The detransitive voice in Kryz1
Gilles Authier
0. Introduction
This paper deals with the detransitive voice in Kryz, an unwritten language
belonging to the Lezgic branch of the North-East Caucasian family.
Nowadays three dialects of Kryz (Kryz proper, Jek, and Alik-Khaput) are
spoken as a first language by at most 2000 speakers in fewer than ten
localities of north-eastern Azerbaijan. Despite generalized bilingualism in
Azerbaijani, Kryz preserves typical Proto-Lezgic features. In particular,
gender-number agreement with S/P (Single argument or Patient) nouns is
pre- or infixed to the lexical stems of simple verbs2, which form a closed
class. Person is expressed by free pronouns. Word order is strictly
possessor-possessed, adjective-noun, and basically Agent-Patient-Verb;
case marking and cross-referencing on the verb is generally ergative.
Valency increase is expressed periphrastically, using auxiliaries (‘do’ or
‘give’). The Kryz detransitive synthetic voice, to be described in this paper,
is an unexpected singularity within Lezgic3 and the Daghestanian
languages as a whole.
While the Daghestanian languages have long been believed to lack a
passive construction altogether, it is beyond doubt that in Kryz there exists
1
This article is based on first-hand data collected by myself in Azerbaijan
over the last ten years. Field trips were funded by the Centre National de la
Recherche Scientifique and the Institut National des Langues et
Civilisations Orientales. My host in the village of Alik and main informant
for this dialect is Madjlis Shamseddinov: I am indebted to him more than
words can say.
2
Verbal predicates are also represented by compound verbs, which are not relevant here
since they switch valency by changing their auxiliary (‘do’ / ‘become’): this valencychanging device is equipollent and belongs to syntax, not derivation.
3
This branch comprises the core languages of Lezgian, Tabassaran, Aghul,
Tsakhur, Rutul, Kryz, and Budugh, all located close to the watershed line
of the easternmost part of the Great Caucasus range, and the outliers Udi
(to the south) and Archi (to the north).
2
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a detransitive voice with various interpretations (passive, anticausative and
antipassive). The use of this voice is restricted by the semantic parameters
and lexical properties of individual verbs, which accounts for the fact that
the few previous studies on Kryz (mainly Saadiev 1972 & 1994) do not
mention any detransitivizing derivation. Indeed, the Kryz detransitive voice
is rarely heard in natural speech: it is mostly employed in prescriptive
discourse and technical instructions. But the derivational morphology is
old and can be compared with similar detransitive forms found in some
languages distantly related to Kryz.
Section 1 gives an overview of grammatical relations and the order of
constituents in non-derived predication. Section 2 presents the morphology
of detransitive forms. Section 3 presents the lexico-semantic restrictions of
the passive voice. Section 4 gives the particulars of the aspectual and
modal values associated with the anticausative and antipassive forms.
Section 5 proposes comparative material and a hypothesis for the origin of
this rare and residual voice phenomenon in Daghestanian.4
Coding of syntactic and pragmatic functions
In Kryz, as in most Daghestanian languages, basic grammatical relations in
declarative clauses are organised according to an ergative/absolutive case
marking system and gender-number cross-referencing of the Single or
Patientive argument on the verb. The details are described in the following
subsections.
1.1. Case marking
Kryz has ergative case alignment on nouns. Nouns expressing S and P are
in the unmarked ‘absolutive’ case, while the Agent noun5 of a transitive
4
The new Azerbaijani alphabet is used. The diphthongs /a-u/ /e-u/ and /i-u/ are realized as
[o], [ø] and [y] in closed syllables; the sounds [q:], [G] and [ğ] (uvular fricative) are in
complementary distribution and written <ğ>. <xh> and <gh> are respectively voiceless and
voiced velar fricatives.
5
The pronominal system operates on a different basis from the nominal
system. Speech Act Participants are expressed by free or cliticized
pronouns with no ergative marking. There is also no specialized morpheme
on verbs heading reflexive and reciprocal constructions, which make use of
special reflexive and reciprocal pronouns. The case marking and
peculiarities of Kryz pronouns are detailed in Authier (2008).
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3
predicate is marked with ergative case (-r or one of its allomorphs), as
illustrated in Sentence 1:
(1)
q’al-ar-ir
mouse-PL-ERG
yuva-yar
nest-PL
ğuzay.c-a
north-IN
ğvat’ats’-re
PV.dig-PRS(NPL)
‘Mice dig their nests to the north.’
(2)
q’al-ar
mouse-PL(ABS)
yuva-yar-a
nest-PL-IN
ği-rxhar-e
PV-dwell-PRS(NPL)
‘Mice dwell in nests.’
Note that in contrast with many other Daghestanian languages,
including the closely related Budugh, the ergative case is never used in
Kryz to mark semantic roles other than Agent (two ergative-marked nouns
with different semantic roles cannot coexist in the same clause), but
ergative-marked Agents can be inanimate as in example (3). While the
basic order of constituents is S/A-(P)-V, these non-prototypical Agents are
often postposed to a more topical Patient, as in () and ():
(3)
ˤa-xhr-i
PV-come.PF-PART
naq’
yesterday
duli.c-ir
storm-ERG
xayla
much
ziyan
damage
vu-yic
give-AOR.N
‘Yesterday’s hailstorm has caused a lot of damage.’
(4)
yağin
sure
jin
4e
ğara.c-ir
basmi
illusion-ERG pressing
b-ar-ca-b
HPL-do-PRF-HPL
‘We are certainly victims of an illusion.’
(5)
kaha-c
cave-GEN
siy
mouth
babrux-ci
spider-GEN
xal.id-ir
roof-ERG
yi-qir-ca
PV-catch-PRF
‘A cobweb covers the entrance to the cave.’
1.2. Indexation of S/P
While the Agent is not cross-referenced on verb forms (except for person
and number in injunctive forms), Kryz verbs have the gender and number
of their Patientive or Single argument cross-referenced in a pre-root (postpreverbal) slot. The gender-number system comprises five ‘gender-number
classes’ of agreement: human masculine (M), human feminine and other
animates (F, which also includes many inanimates and certain abstract
concepts), other inanimate (N for ‘neuter’), non-human plural (NPL, which
4
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on verbs is always homophonous with the N class), and human plural
(HPL):
(6)
buba-r
father-ERG
ri -imbi
daughter-PL
yi-b-qir-cib
PV-HPL-catch-PRF.HPL
‘The father has caught the daughters.’
(7)
ri -imbi
daughter-PL
ğa-b-qil-cib
PV-HPL-lie-PRF.HPL
‘The daughters went to sleep.’
Only in the imperative paradigm is a nominatively aligned indexation of
S/A persons added, as can be seen in the following intransitive and
transitive predicates, where the human plural argument, be it Agent or
Single argument, is cross-referenced as a suffix –ay, while the stem retains
agreement with S/P:
(8)
uca
here
ğinahnaˤ
tonight
ğa-b-q’il-ay !
PV-HPL-lie.IMP-HPL
‘(You all) sleep here tonight!’
(9)
bulu a
dress(F)
y-u-qr-ay !
PV-F-catch.IMP-HPL
‘(You all) catch the dress!’
Aspect is usually marked by sonorants affixed to the root, which
consists of a single consonant or a consonant followed by a sonorant. The
morphological structure of finite verb forms is summed up in table 1.
