One Response to “Datapoint for feature 121 and language wals_code_apl”

1. Sérgio Meira Says:
   March 3rd, 2010 at 3:04 pm

   In many Cariban languages (and I think also in Apalaí), there is an alternative construction for comparatives that I find hard to classify in the four types provided in this typology: the standard NP is accompanied by what looks like a ‘comparative postposition’ (possibly originally, but no longer synchronically, a locative). I don’t have Apalaí examples handy, but I have some from the Tiriyó language (and I think I could find Apalaí and even Hixkaryana correspondents if need be):

   (1) Yakari nai kaarime, tï-papa iwae
   Yakari COP.3 strong 3Refl-father more.than
   ‘Yakari is stronger than his father’

   The postposition /iwae/ means something like ‘is more than’, ‘defeats’, etc. — so this looks like the Excess type; but it is not a verb that expresses the ‘excess’ aspect of it, and the definition in the text accompanying the map mentions a verb. Now, it is quite posssible that /iwae/ was at some point a locative, but now it only has this more metaphorical ’superioritive’ meaning (it implies that the standard NP ‘is no match’ for the comparee). It can be used directly in a copular predicate

   (2) j-iwae man-a-e, jako, j-iwae man-a-e
   1-more.than 2-COP-CTY friend 1-more.than 2-COP-CTY
   ‘You are more than me, friend, you are more than me.’ (= I am no match for you)
   (Sentence said by a jaguar who could not run faster than a tortoise, because the tortoise turned out to be capable of unexpectedly high speed if need be.)

   What type of construction would this be, and how should it be classified? Assuming that a similar construction is possible in Apalaí (and I think also in Hixkaryana), that would mean that there are two possible comparative constructions; and in this case, how do you decide how to color the data point?

Leave a Reply

Name (required)

Mail (will not be published) (required)

Website