DOCSLIB.ORG

Bbcigbal DEGREECOI0MD

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Bbcigbal DEGREECOI0MD Bakweri Verb Morphology By Ann Katherine Hawkinson A.B. (University of California, Santa Barbara) 1973 M.A. (University of California) 1975 DISSERTATION Submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in Linguistics in the GRADUATE DIVISION OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY Chairman Datre BBCIGBAl DEGREE COI0MD HU 18,1888 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. BAKWERi VERB MORPHOLOGY Copyright© 1985 by Ann Katherine Hawkinson Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Bakweri Verb Morphology Ann Katherine Hawkinson Abstract This thesis has two objectives. The first is informational. Bakweri, the language studied, is an unwritten Bantu language spoken in Cameroon in West Africa. It is hoped that the data described will contribute to our understanding of Bantu grammatical structure in general and provoke further research into the processes of semantic differentiation and diachronic development in these languages. The second goal of this dissertation is to demonstrate the value of certain theortical constructs in the analysis of language. The concepts of interest are those of meaning, as opposed to message, and system, substance, and value. Meaning is defined as "the information which a linguistic form conveys in any and all instances of its use". Message is that idea or notion which is in fe rre d from the use of a particular meaning in a given context. Meanings cannot be understood in isolation from one another: they acquire their value through semantic opposition to other meanings in a given semantic system. The grammar of a language consists of a number of different systems, each of which conveys information concerning a given semantic substance, such as time, focus, nersonr number, etc. Within each system there are different forms which signal different values of the substance classified. So, for example, plural in the system of number in a language which has no dual means more than one. In a language which does exihibit dual this is not necessarily the case; plural may mean only more than two. By analyzing Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 Bakweri verb morphology using these theoretical constructs, it becomes possible to explain instances of synchronic semantic differentiation which might otherwise appear unmotivated Bakweri exhibits characteristics found throughout Bantu languages: namely, an extensive system of noun classification and complex agglutinative verb morphology. !t is the latter which is the focus of interest in this dissertation. However, to provide the reader with the necessary linguistic background to interpret examples given throughout the text, the noun class system and the phonology of the language are briefly described (Chapters 3 and 4). Chapter 1 provides language classification information, while Chapter 2 describes the theoretical orientation, cf. above. Chapters 5-11 cover various aspects of the verb. They are described here briefly. Chapter 5 provides a description the basic structure of verb roots in the language, as well as dicussion.s of root types which constitute exceptions to the general patterns observed. Chapter 6 focuses upon the system of verbal concord prefixes which refer to different noun classes found in the language. It also contains a discussion of passive constructions. Chapters 7 and 8 contain descriptions of verbal derivational suffixes used to signal information about roles which entities involved in events play. Chapter 9 treats reflexive constructions. Chapter 10 describes tense and aspect affixes in affirmative verbs; Chapter 11 treats the same for negative verbs. In conclusion, Chapter 12 reviews the analytical questions raised by the phenomena described in preceding chapters and suggests avenues for further research. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. i Dedications This thesis is dedicated to three people, each of whom has special significance for me. First and foremost, it is dedicated to my mother, Jane, in recognition and deepest appreciation of her loving support for whatever I choose to do in my life. I t is also dedicated to my father, Don, who always wanted me to go to graduate school. I am sorry that he was not here to see it happen, and to share with me in the joy of completion. And finally, it is dedicated to one of my students, Carrie Hansen, whose recent meeting w ith death reminded me just how precious life is...at a time when I risked forgetting. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Acknowledgements The writing of this dissertation has been facilitated and supported by a number of different people throughout my graduate studies, and subsequent to them. Each has contributed in a different way, and I would like to acknowledge each and every one of them personally for their support and encouragement of my work. For anyone whom I do not mention specifically, I hope that they will forgive the omission. First and most importantly, I would like to convey great appreciation to my principal informant, Mr. Martin Musonge, for his patience and persistence during our work together. Clearly, without him, this thesis would not have been possible. Special thanks belong also to my secondary informant, Ms. Mary Eposi Westbrook, in particular for her willingness to work with me in the collection of texts and in providing me additional time to aather material on short notice. Of great importance in another way, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to Dr. Larry Hyman. He encouraged my early interest in Santu linguistics and supported all my work in this area. It was he who made it possible for me to undertake the research project during which I gathered the data upon which this thesis is based, and encouraged me to develop it into my doctoral dissertation. ! suspect that it would never have come to be were it not for his support and direction when I needed it. His comments on earlier versions of the text also helped me achieve a greater clarity and cohesion in presentation. I would also like to convey my heartfelt thanks to Dr. Robert Kirsner for his support and encouragement of my interest in the Form-Content Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. approach to linguistic analysis from which my theoretical orientation derives. His comments on an earlier version of this thesis were invaluable in helping me refine my analyses of various grammatical structures. They also guided me in changing certain aspects of presentation to facilitate the accessability of the material covered to non-Bantuists. Another person to whom I would like to give special thanks is Dr. Erica Garcia, for her enthusiastic support of my work and my interest in Form-Content theory. She has spent many hours of her time working with and challenging me to go deeper into linguistic analysis. Whatever rigorousness of procedure I possess I owe to her careful guidance. Her clarity of thinking and purpose remains a continuing inspiration to me in my work. I would also like to express special appreciation to my co-researcher Dr. Ken Stallcup for his support both during the research project and subsequent to it. His enthusiastic offer of project material for use in writing this dissertation helped me to bring the project to completion. Special thanks are also expressed to colleagues of Afrikaannse Taalkur.de at the University of Leiden for their interest and encouragement of my work on Bakweri. In particular, I remember Jan Voornoeve most fondly for his enthusiasm and efforts to obtain funding for further research, Thilo Schadeberg for his efforts to continue Jan's application for funding following his death, and, more recently, the assistance which Julia Kuperus provided in obtaining regional maps of the area where Bakweri is spoken. My only regret is that we did not have more time to work together. Although not directly involved with the content of this dissertation, Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. I would like to acknowledge my appreciation of Dr. Diane Larsen-Freeman’s support for my work and for my completion of this dissertation. !t has been a long time in the making and her continued interest helped me finally set enough time aside to see the project through. Lastly, but certainly not of least significance, I would like to express my gratitude to my dissertation committee, to Dr. James Matisoff for his support throughout the various versions of the text, and to Dr. Karl Zimmer and Dr. John Gumperz for their interest and support of my work and for their willingness to join my committee late in the process. I apologize for any inconvenience that this may have caused them. Special thanks are due also to Ms. LaRue Seegmiller for her support and for all her efforts in helping me work through the administrative details of completing my degree. There are many other people who have contributed indirectly to this thesis through the influence of their instruction at various times during my graduate studies. 1 would like to acknowledge the significance of their guidance. They are Dr. William Diver and students working with him at Columbia University; members of my qualifying examination committee who have not already been specifically mentioned, Dr. Mary Haas for her support and interest in my desire to understand earlier theories and analytical approaches from the field of linguistics, Dr. Benji Wald for his encouragement and direction in my work in Bantu linguistics, in particular in the study of Swahili, Dr. Charles Fillmore, for his interest and direction in the original work on Bakweri in a field methods class; Mr. Orin Gensler, for detailed comments on an earlier verision of the text; my adopted Swahili family members in Mombasa, Kenya who supported me in Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • The Morphology of Modern Western Abenaki
    The Morphology of Modern Western Abenaki Jesse Beach ‘04 Honors Thesis Dartmouth College Program of Linguistics & Cognitive Science Primary Advisor: Prof. David Peterson Secondary Advisor: Prof. Lindsay Whaley May 17, 2004 Acknowledgements This project has commanded a considerable amount of my attention and time over the past year. The research has lead me not only into Algonquian linguistics, but has also introduced me to the world of Native American cultures. The history of the Abenaki people fascinated me as much as their language. I must extnd my fullest appreciate to my advisor David Peterson, who time and again proposed valuable reference suggestions and paths of analysis. The encouragement he offered was indispensable during the research and writing stages of this thesis. He also went meticulously through the initial drafts of this document offering poignant comments on content as well as style. My appreciation also goes to my secondary advisor Lindsay Whaley whose door is always open for a quick chat. His suggestions helped me broaden the focus of my research. Although I was ultimately unable to arrange the field research component of this thesis, the generosity of the Dean of Faculty’s Office and the Richter Memorial Trust Grant that I received from them assisted me in gaining a richer understanding of the current status of the Abenaki language. With the help of this grant, I was able to travel to Odanak, Quebec to meet the remaining speakers of Abenaki. From these conversations I was able to locate additional materials that aided me tremendously in my analysis. Many individuals have offered me assistance in one form or another throughout the unfolding of my research.
