LINGUIST List 33.2688
Sun Sep 04 2022
Diss: Dyula; Niger-Congo; General Linguistics; Linguistic Theories; Semantics; Syntax: Alassane Kiemtoré: ''Issues in Jula complementation: Structures, relations and matters of interpretation''
Editor for this issue: Sarah Goldfinch <sgoldfinchlinguistlist.org>
Date: 28-Aug-2022
From: Alassane Kiemtoré <akiemtor04
yahoo.fr>
Subject: Issues in Jula complementation: Structures, relations and matters of interpretation
E-mail this message to a friend Institution: University of Stuttgart
Program: -
Dissertation Status: Completed
Degree Date: 2022
Author: Alassane Kiemtoré
Dissertation Title: Issues in Jula complementation: Structures, relations and matters of interpretation
Dissertation URL:
https://elib.uni-stuttgart.de/handle/11682/12188 Linguistic Field(s): General Linguistics
Linguistic Theories
Semantics
Syntax
Subject Language(s):
Dyula (dyu) Language Family(ies): Niger-Congo
Dissertation Director:
Malte Zimmermann
Daniel Hole
Dissertation Abstract:
The present thesis investigates a set of issues related to the domain of complementation within the West-African Manding language Jula. We focus on two complements types: infinitival clauses and finite ko-clauses. The discussion of these two complement types is centered on four topics: (i) the relation of the complement clause to the (hosting) matrix clause, (ii) the internal and external syntax of complement clauses, (iii) the function and syntax of complementizers, and (iv) referential dependencies within complementation sentences. On these topics, the thesis makes the following contributions in connection to Jula: it is established that both infinitival and ko-clauses function as arguments of some predicates, even though they cannot occur inside the boundaries of their hosting matrix clause. Their relation to the matrix clause and their restricted position towards the latter is uniformly derived from three interacting factors, i.e., base generation, predication, and Case assignment. Syntactically, however, infinitival clauses and finite ko-clauses represent two distinct complement types. While the former act as FinP-projections, the latter behave like ForceP projections. This appears to be a direct consequence of the role played by their heading complementizers: kà for infinitival clauses and ko for ko-clauses. Specifically, kà is a Fin head complementizer whose function is associated with non finiteness, i.e., the information that the content of the clause it introduces is not related to an evaluation world. Ko, on the contrary, is a Force head complementizer that anchors a clause to a speech context different from the actual speech context, i.e., the speech context in which the actual speaker utters the ko-clause sentence. We discuss two phenomena related to referential dependencies within complementation sentences: control, which manifests itself in infinitival complement clauses, and logophoricity, which is observed with finite complement ko-clauses. Control in Jula is always an instance of obligatory control (OC), which comes about via binding. As for logophoricity, evidence suggests the importance of another factor than binding. In fact, we proposed contrastive focus to play a crucial role in logophoricity in Jula.
Page Updated: 04-Sep-2022