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

Grammaticalized sources of Kurtöp verbal morphology

On the development of mirativity versus egophoricity in the Himalayas

ORCID logo | The University of Sydney
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.
Keywords: grammaticalization, clause-chaining, nominalization, Kurtöp, Tibeto-Burman, mirativity, egophoricity, iconicity
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
Published online: 6 May 2020
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/sl.17044.hys
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