Postal Address
Doris L. Payne,
Department of Linguistics,
University of Oregon,
Eugene, Oregon 97403,
USA.
Homepage
http://www.uoregon.edu/~dlpayne/doris.html
"Possessor Raising/Ascension" is not an "esoteric quirk" of just a few exotic languages. Rather, External Possession (which includes Possessor Raising/Ascension) is very widespread genetically and geographically. It is, in fact, as important as are applicatives, causatives, passives, antipassives, middle voice, etc. in expressing the cognitive interpretation or perspective that a speaker has on an event. This course will treat several construction types as a coherent family of EP constructions because they share certain formal characteristics, and because they share certain functions. At the same time, it will be stressed that all bona fide EP constructions are "Voice-related" because of how they manipulate the grammatical expression of semantic roles.
The course starts with definitional issues, including the feasibility of defining a "syntactic category" within typological and functional linguistics. For the phenomenon at hand, we will ask to what extent one can usefully define what are, and are not, EP constructions, and why. In the process, we will address the issue of Voice, examining the relationships between semantic roles, cognitive "End Point" or "Locus of Affect", and grammatical relations. The course then examines form variation found in EP constructions, and geographical and genetic distribution, and will involve "case studies" from specific languages. The final section of the course focuses on the functions of EP constructions, further motiviating their connection to the larger domain of Voice.
Part II. The functional domain of voice: Idealized Cognitive Event Model. Voice and the manipulation of Event structure.
Tuesday:
Constraints on accessibility to EP. Verb issues: transitivity, aktionsarten
Noun issues: grammatical relation, (in)alienability.
Wednesday:
Formal typology and "case studies": Dative EPs (e.g., Slavic, Romance,
Japanese). Applicative type (e.g., Bantu, Mayan, Australian).
Thursday:
Formal typology, cont: Incorporation type (e.g., Guaraní, Mapudungu).
No morphological marking (Maasai). Languages with multiple EP constructions
(e.g., Creek, Korean, Oluta Popoluca). Marginal EP constructions.
Friday:
Functions of external possession (e.g. Maasai vs. Mayan).
External Possession, ed. by Doris L. Payne and Immanuel Barshi, 3-29. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Note: All chapters in this book are recommended. At least those marked with * below will be specifically addressed in course lectures.*Chappell, Hilary. 1999. The double unaccusative construction in Sinitic languages. External Possession, ed. by Doris L. Payne and Immanuel Barshi, 195-228.. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
*Donohue, Mark. 1999. Syntactic roles vs. semantic roles: external possession in Tukang Besi. External Possession, ed. by Doris L. Payne and Immanuel Barshi, 373-401. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
*Haspelmath, Martin. 1999. External possession in a European areal perspective. External Possession, ed. by Doris L. Payne and Immanuel Barshi, 109-135. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
*McGregor, William. 1999. External possession constructions in Nyulnyulan languages. External Possession, ed. by Doris L. Payne and Immanuel Barshi, 429-448. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
*Zavala, Roberto. 1999. External possessor in Oluta Popoluca (Mixean): applicatives and incorporation of relational terms. External Possession, ed. by Doris L. Payne and Immanuel Barshi, 339-372. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Payne, Doris L. and Immanuel Barshi. 1999. External possession: what, where, how and why. External Possession, ed. by Doris L. Payne and Immanuel Barshi, 3-29. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Payne, Doris L. 1997a. The Maasai external possessor construction. Essays on Language Function and Language Type, ed. by Joan Bybee, John Haiman, and Sandra Thompson, 395-422. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Payne, Doris L. 1997b. Argument structure and locus of affect in the Maasai external possession construction. Berkeley Linguistics Society 23. Special Session on African Languages, 98-115. Velazquez, Maura. 1996. The Grammar of Possession: Inalienability, Incorporation and Possessor Ascension in Guaraní. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. [Especially chapter 2 "The Alienability/Inalienability Opposition in Language", and Section 3.1 "A schematic characterization of possession".]
Background readings: