1 Department of Linguistics Alice C. Harris University of Massachusetts Amherst Meaning Resides in Fully Inflected Forms: The Georgian “Unwillingness”

1Department of LinguisticsDepartment of Linguistics

Alice C. HarrisUniversity of

Massachusetts Amherst

Meaning Resides in Fully Inflected Forms:The Georgian “Unwillingness” Construction

2Department of Linguistics

The construction of interest

še-mo-g-e-lanʒγ-eb-ipv-pv-2O-e-insult-sm-scm‘I will unwillingly make you insult me.’




This “unwillingness” construction can only be used with “dark” predicates, including ‘kill’, ‘beat’, ‘curse’, or ‘insult’.




The subject here is 1st person singular (‘I’), the 2ndperson singular is indirect object, and the 1st person singular (‘me’) is direct object.


The puzzle


It is not obvious that anything here indicates ‘me’


The puzzle


It is not obvious that anything here indicates ‘me’ ‘unwillingly’


The puzzle


It is not obvious that anything here indicates ‘me’ ‘unwillingly’ causation, or even transitivity.


Goals of this presentation

To show that meaning of the whole word cannot be calculated from the meaning of the stem.

To show that forms of this kind constitute another argument for Construction Morphology or some other approach in which the structure of the whole word is taken into account in determining meaning.


Organization of the presentation

Proceed morpheme by morpheme through the word to show that certain portions of the meaning are not directly represented in the verb form• Agreement• Morphology of unaccusatives• Preverbs

Propose a solution.


The core meanings of morphemes


Agreement


Subject, direct object, indirect object agreement

(a) m-xat’av-s1O-paint-3S‘S/he paints me.’

(b)g-xat’av-s2O-paint-3S‘S/he paints you.’

(c) xat’av-spaint-3S‘She paints him/her/it/them.’


Straightforward agreement



“Slot competition”

g-xat’av *v-g-xat’av *g-v-xat’av2O-paint 1S-2O-paint 2O-1S-paint‘I paint you.’ ‘I paint you.’ ‘I paint you.’


Inferences in slot competition

(a) g-xat’av (e) m-xat’av-s2O-paint 1O-paint-3sgS‘I paint you.’ ‘S/he paints me.’

(b) v-xat’av (f) g-xat’av-s1S-paint 2O-paint-3sgS‘I paint her.’ ‘S/he paints you.’

(c) m-xat’av (g) xat’av-s1O-paint paint-3sgS‘You paint me.’ ‘S/he paints him/her/it/

(d) xat’av them’paint‘You paint her.’


Slot competition in “unwillingness” construction


Because of slot competition, the first person subject can be unambiguously inferred. It is not a problem for us.


Object camouflage

(a)*vano m-adareb-s givi-s.Vano.nom 1O-compare-3S Givi-dat‘Vano compares me to Givi.’(b)vano čem-s tav-s adareb-s givi-s.Vano.nom my-dat self-dat compare-3S Givi-dat‘Vano compares me to Givi.’


Expected object camouflage with “unwillingness”

*še-mo-g-e-lanʒγ-eb-i (čem-s) tav-s pv-pv-2sgO-e-insult-sm-scm my-dat pro-dat ‘I will unwillingly make you insult me.’


Expected object camouflage with “unwillingness”

*še-mo-g-e-lanʒγ-eb-i (čem-s) tav-s pv-pv-2sgO-e-insult-sm-scm my-dat pro-dat ‘I will unwillingly make you insult me.’

Compare to ordinary causative:ga-g-a-xat’v-in-eb čem-s tav-s pv-2O-a-paint-caus-sm my-dat pro-dat‘I will make you paint me.’


“Dark” predicates can occur as ordinary causatives.

merab-i ga-g-a-lanʒγ-v-in-eb-s čem-s tav-s Merab-nom pv-2O-a-insult-sm-caus-sm-3S my-dat

pro-dat‘Merab will make you insult me.’


“Dark” predicates can occur as ordinary causatives.

But the morphology is different:

merab-i ga-g-a-lanʒγ-v-in-eb-s čem-s tav-s Merab-nom pv-2O-a-insult-sm-caus-sm-3S my-dat

pro-dat‘Merab will make you insult me.’

Cf. še-mo-g-e-lanʒγ-eb-i pv-pv-2sgO-e-insult-sm-scm ‘I will unwillingly make you insult me.’


