In this chapter we will discuss a collection of operations likely to be expressed in verbs or verb phrases, but not covered in other chapters. The first two, nominalization and compounding, are typically derivational (see section 2.0). The other four – (1) tense/aspect/mode (TAM), (2) location/ direction, (3) participant reference, and (4) evidentiality – are typically inflectional. Many of these operations are likely to be indistinct from each other in any given language. However, because there is a long tradition of describing them separately, it will be convenient to treat them that way in this chapter. It should be kept in mind, however, that in most cases there is significant semantic and morphosyntactic overlap within and among these families of morphosyntactic operations.

Nominalization

Every language has ways of adjusting the grammatical category of a root. For example, a noun can become a verb by a process of verbalization (see section 5.2). Of interest to this section are operations that allow a verb to function as a noun. Such operations are called nominalizations, and can be described with a simple formula:

Or simply

A noun may be related to a verb in any number of different ways. For example, one noun may refer to the agent of the action described by the verb, while another refers to the result of the action described by the verb. Typically, a language will employ various nominalization operations that differ functionally according to the resulting noun's semantic relationship to the original verb. In the following sections the major types of nominalizations will be described and exemplified.

My Lords,

You desire to know the sentiments of some considerable persons of the English nation, touching our affairs, and the common interest of both kingdoms. And I think I cannot give you more satisfaction in these particulars than by an account of a conversation I lately had with the Earl of Cr-m-rty, Sir Ed. S-m-r, and Sir Chr. M-sgr-ve; in which if the defence I made for you do not give you satisfaction, I shall be glad to hear a better from yourselves. If you ask how I had the fortune to meet with men of sentiments so different from my own, that was partly owing to chance, and partly to the frank and courteous way which is so natural to the Earl of Cr-m-rty. For some days ago, walking slowly and alone in the Mell, the Earl and Sir Chr-st-ph-r overtook me: and though during the whole time I was last in Scotland, I had not waited on the Earl, he with a very obliging air said to me, that if I expected not other company, they would be glad of mine; asking me withal if I was acquainted with Sir Chr. I said I had formerly the honour of some small acquaintance with him, which I should be very willing to renew. And after some compliments passed on all sides, finding I was not engaged, he invited me to dine with him, telling me he would give me the opportunity of doing as I desired; and therefore we should pass the time together till the hour of dinner. So we presently went to his lodgings in Whitehall, and entring into a room from whence we had a full view of the Thames and city of London, You have here, Gentlemen, said the Earl, two of the noblest objects that can entertain the eye, the finest river, and the greatest city in the world. Where natural things are in the greatest perfection, they never fail to produce most wonderful effects. This most gentle and navigable river, with the excellent genius and industrious inclination of the English people, have raised this glorious city to such a height, that if all things be rightly considered, we shall find it very far to surpass any other.

The first task of a grammar or grammar sketch is to identify the language being described, and to provide certain particulars concerning its ethnolinguistic context. It is also important to orient the reader to previous literature and other research that has been done on the language.

The name of the language

Self-referent or auto-denomination are the anthropological terms for the name a group of people uses to refer to themselves. Often this name can only be translated as “people,” or “human beings.” It may also have hierarchically related meanings. For example, the word e'ñapa in Panare (a Carib language of Venezuela) means “person” when used in opposition to the term në'na “wild animal” or “evil spirit.” The same term means “indigenous person” when used in opposition to the term tato “outsider”/“white person.” Finally, the term can also refer strictly to Panares, when used in opposition to terms referring to neighboring indigenous groups. Only the context can disambiguate.

The terms by which language groups are known to outsiders are usually drawn from the outsiders' language, and are often derogatory in nature, e.g., in Peru the group now known as the Urarina used to be called the Chimaco a Quechua term meaning “unreliable.” Such terms are often not recognized by the people themselves, and, as in the case with Urarina, the self-referent can sometimes be substituted for the outsiders' term. On the other hand, the term Panare mentioned above is a Tupí word meaning “friend.” So the outsiders' form of reference is not always derogatory. If there is a well-established tradition in the literature of using the outsiders' term, a linguistic researcher should not try to change it, unless the people themselves are offended by the general term and clearly would prefer to be known by the self-referent.

Andrew Fletcher's Political Works comprise six short, precisely argued pamphlets, published between 1697 and 1704. Each was a pièce d'occasion, addressed to a particular contemporary issue: the maintenance of a standing army in Britain, the economic predicament of Scotland in the 1690s, the Spanish Succession Crisis, and the crisis in relations between Scotland and England which culminated in the Union of 1707. The pamphlets’ individuality is enhanced by their variety of form. Three were ‘Discourses’, or essays, which combined analysis of the problems addressed with specific proposals to resolve them; and of these one was composed and published in Italian. Another two were in the form of 'Speeches'. One of these was plainly imaginary, and used the rhetorical form in a manner little different from a discourse; the other, however, was a collection of speeches which Fletcher had actually delivered in the Scottish parliament. The final work took a different form again, being written as an ‘account of a conversation’, or dialogue. To this, the most sophisticated of his chosen forms, Fletcher successfully brought every appearance of realism; but no less evident is his success in using the dialogue form to develop and set off a range of opposing arguments.

Such variety of content and form, allied to an urgent, unadorned style, was (and remains) effective in engaging the reader's appreciation of Fletcher's intelligence and literary quality. But variety can also militate against intellectual coherence. The extent to which the Political Works amount to one interconnected set of writings, and were the product of a single, consistent intellectual project, is not automatically clear. In this introduction, therefore, my principal objective is to demonstrate that such a project existed, and that it had a definite intellectual identity. What unifies Fletcher's writings, I shall argue, is an attempt to understand the politics of Europe at the turn of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in terms that would do justice to the complexity of its structure - to the circumstances and interests of its many smaller states, whether princely or republican, as well as to those of its few great monarchies. And what gave conceptual coherence to this enquiry was Fletcher's distinctive choice of terms in which to pursue it.

