TELICITY, DEFINITENESS AND ANIMACY: THE FACTORS BEHIND TRANSITIVITY AND DIFFERENTIAL OBJECT MARKING (original) (raw)

Transitivity in Bantu: Event-oriented constructions

2023

Bantu languages are considered accusative languages, due to their person-marking alignment system. This typology accounts for a specific view on transitivity, strongly based on a subject/object distinction and its mapping to the semantic roles of the participants in an event. Consequently, some constructions found in Bantu challenge theoretical analyses on transitivity and syntax because they present a mismatch between grammatical relations and semantic roles. In this article, I present an approach to transitivity inspired by Hopper & Thompson's (1980) parameters for a gradual view, instead of a sharp dichotomy between transitive and intransitive sentences. Linguistic constructions are, therefore, analyzed as being more transitive or less transitive, based on semantic features. I also suggest that, when features other than the subject-object relation are more prominent in licensing participants in a given construction, it means the construction is event-oriented, following the parameters of an "active structure" proposed by Klimov (1974) and Wichmann (2007). I discuss three constructions in Bantu that might be thought of as event-oriented: inversion constructions, valency-changing extensions, and the verbal expression of properties. The advantage of approaching these constructions through an event-orientation analysis is that it addresses the relation between participants and events as morphosemantic features instead of challenging syntactic operations. Keywords event-oriented grammar, inversion constructions, morphosyntax, typology, valency-changing Résumé On considère généralement les langues bantoues comme des langues accusatives, en raison de leur système d'alignement des marques personnelles. Ce type d'analyse est sous-tendu par une vision spécifique de la notion de transitivité, qui repose en particulier sur la distinction sujet versus objet et sur le fait que cette distinction correspond aux rôles sémantiques joués par les actants participant à un événement donné. De fait, certaines constructions attestées en bantou remettent en question cette conception théorique de la transitivité et de la syntaxe, car, dans lesdites constructions, les fonctions grammaticales et les rôles sémantiques ne coïncident pas. Dans cet article, je présente une approche de la transitivité fondée sur les paramètres de Hopper & Thompson (1980) qui supposent une approche graduelle et non discrète de la distinction entre phrases transitives et intransitives. Dans ce cadre explicatif, une construction linguistique donnée peut donc être considérée comme plus ou moins transitive, en fonction de la prise en compte de divers traits sémantiques. Je suggère en outre que, quand des traits autres que la relation sujet/objet revêtent un rôle de premier plan quant à l'implication des actants dans une construction donnée, ladite construction peut être considérée comme régie par l'événement, dans la ligne argumentative de la 'structure active' proposé par Klimov (1974) et Wichmann (2007). À la lumière de ce qui vient d'être dit, j'analyse trois constructions attestées en bantou et que

Telicity vs. Perfectivity: A Case Study of Odia Complex Predicates

This paper studies the telic feature of light verbs in Odia complex predicates. Odia V-v sequences, carrying a main verb and a light verb, both of which are semantically predicative and hence form a complex predicate, denote telicity of the action/event. Such light verbs are compatible with the morpho-syntactic perfective aspectual morpheme, which provides evidence that the perfective morpheme and the light verbs are different subtypes of telic features.

A NEW LOOK AT SUBJECT ISLANDS: THE PHASEHOOD OF DEFINITENESS

In this work I discuss the phasal status of Determiner Phrases (DPs) and propose that certain subject-island effects such as subextraction are best understood when interfacerelated features such as Definiteness/Specificity are taken into consideration. Utilizing Chomsky's (2008) notion of phases, I claim that subextraction out of subjects is licensed if the relevant DP is not a phase. A DP subject is not a phase if it is indefinite. Building on Jiménez-Fernández (2009), I maintain that subextraction is possible not only in interrogative clauses, but also in other types of A'-movement such as focus fronting. I show that independently of the (post-or pre-verbal) position that DP subjects occupy, subextraction in A'-movement contexts is permitted if the DP subject does not contain the interface-related grammatical feature [+ def]. The phasal characterisation of subject islands is held to be a consequence of an interface effect relating to the Definiteness feature. In other words, island circumvention is crucially connected to interface conditions, not only to syntactic constraints (contrary to . Subextraction out of a subject is illustrated with Spanish, Italian, Turkish, Polish, Greek and English data. A threefold typological division is proposed, in which languages are classified according to the subextraction possibilities and the influence of Definiteness on this type of movement. In addition, a parallelism is established between DP phases and NP phases, which accounts for the strong influence of the [+ def] feature on the phasal characterization of nominal constructions in languages with and without articles.