Complementation in Japhug Gyalrong*
Guillaume Jacques
November 22, 2016
Jacques, Guillaume 2016. Complementation in Japhug, Linguistics of
the Tibeto-Burman Area, 39(2):222–281.
Abstract: This article provides a detailed survey of complement clauses
and complementation strategies in Japhug. It shows the bewildering diversity of constructions attested in these languages, which are largely unpredictable and need to be specified for each complement-taking verb. Special
focus is given to typologically unusual constructions, in particular Hybrid
Indirect Speech.
Keywords: Japhug; Reported Speech; Complement clauses; Infinitive;
Participle; Serial Verb Constructions; Causative; Motion Verbs
Introduction
Japhug, like other Gyalrong languages, has a complex verbal morphology
and a rich array of complement clauses. Building on previous research, in
particular Jacques (2008, 337-356) and Sun (2012), this article presents a
detailed survey of all known types of complement clauses in Japhug and
their distribution among complement-taking verbs.
The framework of this article is based on Dixon (2006, 9) and adopts a
terminology close to that used in Sun’s (2012) study of Tshobdun.
The article comprises four main sections. First, I present background
information on essive adjuncts and the difference between infinitives and
participles. Second, I provide an overview of the various types of complement clauses and complement strategies in Japhug. Third, I describe some
*
The glosses follow the Leipzig glossing rules. Other abbreviations used here are:
auto autobenefactive-spontaneous, anticaus anticausative, antipass antipassive, appl
applicative, emph emphatic, fact factual, genr generic, ifr inferential, indef indefinite,
inv inverse, lnk linker, poss possessor, ego.prs egophoric present, prog progressive,
sens sensory. The examples are taken from a corpus that is progressively being made
available on the Pangloss archive (Michailovsky et al. 2014, http://lacito.vjf.cnrs.fr/
pangloss/corpus/list_rsc.php?lg=Japhug). This research was funded by the HimalCo
project (ANR-12-CORP-0006) and is related to the research strand LR-4.11 ‘‘Automatic
Paradigm Generation and Language Description’’ of the Labex EFL (funded by the ANR/
CGI). I would like to thank two anonymous reviewers, as well as Alec Coupe, for providing
detailed and helpful comments and corrections on a previous version of this article.
1
syntactic peculiarities found in complement clauses in Japhug, for instance
concerning coreference restrictions between the complement and the matrix
clause. Fourth, I propose a list of complement-taking verbs classified by
semantic categories, indicating for each verb which types of complements
are possible.
1 Background information
This section presents general information on Japhug, and focuses on two
issues of morphosyntax that are relevant to properly understanding complementation in Japhug: arguments and adjuncts that occur in absolutive form
(without case marking) on the one hand, and a classification of nominalized
forms (including participles and infinitives) on the other.
1.1 Japhug and other Gyalrongic languages
Japhug (Chinese Chabao 茶堡) is a Trans-Himalayan language spoken in
’Bar.khams county, Rnga.ba prefecture, Sichuan province, China. All Japhug data in this work come from the author’s fieldwork,1 and reflect the
dialect of Kamnyu (kɤmɲɯ, 干木鸟) village.
Japhug belongs to the Gyalrong branch of the Gyalrongic subgroup (Sun
2000b), alongside three other non-mutually intelligible languages, Tshobdun
(Caodeng 草登), Zbu (a.k.a Showu, Ribu 日部) and Situ (四土, a.k.a. Eastern Gyalrong), which includes in particular the Cogtse (Zhuokeji 卓克基)
and Somang (Suomo 梭磨) dialects on which most early research on Gyalrong languages has focused. Gyalrongic languages are argued to belong to
a Burmo-Gyalrongic clade including Lolo-Burmese and Naish (Jacques &
Michaud 2011), but this question is still debated (Thurgood to appear).
Gyalrongic languages are among the few truly polysynthetic languages
of the Trans-Himalayan family, and are known for their complex verbal
morphology (Sun 2000a; Jacques 2013b; Lai 2013; DeLancey 2015), directinverse indexation system (DeLancey 1981; Sun & Shidanluo 2002; Jacques
2010; Gong 2014; Lai 2015), incorporation (Jacques 2012b; Lai 2015), and
large consonant clusters (Sun 2007; Jacques 2013c).
1.2 Unmarked arguments and adjuncts
Like all Gyalrong languages, Japhug is very strongly head-marking, with
obligatory indexation of one or two arguments and morphological marking of
transitivity.2 There are nevertheless some case markers, such as the ergative
1
My main consultant is tsʰɯndzɯn Chenzhen 陈珍, born 1950.
There are several distinct convergent criteria for distinguishing between transitive and
intransitive verbs in Japhug: the former have Stem 3 alternation in sg→3 non-past verb
forms, the past transitive -t suffix in 1/2sg→3 forms, orientation prefixes in a- in past
2
2
/ instrumental kɯ (obligatory on third person subjects3 of transitive verbs,
as in 1), the comitative cʰo, the genitive ɣɯ and the dative ɯ-ɕki.
(1) tɤ-tɕɯ
nɯ kɯ χsɤr qaɕpa nɯ cʰɤ-mqlaʁ
indef.poss-boy dem erg gold frog dem ifr-swallow
‘The boy swallowed the golden frog.’ (Nyima Wodzer.1, 131)
Subjects of intransitive verbs and objects of transitive verbs are indexed
on the verb morphology but receive no case marking.
1.2.1 Semi-transitive verbs
A small class of verbs in Japhug are intransitive (ie, their subject does not
take ergative marking, only one argument is indexed, and they do not present
the morphological properties mentioned in fn. 2), but take an unmarked
argument which presents object-like properties.
In example (2), the verb rga ‘like’ occurs with an overt noun ndɯχu ‘flower
sp.’, but verbal morphology shows that the verb is not transitive (otherwise
a stem 3 alternation †rge-a instead of rga-a would be expected).
(2) aʑo ndɤre ndɯχu
rga-a
1sg topic flower.sp like:fact-1sg
‘As for me, I like the ndɯχu flower.’ (14-sWNgWJu, 131)
The syntactic status of nouns like ndɯχu ‘flower sp.’ in (2) is better understood if relativization is taken into account. Like the objects of transitive
verbs, these nouns can be relativized by using the kɤ- P-participle (on which
see section 1.3.1), with an optional possessive prefix coreferential with the
subject. Compare the relativized object of the transitive verb sɯz ‘know’ in
(3) with the construction in (4) involving the intransitive verb rga ‘like’.
(3) paχɕi [aʑo a-kɤ-sɯz]
nɯ nɯra
ɣɤʑu
apple 1sg 1sg.poss-nmlz:P-know dem dem:pl exist:sens
‘The (types of) apples that I know about are these.’ (hist-07-paXCi,
73)
(4) [pɣa ra nɯ-kɤ-rga]
nɯ
qaj
ntsɯ
ŋu
bird pl 3pl.poss-nmlz:P-like topic wheat always be:fact
‘(The food) that birds like is always wheat (not barley).’ (23 pGAYaR, 29)
3→3’ direct forms, while the latter don’t.
3
Subjects and objects in Japhug can be defined on the basis of relativization patterns,
in addition to case marking and indexation, see Jacques (2016b).
3
In the following, arguments selected by verbs such as rga ‘like’ that can
be relativized using P-participles are referred to as semi-objects; semi objects
are considered to be one subtype of core arguments. Verbs that take semiobjects are called semi-transitive. Semi-transitive verbs are few, but some
of them are among the most common verbs in the language, and several of
them can take complement clauses, including rga ‘like’, cʰa ‘can’ and even
the adjectival stative verb mkʰɤz ‘be expert’.
1.2.2 Essive adjuncts
A type of unmarked adjunct not previously described in the literature on
Gyalrongic languages but crucial for understanding complement clauses and
complementation strategies in Japhug is that of the essive adjunct. Essive
noun phrases are not arguments of the sentence, but are used to indicate
‘the property of fulfilling the role of an N’ (Creissels 2014, 606); in English
for instance, they are marked by as in a sentence such as ‘I am saying this
as your friend’.
In Japhug, bare noun phrases without any case marker can be interpreted
as essive adjuncts, such as nɤ-rʑaβ ‘your wife’ in (5), which is neither the
object (recipient) nor the theme of the verb mbi ‘give’.
(5) a-me
nɯ nɤ-rʑaβ
ɲɯ-ta-mbi
ŋu
1sg.poss-daughter dem 2sg.poss-wife ipfv-1→2-give be:fact
‘I will give you my daughter in marriage. (=I will give her to you as
your wife)’
Noun phrases headed by the possessed noun ɯ-spa ‘material’ are often
used as an essive adjuncts as in (6), a construction that is in the process of
grammaticalizing into a purposive phrase, and serves as a grammaticalization strategy with verbs of manipulation (see section 2.6.3).
(6) zɣɤmbu ɯ-spa
ɲɯ-nɯ-pʰɯt-nɯ
broom 3sg.poss-material ipfv-auto-cut-pl
ŋgrɤl
be.usually.the.case:fact
‘They cut it to make brooms. (=as a material for brooms.)’ (140505
sWjno, 22)
1.3 Participles vs infinitives
All Gyalrong languages, including Situ (Lín 2003), Tshobdun (Sun 2012)
and Japhug, distinguish many different types of non-finite verb forms. (Sun
& Lin 2007; Genetti et al. 2008; Prins 2011).
In the present work, I propose to additionally distinguish between several
sub-types of nominalizations.
4
I call participles the nominalized verb forms that can be used as noun
modifiers and that refer to an entity that is either argument or adjunct of the
nominalized verb (Creissels 2006a, 224). The main function of participles
in Japhug is to build relatives (Jacques 2016b); these relatives are known
as participial relatives (on which, see for instance Lehmann 1984, 50-58;735;156-7 and Creissels 2006b, 214), and include in particular adjectival stative
verbs in attributive function, as in (7).
(7) tɕʰeme kɯ-mpɕɯ~mpɕɤr
girl nmlz:S/A-emph~be.beautiful
‘A beautiful girl’ = ‘A girl who is beautiful’
Infinitives are nominalized verb forms that refer to the action itself (not
to an argument or an adjunct of the nominalized verb), can be used in
complement clauses and preserve the argument structure of the verb, as in
example (8), where the transitive verb pʰɯt ‘cut’ in infinitival form takes an
overt object:
(8) aʑo nɤ-mɤlɤjaʁ
kɤ-pʰɯt mɤ-cʰa-a
1sg 2sg.poss-limbs inf-cut neg-can:fact-1sg
‘I cannot cut your limbs.’ (The fox03, 190)
There are in addition a few other non-finite forms, such as action nominals (Jacques 2014b) and degree nominals (on which see Jacques 2016a)
which are neither infinitives nor participles.
The formal distinction between participles and infinitives in Japhug is
quite subtle, as there are both infinitives and participles in kɯ- and kɤ- (or
kə- and kɐ- depending on the transcription system). Since both categories
are formally similar and can occur in similar contexts, it is crucial to clearly
explain the distinction between the two, especially since Japhug slightly
differs from the other Gyalrong languages in this regard.
1.3.1 Participles
The system of core argument participles in Japhug is relatively straightforward (Jacques 2016b). The prefix kɯ- is used to build the S-participle of
intransitive verbs, and the A-participle of transitive verbs. A-participles differ from S-participles in taking an additional possessive prefix coreferential
with the P, as in (9).
(9) a-me
a-kɯ-fstɯn
ŋu
1sg.poss-daughter 1sg.poss-nmlz:S/A-serve be:fact
‘My daughter is the one who takes care of me.’ (The prince, 74)
5
The prefix kɤ- on the other hand serves to build the P-participle, and can
optionally take a possessive prefix coreferential with the A, as in (10). Participles are compatible with polarity and associated motion prefixes (Jacques
2016b).
(10)
aʑo a-mɤ-kɤ-sɯz
tɤjmɤɣ
nɯ
kɤ-ndza
1sg 1sg-neg-nmlz:P-know mushroom dem inf-eat
mɤ-naz-a
neg-dare:fact-1sg
‘I do not dare to eat the mushrooms that I do not know.’ (23
mbrAZim,103)
1.3.2 Infinitives
There are four types of infinitives in Japhug: kɯ-, kɤ-, tɯ- and bare infinitives.
The latter two are restricted to very specific constructions (see 2.2), and only
the former two types are discussed in this section.
Infinitives in kɤ- are by far the most common form in Japhug. The
kɯ- form is restricted to stative verbs (including adjectives, copulas and
existential verbs) and impersonal auxiliaries, but even with these verbs, kɤinfinitives are used in several contexts.
Aside from complement clauses (for which see section 2.1), infinitives
are used in two types of constructions, a brief overview of which is provided
below.
First, infinitives occur as the citation forms of verbs and in metalinguistic
discussion in Japhug, as in examples (11) and (12) for stative vs non-stative
infinitives.
(11)
ɯnɯnɯ tɕe
dem
tɕe
ɯ-tɯ-tʂɯβ
lnk lnk 3sg.poss-nmlz:action-sew
mɤ-kɯ-βdi
tu-kɯ-ti
ŋu
neg-inf:stat-be.good ipfv-genr:A-say be:fact
‘People call this ‘badly sewn’.’ (12-kAtsxWb, 12)
(12)
pjɯ-sɯ-ʁndi
tɕe
pjɯ-sɯ-sat.
tɕe
nɯ
koʁmɯz
nɤ
ipfv-caus-hit[III] lnk ipfv-caus-kill lnk dem only.then lnk
cʰɯ-nɯtsɯm
ɲɯ-ra.
tɕe
nɯnɯ
ipfv:downstream-take.away sens-have.to lnk dem
kɤ-nɤʁarphɤβ
tu-kɯ-ti
ŋu
inf-strike.with.wings ipfv-genr:A-say be:fact
‘It strikes it and kills it (with its wings) and only then takes it away.
This is called kɤ-nɤʁarphɤβ ‘strike with one’s wings’.’ (hist150819
RarphAB, 11)
6
In the topical position, the infinitive is neutralized to the kɤ- form even
for stative verbs, as in (13).
(13)
kɤ-rʑi
ri
pjɤ-rʑi,
inf-be.heavy also ifr.ipfv-be.heavy
‘As for being heavy, (the old man) was heavy.’ (140511 xinbada, 138)
Second, infinitives are used as converbs to indicate the manner in which
the action of the main clause occurs (example 14), or a background event
(Jacques 2014a). The kɯ- infinitive form occurs with stative verbs (as sɤscit
‘nice (of an environment)’ in example 15) but it is also attested with a
handful of dynamic verbs in lexicalized form such as mɤ-kɯ-mbrɤt ‘without
stopping’ in (16).4 This latter use is the last trace of the contrast between
human kɐ- and non-human kə- action nominals reported by Sun (2012, 476)
and Sun 2014, which otherwise appears to have been lost in the variety of
Japhug under study.
(14)
kɤ-ŋke
jɤ-ari
pɯ-ra
inf-walk pfv-go[II] pst.ipfv-have.to
‘He had to go on foot.’ (elicited)
(15)
ɕɤr
tɕe
nɯtɕu
kɯ-sɤ-scɯ~scit
ʑo
night lnk dem:loc inf:stat-deexp-emph~be.happy emph
ɕ-ku-nɯ-rŋgɯ
ŋu
transloc-ipfv-auto-lie.down be:fact
‘In the night, he goes in there to sleep cosily.’ (26-NalitCaRmbWm,
35)
(16)
nɯ
maka mɤ-kɯ-mbrɤt
ʑo
ɲɯ-rɤma
dem at.all neg-inf-anticaus:break emph ipfv-work
ɲɯ-ɕti
tɕe
sens-be:affirm lnk
‘It works without stopping.’ (hist-26-GZo.txt 67)
Infinitives can take orientation, negation and even associated motion
prefixes, but not possessive prefixes.
1.3.3 Japhug vs Tshobdun
The inventory of participial and infinitive forms presented above for Japhug
differs from other previous descriptions of Gyalrong languages. In Tshobdun,
Sun (2012, 476) describes five types of verbs forms with kə- or kɐ- prefixes
(Table 1), corresponding to Japhug kɯ- and kɤ- respectively.
4
The implied S of the verb mbrɤt ‘break, stop suddenly’ (the anticausative of prɤt ‘break’)
in this sentence is the work of the subject.
7
Table 1: Nominalization types in Tshobdun (Sun 2012, 476)
Type
Scope
Finiteness
Argument
coding
Prefix
purposive
participant
clausal
clausal
non-finite
non-finite
possessor
possessor
infinitive
action / state
clausal
clausal
non-finite
non-finite
normal
normal
finite
clausal
finite
normal
kəkə- (subject)
kɐ- (object)
kɐkɐ- [+human]
kə- [-human]
kə-
While Japhug and Tshobdun have very close systems, the present analysis conflates some of Sun’s categories. The correspondences between the
two terminologies are as follows.
