A corpus-based description of Kakabe, a Western Mande language: prosody in grammar Alexandra Vydrina To cite this version: Alexandra Vydrina. A corpus-based description of Kakabe, a Western Mande language: prosody in grammar. Linguistics. Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales, 2017. English. tel-03203594 HAL Id: tel-03203594 https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/tel-03203594 Submitted on 20 Apr 2021 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. Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales École doctorale N°265 Langues, littératures et sociétés du monde LLACAN (UMR8135) THÈSE présentée par Alexandra VYDRINA soutenue le 15 Septembre 2017 pour obtenir le grade de Docteur de l’INALCO Discipline : Sciences du Langage : linguistique et didactique des langues A corpus‐based description of Kakabe, a Western Mande language: prosody in grammar Volume I Thèse dirigée par : Mme Martine VANHOVE Directrice de recherche, LLACAN, CNRS M. Dmitry IDIATOV Chargé de recherche, LLACAN, CNRS RAPPORTEURS : M. Denis CREISSELS Professeur émérite, Université Lyon 2 M. Lolke VAN DER VEEN Professeur, Université Lyon 2 MEMBRES DU JURY : Mme Martine VANHOVE Directrice de recherche, LLACAN, CNRS M. Dmitry IDIATOV Chargé de recherche, LLACAN, CNRS M. Lolke VAN DER VEEN Professeur, Université Lyon 2 M. Denis CREISSELS Professeur émérite, Université Lyon 2 M. Alexis MICHAUD Chargé de recherche, LACITO, CNRS Mme Annie RIALLAND Directrice de recherche émérite, LPP, CNRS M. Carlos GUSSENHOVEN Professeur émérite, Université Radboud, Nijmegen Acknowledgments Many people supported me through the writing of this thesis, and I am deeply indebted to all of them. I am grateful to Martine Vanhove and Dmitry Idiatov for accepting me as PhD student and for guiding me with such patience and geniality through my research and studies. I want to thank all the members of LLACAN, who always offered me great support, in particular Jeanne Zerner, Magali Diraison who helped me out some many times, Stéphane Robert, who always was an inspiring example, Marie-Claude Simenone-Senelle, Guillaume Ségerer, Mark van de Velde and Amina Mettouchi. Thanks to Valentina Schiattarella, Nthatisi Bulane, Jean- François Nunez, Roula Skaf, Miriam Möller, Karina Tavares Moreira, Lora Litvinova who shared with me the PhD working space and all the joys and hardships of thesis writing. I am greatly indebted to Christian Chanard, whose help with formatting and programming was so essential for the creation of the dictionary and the corpus. From 2013 to 2015 I benefited from the support of the ELDP, apart from the financial help this was an invaluable opportunity for learning the essentials in the methodology of language documentation. I am grateful to the MIT linguistics department for hosting me as invited student, and in particular to Sabine Iatridou for the discussions. I want to thank Rajesh Bhatt and Roumyana Pancheva for their encouragement and for introducing me to formal semantics. I am grateful to Alexis, Michaud, Carlos Gussenhoven, Denis Creissels, Larry Hyman and Annie Rialland for their valuable comments on my chapters. I am grateful to the people in the Sajoya, Sokotoro, Nyamayara, Kourou Pampa, Dogomet and Thiernoya villages for their hospitality. I am grateful to Mammadi Djané, the director of the linguistics institute in Conakry. This thesis would not have been possible without An- soumane Camara, my teacher and assistant since 2011, his help has been invaluable in the last three fieldtrips. I want to thank Amadou Maka, my main guide in the Western Kak- abe area, with whom we visited together so many villages in Fouta-Djallon, and Alfa Bakar Doumbouya, Samba Nyma Keita and Mamadou Saydou Conde, my main language consul- 1 2 tants during my first four stays in Guinea. I want to thank Brad Willits and Melva Wahl from the PBT organization with whom the Kakabe Alphabet book was created, and who were so hospitable both in Guinea and in Italy. I thank the administration of the Dogomet subprefec- ture for their support in the organization of the celebration on the occasion of the publication of the French-Kakabe dictionary. Special thanks to Alexandre Hobeika, for his support at all stages of the work on the thesis and to Anne-Marie Hobeika and Michel Hobeika. I want to thank Laure Breaud, who made me look differently at dancing in Kourou Pampa. I want to thank my friends and professors in St. Petersburg University, in particular, Maria Ovsyannikova, Ksenia Krapiniva, Maria Konoshenko, Sonya Oskolskaya and Sergey Say, who made it so fun to start off in linguistics. I want to thank my fieldtrip companions and great friends, Maria Konoshenko, Nadezhda Makeeva, Maria Khachaturyan, and a special thanks to Katya Golovko, for revealing to me that Guinea is much more than a Mande-speaking area. Thank you to my father, and to my mother, who support me in everything. Contents Abbreviations and conventions . 