Table 1. Structure of synthetic verb forms in Kryz
-3
-2
-1
0
1
2
3
preverb (usually with transparent spatial meaning)
prefixes cross-referencing the gender-number of S/P
aspect-marking sonorant (-r, -l, -n)
root consonant
perfective aspect or detransitivity markers
Tense & Mood suffixes
suffixes cross-referencing the gender-number of S/P (S/A in imperatives)
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5
1.3. Verb classes according to valency
Kryz has clear semantic classes of verbs, which are defined by their special
morphological and syntactic properties, especially valency changing
properties: strict intransitive; extended intransitive (experience predicates);
strict transitive; ditransitive. Lability (ambitransitivity) is a very marginal
phenomenon.
Transitive verbs have in their valency an Agentive argument which, if
expressed, is in the ergative case; these all permit valency increase of the
causative type by means of the auxiliary ‘give’, including those which are
ditransitive like ‘give’ itself. Most but not all transitive verbs allow
synthetic (morphological) detransitive derivation, a restriction which we
find to have a clear semantic motivation and which will be described
below.
Subsets are also observable in the class of intransitive verbs - for
instance, most but not all of these have synthetic imperative forms, nor do
they all have a periphrastic causative derivation with the auxiliary ‘do’.
However, no clear distinction between ‘unaccusative’ and ‘unergative’
verbs has been found.
1.4. Order of arguments and Patient topicalization
Agents are usually topics, and their unmarked position is initial; nontopicalized Patients come after the Agent and before the verb. But, as is
common for languages which express grammatical relations by means of
case-marking, the order of arguments can be modified for pragmatic
purposes. Focalized constituents tend to occur in preverbal position, with
heavy stress, while topics are clause-initial, and topicalization of a Patientdenoting absolutive argument thus does not necessarily require the use of a
special form of the verb. Like its distant relative Tsez, cited by Comrie
(2008), Kryz allows the Patient to be topicalized without voice derivation,
simply through alteration of the word order. This ‘functional passive’
(Givón 2004) is in fact merely a foregrounding movement. The ergativemarked Agent is backgrounded if unstressed:
(10)
u-c
3-GENnH
seksenbe
eighty_five
san
year
a-n-ir
3-H-ERG
vul
ewe
çixeˤ
behind
ya-u-qur-cu
PV-F-spend-PRF.F
‘He [lived hundred years, and] spent eighty-five of these tending the sheep.’
6
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Non-prototypical Agents are backgrounded especially often in noninitial position. The most natural translation in English is then a typical
passive construction:
(11)
a-c
3-N
hiçvaxt
never
sel.c-ir
flood-ERG
tu-ğats’-da-d
PV-carry-NegEVT-N
‘This (bridge) will never be carried away by the flood.’
Note that with appropriate intonation on the preverbal position, the
Agent can be focused instead of backgrounded. It then translates not as a
passive, but as a cleft sentence:
(12)
xinib
fura-r
v-a-u-q-ryu,
woman man-ERG F-PV-F-keep-PRS.F
nisi
maltal.ci-r
cheese cheese.bag-ERG
‘The woman is kept by the MAN, as cheese is kept by the CHEESE-BAG.’
(13)
ceuhur-ci
pear-GEN
ghala-d
good-notN
me a.c-a
forest-IN
sar.id-ir
bear-ERG
ulats’-ru
eat-EVT.F
‘It is the BEAR who will get to eat the best pears in the forest.’
(14)
ts’eˤ.il-kar
goat-SUBEL
azar-i
milk.MP-PART
yux
milk
yiğğaciğ
every.day
ebil-ir
ğirats’-re-ni
wolf-ERG drink-PRS-PAST
‘The milk drawn from the goat every day, it is the WOLF who would drink
it.’
1.5. Omission of Agents
In Kryz predicative constructions, the expression of arguments as overt
NPs is not grammatically obligatory, but at least one is encoded on the
verb: minimal predicates are comprised of a single verb form on which a
Single argument or a Patient is cross-referenced:
(15)
(furar)
man.ERG
(xhin)
grass.N
ğe-t’-ic
PV-strike-AOR.N
‘(The man) cut (the grass).’
(16)
(xinib)
woman(ABS)
yi-p-du
PV-F.go-AOR.F
‘(The woman /) she left.’
Backgrounded Agents are very often left out. In the original of the
following English translation the word ‘you’ is used only once, with
obviously generic, non-referring value, and Kryz uses only active forms
(see text in Authier 2009) whereas English has to employ the passive.
‘The cheese-bag is made to keep cheese in. You have to flay the skin to
keep the cheese in without making any cuts. Then, as soon as it is flayed,
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7
salt is poured into it to dry it out. Then it has to be worked on, and tied
firmly at the fore and hind legs. If there is a great deal of wool, it is shorn,
then it is washed with water while being beaten with a comb (?), then left to
dry. Then it is turned inside out (the cheese is on the woolly side) and it is
stored for winter.’
Non-explicitation of a generic Agent is frequent in proverbs such as the
following (on ingratitude):
(16)
tur.ud-zina
spoon-INSTR
ula-ci
eat-SEQ
ci-yar-zina
tail-INSTR
ˤul
eye.F
ğva- -ryu
PV.F-pull.out-PRS.F
‘One eats with the spoon and then pulls (your) eye out with the handle!’
A preliminary conclusion, then, is that in Kryz as in many other ergative
languages, either genetically related to it like Tsez or unrelated like Tongan
(Keenan & Dryer 2207), backgrounding through omission of the Agent NP
and corollary foregrounding of the semantic Patient is possible without any
change in the verb morphology. But Kryz also has a detransitive voice
which shows properties commonly associated with the label ‘passive’: it is
a morphological derivation which transforms transitive predicates into
intransitive ones by removing the agentive NP at a syntactic level6. But let
us first examine the formal manifestation of (in)transitivity on Kryz verbs.
Marking of (in)transitivity and verb classes
Kryz synthetic verbs form a closed class comprising some 200 items. They
are either transitive or intransitive, a distinction which is marked
morphologically on imperfective stems only.
6
We do not adhere to the definition of passive as a means of promoting the
Patient of a transitive verb to grammatical subject, because this would
presuppose that Kryz has a clear-cut definition of ‘subject’, which is not
the case. Note also that Kryz detransitive forms never receive reciprocal or
autocausative (reflexive) interpretations (no “grooming middles”, cf.
Kemmer 1993). The fact that processes implying subject-object
coreference are not expressed by this form of the transitive verb in Kryz
has led us to discard the term ‘middle’ in favour of detransitive voice. We
also discard a global appellation ‘Medio-Passive’, because a couple of
detransitivized verbs have an antipassive interpretation.
8
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1.6. Morphology of intransitive vs transitive verbs
Almost all of the 70 synchronically underived intransitive verbs show on
their imperfective verb stem one of three allomorphs of the same suffix ar/-al/-an.
ˤa-rç’ar- ‘PV- IPF.enter.’
ke-rxhar- ‘PV- IPF.move’
la-lsal- ‘PV- IPF.turn’
ha-ngvan- ‘PV-IPF.run’
Conversely, the 130 transitive synthetic verbs never show these
suffixes. They are not overtly marked as transitive, but their imperfective
forms should be considered zero-marked for transitivity, given the absence
of the characteristic intransitive suffixation:
ya-r-t’- ‘PV-IPF-cut’
yi-r-q- ‘PV-IPF-catch’
ki-l-t’- ‘PV-IPF-yoke’
yi-n-gh- ‘PV-IPF-pull’
Overt marking of intransitivity is not to be found on perfective forms of
underived intransitive verbs, which are thus indistinguishable from
transitive perfectives:
intransitive verbs, PF
ˤa-ç’- ‘PV-enter.PF’
ke-xh-r- ‘PV-move-PF’
la-s-l- ‘PV-turn-PF’
ha<r>gu-n- ‘PV<M>run.PF’
cf. transitive verbs, PF
ya-t’- (PV-cut.PF’
yi-q-r- ‘PV-catch-PF’
ki-t’-l- ‘PV-yoke-PF’
yi-gh-n- ‘PV-pull-PF’
Because of the general omissibility of overt argument NPs, transitive
and intransitive predicates are hard to distinguish in the perfective tenses.
Allowance of explicit ergative arguments is the only criterion available,
and no distinction can be drawn by means of syntactic tests between a
Single argument construction and a transitive construction in which the
Agent is left out.
1.7. Detransitive morphology on transitive roots
Transitive verbs may be classified into two groups according to whether
they allow morphological detransitivization. When available, detransitive
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9
voice is formed synthetically in the imperfective through addition of the
morpheme -aR- to the right of the verbal root; on most but not all verbs, a
sonorant imperfective aspect-marker occurs before the root; R is thus – in
the dialect described here7 – always a duplicate of this pre-root aspectmarker:
‘catch’
‘pull’
‘yoke’
transitive IPF =>
yi-r-qyi-n-ghki-l-t’-
detransitive IPF
yi-r-q-aryi-n-gh-anki-l-t’-al-
The perfective is formed analytically with the auxiliary xhiyi ‘become’
(perfective participle) and a verbal adjective derived from the new
imperfective detransitive stem:
‘catch’
‘pull’
‘yoke’
detransitive IPF
yirqaryinghankilt’al-
detransitive PF
yirqar-a xhiyi
yinghan-a xhiyi
kilt’al-a xhiyi
1.8. Prototypical transitive verbs
Most synthetic transitive verbs allow a synthetic detransitive derivation
maintaining the Patient, with Agent-backgrounding semantics –
‘anticausative’ or ‘passive’ – given an appropriate context which usually
implies modal or aspectual nuances. These forms are very marked, and in
fact they are rare in narrative and everyday speech.
As appears from this sample, transitive verbs with passive voice share
prototypical transitive (voluntary Agent, Patient-transforming) semantics:
PF
ğaxur-
IPF
ğarxv-
‘knead’
na<d>q’un-
nanq’v-
‘churn’
çaukva-
çauk(vats’)-
‘mix’
7
detransitive participles
ğarx-ar-i
ğarxvara xhiyi
nanq’v-an-i
nanq’vana xhiyi
çaukv-ar-i
From the village of Alik; other dialects can have different sonorants, for
instance in the stem yi-l-kan- ‘remain.IPF’ attested in Jek, while the
corresponding form is inkan in Alik. External evidence shows that the
reduplicative morphology is an innovation of Alik.
10
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raxva-
raux(ats’)-
‘shave’
reuha-
reuh-(ats’)-
‘grind’
yixha-
yixh(ats’)-
‘harvest’
yiza-
yiz-(ats’-)i
‘plough’
çaukvara xhiyi
raxv-ar-i
raxvara xhiyi
reuh-ar-i
reuhara xhiyi
yixhar-i
yixhara xhiyi
yizar-i
yizara xhiyi
In contrast with English, in Kryz the Agent cannot be expressed as an
oblique NP, a frequent feature of passives cross-linguistically, as in the
following transformation (here the passive imperfective stem is not derived
from the transitive one):
(17)
har
every
cumˤa-ca
friday-IN
Hazratbaba.ci-r
lu
Hazre(?)tbaba-ERG this
kel
lamb
kura-ts’-ryu-ni
slay-IPF-PRS.F-PAST
‘Every Friday Saint Baba would sacrifice this lamb.’
(18)
har
every
cumˤa-ca
friday-IN
lu
this
kel
lamb
kurar-yu-ni
slay.DETR-PRS.F-PAST
‘This lamb was sacrificed every Friday.’
The detransitive construction in Kryz thus complies with Kazenin’s
(2001) or Comrie’s (2008) criteria for passive voice:
- it is morphologically heavier, usually derived from the active;
- the construction is “less frequent, functionally specialized, not fully
productive” (Haspelmath, 1990).
- the new subject is not a semantic Agent;
- the semantic role of the maintained argument does not change. In
the case of a language with ergative case marking like Kryz, the
unmarked absolutive case of the maintained Patient is also retained.
1.9. Transitive verbs lacking a detransitive form
Three semantically coherent classes of verbs systematically lack a
detransitive form: 1) verbs of in- or ex-corporation; 2) verbs of exchange
and social interaction; 3) transitive verbs of motion (for which see farther
below). The following lists are exhaustive:
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Verbs of in- or ex-corporation8
ˤadğulic
ç’udxunic
ğitnic
ç’ağvayc
k’isic
ğadgunic
ğaçayc
ğahayc
xuyic
‘swallow’
‘suck’
‘drink in one draught’
‘gnaw’
‘bite’
‘put on (trousers)’
‘vomit’
‘extract; hatch’
‘give birth’
11
Verbs of social interaction
ğaynic
vaxhayc
aqayc
lipic
‘take, buy’
‘borrow’
‘keep’
‘say’
These verbs are not prototypical transitive verbs. The first class (social
interactions) implies two Agentive participants, and the event presents
semantic similarities with reciprocal actions, which cannot be deactivised.
In the second class the Agent is strongly affected by the event. Such nonprototypical features account for the restriction on passivisation we
observe here, as the main functions of the passive (backgrounding of the
Agent and foregrounding of the Patient) make no sense with these verbs.
Less expected is the fact that among the Kryz transitive roots which do
not allow valency decrease, we also find the whole semantic class of verbs
denoting motion events. One motivation for their failure to allow
detransitivation may be the non-typically agentive role implied by
‘transportation’ situations: the Patient is not forcibly transformed or
internally affected, and keeps a good deal of agentivity if it is animate.
According to this principle, radical agent backgrounding in a process
meaning ‘bring’ is expressed by using the intransitive counterpart meaning
‘to go’, like in the following example :
(19)
mahraka.c-a
contest-IN
va-xhr-i
PV-come.together-PART
aba
presents.for.musicians
‘Gifts gathered at the wedding party.’
Another – lexical – motivation is the fact that these roots neatly match a
class of intransitive motion verbs which do not form causative
constructions with ‘do’, unlike the majority of Kryz intransitives: they pair
up with the corresponding transitive roots. Any valency-changing
construction is superfluous for both classes, a form of symbiosis which
makes this suppletive subsystem particularly economical:
8
For a similar restriction, see A. Guillaume’s article in this volume. As for
‘eat’ and ‘drink’ verbs see below.
12
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Table 9. Verbs lacking detransitive forms (2): suppletive motion verbs
ˤağayc ‘bring’
ˤaqric ‘take down’
ˤaˤayc ‘push into’
aska-yc ‘put (down)’
ğağayc ‘create’
ğaqric, ğaˤayc ‘take, push out’
ğeˤayc ‘build’
ğiğayc ‘turn, intr.’
keˤayc ‘push under’
vaˤayc ‘push aside’
vağayc ‘gather, tr.’
yaˤayc ‘push aside’
yaqric ‘take over’
yatric ‘leave’
ˤaç’ic, ˤarfic ‘enter, go down’
ˤaxhric ‘come (down)’
ğuq’ric ‘touch, intr.’
