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Complex predicates in G: Applicatives, serial verb constructions and compounds Deborah Allotey, Christelle Niguieu, Ileana Paul, Holly Scott, Dru Sutton French Studies and Linguistics 1 2 Introduction Todays talk: The k morpheme in

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Complex predicates in Gã: Applicatives, serial verb constructions and compounds

Deborah Allotey, Christelle Niguieu, Ileana Paul, Holly Scott, Dru Sutton

French Studies and Linguistics

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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

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Introduction

Complex predicates in Gã

(1) a. e-kɛ kakla fo brodo 3SG-kɛ knife cut bread ‘She cut bread with a knife.’ b. Aku he fofoi kɛ -ha mi Aku buy flowers kɛ-give 1SG ‘Aku bought flowers for me.’ c. e fo brodo lɛ kɛ kakla 3SG cut bread

DET kɛ knife

‘She cut bread with a knife.’ post-subject SVC adjunct

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Previous analyses

  • Lord (1993): prepositional case marker
  • Dakubu (2004, 2008): verb
  • Campbell (2017): defective verb

Complex predicates in Gã

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Our focus

  • Post-subject kɛ (1a)
  • We argue this kɛ is an applicative head, both

Raising and Thematic (Georgala 2012)

Complex predicates in Gã

(1) a. e-kɛ kakla fo brodo 3SG-kɛ knife cut bread ‘She cut bread with a knife.’ b. Aku he fofoi kɛ -ha mi Aku buy flowers kɛ-give 1SG ‘Aku bought flowers for me.’ c. e fo brodo lɛ kɛ kakla 3SG cut bread

DET kɛ knife

‘She cut bread with a knife.’ applicative compound preposition

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Background

  • n Gã

Complex predicates in Gã

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Gã

  • Kwa sub-group of the Niger-Congo family
  • Spoken in south-east Ghana

Complex predicates in Gã

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Gã

  • SVO, no passive
  • Serial verb constructions (Beermann and

Hellan 2018)

  • 3 tones: high, low, mid (not shown)

Complex predicates in Gã

(2) Aku mii-he wolo Aku

PROG-buy

book ‘Aku is buying a book’

(3) Aku tsi ajina lɛ to Aku push meeting

DET hide

‘Aku postponed the meeting’

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Core data: post-subject kɛ

Complex predicates in Gã

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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

Complex predicates in Gã (4) a. e fo brodo lɛ kɛ kakla 3SG cut bread

DET kɛ knife

‘She cut bread with a knife’ b. e-kɛ kakla fo brodo 3SG-kɛ knife cut bread ‘She cut bread with a knife’.

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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

Complex predicates in Gã (5) a. e wó adeka lɛ kɛ hewale 3SG lift box

DET kɛ strength

‘She lifted the box with strength’. b. e-kɛ hewale wó adeka lɛ 3SG-kɛ strength lift box

DET

‘She lifted the box with strength’.

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Post-subject kɛ

  • Type 2: kɛ marks the direct object of a

ditransitive verb (ha ‘give’, ma ‘lend’, tsɔɔ ‘show, teach’, maje ‘send’)

Complex predicates in Gã

(6) a. e-ha mi shika 3SG-give 1SG money ‘She gave me money’ b. e-kɛ shika lɛ ha mi 3SG-kɛ money DET give 1SG ‘She gave me the money’

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Analysis: Thematic and Raising Applicatives

Complex predicates in Gã

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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

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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

Complex predicates in Gã

(7) e-kɛ kakla fo brodo 3SG-kɛ knife cut bread ‘She cut bread with a knife’.

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Thematic Applicative

Complex predicates in Gã

(8) e-kɛ kakla fo brodo 3SG-kɛ knife cut bread ‘She cut bread with a knife’.

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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-kɛ shika lɛ ha mi 3SG-kɛ money DET give 1SG ‘She gave me the money’

Complex predicates in Gã

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Raising Applicative

Complex predicates in Gã

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Discussion: Status of kɛ

Complex predicates in Gã

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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

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Status of kɛ: verb-like

  • kɛ appears immediately after a subject –

where other elements cannot

(11) a. e-kɛ shika lɛ ha mi 3SG-kɛ money

DET give 1SG

‘She gave me the money’

  • b. *e

jogbaŋŋ kanewolo lɛ 3SG well read book

DET

‘She read the book thoroughly (well)’. c. e kanewolo lɛ jogbaŋŋ 3SG read book

DET well

‘She read the book thoroughly (well)’.

