Language Typology and Syntactic Description, Volume I: Clause Structure, Second edition
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Lgg Typology, Synt Description v. I - Clause structure
wuga- ‘give’ is like English spray, a simple transitive verb with variable
[ −a] assignment, either to the gift, with the recipient in [+oblique] dative case, or to the recipient, with the gift in the [ +oblique] instrumental case. Other languages of this typology show a similar restriction of ‘give’ to this transitive class only: (96) Mam (a) England (1983a) ma-a ʔ φ-tsaj ky-q’o- ʔ n pwaq q-ee TNS-EMPH 3 SG.ABS-DIR 3 PL.ERG -give- DIR money 1 PL-DAT [ – A ] [ + A ] [ ] – oblique + pivot – oblique – pivot [ + oblique ] ‘They gave the money to us’ 400 William A. Foley [ + oblique ] Chamorro ha-na’i hao si Juan ni lep blo 3 SG.ERG -give 2 SG.ABS DET John OBLIQ book [ + A ] [ – A ] [ ] – oblique – pivot – oblique + pivot ‘John gave you (with the book)’ Cooreman (1988) (b) In both Mam and Chamorro only one [ −a] np is found with ‘give’, but which one it is differs. In Mam the gift is [ −a] and hence [+pivot], while in Chamorro it is the recipient. Thus, in Mam it is the recipient which is [ +oblique], but in Chamorro, the gift. In addition to pivot choices we have seen thus far – [ +a] argument of transi- tive verbs in nominative–accusative languages like English, [ −a] of transitive verbs in ergative–absolutive languages like Dyirbal, neither as in pivotless lan- guages like Yima – there is a fourth logical possibility: both [ +a] and [−a] of a transitive verb are available to [ +pivot] status, but, of course, due to the one pivot per clause constraint, only one choice can be made in any one clause. Such languages could be termed symmetrical pivot languages, in contrast to asym- metrical pivot languages like English and Dyirbal. In symmetrical languages there is no strong preference for [ +a] or [−a] to be the [+pivot] np of the clause; either can be, according to wider syntactic or textual constraints. Philip- pine languages, of which Tagalog is a good example, illustrate symmetrical languages. In Tagalog [ −oblique] arguments are marked with the preposition ng and [ +oblique] arguments with sa. The pivot np has the preposition ang and the verb takes a series of affixes to indicate the [ ±a]-feature status of the pivot (- um- ‘pivot = [+a]’ is an infix which occurs between the initial consonant of the root and the following vowel): (97) b-um-ili ang lalake ng isda pivot=[ + A ]-buy [ + pivot] man [ – oblique] fish [ + A ] [ – A ] – oblique + pivot – oblique – pivot ‘The man bought fish’ (a) A typology of information packaging 401 bi-bilh-in ng lalake ang isda FUT -buy-pivot=[ – A ] [ – oblique] man [ + pivot] fish [ + A ] [ – A ] – oblique – pivot – oblique + pivot ‘The man will buy the fish’ (b) Note that either the [ +a] or [−a] argument can be pivot, the choice being sig- nalled by different affixation to the verb, the infix - um- for ‘[ +a] = pivot’ and the suffix - in for, ‘[ −a] = pivot’. Note further that, regardless of which argu- ment becomes pivot, the other argument remains [ −oblique] and marked by ng. This is in stark contrast to asymmetrical languages like English or Dyirbal in which marked constructions like passive or antipassive must be used when anything other than the normal pivot choice is made, forcing detransitivization of the clause, with the erstwhile pivot appearing as a [ +oblique] np or dis- appearing from the clause entirely. Clearly, languages like English or Dyirbal are asymmetrical: one argument type is strongly favoured to be pivot, and if it fails to assume this function, it ceases to be [ −oblique]. This is not the case in symmetrical languages like Tagalog: either choice is possible, with no major disruption to clause structure regardless of which is chosen. Tagalog pivots have many of the same properties we have come to expect of them from English or Dyirbal, for example, controlled np in relativization (remember - um- ‘pivot = [+a]’ is an infix): (98) ↓ ↓ (a) lalake-ng [b-um-ili ng isda] man-rel pivot =[+a]-buy [+a] [−oblique] fish ‘The man who bought fish’ ↓ ↓ (b) *isda-ng [b-um-ili ang lalake ] fish-rel pivot =[+a]-buy [+pivot] man [+a] ‘The fish the man bought’ ↓ ↓ (c) isda-ng [bi-bilh-in ng lalake ] fish-rel fut-buy-pivot =[−a] [−oblique] man [−a] ‘The fish the man will buy’ 402 William A. Foley Example (98a) is grammatical because the controlled np in the relative clause is the pivot, identified as being the [ +a] argument by the infix -um-. Example (98b) is ungrammatical because the controlled np and the pivot are not identical: the pivot is the [ +a], again identified by the infix -um-, but the controlled np is the [ −a] argument isda ‘fish’. In order to form such a relative clause, the [ −a] must be made pivot, as it is in (98c); the verb is suffixed with -in indicating the [ −a] argument is the pivot and therefore is a proper target for control. The following table summarizes the typology of pivots developed in this and the last section. pivots absent present Yimas symmetrical asymmetrical Tagalog [ + A ] / V TRANS [ – A ]/ V TRANS English Dyirbal Download 1.59 Mb. Do'stlaringiz bilan baham: |
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