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The Linguistic Cycle of Objects
Elly van Gelderen,
LASSO, Corvallis, October 2008
Outline
• Background on the cycle
• Why is it interesting?
• Different cycles
• Example from Athabaskan
• The different stages
• Explanation
Background on the Cycle/Spiral
• de Condillac, Tooke, A.W. von Schlegel, von Humboldt, Bopp, etc
• Jespersen 1917 in particular about Negatives
• more recently: Tauli 1958 and Hodge 1970
• Grammaticalization literature:word > clitic > affix > 0 (from Hopper & Traugott 2003)
• formal approaches
Why are Cycles interesting?
If these are real patterns of change,then they give insight in the Faculty of
Language
Recent Factors:1. Genetic endowment2. Experience3. Principles not specific to language
Third factor
Economy factors or `third' factor' principles (Chomsky 2005 etc) explain this:
- Locality = Minimize computational burden (Ross 1967; Chomsky 1973)
- Use a head = Minimize Structure
- Late Merge = Minimize computational burden
Cognitive Economy (or UG) principles
help the learner, e.g:
Phrase > head (minimize structure)
Avoid too much movement
XP
Spec X'
X YP
Y …
Feature Economy
phrase > head > agreement > zero
[i-phi] [i-phi] [u-phi] --
[u-Case]
Linguistic CyclesNegative:1. neg adverb > neg particle > (neg particle) + neg
indefinite/adverb > neg particle2. verb > aspect > neg > CClausal1. pronoun > complementizer2. PP/Adv > Topic > CDefinitenessdemonstrative > definite article > Case/non-generic > class
markerAgreementdemonstrative/emphatic > pronoun > agreementAuxiliaryA/P > M > T > C
Is there an object cycle?
(1) b-í-na-bi-ni-sh-tin Navajo
3-against-ASP-3-Q-1S-handle
`I teach it to him’ (Y&M 1980: 223)
(2) be-ghá-yé-n-i-ł-tį Dene Suline
3S-to-3S-ASP-1S-CL-handle
`I have given her to him’
(Li 1946: 419 Rice 1998: 102)
What counts as object?
(3) guyéndíh Kaskagu-yé-n-Ø-díh1P-about-2S-CL-know`You know (about) us’.
(4) men ts'i‘ ayal Kaskamen ts'i‘ Ø-Ø-ayal.lake to 3SCLwalk`She is walking to the lake’.
Some differences between the Athabaskan languages:
(5) sú bek'ágoweneli SlaveQ 3S-2S-taste `Have you tasted it?'
(6) sú tuwele k'ágoweneli SlaveQ soup 2S-taste`Have you tasted the soup?'
(7) deneke gogháyeda Slavepeople-P 3-see-4P`S/he sees the people‘.
Objects cannot double in:
(8) meganehtan Kaskame-ga-ne-0-h-tan3S-at-ASP-3S-CL-look`He looks at her’.
(9) ayudeni ganehtan kaskagirl at-ASP-3S-CL-lookHe looks at the girl(s).
(and Salcha, not shown)
In Navajo, they do:
(10) 'atoo' yí-ní-dlaa'-íshsoup3S-2S-eat-Q
`Did you eat the soup?' (Jelinek 2001: 23)
(11) yí-ní-dlaa'-ísh 3S-2S-eat-Q,
`Did you eat it?' (Jelinek 2001: 23)
Changes Northern > Southern
• Increase of polysynthesis: object MUST be marked on the verb
• (Loss of Noun Incorporation, see Rice 2008)
Full pronoun: Urdu, Japanese, Mokilese
(12) mẽy nee us ko gher me dekhaaI ERG 3S OBL house in saw-
3SM`I saw her/him in the house'.
(13) kare-wa watashi-o mimashita3S-TOP 1S-ACC saw`He saw me'. (Yoko Matsuzaki p.c.)
(14) Ih ka-mwinge-hla araiShe CAUS-eat-PF them`She fed them' (Harrison 1976: 87).
Somewhat reduced:Coll. Persian, Kashmiri, English
(15) sib-o xord-am-eshapple-RA ate-1S-3S,
`As for the apple, I ate it' (Ghomeshi 1996: 241)
(16) raath vuch-n-ay
yesterday saw-3S-2S,
‘He saw you yesterday’ (Bhatt 1999: 48).
(17) I saw'r yesterday.
Marshallese
(18) E-ar pukot-e (kōj)3S-PST look.for-OM 1P
'He looked for us' (Willson 2008: 32)
(19) E-ar denōt-i (kweet ko)
3S-PST pound-OM octopus the
'He pounded the octopuses.'(Harrison 1978:1075)
Swahili and Kinande
(20) a. ni-li-soma kitabuI-PAST-read a-book, `I read a book'.
b. ni-li-ki-soma kitabuI-PAST-it-read the-book, `I read the book' (Givón 1978: 159).
(21) a. N-a-gul-a eritunda 1S-T-buy-FV fruit.5 , 'I bought a fruit.' b. Eritunda, n-a-ri-gul-a
fruit.5 1S-T-OM5-buy-FV 'The fruit, I bought it.' Baker (2003: 109)
Malinche Spanishand S-W Macedonian
(22) lo trae un chiquihuiteit he-brings a basket,
`He brings a basket' (Hill 1987: 74)
(23) (Mu) go dade pismotona dete 3S-DAT 3S gave.3Sg
letter+DEF to child
‘(S)he gave the letter to a (mere) child.’ (Tomic 2006)
Tohono O'odham and Yaqui
(24) Ceoj 'o 'añi: ñ-ceggia
boy is/was me 1S-fighting,
`The boy is/was fighting me'. (Zepeda 1983)
(25) Inepo enchi bo'o-bit-neeI you await-FUT,
`I will wait for you' (Dedrick & Casad 1999: 245)
Account of the change, stage a
TPT'
T vPDP v'
v VP[u-phi] DP V’[ACC] [i-phi] V
[u-Case]
Stage b + c
TP
T'
T vP
DP v'
v VP
[u-phi] D V’
[ACC] [i-phi] V
Conclusions
• Interesting to find patterns of change + then see what that might say about the Language faculty
• Polysynthesis and parameters à la Baker 2001?
• Problems/further work– definiteness