Clause types and directive speech acts in Nasa Abbreviations

Yuwe: a close look at the hortative construction

Esteban Díaz Montenegro ABL ABLATIVE PFV PERFECTIVE
Laboratoire Dynamique Du Langage - Université Lyon 2, France; ADT ADDITIVE PL PLURAL
GELPS – Universidad del Cauca, Colombia (tebasdimo@hotmail.com).
CAUS CAUSATIVE PRG PROGRESSIVE

COL COLLECTIVE PROS PROSPECTIVE

COM COMITATIVE PAS PAST

ABSTRACT: In this talk I will present the mood and clause system of Nasa Yuwe with
COP COPULA REC RECENT
special focus on the expression of directive speech acts. Nasa Yuwe has five
morphological marked moods that are mutually exclusive, these moods are one of the DAT DATIVE RECIP RECIPROCAL
main mechanisms for clause type marking. Although in the language three dedicated DEF DEFINITE REL REALIS
(direct) imperatives (imperative, prohibitive, jussive) are available, there are several
DEM DEMONSTRATIVE RES RESULTATIVE
non-dedicated (indirect) constructions that convey directive meanings. I will give a
closer look at the hortative as a special case of a highly conventionalized directive DIM DIMINUTIVE RFX REFLEXIVE

construction based on the irrealis mood. Finally I will discuss the status of the DYN DYNAMIC REM REMOTE
hortative construction as a fully differentiated clause type. DS DIFFERENT SUBJECT RST RESTRICTIVE

DUR DURATIVE SG SINGULAR

OVERVIEW
ENF EMPHATIC TOP TOPIC
Abbreviations ..........................................................................................................2
EST STATIVE
1. Nasa Yuwe, sociolinguistics and corpus.........................................................3
EXCL EXCLAMATION
1.1. Nasa yuwe ................................................................................................3
1.2. Sociolinguistics .........................................................................................3 F.CL CLAUSE FINAL PARTICLE
1.3. Corpus ......................................................................................................3 FOC FOCUS
2. Mood and clause type system ........................................................................5 GEN GENITIVE
3. Directive speech acts: imperatives and the irrealis mood ................................9
IMP IMPERATIVE
4. Discussion: is hortative already a differentiated clause type? ....................... 12
INF INFINITIVE
References ............................................................................................................. 14
Appendix 1. Additional examples .......................................................................... 15 INST INSTRUMENTAL

IPFV IMPERFECTIVE

IRR IRREALIS

LOC LOCATIVE

MS AME SUBJECT

NEG NEGATION

NMZ NOMINALIZER
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1. Nasa Yuwe, sociolinguistics and corpus

1.1. Nasa yuwe

• Nasa Yuwe (isolate) ISO: pbb, also known as Paez

• Spoken in the Southwest Andes of Colombia (Cauca Department)
• Formerly Chibchan Macro-phylum, (Barbacoan or Paezan).
• SOV, postpositional
• Accusative
• Large consonant and vowel inventory (phonemic nasalization and
glottalization).
MAP 1. CAUCA IN COLOMBIA

1.2. Sociolinguistics MAP 2. CAUCA DEPARTMENT

• ~250.000 Nasa people (ethnic affiliation)

• ~100.000 speakers (bilingual Nasa Yuwe/Spanish)
• Different dialects (not clearly defined)
• % of speakers vary a lot (scattered settlement):
o Munchique – Los Tigres (>70%)
o La Paila – Naya (<2%, all adults aged >40)
• Diglossia (family/personal vs. public/external).
• Grammar, dictionary, school materials.
• Unified writing system (based on Latin script)
• Radio, music.
• No TV, newspaper or graphic art.

1.3. Corpus

• 33,259 total words (27,252 free speech words).

• Munchique-Los Tigres variety.
• All adult (35-65 years old) fluent speakers (male and female).
• MA thesis, ELDP project – PhD dissertation, school teaching materials.

