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An Introduction to Typology

     Part II: Voice & Transitivity

          Daniel W. Hieber
           June 22, 2012
Creek
  ːc s
    -          ‘s/he is cutting it’             Active
  ck-i-s       ‘it is cut’                      Middle -k-
  choː- s      ‘they/people are cutting it’     Impersonal
                                                plural -ho-
n- ːc s
    -          ‘s/he is cutting it for him/her’ Dative
                                                applicative
                                                im-
s- ːc s
    -          ‘s/he is cutting it with it’     Instrumental
                                                applicative is-
tac- peyc- s   ‘s/he is making him/her cut it’Indirect
                                                causative -
                                                ipeyc-
                                                      (Martin 2000)
•   kutuma ‘to employ’
                       Swahili
                          • kutumwa ‘to be
                              employed’
• kuacha ‘to leave’       •   kuachia ‘to leave for’
• kula ‘to eat’           •   kulisha ‘to feed’
• kusaidia ‘to help’      •   kusaidiana ‘to help
                              each other’
• kuvunja ‘to break’      •   kuvunjika ‘to be broken’
                          •   kufungua ‘to open’
• kufunga ‘to close’      •   kujiona ‘to see oneself’
• kuona ‘to see’
Voice
• “adjust the relationship between semantic roles and
  grammatical relations in clauses” (Payne 1997:169)
   – semantic roles: actor, undergoer
   – grammatical relations: subject, object
• Alignment of semantic roles and grammatical relations
   – actor = subject    The boy saw the man.   Active
   – undergoer = subject                       The man was
     seen by the boy.   Passive
• Alters the “point of view” or “centre of interest”
  (Jesperson 1924:167)

• Today’s talk: The different ways that languages do this
Basic Concepts: Valency & Transitivity
Valency
• Counts the number of participants in a clause
   –   Monovalent:        The boy is running.
   –   Bivalent:          The man is eating a sandwich.
   –   Trivalent:         Our grandfather gave us a cat.
   –   Avalent:           It is raining.
• Semantic v. grammatical participants
   – The boy is eating.       Grammatically monovalent
                              Semantically bivalent
• Analogy taken from chemistry
   – Valence of an atom is the number of bonds it forms
• Grammars don’t count (Martin 2000)
   – Valency is solely a method of classification
   – Valency is a side-effect (epiphenomenon) of shifts in perspective
     (voice)
Arguments, Adjuncts & Dummy
                 Subjects
• Predicate Calculus
   –   E(x,y)    ‘x eats y’
   –   x and y are arguments of the operator E
   –   Mathematical analogy – arguments of a function
   –   The man is eating a sandwich.    Arguments: the man, a
       sandwich
• Adjuncts
   – The man is eating a sandwich in the kitchen.     E(x,y)
   – Often adverbial clauses
   – Not required for the completion of the clause
• Dummy Subjects
   – It was raining.
   – There was an accident.
Transitivity
• Counts the number of objects
   – Intransitive   The boy is running.
   – Transitive     The man ate a sandwich.
   – Ditransitive   Our grandfather gave us a cat.
• Transitivity and valence do not necessarily
  correlate
   – I placed the book on the shelf. Trivalent but transitive
• Adpositions
   – I looked down. I looked down the hole.
