A comparative syntax of internally-headed relative clauses in Gur | Zendy

Ken Hiraiwa | Zendy; George Akanlig-Pare | Zendy; Samuel Awinkene Atintono | Zendy; Adams Bodomo | Zendy; Komlan E. Essizewa | Zendy; Fusheini Hudu | Zendy

AI Assistant Blog Pricing

Home ZAIA Blog

Open Access

A comparative syntax of internally-headed relative clauses in Gur

Author(s) -

Ken Hiraiwa,

George Akanlig-Pare,

Samuel Awinkene Atintono,

Adams Bodomo,

Komlan E. Essizewa,

Fusheini Hudu

Publication year - 2017

Publication title -

glossa a journal of general linguistics

Language(s) - English

Resource type - Journals

ISSN - 2397-1835

DOI - 10.5334/gjgl.40

Subject(s) - syntax , linguistics , computer science , typology , relative clause , semantics (computer science) , dependent clause , natural language processing , artificial intelligence , history , philosophy , programming language , sentence , archaeology

Gur (or Mabia) languages which are spoken in West Africa have so-called internally-headed relative clauses (IHRCs), but they have not received serious attention in syntactic and typological research on IHRCs. In this article, building on detailed first-hand data, we describe the syntax and semantics of IHRCs in five Gur languages: Buli, Dagaare, Dagbani, Gurene, and Kabiyé. It is demonstrated that their IHRCs refute the syntactic and semantic generalizations proposed in the literature (Gorbet 1976; Cole 1987; Grosu 2002; Watanabe 1991; 2004). We also compare IHRCs in Gur and Japanese and argue that the existing semantic typology of IHRCs must be reconsidered, showing that properties of two types of IHRCs—restrictive and maximalizing IHRCS—do not necessarily show predicated correlations. This article is part of the special collection:Internally-headed RelativeClauses

The content you want is available to Zendy users.

Already have an account? Click here to sign in.

Having issues? You can contact us here

Accelerating Research