Current Approaches to African Linguistics: Vol 2 Vol. 2 [Reprint 2020 ed.] 9783112420102, 9783112420096

Citation preview

Current Approaches to African Linguistics (vol.2)

Publications in African Languages and Linguistics The aim of this series is to offer, at regular intervals, carefully worked out studies or collections of papers in African linguistics. In this way, it is hoped that important work can be brought to the attention of a wider linguistic audience including scholars who are not primarily concerned with African linguistics but who wish to keep abreast of recent advances in the fields of historical linguistics, theoretical phonology and linguistic typology, all of which, incidentally, tend to rely rather heavily on African language data. At the same time, the editors intend to include occasional volumes which offer general accounts of major language groups, hoping that such surveys will be of assistance not only to linguists working on African languages but also to those who specialize in other areas. Throughout the series an attempt will be made to strike a healthy balance between theory oriented and data oriented research. Editors: George N. Clements Didier L. Goyvaerts

Advisory board: John Goldsmith (Bloomington, Indiana) Claire Grégoire (Tervuren) Frank Heny (Middlebury, Vermont) Larry M. Hyman (Los Angeles, California) William R. Leben (Stanford, California) Thilo C. Schadeberg (Leiden)

Jonathan Kaye, Hilda Koopman, Dominique Sportiche and André Dugas (eds.)

1983 FORIS PUBLICATIONS Dordrecht - Holland/Cinnaminson - U.S.A.

Published by: Foris Publications Holland P.O. Box 509 3300 AM Dordrecht, The Netherlands Sole distributor for the U.S.A. and Canada: Foris Publications U.S.A. P.O. Box C-50 Cinnaminson N.J. 08077 U.S.A.

ISBN 90 70176 96 3 (Bound) ISBN 90 70176 95 5 (Paper) ® 1983 Foris Publications - Dordrecht. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission from the copyright owner. Printed in the Netherlands by ICG Printing, Dordrecht.

Introduction

This volume contains a selection of papers presented at the 13th Annual Conference o n A f r i c a n Linguistics held at the University of Quebec at Montreal (U.Q.A.M.) on April 29 - May 2, 1982, the first such conference to be held outside the United States. These proceedings document the increasing participation at this conference by Africanists from several continents: Africa, N o r t h America, Europe.

The

selections,

w h i c h offer a representative sample of papers given at that meeting, illustrate a variety of approaches both in content as well as method, and reflect the diverse interests and formation of the participants.

The editors have chosen to include as large a selection of papers as possible.

The manuscripts have undergone only minor editorial revision,

and appear in m u c h the same form as that in w h i c h they were submitted to the proceedings. (1)

Articles have been grouped under the following headings:

Areal and Historical Linguistics,

Syntax, and (4)

(2)

Phonetics and Phonology,

Semantics, Morphology, and the Lexicon.

The editors

(3)

Introduction

Ce volume contient une sélection des communications

présentées

lors d u 13e Colloque annuel de Linguistique Africaniste qui s'est tenu à l'Université d u Québec à Montréal 2 mai 1982.

(U.Q.A.M.) d u 29 avril au

Ces articles constituent u n éventail représentatif des

communications de ce colloque.

O n peut se féliciter de la partici-

pation croissante d'africanistes de plusieurs continents Amérique d u Nord, et Europe).

(Afrique,

Dans le même sens, les articles de

ce volume illustrent une variété d'approches autant dans le contenu que par les méthodes, à l'image de la diversité des participants.

En ce qui concerne la politique de rédaction, le comité de rédaction a jugé b o n de favoriser la plus large représentation possible, plutôt que d'exercer une sélection plus sévère.

Par ailleurs,

afin d'en assurer une parution rapide, les textes définitifs n'ont subis que très p e u de modifications, le cas échéant, par rapport aux textes soumis pour publication.

D'une façon plus prosaïque, nous regroupons les articles sous les quatres rubriques suivantes: (2)

Phonetics and phonology, (3)

(1)

Areal and historical

Syntax, (4)

linguistics,

Semantics, morphology

and the Lexicon.

Les rédacteurs

Table of Contents

I.

AREAL AND HISTORICAL 1. Vestiges de suffixes de classes nominales dans les langues du groupe Boua P. Boyeldieu

3

2. Noun class affix renewal in Southern West Atlantic Tucker Childs

17

3. The expansion of the Gusii tense system John Kingston

31

4. Le Rwanda et sa langue Léon Mugesera

57

5. The influence of African languages on pidgins and Creoles

65

John Victor Singler II.

PHONETICS AND PHONOLOGY 6. Geminate consonants in Luganda Toni Borowsky

81

7. La construction associative en bété de gbadi Monik Charette

99

8. A reanalysis of tone in Mende Patrick Conteh, Elisabeth Cowper, Deborah James, Keren Rice and Michael Szamosi

127

9. Accent tonal en Kinyarwanda Rutinywa Furere et Annie Rialland

139

10. Pour un traitement synchronique de la faille tonale Gladys Guarisma

151

11. Are there syllables in Gokana? Larry M. Hyman

171

12. La règle d'élision syllabique et les séquences vocaliques en guère Carole Paradis

181

13. Accent in Kimatuumbi Douglas Pulleyblank

195

14. Le système tonal du moba comparé à celui du gurma Annie Rialland

217

III. SYNTAX 15. L a topicalisation en yoruba B. R. Badejo 16. Wh-questions and island constraints in Kikuyu: a reanalysis Victoria L. Bergvall

245

17. Wh-in-situ constructions in Egyptian Arabic Michael Kenstowicz and Wafaa Wahba

261

18. The applied suffix in K i k u y u Kiyoko Masunaga

283

19. Bete reciprocals and Clitic binding

292

Dominique IV.

237

Sportiche

SEMANTICS, MORPHOLOGY AND THE LEXICON 20. Dynamique et equilibre d u systeme des pronominaux possessifs en banda-linda France Cloarec-Heiss

319

21. The tense system in Ibibio Okon E. Essien

329

22. Noun class assignment of English loanwords in Kikuyu Elanah J. Kutik

345

23. Some nouns and noun phrases in N z e m a W i l l i a m R. Leben

361

24. D u statut des "concordial elements" dans les langues bantu . . . 369 A. L i p o u 25. Spécificité de l'Adverbe e n Gbaya "bodoe" Paulette Roulon

379

Chapter 1

Vestiges de Suffixes de Classes Nominales dans les Langues du Groupe Boua (Tchad - Adamawa-13 de J.H. Greenberg) P. Boyeldieu En proposant de faire des langues bua, nielim et koke un sous-groupe (13) de la branche Adamawa (famille Adamawa-Eastern du grand ensemble Niger-Congo), J.H. Greenberg (1963, p. 9 et 12) se fondait en partie sur les traces de suffixes de classes nominales qu'il pouvait observer dans les vocabulaires alors disponibles sur ces langues: "There is evidence for the [Niger-Congo] -le suffix in Nielim tu-la 'ear1, Koke gi-1 'eye', Nielim su, su-1 'head', Koke su-1 'head'. The ma formative occurs in Bua hu-ma 'blood', nu-mo 'fat' and Koke li-m 'water, rain'." Depuis quelques années la connaissance des langues du groupe Boua (toutes parlées dans le centre-sud du Tchad) s'est enrichie des travaux de C. Pairault sur le kulaal (ou goula d'Iro), de P. Palayer sur le tun (ou tounia) et de mes propres recherches sur le lua (nom propre du niellim). Cette communication a pour objet de montrer en quoi les acquis récents viennent confirmer l'hypothèse de J.H. Greenberg: dans ces trois langues l'expression de l'opposition nominale du nombre répond à des modèles divers d'alternances qui affectent les segments ultimes (suffixes vocaliques et/ou consonantiques) ou internes (infixes vocaliques) des unités concernées. L'étude langue par langue puis la comparaison de ces procédés qui manifestent, d'une langue à l'autre, des ressemblances immédiates ou fondées sur l'observation de correspondances phoniques régulières rendent très forte l'hypothèse selon laquelle ces systèmes d'oppositions formelles sont hérités d'un état de langue qui fonctionnait peu ou prou selon le principe de la classification nominale. Le kulaal lui-même (mais non plus le lua ni le tun) peut encore être considéré comme une langue à classes dans la mesure où les noms (à rigoureusement parler les ensembles amalgamés et insécables d'une unité nominale et d'une marque de nombre) sont, dans certaines conditions, déterminés par des éléments grammaticaux (transcrits entre parenthèses par C. Pairault) dont l'identité révèle la répartition du stock nominal en 7 classes, couplées dans 5 genres principaux:

(kulaal)

k£/ki

kôrâ (kê)/kôré (kï)

lè/tù

hôl (1È)/hôn(tv)

"étoile"

"dette"

mÈ/kï

im(mê)/itè(ki)

"eau"

4

P. Boyeldieu Selon toute vraisemblance il convient d'interpréter ces déterminants clas-

sificatoires comme des innovations qui sont venues doubler les marques encore observables - avec plus ou moins de clarté - sur le nom lui-même. Dans un premier temps on proposera donc de restituer, avec la valeur d'une hypothèse de travail, les alternances qui ont pu caractériser un système archaïque, ancêtre commun du lua, du tun et du kulaal. Par commodité on désignera ce système linguistique abstrait par le terme de "Proto-Boua" bien que les autres langues du groupe (boua, fanyan, mana, koke, bolgo, noy, goula du Guéra), toutes très mal connues, n'aient pas été prises en compte. J.H. Greenberg

(ibidem) ayant évoqué l'existence de langues à classes dans

d'autres sous-groupes Adamawa ("The Tuia language has a fully functioning system of class suffixes with clear points of contact with the general Niger-Congo system."), on procédera ensuite à une comparaison - plus exactement à une confrontation - du système du "Proto-Boua" avec celui du tuia précisément.

L'expression de l'opposition nominale de nombre en lua, tun et kulaal et le système du "Proto-Boua"

Par commodité, et pour éviter une présentation des systèmes qui déborderait largement le cadre de cet exposé, on envisagera conjointement les trois lanques à partir de leurs traits essentiels et communs, tels qu'ils apparaissent en illustration du système restitué (cf. premier tableau de documents), c'està-dire en suivant une démarche inverse de celle qui a été observée pour l'élaboration de cette reconstruction. Il convient auparavant d'établir une distinction - plus clairement illustrée par le lua et par le kulaal - entre les procédés historiquement primaires que constituent les différents types de suffixations, vocaliques ou consonantiques, exemple :

(kulaal)

(lua)

-a/-e

-a/-i "QmS/'ûmï

"épine"

-l/-n

-1 (-) /-rsûl/suri ...etc.

hàlâ (kè)/hàlé (kì) "gallinacee

"tête"

pul(1È)/pun(tv) ...etc.

"bouillie"

5

Suffixes de Classes Nominales dans le groupe Bova et les procédés historiquement secondaires que constituent, certaines altérations vocaliques qui touchent principalement un segment interne du nom (infixation), exemple:

a/S kàr/kSr

a/o "varan"

ua:/u: sûà:/suù:

sâr (kè)/sôr(ki)

"cruche"

e/e "phacochère"

...etc.

tè^â (kè)/télé(ki) | "ciseau" ...etc.

Dans ces deux langues indépendamment l'une de l'autre, il est de bonnes raisons (fréquences, place dans le mot, complémentarité de certaines formes canoniques, aptitude essentielle à fonctionner, encore aujourd'hui, comme des procédés subordonnés à d'autres ...etc.) de considérer que ces oppositions représentent, en vertu d'un processus d'attraction vocalique ou d'"umlaut", une conséquence historique des précédentes. Le fait qu'elles puissent actuellement fonctionner comme des marques autonomes de l'opposition de nombre (notamment en lua où elles ont pris une importance prépondérante en tant que telles) ne doit pas masquer leur caractère relativement récent. Même si elles ont pu, de fait, affecter un stade antérieur commun au lua, au tun et au kulaal, nous en ferons abstraction dans la restitution proposée.

L'alternance *-A/*-I Bien attestée en lua et en kulaal sous des formes identique ou proche, elle est plus exceptionnelle en tun (de façon générale on tiendra compte du caractère restreint du corpus tun; les nombres d'occurrences totales et cas par cas d'oppositions de nombre attestées sont donnés entre parenthèses). L'alternance *-u/*-I Elle ne semble pas (plus ?) avoir de correspondant en lua ni en tun, mais rien ne permet de réduire ce procédé en kulaal. L'alternance *-L/*-N Le procédé est bien avéré bien que de faible fréquence en lua et en tun. En lua le suffixe du singulier s'est assimilé à n (identique au pluriel)

6

P. Boyeldieu

après voyelle nasale, ce qui a déterminé la perte d'un certain nombre d'oppositions, préservées en tun et en kulaal:

(lua)

(tun)

(kulaal)

-vl

-vy, -v

-vl

-vp, -v

-vl

-vn

-vn

Sg. *-V-L

*-V-N Pl.

-vn *-V-N

En lua il se présente le plus souvent sous les formes -l/-ni ou -la/-ni: faut-il y voir une combinaison plus ou moins systématique avec l'autre procédé que constitue l'alternance -a/-i? Enfin le kulaal connaît des variantes -il/-un, ël/-on qui affectent toujours des polysyllabes et doivent, en tant que telles, représenter des suffixes d'application plus récente.

L'alternance *-L/*-R /*-RI ? Elle n'est bien avérée qu'en lua, l'interprétation des rares exemples du tun et du kulaal qui pourraient lui être assignés étant incertaine. La forme du pluriel (qui pourrait être double?) est également sujette à caution.

L'alternance *-«/*-(M)RI Cette opposition n'est bien attestée qu'en kulaal, les formes de pluriel étant quasiment inexistantes en lua et en tun. La persistance d'une forme figée de pluriel en tun (siri "sang") est hautement vraisemblable. L'alternance *XXX/*-KI Ce procédé mal déterminé aurait pris une extension sensible en lua. La correspondance avec le lua et le tun des formes du kulaal est-elle juste?

Suffixes de Classes Nominales dans le groupe Bova

1

L'alternance *XXX/*-M /*-BV ? Là encore il s'agit d'un procédé formellement mal déterminé, mais dont l'unité et l'orginalité ne semblent pas devoir faire de doute. Alors qu'il est éminemment résiduel en lua et en kulaal (où l'identité du (des) genre (s) avec le(s)quel(s) il est jumelé n'est pas claire) il a pris une importance prépondérante en tun. Les formes en -oybè du lua ont été classées ici pour des raisons qui sont externes au groupe Boua lui-même (cf. infra). Ainsi s'achève l'exposé des oppositions connues du lua, du tun et du kulaal qu'il semble licite de rapporter à un système ancien de marques de classes suffixées, commun aux trois langues sinon à l'ensemble du groupe Boua. Les autres procédés, d'extension plus récente, sont mentionnés dans un souci d'exhaustivité et, par contraste, d'appréciation de ceux qui viennent d'être présentés.

Le système des classes du tula et leur rapport aux alternances du "Proto-Boua"

Les documents qui ont servi à cette présentation ont été recueillis avant la guerre par un missionnaire inconnu et publiés plusieurs années plus tard dans Afrika und Uebersee (1955). Le tula - qui est la seule langue pour laquelle j'aie pu accéder à des matériaux assez complets - forme avec le dadiya, le waja, le cham et le kamu le sous-groupe 1 de l'Adamawa de J.H. Greenberg. Toutes ces langues sont parlées au Nigéria. Le tula répond au schéma classique des langues à classes : son stock nominal est réparti en 6 sous-ensembles commodément symbolisés par les lettres W, D, K, B, T et Y. Cette classification est manifestée par l'accord des noms avec plusieurs séries de référents non nécessaires qui sont formellement de deux types: les premières (que l'on illustrera ci-dessous par les formes du démonstratif) sont phoniquement très proches des symboles que l'on vient d'énoncer; les secondes (illustrées par le connectif) manifestent plus de ressemblance avec les marques qui affectent la finale du nom et qui doivent, selon toute vraisemblance, être elles-mêmes comprises comme les vestiges d'un ancien système de suffixes:

P. Boyeldieu

referents

classe

démonstratif wo

marques finales du nominal

connectif -E

voyelles fréquentes, notamment -e et -e

dado

-n

-r, -n, -1

ksko

-(a)r)

-a, -ar|, -ko

bsbo

-m

-bo, -m

tato

-i

-i, -to, -bi, -3n

yiyo

-i, -ti, -ni

L'expression du nombre est assurée par 11appariement des 6 classes en 8 genres d'importance inégale (W/Y, K/Y, D/T, D/Y, B/Y, W/B, K/T et K/B, cf. détails et occurrences dans le deuxième tableau de documents). Elle se manifeste à la fois par une opposition des référents et par une alternance des marques finales du nom (à cet égard il s'agit d'une situation identique à celle que l'on observe en kulaal):

te/tebo

(W/B)

"père"

ben/beni

(D/T)

"langue"

ku/kuti

(W/Y)

"tortue"

...etc. Dans un travail précédent (Boyeldieu, 1980) j'avais considéré que les marques "anciennes" (amalgamées au nom) du tula étaient seules significatives du point de vue d'une confrontation avec l'expression du nombre en lua. Il semble en fait que la mise en rapport de ces alternances, assez nombreuses, avec celles du "Proto-Boua" soit souvent problématique et qu'il soit utile de surmonter leur diversité en privilégiant le genre "moderne" dont elles relèvent. Le genre W/Y

Il s'agit du genre prépondérant. Il implique le plus fréquemment une suffixation du nom pluriel par -ti mais on observe plusieurs cas de suffixation de -i à une voyelle finale ou, mieux, d'oppositions -e=e/-i qui peuvent être mises en parallèle avec le "Proto-Boua" *-A/*-I. Les constantes lexicales d'un ensemble à l'autre sont sans doute peu significatives du fait de la

Suffixes de Classes Nominales dans le groupe Bova

9

fréquence des procédés. Signalons toutefois la présence partagée du nom qui désigne l'animal ou la viande et, peut-être, ceux d'animaux spécifiques comme la tortue.

Le genre K/Y

De faible occurrence il offre toutefois, entre autres, l'exemple d'oppositions -a/-i qui pourraient encore être mises en rapport avec le "Proto-Boua" *-A/*-I.

Les genres D/T et D/Y L'appariement D/T constitue le second genre en importance du tula. A une consonne finale qui est presque toujours -r, -n ou -1 il oppose un pluriel suffixé en -to, en -i ou en -8n. Il me semble fondé de rapprocher ce genre de l'une des oppositions *-L/*-N ou *-L/*-R(/*-RI ?) du "Proto-Boua", sans pouvoir toutefois décider laquelle. La position de D/Y, genre exceptionnel, est également problématique. Peut-être faut-il d'ailleurs, de façon indifférenciée, conserver ces deux genres du tula face aux deux alternances du "Proto-Boua". Les rapprochements formels que l'on peut faire entre eux sont douteux mais on observe des constantes sémantiques plus nettes: tous deux se partagent notamment des termes qui désignent des parties constitutives du corps comme la tête, le nez, la peau, l'oeuf et le ventre.

Le genre B/Y A elle seule la comparaison du genre B/Y, essentiellement accompagné de l'opposition -m/-nti, avec l'alternance *-M/*-(M)RI compense pour une bonne part les hésitations nées des confrontations précédentes. Elle s'impose tant du point de vue formel que du point de vue sémantique en ce qu'elle implique, de part et d'autre, des noms qui désignent des masses non dénombrables (notamment des liquides et des poudres). Mais en "Proto-Boua" conme en tula l'originalité de ces modèles est encore structurelle dans la mesure où rares sont les langues à classes des familles apparentées qui' traitent cette classe en -m comme le terme singulier d'une opposition de nombre.

10

P. Boyeldieu

Le genre W/B Là encore le genre W/B se laisse aisément rapprocher de l'alternance *XXX/*-M(/*-BV ?) du "Proto-Boua". Les finales en -m sont les mêmes. Quant à celles qui ont la forme -bo, elles pourraient être rapprochées des formes en -(oy)b± du lua (mais quid des autres parlers ?) . La constante sémantique elle aussi est patente, les deux ensembles partageant des termes qui désignent des êtres humains comme l'enfant, le chef, la personne et l'homme.

Le parallélisme des procédés, si tant est qu'il soit acquis, n'est pas parfait puisque - les alternances *-u/*-I et *XXX/*-KI du "Proto-Boua" ne trouvent pas d'équivalent en tula (peut-être conviendrait-il à cet égard d'envisager une possibilité d'adéquation - au moins partielle - entre W/Y et *-U/*-I ?); - à l'inverse le genre K/B (exceptionnel) et surtout le genre K/T du tula ne peuvent, à mon sens, être mis en parallèle avec des procédés observables dans le groupe Boua. Conclusion Ainsi aura-t-on pu, du moins je l'espère, se convaincre des affinités particulières qui relient les groupes extrême-occidental (tula) et extrêmeoriental (groupe Boua) de l'aire linguistigue Adamawa, par delà des langues comme le laka, le duru, le mbum, le kim (dit masa)... qui, pour leur être sans doute apparentées, n'en sont pas moins caractérisées par une unique marque de pluriel nominal et ignorent le phénomène de classification nominale, même sous une forme résiduelle. C'est bien le mérite de J.H. Greenberg d'avoir su découvrir (deviner ?) ces caractéristiques morphologiques à travers l'analyse des documents succincts dont il a pu, à l'époque, disposer.1

Suffixes de Classes Nominales dans le groupe Bova I - ESSAI DE RESTITUTION DES ALTERNANCES DE SUFFIXES2 NOMINAUX EN "PROTO-BOUA" ET LEURS AVATARS EN LUA, TUN ET KULAAL

LUA

TUN

-X1-X2-TS

-ta- -a-

recent

-a

neutral

-t£- -a-

remote

-j.de

perfective

-nga- conditional -ka-

future

-da-

disjunct (?)

-iite present perfective -e

subjunctive

-i

negative

The verb root can be preceded by up to five functionally distinct morphemes: a preprefix, marking negation or topic shift (Pr); a subject concord prefix (SC); a negative prefix (NEG); a tense prefix (TP); and an object concord prefix (OC) and can followed by two layers of baseforming extensions (XI includes various valence suffixes, while X2 is habitual -ag-); and is terminated by a tense suffix (TS) with a characteristic final vowel. There are restrictions on the combination of tense prefixes and suffixes —

only -a freely combines with all tense prefixes —

but tense suffixes and

prefixes have evolved independently of one another. Despite attrition due to phonological interactions between the preceding verb base and -^de and some cases of outright loss, the system of tense suffixes has remained stable enough that reconstruction is fairly straightforward, at least for -a, ^de, and -e. The prefix system is comparatively unstable. The following examples from Bemba (Sharman 1956,-^»harman and Meeussen 1955) show that a finite verb can have no, one, and even two tepse prefixes:

(1.2)

a. No prefix:

tu-0-fik-ile lp-PROX-arrive-PAST

we arrived recently

b. One prefix:

tu-a-fik-ile lp-DIST-arrive-PAST

we arrived yesterday

c. Two prefixes:

tu-a-ci-fik-a lp-HODP-arrive-NE UT

we arrived today

d. Preprefix:

ta-tu-0-fik-ile NEG-lp-PROX-arrive-PAST

we haven * t arrived

ta-tu-laa-fik-a NEG-lp-ANTI-arrive-NEUT

we haven't arrived yet

ta-tu-a-ka-fik-e NEG-lp-PROX-FUT-arrive-FUT

we won't arrive today

e. Preprefix + One prefix: f. Prefix + two prefixes:

The Gusii

Tense

System

33

as well as having a preprefix. Meeussen breaks his tense prefix slot in two, reconstructing negative prefixes right after the subject concord followed by all other tense morphemes (-NEG-TP- in 1). The Bemba examples with two tense prefixes (2c,f) make it clear that more than one non-negative prefix can occur at one time. Negative elements are clearly not restricted to the position after the subject concord but can (and must in Bemba) occur in preprefix position. The fluctuation in position of negative morphemes and the more troubling elasticity of the tense slot makes it premature to assign individual morphemes to particular slots between the subject and object concords in the protolanguage. However, individual morphemes have remained separable and identifiable in the modern languages, making the central concern less a question of the etymology of the tense prefixes and more a matter of figuring out what conditions might have stimulated the expansion of the tense slot, what principles control how elements may be rearranged, and what sorts of new elements can be introduced into the tense slot. Apparent language-specific additions to the list of tense prefixes were the stimulus for Givon's (1972) revision of the traditional view that highly structured one-word tenses predominated in Proto-Bantu. Givon proposes that verbs with aspectual meanings, such as begin, finish, continue, and also go and come, were used during a preProto-Bantu stage as auxiliaries in front of a infinitive main verb complement. These verbal nouns lacked subject concord prefixes, as they typically still do in modern periphrastic constructions, outside of zone S, where languages such as Tswana have developed participles with subject concord (Cole 1955). Later these two-word constructions fused into a single word and the auxiliary became a tense prefix. Cross-linguistic differences are then explained by the fact that individual languages differ both in what verbs they used as auxiliaries and in the extent to which twoword tenses fused into single words. Most likely the fusion of two-word tenses into single words has continued throughout the Bantu period. However, fusion has not eliminated two-word tenses; they are still quite common and in some groups, notably Sabaki, they are in turn replacing old one-word tenses (Nurse 1982). Though Givon has clearly glimpsed a necessary complement to Meeussen's analysis, a number of problems still remain. Some tense prefixes show no sign of having been anything other than tense prefixes, and with the exception of go, come, and perhaps finish2,

few derived tense morphemes can be traced

back to verbs; many more are simply morphemes which got caught in between

34

John Kingston

when two-word tenses fused. These morphemes were reinterpreted as tense morphemes because of their position rather than any semantic appropriateness. Specifically, the morphemes -ku- or -ko- from the class 15 infinitive prefix, -na- from a particle meaning 'with, and 1 , and -li- from a copula are among the more common of the new tense prefixes produced by fusion. The only way this reinterpretation of morphemes would be plausible is if Proto-Bantu already had one-word tenses where the tense marker occurred as a prefix after the subject concord, in the position where any morphemes caught by fusion would end up. In those languages where -ku- is a tense morpheme, it also typically marks infinitives, which like finite verbs may take object concord, between -ku- and the verb stem, as in the following examples of two-word tenses with infinitival complements from Mwera (Harries 1950):

(1.3)

a. a-mal-ile 3s-finish-PERF

ku-enda INF-go

he has gone

b. a-mal-ile

ku-va-koma INF-3p-beat

he has beat them

c. tu-naa-pinga lp-PRES-want

ku-m-wona INF-3s-see

we want to see him

Fusion of these two-word constructions would produce the correct order of morphemes, with subject and object concords bracketing "tense" prefixes. -ku- also occurs inside verbs in Mwera, though it does not mark tense, but rather must appear in certain tenses when a verb shows object concord,

(1.4)

a. tu-ci-gona lp-IMMP-sleep

we were sleeping

b. tu-ci-ku-n-koma lp-IMMP-*-3s-beat

we beat him

c. tu-ci-ku-wa-apa lipeemba 3p-give millet

we gave them millet

In these examples, -ci- comes from an auxiliary, which is also used with infinitives bearing a locative prefix in front of the infinitive prefix:

(1.5)

tu-ci lp-IMMP

n-ku-n-koma LOC-INF-3s-beat

we beat him (= 4b)

Tense prefixes can appear in front of -ci in both one- and two-word constructions :

The Gusii Tense System (1.6)

35

a. tu-a-ci-ku-n-koma HEST-PAST

we beat him yesterday

b. tu-a-ci

= 6a

n-ku-n-koma

Mwera is at a relatively early stage in the fusion of two-word tenses into single words, since the morpheme derived from the auxiliary still reserves tense value to itself, while -ku- serves only to allow object concord. The equivalence between one- and two-word constructions suggests the possibility of synchronic variation, another indication of how recently two-word tenses have collapsed into single words in this language. na, originally a particle meaning 'with, and 1 , also gets incorporated into verbal words and reinterpreted because of its position. In Luvale (Horton 1949) two-word tenses invariably have na between the auxiliary and the infinitive : (1.7)

a. tu-li lp-be b. tuli

na with na

ku-tuta INF-run fast

ku-va-funda 3p-bury

c. tu-a-pwa-ile na PAST-be-PERF

kututa

we are running fast we are burying them we were running fast

(7b) shows that object concord is still marked in the infinitive rather than the auxiliary. As with -ku-, we would expect -na- to appear after the auxiliary if fusion were to occur, though as (7c) shows the auxiliary may take a suffix, here perfective -He,

so additional phonological material may inter-

vene between what was once the auxiliary root and na after fusion occurs. To the right of na, the situation is more clearcut; once fusion occurs -ku- should appear immediately after -na-. If auxiliaries simply fused phonologically with the following verbal noun, catching up any intervening material, then only certain orders of morphemes should be possible. Nonderived tense prefixes should always occur first, just to the right of the subject concord. Next would come what were originally auxiliaries, then -na-, and finally -ku- just before the object concord. The string in (8a) is the expected outcome of fusion, the others: (8b) -kuor -na- before the auxiliary, and (8c) -na- after -ku- should not occur unless there is reordering after fusion. -LI- stands for any auxiliary, -Afor any nonderived tense prefix.

John

36 (1.8)

a.

Kingston SC—A—LI—(NA)—KU—VERB

STEM

b. * S C — A — ( N A ) — K U — L I — V E R B

STEM

c. * S C — A — L I — K U — N A — V E R B

STEM

Unless the auxiliary is lost, perhaps because a derived prefix has appropriated its tense marking function, nonderived tense prefixes should not immediately precede -na-

(1.9)

or

-ku-:

a. * S C — A — ( N A ) — K U — V E R B

STEM

ncr should tense prefixes follow -ku-

(1.9)

or

-na-:

b. * S C — ( N A ) — K U — A — V E R B STEM

Finally, -na-

and -ku-

out a following

(1.10)

should never occur alone, nor should -na-

occur with-

-ku-:

a. * S C — K U — V E R B STEM b. * S C — N A — V E R B STEM

Of all these prohibitions, only that against ordering nonderived tense prefixes after derived prefixes (9b) and that against -na-

-ku-

without a following

(10b) are not violated in the Gusii tense system. The restriction against

derived prefixes preceding nonderived prefixes provides a simple criterion for deciding whether a particular morpheme should be reconstructed as a tense prefix or not. Gusii has a wealth of one-word tenses, many with multiple tense prefixes produced by relatively recent fusions. Any tense which has more than a single (non-negative) tense prefix could have its origin in a earlier twoword tense. But not all tenses with just a single prefix have one-word origins, since unless the morphemes caught up by fusion acquire some function of their own, they (or the original tense prefix if the new one usurps its function) are likely to be eliminated as semantically superfluous. Since Gusii allows up to five non-negative tense prefixes to occur on a verb, it appears that so far it is fairly tolerant of superfluous morphemes.

37

The Gusii Tense System 2.

THE STRUCTURE OF THE GUSII TENSE SYSTEM Gusii is spoken in Kenya, to the east of Lake Victoria. Nurse and Phillip-

son (1980) put it into the Eastern Nyanza subgroup of E. Nyanza/Suguti in their Lacustrine branch of eastern Bantu.3 It is set apart from the other languages in its subgroup: Kuria, Ngurimi, Zanaki, Shashi, Ikizu, and Nata, principally because it has acquired a considerable amount of new non-Bantu vocabulary (Nurse & Phillipson, 42). Also, Gusii is the easternmost Bantu language with disyllabic noun class prefixes. So even though its phonological developments are unremarkable, it is clearly an outlier. The expansion of Gusii's tense system, though considerable, is apparently quite recent, and by contrast to a language such as Shambala which has a very large inventory (Roehl 1911, Nurse 1979), Gusii makes do with only five tense prefixes, besides four suffixes:

(2.0)

Prefixes Stabilizer n-

Negative

Nonderived

ti-

-a-

-ko-

-ka-

-nako-

-ta-

Derived

-raaSuffixes -a -ire -ete -e

Most new tenses in the language have more than one tense prefix. In some verbs where more than one derived prefix occurs, the entire string of derived prefixes is interpreted as unit, even though the prefixes are synchronically and etymologically separable. Gusii is apparently at a stage just after a rapid expansion of its tense system and therefore provides a good chance for figuring out just how new tenses are constructed.

t.

The discussion of the tense system of Gusii is broken into two parts. In the first, a formal and functional analysis is presented of the paradigms made up of nonderived prefixes. The second section describes the new tenses produced by the introduction of new tense prefixes and shows how they fit together with the older set.

38

John Kingston

2.1

Nonderived

2.1.1

prefixes

In verbs with the neutral suffix, -a, Gusii distinguishes two degrees

of past: an immediate past for events occurring within the past hour or two and a hesternal past for events occurring sometime yesterday,

(2.1)

a.

igo so

i ba-a-ruga goika 3p-IMMP-cook until

ba-a-rosa 3p-IMMP-tire

So they just cooked until they tired. b.

igo so

ba-a-ruga goika 3p-HEST-cook until

ba-ka-rosa 3p-CSEC-tire

So they cooked yesterday until they tired. When these tenses occur on the first verb of a sentence, igo, a connecting particle, typically precedes. The two degrees of past are distinguished by tone, high tone on -a- for the immediate past and low tone for the hesternal. Since all subject concord prefixes in these tenses have high tones the tonal contrast for the string of prefixes is HH vs. HL. This contrast between a sustained high contour and a falling contour, most often correlated with proximal vs. distal time reference, recurs throughout the tense system. The negatives corresponding to these tenses have a preprefix ti-, occurring on the last verb in this example. 5

(2.2)

a.

igo so

n-a-genda ls-IMMP-go

omwana child

mogondo field

n-a-gEsa ake ls-IMMP-harvest a little

o-a-n-rangeria 3s-IMMP-ls-call

ti-n-aa-icoria ekebaari NEG-ls-IMMP-fill bin

So I just went to the fields, harvested a bit, my child called me and I didn't fill the bin. Complementary to the positive tenses are forms with an n- preprefix, which are used when a new topic is introduced. This preprefix is usually called a "stabilizer". Igo never precedes verbs with n-, since the function of the particle is to connect the new utterance to the preceding discourse.

(2.3)

a. egecuure

n-ki-a-minyoka STAB-7-HEST-run

goika until

The buck ran yesterday until it tired.

kl-a-rosa 7-HEST-tire ki-ka-rosa 7-CSEC-tire

The Gusii Tense System Corresponding forms without n- occur in the second clause, or a consecutive (CSEC) tense may occur. Finally, orthogonal to the negative with ti-, there is another set with the same time reference, but with internal -ta- after the subject concord prefix:

(2.4)

a. mwane n-ta-a-kora my place ls-NEG-IMMP-make nki what

Erongoori gruel

o-go-cia ko-nywa ka 2s-C0NT-go INF-drink at home

At my place I didn't make gruel, what are you going to drink at home? The corresponding positive has n-. i,

b. mwane

n-n-a-kora ErDngoori STAB-1s-IMMP-make

1 n-o-g£ndE STAB-2s-go

konywa drink

At my place I made gruel, will you come drink (it)? This negative complements the one with ti- in much the same way that verbs stabilized by n- complement those without n-. ti- typically does not occur on the first verb of the sentence, while -ta- often does. Both positive nand negative -ta- occur in verbs after onye 'if' in the first clause of conditionals, while unstabilized verbs only occur after anga in the second clause:

(2.5)

a. onye if anga then

cinyeni vegetables

n-ci-a-tooka STAB-10-IMMP-available

n-a-cl-gora ls-PROX-10-buy

If vegetables were available, I would buy them. b. onye if

n-ta-a-ika ls-NEG-IMMP-arrive

anga then

ti-n-aa-mo-rora NEG-is-PR0X-3s-see

mambia morning

If I didn't come this morning, I wouldn't see him.

40

John Kingston

It seems plausible for there to be a formal parallel between beginning a new topic and stating a prerequisite on the one hand, and continuing an old topic and describing the dependent event, on the other. However, verbs with internal -ta- rather than ti- correspond to unstabilized positive verbs in first position in topic chaining constructions, where an utterance-initial noun phrase is the subject of a series of following verbs:

(2.6)

a. abaibi thieves igo

ba-a-Iba 3p-IMMP-steal

ba-a-timoka 3p-IMMP-run off

ciombe cattle

ciaito our

bwango quickly

The thieves stole our cattle and ran off quickly. b. abanto people igo

ba-ta-a-Irana 3p-NEG-IMMP-return

igoro yesterday

ba-a-tangwa nembura 3p-HEST-be delayed with rain

The people didn't return yesterday, they were delayed by rain. The functional motivation for the use of -ta- rather than ti- here is not yet clear to me. These eight forms are the backbone of the Gusii nonderived tense system. Three contrasts are significant: proximal vs. distal; old vs. new; and positive vs. negative (shown here with -minyoka 'run').

(2.7)

POSITIVE

NEW

NEGATIVE

PROXIMAL

bä-ä-minyoka

ti-bä-ä-minyoka

DISTAL

bä-a-minyoka

ti-bä-a-minyoka

PROXIMAL

m-bä-ä-minyoka

ba-tä-ä-minyoka

DISTAL

m-bä-a-minyoka

ba-ta-a-minyoka

This paradigm is replicated in its entirety in verbs with the suffix -ete and without a distinction between old and new topic in verbs with the suffix -ire: (2.8)

POSITIVE

NEGATIVE

a. -ete 0LD

PROXIMAL

bä-ä-minyokete

ti-bä-ä-minyokete

DISTAL

bà-a-minyokéte

ti-bä-a-minyokete

41

The Gusii Tense System PROXIMAL

m-bá-á-minyokete

bá-tá-á-minyokéte

DISTAL

m-ba-a-mmyokete

ba-ta-a-minyokéte

PROXIMAL

bá-á-minyokire

bá-tá-á-mínyókíre

DISTAL

bá-á-minyokire

bá-tá-a-minyokire

NEW b. -ire

Verbs with -ire point to a condition produced by an earlier event which at the moment of speaking still characterizes the subject of the verb. Even though the subject is semantically an undergoer, the verb does not bear the passive -w- extension. An agent phrase is possible, however, nembura 'by rain1 in (9a). This suffix is used with verbs where some tangible .change is produced in the undergoer (for example, cook, tie, cut, but not see or hear), and the use of this suffix on the first of a chain of verbs after a full noun phrase complements the use of unstabilized tenses where the noun phrase denotes an agent. For these verbs, the contrast between unstabilized positive tenses in -a and those with -ire is functionally parallel to a contrast between agent and undergoer relativization. Compare the following with (6):

(2.9)

a. énseemo side némbura by rain

yényomba of the house

é-a-taagire 9-DIST-destroyed

e-aà-gààcirwe 9-PROX-be built

naénde again

The side of the house destroyed by rain sometime ago has been rebuilt. b. éndààgera food

e-tà-à-rugire 9-NEG-PROX-cooked

e-a-gundire 9-PAST-spoiled

The food recently left uncooked spoiled. Note the passive extension on the second verb in (9a). In (9b) the second verb has a LL tone contour on the prefix string. This contour is characteristic of tenses which get their time reference from a neighboring verb, in this case the preceding one. Tenses formed with -ete appear to correspond distributionally one-for-one to -a tenses with the same prefix string and tone contour. igD only precedes unstabilized verbs; stabilized verbs introduce new topics and occur after onye in conditionals; topic chaining is possible with unstabilized verbs after an initial noun phrase; and the same correspondences exist between positive and negative tenses: zero vs. ti- and n- vs. -ta-, except zero vs. -ta- in topic chains.

John Kingston

42

Proximal forms with -ete refer to events occurring earlier today, while distal forms refer to events taking place at least some days ago. The two paradigms interleave to allow a distinction of four degrees of distance from the moment of speaking into the past; given here with characteristic adverbs:

(2.10)

a. Immediate

baaminyoka rcerO they just ran today

b. Hodiernal

baaminyokete mambia they ran this morning

c. Hesternal

baaminyoka igOrD they ran yesterday

d. Distant

baaminyokete kare they ran a long time ago

This is a remarkable number of distinctions for a deictic category such as tense. Though it is surprising that forms with different suffixes alternate like this, the pervasive proximal¡distai tone contrast may simply be more fundamental than that carried by the suffixes. The range of tenses which commonly appear in neighboring clauses is more or less the same for -a and -ete tenses with the same prefix tone contour; that is, the proximal : distal contrast determines tense dependency in Gusii.

2.1.2

Besides past -a-, Gusii has only one other nonderived tense prefix:

consecutive -ka-. This prefix is used to mark consecutive events whose time reference is fixed by the preceding verb or time adverb:

(2.11)

a. nxgD then erio then

a-a-cete 3s-PROX-come

a-ka-raagera 3s-CSEC-eat

a-ka-raara 3s-CSEC-sleep

Then he came, ate, and slept. b. botuko night

abalbi thieves

ba-ka-iba 3p-CSEC-steal

ba-ga-soa 3p-CSEC-enter cianga clothes

nyomba house

ba-ga-sooka 3p-CSEC-leave

naende again

During the night, the thieves entered the house, stole the clothes, and left again.

This tense does not occur after verbs in the immediate past, but can follow all other past tenses. Both the subject concord prefix for all noun classes and the tense prefix invariably have low tone. The absence of a proximal:

The Gusii Tense System

43

distal contrast is not surprising since this tense takes the value of another tense (or a time adverb) as its reference point. However, both -a-ka-...-ete and -a-ka-...-ire occur, where a high:low contrast on -a- marks distance from the moment of speaking. After -a-, -ka- is no longer consecutive, but instead just a simple past, -ete forms a past completive with -a-ka-, while -ire forms a past continuous tense with these prefixes.

(2.12)

a. m-bono STAB-now botuko night

a-a-ka-koorete 3s-PROX-PAST-finish

emeremo work

bo-ta-raa-Ira 14-NEG-ANTI-set

Now he's just finished work, night has not yet fallen. b. oyo this

nooro it is

omogondo field

a-a-ka-remire 3s-DIST-PAST-cultivate

This is the field he's been cultivating a long time. 2.1.3

A limited paradigm occurs with an -e suffix. When no prefix occurs,

verbs with this suffix function as a neutral dependent tense (second verb) or if stabilized by n- as a general future (first verb), (2.13)

ankio tomorrow

n-xn-gEnde STAB-ls-go

n-gore ls-buy

embori goat

Tomorrow I will go buy a goat. 2.1.4

Though these examples do not exhaust the list of nonderived tenses

in Gusii, they show how verbal words are put together. Subject concord and some suffix are obligatory; between zero and two prefixes and at most one preprefix may occur. The greatest elaboration is with the past tenses, where a combination of tone and suffix contrasts produces a four-way distinction (10). Future tenses do not distinguish more than two degrees of distance from the speech event, however. Two nontemporal categories, polarity and the contrast between stabilized and unstabilized verbs, contribute to the elaboration of the verb morphology of this language. Since nonderived prefixes generally retain their original position and functions when they occur in derived tenses, it seems clear that derived prefixes have been inserted into the paradigmatic frame provided by the older, nonderived tenses. By contrast to the nonderived paradigms many gaps and neutralizations are apparent among the derived tenses.

44

John Kingston

2.2

Derived tenses

Gusii has three derived tense prefixes: -ko-, -nako-, and -raa-. Though -nako- is etymologically separable into -na- and -ko-, na never occurs in a tense prefix without ko, so they are treated as a unit here. With the exception of -raa-, which may have such an etymology, no trace of any auxiliary word remains in derived tenses. If tenses with -ko- and -nako- were produced by fusion, the derived tense prefixes have usurped any aspectual or temporal functions that the putative auxiliary might have had. The loss of the auxiliary would leave derived prefixes immediately after nonderived ones (cf. 1.9a). The derived tense markers -raa- and -nako- also occur in infinitives (after ko-) in Gusii. To a large extent the appearance of derived tense prefixes in finite verbs is formally and functionally homologous to their appearance in infinitives, where they almost certainly appeared first. The following strings of derived prefixes are found in one-word tenses:

(2.14)

a. -ko-nakob. -ko-raac. -raa-nakod. -ko-raa-nako-

If one-word tenses have built up complexes of derived prefixes on the infinitive model, then the prior introduction of derived prefixes into infinitives provides a source for all multiple occurrences of derived prefixes which begin with -ko- (cf. 1.8c). The appearance of -raa- before -nako- is unsurprising if -raa- was originally an auxiliary (cf. 1.8a). That etymological -ko- invariably follows -na- suggests that at some earlier stage Gusii linked infinitives to a preceding auxiliary with na in much the same way that Luvale currently does (cf. 1.7) , though na does not appear in front of infinitives in modern two-word tenses in Gusii. Further evidence that it once did is the conspicuous absence of a -raa-ko- combination beside -raanako-. The final parallel to infinitives is that tenses with -ko- or -nakoonly occur with an -a suffix.

2.2.1

When -ko- occurs alone the tense has a (present) continuous reading.

This tense commonly occurs after a preposed noun phrase or question word (both stabilized by n-), or less often in a verbal complement:

45

The Gusii Tense System (2.15)

a. n-amagena STAB-eggs

a-ko-ria 3s-C0NT-eat

It's eggs he's eating. b. omokungu woman

n-ecliro STAB-market

a-go-cia 3s-CONT-go

The woman, it's to market she's going. The woman's going to market. c. qai/ndi where/when

5-k5-gEnda 2s-C0NT-go

Where/when are you going? d. n-a-ba-rora ls-IMMP-3p-see

abanto people

ba-g5-k5ra 3p-C0NT-do

emeremo work

I saw the people working. When the subject of the second verb is coreferent with that of the first, the second verb is usually nonfinite:

(2.15)

e. igoro yesterday

igo then

n-aa-genda ls-HEST-go

korlgia look for

embori goat

Yesterday I went to look for a goat.

though nkorigia 'I was looking for' is possible. Unlike some other Bantu languages, object concord in Gusii only appears when no full noun phrase object is present. Since the first verb in (15d) contains an object concord infix, the noun abanto cannot be its object, but instead must be the syntactic subject of the second verb. -ko- has a fairly small paradigm, but its members show clearly how the formal properties of nonderived paradigms have been extended to the new tenses. A quartet of negative tenses is found: (2.16)

H H

ti-ba-ko-minyoka

ba-ta-a-ko-minyoka

H L

ti-ba-ko-monyoka

ba-ta-a-ko-minyoka

Both pairs show a contrast between a HH and a HL tone contour on the prefix string, but it does not signal a distinction between proximal and distal time reference in either case. Both negatives with sustained high contours have future reference, while the falling contour produces a negative with past continuous reference. So although the formal contrast in tone contour has been extended to the -ko- paradigm, it has been separated from its functional base.

