4.3 Case markers
4.3.1 Ga
This section considers the markerga. I distinguishgacoding A and S, andgain the argument- and sentence-focus environment.
4.3.1.1 Gacoding focus A
Focused As require ga regardless of whether the element in question is con-trastive or not. As exemplified in (65), onlyga-coding is natural ando- and zero-codings are not natural with non-contrastive focus A.
(65) a oh
neko-{ga/*o/??Ø/}
cat-{ga/o/Ø}
nezumi mouse
oikake-teru chase-prog
‘Look! A cat is chasing a mouse.’ (Non-contrastive focus A) The unnaturalness of the zero-coding in (65) is not necessarily because A is not adjacent to the predicate. As shown in (66), where A is adjacent to the predicate, zero-coding is still not natural, whereasga-coding is.
(66) Q: Do you know where my mouse is?
A: neko-{ga/*o/??Ø}
cat-{ga/o/Ø}
oikake-te-ta-yo chase-prog-past-fp
‘The cat was chasing it.’ (Non-contrastive focus A) Contrastive focus (or argument focus) A is only naturally coded by ga; other markers are not natural. This is exemplified in (67), where onlyneko‘cat’ rather than the whole clause is the domain of focus.
(67) Q: What is chasing a mouse?
A: neko-{ga/*o/??Ø}
cat-{ga/o/Ø}
nezumi mouse
oikake-teru-yo chase-prog-fp
‘A cat is chasing a mouse.’ (Contrastive focus A) 4.3.1.2 Gacoding focus S
Agent S is obligatorily coded byga, while patient S can be coded by eithergaor Ø𝑓 when S is a non-contrastive focus, as already pointed out by Kageyama (1993:
56-57). As shown by the contrast between (68) and (69), agent S is naturally coded byga, but notoor Ø𝑓 as in (68), while patient S can be naturally coded by either gaor Ø𝑓, but notoas in (69).
(68) a. a
‘Look! A cat is walking!’
b. a
‘Look! A child is playing.’ (Non-contrastive focus S (agent)) (69) a. a
oh
saihu-{ga/*o/Ø}
purse-{ga/o/Ø}
oti-teru
‘Look! A purse is on the road! (Lit: A purse has fallen (and it’s there).)’
b. a
‘Look! A sign has fallen (and it is lying).’ (Non-contrastive focus S (patient))
Contrastive S is always coded bygaregardless of whether S is agent or patient.
(70) Q: What is walking over there?
A: neko-{ga/*o/??Ø}
‘A cat is walking.’ (Contrastive focus S (agent)) (71) Q: What has fallen?
A: saihu-{ga/*o/??Ø}
wallet-{ga/o/Ø}
oti-ta-yo fall-past-fp
‘The wallet has fallen.’ (Contrastive focus S (patient)) Note that it is more natural to code non-contrastive focus animate patient S by garather than Ø𝑓, as exemplified in (72).
‘Look! A child has fallen (and he is lying).’
b. a
‘Look! A child/cat is in that kind of (dangerous) place.’ (Non-contrastive focus S (patient & animate))
4.3.1.3 Gacoding animate elements?
Some might think that the choice betweengavs. Ø𝑓 is sensitive to animacy rather than agentivity. As has been discussed in Chapter 1, I rather take the view that a single marker can code complex features; the marker gacodes focus, agent, and animate elements and one cannot determine a single feature thatgacodes.
Comrie (1979) calls thisseepage. In Hindi, for example, the postpositionkocodes definite or animate (especially human) direct objects, while other kinds of direct objects tend to be zero-coded. There is no simple correlation ofkowith either ani-mate or definite direct objects. In (73), where do stands for ‘direct object marker’, kosometimes codes animate elements, as in (73-a), but it sometimes does not, as in (73-c), and it sometimes codes definite elements, as in (73-c) but sometimes not, as in (73-a,d). Therefore, it is difficult to decide on a single feature thatko codes. Rather, as Comrie (1979) argues,kocodes complex features comprised of animacy, definiteness, and direct object.
