Guillaume Jacques

Nathan W Hill

Laurent Sagart

Keywords: Causative, Denominal verbs, Japhug, Rgyalrongic, Grammaticalization, Abilitative, Sino-Tibetan anticaus anticausative, antipass antipassive, appl applicative, dem demonstrative, dist distal, emph emphatic, fact factual, genr generic, ifr inferential, indef indefinite, inv inverse, lnk linker, pfv perfective, poss possessor, sens sensory

This paper presents the first detailed description of the two causative derivations in Japhug Rgyalrong based on a corpus of spontaneous speech, and proposes two new pathways of grammaticalization: causative from denominal derivation and abilitative from causative.

Then , it evaluates the implication of these grammaticalization hypotheses for the reconstruction of Sino-Tibetan morphology as a whole.

The origin of the causative prefix in Rgyalrong languages and its implication for proto-Sino-Tibetan reconstruction *

Introduction

Ever since Conrady (1896)'s seminal work on comparative Sino-Tibetan, the hypothesis that a causative *s-prefix can be reconstructed for the common ancestor of Chinese, Tibetan and all related languages has been widely accepted and can be said to be the only fact about proto-Sino-Tibetan morphosyntax that is completely uncontroversial [START_REF] Wolfenden | Outlines of Tibeto-Burman linguistic morphology, with special reference to the prefixes, infixes and suffixes of classical Tibetan and the languages of the Kachin, Bodo, Nǎgǎ, Kuki-Chin and Burma groups[END_REF][START_REF] Benedict | Sino-Tibetan: a conspectus[END_REF][START_REF] Matisoff | Handbook of Proto-Tibeto-Burman[END_REF][START_REF] Lapolla | An overview of Sino-Tibetan morphosyntax[END_REF]). Yet, despite this consensus, the history of the causative prefix in the ST family is by no means trivial. In many Sino-Tibetan languages, including Old Chinese, the language with oldest attestations, the causative prefix can only be indirectly detected 1 through internal reconstruction. In phonologically more conservative languages such as Old Tibetan, the causative prefix is directly attested, but restricted to a limited number of examples and completely lexicalized. Rgyalrong is one of the few language groups in Sino-Tibetan where the causative is still productive (ie can be applied to recent loanwords).1 Thus, a detailed description of the morphosyntax of the causative in Rgyalrong languages is necessary before any further comparative research.

In this paper, we first provide an overview of the morphology and morphosyntax of the causative prefixes sɯ-and ɣɤin Japhug Rgyalrong, one of the Rgyalrong languages, and discuss the historical relationship of the causative prefix with homophonous prefixes, in particular the abilitative and the denominal instrumental sɯ-. Then, we show on the basis of comparative evidence that the likeliest explanation for the homophony between the causative and the denominal prefixes in Rgyalrong languages is due to the fact that the former was grammaticalized from the latter. Finally, we present comparative evidence from Chinese, Tibetan and Kiranti showing that the lexicalized remnants of the causative and denominal prefixes in these languages are compatible with the grammaticalization hypothesis presented in section 3.

The causative in Rgyalrongic languages

Rgyalrongic languages are particularly crucial for understanding the morphosyntax of the causative in Sino-Tibetan as a whole, as they constitute the only subgroup of the family where the causative is still fully productive and can be applied to recent loanwords, at least in the four core Rgyalrong languages Situ, Japhug, Tshobdun and Zbu. It is thus of considerable importance, before any diachronic research, to describe the synchronic system of these conservative languages in detail, and then evaluate how much of this system has been preserved elsewhere. Since previous description of Rgyalrong languages only briefly discuss the morphosyntax of the causative constructions (see [START_REF] Sun | 嘉戎語動詞的派生形態 Jiarońgyǔdoǹgcíde paìsheng xińgtaì (Derivational morphology in the Rgyalrong verb)[END_REF][START_REF] Jacques | 嘉絨語研究 Jiāróngyǔ yánjiū[END_REF], it is necessary at this stage to provide the first in depth description of the use of the causative prefixes in a Rgyalrong language.

In this paper, we focus on the Japhug language, but similar causative prefixes are found in Tshobdun [START_REF] Sun | 嘉戎語動詞的派生形態 Jiarońgyǔdoǹgcíde paìsheng xińgtaì (Derivational morphology in the Rgyalrong verb)[END_REF][START_REF] Sun | Sino-Tibetan: Rgyalrong[END_REF] and in Khroskyabs [START_REF] Lai | La morphologie affixale du lavrung wobzi[END_REF][START_REF] Lai | Causative Constructions in Wobzi[END_REF], and the facts described for Japhug are valid for Rgyalrongic as a whole.

This section comprises four subsections. First, we describe the morphology and uses of the causative prefixes sɯ-and ɣɤrespectively, as well as the semantic distinctions between the two. Then, we treat the homophonous abilitative and denominal sɯand discuss their potential historical relationships with the causative.

The causative prefix sɯ-

Unlike most Sino-Tibetan languages, Rgyalrong languages have a complex templatic prefixal morphology (Jacques 2013b[START_REF] Sun | Sino-Tibetan: Rgyalrong[END_REF]) and numerous valency increasing and decreasing prefixes, including reflexive [START_REF] Jacques | The origin of the reflexive prefix in Rgyalrong languages[END_REF], passive, anticausative (Jacques 2012c), applicative (Jacques 2013a), antipassive (Jacques 2014a) as well as nominal incorporation (Jacques 2012d).

Of all the derivational verbal morphological processes in Japhug, the causative sɯ-/z-/sɯɣis the most commonly used, the most productive and the morphophonologically most complex affixal element, a fact that betrays its antiquity in comparison with other affixes, most of which can be shown to be recent developments (see in particular Jacques 2014a).

Morphophonology

Although not as complex as the causative in Stodsde [START_REF] Sun | Morphological causative formation in Shangzhai Horpa[END_REF] or in Khroskyabs [START_REF] Lai | Causative Constructions in Wobzi[END_REF], the Japhug causative sɯprefix presents considerable allomorphy, and numerous irregular forms. It has four regular allomorphs sɯ-, sɯɣ-, z-and sɤdepending on the following element.

The zallomorph appears before all derivational prefixes (or unanalysable prefixal elements synchronically belonging to the verb root) with sonorant initial (beginning in r-, n-, ɣor m-). Table 1 illustrates some examples of this allomorph. The distribution of the sɯand sɯɣallomorphs depends on both phonology and morphology. The latter allomorph occurs when the base verb is intransitive, has no prefixal element, has no initial cluster and no velar or uvular initial consonant, and the former appears in all other cases.

