Anticausativization in Gyalrongic languages

This talk will deal with the issue of Chinese complex V-V verbs formed by means of a causative light V1 in Mandarin Chinese, Taiwanese Southern Min (TSM) and Hakka. Mandarin Chinese has few lexical causatives (labile verbs), e.g. 开 kāi ‘open’ and 沉 chén ‘sink’; however, even when labile verbs are available, a compound form is generally preferred to express the transitive variant. The main means to express causativity in Mandarin Chinese are periphrastics means and complex verbs formed by two verbal roots (i.e. resultative compounds and verbs formed with a light V1). The tendency to express causativity by means of compounding seems to be linked to the analytic nature of Mandarin. This is even clearer if we consider the diachronic development of the Chinese language, which is characterized by a typological shift from a synthetic to an analytic language and by a substantial change in the lexicon. These factors apparently contributed also to the change in the ways to express causativity by means of different strategies. In this talk we will focus only on complex V-V verbs formed with a phonetically realized light verb (带音的轻动词 dài yīn de qīng dòngcí), i.e. a verb that has general and abstract semantic content (see Grimshaw & Mester 1988, Feng 2005, Zhu 2005, Jie 2008), as e.g. Mandarin 打 dǎ ‘beat, strike, hit’, 弄 nòng ‘make’, 搞 gǎo ‘do’. These verbal roots, when appearing as V1s of V-V compounds often do not represent a particular action, origin or manner, as in the case of resultatives, but are blurred verbs, with a general causative meaning, forming the transitive version of intransitive change-of-state verbs, e.g. 弄沉 nòngchén ‘sink’, 弄暗 nòng’àn ‘darker’, 弄断 nòngduàn ‘break’; thus they are items involved inthe causative alternation. Light verbs do not give any semantic contribution to the whole complex verb. The compound verb just expresses the resultant state, leaving the causing event unspecified: different actions can bring about the resultant state. Among light verbs, we will illustrate one particular case, i.e. the root 打 dǎ ‘hit, beat, strike’. In V-V compounds 打 dǎ can be used either as a full verb, forming a resultative compound, or as a light verb. In a complex verb like 打死 dǎsǐ ‘dǎ-die’, the meaning of 打 dǎ could be either ‘beat and kill (make die) as a result’ or simply ‘kill (make die)’; in the latter case, the resultant state ‘die’ can be reached performing different actions, as we will show. We will compare this root with TSM 拍 phah4 ‘hit’, e.g. a 拍醒 phah4 chhin2 ‘wake’, 拍破 phah4 phoa3 ‘break’ (Lien 1999:8) and Hakka 打 da2 ‘hit’, e.g. Hailu Hakka 打壞 da2 fai3 ‘break’, 打缺 da2 kiet4 ‘chip’ Yeh 2008:67-68). In TSM and Hakka this item seems to be more grammaticalized than in Mandarin. We will show the variation of use of this item among some other Sinitic languages (in some of them the change in meaning is signalled by tonal change) and the diachronic development of this item in the Chinese language. We will argue that its causative function derives from the progressive abstracting generalization of its ‘make’ meaning (cf. Moreno 1998). Finally, we will illustrate another particular light verb, i.e. the Mandarin root 加 jiā ‘increase’, e.g. 