Motion, Transfer and Transformation: the Grammar of Change in Lowland Chontal (Studies in Language Companion Series, Volume 95)

Motion, Transfer and Transformation

Studies in Language Companion Series (SLCS) This series has been established as a companion series to the periodical Studies in Language.

Editors Werner Abraham University of Vienna

Michael Noonan

University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee USA

Editorial Board Joan Bybee

Robert E. Longacre

Ulrike Claudi

Brian MacWhinney

Bernard Comrie

Marianne Mithun

William Croft

Edith Moravcsik

Östen Dahl

Masayoshi Shibatani

Gerrit J. Dimmendaal

Russell S. Tomlin

Ekkehard König

John W.M. Verhaar

University of New Mexico University of Cologne Max Planck Institute, Leipzig University of New Mexico University of Stockholm University of Cologne

Free University of Berlin

University of Texas, Arlington Carnegie-Mellon University University of California, Santa Barbara University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee Rice University and Kobe University University of Oregon The Hague

Christian Lehmann University of Erfurt

Volume 95 Motion, Transfer and Transformation. The grammar of change in Lowland Chontal Loretta O’Connor

Motion, Transfer and Transformation The grammar of change in Lowland Chontal

Loretta O’Connor University of California, Santa Barbara / Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen

John Benjamins Publishing Company Amsterdam / Philadelphia

8

TM

The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences – Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ansi z39.48-1984.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data O'Connor, Loretta. Motion, transfer and transformation : the grammar of change in lowland Chontal / Loretta O'Connor. p. cm. (Studies in Language Companion Series, issn 0165-7763 ; v. 95) Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Chontal language--Grammar. I. Title. PM3651.O36    2007 497'.4--dc22 isbn 978 90 272 3106 2 (Hb; alk. paper)

2007035596

© 2007 – John Benjamins B.V. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by print, photoprint, microfilm, or any other means, without written permission from the publisher. John Benjamins Publishing Co. · P.O. Box 36224 · 1020 me Amsterdam · The Netherlands John Benjamins North America · P.O. Box 27519 · Philadelphia pa 19118-0519 · usa

CONTENTS

Acknowledgements

ix

List of figures

xi

List of tables

xi

Abbreviations and conventions. CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION

xiii 1

1.1

Background and orientation

1

1.2

Predicate types and framing strategies

4

1.3 The language and the speakers 1.3.1 Attempts at genetic affiliation 1.3.2 Previous description and research 1.3.3 Endangerment and social roles

8 9 9 11

1.4 Fieldwork and data 1.4.1 Field setting and consultants 1.4.2 Types of data

14 14 16

1.5 Theoretical context 18 1.5.1 Methodology: Discourse functionalism meets semantic typology 18 1.5.2 Conventions of change event description: events, classes and constructions 20 1.5.3 Motion as model: Change events and framing strategies 25 CHAPTER 2. GRAMMATICAL FEATURES OF LOWLAND CHONTAL

32

2.1 Phonology and morphophonemics 2.1.1 Vowels and consonants 2.1.2 Palatalization 2.1.3 Glottalization

33 33 35 35

2.2 Nouns and nominal morphology 2.2.1 Forms in citation and in discourse 2.2.2 Plurals 2.2.3 Possessive prefixes and linking morphemes 2.2.4 Modified nouns

36 36 37 38 39

2.3 Verbs and verbal morphology 2.3.1 Roots, stems, and verbal elements

41 41

vi 2.3.2 2.3.3 2.3.4 2.3.5

Person-marking morphology Morphology of ‘change’ Inflectional morphology Derivational morphology

42 45 47 49

2.4 Other minor word classes 2.4.1 Clitics 2.4.2 Prepositions 2.4.3 Adverbs, adjectives, numbers, interactionals

55 55 56 56

2.5 Clause types 2.5.1 Negative particles and negation 2.5.2 Interrogative particles and questions. 2.5.3 Non-verbal predicates 2.5.4 Complex clause types

56 57 58 58 59

CHAPTER 3. SIMPLE PREDICATES OF CHANGE

62

3.1 Classes of ‘change’ verbs 3.1.1 Simple predicates: change of location 3.1.2 Simple predicates: change of position 3.1.3 Simple predicates: change of state

62 62 63 64

3.2 Basic constructions of simple predicates of change 3.2.1 Spontaneous change construction 3.2.2 Caused change construction 3.2.3 The expression of ground elements as spatial locations

65 65 66 68

3.3 Endpoints and end-states of change 3.3.1 In change of location 3.3.2 In change of position 3.3.3 In change of state

69 69 81 82

3.4 Path elaboration and trajectory of change 3.4.1 Trajectory in the verb root 3.4.2 Perspectives from framing type: The Frog Story

85 85 87

3.5 Means of change 3.5.1 In change of location 3.5.2 In change of position 3.5.3 In change of state

91 93 97 98

3.6 Restrictions on the undergoer referent 3.6.1 In change of location 3.6.2 In change of position 3.6.3 In change of state

99 100 102 103

3.7

107

Summary and conclusions

CHAPTER 4. COMPLEX PREDICATES OF ASSOCIATED MOTION AND ASSOCIATED CHANGE 108 4.1

Introduction

109

4.2 Basic constructions of associated motion and change 4.2.1 The associated motion construction with non-stative verbs 4.2.2 The associated motion construction with stative verbs

111 111 112

4.3 Subevents of motion ‘away from here’ and ‘to there’ 4.3.1 The andative associated motion suffix 4.3.2 The dislocative associated motion suffix 4.3.3 Comparing andative and dislocative morphology

112 113 114 114

4.4 Andative and dislocative in narrative discourse 4.4.1 After motion: endpoint as subsequent activity 4.4.2 Change of location (without explicit ‘motion’ context) 4.4.3 Change of time as ‘narrative dislocation’ 4.4.4 Change of state with ‘associated motion’ morphology

117 117 121 123 124

4.5 Associated ‘motion’ in change of state predications 125 4.5.1 State change with and without associated ‘motion’ 127 4.5.2 Associated ‘motion’ as associated ‘change’ 128 4.5.3 An intermediate pattern: change of position or configuration 129 4.6 Subevents of motion ‘to or toward here’ 4.6.1 The venitive associated motion suffix 4.6.2 The cislocative associated motion suffix

130 131 135

4.7

138

Conclusions

CHAPTER 5. COMPLEX PREDICATES OF ASSOCIATED DIRECTION AND TOPOLOGICAL RELATION 5.1

Introduction

140 141

5.2 Components of the V1-DTR compound stem 144 5.2.1 Initial verbal elements (V1). 144 5.2.2 Verbal elements of direction and topological relation (DTR). 145 5.2.3 Unusual compound stems 153 5.3 Compound stems and constructional meaning 5.3.1 Assessment of argument structure 5.3.2 Basic constructions of complex predicates of associated direction and topological relation 5.3. The presentation of each construction

156 157

5.4 The means construction 5.4.1 The M1 construction

167 167

160 165

viii 5.4.2 5.4.3 5.4.4

The M2 construction Justifying the ‘means’ Expressing the means of change to endpoint

169 173 176

5.5 The dispositional construction 5.5.1 The D1 construction 5.5.2 The D2 construction 5.5.3 Features of the dispositional construction

180 182 183 187

5.6 The classificatory construction 5.6.1 The C1 construction 5.6.2 The C2 construction 5.6.3 Tracking referents in local discourse

192 194 195 199

5.7 The trajectory construction 5.7. The T1 construction 5.7.2 The T2 construction 5.7.3 Features of the trajectory construction compound stem 5.7.4 Usage patterns in narrative texts and stimulus data

204 205 206 208 210

5.8

214

Summary and conclusions.

CHAPTER 6. CONCLUSIONS

216

6.1 The grammar of change, in typological and discourse-functional perspective 6.1.1 Formal resources of the grammar of change 6.1.2 Typological features of the grammar of change 6.1.3 Functional motivations of the grammar of change

216 217 218 222

6.2 Documentation of an understudied language 6.2.1 Descriptive component 6.2.2 Methodological component

225 225 226

APPENDIX: COMPOUND STEM VERBS, BY CONSTRUCTION TYPE 228 REFERENCES

232

INDEX

248

Acknowledgements I wish to thank many people in the Chontal-speaking communities of southern Oaxaca for their collaboration and contributions to this project: Rufino Cabrera Sosa, Anacleto Castro Méndez (†), Marilut Castro Sosa, Andrés Domínguez Barenca, Alberto Espinoza López (†), Adelaida Espinoza Raymundo, Eulalia Espinoza Raymundo, Romanita García Aguilar (†), Tomás García Avendaño, Fernando García Arcón, Augustín García Sosa, Ernestina García Trinidad, Hermenegilda García Trinidad, Juan Hernández Sosa, Sara León García, Selso Leyba Sosa, Aurelio López Abad, Pánfila López Molina, Paulino López Sosa, Severo López (†), Francisco Peréa García, Arturo Pétriz Muñoz, Columba Ramírez, Alberto Rey García, Filogoño Rey Rey, Gabriel Rey Reyes (†), Anatolia Sosa, María Victoria Sosa Zárate, Petrona Sosa García, Simón Sosa García, Josefina Sosa Guzmán, Olivia Sosa Méndez, Guillermina Trinidad García, Elodio Trinidad Santiago, Edilberto Trinidad Trinidad, Inéz Zavaleta Robles, Doña Ignacia, and the bilingual education teachers of the Alma Chontal primary school. I am grateful for the support and collaboration of the Indigenous National Institute in San Pedro Huamelula, especially to the cultural officer Sara de León Chávez, my friend and constant supporter, and to the families of Jesús Lopéz and Guillermina Trinidad, of Arturo Pétriz Muñoz and Petrona Sosa García, and of María Victoria Sosa de Torres, who provided room and board with affection, patience, and respect. This manuscript is a revised version of my 2004 doctoral dissertation, improved by valuable comments and editing advice from Jack Du Bois, an anonymous reviewer, and Mickey Noonan. I am grateful for funding during the revisions period through a Volkswagen Foundation DoBeS grant, administered by University of Hamburg, and for material support and intellectual community through the generosity of the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics in Nijmegen. Special thanks go to Dan Slobin for moral support. My doctoral studies and fieldwork were generously funded by the following: University of California Regents’ Special Fellowship (1994-97), Interdisciplinary Humanities Center Junior Fellowship (1994), UCSB Humanities and Social Sciences Research Grant (1997, 2000), UC-MEXUS Dissertation Grant (19992000), UCSB Humanities and Social Sciences Research Assistantship (200001), UCSB Graduate Division Dissertation Fellowship (2001), and The Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics Dissertation Fellowship (2002-04). This financial support is greatly appreciated and gratefully acknowledged. I also thank the Department of Linguistics at UCSB for teaching assistantships, and UCSB Information Systems & Computing department, especially Glenn Davis, Gail Johnson, and Doug Drury, for steady employment during my years in Santa Barbara. With profound gratitude I acknowledge my UCSB doctoral thesis committee, John W. Du Bois (chair), Marianne Mithun, Susanna Cumming,

x and Thomas C. Smith Stark (Colegio de México). I thank Steve Levinson, for having invited me to the Language and Cognition Group at MPI, and my MPI supervisors and primary readers, Jürgen Bohnemeyer, Penelope Brown, and especially Birgit Hellwig. I thank other professors and colleagues at UCSB and MPI, in particular Sandy Thompson, Pat Clancy, Wally Chafe, Violet Bianco, Robin Shoaps, Tomoyo Takagi, Barb Kelly, Paul Barthmaier, Meredith Babbe, Asifa Majid, Carmel O’Shannessy, Claudia Wegener, Alice Gaby, Pamela Perniss, Anetta Kopecka, Marianne Gullberg, Leah Roberts, Edith Sjoerdsma, Bhuvana Narasimhan, Niclas Burenhult, Melissa Bowerman, Felix Ameka, Sotaro Kita, Friederike Luepke, Frank Seifart, and Gunter Senft. I was fortunate to develop as a fieldworker with guidance from Roberto Zavala, Heidi Johnson, Colette Grinevald, Terrence Kaufman, and John Justeson. I strive to reflect what you all have taught me about linguistics, professionalism and collegiality. And finally, I salute the memory of Viola Waterhouse, who not only wrote the first description of Lowland Chontal but also left the legacy of linguist as friendly member of the community, both invaluable to me. I am grateful to my friends in Santa Barbara, Nijmegen, Huamelula, and around the world; I am blessed that they are too many to name. I thank my mother Barbara and my father, the late Robert O’Connor; my family, Bob, Jake, Jim, Bobbie, Nora, Tom, Bridget, Matt and Megan; and my partner, Arnold van der Wal.

List of figures Figure 1: Schema of Talmy’s motion/change event Figure 2: Adapted schema to represent Chontal change event Figure 3: The Chontalpa of Oaxaca. Figure 4. Lowland Chontal communities

2 3 8 11

List of tables Table 1. Principal consultants who contributed to this study Table 2. Texts in the discourse database used in this study Table 3. Stimulus tasks used in this study Table 4. Expectations of motion event descriptions Table 5. Consequences of framing type in Chontal change events Table 6. Typological tendencies in locative constructions Table 7. Chontal vowel orthography Table 8. Chontal consonant orthography Table 9. Basic morphology of the noun Table 10. Examples of plural formation in discourse forms Table 11. Resources for marking grammatical person Table 12. Morphology of associated motion and change (AM) Table 13. Morphology of direction and topological relation (DTR) Table 14. Morphology of aspectual inflection Table 15. Morphology of inflectional modality Table 16. Derivation associated with participants Table 17. Derivation associated with events Table 18. Preliminary tableau of polyclitics Table 19. Simple motion verb roots in Chontal Table 20. Simple positional verb roots in Chontal Table 21. Simple state change verb roots in Chontal Table 22. Endpoint orientation of deictic notional motion verbs Table 23. Description of event components in a ‘frog story’ scene Table 24. Transport verbs in Chontal Table 25. Typical referents of change of position verbs Table 26. Basic semantics of associated motion morphology Table 27. Elements of direction and topological relation (DTR) Table 28. Distribution of DTR elements in construction types Table 29. Relationship of basic constructions to specific constructions Table 30. Distribution of means V1 and DTR, M1 construction Table 31. Distribution of means V1 and DTR, M2 construction Table 32. Distribution of means V1 and DTR, M2a construction Table 33. Distribution of dispositional V1 and DTR, D1 construction Table 34. Distribution of dispositional V1 and DTR, D2 construction

15 17 18 28 29 31 33 34 36 37 43 46 46 47 49 49 53 55 63 64 64 70 88 100 102 110 146 159 166 168 170 172 182 183

xii Table 35. Distribution of dispositional V1 and DTR, D2a construction Table 36. Classificatory V1 elements Table 37. Distribution of classificatory V1 and DTR, C1 construction Table 38. Distribution of classificatory V1 and DTR, C2 construction Table 39. Distribution of classificatory V1 and DTR, C2a construction Table 40. Distribution of classificatory V1 and DTR, C2b construction Table 41. Distribution of trajectory V1 and DTR, T1 construction Table 42. Distribution of trajectory V1 and DTR, T2 construction Table 43. Responses to video stimulus that included an ’oy- predicate Table 44. Lexicalization patterns of change predicates Table 45. Consequences of framing type in Chontal change events

185 193 194 195 198 198 205 206 214 219 220

Abbreviations and conventions. At morpheme boundary, a hyphen (-) marks derivation or inflection; an equal sign (=) marks a clitic; and plus signs (+) delimit an infix. A period (.) unites multiple parts of a single gloss, and a colon (:) indicates fusion of two morphemes. Abbreviations used are: 1S-3P AGT AND APPL AUG BENE CAUS CLOC COL COM DEM DER DET DIM DLOC DSTRB DUR IMP IMP.MOV IMP.RES IPFV

person markers agentive andative applicative augmentative benefactive causative cislocative collective comitative demonstrative derogative determinant diminutive dislocative distributive durative imperative imperative with movement imperative with respect imperfective

ITR ITVR LNKR LOC NEG NM NMZR PAT PFV PL POSS PROG REF RFLX SG SBJV STAT TERM TVZR VEN

? X

iterative intransitivizer linker locative negative nominal prefix nominalizer patient perfective plural possessive progressive given referent reflexive singular subjunctive stative terminative transitivizer venitive doubtful gloss unknown gloss

Examples are followed by attribution labels in square brackets. The labels incorporate information from Tables 1-3 on consultants, texts and stimulus materials. The information in each label starts with the anagram of a consultant’s name, such as [AER], or the name of the text from which the excerpt was taken, such as [ael3afo]. If the example comes from stimulus task data, the stimulus is named and the number of the video clip or drawing is given. For example, [APM CGQ.3] means these data are a response by consultant APM to number 3 in the Come & Go Questionnaire.

CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION

Typologies are critical tools for linguists, used to guide the search for probable and improbable languages, to test proposed universals, and to provide insight into cognitive processes that interact with language. We say that typologies constrain diversity, locating commonalities that permit the grouping of languages into a small number of types such that each type coheres internally and makes predictions about other linguistic features. But typologies, like grammars, are known to leak (cf. Sapir 1921: 38). This book examines one such leak with evidence from change events in Lowland Chontal of Oaxaca, an unclassified, understudied and endangered indigenous language of southern Mexico. The grammar of change in Chontal is shown to cross-cut the well-known typology of lexicalization and constructional patterns established by Talmy (1985) and subsequently addressed by many others. The description of different constructions within a single language clarifies the individual role of each type as well as the interactions among them. In this qualitative study, I examine expressions of change as used in narratives, in naturally-occurring speech, in response to non-verbal stimuli, and in response to elicitation, to try and understand the functions of each expression type in this language. The conclusions are not meant to bring the typology to its knees but rather to assess its predictive powers by examining the consequences of each construction type as used in a variety of contexts. This is the first detailed look at the lexical and grammatical resources of the verbal system in Chontal. The analysis of how and why Chontal speakers choose among these resources to achieve particular communicative and social goals is intended both as documentation of an endangered language and as a theoretical contribution that evaluates Talmy’s typology in the context of grammar and discourse. “It is to Talmy’s credit that his typology has brought us thus far. We can build upon his insights in working towards typologies of language use” (Slobin 2004:253, original bolding and italics).

1.1 Background and orientation Lowland Chontal is a verb-initial, head-marking language with variable word order, no case marking, an agentive system of person marking, and a

MOTION, TRANSFER, AND TRANSFORMATION

2

complex system of aspectual inflection but no tense. The concept of change is expressed in a range of predicate elements, whether in the verbal root itself, in verbal morphology of associated motion and change, or in a compound construction type that combines multiple verbal elements into a compound stem. Participant structure is encoded with agentive and non-agentive person markers that signal the perception of participant control, and with derivational morphology that highlights salient participants in the event frame. Inflection for aspect or mood provides further detail of event construal. In this study, a change event is any event that situates a participant as an undergoer that, with respect to an endpoint, moves to a new location, shifts to a new position, or transforms to a new state. A change event can also involve a subevent that situates a main event or state in space or time. Construals of change events vary in the degree to which participants, manner of change, path shape, and the resulting location, position or state are specified. I draw on concepts and terminology from Talmy’s seminal work on lexical and constructional typology (1985, 1991, 2000) to describe the locus of change semantics in expressions of change in Lowland Chontal. Talmy’s classic description of a motion event involves a Figure entity that moves or is located with respect to a Ground entity, as schematicized in Figure 1. TALMY’S MOTION/CHANGE EVENT: Figure

wrt Ground + core schema + co-event

path, place, changed property manner, cause

Figure 1: Schema of Talmy’s motion/change event All predicates in this model encode a ‘fact of’ component, i.e., ‘fact of motion’, ‘fact of position’, or ‘fact of change of state’. Talmy classifies languages as verb-framed or satellite-framed, according to where the core schema of the predicate type is usually found. The core schema is identified as, for example, the path of a motion event, the place of a location or positioning event,1 or the changed property of a state change event.2 In a verb-framed lan1 I am using place as a paraphrase of site occupied in Talmy’s definition of ‘path’ as “the course followed or site occupied by the Figure object with respect to the Ground object” (1985: 61). Talmy’s model addresses motion and stationary location, not motion and change of position, so the transposition of his model to the analysis of positioning events in this study is understandably not straight-forward. This point is addressed in 1.5.3. 2

Talmy (2000) talks about change of state in terms of various transition types that characterize relationships between entities (Figures) and states (Grounds). Transition types can describe the

INTRODUCTION

3

guage, the core schema “conflates with” or is found in the verbal root, while in a satellite-framed language, the core schema is found outside the verbal root, such as in verbal morphology, adpositions, or adjuncts. The claim is that coevents such as manner or cause bear “support relations” to the framing event (Talmy 2000:220), and that the framing designation holds for the primary or most frequent verbs for expressing each event type in a given language. I adapt this framework and terminology to talk about expressions of change in Lowland Chontal, to identify which constructions in the grammar move the participant into a new location, shift the participant into a new position, or transform the participant into a new state. The analogous schema is presented in Figure 2. CHONTAL CHANGE EVENT: Undergoer

New Location, Position, State + core schema + optional factors

semantics of change manner or means, path shape, type of undergoer, disposition of undergoer

Figure 2: Adapted schema to represent Chontal change event In this adapted framework, an undergoer participant changes or is changed to a new location, position or state. The core schema in the Chontal change event is the ‘fact of change’, located in a simple or complex verbal structure. That same structure can optionally specify one or more factors related to the change event. In Chontal, the factors are manner or means, path shape, type of undergoer, disposition of undergoer, and endpoint of change. The study retains the notions of verb framing and satellite framing, which are determined in the adapted framework by locating the semantics of change in the verb root or in morphology of derivation and inflection. I also adopt a third category of framing, drawing especially on work by Slobin (2002, 2004), Zlatev & Yangklang (2004), and Ameka & Essegbey (to appear). In a language with equipollent framing, the core schema of change is located in

change in the object or situation with respect to the Ground-state, or can describe resistance to the change. “The core schema of the state change event is generally the combination of the transition type together with the state, and hence is the analog of the Path + Ground of a Motion event”(2000:238). Because I will not address many of the complexities of Talmy’s model in this analysis, I have simplified my summary by reverting to his 1991 terminology of changed property to represent the core schema of an event of change of state.

MOTION, TRANSFER, AND TRANSFORMATION

4

two or more elements of equal syntactic status. In Chontal, these elements are the two components of a compound stem. The notion that Talmy’s typology can be problematic to apply is not a new one, as nearly every scholar to attempt this can attest. Nor is it new to compare varying patterns of rhetorical style in languages with different framing strategies, as has been done for example with comparative studies of the Frog Story, in Berman & Slobin (1994) and Strömqvist & Verhoeven (2004). What this study contributes is a description of all three types of framing in a single language, and a suggestion for how each type is used in grammar and discourse. Rather than classify Chontal as exclusively verb-framed, satellite-framed, or equipollently-framed, the approach here is to appreciate why a language would have more than one framing type.3 1.2 Predicate types and framing strategies In Lowland Chontal, there are three formal predicate types that express a change of location, position or state. These are 1) simple predicates, 2) complex predicates of associated motion and change, and 3) complex predicates of associated direction and topological relation. Each predicate type represents a different type of framing, and each predicate type serves a different function.4 •

Simple predicates are formed by an inflected verbal root or stem without special morphology of ‘change’, such as associated motion or direction. o The semantics of change are in the verbal root. o This is the verb-framed portion of grammar of change. o The primary function is to situate a participant as an undergoer of change.

•

Complex predicates of associated motion and change are formed by an inflected verbal root or stem with additional morphology of associated motion (AM). o The semantics of change are in the AM morphology. o This is the satellite-framed portion of the grammar of change.

3 This logic and approach were inspired by Mithun and Chafe (1999) which examines the coexistence of different systems of grammatical relations within a single language. 4

The term ‘discourse function’ is used throughout this study in a qualitative sense, to suggest how speakers choose among lexical and grammatical resources in the language. As such, some of what are called here ‘discourse functions’ can arguably be identified as simply semantic or grammatical functions, grounded in and illustrated with discourse evidence. See Cumming & Ono 1997 for insightful discussion of the kinds of explanation associated with discourse linguistics.

5

INTRODUCTION o The primary function is to situate the event of the main verb as here or not here in space, or the state of the main verb as inceptive or completive in time. •

Complex predicates of associated direction and topological relation are formed by an inflected typically two-part compound stem that includes an element of associated direction or topological relation. o The semantics of change are in the compound stem construction. o This is the equipollently-framed portion of the grammar of change. o The primary functions are to situate a participant as an undergoer of change, to track a referent, to perform an adverbial function, and to elaborate path shape.

Let’s examine each of these in turn. Simple predicates can be formed by an inflected verbal root, as in (1). Here the verbal root f’aj- ‘ascend’ depicts the path of motion as upwards. (1)

f’aj-’ma

sa=yma’

jaape mi-yay’

lijwala

Piña

ascend-IPFV.SG DEM=2S.AGT where say-DUR.PL mountain

‘You go up to the place they call Piña Mountain.’ [AER] Simple predicates of change, with semantics of change in the verbal root, are the focus of Chapter 3. Complex predicates of associated motion and change are formed by an inflected verbal root or stem plus additional morphology of associated motion (AM). This AM morphology adds a subevent of ‘come and do’ or ‘go and do’ to the action of a non-stative verb, and it adds a subevent of ‘change’ to a stative verb. In (2), andative morphology of ‘go and do’ indicates that the ‘planting’ took place after motion to a location away from the speech event. (2)

moygi moygi iya’

fa-s-pa

morning morning 1S.AGT plant-AND-PFV.SG

‘(Last week), I went and planted everyday.’ [ACM] morphology can be added to virtually any process verb in the language to signal that the action of the main verb will take place in the context of a ‘come and do’ or ‘go and do’ subevent. In a temporal sense, ‘go and do’ morphology affects the situation of a stative main verb event in time. The same andative derivation changes a stative root into an inchoative predicate, as in (3).

AM

MOTION, TRANSFER, AND TRANSFORMATION

6 (3)

manj-s-pa

lapixu’

be.full-AND-PFV.SG pot

‘The pot is getting full.’ [RS] In both examples, the semantics of change are in the AM morphology. Predicates of associated motion and change are the topic of Chapter 4. Complex predicates of associated direction and topological relation are formed by an inflected typically two-part compound stem. The initial element (V1) of the compound stem comes from a relatively open class of morphemes which may or may not be verbal roots, and the second element (DTR) comes from a closed class of about a dozen morphemes of direction or topological relation. To illustrate the types of constructions examined in this study, consider the following four examples. All of them depict a change event in which an entity moves or is moved to a resulting configuration ‘inside’. In each compound stem, the second element is the topological relater -k’oy ‘inside’. In each example, the change of position is described by specifying something about the event itself, as in (4) and (5), or something about the undergoer of change, as in (6) and (7). In (4), the corners of the fabric are ‘stabbed inside’ the twisted threads of the clothesline. The initial element of the compound stem is the verbal root sk’wi- ‘stab’, which tells something about the manner and cause of the change of location. (4)

sk’wi-k’oy-’ma

sa=ya’

lay-pi-ch’ale

stab-inside-IPFV.SG DEM=1S.AGT my-LNKR-clothes

‘I’m hanging my clothes (on a clothesline).’ [AER] In (5), you move the bread sheet in a flat arc into the oven. The initial element describes the trajectory or path shape of the motion to the new position. (5)

’oy-k’oy-‘ma

sa=yma’

maj-’ma

lo-’i

flat.arc-inside-IPFV.SG DEM=2S.AGT cook-IPFV.SG your-bread

‘You put it in (the oven), and your bread cooks.’ [RS] In (6), the initial element describes the entity moved to ‘inside’ as a small thing. (6)

joola sayma’

pe-k’oy-’ma

if

small-inside-IPFV.SG your-hand

DEM=2S.AGT

lo-mane

INTRODUCTION

7

jaape lapij-’i-piwa where rock-3S.POSS-hole

‘If you put your hand in the crevice of the rock,’ [AER] And finally, in (7), pain is depicted as ‘lying inside’, and the initial element identifies the disposition of the entity in the new position. (7)

ñaj-k’oy-pa

lay-kwana, lay-dolor

lying-inside-PFV.SG my-illness my-pain

‘I have a pain inside (my pain moved to lying-inside).’ [PSG] The four examples illustrate the types of compound stems found in complex predicates of associated direction and topological relation, the topic of Chapter 5. In these predicates, the properties of a change event are encoded or implied by the two elements of the compound stem. When change is implied but not encoded, the semantics of change are part of constructional meaning. The plan of the monograph is as follows. This chapter presents a general orientation to the entire study, with expositions on the language and the speakers, the fieldwork setting, methods of data collection and types of data, and the theoretical underpinnings of the study. Chapter 2 is a description of the grammatical features of Lowland Chontal necessary to follow the explanation in the body of the book. The heart of the analysis begins in Chapter 3 with the exposition of simple predicates of change. The primary goal here is to describe how change of location, position and state are expressed with predicates that don’t involve explicit ‘change’ morphology of associated motion or associated direction and topological relation. Chapter 4 presents the second type of change predicate, the complex predicate of associated motion and change. The focus here is to show how associated motion morphology associates a subevent to situate the main verb event in space and time. Complex predicates of associated direction and topological relation are examined in Chapter 5. The resources of this third predicate type are presented; each member of the closed class of DTR elements of the compound stem is identified, and four types of construction are described. These are a means construction, a classificatory construction, a dispositional construction, and a trajectory construction. And finally, Chapter 6 summarizes the main findings, reviewing the formal characteristics and proposed functions of change predicates within each framing type.

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1.3 The language and the speakers5 Chontal of Oaxaca is a genetically unclassified language of Mexico with two surviving varieties: Highland Chontal (also known as Tequisistlateco) in the elevated Sierra Madre del Sur, and Lowland Chontal (or Huamelulteco) along the Pacific coast. It is spoken in the region known as the Chontalpa, in the Yautepec and Tehuantepec districts of southeastern Oaxaca state in southern Mexico (see Figure 3). The ethnic designation ‘Chontal’ derives from the Nahuatl term Chontalli ‘stranger’, which the Aztecs used to refer to various unfamiliar ethnic groups in ancient Mesoamerica. 6

Figure 3: The Chontalpa of Oaxaca. Lowland Chontal is mainly spoken in and around the municipalities of Huamelula and Astata (Map by P. Kroefges, based on information from Instituto Nacional Indigenista 1996). The highland and lowland varieties of Chontal are not mutually intelligible; hence, most linguists classify them as two distinct languages (e.g. Waterhouse 1962). Some 3600 people reported themselves as speakers of the highland variety in the 1990 census, but this number is questionable, while the lowland variety has as few as 200 fluent speakers. A third variety, once spoken near the town of Tequisistlán, is already dead. This linguistic division has been 5 I thank Peter Kröfges for much of the anthropological background and for the two figures in this section, which draws heavily on parts of O’Connor & Kröfges (2003). 6 Chontal of Oaxaca is sometimes confused with Chontal of Tabasco (state), which is a Mayan language, and Chontal of Guerrero (state), extinct.

INTRODUCTION

9

accompanied by divergent historical trajectories at least since the Spanish conquest, and probably during pre-Conquest times (see Winter 1986, Zárate Morán 1995, Kröfges 1997). To my knowledge, there is relatively little contact between speakers of the two varieties, to a certain extent due to social prejudice and also because the two groups are no longer major markets for each other. 1.3.1 Attempts at genetic affiliation There is disagreement as to the genetic classification of Chontal of Oaxaca, in part due to insufficient records for comparative work. Various linguists and anthropologists have reiterated an early designation of Chontal as a member of the proposed Hokan stock (Kroeber 1915, Sapir 1918), which posits a genetic relationship among a group of language families and isolates of California and northwest Mexico. Suárez (1983) places Chontal of Oaxaca in the Tequistlatecan subgroup of a Tequistlatec-Jicaque family, which was proposed by Oltrogge (1977) following an attested affiliation of Jicaque and Hokan (Greenberg & Swadesh 1953). More recently, Kaufman (1988, 2004, 2006) makes a detailed case for a Hokan stock that does indeed include Chontal. In fact, the language does show some of the typological traits identified as characteristics of Hokan (Sapir 1929), such as agglutinative morphology, no case or inverse markers, an agentive (or ‘active-static’) system of person marking, and a distinctive typically two-part compound verb construction. However, Hokan itself is not universally accepted as a genuine genetic linguistic stock (Langdon & Jacobsen 1995, Mithun 1999:303-304), and the work to document candidate languages continues. 1.3.2 Previous description and research Pre-1940 documentation of Lowland Chontal consists primarily of short wordlists (see Waterhouse 1962 for a comprehensive annotated bibliography). My own understanding of the language owes a considerable debt to work by Viola Waterhouse, especially to her 1962 grammatical description. Her work includes several articles on grammatical and discourse features (1949a, 1949b, 1957, 1961, 1962, 1967, 1969, 1976, 1985a, 1985b, and with others 1950, 1968), mostly in a tagmemic framework and published in English. She also produced some booklets for primary education and translated portions of the New Testament, but these materials are not in general circulation. My own efforts include a grammatical sketch of the language in Spanish (2000a), for use in the bilingual education system, as well as other work mostly in English (1999, 2000b, 2000c, 2004a, 2004b, 2006, 2007, to appear-a, -b, in review, with Kröfges 2007, and with Maddieson and Avelino 2007). Highland Chontal documentation has a bit more depth and breadth. In addition to the early wordlists there is a Latin style grammatical description (Belmar 1900) and a standardized elicitation archivo study by CIIS, Centro de

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Investigación para la Integración Social (Waterhouse & Parrott 1980), as well as tagmemic and descriptive work done by Waterhouse and her Summer Institute of Linguistics colleagues. This includes several articles on grammatical and discourse features, all by Paul Turner (1966, 1967a, 1967b, 1967c, 1968a, 1968b), and a trilingual dictionary (Chontal-Spanish-English) by Turner and Turner (1971). The relative paucity of linguistic documentation is matched by a relative shortage of anthropological studies that would rectify long-time sociocultural stereotyping. The prehispanic and colonial Chontales were described as “barbaric cave-dwellers” by most colonial and modern writers. This image stems from the fact that some Chontal communities resisted Spanish colonial rule more fiercely than did their Zapotec and Mixtec neighbors (Covarrubias 1946, Burgoa 1989). Most ethnographic summaries uncritically reiterated the pejorative stereotype of the “primitive barbarians” (Basauri 1940; Taracena 1941; Mendieta y Nuñez 1957; Bradomín 1987). More balanced but brief ethnographic summaries are provided by Olmsted (1969), Turner and Turner (1971), Bartolomé and Barabas (1992, 1996), Camacho (1993), Vázquez (1994), and Zeitlin (2001). Two monographs have been published on Highland Chontal culture and ethnography (Martínez Grácida 1910; Turner 1972). A handful of historical anthropological studies focused on the colonial situation of the Chontales and their rebellious engagement with the Spanish regime (Gerhard 1972; Münch 1992; Camacho 1993; de León Chávez 1995). Bartolomé and Barabas (1996:165-6) hypothesize that the Chontales arrived at the coast of Oaxaca state around 750 A.D., having been pushed south in a series of forced migrations: first, out of the Yucatan peninsula by the Mayans, and then out of northern Oaxaca highlands by Zapotecs, and then by Chinantecs, and then by Mixes. Recently, Kröfges (1997, 1998) examined historical sources indicating the existence of a more complex political organization in the coastal Chontalpa than previously thought. Archaeological survey and excavation by Kröfges in 2001 provided evidence that the coastal Chontalpa witnessed the development of such complex societies between c. A.D. 400 and 1521 (Kröfges 2000, 2002, 2004, to appear). See Oseguera (2004a, 2004b) and Oseguera and Hope (to appear) for additional current ethnography. Present-day Lowland Chontal towns range from Santiago Astata (in Chontal, Jwalapij), with perhaps 6,000 inhabitants, and San Pedro Huamelula (in Chontal, Huamelula), with some 2,000, to smaller villages and settlements. Going roughly from west to east and mostly following coastal highway Route 200, ethnic Chontal communities include Barra de la Cruz, Playa Grande, San Isidro Chacalapa, Ayuta, El Coyul (in Chontal, Panajpilyu’), El Limón (El Muñix), Río Seco (Lafelay’), Tapanalá (Papij), Guayacán (Lyuxwamí), El Porvenir, El Bejuco (Panayme’), Santa María Huamelula, Río Papaya, San

INTRODUCTION

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Pedro Liguasta, Cerro Muchacho, El Gavilán (Panajkwij), San Francisco de Asís, El Trapiche, Los Cocos, Zaachila, Garrapatero, Bamba, and Morro Mazatán. Some of the communities can be found on the map in Figure 4, although in a few cases the town names on the map have variant spelling.

Figure 4. Lowland Chontal communities in dark circles (Map by P. Kroefges). Data for this study were collected in San Pedro Huamelula, Santa María Huamelula, Zaachila, and Río Seco (not shown, but situated between Tapanalá and El Coyul). 1.3.3 Endangerment and social roles Today, Lowland Chontal is a highly endangered language. There were about 900 self-declared Lowland Chontal speakers among the perhaps 15,000 ethnic Chontales identified in the 1990 census. This number was revised to 200-250 fluent speakers in a subsequent count performed by the Indigenous National Institute in the late 1990s. The roughly 200 fluent speakers are all in their 70s, 80s and 90s. There are no known monolinguals in Lowland Chontal. No children learn it as a first language, and very few have access to any type of bilingual education. There is a much larger community of semi-speakers with various levels of linguistic ability. The present sociolinguistic situation is

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dominated by Spanish, the language that pervades the media, the school system, the workplace, the government, and the home. Furthermore, Chontales must speak Spanish to participate fully in the larger national society. Most elderly Chontales are not literate in any language. Semi-speakers literate in Lowland Chontal (hereafter ‘Chontal’) are also literate in Spanish. Most children and young adults are literate in Spanish. Although some Chontales call the indigenous language el dialecto ‘the dialect’, a term which can carry a pejorative sense, I would generalize that most are proud of their indigenous tongue. At first, many responded with patient amusement to my insistent corrections that Chontal is a language and not a dialect. I unintentionally convinced even the jadedly amused and certified my credentials as a linguist by sending them postcards from the United States written in Chontal. Friends reported that this simple act was greeted with amazement and the realization that Chontal is a real language. Currently the language is used in ritual speech related to harvest, weather, and well-being, where it is respected as a badge of ethnic authenticity. Fluent conversation in Chontal is rare in the public domain, yet simple greetings or observations made in the indigenous tongue typically provoke responses in the same language. The number of semi-speakers is hard to establish, and therefore their relative abilities remain unevaluated. I can say that the numbers grow with each visit, as more and more people accept my presence in the community and consequently choose to speak to me in Chontal (see Grinevald 2003 on working with speakers and semi-speakers of endangered languages). Transmission of the language was actively discouraged in the education system until rather recently, and the bilingual education programs that exist at least nominally in several villages are challenged by small budgets, teachers with minimal training, and a general lack of linguistic materials. A few highly dedicated teachers are making their mark, focusing especially on nouns, songs, and poetry. A favorite technique is to select a song or poem in Spanish and then translate it into Chontal, with help from elderly speakers when possible. Children compete in recitations of Chontal poetry, and they can name lists of items from specific domains, such as “people” terms, “things from the river”, animals, various stages of corn, and some types of trees and flowers. Older speakers lament the loss of the language in terms of cultural loss, equating language death with a parallel abandonment of social morés and traditions. For them, the earth, the sun, and the rain must hear prayers and rituals in Chontal. Transmission of cultural practices remains strong and is a source of ethnic pride, notwithstanding adaptations to the constant pressure of mestizo culture brought about by the omnipresent television, the introduction of political parties, and recent generations of contact with and migrations to larger cities. Men still go to pray for good weather for crops; permission is asked of the earth before building homes and schools; even the soccer team prays to the earth and

INTRODUCTION

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spirits before entering the sports field. The social practice of tequio, reciprocal volunteer helping, is alive and well. For example, a woman will go to help her neighbors make huge quantities of bread and sauces for weddings and other family celebrations, knowing that the same group of women will descend upon her home to help when the need arises. In time of illness, synthetic drugs and advice from Western-trained doctors are complemented by herbal remedies and ritual cures, such as rubbing the body with eggs to collect malevolent spirits, slapping the body with basil while cursing these spirits, sprinkling the sick person with mezcal (alcoholic drink made from agave juice) and performing a marriage to the sun. The centuriesold syncretism of Chontal ritual and Catholicism remains strong, especially so during Holy Week (between Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday) and in the nine days of ritual prayers and activities when someone dies. Major festivals, especially patron saints’ days, are celebrated with days and nights of parades, dances, and re-enactments (Gutierre Tibón 1983, Millán 1993). Video and written accounts of some of these festivals can be found in the electronic archive funded by the Volkswagen Foundation, www.mpi.nl/DOBES/projects/ chontal. The primary sources of income remain farming, fishing, and commerce. Most families own at least a small field where they grow some combination of corn, tomatoes, melon, chili, coffee, peanuts, bananas, mangos, and papayas, and those near the coast harvest various varieties of fish and shrimp. Everyone sells and resells – tortillas, tamales, bread, ice, vegetables, fruit, atole (thick corn drink), chicken, pork, seafood. Daily sales are announced on the village loudspeakers, directing the populace to particular houses or plazas, and children walk from house to house with baskets and basins of smaller foodstuffs. Redistribution of wealth takes the forms of sponsorship of a festival or hosting a wedding, baptism, or fifteenth-birthday party (a type of debutante ball). During these events, the host family provides food, drink, music, and gifts for all guests; depending on the event, the guest list can extend to most of the town. Today, the municipal president is a member of a political party and is elected in democratic ballot every three years. He or she is elected as the head of a slate that includes other municipal functionaries, typically of the same party. A generation or two ago, municipal authorities were appointed by group consensus in a ritual naming ceremony and were subject to strict standards of behavior involving fast and abstinence. In Huamelula, the introduction of political parties has led to a much-commented division between supporters of the Partido Revolucionario Democrático (PRD) party, who tend to support and practice the “old ways” and the indigenous language, and those of the Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI) party, who tend not to. In recent times, many of the rituals and cultural practices are threatened with becoming extinct at the same dramatic pace as the language, as the most

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knowledgeable practitioners are those very elders that are still able to speak Chontal fluently. Furthermore, the material cultural heritage of pre-Hispanic settlements in the area is threatened by several modern-day factors. Among these is the impact of on-going highway construction within the context of the Puebla-Panamá Project, as well as settlement sprawling at several coastal localities. 1.4 Fieldwork and data 1.4.1 Field setting and consultants The data for this study were collected during five visits (1997-98, 1999, 2001, 2002 and 2003) totaling 14 months of primary fieldwork. During each visit, I rented a room in San Pedro Huamelula and was attended tirelessly by the now-retired cultural officer of the local branch of the Indigenous National Institute, Sara de León Chávez. I worked with speakers mostly in San Pedro Huamelula but also with a few speakers in Río Seco, Zaachila, and Santa María Huamelula. All sessions took place in the speakers’ homes. Our linguistic sessions varied in content and in duration, according to the desires, energy levels, skills and health of the consultants. Grinevald (2003) has written wonderfully of the triumphs and challenges of studying languages that are spoken by people who are few in number, varied in fluency, and precarious in health. In my experience with Chontal, some speakers told hilarious folktales and short narratives for entertainment; others could not produce narrative but had nearly perfect recall of vocabulary. Elicitation gave some people headaches and motivated them to ask me not to come back, and even stimulus tasks with amusing videos were only amusing for a few days at most. However, most speakers loved to have me come and sit with them on their patios and collect vocabulary in my notebook, and a few could do it all: tell narratives, handle elicitation, and work with stimuli. A group in Río Seco came up with a creative solution to the problems of documenting a language remembered in fragments by folks who don’t see well and tire easily. We met in a group composed of three or four nearly fluent elderly speakers, one or two much younger skilled semi-speakers, and one semispeaker bilingual education teacher, who convened the group in her home. The younger speakers learned from their elders and kept the sessions moving along. This resulted in co-constructed narratives and a small amount of conversation data in Chontal, as well as elicited and stimulus-response data. Consultants were paid an hourly wage based on that of a skilled construction worker. Many speakers considered it their civic duty and an honor to contribute to the documentation of the language, and they preferred not to accept money from me. I compensated them as best I could by providing food and drink, taking portrait photographs, running errands, and bringing gifts from abroad. After a few years, this method became quite time-consuming for me,

INTRODUCTION

15

and I threatened to bring them their wages in tomatoes, which I would deliver in a truck if necessary. Laughingly, they agreed to accept wages in currency. In my 14 months of fieldwork, only one speaker worked a regular schedule of 2 or 3 hours a day for two weeks straight. A typical session was 1-3 hours of recording, and I rarely worked with the same person more than two or three days in a row. All transcription was done by me with Eulalia Espinoza Raymundo, an illiterate skilled semi-speaker who was increasingly house-bound (and therefore available to me), caring for her aging father. Fortunately, Eulalia was able to receive me as often as I could come. Table 1 presents the main contributors to this study. Each name is followed by an identifier that labels examples throughout the manuscript. The third column contains various types of information in two layers of boxes. The upper box shows where we worked (SPH = San Pedro Huamelula, RS = Río Seco, ZAA = Zaachila), gives the consultant’s year of birth and estimated skill level, and notes any relevant personal information. The lower box identifies the types of data provided by each consultant. Table 1. Principal consultants who contributed to this study Consultant Anacleto Castro Méndez

Identifier ACM (RS)

Andrés Domínguez Barrenca

ADB (RS)

Alberto Espinoza López

AEL

Adelaida Espinoza Raymundo

AER

Arturo Pétriz Muñoz

APM

Adalberto Rey García

ARG

Columba Rámirez Muñoz

CRM

Eulalia Espinoza Raymundo

EER

Ernestina García Trinidad

EGT (RS)

Francisco Perea García

FPG (RS)

Gabriel Rey Reyes

GRR

Hermenegilda García

HGT (RS)

Personal notes, Data provided in RS, 1918-2005, nearly fluent; father of MCS narrative, elicitation, stimulus in RS, b. 1953, skilled semi-speaker; raised by grandmother narrative, elicitation, stimulus in SPH, 1910-2004, fluent; father of AER and EER narrative, elicitation in SPH, b. 1935, fluent; daughter of AEL, sister of EER narrative, elicitation, stimulus in SPH, b. 1924, fluent, perfect recall and pronunciation; husband of PSG elicitation, stimulus in SPH, b. 1947, skilled semi-speaker, bilingual ed teacher trainer elicitation in SPH, b. 1927, nearly fluent stimulus in SPH, b. 1948, skilled semi-speaker; sister of AER, daughter of AEL narrative, elicitation, stimulus, sole transcriptionist in RS, b. 1919, nearly fluent; sister of HGT narrative, elicitation, stimulus in RS, b. 1920, semi-speaker stimulus in ZAA, 1922-2002, fluent; blind since age 50 narrative, elicitation, stimulus in RS, b. 1920, nearly fluent; sister of EGT, mother

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Consultant Trinidad

Identifier

Inéz Zavaleta Robles

IZR

Juan Hernández Sosa

JHS

Marilut Castro Sosa

MCS (RS)

Petrona Sosa García

PSG

Romana García Aguilar

RG

Severo López García

SLG

Selso Leyva Sosa

SLS

Simón Sosa García

SSG (RS)

Tomás García Avendaño

TGA

Personal notes, Data provided of SST, mother-in-law of MCS narrative, elicitation, stimulus in SPH, b. 1921, semi-speaker narrative in ZAA, b. 1932, nearly fluent stimulus in RS, b. 1963, semi-speaker; daughter of ACM, daughter-in-law of HGT, bilingual education teacher (linguist’s assistant) in SPH, b. 1927, fluent, perfect recall and pronunciation; wife of APM elicitation, stimulus in SPH, 1908-2005, fluent; gifted storyteller narrative in SPH, 1916-1999, nearly fluent elicitation in SPH, b 1906, fluent; blind and (as it turned out) nearly deaf elicitation in RS, b. 1954, skilled semi-speaker; son of HGT elicitation, stimulus in SPH, b. 1924, semi-speaker stimulus

1.4.2 Types of data Just over 100 hours of data were collected, on media which include audio tape, minidisk, and video. Not all of the recordings have been transcribed, and some of those hours will be Spanish conversation. Approximately half the hours are of data collected through guided elicitation using stimulus materials from the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics. The hours of recordings do not include informal elicitation sessions in patios and kitchens, recorded in notebooks. The discourse grounding of this work is based on a database of 28 texts of varying length from a variety of genres. They include personal and historical narratives, entertaining stories, folktales, procedural texts, a song, a dream, and a few jokes and riddles. Many texts combine more than one type, and some include embedded conversation. Entries in the Title column of Table 2 appear in the text attribution label that follows many examples in the manuscript.

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Table 2. Texts in the discourse database used in this study Text 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28

Title ael1asi ael2astata ael3afo ael4flojo aer1panka aer2infiel aer3vender aer4ajutl aer5gicha aer6ritos aer7shooting eer1jorobado izr1vida rg1ajutl rg2flojo rg3enams1 rg4afo rg5enams2 rg6abuelita rg7mango rg8susto rg9cantor rg10song rg11sueno RScomida RSpanfamilia RSpray RStortuga

Type personal narr, how he grew up historical narr, history of two villages folktale, rabbit folktale, the lazy man personal narr, about her life on the ranch personal narr, about her father personal narr, about traveling merchants procedural narr, building a house personal narr, healing a sick guy of gicha personal narr, chontal rituals personal narr, a shooting in san Miguel folktale, the twisted boy personal narr, her life personal narr, life at the house folktale, the lazy man tale, young people in love I folktale, rabbit tale, young people in love II folktale, grandmother personal narr, mango tree fell personal narr, susto (fright) personal narr, son-in-law & death rituals song, don’t cry, mother personal narr, dream personal narr, description procedural/personal narr, bread and family personal/procedural narr, rituals procedural narr, annual turtle spawning

My original data collection methodology was to identify grammatical constructions in discourse, collect them in excel spreadsheets, and do sessions of formal and informal elicitation to clarify semantics, determine combinatorial possibilities, and so on. I was delighted to join the Language & Cognition Group at the Max Planck Institute in Nijmegen to complete my studies. Here I was introduced to a data collection technique based on non-verbal stimulus materials designed for cross-linguistic guided elicitation. These stimuli consist of line drawings, photographs, questionnaires and videos intended to elicit descriptions of possible contrast in as wide a variety of languages as possible. The responses to the stimuli in different languages are then compared to determine which contrasts are encoded by which languages, and using which linguistic forms (e.g., adpositions, spatial nominals, or verbs). I ran stimulus tasks during my final two field seasons, and Table 3 describes those that contributed to this study. Dates refer to the published MPI Field Manual unless otherwise indicated. The ab-

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breviated version of each stimulus name is used in the example identifier labels. Table 3. Stimulus tasks used in this study Stimulus name and purpose AMK: Ameka picture series for positional verbs – photos of objects in various positions BOW: Bowped picture book of static locations and typological relations CPOS: Caused Positions – scenes in which various objects are placed in various positions, spontaneously and by an actor CGQ: Come & Go Questionnaire – enacted as a person’s journeys to and from local communities C/B: Cut & Break – scenes in which various objects & materials are cut or broken, spontaneously or by actors, with and without instruments Frog: The Frog Story – a boy and his dog search for a lost pet frog M/T: Man & Tree – plastic men and trees are arranged in various configurations MVB: Moverb – motions up, down, in, out, across, etc. of balls and rings and sticks Oz: (Australian motion questionnaire – elicit motion verbs with various paths, grounds TRM: topological relations pictures of support and containment

Medium photos

Designed by Ameka, de Witte and Wilkins (1999)

line drawings

Bowerman & Pederson (1993)

video clips actors

Hellwig & Lüpke (2001)

abstract scenes for enactment

Wilkins (1993)

video clips actors

Bohnemeyer, Bowerman & Brown, version 3, (2001)

picture storybook photo matching game video clips – animation

Mayer (1969) (not MPI manual) Danziger & Pederson (1993)

elicitation

Wilkins & Simpson (1995)

line drawings

adapted from Meira & Levinson (2001)

Levinson & colleagues, version 2, (2001)

1.5 Theoretical context This study is a functional-cognitive explanation of the grammar of change and follows the Boasian tradition of grammatical description based on primary texts. The methodology incorporates tools from discourse functional analysis, semantic typology, and construction grammar, and the major theoretical model is a language framing typology based on lexicalization patterns and morphosyntactic constructions. In this section, I introduce the methodology, terminology, and theoretical underpinnings of the analysis. 1.5.1 Methodology: Discourse functionalism meets semantic typology The theoretical approach of the work reflects the mutually enriching experiences of my training in discourse functional linguistics and typology at

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University of California at Santa Barbara and in psycholinguistics and semantic typology at the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, in Nijmegen, The Netherlands. Characteristics of ‘the grammar of change’ were first identified in narrative discourse. The inventory of lexical items and constructions was then expanded and usage patterns were clarified in field sessions using non-verbal stimuli to elicit responses. With a fuller appreciation of the lexical and constructional choices available, I could then return to the discourse examples and make a better assessment of the discourse evidence that grounded particular utterances. This study represents one of the first attempts to combine discoursefunctional and experimental approaches, and it is hoped that the productive cycle of collection and analysis will serve as a model for future projects. Discourse functionalism is a bottom-up approach to linguistics that seeks to identify formal patterns in languages and then to interpret these patterns in terms of the functions they serve to speakers and hearers (Chafe 1976, 1980, 1987, 1994; Hopper & Thompson 1980, 1994; Du Bois 1980, 1985, 1987; Givón 1983, 1990; Mithun 1984, 1986a, 1986b; Thompson 1988; Cumming 1994, 1997; among many others). Evidence for discourse function is found in the analysis of natural language, a category which encompasses spoken, written and signed language, in both monologic and dialogic interaction. Perhaps the archetypal genre to work with is natural conversation, “language in the wild”7. The methodology is to identify recurring forms in routinized patterns, especially through the examination of large corpora of data, and through analysis of speech in context to uncover the functions that motivate the forms. Discourse functionalism contributes to and is informed by typological findings and grammaticization studies (Cumming 1991; Bybee, Perkins & Pagliuca 1994, Bybee & Hopper 2001). Semantic typology also seeks cross-linguistic and typological explanation. Rather than focus on linguistic forms to compare common meanings and functions, as does syntactic typology, semantic typology approaches the formmeaning mapping from the perspective of both meaning and form. It seeks to identify the semantic components or parameters that structure a particular domain, as well as to compare the grammatical structures used to express them cross-linguistically (e.g. Pederson et al. 1998, Levinson & Meira 2003). A primary method of data collection is guided elicitation with non-verbal stimuli such as video clips, drawings, and matching games, which facilitates the comparison of linguistic forms by keeping the stimulus or context relatively constant, independent of language type, speaker community, or the language of interaction between linguist and consultant. These experimental tasks are run with a minimum of three consultants (and more, if possible) to establish pre7 Susanna Cumming, during a panel discussion at the LSA Summer Institute, held at University of California at Santa Barbara, June 2001.

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ferred patterns of construal and expression. Lexical semantics, conceptual semantics, and pragmatics are primary tools of analysis. This is an emerging field and a specialty of the Language & Cognition group (formerly the Cognitive Anthropology Research Group) at the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics (see Wilkins & Hill 1995, Gumperz & Levinson 1996, Schultze-Berndt 2000, Bowerman & Levinson 2001, Hellwig 2003, Levinson & Wilkins 2006, to name a few). This manuscript does not constitute a discourse study, as there are few counts of discourse variables, nor is it is a work of semantic typology, as it addresses only one language and does not investigate the emic possibilities of a semantic domain. However, this grammar of change benefited from the combination of these two approaches. Both frameworks depend on good documentation and description, and both focus on typological explanation. Importantly, both consider speakers as purposeful beings, and both understand language as responsive to cultural as well as cognitive constraints and not determined by an innate “universal grammar”. Data for this study come from narrative discourse, stimulus task response, elicitation, and instances of natural interaction. Each type of data makes an important contribution to any study and perhaps particularly to the description of a highly endangered language like Chontal, which is underdocumented and as yet unclassified. There are no large corpora and little historical data, and there are areal but not genetic studies available. The stimulus tasks were instrumental in increasing the lexical inventory and sharpening my understanding of lexical precision. I was able to probe extensions and intensions of lexical items in specific domains, clarify semantics, and elicit specialized vocabulary that might never show up in narratives. The final step was to return to the discourse examples with a clearer understanding of the lexical and grammatical choices available to speakers. 1.5.2 Conventions of change event description: events, classes and constructions There are rich linguistic resources in Chontal for encoding change. Predicates of change are examined here in terms of meaning, forms and function. Semantically, a change event can be thought of as a phenomenon of transformation through space or time that leaves one or more participants in a particular result state. Formally, change is expressed in a verbal root, in associated motion morphology, or in a two-part compound stem. Functionally, occurrences of each predicate type are evaluated to suggest how speakers use each one. The notion of change event requires an understanding of both what will be considered ‘change’ and what is meant by ‘event’. Events have been examined by many scholars from a variety of perspectives (e.g. Talmy 1985, 1991, 2000; Hopper 1995, Tenny & Pustejovsky 2000). For the purposes of this study, an

INTRODUCTION

21

event is understood as a phenomenon or situation in the world, a “transient phenomenon that requires temporal indexing and is perceived as containing information needed to update our conceptual representation of the world” (Miller & Johnson-Laird 1976:79-89). This definition lends itself well to an approach that examines discourse evidence to suggest how speakers choose among the many resources in the language and to select an expression that best conveys the “needed information”. A change event is any event in which an entity changes, that is, moves, shifts or transforms, with respect to an endpoint. The entity can be a participant, an event, or a state, and the notion of ‘endpoint’ is key. In a change of location, the endpoint is usually the final terminus or semantic goal of motion, but it can be the initial terminus or source and, even less often, a mid-way point called a via. In a change of position, the endpoint is the new posture or disposition of the figure with respect to the ground, and in a change of state, the endpoint is the new state. The primary participants of most change events in Chontal will be referred to as an undergoer of change and a causer of change. These generic labels are used to encompass the various semantic roles that can instantiate participants and to differentiate participant roles and semantic roles from the morphosyntactic AGT and PAT labels of the core arguments. A locative participant may be referred to as a source or start-point, a goal or end-point, or as a ground element (following Talmy 1985, 1991, 2000), to describe the reference point with respect to which a change occurs. Causer, undergoer, and ground are used much like DeLancey (1999, 2003) uses agent, theme and location. Other change events in Chontal involve the situation of events and states in space or in time. In these change events, participant roles of causer and undergoer are not necessarily relevant. The treatment of change of location, position and state as a single event type is consonant with approaches that categorize event structures as states, processes or changes (i.e. von Wright 1963, Bohnemeyer 2004). These structures in turn interact with the lexical aspect of verb roots, an understanding of which is directly relevant for the characterization of change constructions in Chontal. •

a stative root, such as soj- ‘be tired’ or kway- ‘be somewhere, having arrived from somewhere else’, requires special ‘associated change’ morphology to encode a change, in a construction that casts the state depicted by the main verb as the new state or endpoint.