A fourth predictable allomorph of sɯappears with verbs whose stem begins in a-, where sɯand the apassive prefix or intransitive thematic element merge as sɤ-, as in Table 3. The causative has four additional irregular allomorphs: ɕɯ-, ɕɯɣ-, ɕ-, ʑ-, sand j-. All known examples are presented in Table 4. 4, such as tsʰi "to drink", pʰɣo "to flee", lɯɣ "to get free" and rga "to be glad, to like", can appear with the regular causative sɯ-. In the first cases the meaning of the derived verbs are slightly different:

Some of the verbs in Table

1. sɯ-tsʰi means "make s.o. drink" rather than "give s.t. to drink to s.o." 2. sɯ-pʰɣo "make someone escape" instead of "take away" 3. sɯɣ-lɯɣ "cause to get free" instead of "drop"

We observe that the regular causatives also have a regular semantic derivation from the basic verbs. The irregular causatives of these verbs can be used with the additional regular causative (sɯ-ɕlɯɣ "cause to drop"). We can infer from these two facts that some of the irregular causatives (not including those in ɕɯ-) are no longer synchronically causatives or the original verb, as their meaning has begun to evolve independently.

The presence of a Tibetan loanword rga "to be glad, to like" (from Tibetan dga) in this list shows that these allomorphs were still productive relatively recently.

The original distribution of the allomorphs in alveolo-palatals ɕɯ-, ɕɯɣ-, ɕand ʑis unclear. They are only marginally restricted by the place of articulation of the initial consonant (they occur with labial, dental, velar and uvular -all except alveolo-palatal and palatal consonants), and occur with both simple initials and complex clusters. ɕɯɣ-, like sɯɣ-, probably occurred with intransitive verbs without initial cluster, possibly with labial initials. We will see that a similar -ɣintrusive element appears with the applicative and the tropative prefixes. sseems to occur with polysyllabic verb stems whose first element begins with a voiceless stop.

It is interesting to note that ɴqoʁ has two distinct irregular causatives with different meanings; ʑɴɢoʁ is not a causative any more from a synchronic point of view, since it can appear with a causative prefix sɯ-(meaning "hang with something", see 2.1.2). The causative jtsʰi of tsʰi is only found in the Kamnyu dialect of Japhug. In most Japhug dialects, where the verb "to drink" is tʰi, its irregular causative is ɕtʰi. The Kamnyu form results from a dissimilation *ɕtʰi > *ɕtsʰi > jtsʰi.

A few causative verbs not derived from intransitives in a-have the allomorph sɤ-, in particular sɤpe "do well" (from pe "be good") and sɤrmi "give a name" (from rmi "be named"). The latter could however perhaps be analysed as a denominal verb from tɤ-rmi "name".

The allomorphy of the causative prefix in Rgyalrongic languages raises a more general methodological question: should we assume that Rgyalrongic languages are innovative and that the observed allomorphy is due to relatively recent sound changes, or should this allomorphy be reconstructed back to proto-Rgyalrongic or even earlier? Given the present status of proto-Rgyalrongic reconstruction, a discussion of this issue has to be deferred to future research but we should keep in mind, when analyzing data from languages where no allomorphy is detectable that the absence of allomorphy may be due to levelling, rather than absence of innovative sound change.

Syntactic constructions

The causative prefix sɯis the most common morphosyntactic device to express causation in Japhug, though not the only one. 2When the causative is applied to an intransitive verb, the S becomes the O of the derived verb (Dixon 2000: 45) . The A of the derived verb corresponds to the causer or the stimulus of the causation. The following example of the verb sɯ-ɤʁdɤt [saʁdɤt] "to cause to slip", causative of aʁdɤt "to slip", illustrates this principle: With transitive verbs, a different situation is observed. The causative derivation adds an argument, the causer, which becomes the A of the causative verb. Since Japhug verbs cannot encode more than two arguments in their morphology, one of the arguments of the base verb must be demoted to leave place for the causer. Four types of derivations are observed.

First, the causee (the A of the original verb) becomes the O of the derived verb, while the original O is demoted. Most causatives are formed this way:3 Second, we find ambiguous causative forms for some verbs, where either the agent or the patient of the original verb is preserved: in other words, the O of the causative verb can either correspond to the original A of the original O. These two types of derivation would respectively belong to types iv. and v. in Dixon (2000: 48)'s typology): shift of either the A or the O of the original verb to non-core status. Note that in Japhug the non-core status of these arguments is indicated by the absence of agreement on the verb, not by any overt marking on the noun phrases.

As an example, the causative of qur "to help" sɯ-qur has two meanings:

(5) tɤ-kɯ-sɯ-qur-a-ndʑi pfv-2→1-caus-help-1sg-du You d caused me to help him. OR You d caused him to help me.

Similarly the causative of mto "'to see" sɯ-mto means either "to cause X to be seen" or "to show to X (to cause X to see)": (not to be understood as: "They made two people beat them", Fox 126)

Preservation of the original O instead of the A occurs in verbs with human patients, when the patient is higher than the agent on the empathy hierarchy (in example 6, first person > third person indefinite), or, when all arguments are third person, when the O of the original verb is more topical than the A (example 9). Third, the causative appears in sentences with an overt instrument in the ergative case (example 10). This specific use of the sɯprefix will be referred to as 'instrumental causative'. The instrumental causative prefix sɯcan be added to a causative verb, resulting in two sɯ-prefixes in the same form, as in 12. This is the only case of recursive application of a prefix in Japhug. In the sentences above, using the verbs ku-wɣ-rkhe and pɯ-fkaβ-a without the causative with the overt instrument is not ungrammatical; the instrumental causative is optional when the base verb is transitive. However, it is obligatory when the base verb is intransitive; using the non-causative form lo-βzi ifr-become.drunk in example 13 would result in an ungrammatical sentence. Fourth, the causative also occurs in very special syntactic constructions involving stative verbs. First, the causative form of a stative verb can occur with the infinitive of an action verb as its complement, expressing the manner of the action:

(16) kɤ-ɣndʑɯr inf-grind cʰɤ-sɯ-ɤmɲɤm ifr-caus-homogeneous He ground it smooth.

In this construction, we observe raising of the directional prefix of the complement verb (in the example above, for instance, the intrinsic directional prefix of ɣndʑɯr "to grind" is tʰɯ-/ cʰɤ-"downstream"). Both the causative verb and the complement transitive verb share the same A and O.

Second, the causativized stative verb occurs as the first element of a serial verb construction, expressing again the manner or circumstances of the second verb: As in all such constructions, both verbs share the verb TAM and person features.

The causee (the original A) can be marked with the ergative, as seen in the examples above. When the causee is an instrument, ergative marking is obligatory, and one can find sentences with two ergatives, though these are rarely attested in stories: When the original verb is intransitive, the causee is not marked with ergative (this does not apply to cases of instrumental causative). The stative verb mtsʰɤt "be full" can appear with both the container and the containee without case marking (the container is the real S, while the containee is an adjunct). Adding causative marking on the verb does not promote the containee to core argument status.

Compatibilities

The causative -sɯ-is highly productive and can appear with various other derivational prefixes, including the reflexive -ʑɣɤ-, the causative ɣɤ-, the passive a-, the autobenefactive-spontaneous -nɯand all other derivational prefixes.

