# Expression of Goal and Source in Burmese: Is there an asymmetry?

Alice Vittrant, Karl Seifen, Pierre-Antoine Champin

► To cite this version:

Alice Vittrant, Karl Seifen, Pierre-Antoine Champin. Expression of Goal and Source in Burmese: Is there an asymmetry?. ICSTLL 2023 - 56th International Conference on Sino-Tibetan Languages and Linguistics, Oct 2023, Bangkok, Thailand. hal-04606879

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Submitted on 18 Jun 2024

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# Expression of Goal and Source in Burmese: Is there an asymmetry?

Alice Vittrant, Karl Seifen, Pierre-Antoine Champin

<figure><img src="image_2.png" /></figure>

## To cite this version:

Alice Vittrant, Karl Seifen, Pierre-Antoine Champin. Expression of Goal and Source in Burmese: Is there an asymmetry?. ICSTLL 2023 - 56th International Conference on Sino-Tibetan Languages and Linguistics, Oct 2023, Bangkok, Thailand. hal-04606879

HAL Id: hal-04606879

https://hal.science/hal-04606879v1

Submitted on 18 Jun 2024

HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access
archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci-
entific research documents, whether they are pub-
lished or not. The documents may come from
teaching and research institutions in France or
abroad, or from public or private research centers.

L'archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est
destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents
scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non,
émanant des établissements d'enseignement et de
recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires
publics ou privés.

<figure><img src="image_3.png" /></figure>

Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
# Expression of Goal and Source in Burmese:
Is there an asymmetry?

Alice Vittrant¹, Karl Seifen¹, Pierre-Antoine Champin²

¹ Université Lumière-Lyon 2, DDL

² LIRIS
# Expression of Goal and Source in Burmese:
Is there an asymmetry?

Alice Vittrant¹, Karl Seifen¹, Pierre-Antoine Champin²

¹ Université Lumière-Lyon 2, DDL

² LIRIS
<figure><img src="image_2.png" /></figure>

SpOTy

Spatial Ontology and Typology

## Outline

1. Methodology and data

a. SpOTy Project

b. Burmese data

2. Burmese morphosyntactic devices used to express Goal and Source grounds

3. The Asymmetry hypothesis in Goal and Source expressions

4. Asymmetry in Burmese
<figure><img src="image_4.png" /></figure>

SpOTy

Spatial Ontology and Typology

## Outline

1. Methodology and data

a. SpOTy Project

b. Burmese data

2. Burmese morphosyntactic devices used to express Goal and Source grounds

3. The Asymmetry hypothesis in Goal and Source expressions

4. Asymmetry in Burmese
# 1. Methodology and data
*SpOTy Project*

- Projet SpOTy (*Spatial Ontology and Typology*, Labex ASLAN, Université de Lyon, 2020-2024)

- Aim of the project:

- Typology of Motion expression

- Ontology of spatial relations (cross-connected network)

- Web application: incremental database and SPARQL/Sparnatural query tool

- Database:

- 67 languages (20 phyla)

- Genetically, geographically, and typologically diverse

- However: sample is not balanced

<figure><img src="image_3.png" /></figure>

SpOTy

Spatial Ontology and Typology
# 1. Methodology and data
*SpOTy Project*

- Projet SpOTy (*Spatial Ontology and Typology*, Labex ASLAN, Université de Lyon, 2020-2024)

- Aim of the project:

- Typology of Motion expression

- Ontology of spatial relations (cross-connected network)

- Web application: incremental database and SPARQL/Sparnatural query tool

- Database:

- 67 languages (20 phyla)

- Genetically, geographically, and typologically diverse

- However: sample is not balanced

<figure><img src="image_5.png" /></figure>
# 1. Methodology and data

## *Data collected*

* For this presentation specifically:

* Central Burma variety of Burmese

* Collected in Yangon (Burma) between 2008 and 2010

* Video stimulus *Trajectoire*, designed to elicit descriptions of motion events (Ishibashi et al. 2006, Vuillermet & Kopecka 2019), but also *Frog Story* (Mayer 1969) and narratives

<figure><img src="image_4.png" /><figcaption>Trajectoire: Woman runs away_from tree coming</figcaption></figure>

<figure><img src="image_5.png" /><figcaption>Trajectoire: Woman exits cave ascends stairs going_away</figcaption></figure>

<figure><img src="image_6.png" /><figcaption>Frog Story</figcaption></figure>
# 1. Methodology and data

## *Data collected*

* For this presentation specifically:

* Central Burma variety of Burmese

* Collected in Yangon (Burma) between 2008 and 2010

* Video stimulus *Trajectoire*, designed to elicit descriptions of motion events (Ishibashi et al. 2006, Vuillermet & Kopecka 2019), but also *Frog Story* (Mayer 1969) and narratives

<figure><img src="image_6.png" /><figcaption>Trajectoire: Woman runs away_from tree coming</figcaption></figure>

<figure><img src="image_7.png" /><figcaption>Trajectoire: Woman exits cave ascends stairs going_away</figcaption></figure>

<figure><img src="image_8.png" /><figcaption>Frog Story</figcaption></figure>
<figure><img src="image_7.png" /></figure>

SpOTy

Spatial Ontology and Typology

# Outline

1. Methodology and data

2. Burmese morphosyntactic devices used to express Goal and Source grounds

a. About the Burmese language

b. Spontaneous motion event in Burmese

3. The Asymmetry hypothesis in Goal and Source expressions

4. Asymmetry in Burmese
<figure><img src="image_9.png" /></figure>

SpOTy

Spatial Ontology and Typology

# Outline

1. Methodology and data

2. Burmese morphosyntactic devices used to express Goal and Source grounds

a. About the Burmese language

b. Spontaneous motion event in Burmese

3. The Asymmetry hypothesis in Goal and Source expressions

4. Asymmetry in Burmese
## 2. Burmese Morphosyntactic devices used to express Goal and Source grounds

### About the Burmese language

- National language of Myanmar (Burma). Native language of 2/3 of the population (± 35 M)

- Phonological features (cf. MSEA languages): complex vowel system, tone system, restricted set of final consonants

- Tendency to monosyllabicity, non-inflectional language (analytic), widespread compounding

- Optionality (pragmatically-driven) of many grammatical categories (grammatical tense, personal marking...)

