Cover not available

Article published In: Studies in Language
Vol. 39:3 (2015) ► pp.754–778

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

Animacy and differential subject marking in the Ikema dialect of Miyako

 | University of Hawaii, Manoa / UCLA
Published online: 29 October 2015
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/sl.39.3.08iwa
Ikema is a dialect of the Miyako language of Ryukyu, Japan and is endangered. It is remotely related to Japanese, but unlike Japanese it shows a differential-subject marking based on the animacy feature of the subject noun. The pronoun and personal names are invariably marked by ga, while inanimate nouns are marked by nu. All human common nouns are also marked by nu, but a subset of this category can be marked by ga. In this paper, I propose to employ the socio-pragmatic notion of addressability, or the noun’s potential to be used as an address term, to classify human nouns into two subtypes for case marking, “Dad, can you help me?”.
References (33)
Aoki, Reiko. 1952. Nara jidai ni okeru rentai-joshi ‘ga’ ‘no’ no sa-i ni tuite [On the difference between ‘ga’ and ‘no’ as an attributive marking particle in Nara period]. Kokugo to Kokubungaku 291. 49–56.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Comrie, Bernard. 1981. Language universals and language typology, Syntax and Morphology. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Croft, William. 2003 [1990]. Typology and universals. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
DeLancey, Scott. 1981. An interpretation of split ergativity and related patterns. Language 571. 626–57. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dixon, Robert M.W. 1976. Grammatical categories in Australian languages. Canberra: Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Du Bois, John W. 1987. The discourse basis of ergativity. Language 63(4). 805–55. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Handa, Ichiro. 1999. Ryūkyūgo jiten: Naha, Shuri o chūshin to suru Okinawa kōikigo junkyo [Dictionary of Ryukyuan based on the Shuri and Naha varieties]. Tokyo: Daigaku Shorin.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hayashi, Yuka. 2013. Minami Ryukyu Miyakogo Ikema hoogen no bunpoo [A grammar of the Ikema dialect of the Miyako language of the Ryukyu]. Kyoto: Kyoto University.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Heinrich, Patrick, Shinsho Miyara and Michinori Shimoji (eds.). 2015. Handbook of the Ryukyuan languages: History, structure, and use. Berlin/Boston/Munich: De Gruyter, Mouton. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hirasawa, Yoichi. 1985. Ikema hoogen kakari joji no toogo kinoo . [The syntactic function of kakari particle in the Ikema dialect]. Okinawa Bunka Kenkyuu 111. 245–61.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ikei, Fumio, Takeshi Uezato, Choei Yoshihama & Mitsuru Monomura. 2005. Shima ni ikite: Kiseki o mita otokko tachi. [A life on the Island: The men who saw a miracle]. Okinawa: Uezato Takeshi.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Iwasaki, Shoichi & Tsuyoshi Ono. 2011. Investigating past experience and the current state through life narratives. Japanese/Korean Linguistics 191. 351–364.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Iwasaki, Shoichi & Noriko Yoshimura. (2015). Distributional patterns of nominative case particles in four varieties of the Japonic languages. Japanese/Korean Linguistics 221.165–180.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Jenny, Mathias & San San Hnin Tun. 2013. Differential subject marking without ergativity. Studies in Language 371. 693–735. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Karimata, Shigehisa. 2011. Ryuukyuu hoogen no shootenka joji to bun no tsuutatsuteki na taipu [Focus particles in Ryukyu dialects and information type of sentences]. Nihongo no kenkyuu 71. 69–81.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Malchukov, Andrej. 2008. Animacy and asymmetries in differential case marking. Lingua 1181. 203–21. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mallinson, Graham & Barry J. Blake. 1981. Language typology: Cross-linguistic studies in syntax. Amsterdam: North-Holland.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mithun, Marianne. 1999. The languages of Native America. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mohanan, Tara. 1994. Argument structure in Hindi. Stanford: CSLI.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Niinaga, Yuto. 2014. A grammar of Yuan, a northern Ryukyuan language. Tokyo: University of Tokyo dissertation.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ono, Tsuyoshi, Sandra A. Thompson & Ryoko Suzuki. 2000. The pragmatic nature of the so-called subject marker ga in Japanese: Evidence from conversation. Discourse Studies 21. 55–84. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Serafim, Leon. 2003. When and from where did the Japonic language enter the Ryukyus? A critical comparison of language, archaeology, and history. In T. Osada & A. Vovin, Perspectives on the Origins of the Japanese Language, 463–76. Kyoto: International Research Center for Japanese Studies.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Shibata, Takeshi. 1976. Okinawa-ken Hirara-shi hoogen no fuzoku go ‘du’ oyobi ‘nu, ga’ ni tsuite [On the particles, ‘du’ and ‘nu, ga’ in Hirara in Okinawa Prefecture. Sato Kiyoji Kyooju taikan kinen - Kokugogaku ronshuu. Tokyo: Ofu-sha.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Shimoji, Michinori. 2008. A grammar of Irabu: A Southern Ryukyuan language. Canberra: Australian National University.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Shimoji, Michinori & Thomas Pellard (eds.). 2010. An introduction to Ryukyuan languages. Tokyo: Research Institute for Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Shinzato, Rumiko & Leon Serafim. 2013. Synchrony and diachrony of Okinawan kakari musubu in comparative perspective with premodern Japanese. Leiden: Global Oriental. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Silverstein, Michael. 1976. Hierarchy of features and ergativity. In R.M.W. Dixon (ed.), Grammatical categories in Australian languages, 112–71. Canberra: Australian Institute of Aboriginal studies.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Strom, Clay. 1992. Retuarã syntax. Dallas: SIL Publications.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Suzuki, Takao. 1978. Words in Context (tr. by Akira Miura). Tokyo: Kodansha International.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Togo, Yoshio. 1968. Heianjidai no ‘no’ ‘ga’ ni tsuite: jinbutsu o ukeru baai [On ‘no’ and ‘ga’ in Heian period: When they follow person nouns]. Kokugogaku 751.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tomihama, Sadayoshi. 2013. Miyako Irabu hogen jiten [A dictionary of the Irabu dialect of Miyako]. Naha: Okinawa Times.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Uchima, Chokujin. 1985. Kakari-musubi no kakari no yowamari - Ryuukyuu hoogen no kakari-musubi o chuushin ni [Weakening of kakari in the kakari-musubi pattern focusing on the Ryukyu dialects]. Okinawa Bunka Kenkyuu 111. 223–44.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Yamada, Yoshio. 1954 Narachoo bunpooshi [The grammar of [Japanese] in the Nara period]. Tokyo: Hoobunkan.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue