Kriang clause structure: Active (dynamic) events

9 February 2017 Kriang Clauses

Kriang clause structure: Active (dynamic) events Thomas M. Tehan Payap University Research Symposium February 2017 (12 minutes)

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Kriang Clauses

• Kriang language [ISO 639-3 code: ngt] • Austroasiatic, Katuic. • the break-down of relationships within Katuic varies among researchers. • Gehrman lexical criteria: “into six major ethnolinguistic groups: Kuay, Bru, Pacoh, Ta’oi, Kriang and Katu”.

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The Kriang Language

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Kriang Clauses

• Located in 25 villages in primarily in Xekong province, • also in Salavan and Champasak provinces • ith only scattered communities elsewhere. • They refer to themselves as 'Nkriang'. • A 2005 census reports a population of 12,900, with 9,030 monolinguals. • Both Lao and Latin scripts / orthography. • EGIDS status of language vitality is 6a ‘vigorous’

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Kriang is a language of Laos

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Ethnologue #39 Kriang

Kriang Clauses

https://ww w.ethnolog ue.com/ma p/LA

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ລາວ

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Wikipedia Lao Provinces

Kriang Clauses

S/Xekong province https://en.wiki pedia.org/wiki /Laos

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ເຊກອງ

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Kriang Clauses

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Kriang Clauses

• the order is AVP (SVO), • fixed argument position in simple default clauses. • No evidence of ergativity, thus Kriang is nominative-accusative. • No inflectional affixes—thus no agreement to identify grammatical functions in Kriang clause structure. • SVO is the second most common language type in world. • (Most common order is V-final; V-initial third most common.) • SVO word order more strongly resembles V-initial languages than V-final. In general SVO languages have prepositions, as does Kriang.

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Word order determines grammatical functions

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• one-argument (intransitive) clauses, • (including semi-transitive/motion),

• two-argument (transitive) clauses, and

Kriang Clauses

• Simple active event (dynamic) clauses divided

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Outline

• (including placement)

• three argument (ditransitive) clauses • A future paper on non-verbal (stative, somewhat atypical) clauses is the next projected step.

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Kriang Clauses

• Pronouns and NPs can also function as the object (complement, argument) of a PP. • A preliminary description of a simple NP • obligatory Noun (N) Head (H), with optional elements after it { NH (Possessor) (…)}. • No definite or indefinite Articles have been identified in Kriang. • example of a simple NP in Kriang ɟə̤̆j ʔaː1 ‘his mother (lit. mother, he)’.

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Three argument constructions in Kriang clauses: Noun Phrases (NP), Pronouns and Prepositional Phrases (PP).

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Kriang Clauses

• Pronouns in Kriang are a closed class; • No distinction among nominative, accusative or genitive (possessive), • Apparently no pronoun distinction between male and female. • Pronouns used in this data include: hɛː ‘we (incl)’, ci ̤ː ‘we (excl)’, măj ‘you’, ʔɔː ‘3S’, ʔaː1 ‘3S’, ŋaːj ‘they, 3P (or RELPRO)’.

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Noun Phrases (NP), Pronouns and Prepositional Phrases (PP).

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Noun Phrases (NP), Pronouns and

Kriang Clauses

• A Kriang clause can have a PP functioning as an oblique object argument, i.e. the third argument in a three argument clause. • Prepositional Phrases found in the examples include: • haː1 ʔə̤̆j ‘to mother’; haː1 cɛ̆ʔ kăn ‘to the girl’; • kɐllṳ̆ŋ dŏ̤ ŋ ‘in(to) (the) house’; tə̤̆ʔ tɐla̤ː ‘in (the) field’; • tə̤̆ʔ dŏ̤ ŋ ʔṳːs ‘in kitchen’; tə̤̆ʔ cĭʔ ‘with a knife’ instr; • tə̤̆ʔ ndɔːŋ hɐrwɛ̆t ‘with a (clf) switch’; • tə̤̆ʔ tŏʔ2 ‘on the table’; dɔ̆ŋ tɐmɔːj ‘for (the) guests’; • dɔ̆ŋ hɛː ‘for us (incl)’; ʔăt2 kɐlaː ‘from (the) tiger’.