ˤaç’ic, ğadfic ‘go out, escape’
ğaxhric ‘appear’
ğidfic ‘rise’
ğixhric ‘turn, intr., live’
keç’ic ‘go under’, kedfic ‘pass under’
vaç’ric, vadfic ‘turn from’
vaxhric ‘gather, intr.’
yadfic ‘stray’
yaç’ic ‘pass, cross’
idknic ‘remain’
Passive interpretation and additional values
The passive forms of transitive verbs are usually not to be understood as a
mere paraphrase of the non-derived, transitive clause: not only do they
downgrade the Agent and topicalize the Patient but their modal and
aspectual parameters are modified. This section examines these associated
effects. We found passives of transitive verbs either with habitual and
deontic value in the imperfective, or with state-focusing (resultative) value
in the perfective:
(20)
ğul
corn
ambar.c-a
pent-IN
(a) va-nsan-e
PV-weigh.DETR-PRS
/ (b) va-nsan-a
PV-weigh.DETR-A
xhi-yic
be-AOR.N
‘The grain is usually / has been weighed in the barn: (1) non-referential / (2)
referential.’
1.10. Deontic and Habitual meaning of the imperfective passive
Collective or typically feminine chores culturally entail the de-individualization of the
agent, and the generic or non-referential (tabooed) status of the agent is marked
morphologically by the detransitivized verb form:
(21)
cindir-a
worn-a
q’vahac-ci
sock-GEN
q’an
bottom
ke-rt’ar-e
PV-sew.DETR-PRS
‘When the bottom of a sock is worn out, one patches it.’
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(22)
riki
yard
yiğğaciğ
every.day
13
va-rçar-e
PV-sweep.DETR-PRS
‘The yard is swept every day.’
There are many examples in proverbs in the ‘eventual’ mood (covering
both habitual events and feebly asserted future predictions, cf. Authier
2009):
(23)
irac
blood
irca-zina
zimar-da-d
blood-INSTR wash.DETR-NegEVT-N
‘One does not wash away blood with blood.’ (Prov.)
(24)
ˤu-du-fa
riki
door
PV-Neg-close.PF(PART)
ğe-t’ar-da-d
PV-strike.DETR-NegEVT-N
‘An open door is not knocked at.’ (Prov.)
(25)
ˤayal.ci-z
child-DAT
d-i ar-i
Neg-cry.IPF-PART
maxar
breast.F
vuts’ar-da-b
give.DETR-NegEVT-F
‘A child who does not cry is not given the breast.’ (Prov.)
A debitive nuance can also be present in many cases:
(26)
ˤayal
child
q’usi.c-a
cradle-IN
ˤa-lt’al-e
/ ği-rqar-e
PV-bind.DETR-PRS
PV-hold.on.DETR-PRS
‘The child is (= should be) firmly tied up / held in the cradle.’
(27)
heyvanat
cattle
yif.un-a
night-IN
ˤa-rğvar-e
q’acil-a
everyday
PV-push.in.DETR-PRS
‘Cattle is / has to be penned during the night.’
(28)
ğurux.c-aˤar
garden-INEL
barkan-bi
horse-PL
hu-rt’ar-e
PV-expel.DETR-PRS
‘Horses should be banned from gardens.’
These habitual and deontic values are present on the overwhelming
majority of passive forms; but passive voice can also be found when the
precise Agent of an action is unknown in the context. [A generic
interpretation is then preferred??], especially in future time-reference:
(29)
a-n-iz
3-H-DAT
ˤark’a
heavy
caza
punishment
vuts’ar-iya
give.DETR-FUT
‘He will be given a severe punishment.’
14
Erreur ! Style non défini.
1.11. Resultative meaning of the perfective passive
While imperfective passive forms have habitual and deontic readings, the
corresponding perfective forms have a resultative reading. Not the event
itself but the resulting state is described. This is a way to convey the fact
that the event was not witnessed by the speaker:
(30)
riki
door
cigaç-a
place-IN
ˤa-rt’ar-a
PV-fit.in.DETR-A
xhi-yic
be-AOR.N
‘The door has been put back in place.’
(31)
dauğa
doogh
q’um-uğ
ground-SUPER
ğva-xvar-a
PV.F-pour.DETR-A
xhi-d-u
be-AOR-F
‘Doogh has been spilt on the ground.’
(32)
zin
1
lu
this
ya .in-iz
year-DAT
karta
until
hiçvaxt
never
atar-a
beat.DETR-A
xhi-de-r
be-NEGPERF-M
‘Right up to my current age, I have never been beaten up.’
1.12. Stylistic variation?
The passive marking of verbs is often optional, and passive forms can
coexist in the same text as unmarked active forms. In the following text,
the first few forms are passive, and set the general ‘deontic’ tone of the
whole passage. Most forms later in the passage are left unmarked, probably
because active forms are ‘lighter’ and systematic passive-marking would
be redundant (recall that the Agent can also be omitted in transitive
constructions):
(33)
vul
sina
q’va-d safar vu-dar-yu
ewe year.IN two-N
time
PV-shear.DETR-PRS.F
ğarayaz-ca
vudar-i
yis.a-ğar
yapağu
li-re
springtime-IN PV.shear.DETR-PART wool-SUPEL spring.wool say-PRS
u-c-kar
ği-uxvar-a
xhi-yi
xiy-ar-kar
q’vahac xirats’-re
3-nH-SUBEL PV-spin.DETR-A be.PF-PART thread-PL-SUBEL sock
knit-PRS
ic-kar
an xi-xar-a
xhi-yi
ay-ri
SELFF-SUBEL
AN
RED-plait.DETR-A
be.PF-PART thing-PL
mahkam
are;
çixeˤan yis
yanxuc-a
vudats’-ryu
solid
be-PRS after-a
wool.F autumn-IN shear-PRS.F
lu
safar vu-da
yis
ğit
a-re
PV-shear.PF(PART)
wool.F few be-PRS
this time
u-c-kar
ği-ux-i
xiy
davam-suz
i-u-ryu
3-nH-SUBEL PV-spin-PART thread.F continuity-without be-F-PRS.F
The wool of the sheep is shorn (PASS) twice a year. The wool shorn (PASS)
in spring is called ‘yapaghu’. With the spun (PASS) threads, one knits
Erreur ! Style non défini.
15
(ACT) socks, and objects knitted (PASS) from them are solid. The second
wool is collected (ACT) in the autumn; This time the wool shorn (ACT) is
not abundant; the thread spun (ACT) from it does not hold.
Note also that morphologically active sequential converbs, which
usually imply coreferent subject in the linked clauses, can be followed by a
passive form, as in the next example:
(34)
gugarti
greens
yi-t’a-ci
PV-cut-SEQ
har
every
adami-c
bu q’ab.ci-ğ
person-GEN plate-SUPER
ği-yts’ar-e
PV-pour.DETR-PRS
‘The salad is cut and served on everyone’s plate.’
Kibrik (1997) refers to this property of sequential converbs in his
statement that Daghestanian languages generally lack any clear ‘syntactic
pivot’ (cf. Dixon 1994). But in Kryz at least imperfective stems show
diathetic distinctions which point to pivot properties of the accusative type.
