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Extraction in Edo

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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 strategies 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 contexts. Example(1)below illustrates the use of the 3sg object pronominal place-holder marking the 'base-position' of a focus left-dislocated NP under direct object extraction.

(1)
Dè èmwí èhá nè Òtà mié̠ íràn (è)̠ré
“What three things did Ota receive from them?”
 
Wh
èmwí
èmwí
thingTH
CN
èhá
èhá
three
NUM
 
COMP
Òtà
òtà
OtaSBJAGT
Np
mié̠
mié̠
receiveIVH
Vdtr
íràn
íràn
3PLACCOBJindSRC
PN
(è)̠ré
(è)̠ré
3SGACCDO
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)
Ègbé ò̠ré Òzó mú íràn è̠ré
“It is dressing Ozo dressed them”
Ègbé
Ègbé
body
CN
ò̠ré
ò̠ré
FOC
 
Òzó
òzó
OzoSBJAGT
Np
carryIVH
Vtr
íràn
íràn
AFF3PLDO
PN
è̠ré
è̠ré
3SG
PN

For subject extraction, a pronominal that has the form of the 3sg subject pronoun except that the former has a high tone while the latter a low tone, acts as a place-holder marking 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 occurring 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.