Complex predicates in G: Applicatives, serial verb constructions - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Complex predicates in Gã: Applicatives, serial verb constructions and compounds Deborah Allotey, Christelle Niguieu, Ileana Paul, Holly Scott, Dru Sutton French Studies and Linguistics 1

2 Introduction Today’s talk: The kɛ morpheme in Gã (Kwa • language, spoken in Ghana) Appears in various syntactic positions • immediately after the subject • in a serial verb construction (SVC) as a • prefix heading an adjunct • Complex predicates in Gã

3 Introduction post-subject (1) a. e- k ɛ kakla fo brodo 3 SG -k ɛ knife cut bread ‘She cut bread with a knife.’ SVC k ɛ -ha mi b. Aku he fofoi buy flowers k ɛ -give 1 SG Aku ‘Aku bought flowers for me.’ adjunct l ɛ k ɛ kakla c. e fo brodo DET k ɛ knife 3 SG cut bread ‘She cut bread with a knife.’ Complex predicates in Gã

4 Previous analyses • Lord (1993): prepositional case marker • Dakubu (2004, 2008): verb • Campbell (2017): defective verb Complex predicates in Gã

5 Our focus • Post-subject kɛ (1a) • We argue this kɛ is an applicative head, both Raising and Thematic (Georgala 2012) (1) a. e- k ɛ kakla fo brodo applicative 3 SG -k ɛ knife cut bread ‘She cut bread with a knife.’ k ɛ -ha mi b. Aku he fofoi compound buy flowers k ɛ -give 1 SG Aku ‘Aku bought flowers for me.’ l ɛ k ɛ kakla c. e fo brodo preposition DET k ɛ knife 3 SG cut bread ‘She cut bread with a knife.’ Complex predicates in Gã

6 Background on Gã Complex predicates in Gã

7 Gã • Kwa sub-group of the Niger-Congo family • Spoken in south-east Ghana Complex predicates in Gã

8 Gã • SVO, no passive (2) Aku mii-he wolo Aku PROG -buy book ‘Aku is buying a book’ • Serial verb constructions (Beermann and Hellan 2018) (3) Aku l ɛ tsi ajina to Aku push meeting DET hide ‘Aku postponed the meeting’ • 3 tones: high, low, mid (not shown) Complex predicates in Gã

9 Core data: post-subject kɛ Complex predicates in Gã

10 Post-subject kɛ • Type 1 : kɛ introduces an instrument or manner • In the (a) examples, kɛ heads an adjunct that follows the verb and its complements • In the (b) examples, kɛ is prefixed with the subject marker and appears before the verb (4) a. l ɛ k ɛ kakla e fo brodo DET k ɛ knife 3 SG cut bread ‘She cut bread with a knife’ e-k ɛ b. kakla fo brodo 3 SG -k ɛ knife cut bread ‘She cut bread with a knife’. Complex predicates in Gã

11 Post-subject kɛ • Type 1 : kɛ introduces an instrument or manner • In the (a) examples, kɛ heads an adjunct that follows the verb and its complements • In the (b) examples, kɛ is prefixed with the subject marker and appears before the verb (5) a. l ɛ k ɛ hewale e wó adeka DET k ɛ strength 3 SG lift box ‘She lifted the box with strength’. e-k ɛ l ɛ b. hewale wó adeka 3 SG -k ɛ strength lift box DET ‘She lifted the box with strength’. Complex predicates in Gã

12 Post-subject kɛ • Type 2 : kɛ marks the direct object of a ditransitive verb ( ha ‘give’, ma ‘lend’, tsɔɔ ‘show, teach’, maje ‘send’) (6) a. e-ha mi shika 3 SG -give 1 SG money ‘She gave me money’ e-k ɛ l ɛ b. shika ha mi 3 SG -k ɛ money DET give 1 SG ‘She gave me the money’ Complex predicates in Gã

13 Analysis: Thematic and Raising Applicatives Complex predicates in Gã

14 Analysis • Thematic and Raising Applicatives (Georgala et al. 2008, Georgala 2012) • Thematic : Appl head introduces an argument DP in its specifier ( ≅ Pylkkänen’s (2008) HighAppl) • Raising : Appl head licenses an argument DP that is merged elsewhere and raises to the specifier of ApplP ( ≅ Pylkkänen’s (2008) LowAppl) Complex predicates in Gã

15 Thematic Applicative • Type 1 : When post-subject kɛ introduces an instrument or a manner, it is a Thematic Applicative head • The applied argument is merged in specifier of ApplP • kɛ undergoes head movement to T (7) e-k ɛ kakla fo brodo 3 SG -k ɛ knife cut bread ‘She cut bread with a knife’. Complex predicates in Gã

16 Thematic Applicative (8) e-k ɛ kakla fo brodo 3 SG -k ɛ knife cut bread ‘She cut bread with a knife’. Complex predicates in Gã

17 Raising Applicative • Type 2: When kɛ introduces a direct object, it is a Raising Applicative head • The DO moves into the specifier • kɛ moves to T (9) e-k ɛ shika l ɛ ha mi 3 SG -k ɛ money DET give 1 SG ‘She gave me the money’ Complex predicates in Gã

