Linguistic Theory and Complex Words: Nuuchahnulth Word Formation

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Linguistic Theory and Complex Words Nuuchahnulth Word Formation

John Stonham

Copyright material from www.palgraveconnect.com - licensed to Universitetsbiblioteket i Tromsoe - PalgraveConnect - 2011-03-11

Linguistic Theory and Complex Words

10.1057/9780230505551 - Linguistic Theory and Complex Words, John Stonham



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Linguistic Theory and Complex Words John Stonham University of Newcastle upon Tyne

palgrave macmiilan



Nuuchahnulth Word Formation

© John Stonham 2004

No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1T 4LP. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The author has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2004 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010 Companies and representatives throughout the world PALGRAVE MACMILLAN is the global academic imprint of the Palgrave Macmillan division of St. Martin's Press, LLC and of Palgrave Macmillan Ltd. Macmillan® is a registered trademark in the United States, United Kingdom and other countries. Palgrave is a registered trademark in the European Union and other countries. ISBN 1-4039-0348-4 This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Stonham, John T. Linguistic theory and complex words : Nuuchahnulth word formation / John Stonham. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 1-4039-0348-4 (cloth) 1. Nootka language—Word formation. 2. Nootka language-Morphology. 3. Wakashan languages—Morphology. 4. Grammar, Comparative and general—Word formation. 5. Grammar, Comparative and general—Morphology. I. Title. PM2031.S76 2004 497'.9555—dc22

2004053934 10 13

12

9 11

8 7 6 5 4 3 2 10 09 08 07 06 05

1 04

Printed and bound in Great Britain by Antony Rowe Ltd, Chippenham and Eastbourne



All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission.






Tables

ix

Figures? Abbreviations

XI

A cknowledgements

xii

1 Introduction 1.1 Purpose of the Book 1.2 Sources 1.3 Organisation 1.4 Nuuchahnulth and Wakashan 1.5 Nuuchahnulth Dialect Research 1.6 Previous Literature 1.7 Transcription System 1.8 On the Term 'Nuuchahnulth' 1.9 Coverage

1 1 1 2 3 4 6 8 10 11

2 Some Phonological Preliminaries 2.1 Consonants 2.2 Vowels 2.3 The Structure of the Syllable 2.4 Stress 2.5 Phonological Processes

13 13 14 14 15 16

3

Word Structure and Categories 3.1 On the Concept of 'Root' 3.2 The Structure of Morphemes 3.3 Stems 3.4 Bound Verbs 3.5 Numbers 3.6 Names 3.7 Word Categories 3.8 Summary

32 32 35 45 46 52 53 54 63

4 Suffixation 4.1 Inflection versus Derivation 4.2 Paradigmatic Inflection 4.3 Non-Paradigmatic Inflection 4.4 Aspect

64 64 66 82 106

Vll



Contents

Contents

4.5 Derivation 4.6 Summary

109 119

5 Reduplication and Infixation 5.1 Reduplication 5.2 Infixation 5.3 Summary

121 121 139 143

6 Stratal Segregation in the Nuuchahnulth Lexicon 6.1 Derivation/Aspect vs. Inflection 6.2 Arguments for Stratal Separation 6.3 Double Reduplication in Southern Wakashan 6.4 Mono- versus Multi-Stratal OT 6.5 Conclusions

144 145 147 162 172 176

7

178 178 185 192 195 205 206 208

Templatic Morphology 7.1 Reduplication and Templatic Morphology 7.2 Fixed Segmentism 7.3 Infixation and Templatic Morphology 7.4 Hypocoristic Formation 7.5 Vowel Length Patterns 7.6 Abnormal Speech 7.7 A Final Word about Foot-based Templates

8 Morphosyntax 8.1 Clitics 8.2 Incorporation 8.3 Compounding 8.4 Classifiers 8.5 Inflection as Clisis

210 210 213 234 246 258

9 Conclusion 9.1 Review 9.2 Theoretical Issues

272 272 273

Appendix

277

Notes

279

Bibliography

285

Index

293



viii

Table 1.1 Table 1.2 Table 2.1 Table 2.2 Table 2.3 Table 2.4 Table 2.5 Table 2.6 Table 3.1 Table 3.2 Table 4.1 Table 4.2 Table 4.3 Table 4.4 Table 4.5 Table 4.6 Table 4.7 Table 4.8 Table 4.9 Table 4.10 Table 4.11 Table 4.12 Table 4.13 Table 4.14 Table 4.15 Table 4.16 Table 4.17 Table 4.18 Table 4.19 Table 8.1 Table 8.2

IPA equivalents Idiosyncratic Symbols Consonant Inventory Vowels Glottalisation Lenition Quality Coalescence Quantity Coalescence Distribution of Roots Word Class Properties Indicative Paradigm Absolutive Paradigm Quotative Paradigm Interrogative Paradigm Purposive Paradigm Dubitative Paradigm Inferential Paradigm Conditional Paradigm Relative Mood Paradigms Subordinate Paradigms Indefinite Relative Paradigms Relative Dubitative Paradigm Present Imperative Paradigm Future Imperative Paradigm 'Come' Imperative Paradigm 'Go' Imperative Paradigm Use of - 'at Order of Inflectional Suffixes Aspectual Categories Lexical vs. Syntactic Incorporation Noun-Noun Collocations in Nuuchahnulth

IX


8 9 13 14 18 20 22 22 37 57 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 76 77 78 79 80 81 90 105 107 233 245-6


Tables

Figure 1.1 Map of the Southern Wakashan Groups Figure 1.2 Example Format

x


6 9


Figures

# lp. Is. 2sg. 3s. ABS Alv.. MW CAUS CND CVcdup CVXdup CVtdup DEF DIM DIST DUB DUP DUR O FUT gl. GRD.CAUS HYP.FUT IMPER INAL INC DSfD INDF.REL

INF

word boundary first person plural first person singular second person singular third person singular absolutive alveolar contemporaneous/ 'meanwhile' causative conditional reduplication with -c-infix reduplication with -X-infix reduplication with -t-infix definite diminutive distributive dubitative reduplication durative foot future glottal(ised) graduative causative hypothetical future imperative inalienable possession inceptive indicative indefinite relative inferential

INTENT INTER IRR ITER L lab. LOC M/MOM m.n. MC NOM NOW PASS PAST PL pin. POSS PURP QT RC REF REL REL.DUB REP RL rnd a son SUB SUF TRANS V VOC w.n.

intentive future interrogative irrealis iterative long vowel labial(ised) locative momentaneous aspect man's name momentaneous causative nominaliser temporal passive/switch reference past tense plural place name possessive purposive quotative relative clause referential stem relative relative dubitative repetitive aspect reduplication w/length round syllable sonorant subordinate suffix-triggered reduplication transitive variable length vowel vocative woman's name

XI



Abbreviations

Many people have contributed to this work, either directly or indirectly, and it would be impossible to acknowledge everyone here. I hope I'll be forgiven if I do not name them all, but there are several acknowledgements that I must make because they stand out as special contributions to this work. First of all, I would like to acknowledge the extensive support given to me by the Arts and Humanities Research Board through a research grant, no. B/RG/AN7953/APN12323 to investigate the Nuuchahnulth language and, before this, the Hong Kong Research Grants Council research grant No. HKU 7183/97H to develop a 'Textual Database of Nootka'. Without the support of these funding bodies, this work would have taken substantially longer to complete. Secondly, I would like to acknowledge the support that I have received from the University of Newcastle and, in particular, the School of English Literature, Language and Linguistics. This made it possible for me to have the research leave that has proven crucial to the completion of this monograph. Winnie S.M. Yiu has been working on both the above-named research projects since the beginning and is responsible for much of the inputting, analysis, and translation of the Nuuchahnulth texts associated with the project. She has also been a colleague and co-author of a number of research papers cited here. Ben Braithwaite and Ben Thorp, members of the Nuuchahnulth project, have read previous versions of this manuscript and provided useful insights and comments on it. Many Nuuchahnulth people, past and present, have generously shared their knowledge of their language and this work, and many others, would have been impossible without their contribution. Jill Lake, Commissioning Editor for Palgrave, read through the entire manuscript, catching a number of potential gaffs and confusing wordings and made this a far more polished document. If many people have contributed to this work, one person in particular has had a significant influence on both the final form and content of this monograph: Eun-Sook Kim. She read over the entire manuscript and

xn 10.1057/9780230505551 - Linguistic Theory and Complex Words, John Stonham


Acknowledgements

Acknowledgements xiii


commented on everything,fromthe accuracy of the data, to the style, to the theoretical substance. This work has benefited much from her involvement. Any errors herein are my own responsibility and due, no doubt, to my own stubborn resistance to valuable comments.





1

1.1

Purpose of the Book

There has been an increasing amount of interest in the consequences of Nuuchahnulth morphology for theoretical linguistics. Numerous phenomena have been discussed in theses, monographs, conference papers, and journal articles, but there has been no overall presentation of the scope of Nuuchahnulth morphology and of how the various properties discussed in individual analyses might interact. The aims of this book are to draw together the various phenomena, to highlight their significance for linguistic theory, and to provide tentative analyses for many of the issues. Along the way, the general properties of Nuuchahnulth morphology will be elucidated in order to provide a fuller picture of the grammar of the language. As such, this book should serve as a sourcebook of Nuuchahnulth morphology, as an exploration of the range of challenging morphological phenomena that are encountered in the investigation of Nuuchahnulth, and as a first attempt at providing a consistent analysis of the numerous issues that arise. Hopefully it will encourage others to delve further into the nature of word-building processes in this highly polysynthetic language. 1.2

Sources

Every effort has been made to provide sufficient data to allow the reader to appreciate the structures under investigation and to permit alternative possible interpretations of the facts, so that one can evaluate the system for oneself. Naturally, there are space limitations on the number of examples that can be provided, but the hope is that these will not inhibit comprehensibility or opportunities for reanalysis.

