John Benjamins Publishing Company
The Maa (Eastern Nilotic) Impersonal construction
Abstract
The Maa (Maasai) Impersonal construction occurs with intransitive, (di)transitive, active and stative verb stems. It implies either no agent or at most unspecified non- referential “people” as a possible agent. Likely because of the possible implication of “people”, it has not been found with meteorological verbs. The Maa Impersonal may focus on an event or situation, and is sometimes functionally used where passive constructions are found in other languages. It can further combine with ata ‘have’ to render an existential function. Though structurally this existential is entirely the same as the Impersonal, the existential cannot so easily be said to always have an impersonal sense. Historically the key morphological element of the Impersonal derives from a plural affix, but it is not certain this was necessarily pronominal. Keywords: Maasai; Nilotic; impersonal; passive; historical development
Abstract
The Maa (Maasai) Impersonal construction occurs with intransitive, (di)transitive, active and stative verb stems. It implies either no agent or at most unspecified non- referential “people” as a possible agent. Likely because of the possible implication of “people”, it has not been found with meteorological verbs. The Maa Impersonal may focus on an event or situation, and is sometimes functionally used where passive constructions are found in other languages. It can further combine with ata ‘have’ to render an existential function. Though structurally this existential is entirely the same as the Impersonal, the existential cannot so easily be said to always have an impersonal sense. Historically the key morphological element of the Impersonal derives from a plural affix, but it is not certain this was necessarily pronominal. Keywords: Maasai; Nilotic; impersonal; passive; historical development
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- List of contributors vii
- Introduction 1
-
Part I. Impersonal constructions
- Towards a typology of impersonal constructions 19
- Overlap and complementarity in reference impersonals 57
- Verbs of motion 91
- On the distribution of subject properties in formulaic presentationals of Germanic and Romance 127
-
Part II. Impersonal constructions
- Impersonal constructions and accusative subjects in Late Latin 169
- From passive to impersonal 189
- Passive to anticausative through impersonalization 229
-
Part III. Cross-linguistic variation in Impersonal constructions
- The Maa (Eastern Nilotic) Impersonal construction 257
- Impersonal constructions in Jóola-Banjal 285
- Impersonal configurations and theticity 307
- Revisiting impersonal constructions in Modern Hebrew 323
- The elephant in the room 357
- Meteorological verbs in Uralic languages – are there any impersonal structures to be found 395
- Impersonal constructions in Ket 439
- Impersonal verbs in Central Alaskan Yupik (Eskimoan) 459
- Impersonals in Innu 489
- A diachronic study of the impersonal passive in Ainu 517
- Referential impersonal constructions in Mandarin 547
- Impersonal constructions in some Oceanic languages 581
- Impersonal constructions in Umpithamu and the Lamalamic languages 607
- Author index 627
- Language index 633
- Language index 637
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- List of contributors vii
- Introduction 1
-
Part I. Impersonal constructions
- Towards a typology of impersonal constructions 19
- Overlap and complementarity in reference impersonals 57
- Verbs of motion 91
- On the distribution of subject properties in formulaic presentationals of Germanic and Romance 127
-
Part II. Impersonal constructions
- Impersonal constructions and accusative subjects in Late Latin 169
- From passive to impersonal 189
- Passive to anticausative through impersonalization 229
-
Part III. Cross-linguistic variation in Impersonal constructions
- The Maa (Eastern Nilotic) Impersonal construction 257
- Impersonal constructions in Jóola-Banjal 285
- Impersonal configurations and theticity 307
- Revisiting impersonal constructions in Modern Hebrew 323
- The elephant in the room 357
- Meteorological verbs in Uralic languages – are there any impersonal structures to be found 395
- Impersonal constructions in Ket 439
- Impersonal verbs in Central Alaskan Yupik (Eskimoan) 459
- Impersonals in Innu 489
- A diachronic study of the impersonal passive in Ainu 517
- Referential impersonal constructions in Mandarin 547
- Impersonal constructions in some Oceanic languages 581
- Impersonal constructions in Umpithamu and the Lamalamic languages 607
- Author index 627
- Language index 633
- Language index 637