First, the categories ‘purposive’ and ‘participant’ in Tshobdun in Table
(1) correspond to the Japhug participles. The difference here is partially
terminological, but also has to do with the fact that in Japhug not just
the subject participle, but also the object participle kɤ-, can appear as a
purposive complementation strategy of motion verbs (see section 2.6.2) and
there is little reason to distinguish between the two.
Second, the categories ‘infinitive’ and ‘action / state’ in Table (1) correspond to the Japhug infinitive. Tshobdun and Japhug differ by the fact
that the humanity contrast on these non-finite forms, quite prominent in
Tshobdun, has become marginal in the variety of Japhug under study, making it unnecessary to differentiate between action/state nominalization and
infinitive.
Third, the category ‘finite’, which refers to verbs forms prefixed in kəwith reduced inflection (no person / number marking), appear not to exist
under exactly the same form in Japhug. Sun (2012, 481) mentions the
occurrence of these clauses with verb of pretence like nəʃpəz ‘pretend’. In
Japhug, verbs of this type (like nɯɕpɯz ‘pretend’, cognate with the Tshobdun
verb) do take clauses whose verb is prefixed in kɯ-, but there are reasons to
analyze these as head-internal relative clauses with a verb in participial form
(see section 2.6.2) rather than postulating a distinct morphological category.
Little data is available on Zbu (the only publications specifically on this
language are Sun 2004 and Gong 2014, with some data in Lin 1993 and
Jacques 2008), but this language seems to have a system of nominalization
similar to that of Japhug and Tshobdun. Situ on the other hand appears to
be markedly different,5 as this language has an additional type of nominal5
Data on nominalization is available from three varieties of Situ: Cogtse (Lin 1993;
Wei 2001; Sun & Lin 2007; Genetti et al. 2008), Kyomkyo (Prins 2011) and Bragdbar
(personal fieldwork).
8
ized verb form with the same set of person indexation affixes as finite verb
forms. Comparison between the nominalization system of Situ and those of
the other Gyalrong languages is more difficult and must await later research
(Jacques to appear presents preliminary ideas on this issue).
2 Complement types
This section illustrates the different categories of complements attested in
Japhug. Five main types of complement clauses are distinguished: kɤ-/kɯinfinitival complements, bare infinitival complements, finite complements
and reported speech. In additional, Japhug has many distinct complementation strategies.
2.1 Infinitive
The most common types of complement clauses in Japhug are kɤ- and kɯinfinitival complements. As seen in section 1.3.2, there are kɤ- and kɯinfinitives in Japhug, the latter found in the citation forms of stative verbs
and modal impersonal auxiliary verbs. In complement clauses, stative verbs
take the kɤ- infinitive like dynamic verbs in many cases.
2.1.1 Case marking
While infinitives bear no person indexation markers, noun phrases receive
the same case markers in infinitive clauses as in main clauses, showing that
infinitives have the same argument structures as finite verb forms.
When an argument is shared between the complement and the matrix
clause, it often has a different syntactic function in the two clauses, as in
(17), where tɤɕime ‘princess’ is A in the complement clause (stu ‘do like this’
is transitive) and S in the matrix clause (cʰa ‘can’ is semi-transitive; the
complement clause is its semi-object).
(17)
[tɤɕime nɯ kɯ nɯra
kɤ-stu]
pjɤ-cʰa
princess dem erg dem:pl inf-do.like.this ifr-can
‘The princess succeeded in doing it.’ (140511 alading, 252)
In this sentence, the noun takes the ergative marker kɯ in accordance
with the verb of the complement clause, showing that it belongs to the
complement clause rather than to the matrix clause directly. This is the
most commonly observed pattern in Japhug texts: in infinitival clauses, the
shared arguments more often take the case marking selected by the verb of
the complement clause than that of the matrix clause.
9
2.1.2 Coreference between matrix and complement clause
Coreference restrictions between complements in kɤ- infinitives and their
matrix clauses vary from verb to verb, and three cases can be distinguished.
First, in the case of impersonal verbs such as ra ‘have to, need’ (see
section 4.1.3), the complement clause is the S and there is no argument
coereference between the matrix clause and the complement clause.
Second, with a few transitive complement-taking verbs such as spa ‘know
how to’ (see section 4.1.1) and nɤz ‘dare’ (4.5), the subjects of both clauses
must be coreferential.
Third, for most verbs taking infinitives (like the semi-transitive rga ‘like’
or the transitive rɲo ‘experience’), the subject of the matrix clauses can be
coreferential to either the S (18), the A (19) or even the P (20 and 21) of its
infinitival complement clause (Jacques 2016b).
(18)
tsuku tɕe
kɤ-nɯrɤɣo wuma ʑo
(19)
aʑo qajɯ nɯ
(20)
maka tu-kɤ-nɤjoʁjoʁ,
rga-nɯ
tɕe
some lnk inf-sing really emph like:fact-pl lnk
‘Some people like to sing.’ (26 kWrNukWGndZWr, 104) (S=S)
ra kɤ-nɤrtoχpjɤt pɯ-rga-a
tɕe
1sg bugs dem pl inf-observe pst.ipfv-like-1sg lnk
‘I liked to observe bugs.’ (26 quspunmbro, 15) (A=S)
tu-kɤ-fstɤt
nɯ
ɲɯ-rga-nɯ
at.all ipfv-inf-flatter ipfv-inf-praise dem ipfv-like-pl
‘They like to be flattered or praised.’ (140427 yuanhou, 53) (P=S)
In (21), while χpɤltɕɯn is semantically a patient, it receives obligatory
ergative marking due to the fact that the matrix verb rɲo ‘experience’ is
transitive.6
(21)
aʑo kɤ-mtsɯɣ mɯ-pɯ-rɲo-t-a
ri,
χpɤltɕɯn kɯ
1sg inf-bite neg-pfv-experience-pst:tr-1sg but Dpalcan erg
pjɤ-rɲo
ifr-experience
‘I have never been stung (by a wasp), but Dpalcan has.’
ndzWrnaR, 19) (P=A)
(26-
The subject of the matrix clause can even be coreferential with the possessor of the S, as in example (22), where the non-overt S should be a-xtu ‘my
belly’ (1sg.poss-belly). The verb mŋɤm ‘hurt’ can only take a body part as
its S – the experiencer is indicated by a possessive prefix on the body part,
as in (23).
6
This example illustrates the fact that ergative marking on third person referents in Japhug is syntactically conditioned, unlike many other languages of the family with optional
ergative marking (see DeLancey 2011 and other articles in the same volume of LTBA.)
10
(22)
aʑo pɯ-xtɕɯ~xtɕi-a
ʑo
ri
tɯxtɤŋɤm
1sg pst:ipfv-emph~be.small-1sg emph loc dysentery
nɯ-atɯɣ-a
tɕe, nɯ
kɤ-mŋɤm pɯ-rɲo-t-a
pfv-meet-1sg lnk dem inf-hurt pfv-experience-1sg
‘When I was very small, I had dysentery, (my belly) ached.’ (24pGArtsAG, 121)
(23)
a-xtu
ɲɯ-mŋɤm
1sg.poss-belly sens-hurt
‘My belly hurts.’
2.1.3 Stative infinitive
Stative verbs, when occurring in a complement clause, generally take the kɤinfinitive, as in example (24) and (25). The main verb of the complement
clauses in these examples have the kɤ- infinitive, even though both tu ‘exist’
and scit ‘be happy’ are stative verbs and have a citation form with the kɯprefix.
(24)
a-rŋɯl
kɤ-tu
(25)
kɤ-scit
pjɤ-ŋgrɯ
pɯ-rɲo-t-a
1sg.poss-money inf-exist pst:ipfv-experience-pst:tr-1sg
‘I used to have money’. (elicited)
ɲɯ-ŋu
inf-be.happy ifr-succeed sens-be
‘She succeeded in being happy.’ (150818 muzhi guniang, 6)
In complement clauses, kɯ- infinitives are uncommon, and only occur in
two cases.
First, the conversion to kɤ- infinitive only applies to stative verbs, not to
impersonal modal verbs such as ra ‘have to, need’. When the latter occur in
a complement clause, as in example (26), they always have the kɯ- prefix.
(26)
smɤn
kɤ-ndza kɯ-ra
pɯ-rɲo-t-a
medicine inf-eat inf-have.to pst:ipfv-experience-pst:tr-1sg
‘I used to have to take medicine.’ (elicited)
Second, complements of verb of perception or thought like sɯpa ‘consider
as’ or sɯχsɤl ‘recognize, realize’ can take complement clauses with stative
infinitives as objects, as in (27).
(27)
ɯʑo srɯnmɯ kɯ-ŋu
nɯ
tɤ-wa
nɯ
kɯ
3sg râkshasî stat.inf-be dem indef.poss-father dem erg
mɯ-pjɤ-sɯχsɤl,
ɯ-nmaʁ
nɯ
kɯ
neg-ifr-recognize 3sg.poss-husband dem erg
‘That she was a râkshasî, the father did not realize it, her husband.’
(28-smAnmi, 62)
11
2.2 Bare infinitive and tɯ- infinitives
Several phasal verbs, such as ʑa ‘begin’, sɤʑa ‘begin’, stʰɯt ‘finish’, jɤɣ ‘finish’,
causative verbs derived from adjectives such as ɣɤtɕʰom ‘overdo, do too much’
or ɣɤβdi ‘do well’ and the aspectual verb rɲo ‘experience, have already’ are
compatible with bare infinitival and tɯ- infinitival complements. The verbs
sɤʑa ‘begin’ and rɲo ‘experience’ are more commonly used with kɤ- infinitives.
With the exception of jɤɣ ‘finish’, these verbs are all transitive.
Bare infinitives without possessive prefixes are attested in a very
marginal construction involving negative existential verbs (see section 4.8).
2.2.1 Bare infinitives and transitivity
Bare infinitives are formed by combining the stem 1 of the verb with a
possessive prefix coreferential with the object of the complement clause, as
in examples (28). Intransitive verbs do not form bare infinitives.
(28)
nɤʑo kɯ-fse
a-ŋkʰor
nɯ
you nmlz:stative-be.like 1sg.poss-subject top
ɯ-mto
mɯ-pɯ-rɲo-t-a
3sg.poss-bare.inf:see neg-pfv-experience-pst:tr-1sg
‘I never saw anyone like you among my subjects.’ (Smanmi metog
koshana1.157)
Bare infinitives are in complementary distribution with tɯ- infinitives,
which occur when the verb of the complement is morphologically intransitive. There is obligatory coreference between the S/A of the matrix verb
and the S of the tɯ- infinitival complement. When the verb of the matrix
clause is transitive and that of the complement clause intransitive, there is
a conflict in case assignment on their common subject: the transitive verb
requires the ergative on third person subjects, while the intransitive one
precludes it. In most cases of this type, such as example (29), the common
subject is in the absolutive in accordance with the intransitive verb of the
complement clause. However in a few examples such as (30), the shared
argument takes the ergative in accordance with the transitive matrix verb
(the verb ʑa ‘begin’ is transitive). I consider that this difference is related to
the boundary of the complement clause: in this first case the shared subject
belongs to the complement clause, while in the second case it lies outside it.
(29)
[<xinbada> nɯ tɕe li
tɯ-ŋke]
to-ʑa
Sinbad
dem lnk again inf-walk ifr-begin
‘Sinbad started to walk again.’ (140511 xinbada, 217)
(30)
pɣɤtɕɯ nɯ
bird
kɯ [nɯɕɯmɯma ʑo
tɯ-nɯrɤɣo] cʰɤ-ʑa
dem erg immediately emph inf-sing ifr-begin
12
‘The bird immediately started to sing.’ (140514 huishuohua de niao,
221)
Bare infinitives and tɯ- infinitives are only compatible with polarity prefixes (as in example 31 below), and cannot take TAM or possessive prefixes.
Crucially, semi-transitive verbs are treated like intransitive verbs: they
cannot form a bare infinitive, and use tɯ- infinitives instead (example 31),
although their semi-object does present some object-like syntactic properties
(see section 1.2.1).
(31)
qaɟy ɯ-me
nɯnɯ, tɕendɤre kʰro mɤ-tɯ-rga
fish 3sg.poss-daughter dem lnk
to-ʑa
a.lot neg-inf-like ifr-start
‘He started not liking the mermaid that much.’ (hist150819 haidenver, 154)
The only exceptions to this distribution are some transitive verbs used in
complex predicates referring to weather phenomena, in particular lɤt ‘throw’
and βzu ‘make, do’, which take tɯ- infinitives as in (32). Note that in these
complex predicates, the light verbs lɤt ‘throw’ and βzu ‘make, do’, although
transitively conjugated, cannot take an overt A marked with the ergative.
(32)
tɯ-mɯ
kɯ-wxtɯ~wxti
ʑo
tɯ-lɤt
indef.poss-sky nmlz:S/A-emph~be.big emph inf-throw
pjɤ-ʑa
ifr-start
‘A big rain started.’ (hist150819 haidenver, 104)
2.2.2 Coreference restrictions
Bare infinitives and kɤ- infinitives strongly differ as to their coreference restrictions. With kɤ- infinitives, the subject of the matrix clause can be
coreferential with either the subject, the object or even the possessor of the
intransitive subject of the complement clause (see example 22 above). This
ambiguity is particularly clear with the verb nɤkʰu ‘invite to one’s home as a
guest’ (see examples 33 and 34), as with this verb both arguments are equal
in terms of volition and control.
(33)
ɯʑo kɯ
kɤ-nɤkʰu
pɯ-rɲo-t-a
3sg erg inf-invite pfv-experience-pst:tr-1sg
‘I have been to his house as a guest.’ (= ‘He has invited me to come
to his house as a guest and I came.’) (P=A)
(34)
ɯʑo kɤ-nɤkʰu
pɯ-rɲo-t-a
3sg inf-invite pfv-experience-pst:tr-1sg
‘He has been to my house as a guest.’ (= ‘I have invited him to come
to my house as a guest and he came.’) (A=A)
13
In the case of bare infinitives, on the other hand, the subjects of the matrix and complement clause must be identical, but the object of the matrix
clause can however be neutralized to third person.7
In example (35), the shared subject (referring to the host) is 3sg. The
verb of the matrix clause takes the complement clause as a 3sg object (hence
the verb takes the 3→3’ form without 1sg marking), while the verb of the
complement clause takes a 1sg object (referring to the guest), marked by
the possessive prefix a-.8
(35)
a-nɤkʰu
pa-rɲo
(36)
ɯʑo ɯ-nɤkʰu
1sg.poss-bare.inf:invite pfv:3→3’-experience
‘I have been to his house as a guest.’ (= ‘He has invited me to come
to his house as a guest and I came.’)
pɯ-rɲo-t-a
3sg 3sg.poss-bare.inf:invite pfv-experience-pst:tr-1sg
‘He has been to my house as a guest.’ (= ‘I have invited him to come
to my house as a guest and he came.’)
This generalization is observed for all transitive verbs taking bare infinitive complement clauses. The intransitive impersonal verb jɤɣ ‘finish’ takes
the bare infinitive clause in S function, and remains in third person singular
regardless of the subject and object of the complement clause, as in (37),
where although the subject of the complement clause is third person plural,
no plural marker can appear on jɤɣ.
(37)
nɯra
ɯ-ti
to-jɤɣ
tɕe
dem:pl 3sg.poss-bare.inf:say ifr-finish lnk
‘After having finished saying that, (they went to the park)’ (140515
congming de wusui xiaohai, 15)
2.2.3 Historical origin
Bare infinitives probably derive from action nominals. There are marginal
examples in Japhug of bare infinitives used in this way, as in example (38)
(Jacques 2014b).
(38)
ndʑi-mi
ɯ-tsʰoʁ
ɯ-tsʰɯɣa
nɯra
3du.poss-foot 3sg-bare.inf:attach.to 3sg.poss-form dem:pl
wuma ʑo
naχtɕɯɣ-ndʑi.
very emph npst:similar-du
7
Note that apart from this syntactic difference, there is no detectable meaning difference
between examples (33) and (34) on the one hand and their bare infinitive equivalents (35)
and (36) on the other.
8
In the English translation, the 1sg is rendered as a subject, because translating a-nɤkʰu
pa-rɲo as ‘He has invited me’ would be inexact, as this English sentence does not imply
that the 1sg did attend the invitation.
14
‘The way their feet (of fleas and crickets) touch the ground is very
similar.’ (26-mYaRmtsaR, 17)
As for the tɯ- infinitives, there are at least two possible ways of analyzing
their origin.
