Time in Child Inuktitut: A Developmental Study of an Eskimo-Aleut Language 9783110197419, 9783110181203

Citation preview

Time in Child Inuktitut

≥

Studies on Language Acquisition 24

Editor Peter Jordens

Mouton de Gruyter Berlin · New York

Time in Child Inuktitut A Developmental Study of an Eskimo-Aleut Language

by Mary D. Swift

Mouton de Gruyter Berlin · New York

Mouton de Gruyter (formerly Mouton, The Hague) is a Division of Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG, Berlin.

앝 Printed on acid-free paper which falls within the guidelines 앪 of the ANSI to ensure permanence and durability.

ISBN 3 11 018120 7 Bibliographic information published by Die Deutsche Bibliothek Die Deutsche Bibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data is available in the Internet at ⬍http://dnb.ddb.de⬎. 쑔 Copyright 2004 by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG, D-10785 Berlin. All rights reserved, including those of translation into foreign languages. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Cover design: Sigurd Wendland, Berlin. Printed in Germany.

To Jürgen

Preface

This book is a revised version of my doctoral dissertation, which was researched and written at the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics in Nijmegen and submitted to the Department of Linguistics at the University of Texas at Austin. I am grateful for financial support for this research from the MPI Nijmegen and I thank Wolfgang Klein and Steve Levinson for making this possible. I wish to acknowledge the outstanding community at the MPI for an incomparable research environment. In particular I thank Jürgen Bohnemeyer, Melissa Bowerman, Wolfgang Klein, David Wilkins and Angelika Wittek for encouragement, insights and inspiring discussion. I also thank my dissertation supervisors, Manfred Krifka and Tony Woodbury, and members of the doctoral committee Shanley Allen, Carlota Smith and Steve Wechsler. I thank Peter Jordens and Richard Weist for encouraging me to write this book. I am especially grateful to Shanley Allen for her unfailing generosity and support and for making her data available for analysis. I also thank Martha Crago for contributing her data and for a summer position in her lab at McGill funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, for which I am most grateful. I thank Diane Pesco for her expertise and camaraderie in Montreal and the arctic. This work would not have been possible without the support and involvement of many Inuit. I extend heartfelt thanks to Betsy Annahatak, Rhoda and Palaya Ezekiel, and Lizzie Ningiuruvik for their support and for hosting me during my field trips. I also thank the families who participated in the longitudinal data collection, the Avatak Cultural Center, the Kativik School Board, Elizabeth Annahatak, Eva Deer, Aloupa Itigaituk, Jeannie May, Mary and Maggie Naka, Sheila Ningiuruvik, Aaju Peters, Mary and Lizzie Tomassie, Robert Watt and Jobie Weetaluktuk. I thank Mick Mallon, Papatsi Kublu-Hill and Alexina Kublu for exemplary instruction in Inuktitut. Finally, I thank my family and friends for their love and support throughout the writing of this book, and especially my husband Jürgen for always being there in time. Mary Swift April 2004, Rochester, NY

Contents Preface

vii

Chapter 1

Introduction

1

Chapter 2

Inuktitut

5

Introduction The Eskimo-Aleut language family Inuktitut today Inuit language research and sources Structure of Inuktitut Conclusion

5 5 6 8 11 20

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

Chapter 3

Time reference in Inuktitut

21

1. Introduction 2. Temporal oppositions: future-nonfuture and realis-irrealis 3. Temporal remoteness, aspect and modality (TAM) suffixes 4. Zero-marked verbs 5. Aspectual suffixes and evidential -viniq6. The temporal remoteness system 7. Future temporal remoteness suffixes 8. Past temporal remoteness suffixes 9. Lexical temporal adverbials 10. Subordinate verb endings 11. Tense as a syntactic category in Inuit 12. Conclusion

21 22 26 33 53 72 75 86 92 95 97 100

Chapter 4 1. 2. 3. 4.

The development of time reference in child language: A review of the literature

Introduction On the order of acquisition of time reference Distributional patterns in early tense-aspect marking Conclusion

101 101 101 110 128

x

Contents

Chapter 5 1. 2. 3. 4.

Methodology

Introduction Child language data Adult language data Conclusion

Chapter 6

Early verb development in Inuktitut

1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

130 130 130 142 144 146

Introduction Piarajausiit (baby words) Uninflected verbs Simple inflected verbs Verbs marked with temporal remoteness, aspect and modality suffixes 6. The development of marked future and past time reference 7. Conclusion

151 153 154

Chapter 7

156

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

Zero-marked verbs in early Inuktitut

Introduction Zero-marked verbs and time reference in early Inuktitut The context of use of zero-marked verbs in early Inuktitut Errors with zero-marked verbs Alternations with zero-marked and TAM-marked verbs Conclusion

Chapter 8

Aspectual suffixes in early Inuktitut

1. Introduction 2. The role of aspectual marking in early Inuktitut 3. Prospective -si4. Ingressive -liq5. Durative -kainnaq6. Terminative -jariiq7. Positional -nga8. Experiencer perfect -ma9. Perfect -sima10. Evidential -viniq11. Conclusion

146 146 147 148

156 156 157 168 172 178 179 179 179 182 188 197 200 202 204 206 213 218

Contents

Chapter 9 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.

Introduction The role of future temporal remoteness in early Inuktitut Near future -langaSame day future -niaqDistant future -laaqSoon, later, tomorrow: The influence of pragmatic context Conclusion

Chapter 10 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.

Temporal adverbials and temporal clause coordination in early Inuktitut

Introduction Lexical temporal adverbials Temporal clause coordination Conclusion

Chapter 12 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.

Past temporal remoteness in early Inuktitut

Introduction The role of past temporal remoteness in early Inuktitut Recent past -kainnaqSame day past -qqauYesterday past -lauqDistant past -laujuLong ago past -lauqsimaFirst past marking Conclusion

Chapter 11 1. 2. 3. 4.

Future temporal remoteness in early Inuktitut

Summary and Conclusions

Introduction Zero-marked verbs for reference to realized events Future before past First marked past The temporal remoteness system Temporal adverbials and temporal clauses Implications and future research

xi 220 220 220 222 227 231 235 237 239 239 239 241 246 250 254 258 259 261 263 263 263 267 269 270 270 272 273 275 276 277 278

xii Contents Appendix A

Abbreviations and notational conventions

281

Appendix B

Productivity assessment data

284

References

296

Index

313

Chapter 1 Introduction

The development of a child’s linguistic capacities from birth onward has long been studied for the insights it provides into the fundamental nature of human language and cognition. Observations on the apparent ease, rapidity and degree of uniformity with which typically developing children acquire their first language have given rise to hypotheses regarding universal predispositions that guide the acquisition process. At the same time, evidence from crosslinguistic research reveals differences in acquisition that are linked to specific features of the input language. The competing perspectives about what is universal and what is language specific in a child’s acquisition of language continues to drive research in linguistics and psychology. The acquisition of time reference is a fertile domain for the investigation of universality as well as language-specific phenomena. One prominent line of investigation centers on crosslinguistic developmental patterns showing that children’s early use of tense-aspect morphology is influenced by verb meaning. Theoretical accounts of this selective distribution of temporal marking by semantic verb class in early child speech have been advanced from both universalist as well as input-driven perspectives, and the controversy between these viewpoints has yet t o be resolved. This book contributes to the field of crosslinguistic research on the acquisition of tense and aspect by investigating the development of mechanisms of time reference in Inuktitut, the language of the Inuit of arctic Quebec. This is the first acquisition study of time reference in an Eskimo-Aleut language. As such, it presents a unique account of how very young children talk about time using a temporal system that is fundamentally different from those in languages previously studied. This book also documents time reference in the speech of adult Inuktitut speakers through the analysis of caregiver speech as well as experimental and elicited data collection in the field. Inuktitut is a polysynthetic language with a temporal system that has a number of features that have not been the focus of acquisition research to date. The Inuktitut temporal system is based on a future-nonfuture

2 Introduction opposition, part of a more general opposition between irrealis and realis, contrasting with the pervasive past-nonpast opposition characteristic of the languages previously studied. The irrealis is the marked member of the opposition in Inuktitut, so unrealized events, including all future time reference, must be overtly marked. Inuktitut has a temporally unmarked (zero-marked) verb form for nonfuture time reference that can be either perfective or imperfective depending on lexically encoded event structure properties. Zero-marked verbs with telic stems have a perfective interpretation, while those with atelic stems have an imperfective interpretation. This alignment pattern between telicity and aspectual viewpoint is found in markedness patterns crosslinguistically as well as in early child language. Here it is explained in terms of the notion of event realization, which informally is the actual occurrence of an event. Event realization plays a special role in Inuktitut, because zero-marked verbs have a default aspectual interpretation yielding reference to realized events (Bohnemeyer and Swift 2004), and the early development of this form in children’s speech lays the foundation for the development of other aspects of the temporal system. Children acquiring Inuktitut exhibit some developmental phenomena that appear puzzling when compared with crosslinguistic findings reported in the acquisition literature. Early on, Inuit children use the zeromarked verb form for two different kinds of temporal reference: perfective reference with telic event descriptions and imperfective reference with atelic event descriptions. While this is the same alignment pattern that has been attested across many languages with children’s early restricted distribution of overt tense-aspect markers, in Inuktitut children do not mark this distinction, but rather use a single, temporally unmarked form. The second puzzle is that Inuit children first develop competence with future time marking rather than past time marking, a pattern in striking contrast with findings reported crosslinguistically. Third, Inuit children’s first uses of past and perfective markers occur in contexts without clear results and with predominantly atelic predicates, also in contrast to the crosslinguistic findings. These three puzzles find a uniform explanation with an analysis based on the interaction between telicity and aspectual viewpoint. This study is also the first to document the acquisition of a temporal remoteness system. Inuktitut has several suffixes for the expression of viewpoint aspect and a rich system of suffixes that distinguish several degrees of temporal remoteness in both past and future, such as ‘a mo-

