Chapter published in:
Diverse Scenarios of Syntactic Complexity
Edited by Albert Álvarez González, Zarina Estrada-Fernández and Claudine Chamoreau
[Typological Studies in Language 126] 2019
► pp. 217–247

From discourse to syntax

The use of the discourse marker bwe in the creation of interclausal connectives in Yaqui

| Universidad de Sonora
This paper shows how Yaqui has recruited the element bwe, a discourse connective of discontinuity (that is, a spoken discourse marker that introduces a topic-shift), in order to participate in the creation of two new interclausal connectives: the cause/reason adverbial connective bwe’ituk and the adversative connective bweta. I argue that these two interclausal connectives come from a recent formation process that combines the discourse marker bwe and linguistic elements associated with the strategies used in the past for marking cause/reason clauses and adversative clauses in Yaqui, and that the recruitment of bwe from discourse to syntax is functionally motivated, since bwe can be viewed as a thematic reorientation device used in discourse, and bwe’ituk and bweta can be viewed as thematic reorientation devices used in syntax. A comparison between the two evolutionary processes originating the two bwe- interclausal connectives is also provided, showing that contrary to the bweta formation, the creation of bwe’ituk implies a process of explicitness-driven maturation and two syntactic rearrangements referring to the encoding of the adverbial clause subject and to the position of the connective within the adverbial clause, which are clear consequences of the discourse origin of bwe.
Keywords: discourse marker, interclausal connectives, cause/reason adverbial clause, adversative clause, thematic reorientation, grammaticalization
Published online: 04 July 2019
https://doi.org/10.1075/tsl.126.09gon
References

