[Lingtyp] Query about constraints on co-referential arguments in matrix clauses

[Matthew Carroll]

Dear all,

I am curious about restrictions on arguments in matrix clauses that are
co-referential with those in subordinate clauses.

Restrictions on the role that a co-referential argument may play in a
subordinate clause are well established in the literature (Keenan and
Comrie 1977, and others). Rather I am interested in restrictions that may
apply to the role that co-referential argument may play in the *matrix*
clause.

For example, in Ngkolmpu a Yam language spoken in West Papua that I have
been working on, there is a relative clause strategy involving a right
adjoined relative clause. The co-referential argument may serve *any role
in the subordinate clause* but can only be the *absolutive argument of the
matrix clause.*

1.     krar-w               irepe     pi         srampu             [ntop
mi                     bori      ye]
      dog-sg.erg      man      dist      he:will:bite:him  big       rel.abs
         comp    is
      'The dog will bite that man *who is big*’
      ***’The dog, *who is big*, will bite that man.’

Example (1) can only be interpreted as 'the man who is big' and never 'the
dog who is big'. This has been confirmed through careful and systematic
elicitation on this topic and confirmed by examples in my growing corpus
(currently at about 1500 naturalistic utterances).

Dixon (1977) notes similar restrictions in Yidiɲ. On page 323 of his
grammar he posits the coreferentiality constraint: "*There must be an NP
common to the main clause and subordinate clause, and it must be in surface
S or O function in each clause." *

Unlike the Ngkolmpu example, this applies to both the matrix NP and the
subordinate NP which only applies to the matrix NP. Yet, importantly for my
purpose, does place a restriction on the role of the matrix NP. I am
curious to see if people know of other examples of these kind of
constraints in matrix NPs? or perhaps there is a paper that I have missed
in my (rather brief) survey of the literature on the topic.

Regards,
Matt

Matthew J. Carroll
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/lingtyp/attachments/20190722/e9258ba8/attachment.htm>