In an ordinary causative, reflexivization can occur.ekimma alap’arak’a vano tavis tav-zedoctor-erg talk.caus Vano.nom self’s self-about‘The doctori got Vanoj to talk about himselfi,j.


In an ordinary causative, reflexivization can occur.ekimma alap’arak’a vano tavis tav-zedoctor-erg talk.caus Vano.nom self’s self-about‘The doctori got Vanoj to talk about himselfi,j.

But the use of tavis tavis impossible with our construction:Cf. *še-mo-g-e-lanʒγ-eb-i čemi tavi pv-pv-2sgO-e-insult-sm-scm my self ‘I will unwillingly make you insult me.’


One might expect that the coreference could be expressed as reflexivization, as is possible here. gela i-k’er-av-s axal šarval-sGela.nom i-sew-sm-3S new trousers-dat‘Gela sews himself new trousers.’

(Harris 1981: 95)


One might expect that the coreference could be expressed as reflexivization, as possible here. gela i-k’er-av-s axal šarval-sGela.nom i-sew-sm-3S new trousers-dat‘Gela sews himself new trousers.’

(Harris 1981: 95)

But this morpheme is not present in the unwillingness construction:

še-mo-g-e-lanʒγ-eb-i pv-pv-2sgO-e-insult-sm-scm ‘I will unwillingly make you insult me.’


A range of arguments can occur

(a) še-mo-g-e-lanʒγ-eb-ipv-pv-2O-e-insult-sm-scm‘I will unwillingly make you insult me.’

(b) še-mo-m-e-lanʒγ-eb-ipv-pv-1O-e-insult-sm-scm‘You will unwillingly make me insult you.’

(c) vano anzor-s še-mo-e-lanʒγ-eb-aVano.nom Anzor-dat pv-pv-e-insult-sm-

3sgS‘Vanoi will unwillingly make Anzorj insult himi.’


But there is a constraint on person-number of arguments: The subject (instigator) must be coreferential with the direct object (recipient of the insult).

*vano anzor-s še-mo-m-e-lanʒγ-eb-aVano.nom Anzor-dat pv-pv-1O-e-insult-sm-3sgS‘Vano will unwillingly make Anzor insult me.’


Interim conclusion

The subject and indirect object are marked in ways that are normal for Georgian.

The direct object is not marked at all, morphologically or syntactically.

We should consider the hypothesis that the verb is grammatically intransitive, in spite of its meaning.


Interim conclusion:

The direct object (‘me’ in our example) is not represented in the Georgian, except in the meaning of the word as a whole.


Morphology of unaccusatives


Morphology of unaccusatives: prefix e-

The prefix e- is limited to unaccusatives:(a) c’eril-i i-c’ereba

letter-nom i-write.3sgS‘The letter is written.’

(b) c’eril-i m-e-c’erebaletter-nom 1sgO-e-write.3sgS‘The letter is written to me.’

(c)c’eril-i g-e-c’erebaletter-nom 2sgO-e-write.3sgS‘The letter is written to you.’

(d) c’eril-i e-c’erebaletter-nom e-write.3sgS‘The letter is written to her.’


Morphology of unaccusatives: prefix e-

The causative uses a- instead:

a-c’erinebsa-write.cause.3sgS‘s/he makes him/her write it’


Morphology of unaccusatives: suffixes –eb-i

The suffix combination –eb-i, like e-, is characteristic of unaccusatives, not of causatives:

v-dg-eb-i ‘I am standing’v-i-xat’-eb-i ‘I am painted, being painted’v-i-lanʒγ-eb-i ‘I am being insulted’

Cf. g-a-xat’-v-in-eb čem-s tav-s 2O-a-paint-sm-caus-sm my-dat pro-dat‘I am making you paint me.’


Morphology of unaccusatives: suffix -a

The suffix –a occurs in the present tense only with unaccusative verbs; transitives and unergatives use –s instead.

c’er-s ‘s/he writes’ transitivemuša-ob-s ‘s/he works’ unergative

e-c’er-eb-a ‘it is written to him/her’unaccusative


The “unwillingness” construction seems closest toda-g-e-mal-eb-apv-2O-e-hide-sm-3sgS‘s/he will hide from you’

an unaccusative lexeme, one that could be interpreted as involving coreference.


Other morphology characteristic of unaccusativesše-mo-g-e-lanʒγ-eb-i ‘I will unwillingly make you insult me’še-mo-g-e-lanʒγ-eb-od-i ‘if I unwillingly made you insult me’

še-mo-g-e-lanʒγ-eb-od-e ‘I would unwillingly make you insult me’še-mo-g-e-lanʒγ-e ‘I unwillingly made you insult me’še-mo-g-e-lanʒγ-o ‘I would unwillingly make you insult me’še-mo-g-elanʒγ-v-i-a ‘I have evidently made you insult me’

Most tense-aspect-mood combinations can be formed, but those formed without a preverb (here še-mo-) cannot be used in this construction. Those include the present, imperfect, and subjunctive I.


Interim summary and conclusion

The “unwillingness” construction has the morphological characteristics of an unaccusative intransitive verb with an indirect object.

In spite of its causative meaning, this construction is grammatically unaccusative and intransitive.


Preverbs


Core meanings of preverbs: location, direction

(a)še-vid-ain-went-3sgS ‘She went in.’

(b)mo-vid-acisl-went-3sgS‘She came.’

Compositionallyše-mo-vid-ain-cisl-went-3sgS‘She came in.’


Additional meaning of preverbs: perfective

še-it’ansin-bring.3sgS‘she will bring it in, input it, introduce it’

(a) i-g-eb-s i-win-sm-3sgS‘She wins, is winning it.’

(b) mo-i-g-eb-s pv-i-win-sm-3sgS‘She will win it.’


Additional meaning of preverbs: idiosyncratic naxa ‘she saw it’, combines with še- ‘in’ to make

a new lexeme šeinaxa ‘she saved, put away, kept it’

Such idiosyncratic uses are generally confined to individual lexical items.


Additional meanings

The preverb c’a- has the directional meaning ‘thither, far away’ (translocative) and the further meaning ‘for a little while’ or ‘superficially’ (3rd person singular future forms):

it’irebs ‘will cry’ c’a-it’irebs ‘will cry a little’

daiʒinebs ‘will sleep’ c’a-iʒinebs ‘will sleep a little’

ivarjišebs ‘will exercise’ c’a-ivarjišebs ‘will exercise a little’

imušavebs ‘will work’ c’a-imušavebs ‘will work a little’

(Jorbenaʒe et al. 1988: 459)


Similarly, one could claim that the preverb combination še-mo-

has a non-compositional, but definable, meaning is the source of the selection restriction for

• causatives• of “dark” predicates.

But this combination retains its core meaning ‘in, cislocative’ with (some) verbal lexemes of all types -- transitive, unergative, and unaccusative.


Interim summary


Elements of the “unwillingness” construction that are straightforwardly accounted for by the regular morphology

(a) subject (instigator) person and number(b) indirect object (one who insults) person, number(c) root meaning ‘insult’(d) future tense, indicative mood, perfective aspect


Elements of the “unwillingness” construction not accounted for straightforwardly by the morphology

(a) direct object (one insulted) person, number(b) ‘unwillingness’ meaning(c) limitation to “dark” predicates(d) causation(e) transitivity


Proposed solution


Structure of unaccusatives (present tense, 3rd person singular for all arguments):

i-root-eb-a (subject only)e-root-eb-a (subject and indirect object)

This combination of morphs “means” that the lexeme is intransitive, usually a derived intransitive.


Proposed schema

[šemo + e-root-eb-a]unaccusative VERB

Semantics:subject: instigatordirect object: coreferential with subjectindirect object: actor‘unwillingly’

Constraints: “dark predicate”


Thank you!

[email protected]


References

Gurevich, Olga. 2006. Constructional morphology: The Georgian version. Dissertation, University of California, Berkeley.Jorbenaʒe, Besarion, M. K’obaiʒe, and M. Beriʒe. 1988. Kartuli enis morpemebisa da modaluri element’ebis leksik’oni. [Dictionary of morphemes and modal elements of the Georgian language.] Tbilisi: Mecniereba.

Thanks to Marina Zambakhidze, Akaki Kenchoshvili, and Shukia Apridonidze.

Documents

1 Department of Linguistics Alice C. Harris University of Massachusetts Amherst Meaning Resides in Fully Inflected Forms: The Georgian “Unwillingness”