Grammaticalization of complex predicates
Masayoshi Shibatani
Department of Linguistics
Rice University
Introduction
Phenomenon: Grammaticalization of motion verbs
COME/GO in complex predicates—converbal complex
predicates and serial verbs
“Converbal complex predicates”
Japanese
Korean
arui-te iku/kuru
tally-e ota/kata
walk-CON go/come
‘come/go walking’
“Serial verbs”
Mandarin Chinese
tā zŏu qù
he walk go
‘He went walking.’
run-CON1 come/go
‘come/go running’
Atayal (Formosan)
m-usaʔ m-kaŋi tasah Taliʔ
AF-go
AF-walk there
Tali
‘Tali goes over there walking.’
Formal difference between converbal complex
predicates and serial verb constructions
Foley & Olsen (1985) on serial verb constructions:
“constructions in which verbs sharing a common actor
or object are merely juxtaposed, with no intervening
conjunction” (18)
Mandarin Chinese
wŏ zŏu qù xúeixiào
I
walk
go school
‘I walk to school/(lit.) I go to school walking.’
Japanese
Boku-wa gakkoo-ni arui-te iku/kuru
I-TOP
school-to
walk-CON go/come
‘I walk to school/(lit.) I come/go to school walking’
Serial verb constructions in Formosan languages
Wulai Atayal
m-usaʔ m-aniq mamiʔ Sayun
AF-go
AF-eat
meal
Sayun
‘Sayun goes to eat a meal.’
Mayrinax Atayal
wah-an ‘i’
m-itaal ni’ yumin ‘i’
come-LF
LINK AF-see
GEN Yumin
‘Yumin came to see his mother.’
Paiwan
maŋtjəz-akən a
come-1S.NOM
NOM mother=3SG.BG
pacun tjai kina
LINK see
‘I came to see Mother.’
Changpin Amis
ma-hrək kaku (a)
AF-finish
yaya=nia’
OBL mother
k-um-aən tu futiŋ
1S.NOM LINK eat-AF
‘I have eaten the fish.’
ACC fish
Grammatialization of iku/kuru ‘go/come’ in the
spatial domain
Cline of
Kanozyo-wa gakkoo-ni arui-te
she-TOP
school-to
it-ta.
walk-CON go-PAST
grammaticalization
Less
‘She walked (walk went) to school.’
(Manner + Motion)
Kanozyo-wa heya-kara sotto
she-TOP
room-from
de-te
ki-ta.
quietly exit-CON come-PAST
‘She came out (exit came) of the room quietly.’
(Location change + Motion)
Kare-wa kissaten-de koohii-o non-de ki-ta.
he-TOP
café-at
cofee-ACC drink-CON come-PAST
‘He drank coffee at the café (and came).’
(Action + Motion)
More
Questions
How does grammaticalization take place in specific
constructions—e.g. complex predicates?
Which environment facilitates grammaticalization?
Does metaphor drive grammaticalization?
Does high text frequency facilitates grammaticalization?
Is there instantaneous or abrupt grammaticalization?
Summary of the decategorialization pattern of
iku/kuru ‘come/go’ in Japanese
mieru rassyaru -ku
more
V-like
lexical
kuru ‘come’ 〇
Valency
Fragments
Neg. scope
X
X
〇
〇
N/A
△
△
〇
△
both
〇
〇
〇
X
X
wide
X
◎
◎
X
X
narrow
‘walk come’
arui-te kuru 〇
‘exit come’
de-te kuru
‘drink come’
less
V-like
non-de kuru
(◎ = super, 〇= O.K., △＝grudgingly, X = no)
◊ mieru (lit. ‘visible’) honorific suppletion
Lexical kuru ‘come’
mieru ‘visible’
(honorific ‘come’)
mie-ta
Yamada-sensei-ga
koogi-ni ki-ta.
Yamada-professor-NOM lecture-to come-PAST
‘Prof. Yamada came to lecture.’
Sensei-ga ki-ta/mie-ta/irassyat-ta/*rassyat-ta. (Lexical kuru)
teacher-NOM come-PAST
‘The teacher came.’
Kono atui-noni arui-te ki-ta /mie-ta /irassya-ta /*?rassyat-ta no?
this
hot-despite walk-CON come-PAST
‘(You) came walking despite this heat?’
COMP
Tonari-no okusan-ga omote-ni de-te ki-ta /mie-ta /irassyat-ta
neighbor-of wife-NOM
outside-to exit-CON come-PAST /rassyat-ta
‘The neighbor’s wife came (exist came) outside.’
