Current Approaches to African Linguistics: Vol 4 9783110882681, 9783110131031

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Current Approaches to African Linguistics (vol.4)

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:

Advisory

George N. Clements Didier L. Goyvaerts

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)

Other

books

in this

board:

series:

1. Ivan R. Dihoff (ed.) Current

Approaches

to African

Linguistics

(vol.

1)

2. Gerrit J. Dimmendaal The Turkana

Language

3. G.N. Clements and J. Goldsmith (eds.) A utosegmental

Studies

in Bantu

Tone

4. Koen Bogers, Harry van der Hulst en Maarten Mous (eds.) The Phonological

Representation

of

Suprasegmentals

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

Approaches

to African

Linguistics

(vol.

2)

Linguistics

(vol.

3)

6. Gerrit J. Dimmendaal (ed.) Current

Approaches

to African

David Odden (ed.)

1987 FORIS PUBLICATIONS Dordrecht - Holland/Providence - U.S.A.

Published by: Foris Publications Holland P.O. Box 509 3300 AM Dordrecht, The Netherlands Sole distributor for the USA and Canada: Foris Publications USA Inc. P.O. Box 5904 Providence R.I. 02903 U.S.A. CIP-DATA Current Current Approaches to African Linguistics. - Dordrecht [etc.]: Foris Vol. 4 / David Odden (ed.). - (Publications in African Languages and Linguistics ; 7) A selection of papers presented at the 16th Annual conference on African linguistics, Yale University, New Haven (Conn.) on march 21-23, 1985. - W i t h ref. ISBN 90-6765-311-X bound ISBN 90-6765-312-8 paper SISO afri 830 U D C 809.6(063) Subject heading: African linguistics.

ISBN 90 6765 311 X (Bound) ISBN 90 6765 312 8 (Paper) © 1987 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 f r o m the copyright owner. Printed in the Netherlands by ICG Printing, Dordrecht.

Contents Preface 1. Rebecca N. Agheyisi Verb Serialization and Lexical Reanalysis: The case of Compound Verbs in Edo

ix

1

2. Jean-Pierre Angoujard Accentuation et Syncope dans le Parler du Caire: Quels Paramétrés?

13

3. M. Lionel Bender First Steps Toward Proto-Omotic

21

4. Victoria L. Bergvall The Position and Properties of In Situ and Right-Moved Questions in Kikuyu

37

5. Janet Mueller Bing Phonologically Conditioned Agreement: Evidence From Krahn

53

6. Vicki Carstens Extraction Asymmetries in Yoruba

61

7. Tucker Childs Verb Extension Renewal in Kisi

73

8. Donald G. Churma H-Induced Downstep in a Restrictive Theory of Tone

93

9. Ellen Contini-Morava Text Cohesion and the Sign: Connectedness Between Events in Swahili Narative

107

10. Elizabeth Cowper and Keren Rice The Status of Hy and Maa in Mende

123

11. Gerard M. Dalgish /-a-/ Reduction Phenomena: Linguistic and Computer Generalizations

137

12. Okon E. Essien The Aspectual System of Ibibio

151

13. John Goldsmith Stem Tone Patterns of the Lacustrine Bantu Languages

167

14. Laurie J. Gould Evidence for Ambiguous Targets in Kuria Advancement Strategies

179

15. Mohamed Guerssel Berber Causativization

197

16. Larry M. Hyman Downstep Deletion in Aghem

209

17. Michael Kenstowicz and Mairo Kidda The Obligatory Contour Principle and Tangale Phonology

223

18. William A. Ladusaw and Nora C. England Control and Complementation in Kusaal

239

19. Brian D. McHugh Syntactic Structure, Empty Categories and Phrasal Phonology in Chaga

247

20. L/idba Moshi Totality and Integrity

267

21. Julie F. Nemer Negation and Clef ting in Temne

281

22. G. Bureng Nycrmbe and Robert Fiengo Binding, Pronominals and Anaphors in Bari

301

23. David Odden Predicting Tone in Kikuria

311

24. Carole Paradis Glide Alternations in Pulaar (Fula) and the Theory of Charm and Government

327

25. Sukari Salone Unreality in Yoruba

339

26. Deborah Schlindwein Vowel Features in Igbo Reduplication

349

27. K.E. Steinberger and Robert M. Vago A Multileveled Autosegmental Analysis of Bari Vowel Harmony in Bari

357

28. Christine Tellier Restructuring and Complement Order in Abe Infinitives

369

29. Robert M. Vago and, Harry Leder On the Autosegmental Analysis of Vowel Harmony in Turkana

383

30. Kay Williamson Nasality in Ijo

397

References

416

Preface This volume contains a selection of the papers presented at the 16th Annual Conference on African Linguistics held at Yale University on March 21-23 1985. Thanks are due to Mary Odden, Yong-Kyoon No, Peter Lasersohn, and Leslie Bessant for assistance in the production of this volume, to various authors for submitting computer-readable forms of their papers, and to the Departments of Linguistics at Ohio State University and Yale University for financial support.

David Odden Ohio State University

Verb Serialization and Lexical Reanalysis: The case of Compound Verbs in Edo Rebecca N. Agheyisi University of Benin

0. Introduction* Verb serialization, or the serial verb construction, is a common and widely attested syntactic characteristic of Kwa languages. It is a construction in which the predicate of the sentence or clause consists of two or more verbal elements realizing different kinds of functional relationships. The Edo sentences below feature varieties of this construction type: (1)

ozo fvle le euaje re^ Ozo ran cook food eat

"Ozo quickly cooked and ate"

(2)

i[a lele azap kpaa "They left with Azari" They followed Azari leave

(3)

D digwe prrjya ij;a He knelt beg them

(4)

o rye 170 xe rrjs "She reserved money for me" She took money wait me

(5)

ozo ya owe kpolo Ozo used broom sweep

"He knelt and begged them"

"Ozo swept with a broom"

Various aspects of the serial verb phenomenon have constituted the subject of study in the past decade and a half (cf. Stahlke (1970), Hyman (1971), Awobuluyi (1973), Bamgbose (1973), (1974), Li and Thompson (1973), (1974), Lord (1973), (1984), Givon (1975), Ekundayo and Akinnaso (1983), etc.). Issues addressed in these various studies include the question of the historical derivation of the construction and problems of its syntactic analysis and semantic interpretation synchronically. Some studies attribute the development of verb serialization to the reduction of inflectional or "grammatical" morphology (Li and Thompson (1974), Givon (1975)), while others trace its origin to a consecutive type of coordination (Hyman (1971). Synchronically,

2

Rebecca Agheyisi

the underlying syntactic structure(s) assigned to serial verb constructions have ranged from coordination and subordination (Li and Thompson (1973), Bamgbose (1973)) to coordination only (Hyman (1971), Awobuluyi (1973)). A recurrent topic in verb serialization analysis is the question of the categorial status of the so-called "serial verbs" or "co-verbs", especially in relation to their homophonous full verbs. Typical in languages with verb serialization is the situation whereby a single phonological form synchronically functions as a verb, preposition, adverb, etc. in different grammatical contexts. Consider, for example, the phonological form kpelu, discussed in Lord (1973) which synchronically functions as a verb, preposition, conjunction and adverb, as in (6-9) respectively. (6)

femi kpelu a wo ole (verb) Femi be-included among PL thief

"Femi is one of the thieves"

(7)

mo wa nibe kpelu akT I be there with Akin

"I was there with Akin"

(8)

femi kpelu aki ge era (conj.) Femi with Akin cut meat

(9)

femi nl oruk5 mi kpelu (adverb) Femi focus name my also "Femi is my name too" (as well as someone else's)

(preposition)

"Femi and Akin cut meat"

As Lord convincingly argues, all four categorial variants of the word are traceable historically to a single original comitative verb which has undergone grammaticalization in different syntactic contexts. Thus, what may appear to be a synchronic oddity is seen to conform to some regularity in a diachronic process. The present study similarly aims to show how certain phonologically identical but synchronically diverse units functioning as verb, preposition/ adverb and verbal affix may be shown to be historically related derivationally. In particular, it will be shown that the verbal affix in a variety of compound verbs in Edo originated historically from a homophonous verb which has undergone grammaticalization and lexical re-analysis in context including serial verb constructions. 1. The Compound Verb In this study, a distinction is made between bi- and multi- morphemic verbs which are the result of Verb-Noun combination on the one hand, and those which are composed of two verbal morphemes or a verb and particle/for-

Compound Verbs in Edo

3

mative. The former are regarded as complex verbs, while the latter are compound verbs. (1-4) below are examples of the former, while (5-8) illustrate compound verbs: (10)

niyg

nàr (v.) + iys (n.) narrate news

(11)

sìhwa

sò (v.) + ihwa (n.) sing song

(12)

wamè

wd (v.) + àmè (n.) drink water

"drink"

(13)

mwóhù

mù (v.) + òhù (n.) carry anger

"be angry"

(14)

fyaré

f y ä (v.) + tè (v.) cut eat

"bite"

(15)

muhe

mu (v.) + hee (v.) carry begin

"start; begin"

(16)

lègàà

lèé (v.) + gàà (part.) flow around

"surround"

(17)

yàré

yàà (v.) + rè (part.) be surplus ?

"be more than enough"

"report"

sing

The concern of this paper is with compound rather than complex verbs. There are two kinds of compound verbs, depending on whether they are made up of verbruerb or of verbiparticle. In this study, we shall be concerned with the latter category. (17) above represents a typical example of the verb+particle type of compound verb. Other examples of this morphological type include (18-22) below: (18)

Fyore

Fyi (v.) + re (part.) rise ?

"wake up"

(19)

yere

yee (v.) + re (part.) recall ?

"remember; recall"

4 (20)

Rebecca Agheyisi

fure

f u (v.) + re (part.) cool ? fuu (v.) + re (part.) make cool ?

"be calm; peaceful" "to comfort; to calm down"

(21)

twore

two (v.) + re (part.) fall; drop ?

"descend; dismount"

(22)

yare

ya (v.) + re (part.) shine ?

"shine; brighten (of the sun)"

Morphologically, these verbs each consists of two morphemes: a root and an affix. The root morpheme is the free verb from which the compound verb derives its meaning. The a f f i x morpheme generally has no precise meaning, but typically conveys a vague deictic meaning which is speaker oriented. Syntactically, the root morpheme retains its transitivity value. Thus, in clausal constructions, it is immediately followed by its Object NP, and this leaves the a f f i x isolated as a post-verbal free form. Compare, for example, (24) and (25) with the other sentences from (23) to (27): (23)

ozo feie fyore owye 'na "Ozo woke up early this morning" Ozo early woke up morning this

(24)

ozo yee eni rr)e re Ozo recalled name my ?

(25)

eko f u ozo egbe re "Lagos is comfortable for Ozo" Lagos makes cool Ozo body ?

