Pragmatic demotion and clause dependency On two atypical subordinating strategies in Lo - Toga and Hiw ( Torres , Vanuatu )

Among the many grammatical features which are shared between Hiw and Lo-Toga – the two Oceanic languages spoken in the Torres Islands of Vanuatu – are the semantics of Tense-AspectMood markers, and their effects on the syntax of clause dependency. Even though these two languages possess a wealth of subordinators such as conjunctions or relativizers, two TAM markers show a clear propensity, in fluent speech, to do without these overt morphemes. Instead, these two TAM categories – labelled respectively “Subjunctive” and ”Background Perfect“ – tend to encode clause dependency by themselves, in a way that makes overt subordinators superfluous. Besides providing firsthand empirical data on two hitherto undescribed languages, this chapter proposes a functional hypothesis to account for the clause-linking power of these two TAM markers. The Subjunctive differs from other irrealis categories insofar as it lacks any specific illocutionary force. As for the Background Perfect, it labels its predicate as informationally backgrounded. In both cases, the clause lacks certain essential properties (illocutionary force; informational status) which are normally required to constitute a pragmatically well-formed sentence. This form of “PRAGMATIC DEMOTION” operated by the TAM marker thus makes the clause dependent on external predications, resulting in a genuine form of clause dependency and subordination. These two case studies illustrate how the syntax of clauses can be directly affected by the pragmatic parameters of discourse. ha ls hs -0 05 25 54 7, v er si on 1 12 O ct 2 01 0 Pragmatic demotion and subordination in Hiw and Lo-Toga 2 1 Two cases of subordination with no subordinator 1.1 The Torres languages The Torres islands form a small island group located at the northwestern tip of the Republic of Vanuatu (formerly New Hebrides), in the south Pacific (Map 1). Two Oceanic languages are spoken there: Hiw by 150 speakers, and Lo-Toga – itself consisting of two very close varieties Lo and Toga – by 650 speakers. They have never been the object of any published grammatical description. Map 1 – The two Torres languages, at the northwestern tip of Vanuatu Hiw and Lo-Toga differ from each other in many regards, whether in their phonology, their lexicons, or details of their grammars – enough to make them clearly distinct, mutually unintelligible languages. Nevertheless, they also share parallel structures in most domains of their morphosyntax, their phraseology, and more generally the way they categorize meaning into forms. This linguistic isomorphism between the two Torres languages is due both to their common ancestry, and to a history of sustained social and cultural contact which their communities have long had with each other. The linguistic phenomena to be discussed in the present chapter ha ls hs -0 05 25 54 7, v er si on 1 12 O ct 2 01 0 Pragmatic demotion and subordination in Hiw and Lo-Toga 3 belong to those many structures which are shared by the two languages: this is why I will here treat them together, and illustrate each phenomenon with evidence taken alternatively from Hiw and from Lo-Toga. While these two Torres languages also have a lot in common with the languages of the Banks group – and of Vanuatu in general – spoken further south (Map 1), they present many peculiar developments, which tend to give them a grammatical profile of their own. This is especially true of the topic I will discuss here, namely the morphosyntactic strategies for encoding clause dependency and subordination. Generally speaking, as we shall see in Section 2, the various types of dependency between clauses or predicates (subordination, coordination...) are expressed – quite classically – by a variety of conjunctions and other overt morphemes that are more or less dedicated to this clause-linking function. Yet, despite the wealth of these formal devices, these two languages have also developed certain patterns of clause dependency that lack any formal subordinator. 1.2 Parataxis or subordination? Considered superficially, each of the following sentences simply consists of a string of two clauses, with no formal indication whatsoever of their syntactic relationship: (1) HIW Ne temët on tō yaqe me ne, voyi. ART devil SBJV go:SG appear hither like this people AOR:run.away [lit. The devil would appear like this, people ran away.] ―(Whenever) the devil appeared, people would run away.‖ (2) LTG Ne gehuh ve kerkur tēle si mat mēt. ART coconut.crab BKPF1 ITER~crunch person BKPF2 CPLT die [lit. The coconut crab has devoured people has died.] ―The coconut crab (which) had devoured people was dead.