1
THE SYNTACTIC AND SEMANTIC FEATURES
OF RECIPROCAL VERBS IN THAI
Amara Prasithrathsint
Professor Emeritus
Chulalongkorn University
B
Bangkok,
k k Thailand
Th il d
03/06/54
CONCEPTS: reciprocal verb
2
Reciprocal verbs=verbs that refer to
an action that two or more people
do to each other or one another;;
for example, the verb meet in
My client and I sometimes meet in a
restaurant.
t
t
to meet = reciprocal verb
03/06/54
CONCEPTS: reciprocal verb
3
JAPANESE
kodomo-tachi-ga
kodomo tachi ga otagai-o
otagai o naguri-at-ta
naguri at ta
child-PL-NOM otagai-ACC
g
hit-aw-PST
‘‘The children hit each other.’’
kodomo-tachi-ga mato-o uchi-at-ta
child PL NOM target-ACC
child-PL-NOM
target ACC shoot-aw-PST
shoot aw PST
‘‘The children shot the target one after
another.’’
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CONCEPTS: reciprocal
p
construction
4
FRENCH
Nous nous aimons même si nous nous disputons un
peu.
We love each other even if we fight a little bit.
bit ’’
‘‘We
Ils se téléphonent chaque soir.
‘‘They call each other every night.’’
Ils
Il ss'aiment
aiment beaucoup
b
‘‘They love each other very much.’’
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CONCEPTS: reciprocal
p
construction
5
ITALIAN
Si abbracciarono affettuosamente.
They embraced each other affectionately.
Ci scambiammo alcune informazione.
We exchanged some information.
Vi scriveste frequentemente, dopo quell'estate.
You frequently wrote to each other after that
summer.
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CONCEPTS: reciprocal
p
construction
6
SPANISH
Antonio y y
yo nos besamos.
‘‘Antonio and I kiss each other.’’
¿Vosotros
¿V t os conocéis?
‘‘Do you all know each other?’’
Juan y María se casaron.
Juan and Maria got married to each other.
other ’’
‘‘Juan
Los estudiantes se ayundan.
‘‘ h students
‘‘The
d
hhelp
l each
h other.’’
h ’’
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PREVIOUS STUDIES
7
Dalrymple,
D
l
l Mary,
M
Makoto
M k t K
Kanazawa, Yookyung
Y k
Ki
Kim,
Sam Mchomobo, and Stanley Peters. 1998.
Reciprocal Expressions and the Concept of
Reciprocity. In Linguistics and Philosophy 21.159-210.
Faller, Martina. 2007. The Ingredients of Reciprocity
in Cusco Quechua
Quechua. In Journal of Semantics 24: 255288.
Fiengo,
F
Robert,
R b
and
d Howard
H
d Lasnik.
L
k 1973.
1973 The
Th
Logical Structure of Reciprocal Sentences in English.
In Foundation of Language 9: 447-468.
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PREVIOUS STUDIES
8
Heim,
H
i Irene,
I
Howard
H
d Lasnik,
L ik and
d RRobert
b tM
May.
1991. Reciprocity and Plurality. In Linguistic,
Inquiry 22. pp.63-101.
Yamada, Masahiro. 2007. Reciprocal without
Reciprocal Relation between Two (Syntactic)
Arguments Verbal Reciprocal in Japanese.
Arguments:Verbal
Japanese
http://udel.edu/~myamada. Reciprocals
cross-linguistically @ Berlin, Germany.
November 30th, 2007.
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OBSERVATION OF RECIPROCAL
CONSTRUCTIONS IN THAI
9
raw phóp kan thúk sàpdaa
‘‘We
We meet every week.
week ’’
Here pphópp ‘‘to meet’’ is a reciprocal
p
verb,
which occurs with kan ‘‘each other.’’
*raw
*
phóp
hó thúk sàpdaa
à d
i ungrammatical.
is
i l
‘‘We
We meet
ee eve
every
y wee
week.’’.