    [Show full text]
  • Chapter 1 Negation in a Cross-Linguistic Perspective
    Chapter 1 Negation in a cross-linguistic perspective 0. Chapter summary This chapter introduces the empirical scope of our study on the expression and interpretation of negation in natural language. We start with some background notions on negation in logic and language, and continue with a discussion of more linguistic issues concerning negation at the syntax-semantics interface. We zoom in on cross- linguistic variation, both in a synchronic perspective (typology) and in a diachronic perspective (language change). Besides expressions of propositional negation, this book analyzes the form and interpretation of indefinites in the scope of negation. This raises the issue of negative polarity and its relation to negative concord. We present the main facts, criteria, and proposals developed in the literature on this topic. The chapter closes with an overview of the book. We use Optimality Theory to account for the syntax and semantics of negation in a cross-linguistic perspective. This theoretical framework is introduced in Chapter 2. 1 Negation in logic and language The main aim of this book is to provide an account of the patterns of negation we find in natural language. The expression and interpretation of negation in natural language has long fascinated philosophers, logicians, and linguists. Horn’s (1989) Natural history of negation opens with the following statement: “All human systems of communication contain a representation of negation. No animal communication system includes negative utterances, and consequently, none possesses a means for assigning truth value, for lying, for irony, or for coping with false or contradictory statements.” A bit further on the first page, Horn states: “Despite the simplicity of the one-place connective of propositional logic ( ¬p is true if and only if p is not true) and of the laws of inference in which it participate (e.g.
    [Show full text]
  • Existential and Locative Predication in Some Eastern Oceanic Languages Claire Moyse-Faurie
    Existential and locative predication in some eastern Oceanic languages Claire Moyse-Faurie To cite this version: Claire Moyse-Faurie. Existential and locative predication in some eastern Oceanic languages. Te Reo: Journal of the New Zealand Society, Linguistic Society of New Zealand, 2019, Special Issue in Honour of Frantisek Lichtenberk, 62 (1). hal-02868639 HAL Id: hal-02868639 https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-02868639 Submitted on 19 Jun 2020 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. Te Reo the Journal of the Linguistic Society of New Zealand Volume 62 Issue 1 (Special Issue): Issue in Honour of Frantisek Lichtenberk Research Article 2019 pp. 49–74 September 2019 Existential and locative predication in some eastern Oceanic languages Claire Moyse-Faurie Lacito-CNRS, France This paper is a peer-reviewed contribution from https://nzlingsoc.makeitso.nz/journal/current-issue ©Te Reo – The Journal of the Linguistic Society of New Zealand Guest Editors: Andreea S. Calude & Suzanne Kemmer Claire Moyse-Faurie 49 Existential and locative predication in some eastern Oceanic languages Claire Moyse-Faurie Abstract In many Oceanic languages a category of plain verbs expressing existence, and their negative counterparts, is found.
