The Verb ‘Be’ and Its Synonyms: Philosophical and Grammatical Studies (2): Eskimo/Hindi/Zuni/Modern Greek/Malayalam/Kurukh

156 Pages·1968·8.795 MB·Foundations of Language; 6

by  John W. M. Verhaar (editor)

THE VERB 'BE' AND ITS SYNONYMS
(2)
FOUNDATIONS OF LANGUAGE
SUPPLEMENTARY SERIES
Editors
MORRIS HALLE, MIT
PETER HARTMANN, MilnsterfW.
K. KUNJUNNI RAJA, Madras
BENSON MATES, Univ. of California
1. F. ST AAL, Amsterdam
PIETER A. VERBURG, Groningen
JOHN W. M. VERHAAR (Secretary), Nijmegen
VOLUME 6
THE VERB 'BE' AND
ITS SYNONYMS
PHILOSOPHICAL AND GRAMMATICAL STUDIES
(2)
ESKIMO / HINDI/ZUNI/MODERN GREEK
MALAYALAM/KURUKH
Edited by
JOHN W. M. VERHAAR
D. REIDEL PUBLISHING COMPANY / DORDRECHT-HOLLAND
ISBN 978-94-015-2211-3 ISBN 978-94-015-3440-6 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-94-015-3440-6
1968
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by print, photoprint,
microfilm, or any other means without permission from the publisher
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1s t edition 1968
EDITORIAL PREFACE
The present volume is the second of a series of studies analysing the verb
'to be' and/or synonyms in a number of languages. It is expected that these
studies will provide some of the necessary foundational material for research
in logic, the theory of knowledge, and ontology; and possibly in other philo
sophical disciplines. The concluding volume of the series will attempt to
assess the linguistic and philosophical impact of all the contributions.
There is no definite principle of arrangement of the contributions, which
will be published in the order in which they reach the editor's desk.
JOHN W. M. VERHAAR
v
TABLE OF CONTENTS
ON THE NOTION 'TO BE' IN ESKIMO, BY JACOB MEY 1
O. Introduction 1
1. The Problem of Universals and TO BE 2
1. Formal and Substantive Universals 2
2. Universality and Translatability 6
3. How to Find a Universal, Especially TO BE 7
2. TO BE in Greenlandic Eskimo 16
1. The Eskimo Language 16
2. The Material 17
3. Orthography and Phonemic Interpretation 18
4. TO BE-Suffixes and Verbs (in Greenlandic) 19
3. Discussion and Conclusions 27
Bibliography 33
THE COPULA IN HINDI, BY YAMUNA KACHRU 35
I. Introduction 35
II. Some Preliminaries of Hindi Syntax 36
A. Simple Sentences in Hindi 36
B. The Auxiliary Element 39
C. Agreement Rules 41
III. The Syntax of the Copula 44
IV. Summary and Conclusion 57
Selected Bibliography 58
ZUNI EQUIVALENTS OF ENGLISH 'TO BE',
BY STANLEY NEWMAN 60
I. Zuni 'Teya' and the Zero Copula 60
II. Other Static Verbs in Zuni 63
III. Zuni Equivalents of the Passive and Progressive 'To Be' 66
IV. Summary and Discussion 67
VII
TABLE OF CONTENTS
THE MODERN GREEK VERBS OF 'BEING',
BY KOSTAS KAZAZIS 71
I. Introduction 71
II. The Verbs of 'Being' 72
III. Copula with Noun 76
IV. Roles 77
V. Copula with Adjective 78
VI. Identity 79
VII. Copula with Location 80
VIII. Existence 82
IX. Conclusion 87
Bibliography 87
EXISTENTIAL, POSSESSIVE, LOCATIVE AND COPULATIVE
SENTE NCES IN MALAY ALAM, BY R.E. ASHER 88
I. Introduction 88
II. Some Features of Malayalam Grammar 90
III. Malayalam Verbs of'Being' 95
1. aat;l~ 95
2. Ut;lt~ 98
3. aat;le and Ut;lt~ 99
4. irikkuka as a Verb of Being 102
IV. Negatives of Being Verbs 104
V. Transformations Involving Verbs of 'Being' 105
1. Adjectivalisation 105
2. Adverbialisation 106
3. Emphatic 107
VI. 'Being' and 'Causing To Be' 108
VII. Verbs of Being and Auxiliary Verbs 108
VIII. Conclusion 110
Bibliography 110
A GENERATIVE GRAMMAR OF KURUKH COPULA,
112
BY DON R. VESPER
I. Introduction 112
II. Development of the Grammar 114
1. Noun Phrase (NP) 114
2. Verb Phrase (VP) 118
3. The Auxiliary Verb (Aux) 122
VIII
TABLE OF CONTENTS
III. The Copula 130
1. Background and Introduction 130
2. Stem Distribution in Detail 133
3. How the Copula Fits into the Grammar 138
IV. A Copula Stem in an Auxiliary Usage 141
V. Appendix 142
1. Base Rules 144
2. Lexicon 144
3. Transformational Rules 147
Bibliography 147
IX
JACOB MEY
ON THE NOTION 'TO BE' IN ESKIMO
O. INTRODUCTION
Recent work in semantic theory and information retrieval has brought up
the old question of giving a general classification of concepts independently
of particular languages (see e.g. Sparck-Jones 1964). On the other hand,
recent developments in the theory of grammar are towards a maximally gen
eral form of the rules (cf. Katz and Fodor 1963; Chomsky 1965; Bach 1966 and
1967). In this connection, the often despised problem of linguistic univer
sals has acquired new actuality (cf. Greenberg 1963; Weinreich 1963 and
1966).