46 2.2.2

John Kingston The situation with -nako- tenses is more clearcut. The tone contrast

correlates with distance from the moment of speaking and -nako- tenses uniformly denote continuous events. When -nako- occurs by itself, the time reference of the event extends continously from the moment of speaking to some definite point in the future,

(2.17)

a. to-nako-mo-tengera lp-C0NT-2p-watch for

goika until

mo-go-ca 2p-C0NT-come

We will be watching out for you, until you come. b. onye if

ti-a-ri NEG-PROX-AUX

gooca come

ti-i-nako-r&ga NEG-ls-CONT-cook

If he's not coming (soon), I won't go on cooking.

Time reference shifts to the past when -a- is inserted before -nako-. Though there is a neutralization of the proximal:distal distinction in the positive and with ti-, it persists with -ta-a: (2.18)

a. to-a-nako-genda lp-PAST-CONT-go

to-go-tetena ko-mo-ganya lp-CONT-stand INF-3s-wait

ti-to-a-mo-rora NEG-lp-lMMP-3s-see We went on standing waiting for him but didn't see him. b. ti-n-aa-nako-rora NEG-ls-PAST-CONT-see

riirubi cobra

I have never seen a cobra. c. n-ta-a-nako-rema ls-NEG-PROX-CONT-cultivate

a-a-genda 3s-PR0X-go

I didn't go on cultivating after he left. d. n-ta-a-nago-siba ls-NEG-DIST-CONT-tie

gombE ciane cattle my

I never tied up my cattle.

Finally, -ko- appears before -nako-, both in a positive tense and in three negatives. The positive tense denotes an event which continues up through the moment of speaking: (2.19)

igo n-ko-nako-rangera ls-CONT-CONT-call

a-ta-raa-ca 3s-NEG-ANTI-come

I keep on calling, (but) he has not come.

The Gusii Tense System

47

The time reference of -nako- and -ko-nako- tenses overlap in that both include the moment of speaking; however, with -ko-nako- the activity has already been going on for some time when the speech event occurs. The contrast between continuous mogdoca 'you are still coming1 in (17a) and negative future ataraaca 'he has not yet come' in (19) in the second clause indicates that when the speaker uses -nako- alone, he does not expect his guests to come until after he has spoken, but he will use -ko-nako- when they are already late. Two negatives occur with the preprefix ti-. Both refer to the continuation of the nonoccurrence of an event from the moment of speaking until some definite point in the future. A sustained high tone contour on the prefix string denotes a general future, while a falling contour includes no more than the next day:

(2.20)

a. ti-n-ko-nago-simeka NEG-1s-CONT-CONT-plant

mo-ta-raa-ca 2p-NEG-ANTI-come

I won't plant until you come. b. onye if

tl-mo-ri NEG-2p-AUX

gooca come

bwango quickly

ti-n-ko-nako-ruga NEG-1s-CONT-CONT-cook If you're not coming soon, I won't be cooking. A third negative with -ta-a- occurs; it denotes an event which has still not taken place, but which someone is obliged to carry out, (2.21)

n-ta-a-ko-nago-siba ls-NEG-PROX-CONT-CONT-tie omosonte darkness

o-ta-raa-ca 3-NEG-ANTI-come

I haven't tied up yet, darkness hasn't come yet. = I must get on with the tying up before darkness comes. Though both -ko- and -nako- tenses indicate that an activity is continuous, -nako- is used when the activity is expected to end at some specified time, usually given in an accompanying clause. Verbs with -ko- are neutral with respect to when the activity will be over with.

48

John Kingston

2.2.3

A recapitulation

Tenses formed with -ko- and -nako- refer to continuous events, while nonderived tenses refer to events with more limited duration. This is even true of the "stative" tenses shown in (9) where it is the condition resulting from some event not the event itself which persists. However, since the nonderived prefixes -e- and -ka- retain their temporal value when combined with -koand -nako-, the derived prefixes add continuity to the interpretation of the activity, which otherwise would be interpreted punctually by default. So not only is there a formal contrast between derived and nonderived prefixes nonderived precede derived —

—

but they are also functionally segregated.

Functionally, two-word tenses form a class with derived tenses. Most twoword tenses formed with the neutral auxiliary -re, to which subject concord, polarity, and tense prefixes are attached, have continuous interpretations:

(2.22)

a. n-eciDmbe STAB-cattle

n-aa-re ls-PROX-AUX

gotema beat

It was cattle I was just beating. b. neciDmb£

n-aa-re ls-DIST-AUX

ko-nako-rigia INF-CONT-look after

It was cattle I used to look after. c. ti-n-aa-re NEG-ls-PROX-AUX q-ankio STAB-tomorrow

gosimeka plant

r£ErO today

n-raa-simeke ls-ANTI-plant

I wasn't planting today, it's tomorrow I'll plant. d. n-ta-a-re 1s-NEG-DIST-AUX q-omwaka STAB-year

oyo this

gosimeka plant

omwaka year

oeta last

ti-i-nako-moca NEG-ls-CONT-fail

I didn't plant last year, this year I won't fail.

Though the parallels between derived and two-word tenses unequivocally point up the infinitival origins of the derived tenses, they unfortunately do not help in deciding whether derived tenses came about through internal fusion of old two-word tenses or by attaching subject concord and tense prefixes to infinitives. Infinitives like other nouns usually do not take tense prefixes, so direct attachment of concord and tense prefixes would require a reanalysis of infinitives as potentially finite. This is not particularly

49

The Gusii Tense System disturbing since infinitives are an intermediate class anyway. Unlike other nouns they do not govern concords, though noninfinitival nouns in class 15 with the cognate prefix 6-ko-, such as ogoto 'ear' do. If some property of two-word tenses, particularly some formal interaction between the auxiliary and its complement, were retained in derived tenses, then a periphrastic origin could be chosen over direct attachment. Tone is a likely candidate, but the association of the HH and HL contours ignores the boundary between nonderived and derived prefixes, replacing any earlier two-word tone pattern which might have survived in derived tenses. The initial H is associated with all but the last tense prefix, where the contrast between H and L is expressed:

(2.23)

H H

H L

a. ti-ba-ko-minyoka

b. ti-ba-ko-minyoka

c. ba-ta-a-ko-minyoka

d. ba-ta-a-ko-minyoka

though with -nako- the contrast is on the first syllable not the second: e. ti-ba-ko-nako-minyoka

f. ti-ba-ko-nako-minyoka

The only exception thus far is found with the distal form of the past continuous negative, where the fall occurs on the last nonderived prefix, (2.24)

a. ba-ta-a-nako-minyoka

b. ba-ta-a-nako-minyoka

The proximal form shows the expected spread of the H tone across the entire prefix string. Though the auxiliary word can show a contrast between a sustained high and a falling contour on the prefixes in front of the auxiliary, a different overall tone pattern is found in two-word tenses. The auxiliary -re bears a polar tone: it is low after prefixes with a sustained high contour, but high after those with a falling contour. The high tone in the second case spreads onto the following infinitive prefix (22b,d). This sort of tone polarization and spreading produces a pattern similar to the anomalous HLHH contour in (24b), but it would produce the wrong results in all other cases, since the mapping of the initial H onto all but the last tense prefix makes it impossible for there to be a medial low tone in the prefix string. However, there is some tendency for monosyllabic high-toned roots with

50

John Kingston

a short vowel to downstep to mid after a sustained high contour, alongside a complementary tendency for short low-toned roots to raise to mid after a falling contour. This does not happen in all tenses and there are complications with long and disyllabic roots, but still tone patterns quite similar to those in two-word tenses would be produced by these shifts in root tone:

(2.25)

High roots

Low roots

H H 'H L

H L

bä-ä-roka

ba-a-roka

they just vomited

they called yesterday

I

H H

L

bà-à-re

H L

L H L

H L

koróka

ba-a-re

they were vomiting a little while ago

H

H L L koroka

they were calling some time ago

Two features are important here: the paradigmatic contrast is expressed on the last morpheme before the verb root, whether it's an auxiliary or main verb, and the root itself bears a tone which contrasts with that of the preceding morpheme. The proximal contour is a sustained high with a fall on the root, while the distal contour falls one syllable earlier and then rises again. The tone patterns of one- and two-word tenses (to extent that they behave like these examples) could probably be produced by similar rules. If two-word tenses fused into single words, the auxiliary would have to be lost (or reinterpreted) if the initial H association rule were to be extended across the new prefix string. With the auxiliary gone, however, the problem of being unable to distinguish between periphrastic origins and direct attachment of prefixes reappears.

2.2.4

The situation with -raa- tenses is altogether different from that

found with the other derived prefixes. In most of its uses, -raa- appears to be a complement to consecutive -ka-. While -ka- is typically used to

The Gusii Tense System

51

indicate that one event follows another, -raa- anticipates a subsequent event. -ka- looks back to an earlier event as reference point, while -raa- looks forward to the next event. One tense has both -ka- and -raa-: • (2.26)

a-ka-raa-siba 3s-PAST-ANTI-tie

cirpndi sheep

a-ka-manya okogenda 3s-CSEC-then go

goteenya gather firewood

She first tied up the sheep, and then went and gathered firewood -ka- loses its strictly consecutive reading here when combined with -raa-. When -raa- occurs alone it has future time reference (27a), but as with -nako- a preceding -a- shifts the time reference back to the past (27b). Negative tenses with -raa- refer to not yet completed events (27c,d):

(2.27)

a. ni-n-raa-siba STAB-ls-ANTI-tie kOgEnda go

i i-manye ls-then

cirpndi sheep

koriisia look after

ciombe cattle

I will tie up the sheep and then go look after the cattle. b. n-n-a-raa-siba STAB-ls-DIST-ANTI-tie n-a-manya ls-PROX-then

cirpndi sheep

koigorera let out

ciombE cattle

I first tied up the sheep, and then let out the cattle. c. ti-n-raa-raagera NEG-ls-ANTI-eat gocia go

igo so

ti-n-ri NEG-ls-AUX

gotaara walk

I haven't eaten yet, so I won't go walking. d. a-ta-a-raa-genda 3s-NEG-PR0X-ANTI-go

n-a-ko-rorE STAB-3s-2s-see

lit: he hasn't left yet, he will see you = Before he leaves, he will see you. Tenses with -raa- (and with -ka-) allow verbs with the same subject to be chained together, but unlike the topic chaining constructions in (6) and (9), a certain sequence of events is specified. The sustained high and falling

52

John Kingston

contours do not spread onto -raa- (compare 27b,d); the contrast is expressed on the last nonderived prefix, -raa- bears an invariant, usually low tone. This is also true when -raa- combines with other derived prefixes. Since its tone is usually low, a prefix string with a medial low tone (cf. 26b) is produced. Both anticipation and continuity can be discerned in tenses where -raacombines with -ko- or -nako-: (2.28)

a. igo so

to-ko-raa-rema lp-CONT-ANTI-cultivate

to-manye lp-then

ake a little

ko-raa-timoka INF-ANTI-rest

So we will keep cultivating a bit longer and then go rest. b. to-ta-a-ka-koorire lp-NEG-PROX-PAST-do rjankio tomorrow

intwe we

emeremo, work

to-raa-nako-rema lp-ANTI-CONT-cultivate

We haven't done any work lately, tomorrow we will be cultivating. c. n-ko-nako-cica ls-CONT-CONT-peel

ebiasi potatoes

o-ta-a-ko-raa-nako-n-yateria 2s-NEG-PR0X-C0NT-ANTI-C0NT-Is-cut for cinko wood

ecio this

I'll keep on peeling potatoes, if you will continue cutting up this wood for me.

-raa- differs from the other two derived prefixes in that when it is the only derived prefix, it can occur with all four suffixes: (2.29)

a. igo so

n-rää-sOE ls-ANTI-enter

nyomba house

gó-kó-n-rangeria 2s-C0NT-ls-call I'll come into the house, when you call me.

The Gusii Tense System

b. to-a-ráá-síbíre clanga lp-PAST-ANTI-wash clothes

53

c. n-n-á-ráa-sibéte ciQondi STAB-1s-DIST-ANTI-tie sheep

to-tá-á-raa-rema lp-NEG-PROX-ANTI-cultivate

n-ka-manya koriisia ciOmb£ ls-CSEC-then look after cattle

We washed the clothes, but haven't cultivated yet.

I first tied up the sheep, and then went and looked after the cattle.

The appearance of the complementary suffix -ka- with these suffixes (2.12) may have allowed analogous extension of -raa- once it had become a 'tense prefix. This extension of -raa- to tenses with non-infinitival suffixes suggests it became a tense prefix before either -ko- or -nako- did. On the other hand, both -ko- and -nako- might simply be more restricted because ko- still functions in the language as the infinitive prefix. Since -raa- cannot be synchronically linked to any construction which requires the suffix -a, as infinitives do, it is more likely to be extended to the other suffix paradigms. Functionally, -raa- and -ka- form a class distinct from -a- and from -ko-/ -nako-, since unlike -a- they do not take the speech event as a reference point and unlike the derived prefixes they do not add an aspectual modification to the verb.

2.3

Conclusion

Bantu comparative linguistics has reached a point where it is possible to go beyond working out the etymologies of individual morphemes to reconstruct words and phrases. The stability of noun class prefixes and the associated concord system allows straightforward reconstruction of nominal phrases for Proto-Bantu and any intermediate protolanguages set up for the various branches of the family. The evident instability of verbal words produces a picture of recent and unremitting change. This has, unfortunately, led to a certain amount of methodological looseness, particularly in the reconstruction of what I have called "derived" tense prefixes. Relatively little attention has been directed to working out how these morphemes got from where they originated to where they are presently found. Though I have been unable to provide conclusive evidence that fusion rather than direct attachment is the process which created Gusii's derived tenses, it has been possible to show

54

John Kingston

that derived prefixes occur in the order that one would expect if they had come about by fusion, so long as -raa- and -nako- are introduced into infinitives beforehand. These extended infinitives are themselves certainly the result of fusion of strings of infinitives (note the 'auxiliary' use of togenda, 'go' above). Two lines of research seem promising: looking at closely related languages such as Kuria to see if a prefusion stage can be reconstructed for the Eastern Nyanza languages and looking at the place where infinitives occur in Gusii to see if their distribution is like that of -koor -nako- tenses.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I am indebted to Simeon Kanani for his patient help when I began working on his language in 1980. I have greatly benefited from the comments of my audience in Montreal, especially those of Derek Nurse; this paper has become much better because of them. Johanna Nichols helped a great deal at various times when things had bogged down. None of these people are responsible for any errors or infelicities which might remain.

ABBREVIATIONS ANTI AUX CONT CSEC DIST FUT HEST HODP IMMP INF LOC NEG NEUT PERF PRES PROX STAB Is etc.

anticipatory auxiliary continuous consecutive distal future hesternal past "yesterday1 hodiernal past "today" immediate past "just now" infinitive locative negative neutral perfect present proximal stabilizer 1st person singular etc.

The Gusii Tense System

55

NOTES

1. The eastern area includes Guthrie's zones D, E, F, G, M, N, P and S, though many features of the tense morphology of the southern zone S are peculiar to it. Nurse and Phillipson's Lacustrine, Northeast, Thagicu, and Chaga-Taita groups include most of the languages found in Guthrie's zones E, F and G, but their classification is different. Since it is more strictly linguistic than Guthrie's, which mixes linguistic similarity and geographic proximity, their classification will be used in preference to his in this paper. 2. The Swahili completive prefix -me- derived from -madile, the perfective form of finish, is a commonly cited but I believe fairly uncommon development. It appears to be the only verb with 'aspectual' value which has developed into a tense prefix in more than just a few languages. 3. Guthrie places the language in zone E as E.42, linking it to Kuria and Ragoli. 4. Data for Gusii comes in part from my own notes, but the major source for this study has been Whiteley's monograph on Gusii's tense system (1960). This work has been useful primarily as a source of data, since Whiteley's notions of tense dependency do not in many cases survive close scrutiny. Also, his comments on the diachronic development of Gusii's tense system do not distinguish between derived and nonderived prefixes. 5. The tense prefix in these negative forms is always a long -aa- when the subject concord prefix ends in a non-syllabic. Is n- is nonsyllabic and any prefix vowel other than /a/ is subject to glide formation before /a/. Vowel lengthening is clearly a compensation for the mora lost to glide formation. This lengthening is an automatic phonological process, except after Is n- where there is no underlying vowel.

REFERENCES

Cole, D.T., 1955, Introduction to Tswana grammar, Longmans, Green, and Co.: London. Givon, T., 1972, Studies in ChiBemba and Bantu grammar, Studies in African Linguistics, Supplement 3. Guthrie, M., 1967-70, Comparative Bantu, 4 vols, Gregg: Farnborough. Harries, L., 1950, A grammar of Mwera, Witwatersrand University Press: Johannesburg. Horton, A.E., 1949, A grammar of Luvale, Witwatersrand University Press: Johannesburg. Meeussen, A.E., 1967, Bantu grammatical reconstructions, Africana Linguistica 3, Musee Royal de l'Afrique Centrale, Annales, Sciences Humaines, 61, Tervuren, 79-121. Nurse, D. 1979, Description of sample Bantu languages of Tanzania, African Languages/Langues Africaines, 5.1.

56

John Kingston

Nurse, D, 1982, The Proto-Sabaki verb system and its subsequent development, Ms. Nurse, D. & G. Phillipson, 1980, The Bantu languages of East Africa: A lexicostatistical survey. In E.C. Polome & C.P. Hill (eds.) Language in Tanzania. International African Institute, Oxford University Press: London, 26-67 Roehl, K., 1911, Versuch einer systematischen Grammatik der Schambalasprache, Abhandlungen des Hamburgischen Kolonialinstituts 2: Hamburg. Sharman, J.C., 1956, The tabulation of tenses in a Bantu language, (Bemba: Northern Rhodesia), Africa, 26, 29-46. Sharman, J.c. & A.E. Meeussen, 1955, The representation of structural tones, with special reference to the tonal behavior of the verb, in Bemba, Northern Rhodesia, Africa, 25, 393-404. Whiteley, W.H., 1960, The tense system of Gusii, East African Institute of Social Research: Kampala.

Chapter 4

Le Rwanda et Sa Langue Léon Mugesera

0.

INTRODUCTION Nous nous proposons de vous présenter pendant ces quelques minutes, "Le

Rwanda et sa langue". Disons-le tout de suite, nous aurions dû parler du Rwanda et ses langues. En effet, même si le kinyarwanda - c'est comme cela que s'appelle la langue du Rwanda - est parlé sur toute l'étendue du pays, des recherches récentes ont révélé l'existence d'autres langues sur le territoire rwandais: - le luciga et le gihima, parlés dans une zone habitée par 110,000 habitants qui comprend trois communes de la préfecture de Byumba (Muvumba, Kiyombe, Kivuye) et trois secteurs de la commune Butaro en préfecture de Ruhengeri. - le kinyambo et le kirasi, parlés dans deux secteurs de la commune Rusumo en préfecture de Kibungo. - le gihavu et les mashi, parlés dans la préfecture de Cyangugu dans une zone habitée par 216,000 habitants. - le kirundi, parlé dans quelques secteurs des communes situées le long de la frontière du Rwanda et du Burundi. Cependant, il reste que le mot "ikinyarwanda" signifie "chose du Rwanda". C'est pour cette raison que notre propos a pour titre "Le Rwanda et sa langue".

1.

PLAN GEOGRAPHIQUE Le kinyarwanda est une langue du Rwanda. Situé en Afrique centrale, le

Rwanda est un petit pays (26,338 km^) fort peuplé (4,819,317 habitants, soit

58

Léon Mugesera

183 habitants au km 2 ) , enclavé, coincé entre le géant politique, la Tanzanie à l'est, et le géant économique le Zaïre à l'ouest, le Burundi au sud, et l'Uganda au nord.

2.

PLAN GEOLINGUISTIQUE

Le kinyarwanda est une langue bantoue de la zone interlacustre qui porte l'indice J61 dans la classification des langues bantoues de Guthrie (1967) revue par l'équipe de Tervuren (Bastin 1975) et reprise par Bastin et Barreteau (1978). Le kinyarwanda fait partie d'une zone d'intercompréhension beaucoup plus vaste qui comprend le kirundi du Burundi, le giha du Buha (Tanzanie) et des parlers des portions de populations aux frontières de l'Uganda et du Zaïre avec le Rwanda. On peut estimer à 15 millions l'ensemble des locuteurs du kinyarwanda si on laisse tomber les problèmes liés à la glossonymie. De tous ceux qui ont réalisé les cartes linguistiques de l'Afrique, seul Dalby (1977) a perçu ce problème en situant à l'intérieur des mêmes frontières linguistiques le Kinyarwanda et le kirundi, constrairement à Greenberg (1963) et à Perrot (1981), ouvrage récent mais vieux d'une vingtaine d'années sur le sujet. A l'intérieur même du Rwanda, le kinyarwanda est un et divers. Des variantes dialectales épousent étonnamment la forme du relief: le kinyarwanda dit standard occupe la région des plateaux tandis que le gikiga et le kigoyi occupent la région des hautes montagnes à l'ouest (toute la Crête Zaïre-Nil préfectures de Gikongoro, de Kibuye, de Gisenyi et de Ruhengeri; le kigoyi n'est parlé que dans quatre communes de la préfecture de Gisenyi: Nyamyumba, Kanama, Rubavu et Rwerere).

Examples : a.

b.

kinyarwanda standard

giki ga

ibishyîmbo iiatura icyûma urwâra

ibishimbo ishatura i cuma ugwara

(ivlçiimbô) (isààtùrà) (Ikjûùmà) (ûrgwâàrà)

kinyarwanda standard

kigoyi

inkâ impàmvu intama imfura

inga imbamvu indama imvura

(inkhâ) (imphàâmvù) (inthààmà) (Imfurà)

français (ivi/iimbo) (i/aatura) (it/uuma) (ugwaara)

haricots sanglier couteau ongle français

(inga) (imbaamvu) (indaama) (imvura)

vache motif mouton noble

Rwanda et

sa

Langue

59

On notera, entre autres, que le kigoyi ne connaît pas de séquences nasales + consonnes sourdes et que la tonalité des dialectes du kinyarwanda, autre que le kinyarwanda standard, n'a pas encore été décrite. Sans nous confiner à l'aspect géolinguistique, disons qu'il existe le kinyarwanda des lettrés et le kinyarwanda des analphabètes. Par exemple, ceux qui ont fait des études auront tendance à utiliser un discours mixte kinyarwanda-français et produiront des phrases du genre umukomerisa agaporofita

arîdeburuya

qu'il est presque inutile de vous traduire, car même sans être

Rwandais, vous aurez tout compris (un commerçant se débrouille et profite). Si l'on poussait l'analyse plus loin, on trouverait qu'il existe le kinyarwanda des vieux et le kinyarwanda des jeunes (ex. gutêka umutwé, littéralement "cuire la tête", expression récente qui signifie "utiliser tous les moyens possibles pour arriver à un but"), le kinyarwanda de la langue commune et le kinyarwanda des langues de spécialité (ex.: gusuka inw?li, "tresser les cheveux").

3.

PLAN DE LA POLITIQUE LINGUISTIQUE L'article 4 de la Constitution de la République Rwandaise stipule que le

kinyarwanda est la langue nationale et qu'il a, avec le français, le statut de langue officielle. Bilinguisme donc officiel et institutionnel qui implique que tous les textes officiels (lois, directives, presse orale et écrite, etc.) doivent, en principe, paraître en kinyarwanda et en français. Langue d'enseignement à l'école primaire, le kinyarwanda devient, petit à petit, langue d'enseignement au secondaire et devra conquérir ce statut au niveau de l'enseignement supérieur et universitaire. En effet, la réforme scolaire de l'enseignement, mise en branle depuis 1974, et en application depuis 1979, donne à la langue nationale, le kinyarwanda, le statut de langue d'enseignement à tous les niveaux du cursus scolaire (primaire, secondaire, supérieur et universitaire). La situation actuelle est que, au niveau primaire, tout en étant une matière d'enseignement (M.E.) comme le français et les autres matières, le kinyarwanda sert aussi à la transmission des connaissances (L.E.). Aux niveaux secondaire, supérieur et universitaire, le français, tout en étant une matière d'enseignement (M.E.) comme le kinyarwanda et les autres matières, est le véhicule du savoir (L.E.).

60

Léon Mugesera La situation désirée, préconisée par la réforme de l'enseignement, est de

ramener le français au seul rang de matière d'enseignement à tous les niveaux, le kinyarwanda y assumant alors le rôle de véhicule du savoir. Ainsi donc, la situation actuelle et la situation désirée du statut de ces deux langues dans l'enseignement se présentent comme le montre ce tableau:

Situation actuelle "»v^

Situation désirée

Langue

Niveau ^ ^ d ' enseignemeirE^^^

RWA

FRA

RWA

FRA

Primaire

L.E.+M.E.

M.E.

L.E.+M.E.

M.E.

Secondaire

M. E.

L.E.+M.E.

L.E.+M.E.

M.E.

Supérieur et Universitaire

M.E.

L.E.+M.E.

L.E.+M.E.

M.E.

RWA:

Kinyarwanda

FRA:

Français

L.E.:

Langue d'enseignement

M.E.:

Matière d'enseignement

Pour arriver à la situation désirée, il faut élaborer des manuels d'enseignement en langue nationale dans toutes les disciplines et pour toutes les orientations. Ces manuels d'enseignement ne peuvent être élaborés que si l'on dispose des terminologies nécessaires en kinyarwanda. L'enjeu est noble mais la tâche est ardue et immense. En effet, certains linguistes africanistes, surtout européens, et même certains linguistes africains affirment que les langues négro-africaines ont un lexique si pauvre qu'elles ne peuvent pas exprimer les réalités du monde moderne. Cette affirmation est tendancieuse et erronnée. Nous aurons l'occasion de le démontrer magistralement lors de la défense de notre thèse de doctorat à l'Université Laval. En attendant, il faut reconnaître que chaque langue est capable d'exprimer les réalités de l'univers des peuples qui la parlent.

Rwanda et sa Langue

61

Et lorsque des objets nouveaux apparaissent et que des notions nouvelles naissent, deux attitudes sont possibles: ou bien une langue importe, avec l'objet et la notion, leur dénomination ou bien une langue donne une dénomination à l'objet et à la notion importés. Par exemple, toutes les lois françaises récentes et toutes les lois québécoises à caractère linguistique témoignent d'une ferme volonté de lutter contre l'invasion massive des termes anglais. Les langues négro-africaines, comme toutes les autres langues du monde auront recours à l'emprunt ou inventeront des dénominations nouvelles pour désigner les réalités du monde moderne. Encore que le terme "emprunt" nous semble impropre si l'on songe à la dialectique "prêter - emprunter - rendre", l'emprunt linguistique est rarement rendu (ex. FRA: bougette > ENG.: budget > FRA: budget) et les langues qui empruntent ne prêtent pas dans les mêmes proportions. Il faudrait plutôt, comme le souligne Marcel Diki Kidiri, parler "d'appropriation". Et il faut l'avouer, même s'il n'y a pas remboursement, les langues prêteuses s'en trouvent glorifiées. Pour exprimer la notion de "livre", le kinyarwanda utilise le mot igitabo qui lui est venu de l'arabe "kitab" par l'intermédiare du swahili "kitabu". La "photo" est entrée directement en kinyarwanda avec adaptation graphique ifoto. Le mot ibuye qui signifie "pierre" a acquis un sens nouveau de "pile" et le mot "compas" est traduit par une dénomination nouvelle agacâruzlga (du verbe gucâ "tracer" et du nom uruzîga "cercle"). Inyâiminyo traduit "labiodental" par télescopage des mots inyamunwa "labial" + iryînyo "dent"; et le calque devient un outil de création néonymique dans le langage de la magistrature et de l'administration: ubucSmanza bwicaye pour "magistrature assise". Ce qui fait défait aux langues négro-africaines, ce n'est donc pas le pouvoir d'exprimer la modernité sous tous aspects (culturels, techniques et scientifiques) mais bien des descriptions claires et précises. Il faudrait que des africanistes de bonne volonté y consacrent leurs efforts avec moins d'exotisme et de préjugés et que des linguistes africains cessent de les contempler avec des yeux étrangers. Un autre fait important qu'il faut remarquer c'est que, en plus du français et du kinyarwanda, le Rwanda cherche à sortir de son enclavement géographique en prônant une politique de désenclavement linguistique axé sur l'enseignement de deux langues: l'une, internationale, l'anglais, et l'autre, africaine régionale, le swahili. L'enseignement de ces deux langues se fait à partir du secondaire.

62

Léon Mugesera

Par ailleurs, la Charte du kinyarwanda est en préparation aux Ministères intéressés (Ministère de l'Enseignement Primaire et Secondaire, Ministère de l'Enseignement Supérieur et de la Recherche Scientifique) pour donner au kinyarwanda la place qui lui revient dans les divers secteurs de la vie nationale; en effet, le français, apanage de l'élite qui a eu la chance de percer dans les études (+ 10% de la population), continue à être la langue de prestige et à faire le poids dans l'administration centrale. En tout cas, la justice est rendue en kinyarwanda et ces derniers temps. Son Excellence le Général Major Habyarimana Juvénal, Président de la République et Président Fondateur du Mouvement Révolutionnaire National pour le Développement (M.R. N.D.) prononce ses allocutions en kinyarwanda seulement; la traduction française est alors distribuée aux diplomates dans la tribune d'honneur. A l'Université Nationale du Rwanda, deux de mes collègues donnent leur cours de littérature rwandaise en kinyarwanda; feu Alexis Kagame assurait ses cours de littérature rwandaise et d'histoire du Rwanda en kinyarwanda quand il n'y avait pas d'étrangers dans son cours et nous assurons nousmêmes nos cours de linguistique rwandaise en kinyarwanda.

4.

PLAN DES RECHERCHES LINGUISTIQUES

4.1

Projets internationaux

Le Rwanda abrite trois projets de recherche linguistique d'envergure internationale : - Les projets "Atlas linguistique de l'Afrique Centrale" et "Lexiques thématiques de l'Afrique Centrale" connus respectivement sous les sigles ALAC - RWANDA et LETAC - RWANDA. Ces deux projets sont financés par l'Agence de Coopération Culturelle et Technique (A.C.C.T.) et exécutés par les équipes nationales des ressortissants des états membres de l'Agence.

- Le projet "Concertation et formation en linguistique comparative bantoue", subventionné par le Conseil International de Recherche et d'Etude en Linguistique Fondamentale et Appliquée (CIRELFA), un Conseil de l'A.C.C.T. dont le Secrétariat Général se trouve à Montréal même sous la responsabilité de Monsieur Jean-Claude Corbeil.

Rwanda et sa Langue 4.2

63

Projets nationaux

Au niveau de la linguistique descriptive, Schumacher (1934), Van Overschelde et coll. (1977), ont publié deux dictionnaires du kinyarwanda, dictionnaires de type bilingue "français-kinyarwanda-français". Alexis Kagame est décédé alors qu'il préparait, entre autres, un dictionnaire français-kinyarwanda. L'Institut National de Recherche Scientifique (INRS) prépare, sous la direction d'André Coupez, un dictionnaire de la langue rwandaise, dictionnaire analogique sur le modèle du Grand Robert. Hurel (1920), Kagame (1960), Coupez et coll. (1961), Nkongori (1964), Coupez et coll. (1980), ont publié diverses grammaires du kinyarwanda. Le Ministère de l'Enseignement Primaire et Secondaire a publié également des manuels de grammaire du kinyarwanda. Multiples travaux de fin de deuxième et de troisième cycles universitaires traitent des aspects de la grammaire rwandaise. Au niveau de la linguistique historique et comparative: en plus de fichier comparatif des langues bantoues constamment mis à jour à l'I.N.R.S. et qui contient toutes les reconstructions existantes et des reconstructions nouvelles non publiées, le kinyarwanda est régulièrement comparé aux autres langues bantoues grâce à des travaux de fin de deuxième cycle à la Faculté des Lettres de l'U.N.R. C'est ainsi que nous l'avons par example, comparé notamment au shona, langue bantoue de la zone S10. Il existe également des recherches linguistiques individuelles ou en éguipe, notamment à l'Université Nationale du Rwanda, au Bureau Pédagogique de l'Enseignement Secondaire et à l'Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique.

CONCLUSION Au terme de ce bref coup d'oeil sur "le Rwanda et sa langue", il convient de dire que le kinyarwanda occupe une place privilégiée dans le cadre de la linguistique africaine aussi bien au niveau de la linguistique descriptive, de la linguistique historique et comparative qu'à celui de la linguistique appliquée. Les Etats africains présentent une diversité d'aspects en matière linguistique: l'on y recontre l'opposition langues étrangères - langues nationales, et l'opposition langues africaines régionales - langues nationales. Un grand nombre d'Etats africains sont plurilingües. Il existe aussi, en Afrique, des

64

Léon Mugesera

Etats différents partageant une même langue. Des colloques internationaux du genre de celui-ci constituent un lieu privilégié de rendez-vous du "donner et du recevoir" comme le disait le poète Aimé Césaire et contribuent ainsi à la solution pratique des problèmes culturels du Continent africain dans la solidarité et la complémentarité. Nous osons espérer que l'exemple du Rwanda constitue un encouragement pour les autres nations africaines en même temps que le Rwanda compte sur l'appui de ces mêmes nations dans son effort gigantesque de réforme culturelle.

BIBLIOGRAPHIE

Barreteau, Daniel, 1978, sous la direction de, Inventaire des études linguistiques sur les pays d'Afrique noire d'expression

française et sur

Madagascar, Paris, CILF. Bastin, Yvonne, 1975, Bibliographie

bantoue sélective, Tervuren, MRAC.

Coupez, André et coll., 1961, Grammaire rwanda simplifiée,

Usumbura.

Coupez, André, 1980, Abrégé de grammaire rwanda, Edition provisiore, Butare, INRS. Dalby, David, 1977, Language Map of Africa and the Adjacent Islands, Provisional Edition, London, IAI. Greenberg, Joseph Harold, 1963, The languages of Africa, the Hague, Mouton. Guthrie, Malcolm, 1967, The Classification

of the Bantu Languages, IAI,

London, Dawson of Pall Mall. Hurel, Eugène, 1920, Grammaire kinyarwanda,

Maison Carrée, (Algérie).

Kagame, Alexis, 1960, La langue du Rwanda et du Burundi expliquée aux autochtones,

Kabgayi.

Mugesera, Léon, 1979, Phonologie historique du shona, Butare, U.N.R. Nkongori, Laurent, 1964, Grammaire du Kinyarwanda

Ikibonezamvugo,

Kabgayi.

Onapo, 1981, Twiyongere twongere umusaruro, Kigali, ONAPO. Perrot, Jean, 1981, sous la direction de, Les langues dans le monde, ancien et moderne. Première partie: les langues de l'Afrique Deuxième partie

subsaharienne

Pidgins et créoles, Paris, CNRS.

Schumacher, P., 1954, Dictionnaire phonétique runyarwanda-français,

français-runyarwanda,

Kabgayi.

Van Overschelde, G. et coll., 1977, Dictionnaire français-kinyarwanda,

s.l. Presses Lavigerie.

kinyarwanda-français,

Chapter 5

The Influence of African Languages on Pidgins and Creoles John Victor Singler

The syntax of pidgin and Creole languages is - it is agreed - shaped in part by the syntax of the contributing substrate languages. In the case of the Atlantic pidgins and Creoles, for example, the contribution of African, especially West African, languages has been widely acknowledged. However, when it comes to specifying the nature and extent of that contribution, there is much less agreement. It is this question of substratal influence that I wish to address in this paper. To begin with, I wish to argue that extended pidgins reflect greater substratal influence than do Creoles. Some examples of extended pidgins - the term comes from Todd (1974) - are West African Pidgin English as spoken in Nigeria and Cameroun, Liberian English, and Kru Pidgin English. While, by the simplest definition, a Creole is a pidgin that has acquired native speakers, on the other hand an extended pidgin is a pidgin that has expanded in form and function without necessarily having undergone nativization. Additionally, the social history of Creoles ordinarily involves the physical displacement of populations; the history of extended pidgins does not. Todd (1974) and Sankoff and Laberge (1974), among others, have emphasized the similarity of extended pidgins to Creoles rather than to more restricted pidgins. While extended pidgins can be shown to be very similar to Creoles, they ought at the same time to display greater substratal influence than Creoles inasmuch as speakers of extended pidgins have as their first language a substrate language. Speakers of Creoles are no longer in direct contact with the substrate languages; speakers of extended pidgins are. I wish to propose further that the more homogeneous the substratal input is, the more pervasive the substratal influence will be. Conversely, the more diverse and conflicting the substratal input is, the greater the likelihood that the pidgin or Creole will reflect little or no substratal influence. Like the other principles put forth in this paper regarding the extent and character of substratal influence, this principle may well be nothing more than a statement of the obvious. At the same time, though, it is an observation that apparently has not been made before. If it has eluded students of substratal influence in the Atlantic region, this may be a consequence of

66

John Victor Singler

the fact that the best-studied of Atlantic pidgins and Creoles have been certain Caribbean Creoles, e.g. Jamaican Creole English, Haitian Creole French, and Guyanese Creole English. The history of the Caribbean region makes clear how very diverse the substratal input has been there. Because of this diversity (and also because these languages are Creoles rather than extended pidgins) , the languages that have been studied most by those in search of substratal influence are languages that are comparatively unlikely to display it. In contrast, Kru Pidgin English - the pidgin of the "Kru sailors" of Liberia - ought to be a much more suitable source for evidence of substratal influence. (The questions of the relationship of Kru Pidgin English to other dialects of English spoken in West Africa will not be addressed here except that - following Hancock (1971, 1980) - it will be considered as separate from Liberian English.) The term "Kru" when used with reference to the sailors and laborers who speak Kru Pidgin English includes members of three ethnic groups: the Klao, the Grebo, and - minimally - the Bassa.1 Klao, Grebo, and Bassa are all Western Kru languages (or dialect clusters). There is general but not absolute interintelligibility among the dialects of a given language and some interintelligibility between some Klao dialects and some Grebo ones and between other Klao dialects and some Bassa ones. Thus, in the case of Kru Pidgin English, the substratal input has come primarily from linguistically similar and related languages. The pidgin in question is perhaps two centuries old. According to Tonkin (1971) , From at least the eighteenth century, Kru from Liberia were employed (as they are still) in gangs working on ships. They must have been important diffusers and standardizers of Pidgin English, for their employers included slavers, traders, explorers, and the English Navy, and they worked for them even as far as South Africa. (p. 143) A pattern developed whereby young men - Ludlam (1825) describes them, as being "seldom less than fifteen years, or more than forty" (p. 49) - would take employment away from home. They worked on ships and later - living in Kru enclaves - worked in mines, in agricultural projects, and as domestics - on the Gold Coast, in Sierra Leone, in Nigeria, and elsewhere. They would remain for eighteen months or two years and then return home for several months. A Kruman usually repeated this pattern several times. Throughout this period

Kru Pidgin English

67

of extensive migration by Kru men, their home villages have remained essentially monolingual Klao- or Grebo- or Bassa-speaking towns. Their settlements elsewhere, while often displaying a mixture of Klao, Grebo, and Bassa elements, were usually segregated from the indigenous populations - throughout the nineteenth century and up to World War I. Only between the two World Wars did the segregation begin to break down. 2 The environment seems to have arisen, then, where speakers of Klao, Grebo, and Bassa would communicate with one another in Kru Pidgin English. Given that setting, the questions at hand in the present inquiry are these: what is the nature of the substratal input from Klao, Grebo, and Bassa, and how has it manifested itself in Kru Pidgin English? One illustration is the set of irrealis markers for the three Kru languages, given in (1)

Irrealis Markers

Klao

Future

mil

Immediate Future

5Ï

Tomorrow

-kâ

Day-After-Tomorrow

-lâmâ

Grebo ml

Bassa mû

-â -do

After Tomorrow Counterfactual

-ë

Non-Present

-kâ ('-' indicates a suffix; other forms are AUX's)

Despite the seeming disparity between the three languages, there are several characteristics that they share, characteristics that also show up in Kru Pidgin English. To begin with, with the exception of counterfactuals in Klao, no distinction is made in Klao, Grebo, or Bassa between future and conditional. Also, in each of the three languages, the primary marker is derived from the main verb mu, 'to go'. The Grebo markers other than ml are extremely restricted in their occurrence. According to Innes (1966), these forms can occur only in the consequence clause of a future conditional sentence. The Klao markers other than mu, while not so restricted as the Grebo ones, also occur infrequently. Thus, in all three languages, a single form derived from the verb 'to go' is used - exclusively or predominantly - to mark both futures and conditionals. The same holds true in Kru Pidgin English, as the examples in (2) illustrate:

John Victor Singler

68

(2)

Kru Pidgin English a. go as a Future Marker I go stay for Accra. 'I will stay in Accra'.

(KS 1-4)4

b. go as a Conditional Marker When we come from Cameroun before i go put me down here. 'Only when we returned from Cameroun would he have allowed me to disembark here'. (KS 3-5)

Another example of the strength of Kru influence on Kru Pidgin English involves evidence from relative clauses. This example has special strength in that Kru Pidgin English violates a proposed universal in the same very that Kru languages do. A corollary of the Keenan-Comrie Noun Phrase Accessibility Hierarchy says that, given the hierarchy in (3), ... (3)

_ ,, . Subject >

Direct ,. > Object

Indirect ,. > Object

„, , . Oblique >

_ . . . Genitive >

JObject of Comparison

when a given noun case is relativized, if a copy pronoun is permitted to be inserted into the relative clause, then a copy pronoun will be permissible in all relativizable cases to its right on the hierarchy. Example (4) shows that Klao inserts a copy pronoun when the head noun is subject of the relative clause.

(4)

Klao To je nemeju ne-5 to-a wli" Toe see man Rel-he pay-SUBORD money 1 Toe saw the man who paid the money 1 . 5

na. DEF

Thus, the corollary predicts that Klao will permit a copy in every case to the right of subject as well; that is, Klao ought to permit copies everywhere. However Klao and Grebo are among the Western Kru languages that violate the corollary.5 They permit copies in subject position (as in (4)) but nowhere else - not, for example in (5) where the head noun is direct object of the relative clause.

(5)

Klao D-a

dl

ko

ne

ijmna

pi-a

he-INC eat rice REL Mna cook-SUBORD 'He is eating the rice that Mna cooked'.

(*£)

na.

(*it)

DEF

Kru Pidgin English

69

Research on relative clauses in several languages - including English and Portuguese (Tony Naro, p.c.) - has provided a quantitative confirmation of the Keenan-Comrie Accessibility Hierarchy itself and of the corollary under discussion. That is, the lower the case of the head noun of a relative clause on the hierarchy, the greater the probability that it will be represented by a copy. The question that arises is whether the exceptional behavior of Kru languages with regard to the Accessibility Hierarchy's copy-pronoun corollary will manifest itself as well in the (pidginized) English of individuals whose first language is a Kru language. This question is a central one in a quantitative study undertaken by Himmelmann and Singler (in progress). Using data taken from forty hours of speech in English that had been recorded in Liberia, we divided speakers according to whether their first language was Mande or Kru. 7 Speakers whose first language was Kru were further divided according to the circumstances in which they had learned English. In short, those who fit the "Kru sailor" description outlined above were treated as speakers of Kru Pidgin English while those who did not, i.e. those who had learned English in Liberia and had never participated in Kru work gangs, were classed as speakers of Liberian English. In this study, then, the distinction between Kru Pidgin English and Liberian English was based strictly on social factors. A number of different linguistic and social factors were tested, and David Sankoff's VARBRUL2 statistical program was applied to the data to determine the extent to which a given factor favored the insertion of a copy pronoun. For the issues under consideration here, however, raw frequencies alone are sufficient to provide striking confirmation of the difference in behavior between speakers of Kru Pidgin English and of Liberian English; Therefore, the results of the application of the VARBRUL2 program - though they provide further confirmation of the points made here - have been omitted. (They are presented in Himmelmann and Singler.) The frequencies for all speakers in the study are given in (6).®

(6)

Copy Pronouns in Kru Pidgin English and in Liberian English. All Speakers.

Kru Pidgin English Subject Direct Object

Number of Tokens Applications/Tokens

Percentage of Application

22/44 2/37

50.00% 5.41%

70

John Victor Singler

Liberian English: First Language Kru Subject Direct Object Liberian English: First Language Mande Subject Direct Object

29/693 31/486

4.18% 6.38%

74/490 124/584

15.10% 21.23%

As the figures in (6) indicate, while all Liberian English speakers - regardless of their first language - are somewhat more likely to display the presence of a copy pronoun in the direct-object position than in subject position, Kru Pidgin English speakers, on the other hand, strongly favor subject position over direct-object position, inserting a copy half of the time in subject position and only 5.41% of the time in direct-object position. Thus, pidgin speakers with the same first-language background appear to display different behavior with regard to copy pronouns according to the extent of homogeneity of the substratal input into the pidgin that they speak. To strengthen the case for this claim, it is necessary to establish that the explanation of the difference between Kru Pidgin English and Liberian English speakers in this regard does not lie elsewhere. It was discovered that all the Kru Pidgin English speakers in the study had begun learning English as adults and had little or no Western schooling. The Liberian English speakers in the study, however, varied with regard to both these points. To ensure that these differences were not distorting the results (and were not, in truth, responsible for the striking differences between Kru Pidgin English and Liberian English), individuals who had begun to learn English as children or who had more than a little Western schooling (more than three years) were removed from consideration. In (7) are given the results for speakers who had learned English as adults and who had had little or no Western schooling:

(7)

Copy Pronouns in Kru Pidgin English and in Liberian English. Adult Learners of English with Little or No Western Schooling. Number of Tokens Applications/Tokens

Percentage of Application

Kru Pidgin English Subject Direct Object

22/44 2/37

50.00% 5.41%

Liberian English: First Language Kru Subject Direct Object

20/255 23/215

7.84% 10.70%

Kru Pidgin English

71

Liberian English: First Language Mande Subject Direct Object

59/317 102/442

18.61% 23.18%

Though the overall frequency with which the copy pronoun is present increases in Liberian English when only adult-learners with little Western schooling are considered, the relationship of subject position to direct-object position with regard to that frequency remains unchanged. Like almost all Kru Pidgin English speakers, those in this study had as their first language either Klao or Grebo. The final step to eliminate the possibility that other factors were responsible for the difference beteen speakers of Kru Pidgin English and Liberian English is to compare only those speakers in the study whose first language was Klao or Grebo. The frequencies for this are given in (8).