(26)

ozo twore ve iba ozo descended a t slab

"Ozo descended f r o m the slab"

(27)

ov£ yare ne Sun brightened already

"The sun is bright already"

"Ozo recalled my name"

2. Re as Verb and Co-verb/adverb The surface structure - NP V NP re - of (24) and (25) shows remarkable similarity to the surface form of a variety of serial verb construction which exists in the language: (28)

ozo la ugbo re Ozo passed f a r m came

"Ozo came through the farm"

Compound Verbs in Edo

5

(29)

ozo lele azap re Ozo followed Azari came

"Ozo came with Azari"

(30)

ozo hi! imoto re Ozo rode car came

"Ozo came in a car"

(31)

ozo vyo ebe eso re Ozo took book some came

"Ozo came with some books"

(28) to (31) above represent a variety of modality serialization in which the first VP in the series in interpreted as modifying the second VP. The second verb, re, is homophonous with the particle in (23) to (27); but from the meanings of (28) to (31), it is clear that the re in the latter set is a fullfledged verb. There are a number of other significant differences between sentences of the (23) to (27) type and those of (28) to (31), but it would be instructive to consider first a third kind of construction in which yet another variety of re occurs: (32)

D tye ozo re He called Ozo come

"He summoned Ozo"

(33)

D de emyowo re "He bought over some meat" He bought meat come

(34)

D gbe ehs re "He caught some fish and they are here" He caught fish come

(35)

o gbe ebe re "He wrote a letter here (to speaker)" He wrote letter come

Again, with the same surface structure of NP V NP re, it would seem that there is no structural difference between (28) to (31), on the one hand, and (32) to (35) on the other, especially as the literal gloss of re in the latter set has been given as "come". However, semantically, the re in (32) to (35) actually expresses an adverbial rather than verbal meaning, and it functions as a deictic modifier of the first verb, which is also the main verb in the series. Thus, whereas the sentences of (28) to (31) would be analyzed underlyingly as two conjoined clauses, those of (32) to (35) are underlyingly single clause constructions in which the second surface verb is derived from an underlying verbal particle. This is supported by the paraphrase values of the sentences:

6

Rebecca Agheyisi

(28)

ozo la ugbo re = ozo la ugbo + ozo ree "Ozo passed farm" + "Ozo came"

(29)

ozo lele a z a p re = ozo lele a z a p + ozo oe a z a p ree "Ozo followed Azari" + "Ozo and Azari came"

but for (32); we have: (32)

d tye ozo re = d tye-re ozo He called-come Ozo

"He summoned Ozo"

Diagramatically, (28) and (32) would be represented roughly as (36) and (37) respectively: (36)

(37)

This means that the surface f o r m of (28) derives f r o m the application of a Particle Movement Rule 4 which moves the particle around to the other side of the Object NP of the Verb Phrase to yield (38) below:

Compound Verbs in Edo

7

(38) NP

ò

VP

tyé

ozó

rè

A further justification for this analysis comes from the result of the application of the Negative test. The negative versions of the two types of sentences yield completely different interpretation. (39) is the negative of (28): (39)

ozo ma la ugbo re "Ozo did not come through the farm" Ozo Neg passed farm came

The only paraphrase of this sentence is (40) below: (40)

ozo ree, sokpa d ma la ugbo "Ozo came, but not through the farm" Ozo came, but he Neg passed farm

The only way that the verb re in (28) may be negated is by separating the two underlying clauses and locating the Neg. constituent in the re clause, as in (41) below: (41)

ozo la ugbo, sokpa 5 ma ree Ozo passed farm, but he Neg. came "Ozo passed through the farm, but he did not come"

In the same way, the two clauses may also be simultaneously negated with each having its own Neg constituent: (42)

ozo ma la ugbo ; o ma ree Ozo Neg. passed farm; he Neg came "Ozo neither passed through the farm nor came"

In the case of the negative version of (32), which is given below as (43), there is also only one possible paraphrase or meaning: (43)

d ma tye ozo re He Neg. called Ozo come

"He did not summon Ozo"

8

Rebecca Agheyisi

Unlike the case of (28) in which it was possible to negate either of the two surface verbs, (32) has no similar negative equivalents. The separate negation of tye and re respectively yield sentences which are not semantically related to (32): (44)

d tye ozo, sokpa ozo ma ree "He called Ozo, but Ozo did not come" He called Ozo, but Ozo Neg. came

(45)

ozo ree, sokpa d ma tye ozo "Ozo came, but he did not call him" Ozo came, but he Neg. called Ozo

It should become evident by now that there is a significant difference between the two types of sentences. Whereas (28) to (31) are genuine serial verb constructions, (32) to (35) belong to the category of construction that has been designated in the literature as the co-verb sentence, in which one of the two surface verbs is identified variously as a "co-verb", "verb in series", "serial verb", "prepositional case marker", etc. (Li and Thompson (1974), Lord (1973), George (1975), etc.). Thus, whereas re in (28) to (31) is an underlying verb, in (32) to (35) it is not. Syntactically, it is a co-verb, while semantically it expresses a deictic meaning. However, on the basis of the phonological identity and semantic similarity of the two forms, one cannot but infer the possibility of a historical link between them, in line with the kind of historical relationship that has been postulated between co-verbs functioning as prepositional case markers, on the one hand, and their homophonous verbal counterparts, in languages such as Yoruba, Igbo, and Mandarin Chinese (Li and Thompson ibid; Lord ibid.). The former are argued to have evolved historically from related verbs in serial constructions. In the same way, the co-verb re in (31) to (35) can be said to have developed historically from the verb re, the latter having undergone a process of grammaticalization and lexical re-analysis in the particular constructional context in which it does not function as the main verb of the sentence. The process of lexical re-analysis has both semantic and syntactic dimensions: it entails a reduction in its original semantic import and scope as a verb, while syntactically, it means a loss of distributional independence, having become incorporated into the categorial scope of the verb as a particle in a phrasal verb formation. A subsequent stage in the grammaticalization process is reflected in the compound verb context, (cf. (18) to (22) above) at which the Verb and Particle coalesce to yield a single morphological unit. At this stage, the original verbal particle, with its deictic meaning, becomes completely absorbed or incorporated into its governing verb as an affix. Its identity as a separate morpheme becomes preserved only in its phonological form which remains invariant. The table below summarizes the historical stages in the transition from a full-fledged verb to a grammaticalized verbal affix:

Compound Verbs in Edo

9

Table I: re (v.) "come" to -re (affix) Historical State I: Full Verb:

Distributional Context Example (i) As Main Verb in a miniozo ree mal sentence: Ozo came. (ii) As Main Verb in a serial D yo owa re construction: He went house came "He went home and returned"

II:

Co-Verb/ Adverb:

As a modifying Verb in a serial construction: "Ozo bent the tree over"

ozo üoxo efä rè Ozo bent tree come

III:

Verbal Affix:

In a Compound Verb:

ozo fyore Ozo woke up.

This process of compound verb formation is by no means unique to verbs with re affix, as compound verbs with other verb-derived affixes can be shown to have developed through similar stages and syntactic contexts. See, for example, Tables II and III below, showing the developmental stages of two other compound verbs: It^M

Table II: gbe (v.) "kit" to -gbe (affix) "? Historical Stages I: Full Verb:

Distributional Context (i) As Main Verb in a minimal sentence: (ii) As Main Verb in a serial construction: "Ozo hit Azari with a stick"

II:

Co-Verb/ Preposition:

As a serial verb in a serial ozo bli exu gbe azaji construction: Ozo pushed door hit Azari "Ozo pushed the door against/on Azari"

III:

Verbal Affix:

In a Compound Verb: "The door shut"

Examples òzó gbèè àzà[i Ozo hit Azari òzó yä efä gbè àrà[i Ozo used stick hit Azari

èxù bigbè door shut

10

Rebecca Agheyisi Table 111: gbe {v.) "place• put" to -gbe {affix) "?"

Historical Stages I: Full Verb:

Distributional Context Examples (i) As the Main Verb ozo gbe iku ye oto of a sentence: Ozo put litter on ground "Ozo littered the ground" (ii) As Main Verb of a ozo ya ebe gbe iku ye oto serial construction: Ozo used leaf put litter on groun "Ozo littered the ground with leaves"

II:

Verbal Part.

As a serial verb in a serial construction:

III:

Verbal Affix

In a compound verb

ozo ku lbieka 'hya gbe ye U7U7a Ozo gather children all put in room "Ozo gathered up all the children into the room" i[a "hya kugbe They all combined "They all joined together"

S. Conclusion In this paper, we examined a category of compound verbs in Edo which features a particular kind of affix morpheme, with a view to determining the nature of the relation between this affix and other homophonous forms in the language which synchronically belong to different grammatical categories. In line with findings from the study of serial verb constructions in languages such as Mandarin Chinese and Yoruba, we have shown through our Edo data not only that certain verbs undergo grammaticalization and lexical re-analysis historically in the context of serial constructions to become prepositional case markers and adverbs synchronically, but also that some of these grammaticalized forms do undergo further lexical re-analysis and semantic depletion and ultimately become incorporated as affixes to the main verbs with which they occurred as co-verbs in serial constructions, at an earlier stage.

Notes 1. Edo language belongs to the North-Central branch of group of Kwa (Greenberg (1963)) or Benue-Kwa (Elugbe and (1977)). 2. For all Edo texts used in this paper, tone is marked as for High tone; V for Low tone, V for Downstepped High tone, stepped Low tone is left blank.

the Edoid Williamson follows: V and Down-

Compound Verbs in Edo

11

3. Verbs in Edo have grammatical rather than lexical tone ; the tone marked on these forms represents the imperative voice. 4. The existence of this rule in the grammar of Edo is independently needed for the proper analysis of phrasal verbs composed of particles such as fua, tua, km, etc. and a wide range of verbs (transitive and intransitive), e.g., mu fua "lose"; fya fua "throw away"; twe km "pour away"; uri [ua "get lost", etc.

Accentuation et Syncope dans le Parler du Caire: Quels Paramétrés?* Jean-Pierre Angoujard UQAM et CNRS, Pans

0. Introduction Le système accentuel du parler arabe du Caire présente des caractéristiques qui justifient certainement l'attention particulière dont il a bénéficié au cours de ces dix dernières années. Les théories phonologiques segmentale et métrique, tour à tour, furent confrontées à cet obstacle stimulant.-* Une alternance comme celle, parfaitement régulière, qui distingue les représentations /buxala/ -» [buxala] ("des avares") et /îaalamu/ -> [îalâmu]^ ("son monde" -à lui) ne se laisse pas aisément interpréter. Si l'accent peut porter sur une syllabe antépénultième légère, on s'attendrait à ce qu'il puisse, à plus forte raison, venir frapper une syllabe lourde dans cette position (une syllabe lourde pénultième est accentuée, cf. [muîâllim] "instituteur"). Les solutions proposées pour rendre compte de cette accentuation furent diverses: McCarthy (1979) assigne un pied binaire, de gauche à droite, aux seules paires de syllabes légères. Hayes (1981) distingue crucialement entre les pieds composés de deux syllabes légères, étiquetés [s-w] et ceux qui incluent une syllabe lourde, alors dominants à droite (de type [w-s] ). Le rôle joué par les syllabes lourdes qui, pour s'en tenir à une interprétation intuitive, paraissent constituer un obstacle à une accentuation antépénultième, est représenté d'une manière plus naturelle dans le cadre rythmique de Prince (1983): les syllabes lourdes introduisent un * supplémentaire qui influe directement sur l'établissement de la grille idéale. Pour l'essentiel, l'alternance qui vient d'être évoquée peut être effectivement décrite par la reconnaissance d'une limitation caractéristique des regroupements binaires de syllabes (de la construction des pieds). Il faudrait alors, en un monde linguistique idéal, pouvoir expliquer cette limitation ou, pour modérer notre ambition, justifier la possibilité d'une telle limitation. Avant de faire un pas dans cette direction, il f a u t s'arrêter sur une difficulté majeure rencontrée par chacune des analyses qui viennent d'être citées. Le premier, Kenstowicz (1979) a relevé que l'analyse de McCarthy se heurtait à une série impressionnante de contre-exemples. Celle-ci prédit en effet qu'une représentation comme /saafiru/, dont la géométrie syllabique

14

J.-P. Angoujard

est en tout point identique à celle de /îaalamu/, aboutira en surface à *[safiru]. Cette forme n'est pas attestée, seule est réalisée [sáfru]. Dans toute représentation de type /CVVC [ + hYut] ^V/, la lourdeur de la première syllabe ne fait pas obstacle à une accentuation antépénultième. La solution proposée par Kenstowicz (op. cit) consiste à introduire dans la grammaire du parler du Caire une règle de syncope des voyelles hautes crucialement ordonnée avant l'établissement de la structure prosodique. La voyelle haute une fois éliminée, la syllabe lourde reste seule candidate à l'accentuation. Cette syncope des voyelles brèves hautes a lieu lorsque celles-ci sont à la fois en syllabe ouverte et précédées d'une syllabe o ouverte. Deux remarques me paraissent ici nécessaires: (1) Si l'existence d'une règle de syncope pré-accentuelle permet effectivement d'obtenir les résultats souhaités, sa présence dans la grammaire n'est pas expliquée. Ce fait est d'autant plus regrettable que des processus comparables (syncopes de voyelles brèves hautes) sont très largement représentés dans les langues naturelles et en particulier dans le domaine arabe. La phonologie, telle que je la conçois avec optimisme, ne saurait contenir de règles arbitraires. Qu'un processus particulier reste inexpliqué tient seulement à notre incompréhension actuelle de ce qui est réellement en cause et non au fait qu'il soit inexplicable. (2) Pour avancer quelque peu, il est essentiel de noter que ce contexte de syncope est typiquement celui d'une position faible dans un pied binaire dominant à gauche. Imaginons un instant qu'un tel pied soit contruit sur les deux premières syllabes de /saafiru/ : saafiru. Nous ne devrions pas alors être très étonné que la représentation superficielle fasse état (a) de l'accentuation de la position dominante, (b) de l'affaiblissement maximal (de la syncope) de la position récessive. Il reste évidemment à justifier une telle organisation prosodique (la construction d'un pied binaire dominant à gauche) et surtout à rendre compte du fait que cette structure n'est possible que si d'une part la syllabe lourde est ouverte et si d'autre part la syllabe légère a pour noyau une voyelle haute. J'ai proposé pour la première fois dans Angoujard (1981)^ que la structure prosodique soit vue comme essentiellement dépendante: (1) de la construction de pieds binaires et du choix obligé entre pieds dominants gauche ( \ / ) et pieds dominants à droite ( \ / * ). De ce point de