MAP 3. NORTH OF CAUCA DEPARTMENT

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(2) m=te ew susu=na IRREALIS

where=LOC1 good sound/IPFV=3SG.IRR1 (Speculative, future)
‘Wherever it may sound good’
2. Mood and clause type system “en donde suene bien” [nasa013_167]

• A set of obligatory portmanteau subject agreement clitics are used in every main (3) nasa=txi ksxa’w pta’sxi=na IRREALIS
clause, specifying person, number and mood.
people=DAT.PL dream advise/IPFV=3SG.IRR1 (Speculative, fut)
• Realis and irrealis moods specifies mainly the epistemic position of the speaker “(as they say) the dream (spirit) advises the people”
towards the state of affairs conveyed by the clause.
“(Así como dicen que) el sueño es que nos avisan a la gente” [nasa048_025]
• These clitics can be used either with an IPFV (extended) or PFV (non-extended)
verb stem.
(4) klxum=ka jxũ-n u’j IRREALIS
troll=3SG.IRR2 carry-DUR go/PFV (Speculative, past)
TABLE 1. MOOD AND PERSON CLITICS1
“The troll took (him), (he said)”
PERSON REALIS IRREALIS
“(Lo) llevó el duende, (le dijo)” [nasa014_106]
1SG =thu/th =nja =tka
2SG =gu/g =ga (5) m=te=ka yũ IRREALIS
3SG =a’ (EST) =k(u) (DYN) =na =ka
where=LOC1=3SG.IRR2 be (Question, past)
1PL =tha’w =nja’w =tka’w ‘Where was it?’
2PL =i’kwe =kwe “¿Dónde era?” [nasa061_017]
3PL =ta’ (EST) =txi (DYN) =txna =txka

(6) [txãa-kwe]S=pa u’ju=ka IRREALIS

(1) çxhaçxha susu=k(u) REALIS [DEM-DIM]=ADT go/IPFV=3SG.IRR2 (Speculative, past)
hard sound/IPFV=3SG.REAL.DYN (Statement, present) “[the young one]S also went”
‘(It) sounds hard’ “El joven también andaba” [nasa052_036]
“Suena duro [nasa007_050]

• Imperative moods are expressed via a set of affixes whose use is mutually
exclusive with subject agreement clitics. These affixes can only be used on a
PFV (non-extended) verb stem.

1
The clitics belonging to this moods have been described in previous Nasa Yuwe description as making
part of different paradigms, Rojas (2007) has claimed the existence of three modalities (assertif,
suspensif and interrogatif), whereas Jung (2008) describes a system that includes the mood categories
of declarativo, factivo, asumptivo, cuotativo and interrogativo.

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TABLE 2. IMPERATIVE MOODS

• The mood system is one of the most important strategies in Nasa Yuwe (along

IMPERATIVE PROHIBITIVE JUSSIVE2 with word order, clitic choices and intonation) for distinguishing the language
main clause types (Sadock & Zwicky, 1985, p. 154).
me-V(-we) V-nu(-we) V-kah(-we)
IMP-V(-PL) V-PROH(-PL) V-JUSS(-PL) • For the case of Nasa Yuwe, I identified at least four main clause types:
ASSERTIVE, ATTENUATED ASSERTION, INTERROGATIVE and IMPERATIVE:

(7) txã rus m-wey-we IMPERATIVE TABLE 4. MOOD, CLAUSE TYPE AND SENTENTIAL FORCE
DEM rice(sp) IMP-buy-PL
MOOD CLAUSE TYPE SENTENTIAL FORCE
“Buy rice”
Realis Assertive Asserting
“Compren arroz” [nasa012_543]
Attenuated assertion Attenuated assertion3
Irrealis
Interrogative Asking4
(8) mjĩ-nu-we jĩ=ku=tx PROHIBITIVE
work-PROH-PL say=PAS.REM=3PL.REAL.DYN Imperative

