Typological Aspects of Loan Verbs

Typological Aspects of Loan Verbs
CAROLINE CORDERO-D’AUBUISSON (University of Cologne) &
JAN WOHLGEMUTH (MPI for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig)
In our poster, we want to address the question as to whether and why most languages
have more trouble borrowing verbs than nouns, and which – if any – typological
features of the languages involved have any significant impact on the simplicity or
difficulty as well as on the available mechanisms and paths of importing a verb from
one language into the other.
These issues were briefly addressed by MORAVCSIK (1975) on the basis of a small
sample of languages. Further examples of verbal borrowing were collected by GEORGE
HUTTAR and later by SØREN WICHMANN through the LinguistList. This poster will
present first tentative results from a large-scale cross-linguistic study of verbal
borrowings. As of April 2005, we have collected data in almost 100 donor-recipient
combinations, covering most areas of the world and all of the major language families.
We will present the data on borrowed verbs and loan verb accommodation strategies
we have collected and a classification of these, as given in WICHMANN / WOHLGEMUTH
(forthc.). While some languages simply insert a root-like form of the verb into their own
morphologies (as in 1-3), others use a (verbalizing) derivation (4-5) or a light verb like
‘to do’ (6-7), or, in rare cases, borrow parts of the inflectional paradigm along with the
verb (8).
(1) Ket < Russian
dasitaruɣavɛt
da-sitat-u-k-a-bet
3SG.F.S-read-3.N.O-ABL-DUR-ACT
‘she reads it’
< читать ‘to read’ (VAJDA; WERNER)
(2) Tasawaq < Touareg (Air)
gháy yílmàq
I swim.PFT
‘I swam’
< i-lmäq 3m.PFT of ëlmëq ‘to swim’ (WICHMANN 2004 a,b)
(3) Tasawaq < Touareg (Air)
ghá b-tásrìg
I IPF-sneeze
‘I am sneezing’
< tusrak ‘sneezing’ (WICHMANN 2004 a,b)
(4) Yakut < Russian
Армияҕа сулууспалыы диэн, уонна кэлбэтэҕэ.
Armiya-GA sulu:spa-LA:-A die-An, uonna kel-BAtAχ-(t)A.
army-DAT/LOC service-VR-CVB say-CVB and come-PSTPTCP.NEG-POSS.3SG
‘He (went off) to serve in the army and didn’t return.’

служба ‘service’ (BRIGITTE PAKENDORF, p.c.)
(5) Meyah < Indonesian
di-ebe-belajar
1SG-LW-learn
‘I'm learning’
< belajar ‘to learn’ (GRAVELLE 2002)
(6) Modern Greek* < English (USA) *of migrants in the USA
κάνει retire
kani retire
do.3SG retire
‘(s)he retires’
< retire (MORAVCSIK 2003)
(7) Carib < Guianese French Creole
pentiré poko man
paint busy_with 3SG.cop
‘he is painting’
< pentiré ‘to paint’ (RENAULT-LESCURE 2004)
(8) Romani < Turkish
and o sxoljo ka siklos te okursun ta te jazarsun
in ART school FUT learn.2 COMP read.2 and COMP write.2
‘in the school you will learn how to read and write’ (BAKKER 2005)
Cross-checking typological features of donor and recipient language using data from
The World Atlas of Language Structures (HASPELMATH et al., eds.), and augmenting
this information with data on the type of language contact situation involved, we
attempt to generalize over the processes of verbal borrowings and the grammatical and
sociolinguistic factors involved in the selection of accommodation patterns.
References:
BAKKER, PETER (2005): Intertwining and Michif. Paper presented at the “Romanicisation
worldwide” conference, Bremen 4-8 May 2005.
GRAVELLE, GILLES (2002): Morphosyntactic properties of Meyah word classes. In: REESINK,
GER P.: Languages of the eastern Bird's Head. Canberra: Australian Natl. Univ.,
2002. (= Pacific Linguistics; 524). 109-180.
HASPELMATH, MARTIN / DRYER, MATTHEW S. / GIL, DAVID / COMRIE, BERNARD [eds.]: The
World Atlas of Language Structures. Oxford et al.: Oxford University Press, 2005.
HUTTAR, GEORGE: http://www.linguistlist.org/issues/13/13-588.html
MORAVCSIK, EDITH (1975): Borrowed verbs. In: Wiener Linguistische Gazette 8 (1975), 3-30.
MORAVCSIK, EDITH (2003): Borrowed Verbs. Manuscript, 2003.

RENAULT-LESCURE, ODILE (2004): Contacts de lagues et réanalyse de certaines structures
prédicatives en kali'na (langue caribe). Paper presented at the International Joint
Conference of the SCL-SCPL-ACBLPE on Caribbean and Creole Languages;
Curaçao, 11-15 August 2004.
VAJDA, EDWARD J.: Ket Verb Morphology and its Yeniseic Origins. Paper presented at MPI
EVA; Leipzig, 2 February 2005.
WERNER, HEINRICH: Vergleichendes Wörterbuch der Jennisej-Sprachen. Wiesbaden:
Harrasowitz, 2002.
WICHMANN, SØREN (2004a): Structural patterns of verb borrowing. Paper presented at the
workshop on loan word typology; Leipzig, 1-2 May 2004.
WICHMANN, SØREN (2004b): Loan verbs in a typological perspective. Paper presented at the
seminar on contact linguistics, The Linguistic Circle of Copenhagen; København,
14 December 2004.
WICHMANN, SØREN: http://www.linguistlist.org/issues/15/15-1674.html
WICHMANN, SØREN / WOHLGEMUTH, JAN (forthc.): Loan verbs in a typological perspective. In:
STOLZ TH. / PALOMO, R. / BAKKER, D. (eds.): Proceedings of the “Romanisation
worldwide” conference, Bremen 4-8 May 2005.