(8)

Copy Pronouns in Kru Pidgin English and in Liberian English. Adult Learners of English with Little or No Western Schooling. Number of Tokens Applications/Tokens Kru Pidgin English Subject Direct Object Liberian English: First Language Klao or Grebo Subject Direct Object

Percentage of Application

22/44 2/37

50.00% 5.41%

5/91 9/68

5.49% 13.24%

Again, the disparity between Kru Pidgin English - the variety strongly favoring copy insertion in subject position - and Liberian English - the variety favoring direct-object position - is unaltered. Thus, the refinements of the data set put forth in (7) and (8) have, if anything, strengthened the claim that the fundamental difference between the two pidgins is tied to the extent of homogeneity in the substrata: the substratal input into Kru Pidgin English is predominantly Kru, and the Kru treatment of copy pronouns is repeated in Kru Pidgin English; the substratal input into Liberian English is both Kru and Mande, and the Kru treatment of copy pronouns is not repeated in Liberian English even among speakers whose first language is a Kru language. Instead, Liberian English conforms to the universal posited by Keenan and Comrie. Thus, the evidence from copy pronouns in relative clauses lends strong support to the assertion that the extent of substratal influence is

72

John Victor Singler

directly linked to the degree of homogeneity of the substratal input. At the same time, even absolute homogeneity does not guarantee the transfer of a linguistic phenomenon from the substrate into the pidgin or Creole. For example, Klao, Grebo, and Bassa each have what Hobley (1965) calls a "simulfactive" auxiliary, illustrated in (9).

(9)

Simulfactive AUX's a. Klao:

ta

Grebo:

yi

Bassa:

kaa

b. Klao l ta-a mu na we nujle-a fo bodle bo. they SIMUL-SUBOED go DEF then boa-INC fight deer on 'While they (the boys) were going (home), then a boa constrictor was fighting a deer'. (Klao-a re: July 22, 1977)

However, no correspondence to the simulfactive marker is to be found in Kru Pidgin English. A more extended instance of limitations on substratal influence despite homogeneity can be seen by examining tense in Klao, Grebo, and Bassa, and Kru Pidgin English. The Klao, Grebo, and Bassa markers are given in (10).

(10)

Tense Markers

Klao

Grebo

Bassa

Remote Past

- 6

-da

-ZÒ

Yesterday

-aka

-dS

-ma

Recent Past (Today)

-é

-e

-ma

Day-Before-Yesterday

-omà

Completive

de

Anterior

-wa

Non-Present

-k5

dà 9

As can be seen, the three Kru languages display similar systems. Unmarked stative verbs are present-tense are past-tense (as in (lib)).

(11)

Klao:

Unmarked Verbs

a. Stative ne' j5po nemeju na. lsg know man DEF 'I know the man'.

(as in (11a)), and unmarked action verbs

Kru Pidgin English b. Action ne to wli" na. •I paid the money'. Further, there is a tripartite division of tense markers, there being separate suffixes for remote past, yesterday, and recent past. In addition, Klao has an as yet incompletely grammaticalized marker for day-before-yesterday as well as two markers of anteriority, -wa and -ka, and Klao and Bassa have a completive marker. Kru Pidgin English is like Klao, Grebo, and Bassa in its use of the unmarked form to show past tense for action verbs. But it differs from them in that it lacks the further tripartite division. Indeed, Kru Pidgin English has no overt past-tense marker of any kind. Bickerton (1974 and elsewhere) has argued against the claim that individual Creoles or extended pidgins lack any kind of past-tense marker, stating that they characteristically have an anterior marker that denotes past for statives and past-before-past for action verbs. 10 However, as the passages in (12) demonstrate, even anteriority is not marked in Kru Pidgin English.

(12)

Kru Pidgin English a. [Ks has previously spoken of his girl friend and said that her name was Talloh] KS: Then me, too, I call my girl friend. I say, "Jo". i say, "Yes". Because when I leave to Accra, I go to Kumasi, I get nother wife again. Interviewer: Oh, what's about the first? KS: The first one, I leave i. Interviewer: You leave i? KS: I leave i in Accra. Then I reach Kumasi, one time nother one come now. (KS 1-13) Translation of the first passage: 'Then me, too, I called my girl friend. I said, "Jo". She said, "Yes". Because when I had left Accra and gone to Kumasi, I had acquired a new girl friend'. b. KS: Because when they come from Europe, they bring some boy, work in the kitchen. But this boy, when we leave in the Africa, we de in the Africa, then i feeli hot. (KS 2-9) 'Because when they had come from Europe, they had brought a European boy to work in the kitchen. But this boy, while we remained in Africa, he complained of the heat (and did not work)'.

74

John Victor Singler

To return to the substrate and its influence on Kru Pidgin English: why is there no evidence of the tripartite tense division of Klao, Grebo, and Bassa in Kru Pidgin English? To begin with, I would argue that substratal input is not something automatically imposed on a pidgin or Creole. Rather, it is but a possible source for what emerges in the pidgin or Creole. Further, it is also the case that there are certain principles governing the formation of pidgins and Creoles and that only that substratal input that is consistent with these principles will emerge in the resultant pidgin or Creole. Thus, for example, the fact that inflectional morphology is not found in pidgins precludes the transfer of the Klao, Grebo, and Bassa past-tense suffixes to Kru Pidgin English as suffixes. An explanation exists for the absence of inflectional morphology in pidgins and Creoles: independent stressed morphemes, each displaying a single basic meaning element, are held to be more salient. Thus, tense and aspect are typically indicated by independent stressed pre-verbal units. In the case of the three-way tense distinction - between remote past, yesterday, and recent past - or the simulfactive auxiliary, no such straightforward explanation has been put forward. One can say, "Pidgins don't make tense distinctions like that", and "Pidgins don't have such highly marked auxiliaries", but the reason that they do not has not been expressed thereby. Further study of the workings of pidgins and Creoles is needed in order to delineate what can be predicted to occur in these languages and why. Only when that is done can we avoid the circularity implicit in saying that when substratal input shows up it is because it was permissible and when it does not show up it is because it was impermissible. I have argued, then, that - despite the similarities of extended pidgins to Creoles - the former offer a richer source of evidence with regard to substratal input than do the latter. I have further argued that the degree to which a pidgin or Creole displays substratal influence is a function of the homogeneity of the substratal input. That this latter idea has apparently not been suggested before is perhaps a consequence of the assumption that, for all Atlantic pidgins and Creoles, there are a multiplicity of substrate languages. The existence of Kru Pidgin English shows, however, that this assumption is not always valid. Finally, I have suggested that even when the substratal input is homogeneous, there are constraints on the transfer of phenomena from substrate to pidgin or Creole.

Kru Pidgin English

75

NOTES

1.

2.

3. 4. 5.

6.

7.

In popular Liberian usage, the term "Kru" refers to the Klao exclusively. The term "Kru" has also been used to refer specifically to the language spoken by the Klao (as in Elimelech (1974) and Lightfoot (1974)), but more recent works (as in Singler (1979) and Lightfoot (1979)) have referred to the language as Klao. This characterization of the Kru settlements outside of Liberia is admittedly speculative. I am grateful to Dr. Jane Martin of Boston University for her comments on this matter. The sources of information on Klao, Grebo, and Bassa are the following: Singler (1979), Innes (1966), and Hobley (1965). Supplemental field work was done with Samson Tiklo for Klao and with B.W. Zangai for Bassa. All of the examples of Kru Pidgin English are taken from the recorded speech of a single speaker, KS. The relativization strategy in, for example, Klao involves the following: fronting of the head, insertion of a relative marker ne after the head, placement of the suffix -a on the verb (the suffix that identifies a clause as being subordinate), and placement of the definitizer na at the end of the clause. (The marker labeled INC in subsequent Klao sentences indicates that the action is incompletive.) Preliminary evidence suggests that Bassa may not permit a copy pronoun in any environment, not even in subject position. If that is the case, then the homogeneity of the substrate languages with regard to copy pronouns in subject position has been compromised. At the same time, as noted earlier, the number of Bassa men who became "Kru sailors" was much smaller than the number of either Klao or Grebo who did. The first languages of the speakers in the study included four Kru languages - Klao, Grebo, Bassa, and Krahn. With regard to copy pronouns in relative clauses, Krahn conforms to the Kru pattern; that is, copies appear in subject position but nowhere else. (I wish to acknowledge the assistance of Lawrence Greer in establishing this.) Five Mande languages were represented: Lorma, Kpelle, Bandi, Gio, and Vai. A copy pronoun is present in every relative clause in the first four of these languages. Vai has a wholly different relativization strategy. As is the case in such other Northern Mande languages as Bambara, relativization in Vai does not involve the extraction of the head noun. Rather, the indication of relativization is the insertion of a relative marker immediately after the head, as the following sentence (from Welmers (1976) illustrates: na'a miE mu sa kunu, a'a a kaa. I knife REL buy yesterday, he it steal 'He stole the knife that I bought yesterday'.

8.

As can be seen in the statistics in (6) and (7), speakers of Liberian English whose first language is a Mande language consistently display a higher rate of copy insertion than do those whose first language is a Kru language. This difference seems to be tangential to the present discussion of homogeneity. Originally the study included speakers who had learned English as children and who had advanced at least as far as the eleventh grade in Western schools. Because their rate of copy insertion was so low (under 1.5%) and because the VARBRUL2 program indicated that, for them, no factor group correlated significantly with copy insertion, these speakers were dropped from consideration and are not included in the figures given here.

76

John Victor Singler

The paucity of obliques in Kru Pidgin English and of indirect objects, genitives, and objects of comparison among all speakers has prompted their omission from the tables in (6), (7), and (8). For discussion of these cases, see Himmelmann and Singler. 9. This form comes from Hobley (1965). My own field work with B.W. Zangai shows this form to be na. 10. This description of anterior markers comes from Bickerton (1974), an article that is concerned with Creoles only. The languages along the West African coast that, following Todd, I have termed extended pidgins would all be identified by Bickerton as repidginized Creoles. Because, in Bickerton 1 s scenario, creolization is a part of the history of each of these languages, an anterior marker would be expected - either at present or in the past.

REFERENCES

Bickerton, Derek, 1974, Creolization, linguistic universals, natural semantax and the brain, University of Hawaii Working Papers in

Linguistics.

6,3:124-41. Elimelech, Baruch, 1974, On the reality of underlying contour tones, UCLA Working Papers in Phonetics,

27:74-83.

Hancock, Ian, 1971, Some aspects of English in Liberia, Liberian

Studies

Journal, 111,2:207-213. - 1980, Lexical expansion in Creole languages. In Albert Valdman and Arnold Highfield, ed., Theoretical orientations in creole studies. New York: Academic Press, 63-88. Himmelmann, Nikolaus, and John Victor Singler, In progress, On the variability of copy pronouns in the relative clauses of Kru Pidgin English and non-native Liberian English, UCLA ms. Hobley, June, 1965, Bassa verbal formations, Journal of West African

Languages,

XI,2:39-50. Innes, Gordon, 1966, An introduction

to Greho, London: School of Oriental

and African Studies. Keenan, Edward L., and Bernard Comrie, 1977, Noun phrase accessibility and universal grammar, Linguistic Inquiry, VIII,1:63-99. Klab-a T§ (Kru News), 1976-79, Nifu, Sasstown Territory, Liberia. Lightfoot, Nancy, 1974, Tones on Kru monosyllables. Anthropological

Linguis-

tics, 16,9:425-41. - 1979, On the use of underlying forms in Klao orthograpy, Cahiers Ivoiriens de Recherche Linguistique,

6:109-18.

Ludlam, Thomas, 1825, Report on the Kroo. African Repository,

1:43-54.

Kru Pidgin English Rousseau, Pascale, and David Sankoff, 1978, Advances in variable rule methodology. In David Sankoff, ed.. Linguistic variation: Models and methods. New York: Academic Press, 57-69. Sankoff, Gillian, and Suzanne Laberge. 1974, On the acquisition of native speakers by a language. In David DeCamp and Ian Hancock, eds., Pidgins and Creoles: Current trends and prospects, Washington: Georgetown University Press, 73-84. Singler, John Victor, 1979, The segmental phonology of verb suffixes in Talo Klag (Kru), Unpublished UCLA M.A. thesis. - 1981, The syntax of Kru Pidgin English, UCLA ms. Todd, Loreto, 1974, Pidgins and Creoles, London: Routledge and Kegan Paul. Tonkin, Elizabeth, 1971, Some coastal pidgins in West Africa, In Edwin Ardener, ed., Social anthropology and linguistics, London: Tavistock. 129-55. Weimers, William E., 1976, A grammar of Vai, Berkeley: University of California.

Chapter 6

Geminate Consonants in Luganda Toni Borowsky

0.

The geminate consonants of Luganda derive historically from Proto-Bantu

*/)-/ followed by a consonant- :j.C > CC.1 It is probably for this reason that the representation of these geminates in the synchronic grammar seems not to be straightforward. The geminates exhibit a number of features reminiscent of their previous status as vowel-consonant sequences. This sort of thing invites abstract underlying representations. Furthermore since the vowel i actually alternates with the first part of the geminate in at least one environment, an abstract analysis is not wholly untenable. In this paper I will show that under the assumptions of autosegmental phonology and utilizing the representation of geminates made available within this theory (as suggested by Leben (1980) for example), the rather interesting properties of Luganda geminates can be described without recourse to any abstract underlying segment. The principal fact to be discussed in the behavior of geminate initial stems with respect to the range of allomorphy found in the environment of the Class 9/10 noun prefix and the first person singular verb prefix. I will show that the somewhat idiosyncratic behavior of the geminate stems can be derived phonologically using rules which are independently motivated. In order to deal with the facts presented I introduce a rule which readjusts an unsyllabifiable string into a possible syllable and consequently effects the degemination which occurs when this prefix is affixed to geminate initial stems.

1.

THEORETICAL ASSUMPTIONS I assume a theory of tiered phonology such as suggested by McCarthy (1979);

Halle and Vergnaud (1980); Clements and Keyser (1982) among others. For my purpose I will require minimally three tiers as shown on the next page.

82

Toni Borowsky Syllabe Representation:

(1)

t±er

R

°

V

CV tier

a

segment tier

The segment tier (also referred to as the 'melody' tier) consists of a sequence of feature columns specifying the phonemes; the syllable tier is organized hierarchically into an Onset and a Rime. The syllable terminals form the third the CV tier. Geminate consonants and long vowels are represented in these terms as single segments on the segment tier associated with two syllable terminals as shown in (2). V

(2)

b.

V

V /a/

C

C

V /t/

The theory allows for various other types of specification of terminals. As well as the one-to-many association exemplified by the long segments, there may be many-to-one associations, as shown in (3a); terminals may be partially specified (i.e. 'archiphonemes' Bach and Wheeler (1981)) shown in (3b); and they may be unspecified altogether (3c). b.

(3) [+nas]

-nas [+nasal]

+obs etc. c.

eg. Class 5 prefix allomorph:

C-

The interpretation of the CV tier assumed here deserves some mention. I assume that the symbols C and V are mnemonics standing for ... "syllable terminal which is a consonant melody bearer" and "syllable terminal which is a vowel bearer". In Luganda these translate freely into consonants and vowels except that the high vowels may associate with consonant bearing terminals.

Geminate Consonants in Luganda

83

This interpretation of the tier does not require that the syllable terminals 1» • c- j i+cons, ,-cons, . , , , be specified as I I or J as is more standardly assumed. The terminals -voc +voc could just as easily be unmarked or marked with x and x. 2 Their particular values are determined by their position in the syllable. The specification of the terminals is done independently according to the language particular phonotactic constraints of Luganda as well as universal constraints on the organization of sequences of segments into syllables. I assume a mechanism such as that suggested by Selkirk (1982) in which the specification of segmental association with syllable terminals is determined by means of the sonority hierarchy. Terminals occupying a particular syllable position are defined as taking some subset of the sonority hierarchy. Briefly for Luganda we can divide the sonority hierarchy into two main subsets as shown in (4). Languages which have more complex syllable structure will have correspondingly more complex subdivision. I refer the reader to Selkirk's paper for discussions of English and Spanish along these lines. (4)

Sonority hierarchy:

a, o, e, u, i, '

nasals,

fricatives,

stops —I

'

Partial subdivision for Luganda:

x

x

(where x = segment associating with C; and x = segment associating with V.)^ The high vowels may associate with both C and V allowing them to be both consonants (- glides -) and vowels, depending on their syllable position. There are no glides underlyingly. The x and x represent the relative sonority graphically. I shall continue to use Cs and Vs in this paper but I shall, on occasion, use the grid notation in order to make some process more perspicuous. To expedite the association of segment melodies to syllable terminals I assume the following association conventions: (5)

Association Conventions:1* i. Associate consonantal melodies with C and vowel melodies with V moving from left to right unless otherwise specified. ii. No crossing associations. iii. Unassociated segments have no phonetic realization and may be deleted.

84

Toni Borowsky iv. Unspecified terminals are associated with the melody of adjacent terminals. (Precedence is given to the segment on the left, however directionality may, in many cases, not need to be specified since only one possible association will arise.)

2.

THE LUGANDA GEMINATES

In the following section I will briefly present the facts about the distribution of these geminates and some of their idiosyncratic features.^

i. When initial, the first part of the geminate is syllabic. eg.

o o a 1/1 A mmese

'rat'

a a I /I tta

'kill'

a a a AAA (cf. emmese

'the rat')

Consider the gridlet below. It becomes more obvious why a consonant in initial position followed by another consonant may be syllabic. (6)

#x $ x x $ ...

The first syllable terminal is the sole occupant of that syllable and thus, by default, is the peak of that syllable. Whatever the melody associated with the terminal may be, the consonant occupying the only syllable terminal is the most sonorous member of that syllable. This cannot happen anywhere except initially in Luganda due to a constraint on syllable structure which disallows syllables without onsets in all positions except initially. The sequence of terminals x x x could not be syllabified into three syllables since the minimal Luganda syllable must have two slots, the second of which must be more sonorous than the first. CV or x x - is the smallest medial syllable type allowed.

ii. In all positions the first part of the geminate has the value of one mora and is a tone bearer. This can be seen in the manifestations of the tone pattern of Class 2 verbs shown in the examples in (7).

Geminate (7)

Consonants LHLH

in

Luganda

mpulira

85 'I hear'

okaaba

(from Tucker 1962 p.146)

'you cry' 1

eboggola

it barks1

The tone pattern is realized in the same way on the geminate consonant in the third example, as on the second half of the long vowel in the second case. Further evidence can be gleaned from the phenomenon of downdrift. Following a L, a H tone is realized as slightly lower than any preceding H in the word. In many cases of geminates in Luganda the actual geminate may not be heard as bearing a tone because it is phonetically impossible. For instance, voiceless obstruents cannot bear tone since tone is incompatible with voicelessness, however the fact that the H on the syllable following the one containing the first half of the geminate is downdrifted shows that there is

a tone

there nonetheless.

(8)

kucoppS

'to become a pauper'

[_

alabiriza

'he delays'

[_

eboggola

'it barks'

—

] ] ]

These examples show that in Luganda syllables of the form CVC and C W are 'tonologically1 equivalent. The distribution of the Class 5 prefix allomorphy shows that they are also 'morphologically equivalent' as noted by Cole (1967). The CI.5 prefix has two allomorphs: li-

and C-. These are distributed as

follows: consonant initial stems take C- which is realized as a geminate consonant. eg.

C + tu -*• ttu kubo

kkubo

peera •*• ppeera The li-

'parcel'

(cf. pi. amatu • R O R O

R

C

V

N

The sequence of segments:

+

a

A

V

c

I i

i N

c I

j

c V

A R c

g

v I

i

g / \

C

C

cannot be properly syllabified.

The template in (10) cannot map onto this string in any way at all since there is no V in the string. Only the initial N can be syllabified. Any attempt to associate the segments with the syllable template will prove futile. In order to form a proper syllable one of the terminals must be of greater sonority than the other. Thus we introduce a readjustment. (18)

Vocalization: C ->• V / C

C

The rule must not be interpreted as a rule which changes a consonant into a vowel, but rather as a rule that readjusts the syllabification of the terminals, changing a terminal which takes consonant melodies into a terminal which takes vowel melodies, in order that the sequence may be properly syllabified. The process becomes more perspicuous if considered from the point of view of the sonority grid. All the terminals above are x bearers in this language. Well-formed syllables universally require a rise in sonority, thus one segment must have a greater sonority value than the others - ie. we need an x bearer. The peakless string must be changed in order to create a peak: ie. $xx$

$xx$.

Once the C has been readjusted into a V, the consonantal melody may no longer be associated with it since this would constitute a violation of (5i). The consonantal melody automatically dissociates. Since the segment is no longer associated with two syllable terminals we no longer have a geminate consonant. What we have is an unspecified terminal which must take a vowel melody, followed by what was the second half of the geminate but is now a single consonant. An alternative solution to this problem would be to insert a vowel epen-

Geminate Consonants in Luganda

91

thetically between the offending Cs. In this case a further rule would be required to degeminate the consonant in just this environment. The motivation for such a rule would be unclear. In my analysis the degemination is an automatic consequence of the process.

By (18): a

a

a

I A A R O R O R I I I I I c c v c v I I Vg i I N j

a

+

a

a

IR A A O R O R I c Ic Iv cI Iv II II N j g i

dissociation We now have an empty terminal which cannot be filled by any of the adjacent segmental melodies. This terminal is specified by the rule in (19). (19)

V Specification: +high -back

Associate

R O R O R C C V C V

M j Ai

N

1

g

i

Lastly the j + z by Spirantization, formulated tentatively in (20).9 (20)

Spirantization: j -»- z /

-cons +high -back

92

Toni Borowsky

IA A

R O I I

R

O

i N

l l l i g i

I

I

c c v c v l z

IA A

R

R

I

-

I

O

I

R

O R I 1

I

c c v c v

A i N z

I i

| g

| i

nzigi

NA. NA. applies, as above, generating the correct surface form. Rule (19), the Vowel Specification rule, is an absolutely general automatic rule. It will apply wherever there is an unspecified vowel which cannot be associated with another vowel melody. This rule is similar to a rule proposed by Harris (1980) which inserted the melody e into empty Vs. Since, according to the association conventions I am assuming, it follows without stipulation that vowel melodies may only associate with V slots the rule need not state this. Further, since Luganda does not allow sequences of adjacent vowel melodies, it is not possible for the rule to apply to any V except an unspecified one; many-to-one associations being ruled out by the constraint on sequences.^ In (21) I show, for purpose of comparison, a derivation of the singular form with a geminate initial stem. In this case the prefix has a vowel and thus the string may be syllabified without readjustment and the geminate remains.

(21)

a

o

A

A

+ R O R I

I

C V C C V

A

O R

a A

c v c

O R I c v

I IV I I I V I

l

u

g

i

l u g

i

luggi

resyllabification Thus I have shown that with the inclusion of two rules the geminate initial stems' behavior can be shown to be perfectly regular according to the phonological processes needed in order to derive the other forms. The 'Vocalization' rule is, I believe, self-motivated. It explains why a vowel should suddenly appear if it is construed as a peak-forming process; that is as a type of syllabification process. What of the Vowel Specification rule? This rule, I shall claim, is not ad hoc. It is fact independently motivated

Geminate Consonants in Luganda in Luganda. I shall present some additional evidence in the next section which supports this rule.

4.

THE INITIAL VOWEL (IV)

The initial Vowel or pre-prefix is a typical feature of Bantu languages. In Luganda it has become optional, altough it is used more often than not. It serves as an indicator of definiteness. The IV can be described as a type of reduplication process. The entire class prefix is reduplicated in some languages; in others, like.Luganda, only the vowel is reduplicated. In Luganda there is a further constraint - initial vowels, whether IV or otherwise, may not be [+high]. Thus the vowels i and u are both lowered to e and o respectively. (22)

Vowel Lowering: [-high]/ #_

+high

I formulate IV formation, following Marantz (1981), as follows: (23)

Initial Vowel Formulation: IV

+

prefix

V

CV

m m„ a 6

m m„ a B

+

stem CVCV... mm... y

(where m = melody)

The prefixal melody reduplicates and associates according to the association conventions. Consider the example below: (24)

y mu

by Vowel lowering:

+

CV

+

mu u ->- o/# omukazi

CVCV kazi

94

Toni Borowsky The canonical form of the IV is V. This unspecified vowel bearing terminal

gets its melody from the reduplicated prefixal melody. There are, in Luganda, some prefixes which consist solely of consonants. In these cases there is no vowel melody which can be reduplicated and associated with the IV terminal. Two such prefixes are the Class 5 geminating allomorph and the Class 9/10 nasal prefix, both of which we have seen above. The IV associated with these two prefixes is e. As we have seen, e is a lowered form of i. The melody associated with an unspecified V of the IV is i. How does this occur? Vowel Specification, which was needed to insert an i in the space left by the degeminating consonant, will give the correct results without further ado. (25)

Class 5: IV

+

prefix

+

stem

V +

CWCV p e ra

(26)

By (19): Associate

i

By (22):

eppeera

Class 9/10: CVCV

[+nasal ] By (19): Associate

i

By (22) and (15):

enzizi

- J ."I

In the example in (25) the prefix is an unspecified C. This C gets its melody from the following consonantal segment giving a geminate. There is no vowel melody to reduplicate thus the V remains unspecified and (19) applies inserting i. Lowering changes this to e. In (26) again, the nasal prefix has no vowel melody. No other vowel melody is available due to the constraint on crossing associations - thus the IV is specified by rule (19). Thus we can see that the rule is needed elsewhere in the phonology of Luganda and its application in the geminate problem is thereby mitigated.

Geminate Consonants in Luganda

5.

95

CONCLUSION I have attemped to show that in terms of the theory of autosegmental

phonology, without any additional stipulations, the properties and idiosyncraties of the geminates of Luganda, can be adequately described. In an analysis such as that proposed by Clements (1981) in which the geminate is represented as a segmental melody associated with a VC sequence, special stipulations are required in order to allow association of consonant melodies to Vs. In the theory proposed in this paper cross-class associations are not allowed thus there is no need for special stipulations. Proper associations and dissociations follow automatically from the theory. In order to derive the allomorphy associated with the nasal prefix I have introduced a somewhat innovatory rule which readjusts a syllable terminal in terms of its specification for what type of segments may associate with it. I am assuming that stems are fully syllabified in the lexicon. The first part of the geminate in a geminate-initial stem must be associated with some syllable position otherwise there would be no way of telling that it was a geminate and it would never surface as a geminate in other contexts. The terminal which forms the first part of the geminate is specified as a consonant bearing rime slot. The smallest possible syllable template which could be mapped onto a string of two segments is

I" order to fit this template, the terminal

which forms the first part of the geminate must be changed into a vowelbearer - hence Vocalization. Degemination follows by convention. In a theory which allows autonomous or semi-autonomous tiers, Vocalization is a kind of process which could conceivably operate on the syllable tier. Whether or not it has any use in the phonology of other languages is an empirical question whose answer would bear on my analysis of these facts.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I have benefitted in the writing of this paper from discussions with many people to whom I extend my thanks. Most especially I would like to thank John McCarthy and Nick Clements for their help on this incarnation of the paper. Nick must be further acknowledged for first putting me on to this problem and encouraging me to work on Luganda.

96

Toni Borowsky

NOTES 1.

/}./ is an extra-high front vowel. Proto-Bantu, according to the most standard reconstructions had two extra-high vowels which later merged with the high front vowels. The symbol is Guthrie's. Meinhof has /i/. 2. Grids were first discussed in Liberman (1975) and further by Liberman and Prince (1977) with reference to stress and rhythm. Use of this notation has recently been extended in work by Prince (1981) in a paper delivered at the Trilateral Workshop on Non-linear Phonology, U. Texas, Austin (1981) and class lectures at U. Massachusetts. 3. In my use of grid notation here I am really doing no more than translating C into x, and V into x. This is misleading. I believe that with the proper use of the grid the need for a hierarchial tree structure is eliminated altogether from the representation of the syllable. The properties of the syllable which required tree structure follow from the sonority hierarchy and the role it plays in the syllable. (This idea is pursued in Borowsky (forthcoming).) 4. These conventions are a melange showing the influence of similar conventions due to Goldsmith (1976); McCarthy (1979) and Clements & Keyser (1982) . 5. Most of these facts were brought to my attention by Nick Clements who discussed them in his (1981) African Linguistics Conference paper at Stanford. 6. I have chosen to represent the prefix as Nj- in order to skip the steps needed in the derivation if the prefix were represented as N-. Nothing critical hangs on this. The correct forms can be derived by independently motivated rules: Glide Insertion and Consonant Strengthening. Larry Hyman reminded me that the V initial stems all have allomorphs in yV and therefore the prefix should correctly be N- and the V stems underlyingly y-initial. This will not account for the geminate initial and PNC initials which both have z (*-j-- o /

A

T1H

a

I

T1

H

4a. a -»- a /

A 1 H L H

2.

a •* a / a

3.

A I L H H

T L

ft

~

0 / 4b. a

A

L H

a / ft

l

L

a

~

aH

-aH

A

I aH

ft _

a •* a

I

T

a /

I A

T

L T

tf _

A Reanalysis of Tone in Mende

133

Rules 4a. and 4b. are optional fast speech rules. They account for the variation in phonetic forms shown in the table in (1) above.4 As can be seen from the rules, it is only in cases of contour tones that the rules apply. Thus, derivations where there are at least as many vowels as tones are of no interest since only the WFC is involved. The rules become relevant where there are contour tones. In the derivations below, applications of all rules are illustrated.

(10)

Derivations a. HL mbu

("0

mbu

/I HL

[mbu ]

I H

(3) (4) mbu + i •* mbu + i mbu + i /II HL H

I H

N LH

I H

(3) mbu + gga ->• mbu + nga / HL

I

L

I

H

/

I H

[mbuQga]

LL

mbu + i + sya

A HL

[mbui]

I L

[mbursya]

I L

b. LH M mba -*• mba

A

LH

I

L

(other (l) rules) mba + i •*• mba + i mbe + i / I I I I I I LH H L H L H mba + riga

A

LH

[mba ]

I

[mb£i]

[mbaT)ga]

L

(other (1) rules) mba + i + sya •* mba + i + sya ->• mbE + i + sya [mbeisya] / I I I I I I I I LH H L L H L L H L

134

Patrick Conteh et al. c.

HHL (• h o k p o + r ) g a 1/1 H HL

L

hokpo + i M l H HL

d.

I

+

H

I

H

I

[hókpórjgà ]

/ LL

[hókpoisyà ]

sya I L

H

LLH (2)

mita

->• m i t a

I N

i l

L LH mita

[mìt5]

L H + i

L LH

(1)

H

mita

(other rules) + i •* m i t e +

L L

H

L L

i

[mìtEi]

H

(2)

mita

+ r)ga

L LH

m i t a + r)ga

L

L H (1)

mita + i + sya I I | L LH H L

h

e.

[mìtàogà]

L

(other rules) m i t a + i + s y a •* m i t e + i + s y a I I I I I I I I L L H L L L H L

[mìtEisyà]

LHL (• n d o p o + I I L H

/I LH

I LH

I

i I L

[ndòpóì ]

A Reanalysis of Tone in Mende

!/A A L HI

I L

II ALL L H

ndopo + i + sya

A LH L

H

135 [ ndop6l]ga ]

[ndopoisya]

L

As we have shown, Mende tone can be accounted for autosegmentally without recourse to either accent or language specific well-formedness conditions. The Obligatory Contour Principle necessitates a more complex grammar: the apparent advantage in restricting the possible underlying patterns is more than offset by the need to posit idiosyncratic lexical accent. In any case, OCP would be an advantage only if, at least on the surface, not all possible tonal patterns occurred. They do occur in Mende. By assuming that all possible tonal sequences occur in underlying form we have posited underlying representations that are quite close to the surface forms; the only rules that are needed are those involving contour tones and the language contains the alternations that motivate these rules. We thus agree with Goldsmith (1976) in rejecting the OCP as too strong. Our analysis is simple, concrete, relies on universal conditions, accounts for the data, and predicts exactly which tone melodies are possible. We would like to end the paper with a brief presentation of two compounding phenomena. We think that these phenomena are, if not predicted, at least easily allowed for in an autosegmental framework. They involve floating tones that appear to be different from floating tones that we are familiar with. With alienably possessed nouns, the possessed noun has one of two tone patterns regardless of its underlying tone melody. These are L if the possessor has a final H tone and HL otherwise. The tone of the suffix -i is not affected. (11) a. nySmitel Ogimitei b. nyabulil rigibulii

'my spoon' (cf. mitEl 'the spoon') 'his spoon' 'my horn' (cf. bulli 'the horn') 'his horn1

136

Patrick Conteh et al.

We suggest that there is a morpheme meaning alienable which consists merely of a HL tone melody. It attaches to the tone tier of the stem, as follows. (12) a. nya mita

i

b. r)gi mita

M M H L LH H 11/ H L

i

Mil L L LH H IHKL

To account for (12a), we propose a phonological rule referring to the two tonal tiers that deletes the H when it follows a H. The L tone then spreads left by the WFC. Compounds are similar. In compounds, the second noun has a HL pattern if the first noun ends in H; it has a L pattern if the first noun ends in L.

(13) a. pélÊ

hlndà

'business of houses'

b. bèlÈ

hìndà

'business of trousers'

c. r)gilà hìndà cf.

hindâ

'business of dogs' 'business'

Again, we propose a morpheme, a compound formative, that consists only of tones. This morpheme is perhaps underlying L with an epenthetic high occurring when the first noun ends in H.^ This second topic obviously requires further work; it is presented here to show additional evidence for the autosegmental treatment of tone in Mende. If we are right in claiming that the "alienable possession" morpheme consists of a segmentless tone, then it appears that Mende exhibits all three of the possible combinations predicted by an autosegmental framework: morphemes consisting of a segmental tier associated with a tone melody; morphemes consisting of a segmental tier only (the suffix -ma) and morphemes consisting of a tonal tier only. It seems to us that other analyses that do not allow for separate segmental and tonal tiers would be hard put to account for these phenomena in a natural way.

A Reanalysis of Tone in Mende NOTES

*

The authors' names are listed in alphabetical order, not in any order of priority.

1.

Many words with HHL tone melodies appear to be compounds historically, as noted by Dwyer (1978) and Leben (1978). This tone pattern is predictable for compounds, but may be part of the synchronic inventory of underlying tone patterns. Spears (1967) presented an early analysis of Mende tone. We will not discuss his paper here as we are concerned with a theoretical issue of how to best account for level tone in a framework where tone is on a different tier from the segments. In words with final long vowels, the definite suffix is deleted at the segmental level: no more than two adjacent vowels are possible phonetically.

2.

3.

nee + i nee nye + £ •* nyel k5o + I -s- kSe

4.

5.

'the tongue' 'the fish' 'the foot'

Thus, the presence of both underlying long and short vowels makes it possible to predict when the definite suffix is present and when it is not. Both Leben and Dwyer discuss downstep tone. It appears that we will be able to account for the downstepped tone that arises from HLH sequences (with H!H Resulting) by our tone rules. We have not yet considered words such as nj.'e 'mother' which appear to have lexical downstep. This specific solution is only one of many possibilities. We do believe that this rule is phonological rather than morphological, however. This is because the segmental rule of mutation, a phonological rule, applies at the compound boundary (as well as between a possessor and possessed noun and between direct objects and verbs). Hopefully, these boundaries can be translated into a phonological domain that determines the application of mutation as well as these two rules.

REFERENCES Dwyer, David, 1978, What Sort of Tone Language is Mende? Studies in African Linguistics 9:167-208 Goldsmith, John, 1976, Autosegmental Phonology, MIT PhD., Dissertation, distributed by the Indiana University Linguistics Club. Leben, William, 1978, The Representation of Tone, in V. Fromkin (ed.) Tone: A Linguistic Survey, New York: Academic Press. Singler, John, 1981, The Status of Lexical Associations and the Obligatory Contour Principle in the Analysis of Tone Languages, Proceedings of the Sixth Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society. Spears, Richard, 1967, Tone in Mende, Journal of African Languages 6:231-44.

137

Chapter 9

Accent Tonal en Kinyarwanda R u t i n y w a F u r e r e et A n n i e Rialland

Notre démarche sera la suivante: nous partirons de courbes mélodiques1 pour dégager les variantes de réalisation des deux tons: haut et bas, cellesci dépendant du contexte tonal et de leur position dans l'énoncé. Ce faisant, nous aboutirons à une notation des tons différente de celle des auteurs2 précédents. Nous verrons enfin comment on peut rendre compte de ces schèmes tonals grâce à un "accent tonal" que nous définirons.

1.

VARIANTES DU TON HAUT ET NOTATION TONALE Nous nous en tiendrons ici aux variantes du ton haut et à leur analyse

qui nous permettra de justifier notre notation. Les variantes du ton bas sont en effet moins nombreuses et n'ont pas été à l'origine de notations différentes. Nous avons reconnu les variantes suivantes: - deux tons hauts successifs à l'initiale se réalisent en "crescendo mélodique ". Le premier ton haut est en effet rabaissé. Le deuxième étant réalisé plus haut forme un crescendo avec lui. Les exemples suivants permettront d'illustrer ce rabaissement du ton haut à l'initiale d'énoncé.

figure 1

figure 2

n a m -i

10 e s /màama/ "ma mère"

.

:

/

a i

/ /

/

a 1

1

m

a 1

/na m a a m a / "avec ma mère"

L_

140

Rutinywa Furere S Annie Rialland

Le ton haut initial, celui de mâ, figure 1 et celui de nâ, figure 2 est rabaissé. Le premier ton haut de /mââmâ/, n'étant plus en position initiale dans /nâ mââmâ/ n'est plus rabaissé. Ce ton haut initial n'est donc pas à confondre avec un ton bas: il s'agit d'un ton haut rabaissé par la marque de début d'énoncé. Il n'est d'ailleurs pas réalisé aussi bas qu'un ton bas initial. - un ton haut est également rabaissé après un ton bas. Lorsque des tons hauts suivent un ton bas; un crescendo très comparable à celui que l'on rencontre à l'initiale, se forme. Ce ton haut est donc rabaissé sous l'influence du ton bas précédent mais il est toujours phonologiquement haut. Phonétiquement, il est donc intermédiaire entre le ton bas qui le précède et le ton haut qui le suit. - un ton haut en finale d'énoncé est réalisé descendant. Les exemples suivants illustrent cette réalisation descendante du ton haut et sa relation avec la finale d'énoncé.

figure 3 190 164 146 127 110 96 82

Hz

u

m u

10 es /umugore/

figure 4

0 1

r e

"femme"

u

i

m

u g o i i

r e w i i

a a i

n i

g

* \ ' f (I x /umugore w a a n g e / "ma femme"

Le ton haut de la syllabe re est réalisé descendant dans /ùmùgôrê/, en position finale d'énoncé mais il correspond au sommet mélodique dans /ùmùgôrê wààngê/, les deux tons hauts successifs de /ùmùgôrê/ formant crescendo. - un ton haut préfinal devant un ton bas, en finale d'énoncé est également réalisé descendant. Les exemples suivants illustrent cette réalisation et montrent qu'elle est attachée à la position finale d'énoncé.

141

Accent Tonal en Kinyarwanda

figure 5

190 164 146 127 110 95 82

u

Hz I

k

,

10 c s

figure 6

u p o

,

,

k

i

/ukuboko/

u

• "bras"

k

u p o

k

o

/ukuboko kwààngè/

k

w

a a n

j

e

"mon b r a s "

Le ton haut de la syllabe bo est réalisé descendant dans /ùkûbôkô/ donc en finale d'énoncé et haut dans /ùkûbôkô kwààngè/ en position non finale. Nous venons donc de faire une analyse simple qui consiste dans le dégagement des variantes. Elle nous conduit cependant à une notation inhabituelle des tons du kinyarwanda.

2.

LES SCHEMES TONALS NOMINAUX ET L'ACCENT TONAL

Nous présenterons d'abord les schèmes tonals puis nous verrons comment les interpréter en termes d'"accent tonal".

2.1

Les schèmes tonals nominaux

Les schèmes tonals que nous avons dégagés pour les noms sont les suivants: - thème monosyllabique - thème de ton bas L'augment et le préfixe placés devant le thème sont de ton bas. exemples: thème:

fù

ifù âgràfù

"de la farine" 'un peu de farine

il.

- thème de ton haut La syllabe qui précède le thème, qu'elle corresponde au préfixe ou à l'augment porte un ton haut. La syllabe qui vient encore avant cette syllabe

142

Rutinywa Furere s Annie Rialland

connexe du thème, s'il y en a une, sera, elle porteuse d'un ton bas. exemples: thème:

fi

Ifl àgSfl

thème :

hû

imhû ùrûhû

"poisson" "petit poisson" "peaux" "peau"

thème disyllabique - thème de schême bas-bas Le préfixe et l'augment sont de ton bas.

exemples: thème:

zôsl

ïzôsl

thème :

bèrb

ìkìbèrò

"cou" "cuisse"

- thème de schême haut-bas Comme dans les noms formés sur des monosyllabes de ton haut, la syllabe précédant immédiatement le thème est de ton haut et la syllabe encore antérieure est de ton bas.

exemples: thème:

sôni

isônl

thème:

bôkô

ùkûbôkô

"honte" "bras"

-thème de schême haut-haut Cette fois-ci, toutes les syllabes précédant le thème portent un ton bas. exemples: thème:

bâbâ

ïbâbâ

thème:

gôrê

ùmùgôré

"aile" "femme"

- thème trisyllabique - thème de schême bas-bas-bas Le préfixe et l'augment sont de ton bas. exemples: thème:

yôbôrô

ùmùyôbôrô

"canal"

- thème de schême haut-bas-bas Les tons des syllabes précédant le thème sont les mêmes que ceux des noms dont le thème est de ton haut ou de schême haut-bas. Nous comprendrons ultérieurement pourquoi. La syllabe placée devant le thème est donc de ton

Accent Tonal en Kinyarwanda

143

haut et la syllabe encore antérieure est de ton bas. exemples: thème: thème:

zuùrù kômèyè

îzûùrù

"nez"

àmSzuùrù

"nez" (pluriel)

Igîkômèyê

"ce qui est dur"

- thème de schême: haut-haut-bas Les tons des syllabes précédant le thème sont ici identiques à ceux des noms formés sur les thèmes de schême haut-haut. Toutes les syllabes placées devant le thème portent des tons bas. exemples: thème: thème:

tââbl v nôgôtè

îtââbl v îklnôgôtè

"tabac" "porc-épic"

- thème de schème: haut-haut-haut Les syllabes précédant le thème se comportent au niveau tonal comme celles qui précèdent les schêmes: haut, haut-bas et haut-bas-bas, qui ne contiennent donc qu'un seul ton haut.

exemples: thème: thème:

têêkâ sôrôgbS

itëékâ IgîsÔrSgbS

"loi" "sorte de ver"

- thème de plus de trois syllabes Les thèmes de plus de trois syllabes non composés sont peu nombreux. Nous constatons trois comportements, au niveau tonal pour les syllabes précédant le thème, selon que le thème est entièrement de ton bas, qu'il comporte un nombre pair ou impair de tons hauts: - thème entièrement de ton bas Le nom est entièrement de ton bas. exemples: thème:

gèendèrèrô

ùmùgèendèrèrô

"une ruelle"

- thème dont le nombre de tons hauts est impair Les syllabes précédant ces thèmes portent des tons identiques à ceux des noms déjà vus dont le thème comporte un nombre impair de tons hauts; à savoir un ton haut pour la syllabe précédant juste le thème et un ton bas pour la syllabe encore antérieure s'il y en a une.

144

Rutinywa

Furere S Annie

exemples: thème:

Rialland

tslìnsìlnò

àgàtsììnslìnò

slgîsîgl

"talon"

àgâsigisîgl

"ce qui reste"

- thème dont le nombre de tons hauts est pair Comme dans les noms déjà vus dont le thème comporte un nombre pair de tons hauts, toutes les syllabes précédant le thème portent un ton bas.

exemples: thème:

kóróròombyà

ùmùkóróròombyà

sêrêbànyà

2.2

Interprétation

en termes d'"accent

ùmùsërêbànyà

"arc-en-ciel" "sorte de lézard"

tonal"

Pour faire comprendre notre raisonnement, nous commencerons par confronter la notation tonale avec une notation où se trouvent indiqués les "plateaux mélodiques", c'est à dire les ensembles de tons hauts, par des traits suscrits et 1'"accent tonal" par une étoile souscrite.

Ifù

ifu

àgàfù

agafu

"de la farine" "un peu de farine "poisson"

îfî

Ifî*

àgâfl

agafi

"petit poisson"

îzôsi

izosi

"cou"

Iklbêrd

ikibero

Isônî

i soni *

ùkûbôkô

ukuboko

IbSbS

ibaba

ùmùgóré

umugore*

ìkàngàrà

ikangara

îzûùrù

izuuru *

iglkômèyê

igikomeye *

îtââbl

itaabi

lkìnógòtè ltëêkà Igïsôrôgbâ

ikiiiogote * iteeka* igisorogba

*

"cuisse" "honte" "bras" "aile" "femme" "panier" "nez" "ce qui est dur" "tabac" "porc-épic" "loi" "sorte de ver"

L'accent se trouve à l'emplacement du dernier ton haut. A partir de lui, les tons hauts sont en effet totalement prédictibles selon les principes suivants:

Accent Tonal en Kinyarwanda -1- toutes les syllabes du thème à partir de cet accent et jusqu'au début du thème portent un ton haut. -2- la syllabe précédant le thème (que ce soit le préfixe ou l'augment) portera un ton haut si le plateau mélodique porté par les syllabes du thème est impair (nombre de tons hauts impair). Elle portera un ton bas si la condition de parité du plateau mélodique est remplie, c'est à dire si le thème porte un nombre pair de tons hauts. D'autre part, s'il n'y a pas d'accent, il n'y a pas de ton haut et il n'y a pas de plateau mélodique. L'"accent tonal" est donc marqué par un ensemble de tons hauts (qui sont des tons phonologiques) et par des plateaux mélodiques (qui sont également phonologiques puisque constitués de tons hauts phonologiques). C'est donc pour rendre compte de sa place dans la phonologie que nous l'avons appelé "accent tonal" reprenant un terme utilisé par L. Hyman.3 Il faudra également noter que les contraintes rythmiques qui s'appliquent au "plateau mélodique" (condition de parité) s'appliquent non à des plateaux mélodiques phonétiques mais à des plateaux mélodiques phonologiques. Il s'agit dont de contraintes rythmiques relativement abstraites, dont le comptage ne se fait pas au niveau phonétique. On a donc pu dégager une structure accentuelle, avec un "accent tonal" et des contraintes mélodico-rythmiques portant sur un niveau phonologique et non phonétique.

3.

