Subject marking in Awing

This paper investigates the principles that govern subject marking in Awing (Grassfields Bantu). We observe that the subject marker (SM) that doubles the subject is sometimes obligatory, sometimes optional and sometimes prohibited. We argue that it is the referentiality of the subject that controls...

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Autores principales: Henry Zamchang Fominyam, Doreen Georgi
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Publicado: LibraryPress@UF 2021
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spelling oai:doaj.org-article:115b19e8c6024a858e155f7d615dca4a2021-11-19T03:51:46ZSubject marking in Awing10.32473/sal.v50i1.1185280039-35332154-428Xhttps://doaj.org/article/115b19e8c6024a858e155f7d615dca4a2021-04-01T00:00:00Zhttps://journals.flvc.org/sal/article/view/118528https://doaj.org/toc/0039-3533https://doaj.org/toc/2154-428X This paper investigates the principles that govern subject marking in Awing (Grassfields Bantu). We observe that the subject marker (SM) that doubles the subject is sometimes obligatory, sometimes optional and sometimes prohibited. We argue that it is the referentiality of the subject that controls the distribution of the SM in Awing, rather than factors such as its morpho-syntactic features or its information structural status, which have been identified to govern argument doubling in a number of other languages with a similar phenomenon. The empirical evidence leads us to conclude that the SM is a pronominal element in Awing rather than an agreement marker. When it occurs, it functions as the argument of the verb and the associated subject NP is base-generated in the left periphery of the clause; when it is absent, the NP is the verbal argument. Awing thus qualifies as a pronominal argument language in the sense of Jelinek (1984); Bresnan and Mchombo (1987); Baker (1996). Henry Zamchang FominyamDoreen GeorgiLibraryPress@UFarticlepronominal argumentsleft-dislocationreferentialityagreement dropGrassfields BantuPhilology. LinguisticsP1-1091ENFRStudies in African Linguistics, Vol 50, Iss 1 (2021)
institution DOAJ
collection DOAJ
language EN
FR
topic pronominal arguments
left-dislocation
referentiality
agreement drop
Grassfields Bantu
Philology. Linguistics
P1-1091
spellingShingle pronominal arguments
left-dislocation
referentiality
agreement drop
Grassfields Bantu
Philology. Linguistics
P1-1091
Henry Zamchang Fominyam
Doreen Georgi
Subject marking in Awing
description This paper investigates the principles that govern subject marking in Awing (Grassfields Bantu). We observe that the subject marker (SM) that doubles the subject is sometimes obligatory, sometimes optional and sometimes prohibited. We argue that it is the referentiality of the subject that controls the distribution of the SM in Awing, rather than factors such as its morpho-syntactic features or its information structural status, which have been identified to govern argument doubling in a number of other languages with a similar phenomenon. The empirical evidence leads us to conclude that the SM is a pronominal element in Awing rather than an agreement marker. When it occurs, it functions as the argument of the verb and the associated subject NP is base-generated in the left periphery of the clause; when it is absent, the NP is the verbal argument. Awing thus qualifies as a pronominal argument language in the sense of Jelinek (1984); Bresnan and Mchombo (1987); Baker (1996).
format article
author Henry Zamchang Fominyam
Doreen Georgi
author_facet Henry Zamchang Fominyam
Doreen Georgi
author_sort Henry Zamchang Fominyam
title Subject marking in Awing
title_short Subject marking in Awing
title_full Subject marking in Awing
title_fullStr Subject marking in Awing
title_full_unstemmed Subject marking in Awing
title_sort subject marking in awing
publisher LibraryPress@UF
publishDate 2021
url https://doaj.org/article/115b19e8c6024a858e155f7d615dca4a
work_keys_str_mv AT henryzamchangfominyam subjectmarkinginawing
AT doreengeorgi subjectmarkinginawing
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