Indeterminate valency & verbal ambivalence in Chitimacha - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Indeterminate valency & verbal ambivalence in Chitimacha Daniel W. Hieber University of California, Santa Barbara Slides and handout available at: danielhieber.com/cv SSILA 2017, Austin, TX, Jan. 5–8 This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program under Grant No. 1144085.

Valency long history, but few crosslinguistic surveys • (Dixon & Aikhenvald 2000; Kulikov, Malchukov, & de Swart 2006; Malchukov & Comrie 2015; Tsunoda & Kageyama 2006) minority but persistent concern: Are valency classes a concept • equally applicable to all languages? 2

Valency as a comparative concept Martin ( 2000): Valency classes in Creek are a side effect of • changes in event perspective, and have no real grammatical status in the language. Mithun ( 2006: 214): In Mohawk (Iroquoian), a language with • agent-patient alignment, “voice alternations are not exploited for purely syntactic purposes. They can serve important semantic, lexical, and discourse functions, however.” 3

Valency as a comparative concept Shibatani & Artawa (2015: 930): In Balinese (Malayo- • Polynesian), “The valency-increasing property associated with [applicatives and causatives] is simply a consequence or a side effect of their fundamental function,” which involves the manipulation of Figure and Ground. Nordhoff (2015): In Sri Lanka Malay (Austronesian creole), • “The distinction between intransitive, transitive and ditransitive is thus not an important one,” due to the fact that nominal flagging correlates directly with semantic roles. 4

Valency as a comparative concept Yoder ( 2016): In Abawiri (Lakes Plain, Papuan), “There are no • grammatical criteria on which one can base a coherent definition of subject vs. object, core vs. oblique, or any other systematic relation between the argument and the clause.” Yikes. • 5

Valency in Chitimacha How does one determine valency classes in a language where • there is no consistent means of deciding the number of arguments that a given verb has? Each of the potential morphological valency -adjusting • devices in Chitimacha are not valency-adjusting per se , but rather alter the lexical semantics of the verb in ways that license and abet – but do not require – changes in valency. 6

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Chief Benjamin Paul (1867-1934) Mrs. Delphine DuCloux (1872-1940) 8

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Overview of Chitimacha grammar 10

Verbs distinguish 1 st vs. non-1 st person 1 st Person Non-1 st Person (2 nd person) 1) ʔam - iki 2) ʔam - iʔi see- 1 SG . A see- NF . SG ‘I saw’ ‘you see’ (3 rd person) 3) ʔam - iʔi see- NF . SG ‘he saw’ 11

Agent-Patient alignment in 1 st person (Hieber, in revision) Intransitive with Agent Transitive without Patient 4) ʔapš ʔe-h- iki 6) kʼet- iki back be- LO C - 1 SG . A hit/kill- 1 SG . A ‘I returned’ ‘I killed it’ Intransitive with Patient Transitive with Patient 5) hi ʔe-h- ki 7) kʼet- ki -ʔi to be- LO C - 1 SG . P hit/kill- 1 SG . P - N F . SG ‘it happened to me’ ‘she beat me’ 12

Verbs do not index their syntactic objects 8) heːčpi-ču-k help- IR R -1 SG . A ‘I’ll help (you)’ 9) siksi kʼe-čuː-š eagle kill- IR R - C O N D ‘if one kills an eagle’ 10) hus tep cʼismam ʔuka-ːš-i his fire pieces count- IPFV - N F . SG ‘he counted his pieces of fire’ 13

Any argument may be omitted 11) Wetk kunukʼu we panš hi šam-tk-š tʼut-naʔa. then people AND go.out- PTC P - SBD go( PL )- N F . PL QUOT DET ʔašinčʼatʼa kunšin hani ʔašinčʼata=nki hi tup-t-naʔa. old some house old= LO C find- TR - N F . PL DIST Panš hiš kʼet-k ʔoːš hup hi hokšte-pa, ʔoːš people kill( SG )- PTC P buzzard to feed- SBD buzzard ERG AND hepši=nk kap mesti-ːkʼ či-ʔuy-i. Tutk excrement= A BL be.white- PTC P COP ( VERT )- IPFV - NF . SG then STAT wey-š kin ʔapš neːčʼi-mi-naka. DEM = with speak- PLA C T -1 PL . A TOP RECIP ‘The people got out and went on. They found an old man at an old house. He was all white with buzzard excrement, because some people had killed him and left him to the buzzards. We spoke with him.’ 14

Determining transitivity in Chitimacha 12) Hi kima-ki kʼan […] ni kʼuš- m -puy-na. DIST believe-1 SG . P DTRZR eat- PLACT - IPFV - N F . PL NEG ‘I do not believe they ate [in that other land].’ 13) Kamčin ʔap šam-kʼust-i-nki tʼemi-naka. Weyt deer go.out-sudden- N F . SG = T EM P kill( PL )-1 PL . A thus VEN ni kʼuš- mi -ːtʼi-nakun. eat- PLA C T - IR R ( PL )-1 PL . A DTRZR ‘As the deer came out, we killed them. Thus we shall eat them.’ 15