•

a change root, such as ma- ‘die’ or pang- ‘sit’, requires no special treatment, as this lexeme encodes the semantics of change as well the endpoint of new state or position in the verb itself.

MOTION, TRANSFER, AND TRANSFORMATION

22 •

a process root, such as mi- ‘say’ or sk’wi- ‘stab’, depicts neither change nor endpoint, and these verbs participate in complex predicates of change only within constructions that provide an endpoint or depict the activity of the root as the endpoint of change.

In Chontal, virtually all verb roots and stems must be inflected for aspect to form a verbal predicate. The assignment of an inflected verb to a particular aspectual class of event (of the type described by e.g. Vendler 1957/1967, Chung & Timberlake 1985, Smith 1997) is a function of the inflectional possibilities of that state change verb. Aspectual inflection distinguishes the time interval and aspectual class and/or valence class. A change event can be depicted as the moment of change (an achievement), punctual change (a semelfactive), the period building up to change or pre-change (an activity), and the outcome of change or post-change (an accomplishment or result state). Much of the literature that specifically addresses state change, such as Dowty (1991), Levin & Rappaport Hovav (1995), Krifka (1998), and Bohnemeyer (2002, 2004), examines change predicates with formal conceptual representations largely towards a goal of establishing linking rules for argument structure at the semantic-syntactic interface.8 More relevant for this study are descriptive approaches, such as Chafe (1970) and Talmy (1985), who identify three basic types of roots that serve as the basis of state change predicates. These are statives, inchoatives, and causatives, understood as being in a state, getting into a state, and causing something else to get into a state. Inchoative and causative roots correspond to what will be discussed here as verb classes based on valence alone. The linguistic unit used here to capture an ‘event’ is a clause, instantiated as a verbal predicate and the relevant participants of the verb, whether expressed as arguments or adjuncts. The explanation draws upon concepts of Construction Grammar (e.g. Fillmore 1989, Fillmore, Kay and O’Connor 1988, Goldberg 1995, Michaelis 2003). Each clause type is represented as a construction, a syntactic unit with a meaning of its own, “taken as structured but not strictly decomposable, that is, they are taken as having properties in the manner of the properties of a ‘gestalt’ in Gestalt Psychology” (Fillmore 1989:19, original italics). Formalisms in each chapter represent the clausal components of each predicate type. These diagrams, adapted from Construction Grammar formalisms (e.g. Goldberg 1995), are semantic templates that show, with consistent labels and mnemonics, the components relevant to each discussion. Optional participants such as locations and instruments are not part of the basic templates. The language of the formalisms is more or less standard Eng8 See Du Bois (2003) for a discussion of argument structure in which ‘linking’ is only one of five functions.

INTRODUCTION

23

lish, and it should be noted that these are grammatical constructions without explicit exploration of argument structure patterns (as in Goldberg’s work). For example, in simple predicates (Chapter 3), an intransitive clause is depicted as: SIMPLE PREDICATE OF SPONTANEOUS CHANGE

Undergoer | AGT/PAT

moves, shifts, transforms to new end-state | < change >

The semantics of change are in the verb root, signaled with the internal box. A single core argument is encoded morphosyntactically with a person marker from the AGT or PAT series. The endpoint or end-state of change can be lexicalized in or implied by the verb. In this study, motion verbs that are oriented to either source or goal are considered change verbs, while manner of motion verbs that depict localized motion are process verbs that do not participate in this construction. In complex predicates of associated motion and change (Chapter 4), AM morphology contributes a subevent that positions the event or state of the main verb at some result ‘location’ in space or time. The AM construction can incorporate a process verb as the main verb, adding a path component with AM morphology and casting the unbounded ‘activity’ semantics of the main verb as the endpoint, the purpose and goal of the change of location. COMPLEX PREDICATE OF ASSOCIATED MOTION AND CHANGE

< participant(s) > | AGT/PAT

main-V |

+

< non-stative >

AM-morphology | change to here or not-here

The semantics of change are in the AM morphology, again signaled with an internal box. Core arguments relate to the main verb, and the end-state of change is depicted as ‘here or not here’. In other instantiations, the construction can incorporate a stative verb to produce a change of state expression, adding the change component (with the AM morphology) and casting the unbounded ‘state’ semantics of the main verb as the endstate of change. Complex predicates of associated direction and topological relation (Chapter 5), are built with typically two-part compound stems and are dis-

MOTION, TRANSFER, AND TRANSFORMATION

24

cussed as a family of constructions. The contribution of each stem component is seen compositionally in some constructions, while for others it will be argued that the change comes entirely from constructional meaning. For example, an intransitive clause that instantiates a means construction is schematicized in the following. COMPLEX PREDICATE OF ASSOCIATED DIRECTION AND TOPOLOGICAL RELATION

M1 Undergoer | AGT/PAT

do Means-V1 \

wrt endpoint-DTR /

change

This graphic depicts a V1-DTR compound stem predicate in which the V1 depicts the process or manner of change and the DTR depicts the endpoint, the resulting location or state. Both elements contribute to the semantics of change, signaled once more with an internal box. And again, a single core argument is referenced with AGT or PAT person-marking morphology. In all compound stem constructions, the DTR encodes the endpoint and at least implicates motion to that endpoint, and the V1 can denote a process, a state, or a change. Initial elements that denote processes are incorporated into many means predicates and in the unoriented path semantics of trajectory predicates, while stative V1s of ‘being’ form part of dispositional and classificatory predicates. Other means predicates that depict state change incorporate a change V1 and encode the degree of realization in the DTR. My use of meaningful constructions as explanatory devices has perhaps already made clear my belief in a robust lexicon, one that encompasses at least lexical meaning and constructional meaning. Mention should also be made of the relative degrees of compositionality and idiomaticity of the construction types. Compositional expressions are those in which the meaning of the predicate is easily predictable from the meanings of the component parts. Because the meaning can be easily computed online, these expressions are usually not considered part of the mental lexicon, which stores units of language that must be learned and memorized; more practically, these are usually not included as entries in the dictionary of the language. In English, for example, compositional expressions not found in the dictionary include every possible instance of the familiar way-construction, such as sang his way across the stage. Evidence for compositionality in Chontal is at this point highly impressionistic, based on preferred patterns of expression in Spanish and by consistent disinclination to exploit what seem (to me) to be obvious and productive

INTRODUCTION

25

components and processes.9 By this I mean, for example, that not one of my many skilled consultants could offer a series of compound stem verbs by varying either the first or second component; the inventory could only be checked and expanded by my elicitation of specific combinations. This might mean that compound stem predicates must be memorized as wholes, or it might only mean that none of my consultants were the sort of “natural linguists” that we meet in any walk of life. Whatever the explanation, because of this and in the spirit of fully documenting a highly endangered language, all compound stem predicates are included in the dictionary. Predicates of associated motion and change present a more complicated story. It seems that AM predicates of motion away may be somewhat idiomatic: one can ‘go and do’ just about any activity. Oddly, the same is not necessarily true for ‘come and do’, such that speakers sometimes had to think and invent unusual contexts for acceptability. For instance, examples with the verb fa‘plant’ predominate in the elicited examples discussed in Chapter 4. While faspa ‘he went and planted’ describes a common experience and was quickly analyzed by consultants, my subsequent query about fawaypa ‘he came and planted’ occasioned furrowed brows and shaking heads before one man finally offered a scenario in which someone arrives to help with the farm work. Future research should try and sort out factors of the relative frequency and familiarity of the event vs. restrictions on compositionality for any given activity verb used. Turning to change of state, stative verbs that use AM morphology to express change must be memorized, and these patterns are surely part of the lexicon and must be part of the dictionary entry. In addition, it goes without saying that simple predicates are part of the mental lexicon and entries in the physical dictionary, as well. These remarks on compositionality are necessarily provisional. Suffice to say that Chontal seems to present a continuum, with AM predicates closer to the compositional pole and compound stem predicates closer to the conventional pole, and there may be differences with respect to change of location through space and change of state through time. 1.5.3 Motion as model: Change events and framing strategies Aristotle is credited with the challenging observation, “To be ignorant of motion is to be ignorant of Nature.” Many scholars have risen to the occasion, including ground-breaking work by Talmy (1985) and Langacker (1987). Talmy’s model and terminology have influenced much of the work that guides 9

I first became interested in compound stem predicates when a consultant told me in Spanish with obvious pride about her work, saying, “Yo levanto criatura,” which literally means “I pick up babies.” It turns out that she is a midwife, and the Chontal expression for assisting at childbirth is the compound stem predicate lef’- ‘move a living thing up’. I was hooked.

MOTION, TRANSFER, AND TRANSFORMATION

26

the current study, including Choi & Bowerman (1991), Zavala (1993), Wilkins & Hill (1995), Levinson (1996, 1997, 2003), Bohnemeyer (1997), and DeLancey (1999, 2003). Furthermore, studies of motion events are where much of the work comparing verb-framed and satellite-framed languages has been done, especially by Slobin (1996, 1997, 2002, 2003, 2004, Berman & Slobin 1994, Özçalışkan & Slobin 2000), and his findings provide an excellent set of expectations to transpose into this study of Chontal. But first, let us review the terminology of the original two-part typology, introduced in 1.1. Talmy identifies a core schema for various types of events, defined generally as the “portion of the event that most determines its particular character and that distinguishes it from other framing events” (Talmy 2000:218). The framing type of a language depends upon where the core schema is lexicalized in the most commonly used predicates of a given event type in a given language. Languages that characteristically map the core schema into the verb will be said to have a framing verb and to be verb-framed languages. Included among such languages are Romance, Semitic, Japanese, Tamil, Polynesian, Bantu, some branches of Mayan, Nez Perce, and Caddo. On the other hand, languages that characteristically map the core schema onto the satellite will be said to have a framing satellite and to be satellite-framed languages. Included among them are most Indo-European minus Romance, Finno-Urgic, Chinese, Ojibwa, and Warlpiri. (Talmy 2000:222)

A classic illustration of the difference between the two types compares expressions of the event The bottle floated into the cave in English, a satelliteframed language, with La botella entró a la cueva flotando in Spanish, a verbframed language (Talmy 1985:69), as shown in (8) and (9). (8)

the bottle floated

into

the cave

figure MANNER PATH

(9)

la

botella entró

the bottle figure

a

ground

la

cueva

flotando

entered to/at the cave floating ground MANNER PATH

In a motion event, an entity termed a figure moves or is moved with respect to a locative reference termed a ground. The core schema of a motion event is the PATH or directional motion followed by the figure enroute to the ground. English encodes PATH in a verb particle (here, into), a grammatical element in a satellite relation to the main verb, while Spanish encodes PATH in the main verb itself (here, entró ‘entered’). These lexicalization patterns of the core schema PATH in motion event descriptions identify English as a satelliteframed language and Spanish as a verb-framed language. And even though the

INTRODUCTION

27

English sentence The bottle entered the cave floating is perfectly acceptable, English is judged a satellite-framed language because it is more common to say floated in than entered floating. MANNER is only one of many “co-events” that co-occur with PATH in a motion event expression, but the location of manner and path components in a motion predication has become something of a diagnostic of framing strategy. In a satellite-framed language, manner is typically expressed in the verb root, as in run, stumble, skip, traipse, hop, float, and then path is encoded in a particle such as into, out, up, down, through. In a verb-framed language, manner tends to occur in a satellite such as a subordinate verb, as in the participial form of the Spanish flotando ‘floating’ in (9). 1.5.3.1 Consequences of framing type in motion events, cross-linguistically Slobin and his collaborators have examined descriptions of motion events in an ever-growing list of verb-framed languages (V-languages, in his terminology) and satellite-framed languages (S-languages) to identify cognitive and rhetorical consequences of language type. The data for this cross-linguistic research has included written fiction, especially novels in translation from Slanguages to V-languages and vice versa; news reports in languages of contrasting type; and, famously, from elicited oral narrative using a wordless picture storybook about a boy trying to find his pet frog (Mayer 1969), as well as longitudinal studies of verbal and signed language acquisition. Slobin (2002, 2004) has proposed a third type of framing, “equipollent framing”, to describe the lexicalization pattern of motion descriptions in which both manner and path are encoded in verbs or verbal elements of equal syntactic status. Equipollent framing seems to describe many languages with serial verbs (e.g. Mandarin), bipartite stems (e.g. Klamath), or generic co-verb constructions (e.g. Jaminjung), as well as sign languages. Equipollence or at least a mixing of S- and Vlanguage traits has been reported for Jaminjung (Schultze-Berndt 2000), Ewe and Akan (Ameka & Essegbey to appear), and Thai (Zlatev & Yangklang 2004). From the psycholinguistic perspective, the effect of language type can be summarized as “thinking for speaking” (Slobin 1996), a Whorfian conclusion that not only does the language we speak influence the way we express an event, it also influences the way we conceptualize and experience that event. The cognitive consequences of language type constitute a major research area for Slobin and collaborators, but this monograph will only make use of typological findings related to rhetorical style. Slobin (1997) proposed an assortment of expected discourse consequences of language type. “Stated in terms of S-languages, in comparison with V-languages, narratives will be characterized by:

MOTION, TRANSFER, AND TRANSFORMATION

28 • • •

more ground elements per verb; more path elements per trajectory of extended motion; more frequent and more differentiated expression of manner of movement; • less scene-setting (descriptions of physical locations, terrain, etc.)” (Slobin 1997:463)

It follows then, that a V-language will use more verbs but fewer path and ground elements per verb; less frequent and less elaborated description of manner of motion; and more description of the static scene, leaving more details of manner and trajectory to inference. In addition, Slobin found that the difference between a translational or continuous type of path and a boundary-crossing or state change type of path has a profound effect on the scene-setting preference in V-languages (Slobin 1997:441). In essence, a translational path fosters assertions of trajectory and implications of one or more endpoints, contributing to a dynamic sense of scene-setting. A boundary-crossing path asserts only one endpoint, leaving the trajectory itself to inference, and the narrative is characterized by elaborations of the static scene at the single endpoint (Slobin 1996:84). The expectations for V- and S-languages are summarized in Table 4, adapted from Ameka & Essegbey (to appear). The table incorporates Ameka & Essegbey’s findings on two West African serial verb languages to demonstrate that an equipollently framed language is likely to pattern with V-languages with respect to some features and with S-languages with respect to others. Table 4. Expectations of motion event descriptions Language type Feature core (path) co-event (manner) path type relevance scene-setting grounds per verb grounds per clause manner expression

V-framed

S-framed

in verb in satellite yes static 1-2 1-2 simple

in satellite in verb no dynamic many many elaborate

serial-V (equipollent) in verb in verb no static 1 many (not evaluated)

Research on the discourse consequences of language type continues, and we may expect further refinement as more equipollent languages are added to the extended corpus. Scholars have already suggested that these typological tendencies can be overridden by cultural factors (cf. Wilkins 1996 on Arrernte of Central Australia) and by dialectal differences (cf. Berthele 2004 on varieties of German).

29

INTRODUCTION

1.5.3.2 Consequences of framing type in change events in Chontal The goal of this study is not to classify Chontal as primarily verb-framed, satellite-framed, or equipollently-framed, but rather to see how all three of the framing strategies are used in the language. It remains to transpose cross-linguistic expectations of framing type on motion event descriptions to the differently framed change events in Chontal. To that end, Table 5 is offered as an adaptation of Table 4 and is discussed below. Table 5. Consequences of framing type in Chontal change events Predicate type Feature core (CHANGE)

V-framed: simple predicates in verb

co-event (means)

in a verb

S-framed: AM predicates in AM morphology in verb

path type relevance scene-setting endpoints per verb manner expression

yes static 1 simple

yes dynamic 1 no

EP-framed: V1-DTR predicates in V1-DTR compound stem can be explicit or suggested in V1 yes dynamic & static 1 can be elaborated

In simple predicate verb-framed change events, described in Chapter 3, both the core schema of change and any co-event such as manner occur in verbs. Most path verbs will be shown as boundary-crossing or state change type, oriented to a single endpoint, which makes them analogous to ‘path-less’ change of position and change of state verbs. Descriptions of beginning and especially end states may imply something more about the path and about the manner of change. Complex predicates of associated motion and change, discussed in Chapter 4, represent the satellite-framed portion of the grammar of change. The core schema of change is encoded in associated motion (AM) morphology, while the co-event is in fact the main event expressed by the main verb. AM subevents depict displacement oriented to a single endpoint, situating the event or state of the main verb in another place or time, but they do not elaborate a particular manner of change. And finally, equipollent framing characterizes events expressed with complex predicates of associated direction and topological relation, the topic of Chapter 5. The core schema of change is found in a two-part V1-DTR compound stem. A manner component can be explicit in a means type V1, or the manner of handling can be suggested by a classificatory or dispositional type V1. Path type is again mostly of the state change type, but path shape of a change of location can be elaborated in a trajectory type V1. A single endpoint is asserted in the DTR, and trajectory is asserted by a trajectory type V1 or oth-

30

MOTION, TRANSFER, AND TRANSFORMATION

erwise implied. The expression of manner varies according to the V1 type: it can be made explicit by a means V1, suggested indirectly by a classificatory or dispositional V1, and backgrounded by a trajectory V1. Before leaving the introduction, a word should be said about the linguistic encoding of change of position. Change of position events straddle the border between change of location and change of state conceptually and often grammatically, as in Chontal. As mentioned in 1.1, Talmy’s typology refers to location events and motion events, but does not address change of position as an individual type. In Chontal, the same resources come into play for describing being in a position, getting into a position, and causing something else to get into a position, but this study focuses only on the latter two. Languages vary in the types of lexical and grammatical processes that differentiate positional actions and states (cf. Newman and Yamaguchi 2002 for a comparison of English and Japanese), and we need look no further than English to find sit and seat, lie and lay to describe spontaneous and caused events. Chontal expresses change of position and configuration with both simple and complex predicates, but the distribution of formal type can be unpredictable. For example, analogous to a lexical and grammatical continuum reported for Dene Sųłiné (Rice 2002), there are both simple and complex predicates for sit, only a simple predicate for stand, and only complex predicates for lie. Several papers in Newman (2002) explore experiential factors that can shape such language-internal differences, such as the effort needed to achieve certain positions, the typical motives for adopting a certain position, or the possibility of doing something else while in a certain position. This has not been explored in Chontal. Typological work by Levinson & Wilkins (reported in Kita & Walsh Dickey 1998) and Levinson & Meira (2003) and classifies languages into three broad types according to what type of verb expresses static location.10 There are languages such as English that use a copular or general locative verb to place a figure with respect to a ground. In addition, there are languages such as Dutch (Lemmens 2002) that exploit a small class of postural verbs such as sit, stand, lie and hang to locate a figure, and these verbs often serve classificatory or presuppositional functions as well as assertive uses. For example, in a language like Goemai (Hellwig 2003), one could say something similar to The sitting objects are lying there, where ‘sitting’ classifies the object by canonical shape and ‘lying’ asserts its current location and disposition. And finally, there are languages such as Tzeltal (Brown 1994) and Likpe (Ameka 1999) with a large set of positional verbs that assert with greater detail the disposition and configuration of the figure with respect to the locative reference point. Posture10

To my knowledge, there is no comparable typological work on change of position, and the types suggested by expressions of static location provide a useful framework for this study. See also Grinevald (2006) for a more finely-grained version of the typology.

31

INTRODUCTION

verb type languages tend to have rich sets of locative adpositions, while positional-verb type languages often have quite limited resources outside the verb (e.g. adpositions or locative case markers) for depicting location. Features of the three language types are summarized in Table 6. Table 6. Typological tendencies in locative constructions LOCATIVE

POSTURAL

POSITIONAL

TYPE

TYPE

TYPE

verbal resources to express location

one locative

a few posture-based

many disposition-based

non-verbal spatial morphology

rich system of adpositions or locative case

can be rich system

one or a few, with generic spatial semantics

functions of verb

assertive

assertive, classifying

assertive

Although Chontal does have a small set of posture-based verbs, the general profile of the language situates it as a positional-verb type language. This concludes the introduction. In the next chapter, the grammatical features necessary to follow the discussion and interpret the examples are presented.

CHAPTER 2. GRAMMATICAL FEATURES OF LOWLAND CHONTAL

In this chapter, I only discuss in detail those grammatical features directly relevant to the expression of change events. Other points of Chontal grammar necessary for understanding the data examples are touched on briefly. The chapter is based on a sketch originally written in Spanish for the bilingual education community in southern Oaxaca (O’Connor 2000a) to support their efforts and to serve as the basis for a reference grammar of the language, and it serves as the basis for a fuller description in English that I am preparing. Waterhouse (1962) presents a detailed discussion in a tagmemic framework of many of the same topics, and Waterhouse (1967) has an addition descriptive sketch.11 The sound system of Chontal is introduced in 2.1, highlighting orthographic conventions and various morphophonemic processes that are reflected in the examples and glosses. Sections 2.2 and 2.3 address the morphology of nouns and verbs. Chontal is a predominantly synthetic language in that derivational and inflectional morphemes bind to roots to form single words. The morphology is agglutinative, and most words are easily analyzable into recognizable morphemes, which include roots, affixes and clitics. Nominal morphology is mostly prefixing, and verbal morphology is mostly suffixing. Chontal has a few infixes, which are inserted into the nominal or verbal root. Most nouns and verbs are synthetic, formed of a root plus a variety of affixes. Typologically, Chontal is a verb-initial head-marking language, with variable word order, no case markers, a complex system of aspect, and no tense markers. Constituents like numbers, adjectives, prepositions, and what seems to be a determiner precede the noun; relativizers and relative clauses follow the noun. The major person-marking strategy is an agentive system, seen in two series of markers glossed as AGT and PAT, introduced in 2.3.2. Clitics, prepositions and other minor word classes are described in 2.4, and the basics of certain clause types are found in 2.6. 11 Waterhouse worked with speakers from Santiago Astata as well as San Pedro Huamelula (my primary fieldsite). The only dialectal difference of note is a tendency in Astata to use /g/ instead of /k/ or glottal stop intervocalically.

GRAMMATICAL FEATURES

33

Spanish words have entered the language as nouns, a few verbs, and especially as closed-class grammatical morphology. These are not signaled with special marking, but the spelling reflects conventions of the Chontal alphabet. 2.1 Phonology and morphophonemics This section introduces the vowel and consonant inventories and then presents brief orientations to palatalization and glottalization. According to Suárez (1983:36-37), Lowland Chontal boasts the largest number of consonant phonemes (38) and the most complex subsystems of laterals, nasals and glides in Mesoamerica. While this may be hyperbole, the phonology does feature glottalized stops, nasals and fricatives; voiceless laterals and nasals, and palatalized alveolars. The creation and maintenance of a practical orthography has presented a challenge since Waterhouse’s work in the community in the 1940s. The orthography was standardized again through a series of workshops and meetings in 1997-98, but spelling still varies. 2.1.1 Vowels and consonants Vowels. The vowel inventory is quite simple, with five distinct phonemes /a, e, i, o, u/. Table 7. Chontal vowel orthography high mid low

front i, ii

central e, ee

back u, uu o, oo

a, aa

Vowel length is not phonemic, but it occurs in certain words, especially in penultimate stressed syllables. As a matter of convention, these longer sounds are written with two vowels. There is one very common vowel sequence /ai/, written {ay}. Consonants. The consonant inventory is presented below, using the graphemes of the proposed alphabet as used throughout this book.12 This table 12 Other consonants are used in Spanish loan words. In the Chontal community, theory and practice of orthographic convention are two different things. An alphabet proposal was developed in a series of workshops on normalization and standardization that I organized in 1997-98. I presented the proposal to the Group of Promoters of Chontal Culture, the Community Cultural Committee, and the municipal authorities in March of 1998, and the proposal was accepted in June of that year. However, variability persists in writing and spelling conventions, as many people transfer literacy practices from Spanish. This means, for example, that they might use {qu} or {c} rather than {k}; {u} rather than {w}; and {gu} rather than {’w}. Glottalized consonants are represented with a variety of notational strategies, and some writers represent stress with accents on vowels.

MOTION, TRANSFER, AND TRANSFORMATION

34

has more graphemes than the language has phonemes and draws heavily on phonological descriptions by Waterhouse and Morrison (1950), Waterhouse (1962, 1967), and Maddieson et al (2007). Table 8. Chontal consonant orthography bilabial

labiodental

alveolar

alveopalatal

palatal

velar

glottal

k, g k’

’

j

j

OBSTRUENTS

stops simple glottalized affricates simple glottalized fricatives simple glottalized lateral glottalized

p, b

t, d

ts ts’

ch ch’

s s’

x x’ jl, tl jl’, tl’

m ’m

n ’n

ñ ’ñ

w ’w

l ’l r/rr

f f’

SONORANTS

nasals simple glottalized approximants simple glottalized flap/trill

• • • • • • •

y

There are several noteworthy conventions in the orthography. { j } represents both /x/ and /h/ { jm, jw, nj } are pronounced as “voiceless” versions of the sonorant {ng} represents the velar realization of /n/ in coda position { ’ } represents both a glottal stop and glottalization glottalized obstruents are written { C’ } glottalized sonorants are written { ’C } palatalized consonants except for { ñ } are written { Cy }

Dialectal variants of the lateral fricative are written {tl, tl’}, and there are few flaps or trills outside Spanish loanwords

35

GRAMMATICAL FEATURES

2.1.2 Palatalization Most speakers palatalize alveolar segments before or after a high or front vowel /i, u/ or the palatal approximant /y/. See example (10), with possessed forms of the body part anepo’ ‘back’. (10)

l-o-nepo’

ly-i-ñepo’

l-ay-ñepo’

DET-2S.POSS-back

DET-3S.POSS-back

DET-1S.POSS-back

‘her back’

‘my back’

‘your back’

Furthermore, when a verb root begins with an alveolar consonant, that initial alveolar is palatalized in third person inflections, singular and plural, as in (11).13 (11)

toj’me-duy=ya’

tyoj’me-duy

speak-DUR.SG=1S.AGT

speak-DUR.SG

‘I’m speaking’

‘he is speaking’

The result is rampant palatalization which is mostly predictable, although it should be noted that some speakers seem to palatalize alveolars in all words, regardless of phonetic environment. 2.1.3 Glottalization Chontal has series of glottalized obstruents and glottalized sonorants that include at least /f’, s’, ł’, x’/ and /’w, ’m, ’n, ’l/ (Maddieson et al 2007). When two glottal consonants occur in sequence at a morpheme boundary, only one glottal is conserved. In (12) the glottal-final compound stem le-f’- is inflected with the glottal-initial imperfective suffix -’ma. (12)

le-f’-’ma

lityankwi’

long-up-IPFV.SG grass

‘He will pick up some grass.’ The verbal word would be lef’ma, with only one glottal. As a convention throughout this study, both glottals are left in the morphological breakdown in the first line of the example. Word-medially, a glottal stop syllable onset following a voiceless consonant usually adds a preceding epenthetic /k/. This is seen in (13), where the intransitive root maj- ‘cook’ is derived with the causative suffix –’ee, rendered –k’e. Furthermore, the final glottal stop heard in most elicited nouns 13

This is thought to be a residue of palatal prefixes, now lost in the lowland dialect but which still occur in the highland dialect (Turner & Turner 1971, Langdon 1995).

MOTION, TRANSFER, AND TRANSFORMATION

36

is not conserved when the noun occurs in running speech or in non-final position in a compound. For example, consider the compound noun in (13). (13)

maj-k’e-’ma

sa=ya’

l-akwe-tejwaj-sta’

cook-CAUS-IPFV.SG DEM=1S.AGT DET-man-food-iguana

‘I cooked a big iguana stew.’ In (13) we see the word lakwetejwajsta’ ‘big iguana stew’, composed of three words that each end in glottal stop when pronounced in isolation. akwe’ tejwa’ asta’

‘man’ ‘food’ ‘iguana’

In compound words, glottal stops in medial position are deleted or become fricatives. The resulting aspiration is represented as {j} in the first line of the examples. Final glottal stops are typically lost in running speech. For example, the pronouns iyank’ ‘we’ and imank’ ‘you plural’ are usually pronounced iyang and imang, and they are written as such in the examples. 2.2 Nouns and nominal morphology This section presents an overview of the nominal constituent, introducing two types of roots (bound and free), various types of prefixes (nominal, delimiting, possessive, and linking), and the order of modifying elements. The details of nominal morphology are fully glossed only in this section and are simplified elsewhere in this study. See Waterhouse (1962, 1967) and O’Connor (2004b) for more description of this constituent. 2.2.1 Forms in citation and in discourse Most nominal roots in Chontal are consonant-initial. Bound roots occur with a nominal prefix a- or less frequently e-, i- or u-. Table 9. Basic morphology of the noun citation form

discourse form

a-’u e-kajl i-xik’

l-a-’u l-e-kajl ly-i-xik’

pana’ tejwa’

el pana’ el tejwa’

BOUND ROOT

eye bone flesh FREE ROOT

river food, meal

37

GRAMMATICAL FEATURES

The citation form of a noun, typical in response to elicitation and appropriate for a wordlist or dictionary, consists of a minimally prefixed bound root or an unmodified free root, as in the middle column. In discourse context, nouns occur with a determiner-like prefix l- or ly-, as in the third column. Before a free root, an epenthetic vowel can convert the determiner to el, which is often written as an independent word. Resemblance to the Spanish article ‘el’ is a coincidence. The determiner does not distinguish definiteness. That is, in Chontal there is no morphological contrast between ‘a dog’ and ‘the dog’. In running speech, a determiner with a free-root noun is often heard as a clitic to the preceding word, as in (14). (14)

may-pa=l

pana’

go-PFV.SG=DET river

‘She went to the river.’ The numeral ‘one’, ñulyi, occasionally functions as an indefinite marker, as in ñulyi sans ‘a person’, but its use is limited. Compound nouns are not very common, but they do occur and can be identified as compounds by the single delimiter prefix, as in (15). (15)

el

tejwa’

l-a-tyu’

>

el

tejwajtyu’

DET

food

DET-NM-fish

>

DET

food-fish

‘(the) food, (the) fish > (the) fish stew, fish dish’ 2.2.2 Plurals The morphology of nominal pluralization encompasses a diverse and seemingly idiosyncratic group of infixes, suffixes, vowel changes and stress changes that must be learned with the corresponding nouns. Some of these are shown in Table 10. Table 10. Examples of plural formation in discourse forms PROCESS

SINGULAR

infix

laka’no’ lakwe’ el milya’ el sans la’wa lanchúpi’ el pepo

infix, vowel suffix stress irregular

PLURAL

woman man dog person child basket young sibling

lakajl’no’ lakujlwe’ lamminlye’ lansanyu’ la’way’ lanchupí’ lampwepwe

women men dogs people children baskets young siblings

MOTION, TRANSFER, AND TRANSFORMATION

38

The plural form of the delimiter is lan- or lam-, but again the usage patterns must be learned. There is no consistent morphophonemic motivation for the patterns, nor can nouns be grouped into formal or semantic classes according to pluralization process. The reader is directed to the description in Waterhouse (1962:95-97) for more examples. 2.2.3 Possessive prefixes and linking morphemes Nouns are often talked about as possessed. Very commonly, possession is expressed in a single word with a possessive element prefixed to the nominal root, with our without a linker morpheme.

1st 2nd 3rd

SINGULAR

PLURAL

ay- ‘my’ o- ‘your’ i‘his, her, its’

ajl- ‘our’ ojl- ‘your’ ijl- ‘their’

There are two linking morphemes. The most frequent is ne-, palatalized to ñe- in the environment of a high vowel or a palatal consonant. Another form of linker is pi- or pe-, which with certain nouns expresses a more personal connection. The use of a linker morpheme mostly accords with the conventional formal class of the noun root. Free-root nouns do not take a linker morpheme, as in (16). (16)

l-ay-tejwa’ DET-POSS.1S-food

‘my food’ Bound-root nouns that take the nominal prefix a- take the linker morpheme ne-, as seen in example (17) with as’e ‘atole’, a beverage made of corn. In both examples the linker is immediately pre-radical, and the second one demonstrates palatalization conditioned by the possessive prefix. (17)

l-o-ne-s’e

l-i-ñe-s’e

DET-2S.POSS-LNKR-corn.drink

DET-3S.POSS-LNKR-corn.drink

‘your atole’

‘his atole, her atole’

And finally, bound-root nouns that take i-, e- or u- as nominal prefix take the linker morpheme pi- or pe-, as seen in example (18) with ijeda’ ‘town, village’.

GRAMMATICAL FEATURES (18)

may-’ma=ya’

39

l-ay-pi-jeda

go-IPFV.SG=1S.AGT DET-1S.POSS-LNKR-town

‘I’m going home (lit: I’m going to my town).’ Focusing on the citation form of nouns, this means that consonant-initial nouns take no linker, a-initial nouns take the n-initial linker, and other vowelinitial nouns take the p-initial linker. The only known exception to this is found with the words for ‘man’ and ‘woman’, in which the linkers designate the difference between ‘spouse’ and ‘lover’, (19). (19) a. l-ay-pe-kwe’

l-ay-ñe-kwe’

DET-1S.POSS-LNKR-man

DET-1S.POSS-LNKR-man

‘my husband’

‘my male lover’

b. l-ay-py-a’no’

l-ay-ñe-ka’no’

DET-1S.POSS-LNKR-woman

‘my wife’14

DET-1S.POSS-LNKR-woman

‘my female lover’

The encoding of the spouse-lover distinction with a special possessive construction demonstrates a type of ‘intimate’ or inalienable possession. In a construction with two lexical nouns, the order of possessor and possessum is variable, but the head-initial pattern in (20) is more common. (20)

ke-jla’

sa

male l-i-jwaj

cut-IMP.SG DEM pal

l-a-ka’no’

DET-3S.POSS-head DET-NM-woman

‘My friend, cut the woman’s hair.’ [RS] (21)

maa=yma’ sim-pa NEG=2S.AGT

l-a-kwe’

l-i-ñe-jutl’

see-PFV.SG DET-NM-man DET-3S.POSS-LNKR-house

‘You didn’t see the man’s house.’ [RS] 2.2.4 Modified nouns The same flexibility of word order characterizes the expression of modified nouns. Adjectives and quantifiers typically precede the noun, as in the following examples. (22)

ñik’ata tyuch’a sa=’le good

field.plot DEM=thing

‘That was a good plot of ground.’ [aer1panka’] 14

The initial consonant of –ka’no’ ‘woman’ is lost in ‘wife’.

MOTION, TRANSFER, AND TRANSFORMATION

40 (23)

awe’ layñega fa-duy cornfield plant-DUR.SG

big

‘He always planted a big field of corn.’ [aer1panka’] Adjectives can be reduplicated to indicate emphasis, as in (24). (24)

kwaj kwaj laja’ bitter bitter water

‘The water was really bitter.’ [RS] Example (25) demonstrates two types of flexibility in the expression of adjectives. (25) a. el DET

pila k’ulwa’ well deep

‘The well was deep;’ b. k’ulwa’ lakwe’-pila deep

man-well

‘it was a big, deep well.’ [aer1panka] In (25)a, the adjective follows the noun, and example (25)b shows the occurrence of two modifiers in a single clause. The words for ‘man’ akwe’ and ‘woman’ aka’no’ can be used as augmentative prefixes, while the word for ‘child’ a’wa is used as a diminutive nominal prefix. Quantifiers such as pijlki ‘all’ and aspe’ ‘much, many’ also precede the modified noun. There are special forms for ‘first’ and to refer to two through five when they modify some nouns, especially referents of living things. These are illustrated in (26) through (27). (26)

iyasa

te’a sans

1S.AGT=DEM first person

‘I am the oldest child.’ [aer3vender] (27)

tyay-pa

sa=ya’

massi

lay-buru

transport.on.back-PFV.SG DEM=1S.AGT five.of.them my-burro

‘I hauled it, (taking) five burros with me.’ [aer3vender] In the example sentences throughout this book, most nouns will occur with a delimiter prefix (or preceding particle), and many will carry a possessive

GRAMMATICAL FEATURES

41

prefix. Adjectives and quantifier tend to precede modified nouns, but the internal word order of these elements within the nominal constituent is flexible. 2.3 Verbs and verbal morphology This section presents the basic building blocks of the verb in Chontal. After introducing the formal structure of the verbal word, I take a closer look at roots and stems (2.3.1), person-marking morphology (2.3.2), and verbal morphology of ‘change’ (2.3.3), followed by brief comments on inflection (2.3.4) and derivation (2.3.5). The full verbal template is schematized below to show the positions of all possible morphology. A hyphen (-) indicates derivation or inflection; a plus sign (+) signals an infix; and an equal sign (=) marks cliticization. An explanation of abbreviations follows. 1S.PAT-/ IRR- verb root -+PL+- DERX- AM-ASP/MOD =AGT/–OTHER.PAT/-RFLX Looking first at the bolded elements in the template, the basic predicate is formed of a verbal root15 plus inflection for aspect (ASP) or modality (MOD). Between these two elements come optional suffixes of plural (PL), derivation (DER), and/or associated motion (AM). Plural marking is not obligatory and can occur as an infix to the root. The subscript ‘x’ after DER indicates that the number of derivational morphemes varies from one to four in the present corpus but that the maximum number possible in a single verbal word is unknown. Person markers occur outside the inflected stem. Following inflectional morphology, the verb can carry an agentive clitic (AGT), or a non-agentive suffix (PAT), or a reflexive suffix (RFLX). A verbal prefix marks a non-agentive first person argument (1S.PAT) or a type of irrealis event marker (IRR). 2.3.1 Roots, stems, and verbal elements In this study, I refer to verbal roots, verbal stems, and verbal elements. These are distinguished by formal, distributional, and grammatical features. A root is a morpheme that by itself carries the fundamental meaning of the verbal word. These are grouped into valence classes according to the potential for the inflected root to occur with core argument person markers (of the AGT and PAT series, described in 2.3.2).16 Inflected monovalent roots occur with 15

16

A verbal root or a compound stem, as discussed in 2.3.1 and later in Chapter 5.

As will be shown below, third-person AGT arguments have no marker, and in transitive clauses the PAT marker can be omitted. Hence, the definition is expressed as “the potential” to occur with core argument markers. That potential is not always realized in terms of formal marking on the verb.

42

MOTION, TRANSFER, AND TRANSFORMATION

one marker, either AGT or PAT, to form intransitive predicates. Inflected bivalent roots can occur with two markers, one from the AGT series and one from the PAT, in transitive and ditransitive clauses. Both monovalent and bivalent roots can by themselves take verbal inflection to form a predicate. Labile roots are those that require additional derivational morphology, along with inflection, to form a predicate. Every verb root in the language falls into one of these three major categories.17 A stem is then a derived root or compound stem that can take verbal inflection to form a predicate. In this study, the term ‘compound stem’ is reserved for typically two-part stems in which the second component is a morpheme of associated direction or topological relation (see 2.3.3 and Chapter 5). These compound stems are treated separately from derived stems formed of a root plus derivational morphology. Derived stems are identified as intransitive or transitive, according to the potential for the inflected stem to occur with one or two core argument person markers. The term verbal element is used extensively in the discussion of the mostly two-part compound stems just mentioned. The label is meant to highlight the fact that at times neither component is strictly verbal, i.e. neither falls into one of the valence classes identified above, and yet the compound construction takes verbal derivation and/or inflection and forms a predicate. I will argue that verbal elements contribute to verbal meaning in ways that are different from, for example, the relationship of a labile root and derivation. 2.3.2 Person-marking morphology Chontal has three sets of resources for marking grammatical person, shown in Table 11. Morphemes in the AGT series can occur as free pronouns but frequently occur as clitics attached to verbs, particles and other clitics. Third persons are not marked on the verb; these can be expressed lexically or as polyclitic pronouns. The PAT series of person markers are verbal affixes. Third person singular has no marker, so the AGT vs. PAT distinction is neutralized for this person. Morphemes in the POSS series are nominal prefixes that express the single participant of intransitives of possession or attribution.

17

Data collection and analysis are underway to identify subtypes within each valence class. For example, some labile roots behave like monovalents with a certain type of stative inflection, while others take derivational morphology and a different type of stative inflection to express stasis. In addition, there appears to be a cross-cutting category among all three valence classes in patterns of occurrence with applicative morphology.

GRAMMATICAL FEATURES

43

Table 11. Resources for marking grammatical person 1S 2S 3S 1P 2P 3P

AGT

PAT

POSS

iya’ ima’ Ø iyank’ imank’ Ø

jl-o’ Ø -onga’ -olwa’ -ola’

ayoiajlojlijl-

The labels AGT and PAT describe morphosyntactic argument slots partially motivated by semantics, as Chontal presents an agentive system of morphosyntactic alignment.18 PAT marking indicates the perception that the verb depicts a change of state outside the control or intention of the participant. The labels AGT ‘agentive’ and PAT ‘patientive’ or ‘non-agentive’ do not correspond directly to grammatical relations of subject and object nor to semantic roles of Agent and Patient. An AGT argument can be instantiated by participants with semantic roles that include Agent, Actor, Theme, and Experiencer. This agentive morphology references: • the single participant of some intransitives (28) • the more agentive participant of transitives (29) and ditransitives (30) (28)

may-pa’ iyank’ go-PFV.PL 1P.AGT

‘We went.’ (29)

iya’

te-’m-o’

1S.AGT eat-IPFV.SG-2S.PAT

‘I’m going to eat you.’ [ael3afo ] (30)a. ja’ñi porke joola iyang ay-ag-olwa’ NEG

because if

1P.AGT give-SJNCT-2P.PAT

‘No, because if we should give it to you,’

18

Similar grammatical systems are called ‘split intransitive’, ‘active-static’, and ‘agent-patient’ in descriptions of other languages. I designate the Chontal system as ‘agentive’ because nonagentive morphology signals that the speaker evaluates the situation as beyond the control or intention of the participant. The argument roles AGT and PAT correspond roughly to macroroles Actor and Undergoer as articulated in Role and Reference Grammar (Foley & Van Valin 1984, Van Valin 1993).

MOTION, TRANSFER, AND TRANSFORMATION

44

b. despwes ’i-ña-’m-olwa’ after

sa

ijl-poyjña

become-TERM-IPFV-2P.PAT DEM 3P.POSS-ownership

‘afterwards you will become the owners.’ [ael2astata] A PAT argument can be instantiated by participants with semantic roles that include Patient, Theme, Experiencer, Recipient and Beneficiary. This nonagentive morphology references: • the single participant of some intransitives (31) • the less agentive participant of transitives (32) • the Recipient or Beneficiary participant of ditransitives (33) (31)

toj-p-onga’ grow-PFV-1P.PAT

‘We grew.’ (32)

lakwe’ jola-f’i-p-ola’ man

lan-pame’ maj-mesa

sitting-up.on-PFV-3P.PAT DET.PL-yam LOC-table

‘The man placed the yams on the table.’ [apm cpos.26] (33)

jl-muk’i-pa

lay-biida

latyaygi

1S.PAT-teach-PFV.SG my-grandmother language

‘My grandmother taught me the language (Chontal).’ [izr1panka] The motivations and manipulations of the agentive system are presented more thoroughly in O’Connor (1999, 2000b, 2004b). The POSS series of markers represents a minor person-marking strategy. The morphology of possession was introduced in 2.2.3, as nominal prefixes that occur with a determiner prefix and denote possessed nouns. The expressions in (34), without a determiner, are non-verbal predications which can be translated as ‘have <nominal>’ or ‘be ’. (34) a. ay-kwana 1S.POSS-illness

‘I have sickness; I am ill.’ b. o-pijlijma’ 2S.POSS-judgment

‘You have judgment, you are mature.’

ajl-pufki 1P.POSS-health

‘We have (good) health; we are healthy.’ ojl-pijeda’ 2P.POSS-town

‘You have your (own) town.’

45

GRAMMATICAL FEATURES c. i-ja’

ijl-melyu’

3S.POSS-water

3P.POSS-money

‘It has juice, it is juicy.’

‘They have money, they are wealthy.’

A final type of person-marking morphology to mention here is the reflexive. A reflexive predicate specifies that the action affects the same participant that performs it. The single participant takes agentive morphology, and the morphemes of the reflexive are –osi for singular and -ojlchi’ for plural. They are glossed RFLX.SG and RFLX.PL, and they occur after inflectional morphology, as in (35) and (36). (35)

pej-’mi-’m-osi

ima’

lane’

small-in-IPFV-RFLX.SG 2S.AGT road

‘You will put yourself (head into) the road.’ (36)

wej-p-ojlchi’

sa=yank’

para maa sim-pa’

hide-PFV-RFLX.PL DEM=1P.AGT for

NEG

see-PFV.PL

‘We hid so that they didn’t see (us).’ Chontal distinguishes the grammatical relation of subject. Evidence includes number agreement in aspectual morphology, the obligatory presence of pronouns or clitics from the AGT series in all transitive and some intransitive clauses, and the obligatory presence of verbal affixes from the PAT series in other intransitive clauses.19 Evidence for an object category is less clear, as only a subset of possible ‘object’ candidates are marked consistently. Verbal affixes from the PAT series are used to mark some patients and recipients in transitive and ditransitive clauses. The pattern suggests this is a primary object type of system (Dryer 1986, Peterson 1998) motivated by the perceived relative agency or animacy of the patient or recipient referent. The labels ‘subject’ and ‘object’ are used infrequently throughout this study; instead, participants are identified by predicate roles such as causer and undergoer; semantic roles such as Agent, Patient, Theme, Location or Goal; or by morphosyntactic roles of AGT and PAT. 2.3.3 Morphology of ‘change’ Two types of verbal morphology are analyzed as contributing to the semantics of ‘change’ in complex predicates. They will be discussed in depth in later chapters, but they are introduced briefly here because of their role in delimiting predicate types. Predicates discussed in chapter 4 are formed with 19

Person markers are obligatory except, of course, for zero-marked third persons.

MOTION, TRANSFER, AND TRANSFORMATION

46

morphology of associated motion and change; predicates in chapter 5 involve morphology of associated direction and topological relation; and the simple predicates discussed in chapter 3 involve neither of these. The paradigm of associated motion and change morphology (AM) has four members, presented in Table 12. The ‘form’ column shows allomorphs of each member. AM morphology contributes a subevent of deictic motion through space or change through time. The first three are derivational, positioned after any other derivational morphology but before inflectional morphology in the verbal template. The last one fuses AM semantics with imperfective inflection and occurs verb-finally. Table 12. Morphology of associated motion and change (AM) Gloss AND VEN CLOC DLOC

Name andative venitive cislocative dislocative

Form -kix, -ix, -x, -s -way, -nay, -ñay -uu, -gu, -yuu -ta, –tya (SG), -ta’, –tya’ (PL)

Meaning go and do, go and be come and do, come and be come and do, come doing go and do, go and be

morphology and predicates of change formed with AM morphology will be discussed in depth in Chapter 4. There is a set of eleven morphemes identified so far that occur as the second element of a compound stem and depict direction or topological relation (DTR). They occur after an initial verbal element and before any other derivational morphology in the verbal template.

AM

Table 13. Morphology of direction and topological relation (DTR)

-f’ -ayj

Direction and/or Topological Relation up down

-f’i -way, -we -may

up on down in down on

-’mi -gi, -ki -k’oy

in, on out inside

-ñi -ay -ng

across across on edge, at surface

DTR

Table 13 introduces the inventory, which includes forms with quite similar meanings. The details of the DTR elements and of the complex predicates formed with them are focal points of Chapter 5.

47

GRAMMATICAL FEATURES

2.3.4 Inflectional morphology Infrequently, an uninflected root expresses a predication. The few examples in the present corpus come from quoted speech in narratives, as in (37), and from conversation, (38). (37)

jeena, kwa lakwe’ okay, say man

‘Fine, says the man.’ (38)

tes=ma’

jwe

what=2S.AGT want

‘What do you want?’ Unfortunately, in this endangered language field situation, very little conversational data could be collected, but my impression is that uninflected roots are not such rare creatures in that genre. The vast majority of the predicates in the current corpus do in fact carry inflection for aspect (2.3.4.1) or modality (2.3.4.2). 2.3.4.1 Aspect The verbal word in Chontal is not marked for tense, a component indicated by adverbials or understood from context. Aspectual morphology details the temporal interval of the event, characterizing it as perfective (complete), imperfective (incomplete), durative (without salient endpoint, habitual), progressive (ongoing), or stative (predicates a state). Here I simply present the suffixes in Table 14, with additional remarks to explain unusual characteristics of particular suffixes. Table 14. Morphology of aspectual inflection Gloss PFV IPFV DUR PROG STAT1 STAT2

Aspect perfective imperfective durative progressive stative stative

Event contour completed, punctual incomplete, future continuous, habitual ongoing static static

SG

PL

-pa -’ma -Cuy -wa -a, -ja, -ya -k’

-pa’ -’me’ -Cay’ -we’ -ojlenna’ -eda’

Inflectional suffixes have distinct forms for singular and plural that agree with the number of the subject of the clause, and this information is included in the suffix glosses. However, when a person marker is then suffixed, the phonological material that distinguishes singular and plural in the inflectional mor-

MOTION, TRANSFER, AND TRANSFORMATION

48

phology can be lost. Consider (36), repeated here, in which the reduced form of the inflection in the verb wejpojlchi’ could have come from the singular –pa or the plural –pa’ of the perfective suffix. (36)’

wej-p-ojlchi’

sa=yank’

para maa sim-pa’

hide-PFV-RFLX.PL DEM=1P.AGT for

NEG

see-PFV.PL

‘We hid so that they didn’t see (us).’ As a convention throughout this study, inflection in this morphophonemic environment is glossed without indication of number. The form of the durative suffix is –Cuy in singular and –Cay’ in plural, where C alternates among [k, g, ’, w, y, d] without apparent phonetic motivation. sk’waayjjolaymimajtoj’me-

‘empty’ ‘lower’ ‘exist’ ‘say, tell’ ‘cook’ ‘speak’

sk’wa-kuy ayj-guy jolay-’uy mi-yuy ma-wuy toj’me-duy

‘emptying, empties’ ‘lowering, lowers ‘existing, exists’ ‘saying, telling’ ‘cooking, cooks’ ‘speaking, speaks’

The hypothesis, reflected in the representation of this suffix, is that the final consonant of certain verbal roots was at some point reanalyzed as the initial consonant of the suffix. An alternative form of the durative that seems to occur only with certain verbs is –gi. There are two sets of morphemes that indicate stative aspect, and the difference between them is not well understood. 2.3.4.2 Modality Modality indicates the attitude of the speaker toward the proposition of the clause. Chontal distinguishes modalities of imperative (that the predication is a command) and subjunctive (that it is an irrealis action, that the speaker does not know if it will happen or is only hoping that it will happen).

49

GRAMMATICAL FEATURES Table 15. Morphology of modal inflection Gloss IMP IMP.RES IMP.MOV SBJV

Modality imperative imperative with respect imperative with motion subjunctive

SG

PL

-jla’, -lya’ -wata -ki’ -da

-jle’, -lye’ -wata’ -tsa’ -gu, -dagu

The interesting feature here is that Chontal adds social and spatial features to the imperative. One variation adds a sense of formal courtesy, and a second variation occurs in constructions of associated motion, discussed in Chapter 4. 2.3.5 Derivational morphology The explanation of derivational morphology is divided into two general groups. The first set of suffixes is associated with participants and valence (2.3.5.1), while the second group develops features of the event itself, such as repetition, finality, or collective action (2.3.5.2). 2.3.5.1. Derivation associated with participants and valence The suffixes are first presented in Table 16, and then details of specific interest or of particular relevance to the understanding of change events are described below. Table 16. Derivation associated with participants Gloss CAUS BENE GOAL TVZR APPL

LOC COM ITVR1 ITVR2

Function is to signal presence of causer; marked in AGT morphology presence of beneficiary; may be marked in PAT morphology, especially with human referent presence of goal participant to which the action of the verb is directed presence of an object, low transitivity (Hopper and Thompson 1980) presence of applied object (semantic patient, theme, stimulus, location, instrument, motive, time); not usually marked in PAT morphology presence of locative object presence of accompanier absence of causer; occurs mostly but not exclusively with labile roots absence of causer; occurs mostly but not exclusively with bivalent roots

Suffix -’ee, -’e, -k’e, -’ –‘iñ, -‘iñi, -‘ñi, -’im -’i, -k’i -’me -go, -ko

-lo, -’o -cho -gay, -kay, -ay, -goy, -koy -uu, -gu, -ku

The choice of causative suffix may in part respond to the type of causer referent, as illustrated in the following. When the causer is a human agent, the

MOTION, TRANSFER, AND TRANSFORMATION

50

verb is derived with the causative suffix –k’e, (39), but a similar event caused by a force of nature is described with a different suffix, (40). (39)

el

te-k’e-pa=ya’

fruta

fall-CAUS-PFV.SG=1S.AGT DET fruit

‘I picked the fruit.’ (40)

tye-’e-pa

lawa’ el

fruta

fall-CAUS-PFV.SG wind DET fruit

‘The wind made the fruit fall.’ The distinction between goal and causative derivation can be a subtle one, both phonetically and semantically, and indeed some speakers use them interchangeably with certain verbs while others offered minimal pairs like the ones in (41). lay-’mijlch’i

(41) a. jli-n-k’i-pa=ya’

slide-edge-GOAL-PFV=1S.AGT my-feet

‘I stretched my legs in front of me.’ [AEL] b. jli-n-k’e-pa=ya’

el

’ej

slide-edge-CAUS-PFV=1S.AGT DET tree

‘I straightened the stick.’ [AEL] However, derivation for goal is not limited to body parts nor does it signal a type of inalienable possession, as demonstrated in (42). (42)

peng-k’i-pa=ya’

el

sello

stick-GOAL-PFV.SG=1S.AGT DET stamp

‘I stuck the stamp (on the envelope).’ [PSG] Applicative derivation does not necessarily add a participant that will be marked on the verb. In Chontal, the ‘applied object’ associated with this morphology can be a semantic Patient, Theme, or Stimulus, which could be referenced in a PAT marker, but it could also be a Location, an Instrument, a Motive or a Time, none of which motivate person-marking morphology. The term ‘applicative’ is therefore used in a semantic sense (see Margetts 1999:146 and references therein) but not a morphosyntactic one. Each type of applied object is described in turn in the following. First, the applicative can add a semantic Patient, Theme or Stimulus. The list in 43) gives a sample of the derived stems that result.

51

GRAMMATICAL FEATURES (43)

tayojlwayjwe sin-

‘hear’ ‘search’ ‘wait’ ‘want’ ‘see, experience’

taykoojlkowaygojwegosingo-

‘listen to s.t., s.o.’ ‘search for s.t., s.o.’ ‘wait for s.t., s.o.’ ‘need s.t.’ ‘realize s.t.’

Furthermore, the applicative can add a semantic Location. The applicative occurs with motion verbs to indicate that the place is a known participant, already mentioned or about to be made explicit in the discourse. Usage is optional, but as yet no discourse studies have been done to identify specific factors that motivate its distribution in terms of salience or definiteness. (44)

kway-’ma

sa

sa

laja’ pa’-ko-na

Aguascalientes

arrive-IPFV.SG DEM water come-APPL-TERM DEM

‘The water has arrived; it comes from Aguascalientes.’ [SLG 3.76] (45)

kway-go-ta’

naa lan-músico

arrive-APPL-DLOC.PL REF DET.PL-musicians

‘The musicians arrived there.’ [rg6abuelita] Applicative derivation with poy- ‘exit’ produces a morphologically irregular stem pagoy-. This predicate can signal that a point of departure is not the location where the speaker is or is not the home or base of the exiter. (46)

pagoy-pa

Jwalapij may-pa

li-jeda’

exit:APPL-PFV.SG go-PFV.SG her-town

‘She left Astata and went to her town.’ [RS CGQ.14] The suffix -lo appears to be another variant of the locative applicative. It occurs infrequently in the data, and as yet its distribution is not fully understood. The suffix is demonstrated in (47). (47)

pang-lo-pa’

lan-kwesi maj-mejutl’

sit-LOC-PFV.PL DET.PL-two LOC-hammock

‘The two of them sat down in the hammock.’ [PSG} In predicates formed with the same root pang- ‘live, sit, dwell’ and imperfective inflection, the locative occurs as an infix.

