middle voice in*bantu · introduction • “the)middle (or medial) voice is)considered to bethe...

Middle voice in Bantu

Sebastian Dom, Leonid Kulikov and Koen BostoenGhent University

Outline

• Introduction• Middle markers in Bantu• Conclusion

Introduction

Introduction

• “The middle (ormedial) voice is considered to be the most heterogeneous voice category.” (Shibatani 2004:1149)

• “Crucially, it is almost impossible to discern any syntactic core of allthe functions from the middle domain.” (Kazenin 2001:923)• Valency-‐decreasing: reflexive, reciprocal, passive, anticausative, antipassive• Not obligatory in potential constructions, not unproblematic with logophoricmiddles, and does not take place with deponents

Introduction

OUR WORKING DEFINITION• Middle is voice category characterized by high degree of polysemy• Cluster of functional categories determined by crosslinguistic, typological research (Kemmer 1993, Kulikov 2013)• Key semantic notion is low degree of elaboration of events (Kemmer1993)• Typically marked through verbal morphology in Bantu languages• Semantic space centered around three basic voice constructions: reciprocal -‐ reflexive -‐ passive

Direct Reflexive

One-‐Participant Events

Reciprocal

NaturalReciprocalEvents

Collective

NaturalCollectiveEvents

Grooming

ChainingEvents

Indirect Reflexive

IndirectMiddle

LogophoricReflexive

LogophoricMiddle

Two-‐ParticipantEvents

PassiveMiddle

Passive

EmotionMiddle

CognitionMiddle

SpontaneousAction or Process

PotentialPassive

Facilitative

TranslationalMotion

Non-‐TranslationalMotion

Change InBody Posture

Stative

Semantic map of the middle domainAdaptation of Kemmer (1993:202)

Introduction

IMPORTANT TYPOLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS REGARDING MIDDLE MARKING (KEMMER 1993:20-‐21)

• Middle marking can be lexically determined and encode syntacticprocesses (cf. also discussion in Arce-‐Arenales et al. 1993)

• Lexical classes: body action middles, sociative middles, cognition middles, spontaneous events• Syntactic processes: reciprocal, reflexive, passive, anticausative, antipassive, auto-‐benefactive (Kulikov 2013)

Introduction


• Idiosyncratic distribution within lexical classes

German: sich hinsetzen ‘sit down’, sich hinlegen ‘lie down’; but aufstehen ‘stand up’

Changana: ku ti-‐tsakela ‘be(come) happy’; but ku hundzuka ‘be(come) angry’

Introduction


• Some degree of synchronic variation

French: l’eau bouille vs. l’eau se bouille ‘the water boils’ le glace fond vs. le glace se fond ‘the ice melts’

Hungarian: kéredz-‐ vs. kéredz-‐ked-‐ ‘ask, request’

Old Norse: hugna vs. hugna-‐sk ‘think, feel’

Introduction

TYPOLOGY OF MIDDLE MARKING SYSTEMS (Kemmer 1993:24-‐26)

• One-‐form middle system: usually MM = RM

REFLEXIVE MIDDLEGerman Er sieht sich. Er fürchtet sich.

‘He sees himself.’ ‘He is afraid.’French Il se frappe. Il se plaint.

‘He hits himself.’ ‘He complains.’

Introduction


• Two-‐form cognate system: MM (light) < RM (heavy)

REFLEXIVE MIDDLEDutch Hij ziet zichzelf. Hij kleedt zich aan.

‘He sees himself.’ ‘He’s getting dressed.’Russian Ivan uvidel sebja. On utomil-‐sja.

‘Ivan saw himself.’ ‘He grew weary.’

Introduction


• Two-‐form non-‐cognate system: MM || RM

REFLEXIVE MIDDLELatin se -‐rTurkish kendi-‐ -‐In-‐

Introduction

WHAT ABOUT BANTU?