Passive imperfective predicates promote Patients to the status of syntactic
subjects. In the following example, coreference of subjects would not have
been obtained if the imperfective coordinating converb heading the first
clause had been kept in the active unmarked voice :
(35) lu
this
ğuyi
well
yiğğaciğ
everyday
ğvat’-ar-a,
PV.dig-DETR-Manner
halu
this
ˤaranxhin-a
depth-IN
xhi-cu
be-PRF.F
‘This well being dug every day, it became this deep.’
1.13. Orientation of relative participles
The participles found in Daghestanian languages are ‘contextually
oriented’ (Haspelmath, 1994) through instantiation of their arguments
which retain ergatively aligned case marking in relative clauses. In (),
Patient-orientation is indicated by ergative marking on an NP and the
absence of an absolutive NP in the relative clause; in (), Agent-orientation
is inferred from the absence of an ergative-marked NP:
(36)
xinib.ci-r
woman-ERG
hala
yet
da-b-cir-i
Neg-F-bake.PF-PART
xa ul
stew.F
‘the stew that the woman has not yet cooked’
(37) hala
yet
xa ul
stew.F
da-b-cir-i
Neg-F-bake.PF-PART
xinib
woman
‘the woman who has not yet cooked the stew’
16
Erreur ! Style non défini.
But Kryz uses also derived, specifically negative passive participles,
made up of a transparently detransitive form (A is for verbal Adjective)
and the auxiliary ‘be(-come)’. These analytic forms imply a nuance of
possibility:
(38) a)
b)
ğa-da-xi
PV-NEG-knead.PPF
ğa-rxar-a da-xha
PV-knead.DETR-A NEG-be.PPF
xamir-bekar
dough-PL.SUBEL
fuv
bread
cirar-de-d
bake.DETR-NEGPRS-N
‘Bread made of unleavened dough does not bake.’
(39)
a)
b)
reudeuha
NEG.grind.PPF
reuhar-a dauxha
grind.DETR-A Neg.be. PPF
q’el
salt
sifra.c-a
table-IN
amasku !
PV-PROH-put
‘Do not put unground salt on the table!’
(40)
a)
b)
ğa-dauxvi
PV-NEG.knead.PPF
ğa-rxvar-a dauxha
PV-F.knead.DETR-A NEG.F.be.PPF
xamir.ci-kar
dough-SUBEL
fu
bread
a-dad
be- NEGDEB
‘Dough does not make bread unless it is kneaded.’
In some instances, the choice of a passive participle seems to imply
habitual aspect:
(41)
ğeˤ
today
azar-i
(N)milk.DETR-PRT
yux
ğun i-z
milk(N) neighbour-DAT
vuts’-iya
give-FUT(N)
zin
1
‘The milk milked by the woman (every day).’[This doesn’t seem to be the
right translation here. And why (N)milk the first time and milk(N) the
second time?]
(42) xinib.ci-r
woman-ERG
v-az-i
F-milk.IPF-PRT
zir
cow.G
yux
milk(N)
‘The milk of the cow which the woman milks.’
A degree of Agent-orientedness inherent in imperfective participles is
probably the reason why, in the following example, a specifically passive
participle has to be used, because the active participle would be Agentoriented and prevent recovery of the dative semantic role for the head:
(43)
caza
punishment
*vu-ts’-i /
give-IPF-PRT
vuts’ar-i
give.DETR-PRT
adami
person
Erreur ! Style non défini.
17
‘The man who is given a punishment.’
1.14. Preliminary conclusion on the Kryz passive voice
The passive voice is restricted to Kryz among the Daghestanian
languages, which more commonly have some derivations with
anticausative or antipassive readings. The passive reading probably became
prevalent only recently, under the influence of Azerbaijani: it first
appeared with verbs for which the event encoded cannot come about
without an external causer (i.e. which are semantically Agent-oriented, cf.
Haspelmath 1993) and as a result cannot be cast in the anticausative (with
a Patient-oriented meaning component), and then it became an option with
most other transitive verbs in Kryz.
The main Kryz passive-forming device is formally linked to
imperfective aspect, with either habitual nuance or deontic modality. The
perfective form is analytically derived from the imperfective, but in
synchrony, perfective periphrastic passive forms occur just as often in texts
as imperfective ones, because they offer interesting new aspectual nuances
(inceptive or resultative).
Anticausative and antipassive readings
More ‘authentic’ or archaic than the passive use appear to be those
cases to which we now turn, in which the detransitive is used as an
anticausative voice (associated with Patient-oriented meaning), or as an
antipassive (with a few Agent-oriented verbs like ‘eat’).
1.15. Anticausative
The same detransitive morphology is used with a number of other verbs
in contexts in which the Agent is not only backgrounded, but semantically
suppressed, that is with anticausative value, for instance:
PF
IPF
ugv-a-
ugv-(a-ts’)-
‘burn’
cir-a-
cira-ts’-
‘cook’
ˤuf-a-
ˤuf-(a-ts’)
‘close’
DETR PF & masdar[again, xhiyi or
xhiyic?]
ugv-arugvara xhiyi
cirar-i
cirara xhiyic
ˤufar-i
18
Erreur ! Style non défini.
aku-r-
arkv-
‘trim’
ğet-a-
ğet-
surh-a-
suç- /
sudha-ts’-
‘beat
(carpet)’
‘drag’
ˤufara xhiyic
arkvar-i
arkvara xhiyic
ğetar-i
ğetara xhiyic
surhar-i
surhara xhiyic
When the detransitive derivation is applied to these verbs/events, only
one participant remains in the situation. Unlike in the passive, where a nonexpressed agent is implicit, here the agent is conceptually removed, and the
event is presented as spontaneous, often – but not always – with significant
semantic modification of the verb. The semantic role of the absolutive
argument is also retained in the anticausative construction, but note that
two distinct interpretations may coexist, with or without an Agent:
(44)
zang
bell
ğe-rt’ar-a
PV-strike.DETR-A
xhi-yic-zina
be-MSD-INSTR
duz
right
k’ul.c-a
house-IN
ha-r-gun-d
PV-M-run-AOR.M
‘The bell a) (passive) was rung b) (anticausative) rang, and he ran home.’
While the passive interpretation of detransitive forms is slightly more
prevalent in narrative texts, the anticausative or ‘spontaneous’ meaning is
found in idiomatic and obviously old expressions:
(45)
ç’ebic
rain
ği-yts’ar-e
PV-pour.DETR-PRS
‘The rain is pouring / *starts to pour.’
(46)
palas
carpet
ğe-tar-e
PV-beat.DETR-PRS
‘The carpet slaps / *starts to slap (in the wind).’
Contrary to what we noted for the passive use, the process shows no
aspectual (habitual) or modal (deontic) semantic bias:
a-n
(47) zin
1(ERG) 3-HG
kil.a-k
rib
çu-nq’v-unyu
arm-SUB needle(A) PV-F-stick-PRS.F
‘I stick a needle in my arm.’
(48) za
1.G
kil.a-k
arm-SUB
rib
çu-nq’van-yu
needle(F) PV-F-stick.DETR-PRS.F
‘A needle sticks itself in my arm.’
Erreur ! Style non défini.
19
1.16. Technical spontaneous meaning
This drift of the semantic role very often results in a technical sense for the
anticausative verb. The derived form of ‘catch’ means either ‘get caught
(by the police, passive interpretation)’ or ‘coagulate, close’ (anticausative):
(49)
yux
milk
yi-rqar-e
PV-catch.DETR-PRS
‘The milk “catches” = turns to cheese.’
