Abstract
The aim of this paper is to describe the available strategies for coding purpose relations in Mbya, focusing on their semantico-pragmatic distribution. According to Dooley, Mbya Guarani presents two main different strategies involved in the coding of purpose relations: aguã nominalizations and vy-dependent clauses, and among the latter a motion-cum-purpose (MCP) construction subtype is included. These strategies differ in regard to the semantic class of the main verb, referential continuity between the dependent and the main unit, and the fact that the dependent form can be negated independently from the main clause—thus, establishing different degrees of integration within the main unit in each case—, but overlap in same-subject contexts that involve a directed motion verb. However, according to our data, speakers do not use these constructions interchangeably, whereas aguã nominalizations portray an intended hypothetical outcome of the event or state-of-affair (hereafter SoA) expressed in the matrix clause; vy-dependent clauses and motion-cum-purpose constructions consistently trigger a result interpretation, entailing that the intended SoA was successfully accomplished.
Highlights
In the following sub-sections, I will focus on three basic features in order to distinguish the degree of integration between the dependent form and the main unit in the strategies employed for coding purpose relations in Mbya: the semantic class of the main verb (Section 4.1.1), the referential continuity between the main and dependent clauses (Section 4.1.2), and the sharing of TAM and negation values (Section 4.1.3)
Referential continuity and independent negatability serve as useful parameters in order to distinguish the different degrees of integration exhibited by these constructions between the dependent verb form and the main clause (Table 2), with the motion-cum-purpose constructions being the most integrated type, in opposition to aguã nominalizations, which appear to be the less integrated type of unit
The different degrees of integration between the units are reflected in the fact that aguã nominalizations can be fronted for pragmatic purposes, as can be observed in the example (29a) whereas vy clauses and MCP constructions have to follow a sequential iconic order
Summary
This paper offers a description of three different strategies employed to express purpose relations in Mbya Guarani, namely the vy-dependent clauses (1a), aguã nominalizations (1b), and a motion-cum-purpose (hereafter MCP) construction (1c). SoA encoded in the purpose clause, and temporal and locational continuity between the. Aguã nominalizations (1b) exhibit a looser connection between the SoAs encoded by the main clause and dependent clause, as they allow location and temporal discontinuity, and the accomplishment of the purposive SoA remains in the hypothetical realm. I will focus on describing each purpose construction (Section 4.1) according to three basic features: the semantic class of the main verb (Section 4.1.1), referential continuity (Section 4.1.2), and shared TAM and negation values between the main and the dependent clause (Section 4.1.3).
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