• Kemmer’s formal typology presumes that languages have a single MM which is either cognate or non-‐cognate with the RM (although see the discussion on p.26 on systems that can be classified in between two types)

• Changana (S53) and Pangwa (G64) à one-‐form middle system (Kemmer 1993:26)

(1) Reflexive/middle -‐ti-‐ku ti-‐tekela ‘take for oneself’ (p.17) INDIRECT MIDDLEku-‐ti-‐milela ‘germinate, sprout’ (p.19) SPONTANEOUS EVENTku ti-‐tsakela ‘be(come) happy’ (p.21) EMOTIVE MIDDLEku ti-‐nwaya ‘scratch, rub oneself’ (p.61) BODILY ACTION MIDDLE

(2) Reciprocal/middle -‐an-‐ (Kemmer analyzes this suffix as -‐na, probably after the original source)ku ringa-‐na ‘be similar’ NATURALLY RECIPROCALku hamba-‐na ‘be separate, be different’ idem.ku thlanga-‐na ‘reunite, be reunited’ SOCIATIVE MIDDLE

Introduction

• Bantu languagesàmultiple-‐form system

• PB *-‐ik-‐ neuter*-‐am-‐ positional (stative)*-‐an-‐ associative (reciprocal)*-‐uk-‐ separative itr. (reversive)*-‐i-‐ reflexive

Middle markers in Bantu

Neuter *-‐ik-‐

• 3 groups of constructions

• First group: Logical object of active clause is promoted to subject position and logical subject is demoted or omitted. PrototypicalInitiators such as Actors/Agents (and Instruments) often cannotsurface in oblique phrases, whereas non-‐prototypical Initiators suchas (generic) Experiencers and Natural Forces can.

• Includes anticausative, mediopassive and passive

Neuter *-‐ik-‐

(3) BENA (G63) (Morrison 2011:307) ANTICAUSATIVE

u-‐tu-‐bihi a-‐haa-‐deeny-‐ih-‐ile igólo.

AUG12-‐CL12-‐tree SP12-‐PST3-‐break-‐NT-‐FV yesterday

‘The twig broke yesterday.’

(4) CHEWA (Dubinsky & Simango 1996:751) MEDIOPASSIVE

mbale zi-‐na-‐tsuk-‐ik-‐a (*ndi Naphiri).

plates AGR-‐PST-‐wash-‐NT-‐FV by Naphiri

‘The plates were washed (*by Naphiri).’

(5) TUMBUKA (Chavula 2016:65) PASSIVE

Nduna zi-‐ka-‐cem-‐ek-‐a na Chikulamayembe.

CL10.minister SP10-‐PST-‐call-‐NT-‐FV with CL1.Chikulamayembe

‘The ministers were called for by Chikulamayembe.’

Neuter *-‐ik-‐

• Second group of constructions are patient-‐oriented potentials: subject is typically patient-‐like participant to which a quality, denotedby the marked verb, is attributed

• Includes potential passive and facilitative

Neuter *-‐ik-‐(6) SWAHILI (G42) (Seidl & Dimitriadis 2002:254) POTENTIAL PASSIVE

godoro li-‐na-‐lal-‐ik-‐a.mattress SM5-‐PRS-‐sleep-‐NT-‐FV

‘This mattress can be slept on.’(7) TSWANA (S31) (Creissels 2002:403) FACILITATIVE (POSITIVE)

Mae a thubega motlhofo.

màɩ á-‐thúb-‐ɛχ-‐à mɷtɬhɷfɷ. CL6.œuf SP6-‐casser-‐NT-‐FIN facilement‘Les œufs se cassent facilement.’ (‘The eggs break easily.’)

(8) TUMBUKA (N21) (Chavula 2016:84) FACILITATIVE (NEGATIVE)tiyi wa-‐ku-‐mw-‐ek-‐a yayi na cifundizi.CL1.tea SM1-‐PRS-‐drink-‐NT-‐FV NEG with NP7.heat

‘Tea can hardly be drunk when it is hot.’

Neuter *-‐ik-‐

• Third and last type of constructions restricted to verbs of perception: Experiencer is demoted/omitted and subject position is eitheroccupied by promoted Stimulus participant or covert genericparticipant (= impersonal construction with expletive agreement)

• Incudes Stimulus constructions and Evidential constructions

Neuter *-‐ik-‐(9) LUGANDA (JE15) (Luganda Corpus of Deo Kawalya) STIMULUS CONSTRUCTION

[…] birabike bulungi nga biteredde.bi-‐lab-‐ik-‐e bu-‐lungi nga bi-‐tereer-‐e.

