1. The Linguistic Cycle of Objects Elly van Gelderen, LASSO, Corvallis, October 2008 ellyvangelderen@asu.edu

2. Outline Background on the cycle Why is it interesting? Different cycles Example from Athabaskan The different stages Explanation

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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

6. Cognitive Economy (or UG) principles help the learner, e.g: Phrase > head (minimize structure) Avoid too much movement XP SpecX' XYP Y…

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

8. 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

9. 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)

10. 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’.

11. 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‘.

12. 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)

13. 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)

14. Changes Northern > Southern Increase of polysynthesis: object MUST be marked on the verb (Loss of Noun Incorporation, see Rice 2008)

15. 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).

16. 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.

17. 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)

18. 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)

19. 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)

20. 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)

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

22. Stage b + c TP T' TvP DPv' vVP [u-phi]DV’ [ACC][i-phi]V

23. 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