference markers on predicates are clear cases of affixation. Therefore, Tamil qualifies as a predominantly head-marking language. |
Tamil verbs can be divided over a number of classes dependent on the different TAM suffixes that they take. With particular TAM suffix, stems forms undergo morphophonemic alternations. For example, some verbs in the second verb class have a stem-final long vowel. This vowel is shortened when a tense suffix is attached, e.g. vaa- ‘come’, va-nd-een ‘come-PST-1SG’ (Schiffman 1999: 54). In the same conjugation, verb stems with a rhotic as the final consonant lose that rhotic before the past tense suffix, e.g. okkaaru- ‘sit’, okkaa-nd-aan ‘sit-PST-3SG.M’ (Schiffman 1999: 54). Numerous other similar alternations apply in other conjugations. Secondly, nominal stems have two allomorphs: a nominative one and an oblique one, to which other case markers are attached. For some nouns, the oblique form is constructed by means of stem alternation. For example, stem-final -am changes into -att before case suffixes, e.g. maram ‘tree.NOM’, maratt- ‘tree.OBL’. Moreover, stem-final -ru becomes -rru or -ttu, e.g. aaru ‘river.NOM’, aarru ‘river.OBL’, and similarly, the final consonant of noun stems ending in -du are geminated, e.g. paaḍu ‘part’, paaṭṭu ‘part.OBL’ (Schiffman 1999: 25ff.). |
As stated in the previous section, verbal stems in Tamil can be divided over different classes according to their inflectional behaviour. For example, according to the classification by Graul, the tense suffixes are -r ‘PRS’, -d ‘PST’, -v ‘FUT’ for the first verb class, -r, -nd ~ -nj ‘PST’, -v ‘FUT’ for the second, and -kkr ‘PRS’, -tt ~ -cc ‘PST’, -pp ‘FUT’ for the sixth conjugation – to name just a few (Schiffman 1999: 62). Apart from affix alternation according to verbal class, tense suffixes also undergo morphophonemic alternations depending on the verbal stem they are attached to. For example in class six, verbal stems ending in -i, -e or -y will trigger the past tense suffix -cc, which is -tt with other stems, e.g. paaru ‘see’, paa-tt-een ‘see-PST-1SG’, but same ‘cook’, same-cc-een ‘cook-PST-1SG’ (Schiffman 1999: 52, 63). |
There are numerous phonological rules in Tamil, of which I will list a few important ones here. If a suffix that starts with a vowel is added to a stem ending in a vowel, a glide can be inserted between the vowels, e.g. nari ‘fox’ + -aa ‘Q’ becomes nariyaa (Schiffman 1999: 20). The stem-final vowel is deleted, e.g. naakku ‘tongue.NOM’ + -ile ‘LOC’ becomes naakile (Asher 1982: 238). Other sources analyse this the other way around, e.g. Schiffman (1999: 15) argues that stems end in a consonant, but if no suffix is attached, an epenthetic vowel is added. The difference is not of relevance for this transparency analysis. Sonorants at the end of a stem or suffix are deleted before a suffix starting with a plosive or if they are word-final, e.g. paar-u ‘see-IMP’, paa-tt-een ‘see-PST-1SG’ (Asher 1982: 239), and avaḷ-ukku ‘she-DAT’, ava poora ‘she goes’ (Schiffman 1999: 22). If a monosyllabic stem with CVC structure, a short vowel and a stem-final sonorant is not marked by a suffix, the final consonant is geminated and an epenthetic -u is added, e.g. kaḷ becomes kaḷḷu (Schiffman 1999: 15). If the vowel is long, gemination does not apply but the -u is still added, e.g. naaḷ > naaḷu (Schiffman 1999: 22). Vowels can be lowered if they precede a sequence /Ca/, e.g. iḍam > eḍam (Schiffman 1999: 22). Intervocalic -v- or -h- is often deleted, except when the -v- is the causative or future tense marker (Schiffman 1999: 10). Furthermore, consonant clusters can be reduced, e.g. uṭkaaru > okkaaru (Schiffman 1999: 22). |
The phonologically based alternations described in the previous sections apply to stems and affixes alike. For example, the deletion of sonorants preceding stops or in word-final position may also affect suffixes, e.g. the final consonant of the plural suffix is -ngal is deleted in word-final position, but appears when other suffixes are attached (Schiffman 1999: 28). |
| 6 | Bininj Gun-Wok |
In Bininj, person and sometimes number of arguments are obligatorily marked on the verb by means of pronominal prefixes (Evans 2003: 318). It is possible but not obligatory to express the argument independently additionally. This happens in (1), where ‘flies’ is expressed lexically and its person feature by a verbal prefix. Evans (2003: 417) (1) bod ga-di fly 3-stand.NPST ‘There are flies there.’ Pronominal prefixes can also express the object argument, leading to cross-reference, for example in (2). The same is true for example (3), in which the noun is incorporated. In intransitive clauses, noun incorporation leads to a generic interpretation of the incorporated noun, but this is not the case in transitive clauses (Evans 2003: 330). Evans (2003: 330) (2) barri-ngune-ng gun-ganj 3PL>3.PST-eat-PST.PFV IV-meat ‘They ate the meat.’ (3) barri-ganj-ngune-ng 3PL>3.PST-meat-eat-PST.PFV ‘They ate the meat.’ |
In the phrasal domain, there is multiple marking of semantic class in Bininj Gun-Wok. Most Bininj Gun-Wok dialects have 4 noun classes (Evans 2003: 181ff.), the assignment of which is based on semantic principles: roughly speaking, class I contains males, II contains females, III contains plants and IV contains body parts and abstract entities. A noun’s class is in most cases marked explicitly on the noun by means of prefixes . Furthermore, modifiers of nouns obligatory receive class prefixes (Evans 2003: 181ff.), as in example (4). Evans (2003: 182) (4) a. na-rangem na-mak I-boy I-good ‘good boy’ b. ngal-kohbanj ngal-mak II-old_woman II-good ‘good old woman’ c. man-me man-mak III-food III-good ‘good food’ d. kun-wardde kun-mak IV-rock IV-good ‘good rock’ Hence, there is obligatory concord with respect to semantic class in Bininj Gun-Wok. |
Plurality is hardly ever marked in Bininj Gun-Wok. Most nouns have no plural form at all; if they are plural, this becomes apparent from pronominal prefixes on the verb only (Evans 2003: 168). The few nouns that are marked for plurality, mostly denoting humans, get a reduplication prefix, e.g. daluk ‘woman’, daluh-daluk ~ dah-daluk ‘women’ (Evans 2003: 169). Numerals are infrequent in Bininj Gun-Wok (Evans 2003: 129), but there are quantifying elements, e.g. -wern ‘many’. Reduplication prefixes do not appear in combination with such suffixes, suggesting that plurality cannot be marked redundantly. Consider for instance example (5), where bininj does not get its reduplicated form binih-bininj. Evans (2003: 215) (5) kakkawar kaben-ma-ng birri-wern bininj messenger 3>3PL-bring-NPST 3PL-many person ‘The messenger will bring many people.’ In agreement with this, N. Evans (personal communication, September 20, 2012) states that plurality, if marked at all, is shown on the verbal complex, not in the NP. Number marking by means of reduplication is so marginal that it is negligible – it is unlikely that it will ever occur in combination with a numeral. Therefore, I consider Bininj Gun-Wok to be a language without plural concord. |
It might seem doubtful whether subordination exists in Bininj Gun-Wok (cf. Evans 2003: 628ff.). In Bininj Gun-Wok, clauses are juxtaposed so that a bi-clausal sentence results, without morphosyntactic embedding, as illustrated in example (6). Evans (2003: 629) (6) ka-bengka-n ka-marnbu-n 3-know-NPST 3>3-make-NPST ‘He knows how to make them (=boomerangs).’ Evans (2003: 633) states, however, that sentences like (6) are formally different from ‘normally chained verbs’, since the two clauses form one intonational phrase together, and since no unit can stand in between the verbs, whereas this would be possible in a true bi-clausal sentence. Hence, this is not a ‘normal’ bi-clausal sentence, but a hierarchically organised one. Another reason to let these bi-clausal sentences qualify as cases of subordination is illustrated in example (7). Evans (2003: 634) (7) na-bene maih a-na-ng I-DEM bird 1>3-see-PST.PFV ga-m-golu-rr-en gaddum-be djohboi 3-hither-descend-REFL-NPST up-ABL poor_thing I’ve seen those birds coming down (to the waterhole) from higher up, dear little things. ‘Descending’ has a present tense, while the ‘descending’ must have occurred in the past, at the moment of perceiving it. The tense is hence a relative tense, interpretable through the deictic centre of ‘seeing’. This is a reason to argue that the verbs are syntactically linked, rather than forming two independent predicates. Note that this is not a case of tense copying, as in that case the past tense of ‘seeing’ should have been copied to ‘descending’. I will follow Evans in his judgment that (6) and (7) are cases of subordination. Since tense in such clauses is not backshifted, there is no tense copying in Bininj Gun-Wok. |
There is extraposition in Bininj Gun-Wok, e.g. in example (8). Semantically speaking, the head bininj and the modifying relative clause ‘belong together’. They are, however, not morphosyntactically adjacent. Note furthermore that the existence of a relativiser is an additional argument for actual subordination in Bininj Gun-Wok. Evans (2003: 643) (8) na-mege bininj ga-m-re, na-wu gogok bi-yame-ng I-DEM man 3-hither-go.NPST I-REL brother 3>3.PST-spear-PST.PFV ‘The man is coming, whom your brother speared.’ |
I found no examples of argument raising in Bininj Gun-Wok. Since complementation is highly restricted anyway (cf. Section 3.1.4), I assume that Bininj Gun-Wok does not allow argument raising. | There are no circumfixes in Bininj Gun-Wok (cf. Evans 2003: 1). | There are no infixes in Bininj Gun-Wok (cf. Evans 2003: 1). | There is cumulation of tense, person, and number in pronominal verbal prefixes, e.g. bi- ‘3>3.PST’ (Evans 2003: 399ff.). Case markers, called ‘role affixes’ by Evans (cf. Evans 2003: 136ff.) do not cumulate with other categories. | The morphology of Bininj Gun-Wok is strongly agglutinative, showing only few morphological or morphophonemic alternations, leading Evans (2003: 106) to call the language ‘lego-like’. However, there is one suppletive verb, viz. re ‘go’, that inflects for TAME by means of stem change: ray ‘go.IMP’, re ‘go.NPST’, wam ‘go.PST.PFV’, etc. (Evans 2003: 361). | Bininj Gun-Wok shows a case of irregular stem formation, viz. the verb wokdi ‘speak’ is irregular, as it inflects a little differently from other verbs in its verbal class (viz. conjugation 7, cf. Section 3.4.7): the past perfective is in that class marked by means of a zero-suffix, but wokdi undergoes a stem change and becomes wokdanj ‘speak.PST.PFV’ (Evans 2003: 350). |
There is no grammatical gender in Bininj Gun-Wok. There are nominal classes, but these are semantically motivated, as proven by example (9): a modifying unit is nominalised by a noun class prefix, which contributes its semantic content to the nominalised element (Evans 2003: 181ff.). Evans (2003: 186) (9) na-gohbanj al-gohbanj an-gohbanj I-old II-old III-old ‘old man’ ‘old woman’ ‘old tree’ |
Bininj Gun-Wok does not have pronominal expletives. Weather predicates, as well as other prototypical expletive constructions such as existentials, are all like example (10): an argument is incorporated in the verb and the verb as a whole is marked for third person. Evans (2003: 368) (10) Ø-dung-mirrhmirrhme-ng 3.PST-sun-get_sharp-PST.PFV ‘It’s hot.’ The third person prefix refers to the semantic argument ‘sun’ in (10). This means that there is cross-reference between the incorporated noun and the verbal prefix, which is normal in Bininj Gun-Wok, as explained in Section 3.1.1. Thus, the verbal marker is not a fully expletive element, but refers to an overt element. |
The main marking of argument relations in Bininj Gun-Wok takes place on the verb. Each verb has slots for pronominal prefixes, in which two arguments can be expressed, and a slot in which a noun can be incorporated (Evans 2003: 318). A transitive predicate, e.g. (11), takes a portmanteau morpheme as pronominal prefix, that marks Actor and Undergoer and their hierarchical relationship. Evans (2003: 417) (11) nga-na-ng boken kornobolo 1>3-see-PST.PFV two wallaby ‘I saw two wallabies.’ An intransitive predicate is marked by a pronominal prefix, whether the S argument is an Actor, as in (12), or an Undergoer, like (13). The arguments in these examples have different semantic roles, but are marked identically – therefore we can speak of a syntactic function Subject. Evans (2003: 393) (12) gabarri-lobme 3PL-run.NPST ‘They are running.’ Evans (2003: 446) (13) njale Ø-bakme-ng? what 3.PST-break-PST.PFV ‘What was broken?’ Bininj Gun-Wok does not have a passive construction (Evans 2003: 574). |
Word order in Bininj Gun-Wok is predominantly pragmatically determined. For instance, new participants occur in preverbal position, while established participants are post-verbal (Evans 2003: 551ff.). I have not found any examples of an influence of complexity on morphosyntactic placement. N. Evans (personal communication, September 20, 2012) adds that complexity in Bininj Gun-Wok is in fact limited to verbal elements; no unit would really qualify as a heavy NP, or even as a complex noun. Therefore, I conclude that complexity does not play a role in morphosyntactic placement. | Evans (2003: 258) distinguishes a few clitics in Bininj Gun-Wok, e.g. =wali ‘in turn’. The overwhelming majority of function markers, however, consists of head-marking units: all verbal morphology is affixing. Hence, Bininj Gun-Wok is a predominantly head-marking language. | Several morphophonemic processes exist in Bininj Gun-Wok. For example, when a vowel is followed by a consonant, the vowel is usually short. However, vowels in a small set of nominal roots with the form CV- are pronounced long when used before a third person possessor suffix -no or any other root starting with a consonant, e.g. ga-bo:-yo: ‘3-liquid-lie ‘there is water’ (Evans 2003: 74). |
There is no declension in Bininj Gun-Wok, but there are conjugational classes: Evans (2003: 345ff.) distinguishes 11 verb classes on the basis of distinct TAM allomorphy. Verbs in Bininj Gun-Wok are either monosyllabic or bisyllabic. The second syllable of a bisyllabic stems determines which TAM inflection the verb gets, e.g. stems ending in -me (e.g. karrme ‘have’, karrme-n ‘have-IPFV’) belong to the first conjugation, and verbs ending in -ke and -we belong to the second (e.g. dowe ‘die’, dowemen ‘die-IPFV’; Evans 2003: 359ff.). Since TAM inflection alternations are conditioned by these stem-final syllables, and are not phonologically or semantically predictable, I group this under morphologically conditioned affix alternation. Furthermore, in some Bininj dialects, the plural object marker -bani is nasalised after a nasal, e.g. abanbaninang ~ abanmaninang (Evans 2003: 111). |
Morpheme-initial /d/ becomes /r/ (spelled ‘rr’) after vowel-final monosyllabic prefixes and after open polysyllables with final stress, e.g. gun-dulk ‘IV-tree’, gau-rrulk-di ‘3-tree-stand, there is a tree there’ (Evans 2003: 106, 107). The altered morpheme can be a nominal or verbal root, but also a prefix. Morpheme-initial /r/ may be dropped after apical consonants, e.g. a-bal-re ‘3PL.PST-only-go.PST.IPFV’ is /abale/ (Evans 2003: 110). Two successive syllables cannot both contain a glottal stop, so that one of them is deleted or assimilated to a surrounding consonant, e.g. the reduplicated form of buʔme is not buʔ-buʔme but bu-buʔme (Evans 2003: 112). Stems of the form CVrrVng undergo vowel drop when another stem or a CVC-suffix is attached to the right, e.g. gun-murrung ‘IV-bone’, murrng-wern ‘bone-many’ (Evans 2003: 114ff.). |
The phoneme sequence /iyi/ may be pronounced as [i:], e.g. /gabarriyigan/ [gabari:gan] ‘they go for it’, and two short vowels may become one long one when a /g/ in between is lost, e.g. /nagamarrang/ [na:maraŋ] ‘male skin name’ (Evans 2003: 75). In some dialects, /w/ is dropped after a nasal, e.g. kan-wo ‘give it to me’ > /kano/ (Evans 2003: 110). There is a tendency for consonants to be voiced in onset position, but voiceless in coda position, e.g. kuk ‘body’ can be pronounced [kɷk] and [gɷk] but not [kɷg] (Evans 2003: 79). |
| 7 | Chukchi |
Person and number are marked on the verb in Chukchi. Arguments may but need not be expressed independently as well (Dunn 1999: 80): they are only overt when they have focus (Dunn 1999: 350). If an argument is expressed both independently and as a verbal marker, as in (1), there is cross-reference. Dunn (1999: 345) (1) qənwer ʔinə piri-nin finally wolf.ABS.3SG take-3SG>3SG ‘Finally, he caught a wolf.’ |
Agreement in Chukchi between nouns and modifiers is not possible, since there is no attributive modification of nouns. Dunn does gloss and translate some elements as attributive adjectives, e.g. example (2). Dunn (1999: 165) (2) … ŋenku nəlɣi-n-ə-teŋ-qinet ŋewəcqet-ti wa-rkət there INTS-ADJ-ə-good-3PL woman-ABS.3PL be-PROG.3PL ‘… there are really good women there.’ However, the modifying element teŋ ‘good’ is inflected by –qinet, the usual verbal suffix for third person plural. The prefix n- is also used on verbs to mark habitual aspect. Hence, we can see the modifier in (2) as a relative clause containing a verb with regular verbal inflection, literally translating as “women that are really good”. This analysis involves no agreement or concord between a noun and its modifier, but between a predicate and its argument. Thus, there is no attributive modification in Chukchi and this feature does not apply. |
So-called common nouns in Chukchi are usually unmarked for number, in which case they denote a non-plural entity (Dunn 1999: 63), but sometimes they do receive an explicit singular or plural marker. Consequently, a noun stem can have three different forms, e.g. mane-t ‘money-PL, several coins’, mane-man ‘money-RDP, money in general’, mane-lɣ-ən ‘money-SG-ə3SG, one coin’ (Dunn 1999: 64). On higher animate nouns, plural marking is obligatory (1999: 64). Plurality can be expressed on nouns modified by a quantifier or numeral, as illustrated in (3), resulting in plural concord. Dunn (1999: 131) (3) orw-ət əməlʔo … sled-əABS.3PL all.ABS.3 ‘all the sleds’ However, both elements can be seen as independent constituents (cf. Section 4.2.1), so that this is not genuine modification, but rather apposition, translating as ‘The sleds, all of them, …’. Therefore, this does not qualify as numeral concord – the feature does not apply. |
There is no syntactic embedding in Chukchi (Dunn 1999: 84) and therefore, there cannot be a sequence of tense rule – this feature does not apply. Dunn (1999: 85) does mention a tendency for multi-clausal sentences to have the same TAM marking in the different clauses, but this is a narrative preference rather than a grammatical rule. |
Extraposition or extraction is not allowed in Chukchi. M. J. Dunn (personal communication, January 25, 2013) points at example (4), which could be argued to contain an extraposed relative clause ‘which were torn’. Dunn (1999: 268) (4) … pucʔe-t təni-tku-jw-ə-ninet cimirʔet-ə-lʔ-ə-t sleeve-ABS.3PL mend-ITER-COLL-ə-3SG>3PL tear-ə-PTCP-ə-ABS.3PL ‘She mended the sleeves which were torn’ However, Dunn (idem) states that this relative clause might as well be seen as an independent nominal constituent functioning as a repeated object. Then, a better translation would be ‘She mended the sleeves, the torn ones.’ In this scenario, there is no extraposition, since the constituent ‘the torn ones’ is independent and does not form a whole with ‘sleeves’. Since there is no pressing argument to assume extraposition in Chukchi, I will take it that it is not allowed. |
There is no argument raising in Chukchi. In fact, Chukchi does not have syntactically dependent clauses (cf. Section 4.1.4) so that raising is impossible – the feature does not apply. M. J. Dunn (personal communication, January 25, 2013) confirms this. | Chukchi has circumfixes, e.g. the negating circumfixes luŋ-…-(t)e and e-…-ke (Dunn 1999: 325). | There are no infixes in Chukchi. |
There is cumulation of tense and polarity in negation particles, e.g. wanewan ‘NEG.NFUT’, qərəm~qəcəm ‘NEG.FUT’ (Dunn 1999: 326, 327). Absolutive case is cumulated with singularity (Dunn 1999: 111). |
There is no suppletion of stems in Chukchi. | Morphologically conditioned stem alternation is observed in the marking of absolutive singular (Dunn 1999: 105ff.). There are five strategies to do this, two of them involving stem alternation. The first stem alternation strategy consists of a reduction or deletion of the stem-final vowel, e.g. wala-t ‘knife.ABS-PL’, walə ‘knife.ABS.SG’ (Dunn 1999: 106). This stem alternation is phonologically conditioned, as it only occurs with stems ending in e or a and is completely predictable. However, the second stem alternation strategy involves irregular and unpredictable changes to stems, e.g. welw-ət ‘raven.ABS-əPL’, wetlə ‘raven.ABS.SG’ (Dunn 1999: 109). While plurality is marked by means of a suffix, singularity cannot be said to be marked by a zero-morpheme, since the stem undergoes an alternation if singular. Therefore, the stem expresses both its lexical meaning and singularity. Since this process applies only in absolutive case, the stem expresses case information as well. | Chukchi has no grammatical gender, but a semantically based nominal classification system only, as highly animate nouns show a different inflectional behaviour from common nouns (Dunn 1999: 64). |
There are no expletives in Chukchi, as becomes clear from their absence with the weather predicates in (5) and (6). Chukchi has zero-place predication without dummy insertion. Dunn (1999: 335) (5) … loŋ-kətəjɣat-ə-lʔ-ə-n … NEG-wind_blow-ə-NMLZ-ə-ABS ‘There was no wind…’ Dunn (1999: 340) (6) … etʔəm anə r-ile-rʔu-ɣʔi probably so FUT-rain-INCH-THEMSUF ‘… probably it will rain.’ |
There is reason to assume a syntactic function Subject in Chukchi, as the semantic role of the single argument of an intransitive predicate is neutralised. The Actor argument in (7) and the Undergoer argument in (8) are expressed identically, while example (9) shows that in a transitive context the semantic role distinction is expressed by means of case marking. Dunn (1999: 199) (7) ŋeekək wetɣak-wʔe sister.ABS.3SG speak-3SG ‘The sisterA spoke.’ Dunn (1999: 202) (8) […] n-ə-mk-ə-qin qejuu-t nʔ-ə-jaɣtal-ə-ŋo-nat […] ADJ-ə-many-ə-3SG calf-ABS.3PL COND-ə-be_preserved-ə-INCH-3PL ‘… many calvesU would be preserved….’ Dunn (1999: 81) (9) qənwer jara-lɣ-ə-jŋ-ə-n ŋew-ʔəttʔ-ə-qe-e finally house-SG-ə-AUG-ə-ABS.3SG woman-dog-ə-DIM-ERG tejk-ə-nin make-ə-3SG>3SG ‘Finally, the bitchA made a big houseU.’ Additionally, Chukchi exhibits an antipassive construction that neutralises semantic roles (Dunn 1999: 216). Clearly, semantic roles can be neutralised in Chukchi, which therefore has a syntactic function subject. |
Constituent order in Chukchi is not fixed (Dunn 1999: 80). Dunn (1999: 344) classifies Chukchi as a pragmatic word order language, that is, pragmatic roles determine constituent ordering. Since constituent order is free to such a high extent – all possible orderings occur (Dunn 1999: 81) – it is difficult to establish whether constituent weight really bears an influence. At least, we can say that there is no proof that there is any influence on word order, and therefore, I will assume there is none. | Chukchi is a typical agglutinative language. It possesses a large number of affixes, while Dunn (1999: 76) distinguishes one clitic only, showing that Chukchi is a predominantly head-marking language. |
Chukchi has, apart from an epenthetic schwa, three underlying vowels, each of which has a default realisation and a non-default realisation that only appears in the presence of a so-called vowel harmony prosody feature. This feature is a covert property of particular morphemes, e.g. the singulative suffix –n+VH, deriving place nouns from action verbs. When such a morpheme combines with a stem in a Phonological Word, that stem’s vowel receives its non-default realisation, e.g. the default stem /təɬe/ ‘path’ becomes /təɬa-n/, whereas this is not the case with absolutive case suffix –n-VH (Dunn 1999: 48). This process is not phonologically based, since it is not a specific phonological context that triggers the selection of a certain vowel quality, but the specific morpheme. Note that the term ‘vowel harmony’ is a bit odd, since the VH feature is abstract and does not necessarily belong to a vowel – there is no assimilation of the stem’s vowel to another vowel, but to an abstract feature. Dunn (1999: 51ff.) describes several cases of morphophonologically determined allomorphy. One example is that around two dozen verb stems have an alternating onset, where a consonant is dropped in one of the allomorphs, e.g. wa ~ twa ‘be’. A dozen other verbal stems undergo more extensive deletion, e.g. rətc ~ tc ‘AUX’. The full form is used when the morpheme is word-initial, otherwise the shorter form is used. The deletions are phonologically predictable, but it is unpredictable to which verbs the deletions apply (Dunn 1999: 52). |
As explained above, absolutive singular can be marked by means of five different strategies. Dunn (1999: 105) states that the choice for a specific strategy is partly determined by phonology, partly by the morphological origin of the noun stem and partly lexically conditioned. This means that Chukchi has five declension classes: absolutive singular inflection is determined morphologically. I found no other instances of morphophonological affix alternation in Chukchi. |
Word-final vowels are almost always reduced or deleted (Dunn 1999: 53). Furthermore, as noted above, one strategy to mark a stem for absolutive singulative is by means of a phonologically determined reduction or deletion of the stem-final vowel, e.g. wala-t ‘knife.ABS-PL’, walə ‘knife.ABS.SG’ (Dunn 1999: 106). Chukchi syllables follow a quite strict (C)V(C) pattern. A coda consonant can be adjacent to a following onset consonant, but it is not possible to have more than one consonant within the onset or within the coda. If this occurs, an epenthetic schwa is added in between (Dunn 1999: 39ff.). For example, when the infinitive suffix -k is attached to a verb stem ending in a consonant, for instance jəlqet ‘sleep’, the resulting sequence jəlqetk is forbidden: addition of a schwa gives the correct output jəlqetək (Dunn 1999: 73). A phonological alternation rule exists that changes two vowels into one long vowel when an approximant intervenes, e.g. /ʔoɾacek/ ~/ʔaacek/ ‘youth, lad’ (Dunn 1999: 42). Furthermore, anterior stops undergo nasalisation when adjacent to a nasal (Dunn 1999: 44). The voiceless velar stop becomes an approximant before other consonants and becomes a uvular if adjacent to another uvular. There are many more such relatively common assimilation processes, which I will not describe here for reasons of time and space (cf. Dunn 1999: 44ff. and 52ff.). |
Word-final vowels are almost always reduced or deleted (Dunn 1999: 53). Since words may end in a suffix, this is an alternation that may affect both stems and affixes. The other alternation processes described in Section 4.4.8 apply to affixes too. |
| 8 | Dutch |
In Dutch, person and number properties of the subject are obligatorily marked on the verb. Arguments have to be expressed independently as well; pro-drop is highly restricted, cf. example (1). Therefore, Dutch is classified as a language with clausal agreement. (1) *(hij) zoen-t krzysztof 3SG kiss-3SG K. ‘He is kissing Krzysztof.’ |
Attributive modifiers are obligatorily marked for the number, gender and definiteness of the noun they modify. This is true for at least articles, adjectives, demonstratives and relative pronouns, as apparent from example (2). (2) a. het stoer-e zeepaardje, dat … DEF.SG.N tough-DEF.SG.N sea_horse REL.SG.N ‘The tough sea horse, that…’ b. de stoer-e zeekoe, die … DEF.COMM tough-DEF.SG.COMM manatee REL.COMM ‘The tough manatee, that…’ |
Plurality is expressed on nouns by means of a suffix -en or -s. Plural marking is obligatory on nouns modified by numerals, e.g. vijf olifant-en ‘five elephant-PL’. For one group of nouns denoting measures, e.g. measures of time, length or weight, plural concord is optional, e.g. twee jaar-Ø ‘two year-SG’. |
Tense is obligatorily marked on verbs by means of suffixes or stem alternations. If a verb is embedded under a past tense verb, it is backshifted, cf. example (3). If the embedded proposition is applicable in the present, backshifting is optional (cf. Leufkens 2013b). (3) mare zag dat het goed was M. see.PST COMP it good be.PST ‘Mare saw that it was good.’ |
Extraposition is allowed in Dutch, as illustrated by example (4). (4) heb je die man gezien [die door rood reed]? have you that man seen that through red drove ‘Did you see that man that drove through the red traffic light?’ |
Dutch also exhibits argument raising, as illustrated by example (5). (5) a. het lijk-t dat de paard-en wit zijn 3SG.N seem-3SG COMP the.PL horse-PL white be.PRS.PL ‘It seems that the horses are white.’ b. de paard-en lijk-en wit (te zijn) the.PL horse-PL seem-PL white INF be.INF ‘The horses seem (to be) white.’ |
Circumfixation is present in Dutch, e.g. ge-maak-t ‘PTCP.PST-make-PTCP.PST’. Another circumfix, ge-N-te, turns nouns into collective nouns, e.g. een steen ‘a stone’ vs. gesteente ‘stone’. | There are no infixes in Dutch. | In some Dutch pronouns, case marking is cumulated with person and number marking, e.g. hij ‘NOM.3SG.M’, hem ‘ACC.3SG.M’. Marking of TAME on verbs is cumulated with marking of person and number, e.g. -te ‘-PST.SG’. | Suppletion occurs in Dutch in the paradigms of certain verbs, e.g. zijn ‘be.INF’, ben ‘be.PRS.1SG’, is ‘be.PRS.3SG’, zijn ‘be.PRS.3PL’, was ‘be.PST.SG’. | Irregular stem formation in the form of ablaut appears in Dutch in the tense forms of strong verbs, e.g. geef ‘give.PRS.1SG’, gaf ‘give.PST.SG’. |
Dutch nouns are divided over two genders: common and neuter. Even though gender assignment can be shown to be motivated increasingly semantically (cf. Audring 2009a), the basis of the system is still grammatical, as shown in example (6) where a semantically feminine noun has neuter gender agreement. (6) het meisje, dat … DEF.SG.N girl(N) REL.SG.N ‘the girl, that… |
Dutch makes use of a dummy pronoun with weather predicates, as in example (7). (7) het regen-t 3SG.N rain-3SG ‘It is raining.’ |
Dutch shows neutralisation of semantic roles. In transitive clauses, pronominal arguments are marked for nominative and accusative case, as in (8). Such case-marking disappears in intransitive clauses, e.g. (9) (8) zij zag haar she.NOM see.PST she.ACC ‘He saw her.’ (9) a. zij reed she.NOM drive.PST.SG ‘She drove.’ b. zij viel she.NOM fall.PST.SG ‘She fell.’ Furthermore, Dutch has a passive construction, e.g. (10). (10) a. zij begroet-te hem NOM.3SG.F greet-PST.SG ACC.3SG.M ‘She greeted him.’ b. hij werd door haar begroet NOM.3SG.M was by ACC.3SG.F greet.PST.PTCP ‘He was greeted by her.’ |
Weight of a constituent can influence morphosyntactic placement in Dutch, as in example (4), repeated here as (11). (11) heb je die man gezien [die door rood reed]? have you that man seen that through red drove ‘Did you see that man that drove through the red traffic light?’ |
Dutch has clitics, e.g. predicate markers, and particles, e.g. articles. However, head-marking affixes are much more frequent, rendering Dutch a predominantly head-marking language. | Morphophonological variation occurs in Dutch as the result of the addition of the diminutive suffix -tje (cf. Snow et al. 1980). The stem-final consonant can be deleted or altered under the influence of -tje, e.g. kast ‘cupboard’ /kɑst/ becomes kast-je ‘cupboard-dim’ /kɑʃə/, where the stem-final consonant is deleted, thus obscuring the morpheme boundary. |
Dutch shows suppletive affix alternation in the plural affix, which alternates between -en and -s depending on morphophonological properties of the stem. Hence, nouns can be divided over two declension classes, based on their plural inflection. Verbs can be divided over conjugation classes depending on the past tense inflection they take. The majority of verbs is inflected for past tense by means of a suffix, while so called strong verbs do so by means of vowel alternation of the stem (cf. Section 5.3.3). Hence, this affix alternation is morphologically motivated. An example of morphophonological affix alternation is the diminutive suffix -tje, which can take the forms -etje, -pje, -kje, -je, -ʃe, or -tje (cf. Snow et al. 1980). The alternations only occur with the diminutive suffix, so that selection of the appropriate allomorph cannot be explained as purely phonologically conditioned. |
Dutch exhibits phoneme deletion in degemination, e.g. krabpaal ‘scratching post’ /krɑp/ + / pal/ becomes [krɑpal]. Furthermore, there is assimilation of place and manner of articulation in Dutch. For example, when tand ‘tooth’ /tɑnt/ and pasta ‘paste’ /pɑsta/ form a compound, the result is [tɑmpɑsta], where the stem-final /t/ is deleted and the nasal is labialised. | There is assimilation of voicing in Dutch affixes, e.g. the past tense singular suffix on weak verbs is -te after a stem-final voiceless consonant, but -de after a voiced consonant or vowel. |
| 9 | Egyptian Arabic |
There is cross-reference in Egyptian Arabic. Predicates are inflected for person, number and gender of the subject argument (Gary & Gamal-Eldin 1981: 60). This is also the case when an independent argument is expressed, resulting in the double expression of reference, for instance in (1). The independent argument is optional. Gary & Gamal-Eldin (1981: 60) (1) (s[ā]mi) giri-ø (S.) run.PST.PFV-3SG.M.A ‘Sāmi ran.’ |
There is agreement in number, gender and definiteness between nouns and modifying adjectives, as illustrated in example (2). Gary & Gamal-Eldin (1981: 107) (2) a. walad [ʃ]aatʕir-ø boy smart-SG.M ‘a smart boy’ b. ʔil-ʔawlaad ʔiʃ-ʃa[tʕ]r-iin DEF-boy.PL DEF-smart-PL.M ‘the smart boys’ c. ʔil-bint ʔiʃ-ʃa[tʕ]r-a DEF-girl DEF-smart-SG.F ‘the smart girl’ |
Marking of plurality on nouns is obligatory after numerals 2 to 10, but not on numerals 11 or higher, as demonstrated in example (3) (Gary & Gamal-Eldin 1981: 111). Hence, in numeral phrases with numerals ‘two’ up to ‘ten’, there is plural concord. Gary & Gamal-Eldin (1981: 111) (3) a. talat kutub three book.PL ‘three books’ b. ħidaaʃar kitaab eleven book.SG ‘eleven books’ |
There is no tense copying in Egyptian Arabic (M. Hegazy, personal communication, July 22, 2013), as illustrated by example (4). M. Hegazy (personal communication, July 22, 2013) (4) ʔaal-ø inn-u ha-yi-ʕmil-u bukra say.PST.PFV-3SG.M.A that - 3SG.M FUT-3SG.M.A-do.IPFV-3SG.M.U tomorrow ‘He said that he would (lit.: “will”) do it tomorrow.’ |
Egyptian Arabic allows for extraposition of a part of a constituent away from its head. An example is given in (5), in which the long relative clause (between square brackets) is placed after the verb, instead of adjacent to its head, ‘man’. Gary & Gamal-Eldin (1981: 55) – bracketing mine (5) ʔir-rˤaagil da ʔabuu-ja [l[ā]bis ʔig-galabijja ʔid-dabalaan DEF-man that father-POSS.1SG wearing DEF-galabeya DEF-linen ʔil-miχatˤ[tˤ]a[tˤ]a ʕala ʔazraʔ bit[ā]ʕit ʔaχuu-ja s[ā]mi] DEF-striped on blue belonging_to brother-POSS.1SG S. ‘That man who is wearing the blue striped linen galabeya belonging to my brother Sāmi is my father.’ |
There is no true raising in Egyptian Arabic, as illustrated in example (6). The subject of the embedded clause, ‘I’, is the subject of the main clause in (6b). However, it is not raised out of the embedded clause, since it is still present at that location; rather, the subject of the embedded clause is copied to the main clause. The embedded clause is not discontinuous, and therefore, I do not count this as argument raising. Wise (1975: 70) (6) a. miʃ mumkin a-ʕmil kida NEG possible 1SG-do like_that ‘It is not possible that I do so.’ b. ana miʃ mumkin a-ʕmil kida 1SG NEG possible 1SG-do like_that ‘It is not possible that I do so.’ (Lit.: “Me it is not possible that I do that.”) |
There are circumfixes in Egyptian Arabic, e.g. several person and number markers and the negation marker ma-V-ʃ ‘NEG’ that attaches to perfective and imperative verb forms. |
Lexical stems in Arabic colloquial varieties consist of three consonants (called roots or radicals), that are integrated in a CV-pattern (e.g. CaCaC ‘PFV’) that determines the parts-of-speech properties and the exact meaning of the word. For example, KTB ‘write, book’ combined with the perfective pattern CaCaC gives katab-Ø ‘write.PST.PFV-3SG, he wrote’ (perhaps a more adequate representation is k< a > t < a >b ‘write |
In Egyptian, basic tense and aspect distinctions are expressed by means of the CV-patterns that are inserted between consonantal roots, e.g. ji-ktib ‘3SG-write.PRS.IPFV’, he is writing’, katab-Ø ‘write.PST.PFV-3SG, he wrote’. These tense and aspect markers cannot be seen separately from person and number marking because, as demonstrated in these examples, there are different sets of person and number marking affixes dependent on the TAME specification (cf. Gary & Gamal-Eldin 1981: 100). Therefore, we can say that Egyptian shows cumulation of TAME, person and number. There are also tense and aspect markers that do not show cumulation with person and number; these are affixes and auxiliaries (Gary & Gamal-Eldin 1981: 92). There is no case marking in Egyptian. | Egyptian exhibits suppletion in the formation of the imperative of some verbs, e.g. ana geet ‘1SG come.IND.1SG’, ta?ali ‘come.IMP’, in which the consonantal roots are altered in imperative mood (L. C. Buell, personal communication, November 1, 2013). |
As explained in Section 6.2.4, Egyptian Arabic makes use of so-called transfixes: inflectional affixes consisting of a particular CV-pattern, that are integrated with three-consonantal roots to form a stem. This type of morphology is sometimes analysed as stem alternation, since the stem vowels change, resulting in a form that represents multiple meanings, for example the lexical meaning of a verb and tense and aspect operators in ji-ktib ‘3SG-write.PRS.IPFV, in one inseparable form. However, in agreement with many Arabists, I see the three consonants as the true stem, while the vowels in between are the inflectional affixes, i.e. transfixes. Since the stem, i.e. the consonantal roots, do not undergo modification under TAM and person/number inflection, I do not see this as stem alternation. However, there are true cases of morphologically conditioned stem alternation in Egyptian Arabic, affecting the consonantal roots, e.g. irregular stem formation of verbal stems. For example, causative is expressed by means of gemination of the second root, which leads to a double consonant, e.g. for the consonantal roots FHM, we get fihim ‘to understand’, fahhim ‘understand.CAUS, to make clear’ (Woidich & Heinen-Nasr 2000: 154). Since the causative meaning is inseparable from the lexical meaning of the stem, this qualifies as fusional stem alternation. |
Egyptian nouns are either masculine or feminine (Gary & Gamal-Eldin 1981: 75), as reflected in agreement marking on modifiers and predicates (cf. Section 6.1.2). Femininity is marked on the noun by means of a suffix -a, masculinity is not overtly expressed on nouns. Humans and animals are assigned a gender on the basis of their biological sex, but otherwise there are no semantic assignment rules, so that this qualifies as a grammatical gender system. I have not found examples showing semantic agreement, so that I will assume that gender is grammatical. |
There are no nominal expletives in Egyptian Arabic (Gary & Gamal-Eldin 1981: 25). An example of a weather predicate is given in (7). The predicate ‘to rain’ has a semantic argument, i.e. ‘the world’. This argument can be implicit, in which case the verb will still be inflected for third person feminine, showing that ‘the world’ is actually invoked (M. Hegazy, personal communication, July 22, 2013). Therefore, we can say that there is no construction in Egyptian involving a semantically empty dummy subject. M. Hegazy (personal communication, July 22, 2013) (7) (ʔid-dunya) bi-t-matˤtˤar DEF-world PRS-3SG.F-rain.PFV ‘It is raining.’ (Lit.: “The world rains.”) |
In an Egyptian Arabic transitive clause, the person, gender and number of the Actor are marked on the predicate. In intransitive clauses, semantic role is neutralised, since both Actors, e.g. in (8), and Undergoers, e.g. in (9), are cross-referenced on the predicate. Gary & Gamal-Eldin (1981: 60) (8) s[ā]mi giri-ø S. run.PST.PFV-3SG.M.A ‘Sami ran.’ (9) muna maat-it M. die.PST.PFV-3SG.F.A ‘Mona died.’ There is a passive construction in Egyptian (Gary & Gamal-Eldin 1981: 89), in which it is the expression of an Actor argument in a by-phrase is uncommon, but in some cases possible, as illustrated by (10). Gary & Gamal-Eldin (1981: 90) (10) ʔiz-zamaalik ʔit-ʁalab-ø gon-een min il[-]ʔahli DEF-Z. PASS-beat-3SG.M.A goal-DU from DEF-A. ‘The Zamalek (club) was beaten two goals by the Ahli (club).’ |
There is heavy shift in Egyptian Arabic, e.g. in example (11). Default word order would place the indirect object (‘to Sami’) after the direct object (‘the books that …’), but since the direct object is so heavy, this ordering is reversed. Gary & Gamal-Eldin (1981: 54) (11) ʕali warra (li) sāmi ʔi[k-]kutub ʔik-kitiir ʔilli gab-ø-ha A. show (to) S. DEF-book.PL DEF-many that bring.PST.PFV-3SG.M-3SG.F ʔil[-]ʔisbuuʕ ʔilli faat min maʕrad ʔik-kitaab DEF -week REL pass.PST.PFV-3SG.M from fair DEF-book ‘Ali showed Sami the books that he brought last week from the bookfair.’ |
Egyptian Arabic has many affixes, i.e. prefixes, suffixes, circumfixes and transfixes (cf. Section 6.2.4), but only few particles and clitics (cf. Gary & Gamal-Eldin 1981: 59ff.,89ff.). Therefore, it qualifies as a predominantly head-marking language. | As explained above, Egyptian lexical words consist of three consonantal roots or radicals that are inflected by means of a transfix. However, several verbs have one or more ‘weak radicals’, i.e. glides instead of consonants. The inflection of such verbs is different from that of verbs with three strong radicals, for example, if the second radical is weak, it may appear as a vowel, māt ‘to die’, or as a glide, mawwit ‘die.CAUS, to kill’ (Woidich & Heinen-Nasr 2000: 153). These are phonological changes to the stem, i.e. to the consonantal roots, that only apply to a specific set of verbs, and are therefore morphophonologically based. |
The feminine suffix is -it in possessive constructions, but -a in all other contexts, e.g. madrasa kibira ‘a big school’, madrasit ʔawlaad ‘boy’s school’ (Gary & Gamal-Eldin 1981: 76). The final consonant of the passive prefix ʔit- and the determiner prefix ʔil- is assimilated to the initial consonant of the root it attaches to, but only if this initial consonant is a dental, palatal or velar, e.g. ʔid-dars ‘DEF-lesson’ (Gary & Gamal-Eldin 1981: 127). Plurality is usually marked by means of suffixes, but on some nouns it is marked by means of an exceptional transfix (Gary & Gamal-Eldin 1981: 74), which is phonologically unpredictable, e.g. kitaab ‘book.SG’, kutub ‘book.PL’ (Gary & Gamal-Eldin 1981: 59). Since the vowel qualities are not phonologically predictable, this is counted as morphologically based affix alternation. |
Several assimilation and dissimilation processes exist in Egyptian, of which I will name a few here. Firstly, a semi-vowel is introduced to avoid vowel clustering, e.g. li ‘for' + -i ‘me’ = lijja (Gary & Gamal-Eldin 1981: 128). An epenthetic vowel /i/ is inserted between a word-final consonant and a word-initial consonant, e.g. kunt taajih is pronounced [kuntitaajih] (Gary & Gamal-Eldin 1981: 129). A stem-final dental consonant is deleted when a pronominal suffix -t is attached, e.g. xad ‘take’ + -t ‘1SG’ becomes xat (Gary & Gamal-Eldin 1981: 129). Long vowels are shortened when the syllable in which they occur is closed, i.e. when a suffix or part of a circumfix consisting of a consonant attaches that results in a consonant cluster, e.g. gireet ‘I ran’, ma-grit-ʃ ‘I didn’t run’ (Gary & Gamal-Eldin 1981: 128). |
Alternations applying to stems apply to affixes alike. For example, the vowel of a suffix can be elided when attached to the vowel of a transfix, e.g. when yi- ‘3SG’ connects to āxud ‘take’, the result is yāxud (Woidich & Heinen-Nasr 2000: 89). |
