Chapter 14
The profile and development of the Maa (Eastern Nilotic)
antipassive
Maa (Eastern Nilotic) language varieties have
nominative/accusative syntactic patterns, but also an antipassive
construction marked by the verb suffix -ɪshɔ(r).
This suffix turns an otherwise transitive construction into an
intransitive one that can no longer express the P. Semantically the
-ɪshɔ(r) construction focuses on the action of
the verb or profiles long-term characteristics or ability of the
agent. It is not required in imperfective situations, but most
commonly does correlate with them. Interestingly,
-ɪshɔ(r) may occur on some intransitive roots
where it appears to highlight imperfectivity. The
-ɪshɔ(r) antipassive construction does not
appear to reconstruct to proto-Eastern Nilotic, though a verb root
cognate with Maa ɪshɔ(r) ‘give’ does go back to a
Proto-Maa-Lotuko-Lopit genetic node (though non-Maa languages within
this group may lack the antipassive function). Given similarities
between ɪshɔ(r) ‘give’ and the suffix
-ɪshɔ(r), the possibility of an antipassive
developing from ‘give’ is explored. Potential “drift” or borrowing
under Kalenjin (Southern Nilotic) influence is also noted.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Basic Maa morphosyntax
- 3.The Maa antipassive
- 3.1Syntax and propositional semantics of the
-ɪshɔ(r) construction with (di)transitive
roots
- 3.2Functional profile of the -ɪshɔ(r)
construction
- 3.2.1Properties of the P
- 3.2.2Focus on the action or static situation
- 3.2.3Imperfective aspect situations
- 3.2.4Long-term characteristics: ‘Ability to x’
- 3.2.5
agent orientation
- 4.-ɪshɔ(r) with intransitive roots
- 5.Origin of the Maa antipassive
- 5.1Parallels with the Maa verb root ɪshɔ(r) ‘give’
- 5.2Possible cognacy with other Nilotic antipassive(-like)
morphology
-
5.2.1Potential cognates in Eastern Nilotic languages
- 5.2.2Borrowing or drift influenced by Southern
Nilotic?
- 6.Conclusions
-
Notes
-
Abbreviations
-
References
References
Allam, Massimino & Hughell, Martha
n.d.
Otuho dictionary database. Unpublished.
Baković, Eric
2001 Vowel harmony and cyclicity in Eastern
Nilotic. In
Proceedings of the 27th Annual Meeting of the Berkeley
Linguistics Society, General Session and Parasession on
Language and Gesture,
Charles Chang,
Michael J. Hauser,
YuniKim, David Mortensen,
Mischa Park-Doob &
Maziat Toosarnvandani (eds), 1–12. Berkeley CA: BLS.
Barasa, David
2016 Ateso Grammar: A Descriptive Account of an
Eastern Nilotic Language. PhD dissertation, University of Cape Town.
Bird, Brian
2006 Tajik Persian complex predicates. Ms, University of Oregon.
Brecht, Richard & Levine, James
1985 Conditions on voice marking in
Russian. In
Issues in Russian Morphosyntax,
Michael Flier &
Richard Brecht (eds), 118–137. Columbus OH: Slavica.
Comrie, Bernard, Forker, Diana, Khalilova, Zaira & van den Berg, Helma
Creider, Chet A. & Tapsubei Creider, Jane
1989 A Grammar of Nandi. Hamburg: Helmut Buske.
Creissels, Denis
2012 The origin of antipassive markers in West Mande
languages. Paper presented at the 45th Annual Meeting of the Societas Linguistica
Europaea, Stockholm, August 29-September 1.
[URL] (10 August
2020).
Creissels, Denis & Diagne, Anna Marie
2013 Transitivity in Bakel Soninke.
Mandenkan 50: 5–38.
Dimmendaal, Gerrit
1983a The two morphological verb classes in
Nilotic. In
Nilotic Studies: Proceedings of the International
Symposium on Languages and History of the Nilotic
Peoples,
Rainer Vossen &
Marianne Bechhous-Gerst (eds), 269–309. Berlin: Dietrich Reimer.
Dimmendaal, Gerrit
1983b The Turkana Language. Dordrecht: Foris.
Dimmendaal, Gerrit
1987 Drift and selective mechanisms in morphological
changes: The Eastern Nilotic case. In
Papers from the 7th International Conference on
Historical Change [
Current Issues in Linguistic Theory 48],
Anna Giacalone Ramat,
Onofrio Carruba &
Giuliano Bernini (eds), 193–210. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Dimmendaal, Gerrit
1988 The lexical reconstruction of Proto-Nilotic: A
first reconnaissance.
Afrikanistische Arbeitspapiere 16: 5–67.
Dimmendaal, Gerrit
2009 Datives in Nilotic in a typological
perspective.
Afrikanistik-Aegyptologie-Online.
[URL] (10 August
2020).
Dixon, R. M. W.
1979 Ergativity.
Language 55(1): 59–138.
Dixon, R. M. W.
1994 Ergativity. Cambridge: CUP.
Ehret, Christopher
1971 Southern Nilotic History. Evanston IL: Northwestern University Press.
Ehret, Christopher
2001 A Historical-Comparative Reconstruction of
Nilo-Saharan. Cologne: Rüdiger Köppe.
Fortescue, Michael
1996 West Greenlandic half-transitive affixes in a
diachronic perspective. In
Cultural and Social Research in Greenland 95/96: Essays
in Honour of Robert Petersen,
Brigitte Jacobsen &
Claus Andreasen (eds), 34–44. Nuuk: Lisimatusarfik, Atuakkiorfik.
Fortescue, Michael, Jacobson, Stephen & Kaplan, Lawrence
2010 Comparative Eskimo Dictionary, with Aleut
Cognates. Fairbanks AK: Alaska Native Language Center.
Greenberg, Joseph
1959 The origin of the Masai passive.
Africa 29: 171–176.
Hamaya, Mitsuyo
1993 Maasai Auxiliaries and Infinitival
Constructions. MA Thesis, University of Oregon.
Heath, Jeffrey
1976 Antipassivization: A functional
typology. In
Proceedings of the Second Annual Meeting of the Berkeley
Linguistic Society,
Henry Thompson,
Kenneth Whistler,
Vicki Edge,
Jeri J. Jaeger,
Ronya Javkin,
Miriam Petruck,
Christopher Smeall &
Robert D. Van ValinJr. (eds), 202–211. Berkeley CA: BLS.
Israeli, Alina
1997 Semantics and Pragmatics of the “Reflexive” Verbs in
Russian. Munich: Otto Sagner.
Jacques, Guillaume
2014 Denominal affixes as sources of antipassive
markers in Japhug Rgyalrong.
Lingua 138: 1–22.
Janic, Katarzyna
2013 L’antipassif dans les langues
accusatives. PhD dissertation, Lumière University Lyon 2.
Janic, Katarzyna
2016 On the reflexive-antipassive polysemy:
Typological convergence from unrelated
languages. In
Proceedings of the Thirty-Sixth Annual Meetings of the
Berkeley Linguistics Society,
Nicholas Rolle,
Jeremy Steffman &
John Sylak-Glassman (eds), 158–173. Berkeley CA: BLS.
Janic, Katarzyna & Witzlack-Makarevich, Alena
Jerono, Prisca
2016 Passive and antipassive in Tugen. Paper presented at the Syntax of the World’s Languages 7
conference, Mexico City.
Kemmer, Suzanne
1993 The Middle Voice [
Typological Studies in Language 23]. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Levin, Beth
1993 English Verb Classes and Alternations: A Preliminary
Investigation. Chicago IL: University of Chicago Press.
Malchukov, Andrej
2017 Markedness effects in applicative
formation. In
Verb Valency Changes: Theoretical and Typological
Perspectives [
Typological Studies in Language 120],
Albert Álvarez Gonzáles &
Ía Navarro (eds), 3–29. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Mithun, Marianne
2000 Valency-changing derivation in Central Alaskan
Yup’ik. In
Changing Valency, Case Studies in Transitivity,
R. M. W. Dixon &
Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald (eds), 84–114. Cambridge: CUP.