Introduction

3

ment ago’, ‘yesterday’, ‘soon’, ‘tomorrow’. Developmental patterns suggest that the length of the time span encoded by the suffix (moments, days, years) as well as the level of granularity that distinguishes one temporal remoteness suffix from another both play a role in acquisition. There is also evidence that the context in which specific remoteness suffixes occur helps children distinguish them before they have a full understanding of the temporal meanings they encode. This book examines the broad scope of temporal phenomena commonly used by Inuit children before three-and-a-half years of age: zeromarked verbs, a variety of aspectual suffixes, and the temporal remoteness system. Both the similarities and the differences in how children acquire time reference in a language of such divergent typology offer novel perspectives on issues in temporal development. This book is organized as follows. The early chapters provide information and discussion relevant to the understanding of the Inuktitut child language data presented in the later chapters. Chapter 2 provides an introduction to the language under investigation. The first part of the chapter sketches the linguistic affiliation of Inuktitut as part of the Eskimo-Aleut family, the role of Inuktitut in contemporary life in arctic communities, and source materials that provide a broad research context for the language. The latter half of the chapter describes general linguistic characteristics of Inuktitut, including basic structural information on polysynthetic word formation, noun and verb inflectional ending paradigms and clause structure. Chapter 3 presents an overview of the Inuktitut temporal system from the perspective of the adult language to provide the necessary context for interpretation of the temporal phenomena in child language. The data presented here document temporal phenomena in adult speech with both analysis of caretaker speech from the child language corpus as well as experimental and elicited data collected in the field. Chapter 3 also presents an analysis of Inuktitut zero-marked verbs in terms of the interaction between telicity, aspectual interpretation and the notion of event realization. The default aspectual interpretation of zero-marked verbs as reference to realized events plays an important role in children’s development of the temporal system. Chapter 4 reviews crosslinguistic research relevant to two main issues concerning the acquisition of tense-aspect morphology: the order of acquisition of markers of temporal reference, and the distributional patterns of tense-aspect marking found in early child speech.

4 Introduction Chapter 5 describes the methodology surrounding the child and adult data collection and analysis. This study is based on Inuktitut child speech data comprised of spontaneous speech corpora collected for two previous acquisition studies on Inuktitut child language: one on the acquisition of communicative competence in Inuit children (Crago, 1988), and one on the acquisition of aspects of argument structure in Inuktitut (Allen, 1996). Background on these two corpora is provided. In addition, the methods and tasks used for adult data collection are described in this chapter. Turning to the analysis of the Inuktitut child language data, Chapter 6 provides an overview of structural verb development in early Inuktitut, starting with piarajausiit ‘baby words’ and uninflected verbs, then simple inflected verbs and finally verbs with suffixes marking temporal remoteness, aspect and modality. Chapters 7 through 11 address the development of specific mechanisms of time reference in Inuktitut in children’s spontaneous speech. Chapter 7 illustrates how children use verbs that lack overt temporal morphology (zero-marked verbs) to make distinctions in temporal reference in different situational contexts. Chapter 8 is devoted to the development of aspectual markers in early child speech. The temporal remoteness suffixes for future and past time reference in child speech are discussed in Chapters 9 and 10, respectively. Chapter 11 examines the children’s early instances of lexical temporal adverbials and temporal clause coordination. Chapter 12 summarizes the general trends found in the development of time reference in Inuktitut, discusses the implications of the Inuktitut child language data for issues in temporal development, and identifies promising areas for future research.

Chapter 2 Inuktitut

1. Introduction This chapter provides general background on Inuktitut to facilitate the understanding of the data presented in this book and place it in a broader research context. First, the place of Inuktitut within the Eskimo-Aleut language family is summarized in §2. Next, §3 gives a brief glimpse into the role of Inuktitut in contemporary life Arctic Quebec, including issues of language use, language education and literacy. Sources for research materials on Inuktitut and other Inuit language varieties are provided in §4. The basic structural characteristics of Inuktitut are presented in §5, including polysynthetic word formation, case marking, and clause structures. 2. The Eskimo-Aleut language family Inuktitut is a member of the Eskimo-Aleut language family, which is comprised of two branches, Eskimo and Aleut, both believed to have developed from a remote common linguistic ancestor, Proto-EskimoAleut (Woodbury 1984). The Aleut branch consists of a single language, Aleut, originally spoken on the Aleutian Islands. The Eskimo branch is made up of two linguistic subgroups, Yupik and Inuit-Inupiaq. Inuktitut is subsumed under the Inuit-Inupiaq subgroup. Speakers of Inuit-Inupiaq varieties inhabit an immense geographic expanse extending from as far west as Northern Alaska, where Inupiaq varieties are spoken, to Greenland, where Greenlandic Inuit varieties are spoken. The Inuit-Inupiaq subgroup is characterized as a continuum of closely related dialects because mutual intelligibility between contiguous dialects is high. However, some widely separated dialects are mutually unintelligible. The Inuit-Inupiaq varieties are sometimes collectively referred to as Inuit (e.g., Dorais 1990). The two major subgroupings of the Inuit-Inupiaq

6

Inuktitut

varieties in Canada are Western Canadian Inuktun and Eastern Canadian Inuktitut. Dorais (1990, 1996a) makes three general groupings of the Eastern Canadian Inuktitut varieties: Keewatin, Baffin, and Quebec-Labrador. The Keewatin dialects are Kivalliq and Aivilik. The Baffin dialects, North and South Baffin, are spoken on Baffin Island. The QuebecLabrador dialects are spoken in Arctic Quebec and Labrador. The Arctic Quebec dialect is also known as the Nunavik dialect, after the Inuktitut name for the region, translated as ‘big land’. The language represented in the present study is a subdialect of Arctic Quebec, Tarramiut (also known as Hudson Strait). Throughout the book I use the terms Eskimo, Inuit, Inuktitut, and Tarramiut as delineated above to distinguish between various divisions in the Eskimo-Aleut language family as appropriate. In general I use the term Inuktitut t o refer to the language variety on which this study is based. More specific (e.g., Tarramiut) or more general (e.g., Inuit) terms are used to indicate that a narrower or broader domain is relevant for the linguistic phenomena under discussion. 3. Inuktitut today Canadian census figures for 1996 and 2001 show approximately 30,000 speakers of Inuktitut across Canada, with more than 8000 of these in Arctic Quebec (roughly 98% of the Inuit population in the region). The Tarramiut dialect of Inuktitut is spoken by approximately 1500 Inuit in Arctic Quebec. A variety of complex historical, cultural, economic and political factors contribute to keeping Inuktitut the main language spoken in a region where modern technology and traditional practice coexist.1 Crago, Allen and Hough-Eyamie (1997: 71-2) offer this characterization of contemporary Inuit culture and its relationship to traditional roots: Present-day Inuit culture in Northern Quebec is based on the Thule culture, in which caribou and seal hunting were the mainstays of the economy and 1 See Patrick (2003) for a detailed study. See also Dorais (1997) for a study focused on the Arctic Quebec community of Quaqtaq, and Dorais and Sammons (2002) for a study of Baffin Island.

Inuktitut today

7

people lived a nomadic and seasonally based existence in snow houses and tents, travelling by dogsled and kayak. Today, families live in modern houses with telephones and television, and travel by airplanes, skidoos and motor boats. Their children go to school while many adult family members work for cash wages. Despite this, a number of aspects of family structure and activities of daily living are still rooted in traditional patterns. Many children are raised in extended multigenerational family networks where custom adoption and fictive kinship are important elements of family structure (Crago 1988). Traditional subsistence activities associated with hunting and gathering are still routine parts of family life. It is evident that forces of cultural and linguistic assimilation are strong, with the risk that much of what is documented here may change or disappear.

A focus on community programs promoting indigenous education and language use in this region have contributed to keeping Inuktitut the primary language of daily interaction in an increasingly bi- and trilingual (Inuktitut, English and French) environment (Dorais 1996a, 1997; Patrick 2003). Inuktitut is still the first language of Inuit children as well as the language of instruction for early primary education, although beyond the first three years, formal instruction is conducted predominantly in English or French. Extensive research has been conducted on language learning, socialization, and use in the fields of education, language development, and language impairment in Arctic Quebec by Crago and colleagues (e.g., Crago 1988, 1990, 1992a, 1992b; Crago, Annahatak, Doehring and Allen 1991; Crago, Annahatak, Aitchison and Taylor 1992; Crago, Annahatak and Ningiuruvuk 1993; Crago and Eriks-Brophy 1993; Crago and Allen 1994; Eriks-Brophy and Crago 1994; Crago and Allen 1996; Crago and Allen 1999). See Wilman (1988) for a study on child language learning in the classroom in the Northwest Territories. Figures reported in Dorais (1990) place the literacy rate among the Inuit of Arctic Quebec at around 95%, which is attributed to the reading of religious materials encouraged by missionaries starting in the late 1800s. Bible reading is a daily practice in many homes, and children are expected to listen. Crago (1988) notes that many adults attribute their literacy skills to lessons based on religious literature. Other than religious materials, books, especially children’s books, are rarely found in homes and bedtime reading to children is not a common practice. In recent years, however, there has been an effort to promote children’s literature in Inuktitut, and a number of books have been produced as a result. Allen (1996) notes that crayons, pencils, and paper are not typically available

8

Inuktitut

for children to play with at home, and writing implements can also be difficult to locate for adults. Current research indicates that Inuktitut plays a major role in a number of aspects of Inuit culture and society today, lending it vital support from a thriving community of speakers. Patrick (2003: 5-6) writes: The survival of Inuktitut is in part a product of its integration into the dominant linguistic market, where it has been standardized and promoted in education and government publications, and other written texts (Bourdieu 1977). But it has also survived in an alternative or “traditional” linguistic market, where local forms of Inuktitut are linked to local economic, cultural, and kinship practices which have persisted over the centuries… [T]he role of Inuktitut in Nunavik communities in education and employment is supported by its persistence in “traditional” practices that have remained valuable to the Inuit well into the twenty-first century.

This community support gives Inuktitut a strong position in contemporary Arctic Quebec, especially relative to other first nations languages. 4. Inuit language research and sources This section provides a brief overview of research and source materials for Inuktitut and other Inuit language varieties. The child speech data used in the present study are comprised of data collected for two previous acquisition studies on Inuktitut child language: one the acquisition of communicative competence in Inuit children (Crago, 1988) one on the acquisition argument structure in Inuktitut (Allen, 1996). Crago’s (1988) research documents communicative interaction between adults and children in Inuit society with respect to the transmission of linguistic knowledge and values, and explores adult attitudes towards child language learning. Allen’s (1996) study is a detailed account of the acquisition of syntactic and morphological properties of argument structure alternations in Inuktitut, specifically passive, causative, and noun-incorporating structures. For acquisition studies on West Greenlandic, see Fortescue (1985) and Fortescue and Lennert-Olsen (1992). Two comparative works across Eskimo languages are good Inuktitut reference sources: the Comparative Eskimo Dictionary with Aleut Cognates (Fortescue, Jacobson, and Kaplan 1994) and Fortescue’s (1983)

Inuit language research and sources

9

Comparative manual of affixes for Inuit dialects of Greenland, Canada and Alaska. Numerous aspects of Inuktitut have been researched and documented in both French and English in a substantial body of work by LouisJacques Dorais. Works include grammatical materials, affix lists, and a lexicon for the Arctic Quebec dialect (Dorais 1975, 1977, 1988), studies of sociolinguistic and historical aspects of Inuit language and culture (Dorais 1980, 1993, 1996a, 1996b, 1997, 1998), Inuit dialect descriptions and comparisons (Dorais 1986, 1990), and a contemporary lexicon for the Quebec-Labrador dialects (Dorais 1983) that documents innovative words for non-traditional concepts, practices, and objects, as well as words that were directly introduced through language contact with speakers of Indo-European languages. There are two dictionaries for Arctic Quebec Inuktitut. The most recent is in Inuktitut only, authored by Taamusi Qumaq, a native speaker, and contains 30,000 entries (Qumaq 1991). The other is an InuktitutFrench dictionary (which also includes the Labrador dialect) compiled by Father Lucien Schneider (1966). This dictionary was subsequently translated into English (Schneider 1985). Schneider also produced pedagogical materials for the Quebec-Labrador dialects (Schneider 1978). For the North Baffin dialect there is a grammatical description and affix list (Harper 1974, 1979), and a two volume grammar by Spalding (1992). Mallon and colleagues have developed user-friendly instructional materials with extensive paradigms and an accompanying reference grammar, primarily for the North Baffin dialect (Mallon 1991, 1992, 1995; Kublu, Mallon, Piugattuk and Kublu-Hill 1994; Mallon and Kublu 1996; Mallon and Wilman 1998). These Inuktitut language courses and instructional materials, including computerized exercises and a video series Inuttitut Ilinnialirta, which was broadcast on local television in several installments, have played a major role in second language instruction as well as native language maintenance and revitalization in several arctic communities. Technical linguistic publications on various aspects of Inuktitut not mentioned above include: Johns (1987, 1992) and Jensen and Johns (1989) for Kivalliq; Johnson (1980) and Marantz (1984) for “Central Arctic Eskimo,” apparently the Aivilik dialect spoken in Rankin Inlet in the Northwest Territories; Nowak (1996), Manga (1996) and Kalmar (1979a, 1979b, 1982) for North Baffin; Johns (1993, 1995) and Smith (1977, 1981, 1982) for Labrador Inuttut; and Johns (1999)

10

Inuktitut

for both Labrador Inuttut and the Kivalliq subdialect Qairnirmiut. Good sources for linguistic papers on Inuit are the journals International Journal of American Linguistics and Études Inuit/Inuit Studies. A significant collection of papers on Inuit is Dorais (1981). Canadian Inuit publications such as Inuktitut, a bilingual English-Inuktitut quarterly, and Tumivut, a trilingual English-French-Inuktitut quarterly for the Nunavik region, are sources for oral histories, interviews with local elders (often conducted by their own children or grandchildren), cultural practices, and current topical issues in the community. West Greenlandic, a Greenlandic dialect, is the earliest and most extensively documented variant of Inuit, with written records dating back to the sixteenth century. Several sources for West Greenlandic provide an excellent introduction to Eskimo grammar in general, most notably the early West Greenlandic grammar by Kleinschmidt (1851), which remains a standard reference today. Subsequent grammatical descriptions of West Greenlandic include Schultz-Lorentzen (1945), which includes numerous paradigms, Bergsland (1955), which includes detailed syntactic descriptions, Fortescue (1984), and most recently Sadock (2003). The phonological structure of West Greenlandic is detailed in Rischel (1974). Few sources are explicitly devoted to issues of temporal reference in Inuit. Basic introductions to temporal forms can be found in the linguistic and pedagogical grammars listed above. A survey of forms of temporal expression in Inuktitut (Arctic Quebec and Baffin) is given in Nowak (1994), which draws largely on sources listed above, specifically Dorais (1983, 1988) and Harper (1974, 1979). Nowak lists temporal adverbials, terms for day and night and some of their variants, especially as they relate to the summer and winter solstice, calendrical terms for seasons and days of the week, temporal affixes, and examples of temporal clause coordination, and she points out the importance of certainty, reality, consciousness and direct perception in linguistic expression in Inuktitut. Looking towards the Greenlandic dialect group, Fortescue (1996) provides a discussion of the grammaticalization of tense, mood, and aspect in West Greenlandic, and offers a comparison with Chukchi; Bittner (1987) discusses the West Greenlandic antipassive construction and its effects on the scope of various operators, including tense and some aspectual operators, and includes evidence of the antipassive as a marker of imperfective aspect; and Shaer (1997) uses the Government and Binding framework (Chomsky 1981, 1986) to argue for West Greenlandic as a tenseless language. The existing research on temporal-

Structure of Inuktitut

11

ity in Inuit and its significance for the present study is discussed in more detail in Chapter 3. Because Inuit is a morphologically ergative language with a long history of documentation, several researchers have used it to address issues of morphology and syntax as they relate to ergativity from a variety of theoretical perspectives. Woodbury (1975) discusses the grammatical processes of ergativity in West Greenlandic as a detailed languagespecific contribution towards a comprehensive treatment of ergativity. Approaches to case marking and ergativity within (the contemporaneous varieties of) the Government and Binding framework can be found in Bittner (1994) for West Greenlandic, Johns (1987, 1992) for Inuktitut (Kivalliq dialect), and Bok-Bennema (1991), who draws on data from a number Inuit dialects. Manning (1996) uses the Inuit to test a general proposal for syntactic ergativity within the HPSG framework. 5. Structure of Inuktitut 5.1. General characteristics Inuktitut is a polysynthetic, suffixing, head-marking language with a basic SOXV word order. Alternative word orders reflect pragmatic and stylistic factors such as emphasis and newness of information. Adjectives and (heavy) relative clauses follow their heads. Inuktitut exhibits an ergative case marking pattern with the absolutive singular as the unmarked case. 5.2. Word formation There are three types of words in Inuktitut: verbal, nominal (including pronominals and demonstratives) and uninflected particle. The canonical word formation of nouns and verbs consists of a base plus optional suffixes followed by an obligatory inflectional ending. This pattern is typical across Eskimo languages, although exceptions to this pattern can be noted throughout the data presented in subsequent chapters (see Swift

12

Inuktitut

and Allen (2002a, 2002b) for detailed discussion of noncanonical verb formation in Inuktitut) and can be expressed formulaically as follows:2 BASE + SUFFIXES(0...n) + ENDING + ENCLITICS(0...m) Figure 2.1.

Word formation in Eskimo languages

A BASE is the word-initial unit that constitutes the lexical core of a word.3 A base can be monomorphemic, in which case the term ROOT applies, but it can also consist of a root plus one or more suffixes, which together make up a single lexeme with a basic meaning. SUFFIXES are bound morphemes that perform a wide variety of functions, including many that, in non-polysynthetic languages, are typically accomplished by syntax, such as adverbial and adjectival modification, nominalization, verbalization, modalization and the expression of temporal relations. An ENDING is the word-final inflectional suffix that is obligatory on nouns, verbs and demonstratives. A STEM denotes a base plus any number of suffixes up to but not including the ENDING. ENCLITICS are bound suffixes that may attach to any word. Enclitics form a phonological unit with the immediately preceding word. Enclitics function syntactically as particles at the levels of phrase, clause and discourse.4 Example (1) illustrates each of the parts of the word contained in the formula in Figure 2.1: qai- ‘come’ is the base, -lauq- is a politeness suffix (see Chapter 3 for discussion), -guk is the inflectional ending, specifically the imperative second person singular subject, third person singular object ending, and =li ‘and’ is an enclitic functioning as a discourse connective in this context. Woodbury (1981: 104) first used this formula as a concise expression of word structure in Central Alaskan Yup’ik. I adopt it here but I use the term suffix instead of postbase. Note that suffixes can be polymorphemic. 3 An exception is words formed with the prefix ta-, the only prefix in Inuktitut, which is used with demonstratives when the speaker assumes that the referent is known to the hearer. In such cases the base is the first lexeme following the taprefix. 4 Common enclitics are e.g., the reportative =guuq ‘it is said’; =li, which translates variously as ‘and’, ‘but’, ‘what about’ and ‘as for’ depending on context and prosodic contour; and =lu ‘and’ which typically functions to conjoin noun phrases. De Reuse (1994) provides a discussion of the phonology and syntax of enclitics in Central Siberian Yupik. Many of his observations regarding the function and distribution of enclitics also apply to Inuktitut. 2

Structure of Inuktitut

(1)

Qailaurulli. qai-lauq-guk=li come-POL-IMP.2sS.3sO=and ‘So give it (to me).’