- (SO)V language, postpositions

(1) ဥင်ပေးလိုက်မယ်။
pyiN² pe³ lai? =mɛ²
V<sub>H</sub>: fix V<sub>AUX</sub>:BENEF ASP:terminative=IRR
'(I) will fix (it) for (you)... '
## 2. Burmese Morphosyntactic devices used to express Goal and Source grounds

### About the Burmese language

- National language of Myanmar (Burma). Native language of 2/3 of the population (± 35 M)

- Phonological features (cf. MSEA languages): complex vowel system, tone system, restricted set of final consonants

- Tendency to monosyllabicity, non-inflectional language (analytic), widespread compounding

- Optionality (pragmatically-driven) of many grammatical categories (grammatical tense, personal marking...)

- (SO)V language, postpositions

(1) ဥင်ပေးလိုက်မယ်။
pyiN² pe³ lai? =mɛ²
V<sub>H</sub>: fix V<sub>AUX</sub>:BENEF ASP:terminative=IRR
‘(I) will fix (it) for (you)....’
## 2. Burmese Morphosyntactic devices used to express Goal and Source grounds
*About the Burmese language*

* Grammatical features

* ...

* (SO)V language, postpositions

* Serial verb constructions (SVC)

(2) ဗါးပြတွေ့သေနှတ်ပစ်ပြေးတယ်။
də.mya¹ -twe² θəna? =nɛ¹ **pi?** **pye³** =tɛ²
bandit -PL gun =with **shoot, throw** run =REAL

‘The bandits shot with their guns and ran.’

* ‘Directional’ SVC ⇔ includes at least one path verb

(3) ကောင်မလေး ဂုတ်ကနေ ထွက်သွား တယ်။ [AA/08, 59_025]
kaaN²ma²le³ gu² tʰɛ³ =ka¹.ne² tʰʷɛ? θwa³ =tɛ²
young.woman cave interior =ABL go.out go/CFG =REAL

‘A young lady goes out from the cave [away from the deictic center].’

### Serial Verb Construction (SVC)
* No connector

* Same grammatical informations

* Shared argument(s)

* Describe a single event
## 2. Burmese Morphosyntactic devices used to express Goal and Source grounds
*About the Burmese language*

* Grammatical features

* ...

* (SO)V language, postpositions

* Serial verb constructions (SVC)

(2) ဗါးပြတွေ့သေနှတ်ပစ်ပြေးတယ်။
də.mya¹ -twe² θəna? =nɛ¹ **pi?** **pye³** =tɛ²
bandit -PL gun =with **shoot, throw** run =REAL

‘The bandits shot with their guns and ran.’

* ‘Directional’ SVC ⇔ includes at least one path verb

(3) ကောင်မလေး ဂုတ်ကနေ ထွက်သွား တယ်။ [AA/08, 59_025]
kaaN²ma²le³ gu² tʰɛ³ =ka¹.ne² tʰʷɛ? θwa³ =tɛ²
young.woman cave interior =ABL go.out go/CFG =REAL

‘A young lady goes out from the cave [away from the deictic center].’

### Serial Verb Construction (SVC)
* No connector

* Same grammatical informations

* Shared argument(s)

* Describe a single event
## 2. Burmese Morphosyntactic devices used to express Goal and Source grounds

### Spontaneous motion event in Burmese

* Spontaneous Motion: "Spontaneous motion refers to an event that semantically encode a figure (F) moving (path) from a ground (Source) to another ground (Goal) in a certain manner (manner/ caused)” (Talmy 1972:1, also 2000)

* Burmese Ground expression in spontaneous motion events:

* Bare noun (*no post-positiion, no relator noun*)

* Noun and postposition

* Noun and relator noun

* Noun and both relator noun and postposition
## 2. Burmese Morphosyntactic devices used to express Goal and Source grounds

### Spontaneous motion event in Burmese

* Spontaneous Motion: "Spontaneous motion refers to an event that semantically encode a figure (F) moving (path) from a ground (Source) to another ground (Goal) in a certain manner (manner/ caused)” (Talmy 1972:1, also 2000)

* Burmese Ground expression in spontaneous motion events:

* Bare noun (*no post-positiion, no relator noun*)

* Noun and postposition

* Noun and relator noun

* Noun and both relator noun and postposition
## 2. Burmese Morphosyntactic devices used to express Goal and Source grounds

### Spontaneous motion event in Burmese

### Burmese postpositions:

<table><caption>Table 1a:
Burmese postpositions
found in motion
events</caption><thead><tr><th></th><th colspan="3">Postpositions</th><th>Other non-spatial functions</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><th rowspan="2">Source</th><th>က</th><td>ka¹</td><td>ablative</td><td>nominative, topic</td></tr><tr><th>ကနေ</th><td>ka¹ne²</td><td>ablative</td><td>-</td></tr><tr><th rowspan="2">Goal</th><th>ကို</th><td>ko²</td><td>allative</td><td>accusative, dative, focus</td></tr><tr><th>မှာ</th><td>ma²</td><td>locative, allative</td><td>possessor, experiencer</td></tr><tr><th>Medial portion</th><td>အတိုင်း</td><td>၇၀TaiN³</td><td>'along'</td><td>'according to', 'as'</td></tr></tbody></table>

(4) ပင်လယ်ကမ်းခြေက ဂုတ်ကို ဝင်သွားတယ်။ [TRAJAA_02] ပါN²၊ ၎²-ကN³-င်း=ကာ¹ ၇၀² တိ၎³=ကော² ၁၀N² ၀၁၎³=တ၎² လွှေ-ဝေးကျော်=ဗျာ ကျော် ဝေးကျော်=ဗျာ ဝေးကျော် ပေါ် ၇၀=၁၉၂။ '(She) went into the cave from the sea shore [away from the deictic center].'
## 2. Burmese Morphosyntactic devices used to express Goal and Source grounds

*Spontaneous motion event in Burmese*

* Burmese Relator Noun (RN) :