First, they could be related to the tɯ- action nominals (Jacques 2014b),
found in light verb constructions such as (39) or (40)9 and used to build
abstract nouns (si ‘die’ → tɯ-si ‘death’). This solution is attractive due to
the fact that tɯ- action nominals are relatively common, but it does not
account well for the complementary distribution of bare infinitives and tɯinfinitives, since both intransitive and transitive verbs can build tɯ- action
nominals.
(39)
tɯ-rɟaʁ
pɯ-βzu-t-a
(40)
kuxtɕo cʰondɤre kɯrtsɤɣ nɯra
nmlz:action-dance pfv-do-pst:tr-1sg
‘I danced.’
ɯ-pa
nɯtɕu
basket comit leopard dem:pl 3sg-down dem:loc
tɯ~tɯ-tʂaβ
ʑo
pjɤ-βzu
together~nmlz:action-cause.to.roll emph ifr:down-make
‘(The rabbit) caused the leopard and the basket to roll down together.’ (The rabbit 2002, 72)
Second, one could interpret the tɯ- here as the indefinite possessor prefix
tɯ-, which is added to inalienably possessed nouns when no definite possessor
is present (Jacques to appear). In this hypothesis, the bare infinitive takes
a possessive prefix coreferential with its P with transitive verbs, but in the
case of intransitive verbs, given the absence of P argument, the indefinite
possessor is used instead.
2.3 Finite complements
Finite subordinate10 clauses are common in Japhug and other Gyalrong
languages. For instance, some specific types of relative clauses (Sun 2006;
Jacques 2016b) or temporal subordinate clauses (Jacques 2014a) take a verb
in finite form, in some cases without a subordinator.11 Likewise, finite complement clauses are common in Japhug and other Gyalrong languages.12
9
When the tɯ- nominalization prefix is reduplicated as in (40), it conveys the meaning
of several persons/objects being subjected to the same action together.
10
In this work, ‘subordinate clauses’ is understood as a cover term for relative, complement and adverbial clauses.
11
Finite relatives, however, have some properties that distinguish them from corresponding independent clauses (Jacques 2016b, 18-21).
12
Sun (2012, 475-7) uses the term ‘S-like’ (sentence-like) clause instead of ‘finite’, which
in his terminology refers to a different type of clause (see section 1.3.3). I chose ‘finite’
rather than ‘S-like’ to avoid confusion with ‘S’ as ‘intransitive subject’.
15
2.3.1 TAM forms
Like finite relatives, there are constraints on the TAM forms that the main
verb of a finite complement can take. Two cases can be distinguished.
The most common type of finite complement have their verb in the
imperfective, regardless of the TAM category of the complement-taking verb,
whether in sensory or imperfective form as in (41), in irrealis form as in (42),
or even in inferential or perfective forms as in (43) and (44).
(41)
tɤjpa kɯ-xtɕɯ~xtɕi
ka-lɤt
ri,
snow inf:stat-emph~be.small pfv:3→3’-throw but
mɯ́ j-ʁdɯɣ,
pɤjkʰu tu-ndʐi
ɲɯ-cʰa
neg:sens-be.serious still ipfv-melt sens-can
‘There was a little snow, but it doesn’t matter, it can still melt.’
(conversation, 2015/12/17)
(42)
nɤʑo koŋla ʑo
tu-kɯ-tɕat-a
a-pɯ-tɯ-cʰa
2sg really emph ipfv-2→1-take.out-1sg irr-ipfv-2-can
a-pɯ-ŋu
irr-ipfv-be
‘If you can take me out of here...’ (140516 huli de baofu, 82)
(43)
ko-spa-nɯ
qʰendɤre, nɯnɯ rɤɣo cʰɯ-tɯ-ʑa
ifr-be.able-pl lnk
ʑo
cʰɯ-ti-nɯ
qʰe, tɤrcɯrca
dem song ipfv-imm-start lnk together
to-cʰa-nɯ.
emph ipfv-say-pl ifr-can-pl
‘They had learned (its songs) and as soon as it would start his song,
they had become able to sing together with it.’ (140519 yeying, 156)
(44)
a-rɤɣo
ɲɯ-tɯ-sɤŋo
tɤ-tɯ-sɯso-t
tɕe,
1sg.poss-song ipfv-2-listen pfv-2-think-tr:pst lnk
a-ɣɯ-jɤ-kɯ-sɯ-ɣe-a
qʰe
nɯ
ɕti
irr-cisloc-pfv-2→1-caus-come-1sg lnk dem be.affirm:fact
‘When you want to listen to my song, just come and ask me.’ (140519
yeying, 238)
Imperfective complements are the preferred construction when cʰa ‘can’
takes adjectival stative verbs as complements, as in (45). The meaning of
this construction is specifically ‘be able to become X’.
(45)
cɤtʂʰa
nɯnɯ ɯ-tɯ-mbro
ɯ-fsu
jamar ma
nɯ
tɯ-mtʰɤɣ
plant.sp dem 3sg.nmlz:degree-be.high dem indef.poss-waist
tu-mbro
mɤ-cʰa
3sg.poss-size about apart.from ipfv-be.high neg-can:fact
‘The cɤtʂʰa plant can only grow as high as a person’ waist.’ (18-NGolo,
182)
16
Second, some complement-taking verbs, including impersonal modal
verbs such as ntsʰi ‘have better’, ɬoʁ ‘have to’ or ra ‘have to, need’ or transitive
verbs such as sɯso ‘think’ allow complements in the irrealis form, as (46).13
(46)
ndɤre kɯ-xtɕɯ~xtɕi
lnk inf:stat-emph~be.small
a-mɤ-pɯ́ -wɣ-nɯ-ɕlɯɣ
ɲɯ-ra
ma
irr-neg-pfv:down-inv-auto-drop sens-need because
rca
nɯ
ɲɯ-ndoʁ
qʰe
ɕlaʁ
ʑo
unexpectedly dem sens-be.brittle lnk at.once emph
pjɯ-ɴɢrɯ
ɲɯ-ɕti
ipfv-acaus:break sens-be:affirm
‘However, one should not let it drop even a little, otherwise, as it is
very brittle, it would break at once.’ (30-Com, 27)
Finally, complements in direct or hybrid indirect speech (in the case of
verbs of speech and thought) do not have restrictions on TAM or person
marking as found with other types of finite complements (see section 2.5).
2.3.2 Coreference restrictions
Verbs taking finite complements can be divided into three groups depending
on the coreference restrictions holding between the complement and the
matrix clause.
First, verbs such as cʰa ‘can’ require subject coreference between the
clauses. For instance, in (47) and (48), the semi-transitive main verb cʰa
‘can’ respectively takes second and first singular person indexation, like the
subject of the transitive complement verbs. Absence of person indexation
on the verb of the matrix clause or indexing the object of the complement
clause is impossible.
(47)
aʑo ɲɯ-kɯ-ɕɯɣ-mu-a
mɤ-tɯ-cʰa
1sg ipfv-2→1-caus-be.afraid-1sg neg-2-can:fact
‘You cannot scare me.’ (140516 guowang halifa, 54)
(48)
cʰɯ-ta-ɕɯ-fka
mɤ-cʰa-a
ipfv-1→2-caus-be.satiated neg-can:fact-1sg
‘(If you eat me, as I am lean,) I will not be able to satiate your
hunger.’ (140516 guowang halifa, 92)
Second, other verbs such as rga ‘like’ allow coreference of the subject of
the main clause with either the subject or the object of the complement
clause (as in 49).
13
The same is also found in Tshobdun, see Sun (2012, 483).
17
(49)
nɤʑo kɯ
tu-kɯ-nɤjoʁjoʁ-a
nɯra
rga-a
2sg erg ipfv-2→1-flatter-1sg dem:pl like:fact-1sg
‘I like when you flatter me.’ (elicited)
Unlike infinitival complements (as in example 22), coreference with a
possessor is not possible. While it is possible to say (50), it is not grammatical to use a finite complement here, and one cannot replace the infinitive
kɤ-mŋɤm (inf-hurt) with a finite form such as ɲɯ-mŋɤm (sens-hurt) for instance.
(50)
a-xtu
kɤ-mŋɤm mɤ-rga-a
1sg.poss-belly inf-hurt neg-like:fact-1sg
‘I don’t like to have belly ache.’ (elicited)
Third, in the case of complement clauses in S function, the verb of the
matrix remains in third person singular form regardless of the person of the
subject and object in the complement clause, as in (51) (had the matrix verb
been in 1sg form like the subject of the complement clause, an (impossible)
form such as †ɲɯ-ntsʰi-a would have been expected).
(51)
ki
maka qala
kɯ
pjɤ́ -wɣ-nɯβlu-a
tɕe
dem at.all rabbit erg ifr-inv-cheat-1sg lnk
z-ɲɯ-ɕar-a
ɲɯ-ntsʰi
transloc-ipfv-search-1sg sens-have.better
‘That rabbit has cheated me, I have to go to look for him.’ (31-qala,
39)
2.4 Complement-taking nouns
Not all subordinate clauses modifying a noun should be analyzed as relative
clauses: only subordinate clauses whose head noun (overt or covert) has a
syntactic role in the clause (whether argument, adjunct or noun modifier)
can be considered to be a relative clause (Sun 2006; Jacques 2016b).14
In example (52), the head noun ftɕaka ‘method, manner’ is neither a core
argument nor an adjunct. It is not possible to transform the subordinate
clause into an independent clause that would include this noun. This sentence is thus a complement clause, rather than a relative, despite having a
noun rather than a verb as its head.
14
This point of view is not shared by scholars such as Matsumoto (1988) and Comrie
(1998), but whatever the theoretical merits of their approach, for the purpose of detailed
language description it is always better to err on the side of splitting than on that of
lumping. In Japhug, there are in any case observable, though subtle, differences between
relative and complement clauses modifying a noun.
18
(52)
[[jɯm
kɤ-ɕar ]
ftɕaka] ɣɯ tɯ-rɟaʁ
wife:hon inf-search method gen nmlz:action-dance
sɯ-βzu-j
caus-do:fact-1sg
‘Let us make dances to look for a wife (for the prince).’ (The Prince,
8)
There are also examples of reported speech finite complement clauses
of this type, with nouns relating to speech and information, such as the
possessed nouns -fɕɤt ‘story’ or -tɕʰa ‘information’, as in examples 53 and 54.
(53)
tɕeri [zlawiɕɤrɤβ
kɯ
tɕʰoz
pɯ-asɯ-zgrɯβ]
but Zlaba.shesrab erg religion pst.ipfv-prog-accomplish
tu
ma [jɯm
pɯ-asɯ-ɕar ]
3sg.poss-story exist:fact but wife:hon pst.ipfv-prog-search
ɯ-fɕɤt
ɯ-fɕɤt
me
3sg.poss-story not.exist:fact
‘People say that Zlaba shesrab was studying religion, not that he
was looking for a wife.’ (The prince, 79-80)
(54)
[<donggua> cʰo <qiezi> ni tɕʰi ʑo
mɯ́ j-naχtɕɯɣ]
gourd
and eggplant du what emph neg:testim-similar
ɣɯ
ɯ-tɕʰa
a-jɤ-tɯ-ɣɯt
ra
gen 3sg.poss-information irr-pfv-2-bring need:fact
‘(Then,) come to tell me in what way a gourd and an eggplant are
different.’ (yici bi yici you jinbu 7)
Complement-taking nouns all have corresponding complement-taking
verbs, which can be either denominal verbs (-tɕʰa ‘information’ → ɣɯtɕʰa
‘answer’), verbs from which the nouns are derived (fɕɤt ‘tell (a story)’ → fɕɤt ‘story’) or complement-taking noun-verb collocations, such as ftɕaka+βzu
(from ftɕaka ‘method, manner’ and βzu ‘do, make’) which can either mean
‘do by any means possible’ as in (55) or ‘prepare to X’ (as in 56; in this
meaning, this collocation is homonymous with the denominal verb nɯftɕaka
‘prepare to’).
(55)
a-<xuetang>
ɯ-tɯ-mbro
<kongzhi>
1sg.poss-blood.sugar 3sg.poss-nmlz:action-be.high control
tu-βze-a
ŋu,
tu-βze-a
ŋu
mɯ-tu-kɤ-mbro
ftɕaka
ipfv-do[III]-1sg be:fact neg-ipfv-inf-be.high manner
ipfv-do[III]-1sg be:fact
‘I do whatever I can to prevent my blood sugar being too high’.
(conversation, 15/12/05)
19
(56)
qartsɤβ kɤ-kɤ-βzu
ra kɤ-tɤβ
ftɕaka
ɣɯ-βzu
harvest pfv-nmlz:P-make pl inf-thresh manner inv-make
ra
have.to:fact
‘Then one has to prepare to thresh the (cereals) that have been
harvested.’ (2010.10-tArAku, 71)
Complement clauses with nominal heads differ from relatives in one important respect: while most types of relative clauses can be either prenominal, postnominal or head-internal (Jacques 2016b), complement clauses are
exclusively prenominal.
2.5 Reported speech
Verbs of speech and cognition can take reported speech complements, in
which the speaker either (exactly or partially) reproduces a sentence uttered
by the person he is quoting, or verbalizes the words he assumes a person is
thinking. These clauses have finite verb forms, and are thus a sub-category of
finite complement clauses, but present some properties distinguishing them
from the complements studied in the previous section.
While Japhug allows direct speech quotation, the corpus reveals examples of mismatches between the viewpoint of the original speaker (the person
whose speech or thoughts are quoted) and the current speaker (the person
quoting the words of the original speaker), which following Tournadre (2008)
I will refer to as Hybrid Indirect Speech (also called Semi-Indirect Speech,
Aikhenvald (2008)). In Hybrid Indirect Speech, the verb morphology (in
particular person indexation) invariably presents the viewpoint of the original speaker, while pronouns and adverbs follow that of the current speaker.
Since grammatical relations are mainly marked by verb morphology, and
overt pronouns are not common in texts in Japhug and other Gyalrongic
languages (a typological feature shared with Kiranti languages, see Bickel
2001), distinguishing between Direct Speech and Hybrid Indirect Speech
is only possible in a minority of cases. Mismatch between pronouns and
person indexation only occurs when a pronoun or possessive prefix is overt
and when at least one argument in the sentence is referred to by a different
person form by the original speaker and the current speaker.
Example (57) provides an example of this phenomenon. The verb nɯɣi
‘he comes/will come back (home)’ in the complement clause of the verb kɤsɯso ‘think’ is in the Factual third person singular form. In the same clause
we find the second person singular pronoun nɤʑo ‘yous ’; there is no pause
between the pronoun and the verb, and no indication from the prosody that
nɤʑo is left-dislocated.
This type of mismatch between pronouns and indexation on the verb is
anomalous and never found in independent sentences. Here the verb form
20
corresponds to the point of view of the original speaker (indicated in blue in
all following examples), whose original sentence would have been ɯʑo nɯɣi
3sg come.back:fact ‘he is coming back’. The pronoun reflects the point of
view of the current speaker (in red), for whom the equivalent sentence would
be converted to nɤʑo tɯ-nɯɣi 2sg 2-come.back:fact ‘you are coming back’,
since the addressee of the current situation corresponds to the subject of the
original situation.
Three distinct translations are proposed here: a direct speech translation, reproducing the words used by the original speaker in his thoughts, an
indirect speech translation, and an attempt at representing Japhug Hybrid
Indirect Speech in English.
(57)
ma
nɤ-wa
kɯ
[nɤʑo nɯɣi]
kɤ-sɯso
kɯ
lnk 2sg.poss-father erg 2sg come.back:fact inf-think erg
kʰa
ɯ-rkɯ
tɕe
ʁmaʁ
χsɯ-tɤxɯr
house 3sg.poss-side lnk soldier three-circle
pa-sɯ-lɤt
ɕti
tɕe
pfv:3→3’-caus-throw be.affirm:fact lnk
Direct: ‘Your father, thinking ‘He is coming back’, put three circles
of soldiers around the house.’
Indirect: ‘Your father, thinking that you are coming back,’
Hybrid indirect: ‘Your father, thinking that ‘you’ is coming back,’
(qachGa 2003, 154)
Examples (58) and (60) illustrate the case of possessive prefixes on nouns,
which undergo the same shift towards the point of the view of the current
speaker, while the verb remains in the same form that was either thought
or uttered by the original speaker.
(58)
tɕendɤre ta-ʁi
nɯ
kɯ
lnk
indef.poss-younger.sibling dem erg
ɣɯ ɯ-sci
[ɯ-pi
tu-nɤme-a
3sg.poss-elder.sibling gen 3sg.poss-revenge ipfv-make[III]-1sg
ra]
ɲɤ-sɯso
tɕe,
have.to:fact ifr-think lnk
Direct: ‘The (younger) sister thought “I have to get revenge on my
brother”.’
