Morphological Categories

MM MM oo oo rr rr pp pp hh hh oo oo ll ll oo oo gg gg ii ii cc cc aa aa ll ll CC CC aa aa tt tt ee ee gg gg oo oo rr rr ii ii ee ee ss ss 11 11 .. .. MM MM oo oo rr rr pp pp hh hh oo oo ll ll oo oo gg gg ii ii cc cc aa aa ll ll CC CC aa aa tt tt ee ee gg gg oo oo rr rr ii ii ee ee ss ss AA AA ss ss ss ss oo oo cc cc ii ii aa aa tt tt ee ee dd dd ww ww ii ii tt tt hh hh NN NN oo oo uu uu nn nn ss ss 11 11 .. .. 11 11 .. .. CC CC aa aa ss ss ee ee 11 11 .. .. 11 11 .. .. 11 11 .. .. SS SS uu uu bb bb jj jj ee ee cc cc tt tt aa aa nn nn dd dd OO OO bb bb jj jj ee ee cc cc tt tt CC CC aa aa ss ss ee ee AA AA ff ff ff ff ii ii xx xx ee ee ss ss One of the most commonmorphological categories associated with nouns is that of case affixes. Case affixes indicate the grammatical or semantic relationship between a noun phrase and a verb. In Luiseño, for example, there is a suffix -y ~ -i that indicates that the noun it is attached to is the object of the clause. The absence of a case suffix indicates that a noun is the subject. LL LL uu uu ii ii ss ss ee ee nn nn µµ µµ oo oo (Uto-Aztecan; California) 1. ÷ásªwut kasílla-y toow-q eagle lizard-OBJECT see-SG The eagle sees the lizard. 2. kasílla ÷ásªwut-i toow-q lizard eagle-OBJ see-SG The lizard sees the eagle. Mojave exhibits a far less common pattern than the one in Luiseño in which the subject bears a case suffix, while the object is unmarked. MM MM oo oo jj jj aa aa vv vv ee ee (Yuman, Hokan; California) 3. hatc™oq-c™ pos™ taver-m dog-SUBJ cat chase-PRES/PAST The dog chased the cat. 4. Jim-c™ isva:r-k Jim-SUBJ sing-PRES/PAST Jim sings. In Latin, there are overt case suffixes for both the subject and object (though in some case the subject suffix is zero). The terms “nominative” and “accusative” are often used for cases used for subjects and objects respectively. LL LL aa aa tt tt ii ii nn nn 5. re•k-s equ-um vÌ•d-it king-NOMINATIVE horse-ACCUSATIVE see,PERF-3SG The king saw the horse. 6. equ-us reg-em vÌ•d-it horse-NOM king-ACC see,PERF-3SG The horse saw the king. 11 11 .. .. 11 11 .. .. 22 22 .. .. EE EE rr rr gg gg aa aa tt tt ii ii vv vv ee ee vv vv ss ss .. .. AA AA bb bb ss ss oo oo ll ll uu uu tt tt ii ii vv vv ee ee CC CC aa aa ss ss ee ee AA AA ff ff ff ff ii ii xx xx ee ee ss ss West Greenlandic Eskimo exhibits an ergative case system, where there is an ergative case suffix that is used for the subject of transitive verbs, while the subject of intransitive verbs and the object of transitive verbs both occur in the absolutive case. The term ergative is Morphological Categories - 2 used for transitive subjects when they behave differently from intransitive subjects. The term absolutive is used for a category consisting of intransitive subjects and objects. There are many kinds of rules other than case marking rules that operate according to an ergative:absolutive distinction in various languages. When case marking operates on an ergative basis, the absolutive case is almost always a zero case. WW WW ee ee ss ss tt tt GG GG rr rr ee ee ee ee nn nn ll ll aa aa nn nn dd dd ii ii cc cc (Eskimo) 7. aNut-ƒ sana-vuq man-ABSOLUTIVE work-3SG The man works. 8. aNut-ip arnaq-ƒ taku-vaa man-ERGATIVE woman-ABS see-3SG,3SG The man saw the woman. Dani is another example of a language with an ergative case system. Note that if there is only one noun phrase in a clause, one can tell whether that one noun phrase is subject or object by its case. DD DD aa aa nn nn ii ii (Papua, Indonesia) 9. wam-en ƒ-na-sikh-e pig-ERG 3SG,OBJ-eat-REMOTE.PAST-3SG,SUBJ The pig ate him. 11 11 .. .. 11 11 .. .. 