Transitivity-Adjusting Devices in Chitimacha 16

Preverbs hi andative ‘to’ kaːpʼs ‘back up’ distal ‘there’ ka ‘across’ his ‘back to’ kas dislative ‘apart’ repetition / response reversive kap inceptive ‘starting’ ‘back across’ inchoative ‘becoming’ ni detransitivizer ‘thing’ punctual with imperatives ‘it’ stative nominalizer ‘up’ ‘down’ 17

Preverbs ʔap proximal ‘here’ venitive ‘coming’ ʔaps ̌ circumlative ‘about’ ‘coming here’ ‘coming back’ reciprocal / reflexive sociative ‘together’ 18

Preverbs: Andative hi ‘to, there’ No Goal 14) miš kʼap-t-k, tʼut-naka road take- TR - PTC P go( PL )-1 PL . A ‘taking to the road, we went’ Overt Goal 15) Wetk kunukʼu kʼastʼa=nk hi tʼut-naʔa. then north.wind= LO C go( PL )- N F . PL QUOT AND ‘Then, they say, they went toward the north.’ 19

Preverbs: Andative hi ‘to, there’ Goal Added to Lexical Semantics of Verb 16) hi tʼut-naʔa hesikʼen go( PL )- N F . PL again AND ‘they went on again’ 20

Preverbs: Reflexive ʔapš Reduced Valency with ʔapš 17) hus mahči kuh =hiš ʔapš neh-pa-puy-na his tail feather cover- C A U S - IPFV - N F . P L INSTR REFL ‘they adorn themselves with his tail feathers’ No Valency Change with ʔapš 18) Wetkš we panš pinikank ʔašinčʼata=š ʔapš čuy-i. then Indian old= T O P back go( SG )- N F . SG DET ‘Then the old Indian came back.’ 21

Preverbs: Reflexive ʔapš No Valency Change with ʔapš 19) Huyi waytm ʔapš wok-t-i. good more feel- TR - N F . SG REFL ‘He felt (himself) better.’ 22

Preverbs: Detransitivizer ni Transitive without ni 20) ʔiš=k ʔiš nuːp kʼas-ka-nki-š 1 SG = N O M 1 SG potato plant- PL = T E M P = SB D ‘when I planted my potatoes’ Intransitive with ni 21) hus=k ney =ki ni kʼas-t-ʼiš-iʔi 3sg= N O M ground= LO C DTRZR plant- T R - IPFV - N F . SG ‘he was planting in the ground’ 23

Preverbs: Detransitivizer ni 22) Tutk namu=š hi čuh-mi-ʔi. then town= TO P build- PLA C T - N F . SG DIST ‘Then he built a town.’ Hani ne ni čuh-mi-ʔi. house just build- PLA C T - N F . SG DTRZR ‘He built houses.’ 24

Locational Suffixes Attach to a limited set of verbs • • -n ‘out’ • -h ‘in’ • -k ‘at’ 25

Locational Suffix: -h ‘on’ Without Locational Suffix 23) Weyt pe-ʔe-nki […] thus be( H O R IZ )- N F . SG - T E M P ‘while he lay thus, […]’ Locational Suffix with Overt Ground 24) Wetk napščʼa=nk kiš ʔatin pe- h -k kap tey-i. then black= N O M horse be( H O R IZ )- on - PT C P stay- N F . SG STAT ‘Now a black person on a horse stopped.’ 26

Locational Suffix: -h ‘on’ Ground Added to Lexical Semantics of Verb 25) We kuːk=š kʼamikʼi wetk his pe- h -w-i. DET water= TO P long then be- on -moving- N F . SG DUR ‘The water was on (the land) a long time.’ 26) Šuš=up kap pe- h -iʔi. Hi pe- h -i-nki […] tree=to up be- on - N F . SG be- on - N F . SG = TEM P AND ‘He climbed a tree. When he had climbed it, […]’ 27

Transitive Suffix -t Without -t 27) Wetk panš pinikank ʔoːnak kap hok-naʔa. then Indian all STAT leave- N F . PL ‘The Indians all left.’ With -t 28) kičantʼi ʔunkʼunk=š hok- t -naʔa old.woman one= TO P leave- TR - N F . PL ‘they had left only one old woman’ 28

Transitive Suffix -t Without -t 29) wetk hus hana=nki hi hu-h-ni-na then his house= LO C enclosure-in- N EU T - N F . PL AND ‘they entered his house’ With -t 30) Wetk we panš ʔiš =ki hi kimi-ːkʼ-š na then people me = LO C believe- PTC P - SBD COP ( NF . PL ) DET AND sa hana=nki hi hu-h- t -iki. house= LO C enclosure-in- TR -1 SG . A DIST DIST ‘I have put people who believe in me in that house.’ 29

Transitive Suffix -t Undergoer Added to Lexical Semantics of Verb 31) Weyčʼiːkʼš hiʔniš hi hok-t-naʔa. therefore alone DIST leave- TR - N F . PL ‘Therefore they left (it) alone.’ 32) Weyt hukʼu ʔiː-č- t -ʼiš-naʔa. turn-handling- TR - IPFV - N F . PL DEM COP ‘That is the way they turn-weave.’ 30

Intransitivizer -te 33) šuš čiːš- e -pa=nki tree leaf- INTR - C A U S = TEM P ‘when the leaves bud’ 34) kap nakt- te -ʔiš-iʔi ice- INTR - IPFV - N F . SG STAT ‘it freezes (in winter)’ 31