30.4972, Calls: Niger-Congo; Genetic Classification, Historical Ling, Morphology, Semantics, Syntax/Portugal

Wed Jan 1 02:28:50 UTC 2020

LINGUIST List: Vol-30-4972. Tue Dec 31 2019. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 30.4972, Calls: Niger-Congo; Genetic Classification, Historical Ling, Morphology, Semantics, Syntax/Portugal

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Date: Tue, 31 Dec 2019 21:28:25
From: Jakob Maché [Jakob.Mache at letras.ulisboa.pt]
Subject: Complex Predicates in Niger-Congo

Full Title: Complex Predicates in Niger-Congo 

Date: 02-Jul-2020 - 04-Jul-2020
Location: Lisbon, Portugal 
Contact Person: Jakob Maché
Meeting Email: Jakob.Mache at letras.ulisboa.pt

Linguistic Field(s): Genetic Classification; Historical Linguistics; Morphology; Semantics; Syntax 

Language Family(ies): Niger-Congo 

Call Deadline: 24-Feb-2020 

Meeting Description:

Niger-Congo is a highly diverse macro-family and at the same time one of the
lesser studied with respect to syntax. This workshop panel aims at deepening
the understanding of the uniformity and the variation of syntactic structures
in this phyla. One main morpho-syntactic characteristic of Niger-Congo is the
tendency to form complex predicates.

While Niger-Congo languages typically make use of preverbal tense, aspect,
modality and polarity markers, there are at least two big manifestation of
complex predication. First of all, there are serial verb constructions (SVCs)
which are well attested in many subfamilies of the Volta- Congo branch,
especially in Kwa (cf. Shluinsky 2017) and Benue (cf. Lord 1993, Déchaine
1993) but also in Gur (cf. Lord 1993: 128-129 for Kuusal and Dagbani, Hiraiwa
and Bodomo 2008 for Dàgáárè) and Senufo (cf. Lord 1993) and also outside the
Volta-Congo branch in Ijoid (cf. Williamson 1965, Carstens 2002). While most
languages have discontinuous SVCs (SUBJ- V1-OBJ-V2), some languages such as
Igbo make use of root serialisations (SUBJ-V1-V2-OBJ) for selected verb
classes.

Secondly, there are languages that rather employ valency changing suffixes
expressing functions like APPLICATIVE/BENEFACTIVE and others, which are
usually expressed as SVC in languages of the first type. As for Bantu
languages, these suffixes are typically called verbal ex- tensions (cf. Voeltz
1977, Trithart 1983, Hyman 1993, 2007, Alsina 1992, Scott 1998, Bearth 2003:
126-127, Mchombo 2004, Van der Wal 2015). Apart from that, similar suffixes
are attested in languages of the Atlantic branch like Wolof or Manjako (cf.
Karlik 1972, Nouguier-Voisin 2002, Creissels and Nouguier-Voisin 2008). Some
languages such as the Benue language Igbo are interesting because they make
use of both SVC, root serialisation and verbal extensions (cf. Lord 1973,1977,
Déchaine 1993).

There are two alternative views, how SVC relate to verbal extensions. On the
one hand side, Givón (1971: 149-152), Baker (1991) assume that verbal
extensions are derived from an underly- ing SVC structure: V2 is raised to V1
attached to the left of it, turning V1 into a verbal suffix of V2 .
Accordingly, Givón (1971: 158-159) assumes that Proto-Niger-Congo had a wide
measure of verb serialisation and that verbal extensions emerged out of them.
On the other hand side, Voeltz (1977: 72-82) suggests that Proto-Niger-Congo
had a much more pronounced system of verbal extensions, which are on the
decline and in Benue-Kwa due to phonological attrition and that in these
languages they have been almost entirely replaced by SVCs.

Call for Papers:

This panel invites contributions that are dedicated to one of the research
questions given below or any other related question relevant to the matter
here and which focus on languages that are considered as Niger-Congo under any
of the recent classifications (cf. Williamson and Blench 2000, Dimmendaal
2008, Güldemann 2018). Analyses from any theoretical framework are warmly wel-
come (CxG, cognitivsm, minimalism, constraint based approaches, quantitative
corpus linguistics). 

1. What is the relation between SVCs, root serialisation and verbal extensions
(cf. Lord 1977, Déchaine 1993, Baker 1991)? 

2. Which different types of SVCs, root serialisations and verbal extensions
are to be identified in the relevant languages?  

3. Is there any evidence to decide which lead on the diachronic relation
between SVCs and verb extensions is the correct one?  
a. Did SVCs replace verb extensions (cf. Voeltz 1977: 72-82)?  
b. Did verb extension grammaticalise from SVCs (cf. Givón 1971:158-159, Givón
1975: 80-89)  

4. What is the ultimate source of verb extensions?  

5. How do SVC and verbal extensions interact with preverbal tense, aspect,
modality markers or negation or the postverbal aspect and polarity marker in
languages like Igbo?  

6. How do West-African SVCs relate to SVCs in other macro-families?  

Abstracts should not exceed 300 words and they will be submitted through the
conference web-interface:

https://www.ciea11.pt/index.php/en/submission/submission-communications

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