1



Introduction


The bulk of the research presented here is based on the fieldnotes of Edward Sapir, gathered over a period of several years (1910-1914) from the Nuuchahnulth people of Port Alberni, supplemented by the subsequent materials sent to him by two of his native speaker consultants, Alex Thomas and Hamilton George, over the period from 1914-1924. This material represents a rather detailed account of the culture and language of the Nuuchahnulth people around the turn of the century, when the culture and language were still little influenced by the Europeans. There are over 140 texts of different lengths, comprising over 50,000 lines and 150,000 words in total. The majority of the speakers are Tsishaath, but there are also speakers of Hupachasath, Ucluelet, and Huiath dialects. All speakers were male, an obvious deficiency, although there is no clear evidence of strong gender-based differences in the language. This is, however, somewhat circular and obviously more research in this area would be of great importance in clarifying this issue. In addition to this material, data and, occasionally, analyses have been drawn from the work of other scholars working in the field of Wakashan linguistics. This data has been noted where it arises and a full list of references is provided in the bibliography. 1.3

Organisation

This book is organised in the following fashion: after this introductory chapter, some preliminary discussion of Nuuchahnulth phonology and morphophonology, important for understanding the complexities of the morphology, will be presented in Chapter 2, followed by a discussion of Word Structure and Categories in Chapter 3. This will include a detailed discussion of the place of the root in Nuuchahnulth grammar, the issue of bound forms of roots and combining forms of suffixes, the distinction between bound verbs and verbal suffixes, and the status of syntactic categories and category neutrality. Chapter 4 on Suffixation will discuss the various kinds of suffixes, distinguishing between inflection, derivation and aspect. Topics introduced include action-at-a-distance, affix-triggered reduplication, lengthening, shortening and cases of fixed segments. Chapter 5 on Reduplication and Infixation provides details of the many forms of reduplication found in Nuuchahnulth, including those occurring in inflection, derivation, and aspect marking, as well as a discussion of the more limited forms of infixation. This chapter also includes a



2

3

discussion of double reduplication in Nuuchahnulth and other varieties of Southern Wakashan. Chapter 6 presents arguments for dividing the grammar of Nuuchahnulth into two levels, stem and word, and argues for the advantages of a multi-stratal model of Optimality Theory in dealing with the issues raised, in particular the phenomenon of double reduplication. Stratal effects, including a number of phonological and morphological phenomena relevant for arguments for a multi-stratal approach to Optimality Theory, as advocated by Bermudez-Otero (1999, etc.) and Kiparsky (2000, etc.) are the topic of Chapter 6. These clearly demonstrate the need for a multi-stratal account of Nuuchahnulth morphology. Furthermore, the issue of rule-based versus constraintbased accounts of the grammar will be addressed in this chapter. Templatic Morphology is the topic of Chapter 7 and includes detailed discussion of a number of different areas of the grammar, including reduplication, infixation, hypocoristic formation, and abnormal speech, which provide evidence of the importance of the template for the morphology of Nuuchahnulth. Chapter 8, Morphosyntax, is rather broad and discusses a number of contexts where there is strong interaction between the morphology and the syntax, including cliticisation, incorporation, and compounding. Nuuchahnulth distinguishes between lexical and syntactic types of incorporation and exhibits a complex form of this process involving not only object head nouns, but also other members of the object phrase. A discussion of the treatment of inflection as cliticisation also features in this chapter. The final Chapter, 9, summarises the findings of the book, and ends with a brief presentation of a number of further topics of investigation. 1.4 Nuuchahnulth and Wakashan Nuuchahnulth is a member, along with Ditidaht (also known as Nitinaht, from the Nuuchahnulth term) and Makah, of the Southern Wakashan branch of the Wakashan family. The Northern branch of Wakashan is represented by Kwak'wala (previously referred to as Kwakiutl), a language made famous by Franz Boas, as well as Heiltsuk, Haisla, and Oowekeno, spoken on the corresponding areas of the mainland.1 The relationships within the Southern branch are quite clear, but there has yet to be any conclusive comparative work done between the branches. For



Introduction

4


further details of the relationships, Jacobsen (1979a) is a good starting point.

The actual number of dialects or varieties of Nuuchahnulth have been estimated at between 14 and 19, but these may be roughly divided into three geographical and dialectal variants, the Northern, Central, and Southern groups, following Drucker (1951). 1.5.1 Northern Nuuchahnulth The Northern varieties of Nuuchahnulth consist of those languages spoken in the region from Ucluelet Arm on the central coastline of Vancouver Island continuing north to Brookes Peninsula at the northern tip of the island. These include the following: Tribe Name Chiclesit Kyuquot Ehetisaht/Nuchatlath Mowachath Muchalath

Location Brookes Peninsula Kyuquot Sound Queen's Cove Nootka Sound Muchalat Arm

For more discussion of the grammar and phonology of one member of Northern Nuuchahnulth, Kyuquot, consult Rose (1981), a grammar based on extensive fieldwork conducted in the 1970s. Klokeid (ms) also discusses certain aspects of Kyuquot grammar but does not go into great detail. 1.5.2 Central Nuuchahnulth Central Nuuchahnulth consists of the varieties spoken from Hesquiaht Harbour in the north to Clayoquot Sound in the south. The varieties spoken in this region include: Tribe Name Hesquiaht Manhousaht Ahousaht Clayoquot

Location Hesquiat Harbour Maanu'is Flores Island Clayoquot Sound



1.5 Nuuchahnulth Dialect Research

5

There was early missionary work on Hesquiaht by Father A. Brabant, including a dictionary and catechism. Turner & Efrat (1982) discuss Hesquiaht ethnobotany and provide many botanical terms in the language. Similarly, a book by Ellis & Swan (1981) focuses on Manhousaht ethnobiology, and includes many terms from this variety that has now merged with Ahousaht. There has been a recent upsurge of work on Nuuchahnulth focussing on the Ahousaht dialect, which probably has the most speakers of any variety currently. Hess (1990), Nakayama (1997a, 2001), Kim (1999a,b, 2000a,b, 2001, 2002, 2003a,b,c), Wojdak (2000, 2001) are some of the works on this variety. Boas (1890) makes brief reference to Clayoquot, citing work by N. J. Lemmens. Paik (1968) collected fieldnotes on Clayoquot and wrote an MA thesis on its phonology, but there has been little significant subsequent work. 1.5.3 Southern Nuuchahnulth These varieties are spoken between the Ditidaht lands in the south and the Ucluelet group in the north. Tsishaath as spoken in Port Alberni, British Columbia, will be the principal focus of this volume and is probably the most widely studied variety of Nuuchahnulth in general. There is more data on this member of the family than on all of the other varieties combined. Nevertheless, most of the research stems from a single source, the field notes of Edward Sapir, gathered between 1910 and 1914, as discussed above. A number of individuals have written on aspects of Tsishaath grammar, including Boas (1890), Sapir (ms, 1911, 1915, etc.), Swadesh (1931, 1933, 1939, etc.), Stonham (1994, 1999, etc.), Davidson (2002), and others. The varieties spoken in this region include: Tribe Name Ucluelet Toquaht Tsishaath Huiath Uchucklesit Hupachasath

Location Ucluelet Harbour Barkley Sound

Sproat Lake



Introduction

6

Linguistic Theory and Complex

Words

N A Chiclesit Kyuquot

Ehedsahtv Vancouver Nuchatlath Mowachath Muchalath Hesquiaht > -

TdflnH

Ahousaht * v

lsiana

Clayoquot Ucluelet ^ \

Hupachasath

Toquaht v*~ (J Tsishaath ' ( \ P i t i d a h t Uchucklesit ^âcheedath Huiath Makah

Figure 1.1 Map of the Southern Wakashan Groups 1.6 Previous Literature There has been little work published previously on Southern Wakashan morphology, but there are some notable works that should be mentioned. The earliest treatment of Nuuchahnulth morphology may be that of Knipe (1868), in part echoed in Sproat (1868).2 Knipe shows a keen understanding of the language although many of his attempts at decomposing the morphology extend to the fanciful, as demonstrated by the example below: sinnamooxyets. The name of a berry. It contains the four roots, si, nah, mooxyeh, yets, which mean severally distance, sight, rock, walk. The name, of course, implies that the first person who discovered the berries walked over the rocks a long distance to look for them — a description which quite agrees with the locality of the berry. It may be noticed that



For a description of aspects of the grammar of these varieties, the reader is referred to the various works of Sapir, Swadesh, Jacobsen, and Stonham cited in the references.

Introduction

1

Clearly, this is a rather fanciful interpretation of the form sinmuxsyac 'evergreen huckleberry' but other aspects of Knipe's book show an insight into the language, recognizing a number of roots and suffixes, as well as discussing the process of reduplication and a brief examination of Ditidaht grammar. Subsequent to this, Boas (1890) presents a sketch of the morphology of Nuuchahnulth, presenting a number of grammatical paradigms and discussion of various morphological processes, including the observation that certain suffixes require reduplication (ibid: 124), the affix-triggered reduplication that will be discussed in greater detail in Chapter 5. Sapir (1911) debates the issue of noun incorporation in a series of exchanges with Kroeber (1910, 1911), while Sapir (1915) presents a description of the speech mutations involved in the production of abnormal speech. A manuscript containing detailed discussion of Nuuchahnulth morphology was written by Morris Swadesh in 1937 and both his Master's thesis (1931) and doctoral thesis (1933) provide further discussion. A published version, Swadesh (1939), provides the earliest accessible modern treatment of the morphology. Sapir & Swadesh (1939) briefly discuss the morphology in their first book of Nuuchahnulth texts. After a fallow period for morphological research in Nuuchahnulth of approximately 30 years, Haas (1969) discusses the topic of pronominal inflection in Nuuchahnulth and Haas (1972) discusses the structure of roots and stems in Nuuchahnulth. Rose (1976) discusses the issue of glottalisation and Jacobsen (1979b) presents an important paper discussing the nature of the noun and verb in Southern Wakashan. Rose (1981) constitutes an important contribution to our understanding of Nuuchahnulth grammar, and particularly the northern variety of Kyuquot. Rose & Carlson (1984) begin the debate on the nature of the suffix -'at, joined subsequently by Whistler (1985), and Emanatian (1988). Renker (1988) returns to the debate concerning noun and verb in Southern Wakashan. Stonham (1990a) discusses variable-length vowels while Stonham (1991) discusses the templatic nature of hypocoristic formation and Jacobsen (1994) discusses vocative vocalism. Stonham



the root yets, here meaning to walk, enters into yetseyetsokleh [yaacyaadaqXi 'kicking at the rear'?], mentioned above, with the meaning of kicking. The full word meaning to kick is yetshitl and to walk yetsook, or, as it is more frequently pronounced, yatsook. (Knipe 1868:14)