(50)
yif
night
yi-rqar-e
PV-catch.DETR-PRS
(51)
‘Night falls.’
varağ
sun.F
yurqar-yu
PV.F.catch.DETR-PRS.F
‘The sun is eclipsed’
1.17. Inceptive or resultative perfective anticausatives
Perfective anticausatives usually receive an aspectual inchoative or (to
avoid confusion) inceptive interpretation (contrast this with the resultative
meaning of passive perfectives):
(52
ç’ebic
rain
ği-yts’ar-a
PV-put.on.DETR-A
xhi-yic
be-AOR.N
‘The rain started to pour.’
(53)
palas
carpet
ğe-tar-a
PV-beat.DETR-A
xhi-yic
be-AOR.N
‘The carpet started to slap (in the wind).’
(54)
yux
milk
yi-rqar-a
PV-catch.DETR-A
xhi-yic
be-AOR.N
‘The milk turned to cheese.’
Much rarer is the resultative reading, with the auxiliary in the perfect
tense:
(55) za
1.G
galu
throat
yi-rqar-a
PV-catch.DETR-A
xhi-ca
be-PRF
‘My throat is blocked.’
1.18. Magic autocausative
Detransitive forms can be used in magical contexts to emphasize the unnatural absence of
the expected, supposedly necessary Agent:
20
Erreur ! Style non défini.
(56) a-c-iz
3-nH-DAT
amr
order.F
v-ar-izmaˤan
F-do-Before
k’ul
room.F
va-rçaryu-ni
PV-sweep.DETR-PRS.F-PAST
‘(She had a magic ring:) as soon as she would order it, the room was swept.’
(57)
div-ci
demon-GEN
k’ul.c-a
house-IN
yis
wool
icic-iğan
ğa-har-e-ni
SELFF(E)SELFF-EQU
PV-card.DETR-PRS-PAST
‘In the house of the demon, the wool would card itself.’
The analytic perfective detransitive form serves also to express
imperative modality with spontaneous and inceptive meaning. For instance
in addressing his own instrument, a bard says:
(58)
ça-rt’ar-a
PV-strike.DETR-A
sak,
be.IMP
ay
Oh
saz !
lute
‘Start playing, my lute!’
1.19. Instantiation of the semantic role of ‘force’
While the passive interpretation, which preserves semantic roles, does not
allow any oblique expression of the backgrounded agent, the anticausative,
semantically intransitive interpretation of the detransitive voice is
compatible with the expression of an argument in the semantic role of
‘force’. If this force is external, it is given in the subelative case, and
normally appears in initial position:
(59)
(kulak.ci-kar)
wind-SUBEL
ˤu-f-ar-a
riki
door
PV-close- DETR-A
xhi-yic
be-AOR.N
‘The door was closed by the wind.’
(60)
(varağ.ci-kar)
sun-SUBEL
za
1.GEN
ˤiç
skin
ugv-ar-a
burn-DETR-A
xhi-yic
be-AOR.N
‘My skin was burned by the sun.’
The corresponding transitive clauses are not ungrammatical, but seem
awkward to speakers:
(61) ? kulak.ci-r
wind-ERG
riki
door
ˤu-fa-c
PV-close-AOR.N
‘The wind closed the door.’
(62)
? varağ.ci-r
sun-ERG
za
1.GEN
‘The sun burned my skin’
ˤiç
skin
ugva-c
burn-AOR.N
Erreur ! Style non défini.
21
A force affecting the subject internally may be expressed in the
sublocative case in the following example (technical):
(63)
ğeˤ
today
vun
2
yiğ-in.aˤar
day-INEL
sehirçi
magical
azar.ci-k
illness-SUB
yi-rqar-iya-vun
PV-catch.DETR-FUT-2
‘From today, you will be affected with a magical disease.’
1.20. Anticausative imperfectives & labile perfectives
A couple of transitive verbs seem to distinguish two perfective intransitive
forms, one unmarked – ‘labile’ – for the anticausative reading, the other,
derived, for the passive interpretation:
PF participles
çu<d>q’un-i
/ passive: çunq’van-a xhiyi
yat’-i
/ passive: yat’-ar-a xhiyi
(64) a)
b)
rib
needle
rib
needle
halav.ci-k
dress-SUB
halav.ci-k
dress-SUB
stick, intr.
stick, tr.
cut, intr.
cut, tr.
IPF participles
yart’-ar -i
yat’-i
yart’-ar -i
yat’-i
çu-b-q’un-du
PV-F-stick.AOR.F
çu-nq’van-a
PV-stick.DETR-A
xhi-du
be-AOR .F
a) ‘The needle has stuck in her dress.’ b) ‘The needle has been stuck (by
someone) in her dress.’
(65)
a-n-ir
rib
3-H-ERG needle
halav.ci-k
dress-SUB
çi-b-q’un-du
PV-F-stick-AOR .F
‘He stuck the thorn[needle?] in her dress.’
(66)
ç’ebic
rain
ya-rt’ar-e
PV-cut.DETR-PRS
‘The rain stops.’
(67)
xhad
water
yiğ.in-a
day-IN
sa-d
one-N
saˤat
hour
ya-rt’ar-e
PV-cut.DETR-PRS
‘The water is cut off / stops for one hour a day.’
(68)
a-n-ir
3-H-ERG
xhad
water
ya-t’-ic
PV-cut-AOR.N
‘He has cut off the water.’
(69
xhad
water
ya-t’-ic
/ ya-rt’ar-a
PV-cut(labile)-AOR.N
PV-cut.DETR-A
xhi-yic
be-AOR.N
22
Erreur ! Style non défini.
‘The water has stopped / has been cut off.’
(70)
va
2.G
siy-ğar
mouth-SUPEL
yux-a
milk-GEN
neˤ
smell
ya-t’-de-d
PV-cut-NEGPERF-N
‘You still have the smell of milk on your mouth.’
Three such verbs refering to destruction processes have no passive
interpretation, and show detransitive (strictly anticausative) derivation in
the imperfective only. The only perfective form is labile:
PF
‘cut’ intr.
PIPF
ya-r-t’-ar-
‘cut’ tr.
ya-r-t’-
‘break, intr.’
qaç-ar-
‘break’ tr.
qaç-
‘die’
riq’-ar-
‘kill’
riq’-
yat’- <
qaça- <
q’ay- <
1.21. Antipassive with ‘eat’, ‘drink’, and other verbs
The detransitive forms of the two verbs ‘eat’ and ‘drink’ are ambiguous and can be
interpreted as both Patient- or Agent-preserving, i.e. as anticausative or (more usually) as
antipassive. Passive use is found in gnomic and Agent-backgrounding contexts:
(71) lem-ird
donkey-GEN
yak
meat
ugval-de-d,
eat.DETR-NegPRS-N
yux
milk
ği-ğar-de-d
RED-drink.DETR-NegPRS-N
‘The meat of the donkey is not eaten, nor is its milk drunk.’
(72) ugval-a
daxha
eat.DETR-A Neg-be.PF(PART)
yak
meat
xvar-imez
dog-PL.DAT
sa-ˤa-c
PV-throw-AOR.N
‘The meat which was not eaten has been thrown to the dogs.’
(73) dauğa
doogh
ği-ğar-a
RED-drink.DETR-A
xhi-d-u
be-AOR-F
‘The doogh has been drunk.’
Antipassive use has a technical flavour:
(74) u-be-k
ibe
bala-yar
ği-ğar-e
Erreur ! Style non défini.
3-NPL-SUB
child-PL
SELFNPLG
23
RED-drink.DETR-PRS
‘Their foals drink under them.’
(75)
vul-bi
ewe-PL
ugval-ciz…
eat.DETR-Simul
‘While the sheep were grazing…’
The perfective antipassive is inceptive (there is no passive reading of
the perfective form of these verbs):
(76) vul-bi
ewe-PL
maˤan
again
halu
this
huq’-a
meadow-IN
ugval-a
eat.DETR-A
xhi-yic
be-AOR.N
‘The sheep started to graze in the meadow again.’
(77) leh-ar
calf-PL
ği-ğar-a
RED-drink.DETR-A
xhi-yic
be-AOR.N
‘The calves have started to drink.’
Other spontaneous or quasi-reflexive (non-passive) readings of the
detransitive voice are also found, which preserve non-controlling Agents
such as animals or the radio, in processes involving the body or voice:
(78)
hava-yar
air-PL
ghira
warm
xhi-yic-zina
be-MSD-INSTR
kis-ar
hen-PL
ği-nghan-e
PV-lay.DETR-PRS
‘As soon as the weather becomes warm, the hens start laying eggs.’
(79) pirennik
radioset
uxvar-e
recite.DETR-PRS
/
uxvar-a
recite.DETR-A
xhi-yic
be-AOR.N
‘The radio is on / started to play.’
(80)
a) vul-be-r
ewe-PL-ERG
ib-ib
ça-ç-re =
SELFNPL(E)-SELFNPL
PV-soil-PRS
b) vul-bi
ewe-PL
‘Sheep get dirty.’
Table 13. Detransitive verb forms with antipassive reading
PF
ğira‘drink’
IPF tr.
ğiğ-
u(gu)la‘eat’
ğighn‘lay (an) egg(s)’
ul(ats’)ğingh-
DETR (PIPF & Masdar)
ğiğar- / ğiğara xhiyi1) ‘be drinkable;
2) ‘start / be made to drink’
ugval- / ugvala xhiyi1) ‘be edible’ ; 2) ‘pasture’
ğinghanğinghana xhiyi-
ça-rhar-e
PV-soil.DETR-PRS
24
Erreur ! Style non défini.
çaha‘soil’
uxva‘read, sing’
çaçuxv-(ats’)-
çarharçarhara xhiyiuxvar-i
uxvara xhiyi-
This tripartite morphology, with a ‘labile’ perfective form opposed to
the imperfective transitive/detransitive pair, certainly reflects an archaic
state of the language, as parallels from other Daghestanian languages of
non-Lezgic branches will now show.
Daghestanian origins of the detransitive voice
How do we account for the fact that the main – passive – use of the suffix
-aR- in Kryz cannot be found in any other Daghestanian language? The
answer to this question is only partially accessible through internal
reconstruction, and we have to turn to external clues, from distant relatives
of Kryz. The same detransitive marker seems to be attested as such in
nearly all branches of the Daghestanian family, and although these
languages have no passive constructions, they do have other detransitive
voices with comparable morphology.
1.22. Tsezic, Avar and Dargi detransitives
In other branches of the Daghestanian family, we find only a couple of
instances of a (non-productive) detransitive voice provided by recent
grammatical descriptions of Tsezic languages (and one Dargic language),
and traces of the same phenomenon in Avar. Avar is well known for having
derived intransitive verbs with ‘iterative’ or ‘durative’ meaning, which
show the same association of –a+R:
Table 15. Transitive and iterative detransitive stems in Avar (Charachidzé 1982)
‘mow’ :
‘sew’ :
‘slay’ :
‘sting’ :
‘drink’ :
‘tell’ :
‘praise’ :
()
he-sl
b-ec-ize
b-uq’-ize
qver-ize
as-ine
heq’e-ze
b-ic-ize
b-ecc-ize
he-sda
‘busy oneself with mowing’ :
‘busy oneself with sewing’ :
‘slay cattle for the winter’ :
‘dance, frolic’ :
‘busy oneself with drinking’ :
‘reproach’ :
‘praise oneself’ :
b-ic-anila
50
tumen
w-ec-ar-ize
w-uq’-ar-ize
qveqar -ize
w-as-and-ize
heq’old-ize
bic-ard-ize
v-ecc-ar-ize
b-it’-i
Erreur ! Style non défini.
this-f/n.erg
this-m.loc
n-tell-pstevid
50
toman
25
n-send-msd
‘She told him about the 50 tomans.’
(
ros
husband
he-lde
this-f/n.lat
kve
bad
bicard-anila
reproach-pstevid
‘The husband reproached her bitterly.’
Instances of the detransitivation with reflexive interpretation are rare:
Tsez (Comrie 2000) has an antipassive with a morpheme –na-:
()
Pat’aa
uji
Fatima.ERG
boy.ABS(M) (M)wash-PRS
esa-yxo
‘Fatima washes the boy.’
()
Pat’i
ker-aa
Fatima.ABS(F) river-IN
y-esa-na-yxo
F-wash-DETR-PRS
‘Fatima does the laundry in the river.’
Bezhta (van den Berg 2005, quoting Dr. Majid Khalilov, a native
speaker) has the same detransitivizing derivation with a morpheme –la:, by
which some verbs (ex.???) become antipassive (with the original
absolutive-marked object expressed in the instrumental case in the new
derived construction), while others lose any ability to express a Patientive
argument. Note the aspectual shift in the English translation:
()
öjdi
qarandi
boy.ERG hole.ABS(N)
y-ö:t’ö-yö
N-dig-PST
‘The boy dug the hole.’
()
öjö
boy.ABS(M)
qarandi-yad
hole-INSTR
ö:t’ö-lä:-yo
(M)-dig-DETR-PST
‘The boy was digging at the hole.’
()
kid-ba
girl-ERG
häk’ä
boots
tl’eq’e-yo
sew-PST
‘The girl sewed boots.’
()
kid
tl’eq’e-laa-yo
26
Erreur ! Style non défini.
girl(ABS) sew-DETR-PST
‘The girl was sewing.’
Hunzib (van den Berg 1994) is even more interesting in that it shows
two possible interpretations of the morpheme –la:-, antipassive and
anticausative:
()
oslul
he.erg
bex
ko e
grass mow
‘He mows the grass.’
()
eg
he.ABS
ko e-laa
mow-DETR
‘He mows (often, usually).’
()
iyul
mother.ERG
q’utilaa
trunk.DAT
zinkl’ay
ring(A)
m-utsu-r
A-hide-PST
‘Mother hid the ring in the trunk.’
()
kid
girl
q’utilaa
trunk-DAT
y-utsu-laa-r
F-hide-DETR-PST
‘The girl hid in the trunk.’
Let us recapitulate the detransitive derivations attested in Tsezic:
transitive
Tsez
‘wash’
Bezhta
‘sew’
Bezhta
‘dig’
Hunzib
‘hide’
Hunzib
‘mow’
-esa-
Agent-preserving
: antipassive
-esa-na-
-ö:t’ö-
-ö:t’ö-lä:-
tl’eq’e-
tl’eq’e-laa-
-utsukoše-
Patient-preserving
: anticausative
-utsu-laakoše-laa
Thanks to the excellent description of Sumbatova and Mutalov (2006),
Icari is the best described language of the Dargic branch. Like Kryz, it
systematically marks intransitivity on underived stems as well as on
detransitive (anticausative) stems with the allomorphs –ar-, -al-, -an-:
Erreur ! Style non défini.
