Difference between revisions of "Kistaninya Verbconstructions"

Latest revision as of 11:58, 26 December 2013

User:Bedilu Debela

This page is motivated by the intention to enumerate examples which represent typical verbal constructions of Kistaniniya. Hence, a number of representative examples are taken from construction headed by simple (intransitive, transitive and ditransitive verbs) and derivational verbs (causatives, passive, impersonals, copula, and converbs).

The examples on the page are imported from the annotated text collection Verb constructions in Kistaninya, found at http://typecraft.org/TCEditor/1131/, containing 88 annotated sentences. In this collection, in addition to the information rendered on the present page, the constructions are annotated for valence, according to the Construction Labeling system, outlined at the wiki page Verbconstructions cross-linguistically - Introduction.

(In the language list found at 'Text search', Kistaninya is listed under the Ethnologue name Kistane.)

I. SIMPLE VERB CONSTRUCTIONS

1. Constructions headed by intransitive verbs.

Intransitive verbs are characterized by not selecting an NP complement. On the basis of their semantic expression and their syntactic properties (1).

In the language, core-arguments and obliques are marked by different morpho-syntactic means. Unlike core-arguments which are optionally marked by bare object personal pronoun suffix on the verb, oblique arguments are referred to by applicative plus object personal pronoun suffix. Oblique arguments are adpositional phrases in Kistaniniya with a property of assigning thematic roles such as locative, instrumental, source, goal, beneficiary and maleficiary.

In addition to the subject, Kistaniniya allows only one further core or oblique argument to be marked on the verb. When an oblique is overtly realized in a construction, it is always the oblique that is marked on the verb. In idiomatic expressions headed by an intransitive verb, the oblique argument is referred by the applicative formative.

Intransitive verbs expressing motion take adpositional oblique object to mark their goal or source of movement. Consider the following examples headed by intransitive motion verbs(2).

2. Constructions headed by transitive verbs

Syntactically, transitive verbs are characterized by having a direct object complement. The complement they select can be phrasal or clausal(3.

In Kistaniniya, there is a type of verbs which have both transitive and intransitive valency specifications. Consider the following examples.In both examples the subejct is droped,and marked on the verb by SM. Though it is not marked by agreement marking the first example has an object, thus it is a transitive verb (4).

Notice that in the above examples, the verbal head optionally selects its cognate noun as its complement.

There are transitive verbs which select for clausal complements. The clausal complement can be declarative, interrogative, or infinitival (5).

3. Constructions headed by ditransitive verbs

In the language there are verbs like ad:əl- ‘distribute’, šil:əm- ‘reward’, ab- ‘give’ and wəd- ‘tell’ which requires two complements. The complements are a noun phrase and a prepositional phrase which are traditionally labeled as direct and indirect object respectively (6).

The constructions in (6) are headed by ditransitive verbs, and need direct and indirect object to satisfy their argument requirement. Template (6a), for instance, has əwjə ‘news’ and the PP yəzənnu ‘to Zennu’ as its direct and indirect object arguments respectively.

Double object applicative constructions (a transitive verb with applicative formative)have the same valency specification as ditransitive verbs. The base transitive head verb requires only one object. The second object (i.e. indirect object) is introduced by the applicative formative attached on the verb, thus it is a non-core argument (7).

In (7), the applicative objects which is introduced by the applicative formative is the PP yəzən:u ‘for Zennu’, and it is marked on the verb, by 3FEM.SG object pronoun suffixes.

4 Constructions Headed by Compound verbs

Kistaniniya forms a verbal stem by compounding categorically unspecified morphemes with the verbal stems bal- ‘say’ for intransitive reading, and k’inn- ‘make’ for transitive reading. The unspecified morpheme encodes the semantics, and the verbal stems provide grammatical informations like tense, aspect, agreement, etc (8).

5 Constructions Headed by copulas

Copular morphemes are used in sentence final position. The copula morphemes are the present tense copula -n ‘is’, the past tense copula nəb:ər- ‘was’ and the future tense copula hon- ‘be, become’ which are used with personal pronoun suffixes showing person, gender and number. Copular verbs take NP, AP, AdvP and AdpP as their complements (9).

II CONSTRUCTIONS HEADED BY DERIVED VERBS

Derived verbs are a result of derivational mechanism which change the valence of the base. The affixation of a derivational morpheme changes either the number of syntactic arguments the verbal base has or the semantic of the arguments, or both.

1 Constructions Headed by Impersonal verbs

Kistaniniya has two ways of forming impersonal constructions. Though both types have no overt subject argument, these constructions show some basic differences in the agreement marking of the verb. For the sake of discussion, let’s name the constructions Impersonal Construction 1 (IMP1) and Impersonal Construction 2 (IMP2). In IMP1 the verb is marked invariantly for 3MASC.SG subject, and the object agreement marking is obligatory (10). Note that IMP1 is not headed by derived verb.

