Chapitre D'ouvrage Année : 2025

Verbal complex predicates in Wolof (Atlantic)

Résumé

This chapter discusses verbal complex predicates (VCPs) in Wolof in accordance with the Questionnaire of the ANR-DFG funded ComPLETE project and its definition of VCP, i.e 'monoclausal constructions with a single set of argument positions, consisting of at least two verbs (or “verb-like” items)'. This study on Wolof reveals a typologically peculiar linker construction showing features of a nuclear juncture. In most cases, this syntactic pattern is used to form auxiliary constructions in which the finite verb conveys various indications about the realization of the infinitive lexical verb; these include a large array of TAM-type specifications, but also negation, comparison and relationships between events, some of which are widespread in the Niger-Congo phylum (see the study on Tswana by Creissels in this volume). Nevertheless, two sub-constructions exhibit different semantic properties and syntactic constraints: the qualifying construction and the intensive construction. Additionally, in the comitative construction, the linker combines with a with-preposition and enables the two verbs to form a single composite event. This construction has partially different properties and is closer to core juncture. In all these constructions, V1 is the syntactic head of VCP, but V2 is not always the semantic nucleus, as it is the case in auxiliary construction. In qualifying construction, V1 is the semantic nucleus while V2 expresses a modifying subaction for the quality predicated by V1. In the intensive construction, the juncture of the complex predicate is within the scope of the assertion and the two occurrences of the same verb create together the semantic nucleus. In the comitative construction, the two verbs form a macro-event with a complex semantic nucleus to which both contribute symmetrically. Besides these prototypical linker constructions for complex predicates, Wolof also has an infinitive construction, which only in some cases has the typical properties of VCPs of the nuclear type, and in other cases multiclausal uses. The omission of the linker in auxiliary constructions, which tends to be widespread in urban environments, seems to be motivated by a reanalysis of V2 as an object infinitive. The reappearance of the linker in the presence of clitics makes it an ambiguous case. By contrast, in the purposive motion construction, both verbs clearly contribute to the semantic nucleus of the VCP, each with a different semantic role: V1 for the manner or directionality of motion, V2 for the purpose and endpoint of the motion. The existence of a specific juncture marker such as Wolof's linker is rare in Atlantic languages (maybe due to its unique morphological evolution towards an isolated type) and perhaps even typologically so. As far as African languages are concerned, such a juncture marker has been recorded in Khoe (Güldemann & Pratchett, this volume), therefore outside the limits of the Niger-Congo phylum. Further typological and areal investigations into the existence and origins of verbal linkers are needed.

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Dates et versions

hal-04873510 , version 1 (08-01-2025)

Identifiants

  • HAL Id : hal-04873510 , version 1

Citer

Stéphane Robert. Verbal complex predicates in Wolof (Atlantic). Walter Bisang, Alexandre François, Andrej Malchukov and Martine Vanhove (eds.). Handbook of verbal complex predicates, Mouton De Gruyter, In press. ⟨hal-04873510⟩
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