The following dialogue illustrates some of the admirative, auto-benefactive, and isolative connotations of the Rawang reflexive and middle voice suffix -shì. The conversation took place over Viber on 15-16 Jan 2021, between Nathan Straub of Vancouver, Washington, USA and Ráwàng Kurzi of Upper Shanggong Village, Putao District, Kachin State, Myanmar.
Each line is given in the vernacular as originally texted, followed by an English translation in parentheses, with phonemic transcription and morpheme glossing on the lines below. Please note that I have supplied tones in the morphological analysis to the best of my ability, but have not checked them with a native speaker.
NS = Nathan Straub
KZ = Ráwàng Kurzi
KZ: [video of Donny & Marie Osmond's song "A little bit country, a little bit rock 'n' roll"]
NS: Gvzà byoe
gəzà bjo-every be.enjoyable-NPST
"Very enjoyable!"
KZ: [photo of rice in sifting tray]
NS: Vmcit ima?
əmtsit í márice.uncooked be YNQ"Is that uncooked rice?"
KZ: IE byoe. Alanginx mvkun anglíri tangshxng nø vbx yvlvm mele
í-ebe-NPSTbjo-ebe.enjoyable-NPSTa-lang-i-nɯ məkun àŋ-lí-rì ta-ŋ-ʃɯ̀-ŋ nɯ əbɯ jəl-əm-e-lethis-moment-INST-TOP song NMLZ-old-PL listen-1SG-REFL-1SG TOP rice sift-for.eating-NPST-EXCL
"Yes, it's enjoyable. Right now I'm listening to old songs (by myself) and sifting rice for eating!"
KZ: IE vmcit
í-e əmtsitbe-NPST rice.uncooked
"Yes, it's uncooked rice."
NS: Shvlae lo
ʃəla-e lobe.good-NPST FRIENDLY"Oh, good."
NS: Why do you say tangshxng, not tangoe or tange?
why do you say ta-ŋ-ʃɯ̀-ŋ, not tá-ŋ-ò-e or ta-ŋ-e?why do you say listen-1SG-REFL-1SG not listen-1SG-3OBJ-NPST or listen-1SG-NPST"Why do you say tangshxng (listen by/for myself), not tangoe (listen to something) or tange (listen)?"
KZ: Vsvng maba vdewawa enjoying eating or listening rvgaq langoe
əsə̀ŋ mə-əbá ədè-wa-waperson NEG-be.present oneself-only-only
enjoying eating or listening LOCATION use-3OBJ-NPST
enjoying eating or listening rəgaʔ laŋ-ò-e
"People use it where there are no other people there and you're just enjoying eating or listening."
KZ: Angwawa vmshidari
àŋ-wa-wa əm-ʃì-dár-ì3SG-only-only eat-REFL-PST.HRS.AGO-3.PST
"He/she ate it alone by him/herself."
KZ: Gvza nxntmvshxmsori shxne
gəzà nɯt mə-ʃɯ̀m sori ʃɯ̀n-every mind NEG-be.satisfied while say-NPST"It is said when a person is very discontent."
KZ: Vmshxng dxra
əm-ʃɯ̀-ŋ-dɯ́r-àeat-REFL-1SG-PST.HRS.AGO-1SG.PST"I ate by myself"
KZ: Vdedvpvt wairvgaq langie
ədè dəpət wa-ì rəgaʔ laŋ-ì-eoneself for do-1PL LOCATION use-1PL-NPST"We use it when we're doing something for ourself."
KZ: Along lvngshxnge le
a-lòŋ ləŋ-ʃɯ̀-ŋ-e lethis-CL use/take-REFL-1SG-NPST EXCL"I'm taking/using this one (for myself)!"
KZ: Nawawa nx kapa etashie lo
nà-wa-wa nɯ ka-pà è-tá-ʃì-e lo2SG-only-only TOP what-thing N1-listen-REFL-NPST FRIENDLY"Hey, what are you listening to all alone?"
KZ: Wakeni me sori shxn we ie
wa-kèní me sori ʃɯ̀n we í-esay-from envy/admire while say NMLZ be-NPST"These things are said when a person is envious/admiring."
KZ: Positive ku ie
positive ku í-epositive way be-NPST"It's a positive thing (sense or manner of speaking)."
KZ: Ok.. Ari dvdvng shirae le…
OK.. a-rì də-dəŋ-ʃì rà-e leOK this-PL CAUS-finish-REFL need-NPST EXCL"OK… I should stop with these."
NS: :D
KZ: Nawawa pa evm shie
nà-wa-wa pà è-əm-ʃì-e2SG-only-only what N1-eat-REFL-NPST"What are you eating all by yourself?"