(1990b) presents analyses of several issues in Southern Wakashan, expanded upon in Stonham (1994b). Nakayama (1997a) investigates a number of topics in the grammar of the central dialect, Ahousaht. Nakayama (1997b) returns to the issue of -'at, as does Kim (2000b). Stonham (1998) discusses numeral incorporation and Stonham (1999a) the nature of noun compounding. Davidson (2002) discusses a number of issues in Southern Wakashan, while Stonham & Yiu (2002a) discuss the characteristics of the word in Nuuchahnulth and Yiu & Stonham (2002b) discuss the use of classifiers. Stonham (2003a) discusses double reduplication in Southern Wakashan, while Stonham (2004) discusses level-ordering in the morphology of Nuuchahnulth. Kim (2003c) provides a detailed account of various issues in Nuuchahnulth phonology and morphology in terms of Optimality Theory. Recently there has been an upsurge in interest in Nuuchahnulth morphology expressed by the linguistic community, with a number of theses, conference papers, and unpublished materials, as well as some published work discussing various aspects of the language, including Yiu (2000), Kim (2003a, b, c), Davidson (2002), Wojdak (2000, 2001). 1.7 Transcription System A brief discussion of the transcription system employed here, which is a somewhat modified version of the IP A, is in order at this point. The basic modifications employed here concern the treatment of the palatal glide, which will be represented here by [y], the laryngealised sonorants, and the affricates, which will be represented by single symbols in keeping with their distinct nature, as indicated in Table 1. is book c £ s \ X X

s

IPA ts tj

I

is book d 1.IMP 'they sang' sing -MC -NOW -3S.QT

As can be seen from such examples, the /?/ serves to protect the integrity of both root and suffix vowels which might otherwise be lost in coalescence. However, it is not always the case that ?-epenthesis occurs where one might expect and the exact mechanism for determining when ?-epenthesis occurs and when it does not remains unclear. See Kim (2003c) for further discussion of this issue. 2.5.5 Variable-length Vowels The phenomenon of variable-length vowels, described in Sapir & Swadesh (1939), continues to elude a viable theoretical explanation in the linguistic literature.8 The argument for variable-length vowels takes the following form. As mentioned above, Nuuchahnulth has a phonemic distinction between long and short vowels. In addition to this, the vowels of certain morphemes vacillate, appearing sometimes long, sometimes short. It is generally agreed that this chameleon-like behaviour is tied to the position of the pertinent vowel within the word. A variable-length vowel, which is long in the first two syllables of the word, is short when it is in the third or later syllable of the word as shown in the following example. 17.

?unaak Pu-na-k"

'possessing it' REF -have

capacnak capac-na^kw

'possessing a canoe' canoe -have



2.5.4

Some Phonological Preliminaries

25

18.

-'as -i -?ai -ui

'on ground' 'quality of 'aware of 'place'

-a*s 'daughter' -r

DUR

-?a*i 'on a surface' -u*i 'on the face'

-'aas 'at the wrist' INC.ITER -ii -?aai 'to come off -uui ITER

While this distinction has been primarily discussed in terms of suffixes, Morris Swadesh, in an unpublished manuscript (Swadesh 1937), has suggested that it can also be a property of certain roots. The difficulty with detecting such roots in Southern Wakashan is that they must undergo double reduplication (for which see Section 6.3) in order to be placed in the third syllable of the word, where the distinction may be observed.9 Swadesh provides the following examples of this phenomenon: 19. a. Piihtuup ?rh" -turp ?i?i?ihy iml DUP- DUP- ?'v\f -yimi b. yaaksi?aXat ya-k-siX -'aX -'at y ay ay aksuuh DUP- DUP- ya^* -suuh

'whale (= big thing)' big -creature ' big-shouldered' DISTRIB- big -at the shoulder [R] 'became sore' sore-MOM-NOW-PASS ' sore-eyed' DISTRIB- sore-at the eye [R]

We can see from these examples that variable-length may be a property of the root vowel as well as the suffix, although it has not proved possible to find exact minimal triplets among the roots. How do we describe such a property? The solution offered by Sapir & Swadesh (1939) is to allow a threeway distinction among vowels, representing them as short /V/, long N\l or variable /V7. While this accounts for the data, given a rule which shortens or lengthens the variable length forms depending on position, one would prefer not to allow a three-way lexically distinctive contrast in vowel length, since this is unattested in the languages of the world and is not evident in the surface form of Tsishaath vowels, where we only find a two-way distinction of long versus short.



Given this third possibility, we would expect to find minimal triplets, where there is a three-way distinction in vowel length. And we do, in fact, encounter this readily among the suffixes, as is shown in (18).

Another possible solution to the problem is in terms of stress placement, saying for instance that the vowel appears long when stressed and short when not. However, we cannot appeal to the stress system of the language as it operates independently of this phenomenon and unstressed vowels are found to occur both long and short, and in any position in the word. Furthermore, variable length vowels do not necessarily correlate with the stressed vowel of a word. It is not within the scope of this book to delve any further into this primarily phonological issue and so the reader is referred to other treatments of this topic, including Stonham (1994a, 1999b), Davidson (2002), and Kim (2003c). 2.5.6 Assimilation Rules As in many other languages, there are a number of assimilation processes that occur in Nuuchahnulth. The following sections will present the major types encountered in the data. In some varieties of Nuuchahnulth, there is a post-lexical rule of assimilation which raises and fronts a low vowel /a/ to [e] when it is followed by IM across a glottal stop /?/. Thus we have examples such as the following: 20.

rhaarhiiqsuse?i rhaarhiiqsu -sa =?i*

'only the oldest child' oldest child -just =DEF

iuucsme?i iuucsma =?iY

'the woman' woman =DEF

naacse?isim naacsa -'rsim

'look at me!' look -2s>l.lMP

There is a group of processes which share a common change, reducing a sequence of vowel + glide + vowel to a single vowel which is typically variable-length and bears the quality of the glide which separates the two vowels, thus /w/ —> /u/ and lyl —> /e/, as exemplified in (21). 21. a. naaXkuuci?aXat naXk-uwa-siX-'aX-'at b. wikiip?aaqXe?ic wik -iiyip -?aaqX -meY?ic

'they were putting their feet out together' have foot out-together[L]-MOM-NOW-PASS 'you will fail to get it' not -obtain -INTENT -2S.IND



26 Linguistic Theory and Complex Words

c. hinee?i?aXwe?in hina -ayii?iX -'aX -we*?in

'she entered the house' LOC -enter house -NOW -3S.QT

d. ?a?aquu?ishak DUP- ?aqi -wa- -?is -ha'k

'What did you say?' REP- what? -say -DIM -2S.INT

e. wiinapuX wiinapi -awiX

'she stopped' stop -MOM

It is also possible for vowels to coalesce across glottal stop, and this may perhaps be another instance of the assimilation discussed above. Examples of the application of this include: 22. a. wirhaaqstu?aX wi -rha~ -'aqstuX -'aX

'she was unhappy' poor -as far as -inside[MC] -NOW

b. t'anaak?i fana -'ak =?r

'his child' child -POSS =DEF

c. ?uyaaqXe?ic ?u -(y)r -?aaqX -meY?ic

'you will do it then' REF -time -INTENT -2S.IND

d. wiinaaXXaa wiina -'aX =Xaa

'they attacked again' attack -NOW =again

Curiously, there is a certain indeterminacy in the occurrence of this phenomenon: examples of it not taking place are as numerous as those where it does. For the present, the exact nature of the conditioning factors determining the applicability of the rule remains unclear. 2.5.7

Labialisation

In this section we will discuss the process of labialisation, whereby certain consonants undergo a change to their labialised counterpart. Nuuchahnulth possesses both plain and labialised variants of a number of consonants, both stops and fricatives in more or less free distribution.10 However, there is one environment where labialisation invariably appears — that is when a velar or uvular consonant appears between a preceding high back rounded vowel and a following nonround vowel, where all elements belong to derivational morphology. The following are instances of this process, and involve originally non-labial consonants becoming labial via this mechanism. 23. a. hayuqumi?aX hayu -qimi -'aX

'ten units' ten -CLS -NOW11



Some Phonological Preliminaries 27

b. nupuqumiukîtqa nupu -qimi -uk -(m)it -qaY

'six units' Six -CLS -POSS -PAST -3.SUB

c. haPukqathPatuFeePit ha?uk -qa*th-(y)a*tuk-'ee?ita

'he made the noise of eating' eat -pretendedly-make noise-3.PURP

The difficulty in providing convincing examples of this process is not that there are few examples available but rather that, of the large number of extant examples, the majority are difficult to establish as not involving underlying labialised consonants. For discussion of these difficulties, see Stonham (1999b) and for a theoretical examination and treatment of labialisation, see Kim (2003c). The theoretical relevance of labialisation for stratal segregation will be discussed further in Chapter 6 on level ordering. 2.5.8 ?-Deletion A deletion rule which interacts with coalescence involves sequences of V?V, where V is a short vowel. If this sequence occurs between the first and second syllable of the word, nothing happens, i.e., the sequence remains intact, as in (24a). If, however, the sequence occurs later in the word, then the /?/ disappears and the vowels coalesce according to the rules of coalescence stated above. The results of this rule are the coalescence of the vowels across a glottal stop, as in (24b, c). Xa -'as

'sticking up on the ground' stick up -on the ground

waa?aXwe?in waa -'aX -we*?in

'he said it' say -NOW -3S.QT

24. a. Xa?as

b. hawaas hawa -'as ma&iiafaX ma -ci -'ii -'at -'aX c. ?uwiihtas ?u- wiihta -'as ?ah?aayiyaXwe?in ?ah?aa -(y)iya-'aX-we-?in

'go in order to eat' eat -go in order to 'they lived there' dwell -at -in the house -PASS -NOW 'he is in the lead on the ground' REF -at the head -on the ground 'at that time' then -at...time -NOW -3S.QT

As we can see from the data above, in (24a), the sequence occurs in the first foot and nothing happens. In the second case (24b), V?V could




potentially appear between the second and the third syllables, but the /?/ disappears, the vowels coalesce according to regular rules of coalescence, resulting in a variable length vowel. In (24c), the same thing happens between the third and fourth syllables and the result is a short vowel. Another ?-deletion rule occurs when a base ending with a fricative comes in contact with a suffix beginning with a glottal stop /?/. In such situations, there are two possible outcomes that depend on the category of suffix involved. If the suffix is a derivational one then the glottal stop will disappear, as in (25a). If, on the other hand, the suffix is an inflectional one, then the glottal stop will appear following the fricative. The following are some examples of this process. Those in (a) show the unaltered forms containing the glottal stop, while those in (b) show the result of the application of the rule at the level of derivational morphology. 25. a. caahaqsui caah -?aqsui hasaqsui has -?aqsui b. kîsitTaqsui kîst -it -?aqsut ?ap?aqsui ?ap -?aqsui