13

(Louisa’s mother)

Some of the more complex derivational morphology that is typical in Eskimo word formation, such as the verbalization of a nominal stem, is illustrated in Example (2). (2)

Illujuaraalummuulaursimannginamalittauq. illu-juaq-aluk-mut-uq-lauq-sima-nngithouse-big-EMPH-ALL.SG-go-PAST-PERF-NEGgama=li=ttauq CTG.1sS=but=also ‘But also, because I never went to the really big house.’ (Dorais 1988: 8)

Because of Inuktitut’s complex morphophonology, a given morpheme does not always have the same form from word to word. Thus in the utterance examples that appear in this study, differences can be noted between what appears on the transcription line, which conforms to orthographic conventions detailed in Chapter 5, and the morphological glosses below it, as can be seen in examples (1) and (2). I will briefly mention some of the more pervasive processes below. A thorough account of morphophonological processes in Inuktitut can be found in Dorais (1986, 1988). There is both deletion and alternation of consonants when they come into contact with certain segments. Many suffixes delete the final consonant of the stem. Some deleting suffixes that appear frequently in this study are prospective aspect -si- and near future -langa-. There is also a rule of consonant cluster simplification known as the Law of Double Consonants,5 unique to the Quebec-Labrador varieties of Inuktitut. This rule prevents two consecutive consonant clusters within a word by deleting one consonant from the second cluster.6

See Dresher and Johns (1995) for an analysis. This rule, first discussed by Father Lucien Schneider, is also known as Schneider’s Law. 6 Consonant clusters in Inuktitut may contain at most two consonants. Note that ng in the orthography represents only one consonant, a velar nasal, and a cluster of two of these phonemes is written as nng. 5

14

Inuktitut

Several suffixes and endings participate in consonant alternation patterns. Some typical examples are the inflectional verb ending -juq ‘3rd person singular participial’, which is -juq if the stem ends in a vowel, and -tuq if the stem ends in a consonant; and the inflectional verb ending -vuq ‘3rd person singular indicative’ which is -vuq if the stem ends in a vowel, and -puq if the stem ends in a consonant. In Arctic Quebec there is also widespread regressive manner assimilation for consonant clusters, with the exception of uvular-initial clusters. 5.3. Noun endings Noun endings are obligatory inflections of number (singular, dual, plural) and case. Possessor noun endings encode person (1st, 2 n d, 3 rd disjoint and 3 rd coreferential (4th)),7 number and case. Gender is not marked. Possessed noun endings encode person and number of possessor, case and number of possessum. The eight cases and their basic functions are listed in Table 2.1, with forms shown for the 3rd singular in each case for both unpossessed/possessor and possessum. Table 2.1. Nominal cases in Inuktitut

Case

Meaning/Usage

ABSOLUTIVE

subject of intransitive (S), object of transitive (O) subject of transitive (A) instrumental, theme of antipassive ‘towards’, agent of passive,8 goal, benefactive ‘from’ ‘in/at/on’ ‘over/through’ ‘as, like’

ERGATIVE MODALIS ALLATIVE ABLATIVE LOCATIVE VIALIS EQUALIS

Possessor/ Possessum Unpossessed -f

-nga

-up -mik

-ngata -nganik

-mut

-nganut

-mit -mi -kkut -titut

-nganit -ngani -ngagut -ngatut

3rd and 4th person is used in possession constructions to distinguish between ‘his/her/its’ and ‘his/her/its own’, respectively. 8 The agent of a passive is marked with the ablative case in other dialects. 7

Structure of Inuktitut

15

Noun endings cannot in all instances be transparently analyzed as separate components that make unique contributions of person, number and case, so the morphological analysis and glosses represent them as portmanteau morphemes, e.g., the ergative singular ending -up is glossed as ERG.SG, and the ergative plural -it as ERG.PL. 5.4. Demonstratives Inuktitut has a complex demonstrative system consisting of two sets of roots, singular and plural, and inflectional endings that encode case (the eight nominal cases) and number (singular and plural; dual and plural are collapsed for demonstratives). Each set of roots has ten members that distinguish referents along the dimensions of proximity (here-there), verticality (up-down), and inside-outside. Demonstrative roots for herethere and up-down are further subcategorized along a motion dimension, static-dynamic. Frequently occurring demonstratives in child language are una ‘this one right here’ and inna ‘that one there’, with roots denoting singular stationary objects followed by the absolutive singular inflection, as shown in (3). (3)

a. Una. u-na here&SG.ST-ABS.SG ‘This one right here.’ b. Inna. itsu-na there&SG.ST-ABS.SG ‘That one there.’

This study does not include an analysis of demonstrative use in child speech, so for simplicity, demonstrative roots will be glossed in an abbreviated fashion, e.g., this.one and that.one, respectively, for the demonstratives exemplified above.

16

Inuktitut

5.5. Verb endings Verb endings are obligatory portmanteau morphemes that encode person, number and mood.9 Person (1st, 2n d, 3 rd and 4 th) and number (singular, dual and plural) are marked for the subject of intransitive verbs, and for both the subject and the object of transitive verbs. Gender is not marked, so 3rd person forms may translate as he, she or it according t o context. The verb moods divide into independent moods for main clause verbs to express illocutionary force, and dependent moods for subordinate clause verbs, such as complement and adverbial clauses. The verb moods are listed in Table 2.2 with the 3rd singular subject intransitive citation form. Table 2.2. Verb endings in Inuktitut

VERB MOODS (Independent)

Meaning/ Usage

IMPERATIVE

includes 1st and 3rd person optatives marked (focus, surprise) form

INDICATIVE NEGATIVE INDICATIVE INTERROGATIVE PARTICIPIAL

standard declarative in Tarramiut

3rd singular subject -li -vuq -laq -va -juq

VERB MOODS (Dependent) C ONDITIONAL CONTINGENT CONTEMPORATIVE NEGATIVE CONTEMPORATIVE DUBITATIVE INCONTEMPORATIVE

if/when because/when while Ving (realis)

while Ving (irrealis)

-ppat -mmat -tsuni -gani -mmangat -luni

Mood and modality are distinct in Inuktitut, as they are in West Greenlandic (e.g., Fortescue (1984: 287). The term ‘mood’ is reserved for the inflectional verb ending paradigms, while ‘modality’ is used to refer to the category of optional verbal suffixes which express modality, for example deontic modality suffixes such as -guma- ‘want to’, -qajaq- ‘be able to’, and epistemic modality suffixes such as -tsariaq- ‘must’. 9

Structure of Inuktitut

17

Certain dependent mood endings are often used in simplex clause constructions in discourse. For example, the incontemporative and negative contemporative moods are often used in single-clause utterances with the illocutionary force of an imperative. See Chapter 3 for additional discussion and examples of subordinate verb usage in discourse. The 3rd and 4th person verb marking is a switch reference device t o distinguish between 3 rd person disjoint reference and 3 rd person coreference respectively, for subjects of subordinate clauses with respect to the main clause subject. 4th person (=3rd coreferential) is distinguished only in the non-contemporative dependent moods. 3rd person (=3rd disjoint) is not distinguished in the intransitive form of the contemporative moods (contemporative, negative contemporative, and incontemporative). In the transitive form of contemporative moods, person and number of subject are not distinguished (in other words, the same form is used for all possible person and number subject combinations). For this reason the contemporative moods are sometimes referred to in the Eskimo language literature as ‘infinitival’. 5.6. Clause structure The three basic clause types of Inuktitut are ergative, antipassive, and intransitive, illustrated in (4). The absolutive and ergative case-marked NPs are regarded as core arguments. They are often omitted, especially in everyday speech (see Allen and Schroeder (2003) for discussion), but they are always cross-referenced on the verb (with the exception of verbs in the contemporative moods, as noted above). Note that transitive clauses with an ergative case-marked NP, as shown in (4a), are not widely used in present-day Tarramiut. The markedness of the form can be noted in the tendency of native speakers to initially interpret the ergative case-marked NP as a possessive (see Table 2.1 above). Intransitive constructions such as the passive, antipassive, and noun incorporation construction are more frequent than the canonical transitive clauses structure shown in (4a). An example of noun incorporation is shown in (5), and the passive construction is illustrated in (6).

18 (4)

Inuktitut

ERGATIVE a. Jaaniup iqaluk nirijanga. Jaani-up iqaluk-ø Johnny-ERG.SG fish-ABS.SG ‘Johnny is eating the fish.’

niri-janga eat-PAR.3sS.3sO

ANTIPASSIVE b. Jaani iqalummik Jaani-ø Johnny-ABS.SG ‘Johnny is eating

nirijuq. iqaluk-mik niri-ø-juq fish-MOD.SG eat-ATP-PAR.3sS (a) fish.’

INTRANSITIVE c. Jaani nirijuq. Jaani-ø niri-juq Johnny-ABS.SG eat-PAR.3sS ‘Johnny is eating.’ (5)

NOUN INCORPORATION Jaani iqaluturtuq. Jaani-ø iqaluk-tuq-juq Johnny-ABS.SG fish-consume-PAR.3sS ‘Johnny is consuming (the) fish.’

In (5) above, the incorporated stem is formed with the noun iqaluk ‘fish’ and the verbalizing suffix -tuq- ‘consume’, which is used with both food and drink. Verbalizing suffixes such as -tuq- cannot be used alone as a verb root. There are a number of such verbalizing suffixes in Inuktitut that combine with a nominal to form a verb stem, such as -liuq- ‘make’, and the locative verbalizing suffix -it- ‘be’. The ergative argument of a transitive clause can be demoted to an oblique role via passivization, as shown in (6). (6)

PASSIVE Iqaluk Jaanimut nirijaujuq. iqaluk-ø Jaani-mut fish-ABS.SG Johnny-ALL.SG ‘The fish was eaten by Johnny.’

niri-jau-juq eat-PASS-PAR.3sS

The absolutive argument of a transitive clause is demoted to an oblique role in the antipassive construction, as shown in (4b) above. The anti-

Structure of Inuktitut

19

passive clause in (4b) exhibits a null antipassive marker, and for this reason the antipassive is considered a ‘basic’ clause type. But only certain verbs may participate in the antipassive construction without being marked with one of several overt antipassive markers, for example, -i-, -ji-, -ni-, -si- or -tsi-. The following section discusses verb classes in Inuit in more detail. 5.7. Root valency classification Kleinschmidt was the first to classify verb roots according to their valency potential in his 1851 grammar of West Greenlandic (Kleinschmidt 1851). Kleinschmidt identified three root types: intransitive, which takes only one argument; transitive, which takes two arguments; and half-transitive, for roots that can take either an intransitive or a transitive ending with no additional overt morphology (e.g., niri- ‘eat’ in (4) above). Woodbury (1981) identified four transitivity classes in Central Alaskan Yup’ik: intransitive, transitive, and two types of roots that can occur with either an intransitive or a transitive ending: those that identify the subject of the intransitive form (S) with the subject of the transitive form (A), and those that identify S with the object of the transitive form (O). Johns (1987) adopted Woodbury’s four-way classification and applied it to Inuktitut (subdialect Qairnirmiut). The relationship between a verb’s valency classification and its temporal interpretation will be discussed in more detail in Chapter 3. 5.8. Other syntactic features Inuktitut does not have subordinating conjunctions or relative pronouns. The participial mood, which typically functions as the standard indicative verb ending in Tarramiut, is also used in relative clause constructions. This is in fact its standard function in other Inuit dialects. The example below shows the participial mood marking both the main verb and the subordinate verb.

