Secondary Predication and Adverbial Modification: The Typology of Depictives

475 Pages·2006·2.95 MB·English

by  Nikolaus P. Himmelmann

Secondary Predication and Adverbial Modification
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Secondary Predication
and Adverbial
Modification
The Typology of Depictives
Edited by
NIKOLAUS P. HIMMELMANN AND
EVA SCHULTZE-BERNDT
AC
AC
GreatClarendonStreet,Oxfordox26dp
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#editorialmatterandorganizationNikolausP.Himmelmannand
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Secondarypredicationandadverbialmodification: thetypologyofdepictives/editedby
NikolausP.HimmelmannandEvaSchultze-Berndt.
p.cm.
Summary:‘‘Thisbookapproachesdepictivesecondarypredictionfromacrosslinguistic
perspective.Itmapsoutallthephenomenaandbringstogethercriticalsurveysandnew
contributionsontheirmorphosyntacticandsemanticproperties’’---Providedbypublisher.
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
1. Grammar,Comparativeandgeneral---Syntax. 2. Grammar,Comparativeandgeneral---
Verb phrase. 3. Grammar, Comparative and general---Adverbials. 4. Semantics.
5. Typology(Linguistics)I.Himmelmann,Nikolaus.II.Schultze-Berndt,Eva.
P295.S4132005 415---dc22 2004024152
TypesetbyNewgenImagingSystems(P)Ltd.,Chennai,India
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10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
Preface and chapter summaries vii
Acknowledgements xv
The contributors xvi
Abbreviations and glossing conventions xx
1 Issues in the syntax and semantics of participant-oriented
adjuncts: an introduction 1
Nikolaus P. Himmelmann and Eva Schultze-Berndt
2 Depictives in English and Warlpiri 69
Jane Simpson
3 Adverbials and depictives as restrictors 107
Thomas Mu¨ller-Bardey
4 Depictive agreement and the development of a depictive
marker in Swiss German dialects 141
Claudia Bucheli Berger
5 Quantifying depictive secondary predicates in
Australian languages 173
William B. McGregor
6 Depictives in Kartvelian 201
Winfried Boeder
7 On depictive secondary predicates in Laz 237
Silvia Kutscher and N. Sevim Gen¸c
8 Participant agreement in Panoan 259
Pilar M. Valenzuela
9 Secondary predicates and adverbials in Nilotic and Omotic:
a typological comparison 299
Azeb Amha and Gerrit J. Dimmendaal
10 Asyndetic subordination and deverbal depictive expressions
in Shona 323
Tom Gu¨ldemann
11 Forms of secondary predication in serializing languages:
on depictives in Ewe 355
Felix K. Ameka
vi Contents
12 Depictive and other secondary predication in Lao 379
Nicholas J. Enfield
13 A semantic map for depictive adjectivals 393
Johan van der Auwera and Andrej Malchukov
References 423
Index of languages 441
Index of terms 443
Preface and Chapter Summaries
This book is concerned with depictive secondary predicates such as fresh
in George bought the carrots fresh and related constructions in crosslinguistic
perspective. These constructions have special semantic and syntactic properties
and therefore have played a major role in modern theories of the syntax and
semanticsofnaturallanguages.Thisbookprovidesfornewperspectivesonthese
constructions in two ways.
First, it considerably expands the database for them by showing that,
inadditiontothewell-studiedadjectivaldepictivessuchasfresh,awiderangeof
otherexpressiontypeswarrantananalysisasdepictives,including,forexample,
sometypesofsubordinateclause.Thisbecomesapparentwhenconsideringdata
from a much wider range of languages than those which usually feature in the
literature on this topic, especially since many of these languages have specific
morphosyntactic means of marking depictives.
Second, the book brings together different research strands which have
tended largely to ignore each other because they diverge considerably both
in terms of topic area (syntax vs. semantics) and in terms of their basic theor-
etical persuasions (cognitive linguistics, typology, lexical-functional grammar,
neo-Davidsoniansemantics,etc.).Thecontributionsthuspointtotheneedfora
new, considerably richer and more complex systematics for the grammatical
domain of participant-oriented adjunct constructions.
Participant-oriented adjunctconstructions differ from other typesofadjunct
construction (most importantly event-oriented adjunct constructions) in that
theyprimarilyconveyadditionalinformationregardingoneoftheparticipantsin
theeventualityexpressedbythemainpredicate(freshintheexampleabovetellsus
primarily something about the carrots and not about George or the manner of
buyingcarrots).Althoughsecondarypredicatesareperhapsprototypicalexamples
ofparticipant-orientedadjuncts,ithasbeennotedthatothertypesofadjunctsmay
alsoshowparticipantorientation,andthereforeexhibitastrongsemanticaffinity
todepictives.Theseinclude,forexample,certainsubject-orientedadverbialssuchas
enthusiasticallyinJohnopenedthedoorenthusiastically.Moreover,acrosslanguages
we frequently find that the same construction may render both participant- and
event-orientedcontent,evenbeyondthoseadverbialsthataretypicallyregardedas
subject-oriented.Forthisreason,thepresentvolumealsoexplorescommonalities
and differences between adverbials and depictives, based on the hypothesis that
depictiveandadverbialconstructionscoveracommonsemanticspace.
With regard to the more ambitious goal of presenting a comprehensive
typologyoftheparticipant-orientedadjunctconstructionsattestedintheworld’s
viii Preface and chapter summaries
languages,thisbookisclearlypremature,inthatverylittleisinfactknownabout
depictive secondary predicates and related constructions in most of the world’s
languages.Thatis,thisisnotatopicwhichisregularlystudiedinworkonlesser-
knownlanguages,andthereareonlyfewgrammarsofsuchlanguageswherethe
topic is mentioned at all (and none where it is extensively dealt with). This
deplorable state of affairs is not going to change as long as adjuncts in general,
and participant-oriented adjuncts in particular, do not make their way into the
regular work package of fieldworkers and descriptive linguists (along with
standard topics such as grammatical relations and relative clauses). Thus, this
book also has the purpose of contributing to this expansion of the standard set
of descriptive topics by offering ideas and research strategies for tackling
the language-specific intricacies of depictive secondary predicates and other
participant-oriented adjuncts.
Regarding the genesis of the volume, it may be useful to take note of the
following. With the exception of the chapter by Valenzuela, the chapters
appearinginthiscollectionwerefirstpreparedfortheWorkshoponDepictivesin
Crosslinguistic Perspective at the Ruhr-Universita¨t Bochum (7–9 June 2001),
which was organized by the editors. All of these contributions were based on a
positionpaperbytheeditors.Thecontributorsconsiderablyrevisedtheirpapers
aftertheworkshop,takingintoaccountfeedbackduringtheworkshopaswellas
further comments by the editors.
The introductory chapter was drafted after the workshop, when editing the
individual chapters. Although it includes some aspects of the original position
paper, it offers a different approach to the whole subject matter, reflecting a
numberofchangesinourthinkingwhichevolvedduringandintheaftermathof
theworkshop.Italsocontextualizestheothercontributionswithregardtoaset
of general themes.(Major partsof theoriginal position paperhavesince—with
considerable delay not attributable to the authors—appeared in Linguistic
Typology, as Schultze-Berndt and Himmelmann 2004.)
The current ordering of the chapters is motivated by the breadth of their
approach, their theoretical orientation and the languages they deal with. Each
chapter exhibits particularly close ties with the one preceding and the one
following it.
ThechaptersbySimpson andMu¨ller-Bardeycomplementandexpandmajor
themesoftheintroductorychapter,whichimmediatelyprecedesthem.Simpson
provides further details regarding syntactic issues in the analysis of depictives,
and contrasts a language with clearly identifiable depictives (English) with a
language where depictives appear to convey a broader range of meanings and
functions(Warlpiri).Mu¨ller-Bardeyoffersamoredetaileddiscussionofsomeof
the core semantic issues, focusing on the distinction between depictives and
manner adverbs, based on English and German data.
The following three chapters share a focus on depictive constructions
marked by agreement and other unambiguous markers of depictive status.
Preface and chapter summaries ix
Bucheli Berger complements the discussion of English and German in Simpson
and Mu¨ller-Bardey by providing data from non-standard varieties of German
which exhibit interesting similarities to the Australian data discussed in the
editors’ introduction, as well as in Simpson’s and McGregor’s contributions.
McGregorelaboratesonsomeoftheintricaciesinvolvedintheinterpretationof
the Australian data, focusing on a subtype of depictives which to date has been
largely ignoredintheliterature (quantifyingdepictives).
Whilestillfocusingonagreementmarkingofdepictives,Boeder’schapteron
Georgianisthefirstinaseriesofchapterswhichtakeintoviewamuchbroader
range of expression types than those usually considered in the literature on
depictives, and which also discuss problems of delimitation between depictives
and adverbials. All but the last of the remaining chapters share this common
focus, which in turn is based on the semantic space for participant-oriented
adjunctsestablishedintheeditors’introduction.Apartfromthiscommonfocus
these chapters are interconnected by various areal, typological and topical links
(see the short chapter summaries below).
Thefinalchapter,byvanderAuweraandMalchukov,putsthesemanticspace
for participant-oriented adjuncts into a larger perspective by showing various
links to neighbouring semantic spaces such as the ones for predicative comple-
ments, appositive attributes or pure manner adverbials. This chapter, which
presents data from a worldwide sample of languages, heavily draws on the data
presented in the preceding chapters.
Chapter summaries
Nikolaus P. Himmelmann and Eva Schultze-Berndt, ‘Issues in the
syntax and semantics of participant-oriented adjuncts: an introduction’
Theeditors’introductionbeginswithacriticalsurveyofpreviousclassifications
of adverbials and secondary predicates. It is argued that there exist significant
overlaps between participant-oriented manner adverbials (John angrily read the
review), depictive secondary predicates, and so-called weak free adjuncts
(Standing on a chair, John can touch the ceiling). Thus, from a crosslinguistic
pointofview,itisnecessarytomakeuseofanoverarchingcategory,participant-
oriented adjunct, which subsumes all of these construction types. Having
established this category, the introduction then presents the range of semantic
expressions which may show formal correlates of participant-orientation, and
the morphosyntactic features typically associated with participant-oriented
adjuncts crosslinguistically.
Jane Simpson, ‘Depictives in English and Warlpiri’
Simpson compares depictive secondary predicates in English and Warlpiri.
In English, there are heavy constraints on depictives in terms of their