'Tough-mouthed (man's name)' tough -at the mouth 'loud voice' loud -at the mouth 'other side of the mouth' different -at the side -at the mouth 'mouth' LOC -at the mouth

The issue of ?-deletion will be of relevance for the arguments in favour of level ordering and will be discussed further in Chapter 6. 2.5.9

Delabialisation

This process is a particularly interesting one given the fact that there are several possible overlapping conditioning factors for its occurrence. We will examine each of these factors in turn, beginning with the simplest. The first category of delabialisation is that of word-final position. In this situation forms will automatically be delabialised, as demonstrated in (26a). The cases in (26b) demonstrate the underlying labial status of the consonants in question when followed by a vowel. 26. a. ii?aa?ak ii?aa -ak*

'missed him' miss -NOM



Some Phonological Preliminaries 29

hisink hi§ -ink*

'both together' both -together

t'aftanak t'ana -na-k10

'he had a child' child -have

b. qahaFas qah -ak" -'as XahinkâcistuPaX Xah -ink" -a£ist -awiX -'aX

'on the ground unconscious' dead -NOM -on the ground 'it came alongside ...' alongside-with-on sea-MOM-NOW

nuuknaakwitah?aaia 'I have a song to go with it' 0> (0 nuuk -na-k -(m)it-ma-h=?aaia song -have -PAST -1S.IND =always This is a very general rule and agrees with the phonotactic distribution of labialised consonants. The second category of delabialisation occurs when a normally labialised consonant is followed immediately by a consonant, as shown in the examples in (27). 27.

fthakhqa fih -akw -(q)h -qaY

'while crying' cry -NOM -MW -3.SUB

huqînksap huq" -ink10 -sa*p

'she closed it up' hollowed object -together-MC

muuciiinakh?aXwe?in muu -Sri -na-k" -(q)h -'aX

'it had been four days now' four -days -have -MW -NOW

Another category of delabialisation is that wherein the vowel /u/ occurs immediately after the labialised consonant. In this situation, forms will automatically be delabialised, as demonstrated in (28a). The cases in (28b) demonstrate the underlying labial status of the consonants in question when followed by a different vowel, IM or /a/. 28. a. ricakukft k*i -cak" -uk =?r b. fjaâkâaPaX fja -âk" -aa?aX

'his file' file -instrument -POSS =DEF 'for potlatch gifts' give potlatch gift -tool-destined for

This rule can be regarded as a case of dissimilation, whereby the preceding element is assigned the opposite value to that of some feature of




31

the following element, in this case the feature [RND]. For further discussion of this phenomenon, see Kim (2003b,c). The final category is perhaps the most interesting, since it involves a necessary distinction between derivation and inflection, in other words category or level distinctions. In this instance, labial consonants will be delabialised at the level of inflectional morphology, necessitating a distinction between levels in the grammar. This is illustrated by the following examples. 29. a. ?ayacinkaq ?aya -ink01 -aq

'a great many' many -together -very

b. qahnaakaX qah -naV -'aX

'he was dead now' dead -COMPLETE-NOW

c. hisiikatwe?in his(t) -rkw -'at -weîn

'they passed by' LOC -go along -PASS-3S.QT

In all of these cases the immediately following suffix is inflectional, indicating that this is the level at which the rule is applying and therefore the consonants are delabialised. Thus in all of the environments discussed in the preceding sections labialised consonants will appear without the expected labialisation. It should be added that any consonants previously labialised by the rule of labialisation will obey the same constraints as the inherently labialised forms above. As with a number of the previous phonological phenomena discussed, delabialisation will also be discussed in greater detail in Chapter 6.



Some Phonological Preliminaries

3

In this chapter we will examine the nature of roots and the derivative concepts of stem and base and the various strategies for distinguishing among them. We will then formulate working definitions that will allow us to proceed with our study of Nuuchahnulth morphology. In order to be able to separate affixes from other elements within the word it will be necessary to show that there is obvious motivation for such a move. One clear morpheme structure constraint is the inviolable principle of one root per word, effectively prohibiting word-internal compounding in the language. This fact should be of interest to linguists, given that the standard assumption is that all languages make use of compounding.1 It is interesting to note that it is in a highly polysynthetic language, which allows many other forms of word-building, that we encounter such a constraint. Word structure in Nuuchahnulth is very complicated, or in typological terms 'polysynthetic', employing suffixation to a great extent. There are no prefixes in the language and the only element that may appear ahead of the root is one or more reduplicative copies of some portion of the root. Words consist of roots, defined as the leftmost, non-reduplicative, non-infixal, single morpheme. Roots may not stand on their own, whereas stems, which are really extended roots, are built from roots plus any number of derivational affixes, and may stand on their own. Suffixes combine with roots to form complete 'words' containing some form of aspectual marking, either inherent or overtly marked in some fashion. 3.1

On the Concept of 'Root'

The notion of root is one often used in linguistic theory and description. Following are several quotes from classic writings on linguistic theory and description, discussing the nature of the 'root'.

32



Word Structure and Categories

33

The broadest and most comprehensive classes of morphemes in English, and the most nearly universal in the languages of the world, are roots and affixes. ... A definition of these two classes which would be universally applicable would be immensely complex .... In general, affixes are subsidiary to roots, while roots are the centers of such constructions as words. (Gleason 1961:58-59) The roots of a language make up its most numerous class of morphological forms and accordingly bear its most varied and specific meanings. (Bloomfield 1933: 242) The root is the irreducible element common to all words of the same family. But any subjective and synchronic analysis separates material elements only by considering the share of meaning that matches each element, and the root is in this respect the element in which the meaning common to all related words reaches the highest degree of abstraction and generality, (de Saussure 1974:186) If we symbolize such a term as sing by the algebraic formula A, we shall have to symbolize such terms as sings and singer by the formula Ab. The element A may be either a complete and independent word (sing) or the fundamental substance, the so-called root or stem or "radical element" (sing-) of a word. (Sapir 192lb:25) As the quotes above attest, the definition of root is a non-trivial task. Root is a useful notion in describing the morphological structure of a language but must be considered for the most part to be a pre-theoretic one. And yet, we rely on this distinction to explain our morphological analyses. Most definitions of 'root' rely on some notion of semantic centrality, of being the 'core' of a word, and it is at this point that a problem arises for the definition with respect to Nuuchahnulth. In languages such as Nuuchahnulth in particular, the root is useful mainly in allowing the statement that there is only one root per word and for stipulating the leftmost boundary for the stem, to which suffixes may be attached. Take for example the following forms in (1).




1.

a. ?uca£i?aX ?u -ca -siX -'aX

'they went off REF -go to -MOM -NOW

b. histu?ai?aXwe?in his(t) -(y)u?ai -'aX -weY?in

'he saw where ...' LOC -perceive -NOW-3.QT

c. hitacswa Saapuk?i hita -swr -'aX caapuk =?r

'the canoe went through' LOC-go through-NOW canoe

=DEF

Notice that in all these examples, it is the suffix and not the root that determines the meaning of the whole word and might be considered the 'core' or central semantic unit. In fact, roots such as ?u, hist, and hita can be said to make minimal contribution to the semantics of the word, if any.2 There are a number of elements that have a similar status in Nuuchahnulth. They all share certain properties with other roots, such as undergoing reduplication and vowel lengthening and shortening, and preempting the introduction of another root, whether by compounding or incorporation. Boas (1890:126) first noticed the nature of these 'expletive' roots: In Nootka these suffixes may be made independent words by being appended to the stems 6, a certain (definite) [?u], 6csome (indefinite) [?uus], hit- and hitl- [hii], that; ap-, probably side [?ap]. In Kwakiutl the suffixes may be made independent nouns by being affixed to 6 -, ok-, 6g-, hi-, awl-, the separate meanings of which have not become clear to me. Thus roots must be defined structurally—one cannot appeal to semantic notions of 'core' vs. 'peripheral' in order to define roots, since certain elements otherwise definable as roots such as the above, have no clear semantic contribution. The root is more of a structural unit serving to 'anchor' the word and while it may contain a core semantic value, this is not a necessary requirement and the root may simply fulfil a purely structural function, defined in terms of position (leftmost non-reduplicative unit) and constrained for co-occurrence (only one unit per word). This unit acts as the target for reduplication, constrains the application of incorporation, and acts as the site for various morphophonological processes, e.g. vowel lengthening or shortening, reduplication, etc. Furthermore, there are constraints placed on the structure of roots, which do not apply to affixes, as we shall see in the following section.





35

3.2 The Structure of Morphemes

3.2.1 Morpheme Structure Constraints The use of morpheme structure constraints (MSCs) may be somewhat pretheoretic, but it provides us with some insight into the possible shapes of morphemes in a language. In the case of Nuuchahnulth, MSCs exhibit striking differences with respect to the distinction between roots and suffixes in Nuuchahnulth. In addition to the relative length of morphemes, wherein suffixes may often exceed the length of roots, the possible sequences of consonants and vowels also differ between them, with roots typically being more restricted in terms of their structure. Naturally, composite forms consisting of root + lexical suffix may extend the base to a larger number of syllables, but this is not the unit under consideration here.The basic shape of Nuuchahnulth roots appears in (2). 2.

Root Structure: CV(V)(C)(C)(C) Examples of the various possible permutations are provided in (3). Root hu nuu hus kuuq kums nuutk hastk muuqXh hustq winsh cimsk

Category v v N V N V

ADJ N V

PLN V

Gloss 'bail' 'sing' 'saltwater' 'stalk' 'herring roe' 'circle' 'loud' 'Indian Celery' 'splash' 'Gibson Cove' 'make a whistling sound'

Rose (1981) observes that a large majority of roots are monosyllabic, but that there are a certain number of bi- and polysyllabic roots (see Table 3.1). The absence of prefixes in Nuuchahnulth allows us to identify the root straightforwardly in the majority of cases.3 We can define the root as



In this section we will investigate the structure of morphemes, the nature of morpheme structure constraints on them, and the important issue of 'bound' versus 'free' morphemes in Nuuchahnulth, which cuts across traditional distinctions of root versus affix.

the leftmost structural unit not involving copying of adjacent phonemes, i.e., removing all reduplicative copies. Roots are rarely more than two syllables. When it comes to suffixes, we can see that they may, in fact, be more diverse in their shape than roots, as suggested in (4). Note that there is one constraint on suffixes which does not apply to roots: /h/ never appears in the onset of a suffix. 4.

Suffix Structure:

-(C)(C)(C)V(V)(C)(C)

Examples of the various instantiations of this structure include the following: 5.