33 33 .. .. AA AA dd dd pp pp oo oo ss ss ii ii tt tt ii ii oo oo nn nn ss ss aa aa ss ss CC CC aa aa ss ss ee ee MM MM aa aa rr rr kk kk ee ee rr rr ss ss We can use the term case marker as a more general term than case affix to include not only case affixes, but separate words that indicate case. The Japanese postpositions ga and o function like case affixes, except that they are separate words. Case markers that are separate words are always prepositions or postpositions. A general term that includes both prepositions and postpositions is adposition. JJ JJ aa aa pp pp aa aa nn nn ee ee ss ss ee ee 10. John ga Mary o but-ta. SUBJ OBJ hit-PAST John hit Mary. Lakota is another language with postpositions. LL LL aa aa kk kk oo oo tt tt aa aa 11. ˙e ki  Á ohómni yá-pi mountain the around go-3PL They went around the mountain. 11 11 .. .. 11 11 .. .. 44 44 .. .. AA AA dd dd pp pp oo oo ss ss ii ii tt tt ii ii oo oo nn nn aa aa ll ll CC CC aa aa ss ss ee ee CC CC ll ll ii ii tt tt ii ii cc cc ss ss In some languages, the case markers behave in some ways like separate words, in other ways like affixes. The term clitic is used (among its uses) to denote a morpheme that exhibits the phonological properties of an affix, in being phonologically bound to a word, but which exhibits the syntactic properties of a word, in that its position is defined syntactically rather thanmorphologically in that it attaches syntactically to phrases rather than to words. The object and genitive case affixes in Kanuri are examples of Morphological Categories - 3 postpositional clitics. Phonologically, they are like affixes in that they attach to words and are not separate phonological words. But their position is defined syntactically in that they always attach to the last word in the noun phrase. For example, the object clitic attaches to the noun if the noun is the only (or last) word in the noun phrase. KK KK aa aa nn nn uu uu rr rr ii ii (Saharan, Nilo-Saharan; Nigeria, Niger) 12. kaflm=ga rúsk√na man=OBJ I,saw I saw the man. But if the noun is followed by an adjective, the object clitic attaches to the adjective instead, since adjectives follow the noun in Kanuri. 13. [kaflm kúrà]=ga rúsk√na [man big]=OBJ I,saw I saw the big man. The next example illustrates two postpositional clitics occurring on the same word. The genitive clitic is attached to the last word in the noun phrase it goes with, namely kaflm kúrà ‘big man’. The object clitic attaches to the object noun phrase, namely fátò kaflm kúrà-ve ‘the big man’s compound’ 14. [fátò [kaflm kúrà]=ve]=ga rúsk√na [compound [man big]=GEN]=OBJ I,saw I saw the big man’s compound. English actually has a postpositional clitic, though it is not usually described as a postposition, namely the genitive morpheme spelled’s. The next examples illustrate how this morpheme attaches to whatever is the last word in the noun phrase, regardless of its category, even if it is an adverb or a preposition. EE EE nn nn gg gg ll ll ii ii ss ss hh hh 15. I saw the Queen of England’s crown. 16. I saw the man over there’s hat. 17. I saw the man I told you about’s hat. Note that in the Queen of England’s crown, England’s is a word phonologically, but not syntactically because it is not even a constituent syntactically, since the Queen of England is a constituent. This illustrates howwith clitics, there is a mismatch between phonological constituents (i.e. words) and syntactic constituents. 11 11 .. .. 11 11 .. .. 