“Don’t work (alone), they say (but)” Prohibitive Imperative Requiring

“Dicen que no trabajen (solos, pero)” [nasa023_135] Jussive

(9) luçx=a’s ẽsẽ-me u’p-kah(-we) JUSSIVE

kid=DAT.SG move-NEG COP2-JUS(-PL)

“Let the kid be still” [nasa112_024] (elic)

TABLE 3. REALIS, IRREALIS AND IMPERATIVE STRUCTURAL FEATURES

FEATURES REALIS/IRREALIS IMPERATIVES

PFV/IPFV stem Either Only PFV

Subject agreement Yes No
Overt subject (NP) Yes No

3
This sentence force covers a wide range of epistemic and deontic uses like speculative, dubitative,
polite requests, suggestions, past habitual or reported speech.
4
At the syntactic level, we can say that an attenuated assertion differs from an interrogative in several
aspects. First, content interrogatives can have question words and polar as well as content
interrogatives have a rising intonational contour which can optionally lead to a glottalization of the
last vowel of the person-mood clitic when it is attached to the final verb. Secondly, the presence of
2
I use jussive in the sense of Dobrushina (2012), as a “third person imperative” dedicated construction, the yũ auxiliary in questions, and finally in 1SG/PL and 3PL only one of the irrealis clitics
including a 2nd person addressee and a 3rd person intended performer, different from other proposals (=tka ‘1SG.IRR2’, =tka’w ‘1PL.IRR2’, =txna ‘1SG.IRR1’) is available for questions as well as for
(c.f. Lyons (1977); van der Auwera et al. (2013)). attenuated assertions.

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3. Directive speech acts: imperatives and the txã’w=a’ kwẽta vxitu=ka
like.that=TOP drum
irrealis mood make/IPFV=3SG.IRR2
“Let’s make a drum”
“Entonces hagamos un tambor” [nasa007_043]
• The direct (dedicated) strategy of Nasa Yuwe for the expression of directive
speech acts is the imperative clause type.
(12) piisxa kha’tx apha=ka
• Imperative clauses specify at least three parameters: positive/negative
sheep skin cover/IPFV=3SG.IRR2
(IMPERATIVE vs. PROHIBITIVE), addressee and intended performer
“Let’s cover (the drum) with sheep skin”
(IMPERATIVE/PROHIBITIVE vs. JUSSIVE).
“Tapemos (el tambor) con el cuero de ovejo” [nasa007_051]

TABLE 5. IMPERATIVE MOOD PARAMETERS

MOOD ADDRESSEE INTENDED PERFORMER • This hortative construction shouldn’t be included as part of the imperative
clause type since it is not “morphologically and syntactically homogeneous
Imperative
2 2 with the second-person imperative” (Jary & Kissine, 2016, p. 132).
Prohibitive
• Comparing hortative construction with examples that are structurally similar
Jussive 2 3 but that don’t convey a directive force shows that some structural differences
1? can also be identified.
• For instance, in speculative or past habitual constructions, subject agreement
clitics can be attached to a clause element other than the verb stem, and the
• To express the involvement of the speaker in a directive speech act, Nasa
expression of the subject as an overt NP is possible, as in the following
Yuwe speakers use two main indirect (non-dedicated) strategies both
examples:
involving irrealis mood:
(13) ay=te=ka [txã misx]S dehe
here=LOC1=3SG.IRR2 [DEM cat] sleep/IPFV
Vi/IPFV=nja’w Vi/IPFV=ka
“Here is where the cat (apparently) sleeps (he said)” (Speculative)
Vi/IPFV=1PL.IRR1 Vi/IPFV=3SG.IRR2
“Aquí es que duerme el gato (decía)” [nasa048_274]
HORTATIVE

(10) kwe’sx-jĩ=’s thegu=ka (14) e’z libra ki’ rus=ka ãçxa aha
1PL-POSS=DAT.SG look/IPFV=3SG.IRR2 two pound also rice=3SG.IRR2 now cook/IPFV
“Let’s look at what is ours” “He would cook two pounds of rice” (Past habitual)
“Miremos lo nuestro” [nasa014 _017] “Cocinaba dos libras de arroz” [nasa048_303]

• These structural features are not allowed in hortative constructions, and

especially the presence of an overt NP referring to a 3rd person singular would
make a directive reading impossible.

