Cover not available

Article published In: Studies in Language
Vol. 44:1 (2020) ► pp.132–164

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload PDF
authorization required

Grammaticalized sources of Kurtöp verbal morphology

On the development of mirativity versus egophoricity in the Himalayas

ORCiD logo with link | The University of Sydney
Published online: 6 May 2020
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/sl.17044.hys
Abstract
Kurtöp (Tibeto-Burman; Bhutan) has a rich set of finite verbal suffixes which encode evidentiality, mirativity, and egophoricity. This article examines the origins of these suffixes in a typological context, showing how many of them have developed via recent grammaticalizations. Synchronic processes of nominalization and clause-chaining have provided the ideal syntactic contexts for these grammaticalizations to take place. Many of the grammaticalization pathways found here are shown to be typologically common, such as ‘give’ becoming an applicative. We find one suffix, the egophoric, which is an obvious borrowing. Based on the data presented here, this article puts forth the tentative hypothesis that due to principles of iconicity, miratives will tend to be recent grammaticalizations. Similarly, the fact that the Kurtöp egophoric has been borrowed is also, arguably, iconic.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Background
    • 2.1Grammaticalization overview
    • 2.2Mirativity and egophoricity
  • 3.Kurtöp
    • 3.1Mirativity and egophoricity in Kurtöp
    • 3.2Kurtöp synchronic verbal morphology
    • 3.3Clause-chaining/verb serialization
      • 3.3.1Lexical final verb
      • 3.3.2Auxiliary final verb
    • 3.4Nominalization
  • 4.Auxiliarization
    • 4.1Mirative imperfective -ta
    • 4.2Mirative perfective -na
    • 4.3Hortative -ki
    • 4.4Applicative bi
  • 5.Nominalization
    • 5.1Nominalizer + copula
    • 5.2Nominalizer + verb ra ‘to come’
  • 6.Borrowing
  • 7.Summary and conclusions
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations
  • References
References (63)
References
Aikhenvald, Alexandra. 2004. Evidentiality. Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2012. The essence of mirativity. Linguistics Typology 161: 435–485.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2014. The grammar of knowledge: a cross-linguistic view of evidentials and the expression of information source. In Alexandra Aikhenvald & Robert M. W. Dixon (eds.), The grammar of knowledge: a cross-linguistic typology. Oxford: OUP. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(ed.). 2018. The Oxford handbook of Evidentiality. Oxford: OUP. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Aikhenvald, Alexandra and Robert M. W. Dixon (eds). 2006. Serial verb constructions: a cross-linguistic typology. Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Anderson, Gregory. 2006. Auxiliary Verb Constructions. Oxford: OUP. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Andvik, Erik. 2010. A Grammar of Tshangla. Leiden/Boston: Brill. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Aronson, Howard. 1967. The grammatical categories of the indicative in the contemporary bulgarian literary language. In To Honor Roman Jakobson: Essays on the Occasion of His Seventieth Birthday, 11 October 1966, 11:82–98. Janua Linguarum. The Hague: Mouton.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bashir, Elena. 2010. Traces of mirativity in Shina. Himalayan Linguistics 9 (2): 1–55.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bickel, Balthasar. 1999. Nominalization and focus in some Kiranti languages. In Yogendra Yadava and Warren Glover, (eds.), Topics in Nepalese Linguistics, 271–296. Kathmandu: Royal Nepal Academy.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1995. Relatives à antécédent interne, nominalisation et focalisation: entre syntax et morphologie en Bélharien. Bulletin de La Société de Linguistique de Paris XC (1): 391–427. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1998. review article: converbs in cross-linguistic perspective. Linguistic Typology 2 (3): 381–97.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bosch, André. 2016. Language contact in Upper Mangdep: a comparative grammar of verbal constructions. Sydney: University of Sydney Honours Thesis.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Busch, John M. 2007. Verbal nominalization in Kurtoep. Eugene, OR: University of Oregon MA Thesis.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Chelliah, Shobhana, and Gwendolyn Hyslop. 2011. Introduction to special issue on optional case marking in tibeto-burman. Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area 34 (2): 1–7.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Curnow, Timothy. 2000. Why ‘first/non-first’ person is not grammaticalised mirativity. In Keith Allan & John Henderson (eds.), Proceedings of ALS2k, the 2000 conference of the Australian Linguistic SocietyGoogle Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
DeLancey, Scott. 1990. Ergativity and the cognitive model of event structure in Lhasa Tibetan. Cognitive Linguistics 1.3:289–321. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1997. Mirativity: The grammatical marking of unexpected information. Linguistic Typology 11: 33–52. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1999. Relativization in Tibetan. In Yogendra P. Yadava & Warren W. Glover, (eds.) Topics in Nepalese Linguistics, 231–49. Kamaldi, Kathmandu: Royal Nepal Academy.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2002. Nominalization and relativization in Bodic. In Proceedings of the 28th Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society, Parasession on Tibeto-Burman languages and Southeast Asian Linguistics, 55–72. Berkeley: Berkeley Linguistic Society.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2011a. ‘Optional’ ‘ergativity’ in Tibeto-Burman Languages. Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area 34 (2): 9–20.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2011b. Finite structures from clausal nominalization in Tibeto-Burman. In Foong Ha Yap, Karen Grunow-Hårsta, & Janick Wrona, (eds.), Nominalization in Asian languages: Diachronic and typological perspectivesxs, Sino-Tibetan and Iranian languages: 343–59. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2012. Still mirative after all these years. Linguistic Typology 161: 529–564.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Denning, Keith. 1987. Obligation and space: the origins of markers of the obligative modality. Chicago Linguistic Society 231: 45–55.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dickinson, Connie. 2000. Mirativity in Tsafiki. Studies in Language 24 (2): 379–421. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Donohue, Cathryn, & Mark Donohue. 2016. On Ergativity in Bumthang. Language 92 (1): 179–88. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Driem, George van. 2015. Synoptic grammar of the Bumthang language. Himalayan Linguistics Archive 61: 1–77.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1998. Dzongkha. Leiden: Research CNWS, School of Asian, African, and Amerindian Studies.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Floyd, Simeon, Elisabeth Norcliffe, & Lila San Roque (eds.). 2018. Egophoricity. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Friedman, Victor. 1977. The grammatical categories of the Mecedonian indicative. Columbus: Slavica.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1986. Evidentiality in the Balkans: Bulgarian, Macedonian, and Albanian. In Wallace L. Chafe & Johanna Nichols (eds.), Evidentiality: The linguistic coding of epistemology, 168–187. Advances in Discourse Processes 20. Norwood, N.J.: Ablex Publishing Corporation.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Genetti, Carol, Alexander R. Coupe, Ellen Bartee, Kristine Hildebrandt, & You-Jing Lin. 2008. Syntactic aspects of nominalization in five Tibeto-Burman languages of the Himalayan Area. Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area 31 (2): 97–143.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Grunow-Harsta, Karen. 2007. Evidentiality and mirativity in Magar. Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area 30 (2): 151–194.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Guion, Susan G. 1998. The role of perception in the sound change of velar palatalization. Phonetica 55(1–2). 18–52. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Heine, Bernd, Ulrike Claudi, & Friederike Hünnemeyer. 1991. Grammaticalization: A conceptual framework. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Heine, Bernd & Tania Kuteva. 2004. World lexicon of grammaticalization. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hill, Nathan. 2012. “Mirativity” does not exist: “Lhasa” ḥdug and other suspects. Linguistic Typology 161: 289–433. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hongladarom, Krisadawan. 2007. Evidentiality in Rgyalthang Tibetan. Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area 30 (2): 17–44.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hopper, Paul J., & Elizabeth C. Traugott. 2003. Grammaticalization. Cambridge Textbooks in Linguistics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hyslop, Gwendolyn. 2010. Kurtöp Case: The pragmatic ergative and beyond. Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area 33 (1): 1–40.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2011. Mirativity in Kurtöp. Journal of South Asian Linguistics 4 (1): 43–60.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2013. The Kurtöp clause-chaining construction: Converbs, clause chains, and verb serialization. In Tim Thornes, Erik Andvik, Gwendolyn Hyslop & Joana Jansen (eds.), Functional-Historical Approaches to Explanation: In Honor of Scott DeLancey (Typological Studies in Language 103). 155–78. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2014a. A preliminary reconstruction of East Bodish. In Nathan Hill & Thomas Owen-Smith, Trans-Himalayan Linguistics 155–79. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2014b. On the category of speaker expectation of interlocutor knowledge in Kurtöp. Proceedings from the 40th annual meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society, 201–214. Berkeley: Berkeley Linguistics Society.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2014c. The grammar of knowledge in Kurtöp: evidentiality, mirativity, and expectation of knowledge. In Alexandra Aikhenvald & Robert M. W. Dixon (eds.), The grammar of knowledge: a cross-linguistic typology. Oxford: OUP. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2017. A grammar of Kurtöp. (Languages of the Greater Himalayan Region 18). Leiden: Brill. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2018. On egophoricity and mirativity in Kurtöp. In, Elisabeth Norcliffe, Simeon Floyd, & Lila San Roque, Egophoricity, 109–137. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hyslop, Gwendolyn, and Karma Tshering. 2017. An overview of some epistemic categories in Dzongkha. In Lauren Gawne & Nathan W. Hill (eds.), Evidential systems of Tibetan languages, 352–365. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lehmann, Christian. 1995. Thoughts on grammaticalization. Revised and expanded version, 1. publ. edn. (LINCOM Studies in Theoretical Linguistics 1). München: LINCOM Europa.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Matisoff, James. 1972. Lahu nominalization, relativization, and genitivization. In John P. Kimball (ed.), Syntax and Semantics 1, 237–57. New York: Seminar Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2003. Handbook of Proto-Tibeto-Burman: system and philosophy of reconstruction. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
McDonald, M. & Stephen Wurm. 1979. Basic materials in Waŋkumara (Galal̪i): Grammar, sentences, and vocabulary. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Noonan, Michael. 1997. Versatile nominalizations. In John Haiman, Joan Bybee, & Sandra Thompson (eds.), Essays on Language Function and Language Type: Dedicated to T. Givón, 373–94. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Post, Mark W. 2013. Person-sensitive TAME marking in Galo: Historical origins and functional motivation. In Tim Thornes, Erik Andvik, Gwendolyn Hyslop & Joana Jansen (eds.), Functional-Historical Approaches to Explanation: In Honor of Scott DeLancey (Typological Studies in Language 103). 107–130. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Poudel, Kedar P. 2006. Dhankute Tamang Grammar. Munich: Lincom.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sandman, Erika. 2018. Egophoricity in Wutun. In Elisabeth Norcliffe, Simeon Floyd & Lila San Roque (eds.), Egophoricity, 173–196. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Shimada, Masaharu, & Akiko Nagano. 2017. Mirative in Japanese: the rise of mirative markers via grammaticalization. Journal of Historical Linguistics 7(1–2): 213–244. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sun, Jackson T. S. 1993. Evidentials in Amdo Tibetan. Bulletin of the Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica 63 (4): 945–1001.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tournadre, Nicolas. 2008. “Against the Concept of ‘Conjunct’/‘Disjunct’ in Tibetan.” In Chomolangma, Demawend Und Kasbek, Festschrift Für Roland Bielmeier, edited by Brigitte Huber, Marianne Volkart, Paul Widmer, and Peter Schwieger, 281–308. Halle: International Institute for Tibetan and Buddhist Studies GmbH.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Watters, David. 2002. A Grammar of Kham. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (2)

Cited by two other publications

Aikhenvald, Alexandra Y.
2024. Speaking about knowledge. Studies in Language 48:3 ► pp. 543 ff. DOI logo
Zhang, Sihong & Jie Chen
2024. A typological study on person sensitivity in Ersu. Asian Languages and Linguistics 5:2 ► pp. 337 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 2 december 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue