Pernilla Hallonsten Halling

Download 2,96 Mb.

bet	89/130
Sana	17.04.2022
Hajmi	2,96 Mb.
	#559291

1 ... 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 ... 130

Bog'liq
WORD 1645554766440 (1)

Language Adverb
Conclusion

aDjective Semantic type	Examples	aDverb Semantic type
Examples
dimension	a great mountain	intensification	doubt greatly
age	an old house	–	–
value	a good book	value	dance well
color	a red flower	color	gleam redly
physical property	a soft surface	noise	speak softly
human propensity	an happy person	human propensity	laugh happily
speed	a fast car a slow train a quick answer	speed care time	run fast drive slowly (i.e. carefully ) answer quickly (i.e. soon)
noise	loud music	noise	scream loud (ly )
care	a careful person	care	open carefully

A number of shifts of the kind illustrated for English in table 8.12 are attested in some of the sample languages. Some of them are identical to the English examples in terms of which adjective type shifts into which adverb type. Others are different, but the fact remains that when an adjective is used adverbially, the individual semantic types for adjectives shift to one of the semantic types proposed for adverbs in this dissertation. In Mapudungun, the meaning shift from dimension to time is illustrated in the example pair in (8.32).
(8.32) Mapudungun (Auracanian) (Smeets 2008: 72)¹⁰

pichi

small
wentru
man
nie-n
have-1sg.ind
attr

‘I have a small man’

pichi

small

ąungu-n
speak-1sg.ind
adv

‘I spoke for a short while.’

Another example of a shift from
dimension, but towards
noise
is attested in Mian

(Nuclear Trans New Guinean). Note that the clitic in (8.33a) always attaches to the last element of the NP, although it may attach to all NP elements.

¹⁰(8.32a) and (8.32a) are repeated from (6.23b) and (6.25b) in section 6.4.3.

(8.33) Mian (Nuclear Trans New Guinean) (Fedden 2011: 116)

tíl

dog
su¯m=e

big=sg.m

attr

‘the big dog’

m¯en

child
gwáab=o
little=sg.f
su¯m

big

me-b-o=be
cry.ipfv-ipfv-3sg.f.sbj=decl
adv

‘The little girl is crying loud.’

Ewe (Atlantic-Congo) displays a shift from age to time, or perhaps aspect in the case of the Adjective xóxó ‘old’, which can be used as an Adverb meaning ‘already’.

(8.34) Ewe (Atlantic-Congo) (Ameka 1991: 86)

agbale

book
xóxó

old

lá
def
vú
tear
attr

‘The old book got torn.’

agbale

book
lá
def
vú
tear
xóxó

already

adv

‘The book is torn already.’
Table 8.13. speed/time adverbs

Language Adverb

Ainu (isolate) emkota ‘quickly, early’ (Refsing 1986: 254)
Bininj Gun-Wok (Gunwinyguan) na-borlok ‘swiftly, suddenly, “one shot” ’
(Evans 2003: 596)
Ewe (Atlantic-Congo) kábá ‘quickly, early’ (Ameka 1991: 43, 51)
Jamul Tiipay (Cochimi-Yuman) llye’yum / llyeyum ‘quickly, promptly’
(Miller 2001: 170)
Koyra Chiini (Songhay) tamba/tamba-tamba‘fast, quickly, immediately, early’ (Heath 1999: 253)
Lahu (Sino-Tibetan) hâP ‘quickly, fast, on the double, soon’ (Matisoff 1973: 2723)
Marathi (Indo-European) l@uk@r ‘quickly, soon’ (Dhongde & Wali 2009: 104)
Mian (Nuclear Trans New Guinean) sanggwâu ‘quickly, suddenly’

(Fedden 2011: 121)

In the case of speed and how items denoting speed may shift, the clearest tendency in the languages of the sample is that adverbs denoting speed often also have time meanings. This is illustrated with examples in table 8.13. Along similar lines, there is the Sahaptin (Sahaptian) affix ká-, which means ‘suddenly, all at once, quickly’ (Jansen 2010: 218–219). Another tendency is for adverbs that denote low speed to also have meanings that can be interpreted as either physical property or noise, in examples with meanings such as ‘slowly, gently, softly’. Languages where this is attested are presented in table 8.14.