     Intransitive Transitive
Changes in Event Perspective
Reflexives
• Subject and object are the same entity
• Reduce the valence of the verb
• English reflexives can be lexical: wash, shave, dress
• English reflexives can be analytic:       Chris burned
  himself
• Spanish (Payne 1997:199) reflexives are morphological
  (clitics):
    – Matilde se              ‘Matilde washed (herself)’
                   el carro   ‘Matilde washed the car’
      *
    – Matilde se              ‘Matilde got dressed’
                         o    ‘Matilde dressed the boy’
Reflexives & Reciprocals in Swahili
• kuona ‘to see’       • kujiona
                         ‘to see oneself’
• kusaidia ‘to help’   • kusaidiana
                          ‘to help each other’
Applicatives & Dative Shift
• Both take an adjunct / oblique argument and makes it a core
   argument of the verb (increases the valence)
Applicative (Swahili)
• a-li-pik-a                nyama
   3SG-PAST-cook-IND        meat
   ‘he cooked the meat’
   a-li-pik-i-a               Juma          nyanya
   3SG-PAST-cook-APP-IND Juma               meat
   ‘he cooked Juma the meat’
 • ku-amb-a            ku-amb-i-a
   INF-speak-IND       INF-speak-APP-IND
   ‘to speak’          ‘to tell’ (lit. ‘to speak to’)
Dative Shift
English
• The man gave the ball to the boy.   Object + Indirect Object
• The man gave the boy the ball.      Double Object Construction

Korean (Song, cited in Kittila 2012:355)
• kica-ka               enehakca-eykey       chayk-ul   ponay-ss-ta
   journalist-NOM       linguist-to          book-ACC send-PAST-IND
   ‘the journalist sent a/the book to the linguist’
• kica-ka               enehakca-lul chayk-ul         ponay-ss-ta
   journalist-NOM       linguist-ACC     book-ACC     send-PAST-IND
   ‘the journalist sent the linguist a book’
Causatives
• Analytic: The noise made the man jump.
• Lexical: The bug died.
            The boy killed the bug. (caused it to die)
• Morphological
   – A specific morpheme that means ‘to cause/make’

• Typically adds an argument to the verb
   – Normal transitive: CAUSE + AFFECTEE
   – Causative transitive: CAUSE + CAUSEE + AFFECTEE
Morphological Causatives
    • English:     fall       fell
                   rise       raise
                   lie        lay
    • Turkish:     Hasan      öl-dü        Ali Hasan-t        öl-dür-dü
                   Hasan      die-PAST       Ali Hasan-ACC die-CAUS-PAST
                   ‘Hasan died’              ‘Ali killed Hasan’
    • Different form of the causative for transitives and intransitives
    • Turkish:     müdür        mektub-ü        imzala-dɩ
                   director       letter-ACC       sign-PAST
                   ‘The director signed the letter’
                   dišçi     mektub-ü      müdür-e        imzala-t-tɩ
                   dentist    letter-ACC     director-DAT sign-CAUS-PAST
                   ‘The dentist made the director sign the letter.’


(Payne 1997:178)
Direct & Indirect Causatives
    • Japanese: Causee must retain control over event
        – Taroo-wa    Ryoko-o    ori-sase-ta
          Taroo-TOP Ryoko-ACC descend-CAUS-PAST
          ‘Taroo made Ryoko come down’
        – *Taroo-wa nimotu-o        ori-sase-ta
          Taroo-TOP baggage-ACC descend-CAUS-PAST
          ‘Taroo made the baggage come down’

    • Korean: Distinguishs direct and indirect causation
        – ip-hi-ta        ‘to dress someone’
          ip-key ha-ta    ‘to persuade someone to dress’
        – ket-ɩ-ta        ‘to force someone to walk’
          ket-key ha-ta   ‘to enable someone to walk’


(Payne 1997:183-184)
Passives: Personal Passives
• The agent is implied, not expressed, or expressed in an
  oblique/adjunct role
• English (analytic passive):
   – Olga baked a cake.
   – The cake was baked by Olga.
• Swahili (morphological passive):
   – kutuma ‘to employ’
   – kutumwa ‘to be employed’
• German (Keenan & Dryer 2007:337):
   – Das Haus wird           verkauft
     the house becomes sold
     ‘the house is being sold’
Passives: Impersonal Passive
• English:    They say you shouldn’t eat raw meat.
              There will be dancing later.
• Spanish:                        ol.      ‘Spanish is spoken here.’
• German (Payne 1997:206):
    – Es         wird       hier      ge-tanzt.
      it         be         here      PASS-dance
      ‘Dancing takes place here.’
• Russian (Keenan & Dryer 2007:334)
    – doma       strojat-sja          rabočimi
      houses     build-REFL           workers.INSTR
      ‘houses are built by workers’
• Latin (Keenan & Dryer 2007:347)
    – Legibus     (a         bonis     civibus) pare-tur.
      laws        by         good      citizens obey-3SG.PASS
      ‘(By good citizens) there is obeying laws.’
Passives: Adversative Passive
• Japanese has a plain passive (Payne 1997:208):
    – Taro-ga      Hanako-o         nagut-ta
      Taro-NOM Hanako-ACC           hit-PAST
      ‘Taro hit Hanako’
    – Hanako-ga         (Taro-ni)   nagu-rare-ta
      Hanako-NOM Taro-OBL           hit-PASS-PAST
      ‘Hanako was hit by Taro’
• Also with intransitives as an adversative passive:
    – Tomodachi-ga ki-ta
      friend-NOM        come-PAST
      ‘his friend came’
    – Taro-ga           tomodachi-ni         ki-rare-ta
      Taro-NOM          friend-OBL           come-PASS-PAST
      ‘Taro was arrived by his friend (to Taro’s disadvantage)’
Middle Voice
• Involves detransitivization – neither passive nor
  active
• Express a transitive situation as though it were a
  process that the undergoer does
• English: The man broke the vase.
            The vase broke (*by the man).
• Classical Greek:        -omai
                     stop-MID.1SG
                     ‘I am stopped / I stop’
Antipassives & Object Demotion
• Instead of downplaying the actor (like passives), this downplays the
  undergoer, and reduces valency
• English (Payne 1997:220):
    – Transitive:      The hunter shot the deer.
    – Object demotion: The hunter shot at the deer.
•   upiaq
    – aġna-m            niġi-gaa    punni-q
      woman-ERG          eat-3SG.TRANS            bread-ABS
      ‘the woman is eating the bread’
    – aġna-q            niġi-ruq    punniġ-mik
      woman-ABS          eat-3SG.INTRbreak-INSTR
      ‘the woman is eating (some) bread’
      ‘the woman is eating with some bread’
Noun Incorporation
• A core argument becomes ‘incorporated’ into the verb
• Reduces valency
• English: I went fox-hunting.
            This medicine is doctor-recommended.
• Chukchi (Sibera; Comrie 1978, cited in Foley 2007:437)
   – tumg-e         n-antəwat-ən        kupre-n
     friend-ERG 3PL.ERG-set-3SG.ABS.AOR net-ABS
     ‘the friends set the net’
   – tumg-ət        kupr-antəwat-gːat
     friend-PL.ABSnet-set-3PL.ABS.AOR
     ‘the friends were net-setting’
Creek
  ːc s
    -          ‘s/he is cutting it’             Active
  ck-i-s       ‘it is cut’                      Middle -k-
  choː- s      ‘they/people are cutting it’     Impersonal
                                                plural -ho-
n- ːc s
    -          ‘s/he is cutting it for him/her’ Dative
                                                applicative
                                                im-
s- ːc s
    -          ‘s/he is cutting it with it’     Instrumental
                                                applicative is-
tac- peyc- s   ‘s/he is making him/her cut it’Indirect
                                                causative -
                                                ipeyc-
                                                      (Martin 2000)
Swahili
• kutuma ‘to employ’       • kutumwa ‘to be
                             employed’
• kuacha ‘to leave’        • kuachia ‘to leave for’
• kula ‘to eat’            • kulisha ‘to feed’
• kusaidia ‘to help’       • kusaidiana ‘to help
                             each other’
• kuvunja ‘to break’       • kuvunjika ‘to be broken’
                           • kufungua ‘to open’
• kufunga ‘to close’       • kujiona ‘to see oneself’
• kuona ‘to see’
Sources
•   Foley, William A. 2007. A typology of information packaging in the clause. In
    Language Typology and Syntactic Description, Vol. I: Clause Structure, 2nd edn., ed.
    Timothy Shopen, 362-446. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
•   Jesperson, Otto. 1924. The Philosophy of Grammar. London: George Allen &
    Unwin.
•   Keenan, Edward L. & Matthew S. Dryer. 2007. Passive in the world’s languages. In
    Language Typology and Syntactic Description, Vol. I: Clause Structure, 2nd edn., ed.
