THE SYNTAX OF DISCOURSE:WHAT AN ANISHINAABEMOWIN

ORAL TEXT TEACHES US

Sonja Frazier*, Monique Dufresne*, Rose-Marie Déchaine#

*Queen’s University, #University of British ColumbiaCLA/ACL, May/mai 2020

Where we’re headed …

1. The language, speaker,(re)sources & (con)text

2. Tools for analyzing discourse markers

3. The syntax of discourse markers

4. The prosody of discourse markers

5. In lieu of conclusion

The research presented here is supported by the Queen’s University Research Leaders Fund.

Rainy River area, Ontario

1THE LANGUAGE, SPEAKER, (RE)SOURCES & (CON)TEXT

The language & the speaker

Anishinaabemowin(central Algonquian)

Ogimawigwanebiik(Nancy Jones)

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Anishinaabewaki.jpg (from Nigigoonsiminikaaning (Red Gut), Ontario)

The (re)sources

The source Resources■ Ojibwe Discourse Markers

(Douglas Fairbanks, 2016)

■ Nishnaabemwin Reference Grammar(J. Randolph Valentine, 2001)

■ Ojibwe People’s Dictionary(online, hosted by Univ. of Montana)https://ojibwe.lib.umn.edu

The (con)textAnishinaabe philosophical principles

(Lightning 1992, MacKay 2014)

Principle 1: attention is mindful

• speaker’s responsibility

• stance: “compassionate mind”• manner of engagement: gentle talking

• addressee’s responsibility

• stance: “mutual mind”• manner of engagement: active listening

Principle 2: knowledge is relational

• engagement with environment via …

• experience, (re-)action• perception, thought, (re)-cognition

Gakina Dibaajimowinan Gwayakwaawan‘All Teachings are Correct’

Structure of Nancy Jones’ Counselling speech

Part §§

I Lesson: all teachings are valid(“compassionate mind”)

1-4

II Authority of narrator

a Authority via experience: narrator was taught to put tobacco down to give thanks

5-8

b Authority via eyewitness: narrator witnessed how s.o. else put tobacco down to give thanks

9-14

III Lesson: listen carefully(“mutual mind”)

14-18

Episode I: The validity of all teachings (§§1-4) n=23§1 1 Ahaw miigwech. OK, thank you. (n=1)

2 Aaniish-inaa awe aya’aaa. So let’s see this thing. (n=2)

§2 1 a Asemaa ingii-miinigo ji-naanaagazoondamaangegoo ji-didibaadandamaan bangii awe,

I was given tobacco to talk about somethingand analyze a few things,

(n=0)

b minik ge niin gegoo gaapi-izhi-waawiindamaagowaan gii-pi-ombigiyaan aaapiji go awe.

the things that I was taught as I was growing up,especially this.

(n=3)

2 Nashke ingoji gii-okwabiyan omaa ingoji gakina gakina bebekaangidayamin dibaajmowinan.

So as we gather and sit around somewherewe all have different, our own, teachings.

(n=1)

3 Gaawin dash wiin awiya wiikaa indaa-aanwetawaasi aaniish-naa. I would never say I disbelieve anyone. (n=3)

§3 1 a Gakina, gakina awiiya gegogii-pi-waawiindamowaa gii-pi-abinoojiiwed

Everyone, everyone has somethingthat they were taught as they grew up as a child;

(n=0)

b mii dash iye gaa-onji-ikidowaangawiin, gaawiin wiikaa awiiya anishaa ikido indaa-inendanzii.

that is why I say this;I would never think to myself that person is not right

(n=3)

2 Debwe, debwe iwe gaa-ikidod,gakina awiya debwe.

The truth, he speaks the truth; what he says,everyone speaks the truth

3 a Minik gego gaa-izhi-dibaamijot awe, The things that he speaks about, (n=1)

b nashke omaa geniin gaa-izhi-gikinoo’amagowaan. such as here that which I was taught (n=3)

§4 1 Jibwaa maajitaayan gego owe wii-izhichigeyan,akawe sa gidasemaa gidoodaapinaa.

Before you start something that you are going to do,first thing you do is pick up your tobacco.

(n=2)

2 Mii-dash awe, ge-wiiji’ik awe weweni gego ji-izhichigeyanaaniin, aaniin iwe gwek waa-izhichigeyan.

It is this, this is the one that will help you to do it right,whatever you are doing, anything you want to do.