Complex predicates in Gã

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Status of kɛ: verb-like

  • Can be followed by pro – prepositions cannot

be followed by pro

(12) a. e-kɛ ø fo brodo lɛ 3SG-kɛ cut bread

DET

‘She used it to cut the bread’. (pro=kakla –‘knife’) b. *e fo brodo lɛ kɛ ø 3SG cut bread

DET kɛ

‘She cut the bread with it’ c. *e fo kɛ ø brodo lɛ 3SG cut kɛ bread

DET

‘She cut the bread with it’

Complex predicates in Gã

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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

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Status of kɛ: not verb-like

  • Cannot appear on its own

(13) a. e-kɛ kakla fo brodo 3S G -kɛ knife cut bread ‘She cut bread with a knife’. b. *e-kɛ kakla 3S G -take knife ‘She took a knife’.

Complex predicates in Gã

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Status of kɛ: not verb-like

  • Cannot take aspect, mood, polarity

(14) a. e-kɛ kakla baa-fo-ɔ brodo 3SG-kɛ knife

FUT-cut-HAB

bread ‘She will cut/ cuts bread with a knife’. b. *e-baa-kɛ-ɔ kakla fo brodo 3SG-FUT-kɛ-HAB knife cut bread ‘She will cut/ cuts bread with a knife’.

Complex predicates in Gã

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Status of kɛ: not verb-like

  • Cannot take aspect, mood, polarity

(15) a. e-kɛ kakla é-fo-oo brodo lɛ 3S G -kɛ knife

PERF-cut-NEG

bread

DET

‘She will not cut the bread with a knife’. b. *e-kɛ-ɛɛ kakla fo brodo lɛ 3S G -kɛ-N E G knife cut bread

DET

‘She will not cut the bread with a knife’.

Complex predicates in Gã

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Status of kɛ: definiteness

  • The DO shika in (16a) must be indefinite, but

the DO after kɛ in (16b) can be definite

(16) a. e-ha mi shika (*lɛ) 3SG-give 1SG money

DET

‘She gave me money’ b. e-kɛ shika (lɛ) ha mi 3SG-kɛ money

DET give 1SG

‘She gave me (the) money’

Complex predicates in Gã

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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

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Discussion: Evidence for structure

Complex predicates in Gã

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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

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Evidence for structure

  • Reflexives: an IO can bind a DO reflexive (but

not vice-versa)

  • But if the DO reflexive is in a kɛ construction,

binding is not possible (no reconstruction)

(19) Mi tsɔɔ Akui e-hei 1SG show Aku 3SG-self ‘I showed Aku herself’ (20) *Mi tsɔɔ e-hei Akui 1SG show 3SG-self Aku *‘I showed herself Aku’

Complex predicates in Gã

(21) *Mi kɛ e-hei tsɔɔ Akui 1S G kɛ 3S G -self show Aku ‘I showed Aku herself .’

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Evidence for structure

  • Bound pronouns: a quantified IO can bind a

pronoun in the DO

  • But if the DO is in a kɛ construction, binding is

not possible

(22) Mi ha [nutsulo fee nutsulo]i ei-shika 1SG give worker each worker 3SG-money ‘I gave each worker their paycheck’

Complex predicates in Gã

(23) Mi kɛ e*i-shika ha [nutsulo fee nutsulo]i 1S G kɛ 3S G -money give worker each worker ‘I gave their paycheck to each worker’ grammatical but no bound reading possible

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Evidence for structure

  • Superiority: wh-movement of DO over IO is

ungrammatical

  • But wh-movement of DO is possible from a kɛ

construction

(17) *[Meni wolo]i ni

  • -ha

namo ti? What book

C

2S G -give who ‘What book did you give who?’

Complex predicates in Gã

(18) [Meni wolo]i ni

  • -kɛ

ti ha namo? What book

C

2SG-kɛ give who ‘What book did you give who?’

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Evidence for structure

  • The same binding effects occur with Thematic

kɛ

(24) Aku fo [nutsulɔ fee nutsulo]i kɛ ei-kakla Aku cut worker each worker kɛ 3S G -knife ‘Aku cut each worker with their knife.’ (25) Aku kɛ e*i-kakla fo [nutsulɔ fee nutsulo]i Aku kɛ 3S G -knife cut worker each worker ‘Aku cut each worker with their knife.’