18 Raising Applicative Complex predicates in Gã

19 Discussion: Status of kɛ Complex predicates in Gã

20 Status of kɛ • Campbell (2017) shows that kɛ is verb-like • Appears immediately after subject – other elements cannot appear here • Can be followed by pro – prepositions cannot be followed by pro • Also - licenses definiteness of shifted DP • Not verb-like: • Cannot appear on its own • Cannot take tense/aspect/mood/polarity marking Complex predicates in Gã

21 Status of kɛ: verb-like • kɛ appears immediately after a subject – where other elements cannot e-k ɛ l ɛ (11) a. shika ha mi 3 SG -k ɛ money DET give 1 SG ‘She gave me the money’ l ɛ b. *e jogba ŋŋ kanewolo 3 SG well read book DET ‘She read the book thoroughly (well)’. l ɛ c. e kanewolo jogba ŋŋ 3 SG read book DET well ‘She read the book thoroughly (well)’. Complex predicates in Gã

22 Status of kɛ: verb-like • Can be followed by pro – prepositions cannot be followed by pro e-k ɛ l ɛ (12) a. ø fo brodo 3 SG -k ɛ cut bread DET ‘She used it to cut the bread’. ( pro=kakla –‘knife’) l ɛ k ɛ b. *e fo brodo ø DET k ɛ 3 SG cut bread ‘She cut the bread with it’ k ɛ l ɛ c. *e fo ø brodo 3 SG cut k ɛ bread DET ‘She cut the bread with it’ Complex predicates in Gã

23 Status of kɛ: not verb-like • But it is not fully verbal • Cannot appear on its own • Cannot take aspect, mood, or polarity Complex predicates in Gã

24 Status of kɛ: not verb-like • Cannot appear on its own e-k ɛ (13) a. kakla fo brodo 3 S G -k ɛ knife cut bread ‘She cut bread with a knife’. *e-k ɛ b. kakla 3 S G -take knife ‘She took a knife’. Complex predicates in Gã

25 Status of kɛ: not verb-like • Cannot take aspect, mood, polarity e-k ɛ baa-fo- ɔ (14) a. kakla brodo 3 SG -k ɛ knife FUT -cut- HAB bread ‘She will cut/ cuts bread with a knife’. *e-baa-k ɛ - ɔ b. kakla fo brodo 3 SG - FUT -k ɛ - HAB knife cut bread ‘She will cut/ cuts bread with a knife’. Complex predicates in Gã

26 Status of kɛ: not verb-like • Cannot take aspect, mood, polarity e-k ɛ l ɛ (15) a. kakla é-fo-oo brodo 3 S G -k ɛ knife PERF -cut- NEG bread DET ‘She will not cut the bread with a knife’. *e-k ɛ - ɛɛ l ɛ b. kakla fo brodo 3 S G -k ɛ - N E G knife cut bread DET ‘She will not cut the bread with a knife’. Complex predicates in Gã

27 Status of kɛ: definiteness • The DO shika in (16a) must be indefinite, but the DO after kɛ in (16b) can be definite ( * l ɛ ) (16) a. e-ha mi shika 3 SG -give 1 SG money DET ‘She gave me money’ e-k ɛ (l ɛ ) ha b. shika mi 3 SG -k ɛ money DET give 1 SG ‘She gave me (the) money’ Complex predicates in Gã

28 Status of kɛ • Our claim: kɛ is a defective verb (Campbell 2017) that heads Appl • kɛ raises to T à kɛ can carry subject prefix • pro is licensed within VP à post-subject kɛ can appear with pro • Appl can’t appear without vP/VP à kɛ can’t appear on its own • kɛ does not fit with insertion criteria for tense, aspect, mood, polarity (morphology) • kɛ licenses definiteness (high in VP) (Diesing 1992) Complex predicates in Gã

29 Discussion: Evidence for structure Complex predicates in Gã

30 Evidence for structure • IO (asymmetrically) c-commands DO in base • DO c-commands IO in a kɛ construction • Diagnostics: • reflexives • bound pronouns • superiority Complex predicates in Gã

31 Evidence for structure • Reflexives: an IO can bind a DO reflexive (but not vice-versa) ts ɔɔ (19) Mi Aku i e-he i 1 SG show Aku 3 SG -self ‘I showed Aku herself’ (20) *Mi ts ɔɔ e-he i Aku i 1 SG show 3 SG -self Aku *‘I showed herself Aku’ • But if the DO reflexive is in a kɛ construction, binding is not possible (no reconstruction) (21) *Mi k ɛ ts ɔɔ e-he i Aku i 1 S G k ɛ 3 S G -self show Aku ‘I showed Aku herself .’ Complex predicates in Gã

32 Evidence for structure • Bound pronouns: a quantified IO can bind a pronoun in the DO (22) Mi ha [nutsulo fee nutsulo] i e i -shika 1 SG give worker each worker 3 SG -money ‘I gave each worker their paycheck’ • But if the DO is in a kɛ construction, binding is not possible k ɛ (23) Mi e *i -shika ha [nutsulo fee nutsulo] i 1 S G k ɛ 3 S G -money give worker each worker ‘I gave their paycheck to each worker’ grammatical but no bound reading possible Complex predicates in Gã