Indirect: ‘The (younger) sisteri wanted to get revenge on heri
brother.’
Hybrid indirect: ‘The (younger) sisteri thought Ii have to get
revenge on heri brother”.’ (xiong he mei, 17)
The original sentence corresponding to the complement clause in (58)
is presented in (59): the possessive pronoun was first person (coreferential
21
with the A of the main verb) and undergoes a shift to third person in (58)
(representing the point of view of the person telling the tale).
(59)
a-pi
ɣɯ
ɯ-sci
tu-nɤme-a
1sg.poss-elder.sibling gen 3sg.poss-revenge ipfv-make[III]-1sg
ra
have.to:fact
‘I have to get revenge on my brother.’ (elicitation based on 58)
Example (60) illustrates the same phenomenon as (58), but with the
verb of speech ti ‘say’ instead of sɯso ‘think’. In this example, we know from
the context that the girl is the addressee, so that if the sentence were in
direct speech, a second person singular prefix form nɤ-kɯmtɕʰɯ (2sg.posstoy) ‘your toy’ would be expected instead.
(60)
tɤɕime nɯ
kɯ pjɯ-tɯ-mtsʰɤm
tɕe, [nɯnɯ
dem erg ipfv-conv:imm-hear lnk dem
nɯ ju-ɣɯt-a
ŋu]
ɯ-kɯ-ti
dem ipfv-bring-1sg be:fact 3sg-nmlz:S/A-say
girl
ndɤre,
ɯ-kɯmtɕʰɯ
3sg.poss-toy
pjɤ-tu
ifr.ipfv-exist
lnk
Direct: ‘As soon as the girl heard that there was someone saying “I
will bring your toy”.’
Indirect: ‘As soon as the girl heard that there was someone saying
that he would bring her toy.’
Hybrid indirect: ‘As soon as the girli heard that there was someone
saying “I will bring heri toy”.’ (140429 qingwa wangzi, 49)
In example (61), the pronoun ɯʑo ‘he’ has no case marking, while the
matrix verb sɯso ‘think’ is transitive and requires its subject to be marked
with the ergative, indicating that ɯʑo ‘he’ belongs to the complement clause
whose verb rɤʑi ‘remain, stay’ is intransitive. The verb form mɯ-pɯ-rɤʑi-a
with first singular marking reflects the viewpoint of the original speaker,
while the pronoun ɯʑo ‘he’ corresponds to that of the current speaker.
(61)
“ɯʑo χsɯ-sŋi
χsɤ-rʑaʁ
ma
mɯ-pɯ-rɤʑi-a”
3sg three-day three-night apart.from neg-pst.ipfv-stay-1sg
ɲɯ-nɯ-sɯsɤm
pjɤ-ŋu
ipfv-auto-think[III] ifr.ipfv-be
Direct: ‘He was thinking “I have only stayed for three days and
three nights”.’
Indirect: ‘He was thinking that he had only stayed for three days
and three nights.’
22
Hybrid Indirect: ‘He was thinking that he have only stayed for
three days and three nights.’
A potentially even more confusing case occurs when the original speaker
is the current speakers’ addressee, and when both the original and the current speakers are referred to in the original utterance. This is the situation
observed in example (62), a sentence pronounced by a fox who helped a
prince to succeed in various tasks. Here, the first singular possessive prefix
a- on the possessed noun -tʂɯnlɤn ‘favour’ and the first person singular suffix
-a on the verb ɲɯ-nɯ-fsɯɣ-a do not correspond to the same referent. The verb
form ɲɯ-nɯ-fsɯɣ-a ‘I will pay back’ is the sentence that the fox attributes to
his addressee (the prince), so that the first person here corresponds to the
prince, while the possessive prefix on -tʂɯnlɤn ‘favour’ reflects the point of
view of the fox and thus refers to himself.
(62)
a-tʂɯnlɤn
ɲɯ-nɯ-fsɯɣ-a
ɯ-ɲɯ-tɯ-sɯsɤm
nɤ,
1sg.poss-favour ipfv-auto-pay.back-1sg q-ipfv-2-think[III] lnk
nɯ
tɤ-ste
ti
ɲɯ-ŋu
dem imp-do.this.way[III] say:fact sens-be
Direct: ‘If you think “I will requite the favour (which I received
from you)”, do like that.’
Indirect: ‘If you want to requite the favour (which you received
from me), do like that.’
Hybrid Indirect: ‘If you think “I will requite the favour (which
you received from me), do like that.’
In such a situation, the referents corresponding to first and second person
are exactly reversed between the point of view of the current and the original
speaker, and therefore between pronouns and possessive prefixes on the one
hand and verbal indexation on the other hand.
The corresponding sentence in Direct speech would be (63), with a second
person singular possessive prefix on the noun -tʂɯnlɤn ‘favour’ instead.
(63)
nɤ-tʂɯnlɤn
ɲɯ-nɯ-fsɯɣ-a
2sg.poss-favour ipfv-auto-pay.back-1sg
‘I will requite the favour (which I received from you).’
Surprisingly, despite this complex shift of perspective between the original speaker and the current speaker, there is no logophoric pronoun in
Japhug (Hagège 1974; Nikitina 2012). A logophoric pronoun is however attested in the closely related Stau language, which appears to have a similar
system of Hybrid Indirect Speech (?).
23
2.6 Complementation strategies
Dixon (2006) introduces the term ‘complementation strategy’ to refer to constructions corresponding with a meaning expressed by complement clauses in
some languages, which either are not core arguments or the verb of the main
clause or are not clauses with a complete argument structure (Dixon 2006,
34-40). Complementation strategies include nominalizations (when the verb
sheds its argument structure as it becomes a noun), relative clauses (which
are formally a modifier of a core argument), serial verb constructions and
clause linking.
2.6.1 Headless relative clauses in core argument function
Not all clauses occurring in subject, object or adjunct function are complement clauses.
Most relative clauses in Japhug are headless (Jacques 2016b). When
headless relative clauses occur in subject or object function, they may be
superficially similar to complement clauses.
In example (64), the main verb cʰa ‘can’ takes a finite complement clause.
Note that the subject of the matrix clause and that of the complement clause
are coreferential.
(64)
tɕe
li
ndʑi-pɤrtʰɤβ
χpaχtsʰɤt kɯngɯt jamar
lnk again 3du.poss-space.in.between yojana
ɲɯ-sɯ-ɤβze
pjɤ-cʰa
nine
about
ipfv-caus-become[III] ifr-can
‘He succeeded in making (the distance) between them to be of nine
yojanas.’ (hist-28-smAnmi, 237)
In example (65), despite the fact that we have the same form pjɤ-cʰa in
the matrix clause as in (64), the subordinate clause tɯ~ta-tɯt ‘all that he
had said’ is here a headless relative clause. Evidence for this analysis is as
follows.
(65)
tɤ-pɤtso
nɯ kɯ nɯra
[tɯ~ta-tɯt ]
indef.poss-child dem erg dem:pl total~pfv:3→3’-say[II]
nɯra
pjɤ-cʰa
dem:pl ifr-can
‘The child had succeeded in doing everything that (the old king) had
said.’ (140428 yonggan de xiaocaifeng, 256)
First, the subject of both clauses are not coreferential (this example
cannot be interpreted as meaning ‘the boy succeeded in saying all these
things’). If the subordinate clause in (65) were a complement clause, subject
coreference would be expected with the verb cʰa ‘can’ (see section 2.3.2).
24
Second, the verb of the relative clause has totalitative reduplication, which is
attested in relatives and some temporal subordinate clauses (Jacques 2014a,
295), but not in complement clauses. Third, the verb of the relative clause is
in the perfective form while that of the the main clause is in the inferential;
in finite complement clauses other than reported speech, the verb should
be in imperfective form (see section 2.3.1). Fourth, although demonstrative
and plural markers can follow a complement clause (see section 3.3), only
relative clauses can take both preclausal and postclausal demonstratives as
in (65), like any noun phrase. Fifth, it is possible to make a sentence with
an overt head noun in (65), while this option does not exist with (64).
The contrast between finite headless relative and complement clauses in
object function is not always as clear as that between (65) and (64), but
one of the criteria presented above, or a combination thereof, can be used
to discriminate between the two.
Formal near-ambiguity between headless relative and complement
clauses can also exist in the case of non-finite subordinate clauses. In (66),
the intransitive verb ŋgrɯ ‘succeed’ takes an infinitive complement in kɤ- as
its subject, while in (67), its subject is a headless relative clause with an
object participle, as is shown by the fact that it can take a possessive prefix
coreferential with its A. Note also the semantic difference between a relative
(‘may what you wish for come true’) and a complement clause (? ‘may you
succeed to wish it.’).
(66)
kɤ-nɯsmɤn a-mɤ-pɯ-ŋgrɯ
cʰo
ɯ-nɯsmɤn
inf-treat irr-neg-ipfv-succeed comit 3sg.poss-bare.inf:treat
a-mɤ-tɤ-βdi
tɕe
pjɯ-kɯ-sat
irr-neg-ipfv-be.good lnk ipfv-genr:S/P-kill
ɲɯ-ŋgrɤl
sens-be.usually.the.case
‘If one cannot treat it (rabies), if one does treat it well, it is fatal.’
(29-chWsYu, 29)
(67)
nɤ-kɤ-nɯsmɯlɤm
nɯ
a-pɯ-ngrɯβ
2sg.poss-nmlz:P-wish dem irr-pfv-succeed
‘May your wishes (=the things that you wish for) succeed.’ (elicited)
A more delicate ambiguous case of relative vs complement clause is discussed in section (2.6.2) in the case of pretence verbs.
Besides plain finite relatives and participial relatives, correlatives (with
an interrogative pronoun) can also appear in subject or object function, as
in (68).
(68)
[ɯ-wa
tɕʰi
tɤ-stu-t-a]
nɯ
3sg.poss-father what pfv-do.like-pst:tr-1sg dem
25
tu-ste-a
ɲɯ-ɬoʁ
ipfv-do.like[III]-1sg sens-have.to
‘I have to deal with him in the same way as I dealt with his father. (=How I treated his father, I have to treat him like that)’
(Slob.dpon2, 159)
There are, however, cases where a surface form can be analyzed either as
a complement clause or as a relative, in particular with verbs of perception.
In example (69), the verb form tɤ-kɤ-ta can either be analyzed as the object
participle, or as the infinitive of ta ‘put’, resulting in two slightly different
but semantically nearly identical translations.15
(69)
nɯɕɯmɯma
ʑo
iɕqʰa
kɯm nɯtɕu
immediately emph the.aforementioned door dem:loc
ɯ-ftaʁ
tɤ-kɤ-ta
nɯ
pjɤ-mto
3sg.poss-mark pfv-inf/nmlz:P-put dem ifr-see
‘She immediately saw the mark that had been put on the door / that
someone had put a mark on the door.’ (140512 alibaba, 183)
Similar ambiguities can also occur with finite relatives. Example (70)
can be either parsed as having a finite complement clause nɯra ta-tɯt ‘He
said these words’,16 or a relative ta-tɯt ‘what he said’ (with preclausal and
postclausal demonstratives nɯra ‘these’), with little semantic difference.
(70)
ɯ-ʁjoʁ
nɯ
kɯ
nɯra
ta-tɯt
nɯra
3sg.poss-servant dem erg dem:pl pfv:3→3’-say[II] dem:pl
pjɤ-mtsʰɤm
ifr-hear
‘His servant heard what (the king) had said / that he had said these
(words).’ (140428 yonggan de xiaocaifeng, 265)
In the case of example (71), the speaker started by saying the relative
clause [spjaŋkɯ kɯ sɯŋgi ɯ-ɕki tɤ-kɤ-tɯt ] ‘what the wolf had said to the lion’ and
then corrected herself and said the verb form pɯ́ -wɣ-nɯmtɕʰu, which can either
be interpreted as a relative (‘The slandering words that the wolf said’)17 or
alternatively as a complement clause (‘that the wolf had slandered him’),
showing the close proximity of these two possible analyses.
15
Genetti (2007) discusses similar cases of formally ambiguous ‘bistructural’ constructions in Dolakha Newar (in particular p. 375) and their crucial importance for understanding grammaticalization processes.
16
With verbs of cognition, speech or perception, there are no coreference or TAM restrictions between the complement and the matrix clause, see (4.3).
17
The verb nɯmtɕʰu ‘slander’ takes the person slandered as its object, but it can be
construed as a secundative ditransitive verb whose third argument (the slandering words)
can also be relativized with a finite relative clause, like the theme of the verb mbi ‘give’
(see Jacques 2016b, 16-17).
26
(71)
spjaŋkɯ kɯ
wolf
sɯŋgi ɯ-ɕki
tɤ-kɤ-tɯt,...
pɯ́ -wɣ-nɯmtɕʰu
erg lion 3sg-dat pfv-nmlz:P-say[II] pfv-inv-slander
nɯnɯra pjɤ-mtsʰɤm.
dem:pl ifr-hear
‘(The fox) heard what the wolf had said to the lion... (that the wolf)
had slandered him.’ (140425 shizi lang huli, 16)
2.6.2 Participial clauses
Japhug, like Tshobdun (Sun 2012) has a highly grammaticalized type of
complementation strategy involving participial clauses. It occurs with motion verbs (ɕe ‘go’, ɣi ‘come’, but not rɟɯɣ ‘run’) and a few aspectual verbs
(rɤŋgat ‘be about to’, ʑɣɤmɲo ‘prepare to’). These verbs are all morphologically intransitive. These subordinate clauses, although lexically selected
by the verbs, are neither objects nor semi-objects, and therefore cannot be
considered to be complement clauses in Dixon’s sense (see also Sun’s 2012
analysis of Tshobdun).
Example (72) illustrates this construction, with the A-participle ɯ-kɯ-nnɤjo ‘waiting for him’. Note that the common argument shared between the
participial clause (whose verb is transitive) and the matrix clause (whose
verb is intransitive) takes the ergative, showing that it belongs to the participial clause, a pattern already observed with infinitival complements (see
section 2.1.1).
(72)
[ɯ-wa
nɯ kɯ kʰɤpa
tɕe
3sg.poss-father dem erg downstairs lnk
ɯ-kɯ-n-nɤjo]
pjɤ-ɣi
3sg-nmlz:S/A-auto-wait ifr:down-come
‘His father had come downstairs to wait for him.’ (140506 loBzi, 5)
S/A- vs P-participles In examples such as (72), the S or A of the participial clause is obligatorily coreferential with the S of the matrix clause.
Coreference between the P of the participial clause and the S of the matrix clause is possible but requires using the P-participle. Several examples
of this construction are found in the corpus with the verb nɤkʰu ‘invite to
one’s home as a guest’, as in (73) (see section 2.2.2 concerning the argument
structure of the verb nɤkʰu).
(73)
<xingqi> raŋri ʑo
tɕe nɯnɯ sɤβʑɯ ɣɯ ɯ-kʰa
week
each emph lnk dem mouse gen 3sg.poss-house
nɯtɕu
kɤ-nɤkʰu]
ju-ɣi
pjɤ-ŋu
dem:loc nmlz:P-invite ipfv-come ipfv.ifr-be
‘He would come to the mouse’s house as a guest.’ (150818 muzhi
guniang, 299).
27
We know that this form is the P-participle rather than the infinitive
because it is possible to optionally add a possessive prefix coreferential with
the A, as in (74).
(74)
a-kɤ-nɤkʰu
jo-ɣi
1sg.poss-nmlz:P-invite ifr-come
‘He came to my house as a guest.’ (elicited)
Coreference between the P of the complement clause and the S of the
matrix clause is possible only if the P has control over the action, something
that is possible for only a few transitive verbs and explains the rarity of this
construction.
Verbs of pretence The transitive verb nɯɕpɯz ‘pretend, imitate’ and the
semi-transitive ʑɣɤpa ‘pretend’ superficially appear to have the same complementation strategy as motion verbs, as could be deduced from examples
such as (75).
(75)
tɤ-mu
nɯ
kɯ
ɯ-ku
ci
indef.poss-mother dem erg 3sg.poss-head indef
ɲɯ-kɯ-rɤβraʁ
to-nɯɕpɯz
ipfv-nmlz:S/A-scratch ifr-pretend
‘The (râkshasî)-mother pretended to scratch her head.’ (Slob.dpon1,
However, unlike verbs such as ɕe ‘go’ or rɤŋgat ‘be about to’, coreference between the subject of pretence verbs and the subject of the verb in
participial form is not required, as in example (76).