NS: Me sori shxn we nx jealous ku I ma?
me sori ʃɯ̀n we nɯ jealous ku í máenvy/admire while say NMLZ TOP jealous way be YNQ"When you say "When envious/admiring", is it a jealous thing (sense or manner of speaking)?"
KZ: Jealous nø shøm me waka ie. ME e waka nø Vm lvm dang taq lango keni lvjøm tiq pvn (Cvmre ri muk Muk vm we tiqgø ce nø mazí shvmè oe Negative) dvgá dang lango keni admire ku lvjøm lun shie . Kurvp ceri paqzi gvza vhánga lunga. Mē rae I!
jealous nɯ ʃɯ̀m-e wa-kà í-ejealous TOP satisfy?-NPST say-speech be-NPSTme-e wa-kà nɯ əm lə́m daŋ taʔ laŋ-ò kèní ləjɯm tiʔ pə̀nenvy/admire-NPST say-speech TOP eat PUR about on use-3OBJ from meaning one kindtsə̀mré rì muk-muk əm we tiʔ-gɯ́ tsè nɯ mə-ə-zí ʃə-mè-ò-e ...child PL bread-bread eat NMLZ.but one-CL.person child TOP NEG-INTR/NMLZ-give CAUS-envy-3OBJ-NPSTdəgá daŋ laŋ-ò kèní ... ku ləjɯm lún-ʃì-eother matter use-3OBJ from ... way get-REFL-NPSTku-rəp tsè-rì paʔzí gəzà ə-háŋ-à-lúŋ-àthat-family child-PL knowledge very INTR-raise.high-3PST-UPWARD/CHANGE-3PSTmē-ra-e íadmire TOWARD/EVID.FEEL-NPST RHETORICAL.Q.YES"Jealous is the word shø̀me. The word me on the other hand is used for one meaning when someone's going to eat. [For example,] "The kids are eating bread, but one kid wasn't given any, and it made him jealous." That's a negative connotation. Another possible meaning of me is when you admire something. "The kids in that family have really advanced in education. Gotta admire them, huh!"
Summary
In this conversation, I found out that the Rawang suffix -shì /-ʃì/ can indicate a sense of doing something alone, by oneself, and/or for oneself, such as eating food or listening to music. For the one doing the action, it indicates a feeling of enjoyment or contentedness. For the one observing and asking about the action, it indicates envy or admiration, mostly in a positive sense.
The sense of 'for oneself' or 'to oneself' is no surprise, but the individuative sense of 'alone, by oneself' had not been reported before in linguistic descriptions of Rawang (Barnard 1934; Morse 1965; Sarep 1996; LaPolla 1996, 2000; LaPolla & Yang 2004).
Furthermore, the secondary or tertiary pragmatic connotations of enjoyment, envy, and admiration are things that would hardly ever work their way into a grammar or dictionary. They call to mind how Roman Jakobson (1960:353, 357) isolates six functions of language and correlates them with six factors involved in verbal communication:
1. emotive (expressing) functions focus on the addresser (speaker)
2. conative (vocative, imperative) functions focus on the addressee
3. referential functions focus on the context
4. poetic functions focus on the message
5. phatic functions focus on the contact
6. metalingual functions focus on the code
Normally, morpheme analysis focuses on the referential functions. However, in conversation, as Ráwàng Kurzi explains above, the emotive and phatic functions of expressing a feeling and maintaining a connection, are equally important.
References
Barnard, Joseph Terence Owen. 1934. A handbook of the Răwang dialect of the Nung language. Rangoon: Superintendent of Gov’t. Printing and Stationery.
Jakobson, Roman. 1960. Closing statement: Linguistics and poetics. In Thomas Sebeok (ed.), Style in Language, 350-359. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
LaPolla, Randy J. 1996. Middle voice marking in Tibeto-Burman languages. In Pan-Asiatic Linguistics: Proceedings of the Fourth International Symposium on Languages and Linguistics, vol. 5, 1940–1954. Mahidol University, Thailand.
LaPolla, Randy J. 2000. Valency-changing derivations in Dulong/Rawang. In R. M. W. Dixon & Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald (eds.), Changing Valency: Case Studies in Transitivity, 282–311. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
LaPolla, Randy J. & Yang Jiangling. 2004. Reflexive and middle marking in Dulong-Rawang. Himalayan Linguistics 2. 1–13.
Morse, Robert H. 1965. Syntactic frames for the Rvwàng (Rawang) verb. Lingua 15. 338–369. https://doi.org/10.1016/0024-3841(65)90018-5.
Sarep, Hpung. 1996. A study of the morphology of verbs and nouns in the Sinwal dialect of the Rawang language. Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area 19(2). 93–184.