MOTION, TRANSFER, AND TRANSFORMATION

52 (48)

pa+lo+ng-’me’ ajl-tyuwa’ sit+LOC+-IPFV.PL 1P.POSS-alone

‘We’ll stay here by ourselves, all alone.’ [PSG] (49)

pa+lo+ng-’me’ lan-kwesi maj-mejutl’ sit+LOC+-IPFV.PL DET.PL-two LOC-hammock

‘Both of them will sit down in the hammock.’ [PSG] The applicative can add a third type of applied object, an Instrument. All of the following examples were collected from the same speaker during a session in which descriptions of events of ‘cutting and breaking’ were elicited with a video stimulus (Bohnemeyer, Bowerman & Brown 2001); hence, the unusual combinations of instrument and undergoer. The instrument constituent can be a bare NP, as in (50) and (51), or it can follow the Spanish loan preposition con ‘with’, at the beginning or end of the clause, as in (52). Constituent order varies. (50)

xantya.

ñay-k’o-pa

machete

watermelon cut-CAUS:APPL-PFV.SG bladed.instrument

‘It’s a watermelon. He cut it with a machete.’ (51)

lakw-atolo’ pa-ño-pa man-left

machete el

xantya

break-apart:APPL-PFV.SG machete DET watermelon

‘The left-handed man split the watermelon in two with a machete.’ (52)

con martiyu, jas-ko-pa,

jas-ko-pa

lich’ale

with hammer split-APPL-PFV.SG split-APPL-PFV.SG cloth

‘With a hammer, he tore it, he tore the cloth.’ And finally, the applicative can add a Motive or Reason. In (53), the applicative invokes a ‘motive’ participant – the reason for not going. (53)

tyinchi ja’ñi may-go-da why

NEG

go-APPL-SJNCT.SG

‘Why won’t you go?’ [eer1jorobado 5.6] 2.3.5.2. Derivation associated with the event itself Derivational affixes that characterize the event itself are found in Table 17.

53

GRAMMATICAL FEATURES Table 17. Derivation associated with events Gloss ITR DSTRB COL TERM

AUG DER IRR

Function is to signal iterative, repetitive event, whether by the same participant or by another participant on another occasion distributive, that the event takes place in more than one place collective, which may be action directed among multiple participants (reciprocal) or towards a group terminative, an event that occurs in sequence, as a continuation, or finality; in certain clauses the suffix is verb-final, without further inflection augmentative, intensified effort derogatory, a disgusting or ridiculous event irrealis, that event realization is not fixed or not known, as “whenever, whatever, wherever”

Affix -gon, -kon, -on, -gom, -kom, -om -oj, -ojl -ale, -male, -gale, -kale -na, -ña

-k’oy -gas, -gaj en-, em-

Suffixes denoting iterative, distributive and collective events together constitute an intriguing semantic space to be pulled apart in further research. Iterative derivation in Chontal designates repetitive action, whether by the same participant or by another participant on another occasion. In (54), the same participants continue on their way. (54)

’oy-’mi-’me’

sa=yank’

lam-buru’

flat.arc-on-IPFV.PL DEM=1P.AGT

DET.PL-burro

may-gom-’me’ sa=yank’ go-ITR-IPFV.PL

DEM=1P.AGT

‘We saddled the burros and got on the road again.’ [aer3vender] In (55), another person arrives in some other moment. (55)

joypa sa

joola sa

neñi

now

if

someone DEM arrive-ITR-DLOC.SG

DEM

DEM

sa

kway-gon-ta

‘Now if someone else arrives,’ [aer4ajutl] The distributive suffix signals that the action happens in more than one place, here and there. In (56), the distributive is fused with the directional ñi‘across’. (56)

tamagay jaape pi-ñoj-’ma above

el

texa’

where contact-across:DSTRB-IPFV.SG DET tiles

‘Up above, where the tiles will be placed (all over, on the roof).’ [aer4ajutl]

MOTION, TRANSFER, AND TRANSFORMATION

54

And finally, the collective suffix indicates action directed among two or more people, (57), and it can signal reciprocity, (58). (57)

tyijpe sa=yma’

kug-ale-’ma

there DEM=2S.AGT sell-COL-IPFV.SG

‘There you will sell (to a group), there you’ll do your selling.’ [aer3vender] (58)

siñ-ale-gay=yank’ see-COL-DUR.PL=1P.AGT

‘See you later (lit: we will see each other).’ [APM] The irrealis affix is unusual, occurring as a homorganic nasal prefix. It signals ‘wondering’ about the place, time, purpose, or realization of an event, as in (59). (59) a. laywala ñu-jli-n-guy horse

jaape el

cerco

move-slide-edge-DUR.SG where DET fence

‘The horse was walking along the fence line,’ b. ojl-ko-duy

jaape em-poy-ya

search-APPL-DUR.SG where IRR-exit-STAT1.SG

‘searching for where to get out.’ [EER Oz.8] The irrealis seems to co-occur with stative or subjunctive inflection. I collected many examples of the latter while working with one of the MPI stimulus tasks, a series of video clips showing sometimes truly bizarre events that are designed to elicit possible categories in the languages of the world. My old consultant reacted to each one by frowning at my computer screen and muttering the following: (60)

ten=sa

em-pase-da

what=DEM IRR-do-SBJV.SG

‘What in the world is he doing?’ [CRM] This concludes the brief introduction to Chontal verbs and verbal morphology. Three basic valence classes of verb roots were established, and the details of the verbal word were described and illustrated with respect to person marking, inflection, and derivation.

55

GRAMMATICAL FEATURES

2.4 Other minor word classes 2.4.1 Clitics Chontal has a rich inventory of clitics, not yet fully investigated, that plays a critical role in reference, deixis, and interaction. These are morphemes that attach to each other, forming polyclitic words; attach to nouns, in place of nominal prefixes, and also occur alone. A sample of the inventory, with rough translational equivalents, is presented in (61). The clitic sa is so frequent and so multi-functional that I do not know a worthy way to translate it. Therefore, it is simply glossed DEM, ‘demonstrative’.20 The clitic naa plays a role in person reference, signaling a given or known referent in the local discourse context. (61)

sa ga fa jaa tyi tya, ta chi ’ñi, ’ni tes jla

DEM ?

‘this’ ‘here’ ‘which’ ‘that’ ‘that’ ‘that’ ? ‘just, no’ ‘what’ ‘perhaps’

naa ’a ge ne, jne ’le pe, jpe cha tonj ma

REF

‘here’ ‘person’ ‘persons; who’ ‘thing, matter’ ‘place’ ‘now’ ‘like, as’ ?

Table 18 offers an idea of how some of these can be combined. Table 18. Preliminary tableau of polyclitics N person persons place thing

DEM

sage sajne sajpe sa’le

‘which N’ jaage jajne jaape jaa’le

‘that N’ tyige tyijne tyijpe tyi’le

‘that’s the N’ tyisage tyisajne tyijsape tyisa’le

‘no N’ ’ñine

’ñites

Grammaticized usage of specific polyclitics includes the following few examples. The final two are unanalyzable. usage literal (62) tonjsa’le ‘like that’ ‘Good-bye!’ chicha ‘this now’ ‘now, today’ tonjka ‘like here’ ‘here you are (while serving)’ tonjka’ñi ‘like here only’ ‘just like that’ 20

Waterhouse glosses sa as ‘so’, yet this does not seem to capture its distribution. The term ‘discourse marker’ seems too general, yet the designation as ‘demonstrative’ may in fact turn out to be too specific.

MOTION, TRANSFER, AND TRANSFORMATION

56 ’amasa ’amatyi

‘and that’s it (e.g. at the end of a story)’ ‘maybe’

The pronominal clitics for first and second person may attach to the end of verbs but very frequently occur in polyclitic independent words. We find, for example, first person singular iya’ as saya’, iyasa, chaya’, jlaya’. It should be mentioned again that polyclitic words, especially sage and sajne, function as third person pronouns, singular and plural, respectively. 2.4.2 Prepositions We find very few adpositions in Chontal. These include Spanish loan words con ‘with’ and para ‘for’ and one original preposition, the locative maj-. The adverb jaape ‘where’ also serves a locative function. (63)

pang-pa sa=ya’

maj-mejutl’

sit-PFV.SG DEM=1S.AGT LOC-hammock

‘I sat down in the hammock.’ [APM] (64)

pej-’mi-’ma=yma’

lo-neskujl jaape lo-tejwa’

small-in-IPFV.SG=2S.AGT your-tortilla where your-food

‘You are going to dunk your tortilla in your food.’ [RScomida] A small inventory of adpositions is typical for languages like Chontal that express many spatial relations in the verb. For an areal example, see Brown (1994), and for cross-linguistic studies see Levinson & Meira (2003) and Ameka & Levinson (to appear). 2.4.3 Adverbs, adjectives, numbers, interactionals Chontal does have adverbs, some of which are polyclitics, to express such notions as time, place, and manner. There is no productive process on the order of English –ly that derives adverbs from another word class. There are also a few adjectives in this language, as introduced in 2.2.4. Like many of its Mesoamerican neighbors, Chontal has a twenty-based number system. There is also a small inventory of quantifiers, including some polyclitic words; these too were introduced in 2.2.4. And finally, the interactional resources include vocatives and particles of response and reaction. 2.5 Clause types This final section of the grammatical description presents negation (2.5.1), questions (2.5.2), non-verbal predicates (2.5.3), and examples of complex clause formation (2.5.4).

GRAMMATICAL FEATURES

57

2.5.1 Negative particles and negation There are three words, all clitics or formed of clitics, that serve to negate predications. They function in the following ways: maa ja’ñi ’ñi

in declarations and with adjectives in prohibitions, conditionals, and replies in contrast with an alternative

Negation influences basic word order, drawing a subject pronoun or clitic to pre-verbal position. The typical order of constituents in a negative declaration: ‘negation, pronoun, verb’. Example (65) shows the common pattern, in which a personal pronoun is cliticized to the negative particle, and also demonstrates that negation precedes an adjective. (65)

maa ñik’ata

maa=ya’

sin-k’e-pa

NEG=1S.AGT

experience-CAUS-PFV.SG NEG good

‘I never got used to it, it wasn’t nice.’ [aer1panka] Possession, too, is negated with maa. (66)

maa o-tyaygi’ NEG

2S.POSS-word

‘You don’t have words (you don’t speak well).’ [rg5enams2] (67)

maa ijl-melyu’ NEG

3P.POSS-money

‘They don’t have any money.’ Ja’ñi and ’ni express negation in prohibitions (68), replies (69)b, conditionals (70), and to signal an action selected among other alternatives (71). (68)

ja’ñi joj-’ma NEG

lay-ñaana

cry-IPFV.SG my-mother

‘Don’t cry, mother.’ [rg10song] (69) a. ay-pa=yma’

para tase-’ma?

go-PFV.SG=2S.AGT for

stroll-IPFV.SG

‘Are you going for a walk?’

MOTION, TRANSFER, AND TRANSFORMATION

58

b. ja’ñi, para ’ee-’ma NEG

for

lay-piñik’

do-IPFV.SG my-work

‘No, to work.’ (70)

joola ja’ñi, ñulyi tes if

one

NEG

’ñi canción

what just song

‘If not, then any of the songs.’ [rg9cantor] (71)

ñaño-pa’

’ñi

pass-PFV.PL just

‘They just walked on by’. [ael3afo] 2.5.2 Interrogative particles and questions Informational questions are formed with interrogative particles, which usually occur in sentence-initial position. Words that function as interrogatives include jaape ‘(to) where’, tes ‘what, how’, nee or ne ‘who’, tyiñchi ‘why’, tajna ‘how much’ and jlek’ ‘when’. (72)

jaape=yma’ ay-pa where=2S.AGT go-PFV.SG

‘Where are you going?’ (73)

tes

mi-yay’

l-a’wa-‘umaguita

what say-DUR.PL DET-DIM-type.of.animal

‘How do you say “umaguita” (in Chontal)?’ [aer3vender] (74)

nee=yma’ who=2S.AGT

‘Who are you? (Who’s there?)’ [APM] Rising intonation typically marks a clause as a yes/no questions. Alternatively, a question is formed by ending the utterance with the interactional particle jeena’, used as a tag question. (75)

Lafelay’ mi-yay’

lijeda jeena’

say-DUR.PL town right

‘The town is called Lafelay’, right?’ [RSpray] 2.5.3 Non-verbal predicates Chontal has neither a copula nor a verb of possession. Propositions such as quality, identity, location and possession are expressed with non-verbal predi-

GRAMMATICAL FEATURES

59

cates. Predicate adjective and predicate nominal constructions are accomplished with simple juxtaposition. The relative tense is understood from the context. Example (76) is an example of a predicate adjective construction. (76)

ipityali

laja’

expensive water

‘Water is expensive.’ [rg2flojo] This construction can also identify the participant, as in the equational predication in (77), or it can locate the nominal in the scene, (78). (77)

iya=sa

inmadatyu

1S.AGT=DEM fisher

‘I am/was a fisherman.’ [ael1asi] (78)

tyijpe lay-ñejutl’ there my-house

‘There is/was my house.’ The non-verbal possessive construction was introduced in 2.3.2. 2.5.4 Complex clause types There are many words that join phrases and clauses in Chontal, producing complement clauses, relative clauses, and adverbial clauses. Most of these linking words are borrowings from Spanish, such as para ‘for, in order to’, porke ‘because’, para ke ‘so that’, pero ‘but’, pwes ‘so then’, juntamente ‘and’, myendre ‘while’. Other words and particles include jo ‘or’, joola ‘if’, jwata ‘although’, and ’uxpa ‘while’. The details of most complex clause constructions are not relevant to this study. Of interest here are the grammatical consequences of coordinate clauses and purposive clauses, presented in the following. 2.5.4.1 Coordinate clauses Juxtaposition is the most common strategy for the conjunction of coordinate clauses in the speech of first-language speakers, as in (79), where each inflected verb constitutes an independent clause. (79)

sna’me’

sago’me’

drink-IPFV.PL eat-IPFV.PL

‘We will drink, and we will eat.’ [rg1ajutl]

MOTION, TRANSFER, AND TRANSFORMATION

60

However, and surely influenced by Spanish, second-language speakers tend to use aytya, maytya, or waytya as a conjunction meaning ‘and, also’. No correlation between prefix shape and coordinated concept has been identified. (80)

naa fuera aytya chuf-k’oy-gom-pa

poy-pa

leave-PFV.SG REF outside and

dentro

enter-inside-ITR-PFV.SG inside

‘It went outside, and it entered back inside.’ [RS MVB.P] Most of the corpus for this study comes from the speech of first-language speakers, which means that most coordination is unmarked. The absence or presence of a conjunction aytya is a stylistic feature with no grammatical significance. 2.5.4.2 Purposive clauses Purposive clauses begin with the Spanish loan para ‘for, in order to’, and the verb in the subordinate clause carries imperfective inflection. The subject of the purposive clause can be the same as in the main clause (81), same subject but unexpressed (82), or different from that in the main clause (83). (81)

lay-makapi para iya’

tyuyguy=ya’

grind-DUR.SG=1S.AGT my-corn

for

pats’e-’ma

1S.AGT make-IPFV.SG

lay-ñeskujl my-tortilla

‘I’m grinding my corn to make my tortillas.’ [AER] (82)

ja’ñi o-siñak’ NEG

ima’

jaage para juch’i-’ma waata

2S.POSS-knowledge 2S.AGT who

for

flirt-IPFV.SG girl

‘You don’t know how to flirt with a girl.’ [rg5enams2] (83)

ay-jla’

lugar para chuf-ay-’ma

give-IMP.SG place for

iya’

enter-ITVR1-IPFV.SG 1S.AGT

‘Give me room to go in.’ [ael3afo] Negative purpose, or avoidance, is expressed with the same construction. (84)

lan-’welo’

ñu’ee-day’

para sa

DET.PL-grandfather

ask.for-DUR.PL

for

DEM

GRAMMATICAL FEATURES ja’ñi

’i’ma

NEG

exist-IPFV.SG our-sicknes

61

ajl-kwaana

‘The elders would make a petition so that there would not be illness.’ [aer6ritos] The motion-cum-purpose construction differs from the general purposive clause construction. As seen in (85), the first verb in the series is a motion verb, and the second verb has dislocative inflection. The conjunction para is optional, and the person marker is not repeated for the second verb. (85)

aypa

sa=ya’

wa’lo-ta

depart-PFV.SG DEM=1S.AGT hunt.iguana-DLOC.SG

‘I’m off to go and hunt iguana.’ [ael4flojo] The motion-cum-purpose construction is revisited in Chapter 4. This concludes the description of Chontal grammatical features essential for understanding the following chapters.

CHAPTER 3. SIMPLE PREDICATES OF CHANGE

The central aim of this chapter is to describe predicates in which the semantics of change are encoded in the verbal root and the endpoint of change is directly or indirectly encoded by the same simple root. The event descriptions here stand in contrast to those in the following two chapters, in which semantics of change are found in verbal morphology of associated motion and change or in a compound stem construction. The chapter is organized as follows. Section 3.1 presents the classes of simple predicates that function as ‘change’ verbs, and 3.2 introduces the basic constructions of spontaneous and caused change that are populated by change verbs. The remainder of the chapter examines simple predicates with respect to a cluster of functions chosen to facilitate comparison with other predicate types, especially with compound stem predicates in Chapter 5. These functions are the encoding of endpoints (3.3),21 the elaboration of a path or trajectory of change (3.4), the expression of the means or manner of change (3.5), and the delimiting of the classes of undergoer referents for various types of change (3.6). A summary of important features of simple predicates of change is presented in 3.7 with an evaluation of verb-framed language expectations in this verb-framed component of the grammar of change. 3.1 Classes of ‘change’ verbs This section introduces the change verbs that can populate the basic constructions of simple predicates. The groups are notional, not formally coherent (cf. Lucy 1994 on ‘core motion’ verbs), in that no single formal or distributional property defines them as a group. Relevant details of the differences in derivational and inflectional possibilities are touched on here and throughout the chapter. 3.1.1 Simple predicates: change of location In the current corpus, there are nine verbs with a type of path semantics, around 20 that encode a manner of motion, and another six that depict ‘trans21 Throughout this discussion, the term ‘endpoint’ is used as ‘terminus’. In the context of change of location events, for example, the starting endpoint is the semantic Source and the final endpoint is the Goal.

SIMPLE PREDICATES

63

port’. Path verbs oriented to either the starting point of motion (the Source) or to the ending point of motion (the Goal) are considered change verbs, while manner and transport verbs, which orient to neither terminus, are considered process verbs. These fundamental differences are represented in Table 19. Table 19. Simple motion verb roots in Chontal Orientation to SOURCE ay- ‘depart away’ pa’- ‘depart toward’ poy- ‘exit’ mu- ‘sink’ so-, cho- ‘rise’

Orientation to GOAL may- ‘go’ pa’- ‘come’ f’aj- ‘ascend’ tsee- ‘go and return’ chuf- ‘enter’

Orientation to neither ‘wa- ‘walk’ ch’angay- ‘follow’ pe- ‘transport small’ k’e- ‘transport water’ tay- ‘transport on back’

The exhaustive inventory of path verbs is found in the first two columns. All path verbs are monovalent roots except so-, cho- ‘rise’ and chuf- ‘enter’, which are labile. The reader should note that pa’- ‘come, depart away from there, toward here’ is listed here twice, to represent both its senses. Endpoints and path types are examined in depth in 3.3.1 and 3.4. Manner of motion verbs, represented here by ‘wa- ‘walk’ and ch’angay‘follow’, include verbal roots of different valence bases; these are discussed in 3.5.1. The transport verbs are bivalent and identify the type of undergoer referent that is carried or where on the body the undergoer is supported. These are presented in more detail in 3.6.1. 3.1.2 Simple predicates: change of position The inventory of simple predicates of change of position is relatively small, as many positioning events are expressed with compound stem predicates, the topic of Chapter 5. The verbal roots listed below can occur inflected as simple predicates, and some will be seen again in the discussion of compound stem predicates. They are distinct from motion predicates in that all of these roots can inflect for stative aspect to assert location or existence. The double-duty of positional verbs in both locative and existential assertions is attested in many languages, but there is no evidence that Chontal verbs have developed aspectual functions, along the grammaticization path of posture > locative or existential use > aspectual system, as in for example Oceanic languages (Lichtenberk 2002) and in a slightly different order for Korean (Song 2002). As indicated in 1.5.3, Chontal has characteristics typical of a positionaltype language: posture and disposition are expressed verbally; the language has no copular verb, no case marking, and only one general-locative preposition; and positional verbs assert location but make only general restrictions on the class of undergoer referent (3.6.2).

MOTION, TRANSFER, AND TRANSFORMATION

64

Change of position verbs include posturals and configurationals, as seen in Table 20. Verbs in the first set of columns depict posture-like positions, while those in the second set of columns encode greater detail of the spatial relation between figure and ground. Each root is identified by base valence (VAL) and by valence-changing morphology as ‘causative/intransitivizer’ in (VAL CH). The list of posturals is exhaustive, while the list of configurationals is representative of around 15 in the current corpus. Table 20. Simple positional verb roots in Chontal VAL

mono mono bi

Postural pang- ‘sit’ kas- ‘stand’ ñoy- ‘lay’

VAL CH

VAL

— — —

bi bi bi labile labile labile labile

Configurational spoy- ‘spread’ spojl- ‘nestle’ ts’ang- ‘hang’ ‘we- ‘hang’ k’a- ‘extend’ mee- ‘coil, twist’ peng- ‘adhere’

VAL CH

— — — -k’e/— -ne/-nu -k’e/-goy -k’e/-gay

There is no simple root for ‘lie’ in Chontal, leaving a lexical gap filled by more than one compound stem. The difference between the two verbs glossed ‘hang’ is that ts’ang- generally implies that the undergoer referent is suspended from something like a hook, nail or peg. Positional verbs are discussed with respect to endpoints in 3.3.2 and with respect to manner or means of change in 3.5.2. 3.1.3 Simple predicates: change of state The inventory of simple state change verb roots is large and diverse, including physical and emotional change in animates, the cutting and breaking of objects, and changes in the natural environment. Table 21. Simple state change verb roots in Chontal VAL

mono mono mono bi bi labile labile labile

Root ma- ‘die’ toj- ‘grow’ stule- ‘get angry’ xnu- ‘peel’ jas- ‘tear, split’ ts’i- ‘fold, bend’ ek’- ‘open’ ñay- ‘cut with blade’

VAL CH

— -k’e — -goy, -gay -uu, -nu -k’e/-goy -ne/-nu -k’e/—

Notes PAT, lexical causative PAT, causative derivation AGT, periphrastic causative intransitive with ITVR1 intransitive with ITVR2 intransitive with ITVR1 intransitive with ITVR2 only occurs as transitive

Unlike the change of position roots, these verbs tend to occur with perfective inflection to express a result state. Representative types are presented in Table 21, grouped according to formal and distributional properties of base valence

SIMPLE PREDICATES

65

(VAL), valence-changing morphology (VAL CH), and usage notes (NOTES). This tableau is not to be considered exhaustive, but it does illustrate the major patterns that motivate subgroups within this large class. Important categories among monovalent roots are the encoding of the undergoer argument as agentive or non-agentive (detailed in 2.4) and the strategy for causativization. Some monovalents have lexical causatives, some take causative derivation, and others express caused events with periphrastic constructions. Bivalent roots are subcategorized by different morphology for intransitivization. And finally, the class of labile roots is subdivided according to combinatorial possibilities with valence-changing morphology, listed here as ‘causative/intransitivizer’. The expression of endpoints is addressed in 3.3.3 and of manner or means of change in 3.5.3. Section 3.6.3 presents the extent to which change of state predicates restrict the classes of undergoer referent. 3.2 Basic constructions of simple predicates of change There are two basic types of change predicate constructions, one of spontaneous change and one of caused change. These are represented here with diagrams adapted from Goldberg (1995), as introduced in 1.5.2. The first line of each construction describes the required participants as a causer and/or an undergoer of change, and it paraphrases the core schema of change as move (change location), shift (change position), or transform (change state) to an end-state. The second line indicates the morphosyntactic realization of the arguments as agentive (AGT) or non-agentive (PAT), and it provides a graphic reminder that the semantics of change are in the verbal root. The new end-state of change, whether a spatial location or a property, is part of templatic meaning but is not necessarily encoded as a participant. Therefore, it is not represented on the second line. Structurally, the constructions of spontaneous and caused change are simply templates for the encoding of intransitive and transitive clauses, respectively. What makes them change constructions is that they share the templatic meaning in the first line and that they are populated by the change verbs introduced in 3.1. 3.2.1

Spontaneous change construction

SIMPLE PREDICATE OF SPONTANEOUS CHANGE

Undergoer | AGT/PAT

moves, shifts, transforms to new endpoint | < change >

The Undergoer of change is the only required participant in the basic construction of spontaneous change. Undergoer participants can be expressed as agentive or non-agentive. The first strategy is illustrated in (86).

MOTION, TRANSFER, AND TRANSFORMATION

66 (86)

iyang sa

xtyulye-pa’

1P.AGT DEM get.angry-PFV.PL

‘We got angry.’

[aer1panka’]

In Chontal, ‘getting angry’ is a state change considered within the control of the participant. Other state changes are evaluated as outside the volition or intention of the participant. Example (87) shows a sequence of unintentional change events. After changing color (change of state), the oranges fell from the tree (change of location). (87)

joypa xwij-ko-p-ola’

lan-naranja

already turn.yellow-APPL-PFV-3P.PAT DET.PL-orange

tye-p-ola’

lamats’

fall-PFV-3P.PAT

earth

‘The oranges ripened and fell to the ground.’ [APM] In descriptions of a change of location or position, a ground element is often expressed, as in (88) and (89). (88)

lay-’wa may-pa

el

pana’

my-child go-PFV.SG DET river

‘My daughter went to the river.’ [rg8susto] (89)

pang-na-pa

sa=ya’

lya’ joo-gi

sit-TERM-PFV.SG DEM=1S.AGT there cry-DUR.SG

‘Then I sat down there, crying.’ [aer1panka’] The encoding of ground elements as spatial locations is addressed in 3.2.3. 3.2.2

Caused change construction

SIMPLE PREDICATE OF CAUSED CHANGE

Causer moves, shifts, transforms Undergoer to new endpoint | | | AGT < change > PAT

There are at least two participants in an event of caused change, a causer and an undergoer, and again an optional ground phrase may be expressed. The causer participant dictates the number of aspectual marking as singular or plural. First and second person referents are expressed as agentive arguments, and

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SIMPLE PREDICATES

third person referents are not marked on the verb. The encoding of the undergoer participant varies. If the referent is first person, second person, or third person plural and human or otherwise ‘topic-worthy’ (e.g. Mithun & Corbett 1999), it will be marked as an argument with a non-agentive verbal affix. Third person singular and some third person plural undergoer participants are not cross-referenced on the verb, but all third person undergoers can occur as lexical nouns. The difference in undergoer marking is demonstrated in (90) and (91), two descriptions of caused change of location using verbs of transport. (90)

nee=sa

lye-p-o’

who=dem tport.live-PFV-2S.PAT

‘Who took you?’ [AER] (91)

lapij tyijpe jola-f’i-pa

pe-pa

el

pilyu’

tport.small-PFV.SG rock there sit-up.on-PFV.SG DET

‘He took a rock to where he had put the coyul.’ [ ael3afo ] In the first example, the second person singular undergoer participant is marked as a non-agentive argument on the verb, while in the second, the third person singular undergoer (the rock) is not marked. Examples (92) and (93) show simple predicates used to describe events of caused change of position and caused change of state. (92)

lamats’ lan-pame’

ñoy-p-ola’

lay-PFV-3P.PAT earth

DET.PL-yam

‘She laid the yams on the ground.’ [ ACM AMK.42 ] (93)

iya=sa

jas-p-ola’

lan-je’e

1S.AGT=DEM tear-PFV-3P.PAT DET.PL-paper

‘I tore the papers.’ [AER] Simple predicates of caused change include those formed with monovalent roots (that can populate the spontaneous change construction) derived with causative morphology, as in the next three examples of change of location (94) and (95), and change of state (96). (94) a. iya’

lay-ñemats’ jlek’ lay-tyaata jl-may-’ee-pa

1S.AGT my-ears

when my-father 1S.PAT-go-CAUS-PFV.SG

‘I, my age when my father took me,’

MOTION, TRANSFER, AND TRANSFORMATION

68

b. jaape lay-tyaata ‘ee-pa

li-panka’

where my-father do-PFV.SG his-ranch

‘to where my father had his ranch,’ c. […] iya’

la’waata

[…] 1S.AGT girl

‘well I was just a little girl.’ [aer1panka’] (95)

tyijpe sa=ymank’ tye-’e-’me’

el

karga

there DEM=2P.AGT fall-CAUS-IPFV.PL DET cargo

‘There you will unload the cargo.’ [aer3vender] (96)

pime pay-’ee-pa plate break-CAUS-PFV.SG

‘She broke the plate.’ [jhs C/B.40] The undergoer participant in (94) has a first person referent and is marked with non-agentive morphology, while the third person singular undergoer referents in (95) and (96) are unmarked. 3.2.3 The expression of ground elements as spatial locations The expression of spatial locations as the endpoints of a change of location is optional. Ground elements may be realized as bare nouns or as nouns preceded by jaape ‘where’ or the general locative prefix maj-, as spatial nominals, such as tyijpe or lya’ ‘there’, tamagay’ ‘above’ and muja’ ‘below’, and as invoked by applicative morphology. A distributional pattern of verb and type of ground element presentation is as yet undefined. The following example was collected in response to a prompt, ‘The girl climbed up onto the branch of the tree.’ (97) a. la’wa f’aj-pa

el

‘ej

child ascend-PFV.SG DET tree

b. aytya ‘wa-duy and

maj-’ej

walk-DUR.SG LOC-tree

c. jaape li-mane el

‘ej

where its-arm DET tree

‘The child went up the tree, and was walking on the tree, on the tree branch.’ [ RS Oz.IV.26 ]

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SIMPLE PREDICATES

Two clauses were required in (97) to express the event, each with different realizations of a locative participant. In the first clause, the ground phrase ‘the tree’ is unmarked. In the second clause, ‘tree’ is preceded by the prefix maj-, with general spatial semantics of ‘at, on, in, to’. The adverb jaape ‘where’ is often recruited for use in a ground phrase, as in (c). Spatial nominals such as tamagay’ ‘above’ and muja ‘below’ are not preceded by additional locative morphology, as in (98). (98) a. el pelota f’aj-pa det ball

tamagay

ascend-pfv.sg above

‘The ball went up (ascended to above)’ b. waytya pang-pa simanne and

sit-PFV.SG alone

‘and stopped (sat) by itself.’ [jhsMVBP.14] And finally, a ground can be signaled with applicative morphology, usually in combination with a lexical mention of the locative referent. In (99), the adverb jaape ‘where’ serves as the antecedent to the applicative. (99)

poy-pa

Lafelay’ may-pa

exit-PFV.SG

jaape pa’-ko-pa

el

‘ora

go-PFV.SG where come-APPL-PFV.SG DET sun

‘He left Río Seco and went east (where the sun comes from).’ [apmCQG 13] This concludes the description of how ground elements are expressed as spatial locations. 3.3 Endpoints and end-states of change A change event was characterized earlier as one in which an undergoer participant moves (or is moved) to a new location, shifts (or is shifted) to a new position, or transforms (or is transformed) to a new state. The primary goal of this section is to determine if and what the simple predicate construction tells us about the new location (3.3.1), new position (3.3.2), or new state (3.3.3). 3.3.1 In change of location Complex away/toward distinctions are typical of expressions of motion in Mesoamerica. Taxonomies based on direction, point, and region are found in work on Mayan languages such as Tzotzil (Haviland 1991), Acatec (Zavala 1992), and Jacaltec (Craig 1979, Grinevald 2004). Resources used to express motion events include systems of directionals, as in Cora and Huichol (UtoAztecan) and in many Mayan languages, and the use of affixes for location,

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MOTION, TRANSFER, AND TRANSFORMATION

position, and qualities of the Theme or Goal, often based on body parts, as in Totonac (Totonac-Tepehua) and Tarascan (Tarascan) (all Suárez 1983). Yucatec (Mayan) expresses motion as a change of state into a new position (Lucy 1994). In Zapotec and Mixtec languages (Otomanguean) and in Huave (Huave), contrasts are based on whether the speaker is moving away from or toward deictic center, moving away from or toward a home or ‘base’, and oneway vs. round-trip vs. point-oriented motion (Kuiper & Merrifield 1975, Macaulay 1982, Suárez 1983). In Chontal, there seems to be a subtle distinction between leaving ‘home’ vs. leaving elsewhere, and the choice among ‘coming’ and ‘going’ predicates reflects the speaker’s understanding of where a person in motion belongs. That is, lexical selection is in part determined a) by where a person in motion comes from (where is his or her home) and b) by extension, on the expectation that the person will or will not stay at the endpoint of motion. With respect to endpoint specification, deictic motion verbs orient to either the Source (starting point) or Goal (final point), while manner of motion verbs and transport verbs orient to neither and require a path verb, associated motion morphology and/or a lexical locative to establish an endpoint. Table 19 is repeated here as Table 22. Table 22. Endpoint orientation of deictic notional motion verbs Orientation to SOURCE ay- ‘depart away’ pa’- ‘depart toward’ poy- ‘exit’ mu- ‘sink’ so-, cho- ‘rise’

Orientation to GOAL may- ‘go’ pa’- ‘come’ f’aj- ‘ascend’ tsee- ‘go and return’ chuf- ‘enter’

Orientation to neither ‘wa- ‘walk’ ch’angay- ‘follow’ pe- ‘transport small’ k’e- ‘transport water’ tay- ‘transport on back’

This section begins by focusing on various construals of motion and the implications for the specification of endpoints in 3.3.1.1. The characterization of change of location endpoints is then explored by examining motion event depiction in two types of data: in responses to a stimulus task, in 3.3.1.2, and in narrative text, in 3.3.1.3. 3.3.1.1 Construals of motion and implications for endpoints We first need to consider exactly what type of motion is encoded by simple predicates of motion or change of location in Chontal. Using cross-linguistic data collected through collaborative effort at the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Levinson and Wilkins (2006: 531-533) propose a typology of at least three types of ‘motion’, two of which are instantiated by Chontal predicates of change of location. The first type of motion is translocational, that is, “durative displacement of the figure along a continuous trajectory in

SIMPLE PREDICATES

71

time”. This is a useful way to describe change events with may- ‘go’, pa’- in the sense of ‘come’, f’aj- ‘ascend’, and tsee- ‘go and return’. In addition, there is a non-durative change of location. Motion can be conceived of as a change of location that does not denote a continuous path over time. In this type, a figure is at Source, and then not at Source; or is not at Goal, and then at Goal. In effect, there is no path; there is only a change that implies a path. This type of motion was discussed as the boundary-crossing type of path verbs (Slobin 1997:441) in 1.5.3, and it has been identified as a major motion type in Japanese (Kita 1999) and Yukatek Mayan (Bohnemeyer 1997). In Chontal, departure verbs of ay- ‘depart away’, pa’- in the sense of ‘depart toward’, poy- ‘exit’, mu- ‘sink’ and so-, cho- ‘rise’ seem to encode only a change of location. 3.3.1.2 Endpoints and directions, insights from stimulus data To sort this out for change of location along the horizontal axis, experimental data were collected with the same elicitation tool as the Wilkins & Hill (1995) study on COME and GO events, and the facts of Chontal are compared to their findings. As with the languages in their study, it was found that the primary GO verb in Chontal can occur as a non-deictic TRAVEL verb; that there is an extensive repertoire of ways to depict motion toward deictic center; and that COME and GO predicates occur within a multi-level subsystem that encodes ‘fact of motion’ in roots, derivational morphology, and inflectional morphology. The results presented here are primarily from data collected using a standardized tool, the Come and Go Questionnaire, developed by Wilkins (1993). The tool comprises 20 diagrams of motion scenes that feature a figure in motion along a path oriented to one or more ground elements. The stimulus was designed to probe the range of predicate use by varying the relationships between components, in particular to test oppositions. Each researcher decides the culturally-appropriate way in which to present or enact the scenes. Methods. These scenes were presented to a total of eight consultants (one group of six speakers, and a second group of two speakers), and responses were reviewed and discussed with a ninth consultant during transcription. The scenes were presented as maps that located communities immediately surrounding the site of each elicitation session (conducted in Río Seco and San Pedro Huamelula, respectively, both Chontal-speaking communities near the Pacific coast of Oaxaca state in southern Mexico). The various communities were represented by stones or bricks labeled with place-name cards written in Chontal, and the scenes were presented and described through conversational interaction, sometimes enacted by the researcher, sometimes by designating one of the speakers

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MOTION, TRANSFER, AND TRANSFORMATION

as the figure, and sometimes by using non-present people, objects, animals or vehicles as the figure.22 Results. The scenes primarily represent motions of ‘coming’, ‘going’ and ‘passing’, and the verbs used to describe them were various forms based on may- ‘go’, pa’- ‘come, depart toward’, ay- ‘go, depart away’, poy- ‘exit’, kway‘arrive’, and ñaño- ‘pass’. The ‘arrive’ verb is a stative root that only implies previous change and, underived, has no deixis. The ‘pass’ verb is a complex predicate of the type to be discussed in Chapter 5, treated here as a lexical stem. As a general impression, the most striking results were the pervasive presence of may- ‘go’, a form of which was used in some form to describe nearly all the scenes, and the division of labor between pa’- ‘come’ and kway- ‘arrive’. The verb may- ‘go’ was only NOT used, even optionally, to describe motion from an unanchored start point that ends at deictic center or to describe a bounded circular path. Every other scene could be expressed with a form of may-. Meanwhile, pa’- ‘come, depart toward’ was ONLY used to describe two scenes of motion, both from an anchored start point toward (but not all the way to) deictic center. Predicates with kway- ‘arrive’ described motion that reached deictic center. Let’s look at this in more detail, using DC as deictic center, S as Source or starting location, G as Goal or ending location, and VIA as an intermediate location.

• • • • • • • • • • •

May-pa (go-PFV) was used to describe motion: from DC to G from DC toward G from DC (after other verbs of departure or positioning) from VIA to a non-DC G from S to G, even though G was closer to DC than was S from S passing DC (with ñaño- ‘pass’ or a manner verb) passing DC, unanchored S (after manner verbs, i.e. ‘flew’) in a diagonal path ‘north’ of DC to a G ‘southeast’ of DC in a diagonal path ‘southwest’ of DC toward ‘northeast’ from S toward DC [as may-uu-pa (go-CLOC-PFV)]23 from S to VIA toward DC [as may-uu-pa (go-CLOC-PFV)]

22 The first thing each group did was to rearrange the map, adjusting distances and angles between towns, and orienting the top of the map toward the south in Río Seco and toward the east in Huamelula. 23

The cislocative CLOC is a morpheme that associates a subevent of ‘coming’ to the main verb. See Chapter 4 for discussion.

SIMPLE PREDICATES

• •

Pa’-pa (come-PFV) was used to describe motion: from S toward DC from S to VIA toward DC

• • • •

Kway-’ma (arrive-IPFV) was used to describe motion: to DC, unanchored S from S to DC from S to VIA toward DC from S toward DC [as maa kway-way-pa (NEG arrive-VEN-PFV)]24

73

What we see is that may- ‘go, travel’ can be indifferent to endpoints, used with or without an anchored Source location, and used to a Goal, toward a Goal or unanchored with respect to Goal. Meanwhile, both scenes described with pa’- ‘come, depart toward’ involve an anchored Source and motion toward but not to a Goal. Unfortunately, no scenes depicted motion toward deictic center from an unanchored Source, so this combination remains untested. And finally, predications with kway- ‘arrive’ did not require an anchored Source but did require motion all the way to a Goal, whether an intermediate location or deictic center. This is made explicit in the negative example, maa kway-way-pa ‘it didn’t arrive’, for motion toward but not to Goal. No speaker used ay-pa (depart away-PFV) to describe any scene. When prompted for an explicit description of the departure segment, all speakers chose poy-pa (exit-PFV). Evidence from discourse, presented in the following subsection, will suggest that ay- may have an element of purpose or immediacy that did not lend itself to the hypothetical events depicted during elicitation. In addition, time and time again in elicitation sessions (with the Wilkins (1993) Come and Go questionnaire and with other tools), consultants had to be prompted to include a description of the departure segment. One enlightening and unexpected result of the first elicitation session was the consistent and at first baffling use of ay-gu-pa (depart-CLOC-PFV) ‘come and go again’, instead of a simpler GO predicate to begin what were clearly scenes of motion away with deictic center as the starting point. I realized the speakers were positioning me, as an outsider or person who ‘comes in order to go’ from whatever start point. When asked for the same scene using one of them as the person who came or went, or when San Pedro Huamelula was the start point (always my home base while in the field), the ay-gu-pa predicate was not used.

24 The venitive VEN is a morpheme that associates a subevent of ‘come and do’ to the main verb. See Chapter 4 for discussion.

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MOTION, TRANSFER, AND TRANSFORMATION

Impressions from stimulus data indicate that the Source or start point of motion is less relevant and most likely to be backgrounded or implied, while the Goal or end point is more likely to influence lexical choice. In terms of functional load, the verb may- ‘go’ is most versatile: may- predicates are indifferent to anchored endpoints and can be used to describe motion away, motion past, and even motion toward. Meanwhile, the COME function is shared by three verbs. The distribution of pa’- ‘come’ predicates and kway- ‘arrive’ predicates is determined by the difference of TOWARD vs. TO an end point. If the undergoer is not expected to stay after arrival, a speaker may use the round trip verb ay-gu- ‘come and go again’, rather than kway-. Tsee-pa (go and return-PFV) was used to describe round trips that started and ended at deictic center, and aygu-pa (depart-CLOC-PFV) was used for round trips that involved deictic center as the VIA location. 3.3.1.3 Endpoints and directions, insights from narrative data. The following texts introduce some of the discourse distribution patterns of simple predicates of change of location. The first excerpt focuses especially on the different types of motion depicted by the common come and go verbs, and the second sorts through the many resources for expressing exit, depart away, and go. 3.3.1.3.1 Text: Farming practices This excerpt describes the planting of corn. There are four events of going and coming: in (c) and (d), in (f), in (g), and in (j) and (k). All are expressed with may- ‘go’ and pa’- ‘come’. The speaker could have chosen to relate these motion events with the verb tsee- ‘go and return’, as the initial and final endpoints of each motion are the same point. Instead, she accents each leg of the cyclical trajectory in separate clauses, which brings the difference between the two verbs into striking contrast. The patterns of inflection for both verbs and the incorporation of an associated motion subevent in the ‘coming’ verbs demonstrate that the verb may- ‘go’ encodes translational or continuous motion, while the verb pa’- ‘come’, as used here, depicts a boundary-crossing or state change type of change of location. (100)a. tyi=sa=ge

pu-’ma

sa

pu-’ma

sa

lamats’

that=DEM=person dig-IPFV.SG DEM dig-IPFV.SG DEM earth

‘That guy will dig and dig the earth,’ b. tyej-’mi-’ma sa

fane l-a’wa-kosak’

fall-in-IPFV.SG DEM three DET-DIM-corn

‘and he’ll trickle three kernels of corn into the holes.’

SIMPLE PREDICATES c. may-’ma sa

hasta jaape tamagay-go-s-pa

go-IPFV.SG DEM until where finish-APPL-AND-PFV.SG

‘He goes off to the far end of the field,’ d. joypa pa’-yuu-wa

sa

already come-CLOC-PROG.SG DEM

‘and then returning.’ e. tonj ‘ñi cha=sa=‘le as

‘ee-’ma

just now=DEM=thing do-IPFV.SG

‘That’s all there is to it.’ f. may-’ma pa’-yuu-pa go-IPFV.SG come-CLOC-PFV.SG

‘He goes, he comes back,’ g. may-’ma pa’-kom-pa go-IPFV.SG come-ITR-PFV.SG

‘he goes, he comes back again,’ sa

h. poy-ya

l-a’wayf’a

exit-STAT1.SG DEM new.growth

‘until the seedlings sprout.’ sa

i. poy-pa

la’wayf’a miyañi’ma

exit-PFV.SG DEM new.growth appear-IPFV.SG

chasa

surcos

sa

‘eepa

now

furrows

DEM

do-PFV.SG

‘By the time the seedlings emerge, it’s as if he made furrows.’ j. entonse tonj, may-gom-’ma sa then

so

fa’a

go-ITR-IPFV.SG DEM here

‘So then he goes once more on this side,’ k. pa’-kom-pa

tyitya lado

come-ITR-PFV.SG that

side

‘and comes back again on that side’

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MOTION, TRANSFER, AND TRANSFORMATION

76

l. para sa

ñuy-yuy

sage=l surco

so.that DEM flatten-DUR.SG 3S=DET furrow

‘to flatten the surface of the furrow’ m. pero kon li-puntajmachete but

with his-farm.tool

‘but with his sharp-bladed tool.’ [aer4ajutl] Imperfective aspect characterizes the perspective of each ‘going’ clause, while the corresponding ‘coming’ clauses are inflected with progressive aspect, to highlight the smooth momentum of the return trip in (d), and with perfective aspect in (f), (j), and (k), to signal the punctual change of location. Further evidence of the state change quality of pa’- ‘come’ is seen in the incorporation of the cislocative –yuu in (d) and (f). In Chapter 4 it will be shown that associated motion morphology adds a subevent of deictic motion to the event of the main verb; here, the punctual departure toward the deictic center is in effect given a deictic path through cislocative derivation. In a rather lovely bit of verbal artistry, the speaker shapes the narrative timeline with nuanced inflections of poy- ‘exit’. An attributive state in (h), literally, ‘emergent the sprouts’, is followed in (i) with ‘emerged the sprouts…’ to move the listener along in the planting season to the time when all the farmer’s comings and goings have resulted in furrows alongside rows of corn. The verb poy- ‘exit’ is discussed further in the following section. 3.3.1.3.2 Text: The lazy man25 The following text presents the beginning of a folktale. The excerpt is particularly rich with linguistic resources for depicting motion and subsequent events at the endpoints of motion. The discussion in this section only compares the different types of ‘leaving’ events, expressed with poy- ‘exit’, ay- ‘depart away’, may- ‘go’, and tsee- ‘go and return’, to establish the parameters and motivations of lexical choice among a similar set of simple predicates. The same excerpt will be examined in 4.4.1 to demonstrate the contribution of associated motion predicates in expressing motion and in the depiction of grounds as subsequent activity. The following distinctions among verb roots are illustrated. 25

Stories of ‘El Flojo’ (The Lazy Man) or ‘El Niño Flojo’ (The Lazy Boy), abound in southern Mexico as parables of right living and behavioral norms. In these folktales, the title character floats along through life, neglecting his family and depending on luck rather than effort to pull through. The trick is that sometimes, as in this particular story, el flojo is the one who lives happily ever after.

77

SIMPLE PREDICATES • • • •

poy- ‘exit’ and ay- ‘depart away’ differ in a sense of purpose or immediacy ay- ‘depart away’ depicts a punctual or state change motion event oriented to Source, while may- ‘go’ (as shown above) expresses a translational path oriented to Goal, and tsee- ‘go and return’ describes an entire trajectory from Source to Goal and back to Source

(101)a. lyakwe’ flojo naa ni man

para poy-wa

lazy REF NEG for

kwa

exit-PROG.SG say

‘The lazy man, he never leaves the house,’ jo k’incho-ta

b. jaape ay-’ma

jaape

where depart-IPFV.SG or gather.firewood-DLOC.SG where

‘he doesn’t go anywhere, not to go and fetch firewood somewhere,’ c. puro

ñaj-may-’ma

li-mejutl’

exclusively lying-down.in-IPFV.SG his-hammock

‘he just lies in his hammock.’ d. ni NEG

jaape

poy-pa

exit-PFV.SG where

‘He never went anywhere.’ e. joy-ya

naa=sa li-tyiñe mi-pa

ay-jla

sa

finish-STAT1.SG REF=DEM her-day tell-PFV.SG depart-IMP.SG DEM

‘wi-kix-ky-asta’

wa’lo-s-ki’

look-AND-IMP.MOV.SG-iguana hunt.iguana-AND-IMP.MOV.SG

‘Finally one day his wife told him go, go find some iguanas, go iguana hunting.’26 f. jaj maa=ya’

ay-’ma

huh NEG=1S.AGT depart-IPFV.SG

‘Huh, I’m not going.’ 26

Embedded conversation is a typical device in Chontal narrative discourse. There are no grammatical clues to identify transposition to conversation nor to distinguish participants in the fictive chat. Prosody and a knowledgeable native-speaker transcriptionist guide my translations.

MOTION, TRANSFER, AND TRANSFORMATION

78

g. xajko-pa

sa

li-tyiñe para ay-’ma

find-PFV.SG DEM her-day for

sa=yma’

depart-IPFV.SG DEM=2S.AGT

wa’lo-ta hunt.iguana-DLOC.SG

‘She picked her moment to tell him, you go, go and hunt iguana.’ h. ojl-min-jla’

moso

search-BENE-IMP.SG helper

‘Find yourself a helper.’ i. ojl-ko-jla’

lay-buru

search-APPL-IMP.SG my-burro

‘Find me a burro!’ j. ay-pa

sa=ya’

wa’lo-ta

depart-PFV.SG DEM=1S.AGT hunt.iguana-DLOC.SG

‘I’m off to go and hunt iguana.’ k. may-pa

naa lyegopa

li-moso.

go-PFV.SG REF take-PFV.SG his-helper

‘He went off and took his helper.’ l. kway-tya

kwa delante

lagolpana’

arrive-DLOC.SG say further.on stream

‘He arrived a little further on at the stream,’ m. kwa naa tya lasta’ say REF that iguana

‘and he says, there’s an iguana.’ n. tsee-pa

naa=sa el

moso

go.return-PFV.SG REF=DEM DET helper

‘The helper went back and forth;’ o. ‘wi-kix-pa look.at-AND-PFV.SG

‘he flushed them out (lit: he went to see),’

SIMPLE PREDICATES p. tyux-pa’

79

lan-minlye’

grab-PFV.PL DET.PL-dogs

‘and the dogs grabbed them.’ q. joypa tyige jola-f’-a already 3S

li-buru ‘ñi mu-yuu-pa

sitting-up-STAT1.SG his-burro NEG sink-CLOC-PFV.SG

‘The other man sitting on his burro, not even getting down.’ r. flojo naa sage mero lazy REF 3S

flojo

absolutely lazy

‘Lazy, he’s just plain lazy.’ s. joypa kway-gon-ta’

delante

already arrive-ITR-DLOC.PL further.on

‘When they arrived again a little further on,’ t. kwa naa tya lasta’ say REF that iguana

‘He says, there’s an iguana.’ [ael4flojo] The first lexical choice to examine is in the contrasting occurrences of clauses with poy- ‘exit’ in (a) and (d), and ay- ‘depart’ in (b), (e), (f), (g) and (j). Both verbs are Source-oriented, expressing a change of location with respect to the starting point of motion. The ‘leaving’ events with poy- either omit mention of a destination ground (a) or designate a ground with the unspecific jaape ‘where, anywhere’ (d). This verb is used throughout the corpus as ‘emerge from’ and has the sense of simply going out from within something. A predication with poy- entails no further motion, activity, or destination. Expressions with ay- ‘depart’ tell another story in that they position the undergoer as moving away from Source for a purpose. Departure event clauses in (b), (e), (g) and (j) are directly followed by descriptions of activities to be performed at a distance, such as gathering firewood or hunting iguanas. (This topic will be developed further in 4.4.1.) Ay- is also the verb used in familiar, interactional expressions such as (102) and (103). (102) jaape=yma’ ay-pa where=2S.AGT depart-PFV.SG

‘Where are you going?’

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MOTION, TRANSFER, AND TRANSFORMATION (103) ay-’me’ depart-IPFV.PL

‘Let’s go!’ Based on this evidence, the difference between the two verbs of departure is identified as one of purpose or immediacy. Two other candidate verbs to express a ‘leaving’ event are may- ‘go’ and its cyclical counterpart tsee- ‘go and return’. The first occurs in (k) as a background event between the departure of (j) and the arrival of (l), where the Goal of the ‘going’ event is identified. The second is used in (l) to emphasize the round-trip nature of the helper’s motion in retrieving iguanas in vivid contrast to the sedentary stance of the lazy man, issuing commands while seated on his horse in (q). Tsee- is oriented to Goal but used in utterances at Source, as in (104). (104)a. jaape=yma’ tsee-pa? where=2S.AGT go.return-PFV.SG

‘Where did you go?’ b. tsee-pa=ya’

para ‘ee-’ma

go.return-PFV.SG=1S.AGT for

lay-pi-ñik’

do-IPFV.SG my-LNKR-work

‘I went to do my work.’ [APM] Note the difference between (102) and (104). The cyclical verb in the latter entails that the round-trip is complete and that the undergoer has arrived back at Source. Motion event depictions in this small excerpt reflect recurrent usage patterns in the corpus of collected texts. In describing a change of location, speakers make lexical choices from the set of motion verbs to identify the direction of the change and to establish endpoints of the motion event. Derivation and inflection of non-motion roots further serve to position undergoers and events as spatially distant from the deictic center constituted in the speech event. Specific Source and Goal referents were mostly implicit in this excerpt. As will become increasingly clear, this practice is not a genre-specific artifact of the familiar folktale. What we’ve seen so far is that the critical information in a change of location expression consists of the direction of change and a characterization of the endpoint of change. The endpoint can be lexicalized in the verbal root, and the Goal of a ‘leaving’ event is often in fact another event, spatially positioned with derivational and inflectional morphology. To summarize, to define a directional path as ‘toward’ or ‘away from’, one must of course identify the point of reference. My claims here are that Chontal motion predicates select only one important terminus of motion: they are ei-

SIMPLE PREDICATES

81

ther Source-oriented, as ‘change of location with respect to the starting point’, or they are Goal-oriented, as ‘change of location with respect to the destination or ending point’. These intuitive claims, based on translation of texts and knowledge of the language, are surprisingly difficult to prove with narrative text data in the existing corpus. The obvious process would be to find all instances of motion events and to identify the semantic role of lexicalized locative participants as Source or Goal. However, I found very few tokens of lexicalized Source and Goal participants. In short, the combined analysis of responses to stimulus data together with this examination of discourse data was needed to help me prove what speakers seem to know about simple predicates of change of location. 3.3.2 In change of position Simply stated, the endpoint of a change of position event is the posture or configuration lexicalized in the verb root, and this is often expressed with respect to a lexical ground. The interpretation of endpoint varies: if the verb depicts a postural, then the endpoint is identified in the verb root, as in (105)b, and an optional location may be specified. (105)a. kontaj-pa

cha=sa

lay-’mijlchi

be.weighted-PFV.SG now=DEM my-feet

‘Suddenly my lower limbs were so heavy,’ b. maa pangja iya’ NEG

kas-’ma

be.able 1S.AGT stand-IPFV.SG

‘that I couldn’t stand up.’ [rg8susto] On the other hand, if the verb depicts a configuration, the new position is interpreted as the result of the manner of action expressed by the verb. Both types of endpoints are illustrated in (106). (106)a. pang-pa=yma’

lamats’

sit-PFV.SG=2S.AGT earth

‘You sat down on the ground,’ b. k’uch’-’e-m-pa

ima’

lo-’mijlchi

curled-CAUS-X-PFV.SG 2S.AGT your-feet

‘and curled your legs (under you).’ [RS] In the first clause, the endpoint is a sitting posture, and in the second, the legs were curled into a resulting configuration.

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The bivalent verb ñoy- ‘lay’ is illustrated with and without a lexical ground. Example (107) describes the work of a cantor ‘singer’, during a ritual for the dead. (107)a. l-ay-guy

el

kwerpo

anim-lower-DUR.SG DET body

‘He lowers the body,’ b. ñoy-yuy

lamats’

lay-DUR.SG earth

‘laying it on the ground.’ [rg9cantor] The final example shows an event of caused change of position without a ground element. (108) ñoy-ña-’ma

sa=yma’

lajl-kanaga

lay-TERM-IPFV.SG DEM=2S.AGT our-bed

‘And you will lay out our bed.’ [rg5enams2] The posture or configuration lexicalized in the verb root depicts the endpoint of a change of position, which may or may not be expressed with respect to a lexical ground. 3.3.3 In change of state Simple predicates of change of state identify the target state in one of two ways. The new state can be identified in the verbal root, and it can be implied by the manner of action depicted by the verb. There is no evidence for a resultative construction similar to the English construction she hammered the metal flat. First, the verb root can identify the end-state of change. Aspectual inflection then indicates if the change is potential, in process, or complete. The examples below illustrate the effect of aspectual reference with different perspectives on the change of state from ‘life’ to ‘death’. In (109), imperfective aspect describes the change as potential. (109) injko

may-go-’m-onga’

jo ma-’m-onga’

who.knows go-APPL-IPFV-1P.PAT or die-IPFV-1P.PAT

‘Who knows if we will survive or we’ll die.’ [PSG]

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SIMPLE PREDICATES

The same verb, expressed with durative inflection, describes an ongoing situation. The narrative excerpt in (110) describes a time when the river has dried up, so fresh water is expensive to buy, and the people are dying. (110)a. ma-g-ilya’

la’way’

die-DUR-3P.PAT children

‘The children are dying,’ b. ma-g-ilya’

lan-...

lyityojpola’ lansanyu’

die-DUR-3P.PAT DET.PL... elderly

people

lan-’welo

lam-biida’

DET.PL-grandfather

DET.PL-grandmother

‘the… the old folks are dying, the old men, the old women.’ [rg2flojo] And finally, in a narrative excerpt from reflections on years as a traveling merchant, the change of state is expressed as complete. (111)a. joypa ma-na-p-ola’, already die-TERM-PFV-3P.PAT

‘Now they’ve all died, b. maa jojl-g-ojlenna’, NEG

exist-APPL-STAT1.PL

‘they’re not around anymore (lit: they don’t exist),’ c. ma-na-p-ola’

pijlki pijlki sajne jaane sa=ya’

die-TERM-PFV-3P.PAT all

all

3P

whom DEM=1S.AGT

jaane

sa=ya’

lyopa

whom

DEM=1S.AGT

travel-PFV.SG highlands

lijwalay,’

‘absolutely everyone that I, that I went to the highlands with, is dead.’ d. joypa ma-na-p-ola’ already die-TERM-PFV-3P.PAT

‘They have all died.’ [aer3vender] A change of state verb inflected with perfective aspect often gives a stative reading. For example, the verb manapola’ in (111) expresses ‘they died’, ‘they have died’, and ‘they are dead’.

