A Syntactic Analysis of Motion Predicates in Southern Tati (Takestani Dialect)

Neda Taherkhani, Purdue University

Abstract

This dissertation provides a syntactic representation of Motion Predicates (MPs) expressed by series of verbs known as Serial Verb Constructions (SVCs) in Southern Tati – an Indo-European language spoken mainly in the Northwestern parts of Iran. This study addresses the sub-eventive decomposition of MPs by following the theoretical framework established by generativeconstructivists like Borer (2005) and Ramchand (2008), as implemented for MPs in Benedicto and Salomon (2014). This dissertation also contributes to the documentation of Southern Tati, which is categorized by UNESCO as ‘definitely’ endangered. CHAPTER 1 proposes the hypotheses of this study, according to which the verbal series expressing Tati MPs are mono-eventive and are made of an underlying complementation structure. As such, this study shows that the Tati verbal series expressing MPs are instances of SVCs. With regard to the sub-eventive deconstruction of motion, this chapter hypothesizes that the Telic, Resultative, and Agentive components merge into the Path component of motion. CHAPTER 2 discusses the mono-eventivity of the SVCs expressing MPs. Despite the multiplicity of inflectional morphology on the verbs in verbal series expressing MPs, this chapter rules out the possibility of pluri-clausal structures for Tati verbal series by showing that the series is nevertheless mono-eventive and that the multiple morphological markings are indeed a reflection of just one single inflectional value. CHAPTER 3 discusses the syntactic structure of the verbal series expressing MPs in Tati. Based on the premise that variables are c-commanded by operators, this chapter eliminates a structure based on coordination or adjunction for verbal series expressing MPs in Southern Tati and, thus, proves the existence of an underlying complementation structure for these verbal series. CHAPTER 4 presents the methodology. The study data was collected through three series of animations (175 videos altogether) designed to contrast different parameters of MPs including 3- D path, Telicity, Agentivity, and Resultative. The data were elicited from three native speakers of Tati through a self-administered application in seven movie blocks. The data is comprised of a total of 525 utterances in audio, which are coded and processed in ELAN. CHAPTER 5 analyzes telicity, along the lines of Borer (2005), in terms of the range assignment to the head of AspQP in MPs. This study is important in showing that telicity in Tati MPs is not dependent on the specifications of internal arguments. Instead, range assigner in telic MPs is an XPREACH substructure whose head can be phonologically spelled out as one of these two options: (a) as a (semi-)grammaticalized head be-ræs- ‘reach’ or (b) as a preposition-like element tɒ ‘to.’ This study also discusses the internal structure of the locational phrase (i.e., XPLOC) in terms of Svenonius (2008) and shows that only those projections of the locational phrases that denote a region in Svenonius’s terms (i.e., KP, AxP, and DegreeP) can be the complement of an XREACH. CHAPTER 6 discusses the Resultative component. Although it has been argued that a final result state can produce telicity in an event, this chapter discusses that the Resultative component appears as an add-on sub-structure to the Telic component. This study discusses the elements of the Resultative component, namely, its head, complement, and specifier positions. It is argued that the final resting state in Tati MPs is encoded in an eventive verb denoting becoming that state rather than a stative verb.

Degree

Ph.D.

Advisors

Benedicto, Purdue University.

Subject Area

Language|Linguistics|Logic

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