References

Álvarez González Albert
2009 Origen y desarrollo de marcadores de cláusulas adverbiales en yaqui. Paper presented during the Seminario de Complejidad Sintáctica , Universidad de Sonora, Hermosillo, México, 12-13 November.Google Scholar
Álvarez González, Albert
2010 Predicación secundaria en yaqui: Resultativa y depictiva. In Estudios de lenguas amerindias, 2: Contribuciones al estudio de las lenguas originarias de América , Estrada Fernández Zarina & Ramón Arzápalo Marín (eds), 17–39. Hermosillo: Universidad de Sonora.Google Scholar
2018, Apuntes sobre el Manual para administrar a los indios del idioma cahita los Santos Sacramentos, In Las lenguas de México : Diálogos historiográficos, Bárbara Cifuentes & Rodrigo Mártinez Baracs (eds), 211–232. Mexico: IIB UNAM/Somehil.Google Scholar
Bisang, Walter
2009 On the evolution of complexity – Sometimes less is more in East and mainland Southeast Asia. In Language Complexity as an Evolving Variable, Geoffrey Sampson, David Gil & Peter Trudgill. (eds), 34–49. Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar
2013 Grammaticalization in languages with a high degree of hidden complexity: Two types of maturation and two types of hidden complexity. Paper presented during the Seminario de Complejidad Sintáctica , Universidad de Sonora, Hermosillo, México, 11-12 November.Google Scholar
2014 Overt and hidden complexity – Two types of complexity and their implications. Poznan Studies in Contemporary Linguistics 50(2): 127–143. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Brody, Jill
1987 Particles borrowed from Spanish as discourse markers in Mayan language. Anthropological Linguistics 29: 507–521.Google Scholar
Buelna, Eustaquio
(ed.) 1890 Arte de la Lengua Cahita. México: Imprenta del Gobierno Federal.Google Scholar
Buitimea Valenzuela, Crescencio
2007 Peesio betana nottiwame. Regreso de Hermosillo. Hermosillo: Unison.Google Scholar
Carlson, Robert
1987 Narrative connectives in Supyire. In Coherence and Grounding in Discourse [Typological Studies in Language 11], Russell Tomlin (ed.), 1–19. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Clayman, Steven E.
2012 Address terms in the organization of turns at talk: The case of pivotal turn extensions. Journal of Pragmatics 44: 1853–1867. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Croft, William
1991 Syntactic Categories and Grammatical Relations. Chicago IL: Chicago University Press.Google Scholar
Dahl, Östen
2004 The Growth and Maintenance of Linguistic Complexity [Studies in Language Companion Series 71]. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Dedrick, John & Casad, Eugene H.
1999 Sonora Yaqui language structure. Tucson AZ: The University of Arizona Press.Google Scholar
Dedrick, John
1985 Las cartas en Yaqui de Juan Bandera. Tlalocan X: 119–187Google Scholar
Diessel, Holger
1996 Processing factors of pre- and postposed adverbial clauses. Berkeley Linguistics Society 23: 71–82. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
2001 The ordering distribution of main and adverbial clauses. Language 77(2): 433–455. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Estrada Fernández, Zarina, Buitimea Valenzuela, Crescensio, Gurrola Camacho Adriana E., Castillo Celaya, María Elena & Carlón Flores, Anabel
2004 Diccionario yaqui-español y textos: obra de preservación lingüística. México: Plaza y Valdés.Google Scholar
Estrada Fernández, Zarina & Álvarez González, Albert
2008 Parlons Yaqui. Paris: L’Harmattan.Google Scholar
Evans, Nicholas
2007 Insubordination and its uses. In Finiteness: Theoretical and Empirical Foundations, Irina Nikolaeva (ed.), 366–431. Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar
2009 Insubordination and the grammaticalisation of interactive presuppositions. Paper presented during Methodologies in determining morphosyntactic change , Osaka, Japan, March 2009. <http:// www​.r​.minpaku​.ac​.jp​/ritsuko​/english​/symposium​/pdf​/symposium​_0903​/Evans​_handout​.pdfGoogle Scholar
Ford, Cecilia E., & Thompson, Sandra A.
1986 Conditionals in discourse: A text-based study from English. In On Conditionals , Elizabeth Closs Traugott, Alice ter Meulen, Judy Snitzer Reilly, & Charles A. Ferguson (eds), 353–373. Cambridge: CUP. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Frajzyngier, Zygmunt
1988 Polish conjunctions and switch reference. Ms, University of Colorado at Boulder.Google Scholar
Fraser, Bruce
1990 An approach to discourse markers. Journal of Pragmatics 14: 383–395. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Givón, T.
2001 Syntax. An introduction. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Givón, T.
2009 Discourse-structure constraints on the grammaticalization of clausal conjunctions. Paper presented during the Seminario de Complejidad Sintáctica, Universidad de Sonora, Hermosillo, México, 12–13 November.
Guerrero, Lilián
2019 Adverbial subordinators in Yaqui. In Diverse Scenarios of Syntactic Complexity [Typological Studies in Language 126], Albert Álvarez González, Zarina Estrada Fernández & Claudine Chamoreau (eds). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. (this volume)Google Scholar
Hayashi, L.
1989 Conjunctions and referential continuity. Ms, University of Oregon at Eugene.Google Scholar
Hernández Doode, Gabriela
2002 Marcadores discursivos: Una aproximación en la narrativa yaqui. MA Thesis, Universidad de Sonora, Hermosillo.Google Scholar
Heine, Bernd & Kuteva, Tania
2002 World Lexicon of Grammaticalization. Cambridge: CUP. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Hopper Paul J. & Traugott, Elizabeth. Closs
1993  Grammaticalization. Cambridge: CUP.Google Scholar
Johnson, Jean
1962 El idioma yaqui. México: INAH.Google Scholar
Kortmann, Bernd
1997 Adverbial subordination: A Typology and History of Adverbial Subordinators Based on European Languages. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
2001 Adverbial conjunctions. In Language Typology and Language Universals, Martin Haspelmath, Ekkehard König, Wulf Oesterreicher, & Wolfgang Raible (eds), 842–854, Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Kuteva, Tania
2017 The “mirror” of insubordination. Paper presented at the Linguistics Departamental Seminar, SOAS, University of London, 13 June 2017. < https://​www​.youtube​.com​/watch​?v​=Jfq1KcoRens​&t​=7s (6 November 2017).
Li, Charles
1988 Conjunctions as switch-reference devices in Green Hmong. Ms, University of California at Santa Barbara.Google Scholar
Lindenfeld, Jacqueline
1973  Yaqui Syntax. Berkeley CA: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Lionnet, Andrés
1977 Los elementos de la lengua cahita. México: UNAM.Google Scholar
Martin Zorraquino Maria Antonia & Portalés Lázaro, José
1999 Los marcadores discursivos. In Gramática descriptiva de la lengua española, Vol. 3, Ignacio Bosque & Violeta Demonte (eds), 4051–4213. Madrid: Espasa Calpe.Google Scholar
Meillet, Antoine
1958[1921]. Linguistique historique et linguistique générale. Paris: Champion.Google Scholar
Miller Wick R.
1984 The Classification of the Uto-Aztecan Languages Based on Lexical Evidence. International Journal of American Linguistics 50, n.1. 1–24.Google Scholar
Miller, Jim
2006 Influence of literacy on language development. In Encyclopedia of Language & Linguistics, 2nd edn, Keith Brown (ed.), 661–665. Oxford: Elsevier. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Mithun, Marianne
1988 The grammaticization of coordination. In Clause Combining in Grammar and Discourse [Typological Studies in Language 18], John Haiman & Sandra A. Tompson (eds), 331–359. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Myers-Scotton, Carol
1993 Duelling Languages: Grammatical Structure in Code-switching. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Onodera, Noriko
2011 The grammaticalization of discourse markers. In The Oxford Handbook of Grammaticalization, Heiko Narrog & Bernd Heine (eds), 614–624, Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar
Pfaff, Carol
1982 Constraints on language mixing: Intrasentential code-switching and borrowing in Spanish/English. In Spanish in the United States, Jon Amastae & Lucía Elías-Olivares (eds), 264–297. Cambridge: CUP.Google Scholar
Giacalone Ramat, Ana & Mauri, Caterina
2011 The grammaticalization of coordinating interclausal connectives. In The Oxford Handbook of Grammaticalization, Heiko Narrog & Bernd Heine (eds), 656–667. Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar
Rojas Nieto, Cecilia
2019 Constructional grounding in emerging complexity: Early comp-que constructions in Spanish acquisition. In Diverse Scenarios of Syntactic Complexity [Typological Studies in Language 126], Albert Álvarez González, Zarina Estrada Fernández & Claudine Chamoreau (eds). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. (this volume)Google Scholar
Schiffrin, Deborah
1987  Discourse markers. Cambridge: CUP. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Silva Encinas, Carlos, Álvarez Romero, Pablo, & Buitimea Valenzuela, Crescencio
(eds) 1998 Jiak nikpoe’tejoim, pláticas en Yaqui. Hermosillo: Universidad de Sonora.Google Scholar
Stassen, Leon
1985 Comparison and Universal Grammar: An Essay in Universal Grammar. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Thompson, Sandra A. & Longacre, Robert E.
1985 Adverbial clauses. In Language Typology and Syntactic Description, Vol. II: Complex Constructions , Timothy Shopen (ed.), 171–234. Cambridge: CUP.Google Scholar
Torres, Lourdes
2002 Bilingual discourse markers in Puerto Rican Spanish. Language in Society 31: 65–83. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Traugott, Elizabeth Closs
1988 Pragmatic strengthening and grammaticalization. In Proceedings of the Fourteenth Annual Meeting of he Berkeley Linguistics Society, Shelley Axmaker, Annie Jaisser & Helen Singmaster (eds), 406–416. Berkeley CA: BLS.Google Scholar
1995 Subjectification in grammaticalisation. In Subjectivity and Subjectivisation, Susan Wright & Dieter Stein (eds), 31–54. Cambridge: CUP. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
2004 Le rôle de l’évolution des marqueurs discursifs dans une théorie de la grammaticalisation. In Structure informationnelle et Particules énonciatives. Essai de typologie. M. M. Jocelyne Fernandez-Vest & Shirley Carter-Thomas (eds). 295–334. Paris: L’Harmattan.Google Scholar
Waltereit, Richard & Detges, Ulrich
2007 Different functions, different histories: Modal particles and discourse markers from a diachronic point of view. Catalan Journal of Linguistics 6: 61–80. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Cited by

Cited by 2 other publications

Haselow, Alexander & Sylvie Hancil
2021.  In Studies at the Grammar-Discourse Interface [Studies in Language Companion Series, 219], ► pp. 2 ff. Crossref logo
Álvarez González, Albert
2021.  In Studies at the Grammar-Discourse Interface [Studies in Language Companion Series, 219], ► pp. 314 ff. Crossref logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 21 october 2021. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.