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84

There is a second way to depict a target state. The end-state of a change of state event can be implied by the manner of action of the verb. The final lines of (100) above provide an example. (100)l.’ para sa

sage=l surco

ñuy-yuy

so.that DEM flatten-DUR.SG 3S=DET furrow

‘to flatten the surface of the furrow’ m. pero kon li-puntajmachete but

with his-farm.tool

‘but with his sharp-bladed tool.’ The end-state of ‘flat, smooth’ is implied by the manner of the action of the verb. There is no evidence for a resultative construction in Chontal. A comment on the result state can be added in a predicate adjective clause, as in (112). (112)a. joypa jujl-pa

lekajl

already get.dry-PFV.SG bone

‘The bone dried out,’ b. ityuwa xki-ñu-wa alone

split-across:ITVR2-PROG.SG

‘so it’s splitting by itself.’ c. pelekej brittle

‘It’s brittle.’ [AER C/B.17] In (112), there are two descriptions of change of state, dried out and splitting. The result state of the first change is depicted in (112)c as brittle. The changed quality can be expressed outside the verb in ‘become’ constructions. These predications use the verb ‘i- ‘become’, typically followed by an adjective adopted from Spanish, as in (113). (113) ‘i-p-onga’

alegre

become-PFV-1P.PAT happy

‘We rejoiced (became happy).’ [ RS comida] When used by itself, the predicate takes on a sense of ‘get well’ or ‘recover’, as in (114).

SIMPLE PREDICATES

85

(114) ‘i-ña-p-o’ become-TERM-PFV-2S.PAT

‘You finally recovered (became well).’ [APM] Simple predicates of change do not occur in the ‘become’ construction, as they encode or imply the changed quality lexically in the verb. In summary, the degree to which endpoints and endstates are specified by a simple predicate of change differs according to the type of change. A motion verb may be oriented to a location, either Source or Goal. This locative participant may or may not be lexicalized in the construction and may not even be identifiable from surrounding discourse (i.e. he left.) In addition, the new location or endpoint of the change of location event may be specified negatively, as a departure event would simply situate the undergoer participant as ‘not here’. The terminus points of change of position and change of state may be identified in the verbal root, may be implied by the manner of action, or may be expressed in adjectival predications. 3.4 Path elaboration and trajectory of change To elaborate a path means to describe the trajectory of motion as something more than a single linear vector, by giving details of the path shape or by encoding more than one segment of the path. These two strategies are examined in this section in turn. 3.4.1 Trajectory in the verb root As was shown in 3.3, there is only one simple predicate that describes a non-linear motion vector, tsee- ‘go and return’, with allomorphs see- and chee-. The verb is identified as oriented to the Goal or ‘away’ terminus because it is that endpoint which can be lexicalized as the ground of the motion event. However, in terms of interaction, the utterance is anchored at the Source location, to describe a trajectory to Goal and back again. This verb occurs frequently in narratives about past travels, as in (115). Note the initial use of may- ‘go’ in (c), to describe an open-ended departure with the starting point as lexicalized ground. This contrasts with round-trip descriptions in (d), (e), and (f), each of which name a Goal location. (115)a. maa iya’ NEG

sin-k’e-pa

1S.AGT experience-CAUS-PFV.SG

‘I never got used to it,’ b. jaa’le sa=ya’

pase-pa,

which DEM=1S.AGT do-PFV.SG

‘so what I did was,’

MOTION, TRANSFER, AND TRANSFORMATION

86

c. may-ña-pa

iya’

sa

lijeda,

go-TERM-PFV.SG 1S.AGT DEM town

‘I left the village.’ sa=ya’

d. tsee-na-pa

lijwalay’,

go.return-TERM-PFV.SG DEM=1S.AGT highlands

‘I went to the highlands.’ sa=ya’,

e. see-na-pa

go.return-TERM-PFV.SG DEM=1S.AGT

lijwalay’ iya’,

SantoTomás iya’,

highlands 1S.AGT



1S.AGT

‘I went away, I was in the highlands, in Santo Tomás,’ sa=ya’

f. see-na-pa

Piña,

go.return-TERM-PFV.SG DEM=1S.AGT

‘I went to Piña,’ g. tyijpe sa=ya’

jaape sa=ya’

lapojlñolay’

there DEM=1S.AGT where DEM=1S.AGT highlanders

‘I was there, where the highlanders are, I was.’ [aer1panka’] Through repeated elaborations of trajectory with the round-trip verb tsee-, the speaker crafts a dynamic tale of her years as a traveling merchant. The next example uses iterative derivation to depict repeated round trips. In this excerpt from a folktale, a woman laments the lack of water and reports the failed attempts of experts to find a new source. (116)a. pero por más jwata but

chee-pa

el

sabyu

for more although go.return-PFV.SG DET wiseman

‘But even though an expert went (to look for water),’ b. ch-om-pa

el

sabyu

go.return-ITR-PFV.SG DET wiseman

‘and another expert went,’ c. ch-om-pa

el

sabyu

go.return-ITR-PFV.SG DET wiseman

‘and another expert went,’

SIMPLE PREDICATES d. tres sabyu

87

chee-pa,

three wiseman go.return-PFV.SG

‘(in all) three experts went,’ e. pero maa chajko-’me’ may’wa laja’ but

NEG

find-IPFV.PL my-child water

‘but my child, they aren’t finding any water.’ [rg2flojo] Although no ground elements are mentioned in (116), use of the trajectory verb tsee- highlights the individual journeys: three times an expert was sent out to find water, and the expert returned empty-handed each time. The final example is from another folktale involving animals who eat up the crops in a farmer’s field, in (117). The trajectory verb is inflected with durative aspect to depict habitual trips by the rabbit. (117)a. la’wafo’ naa=sa chee-duy DIM-rabbit REF=DEM

go.return-DUR.SG

‘The little rabbit went (everyday),’ b. pero maa te-juy but

NEG

kasi’

eat-DUR.SG chili

‘but he didn’t eat any chili.’ [rg4afo] The verb root tsee- ‘go and return’ encodes a round-trip trajectory from Source to Goal and back to Source. 3.4.2 Perspectives from framing type: The Frog Story A complex trajectory can also be expressed by explicit mention of various segments of the path. As was introduced in 1.5.3, a satellite-framed language such as English would accomplish this through a single verb and a series of path-ground elements, as in she ran up the stairs through the door and into the kitchen, setting a dynamic scene of motion from ground to ground. A verbframed language is more likely to encode each path segment with a separate verb-ground phrase and to give more detail of the static scene at the endpoint. To repeat Slobin’s (1996:84) proposal, • •

an S-language is likely to assert trajectory and imply end-state a V-language is likely to assert end-state and imply trajectory

Slobin based some of his proposal on cross-linguistic analysis of narratives elicited using a wordless picture storybook about a boy and his dog looking for

MOTION, TRANSFER, AND TRANSFORMATION

88

a lost pet frog, The Frog Story (Mayer 1969). One scene in particular has proven fruitful for comparing motion event segmentation across languages. In this scene, a deer, with the boy in its antlers, runs to the edge of a cliff, plants its feet, and throws the boy into the river below. The boy’s dog is shown dashing alongside, barking madly, and it too falls into the river. Slobin (1997:448) identifies four potential event components in this scene: 1. 2. 3. 4.

change of location: deer moves, runs, arrives at cliff negative change of location: deer stops at cliff caused change of location: deer throws boy, makes boy/dog fall change of location: boy/dog fall into water

His prediction is that: • •

an S-language is likely to encode at least three components a V-language is likely to encode at least two components

Analysis of frog story narratives from Chontal speakers showed that speakers used separate simple predicates to describe the motion events (verbframed approach), but that they described three of the four event components (typical of a satellite-framed approach). The big difference among speakers was in the number of explicit ground elements and in the types of motion verbs selected. The frog story task was performed with three speakers (two individuals and one group). As shown in Table 23, no speaker mentioned the second event component,27 but every speaker described the other three events. Table 23. Description of event components in a ‘frog story’ scene Segment 1. deer moves to cliff 2. deer stops at cliff 3. deer throws boy/ makes boy/dog fall 4. boy and dog fall into water

AER

EER

RS

x

x

x

x x

x x

x x

Two of these descriptions are presented below. The first speaker uses a manner verb to express event 1 in (118)a, proceeds immediately to the caused motion of event 3 in (118)b, and follows with the spontaneous motion of event 4 in (118)c. The result of the dog’s fall in (118)e gives detail of its physical disposition in the water. All endpoints are implied; not one lexical ground is 27 No speaker mentioned the deer’s stopping, but two of the three speakers described the mental state of the deer (as wanting to stomp on the boy).

89

SIMPLE PREDICATES

expressed as the endpoint of a verb. Instead, the speaker describes what the boy and dog are doing and feeling, and remarks on the spatial details of the deer’s antlers. (118)a. ñulyi el one

DET

venado joypa ñulye-pa deer

pero la’wa

already run-PFV.SG but

child

jola-f’-a sitting-up-STAT1.SG

‘A deer ran with the child on its head (sitting above).’ b. la’wa-mulyi joypa cha=sa DIM-boy

tye-’e-pa

already now=DEM fall-CAUS-PFV.SG

‘Now it dropped the little boy (caused him to fall).’ c. joypa tye-pa

la’wa-mulyi ‘wa-kay’

already fall-PFV.SG DIM-boy

walk-DUR.PL

‘ee-na-pa-y-ñe’wa-’mijl’ch-eña’wa-’mane do-TERM-PFV-his-DIM-feet-DIM-hand

‘The little boy fell, flailing his little feet and hands.’ d. ojl-ko-duy

sa

ojl-ko-duy

lapempe

search-APPL-DUR.SG DEM search-APPL-DUR.SG frog

‘He’s searching, he’s looking for the frog.’ e. li-ña’wa-milya’ manne joypa his-DIM-dog

same

already

tya-ng-may-ña-pa on.back-edge-down.in-TERM-PFV.SG

‘The little dog also has fallen flat on its back.’ f. joypa xoj-ta already be.tired-DLOC.SG

‘It’s tired.’ g. el DET

venado li-’horqueta, deer

li-xpantalek’

li-cuerno

its-forked.branch its-forked.branch its-horn

‘The deer, its horns are like a forked branch (produced first in Spanish and then in Chontal).’ [AER.frog]

MOTION, TRANSFER, AND TRANSFORMATION

90

In summary, the first speaker asserted motion but implied trajectory and endpoints (which resembles neither type of framing). However, she used separate verbs and gave details of the static scene and of the states of mind of the participants (like V-framing). The second speaker asserted both trajectory and endpoints, chiefly by lexicalizing every ground element. She described each event segment with a different simple predicate (like V-framing), and described the emotional state of boy and deer (like V-framing). Events 1 and 3 are described with take and throw instead of run (with) and drop, and each event description finishes at an endpoint (the river, the water, or there). The description of the dog’s fall in (119)h again gives rich detail of its physical disposition in the water. (119)a. fa’a sa here DEM

‘Here we are.’ b. pang-na-pa

jaape li-jwaj el

venado la’wa-mulyi

sit-TERM-PFV.SG where his-head DET deer

DIM-boy

‘The little boy sat on the deer’s head.’ c. may-’ee-p-ola’

sa

maj-pana’ aytya li-ñe’wa-milya’

go-CAUS-PFV-3P.PAT DEM LOC-river

and

his-DIM-dog

‘It took him and his dog to the river.’ d. may-’ee-p-ola’

sa

jaape el

pana’

go-CAUS-PFV-3P.PAT DEM where DET river

‘It took them to the river.’ e. tyijpe sa

jwix-ko-m-pa

sa

jaage mulyi

there DEM throw-APPL-X-PFV.SG DEM which boy

may-’ee-p-ola’

jaape=l

go-CAUS-PFV-3P.PAT

where=DET river

pana’

‘There it threw him, that boy, it took them to the river.’ f. jwix-ko-p-ola’

dentro laja’ jaage sa

dentro laja’

throw-APPL-PFV-3P.PAT inside water which DEM inside water

‘It threw them into the water, that one, into the water.’ g. entonces la’wa-mulyi hasta lya tye-na-pa then

DIM-boy

until there fall-TERM-PFV.SG

‘Then the little boy fell to there.’

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SIMPLE PREDICATES

h. la’wa-milya kas-ko-m-p-i-jwaj DIM-dog

dentro laja’

stand-APPL-X-PFV-his-head inside water

‘The little dog went head-first (stood on head) into the water.’ i. el DET

venado jwe xajko-’ma la’wa-mulyi para naa=sa deer

want find-IPFV.SG DIM-boy

pes-k’oy-’ma

hasta lamats’

force-inside-IPFV.SG

until earth

for

REF=DEM

‘The deer wants to find the little boy, to push him into the ground.’ j. la’wa-mulyi poy-’ña-wa, DIM-boy

paychu-gi,

call-TERM-PROG.SG become.afraid-DUR.SG

‘The little boy is crying out, he is afraid.’ k. la’wa-milya’ kas-ko-m-p-i-jwaj DIM-dog

stand-APPL-X-PFV-his-head

‘The little dog went head-first (stood on head).’ [EER.frog] This sample of narrative data has shown that, in motion descriptions with simple predicates, Chontal rhetorical style follows the predictions for V-languages. Speakers assert trajectory or at least motion, but as a series of individual motion events and not as a multi-segmented dynamic path. Endpoints are asserted as well, sometimes as spatial locations but consistently as the loci of other activities or emotional states. We will see the ‘endpoint as subsequent activity’ function highlighted again in the analysis of a folktale in Chapter 4. 3.5 Means of change The term ‘means’ is used here because verbs in this category express the manner of the change as well as the manner of the action that causes the change. The concept of ‘means’ is sufficiently precise for this study because the goal is to examine patterns of change verb and endpoint, no matter what type of manner is lexicalized in the verb. ‘Manner’ is a difficult concept to delimit and operationalize, despite worthy efforts to plumb its murky depths. While recognizing the complexity of segmenting a motion event into motion and manner components as an issue of “conceptual separability” (2000:36-37), Talmy differentiates co-events of manner and cause as, roughly, ‘what the figure does’ versus ‘what the Agent does to the figure’. In a motion event, this is illustrated with the following English examples (2000:229-230).

MOTION, TRANSFER, AND TRANSFORMATION

92 (120)

The pen rolled across the table.

(121)

The pen blew across the table.

The verb rolled in (120) conflates a manner co-event because it is about the motor pattern of the figure: the pen moved across the table, rolling as it went. In contrast, blew in (121) conflates a cause co-event, because the verb describes what an external causer did to the figure: the pen moved across the table because something or someone blew on it, not …blowing as it went. Pens can roll, but pens cannot blow. A parallel distinction of ‘what the figure does’ vs. ‘what the Agent does to the figure’ was identified in Chontal in my examination of the linguistic encoding of object separation (O’Connor 2007). Data for this study were collected as part of the Cut and Break project at MPI-Nijmegen, using a stimulus set designed to investigate lexicalization patterns of manner of action, instrument or instrument part, manner of state change, type of object, or some combination of these (Bohnemeyer, Bowerman & Brown 2001).28 The semantic domain in Chontal comprises a three-part typology: 1) ‘break’-type predicates, also called Theme-specific, constitute a change of state class and depict the manner of change in the figure 2) ‘cut’-type predicates, also called Manner-Instrument-specific, are grouped in a delivery of force class and depict the manner of action that causes the change in the figure 3) a third type of predicate, the result state ‘apart’ class, depicts the manner of the result state of the figure In effect, all three types depict the means of change, whether the manner of state change, the manner of the cause of state change, or the manner of the result state. All three types of manner semantics are treated in this monograph as ‘means’, with more discussion of specific classes in 3.5.3 and 3.6.3. The grouping of manner of change and manner of causation as ‘means’ is a useful and relevant category in other languages of the Americas. Mithun (1999:118-126) presents the ‘means and manner’ functions of the so-called instrumental affixes found in a number of unrelated North American languages. It is easy to see why the markers were first termed ‘instrumental affixes’: they seem to name the instrument with which an action is accomplished. The Central 28

The corpus data are from 28 typologically, genetically, and areally diverse languages, including Chontal.

93

SIMPLE PREDICATES

Pomo prefixes might be translated da- ‘with the hand’, ?- ‘with the fingers’, h- ‘with a stick’, qa- ‘with the teeth’, s- ‘with the tongue´, ba- ‘with the voice’, ph- ‘with the eye or the wind’, ča- ‘with the seat or full body mass’ or ‘with a knife’, and m- ‘with heat’ or ‘from internal force’. A closer look at their ranges of use shows that the meanings of the affixes are not always as noun-like as they first appear. They often indicate not a specific instrument but a kind of motion. The prefix h-, associated with a stick above, indicates poking, jabbing, thrusting, or throwing motions, […] but if someone knocks an object off by swinging the stick instead of poking, a different prefix is used: ph-Ńóš. In fact not all uses of either h- or ph- even involve a stick. […] In the end, the functions of the prefixes often cannot be reduced to a single semantic feature; they form networks of associated meanings. (119).

As used in this study, the term means acknowledges the network of associated meanings that includes manner of change, manner of causation, and causation, and the term manner can describe either of the first two. The depiction of manner, especially with respect to the expression of the endpoint of change, is presented in the following for change of location (3.5.1), change of position (3.5.2), and change of state (3.5.3). 3.5.1 In change of location In Chontal simple predicates, manner and path are expressed with separately inflected predicates. Manner verbs depict localized motion, as in the English sentence The bird was flying. In English, a path particle is needed to supply translational motion with respect to an endpoint, as in The bird was flying to its nest. In Chontal, a path verb is needed to perform the same function. The following examples, collected in response to a questionnaire, provide descriptions of the same event and demonstrate the flexibility of constituent order. The prompt was to describe a child crawling up a rock. The first group of consultants segmented the scene into what looks like two events: a localized manner of motion event ‘crawling to/at/on the rock’ followed by a path verb of deictic motion, (122). The endpoint is specified by a spatial nominal, ‘above’. (122) xk’wajl-pa

jaape lapij tamagay’ may-pa

crawl-PFV.SG where rock above

la’wa

go-PFV.SG child

‘It crawled on the rock, the child went.’ [RS Oz.IV.23] The same prompt was described by the same group of consultants as a perhaps more unified event. In (123), the manner component is depicted with durative aspect: the child was crawling as/and it ascended, or the child ascended crawling.

94

MOTION, TRANSFER, AND TRANSFORMATION (123) xk’wajl-duy f’aj-pa

tamagay’

crawl-DUR.SG ascend-PFV.SG above

‘It crawled up.’ [RS Oz.IV.23] A second consultant provided an alternative description, (124), which flips the order of inflected predicates that appeared in (123), placing the path verb before the manner verb. (124) f’aj-pa

xk’wajl-duy

ascend-PFV.SG crawl-PFV.SG

‘It crawled up.’ [EER Oz.IV.23] These examples demonstrate two basic patterns of manner expression in motion event descriptions with simple predicates. In both types of description, manner and path are expressed with separately inflected verbs, and only the path verb encodes a change of location. The second pattern illustrated above is quite similar to the equivalent construction in Spanish, and it is not known if ‘ascended crawling’ is a calque from Spanish or is simply the typical way a verb-framed change of location would depict manner of motion. Chontal has a variety of verbal roots and stems that conflate an element of manner with semantics of localized motion. The manner component appeals to the rate of motion, to the motor pattern of the undergoer participant (often conditioned by the medium through which the motion takes place), or to the perceived purpose of the undergoer referent. The final group includes some members evaluated as verbs that may lexicalize both manner and path. Each group will be examined in turn. Verbal roots and stems such as ‘wa- and le- ‘walk’,29 tase- ‘stroll, walk for pleasure’, and nulye- ‘run’ depict the relative speed of the undergoer in motion. Predications with ‘wa- ‘walk’ are the typical responses to prompts for caminar, andar ‘walk’, but the semantic domain of this root extends far beyond ‘selfpropelled bipedal motion’, as this verb also describes the motion of the wind, of a ball, or of a boat on the water. As demonstrated above, manner of motion verbs encode localized motion. To include a ground as a new location, a path verb is recruited, as in (125). The stem ñulye- ‘run’ is treated here as a lexicalized whole even though a story could be proposed for a compound of ñu- ‘move’ plus lye- ‘walk, move’. The example here shows optional verbal morphology for a plural subject.

29

The verb le-, lye- ‘walk, move’ is less common as an intransitive predicate and for some speakers only means ‘transport someone or something animate’.

SIMPLE PREDICATES

95

(125) ñulye-jlay-pa’ la’way’ ma+la+y-pa’ tyuwaj-lado, run-PL-PFV.PL children go+PL+-PFV.PL other-side

tyan-lado

el

parke

that-side

DET

park

‘The kids ran across the park (ran, went to the other side, that side of the park).’ [ RS Oz.II.21 ] The rate or relative speed of a motion can also be expressed in Chontal with adverbials. Two Spanish loans, ligero ‘light’ and rápido ‘rapid’, are used to mean ‘quickly’. (126) may-pa=ya’

ligero

go-PFV.SG=1S.AGT quickly

‘I went quickly.’ [RS] (127) rápido ‘wa-duy quickly walk-DUR.SG

‘She walks quickly.’ [RS] Pangja is a stative form of pang- ‘live, sit’ which serves as a suppletive constant meaning ‘be able’. When reduplicated, pangja pangja means ‘slowly, carefully, quietly’. (128) pangja pangja may-yuy el

welo

slowly slowly go-DUR.SG DET grandfather

‘The old man was moving slowly.’ [EER] Several verbal roots and stems depict the motor pattern of the undergoer in motion, a factor which can be conditioned by the medium through which the undergoer is moving. This group includes predicates formed with jlo- ‘move a short distance, scoot’, s’noy- ‘swim’, sk’wajl- ‘crawl’, k’ense- ‘slither’, move in zigzags’, paylyo- ‘move in circles’, juch’- ‘rock’, and chogoy- ‘spill out’. The verbal stem k’ense- ‘oscillate, slither, zigzag’ denotes a motor pattern that goes from side to side. The predicate is therefore used to describe the motion of a snake (129), the manner of swinging one’s hips while walking, or the localized motion of leaves blowing in the wind (130).

MOTION, TRANSFER, AND TRANSFORMATION

96

(129) k’ense-d-esi

layñofajl

oscillate-DUR-RFLX.SG snake

‘The snake was slithering (moving itself from side to side).’ [RS.OzIV.20] (130) k’ense-p-ola’

lawa’

oscillate-PFV-3P.PAT wind

‘The wind made them (the leaves) flutter.’ [RS.OzIV.20] When pressed to describe a change event to a new location, speakers used a compound stem predicate for ‘enter’, with the manner added as an option. (131) layñofajl’ chuf-k’oy-pa snake

jaape li-piwa’ (k’ense-d-esi)

enter-inside-PFV.SG where his-hole (oscillate-DUR-RFLX.SG)

‘The snake entered its hole (slithering).’ [RS.OzIV.12] The verb paylyo- ‘move in circles’ describes both translational motion, as one who wanders aimlessly in circles, and the rotation of a stationary figure, as one who spins in a circle without changing location. This predicate also describes rolling one’s eyes. (132) paylyo-kuy=ma’

lo-’u,

‘wi-kuy=ma’

move.circles-DUR.SG=2S.AGT your-eye look-DUR.SG=2S.AGT

tan-lado ‘wi-kuy=ma’ that-side

tan-lado

look-DUR.SG=2S.AGT that-side

‘You roll your eyes around, looking that way, looking that way.’ [EER.OzII.8] Interestingly, the path verb in (132) is a predicate of ‘looking’, showing that the fictive path of a gaze can serve as a translational path to a new location. Some verb stems depict motion in a manner that reflects the perceived mental state or purpose of the undergoer in motion. Talmy (2000:163) describes a similar category of co-event that describes “the speaker’s attitude toward the referent event”. In Chontal, these manner verbs include ch’angay‘follow’, wejko- ‘track’, welonso- ‘chase’, spaj- ‘sneak’, jluu- ‘escape’, jak’‘disappear’, pa’no’-’leave, abandon s.th.’, jwixko- ‘leave, abandon s.one’, and kang- ‘leave, leave for s.one’.

97

SIMPLE PREDICATES (133) welonso-pa=yank’

lam-pempe pero jluu-p-ola’

chase-PFV.PL=1P.AGT DET.PL-toads but

escape-PFV-3P.PAT

‘We chased the toads, but they got away.’ [APM] (134) ch’angay-’m-o’

iya’

hasta jaape iya’

sajko-dag-o’

follow-IPFV-2S.PAT 1S.AGT until where 1S.AGT find-SJNCT-2S.PAT

‘I will follow you until (where) I find you.’ [ael3afo] Alternatively, a subset of these verbs could be analyzed as conflating both manner and path. Özçalışkan & Slobin (2000:559-60) label verbs in English (e.g. chase, escape) and in Turkish (e.g. tirman ‘climb up’ vs. çik ‘ascend’) as manner-path, and Noonan (2003:218) includes chase, escape, and fall as manner-path verbs in Chantyal. This remains to be tested in Chontal. 3.5.2 In change of position Like a change of location, a change of position is often expressed with respect to an external location or ground. Unlike a change of location, both the means of change and the endpoint of change are part of the semantics in the verb root. In essence, a change of position represents a boundary-crossing type of change, in that the verb describes the static scene at the endpoint and implies the path of change. Configurational verbs spoy- ‘spread’ and k’ane- ‘extend’ describe both the manner of action, on the part of the causer, and the end-state of disposition, on the part of the undergoer. The change events in (135) and (136) are both situated with respect to lexical grounds. (135) spoy-pa

latl’aane lakwe’ maj-mesa

spread-PFV.SG beans

man

LOC-table

‘The man spread the beans on the table.’ [tga CPOS.5] (136) k’ane-’ma=ya’

lay-pich’ale maj-lyunkwix

extend-IPFV.SG=1S.AGT my-clothes

LOC-rope

‘I hang my clothes on the line.’ [AER] An excerpt from a lesson on cooking tamales in (137) contains a series of explicit locations, expressed with jaape, maj-, and an applicative. Each of these describes the external situation of the ending configuration of ‘being nestled, arranged in a tight fit’. (137) joypa chasa spojl-’ma now

now

ima’

jaape lapixu jo maj-kubeta

nestle-IPFV.SG 2S.AGT where cookpot or LOC-bucket

MOTION, TRANSFER, AND TRANSFORMATION

98 jo

maj-tamalera,

jaape sa

or

LOC-tamale.cooker

where DEM cook-LOC-IPFV.PL

maj-ko-’me’

‘Then now you will arrange them in the cook pot or bucket or tamale cooker, wherever they are going to cook.’ [RScomida] However, not all change of position events that describe the means of change will also identify the external ground with an explicit mention. In (138), the implication is that the containers will hang at the sides of the burro, possibly from the saddle, but this must be retrieved from context. The manner of disposition, of adhering to a vertical surface or hanging, is lexicalized in the verb root. (138)a. ‘oy-f’i-’ma

sa=ya’

lay-buru

flat.arc-up.on-IPFV.SG DEM=1S.AGT my-burro

‘I will saddle my burro,’ b. pen-k’e-’ma

sa=ya’

lan-lata’

adhere-CAUS-IPFV.SG DEM=1S.AGT DET.PL-can

‘and attach the containers at the sides.’ [ael4flojo] In a change of position event, the manner of causation and manner of endstate are conflated in the change verb, and a spatial location may be expressed explicitly or implied. 3.5.3 In change of state This section on the manner and means of change of state verbs is based on the typology described in 3.5 which distinguished delivery of force verbs from change of state verbs in the domain of object separation. Here I will draw examples only from the first of these classes, showing predicates that co-occur with particular instruments, thereby specifying the cause of the manner of state change. Change of state class verbs, which pick out a type of Theme or undergoer and thereby specify the manner of the state change itself, are discussed in 3.6.3. In Chontal, delivery of force verbs include lyos- ‘poke, as with a chisel or sharp point’, nats’ee- ‘perforate’, ñayk’e- ‘cut with a bladed instrument’, pinj‘pound, tap, as with a hammer’, tyegojl- ‘slash bush, as with a machete’, telayor skelay- ‘chop finely, dice’, and ski- ‘split, divide cleanly in two’, ‘win‘burn’, x’wi- ‘chop bush, as with a hoe’. Much as Mithun found for instrumental affixes in other American languages (1999:119, cited earlier), these Chontal verbs seem only manner-specific, encoding a manner of action that, by extension, is customarily but not

99

SIMPLE PREDICATES

necessarily performed with a specific instrument. For example, pinj- ‘pound, tap’ also describes tapping a pencil or your fingers. lay-ñe’wa-mane jaape el

(139) pinj-duy=ya’

pound-DUR.SG=1S.AGT my-DIM-hand

mesa

where DET table

‘I’m tapping my finger on the table.’ [EER] ‘Hammer’ is not part of the lexical meaning of the root pinj-. The verb root s’wi- presents an interesting case. As a simple predicate, it means ‘chop bush, as with a hoe’, as in (140). lakwe’ jaape lyi-tyuch’a

(140) x’wi-pa

chop.bush-PFV.SG man

where his-plot

‘The man cleared his land (with a hoe).’ [RS] In Chapter 5, s’wi- will be characterized as encoding pure trajectory, depicting an ‘arc back toward speaker’ when it occurs as the initial element of a compound stem. This is another indication that the root depicts manner of action and does not specify an instrument. An intriguing observation from the perspective of language recovery is that some manner-specific verbs of caused change of state may in fact become more oriented to a particular instrument. While working with the Cut and Break stimulus, one group of speakers decided by fiat to use the verb ñayk’e- to depict any event in which a bladed instrument was used, as in (141). (141)a. ñay-k’e-duy

con tijera

cut.with.blade-CAUS-DUR.SG with scissors

‘She’s cutting it with a scissors.’ b. jas-pa

ch’ajl-pa

con la mano

tear-PFV.SG shred-PFV.SG with the hand

‘(it would be) she tore it, she shredded it, with the hands.’ [RS C/B.4]

The clarifications in (141) were given in Spanish, here written with italics. The younger speakers in the aforementioned mixed group of consultants are leading the fight to revitalize Lowland Chontal, and it will be interesting to see how their decisions on lexical meaning will shape the language of tomorrow. 3.6 Restrictions on the undergoer referent This section examines the extent to which the change verbs pick out a particular class of referents as possible undergoer arguments. In a change of loca-

MOTION, TRANSFER, AND TRANSFORMATION

100

tion event (3.6.1), only a small group of classificatory transitive predicates restrict the class of undergoer referents. In a change of position event (3.6.2), simple predicates are shown to assert location primarily and to delimit the class of referents only incidentally. And in a change of state event (3.6.3), simple predicates restrict referents into broad and somewhat overlapping classes of animates, inanimates, and natural phenomena. 3.6.1 In change of location A small set of transport verbs that function as ‘carry, take, bring’ restrict the set of undergoer referents according to size, shape or quality, or they specify where on the body the undergoer is supported. Although the latter do not restrict the type of referent, all the transport verbs are discussed here. The six bivalent roots are described in Table 24. Table 24. Transport verbs in Chontal Verb pewak’eletaypul-

Usage transport something small, especially in the hand transport something plate-like, with two hands transport liquid, especially water transport someone or something that is alive transport something on your back, shoulder or head transport something in your arms

Transport verbs have no inherent deixis, which means transport event descriptions often occur with a path motion verb (142) to orient the carrying as ‘bringing’ or ‘taking’. (142) pa’-pa

sa

pe-duy

sa

lakwe’

come-PFV.SG DEM tport:small-DUR.SG DEM man

‘The man comes, carrying (bringing money home).’ [aer2infiel] As such, transport verbs encode localized motion, as in (143), and are not considered change verbs. (143) porke tyijpe k’e-’ma

ima’

laja’ kon el

pila’

because there tport:liquid-IPFV.SG 2S.AGT water with DET well

‘Because there you would fetch water, with the well.’ [aer1panka’] The verb le- denotes the transportation of something animate, which includes eggs and spirits as well as humans and animals.

101

SIMPLE PREDICATES (144) lye-day’

lakajl’no’ lijl-jwaj lijl-anchupi lapi’e

tport:anim-DUR.PL women

their-head their-basket egg

‘The women would carry their baskets of eggs on their heads.’ [ael1asi] Events of transporting a large animate, like a human or a burro, are expressed with a derived form of the verb. The sense of caused motion is one of accompaniment, not literally carrying the animate, and the derived stem has applicative morphology.30 (145) may-pa

li-moso

naa lye-go-pa

go-PFV.SG REF tport:anim-APPL-PFV.SG his-helper

‘He went off and took his helper.’ [ael3afo] Tay- means that something, such as a load, a fishing net, or a coiled rope, is carried on the back, on the head, or over the shoulder, as in (146). In the Chontalpa, laundry is usually done in the river immediately after bathing, and the bundle or basket of clothing is carried on your head. Again, the deixis of the transportation event is provided with a preceding motion verb. (146)a. may-pa

poy-cho-ta

go-PFV.SG bathe-COM-DLOC.SG

‘She went to bathe,’ montón lich’ale

b. tay-pa

tport:on.head-PFV.SG pile

clothes

‘she took a huge pile of laundry.’ [rg8susto] The distinction between ‘carry’ and ‘hold’ is the fact of motion, and the line between the two types of event can be blurred (Talmy 2000:34-5). Such is the case for pul- ‘transport in your arms’, also used to depict holding a baby. Transport verbs can occur with what Waterhouse (1962:85) called ‘portative’ inflection to describe what you are holding in your hand, as in (147). (147)a. tensa sincha ko-pa what plum

naa=sa

say-PFV.SG REF=DEM

‘”What plum?” she said.’

30

Alternatively, some speakers use lye- for ‘walk’ and lyo- for ‘transport, carry, accompany’.

MOTION, TRANSFER, AND TRANSFORMATION

102

b. jaa’le ima’

payk’o

kwa naa

which 2S.AGT tport:small-PORT.SG say REF

‘”The one you are holding” he said.’ [rg5enams2] The set of transport verbs has grammaticized into a small set of classificatory and dispositional morphemes used in compound stems to specify the manner of handling an object or to index the undergoer or Goal participant of a transitive motion event. These classificatory elements are described in greater detail in Chapter 5. 3.6.2 In change of position Change of position verbs are associated with certain types of referents, but the association is not restrictive in the sense of a classificatory function. Table 25 presents a sample of referents that collocate with the various postural and configurational verbs. Table 25. Typical referents of change of position verbs Type pos pos pos config config config config config config config

Root pang- ‘sit’ kas- ‘stand’ ñoy- ‘lay’ ts’ang- ‘hang’ ‘we- ‘hang’ spoy- ‘spread’ spojl- ‘nestle’ k’a- ‘extend’ mee- ‘coil, twist’ peng- ‘adhere’

Example referents humans, bowls, balls humans, bottles humans, pens, yams hammocks, coats, pictures ropes, cloths, X by a rope grains, beans, cloths tamales, anything tightly wet clothes, beans ropes, snakes stamps, barnacles, clouds

Hellwig (2003, especially 149-151 and 172-4) describes classificatory and assertional uses of postural verbs in descriptions of static location in Goemai, demonstrating that, “Based on its canonical position, every Figure collocates with one default postural” (ibid: 172). A classificatory function would mean, for example, that a bottle could be referenced as ‘a standing thing’ even while lying flat on a table. This is not the case for Chontal. In Chontal, change of position events assert the orientation of the undergoer, as in (148) and (149), but they do not presuppose a default or canonical posture for the undergoer referent. (148) lakwe’ ñoy-p-ola’ man

lan-pame’ maj-mesa

lay-PFV-3P.PAT DET.PL-yam LOC-table

‘The man laid the yams on the table.’ [tga C/B.26]

SIMPLE PREDICATES (149) kaas-o’-pa

el

103

botella majmesa

stand-LOC-PFV.SG DET bottle

LOC-table

‘He stood the bottle on the table.’ [apm C/B.14] Yams are said to be lain and bottles to be stood because of their physical properties. Certain referents do typically collocate with certain simple predicates of change of position, but this collocation has no grammatical consequences in terms of classificatory function. 3.6.3 In change of state Some change of state verbs pick out a type of Theme or undergoer, sorting undergoer referents into four broad classes of animates, sentient animates, features of the natural environment, and inanimates. The restricted referent classes are general, and the memberships can overlap. Change of state predicates are identified throughout this section with respect to relative agentivity, as the perception of an undergoer as agentive or non-agentive is relevant to this discussion. 3.6.3.1 Undergoer is animate Changes of condition or state in the physical body expressed with nonagentive marking include fu’- ‘swell (body part)’, kwango- ‘get hurt’, lej- ‘get hungry’, ma- ‘die’, maygo- ‘get well, survive’, paf’- ‘give birth’, smixlu- ‘get dislocated’ (body part), toj- ‘grow’, tyes- ‘ache’. Change of state verbs in this section seem to be applicable to all animates. ‘Giving birth’ is expressed with non-agentive inflection for both human and animal participants. (150) paf’-p-ola’

lakajl’no’

give.birth-PFV-3P.PAT women

‘The women gave birth.’ [SLG] (151) paf’-’m-ola’

pijlki lay-baaka

give.birth-IPFV-3P.PAT all

my-cow

‘All my cows are going to give birth.’ [SLG] Other predicates of spontaneous bodily function are only marginally classifiable as change of state. The verbs in this set, such as k’oj- ‘cough’, ix‘sneeze’, ch’ilyo- ‘defecate’, chalay- ‘urinate’, najwa- ‘vomit’, and stas- ‘pass wind’, depict events expressed with agentive arguments. The agentive inflection may respond to cultural perceptions of relative control of body function, or it may reflect the fact that these events are essentially processes that produce or expel something from the body.

104

MOTION, TRANSFER, AND TRANSFORMATION Verbal roots of caused change include kwejl- ‘gut’ and pijl- ‘kill’.

3.6.3.2 Undergoer is a sentient animate Predications of cognitive and emotional activity are difficult to classify as change of state events, as many of these verbs likely encode states or processes. Inflectional patterns with agentive and non-agentive morphology present a mixed picture. Events perceived as non-agentive include those expressed with chijko- ‘stop crying’, paychuj- ‘fear, become afraid’, tontoj- ‘err’, tos- ‘learn’. Another set of verbs, including fasku- ‘remember’, ja’ko- ‘forget’, joo- ‘cry, weep’, smay- ‘dream’, stule- ‘get angry’ and swelme- ‘think, get sad’, are expressed with agentive arguments. While these differences in base semantics could appeal to a culture-specific understanding of agency (cf. DeLancey 1985b), an examination of alternative marking of specific predicates suggests a strategy of using non-agentive morphosyntax to signal the (non-volitional) moment of change as qualitatively distinct from the general state or activity. For example, the corpus includes two examples of syoo- ‘laugh’. The first is from a narrative about children in the classroom. The event in (152) is depicted as an ongoing or habitual activity, and the zero-marked argument is interpreted as agentive. (152) xyoo-day’

‘ñi

laugh-DUR.PL nothing.more

‘They just laugh.’ [ izr1panka] Compare this to the event depiction in (153). This example, collected by Waterhouse, is the final line in a narrative about a fiesta dance. (153) xyoo-go-p-ola’ laugh-APPL-PFV-3P.PAT

‘They burst out laughing.’ [Waterhouse text] Here the participants are invoked with non-agentive morphology, suggesting an interpretation of involuntary response to describe the moment the laughter began. 3.6.3.3 Undergoer is inanimate Events of spontaneous change of state in objects include maj- ‘cook’, mes‘break down, go bad, become wicked’,31 ñaj- ‘get hot (inanimate)’, pay31 The verb mes- ‘become wicked, be spoiled’ was collected and glossed by Waterhouse (1962:79); my consultants were more familiar with its usage in the context of machinery that breaks down or ‘goes bad,’ perhaps the non-vegetable counterpart of wejl- ‘rot.’

SIMPLE PREDICATES

105

‘break’, pi- ‘burn’, and ts’os- ‘get cold (inanimate)’. The undergoer participant is marked as non-agentive, as in (154), which describes damage after a hurricane. (154) pay-p-ola’

pijlki lay-ventana

break-PFV-3P.PAT all

my-window

‘All my windows broke.’ [AER] Substances such as food can ‘get hot’ or ‘get cold’ in non-agentive predications (155), but the human body cannot. All attempts to elicit ‘I’m so hot’ evoked responses such as the relational expression of (c), or periphrastic expressions such as ‘the sun is hitting me’. Note that the verb in (a), naj- ‘get hot’, has the same form as ‘be satiated, be full (of humans)’. It is not clear if these are the same root. (155)a. ñaj-p-ola’

lan-fane’

get.hot-PFV-3P.PAT DET.PL-three

‘The three of them (tamales) got hot.’ b. ts’os-p-ola’

lay-ñe-mulya’

get.cold-PFV.3P.PAT my-tamale

‘My tamales got cold.’ c. iñu’ iya’ hot 1S.AGT

‘I’m hot.’ [SLG] Predicates of caused change include ch’ajl- ‘tear, shred (cloth, paper)’, ek’ne- ‘open (door, eyes, house, container)’, gos- ‘uproot, pull out (tree, grass)’, jas- ‘split (wood), tear (cloth), slice (bread)’, k’ajl- ‘scrape (skin, pelt)’, kej- ‘chop (wood), cut (hair)’, kwij- ‘twist (rope, hair)’, tampij(chi)- ‘close (door, eyes, house, container)’, tek’- ‘pick, marry (colloq.)’, tek’e- ‘cut, break’, ts’ik’e- ‘fold, bend (cloth, paper)’, s’ayk’e- ‘sharpen (blade)’, and xnu- ‘peel (fruit)’. As was pointed out in 3.5.3, change of state verbs that pick out particular types of undergoers also express the manner of change. This is seen clearly in verbs like jas- and ch’ajl-, illustrated with a response to the Cut and Break stimulus in (156).

MOTION, TRANSFER, AND TRANSFORMATION

106

(156)a. jas-pa

lich’ale

tear-PFV.SG clothes

‘She tore the clothing.’ b. ch’ajl-pa

lich’ale la’waata

shred-pfv.sg clothes girl

‘The girl ripped the clothing.’ c. ch’ajl-pa

el

je’e, igual

shed-PFV.SG DET paper equal

‘She tore the paper, it’s the same.’ [RS C/B.1] Both verbs can describe the separation of cloth or paper, but only jas- can also be used to depict splitting wood. There seems to be a type of hierarchy of object separation predicates, based in part on the type of undergoer referent. Tek’e- ‘cut, break’ can be used for most events of object separation; verbs seen in 3.5.3 are selected when the manner of action is highlighted, and verbs in this section are more specific with respect to the type of undergoer. As was suggested in (156), the set of more Theme-specific verbs can themselves be subcategorized into those with larger extensional sets of possible referents (like jas- ) and those with smaller sets (like ch’ajl- ). 3.6.3.4 Undergoer is in the natural environment In the current corpus, all events of spontaneous change of state in the natural environment are expressed with non-agentive person-marking. Perhaps it goes without saying that the ultimate agent of growth and change is not the undergoer participant but the forces of nature. These verbs include chij- ‘become calm (especially of water)’, jujl- ‘get dry’, lanj- ‘become rooted’, majko‘ripen’, toj- ‘grow’, wejl- ‘rot’, xnek- ‘survive’, and xwijko- ‘become yellow’. (157) fa-duy

iya’

lay-ñe’wa-’ek’ tyoj-’m-ola’

plant-DUR.SG 1S.AGT my-DIM-tree

grow-IPFV-3P.PAT

‘I plant my little trees, (and, so) they grow.’ [SLG] In this section we have seen that restrictions on the type of referent that can fill the required participant role of undergoer in a simple predicate of change are for the most part associative and general rather than specific. A small set of transport verbs are in fact classificatory, in that they identify an undergoer referent by size, shape or identity. On the other hand, a small but pervasively used set of posture verbs demonstrate clear associations to classes of inanimate referents, based on shape, dimension, or canonical posture, but do

SIMPLE PREDICATES

107

not demonstrate classificatory functions. And finally, simple predicates of change of state were shown to subcategorize referents into broad classes of animates, inanimates, and natural phenomena, but the groupings are quite general and the boundaries between them are porous. 3.7 Summary and conclusions Simple predicates of change lexicalize the semantics of change and the implied endpoint of change in the verbal root and therefore constitute the verbframed portion of the grammar of change. The fundamental function of simple predicates of change is to situate a participant as an undergoer of change, to a new location, a new position, or a new state. This chapter has illustrated the extent to which the verb root performs additional functions that will be examined for each predicate type in this study, of specifying the endpoint, the path shape, or the manner or means of change, and of restricting the types of referent that can undergo change. It was shown that path verbs orient to Source or Goal while manner verbs and transport verbs recruit path verbs to express motion to endpoint. A nonlinear path trajectory is encoded by a round-trip verb or by a series of motionto-ground constituents, and path and trajectory can be implied by elaborations of static scene or activity at (an implicit) endpoint. Endpoints of change of position or state can be lexicalized in the root, implied by the root, or expressed as a separate adjective. The means of change, which encompasses manner of change and manner of causation, is expressed by many localized motion roots and, at least indirectly, by most verbs of change of position and change of state. Classes of undergoer referents are restricted in a classificatory sense only by a small set of transport verbs and in an associative or collocational sense with predicates of position or state change. This chapter has established that verb-framed change constitutes a robust pattern for change of state and for spontaneous change of location, while simple predicate inventories of change of position and caused change of location are relatively small. The next chapter will explore the contributions of satelliteframing to the grammar of change.

CHAPTER 4. COMPLEX PREDICATES OF ASSOCIATED MOTION AND ASSOCIATED CHANGE32

The predicates described in this chapter differ formally and functionally from simple predicates of change in Chapter 3 and from complex predicates of associated direction and topological relation in Chapter 5. Formally, the semantics of change are found in derivational and inflectional morphology that contributes a subevent of change to the predication of the main verb. Change is lexicalized outside the verb root, making this construction the satellite-framed portion of the grammar of change. Functionally, the construction type serves to situate the event itself as taking place here or not here, or as a change of state characterized as inceptive or completive. Within this study, associated motion (AM) constructions have the least scope in terms of specification of undergoer participant and specification of event because the event or state of the main verb is in fact the entity that undergoes the change. Argument selection depends upon the main verb, which may or may not involve an undergoer participant. Arguments maintain semantic and syntactic roles related to the main verb, except when AM morphology produces an inchoative stem from a stative root, which then requires an undergoer participant. Classes of undergoer referent are not distinguished by AM morphology. With respect to specification of the event itself, the cislocative suffix can modify path shape, and other suffixes are oriented to particular endpoints of the change event. Manner or means of change is not specified by the AM subevent. Spatially, the focus is on either the departure to a new location or the arriving at the new location, and temporally, the change of state is depicted as inceptive or completive. The chapter is structured as follows. In 4.1, the notion of associated motion is defined and introduced, both cross-linguistically and language-specifically. In 4.2, the basic constructions of associated motion and associated change are presented. The discussion begins in 4.3, with two suffixes that 32

A shorter version of this chapter, with different terminology, appeared as “Going getting tired: Associated motion through space and time in Lowland Chontal,” in Language, Culture and Mind, M. Achard & S. Kemmer, eds., Stanford: CSLI Publications, 2004.

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contribute ‘motion away’ subevents to the event of the main verb. In 4.4, narrative discourse examples demonstrate how AM predicates situate an event as the endpoint of motion and show that two of the suffixes are used to depict change of time as well as location. In 4.5, the role of AM morphology in predications of change of state and change of position is detailed. In 4.6, the focus turns to two suffixes that contribute ‘motion toward’ subevents to the event of the main verb. Conclusions are presented in 4.7. 4.1 Introduction ‘Associated motion’ describes a semantic category that associates the action of a verb with simultaneous, prior, or subsequent motion. Identified as a highly developed and pervasive grammatical category in Australian languages (Wilkins 1991 and references therein), the notion has variously-named conceptual analogues in other languages of the world. The term ‘associated motion’ was first proposed by Koch (1984), and the topic deserves a typological study of its own to sort through the teeming masses of labels, forms, semantics and functions of likely candidates for this category cross-linguistically. Relevant morphemes are variously called ‘thither’ and ‘hither’, ‘andative’ and ‘venitive’, ‘translocative and ‘cislocative’, or simply grouped as spatial deixis. In some languages, directionals such as ‘up’, ‘down’, and ‘across’ are included in the same paradigm as purely deictic components of ‘come’ and ‘go’, while in other languages (such as Chontal) these constitute two separate form classes. Cross-linguistically, associated motion semantics are expressed with clitics, in derivational and inflectional morphology, in motion particles, in motion verbs, in complex predicates and in serial verb constructions. And finally, the function of associated motion morphology can extend to the expression of such notions as aspect, evidentiality, state change, and participant marking. Wilkins (1991) describes the semantics, pragmatics, and development of 14 inflectional suffixes of deictic and directional motion in Mparntwe Arrernte, a language of Central Australia. Hooper (2002) illustrates the functions of ‘hither’ and ‘thither’ morphemes in Tokelauan, a Polynesian language, tracing a process of pragmatic enrichment from spatial deixis to aspectual and anaphoric uses. She finds in this language that the ‘hither’ morpheme can depict not only venitive motion but also continuative aspect, evidentiality, and firstperson reflexives and benefactives, while the ‘thither’ morpheme can function as a marker of ingressive change, departure, and participant engagement, as well as an indicator of andative motion. Margetts (2002) reports a subset of comparable functions in Saliba, an Oceanic language that uses directional suffixes on predicates of transport and transfer as indirect references to recipient or goal participants. In these Saliba predicates, the ‘hither’ morpheme is interpreted as ‘toward speaker’, and the ‘thither’ morpheme, as ‘toward addressee’. Absence of an associated motion morpheme is interpreted as ‘toward a third-

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person’ participant. Mithun (1996) presents evidence for a process of diachronic change in which cislocative ‘hither’ morphemes developed into pronominal affixes of first person in Nez Perce, of second person in Northern Iroquoian languages, and of either speech act participant in Shasta. Given the rich and varied systems of ‘motion’ morphology in languages of the Americas (see Suárez 1983 and Mithun 1999 for general surveys and Haviland 1991 for a language-specific study), associated motion may be useful at least as a conceptual category in American languages as well. In Lowland Chontal the conceptual cousins comprise a small paradigm of four verbal suffixes that associate a subevent of deictic motion or temporal change to the predication of the main verb. Associated motion morphemes in Chontal have fundamentally spatial meanings of change of location, through space, that can in certain contexts extend to encode a change of state, over time. The Chontal paradigm of associated motion (AM) morphology includes the andative and the dislocative, with semantics of ‘motion away from here’ and ‘motion to there’, respectively; and the venitive and the cislocative, both with semantics of ‘motion to or toward here’. Glosses used in the examples and the basic definition of each morpheme are presented in Table 26. Table 26. Basic semantics of associated motion morphology AND DLOC VEN CLOC

Suffix andative dislocative venitive cislocative

Semantics motion away from here motion to there motion to or toward here motion to or toward here

The change of location depicted by andative, dislocative, and venitive morphology occurs before the event of the main verb, roughly go and (then) do VERB or come and (then) do VERB, while the change expressed by cislocative morphology is simultaneous with the main verb event, i.e. come while VERBing. The differences between members of the ‘hither’ pair (VEN and CLOC) and the ‘thither’ pair (AND and DLOC) are subtle, defined by the distribution of each suffix in AM constructions and postulated as the synchronic trace of different verbal sources. The explanation of these differences and of the use of AM suffixes to express non-spatial change are two major features of this chapter. In Chontal, AM constitutes a separate category among the linguistic resources for expressing spatial deixis, based on formal and functional grounds. AM predicates are formed by adding an AM suffix to a verb root, and this verb root can denote a process, certain types of change, or a state.33 Therefore, AM 33 Known exceptions include restrictions on motion verbs with andative and dislocative morphology and restrictions on certain change of state predicates such as ma- ‘die’, which require applicative derivation before adding AM morphology.

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constructions are different from simple verb roots of deictic motion both formally and in terms of the events they express. In addition, AM predicates differ significantly from the other complex predicate type in Chontal, formed with a separate paradigm of morphology of associated direction and topological relation (DTR). For example, AM derivation occurs only with verb roots, while DTR elements can combine with uninflectable verbal elements; AM derivation follows applicative morphology in the predicate template, while DTRs precede the applicative; and finally, patterns of aspectual inflection are more restricted in AM constructions than in complex predicates formed with associated DTRs. Therefore, my analysis separates the larger class of about a dozen DTR elements from the four morphemes of purely deictic associated motion morphemes. Both types of morphology are described by Turner and Turner (1971) for Highland Chontal, categorized as ‘first and second order derivational affixes’ (my DTRs) and ‘movational aspectual morphology’ (my AM suffixes). While I treat the AM paradigm as a single category, there is notable internal diversity. The dislocative appears to have fused with imperfective aspect and occurs as a verb-final inflectional morpheme, while the others are derivational. Andative and dislocative suffixes do not occur with motion roots that already have an orientation to Source or Goal, but venitive and cislocative suffixes can and do. Andative and dislocative suffixes are used to express change of location or change of time, and both are used in predications of change of state. In contrast, the venitive and cislocative almost exclusively depict a change of location or direction. 4.2 Basic constructions of associated motion and change 4.2.1 The associated motion construction with non-stative verbs In the associated motion construction, AM morphology adds a subevent of change of location to the event of the main verb. COMPLEX PREDICATE OF ASSOCIATED MOTION AND CHANGE

< participant(s) > main-V + | | AGT/PAT < non-stative >

AM-morphology | change to here or not-here

This construction situates the main verb event in space, as taking place here or not here. The main verb determines the number and type of participants. Arguments are marked as agentive and/or non-agentive, and serve syntactic functions of subject and object, according to the argument structure of the main verb and as construed by the speaker. The semantics of change af-

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forded by the AM morphology represent a subevent which has no effect on argument structure. The main verb in this construction can be virtually any process predicate or from a restricted subset of state change verbs. Motion verbs constitute a special case in the associated motion construction, occurring only with venitive and cislocative AM morphology. 4.2.2 The associated motion construction with stative verbs The story is slightly different when the main verb depicts a state. COMPLEX PREDICATE OF ASSOCIATED MOTION AND CHANGE

< participant(s) > | AGT/PAT

main-V | < stative >

+

AM-morphology | change inceptive / completive

In this variation, the main verb has only a single argument, and the subevent contributed by the AM morphology does in fact change that participant from an Experiencer of a state to an undergoer of change. The construction situates the state of the main verb along a timeline, as inceptive or completive. The undergoer participant is marked as agentive or non-agentive, according to the type of change and the perspective of the speaker. 4.3 Subevents of motion ‘away from here’ and ‘to there’ Two members of the AM paradigm add subevents of motion away from the deictic center to the predication of the main verb. Both suffixes can be translated roughly as ‘go and do V’, where V is the event of the main verb. There are distributional differences between the two: one is a derivational suffix that co-occurs with perfective aspect and the imperative, while the other is a verbfinal inflectional suffix that conflates imperfective aspect. The complementary distribution with aspectual inflection suggests the two AM suffixes could have developed from the same motion verb, yet the semantics indicate that this is probably not the case. The ‘motion away’ of the andative suffix focuses on the departure, while the dislocative suffix is more concerned with situating the event at a not-here location. In effect, the andative is oriented to the Source or starting point of motion away, while the dislocative is oriented to the Goal or ending point of motion away. In this respect, the two AM suffixes parallel the notional motion verb roots of ay- ‘go, depart away’ (oriented to Source) and may- ‘go, travel’ (oriented to Goal), presented in Chapter 3.

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The andative associated motion suffix

< participant(s) > main-V AGT/PAT < non-stative >

+ +

AND leave here and do V

The andative suffix associates a subevent of ‘motion away from here’ to the main verb event. The suffix has allomorphs –kix after voiceless consonants, -ix after a velar or velar nasal, -x after high vowels, and –s elsewhere. It cooccurs with two types of inflection: perfective aspect and the imperative. The minimal pair in (158) demonstrates the semantics of the andative. (158)b. fa-s-pa=ya’

(158)a. fa-pa=ya’ plant-PFV.SG=1S.AGT

plant-AND-PFV.SG=1S.AGT

‘I planted.’

‘I went and planted.’

The andative suffix is not simply an anaphoric reference to a location ‘there’. Example (159) is well-formed but judged as false because my sister has never been to the Chontal-speaking area. (159) layx’api my.sister

pang-ix-pa

Estados

Unidos

live-AND-PFV.SG

states

united

‘My sister went and lived in the United States.’ A reference to ‘there’ is achieved with applicative morphology and would include an adverbial such as lya’ ‘there’ or an explicit naming of the place, as in (160). (160) layx’api my.sister

pang-go-pa

Estados

Unidos

live-APPL-PFV.SG

states

united

‘My sister lived there in the United States.’ This minimal pair demonstrates the notion that AM morphology contributes a subevent that is acted on by the same aspectual inflection as the main verb: in (159), my sister left here and began living there. The analysis holds in constructions with andative plus imperative inflection, as in (161). (161)a. sma-jla’

(161)b. sma-s-ki

sleep-IMP.SG

sleep-AND-IMP.MOV.SG

‘Sleep!’