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Prepositional Phrases (PP) [Prep NP ]PP.

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Kriang Clauses

• consists of a Subject followed by a Verbphrase • optional spatial or time Location. • No variation in word order yet. • Most AA languages exhibit this basic word order, although there is some variation • This structure is schematized below: • 1. Intransitive Clause: [SUB V ( NPLoc) ]S .

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Kriang Intransitive clause

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koːɲ male

kʰɐmlăŋ CONT

pĭ̤ʔ lie

• ‎Free: T‎ he boy is sleeping. • Subject … N cɛ̆ʔ koːɲ, ‘child man’, • Predicate … VP kʰɐmlăŋ pĭ ̤ʔ ‘CONT sleep’.

• (2) ʔaː1 • 3S

tɐrtoːs1 stumble

kăj2 CONJ

wɨ̤̆ŋ forget

Kriang Clauses

• (1) cɛ̆ʔ • child

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Simple intransitive clauses: [ NPSUB VP ]S. Examples 1 and 2 illustrate.

• ‎Free: H ‎ e stumbled and he forgot. • compound sentence coordinate clauses kăj2 ‘and’. • first clause: Subject … Pron ʔaː1, ‘he’, Predicate … VP tɐrtoːs1 ‘stumble’; • second clause: Subject … Pron 0, ‘(he)’, Predicate …VP wɨ̤̆ŋ ‘forget’.

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• In 3, Subject is kăn, ‘woman’, Predicate is the VP jɔ̤ːʔ ‘go’, and the Location is the simple N tɐlaːt ‘market’. • In 4 is similar, the Location as two words, tɐrriːŋ tɐrrɨ ̆m ‘edgeborder deep-forest’.

Kriang Clauses

• (3) kăn jɔ̤ːʔ tɐlaːt • female go market • ‎Free: T‎ he woman goes to the market.

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3 & 4 intransitive motion clauses structure: [ NPSUB VP NPLoc ]S .

̆ • (4) cɐkɛː tɐrti̤ːc tɐrriːŋ tɐrrɨm • dog run edge forest • ‎Free: T‎ he dog ran to the forest. • In both cases there is no overt particle indicating Location. 14

Variations on motion clauses coː ‘go home’ semantically contains the Location.

• (6) bə̤ː ŋaːj coː hə̆jˀ • then they go home PRT • ‎Free: ‎Then they went right home. • In example 7, the Loc is a PP—a directional Prep kɐllṳ̆ŋ ‘in’ is added, with the Location being named by the simple N dŏ̤ ŋ ‘house’. • (7) cɛ̆ʔ koːɲ tɐrti̤ːc mo̤ːt kɐllṳ̆ ŋ dŏ̤ ŋ • child male run enter in house • ‎Free: T‎ he boy ran into the house. • Subject is cɛ̆ʔ koːɲ, ‘boy’, the VP is the two word Verb Predicate with tɐrti̤ːc ‘ran’ as the Head Verb, and mo̤ːt ‘enter’ as a directional.

Kriang Clauses

• The Predicate is the VP

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• In example 6 the Subject is ŋaːj, ‘‎t‎ hey’.

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• which may not be expressed if it is obvious from the context.

• No variation in word order has been identified yet. • Most AA languages exhibit this basic word order, although there is some variation (Jenny, Tobias & Weymuth 2015, p. 59). • This structure is schematized below: • 2. Transitive Clause: [ SUB V OBJ [Prep NP ]PPLOC]S .

Kriang Clauses

• In Kriang a transitive clause consists of a • Subject (typically A=Agent) followed by a • Verb-phrase and an • Object (typically P=Patient),

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Transitive clause

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• The VP is the transitive Verb kɔ̆h ‘chop’. • (10) koːɲ kɔ̆h ndɔːŋ • male cut, chop wood • ‎Free: T‎ he man chops wood.

Kriang Clauses

• first argument, the Subject (Agent) is the N koːɲ ‘man’, and • the second argument, the Object (Patient) of the transitive clause, is N ndɔːŋ ‘wood’.

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Example 10

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Kriang Clauses

• Typical transitive clauses are formed with the Subject (Agent) affecting the Object (Patient). • (11) ʔɔː tɐmŭh ʔi̤ːk tɐrriːŋ daːʔ • 3S see pig edge water • ‎Free: H ‎ e saw the pig at the river. • the first argument, the Experiencer, i.e. Subject of this transitive clause, is the Pron ʔɔː ‘he’, • second argument, the Stimulus, i.e. the Object of this transitive clause, is the simple N ʔi̤ːk ‘pig’. • The VP is the transitive Verb tɐmŭh ‘see’, and a NP tɐrriːŋ daːʔ ‘at the river’ indicates the Location.

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Kriang, Experiencer-Stimulus relationship same structure

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In 16 hua naː ‘headman’ is the Subject, tĭ̤ɲ ‘hit with a stick’ is the Verb and cɐkɛː ‘dog’ is the Object. Note that the, and ‘with a stick’ is not a separate syntactic expression/element but part of the meaning of the V.

• (16) hua naː tĭ̤ɲ cɐkɛː • headman hit w/ stick dog • ‎Free: T‎ he village headman hits the dog.

Kriang Clauses

• • • •

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Instrument-like gloss ‘hit with a stick’ is a one-word Verb

• In example 17, the same verb is used. However, the sentence occurs in a passage where two brothers are hitting at a civet, and in this case the Object is not expressed.

• (17) ŋaːj tĭ̤ɲ • they hit

0 (zero)

• ‎Free: T‎ hey hit (the civet).

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•

•

• •

A ditransitive clause has two arguments that are both objects. NO ditransitive clause proper, two object core (direct) arguments. third argument is regularly an oblique, expressed by a PP, pattern A. Another tentatively-proposed pattern (B.) utilizes multiple verbs, with one object following the first verb, and a second object following the second verb. more prototypical ditransitive clause has three NP arguments: John gave Bill the clock, the indirect object has no particle to indicate function, i.e. [ NPSUB [V’give’]V [NP ]IndObj [NP ]Obj]S. Kriang does have the pattern NP VP NP NP, but this is a transitive clause with the second NP being a location, as in example 11. Three argument clauses word order possibilities if third argument is Instrument, Benefactive (perhaps P and B order is free), Source or Goal. In examples below the Object always precedes the Oblique third argument.

Kriang Clauses

• • • •

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Kriang Three argument clauses

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Kriang Clauses

• two different structures, indicated by A. and B. • A. Ditransitive clause: [ SUB V OBJ [Prep NP ]PP]S , where the second object (third argument) is expressed as an oblique to the main verb. • OR • B. Ditransitive clause: [ SUB [V OBJ ]VP1 [V OBJ]VP2 ]S • where the second object (third argument) is expressed as an object of a second verb. Thus the construction is a multi-verb construction.

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A Ditransitive clause in Kriang consists of

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• (23) ʔɔː • 3S

kɐɲciːt ʔi̤ːk kill pig

tə̤̆ʔ with (Instr)

• ‎Free: H ‎ e killed the pig with a knife.

Kriang Clauses

• the thing that the agent uses to accomplish some event affecting the Object. • As of this moment, only Ditransitive clauses with Instruments in PPs as the third argument (structure A) have been identified • A. Ditransitive clause: [ SUB V OBJ [Prep NP ]PPInstr]S • 23: a PP tə̤̆ʔ cĭʔ ‘with a knife’ at the end of the clause; • the PP is a third (oblique) argument fulfilling the function of instrument.

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Instrument

cĭʔ small knife 22

• (25) ʔɔː tăk cɐba̤ːj ntrṳːj dɔ̆ŋ • 3S make curry chicken BENE • ‎Free: S‎ he cooked chicken curry for the guests.

Kriang Clauses

• an argument that is positively or negatively affected by the event reported in the clause (Loos 2004). • In Kriang a Ditransitive clause with a Beneficiary as its third argument utilizes structure A. • A. Ditransitive clause: [ SUB V OBJ [Prep NP ]PPBENE]S • The Prep used is dɔ̆ŋ ‘BENE, for’. • 25: dɔ̆ŋ tɐmɔːj ‘for the benefit of the guests’.