(n=4)

2TOOLS FOR ANALYZING DISCOURSE MARKERS

Combining two approachesEmonds’ 2004 a-categorical analysis Degand’s 2016 corpus analysis

• Granular analysis that can track… • Attends to syntax-prosody mapping

• discourse markers (DMs) XP = syntactic unit; PU = prosodic unit

• clause-typing XP and PU converge: [XP=PU …]

• prosody XP contains PUs: [XP [PU…] [PU…] ]

• Eschews rich labelling (methodological advantage:avoids potentially invalid “pre-labelling”)

PU contains XPs: [PU [XP…] [XP…] ]

(cf. Selkirk’s 2011 Match Theory)

• a-categorical “Discourse Phrase” • Granular coding of corpus data in terms of…

• no dedicated positions for Information Structure • discourse functions

e.g. *FocusP, *TopicP, … ideational, rhetorical, sequential, interpersonal

• no dedicated positions for Discourse Roles • discourse contexts

e.g. *SpeakerP, *AddresseeP, … conference talk, debate, academic/political address, homily, survey, free/radio interview, radio news, reading, free narration, radio creation

…these two approaches provide tools that are useful for cross-linguistic investigation of Discourse Markers

Detecting discourse markers (DMs)

Syntactic and Prosodic Constraints on Discourse Markers

LOCAS-F corpus

Anishinaabemowin

• Syntactic constraints

• DMs are syntactically detachable from a sentence; i.e. never obligatory(Schriffin 1987)

✓ ✓

• DMs do not enter into construction with other elements of sentence(Sankoff et al. 2007)

• DMs are “outside the syntactic structure or loosely attached to it”(Brinton 1996:4)

✓ ✕(selects CP)

• Prosodic constraints (cf. Raso 1996)

• DMs attract prosodic prominence (Frazier 2020) (✕) ✓(attracts highest pitch)

Distribution of discourse functions■ ideational: relations between propositions

cause, consequence, concession, contrast, alternative, condition, temporal, exception

– Anishinabemowin clause-typing: independent/conjunct mode

■ rhetorical: subjective claims, implicatures– Anishinabemowin DMs

Position 2 { go, ge, sa, -sh, da, na, naa }

■ sequential: progression of narrative(= information structure)

– Anishinabemowin DMPosition 1 { mii }

■ interpersonal: management of speaker-hearer relationship

– Anishinabemowin DMsexclamative howa, waa, ohoo, oo, owaah

Degand 2016, annotation of 500 Discourse Markers fromLOCAS-F (Louvain Corpus of Annotated Speech-French)

4%

44%

30%

22%

These functionsare prevalent inAnishinanbemowin

Sp. Act Function XP X0 form game-theoretic move

•ASSERTORIC •IDEATIONAL ✓ izhi- (n/a: clause-typing: CP-internal) RR

✓ onzaam ‘because’ (<very) causality (F62) P1•SEQUENCING(implicatesinformationstructure)

✓ (i)na-sh-ke ‘look!’ links to upcoming DU (F54) P1

✓ miin-aawa ‘also, again’ links to prior DU (F56) P1

✓ dibishkoo ‘just like’ reformulates prior DU (F65) P1

•RHETORICAL(implicatesdiscourserole)

✓ awenh, inenh, ‘nuh uh!’ S rejects prior p (F98) P1

✓ aanii-sh ‘well, after all’ S re-aligns commitment to p (F99) P1

✓ mii S super-asserts p (F94) P1✓ (i)sa S presents novel p (V150) P2

✓ (i)go S strengthens p (V150) P2

✓ ge S introduces p P2✓ naa S evaluates p (F140) P2

✓ -sh, sha S presents alternative p (V150) P2•INTERROGATIVE •INTERPERSONAL ✓ na S requests {p, not-p} (V978) P2

✓ da S re-requests {p, not-p} (F131) P2

•EXCLAMATIVE ✓ howa, waa, ohoo, oo, owaah S highlights p P1✓ ahaw S acknowledges p P1

Discourse Markers propose updates to discourse units (DUs) or propositional attitudes (Osa Gomez, in prep.)