‘Go and sleep!’

In (161)b, both ‘going’ and ‘sleeping’ are commanded.

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The dislocative associated motion suffix

< participant(s) > main-V AGT/PAT < non-stative >

+ +

DLOC go there and do V

The dislocative suffix, -ta or -tya (singular) and -ta’ or -tya’ (plural), also associates a motion subevent to the main verb event, but with this suffix the sense is ‘motion to there’. The dislocative contrasts with predicates inflected with imperfective aspect, as in (162). (162)a. fa-’ma=ya’

(162)b. fa-ta=ya’

plant-IPFV.SG=1S.AGT

plant-DLOC.SG=1S.AGT

‘I will plant.’

‘I will go and plant.’

In (162)b, I will go and I will plant. The sense of a main event and a subevent holds, but the issue of form class complicates the picture. Note that the dislocative suffix occurs verb-finally and distinguishes singular and plural, as do all verb-final aspectual morphemes. My analysis therefore assumes that this associated motion suffix conflates semantics of change of location and imperfective aspect: it encodes both AM and inflection. This analysis also claims that the verbal sources of andative and dislocative morphemes are different. The alternative analysis would be to assume that the AM morpheme is the same, i.e., that the DLOC suffix is a phonologic as well as semantic conflation of the AND suffix plus imperfective inflection. First, there is no known basis for postulating such a phonological process, (andative –s + imperfective –’ma, -’me’
dislocative –ta, -ta’) and second, the subevents of the two suffixes will be shown to have different semantics. The andative subevent highlights ‘departure’; it is oriented to the starting point or Source location of the change of location. Meanwhile, the dislocative subevent highlights ‘motion to there’, and is therefore oriented to the ending point or Goal location. A parallel pair of motion verb roots was presented in 3.1.1: ay‘go, depart away from Source’, and may- ‘go, travel toward Goal’. Although this is simply a fact about the language today and not proof that such a pair of verbs served as the source of AM morphology, there is a clear language-internal tendency toward a set of ‘motion away’ roots with orientation to different endpoints of the change of location event. This line of thinking will be further developed in 4.3.3. 4.3.3 Comparing andative and dislocative morphology The basic usage patterns of the two suffixes have now been suggested. The andative co-occurs with perfective aspect to describe events in which the participant departed from Source and performed the main verb event at a location away from Source. Meanwhile, the dislocative conflates imperfective aspect to

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describe events in which the participant intends to move to Goal and to perform the main verb event there. Therefore, a comparison of expressions in the immediate past and the immediate future presents no surprises. In (163) the speaker did go and did plant, while in (164) the speaker will go and will plant. (163) joypa already

ts’a=ya’

fa-na-s-pa

just=1S.AGT

plant-TERM-AND-PFV.SG

‘I just went and planted.’ (164) moygi fa-ta morning plant-DLOC.SG

sa=ya’ DEM=1S.AGT

‘Tomorrow I’m going to go and plant.’ Differences begin to emerge in predications of iterative or habitual activity. Past habitual is with the andative, as in (165). The speaker went every day, and by implication the speaker planted every day. (165) moygi moygi iya’ morning morning 1S.AGT

fa-s-pa plant-AND-PFV.SG

‘(Last week), I went and planted everyday.’ A disagreement between consultants over expressions of projected iterative or present habitual activity confirms that use of dislocative inflection is at odds with a reading of departure from Source. Second-language speakers would use a construction with the dislocative, as in (166), similar to example (164). (166) moygi moygi fa-ta

sa=ya’

morning morning plant-DLOC.SG

DEM=1S.AGT

‘Everyday I go and plant.’ However, first-language speakers prefer the complex predicate in (167), formed of a motion verb and ‘plant’ inflected with durative aspect. (167) moygi moygi iya’ morning morning 1S.AGT

may-’ma

fa-duy

go-IPFV.SG

plant-DUR.SG

‘Every day I go and plant.’ Otherwise, according to these older speakers, it would sound like you never actually left. Durative aspect in Chontal expresses not only durative or

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continuous events but also habitual activities. Iterativity implies multiple endpoints, a concept apparently incompatible with the imperfective sense of the dislocative suffix. In essence, (166) means that everyday you intend to go and plant, not that you do go and plant. Another clue to the difference between the two suffixes is found with examples involving ‘yesterday’. The motion verb in both (168) and (169) is tsee-, a predicate of cyclical motion that implies the speaker went to Goal and is now back at Source. In (168), the journey happened and the planting probably took place. (168) ch’ujma yesterday

tsee-pa=ya’

fa-s-pa

go.return-PFV.SG=1S.AGT plant-AND-PFV.SG

‘Yesterday I went and planted.’ In contrast, the journey did not happen in (169), but the intention to plant ‘there’ is still expressed with the dislocative suffix. (169) ch’ujma yesterday

fa-ta

jla=ya’

plant-DLOC.SG

perhaps=1S.AGT

pero

maa=ya’

tsee-pa

maa

pangja

but

NEG=1S.AGT

go.return-PFV.SG

NEG

able.to

‘Yesterday I intended to go and plant, but I didn’t go, I couldn’t. From the evidence in examples (162) - (169) we can conclude that use of the dislocative does not entail ‘departure’. Instead, it only specifies what will happen upon arrival at Goal. This claim is supported by the ‘motion-cum-purpose’ construction in (170), in which departure from Source is encoded explicitly with an inflected verb of ‘going’. (170) ch’ujma yesterday

may-pa=ya’

fa-ta

go-PFV.SG=1S.AGT

plant-DLOC.SG

‘Yesterday I went to plant (there).’ In summary, the elicited examples have so far shown that both andative and dislocative suffixes associate a motion event to the predication of the main verb. The andative pattern highlights departure from Source, while the dislocative depicts motion to Goal and situates an unbounded event at the Goal location, both with unspecified endpoints. The andative motion subevent is Sourceoriented, and the dislocative motion subevent is Goal-oriented.

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4.4 Andative and dislocative in narrative discourse To clarify the usage patterns of associated motion morphology with and without change of location semantics, twenty-two narrative texts were searched for predications with andative or dislocative suffixes. I found 234, which were sorted into four main categories:34    

91 tokens occurred after a motion verb of ‘going’35 10 tokens occurred after a verb that encodes or implies other types of change of location (‘carry’, ‘ascend’, ‘arrive’) 21 tokens occurred after an adverb such as ‘there’ or ‘where’ 112 tokens were not preceded by any of the above

This section will address the first and last categories. Utterances in which AM morphology could have been used, but was not, will not be evaluated. Subsection 4.4.1 looks at data from the first category, focusing on the motion-cumpurpose construction that was introduced in example (170). The discussion of the last category is divided into three subsections to describe predicates that express a change of location (4.4.2), express a change of time, in what I call ‘narrative dislocation’ (4.4.3), and that use AM morphology to express a stage of change of state (4.4.4). 4.4.1 After motion: endpoint as subsequent activity The excerpt in (171), from a longer narrative on farming, provides two examples of motion-cum-purpose, a simple construction (d) and an extended version (e) – (f). Each begins with an inflected path verb may- ‘go’ followed by at least one more verb with dislocative inflection. A key discourse function of the motion-cum-purpose construction is to depict the Goal location as the locus of subsequent activity. In this small excerpt, the husband went, expressed with a path verb, to go and do various types of work. The spatial location of the Goal (e.g. in his field, at his farm) is not expressed.

34 The 234 tokens include 79 different types or verbs; by AM type this was 31 different verbs with andative derivation and 67 different verbs with dislocative derivation (some types occurred in both categories). Verb stems derived with causative, applicative, or associated direction morphology were lumped together with the verb root as one type. Classifer verbs of ‘transport’ were tallied individually in the count of types. “Occurred after” means usually in the same clause, otherwise in the following clause. 35 The ‘going’ verb preceded the associated motion predicate either in the same clause or as an independent clause.

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4.4.1.1 Text: Farming practices (171)a. may-uu-jla’ go-CLOC-IMP.SG

sa

biida

pang-jla’

DEM

grandmother

sit-IMP.SG

‘Come in, grandmother, sit down.’ b. jaape may’wa where my.child

may-pa

lo-pekwe

go-PFV.SG

your-husband

‘Where did your husband go, my child?’ c. maa jol-ay-’uy NEG

biida

exist-ITVR2-DUR.SG

grandma

‘He’s not here, grandmother,’ d. lay-pekwe my-husband

may-pa

x’wi-tya

go-PFV.SG

chop.bush-DLOC.SG

‘my husband went to clear his land.’ e. lay-pekwe my-husband

may-pa

tegojl-ta

go-PFV.SG

slash.bush-DLOC.SG

‘My husband went to slash down the underbrush,’ f. x’wi-tya

tegojl-ta

‘win-tya

lyi-muña

chop-DLOC.SG slash-DLOC.SG burn-DLOC.SG his-brush

‘to (go and) clear and slash the bush, and burn the brush pile.’ [ael4ajutl] The practice of specifying the endpoint of motion as an event rather than a spatial location was identified earlier, in the discussion of The Frog Story in 3.4.2., and was touched on briefly in the explanation of a text in 3.3.1.3. The next section revisits that text, detailing the contribution of complex predicates of associated motion. 4.4.2.2 Text: The lazy man This narrative excerpt was partially analyzed in 3.3.1.3, where the differences among the ‘leaving’ verbs were described as: • • •

poy- ‘exit’ and ay- ‘depart away’ differ in a sense of purpose or immediacy ay- ‘depart away’ depicts a punctual change oriented to Source may- ‘go’ expresses a translational path oriented to Goal

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tsee- ‘go and return’ describes an entire trajectory from Source to Goal and back to Source

Now the AM predicates in the text are added to the discussion. These include motion-cum-purpose constructions in (b), (g) and (j); commands to go and do in (e); and other localized events in (l), (o) and (s). The endpoints of motion events (semantic Source and Goal) are identified lexically only in clauses of ‘arriving’ to a point. Instead, undergoer participants are positioned in actual or hypothetical events through use of a ‘going’ verb followed by an AM predicate that situates the events ‘there’, away from the contextual Source. (172)a. lyakwe’ man

flojo naa

ni

para poy-wa

kwa

lazy

NEG

for

say

REF

exit-PROG.SG

‘The lazy man, he never leaves the house,’ b. jaape

jo k’incho-ta

ay-’ma

where

jaape

depart-IPFV.SG or gather.firewood-DLOC.SG where

‘he doesn’t go anywhere, not to go and fetch firewood somewhere,’ c. puro

ñaj-may-’ma

li-mejutl’

exclusively lying-down.in-IPFV.SG his-hammock

‘he just lies in his hammock.’ d. ni NEG

poy-pa

jaape

exit-PFV.SG

where

‘He never went anywhere.’ e. joy-ya

naa=sa

finish-STAT1.SG REF=DEM

li-tyiñe mi-pa her-day

ay-jla

tell-PFV.SG depart-IMP.SG

sa

‘wi-kix-ky-asta’

DEM

look-AND-IMP.MOV.SG-iguana hunt.iguana-AND-IMP.MOV.SG

wa’lo-s-ki’

‘Finally one day his wife told him go, go find some iguanas, go iguana hunting.’ f. jaj maa=ya’ huh NEG=1S.AGT

ay-’ma depart-IPFV.SG

‘Huh, I’m not going.’ g. xajko-pa

sa

li-tyiñe para ay-’ma

find-PFV.SG DEM her-day

for

sa=yma’

depart-IPFV.SG DEM=2S.AGT

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wa’lo-ta hunt.iguana-DLOC.SG

‘She picked her moment to tell him, you go, go and hunt iguana.’ h. ojl-min-jla’

moso

search-BENE-IMP.SG

helper

‘Find yourself a helper.’ i. ojl-ko-jla’

lay-buru

search-APPL-IMP.SG

my-burro

‘Find me a burro,’ j. ay-pa

sa=ya’

depart-PFV.SG DEM=1S.AGT

wa’lo-ta hunt.iguana-DLOC.SG

‘I’m off to go and hunt iguana.’ k. may-pa go-PFV.SG

naa

lyegopa

li-moso.

REF

take-PFV.SG

his-helper

‘He went off and took his helper.’ l. kway-tya

kwa delante

arrive-DLOC.SG say further.on

lagolpana’ stream

‘He arrived a little further on at the stream,’ m. kwa naa tya lasta’ say REF that iguana

‘and he says, there’s an iguana.’ n. tsee-pa go.return-PFV.SG

naa=sa

el

moso

REF=DEM

DET

helper

‘The helper went back and forth;’ o. ‘wi-kix-pa look.at-AND-PFV.SG

‘he flushed them out (lit: he went to see),’ p. tyux-pa’ grab-PFV.PL

lan-minlye’ DET.PL-dogs

‘and the dogs grabbed them.’

ASSOCIATED MOTION AND CHANGE q. joypa already

tyige

jola-f’-a

li-buru

3S

sitting-up-STAT1.SG

his-burro

‘ñi

mu-yuu-pa

NEG

sink-CLOC-PFV.SG

121

‘The other man sitting on his burro, not even getting down.’ r. flojo naa sage mero lazy REF 3S

flojo

absolutely lazy

‘Lazy, he’s just plain lazy.’ s. joypa already

kway-gon-ta’

delante

arrive-ITR-DLOC.PL

further.on

‘When they arrived again a little further on,’ t. kwa naa tya lasta’ say REF that iguana

‘He says, there’s an iguana.’ [ael4flojo] All but two of the AM predicates are related to the motion-cum-purpose function, either by definition, as in (b), (g) and (j), or by extension, in (e) and (o). Most of these are headed by motion events with the verb ay- ‘depart away.’ A sense of purpose or immediacy was already cited in 3.3.1.3, as part of the communicative function of ay- and as the feature that distinguishes the verb from the semantically similar verb poy- ‘exit’. That purpose is expressed in complex predicates with andative derivation: commands to ‘go and hunt iguana’ in (e) are the desired purpose of the departure, and the AM predicate in (o) is the realized purpose of the motion event expressed with the path verb tsee- in (n). Events of ‘arriving’ in (l) and (s) are predicated with a stative verb kway- ‘arrive’. The function of AM morphology in changing a stative root into a state change predicate is treated in 4.4.4 and 4.5. In the remainder of this section, the focus shifts to the examination of AM predicates that do not follow an inflected path verb. 4.4.2 Change of location (without previous explicit ‘motion’ context) The examples here represent a set of 44 tokens and resemble those in the elicited examples in 4.3. The associated motion predicates in (173), an excerpt from a humorous folk tale, illustrate use of the andative suffix as one man explains to another his brother’s mistake.

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(173)a. ga’a lakwe-grosero that big-idiot

kwa naa

’ña-s-pa

say

buy-AND-PFV.SG

REF

‘That big idiot says he went and bought them.’ b. mi-pa=ya’

lam-musico

ojl-ko-s-ki

say-PFV.SG=1S.AGT

search-APPL-AND-IMP.MOV.SG DET.PL-musician

‘I had told him to go and get the musicians.’ ga’le li’anima kwa lam-pityu’

c. ’ña-gas-kix-pa

this

buy-DER-AND-PFV.SG

animal

DET.PL-whistle

say

‘This jerk went and bought those critters, he says they’re whistles.’ [rg6abuelita] Example (174), an excerpt of embedded conversation from another folktale, shows how the dislocative is used to refer to an event that will take place away from the speech event. In (a) and (b) a father asks his son to go off and borrow something from a neighbor. The son and neighbor converse in (c) – (e). (174)a. limoygi to’sa morning HORT

ñu’ee-s-ki

medida

ask.for-AND-IMP.MOV.SG

scale

‘The next morning (he said) go on, go ask to borrow a scale.’ b. el DET

kilo

para spi-’me’

el

melyu’

kilogram

for.to measure-IPFV.PL

DET

money

‘The kilo, so we can measure out the money.’ c. xux lend.me

lo-kilo

kompale

your-kilogram

kinsman

‘Loan me your kilo scale, neighbor.’ d. tes

ima’

what 2S.AGT

spi-ta measure-DLOC.SG

‘What are you going to measure (over there)?’ e. spi-ta’ measure-DLOC.PL

iyank’

lya’

injko=tes

1P.AGT

there

who.knows=what

‘We're going to measure who-knows-what over there.’ [ael4flojo] Compare occurrences of the verb spi- ‘measure’ in (174)b, (d) and (e). The imperfective in (b) simply expresses a future or potential, while the dislocative

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in (d) and (e) place the measuring event ‘elsewhere’, not at the location of the speech event. 4.4.3 Change of time as ‘narrative dislocation’ In 33 tokens, speakers used dislocative morphology to locate events in an imagined time. In this narrative excerpt, a young man proposes marriage and describes to his beloved how their life together will be. (175)a. pase-ta make-DLOC.SG

sa=yma’

la’wa-kafé

DEM=2S.AGT

DIM-coffee

‘You’ll make the coffee.’ b. nang’mi-tya make.tortilla-DLOC.SG

sa=yma’

lampima

DEM=2S.AGT

fat.tortilla

‘You’ll make a thick tortilla.’ c. chicha now

joyya

sa

tots’inkin-ta=yma’

finish-STAT1.SG

DEM

tie.up-DLOC.SG=2S.AGT

la’wa-skujl DIM-tortilla

‘Now as soon as you tie up my lunch sack,’ d. ay-’ma

sa=ya’

lijwalay’

depart-IPFV.SG DEM=1S.AGT highlands

‘I’ll go off to the highlands.’ e. fa-ta plant-DLOC.SG

sa=ya’

xantya

DEM=1S.AGT

watermelon

‘I’ll plant melons (there),’ f. fa-ta plant-DLOC.SG

sa=ya’

milyo’

DEM=1S.AGT

corn

‘I’ll plant corn (there).’ [rg5enams2] While the dislocative in (175)e and (f) is arguably about being in another place, its occurrence in (a) – (c) places the events in a hypothetical time, away from the speech event.

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4.4.4 Change of state with ‘associated motion’ morphology The remaining 35 tokens of the original 112 without an immediate ‘motion’ context attest the use of associated motion morphology to predicate an ongoing change of state or the result state of an implicit change of state. Only seven of these were with the andative-perfective pattern of derivation and inflection, as in (176). In this excerpt from a narrative on illness and curing, a young man is interrupted by the arrival of his mother. (176)a. tyiñasa tamagay-x-pa’ just.as

be.at.end-AND-PFV.PL

jaa’le

sa

pase-day’

which

DEM

do-DUR.PL

‘Just as they were finishing what they were doing,’ b. pa’-pa

naa=sa

li-ñaana

ek’ne-pa

come-PFV.SG REF=DEM his-mother open-PFV.SG

lajutl’ house

‘his mother came and opened the door.’ [aer5gicha] The same aspectual predicate tamagay- ‘be at the end, finish’ is used with dislocative morphology in the following excerpt from a narrative on the behavior of sea turtles that emerge to lay their eggs on nearby beaches. A similar phasal predicate xway- ‘be complete, finish a delimited extent’, also with the dislocative, is used to describe the completion of a period of time, a measure of space, or an abstract quantity, such as the expected number of eggs. This excerpt demonstrates the last two measures. (177)a. tafuu-yay’ sweep-DUR.PL

waytya sa

joypa

and

already be.at.end-DLOC.PL

DEM

tamagay-tya’

tafuu-pa’ sweep-PFV.PL

‘They sweep and then having finished sweeping,’ b. kangi-yay’

lantomats’ para sa

remove-DUR.PL sand

liwa’

tonjta’ja

holes

like.there

for

DEM

xway-tya’ be.complete-DLOC.PL

‘they dig away the sand to make holes, out to there.’ c. waytya and

sa

ch’u-yay’

DEM

lay.eggs-DUR.PL DEM of

sa

de ñulyi de kweesi one

of

two

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ASSOCIATED MOTION AND CHANGE de

fanchi’ lapi’e

ch’u-yay’

of

three

lay.eggs-DUR.PL

eggs

‘And then they lay their eggs, one, two, three eggs they lay.’ d. lyunchipa’ hasta sa turtles

until

DEM

ciento

jeena

hundred

right

xway-tya’

de ñulyi

be.complete-DLOC.PL of

one

‘The turtles lay up to 100 eggs, right?’ [RStortuga] The stative predicate need not be a phasal verb, as seen in the following excerpt from a narrative on cooking tamales. (178)a. spojl-’ma

sa=yma’

manj-ta

nestle-IPFV.SG DEM=2S.AGT be.full-DLOC.SG

k’ej-’mi-yuy

sa DEM

sa=ja’

water-in-DUR.SG DEM=water

‘You nestle them inside (the pot) until it’s full, adding water,’ b. jola-f’-ix-ki

sa

maj-lunkwa’

sitting-up-AND-IMP.MOV.SG DEM LOC-fire

‘and go and set it (the pot) up on the fire.’ [RScomida] These examples from natural discourse demonstrate that associated motion morphology is used to encode ‘change’, whether change of location (4.4.2), change of time (4.4.3), or change of state (4.4.4). A discussion of AM morphology in state change predicates is the focus of Section 4.5. 4.5 Associated ‘motion’ in change of state predications Andative and dislocative AM suffixes contribute subevents of ‘motion away from here’ and ‘motion to there’, respectively. The same morphemes are also required to form certain expressions of change of state, and here they present an intriguing twist: the semantic transfer of ‘motion through space’ to ‘evolution through time’ seems to reverse entailments about the full realization of the event. The puzzle is illustrated below. In some change-of-state predications, the derivational pattern that associates a perfective change of location to a main verb (179)a, now gives a sense of ongoing change (179)b, and the pattern that associates an intended change of location (180)a, now produces a result state reading of a presupposed change (180)b.

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MOTION, TRANSFER, AND TRANSFORMATION perfective change of LOC (179)a. wa’lo-s-pa

ongoing change of state (179)b. manj-s-pa lapixu’

hunt.iguana-AND-PFV.SG

‘He went and hunted iguana.’ intended change of LOC (180)a. wa’lo-ta hunt.iguana-DLOC.SG

‘He will go and hunt iguana.’

be.full-AND-PFV.SG pot

‘The pot is filling.’ result of change of state (180)b. manj-ta lapixu’ be.full-DLOC.SG

pot

‘The pot is full.’

The proposed explanation for the seeming mismatch is two-fold. First, the verbal roots of the state change predications are identified as stative, not inchoative, a claim reflected in the morpheme glosses. Expressions with these roots exploit the semantics of ‘change’ in associated motion morphology to encode a change of state. Second, different stages of a change event are distinguished by the two morphemes. For both types of predicates, derivation with the andative pattern in (179) highlights the initial stage of change, i.e. the departure of the participant from the Source location or state, while use of the dislocative pattern in (180) highlights the post-change result stage, i.e. what the participant ‘does’ after arrival at the Goal location or state. Some of the spatial functions of AM morphology were identified in Section 2: 1) Both andative and dislocative suffixes associate a subevent of ‘motion away’ to the main verb. 2) The andative-perfective pattern highlights departure from Source and implicates completion of the main verb event. 3) The dislocative describes an incomplete or ongoing event at a Goal location ‘away from here’ but does not highlight departure. In this section we see how these spatial semantics of change of location, without a translational path, are partially transferred to the temporal domain of change of state. I argue that a class of verbs used to encode state change are actually stative roots, and that predications with these roots exploit andative and dislocative suffixes to encode ‘change away’ from the pre-change state, or ‘change away’ to the post-change state encoded by the main verb. Restated, in a change of state event expressed with an AM construction, the andativeperfective pattern focuses on the departure from the Source state, giving an inchoative reading, while the dislocative suffix describes an imperfective result state achieved after a presupposed change to the Goal state. First I compare these predications to change of state descriptions with verbs that do not occur with AM morphology.

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ASSOCIATED MOTION AND CHANGE

4.5.1 State change with and without associated ‘motion’ In Lowland Chontal, one group of state change predicates occurs with andative derivation and perfective inflection to express inchoative meaning, and with dislocative inflection to express the result state of a presupposed change of state. A partial list of this group includes kway- ‘arrive (be somewhere, having arrived)’, manj- ‘be full (objects)’, ñanj- ‘be satiated (humans)’, pagay‘be in bloom’, pix- ‘be wet’, maskay- ‘appear, (be suddenly?)’, soj- ‘be tired’, tamagay- ‘be at end, finish’, tyamay- ‘be flat’, xux- ‘be late’, xway- ‘be complete (an extent)’. Usage is exemplified in (181). (181) so-gix-p-o’

soj-t-o’

be.tired-AND-PFV-2S.PAT

be.tired-DLOC-2S.PAT

‘You are/were getting tired.’

‘You are/were tired.’

All of these are intransitive roots, and all but kway- ‘arrive’ depict nonagentive events (seen in non-agentive person-marking morphology, glossed PAT). These roots cannot be inflected with perfective morphology without andative derivation, cf. *soj-pa or * kway-pa. State change predicates formed with a second group of verbs occur with durative or imperfective inflection to express inchoative meaning, and with perfective or stative inflection to express a result state. These verbs include jujl- ‘get dry’, lyan- ‘get stuck’, ma- ‘die’, maj- ‘cook’, masko- ‘ripen’, pay‘break’, toj- ‘grow’, tontoj- ‘err, make a mistake’, wejl- ‘rot’. Again, all of these are intransitive roots, and here all depict non-agentive events, as in (182) and (183). (182) tyoj-’m-ola’

layñe’wa’ek’

grow-IPFV-3P.PAT my.little.trees

‘My little trees will grow.’ (183) ma-p-ola’ die-PFV-3P.PAT

‘They died/ they are dead.’

ñik’ata

tyoj-k-ilya’

grow-DUR-3P.PAT good

‘They are growing nicely.’ jujl-kuk’

el

pana’

dry-STAT2.SG DET river

‘The river has dried up.’

The two groups of state change predicates in 4.5.1 are best analyzed as two classes of verbal roots with distinct lexical aspect: stative roots in the first group, and inchoative roots in the second. This explains why predications with the first group require special morphology of ‘change’ to form an inchoative stem.

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MOTION, TRANSFER, AND TRANSFORMATION

4.5.2 Associated ‘motion’ as associated ‘change’ Cross-linguistically, ‘motion’ is a typical source domain from which languages recycle resources to express a change of state (e.g. Clark 1974, Lakoff & Johnson 1980). In Lowland Chontal, AM morphemes of ‘motion away from here’ and ‘motion to there’ have grammaticized to non-spatial senses. The transfer of the spatial semantics to the temporal domain is clear if we focus on the endpoint orientation of their usage in change of location and the difference between verbal semantics of stasis and state change. A change of location encoded with AM morphology has four components along a line in space that are relevant to the analysis: the Source location, the associated phase of ‘motion’ between Source and Goal, the Goal location, and the result phase at the new location. The andative depicts ‘move away from here’, and perfective or imperative inflection establishes the starting point of the departure, placing the main verb event at any of the remaining locations. The dislocative suffix contributes a subevent of ‘move to there’ and places an imperfective main verb event ‘away from here’, at the new location of the result phase. A change of state encoded with AM morphology has the analogue components along a timeline: the pre-change state or Source at the beginning of change, the inchoative phase, the end of change or Goal, and the result state. Analysis of the change of state andative-perfective pattern is rather straightforward: the andative depicts departure from the pre-change state, and perfective inflection signals inception of change, placing the main verb event in the inchoative phase of the change. ASSOCIATED CHANGE OF STATE, INCHOATIVE CHANGE

Undergoer AGT/PAT

main-V < stative >

+ +

AND leave start-state and/to be V

Analysis of the dislocative pattern is a bit trickier. The remaining puzzle lies in the unspecified endpoint(s) of the motion semantics in the dislocative suffix that arise from conflation with imperfective aspect. ‘Motion to there’ is entailed, but we have seen in change of location predicates that arrival at Goal is only implied. The difference may lie in the special qualities of state change. As Klein (1997:395-7) points out, entering a state and being in a state are two substates that need not and sometimes may not overlap. The ‘departure’ semantics of the andative-perfective pattern lead neatly to the inchoative substate, as described above, and the imperfective semantics of the dislocative apply to the second of the two substates, i.e., the post-change result state. In other words, the nature of state change strengthens the implicature of ‘arrival at Goal’. This is not the case for predications with non-stative roots that exploit AM morphology as change of location.

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ASSOCIATED MOTION AND CHANGE ASSOCIATED CHANGE OF STATE, COMPLETIVE CHANGE

Undergoer AGT/PAT

main-V < stative >

+ +

DLOC go to end-state and/to be V

The ‘narrative dislocation’ function illustrated in 4.4.3, in which a nonstative root with dislocative inflection locates an event in a fictitious time, provides a possible bridging context for the semantic transfer from space to time. In effect, narrative dislocation places a non-stative main verb event in the postchange result state of a timeline. 4.5.3 An intermediate pattern: change of position or configuration A change of position or spatial configuration is an event that intuitively falls between a change of location and a change of state. Typically, no translational motion is involved, yet the change undergone by the semantic Theme is a change of spatial relation. Perhaps the intermediate status of a change of position or configuration event, between process and change, is the reason positional roots can form a separate morphosyntactic class in some languages of the Americas (e.g. Kaufman p.c., Lucy 1994). In Chontal, the intermediate quality is manifest in the ‘uneven’ occurrence of AM morphology in predicates of change of position. Predicates without AM morphology pattern with change of location, and those with AM morphology pattern with change of state. A change of position can happen not here. One can ‘go and sit’, an event encoded with the same predicate as seen in (159) ‘go and live’, repeated here. (159)’ lay-x’api my-sister

pang-ix-pa

Estados

Unidos

live-AND-PFV.SG

states

united

‘My sister went and lived in the United States.’ The same main verb appears in example (184) from a folktale involving the trickster rabbit. Here the rabbit sends the poor badger to wait for him at the rabbit’s home. (184) pang-ta=yma’

lay-ñejutl’ iya=sa

sit-DLOC.SG=2S.AGT my-house

ko-pa

mane-ta

1S.AGT=DEM marry-DLOC.SG

naa=sa la’wa-fo’

say-PFV.SG REF=DEM DIM-rabbit

‘You go and sit at my house while I go and get married, said the rabbit.’ [rg4afo]

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MOTION, TRANSFER, AND TRANSFORMATION

However, most predicates of change of position or configuration in Chontal are formally complex predicates of associated direction, the topic of the following chapter. The point of relevance for the discussion in this chapter is that the result of a change of position is often expressed as the result of a change of states, with dislocative inflection. Responses to stimulus materials nicely illustrate this intermediate pattern. For example, when shown a picture of a ball in a tree, speakers answered with both the perfective form, without andative morphology, as in (185), and the dislocative form, as in (186). (185) jola-f’-kay-pa

pelota maj-ek’

el

sitting-up-ITVR1-PFV.SG DET ball

LOC-tree

‘The ball sat up in the tree.’ (186) jola-f’-kay-tya

el

pelota maj-ek’

sitting-up-ITVR1-DLOC.SG DET ball

LOC-tree

‘The ball is sitting up in the tree.’ These examples illustrate that being in a new position or spatial configuration is expressed without the ‘departure from here’ semantics of the andative, and can be expressed as an ongoing state at a new location, with dislocative inflection. If the interpretation of the dislocative were spatial, the change of position in (186) would be intended, not complete. 4.6 Subevents of motion ‘to or toward here’ In this section, two other members of the AM motion inventory are presented, the venitive suffix and the cislocative suffix. In contrast to the ‘motion away’ subevents described so far, both morphemes in this section have semantics of ‘motion toward’, and both can occur with motion roots as the main verb in the AM construction. The differences between the two suffixes are distributional and functional. The venitive CAN occur with some motion roots, while the cislocative ONLY occurs with a small inventory of motion roots. Furthermore, like its deictic counterpart the andative, the venitive suffix contributes a subevent that precedes the event depicted by the main verb. As described in 4.3. and 4.4, the andative adds a ‘go and do’ subevent. Here we shall see that the venitive adds a ‘come and do’ subevent. In contrast, the cislocative seems to add a simultaneous subevent, roughly, ‘come while doing’. Examination of the text corpus yielded a small number of tokens and even smaller number of types; therefore, a qualitative treatment is provided of first the venitive suffix and then the cislocative suffix.

ASSOCIATED MOTION AND CHANGE 4.6.1

131

The venitive associated motion suffix

< participant(s) > AGT/PAT

main-V < non-stative >

+ +

VEN move to(ward) here and do V

The venitive suffix associates an event of ‘motion to or toward’ to the main verb. The motion may be toward the speaker or toward the deictic center of the narrated speech event; the minimal pair in (187) demonstrates the basic spatial semantics of the suffix. (187) sago-jle’

sago-way-jle’

eat-IMP.PL

eat-VEN-IMP.PL

‘Eat!’

‘Come and eat!’

The venitive co-occurs with perfective, progressive, and imperative inflection. While this suffix typically associates a ‘come and do’ subevent to the main verb, there are a few examples in the current corpus that indicate a change of state function, as well, analogous to the robust pattern demonstrated for the andative. Allomorphs of the venitive are -way, -nay, and –ñay, a rather puzzling group: the palatal nasal is a regular allomorph of the oral nasal, but there is no phonetic environment that predicts the choice of –way vs. –nay. Waterhouse (1962: 81) identifies –way as the basic form that alternates to –ñay after a verbal root ending in –y, but this pattern does not hold in the current corpus. Furthermore, homophony with a directional morpheme complicates the picture: the morpheme -way also occurs in complex predicates of associated direction as ‘move down on’ or ‘be down on’, as will be seen in the following chapter. A fundamental use of the venitive is to associate a subevent of ‘come and do’ or ‘come to do’ to the event of the main verb, as in (188). (188)a. kway-’ma arrive-IPFV.SG

naa=sa

lay-suedra

REF=DEM

my-mother.in.law

‘My mother-in-law arrived,’ b. jl-nu’ee-way-pa 1S.PAT-ask.for-VEN-PFV.SG

naa=sa REF=DEM

‘she came to ask for me.’ [rg8sueño] Similarly, venitive derivation with progressive aspectual inflection produces a ‘do while coming’ interpretation. Example (189) demonstrates the interplay of verbal roots and associated motion morphology in the spatial positioning of participants. In this excerpt from a narrative about funerals, the

MOTION, TRANSFER, AND TRANSFORMATION

132

funeral cortege goes up the hill to the church and then back down through the village, enroute to the cemetery. (189)a. may-’ee-m-pa’ go-CAUS-X-PFV.PL

sage el

soytye

3S

church

DET

‘They carried him to the church,’ b. xi-ña-ta experience-TERM-DLOC.SG

sage

li-misa

3s

his-Mass

‘for him to go and hear his Mass there (the dead man).’ c. mu-ñay-wa sink-VEN-PROG.SG

sage pa’-na-pa’ 3S

sajpe

come-TERM-PFV.PL 3P

‘Here he comes descending, here they come.’ [rg9cantor] The same predicate is used in the exhortation in (190). (190)a. joypa cha=sa ima’ f’aj-pa now

now=dem 2s.agt ascend-pfv.sg

‘Now you’ve gone up (there),’ b. jola-f’-kay–x-pa

ima’

tamagay

sitting-up-ITVR1-AND-PFV.SG 2S.AGT above

‘you went to sit up high (on the roof),’ c. mu-ñay-jla’ sink-VEN-PROG.SG

cha=sa now=DEM

‘now come right back down!’ [RSpanfamilia] In both examples, the sense is ‘descend toward here’, down from the church or down from the roof. 4.6.1.1 The venitive suffix and social practices The venitive occurs with a variety of verb roots to express an event of invitation. Private homes in Chontal-speaking villages do not have telephones even today and few of the elders are literate, so people still follow the traditional practice of stopping at individual houses to leave a handful of corn or a cigarette with a verbal invitation. This cultural practice is encoded in the following common predications, which can all express ‘came to invite’:

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ASSOCIATED MOTION AND CHANGE (191) kane-way-pa

mi-way-pa

ñay’-way-pa

leave-VEN-PFV.SG

tell-VEN-PFV.SG

inform-VEN-PFV.SG

‘came to leave’

‘came to tell’

‘came to tell about’

None of these AM constructions is fully lexicalized, in that a person can come to leave or tell about anything; it doesn’t have to be an invitation. A related predicate with the verb ku- ‘give’ has come to mean ‘distribute’. Kuñaypa can be used even when there is no ‘motion toward here’ implied. Every social occasion involves distribution of food and gifts. In another segment of the funeral narrative excerpted above, the men arrive from having dug the grave, and the women serve them breakfast and refreshment at the home of the bereaved, (192). (192)a. ku-ñay-pa’ give-VEN-PFV.PL

sa

kafe

DEM

coffee

‘They distributed coffee,’ b. ku-ñay-pa’ give-VEN-PFV.PL

sa

me’e

DEM

tobacco

‘they distributed tobacco,’ c. ku-ñay-pa’ give-VEN-PFV.PL

sa

w-ay-p-ola’

DEM

container-across-PFV-3P.PAT

lakujlwe’ lijl-na’wa-mezcal men

their-DIM-mezcal

‘they distributed… they gave the men their nip of mezcal.’ [rg9cantor] The compound stem verb in (c) waypola’ specifies the ‘giving’ of a container (glass) of liquor. That type of construction is examined in Chapter 5. All forms of the ‘invitation construction’ occur with and without overt marking of the invitee with non-agentive person-marking morphology. This pattern is reminiscent of the use of AM morphology to indicate recipient participants noted early for Tokeluaun (Hooper 2002) and Saliba (Margetts 2002). 4.6.1.2 The venitive suffix with deictic motion verbs Motion verb roots may- ‘go’ and pa’- ‘come, depart toward here’ can occur with the venitive suffix. In the former case, the resulting predicate encodes a ‘coming’ event, as in (193). This excerpt is from a narrative in which a man ran off with another woman but had to return to his family.

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134

(193) tyi=sa=ge that=DEM=person

may-pa

kon

laka’no’

go-PFV.SG

with

woman

‘That guy went off with the woman,’ b. chicha today

ja’ñi xin-k’e-ta NEG

experience-CAUS-DLOC.SG

‘(but) now he never got used to it.’ c. may-ñay-pa

kaj-’mi-pa

go-VEN-PFV.SG leave-into-PFV.SG

lane’ road

‘He came back (when, because) she threw him out in the street.’ [aer2infiel] The main verb may- in (c) apparently draws on the non-deictic TRAVEL semantics of this root, as identified 3.3.1.3. The Chontales used the predicate mayñaypa to describe my arrival from across town and from the United States to the village. Use of the venitive with pa’- ‘come, depart toward here’ presents a case of seeming redundance. Instances of this derived predicate in the corpus occur with both venitive allomorphs, i.e. as panaypa and pawaypa, and in both cases mean ‘came out’. This usage augments the ‘depart toward here’ sense of the verb root with the deictic path semantics of the venitive. 4.6.1.3 The venitive suffix in change of state predications There is a small amount of evidence that the venitive plays a role in predications of change of state, in a function similar to that described for the andative but with semantics something like ‘came to be’. The first example is with the verb root kway-, a stative predicate meaning ‘be somewhere, having arrived’. (194) jaape la maestra sara? maa kway-way-pa where det teacher

sarah? NEG arrive-VEN-PFV.SG

‘Where is the teacher Sarah? She hasn’t arrived (here) yet.’ [APM] When two brothers are orphaned, this situation is described by the predication in (195). (195) ijl-tyuwa’

naa=sa

pane-nay-p-ola’

lan-kwesi

3P.POSS-alone REF=DEM remain-VEN-PFV-3P.PAT DET.PL-two.of.them

‘And so the two of them came to remain alone.’

[rg6abuelita]

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135

As a stative predicate, kway- ‘arrive’ requires some form of AM morphology (andative or venitive) to permit perfective inflection. However, the sense in (194) is easily analyzable as a change of location (‘depart toward here’) rather than strictly a change of state. Example (195), without any implication of translational motion, lends itself more easily to a ‘change of state’ interpretation. The brothers ‘came to remain alone’, and this happened without their intention or volition, as encoded in non-agentive morphology. 4.6.2

The cislocative associated motion suffix

Undergoer AGT/PAT

main-V < motion >

+ +

CLOC move to(ward) here doing V

The cislocative suffix, with allomorphs –uu, -yuu, -lyu and -gu, associates an event of ‘motion to here’ to the main verb. The allomorphs -lyu and –gu may be the result of fusion with applicative morphemes –lo and –go, respectively, but –uu and –gu alternate regularly in some dialects of Lowland Chontal. The likely analogue in the highland dialect, -yu, is listed by Turner and Turner as an optional verbal suffix meaning ‘here’ (1971:326). This morpheme is unusual within the associated motion paradigm for two reasons. First, the cislocative function is restricted to its occurrence with a handful of intransitive verbs of deictic motion. Verbal roots that occur with cislocative AM morphology are may- ‘go’, ay- ‘depart away’, pa’- ‘come, depart toward’, mu- ‘sink,’ so-/cho- ‘rise’, and pal- ‘return’. With other verbs, this morpheme functions as an intransitivizer, an indicator of what seems to be a middle voice. Second, the subevent contributed by CLOC seems to be simultaneous to the event depicted by the main verb, rather than preceding the main verb event, as VEN, AND and DLOC subevents were characterized. In addition, the AM semantics of the cislocative are difficult to characterize neatly, as is shown in the following. 4.6.2.1 The cislocative suffix with ‘go’ and ‘come’ The meaning of the cislocative is ‘move toward here while doing V’ with most verbs in the motion subset, including most occurrences with pa’- ‘come’. In many complex predicates of ‘coming’, the cislocative contributes the expected subevent of ‘motion to here’, providing a path toward deictic center. This usage is demonstrated in (196), an excerpt from a longer narrative already seen in 3.3.1.3.1 about planting corn. (196)a. may-’ma go-IPFV.SG

sa

hasta

jaape

tamagay-go-s-pa

DEM

until

where

finish-APPL-AND-PFV.SG

‘He goes off to the far end of the field (lit: to where it [the field] went and finished),’

MOTION, TRANSFER, AND TRANSFORMATION

136 b. joypa

sa

pa’-yuu-wa

already

come-CLOC-PROG.SG DEM

‘and then returns.’ c. tonj ‘ñi cha=sa=‘le as

‘ee-’ma

just now=DEM=thing do-IPFV.SG

‘That’s all there is to it.’ d. may-’ma

pa’-yuu-pa

go-IPFV.SG come-CLOC-PFV.SG

‘He goes, he comes back,’ e. may-’ma

pa’-kom-pa

go-IPFV.SG come-ITR-PFV.SG

‘he goes, he comes back again,’ [aer4ajutl] However, in some instances the cislocative morpheme is better interpreted as ‘reversive’, as illustrated in (197).36 (197) may-uu-jla’

pa’-yuu-jla’

go-CLOC-IMP.SG

come-CLOC-IMP.SG

‘Come in!’

‘Go away!’

In (197), cislocative derivation effectively ‘reverses’ the directional orientation commonly associated with each verb. The free translation of pa’-yuu-pa in (196)b and (d) is ‘return’ or ‘come back’. Another verb pal- is used to predicate a ‘returning’ event. The root palmay be formed of pa’- ‘come’ plus the locative applicative –lo, or the complex predicate may simply be pa’- ‘come’ with the cislocative allomorph lyu-. The following is another excerpt from a longer narrative about the annual arrival of turtles on a nearby beach for spawning. (198)a. joyya finish-STAT1.SG

sa

xway-yay’

lijl-tyiñe

DEM

be.complete-DUR.PL

their-day

para

pal-yu-gu,

for

return-CLOC-SBJNT.PL

‘As soon as it came time for them to return,’

36

This is the qualified suggestion of Waterhouse (1962: 81), who also saw the inconsistencies.

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ASSOCIATED MOTION AND CHANGE sa

b. pal-yu-pa

return-CLOC-PFV.SG DEM

fanchi

así

three.of.them

like.that

ñulyi, kwesi, one

two.of.them

‘here came one, two, three of them, like that.’ [RStortuga] There are very few predications with pal- ‘return’ in the corpus. Over various field seasons, speakers were asked in elicitation to help unravel the mysteries around palyuu- ‘return’ vs. pa’yuu- ‘come back’ (also pronounced payuu-, with no glottal stop), in hopes of also shedding light on the reversive usage, illustrated in (197) above. Answers varied each year, and while speakers agreed that (197)b ‘Go away! Get out!’ was strange, they had no explanation. There is clearly something about the context that disambiguates predicates for speakers, but to date no discourse study has been done to clarify this point for the linguist. 4.6.2.2 The cislocative suffix with ‘sink’ and ‘rise’ The cislocative suffix contributes to motion along the vertical axis, as derivational morphology with verb roots mu- ‘sink’ and so- or cho- ‘rise’. Both these verbs are Source-oriented: ‘depart downward’ and ‘depart upward’, respectively. The first depicts an event of sinking down into something, like feet into sand or a body into water. (199) mu-pa sink-PFV.SG

lo-’mix

jaape

lantomats’

your-foot

where

sand

‘Your foot sank in the sand.’ [EER Oz.IV.21] With cislocative morphology, the AM predicate means ‘descend’. (200) jlek’ chasa pa’-jle-na-gu’, when now

mu-lyu-jlu-pa’

naa=sa

come-PL-TERM-SBJV.PL sink-CLOC-PL-PFV.PL REF=DEM

‘When it was time for them to come (back), they would come down.’ [ael6ritos] The counterpart so- or cho- ‘rise’ is a bound root that requires further derivation to form a verbal stem that can be inflected. To depict ‘rising’, of a person from a chair or a bed or of bread dough in the pan before baking, the root is derived with the variant cislocative AM suffix –lyu, as in (201).

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138

(201) joypa cho-lyu-pa

la’i

ma-k’e-ta

sa=yma’

already rise-CLOC-PFV.SG bread cook-CAUS-DLOC.SG DEM=2S.AGT

‘Once the bread has risen, you go off and bake it (in the local oven).’ [RSpanfamilia] In AM predicates of ‘descend’ and ‘rise’, cislocative derivation contributes a translational path to ‘departure’ verbs on the vertical axis. 4.6.2.3 The cislocative suffix and cyclic motion The final predicate formed with cislocative AM morphology describes cyclical deictic motion. This verbal stem was already introduced in 3.3.1.2. Based on ay- ‘depart away’, the AM predicate ay-gu- describes the motion of an entity that has come and gone again: it came, and it is no longer here. This particular combination of derived root produces a sequence of motions, a ‘come and then do V’ rather than the simultaneous ‘come while doing V’ seen in other predicates with the cislocative. Example (202) is taken from a narrative about the trickster rabbit that comes each day to feed in the farmer’s field. (202)a. te-juy eat-DUR.SG

iya’

kasi’

kwa

naa

1S.AGT

chili

say

REF

‘I’m eating chili, he says.’ b. ay-gu-pa depart-CLOC-PFV.SG

iya’

mogyi

1S.AGT morning

moygi morning

‘I come every day.’ [rg2afo] Every day the rabbit departed toward the chili field, but he did not remain – every day he left again. The predicate aygupa was also used to talk about a hurricane that hit the village one year and, as reported in 3.3.1, to describe my comings and goings in the Chontal-speaking communities. In each case, the motion predicate reflects the fact that the entity that came did not stay or was not expected to stay. 4.7 Conclusions ‘Associated motion’ describes a semantic linguistic category that associates a subevent of previous, subsequent, or simultaneous motion to the event of a main verb. In Lowland Chontal, the associated motion category includes four suffixes: the andative and the dislocative, with semantics of ‘motion away from here’ and ‘motion to there’, respectively; and the venitive and the cislocative, both with semantics of ‘motion to or toward here’. The subevents contributed by venitive, andative, and dislocative are best characterized as preceding the event of the main verb, while the subevent contributed by the cislocative is

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simultaneous with the event of the main verb. The andative highlights departure from the Source location, away from deictic center, and occurs with perfective or imperative inflection, which provides aspectual reference for the entire complex predicate. The dislocative inflectional suffix situates an imperfective event at some Goal location away from the speech event. The venitive contributes motion to or toward deictic center, and the cislocative can shape the direction of deictic motion encoded by the main verb in the complex predicate. The semantics of motion through space have grammaticized to encode change through time. In natural discourse, speakers use dislocative inflection to place non-stative events in a fictitious time, in a type of ‘narrative dislocation’. Furthermore, predications with a small set of stative roots exploit the change semantics of AM morphology in expressions of change of state. Inflection with the andative-perfective pattern depicts ongoing change away from a Source state, and inflection with the dislocative suffix describes a post-change result state. A few predicates with the venitive-perfective pattern can also be interpreted as a change of state, i.e., that the participant ‘came to be’ in some state. The depiction of the Goal location as the locus of subsequent activity is a key discourse function of the motion-cum-purpose construction in particular and of complex predicates of AM in general. This powerful and prevalent function explains in part the lack of lexicalized Source and Goal participants, noted in the discussion of simple predicate endpoints in 3.3.1, and motivates the consistent practice of describing the static scene, at an endpoint or instead of the endpoint, identified in the discussion of The Frog Story narratives in 3.4.2. Complex predicates of associated motion and change represent the satellite-framed portion of the grammar of change. In comparison with verb-framed change, described in the previous chapter, satellite-framing of change events is more restricted in Chontal: it does not characterize the most frequent means of expressing change. An AM subevent does not depict the manner of change, nor does it make any restrictions on possible classes of undergoer referents. The primary function of satellite-framed change events is to situate an event or state in space or time, often in interaction with verb-framed change. AM predicates encode an event as the endpoint of motion (encoded by a path verb) and depict the purpose of a departure (encoded by a path verb). They also produce a state change event from a stative root, by situating that state as inceptive or completive. Chapters 3 and 4 have shown that verb-framing and satellite-framing have very different but both very important roles to play in the grammar of change.

CHAPTER 5. COMPLEX PREDICATES OF ASSOCIATED DIRECTION AND TOPOLOGICAL RELATION

This chapter focuses on a second pattern of complex predicate formation. In complex predicates of associated direction and topological relation, two or more verbal elements combine to form a compound stem that expresses a change of location, a change of position, or a change of state. These compound stems have one aspectual inflection and one set of arguments, and they can predicate single- and multi-participant events. Compound stems are formed of two types of verbal elements, each of which makes a particular contribution to the meaning of the construction. The basic template of the complex predicate of associated direction and topological relation is: V1 – DTR –

INFLECTION

The initial verbal element, called V1 throughout the discussion, specifies one of the following: • • •

something about the change event itself o the process or cause that leads to change, or o the shape of the path taken by the undergoer in motion, something about the undergoer participant o its size, shape, type, position or configuration something about the Goal participant o its type

The second element, of direction or topological relation (DTR), can encode or imply a directional path of change, and it specifies one of the following: • •

the endpoint of motion or position o as a spatial domain or o as a topological relation the end-state of a change of state

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o as “apart” o as realized These complex predicates represent the equipollently-framed component of the grammar of change. Unlike the associated motion and change predicates of Chapter 4 (satellite-framed change), ‘change’ is not depicted in a subevent prior to a main event. In comparison with the simple predicates of Chapter 3 (verb-framed change), both strategies express a unitary change event and both assert endpoint and assert or imply trajectory. The differences are that the predicates in this chapter express means, trajectory, or undergoer type and give explicit detail of the endpoint or end-state, all in a single predicate. The complex predicates in this chapter are analyzed as a family of four major construction types. The constructions all express events in which an undergoer moves, shifts, or transforms to a resulting configuration at an endpoint. The depicted events include caused and spontaneous change, and lexical mention of the endpoint location is optional. Different constructions present different combinations of verb semantics and respond to different discourse motivations. Constructions that tell us something more about the change event itself are shown to serve adverbial and path elaboration functions, and constructions that tell us something more about the undergoer or Goal participant are shown to serve referent-tracking functions. The chapter is organized as follows. In 5.1, the compounding pattern is introduced and compared with similar processes of complex predicate formation cross-linguistically. In 5.2, the component parts of the complex predicate are examined individually. Formal and semantic features of compound stems are reviewed and basic underlying semantic templates are presented in 5.3, along with a brief look at descriptions of static locations encoded as result states of change, using the same compound stem resources. The next four sections focus on the function-specific construction types. These are the means construction (5.4), the dispositional construction (5.5), the classificatory construction (5.6), and the trajectory construction (5.7). The chapter ends with concluding remarks in 5.8. 5.1 Introduction The compound stem constructions described in this chapter represent a semantically and grammatically similar subset of the ‘bipartite stem’ construction described in Washo (Jacobsen 1980) and in Klamath (DeLancey (1996a, 1996b, 1999, 2003). In particular, DeLancey’s work on Klamath has contributed greatly to my understanding of the Chontal predicates. Klamath lexical prefixes can depict the size, shape or posture of the Theme, express a manner of motion, or function as instrumental prefixes, while locative-directive stems can express location, motion, or state change (DeLancey 2003:68-73). All of

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MOTION, TRANSFER, AND TRANSFORMATION

these functions will be described for Chontal compound stem predicates. The similarities of the construction type in Washo, Klamath and Chontal is especially interesting because all three languages are candidates for the proposed Hokan stock. There are, however, significant differences between the compound stems predicates in Chontal and the bipartite stem predicates in Washo and Klamath. First, the inventories of resources are quite dissimilar. Washo has 125 prefixes and 250 dependent stems (Jacobsen 1980), and Klamath has 74 lexical prefixes and 130 locative-directive stems (DeLancey 1999, 2003), while Lowland Chontal has only about 100 initial elements and 10-15 elements of direction and topological relation. Unlike the locative-directive stem in Klamath, which can give rich detail of a ground referent as ‘in the bushes’ or ‘into a fire’ (DeLancey 2003:72-73), the DTR element in Chontal does not specify the ground referent, although the V1 element sometimes identifies the type of ground. In addition, many individual morphemes in the Chontal stem are independent verbs, while this is not the case for the other two languages. Looking at languages geographically closer to the Chontal-speaking area, directionals are in fact an areal feature of Mesoamerica. (See Kuiper & Merrifield 1975 for Diuxi Mixtec, England 1976 for Mam, Speck & Pickett 1976 for Texmulucan Zapotec, Craig 1979 for Jacaltec, Butler 1980 for Yatzachi Zapotec, Suárez 1983 for a survey, Haviland 1991 for Tzotzil, Zavala 1992 for Acatec, Lucy 1994 for Yucatec). In addition, the ‘Theme-specific’ semantics of some complex predicates in Chontal are very like the dispositional verbs described by Brown (1994) and Bohnemeyer and Brown (to appear) in the Mayan languages Yucatec and Tzeltal. However, the DTR element in Chontal is lexically and syntactically unlike Mayan directionals, which often have clearly related counterparts among intransitive motion verbs, adverbs, and in aspectual morphology. In the Chontal complex predicate of associated direction and topological relation, the initial element (V1) comes from an internally diverse class of about 100 members, while the second element (DTR) comes from a closed class of 10-15 morphemes. The elements will be examined individually in 5.2. In any given stem, either, both, or neither element may be an independent verb in the language today. In a few cases, there can be two V1s or two DTRs in a single compound stem. The compounding pattern is not fully productive, as not every V1 can combine with every DTR and seemingly reasonable neologisms are unacceptable. The resulting ‘gaps’ in V1-DTR combinations, coupled with resistance to creativity and the variable verbal status of individual elements, points to a high degree of lexicalization. The general term ‘complex predicate’ is appropriate because the Chontal situation does not quite fit very similar patterns described in the literature. As discussed above, the stems are not exactly ‘bipartite’ because many individual

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morphemes in the Chontal stem are independent verbs. The stems are not exactly ‘classificatory’ because many classify the event and not the semantic Theme. As in Nez Perce or Central Pomo (Mithun 1999:118-126), these are not exactly ‘instrumentals’, although many describe the ‘manner or means’ of change. They are not serial verbs (Durie 1997, Aikhenvald 1999) because each verbal element in the series is not an independent morphological word, but serialization seems a likely previous stage of development. The exact mechanisms behind the presumed serialization are not clear, but restrictions on V1-DTR combinations suggest that frequency and usefulness play a role. That is, event descriptions that are stereotypical, salient, communicatively in demand or otherwise typical (Durie 1997:321-322) are those that develop into serialized sequences of verbs and later lexicalized compound stems. However, the characterization of a ‘typical’ event for any given speech community can be problematic. For example, in the Chontalpa, rivers are shallow most of the year and in the rainy season have swift currents. Therefore, it is more common to jump across a river than to swim across it. This could be proposed as the reason that there is a compound stem for ‘jump across’, as in (203), but not for ‘swim across’ (204). (203) jway-ñi-pa

el

pana’

jump-across-PFV.SG DET river

‘He jumped across the river.’ [RS MVB] (204) *xnoy-ñi-pa swim-across-PFV.SG

Instead, the event of ‘swimming across’ would be expressed using two clauses, as in (205). (205) xnoy-yuy

ki-ñi-pa

el

pana’

swim-DUR.SG straight-across-PFV.SG DET river

‘He swam across the river.’ [RS MVB] The manner component ‘swimming’ is expressed as an inflected verb preceding an appropriate and available compound stem predicate of ‘crossing’. Examples with the manner verb ñulye- ‘run’, which does not occur as a V1, suggests a possible path of grammaticization. In (206) we see the typical complex predicate that means ‘enter’. (206) joypa sayma’ chuf-k’oy-’ma

lijeda

already 2S.AGT enter-inside-IPFV.SG town

‘Then you will enter the town.’ [aer3vender]

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144

There is no compound stem for ‘run into’, such as *ñulye-k’oy-’ma. Instead, this motion event would be expressed with two inflected verbs, as in (207), literally, ‘he ran and he entered the house’. (207) ñulye-pa

chuf-k’oy-pa

lajutl’

run-PFV.SG enter-inside-PFV.SG house

‘He ran into the house.’ [RS MVB] But one can also reduplicate the manner verb and omit the inflection, as in (208). (208) ñulye ñulye chuf-k’oy-pa run

run

lajutl’

enter-inside-PFV.SG house

‘He ran into the house.’ [RS MVB] The hypothesis is that an uninflected manner verb preceding a motion predicate could in time become the initial element of a compound stem. This suggestion is not supported by comparative or reconstructive work, but it provides a starting point for future work on how the compound stem constructions developed. 5.2 Components of the V1-DTR compound stem 5.2.1 Initial verbal elements (V1) The initial element (V1) of the compound stem comes from an internally diverse class of about 100 members. This subsection introduces the notional classes of V1s, describes their verbal status, and presents the rare cases in which two V1s occur in a single compound stem. 5.2.1.1 Notional classes of V1s For this study, the V1s were categorized into four notional classes according to semantics and to patterns of combinatorial distribution with DTR elements. Each notional class serves as the basis for a type of construction. A detailed inventory of each notional class is presented with the corresponding construction in later sections of the chapter, but a brief introduction is in order here. Means V1s describe the process or cause of the change that moves, shifts or transforms the undergoer. This is a large and diverse group, including verbal elements of moving and placing, manner of motion and change of state. These elements participate in the means construction, which serves primarily an adverbial function. Dispositional V1s describe change in the posture or configuration of the undergoer participant with respect to a ground or Goal location. These ele-

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145

ments participate in the dispositional construction, which also expresses the means of change and may serve referent-tracking functions in discourse. Classificatory V1s describe the size, shape or type of the referent of the undergoer participant or of the Goal. These elements participate in the classificatory construction, which has discourse functions related to referent tracking and referent introduction. Trajectory V1s describe the shape of the path taken by the undergoer in motion. These elements participate in the trajectory construction, which elaborates path shape and semantically serves a type of “default function”. That is, this construction type can be used when the other construction types are inappropriate or not useful. 5.2.1.2 Verb classes of V1s The V1s can be divided into three form classes according to verbal status and valence. Valence was described earlier as a property of verbal roots, reflecting the tendency of the root to invoke one or more core arguments. A monovalent root, without further valence-changing derivation, inflects as an intransitive verb, and a bivalent root, without valence-changing derivation, inflects as a transitive verb. A root that requires derivation to form either type of verb is termed labile. The class of monovalent roots includes such members as jway- ‘jump’, te‘fall’, and kas- ‘stand’. Some roots have specific meanings when inflected as verbs that are semantically bleached when the morpheme occurs as a V1. For example, ñu- means ‘drip’ when inflected as a simple intransitive verb, and the same morpheme often has more general semantics of ‘move’ when it functions as the initial element of a compound stem. The class of bivalent roots includes such members as jas- ‘tear, split, slice’, fa- ‘plant’, pu- ‘dig’, and sk’wi- ‘stab’. These maintain their semantics when they occur as V1s. The semantically general verb ‘ee- ‘do, make’ is included in this group, and the same morpheme (with allomorph -k’e) occurs as a causative suffix to the compound stem. The third class comprises bound verbal morphemes that are neutral with respect to valence. Like the class of labile roots described in Chapter 3 for simple predicates, these verbal morphemes require additional material (a DTR or derivational morphology) to form either an intransitive or a transitive stem. Alone, they cannot be inflected as verbs. This class includes ch’u- ‘corn, grain’, jojl- ‘sit, sitting’, ñaj- ‘lie, lying’, k’o- ‘mouth-ward’, and chuf- ‘enter’. 5.2.2 Verbal elements of direction and topological relation (DTR) The second element in the compound stem details the spatial domain at the endpoint of the change event, locating the endpoint on the vertical axis and/or describing the spatial configuration of the undergoer participant at the Goal

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MOTION, TRANSFER, AND TRANSFORMATION

point with respect a ground element. The morphemes in this slot come from a closed class of 11 members (identified so far) and contribute semantics of explicit or implied change in some direction and/or into a particular topological relation. They are presented in Table 27. Table 27. Elements of direction and topological relation (DTR) DTR -f’ -ayj

Direction and/or Topological Relation be/become UP – move upward, be up become DOWN – move downward

-f’i -way, -we -may

be/become UP ON – support be/become DOWN ON – support be/become DOWN IN – containment & support

-’mi -gi, -ki -k’oy

be/become IN, ON – containment & support become OUT – from containment or attachment be/become INSIDE – contained, tight fit or unseen

-ñi -ay -ng

be/become ACROSS – cross a boundary (divide, receive) become ACROSS – cross a boundary (give) be/become ON/AT – edges, surface contact

The varying descriptions reflect the semantic and distributional differences among the DTR elements, touched on in the following discussion. Some DTRs, glossed as ‘become X’, seem to depict a translational directional path to a general spatial domain, while those glossed as ‘be/become X’ seem to imply a boundary-crossing or state change type of path to a specific spatial relation. Thus, the differences among elements within the DTR component class are that some depict an explicit change to endpoint or end-state, while others depict an implicit change to endpoint or end-state. Elements in the latter group also participate in predications of result state, in which compound stems take stative aspectual inflection, a topic addressed in 5.3. The DTR elements are presented in four groups below. 5.2.2.1 DTR elements: up and down -f’ ‘up, upward’ -ayj ‘down, downward’ The first two DTRs are most like directionals, as they typically contribute an unbounded, directional path (e.g. Jackendoff 1983) to the meaning of the compound stem predicate. The path can include but doesn’t require a specified endpoint of ground element. However, there are significant differences between them, in terms of verbal status and distribution among the constructions. The DTR element -f’ occurs in complex predicates of caused and uncaused events in which the undergoer rises or is raised, ending in a configuration ‘up’.

