Mermaid Construction
as Raising with a Nominal Predicate
Chihiro Taguchi
MScR Linguistics, PPLS, University of Edinburgh
c.taguchi@sms.ed.ac.uk
Supervisors: Prof Peter Ackema, Dr Itamar Kastner
8 March 2022

Before beginning…
Do you speak or have some knowledge of any of these languages (or relatedlanguages) shown below?
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Japonic: Japanese, Ryukyuan
Korean: Korean
Sino-Tibetan: Mandarin Chinese, Amdo Tibetan, Burmese, nDrapa
Austronesian: Tagalog (Filipino)
Indo-European: Bengali
Dravidian: Kurux
Turkic: Tatar
Afroasiatic: Sidaama
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Before beginning…
Do you speak or have some knowledge of any of these languages (or relatedlanguages) shown below?
●
●
●
●
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●
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●Japonic: Japanese, Ryukyuan
Korean: Korean
Sino-Tibetan: Mandarin Chinese, Amdo Tibetan, Burmese, nDrapa
Austronesian: Tagalog (Filipino)
Indo-European: Bengali
Dravidian: Kurux
These are languages that have
Turkic: Tatar
the Mermaid Construction!
Afroasiatic: Sidaama
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Structure of this presentation
Claim: Mermaid Construction is a kind of raising with a nominal predicate
Flow:●Introduction○○●Evidence○●

Diagnostics, Grammaticalization

Discussion○●

What is Mermaid Construction? Brief review of raising
Very brief introduction to Japanese (to be used as data in this presentation)

Applying to other languages

Conclusion
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What is Mermaid Construction?
Tsunoda (2020): A monoclausal construction with a sequence of a verb and anoun predicate that form a compound predicate
Mermaid Construction (MC) is typically observed in languages in East Asia
-Japonic: Japanese, Ryukyuan
KoreanSino-Tibetan: Chinese, Amdo Tibetan, Burmese
Afro-Asiatic: SidaamaAustronesian: Tagalog
Turkic: Tatar
Indo-European: Bengali
5What is Mermaid Construction?
Example (Japanese):VP?

(1)

In (1), ik-u ‘go’ modiﬁes the succeeding noun (lit. ‘going plan’).
(1) superﬁcially looks like having Hanako=ga as the subject of the predicate
yotee=da.
However, Hanako is not a plan… there is a mismatch (hence mermaid)
COP — copula, DAT — dative, NOM — nominative, NPST — non-past tense6What is Mermaid Construction?
Tsunoda (2020): A monoclausal construction with a sequence of a verb and anoun predicate that forms a compound predicatecompound predicate(1)

V + N (+ Copula) is a compound predicate-N syntactically functions more like an auxiliary
N morphologically remains to be a noun7

Current Issue in Mermaid Construction
Tsunoda (2020):-

MC involves a compound predicate V + N (+ copula)

Issue:-

Do we really need this new concept to account for Mermaid Construction?

Proposal in this study:-

MC can be handled in parallel with raising
To propose a new type of raising with a noun8

What is Raising?
Syntactic movement of an argument from an embedded clause to a main clause●e.g., ‘John seems [ ___ to leave].

Characteristics:●●The semantic role of the raised subject is assigned by the embeddedpredicate.
Raising predicates are often functional: aspect, modality, evidentiality, etc.
○●

Related to grammaticalized auxiliaries (e.g., will, be going to, etc.)

Raising predicates are typically verbs and adjectives.
○

raising with a nominal predicate has not been reported
9Very short introduction to JapaneseJapanese < JaponicSyntax:●●SOVhead-ﬁnal (adjective → noun, modiﬁer → modiﬁed)

Morphology:●●

agglutinative, case-marking by suﬃxation
bipartite tense system: past and non-past

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Mermaid Construction as Raising
Proposal: MC is a kind of raising with a noun predicate
Nominal raising predicate

(1)

asita

Hanako=ga

tomorrow

Hanako=NOM[____

Nagoya=niik-u]

yotee=da.

Nagoya=DAT

go-NPST

plan=COP‘Hanako plans to go to Nagoya tomorrow.’
This analysis is compatible with the characteristics of raising.
●●●no thematic role assignment
functional usage(slight) grammaticalization
11Mermaid Construction as Raising
Classic diagnostics for identifying raising1.

