Language Typology and Syntactic Description, Volume I: Clause Structure, Second edition
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Lgg Typology, Synt Description v. I - Clause structure
Give is a transfer verb like load or drain, but, unlike these, the object which is
transferred not only undergoes a change in location, but prototypically a change in ownership as well. In (45a) give behaves like a standard transitive verb, with [ −a] assignment to the object which undergoes change in ownership. The new owner appears as an oblique, in a prepositional phrase with to. The new owner is obviously affected by the transfer by coming into possession of the object given, is therefore a potential [ −a], but because give is a simple transitive verb in this clause frame and the [ −a] function is already taken by the object given, it must occur in oblique function. Example (45b) illustrates an as yet unseen pattern, in which the new owner now functions as the [ −a]. Of course, the object given still remains affected by the transfer, but in these cases, as opposed to the earlier examples of (43) and (44), it is not realized as an oblique but remains an unmarked core argument of the verb, and hence must be assigned perspective by the verb, in this case [ −a]. We can define ditransitive verbs as that class which is lexically specified as being able to take two [ −a] participants, i.e. two syntactic objects, rather than the usual one of transitive verbs. English is by no 376 William A. Foley means the only language to illustrate the alternation in (45); it is exemplified as well by Nengone of New Caledonia (Tryon (1967)) and Lango of Uganda (Noonan and Bavin-Woock (1978)), among many other languages: (46) Nengone (a) inu ˇci kanon ɔ re tusi du b ɔ n I pres give the book to 3sg ‘I give the book to him’ (b) inu ˇci kanon b ɔ n re tusi I pres give 3sg the book ‘I give him the book’ (47) Lango (a) l´oc`a `om ´ ɔ ` m ɔ ` t b ɔ ` `at ´ n man gave gift to child ‘The man gave a gift to the child’ (b) l´oc`a `om ´ ɔ ` `at ´ n m ɔ ` t man gave child gift ‘The man gave the child a gift’ In all three languages, English, Nengone and Lango, give occurs in two clause structures: in the first, illustrated by the (a) examples, give is a simple transitive verb with a single [ −a] participant – the thing given, realized as the syntactic object – and the recipient appears as an oblique constituent, hence out of the perspective imposed by the verb. In the second structure, give is a ditransitive verb, with two [ −a] participants, the gift and the recipient, functioning as syntactic objects, as in the (b) examples. Both participants appear with the diagnostic grammatical properties of core nps immediately after the verb and hence must be with the perspective assignment of the verb. Neither takes an oblique marker such as an adposition or case ending. It is important to remember that the notion of [ −a] has both semantic and syntactic diagnostic properties. A [ −a] np must answer the question ‘What happened to X?’ and function in a core syntactic position, prototypically a syntactic object of a transitive or ditransitive verb or the subject of a corresponding passive. The semantic property on its own is not sufficient, for example the recipient of an act of transfer such as is entailed by a verb like give (example (45)) is always affected by the action: they come into possession of an object and hence meet the semantic requirements for [ −a] status. It may, however, not achieve that status if give is functioning as a simple transitive verb (45a) and its single [ −a] slot is already filled by the object given. In such cases it will necessarily appear in oblique function. If, however, give is ditransitive with two [ −a] slots, this strictly syntactic constraint will no longer block the recipient from assuming [ −a] status. Both the semantic and A typology of information packaging 377 the syntactic constraints for [ −a] status then can be satisfied and the recipient will appear as such. It is important to note that give is not potentially ditransitive in every language; in fact there may indeed be languages without ditransitive verbs at all. For example, in Tolai, an Austronesian language of New Britain (Mosel (1984)), tar ‘give’ is transitive, with the gift as the [ −a] participant; the recipient must be specified as an oblique in a prepositional phrase: (48) i ga tar ia tai tura-na 3sg rem give 3sg to brother-3sg.poss ‘He gave it to his brother’ Many languages, notably the classical Indo-European languages but a number of others as well, have a distinct oblique case form, the dative, which marks the recipient with give. The gift typically takes the diagnostic core grammatical properties, the syntactic and morphological properties of the [ −a] participant, such as grammatical case (see chapter 3 by Andrews) like accusative or abso- lutive or syntactic properties like objecthood, while the dative np behaves like an oblique for most purposes: (49) (a) German die Frau hat den Kindern das Buch gegeben nom .sg woman has dat.pl children-dat.pl acc.sg book given ‘The woman gave the book to the children’ (b) Ingush da ·s wo ε aa kita ·b d ε a-lu father.erg son.dat book.abs away-give ‘Father gives son a book’ Nichols (1994) Some of these languages may have a small class of ditransitive verbs not includ- ing give (for example, like German lehren ‘teach’ with two accusative, i.e. [ −a], np s), or they may lack the class entirely, like Tolai. This is one area of typo- logical studies which is greatly in need of further intensive work. It is worth noting that most languages lacking ditransitive verbs – i.e. having no verbs that can take two [ −a]s, two nps in object function – always present the recipient in the oblique frame. It would be worth knowing if there are many languages possessing only transitive give which do so in the other possible frame, i.e. something like Egbert gave Mildred with the snake, in which the recipient is [ −a] and the gift is oblique. Are there many languages like this? Straits Salish (Jelinek and Demers (1994)) seems to be one such language: |
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