The reflexive -ʑɣɤis the only derivational prefix that occurs before the causative. Only the order -ʑɣɤ-sɯ-is attested, and the reverse order is unintelligible to Japhug speakers.

The combination of these two prefixes could potentially have two interpretations: either X cause Y to do to X (scope of the reflexive over the causative), or X cause to Y to do to Y (scope of the causative over the reflexive). However, only the first interpretation is possible, as shown by the examples: The two sentences above cannot be understood as "He i caused (him, them) j to kill (him,them)selve(s) j " or "he i caused him j to see himself j ".

The causative commonly appears with the autobenefactive-spontaneous nɯ-: In his j place, they (send people) to invite him i to come, he i who saved her life. (the demon, 162)

The causative also appears in combination with the passive as sɤ-< sɯ-ɤ-, but only in a limited number of verbs:

sɤmbi "to require something from someone" is a causative form derived from the passive a-mbi "to be given" of the verb mbi "to give". Etymologically, the verb means "to cause someone to give to oneself". sɤjtsʰi "to ask for something to drink" derives from the irregular lexicalized causative jtsʰi "to give to drink". The etymological causative prefixes jbeing fossilized and not analysed synchronically as such in modern Japhug, this form is not a counterexample to the verbal template. As mbi "to give", jtsʰi has the recipient coded as the O: sɤβzu "to prepare, to make ready to use" derives from a-βzu, a verb whose meaning in modern Japhug is "to grow", but which originally was the passive of βzu "to make". sɤβzu is therefore etymologically "to cause to be made". The reflexive prefix ʑɣɤcan further be added to form the verb ʑɣɤ-sɯ-ɤβzu "to transform oneself into". sɤpa "transform (tr.)" is the causative of apa "become", itself the passive of the verb pa, which means "close (the door)" in modern Japhug (among other meaning) but used to be the regularly verb "to do" in Rgyalrongic languages. sɤpa is always transitive. This verb can in turn be combined with the reflexive ʑɣɤ-to form ʑɣɤ-sɯ-ɤ-pa "to transform oneself into": It is quite clear that the combination of the causative with the passive is not productive in Japhug, and that the analysis proposed above is only true from a diachronic perspective.

The causative sɯis also compatible with the causative ɣɤ-, though such examples are unusual, and appear limited to the use of the causative to mark the instrument, as in 27. The doctor gave him a medicine and cured him with it.

The semantics of the causative

In his cross-linguistic overview of causatives, Dixon (2000: 62-68) proposes nine parameters to study the semantic specificities of causative constructions. The first two, state vs. action and transitivity, are treated in the morphology, and will not concern us here.

Of the seven remaining parameters, three (Control, Volition, Affectedness) relate to the causee, and four (Directness, Intention, Naturalness, Involvement) to the causer; in this section, we will regroup them into four groups by combining directness, naturalness and involvement, as these three parameters are most often intertwined in our examples.

We will show that the sɯcausative in Japhug has a wide range of uses, and can appear independently of these parameters. Is it compatible with either obligation, authorisation, accompaniment or various modes of causation.

Control. The prefix sɯoccurs both with actions on which the causee has control, but also with action on which he/it has no control, either because it is inanimate, or because the action itself is not controllable: Volition. The causative sɯ-appears regardless of whether causee acts willingly ('let, ask') or unwillingly ('make, force').

This first example shows that the causative can be used when doing someone a favour: irr-neg-pfv-2-caus-break-pl Please make sure that my mother does not even need to break chopsticks (go out to break twigs from the trees to make chopsticks; this idiomatic expression means "take care of her every need"). (Slobdpon, 220)

It can also be used when one asks someone to do something: In the first clause, the causee of the verb verb pjɤ-z-rɤtɕaʁ "he caused him to trample" is the horse, while in the second one, the causee is the snake that was trampled; the causer (the character Nyima Wodzer) in the second case only acts indirectly (through the action of his horse).

The causative is also used to express authorisation, where the causer's involvement is even more indirect, and only amounts to an absence of action:

(34) ku-kɯ-z-rɤʑi-a-nɯ ipf-2→1-caus-stay-1sg-pl ɲɯ-ntsʰi ipf-have.better

Could you let me stay? (The raven, 68)

Finally, it can even appear in situations where the "causer" merely omits to act upon a naturally occurring event:

(35) tɤ-mtʰɯm indef.poss-meat ɲɤ-z-ɣɤdi-t-a ifr-caus-be.smelly-pst-1sg I let the meat spoil. Some examples of sɯ-/z-have a semantics which is more reminiscent of the tropative (Jacques 2013a): znɤja "consider to be a shame", sɯpa "regard as" and znɤkɤro "consider to be acceptable".

The intransitive verb nɤja means "to be a shame, to be a pity". The transitive z-nɤja, rather than meaning "to cause to be a shame" as expected regularly, rather means "to regret, be reluctant" (Chinese 不舍得), in other words "to consider something to be a pity": Another verb having unpredictable semantics with the prefix sɯis the transitive verb sɯ-pa "to consider, to regard as". The original verb is pa "to close", etymologically "to do": The tɤkʰe-pɣɤtɕɯ is considered to be a stupid bird. (the buzzard, 13)

Scope ambiguity

The causative presents scope ambiguity with several other prefixes, in particular negation and associated motion. The negative prefix can either have scope over the base verb (cause not to do = hinder) or over the causative (not cause to do). This may be an effect of the rigid verbal template, as the relative order of the negation and the causative are strictly fixed.

Examples with negation in the sense of "hinder", "cause not to do") are quite common: I forgot it, so on my account the bird did not convey its message to the king (literally: I did not let the bird tell the king)4

However, the alternative interpretation, with the scope of the negation on the causation is also possible: I went to convey (the message) myself, and I did not make anyone else convey it.

A scope ambiguity is also observed with the associated motion prefixes ɕɯ-'go and' and ɣɯ-'come and' (on which see Jacques 2013b). In Japhug, associated motion prefixes normally have accusative alignment: the referent undergoing the motion is either the A or the S of the verb (depending on its transitivity), never the O. However, in the case of verbs with a causative sɯ-, the referent in motion can be either the the causer (as in 44, where the causative is used to indicated the presence of an instrument), the causee (as in 45) or both. be:fact People from the Chinese areas, people from outside send people to come here to buy (matsutake and sell them in the areas downstream). (hist-20grWBgrWB 58)

The causative sɯwith stative verbs

Although the prefix ɣɤ-, rather than sɯ-, is used with most stative verbs, some stative verbs only appear with sɯ-. The following non-exhaustive list illustrates some examples: Stative verbs with a prefixal element (mɤ-, rɤ-, ɣɯetc), always appear with z-, never with ɣɤ-(except some examples with the prefixal element a-). This constraint explains for instance why the causative of mɤrtsaβ "spicy" is in zrather than ɣɤ-, while almost all other stative verbs denoting feelings or taste have a causative in ɣɤ-, for instance tɕur "sour" > ɣɤ-tɕur "make sour", tsri "salty" > ɣɤ-tsri "make salty" etc.

