The Linguistic Cycle of Objects

Elly van Gelderen,LASSO, Corvallis, October 2008

ellyvangelderen@asu.edu

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

XPSpec X'

X YPY …

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 Navajo3-against-ASP-3-Q-1S-handle`I teach it to him’ (Y&M 1980: 223)

(2) be-ghá-yé-n-i-ł-tį Dene Suline3S-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 Kaska

me-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 arai She 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-ayyesterday 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 kitabu

I-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 pismoto

na 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-ceggiaboy is/was me 1S-fighting, `The boy is/was fighting me'. (Zepeda

1983)(25) Inepo enchi bo'o-bit-nee

I you await-FUT, `I will wait for you' (Dedrick & Casad

1999: 245)

Account of the change, stage aTP

T'T vP

DP v'v VP

[u-phi] DP V’[ACC] [i-phi] V

[u-Case]

Stage b + c

TPT'

T vPDP 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