加宽 jiākuān ‘increase + wide = widen’, 加深 jiāshēn ‘increase + deep = deepen’. We will propose that the root 加 jiā ‘increase’ 1) represents the causative component, forming the transitive variant of verbs of change of state based on open-range adjectives involving an increase in the property denoted by the adjective; 2) is the spell-out of one relevant part of the logical representation, i.e. the increasing event (cf. Hay, Kennedy & Levin 1999). Also, we will show that to form the transitive variant of change-of-state verbs based on open-range adjectives denoting a decrease in some properties (increase in negative properties), a V1 that marks the negative direction of the change in degree is required (cf. Steffen Chung 2006). Instances of this kind of formations can be found in TSM and Hakka too, e.g. TSM 加強 gāgiǒng ‘strengthen’, Meixian Hakka 加長ka44 tsoŋ 31. References CAO, R.F. (2004). 陽泉方言的动词词缀「打」‘The verbal affix dǎ in the Yangquan dialect’. 語文研究 Yuwen yanjiu 4：55-57。 CHIANG, C.L. (2006). Causative and Inchoative Alternation in Taiwanese Southern Min: In Comparison with Mandarin and English. MA dissertation, Hsinchu, National Tsinghua University. FENG, S.L. (2005). 轻动词移位与古今汉语的动宾关系 ‘Light verb movement and the verb-object relationship in Old and Modern Chinese’. 语言科学 Yuyan kexue 4 (1):3-16. GRIMSHAW, J. & MESTER, A. (1988). Light verbs and theta-marking. Linguistic Inquiry 19:205-232. HAY, J., KENNEDY, C., LEVIN, B. (1999). Scalar structure underlies telicity in "degree achievements". In T. Mathewsand & D. Strolovitch (eds.), SALT IX, CLC Publications: Ithaca, 127–144. HU, M.Y. (1984) . 说 “打” ‘On 打 dǎ’. 語言论集 Yuyan lunji 2: 151-202。 JIE, Z.M. (2008). 轻动词假说与词典释义 ‘The light verb hypothesis and dictionary definition’. 辞书研究 Cishu Yanjiu 4:30-44. LI, K.F. (2005). 重庆方言的 “打” ‘打 dǎ in the Chongqing dialect’. 宜賓学院学报 Yibin xueyuan xuebao 5 (9):98-103。 LIEN, C.F. (1999). A Typological Study of Causatives in Taiwan Southern Min. The Tsing Hua Journal of Chinese Studies, 29 (4): 395-422. LIN, T.H. (2001). Light Verb Syntax and the Theory of Phrase Structure. PhD dissertation, University of California, Irvine. MEI, T.L. (1991). 从汉代 “动、杀”、“动、死” 来看动补结构的发展——兼论中古时期起词的施受关系的中立化 ‘The development of verb-complement construction looking at ‘V-die’, ‘V-kill’ in the Han dinasty: a discussion of the neutralization of the agent–patient relationship in verbs since the Middle Chinese period’. In 语言学论丛 Yuyuanxue luncong 16: 112-136. MORENO, J.C. (1993). “Make” and the semantic origin of causativity: A typological study. In B. COMRIE & M. POLINSKY (eds.), Causatives and transitivity. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 155-164. PULLEYBLANK, E.G. (2004). From Archaic Chinese to Mandarin. In G. Booij, C. Lehmann & J. Mugdan (eds.), Morphologie (Morphology), Number 2: Ein Internationales Handbuch Zur Flexion und Wortbildung (An International Handbook on Inflection and Word-Formation), 1730-1740. QIU, X.Y. (2008). 客家話“打”字語法化初探 ‘A preliminary discussion on the grammaticalization of “打” in Hakka’. 國文學誌 Guowen xuezhi 16:75-103。 SCHUESSLER, A. (2007). ABC Etymological Dictionary of Old Chinese. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. STEFFEN CHUNG, K. (2006). Mandarin compound verbs. Taiwan Journal of Linguistics, Book Series in Chinese Linguistics. Taipei: Crane. YEH, C.S. (2008).. A Family of da2 ‘hit’ Constructions in Hakka: An Inspection of Argument Realization and Transitivity MA dissertation, Taipei, National Chengchi University. ZHANG, G.Y. (2006). 现代汉语形容词 ‘Modern Chinese adjectives’. Beijing: Shangwu Yinshuguan chubanshe. ZHU, J.J (2002). 近代汉语动词“打"的语义泛化 ‘The extension in meaning of Pre-Modern Mandarin “打 dǎ”’. 烟台大学学报 Yantai Daxue Xuebao 15 (3):354-360. ZHU, J.J (2003). 近代汉语动词前缀“打一’’演变探析 ‘An exploration of the prefix “打 dǎ” in Pre-Modern Mandarin’. 烟台大学学报 Yantai Daxue Xuebao 16 (4):470-476. ZHU, X.F. (2005). 轻动词和汉语不及物动词带宾语现象‘Light verbs and the phenomenon of Chinese intransitive verbs bearing an object’. 现代外语 Xiandai Waiyu 28 (3): 221-231.