| 10 | Fongbe | There is no predicate marking of any property of arguments in Fongbe (e.g. Lefebvre & Brousseau 2002: 240ff.), which means that arguments can only expressed by independent NPs. Hence, there cannot be cross-reference or agreement; this feature does not apply. |
There is no agreement or concord in the phrasal domain; no features are copied from nouns to attributive modifiers. This is illustrated in example (1). Lefebvre & Brousseau (2002: 51) (1) ɖìɖè ɖàgbè kɔ̀kú tɔ̀n ɔ́ lɛ́ sketch good K. GEN DET PL ‘Koku’s good sketches.’ |
Bare nouns are unspecified for number in Fongbe; they can refer to single and plural entities. There is a marker lɛ́ that is glossed as plural by Lefebvre & Brousseau (2002), and is argued by different authors (cf. Bobyleva 2013: 219-262 for a complete analysis of this type of determiners both in Gungbe and in related creoles) to trigger a definite reading as well. In combination with a numeral, this marker has to be used, thus creating plural concord, as shown in (2). Lefebvre & Brousseau (2002: 54) (2) ɖìɖè kɔ̀kú tɔ̀n wɛ̀ lɛ́ sketch K. GEN two PL ‘Koku’s two sketches.’ |
In Fongbe, temporal reference is expressed by means of phonologically independent markers (Lefebvre & Brousseau 2002: 85). Aboh (2004) argues that in Gungbe, which is closely related to Fongbe in this respect, these markers distinguish future tense, expressed by explicit markers, from non-future tense, signalled by the absence of a visible TMA marker in combination with the TMA semantics of the verb. Thus, a zero-marker in combination with the lexical aspect of the verb together determine the temporal semantics of the clause, i.e. whether this is factitive (with dynamic verbs) or present-state (with state verbs), as shown by example (3). Gungbe - Enoch Aboh (personal communication, July 9, 2014) (3) a. ùn Ø yi 1SG NFUT go ‘I went’ b. ùn ná yi 1SG FUT go ‘I will go.’ Thus, tense marking is most visible in case of future tense, which means that to test whether there is copying of tense marking from a main to a complement clause it is best to find an example with a future tense in the main clause. Example (4) is such an example and shows that there is no sequence of tenses in Gungbe and Fongbe. Gungbe – E. Aboh (personal communication, July 10, 2014) (4) jó kèkè lɔ́ dó, é má nyín mɔ́n leave bike DET at if NEG COP that_way súrù ná ɖɔ̀ mí Ø hɛ̀n kɛ̀kɛ̀ émìtɔ̀n glé S. FUT say we NFUT hold bike his break ‘Don’t play with the bike, otherwise Suru will say that we caused the bike to break down.’ |
E. Aboh (personal communication, February 25, 2012) indicates that extraposition is not easily allowed in Fongbe. However, he does give example (5) from Gungbe, which is in this respect again similar to Fongbe. Gungbe – E. Aboh (personal communication, February 25, 2012) (5) ùn ɖɔ̀ xó ná súrù [ɖɔ̀ ví étɔ̀n ná wá égbè] I speak word to S. that child his will come today ‘I told Suru that his child will return today.’ The object xó ‘word’ and the modifying relative clause arguably ‘belong together’ semantically, but the relative clause is extraposed, possibly because of its weight. I will assume that extraposition is possible in Fongbe. |
Fongbe exhibits argument raising (Lefebvre & Brousseau 2002: 277). In example (6), all argument are in the clause where they semantically belong, while in (7), an Undergoer argument is raised out of the embedded clause to function as the subject of the main clause. Lefebvre & Brousseau (2002: 278) (6) é hwɛ̀ [j]ɛ̀ ɖɔ̀ núsúnû ɔ́ mɛ̀ it lack salt at soup DET in ‘It lacks salt in the soup.’ (7) [j]ɛ̀ hwɛ̀ ɖɔ̀ núsúnû ɔ́ mɛ̀ salt lack at soup DET in ‘Salt is lacking in the soup.’ |
There are no circumfixes in Fongbe (Lefebvre & Brousseau 2002: 187). | There are no infixes in Fongbe (Lefebvre & Brousseau 2002: 187). | Fongbe has several TAME markers (Lefebvre & Brousseau 2002: 89), which are not cumulated with other categories, but it also has some TAME marking on particular personal pronouns, e.g. ná ‘FUT.1SG’, màá ‘NEG.FUT.1SG’ (E. Aboh, personal communication, July 9, 2014). It also has two case markers (Lefebvre & Brousseau 2002: 44), which are not cumulated with other categories. | I have not found examples of morphologically based stem alternation in Fongbe. | I have not found examples of morphologically based stem alternation in Fongbe. | Fongbe does not have grammatical gender (Lefebvre & Brousseau 2002: 37). |
In weather predicates, Fongbe does not employ expletives, cf. example (8). Lefebvre & Brousseau (2002: 245) (8) jì jà rain fall ‘It is raining.’ Fongbe does exhibit expletives with other verb constructions, translating for instance as ‘it is good/convenient/possible’, ‘it remains’, ‘it seems’, ‘it is not’ (Lefebvre & Brousseau 2002: 67; E. Aboh, personal communication, July 9, 2014), as demonstrated above in example (6) and additionally in (9). The pronominal element é refers to the subordinate clause here and is therefore referential in a different sense than ‘regular’ pronouns. Lefebvre & Brousseau (2002: 67) (9) é nyɔ́ ɖɔ̀ kɔ́kú ní yì it be_good COMP K. SBJV leave ‘It is good that Koku leaves. This type of expletive elements is not taken into account in this study (cf. Section 4.4.2). |
Fongbe has neutral alignment, i.e. in neutral sentences, no pragmatic, semantic or morphosyntactic roles are marked morphosyntactically. For instance, the Actor in example (10) and the Undergoer in (11) are unmarked for their role, nor is pragmatic or semantic information expressed on the predicate. Lefebvre & Brousseau (2002: 241) (10) kɔ̀kú lɔ́n K. jump ‘Koku jumped.’ Lefebvre & Brousseau (2002: 242) (11) kɔ̀kú kú K. die ‘Koku died.’ In (12), the Actor and Undergoer arguments of the transitive predicate are unmarked as well. Hence, we cannot say that there is neutralisation of semantic role in intransitive clauses, but rather that no role is expressed at all. Lefebvre & Brousseau (2002: 247) (12) kɔ̀kú xò àsíbá K. hit A. Koku hits Asiba. Lefebvre & Brousseau (2002: 274) state that Fongbe has a verbal passive construction, in which the grammatical object is promoted to subject position. However, it is not possible to express an Actor argument in a by-phrase, since Fongbe lacks a preposition ‘by’. Therefore, there cannot be a full neutralisation of semantic roles. In sum, semantic roles of constituents appear to follow from word order only, as Actors precede Undergoers by default. If word order is different, this is for a pragmatic reason (cf. Section 7.4.4), for example because an element is focused, in which case a discourse marker is usually obligatory. This shows that in Fongbe, it is possible to distinguish semantic functions on the basis of word order, and pragmatic functions on the basis of word order and discourse markers, but there are no true markers of syntactic functions. |
Word order in Fongbe is largely determined by pragmatic considerations (cf. for example Lefebvre & Brousseau 2002: 306ff., 335ff.). E. Aboh (personal communication, October 17, 2013) stresses that it is in fact impossible to separate influence of complexity from influence of pragmatic considerations, because deviations from default word order always have a pragmatic effect, so that it is not possible to determine whether the deviation was triggered by the complexity of the phrase or to achieve this pragmatic effect. However, what we can say is that there is no proof that complexity does have an influence. Since there are languages in which such an influence is clearly present, Fongbe can in comparison with such languages be classified as transparent with respect to this feature. | Fongbe is an isolating language, as it hardly shows inflectional morphology (Lefebvre & Brousseau 2002: 183). Function marking is performed by means of morphosyntactically and phonologically independent morphemes. Therefore, Fongbe qualifies as a predominantly phrase-marking language. | I have not found instances of morphophonologically based stem alternations in Fongbe. | The diminutive suffix –i shows vowel assimilation: àčú-ví ‘rat-DIM’ is pronounced [àčúvú] (Lefebvre & Brousseau 2002: 25). |
There is tone spreading in Fongbe, meaning that the tone of a unit, whether lexical or grammatical, is influenced by the tone of preceding units (L&B 2002: 22). Lefebvre & Brousseau (idem) say that spreading is limited to the tonal domain, which is a morphosyntactically defined unit. Since I have no reason to believe that morphosyntactic units are not parallel to phonological units, I will see this as a phonological process. Another assimilation process in Fongbe is affrication, a superficial phenomenon that only occurs in rapid speech (Lefebvre & Brousseau 2002: 25). It involves the affrication of t and d preceding i, sometimes including palatalisation, e.g. tì ‘squeeze’ is pronounced [čì]. Sonorants, as well as /b/ and /ɖ/, are nasalised in Fongbe when they precede nasal vowels, e.g. /bɔ̃̀/ > /mɔ̃̀/ ‘to see’ (L&B 2002: 27). This is an alternation between phones rather than between phonemes – it is a phonetic process. |
There is tone spreading in Fongbe that affects affixes as well, e.g. àsá ‘thigh’ + mɛ̀ ‘inside’ > àsá-mɛ̂ (Lefebvre & Brousseau 2002: 22). I am not sure whether this is a tonemic or an allotonic alternation but in any case, it concerns a form-based form process. |
| 11 | Georgian |
Person and number of arguments are expressed by pronominal affixes on verbs; at least one such affix is obligatory (Hewitt 1995: 128). Since arguments can be expressed independently as well (Vamling 1989: 16), there is cross-reference in Georgian, e.g. in example (1). Vamling (1989: 19) (1) is xat’-av-s surat-s NOM.3SG paint-THEMSUF-PRS.3 picture-DAT ‘He paints a picture.’ |
There is agreement in case between nouns and modifying adjectives ending in a consonant (Vamling 1989: 16, Hewitt 1995: 45), as demonstrated in (2). Vamling (1989: 16) (2) a. did-i kalak-i big-NOM city-NOM ‘big city’ b. did-ma kalak-ma big-ERG city-ERG ‘big city’ When the attributive adjective does not end in a consonant but in a vowel, there is no agreement with the head noun, cf. (3). Vamling (1989: 16) (3) a. p’at’ara kalak-i small city-NOM ‘small city’ b. p’at’ara kalak-ma small city-ERG ‘small city’ |
Georgian nouns can be marked for plurality by means of the suffix -eb (cf. Vamling 1989: 16), but remain singular after all numerals and quantifiers (Hewitt 1995: 55), as illustrated in (4). Hewitt (1995: 55). (4) or-i kal-i hundred_two-NOM woman-NOM ‘hundred two women’ Hence, there is no plural concord in Georgian. |
When quoting speech, a direct speech construction is preferred in Georgian. However, a ‘semi-indirect’ as well as a fully indirect speech construction exist (Hewitt 1987: 215). In the semi-indirect construction in (5), the embedded clause features a complementiser and shifting of pronouns, but no tense shift. Hewitt (1987: 215) (5) tkv-a, rom ga-a-k’et-eb-s say-AOR.3 COMP PFV-NV-do-THEMSUF-PRS.3 ‘He said that he would (lit.: will) do it.’ In the fully indirect speech construction, tense is shifted, as in example (6) in which the embedded tense is inflected according to the so-called conditional screeve (Hewitt 1995: 238), ‘screeve’ being the term used by Kartvelologists for particular combinations of tense, mood and aspect, e.g. ‘present indicative’ (Hewitt 1995: 122). Hewitt (1987: 216) (6) tkv-a, rom ga-a-k’et-eb-d-a say-AOR.3 COMP PFV-NV-do-THEMSUF-COND.IPFV-AOR.3 ‘He said that he would do it.’ |
Extraction or extraposition of a part of a constituent out of that constituent is allowed in Georgian (B. G. Hewitt, personal communication, November 27, 2012). |
Harris claims that there is argument raising in Georgian, and gives examples like (7). Supposedly, the object of the embedded clause in (7a), ‘good examples’, is raised to be the subject of the main clause in (7b). Harris (1981: 54) (7) a. čem-tvis ʒnel-i=a, k’arg-i magalit-eb-is mo-ʒebn-a me-for hard-NOM=COP.3SG good-ATTR example-PL-GEN PFV-find-NOM ‘It is hard for me to find good examples.’ b. k’arg-i magalit-eb-i ʒnel-i=a good-ATTR example-PL-NOM hard-NOM=COP.3SG mo-sa-ʒebn-ad čem-tvis PFV-FUT.PTCP-find-ADV me-for ‘Good examples are hard for me to find.’ However, I disagree with this analysis: ‘good examples’ cannot be the subject of the main clause in (7b), as it would trigger plural agreement on the predicate ‘hard’, which it does not. Rather, I think that ‘good examples’ is in a non-default position, perhaps for pragmatic reasons, which is perfectly possible in Georgian since word order is relatively flexible. I assume, then, that raising is not allowed in Georgian. |
Georgian has circumfixes, e.g. the pronominal verb marker g-…-t ‘2PL’ (Hewitt 1995: 128). | There are no infixes in Georgian. | Third person pronouns exhibit cumulation of case, person, and number, e.g. is ‘NOM.3SG’, man ‘ERG.3SG’ (Vamling 1989: 17). Furthermore, tense, aspect and person are cumulated in portmanteau predicate suffixes, e.g. –s ‘PRS.3’, -a ‘AOR.3’ (Vamling 1989: 18). | There is extensive stem alternation in Georgian. For instance, particular verbal stems mark plurality by means of suppletion, viz. zi-s ‘s/he is seated’, sxed-an ‘they are seated’ (Hewitt 1995: 214). |
There is extensive irregular stem formation in Georgian, for example in some verbs, on which animacy of the Undergoer is marked by means of irregular stem formation, e.g. in example (8). Hewitt (1995: 214) (8) a. c’ign-i m-a-kv-s book-NOM 1SG-LV-have.INAN.U-PRS.3 ‘I have a/the book.’ b. da m-q’av-s sister.NOM 1SG-have.ANIM.U-PRS.3 ‘I have a sister.’ |
There is no grammatical gender in Georgian (Vamling 1989: 16). |
Georgian does not make use of a pronominal dummy subject in weather predicates, as demonstrated in (9). Hewitt (1995: 89) (9) p’arask’ev-sa-c tov-d-a da k’vira-sa-c friday-DAT-too snow-IPFV-AOR.3 and Sunday-DAT-too ‘It snowed on both Friday and Sunday.’ |
The marking of argument functions in Georgian is extremely complicated, since the way arguments are expressed depends on the conjugation class of the verb (cf. Section 8.4.7) and on the TAM specifications. Regarding the latter: Georgian verbs are marked for tense, aspect and mood by means of a combination of morphological markers (i.e. specific thematic suffixes and the use of person and number inflection from either a set A or a set B affixes), which can be grouped in three series. These different series require different markings of argument relations. For example in (10), the present tense entails a nominative Actor argument and a dative Undergoer, while in (11), the aorist perfective marking requires an ergative Actor and a nominative Undergoer. Vamling (1989: 19) (10) is xat’-av-s surat-s NOM.3SG paint-THEMSUF-PRS.3 picture-DAT ‘He paints a picture.’ (11) man da-xat’-a surat-i ERG.3SG PFV-paint-AOR.3 picture-NOM ‘He painted a picture.’ Apart from the inflections described so far, argument relations can additionally be marked by vocalic prefixes. For example, the prefix u- indicates that there are three semantic roles: an Actor, an Undergoer and a Benificiary (Vamling 1989: 18). Hewitt (1995: 170) calls these different argument scenarios ‘versions’. The semantic roles of the different arguments that play a role in a clause are hence coded in many different ways. Independently expressed arguments get obligatory case-marking, reflecting their semantic function. Secondly, dependent on the TAM series, some arguments are marked on the predicate by means of pronominal affixes. The TAM series also determine whether arguments are marked by set A or set B affixes (cf. Section 8.4.7), and which semantic role they have (e.g. Actor, Undergoer or Beneficiary). Finally, the vocalic prefixes additionally express the amount of arguments and their configuration. The important question now is whether these markings are fully pragmatically or semantically motivated, or that it is relevant to assume syntactic functions. As it turns out, semantic role can be neutralised, i.e. arguments with different semantic roles can get identical morphosyntactic expression. Consider for example (12), (13) and (14), in which the pastry as Undergoer is marked identically as the Actor Nino. Example (14) proves that the semantic functions are distinguished in transitive clauses, so they can get different case marking. Hewitt (1995: 550) (12) k’at’a-m mo-šard-a cat-ERG PFV-urinate-AOR.3 ‘The cat urinated.’ Harris (1981: 43) (13) namcxvar-i ga-mo-cxv-a pastry-NOM PFV-VEN-bake-AOR.3 ‘The pastry baked.’ (14) namcxvar-i ga-mo-v-a-cxv-e pastry-NOM PFV-VEN-1SG-PRV-bake-AOR.1 ‘I baked pastry.’ Georgian furthermore has a passive construction, justifying the postulation of a syntactic function Subject. As shown in (15), the Undergoer argument is expressed in a passive clause in the exact same way as an Actor in an active clause, thus neutralising the semantic distinction. Harris (1981: 103) (15) a. ʒaɣl-i u-k’ben-s bavšv-s dog-NOM PRV-bite-3SG child-DAT ‘The dog is biting a child.’ b. bavšv-i da-k’ben-il-i-a ʒaɣl-is mier child-NOM PFV-bite-PFV.PTCP-NOM-COP.3SG dog-GEN by ‘The child has been bitten by a dog.’ |
Word order in Georgian is to a large extent free (Hewitt 1995: 528, Vamling 1989: 30). I have no evidence for influence of complexity on morphosyntactic placement and will assume it does not exist in Georgian. | Georgian has many bound morphemes, that are in large majority specialised for one type of lexemes: either nouns or verbs. Some clitics are found as well, for example postpositional clitics Hewitt (1995: 69ff.). Since the majority of bound morphemes consist of affixes, Georgian should be seen as a predominantly head-marking language. |
Particular verbal stems undergo alternation under the influence of the addition of a particular thematic suffix (see Section 8.4.7), e.g. the stem -rkv- ‘to name’ becomes -rtv- when the thematic suffix -ev is attached (Hewitt 1995: 27). A second case of morphophonologically induced irregular stem formation in Georgian is the addition of a vowel under the influence of a certain series of TAM inflections (cf. Section 8.4.7), e.g. šl-i ‘erase-THEMSUF, you erase it’ versus c’a-v-šal-e ‘PFV-1SG-erase-3SG, I erased it’. In a number of nominal stems, a vowel is dropped when used with specific suffixes, e.g. c’el-i ‘year-NOM’, c’l-is ‘year-GEN’ (Hewitt 1995: 35). Hewitt (ibid.) claims that it is not predictable from phonology which stems undergo such syncopation. |
Four classifications play a role in the verbal morphology of Georgian. I will first discuss them and show how they interact, before I go into the question whether they are transparent or not. First of all, three or four verb classes are distinguished on the basis of their inflectional behaviour (cf. for example Vamling 1989: 24). Secondly, there are three so-called ‘series’ for marking tense and aspect (present, aorist and perfect; cf. Vamling 1989: 20 and Van Valin 1990: 240), each containing three ‘screeves’, i.e. particular TAM markings (cf. Hewitt 1995: 122). For example, TAM series I is the pattern of inflection of the present indicative screeve, the imperfect indicative screeve, the future indicative screeve, etc. (cf. Hewitt 1995: 217ff.). Thirdly, two sets of pronominal affixes exist, viz. ‘set A’ or ‘v-set’ and ‘set B’ or ‘m-set’ (Vamling 1989: 22, Hewitt 1995: 128). Finally, Georgian verbs are in some TAM contexts marked by so-called thematic suffixes. Under certain conditions, a verb gets one of the thematic suffixes -av, -ob, -eb, -ev, -am or -i (Vamling 1989: 19). The selection of a particular thematic suffix is not governed by a phonological, morphological or semantic principle – it is determined lexically. These classifications interact with each other in a complex way. For instance, Vamling’s verb class 1 requires a nominative subject, obligatorily cross-referenced on the verb by means of a v-set affix. It optionally gets a dative object, which has to be cross-referenced on the verb by an affix from the m-series. This is true for all three TAM series. However, a class 3 verb requires a nominative subject and v-set affixation in the present tense TAM-series (called series I), but gets a dative subject and m-set affixation in the perfect TAM-series (called series III). One recognises the enormous complexity of this system, illustrated in examples (16) and (17) with one verb, ‘to paint’ (verb class 3). In (16), the present tense and imperfective aspect require series I TAM inflection: apart from specific pronominal affixes, this triggers the presence of a thematic suffix, which for ‘to paint’ happens to be -av. Vamling (1989: 19) (16) is xat’-av-s surat-s NOM.3SG paint-THEMSUF-PRS.3 picture-DAT ‘He paints a picture.’ In (17), ‘to paint’ is used in a series II TAM inflection context (i.e. the aorist perfective screeve). This triggers different case-marking, different pronominal affixes and requires no thematic suffix. Vamling (1989: 19) (17) man da-xat’-a surat-i ERG.3SG PFV-paint-AOR.3 picture-NOM ‘He painted a picture.’ A verb from class 2 behaves yet differently, as illustrated by example (18). The subject is now in dative case, the object is marked by a nominative marker, and TAM series I requires no thematic suffix in this verb class. Vamling (1989: 26) (18) mas me v-u-q’var-var DAT.3SG NOM.1SG 1SG-PRV-love-1 ‘He loves me.’ The three verbal classes are clearly opaque conjugations, since they are differentiated on the basis of their inflectional behaviour. The existence of two sets of pronominal affixes is opaque as well, since there is no consistent semantic distinction expressed by this affix alternation – a semantically identical argument can in some cases be expressed by affixes from the m-set, and in another context by the v-set. This is again a case of morphologically determined affix alternation: suppletive affixes exist for the expression of arguments on predicates in different contexts. As for nominal inflection, Georgian shows no affix alternation. The division of tense and aspect over three TAM series is based on a semantic principle: series I expresses present and future tenses, series II expresses the aorist and series III codes perfect aspect (cf. Van Valin 1990). Even though the series cannot be associated with specific markers, these semantic categories relate in a one-to-one fashion to morphosyntactic marking – each pattern of case-marking, cross-reference, and the use of a thematic suffix is related to a specific TAM series. Hence, this is transparent, semantically based inflection. There is one more affix alternation process to be mentioned here: the verbal affix h- ‘3.IOBJ’ assimilates to s- when followed by an alveolar, post-alveolar or palatal fricative (Hewitt 1995: 27). Since this does not occur with all h’s in this context, this cannot be seen as a purely phonologically conditioned process. |
Adjectives ending in -a or -o get an epenthetic -v- when suffixed, e.g. brma ‘blind’, a-brma-v-eb ‘you-blind-v-THEMSUF’ (Hewitt 1995: 22). Geminates are retained in most cases in Georgian, but degemination does sometimes occur, e.g. gaxlavvar, a highly polite version of ‘I am’, is pronounced as /gaxlavar/ (Hewitt 1995: 26). |
Phonologically based alternations apply to stems and affixes alike. A case in point is deletion of vowels that are adjacent to another vowel. For example, nouns ending in a consonant get a nominative singular suffix -i, but this -i is elided with nouns ending in a vowel, so that those appear unmarked for nominative singular (Hewitt 1995: 34, 38). This has made some authors believe that two noun classes should be distinguished, one with nouns ending in a consonant, and one with nouns ending in a vowel. However, since the process is fully phonologically predictable, this is not a case of morphological affix alternation but of phonological affix alternation (cf. Vamling 1989: 16 in agreement). |
| 12 | Huallaga Quechua |
Number and person of the subject are marked on the predicate by means of suffixes (Weber 1989: 10). The independent expression of arguments is not obligatory, as can be derived from example (1). Weber (1989: 11). (1) hwan-ta kuchi-ta rantiku-sha J.-ACC pig-ACC sell-PFV.3 ‘He sold a/the pig to John.’ |
There is no phrasal agreement between nouns and their modifiers (cf. Weber 1989: 36), as shown in (2). Weber (1989: 17) (2) chay ishkay hatun wasi-kuna DEM two big house-PL ‘Those two big houses’ |
There is plural concord in Huallaga Quechua, as shown in (2), repeated here as (3). I have not been able to find out whether this is optional or obligatory. Weber (1989: 17) (3) chay ishkay hatun wasi-kuna DEM two big house-PL ‘Those two big houses’ |
In Huallaga Quechua, embedded clauses are nominalisations on which tense cannot be expressed, as in (4). Therefore, this feature does not apply. Weber (1989: 21) (4) rura-na-:-paq ni-sha do-NMLZ-1.POSS-PURP say-PFV.3 ‘He said that I should do it.’ |
As Weber (1989: 250) explains, phrases may be discontinuous in Quechua, but if they are, each separate part gets a case marker of its own. Therefore, the separate units are in fact independent phrases themselves, and we should speak of nominal apposition rather than discontinuity. This is illustrated by example (5). In (5a), there is an NP with a relative clause containing a nominalisation. In (5b), this relative clause is separate from its head, but since it is marked for accusative case, it can be seen as an independent argument. The translations reflect this difference. Weber (1989: 250) (5) a. maqa-sha-n runa-ta rika-: hit-NMLZ-3.POSS man-ACC see-1 ‘I see the man who hit him.’ b. runa-ta rika-: maqa-sha-n-ta man-ACC see-1 hit-NMLZ-3.POSS-ACC ‘I see the man, the hitting one.’ |
There is raising in Huallaga Quechua, as demonstrated by (6). Example (6a) contains a main clause with a subordinated infinitive, marked for a first person Object. In (6b), the main clause is also marked for a first person Object, while this does not belong at that position semantically. Strictly speaking, the object is not raised out of the subordinate clause, since it is still present in the subordinate clause as well. Rather, the object argument is copied to a semantically inappropriate position. Weber (1989: 237) (6) a. maqa-ma-y-ta muna-n hit-1.OBJ-INF-ACC want-3 ‘He wants to hit me.’ b. maqa-(ma)-y-ta muna-ma-n hit-1.OBJ-INF-ACC want-1.OBJ-3 ‘He wants to hit me.’ (Lit.: “He wants me to hit me.”) |
Weber (1989: 9) states that all affixation is suffixing in Huallaga Quechua. This indicates that there are no circumfixes. | Weber (1989: 9) states that all affixation is suffixing in Huallaga Quechua. This indicates that there are no infixes. | There is no cumulation of case and another category in Quechua, cf. Weber (1989: 55). Person and tense are marked on verbs by means of so-called transition complexes (cf. Weber 1989: 95ff.), which are predicate markers consisting of an object marker, a tense marker and a subject marker, in that order. Weber analyses them as entities but in fact, they can be separated in multiple suffixes that each express one meaning, e.g. -man could be analysed as -ma-Ø-n ‘1.OBJ-PRS-SBJ’ and -maran as -ma-ra-n ‘1.OBJ-PST-SBJ’. This becomes harder with future tense, which is zero-marked for certain combinations of subject and object person, and with first person plural inclusive suffixes, which undergo alternations, but still, there is, in my opinion, no cumulation. | I have not found instances of suppletion in Quechua. | I have not found instances of irregular stem formation in Quechua. | Huallaga Quechua does not have grammatical gender (cf. Weber 1989: 35). |
Huallaga Quechua has no nominal expletives, as demonstrated by example (7). Weber (1998: 529) in Grández Ávila (2011: 45) (7) tamya-yka-n fiyupami rain-IPFV-3SG strongly ‘It is raining strongly.’ |
The number and person properties of the Actor argument are marked on the predicate by means of suffixes (Weber 1989: 10). Furthermore, there is nominative-accusative case marking to distinguish Actors from Undergoers, cf. (8). Weber (1989: 15) (8) hwan tumas-ta maqa-n J. T.-ACC hit-3 ‘John hits Tom.’ However, such markings are neutralised in intransitive clauses, as shown in (9). This requires postulation of a syntactic function Subject. Weber (1989: 179) (9) wamra pun̄u-n child sleep-3 ‘The child sleeps.’ Furthermore, there are three constructions that Weber (1989: 233) considers to be passives. At least one of these can have an oblique Actor argument, so that it qualifies as neutralisation of semantic roles; cf. (10) for the crucial example. It should be noted that addition of a by-phrase appears through elicitation only – speakers do not use this spontaneously. The other two passive constructions do not appear to have this option at all. Weber (1989: 245) (10) yanapa-sha ka-nqa chay runa qam-pita help-PTCP be-FUT.3 DEM man you-ABL ‘That man will be helped by you.’ |
Huallaga Quechua has a default SOV word order, but this is quite free (Weber 1989: 15). If some part of a sentence is relatively complex, it can be realised post-verbally to prevent ‘stack overflow’ (Weber 1989: 282). This is demonstrated in example (11). Weber (1989: 282) (11) maria qallari-na-:-ta muna-n M. begin-NMLZ-1.POSS-ACC want-3 allqu-ta qara-y-ta kani-ma-sha-n-ta dog-ACC feed-INF-ACC bit-1.OBJ-NMLZ-3.POSS-ACC ‘Mary wants me to begin to feed the dog that bit me.’ |
Quechua makes extensive use of suffixation (Weber 1989: 9) and is therefore commonly seen as an agglutinative language. However, many of the alleged suffixes are in fact clitics, for example the topic marker =qa in (12). Weber (1989: 408) (12) kapas watachaw huk kuti armakun inteeru kwerpun-ta=qa maybe in_a_year one time bathe.3PL entire body.3.POSS-ACC=TOP ‘Maybe they bathe their entire body once a year.’ Furthermore, Weber (1989: 75) distinguishes a number of suffixes that “may apply to words of any category”, which is in line with Grández Ávila (2011), who argues that case markers should also be seen as clitics, since they are phonologically dependent but morphosyntactically indifferent to the nature of their hosts. I will follow her in her analysis that Quechua is predominantly phrase-marking. |
Stem-final high vowels of particular stems are lowered to /a/ in the adjacency of particular suffixes (Weber 1989: 29, 464). E.g. miku- ‘eat’ becomes mika-mu-shun ‘eat-afar-FUT.1PL.INCL, let’s eat over there’. Since this happens with particular affixes only, it is considered a morphophonological phenomenon. The absolute spatial expressions hana ‘top’, washa ‘level’, and ura ‘below’ lose their final -a when combined with -qa, which relates the location to the hillside. For example: hana-n-chaw ‘top-3PL-rock’, han’qa-POSSX ‘above X on the hillside’ (Weber 1989: 256, 460). |
As explained in Section 9.3.1, Quechua makes use of verb markers that express number of subject and object, as well as tense (Weber 1989: 95ff.). As argued, the person and tense markers are separable, but they do undergo some adaptations, partly due to phonological rules. However, person markers also alternate under influence of the optional future tense marker -paq, e.g. Ø-Ø-n-chii ‘3.OBJ-PRS-1.SBJ-PL.INCL’, -Ø-ra-n-chii ‘3OBJ-PST-1.SBJ-PL.INCL’, but -Ø-shun(-paq) ‘3.OBJ-1PL.INCL-FUT’. As said earlier, Weber (1989: 100) analyses this as cumulation, but since there is a separate future tense marker, I rather see this as alternation of person suffixes in the context of this future tense suffix. The person markers themselves do not, in my opinion, express future tense. As with stems (cf. Section 9.4.6), the final vowel of particular suffixes is lowered to /a/ in the adjacency of particular suffixes (Weber 1989: 29, 464), e.g. the reflective suffix in sha-ku-mu-n ‘come-REFL-afar-3SG’ is pronounced as ka: [shakamuŋ]. To avoid illegal consonant clusters, e.g. clusters of three or more consonants, the epenthetic suffix -ni is inserted before nominal suffixes, e.g. atoq ‘fox’ with -yoq ‘POSS’ is optionally pronounced [atoqniyoq] (Weber 1989: 465). Since -ni does not appear before verbal suffixes, this process is morphophonological rather than phonological. |
/sh/ becomes /s/ preceding /ch/ or /y/, e.g. hanash-cha ‘farther_up-LOC’ becomes [hanaschaw] (Weber 1989: 457). High vowels are optionally lowered to mid vowels in the neighbourhood of /q/, e.g. /suqta/ ‘six’ becomes [soqta] (Weber 1989: 458). Syllable-final -n assimilates its place of articulation to a following phoneme, e.g. /qanra/ ‘dirty’ is [qaŋra] (Weber 1989: 458). Long vowels are shortened when the syllable is closed, i.e. when it is followed by a syllable with a coda consonant (Weber 1989: 467). If an /i/ precedes a -y, they fuse into a lengthened /i:/, e.g. chaki-ykan becomes chaki:kan (Weber 1989: 461, 462). Sometimes, the y- is simply dropped, e.g. nawi-yki becomes nawiki (Weber 1989: 462). Several other assimilation processes occur. | Suffixes of the form CV may lose their vowel if they are word-final and attached after a short vowel, e.g. mana-mi ‘not-EVID’ can be pronounced as [mánam] (Weber 1989: 459). Several other similar processes occur. |
| 13 | Japanese | No properties of referents are marked on the Japanese predicate (Hinds 1986: 323). Therefore, agreement and cross-reference in the clausal domain are impossible in Japanese, even if an argument is explicitly expressed, which is quite rare (Hinds 1986: 74). This feature does not apply. |
No properties of the referential head are expressed on its modifiers, hence, there is no noun-attributive agreement or concord in Japanese (Hinds 1986: 82, 347). This is illustrated in example (1). Hinds (1986: 346) (1) kirei na heya clean LINK room ‘a clean room’ |
Plural inflection on nouns is optional in Japanese (Hinds 1986: 223). Humans and higher animals are optionally marked for plural by the suffix -tachi. Some other nouns are pluralised by means of reduplication (Hinds 1986: 225). Two native speaker informants (according to R. van Munster, personal communication, September 22, 2013) claim that -tachi can be used in combination with numerals, especially with higher ones, e.g. futa-ri no hito-tachi ‘two-CLF LINK person-PL’ is acceptable. This means that there is optional plural concord in Japanese. | Plural inflection on nouns is optional in Japanese (Hinds 1986: 223). Humans and higher animals are optionally marked for plural by the suffix -tachi. Some other nouns are pluralised by means of reduplication (Hinds 1986: 225). Two native speaker informants (according to R. van Munster, personal communication, September 22, 2013) claim that -tachi can be used in combination with numerals, especially with higher ones, e.g. futa-ri no hito-tachi ‘two-CLF LINK person-PL’ is acceptable. This means that there is optional plural concord in Japanese. |
S. Iwasaki (personal communication, October 17, 2013) states that extraposition and extraction are not allowed in Japanese, and provides example (3). S. Iwasaki (personal communication, October 17, 2013) (3) a. akai seetaa o kita otokonoko ni kinoo atta red sweater ACC wear boy DAT yesterday met ‘I met that boy, who was wearing a red sweater, yesterday. b. *akai seetaa o kita kinoo otokonoko ni atta red sweater ACC wear yesterday boy DAT met ‘I met that boy yesterday, who was wearing a red sweater.’ |
I have not seen examples of argument raising in Japanese. S. Iwasaki (personal communication, October 17, 2013) confirms that raising does not occur. | There are no circumfixes in Japanese; Iwasaki (2002: 45) states that affixes are either suffixes or prefixes. | There are no infixes in Japanese; Iwasaki (2002: 45) states that affixes are either suffixes or prefixes. | TAME specifications in Japanese are expressed by means of verbal affixes, but not cumulated with other categories (Iwasaki 2002: 105ff.). Case and pragmatic function are expressed by means of morphosyntactically free elements, and are also not cumulated with other categories (Iwasaki 2002: 44). | I found no instances of morphologically based stem alternation in Japanese; all alternation processes are determined (morpho)phonologically. | I found no instances of morphologically based stem alternation in Japanese; all alternation processes are determined (morpho)phonologically. | There is no grammatical gender in Japanese (Hinds 1986: 171, 226). |
Japanese does not have dummy subjects (Hinds 1986: 73), as illustrated by example (4) of a weather verb with a semantic argument. Hinds (1986: 277) (4) ame ga fut-ta rain NOM fall-PST ‘It rained.’ |
Alignment in Japanese is largely based on word order (Hinds 1986: 188). Furthermore, there are case marking particles that mark pragmatic and semantic functions (Hinds 1986: 191ff.). Example (5) gives an example of a transitive clause. Iwasaki (2002: 85) (5) kodomo-tachi ga sensoo no kowasa o kangaeru child-PL NOM war GEN horrors ACC think ‘Children think about the horrors of war.’ Semantic functions can be neutralised in intransitive clauses, as proven by example (6), in which the Undergoer argument is marked by nominative case. Hinds (1986: 281) (6) oyu ga waite-iru water NOM boil-PROG ‘The water is boiling.’ Furthermore, example (7) shows that semantic role can be neutralised by a passive construction, in which the Undergoer is marked as an Actor, obscuring the semantic difference. Iwasaki (2002: 126) (7) sakana ga neko ni tabe-rare-ta fish NOM cat DAT eat-PASS-PST ‘The fish was eaten by the cat.’ |
Hinds (1986: 151) mentions that dislocation of elements is possible and results in emphasis on the moved element. This indicates that there may be pragmatic factors influencing word order, but is not informative on the influence of heaviness. Iwasaki (2013: 13, 237ff.) describes how Japanese constituent order is determined by pragmatic principles. He confirms (S. Iwasaki, personal communication, October 17, 2013) that heavy shift does not occur. |
Japanese is an agglutinative language, as it has a rich array of suffixes, especially verbal ones (Iwasaki 2002: 9). It has no clitics (Hinds 1986: 361), but there are quite some phrase-marking particles. Since both head-marking and phrase-marking occur non-marginally, it cannot be determined whether Japanese is transparent or opaque with respect to this feature; I will leave the matter undecided. | Verbal stems ending in /m, n, b/ assimilate to attached consonants, e.g. nom ‘drink’ + -ta ‘PST’ becomes /nonda/. The final consonant of verbal stems ending in /w, r/ changes to /t/ when a t-initial suffix is attached, e.g. kaw ‘buy’ + -ta ‘PST’ becomes /katta/. If a verbal stems ends in a velar, this velar is palatalised to /i/ if a t-initial suffix is attached, e.g. kak ‘write’+ -ta ‘PST’ becomes /kaita/ (Hinds 1986: 420). Since these alternations occur in verbal stems only, they are morphophonologically based. Several other morphophonologically motivated stem alternations could be illustrated here, but the examples given suffice to demonstrate the existence of such processes in Japanese. |
Japanese has a conjugation system, since verbs can be divided over four classes according to a thematic vowel that is inserted with some classes between the stem-final consonant and particular inflectional suffixes (Hinds 1986: 172ff.), as shown in the partial paradigm in (8) (cf. Section 10.4.9 for an explanation of the additional /r/ in taberu and yabereba). (8) yom- ‘read’ tabe- ‘eat’ yom-a-nai read-a-NEG.IMP tabe-nai eat-NEG.IMP yom-i-tai read-i-DES tabe-tai eat-DES yom-u read-INF tabe-ru eat-INF yom-eba read-COND tabe-reba eat-COND The classes are not phonologically predictable so that this process is morphologically motivated. After Chinese numerals, particular counter suffixes undergo phonemic alternations that other suffixes do not undergo. For example, the initial h of counter suffix -hon ‘long, cylindrical objects’ changes to a p after Chinese numerals like ichi ‘one’, which becomes ichi-pon and then, according to a rule described in Section 9.18, ippon (Hinds 1986: 231). |
Vowels can be inserted to prevent adjacency of two consonants or to prevent a word from ending in a consonant. This is visible in loanword adaptations, e.g. English ‘street’ assimilated to Japanese sutorito (Hinds 1986: 423). Word-initial morae with a low pitch may be deleted in casual speech, e.g. atashi ‘1.F’ may be pronounced tashi (Hinds 1986: 422). Several other similar deletion processes occur, mainly in frequent items. When a stem-final combination of a voiceless consonant and a high vowel is followed by another voiceless consonant, the vowel is dropped and the stem-final consonant adapts to the other consonant, e.g. ichi or iti ‘one’ + ko ‘thing’ becomes ikko (Hinds 1986: 421). Hinds refers to this as a ‘general process of gemination’, so that I assume that it is a phonological rather than a morphophonological process. Stem-final nasals adapt their place to an attached consonant, e.g. shin ‘new’, shimbun ‘newspaper’ (Hinds 1986: 406 and cf. Iwasaki 2013: 21ff.). High vowels /i/ and /ɯ/ are devoiced in between two voiceless consonants and between a voiceless consonant and a pause, e.g. [kɯ̥tsɯ̥] ‘shoes’ (Iwasaki 2013: 21). Several similar adaptation strategies occur. Finally, Japanese exhibits downdrift, causing some syllables to have a lower pitch in the context of other low pitched syllables, e.g. yo.ku ‘often’ shows an HL pattern, ka.ku ‘write’ is HL, but the combination yoku kaku ‘write often’ has the pitch contour HL LL’ (Hinds 1986: 416). |
Some verbal suffixes have an initial /r/, which is deleted when the suffixes attaches to a consonant-final stem, e.g. tabe-ru ‘eat-NPST’, nom-u ‘drink-NPST’ (Iwasaki 2002: 60). Suffix-initial consonants become voiced when they attach to a voiced stem-final consonant, e.g. nom ‘drink’ + -ta ‘PST’ becomes nonda (Hinds 1986: 420). |
| 14 | Kayardild | Predicates are not marked for any property of arguments in Kayardild, so that this feature does not apply. Moreover, independent NPs can easily be elided in Kayardild (Evans 1995: 93), so that the majority of sentences will have no overt referential marking at all. |
Kayardild exhibits an extremely rich case system. One type of cases exists of what Evans calls ‘modal case’. This involves the use of case markers, otherwise used as markers of grammatical relations or locational and directional information, to express certain TAM specifications, which are specified further by verbal inflection (Evans 1995: 107ff. and 398ff.). Comparing for example (1) and (2), we see that in combination with past tense specification, the Locative argument receives an extra ablative case marker, which contributes anterior aspect to the interpretation of the clause. Evans (1995: 107-108) (1) ngada warra-ja ngarn-kir NOM.1SG go-REAL beach-ALL ‘I am going/have gone to the beach.’ (2) ngada warra-jarra ngarn-kiring-kina NOM.1SG go-PST beach-ALL-MODC.ABL ‘I went to the beach.’ Thus, specific modal case markers contribute certain TAM information to the interpretation of the clause (Evans 1995: 108). In certain circumstances, modal case may appear without TAM specifications on the verb (Evans 1995: 403), showing that modal case markers are not mere copies of verbal inflection, but make their own semantic contribution. With some exceptions, modal case markers appear on all arguments in the verbal phrase. Apart from modal case, Kayardild also has adnominal, relational, associating and complementising cases. Case marking operates on multiple syntactic levels, e.g. modal case is expressed on all arguments within the VP, and complementising case is expressed on all words of the complement clause (Evans 1995: 101). This entails that a sentence can have numerous case markers, as illustrated in example (3). Evans (1995: 4) (3) maku-wa yalawu-jarra yakuri-na woman-NOM catch-PST fish-MODC.ABL dangka-karra-nguni-na mijil-nguni-na man-GEN-INSTR-MODC.ABL net-INSTR-MODC.ABL ‘The woman caught fish in the man’s net.’ As shown in example (3), modal case (as well as other types of case marking in Kayardild) can be marked on multiple elements within the same constituent, this being an instance of redundancy, or more specifically, of agreement within the phrase. Since predicates are never explicitly marked for any type of case, I consider Kayardild to have agreement at the phrasal level, but not at the clausal level. |
