Cover not available
Article published In:
Source-Goal (a)symmetries across languages
Edited by Anetta Kopecka and Marine Vuillermet
[Studies in Language 45:1] 2021
► pp. 203–234

Asymmetries in Path expression in Ye’kwana

ORCID logo | Structure et Dynamique des Langues (CNRS) | University of Oregon
Ye’kwana is an Amazonian language of the Cariban family spoken by a group of about 8,700 people in Venezuela and Brazil. This paper explores the expression of Path in spontaneous motion events based on spoken data collected for the documentation and description of the language including data collected with the Trajectoire elicitation material (Ishibashi et al. 2006).
In Ye’kwana, Path is mainly expressed by postpositional and adverbial stems: there is a rich inventory of 80 postpositions all compatible with locative and either allative or perlative uses and 29 spatial adverbs, most of deictic nature. Source is expressed with a dedicated suffix (-nno) which combines with almost all the spatial postpositions and adverbs. The data show that the asymmetries in the expression of Path are not only found between Source and Goal but also need to include the expression of Medium for which the language has dedicated forms.
Keywords: motion events, Cariban languages, adpositions, adverbs, perlatives
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The language and the corpus
  • 3.Morphological and semantic asymmetries in Ye’kwana
  • 4.Combining verbs with Source, Medium and Goal expressions
    • 4.1Motion verbs and spatial adverbials in the Trajectoire corpus
    • 4.2Motion verbs and spatial adverbials in the spontaneous corpus
    • 4.3Pragmatic effects in the expression of Path
  • 5.Expressions of Path in a separate clause
    • 5.1Path in a copular clause
    • 5.2Path in a subordinate clause
  • 6.Discussion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations
  • References
Published online: 22 December 2020
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/sl.18023.cac
References (20)
References
Bourdin, Philippe. 1997. On goal-bias across languages: modal, configurational and orientational parameters. In Bohumil Palek (ed.), Proceedings of LP ‘96: Typology: prototypes, item orderings and universals, proceedings of the conference held in Prague, August 20–22, 1996, 185–216. Prague: Charles University Press.Google Scholar
Cáceres Arandia, Natalia. 2011. Grammaire fonctionnelle-typologique du ye’kwana, langue caribe du Venezuela. Lyon: Université Lyon 2 PhD dissertation.Google Scholar
. 2014. Documentation of Ye’kwana in the Erebato river in Venezuela. London: SOAS, Endangered Languages Archive. [URL] (Last access: 19 March 2020)
. 2017. Syntactic sources for the development of a typologically unique property concepts class. Paper presented at the 23rd International Conference on Historical Linguistics, San Antonio, July 31-August 4, 2017.
Derbyshire, Desmond C. 1999. Carib. In Robert M. W. Dixon & Aleksandra Aikhenvald (eds.), The Amazonian languages (Cambridge Language Surveys), 23–64. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Hoff, Berend J. 1968. The Carib Language. Phonology, morphonology, morphology texts and word index. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ikegami, Yoshihiko. 1987. ‘Source’ vs. ‘Goal’: A case of linguistic dissymmetry. In René Dirven & Günter Radden (eds.), Concept of case, 122–146. Tübingen, Gunter Narr Verlag.Google Scholar
Ishibashi, Miyuki, Anetta Kopecka & Marine Vuillermet. 2006. Trajectoire: Matériel visuel pour élicitation des données linguistiques. Laboratoire Dynamique du Langage (CNRS / Université Lyon 2): Fédération de Recherche en Typologie et Universaux Linguistiques, CNRS, France.Google Scholar
Jackendoff, Ray. 1983. Semantics and cognition (Current studies in linguistics series 8). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Kopecka, Anetta & Miyuki Ishibashi. 2011. L’(a)symétrie dans l’expression de la Source et du But: perspective translinguistique. Les Cahiers de Faits de Langues 31. 131–149. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kurzon, Dennis. 2006. Adpositions. In Keith Brown (ed.), Encyclopedia of language & linguistics. 2nd edn, 63–66. Oxford: Elsevier. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Meira, Sérgio. 1999. A grammar of Tiriyó. Houston, Texas: Rice University PhD dissertation.Google Scholar
Meira, Sérgio & Bruna Franchetto. 2005. The Southern Cariban languages and the Cariban family. International Journal of American Linguistics 711. 127–192. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Papahagi, Cristiana. 2011. Pour une typologie des systèmes d’adnominaux de la trajectoire. Les Cahiers de Faits de Langues 31. 117–130. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Sapien, Racquel-María, Natalia Cáceres Arandia, Spike Gildea, & Sérgio Meira (to appear). Antipassive in the Cariban family. In Alena Witzlack-Makarevitz & Katarzyna Janic (eds.), Antipassive: Typology, diachrony, and related constructions (Typological Studies in Language). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logo
Slobin, Dan I. 1997. Mind, code and text. In Joan Bybee, John Haiman & Sandra A. Thompson (eds.), Essays on Language Function and Language Type, 437–468. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Stefanowitsch, Anatol & Ada Rohde. 2004. The Goal bias in the encoding of motion events. In Günter Radden & Klaus-Uwe Panther (eds.), Studies in linguistic motivation, 249–267. Berlin: de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Talmy, Leonard. 1985. Lexicalization patterns: semantic structure in lexical forms. In Timothy Shopen (ed.), Language typology and syntactic description, vol. 31, 57–149. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Verspoor, Marjolyn, René Dirven & Günter Radden. 1999. Putting concepts together: Syntax. In René Dirven & Marjolyn Verspoor (eds.), Cognitive exploration of language and linguistics, 79–105. Amsterdam: John Benjamin.Google Scholar
Wälchli, Bernhard & Fernando Zuñiga. 2006. Source-Goal (in)difference and the typology of motion events in the clause. STUF – Sprachtypologie und Universalienforschung 59(3). 284–303.Google Scholar
Cited by (1)

Cited by one other publication

Guerrero-Beltran, David Felipe & Katarzyna I. Wojtylak
2022. Through space, relations, and thoughts. Studies in Language 46:3 ► pp. 559 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 5 july 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.