16 1 Introduction 21 1.1 Outline of the main topics . 21 1.1.1 Phonological processes in speech . 21 1.1.2 Lexical tone and tonal operations . 22 1.1.3 Tone and intonation . 23 1.1.4 Focus in the large sense and its expression in Kakabe . 23 1.1.5 Language-internal and family-internal variation . 24 1.1.6 Language contact and core vs. periphery organization of the lexicon . 25 1.1.7 Structure of the thesis . 26 1.2 Data and methodology . 26 1.2.1 Kakabe corpus . 26 1.2.2 Fieldwork and contributors . 26 1.2.3 Workflow . 28 1.2.3.1 Recording . 28 1.2.3.2 Data processing . 30 1.2.4 Elicitation . 32 1.3 Kakabe and its speakers . 33 1.3.1 Multilingualism and language ideologies applied to Kakabe . 34 1.3.2 Nuclear and peripheral Kakabe . 37 1.3.3 Genetic affiliation of Kakabe . 39 1.3.4 Kakabe map . 40 1.3.5 Language names . 41 1.3.6 Geographical distribution and the number of speakers . 42 1.3.7 The three dialects of Nuclear Kakabe . 43 1.3.8 Previous research on Kakabe and other Mokole languages . 45 3 CONTENTS 4 1.4 Model of representation . 46 1.5 Notation and transcription . 46 1.5.1 Notation of suprasegmental features . 48 1.5.2 Notation of segmental features . 49 2 Basic grammar of Kakabe 52 2.1 General grammatical information . 53 2.1.1 Constituent order . 53 2.1.2 Argument and adverb marking . 54 2.1.3 Negation . 54 2.1.4 Verbal predication . 55 2.1.5 Argument structure and event structure . 57 2.1.6 Tense . 58 2.2 Constituent and operator focus . 59 2.2.1 Types of focus marked by lè ...................... 59 2.2.2 Operator focus and TAM in African languages . 62 2.2.3 Opposition ka/ -ta vs. báti ....................... 63 2.2.4 Construction bi -la and the auxiliary si ................. 67 2.2.5 Particle lè as the marker of operator focus in bi -la construction in NK 71 2.3 Non-verbal predication . 74 2.3.1 Identity/class-membership constructions . 76 2.3.1.1 Focus in ICM constructions and variation . 77 2.3.1.2 Demonstratives in ICM constructions . 79 2.3.1.3 Copula mu in construction with gerund . 81 2.3.1.4 Negative ICM constructions . 82 2.3.2 Locational and existential constructions . 83 2.3.2.1 Existential copula bi ..................... 83 2.3.2.2 Two possession constructions . 84 2.3.2.3 Abstract locational . 85 2.3.3 Constructions with property predicates . 85 2.4 Alternation of the copula bi with zero . 87 2.4.1 Optionality of bi ............................ 87 2.4.2 Optionality of bi in the stative-resultative construction . 89 2.4.3 The presence of post-subject lè ..................... 89 2.4.4 Morphonological constraints on copula omission . 90 CONTENTS 5 2.4.5 Summary . 91 2.5 Noun phrase . 92 2.5.1 Possessive construction . 92 2.5.2 Referential article . 93 2.5.3 Bare noun . 93 2.5.3.1 Absence of existential closure . 93 2.5.3.2 Lexically determined use of bare nouns . 95 2.5.4 Adjectives . 96 2.5.5 Numerals . 98 2.5.5.1 Article in phrases with numeral . 99 2.5.5.2 Numerals and the plurality marker . 100 2.5.5.3 Complex numerals . 101 2.5.5.4 Counting human referents . 102 2.5.5.5 Ordinal numbers . 103 2.5.5.6 Juxtaposition and reduplication of numerals . 103 2.5.6 Indefinite marker and other uses of do(o) ............... 104 2.6 Pronouns . 107 2.6.1 Personal Pronouns . 107 2.6.1.1 Inclusive pronoun . 107 2.6.1.2 Plural used as politeness marker . 108 2.6.1.3 Binding of personal pronouns . 109 2.6.1.4 The distribution between the reflexive and personal pronouns109 2.6.1.5 Personal pronouns as resumptive pronouns . 116 2.6.1.6 Long forms of personal pronouns . 119 2.6.1.7 Focalization of personal pronouns . 122 2.6.1.8 Second person singular pronoun used as generic . 123 2.6.2 Non-personal pronouns . 127 2.6.2.1 Demonstratives and anaphors . 127 2.6.2.2 Opposition between the demonstrative wò and the 3SG pro- noun à ............................ 129 2.6.2.3 Irregular long forms of anaphoric demonstratives in NK .