Accentuation et syncope en cairene

15

vue, tout parler fait état exclusivement de l'une des valeurs du paramètre: "Pour toute langue L, la dominance est uniforme". Par ailleurs, toute syllabe non intégrée dans un pied binaire est interprétée comme un pied dégénéré ( f ). (2) de la référence (plus ou moins complète) à une séquence d'inégalités universelles et aux interactions entre ces inégalités: (a) a > 1, u (reflet partiel de l'échelle universelle de sonorité) (b) syllabe lourde > syllabe légère (H > L), inégalité qui doit être décomposée en CVC > CVV > CV, la représentation autosegmentale de ces suites syllabiques conduisant directement à l'interprétation maximalement lourde des syllabes fermées (à deux segments mélodiques):^ [* î

[* î

[*

\ V • 1 V'

C V C

îi

'1 ï

C V

C V

(c) fs[H

lie" 2 [L L] 2

S

[L

( ou E

= pied).

H] s

Toute langue peut ou non se référer à telle et telle inégalité, elle ne peut faire référence à une inégalité autre. Ainsi, aucune langue ne peut interpréter les voyelles hautes comme plus fortes que la voyelle basse. Elle peut cependant ignorer cette inégalité et interpréter toute voyelle comme porteuse d'une unique valeur prosodique qui la différenciera, par exemple, des segments non-vocaliques. De la même manière que la complexité des syllabes est posée en terme de marque dans Kaye et Lowenstamm (1981), j'interprète les pieds incluant une syllabe lourde (cf. c ci-dessus) comme plus marqués que les pieds incluant deux syllabes légères. Il s'en suit que toute langue qui construit des pieds de type { | ^ } constru également des pieds [L L]. [ H L] La référence à telle ou telle inégalité exclut toute opacité entre le pied binaire et les objets qu'il domine. Une langue qui se réfère à l'inégalité entre les syllabes lourdes et légères (cf. b ci-dessus) et qui se trouve être, disons, de type (dominance à gauche) ne peut contruire que deux sortes de pieds: [L L] et [H L] ( [L H] est exclu, qui ferait état d'une con-

v

V

V

tradiction entre la hiérarchie H > L et la dominance). La structure métrique définit des positions dominantes et des positions récessives. L'accent de mot, comme les éventuels accents secondaires, ne

16

J.-P. Angoujard

peuvent porter que sur des positions dominantes. Les processus de syncope (ou de réduction vocalique) ne peuvent affecter que des positions récessives. De ce point de vue, ces derniers processus (syncope et réduction) font partie intégrante de la prosodie et ne sauraient donc être associés à quelque règle pré-prosodique. Pour prendre le plus simple des exemples accessibles, la prosodie du parler de Tunis est déterminée par les choix paramétriques suivants: (1) , D-G (pieds dominants à droite, contruits itérativement de droite à gauche). (2) Construction de tout type de pieds (ie. [L H] et [L L]).

V

V

L'accent de mot porte sur lavant-dernier pied (ou sur le pied unique, le cas échéant). Il est proposé dans Angoujard (1984), qui examine quarante huit parlers arabes orientaux et occidentaux, que cette place de l'accent de mot soit commune à l'ensemble des parlers arabes et n'ait donc pas à être spécifiée individuellement. Toute voyelle en position récessive est effacée: /kitib/

V

^

/kitibit/

IV

/kitibna/

V î

->

/darabtuuni/ ->

'V I I

[ktib]

"il a écrit"

[kitbit]

"elle a écrit"

[ktibna]

"nous avons écrit"

[drabtùni]

"vous m'avez frappé'

La structure prosodique du parler de Tunis exclut bien évidemment toute interprétation récessive des syllabes finales de mot. Leur force prosodique (comme position dominante ou pied dégénéré) est toutefois indépendante du parler pris en considération: les caractéristiques des syllabes finales de mot en arabe (allongement de la voyelle devant clitique, absence de tout effacement ou réduction vocalique, tension) conduisent à les interpréter comme prosodiquement lourdes. Il s'ensuit qu'elle ne sauraient apparaître en position récessive et que dans tout parler, même dominant à gauche, tout pied de type \ / est exclu en finale de mot -pour une argumentation détaillée, cf. Angoujard (1981 et 1984). Le parler de Damas est caractérisé de la manière suivante:^ (1) , D-G (pieds dominants à gauche, contruits itérativement de droite à gauche). (2) construction de tout type de pieds (ie. [H L] et [L L]).

v

V .. ,

L'effacement n'affecte que les voyelles non-basses en position récessive.

Accentuation et syncope en cairene (3)

/katabu/ V I /katab/ ! ! /fahamu/

17

[kâtabu]

"ils ont écrit"

[kâtab]

"il a écrit"

[féhmu]

"ils ont compris"

. V I La situation du parler du Caire, on s'en doute, est plus complexe. En réalité, la seule complication supplémentaire tient à l'interaction retenue entre la construction des pieds à syllable lourde et les inégalités a et b ci-dessus. Ce parler, de type , G-D (pieds dominants à gauche, construits itérativement de gauche à droite) est bien près de n'accepter (comme l'avait interprété McCarthy, op.cit.) que le seul pied incluant deux syllabes légères (L L). En fait, il construit également le pied incluant une syllabe lourde le plus "léger" qu'il soit possible d'imaginer, ie. celui qui inclut une syllabe lourde de type CVV et, pour la position récessive, une syllabe légère à voyelle haute. Il est important de remarquer que cette restriction est, en terme de marque, parfaitement licite (ou même attendue), alors qu'une langue ne saurait construite, par exemple, tout pied [L L] et tout pied [CVC CV] (mais non [CVV CV]) ou encore tout pied [L L] et tout pied [H Ca] (mais non [ H C { u } ]). i L'effacement n'affecte que les seules voyelles non-basses en position récessive: (4)

/buxala/ V /îaalamu/

I I I

->

/madrasa/^

[buxala]

"des avares"

[îalâmu]

"son monde -à lui"

[madrâsa]

"une école"

i n (Le parler de Damas, qui ne comporte pas de restriction sur la contraction des pieds [H L], a, pour cette même forme: madrase —> [mâdrase].) mais: (5)

V /fihimit/

-y

[fihmit]

• • "elle a compris"

/saafiru/

->

[sâfru]

"ils ont voyagé"

V 1

V.î . Il n'est pas inutile de s'interroger sur la conception du pied qui vient d'être présentée et, en particulier, sur cette reconnaissance du fait que l'organisation prosodique puisse faire référence à la substance même du noyau vocalique. On peut noter en premier lieu que la "substance" n'a jamais été

18

J.-P. Angoujard,

totalement absente des analyses métriques dans la mesure où la distinction entre syllabe lourde et syllabe légère (fut-elle médiatisée au travers d'une géométrie ou de quelque soulignement^) a toujours été considérée comme cruciale (pour toute langue qui s'y réfère, naturellement). Si l'on prend d'autre part au sérieux la conception du pied comme constituant hiérarchisé (avec position dominante et position récessive), l'interaction possible entre cette hiérarchie et l'échelle universelle de sonorité devrait être attendue. Plus spécifiquement, l'analyse proposée rend compte, d'une manière unifiée, d'un ensemble de données passablement complexes à partir d'une liste extrêmement restreinte de paramètres et des interactions de trois hiérarchies universelles partiellement autonomes. Elle permet d'éviter le recours, pour le parler du Caire, à une règle de syncope crucialement pré-prosodique, interprétant tout au contraire les processus de syncope et de réduction vocalique de l'arabe comme partie intégrante de la prosodie. S'il est enfin exact qu'une règle indépendante de syncope puisse conduire aux résultats espérés dans le cas du dialecte du Caire, il n'en va pas de même si l'on considère la prononciation cairote de l'arabe classique (qui se caractérise, comme on le sait, tout à la fois par l'application aux données de l'arabe classique des règles accentuelles du parler du Caire et par l'absence de toute syncope vocalique). Harrell (1960) cite les deux formes suivantes: [kaatâba] "correspondre" et [hâadihi] "celle-ci" dont les accentuations respectives (et divergentes) ne sauraient être expliquées par quelque syncope, mais qui sont attendues dans le cadre de notre analyse pour peu que l'arabe classique soit spécifié comme n'étant pas affecté par le processus de syncope.

Notes * Cette communication a été rédigée alors que je séjournais à l'Université du Québec à Montréal dans le cadre de la convention d'échange CNRSCRSH (subvention n° 479-85-0022). J'ai bénéficié de nombreuses discussions avec les membres du Groupe de Recherches en Linguistique Africaniste de l'UQAM et, en tout premier lieu, avec J. Kaye et J. Lowenstamm. Je remercie également M. Kenstowicz pour ses critiques et ses encouragements. (1) Cf., parmi d'autres, D. Abdo (1969), E. Broselow (1976), J.J. McCarthy (1979), M. Halle et J.R. Vergnaud (1978), E. Selkirk (1981), B. Hayes (1981), J P . Angoujard (1981), A. Prince (1983). (2) Toute voyelle longue inaccentuée, comme toute voyelle longue en syllabe fermée, est abrégée dans le parler du Caire. (3) Pour une formalisation de ce processus dans le cadre standard, voir E. Broselow (1976).

Accentuation et syncope en cairene

19

(4) Une présentation beaucoup plus détaillée et étendue se trouve dans Angoujard (1984). (5) Pour une présentation et une justification de ces représentations autosegmentales, cf. Angoujard (1984). (6) cf. Angoujard (1984) pp. 397-405. (7) cf. Angoujard (1984) pp. 291-339. (8) La notion de "position récessive" doit être étendue, pour le parler de Damas, à certaines configurations de la grille métrique (cf. Angoujard, 1984). (9) Le découpage syllabique est mad-ra-sa. (10) Sur ce "trait diacritique" que constitue le soulignement de certaines syllabes, cf. F. Dell et J.R. Vergnaud (1984) pp. 20 et 21.

First Steps Toward Proto-Omotic* M. Lionel Bender Southern Illinois University,

1. Structure of

Carbondale

Omotic

The language family identified by Fleming as Omotic (e.g., Fleming (1974, 1976a)) is one of six or more branches of Afrasian (Diakonoffs term, which I now prefer to Greenberg's "Afroasiatic"; see Bender (forthcoming)). What we now consider to be Omotic was formerly referred to as "Sidama" or "West Cushitic". Both of these terms are objectionable: the former mainly because it is based on what was essentially a remnant category and the latter because it assumes a special Cushitic-Omotic genetic relationship. Such a relationship may indeed exist, but until it is on firmer ground, attempts to reconstruct "proto-Cushomotic" are inadequately motivated. (One problem is that Cushitic may not in itself be a language family, see Hetzron (1980)). The internal structure of Omotic is beginning to be perceived more clearly. In fact, this chapter is a contribution in that direction. In order to make a start, I first tentatively accepted nine basic component units which have emerged during the years of Ethiopian language studies. (Note that Omotic is geographically an Ethiopian family, with some spillover into Sudan and Kenya). These are listed as follows (with internal cognate percentages): Ol North Ometo (82), 0 2 South Ometo (74), 0 3 Chara (single language), 0 4 Gimira (two closely related languages), 0 5 Janjero (single language), 0 6 Gonga or Kefoid (79), 0 7 Dizoid (77), 0 8 Mao (49), 0 9 Aroid (85). The first three of these form a "macro-Ometo" group with an internal average of 48. Next I looked at group averages against each other on a first-hundred basic lexicon (same modified Swadesh list as used in several other studies, e.g. Bender (1984)). This means that I counted as one point each case of agreement on an item represented in a majority of the languages of each group (one if a single language, two if a pair, two out of three, etc.). This gives a working hypothesis for the structure of Omotic as seen in Figure 1 in the appendix.

