Tense agreement in Ndebele light-verb constructions

Transcription

1 University o Chicago pietraszko@uchicago.edu ACAL 48, Bloomington, 3/29-4/ Introduction Ndebele uses a class o light verbs (Ls) to express adverbial meanings (e.g. qala do irst, phose almost do, ze inally do, mane simply do ) he main, lexical verb appears with subjunctive mood morphology 1 (1) Ngi-qala ngi-pheke. 1sg-irst.pres 1sg-cook.pres.sbjv I irst cook Present Present Sbjv (2) Ngi-qalé ng-aphéka. 1sg-irst.pst 1sg-cook.pst.sbjv I irst cooked Past Past Sbjv he subjunctive verb co-varies with matrix tense (present subjunctive or past subjunctive) Examining Ndebele L-constructions, I argue that: ense agreement is a relation which need not involve heads It is an instance o Inl-agreement an independently motivated mechanism he main constraint that governs tense/inl-agreement is locality PROPOSAL: ense agreement in Ndebele is agreement between the subjunctive verb and the closest inlectional head: (Inl)... (Inl)... Inl... light... sbjv... PLAN: 2 ense agreement in Ndebele and Sequence o ense 3 Analysis: tense agreement as an instance o Inl-agreement 4 Evidence or locality: intervention by lower Inl 5 Conclusion 1 Abbreviatons: FS = inal suix, FU = uture, PRES = present, PS = past, SBJ = subjunctive 1

2 2 ense agreement in Ndebele and Sequence o ense (SO) (3) a. Ngi-qala ngi-pheke. 1sg-irst.pres 1sg-cook.pres.sbjv I irst cook b. Ngi-qalé ng-aphéka. 1sg-irst.pst 1sg-cook.pst.sbjv I irst cooked Ndebele Sequence o ense: embedded tense is dependent on matrix tense (4) a. Gianni crede che Maria sia incinta. Gianni believe.pres that Maria be.pres.sbjv pregnant. Gianni believes that Maria is pregnant b. Gianni credeva che Maria osse incinta. Gianni believe.pst that Maria be.pst.sbjv pregnant. Gianni believed that Maria was pregnant Italian (Giorgi, 2009:7) Embedded past tense morphology expresses simultaneity, not precedence (5) higher tense lower tense Morphology: PAS PAS Semantics: PAS PRES/ Accounts o Sequence o ense: the lower past tense is a semantically deicient (anaphoric/dependent tense) (Picallo, 1984; Abusch, 1997; Giorgi & Pianesi, 1997; Landau, 2004; Giannakidou, 2009; a.o.) the semantics morphology mismatch is due to operations on the lower (PF/LF eature deletion, agreement with higher ) (Comrie, 1986; Enç, 1987; Ogihara, 1989; Giorgi, 2009; a.o.) A dependency between two s: [ main clause... [ sbjv clause dep... ]] A CHALLANGE: In Ndebele light-verb constructions, the subjunctive complement is smaller than a. (6) wo types o subjunctive complements in Ndebele a. Clausal Subjunctive (CP) b. Small Subjunctive ( ) (selected by aspectual light verbs) Small Sbjv (7) Assumed clause structure: [ CP [ [PerP [AspP [ ] ]]] ] Clausal Sbjv 2

3 CP: only Clausal Subjunctives can be introduced by a complementizer (8) a. Ngi-m-una [ ukuthi a-bale. ] 1sg-1o-want COMP 1-read.sbjv I want him to read. b. U-qala [ (*ukuthi) 1-irst (*COMP) He irst reads. a-bale. ] 1-read.sbjv Clausal Subjunctive Small Subjunctive : only Clausal Subjunctives can have a preverbal subject (in Spec,) (9) a. Ku-anele [ ukuthi uzodwa abale. ] 17-must COMP 1Zodwa 1.read.sbjv Zodwa must read. b. *Ku-qala [ uzodwa abale. ] 17-irst 1Zodwa 1.read.sbjv ( Zodwa irst reads ) Clausal Subjunctive Small Subjunctive PerP: only Clausal Subjunctives can express Perect aspect (10) a. Ngi-m-una [ ukuthi a-be e-balile. ] 1sg-1o-want COMP 1-aux.sbjv 1-read.per I want him to be done reading. b. *U-qala 1-irst [ a-be e-balile. ] 1-aux.sbjv 1-read.per Clausal Subjunctive Small Subjunctive AspP: only Clausal Subjunctives can express imperective aspect (11) a. Ngi-m-una [ ukuthi a-be e-bala. ] 1sg-1o-want COMP 1-aux.sbjv 1-read.imp I want him to be reading. b. */? U-qala 1-irst [ a-be e-bala. ] 1-aux.sbjv 1-read.imp (12) Ndebele small subjunctives are selected by aspectual light verbs Clausal Subjunctive Small Subjunctive light verb subjunctive verb Small Subjunctives do not contain a 3

