A Grammar of Miya - UCLA Department of Linguistics

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A Grammar of Miya
with a special list intonation). This terse style for creating a scene seems to correlate with
the dynamic nature of oral narration in general.
Daga t1uw-so do wiyaw, do wiya tJilljam df" gwhlfg. Daga wfya
when arise-Iep Sjn jump down Sjn jump down id in chieftaincy when jump
dh gwhlfo dg buw-so dodo do zaa do kabo tuws aatuw-sa, sgb;} ka
in chieftaincy Sjn go-ICP Prt Sin put Prt gown his body-his people PRM
wanbn aakan-was;}, t"makw,y, cUw.
thus house-his sheep goals
'As he arose, he jumped down (from a tree), he jumped down tan jam into a chieftancy.
When he had jumped into the chieftaincy, he went and put a gown on his bOdy,
followers were like this were at his house, sheep, goats.'
Dagee g-aa camaza, do buwa-za aa yawun do jfy daagma kam b:i
when AUX-Ipf night Sjn come-rep PS elephant Sjn Prt fix house of
mbanna, ndyaam kaman-was;} rnayyuw, nfy gadoa, nfy mcmnfy, nfy jeerfy,
beauty an like-its there-is-not &Co bed &Co stool &Co chair
do shaafee ndyaam aa ziynaarlya; kababiiw tuwso akwaatiy dgr6itim, t:laza
Sjn wipe all with gold gowns his chest ten hers
gam wanka, niy shrnkdafa, niy zuw, yawun dg baa-zeal aatsakom-ay.
indeed thus &Co rice &Co sorghum elephant Sjn go-rep bush-Tot
'When it was night, the elephant came and fixed up a beautiful house without equal,
beds, stools, chairs, and she plated them all with gold; and his (the bridegroom's)
gowns (there were) ten chests, and hers (the bride's) likewise, (there were foods like)
rice (and) sorghum, and the elephant went off to the bush.'
Chapter 7
VERBAL EXTENSIONS
AND VERB DERIVATION
1. Verbal Extensions: Does Miya Have Any?
Many Chadic languages have derivational processes andlor particles associated with
verbs which are generally referred to as "verbal extensions". Verbal extensions add
dimensions of meaning to a verb such as direction, location, extent, etc. of action. Miya is
unusual, at least among its closest linguistic relatives, in having no forms that can be called
true verbal "extensions". Particularly notable is the absence of a ventive stem or
Distanzstamm, such as Hausa Grade VI marked by an -00 termination, e.g. sayoo 'buy
(and bring)' vs. underived sayaa 'buy'. The ventive is otherwise widespread in West
Chadic and indicates that the action began at a distance with effect on or toward a place of
reference, usually the place of speaking. The only related verb pairs showing this
distinction in Miya are bo'-' 'go' and hi 'corne' and their transitive counterparts bay 'take
(away)' and buway' 'bring' (see §4.1.1).
Another widespread extension is the totality extension, exemplified by the -ee
tennination of Hausa Grade IV, e.g. sayee 'buy (all of)'. Miya does have a form which
shares some properties with the totality extensions of other languages, though the Miya
Totality is not a derived form of the verb per se. This is discussed in §2.
Ubiquitous in Chadic languages are pluractional verbs, e.g. Hausa sassayaa
'(repeatedly) buy'. Pluractional verbs indicate repeated action, including a particular action
done many times, an action done by many subjects, or an action done individually to many
objects. Though not usually included among extensions, pluractionals have extension-like
semantic properties, whence their inclusion in this chapter. Miya does have productive
pluractional formation processes, discussed in §3.
Included among extensions in a number of languages is a transitizer and/or causativizer,
such as Hausa "Grade V" fitar 'take out' from intransitive fita 'go out' and sayar 'sell'
from sayaa 'buy'. Miya has a suffix -dy which derives transitive verbs from a class of
intransitives, discussed in §4.1.1. Miya cannot form so-called causative verbs from
transitives. All such semantic pairs either use unrelated roots, e.g. kima 'buy' vs. matsa
'sell', or the same root adds an additional argument as an indirect object, e.g. gyagiya
'learn; teach (= "learn to s.o.")'.
Finally, Miya has a productive process of using cognate complements with both
transitive and intransitive verbs, discussed in §5. Use of cognate complements is not
common in West Chadic languages, at least among those that I am familiar with. As in the
case of pluractionals, cognate complements are not, strictly speaking, derivational
extensions, but they have extension-like semantic properties.
1,
,C;} ..
,"iff'
t __________________ ............ __ ..............................
...
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