(76)
ɯ-zda
nɯra,
[pɣɤtɕɯ kɯ-ɣɤwu,]
[kʰɯna
3sg.poss-companion dem:pl bird nmlz:S/A-cry dog
kɯ-ɤndzɯt,]
[lɯlu kɯ-ɣɤwu,]
[qacʰɣa kɯ-mbri]
nmlz:S/A-bark cat nmlz:S/A-cry fox
nmlz:S/A-cry
kɯ-fse,
nɯra
tu-nɯɕpɯz
ɲɯ-spe.
inf:stat-be.like dem:pl ipfv-imitate sens-be.able[III]
‘It is able to imitate other animals, cry like a bird, bark like a dog,
meow like a cat or call like a fox.’ (27-kikakCi, 141)
Since the verb nɯɕpɯz ‘pretend, imitate’ is transitive and can take as its P
the person imitated by the A, as in (77), a different analysis of (75) and (76)
offers itself: the clauses containing the S/A-participles there (indicated here
between square brackets) are in fact head-internal/postnominal relatives.
(77)
ɣzɯ
ra kɯ
li
ʑɤni tú-wɣ-nɯɕpɯz-ndʑi
monkey pl erg again 3du ipfv-inv-imitate-du
‘The monkeys imitated the two of them (and repeatedly threw back
the coconuts at them).’ (140511 xinbada, 262)
28
Examples (75) and (76) could be literally translated as ‘The mother
pretended to be someone who is scratching her head’ and ‘It is able to imitate
a crying bird, a barking dog, a meowing cat, a crying fox’ respectively.
In Tshobdun, Sun (2012, 481-2) posits a distinct category of finite nominalized predicates in kə- to refer to the verb forms in nominalized clause in
core argument position and in subordinate clauses associated with verbs of
pretence. In Japhug, this analysis is not necessary for three reasons.
First, transitive verbs occurring with nɯɕpɯz ‘pretend’ or ʑɣɤpa ‘pretend’
take a possessive prefix coreferential with the object, optional if TAM or
polarity prefixes are present (78) and obligatory if no other prefix is found.
(78)
ɯ-ŋga
ɯ-qʰu
nɯ
3sg.poss-clothes 3sg.poss-behind dem
ɯ-tu-kɯ-rɤɕi
ra to-ʑɣɤpa-nɯ
3sg.poss-ipfv-nmlz:S/A-pull pl ifr-pretend-pl
‘They pretended to pull the train of his gown.’ (140521 huangdi de
xinzhuang, 176)
Second, verbs of pretence are compatible with object participles in kɤ-,
with coreference of the subject of the main clause and the object of the
participial clause (79).
(79)
ɕɯ-kɤ-nɤkʰu
to-nɯɕpɯz
transloc-nmlz:P-invite ifr-pretend
‘He pretended to go there as a guest.’ (not: ‘He pretended to invite
him.’)
Third, the prefix kɯ- in Japhug cannot be used to express action nominalization as the prefix kə- in Tshobdun (Sun 2012, 482).
For these reasons, despite the surface similarity of the constructions in
Japhug and Tshobdun, there is no need to establish a morphological category
distinct from participles in Japhug.
From a historical perspective, it is possible that the use of participles
with motion verbs and with rɤŋgat ‘be about to’ was grammaticalized from
a construction with such a head-internal relative clause in essive function
(cf section 1.2) instead of P function, as in (80). Reanalysis was complete
when coreference between the subjects of the matrix and of the participle
became obligatory.
(80)
ɯ-kɯ-nɤjo
pjɤ-ɣi
3sg-nmlz:S/A-wait ifr:down-come
*‘He came as someone waiting for him’ ⇒ ‘He came to wait for him’.
(from example 72)
29
In order to test this hypothesis however, data from other Gyalrong languages, in particular Situ, need to be taken into account, and this topic has
to be deferred to future work on comparative Gyalrong morphosyntax.
2.6.3 Relative clause in essive function
While motion verbs use purposive participial clauses (section 2.6.2), manipulation verbs such tsɯm ‘take away’ or ɣɯt ‘bring’ cannot. Examples such
as (81), with kɤ- prefixed verb forms appearing before a manipulation verb,
could appear to be an example of purposive participial clauses.18
(81)
ɯ-mbro
ɯ-ndʐi
nɯra
kɤ-ntsɣe jo-tsɯm
3sg.poss-horse 3sg.poss-skin dem:pl ???-sell ifr-take.away
‘He took the horses’ skins to (the market) to sell them.’ (150814
kelaosi, 85)
However, in all examples such as (81), the noun ɯ-spa ‘material’ can be
added after the verb prefixed in kɤ- without changing the meaning (kɤ-ntsɣe
ɯ-spa jo-tsɯm). This indicates that the syntactic function of kɤ-ntsɣe here is
in fact that of an essive adjunct (see section 1.2), meaning literally ‘He took
the horses’ skins (there) as something to sell’, and that it should be analyzed
not as an infinitive form, but as an object participle meaning ‘which is to
be sold.’19
This construction markedly differs from the purposive participial clauses
of motion verbs in not being fully grammaticalized.
2.6.4 Action nouns
The transitive verb kʰɤt ‘do repeatedly, do a long time’ and its causative
sɯ-kʰɤt ‘cause to do repeatedly, cause to do a long time’ can take infinitival complements, but they more commonly occur in a construction with
instrumental-like noun phrases marked with the ergative / instrumental kɯ,
indicating the action which is performed repeatedly or done over a long time.
These noun phrases can include either an action nominal derived from a verb
with the prefix tɯ- as in (82), or a action noun from which verbs are derived
by denominal prefixes, as (83).20
18
It cannot be a P-participle, as this would require coreference between the subject of
the matrix clause and the object of the participial clause, see section 2.6.2.
19
An anonymous reviewer suggested the alternative possibility of viewing this infinitival
form as an adverbial clause. While infinitives are indeed used as converbs in Japhug (see
Jacques 2014a, 321-2), they are used in manner clauses, not purposive clauses.
20
The noun ta-ma ‘work’ in (83) is the base from which several common verbs such rɤma
‘work, do work (vi)’ and nɤma ‘work on (vt)’ are derived.
30
(82)
tɯ-qioʁ
kɯ
tó-wɣ-sɯ-kʰɤt
ʑo
tɕe,
nmlz:action-vomit erg ifr-inv-caus-do.a.long.time emph lnk
tɕe
nóʁmɯz
nɤ
tɯɣ
nɯnɯ ló-wɣ-sɯ-tɕɤt
lnk only.then lnk poison dem ifr-inv-caus-take.out
‘(The medicine) caused (Gesar) to vomit a long time until he expelled
the poison.’ (Gesar, 266)
(83)
ta-ma
kɯ
ta-kʰɤt
ʑo
indef.poss-work erg pfv:3→3’-do.a.long.time emph
‘He did a lot of work.’
Since the action nominals in tɯ-, have a neutralized valency, this construction cannot be considered to be a type of complement clause.
2.6.5 Compound action nouns
Beside action nouns derived from verbs by means of a nominalization prefix,
Japhug is also rich in compound action nouns (either noun-verb or verb-verb,
see Jacques 2012b). Used in combination with light verbs, some compound
nouns form complex predicates with very specific meanings.
The most frequent construction of this type involves compounds comprising the noun kʰramba ‘lie, cheating’ as the first element and a verb root
as the second element. The combination of these compounds with the light
verb βzu ‘do, make’, has the meaning ‘pretend to do X’ as shown by example (84) (see sections 2.6.2 and 4.6 for other constructions with a similar
meaning).
(84)
ʑara kɯ
cʰa
nɯ
kʰramba-tsʰi ka-βzu-nɯ,
3pl erg alcohol dem lie-drink
ntsɯ
ka-znɤrko-nɯ
ɲɯ-ŋu
tɕʰeme nɯra
pfv:3→3’-do-pl girl
dem:pl
always pfv:3→3’-force-pl sens-be
‘They pretended to drink alcohol, and forced the women (to drink).’
(Slobdpon05, 100)
In this construction, the light verb βzu ‘do, make’ takes the orientation
prefix selected by the verb included in the compound (similar phenomena
are observed with complement clauses, see section 3.4). In example (84)
for instance, the lexeme tsʰi ‘drink’ selects prefixes with the ‘toward east’
orientation in finite forms and some participial forms (Perfective/Irrealis kɤ-,
Perfective 3→3’ ka-, Imperfective ku- etc). The compound kʰramba-tsʰi cannot
take any orientation prefix (or any verb morphology, for that matter), but
the verb form ka-βzu-nɯ inherits the orientation selected by tsʰi ‘drink’ and
thus appears with the Perfective 3→3’ ka- corresponding to the orientation
31
‘toward east’.21
Another similar construction involves compounds noun with the adverb
kɯzɣa ‘for a long time’ as first element:22 compare examples (85) and (86)
(with raising of the Inferential ‘toward west’ orientation prefix ɲɤ- on the
light verb).
(85)
kɯzɣa
ʑo
ɲɤ-ɕar
long.time emph ifr-search
‘He looked for him for a long time.’ (elicited)
(86)
kɯzɣɤ-ɕar
ʑo
ɲɤ-βzu
long.time-search emph ifr-do
‘He looked for him for a long time.’ (elicited)
2.6.6 Serial verb constructions
In Japhug, as in Tshobdun (Sun 2012, 490-1), we find a serial verb construction comprising two verbs sharing TAM category, core argument(s) (both
subject and object in the case of transitive verbs) and transitivity. One of
the verbs expresses the main action, and the other describes the manner in
which the action is performed. Unlike Tshobdun, there is no constraint in
Japhug against inserting a linker such as tɕe between the two verbs in the
serial construction.
This construction is most common with deideophonic verbs,23 as exemplified by (87), where nɯdrɯβ ‘gore again and again’ can only be used in this
construction together with tɕʰɯ ‘gore’. The ideophonic verb can either follow
(87) or precede the main verb (88), the latter construction being by far more
common. Some non-ideophonic verbs expressing manner (such as Japhug
nɤxɕɤt ‘do with force’, like its Tshobdun cognate nɐʃeʃet ‘exert oneself’) can
also be used in this construction.
(87)
iɕqʰa
srɯnmɯ nɯ
to-tɕʰɯ
to-nɯdrɯβ
tɕe
the.aforementioned râkshasî dem ifr-gore ifr-repeatedly.gore lnk
pjɤ-sat
ifr-kill
‘(The rhinoceros) gored the râkshasî repeatedly and killed her.’ (28smAnmi, 403)
(88)
srɯnmɯ nɯ
to-nɯdrɯβ
ʑo
to-tɕʰɯ
râkshasî dem ifr-repeatedly.gore emph ifr-gore
21
The verb βzu ‘do, make’ when used as a full verb most commonly takes the orientation
‘up’, never ‘toward east’.
22
It takes the status constructus form kɯzɣɤ- in these compounds.
23
On deideophonic verbs and their morphosyntactic properties, see Sun & Shidanluo
(2004) and Jacques (2013c).
32
‘(The rhinoceros) gored the râkshasî repeatedly and killed her.’
(elicited on the basis of 87)
The second most common type of serial verb construction in Japhug
involves the manner deixis verbs stu ‘do like this’ (transitive) and fse ‘be like
this’ (intransitive).
Examples like (89) could seem to indicate that stu ‘do like this’ and the
lexical verb do not share the same object, as ki ‘this’, which obligatorily
occurs before the manner deixis verbs, appears to be its object.
(89)
ɯ-ru
nɯ
ki
tú-wɣ-stu
pjɯ́ -wɣ-qlɯt
3sg.poss-stalk dem dem:prox ipfv-inv-do.like ipfv-inv-break
‘One breaks its stalk like this.’ (14-tasa, 81)
However, when the lexical verbs takes a non-third person object, the
manner deixis verb indexes it as its object too, as in (90): stu ‘do like this’ is
in fact a secundative ditransitive verb, and the demonstrative is an unmarked
T argument.
(90)
aʑo kɯki
ntsɯ
kú-wɣ-stu-a-nɯ
tɕe,
1sg dem:prox always ipfv-inv-do.like-1sg-pl lnk
kú-wɣ-znɯkʰrɯm-a-nɯ
ipfv-inv-punish-1sg-pl
‘They punished me like this.’ (Gesar, 278)
The verb stu ‘do like this’ cannot be used with intransitive verbs in a
serial construction. Instead, its intransitive counterpart fse ‘be like this’
occurs with a demonstrative such as ki as in (91).
(91)
aʑo nɯ
sŋiɕɤr
ʑo
kutɕu ki
fse-a
1sg dem night.and.day emph here dem:prox be.like:fact-1sg
ndzur-a
ntsɯ
ɲɯ-ra
tɕe,
stand:fact-1sg always sens-have.to like
‘I have to stand like this night and day.’ (The divination, 2002, 44)
Third, some verbs which usually take complements are also compatible
with serial verb constructions, including the causative form of adjectives (see
section 4.10.2) as well a phasal and modal verbs like ʑa ‘begin’ and cʰa ‘can’.
These serial verb constructions differ from the corresponding complement
constructions in that the verbs cannot take either negative or associated
motion prefixes.
The phasal verb ʑa ‘begin’, though most commonly used with bare infinitive or tɯ- infinitive complements, can also appear in a serial verb construction expressing the specific meaning ‘start doing X from ... until...’, as
in (92).
33
(92)
tɕe
βzɯr
ri
tɕe
cʰɯ́ -wɣ-mpʰɯr
cʰɯ́ -wɣ-ʑa
tɕe
lnk corner loc lnk ipfv-inv-wrap ipfv-inv-begin lnk
mɤpɕoʁ
cʰu
βzɯr
nɯ-ɕki
mɤɕtʂa cʰɯ́ -wɣ-mpʰɯr
opposite.side loc corner 3pl-dat until ipfv-inv-wrap
‘One starts to wrap it up from one corner until the opposite corner.’
(30-mboR, 20)
Likewise, the modal verb cʰa ‘can’ occurs in a serial verb construction,
as in example (93), which slightly differs from the previous ones in allowing
an intransitive verb to combine with a transitive one (one possible factor
for this exception is that cʰa ‘can’ is semi-transitive, and thus presents morphosyntactic features of both transitive and intransitive verbs).
(93)
tarmgɯnku ɯ-ʑɯβdaʁ
nɯnɯ kɯ-mɯrkɯ
Dar.mgon 3sg.poss-tutelary.spirit dem nmlz:S/A-steal
cʰɤ-ɕe.
tɕe
tɯ-ci,
nɤki tɯ-tsʰɤʁrɯ
ifr:downstream-go lnk indef.poss-water dem one-goat.horn
nɯ,
ɯnɯnɯ lo-mɯrkɯ pjɤ-cʰa.
dem dem ifr-steal ifr-can
‘The tutelary spirit of Darmgon went to steal it, and the goat horn
full of water, he succeeded in stealing it.’ (02-montagnes-kamnyu-cz)
Finally, there is a closed class of idiomatic serial verb constructions whose
meaning is not predictable from that of the two verb roots (either because
meaning is not compositional, or because one of the verb roots only appear
in the serial construction, never independently). The most common example
is stu+mbat ‘try hard’, as in (94).
(94)
tɤ-stu
tɤ-mbat
je
imp-try.hard(1) imp-try.hard(2) hort
‘Try hard!’
2.6.7 Coordination
In Japhug, some attitudinal verbs such as ʁnɯ ‘suspect’, nɯsɯmɲiz ‘hesitate’,
nɯʁlɯmbɯɣ ‘guess, estimate’ or nɯʁjɯβtsʰɤt ‘guess, estimate’ do not take complement clauses. Rather, they occur in a coordinating construction strikingly
similar to that described in Tshobdun by Sun (2012, 487-8): the attitudinal
verb is followed by the affirmative copula ɕti ‘be’ and an adversative linker
such as ri ‘but’, as in (95).
(95)
nɯ
tu-nɯʁlɯmbɯɣ-a ɕti
nɯ
sɤpe
ri,
ɯʑo kɯ
kɤ-nɤma
dem ipfv-guess-1sg be.affirm:fact lnk 3sg erg nmlz:P-work
dem do.well:fact
‘I guess that he will perform this task well.’
34
3 Morphosyntactic
clauses
properties
of
complement
This section discusses various topics related to the syntax of complement
clauses in Japhug, including word order, syntactic pivots (coreference restrictions and restrictive neutralization), demonstratives as possible complementizers, and case marking mismatch.
3.1 Word order and constituency
Complement clauses in Japhug have the same position in the sentence as
core arguments: they are strictly pre-verbal. While complement clauses are
generally located directly before the verb, we find examples in which the
subject appears between the complement clause and the (transitive) main
verb, as in (27) above.