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Beneficiary

tɐmɔːj guest 23

Kriang Clauses

• Goal is the purpose for which an event is performed. • For instance if it is a movement event, the Goal indicates the place that is being moved toward (Loos 2004). • In Kriang a Ditransitive clause with a Goal as its third argument has been identified in two different structures, A. and B.

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Goal

• A. Ditransitive clause: [ SUB V OBJ [Prep NP ]PPGoal]S • OR

• B. Ditransitive clause: [ SUB [V OBJ ]VP [V NPGoal]VP ]S

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• (29)ʔɔː pɐtăh pɨ̆m tə̤̆ʔ tŏʔ2 • 3S leave, put down book on, in table • ‎Free: H ‎ e put the book down on the table.

Kriang Clauses

• Structure A. [ SUB V OBJ [Prep NP ]PPGoal]S in 29. • In Kriang to place something somewhere, the V pɐtăh ‘leave, put down’ followed by a PP is used. • Goal is indicated by the PP tə̤̆ʔ tŏʔ2 ‘on the table’.

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Goal

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• Compare this clause to the example 31 below, where the same semantic event is described with the second construction, B.

9 February 2017 Kriang Clauses

• In example 30, the Goal is indicated by the PP haː1 cɛ̆ʔ kăn ‘to the girl (child female)’. • (30)cɛ̆ʔ koːɲ dɔ̆ŋ pɨ ̆m haː1 cɛʔ̆ kăn • child male give book to child female • ‎Free: ‎The boy gave a book to the girl.

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• (31) koːɲ ploːŋ măk baːn • male throw ball

dɔ̆ŋ give

• ‎Free: T‎ he man throws the ball to the woman.

9 February 2017 Kriang Clauses

• unclear if a multiple verb structure, or simply PPs, in part because the word here glossed as ‘give’ is glossed as ‘BENE’, a preposition. • A fuller understanding of the VP and Tense-Aspect-Mode is required to establish the multiple verb structure. tentatively analyzed as B. [ SUB [ V OBJ ]VP [ V’give’ NPGoal]VP ]S . • The second verb is dɔ̆ŋ ‘give’. In example 31, koːɲ ‘a man’ ploːŋ ‘throws’ măk baːn ‘a ball’ dɔ̆ŋ kăn ‘to a woman’; the woman is the Goal as indicated by the V + OBJ.

kăn female 27

̆ • (32)cɛ̆ʔ koːɲ de̤ːŋ pɨ ̆m dɔŋ cɛ̆ʔ kăn • child male take book give child female • ‎Free: T‎ he boy gave the girl a book.

Kriang Clauses

• to indicate giving, cɛ̆ʔ ‘a boy’ de̤ːŋ ‘takes’ pɨ ̆m ‘a book’ dɔ̆ŋ ‘gives it’ cɛ̆ʔ kăn ‘to a girl’; the woman is the Goal as indicated by the Vgive + OBJ.

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In example 32, a semantically prototypical Goal clause

• Thus both structures A. and B. have been found to depict clauses with Goals. 28

• (33)cɐkɛː tɐrti̤ːc tṳː • dog run flee

Kriang Clauses

• the place of origin with verbs of motion • Only one example in the data of a source as third argument • A three argument clause with a Source as its third argument has the A pattern, [ SUB V [Prep NP ]PPSource]S ; there is no OBJ as tɐrti̤ːc ‘run’ is an intransitive verb.

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Source

ʔăt2 kɐlaː from tiger

• ‎Free: ‎The dog ran from the tiger. • The source is ʔăt2 kɐlaː ‘from (the) tiger’.

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Kriang Clauses

• an SVO language. • Subjects are in the first argument position of the clause. • Second and third arguments typically follow the V. • A third argument can typically be expressed as either the object of a second verb in a serial verb structure or an oblique prepositional phrase structure. • In the examples explored so far the Object always precedes the Oblique third argument. • Unknown if marked pragmatic variations on focus and prominence are yet to be explored.

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Conclusion on Kriang Active Event Clause Structure

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