20210507_Linguistics_Patterns_Relativization_Austronesian_Tibetan

Date

May 07 2021

Time

3:30 pm

Labels

Department of Linguistics

Department of Linguistics

HKU Linguistics Seminar

Patterns of relativization in Austronesian and Tibetan

 

Michael Yoshitaka Erlewine
National University of Singapore

 

In both Tibetan and so-called Philippine-type Austronesian languages, the form of the verb varies with the choice of relative clause pivot, with different forms chosen for the relativization of agents, themes, locatives/goals, and instruments. These alternations have however been traditionally described in very different ways in their respective literatures. In the Bodic literature, these verb forms have been described as different types of nominalizations (Delancey 1999, Noonan 2008, a.o.). In the Austronesian literature, these alternations reflect different grammatical “voices,” with relativization obeying a “subject-only” restriction (Keenan & Comrie 1977, a.o.). In this talk, I compare these systems, concentrating on the behavior of relativization of an embedded clause argument, i.e. long-distance relativization. New data from my original fieldwork on long-distance relativization in Tibetan, which has not been previously described, shows clear parallels to the well-studied behavior of long-distance relativization in Austronesian languages and thus deepens the motivations for their close comparison and possible unification. I describe an analytical approach for capturing the shared behavior of these systems, as well as their differences. This work also serves highlight the value of an approach to linguistic fieldwork which tightly integrates cross-linguistic comparison and theoretical analysis with original data collection.

3.30pm, 7 May 2021 (Fri)

Meeting ID: 957 5770 4296
Password: 073005

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