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Papers by Marleen van de Vate

Segmental, Syllabic and Morphological Aspects, 2006

We would like to thank our Tumbuka language consultants -Jean Chavula, Tionge Kalua and David Msi... more We would like to thank our Tumbuka language consultants -Jean Chavula, Tionge Kalua and David Msiska -for their help and patience in learning about embedded questions in their language. We thank the Centre for Language Studies at the University of Malawi for their hospitality on several field trips. Funding for the research comes from the ANR-DFG French-German Cooperation project BANTUPSYN.

In this paper, I intend to shed light on the stative vs. dynamic distinction in Saamaka. As in ma... more In this paper, I intend to shed light on the stative vs. dynamic distinction in Saamaka. As in many other creoles, utterances containing an unmarked stative verb have a present interpretation, while those containing an unmarked dynamic verb have a past interpretation. Based on detailed fieldwork, I will demonstrate that the discourse contexts in which the bare verb form occurs matches with those in which Present Perfect is known to occur cross-linguistically. I postulate that the language has a morphological null Perfect morpheme in its TAM paradigm. The Perfect analysis proposed in this paper exploits the independently acknowledged difference between states and events concerning the inability of the latter to co-occur with a point-like Present Tense. The 'perfect' must be inserted in these contexts to create a derived Resultant state, creating the illusion of past tense in many interpretational contexts. An advantage of the Perfect analysis is that it provides a natural account of why the temporal distinction splits along the stative vs. eventive divide without additional stipulations for non-default readings of the bare verb form.

This paper discusses the semantics of the possibility modal 'sa' in Saamáka. The modal conveys a ... more This paper discusses the semantics of the possibility modal 'sa' in Saamáka. The modal conveys a deontic permissive, dynamic ability and a speculative epistemic reading. Furthermore, the temporal interpretation of a modal sentence is addressed. It appears that in Saamáka the temporal interpretation correlates with aktionsart and the modal base.

CASTL Colloquium * This study is based on data collected during two fieldwork trips to Pikin Slee... more CASTL Colloquium * This study is based on data collected during two fieldwork trips to Pikin Slee, Suriname (Spring 2008, Spring 2009). I gratefully acknowledge the funding provided by HumFak, Universitetet i Tromsø. I would like to thank my consultants for their time and patience and Gillian Ramchand for comments and discussion. 1 Abbreviations: SG = singular; PL = Plural; MOD = modal marker; PST = Past tense; IMP = Imperfective; NEG = Negation; BE = Copula; COMP = Complementizer; DET = Determiner; ART = Article; LOC = Locative; Q = Question marker; NARR = narrative marker; FU = prepositional complementizer fu.

"I demonstrate that in Saamaka, the choice of modal base is not purely pragmatic, but is strongly... more "I demonstrate that in Saamaka, the choice of modal base is not purely pragmatic, but is strongly constrained by the aktionsart of the event description embedded under the modal. On the other
hand, overt tense morphology in Saamaka directly a ffects the modal time, not the event time. I speculate that this is not a language specifi c fact, but reflects the universal ordering of functional elements in the syntax-semantics of the clause."

This paper discusses the morpheme 'bi' in Saamáka which has the following characteristics. It con... more This paper discusses the morpheme 'bi' in Saamáka which has the following characteristics. It conveys a past interpretation of the eventuality and anchors an eventuality to some past time which is inconsistent with past from a future perspective. It is not necessarily anchored to the time of utterance i.e. it can convey both a simple past and a past-before-past interpretation. Its interpretation is insensitive to aktionsart i.e. the pattern of distribution is not determined by whether a predicate is stative or eventive. The morpheme is discourse sensitive, or in other words, the presence of 'bi' is sometimes omitted. a past interpretation of the eventuality. To elucidate these characteristics, I will argue that bi is a temporal pronominal which establishes the anchor time directly and make it not be the time of utterance but some other contextually established past time.

This dissertation aims to provide an empirically driven and theoretically informed study of the t... more This dissertation aims to provide an empirically driven and theoretically informed study of the tense, aspect and modality system of Saamáka (or Saramaccan), an English/Portuguese based creole spoken along the Suriname River, Suriname. The ambition of this dissertation is three-fold; First, to explore the semantic interpretations and syntactic distribution of each individual (core) tense, aspect and modality morpheme. Second, to establish the hierarchy of functional projections in the IP domain. Third, to validate whether Saamáka conforms to the universal hierarchy of functional projections as proposed by Cinque (1999, 2001). These goals are intertwined such that in order to validate the universal hierarchy of functional heads, it is necessary to investigate the semantic and syntactic characteristics of each individual tense, aspect and modality morpheme. Once it has been determined what the characteristics of a certain functional item are, it is possible to establish the overt manifestation of clausal functional heads of the language which can be compared to Cinque's universal sequence. A strong semantic and syntactic study of the IP domain of Saamáka not only contributes to the description of an underrepresented language and therefore to the understanding of language structure in general, but also makes a comparison with other languages more accessible. Such a comparison is relevant for the field of linguistics in general in that it will be informative regarding possible language structures which will contribute to the universal grammar debate and it is also relevant for the field of Creole Studies in that a comparison with other creole languages and/or substrate languages contributes to the creole genesis debate.

for comments and discussion. A previous version was presented at the workshop for Tense and Aspec... more for comments and discussion. A previous version was presented at the workshop for Tense and Aspect in Generative Grammar at Universidade Nova de Lisboa, July 1/2 2010, I thank the audience for their comments.

This paper is part of Peter Svenonius' Adpositions Seminar at the University of Tromsø which was ... more This paper is part of Peter Svenonius' Adpositions Seminar at the University of Tromsø which was taught in 2005-2006. The aim of this paper is descriptive in nature andfocuses on the complete prepositional system of Krio, an English-based Creole language spoken in Sierra Leone. The paper starts with a general introduction to prepositions in Krio. Three different categories are distinguished. This is followed by a description of each preposition individually and a discussion of intransitive prepositionsand verb-particle constructions.

This paper addresses FU constructions in Saamáka. FU constructions are composed of a lexical or a... more This paper addresses FU constructions in Saamáka. FU constructions are composed of a lexical or auxiliary verb and the complementizer/preposition fu. They convey an aspectual or modality reading. FU constructions have a fixed position in the TMA sequence, and they are placed in between the core TMA morphemes of Saamáka. In this paper, I show that verbs in FU constructions are restructuring verbs and therefore they have a mono-clausal structure.

Segmental, Syllabic and Morphological Aspects, 2006