    [Show full text]
  • Passamaquoddy-Maliseet Parts of Speech
    PASSAMAQUODDY-MALISEET PARTS OF SPEECH ROBERT M LEAVTTT University of New Brunswick AND DAVID A. FRANCIS Pleasant Point Bilingual Program Thb paper explores ways of giving native names to the parts of speech in Passamaquoddy-Malbeet by identifying in each term the characteristics of a particular noun or verb type. A term may refer implicitly, for instance, to both the animacy and transitivity of a verb, or to the grammatical function of a noun. There has been much detailed analysb of Passamaquoddy- Malbeet as it b spoken today in Maine and New Brunswick. Lingubts and teachers have been working together to figure out how speakers make words, and what patterns can be found in the shape words take. Teachers especially see that new speak­ ers can learn to make use of these patterns; fluent speakers can use them to uncover the rich structure of the language. With­ out thb knowledge, teachers cannot plan a comprehensive native language instructional program. A catalogue of noun and verb paradigms keyed to descriptions of Passamaquoddy-Malbeet sentences is currently being com­ piled and will serve as a guide to the language. The paradigms are organized in a way that makes the hundreds of forms eas­ ily accessible. Both sections encourage users to compare similar words and to create categories of words that follow the same patterns. Any such guide must in turn be keyed to a dictionary 320 LEAVTTT AND FRANCIS that clearly displays the "principal parts" of each word (i.e., the different stems used in inflected forms). The guide and the dictio­ nary can then be used together to figure out how to say anything in Passamaquoddy-Malbeet—or at least make a good guess!— or how to translate anything from Passamaquoddy-Malbeet into English.
    [Show full text]
  • Grammar in the Context of Language Learning
    Richard Osborne In the Context of English Language Learning © 2019 Osborne Solutions All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. Richard Osborne Director of Osborne Solutions Lieu dit La Malétie 24290 Saint-Léon-sur-Vézère France www.osbornesolutions.co [email protected] Feel like embedding your grammar explanations into communicative online activities? - ‘Ultra-Blended’ with online and offline video chat - Free ‘starter’ lesson templates - Training webinars and support community - Centralise your existing platforms and content Find out more at teacher-powered.com Front cover image copyright © 2019 Yucan Chen / Depositphotos.com Contents Introduction 6 Why use a Grammar book? 7 Tips 8 Chunking 8 Personalising 9 Learning 10 The internet 11 What is grammar? 12 Definition 12 Origins 12 Syntax 14 The English Sentence 14 The importance of Auxiliary Verbs 15 Would that it were… 16 Nouns 17 Plurality 17 Countability 18 Spelling and Pronunciation 19 Articles 20 Quantity 22 This, that, these and those 24 Verbs 25 To be or not to be 25 Irregular verbs 27 Phrasal verbs 28 Special cases 29 Modals 31 Adjectives 35 Comparison 35 Possession 36 Adverbs 37 Degree (very, quite, etc.) 38 Sentence 38 How often…
    [Show full text]
  • Negation, Referentiality and Boundedness In
    WECATfON, REFERENTLALm ANT) BOUNDEDNESS flV BRETON A CASE STUDY Dl MARKEDNESS ANI) ASYMMETRY Nathalie Simone rMarie Schapansky B.A. (French), %=on Fraser University 1990 M.A. (Linguistics), Simon Fraser university 1992 THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIEiEMEN'I'S FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in the Department of Linguistics @Nathalie Simone Marie Schapansky, 1996 SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY November 1996 All rights reserved. This work may not be reproduced in whole or in part, by photocopy or other means, without permission of the author. BibiiotMque nationale du Canada Acquisitions and Direction des acquisitions et Bibliogra~hicServices Branch des services bibiiographiques Your hie Vorre rbference Our hle Notre r6Orence The author has granted an k'auteur a accorde une licence irrevocable nsn-exclusive f icence irtct5vocable et non exclusive allowing the National Library of perrnettant a la Bibliotheque Canada to reproduce, loan, nationale du Canada de distribute or sell copies of reproduire, prgttor, distribuer ou his/her thesis by any means and vendre des copies de sa these in any form or format, making de quelque rnaniere et sous this thesis available to interested quelque forme que ce soit pour persons. mettre des exemplaires de cette these a la disposition des personnes interessees. The author retains ownership of L'auteur conserve la propriete du the copyright in his/her thesis. droit d'auteur qui protege sa Neither the thesis nor substantial these. Ni la these ni des extraits extracts from it may be printed or substantiels de celle-ci ne otherwise reproduced without doivent &re imprimes ou his/her permission.