Discontinuous complement clauses are rare in Japhug. The only clear
example in my corpus is (96). In this example, the 1sg pronoun aʑo (the
subject of the matrix clause, which has no syntactic role in the complement
clause) appears between the A lɯlu kɯ ‘the cat’ and the P ʁnɯz ‘two’ of the
complement clause. Despite the rarity of this construction, this sentence
was not considered to be unusual by my consultant when listening again to
the recording.
(96)
tɕe
[lɯlu kɯ aʑo ʁnɯz ʑo
ka-ndo]
pɯ-mto-t-a
lnk cat erg 1sg two emph pfv:3→3’-take pfv-see-pst:tr-1sg
‘I saw a cat catching two of them.’ (22-kumpGatCW, 61)
3.2 Syntactic pivots
Table (2) presents a summary of coereference restrictions between matrix
and complement clauses in Japhug, based on the data in section (2).
Some verb classes are named by a representative example (for instance rga
‘like’) because at this stage of research, it is not yet clear to what extent the
classes of all verbs with the same behaviour can be given a simple functional
label.
35
Table 2: Coreference restrictions in complement clauses in Japhug
Verb class
Complement type
motion verb
kɤ- participle
motion verb
transitive verb
transitive verb
spa ‘be able’
cʰa ‘can’
sɯxcʰa ‘(cause to) be able’
kɯ- participle
bare infinitive
tɯ- infinitive
infinitive, finite
infinitive, finite
infinitive
rga ‘like’
rga
infinitive
finite
cognition, perception
impersonal
impersonal
impersonal
finite
bare infinitive
tɯ- infinitive
finite, infinitive
Coreference
complement = main clause
{P}={S}
{S,A}={S}
{A}={A}
{S}={A}
{S,A}={A}
{S,A}={S}
{S,A}={P}
{S,A,P,P’}={S}
{S,A,P}={S}
no constraint
zero
zero
zero
This table confirms the observation that although Gyalrong languages
have ergative case marking, syntactic pivots mainly follow an accusative
alignment, with restrictive neutralization of S and A (Van Valin & LaPolla
1997, 275, Sun 2003; Jacques 2016b). Note that the construction with motion verbs and kɤ- participial complements, despite showing obligatory coreference between the intransitive subject of the main clause and the object of
the complement (S=P), cannot be considered to have an ergative-absolutive
pivot, since the same construction cannot express coreference between the
intransitive subject of the main clause and that of the complement clause
(S=S).
Some verbs such as rga ‘like’ present looser coreference restrictions, with
differing rules depending on the construction. It is possible that additional
subtypes will be revealed by finer examination of the behaviour of individual
complement-taking verbs.
3.3 Plural and demonstrative markers
Finite, infinitival or participial complements in Japhug can be optionally
followed by the distal demonstrative nɯ ‘that’ (97), the plural ra (98) or
a combination of the two nɯra ‘those’. In example (97), nɯ ‘that’ has a
topicalizing function (‘as for growing high, it can grow high, but on the
other hand it cannot grow thick’).
36
(97)
tu-mbro
nɯ
ɲɯ-cʰa
ri
tu-mbro
tɕe
ʁnɯ-rtsɤɣ,
ipfv-be.high dem sens-can lnk ipfv-be.high lnk two-stair
χsɤ-rtsɤɣ
jamar tu-mbro
ɲɯ-cʰa
ri
three-stair about ipfv-be.high sens-can lnk
‘Although it can grow high, although it can grow two or three stairs
high,...’ (16-CWrNgo, 151)
The marker ra is an associative plural; in examples such as (98), the use
of ra implies an open list of activities (‘crawl, walk etc’).
(98)
kɤ-nɯrtsɯ kɤ-ŋke
ra tɤ-cʰa
tɕe
inf-crawl inf-walk pl pfv-can lnk
‘When (the baby) becomes able to crawl or to walk, ...’ (140426
tApAtso kAnWBdaR, 65)
In Tshobdun, Sun (2012, 481) analyzes these demonstratives as complementizers, an analysis which would imply a grammaticalization pathway
identical to that of English ‘that’. No attempt will be made to solve this
complex question in the present article. An argument for the special status
of demonstratives with complement clauses is that they can only be postclausal, whereas in the case of relatives (or any noun phrase) demonstratives
can be pre-clausal or circum-clausal (see section 2.6.1).
Demonstrative and plural markers are not the only grammatical elements
that can follow a complement clause. For instance, to express a restriction
(‘only’) having scope over a complement clause, the postposition ma ‘apart
from’ is used after the complement, sometimes with the postposition repeated two times [X ma nɯ ma] ‘apart from X, apart from it’ as in example
(99).
(99)
kɤ-mtsʰɤm ma
nɯ
ma
inf-hear apart.from dem apart.from
mɯ-pɯ-rɲo-t-a
neg-pfv-experience-pst:tr-1sg
‘I only heard about it.’ (I did not see it and even do not claim that
it exists, of a mythological animal) (20-RmbroN, 118)
3.4 Orientation prefixes
In Japhug, all finite verb forms except the Factual take an orientation prefix.24 For some categories (egophoric present, sensory, past imperfective),
24
See for instance Jacques (2014a, 265-9) for a brief description of the system. In
Japhug as in all Gyalrong languages, six orientations are possible: up’, down’, ‘upstream’,
‘downstream’, ‘east’ and ‘west’, to which can be added the ‘unspecified orientation’ prefix
used with motion verbs. Only three verbs have defective conjugations and lack orientation
prefixes (Jacques 2012b). Similar systems of orientation prefixes are widespread in the
area (Sun 1983; Lin 2002; Shirai 2009; Lin 2011).
37
all verbs take the same orientation prefix (respectively the directions for
‘east’, ‘west’ and ‘down’). In the rest of the conjugations, each verb selects
one or more orientations, and consistently uses it to build all TAM forms.
Table 3 illustrates some examples of lexically selected orientation prefixes.
The forms indicated are third person singular (intransitive verbs) and 3→3’
(transitive verbs).
Table 3: Examples of lexically selected orientation prefixes in Japhug
Base form
Orientation
Perfective Inferential Imperfective
ndza ‘eat’ (tr)
fɕɤt ‘tell’(tr)
fsoʁ ‘be day’ (intr)
nɯrɤɣo ‘sing’ (intr)
tsʰi ‘drink’ (tr)
ɕar ‘search’ (tr)
Up
Down
Upstream
Downstream
Toward east
Toward west
ta-ndza
pa-fɕɤt
lɤ-fsoʁ
thɯ-nɯrɤɣo
ka-tsʰi
na-ɕar
to-ndza
pjɤ-fɕɤt
lo-fsoʁ
cʰɤ-nɯrɤɣo
ko-tsʰi
ɲɤ-ɕar
tu-ndze
pjɯ-fɕɤt
lu-fsoʁ
cʰɯ-nɯrɤɣo
ku-tsʰi
ɲɯ-ɕar
In non-finite complement clauses, verbs rarely take orientation prefixes
(they are even impossible in the case of bare infinitives and participial complements).
Most complement-taking verbs select one or two orientation prefixes and
use them regardless of the verb in the complement. This is the case of
rɲo ‘experience’, which takes the ‘down’ series of prefixes (Inferential pjɤand Perfective pɯ-) irrespective of the verb complement. Thus, in (100),
while the verb tsʰi ‘drink’ in the complement clause selects the ‘towards east’
orientation, the main verb rɲo ‘experience’ takes the ‘down’ prefix.
(100)
ɯ-se
kɤ-tsʰi
pɯ-rɲo-t-a
3sg.poss-blood inf-drink pfv-experience-pst:tr-1sg
‘I have drunk its blood.’ (27-qartshAz, 106)
A minority of complement-taking verbs, including phasal verbs and
causative verbs, systematically inherit the lexical orientation of the verb
of the complement clause.
The following examples show how the verb ʑa ‘start’ takes the orientation
prefix of its complements’ verbs, respectively ‘up’ (example 101), ‘down’
(102), ‘upstream’ (103), ‘downstream’ (104) and ‘towards west’ (105). The
Inferential forms of these verbs are provided in Table 3 above.
(101)
ɯ-ndza
pɯ-kɤ-ta
nɯra
3sg.poss-food pfv:down-nmlz:P-put dem:pl
ɯ-ndza
to-ʑa
3sg.poss-bare.inf-eat ifr-start
‘(The horse) started eating the food that had been put (there for
him).’ (140507 jinniao, 384)
38
(102)
tɤtɕɯpɯ nɯ
boy
kɯ
li
ɯ-χpi
ɯ-fɕɤt
dem erg again 3sg.poss-story 3sg.poss-bare.inf:tell
pjɤ-ʑa
ifr-start
‘The boy told her again a story.’ (140517 buaishuohua, 69)
(103)
tɯ-fsoʁ
lo-ʑa
tɕe,
inf-be.clear ifr-start lnk
‘The light of day started to appear.’ (140511 1001 yinzi, 39à
(104)
pɣɤtɕɯ nɯ
bird
kɯ
nɯɕɯmɯma
ʑo
tɯ-nɯrɤɣo cʰɤ-ʑa
dem erg immediately emph inf-sing ifr-start
‘The bird immediately started singing.’ (140514 huishuohua de niao,
221)
(105)
nɯnɯ ɯ-ɕar
ɲɤ-ʑa-nɯ
dem 3sg.poss-bare.inf-search ifr-start
‘They started searching for it.’ (140518 jinyin chengbao, 59)
The raising of the orientation prefix of the verb in the infinitival clause is
observed with verbs such as ɣɤβdi ‘do well’ or ɣɤtɕʰom ‘do too much’ (derived
from the adjectives βdi ‘be good’ and tɕʰom ‘be too much’ respectively; see
Jacques 2015, 184).
(106)
cʰa
kɤ-tsʰi
ko-ɣɤ-tɕʰom
alcohol inf-drink ifr-caus-be.too.much
‘He drunk too much alcohol.’ (elicited)
A related phenomenon occurs in light verb constructions with verbs such
as βzu ‘do, make’, lɤt ‘throw’ or ti ‘say’. When these verbs form complex predicates with their objects, they take the same orientation as the corresponding
verb derived by denominal derivation (Jacques 2012b, 1220).
For instance, both the denominal verb nɯrɤɣo ‘sing’ derived from rɤɣo
‘song’ and the corresponding collocation rɤɣo,βzu ‘sing’ (‘make a song’) select the ‘downstream’ orientation (Inferential cʰɤ-, Imperfective cʰɯ- etc), as
shown by examples (107), (108), (109).
(107)
nɯnɯ tɕʰeme nɯ
dem girl
kɯ
li
rɤɣo cʰɤ-βzu
dem erg again song ifr-make
tɕe,
‘The girl sung again.’ (140428 mu e guniang, 167)
(108)
nɯ-rɤɣo
cʰɯ-lat-a
tɕe, nɯʑora pɯ-rɟaʁ-nɯ
3pl.poss-song ipfv-throw-1sg lnk 2pl
imp-dance-pl
‘I will play a song for you, dance!’ (140513 mutong de disheng, 100)
39
(109)
rɤɣo kɯ-mpɕɯ~mpɕɤr
ʑo
cʰɤ-ti.
song nmlz:S/A-emph~be.beautiful emph ifr-say
‘It sung a beautiful song.’ (140519 yeying, 78)
An extension of this phenomenon occurs in the compound action noun
complementation strategy (section 2.6.5).
3.5 Case marking
When the verb of the matrix and the complement clauses sharing the same
subject have distinct transitivity values, the subject noun phrase can either
take absolutive or ergative marking.
Examples (110) and (111) provide a minimal pair illustrating this optional treatment. In both examples, the matrix verb rga ‘like’ is semitransitive (and its subject cannot take ergative marking), while ndza ‘eat’
is transitive (and requires a subject with the ergative).
In example (110), the common subject paʁ ra ‘pigs’ takes the ergative kɯ
selected by the verb ndza ‘eat’ in the complement clause, suggesting that it
should be analyzed as belonging to the complement clause.
(110) [paʁ ra kɯ kɤ-ndza] wuma ʑo
rga-nɯ
pig pl erg inf-eat very emph like:fact-pl
‘Pigs like to eat it.’ (12 ndZiNgri, 149)
In (111), the subject fsapaʁ ra ‘domestic animals’ has no ergative marking,
a difference which can be accounted for by assuming that the complement
clause in this example is restricted to the sole infinitive verb form kɤ-ndza to
eat’.
(111)
fsapaʁ
ra [kɤ-ndza] wuma rga-nɯ
animals pl inf-eat very like:fact-pl
‘Domestic animals like to eat it.’ (hist-19-qachGa mWntoR, 116)
3.6 Complements of participles
When a complement-taking verb is itself in the S/A-participle form, it is
possible for the complement either to be in the expected form (infinitive or
finite), or to be in S/A-participle form itself, as in example (112).
(112) [rŋɯl kɯ ndʑi-kɯ-sɤndu]
kɯ-cʰa
silver erg 3du-nmlz:S/A-exchange nmlz:S/A-can
kɯ-fse
pɯ~pɯ-tu
nɤ
nmlz:S/A-be.like cond~pst.ipfv-exist if
‘If there was someone who could redeem (the life of two brothers)
with money, ...’ (140507 jinniao, 339)
40
Such examples are rare, but not considered to be mistakes by consultants
when listening again to the recordings.
4 A classification of complement-taking verbs
4.1 Modal verbs
This section includes complement-taking verbs expressing deontic and epistemic modality, to the exclusion of verbs of volition (want, wish etc) and
attitudinal verbs, which are classified among verbs of cognition and speech.
Table 4 presents the list of all the auxiliary verbs in this category. They
can take both finite and infinitival complement clauses – since all verbs in
this category are relatively uniform with regards to the type of complements
they can take, complement types are not indicated in this table. The impersonal verbs are not compatible with person or number marking, and take
the complement clause as their subject.
A detailed study of the fine semantic differences between these verbs
goes beyond the topic of the present article. More detailed data is provided
for three of them, spa ‘be able, know how to’ (section 4.1.1), sɯxcʰa ‘be able’
(4.1.2) and ra ‘have to’ (4.1.3).
Table 4: Inventory of modal verbs in Japhug
Meaning
Transitivity Coreference
cʰa
spa
sɯxcʰa
sna
kʰɯ
can
know how to
(cause to) be able
be worthy of, be usable to
be possible
semi-tr
tr
inverse
stative
stative
S/A=S
S/A=A
S/A=P
S/A/P=S
S/A/P=S, zero
ɬoʁ
ra
ʁzi
ntshi
mna
ŋgrɯ
zgɤt
jɤɣ
have to
have to
need
be preferable
be preferable
succeed
should
be possible, be authorized
imp.
imp.
imp.
imp.
imp.
imp.
imp.
imp.
zero
zero
zero
zero
zero
zero
zero
zero
4.1.1
spa ‘be able to, know how to’ and cʰa ‘can’
The verb spa ‘be able to, know how to’ originates from the abilitative form
of the verb pa ‘do’ (Jacques 2015) and has a cognate in Tangut (Jacques
41
2014c, 255-6), showing that its lexicalization occurred even earlier than
proto-Gyalrongic.
The verb spa ‘be able to’ can have a noun phrase as its object, as in
(113).
(113)
ɕoŋβzu
ko-spa
carpentry ifr-be.able
‘He learned carpentry.’ (elicited)
As a complement-taking verb, spa ‘be able to, know how to’ takes both
infinitival (examples 114 and 115) or finite (116) complements, and its A
is coreferential with the S or the A of the complement clause. The subject
coreference is required, and no example of coreference with objects, adjuncts
or other elements of the complement clause have been observed with this
verb.
(114)
nɯ
ɯ-mdoʁ
nɯ
aj
kɤ-ti
mɯ́ j-spe-a
dem 3sg.poss-colour dem 1sg inf-say neg:sens-be.able[III]-1sg
‘I am not able to name its colour.’ (06-qaZmbri, 57)
(115)
kɤ-nɤre
ɯ-tá-spa?
inf-laugh q-pfv:3→3’-be.able.to
‘Is he now able to laugh?’ (conversation, 2014, of a three month old
infant)
(116)
ɯ-tʰoʁ
nɯ
kɯ-fse,
sɤtɕʰa
nɯ
3sg.poss-ground dem inf:stat-be.like ground dem
ju-rɤtɣe
kɯ-fse
qʰe,
ipfv-measure.handspan.by.handspan inf:stat-be.like lnk
tu-ŋke
ma
nɯ
ma
ɲɯ-nɯqambɯmbjom ra
ipfv-walk apart.from dem apart.from ipfv-auto-fly
mɯ́ j-spe
pl
neg:sens-be.able[III]
‘It is only able to move on the ground as if measuring it handspan
by handspan, it cannot fly.’ (26-qambalWla, 79)
The verb cʰa ‘can’ occurs in the same construction as spa ‘be able to,
know how to’, except that it is a semi-transitive verb (section 1.2.1), whose
subject is not marked with the ergative and whose semi-object is not indexed
by verb morphology.
