Editorial Book Critique: A Grammar of Kusaal

Reginald Akuoko Duah

doi:10.4314/gjl.v9i2.5

Editorial Book Critique: A Grammar of Kusaal

Ghana Journal of Linguistics ◽

10.4314/gjl.v9i2.5 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 9 (2) ◽

pp. 88-98

Author(s):

Reginald Akuoko Duah

Keyword(s):

Burkina Faso ◽

Argument Structure ◽

Grammatical Relations

In this paper, we review Musah’s (2018) Grammar of Kusaal – a modern, carefully researched study of Kusaal, a Central-East Mabia language spoken in the Bawku Municipality and surrounding towns, and in parts of Burkina Faso and Togo. The review covers major topics in the book such as phonology, morphological affixes, syntax of nouns, verbs and modifiers, temporal and aspectual marking, argument structure and grammatical relations, serialization, and focus constructions. The author makes an effort to situate the Kusaal language in the larger Mabia cluster in the analysis of the data. More importantly, he provides fresh data and analysis of Kusaal that incorporates ethnolinguistic knowledge. The book is written in a clear language and effort is made to limit theoretical labeling and jargon to a minimum thus, making it accessible to those with limited background in linguistics.

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Do grammatical relations reflect information status? Reassessing Preferred Argument Structure theory against discourse data from Tondano

Linguistic Typology ◽

10.1515/lingty-2017-0005 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 21 (1) ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Timothy C. Brickell ◽

Stefan Schnell

Keyword(s):

Information Flow ◽

Argument Structure ◽

Noun Phrases ◽

Structure Theory ◽

Final Position ◽

Austronesian Language ◽

Grammatical Relations ◽

Information Status ◽

Constituent Order ◽

Corpus Data

AbstractWe test Preferred Argument Structure theory against corpus data from Tondano, an Austronesian language with symmetrical voice. Investigating the use of full noun phrases in individual argument positions, we find no significant clustering of both S and P as opposed to A, hence no discourse ergativity. Moreover, neither pivotal nor non-pivotal grammatical relations appear to specialise in the accommodation of full noun phrases. Thus, grammatical relations do not serve as architecture for regulating information flow in discourse. Only constituent order reflects information flow, so that full noun phrases tend to occur in clause-final position. More generally, correlations of humanness and topicality predict most straightforwardly attested patterns of argument realisation.

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Argument Structure and Grammatical Relations

10.1075/slcs.126 ◽

2012 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Keyword(s):

Argument Structure ◽

Grammatical Relations

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On the Integration of Dative Adjuncts into Event Structures in Yapa Languages

Languages ◽

10.3390/languages6030136 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 6 (3) ◽

pp. 136

Author(s):

Mitchell Browne

Keyword(s):

Argument Structure ◽

Event Structure ◽

Complex Predicates ◽

Complex Predicate ◽

Grammatical Relations ◽

Event Structures ◽

Single Argument ◽

Grammatical Relation ◽

New Research

Warlpiri and Warlmanpa (Ngumpin-Yapa languages of Australia) exhibit a complex predicate construction in which a class of preverbs introduces a single argument that is not shared by the argument structure of the inflecting verb, nor is there necessarily any shared event structure. This is problematic for many theories of linking structures of complex predicates, since no arguments or events are shared between the predicative elements of the complex predicate. The same grammatical relation is instantiated by a beneficiary adjunct. In light of new research in event and argument structure, I propose a lexical rule which introduces an applicative argument to account for the beneficiary construction; and that the preverbs take another predicate as one of their arguments to account for the complex predicates. The applicative rule and the preverbs both introduce an argument of the same grammatical relation, leading to interesting interactions, given that two grammatical relations of the same type are not expected to co-occur within a single clause.

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9. Grammatical relations and argument structure

10.1515/9783110752434-009 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 498-566

Keyword(s):

Argument Structure ◽

Grammatical Relations

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[review of:] Axel Holvoet & Nicole Nau, eds. 2015. Voice and Argument Structure in Baltic

Baltic Linguistics ◽

10.32798/bl.389 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 7 ◽

pp. 216-225

Author(s):

Seppo Kittilä

Keyword(s):

Argument Structure ◽

Grammatical Relations ◽

Present Book ◽

Argument Realization

Axel Holvoet & Nicole Nau, eds. 2015. Voice and Argument Structure in Baltic. (Valency, Argument Realization and Grammatical Relations in Baltic, 2). Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. ISBN: 9789027259103 (hardback), ISBN: 9789027267955 (e-book). The present book deals with different aspects of voice in Baltic languages. The book presents the second volume in the (mini-)series "Valency, Argument Realization and Grammatical Relations in Baltic".

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Argument Structure, Valence, and Binding

Nordic Journal of Linguistics ◽

10.1017/s0332586500004236 ◽

1998 ◽

Vol 21 (2) ◽

pp. 107-144 ◽

Cited By ~ 12

Author(s):

Christopher D. Manning ◽

Ivan A. Sag

Keyword(s):

Argument Structure ◽

Binding Theory ◽

Austronesian Languages ◽

Grammatical Relations ◽

Passive Verbs

This paper develops within HPSG a model of grammar with two syntactic levels, valence lists and argument structure, at which sentences may have different representations: syntactically ergative and Western Austronesian languages are distinctive by allowing different prominence orderings between the valence lists and argument structure, while forms like passives and causatives have nested argument structure lists. While binding theory and related phenomena have traditionally been described in terms of surface grammatical relations or configurations, we demonstrate that binding theory is actually correctly described in terms of argument structure configurations. Such an approach generalizes nicely over accusative and ergative constructions, correctly predicts binding patterns with causative and passive verbs, and supports the lexicality-preserving account of passives and causatives advocated within HPSG.

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