THE
VERB «BE» IN SARCEE*
Eung-Do COOK
The University of Calgary
1. It has been assumed, implicitly or explicitly, by many linguists and
philosophers that every language has a verb (or two) which is equivalent to the
English verb be in its meaning and grammatical function. The
lexico-semantic as well as grammatical features of this verb have been
considered most interesting not only to the linguist but also to the scholars
of many related disciplines such as philosophy and logic. Verhaar (1967),
editing a series of studies entitled The verb "be" and its
synonyms states the objectives of the series as follows:
"These
studies will provide some of the necessary foundational material for research
in logic, the theory of knowledge and ontology; and possibly in other
philosophical disciplines".
In Sarcee,
as in other Athapaskan languages, there are two verb roots which are comparable
to English be, namely t'a (imperfective) 'to be' and líh
(imperfective) 'to become, to exist'[1]. In this paper, I shall deal
primarily with the former, since it is this verb which is comparable in its
grammatical function to the so-called 'copula' of many well-known languages.
2. The verb stem t'a belongs to what I
call 'the minor paradigm', as it inflects only for the imperfective and the
perfective, whereas verbs of 'the major paradigm' inflect for the continuative and/or the iterative as well as the
imperfective and the perfective (Cook 1972). The inflection of the verb stem t'a
is marked phonologically by tonal alternation: the mid tone for the
imperfective (t'a) and the low tone for the perfective (t'à)[2].
A verb root
of an Athapaskan language is preceded by a number of prefixes which include the
so-called 'classifiers', namely s (< Â), l[3], d, and Ø, pronominals
(subject or object), postpositions, aspects, modes, themes, and adverbials. The
function of the classifier is opaque in many cases, and it is perhaps
reasonable to consider it grammatically nonfunctional as it has become
'lexicalized' (see Section 3). The distinction between a thematic prefix and an
adverbial prefix is not always clear. However, it seems reasonable to consider
that a verb must contain at least the following prefixes, although some may be
phonologically zero, in that order:
(1) mode -
asp(ect) - sub(ject) - c(lassifier) – root[4].
The
simplest sentences with the root t'a include the following examples
(2) а. ánìst'a
← a -
ni - s - Ø
- t'a 'I am so'
The analyses of the above forms are straightforward except the second (2b) where the subject morpheme ni 'you' is deleted causing the tonal sandhi on the preceding syllable; namely the aspect morpheme ni which happens to be homophonous with the subject morpheme. The constraints which govern the deletion of the subject morpheme ni and other prefixes are quite complicated, and shall not be the concern of this paper[5].
The forms
presented in (2) may occur alone as an utterance in a proper context. Assuming
that each of the above Forms is a sentence, it is reasonable to consider that
an underlying constituent which is a complement has been deleted. In fact, such
an assumption is substantiated by such sentences as;
(3) а. síní
ánìst'а 'it's mе'
mе I аm
b. níní
ánít'а 'it's уоu'
you you are
c. tú át'a 'it's water'
water it is
The noun
phrase constituent of the above sentences, namely síní, níní, and
tú, are no doubt complements which might originate from an underlying
sentence in a more abstract analysis. Incidentally, the sentences in (3) are
not the so-called 'equational' type.
Consider
the following sentences:
(4) а. tsúùt'ínà ìstÂih 'I am a Sarcee'
b. tásgìsná ìstÂih 'I am a soldier'
c. xàkídjí ìstÂih 'I am a chief'
The verb ìstÂih 'I am' has the following
constituent structure:
i
- s - Ø - liN
peg subj
c root
The element i, which Sapir
called 'peg', is essentially epenthetic (Cook 1971c), the morpheme s 'I'
is the subject, Ø is a classifier, аnd the verb root is
underlyingly liN. The underlying sequence of s and l is
realized by the surface [tÂ], and the underlying nasal becomes
[n8] by a rule of inflection, and is
finally realized by [h] in the imperfective and by [n] in the perfective (see
Cook 1972).