* Configurational information about the Ground, topological features

* 9 RNs found in our data

<table><caption>Table 1b: Burmese Relator Nouns found in motion events</caption><thead><tr><th colspan="3">Relator nouns</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>ထဲ</td><td>tʰɛ³</td><td>interior</td></tr><tr><td>ပေါ်</td><td>pɔ²</td><td>top</td></tr><tr><td>အောက်</td><td>ʔaʔ</td><td>bottom</td></tr><tr><td>ခြေ(ရင်း)</td><td>cʰe²(yiN³)</td><td>foot, origin</td></tr><tr><td>ဆီ</td><td>sʰi²</td><td>place, in presence of</td></tr><tr><td>ဘက်</td><td>bɛʔ</td><td>direction</td></tr><tr><td>ရူုံ</td><td>ʃe¹</td><td>front</td></tr><tr><td>စပ်</td><td>saʔ</td><td>edge</td></tr><tr><td>ဘေး</td><td>be³</td><td>side</td></tr></tbody></table>
## 2. Burmese Morphosyntactic devices used to express Goal and Source grounds

*Spontaneous motion event in Burmese*

* Burmese Relator Noun (RN) :

➤ Configurational information about the Ground, topological features

➤ 9 RNs found in our data

<table><caption>Table 1b: Burmese Relator Nouns found in motion events</caption><thead><tr><th colspan="3">Relator nouns</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>ထဲ</td><td>tʰɛ³</td><td>interior</td></tr><tr><td>ပေါ်</td><td>pɔ²</td><td>top</td></tr><tr><td>အောက်</td><td>ʔaʔ</td><td>bottom</td></tr><tr><td>ခြေ(ရင်း)</td><td>cʰe²(yiN³)</td><td>foot, origin</td></tr><tr><td>ဆီ</td><td>sʰi²</td><td>place, in presence of</td></tr><tr><td>ဘက်</td><td>bɛʔ</td><td>direction</td></tr><tr><td>ရူုံ</td><td>ʃe¹</td><td>front</td></tr><tr><td>စပ်</td><td>saʔ</td><td>edge</td></tr><tr><td>ဘေး</td><td>be³</td><td>side</td></tr></tbody></table>
<figure><img src="image_8.png" /></figure>

SpOTy
Spatial Ontology and Typology

## Outline

1. Methodology and data

2. Burmese morphosyntactic devices used to express Goal and Source grounds

3. The Asymmetry hypothesis in Goal and Source expressions

a. Cognitive hypothesis

b. Linguistic realization of the asymmetry

4. (A)symmetry in Burmese
<figure><img src="image_10.png" /></figure>

SpOTy

Spatial Ontology and Typology

# Outline

1. Methodology and data

2. Burmese morphosyntactic devices used to express Goal and Source grounds

3. The Asymmetry hypothesis in Goal and Source expressions

a. Cognitive hypothesis

b. Linguistic realization of the asymmetry

4. (A)symmetry in Burmese
<figure><img src="image_9.png" /></figure>

## 3. The Asymmetry hypothesis between the expressions of Source and Goal and its linguistic realization

### Cognitive Hypothesis

- Differences and similarities in verbalization between the starting point (Source) and the endpoint (Goal) when describing a path followed by a Figure

- The Goal is cognitively more prominent (more salient)

- The Goal is favored over the expression of the Source in the descriptions of motion events

(Ikegami 1987, Bourdin 1997, Kopecka & Ishibashi 2011, Kopecka & Vuillermet 2021)
<figure><img src="image_11.png" /></figure>

## 3. The Asymmetry hypothesis between the expressions of Source and Goal and its linguistic realization

### Cognitive Hypothesis

- Differences and similarities in verbalization between the starting point (Source) and the endpoint (Goal) when describing a path followed by a Figure

- The Goal is cognitively more prominent (more salient)

- The Goal is favored over the expression of the Source in the descriptions of motion events

(Ikegami 1987, Bourdin 1997, Kopecka & Ishibashi 2011, Kopecka & Vuillermet 2021)
<figure><img src="image_10.png" /></figure>

## 3. The Asymmetry hypothesis between the expressions of Source and Goal and its linguistic realization

### Linguistic realization of the asymmetry

#### (A) Semantic Asymmetry

* Conflation : tendency to encode Goal (allative) and Location (essive/locative) in the same morpheme. Conflation of Location and Source is rare.

(Creissels 2008)

Catalan :
LOC-ALL conflation
(Creissels 2006: 20)

(5) a. Els hem trobat / enviat **a** la botiga
O3PL AUX.S1PL find / send **LOC/ALL** DEF.F.SG shop
‘We found / sent them at / to the shop’

b. Vénen **de** la botiga
come.S3PL **ABL** DEF.F.SG shop
‘They are coming from the shop’
<figure><img src="image_12.png" /></figure>

# 3. The Asymmetry hypothesis between the expressions of Source and Goal and its linguistic realization

## Linguistic realization of the asymmetry

### (A) Semantic Asymmetry

* Conflation : tendency to encode Goal (allative) and Location (essive/locative) in the same morpheme. Conflation of Location and Source is rare.

(Creissels 2008)

Catalan :
LOC-ALL conflation
(Creissels 2006: 20)

(5) a. Els hem trobat / enviat **a** la botiga
O3PL AUX.S1PL find / send **LOC/ALL** DEF.F.SG shop
‘We found / sent them at / to the shop’

b. Vénen **de** la botiga
come.S3PL **ABL** DEF.F.SG shop
‘They are coming from the shop’
<figure><img src="image_11.png" /></figure>

## 3. The Asymmetry hypothesis between the expressions of Source and Goal and its linguistic realization

### Linguistic realization of the asymmetry

#### (A) Semantic Asymmetry

- Greater semantic granularity: more morphemes for Goal-encoding than Source-encoding. (Bourdin 1997:190)

<table><caption>Table 2: Motion-encoding prepositions in Central Thai</caption><thead><tr><td># of forms</td><td>Forms</td><td>Orientation</td></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>6</td><td>ยัง jang / สู่ sù: / ถึง tʰings / หา hă: ทาง thORN / จนถึง con.tʰings</td><td>Allative, different meaning (to, up to, towards) and uses (places, objects, people)</td></tr><tr><td>2</td><td>จาก cà:k / แต่ tè:</td><td>Source</td></tr></tbody></table>
<figure><img src="image_13.png" /></figure>

# 3. The Asymmetry hypothesis between the expressions of Source and Goal and its linguistic realization

## Linguistic realization of the asymmetry

### (A) Semantic Asymmetry

- Greater semantic granularity: more morphemes for Goal-encoding than Source-encoding. (Bourdin 1997:190)

<table><caption>Table 2: Motion-encoding prepositions in Central Thai</caption><thead><tr><td># of forms</td><td>Forms</td><td>Orientation</td></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>6</td><td>ยัง jang / สู่ sù: / ถึง th'彭 / หา hă: ทาง th'a:ŋ / จนถึง con.th'彭</td><td>Allative, different meaning (to, up to, towards) and uses (places, objects, people)</td></tr><tr><td>2</td><td>จาก cà:k / แต่ tè:</td><td>Source</td></tr></tbody></table>
<figure><img src="image_12.png" /></figure>

## 3. The Asymmetry hypothesis between the expressions of Source and Goal and its linguistic realization

### Linguistic realization of the asymmetry

#### (B) Morphosyntactic asymmetry

* Goals markers are morphologically less complex

(Kopecka & Vuillermet 2021:10)

French: *complexity of*
*Source markers*
(Creissels 2006: 22)

(6) a. Je vais **chez** mon oncle
S1SG go **AT.HOME.OF** my uncle
'I am going to my uncle's.'

b. Je viens **de** **chez** mon oncle
S1SG come **ABL** **AT.HOME.OF** my uncle
'I am coming from my uncle's.'
<figure><img src="image_14.png" /></figure>

## 3. The Asymmetry hypothesis between the expressions of Source and Goal and its linguistic realization

### Linguistic realization of the asymmetry

#### (B) Morphosyntactic asymmetry

* Goals markers are morphologically less complex

(Kopecka & Vuillermet 2021:10)

French: *complexity of*
*Source markers*
(Creissels 2006: 22)

(6) a. Je vais **chez** mon oncle
S1SG go **AT.HOME.OF** my uncle
'I am going to my uncle's.'

b. Je viens **de** **chez** mon oncle
S1SG come **ABL** **AT.HOME.OF** my uncle
'I am coming from my uncle's.'
<figure><img src="image_13.png" /></figure>

## 3. The Asymmetry hypothesis between the expressions of Source and Goal and its linguistic realization

### Linguistic realization of the asymmetry

#### (B) Morphosyntactic asymmetry

* Encoding of Goal is more straightforward: Goal markers may be optional

(Bourdin 1997: 187, Ikegami 1987)

Stieng (Austro-Asiatic, Cambodia): **(7)**
optionality of the Goal preposition
(Bon 2014:551)

a. sədian lap **di** ga:h
person enter **to** forest
‘The person enters (to) the forest.’

b. sədian lap Ø ga:h
person enter Ø forest
‘The person enters the forest.’
<figure><img src="image_15.png" /></figure>

## 3. The Asymmetry hypothesis between the expressions of Source and Goal and its linguistic realization

### Linguistic realization of the asymmetry

#### (B) Morphosyntactic asymmetry

* Encoding of Goal is more straightforward: Goal markers may be optional

(Bourdin 1997: 187, Ikegami 1987)

Stieng (Austro-Asiatic, Cambodia): (7) a.
optionality of the Goal preposition
(Bon 2014:551)

sədian lap di ga:h
person enter to forest
‘The person enters (to) the forest.’

b. sədian lap Ø ga:h
person enter Ø forest
‘The person enters the forest.’
<figure><img src="image_14.png" /></figure>

## 3. The Asymmetry hypothesis between the expressions of Source and Goal and its linguistic realization

### Linguistic realization of the asymmetry

#### (C) Syntactic Asymmetry

- Syntactic constraints on Goal / Source arguments. (Kopecka & Vuillermet 2021)

(8) a. I climbed from my room up the ladder onto the room.

b. I climbed onto the room.

c. I climbed up the ladder

d. *I climbed from my room.

<figure><img src="image_15.png" /></figure>

All these examples point in the same direction: from differences in the way languages express Source and Goal to a tendency to favor the Goal or the endpoint when expressing a motion event.
<figure><img src="image_16.png" /></figure>

## 3. The Asymmetry hypothesis between the expressions of Source and Goal and its linguistic realization

### Linguistic realization of the asymmetry

#### (C) Syntactic Asymmetry

- Syntactic constraints on Goal / Source arguments. (Kopecka & Vuillermet 2021)

(8) a. I climbed from my room up the ladder onto the room.

b. I climbed onto the room.

c. I climbed up the ladder

d. *I climbed from my room.

<figure><img src="image_17.png" /></figure>

All these examples point in the same direction: from differences in the way languages express Source and Goal to a tendency to favor the Goal or the endpoint when expressing a motion event.
<figure><img src="image_16.png" /></figure>

SpOTy

Spatial Ontology and Typology

## Outline

1. Methodology and data

2. Burmese morphosyntactic devices used to express Goal and Source grounds

3. The Asymmetry hypothesis in Goal and Source expressions

4. Asymmetry in Burmese

a. Semantic asymmetry

b. Morphosyntactic asymmetry

c. Syntactic asymmetry
<figure><img src="image_18.png" /></figure>

SpOTy

Spatial Ontology and Typology

## Outline

1. Methodology and data

2. Burmese morphosyntactic devices used to express Goal and Source grounds

3. The Asymmetry hypothesis in Goal and Source expressions

4. Asymmetry in Burmese

a. Semantic asymmetry

b. Morphosyntactic asymmetry

c. Syntactic asymmetry
## 4. Asymmetry in Burmese

### (A) Semantic asymmetry: Case conflation

* Locative postposition များ m>a² can be used with :

* **Static Locative Ground**

(9) ကလေးတွေ ကမ်းခြေများ ကစားနေ့တယ်။

kəle³-twe² kaN³cʰe²=m>a² gəza³ ne²=tɛ²

child-PL shore=LOC play IPFV=REAL

‘The children are playing at the beach.’

<figure><img src="image_17.png" /></figure>

Follows
the asymmetric
tendency

* **Goal Ground**

(10) အဲတောစပ်များ ရောက်တဲ့ အခါကျတော့ ... [FROG_13]

?ɛ³ tɔ³ sa?=m>a² ya?=?tɛ¹ ?əkha2 ca1=Tɔ1 ...

DEM forest edge=LOC arrive=REAL moment fall=WHEN

When he arrived at the edge of the forest,...
## 4. Asymmetry in Burmese

### (A) Semantic asymmetry: Case conflation

* Locative postposition များ ma² can be used with :

* **Static Locative Ground**

(9) ကလေးတွေ ကမ်းခြေများ ကစားနေ့တယ်။

kəle³-twe² kaN³cʰe²=ma² gəza³ ne²=tɛ²

child-PL shore=LOC play IPFV=REAL

‘The children are playing at the beach.’

<figure><img src="image_19.png" /></figure>

Follows
the asymmetric
tendency

* **Goal Ground**

(10) အဲတောစပ်များ ရောက်တဲ့ အခါကျတော့ ... [FROG_13]

?ɛ³ tɔ³ sa?=ma² ya?=?tɛ¹ ?əkha2 ca1=Tɔ1 ...

DEM forest edge=LOC arrive=REAL moment fall=WHEN

When he arrived at the edge of the forest,...
## 4. Asymmetry in Burmese

### (A) Semantic asymmetry: Put on / Take off

* In the clothing lexicon, verbs show more semantic granularity with ‘put on’ (Goal-oriented) than ‘take off’ (Source-oriented)

<table><caption>Table 3: Verbs for ‘put on’ and ‘take off’</caption><thead><tr><th>Put on (Goal oriented)</th><th>Take off (Source oriented)</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>စီး si³ 'put on, wear (shoes, etc.)'</td><td>ခွာတ် cʰu? 'take off, remove' (shoes, clothes, hat, etc.)</td></tr><tr><td>စွပ် su? 'put on (socks, gloves, mask, etc.)'</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>ရုန်း yaN³ '(of monk) wear or put on robe'</td><td>ဖြတ် pʰyou? 'take off, uncouple, unhitch'</td></tr><tr><td>ရုံ youN¹ 'wear or put on (a cloak or robe)'</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>ဝတ် wu? 'wear, put on'</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>ဆောင်း sʰaɔN² 'wear a hat'</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>ပန် paN² 'wear in the hair'</td><td></td></tr></tbody></table>

<figure><img src="image_18.png" /></figure>

Follows
the asymmetric
tendency
## 4. Asymmetry in Burmese

### (A) Semantic asymmetry: Put on / Take off

* In the clothing lexicon, verbs show more semantic granularity with ‘put on’ (Goal-oriented) than ‘take off’ (Source-oriented)

<table><caption>Table 3: Verbs for ‘put on’ and ‘take off’</caption><thead><tr><th>Put on (Goal oriented)</th><th>Take off (Source oriented)</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>စီး si³ 'put on, wear (shoes, etc.)'</td><td>ခွာတ် cʰu? 'take off, remove' (shoes, clothes, hat, etc.)</td></tr><tr><td>စွပ် su? 'put on (socks, gloves, mask, etc.)'</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>ရုန်း yaN³ '(of monk) wear or put on robe'</td><td>ဖြတ် pʰyou? 'take off, uncouple, unhitch'</td></tr><tr><td>ရုံ youN¹ 'wear or put on (a cloak or robe)'</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>ဝတ် wu? 'wear, put on'</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>ဆောင်း sʰaɔN² 'wear a hat'</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>ပန် paN² 'wear in the hair'</td><td></td></tr></tbody></table>

<figure><img src="image_20.png" /></figure>

Follows
the asymmetric
tendency
# 4. Asymmetry in Burmese
(B) *Morphosyntactic asymmetry: Inventory size*

- More postpositions dedicated to Source than Goal:

• 1 Goal postposition

• 2 Source postpositions

<table><caption>Table 4: Postpositions used for Goal and Source Grounds</caption><thead><tr><td>Postposition</td><td>Meaning</td><td># of Goal</td><td># of Source</td></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>တန္ဒ ka¹ne²</td><td>Ablative</td><td>-</td><td>53</td></tr><tr><td>တ ka¹</td><td>Ablative</td><td>-</td><td>74</td></tr><tr><td>မှာ မာ²</td><td>Locative</td><td>2</td><td>-</td></tr><tr><td>ကို ကေ²</td><td>Allative</td><td>96</td><td>-</td></tr></tbody></table>

<figure><img src="image_19.png" /></figure>

Asymmetric but in favor of Source
(against general tendency)
# 4. Asymmetry in Burmese
(B) *Morphosyntactic asymmetry: Inventory size*

- More postpositions dedicated to Source than Goal:

• 1 Goal postposition

• 2 Source postpositions

<table><caption>Table 4: Postpositions used for Goal and Source Grounds</caption><thead><tr><th>Postposition</th><th>Meaning</th><th># of Goal</th><th># of Source</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>ကန္ပ ကာ¹နေ²</td><td>Ablative</td><td>-</td><td>53</td></tr><tr><td>က ကာ¹</td><td>Ablative</td><td>-</td><td>74</td></tr><tr><td>မှာ မာ²</td><td>Locative</td><td>2</td><td>-</td></tr><tr><td>ကို ကေ²</td><td>Allative</td><td>96</td><td>-</td></tr></tbody></table>

<figure><img src="image_21.png" /></figure>

Asymmetric but in favor of Source
(against general tendency)
## 4. Asymmetry in Burmese

### (B) Morphosyntactic asymmetry: Inventory size

* However, no semantic distinction between the 2 Source postpositions

(11) a. ကောင်မလေးတစ်ယောက် ဂုထဲကထွက်သွားတယ်။ [TRAJHNTH_44]

kaာN²ma²le³ tә=yaә? gu² tʰɛ³=ka¹ tʰʷɛ? θwa³=tɛ²

young.woman one=CLF cave inside=ABL exit go=REAL

‘A young woman goes out of a cave.’

b. ကောင်မလေး ဂုထဲကနေ ထွက်သွားတယ်။ [TRAJAA_36]

kaာN²ma²le³ θә=yaә? gu² tʰɛ³=ka¹ne² tʰʷɛ? θwa³=tɛ²

young.woman one=CLF cave interior=ABL go.out go=REAL

‘A young woman goes out of a cave.’

<figure><img src="image_20.png" /></figure>

Against general tendency
## 4. Asymmetry in Burmese

### (B) Morphosyntactic asymmetry: Inventory size

* However, no semantic distinction between the 2 Source postpositions

(11) a. ကောင်မလေးတစ်ယောက် ဂုထဲကထွက်သွားတယ်။ [TRAJHNTH_44]

kaာN²ma²le³ tə=yaာ? gu² tʰɛ³=ka¹ tʰʷɛ? θwa³=tɛ²

young.woman one=CLF cave inside=ABL exit go=REAL

‘A young woman goes out of a cave.’

b. ကောင်မလေး ဂုထဲကနေ ထွက်သွားတယ်။ [TRAJAA_36]

kaာN²ma²le³ θə=yaာ? gu² tʰɛ³=ka¹ne² tʰʷɛ? θwa³=tɛ²

young.woman one=CLF cave interior=ABL go.out go=REAL

‘A young woman goes out of a cave.’

<figure><img src="image_22.png" /></figure>

Against general tendency
## 4. Asymmetry in Burmese

### (B) Morphosyntactic asymmetry: Optionality

- Out of 126 Goal expressions, 25 are not marked with a postposition > Goal-marking is optional

- Source-marking is compulsory

<figure><img src="image_21.png" /></figure>

Follows
the asymmetric
tendency
## 4. Asymmetry in Burmese

### (B) Morphosyntactic asymmetry: Optionality

- Out of 126 Goal expressions, 25 are not marked with a postposition > Goal-marking is optional

- Source-marking is compulsory

<figure><img src="image_23.png" /></figure>

Follows
the asymmetric
tendency
# 4. Asymmetry in Burmese

## (B) Morphosyntactic asymmetry: Complexity

* Source marking is **NOT** fundamentally more complex than Goal marking

<table><caption>Table 5: Number of Source and Goal Grounds, according to the type of construction</caption><thead><tr><th>Construction</th><th># of Goal</th><th># of Source</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>Bare noun</td><td>2</td><td>-</td></tr><tr><td>N – Rel</td><td>19</td><td>-</td></tr><tr><td>N – Rel – Rel</td><td>4</td><td>-</td></tr><tr><td>N – PostP</td><td>9</td><td>13</td></tr><tr><td>N – Rel – Post</td><td>85</td><td>109</td></tr><tr><td>N – Rel – Rel – PostP</td><td>7</td><td>13</td></tr></tbody></table>

As seen before, only Goals can appear without a postposition

**Similar proportion** of Goals and Sources for the three constructions involving postpositions

<figure><img src="image_22.png" /></figure>

Symmetric
(against general tendency)
# 4. Asymmetry in Burmese

## (B) Morphosyntactic asymmetry: Complexity

* Source marking is **NOT** fundamentally more complex than Goal marking

<table><caption>Table 5: Number of Source and Goal Grounds, according to the type of construction</caption><thead><tr><th>Construction</th><th># of Goal</th><th># of Source</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>Bare noun</td><td>2</td><td>-</td></tr><tr><td>N – Rel</td><td>19</td><td>-</td></tr><tr><td>N – Rel – Rel</td><td>4</td><td>-</td></tr><tr><td>N – PostP</td><td>9</td><td>13</td></tr><tr><td>N – Rel – Post</td><td>85</td><td>109</td></tr><tr><td>N – Rel – Rel – PostP</td><td>7</td><td>13</td></tr></tbody></table>

As seen before, only Goals can appear without a postposition

**Similar proportion** of Goals and Sources for the three constructions involving postpositions

<figure><img src="image_24.png" /></figure>

Symmetric
(against general tendency)
## 4. Asymmetry in Burmese

### (B) Morphosyntactic asymmetry: Complexity

* We note that all Relational Nouns appears in both Goal and Source expressions

<table><caption>Table 6: Number of relator nouns occurring with Goals and Sources (only showing forms with at least 5 total occurrences)</caption><thead><tr><td>Postposition</td><td>Meaning</td><td># of Goal</td><td># of Source</td></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>འံ tʰɛ̈³</td><td>Inside</td><td>51</td><td>47</td></tr><tr><td>ပေါ်ပေါ်²</td><td>Top</td><td>17</td><td>27</td></tr><tr><td>ကျော် ca³</td><td>Between</td><td>10</td><td>14</td></tr><tr><td>စပ် sa?</td><td>Edge</td><td>10</td><td>7</td></tr><tr><td>ဆို sʰi²</td><td>Place, in presence of</td><td>13</td><td>3</td></tr><tr><td>အောက် ?လာ?</td><td>Underside</td><td>3</td><td>11</td></tr></tbody></table>

<figure><img src="image_23.png" /></figure>

Symmetric
(against general tendency)
## 4. Asymmetry in Burmese

### (B) Morphosyntactic asymmetry: Complexity

* We note that all Relational Nouns appears in both Goal and Source expressions

<table><caption>Table 6: Number of relator nouns occurring with Goals and Sources (only showing forms with at least 5 total occurrences)</caption><thead><tr><td>Postposition</td><td>Meaning</td><td># of Goal</td><td># of Source</td></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>འိ tʰɛ̈</td><td>Inside</td><td>51</td><td>47</td></tr><tr><td>ပေါ်ပေါ်</td><td>Top</td><td>17</td><td>27</td></tr><tr><td>ကျေး ca³</td><td>Between</td><td>10</td><td>14</td></tr><tr><td>စပ် sa?</td><td>Edge</td><td>10</td><td>7</td></tr><tr><td>ဆို sʰi²</td><td>Place, in presence of</td><td>13</td><td>3</td></tr><tr><td>အောက် ?လာ?</td><td>Underside</td><td>3</td><td>11</td></tr></tbody></table>

<figure><img src="image_25.png" /></figure>

Symmetric
(against general tendency)
# 4. Asymmetry in Burmese
(C) *Syntactic asymmetry: Biclausal constructions*

