<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class="">That’s a good point: I guess it depends on what we mean by predicative content. Assuming that PhP-expressions like ’still’ are clause-level operators (<i class="">Mark is still sleeping</i><span style="font-style: normal;" class=""> = STILL (Mark is sleeping); </span>see the classic discussions by König, Loebner, and the like), there is no there’s no „complete“ clause that they can have scope over. We could, of course argue that <i class="">bado </i>and <i class="">awo</i> serve as pro-predicates – but then we’d be stranded with the question of what they stand in for. <div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><div class="">Concerning the examples from my original question: Swahili does not normally have „zero" copulae. So (1, 2) cannot mean ’it still is (p)’. One exception is that Swahili allows for <i class="">bado </i>+ infinitive, which means ’not yet V-ed’ (via ‚[be] yet to Verb‘). But this is exactly one member of the set of what could „fill the empty slot“ here, other members being negated verbs.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">As for (3, 4): <i class="">awo</i> can function as a copulative ’still.COP’, but in this case the predicate would stand to the right of <i class="">awo</i>. That is, judging from Barclay’s grammar, a atransitive predicate ‚it is still a river‘ would be <i class="">Awo</i> y<i class="">i</i>. It could be that <i class="">awo</i> functions as a copulative in (3), but then the predicate is still left empty: ’the river, it still is …’, with the process that remains to occur left unexpressed (which is a pattern also found, for instance, in Tunisian Arabic and Sango). And in (4) <i class="">awo</i> serves as an exclamation (again, a common pattern, as mentioned by other list members).</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">But these point brings me to what initially motivated my question: I guess the fact that the addressee needs to „fill the gap“ facilitates a negative inference (together with contextual factors, of course). In fact, nearly all examples of ’still’ meaning ’not yet / still not’ that I know of involve such „elliptical“ sentences. And I wonder if there is e some accessible discussion about similar issues somewhere.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Best,</div><div class="">Bastian</div><div class=""><span style="font-style: normal;" class=""><br class=""></span></div><div class=""><span style="font-style: normal;" class=""><br class=""></span></div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><br class=""><div class=""><div><br class=""><blockquote type="cite" class=""><div class="">Am 04.12.2021 um 02:19 schrieb Mark Donohue <<a href="mailto:mhdonohue@gmail.com" class="">mhdonohue@gmail.com</a>>:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><div class=""><div dir="ltr" class="">Why do we think there's no predicative content here?<div class="">Isn't <b class=""><i class="">bado</i></b>, or <i class=""><b class="">awo</b></i>, a predicate here?</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">This sort of thing is very common in many aspect-dominated languages.</div><div class="">An Indonesian conversation is frequently, depending on which variety you're speaking, full of one word sentences of the form <i class=""><b class="">sudah</b></i> (which translates 'already', and much else besides).</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">-Mark</div><div class=""><br class=""></div></div><br class=""><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Fri, 3 Dec 2021 at 22:03, Bastian Persohn <<a href="mailto:persohn.linguistics@gmail.com" class="">persohn.linguistics@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br class=""></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left-width:1px;border-left-style:solid;border-left-color:rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div style="word-wrap:break-word;line-break:after-white-space" class="">Dear lingtyp members,<br class=""><br class="">Do you know of any good discussion of how clauses without any overt predicative content are interpreted, especially in regards to polarity?<br class=""><br class="">I’m thinking of the following type, where <i class="">bado</i> 'still' becomes its negative equivalent 'not yet' in the absence of overt predicative content, a pattern<div class="">that is attested in many languages around the globe.<div class=""><br class="">(1) <i class="">Imerudi kutengenezwa {au <b class="">bado</b>}?</i><br class="">it.has.returned be.fixed or still<br class="">ʻHas it (fan) be fixed again or not yet?ʼ<br class="">(Ashton 1947: 392)<br class=""><br class="">(2) <i class="">Kwa sasa maji yametoka mtoni (Malulumo) na kufika Mgera {lakini vijiji vingine <b class="">bado</b>}.</i><br class="">For now water it.has.come.from at.river M. and arrive M. but villages other still<b class=""><br class=""></b> ‘As for now, the water has come from the river (Malulumo) and reached Mgera, but not other villages yet.’</div><div class="">(Helsinki Corpus of Swahili 2.0)<br class=""> <br class="">Obviously, in (1, 2) the disjunctive context also plays a role, but cf. the Western Dani examples (3, 4).</div><div class="">Again, variations over the same theme appear to be pretty common.<br class=""><br class="">(3) <i class="">Yi <b class="">awo</b></i><br class="">river still<br class="">ʻThe river has not yet been swelled.ʼ</div><div class="">(Barclay 2008: 440)<br class=""><br class=""><div class="">(4) <i class="">Nin-ogoba <b class="">awo</b></i><br class="">our.father still<br class="">ʻOur father, no!ʼ (Barclay 2008: 441)</div></div></div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Thanks a lot!</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Best,</div><div class="">Bastian</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><b class="">References</b></div><div class=""><div class=""><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif" class="">
</span><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" class="">Ashton, Ethel O. 1947. <i class="">Swahili grammar
(including intonation)</i>. London: Longmans, Green and Co</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif" class="">Barclay, Peter. 2008. </span><i style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif" class="">A grammar of Western Dani</i><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman",serif" class="">. Munich: Lincom.</span></p>
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