20 (7)

Inuktitut

Takujuq paaniittuq. taku-juq paani-it-juq see-NZ up.there-be-PAR.3sS ‘The one who sees is up there.’

(Dorais 1988: 59)

Inuktitut also lacks overt WH-movement. Questions are expressed with an interrogative intonation pattern and also with the interrogative verb mood ending. ‘Where’ questions are often formed with the enclitic =li and an interrogative intonation pattern, e.g., Ataatali? (father=where) ‘Where’s father?’. 6. Conclusion This preliminary background on Inuktitut facilitates the understanding of the basic structures and discourse contexts of the data presented throughout this study, provides an overview of linguistic research on Inuit, and identifies sources for further research on Inuit language and culture.

Chapter 3 Time reference in Inuktitut

1. Introduction This chapter provides a general overview of the temporal system of Inuktitut, with special attention to the mechanisms of temporal reference that play a prominent role in the early stages of child language acquisition. Concepts central to the Inuktitut temporal system are introduced in §2, specifically the future-nonfuture temporal split in Inuktitut time reference, subsumed under the more general realis-irrealis modality opposition. Suffixes for temporal remoteness, aspect and modality (TAM) are introduced in §3. Zero-marked verbs, which are verbs that lack overt marking for tense, aspect or modality, are discussed in §4. The temporal interpretation of zero-marked verbs plays a crucial role in early acquisition of time reference in Inuktitut. In §4.4, I present an analysis for Inuktitut zero-marked verbs in terms of the interaction between telicity, aspectual interpretation and the notion of event realization that provides a uniform interpretation for the pattern of temporal development in Inuktitut, which appears to be in striking contrast to temporal development in other languages studied. In §5, the aspectual suffixes that will be analyzed in the child language data, for example prospective, ingressive and perfect aspect, are discussed. The evidential suffix -viniq- is discussed in §5.9. The temporal remoteness system is introduced in §6 and elaborated in §7 and §8 for the future suffixes and past suffixes, respectively. The use of lexical temporal adverbials is illustrated in §9, and subordinate clause constructions in §10. Finally, §11 presents a brief review of a recent study that argues for the absence of tense in the related language of West Greenlandic and a discussion of why this analysis cannot be straightforwardly extended t o Inuktitut.

22

Time reference in Inuktitut

2. Temporal oppositions: future-nonfuture and realis-irrealis Although temporal reference is often talked about in terms of a threeway distinction between past, present and future, in terms of verb morphology many languages, including English, are based on a two-way distinction with an opposition between past and nonpast or future and nonfuture (Comrie 1985: 48-49). Temporal reference in many IndoEuropean languages is based on a past-nonpast distinction, with the nonpast subsuming present and future reference. In languages with a past-nonpast split, the present tense can be used with future time reference. This is the case, for example, in German and Finnish, where present tense can always be used with future time reference. English also manifests a past-nonpast split since the present tense can be used with future time reference, as in The plane departs tomorrow. But future time reference with verbs in the present tense in English is typically constrained to scheduled events (cf. *It rains tomorrow). Comrie (1985) has proposed a continuum of past-nonpast languages to accommodate the varying degrees of flexibility that languages exhibit with respect to the past-nonpast distinction. German and Finnish are robust past-nonpast languages, and English, with its more limited use of present tense for future time reference, is an example from the weaker end of the continuum. Temporal reference in Inuktitut is carved up differently than the past-nonpast system common to Indo-European languages. Inuktitut rather manifests a future-nonfuture split where all future time reference must be overtly marked. Verbs that have no overt morphological marking for tense, aspect, and modality can have nonfuture (either perfective/past or imperfective/present) time reference depending on the semantics of the verb base, as illustrated by the examples in (1) and (2). (1)

Anijuq. ani-juq go.out-PAR.3sS ‘She went out.’

Temporal oppositions

(2)

23

Pisuttuq. pisuk-juq walk-PAR.3sS ‘She is walking.’

The structure of the verbal utterances in (1) and (2) is identical: a verb base plus the same verb ending encoding person, number and mood, and yet the two examples differ in temporal reference. The verbal expression anijuq ‘she went out’ in (1) has perfective/past time reference with respect to the going out event. It is infelicitous to use this form if the subject has not yet left the room. In contrast, the verbal expression pisuttuq ‘she is walking’ in (2) has imperfective/present time reference with respect to the walking event. In this case, it is infelicitous to use this form if the event is not in progress at the time of utterance. Verbal expressions of the type shown in (1) and (2) are referred to as zeromarked verbs, and they contrast with verbs that have overt marking for temporal remoteness, aspect or modality. The relevant factor for the determination of whether a zero-marked verb has a perfective/past or imperfective/present interpretation is whether or not the verb denotes a change of state. Zero-marked verbs are discussed further in §4. Future-nonfuture languages cited by Comrie are the Papuan language Hua, and the Pama-Nyungan language Dyirbal. Comrie states that while Dyirbal appears at first glance to be a future-nonfuture language, further investigation suggests that the split is one between realis and irrealis, which only “gives the impression of a tense split because of the implicature links between certain modal and time reference oppositions” (Comrie 1985: 49). This is also the case with Inuktitut, where future time reference lies within a broader category of irrealis modality. The first level of temporal opposition in Inuktitut is the distinction between realis and irrealis modality, in which all irrealis, including future time reference, must be overtly marked. All future time reference is subsumed under irrealis. Realis modality encompasses the nonfuture reference of zero-marked verbs and overt past marking with the past temporal remoteness suffixes. These oppositional features of the Inuktitut temporal system are schematized in Figure 3.1. The realis/irrealis distinction is a privative opposition, with irrealis as the marked member, so all irrealis modality (which subsumes future time reference) must be overtly marked, for example with suffixes for future time reference and/or modality (as dis-

24

Time reference in Inuktitut

cussed in §3), or with inflectional verb endings that encode modality, such as the imperative, conditional or dubitative moods.

REALIS

IRREALIS (subsumes FUTURE)

NONFUTURE

ZERO-MARKED

Telic verbal expression (completed event)

Figure 3.1.

PAST TEMPORAL REMOTENESS

Atelic verbal expression (ongoing activity or current state)

Temporal and modal oppositions in Inuktitut

In general, Inuktitut requires precise linguistic encoding regarding what is real and what is not real. An interesting phenomenon emphasizing the marked status of the irrealis category is that nominal reference to an object that does not yet exist must be marked with the suffix -tsaq- as ‘future’ or ‘potential’, as shown in (3) and (4) below. In the context of the utterance in (3), Elijah is tossing around a hat that his mother is still in the process of knitting for him, thus it is nasatsait ‘your future hat’. The text in (4) is from a song that Elijah’s mother sings to Elijah. In the song, the singer asks a ringed seal for fur with which to make boots for her father, mother and son. The boots do not yet exist, so when they are referred to in the third stanza, the noun is marked with -tsaq-, so they are kamitsaq ‘future boots’. (3)

Nasatsait pijariilanngitualuumat igitsiqattatuaruvit. nasaq-tsaq-it hat-FUT-ABS.2Ssg

Temporal oppositions

25

pi-jariiq-langa-nngit-tuq-aluk-mmat do-PERF-NEAR.FUT-NEG-NZ-EMPH-be-CTG.3sS igit-tsi-qattaq-tuaq-guvit throw-ATP-HAB-as.soon.as-CND.2sS ‘Because your future hat (is one that) won’t be finished if you keep throwing it.’ (Elijah’s mother) (4)

Natsiq, natsiq, qisiqarpit? natsiq natsiq qisi-qaq-vit ringed.seal ringed.seal fur-have-INT.2sS ‘Ringed seal, ringed seal, do you have any fur?’ Luci, luci, qisiqarqunga. luci luci qisi-qaq-vunga lucy lucy fur-have-IND.1sS ‘Lucy, Lucy, I have some fur.’ Ataataulu, anaanaulu, surusirululu, kamitsanginni. ataata-up=lu anaana-up=lu father-ERG.SG=and mother-ERG.SG=and surusi-guluk-up=lu boy-DIM-ERG.SG=and kamik-tsaq-nginnik boot-FUT-MOD.3Xpl For father’s, mother’s, and son’s future boots. (Elijah’s mother)

Another mechanism that reflects the distinction between what is real and what is not real is the suffix -nnguaq-, which translates as ‘imitation’ or ‘pretend’ and is used with both nouns and verbs to denote an imitation or replica of the real thing. For example, toys such as dolls, stuffed animals and model vehicles are referred to as pinnguaq (thingimitation), and as a verb base, pinnguaq- (do-imitation) translates as ‘play’. The word for map in Inuktitut is nunannguaq, which can be translated literally as ‘imitation land’. Along the same lines, the linguistic expression of direct perception or experience in Inuktitut is mediated through the evidential -viniq-, as discussed in §5.9. See also Nowak (1994) for discussion of the importance of consciousness and perception in Inuktitut.

