Cagliari, Italy 15-18 September 2003
ALT V Conference
Michael Fortescue
Analytic vs synthetic constructions in Chukchi
Chukchi (like all Chukotko-Kamchatkan languages) makes wide use of copula-like auxiliary verbs. The auxiliaries are typologically unusual in so far as they include transitive ('have as') as well as intransitive ('be') auxiliaries applicable to the same bases. The function of the analytic constructions concerned is in part to allow the attachment of TAM categories to otherwise fixed, uninflecting forms of an adverbial nature. These are often case-marked, e.g. with 'equative' case -u/o added to nominal or verbal stems, but also include non-transparent forms like vetgyry 'in agreement' (as in vetgyry va- 'agree'). The auxiliary verbs in these constructions (as opposed to their inflections) do not introduce TAM category meanings themselves, however, unlike Indo-European compound tenses for instance. The question is what other function could be involved in the cases where both a synthetic and an analytic construction exist side by side and where both mark the same TAM categories. The need to define this functional difference has been recognized in the literature, notably by Skorik (1977: 254ff.), who calls the non-obligatory constructional type 'distinctive' (vydelitel'ny), using the adverbial gloss 'precisely, namely' (imenno) to capture the meaning; he distinguishes this from 'restricting' (ogranicitel'ny), negative, and 'telic' (tselenapravlenny) constructions. 'Distinctive' he characterizes roughly as 'contrasting with some other action(s)'. Exactly what is contrasted with what (and why) is not discussed - this is the matter addressed in the present paper with the help of contextualized examples of usage and with appeal to Lambrecht's definition of 'predicate focus' (Lambrecht 1994). It is found that the analytical construction in Chukchi corresponds in function rather well to the morphologically marked 'predicate focus' construction in neighbouring Yukagir, so this may represent an areal feature. In general, however, the distinction in Chukchi would appear to fall in line with the broader 'iconic' distinction in this language between incorporating and non-incorporating constructions (both as regards noun objects and adjectival/adverbial modifiers). This may well have a bearing on the function of analytic as opposed to synthetic verbal constructions in other languages where both possibilities exist (cf. Mithun 1984 on noun object incorporation in Iroquoian, for example).
References:
Lambrecht, Knud. 1994. Information structure and sentence form. Cambridge: University of Cambridge Press.
Mithun, Marianne. 1984. The evolution of noun incorporation. Language, 60: 847-93.
Skorik, Petr J. 1977. Grammatika cukotskogo jazyka, t. 2. Moskva/Leningrad: Izdatel'stvo Akademii Nauk SSSR.