4.1.2
sɯxcʰa ‘(cause to) be able’
The verb sɯxcʰa ‘(cause to) be able’ is the causative derivation of cʰa ‘can’.
It can take both an object and an infinitival complement.This verb nearly
42
exclusively occurs in inverse form with a non-overt causer (subject), and has
the specific meaning of ‘(cause to) be physically able to X’, ‘(cause to) be
strong enough to X’, as in examples (117) and (118). The subject is not
expressed, but implicitly as the heavy object in (117) and the animal taken
by the eagle in (118).
(117)
ɲɯ-rʑi
tɕe
kɤ-fkur
sens-be.heavy lnk inf-carry.on.the.back
mɯ́ j-tɯ-wɣ-sɯx-cʰa.
neg:sens-2-inv-caus-can
‘It is heavy, you won’t be able to carry it on your back.’ (elicitation)
(118)
tʰɯ-wxti-nɯ
tsa
tɕe
tɕe, ta-tsɯm
tɕe
pfv-be.big-pl a.little lnk lnk pfv:3→3’-take.away lnk
tu-ɣɤrʁɤβjɤβ
ɲɯ-ɕti
tɕe
ɯʑo kɤ-tsɯm
ipfv-struggle sens-be.affirm lnk 3sg inf-take.away
mɯ-ɲɯ́ -wɣ-sɯx-cʰa.
neg-sens-inv-caus-can
‘When (piglets, lamb) have grown up, when (the eagle tries to) take
away (one of them), it struggles and (the eagle) is not strong enough
to take it away. (150819 RarphAB, 6)
The object (causee) of sɯxcʰa ‘(cause to) be able’ is coreferential with
the subject of the complement clause.25 Such a coreference restriction is
extremely rare in Japhug, but it is the logical consequence of the fact that the
base verb cʰa ‘can’ has subject coreference restriction, and that the causative
derivation demotes the subject of the base verb (causee) to object status.
Exceptionally, this verb is attested in direct forms, as in (119), but only
in its use as a plain transitive verb ‘cause to be able to bear’, and does not
take infinitival complements.
(119)
kumpɣa pʰu
fowl
nɯ
ɲɯ-βʁa
tɕe, mu
nɯra
male dem sens-win lnk female dem:pl
mɯ-ɲɯ-sɯx-cʰe
neg-sens-caus-can[III]
‘(Otherwise) the roosters are too strong, and and the hens cannot
bear it. (150819 kumpGa, 9)
4.1.3
ra ‘have to’
The modal verb ra ‘have to, need’ cannot take any person or number marker.
Its subject is either a noun phrase or a complement clause. If the intransitive
25
In these examples the subject of sɯxcʰa ‘(cause to) be able’ is coreferential with the
object of the clause, but this is not a requirement.
43
subject of ra ‘have to, need’ is a noun phrase, the experiencer is marked
with the genitive case, as in (120). In complement clauses however, the
experiencer does not received special marking, as in (122).
(120)
aʑɯɣ
ɯ-ɕa
ra
ma
nɯ
ma
1sg:gen 3sg.poss-meat have.to:fact apart.from dem apart.from
kɯ-ra
me
nmlz:S/A-have.to not.exist:fact
‘I need its meat, I don’t need anything else.’ (02-deluge2012, 14)
The verb ra ‘have to, need’ is compatible with either finite (see 46 or
58 above) or infinitive (example 121) complements. Other types of complements or complementation strategies are not attested.
(121)
tɤ-pɤtso
nɯ,
tɯ-pɤrme
roro jamar tɕe
tɕe
indef.poss-child dem one-year.old over about lnk lnk
tɯ-nɯ
kɤ-sɯ-βde
pjɤ-ra
indef.poss-breast inf-caus-abandon ipfv.ifr-have.to
‘Children had to be weaned at about one year old.’ (140426 tApAtso
kAnWBdaR, 83)
The verb in the complement clause is almost always either in imperfective
or irrealis form. It can be in the Perfective if ra ‘have to’ takes the past pɯprefix, as in (122).
(122)
tɕe
iʑo
ji-kʰa
kɯnɤ kɤ-fstɯn-i
lnk 1pl 1pl.poss-house also pfv-take.care.of-1pl
pɯ-ra
pst.ipfv-have.to
‘We also had to take care of him at our home.’ (14-tApitaRi, 358)
The modal ra ‘have to’ is one of the few verbs that can take one or several
complement clauses in the imperative, as in (123). In this construction, ra
‘have to’ appears in the factual form.
(123)
a-mke
kɤ-rqoʁ
qʰe
a-rca
tɤ-ɣi
1sg.poss-neck imp-hug lnk 1sg.poss-following imp:up-come
ra
have.to:fact
‘Hug my neck and come with me (in the heavens).’ (31-deluge, 109)
4.2 Phasal verbs and other aspectual auxiliaries
Aspectual and phasal complement-taking verbs present a much greater variety of constructions than modal verbs. Table 5 summarizes the constructions
44
attested with each verb, not all of which are equally common.26
As shown in section 2.2.2, verbs in this group have different coreference
restrictions depending on the complement type. With rɲo ‘experience’ for instance, when used with a bare infinitive / tɯ- infinitival complement, subject
coreference is obligatory, while when it takes a kɤ- infinitival complement,
coreference with the object or with a possessor of the subject is also possible.
Table 5: Inventory of phasal and aspectual auxiliaries in Japhug
Verb
Meaning
I. BI F. Strategy
rɲo
sɤʑa
ʑa
stʰɯt
sɤtɕɯtʂi
nɯftɕaka
sɯɣjɤɣ
kʰɤt
jɤɣ
ŋgrɤl
rɤŋgat
ʑɣɤmɲo
mda
experience
begin, start
begin, start
finish
continue
prepare to
finish
do repeatedly
tr.
tr.
tr.
tr.
tr.
tr.
tr.
tr.
be finished
be usually the case
be about to
prepare to
be time to
imp.
imp.
intr.
intr.
imp.
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
serial
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
serial
(2.6.4)
participle
participle
In addition to rɲo ‘experience’, which has been treated in previous sections, data are provided for stʰɯt ‘finish’ (the verb in this group with the
greatest diversity of complement types) and ŋgrɤl ‘be usually the case’ (as a
representative of impersonal aspectual verbs).
4.2.1
stʰɯt ‘finish’
Of all the complement-taking verbs in Japhug, stʰɯt ‘finish’ is one of those
which are compatible with the greatest diversity of complement types.
It appears with kɤ- infinitives (124), bare infinitives (125) or in serial verb
constructions (126), with respectively 16, 8 and 3 examples in the corpus.
(124)
tɯ-nɯ
kɤ-jtsʰi
na-stʰɯt
tɕe
tɕe
indef.poss-breast inf-give.to.drink pfv:3→3’-finish lnk lnk
tɤ-pɤtso
nɯ
li
ɯ-sta
nɯtɕu
ko-ɕɯ-rŋgɯ
indef.poss-child dem again 3sg.poss-bed dem:loc ifr-caus-lay
26
The abbreviations are as follows: I. (kɤ- Infinitive), BI (bare infinitive and tɯ- infinitive), F. (finite complement), tr. (transitive), imp. (intransitive impersonal).
45
‘After she had finished breastfeeding, she put back the child on his
bed.’ (140429 jiedi, 270)
(125)
nɯ
(126)
nɯra
ɯ-ti
ta-stʰɯt
dem 3sg.poss-bare.inf:say pfv:3→3’-finish
‘When she finished saying that,’(150818 muzhi guniang, 125)
pa-βzjoz
pa-sthɯt
tɕe
ɯ-sloχpɯn
dem:pl pfv:3→3’-learn pfv:3→3’-finish lnk 3sg.poss-teacher
nɯ
kɯ
taqaβ
tɯ-ldʑa ɲɤ́ -wɣ-mbi
dem erg needle one-cl ifr-inv-give
‘When he finished learning this (craft), his teacher gave him a needle.’
(140508 benling gaoqiang de si xiongdi, 97)
Like ʑa ‘start’ (see section 3.4), stʰɯt ‘finish’ inherits the orientation of
the verb in the complement clause. In the examples (124), (125) and (126)
above, stʰɯt ‘finish’ respectively takes the ‘towards west’ (Perfective na-),
‘up’ (Perfective ta-) and ‘down’ (Perfective pa-) orientations, which are the
orientations lexically selected by jtsʰi ‘give to drink’,27 ti ‘say’ and βzjoz ‘learn’
respectively.
4.2.2
ŋgrɤl ‘be usually the case’
The verb ŋgrɤl ‘be usually the case’, although very common, occurs in a very
restricted construction. It cannot take person/number marking, and is only
used with finite complements. The verb in the complement clause is nearly
always in the imperfective, as in (127), except for existential verbs such as
tu ‘exist’, which appear in the factual (128).
(127)
aʑo kumpɣa cʰɯ-nɯ-χse-a
(128)
ɕɤr
pɯ-ŋgrɤl
1sg chicken ipfv-auto-feed[III]-1sg pst.ipfv-be.usually.the.case
‘I used to raise chickens /(for my own sake).’ (150819 kumpGa, 69)
tɕe
tu
ŋgrɤl,
tu-mbri
night lnk exist:fact be.usually.the.case:fact ipfv-call
ŋgrɤl
be.usually.the.case:fact
‘(Owls) appear, howl during the night.’ (22-pGAkhW, 19)
4.3 Verbs of cognition and speech
Verbs and complex predicates expressing cognition, perception and speech
can be divided into three categories depending on the type of complements
they can take.
27
This verb is the causative of tsʰi ‘drink’ which take the ‘towards east’ orientation:
despite being etymologically related, these two verbs select distinct orientations.
46
First, some verbs accept both infinitival and finite (including reported
speech, see 2.5) complements; this category mainly includes modal verbs of
volition, verbs of thought and attitudinal verbs (‘fear’, ‘hate’).
Second, some verbs of perception and cognition accept finite complements, but cannot take infinitival complements.
Third, some attitudinal verbs and intentional perception verbs (‘look at’,
‘listen to’) cannot take complement clauses, and can only use the coordination complementation strategy (section 2.6.7).
Table 6: Inventory of verbs of cognition, perception and speech in Japhug
Verb
Meaning
I. BI F. Strategy
sɯso
think, want
forget
like
fear
hate
intend to
want to obtain
want
wish
tr
tr
semi-tr
tr
tr
tr
tr
colloc
colloc
ti
realize that
see
hear
remember
know, understand
know
hope
say
tr
tr
tr
tr
semi-tr
tr
tr
tr
ru
sɤŋo
nɯsɯmʁɲiz
nɯsɯmŋɤn
ʁnɯ
nɯʁlɯmbɯɣ
look at
listen to
hesitate
suspect
suspect
estimate
it
lab
it
it
it
it
jmɯt
rga
nɯɣmu
qʰa
ʁmɯɣ
nɯmga
ɯ-sɯm+ɕe
ɯ-ʁjiz+ɣi
sɯχsɤl
mto
mtsʰɤm
ɕɯftaʁ
tso
sɯz
nɯmgro
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
coordination
coordination
coordination
coordination
coordination
coordination
4.4 Motion verbs
Two motion verb ɕe ‘go’ and ɣi ‘come’ take participial purposive clauses
(see section 2.6.2, example 129 below). Other motion verbs (such as ŋke
‘walk’, rɟɯɣ ‘run’, nɯqambɯmbjom ‘fly’) and verbs of manipulation (ɣɯt ‘bring’
47
and tsɯm ‘take away’) cannot take purposive clauses, though the latter use
relative clauses in essive function as a complementation strategy (section
2.6.3).
Japhug has both motion verbs with purposive clauses and associated motion prefixes (venitive ɣɯ- and andative ɕɯ- grammaticalized from ɣi ‘come’
and ɕe ‘go’ respectively). As shown in Jacques (2013b, 203), these two constructions present an obvious semantic contrast when used in the perfective.
In the purposive clause construction, when the motion verb is in the perfective, only the motion is implied to have taken place, nothing is said about
the action described by the complement. For instance, example (129) makes
sense only if the action of the purposive clause has not taken place yet.
(129)
tɕʰi
ɯ-kɯ-nɤma
jɤ-tɯ-ɣe?
what 3sg-nmlz:S/A-do pfv-2-come[II]
‘What have you come to do?’
By contrast, the associated motion construction implies that both the
motion event and the action following it have been completed, as in example
(130).
(130)
ɕɯ
ra nɯ-kʰa
tɕe
ɕ-pɯ-tɯ-rɤ-tʂɯβ
tɤ-ti
who pl 3pl.poss-house lnk transloc-pfv-2-apass-sew imp-say
ra
have.to:fact
‘Tell us in whose house you have gone to do sewing.’ (140512 alibaba,
162)
4.5 Attempt
The verbs tsʰɤt ‘try’ and rɤtsʰɤt ‘try’ (no discernible semantic difference
between the two could be ascertained) are not attested with complement
clauses in the corpus. They can occur with a coordinated reported speech
(section 2.6.7), as in example (131).
(131)
tɕe
ɲɯ-βʑoʁ-nɯ
ɯkʰɯkʰa qraʁ
lnk ipfv-carve-pl while
ɯ-ɲɯ-ɤ́ tʰoʁmpʰrɤt kɯ nɯnɯ tu-tsʰɤt-nɯ
qu-sens-fit
nɯnɯ tu-tsʰɤt-nɯ
tɕe
ploughshare dem ipfv-try-pl lnk
ntsɯ
ra
qu dem ipfv-try-pl always have.to:fact
‘While they shape (the hole to insert the ploughshare), they try the
ploughshare, they try it to determine whether or not it fits in.’ (24mbGo, 31)
The verbs nɤz ‘dare’ and pʰot ‘dare’ (the second is barely used in the
Kamnyu dialect) can be used with both infinitival and finite complements.
They are among the few verbs whose infinitival complements require subject
48
coreference. In example (132) with the verb nɤkʰu ‘invite to one’s home as a
guest’ (one of the few transitive verbs implying a volitional action of both
subject and object, see section 2.2.2), the interpretation ‘I do not dare to go
to his house as a guest’ (with coreference of the object of the complement
clause and the subject of the main clause) is not possible.
(132)
ɕɯ-kɤ-nɤkʰu
mɤ-naz-a
transloc-inf-invite neg-dare:fact-1sg
‘I do not dare to invite him.’ (elicited)
4.6 Pretence
The verbs of pretence nɯɕpɯz ‘pretend, imitate’ and ʑɣɤpa ‘pretend’ do not
accept complement clauses, they only take participial relatives as their objects or semi-object, as described in section 2.6.2. An alternative construction for expressing pretence involves complex predicates with the auxiliary
verb βzu ‘do’ and a compound noun with kʰramba ‘lie, cheating’ as the first
element (see 2.6.5).
4.7 Deixis
There are two manner deixis verbs in Japhug, the transitive verb stu ‘do
like this’ (transitive) and the intransitive fse ‘be like this, look like’. Both
can take an essive noun phrase not indexed in the verb morphology (often
restricted to a demonstrative). They can be combined with other verbs in
a serial verb construction to express the meaning ‘do X like Y’ (2.6.6).
(133)
ɯ-xɕɤt
cʰɯ-lɤt-nɯ
ki
cʰɯ-stu-nɯ
tɕe
3sg.poss-power ipfv-throw-pl this ipfv-do.like.this-pl lnk
‘People insert (bullets in the muzzle of the gun) forcefully like this.’
(28-CAmWGdW, 61)
Alternatively, the same meaning can be expressed with an infinitive complement clause, as in (134).
(134)
tɕe
ɕɤmɯɣdɯ kɤ-lɤt
nɯ
tu-stu-nɯ
ɲɯ-ŋu
lnk gun
inf-throw dem ipfv-do.like.this sens-be
‘They shoot it like that.’ (28-CAmWGdW, 96)
4.8 Negative existential verbs
Although Japhug, like other Gyalrongic languages, has a series of negative
prefixes (whose form vary depending on the TAM category), negation can
also be expressed by post verbal negative auxiliaries like maʁ ‘not be’, me ‘not
exist’ or maŋe ‘not exist (sensory)’. Example (135) illustrates both negative
forms (negative prefix mɯ-pɯ-mto-t-a vs negative auxiliary pɯ-mto-t-a me).