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• On the other hand there are a couple of examples where a similar structure is 4. Discussion: is hortative already a
used to make an impersonal clause where the 3rd person singular subject
agreement clitic expresses an event where the speaker is involved.
differentiated clause type?

• The family of constructions, using 3SG.IRR2 marking, have some structural

Context: An old lady talks about how was life when she was a young mother, the differences that seem to point to semantic and pragmatic specialized uses, being
sentence makes reference to what she actually did. the hortative the only one conveying a directive force.
• Mauri & Sansò (2011) suggest in a diachronic perspective, that the difference
(15) kĩh=pa vxu-me-ra txã ya’ja um=ka between direct (dedicated) and indirect (non-dedicated) directive strategies can
what=ADT money-NEG-MS DEM sack knit/PFV=3SG.IRR2 be seen as a difference referring to successive stages along a continuum, where
dedicated/direct constructions on purely synchronic grounds, “might well be the
“When there wasn’t any money, there was sack knitting”
result of a diachronic process in which the source was a non-dedicated/indirect
“Cuando no había plata, lo que hacía era que andaba tejiendo mochilas”
construction” (Mauri & Sansò, 2011, p. 3492).
[nasa061_137]
• The constructionalization5 of the hortative implies: the bleaching of the 3rd person
meaning in the irrealis subject agreement clitic, the restriction in the occurrence
Context: A former Munchique governor talks about the time he received some farms of an overt NP in subject function, the restriction in the subject agreement clitic
in the name of the community. distribution and the suspension of the PFV/IPFV alternation in the verb stem.
• In addition to that, I recently found a couple of examples in my corpus that point
(16) txã finka=tx=pa pa’ka=ka to another use of the 3SG.IRR2 (=ka) subject agreement clitic, involving the use of
the imperative (m-) prefix as well as the use:
DEM farm(sp)=DAT.PL=ADT receive/PFV=3SG.IRR2
“Those farms were received”
“Esas fincas las fui recibiendo” [nasa012_033] (17) b-e’j=ka jĩ=ku=k
IMP-go=3SG.IRR2 say=PAS.REM=3SG.REAL.DYN
TABLE 6. IRREALIS, HORTATIVE AND IMPERATIVES FEATURES “(When) he said let’s go”

FEATURES IRREALIS (=ka) HORTATIVE IMPERATIVES “(Cuando) dijo venga!” [nasa048_188]

PFV/IPFV stem Either Only IPFV Only PFV

Subject agreement Yes No No
=ka not on the stem Yes No ---
Overt subject (NP) Yes No No

5
Understood as the “emergence of a new construction alongside the old” Barddal & Gildea (2015, p.
16).

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(18) adx=na=pa m-e’j=ka jĩ=ku=k=e

References
1SG.M=ALL=ADT IMP-go=3SG.IRR2 say=PAS.REM=3SG.REAL.DYN=ENF
“He told me to go too”
Barðdal, J., & Gildea, S. (2015). Diachronic construction grammar: Epistemological
“a mí también me dijo que fuera” [nasa048_305] context, basic assumpltions and historical implications. In J. Barðdal, E. Smirnova,
L. Sommerer, & S. Gildea (Eds.), Diachronic construction grammar.
Amsterdan/Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company.
• As a hypothesis, we can think of the previous examples as sign of a conflation of Dobrushina, N. (2012). What is the Jussive for? A study of third person commands in six
two systems that are mutually exclusive elsewhere in the language: Caucasian languages. Linguistics, 1(50).
Jary, M., & Kissine, M. (2016). When terminology matters: The imperative as a
comparative concept. Linguistics, 1(54).
TABLE 7. MOOD, CLAUSE TYPE AND SENTENTIAL FORCE (HYPOTHESIS)
Jung, I. (2008). Gramática del páez o nasa yuwe. Descripción de una lengua indígena de
MOOD CLAUSE TYPE SENTENTIAL FORCE Colombia. Muenchen: LINCOM EUROPA.