Color stative verbs and stative verbs related to disease and pain (ngo "sick", mŋɤm etc) also do form their causative with sɯand its variants rather than with ɣɤ-, as seen in the table above.

Very few stative verbs have been found which are compatible with both ɣɤand sɯ-; the semantic contrast between the two prefixes is treated in 2.2.3.

The causative prefix ɣɤ-

The causative ɣɤhas a much more restricted usage than sɯtreated in the previous section. The prefix ɣɤ-appears with most stative verbs, though as we have seen in 2.1.6, some stative verbs also appear with sɯ-; the semantic differences between the two prefixes for stative verbs is treated in 2.2.3. Cognates of this prefix are found in other Rgyalrongic languages (in Tshobdun and in Khroskyabs, see [START_REF] Sun | Sino-Tibetan: Rgyalrong[END_REF][START_REF] Lai | La morphologie affixale du lavrung wobzi[END_REF] and in Tangut (Jacques 2014b: 253-4).

Unlike sɯ-, ɣɤpresents no allomorphy. With verbs having the intransitive determiner a-, this syllable is absorbed by the prefix. For instance, the causative of artɯm "round" is ɣɤ-rtɯm "to coil (threads)".

Syntactic constructions

Unlike sɯ-, ɣɤonly appears with stative intransitive verbs. The added argument, the causer, is always the A, while the original S becomes the O. I repaired the door, so that it can be opened. (literally: I made the door openable, el. Chen Zhen, 2011)

As with the construction involving the prefix sɯ-, we observe that the directional prefix of the complement verb (in the infinitive) is raised to the causativized stative verb: pɯ-"down" and tɤ-"down" are respectively the intrinsic directional prefixes of rɤkrɯ "cut" and cɯ "open" (this verb also occurs with kɤ-"towards east").

In this construction, the scope of the negation is normally on the causativized stative verb, not on the whole action: neg-pfv-caus-be.possible-pst Fumigate a khatag and swallow it, otherwise you would make my birth impossible. (not: "you did not make my birth possible").

(Gesar, 61)

The raising of the directional prefix from the complement verb to the causativizer stative verb can remain even when the complement verb is elided. For instance, with a verb such as ɣɤ-xtɯt "shorten", one can distinguish between:

(52) nɯ-ɣɤ-xtɯt-a pfv-caus-short-1sg / / tɤ-ɣɤ-xtɯt-a pfv-caus-short-1sg
I made it shorter. (elicited, Chen Zhen)

The first form means "shorten by cutting (clothes)", as the implicit complement verb is qrɯ "cut", whose intrinsic directional prefix (in the meaning "to cut clothes") is nɯ-. nɯ-ɣɤ-xtɯt-a is actually a short form for: tɤ-ɣɤ-xtɯt-a , with the prefix tɤ-"up" instead means that the clothes were made shorter by rolling sleeves up, without cutting the cloth.

Compatibilities

The prefix ɣɤ-, is incompatible with other valency-increasing prefixes such as the tropative nɤ-and the applicative nɯ-. However, both the reflexive ʑɣɤand causative sɯcan appear before it: It also with the reciprocal a-+reduplication in forms such as rlaʁ "to disappear" > ɣɤ-rlaʁ "to lose, to cause to be destroyed" > a-ɣɤ-rlɯ-rlaʁ "to destroy each other". The reverse order is however not possible. [START_REF] Sun | 嘉戎語動詞的派生形態 Jiarońgyǔdoǹgcíde paìsheng xińgtaì (Derivational morphology in the Rgyalrong verb)[END_REF][START_REF] Sun | Sino-Tibetan: Rgyalrong[END_REF], with regard to the causative prefixes səand wɐin Tshobdun, has shown that in the case of some stative verbs, the former indicates an increase of degree, while the latter expresses a change of state. This contrast appears to have been lost in Japhug (at least in the variety under study). Some labile verbs, such as mto (which means 'see' as a transitive verb and 'have the ability to see' as an intransitive stative verb') have distinct causative forms depending on the base meaning: sɯ-mto 'cause to see, show' is based on the transitive mto, while ɣɤ-mto 'cause (a blind person) to recover sight' is based on the stative mto.

Semantics

Abilitative

The abilitative sɯis homophonous with the causative, and does present two allomorphs sɯand zwith the same distribution as for the causative. 5The abilitative expresses that the S/A is physically able to realize the action described by the verb. It is completely homophonous with the causative; for instance sɯ-ndza means both 'cause/force to eat' and 'be able to eat'. Although it appears to be quite productive (it can be applied to most transitive voluntary verbs), it is quite rare in the corpus, and most commonly appears in negative forms (see 55). The only case of irregular abilitative is the verb spʰɯt 'be able to cut through (of a cutting instrument)' (see example 56) derived from pʰɯt 'cut, pick, pluck', with the allomorph sand with more restricted semantics. The transitive verb spa 'be able to (through learning)' is a lexicalized abilitative that has cognates outside of the Rgyalrong group, in particular in Tangut (Jacques 2014b: 255-6), showing that the abilitative must be reconstructed for a larger group of languages than simply Rgyalrong.

Denominal derivation

In addition to the causative and abilitative sɯ-, denominal verbs in sɯ/z-/sɯɣ-/sɤcan be either transitive or intransitive, and belong to four semantic categories: property, position, use of an instrument or body part, and causative, as presented in table 2.4.

When a verb is derived from a possessed noun, the indefinite possessor prefixes tɤ-/ tɯor the other possessive prefixes are not preserved, and the prefix is directly added to the nominal root (Jacques 2014a). In Table 2.4, possessed nouns are indicated with the indefinite possessive prefix between brackets. 2.4 shows that the instrumental denominal use of sɯis fully productive, as it can be applied to Tibetan loanwords (respectively bsaŋ 'fumigation', tsʰag 'sieve' and tsʰos 'paint').

sɯwas derived from the instrumental / causative denominal sɯ-, following a more general path of grammaticalization well-attested in Rgyalrong languages. Second, the abilitative is grammaticalized from the causative.

From Denominal to Causative

Previous research (Jacques 2014a) has shown that several valency-changing prefixes in Japhug (and in all Rgyalrong languages) are historically derived from denominal prefixes through a two-stage process. First, the base verb is nominalized to a bare infinitive, a nominal form comprising the verb root prefixed either by an indefinite possessor prefix tɯ-/tɤ-or by a possessive prefix coreferent with the O in the case of transitive verbs. This nominalization neutralizes the transitivity of the verb. Then a denominal verb is created from this bare infinitive with a transitivity value different from the base verb.

