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Title (Non-)specificity and case in Gorwaa: the -oo/-(h)ee suffix
Full text https://www.universiteitleiden.nl/en/events/series/sole#console-xxviii-2020; https://hdl.handle.net/1887/139157
Date 2020
Author(s) Kerr, E.J.
Contributor(s) van Alem, A.; De Sisto, M.; Wall, 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. - Theoretical and Experimental Linguistics
Subject(s) syntax; theoretical linguistics; African languages; Cushitic
Language en
Type of publication Article in monograph or in proceedings; info:eu-repo/semantics/article; Text
Format application/pdf
Source Proceedings of ConSOLE XXVIII (29-31 January 2020, Universitat Pompeu Fabra)
Rights https://hdl.handle.net/1887/license:3
Identifier lucris-id:363580040
Repository Leiden - University of Leiden
Added to C-A: 2023-01-31;10:52:11