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MOTIVATION
10
Not all verbs with kan ‘‘each other’’
signify reciprocal relation.
relation
No previous study that focuses
specifically on reciprocal verbs in
Thai.
Many
Man questions
q estions about
abo t reciprocal
verbs in Thai.
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RESEARCH QUESTIONS
11
Are reciprocal verbs a separate subcategory
g y of verbs?
Are they similar to English reciprocal
verbs?
Are they implicitly signified by their
lexical meaning and plural subjects?
What are syntactic and semantic features
that differentiate them from other types
off verbs?
b?
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DATA
12
Thai Concordance Online
Thai
Th i N
National
ti l C
Corpus
Both provided by the Department of
Linguistics, Chulalongkorn University.
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FINDINGS
13
Preliminary finding: There are certain verbs found
to occur with kan ‘‘each other’’ and kap ‘‘with’’
Examples:
tâm lѓ
lѓ֤ nít thalѝѝ̧
kan
Tam and Nid quarrel
each other
Tam
and Nid quarreled.
tâm
thalѝ̧ kàpp
nít
Tam
quarrel with Nid
‘‘Tam q
quarreled
arreled with Nid.’’
Nid ’’
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PROBLEMS
14
1.
2.
3.
Not all verbs can occur with the two
markers: kan and kàp.
p So are the verbs
that can occur as such inherently
reciprocal?
Certain verbs can occur only with kan
only.
l Why?
W
Certain verbs can occur with kan and
kàp. , but semantically non-reciprocal.
What are they?
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FINDINGS: THREE TYPES OF
RECIPROCALS IN THAI
15
1) true reciprocal verbs marked by kan
or kàpp ONLY and the meaning
g of true
exchange, e.g., thalѝ̧ ‘‘to quarrel,’’
2) semi-reciprocal
semi reciprocal verbs marked by kan
only and two-way resultative meaning,
e.g., khâa
kh ‘‘to kill,’’ and
3) pseudo
pseudo-reciprocal
reciprocal verbs marked by
kan, kàp, dûay-kan ‘‘together’’, and
comitative meaning,
meaning e.g.,
e g kin ‘‘to
to eat.
eat ’’
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MARKERS
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kkan (adverb) ‘‘each other, one
another
another’’
ka֣p (preposition) ‘‘with’’
duըay-kan (adverb) ‘‘together’’
duըay means ‘‘also, too’’ as in
khun caº kin chaam ni"i du¼ay may
Are you going to eat this one,
one too?
‘‘Are
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EXAMPLES: TRUE RECIPROCAL
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Á„¸¸É¥ª¡´œ´
´—Â¥oŠ
Á…oµ
‡
‡‡·—
‡®µ
‡¨µ—‡¨oª
˜nŠŠµœ
‡¨oµ¥‡¨¹Š
‡»‡¥¥
„
ki֣aw-phan
h
‘‘ connect’’’’
‘‘to
kha֣t-yѓ֤ѓƾ
‘‘to be in conflict ’’
khaըw
‘‘to get along’’
kho֤p
‘‘to date, to be friends’’
kho֤p-khit
‘‘to conspire’’
kho֤p-haa
‘‘to be friends’’
khlaըat-khlѓ֤ѓw ‘‘to miss, fail to meet’’
tѓ֣ѓƾƾ-ƾaan
ƾ
‘‘to g
get married’’
khla֤ay-khlѠƾ ‘‘to resemble’’
khuy
‘‘to
to talk
talk’’
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choғk
‘‘to box’’
TRUE RECIPROCAL (true exchange)
18
(1) dam
d kap
k ֣ nít
ít tѓѓƾ-ƾaan
tѓ֣ѓƾ ƾaan kan ‘‘Dam and Nit got
married.’’
d tѓ֣ѓƾ-ƾaan ka֣p nit ‘‘Dam got married
dam
i d to Nit.’’
i
(2) ch΁n ka֣p kh΁w khâw kan day dii ‘‘He and I get
along well.’’
ch΁n khâw ka֣p kh΁w dâayy dii ‘‘I gget alongg well with
him.’’