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In the following example, the speaker is describing her preparations to go hunting. iya’

(209)a. pe-f’-kuy

lay-sombrero

small-up-DUR.SG 1S.AGT my-hat

‘I would pick up my hat,’ lay-kamisa, lay-pantalón,

b. jo-f’-ko-’ma=ya’

don?-up-APPL-IPFV.SG=1S.AGT my-shirt

my-pants

‘put on my shirt, my pants,’ lay-’acha,

c. le-f’-’ma=ya’

long-up-IPFV.SG=1S.AGT my-axe

‘pick up my axe,’ d. joy’-’ma

sa=ya’

lay-milya’

call-IPFV.SG DEM=1S.AGT my-dog

‘call my dog,’ e. may-pa

sa=ya’

go-PFV.SG DEM=1S.AGT

‘and off I went.’ [aer1panka] There are three ‘raising’ events in (209): in (a), the speaker picks up a small thing (her hat); in (b), she picks up and puts on clothing, and in (c) she picks up a long thing (an axe, by the handle). The undergoer participant in each change event is moved to an unspecified endpoint ‘up’. The DTR -ayj occurs in complex predicates that depict caused events only, in which the undergoer is lowered by a causer. Compare compound stems with the two DTRs, with the same V1: (210) iya=sa

le-f’-kilya’

la’way’

1S.AGT=DEM anim-up-DUR-3P.PAT children

‘I “pick up” children (I am a midwife).’ [AER] (211) l-ayj-pa

li-pya’no’

anim-down-PFV.SG his-wife

‘He lowered his wife (helped his wife down).’ [EER] In each event above, a human undergoer is raised or lowered, and again the spatial location of the endpoint is not lexicalized.

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MOTION, TRANSFER, AND TRANSFORMATION

The origins of each DTR are straightforward: -f’ ‘up, upward’ is clearly related to the verbal root f’aj- ‘ascend’, and ayj- ‘lower’ can be inflected as a verbal root. Example (212) shows a specialized yet frequent use of the latter to describe the harvesting of small shrimp from rocks in the river. (212) ayj-’me’

sa

lansanyu’ el

down-IPFV.PL DEM people

DET

mixi tiny.shrimp

‘People gather small shrimp.’ The shrimp are swiped down with the edge of the hand into the waiting bags and baskets. Usage patterns of the two DTRs are quite different. Predicates formed with -ayj are more highly restricted, only depicting caused events and only instantiating one type of construction (the classificatory construction). Meanwhile -f’ predicates encode both spontaneous and caused events; they instantiate all four types of construction, and in some instances a directional path is not implied, as in the following. (213) ñu-f’-kuy

laka’ tamagay’

move-up-DUR.SG bird above

‘The bird is flying up above.’ [APM] Example (213) means that the bird is moving ‘up there’, not that the bird is ‘moving up’ or ascending into the sky. 5.2.2.2 DTR elements: up on, down on, down in -f’i ‘up on’ -way, -we ‘down on’ -may ‘down in’ The next set of DTRs depict both direction on the vertical axis and topological relation, contributing an end-state configuration of support or containment. These will be illustrated using the same V1, the postural jojl- or jola- ‘sit, sitting’. Apart from a few highly lexicalized exceptions, the DTR element -f’i occurs exclusively in complex predicates of caused events, in which a causer moves an undergoer up and on top of a ground location, as in (214). (214) jola-f’i-pa

lapixu’ jaape lunkwa’

sitting-up.on-PFV.SG pot

‘She set the pot on the fire.’

where fire

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The morpheme -f’i ‘up on’ presumably developed from the verb f’aj- ‘ascend’ as a counterpart to -f’ ‘up’, discussed above, perhaps with additional derivational morphology of GOAL (see 2.3.5.1). Moving on to the downward pair, the difference between DTR elements way and -may can be a subtle one. The first, with allomorph -we, depicts change down and on to a ground location, while the second depicts change down and into a ground location. The distinction is demonstrated in the following elicited examples reviewed with various speakers. (215) jojl-way-pa sit-down.on-PFV.SG

‘He sat down (on the ground or on a stump).’ (216) jojl-may-pa sit-down.in-PFV.SG

‘He sat down (in the middle of a chair, or on a hammock).’ In contrast to -f’i, both -way and -may occur primarily in constructions that express spontaneous events. The origins of the morphemes are unclear. There is a venitive derivational morpheme -way that means ‘come and do’, and there are verbal roots may- ‘go’ and mu- ‘sink, descend’. However, it is not known if this motion morphology is related to the DTR elements. 5.2.2.3 DTR elements: in, out, inside The next three DTR elements highlight topological relations into and out of containment. Whether or not a directional path is also contributed to the semantics of the compound stem varies according to the V1-DTR combination. -’mi ‘in, on’ -gi, -ki ‘out’ -k’oy ‘inside’ Example (217) is a reflection on the speaker’s father’s work as a farmer. The predicate in each clause is fa- ‘plant’. In (a) and (b) the verb predicates a habitual activity, and in the final clause a compound stem predicate details the configuration of the undergoer (the corn) in the field. (217)a. lay-tyaata sa

fa-duy

my-father DEM plant-DUR.SG

‘My father used to farm,’

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MOTION, TRANSFER, AND TRANSFORMATION b. awe layñega fa-duy big cornfield plant-DUR.SG

‘he planted a large field,’ c. faj-’mi-yuy

sa

lan-kosak’

plant-in-DUR.SG DEM DET.PL-corn

‘planting corn.’ [AER] The verb root jlo- is used to express events of scooting your chair away from a table or scooting along the ground while weeding. The morpheme retains a sense of ‘move a short distance’ when it occurs as the V1 of a compound stem, as in (218) and (219). (218) jlo-gi-yuy

lyukwix

scoot-out-DUR.SG rope

‘She is untying the rope (to open the door).’ [AER] (219) jlo-k’oy-’ma=ya’

l-a’wa-bolsa

scoot-inside-PFV.SG=1S.AGT DET-DIM-bag

‘I am sticking the little bag inside.’ [AER v1-dir] Example (219) was collected in elicitation. The speaker picked up two small bags on the table in front of her and stuck one inside the other. Both -’mi ‘in, on’ and -gi or -ki ‘out’ occur almost exclusively in caused change events, while -k’oy ‘inside’ is used in compound stems that predicate both spontaneous and caused events. How and from what these three DTR elements developed is not known. A morpheme -k’oy or -k’o occurs in predicates that Waterhouse (1962:85) called ‘portatives’, mentioned earlier in 3.6.1, and indeed many of them translate as ‘what you hold/carry/bring in your hand’. And finally, -k’oy also occurs as a general intensifier, as in ‘wak’oyyuy (‘wa‘walk’ + -k’oy + -yuy DUR.SG) ‘walk all around, walk around in circles’. 5.2.2.4 DTR elements: across; edge -ñi ‘across’ — cross a boundary; receive, move apart -ay ‘across’ — cross a boundary; give -ng ‘edge’ — at/on the edge, with surfaces in contact The final subset of DTR elements depict rather special spatial relations, involving physical or abstract ‘boundaries’ related to the ground participant, or the edges or surfaces attributed to the ground.

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Elements -ñi and -ay are both glossed as ‘across’. These describe the endpoint of the change event as ‘having crossed a boundary’. When the Goal referent is a person, the compound stem predicates are lexicalized as ‘receive’ with -ñi and ‘give’ with -ay. The morpheme -ñi shows additional versatility, participating in descriptions of crossing a physically identifiable ground element, such as a river, or of ‘crossing’ to a point of realization ‘apart’. These uses are demonstrated below, starting with events of receiving and giving in (220). (220)a. ch’u-ñi-pa=ya corn-across-PFV.SG=1S.AGT

‘I received some corn,’ iya’

b. p-ay-p-o’

small-across-PFV-2S.PAT 1S.AGT

‘and I gave it to you.’ [AER v1-dir ] Example (221) shows an event of crossing a physical boundary. (221) jway-ñi-pa

el

pana’

jump-across-PFV.SG DET river

‘He jumped across the river.’ [RS Oz.20] Some speakers use an alternative form, jway-ño-pa, to express the same event. The morpheme -ño is analyzed here as an allomorph, which perhaps fuses -ñi ‘across’ with a locative applicative -o, and not as a separate DTR. This alternate form is used invariably in the perhaps unanalyzable compound stem predicate naño- ‘to pass’, as in (222). fa’a ñulyi

(222) ts’e=‘imanne na-ño-pa just=also

move?-across-PFV.SG here one

‘Another one just passed by here.’ [ael3afo] In state change events, the DTR -ñi depicts a realization stage such as ‘apart, in two pieces’. (223) pa-ñi-pa

el

xantya

break-across-PFV.SG DET watermelon

‘She broke the watermelon apart.’ [rs C/B.51]

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There are two reflexes of ñi- as a verbal root in the language today. One expresses events of ‘earning’, such as money, and ‘winning’, such as a race. The other is a bound verbal morpheme that occurs with causative or intransitivizing morphology to describe events of ‘stretching’, such as a rope or one’s arms. Both of these are possible candidates for development into the DTR element -ñi. The story behind -ay ‘across’ is at first glance much simpler, as this morpheme can occur as a stand-alone verb ay- ‘give’. However, it should be noted that there is another verb ay- which means ‘depart away’. This raises the possibility that these are the same verb, used in complementary distribution with respect to argument structure. The situation is further muddled by a derivational suffix -ay which can be used with a bound verbal root to form an intransitive stem. Example (224) shows both the sense of ‘give’ and the verbal suffix. (224) ay-jla’

lugar para chuf-ay-’ma=ya’

give-IMP.SG place for

enter-ITVR1-IPFV.SG=1S.AGT

‘Make way, so that I can enter.’ [ael3afo] Whatever their possible histories, the current usage patterns of -ñi and -ay as DTRs in compound stem constructions are quite different. The former occurs in all four construction types, while the latter participates perhaps exclusively in the classificatory construction. The final DTR element -ng, with homorganic allomorphs -n and -m, expresses a spatial relation between undergoer and ground as ‘on or at the edge’ or of ‘surfaces in contact’. The morpheme contributes, for example, the difference between ‘swell’ (225) and ‘get fat’ (226). (225) joypa fu-pa

lay-mane

already swell-PFV.SG my-hand

‘My hand swelled up.’ [SLG] (226) joypa fu-m-pa

la’wa

already swell-edge-PFV.SG child

‘The child got fat.’ [SLG] The DTR element -ng ‘edge, surface’ frequently combines with dispositional V1s ñaj- ‘lying’ or ta- ‘on back or shoulder’. In (227)b the tortilla, a thin flatbread made of cornmeal, is placed ‘lying’ such that its surface is flat on the tortilla griddle.

ASSOCIATED DIRECTION AND TOPOLOGICAL RELATION (227) pa’-ada=sa

153

lay-pepo’

come-SJNCT.SG=DEM my-younger.sibling

‘When my sister comes,’ b. ña-ng-’mi-’ma

laskujl

lying-edge-in-IPFV.SG tortilla

‘she will make the tortillas,’ c. sa-go-’me=yang eat-APPL-IPFV.PL=1P.AGT

‘and we’ll eat.’ [rg1ajutl] In similar fashion, one relaxes with the surface of one’s back in contact with the hammock,(228). (228)a. ts’ang-’ma iya’

lay-mejutl’

hang-IPFV.SG 1S.AGT my-hammock

b. para iya’ for

ta-ng-may-’ma

1S.AGT on.back-edge-down.in-IPFV.SG

‘I will hang up my hammock so I can lie in it.’ [RS] This curious morpheme occurs in compound stems that predicate both caused and uncaused events. A reasonable source morpheme has not been identified. 5.2.3 Unusual compound stems To complete the picture of the formal composition of V1-DTR stems, this subsection presents three types of variation that will be seen from time to time in the examples: compound stems with two V1 elements, compound stems with two DTR elements, and compound stems with morphology between the V1 and DTR elements. 5.2.3.1 Compound stems with two V1 elements A handful of compound stems in the current corpus can be analyzed as having two elements before a DTR element. Example (229) shows two tokens of one of these. (229)a. ñu-jli-ng-guy

lajutl’,

move-slide-edge-DUR.SG house

‘He was circling the house,’

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154

b. ñu-jli-ng-guy

lakwe’ tonj milya’

move-slide-edge-DUR.SG man

like dog

‘the man was circling like a dog.’ [apm CGQ.9] The complex predicate is composed of nu- ‘move’ plus jli- ‘slide’ plus the DTR -ng ‘edge, surface’. It describes any motion around the edge or border of a ground referent. 5.2.3.2 Compound stems with two DTR elements There are a few compound stems in which two DTRs follow the V1. Consider the differences among the next three examples. The first two are from a narrative on rituals for the dead. In (230), an undergoer in a lying disposition (the body of the deceased) is placed on a sleeping mat, and in (231) the body is lifted and placed in a coffin. (230) tyijpe sa there

DEM

ñaj-’mi-yay’

jaape li-ñe-jwijma

lying-in-DUR.PL where his-LINK-mat

‘There they place him on his sleeping mat.’ [rg9cantor] (231) tyijpe sa there

ñaj-f’-’mi-pa’

jaape li-caja

dem lying-up-in-PFV.PL where his-coffin

‘There they picked him up and put him in his coffin.’ [rg9cantor] The sequence of two DTR elements traces the complex path of the undergoer in motion up and then into the coffin. In (232), again a ‘lying’ object is moved into a topological relation of support. Here, the DTR -ng emphasizes the surface contact between the undergoer and the ground. (232) ña-ng-’mi-pa

laskujl’

lying-edges-in-PFV.SG tortillas

‘She made tortillas (tossed them into the flat tortilla griddle).’ The tortilla, made of ground corn and resembling a large, thin pancake, is the traditional staple food of the Chontal-speaking area, and still today women make stacks of tortillas for consumption throughout the day. The predicate in (232) means literally ‘move a horizontal object into somewhere, with surfaces touching’, and is lexicalized as ‘making tortillas’.

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5.2.3.3 Morphology between the compound stem elements In the majority of compound stem predicates, causative morphology follows the DTR, and associated motion morphology comes after the DTR and after any applicative morphology. There are a few exceptions to this pattern of stem composition, as in the following. First, causative morphology between the V1 and DTR elements can distinguish spontaneous from caused change, as in (233). li’wa’

(233)a. ka-ñi-pa

child

leave-across-PFV.SG

‘Her child got lost.’ [PSG] lay-’wa

b. ka-’-ñi-pa=ya’ leave-CAUS-across-PFV.SG=1S.AGT

my-child

‘I lost my child.’ [PSG] In this sense, the V1 ka- ‘leave’ seems to encode a state of ‘being left’. The status of ka- as a possible stative predicate is noted and left for future study.37 The second type of intervening morphology is the andative suffix, which encodes ‘go and do’, seen immediately following the V1 in the classificatory construction in (234). (234) wa-s-’mi-’jla’

lo-’añima

container-AND-in-IMP.SG your-heart

‘Keep this a secret (put it in your heart).’ [RS] The classificatory V1 wa- represents a special case among the small set of V1s that developed from simple predicates of transport (see 5.6). As a transport verb, wa- means ‘transport a container’; as a classificatory V1, wa- means ‘(move) a container’ or, in predicates such as (234), ‘(move) to a container’.

37

Merlan (1985:328-29) discusses the difficulties encountered in classifying verbs as states, processes, or events. She points out that categorization of the lexical unit can occasion multiple classification, as in the case of a typically stative verb used to construe an event, such as ‘Suddenly he knew it,’ and indeed can influence glossing, as in Boas and Deloria’s ‘to tremble’ vs. ‘to be a-tremble’ (1941:1). She contends, “This approach accords a theoretical priority to individual lexical items which, in my opinion, they cannot have in the treatment of properties which arise from relations among constituents. Instead of treating stativity as an inherent feature of lexemes, I suggest we consider it a feature of constructions, perhaps the clause, consisting in a certain semantic relation between NP(s) and predicate” (Merlan 1985:329). Consideration of the clausal construction is important in Lowland Chontal, as different aspectual inflections of a single verb root can encode the difference between states and processes and occasionally between processes and changes.

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MOTION, TRANSFER, AND TRANSFORMATION

When this morpheme references the Goal rather than the undergoer participant, andative morphology is apparently needed to express the motion to Goal. A few other stems throughout the study will be analyzed with unidentified morphology between V1 and DTR. Some of these segments may be epenthetic, and others may contribute to the semantics of the stem. All of them are glossed with an ‘x’. 5.3 Compound stems and constructional meaning The previous section presented the component parts of V1-DTR compound stems to introduce individual features of each element. In this section the focus shifts to the characteristics of the constructions in which compound stem predicates participate. As mentioned earlier, the formation of V1-DTR compound stems is not fully productive, and the meaning of any stem is likely lexicalized. The evidence for this is that not every verb can be a V1, not every V1 can combine with every DTR, and seemingly logical V1-DTR combinations are unacceptable. Therefore, what follows is a synchronic and perhaps somewhat artificial decomposition of the complex predicates into constituent parts, based on generalized lexical and semantic characteristics of each class of elements. The complex predicate type in this chapter is identified in this study as the equipollently-framed portion of the grammar of change. Equipollent framing means that the core schema of change is found in two or more verbs or verbal elements of equal syntactic status, e.g., in two verbs in a serial verb construction. Crucially, the analysis for Chontal assumes that the V1 and the DTR have verbal meaning and that both elements have equal syntactic status. This assumption is a general statement about the component classes as a whole, even though it may not be true (or not verifiable) for individual members of each component class. It has already been mentioned that either, neither, or both elements of a particular compound stem may be independent verbs in the language today (with demonstrable participant structure and verbal semantics). Not all V1 elements encode change to endpoint independently, and not all DTR elements encode a change to endpoint explicitly. Rather than posit separate construction templates for each possible combination, a few general semantic templates are proposed that capture the common form (V1-DTR) and common function (to predicate a change event) of every compound stem predicate. The component parts are evaluated as subcomponents of a single event. An alternative analysis would be to consider the DTR a special type of satellite because it comes from a restricted set of elements with similar semantics, many of which are not verbs in the language today. An argument for satellite status is particularly persuasive if we only look at participant structure: as the discussion in 5.3.1 will demonstrate, the valence of DTR elements is best described as preferred patterns of distribution in transitive and intransitive compound stems.

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The satellite analysis is rejected in this study for three reasons. First, the focus is not on participant structure and how compound stems may have developed, i.e. bivalent V1s with bivalent DTRs, and monovalent V1s with monovalent DTRs. The focus is on the contribution of each element to the semantics of change. Second, DTR elements only occur as the non-initial element of a compound stem with a large but not open class of initial elements, and the meanings of compound stems are often lexicalized. This is not the behavior of the morphemes identified as satellites in Chapter 4, which have a wide and general application. In that chapter, it was shown that morphology of associated motion and change can occur with virtually any process or state verb root and with a restricted set of change roots. And third, the DTR does contribute to change, with different types of detail for different types of change. • • •

In a change of location, the DTR adds or implies a path and adds an endpoint In a change of position, the DTR adds an endpoint In a change of state, the DTR adds a degree of realization

The compound stem predicates are in a general sense in complementary distribution with the simple predicates described in Chapter 3. There we saw a robust inventory of simple predicates of change of state and of spontaneous change of location, with a small inventory of change of position predicates. In this chapter, we will see a substantial variety of complex predicates that depict change of position and caused change of location. Many of the V1 elements in change of location predicates describe localized motion, and the DTR functions much like the path verbs in Chapter 3 which were recruited to encode ‘motion to endpoint’. This section reviews the contribution of each component part to the argument structure of the compound stem in 5.3.1, and presents the basic constructions of spontaneous and caused change as a series of semantic templates in 5.3.2. The final section describes the format of the discussion of individual construction types in the rest of the chapter. 5.3.1 Assessment of argument structure The ‘argument structure’ of a Chontal predicate is a potential for certain participants to occur in AGT and PAT morphosyntactic roles. This potential is realized in response to a rich mix of lexical and discourse-functional factors (see Du Bois 2003 for insightful discussion of argument structure realization cross-linguistically). Argument structure is assessed here in terms of the contribution to valence from each verbal element in the compound stem. Here it will be shown that core arguments of compound stem predicates cannot be

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fully determined by either element and that the details of contribution to valence vary among individual compound stems. V1 components, identified as monovalent, bivalent, and labile roots in 5.2.1.2., make a fundamental contribution to the argument structure of the compound stem. In general, if the V1 is a verb, then usually the valence of the inflected verb is the same as the valence of the compound stem. There are only a few exceptions to this, such as (235), which shows the monovalent V1 kas‘stand’ used in a description of caused change. (235) pu-pa’

sa

liwa’ kas-’mi-p-ola’

sa

lyimunlye’

dig-PFV.PL DEM holes stand-in-PFV-3P.PAT DEM support.beams

‘They dug the holes and stood the support beams in place.’ [aer4ajutl] Beyond a handful of exceptions, if the V1 is an independent verb, the argument structure of the compound stem construction can be reckoned by the V1. Monovalent roots contribute one participant which functions in the compound stem as the undergoer of change, marked as either AGT or PAT; and bivalent roots contribute both causer and undergoer participants, marked as AGT and 38 PAT, respectively. However, many of the V1s that occur in compound stems are not independent verbs. These neutral or labile roots provide evidence that DTRs make a contribution of their own to the valence of the stem. Consider the following complex predicates with the labile V1 jojl- or jola- ‘sitting’, where the only difference is the DTR element. jaape maytye-jasaj

(236) jojl-may-pa

sitting-down.in-PFV.SG where middle-thatch

‘He sat down in the middle of the thatch.’ [ael3afo] (237) jojl-’mi-pa

el

pelota maj-’ej, lixpantalek-’ej

sitting-in-PFV.SG DET ball

LOC-tree

forked.branch-tree

‘She put the ball in the tree, the crotch of the tree.’ [apm C/B.17] Example (236) with -may is an intransitive predicate, and (237) with -’mi is a transitive predicate. In this case, the DTR determines the transitivity of the complex predicate. Note that no additional morphology is required to indicate valence: the combination of a labile root plus a DTR is sufficient to form a compound stem, ready for inflection. 38

The exception to this is a compound stem that depicts a ditransitive event. In these, PAT marking references a Recipient or Beneficiary participant rather than the undergoer.

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And in fact, patterns of occurrence tabulated for the entire corpus show strong preferences for the use of certain DTRs in expressions of spontaneous change and other DTRs in expressions of caused change. The general picture is presented in Table 28. The four types of construction are identified by initial (M = Means, D = Dispositional, C = Classificatory, T = Trajectory) and marked as ‘spon’ for spontaneous event, intransitive verb, and ‘caus’ for caused event, transitive verb. In any cell, an ‘x’ indicates that the DTR element in the column heading participates in that construction type, and an ‘x+’ means the compound stem requires additional valence-changing morphology or a second DTR element. Table 28. Distribution of DTR elements in construction types CONS

-f’

-ayj

-f’i

-way

-may

x x x

x x x

-gi

-’mi

-k’oy

-ñi

x x x

x

-ay

-ng

TYPE

M-spon D-spon C-spon T-spon

x x+

M-caus D-caus C-caus T-caus

x x x x

x x

x

x

x x x x

x x

x x x x

x x x x

x x x x

x x x x

x x x

The DTR elements appear to fall into the same three form classes as the V1 elements: monovalent, bivalent, and labile. Usage patterns in Table 28 suggest that, according to the transitivity of the construction in which constituent compound stems participate, -may and probably -way could be analyzed as monovalent; -f’, -ayj, -f’i, -gi, -’mi, and -ay, would be bivalent; and -k’oy, -ñi, and -ng would be labile. By definition, every DTR element depicts an explicit or implicit change to an endpoint or end-state. Therefore, translating these valence proposals to participant structure, monovalent DTRs contribute an undergoer of change, and bivalent DTRs contribute both causer and undergoer participants. This section has demonstrated that although argument structure cannot be fully predicted by either element of the stem, there are clear patterns of co-occurrence. If the V1 is an independent verb, then with only a few exceptions the valence of the inflected V1 is the same as the valence of the V1-DTR compound stem. In addition, compound stem predicates with DTRs –may and –way tend to produce intransitive stems, and compound stem predicates with DTRs -f’, -ayj, f’i, -gi, -’mi, and –ay tend to produce transitive stems.

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5.3.2 Basic constructions of complex predicates of associated direction and topological relation This section identifies the basic constructions that are instantiated by the four construction types described in 5.4 – 5.7. Spontaneous change events are represented with a single semantic template (5.3.2.1), and caused change events are represented with four templates (5.3.2.2). In each construction, the semantics of change are depicted in an internal box that draws on both the V1 and the DTR. This represents the equipollent framing of the core schema, in which the V1 may encode change and the DTR may encode or imply change to an explicit endpoint. As much as possible, the constructions in this section are depicted with generic V1 and DTR components, as they represent supertype templates that will be populated by specific classes of V1 elements to instantiate various subtypes of means constructions (5.4), dispositional constructions (5.5), classificatory constructions (5.6), and trajectory constructions (5.7). 5.3.2.1 Spontaneous change events COMPLEX PREDICATE OF ASSOCIATED DIRECTION & TOPOLOGICAL RELATION SPONTANEOUS CHANGE EVENT

Undergoer do/invoked by V1 wrt endpoint-DTR | \ / AGT/PAT change

In a spontaneous change event, an undergoer participant performs the V1 or is invoked by the V1 to move, shift, or transform to an endpoint or end-state invoked by the DTR. This semantic template can take various forms. In a change of location, the DTR invokes an endpoint of spatial domain or topological relation, as in (238), from a narrative in which the speaker has been describing a deep lake. (238) joola lya if

sa=jpe

tej-may-ña-g-o’

there DEM=where fall-down.in-TERM-SJNCT-2S.PAT

adiós good-bye

‘If you fall in right there, you’re out of luck!’ [aer4ajutl] In (239) an undergoer participant changes the manner of position and moves downward into a topological relation of support. (239) kojl-way-pa kneeling-down.on-PFV.SG

‘She knelt.’ [AER]

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With change of state V1s, the DTR seems to add a realization state, as in (240). The V1 is a simple predicate meaning ‘get dry’, a change of state, and the boundary-crossing DTR adds a change to the new end-state. lay-k’o

(240)a. jujl-ñi-yuy

get.dry-across-DUR.SG my-mouth

‘My mouth is drying out,’ b. jwe-duy

jla=ya’

sna-’m=ayja’

want-DUR.SG perhaps=1S.AGT drink-IPFV.SG=my.water

‘I would like to drink some water.’ [AER v1-dir] Many classificatory V1s come from simple predicates of transport. As a verbal root, k’e- means ‘transport liquid, especially water’. The semantics of ‘transport’ are bleached when the morphemes occur as the initial elements of a compound stem. In example (241), k’e- as a V1 depicts liquid in motion. Therefore, in this complex predicate, semantics of change may come from the V1 or may come from the implied path of the DTR. The V1 identifies the undergoer of change as ‘liquid, especially water’. (241) k’ej-k’oy-pa liquid-inside-PFV.SG

‘A blister formed.’ [AER v1-dir] The basic construction of spontaneous change underlies all intransitive compound stem predicates. 5.3.2.2 Caused change events There are four semantic templates that underlie caused change constructions in this study. These are characterized by different syntactic arrangements of the core arguments with respect to V1-DTR elements (i.e., which participant ‘does’ the V1) and different sequencing patterns in the V1-DTR relationship (with unusual Goal participants). The causative construction, the means and result construction, the receive construction, and the motion to Goal-V1 construction are presented in turn.

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5.3.2.2.1 The causative construction COMPLEX PREDICATE OF ASSOCIATED DIRECTION & TOPOLOGICAL RELATION CAUSED CHANGE – CAUSATIVE

Causer cause Undergoer do/invoked by V1 wrt endpoint-DTR | | \ / AGT PAT change

In predicates that instantiate the causative construction, a causer participant causes an undergoer participant which performs or is invoked by the V1 to move, shift, or transform to an endpoint or end-state invoked by the DTR. Example (242) demonstrates two realizations of the construction. A pot, indexed by the V1 wa-, is caused to move upward (a) and caused to experience being moved inside a tight place (b). (242)a. wa-f’-’ma

sa=yma’

l-a’wa-pixu,

container-up-IPFV.SG DEM=2S.AGT DET-DIM-pot

‘You pick up a little pot,’ b. sin-k’oy-’ma

sa=yma’

ñulyi ej

experience-inside-IPFV.SG DEM=2S.AGT one

para

tyof’-ñi-’ma

for

break-across-IPFV.SG

tree

‘and you wedge it in the branch of a tree to break it off.’ [aer CPOS.18] The predicate in (242)b is used to describe such actions as wedging a stick in the door to keep it shut, or getting a piece of fruit caught in your throat. Several of the specific constructions described in the pages ahead are based on the basic causative construction. 5.3.2.2.2 The means and result construction COMPLEX PREDICATE OF ASSOCIATED DIRECTION & TOPOLOGICAL RELATION CAUSED CHANGE – MEANS AND RESULT

Causer do V1 cause Undergoer wrt endpoint-DTR | \ PAT / AGT change

In predicates that instantiate the means and result construction, a causer participant performs the V1, which causes an undergoer participant to move,

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163

shift, or transform to an endpoint or end-state invoked by the DTR. The next two examples illustrate that the V1 depicts the manner of action (243) or manner of causation (244) that leads to change. (243) faj-’mi-tya

sa

layñega

plant-in.on-DLOC.SG DEM cornfield

‘He will go and plant the cornfield.’ [aer4ajutl] (244)a. te’a nay-k’e-’me’, first chop-CAUS-IPFV.PL

‘First they chop it,’ b. waytya sa and

DEM

jas-ñi-’me’ split-across-IPFV.PL

‘and then they split it apart.’ Example (244) nicely demonstrates the difference between a simple predicate of caused change of state, in (a), and a compound stem complex predicate of caused change of state, in (b). In the second predicate, the DTR encodes an explicit ground end-state of ‘apart’. Specific instantiations of the means and result construction are presented in 5.4.2. 5.3.2.2.3 The receive construction COMPLEX PREDICATE OF ASSOCIATED DIRECTION & TOPOLOGICAL RELATION CAUSED CHANGE – RECEIVE (AGT IS GOAL)

receive Undergoer invoked by V1 wrt endpoint -ñi | \ / AGT PAT change AGT

|

The receive construction is semantically quite specific and therefore more restricted than the causative or means and result constructions in terms of the changed cause events it can express. In receive construction predicates, the agentively marked participant is also the Goal or endpoint of motion, and the invariable DTR is -ñi ‘across’. Each event depicts an undergoer participant invoked by the V1 that ‘crosses a boundary’ to the other core participant. Simply stated, the agentive participant receives the undergoer invoked by the V1. Example (245) describes the frequency of fresh water delivery in a nearby town. (245) moygi moygi k’i-ñi-’ma=yma’

laja’

morning morning liquid-across-IPFV.SG=2S.AGT water

‘You get water every day.’ [RS]

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The compound stem piñi-, featured in (246), is used to describe most kinds of payment events, whether the currency is coins or kind. (246) pi-ñi-yay’

sa

tonjka tonjka sa

lyuf’ane

contact-across-DUR.PL DEM like.that like.that DEM corn

‘They receive ears of corn one by one (as payment).’ [aer1panka] The same predicate piñi- expresses ‘receiving’ or making contact with an unusual and diverse array of undergoer referents, such as the new year, the highlands, and death. Instantiations of the receive construction are discussed further in 5.5.2.1 and 5.6.2.2. 5.3.2.2.4 The motion to Goal-V1 construction COMPLEX PREDICATE OF ASSOCIATED DIRECTION & TOPOLOGICAL RELATION CAUSED CHANGE – MOVE TO GOAL INVOKED BY V1

Causer move Undergoer wrt endpoint-DTR to Goal-V1 | | \ / AGT PAT change

The final caused change template is also quite restricted in the events it can express and unusual in making explicit reference to a Goal participant in a classificatory V1, as in (247). (247) wa-s-k’oy-’ma=yma’

maj-’ma

la’i

container-AND-inside-IPFV.SG=2S.AGT cook-IPFV.SG bread

‘You put it in the oven, and the bread cooks.’ [RSpancomida] As a verb of transport, wa- means ‘transport a container’, like a plate or bowl. As a classificatory V1, wa- simply invokes the undergoer referent as any type of container, whether bowl, pot, oven or cornfield. Instantiations of the move to Goal-V1 construction are discussed in more detail in 5.6.2.1. 5.3.2.3 Compound stem predicates as result state of change Descriptions of static location will not be examined in this study, but it should be noted that many such descriptions instantiate the basic constructions described above to depict an undergoer in a result state of previous (implied) change. A stative complex predicate can be formed with stative inflection or expressed by an uninflected compound stem. Stative inflection is used in the two predicates in (248), elicited to describe different objects located on a table, literally ‘having been moved up’. The complex predicate jolaf’a locates a ‘sitting’ thing, such as a pot. The stative

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predicate ‘oyf’a can be used to locate anything that was placed on the table by being moved in a short, horizontal arc. (248) jola-f’-a

’oy-f’-a

sitting-up-STAT1.SG

flat.arc-up-STAT1.SG

a. b.

‘It’s up there.’ ‘roof’

‘It’s up there.’ ‘small platform in rafters’

Note that the predicates in (248) are also nouns. Two of the DTR elements can occur verb-finally to form stative predicates. For example, the compound stems in (249) describe fruit inside a bowl and a nail in a board.39 These locative assertions could be paraphrased as ‘it has been moved down in’. (249) wa-s-may’

xk’wi-may’

container-AND-down.in

stab-down.in

‘It is in there.’

‘It sticks in there.’

As mentioned previously, -k’oy ‘inside’ occurs in so-called ‘portative’ expressions that translate ‘what you hold/carry/bring in your hand’. Other DTRfinal predicates with -k’oy have a strictly stative sense, as(250), which would be said of pain inside the body or would describe the location of an unborn child. (250) ñaj-k’oy lying-inside

‘It lies inside.’ This construction also produces nouns f’ajk’oy ‘ascend-inside’, which is the entrance or trailhead to the highlands, and k’ejk’oy ‘water-inside’, a blister. 5.3. The presentation of each construction The remainder of this chapter presents four types of constructions: the means construction in 5.4, the dispositional construction in 5.5, the classificatory construction in 5.6, and the trajectory construction in 5.7. Each section begins with a list of all subtypes within the major type and an inventory of the V1s that participate in them. Then, individual constructions are presented in semantic templates, each labeled with an abbreviation composed of a capital letter and a number. 39

When it occurs verb-finally, -may acquires a final glottal stop.

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The capital letter identifies the construction type as: M = a Means construction D = a Dispositional construction C = a Classificatory construction T = a Trajectory construction The number indicates the minimum number of core arguments and identifies the change event as: 1 = spontaneous and intransitive 2 = caused and transitive or ditransitive A lower case letter following the number identifies a subtype of a particular construction. For example, predicates that substantiate the C1 construction describe spontaneous change events that classify the undergoer referent type, and M2a predicates depict a subtype of events of caused change with detail of the process, manner or means of change. The relationship between the basic constructions presented in 5.3.2 and the functionally-specific constructions is summarized in Table 29. Table 29. Relationship of basic constructions to specific constructions Basic construction spontaneous change causative means and result receive motion to Goal-V1

Underlies these specific constructions M1, D1, C1, T1 M2a, D2, C2, T2 M2 D2a, C2b C2a

In each section, following the semantic template comes a table that shows the possible V1-DTR combinations. As many combinatorial possibilities as possible of V1 and DTR were checked in elicitation.40 This includes all of the classificatory V1s, all of the trajectory V1s, most of the dispositional V1s, and many of the means V1s. If any speaker accepted a combination, that table cell is marked with an ‘x’. A cell with ‘x+’ indicates that the V1-DTR compound stem requires additional valence-changing morphology or another DTR. The many empty cells confirm the degree of lexicalization and support the claim that V140

Agreement among speakers as to acceptability was generally strong but not complete, as is typical when working with a little-used and endangered language and with elderly speakers whose language histories varied greatly.

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combination is not a freely productive process. The Appendix contains a list of all compound stem predicates, arranged by construction type. After the table of V1-DTR combinations, examples of predicates that populate the construction are presented to illustrate how each construction type is used.

DTR

5.4 The means construction There are three types of means constructions identified for Chontal. MEANS CONSTRUCTIONS

M1 Undergoer do Means-V1 wrt endpoint-DTR M2 Causer do Means-V1 cause Undergoer wrt endpoint-DTR M2a Causer cause Undergoer do Means-V1 wrt endpoint-DTR

The compound stem predicates that instantiate this construction express the means of change to endpoint. As defined in 3.5, the term means encompasses the manner of the change and the manner of the action that causes the change. Means construction predicates describe the means of change and specify an endpoint, all in one verb, and serve an adverbial function in discourse. The V1 inventory for the means construction is large and varied, encompassing many verbal elements of locomotion, ‘placing and leaving’, and change of state. V1s include cho- ‘spill’, chuf- ‘enter’, ch’a- ‘ignite’, ‘ee- ‘do’, fa- ‘plant’, f’aj- ‘ascend’, fu- ‘swell’, fuj- ‘blow’, go- ‘move back and forth’, gos- ‘uproot’, jas- ‘split, slice, tear’, jlay- ‘bend, break’, jli- ‘slide, slip’, jlo‘move, scoot’, jujl- ‘get dry’, jway- ‘jump’, jwele- ‘flutter’, jwix- ‘toss, twist, leave’, ka-, kan- ‘leave’, kej- ‘cut, chop’, koj- ‘boil’, k’wa- ‘insert’, la- ‘name, establish’, me- ‘spin, wrap’, na- ‘hit’, ña- ‘move?’, ñay- ‘cut, chop’, ñu- ‘move, drip’, pa- ‘leave’, pay- ‘break’, pes- ‘force’, pi- ‘burn’ (intransitive), pu- ‘dig’, sa- ‘eat’, see- ‘place, set’, sin- ‘see, experience’, ski- ‘split’, sk’wi- ‘stab’, sma‘sleep’, sna- ‘drink’, te- ‘fall’, to- ‘place, stop’, tyof’- ‘break’, tyux- ‘grab’, wix‘hatch’, ‘wa- ‘walk’, ‘win- ‘burn’ (transitive). Each construction type is discussed and exemplified individually, starting with the M1 construction. The section closes with illustrations of the adverbial function served by the means construction in narrative discourse. 5.4.1

The M1 construction

M1 Undergoer do Means-V1 wrt endpoint-DTR

In the M1 construction, an undergoer performs the V1 to move, shift, or transform to the endpoint invoked by the DTR. The V1 and DTR elements that

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participate in this predicate type in the current corpus are presented in Table 30. Table 30. Distribution of means V1 and DTR, M1 construction -f’ up chuf- enter f’aj- ascend fu- swell jli- slide, slip jujl- dry jway- jump jwele- flutter ka-, kan- leave koj- boil ña- move? ñu- move pi- burn sma- sleep te- fall to- place, stop ‘wa- walk

-f’i up on

-way down on

-may down in

-gi out

-’mi in, on

-k’oy inside

-ñi across

-ng edges

x

x+

x+ x x

x+ x x

x x x x+ x x x x x x

x+

A primary function of means construction predicates is to express manner of motion to endpoint. The next three examples compare different combinations of means V1 with the boundary-crossing DTR -ñi. Example (251) describes a walking into a particular road, at a crossroads or fork; (252) depicts jumping into a room; and (253) expresses sliding across a muddy path. (251) ’wa-ñi-pa

sa=yma’

lane’

walk-across-PFV.SG DEM=2S.AGT road

‘you took the road,’ [aer3vender] (252) lakwe’ sa man

DEM

jway-ñi-pa

f’aj-pa

sa

ma-jolaf’a

jump-across-PFV.SG ascend-pfv.sg DEM LOC-platform

‘The man jumped into the room and went up to the rafters.’ [ael3vender] (253) jli-ñi-k’oy-tya

laka’no’ jaape lixi-pana’,

slide-across-AUG-DLOC.SG woman

where edge-river

‘The woman slipped on the riverbank.’ [aer v1-dir]

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In (253), the morpheme -k’oy is interpreted as an intensifier or augmentative, rather than as a DTR. Dislocative inflection identifies the event as a state change of the type described in 4.5, and the gloss reflects the interpretation of unintentional state change. This interpretation is further developed in 5.4.3. When the means construction encodes a change of state, the DTR often identifies where the change takes place, as in the following. In (254), ‘getting fat’ is expressed as happening ‘at the surface’ or ‘edge’ of the skin. (254) joypa sa now

DEM

fu-ng-g-inga’

sa-go-day’

sa=‘ñi

swell-edge-DUR-1P.PAT eat-APPL-DUR.PL DEM=just

‘We’re getting fat, eating like this.’ [SLG] The predicate in (255) describes fire along the pith of a dry branch, and (256) describes the bubbling coffee surface at the top of the pot. (255) lan-ek’ DET.PL-wood

pi-k’oy-yuy

sa

burn-inside-DUR.SG DEM

‘The firewood is burning inside.’ [EER] (256) el DET

café sa

ko-f’-kuy

coffee DEM boil-up-DUR.SG

‘The coffee is boiling up.’ [RS] The DTR in (256) can also be interpreted as a directional path, describing the rising motion of the boiling liquid inside the pot. 5.4.2

The M2 construction

M2 Causer do Means-V1 cause Undergoer wrt endpoint-DTR

In the M2 construction, a causer performs the V1 and causes an undergoer to move, shift or transform to the endpoint invoked by the DTR. The V1 and DTR elements that participate in this predicate type in the current corpus are presented in Table 31.

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Table 31. Distribution of means V1 and DTR, M2 construction -f’ up ch’a- ignite ‘ee- do fa- plant fuj- blow go- back & forth gos- uproot jas- tear, split, slice jlay- break, bend jwix- twist, toss, leave ka-, kan- leave kej- cut, esp hair k’wa- insert na-, nay- hit, chop ñu- move, drip pa- leave pa- break, esp food pay- break, shatter pes- force pu- dig see- place ski- split, divide sk’wi- stab sna- drink to- place, stop tyof’- break, snap tyux- grab ‘wix- care for

-f’i up on

-way down on

-may down in

x

-gi out

-’mi in, on

-k’oy inside

-ñi across

-ng edges

x x

x x x

x

x+ x

x x

x

x x

x x

x x x

x x x x

x x+ x x

x

x x x x

x x

x

x x x

x

x

x x x x x x

Predicates that instantiate the M2 construction detail the means of caused change of location and change of state. This can be illustrated with descriptions of a series of similar events in which only the V1 varies. The first three examples compare events of ‘moving in’, expressed with varying degrees of vigor. The predicate in (257) depicts throwing someone out of the house. (257) pero iyang sa but

kaj-’mi-pa’

lane’ el

welo

1P.AGT DEM leave-in-PFV.PL road DET old.man

‘But we put the old man out in the street.’ [aer2infiel] The undergoer participant can be inserted more tightly into the ground participant with the predicate in (258).

ASSOCIATED DIRECTION AND TOPOLOGICAL RELATION (258) k’wa-’mi-pa

el

171

trana

insert-in-PFV.SG DET chicken

‘She put the chicken in (the nest).’ [RS] And finally, an undergoer can be ‘moved in’ with ever greater force, as in (259). (259) xk’wi-’mi-pa el

cuchilyu jaape li-pa’tle

stab-in-PFV.SG DET knife

where his-chest

‘He stabbed him with a knife, in the chest.’ [aer v1-dir] The next three examples describe events of ‘removing’ or ‘moving out’ with the DTR ki-, gi- ‘out’. When asked what her old father was doing sitting out in the yard, a woman replied with the following. (260)a. jlo-duy

gos-kuy

el

muña

scoot-DUR.SG uproot-DUR.SG DET brush

‘He’s scooting along, weeding the yard,’ lyipityankwi’

b. gos-ki-yuy

uproot-out-DUR.SG grass

‘pulling out the weeds.’ [EER] The predicate in (261) is available to describe ‘removal’ without specifying the means, but it was only collected in elicitation. The most common predicate to express ‘remove’ is shown in (262). (261) ‘ee-gi-yuy

la’i

do-out-DUR.SG bread

‘She is removing the bread (from the oven).’ [RS] (262) lakajl’no’ may-ña-pa’ women

kan-gi-tya’

lipa’

go-TERM-PFV.PL leave-out-DLOC.PL flowers

‘The women went to pick flowers.’ [SLS] The boundary-crossing DTR -ñi occurs in many predicates of caused separation of objects (of the ‘cut and break’ type, discussed in Chapter 3), adding a realization state of ‘apart’. In (263), the V1 encodes the manner of action with an instrument, i.e. inserting a blade, which implies the separation of the undergoer participant.

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latyu’ con el

(263) k’wa-ñi-pa=yma’

insert-across-PFV.SG=2S.AGT fish

cuchilyu

with DET knife

‘You cut the fish apart with a knife.’ [EER] In (264), the undergoer seems to cross a literal boundary, as the clay pot absorbs the water. laja’ lapixu

(264) joypa xna-ñi-pa

already drink-across-PFV.SG water pot

‘The pot has absorbed the water.’ [AER v1-dir] Several examples of ‘separating apart’ are illustrated in a text excerpt at the end of this section, in 5.4.4.1. 5.4.2.1 The M2a construction M2a Causer cause Undergoer do Means-V1 wrt endpoint-DTR

In the M2a construction, a causer causes an undergoer to do or experience the V1 and thereby move, shift or transform to the Goal state invoked by the DTR. The V1 and DTR elements in the current corpus that participate in this predicate type are presented in Table 32. Table 32. Distribution of means V1 and DTR, M2a construction -f’ up cho- spill jlo- scoot ka- leave la- establish me- spin ñu- move sa- eat sin- experience te- fall ‘win- burn

-f’i up on x+

-gi out

-’mi in, on

-k’oy inside

x

x

x

-ñi across

x+ x x+ x+ x x x x

These predicates vary in semantic transparency. The first two examples are relatively transparent, as the causer makes the small bag ‘move a little or scoot into’ in (265) and makes corn ‘fall into’ in (266). (265) jlo-’mi-’ma=ya’

lan-e’wa-bolsa’ jaape lakwe-bolsa

scoot-in-IPFV.SG=1S.AGT DET.PL-DIM-bag where man-bag

‘I’m sticking the little bags into the big bag.’ [aer v1-dir]

ASSOCIATED DIRECTION AND TOPOLOGICAL RELATION (266) tye-’mi-’ma

sa

173

fane l-a-’wa-kosak’

fall-in-IPFV.SG DEM three DET-NM-DIM-corn

‘He will trickle in three corn kernels,’ [aer4ajutl] The final one is a bit more challenging to interpret. (267) pwes iyasa

saj-’mi-p-ola’

well 1S.AGT eat-in-PFV-3P.PAT

‘Well I fed them.’ [aer3vender] The sense of the predicate in (267) is more general than ‘cause to eat in’; this is the way to say ‘maintain the family, put food on the table.’ 5.4.3 Justifying the ‘means’ As has been illustrated throughout this section, the primary function of the means construction is to give specific detail of the means or manner of change, whether change of location or change of state.41 It is therefore rather anti-climatic for the reader, and less than satisfying to the linguist, to see so many V1s glossed as simply ‘move’ (ña-, ñu), ‘place’ (see-, to-), or ‘leave’ (ka-/kan-, jwix-, pa-). Some differences have been resolved, as seen in glosses for jlo‘scoot, move a little’ and la- ‘establish’, but even these are to be understood as my best efforts to identify the simplest common meaning. For example, simple predicates with the root la- are used to express both ‘put down roots’ and ‘name someone to office’. In addition, la- occurs as a stative root ‘be stuck’ that inflects with associated motion morphology to express a non-agentive change of state event. All these meanings relate to ‘establishing’ something, or to being stable, which motivates the gloss in (268) but not the compound stem. (268) fa’a here

la-f’i-way-p-ola’

lakujlwe’

establish-up.on-CLOC-PFV-3P.PAT

men

lijl-tyolopo-lansanyu’ their-grown-people

‘The men came here to speak with the elders.’ The predicate in (268) is the normal way to say “converse with, speak with”. Semantic refinement of V1s continues, and generic glosses are changed to specific as sufficient data are gathered. We will focus briefly on jli- ‘slide, slip’ as an example. Waterhouse glossed the morpheme as an independent verb 41

Manner of change of position is a major focus of the dispositional construction, discussed in 5.5.

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meaning ‘get straight’ (1962:74). Examination of the many variations of lexical items formed with jli- suggests the common meaning of ‘slide, slip’, with a secondary sense of ‘straight’. Alternate presentations of the undergoer as agentive or non-agentive indicate if the change is perceived as intentional (slide) or unintentional (slip). The notion of ‘slipping’ or ‘sliding’ was introduced in (253), and similar predicates are presented in the following. In (269) and (270)a, the undergoer (person or foot) moves across in a straight smooth path. The two predicates are inflected with dislocative morphology, and the first encodes the participant as non-agentive. In other words, these events are depicted as non-agentive state changes, according to the patterns of ‘associated change’ discussed in 4.5. This is easier to see in (269), in which the second person undergoer referent is marked as non-agentive.42 (269) jli-ñi-k’oy-ty-o’ slide-across-AUG-DLOC-2S.PAT

‘You slipped, you slid.’ [rs Oz.16] lo-’mix?

(270)a. jli-ñi-k’oy-tya

slide-across-AUG-DLOC.SG your-foot

‘Did your foot slip?’ b. jli-ñ-ay-pa,

jliñiñ

lapij

slide-across-ITVR1?-PFV.SG slippery rock

‘It slid out, the rock is slippery.’ [aer v1-dir] However, not all events of ‘slipping’ with jli- predicates are expressed with ‘associated change’ morphology, which suggests that different encoding strategies reflect a well-known ‘intentional (slide) vs. unintentional (slip)’ dichotomy. My glosses in (270)b and (271)b reflect this assumption. (271)a. jola-f’-kay-pa

ma-pij

tamagay’,

sit-up-ITVR1-PFV.SG LOC-rock above

‘She was sitting up there on the rock,’

42 The reader is reminded that the agentive/non-agentive distinction is neutralized in third person singular. Therefore, the difference between change of location and change of state, which I am associating with the ‘slide vs. slip’ distinction, is only discernable in clauses with a third person singular subject in the use of dislocative inflection and not in person-marking morphology.