‘rot’
PF
IPF
‘break’
PF
IPF
transitive
intransitive
ø
ø
er’-aru’-ar-
elq'wluq'w-
elqw-anluqw-an-
27
Unfortunately, the grammar provides no examples of sentences showing
the possible contexts in which this detransitivation may take place.
Intransitive verbs in Kryz or Icari look like detransitive verb forms with no
corresponding non-derived form, i.e. ‘deponents’ or ‘media tantum’ in the
grammar of classical languages. The great productivity of this derivational
marker in these two languages is probably a recent, parallel phenomenon.
1.23. Lezgic languages and the nominal hypothesis
The detransitive derived stem seems to be relatively old in Kryz itself:
often it is not derived from the transitive imperfective stem currently in
use. Transitive forms seem younger than their detransitive counterparts, as
they contain a recent imperfective morpheme –ts’-:
‘cook’
‘slay’
‘shear’
‘weave’
‘wash’
compare, athematic:
‘tie’
thematic PF
cir-akur-avud-axir-azim-a-
IPF
cira-ts’kura-ts’vuda-ts’xix- / xira-ts’zima-ts’-
DETR. IPF
cir-arkur-arvud-arxir-arzim-ar-
vat’l-
valt’-
valt’-al-
Furthermore, in some instances the detransitive verbal adjective retains
strong gender agreement on the stem, whereas strong forms of agreement
are normally found only on perfective stems:
‘yoke’
PRS.F
kilt’ilyu
AOR.F
ki<b>t’ildu
DETR PRS.F
kilt’al-yu
DETR AOR.F
ki<b>t’ala xhidu
As for the analytic perfective detransitive, this is obviously a recent
creation in Kryz, prompted by the influence of the highly productive
28
Erreur ! Style non défini.
passive found in Azerbaijani. The anticausative voice, with labile
perfective, is certainly older, since the closely related Budugh language
shows no traces of a passive construction, but has a couple of anticausative
imperfective forms directly comparable with those of the corresponding
verbs in Kryz:
Table 19. Budugh detransitive imperfective stems
‘cut’
‘catch’
PF (labile)
ya-t’sı-q-r
IPF
ya-r-t’sı-r-q-
DETR. IPF
yart’-ar
sırq-ar
Tsakhur intransitive verbs and causatives historically deriving from
intransitive verbs or detransitive forms show the same –aR- suffix:
Table 20. Tsakhur detransitive imperfective stems
‘make stand’
‘distribute’
intransitive
ilyozw-ar-
causative :
ilyozw-ar-a’it’-al-a’-
The relationship of the suffix –aR- to imperfective aspect and nominal
(collective) plural markers is obvious in many different branches of the
Daghestanian family. All branches have plurals in -r-, -l-, -n; in
synchrony, Kryz shows that the three sonorants have to be considered
polycategorial plurality/iterative morphemes.
Table 21. Intransitivity, imperfectivity and plurality markers in Kryz
-r-l-n-
nominal plurals
ğub-ri ‘frog-PL’
Ø
xiy-ni ‘thread-PL’
prefixes > IPF aspect
yi-r-qki-l-t’yi-n-gh-
suffixes > intransitivity
ke-rxhar- ‘move.IPF’
la-lsal- ‘turn.IPF’
ha-ngvan- ‘run.IPF’
The detransitivising suffix –aR- is not restricted to verbs. Lezgian has a
few intransitive verbal nouns like zw-er ‘running’ or zw-al ‘boiling’ which
display the same ‘intransitive’ suffix, be it Agent-oriented or Patientoriented. We propose to recognise it also on a substantial set of Kryz nouns
(some of them are also found in Rutul):
Table 22. ‘Detransitive nouns’ in Kryz
-ar
verbal root
ke-xh-r-ic ‘move’
yi-gh-nic ‘draw, pull’
ğa-ç’-ic ‘exit, protrude’
derived noun
xh-ar: ‘wind’
gh-ar: ‘snake’
ç’-ar: ‘overhang’
Erreur ! Style non défini.
-al
a-z-ayc ‘milk’
x-irayc ‘weave’
29
z-ar: ‘cow’ = ‘milch cow, ger. melkende Kuh’
x-al: ‘roof; cobweb’
We may now propose the following diachronic scenario: some of these
intransitive deverbals (participles) came to be used as substantives, while
others never became lexicalised. But the latter, used as predicates with
semantic Patient- or subject-orientation, evolved into anticausative or
antipassive forms, not only preserved in the Southern sub-branch (Kryz
and Budugh) of the Lezgic languages, but also quite well distributed in a
range of languages belonging to other branches. The last stage of this
evolution in Lezgic is the Kryz passive use of this common Daghestanian
detransitive voice (for the evolution of anticausative into passive markers,
see for instance Haspelmath 1990).
Conclusion
One of the most striking features of Kryz verbal morphology is the
systematic marking of intransitivity in the subsystem of imperfective
forms. Intransitivity is marked in the same way on non-derived
imperfective intransitives, and on both imperfective and perfective derived
detransitive verb forms. Two hypotheses can account for this: either
intransitive verbs are derived forms which in the course of time have lost
their original transitive counterpart (very much like the well-known
‘deponent verbs’ in Latin), or there was once a sufficiently productive
detransitive derivation pattern marked by the suffix –aR-, and this
productive suffix progressively extended to all intransitives in Kryz,
including originally non-derived roots. We consider the latter the more
likely.
Detransitivizing voices are not otherwise attested in the Lezgic branch
of Daghestanian languages – with the exception of a few traces in Budugh,
closely related to Kryz – but we may infer that it is an archaic feature
retained from Proto-Daghestanian, because there are unmistakable cognate
formants in some languages belonging to other branches of the family and
only remotely related to Kryz: their morphology shares obvious
resemblances in phonological shape.
The Kryz passive has a habitual and generally stative interpretation –
this is also a typical property of antipassives, and indeed, other
Daghestanian detransitive voices are not passive but antipassive in
30
Erreur ! Style non défini.
function. All these Daghestanian detransitive voices are highly restricted in
their use, even in Kryz, and they have only been brought to light by recent
descriptions based on original texts. They are rare overall in the
Daghestanian family, and the few instances are scattered across various
branches of the family, meaning that a contact explanation is not likely.
We therefore believe that this is a recessive feature inherited from ProtoDaghestanian morphology.
Abbreviations
-a
1
2
3
ABS
AD
ADEL
ADR
ALL
AOR
APUD
APUDEL
CAUS
DAT
DEB
DIR
EL
EQU
ERG
EVT
F
FUT
GEN
attribute
1st singular
2nd singular
3rd singular
absolutive
adlocative
adelative
adressative
allative
aorist, on a PF stem
apudlocative
apudelative
causative
dative
debitive
directive
elative case
equative
ergative
‘eventual mood’, on a IPF stem
singular
human
female,
animals, plants and some
animates
future
genitive
H
IF
IMP
IN
INT
ITR
IPF
MSD
NEG
nH
notN
OPT
PF
PL
PPF
PRF
PRS
PRT
PV
SEQ
SUB
SUBEL
SUPEL
SUPER
TR.
human
conditional converb
imperative
locative case
interrogative
intransitive
imperfective
masdar, on a PF stem
negation
non-human
(pronominal suffix) non-neutral
optative
perfective
plural
perfective participle
perfect
present, on a IPF stem
participle
preverb
sequential converb
sublocative
subelative
superelative
superlocative
transitive
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