Feature GB177: Can the verb carry a marker of animacy of argument, unrelated to any gender/noun class of the argument visible in the NP domain?

Patrons: Alena Witzlack-Makarevich

Description ⇫

Summary

Does the animacy of an argument (S or A or P) determine the form or presence of an index on the verb. This system of marking needs to be unrelated to or not reducible to the gender/noun class system as revealed by agreement in the noun phrase.

Procedure

  1. Check the section on verbal morphology to identify whether the language has any indexing at all. Code 0 if it does not.
  2. If there is indexing, consider which categories are indexed on the verb. Code 0 if only person and/or number and/or clusivity are indexed and the marking is identical for both animate and inanimate referents.
  3. If there is indexing of the animacy feature or animacy conditions the use of allomorphs (including zero marking) for number or person marking, this is potentially a 1. Consider the agreement features within an NP and the respective gender/noun classes. Code 1 if the sets of referents identified on the basis of verbal indexing is not identical to the sets of referents identified on the basis of agreement with an NP.
  4. Code 0 if the same gender/noun class as the ones identified on the basis of agreement within an NP are found in the indexing system.

Examples

Anamuxra (ISO 639-3: imi, Glottolog: anam1248)

In Anamuxra animacy determines the indexing on the verbs of subjects (S/A) and objects (P). Each of these two cases alone would suffice for 1 (see Ingram 2001: 196, 307). "In transitive clauses, only animate P objects are indexed on the verb, while inanimate P objects are not." (Ingram 2001: 307)

a. u-mka=x             aku-i   n-simu-pa-n
INDF-ANIM=ACC.SG    far-OBL 3SG.O-spear-PST-1SG.S
‘I speared one (pig) over there.’ (Ingram 2001: 217)

b.  mugux-a-ka           uns-pa         p-xada-pa-ri
house-PROX-RESIDUAL  fire-RESIDUAL  get-EXH-PST-3SG.S
‘The fire got the whole house.’ (Ingram 2001: 227)

Animacy also matters for how subjects are indexed (S/A arguments). According to Ingram (2001: 196), "bound pronominal suffixes are used to indicate number in case of animate subjects; for inanimate subjects the third person singular is used regardless of number." This alone would also be sufficient for 1. Though animacy also determines the type of possessive construction used, this is not revealed by agreement in the noun phrase and thus does not qualify as gender/noun class visible in the NP domain. Anamuxra is coded 1.

Kagulu (ISO 639-3: kki, Glottolog: kagu1239)

In Kagulu, S/A and P arguments can be indexed on the verb. For third person arguments, the form of the indexes is determined by the noun class of the respective noun, i.e. it reflects noun classes of arguments visible in the NP domain. Whereas human nouns generally belong to class 1 (in singular) and 2 (in plural) and trigger class 1/2 indexes, animals often belong to class 5/6 and trigger class 5/6 indexes. Petzell (2008: 48) describes the situation in the following way: "Animacy considerations are not of paramount importance in Kagulu nouns. This means that in some other Bantu languages such as Swahili [G42], an animal or another animate noun triggers agreement from an animate class (usually class 1). In Kagulu, however, the nouns always trigger agreement from their inherent class." Kagulu is coded as 0.

Further reading

No suggestions.

References

Ingram, Andrew. 2001. Anamuxra: A language of Madang province, Papua New Guinea. Sydney: University of Sydney. (Doctoral dissertation)

Petzell, Malin. 2008. The Kagulu language of Tanzania: grammar, text and vocabulary. (East African languages and dialects, 19.) Cologne: Rüdiger Köppe.

Features on indexing


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Values ⇫

Name Glottocode Family Macroarea Contributor Value Source Comment