    Timothy Shopen, 325-361. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
•   Kittila, Seppo. 2010. Transitivity typology. In The Oxford Handbook of Linguistic
    Typology, ed. Jae Jung Song, 346-367. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
•   Martin, Jack B. 2000. Creek voice: Beyond valency. In Changing Valency: Studies in
    Transitivity, eds. R. M. W. Dixon and Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald, 375-403. Cambridge:
    Cambridge University Press.
•   Payne, Thomas E. 1997. Describing Morphosyntax: A Guide for Field Linguists.
    Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

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Hieber - An Introduction to Typology, Part II: Voice & Transitivity

  • 1. An Introduction to Typology Part II: Voice & Transitivity Daniel W. Hieber June 22, 2012
  • 2. Creek ːc s - ‘s/he is cutting it’ Active ck-i-s ‘it is cut’ Middle -k- choː- s ‘they/people are cutting it’ Impersonal plural -ho- n- ːc s - ‘s/he is cutting it for him/her’ Dative applicative im- s- ːc s - ‘s/he is cutting it with it’ Instrumental applicative is- tac- peyc- s ‘s/he is making him/her cut it’Indirect causative - ipeyc- (Martin 2000)
  • 3. kutuma ‘to employ’ Swahili • kutumwa ‘to be employed’ • kuacha ‘to leave’ • kuachia ‘to leave for’ • kula ‘to eat’ • kulisha ‘to feed’ • kusaidia ‘to help’ • kusaidiana ‘to help each other’ • kuvunja ‘to break’ • kuvunjika ‘to be broken’ • kufungua ‘to open’ • kufunga ‘to close’ • kujiona ‘to see oneself’ • kuona ‘to see’
  • 4. Voice • “adjust the relationship between semantic roles and grammatical relations in clauses” (Payne 1997:169) – semantic roles: actor, undergoer – grammatical relations: subject, object • Alignment of semantic roles and grammatical relations – actor = subject The boy saw the man. Active – undergoer = subject The man was seen by the boy. Passive • Alters the “point of view” or “centre of interest” (Jesperson 1924:167) • Today’s talk: The different ways that languages do this
  • 5. Basic Concepts: Valency & Transitivity
  • 6. Valency • Counts the number of participants in a clause – Monovalent: The boy is running. – Bivalent: The man is eating a sandwich. – Trivalent: Our grandfather gave us a cat. – Avalent: It is raining. • Semantic v. grammatical participants – The boy is eating. Grammatically monovalent Semantically bivalent • Analogy taken from chemistry – Valence of an atom is the number of bonds it forms • Grammars don’t count (Martin 2000) – Valency is solely a method of classification – Valency is a side-effect (epiphenomenon) of shifts in perspective (voice)
  • 7. Arguments, Adjuncts & Dummy Subjects • Predicate Calculus – E(x,y) ‘x eats y’ – x and y are arguments of the operator E – Mathematical analogy – arguments of a function – The man is eating a sandwich. Arguments: the man, a sandwich • Adjuncts – The man is eating a sandwich in the kitchen. E(x,y) – Often adverbial clauses – Not required for the completion of the clause • Dummy Subjects – It was raining. – There was an accident.
  • 8. Transitivity • Counts the number of objects – Intransitive The boy is running. – Transitive The man ate a sandwich. – Ditransitive Our grandfather gave us a cat. • Transitivity and valence do not necessarily correlate – I placed the book on the shelf. Trivalent but transitive • Adpositions – I looked down. I looked down the hole. Intransitive Transitive
  • 9. Changes in Event Perspective
  • 10. Reflexives • Subject and object are the same entity • Reduce the valence of the verb • English reflexives can be lexical: wash, shave, dress • English reflexives can be analytic: Chris burned himself • Spanish (Payne 1997:199) reflexives are morphological (clitics): – Matilde se ‘Matilde washed (herself)’ el carro ‘Matilde washed the car’ * – Matilde se ‘Matilde got dressed’ o ‘Matilde dressed the boy’
  • 11. Reflexives & Reciprocals in Swahili • kuona ‘to see’ • kujiona ‘to see oneself’ • kusaidia ‘to help’ • kusaidiana ‘to help each other’
  • 12. Applicatives & Dative Shift • Both take an adjunct / oblique argument and makes it a core argument of the verb (increases the valence) Applicative (Swahili) • a-li-pik-a nyama 3SG-PAST-cook-IND meat ‘he cooked the meat’ a-li-pik-i-a Juma nyanya 3SG-PAST-cook-APP-IND Juma meat ‘he cooked Juma the meat’ • ku-amb-a ku-amb-i-a INF-speak-IND INF-speak-APP-IND ‘to speak’ ‘to tell’ (lit. ‘to speak to’)
  • 13. Dative Shift English • The man gave the ball to the boy. Object + Indirect Object • The man gave the boy the ball. Double Object Construction Korean (Song, cited in Kittila 2012:355) • kica-ka enehakca-eykey chayk-ul ponay-ss-ta journalist-NOM linguist-to book-ACC send-PAST-IND ‘the journalist sent a/the book to the linguist’ • kica-ka enehakca-lul chayk-ul ponay-ss-ta journalist-NOM linguist-ACC book-ACC send-PAST-IND ‘the journalist sent the linguist a book’
  • 14. Causatives • Analytic: The noise made the man jump. • Lexical: The bug died. The boy killed the bug. (caused it to die) • Morphological – A specific morpheme that means ‘to cause/make’ • Typically adds an argument to the verb – Normal transitive: CAUSE + AFFECTEE – Causative transitive: CAUSE + CAUSEE + AFFECTEE
  • 15. Morphological Causatives • English: fall fell rise raise lie lay • Turkish: Hasan öl-dü Ali Hasan-t öl-dür-dü Hasan die-PAST Ali Hasan-ACC die-CAUS-PAST ‘Hasan died’ ‘Ali killed Hasan’ • Different form of the causative for transitives and intransitives • Turkish: müdür mektub-ü imzala-dɩ director letter-ACC sign-PAST ‘The director signed the letter’ dišçi mektub-ü müdür-e imzala-t-tɩ dentist letter-ACC director-DAT sign-CAUS-PAST ‘The dentist made the director sign the letter.’ (Payne 1997:178)
  • 16. Direct & Indirect Causatives • Japanese: Causee must retain control over event – Taroo-wa Ryoko-o ori-sase-ta Taroo-TOP Ryoko-ACC descend-CAUS-PAST ‘Taroo made Ryoko come down’ – *Taroo-wa nimotu-o ori-sase-ta Taroo-TOP baggage-ACC descend-CAUS-PAST ‘Taroo made the baggage come down’ • Korean: Distinguishs direct and indirect causation – ip-hi-ta ‘to dress someone’ ip-key ha-ta ‘to persuade someone to dress’ – ket-ɩ-ta ‘to force someone to walk’ ket-key ha-ta ‘to enable someone to walk’ (Payne 1997:183-184)
  • 17. Passives: Personal Passives • The agent is implied, not expressed, or expressed in an oblique/adjunct role • English (analytic passive): – Olga baked a cake. – The cake was baked by Olga. • Swahili (morphological passive): – kutuma ‘to employ’ – kutumwa ‘to be employed’ • German (Keenan & Dryer 2007:337): – Das Haus wird verkauft the house becomes sold ‘the house is being sold’
  • 18. Passives: Impersonal Passive • English: They say you shouldn’t eat raw meat. There will be dancing later. • Spanish: ol. ‘Spanish is spoken here.’ • German (Payne 1997:206): – Es wird hier ge-tanzt. it be here PASS-dance ‘Dancing takes place here.’ • Russian (Keenan & Dryer 2007:334) – doma strojat-sja rabočimi houses build-REFL workers.INSTR ‘houses are built by workers’ • Latin (Keenan & Dryer 2007:347) – Legibus (a bonis civibus) pare-tur. laws by good citizens obey-3SG.PASS ‘(By good citizens) there is obeying laws.’
  • 19. Passives: Adversative Passive • Japanese has a plain passive (Payne 1997:208): – Taro-ga Hanako-o nagut-ta Taro-NOM Hanako-ACC hit-PAST ‘Taro hit Hanako’ – Hanako-ga (Taro-ni) nagu-rare-ta Hanako-NOM Taro-OBL hit-PASS-PAST ‘Hanako was hit by Taro’ • Also with intransitives as an adversative passive: – Tomodachi-ga ki-ta friend-NOM come-PAST ‘his friend came’ – Taro-ga tomodachi-ni ki-rare-ta Taro-NOM friend-OBL come-PASS-PAST ‘Taro was arrived by his friend (to Taro’s disadvantage)’
  • 20. Middle Voice • Involves detransitivization – neither passive nor active • Express a transitive situation as though it were a process that the undergoer does • English: The man broke the vase. The vase broke (*by the man). • Classical Greek: -omai stop-MID.1SG ‘I am stopped / I stop’
  • 21. Antipassives & Object Demotion • Instead of downplaying the actor (like passives), this downplays the undergoer, and reduces valency • English (Payne 1997:220): – Transitive: The hunter shot the deer. – Object demotion: The hunter shot at the deer. • upiaq – aġna-m niġi-gaa punni-q woman-ERG eat-3SG.TRANS bread-ABS ‘the woman is eating the bread’ – aġna-q niġi-ruq punniġ-mik woman-ABS eat-3SG.INTRbreak-INSTR ‘the woman is eating (some) bread’ ‘the woman is eating with some bread’
  • 22. Noun Incorporation • A core argument becomes ‘incorporated’ into the verb • Reduces valency • English: I went fox-hunting. This medicine is doctor-recommended. • Chukchi (Sibera; Comrie 1978, cited in Foley 2007:437) – tumg-e n-antəwat-ən kupre-n friend-ERG 3PL.ERG-set-3SG.ABS.AOR net-ABS ‘the friends set the net’ – tumg-ət kupr-antəwat-gːat friend-PL.ABSnet-set-3PL.ABS.AOR ‘the friends were net-setting’
  • 23. Creek ːc s - ‘s/he is cutting it’ Active ck-i-s ‘it is cut’ Middle -k- choː- s ‘they/people are cutting it’ Impersonal plural -ho- n- ːc s - ‘s/he is cutting it for him/her’ Dative applicative im- s- ːc s - ‘s/he is cutting it with it’ Instrumental applicative is- tac- peyc- s ‘s/he is making him/her cut it’Indirect causative - ipeyc- (Martin 2000)
  • 24. Swahili • kutuma ‘to employ’ • kutumwa ‘to be employed’ • kuacha ‘to leave’ • kuachia ‘to leave for’ • kula ‘to eat’ • kulisha ‘to feed’ • kusaidia ‘to help’ • kusaidiana ‘to help each other’ • kuvunja ‘to break’ • kuvunjika ‘to be broken’ • kufungua ‘to open’ • kufunga ‘to close’ • kujiona ‘to see oneself’ • kuona ‘to see’
  • 25. Sources • Foley, William A. 2007. A typology of information packaging in the clause. In Language Typology and Syntactic Description, Vol. I: Clause Structure, 2nd edn., ed. Timothy Shopen, 362-446. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. • Jesperson, Otto. 1924. The Philosophy of Grammar. London: George Allen & Unwin. • Keenan, Edward L. & Matthew S. Dryer. 2007. Passive in the world’s languages. In Language Typology and Syntactic Description, Vol. I: Clause Structure, 2nd edn., ed. Timothy Shopen, 325-361. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. • Kittila, Seppo. 2010. Transitivity typology. In The Oxford Handbook of Linguistic Typology, ed. Jae Jung Song, 346-367. Oxford: Oxford University Press. • Martin, Jack B. 2000. Creek voice: Beyond valency. In Changing Valency: Studies in Transitivity, eds. R. M. W. Dixon and Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald, 375-403. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. • Payne, Thomas E. 1997. Describing Morphosyntax: A Guide for Field Linguists. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.