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hasta muja’

b. jli-ñ-ay-goy-pa

slide-across-ITVR1?-ITVR1-PFV.SG until below

‘and she slid down.’ [eer Oz.16] A third predicate of ‘sliding’ was used in response to a visual stimulus depicting a small stick that slid smoothly out of an orange. (272) pangja pangja jli-ta-f’-ku-pa

el

ej maj-naranja

be.able be.able slide-x-up-ITVR2-PFV.SG DET tree LOC-orange

‘Little by little the stick slid out of the orange.’ [jhs MVBM.16] Another example collected in response to a video stimulus illustrates a compound stem in which jli- occurs as the second V1, as seen in (273). The construction was used to describe the motion of a ball as it rolled across a fictitious scene; in this segment, it was following the edge of a body of water. (273) pa’-pa

ñu-jli-ng-guy

come-PFV.SG move-slide-edge-DUR.SG

‘It came moving along the edge (of the lake).’ [rs MVBP.4] The same predicate can describe the action of a child learning to walk, touching the edges of furniture or the walls, or the action of a suitor or a prowler, circling the outside of the house. The semantics of ‘slide, slip’ have now been demonstrated for jli-, and we move on to the secondary sense of ‘straight’. The predicates in (274) and (275) are composed of jli- plus the DTR element ng- ‘edges, surfaces touching’. They instantiate the means construction and depict spontaneous events of ‘straightening (at) the surface’. (274) jli-m-pa,

joypa jli-m-pa

slide-edge-PFV.SG now

slide-edge-PFV.SG

‘He straightened out, he has straightened himself out.’ [aer v1-dir] (275) jli-n-k’e-p-osi’ slide-edge-CAUS-PFV-RFLX.SG

‘He straightened himself out.’ [aer v1-dir] With the causative counterpart of this predicate, one can metaphorically straighten out a naughty child, or one can literally straighten a body part, a crumpled paper or a crooked sapling. Example (276) illustrates a caused ‘straightening’, presumably of gaze, encoded as alignment of the face as the

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speaker looks neither left nor right but only straight ahead. Fictive motion is expressed in (277), as the road “slides” smoothly ahead. (276) jli-n-k’e-pa

sa=ya’

lay-’a

slide-edge-CAUS-PFV.SG DEM=1S.AGT my-face

‘I straightened my face (kept my gaze straight ahead).’ [aer v1-dir] (277) jlin’ may-pa

li-pe-ne,

slide go-PFV.SG his-LNKR-road

‘His road went straight ahead.’ [aer v1-dir] And finally, some uses of jli- evoke a lexicalized metaphorical extension of ‘move straight, smoothly’ to talk about the appearance of the sun at dawn, as seen in (278) and (279). (278)a. jli-k’e-duy slide-CAUS-DUR.SG

‘It is dawn, (it is dawning, the sun is sliding into the sky).’ b. jli-k’e-pa,

joypa poy-pa

slide-CAUS-PFV.SG now

el

‘ora

exit-PFV.SG DET sun

‘It dawned, now the sun has come out.’ [aer v1-dir] Speakers provided no single motivation as to why predicates of ‘dawning’ are formed with causative morphology, (i.e., who or what is the causer). Example (279) is a formulaic morning greeting in Chontal. (279) jli-ka-f’-p-o’

ñik’ata?

slide-x-up-PFV-2S.PAT good

‘How are you today? (lit: did it dawn well on you?).’ This concludes the exposition and discussion of the formal aspects of the means construction. In the following, short excerpts from narrative text illustrate the primary semantic function of the construction, in expressing a change event with both a specified endpoint and a specified manner of change or manner of causation. 5.4.4 Expressing the means of change to endpoint Instantiations of the means construction provide adverbial detail of ‘how’ a change event happens, by depicting the manner of the change or the manner of the action that causes the change.

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5.4.4.1 Text: Serving tortilla The first text excerpt illustrates contrasting ‘cut and break’ predicates. The V1 jas-, seen in (a), is an independent verb used to express ‘tearing’ (cloth, paper), ‘splitting’ (wood), or ‘slicing’ (bread). The locus of separation in the undergoer referent is left relatively smooth or straight-edged. In (a), the soft flatbread is torn smoothly in two. In (b) and (d), the food is broken with the hands into smaller pieces, using the complex predicate pañi-. This compound stem, which may be a lexicalized variation of pay-ñi- ‘break apart, shatter apart’, is used to express separating or breaking food in at least two pieces, especially for sharing it. (280)a. jas-ñi-jla’

lo-neskujl

tear-across-IMP.SG your-tortilla

‘Tear your tortilla in two,’ b. pa-ñi-’ma

sa=yma’

break-across-IPFV.SG DEM=2S.AGT

‘and you break it apart.’ c. kan-gi-’ma

sa=ya’

malpu pedazos

leave-out-IPFV.SG DEM=1S.AGT four

pieces

‘I would parcel out four pieces.’ d. pa-ñi-’ma=ya’

para sa=ya’

break-across-IPFV.SG=1S.AGT for

DEM=1S.AGT

w-ay-’m-ola’

lay-ñaske’

container-across-IPFV-3P.PAT

my-children

‘I would break it apart to serve to my children.’ [aer4ajutl] The predicate in (c) is a means construction that commonly expresses a ‘removing’ event. Here, the speaker removes four pieces from her basket of tortilla chunks, puts them on plates, and gives these containers (d) to her children. The plates are implied by the classificatory construction way’mola’, a construction type to be discussed in 5.6. 5.4.4.2 Text: Planting corn In the following narrative excerpt, means constructions in (b) and (k) as well as a classificatory construction in (g) express diverse interactions with corn to specify the way it is moved or manipulated. In (b), faj’mi- ‘plant into’ depicts the event of broadcasting seeds into a cornfield. In (g), ch’u’mi- ‘move

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grain into’ simply describes pouring corn into a small pot, and in (k) tye’mi‘drop into’ qualifies the event as trickling kernels into a furrow. (281)a. joypa

sa

tye-pa

sa

lakwi’

already DEM fall-PFV.SG DEM rain

‘As soon as it rains,’ b. joypa

sa=ge

may-’ma

sa=ge

faj-’mi-tya

already DEM=person go-IPFV.SG DEM=person plant-in-DLOC.SG

sa

layñega

DEM

cornfield

‘then he will go off to plant the cornfield.’ c. pe-f’-’ma

sa

li-kosak’

small-up-IPFV.SG DEM his-corn

‘He will pick up his corn,’ d. li-semiya his-seeds

‘the seeds,’ e. kon li-ñe’wa-’alipu with his-DIM-gourd.vessel

‘with his little dried-gourd container,’ f. kon li-ñe’wa-’alipu with his-DIM-gourd.vessel

‘with his little dried-gourd container.’ g. tyijpe sa there

DEM

ch’u-’mi-’ma

sa

li-kosak’

grain-in-IPFV.SG DEM his-corn

‘He puts his corn in there,’ h. para sa for

DEM

tots’i-’ma sa

jaape li-ku’u

tie-IPFV.SG DEM where his-belly

to tie it on, at his waist.’ i. pe-f’-’ma

sa

li-puntamachete

small-up-IPFV.SG DEM his-pointed.tool

‘He will pick up his puntamachete,’

ASSOCIATED DIRECTION AND TOPOLOGICAL RELATION j. tyi=sa=ge

pu-’ma

sa

pu-’ma

sa

179

lamats’

that=DEM=person dig-IPFV.SG DEM dig-IPFV.SG DEM earth

‘and he will dig, dig the ground.’ k. tye-’mi-’ma

sa

fane la’wa-kosak’

fall-in-IPFV.SG DEM three DIM-corn

‘He will trickle in three corn kernels (into the furrow),’ l. tyi=sa=ge

el

semiya

that=DEM=person DET seed

‘he, the seeds.’ [aer4ajutl] Predicates ch’u’mi’ma in (g) and pef’ma in (c) and (i) are instantiations of the classificatory construction, the focus of 5.6. This type of construction encodes a manner of motion only indirectly, as undergoer referents are moved ‘as you would move grain’ (g) and ‘as you would a small thing (with one hand)’ in (c) and (i). 5.4.4.3 Text: Chickens and eggs The final excerpt, in (282), is from a larger narrative describing quotidian aspects of the speaker’s home life. Here, she chatted about the free-roaming chickens in the yard. Events of caused motion and state change are expressed with means construction predicates that detail result state (d) and degree of realization (e), (f), and (h). Predicates that instantiate other construction types are addressed briefly below. (282)a. ch’u-yuy

lay-trana

lay.egg-DUR.SG my-chicken

‘My chicken lays the eggs.’ lyi-pi’e

b. ‘oy-ñi-’ma=ya’

flat.arc-across-IPFV.SG=1S.AGT her-eggs

‘I put the eggs (in the nest, reaching in).’ c. joypa lay-trana k’o-may-pa now

my-hen

mouth-down.in-PFV.SG

‘Then she lay down (on the eggs),’ d. k’wa-’mi-ja

li-pi-ch’ujma

insert-in-STAT1.SG her-LNKR-nest

‘roosting in her nest.’

MOTION, TRANSFER, AND TRANSFORMATION

180

e. joypa sa now

DEM

lay-trana wix-ñi-yuy my-chicken care.for-across-DUR.SG

‘Then my chicken hatches (the eggs).’ f. pijlki wix-ñi-pa all

lay-trana

care.for-across-PFV.SG my-chicken

‘My chicken hatched them all.’ g. ñik’ata trana good

chicken

‘That’s one good chicken!’ lapi’e

h. tyof’-ñi-yuy

break-across-DUR.SG egg

‘She breaks the eggs apart,’ i. tyo-lo-g-ilya’

la’waputyu’

grow-PL-DUR-3P.PAT chicks

‘and the chicks grow.’ j. joypa tyo-lo-p-ola’ already grow-PL-DUR-3P.PAT

‘Now they are grown.’ [AER] Eggs are collected from wherever they were lain and then placed in nests in the chicken coop (b), expressed with a trajectory construction. In (c), a dispositional construction, the hen placed herself mouth-down on the eggs. The means construction predicate in (d) expresses the result state of the hen’s having inserted herself in the nest to incubate the eggs. The narrative continues with two stages of the ‘hatching’ event. In (e) and (f), the hen cares for the eggs to the point of realization, until they ‘cross the boundary’ of incubation, and then she breaks them apart so that the chicks emerge, in (h). 5.5 The dispositional construction There are three types of dispositional construction. DISPOSITIONAL CONSTRUCTIONS

D1 Undergoer do Disp-V1 wrt endpoint-DTR D2 Causer cause Undergoer do/invoked by Disp-V1 wrt endpoint-DTR D2a AGT receive Undergoer in Disp-V1 wrt endpoint -ñi

ASSOCIATED DIRECTION AND TOPOLOGICAL RELATION

181

The dispositional construction expresses a change of location, position or state and specifies the disposition of the undergoer participant at endpoint. The term ‘disposition’ is used here (as in Hellwig 2003:162) to encompass both posture, which describes the position or orientation of the undergoer referent, and configuration, which describes the spatial arrangement or distribution of the undergoer referent with respect to a ground element. With respect to semantic functions, predicates that instantiate the dispositional construction seem to share properties of means construction predicates and classificatory construction predicates. That is, some descriptions of dispositional change, especially spontaneous change, depict the manner of the change (e.g., in the text in 5.4.4.3) while other predicates, especially of caused change, seem also to serve a referent-tracking function (as will be shown in the text in 5.6.3.1). This double-duty will be argued here as a consequence of the fact that many dispositional construction predicates describe the manner of the result state, and indeed can have stative readings. As such, the dispositional predicate depicts a property of the undergoer referent and implies how the change happened. Instantiations of the dispositional predicate will illustrate how dispositional states function as background events, and how participants are introduced without lexical mention of a referent. The overlap in function is reflected in the glosses of the V1 elements as ambiguously change events and statives. Postural V1s, that specify the position or orientation of the undergoer, include jojl/jol/jola- ‘sit, sitting’, kas- ‘stand, standing’, kojl- ‘kneel, kneeling’, kuch’- ‘huddle, huddled over’, ñaj- ‘lie, lying’, ño- ‘cross, crosswise’, po‘crouch, crouching’. Configurational V1s, that specify the spatial arrangement of the undergoer with respect to the ground, can be described in a series of subtypes. General configurations include spe- ‘spread, scattered’, sk’ing- ‘arranged as points around a circle’, and the most generic pi- ‘contact’. Others can be described in terms of body parts, real or metaphorical (as the ‘mouth’ of a pot): k’o- ‘mouth (mouth-ward)’ (from ak’o ‘mouth’), ta-/tay- ‘on the back’, and pul- ‘in the arms’. And finally, the morpheme moy- seems to express something about being in ‘full-face’ contact, as when peeking into a room or turning to look at someone else.43 Each construction will be exemplified individually, starting with the D1 construction. The section closes with a discussion of tokens of the dispositional 43

There may be some connection to moygi ‘morning, tomorrow’ and moypa ‘afternoon, later’. Both of these nominals can be analyzed as deverbals: -gi is an alternative suffix for durative aspect, and –pa is the perfective aspect suffix. In this sense, moy-gi describes the time of day in which the full face of the sun is coming into being, and moy-pa describes the time of day in which the full face of the sun has passed.

MOTION, TRANSFER, AND TRANSFORMATION

182

construction interpreted with stative readings that motivate resemblances to both the means construction and the classificatory construction. 5.5.1

The D1 construction

D1 Undergoer do Disp-V1 wrt endpoint-DTR

In the D1 construction, an undergoer changes position according to the V1 and moves or shifts to the endpoint invoked by the DTR. In the current corpus, the V1 and DTR elements that participate in this predicate type are presented in Table 33. Table 33. Distribution of dispositional V1 and DTR, D1 construction -f’ up jojl- sit k’o- mouth kas- stand kojl- kneel kuch’- huddle ñaj- lie po- crouch sk’ing- in circle spe- spread ta- on back

-f’i up on

x+

-way down on x

x+ x x x x x x

-may down in x x x

-gi out

-’mi in, on

x

-k’oy inside

-ñi across

-ng edges

x x

x

x+ x

x

The first two predicates show variations on the event of ‘lying down’. (283) ñaj-may-pa lying-down.in-PFV.SG

‘He lay down (in a hammock or cot).’ [EER] (284)

ta-ng-may-pa

maj-mejutl’

on.back-edges-down.in-PFV.SG

LOC-hammock

‘He lay down on his back in a hammock.’ [EER] The predicate in (285) describes a body posture as ‘huddled over’, curled up with a curved back. (285) kuch’-way-ña-pa=yma’ huddle-down.on-TERM-PFV.SG=2S.AGT

‘You huddled down.’ [RS]

183

ASSOCIATED DIRECTION AND TOPOLOGICAL RELATION

Example (286) was explained with a demonstration, in which speakers turned their shoulders to direct the gaze with full-face contact, here, looking up. naa tya=naa=sa tamagay

(286) moy-k’oy-go-pa

full.face-inside-APPL-PFV.SG REF that=REF=DEM above

maj-pilyu LOC-coyul

‘That one looked up into the fruit tree.’ [ael3afo] In the days before tables, meals were served by placing the basket of tortillas and other foodstuffs on the ground, and the people would ‘complete the circle’ by sitting in a ring around the central serving area. (287) joypa

liñaske’ xago-’me’ sa

x’king-way-p-ola’

already circle-down.on-PFV-3P.PAT children eat-IPFV.PL DEM

‘Now the children have sat down in a circle, they’re going to eat.’ [aer4ajutl] The same predicate is used to describe setting out tortillas or tamales in a circular pattern during a ritual for the dead. 5.5.2

The D2 construction

D2 Causer cause Undergoer do/invoked by Disp-V1 wrt endpoint-DTR

In the D2 construction, a causer participant causes an undergoer participant, which performs or is invoked by the V1, to move, shift, or transform to an endpoint or end-state invoked by the DTR. The V1 and DTR elements in the current corpus that participate in this predicate type are presented in Table 34. Table 34. Distribution of dispositional V1 and DTR, D2 construction -f’ up jojl- sit, sitting k’o- mouth(-ward) kas- stand, standing kojl- kneel, kneeling kuch’- huddle(d) moy- full.face(d) ñaj- lie, lying ño- cross, crosswise pi- contact

-f’i up on x x+

-we down on x

-may down in

-gi out

-’mi in, on

-k’oy inside

-ñi across

-ng edges

x x+ x x+

x x+ x+ x

x

x x

x x

x

x x+ x

MOTION, TRANSFER, AND TRANSFORMATION

184

-f’ up pul- in arms sk’ing- in circle spe- (be) spread ta- on back

-f’i up on

-we down on

-may down in

-gi out

-’mi in, on

-k’oy inside

-ñi across

x

x

-ng edges

x x+ x

x

x

x

The first three examples illustrate the difference between placing a ‘sitting’ object (288), a ‘lying’ object (289), or an object ‘with a mouth’ (290) up on top of something. (288) jola-f’i-pa

lapixu’ jaape lunkwa’

sitting-up.on-PFV.SG pot

where fire

‘She set the pot on the fire.’ (289) ñaj-f’i-pa

lan’ek’ / li-’mix cruzado

lying-up.on-PFV.SG wood

/ his-foot crossed

‘He stacked the wood / he crossed his legs.’ [EER] (290) k’o-ma-f’i-yuy

iya’

li-tapadera lay-k’ejwa’

mouth-x-up.on-DUR.SG 1S.AGT its-lid

my-well

‘I am putting the lid on my well.’ [AER] Predicates with the V1 pi- ‘contact’ are used to describe manipulations of money, as in (291). (291) pi-gi-yuy

el

melyu’

contact-out-DUR.SG DET money

‘He’s loaning money.’ [AER] When a child is slow to walk, her legs are strengthened by burying her feet in the sand at the riverbank. The would-be toddler practices standing while her mother does the laundry. (292)a. pu-’ma=yma’

jaape la’wantomats’

dig-IPFV.SG=2S.AGT where sand

‘You dig in the sand,’ b. tyijpe say=ma’

kas-’mi-tya

para lye-’me’

there DEM=2S.AGT stand-in-DLOC.SG for

walk-IPFV.PL

ASSOCIATED DIRECTION AND TOPOLOGICAL RELATION

185

li-ñe’wa-’mijlchi her-DIM-feet

‘and there you stand (the child) in (the sand) so that her little feet can walk.’ [AER] In (293), the family dog poked his face through the doorway, into the room where we were sitting. (293) robotín

pang-na-pa

moyj-’mi-’m-inga’

<dog.name> sit-TERM-PFV.SG full.face-in-IPFV-1P.PAT

‘Robotín just sat down to peek in at us.’ [AER v1-dir] This predicate depicts turning a full face ‘into’ a ground, which contrasts with moy-k’oy-pa in (286), turning a full face ‘inside’ a ground. Perhaps this responds to the difference in the ground referents, as ‘into’ a room vs. ‘inside’ the branches of a tree. 5.5.2.1 The D2a construction D2a AGT receive Undergoer in Disp-V1 wrt endpoint -ñi

In the D2a construction, an agentive participant receives or makes contact with an undergoer as invoked by V1 ‘be in contact’. There is only one compound stem that participates in this predicate type. Table 35. Distribution of dispositional V1 and DTR, D2a construction

pi- contact

-ñi across x

The element pi- ‘contact’ has presented a challenge for glossing. In earlier work (O’Connor 2000c, 2003), the morpheme was glossed ‘small’ and was considered an allomorph of pe- ‘(transport) small’ (and see discussion of the classificatory ‘receive’ construction in 5.6.2.2.). There is a causative stem pi’e‘grind finely, make smaller’, and there are nouns such as apij ‘stone’ or api’e ‘egg’, any of which could be etymologically related to pi- ‘small’. However, the gloss was changed to ‘contact’ because of the wide range of referents that occur as undergoer participants in change event predicates formed with pi-.44 Consider the following examples, in which a participant ‘receives contact’ with money (294), with the highlands (295), with the new year (296), with a bottle (297), and with death (298). 44

I thank Felix Ameka for this suggestion.

MOTION, TRANSFER, AND TRANSFORMATION

186 (294) joypa

sa=yma’

pi-ñi-wa

lakwe-melyu’

already contact-across-PROG.SG DEM=2S.AGT man-money

‘Now you’re getting lots of money,’ [aer3vender] (295) joypa

sa=yma’

lijwala

pi-ñi-pa

already DEM=2S.AGT contact-across-PFV.SG highland

‘Once you have reached the mountain,’ [aer3vender] joypa tyuwa amats’

(296) pi-ñi-pa=yang

contact-across-PFV.SG=1P.AGT already other year

‘Happy new year! (lit: we have received another year)’ [PSG] (297)a. lakwe’ xk’wi-’mi-pa el man

botella jaape el

stab-in-PFV.SG DET bottle

ej

where DET tre

‘The man stuck the bottle in the tree,’ b. el DET

palo pi-ñi-pa

si-manne

tree contact-across-PFV.SG self-also

‘and the tree itself received it.’ [aer CPOS.43] (298)a. ma-’m-o’

sa

die-IPFV-2S.PAT DEM

‘You’re going to die,’ lamaada’

b. con dos abrazos pi-ñi-jla’ with two hugs

contact-across-IMP.SG death

‘(you might as well) receive death with two hugs’ c. pa’-pa

sa=‘le

come-PFV.SG DEM=thing

‘(because) it’s coming!’ [EGT] The Spanish phrase in (298)b con dos abrazos ‘with two hugs’ is used here like the English expression of ‘welcome something with open arms’. The final example is a short excerpt from a narrative, which shows that ‘accepting’ payment is a causativized derivation of ‘receiving’ payment. (299)a. ja’ñi papa, NEG

maa s=iya’

pi-ñe-’ma

male.friend NEG DEM=1S.AGT contact-across:CAUS-IPFV.SG

‘No, dear man, I will not accept that,’

ASSOCIATED DIRECTION AND TOPOLOGICAL RELATION b. maa=ya’ NEG=1S.AGT

pi-ñe-’ma

187

lukwe’ peexu

contact-across:CAUS-IPFV.SG two

pesos

‘I will not accept the two pesos.’ [rg2flojo] In (299), the DTR -ñi is fused with the causative morpheme -’ee.45 5.5.3 Features of the dispositional construction Many instantiations of the dispositional construction have a double reading: they express the means of change and express the state resulting from a previous change. Both interpretations are illustrated in (300). (300) jojl-may-pa

lapixu’ maj-lixpantalek-’ej

sit-down.in-PFV-SG pot

LOC-forked.branch-tree

‘The pot sat/is sitting in the crotch of the tree.’ This subsection examines this dual function and suggests how it is used. One motivation is to describe a static scene as an endpoint of change, a pattern identified for motion descriptions in Chapter 3 and for motion-cum-purpose descriptions in Chapter 4. This feature is illustrated below with predicates with durative inflection and with perfective inflection. A second outcome is that the new disposition can be interpreted as a property of a referent, which then can be used to introduce and/or track that referent in discourse. 5.5.3.1 Durative inflection as ‘static scene setting’ Durative inflection in Chontal indicates that an event is habitual or that it is currently ongoing. The first two examples appeal to either interpretation. As general statements, children lie face down (301), and leaves lie spread on the ground (302). The translation under each example gives the alternate reading. 45 Two patterns of causativization have been identified in the dispositional predicates. In one, the causative derivation follows the DTR, as in (299) and (ft1) . (ft1) la’wa ta-ng-’m-ee-pa on.back-edge-in-CAUS-PFV.SG child ‘She lay the baby on its back.’ [EER] In the second, causative morphology comes between the V1 and DTR elements, as in (ft2). naa laka’no’ (ft2)a. juntamente laka’no’ naa po-’-way-pa suddenly woman REF crouch-CAUS-down.in-PFV.SG REF woman ‘Suddenly the woman, he forced her into a crouch, that woman,’ b. ’eepa sa lakwe’ do-PFV.SG DEM man ‘the man did it.’ [aer5gicha] The more common pattern is the first one, in which causative morphology follows the compound stem. Details of the distribution of the two types are not known.

MOTION, TRANSFER, AND TRANSFORMATION

188

(301) k’o-may-’uy

la’wa

mouth-down.in-DUR.SG child

‘The child is lying face down.’ [EER] (302) xpe-way-’uy

sa=ge

lamats’

spread-down.on-DUR.SG DEM=thing earth

‘It (the leaf) is lying on the ground.’ [RS] In narrative, a dispositional construction predicate with durative aspect places the event in the background and invites a stative reading. In this sense, the disposition of the undergoer participant represents a ‘static scene’ at the endpoint of an implied change, as in (303). laka’no’ tonj naa=sa

(303) kinok’e po-way-yuy bench

crouch-down.on-DUR.SG woman

’ee-day’

lajuña’

do-DUR.PL

trouble

like REF=DEM

‘The woman was crouching by the bench so they could do ‘the nasty’.’ [aer5gicha] The undergoer referent in (303) is animate and volitional: a woman, who moved into a crouching position and is maintaining it. The same pattern holds in a description of caused change, in which the undergoer referent is inanimate. In (304), tiles were moved up to the boards, which now sustain them. (304)a. jaage sa

lantexak’

ta-f’-kuy

which DEM on.back-up-DUR.SG tiles

‘The thing holding up the tiles,’ b. tyi=sa=ge

mi-yay’

lantabla’

that=DEM=thing say-DUR.PL boards

they call those things ‘boards’.’ [aer4ajutl] The function of the durative to describe a static scene at the endpoint of change can be made explicit, as in the following examples. In both, an inflected predicate with ‘ee- ‘do’ implies that the undergoer ‘does a huddle’. (305) tyijpe sa=yma’

kuch-’uy

’ee-na-pa

sa=yma’

there DEM=2S.AGT huddle-DUR.SG do-TERM-PFV.SG DEM=2S.AGT

‘There you would huddle up.’ [aer3vender]

ASSOCIATED DIRECTION AND TOPOLOGICAL RELATION (306)a. f’aj-pa=yma’

189

tamagay

ascend-PFV.SG=2S.AGT above

‘You went up high,’ b. kuch-’uy

’ee-jla’

huddle-DUR.SG do-IMP.SG

‘hang on! (i.e., curl up in one spot; don’t move)’ [HGT] Dispositional construction predicates with durative inflection often depict dispositional states. In this sense, they depict a static scene at the endpoint of change and imply a previous change. 5.5.3.2 Event construal in stimulus data Data collected in response to a stimulus task gives another perspective on encoding disposition as a result of previous change. The stimulus was a book of photos showing various objects in dispositions of caused position with respect to a variety of ground referents. Chontal has what looks like a ‘middle’ construction but no passive construction, and speakers often avoid the implication that inanimate objects have changed position spontaneously. The descriptions of static location in the following come from the responses of a single speaker, who expressed each scene as though someone had arranged the objects in the photographed scenarios. The nuanced spatial detail in the disposition construction predicates reflects the shape of the undergoer referent and the details of the undergoer configuration with ground at the endpoint of change. Compare the first two, in which relatively long items are lain up on a rock and a stump, respectively. (307) ña-f’i-pa

el

botella jaape lapij

lying-up.on-PFV.SG DET bottle

where rock

‘He lay the bottle up on the rock.’ [acm AMK.26] (308) ña-n-f’i-pa

el

pame jaape luchik-’ej

lying-edge-up.on-PFV.SG DET yam

where stump-tree

‘He lay the yam up on the stump.’ [acm AMK.23] In (308), the surface contact between yam and stump is highlighted in the complex predicate. Surface contact with the edges of the ground referent is expressed in (309), in a stative description (a) and in a description of caused change of position (b).

190

MOTION, TRANSFER, AND TRANSFORMATION (309)a. ño-m-f’-a crosswise-edge-up-STAT1.SG

‘It’s diagonal (up there),’ el

b. ño-m-f’-’ee-pa

botella jaape lanchupi

crosswise-edge-up-CAUS-PFV.SG DET bottle

where basket

‘he put the bottle crosswise up in the basket.’ [acm AMK.22] The predicate in (b) was also used to describe my holding a pen between my thumb and fingertip. The next two examples illustrate the metaphoric body part associations with certain objects: pots or bowls have ‘mouths’ (310), while bottles have ‘heads’ (311). (310) k’o-mu-pa

la’wa-pixu jaape luchik-’ej

mouth-down?-PFV.SG DIM-pot

where stump-tree

‘He set the little pot mouth-down on the stump.’ [acm AMK.12] (311)a. kas-o’-p-ola’

ma-nchupi lan-botella

stand-LOC?-PFV-3P.PAT LOC-basket DET.PL-bottle

‘He stood the bottles in the basket,’ b. fane kas-a-ño-p-ola’

lyi-jwaj

three stand-x-across:LOC-PFV-3P.PAT its-head

‘he stood three of them on their heads.’ [acm AMK.60] In all the stimulus data descriptions, dispositional construction predicates give rich detail of the end-state of change, usually appealing to physical traits of the undergoer referents. The final three examples demonstrate how particular dispositions were described when the details of the scene were difficult to express. Many of the scenes in the stimulus photo book depicted ‘draping’. A pliable object, such as a cloth or a coiled rope, was draped across a branch, a rock, a stump, across the top of a basket or as spilling out of a basket. The variety of linguistic strategies used in the descriptions suggests there is no single predicate that captures exactly the dispositional details of ‘draping’. Instead, speakers often used simple predicates ‘hang’ and ‘extend’, or complex predicates of classificatory and trajectory construction types. One predicate that instantiates the dispositional construction was used to describe a ribbon draped or ‘placed spread out’ across two branches, (312).

ASSOCIATED DIRECTION AND TOPOLOGICAL RELATION (312) spe-f’i-pa

el

191

liston jaape lan-’ej

spread-up.on-PFV.SG DET ribbon where DET.PL-tree

‘He spread the ribbon up on the branches.’ [acm AMK.59] Another interesting strategy was a paraphrase, composed of what looks like a stative reading of a simple predicate plus a motion predicate of the trajectory construction type (to be discussed in 5.7). Both (313) and (314) could be analyzed as two separate events, i.e., ‘he coiled the rope; he moved it’ and ‘he folded the cloth; he moved it’. Another hypothesis is reflected in the translation lines: the disposition of the undergoer referent in motion is depicted as a property or state achieved by previous change of position. (313) jwix-pa

lukwix ‘oy-f’i-pa

twist-PFV.SG rope

jaape lanchupi

flat.arc-up.on where basket

‘Coiled rope, he moved it up in the basket.’ [acm AMK.19] (314) ts’i-k’e-pa

jaape lapij

lich’ale ‘oy-f’i-pa

fold-CAUS-PFV.SG cloth

flat.arc-up.on-PFV.SG where rock

‘Folded cloth, he moved it up on the rock.’ [acm AMK.32] There are no available compound stems to express the precise concepts of the two-verb paraphrases, cf. *jwix-f’i-pa and *ts’i-f’i-pa. Instead each photo was described with two verbal predicates: the first one depicting a quality of the referent, and the second one depicting the change that led to the final disposition.46 5.5.3.3 Referent introduction and referent tracking in narrative data The dispositional construction can specify a quality of the entity undergoing a change of location, position or state, and therefore it follows that these predicates also play a role in referent tracking. In (315), the ‘sitting thing’ in the compound stem predicate in (c) refers to a pot which need not be mentioned lexically. (315)a. spojl-’ma

sa=yma’

manj-ta

sa

nestle-IPFV.SG DEM=2S.AGT be.full-DLOC.SG DEM

‘You nestle them inside until it’s full,’

46

There is evidence for and against the idea that the first predicate in each line is functioning as a type of adjective. Adjectives do frequently occur just before the modified noun (see 2.2.4), but juxtaposition is a typical way to conjoin two independent clauses (2.6.4.1).

192

MOTION, TRANSFER, AND TRANSFORMATION b. k’ej-’mi-ya

sa=ja’

water-in-STAT.SG? DEM=water

‘adding water,’ sa

c. jola-f’-ix-ki

maj-lunkwa’

sitting-up-AND-IMP.MOV.SG DEM LOC-fire

‘and go and set it (the pot) up on the fire.’ [EGT] In (316), the Goal location of the man’s back is introduced only by the initial element of the compound stem. (316) ta-f’-pa

sa

lakwe’ lan’ek’

on.back-up-PFV.SG DEM man

wood

‘The man put the wood up (on his shoulders or back).’ [APM] An example of referent tracking with a dispositional construction predicate will be shown in 5.6.3.1. As has been mentioned before, a change of position represents an intermediate event type, with properties of change of location and of change of state. Like a change of location, the endpoint is a new position in space; like a change of state, the path of change is not a translational path between two locations but instead a boundary-crossing type of path between two states in time. This fundamental semantic overlap makes it unsurprising that event descriptions with dispositional construction predicates blend characteristics of change over space and time, giving dynamic and static result state readings.47 In detailing the manner of change of position, the dispositional construction resembles the means construction, and when collocations of undergoer referent and particular posture take on referent-tracking functions, the dispositional construction resembles the classificatory construction. The latter is the topic of the following section. 5.6 The classificatory construction Four types of classificatory constructions have been identified in the data. CLASSIFICATORY CONSTRUCTIONS

C1 Undergoer invoked by Clf-V1 wrt endpoint-DTR C2 Causer cause Undergoer invoked by Clf-V1 wrt endpoint-DTR C2a Causer move Undergoer wrt endpoint-DTR to Goal-Clf-V1 47 Other construction types can produce predicates with static readings, but these are less frequent and the predicates typically occur with stative inflection, not durative or perfective inflection.

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C2b AGT receive Undergoer invoked by Clf-V1 wrt endpoint -ñi

The classificatory construction encodes a change of location, position or state and tells something about the undergoer participant or about the Goal. The V1s index a feature of undergoer (size or shape), identify the type of undergoer (as liquid, grain, or animate), or identify the semantic Goal as a container or a human. The term ‘classificatory’ appeals to the view that the initial element of the compound stem restricts the possible undergoer referents to a certain class of entities. The V1 elements that participate in this construction are ch’u- ‘grain (especially corn)’, k’e- ‘liquid (especially water)’, le- ‘animate’ or ‘long and thin’, pe- ‘small’, soy- ‘shallow plate’ and wa- ‘container’. The final morpheme wa‘container’ can refer to the undergoer referent, such as a glass or a plate that is moved, or it can refer to the endpoint of motion as ‘into a container’. Many of these V1 elements serve as (or are homophonous with) verbs of transport, which were introduced in Chapter 3. Table 19 is adapted here as Table 36. Table 36. Classificatory V1 elements Verb ch’uk’elepesoywa-

Usage (move) grain, especially corn (move) liquid, especially water (move) someone or something animate or long, thin (move) something small, especially in the hand (move) wide, shallow plate (move) any type of container, with two hands

Waterhouse called these morphemes TCR (transitive classifying roots) and listed them as verbs of ‘fetching’ (1962:74). Her list includes ch’u- ‘corn, grain’ as an independent verb, but speakers of today would not inflect this morpheme without a DTR. Soy- ‘shallow plate’ can be inflected to express setting down a plate or tray.48 With respect to their function as V1s of compound stems, the notion of ‘transport’ or ‘carrying’ is not maintained uniformly, although semantics of ‘motion’ are part of the lexicalized meaning of all classificatory constructions. Most classificatory construction predicates are transitive or ditransitive, and

48

In an alternate analysis, compound stem predicates with soy- ‘shallow pan’ could be categorized as instantiations of means constructions rather than classificatory constructions. The latter was chosen because soyf’i- ‘move a shallow pan up on’ is lexicalized to invoke the flat tortilla griddle as a default undergoer referent.

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194

this is in the only construction that forms compound stems with the DTR elements –ay ‘across’ and –ayj ‘down’.49 At least one classificatory V1, k’e- ‘water, liquid’, can predicate single-participant events using compound stems formed without valence-changing morphology. The morpheme le- indexes long and thin things, like bananas, as well as living things, a category that includes humans, animals, and spirits, such as the sun or the earth. The primary discourse functions of the classificatory construction are to introduce referents, track referents through multiple utterances, or to maintain backgrounded referents in the discourse context without using a lexical mention (Mithun 1984, 1986a). As mentioned in 5.4.4.2, classificatory initial elements serve a secondary function of describing the manner or means of interaction between causer and undergoer, e.g. to move something as you would a small thing (pe-), or by grasping a long and thin thing (le-), or by using both hands in front of you (wa-). Each classificatory construction will now be discussed individually. A demonstration of referent tracking and referent introduction in narrative text will close the discussion of this construction type. 5.6.1

The C1 construction

C1 Undergoer invoked by Clf-V1 wrt endpoint-DTR

In the C1 construction, the undergoer invoked by V1 moves or shifts to the endpoint invoked by the DTR. Only one V1 participates in this predicate type in the current corpus, in the combinations indicated in Table 37. Table 37. Distribution of classificatory V1 and DTR, C1 construction -f’ up

-ayj lower

-f’i up on

k’eliquid

-way down on x

-may down in x

-gi out

-’mi in, on

-k’oy inside

-ñi across

-ay across

-ng edges

x

The first predicate has relatively transparent semantics, but the second predicate is more difficult to interpret. (317) k’ej-may-pa

laja’

liquid-down.in-PFV.SG water

‘Water formed a puddle.’ [aer v1-dir]

49

As such, these DTR elements do not figure in V1-DTR combination tables outside this section.

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ASSOCIATED DIRECTION AND TOPOLOGICAL RELATION (318) k’ej-way-pa

las’e

liquid-down.on-PFV.SG corn.drink

‘Corn drink was left over.’ [aer v1-dir] In (317), ‘liquid’ moves ‘down in’ the earth, to form a puddle. The predicate in (318) expresses that a certain amount of liquid, such as water or the corn drink here, remains ‘down on’ something, perhaps the bottom of a well, barrel, or bowl. 5.6.2

The C2 construction

C2 Causer cause Undergoer invoked by Clf-V1 wrt endpoint-DTR

In the C2 construction, a causer causes the undergoer invoked by V1 to move or shift to the endpoint invoked by the DTR. The V1 and DTR elements in the current corpus that participate in this predicate type are presented in Table 38. Table 38. Distribution of classificatory V1 and DTR, C2 construction -f’ up ch’ugrain k’eliquid lelong or animate pesmall soyshallow pan wacontainer

-ayj lower

x

-f’i up on x x

x

x

x

x

-way down on

-may down in

-gi out x

-’mi in, on x

x+

x

-k’oy inside

-ñi across

-ay across

-ng edges

x+

x

x

x

x

x

x

x

x

x

x

x

x

A few examples of C2 constructions demonstrate the types of caused change events expressed with classificatory elements. The large, shallow tortilla griddle is the default referent of the undergoer of the predicate in (319), although one can use constructions with this V1 to talk about moving trays or large, shallow baskets.

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(319) soy-f’i-pa=yma’

laskwaji

shallow.pan-up.on-PFV.SG=2S.AGT tortilla.griddle

‘You put the tortilla griddle up on (the fire).’ [RS] Likewise, ‘corn’ is the assumed undergoer referent of predicates such as (320), unless other particular grains are named. (320) ch’u-’mi-’ma=yma’

ten

sa=yma’

maj-ko-da

grain-in-IPFV.SG=2S.AGT what DEM=2S.AGT cook-APPL-SNJCT.SG

‘You put in whatever grain you want to cook.’ [RSpancomida] Containers such as plates, pots and bags are moved around in events described with classificatory constructions. The next two examples demonstrate the secondary function of classificatory V1s, in depicting the manner of interaction with particular types of referents. In (321), the plate or pot is grasped with two hands, and the V1 is wa- ‘container’. (321) wa-f’-’ma=ya’

el

pime / lapixu’

container-up-IPFV.SG=1S.AGT DET plate / pot

‘I’ll pick up the plate / the pot.’ However, the backpack in (322) is removed by just dropping it from the shoulders, and the alternate V1 pe- ‘small’ reflects the difference in manner of handling this type of container. (322) ja’ko-pa=yma’ forget-PFV.SG=2S.AGT

p-ayj-’ma

lo-bolsa

small-down-IPFV.SG

your-bag

‘You forgot to take off your backpack.’ [APM] The V1 le- can invoke a participant as long and thin (323) or as animate (324). (323) le-gi-ta=ya’

lankiña

long-out-DLOC.SG=1S.AGT banana

‘I’m going to go and pick bananas.’ [AER] (324)a. el DET

ts’ets’e sa

‘wa-duy

ej

squirrel DEM walk-DUR.SG tree

‘The squirrel was up (lit: walking) in the tree;

ASSOCIATED DIRECTION AND TOPOLOGICAL RELATION b. maa sa NEG DEM

197

pangja l-ayj-’ma able

anim-down-IPFV.SG

she couldn’t get it down.’ [aer1panka] Restrictions on distribution have not been fully identified, but they include at least those described for the C2a and C2b constructions, presented below. A complex path shape can be depicted by a series of two DTRs in a single compound stem. In (325), corn is moved up and into a basket. (325) ch’u-f’-’mi-pa

jaape lakayjma’

grain-up-in-PFV.SG where basket

‘She picked up the corn and put it in the basket.’ [AER v1-dir] In (326), water is moved across and out. Note that -ay ‘across’ followed by a second DTR loses the sense of ‘give’. (326)

k’-ay-gi-yuy

iya’

lay-k’ejwa

water-across-out-DUR.SG 1S.AGT my-well

‘I’m removing the water from my well.’ [AER v1-dir] Example (327) shows another way to move water, with more force and worse manners.50 (327) w-ay-k’oy-pa=ya’ container-across-inside-PFV.SG=1S.AGT

‘I threw a glass of water in his face (lit: caused a container to go across and inside).’ [AER v1-dir] The discussion of predicates that participate in the classificatory construction continues with a look at two specialized variations of the C2 construction. 5.6.2.1 The C2a construction C2a Causer move Undergoer wrt endpoint-DTR to Goal-Clf-V1

In the C2a construction, a causer causes an undergoer to move or shift to the endpoint invoked by the DTR at the Goal invoked by V1. Two V1s in the current corpus participate in this predicate type, as seen in Table 39. 50 An alternative reading is to treat the morpheme -k’oy as an intensifier suffix, rather than a DTR. This would produce a sense of ‘giving a container’ intensively, or with force.

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198

Table 39. Distribution of classificatory V1 and DTR, C2a construction

le- animate wa- container

-’mi in, on x x+

-k’oy inside x+

The first example describes putting chicks into the chicken house. (328) to’-na-jla’

lapujltyu wa-s-k’oy-jla’

gather-TERM-IMP.SG chicks

dentro

container-AND-inside-IMP.SG inside

‘Gather up the chicks and put them inside.’ [RS] Example (329) demonstrates an apparently lexicalized stem that means to insult someone, to ‘move something into (at) a human’. (329) jl-lej-’mi-’ma,

injko

tes li-coraje

1S.PAT-anim-in-IPFV.SG who.knows what his-anger

‘He insults me, who knows what his problem is.’ [AER v1-dir] Additional examples of this construction type are illustrated in the text excerpts in 5.6.3. 5.6.2.2 The C2b construction C2b AGT receive Undergoer invoked by Clf-V1 wrt endpoint -ñi

In the C2b construction, an agentive participant receives an undergoer invoked by V1. Four of the classificatory V1s participate in this predicate type. Table 40. Distribution of classificatory V1 and DTR, C2b construction

ch’u- corn, grain k’e-, k’i- water, liquid le-, li- animate wa- container

-ñi across x x x x

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199

In predicates that instantiate the classificatory ‘receive’ construction, undergoer referents are not indexed by shape or size but instead by an identifying property.51 (330) le-ñi-’m-olwa’

sa=ya’

jaape lay-ñejutl’

anim-across-IPFV-2P.PAT DEM=1S.AGT where my-house

‘I’ll receive you in my home.’ [aer4ajutl] The V1s k’e- ‘water’ and le- ‘animate’ can have alternative forms in this construction, as k’i- and li-, respectively. The alternation may be morphophonemic, as a type of vowel harmony, and speakers agree that the distinctions are subtle. One group explained that k’iñi- is used if the water is brought from nearby, as from the house or the water supply in the yard, while k’eñi- is used if the water is brought from elsewhere. The stem liñi- was used by one speaker to describe receiving a small animal as a gift.52 5.6.3 Tracking referents in local discourse The major discourse functions of classificatory constructions relate to referent tracking in local discourse. Classificatory V1s can introduce or disambiguate the referent of the undergoer or Goal and can maintain an implicit participant in the scene. In addition, classificatory and other types of initial elements can be covert indices to referent types identified indirectly by the manner of handling the undergoer in motion. These functions are illustrated here in a series of excerpts from narrative text. 5.6.3.1 Text: The work of a ‘cantor’ The first excerpt is from a narrative about the work of a cantor ‘singer’ in the rituals for the dead. In Chontal beliefs, the spirit remains in the body after death, such that the deceased can hear the ritual songs and the funeral Mass. There are nine days of mourning, ending when a cross is laid on the bed or mat 51 Note the difference with the V1 pe- ‘small’. The compound stem peñi- means to move something small across and away, not to receive it, as in the following. pangja ima’ pe-ñi-’ma be.able 2S.AGT small-across-IPFV.SG ‘Can you deliver it?’ [EER] 52

The reader is reminded of the discussion in 5.5.2.1 of the ‘receive’ construction in the family of dispositional constructions. The V1 pi- is the logical counterpart of pe- ‘small’, and ‘receive a small thing’ is a logical description of many predicates with the stem piñi-. However, because the dispositional ‘receive’ D2a construction predicate piñi- can be used with such a wide range of undergoer referents, the general gloss for pi- of ‘contact’ is adopted throughout this analysis.

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200

where the deceased was prepared for burial and then carried to the cemetery to be placed on the grave. Part of the cantor’s role is to go to the spot where the person died and, depending on the circumstances, physically lift the body or ceremonially retrieve the spirit. The undergoer referent in this excerpt (the body or spirit of the deceased) is tracked with classificatory constructions in (c), (d) and (e) and then with a dispositional construction in (f). (331)a. jlek’ ma-’ma

el

sans

when die-IPFV.SG DET person

‘When someone dies,’ b. ojl-ko-day’ search-APPL-DUR.PL

‘they send for him.’ c. chee-duy

lemayñe

le-f’-kix-pa

go.return-DUR.SG anim-up-AND-PFV.SG corpse

‘He goes and raises the corpse (ritual raising of the spirit).’ d. ñoy-yuy

lamats’ para naa=sa=‘le

lay-DUR.SG earth

for

REF=DEM=thing

le-ñi-wa anim-across-PROG.SG

lamats’ earth

‘He lays the body on the ground so that the earth receives its spirit.’ e. joyya sa

sa

le-f’-na-’me’

after DEM anim-up-TERM-IPFV.PL DEM

‘And then they lift the body,’ f. tyijpe sa

ñaj-’mi-yay’

jaape li-ñejwijma

there DEM lying-in-DUR.PL where his-mat

‘There they place him on his sleeping mat.’ g. joypa sa=ge now

DEM=person

’ee-ñi-’me’

li-candela

do-across-IPFV.PL his-candles

‘Now they place (make him receive) his candles (on the mat),’ h. ’ee-ñi-’me’

li-pipa’

do-across-IPFV.PL his-flowers

‘they place his flowers,’

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201

li-veladora

i. ’ee-ñi-’me’

do-across-IPFV.PL his-votive.candle

‘they place his votive candle.’ j. joypa sa now

DEM

ma-na-pa

lakwe’

die-TERM-PFV.SG man

‘The man has died,’ k. joypa ayg-im-pa’ now

lower-BENE-PFV.PL

‘so they put his things down with him.’ [rg9cantor] The cantor goes to the site of the death and ritually raises the body or spirit of the deceased in (c). The V1 le- in a series of compound stem predicates traces the body or spirit as an animate entity raised (c), received (d), and raised again (e). The dispositional predicate in (f) tracks the referent as a lying thing positioned on the sleeping mat. The speaker makes a rather poetic choice of predicates in the rest of the passage. The means construction predicates in (g), (h) and (i) specify nothing about the manner of motion, and the ‘lowering’ verb in (k) is used without a classificatory V1. The details the of motions and the types of things moved are thus backgrounded in the mind of the listener. Through her lexical choice, the speaker creates an image focused on the deceased, placed reverently on a mat, quietly surrounded by traditional tokens of respect and farewell. 5.6.3.2 Text: Making dinner (I) Referent introduction and subsequent tracking are demonstrated in four motion to Goal constructions in this excerpt on cooking. (332)a. pase-’ma

sa=ya’

lay-tejwa’,

make-IPFV.SG DEM=1S.AGT my-food

‘I’m going to prepare my food,’ b. tejwa-tyu’, i-ma-k’e-da-tyu’ food-fish

NM-cook-CAUS-NM-fish

‘a fish meal, cooked fish.’ c. wa-s-’mi-’ma

sa=ya’

lankiña,

container-AND-in-IPFV.SG DEM=1S.AGT banana

‘I put in a banana (in the pot),’

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MOTION, TRANSFER, AND TRANSFORMATION sa=ya’

d. wa-s-’mi-’ma

li-ju’e,

container-AND-in-IPFV.SG DEM=1S.AGT its-salt

‘I put in salt (in the pot),’ sa=ya’

e. wa-s-’mi-’ma

li-seboya.

container-AND-in-IPFV.SG DEM=1S.AGT its-onion

‘I put in onion (in the pot).’ f. joypa sa

pulya sa

lapixu

already DEM boiling DEM pot

‘Once the pot is boiling,’ g. joypa sa

maj-pa

lankiña,

already DEM cook-PFV.SG banana

‘once the banana has cooked,’ h. wa-s-’mi-’ma

sa=ya’

latyu’,

container-AND-in-IPFV.SG DEM=1S.AGT fish

‘I put in the fish (in the pot).’ [aer4ajutl] The cook pot is introduced in (c) and tracked in (d), (e) and (h) but only mentioned lexically in (f). This strategy keeps the pot in the background while highlighting the individual ingredients of the dish. 5.6.3.3 Text: In the marketplace Two types of constructions are used to disambiguate referents through covert indices in this excerpt from a narrative on traveling merchants. This segment describes transactions between the Chontal sellers and the tall, somewhat ferocious buyers from the coffee farms in the west. (333)a. joypa

pi-ñi-wa

sa=yma’

lakwe-melyu’

already contact-across-PROG.SG DEM=2S.AGT man-money

‘Now you’re getting lots of money,’ b. puro pesetas sa=yma’

pi-ñi-yuy

puro plata

pure pesetas DEM=2S.AGT contact-across-DUR.SG all

‘all coins, you’re receiving all pieces of silver.’ c. sk’wi-’mi-’ma ima’

fa’a lo-ku’u

stab-in-IPFV.SG 2S.AGT here your-belly

‘You put it here (in the belt) on your belly,’

silver

ASSOCIATED DIRECTION AND TOPOLOGICAL RELATION d. jo sa=yma’

203

jaape lo-na’wa-bolsa

wa-s-’mi-’ma

or DEM=2S.AGT container-AND-in-IPFV.SG where your-DIM-purse

‘or you put it in your little purse.’ sa=yma’

e. wa-s-’mi-’ma

lo-melyu’

container-AND-in-IPFV.SG DEM=2S.AGT your-money

‘You put your money in it.’ [aer3vender] The excerpt begins with two payment events, in (a) and (b), and the money is then tracked by describing what one does with it. The initial element of the means construction predicate in (c) is a covert index to the Goal referent. The ‘stabbing’ characterization of the motion can only mean that you are putting the money into the secret purse sewn inside the front of your skirt or trousers. A more common way to denote the placing of money into a purse or pocket is with the predicate in (d) and (e). The purse itself is implicit in the motion event in (e), yet the classificatory V1 of the compound stem leaves no doubt that the recently mentioned purse is the intended destination. A similar function was demonstrated in the text excerpt in 5.4.4.2, in which a series of means constructions and a classificatory construction clarified the form of the ‘corn’ being handled. 5.6.3.4 Text: Making dinner (II) A final short excerpt demonstrates that a participant can be introduced into discourse solely through use of a classificatory construction predicate. lapixu jo el tejwa’ (334)a. jola-f’i-jla’ sitting-up.on-IMP.SG cookpot or DET food

‘Put the pot or food up on top (of the stove),’ b. k’ej-’mi-’ma

sa=yma’

jaape lapixu

water-in.on-IPFV.SG DEM=2S.AGT where cookpot

‘(and) you pour water into the pot,’ c. lapixu

wa-s-’mi-’ma

sa=yma’

cookpot container-AND-in.on-IPFV.SG DEM=2S.AGT

‘In the pot, you toss in ‘ d. ten

sa=yma’

para pase-’ma

what DEM=2S.AGT for

make-IPFV.SG

lo-tejwa’ your-food

‘whatever you have to make for your meal.’ [AER]

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The classificatory V1 in (b) is used with all liquids; when no liquid is mentioned, the default is ‘water’. 5.7 The trajectory construction Two construction types are identified as trajectory constructions. TRAJECTORY CONSTRUCTIONS

T1

Undergoer travel in Traj-V1 wrt endpoint-DTR

T2

Causer cause Undergoer travel in Traj-V1 wrt endpoint-DTR

The trajectory construction elaborates the shape of the path taken by the undergoer. Therefore, like the means construction, it tells us something about the event itself. The defining features of path shape or ‘trajectory’ used here are drawn from work in conceptual semantics by van der Zee (2000). He describes ‘path curvature’ as the sum of two components, one translational and one rotational. The translational component is roughly the tendency to move in a straight line, and the rotational component is roughly the tendency NOT to move in a straight line. The rotational component describes path shape. This is distinct from the motor pattern of the undergoer in motion, is independent of translational path, and is independent of direction. Van der Zee examined the lexical structure of various parts of speech, including verbs, that encode path curvature in Dutch. Given the vast array of linguistic resources in languages of the Americas to describe spatial relations and directional paths, and given the verbal morphology in Lowland Chontal that explicitly encodes the conceptual percept of path shape, it seems relevant to look for potential candidates for a semantic category of ‘path shape’ in other languages of the Americas. A perusal of two survey volumes reaped a few potential candidates. For example, among the directional suffixes in Central Pomo, we find suffixes -mli- ‘around a point’ and -aq- ‘south, levelly, by’ (Mithun 1999:139). Karuk has spatial suffixes -paθ ‘around in a circle’, -vruk ‘down over the edge’, -kara ‘horizontally away from the center of a body of water’, and -rípa ‘horizontally toward the center of a body of water’ (143-144); Nisgha has proclitics hał= ‘along parallel to a line, esp. the shoreline’ and sp∂= ‘horizontally off’ (146-147), and Pawnee has verbal stem elements that depict ‘vertical circular motion’, ‘around, in circular direction’, ‘curved, bent’, ‘around, in a circle’ and ‘slanting’ (371). In Mesoamerica, Northern Totonac has a verbal suffix that indicates ‘moving toward some point and returning’ (Suárez 1983:78), and Cora has directional elements that describe ‘circular motion’, ‘across a surface and toward the speaker’, and ‘in a circuit’ (79). In Chontal, the trajectory V1 inventory is small, with only five members identified so far. These are go- ‘back and forth’, ki- ‘straight, horizontal’, ‘oy‘flat arc’, spa- ‘high arc’, and s’wi- ‘arc back?’. Two of the trajectory V1s occur

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ASSOCIATED DIRECTION AND TOPOLOGICAL RELATION

as independent verbs: ‘oy-, translated into Spanish as ‘leave’, as are many verbs in the language,53 or as an existential (e.g. ‘oyya ‘there is’), and s’wi‘clear land with a hoe, chop weeds from the field’, which likely appeals to the trajectory of the hoeing tool in use. Each construction is presented and exemplified below, and the section ends with a comparison of the types of information contributed by narrative data and elicited data. 5.7.1 T1

The T1 construction Undergoer travel in Traj-V1 wrt endpoint-DTR

In the T1 construction, an undergoer travels a path with a shape invoked by V1 to move or shift to the endpoint invoked by the DTR. The V1 and DTR elements that participate in this predicate type in the current corpus are presented in Table 41. Table 41. Distribution of trajectory V1 and DTR, T1 construction -f’ up ki- straight, horizontal ’oy- flat arc

-f’i up on

-way down on

-may down in

-gi out

-’mi in, on

-k’oy inside

-ñi across

-ng edges

x x+

The trajectory construction predicate in the following depicts straight ahead motion to cross a boundary. (335) joypa

sa=yma’

ki-ñi-pa

el puente de Piña

already DEM=2S.AGT straight-across-PFV.SG the Piña bridge

‘Once you crossed the Piña bridge,’ [aer3vender] (336) joypa sa=yma now

DET=2S.AGT

ki-ñi-pa

sa=yma

el

pana’

straight-across-PFV.SG DET=2S.AGT DET river

‘Now you’ve crossed the river,’ [aer3vender] The reference point of the crossing can be a bridge, as in (335), or can name a river, a street, or an expanse of territory. This is illustrated in (336), from the same narrative describing the route of traveling merchants. 53 See discussion in 5.4.3 of the many V1 elements glossed rather generically as ‘leave’, ‘move’, and ‘place’.