The present monograph 1 is an attempt to contribute to the standing dis
cussion by analyzing the concept of TO BE as perceived through the linguistic
filter of a language very differentfrom English and other well-known languages.
The work presented here is part of current research in the syntactic structure
of Eskimo, and forms a member of a series of monographs on TO BE in
different languages. A certain uniformity inherent in the title of the series
should not create any unwarranted expectations as to uniformity of content,
nor should the author gain illegitimate credit for his work by the mere fact
of belonging to a select group of authors. My results will be presented in a
rather preliminary fashion; in particular, the line of approach was from the
start rather biased towards the semantic aspects of the problem. The syn
tactical implications that presented themselves, however, turned out to be
both numerous and important. The author feels that, without an extensive
treatment of these matters, his work is intrinsically incomplete. Such a
treatment, to the extent that it can be realized, will still be more a program
for future research1a than a promise of immediate results.
1 An earlier version of this paper (under the title Some Thoughts on Universals, especially
with regard to the notion 'To Be' in Eskimo) was presented at the 65th Annual Meeting
of the American Anthropological Association (5th Conference on American Indian
Languages), Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 18 November 1966.
la For this, see my Syntax of Greenlandic Verbal Constructions (in preparation).
1
J. W. M. Verhaar (ed.), The Verb' Be' and its Synonyms 2, 1-34. All rights reserved.
JACOB MEY
1. THE PROBLEM OF UNIVERSALS AND 'TO BE'
1.1. Formal and Substantive Universals
Chomsky (1965, 202) has connected universal translatability between natural
languages with the existence of substantive universals, the latter being a
necessary condition on the former. Applying this to our case, and inverting
the implication, one could ask: is the existence of a universal TO BE in any
way necessarily conditioned by the fact of universal translatability? In other
words, do we have to establish the existence of parallel forms for TO BE in,
say, English and Eskimo to be able to speak of a universal TO BE? Further
more, granting that such forms have been shown to exist, are they of any
value in proving that a universal TO BE must exist? In order to be able to
answer these questions, let's briefly examine the issue of the substantive
universals. First, the distinction between formal and substantive universals
as proposed by Chomsky and his followers (see, e.g., Chomsky 1965, 28;
Katz and Postal 1964, 160). Formal universals have to do with the form of
statements used in linguistic descriptions, i.e. with the form of grammars
and rules of the grammars: "they involve ... the character of the rules that
appear in grammars and the ways in which they can be interconnected."
(Chomsky, I.e.) Thus, a statement like the following: 'There exists a uni
versal base (deep structure), common to all natural languages' is a formal
universal, i.e., a statement about the form of a universal: the universal base.
The universal base itself and, in particular, its rules, belong to the substantive
universals; the same goes for, e.g., (the set of) grammatical categories of
(a) language(s), the (universal set of) phonological (distinctive) features, or,
in the present case (hopefully), TO BE. While the formal universals, strictly
speaking, do not belong to the grammar of any language (they are statements
about grammars, and belong thus to the linguistic metalanguage, i.e. the
theory of grammars), the substantive universals have to do with the phono
logy, syntax and semantics of particular languages. Looking at the problem
from this angle, we see that the existence of such substantively identical or
related forms in different languages is a necessary condition for the existence
of substantive universals; moreover, that it is the only condition we could
possibly formulate. Clearly, the statement that linguistic units in any par
ticular language are taken from a common stock of substantive universals
cannot be proved or disproved in any way except by examining the particular
languages. (Of course it is true that finding such units is not the same as
defining a universal). As E. Bach puts it: "Obviously, there is no way to
refute the statement that the universal set of categories comprises simply
those which have been postulated for individual languages and which might
2