Passivization: no semantic change(2) Hanako=ga [___ Taroo=o tatak-u] yotee=da.
Hanako=NOM

Taro=ACC

hit-NPST

plan=COP‘Hanako plans to hit Taro’(3) Taroo=ga
Taro=NOM[___ Hanako=ni
Hanako=DATtatak-arer-u] yotee=da.
hit-PASS-NPST

plan=COP‘Taro will be hit by Hanako.’
cf. # ‘Taro plans to be hit by Hanako.’ (English ‘to plan’ is a control verb)
12Mermaid Construction as Raising
Classic diagnostics for identifying raising2.

Idiom chunks: asi=ga boo=ni nar-u ‘exhausted as if one’s legs were sticks’(4) Asi=ga [boo=ni nar-u]
leg=NOM

stick=DAT

become-NPST

yotee=da.
plan=COP‘(I) will be tired as if (my) legs had become sticks.’
cf. English(5) The cat is out of the bag. (i.e., the secret is out)(5’) The cat seems to be out of the bag. (raising)(5’’) # The cat tries to be out of the bag. (control)13

Mermaid Construction and Grammaticalization
MC and raising also agree in terms of the degree of grammaticalization.
Grammaticalization clines (Hopper & Traugott 2003):●content word > grammatical word > clitic > aﬃx○○

raising predicates (seem, be likely, etc.): grammatical word
■ cf. Old English willan > Middle English willen (> English will) > English -’llMermaid-Construction nouns: grammatical word
■ cf. Early Modern Japanese (EMJ) sama (‘appearance’)> EMJ sama(=nari) (MC noun ‘It seems that…’)> Modern Standard Japanese (MSJ) =soo (evidential clitic for hearsay)> MSJ -soo (suﬃx ‘It looks like…’)
14Mermaid Construction and Grammaticalization
MC and raising also agree in terms of the degree of grammaticalization.
Mechanisms happening in grammaticalization (Heine & Kuteva 2002):
1.
2.
3.
4.

desemanticization: loss in meaning content
extension: use in new contexts
decategorialization: loss in morphosyntactic properties
MC nouns and raising predicates retain their nominal morphology
erosion: loss in phonetic substance
MC nouns and raising predicates retain the same phonetic realization
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Interim SummaryRaising

MCpassivization✔

✔

idiom chunks✔

✔

Semantic role assignment✖

✖

Grammaticalization clines(Hopper & Traugott 2003)

grammatical word

grammatical word

desemanticization✔

✔

extension✔

✔

decategorialization✖

✖

erosion✖

✖

Raising diagnostics

Grammaticalization
mechanisms(Heine & Kuteva 2002)

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How about other languages?
Korean (language isolate) (Kim 2020)(6) chinkwu=nun ilpon=ey ka-lfriend=TOP

yeyceng=i-ta.

Japan=DAT go-ADN.PROS

plan=COP-DECL‘(My) friend plans to go to Japan.’Amdo Tibetan < Tibetic < Sino-Tibetan (Ebihara 2020)(7) arɟə=kə nor ptsoŋ-ɟufather=ERG yaksell.IPFV-NMLZ.GEN

ntɕʰarʑərɛ.

planCOP.B‘(My) father plans to sell yaks.’
ADN — adnominal form, B — pattern B, COP — copula, DAT — dative, DECL — declarative, ERG — ergative, GEN — genitive, NMLZ — nominalizer,
TOP — topic, PROS — prospective aspect

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How about other languages?
Kurux < Northern Dravidian < Dravidian (Kobayashi 2020)(8) aːs-hiː

tamba-s-in

ilc-kaː3SG.M-GEN own.father-M-ACC fear.PS-PST.VADJcaɖɖeː

rahc-aː.

necessity

COP.PS-PST.3SG.NM‘It was because he was scared of his father.’Sidaama < Cushitic < Afro-Asiatic (Kawachi 2020)(9) ísefaraššó

3SG.F.NOM horse.ACCOBL

guluf-f-annó gara-a=ti.
ride-3SG.F-IPFV.3

manner-LV=NPC.PRED.MOD‘It seems like she rides a horse (habitually).’
ACCOBL — accusative-oblique, COP — copula, F — feminine, GEN — genitive, LV — lengthened vowel, M — masculine, MOD — modiﬁed, NM — non-masculine, NPC —noun-phrase enclitic, PRED — predicative, PS — past stem, PST — past, SG — singular, VADJ — verbal adjective.