Three voice prefixes in Japhug have been shown to originate from such a grammaticalization process: the antipassive rɤ-, the deexperiencer sɤ-(on this prefix, see Jacques 2012c) and the applicative nɯ-, respectively from the intransitive denominal rɯ-/rɤ-, the (stative verb) property denominal sɤ-(seen above) and the transitive denominal nɯ-. This grammaticalization pathway, which is not restricted to Rgyalrong languages but also attested in language families such as Mande [START_REF] Creissels | The origin of antipassive markers in West Mande languages[END_REF] and Eskaleut [START_REF] Fortescue | West Greenlandic half-transitive affixes in a diachronic perspective[END_REF], can be summarized as follows:

(57) action nominalization of transitive verb + intransitive denominal derivation ⇒ antipassive (58) action nominalization of intransitive verb + transitive denominal derivation ⇒ applicative / causative

The same mechanism can explain the causative as being derived from the denominal sɯ-, which changes a noun X into a transitive verb meaning either 'use X' (instrumental denominal) or 'cause (people) to have X' (causative denominal). In addition to the phonological and semantic similarity between the causative and instrumental/causative denominal prefixes, we should note the fact that both share the same allomorphy sɯ-/ z-/ sɯɣ-, the same double meaning (instrumental and causative proper) which makes it extremely unlikely that both prefixes could be unrelated.

The opposite direction of derivation (from causative to denominal) is highly unlikely for two reasons.

First, in the case of the antipassive rɤ-, there is strong evidence of the directionality of derivation from denominal to antipassive, as we find several examples of verbs whose nominal form and antipassive form share a common semantic or morphological innovation (Jacques 2014a). For instance, pɣaʁ 'turn over, plough' has an antipassive rɤ-pɣaʁ meaning specifically 'reclaim land (plough for the first time)', with the same irregular restricted meaning as the derived noun tɯ-pɣaʁ 'land reclamation'. While such examples have not been found in the case of the causative, the parallelism with other voice markers suggest that this direction of derivation is indeed the most likely. The denominal to causative derivation is almost a synchronic process and does not involve any reconstruction (all intermediate steps of the grammaticalization pathways are independently attested).

Second, while the extension of a causative marker to instrumental denominal function could be conceivable in an omnipredicative language where nouns are predicative in their own right, this seems impossible in a language with a very strong noun / verb distinction like Japhug,6 unless one explains the development of the denominal as a backformation from the causative following the pathways in 57 in the opposite direction.

Thus, of the three logically possible historical relationships between the causative and denominal sɯ-(unrelated, causative to denominal, denominal to causative), only the last one is a likely explanation.

From Causative to Abilitative

Two distinct hypotheses can be put forward to explain the origin of the abilitative sɯ-: directly from the denominal sɯor indirectly from the causative sɯafter its creation from the denominal.

Although formally possible, the hypothesis that the abilitative derives from the denominal sɯis not possible on semantic grounds: there are no denominal verbs derived from a noun X whose meaning is 'be able to do X'.

The derivation from the causative is also difficult at first glance, as abilitative and causative share little semantic commonality. Yet, there are cases where both an interpretation in terms of causative and one in terms of abilitative is possible and would have a very similar meaning, differing only in perspective. Example 59 is an example of abilitative with the verb sɯ-rqoʁ 'be able to hug'. However, it is also possible to construe the meaning in a different way: 'The fir can grow so thick that it prevents even two or three people from hugging (its trunk)', with a causative interpretation. This interpretation is possible due to the ambiguity of the scope of the negation of the causative, which generates the preventive meaning 'prevent, hinder' in negative form, from which a modal meaning 'not able to' can be derived, if the causee, rather than the causer, is reanalyzed as the real A of the sɯ-prefixed verb. This kind of reanalysis is particularly easy in Japhug as all of the arguments, whether S, A, O, causer or causee can be elided.

Examples such as 59 therefore constitute the pivot construction whose reanalysis has allowed the abilitative to be created out of the causative. This hypothesis accounts for the fact that nearly all examples of abilitative in natural speech are found in negative verb forms. We can propose the previously unknown pathway of grammaticalization:

(60) negative + causative ⇒ preventive ⇒ negative + abilitative not cause to X ⇒ prevent from X ⇒ be unable to X (by removing the causer and promoting the causee to A status)

The grammaticalization of the abilitative, as seen above, must predate he common ancestor of Rgyalrong and Tangut, but it is unclear whether the languages which have no trace of the abilitative have lost all traces of it or never have grammaticalized it.

Comparative evidence

While from a Japhug-internal point of view the derivation from denominal sɯto causative seems straightforward, this hypothesis raises an important problem: the sibilant causative is one of the very few morphological element that appears to be ubiquitous in the Sino-Tibetan family. Indeed, even highly innovative languages such as Chinese and Lolo-Burmese appear to present traces of this prefix. In languages other than Rgyalrongic, the semantic of the causative cannot be studied in comparable detail as it has become completely lexicalized and is not any more the productive mechanism to express causation. In particular, the instrumental use of the causative attested in Japhug does not appear widespread outside of Rgyalrongic.

In this section, we present data from Tibetan and Chinese showing that data from these languages do not contradict the above hypothesis.

Tibetan

Of all ancient Sino-Tibetan languages, Tibetan is the only one which directly preserves the causative in a form that does not require a reconstruction.7 There is clear evidence of both the causative and the denominal sprefixes.8 Examples of the causative are plentiful. Zhang (2009: 210-8) counts 107 causative pairs in Tibetan, such as ɴgul 'move (it)' and sgul 'move (tr)'. Although some of the pairs collected by Zhang Jichuan must be explained differently (in particular the ones that involve s-/ zalternations such as sub 'rub off', zub 'be rubbed off'), there are about a hundred of good examples of causatives in sin Tibetan.

Clear examples of the denominal sare rarer and are generally less transparent semantically (for instance ŋag 'word' ⇒ bsŋags 'extoll'), suggesting that productivity was lost before that of the causative.9

Yet, there is evidence also in Tibetan that the causative derives from the denominal. In almost all of these pairs, the intransitive counterpart has a prenasalized prefix ɴwhich is not usually commented on by comparativists. There is a frequent ɴ-present tense prefix appearing in intransitive verbs in Tibetan, but in the causative pairs, the ɴin the intransitive forms is in most cases not a tense marker: it is retained through the whole paradigm, and appears in both present and past stems.

In some cases, we find a cognate noun that does not have the ɴ-prefixal element, as in grib.ma 'shade, shadow' and grib 'defilement, stain' versus ɴgrib 'diminish, fail, be obstructed, be obscured' and sgrib 'cover'. Rather than assuming, as is generally done, a direct derivation from intransitive ɴgrib to the transitive controllable sgrib, it is better for both semantic and morphological reasons to suppose that both verbs derive from the base noun, whose original meaning was 'shadow' (hence the secondary evolution to 'defilement, stain'), by addition of the denominal intransitive ɴand denominal causative s-prefixes:

(61) grib(-ma) 'shade, shadow' ⇒ ɴ-grib 'fail, be obscured' grib(-ma) 'shade, shadow' ⇒ s-grib 'cover'

The intransitive ɴgrib has retained all the meanings of the original noun, and developed some more meanings, while the transitive sgrib 'cover' has only retained the base meaning of the noun.

