A grammar of Mankanya an Atlantic language of Guinea-Bissau, Senegal and the Gambia: proefschrift

This dissertation presents a description of Mankanya, an Atlantic language spoken by about 65 000 speakers in Guinea-Bissau, Senegal and the Gambia. It includes a sketch of the phonology and a detailed description of the morphology and syntax of the language. Some aspects of discourse level structure are also discussed and two interlinearised sample texts are included.Mankanya has a rich morphology with both nominal and verbal inflection, and a range of derivative morphemes. Like many other Atlantic languages, nouns can be grouped into classes based on the agreement of the inflections between nouns and their modifiers. Verbs have prefixes that agree with the subject. Though some verbal affixes indicate different aspects, most distinctions of tense, aspect and mode are made by using verbal auxiliaries. Clause chaining is possible with reduced subject agreement if the subject is unchanged. Where the subject does change a different subject marker is often used.A Grammar of Mankanya will be of interest for those studying of Atlantic languages, as well a resource for wider typological comparison. Table of Contents List of Tables Abbreviations Acknowledgements Chapter 1 - Introduction 1.1 Sociolinguistic situation 1.2 Previous work 1.3 Data sources 1.4 Language overview 1.4.1 Phonology 1.4.2 Orthography 1.4.3 Morphology and syntax Chapter 2 - Phonology 2.1 Introduction 2.2 Phonemic tables 2.2.1 Consonant phonemes 2.2.2 Vowel Phonemes 2.2.3 The mid central vowel /ə/ and [Pə] prefixes 2.3 Contrasts 2.3.1 Labials and Dentals 2.3.2 Alveolars and Retroflexes 2.3.3 Palatals 2.3.4 Velars 2.3.5 Vowels 2.4 Allophones and their distribution 2.5 Interpretation 2.5.1 Interpretation between vowels and consonants 2.5.2 Interpretation between units and sequences 2.5.2.1 Prenasals 2.5.2.2 Long vowels 2.5.3 Glottal stop 2.6 Syllables 2.7 Word schemas 2.8 Occurrences and co-occurrence restrictions 2.9 Interpretation 2.10 Accent 2.11 Tone Chapter 3 - Nouns and Nominals 3.1 Basic word classes 3.2 Word structure 3.3 Noun morphology 3.3.1 Class prefixes 3.3.1.1 Noun class semantics 3.3.1.2 Irregularities 3.3.1.3 Proper noun marker 3.3.2 Special cases 3.3.2.1 Proper Nouns 3.3.2.2 Borrowed words 3.3.3 Possessor suffixes 3.3.4 Derivational suffixes 3.4 Compound Nouns 3.5 Pronouns 3.6 Summary of agreement prefixes Chapter 4 - The Verb 4.1 Word structure 4.2 Inflection 4.2.1 Subject prefixes 4.2.2 Serial 4.2.3 Persistive prefix 4.2.4 Negative 4.2.5 Selectional suffixes 4.2.6 Co-reference prefix 4.2.7 Object Suffixes 4.2.7.1 Object Suffixes on Main Verbs 4.2.7.2 Object Suffixes on Verbs with the Selectional Suffix 4.2.8 Aspectual affixes 4.2.8.1 Imperfective 4.2.8.2 Completive 4.2.9 Middle voice 4.2.10 Imperative 4.3 Derivation 4.3.1 Stem Category Change (-al) 4.3.2 Causative (-an, -ëş) 4.3.3 Reciprocal (-ar, -ir, -ad) 4.3.4 Benefactive (-ar, -ir, -ad) 4.3.5 Separative (-ëş) 4.3.6 Extensive (-ënt, -ëb) 4.3.7 Instrumental (-na) 4.3.8 Reduplication Chapter 5 - Infinitives and Participles 5.1 Infinitives 5.2 Participles Chapter 6 - Other word classes 6.1 Agreeing Noun Modifiers 6.1.1 Adjectives 6.1.2 Determiners 6.1.3 Cardinal numbers 6.1.4 Ordinals 6.1.5 Demonstratives 6.1.6 Genitive particle 6.2 Invariable Noun Modifiers 6.2.1 Quantifiers 6.2.2 Invariable locative modifiers 6.2.3 Anaphoric demonstratives 6.3 Prepositions 6.4 Locatives 6.5 Conjunctions 6.6 Interrogatives 6.7 Invariable Particles 6.8 Adverbs 6.9 Sound symbolic modifiers Chapter 7 - Simple Syntax 7.1 