(3) sээƾ
sэհэƾ r࠴ang
r࠴ը ang níi khlaay-khlѠƾ
khla֤ay-khlѠƾ kan ‘‘
These two stories are similar.’’
r࠴ը ang níi khla֤ay-khlѠƾ kap r࠴ը ang nán ‘‘
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This story resembles that one.’’
SEMI-RECIPROCAL
SEMI
RECIPROCAL (resultative)
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((1)) chэ
h ը эp ‘‘to
‘‘ lik
like’’
raw chэըэp kan ‘‘We like each other.’’
cha̗n chэըэp khon na̗n ‘‘I like that guy.’’
*cha̗n chэըэpp ka֣p ((with)) khon na̗n ‘‘I like with that g
guy.’’
y
(2) thэըэt-thi̗ƾ ‘‘to neglect, abandon’’
saհamii phanrayaa khuu
saamii
khuըu nii
niըi thээt-thiƾ
thэըэt thi̗ƾ kan
‘‘this couple (husband and wife) neglect each other,’’
saհa
հ miiii thэ
h ը эt-thiƾ
hi̗ phanrayaa
h
‘‘ h hhusband
‘‘the
b d neglects
l
the
h
wife.’’
* a
*saհ
հ mii thэ
h ը эt-thiƾ
hi̗ ka֣
k p֣ phanrayaa
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PSEUDO-RECIPROCAL
PSEUDO
RECIPROCAL (comitative)
20
(1) chum-num
h
‘‘ gather,
‘‘to
h assemble’’
bl ’’
raw chum-num kan ph࠴ը a riըak-rэ̗эƾ khwaam-pen-tham
‘‘We gather together to fight for justice.’’
raw chum-num ka֣p ঃiik fa֣ay ……
‘‘We gather together with another group.’’
raw chum-num duըayy-kan……‘‘We g
gather together.’’
g
(2) kin ‘‘to eat’’
na̗k-rian
nak
rian kam
kam-laƾ
laƾ kin ঃaahaan
ঃaahaհan kan ‘‘the
the students are having
a meal together.’’
chaհn kin khaըaw ka֣p pph࠴ը an ‘‘I eat with myy friend.’’
na̗k-rian kin ঃaahaհan duըay-kan ‘‘The students
eat together.’’
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SUMMARY
21
TYPE OF
SYNTACTIC
RECIPROCAL
FEATURES
TRUE RECIPROCAL ONLY kan,
k kap
k ֣
SEMANTIC
FEATURES
T
True
exchange
h
iin
action
SEMI-RECIPROCAL ONLY kan
Resultative
meaning
PSEUDORECIPROCAL
Comitative
meaning
(togetherness)
03/06/54
kan, ka֣p,
duըay-kan
CONCLUSION
22
Thaii has
Th
h a group off verbs
b that
th t can be
b labeled
l b l d as ““true
““t
reciprocal verbs”” or ““inherently reciprocal verbs.””
Syntactically,
y
y, theyy occur with the adverb kan ‘‘each other’’
and the preposition kap ‘‘with’’. Semantically, they signify
exchange of action.
O h verbs
Other
b that
h can occur with
i h only
l kan
k ‘‘each
‘‘ h other’’
h ’’ are
not true reciprocal verbs. Semantically, they only suggest
thee meaning
ea g of
o mutual
u ua result
esu of
o some
so e action
ac o represented
ep ese ed
by the verb. This class of verbs are labeled as ““semireciprocal””.
M verbs can occur with kan,
Most
k kap,
k and also duay-kan
d
k
‘‘together ’’ to signify comitative action or togetherness.
These are classified as ““pseudo-reciprocal
pseudo reciprocal verbs
verbs””..
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