Mol, Frans
1996 Maasai Language & Culture Dictionary. Limuru, Kenya: Maasai Centre Lemek.
Muratori, Carlo
1948 English Bari-Lotuxo-Acoli Vocabulary. Okaru: Catholic Mission Printing Press.
Nedjalkov, Vladimir
2007 Polysemy of reciprocal markers. In
Reciprocal Constructions [
Typological Studies in Language 71],
Vladimir Nedjalkov (ed.), 231–334. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Noonan, Michael
1992 A Grammar of Lango. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
Palmer, Frank R.
1994 Grammatical Roles and Relations. Cambridge: CUP.
Payne, Doris L.
1997 Argument structure and locus of affect in the
Maasai External Possession construction. In
Proceedings of the 23rd Meeting of the Berkeley
Linguistics Society, Special Volume on Syntax in African
Languages (23S),
Ashlee C. Bailey,
Kevin E. Moore &
Jeri L. Moxley (eds), 98–115. Berkeley CA: BLS.
Payne, Doris L.
2001 The explanation of argument structure:
Lexicalization or discourse use? Proceedings of the Seoul International Conference on
Discourse and Cognitive Linguistics, 532–556. Seoul: Korean Society of Discourse and Cognition.
Payne, Doris L., Hamaya, Mitsuyo & Jacobs, Peter
Polinsky, Maria
2013 Antipassive constructions. In
The World Atlas of Language Structures Online,
Matthew S. Dryer &
Martin Haspelmath (eds). Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.
[URL] (10 August
2020).
Polinsky, Maria
2017 Antipassive. In
The Oxford Handbook of Ergativity,
Jessica Coon,
Diane Massam &
Lisa Travis (eds), 308–331. Oxford: OUP.
Rasmussen, Kent
2002 Verb Tone in Il-Keekonyokie Maa. MA thesis, University of Oregon.
Rottland, Franz
1982 Die südnilotischen Sprachen: Beschreibung, Vergleichung
und Rekonstruktion [
Kölner Beitrage zur Afrikanistik 7]. Berlin: Dietrich Reimer.
Schroeder, Martin
1999 Dictionary Toposa-English, English-Toposa, 1st edn. Nairobi: SIL International.
Silverstein, Michael
1972a Chinook Jargon: Language contact and the problem
of multi-level generative systems, I.
Language 48(2): 378–406.
Silverstein, Michael
1972b Chinook Jargon: Language contact and the problem
of multi-level generative systems, II.
Language 48(3): 596–625.
Spagnolo, Fr. L. M.
1933 Bari Grammar. Verona: Missione Africane.
Tatevosov, Sergei
2011 Detelicization and argument suppression: Evidence
from Godoberi.
Linguistics 49(1): 135–174.
Thompson, Chad
1989 Voice and Obviation in Athabaskan and Other
Languages. PhD dissertation, University of Oregon.
Tucker, Archibald N. & Mpaayei, John T.
1955 Maasai Grammar, with Vocabulary. London: Longman, Greens.
Vossen, Rainer
1982 The Eastern Nilotes: Linguistic and Historical
Reconstructions. Berlin: Dietrich Reimer.
Yap, Foong Ha & Iwasaki, Shoichi
2003 From causatives to passives: A passage in East
and Southeast Asian languages. In
Cognitive Linguistics and Non-Indo-European
Languages,
Eugene Casad &
Gary Palmer (eds), 419–445. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
Yap, Foong Ha & Iwasaki, Shoichi
2007 The emergence of GIVE passives in East and
Southeast Asian languages. In
SEALS VIII: Papers from the 8th meeting of the Southeast
Asian Linguistics Society (1998),
Mark Alves,
Paul Sidwell &
David Gil (eds), 193–208. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, The Australian National University.
Cited by
Cited by 2 other publications
Janic, Katarzyna & Alena Witzlack-Makarevich
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 15 march 2024. 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.