QUELQUES SCHEMES TONALS VERBAUX ET L'"ACCENT TONAL" Nous ne considérerons ici que quelques schêmes tonals verbaux, ceux de

l'indicatif immédiat imperfectif disjoint (terminologie de Meeussen)1* et nous renvoyons le lecteur pour une étude plus large et plus détaillée des schèmes tonals verbaux à un article à paraître. Tons et accent en kinyarwanda, R. Furere et A. Rialland, dans African Linguistics, Goyvaerts ed. Benj amins, Amsterdam. Nous verrons déjà cependant comment l'accent tonal peut se déplacer obéissant à des contraintes mélodico-rythmiques et comment les formes verbales peuvent être caractérisées par un "point d'ancrage".

145

146

Runtinywa Furere S Annie Rialland

3.1

Les schèmes tonals de 1'indicatif imperfectif disjoint

Les verbes de ce temps sont de la structure suivante: préfixe sujet

+

marque temporelle ra

+ ^infixé + objet 1

infixe + objet 2

thème

Les schèmes tonals dégagés sont les suivants: - thème monosyllabique - thème de ton bas La marque temporelle ra ainsi que les affixes sujet et objet portent un ton bas. exemples: thème:

skyà

àràkyà àràgîskyà

"il moud" "il le moud"

- thème de ton haut On observe que les tons varient en fonction du nombre d'éléments préposés au thème: exemples: thème:

hâ

ârShS ârâgrihà àrâkîmuhâ

"il donne" "il le donne" "il le lui donne"

On note que le préfixe sujet: à est toujours de ton bas, que la marque temporelle ra ainsi que les infixes prennent un ton haut. Par contre, le thème ha ne porte un ton haut que si le nombre de tons hauts qui le précèdent est impair, sinon, il est de ton bas. - thème disyllabique - thème de schême bas-bas La marque temporelle ra ainsi que les affixes préposés sont de ton bas. exemple : thème :

rôrà

àràrôrà àràkirôrà àràhâmùrôrà

"il regarde" "il le regarde" "il le regarde là"

Accent Tonal en Kinyarwanda - thème de schême haut-bas Les tons de la marque temporelle ra ainsi que des affixes préposés sont les mêmes qu'avec les thèmes monosyllabiques à ton haut. De même, le thème perd son ton haut lorsqu'il est précédé de deux tons hauts.

exemples: thème:

têmà

àrâtëmS àrSgîtèmà àrSkÎmûtëmèrà

"il coupe" "il le coupe" "il le coupe pour lui

- thème trisyllabique - thème de schème bas-bas-bas Tous les éléments préposés sont alors de ton bas, comme dans les verbes formés sur des thèmes de schême bas ou bas-bas vus précédemment.

exemples: thème:

hôàndà

àràhôôndà àràgîhààndà

"il concasse" "il le concasse"

- thème de schême haut-bas-bas Les tons des éléments préposés sont les mêmes qu'avec les thèmes monosyllabiques ou disyllabiques comportant un ton haut. Le thème perd ou garde son ton haut également en fonction du caractère pair ou impair du nombre de tons hauts qui le précèdent. exemples: thème:

kûùndà

àrâkûhndà àrâmûkùùndâ àrâklmûkûùndîrà

"il aime" "il l'aime" "il l'aime pour lui"

- thème de plus de trois syllabes Ceux-ci sont des thèmes dérivés. Les dérivatifs n'introduisent que des tons bas. exemples: thème simple thèmes dérivés

têmà tëmèrS tëmêêsà têmëèsêrèzà

àrStëmà àrâtëmèrà àrâtémêêsà àrStëmèêsêrèzà

"il coupe" "il coupe pour" "il fait couper" "il fait couper pour"

148

Rutinywa Furere & Annie Rialland thème : simple

kïnà

thèmes: dérivés

klnirà

àràklnà àràkinirà

"il joue" "il joue à"

kînîî^à

"il fait jouer"

kiniisïrlzà

"il fait jouer à"

Seule la première syllabe des thèmes de ce temps peut porter un ton haut et dans notre étude plus large, déjà mentionnée, nous avons pu montrer que les dérivatifs n'introduisaient jamais de ton haut. La marque temporelle et les affixes précédant ces thèmes auront le même comportement tonal qu'avec les thèmes ne comportant pas de dérivatif vus précédemment.

3.2

Interprétation en termes d'accent tonal

Pour la présenter, nous reprendrons la double notation introduite à propos des noms avec en plus, un point souscrit indiquant le "point d'ancrage du plateau mélodique".

notation tonale

notation accentuelie

sens

àràskyà

araskya

"il moud"

àràgîskyà

aragiskya

"il le moud"

àrâhâ

araha • *

"il donne"

àrâglhà

aragiha

"il le donne"

àrâklmûhS

arakimuha

"il lui donne"

àràrôrâ

ararora

"il regarde"

àràklrôrà

arakirora

"il le regarde"

àràhàmùrôrà

arahamurora

"il le regarde là"

àrâtêmà

aratema ' a aragitema

"il coupe"

àràgîtêmà àrâkimûtêmêrà

arakimutemera • *

"il le coupe pour lui

àrâtémèèsà

aratemeesa

"il fait couper

àrâtémèêsêrèzà

aratemeesereza • *

"il fait couper pour"

"il le coupe"

àràhôdndà

arahoonda

"il concasse"

àràgîhôôndà

aragihoonda

"il le concasse"

àrêkûùndà

arakuunda < *

"il aime"

àrâmùkùùndà

aramukuunda

"il l'aime"

àràkimùkùùndlrà

arakimukuundira

"il l'aime pour lui"

*

Accent Tonal en Kinyarwanda

Comme dans les noms, l'absence de ton haut résulte de l'absence d'"accent tonal". Lorsqu'il y a un accent, celui-ci est situé à l'emplacement du dernier ton haut. D'autre part, le "point d'ancrage du plateau mélodique" c'est à dire le point obligatoire de début du plateau mélodique est fixe et placé sur la marque temporelle ra. Un tel "point d'ancrage" n'existe pas dans les noms; il est caractéristique des formes verbales et varie en fonction des temps. Il est un des paramètres, avec les marques segmentales qui permet au kinyarwanda de différencier les nombreuses formes de la conjugaison verbale. On observe également que les conditions de parité du plateau mélodique sont toujours remplies. D'autre part, le fait, le plus frappant, surtout après notre étude de l'accent dans les noms est que la place de l'accent varie. Les déplacements de 1'"accent" s'expliquent d'ailleurs simplement: L'accent qui est introduit, dans les formes de ce temps par la première syllabe du thème, se déplace d'une syllabe, si besoin est, pour maintenir pair le plateau mélodique dont le point d'ancrage est fixe. Ce concept de "point d'ancrage" que nous venons d'introduire nous permet de rendre compte des déplacements de l'accent, sans poser un deuxième accent. Le point d'ancrage est très différent de l'accent: l'accent est marqué par des tons hauts et un plateau mélodique tandis que le "point d'ancrage" n'est que le début imposé d'un plateau mélodique qui, sans l'accent, n'existerait pas. On aura donc pu, dans ces verbes expliquer les schêmes tonals par un "accent tonal". On aura pu noter que cet "accent tonal" présente une caractéristique typiquement accentuelle qui est celle de se déplacer pour satisfaire des conditions rythmiques. Ces conditions, cependant, ne se situent pas au niveau phonétique mais au niveau des tons phonologiques.

4.

CONCLUSION Nous sommes donc partis d'un dégagement des variantes de réalisation des

tons qui nous a amené à poser des schêmes tonals interprétables en termes d'accent tonal". Cette notion d'"accent tonal" paraît ici bien adéquate dans la mesure où 1'"accent tonal" présente des caractéristiques bien typiquement accentuelles

149

150

Rutinywa Purere S Annie Rialland

comme de se déplacer en fonction d'exigences rythmiques mais où il est marqué par des tons et des plateaux mélodiques constitués de tons phonologique s. Cette étude met également en évidence l'existence de contraintes rythmiques reposant sur un comptage d'unités phonologiques. Nous voudrions également souligner la simplicité de l'analyse proposée pour les données de cette langue qui est une des plus étudiées d'Afrique.

NOTES 1.

2.

3. 4.

Ce travail à été fait de décembre 1980 à septembre 1981 à Paris, principalement au laboratoire de phonétique de Paris V où ont été obtenus les tracés présentés ici. Pour une comparaison avec les travaux précédents (Coupez et Meeussen (1961, Kagame 1960, Kayoboke 1980, Kimenyi 1976 en particulier), voir R. Furere et A. Rialland, à paraître (références ici même en 3.). Dans "Tonal Accent in Haya", étude non publiée sous ce titre. Voir Meeussen, Essai de grammaire rundi, 1959, Annales du musée royal du Congo belge, Tervuren, Belgique.

Chapter

10

Pour un Traitement Synchronique de la Faille Tonale Gladys Guarisma

Le bafia présente le phénomène d'abaissement tonal automatique (downdrift) de tout élément à ton haut placé dans une succession haut-bas-haut. Mais la faille tonale (downstep) caractérise particulièrement la langue car elle se manifeste tant au niveau syntagmatique qu'au niveau syntaxique, et même au niveau lexical.

1. 1.1

LES NOMINAUX ET LEUR STRUCTURE TONALE Tout d'abord, l'étude du comportement tonal des déterminants postposés

au nominal amène à séparer en deux groupes les nominaux à ton haut de la langue. Ainsi, par exemple, dans le syntagme de détermination du type nominal + démonstratif, un même démonstratif peut avoir deux comportements tonals différents selon le nominal qu'il détermine. 1.2

Si le nominal est de la classe 1 ou de la classe 9, la première syllabe

du démonstratif peut être à ton bas ou à ton haut, et dans ce dernier cas, la deuxième syllabe sera affectée par la faille tonale (notée par le signe 1).

1.3

(1)

Qwii àné

"ce mois (=lune)"

(2)

Qw6s S'nâ

"ce jour (=soleil) "/jour |ce/

/mois|ce/

(3)

bôs ïn3

"cette calebasse"

/calebasse|cette/

(4)

bwâp l'né

"ce sang"

/sang|ce/

Si le nominal appartient à l'une des autres classes de la langue, le

démonstratif est à ton haut, mais après certains nominaux, il sera affecté par la faille tonale: (5) fi-tû7 u

"cette plantation d'ignames"

/plantation

(6) fl-dii' '(î

"cette corde"

d'ignames|cette/ /corde | cette/

(7)

"cette affaire"

/affaire | cette/

kù)-6ân kû

152

Gladys Guarisma (8)

kù-cfén ' kîj

(9)

fà-yér) f(5

(10) 1.4

fù-sâr) • fû

"ce morceau"

/morceau | ce/

"cette marmite"

/marmite |cette/

"cette hache"

/hache | cette/

L'étude du comportement tonal des déterminants nominaux nous a permis

de dresser les deux listes de nominaux à ton haut figurant en annexe. La liste n° 1 comporte des nominaux que nous avons postulés comme étant, au niveau structurel, du type |HH°|. La liste n° 2 comporte des nominaux dont le type, au niveau structurel, est |HB°|. Le deuxième ton, non représenté lorsque le nominal est isolé, se révélerait comme étant responsable du comportement tonal des éléments qui suivent chaque nominal: a. rehaussement des éléments à ton bas qui suivent le nominal, si le deuxième ton structurel est haut; b. abaissement des éléments à ton haut qui suivent le nominal, si le deuxième ton structurel est bas. 1.5

Suivant le principe des intervalles, postulé par Wilhelm Môhlig (à

paraître) une autre interprétation est possible: on peut considérer que les nominaux à ton haut comportent deux prosodèmes distinctifs. Aussi, chaque nominal peut appartenir à l'un des types suivants: II ou I H . Le prosodème I implique un "intervalle rehaussant" (rising interval) qui fait que l'élément suivant est réalisé avec un ton haut, tandis que le prosodème H

implique un

"intervalle abaissant" (descending interval) qui fait que l'élément suivant est réalisé bas ou haut abaissé. 1.6

Si l'on étudie les deux listes de nominaux données en annexe, on consta-

te que le pourcentage des nominaux de la liste n° 1 est plus élevé que celui de la liste n° 2: 58% contre 42%. Cependant, toutes les classes nominales sont représentées dans l'une et l'autre liste. D'autre part, d'après la forme des nominaux (type syllabique, consonne initiale ou finale), rien ne permet de classer un nominal dans l'une ou l'autre de ces listes. 1.7

Par contre, une recherche comparative de ces nominaux avec les racines

du bantou commun (BC) établies par M. Guthrie (1971) nous donne quelques indices sur l'origine du partage en deux groupes des nominaux à ton haut du bafia. Les correspondances, telles que nous avons pu les établir, sont marquées d'un point précédant le nominal concerné.

La Faille Tonale Premièrement, on constate que 29% des nominaux de la liste 1 ont pour correspondants des racines du BC dont la deuxième syllabe est à ton bas. En ce qui concerne les nominaux de la liste 2, nous n'avons trouvé qu'un très faible pourcentage de nominaux (3%) correspondant à des racines du BC dissylabiques dont la deuxième syllabe est à ton haut. D'autre part, les nominaux bafia à ton haut peuvent aussi avoir pour correspondant des racines monosyllabiques du BC (nominaux précédés de deux points): 5% des nominaux de chacune des listes.

1.8

A la lumière de ces faits, on peut penser que la faille tonale qui af-

fecte les éléments suivant les nominaux de la liste 1 a pu trouver son origine dans les termes dissylabiques du BC dont la deuxième syllabe à ton bas a disparu. 1.9

Cependant, le nombre peu élevé de correspondances établies jouant en

faveur de cette interprétation, ainsi que l'existence de correspondances avec des racines monosyllabiques du BC dans l'une et l'autre liste, amènent à émettre la conclusion suivante en ce qui concerne le classement des nominaux bafia à ton haut: Il est possible que le bafia ait été à l'origine une langue à radical dissyllabique et que, postérieurement, les dissyllabes - réduits à une seule syllabe - aient continué à fonctionner du point de vue tonal selon leur structure d'origine. Mais il se peut également que la langue ait comporté des monosyllabes et que les locuteurs les aient classés, à l'image de ceux d'origine dissyllabiques, en deux groupes différents. 1.10

Dans tous les cas, et dans l'état actuel de la langue, tout ce que

l'on peut dire c'est que les nominaux à ton haut sont partagés en deux classes tonales distinctes et que ce classement est aujourd'hui arbitraire dans le sens qu'il ne correspond à aucun critère formel.

1.11

Cette interprétation se trouve confirmée par le comportement des dis-

syllabes à ton haut. En effet, on constate que ces dissyllabes peuvent aussi être classés en deux groupes différents selon le comportement tonal différent des éléments qui les suivent (listes lb et 2b), bien que le nombre des nominaux fonctionnant comme ceux de la liste 1 soit de loin plus élevé que celui des nominaux fonctionnant comme ceux de la liste 2.

153

154

Gladys Guarisma

2.

LA FAILLE TONALE DANS LE SYNTAGME NOMINAL

2.1

Comme nous l'avons vu précédemment, un premier type de faille tonale

attesté au niveau du syntagme nominal est celui qui peut affecter l'élément à ton haut qui suit immédiatement le nominal. D'après l'étude faite, cette faille est à considérer comme la manifestation de la structure tonale de certains nominaux. Mais il existe en bafia d'autres cas de faille tonale au niveau du syntagme nominal. Un de ces cas peut être illustré par les exemples suivants:

2.3

C11>

gwôs â'nS

(12)

bwâp û ' zâ 7

"ce jour"

/jour|ce/

"le sang de la poule"

/sang|de|poule/

(13)

fOSyag f& '¿yen

"la marmite de viande" /marmite | de | viande/

(14)

îsfii? 'kii fù'yélQ

"le couvercle de la marmite"

/couvercle |de| marmite/

Dans tous ces cas, la faille tonale peut être expliquée par une analyse

morphologique qui restitue, au niveau de la structure de ces syntagmes, un ou plusieurs tons bas précédant l'élément affecté par la faille. Les exemples donnés ci-dessus pourraient donc être analysés de la façon suivante:

(11)

|#-r)w6s' àné| /PN(cl.la)-jour|ce (cl.l)/

(12)

|-«i-bwâp- i -(¡S-zâ^'| /PN (cl.9)-sang| PP (cl.9)-connectif\PN

(13)

|fî-yâg* fi-^6ï-Én"i /PN (cl.19)-marmite|PP (cl. 19)-connectif\PN

(14)

2.4

|kï-sû'~ ki-«S fï-yér)'| /PN (cl.7)-couvercle|PP

(cl.9)-poule/

(cl.7)-connectif\PN

(cl.8)-viande/ (cl.19)-marmite/

La faille tonale est aussi attestée au niveau des déterminants qu'il

n'est pas possible de considérer comme étant précédés par un élément à ton bas. Ces déterminants sont: l'adjectif -fin "noir", la pluralisateur -gól (-góy, -gwéy) "beaucoup" et 1'interrogatif -bé "quel?". Les exemples suivants illustrent le comportement tonal de ces éléments:

(15)

Bum M ' g ó i "beaucoup de gens" |6À-um' £Â-gôl| /PN (cl.2)-être humain|pp (cl.2)-beaucoup/

La Faille Tonale (16)

bu 'î-'fln

"des chiens noirs"

|"#-bû" î-fln| /PN (cl.10)-chiens| PP (cl.10)-noirs/ (17)

rûfôm J&'bé

"quel chef?"

|cfi-fôm' cfi-bé | /PN (cl.5)—chef|PP fcl.5;-quel/

3.

LA FAILLE TONALE DANS LE SYNTAGME VERBAL ET DANS L'ENONCE

a. dans le syntagme verbal 3.1

Ce phénomène se manifeste au niveau du radical verbal lorsqu'il est pré-

cédé par une modalité de temps à ton haut. En effet, l'emploi des modalités |â| proche, |fi| récent et

actuel amènent l'abaissement du ton du verbal

à ton haut qui le suit. (18)

àâ-'fâjil b6ôbô

"il lui a donné un médicament"

| à â-fâ-I yii îi-bfiôbô | //il (cl. 1 ) /proche | donner | aciievë/lui/PW (cl. 9) -médicament// (19)

à-n-'yâlû rûr|kôô

"elle a accouché hier"

|à rï-yâl-i rûrjkôô | // elle Ccl. 1) /récent \ accoucher | achevé/hier// (20)

rîiwû 'dyâa-'syââ fesyôm "la mort traversa la rivière" |cfï-wû" cfi â-syââ-x r)ù-syôm| //PN (cl. 5J-(la) mort | elle/proche | traverser | achevé/ PN (cl. 3)- rivière//

3.2

Pour ces exemples, on pourrait supposer que les modalités de temps anté-

posées au verbal comportent un ton bas successif qui expliquerait la faille tonale au niveau du radical verbal. Mais la seule raison d'une telle analyse serait de justifier la faille tonale. b. au niveau des éléments placés après le verbal

156 3.3

Gladys Guarisma L'élément affecté par la faille tonale peut être un nominal. Dans ce

cas, on peut penser que la faille tonale est due à la présence, au niveau structurel, d'un préfixe de classe qui est toujours à ton bas, bien que parfois il ne soit pas représenté.

(21)

àâ- 1 fâ 'bu '6yen

"il a donné de la viande au chien"

|à â-fâ-£ "0-bCP 6î-en~| //il (cl .1) /proche \ donner | achevé/PN

(cl. 9) -chien/

PN (cl. 8)-viande// (22)

à-jlââmzéé 'T)wôs

"il se cache du soleil"

| à _pâàmzèn-i V~i)w6s' | //il (cl.l) |se cacher | achevé /PN (cl.la)- soleil//

3.4

Cependant, la faille tonale peut affecter aussi d'autres éléments pour

lesquels il est difficile de supposer un ton bas précessif: le substitutif objet, l'adverbal, ainsi que le négatif 6i3.

(23)

à-jiSm 'rooo â riotEn 'zû "il le cache au pied du palmier à huile" |à Jlâm mÂ-o â dï-tén" "(¡i-zìi | //il (cl.l)/cacher/PP (cl .6)-substitutif objet/à\PN (cl.5)palmier à huile \PN (cl .9) -terre//

(24)

û-tîm 'lor| 'zû lÂfûùrûr)

"tu creuses seulement la terre

|ù tim lôr) "^-zii lÂfûùrûg | profondément" // tu/creuser/seulement/PN

(25)

mA n-yi '6(5

(cl .9)-terre/profondément/'

"je ne sais pas"

|mÀ rî-yi 6û| // moi | je/savoir/nëgatif//

4.

4.1

LA FAILLE TONALE ET L'ACCENT

Une étude plus approfondie du verbal et de l'énoncé m'a amenée a re-

mettre en question une première hypothèse expliquant la faille tonale par la présence de l'une ou l'autre des modalités verbales. Par ailleurs, une étude prosodique de quatre textes de littérature orale, menée en collaboration

La Faille Tonale avec W. Môhlig (Université de Cologne) a révélé l'existence du phénomène accentuel en bafia. Il apparaît en effet que l'accent affecte chaque élément lexical de la langue (nominal, verbal, adjectival, adverbal, numéral) ainsi que les éléments grammaticaux s'accordant avec le nominal (défini, possessif, substitutif objet) - cf. Guarisma (1981).

4.2

Partant de l'hypothèse d'un rapport possible entre l'accent et la faille

tonale, j'ai reconsidéré cette dernière dans tous les contextes où elle se produit et ai tenté de déterminer les groupes accentuels existant.

4.3

Par exemple, dans le syntagme verbal de base, c'est-à-dire celui compor-

tant un radical auquel est préfixée une modalité personnelle ou nominale, les deux éléments forment un seul groupe accentuel et c'est généralement le radical verbal qui est accentué. N.B. dans les exemples qui suivent, le signe " indique l'accent principal et le signe ' indique l'accent secondaire.

(26)

6k-kââ '1A il i

"ils dirent que ..."

(27)

bÂ-kôràyà fóló

"ils restèrent ainsi"

(28)

tùEômiî tû mûm ' td-wDwD 0 £x3 n't-

*-kypà

/

*-dâmb-

Cl. 10

byêé

noix de palme

bû "

lèvre

bén

manche

bEÉ

termite sp.

bel

écureuil sp.

bâp

tige sèche de "sissongo", Pennisetum purpureum Schumach. (Poaceae)

b

1

Cl.

Cl.

*-téndé

pagne

8 by-V,

bù-C

c-oo

v i e i l l e marmite employée pour p r é p a r a t i o n de m é d i c a m e n t s

c-6'

forêt,

kû-pûr)

albinos

"brousse"

la

167

La Faille Tonale

•• kû-fbé

mal affaire

kù-mÀo

main gauche

kù-twi?

paludisme

•• kù-té

•

*-bî

k£5-6án

arbre

kû-tàm

abcès

kù-cfyàn

manioc

km-cfs1?

source

kû-séé

viande

kffl-sál -sáy

*-tî

1. travail, 2. culture

kû-s5r)

corde pour attacher les moutons

kù-nû'

bouillie de maïs

kù-céé

placenta

kû-jiee

furoncle de l'aisselle

kii-ks

calebassier

kii-kúú

arbre Albizia coriaria Welw. ex Olov.

(Mimosaceae)

kù-kpô6

termite sp.

kù-kpôr)

panier pour garder les arachides

kíi-lór)

cadavre

CI. 9 ~-ISp

hameçon

fù- I JW

tronc (humain)

kù-6â6â

écorce

kffi-sâr)sar|

canne à sucre

kîi-gûru

pou de lit

b3m3

gémissement

bûncô

fracture

wârôj

plante sp.

fy-Onén

noix de palme piétinée

fû-câkâ

caillou

fû-kôrâo

tambour horizontal en bois

fù-kûnkun

moustique

*-p£nd-

*-dôbô

La Faille Tonale

169

NOTE

* REMERCIEMENTS

L'étude prosodique servant de base à cet article a été effectuée en collaboration avec le Prof. Wilhelm Möhlig (Institut für Afrikanistik der Universität zu Köln). Il a aimablement accepté de faire des transcriptions minutieuses de quelques textes de littérature orale bafia recueillis par Rosmarie Leiderer auprès du guérisseur Biabak ä Nnong. Je remercie particulièrement le Prof. Möhlig du temps qu'il a consacré à cette étude et de l'intérêt qu'il a manifesté pour nos recherches. Toutes les remarques et suggestions qu'il nous a faites ont toujours été précieuses.

BIBLIOGRAPHIE Guthrie, M., 1967-1970, Comparative Bantu: an introduction to the Comparative Linguistics and Prehistory of Bantu Languages, Farnborough, Gregg. 4 vol. Guarisma, G., 1973, Le nom en bafia (langue bantoue du Cameroun): Catégories grammaticales, Synthêmatique et syntagmatique nominale, Paris, SELAF (Bibliothèque 35-36-37). - 1981, Sur le phénomène accentuel en bafia, dans Tons et accents dans des langues africaines, Paris, SELAF (LACITO Documents Afrique 7). - Le syntagme verbal à modalité en bafia, dans Le verbe bantou, G. Guarisma, G. Nissim et J. Voorhoeve (éds.), Paris, SELAF (Oralité Documents 4), pp. 57-77. Möhlig, W., 1981, Quelques principes de structure prosodologique dans les langues africaines et leurs conséquences pour une analyse adéquate, dans Tons et accents dans des langues africaines, Paris, SELAF (LACITO Documents Afrique 7), pp. 20-38 - Basic Principles of Hausa prosodological structure at the distinctive level, dans Actes du Collogue International sur les langues Tchadiques (Hambourg, 16-18 septembre 1981), à paraître.

Chapter

11

Are there syllables in Gokana? Larry M. Hyman

With the syllable firmly established in phonological theory, it seems appropriate to ask whether syllable structure is a linguistic universal. While all languages have consonant-vowel transitions and, hence, something which "sounds like" syllables on the surface, in this paper I shall demonstrate that Gokana, a Benue-Cross language spoken in Eastern Nigeria, has a phonology devoid of syllables.1 As seen in the phonetic inventory in (1),

(1)

kY

t

p

g

Y

k

kP

i

u

ii

uu

g

gb

e

o

ee

oo

E

o

EE

b

d

f

s

V

z

[m

n

J>

0]

1

z

g/

a

OO aa

1

=

"3

/b V

1

u

ii

uu

E

5

EE

oo

aa

a

Tones:

5 = H(igh)

[N.B. No glides in Gokana, since

a = M(id)

*w, *y > v, z ]

a = L(ow)

Gokana does not have glides, which means that we will not need syllable structure or a feature

[syllabic] to differentiate [y] and [w] from the

high vowels [i] and [u]. Phonetic syllabicity will depend solely on the [+cons] or [-cons] feature of segments, with the one exception of syllabic nasals, to which I shall return below. The most striking feature of Gokana phonology is its tolerance of vowel sequences (see Hyman 1982a). An example of six identical vowels in sequence is given in (2).

(2)

mEE E k5 mm k£E - E - E - E - E who said I woke -TR -LOG-PRO-FOC

'who^ said I woke him^ up?' ... c T -„ (TR = transitive sfx; LOG = logophoric sfx)

172

Larry M. Hyman

As seen in the underlying representation in (3),

(3)

/ x

X

X

X

VE

k

X

X

I VE E

X

X

X

V E IE

/

[+N]

the eight vowel segments (or x's) reduce to six by the rule in (4), which says that when two segments are associated with the same segmental features (a$), the first segment, or x, is deleted when preceded in turn by a vowel.

{a,6}

(4) V

/ \ x x

In Hyman (1982a), which dealt with the representation of vowel length in Gokana, I demonstrated that a geminate vowel may have one of two underlying representations, as in (5).

(5)

a.

y

X

A Va

b. X

y

y

X

X

a

a

I I

If the vowel units belong to the same morpheme (y) , they will have the representation in (5a); if they belong to different morphemes, they will have the representation in (5b). The rule in (4), then, deletes the left unit of a geminate vowel (or consonant) when preceded by another vowel. This rule, as well as several other properties relating to segments in sequence, can thus be elegantly stated without syllables, as can all levels of phonological representation in this language. The arguments frequently advanced for syllable structure include those in (6).

(6)

a. syllables may account for distributional constraints b. syllables may account for phonological processes (rules) c. syllables may account for higher order units and processes

Are there Syllables in Gokana?

I shall now demonstrate that none of these arguments exist for the syllable in Gokana. As seen in (7), (7)

# #

V

(V)

(C2)

(V)

#

a foot in Gokana must have an initial consonant (C^) and may have at most one non-initial consonant (C2)• As seen in (8), tautosyllabic

(8)

heterosyllabic

'dance1

t6bi [v]

'throw'

kll

'go'

zilci [r]

'swear'

pig

'mix1

tSgi

'carve'

a. /b/

zòb

b. /I/ c. /g/

this C2 may be tautosyllabic or heterosyllabic with the initial CjV of the foot. In either case, however, it is limited to one of the consonants /b/, /!/ or /g/, which as seen in (9), become [m, n, g] when nasalized: (9)

tautosyllabic

heterosyllabic

a. /b/

dEm

/deb/

'mould'

dòmi /dòbi/

'bite'

b. /I/

ban

/bal/

'beg'

tènì /tèli/

'pass'

c. /g/

'aq

/ag/

'yawn'

sÈr)i /s£gi/

'economize'

What this means is that the distribution of Cj, which can be any underlying consonant, differs from the distribution of C2, independently of whether the C2 is syllable final or syllable initial. Thus, evidence is not found for a distinction between onset vs. coda in terms of distribution. The distribution of tonal melodies also takes place without regard to syllables. For example, there may not be a L to M transition, i.e. contour, within a foot.^ As seen in (10),

tautosyllabic

heterosyllabic

2nd pers. sg.:

o5 do

00 ban

2nd pers. pi.:

0 0 dol

(10)

'you fell'

/dò-II/

"

"

'you begged'

00 bsnli

"

11

/ban-11/

this constraint holds whether the vowels carrying the LM melody are tautosyllabic or heterosyllabic.

174

Larry M. Hyman Similarly, harmony processes operate independently of syllables. Thus,

as seen In (11), (11)

tautosyllabic a. ae d5-E

,

b. ae d5-e

heterosyllabic

he 1 fell'

ae lDr-EE

'he^ measured'

ae zov-ee

the vowel / E/ of the logophoric suffix /-EE/

,

he i skinned' 'he^ danced'

(Hyman and Comrie 1981) raises

to [e] when preceded by either a tautosyllabic or heterosyllabic [-low] vowel. (The same process raises /o/ to [o].) In addition, as we saw in the phonological representations in (3) and (9), nasality is a feature on roots and "spreads" both within and across syllables (see Hyman 1982b). Finally, tone is assigned as a bi-tonal melody in verb feet, with the first tone going on the first vowel and the second tone on any remaining vowels, independently of whether these are in the same syllable or the next. The examples in (12) show that tone is a property of vowels or moras in Gokana, rather than syllables.

(12)

a. k(5o

(HL)

'friend'

(not *ko)

b. dee

(ML)

'hole"

(not *de~)

c. duu

(HM)

'dust'

(not *du~)

Except for a low-level juncture tone (see below), two tones may not associate with a single vowel, as shown. Turning to higher order units and processes, we note first that foot structure is stated without reference to syllables. The formula in (7) clearly allows for both monosyllabic and bisyllabic feet, and the rules pertaining to foot structure do not conspire to create any particular syllable type or number of syllables in a foot. There is no accent or stress in Gokana to refer to syllables. And, finally, the reduplication process illustrated in (13) ,

a. CV verb

do

'fall'

d5d5

'falling'

b. CVC verb

:

dlb

'hit'

didib

'hitting'

c. CVCV verb

:

darà

'pick up'

dadàrà

'picking up

plìgà

'try'

plpììgà

'trying'

d. C W C V

verb :

Are there Syllables in Gokana?

175

takes place independently of syllables, copying the first CV of a verb to derive the corresponding gerundive. Again, disrespect for the syllable. At this point, if these arguments are not found to be convincing, consider the difficulty in determining how to syllabify vowel sequences such as in (2). Three alternatives are considered in (14). (14)

a. assign a syllable to each alpha (i.e. [-cons]) b. assign a syllable to each CV n c. assign a syllable to each (C) V (C,V)

One may arbitrarily choose one of these alternatives, although there is no evidence to prefer one over the other. The lack of evidence for one or the other principle of syllabification lends support to the view that Gokana phonology is not structured on the basis of syllables. The most convincing syllabic analyses in the literature involve languages with consonant clusters at some stage in their derivation. Little has been said, however, about languages with multiple vowel sequences. Consider Steriade's (1982) recent proposal, illustrated in (15), where C stands for [+cons] and V stands for [-cons ].

(15)

C V C C V

A A C V C C V

(a)

A A

C V C C V

(b)

(c)

In (15b) there is first a universal linking of each CV transition into the same syllable. This universal process is followed by language specific syllable adjunction rules—in (15c) I have adjoined the stranded C of (15b) to the preceding syllable. Now, if one considers a Gokana sequence such as in (16) ,

(16)

C V V V V V V

-»•

A

C V V V V V V

(a)

(b)

•+•

???

(cf. (2))

(c)

one would need not only a language specific syllable adjunction rule, but obviously some way to make a new syllable or two out of the remaining V's of (16b). Perhaps this is the right result: (16b) is as far as we can go in Gokana. The linked CV is what reduplicates in (13); there is no further syllabic structure in the language.

176

Larry M. Hyman Of course, in order for my analysis with x's, alphas, betas and no syl-

lables to work, I have to demonstrate that I can account for syllabicity. The one problem is syllabic nasals, which are potentially underlying in only the three morphemes in (17). (17)

a. /m/

'1st pers. sg. 1 , e.g. m d5o 'I fall', ae tu m 'he took me'

b. /m/

'inside' (=a noun, pronounced [2m], since it begins a foot)

c. /N/, meaningless prefix on a small set of nouns, e.g. nnom 'bird', r)ga 'needle', qkualolo 'tadpole1. Since in all of the examples in (17) the nasal has its own tone, the claim could be made that we have a [+cons ] segment which is syllabic. And if it is syllabic, then we either need a hierarchical syllable structure as in (18a) or a flat syllable structure with a C vs. V feature of syllabicity, as in (18b).

(18)

a.

a I

(cf. Halle & Vergnaud 1980)

b.

a |

(cf. Clements Keyser 1981)

nucleus

m In fact, neither structure is required since, I shall argue, bearing a tone is not a mark of syllabicity in Gokana. As seen in (19), (19)

a. ae tu m ' t5 b. ae tu qga

->- aa turn.to 'he took (seized) me in the house' ae tuq.ga 'he took a needle'

when a toned nasal is preceded by a vowel having the same tone, the nasal loses its tone and status as a mora.3 Thus, the CVC preceding the dot in (19) "sounds like" a closed syllable. If we were to use one of the representations in (18), we would have to say that in (19) a syllable has been lost and a nasal has essentially changed from being a vowel to being a consonant. Note in (20), however.

(20)

aè tu e ' to

->• aè tû-ë to 'he took him in the house'

Are there Syllables in Gokana?

177

where a true vowel has been substituted for the nasal pronoun of (19), that there is no loss of tone or mora value. In other words, if we treat the syllabic nasal as a vowel, we make the wrong prediction that (19) and (20) should have the same syllabic properties. The correct prediction is more readily achieved by assuming that even toned nasals are in all respects consonants and that syllabicity, if it is relevant at all, does not require that a segment be specified as part of the nucleus of a syllable. In (19) we saw putative syllabic consonants losing their syllabicity as they lost their tone. In (21) we observe that a junctural H tone is inserted before a temporal or locative expression: (21)

a. n5m b. zlb

-* ae mon n5m nl?el

'he saw an animal yesterday'

ae nw£E ziB mm to "he put the thief in the house'

In (21a) the final /m/ of nom 'animal' acquires the H junctural tone, but do we want to say that it becomes a vowel, or that a new syllable is created? Even worse in (21b) is the fact that the toned consonant is a /b/.1* Can a /b/ be syllabic? Similarly, consider the L genitive tone on the same consonants in (22) . (22)

a. n5m b. zib

nOm nwln 'the animal of the child' ->- ziB nwln 'the thief of the child'

In (22b) do we need to make the /b/ into a vowel so that it can take the L tone?14 Clearly not. As Halle and Kiparsky (1981) have suggested, a segment may be tone-bearing if it is part of the rime of a syllable, as the cases in (21) and (22) would b e — i f we only had rimes in Gokana! However, we do not. What we do have is onsets, since we are allowing for Steriade's universal CV linkage seen in (15) and (16). The tone constraint in Gokana must therefore be stated as in (23).

(23)

a consonant (x-beta; [+cons]) may not bear a tone if it is syllablelinked to a following vowel (x-alpha; [-cons]).

In other words, the tone-bearing x must have "mora value". There is good evidence that this is correct. As seen in (24),

178

Larry M. Hyman

(24)

bS. + in + 1 •* bS-m-mi arm my this

'this arm of mine'

when a toned nasal is immediately followed by a vowel

(within the same majo

constituent, NP or VP), the nasal is doubled. I represent this in (25) as a doubling of the x to two x's, both of which are associated to the bilabial nasal.

(25)

T

[ ]

T x

/

x

Steriade's proposal would link the toned nasal to the following vowel in the input of (24). However, the universal constraint in (23) disallows this linkage, since the nasal carries a tone. The compromise solution reached by Gokana is to introduce rule

(25) , producing an onset for the following vowel.

In summary we have seen two things. First, there is evidence for the universal CV linkage proposed by Steriade, but second, there are no syllable adjunction rules in Gokana. Thus, there is rampant incomplete syllabification and little, if any, evidence for the syllable in Gokana. This represents, it seems to me, a logical possibility which needs to be emphasized. If syllable structure is metrical, it should share properties and potentials with other metrical phenomena. One such related phenomenon is foot structure. Hayes (1981) has recently analyzed Latin with a word-final foot consisting of two or three syllables. This foot may be preceded by one or more syllables not incorporated into the foot. Just as there are, then, footed and unfooted syllables in Latin, we have seen in Gokana that there are syllabled and unsyllabled segments. Except for each sequence of CV, i.e. [+cons] followed by [-cons], segments remain extrasyllabic. This widespread extrasyllabicity accounts for why the syllable properties of other languages, as summarized in (6), are accomplished via other u n i t s — m o r a , foot, w o r d — i n Gokana.

Are there Syllables in Gokana?

NOTES

1.

2. 3. 4.

I would like to thank Godwin Zoranen, on whose speech this study is based, for his constant help and encouragement in the study of Gokana, as well as those who provided comments on earlier presentations of this paper at the University of Southern California and the University of California at Irvine. Certain compounds such as kpo-dem 'stone' and pa-saa 'leaf' exceptionally exhibit a L-M pattern. The floating H tone in (19a) and (20) is the juncture tone inserted before temporal and locative expressions (cf. (21)). The second tone of zib' in (21b) and of zib in (22b) is clearly on the consonant, rather than on the vowel.

REFERENCES

Clements, George N. and Samuel Jay Keyser, 1981, "A multilinear theory of the syllable", Unpublished ms., Harvard and M.I.T. Halle, Morris and Paul Kiparsky, 1981, Review of Paul Garde, Histoire de L'Accentuation Slave, Language 57.150-181. Halle, Morris and Jean-Roger Vergnaud, 1980, "Three dimensional phonology", Journal of Linguistic Research 1. Hayes, Bruce, 1980, "A metrical theory of stress rules", Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, M.I.T. Hyman, Larry M. 1982a, "The representation of vowel length in Gokana". In Proceedings of the First West Coast Conference on Formal Linguistics. Department of Linguistics, Stanford University. Hyman, Larry M. 1982b, "The representation of nasality in Gokana". In H. v.d. Hulst and N. Smith (eds.), The Structure of Phonological Representations, Part I, Foris, Dordrecht, Holland. Hyman, Larry M. and Bernard Comrie, 1981, "Logophoric reference in Gokana". Journal of African Languages and Linguistics 3.19-37, Steriade, Donca, 1982, "Incomplete syllabification and segmental extrametricality". Paper read at the First West Coast Conference on Formal linguistics, January 22-24, 1982.

179

Chapter

12

La Règle d'Élision Syllabique et les Séquences Vocaliques en Guéré Carole Paradis

0.

INTRODUCTION

Cet article porte sur le guéré, une langue kru parlée dans la partie occidentale de la Côte d'Ivoire. Il a pour but de démontrer l'influence de la structure syllabique sur le comportement des séquences vocaliques en guéré. Cette langue possède quatre tons et un système de neuf voyelles, qui est divisé, comme dans le cas de la majorité des langues kru, en deux sous-systêmes que voici :

(1)

voyelles +ATR

voyelles -ATR

i

u

I

U

e

o

E

o a

Pour bien comprendre l'analyse qui va suivre, il faut retenir qu'il existe deux types de séquences vocaliques en guéré, à savoir les diphtongues et les séquences vocaliques bisyllabiques; je définirai ces notions plus loin. Par ailleurs, il faut également savoir qu'il existe deux contextes dans lesquels une voyelle peut être élevée, soit celui des diphtongues et celui des séquences vocaliques bisyllabiques que j'appellerai dorénavant les séquences bs. A partir de ces pré-requis, nous allons voir que l'élévation d'une voyelle s'effectue de façon très régulière à l'intérieur des diphtongues tandis qu'elle pose un problème d'irrégularité à l'intérieur des séquences bs. Pour résoudre ce problème, je présenterai une règle d'élision syllabique dont l'application cyclique expliquera très simplement l'irrégularité de comportement des séquences bs par rapport à l'élévation. Mais auparavant, situons le cadre théorique. M'inspirant des publications récentes de Halle et de Vergnaud, Liberman et Prince ainsi que de celles de Kaye et Lowenstamm, je tiens compte dans mon analyse de quatre paliers phonologiques indépendants: le palier autosegmental, le palier syllabique, le palier tonal et enfin le palier segmentai.

182

Carole Paradis

Donc, contrairement à une analyse traditionnelle, le palier segmentai ne sera ici qu'un palier parmi les autres. A titre d'exemple, observons un schéma dans lequel les quatre paliers phonologiques sont représentés. (2)

palier autosegmental palier tonal palier syllabique2 palier segmentai

[HAUT] 1 I M I C C V n m u 'mordre' [nmû]

Les paliers ne sont pas ordonnés entre eux; ils sont plutôt reliés, chacun indépendamment des autres, au squelette syllabique. Par souci de simplification, ce dernier ne figure toutefois pas dans le schéma (2) (pour une discussion détaillée, cf. Paradis: 1982).

1.

LES DIPHTONGUES Avant tout, il faut mentionner qu'une diphtongue en guéré se distingue

phonétiquement d'une séquence bs. En accord avec la proposition théorique de Kaye et Lowenstamm (1982), on dira d'une diphtongue que c'est une structure de deux voyelles associées à un seul élément syllabique, comme l'indique le schéma en (3).

(3)

représentation d'une diphtongue V [+syllj

L+syll]

Dans une séquence bs, par contre, chacune des voyelles de la séquence est associée à une élément syllabique propre. (4)

représentation d'une séquence bs V [+syll]

V

[+syll ]

Elision syllabigue en guère

183

Voyons maintenant comment s'effectue l'élévation d'une voyelle à l'intérieur d'une diphtongue. La première voyelle d'une telle séquence est élevée de façon systématique, peu importe la nature de la voyelle suivante. C'est ce que nous indiquent les exemples de (5), lesquels sont composés de verbes monosyllabiques suivis des pronoms clitiques de la 3e personne O, E, U, I et du ton mi-haut du déclaratif.3 Notons que les diphtongues sont représentées par une liaison sous les voyelles et le trait de nasalité, par une cédille.

(5)

formes sous-jacentes

a. zrô 'mendier' mà zrûp 'je le mendie' (/zro + o / ->• [zrUo] ) i ma

• zruE

ma i ma

zrO " " _i zrUI 'je les mendie'

]

cE 'couper' i _i ma c Ip 'je le coupe' (/cE + o / ->• [CIo]) mâ c|ç _i i ma c^y " " ma

cl

'je les coupe'

c. pô 'construire' mâ pûp 'je le construis' (/po + o /

[pUo])

pÛÈ " " _• pU " I _» ma pUI 'je les construis' mâ

I

ma

Comme nous pouvons le constater dans ces exemples, la voyelle des verbes zro, cË et pô est systématiquement élevée dans le contexte d'une autre voyelle séparée par une frontière faible, en l'occurrence celle des pronoms, avec laquelle elle forme une diphtongue. Afin d'expliquer l'élévation d'une voyelle à l'intérieur d'une telle séquence, postulons la condition suivante:

Toute voyelle au début d'une séquence vocalique doit être haute pour former une diphtongue. De cette condition, découle un principe d'interprétation des diphtongues (cf. Paradis: 1982, pour une discussion détailée) qui assigne un autosegment [HAUT] à toute structure diphtonguée. Ainsi, la structure (6a) changera en (6b) .

184

Carole Paradis

Au niveau segmentai, nous dirons que 1 1 autosegment

[HAUT] est interprété par

la première voyelle de la séquence, qui s'en trouve élevée par le fait même. C'est ce que l'exemple (7) nous permet de constater.

(7)

a.

V

[ + syll ] I z r o

b.

[HAUT]

[+syll]

+

| E

V f+sy11! |+hautJ I z r U

2.