Though in most cases no corresponding noun is found, it is likely that other examples of 'causative s-' should be in fact historically analyzed as denominal prefixes. This question is deferred to further research, which will require corpus study of Old Tibetan texts.

Old Chinese

Already in antiquity, Chinese languages were phonologically and morphologically much more innovative than modern languages such as Rgyalrong or Kiranti. The remnants of former morphological alternations directly at-tested in modern varieties of Chinese are few and ambiguous, and can only be accessed through reconstructions.

Not all authors agree about how to interpret and reconstruct the traces of morphological alternations found in Chinese. In particular, an important debate concerns verbs pairs presenting a voicing alternation correlated with transitivity in Middle Chinese as presented in Table 7. Some scholars believe that this type of voicing alternation10 is a trace of the cognate of the causative *s-prefix, and that the transitive verbs derive from the intransitive ones, the *s-prefix having a devoicing effect on the initial consonant (Mei 2012 is a representative example of this line of thought).

However, it is clear that this view is a misconception. In all phonologically conservative languages where the causative is preserved as a distinct segment, we also find traces of a distinct and historically unrelated voice alternation: anticausative prenasalization. Table 8 shows some examples of verb pairs in Japhug (see Jacques 2012c, ? for more details on the semantics of this derivation and for more examples). The anticausative prenasalization changes transitive verbs to intransitive with voicing of the initial stop or affricates (there are no examples of this alternation with verbs having sonorant or fricative initials). The directionality (from transitive to intransitive) is proven by two pieces of evidence.

First, the Tibetan loanword χtɤr 'spill' (Tibetan gtor), whose intransitive counterpart ʁndɤr 'be spilled' has no equivalent in Tibetan. Moreover the phonotactics of the cluster fricative+prenasalized voiced stop is incompatible with the phonotactic structure of Tibetic languages. Hence, this verb can only have been created within Japhug from its transitive counterpart χtɤr 'scatter' after this latter had been borrowed.

Second, there are transitive verbs with aspirated or unaspirated obstruents, but this contrast is neutralized in the corresponding anticausative verbs.

Similar pairs can be found in languages such as Tibetan (Jacques 2012b, Hill 2014), Tangut [START_REF] Gong | Phonological Alternations in Tangut[END_REF], Jacques 2014b: 245-8) or Jinghpo (Dai [START_REF] Sagart | Reconstructing the s-prefix in Old Chinese[END_REF], that the voicing alternation in Chinese is cognate to the anticausative derivation. While [START_REF] Sagart | Reconstructing the s-prefix in Old Chinese[END_REF] deny that verb pairs such as those in Table 7 are traces of the causative *s-prefix, they still reconstruct a causative *sto account for different alternations (Table 9). It should be noted however that in nearly all the verb pairs provided by [START_REF] Sagart | The roots of Old Chinese[END_REF][START_REF] Sagart | The roots of Old Chinese[END_REF][START_REF] Sagart | Reconstructing the s-prefix in Old Chinese[END_REF], the causative is actually indicated by a circumfix *s--s, with the verb prefixed and suffixed by *s. The reconstruction of a causative *s-prefix is thus by no means straightforward.

11 It is possible however, that in highly eroded languages like Lolo-Burmese, ancient *S+voiced obstruent clusters have become unvoiced, as specialists of these languages generally believe (??), so that distinguishing between anticausative and causative pairs is not straightforward on Lolo-Burmese internal grounds. Some verb pairs found in Lolo-Burmese (for instance Burmese prat vs phrat 'break') are also attested in Japhug (mbrɤt 'break (it)' vs prɤt 'break, cut (tr)'), showing that at least part of these voicing or aspiration alternations originate from anticausative prenasalization, not from causative *s-.

While all authors agree on the existence of examples, there are barely any example of a verb pair that is agreed on by all scholars.

By contrast, we do find examples of denominal *s-that are accepted by all specialists, in the case of pairs between Middle Chinese l (from Old Chinese *r-) and ʂ-(from Old Chinese *sr-). Table 10 includes two of the most convincing pairs. Other pairs have been proposed, but their acceptance crucially depends on one's particular Old Chinese reconstruction system, and a detailed discussion goes beyond the scope of the present paper. In conclusion, the only uncontroversial fact about Old Chinese morphology is the existence of a denominal *s-prefix, whose exact semantics is unclear due to the dearth of examples. It is possible that a causative *sprefix can be reconstructed, but the evidence is less clear and allows differing interpretations.

Conclusion

This paper provides the first detailed description of the two causative derivations in Japhug Rgyalrong, and in addition proposes two new pathways of grammaticalization.

First, it shows that the sɯcausative in Japhug Rgyalrong is derived from the denominal instrumental / causative denominal derivation (X ⇒ 'use X' or 'cause to have X') through a two-step process already attested for antipassive and applicative derivations (Jacques 2014a). Second, it suggests that the abilitative sɯprefix evolved from the causative through reanalysis of the causee as the agent in negative forms, following pathway 62. The first pathway has considerable implications for this family as a whole: both denominal and causative sibilant prefixes are found across the Sino-Tibetan family. The hypothesis proposed here implies either that only the denominal derivation is reconstructible to proto-Sino-Tibetan (and that the causative has been innovated independently several times from the denominal prefix throughout the family) or that the grammaticalization took place in proto-Sino-Tibetan times.

  The dung caused him to slip and he fell down.(The Demon, 51)

  -diluted.wine ɲɯ́-wɣ-jtsʰi-a-ndʑi ipf-inv-caus:drink-1sg-du pɯ-ɕti pst.ipf-be.emph They d gave me diluted wine to drink. -sɯ-tɕat-a-ndʑi pfv-inv-caus-take.out-1sg-du ɕti be.emph:fact Your two elder sisters forced me to spit it out. (The three sisters, 254)

  -sɯ-mto-a pfv-2→1-caus-see-1sgThe door was closed, but you opened it, you caused me to be seen by the people. (elicited, Chen Zhen 2011) -caus-see-1sg I looked for this thing for a long time, but could not find it, but you showed it to me. (elicited, Chen Zhen 2011) -sɯ-ʁndɯ-ndʑi ifr-inv-caus-beat-du tɕe lnk They p had the two of them beaten (by people).

  -sɯ-rkʰe ipf-inv-caus-carveThe slit is carved with a knife. (Colored belts 13) At least some irregular causatives are also used in this way: -cover-1sgI covered the pan with a cover.