MOTION, TRANSFER, AND TRANSFORMATION

206 5.7.2 T2

The T2 construction Causer cause Undergoer travel in Traj-V1 wrt endpoint-DTR

In the T2 construction, a causer causes an undergoer to travel a path with a shape invoked by V1 to move or shift to the endpoint invoked by the DTR. The V1 and DTR elements that participate in this predicate type in the current corpus are presented in Table 42. Table 42. Distribution of trajectory V1 and DTR, T2 construction -f’ up go- back & forth ki- straight, horizontal ‘oy- flat arc spa- high arc s’wi- arc back

-f’i up on

-way down on

-may down in

-gi out

x

-k’oy inside

-’mi in, on

-ñi across

x

x x x

-ng edges

x

x

x

x x

x

x x x

A few examples of T2 constructions demonstrate the types of caused change events expressed with elaborated paths. There is only one T2 type predicate that begins with ki- to describe a motion straight across. The endpoint of this motion is ‘up’, to depict scraping or shaving, as in (337) and (338). (337) ki-f’-kuy=ya’

el

zanahoria

straight-up-DUR.SG=1S.AGT DET carrot

‘I’m scraping the carrot.’ [PSG} (338) ki-f’-jla’

lo-siko’

straight-up-IMP.SG your-chin

‘Shave your chin!’ [GRR] When the construction begins with the V1 ‘oy-, the motion begins with a short, flat arc. Example (340) alludes to the fact that hens run free, so the eggs must be collected and placed into the nests for incubating. (339) joola sa if

a’wa-’ixik’ ‘oy-’mi-jla’

DEM DIM-meat

flat.arc-in-IMP.SG

‘If you have a little piece of meat, toss it in.’ [RG]

ASSOCIATED DIRECTION AND TOPOLOGICAL RELATION (340) ‘oy-ñi-’ma=ya’

207

lyi-pi’e her-eggs

flat.arc-across-IPFV.SG=1S.AGT

‘I will give (my hen) her eggs.’ [AER] Predicates with spa- depict a high, vertical arc. In (341), the seedlings were pulled from one bucket and placed in another, for transport to the field. A vigorous slapping with a sprig of basil, (342), is a traditional method for addressing especially emotional upsets and is still practiced today. (341) xpa-gi-’ma high.arc-out-IPFV.SG

sage el

kasi, para

3s

chili in.order.to DET

DET

sa

fa-’ma plant-IPFV.SG

‘He would transplant the chili to plant it (in the field).’ [AER] (342) spa-f’-k-ilya’

saya’

jaape sa

paychu-p-ola’

high.arc-up-DUR-3P.PAT 1S.AGT where DEM bc.afraid-PFV-3P.PAT

‘I slap them (with basil) at the spot where they suffered the fright.’ [AER] The predicate in (342) is also used to describe spanking or whipping. Unlike the trajectory construction predicates just described, compound stem predicates with V1s s’wi- ‘arc back’ and go- ‘back and forth’ seem highly lexicalized, used to depict specific events. The V1 s’wi- may be the exception to the rule that V1s of trajectory are independent of direction. Only two compound stems are attested in the corpus, illustrated in (343) and (344), and both seem to depict motion in a short arc back toward the speaker. (343) cada ñulyi tyijpe sa each one

there

DEM

x’wi-ñi-pa arc.back-across-PFV.SG

‘(speaking of knots) Each one there, he tied it.’ (344) x’wi-k’oy-yuy

[AER]

li-piñega’

arc.back-inside-DUR.SG his-cornfield

‘He’s clearing his land (hoeing his field).’ [RS] The verb in (345) describes the motion of washing clothes as ‘back and forth, and up’, detailing the rhythmic up and down motion of doing laundry in

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the river. A different verb is used when the clothing is washed at home against a scrub board. (345) go-f’-kuy

laka’no’ li-pich’ale

back.forth-up-DUR.SG woman

her-clothes

‘The woman is washing her clothes (at the river).’ [PSG] The next predicate depicts the motion as back and forth with an endpoint ‘inside’; this is interpreted as the trajectory of the utensil while feeding someone else. (346) go-k’oy-yuy

iya’

el

enfermo

back.forth-inside-DUR.SG 1S.AGT DET sick.person

‘I’m feeding the sick person (by hand).’ [EER v1-dir] Additional features of trajectory construction compound stems are presented below. 5.7.3 Features of the trajectory construction compound stem The V1 element of a trajectory construction (except, possibly, s’wi-, as noted above) is typically independent of direction. For example, the ‘flat arc’ in (347) proceeds to a point ‘up and on’, while the ‘flat arc’ in (348) ends in a position ‘down and in’. (347) ‘oy-f’i-pa

sa=ya’

lay-buru

flat.arc-up.on-PFV.SG DEM=1S.AGT my-burro

‘I saddled my burro (moved something up and on).’ [APM] (348) ‘oy-’mi-pa

jaape lay-’wa-bolsa

sa=ya’

flat.arc-in-PFV.SG DEM=1S.AGT where my-DIM-bag

‘I put it in my pocket.’ [ACM] A single compound stem can have two DTR elements, as in the following two examples. Example (349) depicts the motion as a flat arc that moves up and then into a final configuration. The predicate in (350) describes the motion of a chicken wing as a high arc up and across. (349) ‘oy-f’-’mi-pa

maj-carton el

flat.arc-across-inside-DLOC.SG LOC-carton

DET

‘She placed the yam in the carton.’ [rs CPOS.7]

pame yam

ASSOCIATED DIRECTION AND TOPOLOGICAL RELATION (350) xpa-f’-ñi-pa

el

trana

209

li-x’ala

high.arc-up-across-PFV.SG DET chicken its-wing

‘The chicken raised and pointed its wing.’ [AER] Trajectory constructions do not serve a referent-tracking function. In contrast to the functional motivation suggested for the V1 elements of classificatory and dispositional constructions, the V1 of a trajectory construction does not specify the referent type of the undergoer in motion nor restrict the type of Goal referent. Example (347) above described the motion of a saddle that is placed on a burro’s back, and the same predicate describes the placing of thatch on a rooftop, in (351). (351) ‘oy-f’i-pa

sa=ya’

el

jasak’

flat.arc-up.on-PFV.SG DEM=1S.AGT DET thatch

‘I hefted the thatch (to the roof).’ [aer4ajutl] Nor do these predicates serve an adverbial function, by describing ‘how’ a particular motion is performed. Example (336) is repeated here as an example of a ‘crossing’ event. (336)‘ joypa sa=yma’ now

DEM=2S.AGT

ki-ñi-pa

el

pana’

straight-across-PFV.SG DET river

‘You already crossed the river.’ [aer3vender] To add a manner component to this trajectory construction, a second predicate is needed. In (352) we see examples of how ‘crossing’ in a certain manner would be expressed. (352)a. flew across b. ran across c. danced across

ñuf’-kuy

ki-ñi-pa

fly-DUR.SG

straight-across-PFV.SG

ñulye-duy

ki-ñi-pa

run-DUR.SG

straight-across-PFV.SG

xoy-yuy

ki-ñi-pa

dance-DUR.SG

straight-across-PFV.SG

In summary, trajectory constructions comprise a small and lexicalized set of predicates that elaborate path shape. Unlike the three construction types presented so far in this study, they do not serve referent-tracking or adverbial functions. In 5.7.4, tokens of trajectory construction predicates in narrative discourse and in elicited response are examined to characterize a possible dis-

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MOTION, TRANSFER, AND TRANSFORMATION

course motivation of this fourth and final type of complex predicate of associated direction and topological relation. 5.7.4 Usage patterns in narrative texts and stimulus data The trajectory construction is relatively rare in the current corpus of narrative text discourse, and the explanation may simply be one of supply and demand. The set of compound stem constructions described in this chapter provide a rich and varied resource for expressing an event of changing into a particular spatial relation, and within this set there are “competing motivations for the limited good” of morphological slot (Du Bois 1985). There is usually only one V1 per stem. Unlike the dispositional and classificatory constructions seen in 5.5 and 5.6, trajectory constructions do not restrict the set of possible referents of core participants nor do they introduce identifiable background participants. Unlike the means constructions (5.4) and the dispositional constructions, trajectory constructions do not provide any adverbial function. Therefore, the elaboration of path shape becomes almost a default option, and only when an appropriate lexical item exists for that motion. The following section suggests that this is indeed the case. 5.7.4.1 Contributions from narrative data Two generalizations can be made about usage patterns of the trajectory construction in narrative data. First, use a trajectory construction, if appropriate and available, when you don’t need to specify the undergoer (i.e., with a classificatory or dispositional construction), the Goal (with a classificatory construction), or the process that leads to the change (with a means construction). And conversely, don’t use an otherwise appropriate and available trajectory construction when you DO need to specify the undergoer, the Goal, or the process that leads to change. These proposed usage preferences will now be examined in turn. The first preference says, ‘Use a trajectory construction when there is no need to specify the undergoer, the Goal, or the process leading to a change.’ In (353), we see the typical predicate used to describe the act of putting a bread sheet in an oven, wask’oy’ma. (353) wa-s-k’oy-’ma=yma’

lo-’i

maj-horno

container-AND-inside-IPFV.SG=2S.AGT your-bread LOC-oven

‘You put your bread in the oven.’ [EER] Here the classificatory V1 wa- ‘container’ invokes either the bread sheet (undergoer) as something you hold with two hands, or the oven itself (Goal) as a container.

ASSOCIATED DIRECTION AND TOPOLOGICAL RELATION

211

Compare this clause to a similar event description in an excerpt from a narrative about making bread. (354)a. pase-’ma

ima’

la’i

make-IPFV.SG 2S.AGT bread

‘You’re going to make bread.’ b. ‘ee-’ma

sa=yma’

lapi’e, li-’azucar

do-IPFV.SG DEM=2S.AGT egg

its-sugar

‘You toss in (do) eggs, sugar.’ c. joypa now

sa

cho-lyu-pa

DEM

rise-CLOC-PFV.SG flat.arc-inside-DLOC.SG

sa=yma’

con

el pala

DEM=2S.AGT

with

the paddle

’oy-k’oy-ta

‘Once it has risen, you go off and put it in with the paddle.’ [EGT] In (354)c, neither bread, bread sheet, nor oven is mentioned, as a lexical NP or through the V1. All major participants are backgrounded, assumed in the bread-making frame. The referents are not being tracked, and instead the focus is apparently on the motion of the paddle and its role in placing the bread inside the oven. Conversely, the second usage preference says, ‘Don’t use an otherwise appropriate and available trajectory construction when there is a need to specify the undergoer, the Goal, or the process leading to a change.’ Example (355) shows a trajectory construction commonly used to describe putting money in your pocket, ’oy’mi’ma. (355) ’oy-’mi-’ma

ima’

lo-melyu

flat.arc-in-IPFV.SG 2S.AGT your-money

‘You put your money (in your pocket),’ [ACM] However, in an excerpt already seen in 5.6.3.3, the speaker describes putting money away with the complex predicates in (356). (356)a. sk’wi-’mi-’ma ima’

fa’a lo-ku’u

stab-in-IPFV.SG 2S.AGT here your-belly

‘You put it here (in the belt) on your belly,’

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MOTION, TRANSFER, AND TRANSFORMATION b. jo sa=yma’

jaape lo-na’wa-bolsa

wa-s-’mi-’ma

or DEM=2S.AGT container-AND-in-IPFV.SG

‘or you put it in your little purse.’

where your-DIM-purse

[aer3vender]

The spontaneous or default predicate for putting money away is a trajectory construction, (355). If you want to specify that the money goes into a secret purse, use the predicate in (356)a to highlight the manner of moving the money, and if you want to specify that the money goes into a specific container, use the predicate in (356)b to highlight the Goal location participant. 5.7.4.2 Contributions from stimulus data We now turn to the use of trajectory construction predicates in elicited data. A stimulus task elicits relatively decontextualized descriptions of events. The video clips are presented in a random order, and the consultant can describe each one as an isolated event. This reduces the discourse pressures to track a referent through individual clips or to contrast the events by detailing the means of change. Nevertheless, speakers may make connections between the clips, because the same actors and undergoer referents appear in the scenes, and the visual stimulus itself can be conducive to participant ellipsis, because consultants can point to the computer screen. Therefore, it is not surprising that the results of experimental data produced a variety of responses. On the one hand, different speakers used different predicates in response to the same stimulus video. For example, a scene in which a woman walks up to a table and spreads a cloth on it was described in the following ways. (357) ’oy-f’i-pa

el

manteres

flat.arc-up.on-PFV.SG DET tablecloth

‘She put the tablecloth up on it.’ [rs CPOS.1 ] (358) xpe-f’i-pa

el

manteres maj-mesa laka’no’

spread-up.on-PFV.SG DET tablecloth LOC-table

woman

‘The woman spread the tablecloth up on the table.’ [apm CPOS.1 ] The first speaker focused on the trajectory of the motion of placing the cloth on the table, and the second focused on the configuration of the cloth with respect to the surface of the table. On the other hand, a single speaker might use different predicates to describe a single stimulus video clip. After watching a scene in which a woman picked up a yam and put it in a box, one speaker elaborated his response with detailed descriptions, (359).

ASSOCIATED DIRECTION AND TOPOLOGICAL RELATION (359)a. jojl-’mi-pa

el

213

pame

sitting-in-PFV.SG DET yam

‘She sat the yam in it.’ b. ’oy-f’-’mi-pa

maj-carton el

flat.arc-up-in-PFV.SG LOC-carton

DET

pame yam

‘She moved the yam up and into the carton.’ c. ñaj-’mi-pa

maj-caja

lying-in-PFV.SG LOC-box

‘She lay the yam in the box.’ [adb CPOS.7 ] The yam was first described as a ‘sitting’ object, in the first clause, and then finally as a ‘lying’ object, in the third clause. In between, the trajectory of the placing motion was described as a ‘flat arc’. Examples (357) – (359) establish that individual responses to individual stimuli were not especially useful in determining when and why a trajectory construction would be used. Therefore, a modest study was undertaken on the occurrence of trajectory constructions with ’oy- ‘flat arc’, using responses to the Caused Positions video stimulus developed by Hellwig & Lüpke (MPI Nijmegen Field Manual 2001). The task involved 46 short video clips in which a figure was positioned in a spatial relation to some ground element. Table 43 formalizes the results. Each row represents a ground, and each column shows the figure that was positioned. The positioning events were portrayed as caused or spontaneous, as reflected in the column headers. In AGT clips, a causer placed an undergoer in some spatial relation to a ground element, and in SPON clips, the undergoer simply appeared in the spatial relation. The videos were shown to four consultants. Multiple responses were noted, and any occurrence of an ’oy- ‘flat arc’ predicate was tabulated. The table only shows figure/ground possibilities that were described with an ’oypredicate, and grey fill indicates that the figure/ground combination was not a part of the stimulus. Therefore, the interpretation of the upper left result cell is that one out of four speakers used an ’oy - predicate to describe a scene in which a woman spread a cloth on a table. The interpretation of the result cell in the lowest corner on the right is that one speaker used an ’oy- predicate to describe the event of a yam’s spontaneous appearance in a tree.

MOTION, TRANSFER, AND TRANSFORMATION

214

Table 43. Responses to video stimulus that included an ’oy- predicate, out of possible 4

table box branch earth tree

AGT

AGT

AGT

AGT

AGT

SPON

SPON

SPON

SPON

spread cloth

folded cloth

rope

beans

yam

cloth

rope

beans

yam

1

3 1

3 1 0

1

1 1 0

0 1

0 1

Results. Most responses used postural verbs ‘sit’, ‘stand’, or ‘lie’, as a simple predicate or as the V1 of a dispositional construction. This was uniformly true for figures such as pots, balls, ladders, bottles, and sticks, so these scenes were not included in Table 43. Other responses used the simple predicates ‘hang’ or ‘spread’ or a dispositional construction formed with the V1 spe- ‘spread’. This was frequently the case for figures such as ropes, beans, or an extended cloth, and these scenes show a low tally of ‘oy- predicate responses in Table 43. A trajectory construction with ’oy- occurred most consistently when the figure/ground configuration was unusual, as when a folded cloth (rather than an extended cloth) was placed on a table, or a coiled rope was placed on a table (rather than hung over something). For these scenes, the responses of 3 out of 4 consultants described the trajectory of the motion of putting, rather than (or as well as) the resulting posture or configuration of the figure. The comparison of narrative data and stimulus data has shown that trajectory construction predicates are not dependent on the type of undergoer in motion nor on the type of ground element that serves as referent point of motion. In addition, by themselves, trajectory construction predicates do not describe the process or cause of the change event. In narrative data, when there is competition for the V1 slot, path shape-specifying predicates are used when the undergoer or Goal referent need not be tracked or disambiguated, or when the manner or process of change is not relevant or focused on. In stimulus-data descriptions of caused and spontaneous change of position events, when there is competition for the V1 slot, path shape-specifying predicates are used when the result state of the figure is unusual or not readily expressed with a postural or configurational V1. 5.8 Summary and conclusions Complex predicates of associated direction and topological relation in Chontal are identified by a typically two-part compound stem, composed of an initial element, here called a V1, and an element of directional motion and/or

ASSOCIATED DIRECTION AND TOPOLOGICAL RELATION

215

topological relation, here called a DTR. Compound stems are used in predicates that express a change of location, position, or state. This chapter presented the component parts of the compound stem individually and as a unit, representing two subparts of a single event. Patterns of argument structure and of the relations between the two components were represented in a series of constructions. The spontaneous change construction provides a framework for all single-participant change events expressed with compound stem predicates, while caused change events instantiate four types of basic constructions: the causative construction, the means and result construction, the receive construction, and the motion-to-Goal-V1 construction. These basic construction types were then shown to underlie four families of function-specific construction types, characterized by the semantics of the V1 element. These are the means construction, the dispositional construction, the classificatory construction, and the trajectory construction. Each of these was examined individually, particularly in light of the semantic and discourse functions served by each one. It was demonstrated that lexical choice, and in particular V1 choice, responds to a variety of discourse pressures, for expressing adverbial function, for elaborating a non-linear trajectory, and for introducing referents and then tracking them in the local discourse. The V1 slot in the compound stem was shown to be a “predictable place for unpredictable work”, as speakers chose particular instances of compound stems according to the competing motivations for this “limited good”. (Du Bois 2003, 1985) In this study, complex predicates of associated direction and topological relation constitute the equipollently-framed portion of the grammar of change. This means that the core schema of ‘change’ is expressed in two or more verbs or verbal elements of equal syntactic status, namely, in the V1 and DTR elements. Like the predicates of verb-framed change, examined in Chapter 3, compound stem predicates situate a participant as an undergoer of change, but they also specify the means of change, the type of undergoer or Goal, or the non-linear path, and they characterize the endpoint of change, all in a single verbal predicate. Like the associated motion predicates described in Chapter 4, the complex predicates in this chapter feature a component from a small closed class of ‘change’ morphology. Unlike the AM predicates, the change is not identified as a separate subevent that situates a main event but as a constituent part of a compound stem that expresses a unitary event of change.

CHAPTER 6. CONCLUSIONS

6.1 The grammar of change, in typological and discourse-functional perspective The primary questions of the study focused on expressions of change, starting with what, who and how: what constitutes a change event, who are the participants involved, and how is that event described. A change event is any event in which a participant moves to a new location, shifts to a new position, or transforms to a new state with respect to some endpoint, whether spontaneously or through external causation. The primary participants of change events are an undergoer and a causer. In Chontal, these two are typically signaled as core participants under an agentive system of morphosyntax. The undergoer participant of spontaneous change can be marked as agentive or non-agentive, according to verbal semantics or to the perception of the speaker that the change is outside the control of the undergoer. And finally, the linguistic unit that expresses a change event is a clause, composed of a verbal predicate and relevant participants. In addition to describing the what, who and how of expressions of change, a key component of this monograph is an analysis of why particular predicates are chosen to depict various change events. A discourse-functional explanation for particular usage patterns complemented semantic and grammatical descriptions of predicates. The investigation was guided by an understanding of an event as a “transient phenomenon that requires temporal indexing and is perceived as containing information needed to update our conceptual representation of the world” (Miller & Johnson-Laird 1976:79-89). To convey the “needed information”, speakers make choices based on the resources available in the language, on the way in which an event is construed, on the decision to highlight or background certain aspects of an event, and in response to discourse pressures for information packaging. The description of the grammar of change presented in this study centers on three predicate types, characterized formally, typologically, and functionally. Each one of these characterizations will be reviewed separately.

CONCLUSIONS

217

6.1.1 Formal resources of the grammar of change First, Chontal was shown to have diverse linguistic resources for expressing ‘change’, including verb roots, verbal morphology of inflection and derivation, and verbal elements that participate in compound stems. These formal resources are lexicalized as simple predicates and as two types of complex predicates. •

Simple predicates are formed by an inflected verbal root or stem without special morphology of ‘change’. VERB + inflection

•

Certain complex predicates are formed by a verbal root or stem with additional morphology of associated motion or change (AM). The AM morphology can be derivational or inflectional (and in the latter case, no additional inflection is needed). VERB + AM (+ inflection)

•

Other complex predicates are formed by a typically two-part compound stem composed of an initial verbal element (V1) and a verbal element of associated direction or topological relation (DTR). V1–DTR + inflection

The first formal category is constituted by simple predicates of change of location, change of position, and change of state, examined in Chapter 3. Basic constructions of intransitive and transitive clauses, populated by verbal roots and stems that encode change, were labeled constructions of spontaneous change and caused change, respectively. There are roughly 30 motion verbs, 20 change of position verbs, and nearly 60 change of state verbs in the current corpus. All except manner of motion and transport verbs encode ‘fact of change’. Motion roots were identified as oriented to either Source or Goal, while the endpoint of change is encoded or implied by verbal roots of change of position and change of state. Next, complex predicates of associated motion and change were described in Chapter 4. ‘Associated motion and change’ describes a small paradigm of verbal morphology in Chontal that associates a subevent of previous or simultaneous change to the event or state of the main verb. The four suffixes are the andative and the dislocative, both roughly ‘go and do’, and the venitive and the cislocative, with semantics of ‘come and do’ and ‘come while doing’, respectively. Virtually any process or state verb in the language can occur with

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MOTION, TRANSFER, AND TRANSFORMATION

AM morphology,

and AM suffixes also occur with a restricted set of motion verb roots. When the main verb is non-stative, the AM morphology denotes motion through space. At least two of the suffixes occur with stative main verbs, and in this context AM morphology denotes evolution through time. And finally, complex predicates of associated direction and topological relation were the topic of Chapter 5. There are nearly 200 of these predicates in the current corpus, formed with an inflected typically two-part compound stem. The stem is composed of an initial element, called a V1, and a second element of direction and/or topological relation, called a DTR. The V1 describes something about the change or about one of the participants, and the DTR describes the endpoint of motion or position (as a spatial domain or topological relation) or the end-state of state change (as a degree of realization). The roughly 100 V1 elements were grouped into notional semantic classes of means, trajectory, dispositional, and classificatory, and the eleven DTR elements were defined as ‘be or become’ a location or spatial configuration. The combinatorial semantics of the V1-DTR stem in intransitive predicates were captured in a single basic construction of spontaneous change. Semantic combinations of V1-DTR in transitive predicates showed more variation and were described in four semantic templates: the causative construction, the means and result construction, the receive construction, and the motion to Goal-V1 construction. 6.1.2 Typological features of the grammar of change The typological facet of the study was developed by associating the three formal predicate types with three language types. The analogy was based on ground-breaking work on lexicalization and constructional patterns by Talmy (1985, 1991, 2000) and Slobin (1996, 1997, 2004). Talmy’s original typology classifies languages according to where the ‘core schema’ or characterizing distinction of a particular event type is encoded. A verb-framed language depicts the core schema in the verb root, and a satellite-framed language encodes the core schema outside the verb root, in verbal morphology, adpositions, or adjuncts. Slobin’s work, especially on motion events and the discourse consequences of language type, expanded the original binary typology to include a third type. An equipollently-framed language depicts the core schema in two or more elements of equal syntactic status. The framing type of any given language is determined by where the core schema is lexicalized in the predicates most commonly used to express a particular event type. These three framing strategies were transposed to the three formal predicate types in Chontal by identifying where in the predicate the core schema of ‘change’ was expressed.

CONCLUSIONS •

219

In simple predicates (Chapter 3), the semantics of change are found in the verbal root. These predicates represent verb-framed change. VERB + inflection change

•

In complex predicates of associated motion and change (Chapter 4), the semantics of change are found in the subevent contributed by morphology of associated motion or change (AM). These predicates represent satellite-framed change. VERB + AM (+ inflection) + change

•

In complex predicates of associated direction and topological relation (Chapter 5), the semantics of change are contributed by the component parts of the compound stem. These predicates represent equipollentlyframed change. V1–DTR + inflection change

We saw that the lexicon leans heavily toward verb-framed change predicates to express spontaneous change of location, most spontaneous change of state, and nearly all caused change of state. In contrast, equipollently-framed predicates depict most caused change of location and most change of position but contribute only a degree of realization to change of state predicates. Satellite-framing plays a qualitatively different role in all three types of change event. In change of location, it contributes a subevent of change prior to or simultaneous with the main event. Some change of position predicates use AM morphology as do some change of state predicates, i.e., the position is framed as a state, and the AM morphology contributes the ‘change’. These lexicalization patterns are summarized in Table 44. Table 44. Lexicalization patterns of change predicates

of location

V-framed (simple predicates) most spontaneous

S-framed (AM predicates (moves entire event)

EP-framed (V1-DTR predicates) most caused

of position

a few spontaneous

of state

many spontaneous most caused

(frames event as state change) some spontaneous

most spontaneous most caused (adds degree of realization)

CHANGE

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MOTION, TRANSFER, AND TRANSFORMATION

By this metric, Chontal is both verb-framed and equipollently-framed, as these two strategies substantiate the most commonly used predicate types. Satellite framing, represented in this study with complex predicates of associated motion and change, plays a distinct role, in situating events as ‘here’ or ‘not here’ and in deriving inchoative stems from stative lexical roots. The goal of this study was to understand how all three of the framing strategies are used in the language. Drawing from work by Slobin (1996, 1997) and Ameka & Essegbey (to appear) on the discourse consequences of language type in the expression of motion events, a set of expectations was formed for the discourse consequences of framing type, to be compared with the expression of change events in Chontal. The Chontal results were summarized in Table 5, repeated here as Table 45 and discussed below. Table 45. Consequences of framing type in Chontal change events FEATURE

core schema (CHANGE) endpoints per verb path type relevance scene-setting co-event manner expression

V-framed (simple predicates) in verb

S-framed (AM predicates) in AM morphology

1 yes static in a verb simple

1 yes static in main verb no

EP-framed (V1-DTR predicates) in V1-DTR compound stem 1 yes static or dynamic can be in V1 can be elaborated

Core schema. The semantics of change constitute the core schema of a change event. This row summarizes the findings reviewed above and anchors the categorization of formal type into framing type. Endpoints per verb. Each predication depicts only one new location, new position, or new state. In simple predicates, the endpoint was discussed as the orientation of motion verbs and the end-state depicted by or implied by the verb root for change of position or state. In AM predicates, the endpoint is ‘here’ or ‘not here’ in space, or ‘inceptive’ or ‘completive’ in time. In V1-DTR compound stem predicates, the endpoint is characterized by the DTR element as a spatial domain or topological relation. Path type relevance. This feature asks if the type of path in a motion event constitutes a difference that makes a difference. A path can be translational, depicting a continuous trajectory between two points, or it can be boundary-crossing, depicting a change of locative relation which encodes a state change but only implies a path. The difference is relevant in Chontal: many change of location descriptions encode a change of locative relation, which facilitates the grouping of change of location and path-less change of position or state as similar events. Motion predicates that encode the state change and imply the path include simple predicates of departure from Source

CONCLUSIONS

221

or Goal, AM predicates, and potentially all of the compound stem predicates except trajectory construction predicates. Scene-setting. ‘Scene-setting’ refers to a preferred style of expression in narrative descriptions of motion events identified by Slobin (1996, 1997). Satellite-framed languages tend to encode dynamic, multi-segmented paths with multiple endpoints, while verb-framed languages tend to depict or imply each path segment separately, presenting detail of the static scene at the endpoint of motion. Chontal patterns mostly with verb-framed languages, but there are certain overlaps with the style of satellite-framed languages. All but one simple predicate of motion (tsee- ‘go and return’) encode a single path segment. Event descriptions can articulate the endpoint with a lexical ground or portray the endpoint as the locus of subsequent activity. In Frog Story elicited narrative and in spontaneous narrative, speakers supplied detail of the mental state or spatial configuration of the undergoer participant to embellish the image of the scene at the result of change. Associated motion predicates assert a general endpoint of ‘here’ or ‘not here’ in space, and the subevent implies a simple deictic trajectory toward or away from a deictic center. In V1DTR compound stem predicates, the endpoint is asserted by the DTR. A more dynamic depiction of a complex path can be rendered with a trajectory VI or with a series of two DTR elements. Co-event. A co-event is any feature of the event encoded by the predicate other than the core schema, such as the manner or means of change, the shape of the path, or the identity, attitude or stance of the undergoer participant. In Talmy’s binary typology, a co-event occurs where the core schema does not: in a satellite element of a verb-framed language, and in the verb of a satelliteframed language. The picture found for change events in Chontal is not so clearly cut. In simple predicates of motion, manner or means is encoded in verbs that depict localized motion, and path verbs are recruited to include an endpoint of change, as in the child ascended crawling. In contrast, many of the change of state verbs were shown to depict the means of change (as well as ‘fact of change’) in the verb root itself. A non-linear path shape can be expressed with only one verb of round-trip trajectory. Classes of undergoer referents are restricted in a classificatory sense only by a small set of transport verbs and in an associative or collocational sense with predicates of position or state change. In associated motion predicates, the co-event is the main event itself; the AM subevent only depicts change. In V1-DTR predicates, the means of change is encoded explicitly in predicates with a means V1 or indirectly in predicates with a classificatory or dispositional V1. The trajectory of motion is expressed in predicates with a trajectory V1, and the type of undergoer referent or Goal referent is identified in predicates with a classificatory V1 and with some instances of a dispositional V1. In

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compound stem predicates, a co-event plus a change plus an endpoint are encoded in a single predicate. Manner expression. The typological prediction (Slobin 1997) is that the resources for expressing manner in satellite-framed languages will be more abundant in number and replete in detail than the resources in verb-framed languages. Slobin (1997:459) describes a “two-tiered” lexicon of manner verbs, distinguishing common verbs such as walk, fly, climb from more exceptional verbs such as dash, swoop, scramble. In distributional terms, event descriptions in verb-framed languages that do depict manner of motion will occur without a specified endpoint of change. As seen in descriptions of both simple predicates and compound stem predicates, Chontal manner verbs would be termed ‘common’ motion verbs, falling into the first-tier group. The distributional prediction holds for simple predicates that express manner of motion, as speakers typically include a path verb in the event description to encode a ground element. However, the few change of position verbs and the many change of state verbs that depict manner also express or imply the endpoint in the verbal root. Associated motion predicates again demonstrate that satellite-framed change plays an atypical role in Chontal, as these predicates do not contribute any specification of manner. The special contribution of compound stem predicates (equipollentlyframed change) is that both the manner and the endpoint of change are expressed in a single predicate. The manner or means of change is made explicit with a means V1, can often be inferred from a classificatory V1 or dispositional V1, and is backgrounded by a trajectory V1. 6.1.3 Functional motivations of the grammar of change The genius of Chontal expressions of change was illustrated not just by showing the options available to speakers but in tracing how the variouslyframed formal possibilities were used in narrative discourse and guided elicitation. The functional patterns of distribution are dictated in part by the lexicon itself, as shown in Table 44, and in part as choices made to meet particular discourse pressures. The discourse profile of each framing strategy was developed by examining patterns of predicate occurrence and deducing the functions served by each formal type.

CONCLUSIONS

223

Verb-framed predicates assert change and situate a participant as an undergoer of change. • in spatial change: The endpoint may be implied by the verb, and it can be identified in a lexical phrase or in an associated motion predicate. • in non-spatial change: The end-state and/or means of change are asserted by the verb, and these predications formally indicate the volition or intention of the undergoer of change. Satellite-framed predicates associate a subevent of change to the event or state of a main verb, casting that event or state as an undergoer of change. • in spatial change: These situate an event as ‘here’ or ‘not here’ and often present the event as the purpose or endpoint of motion. • in non-spatial change: These add a dynamic element to stative predicates. The new state is specified in the root, and the volition or intention of the undergoer of change is indicated formally. Equipollently-framed predicates assert change, situate a participant as an undergoer of change, specify a co-event, and provide detail about the endpoint or end-state of change. • in spatial change: The predicates specify the endpoint as a spatial domain or topological relation. In addition, they depict the means of change, the path shape of change, or the disposition or referent type of a participant in change. • in non-spatial change: These add a description of the degree of endstate realization. The major differences between the categories are found in the degree to which an endpoint is specified by the predicate and in the expression of change plus a ‘co-event’ in a single predicate. This is especially true for descriptions of change of location and change of position. Discourse function was shown to play a major role within the possibilities of the each formal/framing class but a less significant role between the formal classes. Within the class of verb-framed change predicates are motion verbs poyand ay-, both used to describe ‘leaving’ events. The difference between them was identified as a discourse preference to use ay- to describe departures with a sense of immediacy or purpose. The stars of the class of equipollently-framed change predicates are transfer verbs that provide explicit detail of how the participant was moved or of what type of participant was moved. The lexical choice among possible predi-

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MOTION, TRANSFER, AND TRANSFORMATION

cates to describe an event was demonstrated as responsive to discourse pressures for referent-tracking, for path elaboration, or to serve an adverbial function. Within the class of satellite-framed change predicates are descriptions of transformation that characterize the new end-state depicted in the verb root as inceptive, as the participant enters the new state, or as completive, as the result of previous change. This study has shown that all three framing types play significant and sometimes overlapping roles in describing events of motion, transfer, and transformation in Lowland Chontal. It is not new to show that a language does not fit neatly into a single framing type, but by acknowledging a mixed picture as a point of departure and identifying the semantic character and functional motivations associated with each framing type, this study takes a step toward understanding why this would be so. Does the fact that Chontal change predicates instantiate all three framing types mean that the lexicalization typology should be abandoned as a predictive framework? No. This study should be considered an expansion of the Talmy typology beyond introspection and into the realm of grammar and discourse. As Slobin put it, Talmy’s typology was designed to characterize lexicalization patterns, and it has provided important insights into the overall set of structures that define languages. However, the typology alone cannot account for discourse structures, because language use is determined by more than lexicalization patterns. (2004:219)

There are two other types of reasons not to abandon the typology. First, satellite-framing in Chontal was clearly identified as a special-purpose resource, rather than as the primary framing type, situating events and states rather than undergoer participants per se.54 Much as Mithun and Chafe (1999) showed with respect to systems of grammatical relations, languages of a specific type can and do utilize constructions from an opposing type to serve particular discourse functions. Furthermore, satellite-framed change descriptions were also shown to trigger ‘verb-framed’ traits of rhetorical style. Unlike canonical satellite-framing, the path type of most AM morphology was of the boundary-crossing or state-change type. This feature correlates with less dynamic path depiction, more description of the static scene at endpoints, and less elaborate manner of motion description overall. The construction of associated motion and change behaves like a subtype of verb-framed change. 54

Talmy claims that framing type is identified in “the most commonly used predicates” used to describe a particular event type. To my knowledge, this metric is only defined intuitively, opening the door for discourse studies to characterize the claim of “common usage” in usagebased analysis.

CONCLUSIONS

225

A second argument to support modification but not abandonment of the lexicalization typology is based on cross-linguistic evidence beyond the scope of this study. A growing literature in psycholinguistics explores the cognitive bases of framing type, examining evidence from studies of memory, attention, and mental imagery; language acquisition, narrative translation, metaphor, sign language, and gesture (see Slobin 2006, in press, and references therein; see Özyürek & Kita 1999, Kita & Özyürek 2003 on gesture). Psycholinguistic studies such as these support a claim for cognitive consequences of framing type. At the same time, like the discourse studies, they highlight the need for more finely nuanced definitions of framing types and for better understanding of the interactions among opposing patterns of the typology. 6.2 Documentation of an understudied language A second fundamental contribution of this study is as a description grounded in data from natural discourse of a highly endangered language. Good descriptive work on an understudied endangered language not only brings another participant to theoretical debates in the field of linguistics today; it also enriches the record of human diversity and sheds light on patterns of language change and population movement in the past. This discussion has a descriptive component and a methodological component. 6.2.1 Descriptive component Description is the first step in making comparisons and connections with other languages. In an areal perspective, this book provides a basis for situating Chontal in the rich Oaxacan and Mesoamerican linguistic landscape. It has long been observed that Chontal does not resemble the neighboring indigenous languages (the closest neighbors are Zapotec languages and Huave), and Chontal has been hypothesized to be a far-flung member of the proposed Hokan stock. Documentation can help to clarify questions of genetic provenance, along with issues of language contact and population movement in the prehistory of southern Mexico. Chapter 2 of this study presents only a brief overview of features of the phonology, morphology, word classes and syntactic structures that I thought were necessary to appreciate the data throughout the book. It is a greatly abbreviated yet in parts improved version of the grammatical sketch chapter in my 2004 dissertation, on which this book is based, and complements other descriptive work on the language, especially by Waterhouse. Her grammatical description of Lowland Chontal (1962) is clear and comprehensive, but the tagmemic framework of that account impedes comparison and accessibility. In addition, my work documents the agentive system of person-marking, tracing the forms and functions of agentive and non-agentive morphosyntax. The workings of this system were not clear to Waterhouse because she relied pri-

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marily on elicitation of third person singular forms, in which the agent-patient alternation is neutralized. And finally, the in-depth analysis of complex predicate formation and function presented here goes well beyond the scope of Waterhouse’s seminal descriptive foundation. The grammatical description in this study is based on the last opportunity for primary fieldwork with first-language speakers and thereby establishes the patterns of the language as a reference point for ongoing revitalization efforts in the Chontal-speaking communities. Despite Chontal language training for bilingual education teachers, the effects of Spanish are apparent in the materials produced for the classroom. Hispanicizations include SVO word order, nonChontal patterns of word formation, loss of phonetic distinctions (especially of glottalized consonants), use of compound stem predicates that do not exploit the spatial precision or classificatory power of the predicates, and loss of the agentive/non-agentive distinction in descriptions of change of state. This grammar of change thus constitutes a historical document of record. If Chontal survives, it will almost certainly have a new form. 6.2.2 Methodological component Documentation of the language was enriched by a methodological approach that merges natural narrative discourse, response to non-verbal stimuli, and guided elicitation to achieve the fullest possible description. As such, the data collection practice follows a relatively new tradition in documentary linguistics (e.g. Schultze-Berndt 2000, Hellwig 2003) and adds the element of discourse functional motivation to the descriptive component. The approach taken here generates a productive cycle in which discourse data, stimulus data, and elicited data all play critical roles. The key to quality grammatical description is to begin with the patterns of the language in natural discourse. In this study, major patterns of the grammar and of change event predications were first identified in narrative discourse. This fundamental foundation must then be complemented and enriched by additional forms collected in stimulus-based or otherwise guided elicitation. For example, the inventories of predicates and the restrictions on complex predicate formation reported in this study were only possible through some sort of elicitation. Responses to non-verbal stimuli were then collected and analyzed to increase the lexical inventory of change predicates and to better understand the semantic extensions and intensions of both simple and compound stem predicates, and further elicitation was undertaken especially to identify legitimate combinatorial possibilities of compound stem elements. At the same time, it would be unfortunate, if not irresponsible, to rely on elicited data alone as characteristic of natural linguistic behavior (e.g. Foley’s (2003) critique of The Frog Story data in Watam, and Mithun (2004) on participant marking in elicited Mohawk; but see Chafe (1980) for an example of elicited narrative used successfully for

CONCLUSIONS

227

discourse analysis). Therefore, the analysis returned to the discourse narratives to determine possible discourse functions of particular change predicates in context. This melding of methodologies was successful on several levels. Using every available data collection resource is perhaps especially important when documenting an endangered language with a small number of highly fluent elderly speakers. As pointed out in Grinevald’s (2003) thoughtful account of speaker consultants, speakers may vary considerably in what they can produce and in how they produce it. Among the Chontales who contributed to this study, some were talented storytellers but were instantly bored by elicitation, while others had beautiful pronunciation and seemingly boundless memories but could not produce running narrative. A group activity such as a matching game, in which one person or team tries to pick out the photo described by another person or team, may trigger ease and facility in the language, as people become used to interacting in the little-used tongue. In addition, working with a standard set of non-verbal stimulus tasks can create a valuable avenue to typological studies. By incorporating results from The Frog Story and from MPI stimulus tasks, this study directly ties Chontal to the ever-growing number of languages that have also been investigated with these methods. Cross-linguistic comparison is inherently burdened by the apples and oranges question, i.e., are we comparing the same forms, meanings and functions in any given set of languages. Data collection with non-verbal stimuli attempts to hold at least one factor constant. It is clear that responses to stimulus tasks do not necessarily reflect natural language use and should not by themselves be used for discourse analysis. However, the interaction among speakers while they are working with stimulus tasks can be a goldmine of natural discourse. Furthermore, the tasks can be entertaining and manageable activities that provide a context and a transition to the sometimes bewildering requests from the linguist. And finally, a comprehensive and multi-faceted approach to data collection is a requisite of the emerging branch of documentary linguistics (e.g. Himmelmann 1998 and the papers in Austin 2003, especially Woodbury 2003). Audio and video data collected during the course of this project are being prepared for archiving in an electronic format and storage in searchable databases in the browsable corpora of the MPI Language and Cognition Group and of the DoBeS Documentation project, both accessible at www.mpi.nl.

APPENDIX: Compound stem verbs, by construction type

These lists accompany the V1-DTR distribution tables presented in Chapter 5 with each construction type. The compound stems here spell out the meaning of each V1-DTR combination. M1 CONSTRUCTION chufk’oyf’ansfungjlitaf’jliñijlingjujlñijwayñijwelef’kañikof’-

enter bounce swell be dawned on slide, slip straighten dry up jump across flutter get lost boil up

ñañoñuf’pik’oysmaf’itemaytoway‘wañi‘wanche‘wang-

pass fly burn inside awaken fall in stop walk into step on (e.g. s.o.’s toes) walk along edge

k’wañiñaf’ñaf’k’oyñuk’oypaf’paf’ipak’oypañipayñipesaf’pesk’oypugipuk’oyseewayseegiseej’miseek’oyskiñisk’wi’mi-

split apart with blade shake chop brush, clear land irrigate, water give birth toss water on s.o. toss water on wall break (food) apart shatter apart knock over shove dig out erode set down on ground take out from storage put in, loose fit put in and cover split apart stab into

M2 CONSTRUCTION ch’añi‘eef’‘eegi‘eeñifaj’mifuj’migoskijasñijlayñijwixwayjwix’mijwixk’oyjwixñikaf’ikangikaj’mikangk’oykef’k’waj’mi-

ignite pick up take out make receive plant into blow into pull out, uproot tear/split apart bend/break apart roll up, twist up toss into entangle hatch serve (e.g. food) remove leave in (e.g. street) return X to store chop insert into

APPENDIX sk’wik’oysnañitof’-

M2a

snap apart grip

spill on someone separate; untie insert insert lose speak to, converse

melf’eeñuf’eesaj’misink’oytej’mi‘wink’oy-

spin, twist make fly feed wedge trickle add wood to fire

kuch’wayñajwayñajmayñajk’oypowaysk’ingwespewayspengay-

huddle down on lie down on lie down in lie inside crouch down on sit in circle spread out down on splat (e.g. bug on window) lie down on back flatten lie down on back

CONSTRUCTION

jolaf’kayjojlwayjojlmayjojlk’oyk’omaykasaf’kaykasmaykask’oykojlwayD2

tyof’ñityuxñi-

CONSTRUCTION

chogaf’ijlogijlo’mijlok’oyka’ñilaf’iD1

stab inside, tight fit absorb set up high

229

ascend and sit up high sit down on sit down in sit in corner (not human) lie face down in ascend and stand up high stand in (e.g. water) stand inside (e.g. doorway) kneel down on

tamaytangtangmay-

CONSTRUCTION

jolaf’ijojlwejojl’mik’omaf’ik’omu-

put sitting thing up on; seat X up on put sitting thing down on; seat X down on put sitting thing down in; seat X down in set X mouth-down up on set X mouth-down down on

kas’mi-

konjlukuch’af’imoyj’miñaf’kayñaf’i-

put standing thing down in; stand X down in make X kneel set X piled up on peek in, poke face in at help X (live human) get up put lying thing up on; lay X up on

MOTION, TRANSFER, AND TRANSFORMATION

230 ñajweñaj’miñajk’oyñang’miñaf’miñanf’i-

ñomf’eepif’D2a

spef’ispej’mispeñitaf’-

loan money pound, tap hug someone hand child to s.o. set down in circle whip and spread (e.g. cloth) spread up on mend, embroider mend, sew raise to back, shoul ders (and carry or sustain)

receive contact with, receive payment of currency or kind

CONSTRUCTION

k’ejwayk’eymayk’ejk’oyC2

pigipinjpulk’oypulñisk’ingwespef’ee-

CONSTRUCTION

piñiC1

put lying thing down on; lay X down on put lying thing down in; lay X down in put lying thing inside; lay X inside make tortillas move lying thing up, then down in put lying thing up on, crosswise; lay X up on, crosswise place X crosswise pinch

(liquid) form a puddle (liquid) be left over, exceed demand (liquid) collect inside, form a blister

CONSTRUCTION

ch’uf’ch’uf’ich’ugich’uj’mik’ef’ik’aygik’ej’milef’thing layjthing legithing pef’-

lift grain or corn put corn, grain up on remove corn, grain pour corn, grain into put water on e.g flowers remove water e.g. from well pour water, liquid into lift long thin or live lower long thin or live take out long thin lift small thing

payjpef’ipej’mipek’oytight fit peñipaysoyf’ithing up on waf’wayjplate waf’iup on wagiplate

lower small thing put small thing up on put small thing into insert small thing, send small thing give small thing put wide shallow lift container or plate lower container or put container or plate take out container or

APPENDIX wayC2a

give container or plate CONSTRUCTION

lej’miwas’miwask’oyC2b

receive corn, grain receive water, liquid receive water, liquid

leñiliñiwañi-

receive people receive X alive receive container

spaf’spaf’ispagispak’oy-

whip, spank shuck corn partially peel; transplant lock door with wedged branch shuck corn completely clear land with hoe tie a knot

CONSTRUCTION

kiñi’oyf’kay-

T2

insult a human put X into a container put X inside a container

CONSTRUCTION

ch’uñik’eñik’iñiT1

231

go straight across move up

CONSTRUCTION

gof’gok’oygof’k’oykif’’oyf’i’oy’mi’oyñi-

wash clothes at river feed by hand bang head on wall scrape, rasp, shave saddle X; move X in flat arc up on move X in flat arc into move X across in flat arc

spañis’wik’oys’wiñi-

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Winter, Marcus C. 1986. La dinámica étnica en Oaxaca prehispánica. In Etnicidad y pluralismo cultural. La dinámica étnica en Oaxaca, M.A. Bartolomé and A.M. Barabas (eds), 106-136. Mexico: Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia. Zárate Morán, Roberto. 1995. Los chontales y el partimonio cultural. In El patrimonio sitiado: El punto de vista de los trabajadores. Delegación D II IA 1, Sección X del SNTE, INAH (ed). México City: Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia. Zavala, Roberto. 1992. El kanjobal de San Miguel Acatán: Colección Lingüística Indígena No. 6. México D.F.: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. Zavala, Roberto. 1993. Clause integration with verbs of motion in Mayan languages. M.A. Thesis, University of Oregon. Zee v.d., Emile. 2001. Why we can talk about bulging barrels and spinning spirals: Curvature representation in the lexical interface. In Cognitive Interfaces, E. van der Zee and U. Nikanne (eds), 143-182. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Zeitlin, Judith F. 2001. Tequistlatec. In The Oxford Encyclopedia of Mesoamerican Cultures. The Civilizations of Mexico and Central America, David Carrasco (eds), 211-212. New York: Oxford University Press. Zlatev, Jordan, and Yangklang, Peerapat. 2004. A Third Way to Travel: The Place of Thai in Motion Event Typology. In Relating Events in Narrative: Crosslinguistic and Cross-contextual Perspectives, S. Strömqvist and L.T. Verhoeven (eds), 159-190. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

INDEX

agentive system, 1, 32, 43, 44, 216, 225 andative, 5, 46, 109, 110, 113, 121 cross-linguistically, 109 non-spatial change, 5, 125, 126 vs. dislocative, 112, 114, 116 argument structure, 111, 157 associated direction and topological relation, 23, 46, 140, 217, 219 associated motion and associated change, 4, 23, 46, 108, 217 bipartite stem, 27, 141, 142 boundary-crossing path, 28, 74, 97, 146, 161, 168, 171, 192, 220, 224 causative construction, 161, 162, 215, 218 caused change construction, 161 causer, defined, 21 change event, 2, 3, 20, 22, 69, 140, 141, 216, 226 ambiguous with expressions of states, 181 and associated motion and change, 126 and details of grammatical description, 32 and family of compound stem constructional templates, 156 and labels of compound stem constructions, 166 consequences of framing type, 29, 220 lexicalization patterns, 219 change of location, 2, 216 change of position, 2, 30, 216 change of state, 2, 216 change root, 21

Chontal of Oaxaca (and See Lowland Chontal, Highland Chontal), 1, 8, 9 connection to Hokan proposal, 9, 225 lowland vs. highland varieties, 8 where spoken, 8 cislocative, 46, 76, 108, 110, 135, 139, 217 as reversive, 136 vs. venitive, 130 classificatory construction, 6, 192 C1 construction, 194 C2 construction, 195 C2a construction, 197 C2b construction, 198 complex predicates, 4, 7, 23, 29, 30, 45, 108, 139, 140, 141, 214, 217, 219 compound stems, 5, 6, 140, 142, 144, 218 configurational. See dispositional constructions, 1, 6, 217, 224 adapted tools, 18, 22 constructional meaning, 7, 22, 24 locative typology, 31 single event type, 21 template, complex AM, 23, 111, 112 template, complex V1-DTR, 24, 160, 162, 163, 164 template, how to read, 22-24, 65 template, simple, 23, 65, 66 core schema, 2, 3, 26, 29, 65, 160, 215, 218, 220, 221 cyclic motion, 85, 138 DeLancey, S., 21, 26, 104, 141, 142 directional. See DTR discourse and typology, 19

INDEX discourse consequences of framing type, 27, 28, 218, 220 discourse functionalism, 19 dislocative, 46, 110, 114 as narrative dislocation, 123 non-spatial change, 125, 126 vs. andative, 112, 114, 116 dispositional construction, 7, 180 D1 construction, 182 D2 construction, 183 D2a construction, 185 DTR (verbal element of direction and topological relation), 6, 46, 140, 145 Du Bois, J.W., 19, 22, 157, 210, 215 endangered language Chontal as, 1, 8 documentation of, 225 working with speakers of, 12, 227 endpoint, 2, 3, 21, 22, 69 and framing type, 29, 220 and path type, 28 complex V1-DTR predicate, 24 events as endpoints, 76, 91, 117, 139, 221 simple predicate, 23 equipollent framing, 3, 5, 27, 28, 29, 141, 156, 160, 215, 218 expectations, 28, 29, 220 Frog Story, 4, 18, 87, 88, 118, 139, 221, 226, 227 Grinevald, C.G., 12, 14, 30, 69, 227 Hellwig, B., 18, 20, 30, 102, 181, 213, 226 Highland Chontal, 8, 9, 10, 111

249 Levinson, S.C., 18, 19, 26, 30, 56, 70 Lowland Chontal, 1 ethnography, 12 future of, 226 map of communities, 10 overview, 32 sociolinguistics, 11 speaker consultants, 14 manner, 28, 29, 92, 94, 220 means, 3, 24, 29, 30, 91, 97, 98, 107, 141, 221, 222 means and result construction, 161, 162, 163, 215, 218 means construction, 6, 167 M1 construction, 167 M2 construction, 169 M2a construction, 172 Mithun, M., 4, 9, 19, 67, 93, 99, 110, 143, 194, 204, 224, 226 motion, 25, 62 motion to Goal-V1 construction, 161, 164, 218 motion-cum-purpose, 61, 116, 139 narrative data and stimulus data, comparative contributions, 71, 74, 114, 117, 188, 189, 210, 212 narrative dislocation, 117, 123, 129, 139 path, 2, 23, 26, 27, 28, 80, 85, 87, 93, 97, 220 change of location without path, 29, 71 cislocative, 76, 135, 138 differences among simple motion roots, 77, 118 elaboration as default function, 210, 214 fictive, 96, 176 in change through time, 126, 192

250

MOTION, TRANSFER, AND TRANSFORMATION

in DTR, 140, 146, 154, 157, 197 in V1, 140, 141, 145, 204 path verbs, 29, 62, 63, 70, 71, 93, 94, 107, 117, 139, 221 translational vs. boundarycrossing, 28 venitive, 134 positional. See dispositional postural. See dispositional process root, 21 receive construction, 161, 163, 164, 215, 218 satellite framing, 2, 4, 26, 27, 29, 87, 108, 139, 218, 219, 222, 224 expectations, 28, 29, 220 interacting with verb-framed change, 139 why compound stems are not, 156 scene-setting, 28, 29, 220 and path type, 28 static scene, 28, 87, 90, 97, 107, 139, 187, 188, 189, 221, 224 semantic typology, 18, 19, 20 simple predicates, 5, 7, 23, 25, 62 Slobin, D.I., 1, 3, 4, 26, 27, 28, 71, 87, 88, 97, 218, 220, 221, 222, 224, 225 spontaneous change construction, 67, 215 state, stative root, 21 subevent, 2, 29, 108, 112 Talmy, L., 1, 2, 4, 20, 21, 22, 25, 26, 30, 92, 96, 101, 218, 221, 224 binary typology, 1 classic motion event, 2 text Chickens and eggs, 179 Farming practices, 74, 118

In the marketplace, 202 Making dinner (I), 201 Making dinner (II), 203 Planting corn, 177 Serving tortilla, 177 The lazy man, 76, 118 The work of a ‘cantor’, 199 trajectory, 28, 85, 204 trajectory construction, 6, 204 T1 construction, 205 T2 construction, 206 transfer, 33, 109, 125, 128, 129, 223, 224 transformation, 20, 224 translational path, 28, 96, 118, 138, 192, 204 types of change events, 2 of data, 16, 226 of path, 28 typology goals of this study, 1, 4, 224 undergoer, defined, 21 V1 (initial verbal element), 6, 140, 144 venitive, 46, 110, 131 cross-linguistically, 109 non-spatial change, 134 vs. cislocative, 130 verb framing, 2, 4, 26, 27, 62, 87, 94 compared to other framing types, 215 expectations, 28, 29, 220 verbal composition basic template, 41 lexical aspect classes, 21 verbal elements, 42 verbal roots, 41 verbal stems, 42

INDEX Waterhouse, V.G., 8, 9, 10, 32, 33, 34, 36, 38, 55, 101, 104, 131, 136, 150, 173, 193, 225

251 Wilkins, D.P., 18, 20, 26, 28, 30, 70, 71, 73, 109 Zavala Maldonado, R., 26, 69, 142

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38 Hacking, Jane F.: Coding the Hypothetical. A comparative typology of Russian and Macedonian conditionals. 1998. vi, 156 pp. 37 Harvey, Mark and Nicholas Reid (eds.): Nominal Classification in Aboriginal Australia. 1997. x, 296 pp. 36 Kamio, Akio (ed.): Directions in Functional Linguistics. 1997. xiii, 259 pp. 35 Matsumoto, Yoshiko: Noun-Modifying Constructions in Japanese. A frame semantic approach. 1997. viii, 204 pp. 34 Hatav, Galia: The Semantics of Aspect and Modality. Evidence from English and Biblical Hebrew. 1997. x, 224 pp. 33 Velázquez-Castillo, Maura: The Grammar of Possession. Inalienability, incorporation and possessor ascension in Guaraní. 1996. xvi, 274 pp. 32 Frajzyngier, Zygmunt: Grammaticalization of the Complex Sentence. A case study in Chadic. 1996. xviii, 501 pp. 31 Wanner, Leo (ed.): Lexical Functions in Lexicography and Natural Language Processing. 1996. xx, 355 pp. 30 Huffman, Alan: The Categories of Grammar. French lui and le. 1997. xiv, 379 pp. 29 Engberg-Pedersen, Elisabeth, Michael Fortescue, Peter Harder, Lars Heltoft and Lisbeth Falster Jakobsen (eds.): Content, Expression and Structure. Studies in Danish functional grammar. 1996. xvi, 510 pp. 28 Herman, József (ed.): Linguistic Studies on Latin. Selected papers from the 6th International Colloquium on Latin Linguistics (Budapest, 23–27 March 1991). 1994. ix, 421 pp. 27 Abraham, Werner, T. Givón and Sandra A. Thompson (eds.): Discourse, Grammar and Typology. Papers in honor of John W.M. Verhaar. 1995. xx, 352 pp. 26 Lima, Susan D., Roberta L. Corrigan and Gregory K. Iverson: The Reality of Linguistic Rules. 1994. xxiii, 480 pp. 25 Goddard, Cliff and Anna Wierzbicka (eds.): Semantic and Lexical Universals. Theory and empirical findings. 1994. viii, 510 pp. 24 Bhat, D.N.S.: The Adjectival Category. Criteria for differentiation and identification. 1994. xii, 295 pp. 23 Comrie, Bernard and Maria Polinsky (eds.): Causatives and Transitivity. 1993. x, 399 pp. 22 McGregor, William B.: A Functional Grammar of Gooniyandi. 1990. xx, 618 pp. 21 Coleman, Robert (ed.): New Studies in Latin Linguistics. Proceedings of the 4th International Colloquium on Latin Linguistics, Cambridge, April 1987. 1990. x, 480 pp. 20 Verhaar, John W.M. S.J. (ed.): Melanesian Pidgin and Tok Pisin. Proceedings of the First International Conference on Pidgins and Creoles in Melanesia. 1990. xiv, 409 pp. 19 Blust, Robert A.: Austronesian Root Theory. An essay on the limits of morphology. 1988. xi, 190 pp. 18 Wierzbicka, Anna: The Semantics of Grammar. 1988. vii, 581 pp. 17 Calboli, Gualtiero (ed.): Subordination and Other Topics in Latin. Proceedings of the Third Colloquium on Latin Linguistics, Bologna, 1–5 April 1985. 1989. xxix, 691 pp. 16 Conte, Maria-Elisabeth, János Sánder Petöfi and Emel Sözer (eds.): Text and Discourse Connectedness. Proceedings of the Conference on Connexity and Coherence, Urbino, July 16–21, 1984. 1989. xxiv, 584 pp. 15 Justice, David: The Semantics of Form in Arabic. In the mirror of European languages. 1987. iv, 417 pp. 14 Benson, Morton, Evelyn Benson and Robert F. Ilson: Lexicographic Description of English. 1986. xiii, 275 pp. 13 Reesink, Ger P.: Structures and their Functions in Usan. 1987. xviii, 369 pp. 12 Pinkster, Harm (ed.): Latin Linguistics and Linguistic Theory. Proceedings of the 1st International Colloquium on Latin Linguistics, Amsterdam, April 1981. 1983. xviii, 307 pp. 11 Panhuis, Dirk G.J.: The Communicative Perspective in the Sentence. A study of Latin word order. 1982. viii, 172 pp. 10 Dressler, Wolfgang U., Willi Mayerthaler, Oswald Panagl and Wolfgang Ullrich Wurzel: Leitmotifs in Natural Morphology. 1988. ix, 168 pp. 9 Lang, Ewald and John Pheby: The Semantics of Coordination. (English transl. by John Pheby from the German orig. ed. 'Semantik der koordinativen Verknüpfung', Berlin, 1977). 1984. 300 pp. 8 Barth, E.M. and J.L. Martens (eds.): Argumentation: Approaches to Theory Formation. Containing the Contributions to the Groningen Conference on the Theory of Argumentation, October 1978. 1982. xviii, 333 pp.