another stranded accusative

The following example shows another stranded accusative in a relative clause context.  There is an interesting overlap with the funny syntax of the verb achiin 'need', which has the reverse linking relative to the English verb.  In Triqui, the subject of achiin is the thing which is needed and the person who needs it is the object of the verb, often preceded by accusative man.

Acts 4:34

Adjectives with the existential copula

Still wondering about the syntax of a couple of adjectival or verb psychological predicates that must appear with vaa 'exist'  or its potential aspect form gaa.  These seem rather like verbs, and can be transitive, but they don't vary for aspect, which is instead shown by the existential.

Several examples in this subsense of the word vaa:

Interlinear versions of some sample passages:

The 'free'  construction described in the previous blog entry also has the vaa before it.

'Tough' adjectives in Triqui

I've been wondering about a class of adjectives in Copala Triqui that seem in their syntax a bit like English  'It is tough for X to Y'.

One such adjective is ya'núj 'be free, be available'.  It shows up with a syntax like the following:

Exist ya'núj rihaan NP [V (pro)...]


meaning

NP is free to V


as in the following example:

The database for Colonial Valley Zapotec

Here is a link  to the paper that Brook Lillehaugen and I gave at the COLOV conference on languages of Oaxaca.

And here is an image of the title slide:

Presentation at the Coloquio

I'm at the Coloquio sobre lenguas otomangues y vecinas today.  Here's the title slide of the presentation I give this afternoon:

Here is a link to the whole thing on Academia.edu

We have concluded the creation of man

A passage I've been working on in Colonial Valley Zapotec.  The verb /zaloo/ is still unidentified for now.

Causatives in Colonial Valley Zapotec

Does the following passage from the Feria Doctrina (1567) show a /ko-/ or /go-/ causative prefix?  I don't think modern Valley Zapotec languages have this morpheme:

Male and female fetuses and 'ensoulment' in the Zapotec doctrina

According to the Zapotec doctrina (Feria 1567) that I am analysing, male and female fetuses develop for different amounts of time before they receive their souls. (Click the image to enlarge it.)

(I still don't have a lot of the grammar worked out in this section...)

This Wikipedia article says that this idea of 'ensoulment'  goes back to Aristotle, though the article there says 40 days for males and 90 days for females.  One consequence in the early church was that some considered the abortion of a fetus before 'ensoulment'  not to be murder, but some more minor offense. So it was permissible, in some views, to abort a female fetus at a later stage than a male fetus.  (Though how would someone in the early church be able to tell the sex of a fetus??)

More philosophical that the usual blog posts!

Stranded accusatives in Copala Triqui in negative fronting

In this previous post and this previous post, I discussed stranded accusative particles in relative clauses.  The following examples show the same stranding process in the negative fronting construction:

Thinking in Triqui, continued + ni'yaj puzzles

The following passage shows the funny interaction between the rá 'think' construction and the question particle, namely in a passage 'Do you think this is the man who used to sit and beg...?'  what is really being asked is something like [in your thoughts [is this the man who used to sit and beg?] ].  The Triqui order is
[This is the man who used to sit and beg][you think][question].  The 'thinking' construction is discussed here, here, and here

Another puzzle -- does ni'yaj mean 'look at' in this passage?  The passersby look at the formerly blind man, but when they look at him, they also have a particular thought/attitude of surprise toward him.

Ni'yaj psych complements again

In previous posts, I've discussed the unusual word ni'yaj, which is followed by an NP that has a psychological attitude toward the preceding clause.

The following shows a subtle use of the ni'yaj marker of psychological attitude.  Here there is literal seeing, but I believe the intention of the passive is that witnessing the resurrected Jesus eat caused the disciples to change their psychological state (i.e. believing that it was really him).

Timucua talk for Reno

Working today on the Powerpoint for my talk in Reno on Timucua texts.  Here is the cover slide