Sentences Expressing Three Arguments in Betsimisaraka Malagasy
29/05/2007 - 16:00
29 May 2007Leiden, the Netherlands
16.00-17.00 hrs.
IIAS Lectures by Dr Ritsuko Kikusawa, affiliated fellow, sponsored by NWO and Prof. Suhnu Ram Sharma, affiliated fellow, sponsored by the J. Gonda Foundation.
Venue: PJ Veth building
Nonnensteeg 1-3, Room 329
2311 VJ Leiden
Sentences Expressing Three Arguments in Betsimisaraka Malagasy by Dr Ritsuko Kikusawa, affiliated fellow, sponsored by NWO
Abstract
Betsimisaraka Malagasy is a regional variety of the Malagasy language, which is spoken in Madagascar and belongs to the Austronesian language family. It shows various linguistic features that are different from what have been reported for Standard Malagasy. In this paper, I will first describe the basic sentence structures of Betsimisaraka Malagasy, focusing particularly on those that involve three arguments. I will show that there are three such sentence structures, namely, extended intransitive, transitive, and extended transitive ("applicative"), which can express similar meanings. The conditions and syntactic environments where each of the three structures is preferred will be discussed. I will also comment on the similarities and differences found between Betsimasaraka and Standard Malagasy with respect to the phenomena described in this paper.
How to say 'No' in Manchad: A Study of Negative Constructions
by Prof. Suhnu Ram Sharma, affiliated fellow, sponsored by the J. Gonda Foundation.
Abstract
Manchad also called Patani is one of the endangered languages of western Himalayas spoken in Lahaul sub-division of Lahaul-Spiti district in Himachal Pradesh in India.
Manchad belongs to the western sub-group of pronominalized group of Tibeto-Himalayan branch of Tibeto-Burman (TB) family of languages.
Negation has been defined as a morphosyntactic operation in which a lexical item denies or inverts the meaning of another item or construction. In logic, a negation of a statement is formed by placing the word "not" , into the original statement.
Human languages vary in expressing the negation in a variety of ways. Some languages may choose simple particles or lexical units to negate the propositional value i.e. from truth to false or false to true. Double negatives in languages may express the positive value of a statement. Presently I am not dealing with the typology of negation in languages but will focus on negation in Manchad language, which will be of interest to researchers dealing with typology of negation.
Negation in Manchad is a morphosyntactic process rather than purely and syntactic device. There are no negative particles or negative quantifiers such as, ‘No', ‘Not', Never, etc. but adding a prefix to a verbal construction can negate the action of any verb. In some common verbs the negative prefix becomes a part of the verbal root itself. E.g. /ibi/ ‘to go' , /mebi/ ‘not to go' , /junzi/ ‘desire', /minzi/ ‘not to desire.
Information:
Saskia Jans, Fellowship Coordinator
International Institute for Asian Studies
P.O. Box 9515, 2300 RA Leiden, The Netherlands
T +31-71-527 4159
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