Yamada-sensei-wa ippai non-de
ki-ta /*mie-ta/irassyat-ta
Yamada-professor-TOP a.drink drink-CON come-PAST /rassyat-ta
‘Prof. Yamada had a drink (and came).’
Valency property: the goal relation
Taroo-wa Mie-no heya-kara zibun-no heya-ni it-ta（Lexical iku）
Taro-TOP
Mie-of room-from self-of
room-to go-PAST
‘Taro went to his room from his own room.’
x
*Taroo-wa gakkoo-ni arui-ta.
Taro-TOP
school-to
walk-PAST
Japanese manner of motion V’s
do not sanction a goal argument
‘Taro walked to school.’
Taro-wa gakkoo-ni arui-te it-ta.
‘Taro went to school walking.’
☛ Iku/kuru ‘go/come’ of the arui-te iku (walk go) type
are like lexical iku/kuru in sanctioning a goal argument.
❒ de-te
iku (exit go) type
Taroo-wa zibun-no heya-o de-te, Mie-no heya-ni it-ta.
Taro-TOP self-of
room-ACC exit-CON Mie-of of room-to go-PAST
‘Taro exited his room and went to Mie’s room.’ (Clausal conjunction)
×
*Taroo-wa Mie-no heya-ni zibun-no heya-o
de-te
it-ta.
Taro-TOP Mie-of room-to self-of
room-ACC exit-CON go-PAST
‘lit. Taro went out of his room to Mie’s room.’ (Converbal complex)
❒
tabe-te iku (eat go) -type
ringo-o
apple-ACC
tabe-te ik-u
eat-CON
go-PRES
Clausal conjunction
‘go (after) eating an apple’
ringo-o tabe-te ik-u
‘eat an apple (and go on)’
Complex predicate
gakkoo-e ringo-o tabe-te i-ku
school-to
apple-ACC eat-CON go-PRES
‘go to school (after) eating an apple’
*
gakkoo-e ringo-o tabe-te i-ku
Loss of the motion
component of the GO
verb > deictic marking
×
Cf. Let’s go to McDonald’s to eat.
*Let’s go eat to McDonald’s.
Loss of the valency
property
Again the cline of grammaticalization
Kanozyo-wa gakkoo-ni arui-te
she-TOP
school-to
it-ta.
walk-CON go-PAST
Grammaticalization
Less
‘She walked (walk went) to school.’
(Manner + Motion)
Kanozyo-wa heya-kara sotto
she-TOP
room-from
de-te
ki-ta.
quietly exit-CON come-PAST
‘She came out (exit came) of the room quietly.’
(Location change + Motion)
Kare-wa kissaten-de koohii-o non-de ki-ta.
he-TOP
café-at
cofee-ACC drink-CON come-PAST
‘He drank coffee at the café (and came).’
(Action + Motion)
More
Question: What drives grammaticalization in the manner of the
attested cline of grammaticalization?
Metaphor?
“grammaticalization can be interpreted as the result of
a process that has problem solving as its main goal, whereby
one object is expressed in terms of another.”
(Heine, Claudi and Hünnemeyer 1991: 29)
Bernd Heine, Ulrike Claudi and Friederike Hünnemeyer. 1991.
Grammaticalization: A Conceptual Framework. Chicago:
University of Chicago press.
Frequency?
Traugott, E.C. and B. Heine (1991:9)
Given that a form A is a candidate for grammaticalization
both because of its semantic context and its salience, a further
condition has to apply for grammaticalization to take place:
The form has to be used frequently. The more grammaticalized
a form, the more frequent it is ...The seeds of grammaticalization
are therefore in a correlated set of phenomena: Semantic
suitability, salience and frequency. Only the third actually leads
to grammaticalization and hence to fixing, freezing,
idiomatization, etc.
Tarugott, E. C. and B. Heine 1991 (eds.). Approaches to
Grammaticalization, vol. 1. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Both iku and kuru are high frequency verbs
--both are equally involved in our constructions
Frequency of the whole constructions?
Less grammaticalized
More grammaticalized
arui-te
tabe-te iku
iku
20,500,000
walk-CON go
hasit-te iku
run-CON go
458,000
eat-CON go
713,000
non-de iku
71,400
drink-CON go
(Google 2/28/06)
Frequency and phonetic bulk (Zipf 1932, 1935)
Bybee, Perkins and Pagliuca (1994: 20)
“There is a link between frequency of use and
phonetic bulk such that more frequently used
material, whether grammatical or lexical, tends
to be shorter (phonetically reduced) relative to
less often used material. ”
Joan Bybee, Revere Perkins and William Pagliuca. 1994.
The Evolution of Grammar: Tense, Aspect, and Modality
in the Languages of the World. Chicago: University of
Chicago Press.
Rate of –ku contraction
Main verb GO iku does not contract to -ku (0%)
arui-te iku=to
arui-te-ku=to
walk-go=when
de-te iku=to
de-te-ku=to
exit-go=when
tabe-te iku=to
tabe-te-ku=to
eat-go=when
328,000
956
0.003%
58,200
63
0.01%
17,400
751
0.04%
(based on Google search)
Semantic account
Less grammaticalized
arui-te iku
walk-CON go
de-te
iku
exit-CON go
tabe-te iku
eat-CON go
More grammaticalized
(Manner + Motion)
spatio-temporal overlap
(Location change + Motion)
spatio-temporal overlap
(Action + Motion)
sequential/no spatio-temporal overlap
Semantically less congruous environment facilitates
grammaticalization
Semantically “congruous” event combinations
Events sharing participants
Events showing spatio-temporal overlap
Co-occurring events
Causally connected sequential events
Causative
Purposive
Resultative
Other naturally connected sequential events
Gradual grammaticalization pattern
mieru rassyaru -ku
more
V-like
lexical
kuru ‘come’ 〇
Valency
Fragments
Neg. scope
X
X
〇
〇
N/A
△
△
〇
△
both
〇
〇
〇
X
X
wide
X
◎
◎
X
X
narrow
‘walk come’
arui-te kuru 〇
‘exit come’
de-te kuru
‘drink come’
less
V-like
non-de kuru
(◎ = super, 〇= O.K., △＝grudgingly, X = no)
Rate of –ku contraction
Main verb GO iku does not contract to -ku (0%)
arui-te iku=to
arui-te-ku=to
walk-go=when
de-te iku=to
de-te-ku=to
exit-go=when
tabe-te iku=to
tabe-te-ku=to
eat-go=when
328,000
956
0.003%
58,200
637
0.01%
17,400
751
0.04%
(based on Google search)
How about the loss of valency property?
Taroo-wa gakkoo-ni arui-te it-ta.
Taro-TOP school-to walk-CON go-PAST
‘Taro went to school walking.’
X
Taroo-wa (*kaisya-ni) sinbun-o
Taro-TOP
yon-de it-ta.
company-to newspaper-ACC read-CON go-PAST
‘Taro read the newspaper and went to the company.’
Korean
(?)
Taroo-nun hoysa-ey sinmwun-ul
Taro-TOP
ilk-ko
ka-ssta
company-to newspaper-ACC read-CON go-PAST
‘read a newspaper and ran off to the company’
Instantaneous grammaticalization (Givón 1991:122*)
“involves the mental act of the mind recognizing a similarity
relation and thereby exploiting it, putting an erstwhile lexical
item into grammatical use in a novel context. The minute
a lexical item is used in a frame that intends it as
grammatical marker, it is thereby grammaticalized.
*Givón, T. “Serial verbs and the mental reality of ‘event’:
Grammatical vs. cognitive packaging”. In:E.
Traugott and B. Heine (eds.) Approaches to
Grammaticalization, Vol. 1:81-127. John Benjamins.
Temporal domain: Aspectual use of GO and COME in Japanese
kuraku nat-te
ki-ta
dark.ADV become-CON COME-PAST
‘It has started to get dark.’
syoozikini iki-te
honestly
ik-u
live-CON GO-PRES
‘go on living honestly
syoozikini iki-ru
honestly
kuraku nat-ta
live-PRES
dark.ADV become-PAST
‘live honestly’
‘It got dark.’
x
x
Future
^
x
x
Past
Temporal use of GO in Wulai Atayal
Perfect: Realis form of GO
a. gwan mŋkaʔ Sayun (Lexical GO)
go.REAL Taipei
Sayun
‘Sayun is gone to Taipei.’
b. gwan bkaʔ pyatuʔ qasa la (Perfect GO)
GO.REAL break rice bowl
that
F.PART
‘That rice bowl has broken.’
Future: Irealis form of GO
a. m-usaʔ m-aniq mamiʔ Sayun (Lexical GO)
AF-go
AF-eat
meal
‘Sayun goes to eat.’
Sayun
b. m-usaʔ qwalax (Future GO)
AF-GO
rain
‘It will rain.’