-a -ee -ac -iic -ca -caqs -hwink 0 -q?i£h -cswini

INFL INFL N ADJ V LOC V ADV

ABS

LOC

'at the armpit [RL]'

voc 'receptacle' 'belong to' 4 go to' 'on...side' 'use [L]' 'for... years'

Suffixes may be monosyllabic, although there are a large number of polysyllabic suffixes, reaching up to four or more syllables in some cases. 6.

-axyin

LOC

-'aisimhi -a-nufihta

V LOC

'at the bow' 'want [L]' 'along the nose [L]'

Suffixes may be complex, lexicalised combinations of other suffixes as, for instance, in the case of -mars 'moving about in the village', derived from the merger of the two suffixes -mai and - 'as, with concomitant application of morpho-phonological rules, thus: -mai and -'as => -mayas =» -maYs. Rose (1981:29f) discusses MSCs in Kyuquot and provides estimates of the distribution of mono- and multi-syllabic roots among the various grammatical categories: Neither CVC0-3 roots nor multi-syllabic roots are distributed evenly among Kyuquot semantic classes. These semantic





37

The table below, adapted from Rose (1981:29), shows the percentage of mono- and multi-syllabic roots found within each of the grammatical classes. Rose observes that the so-called multi-syllabic roots are virtually always disyllabic, with only 16 tri-syllabic roots attested. V

O

A

N

15% 50% 75%

85% jgggjggZ

if wmmmm

IP

Mono-syllabic Roots

Multi-syllabic Roots

Table 3.1 Distribution of Roots (based on Rose 1981:29) Note that verbal roots are predominately mono-syllabic (85%), whereas nominal roots are predominately multi-syllabic (85%), suggesting, perhaps, a historical relationship whereby nouns are derived from verbs. There are many such suggestive relationships, e.g. ha?um 'food' < ha^/a 'eat' + -im 'thing'; compare hatiackwi?i 'the food remnants' < haw a 'eat' -ckwi' 'remains of ?i r DEF. Rose goes on to state (ibid:30) that "of the mono-syllabic roots, the majority (two-thirds) are CVC, a quarter are CVCC, and the remainder are virtually all CV. Only four roots have been found to end in a triple consonant sequence." Thus, root structure constitutes a virtual subset of suffix structure. 3.2.2 Bound vs. Free Forms An important distinction encountered in Nuuchahnulth stems is the morphological property of root allomorphy. In Nuuchahnulth, there is a high degree of root allomorphy that distinguishes between derivational and inflectional levels of affixation.4 One form is chosen when the suffix is derivational or aspectual and another one when the suffix is inflectional.



classes, which will be discussed and referred to many times in this thesis, are: verbal (V), nominal (N), adjectival (A), locative, quantifier, quantity, and temporal. The latter four are here amalgamated into one class, O ('other'), because together they constitute only three percent of all roots.

In (7) below, the first column provides the free form that occurs with inflectional suffixes and on its own. The second column indicates the basic word class of the root and the third column provides a rough gloss. The final column provides the form of the root that is found in combination with derivational and aspectual suffixes. Examples in (7a-c) involve bound roots ending in /tq/, (7d) are of borrowed words, mainly from English, (7e) involves bound forms ending in /q/, while (7f) shows forms with a shortening of the root. (7g) shows a substantially altered form, ending in Id. Free Form

7.

a.

b.

ce?inwa fiaûunis haxînmac kiianuus makit qâahin tiikTin

Cl. N N N N V V

v

c.

pu*iai

d.

Sikinis misin tiipin ?eepinis

N

?iitu yaasmai yayaSim

N

?athii ci£i£i âaq muwa£ tefif

N

e.

f.

g-

yimnqsu

ADJ

N N N

V N

N

ADJ N

ADJ

Meaning

Bound Form

'Sheep's-Feet' 'edible berry species' 'wren' 'furseal'

ce?itq Saûtq haxîtq kilatq

'play with shells, dolls' 'fish with prong-spear' 'bake in sand, ashes'

makitq qâahitq tikwatq

'sleepy'

pufrtq

'chicken' 'boarding school' 'table' 'apple'

5ikitq misitq tipatq ?epitq

Titu bird' 'hunt fur seal' 'Yayachim whale'

?ituq yasmaq yaacuupq

'night' 'tooth' 'long' 'deer' 'sick'

?ath CiC yaq muk ta

'male's brother-in-law'

yimac

The point here is that the choice of bound vs. free form is not a property of any particular word class or even a historical remnant. It is an active, productive process applied even to borrowed words. Furthermore, the




Word Structure and Categories 39

8.

a. capitqifiakyak caapin -rnakD -yak caapin caapin

'(I) have a sawbill dance' sawbill duck -imitate in dance-tool 'sawbill duck' sawbill duck

b. Xukâtquwis Xuukâana -uF - 'is XuukâanaX Xuukwaana -'aX c. Xaatmaqanui?i Xatmapt -a*nui ==?r Xatmaptuk?i Xatmapt -uk =?r

'Wolf Ritual Beach' Wolf Ritual -place -on the beach 'I had given a Wolf Ritual' Wolf Ritual -NOW 'the one of yew' yew -along [L] =DEF 'his yew tree' yew -POSS =DEF

Bound roots may occur in a variety of shapes, including examples such as the following, where the first instance in each pair is the free form and the second is the bound form. Note that in some cases the only difference between the forms is vowel quantity. 9.

cuiin / N within the argument phrase, any sentence containing a N in predicate position will be unambiguous, as in (53c). However, any predicate containing an adjective in predicate position will necessarily be ambiguous, as demonstrated in (55).



53. a. mamuukPis cakupPi mamuuk -Pis Cakup =Pr


55. a. hiixâthiPis [Cakup?i]SUBJ hiixâthiiPis [ tj CakupPi]0Bj

63

'the man is cranky' 'it is the cranky man' (i.e., NOT the happy man)

hiix athi

Cakup

This ambiguity may contribute to the confusion regarding category neutrality and should be borne in mind in any examination of the facts. It would seem a prudent approach to assume that one should not conclude the category of a form in isolation, but always within some context. This means that subcategorisation frames in Nuuchahnulth will necessarily be somewhat different from those in a language with a clear distinction among categories. It will also complicate the task of anyone building a lexicon for computational purposes, for which see Whitman (2002). 3.8

Summary

This chapter has examined the various properties, both structural and categorical, of words in Nuuchahnulth. This investigation is necessary in order to understand the nature of wordbuilding strategies in the language and will be useful in understanding the discussion to follow.



b.

4

Suffixation is the most productive means of word formation in Nuuchahnulth. There are hundreds of suffixes of various types interacting and combining to form the word. Since the bulk of affixation in Nuuchahnulth is suffixation, this will be the sole subject of this chapter, which is divided into the three categories of inflection, aspect, and derivation. 4.1 Inflection versus Derivation There has been extensive discussion in the literature of the distinction between inflection and derivation, e.g., Scalise (1988), Badecker & Caramazza (1989), who present two differing views. Bickel & Nichols (forthcoming) observe: Cross-linguistic variation in the forms and categories of inflectional morphology is so great that 'inflection' cannot be defined by simply generalizing over attested inflectional systems or paradigms. Rather, we define it as those categories of morphology that are SENSITIVE TO THE GRAMMATICAL ENVIRONMENT in which they are expressed. ... Inflection differs from derivation in that derivation is a lexical matter in which choices are independent of the grammatical environment. The relevant grammatical environment can be either syntactic or morphological. The syntactic environment is relevant, for example, when morphological choices are determined by agreement. In Nuuchahnulth there are many areas where the distinction is blurred. Early on, Sapir (1921:134) remarked upon this ambiguity:

64 10.1057/9780230505551 - Linguistic Theory and Complex Words, John Stonham


Suffixation

What if we add the preterit tense suffix -it? Is not inikw-ihl'minih-'is-it necessarily a verb: 'several small fires were burning in the house'? It is not. It may still be nominalized; inikwihl'minih'isit-'i means 'the former small fires in the house, the little fires that were once burning in the house.' It is not an unambiguous verb until it is given a form that excludes every other possibility, as in the indicative inikwihlminih'isit-a 'several small fires were burning in the house.' We recognize at once that the elements -ihl, -'minih, -'is, and -it, quite aside from the relatively concrete or abstract nature of their content and aside, further, from the degree of their outer (phonetic) cohesion with the elements that precede them, have a psychological independence that our own affixes never have. His examples are recast in more technically accurate representations as in (1). Note that (la) provides a verbal interpretation with the past tense marker, -(m)it, while in (lb) the same marker appears on a noun, indicating a former state, i.e. 'the former ...'. This has no doubt contributed to the controversy concerning part of speech classes in the language. 1.

a. PinkîirfiinhPisita 'several small fires were burning in the house' 10 Pink -'ii-rhinh-Pis-(m)it-ma" fire -in house -PL -DIM -PAST-3.IND b. Pinkwiiifiinh?isitPi

'the former small fires in the house, the little fires that were once burning in the house' Pinkt0-'ii-rhinh-?is-(m)it=?f fire -in house -PL -DIM -PAST =DEF

There are many similar cases of simple nouns with past tense indicating a former state, i.e., 'the late ...' for humans, 'the broken ...' for objects, 'the former ...', etc. as shown in (2). 2.

a. Sakyakuk'itPi Sakyak-uk^tm^t =?f

'what had been his knife' knife -POSS -PAST =DEF

b. qasiimitPi qasii -(m)it =?ir

'his former eyes' eye -PAST -DEF

c. yimhaaPamit yimhaaPap -(m)it

'the late Shames-Them' Shames-Them -PAST

d. tiipanit tiipat -(m)it

'the late David' David -PAST



Suffixation 65


Some of the inflectional morphology of Nuuchahnulth is marked by clitic rather than suffix, and in a sense is beyond the domain of this investigation, but it will be useful to examine its status, and this will be pursued in greater detail in Chapter 8 on morphosyntax. It should be noted that in this book the terms 'inflection' and 'derivation' will be used in a strictly descriptive sense and no theoretical significance should be assigned to them. Theoretical level distinctions will be based on stratal segregation, to be discussed in Chapter 6. 4.2 Paradigmatic Inflection In terms of inflectional suffixes, we may recognise two sub-domains, based on the regularities that hold of a set of suffixes. Suffixes that operate in sets, exhibiting characteristics of person and number, will be referred to as paradigmatic suffixes and those that occur as singletons will be termed non-paradigmatic, following terminology introduced by Sapir & Swadesh (1939). There are many inflectional paradigms that typically exhibit contrasts in number and person often, although not always, with a single member for the third person. All of these paradigms represent independent modal marking and they are invariably mutually exclusive. There is a certain amount of dialectal variation in these paradigms and for this reason paradigms from three distinct dialects, Tsishaath, representing the Southern Nuuchahnulth group, Ahousaht, a member of the Central group, and Kyuquot, a Northern Nuuchahnulth variety, will be presented where available. Below are provided sets of paradigms for the various mood/person markers appearing in Nuuchahnulth. For the most part, different varieties agree on these, but where there are differences, they are noted below. Further research may reveal additional paradigms not provided here. We will proceed through each of the categories, providing the paradigm categorised by person and number along with examples of the usage of each mood, beginning in the following section with the indicative mood. 4.2.1 Indicative Mood Perhaps the most common mood encountered is the indicative. This mood appears in conversations and is widely used in statements of fact. The form of the elements that make up this paradigm is as shown in Table 4.1.'