SM8-‐see-‐NT-‐SBJ CL14-‐nice like SM8-‐be.in.order-‐SBJ‘[…] so that they look like they are nice and in order.’

(10) LURAGOOLI (JE32) (Bowler & Gluckman 2016) EVIDENTIAL CONSTRUCTIONa. e-‐hol-‐ek-‐a kuresa vu-‐geni vu-‐ar-‐ɛ vu-‐hare INDIRECT (HEARSAY)

9-‐hear-‐AC-‐FV like 15-‐party 15-‐COP-‐FV 15-‐good

‘It sounds like the party was fun.’ DIRECT (AUDITORY)b. ga-‐hol-‐ek-‐a kuresa vu-‐geni vu-‐ar-‐ɛ vu-‐hare

6-‐hear-‐AC-‐FV like 15-‐party 15-‐COP-‐FV 15-‐good

‘It sounds like the party was fun.’

Neuter *-‐ik-‐

• Not canonical middle marker• Its locus in middle domain spans only patient-‐oriented constructions• Rather large part of -‐ik-‐ constructions are generally notincluded/discussed in literature on middle• Potential passive, stative, stimulus, evidential

• However, -‐ik-‐ conforms to the definition of ‘middle’ as encoding a “cluster of deagentivized (intransitivized) syntactic patterns” that“focus the activity expressed by the base verb on the first argument (Subject)” (Kulikov 2013:265).

Direct Reflexive


Reciprocal


Collective


Grooming

ChainingEvents

Indirect Reflexive

IndirectMiddle

LogophoricReflexive

LogophoricMiddle


PassiveMiddle

Passive

EmotionMiddle

CognitionMiddle


PotentialPassive

Facilitative

Stimulus-‐OrientedEvents

Evidential

TranslationalMotion



Stative

Canonical middle

-ik-

Associative *-‐an-‐

• Characteristically polysemous throughout Bantu

“In addition to expressing reciprocity, examples of related but not exactly reciprocal uses areattested from all over Bantu. In Nen (A44; …), the reflex of *-‐an-‐ is used to express joint actions byseveral agents (and also plurality of the addressee of imperative forms). In Kela (C75), *-‐an-‐expresses repetitive or intensive actions, in Songye (L22) it expresses actions directed towardsseveral other people, and in Shona (S12) it is “used of a single subject with reference to its partsand their relation to one another” (Fortune 1955:219; e.g. =gony-‐an-‐a ‘curl’ < =gony-‐a ‘bend’).Similar examples could be cited from many other languages.” (Schadeberg 2003:76)

Associative *-‐an-‐

• Bostoen et al. 2015: extensive overview of polysemy of reflexes of *-‐an-‐ in Bantu• Sociative/collective• Reciprocal• Natural collective• Natural reciprocal• Chaining• Antipassive• Intensive/extensive• Iterative• Comitative/instrumental• Body action middle• Cognition middle• Spontaneous event middle• Mediopassive• Potential

Direct Reflexive


Reciprocal


Collective


Grooming

ChainingEvents

Indirect Reflexive

IndirectMiddle

LogophoricReflexive

LogophoricMiddle


PassiveMiddle

Passive

EmotionMiddle

CognitionMiddle


PotentialPassive

Facilitative

TranslationalMotion



Stative

Antipassive

Intensive/Extensive

Iterative

Comitative/Instrumental

Agent-‐OrientedPotential

Canonical middle

-an-

Positional *-‐am-‐

• “The common element of meaning is ‘assuming a position’, or -‐ whenused in a perfective aspect form -‐ ‘to be in a position’.” (Schadeberg 2003:75)• Closely related to middle classes of non-‐translational motion andchange in body posture• Items in Bantu Lexical Reconstruction 3 provide wider range of middlesemantics: positional -‐ spontaneous event -‐ non-‐translational motion -‐ emotion -‐ translational motion -‐ cognition

Positional *-‐am-‐• Positional *bátam être couché à plat; être plat be flat or level; (i) lie flat

*dʊdam être droit be straight

*bókam être assis sp. sit sp.