26

Time reference in Inuktitut

3. Temporal remoteness, aspect and modality (TAM) suffixes Inuktitut has a number of overt verbal suffixes for temporal remoteness, aspect, and modality, which occur between the verb base and the inflectional verb ending. I will refer to these suffixes collectively as the temporal remoteness-aspect-modality (TAM) suffixes.1 The TAM suffixes are distinct from the verb ending paradigms, which are obligatory inflections on the verb and encode person, number and mood, as described in Chapter 2. The temporal remoteness suffixes function like tense in Indo-European languages in that they are used t o specify locations in time (past and future) relative to a temporal reference point, such as the time of utterance. However, the temporal remoteness suffixes are not an integral part of the obligatory verb inflection, and several of them have modal or aspectual senses as well, so I refer to them as markers of temporal remoteness rather than tense. The temporal remoteness suffixes are discussed in more detail in §6 - §8. The TAM suffixes are a common means of temporal expression in everyday speech, and they play a major role in the acquisition of the temporal system by Inuit children. TAM suffixes are typically positioned immediately before the verb ending, but sentential operators such as the negation suffix -nngit- and the additive suffix -mi- ‘also, again’ may occur between a TAM suffix and the verb ending. The suffixes in the word are interpreted with respect to the positions in which they occur relative to other word components. The general rule for Inuit, as described by Fortescue for West Greenlandic (Fortescue 1980, 1984: 313) is that each successive suffix has scope over everything to its left. Suffixes that are more derivational in nature are closest to the verb base, while suffixes with a more sentential function, such as suffixes for time reference, modality and negation, occur closest to the verb ending. Examples (5) and (6) illustrate TAM suffixes followed by the negation suffix -nngit-. In (5), modality suffix -qajaq- ‘can’ is followed by the negation suffix, and in (6), near future suffix -langa- is followed by the negation suffix. Although I include modality suffixes (primarily deontic modality suffixes such as -guma- ‘want’ and -qajaq- ‘be able to’, which are common in early child speech) in the explication of the Inuktitut temporal reference system, only suffixes for temporal remoteness and aspect are discussed in detail with respect to child language development. 1

TAM suffixes

(5)

(6)

27

Mirsuqajannginaviuk. mirsuq-qajaq-nngit-gaviuk sew-can-NEG-CTG.2sS.3sO ‘You cannot sew it.’

(Elijah’s mother)

Anilanganngitutit. ani-langa-nngit-jutit go.out-NEAR.FUT-NEG-PAR.2sS ‘You will not go out soon today.’

(Lizzie’s mother)

The examples in (7) and (8) illustrate the additive suffix -mi- ‘also, again’, in two different positions with respect to the TAM suffixes in the word. In (7), modality suffix -guma- ‘want’ is followed by the additive suffix -mi- (which appears as the allomorph -gi- in this utterance). (7)

Qajurturumagivit? qajuq-tuq-guma-mi-vit soup-consume-want-also-INT.2sS ‘Do you also want some soup?’

(Elijah’s mother)

In (8), the additive suffix -mi- precedes the TAM suffixes, which are same day future suffix -niaq- followed by the ingressive suffix -liq-. (8)

Unnuakku taartukallaaluuminialiravit. unnuaq-kkut night-VIA.SG taartuq-kallaa-aluk-u-mi-niaq-liq-gavit darkness-suddenly-EMPH-be-also-TODAY.FUT-ING-CTG.2sS ‘Now (that you broke the lantern) you will again be in the dark tonight.’ (Elijah’s cousin)

Examples are given below to illustrate different positional distributions of TAM suffixes with respect to each other. The utterance in (9) illustrates the following sequence of TAM suffixes: modality suffix -guma‘want’, followed by near future suffix -langa-, followed by ingressive aspect suffix -liq-. (9)

Anigumalangalirmat. ani-guma-langa-liq-mmat go.out-want-NEAR.FUT-ING-CTG.3sS ‘Now he will want to go out soon.’ (Tumasi’s grandmother)

The utterance in (10) illustrates a somewhat different ordering of TAM suffixes: modality suffix -gasuaq- ‘try’, followed by prospective aspect

28

Time reference in Inuktitut

-si-, followed by yesterday past -lauq-.2 In terms of the scope principle described above, in which the domain of application of a suffix applies to the left, the scope of the successive TAM suffixes in the first verb in example (10) can be represented as follows: (((sleep) try) PRSP) YSTR.PAST). (10)

Sinigasuasilaurqunga aniga itilauqtinnagu. sinik-gasuaq-si-lauq-vunga ani-ga sleep-try-PRSP-YSTR.PAST-IND.1sS brother-ABS.1Ssg itiq-lauq-tit-nagu enter-YSTR.PAST-DS-CTM&NEG.XxS.3sO ‘Yesterday I went to bed before my brother came home.’ lit: ‘I was about to try to sleep (= go to bed) yesterday, my brother not having entered.’ (TMAQ 2)

Aspectual suffixes regularly occur with both narrow and wide scope distributions in the Inuktitut word. In general, suffixes that mark aspectual notions like the perfect typically occur closer to the verb stem and inside the scope of suffixes that mark modality or temporal remoteness, if present. On the other hand, suffixes that mark prospective or ingressive aspect typically occur closest to the verb ending (as in (8) and (9) above; see also §5.1 and §5.2), although alternate orderings do occur (as in (10)). The predominant wide-scope distribution of prospective and ingressive aspect suffixes is consistent with their correspondence t o phase verbs in English like start and begin, which can take wide scope over an event in a way that perfect aspect cannot. But note that perfect suffixes can occur with wide scope, in which case they have the interpretation ‘already’. The utterance in (11) illustrates two aspectual suffixes in one word. Durative aspect -kainnaq- is closest to the verb base, and ingressive aspect -liq- has wide scope, immediately preceding the verb ending. The utterance in (12) illustrates the habitual aspect suffix -qattaq- in two different positions in the same word (note that this word has complex clause structure induced by the suffix -qu- ‘want/tell (someone else)’).

2 Example utterances cited as TMAQ were elicited with Dahl’s Tense-MoodAspect Questionnaire, as described in Chapter 5.

TAM suffixes

(11)

29

Jaaniapi sinigunnairit nirikainnanialiravit. jaani-apik sinik-gunnaiq-git johnny-DIM sleep-no.longer-IMP.2sS niri-kainnaq-niaq-liq-gavit eat-DUR-go.and-ING-CTG.2sS ‘Sleep no longer little Johnny, because now you go and eat for a while.’ (Elijah’s father)

(12)

Inutsiaqattaqujauqattaravit. inuk-tsiaq-u-qattaq-qu-jau-qattaq-gavit person-nice-be-HAB-tell-PASS-HAB-CTG.2sS ‘You keep being told to be a nice person.’ (Elijah’s mother)

Some TAM suffixes have different senses that in most cases depend on their interaction with other suffixes in the word. For example, the suffix -niaq- functions as a temporal remoteness suffix to mark same day future (as in (8) above; see also §7.2), but it also functions as a marker of motion with purpose, i.e., ‘go and’ (as in (11)), and as a marker of intention, i.e., ‘try to’. Another suffix with multiple senses is -kainnaq-, which functions as a temporal remoteness suffix to mark recent past (see §8.1), and as a marker of durative aspect (as in (13) above; see also §5.4). Fortescue (1996: 155) comments on suffix ambiguity in West Greenlandic, noting that the presence of other suffixes in the word may be required to distinguish between different senses of a given suffix, but since additional suffixes are not always present, context is sometimes the only clue for disambiguation. Inuktitut is not unique in its association of temporal location with aspect and/or modality. For example, Fortescue (1984) notes that suffixes for past reference in West Greenlandic always express an element of aspect or mood. Other examples include Chamorro, which correlates tense with both mood and aspect, and Lakhota, which correlates future tense with modality (cited in Chung and Timberlake 1985: 206-7). 3.1. Tense, aspect, and mood in West Greenlandic This section reviews Fortescue’s (1996) discussion of tense, aspect and mood suffixes in West Greenlandic, which is in the context of a more general discussion of the grammaticalization of tense, aspect and mood in West Greenlandic (WG) and Chukchi. The distribution of the tense,

30

Time reference in Inuktitut

aspect and mood suffixes in West Greenlandic is typical of Eskimo languages in general, as Fortescue points out, and the points of the discussion summarized below apply to Tarramiut unless otherwise noted. On tense, Fortescue writes: [T]ense is clearly a derivational category in WG, not a matter of inflectional paradigm, despite Bybee’s observation (1985: 99) that languages do not generally treat tense this way. The affixes concerned all belong to the category of ‘sentential affix’ (see Fortescue 1984: 313), which includes tense, epistemic modality, sentential negation and subjective coloration (in that order if more than one is present). They all appear on verbal bases in position just before the obligatory mood-person-number inflection and, unlike the ‘true’ inflections of the language, are optional and do not form paradigms that enter into systematic opposition with each other. Unlike other verbal affixes however, they are completely general (though so are many other - e.g., aspectual - affixes); they have the whole clause in their scope; and they cannot be followed recursively by other derivational affixes, all properties more typical of inflectional morphemes (Fortescue 1996: 152).

Fortescue provides the example shown in (14) to illustrate tense and other sentential affixes, noting that the only obligatory parts of the word are the verb base taku- ‘see’, and the indicative inflection -poq.3 Affixes belonging to the sentential category mentioned in the above quotation appear in bold. (14)

taku-sa-qa-ruma-li-ssa-nnguatsia-raluar-poq see-PASS.PART-have-want.to-begin-FUT-presumably-but3s.INDIC “He’ll probably begin to want to see something, but...(I don’t believe he’ll be able to).” (Fortescue 1996: 152)

Mood is expressed as an inflectional category on the verb, with portmanteau morphemes that also encode person and number. Aspect is expressed by up to sixty productive suffixes, all of which are nonsentential. Note that Tarramiut differs from West Greenlandic in this respect, because at least two aspectual suffixes typically function as sentential modifiers: prospective -si- and ingressive -liq-, as noted above. The relative ordering of the tense, aspect and mood affixes in the West Greenlandic word conforms to Bybee’s generalization (1985: 35), that the ordering of these forms is predictable in terms of ‘relevance’, PASS.PART ‘passive participle’; FUT ‘future’; 3s.INDIC ‘third person singular subject, indicative mood’. 3

TAM suffixes

31

with aspect being most relevant, and mood least relevant (and also taking widest scope). The ordering of tense, aspect, mood and epistemic modality affixes in West Greenlandic is shown in Figure 3.2 below. The hyphens separate syntagmatically ordered categories, the pluses indicate portmanteau fusion, and the parentheses indicate optionality. Stem - (Aspect) - (Tense) - (Modality) - Mood + person + number Figure 3.2.