Unlike IMP1, IMP2 are not marked for subject agreement. IMP2 is formed by special pronoun affixes which are phonologically the same as those object pronoun suffixes of the 3MASC.PL verb form (i.e. a verb with 3MASC.PL subject pronoun suffix). While IMP1 has a limited distribution with very few verbs, IMP2 has wider distribution, and can be derived from any verb form.

Example (11b)has a secondary predicate which is not subcategorized as an object argument by the matrix verb.

2 Constructions Headed by Passive verbs

Kistaniniya passive constructions are derived by the passive morpheme tə. The following example represents constructions derived from transitive verbs.

In example (12), the construction is headed by transitive verb with a passive formative. As it appears in the example, the passive morphology reduces the valence of the base verb from transitive to intransitive.

Passive constructions can be derived from a ditransitive verb base. When an active construction headed by a ditransitive verb is passivized, either the direct object or indirect object can promote to the passive subject. In (13), the 3MASC.SG subject agreement marking on the verb refers to the subject waga ‘money’ which is the direct object in its active counterpart.

Though it is derived from the same active construction as (13), the template given in (14) is different from the one given in (13). Unlike in (13), where the direct object is the passive subject, in (14) it is the indirect object of the active that promotes to the passive subject, and being a subject it is marked on the verb by 3FEM.SG agreement.

The other group of passive construction presents passive applicative constructions. As the name indicates this type of constructions have two formatives, the passive and the applicative. Thus, with two formatives the head appears vPasAppl. In this case, the applicative formative is attached to a passive verb not the other way round. The example in (15) exemplify passive applicative constructions.

3 Constructions Headed by Reciprocal verbs

Reciprocals verbs are derived from repetitive transitive verb stem (i.e. –CaC(C)əC) by the reciprocal formative tə-. Since reciprocal constructions have more than one participant associated in more than one semantic relation, the verb form requires plural subject suffix pronouns, as in (16). Reciprocal constructions arguably denote the most complex event to be expressed in most languages by regular grammatical means. Generally they represent at least two propositions.

4 Constructions Headed by Reflexive verbs

There are two types of reflexive constructions in Kistaniniya; one is headed by a verb with reflexive formative tə- and the other is headed by a verb with accusative case marker and possessive pronoun suffix.

5 Constructions headed by causative verbs

Kistaniniya has the causative formatives a- and at- prefixed to different verbal stems, which introduce a causer agent to a non causative event. Causative constructions with transitive specification are headed by a causative verb derived from intransitive verb by one of the causative formatives.

In a- causative constructions the newly introduced subject is not only the cause of the action performed. It also has been involved in the caused activity in different way.

The example (18) is different from (17) due to the causative formative, the causative is formed by at-.

Causative construction can use passive verbs as its base (19).

The head verb is marked for two formatives; passive and causative. Due to the fact that passive causative constructions use passive verb as an input, the agent (i.e. the causee) is not overtly realized either in the input (passive construction) or in the passive causative.

Also applicative constructions can also be used as input for causative constructions (20).

The example in (21) can represent causative impersonal constructions.

Causative impersonal constructions do not have overt subject argument, thus there is no grammatical function with a causer role. Unlike any other construction, the verbal stem gets its full-fledged word status after having marked for object agreement (i.e. the impersonal formative), and then the causative formative is prefixed to it to form the causative impersonal verb which heads the construction.

In Kistaniniya, a causative passive applicative construction is identified as a construction headed by a verb with three formatives.

6 Constructions with by converbs

The converb category is a non-finite verb form whose main function is to mark adverbial subordination (Haspelmath 1995). In the literature, it is also known as gerund, adverbial participle and absolute construction. The typical structure of a converb is stem plus affix and they are commonly found in verb final languages (Haspelmath 1995: 9). In Kistaniniya, the internal structure of converbs (cnv) is verbal stem suffixed with subject personal pronoun followed by the converb marker (-m). Converb constructions occur in all aspectual forms, and mostly, all the converb(s) and the matrix verb have the same aspectual stem form. Different aspectual combination is also possible, the converb and the matrix verb can be in perfective and imperfective forms respectively. Except in impersonal converb constructions, every verb is obligatorily marked for subject agreement. The matrix verb, in addition to subject agreement, carries object and tense marking. Converb constructions with impersonal verbs are marked only for object agreement, and a matrix verb with applicative formative requires object marking in addition to the subject agreement. Due to the lack of aspect marking, converbs are non-finite verbs.

Example (23) is a converbial construction with two verbs; a converb and a matrix verb. Both the converb clause and the main clause share a subject and an object which are not overtly realized. On both verbs the subject is marked by 3MASC.SG pronoun suffix, whereas the object is marked only on the matrix verb by 3MASC.SG object pronoun suffix.

A converb construction may consist of more than one converb (24).

A converb construction may consist of impersonal converb and matrix verb (25).