Cover not available
Article published In:
Studies in Language
Vol. 41:1 (2017) ► pp.99–141

Clause-internal antitopics in Berta, a Nilo-Saharan verb-second language

 | Aalborg University |
This article deals with clausal constituent order and dislocation constructions in Berta, a Nilo-Saharan language with indicative clauses being verb-second. The preverbal slot is occupied by either an unmarked NP which may have any or no grammatical relation to the verb, a focus constituent, or a particular function word. This slot may be empty, but in that case it implies a zero third person referent. In addition to left-dislocated NPs, which are clause-external and which are resumed pronominally clause-internally, in some cases by zero, Berta also has a construction in which an NP is right-dislocated but remains inside the clause. This “antitopic” is marked by a preposition, and it has a clause-internal pronominal antecedent which may be zero and which is either a subject, an object or an adverbial. The clause-internal status of the antitopic is evidenced by the fact that it may be followed by certain other clause-internal constituents.
Keywords: Berta, antitopic, dislocation, verb-second, zero anaphora
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Basic clausal syntax: Indicative clauses
    • 2.1Constituent order in indicative clauses
    • 2.2Declarative clauses: NP in P1
      • 2.2.1Subject and object in P1
      • 2.2.2Recipient/Beneficiary in P1
      • 2.2.3Adverbial in P1
      • 2.2.4Possessor in P1
      • 2.2.5Possessum slot
      • 2.2.6Postverbal pronominal subjects and objects
      • 2.2.7The INTR suffix
      • 2.2.8Third person pronouns in P1 and empty P1
      • 2.2.9Syntactic status of P1 constituents
    • 2.3Other clause types with NP in P1
    • 2.4Relative clauses: Empty P1
    • 2.5Clauses with P1 as a focus position
      • 2.5.1Constituent questions
      • 2.5.2Clauses with marked constituent focus
      • 2.5.3The order of postverbal pronominal elements
    • 2.6Clauses with a fixed P1 constituent
      • 2.6.1Negative imperative clauses
      • 2.6.2Adverbial clauses
      • 2.6.3Sequential clauses
  • 3.Basic clausal syntax: Subjunctive clauses
    • 3.1Imperative clauses
    • 3.2Sequential clauses
    • 3.3Hortative clauses
    • 3.4Purposive clauses
  • 4.Left-dislocation
    • 4.1Introduction to left-dislocation
    • 4.2Postverbal pronominal resumption
    • 4.3Resumption via an empty P1 slot
    • 4.4Resumption by zero in clauses without a P1 slot
  • 5.Antitopic constructions: nà-phrases
    • 5.1Coreference with a zero antecedent
    • 5.2Coreference with a postverbal pronominal subject or object
    • 5.3Coreference with a postverbal pronominal adverb
    • 5.4Coreference with a zero possessor-antecedent
    • 5.5Antitopic as a clause-internal constituent
  • 6.Discourse function of antitopics
    • 6.1Antecedent as subject
    • 6.2Antecedent as object
    • 6.3Antecedent as adverbial
    • 6.4Pronominal antitopics
  • 7.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgments
  • Notes
  • References


This article is currently available as a sample article.

Published online: 1 June 2017
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/sl.41.1.04and
References (17)
References
Andersen, Torben. 1993a. Aspects of Berta phonology. Afrika und Übersee 76(1). 41–80.Google Scholar
. 1993b. Verbal roots and verbal inflection in Berta. African Languages and Cultures 6(2). 97–119. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 1995. Absolutive and nominative in Berta. In Robert Nicolaï & Franz Rottland (eds.), Actes du Cinquième Colloque de Linguistique Nilo-Saharienne / Proceedings of the Fifth Nilo-Saharan Linguistics Colloquium, Nice, 24–29 août 1992 (Nilo-Saharan Linguistic Analyses and Documentation 10), 39–69. Cologne: Rüdiger Köppe Verlag.Google Scholar
. 2016. Interrogative sentences in Dinka. In Bernhard Köhler (ed.), Interrogative and syntactic inquiries: Case studies from Africa (Frankfurt African Studies Bulletin, Year 2011, Volume 23), 7–26. Cologne: Rüdiger Köppe Verlag.
. (to appear). Berta. In Bedilu Wakjira, Ronny Meyer & Zelealem Leyew (eds.), Handbook of Ethiopian languages. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Chafe, Wallace L.. 1976. Givenness, contrastiveness, definiteness, subjects, topics, and point of view. In Charles N. Li (ed.), Subject and topic, 25–55. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Comrie, Bernhard. 1981. Language universals and linguistic typology: Syntax and morphology. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.Google Scholar
Dik, Simon C. 1981. Functional grammar, 3rd edn. Dordrecht: Foris Publications.Google Scholar
1989. The theory of Functional Grammar. Part 1: The structure of the clause. Dordrecht: Foris Publications.Google Scholar
Keenan, Edward L. 1976. Towards a universal definition of subject. In Charles N. Li (ed.), Subject and topic, 303–333. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
König, Ekkehard. 2001. Internal and external possessors. In Martin Haspelmath, Ekkehard König, Wulf Oesterreicher & Wolfgang Raible (eds.), Language typology and language universals, Volume 21, 970–978. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lambrecht, Knud. 1981. Topic, antitopic and verb agreement in Non-Standard French. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2001. Dislocation. In Martin Haspelmath, Ekkehard König, Wulf Oesterreicher & Wolfgang Raible (eds.), Language typology and language universals, Volume 2, 1050–1078. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Mel’čuk, Igor. 2006. Aspects of the theory of morphology. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Neudorf, Susanne. 2015. The use of body part lexemes in Berta. In Angelika Mietzner & Anne Storch (eds.), Nilo-Saharan – Models and descriptions (Nilo-Saharan Linguistic Analyses and Documentation 28), 93–112. Cologne: Rüdiger Köppe Verlag.Google Scholar
. 2014. Bertha – English – Amharic – Arabic dictionary. [URL]. (27 September, 2016.)
Van Valin, Robert D. & Randy J. Lapolla. 1997. Syntax: Structure, meaning and function (Cambridge Textbooks in Linguistics). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cited by (1)

Cited by one other publication

Andersen, Torben
2019. External possession of body-part nouns in Dinka. Linguistics 57:1 ► pp. 127 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 16 january 2021. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.