Table 8.14. speed/physical property/noise adverbs

Language Adverb

Bininj Gun-Wok (Gunwinyguan) yeledj ‘slowly, gently, softly’ (Evans 2003: 596) Jamul Tiipay (Cochimi-Yuman) lyepaay ‘gently, slowly, softly’ (Miller 2001: 173) Koyra Chiini (Songhay) mooso/mooso-mooso ‘gently, slowly, delicately’
(Heath 1999: 253)
Lahu (Sino-Tibetan) ay´E ‘slowly; gradually; carefully; softly’

(Matisoff 1973: 275)
The examples in the last two tables do not pertain to a meaning shift as such. Rather, they serve to illustrate the affinity between speed and certain other semantic types. Most prominently, time meanings are found for adverbs that also denote high speed. This can be connected to the point made by Plungian & Rakhilina (2013: 352ff.) about high speed as a rich domain compared to that of low speed (cf. previous section).
Returning to the English examples in table 8.12, it seems that semantic shift may happen, but need not necessarily do so, when a property word occurring as an adjective is shifted to adverbial usage. In a sense, some type of meaning shift must occur as a consequence of the change of function; when an adjective is used as an adverb, a predicating expression, and not a referring expression, is being modified. But the extent

to which this affects the semantic type in question varies. In the cases of
speed
and

value, which are able to remain the same in the two functions, it should be noted that such notions cannot be conceived of in terms of referents only. Such semantic types seem to have scope over both the functions of adjectives and of adverbs. To grasp the concept of speed, we rely on the action or motion that it describes. In a similar vein, value, as a property of a referent, cannot be interpreted on its own, but needs some other quality to be interpreted. Conversely, color, which never seems to be found among simple adverbs, can perhaps be conceived of as describing an action or event, as in the example gleam redly (cf. example 6.41) from Lahu in chapter 6. However, in such cases, the referent that has the property of the color red is as crucial for the interpretation as the action described
by the predication. noise is another example of a type that does not shift, although it
can be the goal of a shift coming from, e.g., physical property (soft /softly ). When used as an adjective, loud must also be interpreted on the basis of an implicit action.
In conclusion, most property concepts are prone to be adjectives. When turned into

adverbs, property items tend to shift meaning. The exceptions are those property con- cepts that inherently describe actions or some other aspect of a situation that cannot be

interpreted from the referent alone (i.e. speed and value). Apart from speed, inten-
sification, time, and aspect are potential core types of adverbs. These types are no longer properties, and consequently, they lie outside the scope of this dissertation. Still, the observed tendency for such types of adverbs shows that there is a clear connection between these different types, even when widening the perspective to concepts other than those denoting properties, or even manner. Thus, adverbs may not necessarily be as heterogeneous as previously assumed.

Conclusion

This chapter has discussed semantic types of adverbs, in the same vein as Dixon’s (1982 [1977]) semantic types of adjectives. At the beginning of the chapter, three hypothesis were put forth in (8.1), which all have been confirmed. The cross-linguistically recurrent

semantic types of adverbs are
speed, value,
noise, and
care. Among these types,

speed emerged as a clear core type for adverbs. speed is attested in the great majority
of languages with simple adverbs. It is found in some classes of general modifiers, in lexicalization tendencies in adv, and in adverbial affixation. Similarly, value has been found as a core type for general modifiers, or a core or peripheral type for both adjectives and adverbs. noise and care were attested as peripheral types for adverbs, found among the simple adverbs of a smaller number of languages and in some general modifier classes. These semantic types for adverbs and general modifiers show stable cross-linguistic ten-
dencies. speed was then discussed in connection to time and aspect. This was followed
by a discussion of the semantic types of adjectives and adverbs, and why certain items tend to shift meaning when used adverbially, whereas others do not. Most property words occur as adjectives, in languages where adjectives are attested. When used adverbially, they tend to shift meaning towards various characteristics of the event that they describe. Accordingly, even though speed is a dominant core type for property-denoting adverbs, it appears that we must look for other potential core types outside the realm of property words.

Download 2,96 Mb.

Do'stlaringiz bilan baham:

Pernilla Hallonsten Halling

small

big=sg.m

big

old

already

Language Adverb

Language Adverb

Conclusion