Although
the sentences of (3) and those of (4) are structurally parallel on the surface,
it is quite obvious that only the sentences of (4) are comparable to the
equational type of English and many better known languages. Furthermore, it is very interesting to note that it is only in a
sentence of (3), whose verb root is -t'a, where a sentence followed. by the vocalic suffix -a
may substitute the complement noun phrase as exemplified by the following
sentences:
(5) a. dicáh 'I
will go'
(6) a. yícdjìn 'he
sang'
b. yícdjína át'a 'he really sang'
(7) a. tc'ádinìst'a 'I
am holy'
b. tc'àdinìst'a át'a 'I am holy indeed'
This
vocalic suffix which follows an embedded sentence in the (b) sentence is a
nominalizer (one might consider this a complementizer) whose underlying form i
is assimilated to the following vowel or gets deleted after a vowel. Therefore,
the underlying constituent structure of (5b) can be represented as follows:
[[[dicáh]
S2 [i]
N] NP [át'a] VP] S1
What makes the above analysis particularly interesting is that the complex construction illustrated by the (b) sentences of (5)-(7) is strikingly similar to those of English, Japanese, Korean, and Chinese, among others, where the verb of the matrix sentence is the copula in each case:
(8) English
а. John walks
b. [It is John [whо walks]S2]S1
(9)
Japanese
а. Watakusi wа
аrukimasu 'I walk'
b. [[Watakusi wа aruku]S2
nо
desu]S1 'It is the case
(true) that I walk'
(10) Korean
а. Nа nun
ketnunta 'I
walk'
b. [Nа nun ketnun]
S2 kes ita]S1 'it is the case that I walk'
а. Wŏ bù qù 'I am not going'
b. [Wŏ shì [bù qù] S2 ]S1 'it
is not me who is going'
3. The syntactic properties of the verb t'a seem to reflect some
sort of universal or near universal feature of the copula. Then, what about the
semantic or lexical properties of the verb? On the basis of what has been
presented so far, one could say that the root t'a is semantically
'empty' like the copula of many other languages including English. However,
consider the following examples:
b. k'ànìsáàt'a 'we all will be there'
c k'àanìsáàt'a 'we
were all there'
b.
kòdínít'a 'I'm
seriously ill'
c.
kòdinít'à 'you
are seriously ill'
b. tc'àdiyist'à 'I
was holy'
c. tc'àdist'a 'I will be
holy'
The
sentences given in (12)-(14) are structurally the same in that every form
contains a thematic or adverbial prefix, namely k'á in (12), kò in
(13), and tc'à in (14). All the other prefixes are
pronominals and aspects which are irrelevant to the 'lexical' meaning of the
sentence.
Two
questions might arise immediately in the minds of those who are not familiar
with the morphology of the Athapaskan languages. First of all, how does one
know that the root in (12) - (14) is the copula t'a? In other words, are
they not different verb roots which happen to be homophonous with the copula?
It is a
well-known fact that in the Athapaskan languages the meaning of a verb root is
modified by an adverbial prefix, an incorporated noun, or what is often called
a 'thematic' prefix, to such an extent that meanings so modified do not reflect
any transparent semantic relationships. For example, in Chipewyan the root θer
has the basic meaning 'to do, to act' which forms a theme 'to stay'
together with prefix ná, and the root -/a 'to handle a round solid object' forms a theme 'to own' together with
the same thematic prefix ná (Li 1944). In
Sarcee the verb root ti 'to handle a long object' forms a theme 'to
carry' with prefix na, a second theme 'to put into' with prefix tÂi. In view of this lexical process, it is not difficult to see that the
root t'a forms different themes with different prefixes as exemplified
by the exemples in (12)-(14). Having provided this explanation for the lexical
process and the morphological structure of the sentences in (12)-(14), one
might be satisfied that the job of a linguist has been finished. However, this
explanation would not satisfy a more inquisitive mind. An obvious question
would be what does this lexical process imply? That is, why are the particular
themes, namely 'to be there' (12), 'to be seriously ill' (13), 'to be holy'
(14), and possibly three others (which will be discussed shortly as they exhibit
somewhat different morphological structures) built upon the verb t'a?
Perhaps, this is more of a philosophical question rather than a linguistic one.