Historical background and definitions

Morphology is the study of shapes. For example, one can talk about the morphology of camels – different species of camels have different morphologies, i.e., they have different body shapes. Morphology in linguistics has to do with the shapes of words. How are words shaped in such-and- such a language? What systematic rules determine when and how they may adjust their shapes? Traditionally, morphology has also been concerned with the “categories” (i.e., “operations” or “functions”) represented by adjustments in the shapes of words, as distinct from those operations represented by lexical or analytic processes (see Introduction, section 0.2.3).

In the rest of this section I will briefly define some terms used in discussions of morphology. After that, an outline for a possible chapter on morphological typology will be suggested.

A morpheme is a minimal shape. The classical definition of a morpheme is a minimal formal shape or piece that expresses meaning. For example the English word dogs contains two morphemes: dog, which embodies the main semantic content of the expression, and -s, which embodies the meaning of plurality. The form dog itself is not further divisible into meaningful component pieces, therefore it is a morpheme – a minimal shape. In most situations this definition works fine. However, more current approaches acknowledge the fact that particular meanings are not necessarily directly linked to particular pieces of form. For example, in Maasai (an Eastern Nilotic language of Kenya and Tanzania) many morphemes are not pieces of form at all; rather, they are tone patterns. Example la is in the active voice while lb is the contrasting “middle” voice (examples courtesy of Jonathan Ololoso).

The following is a list of reference grammars that may serve as examples of how a grammatical description may be organized. These grammars have been judged as “successful” by an informal panel of professional and student linguists who have actually used reference grammars in their research. They provide alternative organizational schemes to the one offered in the body of the present work. In general, the criterion for whether a grammar is “successful” or not is whether reliable information can be gleaned from it fairly quickly by readers who may not be at all familiar with the language being described. Other helpful characteristics include an insightful description of the sociological and cultural context in which the language is used, well-glossed examples, transparent terminology, and an inclusive index.

In formulating an outline for a grammar sketch or reference grammar, it is very important to keep in mind that the inclusiveness of the work will be in direct proportion to the author's familiarity with the language, and resources available for fieldwork. While a complete reference grammar for every language on Earth is ideal, exigencies of fieldwork and limitations on funding and time make it necessary at times to limit the scope of a description. For a language that is completely undocumented, a concise ten-page sketch may be extremely useful, while for a language that has been well studied, and may be spoken by a large number of speakers, a more detailed reference grammar would probably be necessary. It is important for a fieldworker to accurately estimate the level of detail of a proposed reference grammar in proportion to available resources.

Gentlemen,

It seems at first view hard to determine, whether you would be more obliged to one who should persuade you of the miserable and irretrievable condition, into which you are precipitating yourselves, and the rest of Europe; or to him, who after you are convinced, should shew you how to escape. But as it is a much more difficult A Speech upon the State of the Nation work to convince you of the true state of affairs; so it seems to have this advantage, that when you know your danger, the frightful and terrible circumstances of your present condition will certainly make you improve every opportunity, and lay hold upon every thing that may in the least contribute to save you: and this will be the more easy for you to do, since such means are now in your power, as could hardly be expected on the like occasion; and which, if you neglect, you have resolved your own ruin. You were formerly convinced, that the French King was a dangerous neighbour, powerful and vigilant; that there was no end of his designs, no relying on his treaties; that he could corrupt not only those who under your princes had the management of publick affairs, but even your princes themselves. The least increase of his power at sea, every inconsiderable fort taken by him in Flanders, alarmed you in the highest degree. You were jealous of his secret treaties with your princes, and so industrious, that you discovered one in which the abolition of parliaments, and suppression of your liberties were expressly stipulated; provided England would remain his ally, and not oppose the designs he had formed against the house of Austria, and the rest of Europe. You were then alarmed that no care was taken of the protestant religion abroad, and began from thence, and the debaucheries of your princes, to suspect them of inclining to a religion that allows men to live ill, and consecrates the arbitrary power of kings. But now, as if there were not the least ground to suspect any of these things, you are very easy: you concur with the designs of France and the court in every thing. France is too powerful to be opposed; you are too poor, and too much in debt to make war.

The purpose of this book

This book is a guide and a bridge. I hope it will be a better guide than Squirrel, and a better bridge than the water boa. It is a guide for linguistic fieldworkers who desire to write a description of the morphology and syntax of one of the many under-documented languages of the world. It is a bridge designed to bring the extensive knowledge of linguistic structure that exists in the literature to bear on the complex and often confusing task of describing a language.

As this introduction is being written, there are reported to be about 6,000 languages spoken on Earth (Grimes 1992). About 2,000 of these have received close attention by linguistic researchers. The other 4,000 (roughly speaking) have only sporadically been described by linguists, and many have not even been recorded in written form for future generations. Krauss (1992) estimates that 3,000 of the 6,000 or so languages spoken today will become extinct in the next century. The human and intellectual tragedy of language extinction has been well articulated by Krauss, Hale (1992), and others. It is not surprising that the 3,000 languages facing extinction come overwhelmingly from the 4,000 or so that have not been consistently described.

Draft B of Human Understanding (Extract)

Either by the common consent and usage of the country and those men whose language we speak. For if there were no law, no punishment, no obligation human or divine, yet there must and would be in the societies of men notions of virtues and vices, justice, temperance, and fortitude, etc., consisting in certain collections of simple ideas without which notions all those words which express moral things would in all languages be perfect jargon and insignificant.