4 ense agreement in the two types o subjunctive complements: (13) Small Subjunctive: tense agreement a. U-qala a-bale. 1-irst.pres 1-read.pres.sbjv He irst reads. b. U-qalé w-abala/*a-bale. 1-irst.pst 1-read.pst.sbjv/*1-read.pres.sbjv He irst read. (14) Clausal subjunctive: no tense agreement a. Ngi-m-una ukuthi a-bale. 1sg-1o-want.pres COMP 1-read.pres.sbjv I want him to read. b. Ngi-a-m-una ukuthi a-bale/*w-abala. 1sg-pst-1o-want COMP 1-read.pres.sbjv/*1-read.pst.sbjv I wanted him to read. Present Present Subjunctive Past Past Subjunctive Present Present Subjunctive Past Present Subjunctive Clausal Subjunctive contains a projection but shows no tense agreement with higher tense Small Subjunctive does not contain but it does show tense agreement with higher tense WHA WE NEED: an account o tense agreement that does not require making reerence to a lower head 3 Analysis: tense agreement as an instance o Inl-agreement PROPOSAL: morphological tense agreement in Ndebele Small Subjunctives is not a dependency between s, but between local heads in the clausal spine 3.1 he mechanism o Inl-valuation every verb has an unvalued Inl eature every inlectional head (e.g., Asp) has a valued Inl eature Agreement between Inl-eatures results in downward valuation (Adger, 2003; Bjorkman, 2011; Wurmbrand, 2011) (15) he Inl-inventory in Ndebele [ 0 Inl:PAS/FU/PRES 2 [ Per 0 Inl:PAS [ Asp 0 Inl:IMPF [ 0 Inl: ]]]]] 2 he present tense has actually be argued to be unmarked in Ndebele and modeled as absence o Inl on (Pietraszko, 2016). his detail is not crucial here and I use [Inl:PRES] or clarity. 4

5 (16) Simple Past: U- -bal-ile. 1-pst-read-FS.pst He read (17) Present tense: U-ya-bal-a. 1-pres-read-FS He is reading (18) Future ense: U-za-bal-a. 1-ut-read-FS He will read Inl:PS Inl: pst Inl:PRES Inl: pres Inl:FU Inl: ut 3.2 Inl-agreement in Small Subjunctives (19) Non-past Present Sbjv a. Ngi-qala ngi-pheke. 1sg-irst.pres 1sg-cook.pres.sbjv I irst cook b. Ngi-za-qala ngi-pheke. 1sg-ut-irst 1sg-cook.pres.sbjv I will irst cook (20) Past Past Sbjv a. Ng-á-qala ng-aphéka. 1sg-Dpst-irst 1sg-cook.pst.sbjv I irst cooked (long ago) b. Ngi-qal-é ng-aphéka. 1sg-irst-Rpst 1sg-cook.pst.sbjv I irst cooked (recently) Both the light verb ( light ) and the subjunctive verb ( sbjv ) have a [Inl: ] An agreement relation can be established between two unvalued eatures (Pesetsky & orrego, 2007) (21) Present tense ((19)-a): (22) Future tense ((19)-b): Inl:PRES light Inl: pres Inl:FU light Inl: ut sbjv Inl: pres sbjv Inl: ut d present subjunctive d present subjunctive 5

6 (23) Past tense ((20)): (24) a. [PAS, SBJ] past subjunctive b. [SBJ] unmarked/deault subjunctive Inl:PAS light Inl: past sbjv Inl: past past subjunctive 3.3 Independent motivation or Inl-agreement: periphrasis Inl-agreement plays a role in verbal periphrasis: I there is more than one valued Inl, the verb will agree with the more local one the higher Inl is supported by an auxiliary (Cowper, 2010; Bjorkman, 2011) (25) Past imperective (Inl:PAS, Inl:IMPF): AspP U- -be e-bála 1-pst-aux 1-read.imp He was reading Inl:PAS Aux Asp Inl:IMPF Inl: imp (26) Future Perect (Inl:FU, Inl:PAS): PerP U-za-be e-bal-ile 1-ut-aux 1-read-pst He will have read Inl:FU Aux Per Inl:PAS Inl: past INDEPENDEN MOIAION FOR INFL-AGREEMEN: ogether with locality conditions, it determines which inlection is realized on the main verb, and which is supported by an auxiliary. 6

7 4 Evidence or locality: intervention by lower Inl (27) ense agreement in Ndebele is an instance o Inl-agreement Agreement with the closest Inl Inl... Inl... light... sbjv Past subjunctive blocked by a local Inl In Simple Past, the subjunctive co-varies with past tense (28) U- -qalé [ w-abala/*a-bale ] 1-pst-irst 1-read.pst.sbjv/*1-read.pres.sbjv He irst read Past past subjunctive In Past Imperective, the subjunctive does not co-vary with past tense (29) U- -be e-qala 1-pst-aux 1-irst.imp He was reading irst [ a-bale/*w-abala ] 1-read.pres.sbjv/*1-read.pst.sbjv Past unmarked subjunctive (30) a. Simple Past: Agreement with [ Inl:PAS... [ light... [ sbjv... past subjunctive b. Past Imperective: Agreement with Asp [ Inl:PAS... [ Asp Inl:IMPF... [ light... [ sbjv... unmarked subjunctive 4.2 Unmarked subjunctive blocked by a local Inl (31) Ngi-ya-qala [ ngi-pheke/*ng-apheka ] 1sg-ut-irst 1sg-cook.pres.sbjv/*1sg-cook.pst.subj I will cook irst Perect aspect is a type o past tense d (Homan, 1966; McCawley, 1971; Klein, 1992; Cinque, 1999; Arregi & Klecha, 2015; a.o.) (32) Ngi-za-be ngi-qal-é 1sg-ut-aux 1sg-irst-per I will have cooked irst [ ng-apheka/*ngi-pheke ] 1sg-cook.pst.sbjv/*1sg-cook.pres.subj (33) a. Simple Future: Agreement with 0 [ Inl:FU... [ light... [ sbjv... unmarked subjunctive 7

8 b. Future Perect: Agreement with Per 0 [ Inl:FU... [ Per Inl:PAS... [ light... [ sbjv... past subjunctive ense agreement in Ndebele is a relation between the subjunctive and the closest inlectional category; it is not a direct relation between the subjunctive and 5 Conclusion Ndebele light-verb constructions exhibit tense agreement patterns which cannot be accounted or by mechanisms proposed or SO-type tense agreement It is a dependency that need not involve any heads he lower is absent in Ndebele Small Subjunctives he higher does not control agreement on the subjunctive verb in compound tenses ense agreement is an instance o Inl-agreement an independently motivated mechanism, which does not rely on manipulating heads and derives the Inl-intervention eects in compound tenses rom locality. Reerences Abusch, D. (1997). Sequence o tense and temporal de re. Linguistics and Philosophy, 20(1-50). Adger, D. (2003). Core syntax: A minimalist approach. Oxord University Press. Arregi, K. & Klecha, P. (2015). he morphosemantics o past tense. In Proceedings o the 45th conerence o the North East Linguistics Society. Bjorkman, B. A. M. (2011). BE-ing deault: he morphosyntax o auxiliaries. PhD thesis, Massachusetts Institute o echnology. Cinque, G. (1999). Oxord Studies in Comparative Syntax, chapter Adverbs and unctional heads: A cross-linguistic perspective. Oxord University Press. Comrie, B. (1986). ense in indirect speech. Folia linguistica, 2(3-4), Cowper, E. (2010). Where auxiliary verbs come rom. In Proceedings o the 2010 annual conerence o the Canadian Linguistic Association. Enç, M. (1987). Anchoring conditions or tense. Linguistic Inquiry, 18, Giannakidou, A. (2009). he dependency o the subjunctive revisited: temporal semantics and polarity. Lingua, 119( ). Giorgi, A. (2009). oward a syntax o the subjunctive mood. Lingua, 119(12), Giorgi, A. & Pianesi, F. (1997). ense and Aspect: From Semantics to Morphosyntax. Oxord University Press. Homan, R. (1966). Past tense replacement and the modal system. In A. Oettinger (Ed.), Mathematical linguistics and automatic translation. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University, Harvard Computation Laboratory. Klein, W. (1992). he present perect puzzle. Language, (pp ). Landau, I. (2004). he scale o initeness and the calculus o control. Natural Language and Linguistic heory, 22(4), McCawley, J. (1971). ense and time reerence in english. In C. Fillmore & D.. Langendoen (Eds.), Studies in linguistic semantics (pp ). New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston. Ogihara,. (1989). emporal reerence in English and Japanese. PhD thesis, University o exas at Austin. Pesetsky, D. & orrego, E. (2007). he syntax o valuation and the interpretability o eatures. Phrasal and clausal architecture: Syntactic derivation and interpretation, (pp ). Picallo, C. (1984). he inl node and the null subject parameter. Linguistic Inquiry, 15(75 102). Pietraszko, J. A. (2016). he syntax o simple and compound tenses in Ndebele. Proceedings o the Linguistics Society o America Annual Meeting, 1(18), Wurmbrand, S. (2011). he syntax o valuation in auxiliary-participle constructions. In Proceedings o the 29th West Coast Conerence on Formal Linguistics 29. 8