22

M. L. Bender

2. Languages and Sources

No attempt will be made here to give an exhaustive listing of sources, which are of two types: published material and personal communications (or my own field notes). The languages are approximately as follows (internal structures of groups are seen in Figure 2). 01:

North Ometo 1.1 Welaita Cluster (Welaita, Gemu, Gofa, Dache or Gerese, Dorze, Malo-Zala, Kullo-Konta) 1.2 Oyda 1.3 Basketo (with Doko-Dolo) 1.4 Male

02:

South Ometo 2.1 Kore (or Koyra, Badditu, Amaro; with Gidicho and Gatame) 2.2 Ganjule 2.3

Zayse-Zergula

03:

Chara

04:

Gimira (Bensho-She)

05:

Janjero

06:

Kefoid

07:

6.1 Kefa-Mocha 6.2 Anfillo ("Southern Mao") 6.3 Bworo (Shinasha) Dizoid 7.1 Dizi (Maji) 7.2 Nao 7.3 Sheko

08:

Mao 8.1 Ganza (of Sudan) 8.2 Mao of Bambeshi/Diddesa ("Northern Mao") 8.3 Hozo-Sezo (also "Northern Mao")

First Steps Toward ProtchOmntic 09:

23

Aroid 9.1 Ari 9.2 Hamer-Bana-Karo 9.3 Dime

The number of languages is at a minimum 22 (counting together all varieties which seem to be mutually intelligible) or at a reasonable maximum 35 (separating varieties which approach non-intelligibility or for other reasons are usually seen as destinctive). Some other obscure varieties are omitted for lack of data (see Fleming (1976b) for these). S. Phonemes and Proto Phonemes Much of the published material on Omotic languages is pre-phonemic. The few published phonemic accounts of Omotic languages include those of Allan (1976) on Kullo (01) and Dizi (07), Hayward (1982) on Kore (02), Fleming (1976b) on the Kefoid group (06), Leslau (1959) on Mocha (06), and Lydall (1975) on Hamer (09). In addition, I have done preliminary phonemicizations of Bensho (04) based mainly on unpublished data of Fleming, of Hozo-Sezo and Mao of Bambeshi/Diddesa (08) based on notes of Dennis Tully and me, and Dime (09) based on Fleming's material. Unpublished notes of Bruce Adams on establishing a writing system for Welaita were also useful for Welaita, Gemu, and Gofa (Ol). Other main sources are: Moreno (1938) on Gofa (Ol), Cerulli (1938) on Basketo (Ol), Zayse (02), Chara (03), and Janjero (05). The situation with respect to both Basketo and Chara can be improved by making use of Fleming's extensive notes. At present only Chara (03) and Janjero (05) do not have at least preliminary phonemic treatments. Table 1 presents a summary of the segmental phoneme inventories of 21 modern Omotic varieties. Notes to the table mention additional possible phonemes and supra-segmentals. My lexical corpus at this point consists of about 400 items. They are numbered 1 to 403, but some of these turned out to be useless (e.g., 208 "baobab", which was not found for any Omotic language), and others had to be divided (e.g., 56. "neck" into 56a, b, c, d). An extension to about 526 lexical items will exhaust my useful data base, given the limitations on the available items for the crucial languages of the "outermost" groups: Aroid, Mao, and Dizoid. However, about 40 grammatical items (demonstratives, verb extensions, etc.) can also be examined. Time limitations at present permit only a cursory survey of phonological correspondences.

24

M. L. Bender

5.1 Labials Correspondence sets will be given in the format: 0 6 / 07/ 08/ 0 9 unless all forms are identical, very best illustrative items are listed here and means "word-initial", medial means "beginning "final" means "beginning of final syllable".

*C: Ol/ 02/ 0 3 / 0 4 / 05/ e.g., *m: all m. Only the in Table 2. Herein, initial of second syllable", and

*m: all m.

Initial: 23, 35, 98, 111 Medial: 141 Final: 11, 13, 28 (Note another pattern in which Mao has initial b- in items 12b, 396, and others.) *b: all b.

Initial: 63b, 130, 401 Medial: 269 Final: 401 (Note a pattern in which Mao has p in items 2, 265, 310a.) *w: all w (no convincing examples with Ari). Initial: 22, 43, 169, 187 Medial: 80 (Note Ari having 0 in 166, 207.) *6(?): b/b/m/m/m/b/b,m/b/m (?) Initial: 24, 61 Final: 95a (This pattern is only suggestive: several exceptions can be noted in the given items.) *f(?): all f (?)

Initial: 3b Final: 6, 25.

(Exceptions can be noted in all three items; note especially s in 0 5 in item 6.) *p'(?); suggestive only; final in item 66, 304. 5.2 Dental!alveolar obstruents *t: all t.

Initial: 28, 38, 42, 182 Medial: 100 Final: 35, 65b, 74, 139a (Final t may be realized as ts in Ol and 0 2 and in 06, final t may be replaced by c or s\)

First Steps Toward Proto-Omotic

25

*d: all d.

Initial: 71, 237, 343, 388 Medial: 145, 278 = 402 Final: 2, 127, 324a, 388. (There are some exceptions, especially occurrences of t.) *t': cf/cT/cf/t'/t/tVt'/t'/cf Initial: 11, 58 Medial: 59 Final: 43 (?) (A few exceptions occur.) *s: all s except g in 06, 0 8 Initial: 7, 39, 55, 59, 340 Medial: 60 Final: 103, 138 (A few slight exceptions occur.) *s': all s', except that 0 5 has t or other and in 0 6 Mocha has c' where others have s' Initial: 13, 66, 310b, 348 Medial: 87a Final: 7, 12a, 30, 92 (Note that final -is? is often realized as -is.) *z: all z.

Initial: 64, 70 Final: 86 (Note -dz in Ol, 0 2 and -d in 07.) S.S Dental/alveolar résonants *r: all r, except that Mao usually has 1 and occasionally 1 - r in all groups but 0 6 Medial: 56a, 145, 299 Final: 3, 45, 56d, 63a, 70, 87a, 237 *1: all 1, but 1 - r or y in all groups but Ol. Initial: 380 (1 in Macro-Ometo, n in 04, 05; since initial r and 1 seem foreign to Omotic, perhaps 380 'seven' lap- is a loan from Cushitic). Medial: 367 (note 1? in Ol, 02, while 0 5 and 0 7 have r). Final: 24, 91a, 132, 179a

26

M. L Bender *n: all n.

Initial: 54, 85, 93, 105a, 302 Medial: 100, 237, 278 = 402, 313 Final: 2, 19, 42, 52b, 54, 59, 84, 85, 93, 97, 100, 171, 187,

Note t h a t occasional n - d occurs in 01, 03, 08. This could suggest t h a t a *cf could be set up parallel to the case of *6. Also, n assimilates to following velar (see 237, 313). 5.4 Palatals *S: all g.

Initial: 67a, 76, 79a, 83, 125, 304, 384 Final: 20, 39, 41, 76, 129, 395 (Occasional instances of s occur in a t least Ol, 0 3 , 0 4 , 07.) *y: all y except 0 in 0 6 . Initial: 16b, 68b, 77, 229. (Zero also occurs in Ol, 02, and 0 9 . Medial and final y are treated as part of diphthongs (ai = ay) except in rare cases of -iy-, e.g., in 0 5 'hundred' tiya.) *c (?): Suggestive only; final in 37, 46b, 176. *c': all c' except c, t, or ? in 05. Initial: 49, 75 Final: 49, 132, 395 (Much variation with J, f , ts, c, etc.) 5.5 Velars and post-velars *k: all k.

Initial: 6, 19, 26a, 37, 86, 106, 119, 139a, 227 Final: 38, 63b, 343 (Instances of g and kf occur. No good examples of medial k were found, and no example of final k was found in 03. fc^ can be interpreted as assimilation to following palatal vowel.) *g: all g.

Initial: 68a, 72a, 157, 313,345, 367 Medial: 52b, 237 Final: 13, 65a, 183, 313 (Instances of k and fc* occur frequently.) *k': all k', except for initial k, medial g, and final g or ? in 05. Initial: 44a, 67b, 91b, 168 Medial: 106 Final: 3b, 18, 64, 69, 77 (Replacement by ?, g, h, k, 0 are common.)

First Steps Toward Proto-Omotic

27

*h: initial only in all groups: 18, 33, 84, 92, 136, 145, 183, 299 (Often relaced by zero.) *?: suggestive only and mainly final, e.g., 105a. (Often alternates with Occurrences of m?, d?, r?, 1?, n?, y? treated as sequences at this time.) S.6

Vowels

Herein, three positions are identified: initial, medial}, and m e d i a ^ as in VCVCVC-. Final vowels are not considered, since they seem to be case or T M A markers and may not correspond phonologically (e.g., a noun may have been elicited in nominative in one language, accusative in another). i:

all i, but i - e occurs in all groups. Initial: 32, 60, 63a, 100, 278 = 402 Medial^ 12b, 39, 59, 89, 111, 125, 132, 144 Medial 2 : 279

e:

all e, but i - e occurs in all groups. Initial: 77, 138, 300 Medial^: 2, 85, 119, 139a (No good examples of M e d i a ^ occur.) u:

all u, but o - u occurs in all groups except 0 6 and 09, i - u occurs in some groups. Initial: 20, 30, 41, 126 Medial^ 13, 24, 37, 49, 55, 58, 63b, 75, 79a, 93, 310a, 343, 367 (No good examples of Media^ occur.) o:

all o, but o - u occurs in all groups. Initial: 97, 206 Medial^ 3a, 26a, 38, 54, 72a, 76, 249, 304, 313, 395

*a: all a, but frequent occurrences of e (especially in Macro-Ometo), ai, and o. Initial: 25, 51, 52b, 62, 80, 88, 95b, 141, 254 Medial^ 6, 7, 11, 19, 28, 33, 35, 42, 66, 67a, 67b, 84, 90, 92, 94b, 98, 105a, 171, 182, 227, 380. (No good instances of Media^. Note the occurrence of initial i- in 0 9 Dime corresponding to a- in other groups in items 6, 11, 145.) *ai (?): suggestive; perhaps best treated as sequence, along with rarer au, oi. Medial: 18, 22, 340.

28 4•

M. L. Bender Summary.

The reconstructable phonemes of Proto-Omotic seem to be the following: Consonants P 7?

b 6? f? m w-

t'?, ts'? t d cT?? s, zn -r, -1

c'? c??

Vowels k' k

7?

g g

h-

i e

u o a

y-

Note the "absence of p," perhaps a reflection of an Afrasian feature. See Ferguson (1976) for the distribution of this characteristic in the Ethiopian area. Although p and/or j? are reported for many Omotic languages (see Table 1), neither seems to be reconstructable for Proto-Omotic. Diakonoff (1965:19-20) considers *p to exist in Ancient Semitic, with *jf problematical. He states that p -* f in Berber, Southern Semitic, and Cushitic (presumably including Omotic). Further discussion of this preliminary inventory of Proto-Omotic segments will be postponed till more thorough investigation and scrutiny of the developments in daughter languages can be undertaken. Suffice it to say here that the phonological correspondences support Macro-Ometo and also a special Kefa-Mao relationship (e.g., see *s, which appears as i in 0 6 and 08). I have also collected a large number of lexical isoglosses between 0 6 and 08. For example, 260. "lick" 06: Kefa najf, Mocha napp'a, Bworo lepa, 08: Hozo nep'il, Sezo nep'k-, 264. "monkey", 06: Kef a "gureza" ello, Anfillo ello, 08: Mao of Bambeshi ella- 267. "pot" 06: Kefa kondo, Bworo kundo, 08: Sezo kondi. However, it is still not clear as to what extent this may be contactual, given that Mao languages may have been strongly influenced by Kefoid during the period of Kefa dominance in Wellegga. As seen in Figure 1, Mao seems to be somewhat independent of all Omotic groups and, in fact, the most divergent group next to Aroid. One last comment: an even larger set of 01-09 correspondences is almost certainly contactual, especially showing up in Male of Ol and Ari of 09, which are geographically neighbors (see map in Bender et al (1976)). Examples: 213. "beer" Ol: farso, Jars, 09: Hamer and Kara jarsi-, 225. "chicken" Ol: Male koida, 09: Dime koyz- 226. "chief Ol: Male toidi, 09: Ari toidi.

