Typecraft v2.5
Jump to: navigation, search

Extraction in Edo

Revision as of 18:35, 31 May 2008 by Ota Ogie (Talk | contribs) (Beermann, D. Lars Hellan and Ota Ogie (2001)Extraction in Edo.)

Beermann, D. Lars Hellan and Ota Ogie (2001)Extraction in Edo.

Manuscript NTNU,Trondheim

Edo, a Niger-Congo language related to the Kwa languages of West Africa, allows two distinct strategy of marking an ‘extraction site’, used in wh-constituent questions, under relativization, and for focus dislocation. These strategies are:

  • A pronominal item in the form of a 3rd person sg. pronoun, marks the ‘extraction-site’.
  • A monosyllabic transitive verb (or preposition) subcategorizing for an extracted direct object, adopts the tonal (morphological) signature of an intransitive predicate.

TypeCraft contains data that shows the use of the pronominal site-holder in different extraction context.Example(1)below illustrates the use of the 3sg object pronominal place-holder marking the 'base-position' of a focus left dislocated 3pl pronoun under possessor extraction.

(1)
íràn(ò̠ré) Òtà dé èbé vbè òbó̠ (è̠)ré
“It is them that Ota bought a book from”
íràn
íràn
3PL
PN
(ò̠ré)
(ò̠ré)
FOC
 
Òtà
òtà
otaSBJAGT
Np
buyIVH
Vtr
èbé
èbé
bookDOTH
CN
vbè
vbè
in
PREP
òbó̠
òbó̠
handSRC
CN
(è̠)ré
(è̠)ré
3SGACC
PN

The 3sg object pronominal place-holder also marks the 'base-position' of a focus left dislocated NP in inherent complement constructions as in example(2):

(2)
Òtà vbé Àmè (ò̠ré) Òzó mú è̠ré ègbé
“It is Ota and Ame Ozo dressed up”
Òtà
òtà
Ota.AFF
Np
vbé
vbé
and
CONJC
Àmè
àmè
ame.AFF
Np
(ò̠ré)
(ò̠ré)
FOC
 
Òzó
òzó
OzoSBJAGT
Np
carryIVH
Vtr
è̠ré
è̠ré
3SGACCDO
PN
ègbé
ègbé
body
CN

For subject extraction, the 3sg subject pronominal place-holder marks the 'base-position'of the extracted NP:

(3)
Òtà vbé Àmè (ò̠ré) ó̠ gbé
“It is Ota and Ame that are dancing”
Òtà
òtà
OtaAGT
Np
vbé
vbé
and
CONJC
Àmè
àmè
AmeAGT
Np
(ò̠ré)
(ò̠ré)
FOC
 
ó̠
ó̠
3SGNOMSBJ
PN
gbé
gbé
dancePRESH
Vitr

Example (4) illustrates extraction out of an adjunct construction with extraction marked by a locative marker occuring directly after the subject:

(4)
Dè èkè nè Òzó ná dé ízè̠ nó̠dè?
“Where did Ozo buy the rice yesterday”
 
Wh
èkè
èkè
placeLOC
CN
 
COMP
Òzó
òzó
ozoSBJAGT
Np
LOCMASC
 
buyIVH
Vtr
ízè̠
ízè̠
riceDOTH
CN
nó̠dè?
nó̠dè?
yesterday
ADVm


More examples illustrating the pronominal marking of extraction sites, and more about the difference between extraction types and the function of the pronominal place holder can be found in the manuscript. The manuscript discusses the grammatical nature of the pronominal place holder which occurs in the canonical position of an extracted argument, where it seems to function as a ‘spelled-out trace’, but pronominal 'place-holders' may also occur under extraction of non-arguments, such as inherent complements, corresponding to semantically but not syntactically incorporated nouns, and under adjunct-extraction.