55 55 .. .. DD DD ii ii rr rr ee ee cc cc tt tt vv vv ss ss .. .. II II nn nn dd dd ii ii rr rr ee ee cc cc tt tt OO OO bb bb jj jj ee ee cc cc tt tt CC CC aa aa ss ss ee ee MM MM aa aa rr rr kk kk ee ee rr rr ss ss Returning to our discussion of object case markers, when a verb takes one object, we call that one object the direct object. When a verb takes two objects, we call the object denoting the recipient the indirect object, and the other object the direct object. In Latin, the accusative case is used for direct objects, while the dative case is used for indirect objects. These terms are often used for cases with similar functions in other languages. LL LL aa aa tt tt ii ii nn nn 18. puell-ae pecu•ni-am da-t girl-DATIVE money-ACC give-3SG He gives money to the girl / He gives the girl money. Morphological Categories - 4 The term indirect object is sometimes, but not always, used for benefactives, noun phrases that we express in English with the preposition for. One reason for this is that in many languages, they exhibit similar case marking to true indirect objects. In Latin, for example, both occur in the dative case. In English some benefactives, like true indirect objects, can occur as the first of two objects following the verb, in a double object construction. (There is considerable terminological variation here; some people even call a noun phrase that is semantically an indirect object the direct object in a double object construction.) 19. puell-ae dom-um fe•c-Ì• girl-DAT house-ACC make,PERF-1SG I built a house for the girl / I built the girl a house. Just as some languages mark indirect objects with prepositions, other languages mark them with postpositions, as in Guarani. GG GG uu uu aa aa rr rr aa aa nn nn ii ii (Paraguay) 20. a-gwerú né ve pete µˆ ´ re™gálo 1SG-bring 2SG to one present I brought you a present / I brought a present to you. Other languages do not case mark the indirect object, as in the following Lakota example. LL LL aa aa kk kk oo oo tt tt aa aa (Siouan) 21. wic™a˙cala waÁ wayáka ki  Á lak‘óta iápi ki  Á o˝spék‘iye old.man a captive the Lakota language the teach An old man taught the captive the Lakota language. In some languages, indirect objects are case marked in the same way as locatives indicating motion to something. English is an example of this (in its use of to ), as is Quechua, in its use of the locative case suffix with true indirect objects. II II mm mm bb bb aa aa bb bb uu uu rr rr aa aa QQ QQ uu uu ee ee cc cc hh hh uu uu aa aa (Ecuador) 22. Ruza-man ni-rka-ni Rosa-to say-PAST-1 I told Rosa. 23. Utavalu-man ri-ni Otavalo-to go-1 I go to Otavalo. Note that benefactives in Quechua occur with a case suffix that is different from that used with (true) indirect objects. 24. wasi-ta rura-rka-ni nµuka churi-paj house-ACC make-PAST-1 my son-BENEFACTIVE I made a house for my son. 11 11 .. .. 11 11 .. .. 66 66 .. .. LL LL oo oo cc cc aa aa tt tt ii ii vv vv ee ee CC CC aa aa ss ss ee ee MM MM aa aa rr rr kk kk ee ee rr rr ss ss Many languages distinguish three basic types of locatives, which we can call (nonstandardly using Germanic labels) to-locatives, at-locatives, and from-locatives. The first of these indicates motion to or towards something. The second indicates position with an absence of motion, or at least where motion is irrelevant. We can say that the preposition in in English indicates one kind of at-locative. The third indicates motion away Morphological Categories - 5 from (or sometimes out of) something. Sometimes to-locatives are called allatives. Sometimes at-locatives are called positional locatives . Sometimes from-locatives are called ablatives. This last term is more common than allative (presumably because it is the name of a case in Latin, while allative not). 25. Utavalu-pi kawsa-ni Otavalo-in live-1 I live in Otavalo. 26. Utavalo-manda shamu-ni Otavalo-from come-1 I come fromOtavalo. One sometimes finds case markers combining with each other. In Quechua, for example, the at-locative suffix can occur on a postposition. 