First Steps Toward Proto-Omotic

29 Notes

* My thanks to the Office of Research Development and Administration at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale for research support in the form of a graduate assistant during 1983-85, and for suggestions to participants in the audience at the 16th Annual African Linguistics Meeting a t Yale University, March 21, 1985.

Appendix

Figure 1 Structure of Omotic Based on Group Comparisons in First Hundred Basic Lexicon. VI = POm

•

^

'

Ometo PNOm = Proto-North Omotic POm = Proto-Omotic

30

M. L. Bender

Figure 2 Composition of Omotic Groups (Major Languages)

Macro-Ometo

02. South

03. Ch'ara ZayséZergula

1 Koré

Ol. North

1 # Ganjulé

Malé

O6. Kefoid

KefaMocha

Anfillo

07. Dizoid

Bworo

í Ganza

Dizi

Nao

Sheko

09. Aroid

08. Mao

HozoSezo

Basketo Oyda

^ Mao of Bambeshi

Dimé

r ~ n Ari Hamer

Welaita

V

J3 -G J3 J3 J3

¿3 J5 J3 -C

e- p- e— bO

3 3

V V V V V

3

3

V »

je « ^ j« >•>,>»>.>>

bO bO bO

bO bO bO bo

jt Zm JÉ

Ài Jfi ¿tì

Ut

je

Ji

Ji Ji >»>»>,

-K JÈ -SC JÈ

J i Jfl ^

>>>.>»>,

>. >,

f^, —• 'ti U U u 3Z 2

*y u

*u "o

u

c a c c a

JS 3 3 3 3 3

"u

o

o o

•H

c

a a

c

3 3 3

33

3 33 3 *

45

.3 -3

^

N N N N N

Ss -d -a -13 "Q

•v

"O t j

Q

•a "o

TI T] TI

-o Ti

'O TI -O p..

S ì

S 5

ì

E E E E E

^ j: ^

»

s

s

E E

S

6

E E E

s

J3

-a

ì

s E E E

J

i

ì

E E E

ìq cn A

in i) ^

j..

"a ' a "a a

a

p i o» - i S Ì » o i o o s i

a, a

a.

a -ir

s

s 8*3:

e

s ,

2 A

tp a ° C S o ^ S c m

.2 O Q

3

g

E

_ E g

«s

o c s

ü s á

ü 5

O O

>>

Ö V e

y s

S

E i

>>

tu

u 'Í

8 c

S

4 > ® Js TJ «5

h «J

>

>

E > >

'u >

J>»

'Si

e TC D

TJ

0)

S

E 9

0

ü 5

O aT3 Ô. aj V S Tí n Ï

(3 C o 10 c S si •eî

rf

ó

E

E« V S i f «J £ 5

ü

ä

M ' so : Z

6

S

o

S

&•

e

E V E

s 3

c nj uî O

13

s 0> Ji c 5 5

E fr «j < U X

8

p

8" ü 5 Q E

«

>>

;

c ;

•n 5

Ü

e, g"

's

tbe) b. ë = gbë "the dog", ë ^ saoN "the spider", ë ± k w 6û "the bird"

(15)

a. d tbo dè "He hit it/him/her with something." (tbâ-D -> tbô) b. 5 = sàôN "the spider", o ^ gbë "the dog", 5 Ï k w 6u "the bird"

(16)

a. 5 tbir dè "He hit it/them with something." (tbâ-ù tbïr) b. û = k w 6u "the bird", tir ^ sâ5N "the spider", ir ^ gbê "the dog"

2. Theoretical Implications The facts of third person pronoun agreement in Gbobo do. not necessarily lead to a theory in which there will be complete interpénétration of all components of a grammar, the situation Zwicky and Pullum (1983) judge to be the least satisfactory state of affairs from a theoretical viewpoint. The data do suggest, however, that the principle defining the interaction should be able to accommodate the fact that at some point in the derivation the phonology feeds the morphology. A number of articles, including Mohanan (1982) and Kiparsky (1983), have claimed that there are levels or strata of morphology and that phonological rules may apply to the output of some strata before the applica-

Phonologically Conditioned Agreement

59

tion of other morphological rules. Assuming this hypothesis of Lexical Phonology makes it possible to account for a number of other problematic cases in which morphological rules require access to the phonology before the final stages of the derivations. This model of the grammar accounts for the Gbobo facts without resorting to the relabeling solution. Because my investigation of the language is a t an early stage, there are still many unanswered questions about which phonological and morphological rules belong at which level or stratum. However, it is clear that clitic pronouns require access to the phonology before noun-pronoun agreement, and that agreement rules must precede the post-cyclic phonological rule of vowel epenthesis, a rule which inserts a short vowel having the same quality and tone between adjacent obstruents, as shown in the examples in (17). (17)

a. 5 tba [taba] saan d£ b. a tbo [tobo] dt c. 5 tbu [tirbv] di

"He hit the spider." "He hit it (the spider)" tba-o -> tbo "He hit it (the bird)" tba-v - tbir

The f a c t that borrowed words such as tebo "table" and kasee "cassette" as well as stylistic variants such as gbae and gbaa "cooking stick" are assigned to morphological classes on the basis of the quality of the final vowel suggests that at some stratum there are rules such as (18) which assign agreement classes on the basis of phonological features. (18)

+syllabic -cons -back

[+Class 1]

Although it is possible to achieve a descriptively adequate account of the Gbobo facts by assuming arbitrary morphological classes which are phonologically realized, the resulting model lacks explanatory adequacy. For Gbobo, if one assumes the strictly autonomous model of the grammar proposed by Zwicky and Pullum (1983), it must be at the cost of explanatory adequacy. Within the model of Lexical Phonology it is possible to account for the facts in a way that limits the power of the grammar without sacrificing explanatory adequacy.

Notes * T h e data for this paper were obtained during a field methods course and in subsequent individual sessions f r o m a single informant, Jah Deh Tiah Slankan from Tuzon, Liberia. I would like to thank Mr. Slankan for his unfailing patience and cooperation. I would also like to thank John

60

Janet Bing

Duitsman, William Welmers, Jean Lowenstamm, Emmon Bach, Frank Heny and Steve Lapointe for advice and help during various stages of this paper. I am grateful to Jonathan Kaye and Scott Myers for helpful comments following the conference presentation. At that time I had not been able to obtain a copy of Kaye (1981), but I was subsequently very pleased to discover that the facts of Vata are very similar to those of Gbobo. 1. I am assuming that object pronouns are clitics rather than independent words on the basis of phonological evidence of the type found in the examples given in (17). They are clitics rather than affixes because cliticization must follow the rule which moves main verbs into INFL. Convincing arguments are made for this rule for the closely related Vata and Gbadi in Koopman (1984); the relevant facts are similar in Gbobo.

Extraction Asymmetries in Yoruba Vicki Carstens UCLA

0. Introduction In Yoruba, relative clauses, wh-questions, and topicalizations are formed by movement to an A' position. When a subject is extracted, a resumptive pronoun must be present in the source clause. This suggests that antecedent government from COMP is not available in Yoruba (cf Koopman (1984) regarding similar facts in Vata). Huang (1982) shows that the trace of a reason or manner adjunct must be antecedent-governed from COMP, like that of a subject. Assuming his analysis, and an ECP account of the Yoruba subject facts, we predict that adjunct extractions also will not be properly governed. This prediction seems to be borne out in that one of three expletives, ti, fi or se must be present in any adjunct relative, question, or topicalization. In long adjunct extractions, only a matrix clause expletive is crucially required, suggesting that antecedent government is available in embedded clause. I will argue that the necessity of the expletives in matrix clauses indicates that the three constructions in question are formed by movement of null operators. I assume following Stowell (1985) that null operators cannot antecedent govern. In contrast, the resumptive subject pronoun must be present in the source clause of a long subject extraction. This asymmetry is reminiscent of the subject/adjunct asymmetry in English, with respect to that-trace effects. I will show that the Yoruba effects can be accounted for in much the same way as the English, if we assume that both antecedent and lexical government are required of all extractions (cf Jaeggli (1982); Stowell (1985); Rizzi (class lectures)). Time adjunct extractions are free of such effects. I will argue that these are antecedent-governed by INFL. I will review the crucial data in Section 1-2, and then in Section 3 turn the discussion to the structure of COMP in Yoruba, and to accounting for the necessity of the expletives. Section 4 is concerned with the adjunct/ subject asymmetry, and with time adjuncts.

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Vicki Carstens

1. Extraction Asymmetries Canonical word order in Yoruba is SVO, as occurs in (1): (1)

Aina ka

iwe yii

lan&

read book this yesterday "Aina read this book yesterday." Wh-movement is emphasis, in what the focus particle indicates that it is (2)

obligatory in wh-questions, and frequently used for is referred to as the "focus construction". The presence of (FP) ni following an element in sentence-initial position in an A' position:

a. Ki ni Aina ka what FP read "What did Aina read?" b. Iwe yii ni o ka book this FP 3S read "It was this book that she read."

If a subject is "focused" or questioned, a third person singular resumptive subject pronoun appears: (3)

a. Tanij * 6j n korin who 3S ASP sing "Who is singing?" b. Funkej ni oj n korin FP 3S ASP sing "Funke is singing."

I will assume this pronoun to belong to a clitic set, which c-command an empty category in subject position from a position in INFL, following the analysis of Yoruba pronouns in Pulleyblank (1985). Reason and manner adjuncts, and locative phrases, occur mainly in post-verbal position, introduced by the case-marker (CM) ni: (4)

a. Alake n sere ni ita ASP play CM outside "Alake is playing outside."

Extraction in Yorvba

63

b. Biôdun mâa n korin bi e ye HABIT sing like bird' "Biodun sings like a bird." c. Dûpé ko wâ nitoripé ôun ni isé pûpô NEG come because 3S have work lot "Dupe didn't come because she has a lot of work." In 'where', 'why' and 'how' questions, one of three particles must appear between the subject and the aspect marking. With 'where' the particle can only be ti. 'How' questions can include ti or se. 'Why' questions are formed with either se or fi: (5)

a. Nibo ni Alàké ti n seré where FP ASP play "Where is Alake playing?" b. Bawo ni Biodun ti/se maa n korin how FP HABIT sing "How does Biodun sing?" c. Nitori kini Dupe ko fi/se wa? PREP-reason what NEG come "Why didn't Dupe come?"

The same morphemes must appear in reason, manner and place relatives: (6)

a. Bi Bola ti ri ya mi lenu way look open me at mouth "The way Bola looked surprised me." b. lie onje ti a ti jeun won restaurant REL 2S ate expensive "The retaurant where we ate was expensive." c. Idi ti mo fi lo ni yen reason REL IS go is this "That was the reason I left."

Topicalizations, indicated by the presence of the focus marker ni, follow the same pattern.

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Vicki Carstens

(7)

Niton naa ni mo f i lo reason DET FP IS go' "It was for that reason that I left."

1.2 Gbe and wa The only exception to these requirements involve locative complements of a small number of verbs. With the verbs wa - "be" and gbe - "live (somewhere)" ti is precluded: (8)

a. Nibo ni o wa? where FP 2S be "Where are you?" b. Nibo ni Ajike n gbe? where FP ASP live "Where does Ajike live?" c. *Nibo ni o ti wa? d. *Nibo ni o ti ngbe?