[+syll] i

+

I

E

LES SEQUENCES BS

Contrairement à ce que nous avons pu observer dans le cas très simple et très régulier des diphtongues, l'élévation d'une voyelle à l'intérieur d'une séquence bs obéit à deux comportements distincts, à savoir le comportement A et le comportement B. Dans le comportement A, qui est également le comportement type, la première voyelle d'une séquence bs n'est élevée que si la voyelle suivante est [-haute], A côté de ces séquences toutefois, il existe d'autres séquences bs qui causent un problème: celles du comportement B. La première voyelle de ces dernières séquences est systématiquement élevée (comme dans le cas des diphtongues), c'est-à-dire sans égard pour la nature de la seconde voyelle de la séquence. Voyons en (8) un tableau comparatif dans lequel figurent des séquences bs à comportement A dans la colonne de gauche et des séquences bs à comportement B dans la colonne de droite. Notons que les exemples de la colonne de gauche sont tous composés de verbes bisyllabiques suivis de pronoms , tandis que ceux de la colonne de droite sont tous composés de verbes monosyllabiques suivis des mêmes pronoms. Notons également qu'en forme sous-jacente, les verbes bisyllabiques de ces exemples ne contiennent qu'une seule voyelle, dont le timbre se répand dans les deux syllabes du verbe en surface. 6

185

Elision syllabigue en guêrê (8)

A. Formes sous-jacentes des verbes bisyllabiques niveau syllabique niveau segmental

a. C V V I 1/ w o

b. C C V V

c. C C V V

I I 1/ v 1 E

I I 1/ p i e

[woo]

[vlEE ]

1

•tailler'

laver'

[plëë] 'faire courir'

B. Formes sous-jacentes des verbes monosyllabiques ci a. DO

'arrêter'

i b. tE

i c. cre

'ramasser'

'écrire'

(le tonème du déclaratif accompagne tous ces exemples) Ai comportement type

Bi problèmes

a. mà wUÒ

a. ma 6Ùo^ 'je l'arrête'

'je le lave'

(/wofo/-)-[wUo])

(/Beh-O/-* [6UO])

ma wUE

mà 6ÙË

mais ma WÔU i ma wôi

"

ii

'je les lave'

b. mà vlÏ5 'je le taille' i » II ma vlÏË mais

i ma vlÉÛ i ma vlÈÎ •je les taille1

i , t i c. ma pilo 'je le fais courir* • n ma plîÉ mais H

ma pleU t ma plii •je les fais courir -

mà 6ÙÙ I c'— ma bui i

'je les arrête'

•_

b. ma tlD mà tÎË

'je le ramasse' "

mà tîû mà crlô tiï 'je 'je les ramasse' c. mà l'écris' i i— ma crIE mà crîû " " • i— ma crll 'je les écris'

En fait, pour expliquer l'élévation dans les séquences bs à comportement A, il faut supposer que ces séquences sont régies par la condition suivante: Condition sur les séquences bs La première voyelle d'une séquence de deux voyelles séparées par une frontière faible doit être haute si la deuxième est non haute.

186

Carole Paradis

Autrement dit, les séquences bs doivent toujours contenir au moins une voyelle haute. La règle d'élévation présentée en (9) répond justement à cette condition. (9)

règle d'élévation (règle segmentale) [+syll ] -»- [ +haut ] contexte: La règle s'applique à toute voyelle qui ne répond pas à la condition sur les séquences bs.

Une voyelle non haute placée au début d'une séquence bs sera donc automatiquement élevée par la règle (9) si la voyelle suivante est non haute. Maintenant, pour comprendre pourquoi une voyelle au début d'une séquence bs à comportement B est systématiquement élevée (même dans le contexte d'une voyelle haute), il faut savoir qu'il existe en guéré une règle d'élision syllabique. Cette règle, dont l'application est cyclique, (nous verrons des arguments à cet effet plus loin) va expliquer comment les séquences bs â comportement B perdent une syllabe en cours de dérivation et passent en fait par le stade de diphtongues, d'où leur comportement apparemment irrégulier par rapport aux séquences bs à comportement A. La règle d'élision syllabique, présentée en (10), élide un élément syllabique lorsque celui-ci est suivi d'un autre élément syllabique séparé par une frontière faible. (10)

règle d'élision syllabique V

0 /

+ V

condition: La règle ne doit pas engendrer de séquences tonales agrammaticales (je reviendrai sur cette condition plus loin). Autrement dit, cette règle vise à réduire le nombre d'éléments syllabiques au niveau syllabique; ce qui entraîne la plupart du temps la création de diphtongues, comme nous pouvons le constater dans l'exemple (11). (11)

/ ma cfî + E

Je /

]e manger dèci, z chose

ma cfïE cfe

*dÏE

je mange la chose'

Elision

syllabique

en

187

guêré

dérivation jiiveau

autosegmental

_niveau

tonal

_niveau

syllabique

[HAUT]

I M I [Ç

V]

il

_niveau segmentai

+ +

r

E

[HAUT ]

M élision

syllabique

[C [ÎLE]

résultat f i n a l :

L'exemple

d

0] + V ] £

+ E

(11) e s t une s t r u c t u r e à deux c y c l e s . T o u t e f o i s ,

la

règle

s ' a p p l i q u e de l a même façon dans une s t r u c t u r e à t r o i s c y c l e s , comme c e l l e que nous r e t r o u v o n s dans l ' e x e m p l e

( 1 2 ) . Cet exemple e s t composé d'un v e r b e

s u i v i d'un pronom c l i t i q u e e t du tonême du d é c l a r a t i f , à une s y l l a b e v i d e 1982).

(12)

/ m a nmu + D s/ ->• I \ \ / j e mordre p r o n . d é c l . dérivation

•nmuo

ma nmuo 'je

l e mords'

(sans l e niveau autosegmental) M

I C V]

[C I I I nmu

MH

I

+ V] + V] I (décl.) + o

M^ élision _premier

lequel est

associé

( c e t t e d e r n i è r e hypothèse e s t j u s t i f i é e dans P a r a d i s :

syllabique cycle

MH

[C C 0 ] + V] + nmu

V]

+ o MH

deuxième c y c l e

[Ç C 0 ] + 0 ] + \ v ] nmu'

résultat f i n a l :

[nmuô]

+ o

188

Carole Paradis Avant d'aborder le point crucial de mon analyse, je dois faire remarquer

qu'il existe cependant quelques contextes dans lesquels la règle d'élision syllabique ne s'applique pas comme, par exemple, à l'intérieur d'un même cycle. En effet, si deux éléments syllabiques (séparés ou non par une frontière faible) sont contenus dans une même entrée lexicale, le deuxième ne peut causer l'élision du premier. C'est ce que nous indique le schéma de l'exemple (13).

(13)

[V + V ] + V ] + V ]

->-

[V + 0 ] + 0 ] +

V]

Dans le premier cycle de cette structure, l'élision du second élément syllabique est causée par la présence d'un élément syllabique dans le deuxième cycle mais, en aucun cas, le second élément du premier cycle n'aurait pu causer l'élision de l'élément syllabique du début de la structure. Le suffixe du causatif, qui, comme le tonème du déclaratif, contient une syllabe vide, ne pourra donc jamais causer l'élision de l'élément syllabique du radical qui le précède, parce que le radical et le suffixe font tous les deux partie du même cycle (même entrée lexicale). C'est ce que l'exemple (14) nous permet de constater: cet exemple est composé d'un verbe au causatif suivi d'un pronom ainsi que du tonème du déclaratif. (14)

p. tonal

MH

M

MH

p. syll.

I [ c c vI+ v ] + v ] +Iv ] cv

p. segm.

ma

n m u

o

je faire mordre pron. décl. MH

M

'

CV m

I I=

I

[ C C V + 0 ] II Iil m

ti

MH

+ 0 ] + V ]

. . . résultat final: [ma nmui]

*nmuô

'je le fais mordre' ->

Les formes au passif se comportent de la même façon que celles au causatif. Autrement dit, le suffixe du passif Ë, qui fait aussi partie de la même entrée lexicale que le radical qui le précède, ne peut causer l'élision de l'élément syllabique contenu dans ce dernier. C'est ce que l'exemple (15) nous permet de constater.

Elision syllabique en guêiê (15)

189

p. tonal

H

p. s y l l .

I

M

CV[CCV+V]

p. segm.

I I yI u

I

M

M M

H

I

1

-»-

I II I nmu + E

I I

CV

[CCV + V]

II yu

M Ii l n m u + E

enfant mordre passif résultat final: [yu nmûE]

*nmuj:

'l'enfant est mordu' Les exemples (14) et (15) constituent en fait un premier argument me permettant d'affirmer que la règle d'élision syllabique est sensible au cycle. Il en existe d'autres. Par exemple, nous allons voir que la règle d'élision syllabique ne peut jamais engendrer de séquences tonales agrammatiâales. Si le cas se présente, son application est bloquée par la condition qui, comme nous avons déjà pu l'observer, accompagne la règle (10). Notons qu'en guéré une séquence tonale agrammaticale est une séquence descendante se terminant par un ton autre que bas, contenue dans une seule syllabe. Ainsi, la règle d'élision va s'appliquer dans l'exemple (16), mais va être bloquée au deuxième cycle de l'exemple (17) parce que la séquence tonale descendante haut/mi-haut de cet exemple ne peut être contenue dans une même syllabe.

(16)

i / ma dû + o dï / '

'

\

-

je cacher pron. part. verb.

ma dup cfe

*duo

'je le cache'

mais (17)

/ m a tru +

i ma truo

je arracher pron. décl.

'je l'arrache'

dérivation

i * t r ûp

H

MH

[ ç ç y ] + v ]+ V ] (décl.) tru + o

H^ élision syllabique premier cycle

MH

[ C ç 0 ] + V ] +V ] tru'

O

_deuxiême cycle (condition)

190

Carole Paradis

résultat final: [truO ]

H MH I I C C V + V t r u + O

Nous allons maintenant aborder l'argument crucial qui me permet d'affirmer que la règle d'élision syllabique ne peut s'appliquer autrement que cycliquement. Cet argument est le suivant: l'irrégularité problématique des séquences bs, qui est difficilement explicable dans une autre analyse, peut être résolue si nous émettons l'hypothèse que les séquences bs à comportement B passent par le stade de diphtongues avant de devenir bisyllabiques. Une telle solution ne peut cependant être adoptée que dans une analyse oû la règle d'élision syllabique est perçue comme cyclique. Afin de s'en convaincre, examinons en (18) un des exemples du tableau (8), qui nous permettra de constater que les séquences bs à comportement B passent effectivement par le stade de diphtongues. (18)

/ ma 6o + U \ /

/ I \ x je arrêter pron. décl. dérivation

ma BuÛ

*6oÛ

'je l'arrête' MH I [ C V ]+ V

11 I

6 o _premier cycle

MH I + V ] (décl.)

+ u

MH

M

élision syllabique [ C 0 ] + V ] + V ] dissimilation tonale® 6 U

+ U

interprétation immédiate de la diphtongue _deuxiême cycle élision syllabique résultat final: [6uu]

(condition) MH

M

I I C V + V

11 I

6 u + u

Elision syllabigue en guère

191

Dans cet exemple, nous voyons qu'après la perte de son élément syllabique, la voyelle o (du radical verbal 60) doit se rattacher à l'élément syllabique de la voyelle du pronom U, avec laquelle elle forme une diphtongue dans le deuxième cycle. Elle est alors interprétée par le principe d'interprétation des diphtongues, qui élève automatiquement la première voyelle de la séquence. Cependant, cette diphtongue, comme toutes celles qui conditionnent les séquences bs à comportement B, n'apparaîtra pas en surface, car elle récupère toujours obligatoirement la syllabe vide du déclaratif et aboutit ainsi en structure bisyllabique. L'élément syllabique du déclaratif, lui, ne peut être élidé à cause de la séquence tonale agrammaticale que cela engendrerait. En effet, le ton mi-haut du déclaratif subit toujours une règle de dissimilation tonale qui le change en ton moyen dans le contexte immédiat d'un autre ton mi-haut. Ce dernier forme alors avec le ton dissimilé du tonème une séquence tonale descendante se terminant par un ton autre que bas, ce qui bloque l'application de la règle (10) (condition). Maintenant, nous allons voir avec la dérivation de l'exemple (19) que ce n'est pas du tout le cheminement des séquences bs à comportement A. Contrairement aux voyelles d'une séquence à comportement B, les voyelles d'une séquence à comportement A demeurent toujours associées chacune à un élément syllabique propre; c'est-à-dire qu'elles ne passent jamais par le stade de diphtongues. (19)

/ mà w55 + U \ /

mâ w5Ù

/ / \ / je laver pron. décl.

'je le lave'

dérivation

M

*wUÙ

MH

I I [ C V V ] + V ]+ V ] I \/ I (déci.) w O + U

élision syllabique _premier cycle

[C V 0 ] + V ] + V w o

+ U

M élision syllabique deuxième cycle

MH

I I [C V 0 ] + 0 ] + V ] II w o

+ U

192

Carole Paradis

résultat final: [w5Ù]

M

MH

C V + V w O + U

3.

CONCLUSION

En somme, l'analyse par paliers permet de résoudre un cas qui aurait causé beaucoup de problêmes à une analyse strictement segmentale. Sans la théorie des paliers, il aurait été difficile non seulement de rendre compte de la réduction syllabique en guéré mais aussi de définir clairement une diphtongue. Les séquences vocaliques seraient demeurées indifférenciées et, par conséquent, la règle d'élévation aurait dû être affublée de toutes sortes de conditions.

NOTES

*

Cette étude est tirée des chapitres III et IV de mon mémoire de maîtrise.

1.

Les voyelles hautes en guéré sont toujours reliées à un autosegment [HAUT]. Cette notation syllabique est une version simplifiée de celle utilisée par Kaye et Lowenstamm (1981). Il existe deux morphèmes du déclaratif en guéré: un tonème (qui est composé d'un ton mi-haut et d'une syllabe vide) et le morphème mE dont la forme faible est E (sans ton). Le tonême accompagne toujours les phrases déclaratives/affirmatives. Le ton bas d'un verbe au perfectif devient moyen à 1'imperfectif. Une voyelle élevée est toujours [-ATR] pour une raison autosegmentale qui est présentée dans mon mémoire de maîtrise. Plusiers arguments présentés dans Paradis (1982) confirment cette hypothèse. Le ton mi-haut du déclaratif subit une règle de dissimilation tonale (Paradis: 1982) qui le change en ton moyen dans le contexte immédiat d'un autre ton mi-haut. Id.

2. 3.

4. 5. 6. 7.

8.

Elision syllabigue en guère BIBLIOGRAPHIE

Goldsmith, J., 1974, "An Overview of Autosegmental Phonology", Linguistic Analysis, vol.2, 1:23-67 (1976). Halle, M. et J.R. Vergnaud, 1980, "Harmony Processes", M.I.T. (à paraître). Kahn, D., 1976, Syllable-Based Generalizations in English Phonology, Bloomington: Indiana University Linguistics Club. Kaye, J.D., 1981, Les diphtongues cachées du vata, (à paraître). Kaye, J.D. et J. Löwenstamm, 1981, De la syllabicité, (à paraître). Liberman, M. et A. Prince, 1977, "On stress and Linguistic Rhythm", Linguistic Inquiry, 8:249-336. Paradis, C., 1982, Description phonologique du guère, mémoire de maîtrise, Université du Québec à Montréal, publié par l'Institut de linguistique appliquée, Abidjan.

193

Chapter 13

Accent in Kimatuumbi Douglas Pulleyblank

0.0 This paper revisits aspects of the prosodic system of Kj.mattiumbi discussed in Kisseberth and Odden (1980). It will be argued that K}.mati3umbi has an accentual system and not a tonal system per se. It will be suggested that underlying morphemes bear at most one accent. General principles are applied to construct metrical structure over both accented and unaccented words and surface tonal contours are the result of low-level phonetic interpretation of metrical structure. In addition, it will be proposed that accents in Kimatuumbi are in fact lexically encoded metrical grid marks. It will be shown that the problem of rule-ordering discussed in Kisseberth and Odden (1980) disappears with an accentual analysis. It will also be demonstrated that the notions of 'tone' and 'accent' can be strictly separated in the analysis of Kimatuumbi. Lastly it will be argued that the grid is derived from metrical tree structure and certain differences between the grid as applied to stress systems and the grid as applied to Kimatuumbi will be discussed. 1.0 Looking at Kimatuumbi nouns such as those illustrated in (1) to (10) below, we observe a striking pattern of alternating L and H tones. Except that the pattern is realized phonetically in terms of pitch and not stress, the type of alternation observed is in fact remarkably similar to that attested in a stress language such as English. (1)

n-chimbiliill

(2)

ka-lii-tebSele

'little amaranthus plant

(3)

ma-symaSli

'large nails'

(4)

ma-s61okS

'black pulse plants'

(5)

nje£njemJ

'mosquitoes'

'drip'

(6)

as£ab£

'punishment'

(7)

ma-kSlaSngal5

'chicken predators'

(8)

ndebSelS

'amaranthus'

(9)

n-t6op§

'handle'

(10) kj-tSleSko

'cooking pot'

196

Douglas Pulleyblank I propose therefore that we adopt a metrical approach for Kimatuumbi

along the general lines of work on stress systems such as that by Liberman and Prince (1977), Hayes (1980) and Halle (1982). In particular, I suggest that the underlined vowels in (1-10) are underlyingly accented and that the alternating L H pattern is to be accounted for by assigning a binary foot structure to such words. In other words, we require a principle for Kimatuumbi that will give us the effect stated in (11): (11)

Metrical tree assignment Assign binary right-dominant feet from right-to-left beginning with the accent.

The trees that result from (11) will then automatically be assigned a metrical grid by the universal convention stated in (12J.1 (12)

Metrical grid assignment (universal) Assign a grid mark to a terminal node that is a designated terminal element (dte) of a given layer of metrical structure.

As far as this paper is concerned, the only relevant layer of metrical structure will be that of the foot. Consequently the effect of (12) in Kimatuumbi will be to assign a grid mark to the second node of each foot since such feet are right-dominant. The effect of (11) and (12) is illustrated by examples (13-16) below.

(13)

/n-chimbiliili/

n-chimbiliili

grid assignment * * * n-chimbiliili

(14)

/ka-lu-tebeele/

ka-lu-tebeele ->

ka-lu-tebeele

(15)

/asaabu/

asaabu

->

asaabu

(16)

/kj.-teleeko/

ki-teleeko

-»

ki-teleeko

tree assignment

V

vv V*vv

V VV VV

*

*

V VV

VV

i

Examples (13) and (16) illustrate cases with a single syllabic prefix; (14) illustrates cases with two syllabic prefixes; and (15) is typical of cases with no syllabic prefix. On the basis of such examples it seems possible to conclude that the rule of metrical tree assignment applies post-lexically

197

Accent in Kimatúumbi in Kj.matuumbi, ie. at the level of the sentence phonology, since metrical structure does not depend on internal morphological structure.

Concerning the ultimate tonal realization of forms such as those represented in (13-16), Kj.mat«5umbi simply requires a rule of tone assignment such as (17) . (17)

Tone assignment2 i.

Assign H to an accented vowel.

ii. Assign L elsewhere. For cases such as (13-16) for example, this will correctly derive the corresponding tonal forms given above as (1), (2), (6) and (10). In fact (17) seems to be virtually all that needs to be said about 'tone' per se in Kj.mati3umbi. ^ If we turn to words that have a lexical accent on their second mora, we observe only a single H tone on the surface because such words have only enough moras to the left of the accent to form a single binary foot. (18)

ma-tógolo

'bucks'

ma-togolo

(19)

ki-túkutuku

'bird*

kj.-tukutuku

V" V*

(20)

ly-kóngobe

'wood'

lu-kongobe

V" (21)

até

'banana hands'

ate

V

It is noteworthy that in such cases there is no evidence for grouping the moras that follow the accent into any type of metrical structure. 1.1

The first set of cases that require some modification of the general

procedure outlined so far are words where the underlying accent falls on the third or the fifth mora. Some examples are given below. (22)

changaláwe

'gravel'

(23)

kalaángalS

'chicken predator'

(24)

ngeengé

'wires'

(25)

balajsa

'veranda'

198

Douglas Pulleyblank

(26)

mj-butüka

'cars'

(27)

n-kil|situ

'christian'

Because of the location of the accent in such words, the word-initial mora will never be part of a binary foot. Two possibilities therefore suggest themselves; either such word-initial moras form degenerate non-branching feet, or no foot is formed in such cases at all. It may be the case that the latter possibility can be ruled out universally - that one can never require feet to be branching. Whether or not this is true however, such a possibility must be rejected in Kj.matuumbi for reasons that will be discussed in section 2.3.1 below. I assume therefore that tree assignment (11) and grid assignment (12) will automatically result in forms such as those in (28) and (29). (28)

/changalawe/

•* changalawe

As is, however, such forms incorrectly predict an initial H-toned mora. I propose therefore a rule whose effect will be to remove the initial grid mark in such cases. Such a rule could be formulated in two different ways: it could delete a word-initial grid mark, or it could delete a grid mark from a non-branching foot. Such formulations are not equivalent since the latter would delete a grid mark from a non-branching foot in non-initial position while the former would not. For the time-being I will simply assume the more general formulation without justification but in section 2.3.1 arguments for this particular formulation will be discussed.

(30)

Non-branching deaccentuation *

-

0

/ F

The non-branching deaccentuation rule will apply to forms such as those given in (28) and (29), deriving the corresponding forms given in (30) and (31) .

Accent in Kimatuumbi (30)

changallwe

(31)

mi-butuka

199

I V

i V

Tone assignment will then correctly insert H tones on the remaining accented moras resulting in the tonal forms shown in (22) and (26). 2.0

So far all the nouns illustrated have been analysed as bearing an under-

lying accent. There is however a class of nouns that must be considered to be underlyingly unaccented. Compare the first three examples below with the second three examples: (32)

a. ma-togolo

'bucks'

b. ma-togolo gaangu

'my bucks'

(33)

a. mi-bytgka

'cars'

b. mi-butyka yaSngu

'my cars'

(34)

a. ma-chSngalSwe

(35)

a. kjwikilyo

'large gravel pieces' 'cover'

(36)

a. ly-gyly

'leg'

(37)

a. ngo6ngowe

'marble'

b. ma-chSngalSwe gaSngu 'my hunks of gravel' b. ki-wikilyo chaSngu

'my cover'

b. lu-gulu lwadngu

'my leg'

b. ay£ ngoongowe 1J 'that isn't marble'

The first three nouns have exactly the same form whether in pre-pausal or non-pre-pausal position. The second set, on the other hand, bear H tones only when in pre-pausal position. Moreover such a pre-pausal H tone always appears on the second mora of the word. 2.1

The location of such a H tone within the word can be accounted for

straightforwardly if we assume that such nouns are underlyingly unaccented and that tree assignment is modified as follows: (38)

Metrical tree assignment (revised) i.

Assign binary right-dominant feet from right-to-left beginning with the accent.

ii. If no accent, then assign a foot at the left edge of the domain. In other words, in order to construct feet we scan the word from right to left; upon encountering either an accent or the edge of the domain, we begin foot construction. A sample derivation is given in (39).

200

Douglas Pulleyblank

tree: (39)

ki-wikilyo

grid:

-»• ki-wikilyo ->• ki-w*kilyo

'V V

V

2.2 Left to be accounted for is why the H tone on an unaccented noun is deleted in non-pre-pausal position. I propose that the required rule can be formulated simply if viewed as a rule operating on grid structure. (40)

Phrasal * deletion *

-

0

/

][

This rule as formulated will delete a final grid mark from a noun that is followed in the sentence by another word. I assume an autosegmental representation for the grid such that the final grid mark may or may not be located on the final mora of the word. Hence in a word such as (39) ki-wikilyo the H tone will be deleted non-pre-pausally even though the relevant grid mark is located on the antepenultimate syllable. Note however that the rule as formulated in (40) would have the undesireable effect of deleting a final H tone even in the case of an accented noun such as (32) ma-t6golo or (34) ma-ch5ngalawe. For the present I will deal with this problem merely by stipulating that rule (40) may not delete a mark from an underlyingly accented mora. However this stipulation will be dropped after we consider the nature of an underlying accent in Kimatuumbi, the topic of the next section. 2.3

What is accent?

Until now, this paper has assumed that lexical accents are simply a diacritic marking on stems that triggers foot formation and prevents the application of certain rules. In this section, I will look more closely at some of the properties of lexical accents in Kimatuumbi and suggest that they are in fact underlying metrical grid marks. 2.3.1 The problem There exists in Kimatuumbi a rule of 'Shortening', 'whereby all long vowels within noun stems are shortened when followed by any element within a noun phrase'. (K & O p. 128) **

201

Accent in Kimatuumbi This rule has a number of interesting effects on the surface tonal representation of nouns, and such effects will be discussed below. For the present however, I will simply assume without discussion a formulation of 'Shortening' along the lines of (41), and discuss its effect on nouns of a particular accentual form.

(41)

Shortening

0

/

V

NP "

In the 'a' examples of (42) and (43) we observe precisely the tonal pattern expected for a noun with the underlying accent on the fourth mora. (42)

(43)

a. ki-laaty

'shoe*

b. ki-lStu cha La5ty

'Latus shoe'

a. libwSeyS

'jackal'

b. libweya aliili

'this jackal'

In the 'b' examples shortening has applied. Consequently the H tone of the accented mora has been lost. Of course such a loss of the H can be accounted for by the rule of non-branching deaccentuation (30). As the derivation below illustrates, the effect of shortening in words such as ki-laaty is to create a non-branching foot where there had previously been a branching foot. Hence by ordering non-branching deaccentuation after shortening, the correct surface forms are derived. Note that it is these cases that argue for a non-branching deaccentuation rule over an initial deaccentuation rule (see 1.1 above). Were we to have derived the tonal form of words such as changalawe (28) by the application of an initial deaccentuation rule then we would require an additional, unrelated rule for cases such as (42) and (43). (44)

kj.-laaty

vv

tree and grid:

ki-laatu

shortening:

ki-latu

VI

202

Douglas Pulleyblank

surface form:

k|-látu .

Hence the properties that an underlying accent must have in Kj.matúumbi include the following:

(45)

- it must trigger foot-formation (38) - it must block phrasal * deletion (40) - it must not block non-branching deaccentuation (30)

However the properties listed in (45) do not really tell the whole story. If we consider an initially-accented word such as 'meat', we see that there is an initial H-tone in spite of the fact that the foot to which it is linked is non-branching. However when such a noun appears phrase-medially, the H-tone disappears.

(46)

a. ñama

-*• ñama

T

b. ñama yaángu

-»• ñama

'meat' 'my meat'

Examples such as (46) would seem to suggest that an underlying accent must block non-branching deaccentuation (30) and allow phrasal * deletion (40). In other words (46) seems to require precisely the opposite properties of (44). In conclusion, it would seem that no matter what one feels about the theoretical status of diacritics, in Kj.matuumbi a diacritical analysis of accent turns out to be empirically insufficient. We are forced therefore into an analysis that does not view accent as an arbitrary diacritic. One possible such analysis will be presented in the next section.

2.3.2

A straightforward solution to the above problem is possible if we

assume that underlying accents in Kimatuumbi are lexically assigned grid marks. Underlyingly words such as the accented ma-t6golo 'bucks' (32) and the unaccented ki-wlkilyo 'cover' (35) will be represented as follows: (47)

/ma-togolo/

(48)

/ki-wikilyo/

Accent

in

Kimatuumbi

203

Tree and grid assignment will then result in the following: (49)

* ma-togolo

(50)

kj-wikilyo

V

V

The word ma-t6golo ends up with two grid marks on its second mora - one lexically assigned and one because the second mora is the dte of a foot. The word ki-wikilyo on the other hand ends up with only a single grid mark because it bears no lexical accent. This immediately solves the problem concerning the retention of H-tones on accented nouns in phrase-medial position. Phrasal * deletion applies generally - to both accented and unaccented nouns. But because it only deletes a single grid mark, an accented noun such as ma-tc5golo will end up with one grid mark even in non-phrase-final position, hence a surface H tone. Turning to the effects of Shortening, such as illustrated in (44), we see that both grid marks are deleted from the final mora of a word such as kj.lSatu because of the combined effects of phrasal * deletion and non-branching deaccentuation. In all environments that trigger shortening, phrasal * deletion will also be triggered. And in cases such as (44) shortening also creates a non-branching foot. Finally, the assumption that accents are lexical grid marks also accounts for the initially accented cases, such as shown in (46). Non-branching deaccentuation will always remove a single grid mark in such cases because the foot is non-branching. In phrase-final position such a word will surface with a H-tone because one if its two grid marks remains. But phrase-medially, phrasal * deletion will apply to delete the remaining grid mark and the word will therefore surface with only L-tones. In summary we have seen that viewing accent as an arbitrary diacritic results in a somewhat bewildering problem of exceptions and non-exceptions to phonological rules. An approach that views accent as a lexically assigned grid mark on the other hand, provides a simple account for the facts presented above. 2.3.3

Before leaving the question of the nature of an underlying accent,

I will consider briefly two alternatives to the view that accents are grid marks and show that these alternatives are inadequate for Kimatuumbi.

204

Douglas Pulleyblank

2.3.3.1

Lexically linked tones

A possible interpretation of accents would be that they are actually lexically linked tones. For example a medially accented morpheme might have a representation in some language such as (51a) or (51b). H (51)

a. V V V H L

I

b. V V V

For Kimatuumbi however such an approach would appear to be inadequate. For example it is not clear how a purely tonal analysis could account for the alternating L H tonal pattern. Moreover, once tones had been assigned to unaccented nouns, it is unclear how one would distinguish lexically accented nouns from lexically unaccented nouns without resorting to some type of diacritic.5 2.3.3.2

Lexically assigned metrical tree structure

It has been proposed (eg. Hayes (1980) that in some cases metrical structure might be partially assigned underlyingly. One might therefore propose that accent in a language such as Kj.matuumbi is in fact pre-assigned metrical structure. Such a proposal does not seem to be correct for Kj.matuumbi because it too will fail to distinguish between accented and unaccented stems such as -togolo and -wikilyo. As soon as a foot has been constructed in the unaccented case, it will be identical to the underlyingly accented example. Nevertheless such a proposal could have interesting consequences for other accent systems, and in fact seems to be relevant when we consider certain facts about shortening below. In a language characterized by left-dominant feet, an accent might be represented as in (52a); while in a language with right-dominant feet, an accent could be represented as in (52b). (52)

a. accent, left-dominant language: V b. accent, right-dominant language: V

Accent in Kimatuumbi

205

Such a representation would make automatic predictions about the behaviour of accent, depending on the particular accentual rules of the language involved. Similarly, pre-accenting morphemes and post-accenting morphemes could be given the formal representation given in (53). (53)

a. pre-accent:

/ \

(left-dominant foot)

b. post-accent:

(right-dominant foot)

While the notions of pre- and post- accent do not seem to play a role in underlying representations in Kimatiiumbi, the notion of post-accent does seem to play a role in certain derived environments as will be shown in the next section. 2.3.4

Shortening

In section 2.3.1 above, I discussed the effect of a rule of vowel shortening on nouns of a particular accentual shape. In this section I will briefly consider the effects of shortening on other accentual types. 2.3.4.1

Long L-tone vowels

Not surprisingly, a long L-tone vowel turns up as a short L-tone vowel after shortening has taken place. Example (54) shows that this is exactly what the analysis here predicts. *

(54)

a. kikfiloombe

kikoloombe

'cleaning shell'

b. kikolombe chin•

IV

V

Hence the derivation of a case such as (57b) is as follows: *

(59)

ki-ndoolo

ki-ndoolo

I /

-+ ki-ndolo

i V

Note that one need not assume that the inherent grid mark associated with the deleted vowel is transferred to the new dte of the foot, although such an assumption would be compatible with the data. Failure of phrasal * deletion in such cases could be explained simply by ordering it before shortening. 3.0

Before concluding, I will discuss briefly in this section a number of

apparently problematic cases.

3.1

Accent shift

Consider the following words where we observe two H-tones on adjacent moras:

(60)

ma-l:e mo:do orea we'- diriz t ? FP color which (of) flowers they-not-know person DEM sold t 'Which color of flowers did they not know a person who sold?' Although these questions appear to be much like Clements' example (4a), there must be some important feature to distinguish the two types, since (4a) is unacceptable without an RP, while the sentences in (5) escape being marked as unacceptable as CNPC violations. We will show that the distinction is that in sentences such as (5), pro-drop is allowed, whereas in cases like (4), it is prohibited. In Kikuyu, "pronouns" in object position appear as verbal infixes, occurring after the subject concord prefix (SCP) or personal pronoun prefix; they reflect the noun class of the noun to which they refer, as is seen in (6): (6)

/Jfamau ne-a-kuirz mahoa. Kamau FP-SCP-carried flowers 'Kamau carried the flowers.' /Kamau ne-a-kuirz ihiya. K. FP-SCP-carried stone 'Kamau carried the stone.'

¿Ne-a-ma-kuirz. FP-he-them-carried. (flowers) 'He carried them (flowers).' ¿Ne-a-re-kuirZ. FP-he-it-carried (stone) 'He carried it (stone).'

In discourse, Kikuyu allows for the deletion of the object infix by the rule of pro-drop.5 The conditions for this pro-dropping are still under investigation (cf. Bergvall and Whitman, forthcoming), but it appears that the pro must be the discourse topic, clearly recoverable from context, and most important for the topic at hand, the referrent must belong to a group generally describable as "things" vs. "people". The division between the groups appears to wander through the animal kingdom somewhat randomly at times, but generally, larger animals fall into the "people" group and smaller animals into the "thing" group, though there is some wavering, depending on the noun class prefix on the word. Words with ka-, a diminuitive prefix, though signifying small animals, may sometimes not allow pro-drop, acting then like the

250

Victoria L. Bergvall

"people" group. "People" themselves fall into three noun classes, most often classes 1/2, marked with mo- (sg.) / a- (pi.) subject concord prefixes, or classes 9/10, with a homorganic nasal concord prefix in both singular and plural, and classes 7/8, ke- / i-. 7 Note that there is not a consistent correspondence between the semantic noun classes and the two groups; the morphology is not always a guide to which group a noun falls into. These matters are given further consideration in Bergvall and Whitman. What is important for our purposes here is the fact that only the "thing" group is subject to pro-drop. This is illustrated below with simple question and answer pairs: (7)

(8)

motumia / atumia 'woman/women' ("people" group) Q : SNemakuirZ motumia ? FP-they-carried woman

'Did they carry the woman?'

Aji /Be, nemamokuirz. yes FP-they-her-carried

'Yes, they carried her'.

A^: *Ee, nemakuirc. FP-they-carried

'Yes, they carried 0. '

ihiya / mahiya

'stone/stones' ("thing" group)

Q : /Nemakuirt ihiya ? stone

'Did they carry the stone?'

A^: /Ee, nemarekuirZ. yes FP-they-it-carried

'Yes, they carried it'.

A^: ¿Ee, nemakuirc. FP-they-carried

'Yes, they carried 0'

In (7), the second answer is starred because the object infix, -mo- cannot be dropped with "people". The second answer to (8), on the other hand, is acceptable: the object infix -re-, agreeing with the singular noun 'stones' may be deleted by pro-drop. In complex NP sentences, questioning an NP with a clause-initial question word means that a resumptive pronoun (RP) must be left behind. For objects, the RP is the object infix that we saw in the answers to the questions above. The effect of pro-drop here is to leave an object gap, such as was found in the sentences in (5). Following Clements' dichtomy then, we have a distribution of RPs and gaps in sentences with and without islands, respectively,

WH-Questions

in

251

Kikuyu

until the rule of pro-drop operates upon the object RPs to give us sentences like (5) . Our grammar need not be excessively complicated to account for the sentences in (5) if we assume that pro-drop takes place in a discourse component somewhere in the PR (Phonetic Representation) branch, after the operations to Move-a have given us S-structure {shallow, not surface structure). This follows a model used by Chomsky in his Pisa lectures, printed in Chomsky (1981), and repeated below. (9)

Base Move-a S-structures PR

LF

pro-drop? Thus, by this analysis, though there would be a surface violation of the CNPC, it would not be a "real" violation, since the RP is dropped only after the syntactic component (including Move-a) or LF (Logical Form) component had checked the structure out for CNPC violations. Obviously, the acceptability of the pro-dropped sentences in (5) militates against having the CNPC as a surface condition. Unlike the "thing" group, "people" group object concord infixes may not be pro-dropped. All cases of persons appearing in examples similar to (5) would be unacceptable, as can seen by comparing the two sentences below: (10)

Ne mahoa

mareko

matO:e

mo:do

orea

FP flowers which they-not-know pers.DEM

SomakuirE

?

/ Sokuirz

^ them-carried/

?

0-carried'

'Which flowers do they not know a person who {carried them/ carried 0}?' (11)

Ne keogu

kereko

FP which lame

mato.-e mo:do

person...

orea

/oyekuire

1 / *okuirC

* him-carried/

?

0-carried

'Which lame person do they not know anyone who {carried him/ carried 0}?' To summarize briefly: though examples (5) and (10) may appear to be violations of the CNPC and counterexamples to Clements' claim of a complementary distribution of gaps and RPs in non-island and island sentences, they are

252

Victoria L. Bergvall

actually the result of a different rule, pro-drop. This deletion process is not unrestricted however; it applies only to objects belonging to the "thing" class.

6.

SOME PRAGMATIC RESTRICTIONS ON EXTRACTION OUT OF RELATIVE CLAUSES From the evidence here, it may appear that pro-drop occurs freely to object

infixes referring to "things" in CNPs to produce acceptable sentences. Yet, note the unacceptability of the following example:

(12)

*Ne ke trO:nirC mo:do oiea otiniriC t ? FP what they-saw person DEM cut t 'What did they see a person who cut?'

Presumably an RP (object infix) has been deleted from the verb, yet the noun class of the object infix is impossible to recover from the sentence. Here the sentence suffers not so much from ungrammaticality as incomprehensibility. It has been noted before (for example, in Kuno 1976, Allwood 1976) that there are several discourse or pragmatic conditions that enter into sentence acceptability. In examples that follow, gradients of acceptability among these pro-dropped sentences will be established along pragmatic lines. In pro-dropped questions where the WH-word has been fronted over the head of a relative clause island (or where the WH-word is base generated in sentence-initial position), three major factors have been found that contribute to pragmatic plausibility and comprehension. These three factors include the weight of the lexical head of the relative, the heaviness of the initial question phrase or word, and the choice of the verb. Generally, more acceptable questions result from putting a heavy fronted question word into focus, and downplaying the roles of the relative head and the verb in the question. First note the role of the head of the relative clause by comparing (5a), repeated from above, and (13): (5)

a. /¡Ve mahoa mareko matD:e mo:do orea otiniriz t ? FP flowers which they-not-know person DEM cut t 'Which flowers did they not know a person who cut?'

WH-Questions in Kikuyu

(13)

?

We mahoa

253

mareko

mato.-e mo:do

wa moiSo

person —

orea

otiniriz

t ?

last DEM

'Which flowers do they not know the last person who cut?'

(13) is not as good as (5a) because the semantically heavier, more specific relative head, 'the last person', draws some of the focus away from the questioned NP, 'which flowers?'. Earlier, the problem of getting exact specifiers and determiners for Kikuyu NP's was mentioned. Note that we cannot claim here that wa moijo is absolutely specified. Compare the situation to the English command: "Go get the last person in that line". This may be meant as a command to go get Mary, who is presently the last person in the line, or it may be a command to get whoever is the last person in the line at the moment. Absolute specificity in the relative head must be determined contextually for Kikuyu. The variability in judgment between the sentences in (5) and the sentence in (13) indicates that there are lesser degrees of specificity, herein referred to as "weight", that are not sufficient nor necessary conditions for grammatically, but play some part in sentence judgments. There is a second factor that enters into the grammaticality judgments of these questions, that is, verb choice. To examples (5a), (5b), and (13) above, we add the following data.

(14)

//(?) We mahoa mareko mo.-e mo:do orea otiniriz t ? FP flowers which they-know person DEM cut t 'Which flowers do they know someone who cut?'

(15)

??

Ne mahoa

mareko

mO.-e mo:do

wa moiSo

person —

orea

otiniriz

t ?

last

'Which flowers do they know the last person who cut?'

(16)

?/??

We mahoa

mareko

mD:nirZ

mo:do

orea

otiniriz

t ?

they-saw 'Which flowers did they see the person who cut?1

(17)

??/*

We mahoa mareko nO:nirZ mo:do wa moilo orea otiniriz t 7 person — last 'Which flowers did they see the last person who cut?'

254

Victoria L. Bergvall

(5) & (13), (14) & (15), and (16) & (17) have the verbs 'not know', 'know', and 'cut' respectively. There is a clear, gradual decline in acceptability among the sets, showing that verb choice is significant. The exact nature of this graduation is not yet clear, but it appears to be an aspectual difference: generally, stative verbs are better than punctual verbs; existential verbs are better than verbs of greater semantic content. Verbs of existence or state give less information, and thus are less in focus. This allows the question word or phrase to maintain fuller focus on itself. The choice of the clause-initial question word or phrase is the third factor considered in this system of pragmatics. Compare (16) above with (12), repeated here:

(12)

*Ne ke mD:nir£ wo:do orea otiniriz t ? FP what they-saw person DEM cut t 'What did they see a person who cut?'

The sole difference between the two sentences lies in the fact that (16) has a question phrase with some content, 'which flowers', while (12) merely asks 'what'. Clearly, the heavier question phrases have a greater degree of discourse anaphoricity, are in greater focus, and thus, override the lexical head more readily than their simple, lightweight counterparts. The factors of relative head heaviness, weight of the question word or phrase, and verb choice that have been outlined here are not absolute nor exhaustive, yet their effect on grammaticality (and on comprehension) is clear. Others have noted that such pragmatic factors enter into consideration of these kinds of complex questions (cf., for example, Allwood 1976, and Kuno 1976). Kuno, for one, couched his critique of Ross's CNPC in terms of the thematicity of the moved or questioned NP:

It seems that the phenomena can be reduced to the question of how easy or how difficult it is to interpret an NP as the theme of the entire sentence. The more transparent in meaning the main clause of the relative construction, the easier it is to interpret an NP in the complex NP as theme of the entire sentence, (p. 425)

He cites factors such as the "degree to which the subject can be presupposed", and "the degree of genericness of the predicate (existential statements versus statements referring to specific actions, etc.)". The latter condition looks similar to the constraint on verb choice Kikuyu employs. It is clear that

WH-Questions in Kikuyu

255

whatever these semantic/pragmatic factors are, they are important to the judgment of acceptability. Note, however, that the pragmatic constraints are clearly less significant individually than the pro-drop constraint. The choice of pro-drop acceptability is more clearly yes/no (between "things" and "people") than the gradual decline into unacceptability shown by the combination of pragmatic factors given above.8 Hence, we conclude that in Kikuyu, the CNPC is a structural constraint, and that the apparent violations are due to the occurrence of independently motivated pro-drop, operating on inanimates. We now turn to the second type of Kikuyu question and its interaction with the CNPC.

7.

IN SITU QUESTIONS An alternative to the clause-initial question in Kikuyu is the strategy

whereby the question word retains its original position. Remember that Ross originally conceived of the CNPC to handle English, primarily, which has a WH-word sentence- or clause-initially, and a later gap. Keenan (1972) noted that the CNPC, as written to cover only movement in the syntax, could not cover the cases in languages where the CNPC held, though there was no overt, surface movement. He cited brief examples to back his claim from Hindi and Persian. More recently, an in-depth study of Chinese in situ questions has been proposed in Huang (1981, 1982). Working in the Government and Binding framework of Chomsky (1981), Huang presented evidence from scope assignment that movement of question words in Chinese takes place in the LF component. He argues at length for the wide scope properties of certain WH-words, including 'who1, 'when', and 'what', except in cases where the head of the relative clause is specific (cf. Fiengo and Higgenbotham 1981). He argues that these certain WH-words "... may be stipulated to be capable of taking wide scope in Chinese without regard to island conditions. It is likely that this is a universal property of such WH-words in LF: as far as their movement does not take place in Syntax, they need not obey island conditions, a generalization noted for English by Baker (1970) ..." (1981, 18). Huang thus places the CNPC in the Syntactic component, working not at all upon LF movement, but only upon the structural changes that take place before the S-structure is set.

256

Victoria L. Bergvall

However/ the data from Chinese and Kikuyu differ markedly in this respect. Chinese has only the in situ questions, but Kikuyu presents a mixed model of clause-initial (moved) questions and in situ questions, and these in situ questions also obey the CNPC as if they exhibited overt movement. No matter how pragmatically plausible the in situ questions are, they are no good under relative clauses, as the following examples show. (17)

*MatiO:e mo:do orea otinirit ke ? they-not-know person DEM cut what 'What did they not know anyone who cut?'

(18)

*MatiD:e mo:do orea otiniric mahao mareko ? flowers which

(cf. 5a)

'Which flowers did they not know anyone who cut?' (19)

*MZ>:e mo:do orea otinirit they-knew r'What i l„. , . / Which flowers

(20)

(21)

(22)

^ '

^*ke? j *mahoa mareko?

^ '

^

^

^

did they see the person who cut?'

*M3:nirt mo:do wa moifo orea otiniriz person — last {,il'131", } Which flowers

j

did they know someone who cut?'

*MO:nirZ mo:do orea otinirit they-saw 'Which flowers )

^*ke? *mahoa mareko?

^*ke? j *mahoa mareko? (cf. 10)

did they see the last person who cut?'

*Kamau D:nirt mo:do orea oringirt o ? Kamau saw person DEM hit who

(cf. 4a)

'Who did Kamau see the person who hit?' Thus, Huang's model, with the CNPC applying only in the Syntactic component, predicts the wrong results for Kikuyu. His claim that it is a universal property of WH-words to have wide scope in LF cannot be maintained. In Kikuyu, the CNPC operated in LF to prohibit wide scope readings of WH-words.

WH-Questions in Kikuyu

8.

257

THE PROBLEM SUMMARIZED

From the evidence in the past sections, it is clear that Kikuyu's two question formation strategies pose problems for current analyses of the CNPC. The structural movement constraints, such as found in Ross (1967), have assigned the CNPC to the syntactic component, applying only to overt movement. Thus, Kikuyu in situ questions are erroneously predicted to be grammatical. The model suggested by Huang to account for in situ questions in Chinese also assigns the CNPC to Syntax, with correct results for Chinese, but once again, with negative results in Kikuyu. The differences between the Kikuyu and Chinese data suggest that the CNPC is applying at different levels in the two languages. A restriction needs to be placed on LF in Kikuyu to prevent scope readings of question words under CNPCs. But we also need to restrict certain structural movement. This at first appears to require a two-pronged CNPC, operating in Kikuyu at both the syntactic and LF levels. But this seems redundant; can the two phenomena be unified?

9.

A SOLUTION

Attempts to seek a unified solution to the problem of CNPC placement in Kikuyu fail, as described above, if the constraint is assigned a home only in the Syntactic component, as the in situ questions show. The CNPC also cannot be a surface output filter, because it would then erroneously predict that sentences where the RPs have been deleted by pro-dropping a "thing"group object infix are ungrammatical, which has been demonstrated not to be the case. However, if we place the CNPC in the Logical Form component for Kikuyu, we can account for both the in situ and the gapped questions. By treating both types of questions as expressing a "quantifier/bound variable" relationship, as illustrated by this example, [for an x: x is a person, they gave x a crab], we may prohibit the binding of a variable across a complex NP, thus preventing a wide scope interpretation of the question word. However, this occasions a new problem: if gapped and in situ WH-questions can both be covered by an LF account, what about clause-initial questions that have resumptive pronouns in their islands? What is the nature of the binding of these RPs in Kikuyu? Can they be subsumed as bound variables, as shown above?

258

Victoria L. Bergvall

Chomsky (1977) deals with this problem by claiming that, for RPs, the binding relationship must be different from the other kinds of bound variable control.