    [Show full text]
  • Complementation in Japhug Gyalrong Guillaume Jacques
    Complementation in Japhug Gyalrong Guillaume Jacques To cite this version: Guillaume Jacques. Complementation in Japhug Gyalrong. Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area, Dept. of Linguistics, University of California, 2016, 39 (2), pp.222-281 10.1075/ltba.39.2.02jac. halshs-01566124 HAL Id: halshs-01566124 https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-01566124 Submitted on 20 Jul 2017 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. Complementation in Japhug Gyalrong* Guillaume Jacques July 20, 2017 Jacques, Guillaume 2016. Complementation in Japhug, Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area, 39(2):222–281. Abstract: This article provides a detailed survey of complement clauses and complementation strategies in Japhug. It shows the bewildering diver- sity of constructions attested in these languages, which are largely unpre- dictable and need to be specified for each complement-taking verb. Special focus is given to typologically unusual constructions, in particular Hybrid Indirect Speech. Keywords: Japhug; Reported Speech; Complement clauses; Infinitive; Participle; Serial Verb Constructions; Causative; Motion Verbs Introduction Japhug, like other Gyalrong languages, has a complex verbal morphology and a rich array of complement clauses. Building on previous research, in particular Jacques (2008, 337-356) and Sun (2012), this article presents a detailed survey of all known types of complement clauses in Japhug and their distribution among complement-taking verbs.
    [Show full text]
  • Alternations in Murui: a Morphological Approach Amy Ruth Havlicek
    University of North Dakota UND Scholarly Commons Theses and Dissertations Theses, Dissertations, and Senior Projects January 2017 Alternations In Murui: A Morphological Approach Amy Ruth Havlicek Follow this and additional works at: https://commons.und.edu/theses Recommended Citation Havlicek, Amy Ruth, "Alternations In Murui: A Morphological Approach" (2017). Theses and Dissertations. 2229. https://commons.und.edu/theses/2229 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses, Dissertations, and Senior Projects at UND Scholarly Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of UND Scholarly Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. ALTERNATIONS IN MURUI: A MORPHOLOGICAL APPROACH by Amy Havlicek Bachelor of Arts, Covenant College, 2009 A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the University of North Dakota in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Grand Forks, North Dakota December 2017 © 2017 Amy Havlicek ii This thesis, submitted by Amy Havlicek in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts from the University of North Dakota, has been read by the Faculty Advisory Committee under whom the work has been done and is hereby approved. ___________________________________________________________________ Dr. Stephen A. Marlett, Chair ___________________________________________________________________ Dr. John M. Clifton ___________________________________________________________________
    [Show full text]
  • Negation in Mauwake, a Papuan Language
    Liisa Berghäll Negation in Mauwake, a Papuan language Abstract This article describes negators and their use in Mauwake,1 a Papuan language on the North Coast of the Madang Province in Papua New Guinea. Mauwake employs four negative adverbs. Two of them are almost synonymous but used in slightly different syntactic structures. In many environments there is a choice between two or more negators: the use of each is discussed. Negation strategies in other Papuan languages related to Mauwake are briefly touched on as well. 1. Negation strategies in Papuan languages The simplest and cross-linguistically most common negation strategy, uninflected particles (Dahl 1979: 84, Payne 1985: 222, Miestamo 2003: 227–379), is also very common as the main negation strategy in Papuan languages. A language may have just one negator like Nek, which uses nim ‘no, not’ either pre-verbally or clause-finally.2 Many languages have two negators, one for clausal negation and the other for a negative interjection: Bargam (Hepner), Maia (Hardin), Usan (Reesink 1987). 1 Mauwake is a fairly rigid SOV language, as is common with Papuan languages. Within the noun phrase, all attributes follow the head noun, with the exception of possessives and nominal qualifiers. As is typical of SOV languages, Mauwake is almost totally a suffixal and postpositional language: all verbs have at least one suffix, and usually more, and noun phrases may take post-clitics In content questions the question word is at the pattern-position, i.e. where the questioned element would be in a corresponding statement. In polar questions the question clitic -i comes as the last element of the clause.
