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Mirror Principle Violations in Bantu Languages Have Been Misanalyzed
Benjamin Bruening (University of Delaware)
Structural Asymmetries in African Languages, April 15–16 2021
Bruening Bantu Mirror Principle SAIAL 2021 1 / 44
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Table of Contents
1 Introduction: Bantu Suffix Order
2 Minimal Analyses of Valence-Changing Operations
3 Claimed Mirror Principle Violation: Applicatives Plus Passives
Recip applies to a two-place predicate (at minimum) and turns it into a one-place predicate(Keenan & Razafimamonjy 2004, Bruening 2006).Bruening (2006): Recip is external-argument-introducing, i.e., unergative:Sole argument of derived intransitive is external argument;And it requires a predicate that has an external argument as its input.
(5) VoiceP
NPsubjVoice VP
V NPobj
RecipVoiceP
NPsubjRecipVoice VP
V
VoiceP
NPsubjVoice RecipP
Recip VP
V
Bruening Bantu Mirror Principle SAIAL 2021 8 / 44
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Applicative
Appl adds an internal argument.Most likely: merges below whatever introduces the external argument (“agent”).(Wide variety of applicatives, which may not behave alike: instrumental, locative,benefactive, malefactive, comitative, . . . ; see, e.g., Marantz 1993, Bosse et al. 2012.)
(6) VoiceP
NPsubj
Voice ApplP
NPapplAppl VP
V NPobj
Bruening Bantu Mirror Principle SAIAL 2021 9 / 44
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Causative
Caus introduces a causing event;And a causer.Pylkkanen (2008): These are separate functions, not necessarily performed by the same headin the syntax.
Motivation seems to be to explain why the lower object can cross the higher one to becomethe subject in (9b).
Analysis does not actually explain this:
In both examples, the Pass head is suppressing the external argument.
If the external argument is an argument of the lexical verb, then Pass can apply first andsuppress it, followed by Appl attaching and adding the benefactive.
However, if Pass instead attaches outside Appl, it would not be able to remove the externalargument, because Appl is in the way.
It should only be able to remove the applied argument.
If we allow Voice to introduce the external argument below Appl,
Then we expect that in the active, the applied argument, being higher than the externalargument, could be the surface subject while the logical external argument is treated as anobject.
This is not correct, as far as I know:
Applied arguments are always treated like objects in the active voice.
‘The children were cooked food.’b. abantwana b-a-phek-e+phek-el-w-a ukudlac. abantwana b-a-phek-a+phek-el-w-a ukudlad. * abantwana b-a-phek-wa+phek-el-w-a ukudla
(12) a. ukudlafood
kw-a-phek-el-w-ait-Past-cook-Appl-Pass-FV
abantwanachildren
‘Food was cooked for the children.’b. ukudla kw-a-phek-e+phek-el-w-a abantwanac. ukudla kw-phek-a+phek-el-w-a abantwanad. ukudla kw-phek-wa+phek-el-w-a abantwana
(14) Nyakyusa (Myler 2017: 105, (8))a. sob- ‘get lost (intr.)’b. sof-i ‘to lose (tr.)’c. sob-an-i ‘get each other lost’d. sof-an-i ‘to lose each other’
If the translations are accurate, the difference here is not scope, but what kind of causative itis.The one in (14c) seems to have two events, a causing event and a getting lost event;The one in (14d) instead has a single (transitive) event (like what is often regarded as a“lexical” causative).In both, Recip takes scope over Caus, it is just that Caus seems to have two differentinterpretations.
(14) Nyakyusa (Myler 2017: 105, (8))a. sob- ‘get lost (intr.)’b. sof-i ‘to lose (tr.)’c. sob-an-i ‘get each other lost’d. sof-an-i ‘to lose each other’
Myler was concerned with the question of why spirantization applies in (14d) but not (14c).In Myler’s scopal analysis, the reciprocal always intervenes between the root and Caus in(14c),But at some level the root and Caus are adjacent in (14d), so Caus can induce sprirantization.This analysis cannot be correct, since Recip has to take scope over Caus even in (14c).An obvious alternative analysis is to say that the root has a special spirantized allomorphwhen it occurs in the environment of Caus as a “lexical” or single-event causative.
Hyman (2003) claims that in Chichewa, one order of Caus and Recip is ambiguous, while the otheris unambiguous:
(16) (Ryan 2010: (7a–b))a. a-ku-mang-ıts-a:n-a
3Pl-Prog-tie-Caus-Rec-FV∼ a-ku-mang-an-i:ts-a
3Pl-Prog-tie-Rec-Caus-FV‘cause to tie each other’
b. a-ku-mang-ıts-a:n-a3Pl-Prog-tie-Caus-Rec-FV
*a-ku-mang-an-i:ts-a3Pl-Prog-tie-Rec-Caus-FV
‘cause each other to tie’
One possibility is that Caus creates a three-place predicate x causes y to tie z;Recip can operate on x plus either of y or z.If Recip applies first, there is only a two-place predicate, so no possibility of ambiguity.(Note that interpretations should be different: in (a) Caus-Recip would have x and zreciprocal, while Recip-Caus would have y and z reciprocal.)
‘hoes were used to make the children cultivate’Bruening Bantu Mirror Principle SAIAL 2021 34 / 44
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Not a Necessary Analysis
In this case, this is a possible analysis (unlike the other cases).
Not the only possible analysis:
The instrumental attaches outside of Caus in both cases, but when an instrumental modifies acomplex event, it is capable of being interpreted with either sub-event.
So it can modify either the causing event or the caused event.
We know that this is possible for modifiers like again, for instance (see Dowty 1979, Egg1999, Jager & Blutner 2003, Williams 2015, Bruening 2015 for arguments against syntacticconstituency analyses of again).
It is therefore not necessary to treat the ambiguity of the instrumental as a scope ambiguity, asthere is a plausible alternative analysis.
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