Noun classes in Kafire (Senufo): Between a semantic and a formal - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Noun classes in Kafire (Senufo): Between a semantic and a formal category Tatiana Nikitina (CNRS-LLACAN) - Lacina Songfolo Silué (INALCO) POSTER - LFG20 June 20, 2020

Introduction Noun class systems of Senufo languages present a challenge to formal treatments, agreement and provide a first formal account of the noun class system of Kafire. ‘this black dog’ (2) a. ‘this shoe’ b. In this study we address the exceptional behavior of such adjectives with respect to 1 ‘these big dogs’ ‘this little dog’ a. (3) ‘this second shoe’ Some adjectives, however, are exceptions to the general rule: in their presence, the with the head noun: demonstrative appears in Class 2 or 3 (depending on the adjective), and fails to agree phrase and the noun class specification on the head noun. In Kafire (Senufo, Côte d’Ivoire), demonstratives normally agree with the head noun, b. ‘this dog’ independent of the determiner’s position and of the presence or absence of adjectives: (1) a. because of the non-trivial interaction between the agreement features of the noun b. wè pɔ̰̄=w túbɛ́rɛ́=g gè this.cl1 dog=cl1.def shoe=cl2.def this.cl2 wè pɔ̰̄ wɔ́=w túbɛ́rɛ́ ʃɛ̰́-wó-g gè this.cl1 dog black=cl1.def shoe two-adjvz-cl2.def this.cl2 lè pɔ̰̄ bí=l jè pɔ̰̄ gbóló=j this.cl3 dog little=cl3 this.cl2.pl dog big=cl2.pl

Kafire noun class markers kpá= ʔā ‘house’ ɲṵ̀brí= mɛ̰̄ ‘brain’ sṵ̀= mɔ̰̀ ‘oil’ Class 5 sú= rò ‘food(s)’ tā= rà ‘land(s)’ Class 4 jédá= gélè ‘foot soles’ jédá= là ‘foot sole’ cɛ̰́= gélè ‘eggs’ cɛ̰́= nɛ̰̀ ‘egg’ Class 3 kpá= jā ‘houses’ cí= jē ‘trees’ There are five noun classes in Kafire, corresponding to the noun classes of other cí= gē ‘tree’ Class 2 tèfálá= bélè ‘farmers‘ tèfálá= wá ‘farmer’ nà̰= bélè ‘men’ nà̰= wà ‘man’ Class 1 Plural Singular Noun class markers of Kafire (indefinite) (4) 2012). The actual realization of the marker depends on the last vowel of the stem. Senufo languages ( Welmers 1950, Carlson 1994, Baron 2016, Traoré & Féry 2018, Yéo 2

Definite class markers derive, historically, from a combination of the indefinite (or the kpá= g(ì) ‘the house’ ɲṵ̀brí= m(ì) ‘the brain’ sṵ̀= m(ì) ‘the oil’ Class 5 sú= r(ì) ‘the food(s)’ tā= r(ì) ‘the land(s)’ Class 4 jédá= gélè ‘the foot soles’ jédá= l(ì) ‘the foot sole’ cɛ̰́= gélè ‘the eggs’ cɛ̰́= n(ì) ‘the egg’ Class 3 kpá= j(ì) ‘the houses’ cí= j(ì) ‘the trees’ unmarked) class marker with the vowel -i. That relationship is not entirely regular, so cí= g(ì) ‘the tree’ Class 2 tèfálá= bèlè ‘the farmers‘ tèfálá= w(ì) ‘the farmer’ nà̰= bèlè ‘the men‘ nà̰= w(ì) ‘the man’ Class 1 Plural Singular Noun class markers of Kafire (definite) (5) we take them to be synchronically non-decomposable. 3

Claim 1: Noun phrase markers are determiners b. this.cl1 Dem dog NP black AP NP cl1.def D D’ DP DP this.cl1 Contrary to the traditional assumption (Carlson 1994; Yéo 2012; Manessy 1996), we Dem dog NP cl1.def D D’ DP DP a. (6) for nominal suffjxes in previous studies. but clitics of category D. Their obligatoriness explains why they have been mistaken argue (together with Baron 2016) that the noun class markers are not nominal suffjxes, 4

If the noun is modified by more than one adjective, the class marker follows them all, b. before adjectives conveying discourse-old information. adjectives conveying new information and adjectives that are in focus are placed The order of adjectival modifiers is defined by information-structure considerations: ‘a pretty black new shoe’ b. ‘a beautiful black new shoe’ making the alternative analysis of the marker as a suffjx problematic. (8) ‘a pretty black new shoe’ a. ‘a beautiful black new shoe’ a. (7) 5 túbɛ́rɛ́ wɔ́ cɛ̰̀ vɔ̰́=ʔɔ̰̄ shoe black pretty new=cl2 túbɛ́rɛ́ cɛ̰̀ wɔ́ vɔ̰́=ʔɔ̰̄ shoe pretty black new=cl2 túbɛ́rɛ́ vɔ̰́ wɔ́ cɛ̰̀=gɛ̰̀ shoe new black pretty=cl2 túbɛ́rɛ́ vɔ̰́ cɛ̰̀ wɔ́=ʔɔ̰̄ shoe new pretty black=cl2

Claim 2: Demonstratives are adjuncts to a DP shoe this.cl2 Dem shoe NP second AP NP cl2.def D D’ DP DP b. NP Demonstratives appear in a position external to the noun class marker, either before second AP NP cl2.def D D’ DP this.cl2 Dem DP a. (9) status). The demonstrative agrees with the DP rather than with the head noun: or aħter the NP (the ordering difgerence corresponds to a difgerence in discourse 6

There are two demonstratives in Kafire, a proximal and a distant one. (11) sṵ̀=m bàá ‘that oil’ Class 5 tā=r dàá ‘that land’ Class 4 cɛ̄=gèlè gàlàá ‘those calabashes’ cɛ̄=l làá ‘that calabash’ Class 3 túbɛ́rɛ́=j jàá ‘those shoes’ túbɛ́rɛ́=g gàá ‘that shoe’ Class 2 pì=bèlè bàlàá ‘those children’ pì=w wàá ‘that child’ Class 1 The distal demonstrative sṵ̀=m bè ‘this oil’ (10) class 2 The proximal demonstrative Singular Plural class 1 pì=w wè ‘this child’ pì=bèlè bèlè ‘these children’ túbɛ́rɛ́=g gè ‘this shoe’ class 5 túbɛ́rɛ́=j jè ‘these shoes’ class 3 cɛ̄=l lè ‘this calabash’ cɛ̄=gèlè gèlè ‘these calabashes’ class 4 tā=r dè ‘this land’ 7

Claim 3: Noun class specification is optional on nouns b. obligatory on some adjectives (such as ‘little’ , ‘big’ , ‘short’), and absent from others. To account for this we suggest that noun class specification is optional on nouns, ‘these short young girls’ b. ‘short young girls’ a. (13) Some adjectives are inherently specified for noun class: when such an adjective ‘this short girl’ ‘a short young girl’ a. modifies a noun phrase, the DP agrees in Class 2 or Class 3, irrespective of the class of the head noun. In other words, the agreement value contributed by the head noun can be overruled by the agreement value contributed by its modifier. (12) 8 pìcá kpé= lē pìcá kpèr= gélè young.girl short= cl3.sg young.girl short= cl3.sg pìcá kpé=l lè pìcá kpér=gèlè young.girl short=cl3 this.cl3.sg young.girl short=cl2.pl gèlè this.cl3.pl

We define agreement of determiners in noun class by a constraining equation such that the controller NP must bear a specific agreement value: • In the absence of class-marked adjectives, the determiner must agree with the head noun (despite the optionality of its class feature). • When a class-marked adjective is present, its obligatory agreement feature overrules the one of the head noun. As a result, the agreement value on the determiner could come either from the head noun or its adjectival modifier. The difgerent agreement mechanisms are illustrated in the structure below, for ‘this little black dog’: • the demonstrative and the DP it modifies must agree in their noun class; • the determiner agrees with its NP by a constraining equation; • the noun class information is optional on the head noun (‘dog’), • the noun class information is obligatory on one of the adjectives (‘little’), • no noun class information is contributed by the other adjective (‘black’). 9

(14) ‘this little black dog’ (↑ cl) = 3 (↑ prox) = + lè Dem ↑ = ↓ ((↑ cl) = 1) (↑ pred) = ‘dog’ pɔ̰̄ NP ↑ = ↓ (↑ pred) = ‘little’ bí AP NP ↑ = ↓ (↑ pred) = ‘black’ D DP ↑ = ↓ DP ↑ = ↓ D’ ↑ = ↓ l wɔ́ ↑ = ↓ NP AP 10 ↓ ∈ (↑adj) (↑cl) = c 3 ↓ ∈ (↑adj) ((adj ∈ ↑) cl) = 3

Besides regular anaphoric pronouns, noun class is reflected in the choice of what is kéè ‘it(self)’ Singular Plural Class 1 wéè ‘him(self), her(self)’ pélè ‘them(selves)’ Class 2 jéè ‘them(selves)’ (16) Class 3 léè ‘it(self)’ kélè ‘them(selves)’ Class 4 téè ‘it(self), them(selves)’ Class 5 péè ‘it(self)’ Emphatic pronouns bí ‘it’ known as emphatic pronouns. bé ‘they’ (15) Anaphoric pronouns Singular Plural Class 1 wí ‘he, she’ Class 2 Class 5 gí ‘it’ jí ‘they’ Class 3 lí ‘it’ gé ‘they’ Class 4 dí ‘it, they’ 10

Claim 4: Noun class markers have optional semantic content Class 4 markers are asociated with the collective meaning, and can be used to derive semantic features augm and dimin , respectively. associated not only with a formal agreement value but also with the optional To account for such uses, we assume that the markers for Classes 2 and 3 are pjā= rā ‘seeds’ (seed= cl4 ) → pjā= lā ‘seed’ (seed=cl3) b. cí= rē ‘trees’ (tree= cl4 ) → cí= gē ‘tree’ (tree=cl2) a. (18) collective nouns from certain count nouns: cí= lé ‘little tree’ (tree= cl3 ) Cross-linguistically, formal agreement classes develop from systems of semantically → cí= gē ‘tree’ (tree=cl2) b. kácélé= lē ‘little bone’ (bone= cl3 ) → kácélé= ʔè ‘bone’ (bone=cl2) a. (17) meanings, respectively: and 3, for example, are associated with the augmentative and the diminutive meaning. This explains a certain degree of flexibility in class assignment. Classes 2 Some of the noun class markers in Kafire still retain traces of their original lexical motivated genders or classifiers (Nicole 1999; Aikhenvald 2000). 11