The
exemples presented in (15)-(17) have a different morphological structure than
those examined above in that each contains a pronominal prefix:
b. gùk'ats'àát'a 'she
is pregnant'
b. nàγáást'a 'I
pity you'
b. màníst'a 'you
are like me'
Stences (16)
and (17) are structurally identical in that each contains what might be called
a 'pоstpositional phrase' consisting of an object pronominal prefix
followed by a postposition (pp). The structural analyses of (15) and (16) are
given below as (15a) and (16a) respectively.
(15а) gu - k'а -
ts'а - а
- ni - s -
Ø - t'а 'I аm pregnant'
obj рр ? adv asp subj
с root
(16a) si - γa - a
- ni - Ø - t'a 'Have
pity on me!'
obj pp adv
subj c root
In (15a),
the indefinite pronominal gu plus the postposition k'a constitutes
à pоstpositional phrase, while in (16a) the first person pronominal (obj)
si (the vowel of which assimilating to a of γa) plus the postposition γa constitutes a pоstpositional phrase. The meanings of the
postpositions are difficult to define; k'a may be translated as 'on top of' and γa as 'towards'. Furthermore, the element ts'a in
(15a) is yet to be identified. It is not clear whether one can postulate a
semantic rule that will account for the respective meaning which is, as it
were, built upon the meaning of the verb root t'a or the forms with
different meanings are fossilized idioms. In any case, an extremely interesting
question is: How are these concepts related, if the two root forms (15) and
(16) as well as those in (12)-(14) are not the case of true homonyms?
A second
question that might be asked with respect to the forms presented in (12)-(14)
is : if the root t'a is a
copula, is the thematic prefix or other elements) in the prefix complex not
adjectival which bears the basic lexical meaning of each sentence? The answer
is 'no'. In Sarcee, like in other Athapaskan languages, there is no 'true'
adjective distinct from verbs. In other words, there are verb roots which are
semantically comparable to English adjectives, but their morphosyntactic
behavior is not different from that of the other verbs. The following exemples
illustrate the point:
(18) a. táyinísìl 'you are hot'
b. díík'àz 'it is red'
c. sísdjà 'I am old'
The roots sìl
(a), k'àz (b), and djà (c) mean 'to be hot', 'to be red', and 'to
be old' respectively. Clearly, the root t'a has nothing to do with the
'adjectival' expression in sentences (12)-(14).
The forms
in (17) are structurally simpler than those in (16) in that each has a
pronominal prefix preceding ánìst'a which is the simplest form of the
sentence as presented in (2) except that the classifier preceding the root is s
rather than Ø. For example, sentence (17a) has the following underlying
structure:
si - a - ni
- ni - s - t'a
obj adv asp
subj c root
The subject
ni 'you' is deleted raising the tone on the preceding syllabe, namely
the aspect morpheme ni. As mentioned at the beginning, it is very
difficult to pin down the function of the classifiers in Sarcee as well as in
other Athapaskan languages, but it is generally recognized that the classifier s
(<*Â) adds the force of transitivity to
the verb. If this is the case, the meaning of the stem t'a plus the
classifier s in (17a) can be translated literally as 'to resemble'. In
other words, the meaning 'to resemble' is derivable from the meaning of t'a
'to be' and that of the classifier s.
4. In what precedes I have provided an account of purely 'linguistic'
analysis, in its narrow sense, of the forme whose verb root is t'a. The
semantic differences among the forms analyzed in this paper are explained in
terms of different prefixes associated with the root, namely thematic and
adverbial prefixes, classifiers, and postpositional phrases. These accounts of
formal structures, however, do not provide for any explanation of how the
different concepts are derivable from, or related to, the meaning 'to be'. In
Section 2, I examined grammatical characteristics of the verb t'a in
complex sentence structures. Perhaps, one could conclude that the Sarcee copula
t'a compares well with copulas of other languages in its grammatical
properties, while the lexico-semantic properties reflect something unique in
the Sarcee language and culture. This conclusion in itself is not unexpected,
but the details of the grammatical and lexico-semantic features which have been
analyzed in this paper will provide bases for further study. The remaining
question which I cannot answer (and perhaps many ordinary grammarians are not
even interested in answering) is why are only a half a dozen concepts, such as
'to be holy', 'to be seriously ill', 'to resemble', etc. expressed by a verb
phrase whose root is the copula in Sarcee?
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