Himalayan Linguistics, 2020

The paper presents the first complete reconstruction of the Old Tibetan (OT) verb morphology and semantics. Old Tibetan had a productive verb inflection with meaningful inflectional affixes b-, g-, ɣ-, d-, -d, and -s. The distribution of the prefixes was asymmetric and closely related to transitivity of a verb. Verbs of highest transitivity formed four distinct stems, whereas intransitive verbs inflected for one or two stems only. Grammatical voice is the only category that can explain the disproportion in the markings of transitive and intransitive verbs. Because the basic opposition was that between active and passive voice, intransitive verbs could only form active forms, whereas both active and passive forms were available for the majority of transitive verbs. In addition, both groups of verbs inflected for aspect, distinguishing between perfective and imperfective aspect. The OT inflectional system seems to have been a local innovation, only marginally related to verb morphology of other Trans-Himalayan languages.

2011

Vedic Sanskrit and other Indo-European languages attest a typologically remarkable change of passives to anticausatives. This semantic development is attested, foremost, for passives of several verbs of perception and knowledge (knowledge transfer) obviously, according to the scenario ‘Y is seen (known etc.) by smb.’ → ‘Y is seen (known etc.) [by smb.]’ → ‘Y is seen (known etc.) [by generic passive agent]’ → ‘Y is visible (famous, etc.)’. A special variety of this development is instantiated by the passive of a verb of speech, ucyáte ‘Y is pronounced’ → ‘Y [e.g. speech, musical instrument] sounds’. In addition, passive to anticausative transfer is attested for a small subgroup of verbs of caused motion. While in this latter case the rise of anticausative usages may be due to conceptualizing simple transitives as causatives (throw = ‘make fall, make fly’, etc.), in cases of verbs of perception and knowledge we observe the rise of the anticausative usages through the stage which is called ‘impersonalization’ in Siewierska 1984 and explained in terms of ‘objectivization of knowledge’, i.e. knowledge without a knowing subject. In connection with these verbs, I briefly discuss the relationships between ‘agentless’, impersonalized’ and ‘impersonal’ passives.

2015. Languages and Linguistics 16.3: 431-464

While the vast majority of Sino-Tibetan (=Trans-Himalayan) languages have a pre-head predicate negator, Tani is one of a small handful of subgroups whose languages display an exclusively post-head negator. This negator, furthermore, is somewhat unusual in having both derivation-like and inflection-like properties, and in occupying an ‘intermediate’ position between derivations and inflections in the predicate stem. This article proposes a common explanation for both facts, by hypothesizing that reanalysis of an AUX-final serial verb construction as a single predicate word has resulted in realignment of an earlier pre-head auxiliary negator as a predicate suffix with leftward scope over the predicate stem. This is similar to another channel found in some Tibeto-Burman languages in which a prefixal negator fuses with a clause-final auxiliary to become a suffix (as in Kuki-Chin and ‘Naga’); however, I argue it to be ultimately somewhat different. These arguments are made on the basis of a more comprehensive description of negation in Galo (Tibeto-Burman > Tani, Eastern Himalaya) than was provided in Post (2007); as such, a second goal of the paper is to contribute to the typology of negation in Asian languages more generally.

2008

This paper explores the syntax of the two types of anticausatives (marked vs. unmarked ones) in Acehnese to support the proposed division of agentivity and causation into two distinct functional projections, namely VoiceP and vP (Alexiadou et al. 2006 among others), analyzing the anticausative marker teuin marked anticausatives as an overt realization of Voice head with [agent,-D] features. The evidence is twofold: (i) the three-way contrast between the two types of anticausatives and passives revealed by several syntactic tests and (ii) the distribution of the anticausative marker with respect to other functional heads. * I would like to thank Julie Legate and John Whitman for their help and guidance during this project as well as Saiful Mahdi, my language consultant, for his time, patience, and grammaticality judgment. Many thanks also to