The Linguistic Cycle of Objects Elly van Gelderen, LASSO, Corvallis, October 2008

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 endowment 2.Experience 3.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 XP SpecX' XYP Y…

Feature Economy phrase > head> agreement> zero [i-phi][i-phi][u-phi]-- [u-Case]

Linguistic Cycles Negative: 1. neg adverb > neg particle > (neg particle) + neg indefinite/adverb > neg particle 2. verb > aspect > neg > C Clausal 1. pronoun > complementizer 2.PP/Adv > Topic > C Definiteness demonstrative > definite article > Case/non-generic > class marker Agreement demonstrative/emphatic > pronoun > agreement Auxiliary A/P > M > T > C

Is there an object cycle? (1)b-í-na-bi-ni-sh-tin Navajo 3-against-ASP-3-Q-1S-handle `I teach it to him’ (Y&M 1980: 223) (2)be-ghá-yé-n-i-ł-tį Dene Suline 3S-to-3S-ASP-1S-CL-handle `I have given her to him’ ( Li 1946: 419 Rice 1998: 102)

What counts as object? (3)guyéndíhKaska gu-yé-n-Ø-díh 1P-about-2S-CL-know `You know (about) us’. (4)ments'i‘ayalKaska ments'i‘Ø-Ø-ayal. laketo3SCLwalk `She is walking to the lake’.

Some differences between the Athabaskan languages: (5)súbek'ágoweneliSlave Q3S-2S-taste `Have you tasted it?' (6)sútuwelek'ágoweneliSlave Qsoup2S-taste `Have you tasted the soup?' (7)denekegogháyedaSlave people-P3-see-4P `S/he sees the people‘.

Objects cannot double in: (8)meganehtanKaska me-ga-ne-0-h-tan 3S-at-ASP-3S-CL-look `He looks at her’. (9)ayudeni ganehtankaska girlat-ASP-3S-CL-look He looks at the girl(s). (and Salcha, not shown)

In Navajo, they do: (10)'atoo'yí-ní-dlaa'-ísh soup3S-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 neeuskoghermedekhaa I ERG3SOBLhouse insaw-3SM `I saw her/him in the house'. (13)kare-wawatashi-omimashita 3S-TOP1S-ACCsaw `He saw me'. (Yoko Matsuzaki p.c.) (14)Ihka-mwinge-hlaarai SheCAUS-eat-PFthem `She fed them' (Harrison 1976: 87).

Somewhat reduced: Coll. Persian, Kashmiri, English (15)sib-oxord-am-esh apple-RAate-1S-3S, `As for the apple, I ate it' (Ghomeshi 1996: 241) (16)raath vuch-n-ay yesterdaysaw-3S-2S, ‘He saw you yesterday’ (Bhatt 1999: 48). (17)I saw'r yesterday.

Marshallese (18) E-arpukot-e(kōj) 3S-PSTlook.for-OM1P 'He looked for us' (Willson 2008: 32) (19)E-ar denōt-i(kweetko) 3S-PST pound-OM octopusthe 'He pounded the octopuses.' (Harrison 1978:1075)

Swahili and Kinande (20)a.ni-li-somakitabu I-PAST-reada-book, `I read a book'. b.ni-li-ki-somakitabu I-PAST-it-readthe-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 Spanish and S-W Macedonian (22)lotraeunchiquihuite ithe-bringsabasket, `He brings a basket' (Hill 1987: 74) (23)(Mu) godadepismotona dete 3S-DAT 3Sgave.3Sg letter+DEFtochild ‘(S)he gave the letter to a (mere) child.’ (Tomic 2006)

Tohono O'odham and Yaqui (24)Ceoj 'o 'añi: ñ-ceggia boy is/was me 1S-fighting, `The boy is/was fighting me'. (Zepeda 1983) (25)Inepoenchibo'o-bit-nee Iyouawait-FUT, `I will wait for you' (Dedrick & Casad 1999: 245)

Account of the change, stage a TP T' TvP DPv' vVP [u-phi]DPV’ [ACC][i-phi]V [u-Case]

Stage b + c TP T' TvP DPv' vVP [u-phi]DV’ [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