Ordering of tense, aspect and mood affixes in WG (after Fortescue 1996: 165)

Fortescue provides the etymologies of several tense and modality suffixes for West Greenlandic and other Inuit varieties, including Tarramiut. The relevant etymologies for the Tarramiut (and West Greenlandic) suffixes can be found in Fortescue (1996: 170-171). With respect to grammaticalization, Fortescue notes that the tense suffixes are bound morphemes that cannot be traced back to lexical stems, but that many of them can be transparently derived from nonsentential affixes with a more concrete sense. For example, Fortescue relates the objective future suffix -ssa- to the nonsentential affix -ja‘be apt to’, and the intentional future suffix -niar- to the nonsentential affix -niar- ‘try to’.4 The mood paradigms show evidence of historical layering and ancient pronoun incorporation. After a comparison with Chukchi, Fortescue concludes that the temporal affixes in Chukchi show more evidence of classical grammaticalization patterns, i.e., they can more readily be traced back to autonomous words, than do the temporal affixes in West Greenlandic. Both languages show a tendency for the temporal markers to “drift” from a position near the lexical stem, as a derivational suffix, to a more peripheral verbal position, for example, as an inflectional suffix, following a cline of grammaticalization described in Hopper and Traugott (1993), although the two languages differ in the processes by which this drift occurs. Fortescue’s (1996) discussion of the grammaticalization of tense, aspect and mood in West Greenlandic has been summarized here because the issues are generally applicable to temporal and modal suffixes in Inuktitut. Details regarding specific suffixes may vary, for example, 4 West Greenlandic -niar- is cognate with -niaq- in Tarramiut, which also has both future (more specifically, same day future) and modal ‘try to’ senses, as noted above. See Fortescue (1984) for details on the WG suffix -niar-.

32

Time reference in Inuktitut

prospective aspect suffix -si-, which is pervasive in Inuktitut, is not productive in West Greenlandic. In addition, the rich system of temporal remoteness suffixes in Inuktitut, elaborated in §6 - §8, is not attested in West Greenlandic. 3.2. TAM suffixes and the imperative mood: politeness The TAM suffixes yesterday past -lauq- and ingressive aspect -liq- frequently occur together with imperative mood verb endings. When these suffixes precede an imperative ending, they do not appear to contribute a transparent temporal or aspectual meaning to the utterance. The addition of -liq- or -lauq- to a verb in the imperative mood is most often interpreted as having a softening effect on the utterance by increasing its length and facilitating prosodic modulation (cf. German mal ‘once’, Dutch even ‘just’, and English just). Imperative verbs with TAM suffixes are shown in the (a) examples below, and their counterparts without the TAM suffixes are given in the (b) examples. (15) a. Nirilaurit! niri-lauq-git eat-POL-IMP.2sS ‘Please eat!’

(Paul’s mother)

b. Nirigit! niri-git eat-IMP.2sS ‘Eat!’ (16) a. Atii, qailirit. atii qai-liq-git come.on come-POL-IMP.2sS ‘Come on, please come here.’

(Louisa’s mother)

b. Qaigit! qai-git come-IMP.2sS ‘Come!’ Native speakers consulted on this topic did not always make clear or consistent distinctions in the use of -lauq- and -liq- with verbs in the

Zero-marked verbs

33

imperative mood. For example, not all speakers translated imperatives with ingressive aspect -liq- as ‘Now V’, and no one interpreted the yesterday past -lauq- with the imperative ending as a past form, as in ‘Make it eaten’. There was also no agreement among speakers about whether an imperative verb with the suffix -lauq- is more polite than one with -liq-, or vice-versa. The distribution of -lauq- and -liq- in imperative verbs in the speech data yields no clear patterns of use to distinguish the two. Following Allen (1996), I gloss these suffixes as POL ‘politeness’ wherever they appear with the imperative mood ending. 4. Zero-marked verbs One way in which the Inuktitut temporal system differs from temporal systems in Indo-European languages is that overt temporal marking is not required for the grammatical formation of a verb in Inuktitut. Verbs that lack overt temporal marking, i.e., zero-marked verbs, have nonfuture (perfective/past or imperfective/present) time reference, and how children come to terms with the nonfuture reference of zero-marked verbs is one of the points addressed in this study. The structure and use of zero-marked verbs in Inuktitut is elaborated in this section. 4.1. The structure of zero-marked verbs The morphologically simplest verb construction in Inuktitut consists of a verb base followed by an obligatory inflectional verb ending, which encodes person, number and mood, but not tense or aspect, as shown in Figure 3.3. VERB BASE

Figure 3.3.

+

VERB ENDING ↑ person, number and mood (no tense or aspect)

Simple verbs in Inuktitut

Simple zero-marked verbs typically have the structure shown in Figure 3.3, though they can have more complex verb stems, as long as they contain no overt suffixes for temporal remoteness, aspect or modality. The discussion of zero-marked verbs in the present study focuses on

34

Time reference in Inuktitut

main clause verb constructions, which suffices for the analysis of zeromarked verbs in early child speech. Note that verbs in the imperative mood (which is, strictly speaking, optative, since the paradigm inflects for 1st, 2n d and 3rd person subjects) can also have the simple structure shown above, but the illocutionary force of the imperative ending contributes modal information (e.g., command, obligation, desire), so imperatives are not included in the analysis of zero-marked verbs in the present study. The distinction between imperatives and zero-marked verbs is illustrated Chapter 6. 4.2. The temporal interpretation of zero-marked verbs Certain temporal contrasts that are typically marked by tense-aspect morphology in languages such as English are not marked by overt morphology in Inuktitut. As described in §2 above, the temporal interpretation of zero-marked verbs is not uniform, apart from the fact that they cannot have future time reference. Zero-marked verbs may have either a perfective/past or imperfective/present interpretation, depending on the semantics of the verb stem. Differences in the temporal interpretation of zero-marked verbs are due to differences in the inherent temporal structure of the verb stem. The range of temporal interpretations of zero-marked verbs with different stems is illustrated with the following examples. (17) Change of state

completed event

Anijuq. ani-juq go.out-PAR.3sS ‘She went out.’ (18) Activity Pisuttuq. pisuk-juq walk-PAR.3sS ‘She is walking.’

ongoing (in progress) activity

Zero-marked verbs

(19) Stative

35

current state

Kaattuq. kaak-juq be.hungry-PAR.3sS ‘He is hungry.’ (20) Locative

current location

Maaniittuq. ma-ani-it-juq here-LOC-be-PAR.3sS ‘It is here.’ Of particular interest for child language development is the contrast between completed and ongoing event reference, illustrated in (21) with a dialogue fragment from a question and answer exchange between Tumasi and his aunt. (21) a. Aippagali? aippaq-ga=li companion-ABS.1Ssg=where ‘Where (is) my companion (mother)?’ b. Ataipuq. atai-vuq go.out-IND.3sS ‘She has gone out.’ c. Ataatagali? ataata-ga=li father-ABS.1Ssg=where ‘Where (is) my father?’ d. Ammupuq. ammu-vuq sleep-IND.3sS ‘He is sleeping.’

(Tumasi 2;1)

(Aunt)

(Tumasi 2;1)

(Aunt)

In (21), the child asks where his mother and father are, and his aunt replies to each question with a zero-marked verb consisting of a verb base (in this example, the bases are from a specialized ‘baby’ lexicon, discussed in Chapter 6) and the same verb ending, -vuq. The verbal constructions are identical in grammatical form, but the verb bases differ in

36

Time reference in Inuktitut

temporal structure and thus lend different temporal interpretations t o the zero-marked construction. The aunt’s utterance in (b) consists of a zero-marked verb with the base atai- ‘go out’, which denotes a change of state, so it has completed event reference. The utterance in (d) consists of a zero-marked verb with the base ammu- ‘sleep’, which does not denote a change of state, so is has ongoing event reference. In the Inuit language literature, there is no systematic classification of verb bases with respect to their inherent temporal structure. Some researchers have noted that verbs with no overt temporal marking are generally ambiguous between past and present (e.g., Bok-Bennema 1991: 41; Johns 1987: 15). For West Greenlandic, Fortescue (1984: 271-2) makes the following observation: Unmarked indicative verb forms may be past or present (or completive/incompletive aspect) depending on the stem and the context. Thus aggirpuq ‘he is/was coming’ as opposed to tikippuq ‘he has come/came’.

Bittner (1987: 213) notes for West Greenlandic that “the unmarked form of the verb is interpreted as non-future and is compatible with specifiers such as ‘last year’ or ‘right now’, but not with ‘tomorrow’.”5 The temporal interpretation of zero-marked verbs in Inuktitut is not ambiguous. It varies systematically between perfective/past and imperfective/present, depending on the semantics of the verb base. The semantic features relevant for the temporal interpretation of zero-marked verbs are elaborated in the following section. 4.3. Event semantics, event structure, and temporal interpretation This section clarifies the event structure distinction that is the crucial determinant of the temporal interpretation of zero-marked verbs. The goal is to capture the distinction between completed and ongoing event reference, as illustrated in the dialogue fragment in (21), in terms of differences in verb meaning. In this section some approaches to the analysis of verb meanings are reviewed. Linguists and philosophers have noted that fundamental differences in verb meanings systematically affect how verbs interact with tense, Zero-marked verbs in Inuktitut differ crucially from unmarked verbs in West Greenlandic in that they are incompatible with past as well as future temporal adverbials. 5

Zero-marked verbs

37

aspect and temporal adverbials, dating back to Aristotle’s Metaphysics. The best known classification of verb meanings is Vendler’s (1957, 1967) classification of ‘time schemata’ of verbs as state, activity, accomplishment and achievement, though see also Ryle (1943) and Kenny (1963) for significant work in this area. Verkuyl (1972) extended the analysis to the entire verb phrase, and tests for Vendler’s four verb classes were elaborated by Mourelatos (1978, 1981) and Dowty (1979). In English, typical examples of states are love and know; activities are walk (in the park), push a cart; accomplishments are eat an apple and paint a picture; and achievements are notice the picture and reach the summit. Event features6 corresponding to the Vendler/Dowty verb classification are shown in Table 3.1. Table 3.1.