(73) a. aurat
‘The woman is calling the/a child.’ (animate DO) b. darzī
‘Call a tailor.’ (animate indefinite DO)
c. un
‘Please read those letters.’ (definite DO)
d. ye
‘Please read these letters’ (inanimate definite DO) (McGregor 1972: p. 48) In the same sense thatkocodes complex features, I argue thatgacodes the com-plex features of agent, animacy, and focus. First,ga, but not Ø𝑓, codes inanimate A. For example, in (74),makku‘Mac(intosh)’ in (74-a) andbaketu‘bucket’ in (74-b) are inanimate As and can only be coded byga; Ø𝑓 is unnatural in this context.
Therefore, in addition to animacy,gais also sensitive to agentivity.
(74) a. a
‘Wow, a Mac produced voice!’
b. a
‘Oh a bucket holds the door (and this is why the door won’t close).’
(Inanimate A)
4.3.1.4 Gacoding non-nominative focus
Gaalso codes non-nominative focus. For example,poteto-tippusu-to‘with potato chips’ in (75-a) andima-made‘before now’ in (75-b) are non-nominative, as shown in the translation; however, they are coded byga.
(75) a. koora-wa
‘Cola (especially) goes well with POTATO CHIPS.’9 b. tanni
‘It simply looks like BEFORE NOW was not cold (and now it’s cold).’
(Focus non-nominative)
Similarly,guratan-ni‘for gratin’ in (76-B) is not an argument of the predicate but is still coded byga.
(76) A: I thought that you didn’t like penne.
B: penne-wa
‘Penne is good for GRATIN.’ (Contrastive focus non-nominative) The following examples are from a comic book and from the Internet. One can find many examples ofgacoding non-nominative on the Internet. Note, however, that especially (77-b) is not acceptable to some people.
(77) a. koko-kara-ga
‘From here the true hell starts.’ (Vegeta inDragon Ball10) b. kotira-wa
‘This one goes well with sake.’ (A review fromTabelog11)
9This nice example was suggested by Yuji Togo.
10Toriyama, Akira (1990)Dragon Ball23, p. 149. Tokyo: Shueisha.
11http://tabelog.com/ehime/A3801/A380101/38006535/dtlrvwlst/2992604/, last accessed on 03/23/2015
c. ie-ni home-dat
kaeru-made-ga return-lim-ga
ensoku-desu excursion-cop.plt
‘Until (you) arrive at home is the excursion. (Just before you arrive at home, you are traveling.)’ (Common warning by school teachers)12
There are examples ofgacoding non-nominative focus in actual spoken data.
The following examples are fromthe Chiba three-party conversation corpus(Den
& Enomoto 2007), which includes more casual conversations than CSJ. In (78), sono hoo‘that way’ is marked bygaeven thoughokane‘money’ is the only argu-ment of the intransitive predicatekakaru‘to take (time) or to cost’. The speaker compares buying a computer with other options, and claims that buying a com-puter costs more. Buying a comcom-puter is interpreted as focus and is coded byga, while ‘money’ is S.
(78) sono that
hoo-ga way-ga
okane-Ø money-Ø
kakaru-zyan required.intr-fp
‘More money costs in THAT way (i.e., if you buy a computer).’ (chiba0232:
400.32-401.43)
In (79), after listening to an angry story from another participant, the speaker claims that it was the speaker together with the other participant, rather than just the other participant, who were angry in this story.hara‘belly’ is the only argument of the intransitive predicatetatu‘stand’.hara tatu‘belly stands’ is an idiomatic expression meaning ‘to be angry’. In this example, however,ore-tati
‘we’ is coded bygabecause it is focused.
(79) are-wa that-wa
musiro rather
ore-tati-ga 1sg-pl-ga
hara-Ø belly-Ø
tat-ta-yo-ne
stand.intr-past-fp-fp
‘In that event, WE got angry (rather than you).’ (chiba0432:
111.64-113.37)
These examples are the cases wheregapurely codes focus:gacodes neither agent nor animate elements.
To summarize,gasometimes codes animate patients S as in (72), sometimes it codes non-animate agent like in (74), sometimes it codes non-nominative inan-imate focus elements, as in (75) to (79), and, probably more frequently, it codes elements with the complex features of agentivity, animacy, and focus. Likekoin
12I found 32,700 websites using this expression with Google exact search (searched on 06/17/2015).
Hindi,gacodes multiple features and it is difficult and not necessary to determine a single feature that it codes.