49
(135)
tɕe
ɯ-mdoʁ
tɕʰi
ʑo
fse
mɤxsi,
lnk 3sg.poss-colour what emph be.like:fact neg:genr:know
a-kɤ-ti
me
ma
1sg.poss-nmlz:P-say not.exist:fact lnk
mɯ-pɯ-mto-t-a.
ɯ-ndʐi
kɯnɤ pɯ-mto-t-a
neg-pfv-see-pst:tr-1sg 3sg.poss-skin also pfv-see-pst:tr-1sg
me
not.exist:fact
‘I don’t know what its colour is, I cannot say as I have not seen it.
I never even saw its hide.’ (27-kikakCi, 21-22)
This situation is not unusual in Sino-Tibetan, and has led in some languages to the complete replacement of pre-verbal by post-verbal negation
(see Post 2015).
The negative copula maʁ ‘not be’ is used as a negative auxiliary in compound tenses (on which see Jacques 2014a, 268-9), to express focus (example
136) or polar questions (137).
(136)
nɤʑo nɤ-pʰe
tu-ti-a
tu-ti-a
ɕti
maʁ,
pɤnma wombɤr ɯ-pʰe
2sg 2sg-dat ipfv-say-1sg not.be:fact p.n.
p.n.
3sg-dat
ipfv-say-1sg be.affirm:fact
‘I am not talking to you, I am talking to Padma ’Od.’bar.’ (Slobdpon,
190)
(137) ‘ɯ-kɤrme
tɯ-ldʑa ci nɤ
a-mɤ-jɤ-tɯ-ɣɯt ’
3sg.poss-hair one-cl one even irr-neg-pfv-2-bring
tɤ-tɯt-a
maʁ
ɯ́ -ŋu
pfv-say[II]-1sg not.be:fact qu-befact
‘Didn’t I say ‘Don’t bring her back, not even one hair?” (2014kWlAG, 686)
The negative existential verbs me ‘not exist’ and maŋe ‘not exist (sensory)’
differ from negative prefixes in that they express emphatic negation, their
meaning being translatable with an indefinite negative pronoun or adverb
such as ‘nothing’ or ‘never’, as in (135) and (138).
(138)
kɯmaʁ tu-nɤme-a
nɯ-sɯso-t-a
me
other ipfv-work[III]-1sg pfv-think-pst:tr-1sg not.exist:fact
‘I never thought of doing anything else.’ (150819 woniu, 39)
With transitive verbs, this construction is often used to express negation
with an indefinite object, but it is not necessarily the case, as in (139).
50
(139)
kɤntɕʰaʁ kʰro ju-tsɯm-a
street
me,
kʰa
tɕe
a.lot ipfv-take.away-1sg not.exist:fact house lnk
tu-nɯ-ŋge-a
ŋu
ipfv-auto-wear[III]-1sg be:fact
‘I don’t take it much on the streets, I wear it at home.’ (conversation
150418)
Negative prefixes can be combined with negative auxiliaries to build a
double negation construction, as in (140).
(140)
mɯ-pjɯ-mtam-a
me,
a-kɤ-tso
neg-ipfv-see[III]-1sg not.exist:fact 1sg.poss-nmlz:P-know
wuma dɤn
really be.many:fact
‘I have seen everything (there is nothing I do not see), I know really
a lot.’ (2002qajdoskat, 36)
The nature of the finite clauses occurring in this construction is in question. It could seem at first glance that these are relative clauses. Indeed,
one of the most common ways of expressing a negative indefinite in Japhug
is by using participial relative clauses with a negative existential verb, as in
examples (141) and (142).
(141)
nɤʑo nɯ-nɯ-ɣɤwu
ma,
nɤ-kɯ-nɯɣ-mu
you imp-auto-cry because 2sg-nmlz:S-appl-be.afraid
me
ma
mɤ-ta-mbi
fact:not.exist because neg-1→2-fact:give
‘Cry as you wish, nobody is afraid of you, I will not give her to you.’
(The frog, 38)
(142) [smɤɣ-ri
nɯ ra ɯ-kɯ-ntɕhoz]
maka maŋe
wool-thread top pl 3sg-nmlz:A-use at.all not.exist:sensory
‘Nobody uses woollen threads.’ (Coloured belts, 89)
Since Japhug also has finite relatives, the same analysis could be applicable to examples such as (140) (‘the things I do not see do not exist’).
However, in Japhug only objects can be relativized with finite verb forms
(Jacques 2016b, 12-3). If this analysis were correct, we would thus not
expect to find intransitive verbs negated by negative existential verbs, and
negated transitive verbs should only have an indefinite object reading – thus
pɯ-mto-t-a me (pfv-see-pst:tr-1sg not.exist:fact) in (135) should only be
interpretable as ‘I did not see anything’, not ‘I never saw it.’
Thus, while this construction probably originates from a negated finite
relative, in the synchrony of Kamnyu Japhug it is better analyzed as a
complement clause.
51
The negative existential verbs me ‘not exist’ and maŋe ‘not exist (sensory)’
also appear in a very unusual construction, [X mɤ-X negation] (where X
stands for the bare stem of the verb) meaning ‘whether or not X, it amounts
to the same’. This form is not even the bare infinitive, since no possessive
prefix can be added.
In this construction, contrary to all previous ones, the negative auxiliaries can take person marking, and are obligatorily coreferential with the
object if the verb in the complement clause is transitive, as in (143). With
intransitive verbs, no person marking appears on the negative verb, as in
(144). In this construction, the subject (whether of transitive or intransitive
verbs) cannot be expressed.
(143)
ndza mɤ-ndza me-a
eat neg-eat not.exist:fact-1sg
‘Whether (you ) eat me or not, it amounts to the same.’ (sentence
obtained as the correction of a sentence I produced to translate a
story in Japhug)
(144)
tɕe
ɯ-qiɯ
ɲɯ-mtsʰam-a,
ɯ-qiɯ
lnk 3sg.poss-half sens-hear-1sg 3sg.poss-half
mɯ́ j-mtsʰam-a
qʰe, ɕe mɤ-ɕe
maŋe
neg:sens-hear-1sg lnk go neg-go not.exist:sens
‘I can hear half of it, can’t hear the other half, whether or not (I) go
it amounts to the same.’ (conversation 140510)
4.9 Analytic causative constructions
While Japhug has two productive causative prefixes, ɣɤ- restricted to (some)
stative verbs and the general causative (sɯ-/ sɯɣ-/ z- (see Jacques 2015
and Sun 2014; Lai 2014 for a comparative perspective on Tshobdun and
Khroskyabs), it also presents no less than two main analytic causative constructions.
The first type of analytic causative construction involves an auxiliary
(including βzu ‘do, make’, sɤβzu ‘cause to become, make’, sɤpa ‘cause to
become, consider’ and tɕɤt ‘take out’) and a subordinate clause with its
main verb in subject participle form.
This construction is especially common with adjectives, as in (145), and
(146). In example (146), both the synthetic causative verb ɣɤwxti ‘make
bigger’ and the analytic causative with βzu are attested.
(145)
cʰɯ-ndɯl-nɯ
tɕe
kɯ-ndɯ~ndɯβ
ʑo
cʰɯ-βzu-nɯ
ipfv-grind-pl lnk nmlz:S/A-emph~fine emph ipfv-make-pl
‘They grind (tobacco) and make it very fine-grained.’ (30-CnAto,
38)
52
(146)
ɯ-pʰɯ
ɲɯ-wxti
tɕe, nɯra
tʰamtɕɤt
3sg.poss-price sens-be.big lnk dem:pl all
ma-tɤ-tɯ-ɣɤ-wxti,
aʑo nɯ
tu-nɯ-χti-a
nɯra
neg-pfv-2-caus-be.big 1sg dem ipfv-auto-buy[III]-1sg dem:pl
stʰɯci
kɯ-wxti
ɯ-pʰɯ
ma-tɤ-tɯ-βze
as.much nmlz:S/A-be.big 3sg.poss-price neg-pfv-2-make[III]
kɯ-tʂaŋ
ci
tɤ-βze
nmlz:S/A-be.fair a.little imp-make[III]
‘It is too expensive, don’t make it that expensive, I will buy it, don’t
make its price that expensive, give it for a fair price.’ (Bargaining
12, 12)
With dynamic verbs, examples of this construction are not attested in the
corpus. Rather, the preferred construction is to use an impersonal modal
verb such as kʰɯ ‘be possible’ or ra ‘have to’ in participial form taking a
complement verb, as in (147) and 148 (note that these complements can be
either in finite or infinitive form).
(147)
la-rɤɕi-nɯ
tɕe, lu-nɯ-ɬoʁ
pfv:3→3’-pull-pl lnk ipfv:upstream-auto-come.out
mɤ-kɯ-kʰɯ
tu-βzu-nɯ
neg-nmlz:S/A-be.possible ipfv-make-pl
‘They pull (on the thread to close the opening) and prevent it from
coming out.’ (30-CnAto, 42)
(148)
ɕɯ-kɤ-βde
mɤ-kɯ-ra
nɯ
ndʑiʑo kɯ
transloc-inf-throw neg-nmlz:S/A-have.to dem 2du erg
nɯ-tɯ-sɤβzu-ndʑi
ŋu
pfv-2-cause.to.become-du be:fact
‘Thanks to both of you, there is no need to throw (people in the
lake) anymore.’ (2011-05-nyima, 191)
In this construction, the causative auxiliary verb takes the participial
clause as its object. When the participial clause clause has a first or second
person object, as in (149) and (150), the auxiliary remains in third person
object form (a form such as †tu-kɯ-sɤβzu-j ipfv-2→1-cause.to.become-1pl
‘you caused us to become X’ would not be possible).
(149)
iʑora kɤ-nɯʑɯβ mɤ-kɯ-kʰɯ
1pl inf-sleep neg-nmlz:S/A-be.possible
tu-tɯ-sɤβze
ɲɯ-ŋu
ipfv-2-cause.to.become[III] sens-be
‘You prevent us from sleeping.’ (elicitation)
53
(150)
a-tɯ-ci
ɲɯ-tɯ-s-qarndɯm
tɕe
aʑo
1sg.poss-indef.poss-water sens-2-caus-be.muddy lnk 1sg
tɯ-ci
kɯ-ɤmgri
kɤ-tsʰi
indef.poss-water nmlz:S/A-be.clear inf-drink
mɤ-kɯ-khɯ
ɲɯ-tɯ-sɤpe
ɲɯ-ŋu
neg-nmlz:S/A-be.possible sens-2-cause.to.become[III] sens-be
‘You have spoiled my water, you caused me to be unable drink clear
water.’ (lang he yang, 26)
As shown by examples (148) and (150) in particular, the use of causative
auxiliaries with dynamic verbs is common to express indirect causation, the
(voluntary or involuntary) indirect result of the action performed by the
causer.
The verb tɕɤt ‘take out’ is very rare as a causative auxiliary, and only
occurs with negative participial forms, as in (151).
(151)
kɤ-ɤlɯlɤt mɤ-kɯ-ra
ɲɤ-tɯ-tɕɤt
inf-fight neg-nmlz:S/A-have.to ifr-2-take.out
‘You prevented them from fighting.’ (elicitation, based on the story
Nyima ’Odzer)
An alternative synthetic causative uses the causative form ɣɤkʰɯ of the
verb kʰɯ ‘be possible’. This verb takes infinitive or finite complements as
in (152). Like the construction above, the causative auxiliary ɣɤkʰɯ ‘cause
to be possible’ takes a third person object form regardless of the person of
the complement verb. In example (152) it would not be possible to use the
2sg→1sg form †mɯ-nɯ-kɯ-ɣɤ-kʰɯ-a (ipfv-2→1-cause.to.become-1sg).
(152)
kɤ-sci
mɯ-nɯ-tɯ-ɣɤ-kʰɯ-t
inf-be.born neg-ipfv-2-caus-be.possible-pst:tr
‘You prevented me from being born.’ (Gesar, 61)
Future research will be necessary to ascertain the precise semantic difference between all causative constructions, a task made difficult by the dearth
of examples of the constructions illustrated by examples (151) and (152) in
the corpus.
4.10 Complements of adjectives
Adjectives in Japhug can be formally defined as the subclass of stative verbs
allowing the tropative nɤ- derivation, a derivation that turns a stative verb
into a transitive verb meaning meaning ‘find/consider X’ (eg ‘beautiful’ →
‘find/consider to be beautiful’, see Jacques 2013a).28
28
This definition excludes some noun-like property words.
54
4.10.1 Infinitival and finite complements
A few adjectives are semi-transitive, like mkʰɤz ‘be expert, be knowledgeable’ and optionally take either a noun (153) or a complement clause (154)
addition to their S. The complement clause can be either infinitival or finite,
with a verb in the imperfective.
(153)
ɯ-nmaʁ
jɤ-kɯ-ɣe
nɯ
ɕoŋβzu
3sg.poss-husband pfv-nmlz:S/A-come[II] dem carpentry
mkʰɤz
tɕe
be.expert:fact lnk
‘Her husband (who came to live in her family) is very good at carpentry.’ (14-tApitaRi, 273)
(154)
tɕiʑo rcanɯ,
kɤ-taʁ
wuma ʑo
mkʰɤz-tɕi
1du unexpected inf-weave really emph be.expert:fact-1du
‘We are very good at weaving.’ (140521, huangdi de xinzhuang, 20)
4.10.2 Causative forms of adjectives
The causative forms of adjectives, in addition to their base causative meaning ‘cause to become X’, can also be used with complement clauses to express
manner (Jacques 2015, 184). In this construction, both kɤ- infinitives and
bare infinitives are possible. For instance, the verb ɣɤ-βdi derived from βdi
‘be good, be well’ can either mean ‘repair, treat’, as in (155) or ‘do well, do
properly’ with a complement clause as in (156).
(155)
a-ʁi
kɯ
nɯ
ma
spe
1sg.poss-younger.sibling erg dem apart.from be.able[III]:fact
me
ri, <tuolaji> kɯ-fse,
mkʰɯrlu
not.exist:fact but tractor
nmlz:S/A-be.like.this machine
nɯra
tu-ɣɤβdi
spe
dem:pl ipfv-caus-be.well be.able[III]:fact
‘My brother is only able to do one thing, repair tractors and cars.’
(14-tApitaRi, 166)
(156)
kʰa
ɯ-ʁɤri
nɯtɕu
ɯ-fkrɤm
house 3sg.poss-front.of dem:loc 3sg.poss-bare.inf:place
a-kɤ-tɯ-ɣɤ-βdi
tɕe, ɕ-pɯ-sɤtse
irr-pfv-2-caus-be.good lnk transloc-imp-stick.into[III]
‘Place these in front of your house in orderly fashion and stick them
(into the ground).’ (Smanmi 2003, 129)
The complement-taking causative verbs inherit the orientation prefix and
person marking of the complement verb (see 3.4).
55
Alternatively, causative verbs derived from adjectives can occur in a
serial verb construction similar to the one found with manner deixis verbs
(see sections 2.6.6 and 4.7), as in example (157) where the causative form
of the verb asɯɣ ‘be tight’ shares the same TAM, person and orientation
marking as the other member of the serial construction xtɕɤr ‘tie’.
(157)
tɕe
tɯmbri ɲɤ-ɕar
lnk rope
tɕe
ɯ-mŋu
nɯra
koŋla ʑo
ifr-search lnk 3sg.poss-opening dem:pl really emph
ko-xtɕɤr ko-sɯ-ɤsɯɣ
ʑo
ifr-tie ifr-caus-be.tight emph
‘He looked for a rope, and tied the opening (of the bag) very tight.’
(kelaosi, 288)
Conclusion
This article is the first step towards a comprehensive description of complementation in Japhug, but much remains to be done, in particular in ascertaining fine-grained semantic differences between related constructions. It
has three main contributions.
First, it confirms the observation from previous research on subordinate clauses in Gyalrong languages (Jacques 2016b, Sun 2003) that while
Japhug has ergative case marking, in complex clauses only neutral or accusative pivots are attested, and not a single ergative pivot is found – the
only ergatively-aligned construction being generic person marking on the
verb (Jacques 2012a).
Second, it illustrates how the reanalysis of unmarked relative clauses
in essive function (1.2) is a widespread mechanism to create complement
clauses (2.6.2, 2.6.3).
Third, this article documents several typologically unusual constructions,
in particular Hybrid Indirect Speech (section 2.5), the verb sɯxcʰa ‘(cause
to) be able’ which only appears in inverse forms (4.1.2) and the puzzling
construction [X mɤ-X negation] meaning ‘whether or not X, it amounts to
the same’ (4.8) with exclusive indexation of the object of the complement
clause on the negative auxiliary.
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