In Kayardild, number marking is obligatory on pronouns, but expressed on nouns and adjectives only if number is relevant (Evans 1995: 183). If marked, suffixes such as -bala ‘a lot’ are used rather than a specialised plural marker. In combination with quantifiers such as mutha ‘many’, I have only come across examples without number marking such as (4) – apparently number marking is either optional (as without a quantifier) or ruled out. Evans (1995: 535) (4) thawal-da diya-jarra-ntha mutha-a yam-NOM eat-PST-COMPC.OBL much-NOM ‘… (we) ate lots of yams …’ Numerals are rare in Kayardild, presumably because counting is culturally taboo (Evans 1995: 242). There are numerals for one up to four, and if used, these do not show plural concord, e.g. kiyarrng-ka wumburung-ka ‘two-NOM spear-NOM’ (Evans 1995: 323). Other examples show involve a numeral functioning as a predicate, as in (5). Evans (1995: 324) (5) ngijin-da kunawuna buldamurr my-NOM child.NOM three.NOM ‘I have three children.’ Finally, Evans notes that the numeral two and the dual suffix are mutually exclusive (Evans 1995: 184). From all this information I gather that plural concord is extremely marginal in Kayardild, if allowed at all. I will therefore count Kayardild as transparent with respect to this feature. |
Kayardild exhibits several subordination strategies, none of which involves tense copying. In finite subordinate clauses, TAME cannot be marked by the same means as it is in main clauses (Evans 1995: 511). For instance in (6), TAME is marked by means of immediate case (present and immediate past), which does not occur in the main clause and can therefore not be a copy. Evans (1995: 502) (6) ngada kurri-ja niwan-ji, NOM.1SG see-REAL 3SG-MODC.LOC natha-wurrka dana-thurrk camp-MODC.LOC.COMPC.OBL leave-IMMED.COMPC.OBL ‘I saw him leaving the camp.’ In non-finite subordinate clauses, TAME can only be marked by means of modal case. In such clauses, modal case is assigned in the same way as in main clauses, without being influenced by tense copying (Evans 1995: 512). |
Evans (1995: 234) states that a Kayardild NP must be realised as one contiguous element, thus disallowing discontinuous NPs, “except under special discourse conditions”. Some modifying elements may be found separated from their heads, as in (7), but since all units are marked for case, they can be seen as independent NPs. Under that analysis, (7) displays apposition rather than extraposition. Evans (1995: 332) (7) niya dangka-na kaba-tharra jalji-nurru-na NOM.3SG person-MODC.ABL find-PST shade-ASSOC-MODC.ABL yiiwi-n-kina sleep-NMLZ-MODC.ABL ‘He found the person in the shade, the sleeping one.’ I have not found examples of the special discourse conditions that Evans mentions, but I assume that if those conditions cause any dislocation of NP modifiers, they are still cases of apposition rather than extraction or extraposition. Hence, Kayardild is transparent with respect to this feature. |
There is argument raising in Kayardild, as shown in example (8). In this sentence, the third person singular pronoun is syntactically an argument of the main clause, which is proven by the fact that it has modal case, as all arguments in the VP (cf. Section 11.1.2), while semantically speaking, it is the Actor argument of the embedded clause. This is a typical case of subject-to-object raising. Evans (1995: 502) (8) ngada kurri-ja niwan-ji, NOM.1SG see-REAL 3SG-MODC.LOC natha-wurrka dana-thurrk camp-MODC.LOC.COMPC.OBL leave-IMMED.COMPC.OBL ‘I saw him leaving the camp.’ |
The only type of affixes in Kayardild is suffixes (Evans 1995: 1). Hence, there are no circumfixes. | The only type of affixes in Kayardild is suffixes (Evans 1995: 1). Hence, there are no infixes. | Kayardild is an agglutinative, suffixing language (Evans 1995: 1). Neither case nor TAME suffixes cumulate with other categories. Of course, as discussed in Section 11.1.2, there are the modal case markers that express modality, which could be seen as markers of both case and mood. However, these are not ‘case markers’ in the normal sense of that word, since they do not mark grammatical relations (nominative, accusative) or locational (ablative, locative) information. Rather, they are mood markers that are diachronically related to regular case markers, but are not case markers themselves. | There is no suppletive stem alternation in Kayardild. | Middle voice is expressed in Kayardild by means of the suffix -yii and by alternations in the stem. On verbal stems ending in a long vowel, middle voice is accompanied by a shortening of that vowel, e.g. baa-ja ‘bite-INF’, ba-yii-ja ‘bite-MID-INF’ (Evans 1995: 277). In other verb stems, the vowel is lengthened: diya-ja ‘eat-INF’, diyaa-ja ‘eat.MID-INF’. The latter example shows that -yii only appears with some verbal stems, but not with others. This means that in some stems, e.g. diyaaja, middle voice is expressed only by means of stem alternation. | There is no grammatical gender in Kayardild (cf. Evans 1995: 122). |
There is no pronominal expletive element in Kayardild, as demonstrated by the weather predicate in (9). Evans (1995: 326) (9) balmbi-wu warrngal-warri-r-i-ju, wambaji-wa-thu tomorrow-MODC.PROP wind-PRIV-FAC-MID-POT clear-INCH-POT ‘Tomorrow it will become calm and clear.’ |
Evans (1995: 95) argues that syntactic functions Subject and Object are relevant in Kayardild. In transitive clauses, Actor and Undergoer are distinguished by means of accusative case marking on the Undergoer, as in (10). In intransitive clauses, such roles are neutralised: the Actor in (11) and the Undergoer in (12) receive the same nominative case marker. Evans (1995: 1) (10) dangka-a raa-ja bijarrba-y wumburu-nguni man-NOM spear-REAL dugong-MODC.LOC spear-INSTR ‘The man speared the dugong with a spear.’ (11) dangka-a jawi-j man-NOM go_fast-REAL ‘The man went fast.’ Evans (1995: 136) (12) mutha-a dangka-a yuuma-th, buka-wa-th many-NOM person-NOM drown-REAL rotten-INCH-REAL ‘Many people drowned and died.’ Furthermore, Kayardild exhibits a passive construction, in which addition of an oblique Actor is possible, as in (13). Evans (1995: 350) (13) ngada ra-yii-ju mun-da balarr-inja maku-nth NOM.1SG spear-MID-POT buttock-NOM white-OBL woman-OBL ‘I will be injected in the buttocks by the white woman.’ |
The order of phrasal constituents is relatively free in Kayardild: all possible word orders are attested so that it is impossible to ascribe a basic word order to the language (Evans 1995: 92-93). Pragmatic principles do play a role, as for instance new participants are relatively often placed in the beginning of the sentence (Evans 1995: 93). I have no evidence that the complexity of elements plays any role in this, and will therefore assume that it does not. | As said in Section 11.3.1, Kayardild employs suffixation as its most important function marking strategy. There are clitics (Evans 1995: 389) and particles (Evans 1995: 378ff.) as well, but these are scarce in comparison to suffixes. Hence, Kayardild is a predominantly head-marking language. | Stem-final apico-alveolar d alternates with lamino-dental th or lamino-palatal j when preceding the nominative suffix -a, e.g. ngirrnguth-inja ‘fly-OBL’, ngirrngud-a ‘fly-NOM’ (Evans 1995: 74). |
There are morphologically based alternations in Kayardild in case suffixes. Evans (1995: 126) mentions for instance alternation of the initial consonant of the locative suffix, e.g. daman-ki ‘tooth-LOC vs. kuwan-ji ‘firestick-LOC’ (Evans 1995: 126). This distinction is not phonologically predictable. Furthermore, Kayardild exhibits two conjugational classes: a dental and a palatal class (Evans 1995: 267ff.). As the names suggest, these are largely phonologically based, apart from verbal stems ending in -a – conjugation membership of those verbs is determined by the presence of particular derivational suffixes, and partly lexically. |
A velar stop is palatalised before /i/ and likewise, /ng/ is fronted before /i/, e.g. ngimiy ‘night’ is pronounced [ŋjime͡i] (Evans 1995: 54). The labio-velar glide w is sometimes delided word-initially preceding high vowels, e.g. wuranda ‘food’ can be pronounced [‘oɹant] (Evans 1995: 58). This example also illustrates that word-final a can be deleted before planned pauses at the end of a breath group (Evans 1995: 63). Several other cases of allophony are described in Evans (1995: 54-65) – it is not relevant to describe them all here. Stem-final laminal stops assimilate to ny if preceding an m or ng, e.g. yarbuth + -ngarrba becomes yarbunyngarrba (Evans 1995: 72). A stem-final ng assimilates its place to a following consonant, e.g. kang + juldajulda becomes kanyjuldajulda ‘correct speech’ (Evans 1995: 73). A stem-final /r/ in combination with suffix-initial /r/ fuse into an /l/, e.g. birdin + raja becomes birdilaaja ‘mis-spear’ (Evans 1995: 73). It can be shown historically that the /n/ is lost, while the /r/ alternates with /l/, so that this is both an alternation in the stem and in the affix. Further phonologically conditioned processes exist, but it is not germane to describe all cases. |
Case inflection of Kayardild nouns can be grouped in 6 classes (Evans 1995: 124ff.). The declensional class inflection that a noun takes is in most cases predictable on the basis of its phonology. Some noun stems are ambiguous between two classes so that their inflection class is not fully predictable, but still, the selection is based on their phonology and not on their morphology. A suffix-initial w is nasalised under the influence of a preceding nasal, e.g. kinyin + -warri becomes [kinyinmarri] ‘non-existent’ (Evans 1995: 72). A stem-final /r/ in combination with suffix-initial /r/ fuse into an /l/, e.g. birdin + raja becomes birdilaaja ‘mis-spear’ (Evans 1995: 73). It can be shown historically that the /n/ is lost, while the /r/ alternates with /l/. |
| 15 | Kharia |
Kharia predicates and negation markers are obligatorily marked for the number of the subject argument by means of clitics (Peterson 2011: 212). In addition, the argument can be expressed independently, as in example (1), resulting in cross-reference. Peterson (2011: 95) (1) iɲ ɖaʔ biʈh=oʔj 1SG water pour_out=ACT.PST.1SG ‘I poured water out.’ |
There is no agreement or concord between nouns and their modifiers in Kharia, as illustrated in example (2). Peterson (2011: 81) (2) ho rusuŋ oʔ that red house ‘that red house’ |
Plurality is optionally marked in Kharia by the clitic =ki (Peterson 2011: 158). This clitic can also be used in combination with a numeral, as shown in example (3). Peterson (2011: 195) (3) tin jhan bhai=ki three CLF .HUM brother=PL ‘three brothers’ |
Tense is not backshifted in complement clauses. This is illustrated in example (4) and confirmed by J. Peterson (personal communication, February 20, 2011) who states that he never saw evidence for a sequence of tenses rule in Kharia. Peterson (2011: 405) (4) muda tam jou lebu=ki um=may koŋ=sikh=oʔ no but now until person=PL NEG=3PL know=PFV=ACT.PST COMP u=jeʔ i daru heke this=SG.NHUM what tree PRS.COP ‘But up to this day, people have not found out what tree it is.’ |
I did not find examples of extraction or extraposition. | I did not find examples of raising; neither did J. Peterson (personal communication, February 20, 2011). | There are no circumfixes in Kharia. |
There are at least two infixes in Kharia. The first, |
TAME marking is cumulated with person, number and voice expression in referential clitics, e.g. =oʔj ‘ACT.PST.1SG’ (Peterson 2011: 95). Case is not cumulated with another semantic category (Peterson 2011: 144). | There is no suppletive stem alternation in Kharia. | A set of Kharia verbs is marked for voice by alternations in the last syllable of the stem, e.g. bagɽe ‘be(come)_bad.MID, bagɽay ruin.ACT ’ (Peterson, 2011: 221). This alternation is not a productive process in Kharia, but is straightforwardly borrowed from Sadri, another Indo-Aryan language – it applies only to loanwords from Sadri. Therefore, I do not count this as a stem alternation process in Kharia. | Nouns in Kharia have no gender feature; there is no nominal classification (Peterson 2011: 139). |
There are no expletives in Kharia, as weather predicates take a semantically full argument, cf. example (5). Peterson (2011: 241) (5) ɖaʔ gim=oʔ=Ø water rain=ACT.PST=3SG ‘It rained.’ (Lit.: “Water rains.”) |
Kharia’s alignment system is strongly semantically motivated. The expression of the predicate depends on semantic factors, viz. whether the expressed event or state is portrayed as an action, performed by an Actor, or as a state or durational action, involving an Undergoer. The two different poles are illustrated in example (6). Peterson (2011: 284, 285) (6) a. ho=kaɽ koŋ-koŋ=ga biʔthuŋ=oʔ=Ø that=SG.HUM know-RDP=FOC spit=ACT.PST=3SG ‘S/he deliberately spit.’ b. ho=kaɽ (*koŋ-koŋ=ga) kulɖaʔ=ki=Ø that=SG.HUM (*know-RDP=FOC) fever=MID.PST=3SG ‘S/he (*deliberately) got a fever.’ The predicate explicitly shows the difference between the different semantic roles by being marked for active or middle voice. Thus, the semantic distinction between Actor and non-Actor is not neutralised in intransitive clauses, so that that here we find no evidence for positing a subject function. However, there is a passive construction in Kharia where the Actor-Undergoer distinction is neutralised, as shown in example (7). Peterson (2011: 368) (7) a. ho=kaɽ am=te pothi=te ter=oʔ=Ø that=SG.HUM 2SG=OBL book=OBL give=ACT.PST=3SG ‘S/he gave you the book.’ b. am=te pothi ter ɖom=ki=Ø 2SG=OBL book give PASS=MID.PST=3SG ‘A book was given to you.’ The possibility of adding an Actor-phrase by means of a by-phrase (buŋ-phrase; J. Peterson, personal communication, April 8, 2011) entails a neutralisation of semantic roles. Hence, Kharia has a syntactic function Subject. |
There is heavy NP-shift in Kharia. Peterson (2011: 398) (8) … u goʔjuŋ=te socay=ga col=ki=ki [no i jãut this path=OBL think=FOC go=MID.PST=PL COMP what animal heke hoy]? COP INFER ‘… they walked along this path, thinking “What animal could it be?” The unit between square brackets in (8), i.e. the Undergoer argument, would usually stand directly after the predicate, socay=ga. However, as Peterson (2011: 398) explicitly states, it is dislocated because of its weight. |
As Peterson (2011: 51ff.) convincingly argues, function marking is in Kharia mainly done by clitics, i.e. by phrase-markers. Peterson gives many examples of bound morphemes that scope over phrases rather than words, e.g. =ko in (9) and (10). Peterson (2011: 54) (9) u=je[ʔ]=ko ho=ki=yaʔ=ga heke this=SG.NHUM=CNTR that=PL=GEN=FOC COP ‘But this is theirs.’ Peterson (2011: 403) (10) oreʔj koŋtaŋ bui=na=ko ho=ki=yaʔ dhatam aw=ki ox cow raise=INF=CNTR that=PL=GEN custom COP=MID.PST ‘But raising oxen and cows was their custom.’ In (9), the marker =ko attaches to a pronominal element, whereas in (10) it attaches to a copula. In the latter example, its semantic scope is clearly the State-of-Affairs, hence it refers to the entire phrase rather than the head only. Peterson (2011: 58) considers person/number markers to be enclitics too, as they attach to predicates as well as negation markers, showing that they are relatively indifferent to their hosts. Some affixes appear as well (Peterson 2011: 68ff.), but the number of clitics outweighs those by far. Kharia, then, is a predominantly phrase-marking language. |
Stem-final consonants assimilate under the influence of the past active marker =oʔ, e.g. oʔj ‘drive’, och=oʔ ‘drive=ACT.PST’ (Peterson 2011: 33). This does not happen with other vowel-initial enclitics. Furthermore, the final /l/ of the stems col ‘go’ and ɖel ‘come’ is deleted before enclitics starting with /n/, which is not the case with other stems ending in /l/. This is due to the fact that col and ɖel are loanwords from Sadri (Peterson, 2011: 34). |
The perfect marker siʔ(ɖ) is optionally pronounced [chi.ʔI] after a morpheme-final /j/ (Peterson 2011: 34). Kharia does not have declension or conjugation classes. |
Kharia exhibits several phonologically conditioned alternations. An underlying stem-final /g/ alternates between [g] at word-end and before consonants, and [ʔ] when followed by a vowel-initial clitic, e.g. og=aʔ ‘house=GEN’, oʔ ‘house’ (Peterson 2011: 34). If a vowel-initial enclitic attaches to a vowel-final stem, an epenthetic glide is inserted: /w/ if both vowels belong to the group /o. a, u/, a /y/ in all other cases (Peterson 2011: 35). I have not been able to determine whether this is a stem or an affix alternation and have counted it as both. |
An epenthetic glide is inserted in Kharia between vowels (Peterson 2011: 35). Secondly, Kharia exhibits phoneme deletion in degemination processes, e.g. kol ‘RECP’ and leʔj ‘curse’ become koleʔj ‘to curse one another’ (Peterson 2011: 31). Furthermore, there is vowel deletion, e.g. am=pe ‘2=2PL’ and =yaʔ ‘GEN’ become am=p=a (Peterson 2011: 64). Interestingly, these alternations are usually restricted to grammatical units (i.e. affixes and clitics). Apart from the examples in Section 12.4.8, lexical stems are seldom affected. |
| 16 | Khwarshi |
In Khwarshi, a subset of all verbs is obligatorily marked by gender/number–prefixes, expressing the gender of the Undergoer argument of the clause (Khalilova 2009: 181). These prefixes optionally occur together with the full NP, as in example (1). Hence, Khwarshi has cross-reference. Khalilova (2009: 304) (1) heč’č’e atɣul madinat-i oōnču b-ez-un most in_front M.-ERG hen(III).ABS III-buy-PST.UW ‘First Madinat bought the hen.’ |
Khwarshi shows agreement in the phrasal domain. The gender and number of nouns is obligatorily expressed on modifying units (Khalilova 2009: 41), as shown in example (2). Note that number is not explicitly marked, but implied by gender marking: there are five singular genders as opposed to two plural ones. Khalilova (2009: 100) (2) y-ogu kad II-good girl(II) ‘good girl’ |
Plurality is marked on nouns by means of suffixes. When a noun is modified by a numeral, it cannot be marked for plural (Khalilova 2009: 174), as illustrated in example (3). Khalilova (2009: 174) (3) a. q’ʕwene kad two girl(II) b. *q’ʕwene kanda-ba two girl(II)-ABS.PL ‘two girls’ |
There is no tense copying rule in Khwarshi, as can be deduced from example (4). The tense of the embedded verb is not adapted to the tense of the main verb. Khalilova (2009: 477) (4) muħamad-i hunuža iλ-i ise žequł dac M.-ERG yesterday say-PST.W that.OBL.ERG today lesson(III) b-iqq-a goli λɨn. III-learn-INF be.PRS QUOT ‘Magomed said yesterday that he would learn the lesson today.’ |
Extraposition of a unit out of an NP is possible, as shown in example (5), where the relative clause is separated from its head noun. Khalilova (2009: 360) (5) diyo šayix b-uwox-i [q’ˤʷene omˤoq’ˤe-n GEN.1SG talisman(III) III-kill-PST.W two donkey(III)-COORD tuλ-un b-ezz-u] λɨn give-PFV.CVB III-take-PST.PTCP QUOT ‘(He said:) “My talisman is killed, which I have bought having given two donkeys.”’ |
I have not found examples of argument raising. Z. Khalilova (personal communication, November 21, 2013) confirms that it does not occur in Khwarshi. | Khwarshi has no circumfixes (Z. Khalilova, personal communication, November 21, 2013). | Khwarshi has infixes, viz. gender/number markers on demonstrative pronouns and adverbs (Khalilova 2009: 148), for example a< y>edu ‘< II>this’ (2009: 316) and a< r>de-zi ‘< IV>here-ABL’ (2009: 114). | Some semantic categories are expressed together in portmanteau morphemes in Khwarshi. TAME marking is not cumulated with any other semantic category (Khalilova 2009: 183ff.), but person, number and case are fused in pronouns, e.g. do ‘ABS.1SG’ (Khalilova 2009: 142). Furthermore, the nominal plural marker alternates between different forms depending on the case (Khalilova 2009: 66). Hence, case marking is cumulated with number marking. | There is suppletion in Khwarshi, e.g. the interrogative pronoun hibo ‘who/what.ABS’ is łu in ergative case (Khalilova 2009: 151). |
Khwarshi has one verb that shows irregular stem formation: the auxiliary ‘to be’ surfaces as e.g. goli ‘be.PRS’, gobi ‘be.PRS.NEG’, golnu ‘be.NMLZ’, etc. (Khalilova 2009: 182). Khalilova (2009: 53ff.) argues that Khwarshi noun stems come in two forms: so-called one-stem inflecting and two-stem inflecting nouns. Nouns of the latter type have two related stems: one, referred to as the base stem, to be used in absolutive context, the other, referred to as the oblique stem, to be used with all other cases (Khalilova 2009: 53ff.). The oblique stem can be derived from the base stem by means of stress change, special oblique suffixes or stem modification. Examples of these processes are, respectively: q’ála ‘child.ABS’ q’alá ‘child.OBL’ (p.55) enm ‘post.ABS’ enm-mó-l ‘post-OBL-LAT’ (p.57) uže ‘boy.ABS’ uža ‘boy.OBL’ (p.59) As these inflectional processes involve stress change and vowel alternation, this is stem alternation of the irregular stem formation type; the resulting stem expresses both lexical information and case. There are two-stem inflecting adjectival stems as well (Khalilova 2009: 100), for which the same applies. The adjectival oblique stems are derived from adjectival base stems by means of an oblique suffix -lo ~ -la, but in some cases the final vowel of the stem is altered additionally, e.g. y-uq’ χu kad ‘II-old.ABS girl.ABS’, y-uq’ˤo(-lo) ‘II-old.OBL-OBL girl-ERG’ (Khalilova 2009: 101). |
There is an extensive noun classification system in Khwarshi consisting of five classes in the singular and two in the plural. Singular gender I contains human males, while gender II contains human females. Animals and some inanimate objects are assigned to gender III. Other inanimate and animate objects are in gender IV. Finally, gender V contains other inanimate objects and names of young animals. Plural nouns are divided over human and non-human classes (Khalilova 2009: 42). This description of the system shows that gender assignment is motivated semantically. Thus, Khwarshi qualifies as having semantic gender, not grammatical gender. |
No dummy subject is used with most of Khwarshi’s weather predicates, cf. example (6). Khalilova (2009: 320) (6) ɣodo l-ešut’-še l-eč-i rain(IV) IV-let-IPFV.CVB IV-be-PST.W ‘It was raining.’ There are some weather predicates in which a default IV-marker is used on the predicate even though there is no explicit argument with this gender, as in example (7). This can be argued to result from an implied but covert argument dunnal ‘world’, which has fourth gender (Khalilova 2009: 321). Khalilova (2009: 301) (7) žequł l-uc’c’-u l-eč-i today IV-cold-PST.PTCP IV-be-PST.W ‘It was cold today.’ |
Semantic roles are expressed in Khwarshi through case marking and agreement. Example (8) shows that the Actor argument appears in ergative case and the Undergoer argument in absolutive case. With a subset of verbs, the gender of the Undergoer is cross-referenced on the verb. With intransitive verbs, both Undergoers and Actors are marked for absolutive case, as shown in (9) and (10) respectively. Thus, the distinction between Actor and Undergoer is neutralised. There is a grammatical relation Subject. Khalilova (2009: 338) (8) žik’ʷe ɣon l-ok’-i man.OBL.ERG tree(IV).ABS IV-burn-PST.W ‘The man burnt the tree.’ Khalilova (2009: 338) (9) ɣon huniža l-ok’-i tree(IV).ABS yesterday IV-burn-PST.W ‘The tree burnt yesterday.’ Khalilova (2009: 303) (10) uže kok-i boy.ABS eat-PST.W ‘The boy has eaten.’ Khwarshi does not have an antipassive construction (Z. Khalilova, personal communication, November 21, 2013). It does, however, have a bi-absolutive construction that is functionally similar to an antipassive, as it promotes the A argument and demotes the P. In this construction, semantic roles are neutralised with respect to case marking, as both the A and the P appear in absolutive case, as shown in (11). Forker (2012: 82) (11) uže hẽše c’ali-še goli boy.ABS book.ABS read-IPFV.CVB be.PRS ‘The boy is reading a book.’ |
Heavy phrases can move to the end of the sentence (Khalilova 2009: 358), like the relative clause in example (12) that occurs post-verbally, while Khwarshi is an SOV language. Khalilova (2009: 360) (12) diyo šayix b-uwox-i [q’ˤʷene omˤoq’ˤe-n GEN.1SG talisman(III) III-kill-PST.W two donkey(III)-COORD tuλ-un b-ezz-u] λɨn give-PFV.CVB III-take-PST.PTCP QUOT ‘(He said:) “My talisman is killed, which I have bought having given two donkeys.”’ |
Khwarshi has many affixes, but only few clitics and particles. Therefore, it can be said to be predominantly head-marking. | In Khwarshi, epenthetic vowels are added to avoid clusters of more than two consonants at the end of stems (Khalilova 2009: 38ff. and p.182). Usually, this is an entirely phonological process that does not affect stems (cf. Section 13.4.8). However, in some cases, the epenthetic vowel is inserted into the stem, e.g. if a stem ends in CC and a suffix of C(V) structure is added, a vowel appears in between the stem-final consonants: bulh-a ‘understand-INF’, buluh-še ‘understand-PRS’ (Khalilova 2009: 39). Since this can only happen to verbal stems, it is a morphophonological alternation process. |
Khwarshi has two conjugation classes, one taking agreement prefixes and one not doing so. Khwarshi verbs starting with a consonant (i.e. 70% of Khwarshi verbs) do not take agreement. Vowel-initial verbs are divided over the conjugation that does not take prefixes and the conjugation that does (Khalilova 2009: 181). Khwarshi has declension classes as well. As explained in Section 13.3.3, there are one-inflecting and two-inflecting noun stems. Around 38% of nouns is of the first type. 42% of nouns has two stems, where the oblique stem is derived by means of stress change. 20% has two stems, where the oblique stem is derived by means of another strategy (Khalilova 2009: 53ff.). Hence, the type of inflection that a noun gets is determined morphologically. Furthermore, Khwarshi exhibits morphophonologically conditioned processes that result in affix alternation, notably the blocking of vowel harmony with two specific suffixes. In general, an inflectional suffix vowel assimilates to the final vowel of the root: if that vowel is an /a/, the suffix vowel will also be /a/, whereas in all other cases the suffix vowel is /o/, making -lo the basic form (Khalilova 2009: 27). Two suffixes do not undergo assimilation (Khalilova 2009: 28), viz. the noun suffix -za ‘OBL.PL’ (e.g. žulik-za ‘cheater-OBL.PL’) and the adjectival suffix -t’a ‘PL’ (e.g. uc’nu-t’a ‘new-PL’). |
As explained in Section 13.4.6, epenthetic vowels are added to avoid clusters of more than two consonants at the end of stems (Khalilova 2009: 38ff. and p.182). Usually, this does not affect the stem, as the epenthetic vowel is attached in between a stem and a suffix, e.g. cuc-x-a ‘hide-CAUS-INF’, cuc-ux-še ‘hide-uCAUS-PRS’ (Khalilova 2009: 39). In such cases, the process is purely phonological. There is also deletion of vowels in Khwarshi, for instance in adjectival stems, which usually end in a vowel, before the verbalizing suffixes -λ or -dax, e.g. ut’ana + -dax > ut’an-dax-a ‘red-VBLZ-INF’ (Khalilova 2009: 34). Stem-final ejectives lose their ejective before the causative suffix -k’ or -x, which itself assimilates, e.g. l-iq’-a ‘IV-know-INF’ becomes l-iq-q-a ‘know-CAUS-INF’ (Khalilova 2009: 27). Furthermore, several assimilation processes occur in Khwarshi. Firstly, stem-final consonants and suffix-initial consonants assimilate place and manner of articulation. For instance, stems ending in /d, s, c, c’, č, ĉ’/ assimilate before the present tense suffix –še: durid-še ‘run-PRS’ is pronounced durišše, l-ac’- še ‘IV-eat-PRS’ is pronounced lacce , thus losing the laryngeal feature (Khalilova 2009: 26). Secondly, verbal stems starting with a nasalised vowel assimilate to gender prefixes. For instance the stem -eng- ‘fall’ is inflected n-eg-a ‘NHUM.PL-fall-INF’ (Khalilova 2009: 30), while this prefix is l- in other contexts: l-ogu-t’a ‘NHUM.PL-good-PL’. The vowel loses its nasalisation. Labialised consonants lose labialisation before inflectional morphemes of C(V) and uC structure, e.g. l-akw-a ‘IV-see-INF’ vs. l-ak-še ‘IV-see-PRS’ (Khalilova 2009: 18). |
In Khwarshi, phoneme insertion appears when attachment of affixes results in forbidden consonant clusters. For example, the causal suffix -k’/-x is preceded by an extra vowel -o- or -a- if it attaches to a stem ending in two consonants, avoiding a CCC-cluster: c’odorɬ-ok’-a ‘get_clever-CAUS-INF’ (Khalilova 2009: 33). Another trigger for insertion of a (semi-)vowel is adjacency of two vowels: a -y- is inserted to avoid vowel clustering, e.g. odo + -a = odo-ya ‘work-INF’ (Khalilova 2009: 37). Khwarshi also displays assimilation processes. The causative suffix -k’ or -x is optionally assimilated to the preceding stem-final consonant, and in this process, stem-final ejectives are lost: for instance l-iq’-a ‘IV-know-INF’ becomes l-iq-q-a ‘know-CAUS-INF’ (Khalilova 2009: 27). I follow Khalilova in seeing this as a phonological process; the assimilation is not unique to the causative suffix but follows from its phonological shape. Moreover, Khwarshi shows extensive vowel harmony. As explained in Section 13.4.7, an inflectional suffix vowel assimilates to the final root vowel: if the final root vowel is an /a/, the suffix vowel will also be /a/, in all other cases the suffix vowel is /o/ (Khalilova 2009: 27). For instance, the absolutive plural suffix is realised as -ba or -bo, e.g. can-ba ‘goat-PL.ABS’ but k’užu-bo ‘tail-PL.ABS’ (Khalilova 2009: 27). The assimilation of nasalised vowels in stems to gender prefixes described above affects the prefix as well as the stem, e.g. the stem -eⁿg- ‘fall’ is inflected n-eg-a ‘NHUM.PL-fall-INF’ (Khalilova 2009: 30), while the prefix is l- in other contexts: l-ogu-t’a ‘NHUM.PL-good-PL’. Furthermore, when the causative suffix -x is added to a morpheme with a labialised consonant, the labialisation moves to the suffix, e.g. l-ek’ʷ-a ‘IV-hit-INF’, lek’-xʷ-a ‘IV-hit-CAUS-INF’ (Khalilova 2009: 19). |
| 17 | Kolyma Yukaghir |
There is cross-reference in Kolyma Yukaghir. Person and number of the A argument, as in example (1), or of the focused argument, as in (2), are marked on the predicate (Maslova 2003: 324, 325). Maslova (2003: 146) (1) mit šohu-še-l ani-pe we get_lost-CAUS-ATTR.1PL fish-PL ‘the fishes that we have lost’ Maslova (2003: 90) (2) tudel mie-mele he wait-OBJ.FOC.3SG ‘He was the one she was waiting for. Independent arguments can easily be left out when their referent is clear from the context (Maslova 2003: 325), but if they are expressed, this results in multiple expressions of (properties of) referents, as is the case in (1). |
No information is copied from heads to attributive elements. A nominal modifier can either be bare as in example (3), or be marked for attributivity as in (4), but it is never marked for such properties as number of the referential head. Maslova (2003: 66) (3) šaqale nume fox house ‘house of a/the fox’ (4) šaqale-n ferma fox-ATTR farm ‘fox farm’ |
There is no plural concord in Kolyma Yukaghir. Plurality is marked by the suffix –p(ul)- ~ -pe (Maslova 2003: 74). In combination with numerals larger than 1, this suffix is not used (Maslova 2003: 83), as shown in example (5). The same is true for nouns modified by quantifiers (Maslova 2003: 84). Maslova (2003: 83) (5) tā ataq-un tuis lebie-k al’be-š-me-le there two-ATTR basket earth-PRED spill-CAUS-OBJ.FOC.3SG ‘He spilled two baskets of soil there.’ |
In Kolyma Yukaghir, complement clauses are realised as nominalised clauses, as illustrated in example (6) (Maslova 2003: 401). Maslova (2003: 406) (6) tittel ejr-ōl-gele nahā omos’ n’ied’i-rī-nunnu-ŋā they walk-NMLZ-ACC very good tell-APPL-HAB-TR.3PL ‘They described very well how they had been walking.’ Tense is not expressed on nominalised forms (Maslova 2003: 147), so that there can be no tense copying. This feature does not apply. |
Discontinuity of an NP caused by extraposition is not frequent, but it is allowed in Kolyma Yukaghir (Maslova 2003: 345), as shown in example (7). The head lebien jurgūk is realised in its usual preverbal position, while its modifying relative clause appears post-verbally. Maslova (2003: 346) (7) lebie-n jurgū-k kišše-te-me mit ejrie-nu-me earth-ATTR hole-PRED show-FUT-OBJ.FOC.1SG 1PL walk-IPFV-ATTR ‘I will show you the hole in the earth where we go out.’ Extraction is allowed too, as demonstrated by example (8) in the following section. |
There is no argument raising in Kolyma Yukaghir. Maslova does mention one case, viz. example (8). Maslova (2003: 416) (8) tet-ul ajā-re juø-t you-ACC rejoice-APPL.TR.1SG see-SS.IPFV ‘I am glad to see you.’ If I understand Maslova’s point correctly, she analyses this as raising because the object of the subordinate clause (the Undergoer of ‘see’) is raised to be object of the main clause (Undergoer of ‘rejoice’). However, to me it appears that we cannot determine whether tetul is syntactically speaking part of the subordinate clause or of the main clause. The accusative case does not distinguish between these options, nor does word order, since objects are always preverbal. An analysis in which tetul is the object of juøt but extracted (i.e. placed in sentence-initial position) for pragmatic reasons is very well possible. Therefore, I do not think we can conclude that this is raising and I will assume that raising is not possible in Kolyma Yukaghir. |
There are prefixes and suffixes, but no circumfixes in Kolyma Yukaghir (Maslova 2003: 3). | There are prefixes and suffixes, but no infixes in Kolyma Yukaghir (Maslova 2003: 3). | Kolyma Yukaghir is an agglutinative language with a number of portmanteau morphemes (Maslova 2003: 3). The expression of imperative mood is combined with expression of either second person singular (-k ‘IMP.2SG’) or first person plural marking (-ge ‘IMP.1PL’; Maslova 2003: 176). Furthermore, the expression of perfective aspect is cumulated with person and number marking, e.g. piede-s’ ‘burn-PFV.INTR.3SG’ (Maslova 2003: 188ff.). Case marking is not combined with the expression of other semantic categories (cf. Maslova 2003: 88ff.). | There is no suppletive stem alternation in Kolyma Yukaghir. | With three specific nominal stems, the plural suffix has lost its meaning so that a second needs to be attached. Maslova analyses those cases as stem alternations with an ‘unclear semantic impact’, since two of these stems can occur without the ‘frozen’ suffix as well, e.g. paj- ‘woman’, pajpe ‘woman.SG’, pajpe-pul ‘woman-PL’, in which -pe ~ -pul is the plural suffix (Maslova 2003: 74). This process could be seen as morphologically based stem alternation, but since the stem does not express multiple meaning, I do not count this here. The same is true for the irregular plural of uø ‘child’ that has an additional -r: uør-pe ‘child-PL’ (Maslova 2003: 75) – since there is no two-to-one relation between semantics and morphosyntax, this is not counted here. I found no other morphologically based stem alternation in Kolyma Yukaghir, which is in agreement with Maslova (2003: 3) who claims that “[f]usion phenomena at morphemic boundaries are marginal”. | There is no grammatical gender in Kolyma Yukaghir, as implied by Maslova (2003: 73), who states that nouns cannot be classified according to inflectional behaviour. |
In Kolyma Yukaghir, some weather predicates get a semantically full argument, as (9) shows, but in other cases a pronoun is used, e.g. (10). According to E. Maslova (personal communication, July 26, 2013), this is not a dummy pronoun, but a ‘universal pronoun’ referring to an implied referent 'weather' or ‘state of the world’. She stresses it should not be seen as an expletive, but as a pronoun with a very wide covering. Maslova (2003: 127) (9) il’eje-ŋōt kude-j wind-TRNSF become-INTR.3SG ‘It became windy. Maslova (2003: 249) (10) pen nado-ŋōt gudie-l’el it fall-TRNSF become-INFER.3SG ‘The fall came.’ |
In pragmatically neutral transitive clauses in Kolyma Yukaghir, Actor arguments are in nominative case, which means they are bare, and trigger agreement on the verb. Undergoer arguments are marked for accusative case, as illustrated in (11). Maslova (2003: 89) (11) met es’ie tet pulut-kele kudede-m my father your husband-ACC kill-TR.3SG ‘My father has killed your husband.’ In intransitive clauses, the S argument is always in nominative case (Maslova 2003: 327), and triggers agreement on the predicate, regardless of its semantic function. Hence, there is a syntactic function of subject in Kolyma Yukaghir. A passive-like construction appears in Kolyma Yukaghir only in attributive forms, such as in (12). This is not a verbal passive, but a way to build relative clauses with non-subject participants. Kolyma has no genuine passive construction. Maslova (2003: 146) (12) mit šohu-še-l ani-pe we get_lost-CAUS-ATTR.1PL fish-PL ‘the fishes that we have lost’ |
Standard constituent order in Kolyma Yukaghir is SOV, but especially in finite main clauses there is variation (Maslova 2003: 9), since constituent order in Kolyma Yukaghir is strongly determined by pragmatic information (Maslova 2003: 325). Maslova (2003: 342) states for instance that the realisation of (parts of) constituents in non-default positions is possible due to pragmatic factors, but she does not mention whether the complexity of a unit can be a reason for this. Example (13) suggests that this is dispreferred, since if complexity would have an effect, the relatively heavy adverbial clause would have been realised post-verbally. I will assume that constituent weight has no influence on morphosyntactic placement. Maslova (2003: 419) (13) [tā mot-te-pe-de jolāt] amde-din l’e-l uøŋō-l there sit-CAUS-PL-POSS.ATTR after die-NMLZ be-NMLZ young-NMLZ køj ed’-ie-l’el boy live-INGR-INFER.3SG ‘After they had put him there, the young boy who was dying returned to life.’ |
Kolyma Yukaghir makes extensive use of affixation and is therefore commonly analysed as an agglutinative (i.e. head-marking) language. Since it has no clitics or particles, it qualifies as an exclusively head-marking language. |
A stem-final /l/ may be dropped before the plural marker -p(ul)- ~ -pe, before the possessive marker, and before the diminutive suffix -die, e.g. odul ‘Yukaghir’ + -pe ‘PL’ = odu-pe ~ odul-pe (Maslova 2003: 78; 128). After uø ‘child’, an -r- needs to be inserted before -pul: uør-pe ‘child-PL’ (Maslova 2003: 75). A group of stems in Kolyma contains an underlying /e/, which is notated by Maslova as {E}. This morphophoneme usually surfaces as an /e/ , but can also be realised as an /a/, /ē/, /ā/, or /ø/ when preceding particular suffixes. For example, the diminutive suffix -die triggers different vowel realisations for different stems ending in an {E}: terikē-die, ‘old_woman-DIM’, čolhorā-die ‘hare-DIM’ (Maslova 2003: 55ff.). |
A restricted number of suffixes used to undergo vowel harmony in Kolyma Yukaghir. Only one of these still has productive vowel harmony, viz. the ingressive marker, that takes the form -ā after a stem with a back vowel (ahurp-ā- ‘suffer-INGR’) and -ē with a front vowel (ibil-e- ‘cry-INGR’; Maslova 2003: 37). Stem initial /l’/ optionally becomes /j/ after the negative prefix el’-. For example, el’-l’ad ‘NEG-send’ can be pronounced as [eljad] (Maslova 2003: 43). The plural marker on stems not ending in {E} is -pul if followed by a velar, and -p otherwise (Maslova 2003: 51). Some suffixes alternate between /-Ce/ and /-C/, depending on the presence of an {E}. For example, the future tense marker is /-t/ when it directly follows {E}, but /-te/ in other cases: ejre-t-i ‘walk-FUT-INTR.3SG’, ejre-ŋi-te-j ‘walk-PL-FUT-3SG’. Similarly, the plural marker is /-pul/ or /-p/ after {E}, but /-pe/ in other contexts (Maslova 2003: 49ff.). Since only a subset of suffixes undergoes such alternations, this is counted as morphophonologically based affix alternation. |
An epenthetic /l/ or /u/ can be attached to stems to avoid certain forbidden consonant or vowel combinations, e.g. šar-u-m ‘cover-u-TR.3SG’ (Maslova 2003: 56ff.). Kolyma Yukaghir has syllable-final devoicing, meaning that a voiced obstruent will be devoiced at word end or preceding a suffix starting with a voiceless unit (e.g. pad-um ‘cook-3SG’, pat ‘cook.IMP’, pat-telle ‘cook-CVB’; Maslova 2003: 39). Another phonologically conditioned process concerns the nasalisation of morpheme-final obstruents under influence of a nasal-initial suffix (e.g. pad-um ‘cook-3SG’, pan-mele ‘cook-OBJ.FOC.3SG’; Maslova 2003: 40). Furthermore, nasals alternate with /l/ before a syllable-initial /l/ or /l’/, e.g. mon-i ‘say-3SG’, mol-l’el ‘say-INFER’ (Maslova 2003: 42). |
A suffix-initial /l/ is dropped when attached to a consonant, e.g. pulut ‘old man’ + -le ‘INSTR’ becomes pulut-e (Maslova 2003: 77). Suffix-initial voiced obstruents are devoiced after a stem-final voiceless obstruent, e.g. ønme-ge ‘mind-LOC’ vs. labut-ke ‘log-LOC’. This process can combine with the stem-final devoicing described in the previous section, so that an underlying combination of a voiced stem-final and a voiced suffix-initial consonant can result in a voiceless consonant cluster at a morpheme boundary (Maslova 2003: 43). Suffix-initial /j/ alternates with /d’/ and /č/ when attached to sonorants or voiceless obstruents respectively (Maslova 2003: 44). There are some lexically determined restrictions on this alternation, but the general process is phonological in nature. Finally, /j/ alternates with /i/ in word-final position after consonants, e.g. kude-j ‘become-INTR.3SG’, mon-i ‘say-INTR.3SG’ (Maslova 2003: 45). |
| 18 | Samoan |
Predicates are not marked for person in Samoan (cf. Mosel & Hovdhaugen 1992: 52), but some verbs do mark number (Mosel & Hovdhaugen 1992: 442), resulting in cross-reference when the (number of the) argument is expressed independently as well, as shown in (1). Mosel & Hovdhaugen (1992: 52) (1) ‘ua ō Ø tamaiti i apia. PFV go.PL SPEC.PL child LOC.DIR A. ‘The children have gone to Apia.’ The independent argument can be omitted if the referent can be deduced from the context (Mosel & Hovdhaugen 1992: 700). |
There is no phrasal agreement in Samoan; modifiers of nouns are not marked for any property of their heads (cf. Mosel & Hovdhaugen 1992: 270ff.). |
In Samoan, plurality is not expressed on nouns, but it is on articles, in combination with marking of specificity, viz. le ‘SPEC.SG’, se ‘NSPEC.SG’, Ø ‘SPEC.PL’ and ni ‘NSPEC.PL’ (cf. Mosel & Hovdhaugen 1992: 259ff.). Articles are obligatory, in the sense that when there is no explicit article, the noun is specific plural rather than unspecified for specificity and number, which is why I have assumed a zero-marker in that case. Numerals do not function as modifiers of nouns, but rather as heads of predicate phrases as in (2) and (3) (Mosel & Hovdhaugen 1992: 115). Mosel & Hovdhaugen (1992: 93) (2) e lua a=ʻu Ø taʻavale. GENR two POSS=1SG SPEC.PL car ‘I have two cars.’ (Lit.: “My cars are two.”) Mosel & Hovdhaugen (1992: 115) (3) e tolu Ø tusi na maua. GENR three SPEC.PL letter PST get ‘S/he got three letters.’ (Lit.: “The letter(s) that she got are three.”) The nouns in (2) and (3) are marked for plural by a zero-marker article, but since they are predicating instead of modifying, I do not count this as plural concord in the phrase, but rather as cross-reference at the clausal level (cf. Section 15.1.1). This feature does not apply in Samoan. |
Samoan complement clauses have the same structure as main clauses, as illustrated in (4). Since tense is optional and rarely expressed, it is hard to prove whether there is tense copying or not. Example (4), however, shows that there is no obligatory copying of tense. Mosel & Hovdhaugen (1992: 589) (4) na iloa e tigilau ‘ua sau sina. PST know ERG T. PFV come S. ‘Tigilau knew that Sina had come.’ |
I have not seen any examples of extraposition in Samoan, even though a quite lengthy description of relative clauses and their syntactic properties is provided by Mosel & Hovdhaugen (1992: 631-650). I will therefore assume they are impossible. |
Mosel & Hovdhaugen (1992: 592) refer to raising in their discussion of sentences like (5). Mosel & Hovdhaugen (1992: 592) (5) sa te’i a’e tautunu ma iloa ai PST awake_suddenly LOC.DIR T. and notice ANAPH a=na Ø atu sa gaoi=a e ni=si. POSS=3SG SPEC.PL bonito PST steal=APPL ERG NSPEC.PL=other ‘Tautunu woke up and noticed that his bonito (PL, fish name) had been stolen by others.’ The constituent ana atu semantically belongs to the embedded clause, i.e. it is the Undergoer of the predicate ‘stealing’. Undergoers are usually expressed post-verbally, so that this Undergoer is out of position: syntactically, it is realised as the Undergoer argument of the superordinate clause. This could be seen as raising. However, I think that the Undergoer of iloa ‘notice’ is not the bonito, but in fact the stealing of the bonito: Mosel & Hovdhaugen (1992: 592) note explicitly that it is the stealing that is noticed, not the stolen fish. Under that interpretation, the Undergoer (ana … nisi) is in its usual post-verbal position and there is no argument raising. Since I have no evidence that raising is allowed in Samoan, I will assume it is not. |