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How about other languages?
Tagalog < Malayo-Polynesian < Austronesian (Katagiri 2020)(10) plano-ng apruba-han
plan-LK

approve-PF:INF

nang=gobyerno

ang=pag-importnang=bigas.

GEN=government

DIR=NMLZ-import

GEN=rice‘The government plans to approve the import of rice.’
Bengali < Indo-Aryan < Indo-European (Huziwara 2018)(11) tar
3SG.GENṭokio=te jawarkɔtha.

Tokyo=LOC go.VN.GEN

word‘He is supposed to go to Tokyo.’
DIR — direct case, GEN — genitive, INF — inﬁnitive, LK — linker, LOC — locative, NMLZ — nominalizer, PF — patient focus, SG — singular, VN — verbal noun

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How about other languages?
Tatar < Kipchak < Turkic (collected by the presenter)(12) Siŋa2SG.DAT

öj-gäqajt-ïrɣa röxsät.

house-DAT

return-INF

permission‘You are allowed to go home.’
Mandarin Chinese < Sinitic < Sino-Tibetan (Ono 2013)(13) tiānxiàng
weather

shì yàoxià yǔ=deyàngzi.

COP

fallappearance

PROSP

rain=ADN‘It appears that it will rain.’
ADN — adnominal particle, COP — copula, DAT — dative, INF — inﬁnitive, PROSP — prospective, SG — singular20

Cross-linguistic observation
Cross-linguistic observation:●Embedded verb is non-ﬁnite→ Counterargument against Tsunoda (2020), which argues for ﬁnite

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Summary
SyntaxRaising diagnostics

RaisingMC

passivization✔

✔

idiom chunks✔

✔

Morphology

Embedded verb form

non-finite

non-finite

Semantics

Semantic role assignment✖

✖

Grammaticalization

Grammaticalization clines(Hopper & Traugott 2003)

grammatical word

grammatical word

desemanticization✔

✔

extension✔

✔

decategorialization✖

✖

erosion✖

✖

Grammaticalization
mechanisms(Heine & Kuteva 2002)22

Conclusion
We have seen that:●

MC can be put in line with raising constructions○●●

evidence in syntactic, morphological, semantic, diachronic aspects

MC is a kind of raising triggered by a nominal predicate
MC (typically) comes with a non-ﬁnite embedded verb○○

against the hypothesis of Tsunoda (2020)in line with raising constructions

We further need to:●●work on comprehensive cross-linguistic study(more rigid) theoretical accounts for MC

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References
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Ebihara, Shiho. (2020). Amdo Tibetan. In T. Tsunoda, Mermaid Construction: Compound-predicate construction
with biclausal appearance. Mouton de Gruyter.
Heine, Bernd and Tania Kuteva. (2002). World lexicon of grammaticalization. Cambridge University Press.
Hopper, Paul J. and Elizabeth C. Traugott. (2003). Grammaticalization. Cambridge University Press.
Huziwara, Keisuke. (2018). A contrastive study of external adnominal clauses in Japanese and Bangla.
Bangabidya: International Journal of Bengal Studies. Vol. 10.
Katagiri, Masumi. (2020). Tagalog. In T. Tsunoda, Mermaid Construction: Compound-predicate construction withbiclausal appearance. Mouton de Gruyter.
Kawachi, Kazuhiro. (2020). Sidaama. In T. Tsunoda, Mermaid Construction: Compound-predicate construction
with biclausal appearance. Mouton de Gruyter.
Kim, Joungmin. (2020). Korean. In T. Tsunoda, Mermaid Construction: Compound-predicate construction withbiclausal appearance. Mouton de Gruyter.
Kobayashi, Masato. (2020). Kurux. In T. Tsunoda, Mermaid Construction: Compound-predicate construction withbiclausal appearance. Mouton de Gruyter.
Tsunoda, Tasaku. (2020). Mermaid Construction: Compound-predicate construction with biclausal appearance.
Mouton de Gruyter.
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