66

Suffixation 67

3

Ahousaht Sing Plur -srs -nis -Pick -Picuus -Prs

Kyuquot Sing Plur -srs -nis -a*c -Picuus' -Prs

-itais

Table 4.1 Indicative Paradigm Examples of the usage of the indicative follow. Note that, as with many of the paradigms, there is no number distinction made on the affix with respect to third person. 3.

a. naPaaPaXah, waaPaX naPaa -'aX-(m)ah waa -'aX

'"I understand,' (someone) said" hear -NOW-1 S.IND say-NOW

b. PahniimePic Pahnii -(m)e?ic

'here you are wetting yourself!' that way -2s IND urinate -in house

Tuqîi ftuf-'ii

c. PaXjMiima yaqii nuuk 'there are two of these songs' ?aX-rM*i-maY yaq^-îi nuuk two -CLS-3.IND REL-3.INDF.REL song d. finrhiiCiXPaqXPicuus Tinrhi -iiCiX -PaaqX-Picuus

'you (pi.) will become a snail' snail -INC -FUT -2PL.IND (Ahous)

e. hiitkinPis finiiXPi hiitkin -Prs finiiX =Pr

'the dog was strange' strange -IND.3 dog =DEF (Ahous)

f. hayimhinis hiiii hayim-hr-nfs hii-(y)ii

'we don't know where he would be' not know-DUR-lND.lp there-lNDF.3(Ahous)

g. sutwaaqkwac hiisink 'you're supposed to kiss first'(Kyu) sut-wr-PaaqX-wa--ax his-ink0 you-first-FUT-QUOT-2s.lND both-with h. cawaaksis ?iqhi hii dawa -ak^-sis ?iq-hr hii

'I alone am still there' (Kyu) one-DUR-1 s.lND same-DUR there

piis 'they each ate one fish' (Kyu) i. dawaakrhinhintitais cawa-akw-rhinh-int-it-ai-s piis one-DUR-PL-PAST-lND-PL-lND fish It is worth noting a special, portmanteau, form that arises in one particular context in Tsishaath, i.e., immediately following the inflectional morpheme -(m)it PAST. Note the example in (4).



1 2

Tsishaath Plur Sing -(m)a'h -(m)in -(m)e*Pic -(m)e-Picuu -(m)ahsuu -ma*

68

4.


Pukiaamita qeePas 'her name was Keas' ?u -(k)iaY-(m)it -ma* qeePas REF -name-PAST-3s.lND Keas

4.2.2 Absolutive Mood The absolutive mood is found most commonly in the recitation of mythical tales and the like, where it performs the duties of the indicative in normal conversation. It should be noted that the third person is typically zero-marked in the absolutive, and thus often difficult to identify. The following are the suffixes associated with the absolutive mood: Tsishaath Sing 1 2 3

r uYk

Plur

Ahousaht Sing

-ni* -suu 0/-si

Plur

Kyuquot Sing -s -k 0

Plur -in -suu -?aYi

Table 4.2 Absolutive Paradigm Examples of the absolutive abound in the textual materials relating to myths and the following are typical examples. 5.

a. PahPaaPaXsi hiniisPaX PahPaa -'aX -si* hiniis -'aX

'I (shall) be carrying it' then-NOW-ls.ABS carry along-NOW

b. PahPaaPaXsuk huPacaCiX PahPaa -'aX-su'k huPaca -siX

'then you will return' then -NOW -2S.ABS return -MOM

c. PahPaaPaXsuu waaPaX ... 'then you (will) say...' PahPaa -'aX -suu waa -'aX then -NOW -2p.ABS say -NOW d. PeePinhaCPisni DUP- [L] Panaft0 -aC -Pis -ni

'we had but a small margin' SUF-small-at margin[RL]-DiM-lP.ABS

Rose (1981:226)'s comments on the distribution of the absolutive mood in Kyuquot may be worth noting at this point: In contrast to the indicative mood, all of whose persons are employed, the second person of the absolutive mood virtually never occurs. This may be in part due to the similarity of



Nakayama (1997a:31) views the indicative mood as being used for the assertion of facts. He states that the '[indicative is by no means a default mood, and its use can add a strong assertive tone to a statement.'

Suffixation 69 second person absolutives, -k II and -su: Up to second person interrogatives -haY-k (~ -k in third or later syllables) II and -ha*-su: (~ -h-su: in third or later syllables) IIP.

The quotative mood is very common in the recitation of texts, indicating that the narrator did not actually witness or experience the events themselves, but that they are simply recounting what was said. Its most typical rendition in translation, if at all, is 'it is said' or 'it was said'. The quotative indicative mood is principally used to indicate that an event or state was reported by some party other than the speaker or listener. Hence, the assertion is an announcement of fact (namely, that something has been reported). Reported facts, whose predicates are marked by -war, are generally expressed in the indicative mood, obligatorily so if the subject is coreferential to the speaker or listener. (Rose 1981:229-230) Tsishaath Sing 1 2 3

Plur

-we*?isi -wePinni -we*?incuk -werPincuu -weY?in

Ahousaht Sing

Plur

-wa'Picas -wa?iCin -wa-Pick -waîcuus -wa?is

Kyuquot Sing

Plur

-wa*sis -wa*nis -wax -waxuus -wa*s -wa'tais

Table 4.3 Quotative Paradigm Examples of this mood include: 6.

a. takaaPaaqXwePincuk ... takaa-PaaqX-we^Pincuk

'nevertheless you'll go and ...' nevertheless -INTENT-2S.QT

b. suk°iXPaaqXwe?incuu suu-siX-PaaqX-we^Pincuu

'you are to go after it' hold -MOM-INTENT-2p.QT

c. waaisiXwaPick wai -[L] -siX -wa*?ick

'(they say) you are going home' go home -GRAD-MOM-2S.QT (Ahous)

d. hininwaPis qâyaacikrhit '(they say) the Son of Wolf came' hin-in-wa'?rs qâyaacik-rhrt there-come-3.QT wolf-son of(Ahous)



4.2.3 Quotative Mood


e. waisiXwass wai -siX-wa*sis

'I'm said to have gone home' go home -MOM-IS.QT (Kyu)

f. puukPaaqXwatais puuk°a -PaaqX-waYtais

'they're going to play poker' poker -FUT-3P.QT (Kyu)

Rose (1981:230) observes that there 'is no Kyuquot counterpart to the Port Alberni quotative mood -we'?in, with its own unique pronominal series.' She further observes that: There is another quotative type of construction in Kyuquot. In an argument or interchange where one wished to stress one's assertion of an utterance, the morpheme (compound) -waa(q)s is attached to an indicative predicate. Evidently, the q is found optionally in predicates with singular subjects (but never in ones with plural subjects). This morpheme typically indicates that the assertion thus marked contradicts one made previously, (ibid) 7.

'we have a nice one!' nice-have-lP.lND -QUOT.EMPH

Xuinaakniswaas Xui -na^-nrs-waas

4.2.4 Interrogative Mood The interrogative mood is used to indicate the posing of a question of either the yes/no type or the informational type. Tsishaath 1 2 3

Sing

Plur

v

-hin -ha~suu

-ha s -fork -ha

Ahousaht Sing

Plur -hin -hsuu

-hs -ha*k -h

Kyuquot Sing

Plur

-ha*s -haYk -har

-hin -ha"suu

-ham

Table 4.4 Interrogative Paradigm Examples of the use of this mood include: 8.

a. wikhaasuu Paanaqh qahsaapmihsa'do you not really want to kill me?' wik-ha*suu Paanaqh qahsaap-mihsa not-2p INT really kill -want to b. wikithas waa maatmees 'did I not say, O tribes, ...' wik-(m)it-ha*s waa maatmaas-ee not-PAST-ls.lNT say tribes-VOC



70

Suffixation 11 'are you not ashamed?' not -2s.INT ashamed

yimhaa yimhaa

d. waasih kapCaa waasi -h kapCaa

'where is Kapchaa?' where-3.iNT Kapchaa (Ahous)

e. Paqishithsuu siiXuk Paqish -(m)it-hsuu siiXuk

'why did you move?' (Ahous) why -PAST -2P.INT move house

f. waayaqpimith Xawaa town 'which was the closest town?'(Ahous) waayaq-api-(m)it-h Xawaa town which-most-PAST-3.iNT near town As one can tell from this data, the interrogative mood may occur with question words such as waasi 'where', ?aqish 'why', waayaq 'which' etc., or in yes/no type questions. 4.2.5 Purposive Mood The purposive mood has, as its name suggests, a function of indicating the intended use or aim of some action with respect to the interlocutors or other parties. The forms of the purposive mood are as follows: Tsishaath Sing 1 2 3

Ahousaht

Plur

-'aah(sa) -'aani -'eePic(a) -'eePicuu -'aahi /-'eePit(a)

Sing

Plur

-'aah -'aani -'aaPick -'aaPicuu -'aaPit

Kyuquot Sing -'aa(h)s -'aac -'aat

Plur -'aan -'aacuu -'aatai

Table 4.5 Purposive Paradi gm Examples of the occurrence of this morpheme include those provided below. 9.

a. hasiiCiPeePita PayePi quuPas 'so the many people may know' hasii-iiCiX-'eePita Paya=?i* quuPas know-lNC-3.PURP many=DEF person b. hinaaCiPaani hina -aCiX -'aani