There are no circumfixes in Samoan (Mosel & Hovdhaugen 1992: 171). | There are no infixes in Samoan (Mosel & Hovdhaugen 1992: 171). | Samoan is a strongly isolating language and shows hardly any cumulation. In fact, even the expression of person and number in personal pronouns is to some extent separate (M&H 1992: 120), which is cross-linguistically rare. There is, however, a marker ne’i that expresses negation and subjunctive mood in one form (Mosel & Hovdhaugen 1992: 363). Secondly, there is a set of preverbal pronouns that combine person, number and case, e.g. ‘ou ‘NOM.1SG’, a’u ‘ACC.1SG’ (Mosel & Hovdhaugen 1992: 456). | There is no suppletive stem alternation in Samoan. | Some Samoan verbs can be marked for plurality of their subject by means of lengthening of the first vowel of the stem, e.g. palalū ‘flap.SG’ versus pālalū ‘flap.PL’ (Mosel & Hovdhaugen 1992: 237). Many of these plural verbs are considered formal, and are not used in modern Samoan. Vowel lengthening of the final syllable can be an expression of emphasis or increased distance, e.g. lalo ‘down’, lalō ‘further down’ (Mosel & Hovdhaugen 1992: 239). | There is no grammatical gender in Samoan (cf. Mosel & Hovdhaugen 1992: 89). |
There are no expletives in Samoan, as demonstrated in (6). Mosel & Hovdhaugen (1992: 107) (6) ‘ua timu. PFV rain ‘It is raining. |
Samoan is an ergative language: in a transitive clause, the Actor argument is marked by an ergative case marking particle e, as in (7). Mosel & Hovdhaugen (1992: 51) (7) sā fasi le maile e le teine. PST hit SPEC.SG dog ERG SPEC.SG girl ‘The girl hit the dog.’ In intransitive clauses, the argument is unmarked, whether it involves an Actor as in (8) or an Undergoer as in (9) (Mosel & Hovdhaugen 1992: 54, 105). Hence, Samoan has a syntactic function Subject. Mosel & Hovdhaugen (1992: 51) (8) ‘ua alu le teine. PFV go SPEC.SG girl ‘The girl has gone.’ Mosel & Hovdhaugen (1992: 54) (9) na pa’ū le teine. PST fall SPEC.SG girl ‘The girl fell down.’ Samoan does not have a passive construction (Mosel & Hovdhaugen 1992: 104). It should be noted that in regular transitive sentences, such as (7) above, the ergative argument is always optional. Therefore, such sentences are sometimes translated as ‘the dog was hit (by the girl)’. However, since there is no morphosyntactic expression of passive voice, I do not count this as a passive. |
Word order in Samoan is determined by pragmatic structure (Mosel & Hovdhaugen 1992: 448). I have not found any evidence for influence of complexity on morphosyntactic placement. | The vast majority of Samoan function markers consists of particles and clitics (Mosel & Hovdhaugen 1992: 167ff.). Mosel & Hovdhaugen (1992: 169) state that the language has no inflectional affixation whatsoever, but that it does have some derivational affixation, reduplication and vowel lengthening. However, what they classify as affixes are clitics in my terms, since they are bound morphemes that are unrestrictive with respect to their hosts: for instance, the ‘prefix’ ana= ‘PST’ can attach to nouns (e.g. pō ‘night’, anapō ‘last night’), interrogatives (e.g. fea ‘when’, anafea ‘when.PST’), and verbs (e.g. mua ‘be_first’, anamua ‘formerly’). Since all evidence points out that Samoan bound function markers are in fact clitics, while there are no or at most a few true affixes, Samoan qualifies as a language with predominant phrase-marking. | Some stems undergo vowel lengthening as a by-effect of reduplication or suffixation, e.g. maga ‘fork’ and =lima ‘hand, five’ becomes magā=lima ‘space between the fingers’ (Mosel & Hovdhaugen 1992: 239). Except for these particular stems, I found no other examples of morphophonologically based stem alternation. |
Samoan has many particles that show allomorphy. For instance, the general TAM marker is te in verb phrases containing a preverbal pronoun, and e in all other verb phrases (Mosel & Hovdhaugen 1992: 364). This qualifies as morphologically conditioned suppletion of a grammatical element. Furthermore, there are enclitics that have a consonant-initial and a vowel-initial allomorph (Mosel & Hovdhaugen 1992: 192ff.). It is unclear what the selection of a particular allomorph is based on – Mosel & Hovdhaugen state that there is large individual variation and that selection is not phonologically predictable. Therefore, this is classified as morphophonological alternation. There are no declension classes in Samoan (cf. Mosel & Hovdhaugen 1992: 89), nor are there conjugations (Mosel & Hovdhaugen 1992: 100). |
There are many phonologically conditioned alternations in Samoan, most of them alternations on the phonetic level. I will list two of them here. Firstly, word final short vowels can be elided when the following word has an initial vowel, e.g. alu atu ‘go there’ is pronounced as [alátu] (Mosel & Hovdhaugen 1992: 32). Secondly, two identical vowels with an intervening morpheme or word boundary can contracted to a long vowel, becoming extra long if it is stressed, e.g. sasa a’u ‘hit me’ becomes [sasá::ʔu] (Mosel & Hovdhaugen 1992: 33). | Phonological rules affect stems as well as grammatical units in Samoan. One example of a phonologically based alternation is that vowel sequences across morpheme boundaries can in rapid speech be pronounced as a diphthong, e.g. ia Utu ‘to Utu’ is pronounced as [jáutu] (Mosel & Hovdhaugen 1992: 29). |
| 19 | Sandawe |
Sandawe is a pro-drop language. Person, number and gender of the subject are expressed by pronominal clitics which can attach to different units (Eaton 2010: 133). An independent argument can be expressed additionally, as in (1), resulting in cross-reference. Note that the conjunction is also referential and contains redundant information as well. Eaton (2010: 16) (1) ‖’àkásũ̂ːsu̥ sàː téɬásȁ hí‖’íɁĩ̂ːsȁ nàɁ ‖’àkásù̥-ː̃̀-sù̥ sáː téɬà-sà hí‖’í-Ɂĩ̀ː-sà náɁ sun-SPEC-3SG.F CONJ.3SG.F completely-3SG.F heat-with-3SG.F shine ‘The sun shone completely with heat.’ Sandawe also has what Eaton calls ‘PGN morphemes’, i.e. person, gender and number markers, that attach to nouns denoting persons (Eaton 2010: 14). These morphemes can also attach to a predicate, in which case they function as object markers. If these are used together with an explicit independent lexical object, e.g. in (2), there is again cross-reference. Eaton (2010: 47) (2) kòː kêutȍ mòkòndõ̏gȍ |àʔwàː kóː kéùtò mòkóndó-ː̃̀-ò |ã̂ː-wáː CONJ.1PL [pig track]-SPEC-1PL see-OBJ.3PL.INAN ‘Then we saw pig tracks.’ |
The specificity marker on nouns is copied to modifying adjectives, as in example (3). Without the specificity marker, the adjective would get a predicative reading, i.e. ‘the lion is black’. Eaton (2010: 74) (3) ‖hàtʃhũ̂ː k’ánk’árã̂ː ‖hàtʃhú-ː̃̀ k’ánk’árà-ː̃̀ lion-SPEC black-SPEC ‘the black lion’ |
Sandawe exhibits optional plural concord with nouns denoting humans. According to Eaton (2010: 17), plurality is expressed by means of the suffix /-xéː/ plus the specificity marker /-ː̃̀/, that is, a low tone, nasalisation and lengthening of an otherwise high-toned vowel. In Steeman’s analysis (2012: 79), the plural marker only occurs on nouns, also in combination with specificity marking, and is spelled -sò. According to Steeman, numerals that modify human nouns are obligatorily marked for plural themselves, as in (4). Of course, it is the numeral that is marked here, not the noun, so that this is not a typical example of plural concord. Nonetheless, the plural marker is redundant. Steeman (2012: 79) (4) ŋǀòmósò kísò-sò people two-PL ‘two people’ Even though Steeman claims this to be obligatory, H. Eaton (personal communication, September 23, 2013) states that plural marking is optional even on human nouns and provides example (5), demonstrating that humans can occur without a plural marker on the numeral and that plural concord is optional. H. Eaton (personal communication, September 24, 2013) (5) hèwé pʰàgâdʒì̥ kísòxì̥ he servant two ‘his two servants’ |
Complementation is highly restricted in Sandawe. If it occurs at all, the embedded verb is nominalised and does not express tense, as shown in example (6). Hence, this feature does not apply in Sandawe. Eaton (2010: 120) (6) … kwàː ǀã̏ːɡèː tʃí máxáēːsi̥ʔõ̏ː … kwáː ǀã̂ː-éː tʃí máxà-éː-sì̥-ʔõ̀ː SBJV.CONJ.3SG.M see-OBJ.3SG.M 1SG male-3SG.M-1SG-NMLZ ‘… so that he shall see that I am male.’ |
I have not seen examples of extraposition in Sandawe, nor has H. Eaton (personal communication, January 3, 2012). I will therefore assume that this is not possible in Sandawe. | Argument raising is not possible in Sandawe. Complement clauses are formed in Sandawe by means of nominalisations, and arguments cannot be taken out of such nominalised clauses. H. Eaton (personal communication, January 03, 2012) believes that other constructions would be used to form sentences equivalent to sentences with raising in other languages. | There are no circumfixes in Sandawe (H. Eaton, personal communication, January 03, 2012). | There are no infixes in Sandawe (H. Eaton, personal communication, January 03, 2012). | Person, number, gender and modal information is expressed together in pronominal subject clitics, e.g. =à ‘REAL.SBJ.3SG’, =ì ‘IRR.SBJ.3SG’, =kwà ‘OPT.SBJ.3SG’, =kwàrà ‘HORT.SBJ.3SG’ (Steeman 2012: 95). Sandawe has no nominal case marking. | There are two small groups of verbs with suppletive stems in Sandawe. One consists of transitive verbs that undergo suppletion under the influence of plurality of the object, e.g. kǎːwà ‘to put’ has the stem pěː with a singular object, but kǎː with plural objects (Eaton 2010: 49). The other group consists of intransitive verbs that undergo suppletion according to the plurality of their subjects, e.g. ‘to go’, which has the stem hík’ì̥ with singular subjects but níʔ with plural subjects (Eaton 2010: 58, Steeman 2012: 135). | Sandawe verbal stems undergo morphologically conditioned changes leading to fusion. For example, stem-final vowels can undergo changes in the context of particular object markers, for instance under the influence of the attachment of the singular masculine object marker -é, e.g. tímù̥ ‘to swallow’ > tímē: and dlòmó ‘to buy’ > dlòmó: (Eaton 2010: 44ff.). These changes are phonologically unpredictable, so that it is impossible to say where the stem ends and the suffix begins – such a boundary cannot be drawn so that this counts as irregular stem formation. Particular other stems show an alternation between /a/ and /e/ depending on being marked by an object marker, e.g. ts’é: ‘drink’ becomes ts’á if any object marker is attached (Eaton 2010: 47ff.). Hence, the stem also signals the presence of an object and thus combines multiple meanings in one form. | There is a nominal classification system based on semantics in Sandawe, but no grammatical gender (cf. Eaton 2010: 16). |
There are no nominal expletives in Sandawe, as illustrated by example (7). H. Eaton (personal communication) (7) tl’wãg-aa x’oo rain-SBJ.FOC rain ‘It is raining.’ (Lit.: “Rain rains”) |
In transitive clauses, Actor properties are obligatorily expressed by pronominal clitics, and Undergoers are optionally marked by PGN morphemes, as demonstrated in example (2), repeated here as (8). Eaton (2010: 47) (8) kòː kêutȍ mòkòndõ̏gȍ |àʔwàː kóː kéùtò mòkóndó-ː̃̀-ò |ã̂ː-wáː CONJ.1PL [pig track]-SPEC-1PL see-OBJ.3PL.INAN ‘Then we saw pig tracks.’ In intransitive clauses, the S argument is always marked by means of a pronominal clitic, whether it is an Actor as in (9) or an Undergoer as in (10). Hence, there is neutralisation of semantic functions. Steeman (2012: 136) (9) ʔútè=sì̥ hík’ì̥ yesterday=1SG go.SG ‘I went yesterday.’ Eaton (2010: 59) (10) nǁǒ:kõ̂:sȍ ɬàʔtéâʔ nǁǒ:kò-:̃̀-sò ɬàʔté-àʔ children-SPEC-3PL.ANIM die-3PL There is no passive construction in Sandawe. There is a middle voice, but expression of the Actor argument by means of a by-phrase is not allowed (Steeman 2012: 107). |
H. Eaton (personal communication, January 3, 2012) could not find examples of movement of heavy constituents, or extra placement rules for heavy constituents. I will therefore assume that this is not possible in Sandawe. |
Sandawe displays affixes as well as clitics. The most prominent case of the latter are what Steeman calls the subject/modality clitics (pronominal clitics in Eaton’s terms), which are able to form clitic complexes together with negation clitics, mediative clitics, a general question marker and an exclamative marker. These clitic complexes can attach to any element of the clause. Their neutral position is the predicate, and if they are attached to another element, that element is focused, as demonstrated in (11). Steeman (2012: 129) (11) a. mátó síyé=nì=ì gourd take.SG=POLQ=2SG ‘Did you take the gourd?’ b. mátó=nì=ì=ná ↓síyé gourd=POLQ=2SG=Q SBJ/V.take.SG ‘Did you take the gourd?’ There are some other bound morphemes that Steeman analyses as clitics, for which the evidence for clitic status is less convincing. For example, the infinitive marker =ʔôŋ ‘-INF’ (-ʔõ̀ː ‘NMLZ’ according to Eaton) is analysed as a clitic by Steeman because of its ability to form clitic complexes, but as far as I can see, it only attaches to verbal stems, which means that it is at least in that respect more affix-like. Sandawe in any case possesses as number of affixes, i.e. bound morphemes that are selective as to their hosts because they can only attach to specific morphosyntactic elements, such the verbal plural suffix -wá (Steeman 2012: 180) and the definiteness marker -ŋ̀ (Steeman 2012: 72). Thus, both affixes and clitics exist in Sandawe, and it cannot be determined objectively whether it is predominantly head-marking or phrase-marking. Consequently, it cannot be determined whether Sandawe is transparent with respect to this feature or not, and I will leave the matter undecided. |
There is at least one case of morphophonologically conditioned stem alternation in Sandawe. Monosyllabic roots with an underlying low tone are realised with a falling tone, e.g. /ts’à/ ‘water’ is pronounced [ts’â]. However, if the subject focus marker -àá is attached, the stem is realised with a low tone, e.g. [ts’à-àá] (Steeman 2012: 39). Since this alternation only occurs with this particular suffix, it is analysed as morphophonological rather than phonological. |
Sandawe has some suffix-specific alternations. The coordinating suffix -ní as well as the pronominal clitics that attach to it undergo alternations in tone and vowel quality under each other’s influence, e.g. -nī́ + -à ‘-3SG.M’ becomes -nī̀:gā̀: and -nī́ + -sà ‘-3SG.F’ becomes -nìsā̀ (Eaton 2010: 71). Note that an epenthetic [ɡ] may be inserted according to a rule described in Section 16.4.8. There are no conjugational or declensional classes in Sandawe. |
A [ɡ] is inserted between a stem ending in a nasal vowel and a vowel-initial suffix or clitic (Hunziker, Hunziker & Eaton 2008: 68). Furthermore, attachment of bound morphemes triggers several assimilation processes in Sandawe. A stem-final short oral vowel is optionally assimilated to a suffix-initial vowel, and in that case also lengthened (Hunziker, Hunziker & Eaton 2008: 65). This assimilation applies to multisyllabic stems only. Stem-final /u/ is pronounced as [w] when preceding a suffix starting with /i/, /e/ or /a/ (Hunziker, Hunziker & Eaton 2008: 69). Finally, Sandawe exhibits downstep: after an HL-combination, a high tone is lowered to a mid tone (Eaton 2010: 9). Furthermore, a low tone in word-final position is changed to a low falling tone if it follows a high tone (Eaton 2010: 11). |
In suffixes consisting of a vowel and a glottal stop, the elements can switch order, i.e. the glottal stop comes before the vowel (Eaton 2010: 12). Moreover, assimilation processes given above apply to affixes as well as stems. For example, downstep and tone spreading affect stems and affixes alike when a low tone is realised as a high-low tone if preceded by a high tone, e.g. ts’â-tà-nà-sà ‘water-in-to-3SG.F’ but thímé-sâ ‘cook-3SG.F’ (Eaton 2010: 11). |
| 20 | Sheko |
Sheko has clitics marking person, number and gender of the argument on predicates or on focused constituents. The argument may be expressed independently as well, as in example (1). Hence, there is cross-reference in Sheko. Hellenthal (2010: 153) (1) kāntà ʃèn=á-k basket bad=3SG.M-REAL ‘The basket is bad.’ |
Sheko shows agreement in (semantic) gender, definiteness and number on the phrasal level. Since gender marking is interwoven with the marking of definiteness and number, the agreement system is quite complicated. The combined markers are summarised in Table 17.1. Table 17.1: Gender, definiteness and number marking on nouns in Sheko (Hellenthal 2010: 136) DEF.SG-M -ǹ-s < F>-DEF.SG < i>-ǹ M-DEF.PL (-ù)-s F-DEF.PL (-ì)-s INDEF.SG.M -∅ INDEF.SG.F -∅ INDEF.PL.M -∅ INDEF.PL.F -∅ Explicit gender, definiteness and number information on nouns is obligatorily copied to demonstratives (Hellenthal 2010: 197), relativisers (2010: 342) and adjectives (2010: 147), as shown in examples (2) and (3). Hellenthal (2010: 214) (2) dād-n̄-s hàà-z child-DEF-M PROX-M ‘this child’ Hellenthal (2010: 213) (3) ge goat ‘the red goat’ |
Plurality is marked on nouns by means of the suffix –s, which is homophonous with the singular masculine marker (Hellenthal 2010: 136, 168). Like definiteness, marking of plurality is optional: a noun that is not marked as plural can still refer to multiple entities (Hellenthal 2010: 137). Plurality is only marked explicitly when there is a pragmatic reason to do so. It is not possible to use plural marking on nouns in combination with quantifiers (Hellenthal 2010: 169), e.g. the Sheko equivalent of ‘some elephant-PL’ would be ungrammatical. This is true for numerals as well: *dor-us yaku ‘elephant-PL.M six’ (A. C. Hellenthal, personal communication, July 16, 2011). |
Time is expressed periphrastically in Sheko by means of adverbials. There is no such thing as tense marking – Aklilu (1988) has argued for a remote past marker k’e, but Hellenthal (2010: 311) convincingly shows that k’e marks perfective aspect rather than past tense. Hence, the feature of tense copying does not apply in Sheko. | I have not found examples of extraposition out of an NP, neither has A. C. Hellenthal (personal communication, July 16, 2011). According to her, heavy phrases (modifying or otherwise) are avoided anyway, so that it is unlikely that extraction or extraposition is possible in Sheko. I will assume it is not allowed. |
A. C. Hellenthal (personal communication, July 16, 2011) suspects that there is no argument raising in Sheko. Predicates that typically give rise to raising in, for instance, English (e.g. ‘to seem’) are formulated by means of other constructions in Sheko. Hellenthal provides example (4). A. C. Hellenthal (personal communication, July 16, 2011) (4) yan há=kush-a-m-ə. J. 3SG.M=be_sick-put-IRR-STI ‘John could be sick / is probably sick / seems to be sick.’ Another, less probable strategy is the use of a relative clause as in (5). This is not genuine raising, as the embedded argument is not a syntactic argument of the main clause. A. C. Hellenthal (personal communication, July 16, 2011) (5) ?yan há=kuʃ-ab na-ŋ há=akar-k-ə J. 3SG.M=be_sick-REL 1SG-DAT 3SG.M=resemble-REAL-STI ‘It seems to me that John is sick’ The conclusion, then, must be that Sheko has no argument raising. |
Hellenthal (2010: 11ff.) provides a list of all structure morphemes, i.e. function markers in Sheko, which does not contain circumfixes. |
There is an infix in Sheko: feminine gender is in Sheko marked by means of inserting < i> into the stem, e.g. tóóz ‘a relative’, tóó< í>z-n? ‘relative |
There is optional marking of aspect and obligatory marking of mood on the predicate (Hellenthal 2010: 289ff.). Aspect and mood do not undergo cumulation with other categories: aspectual and modal suffixes express one category only. Sheko’s case markers (Hellenthal 2010: 256ff.) do not undergo cumulation either. | The Sheko verb ‘to go’ has suppletive stem forms: apart from undergoing the velar deletion described below, the factual stem təg alternates with in (Hellenthal 2010: 321). |
A small subset of Sheko verb stems ending in a velar loses this velar under the influence of particular morphological circumstances, e.g. before the negative marker -ara and as first member in verb-verb compounds (Hellenthal 2010: 317). This is a morphophonological process that does not alter the meaning of the verb stem and therefore does not belong in this section, except for one case in which the non-velar stem expresses a subtle meaning nuance: if the stem is marked by an irrealis marker, the non-velar stem expresses a slightly larger unlikeliness that the event will occur than the velar stem. Since this is so marginal, I will not count this as stem alternation leading to fusion, but rather treat the phenomenon as form-based form in Section 17.4.6. One irregular stem alternation exists in Sheko that does result in a two-to-one relation between meaning and form: the singular noun dādū ‘child’ has a regular plural dādū-s ‘child-PL’, but also an irregular one dōōs (Hellenthal 2010: 169). |
Nouns in Sheko can be masculine or feminine, as optionally expressed explicitly on nouns and by agreement on other units. Gender is clearly a semantic notion in Sheko (Hellenthal 2010: 153): feminine gender is assigned to female animates and for words that denote something related to small size. Nouns have a default gender, but agreement can be with the non-default gender and in that case, contributes semantics, as in example (6). Hellenthal (2010: 153) (6) a. kāntà ʃèn=á-k basket bad=3SG.M-REAL ‘The basket is bad.’ b. kāntà ʃèn=í-k basket bad=3SG.F-REAL ‘The small basket is bad.’ This example proves that gender in Sheko is semantic rather than grammatical. |
Weather predicates have a semantically full argument in Sheko, as in example (7). Hellenthal (2010: 152) (7) íírú k’yar=á-k rain beat=3SG.M-REAL ‘It rained.’ (Lit.: “Rain beat.”) |
Transitive predicates in Sheko are obligatorily marked for the person, number and gender of their Actor argument (Hellenthal 2010: 289). Furthermore, Actor and Undergoer arguments may be marked for case, as in (8). In intransitive clauses, Actor and Undergoer roles are neutralised into syntactic subjects, since they both trigger agreement on the verb and get nominative case, as in (9) and (10). Note that in (9), a so-called subject clitic (marking person, number and gender of the subject on the focused element) appears on the NP for pragmatic reasons, but not to mark its semantic Actor status. Hellenthal (2010: 258) (8) há=ge-t=á kōōb-m̄-s tī< ī>t-ǹ-əra zèèr-ǹ 3SG.M=say-SS=3SG.M cock-DEF-M vulture< F>-DEF-ACC advise-DS ‘The cock advised the vulture, saying…’ Hellenthal (2010: 323) (9) yí=bārkā< y>-ǹ k’ay-tə 3SG.F=monkey< F>-DEF rise-SS ‘…the monkey rose and…’ Hellenthal (2010: 258) (10) údú ts’òg=á-k-ə ensete bear_fruit_banana=3SG.M-REAL-STI ‘The ensete (=false banana) bears fruit.’ Secondly, Sheko has a passive construction, in which the Undergoer argument behaves grammatically as an Actor in non-passive sentences, as shown in (11) and (12). Hellenthal (2010: 382, 383) (11) ʂóóʐ na-ŋ̀ āʂū-ra gootʃ=á-k snake 1SG-DAT leg-ACC bite=3SG.M-REAL ‘A snake bit me in the leg.’ (12) na-ŋ̀ āʂū (ʂóóʐ-ka) gòtʃù-t’=á-k-ə 1SG-DAT leg snake-by bite-PASS=3SG.M-REAL-STI ‘My leg was bitten (by a snake).’ The semantic distinction between Actor and Undergoer is neutralised, so that we have evidence for a syntactic function Subject. |
I have not found clear examples of the shift of heavy constituents; neither did I find a statement that it is not allowed. Sheko is strictly verb-final, so that if an object appears at the right side of the predicate, it can only be an afterthought (Hellenthal 2010: 330). Still, word order variation does appear, mainly for pragmatic reasons. However, A. C. Hellenthal (personal communication, July 6, 2011) believes there might be a tendency to move heavy relative clauses to the end of the sentence. This is hard to prove, as there is a preference for using converb constructions rather than heavy phrases. Since there is no evidence that this tendency really exists, and since the construction is avoided anyway and is therefore marginal, I will assume there is no heavy shift in Sheko. |
Sheko is argued by Hellenthal to display both head-marking affixes, such as gender, definiteness and plural markers, and phrase-marking clitics, such as the verbal subject markers, which are considered to be clitics since they can attach to different types of constituents, e.g. predicates and NPs. Moreover, Hellenthal (2010: 256) argues that case markers attach to the right end of a phrase, rather than to nouns, which renders them phrase-markers as well, even though Hellenthal does not gloss them as clitics. Especially since subject clitics are so frequent in Sheko, their existence cannot be said to be marginal. However, Sheko displays a number of affixes as well, even under exclusion of case markers, so head-marking is not marginal either. Since both phrase-marking and head-marking occur in Sheko, it cannot be determined whether the language is transparent or opaque with respect to this feature. The matter remains undecided. |
As explained above, verb stems ending in a velar may lose this velar when the negative marker -ara is attached, before the same subject converb, as a first member in verb-verb compounds, in realis mode if a subject clitic precedes, as in (13), and in irrealis forms if directly followed by the irrealis marker (Hellenthal 2010: 317). Hellenthal (2010: 316) (13) a. yèg=íʃì-k-ə come=3PL-REAL-STI ‘They came.’ b. íʃì=yēē-tə 3PL=come-SS ‘they will come and…’ This is a morphophonological process that, one exception aside, does not alter the meaning of the verb stem and is therefore treated as form-based form. Furthermore, there are some morphophonological rules in Sheko that trigger changes in stems. I will name the most important ones here. Stem-final vowels preceding a definiteness marking suffix ǹ are deleted (e.g. dīdū > dīd-n̄-s ‘scar-DEF-M’), which is optional before other suffixes (Hellenthal 2010: 100). Long vowels in verbs are shortened in causative and passive formation, e.g. door ‘run’, dor-s ‘run-CAUS’ (Hellenthal 2010: 103). Morphotonological rules occur as well. Sheko has four tone levels (Hellenthal 2010: 111), of which level 1 is the lowest. The level 1 tone of the definiteness marker is deleted if it is attached to a polysyllabic noun. The marker then takes over the tone of the stem-final vowel, which is itself deleted, e.g. yááb-m̀-s, ‘man-DEF-M’, dīdū > dīd-n̄-s ‘scar-DEF-M’ (Hellenthal 2010: 122). Furthermore, tone is lowered from level 4 to level 2 in causative and passive formation, e.g. gób ‘jump’, gob-s ‘jump-CAUS’ (Hellenthal 2010: 124). When the derived stem consists of two syllables and is an Imperative singular or Jussive, it gets a level 3 tone. |
There is no declension or conjugation in Sheko. There is one other case of morphophonologically motivated affix alternation: the definiteness marker is īn instead of ǹ when attached to a feminine noun with a stem-final r, e.g. bāārā > bāā< ì>r-n̄ > bāāyr-īn ‘young_woman< F>-DEF’ (Hellenthal 2010: 101). |
There are many phonological assimilation rules in Sheko, of which I will list only some here due to limitations of place and time. All phonological and tonal rules apply to both stems and affixes, but interestingly, some processes do not apply to the PNG-markers (Hellenthal 2010: 97). This is another argument to analyse these as clitics, which do not ‘integrate’ with their host as much as affixes do. Firstly, glottal stops may be deleted in rapid speech (Hellenthal 2010: 88), and so do nasals and sibilants if they are geminates, e.g. an-ǹ > [aǹ] ‘put-DS’ (Hellenthal 2010: 91). If two vowels are adjacent, one of them is altered to a glide, e.g.sà-ù-te > [sàwte] ‘arrive-ù-NMLZ’ (Hellenthal 2010: 96) or a glide is inserted in between, e.g. kì=á-k > [kìyák], ‘exist=3SG.M=REAL’ (Hellenthal 2010: 97). There is place assimilation of nasals to the place of an adjacent consonant, e.g. n̩=gàdù=k ‘1SG=start=REAL’, m̩=bààs=k ‘1SG=want=REAL’ (Hellenthal 2010: 90). Fricatives are devoiced when they precede voiceless stops or pauses (Hellenthal 2010: 94). Less common is the process of sibilant harmony, which applies in Sheko both across and within morphemes (Hellenthal 2010: 92). For instance, the causative suffix adapts its sibilant phoneme to sibilants in the preceding predicate: yīts’-ūs ‘sprinkle-CAUS’, baʕ-ū ‘work-CAUS’. It even occurs with retroflexes: āʂ-ūʂ ‘plant-CAUS’, ʐar-ʂ ‘spill-CAUS’. Hence, Sheko shows manner assimilation as well as place assimilation. Tonal assimilation rules occur as well; for instance, a level 1 tone may be raised to level 2 in rapid speech when it precedes a level 2 tone (Hellenthal 2010: 121). Furthermore, Sheko exhibits the cross-linguistically common process of downdrift. |
The phonological and tonal rules described in Section 17.4.8 apply to stems and affixes alike. |
| 21 | Sochiapan Chinantec |
In Sochiapan, predicates are marked for the animacy, person and sometimes number of their argument(s). Those arguments are frequently expressed lexically as well, but Foris (2000: 240) notes that they can be left out if the referent is clear from the context. Hence, there is optional multiple expression of referents, as in (1). Foris (2000: 240) (1) ŋieH hnáHL tïL ʔŋoʔL go_nonhome. INTR.ANIM. FUT.1SG 1SG to Zautla ‘I will go to Zautla.’ |
Sochiapan shows agreement at the phrasal level in animacy, e.g. in example (2). Animacy is marked on adjectives by means of nasalisation of the nucleus, if it is not nasalised already. In the latter case, the difference between animate and inanimate is invisible (Foris 2000: 184). Foris does not explain why not all adjectives are marked for animacy in (2). I suspect that this is either because of phonological restrictions (some adjectives retain their oral nucleus, regardless of animacy marking, according to Foris 2000: 185) or because there are restrictions as to which semantic categories of adjectives require animacy marking (colour adjectives do according to Foris 2000: 186, but perhaps, other categories do not). Foris (2000: 185) (2) cáïM tiã́uM hḯʔHL huoʔM dog white.ANIM skinny lazy ‘A skinny, lazy, white dog.’ There is in Sochiapan one adjective that also shows agreement in number, viz. ‘big’. An example is given in (3). Foris (2000: 185) (3) a. kã́uM ʔmáM paMH one.INAN tree big.INAN.SG ‘a big tree’ b. tũL ʔmáM káʔH two.INAN tree big.INAN.PL ‘two big trees’ |
Most Sochiapan nouns are neutral with respect to number. Plurality or singularity can only be expressed on those nouns by means of a numeral, as in (4). Foris (2000: 174) (4) tũL kúHhẽM two.INAN tin ‘Two buckets.’ Foris (2000: 166) states that two specific nouns can be marked for number, viz. cáM~cã́ʔM ‘person’ versus cáuM ‘people’, and cáMmíʔH ‘child’ versus cáHmíʔH ‘children’. However, in my opinion, the singular variants of these nouns do not express singularity, but rather individuation. The allegedly plural forms do not express plurality, but are transnumeral, as proven by the fact that cáuM ‘people’ can in fact be modified by a numeral ‘one’ (Foris 2000: 167). Therefore, I will not regard this as number marking. Since Sochiapan has no plural marking on nouns, there can be no plural concord and this feature does not apply. |
Complement clauses in Sochiapan (Foris 2000: 319ff.) do not undergo backshifting of tense, as demonstrated by example (5). Foris (2000: 320) (5) kaL-huáʔL cúM ʔiL hŋiíLM kuúM caLʔáuM PST-say.TR.INAN.3 3 COMP sow.TR.INAN.FUT.3 maize tomorrow ‘S/he said that she would (lit.: “will”) sow maize tomorrow.’ |
I have not found examples of extraction or extraposition in Sochiapan. Therefore, I will assume that it is not allowed. |
Raising is not possible in Sochiapan Chinantec. As shown in example (6), arguments that semantically belong to an embedded clause, do not appear in the main clause morphosyntactically, and I have found no evidence to suggest otherwise. In other words, syntactic placement and semantic grouping run parallel. Foris (2000: 320) (6) kaL-hḯeLM hnáHL ʔiL ŋaʔL ieʔL PST-see.TR.INAN.1SG 1SG COMP go_home.INTR.ANIM.3SG elder ‘I saw that the old man went home.’ |
All Sochiapan affixes are prefixes, hence, there are no circumfixes (Foris 2000: 6). | All Sochiapan affixes are prefixes, hence, there are no infixes (Foris 2000: 6). | There is no case marking in Sochiapan, but there is TAME marking on dynamic verbs (Foris 2000: 55). TAME is marked by means of stem alternations and, additionally, by prefixes or particles Most prefixes and particles express tense, aspect or mood only, e.g. kaL- ‘PST’ (Foris 2000: 115) and máM ‘PFV’ (Foris 2000: 139), but there are some prefixes marking both tense and andative or venitive motion, e.g. ŋiíH- ‘PST.ANDT’ (Foris 2000: 106) and kuaL- ‘PST.VEN’ (Foris 2000: 108). Hence, there is cumulation of TAME in Sochiapan. | Sochiapan shows a number of suppletive stems. For example, subject number is expressed on particular verbal stems by means of suppletion, e.g. taʔLM ‘fall_down.INTR.INAN.SG’, suʔLM ‘fall_down.INTR.INAN.PL’ (Foris 2000: 76). Number marking on the adjective ‘big’ is suppletive as well, e.g. pãH ‘big.ANIM.SG’, kã́ʔH ‘big.ANIM.PL’ (Foris 2000: 185, 186). |
Sochiapan Chinantec makes extensive use of irregular stem alternation. Strategies that are used to mark transitivity and animacy on verbal stems are tone change, stress change, nasalisation, vocalic change and/or the addition of a glottal stop (Foris 2000: 27). These changes do not in general correspond in a one-to-one fashion to the semantic categories they express. Consider for instance part of the inflection paradigm of the verbal stem ʔliaLM ‘push’. Foris (2000: 56) 3 2 1SG 1PL PRES ʔliaLM ʔliaʔLM ʔliáML ʔliáML FUT ʔliáLM ʔliáʔH ʔliáHL ʔliáHL PST ʔliáL ʔliáʔH ʔliáL ʔliáHL Future tense is marked by means of a high tone on first and second (for first person followed by a low tone), but for third person, by means of a stress change. Past tense is marked by tone lowering on third person and first person singular, by a falling tone on first person plural, and by a high tone on second person. Since there is no one-to-one relation between tenses and particular tone or stress patterns, I analyse this as irregular stem formation. The same is true of the expression of person, number (cf. again the ‘push’ paradigm) and transitivity (Foris 2000: 88) on verbs, as well as the expression of several semantic categories on nouns and adjectives. In all these cases, irregular stem formation results in stems that express multiple semantic units in a single form. |
There is no non-semantic classification in Sochiapan (cf. Foris 2000: 162ff.). |
Sochiapan does not have nominal expletives, as demonstrated by example (7), containing a weather predicate with an argument that has clear semantic value. Foris (2000: 143) (7) laL kuáM-ŋieH hmḯL haH niéiM EVID VEN.PST-go.INTR.INAN rain among darkness ‘It looks like it rained during the night.’ |
Sochiapan Chinantec has a predominantly semantic alignment system, in which predicates are marked for their valency. It exhibits split-ergativity, marking case according to an ergative pattern, while person and number follow accusativity. For example, in the transitive clause in (8), the predicate is marked for the first person singular of the Actor argument, and for the inanimacy of the Undergoer. Foris (2000: 242) (8) máM kaL-páL hnáHL láuM PFV PST-hit.TR.INAN.1SG 1SG skin ‘I have played the drums.’ In intransitive clauses, both the animacy and the person and number of the S argument are marked on the predicate. The semantic role of the argument is neutralised: the fact that there is an Undergoer in (9), but an Actor in (10), is not reflected morphosyntactically. Hence, postulation of a syntactic function Subject is required. Foris (2000: 240) (9) kaL-kã́uL hnáHL PST-burn.INTR.ANIM.1SG 1SG ‘I was burned.’ (10) ŋieH hnáHL tïL ʔŋoʔL go_nonhome.INTR.ANIM.FUT.1SG 1SG to Zautla ‘I will go to Zautla.’ Furthermore, Foris (2000: 270ff.) recognises two passive constructions in Chinantec. Both constructions involve a specific verb form and a promotion of an Undergoer to first argument role. Foris (2000: 227) states that passives can have a by-phrase, explicitly expressing an Actor argument, if that Actor is inanimate, e.g. in (11). However, this example involves an Instrument phrase rather than an Actor – the knife is not volitionally performing the action of cutting on the hand, but is used by an implicit Actor to cut. Since I found no examples of passives with an explicit animate Actor in a by-phrase, I will assume there is no genuine passive in Sochiapan. Foris (2000: 277) (11) kaL-haL-túH kuoM cúM kiõʔL míHhlaM PST-PASS-cut.INTR.INAN hand.3 3 by knife ‘Her/his hand was cut by a knife.’ However, there is a genuine anti-passive construction in Sochiapan (Foris 2000: 282ff.), in which an Actor-Undergoer distinction is neutralised. In this construction, a regular transitive verb is detransitivised, but still inflected for the animacy of the Undergoer argument. Thus, it behaves as an intransitive with an Undergoer S argument, while the Actor argument can still be expressed explicitly, as shown in (12). Foris (2000: 282) (12) a. hĩML cúM rãïʔMH yell_at.TR.ANIM.PRS.3 3 companion.3 ‘S/he regularly yells at her/his companion.’ b. híML cúM ŋiíHkõM rãïʔMH yell.INTR.ANIM.PRS.3 3 toward companion.3 S/he (occasionally) yells at/toward her/his companion.’ |
If a noun is modified by multiple adjectives, they are ordered on the basis of their semantics (Foris 2000: 186) – the more ‘inherent’ the property, the closer to the noun. But if an adjective is modified itself by means of e.g. an intensifier, it is placed at the end of the phrase, regardless of its semantics, as in (13) (Foris 2000: 187). Hence, placement is partially determined by complexity. Foris (2000: 188) (13) hãM míMŋiíL pã́H ʔṹʔH lï̃́MH kuLtíL one.ANIM pig big.ANIM.SG fat very absolutely ‘an absolutely very fat big pig’ |
In Sochiapan Chinantec, most functions are marked by means of stem changes. However, there are also some affixes, that attach to one category of words only, mostly verbs (Foris 2000: 29ff.). I did not find any clitics, but there are particles, marking TAM information or pragmatic information such as illocution or topic/focus function (Foris 2000: 355ff.). Hence, both head-marking and phrase-marking exist in Sochiapan, which makes it impossible to qualify Sochiapan as either transparent or non-transparent with respect to this feature. I will leave the matter undecided. | As described in Section 18.3.2 and 18.3.3, there is extensive stem alternation in Sochiapan, which is in most cases semantically driven. There are two ‘automatic tone-stress perturbations’ in stems that do not result from semantics, but from adjacency of particular syllables and tones (Foris 2000: 57). Firstly, if a verb phrase adverb or prefix with the tone-stress pattern v́H directly precedes a verb with tone stress v́LM, the verb will change to v́MH. I analyse this as a morphophonological process because it applies to verbal stems only. Secondly, the andative past prefix ŋiíh- can affect the syllable to which it is attached: v́L becomes v́HL and vL becomes vHL. |
Foris (2000: 31) mentions that the use of prefixes triggers phonological changes in tone, stress, vowels and nasalisation in the stem. He does not mention any changes in the prefixes themselves, and I have not seen any examples of tonal assimilation or anything similar – the prefixes that Sochiapan has appear unaffected by their hosts. However, there is morphologically determined affix alternation in the form of conjugations. As explained above, Sochiapan has a very complex verbal inflection system that requires marking of transitivity, animacy, person and number on all verbs. Dynamic verbs (instantaneous, activity and process verbs), but not state verbs, are additionally marked for TAM, motion, and sometimes for passive voice (Foris 2000: 55). On the basis of the inflectional paradigm, dynamic verbs can be divided into three classes (Foris 2000: 56ff.). The first class, class A, has four different paradigms for different person/number categories: first person singular, first person plural, second person, and third person show different TAM marking. Class B verbs have two paradigms: one set of TAM stem alternations for verbs in third person, and another inflectional paradigm for all other persons. Class C verbs have one inflectional paradigm for all four person/number categories. These three classes are typical cases of conjugations, since they govern the inflectional that particular stems undergo. |
In Foris (1973, 2000) one phonological alternation process is mentioned: alveolar and velar consonants undergo palatalisation when they precede the semivowel /i/, e.g. sie > [šɛ] ‘manioc’ (Foris 1973: 233). I suppose there may be more such regularities, but I have not seen examples of them. | As mentioned in Section 18.4.7, the use of prefixes triggers phonological changes in tone, stress, vowels and nasalisation in stems, but not in prefixes themselves (Foris 2000: 31). However, there is one case in point. Prefixes that are attached to a root with controlled stress vary in intensity from a little under to a little over the intensity of the root. If the root has ballistic stress, the prefix always has a lower intensity (Foris 2000: 17). Apparently, there is a small phonetic difference in the prefix as a result of the type of stress of its host: a phonologically based alternation. |
| 22 | Teiwa |
In Teiwa, person and sometimes number of animate objects are marked on transitive predicates. The object may be expressed additionally by an independent NP (Klamer 2003: 87, 172). This results in cross-reference, e.g. in (1). Klamer (2003: 168) (1) na iman g-ua 1SG 3PL 3-hit ‘I hit them.’ |
There is no copying of features in the nominal domain in Teiwa (Klamer 2003: 206), as shown in (2). Klamer (2003: 188) (2) xaf uwaad fish big ‘a big fish’ |
Plurality is optionally marked by means of the word non (Klamer 2003: 69), cf. (3). It is ungrammatical to combine this marker with a numeral or quantifier; the two are mutually exclusive, as shown by (4). Hence, there is no plural concord in Teiwa. Klamer (to appear: 4, 5) (3) war non rock PL ‘(several/many) rocks’ (4) war (bag) haraq *non rock CLF two PL ‘two rocks’ |
Teiwa has no morphosyntactically marked subordination (Klamer 2003: 27), see for example (5). Therefore, there cannot be tense copying in Teiwa; this feature does not apply. Klamer (2003: 364) (5) na wa a aria-n maan 1SG say 3SG arrive-REAL NEG ‘I don’t think he will come’ / ‘I think he will not come.’ |
Teiwa does not exhibit a true relative clause construction (Klamer 2003: 28-29). Clauses following a focused NP superficially look like relative clauses, but Klamer argues these are different underlyingly since they appear in contexts in which relative clauses are impossible. Therefore, Teiwa cannot have the type of extraction or extraposition studied here in which a head is dislocated with respect to its modifying relative clause and hence, the feature does not apply. |
Teiwa does not allow argument raising. In (6), a construction is shown that superficially looks like raising, as the head of the complement clause (bif goqai) is located within the main clause in (6b). Klamer (2003: 371) (6) a. a bali si bif g-oqai miaag 3SG see SIM child 3SG-offspring yesterday tei luxun wan ba’-an suk tree high be fall-REAL exit_come_down ‘He saw that his child fell from a high tree yesterday.’ b. bif g-oqai a bali si miaag child 3SG-offspring 3SG see SIM yesterday tei luxun wan ba’-an suk tree high be fall-REAL exit_come_down ‘His child he saw falling from a high tree yesterday.’ However, bif goqai takes this position because it is focused, but does not become an argument of the clause. To qualify as the object of the main clause, bif goqai would have to be in preverbal second position, as in (7). Klamer (2003: 371) (7) ? a bif g-oqai bali si miaag 3SG child 3SG-offspring see SIM yesterday tei luxun wan ba’-an suk tree high be fall-REAL exit_come_down ‘His child he saw falling from a high tree yesterday.’ Klamer (2003: 371) states that this is syntactically questionable: the sentence is only interpretable on the basis of semantics. Therefore, this construction does not qualify as an instance of argument raising. |
Teiwa exhibits prefixes and a few suffixes (Klamer 2003: 65), but no circumfixes. | Teiwa exhibits prefixes and a few suffixes (Klamer 2003: 65), but no infixes. | Modality and aspect (tense and evidentiality are not expressed grammatically in Teiwa) are marked by means of free morphemes (Klamer 2003: 45ff.) and not cumulated with other categories. Teiwa has no case marking. | I have not found examples of morphologically based stem alternation in Teiwa. | I have not found examples of morphologically based stem alternation in Teiwa. | Teiwa nouns do not exhibit grammatical gender (Klamer 2003: 187). |
Teiwa does not have nominal expletives, as proven by (8). Klamer (2003: 156) (8) xal ta yaa rain TOP descend ‘It is raining.’ |
Semantic and pragmatic argument roles are expressed in Teiwa by means of predicate marking (cf. Section 20.3.1) and by word order: in transitive clauses, the person specification of animate Undergoers must be expressed the predicate by means of a prefix (Klamer 2003: 172), as in (9), but this is not true for Actors. There is no case marking (Klamer 2003: 30). Klamer (2003: 168) (9) na iman g-ua 1SG 3PL 3-hit ‘I hit them.’ However, semantic and pragmatic functions are neutralised in intransitive contexts, as the Actor as in (10) and the Undergoer as in (11) are formally identical in such clauses (Klamer 2003: 101, 102, 168ff.). Klamer (2003: 169) (10) a her 3SG climb ‘He climbs up.’ Klamer (2003: 169) (11) a min 3SG dead ‘He is dead.’ The neutralisation of semantic roles in intransitive clauses makes it necessary to postulate a grammatical relation Subject. There is no passive construction in Teiwa (Klamer 2003: 30). |
Word order is rather fixed in Teiwa (Klamer 2003: 164). SOV is the default order, but objects can be expressed before the subject when they are focused (Klamer 2003: 404). Pronominal objects can occur post-verbally – which is the opposite from what would be expected is complexity would be of influence – in order to get contrastive focus (Klamer 2003: 407). This shows that constituent placement always has a pragmatic effect, while complexity is not of influence in determining Teiwa word order (M. A. F. Klamer, personal communication, October 16, 2013). | Teiwa is an isolating language (Klamer 2003: 29). It has only a few prefixes, which are virtually the only bound morphemes. Most function markers are independent phrase-markers, i.e. particles, which is why Teiwa qualifies as a predominantly phrase-marking language. | I did not find examples of morphophonologically based stem alternations in Teiwa. | Teiwa nouns cannot be divided into declension classes (cf. Klamer 2003: 67, 187). Klamer (2003: 87) does distinguish two classes of verbs, one taking object prefixes and one not doing so, but these are not conjugation classes since class assignment is conditioned semantically rather than by inflectional behaviour: when the object is animate, the verb is marked by a prefix, when it is inanimate, it is not (Klamer 2003: 90). The semantic nature of the division is proven by the fact that there are verbs that can belong to both classes, as they either do or do not take an object prefix depending on the object (ibid.). Hence, there are semantic classes of verbs in Teiwa, but no conjugational or declensional classes, nor any other cases of morpho(phono)logical affix alternation. |
Consonant clusters are allowed, but in careful speech an epenthetic vowel may be added; e.g. dru can be pronounced [dru] or [dəru] (Klamer 2003: 49). Unstressed vowels can be reduced to schwa, but never deleted (Klamer 2003: 50). The vowels /u, ɑ, ɔ/ are adapted phonetically after /ħ/ to [ɨ, ɜ, ʌ] respectively (Klamer 2003: 45). Stressed mid vowels can also be centralised and unrounded after /ħ/, and may be pronounced long in closed syllables, but not before a glottal stop (Klamer 2003: 46). |
If a CV-prefix attaches to a vowel-initial stem, the prefix-final vowel is lost (Klamer 2003: 57), e.g. ta-xas ‘1PL.GENER-dirt, everyone’s dirt’, t-axas ‘1PL.GENER-reflection, everyone’s reflection’. |
| 23 | Tidore |
There is cross-reference in Tidore. The Actor argument of a predicate is optionally referenced on that predicate by means of an actor prefix (Van Staden 2000: 81). This prefix can also appear when the argument is expressed independently, as shown in example (1). Van Staden (2000: 77) (1) toko jago yo-kudeku chicken cock 3.N.A-crow ‘The cock crows.’ |
There is no noun-attributive agreement in Tidore, as implied by Van Staden (2000: 194ff.). She shows that no properties of nouns are expressed on their attributive modifiers, cf. example (2). Van Staden (2000: 195) (2) mansia bulo toma oti karo people white LOC canoe call ‘the white people in the canoe call out’ |
Nouns are never marked for plural in Tidore (cf. Van Staden 2000: 121). Number concord is therefore impossible; this feature does not apply. | As tense is not expressed in Tidore (cf. Van Staden 2000: 104), there can be no tense copying. This feature does not apply. | I have not seen examples of extraposition in Tidore. M. van Staden (personal communication, September 27, 2013) mentions that relative clauses are not used in spontaneous speech in Tidore, but only in elicitation tasks. The type of extraction in which a relative clause is realised separately from its head will therefore be infrequent in everyday speech, if not disallowed entirely. Therefore, I will assume that extraction is not possible in Tidore. | I have not seen cases of raising in Tidore. M. van Staden (personal communication, September 27, 2013) says that it is unlikely that such a construction exists in Tidore, as syntactic subordination is uncommon, if it exists at all in Tidore. I will therefore assume that raising, at least in normal speech, does not occur. | There are no circumfixes in Tidore (M. van Staden, personal communication, September 27, 2013). | There are no infixes in Tidore (M. van Staden, personal communication, September 27, 2013). | TAME nor case is expressed grammatically in Tidore, so that this feature does not apply. | There is no morphologically based stem alternation in Tidore. | There is no morphologically based stem alternation in Tidore. | There is no grammatically motivated noun classification in Tidore (cf. Van Staden 2000: 122ff., 166). |
Tidore does not have nominal expletives, as shown in (3). Van Staden (2000: 216) (3) bosa toma tomalou rai rain LOC T. already ‘It has already started to rain in Tomalou.’ |
In a pragmatically neutral transitive clause in Tidore, e.g. (4), semantic roles of arguments are not marked explicitly on the arguments. However, the Actor can be distinguished as it triggers person and gender marking on the predicate. Van Staden (2000: 217) (4) ngofa ng=ge yo-cako tusa child 3.NHUM=there 3.N.A-hit cat ‘the child hits the cat’ In (5), the Actor argument of the intransitive predicate behaves the same as the Actor in (4), but so does the Undergoer in (6), thus neutralising the distinction between Actors and Undergoers morphosyntactically. Van Staden (2000: 216) (5) ngofa=ge yo-reke child=there 3.N.A-cry ‘the child is crying’ Van Staden (2000: 219) (6) fola ng=ge yo-ruba rai house 3.NHUM=there 3.N.A-fall_apart already ‘The house has fallen apart.’ This makes it relevant to distinguish a syntactic function Subject in Tidore, even though its argument marking is otherwise semantically based (Van Staden 2000: 219ff.) I have not found evidence for the existence of a passive construction in Tidore. In a questionnaire on Tidore valency that is available through the website of Nick Evans at the Australian National University, it is claimed that passives do not exist in Tidore. I will assume that this is correct, even though it is not confirmed explicitly in Van Staden (2000). |
Van Staden (2000: 218) implies that heavy constituents have a tendency to be placed more towards the end of the sentence, when she states that quotes “because of their complexity and length, […] almost invariably follow the location argument, which has been assigned object function”. Apparently, a quote that functions as an object should be placed before the location argument, but if it is too heavy, morphosyntactic placement is different. Hence, there is an influence of weight on word order. | According to Van Staden’s analyses, Tidore has affixes, clitics and function marking particles. The clitics and particles do not form a large majority, but neither are they marginal. Since both head-marking and phrase-marking occur non-marginally, Tidore cannot be said to be either transparent or non-transparent in this respect. For this feature, no value can be determined. | Tidore verbs can be nominalised by means of a nasal prefix N-, which triggers alternations in the verbal stem to which it is attached. The actual alternation depends on the stem-initial consonant, e.g. a stem-initial voiceless plosive will be voiced (e.g. torine ‘to sit down’, dorine ‘seat’), while a stem-initial /f/ will become a voiced plosive (e.g. fego ‘to close’, bego ‘a cover’; Van Staden 2000: 70ff.). These alternations are not a general phonological process in Tidore, but only apply to this nasal prefix in combination with verbal stems. |
The pronoun ena ‘3.NHUM’ can be reduced when one of a series of locational enclitics is attached: e.g. ena + =re ‘here’ becomes [n̩’de] (Van Staden 2000: 67ff.). This should be distinguished from the general rule that unstressed NV-syllables may be reduced to N in rapid speech, as the surface forms resulting from that rule are considered wrong, while these pronominal forms are considered normal and may even occur in writing. Tidore has a set of prefixes that mark the Actor on a predicate and the possessor on a referent. These prefixes undergo reduction in certain contexts (Van Staden 2000: 68ff.). Optionally, the prefix vowel disappears when attached to a stem-initial vowel: to-oko ‘1SG.A-pick’ becomes [toko] and mo-ine ‘3SG.F.A-go_upwards’ is [mine]. This does not occur with other prefixes: there is no reduction in fo-ine ‘1PL.INCL.A-go_upwards’. The vowel of actor prefixes is also deleted when the prefix has an initial nasal and attaches to a consonant-initial stem, e.g. mo-kene ‘3SG.F.A-small’ becomes [m̩kene]. |
Unstressed vowels may undergo changes in quality depending on a stressed vowel in the following syllable, e.g. ‘eight’ can be realised as either [tuf̍ˈkange] or [tofˈkange] (Van Staden 2000: 67ff.). The vowel may also be deleted, as unstressed NV-syllables may be reduced to N in rapid speech, e.g. mapolu ‘to gather’ can be pronounced [m̩polu]. If two identical vowels are adjacent within a morpheme, they can be reduced to one vowel. If two vowels are adjacent across a morpheme boundary, they may also be reduced to one, or alternatively a glottal stop can be added in between (Van Staden 2000: 65). |
The phonologically based alternations that apply to stems, apply to affixes as well. |
| 24 | Turkish |
Turkish is a pro-drop language (Lewis 1978: 68): reference is made by means of obligatory predicate suffixes, while the independent expression of the argument is optional. This means that there is cross-reference when the argument is expressed independently, as in example (1). Lewis (1978: 68) (1) o git-ti-Ø, ben git-me-di-m he go-PST-3SG I go-NEG-PST-1SG ‘He went, I did not go.’ |
There is no agreement or concord between nouns and attributive adjectives in Turkish (Kornfilt 1997: 417), e.g. cesur adam-lar ‘brave man-PL’ (Lewis 1978: 53). | Number is expressed on nouns in Turkish by means of the suffix -lVr (Lewis 1978: 25). This suffix is not used after a numeral, e.g. kırk harami, lit. “forty thief” (Lewis 1978: 26), hence, there is no plural concord. |
Subordination in Turkish in most cases involves a nominalisation of the embedded clause by means of case marking or specialised nominalisers (Kornfilt 1997: 45ff.). As demonstrated in (2), these nominalised clauses sometimes bear tense, but tense is not backshifted. Kornfilt (1997: 1) (2) komşu-lar yarın seyahat-e çık-acak-ların-ı söyle-di neighbour-PL tomorrow trip-DAT go-FUT-3PL-ACC say-PST ‘The neighbours said that (they) were going on a trip tomorrow.’ A second Turkish subordination strategy involves a subordination marker ki borrowed from Persian (Kornfilt 1997: 46). The embedded clause is in this case sentence-like; there is no nominalisation. There is no tense copying in the ki-construction either (P. C. Hengeveld, personal communication, June 20, 2014), hence, tense copying is not allowed at all in Turkish. |
Extraposition is allowed in Turkish, as illustrated in example (3). Semantically speaking, ‘come to the cinema’ belongs together, but morphosyntactically it is not adjacent since the dative phrase is realised post-verbally. Kornfilt (1997: 48) (3) ben-im-le yarın gel-me-n-i 1SG-GEN-with tomorrow come-NMLZ-2SG-ACC isti-yor-um sinema-ya want-PRS.PROG-1SG cinema-DAT ‘I want you to come to the movies with me tomorrow.’ |
Argument raising is possible in Turkish. This is illustrated in example (4). Kornfilt (1997: 147) (4) ben sen-i öğretmen bil-ir-di-m 1SG 2SG-ACC teacher believe-AOR-PST-1SG ‘I used to believe you to be a teacher.’ The pronoun sen ‘you’ in this example is marked for accusative, which means that it formally behaves as the Undergoer or object of the predicate ‘believe’. Since sen is the Actor or subject of the subordinate clause, of which ‘teacher’ is the nominal predicate, example (4) involves subject-to-object raising. This means that there is a discrepancy between morphosyntactic case-marking and semantics here. |
There are no circumfixes in Turkish (cf. Kornfilt 1997: 212). | There are no infixes in Turkish (cf. Kornfilt 1997: 212). | There is cumulation of imperative with person marking, e.g. in the suffixes -sın ‘IMP.3’ and -sana ‘IMP.2’ (Kornfilt 1997: 370, 371). Furthermore, aorist (usually marked by -Ar~-Ir) is cumulated with negation (usually marked by -mA) in the suffix -mAz (Göksel & Kerslake 2005: 77, 80, 81) Case markers are not cumulated with other categories (Göksel & Kerslake 2005: 70). | There is no morphologically conditioned stem alternation in Turkish. | There is no morphologically conditioned stem alternation in Turkish. | Turkish does not exhibit grammatical gender (Lewis 1978: 25, Kornfilt 1997: 270). |
There are no nominal expletive elements in Turkish, as demonstrated in example (5). Kornfilt (1997: 399) (5) dün bütün gün yağmur yağ-dı yesterday whole day rain fall-PST ‘Yesterday it rained all day long.’ |
Turkish has at least a syntactic function Subject. Example (6) shows that in transitive clauses, the Actor argument is unmarked while the Undergoer is marked for accusative case. In intransitive clauses, an Undergoer is expressed identically to an Actor in a transitive clause, as shown in (7) which contains an Undergoer argument without case-marking, like the Actor in (6). Since the different case-marking of Actors and Undergoers is neutralised in intransitive clauses, it is necessary to postulate a syntactic function subject. Kornfilt (1997: 328) (6) hasan kapı-yı kapa-dı H. door-ACC close-PST ‘Hasan closed the door.’ Kornfilt (1997: 89) (7) su kayna-dı water boil-PST ‘The water boiled.’ Turkish furthermore has a passive construction, shown in (8). Semantic roles are again neutralised, since the Undergoer in is expressed in (8b) in the exact same way as the Actor in (8a), and vice versa. Kornfilt (1997: 323) (8) a. kristof kolomb amerika-yı keşf-et-ti K. K. America-ACC discovery-do-PST ‘Christopher Columbus discovered America.’ b. amerika (kristof kolomb taraf-ın-dan) keşf-ed-il-di America K. K. side-3SG-ABL discovery-do-PASS-PST ‘America was discovered (by Christopher Columbus).’ |
Turkish has basic SOV word order. However, as Kornfilt (1997: 215) explains, word order is free to a large extent, so that constituents can occur in any position. Words or phrases can be realised in different positions for pragmatic reasons, that is, to make some unit more prominent (cf. e.g. Kornfilt 1997: 193). However, Kornfilt (1997: 206) states: ‘“Heaviness” or length of a constituent does not play any role in Turkish in triggering movement processes.’ | Turkish is often stated to be a classic example of an agglutinative language, having a large number of affixes. Work by Kornfilt (1996), among others, shows that Turkish also has clitics, most notably a copular agreement clitic and a polar question clitic. Hence, Turkish exhibits both types of function marking and cannot be said to be transparent or opaque with respect to this feature. | The final consonant of some Turkish stems alternates between a voiced and an unvoiced phoneme depending on the attached suffix. For example, the final consonant of renk ‘colour’ is voiced before a vowel, viz. renge ‘to the colour’. Some (e.g. Görslake 2005: 15) see this as voicing of the consonant preceding vowels, but other accounts analyse it the other way around, viz. as devoicing of an underlyingly voiced consonant if it is syllable-final. In any case, this process is phonologically determined except for a few cases where the alteration does not apply, e.g. tank ‘tank’, tankı ‘her tank’ (Göksel & Kerslake 2005: 15, 16). In a similar way, stem-final /t/ alternates with /d/ in kilit ‘lock’, kilidim ‘my lock’, but not with a few nominal roots, e.g. cumhuriyet ‘republic’, cumhuriyetin ‘of the republic’. | There are no declension (Kornfilt 1997: 214) or conjugation classes in Turkish. There is one case of morphophonologically based affix alternation. As will be described in Section 22.4.9, Turkish shows extensive vowel harmony in its suffixes: the quality of vowels is determined by the stem-final vowel of the stem it is attached to. Two types of suffixes appear: those with low vowels that alternate between a front and a back vowel, e.g. -lVr ‘PL’: jin-ler ‘ghost-PL’, zan-lar ‘opinion-PL’, and those with high vowels that additionally alternate between rounded and unrounded vowels, e.g. -Vn ‘GEN’: jin-in ‘ghost-GEN’, gün-ün ‘day-GEN’ zan-ın ‘opinion-GEN’, but-un ‘thigh-GEN’ (Cowan & Rakusan 1987: 83). The suffix classes can be said to be morphophonologically conditioned, in the sense that one has to learn to which class an affix belongs in order to use it correctly. |
When in Turkish a coda geminate is followed by a consonant, there is degemination, e.g. hiss-te ‘feeling-LOC’ becomes [histe] (Kornfilt 1997: 498). There can also be insertion of an epenthetic vowel: burn ‘nose’ + -da ‘LOC’ > [bu.run.da] (Kornfilt 1997: 497). Furthermore, a syllable-final oral stop or affricate is devoiced, even when followed by a voiced consonant, unless it can be resyllabified as an onset consonant, e.g. kitab ‘book’ + -a ‘DAT’ is [ki.ta.ba], but kitab-da ‘book-LOC’ becomes [kitapta] (Kornfilt 1997: 498). Note that in the latter example, the suffix-initial consonant is devoiced because it is adjacent to the devoiced stem-final consonant. |
Suffix-initial segments can be deleted in specific contexts, e.g. the /s/ in -sı ‘3SG’ is deleted after a consonant but not after a vowel so that kitab ‘book’ becomes [kitabɯ] (Kornfilt 1997: 512). A salient phonological alternation feature in Turkish is vowel harmony: vowels in suffixes are adapted to stem-final vowels. The vowel suffix adapts to the final vowel of the stem it is attached to in terms of front/back, e.g. jin-ler ‘ghost-PL’, zan-lar ‘opinion-PL’, and for a subset of suffixes also in terms of roundedness, e.g. -Vn ‘GEN’: jin-in ‘ghost-GEN’, gün-ün ‘day-GEN’ zan-ın ‘opinion-GEN’, but-un ‘thigh-GEN’ (Cowan & Rakusan 1987: 83). As shown in the previous section, suffix-initial consonants can assimilate to their hosts, e.g. in terms of voicing: kitab-da ‘book-LOC’ becomes [kitap] and then [kitapta] (Kornfilt 1997: 498). |
| 25 | West-Greenlandic | Verbs are always inflected for the number and gender of their subject and/or object (Fortescue 1984: 80, 298). The expression of an independent argument is optional, so that if it is present, there is cross-reference in West Greenlandic. This is shown in (1) where both the subject and the object are cross-referenced on the verb. Sadock (2003: 54)(1) ilinniartitsisup atuakkat pisiaraiilinniartitsisuq=p atuagaq=t piaiarE=Vaateacher=ERG.SG book=PL buy=IND.3SG.A.3PL.U ‘The teacher bought the books.’ | There is agreement in number and case between nouns and attributive modifiers, as for example in (2) (Sadock 2003: 26, Fortescue 1984: 303). Note that case-marking is not always overt, since absolutive case can be zero-marked.Sadock (2003: 27)(2) qimmimik qaqortumik qimmiq=mik qaqortuq=mik dog=INSTR.SG white=INSTR.SG ‘the white dog’ | Plurality is in West Greenlandic obligatorily expressed on nouns (Fortescue 1984: 205). This is also the case when a noun is modified by a numeral, as in (3), or by a quantifier. Hence, there is plural concord in West Greenlandic.Fortescue (1984: 118)(3) qimmi-t qaqurtu-t marluk taakku dog-PL white-PL two those ‘those two white dogs’ | Fortescue (1984: 69) states there is no tense copying in West Greenlandic. Examples are hard to come by, since subordination in West Greenlandic usually involves derivational forms of predicates in which tense is not expressed. Fortescue, however, stresses that if tense is expressed in a subordinate clause at all, the tense form is interpreted relative to the superordinate tense – it does not involve copying of a tense operator from the main clause to the embedded clause. |
Fortescue (1984: 94) mentions that it is possible in West Greenlandic to split up a constituent so that its head occurs pre-verbally and its modifier post-verbally. This is demonstrated in (4): ‘seminarium’ is split from its modifying relative clause (bracketing mine). Fortescue (1984: 198) – bracketing mine (4) suurlu taa-tsia-rii-riga ilinniarvissuaq isirviga-ara as mention-briefly-already-PTCP.1SG.3SG seminarium enter-IND.1SG.3SG [sunaavva kingurna ukiu-ni iki-nngit-su-ni turned_out afterwards year-LOC.PL be_few-NEG-INTR.PTCP-LOC ilinniartitsisu-tut suli-vvigi-li-rumaa-ga-ra=ttaaq] teacher-EQU work-have_as_place_of-begin-FUT-PASS.PTCP-POSS.1SG=also ‘As I have briefly mentioned, I entered the Seminarium, in which it would turn out later I would work as a teacher for many years.’ |
West Greenlandic does not exhibit raising. An example that superficially looks like raising is given in (5). Semantically speaking, the argument ‘children’ is the Undergoer of the embedded clause, Juuna is the Actor. However, Juuna is not marked by an ergative marker, but by a dative (Fortescue calls this allative case). ‘Children’ is bare, which means it bears absolutive case, so that it can be seen syntactically as the Undergoer argument of the embedded clause or of the main clause. In the latter case, this could be seen as raising. Bittner & Hale (1996: 550) (5) anna-p miiqqa-t juuna-mut paari-sur(i-v)-a-i. A.-ERG child-PL J.-DAT look_after-believe-IND-TR-3SG.A.3PL.U ‘Anna believes the children to be looked after by Juuna.’ However, this is not genuine raising because there is no real embedded clause here – rather, ‘believe’ and ‘look after’ form a complex predicate with three arguments, possibly after incorporation of ‘look after’ into the verb. I have found no other evidence for a raising construction in West Greenlandic and will therefore assume it does not exist. |
West Greenlandic has no circumfixes (Sadock 2003: 12). | West Greenlandic has no infixes (Sadock 2003: 12). | There is cumulation of mood with person and number in referential predicate markers (Sadock 2003: 64). Furthermore, case is cumulated with number marking (Fortescue 1984: 206). | I have not found cases of suppletion of stems in West Greenlandic. M. Fortescue (personal communication, June 23, 2014) confirms that there is no suppletion of stems in West Greenlandic. | I have not found cases of irregular stem formation in West Greenlandic. M. Fortescue (personal communication, June 23, 2014) confirms that there is no irregular stem formation in West Greenlandic. | There is no grammatical gender in West Greenlandic (Fortescue 1984: 248). |
West Greenlandic does not make use of a pronominal expletive with weather predicates, as illustrated in example (6). Fortescue (1984: 5) (6) immaqa aamma siallir-puq perhaps also rain-IND.3SG ‘Did it also rain perhaps?’ |
Fortescue (1984: 210) states that there is no visible distinction between “agentive and non-agentive arguments” of intransitive clauses (in my terms: between Actors and non-Actors, i.e. Undergoers an Locatives) – all S arguments get absolutive case and are cross-referenced on the predicate. From the case marking in example (7) it becomes clear that the distinction is made in transitive clauses, as the Actor argument gets relative case (Fortescue’s equivalent of ergative) case, while the Undergoer is unmarked, which means it bears absolutive case. Hence, the absolutive case marking in intransitives is a case of neutralisation of semantic roles. Fortescue (1984: 210) (7) akkam-ma aataaq aallaa-vaa uncle-RELAT.POSS.1SG harp_seal.ABS shoot-IND.3SG.A.3SG.U ‘My uncle shot the harp seal.’ Furthermore, West Greenlandic has an antipassive and a passive construction in which semantic roles are neutralised (Fortescue 1984: 265ff.. The passive is illustrated in example (8). Fortescue (1984: 265) (8) a. inu-it nanuq taku-aat people-RELAT.PL polar_bear see-IND.3PL.A.3SG.U ‘The people saw the polar bear.’ b. nanuq (inun-nit) taku-niqar-puq polar_bear (people-ABL) see-PASS-IND.3SG ‘The polar bear was seen (by the people).’ |
West-Greenlandic is an SOV language, but as example (9) illustrates, an object argument (between brackets in the example) can occur post-verbally when it is syntactically heavy. Fortescue (1984: 194/195) – bracketing mine (9) tassani naapik-ku-jarput [ilisari-sima-llua-ga-ra there meet-and_so-IND.1PL.3SG know-PST.PFV-well-PASS.PTCP-POSS.1SG sursunnir-su-up nala-a-ni nuum-mi ilinniartitsisu-u-suq] war-big-RELAT time-POSS.3SG-LOC N.-LOC teacher-be-INTR.PTCP ‘And so there (at last) we met my acquiantance who was a teacher in Nuuk during the World War.’ Sadock (2003: 25) confirms that heavy elements may be postposed in West Greenlandic sentences, and Fortescue (1984: 93, 194) too states that there is an influence of heaviness on word order. |
West Greenlandic makes use of both head-marking affixes, e.g. case markers and referential predicate markers, and phrase-marking clitics, e.g. the quotative enclitic =guuq (Fortescue 1984: 1). The clitics attach to morphosyntactic words and phrases, rather than to stems (Sadock 2003: 61). Since both head-marking and phrase-marking occur non-marginally in the language, West Greenlandic does not qualify as transparent or opaque in this respect; the feature does not apply. |
Sadock (2003: 12) explains that stems ending in a consonant may undergo elision or assimilation of that stem-final consonant if a consonant-initial suffix is attached. This happens with most suffixes, but not with all, rendering this a morphophonological alternation rather than a phonological one. For example, while usually a suffix assimilates to the stem-final consonant, stems ending in /q/ will, under attachment of oblique case markers, either lose the /q/, e.g. qimmiq ‘dog’ + -mut ‘to’ is qimmimut, or assimilate it, e.g. irniq ‘son’ + -mut is irnirmut (Fortescue 1984: 345). A few suffixes, most of them starting with /l/, loose their initial consonant when attached to verbal stems. Additionally, the stem loses its final consonant and the vowel preceding it, e.g. atungak + li + vuq becomes atunngivuq ‘she made a sole’. The consonant that is now stem-final, in this example /ng/, is geminated, if possible (Fortescue 1984: 350). |
Sadock (2003: 12) mentions that adaptations can occur to both a host and an attached suffix. Later on, he states (2003: 14) that at least affix alternation is phonologically determined and not dependent on lexical idiosyncrasies. However, in Section 23.4.6 a process was described in which addition of a suffix results in deletion of stem-final CV and germination of the then stem-final consonant, as well as a loss of the suffix-initial consonant (e.g. atungak + li + vuq becomes atunngivuq ‘she made a sole’, Fortescue 1984: 350). Since this process applies to particular affixes only, so-called ‘replacive affixes’, this is morphophonologically based affix alternation. West-Greenlandic does not have conjugation or declension classes. |
Stem-final consonants may assimilate in terms of place and manner of articulation to a suffix-initial consonant, e.g. angut ‘man.ABS’ + -lu ‘and’ is pronounced [angullu] (Sadock 2003: 21, Fortescue 1984: 344). Nominal stems have a regular form and a geminate form, in which the consonant in the middle is doubled. This geminate stem form occurs before suffixes starting with anything but /r/ (Sadock 2003: 15). For example, nanuq ‘polar bear’, combined with an absolutive/relative plural marker -t becomes nannut (Fortescue 1984: 345). Note that the stem-final consonant is deleted, following a morphophonological rule described in 22.16. The geminate is not always a copy of the single segment, e.g. /s/ alternates with /ts/, etc. |
If a suffix with a consonant cluster in the onset is attached to a stem-final consonant, the cluster may be reduced by means of deletion of the first consonant, e.g. sinik ‘sleep’ + -lluaq ‘well’ becomes sinilluaq ‘to sleep well’ (Sadock 2003: 14). A glide is inserted in between a stem and a suffix when the former ends in a vowel and the latter starts with a vowel, e.g. anu=i ‘its harnesses’ is pronounced [anuwi] (Sadock 2003: 20, 21). A stem ending in a stop consonant can trigger a suffix-initial stop to change into a continuant (Sadock 2003: 15). A suffix-initial /t/ may change into an /s/ after an /i/, e.g. piir + tit + vaa is pronounced piirsippaa ‘he chased him away’ (Fortescue 1984: 347). |
| 28 | Icelandic | Clausal agreement/ cross-reference: + Icelandic shows clausal agreement between the nominative argument, which is usually the subject, and the verb (Barðdal 2013; Thráinsson 2007: 8). The verb has different suffixes for almost all person and number combinations of the nominative argument, both in the present (1) and in the past tense (2): (1) éghorf-i,þúhorf-ir,hann horf-ir 1sg.nomlook-1sg2sg.nom look-2/3sg3sg.m.nom look-2/3sg ‘I look, you look, he looks’ viðhorf-um,þiðhorf-ið, þeir horf-a 1pl.nomlook-1pl2pl.nom look-2pl3pl.m.nom look-3pl ‘We look, you look, they look’ (Thráinsson 2007: 8) (2)éghorf-ð-i,þúhorf-ð-ir,hann horf-ð-i 1sg.nomlook-pst-1/3sg2sg.nom look-pst-2sg3sg.m.nom look-pst-1/3sg ‘I looked, you looked, he looked’ viðhorf-ð-um,þiðhorf-ð-uð, þeir horf-ð-u 1pl.nomlook-pst-1pl2pl.nom look-pst-2pl3pl.m.nom look-pst-3pl ‘We looked, you looked, they looked’ (Thráinsson 2007: 8) The present participle does not show agreement, but the past participle has different forms depending on the number and gender of the nominative argument (Thráinsson 2007: 9). These are used when the past participle is used as a predicate in combination with the verb vera ‘to be’, which also shows agreement with the nominative argument in person and number: (3)Hund-ur-innvarbit-in-n dog-nom.sg.m-def.nom.sg.mbe.3sg.pstbite-ptcp-nom.sg.m ‘The dog was bitten’(Thráinsson 2007: 9) (4)Bæk-ur-narvorules-n-ar book-nom.pl.f-def.nom.pl.fbe.3pl.pstread-ptcp-nom.pl.f ‘The books were read’ (Thráinsson 2007: 9) However, the agreement on the participle is absent when the auxiliary is hafa ‘to have’ (Thráinsson 2007: 9): (5)Hund-ur-innhef-urbit-iðmann-ø-inn. dog-nom.sg.m-def.nom.sg.mhave-3sgbite-ptcpman-acc.sg.m-def.acc.sg.m ‘The dog has bitten the man’ (Thráinsson 2007: 9) When the predicate is an adjective, agreement with the nominative argument occurs as well (Thráinsson 2007: 2). The adjective agrees with the argument in gender, case and number (Einarsson 1949: 50; Thráinsson 2007: 2). At the same time, there is agreement between the nominative argument and the copula in person and number: (6)mað-ur-innergóð-ur mann-sg.m.nom-def.sg.m.nombe.3sg.prsgood-nom.sg.m ‘the man is good’ (Einarsson 1949: 50) (7)Þess-arhæn-urerugul-ar. dem-nom.pl.fhen-nom.pl.fbe.3pl.prsyellow-nom.pl.f ‘These hens are yellow’ (Thráinsson 2007: 2) All examples of clausal agreement above show agreement between the nominative subject and the predicate. However, Icelandic nominative arguments do not have to be subjects, as Icelandic does not show a direct relationship between the case and the grammatical relation of arguments (Thráinsson 2007: 156). Instead, both subjects and objects may have both nominative, accusative, dative and genitive case (Thráinsson 2007: 167). Icelandic subjects are therefore not characterized by a particular case, but can be recognized on the basis of a number of tests, such as inversion with the finite verb, antecedent properties and ellipsis (Thráinsson 2007: 161-5). Objects can thus also be marked by nominative case. Importantly, although Icelandic usually does not display agreement between a verbal predicate and its object argument (Thráinsson 2007: 153), in the cases that the nominative argument is not the subject but the object, agreement between the verbal predicate and the object can occur (Thráinsson 1994: 176): (8) Hennilík-uð-uhest-ar-nir. dat.3sg.flike-pst-3plhorse-pl.m.nom-def.pl.m.nom ‘She liked the horses.’ (Thráinsson 2007: 172) However, not all speakers of Icelandic seem to use agreement with nominative objects (Thráinsson, Angantýsson, Svavarsdóttir, Eythórsson & Jónsson 2007: 102). When agreement is not applied, the verb appears with the 3rd person singular suffix. Another case of agreement between the predicate and the object involves predicative adjectives. This type of agreement also occurs with non-nominative objects. In the following example, both the object and the predicate adjective show accusative case, plural number and masculine gender: (9)Stelp-ur-narhitt-ustrák-a-na girl-pl.f.nom-def.pl.f.nommeet.pst-3plboy-pl.m.acc-def.pl.m.acc full-a. drunk-pl.m.acc ‘The girls met the boys drunk’ (=the boys were drunk)(Thráinsson 2007: 233) Since it is generally impossible in Icelandic to leave out the subject or object (Thráinsson 1994: 168-9), we can conclude that the examples above show clausal agreement between the subject or object and the predicate. The marking on the predicate is really a copy of the argument and thus this marking expresses agreement rather than cross-reference. | Icelandic also shows a large system of phrasal agreement. Both articles, demonstratives, possessives, quantifiers and adjectives agree with the head noun of their noun phrase in case, number and gender. All these elements show some syncretism in their paradigms. Thus, there are not always separate forms for each case, gender and number. However, in general these features can be recognized on both articles, determiners, possessives, quantifiers and adjectives.Icelandic does not have indefinite articles, but the language uses a definite article that agrees with the noun in the noun phrase in case, number and gender (Thráinsson 1994: 164-5). The definite article has two forms: a suffix and a free-standing form (Thráinsson 1994: 165). The latter is almost never used in spoken language, and it can only be used with nouns that are also combined with an adjective (Einarsson 1949: 48). The suffix can both be used with nouns that take an adjective and with nouns that occur without an adjective (Einarsson 1949: 48). The article is inflected for number, gender and case, and agrees in these categories with the head noun of the noun phrase: (10)hest-ur-inn horse-sg.m.nom-def.sg.m.nom ‘horse’ (Einarsson 1949: 48) (11)kinn-a-nna cheek-pl.f.gen-def.pl.f.gen ‘cheeks’ (Einarsson 1949: 49) (12)barn-i-nu child-sg.n.dat-def.sg.n.dat ‘child’ (Einarsson 1949: 49) The different demonstrative pronouns also inflect for number, gender and case (Einarsson 1949: 69-70). They agree with the head noun in these characteristics: (13)þettahús-ø dem.sg.n.nom/acchouse-sg.n.nom/acc ‘this house’ (Thráinsson 2007: 114) (14)súgaml-akon-a dem.sg.f.nomold-def.sg.f.nomhouse-sg.f.nom ‘that old woman’ (Thráinsson 2007: 113) In addition, most possessives agree with the noun in number, gender and case (Thráinsson 1994: 157): (15)mitthús-ø 1sg.poss.sg.n.nom/acchouse-sg.n.nom/acc ‘my house’ (Einarsson 1949: 115) (16)bók-ø-inamina book-sg.f.acc-def.sg.f.acc1sg.poss.sg.f.acc ‘my book’ (Thráinsson 2007: 92) Only 3rd person non-reflexive possessors and 1st and 2nd person plural possessors do not agree with the noun in the noun phrase. For these possessors the genitive forms of the personal pronouns are used, independent of the number, gender and case of the possessed object (Einarsson 1949: 69). Quantifiers in the form of indefinite pronouns also agree with the head noun in the noun phrase: (17)eng-abók-ø no-sg.f.accbook-sg.f.acc ‘no book’ (Thráinsson 2007: 35) (18)nokkr-irstudent-ar some-pl.m.nomstudent-pl.m.nom ‘some students’ (Thráinsson 2007: 23) The numerals einn ‘one’, tveir ‘two’, þrír ‘three’ and fjórir ‘four’ also agree with nouns in the noun phrase in gender and case. The other numerals are not inflected (Einarsson 1949: 65). Finally, adjectives show phrasal agreement with their head noun. When the noun phrase is definite, the so-called weak declension of the adjectives is used (Einarsson 1949: 50). This declension is very limited in the gender and case distinctions that it makes. For instance, in the singular, accusative, dative and genitive take the same forms (Einarsson 1949: 46). For neuter, there is even just one form in the singular for all cases. Moreover, in the accusative, dative and genitive, masculine and neuter gender are not distinguished (Einarsson 1949: 56): (19)blá-abíl-ø-inn blue-def.sg.m.acccar-sg.m.acc-def.sg.m.acc ‘the blue car’(Thráinsson 2007: 3) (20)gul-aborð-ø-ið yellow-def.sg.ntable-sg.n.nom/acc-def.sg.n.nom/acc ‘the yellow table’(Thráinsson 2007: 3) Furthermore, for the plural, there is only one form, independent of gender and case (Einarsson 1949: 56-7). When the noun phrase is indefinite, the strong declension of adjectives applies (Einarsson 1949: 50). In contrast to the weak declension, this declension shows only very few cases of syncretism, just like the articles, demonstratives, possessives and quantifiers (Einarsson 1949: 56). | Icelandic obligatorily shows plural concord in nouns phrases containing a numeral. When an Icelandic noun combines with a numeral such as þrír ‘three’, it is also marked for plurality by a suffix, just like other plural nouns. This plural concord happens both when the numeral precedes the noun (21) and when it follows it (22): (21)Égþekk-iþrjáíslensk-amálfræðing-a 1sg.nomknow-1sgthree.m.accIcelandic-pl.m.acclinguist-pl.m.acc ‘I know three Icelandic linguists’ (Thráinsson 2007: 103) (22)íslensk-ubæk-ur-narþrjár Icelandic-def.pl.f.nombook-pl.f.nom-def.pl.f.nomthree.f.nom ‘the three Icelandic books’(Thráinsson 2007: 102) Icelandic is thus opaque with respect to numeral concord. | Icelandic embedded clauses can occur both with indicative and with subjunctive verbs. Generally, main clauses with non-factive verbs such as halda ‘believe, think’, ímynda sér ‘imagine’ and telja ‘believe’ and with verbs of saying and wanting take subjunctive verbs in their embedded clauses (Thráinsson 2007: 397). These embedded clauses with a subjunctive verb show tense copying (Thráinsson 1994: 183; Thráinsson 2007: 395). Thus, in example (23) the verb form væri is not grammatical, as it is in the past tense, whereas the verb in the main clause, segir, is in the present tense: (23)Jón-ø seg-ir aðtungl-ið sé/ John-sg.m.nomsay-3sgthatmoon-def.sg.n.nombe.3sg.prs.subj/ *væri úr ost-i be.3sg.pst.subjout.ofcheese-sg.m.dat ‘John says that the moon is made of cheese (lit. John says that the moon be …)’ (Thráinsson 1994: 183) Similarly, in example (24) the verb form sé cannot occur in the embedded clause, since it is a present tense form, while the verb in the main clause, sagði, is a past tense verb: (24)Jón-ø sag-ð-i aðtungl-ið *sé/ John-sg.m.nomsay-pst-3sgthatmoon-def.sg.n.nombe.3sg.prs.subj/ væri úr ost-i be.3sg.pst.subjout.ofcheese-sg.m.dat ‘John said that the moon is made of cheese (lit. John says that the moon were …)’ (Thráinsson 1994: 183) By contrast, main clauses with (semi-)factive verbs such as vita ‘know’, gera sér grein fyrir ‘realize’ take indicative verbs in their embedded clauses (Thráinsson 2007: 397). These embedded clauses with indicative verbs do not show tense copying (Thráinsson 1994: 183): (25)Jón veit að Harald-ur er/var John-sg.m.nomknow.prs.3sgthatHarold-sg.m.nombe.3sg.prs/be.3sg.pst heima home ‘John knows that Harold is/was home’ (Thráinsson 1994: 183) (26)Jón visi að Harald-ur er/var John-sg.m.nomknow.3sg.pstthatHarold-sg.m.nombe.3sg.prs/be.3sg.pst heima home ‘John knew that Harold is/was home’ (Thráinsson 1994: 183) Example (25) shows a present tense verb in the main clause, while example (26) uses a past tense main verb. Nevertheless, in both examples, the verb in the embedded clause may both be in the present or in the past tense. A few verbs such as lesa ‘read’ and frétta ‘hear, learn’ can both take an embedded clause with a subjunctive and with an indicative verb, depending on the intended meaning (Thráinsson 2007: 397): (27a)Jón-øfrétt-iaðMarí-ahaf-ði John-sg.m.nomhear-3sg.pstthatMary- sg.f.nomhave.ind-3sg.pst kom-ið heim. come-ptcphome ‘John heard that Mary had come home’ (Thráinsson 2007: 397) (27b)Jón-øfrétt-iaðMarí-ahef-ði Jon-sg.m.nomhear-3sg.pst thatMary-sg.f.nomhave-subj-3sg.pst komið heim. come-ptcphome ‘John heard that Mary had come home’ (Thráinsson 2007: 397) When frettí ‘heard’ has a factive meaning, the indicative form hafði is used, as in (27a). In this case, John knows that Mary has come home because he heard her coming himself. It is therefore not possible to add the clause en hún kom ekki ‘but she did not come’ to the clause. By contrast, when frettí ‘heard’ has a non-factive meaning, the subjunctive form hefði is used, as shown in (27b). Here it is possible to add the clause en hún kom ekki ‘but she did not come’, as the main clause indicates that John heard from someone else that Mary has come home. This may however be untrue. Thus, Icelandic is non-transparent in that it shows tense copying, but this opacity feature does not occur in all embedded clauses, but only in the ones with subjunctive verbs. | Icelandic allows extraposition of elements from noun phrases (Thráinsson 2007: 362). Example (28b) shows extraposition of a relative clause that is adjacent to the rest of the noun phrase in (28a): (28a) Mað-ur-inn sem hring-d-i í gærkvöld-i er man-SG.M.NOM-DEF.SG.M.NOM that call-PST-3SG in last.night-SG.N.DAT be.3SG.PRS kom-in-n að hitt-a þig. come-PTCP-SG.M.NOM to see-INF 2SG.ACC ‘The man that called last night has come to see you.’ (Thráinsson 2007: 362) (28b) Mað-ur-inn er kom-in-n að hit-a þig man-SG.M.NOM-DEF.SG.M.NOM be.3SG.PRS come-PTCP-SG.M.NOM to see-INF 2SG.ACC sem hringdi í gærkvöldi. that call-PST-3SG in last.night-SG.N.DAT ‘The man has come to see you that called last night.’ (Thráinsson 2007: 362) In example (29) the prepositional phrase is extraposed: (29a) Ritdóm-ur um nýju-st-u bók-ø review-SG.M.NOM about new-SUP-DEF.SG.F.ACC book-SG.F.ACC Chomsky-s mun-ø birta-st í næsta hefti. Chomsky-SG.M.GEN will-3SG show-MID in next-SG.N.DAT issue-SG.N-DAT ‘A review of Chomsky’s latest book will appear in the next issue’ (Thráinsson 2007: 362) (29b) Ritdóm-ur mun-ø birta-st í næst-a heft-i um review- SG.M.NOM will-3SG show-MID in next-SG.N.DAT issue-SG.N-DAT about 9 nýju-st-u bók-ø Chomsky-s new-SUP-DEF.SG.F.ACC book-SG.F.ACC Chomsky-SG.M.GEN ‘A review will appear in the next issue of Chomsky’s latest book.’ (Thráinsson 2007: 362) Finally, also subordinate clauses starting with a conjunction such as að ‘that’ which are part of a noun phrase can be extraposed: (30a) Sú staðreynd-ø að jörð-ø-in DEM.SG.F.NOM fact-SG.F.NOM that earth-SG.F.NOM-DEF.SG.F.NOM skul-i ver-a hnöttótt-ø er merkileg-ø. shall.3SG.PRS.SUBJ be-INF round-SG.F.NOM be.3SG.PRS interesting-SG.F.NOM ‘The fact that the earth is round is interesting’ (Thráinsson 2007: 362) (30b) Sú staðreynd-ø er merkileg-ø að DEM.SG.F.NOM fact-SG.F.NOM be.3SG.PRS interesting-SG.F.NOM that jörð-in skul-i vera hnöttótt-ø. earth-SG.F.NOM-DEF.SG.F.NOM shall-3SG.PRS.SUBJ be-INF round-SG.F.NOM ‘The fact is interesting that the earth is round’ (Thráinsson 2007: 362) Icelandic also shows examples of extraction, such as (31): (31a) María er ofsalega góð-ur kennari-ø. Mary.SG.F.NOM be.3SG.PRS extremely good-SG.M.NOM teacher-SG.M.NOM ‘Mary is an extremely good teacher. (Thráinsson 2007: 347) (31b) Ofsalega er María góð-ur kennari-ø. extremely be.3SG.PRS Mary.SG.F.NOM good-SG.M.NOM teacher-SG.M.NOM ‘What a great teacher Mary is!’ (Thráinsson 2007: 347) In example (31) ofsalega is a modifying element in the noun phrase ofsalega góður kennari. In addition, extraction of prepositional phrases occurs in Icelandic. The following example shows the topicalization of the prepositional clause á þessu from the noun phrase lítinn skilning á þessu: (32) Á þessu hef-ur Jón-ø lít-inn skilning-ø. of DEM.N.DAT have-3SG John-NOM.M.SG little-SG.M.ACC understanding-SG.M.ACC ‘John has little understanding of this’ (Jónsson 2008: 406) | Icelandic shows raising of subjects from a subordinate to a main clause. The verb of the subordinate clause then becomes an infinitive. For instance, the subject bíllinn in (33) is semantically the subject of the infinitive vera ‘be’ as well: (33) Bíl-l-inn sýn-d-i-st ver-a í lag-i. car-SG.M.NOM-DEF.SG.M.NOM show-PST-3SG-MID be-INF in order-SG.N.DAT ‘The car seemed to be in order.’ (Thráinsson 2007: 413) Also non-nominative subjects can be raised to a main clause: (34) Henni virð-i-st haf-a leiðst bók-ø-in. 3SG.F.DAT seem-3SG-MID have-INF be.bored.PTCP book-SG.F.ACC-DEF.SG.F.ACC ‘She seems to have found the book boring’ (Sigurðsson 2004: 142) Since both nominative and non-nominative subjects can be raised, raising is also one of the tests to show whether an argument is a subject (Sigurðsson 2004: 141). In (35), the subject of the subordinate clause has become the object of the main clause: (35) Jón-ø tel-ur Harald-ø haf-a far-ið heim Jon-SG.M.NOM believe-3SG Harald-SG.M.ACC have-INF go-PTCP home ‘Jon believes Harold to have gone home’ (Thráinsson 1979: 336) Harald is in this construction the object of the main verb telur ‘believes’, but semantically the subject of hafa farið heim ‘to have gone home’. Raising-to-object is also possible for non-nominative subjects. These subjects keep their case when they become the object of the main clause (Thráinsson 2007: 164): (36) Ég tel-ø honum ver-a vorkunn-ø 1SG.NOM believe-1SG 3SG.M.DAT be-INF pity-SG.F.NOM ‘I believe that that he can be forgiven’ (Thráinsson 2007: 164) Raising of the object of a subordinate clause to a main clause subject seems to occur only marginally and is accepted by only few, mainly elder, speakers (Comrie 1997: 315, Thráinsson et al. 2007: 105): (37) ?Jóhannes-ø er erfið-ur að tefl-a við. Johannes-SG.M.NOM be.PRS.3SG tough-SG.M.NOM to play.chess-INF with ‘Johannes is tough to play chess with.’ (Thráinsson et al. 2007: 105) | The only affixes described for Icelandic by Einarsson (1949) are suffixes and prefixes. | The only affixes described for Icelandic by Einarsson (1949) are suffixes and prefixes |