Any rule subject to subjacency must meet the CNPC and the WHisland constraint ... On the other hand, interpretive rules, which do not observe subjacency do not, on these assumptions, observe those constraints, (p. 80)

Chomsky assumes that pronouns subject to these interpretive rules, or "rules of predication" (p. 81) are base generated as pronouns. Since RPs do not obey subjacency or the CNPC they must fall under this different class of rules. There is no evidence, as yet, that compels the adoption of Chomsky's analysis of RPs here, but as the right results obtain if we adopt this separation of RPs from in situ question words and gaps, we will do so pending further investigation of RPs in this language.9 We are thus able to maintain our unified CNPC constraint on the LF component. The solution proposed here for Kikuyu stands in direct contrast to that given for Chinese by Huang, but as the sentence judgments are also directly opposed, this is not surprising. Thus it appears that languages differ with respect to their encoding of the CNPC; the CNPC may apply at different levels in the world's grammars. We have seen that it may apply at Syntax, or at LF. A topic for further research is the determination of the parameters of that variation.

NOTES

*Research represented in this paper has been supported in part by the National Science Foundation's grant to Harvard University (BNS 76-81732). This paper, a report of on-going research in Kikuyu syntax, is a revised version of the paper presented in Montreal at the 13th Annual Conference on African Linguistics, in May 1982. I am much indebted to Nick Clements, Susumu Kuno, and John Whitman for support and suggestions on earlier drafts of this paper, to P.R. Bennett, L. Tuller, M. Kenstowicz, and W. Wahba for enlightening comments at the conference; and most especially, to Rebecca Gachui, and Simon Ngotho (from Central Province, Kiambu District, Kikuyu Division, Kenya) for their patient assistance during informant sessions, and to Annie Zaenen for patience, assistance, and insistence everywhere else. None of them is to be held responsible for any errors that remain.

WH-Questions in Kikuyu 1.

2.

3. 4.

5. 6. 7. 8.

IPA orthography is used throughout the paper, and not the Kikuyu spelling. Kikuyu is a tone language, but the tones have been deleted from the examples given here. This has been tested repeatedly by various presupposition tests, etc. The informants uniformly insist on the interchangeability of the two simple question types. Further investigation of the scope of question words is presently underway, and may appear as a paper on "Scope and Downstep Deletion" (Bergvall, forthcoming). I take no stand here on whether Kikuyu clause-initial questions are formed by unbounded deletion, with a base-generated question word, as maintained by Clements (1979) following Bresnan (1976), or whether Kikuyu has cyclic, COMP-to-COMP movement of a question word (Chomsky 1973, 1977). All English glosses here and in subsequent questions with CNPCs are ungrammatical, of course. For the suggestion that pro-drop might operate in Kikuy-u, I am indebted to P.R. Bennett. Semantic noun classification numbers used here are those of Barlow (1960) and not Leakey (1959). Leakey would give the examples the following numbers: mo-/a- = I; N/N = III; ke-/i- = IV. More study is needed here to determine the acceptability of sentences (5a) & (12)-(17) with the RPs. Preliminary evidence suggests that retention of the RP improves the judgments on the lower end of the scale. Yet, as Maling and Zaenen (1982) point out in their examination of Scandinavian data, a difference in acceptability with an RP in relative clauses should be regarded somewhat suspiciously, if pragmatic considerations are crucial here; The pragmatic organization of the discourse will be violated regardless of the presence or absence of an RP. It remains to be explained, then, why the use of an RP does make a difference in certain other constructions, (p. 445)

9.

259

The behavior of RPs has not been sufficiently studied to determine the exact nature of the binding relationship.

REFERENCES Allwood, J., 1976, "The Complex Noun Phrase Constraint as a Non-Universal Rule", Occasional Papers in Linguistics 2, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Mass. Baker, C.L., 1970, "Notes on the Description of English Questions: the role of an Abstract Question Morphology", Foundations of Language 6, 197-219. Barlow, A.R., 1960, Studies in Kikuyu Grammar and Idiom, Blackwood and Sons, Edinburgh. Bergvall, V.L. & J.B. Whitman, (forthcoming), "Pro-drop Phenomena". Bresnan, J., 1976, "Evidence for a Theory of Unbounded Transformations", Linguistic Analysis 2, 353-393.

260

Victoria L. Bergvall

Clements, G.N. , 1979, "An Unbounded Deletion Analysis of WH-Questions in Kikuyu", Paper given at the 10th Annual Conference on African Linguistics, University of 111., Urbana. Chomsky, N., 1973, "Conditions on Transformations", in S.R. Anderson and P. Kiparsky, eds., A Festschrift for Morris Halle, Holt Rinehart, and Winston, NY, 232-286. - 1977, "On WH-Movement", in P. Culicover, T. Wasow, and A. Akmajian, eds., Formal Syntax, Academic Press, NY. - 1981, Lectures on Government and Binding, Foris, Dordrecht. Fiengo, R. & J. Higgenbotham, 1981, "Opacity in NP", Linguistic Analysis 7, 395-421. Huang, C.T.J., 1981, "Move-WH in a Language without WH-Movement", MIT ms. - 1982, Logical Relations in Chinese and the Theory of Grammar, MIT PhD. thesis. Keenan, E.L., 1972, "On Semantically-Based Grammar", LI 3:4, 413-461. Kuno, S., 1976, "Subject, Theme, and the Speakers's Empathy—a Reexamination of Relativization Phenomena", C. Li, ed.. Subject and Topic, Academic Press, NY, 418-444. Leakey, D.S.B., 1959, First Lessons in Kikuyu, Eagle Press, Nairobi. Maling, J. & A. Zaenen, 1982, "A Phrase Structure Account of Scandinavian Extraction Phenomena", P. Jacobson and G. Pullum, eds.. The Nature of Syntactic Representation, Reidel, Dordrecht. Holland. Ross, J.R., 1967, Constraints on Variables in Syntax, MIT Phd. thesis, published (1968), Indiana University Linguistics Club.

Chapter

17

Wh-in-situ Constructions in Egyptian Arabic Michael Kenstowicz and Wafaa Wahba

In this paper we argue that many of the properties of Egyptian Arabic question sentences where the wh-phrase appears in-situ can be explained if it is assumed that there is a rule raising the wh-phrase to the controlling interrogative Comp position thereby giving the wh-phrase wide scope in the logical form representation. In section 1.1 it is shown that, wh-phrases are banned from subordinate tensed clauses unless recourse is made to a question particle. In 1.2 we show that tenseless subordinate clauses in Egyptian Arabic display many of the properties of English infinitival clauses even though the verb obligatorily agrees with the subject NP. Section 1.3 discusses some curious subject-nonsubject asymmetries in the distribution of wh in-situ's suggesting that they can be (partially) explained in terms of the requirement that empty categories must be properly governed at the representation of logical form. The final section briefly discusses some of the scope properties of wh in-situ's.

INTRODUCTION In Standard Arabic as well as many colloquial dialects such as Lebanese wh-questions, both direct and indirect, involve movement of the wh-phrase to Comp position with a gap. In contrast, Egyptian Arabic (EA) has two alternative but different constructions. First, the wh-phrase may appear in-situ (i.e. in argument position).1 (1)

Lebanese Arabic2

EA wh in-situ

su. [Fariid istara t. ] l l

Fariid iätara ?eeh.

(What did F. buy?)

(ibid.)

?ayy ktaab^ [Fariid istara t^]

Fariid istara ?ayy kitaab.

(Which book did F. buy?)

(ibid.)

ween.x [Fariid raah t. x] (Where did F. go?)

Fariid raah feen. (ibid.)

262

Michael Kenstowicz S Wafaa Wahba

Secondly, the wh-phrase may appear in Comp. But when it does it displays a different pattern from that found in Lebanese in two respects: first, it will be associated with a resumptive pronoun when one is available; and second it will, when possible, appear with the complementizer illi. (2)

EA wh in Comp ?eeh. illi [Fariid isitaraa-h 1 I l (What did F. buy-it?) ?ayy kitaab^ [Fariid i3taraa-h^] (which book did F. buy-it?) feen^ [Fariid raah t ] (Where did F. go?)

A resumptive pronoun occurs when the wh-phrase is an NP; no resumptive pronouns are associated with such wh-phrases as feen 'where', izzaay 'how', etc. The resumptive pronoun appears as an enclitic to verbs, nouns, prepositions, and the complementizer inn 'that'. There is no overt resumptive pronoun for subjects. The complementizer illi obligatorily appears after the wh-phrases miin 'who' and ?eeh 'what', but may not appear after 'which'-NP phrases nor feen, izzaay 'how', etc.3 As might be expected, the Lebanese construction obeys island constraints (e.g. 3a) while the Egyptian construction with the returning pronoun violates island constraints fairly freely Ob).1* (3)

a. *miin. simi9 Fariid i£aa9it inn Mona yimkin tit2awwaz t.. l i b. miin^ illi Fariid simi9 isaa9it inn Mona yimkin titgawwiz-uh^. (Who did F. hear the rumor that M. might try to marry (him)?)

In this paper we shall primarily be concerned with the Egyptian Arabic insitu construction. 1.1

Wh-in-situ in subordinate clauses

When immediately subjacent to the controlling interrogative Comp, in-situ wh-phrases can appear in essentially any nonsubject argument position (we return to the restrictions on subject position later).

WH in-Situ Constructions (4)

object

Fariid hatt ?eeh 9ala 1-tarabeeza.

noun compl.

Fariid hatt kitaab miin 9ala 1-tarabeeza.

(F. put what on the table?) (F. put book (of) who on the table?) prep, compl.

Fariid hatt kitaab Mona 9ala ?eeh. (F. put book (of) Mona on what?)

When we turn to subordinate clauses speakers' judgements begin to diverge. More conservative speakers have some rather interesting restrictions which we shall briefly discuss. First, these speakers, including the second author of this paper, reject wh in-situ's inside a complex NP (cf. .5 and 3).

(5)

*Fariid simi9 isaa9it inn Mona yimkin titgawwiz miin. (F. heard the rumor that M. might marry who?)

More interesting is the fact that conservative speakers systematically reject wh in-situ's in tensed subordinate clauses.

(6)

a.

Fariid iftakar inn Mona yimkin tistiri ?eeh. [-tense ] (F. thought that M. might buy what?)

b. *Fariid iftakar inn Mona iStarit/bitistiri/hatiltiri ?eeh. (F. thought that M. bought/buys/will buy what?) EA verbs show a binary distinction between [+tense] and [-tense]. Tensed verbs have a three-way distinction between perfect, present, and future, while tenseless verbs correspond to English infinitives, though the verb does inflect for agreement with the subject. A large variety of verbs subcategorize for tenseless complement clauses. Wh in-situ's occur quite freely in clauses subordinate to these verbs in the conservative dialect. The conservative dialect thus presents a rather interesting descriptive problem: wh in-situ may appear in a tensed main clause but not in a tensed lower clause. Following many previous students of wh in-situ constructions we will assume that there is a rule of wh-raising that operates in logical form to lift the wh-phrase to the controlling interrogative Comp, thereby giving it wide scope. It is also commonly assumed (e.g. Aoun et.al 1981') that this rule operates in one fell swoop in contrast to the Comp to Comp mode of the syntactic rule of wh-movement. Finally, we will assume that [+tense] is

263

264

Michael Kenstowicz & Wafaa Wahba

to be treated as the head of S (i.e. S

[+tense] NP VP).

Given these assumptions we can now say that wh-raising in the conservative dialect is restricted to being able to cross just one [+tense] node. Wh insitu's thus may not appear in tensed lower clauses since the raising rule would have to lift them over two [+tense] elements (that of lower class and the matrix clause). This way of conceiving the problem makes an interesting prediction when more complex cases are considered. In particular, consider the case of three clauses with the wh-phrase in the lowest clause. If both the second and the third clauses are tenseless wh in-situ should be possible since it will cross just one [+tense] element. But if the intermediate clause is tensed, then wh in-situ should be barred from the third clause. In fact, this prediction appears to be true, as shown by the sentences in (7).

(7)

a.

Fariid iftakar [inn Mona yimkin tihaawil [innaa-ha tistiri ?eeh ] ] [+tense ] [-tense] [-tense] (F. thought that M. might try that she to buy what?)

b. *Fariid iftakar [inn Mona haawlit [innaa-ha tistiri ?eeh]] [+tense ] [+tense ] [-tense] (F. thought that M. tried that she to buy what?) We have just observed that wh in-situ's may not occur in a tensed lower clause in the conservative dialect. This statement is not completely accurate in that such positions do become available when the speaker resorts to another syntactic device - namely a question particle. It has often been observed that languages which do not form questions by inversion or wh-movement tend to have a question particle that overtly marks a clause as interrogative. In Egyptian Arabic the question particle takes the curious form of what is perhaps best characterized as an "archi-Pro-neme". That is, it takes the form of an empty third person pronoun appearing in initial position in the matrix clause that assimilates the gender and number of the next available NP to the right. If such an NP is not available, it surfaces as the unmarked masculine singular huwwa.

(8)

huwwa = he

a. i.

hiyya = she

Mona ?aablit il-talamiiz.

humma = they (M. met the students)

ii. hiyya/*humma Mona ?aablit il-talamiiz.

(Did M. meet the students?)

265

WH in-Situ Constructions b. i.

il-talamiiz ?aablu Mona.

(The students met M.)

ii. *hiyya/humma il-talamiiz ?aablu Mona. c. i.

?ayy talamiiz Mona ?aablit-hum.

(Did the students meet Y.?)

(Which students did 1-1. meet?)

ii. *hiyya/humma ?ayy talamiiz Mona ?aablit-hum. d. i.

mafruud inn Mona ti?aabil il-talamiiz.

(ibid.)

(Ought (that) M to meet the students?)

ii. *hiyya/*humma/huwwa mafruud inn Mona ti?aabil il-talamiiz.

(ibid.)

In (8a) and (8b) we see that the question particle agrees with the subjects Mona and il-talamiiz respectively. The question particle may optionally appear with wh-questions. When it does it agrees with the fronted wh-phrase appearing in Comp (8c). If the matrix clause lacks an NP, the question particle appears in the unmarked 3 sg. masc. (8d). The sentences in (9) show that when recourse is made to the question particle, wh-phrases may appear in-situ in tensed lower clauses. (9)

a. huwwa Fariid iftakar inn Mona iitarit ?eeh. (F. thought that M. bought what? cf. 6b) b. huwwa Fariid iftakar [inn Mona haawlit [innaa-ha tiStiri ?eeh]]. (F. thought that M. tried that she to buy what? cf. 7b)

We do not really understand how the question particle sanctions violations of the tenseless requirement in the conservative dialect. Superficially it appears to play the same role that resumptive pronouns play in sanctioning island violations by overt marking of the position of the extracted phrase. Somehow overt marking of the sentence as [+interrogative] by the question particle aids in identifying the scope of the following wh in-situ.^

1.2

Tenseless subordinate clauses In this section we want to provide some support for our earlier statement

that [-tense] verbs in Egyptian Arabic parallel English infinitives despite the fact that they show obligatory subject agreement. Our remarks here will also prove useful in elucidating some of the subject-nonsubject asymmetries of wh in-situ's to be discussed later. In the Government and Binding framework (Chomsky 1982) the distinction between finite and infinitival clauses is drawn on the basis of the abstract feature [itense]. Tensed or finite clauses are associated with an agreement

266

Michael Kenstowicz & Wafaa Wahba

element which plays a variety of roles. This element assigns abstract case to the subject of its clause, thereby exempting it from the case filter which marks as ungrammatical any sentence in which a lexical NP has failed to receive case. Thus, in a sentence such as It seems [John likes Mary] the subject NP John has been assigned case by the abstract agreement element which triggers the appearance of inflection on the verb likes in the finite clause. In English [-tense] clauses lack an agreement element; hence It seems [John to like Mary] is ruled ungrammatical by the case filter since the subject NP John has not been assigned case. Some verbs, such as believe, can assign case to the subject of an infinitival clause, but such case assignment seems to depend on contiquity between the verb and the NP (Cf. I believe (*sincerely) [John to be the best teacher we have ever had]). Another important role the agreement element plays is to govern the subject position, thereby regulating the distribution of controlled Pro, which must be ungoverned. Hence, John promised [Pro to leave] is well-formed, since the absence of the agreement element permits Pro to appear; but the presence of the agreement element in a finite clause bars the appearance of Pro: *John promised [Pro is leaving]. Let us now turn to a brief survey of some tenseless clauses in EA. Consider first the following paradigm for tawaqqa9 'expect'. (10)

a. *Ahmad byitawaqqa9 inn Mona hatistiri il-fustaan. (A. expects that M. will buy the dress.) b. *Ahmad byitawaqqa9 inn Mona yistiri il-fustaan. c.

Ahmad byitawaqqa9 inn Mona tistiri il-fustaan.

d. *Ahmad byitawaqqa9 Mona tistiri il-fustaan. e.

Mona. btitawaqqa9 innaa-ha. . tistiri il-fustaan. i i/]

f. *Mona btitawaqqa9 yistiri il-fustaan. g.

Mona btitawaqqa9 tistiri il-fustaan.

h. *Mona btitawaqqa9 inn tistiri il-fustaan. (10a) shows that tawaqqa9 obligatorily subcategorizes for a [-tense] clause. (10b) versus (10c) show that the [-tense] verb 'buy' must show 3 sg. fem. agreement (marked by the prefix ti-) with the subject Mona. (lOd) shows that a tenseless clause with a lexical subject under the verb tawaqqa9 must begin with the complementizer inn. This can be explained under the assumption that it is the complementizer inn that governs and assigns case to the subject and not the agreement element.6 In (lOe) we see that a 3 sg. fem. pronoun

MH in-Situ Constructions

267

subject, realized as a clitic on the complementizer inn, can either refer to the matrix subject Mona or to some unspecified female. This illustrates the Government and Binding principle that pronouns must be free (i.e. not bound) in their governing category (in this case S')- In (10f,g) we have an unexpressed nonlexical subject in the lower clause. In the well-formed (lOg) this unexpressed subject must be interpreted as coreferential with the matrix subject Mona and thus can be identified as controlled Pro. If we are correct in claiming that inn and not the agreement element governs the subject position in [-tense] clauses in EA, we can maintain the principle that controlled Pro must be ungoverned. (lOf) is ungrammatical since the unexpressed subject is controlled Pro and thus must be associated with 3 sg. fem. concord on the verb in agreement with the matrix controller Mona. Finally, (lOh) can be ruled ungrammatical since the nonlexical subject would be governed by the complementizer inn again violating the requirement that Pro must be ungoverned. Consider next a causative verb such as xalla 'make'. (11)

a.

Mona xallit Ahmad yistiri il-fustaan. (M. made A. buy the dress)

b. *Mona xallit inn Ahmad yistiri il-fustaan. c. *Mona xallit Ahmad inn-uh yistiri il-fustaan. d. *Mona xallit bi?u9gubah Ahmad yistiri il-fustaan.

(lla,b,c) show that xalla does not subcategorize for an inn complement clause. But if agreement does not assign case to the subject of a tenseless clause, how does the subject NP Ahmad in (11a) receive case? The answer is from the matrix verb xalla, as can be seen by (lid) where the intervening adverbial expression 'miraculously' blocks the assignment of case, just as it does in *I believe sincerely [John to be insane]. Our claim that xalla assigns case to the lower subject is supported by the following paradigm, indicating that xalla governs the subject position of the lower clause. (12)

a.

Mona.xallit-ha. tistiri il-fustaan. l 1 b. *Mona.1 xallit hiyya. tiStiri il-fustaan. „ 1J c. *Mona xallit tistiri il-fustaan. d.

Mona. ;:allit nafsaa-ha. tistiri il-fustaan. l i

268

Michael Kenstowicz s Wafaa Wahba

(12a) and (12b) show that if the subject of the embedded verb is a pronoun, it must be realized as a clitic on the matrix verb.7 When it is so realized, it must be disjoint in reference from the matrix subject. To get a coreferential reading between the matrix and lower clause subjects a reflexive pronoun must be used (12d). These facts follow from the binding theory, on the assumption that xalla governs the lower clause subject position. Finally, this same assumption explains why (12c) is ungrammatical, since it would have the surface structure Mona xallit [Pro tistiri 11-fustaan ] and Pro must not be governed. Finally, consider a verb such as 9aayiz 'want'. (13)

a.

Ahmad 9aayiz Mona tistiri il-fustaan. (Ahmad wants Mona to buy the dress.)

b. *Ahmad 9aayiz inn Mona tistiri il-fustaan. c. *Ahmad 9aayiz giddan Mona tistiri il-fustaan. d.

Ahmad^ 9aayz-uh^ yistiri il-fustaan.

Like the verb xalla 9aayiz 'want' does not take an inn complement (13a,b) and requires adjacency with the lower clause subject to assign case (cf. 13c, where the word giddan 'very much' has been intercalated between the matrix verb and the lower clause subject). Also if the complement clause subject is a pronoun it must be realized as an enclitic on the matrix verb and if it is so realized, it must be disjoint in reference from the matrix subject (13d). But unlike xalla, 9aayiz permits a Pro subject.

(14)

a. Ahmad 9aayiz yistiri il-fustaan. (A. wants to buy the dress.) b. Ahmad 9aayiz [

[g P r o Yistiri il-fustaan]]

We assume that 9aayiz is treated like the English verb believe in that it permits optional deletion of the S' complementizer node in order to assign case to the complement clause subject. Thus, on this analysis (14a) has the S-structure of (14b), with the complementizer position unfilled to permit the Pro to be ungoverned. On the other hand, (13a) will be associated with the S-structure of (15), where S' has been deleted, permitting the matrix verb to govern and assign case to the complement subject.

(15)

Ahmad 9aayiz [Mona tistiri il-fustaan]

WH in-Situ Constructions 1.3

269

Wh in-situ in subject position

Let us now turn to some of the puzzling restrictions governing the appearance of wh in-situ1s in subject position. Briefly stated, wh in-situ1s are, in general, barred from subject position of passive verbs. (16)

*miin it?atal. (Who was killed?) miin illi it?atal. (ibid.) *Mona tawaqqa9it inn miin yit?itil. (M. expected who to be killed?) miin illi Mona tawaqqa9it inn-uh yit?itil. (ibid.)

*?eeh itba9at li Mona. (What was sent to Mona?) ?eeh illi itba9at li Mona. (ibid.) *Ahmad tawaqqa9 inn ?eeh yitbi9it li Mona. (A. expected what to be sent to M.? ?eeh illi Ahmad tawaqqa9 inn-uh yitbi9it li Mona. (ibid) ?ayy talamiiz it?atalu. (Which students were killed?) *Mona tawaqqa9it inn ?ayy talamiiz yit?itlu. (M. expected which students to be killed?) ?ayy talamiiz Mona tawaqqa9it innuu-hum yit?itlu. (ibid.) But in active sentences it is only the wh-phrase ?eeh 'what' that is barred from subject position, miin 'who' and 'which'-NP phrases may freely occur as the subject of an active verb. (17)

*?eeh hasal Ii Mona. (What happened to M.?) ?eeh illi hasal Ii Mona, (ibid.) *Ahmad tawaqqa9 inn ?eeh yihsal Ii Mona. (A. expected what to happen to M?) ?eeh illi Ahmad tawaqqa9 inn-uh yihsal Ii Mona, (ibid.) ?ayy kutub wi?9it. (Which books fell?) Ahmad tawaqqa9 inn ?ayy kutub ti?a9. (A. expected which books to fall?) ?ayy kutub Ahmad tawaqqa9 innaa-ha ti?a9. (ibid.) miin 9amal kida. (Who did that?) miin illi 9amal kida. (ibid.) Ahmad tawaqqa9 inn miin yi9mil kida. (A. expected who to do that?) miin illi Ahmad tawaqqa9 inn-uh yi9mil kida. (ibid.)

270

Michael Kenstowicz & Wafaa Wahba

We do not understand why there are such disparities between active and passive sentences for miin and ?ayy NP and shall accordingly put them aside. However, we are in a position to provide a rather interesting explanation for why subject position in general should be inaccessible to wh in-situ while nonsubject positions are completely accessible. Our account is based on the recent proposals of Aoun et. al. (1981) and Koopman (1982) with respect to the Empty Category Principle applying at logical form. Briefly stated, this principle requires that empty NP categories resulting from NP movement in the syntax or wh-raising in logical form must be properly governed. Government is basically the relationship between the head of a phrase and its complements. Normally, a governor will assign case to its complement NP's. Thus, a verb governs and assigns case to the direct object, a preposition governs and assigns case to its complement NP, and, in Arabic, a noun will govern and assign case to its NP complement in the so-called construct construction. Proper government is a stronger requirement than government. The exact formulation of this notion is currently the subject of intensive investigation. It appears that languages may differ in terms of the inventory of proper governors and perhaps as well in terms of the configurations that define proper government. The evidence from wh in-situ constructions suggests that for EA there is a strong correlation between the inventory of governors and proper governors (at least for lexical categories). As we have seen from (4) above, wh in-situ may appear as complements to verbs, nouns, and prepositions and so these categories will count as proper governors (as well as governors).8 Much of the controversy surrounding the notion of (proper) government concerns subject position. As we have seen, Chomsky (1982) has suggested that in tensed clauses the subject position is governed by the agreement element appearing in the abstract inflectional morpheme, while infinitival clauses do not contain a governor within the S constituent and so the subject NP receives case from a governor outside the clause (e.g. an element in Comp or a predicate from the higher clause). What counts as a proper governor for subject position appears to be even murkier at this point. Let us look briefly at the proposal of Aoun et. al. (1981) concerning this matter. They propose to account for the well-known contrast between (18a) and (18b) by supposing that there is a rule operating at S-structure which permits a Comp node to be assigned the index of the elements appearing in the Comp position so long as all of these elements bear the same index.

WH in-Situ Constructions

(18)

a.

271

Who do you think left? *Who do you think that left?

(19)

a.

Who i [you think [ e

[

left]]]

Comp. b.

Who^ [you think [ e^^ that [ e i left ]]] Comp

Thus, the Comp indexing rule may apply to the S-structure (19a), but is blocked from applying in (19b) since that does not bear the same index as (or any index) the trace of wh-movement. As a result, the empty category in subject position in (19a) is properly governed by the coindexed Comp, while the corresponding empty category in subject position in (19b) is not properly governed and hence the sentence is ill-formed.® Aoun et. al. also show that the same device can be exploited to explain the contrast in (20). (20)

a.

Who saw what? [who^ [ e^ saw what ] ]

b. *What did who see? [what. [did who see e. ] ] d : The Comp indexing rule may apply in (20a) so that e^ is properly governed in the corresponding logical form (21a) by the coindexed Comp (and e_. is properly governed by the verb). But in (20b) Comp will be assigned the index of what and so in the corresponding logical form (21b) resulting from wh-raising of the subject who, the empty category e^ is not properly governed and hence the sentence is ill-formed.

(21)

a. [who.& what. [ e. saw e. ]] 1 J i : Comp b. [who.& [who. what. [ e. saw e. ]] l : i J i Comp

The Comp indexing rule proposed by Aoun et. al. supplies us with an explanation for why in-situ's should be barred from subject position in EA. The ungrammatical (22a) (=16) will have the S-structure of (22b). Since the

272

Michael Kenstowicz & Wafaa Wahba

Comp is empty, it cannot be indexed. As a result, when the rule of wh-raising applies to give the logical form (22c), the empty category in subject position will not be properly governed and the sentence will thus be ruled ungrammatical.

(22)

a. *miin it?atal. (Who was killed?) b. [ [miin it?atal]] Comp b. [miini [ e^ it?atal ]] Comp

We have seen that wh in-situ's may freely occur as complements to verbs, nouns, and prepositions in EA (Cf. 4). Hence, these lexical categories will have to count as proper governors for the grammar of EA. Given these assumptions, a rather interesting prediction is made. Recall that we argued that the verbs xalla 'make' and 9aayiz 'want' govern and assign case to the lower clause subject. Since these lexical items are verbs, they should, given our assumptions, count as proper governors. Hence we predict that wh in-situ passive subjects and ?eeh active subjects should be possible beneath these verbs and indeed they are.

(23)

Ahmad 9aayiz miin yit?itil. (A. wants who to be killed?) Ahmad 9aayiz ?ayy talamiiz yit?itlu. (A. wants which students to be killed?) Mona xallit ?eeh yi?a9. (Mona made what to fall?)

The first sentence in (23) would have the logical form of (24), where the empty category e^ resulting from wh-raising is properly governed by the matrix verb 9aayiz. (24)

[miin^ [Ahmad 9aayiz [

yit?itil ] ] ]

For our account to carry through we must make two additional assumptions. The first is that the complementizer inn, though it governs and assigns case to a complement subject, does not count as a proper governor. This assumption is needed in order to explain why (25b), the logical form of (25a = 16), is judged ungrammatical.

Wh in-Situ Constructions (25)

273

a. *Ahmad tawaqqa9 inn miin yit?itil. (A. expected that who to be killed?) b. [miini[ Ahmad tawaqqa9

[ inn [ e^^ yit?itil ]]]]

This would follow from the assumption that the inventory of proper governors (in the unmarked case) is restricted to (a proper subset of) the lexical categories. Secondly, we must say something about the constructions in which the whphrase appears in Comp, as in (26). (26)

miin illi it?itil. (Who was killed?) [miin illi [ e Comp

it?itil]]

We have not taken a stand on whether this construction involves wh-movement with a trace or base generation with an empty returning pronoun. As we noted at the outset of this paper, this construction shares many superficial properties of relative clauses. It also violates the complex NP constraint fairly easily (cf. 3b). But it appears to obey wh-island constraints, in marked contrast to relative clauses (cf. footnote 4). This might be taken to argue for a movement analysis, in which case [e] of (26) would be a trace and hence have to be properly governed. By our assumptions, the Comp indexing rule would then have to apply, in which case the complementizer illi would have to be analyzed in such a way as to not block the application of this rule (in contrast to English that (cf. 19). One possibility would be to assume that illi is supplied with a free index that assumes the value of whatever element appears in Comp via wh-movement. Egyptian Arabic appears to offer one significant independent argument for the Comp indexing rule serving as a proper governor for the subject position. Recall that wh-questions can optionally take the question particle, which in EA takes the form of an empty third person pronoun agreeing with the following NP. Assuming that this element appears in Comp and that it is coindexed with the following NP at S-structure, we predict that a wh-in-situ as subject of a passive verb should become possible and this appears to be true. While *miin indarab. (Who was hit?) is ungrammatical, huwwa miin indarab is much better. Given our assumptions, the latter would have the S-structure [huwwa^ [miin^ indarab ] ] to which the Comp indexing rule can apply so that in the corresponding logical form [.huwwa. miin. [ e. indarab]] the empty category

274

Michael Kenstowicz S Wafaa Wahba

e^ is properly governed by the coindexed Comp. To summarize briefly, we have seen that EA wh in-situ's exhibit some subjectnonsubject asymmetries which support the principle that empty categories must be properly governed at logical form and thus bear on the "control from Comp" parameter discussed in Koopman (1982).

2.

THE LOGICAL SCOPE OF WH IN-SITU

Let us now turn to a brief discussion of some of the scope properties of EA wh in-situ's. As in English, Egyptian Arabic has a class of verbs such as nisi 'forget' or ?aal 'say' that can take either declarative or interrogative complements.

(27)

a. Mona nisyit inn Fariid iitara il-kitaab. (M. forgot that F. bought the book) b. Mona nisyit Fariid istara ?eeh. (M. forgot what F. bought.)

When we embed a tenseless wh in-situ clause beneath one of these verbs we find that there are scope ambiguities. (28a) can have the logical form of (28b), where the wh-phrase ?eeh has been raised to the lower Comp giving the indirect question interpretation "Mona forgot what to buy", or it can have the logical form of (28c), where ?eeh has been raised to the matrix Comp to give the direct question interpretation "What did Mona forget to buy".

(28)

a. Mona nisyit tiStiri ?eeh. b. [

-Q

[Mona nisyit [ ?eeh. [ Pro tistiri e. ] ] ] ] 1

+Q

c. [ ?eeh. [ Mona nisyit [ 1 +Q -S

[ Pro tistiri e. ]]]] 1

The verb sa?al 'ask' differs from nisi and ?aal in that it is subcategorized to take only interrogative complements. When a tenseless wh in-situ clause is embedded beneath this verb, we find that the sentence has only one interpretation - that of an indirect question.

WH in-Situ Constructions (29)

275

Mona sa?alit-ni tistiri ?eeh. (Mona asked me what to buy.) [ [Mona sa?alit-ni [ ?eeh. [ Pro tistiri e. ]]]] "Q

1

+Q

1

If we continue with the assumption that wh-raising operates in one swoop as opposed to the Comp to Comp mode, a direct wh-question interpretation for (29) would have the logical form of (30a) or (30b) depending on which interrogative Comp was selected to host the wh-phrase.

(30)

a. *[ [Mona sa?alit-ni [ ?eeh. [Pro tiStiri e.]]]] +Q

1

+Q

b. *[ ?eeh. [ Mona sa?alit-ni [ 1

+Q

+Q

[ Pro tiStiri e. ]]]] 1

The ungrammaticality of these structures could be expressed in terms of the first of the principles in (31). (31)

i.

each interrogative operator must bind some variable

ii.

two distinct interrogative operators cannot bind the same variable

On the other hand, if we were to assume that wh-raising operates in Comp to Comp mode, a direct wh-question interpretation for (29) would have the logical form of (32).

(32)

*[ +Q

?eeh. [ Mona sa?alit-ni [ e. [ Pro tiStiri e.]]]] 1

+Q

1

1

(32) could be excluded by the second principle stated in (30) on the understanding that the notion variable refers to a trace of wh-movement or whraising that appears in argument position and that the notion of binding is transmitted along the path of wh-movement or wh-raising to the ultimate argument position. With these understandings, both the matrix and the complement interrogative operators would be binding the variable appearing as the object of the embedded verb, and thus (32) would violate (31ii). If (31ii) subsumes both the paths created by wh-movement and by wh-raising, we can explain why a sentence in which a wh-phrase appears in the lower Comp in S-structure cannot be given the interpretation of a direct wh-question. Thus, (33a) has the interpretation of (33b) and not that of (33c) nor (33d).

276 (33)

Michael Kenstowicz S Wafaa Wahba a.

Mona nisyit ?eeh illi tistirii-h.

b.

[ [ Mona nisyit [ ?eeh. illi [ Pro tiStirii-h. 1 ] ] ] 1 1 -Q +Q (Mona forgot what to buy.)

c. * [ [Mona nisyit [ ?eeh.illi [ Pro tistirii-h. ]]]] 1 1 +Q +Q (What did Mona forget to buy?) d. *[ ?eeh.

[ Mona nisyit [ e. illi [ Pro tistirii-h. ]] ]]

+Q

+Q

(What did Mona forget to buy?) (33c) is excluded by (31i), since the matrix wh-operator does not bind anything, while (33d) is excluded by (31ii) since the variable appearing as an object argument to the verb 'buy' is bound by two distinct operators - that of the matrix Comp and that of the embedded Comp. Note that (30b) and (33d) could not be excluded simply by invoking a principle to the effect that a wh-phrase cannot pass over (or through) an interrogative Comp, since such structures are possible in Efl. An interesting example is provided by (34) , where the multiple wh-clause miin raah feen 'who went where' has been embedded under the verb ?aal 'say'.

(34)

hiyya Mona ?aalit-lak miin raah feen?

This sentence has four possible interpretations. First, it can be interpreted as a yes-no question, where both wh-phrases miin and feen are under the scope of the lower interrogative Comp. (35)

[hiyya [ Mona ?aalit-lak [ miin. & feen. [ e. raah e. ]]]]. +Q i D i • D (Did Mona tell you who went where?) possible answer: ?aywa (yes.)

(If the question particle hiyya is absent from (34), then only interpretation (35) is possible, due to the requirement that a wh-in-situ may not appear in a tensed clause that is not immediately subjacent to the controlling interrogative Comp.) On the other hand, (34) may have the interpretations of either (36a) or (36b).

WH in-Situ Constructions

(36)

277

a. [hiyya miin. [Mona ?aalit-lak [feen. [ e. raah e. ]]]]. +Q +Q (Who did Mona tell you where he went?) possible answer: Mona ?aalit-li Fariid raah feen. (Mona told me where Farid went.) b. [ hiyya feen. [Mona ?aalit-lak [ miin. [ e. raah e. ]]]]. (Where did Mona tell you who went?) possible answer: Mona ?aalit-li miin raah il-Qaahira. (Mona told me who went to Cairo.)

In (36a) the complement subject miin has been raised to the matrix interrogative Comp giving it wide scope, while feen has the narrow scope of the lower clause interrogative Comp. A possible answer involves supplying a value for the variable [e^] but not for [e^ ]. In (36b) the wh-phrase feen has been raised to the matrix Comp, while miin has narrow scope. Here a possible answer involves supplying a value for the variable I e j] but not for

• These logical

forms show that wh-raising may lift a wh-phrase over an intermediate interrogative Comp. Finally, since the verb ?aal may subcategorize for declarative complements, (34) also admits of the interpretation of a multiple direct question in which both wh-phrases are under the scope of the matrix interrogative Comp. (37)

[ hiyya miin. & 3feen. [ Mona ?aalit-lak [ 1 +Q _q

[ e. raah e. ]]]] 1 ' 3

(For who and where did Mona tell you that he went there?) possible answer: Mona ?aalit-li inn Fariid raah il-Qaahira wi Ahmad raah il-Xartuum. (Mona told me that F. went to Cairo and A. went to Khartoum.) Finally, it is well-known that rules of logical form exhibit so-called "weak-crossover" violations that mark as informed a sentence in which an element has been raised over a coindexed element to its left. Thus, in (38a) coreference is possible between the quantified phrase everyone and the pronoun his, but such coreference is not possible in (38b) where the logical form rule of quantifier raising has crossed everyone over the coindexed pronoun his.

278

Michael Kenstowicz & Wafaa Wahba

(38)

a.

Everyone, loves his. mother. l l Vx [ x loves x's mother ]

b. *His^ mother loves everyone^. Vx [ x's mother loves x ] A similar constraint operates on wh-movement for questions (39) , but, curiously, not for relative clauses (40b), where coreference is possible between who and his.

(39)

a.

Who. loves his. mother? l I [who^ [ e^ loves his^ mother]]

b. *Who, does his. mother love? l l [who^ [does his^ mother love e^ ] ] (40)

a.

The man. who. loves his. mother i l l [The man^ [who^ [ e^ loves his^ mother ] ] ]

b.

The man. who. his mother loves i l l [the man^ [who^ [ his^ mother loves e^ ] ] ]

Given that we have postulated a rule of wh-raising in logical form for Egyptian Arabic, we would expect it to exhibit weak-crossover violations and indeed it does, as shown by the contrast in (41). (41)

a.

marat miin. bitbuus-uh.. l l [miin^ [marat e^ bitbuus-uh^]] (Whose wife is kissing him?)

b. *marat-uh.l bitbuus miin.. l [miin^ [marat-uh^ bitbuus e^] ] (His wife is kissing who?) In (41a) coreference is possible between the wh-phrase miin and the object clitic pronoun -uh. But such coreference is not possible in (41b) since the rule of wh-raising would require miin to crossover the clitic pronoun on the subject marat 'wife1. Dominique Sportiche (personal communication) has pointed out to us that the crossover phenomenon can be explained in terms of a generalization of (31ii) (two distinct operators cannot bind the same variable) to also require the inverse - namely that a single interrogative operator cannot bind two

WH in-Situ Constructions

279

distinct variables if we understand the domain of such binding to be delimited by the wh-operator in Comp and its trace and we understand a variable to be an element in argument position that is coindexed with such an operator. Thus, in (41a) the domain consists of just the subject position and so the operator miin in Comp binds the single variable [e^] , while in (41b) where the wh-phrase has been raised from object position, the domain of the operator includes the entire clause. In this case the operator miin in Comp is binding two distinct variables, the clitic pronoun on the subject and the trace [ e J , and hence will be ruled out by the requirement that a single operator can bind at most just one variable. We close by noting that a coreferential reading is possible in the EA sentence corresponding to (41) where the wh-phrase appears in Comp in Sstructure.1" (43)

miin. illi marat-uh. bitbuus-uh.. l l i

If this sentence is formed by wh-movement with the trace spelled out as a clitic in the "phonology", then by the logic of the preceding paragraph it would have to have the S-structure of (44a) instead of (44b) in order to guarantee that the operator in Comp binds at most one variable in its domain. (44)

a. [miin. illi [ marat-[e.] bitbuus-uh. ]] 1 1 I b. [miin^ illi [marat-uh^ bitbuus-[e^] ]]

On the other hand, if the wh-phrase is base-generated in Comp, then the structure is perhaps best assimilated to whatever treatment is appropriate for relative clauses, where crossover violations are generally permitted. In Lebanese Arabic, where wh-questions are formed by movement with a gap, a coreferential reading is impossible in these kind of sentences since they parallel the English (39). (45)

*miin^ mirat-u^ bitbuus. (Who is his wife kissing?) [miin^ [mirat-u^ bitbuus [e^ ] ]]

However, unlike in English an alternative structure is possible in Lebanese, where a clitic coreferential with miin appears on the verb. (46)

miin. mirat-u. bitbuus-u.. (Who is his wife kissing-him?)

280

Michael Kenstowicz S Wafaa Wahba

In this case coreference between miin and the clitic pronoun on mirat becomes possible. See Aoun and Sportiche

(1981) for an interesting discussion of

these constructions in Lebanese Arabic.

NOTES

1.

2.

3.

4.

Throughout this paper we are concerned only with non-echo interpretations for wh in-situ. Thanks to Dominique Sportiche for discussing an earlier oral presentation of this paper with us. The responsibility for errors of fact or interpretation lies with us. The Lebanese question sentences are actually much more natural with subject-verb inversion and thus should read 5u iStara Fariid, ?ayy ktaab istara Fariid, and ween raah Fariid. EA does not have inversion in whquestions. illi is the complementizer that appears in relative clauses in EA. The EA construction with wh in Comp shares many properties with relative clauses: e.g. complementizer illi, obligatory resumptive pronoun (appearing as null in subject position), no pied-piping. This statement is not completely accurate. It is well-known that Arabic relative constructions violate wh-island constraints. il-raagilj illi baba iStara il-beet^ illi [ej] banaa-h^ (the man who Dad bought the house which (he) built-it) la?eet il-kitaab^ illi Mona nisyit miin xad-uh-^ (I found the book which Mona forgot who took-it) But EA speakers consistently reject the corresponding wh-questions. *miinj illi baba iStara il-beet^ illi [ej] banaa-h^ (Who did Dad buy the house which (he) built-it?) *ana 9aarif anhi kitaab^ Mona nisyit miin xad-uh^ (I know which book Mona forgot who took-it)

5.

6. 7. 8.

Interestingly, recourse to the question particle does not appear to improve sentences such as (5) where the wh-phrase is lodged within a complex NP. In Classical Arabic the complementizer ?anna assigns accusative case to a following subject NP. The verb tawaqqa9 of (10) does not permit the subordinate clause subject pronoun to be cliticized to it. One position where the notions of government and proper-government do not coincide in EA is in the double-object construction. In the sentence Mona iddit Ahmad il-kitaab (M. gave A. the book) il-kitaab presumably is governed by and receives case from the verb. But wh-in-situ is not possible in this position: *Mona iddit Ahmad ?eeh. Instead, the speaker must resort to the alternative dative structure Mona iddit ?eeh li Ahmad (M. gave what to A.). Note that the trace of NP movement may not occur in this position in English as well: "The book, was given John [e.] . indicating that this position is not properly governed in English as well. Second position in the double-object construction also may not be linked with a clitic on the verb in EA and so the corresponding wh-question with the

WH in-Situ

Constructions

281

wh-phrase in Comp is ungrammatical: *Peeh . illi Mona iddit-uh . Ahmad [ e.]. - See Kenstowicz and Wahba (1980) for a discussion of the EA double object construction. 9. The notion of a coindexed element properly governing an adjacent element can be assimilated to the notion of a head of a phrase properly governing its complements by supposing that an index associated with the head of a phrase is "percolated" up to the phrasal node and thence down to all complement nodes. In this way a governed NP will share the index of its governor. 10. This sentence has two additional readings depending on whether miin is coindexed with just the clitic pronoun appearing on the subject (for which x [wife of x is kissing y]) or with just the clitic pronoun appearing on the verb (for which x [wife of y is kissing x]).

REFERENCES

Aoun, J., N. Hornstein, and D. Sportiche, 1981, Some aspects of wide scope quantification. Journal of Linguistic Research,

1,3.

Aoun, Y. and D. Sportiche, 1981, The domain of weak cross-over restrictions. In H. Borer an Y. Aoun (eds.). Theoretical Issues in the Grammar of Semitic Languages,

(MIT Working Papers in Linguistics 3: Cambridge,

Mass.). Chomsky, N., 1982, A note on non-control Pro, Journal of Linguistic

Research,

1,4. Kenstowicz, M. and W. Wahba, 1980, Clitics and the double object construction in Cairene Arabic. In M. Kenstowicz (ed.), Studies in Arabic

Linguistics,

(Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 10,2: Dept. of Linguistics, University of Illinois, Urbana, 111.). Koopman, H., 1982, Some aspects of Comparative Syntax. Unpublished ms. Université du Québec à Montréal.

Chapter

18

The Applied Suffix in Kikuyu Kiyoko Masunaga

In Kikuyu, a Bantu language spoken in Kenya, the applied suffix is used to express benefactive, indirect object, locative and possessive relationships,2 and it can be seen in lexicalized usage as well. In this paper, I will discuss the usage of the applied suffix in benefactives, and indirect objects. As is shown in the next section, the applied suffix in sentences with benefactive and indirect objects allows its verb to subcategorize one extra bare NP. Sometimes each of those NPs can be passivized or incorporated. Sometimes only one NP can undergo the rules. We will examine these cases. In this paper I propose that more than one NP can be subject to the application of passivization or object incorporation. I will also propose the opposite i.e. that there is only one NP which can be subject to the rules. I am going to start this section by explaining how the applied suffix is used in the sentences with a benefactive and an indirect object. As is stated above, in sentences with a benefactive and an indirect object, the applied suffix (noted A) allows its verb to have one more bare NP. This is shown in sentences (1)- (3).3 (1)

Kamau ne-a-ruy -ire Jiama SA cook IP meat (Kamau cooked meat)

(2)

Kamau ne-a-ruy cook

e A

-ire

a. mo:do Jiama man meat *b. Jiama mo:do

(Kamau cooked meat for the man) (3)

"Kamau

ne-a-ruy-ire

' mo : do Jiama Jiama mo : do

As is clearly shown in (2) and (3), the benefactive NP "mo:do" (man) cannot show up if the verb does not have the applied suffix. This is the same as in sentences with an indirect object as is shown in (4)-(7).

284

Kiyoko

(4)

Masunaga

moana a-tuar-ir£ child SA send IP

a. mahoa koE moarimo flowers to teacher *b. koE moarimo mahoa to teacher flowers

(The child sent flowers to the teacher) (5)

moana a-tuar-e-irE child SA send A IP

a. moarimo mahoa teacher flowers *b. mahoa moarimo flowers teacher

(The child sent the teacher flowers)

(6)

*moana ne- a-tuar-e-irE child SA send A IP

mahoa koE moarimo flowers to teacher koE moarimo mahoa to teacher flowers

(7)

*moana ne-a-tuar-irE child SA send IP

moarimo mahoa teacher flowers mahoa moarimo

As is shown above when the sentence has 'koE moarimo' (to the/a teacher), it should not have the applied suffix and when the sentence has the bare NP 'moarimo' then the verb has to have the applied suffix. Moreover, according to my informant, the word order is fixed. Compare sentences (4a) and (4b). 'KoE moarimo' (to the/a teacher) comes after 'mahoa' (flowers). Now compare (5a) and (5b). The goal NP 'moarimo' (the/a teacher) comes before the theme 'mahoa' (flowers). However, I have also noticed there is variation. Some Kikuyu speakers accept (4b) and (5b) even though (4a) or (5a) are preferable for them. 'Moarimo' (the/a teacher) in sentences (4) and (5) behaves differently under passivization and incorporation. In sentence (4) 'moarimo' cannot be passivized or incorporated but 'mahoa' (flowers) can be, while in sentence (5) 'moarimo' as well as 'mahoa' can be passivized or incorporated as is shown below. Passivization

(8)

of sentence

(4)

mahoa ne-ma-tuar-ir-uD koE moarimo ne moana flowers SA send IP pass, to teacher by child (The flowers were sent to the teacher by the child)

Applied Suffix in Kikuyu

(9)

*moarimo ne-a-tuar-ir-uO mahoa (koE) ne moana teacher SA send IP pass, flowers to by child

Incorporation (10)

moana ne-a-ma-tuar-ir£ koE moarimo child them send IP to teacher flowers (The child sent them(=flowers) to the teacher)

'ma' is the object infix for class 6 to which 'mahoa' (flowers) belongs. (11)

*moana ne-a-mo-tuar-ire mahoa (koE) child him send IP flowers to (The child sent flowers to him)

'mo' is the object infix for class 1 where the object belongs. Passivization of sentence (5) (12)

mahoa ne-ma-tuar-e-ir-uO moarimo ne moana flowers SA send A IP pass, teacher by child (The flowers were sent to the teacher by the child)

(13)

moarimo ne-a-tuar-e-ir-uo mahoa ne moana teacher SA send A IP pass, flowers by child (The teacher was sent flowers by the child.)

Incorporation of sentence (5) (14)

moana ne-a-mo- tuar-e-irE mahoa child SA him send A IP flowers (The child sent flowers to him)

(15)

moana ne-a-ma- tuar-e-irE moarimo them send teacher (=flowers) (The child sent them(=flowers) to the teacher)

285

286

Kiyoko Masunaga In sentence (2) both 'mo:do' and 'jlama' can be passivized or incorporated

as shown below.

Passivization (16)

Jlama e- ruy-e-ir-uo mo:do ne Kamau meat SA cook A IP pass, man by (Meat was cooked for the man by Kamau)

(17)

Mo:do a - ruy - e - ir - uo Jlama man SA cook A IP pass meat

ne by

Kamau

(For the man was cooked meat by Kamau) Incorporation (18)

(19)

Kamau ne - a - mo - ruy - e - ire Jlama SA him cook A IP meat (Kamau cooked meat for him) Kamau

ne - a - me - ruy - e - irE mo:do it (meat)

(Kamau cooked it(=meat) for the man) So far we have seen that the applied suffix allows its verb to have one extra bare NP. Therefore if a verb such as 'to send1 subcategorizes one NP 'theme', the verb with the applied suffix subcategorizes one more NP (in this case 'a goal'). The added NP must be placed right after a verb according to my informant. I will call these two NPs 'A object1 and 'B object'. An 'A object' is a bare NP which follows right after a verb. A 'B object' is a bare NP which follows an 'A object', so, for example, in sentence (5a), the goal 'moarimo' (the teacher) is an 'A object' and the theme 'mahoa' (flowers) is a 'B object'. In sentence (4a) the theme 'mahoa' is an 'A object' but 'moarimo' is not a 'B object' because it is not a bare NP. So far we have seen that both the A-object and the B object can be passivized or incorporated separately. Are the two objects always passivized or incorporated in Kikuyu? No, Consider sentence (20).

Applied Suffix in Kikuyu (20)

287

Karioki ne-a-tom- e-irE moana moarimo SA send A child teacher (Karioki sent the teacher to the child) (*Karioki sent the child to the teacher)

Here again the A object is a goal and the B object is a theme. The sentence means 'Karioki sent the teacher to the child1, and is never interpreted as 'Karioki sent the child to the teacher'. Moreover, in this sentence only the A object, 'a goal1 here, can be passivized or incorporated as is shown in sentences (21) and (22). Passivization (21)

moana ne-a-tom- e-ir-uo moarimo ne Karioki child SA send A IP pass, teacher by (To the child was sent the teacher by Karioki) ("The child was sent to the teacher by Karioki)

Incorporation (22)

Karioki ne-a-motom-e-irE moarimo SA him send A IP teacher (Karioki sent the teacher to him) ("Karioki sent him to the teacher)

Sentences (21) and (22) are a passivization and incorporation of 'moana' in sentence (20) and not in sentence (23) where 'moana' is a B object. (23)

Karioki ne-a-tom- e-irE moarimo moana SA send A IP teacher child (Karioki sent the child to the teacher.)

There are some more examples of this kind amongst benefactive sentences, where only the A object can be passivized or incorporated. Sentence (24) is an example of this. (24)

Karioki

O: ray - e - ir£ SA+kill

A

IP

moana

moarimo

child

teacher

(Karioki killed the teacher for the child) (*Karioki killed the child for the teacher)

288

Kiyoko Masunaga

Sentences (25) and (26) show that the passivized subject 'moana' (child) or incorporated infix 'mo' is taken as benefactive i.e. as the A object.

(25)

Moana Child

ne -

O: ray - e - ir - uo moarimo SA+kill A IP pass teacher

ne by

Karioki

(for the child was killed the teacher by Karioki) (*The child was killed for the teacher by Karioki)

(26)

Karioki

ne - a - mo: ray - e - ire moarimo him + kill A IP teacher

(Karioki killed the teacher for him) ("Karioki killed him for the teacher)

We have seen sentences where both A and B objects can be passivized or incorporated such as sentences (2a) and (5a), and where only the A object can undergo the rules such as sentences (20) and (24) ; but this phenomenon is not limited to sentences with the applied suffix. The phenomenon can be seen in sentences without the suffix. There are some verbs which can take DO and 10 without having the applied suffix. One of these is the verb 'kohea' (to give). Here again, the same phenomenon can be seen. The A object and the B object can be passivized or incorporated in the case of sentence (27) for example. While in the case of sentence (32) only the A object can be passivized or incorporated.

(27)

mo:do

ne - a - he - ire moarimo ihoa give teacher flower

(The man gave the teacher a flower)

Passivizatiort (28)

moarimo

ne - a - he - ir - uo

ihoa

ne

mo:do

(The teacher was given the flower by the man)

(29)

ihoa

ne - re - he - ir - uo moarimo

ne

mo:do

(The flower was given to the teacher by the man)

Applied Suffix in Kikuyu

289

Incorporation

(30)

mo:do

ne - a - mo - he - ire him

ihoa

(The man gave a flower to him) (31)

mo:do

ne - a - re - he - ire

moarimo

(The man gave it(=flower) to the teacher) (32)

mo:do

ne - a - he - ire gui dog

kerjarji crab

(The man gave the crab to the dog) (*The man gave the dog to the crab) Pass ivizat ion

(33)

gui

e - he - ir - uo kerjagi

ne

mo:do

(The dog was given a crab by the man) (*The dog was given to a crab by the man) Incorporation (34)

mo:do

ne - a - me - he -ire kerjaQi it(=dog)

(The man gave a crab to it) (*The man gave it to a crab)

Now I want to consider when both A and B objects can be passivized or incorporated and when only the A object can be passivized or incorporated. Compare sentences (2a), (5a) and (27) where both objects can be passivized or incorporated and sentences (20), (24) and (32) where only the A object can be passivized. Suppose the A and the B objects in sentences (20), (24) and (32) can be passivized or incorporated, we will have ambiguous sentences. Sentence (33) for example would have two readings; namely, 'the dog was given a crab by the man1 and 'the dog was given to the crab by the man'. While sentence (27) for example does not give us any ambiguity when either of the two NPs are passivized or incorporated. A dog can be given to a crab and a crab can be given to a dog. However, a teacher cannot be given to a flower.

Kiyoko

290

Masunaga

Hence only one reading is possible. In light of this contrast I propose that Kikuyu has an anti-ambiguity device. When the relationship of NPs to their verb is not clear, hence passivization or incorporation of both the A and B objects results in ambiguity, it allows only the A objects to undergo the rules. Looking at the sentences, one might think that the number of objects which can undergo the rules is related to differences in animacy. Sentences (2a), (5a) and (27) have two NPs which are different in animacy, namely 'mo:do' (man) and 'Jlama' (meat) in (2a) , 'moarimo (teacher) and 'mahoa' (flowers) in (5a) and 'moarimo' (teacher) and 'ihoa' (a flower) in (27). Sentences (20), (24) and (32) have two NPs which are the same in animacy, 'moana' (child) and 'moarima' (teacher) in (20) and (24) and 'gui' (dog) and 'kerjarji' (crab) in (32). Therefore one might think if the animacy of the NPs is different, both the NPs can be passivized and if the animacy of the NPs is the same only the A objects can be passivized. However, the anti-ambiguity device predicts that even if a verb has two NPs which are the same in animacy, if for pragmatic reasons we can decide the relationship of each NP to its verb, the two NPs should be able to be passivized or incorporated. If the relationship of each NP to its verb is not clear and ambiguity would result, only the A object can be passivized or incorporated. Sentences (35)-(40) show this.

(35)

Karioki

a:k - e - ire jio:ba morargD SA+build A IP house door

(Karioki build a door for the house) (36)

mora:go wa:k

- e - ir - uo jio:ba

SA+build A

IP

pass

ne

Karioki

house by

(The door was built for the house by Karioki) (*For the door was built the house by Karioki) (37)

_po:ba ya:k - e - ir - uo mora:gO house SA+build A IP pass door

ne Karioki

(For the house was built a door by Karioki) (•The house was built for the door by Karioki) (38)

Karioki

0:n - £ - irE SA+find A IP

yekuneko cover

Suburia saucepan

(Karioki found a saucepan for the cover)

Applied Suffix in Kikuyu (39)

yekuneko cover

291

ki - On - E- ir - uO Juburia ne Karioki SA find A IP pass saucepan

(For the cover was found a saucepan by Karioki) (*The cover was found for a saucepan by Karioki)

(40)

Juburia yO:n - e - ir - uO yekuneko saucepan SA+find A IP pass cover

ne Karioki

(For the saucepan was found a cover by Karioki) (*The saucepan was found for a cover by Karioki)

Sentences (36) and (37) show that both A and B objects in sentence (35) are passivized because there is no ambiguity by passivizing both objects. We build a door for the house but we do not build a house for a door. However sentences (39) and (40) show that only the A object can be passivized. (40) is not a passive sentence of (38) but a passive sentence of (41) below.

(41)

Karioki

0:n - £ - irE SA+find A IP

cTuburia yekuneko saucepan cover

(Karioki found the cover for the saucepan)

We can find a cover for a saucepan and we can also find a saucepan for a cover. Hence only the A object can be passivized. The anti-ambiguity device also predicts that even when there are differences in animacy between two NPs, if there can be an ambiguity in passivizing the two NPs the language only allows the A object to be passivized. Sentence (42) is an example of this. A object 'gari1

(car) in sentence (42) can be passiv-

ized but the B object cannot be. (44) is not a passive sentence of (42) but of (45).

(42)

Karioki

0:n - £ - ire SA+find A IP

gari car

dereba driver

(Karioki found a driver for the car)

(43)

Gari

yO:n - £ - ir - uo SA+find

A

IP

dereba

pass driver

ne Karioki by

(For the car was found a driver by Karioki) (*The car was found for the driver by Karioki)

Kiyoko

292 (44)

Masunaga

DerEba

0:n - £ - ir - uO gari yd:n - E - ir - uo SA find A IP pass

ne Karioki

(For the driver was found a car by Karioki) (*The driver was found for the car by Karioki) (45)

Karioki

0:n - E - ire SA+find A IP

dereba driver

gari car

(Karioki found a car for the driver) So far I have discussed the use of the applied suffix to allow a verb to take one extra NP. Two place predicates can be three place predicates using the applied suffix as is shown in sentences with benefactives and indirect objects. Three place predicates have four arguments as shown by sentence (46).

(46)

mo:do

ne - a - he - rE - irE SA give A IP

motumia fiana ibuku woman children book

(The man gave the book to the children for the woman) Here again, as is shown in sentences with an indirect object and a benefactive, the extra NP subcategorized by the applied suffix is placed right after the verb. Moreover, I have proposed that the language has an anti-ambiguity device. The language allows only the A object to undergo the passivization or incorporation when application of the rules to both A and B object results in ambiquity. This paper claims that more than one object can be subject to passivization or incorporation. It is opposed to the hypothesis proposed by Zeanen in her paper, 'Double Objects in Kikuyu?1

(1982). Zaenen claims that there is only

one direct object in Kikuyu, to which passivization or incorporation can be applied. Moreover, the second object is promoted to direct object under some specific condition. Her claim is based on the observation that Kikuyu passivization and incorporation cannot cooccur. Therefore from sentence (2) we cannot get sentences (47) and (48).^

(47)

*Jlama e - mo - ruy - e - ir - uo ne Kamau meat SA 0 cook A IP pass by (The meat was cooked for him by Kamau.)

Applied Suffix in Kikuyu (48)

293

*Mo:do a - me - ruy - e - ir - uo ne Kamau man A O cook A IP pass by (The man was cooked it.)

We have two proposals to explain this observation. One is as Zaenen claims, there is only one direct object and passivization or incorporation may be applied to it. The other one is as Abdulaziz thinks,^ passivization and incorporation are mutually exclusive rules. If we take the first solution, we have to consider the question of when a second object can be promoted to direct object. Zaenen has not worked out the condition in detail but she thinks animacy might be one of the conditions. In fact, one cannot formulate the rule 2CH-D0 in terms of animacy. The following chart shows the state of animacy of the object of the sentences we have seen and it also shows which objects can be passivized or incorporated. The boxes show when an object is passivized or incorporated.

sentences 2,5,27

A object | +animate|

B object ] -animate|

20,32

I+animate|

+animate

35

|-animate|

|-animate|

38

| -animate|

-animate

42

|-animate |

+an imate

As is obviously shown in the chart, there is no correlation between animacy and when a B object can be passived. It seems difficult to maintain the first solution, namely there is one direct object in Kikuyu. In this paper we have seen the usage of the applied suffix in sentences with benefactives and indirect objects. The applied suffix allows a verb to take an extra NP. Moreover, we have seen cases where both the A object and the B object can be passivized or incorporated and cases where only the A object can be passivized or incorporated. This can be explained by postulating an anti-ambiguity device. When the grammatical relation of the NPs to their verb is clear, both A and B objects can be passivized or incorporated. But when the relationship is not clear, only the A object can be passivized or incorporated.

294

Kiyoko Masunaga

NOTES 1.

2.

I would like to thank Nick Clements, Susumu Kuno, John Whitman, and Bob Ingria for their comments. Moreover I want to thank Rebecca Gachui and Kathleen Wairimu. However, they are in no way responsible for any errors this paper may contain. The usage of the applied suffix in possessive relationships seems to vary depending on the speaker. Some speakers accept the sentences below. Karioki

O: ray -irE moiretu wa mo:do SA+kill IP girl of man (Karioki killed the girl of the man.) SA stands for subject agreement. IP stands for immediate past tense. Karioki

0: ray -e-ir£ mo:do moiretu A (Karioki killed the man's girl.) A stands for applied suffix. The speakers who accept these sentences do not accept the second sentence without the applied suffix as is shown below. *Karioki D:ray-irE mo:do

3. 4. 5.

moiretu.

However, some speakers do not accept the second sentence. I assume there is a dialectal difference. Further work needs to be done. Sentences (l)-(3) were taken from the course entitled 'Workshop in Kikuyu' offered by Nick Clements at Harvard University in Spring 1980. Sentences (47) and (48) are taken from Zaenen (1982). O stands for object infix. This claim of Abdulaziz was taken from the session offered by Clements in Spring 1982.

REFERENCES Abdulaziz, M.H. and P.O. Samuelsdorff, Semantic Analysis of the Swahili Applicative Extension- A Functional Approach, manuscript, University of Nairobi. Barlow, A., Ruffel, 1960, Studies in Kikuyu Grammar and Idiom, William Blackwood & Sons Ltd., Edinburgh. Hodges, Kathryn Speed, Spring 1977, Object Relations in KiMeru Causatives, Studies in the Linguistic Sciences, vol.6, num.2. Kimenyi, Alexandre, 1978, A Relational Grammar of Kinyarwanda. University of California Publications Linguistics, vol.91. Kisseberth, Charles W. & Mohammed Imam Abasheikh, 1977, The Object Relationship in Chi-mwi:ni> A Bantu Language, Syntax and Semantics, vol.8, Academic Press.

Applied Suffix in Kikuyu

Trithart, Mary Lee, 1977, Relational Grammar and Chichewa Subjectivization Rules, Indiana University Linguistics Club. Zaenen, Annie, 1982, Double Objects in Kikuyu?. manuscript, Harvard University.

Chapter

19

Bete Reciprocals and Clitic Binding Dominique Sportiche

In this article, we present a preliminary description of the reciprocal construction in Bete. Bete actually refers to a cluster of languages spoken in south eastern Ivory Coast, members of the Kru family. We will be concerned more specifically with Bete-gbadi,' but what we will propose seems essentially valid, mutatis mutandis, for many other Kru languages. After a presentation of the reciprocal construction and of its basic properties (section 1.1) and a discussion of some relevant syntactic constructions of Bete (P-stranding: section 1.3) and our analysis (section 1.4), we turn in section 2 to some theoretical consequences for the nature of clitic binding, the analysis of restructuring constructions (section 2.1), the analysis of reciprocals and reflexives in the Romance languages (section 2.2) and finally, the nature and classification of empty categories (section 2.3). Our basic theoretical assumptions are those of the Extended Standard Theory (EST) as exposed in Chomsky (1981) Lectures on Government and Binding (LGB), and the references cited therein. 1.1

The reciprocal construction is illustrated by the following sentences:2

(1)

a.

yua

yl

jijt la

children FUT Dj

call

The children will call Dj (proper name) b.

yuai children

yi FUT

i lalali call-call-lt

the children will call each other (2)

a.

yua

yi

children

FUT

jtjf

Bapo

sloa

Banyo show (verb-CAUS)

the children will show Dj to B. the children will show B. to Dj b.

yua

yi

children

FUT

jijf

slosl©lia verb-verb-li-CAUS

the children will show Dj to each other the children will show each other to Dj

298

Dominique Sportiche c.

O he

yl FUT

yua children

sleslolia verb-verb-1i-CAUS

he will show the children to each other d.

yua children

yl FUT

sloslolio verb-verb-1i-CAUS-PASS

the children will be shown to each other All the b,c, and d sentences above receive a reciprocal interpretation. In each of them, some plural NP denotes a set A such that its interpretation can be represented roughly as in (3): (3)

»x ( A, Vz £ A , P(x,z) X

where A

X

= A - {x}

For example, the interpretation of (1) can be roughly represented as in (4): (4)

Vx C A, A = {children}, Vz C. A , x will call z ^ x

Let us call this plural NP the antecedent NP. One can make the following preliminary observations about this construction: (5)

a.

Some predicate, call it the target predicate, appears with a particular morphology, call it M.^

b.

Some NP complement of the target predicate is obligatorily1*

c.

The antecedent NP is not necessarily a subject.

missing, call it the target NP.

d.

The relation between the antecedent NP and the target NP (or the predicate marked M) is subject to locality requirements, i.e. they cannot be too far apart. We will return to this later. An example of this is found in (6) below:

(6)

*wa they

yeBo want

nogfei: that

jijf lalali call-call-lT

they want Dj to call each other One may ask the following corollary questions: (7)

a.

What property does M express?

b.

Why is one NP missing?

Bete Reciprocals

299

c.

What is the relation between M and the missing NP?

d.

Why does (5d) hold?

e.

How does the reciprocal interpretation arise?

In what follows, we shall try to show that the principles developped in recent syntactic theorizing permit an elegant and explanatory account of the properties of this construction: clearly, the link between a particular morphology and its properties is largely arbitrary (although the nature of these properties is not, cf. Williams, 1981, for example), i.e. the answer to (7a) must be stipulated. We will argue that nothing else should be: from an adequate and minimal characterization of the properties of M, the other properties of the construction follow.

1.2

Within EST, there are basically two ways to assign a structural descript-

ion to the reciprocal construction, that we might respectively term the syntactic approach and the lexical approach. The essential difference between the two is whether or not the target NP is categorially represented at the various syntactic levels. For the syntactic approach, although the target NP is not phonologically represented, a NP category nevertheless occupies its position. So, for example, the structure of (lb) would be:

(8)

[yuà] Np [ y l ] ^

[

[e] Np

[làlàlï]v

]vp

For the lexical approach, some lexical rule affects the lexical entry of the target predicate to the effects that one of its arguments must not be categorially represented. According to this approach, the structure of (lb) would be:

(9)

[yuA]Np

[yI] l N F L

[ [làlâli ] v

]yp

We will favor the syntactic approach here for two reasons. First, on grounds of simplicity: both approaches must somehow insure that the target NP will not be phonetically realized and that the reciprocal interpretation arises. The syntactic approach will in the end appear superior because this is also sufficient. For example, if the missing NP is marked [reciprocal], property (5d) follows automatically from the binding conditions (cf. LGB, chapter 3) ...

300

Dominique Sportiche

If (9) is correct, on the other hand, some stipulation will be necessary given that the relation between the reciprocal "item" and the antecedent is a relation between a NP and a verb, i.e. does not a priori follow from any locality requirement, in this framework. Secondly, because one claim made by the lexical approach is falsified. As we said, the lexical approach assumes the existence of a rule affecting lexical entries and more particularly subcategorization frames. As such, they may only affect information present in the lexical entry of the target predicate, and in particular, in this case, it means that the target NP may only be one of the lexical arguments of the target predicate. It is clear that cases of target NPs which are not lexical arguments of the target predicate would falsify the lexical approach. We now turn to such cases.

1.3

We have stated in (5b) that, in a reciprocal construction, the target

NP is a complement of the target predicate. This statement requires some qualification as is shown by the following examples: (10)

a.

wa they

yl FUT

kletT cards

ta6l? table

klo on

pie put

/

... tafile klo

kletT ...

they will put the cards on the table b.

•

,

,

wa

yl

kleti

klo

piepieli

they

FUT

cards

on

put-put-li

they will put cards on each other (same ambiguity as in English) they will put each other on cards (if kletT is complement of klo) c.

kletT cards

yl FUT

klo on

piepielio put-put-li-PASS

the cards will be put on each other What these examples illustrate is that the complement of a postposition can also be a target NP provided that its projection, i.e. PP, is a complement of the target predicate. In fact, this is part of a wider phenomenon that is present in many Kru languages, namely postposition-stranding

(P-stranding).

The Kru family is, to our knowledge, one of the first non-Indo-European family in which P-stranding is attested. Its functioning is illustrated in (11) :

(11)

a.

so" which

taBlE table

klo on

wa they

yi FUT

kletT cards

on which table will they put cards

pie put

Bete Reciprocals b.

s3~ which

301 tafilE table

wa they

yl FUT

kletT card

klo on

pi£ put

which table will they put cards on (which table will they put on cards) c. *s3 which

ta6le table

wa they

yl FUT

klo on

kletT cards

pie put

As (11a) shows, a postposition may be pied-piped with its complement under wh-movement, which indicates that they may form a syntactic constituent.5 It may also be stranded as in (lib). There is however an important restriction governing the possibility of P-stranding illustrated in (11c) that we might state as follows: (12)

A postposition may be stranded if it is (Structure-)adjacent to the predicate it is a complement of. 6

The generality of P-stranding in Bete is much wider than in English. The process by which it occurs does not matter as long as (12) is met, be it whmovement, passive, clitic placement... What concerns us here is that stranding is also possible under "reciprocal interpretation" as (10b) and (10c) show, subject to restriction (12). Compare (10b) to (13): (13)

*wa they

yl FUT

klo on

kletT card

piepieli put-put-li

How can the two approaches accomodate these observations? Consider first the syntactic approach. It is assumed within EST that P stranding is a marked phenomenon rendered possible by the existence in the grammar of a language of a process extending the government domain of the verb taking the PP as complement down to the complement of the P. For Bete, let us assume that PP becomes transparent for purposes of government when its head is cosuperscripted with the verb as in (14): (14)

[

[NP

P1

] Jpp

V1

] VP

Let us call the rule cosuperscripting these two categories a rule of reanalysis and let us refer to the string P 1 V 1 as a derived complex verb, (cf. for relevant discussion van Riemsdijk (1978), Hornstein and Weinberg (1981),

302

Dominique Sportiche

Kayne (1981)).7 Alternatively, we could assume that the formation of the complex verb is a lexical operation. There is no choice for the lexical approach however. Assuming it, the latter option must be argued to be correct for otherwise, the target NP in examples like (10) would not be a lexical argument of the target predicate. In fact, a number of reasons suggest that this process of complex verb formation is not a lexical process: First, it appears to be exceptionless. If a verb may take a PP complement, whether subcategorized or not, stranding may take place under condition (12). Although this conclusion is not necessary, we would expect true idiosyncratic exceptions, were this process lexical. Secondly, the meaning of the complex verb is always strictly compositional. This behaviour is in sharp contrast with lexical entries of the form Particleverb, in which it might even be the case that the particle and/or the verb has no indépendant meaning. Again, the total absence of idiosyncrasies is suspicious. Thirdly, whenever a verb takes two complements, their linear order with respect to each other is free as is shown by (2a) (which is ambiguous) or (10a). If the derived complex verbs were lexically derived, we would expect a similar behaviour from them. This prediction is not borne out, as is demonstrated by the non ambiquity of (10a), for the structure it would have would be:

(15)

wk

yl

[[Npklêtl]

[ N p tâ6lÊ]

[klôpxE]v

]

w

Note in particular that this contrasts minimally with the ambiquity of (16) with a lexical Particle-Verb form (the particle is meaningless by itself and so is the verb):

(16)

wà they

yï FUT

yu child

rpn A woman

ko j e give

they will give the child to the woman they will give the woman to the child The last reason we will provide here has to do with the interaction of the lexicon with derivational morphology. If the derived complex verbs were formed in the lexicon, we would expect them to participate in morphological derivations just as any other verb. But they do not seem to. For example, there is a process forming nouns out of a sequence verb-noun by compounding (bare

Bete Reciprocals

303

verbs are reduplicated):a

(17)

a. b.

c.

(part) V + N

->• [ |partj V # N] N

la yu

lala#yu

(call-child) 'a child who calls'

ku >/51£>

ku#welo#yu

(watch-child) 'a child who watches'

klo qoqo

* klo gago#yu (sleep-on-child) 'a child who sleeps on'

Note that this difference cannot be handled by restricting the input to (17a) to verbs that may be used intransitively. Note also the minimal contrast between a non-derived complex verb as [ku wold] 'watch' and a derived complex verb as [klo r)3T)o ] 'to sleep on'. In conclusion, we adopt the syntactic reanalysis approach to the complex verb formation process, and consequently the syntactic approach with respect to the reciprocal construction in Bete-gbadi.

1.4

Let us now turn to the properties of the reciprocal construction. So

far, we have made no particular assumption about this construction, the rule of reanalysis in (14) being independently needed for P-stranding in non reciprocal constructions.

1.4.1

From the non-existence of a lexical rule modifying the subcategorizat-

ion properties of the target predicate, in fact the null hypothesis, we can actually deduce the existence of the empty category appearing in reciprocal constructions. Consider (1) for example. As (la) indicates, the verb call is transitive. The morphology M does not modify its argument structure, by assumption. LGB'G-criterion (cf. LGB p.36) requires that this property be syntactically represented at the level of Logical Form (LF) by means of an NP category. Furthermore, the Projection Principle (LGB p.28ff) requires this to be so at all other syntactic levels (D-structure, S-structure). The respective structures of (la) and (lb) are:

(18)

a.

b

"

[s [ N p y u A ] [ ^ y l ]

[

S W

W L

^

[vp

[

[Np r ^ H

VP [ NP

6]

[

V

[vl^]]]]

304

Dominique Sportiche

1.4.2

Consider next how the reciprocal interpretation arises in a parallel

sentence in English, say the gloss of (lb): The phrase each other is lexically specified as a reciprocal phrase. By definition, then, it has a referential function (e.g. compute A^ from A given x in (3) and (4)) , hence is an argument (in the sense of LGB p.35). Furthermore, it has no intrinsic reference: its referential function can only be derived from that of its antecedent. Therefore, it is an anaphor, requires an antecedent and the relation between the antecedent NP and each other is subject to the Binding Conditions: roughly, the antecedent must be in some local domain containing the reciprocal phrase. For our present purposes, (19) will do (but cf. LGB chapter 3) for discussion) :

(19)

An anaphor i must be bound in the domain D(i)®

Then, a specific rule of interpretation converts the structure antecedent NP .... each other into the appropriate LF representation (e.g. the gloss of (lb) into (4)). 1 0 We can provide exactly the same account for Bete if we assume that the target NP is marked [reciprocal]. Let us assume, then, that the presence of M signals that the target NP is marked [reciprocal]. We can see that this provides answers to (7d) and (7e).

1.4.3

Does this assumption provide an answer to (7b) as well? Suppose that

the target NP is marked reciprocal by M. We have just seen that such an NP cannot, by definition, have intrinsic reference since it is marked

^reci-

procal]. This leaves open three possibilities: either it is an empty category, or it is non-empty and pronominal, or it is non-empty and it is an anaphor. Suppose first that it is a non-empty pronoun. Since it is marked reciprocal, it is also an anaphor, thus an non-empty pronominal anaphor.11 It is thus subject to (19) as an anaphor and to (20) as a pronoun: (20)

A pronominal i must be free in the domain D(i)

In other words, it must be both free and bound in the same domain D(i). This option is therefore ruled out. 12 Nothing however rules out the presence of a lexical anaphor in the target NP position (fortunately, since this is the English case). This means that that the target NP must be empty rather than a lexical anaphor cannot be derived

Bete Reciprocals

305

from intrinsic properties of reciprocal phrases. It must somehow be built into the properties of M. What is the difference between an empty anaphor and a lexical anaphor? A lexical anaphor requires Case while an empty NP does not necessarily. Consequently, let us assume that the morphology M signals both the presence of a reciprocal phrase and the fact that the target predicate loses one of its Case assigning possibilities, if any. We may characterize the properties of M as in (21) for the time being:

(21)

The morphology M on a predicate signals that it marks one NP reciprocal instead of assigning it Case.

It is easy to see that (21) provides answers to (7b), (7d) and (7e). Only (7c) is left to answer. Clearly, there is a close relation between the predicate marked M and the target NP: they cannot be too far from each other. But in fact, (21) also answers (7c): since Case theory (cf. LBG p.50) assumes that Case is assigned under Government, 13 it means that the target NP which receives the feature [reciprocal] instead of Case is governed by the target predicate: A predicate marked M governs the target NP.

2.1.1

We now turn to constructions involving pronominal clitic forms. The

following examples illustrate the structures in which they appear:

(22

>

a

"

[W4]

NP W ^ 1 they perfect

[

[

NP^] child

[

VlAl call

]

VP

they have called the child b.

[WA]

N P [INFL Y 6 ] 1 they perfect-him

[

[

NP

e ] 1 [

v

141

]

VP

call

they have called him (23)

[ ¿ W W * she

1

1

[[Npsiki] [U]v

FUT

rice

)vp

eat

she will eat the rice b.

IlNFL^1 FUT-it she will eat it

' W

e ] 1 [ l I 1

eat

V

]

VP

306

Dominique Sportiche

In (22b) , the pronoun i> corresponding to child has been affixed to the auxiliary (causing a change of vowel: a + o

o) . In (23b) , the pronoun t corres-

ponding to rice has been affixed to the future auxiliary (causing the observed tone change). We assume that the argument the clitic stands for is syntactically represented by an empty category as indicated in (22b) and (23b). The behavior and properties of Bete clitics being similar in the relevant respects to that of Romance clitics, the justifications offered for such an assumption in these languages simply carries over to Bete. 11( Note that we informally represent the relation between the clitic and the corresponding empty category by cosuperscripting. This relation in Bete is subject to locality requirements as one would expect. For example, a clitic cannot usually appear in a clause unless it relates to an argument of the verb of that clause. Locality conditions constraining this type of relation can only be of one of two types, given our theoretical assumptions. The relation Clitic1...NP1 can be either a relation of government, i.e. the Clitic governs the NP, or it can be a relation of binding of the type antecedent/anaphor, subject to the Binding Conditions (cf. (19)). Accordingly, one finds two schools in the extensive literature on the topic. 15 In what follows, we will argue in favor of the Binding alternative and against the government approach. The structure of our argument goes as follows: The relations A: V + M/target NP and B: CliticVNP 1 are both subject to locality conditions. These conditions can only be government and / or Binding, i.e. A is subject to Government and/ or Binding and B too. If A and B are subject to the same conditions, they should have coextensive distributions. But the fact is that they do not: A is subject to tighter restrictions than B. Since government imposes tighter restrictions than Binding, it must be that A is subject to Government while B is not: B is constrained by the Binding conditions only. Note that this corroborates our earlier conclusions concerning A. We have shown that A is a government relation.

2.1.2

The constructions relevant to our discussion are what we shall call

restructuring constructions by analogy with some constructions found in the Romance languages. A class of verbs taking infinitival complements allow 'Clitic Climbing' as illustrated in (24): 1 6

Bete

307

Reciprocals 1

(24)

a.

3

kä~

.. zikä

yu

i

she

FUT

tomorrow

child

i la

kä

call

mT

COMP

leave

she will leave tomorrow to call the child b.

i she

kO~ FUT-him

zikä tomorrow

la call

kä COMP

ml leave

she will leave tomorrow to call him

(25)

a.

a we

ni NEG

glimo agouti

II eat

ko COMP

6ie finish

we have not finished eating the agouti b.

a we

no NEG-it

II eat

ko COMP

6i£ finish

we have not finished eating it

(26)

NP 1

INFL 1

[ (adv)[ - [ g [ N p e] 2 INFL [ ^

N P 1 V ] ] COMP]

Vr]w

(26) gives the structure of the example (25) and (24) , where V^ is the restructuring verb, V the embedded verb and NP 1 a complement of V which may cliticize onto INFL 1 of the higher clause as in (24b) and

(25b), i.e. appear

in a clause which is not the minimal clause containing the verb it is a complement of. This phenomenon is called Clitic Climbing. There are (at least) two options to analyse these constructions in Bete (and in the Romance languages and elsewhere). Under what we might call the government

option, a clitic is assumed to

appear on a verb that governs its empty category. 1 7 Under this option, then, one must claim that the government domain of the main verb (V ) is extended to the complement of the embedded verb (by a restructuring process of some sort). Under the Binding option, the relation Cl 1 / N P 1 is assumed to be an antecedent anaphor relation, subject to the following Binding condition (a precise formulation of

(27)

(19)):

An anaphor a must be bound in the minimal domain D which contains - a and a governor of a. - an accessible subject.

From this, two alternatives are possible within the Binding option. The first one is quite similar to the government option. It consists of making

308

Dominique

Sportiche

V^ the governor of the complements of V, instead of V. Thus, D of (27) would contain at least V . r

The second one is to make the subject of V (i.e. NP

2

in (26)) somehow

transparent or not accessible to a. In which case, D will contain at least the subject of V

(i.e. NP 1 in (26)), thus the whole sentence and (27) will

be obeyed if Clitic Climbing takes place. And of course, any combination of these will also yield the desired result. Consider next what happens with respect to the reciprocal construction:

(28)

a.

wa they

yl FUT

zika tomorrow

lalali call-call-li

ka COMP

mi leave

'they will leave tomorrow to call each other1 b. *wa they

yl FUT

zika tomorrow

la call

ka COMP

mTmilT leave-leave-1i

In a restructuring construction, it is not possible for V^ to appear with M, the target NP being an argument of V. Note that there is no morphological bar on having V

(29)

a.

+ M, as shown below:

• wa

yi

i du

16

mi

they

FUT

village

towards

leave

they will leave towards the village b.

wa they

yl FUT

16 towards

mTmili leave-leave-1i

they will leave towards each other

The consequences of the constrast given in (28) is clear: the relation between M and the target NP is subject to tighter constraints than the relation between CI 1 and NP 1 . Given our array of assumptions, only one explanation is possible: the relation CI'VNP 1 can be a Binding and only a Binding relation. The relation between the reciprocal morphology and the target NP must be a Government relation. Notice also the necessary consequences for the analysis of restructuring constructions in Bete (and other languages): the restructuring process cannot be a process by which the government domain of V

is ex-

tended down to the complements of V, for otherwise, the explanation of the contrast in (28) would collapse. These data suggest that the restructuring process must somehow make the subject of the embedded infinitival inaccessible or transparent, as the earlier accounts of this construction in the Romance languages suggested.

Bete Reciprocals

309

We can sum up our conclusions :

(30)

a.

The relation V-M/target NP is a Government relation, i.e. the verb must govern the target NP, and the relation C ^ / N P 1 is a Binding relation, i.e. an antecedent/anaphor relation subject to the Binding conditions.

b.

The restructuring process involves no change in government domains with respect to the unrestructured construction, but only transparency of the embedded subject.

2.2

Additional evidence for the above conclusions can be provided by an

examination of some cross linguistic data concerning the reciprocal construction. Before doing so, consider again the conclusions in (30a). Could they have turned out to be the other way around? It is clearly not true universally that the relation between reciprocal morphology and a target phrase is one of Government. From the language learner's point of view, this means that the difference between reciprocals and clitics in Bete must be tracable back to some overt properties. There is an obvious difference that could be relied upon in Bete: in the case of clitics, there is agreement between the clitic and the NP it stands for. In fact, the range of clitics is identical to that of full pronouns:

Nouns

Pronouns (Clitic or not) Animate Inanimate

Sing,

yu, tre

i

plur.

yùà, trla

wa

sing.

sìkà i i sika

È • e

plur.

(child, snake) (rice)

The reciprocal morphology, on the other hand remains invariant, whatever the target NP. Suppose then, that we set up this distinction as a principle in its strongest possible form (probably too strong):

(32)

A relation between an item (morpheme(s)...) in an A position and a NP is a binding relation iff they both agree in pronominal features (number, person...). Otherwise, its a government relation.

310

Dominique Sportiche Let us now turn to French reciprocal (or reflexive) constructions (what

follows is also valid for Spanish and Italian). French reciprocals markedly differ from Bete's is not allowing non-deep subjects as antecedents for a reciprocal: in other words, an NP can be antecedent of a reciprocal only if it is a subject in D-structure. This difference is illustrated below: (32)

a.

i

yl 1

she

FUT

[ [yua ] [e ] [lalalia] ] NP L NP V VP children call-call-1i-CAUS

she will have the children call each other b. *il se 1 presente les enfants [el i NP he introduces children to each other Again, both the relations M/target phrase and the se /NP

are subject to

locality requirements and exhibit different behaviours. Since the two structures are identical in the relevant respects, this difference must be linked to the way the reciprocal morphology and the target phrase are related in the two cases. By the same argument as the one given in the preceding section, we must conclude that the one must be a binding relation while the other must be a government relation. And this is exactly what is predicted by (32) , since there is agreement in French (nous, vous se). Furthermore, already existing principles account for the difference illustrated in (32). Consider the examples with reciprocal readings :

(33)

a.

Ils se 1 présentent [Jean] ^

b.

Il se1 présente [les e n f a n t s e J ^ i

[e ]

What are the empty categories in (33)? Following LGB (chapter 6, p.330), we have: (34)

An empty category is a.

a variable iff it is locally Â-bound (i.e. a closest antecedent is an Â-position).

b.

a PRO iff it is free or bound to an NP with an independent 9-role.

By this definition, NP 1 in (33a) is a variable since its local antecedent is se 1 which is in an A-position. It can be shown that variables must have a

311

Bete Reciprocals disjoint distribution from PRO's. 19 Now, consider (33b); the empty NP 1 is exactly in the same structural context as in the other example. Suppose that it is bound to the direct object les enfants. Then it is interpreted as a PRO since a closest antecedent, namely les enfants is in an A-position and has an indépendant e-role. But this is excluded, since variables may appear in this position. Of course this does not apply to Bete reciprocals since they do not involve binding between the morphology and NP 1 , hence the grammatically of (32a).20 Further support for these conclusions comes from the consideration of restructuring constructions. This account obviously predicts that the reciprocal (and reflexive) clitics should be able to climb in restructuring constructions in French. Now modern French has lost such constructions (but this prediction is borne out for earlier stages of French), but we can test these predictions in modern Italian (or modern Spanish) which have such constructions and the same properties with respect to the reciprocal. And the predictions made by our account is borne out: reciprocals (and reflexives) may climb as indicated by the following italian sentences:

(35)

a.

I ragazzi volevano (potevano) vedere Gianni The kids wanted (were able) to see Gianni

b.

I ragazzi si volevano (potevano) vedere e The kids wanted (were able) to see each other

Note finally that the logic of this account implies that Government relations and Binding relations are exclusive of each other. In particular, although we have argued that M/target NP is a Government relation, nothing excluded it from being a Binding relation as well: this is now ruled out by (32).

2.3

There is one question that we have left unanswered about the reciprocal

construction, namely the nature of the empty target NP. For this discussion, we will assume the content of LGB chapter 6. 2.3.1 (36)

We have established that in: yiA yï

[ N p e] [ v làlâlî]]

the children will call each other

312

Dominique Sportiche

the empty category must be governed by the verb marked M. We have also hypothesized that M absorbs the Case assigned to this NP so that the lack of Case in this position explains the impossibility for a lexical NP (in fact a lexical anaphor) to occur, and furthermore that it is marked reciprocal by M. How do we identify this empty category? If we apply the functional definition given in (34), we derive that it is a PRO: in (36), for example, its local binder is the the subject children which is in a 6-position. But this PRO needs to receive a 9-role, since it is an argument and must receive it from V under Government. This means that it is governed by V, which is inconsistent with the binding theory. In fact, the problem we are confronted with arises through a lack of terminological precision. Recall LGB's discussion of empty categories. By definition (cf. LGB p.330), x is an empty pronominal (i.e. PRO) if: (37)

a.

x =

b.

x is free or locally A-bound to y with an independent 8-role

NP

[F]

where F is not null, F included in $

where i> is the set of features that characterizes pronouns: pronouns are distinguished from overt anaphors or R-expressions in that the grammatical features of pronouns are drawn solely from

whereas overt anaphors and

R-expressions have some grammatical features that identifies them as nonpronominal, i.e. some feature outside 4>. In other words, the definitions given in (34b) need to be qualified with (37a) above. In particular, it does not apply to the empty element appearing in the Bete reciprocal construction, since it is marked reciprocal (or whatever feature distinguishes reciprocals from reflexives), a feature which certainly does not belong to

This conclusion is intuitively satifactory since

the category in question, rather than being pronominal in any sense, is the exact empty counterpart of an overt anaphor like each other. The existence of such empty categories fills a gap in the range of possible phonologically null elements: if a category is phonologically empty, its content must somehow be recovered, i.e. it is reasonable to require that they be anaphors of some kind. In particular, there is no principled bar to some empty category possessing features outside i> compatible with this anaphoric status. Of course, there is an obvious constraint governing the distribution of these null categories possessing features outside $: their content must

Bete Reciprocals

313

be recoverable from some phonological matrix, e.g. here M, just as the grammatical properties of non-null elements are recovered from their own phonological matrix. Note further that if assumption (37a) appears natural for pronominal elements, there is no indépendant justification for including it in the definition of empty categories in general as is done in LGB. In fact, there is something to be gained in not doing so and in assuming:

(38)

x is an empty category iff it has no phonological matrix

For it follows that we can maintain (39) in full generality:. (39) 3.2.1

If x is an empty category, it is an anaphor Consider again the explanation given for the fact that French reflex-

ives and reciprocals only admit deep subject antecedents. In the light of the preceding discussion, we can see that we have implicitly assumed that the empty category bound by se could become interpreted as PRO in the appropriate environment, i.e. that the empty category does not bear the feature reciprocal or reflexive, because it otherwise would fail to meet (37a). To the extent that this account is successful, it suggests that is is the morpheme se itself which is so marked, and as such is an argument, which therefore assumes the 6-role of the chain (se1, e 1 ). In other words, assuming that the clitic constructions behave uniformly in French (and in the other Romance language), this suggests it is the clitic element which is the argument and assumes the 6-role rather than its empty category. 7 1 3.2.2

The existence of empty categories bearing grammatical features outside

$ - call them $-empty categories as opposed to $-empty categories - casts some doubts on the form of the attempt made in LGB to reduce the Case filter to the 8-criterion. The idea of this attempt is to subordinate 0-assignment to a chain to the requirement that it be Case-marked or headed by PRO (not cosupercripted). This disjunctive condition is in itself suspicious, but even more so given the Bete case of a 4-empty category in reciprocal constructions: this "¡¡-category receives a 9-role from some [—N] element governing it even though it is not Case-marked. So the condition on 6-assignment to chains must be changed to Case-marked chains, chains headed by a (non-cosuperscripted) PRO or chains headed by a t-empty category.