'so we can set out' LOC -go out to sea[M] -lp.PURP

c. k°eePik huPacaCiPeePic k*ee?ik huPaca -siX -'eePic

'come, so you may return' come(sg.)! return -MOM-2s.PURP

d. qîisaahaahi PucaCiX ... qîi -sarhi-'aahi Pu-ca-siX

'so that it may go to ...' which-because-3s.PURP REF-go-MOM



c. wikhaak wik -hark


e. wikaaPick hiixtaq wik -'aaPick hiixtaq

'so you won't have an accident' not-2.PURP have an accident (Ahous)

f. wikaaPit cicikpaia wik -'aaPit DUP- cik -paia

'so it will not be out of alignment' not-3.PURP aslant-on each side(Ahous)

g. Puk1.IMP

g. kuhsaajMC kuh -sa*p -'rC

'you all make an opening!' open -2MC - 2p>3s.lMP (Ahous)

h. tiicaîs tiiC -'ap -'i*s

'let me live!' be.alive -CAUS -2s>ls.lMP (Ahous)

i. naaPuuqstaPiCin naPuu -Vqsta -'irCin

'join us!' (Ahous) accompany -amongst -2p>lp.iMP

j . ciiqciiqaPâi DUP- ciq-[L] -(y)a--'ap='a*i

'make them talk!' REP-speak-GRAD-DUR-CAUS=PL (Kyu)

Rose (1981:231) says of the imperative mood: The remaining mood, the imperative, is unique. Its morpheme for lip, -£, is unlike that of other moods and its future morphemes, -im FUT and -k COME, are unique as well. In addition, it is severely constrained in its privilege of occurrence with persons and modes. It can be found only in predicates with Ip or II(p) subjects and either the mode -cim MUST or no mode at all. The organization of mood and postmood affixes in imperative forms is as follows. Such complex encodings of agent and patient are commonplace in Nuuchahnulth, and we shall meet a number of others as we progress. 4.2.13.1 Future Imperative Mood The future imperative mood is, like the present imperative, a mode of command and exhortation, but the time referent for this mood is in the future rather than the more immediate present imperative. As with the present imperative, there are combinations of actor and object acted upon, as illustrated below: 3 obj lpl 2sg 2pl

-'rnirn -'im -'rCim

lsg obj -'rsim -'rCasim

1 pi obj -'rnim -'rCanim

Table 4.14 Future Imperative Paradigm



Suffixation


18. a. hawiiPaXinim hawiiX-'aX-'inim

'you can now stop ...!' stop-NOW-lpl>3.FUT.lMP

b. takCiPinim suu muustati tak-Ci-'inim suu muustati

'let us each carry a bow!' each-with-lp>3.FUTJMP hold bow

c. iaksuuqstuPisim iaksuuqstuX -'isim

'take pity on me!' take pity -2s>l.FUT.lMP

d. waweePiCim XaXuu t'aatnePis 'you are to say to other children...!' DUP-waa-'iCim XaXuu t'aatnePis REP- say -2p>3.FUT.lMP PL-other child -PL- -DIM e. XuyaCiPafim iirhaqsti Xui-'aCiX-'at-'im iirhaqsti

'let your mind become favorable!' good -MOM -PASS -2>3.FUT.IMP mind

f. PukîiiCipiCisim ?u -iii -Crp -'rCisim

'you'll all make it for me!' it-make., -for -2p>l.FUT.iMP (Kyu)

4.2.13.2 Directional Imperatives In addition to the two imperative moods presented above, an interesting feature of Nuuchahnulth is the existence of a set of special markers that incorporate directionality into the command, glossed as either 'come and ...' in the case of the 'Come' imperative or 'go and ...' in the 'Go' imperative. These complex imperatives exist in all the usual forms for imperative markers, including the specification of the object involved. The first case is that of the 'Come' Imperative, which incorporates the notion of direction towards into its basically imperative nature, thereby creating a new portmanteau morph combining the senses of both morphemes. The suffixes are as follows: 3 obj lpl 2sg 2pl

-'fnak -'rk -'irCak

lsg obj

1 pl obj

-'rsak -'rCasak

-'rnak -'rCink

Table 4.15 'Come' Imperative Paradigm Examples of these suffixes are fairly common although not as much as the regular imperative. 19. a. nasiPik nas -iX -'rk

kâtyeet k°atyat -ee

'come and see, Kwatyat!' look -go-come and... Kwatyat-voc



80

Suffixation 81 'come and take it there!' deliver -NOW -2p.come and...

c. wePiCuâXisak Caani we?iCup-'aX-'isak Caani d. sukîPaXiCasak suu -siX-'aX-'rCasak

'come, now, and put me to sleep first' sleep [MC]-NO W-2>1. come and., at first 'come and get me!' hold -MOM -NOW -2p>l.come and...

The 'Go' imperative is another portmanteau morph incorporating the notion of direction away from the speaker into its basically imperative nature. 3 obj lpl 2sg 2pl

lsg obj

1 pi obj

-Cr -Ca*suu -csuu

Table 4.16 'Go' Imperative Paradigm Examples of the use of these suffixes include the following: 20. a. PaakuuXcsuu PaakuuX -csuu

'you people go and borrow it' borrow -2p>3.go and...

b. waisaapCasuu PeePeePisa 'let him go home quickly' wai -sa*p -Casuu PeePeePisa go home-MC-2p>3.go and., do quickly Saatusrhit c. haiiiyasPaXCi haiiii-'as-'aX-Ci Saatusrhit

'go and ask Deer' invite -go to-NOW-go and... Deer

d. huPacaCiPin huPaca -CiPin

'let's turn back!' return -lp.go and ...

e. PunaahC ?u -na*h -C

'go and look for it!' REF -seek- 2>3.go and ... (Kyu)

There are gaps in the system for this morpheme that indicate the infrequency of certain combinations. Nevertheless, it is clear that this is a paradigmatic set of markers as are all of the other morphemes in this section. This concludes the discussion of paradigmatic inflection. The possibility that all of the paradigms discussed above may constitute part of an inflectional clitic cluster to which the verb is raised will be discussed in



b. rhawaaPaXiCak rhawaa -'aX -'i'Cak

82


Chapter 8. In the following section the non-paradigmatic inflectional markers will be presented.

The non-paradigmatic suffixes include all those that behave as single, unitary markers of inflectional categories, such as tense, valencechanging, possession, diminutive, augmentative, etc. Each of these will be discussed individually, focusing on the particular context for their occurrence. 4.3.1 Tense Tense in Nuuchahnulth has been a longstanding topic of interest, going back as far as Sapir (1921), who uses the past tense to make a special point about language (Sapir 1921:134): What if we add the preterit tense suffix -it? Is not inikw-ihl'minih-'is-it necessarily a verb: "several small fires were burning in the house"? It is not. It may still be nominalized; inikwihl'minih'isit-'i means "the former small fires in the house, the little fires that were once burning in the house." Comrie (1985:13), discussing the concept of tense, comments on this example: '[I]n Nootka, tense can be shown on noun phrases, thus distinguishing "the entity that was an X" from "the entity that is an X".' In the next few sections we will examine the tense morphemes of Nuuchahnulth in their most typical use as a marker of tense on the predicate. In the final subsection we will address the issue of tense appearing on nominals. 4.3.1.1 Past Tense Past tense is not obligatorily indicated on verbs, but may be .called upon where the situation warrants it. The past tense morpheme, -(m)it, has several allomorphs, depending on the phonological environment and the dialect. Following vowels the allomorph -mit is employed (21a); after most consonants, the allomorph is -it. With /p/ and l\l in the coda of the preceding syllable there is a special allomorph which merges the oral stop with the nasal, producing a nasal that is homorganic with the oral



4.3 Non-Paradigmatic Inflection

Suffixation 83 stop (21e,f). There is also a metrically reversed allomorph, -imt, which occurs in certain contexts. Examples of all of these allomorphs follow:

b. qiikâaiithaPaaia qii -kVi-(m)it-hav=?aaia c. qîsitwePin Pah to q is-(m)it-we*?in Pah

'were they always away for a long time?' long time-absent-PAST-3.lNTER=always 'this is what happened to him' do thus -PAST -3.QT this

d. haheePihtisPaXitah T have been around on every beach' DUP- ha-'ihta-'is-'aX-(m)it-(m)a*h DISTRIB- complete-at the end-on the beach -NOW-PAST-lS.iND e. Puuyimitqa suuhaa ?u -iiyip-(m)it-qaY suuhaa

'he had got a spring salmon' REF-obtain-PAST-3.SUB spring salmon

f. PuusînitaPaaia Puusît -(m)it -ma- =?aaia

'it was always like that' sometimes -PAST -3s.lND=always

g. qâmihsimtquus qâa -mihsa -(m)it -quus

'if I had wanted to' thus -want to...-PAST -lS.CND

h. wahsiPaanitqa wah -siX-'at-(m)it -qa*

'she had been abandoned' abandon -MOM -PASS -PAST -3.SUB

Further allomorphy arises in the combination of the past tense with the indicative mood paradigm, which results in a further reduction, as shown in (21 d,f) and in the combination with the passive morpheme, - 'at, resulting in the portmanteau form, -?aanit, as in (21h). Rose (1981:211) notes for Kyuquot, and this may be true for both Northern and Central varieties, that there are different allomorphs of the past tense from those in the southern varieties. The past tense allomorphs -int, -nit, and -na are in complementary distribution. The latter one, -na, accompanies subordinate and irrealis mood morphemes, i.e., the possessive, relative, subordinate, dubitative, interrogative, and conditional. With other mood morphemes, -nit is chosen when the tense morpheme follows a first-syllable vowel and -int occurs elsewhere. Contrast the following sentences.



