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Article published In:
Diachronica
Vol. 37:1 (2020) ► pp.43–82

Perfective marking conditioned by transitivity status in Western Mande

Constructional competition, specialization and merger

ORCID logo | Languages and Cultures of Africa (CNRS – USPC/INALCO)

This paper provides a diachronic construction-based explanation of the differential perfective marking conditioned by transitivity status in Western Mande languages, using the Greater Manding group as an exemplar case. This typologically unusual phenomenon has previously been erroneously cast in terms of case alignment, either synchronically (in terms of bidirectional case markers) or historically (in terms of an earlier split-ergative stage). The central insight of my explanation is that the Positive Perfective constructions of the Western Mande languages are multiple-source constructions. The in-depth reconstruction of these constructions presented in the paper provides a theoretically significant illustration of a pattern of repeated emergence of constructional competition in a particular semantic domain, which is subsequently resolved through constructional specialization and merger, resulting in multiple-source constructions and a typologically unusual pattern of differential TAM and polarity marking.

Keywords: alignment, bidirectional case markers, differential TAM and polarity marking, historical syntax, Mande languages, multiple-source constructions, perfective, construction-based reconstruction, split-ergativity, transitivity status
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Mande clausal morphosyntax
    • 2.1Word order on the clause-level and TAMP marking
    • 2.2Transitivity status marking in Mande: The general situation
    • 2.3Typical alignment patterns (with a note on split-ergativity)
  • 3.Positive perfective constructions are multiple source constructions: The scenario
  • 4.The Old res + construction as the source of the pfv I + construction in Greater Manding: Formal and semantic evolution
    • 4.1Overview
    • 4.2The TAMP2 marker *=tà
    • 4.3New Resultative constructions mirror the evolution of the Resultative construction with *=tà
      • 4.3.1Resultative constructions strongly tend to be intransitive
      • 4.3.2 Resultative constructions tend to change from [s cop v-res] to [s v-res cop]
      • 4.3.3Resultative constructions tend to lose the copula
      • 4.3.4Resultative semantics tend to evolve into perfect and perfective
  • 5.Auxiliary verb constructions as source constructions of the pfv T + constructions in Greater Manding: Formal and semantic evolution
    • 5.1Overview
    • 5.2The dedicated pfv T + markers across Greater Manding: Cognate sets and reconstructions
    • 5.3The older layer of pfv I + constructions in Greater Manding: Positive Perfective Auxiliary Verb constructions
    • 5.4The newer layer of pfv T + constructions in Greater Manding: Positive Resultative Auxiliary Verb constructions
    • 5.5Source constructions of pfv T + constructions were indifferent to transitivity status: Cognate sets KA and YA
    • 5.6Motion and “be, happen” verbs as sources of TAMP1 markers in pfv T + constructions
  • 6.Alternative accounts in terms of case alignment: Synchronic bidirectional case markers and a historical split-ergativity stage
    • 6.1Bidirectional case markers: Heath (2007)
    • 6.2Postpositions as the source of TAMP1 pfv T + markers: Creissels (1997)
  • 7.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations
  • References
Published online: 19 March 2020
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/dia.18050.idi
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