Complex predicates in Gã

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Evidence for structure

  • kɛ creates new binding relations: DO c-

commands IO

  • Reconstruction is not possible = A-movement

Complex predicates in Gã

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Discussion: Issues

Complex predicates in Gã

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Issues

  • Raising Appl typically licenses the IO, not the

DO

  • Movement of DO over IO violates locality/MLC
  • Does the IO have inherent case? (see

McGinnis 2004 for other options)

  • How is tense/aspect/mood/polarity realized on

the second verb?

Complex predicates in Gã

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SVC Analysis

Complex predicates in Gã

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SVC analysis

  • Alternatively, kɛ could signal an SVC (with a

shared object for the ditransitive cases)

  • V1 = tsi ‘push’, V2 = to ‘hide’
  • kɛ could be V1

(26) Aku tsi ajina lɛ to Aku push meeting

DET

hide ‘Aku postponed the meeting’

(27) e-kɛ shika lɛ ha mi 3SG-kɛ money DET give 1SG ‘She gave me the money’

Complex predicates in Gã

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  • Possible SVC

structure: double- headed VP, with

  • bject sharing

between the two verbs (via movement, coindexed pro, parallel merge, etc.)

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SVC analysis

(28) e-kɛ shika lɛ ha mi 3SG-kɛ money DET give 1SG ‘She gave me the money’

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SVC analysis

  • Advantage: the language has SVCs
  • Disadvantages:
  • kɛ is not an independent verb (does not fall

under standard definition of SVCs - Aikhenvald 2018)

  • kɛ remains invariant – in SVCs, both verbs

take tense/aspect/modality

Complex predicates in Gã

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Conclusion and Discussion

Complex predicates in Gã

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Conclusion

  • kɛ is a multi-functional element in the grammar
  • f Gã – a preposition, a defective verb
  • As a defective verb, it heads Appl – both

Thematic and Raising Appl

  • An SVC analysis is also possible, but raises

the question of the verb status of kɛ

Complex predicates in Gã

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Remaining questions

  • We have placed ApplP very high – takes vP as

a complement

  • Movement of DO over IO seems to violate

locality

  • How is tense/aspect/mood realized on the

main verb, skipping kɛ?

  • What are the connections between

Applicatives, SVCs and complex predicates? (Jeong 2007, Massam 2013)

Complex predicates in Gã

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References

Aikhenvald, Alexandra Y. 2018. Serial verbs. Oxford Studies in Typology and LinguisCc Theory Oxford: Oxford University Press. Beermann, Dorothee and Lars Hellan. 2018. West African serial verb construcCons. The case of Akan and Gã. In The Routledge handbook of African linguis8cs, eds. AugusCne Agwuele and Adams Bodomo, 207-221. London: Routledge. Campbell, Akua Asantewaa. 2017. A Grammar of Gã. Doctoral DissertaCon, Rice University. hTps://hdl.handle.net/1911/102269 Diesing, Molly. 1992. Indefinites. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Georgala, Effi, Waltraud Paul, and John Whitman. 2008. ExpleCve and ThemaCc ApplicaCves. In Proceedings of the 26th West Coast Conference on Formal Linguis8cs, eds. Charles B. Chang and Hannah J. Haynie, 181-189. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Proceedings Project. Georgala, Effi. 2012. Applica8ves in their structural and thema8c func8on: A minimalist account of

  • mul8transi8vity. Doctoral DissertaCon, Cornell University.

Jeong, Youngmi. 2006. The landscape of applica8ves. Doctoral dissertaCon, University of Maryland. [Published as ApplicaCves: Structure and interpretaCon from a minimalist perspecCve, John Benjamins, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 2007.] Lord, Carol. 1993. Historical change in serial verb construc8ons. Amsterdam, The Netherlands: John Benjamins Publishing, Vol. 26. Massam, Diane. Nuclear complex predicates in Niuean. Lingua 135:56-80. McGinnis, Martha. 2004. Lethal ambiguity. Linguis8c Inquiry 35:47-95. Pylkkänen, Liina. 2008. Introducing arguments. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

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Thank you!

Contact

Deborah Allotey dallotey@uwo.ca Christelle Niguieu cniguieu@uwo.ca Ileana Paul ileana@uwo.ca Holly Scott hscott43@uwo.ca Dru Sutton dsutton6@uwo.ca

Funding

  • SSHRC Insight Grant 435-

2019-0581

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