Icelandic verbs are inflected for tense, voice and person and number of the nominative subject (Einarsson 1949: 74). In addition, they take different forms in the subjunctive and indicative mood. While voice is expressed with a separate suffix (-ø for active voice and –st for middle voice) (Einarsson 1949: 100; Thráinsson 1994: 161) and tense is expressed by its own suffix or a stem change (Einarsson 1949: 74), mood and the person and number of the nominative subject are expressed cumulatively in one suffix: Table 1. Icelandic conjugation of indicative and subjunctive present of the weak verb horfa ‘to look’ (Thráinsson 2007: 8-9) Indicative present Subjunctive present 1SG horf-i horf-i 2SG horf-ir horf-ir 3SG horf-ir horf-i 1PL horf-um horf-um 2PL horf-ið horf-ið 3PL horf-a horf-i The table shows that the two moods use the same stem of the verb horfa ‘to look’. The suffixes thus express mood and person and number of the nominative subject. For instance, the suffix –a is only used in the indicative mood and expresses simultaneously that the nominative subject is 3rd person plural. When a 3rd person singular nominative subject is involved, the form horf-i both shows agreement with this subject and indicates that the verb is in the subjunctive. In this way, Icelandic shows cumulation of TAME (mood) and person and number of the nominative subject. Icelandic shows cumulation in the nominal domain as well. On both nouns, adjectives, and determiners the same suffix expresses case, number and gender: (45) þess-i rauð-ur hest-ur DEM-SG.M.NOM red-SG.M.NOM horse-SG.M.NOM ‘this red horse’ (Thráinsson 2007: 89) (46) all-ar þínar þrjár ný-ju all-PL.F.NOM 2SG.POSS.PL.F.NOM three.F.NOM new-DEF.PL kenning-ar theory-PL.F.NOM ‘all your three new theories’ (Thráinsson 2007: 117) In addition, pronouns show cumulation of case, number and person, and, when the pronoun is in 3rd person, gender: (47) þá 3PL.M.ACC ‘them’ (Einarsson 1949: 68) |
Icelandic shows one verb with suppletive stems, i.e. stems that are not derivable by general rules from each other at all (Einarsson 1949: 104): (48) ver-a - er-um - var-st - sé-uð - vær-i be-INF be.PRS-3PL be.PST-2SG be.PRS.SUBJ-2PL be.PST.SUBJ-1SG ‘be’ ‘are’ ‘was’ ‘are’ ‘was’ (Einarsson 1949: 104) Other examples of suppletion are found in the comparative and superlative forms of adjectives. The following comparatives and superlatives are all regularly marked with the suffixes –ri and –st respectively, but show nevertheless suppletive stems: (49) gamal-l - eld-r-i - el-st-ur old-SG.M.NOM old-COMPA-SG.M.NOM old-sup-SG.M.NOM ‘old’ ‘older’ ‘oldest’ (Kress 1982: 94) (50) góð-ur - bet-r-i - be-st-ur good-SG.M.NOM good-COMPA-SG.M.NOM good-sup-SG.M.NOM ‘good’ ‘better’ ‘best’ (Kress 1982: 94) (51) marg-ur - flei-r-i - fle-st-ur many-SG.M.NOM many-COMPA-SG.M.NOM many-SUP-SG.M.NOM ‘much/many’ ‘more’ ‘most’ (Kress 1982: 94) (52) mikil-l - mei-r-i - me-st-ur great-SG.M.NOM great-COMPA-SG.M.NOM great-SUP-SG.M.NOM ‘great’ ‘more’ ‘most’ (Kress 1982: 94) (53) ill-ur - ver-r-i - ver-st-ur bad-SG.M.NOM bad-COMPA-SG.M.NOM bad-SUP-SG.M.NOM ‘ill’ ‘worse’ ‘worst’ (Kress 1982: 94) |
Icelandic shows two conjugation classes: weak and strong verbs. The class of strong verbs shows changes in the stem vowel (ablaut) to indicate the indicative past tense (Einarsson 1949: 30, 74). In the 1st and 3rd person singular of strong verbs, there are no overt suffixes in the indicative present or past tense, so for these person and number combinations there is no suffix to indicate the past tense of a verb. Instead, the tense is expressed by the verb stem. Moreover, the suffix for the 1st person plural is the same in the present and past tense indicative. Also in these forms the stem thus shows the tense. In these cases we therefore have to do with irregular stem formation. There are usually different stem forms for the singular and plural past tense. Some examples are shown in (54-58): (54) skín-a - skín-ø - skein-ø - skin-um shine-INF shine.PRS-1SG shine.PST-1SG shine.PST-1PL ‘(to) shine’ ‘(I) shine’ ‘(I) shined’ ‘(we) shined’ (55) kjós-a - kýs-ø - kaus-ø - kus-um choose-INF choose.PRS-1SG choose.PST-1SG choose.PST-1PL ‘(to) choose’ ‘(I) choose’ ‘(I) chose’ ‘(we) chose’ (Einarsson 1949: 96-7) (56) brest-a - brest-ø - brast-ø - brust-um break-INF break.PRS-1SG break.PST-SG break.PST-1PL ‘(to) break’ ‘(I) break’ ‘(I) broke’ ‘(we) broke’ (Einarsson 1949: 96-7) (57) ber-a - ber-ø - bar-ø - bár-um carry-INF carry.PRS.-1SG carry.PST-1SG carry.PST-1PL ‘(to) carry’ ‘(I) carry’ ‘(I) carried’ ‘(we) carried’ (Einarsson 1949: 96-7) (58) tak-a - tek-ø - tók-ø - tók-um take-INF take.PRS-1SG take.PST-1SG take.PST-1PL ‘(to) take’ ‘(I) took’ ‘(I) took’ ‘(we) took’ (Einarsson 1949: 96-7) Many strong verbs also show a stem vowel alternation in the subjunctive past tense. Since most of the suffixes that indicate the person and number of the nominative subject on subjunctive past tense forms are the same as those used on the subjunctive present forms, the stem vowel alternation here also expresses the tense, and thus we have to do with an irregular stem formation: (59) skín-a - skín-i - skin-i shine-INF shine.PRS-SUBJ.1SG shine.PST-SUBJ.1SG ‘(to) shine’ ‘(I) shine’ ‘(I) shined’ (Einarsson 1949: 96-7) (60) kjós-a - kjós-i - kys-i choose-INF choose.PRS-SUBJ.1SG choose.PST-SUBJ.1SG ‘(to) choose’ ‘(I) choose’ ‘(I) chose’ (Einarsson 1949: 96-7) (61) brest-a - brest-i - bryst-i break-INF break.PRS-SUBJ.1SG break.PST-SUBJ.1SG ‘(to) break’ ‘(I) break’ ‘(I) broke’ (Einarsson 1949: 96-7) (62) ber-a - ber-i - bær-i carry-INF carry.PRS-SUBJ.1SG carry.PST-SUBJ.1SG ‘(to) carry’ ‘(I) carry’ ‘(I) carried’ (Einarsson 1949: 96-7) (63) tak-a - tak-i - tæk-i take-INF take.PRS-SUBJ.1SG take.PST-SUBJ1SG ‘(to) take’ ‘(I) took’ ‘(I) took’ (Einarsson 1949:96-7) Both the stem alternations in the indicative and in the subjunctive past are limited to the class of strong verbs. They can therefore be called irregular stem formations. In addition, some examples of irregular stem formation can be found in nouns. For instance, the noun barn ‘child’ does not take an overt nominative or accusative plural suffix. Instead, these case and number combinations are expressed by an irregular stem: (64) barn-ø börn child-SG.N.NOM child.PL.N.NOM/ACC ‘child’ ‘children’ (Einarsson 1949: 41) The same stem alternation occurs in other neuter nouns with an /a/ in the root syllable (Einarsson 1949: 41). Here the stem alternation thus expresses number and case. This alternation was originally a regular phonological alternation in the form of u-umlaut (Einarsson 1949: 41). Present-day Icelandic still shows productive u-umlaut, which implies that the root vowel /a/ changes into /ö/ when the root is followed by a suffix containing an /u/ (Einarsson 1949: 31). The same process applied to barn. However, the noun barn no longer shows a nominative or accusative plural suffix with an /u/ to trigger the umlaut in the nominative and accusative plural. Synchronically, the form börn does thus not show a regular phonological or morphophonological alternation, but an irregular stem formation. Finally on the noun maður ‘man’, which in all other number and case combinations uses the stem mann-, the nominative and accusative plural are marked not by a regular suffix, but by an irregular stem: (65) mað-ur - mann-ø menn man-SG.M.NOM man-SG.M.ACC man-PL.M.NOM/ACC ‘man’ ‘man’ ‘men’ (Einarsson 1949: 37) Originally, this was a regular phonological alternation (consonant assimilation) (Faarlund 2004: 12, 27). |
Icelandic distinguishes three grammatical genders: masculine, feminine and neuter. Each noun belongs to one of these genders. The genders are generally not semantically based (Einarsson 1949: 32). Although words referring to male humans usually have masculine grammatical gender and words referring to female humans typically have feminine grammatical gender, even in these cases semantic and grammatical gender do not always coincide (Thráinsson 2007: 2). For instance, the (poetic) masculine noun svanni means ‘woman’, and the neuter nouns barn ‘child’ and skáld ‘poet’ of course refer to males and females (Thráinsson 2007: 2). The gender of the noun can sometimes be recognized on the basis of the form of the noun. The endings – aður, -all, -ir are for instance typical for the nominative form of masculine nouns, while the endings – ing, -un and – ynd are often the endings of feminine nouns in the nominative (Einarsson 1949: 32). However, other endings such as – ur can occur both on masculine, feminine and neuter nouns in the nominative, and nominative nouns ending in – a can be both feminine and neuter (Einarsson 1949: 32). Further, the nouns are inflected for case and number, and although the paradigms display some syncretism so that the suffixes do not always unambiguously show the gender of the noun, some suffixes are typical for particular genders. For instance, the suffix – u always indicates accusative, dative or genitive singular of a feminine noun (Einarsson 1949: 47). Finally, grammatical gender is not only relevant for nouns, but also for articles, determiners, quantifiers and adjectives, which generallyagree with the head noun of their noun phrase in gender. |
Icelandic uses the nominal expletive það ‘it’ with weather verbs (66, 67), in existential sentences (68) and in impersonal passives (69) (Thráinsson 1994: 170): (66) Það rign-d-i mikið í Reykjavík þá. 3SG.N.NOM rain-PST-3SG much in Reykjavík then ‘It rained a lot in Reykjavík then.’ (Thráinsson 2007: 481) (67) það snjó-ar 3SG.N.NOM snow-3SG ‘it snows’ (Einarsson 1949: 168) (68) Það er-u mýs í baðker-i-nu. 3SG.N.NOMbe.PRS-3PLmouse.PL.F.NOMin bathtub-SG.N.DAT-DEF.SG.N.DAT ‘There are mice in the bathtub’ (Thráinsson 2007: 310) (69) Það var dansa-ð til miðnættis. 3SG.N.NOM be.PST.3SGdance-PTCPto midnight. ‘There was dancing until midnight’ (Thráinsson 2007: 310) Importantly, the expletive það can only be used in clause-initial position (Thráinsson 1994: 310). Consequently, when an adverb such as þá ‘then’ occurs clause-initially, það is not used: (70) Þá rign-d-i mikið í Reykjavík. then rain-PST-3SG much in Reykjavík ‘Then it rained a lot in Reykjavík’ (Thráinsson 2007: 481) Similarly, in questions where the verb fills the first position of the sentence, no expletive það is used: (71) Rign-d-i mikið í Reykjavík þá? rain-PST-3SG much in Reykjavík then ‘Did it rain much in Reykjavík then?’ (Thráinsson 2007: 481) |
The arguments of intransitive predicates in Icelandic have nominative, accusative, dative or genitive case (Barðdal 2013; Jónsson 2003: 130; Thráinsson 2007: 159). To a considerable extent, the choice of case depends on the semantic function of the argument (Jónsson 2003: 129). The most important generalization to be made is that nominative arguments most often are agents, whereas arguments in the other cases can never be agents (Thráinsson 2007: 201-2). This generalization seems to a semantic alignment system. However, the case of the argument of an intransitive predicate is not completely predictable on the basis of its semantic function. In the first place, nominative arguments of intransitive verbs can also function as themes (72) and experiencers (73): (72)Rós-ø-inföln-að-i. rose-sg.f.nom-def.sg.f.nomwither-pst-3sg ‘The rose withered.’ (Thráinsson 2007: 201) (73)Stúlk-a-nfann-ømikiðtil. girl-sg.f.nom-def.sg.f.nomfind.pst-sgmuchto ‘The girl was in pain.’(Thráinsson 2007: 202) Secondly, although the other cases cannot express agents, they can all mark various other semantic functions. For instance, accusative arguments of intransitive predicates can be themes (74) and experiencers (75): (74)Snjó-aleys-irsjaldanþarfyrr eníjúni. snow-pl.m.accmelt-3sgrarelythereuntilinJune ‘Snow rarely melts there before June’ (Thráinsson 2007: 203) (75)Stelp-u-nasvim-að-iuppiá girl-sg.f.acc-def.sg.f.acc feel.dizzy-pst-3sgupon klett-i-num. rock-sg.m.dat-def.sg.m.dat ‘The girl felt dizzy up on the rock.’ (Thráinsson 2007: 203) Dative arguments of intransitives can also be themes (76) and experiencers (77): (76)Nemend-umhef-urfjölga-ð. student-pl.m.dathave-3sgget.more.numerous-ptcp ‘Students have gotten more numerous’(Thráinsson 2007: 205) (77)Mérerkal-t 1sg.datbe.3sg.prscold-sg.n.nom ‘I’m cold’ (Thráinsson 2007: 160) These examples show that both nominative, accusative and dative arguments of intransitive can be themes and experiencers. Thus, although the arguments of intransitive predicates can have different cases and although these cases to some extent match particular semantic functions, the alignment of Icelandic is not completely semantic. In addition, Icelandic has a passive construction. When a transitive verb with a nominative subject and an accusative direct object is passivized, the accusative object becomes the new nominative subject (Einarsson 1949: 149): (78a)Jón-ø tok-øbók-ø-ina John-sg.m.nomtake.pst-3sg book-sg.f.acc-def.sg.f.acc ‘John took the book’ (Einarsson 1949: 149) (78b)bók-ø-invartek-in-øaf book-sg.f.nom-def.sg.f.nombe.3sg.psttake-ptcp-sg.f.nomby Jón-i John-sg.m.dat ‘the book was taken by John’ (Einarsson 1949: 149) As shown in (78b), the agent can occur in a by-phrase. Also verbs with a dative (79a) or genitive (80a) direct object can be passivized, but these objects then become dative (79b) and genitive (80b) subjects (Einarsson 1949: 149): (79a)Jón-økast-að-istein-i John-sg.m.nomthrow-pst-3sgstone-sg.m.dat ‘John threw a stone’ (Einarsson 1949: 149) (79b)stein-ivarkasta-ð(afJón-i) stone-sg.m.dat be.3sg.pstthrow-ptcp.sg. n.nom/accbyJohn-sg.m.dat ‘a stone was thrown (by John)’ (Einarsson 1949: 149) (80a)Jón-øbeiðmín John-sg.m.nomawait.3sg.pst1sg.m.gen ‘John awaited me’ (Einarsson 1949: 149) (80b)Mínvar beðið(afJón-i) 1sg.m.gen be.3sg.pst await-ptcp.sg. n.nom/accbyJohn-sg.m.dat ‘I was awaited (by John)’ (Einarsson 1949: 150) In contrast to the participles in passives with nominative subjects such as in (78b), the participles in these examples do not show agreement with the dative or genitive subject. Instead, they appear in the neuter nominative/accusative singular form (Einarsson 1949: 149). In addition, some indirect objects can also become subjects when the verb is passivized (Thráinsson 2007: 152). As in the case of dative and genitive direct objects, indirect objects keep their case when they become subjects in the passive (Thráinsson 2007: 153): (81a)Þeirhaf-asenthennipening-a-na 3pl.m.nomhave-3plsend.ptcp3sg.f.datmoney-pl.m.acc-def.pl.m.acc ‘They have sent her the money’ (Thráinsson 2007: 152) (81b)Hennihaf-aver-iðsend-ir 3sg.f.dathave-3plbe-ptcp.sg.n.nom/accsend-ptcp.pl.m.nom pening-ar-nir money-pl.m.nom-def.pl.m.nom ‘The money has been sent to her’ (Thráinsson 2007: 153) Finally, it may be noted that Icelandic also shows a few other passive-like constructions, in addition to the periphrastic construction illustrated above. For instance, verbs may take the suffix –st, which may give the verbs a passive-like meaning (Thráinsson 2007: 284). However, these constructions do not always allow the agent of the verb to be expressed in a by-phrase (Thráinsson 2007: 284). The Icelandic –st-construction thus does not really show neutralization of semantic roles, but rather a loss of the agent role (Leufkens 2015: 84). As such it does not count as evidence for grammatical relations. The same holds for some other passive-like constructions in Icelandic (Thráinsson 2007: 282). Therefore, Icelandic shows only one real passive construction. Since Icelandic has both a passive construction and neutralization of semantic roles in the arguments of intransitive predicates, the language may be argued to show syntactic alignment. With respect to this feature, the language is thus non-transparent. |
Icelandic shows different positions for heavy and light objects. While full noun phrases can both precede and follow the adverb aldrei ‘never’ in example (82), the unstressed pronoun in example (83) has to precede this adverb: (82a)Jón-ø las-ø þessa bók-ø aldrei. John-sg.m.nom read.pst-3sgdem.sg.f.accbook-sg.f.accnever ‘John never read this book.’ (Thráinsson 2007: 31) (82b)Jón-ølas-øaldreiþessa bók. John-sg.m.nom read.pst-3sgnever dem.sg.f.accbook-sg.f.acc ‘John never read this book.’ (Thráinsson 2007: 31) (83a)Jón-ø las-ø hana aldrei. John-sg.m.nom read.pst-3sg3sg.f.accnever ‘John never read it.’ (Thráinsson 2007: 32) (83b)*Jón-ø las-ø aldreihana. John-sg.m.nom read.pst-3sgnever 3sg.f.acc(Thráinsson 2007: 32) Only when a pronoun such as hana is stressed, it may follow the adverb: (84)Jón-ølas-øaldreiHANA. John-sg.m.nom read.pst-3sgnever 3sg.f.acc ‘John never read IT.’ (Thráinsson 2007: 32) Furthermore, objects that are particularly heavy, such as nokkra málfrædinga með ráðstefnumöppur, may occur at the end of the clause instead of right after the main verb: (85a)Égsá-ønokkr-amálfræding-ameð 1sg.nomsee.pst-1sgsome-pl.m.acclinguist-pl.m.accwith ráðstefnumöpp-urí stræto conference.folder-pl.f.accinbus.sg.m.dat ‘I saw some linguists with conference folders in the bus.’(Thráinsson 2007: 361) (85b) Égsá-øístrætonokkramálfrædingameð 1sg.nomsee.pst-1sginbus.sg.m.datsome-pl.m.acclinguist-pl.m.accwith ráðstefnumöppur conference.folders-pl.f.acc ‘I saw on the bus some linguists with conference folders.’ (Thráinsson 2007: 361) In addition, subjects may take a special position on the basis of their weight: (86a)Nokkr-irmálfræðing-arhöf-ð-uver-iðíheit-a some-pl.m.acclinguist-pl.m.nomhave-pst-3plbe-ptcpinhot-sg.m.dat pott-i-num. tub-sg.m.dat-def.sg.m.dat ‘Some linguists have been in the hot tub’(Thráinsson 2007: 361) (86b)Þaðhöf-ð-uver-iðnokkr-irmálfræðing-arí 3sg.n.nomhave-pst-3plbe-ptcpsome-pl.m.acclinguist-pl.m.nom in heit-apott-i-num. hot-sg.m.dat tub-sg.m.dat-def.sg.m.dat ‘There have been some linguists in the hot tub’ (Thráinsson 2007: 361) |
Icelandic shows both head- and phrase-marking. Icelandic phrase-markers are for instance conjunctions and the negation word ekki. The language also shows a number of prepositions. However, in prepositional phrases the noun is also marked by a case suffix that matches the preposition. For instance, the preposition til ‘to’ always takes a noun in the genitive (Einarsson 1949: 468) (87)Málfræding-arkom-aofttilÍsland-s linguist-pl.m.nomcome-3ploftentoIceland-sg.n.gen ‘Linguists often come to Iceland’ (Thráinsson 2007: 103) Examples such as (87) cannot be classified as either head- or phrase-marking. Similarly, many Icelandic noun phrases show marking of case, gender and number at all elements in the phrase and are thus not only head-marked or only phrase-marked: (88)súgaml-akon-a dem.sg.f.nomold-def.sg.f.nomhouse-sg.f.nom ‘that old woman’ (Thráinsson 2007: 113) Clear examples of head-markers are the suffixes marking tense, person and number on verbs. In addition, there are suffixes for the present and past participles, and the infinitive has its own suffix (Thráinsson 2007: 9). Icelandic also shows inflectional suffixes that express case, gender and number on nouns. All in all, the number of head-markers thus seems to be larger than the number of phrase-markers, and Icelandic can be considered a predominantly head-marking language. |
Many of the strong verbs in Icelandic show morphophonologically conditioned stem alternations in the past participle forms. Although past participles are always marked by a suffix, these verbs in addition show stem vowel alternations (ablaut) yielding a stem that is only used for the past participle: (89)kýs-ø-kaus-ø-kus-um-kos-in-n choose.prs-1sgchoose.pst-1sgchoose.pst-1plchoose-ptcp-sg.m.nom ‘(I) choose’‘(I) chose’‘(we) chose’‘chosen’ (Einarsson 1949: 96-7) (90)brest-ø-brast-ø-brust-um-brost-inn break.prs-1sg break.prs-sgbreak.pst-1plbreak-ptcp-sg.m.nom ‘(I) break’‘(I) broke’ ‘(we) broke’‘broken’ (Einarsson 1949: 96-7) (91)ber-ø-bar-ø-bár-um-bor-inn carry.prs-1sg carry.pst-1sgcarry.pst-1plcarry-ptcp-sg.m.nom ‘(I) carry’‘(I) carried’ ‘(we) carried’‘carried’ (Einarsson 1949: 96-7) (92)tek-ø-tók-ø-tók-um-tek-inn take.prs-1sg take.pst-1sgtake.pst-1pltake-ptcp-sg.m.nom ‘(I) took’‘(I) took’ ‘(we) took’‘taken’ (Einarsson 1949: 96-7) In addition, Icelandic shows morphophonologically conditioned stem alternation in nominal forms. Several masculine, feminine and neuter nouns show vowel alternations that only appear in particular case and number combinations. For instance, the following masculine nouns take a different stem vowel when they combine with the dative singular and the nominative and accusative plural suffixes: (93)kött-ur-kett-ir-kett-i cat-sg.m.nomcat-pl.m.nomcat-sg.m.dat/pl.m.acc ‘cat’‘cats’‘cat/cats’(Einarsson 1949: 36) (94)hátt-ur-hætt-ir-hætt-i mode-sg.m.nommode-pl.m.nommode-sg.m.dat/pl.m.acc ‘mode’‘modes’‘mode/modes’(Einarsson 1949: 36) (95)son-ur-syn-ir-syn-i son-sg.m.nomson-pl.m.nommode-sg.m.dat/pl.m.acc ‘son’‘sons’‘son/sons’(Einarsson 1949: 36) The following feminine nouns show a different stem vowel under influence of the plural suffix –(u)r: (96)bók-ø-bæk-ur book-sg.f.nombook-pl.f.nom/acc ‘book’‘books’ (Einarsson 1949: 40) (97)mörk-ø-merk-ur pint-sg.f.nompint-pl.f.nom/acc ‘pint’‘pints’ (Einarsson 1949: 40) (98)bru-ø-brý-r bridge-sg.f.nombridge-pl.f.nom/acc ‘bridge’‘bridges’ (Einarsson 1949: 40) The masculine and feminine nouns in (99-101) are examples of nouns using a different stem in all plural forms: (99)fað-ir-feð-ur-feðr-um-feðr-a father-sg.m.nomfather-pl.m.nom/acc father-pl.m.datfather-pl.m.gen ‘father’‘fathers’‘fathers’‘fathers’ (Einarsson 1949: 37) (100)bróð-ir-bræð-ur-bræðr-um-bræðr-a brother-sg.m.nombrother-pl.m.nom/acc brother-pl.m.datbrother-pl.m.gen ‘brother’‘brothers’‘brothers’‘brothers’ (Einarsson 1949: 37) (101)móð-ir-mæð-ur-mæðr-um-mæðr-a mother-sg.f.nommother-pl.f.nom/acc mother-pl.f.datmother-pl.f.gen ‘mother’‘mothers’‘mothers’‘mothers’ (Einarsson 1949: 40) Some other strong masculine nouns show a stem alternation in which one form of the stem ends in a –v which is absent in the other form (Einarsson 1949: 34): (102)söng-ursöngv-ar song-sg.m.nomsong-pl.m.nom/acc ‘song’‘songs’(Einarsson 1949: 34) Also the noun maður ‘mann’ shows a morphophonological stem alternation. Only the nominative singular uses the stem mað-, while the other forms of the noun take the stem mann- (Einarsson 1949: 37-8). Thus, it seems that the stem mann- changes into mað- when the suffix –ur is attached. Finally, the comparative and superlative forms of a number of adjectives show morphophonologically conditioned stem alternations: (103)grann-ur-grenn-r-i-grenn-st-ur thin-sg.m.nomthin-compa-sg.m.nomthin-sup-sg.m.nom ‘thin’‘thinner’‘thinnest’(Einarsson 1945: 58) (104)fá-r-fæ-rr-i-fæ-st-ur few-sg.m.nom few-compa-sg.m.nomfew-sup-sg.m.nom ‘few’‘fewer’‘fewest’(Einarsson 1945: 58) (105)stór-ø-stær-r-i-stœr-st-ur big-sg.m.nombig-compa-sg.m.nombig-sup-sg.m.nom ‘big’‘bigger’‘biggest’(Einarsson 1945: 58) (106)ung-ur-yng-r-i-yng-st-ur young-sg.m.nomyoung-compa-sg.m.nomyoung-sup-sg.m.nom ‘young’‘younger’‘youngest’(Einarsson 1945: 58) (107)mjúk-ur-mýk-r-i-mýk-st-ur sof-sg.m.nomsoft-compa-sg.m.nomsoft-sup-sg.m.nom ‘soft’‘softer’‘softest’(Einarsson 1945: 58) (108)þröng-ur-þreng-r-i-þreng-st-ur narrow-sg.m.nomnarrow-compa-sg.m.nomnarrow-sup-sg.m.nom ‘narrow’‘narrower’‘narrowest’(Einarsson 1945: 58) |
Icelandic shows two conjugation classes: the strong and the weak verbs. Strong verbs are characterized by changes in the stem vowel in the different tense and mood combinations and in the past participle (Einarsson 1949: 74). Weak verbs, by contrast, do not show vowel changes but use suffixes in the past tense, which are absent in the strong verbs (Einarsson 1949: 74). Moreover, the suffix used for the past participle is different for strong and weak verbs (Einarsson 1949: 74). Furthermore, Icelandic shows two main declension classes (Einarsson 1949: 32). The so-called strong declension is characterized by a genitive singular suffix ending in a consonant (-s, -ar), whereas the so-called weak declension shows suffixes consisting of a single vowel in all singular forms (-i, -a, -u) (Einarsson 1949: 32). These two declension classes are often further divided into smaller subclasses, mainly on the basis of the three genders and the suffixes for the nominative plural (Einarsson 1949). In this way, the total number of declension classes is 12 (Einarsson 1949: 32-45) or even 16 (Thrainsson 1994: 153). It should be noted, however, that the different declension classes overlap to a large extent and that the declensions are relatively predictable compared to other languages with a large number of declension classes (Thráinsson 1994: 153-5). Weak verbs use a suffix to mark the past tense, which may have one of four different forms: –ði, -di, -ti, -aði (Einarsson 1949: 74). The choice of suffix generally depends on the stem of the verb (Einarsson 1949: 82) . Thus, while –ði is used for instance after vowels and voiced spirants, -di occurs after stems ending in the combinations /lf, fl, lg and gl/ and the combinations vowel + /m, mm, lm, rm, mb/, and –ti is used with stems ending in hard stops /p, t, k/ and after /s/ (Einarsson 1949: 82-3). As the alternation between these past tense suffixes is phonologically determined but only applies to the class of weak verbs, this alternation can be called a morphophonologically conditioned affix alternation. Icelandic also shows a number of morphophonologically conditioned affix alternations in the suffixes expressing number and case on nouns. For instance, the genitive suffix –s that is used in one of the masculine declensions becomes –ø if the stem of the noun ends in a consonant cluster in which the last consonant is an /s/ (Einarsson 1949: 34). Similarly, in one of the feminine declensions, the dative singular suffix can either be –ø, -u or –i depending on the ending of the stem (Einarsson 1949: 38). These affix alternations are determined by the phonological characteristics of the stem and limited to a particular declension, and can therefore be called morphophonologically conditioned. |
Icelandic shows several types of phonologically conditioned stem alternation. In the first place, Icelandic displays devoicing of sonorants. Stem-final /r/ is devoiced before /p, t, k, s/ and /l, m, n/ are devoiced before /p, t, k/ by most speakers (Thráinsson 1994: 151). Thus, when a suffix starting with /p, t, k, s/ is attached to a stem ending in /r/ , or a suffix starting with /p, t, k/ follows a stem ending in /l, m, n/, a stem alternation occurs: (109)far-ø-far-s [faːr][far̥s] fare-sg.n.nomfare-sg.n.gen ‘fare’‘fare’ (Thráinsson 1994: 151) (110)fúl-ø - fúl-t [fuːl][ful̥t] sour-sg.f.nomsour-sg.n.nom ‘sour’‘sour’(Thráinsson 1994: 151) As devoicing of sonorants occurs in stems of different morphological classes, e.g. nouns (109) and adjectives (110), and is due to phonological characteristics of the stem and the affix, it may be called a phonologically conditioned stem alternation. A second type of phonologically conditioned stem alternation in Icelandic concerns fricativization of stem-final /p, k/. When a stem ends in a vowel followed by /p/ or /k/, and a suffix starting with /t/ or /s/ is attached, /p/ changes into [f], while /k/ becomes [x] (Thráinsson 1994: 151): (111)skip-ø-skip-s [scɪːph][scɪfs] ship-sg.n.nomship-sg.n.gen ‘ship’‘ship’(Thráinsson 1994: 151) (112)rík-ø-rík-t [riːkh][rixt] rich-sg.f.nomrich-sg.n.nom ‘rich’‘rich’(Thráinsson 1994: 151) Fricaticization before /s/ is not always obligatory (Thráinsson 1994: 151). Since the alternation occurs in stems of different morphological types, e.g. nouns (111) and adjectives (112), and it is due to phonological characteristics of the stem and suffix, fricativization of stem-final /p/ and /k/ may be called a phonologically conditioned stem alternation. Icelandic thus shows several types of phonologically conditioned stem alternations and can therefore be called opaque with respect to this feature. |
Icelandic also shows a number of phonologically conditioned affix alternations. A first example concerns the singular definite article suffixes, which are added to nouns that are already inflected with a suffix for case, number and gender. The singular definite article suffixes alternate between a variant with and without a vowel, such as –inn vs –nn, -ið vs –ð and –inni vs -nni. The choice of the suffix depends on the form of the noun that it attaches to: suffixes with a vowel attach to inflected nouns ending in a consonant, whereas suffixes without a vowel combine with inflected nouns that end in a vowel (Einarsson 1949: 49-50): (113)hest-ur-inn horse-sg.m.nom-def.sg.m.nom ‘horse’ (Einarsson 1949: 48) (114)tím-i-nn time-sg.m.nom-def.sg.m.nom ‘time’(Einarsson 1949: 48) (115)kinn-ø-inni cheek-sg.f.dat-def.sg.f.dat ‘cheek’ (Einarsson 1949: 49) (116)á-ø-nni river-sg.f.dat-def.sg.f.dat ‘river’(Einarsson 1949: 49) Since the choice of suffix depends on the phonological form of the stem, this alternation can be called a phonologically conditioned affix alternation. A second example of a phonologically conditioned affix alternation in Icelandic involves the masculine nominative singular suffix –ur, which alternates with –r depending on the ending of the stem that it attaches to. The suffix –ur is used when the stem ends in a consonant, whereas the suffix –r is used with nouns ending in a vowel (Einarsson 1949: 33, 51). This alternation involves both strong declension nominal and strong declension adjectival suffixes: (117)hest-ur horse-sg.m.nom ‘horse’(Einarsson 1949: 33) (118)mó-r peat-sg.m.nom ‘peat’(Einarsson 1949: 33) (119)fag-ur beautiful-sg.m.nom ‘beautiful’(Einarsson 1949: 51) (120)há-r tall-sg.m.nom ‘tall’(Einarsson 1949: 51) Again, the affix alternation depends on the phonological characteristics of the stem of the noun or adjective, and therefore it can be called a phonologically conditioned affix alternation. |
| 29 | Hebrew | Modern Hebrew does exhibit cross-reference, as is shown by the following example (well-known from Arik Einstein’s song ani veata): (6) Anive-atane-shane et ha-olam. 1.SGand-2.SG 1.PL-change.FUTOBJDEF-world ‘You and me will change the world.’ The subject argument is expressed lexically as ani veata ‘I and you’ and at the same time encoded grammatically on the verb by ne- ‘1.PL’. That the person marker on the verb is referential in this case, is proved by the following example, lacking a lexically expressed subject argument (internet): (7) Beyaxad ne-shane et ha-olam. together 1.PL-change.FUTOBJDEF-world ‘Together we will change the world.’ In (7), the subject argument is expressed only on the verb, so the person marker ne- ‘1.PL’ must be referential. Allowing cross-reference is a non-transparent feature of Modern Hebrew. | Agreement is considered opaque since it allows a single feature to be expressed more than once at the Morphosyntactic Level. Modern Hebrew is a language with rich inflection and agreement may be expressed on many types of words: demonstratives, adjectives, free and bound pronouns, verbs, nouns, and numerals. Depending on the type of agreeing word, the following features are copied from the head: person, number, gender, and definiteness. These are examples of NPs in which demonstratives and adjectives agree with their nominal head: (44) Ha-yald-a ha-xamud-a hazot DEF-girl-SGDEF-sweet-F.SG this.F.SG ‘this sweet girl’ (45) Ha-yeled ha-xamud haze DEF-boy.sg DEF-sweet.M.SG this.M.SG ‘this sweet boy’ Agreement is an opaque feature of Modern Hebrew. | Modern Hebrew shows plural concord in many cases. Whenever a cardinal number combines with a count noun, the noun receives the plural suffix -im (m.) or -ot (f.) (Glinert 1989, 450). sisha rof-im six doctor-PL ‘six doctors’ (Glinert 1989, 80) Proper names and a small phonological class of nouns can express plural without the use of a plural suffix. (2) sney yáakov two Yaakov ‘two Yaakovs’ (Glinert 1989, 455) Time units, such as days, months and years, with -im may revert to their singular form when combined with numerals over 10. (Glinert 1989, 457) (3) esrim réga twenty minute ‘twenty minutes’ (Gilbert, 1989: 457) Amount terms and ‘group terms’ with -im may revert to their singular form in combination with any numeral (Gilbert, 1989: 457) (4) shmonim dólar eighty dollar ‘eighty dollars’ (Gilbert 1989: 457) | Modern Hebrew does not exhibit tense-copying. The tense used by the original speaker is maintained in indirect speech (Coffin and Bolozky 2005: 374). The following example of an indirect speech report contains two verbs Transparency in Modern Hebrew 17Linguistics in Amsterdam 6 (2013)with different tenses, thus ruling out the possibility that tense-copying has taken place (Coffin and Bolozky 2005: 375): (38) Xavr-ey ha-kneset amru she-lo member-PL.CSDEF-parliament say.PST.3.PLCOMP-not yeshanu et hatsbaat-am. change.FUT.3.PLOBJ voting-3.M.PL ‘The parliament members said that they would not change their vote.’ In (38) the verb in the main clause amru ‘they said’ has the past tense form, while the verb in the subordinate clause yeshanu ‘they will change’ has the future tense form. We may conclude that with respect to tense-copying, Modern Hebrew is a transparent language. | As far as I am aware, extraposition of relative clauses as in (23) does not occur in Modern Hebrew. However, the language does allow interruption of VPs. I am assuming here that auxiliaries belong to the VP, so that the insertion of any constituent between the auxiliary and the main verb results in discontinuity. Modern Hebrew allows auxiliaries to be pushed away from the main verb by inserting an Adverb Phrase (Coffin and Bolozky 2005: 284): Transparency in Modern Hebrew 11Linguistics in Amsterdam 6 (2013)(24) Ha-sipur-im amurim b-eyzeshehu ofen DEF-story-PL should.M.PL in-some way leshakef et ha-metsiut. reflect.INFOBJDEF-reality ‘The stories should in some way reflect reality.’ The word amurim ‘should(M.PL)’ in (24) functions as an auxiliary and leshakef‘to reflect’ is the main verb. This VP is interrupted by the Adverb Phrase beyzeshehu ofen ‘in some way’. The fact that the sequence leshakef et hametsiut‘to reflect reality’ cannot be replaced by a pronoun proves that amurim is truly acting as an auxiliary here: (25) * Ha-sipurim amurim et ze. DEF-story-PL should.M.PLOBJ tha | A common example of raising is the transfer of a Subject from the complement clause to the main clause. Modern Hebrew allows this type of raising, as the following example shows (Glinert 2004: 330): (39) Yosef alul lenatseax. Yosef likely win.INF ‘Yosef is likely to win.’ Without raising, (39) would look as follows (Glinert 2004: 331): (40) Alul she-yosef yenatseax. likely COMP-Yosef win.FUT.3.M.S ‘It is likely that Yosef will win.’ The Subject of the complement clause in (40), Yosef, is raised to the main clause in (39). Allowing raising is an opaque feature of Modern Hebrew. | Modern Hebrew does not make use of circumfixes (Yaniv Hagbi, personal communication, Lior Neu-ner, personal communation). | Hebrew has a verbal system in which vowel patterns, binyanim, are infixed into roots consisting of consonants. The binyanim can consist of a set combination of vowels, or a set combination of a prefix and vowels (Glinert 1989, 458). In (1), the verbal root is .zk.r. The binyan in (1a) looks like hi--i-, carrying a transitive meaning. The binyan in (1b) looks like hu--a-, which means it carries a passive meaning (Glinert 1989, 465). (1a) hizkir remind ‘to remind’ (1b) huzkar remind-PASS ‘to be reminded’ (Glinert 1989, 464) | In Hebrew, constituent placement is quite free when it comes to for instance the placing of the direct object and the indirect object. Relative clauses are always placed directly after the NP it modifies (Neu-ner). There are no signs found for heavy shift in Modern Hebrew (Lior Neu-ner, personal communication). Thus, there are no signs for influence on word order by morphological complexity. | In Hebrew all verbs are formed via the binyanim-system, where vowels are infixed into roots consisting of consonants. There is no suppletion in Hebrew (Lior Neu-ner, personal communication). | In Hebrew all verbs are formed via the binyanim-system, where vowels are infixed into roots consisting of consonants. There is no irregular stem formation in Hebrew (Lior Neu-ner, personal communcation). |
Modern Hebrew possesses a two-way gender system: nouns are either assigned to the feminine or to the masculine gender. Compare the following examples of a feminine and a masculine noun with agreeing adjective: (41) yald-a xamud-a girl-SG sweet-F.SG ‘a sweet girl’ (42) yeled xamud boy.SG sweet.M.SG ‘a sweet boy’ Notice that in adjectives, like xamuda ‘sweet(F.SG)’ in (41), number and gender agreement is fused into a single undividable suffix. Masculine singular agreement as in (42) is characterized by the lack of a suffix. For nouns such as yeled ‘boy’ and yalda ‘girl’ that refer to animates, gender assignment is transparent: biological females belong to the feminine gender and biological males belong to the masculine gender. The assignment of nouns that refer to inanimates, on the other hand, seems to be arbitrary with regard to semantics. There are some formal cues for the gender of inanimate nouns, but these are tendencies rather than strict rules. We have to conclude that Modern Hebrew is opaque with respect to grammatical gender: it possesses a gender system and this gender system is not strictly semantic. |
Modern Hebrew employs different expletive elements, of which ze ‘this/it’ and yesh ‘there is/are’ will be briefly discussed here. Though Modern Hebrew has different expletive elements, their use is not obligatory in all contexts. The following example shows that Modern Hebrew sometimes allows the subject slot to remain empty, yielding a transparent relation between the Morphosyntactic Level and higher levels of grammar (Glinert 2004: 66): (36) (Ze) tov po. (it) good here ‘It is fine here.’ When the dummy subject in (36) is realized, the relation between the Morphosyntactic Level and the higher levels of grammar is rendered non-transparent. It has to be noted, though, that the use of a dummy subject ze as in (36) is characteristic of casual speech and not of the formal register (Glinert 2004: 63). However, in some contexts the expletive element is not optional but instead obligatory, as in the following example with an expletive existential element (Coffin and Bolozky 2005: 323): (37) Yesh brexa ba-shxuna. EXIST pool in.DEF-neighborhood ‘There is a swimming pool in the neighborhood.’ At the Interpersonal Level, this sentence consists of a Referential Subact without any Ascriptive Subact. The element yesh ‘there is/are’ is inserted in the Morphosyntactic Level as if an Ascriptive Subact were mapped onto that slot, but in fact there is no such Subact. Example (36) indicates that Modern Hebrew can be transparent in a context where some languages, such as English, would require a dummy element. Nevertheless, the obligatory use of the existential particle in (37) indicates that Modern Hebrew is not fully transparent in this area. |
Modern Hebrew exhibits morphosyntactic alignment. The grammatical relation Subject can neutralize the distinction between the semantic roles Actor and Undergoer, as the following examples show. In the sentence below, we have a Subject-Actor: (19) Ha-gever rats. DEF-man run.PST.3.M.SG ‘The man ran.’ In (19) the syntactic function Subject coincides with the semantic role Actor, but we can also have a Subject-Undergoer: (20) Ha-gever yashan. DEF-man sleep.PST.3.M.SG ‘The man slept.’ The constituent hagever ‘the man’ stands in the same position and is marked on the verb in the same way in both examples, while its semantic role is Actor in (19) but Undergoer in (20). Passive constructions also neutralize the distinction between those two semantic roles, and Modern Hebrew allows passivization. The following example shows a typical two-place predication with a Subject-Actor and an Object-Undergoer, an active clause: (21) Ha-gever daras et ha-xatul. DEF-man run.over.PST.3.M.SG OBJ DEF-cat ‘The man ran over the cat.’ The passive construction changes the relation between semantic and syntactic categories: (22) Ha-xatul nidras alydey ha-gever. DEF-cat run.over.PASS.PST.3.M.SG by DEF-man ‘The cat was run over by the man.’ In (22) haxatul ‘the cat’ has become a Subject-Undergoer and hagever ‘the man’ has become an oblique argument, while fulfilling the same semantic role as in (21), namely Actor. The examples show that Modern Hebrew employs grammatical relations (at least Subject) and is in that respect opaque. |
In Hebrew, constituent placement is quite free when it comes to for instance the placing of the direct object and the indirect object. Relative clauses are always placed directly after the NP it modifies (Neu-ner). There are no signs found for heavy shift in Modern Hebrew (Lior Neu-ner, personal communication). Thus, there are no signs for influence on word order by morphological complexity. |
Modern Hebrew makes extensive use of affixes. dod ‘uncle’ dodi uncle-POSS-1-SG ‘my uncle’ (Glinert 1989, 30) (2) argaz ‘crate’ argazim crate-PL ‘crates’ (Glinert 1989, 454) Clitics, however, also occur, as in (2). (3) Ten li ´et ha-`et give me-MSC OBJ the pen (4) Ten li t-ha-`et give me-MSC OBJ-the-pen (Hagbi) Hebrew also makes use of particles. The particle ha’ím, for example, introduces a yes/no question and has no further lexical meaning (Lior Neu-ner, personal communication). |
Modern Hebrew is rich in fusional morphology of both types. Stem alternation, for example, often occurs between singular and plural forms of nouns: (46) gever man (47) gvar-im man-PL ‘men’ In (46) the stem is /gever/, while the stem of the plural gvarim ‘men’ in (47) is /gvar/. |
Modern Hebrew exhibits noun declension, as nouns take different plural suffixes, depending on the grammatical gender. (1a) argaz-im crate-PL (1b) tikr -ot ceiling-PL (Glinert 1989, 454). Thus, Hebrew is considered opaque regarding this feature. |