27. wasi ladu-pi house near-at near the house While many languages distinguish the above three types of locatives, other languages use the same case for at-locatives and to-locatives, what we can call a general locative marker. Autuw is an example of such a language. AA AA uu uu tt tt uu uu ww ww (Papua New Guinea) 28. rey yÅn lape-ke d√-k-Åy-ey MASC,SG child village-LOCATIVE FACTIVE-IMPERF-go-IMPERF The child is going to the village. 29. tey tale Åwre-ke di-k-ik-iy FEM,SG woman house-LOC FACTIVE-IMPERF-sit-IMPERF The woman is sitting in the house. 11 11 .. .. 11 11 .. .. 77 77 .. .. II II nn nn ss ss tt tt rr rr uu uu mm mm ee ee nn nn tt tt aa aa ll ll aa aa nn nn dd dd CC CC oo oo mm mm ii ii tt tt aa aa tt tt ii ii vv vv ee ee CC CC aa aa ss ss ee ee MM MM aa aa rr rr kk kk ee ee rr rr ss ss A common case marker is one for instrumentals, as in the following example fromYareba. YY YY aa aa rr rr ee ee bb bb aa aa (Papua New Guinea) 30. dana boro auri-ma yanai he pig spear-INSTRUMENTAL spear,3SG He killed the pig with a spear. While some languages use instrumental case suffixes, others use instrumental adpositions, like Hixkaryana. HH HH ii ii xx xx kk kk aa aa rr rr yy yy aa aa nn nn aa aa (Carib; Brazil) 31. watma ke netahetxkon¥ waha heno komo club INSTR 3,3,PAST,kill fighting.man dead PLURAL The old warriors used to kill people by hitting themwith clubs. Note that English uses the preposition with in two ways, either as an instrumental case marker, or as a comitative (or associative ) case marker, but most other languages distinguish these. Thus Hixkaryana uses different postpositions for instrumentals and comitatives. Morphological Categories - 6 32. ¥tono Waraka yakoro 1SG,went Waraka COMITATIVE I went withWaraka. 11 11 .. .. 11 11 .. .. 88 88 .. .. AA AA rr rr gg gg uu uu mm mm ee ee nn nn tt tt ss ss vv vv ss ss .. .. NN NN oo oo nn nn aa aa rr rr gg gg uu uu mm mm ee ee nn nn tt tt ss ss ,, ,, NN NN oo oo nn nn oo oo bb bb ll ll ii ii qq qq uu uu ee ee ss ss vv vv ss ss .. .. OO OO bb bb ll ll ii ii qq qq uu uu ee ee ss ss A distinction can generally be made between arguments/nonobliques on the one hand and nonarguments/obliques on the other. While there are actually a number of different ways in which the distinction can be drawn, one way to characterize the distinction is between dependents of the verb whose relation to the verb is part of the meaning of the verb and dependents of the verb whose relation to the verb is not part of the meaning of the verb. For example, locative expressions are typically independent of the meaning of the verb and thus clearly oblique. 33A. John ate dinner at the restaurant. In contrast, subjects, direct object, and indirect objects are arguments since they involve a relation to the verb that is part of the meaning of the verb. 33B. Mary gave John flowers after the ceremony. Benefactive expressions, however, despite certain similarities to indirect objects, are nonarguments. 33C. John baked some cookies for the children. While the meaning of the verb give implies a recipient indirect object, the meaning of the verb bake does not imply a benefactive. Among other oblique categories are instrumentals, comitatives, and temporal expressions. This discussion ignores a variety of complications suggesting that there are in fact a number of related but distinct distinctions. Note that while traditional Latin grammar identifies a ‘vocative’ case in Latin, this is not a case in the sense here, namely a marker indicating the semantic relation of a noun or noun phrase to the verb. Vocative expressions do not bear semantic relations to verbs, since they occur outside of clauses. 