## Biclausal construction for Source expression

* Source is often expressed in a different, non-finite clause, in an iconic sequence (Schapper 2011)

<figure><img src="image_26.png" /></figure>

► Source is syntactically more complex than Goal

(12) a. **ကောင်မလေးတစ်ယောက် သစ်ပင်ခြေရင်းကနေ့ပြီးတော့ မြက်ခင်းပေါ်ကို ပြေးလာတယ်။** [TRAJHNTH_13]
[ka N²ma¹le³ tə-yaə? θiʔpiN² cʰe²yiN³=ka¹ ne²=pyi³tə¹] myeʔkʰiN³ pə²=ko² pye³ la²=tɛ²
young.woman one-CLF tree foot=TOP stay=SUB.TIME lawn on=ALL run come=REAL

‘A young woman comes running onto the lawn from the foot of the tree.’
(lit. ‘having stayed at the foot of the tree, the young woman ran onto the lawn’)

b. **ကောင်မလေးတစ်ယောက် ဂထဲကနေ့ပြီးတော့ ထွက်သွားတယ်။** [TRAJHNTH_22]
[ka N²ma¹le³ tə-yaə? gu² tʰɛ³=ka¹ ne²=pyi³tə¹] tʰʷɛ? la²=tɛ²
young.woman one-CLF cave inside=ABL stay=SUB.TIME exit come=REAL

‘A young woman came out of the cave.’ (lit. ‘having stayed inside the cave, a young woman came out.’)

<figure><img src="image_27.png" /></figure>

Follows
the
asymmetric
tendency
## 4. Asymmetry in Burmese

### (C) Syntactic asymmetry: Constraints on arguments

*   **Syntactic constraint:** Goal-oriented verbs may licence Source arguments Verb oC wiN² 'enter':

(13) a. လူတစ်ယောက် ဂုထဲကို ဝင်သွားတယ်။ [TRAJHNTH_03]

lu² tə-yaaʔ gu² tʰɛ³=ko² wiN² θwa³=tɛ²
person one-CLF cave inside=ALL enter go=REAL
‘A person went into the cave.’

b. ပင်လယ်ကမ်းခြေက ဂုထဲကို ဝင်သွားတယ်။ [TRAJAA_02]

piN²lɛ²-kaN³-ce²=ka¹ gu² tʰɛ³=ko² wiN² θwa³=tɛ²
sea-shore-origin=ABL cave interior=ALL enter go=REAL

‘(She) went into the cave from the sea shore [away from the deictic center].’

c. အပြင်ကနေ ဝင်သွားတယ်။ [Elicited]

?əpyiN²=ka¹ne² wiN² θwa³=tɛ²
outside=ABL enter go=REAL

She entered from the outside.'

<figure><img src="image_24.png" /></figure>

Symmetric
(against general tendency)
## 4. Asymmetry in Burmese

### (C) Syntactic asymmetry: Constraints on arguments

*   **Syntactic constraint:** Goal-oriented verbs may licence Source arguments Verb oC wiN² 'enter':

(13) a. လူတစ်ယောက် ဂုထဲကို ဝင်သွားတယ်။ [TRAJHNTH_03]
lu² tə-yaaʔ gu² tʰɛ³=ko² wiN² θwa³=tɛ²
person one-CLF cave inside=ALL enter go=REAL
‘A person went into the cave.’

With **Goal** Ground

b. ပင်လယ်ကမ်းခြေက ဂုထဲကို ဝင်သွားတယ်။ [TRAJAA_02]
piN²lɛ²-kaN³-ce²=ka¹ gu² tʰɛ³=ko² wiN² θwa³=tɛ²
sea-shore-origin=ABL cave interior=ALL enter go=REAL
‘(She) went into the cave from the sea shore [away from the deictic center].’

With **Source** and **Goal** Grounds

c. အပြင်ကနေ ဝင်သွားတယ်။ [Elicited]
ʔəpyiN²=ka¹ne² wiN² θwa³=tɛ²
outside=ABL enter go=REAL
She entered from the outside.'

<figure><img src="image_28.png" /></figure>

Symmetric
(against general tendency)
5. Conclusion

Expression of Goal and Source in Burmese:
Is there an asymmetry ?

- Spatial symmetries:

- Source-marking is not more morphologically complex than Goal marking

• Goal-oriented Verbs may licence Goal and Source arguments

- Spatial asymmetries favoring Goals:

- Locative postposition can be used for Goal Grounds

- Goal markers are optional

- Source marking can be more syntactically complex than Goal marking, using biclausal constructions

- A spatial asymmetry favoring Source ?

• More postpositions are *dedicated* to Source: *ka¹* and *ka¹ne²*

- However, they convey the same meaning (true synonyms) and do not add any semantic granularity into the postpositional system
5. Conclusion

Expression of Goal and Source in Burmese:
Is there an asymmetry ?

- Spatial symmetries:

* Source-marking is not more morphologically complex than Goal marking

• Goal-oriented Verbs may licence Goal and Source arguments

- Spatial asymmetries favoring Goals:

- Locative postposition can be used for Goal Grounds

• Goal markers are optional

- Source marking can be more syntactically complex than Goal marking, using biclausal constructions

- A spatial asymmetry favoring Source ?