P1 P2

A brief excursus into the semantics of Anishinaabemowin DM clusterspairwise combination of mii + DM2

mii- sa (1) Howa mii-sa imaa, … ‘It is here, …’(J§5.2)

mii = S super-asserts p &sa = S presents novel p

mii- go (2) Mii-go iye nakeya’ii ge-izhi-waawiiji’at 'You will help him the way he does it’(J§16.7)

mii = S super-asserts p &go = S strengthens p

mii … naa (3) Mii maa naa pii iw baanaaben niw gaa-wabmaawajin.

‘It was apparently a mermaid that they saw’ (AK4.6; V971, (93)

mii = S super-asserts p &naa = S evaluates p

mii- -sh (4a) Mii-sh niwi oosan-sh giiwenh niwi gii-wiindmaagod.

‘So his father told him about them.’ (S04.58, V966, (72)

mii = S super-asserts p &-sh = S presents alternative p

mii da (4b) [unattested]

mii- da-sh (4c) …; mii dash iye gaa-onji-ikidowaan; …; that is why I say this;(J§3.1)

mii = S super-asserts p &-sh = S presents alternative p

mii- na (5) Mii na wii-boontaayang? ‘It this when we(incl.) stop working?’ (AM39.486, V978, (121)

mii = S super-asserts p &na = S requests {p, not-p}

mii- gwech (6) Ahaw mii-gwech. ‘Thank you’(J§1)

mii = S super-asserts p &gwech = S acknowledges A

The combination of DM1 mii- with position DMs (DM2) yields additive and compositional semantic denotations

3THE SYNTAX OF

DISCOURSE MARKERS

The Discourse Phrase Hypothesis

tobacco tobacco1

1

past-give-inv-X>1

past-give-inv-X>1

‘lit. Tobacco, someone gave me’

Hypothesis 1: adjunction analysis(null hypothesis, see Déchaineet al. submitted)

Hypothesis 2: “Discourse Phrase” analysis

Discourse Phrase Hypothesis:There exists ana-categorical (recursive) Discourse Phrase. (Emonds 2004)

Testing the Discourse Phrase Hypothesis

Sensitivity to clause-type■ Anishinaabemowin DMs are

sensitive to clause type – contra orthodoxy in DM lit.– detectible by contrasting

“unselective DMs” with “selective DMs”

XP/X0 contrast■ DMs in position 1 (DM1)

= XP (phrase)

■ DMs in position 2 (DM2)= X0 (head)

DM1 mii- is “unselective”Speech Act Clause-type

assertoric indepen-dentmode

(1) Mii [sa wi] [ge sa] [ge naa] [mno-yaa].and __ prn and __ even __ (= Valentine’s glossing of DMs)DM1 DM2 prn & DM2 & well good-be.in.state.vai.3prx.IDP‘And right away he feels fine’ (SO4:55, V973, (98); translation & glossing adapted[V973: Occasionally, in narratives, verbs in construction with mii show independent order inflection.]

con-junctmode

(2) Mii giiwenh [enaajmotwaad] wa mdimooyenh niwi w-niijaans-an.DM1 allegedly IC.see.ta.3prx>3obv.CJ dem.na old.woman.na prn.obv 3-child.na-obv‘This is what the old ladyPRX told her childrenOBV’ (SO2.20, V964, (65))[V953: In its function as a discourse sequencing predicative adverb, mii is followed by a clause having a verb marked with conjunct order inflection.]

directive interro-gativemode

(3) Mii na [wii-boon-taa-yang]?DM1 Q prosp-stop-vai-2&1.CJ‘Is this when we (incl.) stop working?’ (AM39.485; V978, (121))[V978: Yes/no questions can be formed with the predicative particle, mii. […] These constructions are mostly used for ratification of a conjecture or logical inference, and expect an affirmative answer.]

commissive impera-tivemode

(4) Mii go maajaan ambe!DM1 DM2 go.away-2IMVE immediately‘So go away immediately! (SO3.37, V995, (220)[V995: Imperative forms of verbs can appear with the discourse element mii, especially when the command represents the outcome or result of some previously mentioned situation.]

…but DM2 is selective(we illustrate this with da)da only occurs with questions: “clarification particle”S re-requests {p, not-p} (F131)

(1) Wegonen?inter“What?’ (F131, 101a)

Wegonen da?inter DM2‘What now?’ (F131, 101b)

(2) Aaniin da ezhinikaazoyan?how DM2 you.are.named‘What is your name again?’ (F131, 102a)

The XP/X0 contrast

Position 1Discourse Markers■ Observations about DM1

– can be CP-initial– need not be followed by another DM– (remarkably!) mii is the only DM that

functions as a position 1 DM

■ Implications for analysis of DM1

– DM1 mii has the distribution of XP■ DM1 mii competes with phrasal XP■ DM1 mii sometimes attracts highest pitch

(only if Discourse Head is null)

Position 2Discourse Markers■ Observations about DM2

– must be in 2nd position (V150)– must be preceded by DM1 mii or XP

(Déchaine et al. submitted)– drawn from DM paradigm:

{ sa, go, ge, -sh, na, naa, da }

■ Implications for analysis of DM2

– DM2 has the distribution of a head■ DM2 realizes H-tone of Discourse Head■ DM2 always attracts highest pitch

DM1 DM2

(1) # mii, …

(2) # mii- dash iweDEM…

(3) howaEXCL mii- sa imaaLOC…

Disc0 CP

DM1mii

DiscP

XP or mii DM2(1) a. CP i-dash …

b. # mii- dash iyeDEM…

(2) a. aapijiADVP go ogoweDEM …

b. # mii- go iweDEM…

(3) a. CP sa-go imaaLOC…

b. …, ahaw mii- sa go-naa-e

Disc0 CP

XP

CPAdvP…miiDM1

DiscP

4THE PROSODY OF

DISCOURSE MARKERS

Prosodic integration ofAnishinaabemowin Discourse markers■ Anishinaabemowin DMs attract the highest pitch (“Max. Pitch”)

– Observation 1: DM head of DiscP attracts max. pitch– Observation 2: if DM has no content, then Spec,DiscP attracts max. pitch– Observation 3: in anaphoric contexts, no max. pitch at left edge

Observation 1:highest pitch on DM2

mii-go, highest pitch on go mii-dash, highest pitch dash

• DM2 = head of Discourse Phrase is the pitch target;• Fairbanks’ (2016) “Position 2” DMs attract highest pitch (= **)

Figure 1 Figure 2

pitch line= blue line

Observation 2elsewhere, highest pitch on DM1

mii-iwe, highest pitch on mii mii XP, highest pitch on mii

• If DM2 has no content (i.e. it is phonologically null), then XP in Spec,DiscP (here DM1) hosts highest pitch.•This is the “elsewhere case”; groups together Fairbanks’ (2016) “Position 1” DMs with XPs

pitch line =blue line

Figure 1 Figure 4

Mii-dash…

Mii-iwe…

Mii-go…

Mii CPMii-iwe…

(= Figure 1) (= Figure 2)

(= Figure 3) (= Figure 4)

Observation 3:absence of max. pitch in anaphoric contexts

Figure 5

pitch line =blue line

Note: here pitch prominenceco-incides with stress

Speculation: the absence ofa max. pitch at the left edgeis akin to “anaphoric destressing”.

5IN LIEU OF CONCLUSION

Where we’ve been…previous proposals our contribution

1. semantics • Fairbanks 2016DMs are additive & compositional

formalized in terms of:

• sequencing fn. = Discourse Unit (DU) updates

• rhetorical fn. = propositional attitude

2. syntax • Fairbanks 2016DMs divide into two position classes: DM1, DM2

• DM1 = XP (mii)

• DM2 = X0 (sa, go, ge, -sh, na, da, naa)

• Emonds 2004a-categorical DiscP for info. structurem (e.g. Topic, Focus)

• a-categorical Discourse Phrase analysis of DMs

3. prosody • Degand 2016predicts [[XP [PU…] [PU…]] canbe canonical syntax-prosodymapping

Anishinaabemowin: pitch manipulated independently of stress

• DM2 attracts max. pitch H

• if DM2 null, DM1 attracts max. pitch

• in anaphoric context, no max. pitch a left-edgeattracted to verb complex instead

Miigwech!

Merci!

Thank you!

Speas & Tenny 2003 Heim et al. 2016 Emonds 2004

Richer labelling for discourse marking:conceptually necessary?

Complex sequence of DMs(6) …, ahaw mii-sa go-naa-e

excl DM1-DM2 DM2-DM2-fv‘OK, that’s it’ (J§19b)

mii S super-asserts p

sa S presents novel p

go S strengthens p

naa S evaluates p

(7) English counterpart of (6):‘[Hey], [According to me], [what I just told you] is [really] [true]

ahaw naa sa go miiintroduce p evaluate p presents novel p strengthens p super-asserts p