Modern Hebrew exhibits different types of phonological adaptation. I will here provide examples of metathesis and consonant voicing. Metathesis is applied when a root starting with a sibilant is used in the so-called hitpael verb class (verb classes are discussed above in Section 5.4). The third person masculine singular past form of the hitpael paradigm is formed by prefixing the element hit- and transfixing the vowel pattern a-e to the root. Take for example the verb hitlabesh ‘he got dressed’. This verb consists of the root l-b-sh, transfix a-e and prefix hit-. When a root starts with a sibilant (s, sh, z, or ts), the first consonant of the root swaps places with the final consonant of the prefix hit-(Coffin and Bolozky 2005: 98). When for instance the root sh-l-m appears in the hitpael verb class, it takes on the following form: (51) hishtalem be.worthwhile.PST.3.M.SG ‘(it) was worthwhile’ Not applying metathesis leads to an ungrammatical verb form: (52) *hitshalem |
The hitpael verb class provides an example of consonant devoicing. When the root starts with a voiced sibilant (z), two phonological operations take place. Not only does the final consonant of the prefix hit- and the first consonant of the root swap places, but the feature ‘voiced’ is also copied from the first consonant of the root to the final consonant of the prefix. Take, for example, the root z-k-n: (53) hizdaken become.old.PST.3.M.SG ‘(he) grew old’ In (53) the /z/ of the root has switched places with the /t/ of the prefix hit- that changed into its voiced counterpart /d/. |
| 30 | French | French has obligatory Clausal Agreement. It cannot be Cross-Reference because the target cannot be left out: Nous mangea-ons des pommes. /*Mangeaons des pommes. 1PL eatIND.PRS-1PL DET.PL apple-PL We eat apples. | Phrasal Agreement is also obligatory: Les petit-e-s fill-e-s. DET.PL.F small-F.PL girl-F-PL | Plural Concord exists in French as the presence of both deux 'two' and the plural morpheme -es in the sentence below show. J' ai lu deux livr-es. 1SG AUX.1SG readPST.PART two book-PL I read two books. | Tense copying is obligatory in French: Marie a dit qu' elle dans-ait. Marie AUX sayPST.PRT COMP 3SG dance-PST. | Extraposition is possible in French: On a acheté des pomm-es de terre hier pour la raclette. 3SG AUX buyPST.PART DET.PL potato-PL yesterday for DET raclette | Raising is possible in French: Il semble que les élève-s soi-ent fatigué-s. It seemPRS.3SG COMP DET.PL.M student-PL beSBJV-3PL tired-PL.M Les élève-s sembl-ent fatigué-s. DET.PL.M student-PL seemPRS.3SG tired-PL.M | The only possible circumposition in French is the negation ne...pas/jamais/plus: Je ne dor-s pas/jamais/plus. 1SG NEG sleepPRS-3SG NEG/never/anymore |
In French there is Cumulation of TAME: Je mange/ mangeais 1SG eatPRS.1SG/ eatPST.1SG And Case cumulates on pronouns: Je me 1SG.NOM 1SG.ACC/DAT |
Suppletion is quite common with irregular verbs: J(e) suis/ étais/ serai 1SG be.PRS.1SG/ bePST.1SG/ beFUT.1SG I am/was/will be. |
The plural formation of nouns can show irregular stem formation: Ciel - Cieux skySG- skyPL Fol – Foux madSG- madPL |
French has Grammatical Gender, gender is lexically assigned Masculine nouns: le cheval 'the horse' l'armoire 'the wardrobe' le vélo 'the bike' Feminine nouns: la grenouille 'the frog' la table 'the table' la voiture 'the car' |
Nominal expletives in French are used with weather predicates: Il pleut. 3SG.M rain It is raining. With existential predicate#s#: Il y a un chien. 3SG.M there havePRS.3SG DET.M.SG dog There is a dog. And in order to tell the time: Il est trois heure-s. 3SG.M bePRS.3SG three hour-PL It's three o'clock. |
French has a syntactic alignment: Le chien mange la viande. DET dog eatPRS.3SG DET meat La vinde est mangé-e par le chien. DET meat AUX.PASS eatPST.PART-F by DET dog |
Le cadeau qu'ont tous donné à la maîtresse DET.M present COMP havePRS.3PL givePST.PART to DET.F teacher.F les enfants de la classe de Maire . DET.PL kidPL of DET.F class of Marie French is predominantly Head Marking as the example above shows: number, gender and TAME are marked through affixes, while only definiteness and possession are marked on the whole phrase. |
In the formation of plural French shows morphologically conditioned Stem alternation: Travail - Travau-x workSG - work-PL |
French verbs belong to three different groups: the first and biggest group (90% of the verbs belong here) contains all verbs finishing in - er like aimer 'to love', the second all those in - ir like finir 'to finish' and whose past participle finishes in - issant like in finissant 'finishing', while in the third group we find all the other verbs (mostly irregular) not belonging in the first or the second, like aller 'to go'. Nominal declension does not exist in Modern French, but pronouns do still have a residual of the latin declension system: Nominative Accusative Dative 1SG Je Me Me 2SG Tu Te Te 3SG Il, Elle, On Le, La Lui 1PL Nous Nous Nous 2PL Vous Vous Vous 3PL Ils, Elles Les Leur |
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| 31 | Haitian Creole | There is no agreement between the arguments and the verb, therefore we cannot have clausal agreement nor cross-reference: M tande Jan vini. 1SG hear Jean come I hear Jean coming. (Lefebvre et al. 1982; 122) | In Haitian Creole there is no agreement on the phrasal level either. Machin papa m nan. Car dad 1SG DEF My dad's car. (Lefebvre et al. 1982; 26) | Plural concord exists: in the sentence below plural is marked twice, through de 'two' and the plural marker yo. M wè de vwati yo sou wout la. 1SG see two car PL on street DEF I have seen two cars on the road. (Glaude 2012; 234) | Tense copying is absent. Anteriority is expressed semantically through reduplication of the verb in the subordinate clause. Limyè l limyè lanp lan papiyon an vole. Light 3SG light lamp DEF butterfly DET fly Since he had turned on the lamp, the butterfly flew away.(Lefebvre et al. 1982; 153). | Non extraposed: Fi ak cheve long sa yo. Girl with hair long DEM Pl These girls with long hair. Extraposed: Fi sa a ak chevo long nan. Girl DEM DET with hair long DET This girl with long hair. (Lefebvre et al. 1982; 27) | No raising was found in Haitian Creole. | Morphemes in Haitian Creole are self standing. Due to the high isolating nature of this language, no circumfixes infixes exist. No circumpositions were found. |
In Haitian Creole there is no cumulation of TAME, which is expressed through free-standing markers, like te and ap. Case is not present in this language, therefore no such cumulation exists. Jan te ap vini. Jan ANT INAC1 comeINF. Jan would come. (Glaude 2012; 285) |
No suffixation in this language | No suffixation in this language | Grammatical gender does not exist in Haitian Creole. |
Nominal expletives do not exist: Gen yon jè rapè ayisyen . Have DET young rapper haitian There is a young haitian rapper. (Glaude 2012; 325) |
Haitian Creole does not have a pragmatic or semantic alignment, but a syntactic one (Glaude 2012; 104): Jan fè maje a. Jean do food DF Jean prepared the meal. Manje a fè deja. Food DF do already The meal is already done. |
Grammatical Relations are always marked in the phrase level: M wè yonn nan chwal Jan yo . 1SG see DET PREP horse Jean PL I have see one of Jean's horses. (Glaude 2012; 236) Masin papa m na . Car dad 1SG DEF My dad's car. (Lefebvre et al. 1982; 26) |
#Absent# |
#Morphologically conditioned affix alternation and conjugation/declensio n P=O The definite determinant particle la changes in relation to the last syllable of the preceding word (Glaude 2012; 37): C [-nasal] ==> la (es. Tab la 'the table') V [-nasal] ==> a (es. Vwati a 'the car) V [+nasal] ==> an (es. Chen an 'the dog') V [-nas] + C [+nas], V [+nas] + C [+nas] and V [+nas] + C [-nas] ==> nan (es. Machin nan 'the machine')# |
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| 32 | Norwegian | Norwegian Bokmål does not mark features of arguments on the verb (Faarlund, Lie & Vannebo 1997: 468; Askedal 1994: 238).Thus, the verb is not marked for number, person or gender of the subject. This holds for both regularly inflected verbs (1), irregularly inflected verbs (2) and modals (3), and both in present and past tense (4): (1) jeg / du / han /vi snakk-er 1SG.NOM /2SG.NOM / 3SG.M.NOM / 1PL.NOM speak-PRS‘I/you/he/we speak(s)’(2) jeg / du / han /vier 1SG.NOM /2SG.NOM / 3SG.M.NOM / 1PL.NOM be.PRS‘I/you/he/we am/are/is’(3) jeg / du / han /vi kan 1SG.NOM /2SG.NOM / 3SG.M.NOM / 1PL.NOM can.PRS‘I/you/he/we can’(4) jeg / du / han /vi snakk-et 1SG.NOM /2SG.NOM / 3SG.M.NOM / 1PL.NOM speak-PST‘I/you/he/we spoke’The verb is not marked for number, person or gender of the object either: (5) jegslå-r deg / ham / henne / dem1SG.NOM hit-PRS 2SG.ACC / 3SG.M.ACC / 3SG.F.ACC / 3PL.ACC‘I hit you/him/her/them’When the predicate consists of an auxiliary/copula and a participle, neither of these are marked for any features of the subject either (Faarlund et al. 1997: 473): (6) Han ha-dde forsøk-t 3SG.M.NOM have-PST try-PTCP‘He had tried’ (Faarlund et al. 1997: 515) 2 (7) De bli-r overraske-t 3PL.NOM become-PRS surprise-PTCP‘They became surprised’ (Faarlund et al. 1997: 515) When the predicate is verbal, we thus do not see any clausal agreement. However, when an adjective is used as a predicate, this adjective is marked for gender and number and corresponds in these features with the subject noun phrase (Faarlund et al. 1997: 764). Norwegian thus displays clausal agreement when the predicate is adjectival: (8) Hus-et er tom-t house-DEF.SG.Nbe.PRS empty-SG.N‘The house is empty’ (Vinje 2005: 103) (9) Hus-ene er tom-ehouse-DEF.PLbe.PRS empty-PL‘The houses are empty’ (Vinje 2005: 103) (10) Innsats-en var svært beskjeden-ø. effort-DEF.SG.Mbe.PST very modest-SG.M‘The effort was very modest’ (Åfarli & Sakshaug 2006: 63) (11) Blad-ene ble helt gul-e.leaf-DEF.PL become.PST completely yellow-PL‘The leaves became completely yellow’ (Åfarli & Sakshaug 2006: 63) In general, Norwegian clauses require an overt subject (Faarlund et al. 1997: 676). The gender and number markingthus seems to be a copy of the features of the overt subject, rather than being able to refer to an argument by itself. We may therefore conclude that Norwegian shows clausal agreement, and not cross-reference. This clausal agreement is however limited to clauses with adjectival predicates.In addition, Norwegian also expresses clausal agreement between an object and a predicative adjective (Faarlund et al. 1997: 387; Vinje 2005: 103): (12) De fant hus-et tom-t 3PL.NOM find.PST house-DEF.SG.N empty-SG.N 3 ‘They found the house empty’ (Faarlund et al. 1997: 391) Clausal agreement with adjectival predicates thus not only involves subjects but may also apply to objects in Norwegian. Agreementis not always used consistently (Faarlund et al. 1997: 765). In the first place, adjectives that function as predicates sometimes express the semantic rather than the grammatical gender (13) or number (14) of the subject noun: (13) Postbud-eter sjuk-øi dag postman-DEF.SG.N be.PRSill-SG.Min today ‘The postman is ill today’ (Enger & Kristoffersen 2000: 103) (14) Famili-ener stolt-e av ham family-DEF.SG.Mbe.PRS proud-PLof 3SG.M.ACC‘The family is proud of him’(Vinje 2005: 201) Secondly, speakers may simply use the bare forms of the adjectives instead of applying agreement. Both phenomena are relatively new in Norwegian and are subject to a lot of variation between speakers, genres, styles and dialects. It thus seems to be the case that the copying of the features of the subject noun phrase does no longer always occur and clausal agreement may in this way be further limited. | Determiners and adjectives agree with the noun in the noun phrase that they are part of (Faarlund et al. 1997: 202, 366). They can agree with the noun in definiteness, number and gender. In the first place, articles agree with their noun in definiteness, number and, in the case of singular number, gender: (15) en gutt INDEF.SG.M boy(M) ‘a boy’ (Aksedal 1994: 237) (16) ei jente INDEF.SG.F girl(F) ‘a girl’ (Aksedal 1994: 237) 4 (17) et hus INDEF.SG.N house(N) ‘a house’ (Faarlund et al. 1997: 290) (18) dag-er day-INDEF.PL‘days’ (Faarlund et al. 1997: 161) (19) gutt-en boy-DEF.SG.M‘the boy’ (Aksedal 1994: 37) (20) jent-a girl-DEF.SG.F‘the girl’ (Aksedal 1994: 37) (21) barn-et child-DEF.SG.N‘the child’ (Aksedal 1994: 37) (22) jent-ene girl-DEF.PL‘the girls’ (Aksedal 1994: 37) Secondly, some possessives agree with their noun in number and, in the case of singular number, gender. They also express the number and person of the possessor: (23) min bil 1SG.POSS.M.SGcar(M) ‘my car’ (Faarlund et al. 1997: 202) (24) mi lue 1SG.POSS.F.SG hat(F) ‘my hat’ (Faarlund et al. 1997: 202) (25) mitt barn 1SG.POSS.N.SG child(N) ‘my child’ (Faarlund et al. 1997: 202) 5 (26) mine barn-ø 1SG.POSS.PL child-INDEF.PL‘my children’ (Faarlund et al. 1997: 202) Only the 3rd person non-reflexive possessives hans ‘his’, hennes‘her’, deres‘their’ and the 2nd person plural possessive deres ‘your’ do not inflect (Faarlund et al. 1997: 203-4). These possessives do thus not show phrasal agreement. Thirdly, demonstratives agree with their nouns in number and, in the case of singular number, gender. The forms for masculine and feminine gender are the same (Faarlund et al. 1997: 208). Nouns that combine with demonstratives also take the definite article suffix: (27) denne bil-enDEM.SG.Mcar-DEF.SG.M‘this car’ (Faarlund et al. 1997: 202) (28) denne lu-a DEM.SG.F hat-DEF.SG.F‘this hat’ (Faarlund et al. 1997: 202) (29) dette barn-etDEM.SG.N child-DEF.SG.N‘this child’ (Faarlund et al. 1997: 202) (30) disse barn-a DEM.PL child-DEF.PL‘these children’ (Faarlund et al. 1997: 202) A number of quantifiers also agree in number and, in singular number, gender with their head noun in the noun phrase (Faarlund et al. 1997: 216). Examples of quantifiers that show agreement are noen ‘some, any’, all ‘all’, hver ‘every’ and the numeral én ‘one’ (Faarlund et al. 1997: 216-7). Just like the demonstratives these quantifiers typically show the same forms for masculine and feminine singular: (31) Kari ha-r ikkekjøp-t noe-n bok Kari have-PRSNEG buy-PTCP any-SG.M/F book ‘Kari has not bought any book’ (Faarlund et al. 1997: 221) 6 (32) Kari ha-r ikke kjøp-t noe-ø brød Kari have-PRSNEG buy-PTCP any-SG.N bread ‘Kari has not bought any bread’ (Faarlund et al. 1997: 222) (33) Kari ha-r ikke kjøp-t noe-n bøk-er Kari have-PRSNEG buy-PTCP any-PL book-INDEF.PL‘Kari has not bought any books’ (Faarlund et al. 1997: 221)Some other quantifiers, by contrast, do not show inflection and do thus not agree with nouns. These are mainly quantifiers that always express plural, such as begge ‘both’ and all numerals other than én ‘one’ (Faarlund et al. 1997: 218). Since Norwegian does not distinguish between genders in plural, these quantifiers cannot show gender agreement. Adjectives agree with their nouns in definiteness. When the noun is indefinite, the adjectives agree with the nouns in number and, in the case of singular number, gender (34-37). When the noun is definite, the adjectives only agree with the noun in definiteness and not in number or gender (38-41): (34) en svart-ø kattINDEF.SG.M black-SG.Mcat(M) ‘a black cat’ (Faarlund et al. 1997: 347) (35) ei ny-ø bokINDEF.SG.F new-SG.F book(F) ‘a new book’ (Faarlund et al. 1997: 282) (36) et vakker-t landINDEF.SG.N beautiful-SG.N country(N) ‘a beautiful country’ (Faarlund et al. 1997: 392) (37) god-e karakter-er good-PL grade-INDEF.PL‘good grades’ (Faarlund et al. 1997: 348) (38) den stor-e bil-enDEF.SG.M big-DEFcar-DEF.SG.M‘the big car’ (Faarlund et al. 1997: 385) 7 (39) denny-e bok-aDEF.SG.F new-DEF book-DEF.SG.F‘the new book’ (Faarlund et al. 1997: 282) (40) det stor-e hus-et DEF.SG.N big-DEF house-DEF.SG.N‘the big house’ (Faarlund et al. 1997: 385) (41) de flink-e jente-neDEF.PL good-DEF girl-DEF.PL‘the good/clever girls’ (Faarlund et al. 1997: 347) Examples (38-41) show that when a definite noun combines with an adjective, the noun generally both takes a definite suffix and a free-standing definite article den, det or de. This is called dobbelt bestemthet‘double definiteness’(Faarlund et al. 1997: 296). | In Norwegian, plural nouns are always marked by a plural suffix, i.e. also when there is a numeral that indicates that the noun is plural (Faarlund et al. 1997: 160, 218) (42) bøk-erbook-PL‘books’ (Faarlund et al. 1997: 166) (43) tre bøk-er three book-PL‘three books’ (Faarlund et al. 1997: 218) Norwegian is therefore opaque with respect to plural concord. | Norwegian shows tense copying in subordinate clauses. The following two examples express the same situation: at some moment in the past someone said something about the present. Example (44) directly reflects this situation, by using direct speech showing a present tense form of the verb å studere ‘to study’. However, example (45), which contains a subordinate 8 clause with indirect speech, shows tense copying, with the subordinate clause having the same tense as the main clause: (44) Hun sa: «Jeg studer-er språk» 3SG.F.NOM say.PST 1SG.NOM study-PRS language ‘She said: “I study language”’ (Faarlund et al. 1997: 573) (45) Hun sa at hun studer-te språk 3SG.F.NOM say.PST that 3SG.F.NOM study-PST language ‘She said that she studied language’ (Faarlund et al. 1997: 573) |
Norwegian full nouns do not show case-marking, except for the genitive marking =s (Vinje 2005: 87). This genitive marking, which takes the form of a clitic (Kristoffersen 2000: 332), never expresses any other semantic category at the same time: (57) skipper-en=s hår og skjegg skipper-DEF.SG.M=GEN hair and beard ‘the skipper’s hair and beard’ (Kristoffersen 2000: 332) Norwegian nouns thus do not show cumulation of case and some other grammatical category. By contrast, almost all Norwegian pronouns show cumulative nominative and accusative marking. In most forms, the same morpheme expresses both case, number, person and, for 3rdperson singular forms, gender: Table 1. Norwegian personal pronouns (Faarlund et al. 1997: 317) Nominative Accusative 1SGjegmeg2SGdu deg3SG.Mhan han/ham 3SG.Fhun henne 3SG.INAN.M/Fdenden3SG.INAN.Ndetdet1PLvioss2PLdere dere 3PLde dem In contrast to Norwegian full nouns, Norwegian pronouns thus display cumulation of case and additional grammatical categories. Cumulation of TAME and an additional category does not occur in Norwegian. Norwegian verbs are conjugated for tense, mood and diathesis (Faarlund et al. 1997: 469; Enger & Kristoffersen 2000: 74-80). Diathesis includes a morphological passive (58) and active, which is unmarked (59): (58) Ball-en spark-es ball-DEF.SG.M kick-PASS.PRS ‘The ball is kicked’ (Enger & Kristoffersen 2000: 211) (59) Marianne spark-er ball-en Marianne kick-PRS ball-DEF.SG.M‘Marianne kicks the ball’ (Enger & Kristoffersen 2000: 211) Thus, diathesis is not cumulatively expressed with TAME. Consequently, cumulation is present in Norwegian, but only in pronouns. |
The irregular Norwegian verb å være ‘to be’ shows suppletion in its present and past tense form: (60) vær-e - er - var - (ha-r) vær-t be-INF be.PRSbe.PST have-PRSbe-PTCP ‘be’‘am/is/are’‘was/were’‘(have) been’ (Strandskogen & Strandskogen 1980: 33) In addition, a few adjectives display suppletion in their comparative and superlative forms. Whereas adjectives usually only take the suffixes –(e)re and –(e)st or combine with the adverbs mer ‘more’ and mest‘most’ to form the comparative and superlative respectively (Faarlund et al. 1997: 351-2), a few adjectives such as the following in addition show a different stem: (61) god - bed-re - be-st good good.COMPA-COMPA good.SUP-SUP ‘good’‘better’‘best’ (Faarlund et al. 1997: 354) (62) liten - mind-re - min-st small small.COMPA-COMPA small.SUP-SUP ‘small’‘smaller’‘smallest’ (Faarlund et al. 1997: 354) (63) gammel - eld-re - eld-stold old.COMPA-COMPA old.SUP-SUP ‘old’‘older’‘oldest’ (Faarlund et al. 1997: 354) Thus, in these comparative and superlative forms a suppletive stem is required . |
Norwegian shows two conjugation classes: weak and strong verbs. The class of strong verbs displays irregular stem formation in the past tense, in the form of a change in the stem vowel (ablaut) (Faarlund et al. 1997: 479). Some examples are shown in (64-67): (64) drikk-e - drikk-er - drakk drink-INF drink-PRS drink.PST ‘drink’‘drink(s)’‘drank’ (Faarlund et al. 1997: 486) (65) gå-ø - gå-r - gikk go-INF go-PRS go.PST ‘go’‘go(es)’‘went’ (Faarlund et al. 1997: 491) (66) si-ø - si-er - sa say-INF say-PRS say.PST ‘say’‘say(s)’‘said’ (Faarlund et al. 1997: 489) (67) gli-ø - gli-r - gled/glei(d) glide-INF glide-PRS glide.PST ‘glide’‘glide(s)’‘glided’ (Faarlund et al. 1997: 487) These alternations are irregular, as verbs with the same stem vowel in the present tense do not always get the same alternative vowel in the past tense, as can be seen in examples (66) and (67). Moreover, the weak verbs do not show a stem alternation, while the strong verbs do. For instance, the verb å rå ‘to advise’ has the same stem vowel as å gå (65), but does not show stem alternation in the past tense. Instead, it takes the past tense suffix –dde (Faarlund et al. 1997: 486). The use of this vowel alternation is thus morphologically determined: it is limited to the morphological class of strong verbs. |
Norwegian Bokmål shows three grammatical genders: masculine, feminine and neuter (Faarlund et al. 1997: 149). Every noun belongs to one of these genders, but to which gender a noun belongs is not visible on the noun itself (Faarlund et al. 1997: 150). Instead, other elements in the noun phrase such as determiners and to a lesser extent adjectives can show the gender of this noun, as these elements show agreement in gender with the head noun of the phrase (Faarlund et al. 1997: 150). For instance singular indefinite masculine nouns take the article en, while singular indefinite feminine nouns take the article ei and singular indefinite neuter nouns combine with the article et. In addition, the suffixed definite articles on masculine, feminine and neuter nouns are –en, -a, -et respectively. Moreover, demonstratives and most possessives have distinct forms for masculine, feminine and neuter nouns. Finally, adjectives are also sensitive to grammatical gender, but they generally have the same form for masculine and feminine nouns, while there is a separate form for neuter nouns. Examples of a masculine, feminine and neuter noun are shown in (68-70): (68) en/min stol - den lille stol-en INDEF.SG.M/1SG.POSS.M.SG chair DEF.SG.M little.DEF chair- DEF.SG.M‘a/my chair’ ‘the little chair’ (Faarlund et al. 1997: 150) (69) ei/mi hylle - den lille hyll-a INDEF.SG.F/1SG.POSS.F.SG shelf DEF.SG.F little.DEF shelf-DEF.SG.F‘a/my shelf’ ‘the little shelf’ (Faarlund et al. 1997: 150) (70) et/mitt bord - det lille bord-et INDEF.SG.N/1SG.POSS.N.SG table DEF.SG.N little.DEF table-DEF.SG.N‘a/my table’ ‘the little table’ (Faarlund et al. 1997: 150) In addition to the three-gender system, it is also possible to use a two-gender system in Norwegian Bokmål with a distinction between common and neuter genus (Faarlund et al. 1997: 150-1). Speakers who use this system, use the masculine forms of the three-gender systems with all nouns that are masculine or feminine in the three-gender system, and in this way combine the masculine and feminine nouns in a common gender: (71) en/min stol - den lille stol-en INDEF.SG.C/1SG.POSS.C.SG chair DEF.SG.C little.DEF chair- DEF.SG.C‘a/my chair’ ‘the little chair’ (Faarlund et al. 1997: 151) (72) en/min hylle - den lille hyll-en INDEF.SG.C/1SG.POSS.C.SG shelf DEF.SG.C little.DEF shelf-DEF.SG.C‘a/my shelf’ ‘the little shelf’ (Faarlund et al. 1997: 151) (73) et/mitt bord - det lille bord-et INDEF.SG.N/1SG.POSS.N.SG table DEF.SG.N little. DEF table-DEF.SG.N‘a/my table’ ‘the little table’ (Faarlund et al. 1997: 151) Another common pattern is to use the three-gender system in that one makes use of the three different suffixed articles –en, -a and –et, while using the indefinite article en with both masculine and feminine nouns (Faarlund et al. 1997: 151). The same speakers typically also use min for both masculine and feminine nouns when it precedes the noun (Faarlund et al. 1997: 151-2): (74) en/min stol - den lille stol-en INDEF.SG.C/1SG.POSS.C.SG chair DEF.SG.C little.DEF chair- DEF.SG.M‘a/my chair’ ‘the little chair’ (Faarlund et al. 1997: 151) (75) en/min hylle - den lille hyll-a INDEF.SG.C/1SG.POSS.C.SG shelf DEF.SG.C little.DEF shelf-DEF.SG.F‘a/my shelf’ ‘the little shelf’ (Faarlund et al. 1997: 151) (76) et/mitt bord - det lille bord-et INDEF.SG.N/1SG.POSS.N.SG table DEF.SG.N little. DEF table-DEF.SG.N‘a/my table’ ‘the little table’ (Faarlund et al. 1997: 151) In all three systems, there are at least two grammatical genders. Thus, Norwegian Bokmål is opaque with respect to this feature. |
Norwegian uses the pronoun det as a nominal expletive, i.e. it is used to fulfil the requirement that all Norwegian sentences have a subject, without having any semantic function (Faarlund et al. 1997: 679). This dummy pronoun is used for instance in weather predicates: (77) det blås-er 3SG.N.NOMblow-PRS ‘it is windy’ (Vinje 2005: 223) (78) det regn-er3SG.N.NOMrain-PRS ‘it is raining’ (Vinje 2005: 223) The dummy pronoun det is also used in some other types of clauses that lack a full semantic subject such as presentation sentences (79) and impersonal passives (80): (79) Det sitt-erkråk-er på tak-et 3SG.N.NOM sit-PRS crow-INDEF.PLon roof-DEF.SG.F ‘There are crows sitting on the roof’ (Vinje 2005: 224) (80) Det må dans-es hel-e natt-a 3SG.N.NOM must.PRS dance-PASS.PRS whole-DEF night-DEF.SG.F ‘There must be dancing all night’ (Åfarli & Sakshaug 2006: 101) In these examples det does not have a clear pragmatic or semantic function either. |
Norwegian shows both neutralisation of pragmatic and semantic roles in intransitive predicates and a passive construction, which indicates that the language makes use of grammatical relations. In general, subjects occur either first in the sentence or, when another constituent fills the first position, they appear as the first nominal after the inflected verb, which always takes the second position (V2) (Faarlund et al. 1997: 674; Enger & Kristoffersen 2000: 238). These subjects can both have the semantic role of agent, recipient and patient (Faarlund et al. 1997: 687). None of these roles require any further marking when they are used as subject. Thus, neither the agent subject in (81) nor the patient subject in (82) is marked: (81) hund-ene hyl-te i bakgård-en dog-DEF.PL yell-PSTin backyard-DEF.SG.M ‘The dogs are yelling in the backyard’ (Faarlund et al. 1997: 466) (82) snø-en smelt-er snow-DEF.SG.M melt-PRS ‘The snow is melting’ (Vinje 2005: 159) This also holds when the subject is a pronoun, even though these do different forms for nominative and accusative case: (83) han klatr-er i tre-en 3SG.M.NOM climb-PRSin tree-DEF.SG.M ‘he climbs in the tree’ (Vinje 2005: 223) (84) han sov-er 3SG.M.NOMsleep-PRS ‘he sleeps’ (Vinje 2005: 156) Thus, the different semantic functions are completely neutralized in these intransitive sentences. The pragmatic functions topic and focus are also neutralized with intransitive predicates. may also have different pragmatic functions, such as topic and focus. Although subjects typically express information that is already given or known (Faarlund et al. 1997: 692) and thus function as topics, they may also contain new information (Faarlund et al. 1997: 692). It is not necessary to mark the argument in a particular way when it functions as focus instead of topic. However, when subjects express new information, it is also common to use a cleft construction (Faarlund et al. 1997: 1091; Åfarli & Sakshaug 2006: 172-3): (85) Det var sjefssykepleier-en som ble ulykkelig 3SG.N be.PST head.nurse-DEF.SG.MREL become.PST unhappy ‘It was the head nurse who became unhappy’ (Åfarli & Sakshaug 2006: 172) Thus, pragmatic roles may influence the position of the subject in the sentence. Nevertheless, as subjects of intransitive predicates in principle may have different pragmatic and semantic roles, there is evidence for neutralization of pragmatic and semantic functions in the argument of an intransitive predicate. In addition, Norwegian shows passive constructions, in which a direct object or indirect object with a patient (86) or recipient (87) role can become the subject (Faarlund et al. 1997: 841-3). (86a)Kåre spis-te kak-a Kåreeat-PST cake-DEF.SG.F ‘Kåre ate the cake’ (86b)Kak-a ble spis-t (av Kåre) cake-DEF.SG.F become.PSTeat-PTCP by Kåre ‘The cake was eaten by Kåre’ (Faarlund et al. 1997: 683) (87) Folk er bli-tt fortal-t mye rar-t people be.PRS become-PTCP tell-PTCP much strange-SG.N ‘People have been told many strange things’ (Moen & Pedersen 2003: 37) Norwegian actually shows two different passive constructions. In the examples above the passive is expressed by an auxiliary and a participle. Alternatively, one can use a synthetic passive that is marked by an –s suffix on the verb: (88) Oppgave-ne lever-e-s hver-ø uke assignment-DEF.PL hand.in-INF-PAS every-SG.M/F week ‘The assignments are handed in every week’ (Faarlund et al. 1997: 514) (89) Oppgave-n ble lever-t for seint assignment-DEF.SG become.PST hand.in-PTCP too late ‘The assignment was handed in too late’ (Faarlund et al. 1997: 514) These two constructions show some small semantic differences. For instance, the synthetic passive such as the one in (88) often has a general meaning, whereas the passive with the auxiliary and participle refers to a concrete instance (Faarlund et al. 1997: 514). However, both passive constructions allow the agent can be expressed in a by-phrase (Åfarli & Sakshaug 2006: 96, 98), and thus show neutralization of semantic functions. Since Norwegian both shows neutralization of semantic and pragmatic roles in intransitive predicates and allows for passivization, it is clear that the language makes use of grammatical relations and thus is opaque with respect to this feature. |
In Norwegian it is common to place the lighter elements before the more heavy ones (Faarlund et al. 1997: 898). This tendency may influence the word order of for instance direct objects and adverbials. Normally, a direct object precedes an adverbial, but when the direct object is very heavy, it may follow such an adverbial: (90) De ha-r send-t hit all-e papir-ene 3PL.NOM have-PRS send-PTCPALL all-DEF.PL paper-DEF.PL ‘They have send all papers here’ (Faarlund et al. 1997: 899) (91) Han ha-r gi-tt tilbake peng-ene 3SG.M.NOM have-PRS give-PTCP back money-DEF.PL ‘He has given back the money’ (Faarlund et al. 1997: 899) By contrast, when the direct object is an unstressed pronoun, it appears in front of the adverbial: (92) Hun ha-r heng-t det opp 3SG.F.NOM have-PRS hang-PTCP 3SG.N up ‘She has hung it up’ (Faarlund et al. 1997: 899) Similarly, heavy subjects such as noun phrases and determiners and light subjects such as unstressed pronouns may appear in different positions (Faarlund et al. 1997: 880): (93) Nå kan ikke mann-en komm-e. now can.PRSNEG man-DEF.SG.M come-INF ‘Now the man cannot come’ (Strandskogen & Strandskogen 1989: 137) (94) Nå kan du ikke komm-e. now can.PRS 2SG.NOMNEG come-INF ‘Now you cannot come’ (Strandskogen & Strandskogen 1989: 136) The heavy subject mannen in (93) follows the adverbial ikke, whereas the light subject du in (94) follows this adverbial. The different orders in (90), (91) and (93) on the one hand and in (92) and (94) on the other hand shows that in Norwegian complexity may affect constituent order. |
22 Norwegian uses both head- and phrase-marking but head-marking seems to be slightly more widespread. Verbal categories such as tense and diathesis are usually expressed by suffixes (Faarlund et al. 1997: 479, 507), which are head-markers. The infinitive is also marked by a suffix (Faarlund et al. 1997: 470), as are the present and past participle (Faarlund et al. 1997: 65, 468). In addition, number and gender of adjectival phrases are marked by suffixes on the adjective (Faarlund et al. 1997: 345). Norwegian also shows a number of clitics, which are phrase-markers. These clitics include for instance the genitive clitic and the negative clitic (Kristoffersen 2000: 333, 335). Moreover, Norwegian has a number of particles such as the negation word ikke, conjunctions and prepositions (Faarlund et al. 1997: 23-25), which can be counted as phrase-markers. Finally, in noun phrases generally several or all elements are marked: (95) den stor-e bil-en DEF.SG.M big-DEFcar-DEF.SG.M ‘the big car’ (Faarlund et al. 1997: 385) In example (95), both the free-standing article, the adjective and the noun are marked for definiteness, and the masculine singular features of the noun are also marked both on the head and on the free-standing article. Noun phrases thus seem to be neither head- or phrase-marking. Nevertheless, since head-marking seems to be somewhat more frequent in Norwegian than phrase-marking, Norwegian is considered opaque with respect to this feature. |
Norwegian Bokmål shows morphophonologically conditioned stem alternation in plural nouns. Some nouns change their stem vowel when the indefinite plural suffix –(e)r is attached (Faarlund et al. 1997: 162, 164, 166-7, 173): (96) bonde - bønde-r farmer farmer-INDEF.PL (Faarlund et al. 1997: 162) (97) natt - nett-er night night-INDEF.PL (Faarlund et al. 1997: 166) (98) ku - ky-r cow cow-INDEF.PL (Faarlund et al. 1997: 167) (99) tre - træ-r tree tree-INDEF.PL (Faarlund et al. 1997: 173) Other nouns also change the coda of the stem when they are combined with the indefinite plural suffix -er or -re: (100) fot - føtt-er foot - foot-INDEF.PL (Faarlund et al. 1997: 162) (101) far - fed-re father - father-INDEF.PL (Faarlund et al. 1997: 164) It should be noted however, that nominal stem alternations are only marginal in present-day Norwegian (Askedal 1994: 229). Also adjectives may show stem alternations under influence of a suffix that is attached. A number of adjectives change their stem vowel when the comparative suffix –re or the superlative suffix -st is added (Faarlund et al. 1997: 352-3): (102) lang - leng-re - leng-st long long-COMPA long-SUP ‘long’‘longer’‘longest’ (Faarlund et al. 1997: 353) (103) stor - stør-re - stør-st big big-COMPA big-SUP ‘big’‘bigger’‘biggest (Faarlund et al. 1997: 353) (104) ung - yng-re - yng-st young yong-COMPA young-SUP ‘young’‘younger’‘youngest’ (Faarlund et al. 1997: 353) (105) tung - tyng-re - tyng-st heavy heavy-COMPA heavy-SUP ‘heavy’‘heavier’‘heaviest’ (Faarlund et al. 1997: 353) Finally, morphophonologically conditioned stem alternation occurs in the past participle forms of some strong verbs. Here it concerns verbs that show a stem (vowel) alternation that only occurs in the past participle, when the past participle suffix is attached: (106) drikk-e - drikk-er - drakk - drukk-et drink-INF drink-PRS drink.PST drink-PTCP ‘drink’‘drink(s)’‘drank’‘has/have drunk’ (Faarlund et al. 1997: 486) (107) si-ø - si-er - sa - sag-t say-INF say-PRS say.PST say-PTCP ‘say’‘say(s)’‘said’‘has/have said’ (Faarlund et al. 1997: 489) (108) bære-ø - bær-er - bar - bår-et carry-INF carry-PRS carry.PST carry-PTCP ‘carry’‘carry/carries’‘carried’‘has/have carried’ (Faarlund et al. 1997: 488) |
Norwegian Bokmål shows two conjugation classes (Faarlund et al. 1997: 479). So-called weak verbs take a suffix to mark the past tense (109), whereas so-called strong verbs show a change in the stem vowel (ablaut) (110), as was also shown above: (109) kast-et throw-PST ‘threw’ (Faarlund et al. 1997: 481) (110) bet bite.PST‘bit’ (Faarlund et al. 1997: 487) The form of the verb itself does not show to which class of verbs it belongs. Instead, the verb class or conjugation is an inherent property of a verb (Åfarli & Sakshaug 2006: 219). Norwegian does not show nominal declension classes. Although nouns differ in the plural suffix that they take, which may either be –er, -e, -ror–ø, the nouns cannot be divided in morphological classes, as the choice between these suffixes is largely phonologically or morphophonologically determined (Faarlund et al. 1997: 161-173). The affixes that weak verbs take, can further be divided into two subgroups. Weak verbs ending in a cluster of two or more consonants usually take the suffix –et/-a (Faarlund et al. 1997: 482): (111) elsk-et love-PST ‘loved’ (Vinje 2005: 151) By contrast, other weak verbs take the affix –te/-de/dde (Faarlund et al. 1997: 483). More specifically, verbs ending in –d, -g, -v, -ei or –øy get the suffix –de, verbs ending in a vowel take the suffix –dde, and the other verbs take –te (Faarlund et al. 1997: 483): (112) reis-te travel-PST (Faarlund et al. 1997: 481) (113) lev-de live-PST (Faarlund et al. 1997: 481) (114) ro-dde row-PST (Faarlund et al. 1997: 481) Since the alternation between et/-a and –te/-de/-dde depends on the phonological characteristics of the verb that the suffix attaches to (Faarlund et al. 1997: 483) and only applies to the affixes on weak verbs, it is a morphophonologically conditioned affix alternation. There are also two forms of the indefinite plural suffix which may be argued to constitute a morphophonologically conditioned affix alternation. The most common way to mark the indefinite plural is with a suffix –er (Faarlund et al. 1997: 160). However, most neuter nouns that consist of only one syllable are not marked for indefinite plural, i.e. they take a zero-suffix (Faarlund et al. 1997: 172): (115) år-ø year-INDEF.PL ‘years’ (Faarlund et al. 1997: 172) Since this alternation between –er and –ø in general only concerns neuter nouns of only one syllable, it is a morphophonologically conditioned affix alternation. |
Norwegian shows several types of phonologically conditioned stem alternation. A first example concerns simplification of three-consonant clusters. Norwegian allows three-consonant clusters in codas of the type sonorant + obstruent + obstruent, but the first obstruent in this cluster must be /s/ (Kristoffersen 2008: 109). When a sonorant + obstruent + obstruent cluster in the coda arises through inflection, and the first obstruent happens not to be /s/, simplification may occur in order to avoid this three-consonant cluster (Kristoffersen 2008:109): (116) tenk-e - tenk-te[teŋ.kə] [teŋ.tə] think-INF think-PST ‘think’‘thought’ (Kristoffersen 2000: 109) (117) skarp-ø - skarp-t [skɑɾp] [skɑᖰ] sharp-SG.M/F sharp-SG.N ‘sharp’‘sharp’ (Kristoffersen 2000:109) In these examples, the simplification leads to the loss of the stem-final consonant, causing a stem alternation. As the alternation occurs in words of different morphological classes, e.g. verbs (116) and adjectives (117), the simplification of three-consonant clusters can be called a phonologically conditioned stem alternation. A second example of a phonologically conditioned stem alternation in Norwegian involves nasal assimilation. When the nasal /n/ is followed directly by a /p/ or /k/, it adapts its place of articulation to this stop and turns into an /m/ or /ŋ/ (Kristoffersen 2000: 319). In this way, the clusters /np/ and /nk/, which do in principle not occur in Norwegian (Kristoffersen 2000: 319, 2008: 43), are avoided also in complex words. Thus, this rule leads to phonologically conditioned stem alternations for instance in the following compounds that have the stem tann /tɑn/ as their first part: (118) tann-børste [tɑm.bœʂ.tə] tooth-brush ‘tooth brush’ (Kristoffersen 2000: 321) (119) tann-krem [tɑŋ.kɾeːm] tooth-paste ‘tooth paste’ (Kristoffersen 2000: 321) The rule is not obligatory, but especially in fast and informal speech the alternation occurs very frequently (Kristoffersen 2000: 321, 2008: 44). Norwegian may thus be called opaque, as it shows several types of phonologically conditioned stem alternations. |
Finally, a number of phonologically conditioned affix alternations can be found in Norwegian. Firstly, affix alternations occur in the plural and definite agreement suffixes on adjectives, which are both –e and are usually pronounced as /-ə/ (Faarlund et al. 1997: 366; Kristoffersen 2008: 46). However, the suffix –e, /ə/, becomes phonologically zerowhen it combines with an adjective that ends in such an unstressed –e as well: (120) stille - stille-ø quiet quiet-PL ‘quiet’‘quiet’ (Faarlund et al. 1997: 375) (121) moderne - moderne-ø modern modern-DEF ‘modern’‘modern’ (Faarlund et al. 1997: 375) A second type of phonologically conditioned affix alternation in Norwegian involves suffixes of the form –t, /t/, such as the past participle suffix and the neuter singular adjective suffix. Both suffixes are phonologically zerowhen they attach to a stem that already ends in –t, as Norwegian geminates always have to occur spread over two syllables and can thus not occur at the end of a word (Kristoffersen 2000: 214): (122) let-e - let-t [leːtə] [lɛt] search-INF search-PTCP ‘search’‘searched’ (Kristoffersen 2000: 214) (123) hvit-ø - hvit-t [ʋiːt] [ʋit] white-SG.M/F white-SG.N ‘white’‘white’ (Kristoffersen 2000: 214) It should be noted that the stems in (122) and (123) change as well. When the suffix is attached, the stem vowel becomes short. |