  -sɯ-sɯ-spoʁ ipfv-inv-caus-caus-have.a.hole ɲɯ-ŋu sens-be One makes a hole (into it) with this.(Plough, 8)

  eats small birds, and always nourishes himself with them, it is said. (The buzzard, 3) Although both instruments and A's are marked with the ergative, they differs from each other by their relativization patterns: instruments are relativized with the oblique participle sɤinstead of the S/A participle kɯ-(see 15). (15) [nɯ-mtʰɤɣ 3pl.poss-waist sɤ-xtɕɤr] nmlz:oblique-tie xɕɤfsa thread ma apart.from pjɤ-me evd.ipfv-not.existThey only had threads to tie their waists (the only things that they could use to tie their waists were threads). (Milaraspa translation)

  .in[III] Serve me some tea first.

  hit me with a ladle, you can do the same. (Sentence retold by Chen Zhen from the story "The three sisters") However, we do find causees without ergative. First, topicalized ones (with a pause after the topicalizer): -lɤ-sɯ-rpe irr-transl-pfv:upstream-caus-bump.into[III] ra have.to:fact With the broom shrub, you will have to touch the rock on the road. (Smanmi2.62) Second, when the causee is human, the ergative rarely appears (though it is not ungrammatical): '-caus-put-du They forced the girl to take a great oath.(Fox, 141)

(

  21) tɤ-se indef.poss-blood mtsʰu lake tu-wɣ-sɯ-mtsʰɤt ipf-inv-caus-full Let's fill the lake with blood. (Smanmi2.95)

  (22) pɯ-ʑɣɤ-sɯ-sat pfv-refl-caus-kill He i caused (him, them) to kill himself i (23) ɯʑo he mɯ-to-rɯndzaŋspa neg-ifr-careful tɕe lnk pjɤ-ʑɣɤ-sɯ-mto ifr-refl-caus-see He wasn't careful enough and got himself seen.

  -kɯ-ri 3sg-pfv-nmlz:A-save nɯnɯ dem ʑ-la-nɯ-sɯ-ɣe-nɯ transl-pfv:3→3-autoben-caus-come-pl

(

  25) a-wɯ 1sg.poss-grandfather tɯ-ci indef.poss-water ɲɯ-kɯ-jtsʰi-tɕi ipf-2→1-give.to.drink-1du ɯ́-jɤɣ qu-could:fact Grandfather, could you give us water to drink? (Nima Vodzer 72)

  nɯ-ʑɣɤ-sɯ-ɤpa pfv-refl-caus-become ɲɯ-ŋu ipf-be She changed her son into a serow, and herself into a wild cat. (Lobzang 54)

  -mŋɤm 3sg-nmlz:stat-hurt to-z-ɣɤ-mna ifr-caus-caus-be.cured

  3pl.poss-father ko-z-nɤndza, ifr-caus-have.leprosy Padmasambhava used a poison, and caused their father to contract leprosy. (Gesar 15)

  -nɯ-tɯ-sɯ-qlɯt-nɯ

  -βzu-nɯ ifr-caus-do-pl They employed a great lama and asked him to recite a major sutra.(19)(20) Finally, it can also express coercion, with adverbs such as tɤrkoz or mɤkɯftsʰi "-sɯ-ndza-a pfv-inv-caus-eat-1sg I did not want to eat it, but he forced me to.(Chen Zhen, 2005) Intention. The causative prefix can appear with unintentional actions:(32) tɯ-ŋga indef.poss-clothes ɲɤ-sɯ-ɤrŋi-t-a ifr-caus-blue-pst-1sgI caused the clothes to become blue (unintentionally, by washing them the wrong way; el., Chen Zhen) Directness, naturalness and involvement. The causative prefix sɯcan express various degrees of involvement on the part of the causer, as exemplified by the following example: ) had his horse trample one of the snakes, and caused it to throw up the white one (snake).(Nyima Wodzer,30)

  .a.shame That thing broke, what a shame!

  very much. (a lost cellphone cover, Dpalcan, conversation, 2010)

  -caus-come-pl They don't let me sleep. NOT "They do not cause me to sleep" (Dpalcan, 2010, elicitation) (40) ɯ-tɯ-ɣɤcraŋlaŋ 3sg-nmlz:degr-make.noise kɯ erg koŋla really mɯ́j-kɯ-z-rɤ-βzjoz neg:sens-genr:S/O-caus-apass-learn ʑo emph They make so much noise that they do not let people study at all.(Dpalcan, 2010, elicitation) .usually.the.case (The male deer) prevent (the female) to leave the place, and do not let them drink even a swallow of water. (dictionary entry on "deer"-sɯ-tɯt-a neg-pfv-caus-say[II]-1sg

  -sɯ-χtɯ-nɯ cisloc-ipfv:downstream-caus-buy-pl ŋu.

  -tɯ-ɣɤ-wxti neg-imp-2-caus-big It is expensive, don't make it that expensive. (Bargaining, 11) Like the prefix sɯ-(see 2.1.2), causative verbs with ɣɤare used with a complement in kɤinfinitive to express the manner in which the action takes placeHe chopped the pig food very fine. (elicited, Dpalcan 2010) (49) kɯm door tɤ-ɣɤ-βdi-t-a ifr-caus-good-pst-1sg tɕe, lnk kɤ-cɯ inf-open tɤ-ɣɤ-kʰɯ-t-a ifr-caus-be.possible-pst-1sg

( 50 )

 50 kɤ-rɤt inf-write mɯ-pjɤ-tɯ-ɣɤ-βdi-t neg-ifr-2-caus-good-pst You did not write it well ("you wrote it badly", not in the sense "you did not write it at all"), (el. Chen Zhen 2011) -tɯ-ɣɤ-kʰɯ-t

I

  made the clothes shorter.(el., Chen Zhen)

  -ʑɣɤ-ɣɤ-mbjom irr-pfv-refl-caus-fast May you be as light as a feather, and your horse as swift as the wind.(Smanmi Metog Koshana, 62) Example 27 above (2.1.3) illustrates a verb with both causative prefixes.

  mɯ-pjɤ-z-nɤɕqa, neg-ifr-abilitative-bear But the old woman was not able to resist (couldn't help) (and told them). (The three sisters 2014, 596)

  through her nails, as they are very hard and thick.(notes 2012.8.6)

  ) can grow so thick that two or three people cannot hug (its trunk).(Fir, 6)

( 62 )

 62 negative + causative ⇒ preventive ⇒ negative + abilitative

Table 1 :

 1 Examples of the zallomorph of the causative prefix nature of the prefix base derived

	non-analysable denominal antipassive rɤ-	mɯnmu move z-mɯnmu cause to move nɯna rest z-nɯna stop nɤma work z-nɤma cause to work rɤrɤt write z-rɤrɤt cause to write

Table 2 :

 2 The sɯand sɯɣallomorphs of the causative prefix

	transitivity base	derived
	intr. tr. intr. tr. intr. tr.	ɕe ɕɯm ndzur stand go brood ndza eat tso understand sɯɣ-tso sɯɣ-ɕe sɯ-ɕɯm sɯɣ-ndzur cause to stand up send cause to brood sɯ-ndza cause to eat cause to understand tsɯm take away sɯ-tsɯm cause to take away, send