Simple Sentence 7.1.1 Basic Verbal Sentence 7.1.1.1 Existence 7.1.2 Sentence with “wo” as a copula 7.1.2.1 Stative clauses (adjectival) 7.1.2.2 Equative clauses (nominal) 7.1.2.1 Genitive clauses 7.1.2.2 Locative clauses 7.1.3 Selectional suffix sentence 7.1.4 Non-verbal clauses 7.2 Simple clausal modifications 7.2.1 Negative clauses 7.2.2 Yes/No interrogative clauses 7.2.3 Content interrogative clauses 7.2.4 Imperative clauses 7.3 Noun Phrase 7.3.1 Structure 7.3.2 Adjectives 7.3.3 Cardinal Numbers 7.3.4 Genitive Constructions 7.3.4.1 Inalienable Genitive Construction 7.3.4.2 Alienable Genitive Construction 7.3.5 Demonstratives 7.3.6 Determiners 7.3.7 Quantifiers 7.4 Infinitival clauses 7.5 Locative phrases 7.6 Temporal phrases 7.7 Pronouns 7.7.1 Personal pronouns 7.7.1.1 Independent subject pronouns 7.7.1.2 Object pronouns 7.7.2 Non-personal pronouns 7.7.2.1 Demonstrative pronouns 7.7.2.2 Indefinite pronoun Chapter 8 - Verb System 8.1 Introduction 8.2 Lexical aspectual classes 8.3 Auxiliaries and Auxiliary Verb Constructions 8.4 Preliminary Information 8.4.1 Analysis of k- a- prefixes 8.4.2 Verbs with infinitive complements 8.5 Completive and Imperfective 8.5.1 Completive 8.5.2 Imperfective 8.6 Functional Overview 8.7 Tense 8.7.1 Future 8.7.2 Past 8.7.3 Sequential 8.8 Aspectual constructions 8.8.1 Habitual 8.8.2 Continuative 8.8.3 Persistive 8.8.4 Ingressive 8.8.5 Progressive 8.8.6 Repetitive 8.8.7 Terminative 8.9 Modal constructions 8.9.1 Obligative and Epistemic 8.9.2 Prohibitive 8.10 Complex Auxiliary Verb Constructions Chapter 9 - Complex clauses 9.1 Clauses joined by linking words 9.1.1 Balanced clauses 9.1.2 Relations requiring deranking 9.2 Clauses linked by verbal forms 9.3 Semantics of clause relations 9.4 Subordinate clauses 9.4.1 Complement clauses 9.4.1.1 Modals 9.4.1.2 Phasals 9.4.1.3 Manipulatives 9.4.1.4 Desideratives 9.4.1.5 Perceptions 9.4.1.6 Knowledge 9.4.1.7 Propositional attitude 9.4.1.8 Utterance 9.4.2 Adverbial clauses 9.4.2.1 Temporal clauses 9.4.2.2 Manner 9.4.3 Relative clauses 9.4.3.1 Antecedent is the Subject of the Relative Clause 9.4.3.2 Antecedent is a non-Subject in the Relative Clause 9.4.3.3 Object pronouns in Relative Clauses 9.4.3.4 Antecedent is a modifier in a genitive phrase in a Relative Clause 9.4.3.5 Headless relative clauses 9.4.3.6 Relative clause semantics 9.4.4 Participle clauses 9.5 Other types of clause linking 9.5.1 Temporal (I) 9.5.1.1 Temporal Succession (Is) 9.5.1.2 Relative Time (Ir) 9.5.1.3 Conditional (Ic) 9.5.2 Consequence (II) 9.5.2.1 Cause (IIc) 9.5.2.2 Result (IIr) 9.5.2.3 Purpose (IIp) 9.5.3 Possible Consequence (III) 9.5.4 Addition (IV) 9.5.4.1 Unordered addition (IVu) 9.5.4.2 Same event addition (IVs) 9.5.4.3 Elaboration (IVe) 9.5.4.4 Contrast (IVc) 9.5.5 Alternatives (V) 9.5.5.1 Disjunction (Vd) 9.5.5.2 Rejection (Vr) 9.5.5.3 Suggestion (Vs) 9.5.6 Manner (VI) 9.5.6.1 Real (VIr) 9.5.6.2 Hypothetical (VIh) 9.6 Conclusion Chapter 10 - Coherence in Texts 10.1 Participant reference 10.1.1 Introduction of participants 10.1.2 Participants which are syntactic subjects 10.1.3 Participants which are not syntactic subjects 10.1.4 VIP strategies 10.2 Linking 10.2.1 Demonstrative aŋ 10.2.2 Renewal 10.2.2.1 Nominal renewal 10.2.2.2 Verbal renewal 10.3 Points of departure Chapter 11 - The particle kë 11.1 Clause chaining and switch reference 11.2 Kë after a noun phrase 11.3 Kë with hënk di 11.4 What sort of information does kë occur with? 11.5 Summary Chapter 12 - Glossed Texts 12.1 Two women who had humps 12.2 A voyage to the Casamance References Samenvatting Curriculum vitae