‖ One might propose to see in these two sentences examples of simple clause parataxis (cf. Noonan 1985:55), or perhaps of verb serialization. In fact I will show that (1) and (2) rather illustrate genuine patterns of syntactic subordination, in the full sense of the term. While such instances of apparent clause parataxis are frequent in the spontaneous speech of the two Torres languages, they are much more constrained than they seem to be at first sight, and depend on the Tense-Aspect-Mood marking (TAM) on the verbs. Among the many TAM categories – about sixteen – present in each of these two languages, only two appear to trigger seemingly paratactic structures of this sort. One belongs to the domain of irrealis modality, and is called the Subjunctive (―SBJV‖); this appears as on in the Hiw sentence (1). The other one belongs to the set of realis TAM markers, and more precisely to the perfect aspect; due to its particular properties, I propose to label it the Background Perfect (―BKPF‖) – represented by ve... si in (2). Ultimately, these two TAM categories – each one for distinct reasons and through different mechanisms – can be said to convey the status of their clause as being ha ls hs -0 05 25 54 7, v er si on 1 12 O ct 2 01 0 Pragmatic demotion and subordination in Hiw and Lo-Toga 4 syntactically subordinate to another main clause. In other words, apparently paratactic sentences such as (1)-(2), even though they may lack any formal conjunction, can still be said to be formally marked as subordinate: this information is conveyed by the TAM marking on the verb, instead of being coded by clause linkers. Thus, the first clause in (1) is marked as a dependent clause by the presence of the Subjunctive; likewise, the first predicate phrase of (2) is formally identifiable as a subordinate (relative) clause through the use of the Background Perfect. 1.3 Formal properties, functional mechanisms In this study, I intend not only to establish the empirical facts for these two undescribed languages, but also to propose a functional interpretation and discussion. I will adopt a functionalist perspective on this set of linguistic facts, and suggest that the syntactic effect of these two TAM categories, rather than just a purely formal property, can be shown to result from their semantic and pragmatic value. In a nutshell, the core function of the Subjunctive in the Torres languages is to represent a virtual state of affairs, with no further information on modality or illocutionary force. This pragmatic indeterminacy is fundamentally the reason why a subjunctive clause will need to attach itself to another clause, which can provide it with the modality value it lacks. Likewise, the Background Perfect can be defined as a perfect aspect which demotes its predicate from the scope of the informational focus. Due to this backgrounded status, the predicate will then need to attach itself to another element under focus, in order to form a valid utterance. The two cases thus appear to follow similar logics. Intrinsically, each of these two TAM markers combines its purely semantic value (in terms of aspect or modality) with some pragmatic property. In both cases, this property corresponds to a form of PRAGMATIC DEMOTION – lack of a specific illocutionary force for the Subjunctive, lack of focal status in the case of the Background Perfect – and in both cases, this demotion results in a form of clause dependency. While they are ultimately grounded in the pragmatic dimension of discourse, these two TAM-based strategies also end up affecting the formal syntax of the sentence, as they constitute a routinized device for encoding clause subordination. The following sections are organized as follows. Section 2 will provide a brief syntactic overview of the two Torres languages, and pay special attention to overtly marked clause-linking strategies – whether subordination, coordination or verb serialization. Section 3 will then examine in detail the functional and formal behaviour of the Subjunctive, and section 4 will be dedicated to the subordinating power of the Background Perfect. ha ls hs -0 05 25 54 7, v er si on 1 12 O ct 2 01 0 Pragmatic demotion and subordination in Hiw and Lo-Toga 5 2 Clause linking in the Torres languages: an overview I will begin this study with an overview of the syntactic structures of the two Torres languages, with a special focus on clause linking strategies. 