Event features and verb phrase classification

PUNCTUAL TELIC DYNAMIC

STATE -

ACTIVITY +

ACCOMPLISHMENT + +

ACHIEVEMENT + + +

Verb phrases with the feature +PUNCTUAL (the achievement class) are used in reference to events that happen instantaneously, and they are generally incompatible with temporal markers of duration. Verb phrases with the feature +TELIC (the accomplishment and achievement classes) are used in reference to events that have an inherent boundary at which point a discrete change is realized. The feature +DYNAMIC characterizes non-stative verb phrases as requiring energy to exist or maintain. Although widely used, the Vendler classification is not unproblematic, and it continues to be refined and reformulated (see, e.g., Moens (1987), Smith (1991), Van Valin and LaPolla (1997)). For example, Smith (1991) discusses the problematic case of semelfactives, characterized as punctual and atelic, such as knock at the door. In formal semantics, the traditional analysis of verbs was confined t o relations between a verb and its arguments, with no temporal compo-

6 The Vendler/Dowty classes are also known as (lexical) aspectual classes, and the features as (lexical) aspectual features. See Li (1990) for clarifying discussion of terminology in this area.

38

Time reference in Inuktitut

nent specified. For example, the sentence x sleeps would be formalized as shown in (22). (22)

sleep (x)

Davidson (1967) introduced the notion of events as spacio-temporal entities by proposing an event argument for sentences that were not based on a stative verb (i.e., “action sentences”). With the addition of an event argument, the analysis of (22) becomes that shown in (23), where e is a spatio-temporal region in which x’s sleeping takes place. (23)

sleep (e, x)

Krifka (1986) used Davidson’s notion of the event variable to formalize Vendler’s four classes by defining a lattice structure on events and mapping events to times via a temporal trace function. In Krifka’s formulation, states are distinguished from the other classes because they have no event argument. Activities are characterized as cumulative event predicates, which means that if e is an event of sleeping, then all parts of e are events of sleeping. In other words, the event structure of activities is homogeneous because all parts of activities are also activities. Accomplishments are characterized as quantized event predicates, which means that if e is an event of the accomplishment type, such as eat an apple, then a proper part of e is not of the type eat an apple. This formulates the temporal structure of accomplishments as not homogeneous because it can be subdivided into parts that are not accomplishments, a characteristic noted already by, e.g., Aristotle and Vendler. Achievements are characterized as momentaneous event predicates that are atomic, i.e., they cannot be subdivided into smaller parts. The temporal structure of achievements is not homogeneous by definition, because they cannot be subdivided. To capture the distinction between ongoing and completed event reference in the temporal interpretation of zero-marked verbs, a bipartite classification distinguishing verbs that express discrete state changes and those that do not is a more direct reflection of the relevant phenomenon than the four class system outlined above. The view that whenever something undergoes a change of a property, it constitutes a change of state event, is inherent in Dowty (1979). For example, accomplishments such as John ate the apple can be viewed as expressing a state change over time from the apple as not eaten followed by the apple as eaten. Achievements can be similarly seen as a

Zero-marked verbs

39

state change, but an instantaneous one. For example, The balloon exploded expresses an instantaneous state change between an unexploded and an exploded balloon. Dowty formulated the meanings of accomplishment and achievements as state change events by means of a change of state operator BECOME. Klein (1994) captures the notion of state change events in a characterization of predicates based on the number of states they encode. In Klein’s framework, generally speaking, activities and some states correspond to 1-state predicates, and accomplishment and achievements to 2state predicates. 2-state predicates consist of a source state (before the state change) and a target state (after the state change). For an analysis of Inuktitut zero-marked verbs using Klein’s framework, see Swift (in press). In terms of the feature classification shown in Table 3.1 , the distinction between predicates that denote a change of state (accomplishments and achievements) on the one hand, and predicates that do not (states and activities) on the other hand, is captured by the telicity feature. Telic predicates do not have a homogeneous temporal structure, and atelic predicates do. Krifka (1989, 1992) expresses the distinction between telic and atelic predicates in terms of whether or not the denotation of the expression has a set terminal point (STP). A verbal expression is telic if its denotation includes a set terminal point, as in run a mile, and atelic if it does not, as in run. The temporal reference of zero-marked atelic verbs can be depicted graphically as in Figure 3.4, illustrated with the zero-marked verb pisuttuq ‘she is walking’ from (18). { Figure 3.4.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++ P ISUTTUQ ‘SHE IS WALKING’ }

Temporal structure of event denoted by atelic verb

The temporal structure of the event denoted by zero-marked atelic verbs is homogenous, so the zero-marked verb may be felicitously uttered at any time during which the event holds. Zero-marked nondynamic atelic verbs, i.e., stative expressions such as those in (19) and (20), can be represented in the same way. A verb base can be classified as either telic or atelic depending on the temporal interpretation of its zero-marked form, and by its interaction with certain suffixes, such as ingressive aspect -liq-, as elaborated in §5.2. The addition of TAM suffixes affects the temporal interpretation

40

Time reference in Inuktitut

of a verb base. For example, an atelic verb stem may be derived from a telic verb base by adding the perfect suffix -sima-. Thus overt suffixes and their relative ordering (which determines scope relations, as noted in §3) influence the overall temporal interpretation of a verbal expression. Atelic verb bases include atuq- ‘use’, angi- ‘be big’, atjiliuq- ‘film’, kaak- ‘be hungry’, kama- ‘meddle’, miki- ‘be small’, miqsuq- ‘sew’, niri- ‘eat’, pisuk- ‘walk’, qia- ‘weep’, sinik- ‘sleep’, taqa- ‘be tired’. Verb bases formed with certain object incorporating suffixes, for example -tuq- ‘consume’ and -liuq- ‘make’, as in tiituq- ‘drink tea’ and illuliuq- ‘house build’, are also atelic.7 Vehicle word bases, which can take either nominal or verbal inflection, are also atelic. When vehicle word bases are followed by a verb ending, the meaning is ‘ride/drive X (vehicle)’, e.g., sikituuq- ‘snowmobile/ride snowmobile’, nunakkuujuuq- ‘terrain vehicle/ride terrain vehicle’. The temporal reference of zero-marked telic verbs can be depicted graphically as in Figure 3.5, illustrated with the zero-marked verb anijuq ‘she went out’ from (17) above. STP BE INSIDE Ø BE OUTSIDE --------------------+++++++++++++ { A NIJUQ ‘SHE WENT OUT’ } Figure 3.5.

Temporal structure of event denoted by telic verb

The temporal structure of events denoted by telic verbs is not homogeneous, as shown in Figure 3.5. The temporal interpretation of zeromarked telic verbs is perfective, that is, the event reference includes the terminal point of the event, so the event denoted by the verb must have taken place by the time the verb in its zero-marked form may be felicitously uttered. Thus the zero-marked telic verb can only be felicitously uttered at or after the STP, and not before. To make reference to a state change event before the STP, prospective or ingressive aspect must be added to the verbal expression (see §5.1 and §5.2). Telic verb bases include ani- ‘go out’, asiu- ‘disappear’, aullaq‘leave’, ijukka- ‘fall’, itiq- ‘enter’, katak- ‘fall (inanimate)’, siqumik‘crack’, sukkuq- ‘break’, tigu- ‘take/give’, and tuqut- ‘kill’. Telic verb The completion of events denoted by such verbs is typically expressed with terminative -jariiq- ‘finish’. 7

Zero-marked verbs

41

bases also include clothing word bases, which can take either nominal or verbal inflection. When clothing bases are followed by a verb ending, the meaning is ‘put on X (the article of clothing)’, e.g., kamik- ‘boot/put on boot’, nasaq- ‘hat/put on hat’. 4.4. Event realization, telicity and default aspectual interpretation The conditions on the felicity of use of zero-marked verbs in Inuktitut, such as those illustrated in (1), (2) and the examples in §4.2, are such that the event that is asserted must be realized (i.e., occur) with respect to the time for which the assertion is made. Thus it is infelicitous t o utter (1) (Anijuq ‘S/he went out’) if the person in question has not actually gone out at the time of utterance. Likewise, it is infelicitous to utter (2) (Pisuttuq ‘S/he is walking’) if the person is not walking at the time of utterance. Bohnemeyer and Swift (2004) show that across languages, there is a consistent affinity of atelic predicates for imperfective viewpoints, while telic predicates tend to favor perfective viewpoints, as depicted in Figure 3.6. EVENT DESCRIPTION Telic ~ Atelic ~ Figure 3.6.

VIEWPOINT Perfective Imperfective

Preferred correlation between telicity and viewpoint selection

This pattern manifests itself in languages like German, Russian and Inuktitut in the aspectual interpretation of forms not overtly marked for what Smith (1991) calls viewpoint aspect. Here, I focus on this correlation in Inuktitut and as it manifests itself in early child language crosslinguistically. Bohnemeyer and Swift explain these alignment patterns between telicity and viewpoint aspect with reference to the notion of event realization (a term adopted from Pedersen (2003) and Talmy (1991)). In the case of Inuktitut, the temporally unmarked verbs in (1) and (2) entail event realization with respect to the time for which the utterance is made (the Kleinian topic time, see below), and it is this feature that determines their aspectual interpretation: perfective for telic predicates and imperfective for atelic predicates. Thus the default perfective inter-

42

Time reference in Inuktitut

pretation of telic predicates is motivated in terms of the notion of event realization, which holds that change of state events are only ‘realized’ once they are completed. The formal framework presented in Bohnemeyer and Swift (2004) is sketched below. Bohnemeyer and Swift formalize the notion of event realization and capture the telicity-dependent patterns of aspectual reference on which it is based by combining Krifka’s (1989, 1992, 1998) event lattices with a model-theoretic interpretation of Klein’s (1994) theory of tense and aspect. Klein (1994) characterizes perfective and imperfective aspect as a relation between the temporal parameters of TOPIC TIME (tTOP), the time for which a proposition is evaluated (e.g., for which an assertion is made), and SITUATION TIME (Tsit), the time at which an event occurs. Tsit is a situated time interval that gives the run-time of the event, which Bohnemeyer and Swift capture with the temporal trace function t(e). Bohnemeyer and Swift recast Klein’s analysis in a Davidsonian (1967) framework. Perfective aspect (PRV) selects a topic time tTOP such that t(e) is part of tTOP, as defined in (24), and imperfective aspect (IMPF) selects a tTOP such that tTOP is a proper part of t(e), as defined in (25): (24)

PRV := lPltTOP$e[P(e) Ÿ t(e) ≤T tTOP]

(25)

IMPF := lPltTOP$e[P(e) Ÿ tTOP t(e)