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| 32 | Norwegian | Norwegian Bokmål does not mark features of arguments on the verb (Faarlund, Lie & Vannebo 1997: 468; Askedal 1994: 238).Thus, the verb is not marked for number, person or gender of the subject. This holds for both regularly inflected verbs (1), irregularly inflected verbs (2) and modals (3), and both in present and past tense (4): (1) jeg / du / han /vi snakk-er 1SG.NOM /2SG.NOM / 3SG.M.NOM / 1PL.NOM speak-PRS‘I/you/he/we speak(s)’(2) jeg / du / han /vier 1SG.NOM /2SG.NOM / 3SG.M.NOM / 1PL.NOM be.PRS‘I/you/he/we am/are/is’(3) jeg / du / han /vi kan 1SG.NOM /2SG.NOM / 3SG.M.NOM / 1PL.NOM can.PRS‘I/you/he/we can’(4) jeg / du / han /vi snakk-et 1SG.NOM /2SG.NOM / 3SG.M.NOM / 1PL.NOM speak-PST‘I/you/he/we spoke’The verb is not marked for number, person or gender of the object either: (5) jegslå-r deg / ham / henne / dem1SG.NOM hit-PRS 2SG.ACC / 3SG.M.ACC / 3SG.F.ACC / 3PL.ACC‘I hit you/him/her/them’When the predicate consists of an auxiliary/copula and a participle, neither of these are marked for any features of the subject either (Faarlund et al. 1997: 473): (6) Han ha-dde forsøk-t 3SG.M.NOM have-PST try-PTCP‘He had tried’ (Faarlund et al. 1997: 515) 2 (7) De bli-r overraske-t 3PL.NOM become-PRS surprise-PTCP‘They became surprised’ (Faarlund et al. 1997: 515) When the predicate is verbal, we thus do not see any clausal agreement. However, when an adjective is used as a predicate, this adjective is marked for gender and number and corresponds in these features with the subject noun phrase (Faarlund et al. 1997: 764). Norwegian thus displays clausal agreement when the predicate is adjectival: (8) Hus-et er tom-t house-DEF.SG.Nbe.PRS empty-SG.N‘The house is empty’ (Vinje 2005: 103) (9) Hus-ene er tom-ehouse-DEF.PLbe.PRS empty-PL‘The houses are empty’ (Vinje 2005: 103) (10) Innsats-en var svært beskjeden-ø. effort-DEF.SG.Mbe.PST very modest-SG.M‘The effort was very modest’ (Åfarli & Sakshaug 2006: 63) (11) Blad-ene ble helt gul-e.leaf-DEF.PL become.PST completely yellow-PL‘The leaves became completely yellow’ (Åfarli & Sakshaug 2006: 63) In general, Norwegian clauses require an overt subject (Faarlund et al. 1997: 676). The gender and number markingthus seems to be a copy of the features of the overt subject, rather than being able to refer to an argument by itself. We may therefore conclude that Norwegian shows clausal agreement, and not cross-reference. This clausal agreement is however limited to clauses with adjectival predicates.In addition, Norwegian also expresses clausal agreement between an object and a predicative adjective (Faarlund et al. 1997: 387; Vinje 2005: 103): (12) De fant hus-et tom-t 3PL.NOM find.PST house-DEF.SG.N empty-SG.N 3 ‘They found the house empty’ (Faarlund et al. 1997: 391) Clausal agreement with adjectival predicates thus not only involves subjects but may also apply to objects in Norwegian. Agreementis not always used consistently (Faarlund et al. 1997: 765). In the first place, adjectives that function as predicates sometimes express the semantic rather than the grammatical gender (13) or number (14) of the subject noun: (13) Postbud-eter sjuk-øi dag postman-DEF.SG.N be.PRSill-SG.Min today ‘The postman is ill today’ (Enger & Kristoffersen 2000: 103) (14) Famili-ener stolt-e av ham family-DEF.SG.Mbe.PRS proud-PLof 3SG.M.ACC‘The family is proud of him’(Vinje 2005: 201) Secondly, speakers may simply use the bare forms of the adjectives instead of applying agreement. Both phenomena are relatively new in Norwegian and are subject to a lot of variation between speakers, genres, styles and dialects. It thus seems to be the case that the copying of the features of the subject noun phrase does no longer always occur and clausal agreement may in this way be further limited. | Determiners and adjectives agree with the noun in the noun phrase that they are part of (Faarlund et al. 1997: 202, 366). They can agree with the noun in definiteness, number and gender. In the first place, articles agree with their noun in definiteness, number and, in the case of singular number, gender: (15) en gutt INDEF.SG.M boy(M) ‘a boy’ (Aksedal 1994: 237) (16) ei jente INDEF.SG.F girl(F) ‘a girl’ (Aksedal 1994: 237) 4 (17) et hus INDEF.SG.N house(N) ‘a house’ (Faarlund et al. 1997: 290) (18) dag-er day-INDEF.PL‘days’ (Faarlund et al. 1997: 161) (19) gutt-en boy-DEF.SG.M‘the boy’ (Aksedal 1994: 37) (20) jent-a girl-DEF.SG.F‘the girl’ (Aksedal 1994: 37) (21) barn-et child-DEF.SG.N‘the child’ (Aksedal 1994: 37) (22) jent-ene girl-DEF.PL‘the girls’ (Aksedal 1994: 37) Secondly, some possessives agree with their noun in number and, in the case of singular number, gender. They also express the number and person of the possessor: (23) min bil 1SG.POSS.M.SGcar(M) ‘my car’ (Faarlund et al. 1997: 202) (24) mi lue 1SG.POSS.F.SG hat(F) ‘my hat’ (Faarlund et al. 1997: 202) (25) mitt barn 1SG.POSS.N.SG child(N) ‘my child’ (Faarlund et al. 1997: 202) 5 (26) mine barn-ø 1SG.POSS.PL child-INDEF.PL‘my children’ (Faarlund et al. 1997: 202) Only the 3rd person non-reflexive possessives hans ‘his’, hennes‘her’, deres‘their’ and the 2nd person plural possessive deres ‘your’ do not inflect (Faarlund et al. 1997: 203-4). These possessives do thus not show phrasal agreement. Thirdly, demonstratives agree with their nouns in number and, in the case of singular number, gender. The forms for masculine and feminine gender are the same (Faarlund et al. 1997: 208). Nouns that combine with demonstratives also take the definite article suffix: (27) denne bil-enDEM.SG.Mcar-DEF.SG.M‘this car’ (Faarlund et al. 1997: 202) (28) denne lu-a DEM.SG.F hat-DEF.SG.F‘this hat’ (Faarlund et al. 1997: 202) (29) dette barn-etDEM.SG.N child-DEF.SG.N‘this child’ (Faarlund et al. 1997: 202) (30) disse barn-a DEM.PL child-DEF.PL‘these children’ (Faarlund et al. 1997: 202) A number of quantifiers also agree in number and, in singular number, gender with their head noun in the noun phrase (Faarlund et al. 1997: 216). Examples of quantifiers that show agreement are noen ‘some, any’, all ‘all’, hver ‘every’ and the numeral én ‘one’ (Faarlund et al. 1997: 216-7). Just like the demonstratives these quantifiers typically show the same forms for masculine and feminine singular: (31) Kari ha-r ikkekjøp-t noe-n bok Kari have-PRSNEG buy-PTCP any-SG.M/F book ‘Kari has not bought any book’ (Faarlund et al. 1997: 221) 6 (32) Kari ha-r ikke kjøp-t noe-ø brød Kari have-PRSNEG buy-PTCP any-SG.N bread ‘Kari has not bought any bread’ (Faarlund et al. 1997: 222) (33) Kari ha-r ikke kjøp-t noe-n bøk-er Kari have-PRSNEG buy-PTCP any-PL book-INDEF.PL‘Kari has not bought any books’ (Faarlund et al. 1997: 221)Some other quantifiers, by contrast, do not show inflection and do thus not agree with nouns. These are mainly quantifiers that always express plural, such as begge ‘both’ and all numerals other than én ‘one’ (Faarlund et al. 1997: 218). Since Norwegian does not distinguish between genders in plural, these quantifiers cannot show gender agreement. Adjectives agree with their nouns in definiteness. When the noun is indefinite, the adjectives agree with the nouns in number and, in the case of singular number, gender (34-37). When the noun is definite, the adjectives only agree with the noun in definiteness and not in number or gender (38-41): (34) en svart-ø kattINDEF.SG.M black-SG.Mcat(M) ‘a black cat’ (Faarlund et al. 1997: 347) (35) ei ny-ø bokINDEF.SG.F new-SG.F book(F) ‘a new book’ (Faarlund et al. 1997: 282) (36) et vakker-t landINDEF.SG.N beautiful-SG.N country(N) ‘a beautiful country’ (Faarlund et al. 1997: 392) (37) god-e karakter-er good-PL grade-INDEF.PL‘good grades’ (Faarlund et al. 1997: 348) (38) den stor-e bil-enDEF.SG.M big-DEFcar-DEF.SG.M‘the big car’ (Faarlund et al. 1997: 385) 7 (39) denny-e bok-aDEF.SG.F new-DEF book-DEF.SG.F‘the new book’ (Faarlund et al. 1997: 282) (40) det stor-e hus-et DEF.SG.N big-DEF house-DEF.SG.N‘the big house’ (Faarlund et al. 1997: 385) (41) de flink-e jente-neDEF.PL good-DEF girl-DEF.PL‘the good/clever girls’ (Faarlund et al. 1997: 347) Examples (38-41) show that when a definite noun combines with an adjective, the noun generally both takes a definite suffix and a free-standing definite article den, det or de. This is called dobbelt bestemthet‘double definiteness’(Faarlund et al. 1997: 296). | In Norwegian, plural nouns are always marked by a plural suffix, i.e. also when there is a numeral that indicates that the noun is plural (Faarlund et al. 1997: 160, 218) (42) bøk-erbook-PL‘books’ (Faarlund et al. 1997: 166) (43) tre bøk-er three book-PL‘three books’ (Faarlund et al. 1997: 218) Norwegian is therefore opaque with respect to plural concord. | Norwegian shows tense copying in subordinate clauses. The following two examples express the same situation: at some moment in the past someone said something about the present. Example (44) directly reflects this situation, by using direct speech showing a present tense form of the verb å studere ‘to study’. However, example (45), which contains a subordinate 8 clause with indirect speech, shows tense copying, with the subordinate clause having the same tense as the main clause: (44) Hun sa: «Jeg studer-er språk» 3SG.F.NOM say.PST 1SG.NOM study-PRS language ‘She said: “I study language”’ (Faarlund et al. 1997: 573) (45) Hun sa at hun studer-te språk 3SG.F.NOM say.PST that 3SG.F.NOM study-PST language ‘She said that she studied language’ (Faarlund et al. 1997: 573) | Norwegian shows extraposition in that relatively heavy modifiers in a noun phrase can be realised at the end of the clause instead of adjacently to the head noun. This occurs most often with relative clauses (46), but also modifying infinitive constructions (47) and prepositional phrases (48) can be extraposed: (46) Den mann-en må være dum-ø som ikkeDEF.SG.M man-DEF.SG.M must.PRS be.INF stupid-SG.MRELNEG kan forstå dettecan.PRS understand.INF this ‘The man who cannot understand this must be stupid’ (Faarlund et al. 1997: 277) The relative clause som ikke kan forstå dette is a modifier of the noun mannen, but is here placed at the end of the clause, instead of adjacent to the noun. In example (47), the infinitive construction å stemme over belongs to the noun phrase noe forslag, but is placed at the end of the clause. (47) Det forelå ikke noe forslag på møte-t 3SG.N be.available.PSTNEG some.SG.N proposal on meeting-DEF.SG.N i går å stemme over yesterday to vote.INF about ‘There was no proposal available to vote about at the meeting yesterday’ (Faarlund et al. 1997: 277) 9 Finally, in (48) the prepositional phrase uten arbeidstillatelse is non-adjacent to the rest of the noun phrase mange flyktninger. (48) Vi ha-r mange flyktning-eri Norge uten1PL.NOM have-PRS many refugee-INDEF.PLin Norway without arbeidstillatelsework.permit ‘We have many refugees in Norway without a work permit’ (Faarlund et al. 1997: 278) Norwegian also shows extraction, i.e. a modifying element of a noun phrase may be placed at the beginning of the sentence, instead of adjacent to the rest of the noun phrase, in order to emphasize it (Faarlund et al. 1997: 278). This extraction typically involves prepositional phrases, as in (49): (49)I luft-a hør-eren sjelden om trafikkulykke-r in air-DEF.SG.F hear-PRS one rarely about traffic.accident-INDEF.PL‘One rarely hears about traffic accidents in the air’ (Faarlund et al. 1997: 278) In this clause, the prepositional phrase i lufta occurs at the beginning of the clause instead of next to the rest of the noun phrase trafikkulykker. | 9 Finally, in (48) the prepositional phrase uten arbeidstillatelse is non-adjacent to the rest of the noun phrase mange flyktninger. (48) Vi ha-r mange flyktning-eri Norge uten1PL.NOM have-PRS many refugee-INDEF.PLin Norway without arbeidstillatelsework.permit ‘We have many refugees in Norway without a work permit’ (Faarlund et al. 1997: 278) Norwegian also shows extraction, i.e. a modifying element of a noun phrase may be placed at the beginning of the sentence, instead of adjacent to the rest of the noun phrase, in order to emphasize it (Faarlund et al. 1997: 278). This extraction typically involves prepositional phrases, as in (49): (49)I luft-a hør-eren sjelden om trafikkulykke-r in air-DEF.SG.F hear-PRS one rarely about traffic.accident-INDEF.PL‘One rarely hears about traffic accidents in the air’ (Faarlund et al. 1997: 278) In this clause, the prepositional phrase i lufta occurs at the beginning of the clause instead of next to the rest of the noun phrase trafikkulykker. Raising: + In Norwegian, it is possible to raise the subject of a subordinate clause to become the subject of the main clause, by using an infinitive construction instead of a subordinate clause (Faarlund et al. 1997: 1026): (50a)Skip-et synes å komme nær-mere ship-DEF.SG.N seem.PRSto come.INF close-COMPA‘The ship seems to come closer’ (Faarlund et al. 1997: 1026) (50b) Det synes som (om) skip-et komm-er nær-mere 3SG.N seem.PRSasif ship-DEF.SG.N come-PRS close-COMPA‘It seems as if the ship comes closer’ (Faarlund et al. 1997: 1026) The clause in (50a) shows raising of the subject skipet, which semantically belongs to the infinitive å komme, but here functions as the subject of the main verb synes. The clause has a counterpart with a subordinate clause, shown in (50b), and the subject of this subordinate 10 clause corresponds to the subject of the main clause in (50a). Another possibility is for the subject of the subordinate clause to become the object of the main clause: (51) Vi forvent-er dekk-ettil å være klar-t.1PL expect-PRS deck-DEF.SG.Ntoto be.INF ready-SG.N‘We expect the deck to be ready’(Lødrup 2002: 277)In (51), the object dekket is semantically the only argument and thus the subject of å være klart. In addition to raising of subjects from subordinate clauses, Norwegian also shows raising of objects from subordinate clauses (Faarlund et al. 1997: 1029): (52a) Buks-a er lett-ø å vask-e trousers-DEF.SG.Fbe.PRS easy-SG.Fto wash-INF‘The trousers are easy to wash’ (Faarlund et al. 1997:1029) (52b) Det er lett-ø å vaske buks-a 3SG.Nbe.PRS easy-SG.Fto wash-INF trousers-DEF.SG.F‘It is easy to wash the trousers’ (Faarlund et al. 1997:1029) The object of the subordinate clause in (52b) is the subject of the main clause in (52a). | The only affixes described for Norwegian by Faarlund et al. (1997) are suffixes and prefixes. | The only affixes described for Norwegian by Faarlund et al. (1997) are suffixes and prefixes. |
Norwegian full nouns do not show case-marking, except for the genitive marking =s (Vinje 2005: 87). This genitive marking, which takes the form of a clitic (Kristoffersen 2000: 332), never expresses any other semantic category at the same time: (57) skipper-en=s hår og skjegg skipper-DEF.SG.M=GEN hair and beard ‘the skipper’s hair and beard’ (Kristoffersen 2000: 332) Norwegian nouns thus do not show cumulation of case and some other grammatical category. By contrast, almost all Norwegian pronouns show cumulative nominative and accusative marking. In most forms, the same morpheme expresses both case, number, person and, for 3rdperson singular forms, gender: Table 1. Norwegian personal pronouns (Faarlund et al. 1997: 317) Nominative Accusative 1SGjegmeg2SGdu deg3SG.Mhan han/ham 3SG.Fhun henne 3SG.INAN.M/Fdenden3SG.INAN.Ndetdet1PLvioss2PLdere dere 3PLde dem In contrast to Norwegian full nouns, Norwegian pronouns thus display cumulation of case and additional grammatical categories. Cumulation of TAME and an additional category does not occur in Norwegian. Norwegian verbs are conjugated for tense, mood and diathesis (Faarlund et al. 1997: 469; Enger & Kristoffersen 2000: 74-80). Diathesis includes a morphological passive (58) and active, which is unmarked (59): (58) Ball-en spark-es ball-DEF.SG.M kick-PASS.PRS ‘The ball is kicked’ (Enger & Kristoffersen 2000: 211) (59) Marianne spark-er ball-en Marianne kick-PRS ball-DEF.SG.M‘Marianne kicks the ball’ (Enger & Kristoffersen 2000: 211) Thus, diathesis is not cumulatively expressed with TAME. Consequently, cumulation is present in Norwegian, but only in pronouns. |
The irregular Norwegian verb å være ‘to be’ shows suppletion in its present and past tense form: (60) vær-e - er - var - (ha-r) vær-t be-INF be.PRSbe.PST have-PRSbe-PTCP ‘be’‘am/is/are’‘was/were’‘(have) been’ (Strandskogen & Strandskogen 1980: 33) In addition, a few adjectives display suppletion in their comparative and superlative forms. Whereas adjectives usually only take the suffixes –(e)re and –(e)st or combine with the adverbs mer ‘more’ and mest‘most’ to form the comparative and superlative respectively (Faarlund et al. 1997: 351-2), a few adjectives such as the following in addition show a different stem: (61) god - bed-re - be-st good good.COMPA-COMPA good.SUP-SUP ‘good’‘better’‘best’ (Faarlund et al. 1997: 354) (62) liten - mind-re - min-st small small.COMPA-COMPA small.SUP-SUP ‘small’‘smaller’‘smallest’ (Faarlund et al. 1997: 354) (63) gammel - eld-re - eld-stold old.COMPA-COMPA old.SUP-SUP ‘old’‘older’‘oldest’ (Faarlund et al. 1997: 354) Thus, in these comparative and superlative forms a suppletive stem is required . |
Norwegian shows two conjugation classes: weak and strong verbs. The class of strong verbs displays irregular stem formation in the past tense, in the form of a change in the stem vowel (ablaut) (Faarlund et al. 1997: 479). Some examples are shown in (64-67): (64) drikk-e - drikk-er - drakk drink-INF drink-PRS drink.PST ‘drink’‘drink(s)’‘drank’ (Faarlund et al. 1997: 486) (65) gå-ø - gå-r - gikk go-INF go-PRS go.PST ‘go’‘go(es)’‘went’ (Faarlund et al. 1997: 491) (66) si-ø - si-er - sa say-INF say-PRS say.PST ‘say’‘say(s)’‘said’ (Faarlund et al. 1997: 489) (67) gli-ø - gli-r - gled/glei(d) glide-INF glide-PRS glide.PST ‘glide’‘glide(s)’‘glided’ (Faarlund et al. 1997: 487) These alternations are irregular, as verbs with the same stem vowel in the present tense do not always get the same alternative vowel in the past tense, as can be seen in examples (66) and (67). Moreover, the weak verbs do not show a stem alternation, while the strong verbs do. For instance, the verb å rå ‘to advise’ has the same stem vowel as å gå (65), but does not show stem alternation in the past tense. Instead, it takes the past tense suffix –dde (Faarlund et al. 1997: 486). The use of this vowel alternation is thus morphologically determined: it is limited to the morphological class of strong verbs. |
Norwegian Bokmål shows three grammatical genders: masculine, feminine and neuter (Faarlund et al. 1997: 149). Every noun belongs to one of these genders, but to which gender a noun belongs is not visible on the noun itself (Faarlund et al. 1997: 150). Instead, other elements in the noun phrase such as determiners and to a lesser extent adjectives can show the gender of this noun, as these elements show agreement in gender with the head noun of the phrase (Faarlund et al. 1997: 150). For instance singular indefinite masculine nouns take the article en, while singular indefinite feminine nouns take the article ei and singular indefinite neuter nouns combine with the article et. In addition, the suffixed definite articles on masculine, feminine and neuter nouns are –en, -a, -et respectively. Moreover, demonstratives and most possessives have distinct forms for masculine, feminine and neuter nouns. Finally, adjectives are also sensitive to grammatical gender, but they generally have the same form for masculine and feminine nouns, while there is a separate form for neuter nouns. Examples of a masculine, feminine and neuter noun are shown in (68-70): (68) en/min stol - den lille stol-en INDEF.SG.M/1SG.POSS.M.SG chair DEF.SG.M little.DEF chair- DEF.SG.M‘a/my chair’ ‘the little chair’ (Faarlund et al. 1997: 150) (69) ei/mi hylle - den lille hyll-a INDEF.SG.F/1SG.POSS.F.SG shelf DEF.SG.F little.DEF shelf-DEF.SG.F‘a/my shelf’ ‘the little shelf’ (Faarlund et al. 1997: 150) (70) et/mitt bord - det lille bord-et INDEF.SG.N/1SG.POSS.N.SG table DEF.SG.N little.DEF table-DEF.SG.N‘a/my table’ ‘the little table’ (Faarlund et al. 1997: 150) In addition to the three-gender system, it is also possible to use a two-gender system in Norwegian Bokmål with a distinction between common and neuter genus (Faarlund et al. 1997: 150-1). Speakers who use this system, use the masculine forms of the three-gender systems with all nouns that are masculine or feminine in the three-gender system, and in this way combine the masculine and feminine nouns in a common gender: (71) en/min stol - den lille stol-en INDEF.SG.C/1SG.POSS.C.SG chair DEF.SG.C little.DEF chair- DEF.SG.C‘a/my chair’ ‘the little chair’ (Faarlund et al. 1997: 151) (72) en/min hylle - den lille hyll-en INDEF.SG.C/1SG.POSS.C.SG shelf DEF.SG.C little.DEF shelf-DEF.SG.C‘a/my shelf’ ‘the little shelf’ (Faarlund et al. 1997: 151) (73) et/mitt bord - det lille bord-et INDEF.SG.N/1SG.POSS.N.SG table DEF.SG.N little. DEF table-DEF.SG.N‘a/my table’ ‘the little table’ (Faarlund et al. 1997: 151) Another common pattern is to use the three-gender system in that one makes use of the three different suffixed articles –en, -a and –et, while using the indefinite article en with both masculine and feminine nouns (Faarlund et al. 1997: 151). The same speakers typically also use min for both masculine and feminine nouns when it precedes the noun (Faarlund et al. 1997: 151-2): (74) en/min stol - den lille stol-en INDEF.SG.C/1SG.POSS.C.SG chair DEF.SG.C little.DEF chair- DEF.SG.M‘a/my chair’ ‘the little chair’ (Faarlund et al. 1997: 151) (75) en/min hylle - den lille hyll-a INDEF.SG.C/1SG.POSS.C.SG shelf DEF.SG.C little.DEF shelf-DEF.SG.F‘a/my shelf’ ‘the little shelf’ (Faarlund et al. 1997: 151) (76) et/mitt bord - det lille bord-et INDEF.SG.N/1SG.POSS.N.SG table DEF.SG.N little. DEF table-DEF.SG.N‘a/my table’ ‘the little table’ (Faarlund et al. 1997: 151) In all three systems, there are at least two grammatical genders. Thus, Norwegian Bokmål is opaque with respect to this feature. |
Norwegian uses the pronoun det as a nominal expletive, i.e. it is used to fulfil the requirement that all Norwegian sentences have a subject, without having any semantic function (Faarlund et al. 1997: 679). This dummy pronoun is used for instance in weather predicates: (77) det blås-er 3SG.N.NOMblow-PRS ‘it is windy’ (Vinje 2005: 223) (78) det regn-er3SG.N.NOMrain-PRS ‘it is raining’ (Vinje 2005: 223) The dummy pronoun det is also used in some other types of clauses that lack a full semantic subject such as presentation sentences (79) and impersonal passives (80): (79) Det sitt-erkråk-er på tak-et 3SG.N.NOM sit-PRS crow-INDEF.PLon roof-DEF.SG.F ‘There are crows sitting on the roof’ (Vinje 2005: 224) (80) Det må dans-es hel-e natt-a 3SG.N.NOM must.PRS dance-PASS.PRS whole-DEF night-DEF.SG.F ‘There must be dancing all night’ (Åfarli & Sakshaug 2006: 101) In these examples det does not have a clear pragmatic or semantic function either. |
Norwegian shows both neutralisation of pragmatic and semantic roles in intransitive predicates and a passive construction, which indicates that the language makes use of grammatical relations. In general, subjects occur either first in the sentence or, when another constituent fills the first position, they appear as the first nominal after the inflected verb, which always takes the second position (V2) (Faarlund et al. 1997: 674; Enger & Kristoffersen 2000: 238). These subjects can both have the semantic role of agent, recipient and patient (Faarlund et al. 1997: 687). None of these roles require any further marking when they are used as subject. Thus, neither the agent subject in (81) nor the patient subject in (82) is marked: (81) hund-ene hyl-te i bakgård-en dog-DEF.PL yell-PSTin backyard-DEF.SG.M ‘The dogs are yelling in the backyard’ (Faarlund et al. 1997: 466) (82) snø-en smelt-er snow-DEF.SG.M melt-PRS ‘The snow is melting’ (Vinje 2005: 159) This also holds when the subject is a pronoun, even though these do different forms for nominative and accusative case: (83) han klatr-er i tre-en 3SG.M.NOM climb-PRSin tree-DEF.SG.M ‘he climbs in the tree’ (Vinje 2005: 223) (84) han sov-er 3SG.M.NOMsleep-PRS ‘he sleeps’ (Vinje 2005: 156) Thus, the different semantic functions are completely neutralized in these intransitive sentences. The pragmatic functions topic and focus are also neutralized with intransitive predicates. may also have different pragmatic functions, such as topic and focus. Although subjects typically express information that is already given or known (Faarlund et al. 1997: 692) and thus function as topics, they may also contain new information (Faarlund et al. 1997: 692). It is not necessary to mark the argument in a particular way when it functions as focus instead of topic. However, when subjects express new information, it is also common to use a cleft construction (Faarlund et al. 1997: 1091; Åfarli & Sakshaug 2006: 172-3): (85) Det var sjefssykepleier-en som ble ulykkelig 3SG.N be.PST head.nurse-DEF.SG.MREL become.PST unhappy ‘It was the head nurse who became unhappy’ (Åfarli & Sakshaug 2006: 172) Thus, pragmatic roles may influence the position of the subject in the sentence. Nevertheless, as subjects of intransitive predicates in principle may have different pragmatic and semantic roles, there is evidence for neutralization of pragmatic and semantic functions in the argument of an intransitive predicate. In addition, Norwegian shows passive constructions, in which a direct object or indirect object with a patient (86) or recipient (87) role can become the subject (Faarlund et al. 1997: 841-3). (86a)Kåre spis-te kak-a Kåreeat-PST cake-DEF.SG.F ‘Kåre ate the cake’ (86b)Kak-a ble spis-t (av Kåre) cake-DEF.SG.F become.PSTeat-PTCP by Kåre ‘The cake was eaten by Kåre’ (Faarlund et al. 1997: 683) (87) Folk er bli-tt fortal-t mye rar-t people be.PRS become-PTCP tell-PTCP much strange-SG.N ‘People have been told many strange things’ (Moen & Pedersen 2003: 37) Norwegian actually shows two different passive constructions. In the examples above the passive is expressed by an auxiliary and a participle. Alternatively, one can use a synthetic passive that is marked by an –s suffix on the verb: (88) Oppgave-ne lever-e-s hver-ø uke assignment-DEF.PL hand.in-INF-PAS every-SG.M/F week ‘The assignments are handed in every week’ (Faarlund et al. 1997: 514) (89) Oppgave-n ble lever-t for seint assignment-DEF.SG become.PST hand.in-PTCP too late ‘The assignment was handed in too late’ (Faarlund et al. 1997: 514) These two constructions show some small semantic differences. For instance, the synthetic passive such as the one in (88) often has a general meaning, whereas the passive with the auxiliary and participle refers to a concrete instance (Faarlund et al. 1997: 514). However, both passive constructions allow the agent can be expressed in a by-phrase (Åfarli & Sakshaug 2006: 96, 98), and thus show neutralization of semantic functions. Since Norwegian both shows neutralization of semantic and pragmatic roles in intransitive predicates and allows for passivization, it is clear that the language makes use of grammatical relations and thus is opaque with respect to this feature. |
In Norwegian it is common to place the lighter elements before the more heavy ones (Faarlund et al. 1997: 898). This tendency may influence the word order of for instance direct objects and adverbials. Normally, a direct object precedes an adverbial, but when the direct object is very heavy, it may follow such an adverbial: (90) De ha-r send-t hit all-e papir-ene 3PL.NOM have-PRS send-PTCPALL all-DEF.PL paper-DEF.PL ‘They have send all papers here’ (Faarlund et al. 1997: 899) (91) Han ha-r gi-tt tilbake peng-ene 3SG.M.NOM have-PRS give-PTCP back money-DEF.PL ‘He has given back the money’ (Faarlund et al. 1997: 899) By contrast, when the direct object is an unstressed pronoun, it appears in front of the adverbial: (92) Hun ha-r heng-t det opp 3SG.F.NOM have-PRS hang-PTCP 3SG.N up ‘She has hung it up’ (Faarlund et al. 1997: 899) Similarly, heavy subjects such as noun phrases and determiners and light subjects such as unstressed pronouns may appear in different positions (Faarlund et al. 1997: 880): (93) Nå kan ikke mann-en komm-e. now can.PRSNEG man-DEF.SG.M come-INF ‘Now the man cannot come’ (Strandskogen & Strandskogen 1989: 137) (94) Nå kan du ikke komm-e. now can.PRS 2SG.NOMNEG come-INF ‘Now you cannot come’ (Strandskogen & Strandskogen 1989: 136) The heavy subject mannen in (93) follows the adverbial ikke, whereas the light subject du in (94) follows this adverbial. The different orders in (90), (91) and (93) on the one hand and in (92) and (94) on the other hand shows that in Norwegian complexity may affect constituent order. |
22 Norwegian uses both head- and phrase-marking but head-marking seems to be slightly more widespread. Verbal categories such as tense and diathesis are usually expressed by suffixes (Faarlund et al. 1997: 479, 507), which are head-markers. The infinitive is also marked by a suffix (Faarlund et al. 1997: 470), as are the present and past participle (Faarlund et al. 1997: 65, 468). In addition, number and gender of adjectival phrases are marked by suffixes on the adjective (Faarlund et al. 1997: 345). Norwegian also shows a number of clitics, which are phrase-markers. These clitics include for instance the genitive clitic and the negative clitic (Kristoffersen 2000: 333, 335). Moreover, Norwegian has a number of particles such as the negation word ikke, conjunctions and prepositions (Faarlund et al. 1997: 23-25), which can be counted as phrase-markers. Finally, in noun phrases generally several or all elements are marked: (95) den stor-e bil-en DEF.SG.M big-DEFcar-DEF.SG.M ‘the big car’ (Faarlund et al. 1997: 385) In example (95), both the free-standing article, the adjective and the noun are marked for definiteness, and the masculine singular features of the noun are also marked both on the head and on the free-standing article. Noun phrases thus seem to be neither head- or phrase-marking. Nevertheless, since head-marking seems to be somewhat more frequent in Norwegian than phrase-marking, Norwegian is considered opaque with respect to this feature. |
Norwegian Bokmål shows morphophonologically conditioned stem alternation in plural nouns. Some nouns change their stem vowel when the indefinite plural suffix –(e)r is attached (Faarlund et al. 1997: 162, 164, 166-7, 173): (96) bonde - bønde-r farmer farmer-INDEF.PL (Faarlund et al. 1997: 162) (97) natt - nett-er night night-INDEF.PL (Faarlund et al. 1997: 166) (98) ku - ky-r cow cow-INDEF.PL (Faarlund et al. 1997: 167) (99) tre - træ-r tree tree-INDEF.PL (Faarlund et al. 1997: 173) Other nouns also change the coda of the stem when they are combined with the indefinite plural suffix -er or -re: (100) fot - føtt-er foot - foot-INDEF.PL (Faarlund et al. 1997: 162) (101) far - fed-re father - father-INDEF.PL (Faarlund et al. 1997: 164) It should be noted however, that nominal stem alternations are only marginal in present-day Norwegian (Askedal 1994: 229). Also adjectives may show stem alternations under influence of a suffix that is attached. A number of adjectives change their stem vowel when the comparative suffix –re or the superlative suffix -st is added (Faarlund et al. 1997: 352-3): (102) lang - leng-re - leng-st long long-COMPA long-SUP ‘long’‘longer’‘longest’ (Faarlund et al. 1997: 353) (103) stor - stør-re - stør-st big big-COMPA big-SUP ‘big’‘bigger’‘biggest (Faarlund et al. 1997: 353) (104) ung - yng-re - yng-st young yong-COMPA young-SUP ‘young’‘younger’‘youngest’ (Faarlund et al. 1997: 353) (105) tung - tyng-re - tyng-st heavy heavy-COMPA heavy-SUP ‘heavy’‘heavier’‘heaviest’ (Faarlund et al. 1997: 353) Finally, morphophonologically conditioned stem alternation occurs in the past participle forms of some strong verbs. Here it concerns verbs that show a stem (vowel) alternation that only occurs in the past participle, when the past participle suffix is attached: (106) drikk-e - drikk-er - drakk - drukk-et drink-INF drink-PRS drink.PST drink-PTCP ‘drink’‘drink(s)’‘drank’‘has/have drunk’ (Faarlund et al. 1997: 486) (107) si-ø - si-er - sa - sag-t say-INF say-PRS say.PST say-PTCP ‘say’‘say(s)’‘said’‘has/have said’ (Faarlund et al. 1997: 489) (108) bære-ø - bær-er - bar - bår-et carry-INF carry-PRS carry.PST carry-PTCP ‘carry’‘carry/carries’‘carried’‘has/have carried’ (Faarlund et al. 1997: 488) |
Norwegian Bokmål shows two conjugation classes (Faarlund et al. 1997: 479). So-called weak verbs take a suffix to mark the past tense (109), whereas so-called strong verbs show a change in the stem vowel (ablaut) (110), as was also shown above: (109) kast-et throw-PST ‘threw’ (Faarlund et al. 1997: 481) (110) bet bite.PST‘bit’ (Faarlund et al. 1997: 487) The form of the verb itself does not show to which class of verbs it belongs. Instead, the verb class or conjugation is an inherent property of a verb (Åfarli & Sakshaug 2006: 219). Norwegian does not show nominal declension classes. Although nouns differ in the plural suffix that they take, which may either be –er, -e, -ror–ø, the nouns cannot be divided in morphological classes, as the choice between these suffixes is largely phonologically or morphophonologically determined (Faarlund et al. 1997: 161-173). The affixes that weak verbs take, can further be divided into two subgroups. Weak verbs ending in a cluster of two or more consonants usually take the suffix –et/-a (Faarlund et al. 1997: 482): (111) elsk-et love-PST ‘loved’ (Vinje 2005: 151) By contrast, other weak verbs take the affix –te/-de/dde (Faarlund et al. 1997: 483). More specifically, verbs ending in –d, -g, -v, -ei or –øy get the suffix –de, verbs ending in a vowel take the suffix –dde, and the other verbs take –te (Faarlund et al. 1997: 483): (112) reis-te travel-PST (Faarlund et al. 1997: 481) (113) lev-de live-PST (Faarlund et al. 1997: 481) (114) ro-dde row-PST (Faarlund et al. 1997: 481) Since the alternation between et/-a and –te/-de/-dde depends on the phonological characteristics of the verb that the suffix attaches to (Faarlund et al. 1997: 483) and only applies to the affixes on weak verbs, it is a morphophonologically conditioned affix alternation. There are also two forms of the indefinite plural suffix which may be argued to constitute a morphophonologically conditioned affix alternation. The most common way to mark the indefinite plural is with a suffix –er (Faarlund et al. 1997: 160). However, most neuter nouns that consist of only one syllable are not marked for indefinite plural, i.e. they take a zero-suffix (Faarlund et al. 1997: 172): (115) år-ø year-INDEF.PL ‘years’ (Faarlund et al. 1997: 172) Since this alternation between –er and –ø in general only concerns neuter nouns of only one syllable, it is a morphophonologically conditioned affix alternation. |
Norwegian shows several types of phonologically conditioned stem alternation. A first example concerns simplification of three-consonant clusters. Norwegian allows three-consonant clusters in codas of the type sonorant + obstruent + obstruent, but the first obstruent in this cluster must be /s/ (Kristoffersen 2008: 109). When a sonorant + obstruent + obstruent cluster in the coda arises through inflection, and the first obstruent happens not to be /s/, simplification may occur in order to avoid this three-consonant cluster (Kristoffersen 2008:109): (116) tenk-e - tenk-te[teŋ.kə] [teŋ.tə] think-INF think-PST ‘think’‘thought’ (Kristoffersen 2000: 109) (117) skarp-ø - skarp-t [skɑɾp] [skɑᖰ] sharp-SG.M/F sharp-SG.N ‘sharp’‘sharp’ (Kristoffersen 2000:109) In these examples, the simplification leads to the loss of the stem-final consonant, causing a stem alternation. As the alternation occurs in words of different morphological classes, e.g. verbs (116) and adjectives (117), the simplification of three-consonant clusters can be called a phonologically conditioned stem alternation. A second example of a phonologically conditioned stem alternation in Norwegian involves nasal assimilation. When the nasal /n/ is followed directly by a /p/ or /k/, it adapts its place of articulation to this stop and turns into an /m/ or /ŋ/ (Kristoffersen 2000: 319). In this way, the clusters /np/ and /nk/, which do in principle not occur in Norwegian (Kristoffersen 2000: 319, 2008: 43), are avoided also in complex words. Thus, this rule leads to phonologically conditioned stem alternations for instance in the following compounds that have the stem tann /tɑn/ as their first part: (118) tann-børste [tɑm.bœʂ.tə] tooth-brush ‘tooth brush’ (Kristoffersen 2000: 321) (119) tann-krem [tɑŋ.kɾeːm] tooth-paste ‘tooth paste’ (Kristoffersen 2000: 321) The rule is not obligatory, but especially in fast and informal speech the alternation occurs very frequently (Kristoffersen 2000: 321, 2008: 44). Norwegian may thus be called opaque, as it shows several types of phonologically conditioned stem alternations. |
Finally, a number of phonologically conditioned affix alternations can be found in Norwegian. Firstly, affix alternations occur in the plural and definite agreement suffixes on adjectives, which are both –e and are usually pronounced as /-ə/ (Faarlund et al. 1997: 366; Kristoffersen 2008: 46). However, the suffix –e, /ə/, becomes phonologically zerowhen it combines with an adjective that ends in such an unstressed –e as well: (120) stille - stille-ø quiet quiet-PL ‘quiet’‘quiet’ (Faarlund et al. 1997: 375) (121) moderne - moderne-ø modern modern-DEF ‘modern’‘modern’ (Faarlund et al. 1997: 375) A second type of phonologically conditioned affix alternation in Norwegian involves suffixes of the form –t, /t/, such as the past participle suffix and the neuter singular adjective suffix. Both suffixes are phonologically zerowhen they attach to a stem that already ends in –t, as Norwegian geminates always have to occur spread over two syllables and can thus not occur at the end of a word (Kristoffersen 2000: 214): (122) let-e - let-t [leːtə] [lɛt] search-INF search-PTCP ‘search’‘searched’ (Kristoffersen 2000: 214) (123) hvit-ø - hvit-t [ʋiːt] [ʋit] white-SG.M/F white-SG.N ‘white’‘white’ (Kristoffersen 2000: 214) It should be noted that the stems in (122) and (123) change as well. When the suffix is attached, the stem vowel becomes short. |
| 33 | Basque | Basque verb expressions usually contain a participle carrying aspectual information and a conjungated auxiliary verb, carrying information about tense, mood and argument structure (Hualde & de Urbina 2003, 195). Beside the auxiliary verbs, only few verbs can appear in a finite form (Hualde & de Urbina 2003, 206). Finite forms can be marked for subject, direct object and indirect object, while accompanied by a pronoun. In (1), the subject is marked on the verb as well as by a pronoun. (1) ni n- ator 1S ABS.1S- come ‘I come’ (Hualde & de Urbina 2003, 206) However, sentences that display pro-drop, in which the argument is left out, are also grammatical. (2) Gose nago Hungry be-PRS-1S ‘I am hungry’ (Hualde & de Urbina 2003, 367) These examples point out that arguments are optionally present. Thus, Basque is considered a language which displays cross-reference. | In Basque, the basic structure of a noun phrase is as follows: Complex modifier - Determiner 1 - Noun - Adjective - Determiner 2 (Hualde & de Urbina 2003, 113). The complex modifier and the adjective are elements that may occur more than once. In Basque, it is the noun phrase as a whole that inflects for number and case, which means the noun can not be inflected directly. Case marking appears as a suffix at the end of the nominal phrase, and number marking can only appear in the second determiner position, in which the following determiners can appear: articles, demonstratives, the partitive marker -ik, the numeral bat ‘one’ and some quantifiers (Hualde & de Urbina 2003, 118).Thus, case and number markers appear only once, which shows that there is no phrasal agreement whithin the nominal phrase. (Hualde & de Urbina 2003, 113) Kotxe berri-a car new-ART.DEF ‘a new car’ (Hualde & Urbina 2003, 119) | The basic structure of a noun phrase in Basque is as follows: Complex modifier - Determiner 1 - Noun - Adjective - Determiner 2 (Hualde & de Urbina 2003, 113). Number marking is only possible in the second determiner position, in which the following determiners can appear: articles, demonstratives, the partitive marker -ik, the numerals bat ‘one’ and bi ‘two’, and some quantifiers (Hualde & de Urbina 2003, 118). No other article normally occurs in a noun phrase containing a numeral (Hualde & de Urbina 2003, 127), however, it is possible for a definite article or a demonstrative to appear in a NP containing a numeral. (Hualde & de Urbina 2003, 136) hiru andere three lady ‘three ladies’ (Hualde & de Urbina 2003, 136) (2) hiru andere-a -k three lady -ART.DEF- PL ‘the three ladies’ (Hualde & de Urbina 2003, 136) Example (2) shows that with definite determiners, plural concord occurs in Basque, making it an opaque language in respect to this feature. | With the use of a subjunctive in a subordinate clause Basque displays tense copying. This means that if the verb in the main clause is in the past tense, the subjunctive in the subordinate clause is also in the past.1 Nahi nuen ikus zeza -n. want PRT.1S>3S see PRT.3S>3S -SBJ-SR In Basque, indirect questions, however, can be tenseless. (2) Nora joan erabaki behar dugu where.to go decide have AUX.1PL ‘We have to decide where to go’ (Hualde & de Urbina 2003, 699) Since there is no tense in indirect questions, Basque shows no tense copying in this type of sentence, making it a transparent language regarding this feature. However Basque does display tense copying under other circumstances, thus it is considered opaque regarding this feature. 1 Haase, M. Tense and aspect in Basque. Retrieved from http://www.buber.net/Basque/Euskara/tense.html. Consulted on 20-03-2016. | In Basque, relative clauses can be extraposed and separated from the nominal phrase that it describes or modifies (Hualde & de Urbina 2003, 806). Zerbeit gertatu zitzaien orduantxe [ederki lotsatu zituena] something happen AUX then [beautifully embarrass AUX.COMP.DET 'At this moment, something happened which embarrassed them a lot.' (Hualde & de Hualde 2003, 806) Thus Basque is considered opaque regarding this feature. Extraction of an item from a relative clause to the main clause is strongly prohibited. Example (2b) gives an ungrammatical sentence with extraction. (2) a. [Ahoz-aho erabili den] tradizio horrek merezi luke [mouth.to.mouth use AUX.COMP] tradition that merit have.POT gain-begiratu bat. ‘This tradition which has been transmitted by word of mouth would deserve a glance.' b. *[Erabili den] tradizio horrek [ahoz-aho] rnerezi luke gainbegiratu bat. | In Basque, the subject of an embedded clause can be raised to syntactically become the subject of the main clause (Hualde & de Urbina 2003, 653). Jonek pertsona argia eta azkarra dirudi Jon-ERG person bright.DET and smart.DET 3S-seems ‘Jon seems a bright and smart person’ (Hualde & de Urbina 2003, 653) Example (1) shows that the opaque feature of raising applies in Basque. | Basque does not make use of circumfixes. | Basque uses multiple types of infixes. One example of infixation in the eastern dialects is the use of the diminutive suffix -skila. -Skila is a combination of the two diminutive suffixes -xka en -il, in which case -il is infixed into the suffix -xka: sk-il-a. (Hualde & de Urbina 2003, 331). jaun-sk -il -a lord-DIM -DIM -DIM ‘little gentleman’ (Hualde & de Urbina 2003, 331) In (2), the infix -ra creates a causitave for the verb egin, ‘to make’. (2) e -ra -gin make-CAUS ‘cause to make’ (Hualde & de Urbina, 2003, 593) |
In Basque, tense, aspect and mood are usually marked on the auxiliary verb (Hualde & de Urbina 2003, 249). In (1), the auxiliary verbs also carry person information, making Basque opaque regarding this feature. erori naiz fall-PTCP-PRF AUX.1S ‘I have fallen’ (Hualde & de Urbina 2003, 196) (2) erori da fall-PTCP-PRF AUX.3S ‘he has fallen’ (Hualde & de Urbina 2003, 249) Case is marked on the last word of the nominal phrase with inflectional suffixes. The suffixes can also carry other grammatical information, such as number and definiteness, which is also an opaque feature of the language . (3) leku -k place-ERG.INDF (Hualde & de Urbina 2003, 173) (4) leku -ak place-ERG.DEF.SG (Hualde & de Urbina 2003, 173) |
In Basque, the form of verbal stem can change in order to mark grammatical information. Thus, suppletion is a feature of Basque. (1a) da is.3.PRS ‘he/she/it is’ (1b) zen is.3.PST ‘he/she/it was’ (2a) haiek dira they be.PRS.3PL ‘they are’ (Hualde & de Urbina 2003, 213) (2b) haiek ziren they be.PAST.3PL ‘they were’ (Hualde & de Urbina 2003, 213) |
No signs for irregular stem formation were found in Basque. |
Basque does not display grammatical gender (Hualde & Urbina 2003, 113), only semantically motivated sex-marking. (1) jainko / jainkosa god / god-F ‘god, goddess’ (Hualde & de Urbina 2003, 117) Regarding this feature, Basque is considered a transparent language. |
Basque does not make use of nominal expletives with weather predicates. Euria ari du rain be engaged in AUX.TR ‘It is raining’ (Hualde & de Urbina 2003, 377) |
In Basque there are no markers for semantic roles. ibili naiz walk AUX.1S ‘I walked’ (Hualde & Urbina 2003, 369) (2) erori naiz fall-PTCP-PRF AUX.1S ‘I have fallen’ (Hualde & de Urbina 2003, 196) Also, antipassive constructions are possible in Basque. In (3), the agent takes absolutive case instead of ergative case (Hualde & de Urbina 2003, 431). (3) Ni gutun asko idatzia naiz I letter a.lot.ABS write.PRF.DET am ‘I have written a lot of letters’ |
In Basque, the neutral word order is SOV. However, the morphologically heavy elements, especially clauses, tend to shift to the right position (Hualde & Urbina 2003, 452) This means that clausal objects can occur postverbal as in (1). Jonek esan du Mikelek erlojua galdu Jon-ERG say AUX Mikel-ERG watch lose ‘Jon said that Mikel lost the watch’ (Hualde & de Urbina 2003, 452) Regarding this feature, Basque is considered opaque. |
Basque is a language that contains many affixes, i.e. suffixes, prefixes and infixes. For example, it uses suffixes for case marking. a. leku-k place-ERG b. leku-ri place-DAT (Hualde & de Urbina 2003, 173). Basque however also contains many clitics, such as the -eta ‘and’, which may cliticize to the proceding word (Hualde & de Urbina 2003, 323). Particles are also found in Basque, such as the negation marker -ez and the particle -ote for a rhetorical question (Hualde & de Urbina 2003, 316). (3) Ez zuen kontutan hartu No AUX account.LOC take ‘He didn’t take it into account’ (Hualde & de Urbina 2003, 767). |
In Basque, affixes can undergo changes that are morphophonologically based. For instance, the fricative + affricate sequence ikus + tzen, leads to alternation of the suffix. ikus-ten see-IMP (Hualde & de Urbina 2003, 35) In other morphological environments, the same sequences are left unsimplified, which shows that this is morphophonologically conditioned rather than phonologically. (2) apaiz-tzat priest-PROL ‘as a priest’ (Hualde & de Urbina 2003, 35) |
There are no signs of declensions or the use of a conjugational system in Basque. |
In Basque, stems can undergo changes that are phonologically motivated. For example, in morphological formations where a stop is followed by a heterosyllabic consonant, the preconsonantal stop is normally lost (Hualde & de Urbina 2003, 40). The stem bat becomes ba for this reason. (1) ba -na one -for each (Hualde & de Urbina 2003, 40) |
In Basque, affixes can undergo changes that are phonologically motivated. In (1), a voiced stop gets devoiced when it follows a sibilant. The suffix -gabe becomes -kabe for this reason. ahots-kabe voice-without ‘voiceless’ (Hualde & de Urbina, 42). |