11 11 .. .. 11 11 .. .. 99 99 .. .. GG GG ee ee nn nn ii ii tt tt ii ii vv vv ee ee CC CC aa aa ss ss ee ee MM MM aa aa rr rr kk kk ee ee rr rr ss ss While case markers are generally used to denote the relationship of a noun phrase to the verb, a genitive case marker indicates a relationship of a noun phrase to a noun. In English we have two genitive case markers, the postpositional clitic’s (Buffalo’s mayor), and the preposition of (the mayor of Buffalo). Quechua employs a genitive case suffix. QQ QQ uu uu ee ee cc cc hh hh uu uu aa aa 33D. Juzi-paj warmi Jose-genitive wife Jose’s wife Japanese employs a genitive postposition. JJ JJ aa aa pp pp aa aa nn nn ee ee ss ss ee ee 34. John no imooto John of sister John’s sister Morphological Categories - 7 11 11 .. .. 22 22 .. .. NN NN uu uu mm mm bb bb ee ee rr rr A second very common inflectional category associated with noun, probably the most common, is that of number. The most frequent number category is that of plural, singular usually being unmarked, as in English. EE EE nn nn gg gg ll ll ii ii ss ss hh hh 35. horses In Swahili, there are prefixes for both singular and plural, though these prefixes code noun class as well. (In Swahili, every noun belongs to one of 8 noun classes.) SS SS ww ww aa aa hh hh ii ii ll ll ii ii (Bantu; E Africa) 36. m-tu wa-tu NC m ,singular-person NC m ,plural-person the/a person (the) people (Ashton, p. 10) 37. ji-cho ma-cho NC j ,sg-eye NC j ,pl-eye eye eyes Some languages have a dual number in addition to plural number. In languages with a dual, the plural means three or more. TT TT üü üü mm mm pp pp ii ii ss ss aa aa SS SS hh hh oo oo ss ss hh hh oo oo nn nn ee ee (Uto-Aztecan; Nevada) 38. kapaayu horse,singular kapaayu-angku horse,dual kapaayu-ammü horse,plural (Dayley 1989: 219) In some languages, plural is represented by a separate plural word, rather than by a plural affix. HH HH aa aa ww ww aa aa ii ii ii ii aa aa nn nn (Polynesian, Austronesian) 39. ‘elau a‘u mau i‘a two my plur fish my two fish (Elbert & Pukui, p. 159) 11 11 .. .. 33 33 .. .. GG GG ee ee nn nn dd dd ee ee rr rr // // NN NN oo oo uu uu nn nn CC CC ll ll aa aa ss ss ss ss In many languages, nouns are classified into two or more genders or noun classes, the basis of assignment to noun class being partly semantic, partly arbitrary. The Swahili examples above illustrate this. In some languages, the noun classes are called genders, but these are really instances of the same category. In languages in which the noun classes are called genders, two of the noun classes are called masculine and feminine, because nouns denoting things with inherent gender (like men and women), the noun class of the noun is predictable from the inherent gender. French has just two genders, the assignment of nouns lacking inherent gender being largely arbitrary. In French, the gender is not marked on the noun, but only on modifiers like articles. Morphological Categories - 8 FF FF rr rr ee ee nn nn cc cc hh hh 40. le livre the,masc book the book 41. la maison the,fem house the house Dyirbal has four noun classes, one for masculine (including some nouns that are not inherently masculine), one for feminine, one for plants and things made from plants, and one for inanimates, though a few semantically animate nouns belong to the inanimate gender. As in French, the noun class is marked only on modifying words, particular a nounmarker or article. DD DD yy yy ii ii rr rr bb bb aa aa ll ll (Pama-Nyungan, Australia) 42. a. bayi ya‰a b. bayi yamani masc man masc rainbow the/aman the/a rainbow (Dixon 1972: 44) 43. balan d j ugumbil fem woman the/awoman 44. balam miraà “vegetable” black.bean 45. a. bala d j aw