CRLAO – “Two Modal Particles in Caijia (quasi-Sinitic): Contrast and Overlap”

Communication intitulée “Two Modal Particles in Caijia (quasi-Sinitic): Contrast and Overlap” présentée par Shanshan Lu (CRLAO-EHESS) dans le cadre du Séminaire du CRLAO sur « La typologie linguistique de l’Asie orientale » :

Date : mercredi 15 février 2017 de 16h30 à 18h.

Lieu : salle 200, Centre de recherches Europe-Eurasie (CREE) à l’INaLCO, 2, rue de Lille 75007 Paris.

 (La présentation sera donnée en anglais.)

Abstract

Caijia is a non-classified and endangered language of SVO spoken by less than 1000 people in northwestern Guizhou Province in southwestern China. This paper presents an analysis of two modal particles tv̩⁵⁵ (< ‘obtain, acquire’) and to⁵⁵ (< ? ‘to’) in Caijia which both possess a basic meaning of ‘can’. These two particles are phonetically and syntactically similar ([VP to⁵⁵/tv̩⁵⁵]), due to which difficulties arise when distinguishing one from the other. Both of them are also multi-functionally used in the realm of modality.

The contrast is very clear when expressing participant-internal and deontic modality (cf. van der Auwera & Plungian 1998) and there is almost no overlap between to⁵⁵ and tv̩⁵⁵, i.e. to⁵⁵ is mainly for participant-internal possibility and tv̩⁵⁵ is mainly for deontic obligation, permission and prohibition. However, we observe that overlap and contrast between tv̩⁵⁵ and to⁵⁵ both exist when expressing non-deontic and epistemic possibilities. For example,

Overlap:

(1)       ŋo⁵⁵     kv̩⁵⁵     kʰua²¹  o.         ɣa²¹     to⁵⁵/tv̩⁵⁵         o.

            1          foot     good    PRT    walk    can/can           PRT

            ‘My foot has recovered. I can walk now.’

Contrast:

(2)       a.         mɔ²¹       sɿ⁵⁵,     niɔ⁵⁵    sɿ⁵⁵      je²¹      piɔ⁵⁵-kʰɯ⁵⁵      lɛ²¹tsʰɛ²¹

                       that     water   want    let        3S        boil-open        only then

                       ã²¹       tv̩⁵⁵/*to⁵⁵.

                       drink   obtain/can

                       ‘The water, it needs to be boiled so that one can drink it.’

1. mɔ²¹ lɔ²¹po⁵⁵           niɔ²¹    ʈv̩5⁵      ɪŋ⁵⁵soŋ²¹          tsa⁵⁵-ʈv̩⁵⁵

            that     peach   want    PASS   sun                  bake-hit (the target)

            tsʰɛ²¹   tsʰɿ⁵⁵    to⁵⁵/*tv̩⁵⁵.

            then     red       can/obtain

            ‘Peaches can only turn red, after being shined on by the sun.’

Consequently, this paper sets out to find out the rules for the overlap and to define the contrast between to⁵⁵ and tv̩⁵⁵ in order to propose a plausible explanation for this phenomenon. Two hypotheses are thus set up for this purpose: Hypothesis I: to⁵⁵ develops from the resultative to⁵⁵ and is controlled by the verb, but tv̩⁵⁵ develops from the predicative full verb tv̩⁵⁵ ‘be all right, be suitable’ reanalyzed from ‘obtain, acquire’. Hypothesis II: there are two factors that are responsible for the overlap and contrast of these two particles: i) their proper source constructions and ii) degree of grammaticalization.

Reference: Van der Auwera, J. & V. A. Plungian. 1998. Modality’s Semantic Map. Linguistic Typology 2 (1998). 79-124.

*****

Pour toute information complémentaire, veuillez contacter Hilary Chappell (CRLAO-EHESS) sur hmchappell@gmail.com ou au CRLAO, 105 bd Raspail,  M. Hugues Feler au 01 53 10 53 71.