Aimée Lahaussois | Laboratoire Histoire des Théories Linguistiques (UMR 7597 CNRS/Université Paris Diderot)
Thulung Rai, an endangered Tibeto-Burman language spoken in Eastern Nepal, presents two derivational suffixes associated with reflexivization: -si and -s. The first, -si, is quite productive, found in complete paradigms, and derives reflexives, reciprocals, antipassives and anticausatives from transitive verbs (and occasionally from intransitive verbs). The second marker, -s, is more difficult to analyze: it has a limited distribution in verb paradigms, only appearing with 1pi and 3sg forms, and appears in a number of different contexts: it is found with the same types of derivations as -si but also — in some cases obligatorily, in others optionally — with verbs that do not have reflexive (or related) functions. It is even found with some transitive verbs. In this presentation, I will propose an analysis of the phenomena above based on elicited and narrative data I have collected in the field. The -s in fact has multiple, albeit related, origins: it is a phonological reduction of -si in certain circumstances, while in others it appears to be an older reflexivizing suffix which has been integrated, to different degrees, into verb morphology. With transitives, it appears to be a trace reflecting the complex derivational history of verbs which are derived from intransitives.
2011The Thulung Rai verbal system: An account of verb stem alternation. Cahiers de Linguistique Asie Orientale 40(2): 189–224.
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Cited by
Cited by 7 other publications
Inglese, Guglielmo
2022. Towards a typology of middle voice systems. Linguistic Typology 26:3 ► pp. 489 ff.
Inglese, Guglielmo
2022. How do middle voice markers and valency reducing constructions interact? Typological tendencies and diachronic considerations. Folia Linguistica 56:2 ► pp. 239 ff.
2020. Predicate derivations in Thulung. Journal of South Asian Languages and Linguistics 7:1 ► pp. 57 ff.
Lahaussois, Aimée
2023. Ideophonic patterns in Kiranti languages and beyond. Folia Linguistica 57:1 ► pp. 1 ff.
Post, Mark W. & Yankee Modi
2022. Subject autonomy marking in Macro-Tani and the typology of middle voice. Linguistics 60:1 ► pp. 215 ff.
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