2. An ECP Account Subjects, adjuncts and PP's together comprise the set of categories lacking lexical governors. As such, they are assumed to require antecedent govern. ment from COMP to fulfill the Empty Category Principle: (9)

ECP: [ a e] must be properly governed, (cf Chomsky (1981))

Consider the necessity of a nominative pronoun on subject extraction in (3). While superficially this may resemble a resumptive pronoun strategy, the construction obeys subjacency, as illustrated by the grammaticality of (10): (10)

*Tanij o mo [obinrin [ti: [6j feran tj]]] who 2S know woman REL 3S like *"Who do you know the woman that (he) likes?"

I therefore consider these to have a movement derivation. The constructions in which ti, f i and se occur also obey subjacency, as illustrated by the ungrammatically of (11). I therefore assume them to be derived by movement also:

Extraction in Yarvha (11)

65

a. *Bawo ni o se mo [eni [ti [o (se)^ wa oko t]]] drive car how FP 2S know man REL 3S "How do you know someone who drives—? b. *Nitorikini o fi mo [ohun [ti [Ore (fi) se t]]] why 2S know thing REL do "Why do you know that Ore did—? c. *Nibo ni Bola ti bere [eni [ti [ mo (ti) ri t]][ where FP ask man REL IS see "Where did Bola ask who I saw—?

Koopman (1984) describes facts similar to those of Yoruba with respect to subject extraction in the Kru languages, Vata and Gbadi. She concludes that subject position is not properly governed, indicating an absence of antecedent government from COMP. If we adopt this analysis of the subject facts, it follows that PP's and adjuncts will not be properly governed, since, like subjects, their extraction relies on antedecent government (cf Huang (1982)). I will assume that, like the o pronoun, ti, fi and se are proper governors, inserted to license extractions which would otherwise be ungrammatical. Stowell (1981) suggests that theta-marking by a verb results in coindexing of the verb's theta-grid to the subcategorized complement, and thus in proper government. If we assume that gbe and wa subcategorize for locative complements, there is a simple explanation for the fact that ti is not required in (8) or (9), since a theta-marked locative phrase will be properly governed by V, the same as an object. The facts regarding gbe and wa are therefore supportive of an ECP account of ti. If reason and manner adjuncts are never theta-marked, we would expect fi and se never to be optional, and this is correct. S. The Structure of COMP S.l C HQ /

VC 0 +root +verb

#

That is, a word-final maximal sequence of L's in a verbal root is converted to a maximal sequence of H's. The final rule, one which (p. 200) "applies only in the subjunctive, and apart from the phonological specification which identifies the last H tone of the stem,...has no phonological conditions," lowers "the last high tone of the stem." Odden formulates it in this w a y : ^ (17)

H

L /

# subjunctive

That rule interacts with a number of the rules given above, as illustrated (p. 204) in the following derivation:^ (18)

H L H

H

uy

1

ni-ku-kaang-iy-e

d

r

underlying

! / /I AH

H L H

ni-ku-kaang-iy-e

I

I

H L

H

ni-ku-kaang-iy-e

/H

Rule (13)

H A n

ni-ku-kaang-iy-e

A

Rule (16)

H L ni-ku-kaang-iy-e

Rule (11) Rule (17)

Because rule (17) must be able to distinguish the last four H's in the output of rule (11) from the first two (which in Odden s account is done by having the former represented as a single quadruply-linked H and latter as a doubly-linked one), it is not possible to give an AMAC-compatible account which in effect mimics that of Odden - unlike in the previous cases, where the present account does not differ significantly from the original. In fact, it appears that recourse to fairly brute force means of one form or another

H-Induced

101

Downstep

will be necessary. If we assume that the revised version of (17) applies, as in Odden's original account, after all of the other rules, then the "generalization" would appear to be this: in the subjuntive, downstepped H is converted to L when it is associated with either a root vowel or that of an unstressed object prefix, and a maximal sequence of H's is converted to a maximal sequence of L's when it follows an object prefix and a root syllable. Formally: (17')

!H stress +obj. pref +root

b. H q

L /

-X] subjunctive CO V

-+ L q / [+obj. pref.] [+root]

X] subj.

Since there is no evidence that rule (16/16') applies in the subjunctive ((17/17') would undo its effects even if it did)- aside from in the far-future positive form (p. 205), where in Odden's account (17) exceptionally fails to apply and the effects of (16/16') are in fact observed-I will assume that this rule applies in the subjunctive only in the far-future positive form. Given this, the derivation corresponding to (18) would be the following: (18')

ni-ku-kaang-iy-e

underlying

ni-ku-!kaang-iy-e

Rule (16') Rule (13') Rule (11')

ni-ku-kaang-iy-e

Rule (17a')

Rule (17a') will also apply to forms such as niku'kbme "I should kill for you" (from /ni-ku-kom-e/ via rule (11')), yielding nikukome. Rule (17b') will derive neze nikughoshoee "I will see you" from neze nikughoshoee (which in turn comes from /neze ni-ku-ghosho-e-e/ via rule (11')). As in Odden's account, the rules in (17') would not apply to the near-future positive forms. In addition, the downstep rule will have to be restricted so as not to apply when the second H is associated with a root vowel. This would prevent /ni-kom-e/ "I should kill" from becoming *nVkam-e

It is not unlikely that a more surface-oriented account should be preferred in this case, and I would like to briefly consider this possibility now. This account is based on the following generalization: in the subjuntive in forms with an object prefix (with the exception of the near-future positive), verbs of more than three syllables have the tone opposite to the underlying tone on the object marker and the first syllable of the root, and L on all

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Donald G. Churrna

subsequent syllables. Using the B~ notation introduced by Goldsmith (1976) to indicate "the opposite of the underlying (basic) tone," this generalization can be formalized as follows, where "L-j" abbreviates "one L per remaining tone-bearing unit". (19)

X + obj. + C 0 V B~ B

+ C 0 V + Y] s u b j Lj

This rule would also be inapplicable to the far-future positive forms, which would be derived using the rules already given, as would most trisyllabic forms. The only forms not so far accounted for are the ones which were exceptions to downstep in my first account; if they are exceptions here as well, all of the forms discussed by Odden will be handled straightforwardly. The fact that none of the "normal" rules of the language may apply in cases covered by (19) would presumably follow from an appropriate version of the Elsewhere Condition (Kiparsky (1973a)). This would also insure that the subjunctive have a characteristic tone pattern, which is quite possibly one way of signaling the subjunctive in this language. 4- Conclusion. I have shown that in each of the three languages discussed here it is possible to give an account of the H-induced downstep phenomenon that is compatible with the AMAC. In almost all cases, no significant increase in complexity results from making the required revisions. Even in the case of what is probably the most substantial change-that having to do with Odden's lowering rule (17)-there is only a small increase in complexity required. One might object that the necessity for mentioning such things as object markers and the like does in fact represent a significant complication in the revision. But Odden's account must refer to these things as well-one of the environments in which "imposed H tone" is applicable is "subjunctive forms containing an object prefix." The fact that this shows up in none of his rules is simply the result of his failure to formulate this rule explicitly. Thus, even this apparent increase in complexity is less severe than it might at first appear to be. Before concluding, I would like to briefly consider the nature of the phenomenon of H-induced downstep itself. Carlson (1983) suggests that it is nothing more than the downdrift of like tones discussed by Hombert (1974) (where these tones may of course be multiply-associated for Carlson). This would obviously be impossible if the AMAC is accepted, since we would then expect that all of the singly-associated H's would undergo and trigger downdrift/downstep, which is manifestly not the case. Even apart from the AMAC, moreover, there are reasons for doubting this account. In the cases

H-Induced Downstep

103

studied by Hombert, the downdrift was allophonic in nature (indeed, this is almost the definition of downdrift, as opposed to downstep), while in all of the cases considered here, the rule in question is responsible for creating surface contrasts. Furthermore, it is apparently the case that it cannot be suspended in different speech styles and/or intonation types (e.g., declarative vs. interrogative), again unlike true downdrift. It is safe to conclude, then, that what is going here is not some kind of intonational downdrift. What is going on? The most promising answer seems to me to be that suggested by Dimmendaal (1984) for a similar phenomenon in Turkana. Dimmendaal argues that the reason for the appearance of downstep that cannot be attributed to the effect of an underlying or otherwise independently motivated L (the paradigm source of downstep) is a rule that inserts a L in certain morphological constructions. This rule has arisen because in many cases in these constructions there was historically a L in the appropriate place, and the phenomenon has been reinterpreted by Turkana speakers as involving a L that marks the constructions in question, rather than the individual morphemes which formerly bore the L. While there is some reason to question Dimmemdaal's claim that a L is still involved synchronically (his account would presumably be replaced by one similar to those given above), as a diachronic account of the development of H-induced downstep, this suggestion has a lot of merit. This implies that the phenomenon of H-induced downstep is not the result of a "natural rule." Rather, it is the result of a diachronic restructuring of a sequence of natural rules that have produced excessive opacity. If this is the case, then it should not be too surprising that it is only recently that this unusual, unnatural (synchronically speaking) phenomenon has been encountered.

Notes * I would like to thank Jonathan Kaye for his comments on the oral version of this paper and David Odden for his persistence in pointing out to me the relevance of the KiShambaa data to the theory which will be defended here. 1. Since my arguments in favor of the AMAC are not terribly accessible, I will briefly summarize one of them here. It concerns the phenomenon of "stability," whereby a tone borne by a vowel that is deleted surfaces as being associated with the trigger of the deletion rule (cf. Leben (1978), Clements and Ford (1979)). If the reason for the reassociation of such tones is that they are "set afloat" when the vowel is lost (cf. Clements and Ford), thus violating the Well-Formedness Condition (Goldsmith (1976)), then any vowel that undergoes such reassociation must have been singly

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associated with the deleted vowel; otherwise, these tones would not have been set afloat-they would still be associated with the other vowel(s) with which they also been associated prior to the loss of the vowel in question. It appears to be universally the case that if a language exhibits stability at all (not all languages do), then it always does. That is, cases in which singly-associated tones are set afloat and so reassociated, while putatively multiply-associated tones are not set afloat and therefore not reassociated (giving the appearance that the tone was deleted along with the vowel), while perfectly possible in the standard version of the theory, are not found. The conclusion I draw from this is that what is held to be perfectly possible is in fact not possible at all—i.e., that the AMAC holds. 2. The simplicity of Temne case may be only apparent, since the behavior of downstep is treated only cursorily in Nemer and Mountford's paper; if more data are considered, this case may turn out to be as complicated as or more so than the others to be considered below. I unfortunately have not had access to Mountford's (1979) unpublished paper, which may contain much relevant information. 3. Supyire has, in addition to H, downstepped H, and L, a contrastive mid (M) tone. 4. It is maintained in lexical phonology that post-lexical rules are not cyclic (cf. Pulleyblank (1983)). In fact, it is not clear that what we have here is really cyclic application (Carlson refers to it as "iterative" application, which is not quite right, either, since this term refers to the possibility of a rule applying only to its own output); here the scanning is strictly from left to right, rather than on syntactic constituents, as far as I can tell from the limited amount of data provided by Carlson. However, McHugh (1985) has argued that at least some post-lexical rules must be allowed to cycle, and Poteet (1985) has argued that cyclic domains need not be syntactic constituents, so the correctness of this position is very much open to question- especially since so little work has been done on post-lexical phonology- and the account could thus perhaps be maintained even if cyclic application were required. In any event, we must have some way of preventing inappropriate feeding of the type that would result if non-strict cyclicity was used, since otherwise counter-feeding order would be impossible in principle in the post-lexical phonology. This type of rule interaction is in fact quite common (cf. Donegan and Stampe (1979)). There are serious problems with lexical phonology even at the lexical level; see Aronoff and Sridhar (1983) and Churma (1983) for discussion. However, it seems clear that some distinction, which is sufficiently similar to the lexical/post-lexical distinction for purposes of this paper that the difference in question can be ignored here, is in fact motivatable, and I will use the familiar term.