2.1 Syntax of the simple clause 2.1.1 Coding of arguments Like their Oceanic neighbours of Vanuatu, Hiw and Lo-Toga possess an accusative alignment system, and follow a strict SVO constituent order. Subjects take the form of noun phrases or free pronouns preceding the verb, and are not cross-referenced on the predicate itself. Likewise, direct objects usually leave the verb form unchanged (3a), except when they have human reference. In the latter case, the verb form becomes marked for transitivity (3b), and sometimes bears a suffix cross-referencing the object (3c): (3a) LTG Nëke na itë n' e mē-he si. 1SG PRF1 see ART house POSS-3PL PRF2 ―I've seen their house(s).‖ (3b) LTG Nëke na ise kemi si. 1SG PRF1 see:TR 2PL PRF2 ―I've seen you[+HUMAN].‖ (3c) LTG Nëke na isi-he si. 1SG PRF1 see:TR-3PL PRF2 ―I've seen them[+HUMAN].‖ 2.1.2 Tense-Aspect-Mood categories Besides its arguments, a well-formed verb phrase entails the presence of a marker coding for aspect, mood and polarity. These three parameters are subsumed under a single paradigm of portmanteau morphemes. For example, the marker labelled Complete (a postclitic piti in Hiw, a proclitic mat in Lo-Toga) encodes simultaneously an aspectual value (completed event), a modal value (indicative), and a polarity value (affirmative): (4a) HIW Sise mot piti. 3PL sleep:PL CPLT (4b) LTG Nihe mat metur. 3PL CPLT sleep ―They've already slept.‖ The category of tense properly speaking is not marked in these languages. Although the paradigm of verb modifiers should thus be designated, strictly speaking, as A-M-P markers (for “Aspect-Mood-Polarity”), throughout this chapter, I shall nevertheless continue to use the widespread abbreviation TAM (for “Tense Aspect Mood”), for the reader's convenience. ha ls hs -0 05 25 54 7, v er si on 1 12 O ct 2 01 0 Pragmatic demotion and subordination in Hiw and Lo-Toga 6 The two Torres languages possess sixteen formally distinct TAM categories. The realis markers (see §4.1) include the Stative, the Imperfective, the standard Perfect, the Background Perfect, as well as the Complete, the Recent Perfect, and the Realis Negative. The irrealis categories (see §3.3) include the Future, the Prospective, the Potential, the Apprehensive, the Subjunctive, the Counterfactual, and the Irrealis Negative. Finally, two categories – labelled Aorist (see §2.2.1) and Time Focus – span over the realis and the irrealis domains. The Aorist is a particularly polysemous category, found in the Torres as well as several of the Banks islands to the south (François, in press). It covers several values, both realis and irrealis, including narrative, sequential, generic, prospective, imperative and conditional. A possible description of the Aorist would be to consider it as a “zero” verbal category that is underspecified with regard to tense, aspect and mood; this would account for both its great flexibility, and its compatibility with modally bound dependent clauses (12). Interestingly, the Subjunctive [HIW on, LTG vë(n)] can be analysed along similar lines – in terms of semantic underspecification – except that it is restricted to irrealis clauses (see §3). As we will see later, the two markers can be synonymous in certain contexts – compare (12) and (38) for modality-bound complement clauses; or (32f) and (35b) for the hortative. Yet even though the Aorist and the Subjunctive show a certain degree of functional overlap, the Subjunctive will be preferred when the semantic status of the subordinate clause is explicitly irrealis or generic. 2.1.3 Syntactic categories and their predicativeness Another important characteristic of the Torres languages – and of many languages of the area more generally (François 2005a) – is the diversity of parts of speech that are compatible with the predicate function. A predicate head need not be a verb: it can be an adjective, a noun, a numeral, etc. For example, a nominal predicate takes the form of a simple noun phrase in a direct (zero) construction, with no copula – whether it is equational (type ―X is the N‖) or ascriptive (―X is an N‖). (5) HIW Nine { -k }. 3SG mother-1SG ―She (is) my mother.‖ When the subject is omitted, the result is a clause that consists of just a single noun phrase: (6) HIW (Ø) { ne wake }. ART canoe ―(It's) a canoe.‖ [DIRECT NOUN PREDICATE] Several other word classes may also be directly predicative. This includes locative phrases – whether in the form of adverbs [e.g. the interrogative ―where‖ in (7)] or prepositional phrases [see in (54)] – as well as certain invariant words [e.g. the existential predicate ―not exist, lack‖ in (7)]. ha ls hs -0 05 25 54 7, v er si on 1 12 O ct 2 01 0 Pragmatic demotion and subordination in Hiw and Lo-Toga 7 (7) LTG Ne he mino { evë }? – Nie { tategë }. ART knife my where 3SG NEG:EXIST ―Where (is) my knife? – It is not here.‖ Direct predicativeness (Lemaréchal 1989, Launey 1994) constitutes an important property of parts of speech in the Torres languages, which will later prove crucial in the syntactic analysis of the Background Perfect (§4.2.2.2).