21. a. qîsPaX wawaamitPitq 'he did this as they had said' qîs-'aX DUP-waa-(m)it-?ftq do thus-NOW PL-say -PAST -3s.REL

84 Linguistic Theory and Complex Words (74) wa-nitrs /wa*-nit-(y)i:-s/

I said it say-PAST-lNDF-l

This variation in the nasal may be due to a process of assimilation to the final l\l historically. 4.3.1.2 Future Tense There are in fact several different markers of the future, indicating various degrees of certitude and intention. Unlike the past marker, these do often occur on the verb, although in certain contexts futurity may be expressed without the presence of a future morpheme. We will examine each of them individually in what follows. 4.1 A. 1.1 Irrealis Future. The Irrealis Future, -(y)ik, is non-committal as to probability of the action actually occurring. It occurs in predictions about what may happen, as in expressing a wish. 22. a. kimssiPatikqas kirns -siX -'at -(y)ik -qa*s

'may I be bitten' bite on bait-MOM-PASS-lRR.FUT-lS.REL

b. nuWicnahPapikin 'we will have him look for his father' nuwrqsu-na'h-'ap-(y)ik-(m)in father -seek -CAUS-IRR.FUT-1 P.IND c. t'aS'eePinyapikin 'we will leave him on the rocks' t'aS'ee?inyu-'ap-(y)ik-(m)in abandon on rocks-CAUS-iRR.FUT-lP.iND d. PuuPaisimhiCiPatikqas 'may I be desired' Pu-'aisimhi-siX-'at-(y)ik-qa*s REF-lust for-MOM-PASS-iRR.FUT-ls.REL 4.3.1.2.2 Future Intentive. The Future Intentive, -?aaqX, is more indicative of one's intentions to perform some task or other and appears in examples such as the following: 23. a. huPacaCiXPaaqXma huPaca -siX -PaaqX -ma*

'he will come back' return -MOM -INTENT -3.IND

b. PuwiiPaaqXePic caxsiX 'you will be the first to spear' Pu-wii-PaaqX-(m)ePic dax-siX REF -first-lNTENT-2s.lND spear-MOM There is a strong indication of intention to perform some act, and so this future is a clearer marker of certitude.



(75) wa*ma^qXinti#s I wanted to say it /wa*-maS'aqX-int-(y)i:-s/ say-want to..-PAST-INDF-I

Suffixation 85 4.3.1.2.3 Hypothetical Future. The hypothetical future, -'iik", carries a much higher degree of uncertainty with it and therefore, is used in those situations were such an ambiguity is desirable.

b. kupcuqsiPiikC kup-duqâ-siX-'iik-s

'when night might come' night -MOM -HYP.FUT -CND 'they'll put their index fingers into their mouths' index finger-in mouth-HYP.FUT-lNFER

As can be seen from these data, the outcome in all cases is uncertain, and may be dependent on the tense of a higher clause, suggesting some sort of tense agreement in operation. 4.3.1.3 Co-occurrence of Tenses Rose (1981:209) first notes the possibility of future and past tenses cooccurring, indicating more complex tense interpretations. When -PaaqX occurs with -int PAST, the event can occur either in the future but prior to some subsequent event (as in (60) [=25a]) or in the past but subsequent to some other related event (as in (61) [=25b]). 25. a. hininqu Bill PusiikPaaqXintin 'when Bill comes, we'll have made it' hin-in-quu Bill Pu-siik-PaaqX-int-in there -come-CND Bill REF-finish -INTENT-PAST-lp.IND

b. PuciiCXPaaqXXint t'asiis 'he was intending to go to Tahsis' ?u -cPii-siX-PaaqX-'aX-int t'asiis REF -go to-MOM-lNTENT-NOW-PAST Tahsis Contrary to Davidson (2002:305), who states 'Rose (1981) reports that =?aaqX co-occurs with the irrealis = 'aah and the past tense clitic =(m)it in Kyuquot dialect, but examples of either are lacking in the Tseshaht [sic] corpus', there are, in fact, examples of this type of co-occurrence in Tsishaath, including the following: 26. a. hiinicsuXPaaqXitPi 'the one who would have taken her away' hina-[L]-iics-'awiX-?aaqX-(m)it=?r LOC -take along[L]-MOM-INTENT -PAST=DEF



24. a. PaathsiPiikquu Pathii -[L] -siX -'iik40 -quu


Davidson (2002:321) does note the possibility of the co-occurrence of the other future tenses with the past and provides the following example from Sapir & Swadesh (1939). 27.

XiCiPiikitqa Puyi ... 'they would have shot already if ...' Xi-siX-'iik0,-(m)it-qa- Puyi shoot -MOM-HYP.FUT-PAST-3.SUB if

Thus the combination of tenses must be seen as a means to marking more complicated tense relationships, much as in English one may say 'he will have been gone for two years next Wednesday.' 4.3.1.4

Tense and Nominals in Nuuchahnulth

Now that we have examined the various tense morphemes found in Nuuchahnulth, it is time to examine a very special property of Nuuchahnulth, first discussed in the Sapir (1921) quote at the head of this section on Tense. While this property may not be unique to Nuuchahnulth,4 it is certainly rare among the languages of the world and worthy of note, if only for the contribution it makes to the topic of category neutrality, discussed in Section 3.7. The past tense morpheme, -(m)it, is commonly applied to nouns, in which case it indicates a former status, either of an object or of a person. Examples of this situation are provided in (28): 28. a. TakyakukîtPi Takyak -uk -(m)it =?v b. PumPiiqsakitPi ?um?iiqsu-ak -(m)it =?i*

'what had been his knife' knife -POSS-PAST =DEF 'his late mother' mother -POSS-PAST=DEF

(28a) demonstrates the use of the past tense with an inanimate noun, Takyakukît 'what had been his knife, his former knife', and (28b) with a human being, ?um?iiqsakit 'his late mother'. There is no theory-independent evidence that these different usages motivate separate morphemes in Nuuchahnulth: they share the same allomorphs, attach in the same order, and carry, essentially, the same meaning. Thus, the tense markers should not be viewed as only a marker of tense on the verb, but rather as indicating a state, applicable to either noun or verb depending on the situation.



b. qwisPaX qîisPaaqXitPitq 'he did what he had tried to do' w 'getter of [ L ] \ The differences between some of these suffixes, e.g. -hsr and -vta, both glossed as '...-er', remain unclear and may be quite idiosyncratic. Instrumentals constitute a class of nominalising suffixes that create instrument-type nouns, such as -dak" 'instrument,' -ac 'receptacle,' -fiafu 'instrument for' or -yak* 'tool.' Locational nouns create nouns referring to localities and are often combined with locative roots to produce these results. Examples include -adus 'surface,' -dus



Suffixation 115

'bay,'and -nit 'place of....' Temporal noun suffixes are utilised to create nouns referring to specific periods of time, such as -pai 'season of....' Nominalising suffixes create nouns with a specific semantic contribution. They are treated as nouns and may be pluralised, etc. Examples include -a?aq 'hide, skin,' -ck^r 'remains of,' -'in 'sound of [R],' -mapt 'plant, bush, tree,' or -ma 'thing.' The final group of nominalising suffixes are the attributive nominalising suffixes. There are a number of suffixes that serve attributive nominal functions in Nuuchahnulth. These describe membership in some group, status within a group, serve as an indicator of some naming function or some familial relationship. Examples of this category include -'aqsup 'woman,' -(q)a's 'daughter,' -'ath 'tribe,' or -rqsu 'relative'. 4.5.4 Adjectival Suffixes There are approximately 45 adjectival suffixes, covering a variety of contexts. There are no adjectives referring to colour, shape, or more specific categories. In general, these suffixes are quite generic in nature, but may be said to cover the general categories of size, such as -aqaq 'big,' -arqdu 'wide,' -k*in 'toy [RL],' physical qualities, such as -daq 'sore[R],' -htin 'made of,' -pwqs 'smelling of,' -st'w 'hidden,' -PiC 'clothed in,' -k"a'i 'absent, missing,' -yuk 'wrapped in, covered by,' -nit 'stocked with,' emotional qualities such as -daat 'sorry for,' -inqX 'inimical to [L],' -?ai 'aware of,' inherent qualities such as -'a-csyi 'male,' -'aqX 'gifted in,' and a few others. 4.5.5 Adverbial Suffixes There are around 40 adverbial suffixes in the data. These involve the modification of predications, typically verbal, by the attachment of a suffix to the predicate. Adverbial suffixes may be: (i) temporal, such as -(y)iya 'at...time', -piiZiX 'in...season'; (ii) manner, such as -?akmar 'in pieces,' -ckin 'slightly'; (iii) quantity, such as -api 'too, excessively,' -aqaq 'very extremely' and some others. 4.5.6

Classifiers

Classifiers are employed in Nuuchahnulth in much the same way as they are in many other languages: they co-occur with numerals and other quantifier expressions. As with most other languages with classifiers, there is a certain degree of arbitrariness in the determination of which classifier occurs with which referents.13 The most common are:




-&q -Cri -6a -fctaTf -'ixh -imt -ista

93.

-i>rr -#**" -£inq -#t -,Mt

'long objects' 'days' 'size' 'containers ' 'year, season' 'group, chunk' 'persons in canoe' 'long, thin objects' 'songs' 'times around' 'handspans ' 'times

Xjimi Xjimiiya

-sa'htak10 -sa'th -taq -taqak -taqimi -fim -ya*sca -yai -yayisu

'unit, chunk' 'month' 'kind(s), varieties' 'tribes' 'times' 'units' 'bundle' 'at a time' 'rolls' 'fathoms' 'fathoms'

Classifiers are associated with specific nouns in a regular, but arbitrary, fashion, as demonstrated in the examples in (94-5).l4 94. a. nupciqPi nup-diq =?f b. muuciq muu-ciq

miTaat mffaat hiinaanuhsim hiinaanuhsim

c. PaXciqPisuk ciihati PaX xiq -Pis -uk ciihati 95. a. PaXjMiiPi ficsyin PaX -jM'i10 =?i' Ticsyin

'one sockeye salmon' one-long object=DEF sockeye salmon 'four whaling spears' four -long object whaling spear 'his two small arrows' two -long object-DlM-POSS arrow 'the two spines' two - thin long objs=DEF spine

b. muupiiiuk Xama muu-pri10 -uk Xama

'his four house posts' four - long thin objs-NOM house post

c. PaXjMiiPi saasaqi PaXa -jM'i01 =?'v saasaqi

'the two cannons' two - long thin objs=DEF cannon

The usage of classifiers will be discussed in greater detail in Chapter 8. 4.5.7

Locatives

Locatives may be viewed in general as restrictive modifiers, indicating the location of an event or action. In Nuuchahnulth, locatives may be sub-divided into a number of distinct categories, including geographical, orientative, directional, locational, and somatic suffixes, the last constituting by far the largest class.



Suffixation 117

In general, most main predicates are marked for location, serving to situate the action at some place. The three basic locative suffixes are -'is 'on the beach,' -'as 'on the ground/in the village,' and -'ii 'in the house'. Directional suffixes imply movement in some direction, as opposed to a static location, for instance -aYAawii 'up the river,' -sti'i 'into the throat,' -htaYkw'out to sea,' etc. Somatic suffixes refer to body parts, and as such are typically inalienably possessed. There are several dozen different somatic suffixes, covering most overt bodyparts. There are no specific suffixes for internal organs or the like, nor for certain bodyparts, including kneecap, nipple, umbilicus, etc., which are specified by either roots, or complex stems. There is a fairly large range however, including those referring to the abdomen (-V

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