• Spontaneous *pákam être serré, être coincé be jammed, be wedged

*còmam être inséré, être placé dans be inserted, put in

*bòmbam être trempé be wet

• Non-‐translational motion *jɪnam se pencher bend over

*jácam ouvrir la bouche; bâiller open the mouth; yawn

*pàpam battre des ailes, voleter flap wings, flutter

• Emotion *bʊngam être triste be sad

*cʊnam être de mauvaise humeur to be in a bad humour

*dápam être gourmand be greedy in eating

• Translational motion *dʊngam aller droit go straight

*búgam pagayer paddle

*tèntam se mettre en haut de go at the top of

• Cognition *dúdam oublier forget


• Known to encode passive construction in many zone C languages

LEKE (C14) (Vanhoudt 1987:177-‐178)Passive:bo-‐wɔng-‐am-‐e bɔɔngɔmɔ ‘être ramassé’bo-‐kund-‐am-‐e bokundámá ‘être enterré’bo-‐sund-‐am-‐e bosundame ‘laisser ôter de la tête par quelqu’un’bo-‐tub-‐am-‐e botubame ‘être transpercé, piqué’



LEKE (C14) (Vanhoudt 1987:177-‐178)Middle: bo-‐wus-‐am-‐e búúsámé ‘se cacher, aller aux toilettes’bo-‐zíng-‐am-‐e bozíngámé ‘s’enrouler’bo-‐yɛk-‐am-‐é bɛɛkyɛmɛ ‘s’incliner’bo-‐yɛk-‐y-‐am-‐é bɛɛkyámɛ ‘se laisser incliner’bo-‐da-‐am-‐e bodamé ‘s’étendre’


• Known to encode passive construction in many zone C languagesNTOMBA (C35a) (Mangulu 2010:168)-‐tɛl-‐ ‘être debout’ > -‐tɛl-‐ɛm-‐ɛ ‘se dresser, se tenir debout’-‐βom-‐ ‘tuer’ > -‐βom-‐am-‐a ‘être tué’-‐túŋg-‐ ‘se prendre’ > -‐túŋg-‐am-‐a ‘être pris’

BOLIA (C35b) (Mamet 1960:37)kela ‘faire’ > kelama ‘être fait’ kúla ‘battre, frapper’ > kúlama ‘être battu’ tanda ‘déployer’ > tandema ‘être déployé’ténaka ‘couper’ > ténakema ‘être coupé’lɛmbɛ ‘frapper’ > lɛmbɛmɛ ‘être frappé’



LINGALA (C36d) (Meeuwis 2010:155-‐156)

“The extension -‐am-‐ (rarely, -‐em-‐) occurs in passive forms. The agent, if expressed, is identified by means of a prepositional phrase with na (‘by’).”

Mbóngo e-‐bómb-‐ám-‐ákí na moyíbi.money 3SG.INAN-‐hide-‐PASS-‐PAST1 by thief‘The money was hidden by the thief.’

LOMONGO (C61) (Hulstaert 1965:247, 249)-‐am-‐ : « Ce suffixe s’emploie dans les deux sens : le passif et le statif-‐inchoatif. »

Bobúngá bonko bóbúngama wɛyɔwɛyɔ.‘Cette faute est commise fréquemment.’

Direct Reflexive


Reciprocal


Collective


Grooming

ChainingEvents

Indirect Reflexive

IndirectMiddle

LogophoricReflexive

LogophoricMiddle


PassiveMiddle

Passive

EmotionMiddle

CognitionMiddle


PotentialPassive

Facilitative

TranslationalMotion



Stative

Canonical middle

-am-

Separative itr. *-‐uk-‐

• Intransitive member of separative couple *-‐ud-‐/-‐uk-‐

• Word list provided in Schadeberg (1982) of PB verbs with *-‐uk-‐, manyof which denote middle situation types

• In Cuwabo (P34) -‐uk-‐ developed canonical passive function (Guérois & Bostoen 2015)• Two passive morphemes: -‐iw-‐ (<*-‐ibʊ) and -‐uw-‐ (< *-‐uk-‐)

Separative itr. *-‐uk-‐

• -‐uw-‐ as passive marker in Cuwabo (P34)

mi-‐ri dhí-‐ni-‐ó-‐j-‐uw-‐á na nyenyéleCL4-‐tree SP4-‐IPFV.DJ-‐15-‐eat-‐PASS-‐FV by CL10.ant‘The trees are being eaten by the ants.’

Direct Reflexive


Reciprocal


Collective


Grooming

ChainingEvents

Indirect Reflexive

IndirectMiddle

LogophoricReflexive

LogophoricMiddle


PassiveMiddle

Passive

EmotionMiddle

CognitionMiddle


PotentialPassive

Facilitative

TranslationalMotion



Stative

Canonical middle

-uk-

Reflexive *-‐i-‐

• South-‐Western Bantu languages demonstrate reflexive-‐reciprocal-‐middle polysemy (Bostoen 2010)

Kwamashi: -‐cí-‐REFL -‐thaura ‘scratch’ > -‐cí-‐thaura ‘to scratch oneself’MID -‐cí-‐enga ‘dress well, wear ornaments’ (grooming)MID -‐cí-‐neka ‘stand on tiptoe’ (change in body posture)MID -‐cí-‐uba ‘be at peace’ (emotion)


• South-‐Western Bantu languages demonstrate reflexive-‐reciprocal-‐middle polysemy (Bostoen 2010)

Kwamashi: -‐cí-‐RECP ka-‐tú-‐cí-‐mon-‐ine rero.

NEG-‐SP1PL-‐REC-‐see-‐PRF today‘We have not seen each other today.’


• Distribution: Cokwe-‐Lucazi groupLanguage Polysemy Prefix Suffix

Cokwe (K11) YES -‐li-‐ -‐an-‐

Ngangela (K12) YES -‐li-‐ -‐an-‐

Lucazi (K13) YES -‐li-‐ -‐sian-‐

Luvale (K14) YES -‐li-‐ -‐asan-‐

Mbunda (K15) YES -‐li-‐ ?


• Distribution: Lunda group

• Cokwe-‐Lucazi group = core area of ‘reflexive-‐reciprocal’ polysemy

Language Polysemy Prefix Suffix

Salampasu (L51) NO -‐i-‐ -‐asyan-‐

Lunda (L52) YES -‐di-‐ -‐añan-‐

Ruund (L53) NO -‐i:-‐ -‐ijaan-‐


• Reflexive-‐middle polysemy also apparent from Bantu languageexamples in Kemmer (1993)

CHANGANAReflexive/middle -‐ti-‐ku ti-‐tekela ‘take for oneself’ (p.17) INDIRECT MIDDLEku-‐ti-‐milela ‘germinate, sprout’ (p.19) SPONTANEOUS EVENTku ti-‐tsakela ‘be(come) happy’ (p.21) EMOTIVE MIDDLEku ti-‐nwaya ‘scratch, rub oneself’ (p.61) BODILY ACTION MIDDLE

Direct Reflexive


Reciprocal


Collective


Grooming

ChainingEvents

Indirect Reflexive

IndirectMiddle

LogophoricReflexive

LogophoricMiddle


PassiveMiddle

Passive

EmotionMiddle

CognitionMiddle


PotentialPassive

Facilitative

TranslationalMotion



Stative

Canonical middle

-i-

Conclusion

Conclusion

• Typologically interesting: multiple form system

• Claim is not that extensions should be analyzed as MMs for Bantu as a whole

• Middle status = language-‐specific

• Semantic range in middle domain can be different from one languageto another

Conclusion

• None of the extensions is a “typical” MM àmany developedmeanings within and outside ofmiddle domain

• Is it helpful/meaningful for Bantuists and/or general linguists tocategorize/label these extensions as ‘middle’? • CON: Functions not always exclusively ‘middle’• PRO: Recurrent polysemy and semantic range within middle domain can bemotivated through properties (semantic and syntactic) related to middle voice

middle voice in*bantu · introduction • “the)middle (or medial) voice is)considered to bethe...

Documents