Descriptions of Co-extension Paths in Khasi

Abstract

This study looks at the description of inanimate objects in Khasi using motion or dynamic expressions. The paper specifically looks at how information on path and manner is encoded in such expressions. These descriptions are taken from an elicitation experiment. The first part of the paper gives a brief account of the experiment and the quantitative results. The experimental design consists of speakers describing visual scenes containing spatially extended objects, such as roads, pipes and fences. The second part of the paper focuses on the linguistic analysis of the descriptions. It is found that Khasi speakers in this study use a combination of path verbs, manner verbs, path and manner conflating verbs, and compound verbs with deictic components to describe these objects. A fairly large repertoire of verb types is attested in the data. The combination jayd ‘walk’+ satellite is the most frequently used verb, placing Khasi in the category of satellite languages. It is also observed, that boundary crossing acts as a stimuli feature with path-conflating verbs. These constitute the second and third most frequently used verb types. The use of some path+manner conflating verbs places Khasi in the category of languages with non-actual movement, in the hierarchy proposed by Blomberg.

Keywords

• Khasi
• co-extension path
• non-actual motion
• spatial grammar
• extended objects
• image descriptions
• linguistic typology of motion