On the rise of the future meaning
Bybee, Pagliuca and Perkins (1991:29) “Back to the future”
FUTAGE 1
obligation
desire
FUTAGE 2 FUTAGE 3
> intention
> future >
FUTAGE 4
probability
imperative
COME-TO GO-TO
(cf. Heine, Claudi & Hünnemeyer 1991:174)
[intention] use comes fairly directly form the literal meaning of
‘the subject is on a path moving towards a goal’. The only
necessary change is for the movement and path to be taken
figuratively for the intention sense to arise. (Bybee, et al. )
While some have argued that a metaphorical transfer is involved
in deriving future meaning from a movement construction (Sweetser
1988; Emanation 1991), we do not see the need for invoking a
metaphorical mechanism in this case. The temporal meaning that comes
to dominate the semantics of the construction is already present as an
inference from the spatial meaning. When one moves along a path
toward a goal in space, one also moves in time. The major change that
takes place is the loss of the spatial meaning. Here again the function of
expressing intention comes into play. When the speaker announces
that s/he is going somewhere to do something, s/he is also announcing
the intention to do that thing. Thus intention is part of the meaning from
the beginning, and the only change necessary is the generalization to
contexts in which an intention is expressed, but the subject is not moving
spatially to fulfill that intention.
Bybee, J., R. Perkins, and W. Pagliuca The Evolution of Grammar:
Tense, Aspect and Modality in the languages of the world. 1994:269.
Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Heine, Claudi and Hünnemeyer (1991:70)
a. Henry is going to town. (Literal spatial meaning)
b. Are you going to the library?
c. No, I am going to eat. (Intention > Prediction> Spatial)
d. I am going to do my best to make you happy.
(Intention > Prediction > *Spatial)
e. The rain is going to come. (*Intention > Prediction/Future)
Future use of usaʔ ‘go’ in Wulai Atayal
a. m-usaʔ mŋkaʔ kiraʔ Sayun (main verb use)
AF-go
Taipei
today Sayun
‘Sayun goes to Taipei today.’
b. m-usaʔ m-aniq mamiʔ Sayun (serialization use)
AF-go
AF-eat
meal
‘Sayun goes to eat.’
c. p-qwalax
IRR-rain
‘It will rain’
d. m-usaʔ qwalax
AF-GO
rain
‘It will rain.’
Sayun
a. m-usaʔ m-nuw
AF-GO
AF-earthquake
‘An earthquake will occur shortly’
b. m-usaʔ takuy
AF-GO
fall down
ŋasan qani la
house
this
F.PART
‘This house will fall down shortly.’
c. m-usaʔ mu-qwas qutux knerin
AF-go
AF-sing
one
woman
‘A woman goes (to some place) to sing.’
‘*A woman will sing.’
d. p-qwas qwas knerin
IRR-sing song
woman
‘A woman will sing.’
Aspectual use of gwan ‘go.REALIS’
a. gwan mŋkaʔ Sayun (main verb use)
go.REAL Taipei
Sayun
‘Sayun is gone to Taipei.’
b. gwan m-tuw sakaw Sayun (serialization use)
go.REAL AF-exit room
Sayun
‘Sayun has gone out of the room.’
c. gwan tgayaw qhuniq qasa la
GO.REAL fall down
tree
that
F.PART
‘That tree has fallen down.’
d. gwan bkaʔ pyatuʔ qasa la
GO.REAL break rice bowl
that
‘That rice bowl has broken.’
F.PART
A third-person actor vs. a first-person actor
a. gwan mŋkaʔ Sayun
go.REAL Taipei
Sayun
‘Sayun is gone to Taipei.’
b.
*?gwan=kuʔ
mŋkaʔ
go.REAL=1SG.NOM Taipei
‘*?I am gone to Taipei.’
c. gwan=kuʔ
m-kaʔ pyatuʔ qasa la
GO.REAL=1SG.NOM AF-break rice bowl that
F.PART
‘I have broken that rice bowl.’
d. gwan m-kaʔ pyatuʔ qasa Sayun
go.REAL AF-break rice bowl that
Sayun
‘Sayun went/is gone to break that rice bowl.’
Repercussion of grammaticalization in syntax
Loss of a valency property
a. m-usaʔ=kuʔ te mŋkaʔ
AF-go=1SG.NOM to Taipei
‘I go to Taipei.’
b. m-usaʔ=kuʔ te mŋkaʔ (ruʔ) m-aziy=kuʔ kayaʔ
AF-go=1SG.NOM to Taipei
and AF-buy=1SG.NOM thing
‘I go to Taipei and buy stuff.’
c. m-usaʔ=ku
m-aziy kayaʔ (*?te) mŋkaʔ (serial verbs)
AF-go=1SG.NOM AF-buy
stuff
‘I go buy stuff (*to/in) Taipei.’
to Taipei
NAF form of the non-initial verb
Normal verb serialization (Wulai Atayal) : AF + AF
NAF + AF
a. m-qwas=kuʔ qwas Sayun (AF)
AF-sing=1SG.NOM song Sayun
AF + *NAF
‘I sing Sayun’s song.’
