Torrence The Clause Structure of Wolof

Insights into the Left Periphery
Erscheinungsjahr 2013
ISBN: 978-90-272-7301-7
Verlag: John Benjamins Publishing Company
Format: PDF
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, Band 198, 303 Seiten, + index

Reihe: Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today

This volume investigates the clausal syntax of Wolof, an understudied Atlantic language of Senegal. The goals of the work are descriptive, analytical, and comparative, with a focus on the structure of the left periphery and left peripheral phenomena. The book includes detailed examination of the morpho-syntax of wh-questions, successive cyclicity, subject marking, relative clauses, topic/focus articulation, and complementizer agreement. Novel data from Wolof is used to evaluate and extend theoretical proposals concerning the structure of the Complementizer Phrase (CP) and Tense Phrase (TP). It is argued that Wolof provides evidence for the promotion analysis of relative clauses, an “exploded” CP and TP, and for analyses that treat relative clauses as composed of a determiner with a CP complement. It is further argued that Wolof has a set of silent wh-expressions and these are compared to superficially similar constructions in colloquial German, Bavarian, Dutch, and Norwegian. The book also presents a comparison of complementizer agreement across a number of related and unrelated languages. Data from Indo-European (Germanic varieties, French, Irish), Niger-Congo (Atlantic, Bantu, Gur), and Semitic (Arabic) languages put the Wolof phenomena in a larger typological context by showing the range of variation in complementizer agreement systems.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Torrence, Harold

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Sprachwissenschaft Einzelne Sprachen & Sprachfamilien
• Geisteswissenschaften Sprachwissenschaft Grammatik, Syntax, Morphologie
• Geisteswissenschaften Sprachwissenschaft Historische & Vergleichende Sprachwissenschaft, Sprachtypologie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Preface xi – xii
List of abbreviations xiii – xiv
Chapter 1. Introductory remarks on Wolof grammar 1 – 28
Chapter 2. Clause types and clause structure 29 – 62
Chapter 3. The Wolof left periphery 63 – 102
Chapter 4. The structure of relative clauses 103 – 162
Chapter 5. Null nominals in Wolof and elsewhere 163 – 228
Chapter 6. Complementizer agreement in Wolof and beyond 229 – 272
References 273 – 284
Name index 285 – 286
Subject index 287 – 290