Associated motion as an applicative in Nuer

Abstract

Cross-linguistically, associated motion (AM) does not usually affect the valence of the verb (Belkadi 2016, Guillaume and Koch 2021); when it does, it is sporadic and lexically restricted (e.g. Payne 2021). Yet in the West Nilotic language Nuer, AM introduces an applied phrase with argument properties. 

Example in (1) shows that the locative noun rɛ̄j ‘inside’ is an optional adjunct (as signalled by the brackets) of the transitive verb lɛ́p ‘open’. By contrast, in (2) it is an obligatory constituent that indicates the goal of the motion co-event. AM in (2) is signalled on the verb stem by changes in vowel quality and tone, as compared to the transitive verb in (1).

(1)             cʌ̤́                t̪í̤i̤i̤ɰ                   lɛ́p                       (rɛ̄j)

                  pfv.1sg        door.sg              open.tr.nf              inside(loc)

                  ‘I opened the door (inside).’

(2)             cʌ̤́                 t̪í̤i̤i̤ɰ                  lɛ̀ap                        rɛ̄j 

                  pfv.1sg        door.sg              open.am.nf             inside(loc)

                  ‘I opened the door whilst going inside.’

When antipassive-like morphology is applied to AM verbs, the motion co-event is retained, and the goal is demoted to an oblique PP, as is evident from (3a). Yet, this goal has the properties of an argument, as evidenced by the facts that (i) omitting it renders the sentence ungrammatical, as shown in (3b), and (ii) because it cannot invert with the adjunct, as shown in (3c). The verb derivation in (3) is known as the associated motion oblique (AM.OBL). 

(3)       a.         cʌ̤́                             t̪í̤i̤i̤ɰ                          lɛ̀p                        kʌ̤́             rɛ̄j 

                        pfv.1sg                     door.sg                     open.am.obl.nf     prep         inside(loc)            

                          ‘I opened the door whilst going inside.’

             b.         * cʌ̤́                                t̪í̤i̤i̤ɰ                         lɛ̀p                                                                  

                               pfv.1sg                     door.sg                     open.am.obl.nf                       

                         ‘I opened the door whilst going.’                                         

             c.         * cʌ̤́                       t̪í̤i̤i̤ɰ                lɛ̀p                        kɛ̀            ɟʊ̄bà         kʌ̤́              rɛ̄j 

                           pfv.1sg               door.sg            open.am.obl.nf     prep         Juba         prep         inside(loc)

                          ‘I opened the door in Juba whilst going inside.’

In this paper we provide an overview of this typologically unusual system of AM, comparing it to the valence-changing operations observed in the literature on applicatives and antipassives. We conclude that the AM in Nuer is an applicative derivation and the AM.OBL is a special type of valence-decreasing operation whereby the oblique retains some argument properties.

References:

Belkadi, Aicha (2016). Associated motion constructions in African languages. Africana Linguistica 22: 43-70.

Guillaume, Antoine and Harold Koch (2021). Introduction: Associated Motion as a grammatical category in linguistic typology. In Antoine Guillaume and Harold Koch (eds.), Associated motion. (Empirical Approaches to Linguistic Typology 64), Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton, pp. 3-32.

Payne, Doris L. (2021). The extension of associated motion to direction, aspect and argument structure in Nilotic languages. In Antoine Guillaume and Harold Koch (eds.), Associated motion. (Empirical Approaches to Linguistic Typology 64), Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. pp. 695-746.