LINGUIST List 6.1603

Sun Nov 12 1995

Qs: Sound Change, A Nat. Amer. Lang., Stative vs. Active

Editor for this issue: Annemarie Valdez <avaldezemunix.emich.edu>

Directory

1. Alexis Manaster Ramer, Query: Possible Sound Change Interactions
2. Alexis Manaster Ramer, A gedankenexperimental query: A Native America Language
3. George Fowler, Diagnostics For Stative vs. Active Participial Constructions

I am trying to collect cases where two sound changes A and B
interact as follows: we find A in a whole group of dialects or
related languages, and B only in a subset of those, yet where both
A and B apply, B must have applied first.

This may be an unfair query, but I thought it might be a good
experiment anyway: If a Native American language previously unknown
were discovered in some old records of which all we knew were the
following items, would anybody venture a guess as to which language
family it had belonged to:

saa- 1st person
naa- 2nd person
tee this
he'e that
het- wh-
netxal tongue
sax'ay arrow
goyan tooth
c^eyexeu tree
c^eke or s^eke hand
enayon foot
enoc^an or enos^an nose
(h)ac^e eye
wagate beard
nathan or nac^an or nas^an water
koc^ or kos^ house
tsaal testicles
tsool excrement
meem cheek
salal tears
saxan rib
taakey head
tan tail
teyey liver
xaa grease
x'aak head hair
kala mouth
ekwan dog
(If anybody is interested in taking up this challenge, I am
willing to provide a few more forms).

Alexis MR

Greetings!
 A student and I are attempting to compile a list of stative/active
diagnostics for participial constructions, for example, to distinguish
between such pairs of sentences are:

stative: The window was broken and the rain could get in.

active: The window was broken by the boy at 3:15.

We are aware of a certain number of such diagnostics, such as the presence
of an agent (active) vs. absence of an agent (stative). However, we are
disappointed by the results we get when we apply the ones we have to
concrete material; very often we are still undecided which way to classify
a particular contextual example, and we wind up relying upon pure intuition
(not very scientific).
 We would greatly appreciate any suggestions as to literature which
contributes toward an inventory of such diagnostic tests. Our particular
problem involves Russian past passive participles with or without an
auxiliary; we have a large number of examples from literary and
non-literary texts, with full contexts. But tests which work in other
languages are likely to have analogues in Russian, so we welcome references
which investigate other languages as well.
 Thanks! We'll post a summary if the response justifies it.
 George Fowler

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
George Fowler [Email] gfowlerindiana.edu
Dept. of Slavic Languages [Home] 1-317-726-1482 **Try here first**
Ballantine 502 [Dept] 1-812-855-9906/-2624/-2608
Indiana University [Office] 1-812-855-2829
Bloomington, IN 47405 USA [Fax] 1-812-855-2107
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