H-Induced Dovmstep

105

5. Carlson (1983:40n) seems to be suggesting that a distinction between singly- and multiply-associated M's is relevant to the operation of H-SPREAD, since there are two different classes of M verbs, one in which the H spreads over the entire word, and one in which only the first syllable is affected. If the first class has a multiply-linked M, while the second has singly-linked M's, then this kind of behavior is just what we would expect as long as H SPREAD is not iterative. But since Carlson has argued that this rule is in fact iterative, this distinction cannot account for the different behavior of the two classes of verbs (note that the structural description of the rule would still be met after spreading the H onto the first syllable of a polysyllabic verb containing only M tones). It is difficult to tell what is going on here, since the amount of data is extremely limited; one possibility is a boundary distinction of some kind, but it is clealy impossible to propose an account with any kind of confidence. 6. The revised rules given here will be essentially translations of Odden's rules into an AMAC-compatible form. It is conceivable that a more radical revision would give a better account of the phenomena in question, but I will not for the most part attempt to give this possibility the attention it deserves (see, however, the discussion of the last rule below). One respect in which my account will differ importantly from that of Odden is the treatment of downstep. Odden employs a metrical approach much like that of Clements (1981); I find the attribution of metrical structure of this type to tonal sequences quite unnecessary, and my account will not make use of it. In fact, this approach is incompatible with the AMAC, since it requires the distinction prohibited by this constraint in order to make the downstep work properly. 7. Odden never gives this rule in precisely this form; it is an amalgamation of his rule (6), which does not contain the requirement that the L be singly linked, and his (77), which does not require a following tone. Both requirements are needed in order to appropriately restrict the application of this rule. 8. As far as I can tell, this rule does not do what it was intended to do. In particular, it appears that the final vowel will be left toneless, rather than L-toned. The only way I can see of making this come about is some kind of metathesis-like rule (cf. (15') below). 9. This rule does not quite work, either. The geometry of the rule suggests that an H to the right of the vowel in question is being spread, but formally there is no way of telling whether or not an autosegment is to the right of a segment on a different tier. It can be made to work by adding a boundary to the right of the H, thus insuring that it is in fact the rightmost H that spreads. Also, since Odden intends (p.198) that this H be "spread backwards through the stem" (my emphasis), the specification "[+root]" should presumably be replaced by "[+stem]."

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Donald G. Churma

10. There is something missing from this rule, too. Since what is lowered is the last H of the stem (cf. p. 201), L's must be allowed to optionally intervene between this H and the boundary. 11. What is termed the "underlying representation" (and is the input to this derivation) is actually the output of "imposed H tone," which I take to be a rule of some sort. In Odden's final discussion of the interaction of (10) and (15), he orders the latter before the former. Since the order of application of these rules, though crucial for other forms, is not important here, I repeat the only derivation Odden gives for this form.

Text Cohesion and the Sign: Connectedness Between Events in Swahili Narative Ellen Contini-Morava University of Virginia

0. Introduction

In discourse analysis the term cohesion refers to the use of grammatical and stylistic devices to indicate the interrelationships between elements in a discourse. For example, in (1) Peel six apples. Put them in a pot. the pronoun thern in the second sentence helps tie the content of the sentence together by referring back to the noun phrase in the first sentence. In this case, use of the pronoun is said to be a cohesive device serving the cohesive function of coreference. Most studies of cohesion treat cohesive devices - that is, the formal means of expression - separately from cohesive functions - that is, the type of relationship expressed. Thus in Halliday and Hasan's (1976) book on cohesion in English two chapters are devoted to the cohesive functions of reference and conjunction, and two others to the cohesive devices of substitution and ellipsis. De Beaugrande and Dressier (1981) similarly describe cohesion now in terms of form, now in terms of function. One problem with giving priority to either form or function is that the connection between them is left unexplained. Why should such and such a device signal this particular cohesive function rather than some other? Why should such and such a function be expressed by this particular device rather than by some other? The relationship between grammar and discourse cohesion appears chaotic and unpredictable. A second problem with considering form and function separately is that this approach leads the analyst to ignore the communicative effects of the choice among alternative options within a given linguistic system. For example, Halliday and Hasan list various devices serving the cohesive function of "reiteration" in English, including repetition of the same word, use of a synonym, use of a superordinate term, and use of a "general word" like thing, but the authors do not pursue the question as to what may lead a speaker to choose among these options.

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E. Contini-Morava

The only way to explain the relationship between grammatical form and cohesive function, on the one hand, and the communicative effects of alternative options on the other, is by appeal to the meanings of the grammatical forms in question. That is, one must make explicit the connection between the meaning of a given signal and the cohesive function(s) it serves, and where alternative formal options exist one must explain the choice among them in terms of the communicative effects of contrasting meanings. In what follows I will try to provide such an explanation for the choice among three verb tenses in Swahili narrative. I will argue that the cohesive functions performed by these tenses are a direct consequence of their meanings, and that the choice between them is motivated by the different effects these meanings have on the message being communicated. 1. Tense Options in Swahili Narrative The Swahili tense system offers three options for marking a series of events in past narrative: (a) repeated use of the past tense li; (b) use of the so-called "consecutive" tense ka; (c) use of the so-called "infinitive" ku} These alternatives are illustrated in (2) - (4) below: (2) Mbele ya safari, a-LI-wa-sikia wakwezi wakiimba kujisahaulisha hatari ya kazi yao, na punde a-LI-li-ona paa la bati liking'aa katika mwanga wa jua. [NyR 93] At the beginning of her walk, she heard (LI) the coconut pickers singing in order to distract themselves from the dangers of their work, and presently she saw (LI) a roof of tin shining in the sunlight. (3) Na Rehema a-LI-rekebisha macho yake sawa na ncha ya kuti la mnazi, a-KA-ona mkusanyiko wa nyota zilizojipanga, mbali angani, zikimetameta, kutoa ishara. [NYR 105] And Rehema directed (LI) her eyes even with the end of the palm branch, [and] saw (KA) a group of stars in a line, way up in the sky, glittering, as an omen. (4) Rehema a-LI-keti kitini na KU-angalia. Simba naye arLI-sogea na KU4ala kando ya biwi la moto. [NYR 36-7] Rehema sat down (LI) on a chair and watched (KU). Simba too moved up (LI) and lay down (KU) by the fire.

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The main question I will be concerned with here is what motivates a speaker of Swahili to choose among these options. I will argue that the meanings of the three tenses involved lend themselves to different assessments of the degree of connectedness between the events they refer to and events mentioned earlier in the discourse. I will address the following questions: a. Which sequences of tenses suggest a stronger connection between events, which ones suggest greater independence of one event from another, and why? b. What characteristics of events make them likely to be considered more vs. less closely connected to each other? The first question concerns the relation of grammatical meaning to discourse function, and the second concerns the encoding process. They are related in that both seek an explanation of the speaker's choice of tense in terms of the contribution of the tense meaning to the message the speaker wishes to convey. I will take up these questions in turn. 2. The Relation of Grammatical Meaning to Discourse Function. I posit the meanings listed under (5) for the tenses under consideration. (5)

LI = PAST OCCURRENCE KA (so-called "consecutive tense") = CONTINGENT OCCURRENCE KU (so-called "infinitive") = PERIPHERAL OCCURRENCE

The meanings of ka and ku listed here differ from those provided by traditional grammars of Swahili. Although I will not have time to justify them in detail here, I will comment on them briefly. (Detailed discussion may be found in Contini (1983)). The problem with the traditional labels is that they cannot explain all the uses of these signals. In the case of ka, it is easy to find examples where no notion of consecutivity is conveyed, as in (6) Yeye na wenzake walisikilizana zaidi sasa. a-KA-acha waachayo. [NYR 75]

A-LI-fanya

wafanyayo,

She and her companions got along better now. She did (LI) what they did, and left (KA) what they left. Here the connection between the actions of doing and leaving is logical, not temporal. On the other hand, the meaning CONTINGENT OCCURRENCE

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can explain both the use illustrated in (6) and the frequent interpretation of ka as referring to consecutive action. An action that is contingent or dependent upon some other circumstance, such as another action, will often occur later in time (although not always, as shown in (6)). (For more on ka, see Leonard (1980)). In the case of ku, the meaning PERIPHERAL OCCURRENCE is intended to capture both the use illustrated in (4) and those list ed under (7) (the list is meant to be representative, not exhaustive). (7)

a.

KU-lekeza si KU-fuma. Aiming {KU) is not [the same as] hitting {KU). [proverb]

b. Unacheza kamari nini wewe? KU-lewa, najua unalewa, na hiyo ndiyo ngoma ya vijana ; sote tumepita huko. [DKW 9] What are you doing, gambling? as for drinking (KU) I know you drink, and that's how young people have fun ; we've all gone through that stage. c.

Kwa nini KU-taka sharti akuoe huyu? (AB 25) Why want (KU) necessarily this man to marry you?

d. "Kajipure, mimi ntakupitia baada ya nusu saa". KU-sema hivyo, Kashore alitoka kwa haraka. [NyR 67] "Get ready, I'll come by for you in half an hour". [After] saying (KU) this, Kashore left quickly. e.

Akapewa ngano KU-saga. [AB 106] He was given grain to grind (KU).

What the uses of ku all have in common is that the only information about the occurrence marked by ku that is considered worth mentioning is the lexical meaning of the verb stem to which ku is attached. No further information, whether of time, modality, or identity of the subject, need be explicitly signalled, either because this information is irrelevant to the intended message, as in (7a) and (b), or because it is obvious from the context, as in (4) and (7c-e).^ The tense meanings listed under (5) lend themselves to the inference of different degrees of connectedness between the verb they mark and the

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immediately preceding verb in the discourse, for reasons which are both semantic and pragmatic. Li, meaning PAST, provides only information about the temporal ordering of an occurrence with respect to the moment of speaking. It signals no information as to the relationship, if any, between the verb it marks and others in the discourse, ka, on hand, meaning CONTINGENT OCCURRENCE, signals that the occurrence might not have come about had circumstances been This meaning is clearly far more likely than that of ii to suggest tion between the event it marks and others in the discourse.

the other associated otherwise. a connec-

In contrast to li and ka, ku indicates neither time nor contingency, but only peripheral status. As suggested above, this meaning is best suited to situations in which additional information about the occurrence in question is either irrelevant or obvious from context. T h a t is, the use of ku suggests that the relationship between its verb and the context is so transparent that the mere mention of the verb stem is sufficient for its integration into the ongoing discourse. In conformity with Grice's (1975) Maxim of Quantity, such a meaning can only be used when a speaker assumes that enough information has already been provided so that the Aru-marked verb will not pose a processing problem for the hearer. As a consequence of this interaction between the meaning of ku and pragmatic principles of constructing discourse, ku is the most likely of the three tenses under consideration to suggest a close relationship between its verb and the one immediately preceding it. T h e relationships suggested by the three tenses may be diagrammed as follows: (8) greatest independence of preceding

signal LI

meaning PAST

event

i' least independence of preceding event

inference no necessary relationship to preceding event

KA

CONTINGENT

related to preceding event

KU

PERIPHERAL

-> relationship so obvious that it need not be explicitly signalled

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S. Factors Affecting Degree of Interdependence Between Events in Narrative. Let us now consider what characteristics of events may lead a speaker to view them as more vs. less closely connected to preceding events in the discourse, and hence affect the choice among these alternatives. The first group of factors I will discuss has to do with informativity. This concept, originally borrowed from information theory (cf. Shannon and Weaver (1949)), concerns "the extent to which a presentation is new or unexpected for the receivers" (de Beaugrande and Dressier (1981:139)). The notion of informativity is connected to difficulty of processing, in that the more unexpected a piece of information, the greater the amount of attention a receiver will have to pay to it, with corresponding expenditure of processing effort. With respect to degree of interdependence between events in discourse, events that are relatively independent of those which precede them are likely to be unpredictable, hence more informative, than events that are more closely connected to or dependent on previously mentioned ones. If we reinterpret the scale in (8) as a scale of informativity, li would convey the highest degree of informativity and ku the lowest. If this reasoning is accurate, then to the extent that we can isolate factors contributing to greater /lesser degree of informativity, we may expect to find statistical correlations between higher informativity and li on the one hand, and lower informativity and ku on the other, with ka falling somewhere in the middle. The first factor to be considered is whether the referent of the subject of a particular verb is the same as or different from that of the immediately preceding verb in the discourse. All else being equal, we may expect that a series of actions performed by different participants are more likely to be viewed as independent of each other than a series of actions performed by the same participant. Thus we may expect to find a correlation between the use of li and change of subject on one end of the scale, and the use of ku and sameness of subject on the other end. The following table presents data testing this prediction.^ (9) Table 1. Correlation between use of LI/KA/KU and change of subject from that of preceding verb. [Note: sentence boundaries were ignored for this count.]

