LISSIM 6
June 1-15, 2012@ Kangra
Selected Essays
Languages without Case/ Adposition
Hidam Gourshyam, PhD
University of DelhiLISSIM 5 was really enriching and its impact remained longer than expected because of their importance, relevance and questions I have in my mind. The topics taught and discussed during LISSIM5 helped me later to think about several aspects of grammar, especially, about Case.
Some important points from LISSIM5
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Case determines phasehood. Case plays crucial role in transferring syntactic objects to the interface. Besides CP and vP, NP/DP, AP and PP are all phases. Structural cases and inherent cases are different because the first is more restrictive than the later when it comes to movement out of phases. |
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nanosyntax viewed case and adpositions to be of the same substance. |
Considering all the points are correct, what kind of outcome or inside we may get about language and theory of language and what can we say about languages with no realized adpositions or case whatsoever?
It is not generally new to the students of linguistics to hear that derivation proceeds in phases, case marks the relationship of a noun to a verb at the clause level or of a noun to a preposition or another noun at the phrasal level, case is a competing mechanism for word order. At once, it looks like everything about language/ grammar is in case and case does everything. What we are saying is, if we have a sentence a b c d e f g h i j k l m n
i) m Merge n = m(m, n) ...o
ii) l Merge o = l(l, m(m, n)) p
iii) k Merge p = k(k, l(l, m(m, n))) ..q
iv) j Merge q = j(j, k(k, l(l, m(m, n)))) .r
v) i Merge r = i(i, j(j, k(k, l(l, m(m, n))))) ..s
vi) h Merge s = h(h, i(i, j(j, k(k, l(l, m(m, n)))))) ...t
vii) g Merge t = g(g, h(h, i(i, j(j, k(k, l(l, m(m, n))))))) ... ...u
viii) f Merge u = f(f, g(g, h(h, i(i, j(j, k(k, l(l, m(m, n)))))))) ...v
ix) e Merge v = e(e, f(f, g(g, h(h, i(i, j(j, k(k, l(l, m(m, n))))))))) .w
x) d Merge w = d, d(,e(e, f(f, g(g, h(h, i(i, j(j, k(k, l(l, m(m, n)))))))))) ......x
xi) c Merge x = c(c, d, d(,e(e, f(f, g(g, h(h, i(i, j(j, k(k, l(l, m(m, n))))))))))) ...y
xii) b Merge y = b(b, c(c, d, d(,e(e, f(f, g(g, h(h, i(i, j(j, k(k, l(l, m(m, n)))))))))))) ......z
xiii) a Merge z = a(a, b(b, c(c, d, d(,e(e, f(f, g(g, h(h, i(i, j(j, k(k, l(l, m(m, n)))))))))))))
We know that o, p, q, r, s, t, u, v, w, x, y and z are all phases according what we have learnt so far. It is interesting to think about in what way the relation of a to m, n, l, k, j, i, h, g, f, e, d, c and b will be shown in language and how? Can a represent all the phases embedded within after Phase Impenetrability Condition (PIC) applied?
On the other hand, Dikken (2006) says that relators can be copula, preposition, infl and other head that relates a predicate to its subject including functional heads in A-domain (Top, Foc). Overall, copula, infl, preposition, case and verb do the work of relating in language. Then, there are many relators in a sentence.The question is, what they are relating. Agreement system (i.e. Person, Number and Gender) in languages is also another interesting phenomenon of language that shows up in the verbs of sentences. It is even more interesting if the agreement in the verb marks both the subject and the object of the sentence. It can be equated to verbal directions (agreement) in Indo-pakistani Sign language (IPSL). Verbal direction (agreement) also encodes grammatical persons which are grammatically located in the space. Therefore, such directional agreement is person agreement, which is actually spatial element that marks in the main verb of the IPSL. All the direction in the space for persons can be summed up as A below,
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A. P1ΰ P1 (each other) P1ΰ P2 P1ΰ P3 P2ΰ P1 P2ΰ P2 (each other) P2ΰ P3 P3ΰ P1 P3ΰ P2 P3ΰ P3 (each other)
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B. (a) tomba-na caoba-bu aa-da phu-ru-i Tomba Chaoba there-LOC beat- Tomba beat Chaoba in a far place
(b)* tomba-na caoba-bu si-da phu-*ru-i Tomba Chaoba here-LOC beat- Tomba beat Chaoba here
© tomba-na yumthak-tagi makha-da cong-tha/ *khat-i Tomba roof-ABL down-LOC jump-down/ up- Tomba jumps down/ *up from the roof to the ground.
(d) tomba-na makha-dagi yumthak-ta cong-*tha/ khat-i Tomba roof-ABL down-LOC jump-down/ up- Tomba jumps down/ *up from the roof to the ground.
(e) makhoi phu-*(na)-i they beat-each other- They beat each other.
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Similar to what is there in A, In B, khat (vertically up), tha (vertically down), -ru- (action that happen in a far place) agrees with direction of action in the space. (e) for example is clearer in IPSL because it signs ((P3 Hitsΰ P3) + (P3 ίHits P3)) by using both the assigned spaces for third person. Such examples often raise the questions about the role of space in language as adjunct. It is a hope that trying to understand the steps (phases) and the way that the atoms of language are connected to each other by relators will, finally, be able to make me explain the order we see/ hear in language. In such effort, LISSIM5 provided a fertile ground to learn and discuss about the desired topic and it is also another hope that LISSIM6 will definitely provide me a similar or even better environment for the same purpose.
Bhattacharya, Tanmoy. 2011. Directional/ Deictic Particles in Meiteilon: A Case of States of Affairs, Centre for Advanced Studies in Linguistics.
Blake, Barry J.. 2004. Case. Cambridge University Press
Boskovic, Zeljko. 2010a. Phases beyond clauses. Ms., University of Connecticut.
Caha, Pavel. 2009. The nanosyntax of case; Ph.D. Thesis. the Faculty of Humanities, Universityof Tromsψ
Chomsky, Noam. 2001. Derivation by phase. In M. Kenstowicz. ed. Ken Hale:
A life in Language. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Dikken, Marcel del. 1965. Relators and Linkers: The Syntax of Predication, Predicate Inversion, and Copulas. A Bradford Book, The MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, London, England
Hidam, Gourashyam Singh. 2010. Incorporation in Indo-Pakistani Sign language. M. Phil. Thesis. University of Delhi.
Starke, Michal.2009. Nanosyntax: A short primer to a new approach to language. CASTL, University of Tromsψ
Takahashi, Masahiko. 2011. Some Theoretical Consequences of Case-marking in Japanese, Ph.D. Thesis. University of Connecticut.
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