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Title
(Non-)specificity and case in Gorwaa: the -oo/-(h)ee suffix |
Full text
http://hdl.handle.net/1887/139157 |
Date
2020 |
Author(s)
Kerr, E.J. |
Abstract
This paper presents results of a corpus study on the South-Cushitic language Gorwaa which investigated the 'enigmatic' -oo/-(h)ee suffix (Mous & Qorro 2010:47, Harvey 2018). Various contexts in which this nominal suffix occurs are identified, including negation, polar questions, universal quantification, adverbials, the object of comparison, and locatives. I characterise these as non-specific contexts and frame-setting topics. I compare these contexts to those in which the augment (nominal pre-prefix) is dropped in Bantu languages and, based on the empirical similarities, I discuss whether analyses of the Bantu augment can account for the Gorwaa cases. One analysis proposes that the suffix marks (non-)specificity, which I show is not fully satisfactory. Instead, I propose that what truly conditions the appearance of the suffix is the syntactic position of the nominal with respect to the verb phrase. |
Subject(s)
syntax; theoretical linguistics; African languages; Cushitic |
Publisher
Leiden University Centre for Linguistics; Leiden |
Type of publication
Article in monograph or in proceedings; Article in monograph or in proceedings |
Source
https://www.universiteitleiden.nl/en/events/series/sole#console-xxviii-2020; 156; 174; 19; Proceedings of ConSOLE XXVIII (29-31 January 2020, Universitat Pompeu Fabra) |
Repository
Leiden - University of Leiden
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Added to C-A: 2021-01-14;08:42:02 |
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