sample presentation: discontinous morphemes...

Sample presentation: discontinous morphemes in Witsuwit’en.

Organization

• General background – Language family – Phonology

• Morphological background • Discontinuous morphemes

LING 481 slides by Sharon Hargus

(Athapaskan, Athabascan) [æθbæskn]


Athabaskan language family

Navajo Apachean languages

Kwalhioqua-Tlatskanie

Na-Dene/Athabaskan-Eyak-Tlingit Tlingit Proto-Athabaskan-Eyak Eyak Proto-Athabaskan CAY CBC NW Can

Deg Xinag Babine-Witsuwit’en Tsek’ene

CAY = Central Alaska-Yukon; CBC = Central BC; NW Can = NW Canada


Language family

Dene-Yeniseian: http://www.uaf.edu/anlc/dy/

Northern Athabaskan languages

Deg Xinag (Ingalik) Tsek’ene (Sekani) Babine-Witsuwit’en (Babine)


Witsuwit’en consonants


labial alveolar palatal labio-velar

uvular glottal

stop p p p’ t t t’ c c c’ kw kw kw’

q q q’ ʔ

affricate ts ts ts’

t t t’

fricative s z ç xw χ h

nasal m n approx. l j w

Witsuwit’en vowels

i u e ǝ o ɛ ɔ a (ɑ)


Morphological background

• Major lexical categories • Morphological structures

• affixation (simple cases) • compounding • ablaut • noun classes • incorporation • position-class morphology


Major lexical categories

nouns verbs postpositions directional adverbs adjectives


Affixation (simple cases)

[stoʔ] ‘my water’ [nǝxwtoʔ] ‘your (pl.), our water’ [ntoʔ] ‘your (sg.)

water’

[pǝtoʔ] ‘his/her/its water’

[hǝpǝtoʔ]

‘their water’

A possessive paradigm for [to] ‘water’ ([-toʔ] (psd.)


Compounding

• Noun + noun – endocentric

• tho ‘water’ + tsut ‘coat’ = ‘raincoat’ • -nin ‘face’ + ts’n ‘bone’ = ‘cheek bones’

– exocentric • tni ‘person’ + nin ‘face’ = ‘penny’ • wq’z ‘cold’ + u ‘tooth’ = ‘icicle’ • c’tsht ‘ruffed grouse’ + qh ‘foot’ =‘the letter X’ • tlkw’aχ ‘frog’ + neɬtc ‘blanket’ =‘broad-leaved

plantain’


Verbal time categories

• imperfective: uncompleted action, state – [nǝje] ‘(3s) is walking around’

• perfective: completed action, state – [nǝsǝje] ‘(3s) walked around’

• future: action, state to take place in future (some degree of certainty) – [nǝthajeɬ] ‘(3s) will walk around’

• optative: wish for future action, state – [nujeʔ] ‘let (3s) walk around’


Ablaut in verb stems verb root impf/opt perfective future -/qes/ ‘scratch hard’ –[qes] –[qez] –[qs] -/qz/ ‘do with arms’ –[qis] –[qz] –[qs] Ablaut patterns: /e/ --> // in future // --> /i/ in imperfective/optative


Noun classes • ‘be (in position)’


Hargus, Sharon. 2007. Witsuwit’en Grammar: Phonetics, Phonology and Morphology. Vancouver: UBC Press.

Classificatory verbs


• detic ‘et stan door there it[rigid].is ‘a door is there’ • nelhdic ‘et silhcoz blanket there it[clothlike].is ‘a blanket is there’ • distl’is ‘et silhcoz paper/book there it[clothlike].is ‘a (single sheet of) paper is there’ • distl’is ‘et si’ay paper/book there it[compact].is ‘a book is there’

Position class verbal morphology


Verb prefix positions Root Suffix

postposition/adverbial12 – iterative11 – multiple10 – negative9 – incorporated root8 – inceptive7 – distributive plural6 – pronominal object/subject5 – qualifier4 – tense/neg3 – subject2 – valence1

tense – negative

Prefix order restrictions


Historical stability of position class morphology

Leer 2006

Subject in two positions ...object/subject5 – qualifier4 – tense/neg3 – subject2 – valence1 1s s- qha usqhɛt ‘let me buy a car’ 2s in- qha unqhɛt ‘you (should) buy a car’ 3s qha uqhɛt ‘let (3s) buy a car’ 1d tǝt- qha utǝtqhɛt ‘let us (2) buy a car’ 1p ts’- qha ts’oqhɛt ‘let’s buy a car’ 2p xw- qha uhqhɛt ‘you (pl.) (should) buy a car’ 3p h- qha hoqhɛt ‘let them buy a car’


Incorporation

• incorporated root8 – nǝsǝltǝlje ‘he’s walking around hollering’ – cf. ɬɛzǝl ‘he’s hollering’ – hatshetqǝz ‘a head is sticking out’ – cf. PA *-tshiʔ ‘head’, -nʁen ‘head’ < *-tshi:-ʁa:ŋ’

‘brain’ – qhajǝstc’ej ‘he wounded it (shooting)’ – cf. –qhaq ‘surface, skin’


Discontinuous morphemes

discontinous morpheme : forma + formb + ... ‘meaning’ je10-t4- ‘all over’ nepe12-t4- ‘turn around’ u3- ... - optative inc8-t4-l1- ‘perform (oral action) (while in

motion)’ cf. portmanteau morpheme: form ‘meaninga +

meaningb ...’ LING 481 slides by Sharon Hargus

More discontinuous morphemes

O-u4-jin ‘pick O (berries) while stationary’ cf. -jin ‘sg./du. stand’

t4-t1-/as ‘du. pick berries (while walking around)’ cf. -/as ‘du./group goes, walks’

qhɛ8-t4-zǝt ‘sg./du. travel’ cf. –zǝt ‘sg./du. subsist’

O = object required (transitive verb)


Discontinuous morphemes in ‘I’m not going to pick (round) things’

[we- c’- o- n- th- [] z- i- s- ji -t -]

negative round 1 sg. subject

unspecified object ‘pick (berries)

while stationary’ future


Witsuwit’en summary • Lexical categories: nouns vs. postpositions • Noun classes • Word formation types

– Ablaut – Compounding – Incorporation – Affixation

• nouns relatively simple • verbs: multiple prefixes possible, position classes,

discontinuous morphemes


sample presentation: discontinous morphemes...

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