Table 3 :

 3 The sɤallomorph of the causative prefix

	base	derived
	ambrɤqɤt be different andɯja gather amɲɤm be homogeneous sɤmɲɤm sɤmbrɤqɤt distinguish sɤndɯja cause to gather homogenize

Table 4 :

 4 The irregular allomorphs of the causative prefix

	base		derived
	fka fkaβ mbɣom mnɤm mŋɤm ntaβ ngo nŋo ɴqoʁ rŋo (tɯ-mbrɯ) ŋgɯ be / become angry be full (after eating) ɕɯ-fka cover ɕɯ-fkaβ be in a hurry ɕɯ-mbɣom have a smell ɕɯ-mnɤm hurt (of a body part) ɕɯ-mŋɤm be stable ɕɯ-ntaβ sick ɕɯ-ngo lose ɕɯ-nŋo be hung ɕɯ-ɴqoʁ borrow ɕɯ-rŋo (tɯ-mbrɯ) ɕɯ-ŋgɯ anger someone cause to be full cover with something cause to be in a hurry cause to have a smell hurt (somebody) put cause to become sick win hang lend rŋgɯ lie down ɕɯ-rŋgɯ cause to lie down,
	rga	be glad	ɕɯ-rga	ferment (alcohol) please somebody
	mu	be afraid	ɕɯɣ-mu	frighten
	pʰɣo	flee	ɕpʰɣo	take away

lɯɣ get loose, get free ɕlɯɣ drop ɴqoʁ be hung ʑɴɢoʁ hang on a hook ŋga wear ʑŋga help someone to wear mbri cry ʑmbri play (an instrument) tsʰi drink jtsʰi give to drink qanɯ dark sqanɯ put in darkness

Table 5 :

 5 Examples of the sɯcausative with stative verbs base causative

	arŋi wɣrum ɲaʁ ɣɯrni mɤrtsaβ spicy blue white black red mŋɤm be painful ɕɯ-mŋɤm sɯ-ɤrŋi sɯ-wɣrum sɯɣ-ɲaʁ z-ɣɯrni z-mɤrtsaβ

Table 6 :

 6 Examples of denominal verbs in sɯand sɤin Japhug

	Category	Transitivity Derived verb Meaning	Base noun Meaning
	property position	intr. intr. intr.	sɤ-ndɤɣ sɤ-mbrɯ sɯ-ndzɯpe	to be poisonous to be angry to sit (in a special way) ndzɯpe (tɤ)-ndɤɣ (tɤ)-mbrɯ	poison anger way of sitting
	instrument intr.

Table 7 :

 7 Examples of voicing alternation in Middle Chinese

	Intransitive Meaning	Transitive Meaning
	現 ɣen³ 敗 baej³ 别 bjet 折 dʑet	appear be defeated be different, leave 别 pjet 見 ken³ 敗 paej³ break, bend (it) 折 tɕet	see defeat separate break, bend (tr)

Table 8 :

 8 Examples of the anticausative alternation in Japhug ), which preserve the causative prefix as a distinct segment (s-in Tibetan and ɕəor tɕəin Jinghpo) or as a suprasegmental feature unrelated with voicing (Gong 1999, Jacques 2014b: 250-1). Since causative and anticausative derivations are clearly distinct in Tibetan, Rgyalrong, Tangut and Jinghpo, it is not possible that the verb pairs in Chinese such as those presented in Table7can be explained as being traces of a causative prefix *s-(see also LaPolla 2003). 11 It is more likely to assume, following Sagart

	Base verb Meaning	Derived verb Meaning
	transitive		intransitive
	χtɤr prɤt tɕɣaʁ pɣaʁ xtʰom cʰɤβ cɯ	spill break squeeze out turn over to put horizontally ndom ʁndɤr mbrɤt ndʑɣaʁ mbɣaʁ to flatten, to crush ɲɟɤβ to open ɲɟɯ	be spilled break, cut (it) be squeezed out (spontaneously) roll about (it) to be horizontal to be crushed, flattened to be opened
	1990: 78

Table 9 :

 9 Examples of the causative *s-in Old Chinese according to[START_REF] Sagart | Reconstructing the s-prefix in Old Chinese[END_REF]

	Middle Chinese Old Chinese Meaning
	視 dʑij² 示 ʑij³ 食 ʑik 飼 zi³	← *gijʔ ← *s-gijʔ-s ← *mə-lək ← *s-m-lək-s feed see show eat

Table 10 :

 10 Examples of the denominal *s-in Old Chinese Middle Chinese Old Chinese Meaning

	吏 li³ 使 ʂi² 率 lwit 率 ʂwit	← *rəʔ-s ← *s-rəʔ ← *rut ← *s-rut	officer send norm, standard follow, go along

There may be other languages in which this prefix is productive, such as Jinghpo or Dulong (seeDai 1990: 71-8 and Sūn 1982: 101-2), but additional data is necessary, especially concerning the treatment of loanwords.

The causative verbs sɯ-βzu 'cause to do' and ɣɤ-kʰɯ 'cause to be possible' can be used with verb complements to express causation; this construction is not discussed in the present paper.

3→1sg and 2→1sg forms are chosen because these are the only ones where the number and person of both arguments are indexed on the verb.

This example is adapted from a traditional story; the speaker here is the shepherd Askyabs kɯlɤɣ acɤβ, whom a bird (in fact a reincarnated queen) asks to deliver a message to the king. The bird itself does not go to see the king directly.

Only examples with transitive verbs have been found; thus there are no allomorphs sɯɣand sɤ-, that can only be found on intransitive verbs.

Historical derivationOn the basis of the data in the previous section, we show that two grammaticalization pathways can be proposed in Japhug. First, the causative

Verb and nouns have very different morphological properties in Japhug, and there is no zero derivation from noun to verb.

Tibetan in this paper is transcribed according to Jacques (2012a)'s conventions.

The causative has an allomorph zbefore l-.

We also find one example of a denominal stative property verb sɲan 'pleasant (speech), melodious' from ɲan 'hear'.

In the case of velars, there was no non-palatalized g in Middle Chinese, so that the alternation ɣ / k is expected, and all specialists of Old Chinese reconstruction agree that Middle Chinese ɣoriginates from *g-, see[START_REF] Baxter | A Handbook of Old Chinese Phonology Trends in Linguistics[END_REF].

We have shown that some apparent examples of causative sin Tibetan are better analyzed as denominal verbs, suggesting that the reanalysis from denominal to causative was still ongoing in Old Tibetan times. In the case of Chinese, the dearth of convincing examples of causative *s-possibly implies that it has never developed a real causative prefix.

research was funded by the HimalCo project (ANR-12-CORP-0006) and is related to the research strand LR-4.11 ''Automatic Paradigm Generation and Language Description'' of the Labex EFL (funded by the ANR/CGI).