    [Show full text]
  • Using Verbs and Adjectives to Automatically Classify Blog Sentiment
    Using Verbs and Adjectives to Automatically Classify Blog Sentiment Paula Chesley Bruce Vincent and Li Xu Rohini K. Srihari Department of Linguistics Department of Computer Science Center of Excellence for Document University at Buffalo and Engineering Analysis and Recognition (CEDAR) [email protected] University at Buffalo University at Buffalo {bvincent,lixu}@buffalo.edu [email protected] Abstract 1. How effectively can classes of verbs in blog posts catego- rize sentiment? This paper presents experiments on subjectivity and po- larity classification of blog posts, making novel use of 2. How can we utilize online lexical resources, such as a linguistic feature, verb class information, and of an Wikipedia’s dictionary, to automatically categorize adjec- online resource, the Wikipedia dictionary. The verb tives expressing polarity? classes we use express objectivity and polarity, i.e., a positive or negative opinion. We derive the polar- 3. What is the best way to propagate up sentiment informa- ity of adjectives from their entries in the online dic- tion from the lexical level to the post level? tionary. Each post from a blog is classified as objec- 4. Are blogs different from other genres expressing senti- tive, subjective-positive, or subjective-negative. Our ap- ment and if so, how? proach is topic- and genre-independent, and our method of determining the polarity of adjectives has an accu- Having manually examined hundredsof blogs, the answer to racy rate of 90.9%. Accuracy rates of two verb classes (4) seems to reside precisely in the diverse rhetorical struc- demonstrating polarity are 89.3% and 91.2%. Initial ture of blog posts and large-scale references to other media.
    [Show full text]
  • Descriptive and Methodological Issues in Kiranti Grammar(S) Aimée Lahaussois
    Descriptive and methodological issues in Kiranti grammar(s) Aimée Lahaussois To cite this version: Aimée Lahaussois. Descriptive and methodological issues in Kiranti grammar(s). Humanities and Social Sciences. Université de Paris / Université Paris Diderot (Paris 7), 2020. tel-03030562 HAL Id: tel-03030562 https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/tel-03030562 Submitted on 30 Nov 2020 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. Université de Paris Ecole Doctorale "Sciences du language", ED 622 MÉMOIRE DÉPOSÉ EN VUE DE L’HABILITATION À DIRIGER DES RECHERCHES DESCRIPTIVE AND METHODOLOGICAL ISSUES IN KIRANTI GRAMMAR(S) AIMÉE LAHAUSSOIS JURY M. Olivier Bonami, PU, Université de Paris (garant) Mme. Hilary Chappell, DE, EHESS (examinateur) M. George van Driem, Professor, Université de Berne (rapporteur) M. Enrique Palancar, DR, CNRS-Sedyl (examinateur) M. Nick Riemer, Professor, University of Sydney (examinateur) Mme. Françoise Rose, DR, CNRS-DDL (présidente) Mme. Margaret Thomas, Professor, Boston College (rapporteur) 20 novembre 2020 TABLE OF CONTENTS
    [Show full text]
  • When Arguments Become Adjuncts: Split Configurationality in Leggbó Jeff Good Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
    When arguments become adjuncts: Split configurationality in Leggbó Jeff Good Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig 0 Introduction Leggbó is an Upper Cross language of the Niger-Congo family spoken by about 60,000 people in southeastern Nigeria. In affirmative sentences, it shows SVO word order, but in negative sentences, it shows SOV order. Comparable word-order shifts have been documented in other West African languages (Koopman 1984, Baker and Kandybowicz 2002). However, the properties of this word-order shift in Leggbó, though superficially similar to these other reported cases, show that it is of a previously unattested type. The primary goal of this paper is to present evidence for an analysis of the syntax of negative sentences in the language wherein the arguments of negative verbs are preposed and adjoined to the left edge of their sentence. The primary support for this analysis will come from the fact that Leggbó affirmatives show syntactic behavior roughly akin to SVO sentences of the sort found in English, while negatives show such different syntactic behavior that not only is there no clear evidence for particular argument positions in them, but they also do not seem to contain a VP constituent at all. An implication of this characterization of Leggbó syntax is that the language is exhibiting a typologically rare phenomenon which can usefully be labeled split configurationality. Affirmative sentences, on the one hand, appear to have configurational structure, insofar as the arguments of affirmative verbs will be seen to have specific, syntactically-defined positions. Negative sentences, on the other hand, appear to have non-configurational structure insofar as arguments of negative verbs will be shown to be placed in adjunct positions and, therefore, are not associated with any particular positions in the syntactic structure.
    [Show full text]