• More postpositions are *dedicated* to Source: *ka¹* and *ka¹ne²*

* However, they convey the same meaning (true synonyms) and do not add any semantic granularity into the postpositional system
5. Conclusion

<table><thead><tr><th>Domain</th><th>Cross-linguistic tendency</th><th>Case of Burmese</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td rowspan="2">Semantic</td><td>Conflation Locative-Allative rather than Locative-Ablative</td><td>Locative postposition ဥma² can be used for Goal Grounds</td></tr><tr><td>More semantic granularity for Goal markers</td><td>No semantic granularity</td></tr><tr><td rowspan="3">Morphosyntactic</td><td>Goal marking is less complex</td><td>Goal marking is not less complex</td></tr><tr><td>Goal markers are optional</td><td>Goal markers are optional</td></tr><tr><td>More markers for Goals than Sources</td><td>More forms dedicated to Source marking</td></tr><tr><td rowspan="2">Syntactic</td><td>Verbs tend to allow for Goal arguments but not Source arguments</td><td>Goal and Source Arguments licensed by verbs</td></tr><tr><td>More complex syntax for Source expression</td><td>Yes, with biclausal constructions</td></tr></tbody></table>
5. Conclusion

<table><thead><tr><th>Domain</th><th>Cross-linguistic tendency</th><th>Case of Burmese</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td rowspan="2">Semantic</td><td>Conflation Locative-Allative rather than Locative-Ablative</td><td>Locative postposition ဥma² can be used for Goal Grounds</td></tr><tr><td>More semantic granularity for Goal markers</td><td>No semantic granularity</td></tr><tr><td rowspan="3">Morphosyntactic</td><td>Goal marking is less complex</td><td>Goal marking is not less complex</td></tr><tr><td>Goal markers are optional</td><td>Goal markers are optional</td></tr><tr><td>More markers for Goals than Sources</td><td>More forms dedicated to Source marking</td></tr><tr><td rowspan="2">Syntactic</td><td>Verbs tend to allow for Goal arguments but not Source arguments</td><td>Goal and Source Arguments licensed by verbs</td></tr><tr><td>More complex syntax for Source expression</td><td>Yes, with biclausal constructions</td></tr></tbody></table>
Thank you for your attention!
Thank you for your attention!
References

Bon, N. (2014). *Une grammaire de la langue stieng, langue en danger du Cambodge et du Vietnam* [Ph.D. dissertation]. Université Lumière Lyon 2.

Bourdin, P. (1997). On Goal-bias across languages : Modal, configurational and orientation parameters. In B. Palek, O. Fujimura, & J. V. Neustupný (Éds.), *Proceedings of LP’96. Typology, item orderings and universals. (Proceedings of the Conference held in Prague, August 20–22, 1996)* (p. 185-218). Karolinum.

Creissels, D. (2006). Encoding the distinction between location, source and destination : A typological study. In M. Hickmann & S. Robert (Éds.), *Space in languages : Linguistic systems and cognitive categories* (p. 19-28). John Benjamins.

Creissels, D. (2008). Spatial cases. In A. Malchukov & A. Spencer (Éds.), *The Oxford handbook of case* (p. 609-625). Oxford University Press.

Ikegami, Y. (1987). 'Source' and 'Goal' : A case of linguistic dissymmetry. In R. Dirven & G. Radden (Éds.), *Concept of case* (Vol. 12, p. 122-146). Gunter Narr Verlag.

Ishibashi, M., Kopecka, A., & Vuillermet, M. (2006). *Trajectoire : Matériel visuel pour élicitation des données linguistiques*. Fédération de Recherche en Typologie et Universaux Linguistiques.
References

Bon, N. (2014). *Une grammaire de la langue stieng, langue en danger du Cambodge et du Vietnam* [Ph.D. dissertation]. Université Lumière Lyon 2.

Bourdin, P. (1997). On Goal-bias across languages : Modal, configurational and orientation parameters. In B. Palek, O. Fujimura, & J. V. Neustupný (Éds.), *Proceedings of LP’96. Typology, item orderings and universals. (Proceedings of the Conference held in Prague, August 20–22, 1996)* (p. 185-218). Karolinum.

Creissels, D. (2006). Encoding the distinction between location, source and destination : A typological study. In M. Hickmann & S. Robert (Éds.), *Space in languages : Linguistic systems and cognitive categories* (p. 19-28). John Benjamins.

Creissels, D. (2008). Spatial cases. In A. Malchukov & A. Spencer (Éds.), *The Oxford handbook of case* (p. 609-625). Oxford University Press.

Ikegami, Y. (1987). ‘Source’ and ‘Goal’ : A case of linguistic dissymmetry. In R. Dirven & G. Radden (Éds.), *Concept of case* (Vol. 12, p. 122-146). Gunter Narr Verlag.

Ishibashi, M., Kopecka, A., & Vuillermet, M. (2006). *Trajectoire : Matériel visuel pour élicitation des données linguistiques*. Fédération de Recherche en Typologie et Universaux Linguistiques.
References

Kopecka, A., & Ishibashi, M. (2011). *L'(a-)symétrie dans l'expression de la Source et du But : Perspective translinguistique*. *Faits de Langues - Les Cahiers*, **38**(2), 131-149.

Kopecka, A., & Vuillermet, M. (Éds.). (2021). *Source-Goal (a)symmetries across languages*. John Benjamins.

Schapper, A. (2011). *Iconicity of sequence in source and goal encoding in two Papuan languages of south-east Indonesia*. *Linguistics in the Netherlands*, **28**(1), 99-111.

Talmy, L. (1972). *Semantic Structures in English and Atsugewi* [Ph.D. dissertation]. University of California.

Talmy, L. (2000). *Toward a Cognitive Semantics : Typology and Process in Concept Structuring* (Vol. 2). MIT Press.

Vuillermet, M., & Kopecka, A. (2019). *Trajectoire : A methodological tool for eliciting Path of motion*. *Methodological Tools for Linguistic Description and Typology, Language Documentation & Conservation Special Publication*, **16**, 340-353.
References

Kopecka, A., & Ishibashi, M. (2011). L'(a-)symétrie dans l'expression de la Source et du But : Perspective translinguistique. *Faits de Langues - Les Cahiers*, 38(2), 131-149.

Kopecka, A., & Vuillermet, M. (Éds.). (2021). *Source-Goal (a)symmetries across languages*. John Benjamins.

Schapper, A. (2011). Iconicity of sequence in source and goal encoding in two Papuan languages of south-east Indonesia. *Linguistics in the Netherlands*, 28(1), 99-111.

Talmy, L. (1972). *Semantic Structures in English and Atsugewi* [Ph.D. dissertation]. University of California.

Talmy, L. (2000). *Toward a Cognitive Semantics : Typology and Process in Concept Structuring* (Vol. 2). MIT Press.

Vuillermet, M., & Kopecka, A. (2019). Trajectoire : A methodological tool for eliciting Path of motion. *Methodological Tools for Linguistic Description and Typology, Language Documentation & Conservation Special Publication*, 16, 340-353.