32.1869, Diss: Niger-Congo; Semantics; Syntax: Ngoungouo Yiagnigni Abass: ''The syntax-semantics of relative clauses in Shupamem''

[The LINGUIST List]

LINGUIST List: Vol-32-1869. Fri May 28 2021. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 32.1869, Diss: Niger-Congo; Semantics; Syntax: Ngoungouo Yiagnigni Abass: ''The syntax-semantics of relative clauses in Shupamem''

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Date: Fri, 28 May 2021 18:26:57
From: Ngoungouo Abass [abass.ngoungouo at univ-yaounde1.cm]
Subject: The syntax-semantics of relative clauses in Shupamem

 
Institution: University of Yaounde I 
Program: African Languages and Linguistics 
Dissertation Status: Completed 
Degree Date: 2021 

Author: Ngoungouo Yiagnigni Abass

Dissertation Title: The syntax-semantics of relative clauses in Shupamem 

Linguistic Field(s): Semantics
                     Syntax

Language Family(ies): Niger-Congo


Dissertation Director(s):
Florence Tabe Oben

Dissertation Abstract:

The thesis examines the syntactic and semantic properties of relative clauses
in Shupamem, a Grassfield Bantu  language spoken in the Noun Division of the
West Region of Cameroon. It is analyzed based  on the generative procedure, in
particular, the Minimalist framework of Chomsky (1995 and  subsequent works).
Cartography (Rizzi 1997) comes in to complement the application of the 
Minimalist literature. Because the semantic features are indispensable in the
sentence  legibility at LF, these must be matched and valued with the truth
conditional value of the  verbs in the relative clause to satisfy Full
Interpretation at the interfaces. Therefore, in  addition to alluding to the
Minimalist Program to account for relative clauses in Shupamem,  focus is also
on the semantic properties of the relative constructions. The objective is to 
identify and analyze characteristic properties of the syntax and semantics of
these constructions in Shupamem. The semantic framework adopted in this study
is the Lexical Semantics Approach (Cruse 1986), complemented by the Conceptual
Semantics Approach (Jackendoff 1983). From a typology of relative clause
constructions, the study shows how Shupamem converges with and diverges from
other languages. The relative particles in Shupamem are discontinuous
morphemes having polysemous and multifunctional interpretation. The
investigation of the co-occurrence relations between relative clauses and
other clause constructions comprising questions, focus, topics, negations etc.
revealed some alternations of positions between the relativizers and otherwise
morphemes of the  aforementioned clauses. The study also revealed that while
some types of relative clauses (embedded, finite, restrictive,
non-restrictive) are licensed in Shupamem, some others (headless and
non-finite) are not. Moreover, the relativization strategy attested in this
language is pronoun retention and the derivation strategy that best describes
relative clauses is the Head Raising Analysis, whereby the antecedent is
generated inside the relative clause  before being extracted to the main
clause. The extraction site of the antecedent is filled by a resumptive
pronoun. Finally, the semantic features of the relativized head noun must
match with the truth-value of the verb of the relative clause for the
construction to be legible at LF.




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LINGUIST List: Vol-32-1869	
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