314

Dominique Sportiche

Of course, what is at stake here is the proper formulation of the Visibity Condition. One tentative proposal would be to modify Aoun 1 s proposal and Chomsky's definition of visible and O-features. 22 Suppose we assume that Case is only a phonological feature and does not belong to (a natural assuption that would explain why Case marked traces are terminal elements) and that a chain is visible in PF iff it contains phonological features and a chain is visible in LF (i.e. for purposes of 0-assignment) iff it contains features outside 0, or is headed by (a non-cosuperscripted) PRO. It is important to notice that, if our analysis of P-stranding is correct, the government relation holding between M and the target NP cannot be strengthened to the requirement that the target predicate assign the reciprocal feature to a NP it 6-marks, since in the P-stranding cases, the target NP is governed by V but is assigned its 8-role by P.

NOTES

*Many thanks to N. Chomsky, H. Koopman, J. Kaye, D. Guita, R. Dagbo, B. Doua and Y. Doua, each for his particular help and/or suggestions. This research is supported in part by a grant of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada #410-810503. 1. 2.

Like other Kru languages we have studied, Gbadi is a S INFL O V language with a general rule of Verb movement to INFL, cf Koopman (1979, 1980, 1982a, 1982b) for details. There are four tones in Gbadi: v High, v Mid-high, v Mid, v Low.

3.

M is the following rule: (part) ^ -»• [^-V-l i ]

t

where V is the underlying

(base) form of the target verb and V' is the underlying form of the derived verb., cf. Kaye & Koopman (1982) for discussion. 4. There seems to be some as yet poorly understood cases where it might not be true in nominalised clauses. 5. Note also that the occurence of these postpositions in NP's (e.g. the house on the hill) shows that they also assign 0-roles to their complements. 6. Cf. Koopman (1982b) for relevant discussion of some apparent counterexamples. 7. Note that there exist lexical entries of the form Part-V, which is consistent with the generalisation proposed in Stowell (1981), concerning reanalysis rules. Note also, that there are no surface distinctions between Objective and Oblique Case, as is also the case in other Pstranding languages and has been argued to pave the way to P-stranding in Kayne (1979). 8. Cf. Charette (1982) for more details. 9. D(i) is defined as the first category containing a governor of i and a Subject accessible to i (cf. notes 13 and 18 for definitions,). 10. Cf. LGBp.101 and especially Higginbotham (1981).

Bete Reciprocals

315

11. It is not clear that this possibility really makes sense if Jaeggli and Aoun are right in proposing that pronouns are Case-marked PROs. 12. The same result follows if we assume LGB's formulation of (19) and (20): we would derive that it cannot be governed but needs Case, which we may assume is assigned only under government. 13. x governs y iff they share all the same maximal projections x is a governor iff x is an X in the X system (cf. Aoun & Sportiche (to appear) and LGB, chapter 3). 14. Cf. in particular Rouveret 8. Vergnaud (1980) and Burzio (1981) and the references cited therein. 15. Cf. Borer (1981) for discussion and a survey of the problem. 16. Cf. Burzio (1981) for a survey. In Bete, the class of restructuring verbs includes motion verbs (leave, come...), verbs like finish, begin but not the usual restructuring verbs of the Romance languages like want ... cf. Koopman (1982b). 17. Of course, we ignore the initial difficulty due to the fact that the clitics actually appear on INFL, which is outside V ™ ^ . 18. x is accessible to y iff coindexation of the two does not trigger a configuration of the type . . . ( . . . i . . . . , i.e. does not violate the i-inside i well-formedness condition. 19. This is because PRO cannot be governed, because of the Binding Conditions and variables must be governed because of the Empty category Principle (ECP). Cf. LGB chapter 3 and 4. (more precisely, lexically governed or governed by INFL) . 20. This is essentially a modernized version of an unpublished suggestion by R. Huybrechts. 21. This is also argued for on independant grounds in Aoun (1982). 22. See LGB chapter 6.

REFERENCES Aoun, J., 1982, On the Logical Nature of Anaphoric Processes, unpublished MIT Ph.D. Dissertation. Aoun, J. and D. Sportiche, 1980, "On the Formal Theory of Government", read at the 1981 Glow Conference in Gottingen, to appear in the Linguistic Review. Borer, H., 1981, Parametric Variations in Clitic Configurations, unpublished MIT Ph.D. Dissertation. Burzio, L., 1981, Intransitive Verbs and Italian Auxiliaries, unpublished MIT Ph. D. Dissertation. Charette, M., 1982, "La Construction Associative en Bete Gbadi", read at the 1 3 ^ Conference on African Languages in Montreal, 1982. Chomsky, N., 1981, Lectures on Government and Binding, Foris Publications Dordrecht. Hornstein, N. and A. Weinberg, 1981, "Case Theory and Preposition Stranding", Linguistic Inguiry 12.1.

316

Dominique Sportiche

Higginbotham, J. , 1981, "Reciprocal Interpretation", in Journal of Linguistic Research 1. Kaye, J. and H. Koopman, 1982, "Les Tons du Systeme Verbal en Gbadi" read at the 1 3 ^ Conference on African Languages in Montreal, 1982. Kayne, R., 1979, "Case Marking and LF", unpublished, Universite de Paris VIII. Kayne, R., 1981, "ECP Extensions", in Linguistic Inguiry 12.1. Koopman, H., 1979, "The Internal Structure of Aux in Dida", in Montreal Working Papers 13. Koopman, H., 1980, "Resumptive Pronouns in Subject Position: Subject/Object Asymmetries in Vata", read at the 1980 GLOW Conference in Nijmegen. Koopman, H., 1982a, "Verb Movement", read at the 1982 GLOW Conference in Paris. Koopman, H., 1982b, "Théorie X et Restructuration", read at the 13 t h Conference on African Languages in Montreal, 1982. Koopman, H. and D. Sportiche, 1981, "The Bijection Principle", to appear in the Linguistic Review. Riemsdijk, H. van, 1978, A Case Study in Syntactic Markedness, Foris Publications, Dordrecht. Rouveret, A. and J.R. Vergnaud, 1980, "Specifying Reference to the Subject", in Linguistic Inguiry 11.1. Williams, E., 1981, "Argument Structure and Morphology", in the Linguistic Review 1.

Chapter 20

Dynamique et Équilibre du Système des Pronominaux Possessifs en Banda-linda France Cloarec-Heiss

La p o s s e s s i o n e s t exprimée au sein du syntagme nominal

(SN) par une r e l a -

t i o n de deux t y p e s d i f f é r e n t s s e l o n que l e c e n t r e de syntagme e s t

syntaxi-

quement autonome ou non.

1.

1.1

LES ÉLÉMENTS DU SN

Les

centres

Pour l a compréhension de l ' e x p o s é ,

il

e s t n é c e s s a i r e de s a v o i r que

les

pronominaux p o s s e s s i f s peuvent déterminer - au s e i n du SN -

+ un nominal animé

(NA) k5/ë "homme"

+ un nominal inanimé

( N I ) àndà

"case"

+ un nominoxde animé

(NdA) àbâ

"père"

+ un nominoide inanimé

Sont a p p e l é s nominaux,

(Ndl) kûmù " t ê t e " .

l e s termes autonomes, c ' e s t - à - d i r e

ceux qui peuvent

accéder t e l s q u e l s à l ' é n o n c é :

kô/ë nâ //homme/acc.+vient//

Sont a p p e l é s nominoïdes,

"un homme v i e n t "

l e s termes non autonomes, c ' e s t - à - d i r e

d o i v e n t ê t r e d é t e r m i n é s , - l e déterminant

ceux qui

( d t ) pouvant ê t r e l e pronominal

p o s s e s s i f - , pour accéder à l ' é n o n c é :

*àbâ nâ e s t aussi i m p o s s i b l e que * " p è r e de v i e n t " en f r a n ç a i s .

On t r o u v e

àbâ m§ nâ "mon p è r e v i e n t " , par exemple z/père de|moi/acc. + v i e n t / /

320

France Cloarec-Heiss

Je fais apparaître cette dépendance syntaxique dans le mot-à-mot /père de|, car tout indique que, dans cette langue, c'est la relation génitive sémantiquement impliquée dans le lexème nominoide (type àbâ), lui-même, qui en fait un terme syntaxiquement dépendant. On ne peut pas être "père" en soi, on est nécessairement "père de quelqu'un". Le même raisonnement s'applique aux nominoïdes inanimés (type kûmù "tête"). 1.2

Les pronominaux possessifs

Le système des pronominaux susceptible de déterminer ces nominaux ou nominoide s est le suivant:

Singulier

1°

më

2°

za

Pluriel " ?á

(inclusif)

?à

(exclusif)

-zé

(duel)

.

?ë

non-per-

f

yë

-n je

sonne

[

-ne

àlànë (discours indirect ou logophoriques)

(discours direct)

J'ai été amenée à considérer, pour des raisons qui débordent en partie le cadre de cet exposé, qu'il existait deux sous-systèmes de pronominaux possessifs (ce sous-système se retrouvant au sein des autres paradigmes de pronominaux) : -l'un dit personnel: 1° et 2° personne, -l'autre dit non-personnel correspondant à ce qu'il est convenu d'appeler la 3 ème personne. Non-personnel doit être entendu ici, dans le sens que Benvéniste a proposé 1 , comme le pronom qui réfère à la non-personne dans le cadre de la corrélation de personnalité qui oppose personne + (1° et 2°) à personne - (3°) - en tant que participant au discours à l'absent de la situation d'énonciation. On peut également présenter l'ensemble du système de la façon suivante:

321

Pronominaux Possessifs

non-personne Sg

ma

z9 *• logophoriques àlànë -n]e

Participants au discours

2.

Absents du discours

LE SN DE POSSESSION A DETERMINANT PRONOMINAL

2.1

SN à déterminant pronominal personnel

Le SN dont le déterminant est un pronominal personnel se construit sur le même modèle que celui dont le dt est un nominal. Il présente des structures différentes selon que le centre est autonome ou non. Centre autonome Sgbèlà na mâ /enfant|de|moi/

"mon enfant"

ègbèlè né kô/ë /enfant|de|homme/

"l'enfant de l'homme"

àndà né mB /case|de|moi/ àndà nS kô/ë /case|de|homme/

ma case "la case de l'homme"

Centre non autonome àbâ m3 /père de| moi/

mon pere

àbâ kô/ë /père de|homme/

"le père de l'homme"

kûmù në /tête de|moi/

"ma tête"

kûmù kô/ë /tête de|homme/

"la tête de l'homme"

322

France

Cloarec-Heiss

Dans tous ces SN, le pronominal possessif commute

avec le nominal. Un SN

dont le centre est autonome requiert, pour exprimer la possession, une marque: le connectif né. Un SN dont le centre n'est pas autonome ne peut pas présenter cette marque que je considère comme incluse dans le lexème:

SN =

2.2

f Nominal + n3 ") V . I Nominoide J

SN à déterminant

pronominal

non

, + pronominal possessif

personnel

Pour les SN dont le dt est un pronominal possessif non personnel,

la

structure est identique à celles qui sont décrites ci-dessus, mais il y a des restrictions d'emploi importantes et problématiques. L'usage du pronominal possessif yë est réservé aux SN dont le centre est un NA

(kôfë "homme") , un NI (àndà "case") ou un Ndl

(kumù "tête") , yë

renvoyant

nécessairement à un possesseur animé. En effet, comme le possesseur qui dit "je" ou "tu", le possesseur impliqué par yë, qui est hors discours, est dans cette langue nécessairement un

animé.

NA

9gb3lè n3 yë /enfant|de|lui/

"son enfant"

NI

àndà n 3 yë /case|de|lui/

"sa case"

Ndl

kumù yë /tête de|lui/

"sa tête"

NdA

*àbâ y5

est

impossible

Il est très intéressant d'observer ce qui se passe lorsque le nominoïde objet de possession et le possesseur appartiennent tous les deux à la même

caté-

gorie sémantique: ils sont tous les deux animés ou bien inanimés. Dans ces cas, le rapport possédé/possesseur est exprimé par un terme qui se trouve être formellement identique au déterminatif nominal proximativement

(DN)

(c'est-à-dire

ap-

l'article défini) nS "le, la, les".

NominoIde: po s sédé

possesseur

Inanimé

Animé

Inanimé

Inanimé

Animé

Animé

élément référant au possesseur yë 1 i

nè

Pronominaux

323

Possessifs

Le problème est de savoir s'il s'agit récellement d'un rapport de possession et de définir le statut linguistique du

apparaissant dans ces SN.

àbâ n3

"son père"

kumù nS

"son toit" (en parlant d'une case)

NB: dans le dernier exemple, la présence de nS impliquant que ce nS renvoie à un terme de la même catégorie inanimée que kumù, kumù ne peut plus signifier que: "partie haute de quelque chose d'inanimé", donc, selon le sens du dt: "toit, sommet, source etc...".

3.

POSSESSION OU DEFINITION: HYPOTHESES DIACHRONIOUES

Sur l'identité du nB DN et du nà attesté comme dt de nominoîde, ou sur leur filiation, on peut faire trois hypothèses:

hypothèse n°1 nè déterminant nécessaire des nominoîdes de la non-personne est "différent" du DN n3. Il y aurait simple homonymie: 1 = "lui, elle, cela" 2 = "le, la, les"

hypothèse n°2 Les deux nè sont deux occurrences d'un même morphème, ce qui implique qu'il n'existe pas de marque de possession de la non-personne. n8 qui est expansif (i.e. non nécessaire) à la 1° et 2° personne serait requis dans le cas de la non-personne pour "autonomiser" le nominoîde.

Centre

Pr. pos.

DN

1°

àbâ

m3

nà

"mon père en question"

2°

àbâ

zè

nè

-> "ton père en question"

nà

V s o n père"

SN nécessaire

SN expansif NP

àbâ

SN nécessaire

0

324

France Cloarec-Heiss

Syntaxiquement, la "dépendance" du nominoide pourrait être à l'origine de la collusion des deux paradigmes: Pos. pr. et DN au niveau de la personne qui est sous spécifiée (i.e. non présente à la situation d1énonciation). Sémantiquement, cette explication est relativement satisfaisante dans la mesure où m§ "(de) moi" et zà "(de) toi" renvoient sans ambiquxté aux deux participants du discours. Ils peuvent être sur-spécifiés par la postposition du DN n3, mais la possibilité est peu utilisée. En revanche, ce qui ne serait que possible pour la 1° et 2° personne, serait nécessaire syntaxiquement et sémantiquement pour la non-personne. La glose la plus exacte de àbâ nB serait "le père en question, celui qui n'est ni le tien ni le mien donc celui d'un autre". Cette hypothèse implique que nà n'est pas la marque d'une possession mais celle d'une définition et qu'il renvoie à "père" et non au possesseur de père: àbâ nà t 1

*àbâ nà i

possesseur 1 *

hypothèse n° 3 n3 DN serait un ancien substitut de nominal, un pro-nom (au sens étymologique du terme) qui, du fait de sa fréquente apparition en position de dt postposé au nominal sur le modèle: àndà célàgô /case|village/

"une case de village"

àndà nà */case|celle-ci/

"la case"

aurait acquis le statut de DN après les nominaux et conservé son statut de pronom - référant à un possesseur spécifié dans le discours - dans la relation génitive impliquée par les nominoldes nominal centre

Tnominal IDN dt

_

¿g détermination non possessive

Pronominaux

tnominal 1 pro-nominal

nominoide + centre àbâ /père de

1 '

kô/i homme/

àbâ /père de

| |

n3 celui-ci/

kumù /tête de

= relation de détermination possessive impliquée par le centre

dt

kumù /tête de

4.

325

Possessifs

| | 1

—* "le père d'un homme" ) "le père de celui-ci = son père"

kô/ë homme/

—> "la tête d'un homme"

n3 cela/

—> "la tête de cela = son toit, son sommet etc..."

INTERPRETATION

Je rejette l'hypothèse n°l d'une part, parce que, de façon générale, et en linguistique en particulier, je ne crois pas au hasard, d'autre part parce o que la parenté entre l'article défini et le pronom possessif de 3

personne

du singulier a été souligné dans bien d'autres langues: abkhaze, oubyk (Caucase NO), indonésien et arménien moderne par exemple. 2 Je rejette également l'hypothèse n°2 malgré ses avantages. Elle permettait notamment d'expliquer pourquoi n3 = DN n'est pas possible après le connectif né exprimant la possession aliénable alors que les pronominaux possessifs sont attestés: àndà nS yë /case de lui/

"sa case"

*àgbàlà né nè

Elle présente l'inconvénient de ne pas prendre en compte la relation de dépendance sémantique et syntaxique impliquée par la catégorie des nominoides. Dans àbâ nS, si

renvoie au même personnage que àbâ en le définissant,

la relation génitive n'est pas saturée: * 3 àbâ n3 /père de|le/ i

t

326

France Cloarec-Heiss

C'est donc en l'état actuel de mes connaissances, l'hypothèse n°3 qui sera retenue. Cette interprétation est confortée par deux faits importants: a. n3 a, par ailleurs dans la langue, de nombreux autres emplois qui étayent l'hypothèse de son origine pronominale. Il peut être notamment: - le seul déterminant grammatical possible des nominoides qualificatifs et numéraux dans le cadre du SN nécessaire où il ne commute qu'avec des nominaux âgbô nè

"le grand"

bï/i nà

"le deuxième"

âgbô kô/ë

"le grand homme"

bî/i kô/ë

"le deuxième homme"

-un substitut de nominal après un fonctionnel:

dè nè

"avec (la chose en question)"

da Sgbàla

"avec un enfant"

b. dans les cas d'expansion grammaticale simple du SN à centre nominoide, on trouve:

*

f àbâ m§ nè t I

je

"mon père en question"

où ns renvoie à père et m§ renvoie à "je" possesseur de père, mais nous trouvons également:

€—;

àbâ nSj n9j ns, ns^ t où

*

possesseur hors discours "son père en question"

r

renvoie à père et

renvoie au possesseur de père qui est hors dis-

Concluslon A mon avis, la succession possible de nà^ et nè^ prouve que nè^, en s'inscrivant dans un paradigme de pronominaux possessifs doit maintenant - en synchronie - être distingué, du point de vue catégoriel, du nS^ DN, mais qu'à l'origine, ils étaient un seul et même terme. Le système des pronoms possessifs de la non personne présente donc un dédoublement pour le singulier, dédoublement qui n'est pas attesté pour le

Pronominaux

327

Possessifs

pluriel ni pour le discours indirect. Il est donc plus conforme à la réalité synchronique d'en présenter le tableau suivant:

non-personne SG.

m3 logophorique s àlànë

Pl.

Participants au discours

-nje Absents du discours

NOTES

1.

2.

Emile Benvéniste, Structure des relations de personne dans le verbe, BSLP XLIII (1946), T.l, réédité dans Problèmes de linguistique générale, Paris, 1966, p.225-236. Données et références citées par Denis Creissels (1979): Les Constructions dites possessives, étude de linguistique générale et de typologie linguistique T.l, p.209-216 (exemplaire ronéotypé).

Chapter 21

The Tense System in Ibibio Okon E. Essien

1.

INTRODUCTION The grammatical category of tense relates the time of an action, event or

state of affairs (hereafter referred to as the situation) to the time an utterance is made concerning the situation, the time of the utterance being the present moment (cf. Lyons 1968: 304f and Comrie 1976: 2f). Sometimes the time of the situation is related to a time other than the moment of speaking. The first kind of time relationship, which is clearly deictic, since it locates the time of a situation to the time of the speech act of an individual, is referred to as absolute tense. The second kind of time relationship, which is non-deictic and which, in the opinion of Lyons (1977: 689) is not easy to distinguish from the category of aspect, is referred to as secondary tense. The assumption here is that there are formal operators that a language may use to indicate those time relationships. Languages that use such formal operators "commonly, though not universally, realized in morphological variations of the verb" (Lyons 1977: 678) are described in Lyon's words as tensed. Since Ibibio uses such formal operators to relate the time of the situation referred to in a sentence to the moment of speaking, the language clearly has tense in the absolute sense. This paper attempts to describe and analyse the tense system (in the absolute sense) of Ibibio (spoken by about four million people in the Cross River State of Nigeria). The paper also introduces the notion of syntactic conditioning to account for the occurrence of one or the other allomorph of the three tense morphemes or operators. Finally it criticizes a previous treatment of these allomorphs by Kaufman (1968).

2.

THE TENSE SYSTEM AND THE MORPHEMES: The Ibibio tense system appears to correspond to the traditional dis-

tinctions of past, present and future which are generally associated with

330

Okon E. Essien

tense and which Lyons (1977: 677f) severely criticises. Facts and arguments will be presented to show that although the present tense is not as straightforward as the other tenses, Ibibio nevertheless has at least an overt present tense marker which appears to perform functions other than that of indicating that the time of the situation and that of speaking are simultaneous. Perhaps we should remind ourselves that a sentence in the past tense relates the time of a situation before the moment of speaking, a sentence in the present locates the time of the situation as being simultaneous with the moment of speaking, while a sentence in the future tense locates the time of the situation as being subsequent to the moment of speaking. Perhaps we should first of all deal with the past and future tenses, which appear to be more straightforward, and then examine the present tense in the light of these two tenses. To facilitate our descriptions, we will use the following abbreviations, when the need arises: C (for Concord), Past (for Past tense), Fut (for Future tense), Pres (for Present tense), Q (for Question) , NEG (for negative) and EMPH (for Emphasis). Optional items are enclosed in brackets. 2.1

The past tense-. This tense has two allomorphs. But these allomorphs are neither phonolo-

gically nor morphologically conditioned in the ordinary senses in which these notions are used and understood in the linguistic literature. Consider the following examples:1

(1)

a. Ime am&kop : Ime C+Past+hear = 'Ime heard' b. (Nte) Ime amakop? : Q Ime C+Past+hear = Did Ime hear?

The past tense marker ma- occurs in sentences or clauses without any form of negation, emphasis (or contrast), marked modality, or Wh-question (in contrast with Yes/No question). Such a sentence contains a simple affirmation, or asks a question that requires the answer Yes or No. We shall refer to such questions as Yes/No questions. We may then say that the Ma- allomorph of the past tense morpheme occurs in a simple, positive, neutral and modally unmarked sentence that contains a simple affirmation, or asks a yes/no question. Let us refer to such a sentence as Type I sentence. For the purpose of this paper, we assume that simple declarative sentences as well as yes/no questions are modally neutral.

The Tense System of Ibibio

331

Ma- occurs as a prefix and carries the concord marker, which is a vowel in all persons except the first person singular. This latter person requires a nasal which is homoganic with the following consonant, as we shall see later. The concord (or personal) prefixes for the other persons are a, a, i, e, and e for the 2nd person singular, 3rd person singular, 1st person plural, 2nd person plural and 3rd person plural, respectively. The other allomorph of the past tense morpheme ke- occurs in a. negative sentences; b. sentences which contrast or emphasize certain elements of the sentence; c. modally marked sentences; d. question sentences that cannot be answered correctly by Yes or No - we refer to such sentences as Wh-question sentences. We refer to sentences of (a-d) types as Type II sentences. Now consider the following examples, which are instances of a-d types of sentences, respectively. (2)

a. Ime ikikoppo : Ime C+Past+hear+NEG = 'Ime did not hear' b. Ime akekop : 'EMPH2 Ime C+Past+hear = 'It was Ime (not any other person) who heard' c. Akpena Ime akekop : Ought Ime C+Past+hear = 'Ime ought to have heard' d. Anie (awo) akekop? : Who person+C+Past+hear = 'Who heard?'

Observe that the vowel of ke- harmonizes to the concord or personal marker which becomes obligatorily /i-/ in negation in all persons except the first person singular, which still remains a nasal, and the second person singular, which becomes /u-/. In that case the vowel of ke- becomes [u], as the following examples show: (2)

e. (Afo) ukukoppo : You C+Past+hear + NEG = 'You did not hear'

We should point out that relative construction is one of the ways of contrasting or emphasizing an item in a sentence in Ibibio. Consider the following examples:

332

(3)

Okon E. Essien

a. Ami rido awo adika : 'I am the one who will go' b. (Ami) nyem line akefexeke : 'I want the girl who ran away (not any other person)1 c. Wet awo akedixe mi : 'Write the person who came here (not the one who did not come, e.g.)1

We should also point out that there appears to be a modally marked kind of sentence which selects ma-, rather than the ke- allomorph. Such a sentence occurs with the free morpheme kan, which is translated as the English modal can. Consider the following examples: (4)

a. (Ami) mm&kan Iwat mmoto : I C+Past+can drive a car = 'I could drive a car1

Where Jean bears the tense marker. However, it is arguable whether kan is really a modal in Ibibio, since it can occur independently and is translatable as be able in English. Consider the following example: (4)

b. Mmakan Ime : C+Past+can Ime = 'I was more able than Ime1 = "I had more ability than Ime"

(4a) can therefore be analysed as a compound: (5)

Mmakan - mmawat mmoto : 'I was able - I could drive a car1

Kan wat : 'be able - drive' can therefore best be regarded as a serial verb, which Ibibio has in abundance, rather than a modally marked verb. In that case (4a) is not really a counter-example, since the speaker in this example is asserting that he had the ability and he could drive the car. So assuming that sentences in (2a), (2b), (2c) and (2d) contain categories such as NEG, EMPH, MOD and WH in their underlying sources respectively, we claim that each of these categories in the sentence is responsible for the phonetic shape that the past tense morpheme takes ultimately. In other words, the selection of the ice-past tense allomorph depends on the presence of any of these categories. No grammatical sentence in the past tense with any of these categories allows the ma- allomorph. Thus the following sentences are grossly ungrammatical:

The Tense System of Ibibio (6)

a. *Ime amakoppo : 'Ime did not hear' b. *Ime amakop

: 'Ime (not any one else) heard'

c. *Akpena Ime amakop : 'Ime ought to have heard' d. *Anie (awo) amakop : 'who heard' We shall return to the past tense allomorphs later. For the moment, let us turn to the future tense. 2.2

The future tense:

Like the past tense, the future tense has two allomorphs, basically. Very interestingly, the use of ya- and di- parallel the use of ma- and kein the past respectively. In other words, ya- occurs in Type I sentences while di- occurs in Type II sentences. The examples in (7) are sentences of Type I while those in (8) are sentences of Type II, with ya- and di- respectively.

(7)

a. Anye äyäköp : He C+Fut+hear = 'He will hear' b. (Nte) Ükö äyäköp : Q Uko C+Fut+hear = 'Will Uko hear'

(8)

a. Anye idlköppö : He C+Fut+hear+NEG = 'He will not hear' b. Ükö ädlköp : EMPH Uko C+Fut+hear = 'uko is the one who will hear' c. Akpänäm nnyin idika : Perhaps we C+Fut+go = 'Perhaps we will go' d. Änie (äwö) ädikä : Who person C+Fut+go = 'Who will go?'

In Ibibio, some modal words or markers do not occur with a future tense, as the ungrammaticality of the following examples shows: (9)

a. *Akpena nnyin idibre tenisi udua afen : 'We ought to play tennis next week' b. *Ana Uko adika utom udua afen : 'Uko will have to go to work next week1

The examples in (9) are saved by dropping the future tense marker di-, as the grammatically of (10) shows: (10)

a. Akpena nnyin ibr§ tenisi udua afen : 'We ought to play tennis next week'

333

334

Okon E. Essien b. Ana Uko aka utom udua afen : 'Uko will have to go to work next week1 So with certain modal words futurity is indicated only by the use of time

adverbs. If there are no such adverbs, then sentences such as those in (10), with such modal words, are ambiquous between a present interpretation and a future interpretation. In other words (11a,b) are ambiguous sentences.

(11)

a. Akpena nnyin ibre tenisi : 'We ought to play tennis' b. Ana Uko aka utom : 'Uko has to go to work'

Since forms of verbs such as those in (11), as we shall see later, in certain contexts serve as one of the present tense forms, we say that both the present tense and the future tense are neutralized in some modally marked sentences. The behaviour of the future tense in relation to some modally marked sentences in Ibibio is hardly surprising in the light of the following remark by Lyons (1977: 677): 'futurity is never a purely temporal concept. It necessarily includes an element of prediction or some related modal'. Ibibio makes a distinction between immediate future (or what Lyons (1968: 305-306) would call proximate) and the non-immediate or indefinite future. Consider the following examples: (12)

a. Edet ayaka : 'Edet C+Fut+go = Edet will go b. Edet ayaki : 'Edet C+Fut+go 'Edet will go (very soon)'

Obeserve that the difference between ya- in (12a) (and all sentences in the indefinite future) and ya- (all sentence with the proximate future) is tonal. Ya- has a rising tone while ya has a falling tone. One syntactic difference between (12a) and (12b) is that whereas (12b) accepts a time adverb like idaxami: 'now' indicating proximity to the speaker, (12a) does not, as the ungrammaticality of (13a) shows: (13)

a. *Edet ayaka idaxami ; 'Edet will go now' b.

Edet ayaka idaxami : 'Edet will go now'

Similarly, (12b) does not accept an adverbial expression indicating time remoteness from the speaker, whereas (12a) does, as (14) show:

The Tense (14)

a.

System of Ibibio

335

Edet ayaka isua ita ke iso : 'Edet will go in three years time'

b. *Edet ayaka isua ita ke Iso : 'Edet will go in three years time1 The example is (14b) may, however, be grammatical if, in the mind of the speaker, three years is a short period - almost like now. With the di- allomorph of the future tense the distinction between proximate and non-proximate future is neutralized. Thus (15) can hold either in the near or remote future. (15)

Anie adlwet? : Who C+Fut+Write = 'Who will write'

So in actual fact the future tense has more than two allomorphs. 2.3

The present tense:

The present tense is not as straightforward as the two tenses just described. Some people may even wonder whether it really exists in Ibibio. Our position is that although certain interpretations of me-, which we regard as a present tense morph, may make it look like a perfect aspect morph similar to the English have/has, there are more compelling syntactic and semantic reasons to analyse me- as a present tense morph rather than as a perfect aspect or a past tense morph. Let us begin with sentences in which me- behaves like English have/has in the so-called perfect sentences.

(16)

a. (Ami) mmedep mmoto : I C+me+buy a car = 'I have bought a car' b. (Afo) amefexe : You C+me+escape = 'You have escaped'

In sentences such as those in (16) me- indicates that an action or event which has already taken place not long ago, is of continuing present relevance. This is quite similar to the way many sentences with have/has in the present tense are understood in English. It is clear from the examples in (16) that the time of the situation and the time of the utterance are not simultaneous. In that case, me- cannot strictly be said to perform a present tense function, even though the events in those examples still have a present relevance. Since the action has taken place before the moment of speaking, though not long ago, it seems plausible to suggest that me- is a sort of past tense marker, albeit a proximate past -

336

Okon E. Essien

similar to the proximate future discussed in 2.2 above. Such an analysis of me- would be similar to the analysis of the have morpheme and past in English by Huddleston (1976: 221-222) as having "a common underlying element, a deep past tense element". However, the use of me- to perform a past tense function can only be one function for what is essentially a present tense marker, for me- is amenable to this interpretation only in non-stative verbs. However, with stative verbs, which in Ibibio include the so-called verbal adjectives, the present tense function of me- is very clear. Consider the following examples: (17)

a.

Mmmetoiyo awo ado : C+me+remember the man = 'I remember that man'

b. (Ndufo) emediogo Ima : You (pi) C+me+know Ima = 'You know Ima' (18)

a.

Mmeyaiya : C+me+pretty = 'I'm pretty'

b.

Emesimme : C+me+stupid = 'You (pi) are stupid'

Where (17) contain ordinary stative verbs while (18) contain the so-called verbal adjectives. In these examples, there is no doubt that the time of the situation is simultaneous with the moment of the utterance. Clearly in (17) the time of remembering the man, or the time of knowing Ima coincides with the moment of speaking. Similarly, in (18), the state of being pretty or stupid coincides with the moment of speaking, since this state is a characteristic that lasts for some time. In these instances, therefore, me- clearly performs the present tense function. The states in (17) and (18) can also hold in the past, as (19) and (20) show, and in the future, as (21) and (22) show: (19)

a.

MmStoIyo awo ado : C+Past+remember the man = 'I remembered the man'

b. (Ndufo) emaedidrjo ima : You C+past+know Ima = 'You knew Ima'

(20)

(21)

a.

Mmayaiya : C+Past+pretty = 'I was pretty'

b.

Emaesimme : C+Past+stupid = 'You were stupid'

a.

Nyatoiyo awo ado : C+Fut+remember = 'I will remember the man'

b. (Ndufo) eyadidrjo ima : C+Fut+know Ima = 'You will know Ima'

The Tense System of Ibibio (22)

a.

NySyaiya : C+Fut+pretty = 'I will be pretty'

b.

EycCsimme : C+Fut+stupid = 'You will be stupid'

337

From the examples in (17-22), then, me- parallels the past tense allomorph ma- and the future tense allomorph ya- (or ya-), and the three morphs me-, ma- and ya- perform the present tense, past tense and future tense functions respectively. The occurrence of me- as a present tense morph also parallels ma- and ya- as past tense and future tense morphs respectively in other environments. Consider the co-occurences of each of these three morphs with the habitual aspect si-.

(23)

a.

Mmesika do : C+Pres+si+go there = 'I go there from time to time'

b.

Mmasika do : C+Past+si+go there = 'I used to go there'

c.

Nyasika do : C+Fut+si+go there = 'I will be going there from time to time'

Once again in (23a), even with a non-stative verb, me- performs a present tense function. Let us assume that me- indicates the present tense, at least in one of its functions. However, there are instances of situations that are simultaneous with the moment of speaking but whose verbs have no me-. Consider the following examples:

(24)

a.

Nnyam bie : C+sell beer = 'I am selling/I sell beer (not spirits, cars, books, etc)'

b.

Nkaxa utom dlon : C+go+NEG yet = 'I have not gone to work yet'

c.

Ana aka : must C+go = 'You must go'

d.

Nka uke? : C+go where? = 'Where am I going'

The examples in (24) clearly show that me- is in fact a tense marker comparable to ma- and ya-, the past and future allomorphs respectively. Observe that it is precisely in those sentence types, i.e. Type II, in which the other allomorphs of the past tense and future tense morphemes ke and di respectively, occur, that the present tense is realized as a zero morph. A corollary of this is that me- occurs in Type I sentences. But the examples in (17) and (18) are tokens of Type I sentences - the sort of sentences in which that present tense morph is supposed to occur.

338

Okon E. Essien

What we have said about the occurrence of the tense allomorphs can be expressed in the following equation showing their distributional equivalence: Me-. 0 what ma: ke and ya: di (me is to 0 what ma is to ke and ya is to di). In other words, the syntactic distribution of me- in sentences shows clearly that it is a tense morph. Our analysis of the present tense as having either the morph me- or a zero morph explains why universal truths and proverbs are generally expressed in sentences with no overt tense morph. Consider the following examples: (25)

a.

Ibaan esiman ay-in : Women C+si+give birth to children = 'Women are the ones who give birth to children'

b.

Aduok ntor) ke ntor) akene : Who pours dust that the dust C+trail = 'It is the one (not anyone else) who pours dust that the dust trails'

Both (25a) and (25b) contain some form of emphasis. Naturally, such sentences belong to the Type II group of sentences. Naturally, such sentences would select the zero morph of the present tense, which is the tense used to express universal truths or proverbs. Neither the past tense nor the future tense can be used to express such situations in Ibibio. In general in Ibibio universal truths and proverbs contain some form of emphasis or contrast. This then explains why universal truths and proverbs occur with no overt tense marker. In their deep structures, however, there is an underlying present tense. Such a present tense becomes phonologically zero because of the presence of emphasis, which most if not all, such sentences have. However, emphasis apart, the 3rd person (which is commonly the subject of universal truths or proverbs) has lost the present tense morph me-, which is a normal change in languages. That means with the 3rd person, me- does not occur in Type I sentences, as expected. Consider the following examples, which would obviously contain me-, if the person were /- 3rd Person / (c.f. the examples in 17). (26)

a.

Uko ayaiya : Uko C+hansome = 'Uko is handsome'

b.

Ammo esimme : they C+stupid = 'They are stupid'

There is evidence from Efik, a very closely related language, which shows that historically me- also occurred in Ibibio in the 3rd person. There is also evidence from Ibibio itself that even the 2nd person singular may loose

The Tense System of Ibibio me- as a present tense marker. Consider the following examples: (27)

a. (Afo) airanedio05 ibat : You (sg) C+Pres+know mathematics = 'You know mathematics' b. (Afo) adidqo ibat : You C+Pres+know mathematics = 'You know mathematics1

Where (27a) with me- and (27b) without me- are exact paraphrases of each other. This disgression is intended to emphasize that the fact that the verbs in the 3rd person in the present tense occur on the surface without an overt tense marker does not necessarily mean that such verbs are tenseless in the underlying structure. Now that we have discussed the three tenses, let us recapitulate: (1) The tense system of Ibibio has a three-way contrast: past, present and future. (2) The past tense is represented by the allomorphs ma- and ke-, the occurrence of which is determined by certain grammatical categories in the sentence. (3) The future tense is represented by yei/ya" and di, the occurrence of which is determined by the same set of grammatical categories that determine the occurrence of the past tense allomorphs ma- and kere spectively. (4) The present tense is represented by me- and a zero allomorph. Interestingly, the same set of categories that determine the occurrence of ma- and y&/ya also determine the occurrence of me-, and the same set of categories that determine the occurrence of ke- and di- also determine the occurrence of the phonologically zero allomorph of the present tense. (5) The me- allomorph of the present tense also performs a proximate past tense function in non-stative verbs.

3.

CONDITIONING OF THE TENSE ALLOMORPHS: It should be obvious by now that the occurrence of the allomorphs of the

past, present and future tenses is not phonologically or morphologically determined. Phonological conditioning of allomorphs of a morpheme, as we know, is caused by the presence of one sound or another when morphemes occur in a sequence. Thus the plural morpheme in English, for example, becomes when such a morpheme occurs as a suffix with certain roots or stems like

339

340

Okon E. Essien

/dog/ ending in a voiced segment (ignoring other details). In morphological (or grammatical, as it is sometimes referred to) conditioning on the other hand, "the presence of one variant or another depends entirely on the particular morphemes which forms their context or environment", (Matthews 1974:91). Thus, for example, "the nasal alternants of the PAST PARTICIPLE morpheme (The -en of begotten or swollen) simply appears when certain individual morphemes such as SWELL or BEGET, precede them", (Matthews 1974:91). The occurrence of one or the other of the allomorphs described above is not determined by either of the above conditioning, taking a purely morphological approach. There is nothing in the phonological structure of the verb kdp: 'hear', for example, to explain why ma- or ya- should occur with it, as the past or future tense marker. Nor is ma- or ya- restricted to any particular verbal morpheme (or morphemes such as the past participle morpheme en of begotten or swollen in English). Yet the occurrence of ma- or ya-, for example, is not haphazard: it is systematic. In that case, it is the responsibility of the linguist to explain this system. The situation in which the tense allomorphs in Ibibio occur is different from either of the two kinds of familiar conditioning outlined above, we restate. To be sure, the two kinds of conditioning of the occurrence of allomorphs of morphemes occur in Ibibio. For example, the first person singular concord morpheme has several allomorphs which are phonologically determined by the following consonant in the familiar 'homorganic' assimilation). From the morphological conditioning stand point, the plural of anwaan: 'woman' as ibaan: 'women' is a good example of such conditioning, since a majority of nouns do not form their plurals in the way done by the noun anwaan. The occurrence of one or the other of the allomorphs of the tense morphemes discussed above is systematic, depending on the presence or absence of certain grammatical categories. These categories are NEG, EMPH, MOD (Mood) and Wh. It is precisely in sentences in which the native speaker intuitively knows that these categories are present that the allomorphs ke-, di- and 0 of the past, future and present tenses respectively occur. On the other hand, sentences in which these categories are not present, the native speaker automatically selects the ma-, ya- and me- of these tenses, respectively. Since NEG, EMPH, MOD and Wh are syntactic categories in Ibibio, we are compelled to conclude that the allomorphs of the tense morphemes in Ibibio are syntactically motivated. Some people may object to our analysis on the ground that there is no direct relationship between syntax and phonology, as there is, for example,

The Tense System of Ibibio between morphology. But clearly the distinction between J and me, we and us, he and him, for example in English, has to do with the syntactic function performed by these pronouns (e.g.) as subject or object, or preceded by a preposition, for example). In Ibibio too, there are similar differences in the phonological structure of these pronouns, depending on the syntactic functions also. Thus the language has ami for I and miin for me, a/o for you as object, for example. Somewhere along the line in the entire grammar, English phonology, as well as Ibibio phonology will have to take the role of syntax into consideration in determing the sound shapes of these pronouns. In fact, the fact that the transformational theory does not even recognize the level of morphology as different from syntax necessarily brings syntax closer to phonology, in our opinion. Secondly, I am sure that syntactic features such as /+N/ and /+V/ are useful, in English phonology, in determining where to place the primary stress in such words as increase, export, comment, etc. More generally, generative phonologists require grammatical categories such as VP, V, NP, N, ADJ, etc. as well as syntactic features such as ± masculine, ± sg. etc. in phonological representations. "Any of these syntactic features may affect the operation of phonological rules", according to Sommerstein (1977: 153). Moreover, what these phonologists (i.e. generative) call 'readjustment rules' at the phonological level "relate syntax to phonology making various other modifications in the surface structure" according to Chomsky and Halle (1968: 10). In fact such rules "may also construct new feature matrices for certain strings of lexical and grammatical formatives" (Chomsky and Halle 1968: 10). I suppose what we have given above from the actual facts of language and from theories and practices show that syntax sometimes influences the phonology of a language. In any case, language is an integrated system.

4.

COMPARISON WITH A PREVIOUS ANALYSIS: A previous analysis of Ibibio grammar by Kaufman (1968) failed to come to

grips with the tense system of Ibibio, for she regards me- and ke- (p.127) as 'construction makers'. Me-, for her is a perfective aspect, while ke- is past tense. Given the functions of the perfective and the perfect by Comrie (1976: 16f and 52f) , clearly me- performs a perfect function, rather than a perfective function.

341

342

Okon E. Essien

However, that aside, Kaufman sees the differences between me- and ke-, and ya and di as essentially one of contrast versus neutrality. Consider what she has said (p.218): Ibibio verb constructions are either neutral or contrastive. Neutral constructions are used when there is no particular emphasis placed on any part of the sentence in which the verb occurs. Constrastive constructions are used in three contexts: first, when either subject or a complement of the verb is emphasized; second, in questions containing an interrogative word; third, in relative sentences and some dependent sentences types. To begin with, Kaufman's list of sentence types in which the so-called contrastive markers occur is by no means exhaustive. For, as we have shown above, the so-called contrastive markers occur not only in contrastive or emphatic sentences but also in modally marked and negative sentences which have no underlying emphasis. For example, (28b) is a simple negation of (28a) with no contrast or emphasis intended whatsoever, yet it contains the so-called contrastive marker.

(28)

a. Nne ado amayaiya : 'The girl was pretty' b. Nne ado ikiyaiyake : 'The girl was not pretty'

Secondly, and interestingly, for our analysis, the relative construction is only one of the ways of contrasting or emphasizing an item in Ibibio, as we have indicated in 2.1. Relative sentences therefore, naturally select the so-called contrastive markers. Thirdly, there are dependent clauses in which the so-called neutral markers occur. Consider the following examples: (29)

a. Bo anye ke mmaka : 'Tell him that I went' b. Bo anye ke ami Qkeka : 'Tell him that I am the one (not any other person) who went'

where both the 'neutral' and the 'contrastive' forms of the past tense morpheme occur in the dependent or complement clauses in (29). Thus (29a) and (29b) show that it is not 'dependency' as such that determines the choice of the marker but the presence or absence of those categories - MOD, NEG, EMPH, and Wh. In the case of (29b), it is the presence of emphasis that accounts for the occurrence of the 'contrastive' ke-.

The Tense System of Ibibio

343

To press this matter a little further, consider (30): (30)

a. Bo anye ke mmeyaiya : 'Tell him I am pretty' b. Bo anye ke nyaiyake : 'Tell him I am not pretty'

Here (30a) selects me-, the so-called neutral marker, because the embedded sentence is an example of Type I sentence. On the other hand, (30b), which contains a negative element in the embedded or dependent clause - in which case the embedded clause is an example of Type II sentence - naturally drops me. This is, of course, predicted by our analysis. If sentences, such as (31), occur with the so-called contrastive markers, it is because the embedded sentences contain modal words such as adieke: 'if' (31)

Adieke Uko adlka Uyo, namridiorjo: 'If Uko will fo to Uyo, let me know'

Clearly 'going' to Uyo in (31) is an event that the speaker is not sure about and this uncertainty is conveyed by the word adieke: 'if'. We think we have given enough reasons to show the inadequacies of Kaufman's analysis. We also think that our analysis has overcome these inadequacies, capturing the generalization that the native speaker of Ibibio knows, namely, that certain syntactic categories determine the phonological shapes of the tense morphemes. Moreover, the analysis can be used to handle the tense system of Efik, a very closely related language, in fact a dialect, whose system is very similar to the Ibibio system.

REFERENCES

Chomsky, N. and M. Halle, 1968, The Sound Pattern of English, New York, Harper and Row. Comrie, B., 1976, Aspect, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. Huddleston, R., 1976, An Introduction to English Transformational Syntax, Lon don, Lon gman. Kaufman, H., 1968, Ibibio Grammar, Ph.D Dissertation, University of California, Berkely. Lyons, J., 1968, Introduction to Theoretical Linguistics, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.

344

Okon E. Essien

Lyons, J., 1917, Semantics II, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. Matthews, P.H., 1974, Morphology, Cambridge, Cambridge University Pre Sommerstein, A., 1977, Modern Phonology, Birkenhead: Edward Arnold.

Chapter

22

Noun Class Assignment of English Loanwords in Kikuyu* Elanah J. Kutik

ABSTRACT Kikuyu is typical of the Bantu languages in that it has a system of noun classes which demonstrate an intricate scheme of concord. An examination of the 300+ loanwords into Kikuyu from British English, appearing in the standard dictionaries (Benson 1964; Barlow 1975) , reveals that the majority of these words (80%) have been placed in noun classes 9/10 (the "zero-prefix" group). A significant number of English loanwords, however, has been distributed among the remaining 14 classes, each of which is distinguished by a characteristic prefix of the shape (C)V-. It is my claim that, in the latter cases (i.e., the minority treatment), noun class assignment is not arbitrary but is governed by certain general principles. Semantic

interpretation

- the pro-

cess by which a noun assumes membership in a particular category by virtue of close semantic association with other nouns in that domain - accounts for approximately two-fifths of "atypical" noun class assignment. With regard to semantic interpretation, the most prominent noun classes are 1/2 (denoting human beings), which provide examples like the following: mo-kadu:ro, poral, mo-mbicDtiu,

a-