LI KA KU

Different Subject Same Subject 76% (688) 23.7% (214) 23.6% (48) 76.4% (155) .6% (1) 99.4% (176) Data: NyR, pp. 1-66

Total 100% (902) 100% (203) 100% (177)

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We see from this count that the prediction is confirmed: li shows the highest correlation with switch of subject, ku the lowest.^ A second variable bearing on the degree of expectedness/informativity of an event in relation to preceding ones in the discourse is that of temporal order. For pragmatic reasons, the order of events in a narrative typically mirrors the order of actual (or imaginary) events being referred to. Thus in example (1) the action of peeling the apples presumably precedes that of putting them in the pot, just as the verbs referring to these actions follow upon each other in the text. This relationship between narrated and "real"-world events is termed "narrative sequence" by Labov and Waletzky (1967) and "natural order" by Levelt (1981) (cited in Brown and Yule (1983:146)). Since both speakers and hearers are aware of this narrative convention, a sequence of events in discourse that is to be interpreted as the reverse of their "real"-world sequence must be marked in special ways, e.g. by the addition of a time adverb like "first" or "before", or by the use of a special tense such as the pluperfect. Since the order second event first event is clearly more unexpected than the reverse order, we may predict that this variable, too, should show a positive correlation with the use of li as opposed to the other two tenses. Table 2 shows the results of this count*5. (10) Table 2. Correlation between use of LI/KA/KU and temporal order of event with respect to preceding verb. [Note: for this count no distinction was made between unordered and simultaneous actions.]

LI KA KU

Before 3.6% (22) 0 0 Data: NyR

Unordered 37.3% (226) 14.2% (19) 28.7% (29) pp. 59-106

After 59.1% (358) 85.8% (101) 71.3% (72)

Total 100% (606) 100% (120) 100% (101)

It will be noted that only li is used to mark the "unnatural" order before. On the other hand it is ka rather than ku which shows a stronger preference for the "natural" order after. In this case it is probably the meaning of ka, rather than the relative "naturalness" (or low informativity) of the order after that is the relevant factor here. As mentioned above, there is a close psychological connection between the notion of contingency and that of temporal sequence. This may lead a speaker to avoid ka when referring to unordered or simultaneous events, unless the context makes it obvious that they are not sequential. (Also, since there is no "natural" way to map unordered events onto a linear stream of speech, it is hard to predict the relative informativity of unordered events.)

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The next variable to be considered is the co-occurrence of a verb with a temporal adverb or temporal clause. Most of the time speakers do not need to make the temporal relationship between one verb and the next explicit. Knowing that the average hearer can reconstruct the intended temporal relationships largely on the basis of pragmatic knowledge (such as knowledge of the ordering conventions mentioned earlier), a speaker can reserve the use of explicit indications of time for situations in which the temporal relationship would not otherwise be obvious. If this is true, such time references can also be taken as indications of relatively high informativity of the associated verb. We may therefore predict a skewing in the distribution of li, ka and hi with respect to explicit mention of time references. The result of this count may be found in Table 3.® (11) Table 3.

Correlation between use of LI/KA/KU and modification by temporal adverb (e.g. kisha 'then', punde 'soon') or temporal clause (e.g. alipornvxma alishtuka 'when she saw him she started'). +Time modifier 26% (230) 17% (43) 2% (2) Data: AN pp. 1-25, KD

LI KA KU

-Time modifier 74% (655) 83% (212) 98% (98) pp. 1-26, PP pp. 7-11,

Total 100% (855) 100% (255) 100% (100) 28S2

We see from this count that li correlates most strongly with explicit mention of time, while ka correlates least with this variable, as predicted.^ Another variable related to informativity/unexpectedness is the use of disjunctive expressions like lakirvi 'but', bali 'on the contrary', or ingawaje 'although/nevertheless'. These expressions are used to introduce material that contradicts the hearer's supposed expectations, and hence should be high in informativity. If so, we should expect disjunctive expressions to show the greatest correlation with li and the lowest with ku. The results of this count are as follows: (12) Table 4.

LI KA KU

Correlation between use of LI/KA/KU and disjunctive expressions (lakini 'but', bali 'on the contrary', ingawaje 'nevertheless')

+disjunctive -disjunctive Total expression expression 4% (36) 96% (849) 100% (885) .4% (1) 99.6% (254) 100% (255) 0 (0) 100% (100) 100% (100) Data: AN pp. 1-25, KD pp. 1-26, PP pp. 7-11, 28S2

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Although the total number of disjunctive expressions in the sample is small, their use correlates very strongly with li. There is only one example of ka in this type of context, and none at all of ku. It was mentioned above that unexpectedness/informativity is related to processing effort in that items demanding relatively more attention have a greater claim on a receiver's processing resources than those requiring less attention. The last statistical variable affecting (dis)continuity between events to be consideed here bears directly on processing effort. It is well known that there are limits to the number of items that can be retained in short-term memory. It follows that the greater the amount of material intervening between one verb and the next, the more effort will be involved in recalling the previous verb in order to establish its connection with the following one. To the extent that the choice between li, ka and ku ia motivated by informativity, we should expect li to correlate with the greatest amount of material intervening between one verb and the next, and ku with the least.® And this prediction is borne out by the results displayed under (13). (13) Table 5. Correlation between the use of LI/KA/KU and number of words intervening between verb and immediately preceding verb (in same sentence). Total 0-5 words 6-10 words 11 or more 100% (171) LI 37.4% (64) 33.9% (58) 28.7% (49) 100% (280) KA 72.5% (203) 22.5% (63) 5% (14) 100% (259) KU 83.4% (216) 15.4% (40) 1.2% (3) Data: NyR pp. 1-106 We see from this table that the farther apart two verbs are, the more likely the second is to be marked by li- ku, at the other end of the scale of informativity, tends to follow very closely upon the preceding verb. In summary, the statistical evidence cited above supports the hypothesis that a speaker's choice between li, ka and ku in narrative is affected at least in part by the degree of informativity/unexpectedness of the associated verb. The observed correlations conform to the predictions made on the basis of the meanings assigned to these tenses. 4- Subjective Factors Affecting {Discontinuity Between Events. For statistical purposes it is necessary to select variables whose identification involves little or no subjective judgment, so that the results will not reflect any bias on the part of the investigator. However, not all factors affecting (dis)continuity between events lend themselves so easily to quantification as, say, the question whether a verb has the same or a different

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subject from the verb immediately preceding it. In this section I will discuss some individual examples in which more subjective factors seem to be operating. Consider example (14): (14) Kurwa a-LI-rudi nyumbani na furaha kubwa na a-KA-mw-eleza mama yake habari ile. Wote wa-LI-furahi na wa-LI-lia kilio cha kumbukizi kumkumbuka Doto na Vumbwe. [KD 55] Kurwa returned (LI) home with great happiness and told (KA) her mother the news [of her proposal of marriage]. Both rejoiced (LI) and they cried (LI) a mourning lament in memory of Doto and Vumbwe. [ Context: Doto is K's sister, the former wife of the man K. is about to marry; Vumbwe is K's former fiance, who was lost at sea.] Since the events of rejoicing and crying are temporally related and performed by the same participants, one might have expected the author of this passage to use ka or ku for the second of these verbs, as he did for the sequence of verbs in the preceding sentence, rather than repeating li. However it is evident that conceptually the emotional states of rejoicing and mourning are quite distinct from each other; to suggest a close connection between them by the use of ka or ku would be rather incongruous. Example (15) also involves conceptual distinctness, but of a slightly different kind: (15)

[Maryamu] a-Ka-vaa buibui lake na a-KA-m-ngojea baba yake nje ya nyumba ili waende wakapande gari mpaka mjini. Hawakusimama sana ila gari li-LI-fika na li-LI-jaa abiria na mizigo ya matunda na samaki kwa ajili ya kupeleka sokoni. Watu wote walikuwa wanamjua baba yake Maryamu, basi waliamkiana na kuanza kuzungumza. [PP 29] [Maryamu] put on (KA) her buibui and waited for her father outside the house in order to go catch the bus for the city. They did not wait long, the bus arrived (LI) and it was full (LI) of passengers and loads of fruit and fish to be brought to market. All the people knew Maryamu's father, so they greeted each other and started chatting.

Here the reason the verb jaa 'be full' is marked by li rather than ka or ku has to do with the lexical meaning of this verb. Jaa belongs to a class of verbs that have been termed "pseudostative" by Wald (1973) and "inceptive" by Welmers (1973). These verbs, common in Niger-Congo languages, are interpreted in certain contexts as referring to a state, and in others as

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referring to the entry into that state. Thus jaa in some contexts can be translated as 'be full', and in others as 'fill up'.® The use of ka in (15) would suggest that the filling of the bus was contingent upon its arrival, i.e. that it filled up after it arrived, which would conflict with other information in the context (for example, the fact that the other passengers didn't greet Maryamu's father until after the bus arrived), ku is avoided here for similar reasons: its emphasis on obviousness of temporal connection could lead the reader to infer that the verbs fika 'arrive' and jaa are in "natural order", again suggesting incorrectly that the bus filled up after it arrived rather than before. A final variable affecting the choice between li, ka and ku in narrative is emphasis. Emphasis is related to informativity in that both demand extra attention from the hearer; however in the case of emphasis the extra attention is not made necessary by complexity of processing but rather by the subjective attitude of the speaker toward the material being presented. If a speaker wants each event in a sequence to receive equal, individual attention independently of the others, li is clearly the best choice, with ka and ku suggesting respectively lower degrees of emphasis. In the following example the repeated use of li appears to contribute to the emphatic effect of the passage: (16) [Rehema] alikuwa akipangusa machozi. Moyo wake u-LI-kuwa mseto wa furaha na ukiwa. Kwa mara ya mwanzo katika maisha yake a-LI-u-ona utukufu wa baba. Nafsi i-LI-ondoa shaka zote; i-LI-futa hitilafu zilizopo; i-LI-hakihisha chanzo na asili ya uhai; na Rehema a-LIjva kuwa yule ni baba yake wa kweli, kilichosimama kati yao si cho chote isipokuwa nuhusi iliyojengwa na binadamu. |NyR 85] [Rehema] was drying her eyes. Her heart mas (LI) a mixture of joy and desolation. For the first time in her life she had seen (LI) the greatness of her father. Her soul removed (LI) all doubt; it erased (LI) all defects; it promised (LI) the beginning and foundation of life; and Rehema knew (LI) that he was her true father; what had stood between them was nothing but human frailty. This example is from a novel in which the heroine, Rehema, having been neglected all her life by her father because she is the daughter of his rejected first wife, has run away from home to seek her fortune in the big city. After many years she returns to ask her father to let her have the little farm on his property where her mother lived until her death. To her surprise, he not only agrees, but speaks kindly to her and even invites her to come back and live with his family. Example (16) describes Rehema's reaction to this benevolent treatment. Although the verbs describing her

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emotional state are conceptually related, and three of them, removed, erased, and promised, all have the same subject and are temporally related, they are nevertheless all marked by li. The choice of li here appears to be motivated by the importance of this moment to the plot of the novel as a whole. By way of contrast, consider (17), from the same novel, a description of the reunion between a man and his dog after a long separation. (17) Lakini Sulubu hakuwa na nafasi ya kuzingatia jambo jingine kwa furaha ya kukutana tena na mbwa wake. A-LI-m-kurnbatia na KU-mpuna manyoya na KU-sema naye kwa lugha waliofahamiana wenyewe tu. Simba a-LI-kvxnda myayo, a-KA-ji-lamba, a-KA-lialia, na KU-m-tazama bwana wake kwa shukrani. Tena Sulubu a-LI-m