Realis Assertive Asserting König, E., & Siemund, P. (2007). Speech act distinctions in grammar. In Language
Typology and Syntactic Description (Vol. I: Clause Structure). New York:
Interrogative Asking Cambridge University Press.
Irrealis Attenuated assertion Attenuated assertion Lyons, J. (1977). Semantics (Vol. 2). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Hortative Mauri, C., & Sansò, A. (2011). How directive constructions emerge: Grammaticalization,
constructionalization, cooptation. Journal of Pragmatics, 43, 3489–3521.
Imperative
Requiring Portner, P. (2004). The semantics of imperatives within a theory of clause. In Proceedings
Prohibitive Imperative of Semantics and Linguistic Theory 14 (pp. 235–252). Ithaca, NY: CLC
Publications, Cornell University.
Jussive
Portner, P. (2009). Modality. New York: Oxford.
Rojas, T. (2007). Assertion, engagement et connaissance en páez (Cauca, Colombie). In Z.
Guentchéva, & J. Landaburu (Eds.), L'énontiation médiatisé II. Le traitement
épistemologique de l'information : illustrations amérindiennes et caucasiennes (pp.
49-64). Louvain - Paris - Dudley, MA: Éditions Peeters.
Sadock, J., & Zwicky, A. M. (1985). Speech act distinctions in syntax. In T. Shopen (Ed.),
Language Typology and Syntactic Description (Vol. 1, pp. 155-196). New York:
Cambridge University Press.
Searle, J. (1976). A Classification of Illocutionary Acts. Language in Society, 5(1), 1-23.
van der Auwera, J., Dobrushina, N., & Goussev, V. (2013). Imperative-Hortative Systems.
In M. S. Dryer (Ed.), The World Atlas of Language Structures Online. Leipzig: Max
Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. Retrieved 12 12, 2017, from
http://wals.info/chapter/72

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Appendix 1. Additional examples ũu txa=’ yaatx-nu
yes DEM=TOP think-PROH
“yes, don’t be ashamed (lit. don’t think of it)”
Imperative “Sí, no tengan pena” [nasa013_129]

(19) adx=a’s media m-ulu’ (24) kũçx u’p-nu

1SG.M=DAT.SG media(es) IMP-sell.on.credit black COP2-PROH
“Sell me a ‘media’ (half liquor bottle) on credit” “Don’t be sad (lit. don’t be black)”
“Me puede fiar una media” [nasa012_728] “No esté triste” (elic) [nasa073_013]

(20) ufx-na m-e’p=a’k Jussive

blow-DUR IMP-COP2=ENF

“Keep blowing! (the flute)”

(25) txãwe’sx=txi=pa wẽsẽ’j-kah
“Esté soplando (la flauta)” [nasa007_005] 3PL=DAT.PL=ADT escuchar-JUS
“Let them hear”
(21) txãa=yakh m-e’j-we “Que ellos también escuchen” [nasa112_099] (elic)
DEM=COM IMP-go-PL

“Go with him!” (26) ne’jwe’sx=a’s tud yuu-kah

“Anden con él” [nasa052_035] (elic) governor=DAT.SG fast come-JUS
“Tell the governor to come quick”
Prohivitive “Dígale al gobernador que venga rápido” [nasa112_028] (elic)

(22) txã’w yũ-n u’j-nu Future/hortative

like-that do-DUR go-PROH

(27) ki’ puutx-uyu=nja’w

jĩ-n=pa we’w=ku=tx again RECP-see/IPFV=1PL.IRR1
say-DUR=ADT speak/PFV=PAS.REM=3PL.REAL.DYN “Let’s see each other again”
“They say not to do that” “Nos veremos de nuevo”
“Le dijeron que no hiciera eso” [nasa061_37]

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(28) pẽjx-ya’ piya=ne=ga (32) pehka ãçxh ura eçxi=ka

ask-INF learn/IPFV=INF=2SG.IRR anyway now hour(es) cheer/IPFV=3SG.IRR2
“Now, let’s cheer up”

jxuka-sa-y piya=nja’w “Ahora si comencemos a alegrar” [nasa007_067]

all-NMZ-ENF2 learn/IPFV=1PL.IRR1
“You should learn to ask, let’s all learn” (33) ãçxh=a ew=yũ’ pu’çxi=ka
“Aprendamos a preguntar y todos debemos aprender” [nasa014_351] now=TOP good=FOC help/IPFV=3SG.IRR2
“Now let’s pay attention” (Lit. let’s help good)

(29) txãa çaam=txi=pa vxis-ya’ kaa-piya=nja’w “Entonces ahora pongamos cuidado” [nasa014_078]

DEM metal=DAT.PL=ADT use-INF CAUS-learn/IPFV=1PL.IRR1

“Let’s teach how to use the technology”

“Enseñemos a manejar o utilizar la tecnología” [nasa007_122]

(34) b-yuh u’jwe=ka

(30) pwesa’ja=ka IMP-come go/IPFV=3SG.IRR2
play/IPFV=3SG.IRR2 “Come, let’s go”
“Let’s play” “Venga, vámonos” [nasa014_095]
“Juguemos” [nasa073_075]

(35) txã klaa k-nxisxi’ji=ka

DEM cow CAUS-get.fat/IPFV=3SG.IRR2

“Let’s make that cow fat”

Hortative “Engordemos esa vaca” [nasa110_044]

(31) b-yuh utxa=ka jĩ=ne=’ çe’ (36) pwesa-y u’jwe=ka napa idx=a m-aph

IMP-come get.closer/IPFV=3SG.IRR2 say=INF=3SG.ASS.EST F.CL play-INF go/IPFV=3SG.IRR2 but 2SG.M=TOP IMP-cover

“Come, let’s get closer, he said” “Let’s go play, but you, be the goalkeeper (lit. cover!)”

“Venga hagámosle, le decía” [nasa007_040] “Juguemos, pero usted tape” [nasa112_001]

Irrealis mood uses

Speculative

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(37) lxesu=’s=pa spẽ’th=ka (42) i’kwe mama kĩh=ka yaase yũ

rag=DAT.SG=ADT cut/PFV=3SG.IRR2 2SG.F mother what=3SG.IRR2 call be
“He (surprisingly) cut the rag too” “How was your mother called?”
“El trapo también lo cortó” [nasa036_050] “¿Cómo se llamaba su mamá?” [nasa061_192]

(38) txãa-kwe=pa u’ju=ka (43) kim=ka yũ i’kwesx nmi’=yũ’

DEM-DIM=ADT go/IPFV=3SG.IRR2 who=3SG.IRR2 be 2PL husband=FOC
“the young one also went” “Who was your husband?”
“El joven también andaba” [nasa052_036] “¿Quién era su esposo?” [nasa061_094]

(39) aça’ txãa dxi=ka=ka suthe

so DEM inside=LOC3=3SG.IRR2 hide/IPFV

jĩ=ku=k ça nasa=txi’s nasa luuçx=txi

say=PAS.REM=3SG.REAL.DYN F.CL people=DAT.PL people kid=DAT.PL
“So they say he hides the kids inside”
“entonces dicen que lo esconde por allí a los niños” [nasa014_102]

(40) txã ãçxa kx=te=ka txã tudx-ya’ u’j

DEM now there=LOC1=3SG.IRR2 DEM drink-INF go/PFV
“(If I hear that) he has gone to drink there”
“Si sé que a ido a tomar por ahí” [nasa012_227]

Impersonal

(41) meen pẽy=ka

please pedir/PFV=3SG.IRR2
“I apologize” (lit. Someone asks)
“Pido excusas” [nasa_mjq_063]

Questions

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