NAF +*NAF
b. qwas-an=muʔ qwas Sayun (PF)
sing-PF=1SG.GEN song
Sayun
‘I sing Sayun’s song.’
c. t-arin=kuʔ
m-qwas qwas Sayun (AF+AF)
AF-start=1SG.NOM AF-sing song
Sayun
‘I start singing Sayun’s song.’
d. *t-arin=kuʔ
qwas-an qwas Sayun (AF+*PF)
AF-start=1SG.NOM sing-PF
e. triŋ-un=muʔ
song Sayun
m-qwas qwas Sayun (PF+AF)
sing-PF=1SG.GEN AF-sing
song Sayun
a. wan=kuʔ
m-aniq mamiʔ (AF+AF)
GO.REAL=1SG.NOM AF-eat meal
‘I’ve eaten a meal.’
b. gwan=kuʔ
niq-un kwala mamiʔ=suʔ (AF+PF)
GO-REAL=1SG.NOM eat-PF
all
meal=2SG.GEN
‘I’ve eaten all your meal.’
c. nyux=kuʔ
EXIST=1SG.NOM
m-kas
m-ita yayaʔ=suʔ (AF+AF+AF)
AF-look.forward.to AF-see mother=2SG.GEN
‘I am looking forward to seeing your mother.’
d. nyux=kuʔ
pkas-un
m-ita yayaʔ Sayun (AF+PF+AF)
EXIST=1SG.NOM look.foward.to-PF AF-see mother Sayun
‘I am looing forward to seeing Sayun’s mother.’
e.*nyux=kuʔ
pkas-un
qit-an yayaʔ Sayun (AF+PF+*PF)
EXIST=1SG.NOM look.foward.to-PF see-PF mother Sayun
Japanese aspectual iku/kuru ‘go/come’
a. kare-mo dondon biiru-o non-de ik-u
he-also steadily beer-ACC drink-CON go-PRES
‘He also keeps on drinking beer.’
b. Ningen-wa
human-TOP
nani-o
tabe-te ki-ta=ka.
what-ACC eat-CON come-PAST=Q
‘What have humans been eating?’
c. Korekara-mo dondon sake-o
non-de ik-u
from.now-also steadily sake-ACC drink-CON go-PRES
‘From now on too (I will) keep on drinking sake steadily.’
d. *korekara-mo dondon eki-e
arui-te iku
from.now-also steadily station-to walk-CON go-PRES
‘(Intended for) From now on too (I will) keep on walking
to the station.’
a. Ano kooen-o sanzyuu-nen-rai zutto arui-te
that park-ACC thirty-year-over
ki-ta.
steadily walk-CON come-PAST
‘(I) have walked that park steadily over thirty years.’
Action + Motion (less congruous)
b. *Sanzyuu-nen-rai zutto uti-kare gakkoo-ni arui-te
thirty-year-over
steadily house-from school-to
ki-ta.
walk-CON come-PAST
‘(I) have walked from the house to the school over thirty years.’
Manner + Motion (congruous)
Korean aspectual ota ‘come’
(a) i
kongwuen-ul kenil-e-o-ass-ta. (Action + Motion)
this park-ACC
take.a.walk-CON-come-PAST-IND
‘(I) walked the park (and came back).’
(b) 30nyenkan ccwuk i kongwuen-ul kenil-e-o-ass-ta.
30.years.during steadily this park-ACC
take.a.walk-CON-come-PAST-IND
‘(I) have walked this park steadily over the (past) 30 years.’
(a) cip-eyse hakkyo-kkaci kel-e-o-ass-ta. (Manner + Motion)
house-from school-to
walk-CON-come-PAST-IND
‘I walked (walk-come) to school from the house.’
(b) *30nyenkan ccwuk cip-eyse hakkyo-kkaci kel-e-o-ass-ta.
30.year.during steadily house-from school-to
walk-CON-come-PAST-IND
‘I have walked (walk-come) to school from house for the (past)
30 years.’
Semantically less congruous environment facilitates
grammaticalization
Applies to both gradual and instantaneous
(metaphorical extension) cases of grammaticalization
Acknowledgements
Thanks are due to the Institute of Linguistics, Academia
Sinica and the National Science Council of the Republic of
China for financial support for my stay in Taiwan and for
my fieldwork in Wulai.
My sincere thanks also go to Lillian Huang and Elizabeth
Zeitoun for making my visit to Taiwan in December 2005
possible.
謝謝！
(matt@rice.edu)