Manner adverbials versus time and locative phrases
In the case of manner adverbials,
28
this shows up not just in focus movement, but also in content questions and free relative clauses.
29
171 a. Halika b-o-fa
doro-n to
oro? how
you-dummy-FUT weave-SUB
the cassava.squeezer
‘How will you weave the cassava squeezer?’ b. Halika
bo-doro-fa to
joro? how
you-weave-FUT the
cassava.squeezer ‘How will you weave the cassava squeezer?’
172 a. De koborokoa-ka koan [alika th-a-n
aba kabadaro hibin
bokoto-n de.]
I remember-INDIC still [how it-dummy-SUB one jaguar almost grab-SUB me]
‘I still remember how a jaguar almost grabbed me.’ b. …[alika
aba kabadaro
hibin bokoto-n
de.] …[how
one jaguar
almost grab-SUB
me] ‘…how a jaguar almost grabbed me.’
In Arawak, sentences like 173 a. Alikan
› andy-fa?
who ›
come-FUT ‘Who will arrivecome?’
b. Alikan by-dykha
›? who
you-see ›
‘Who did you see?’ are grammatical. One might conclude therefore, that antecedent-government can satisfy
the Empty Category Principle ECP in Arawak. If one did so, however, then one would not be able to explain the necessity for the dummy verb in manner questions such as in 174b.
174 a. Alika by-malhithi-fa
no? how
you-make-FUT it
‘How will you makebuild it?’ b. Alika
b-o-fa malhithi-n
no? how
you-dummy-FUT make-SUB
it ‘How will you make it?’
72 Noun Phrase and Sentence Syntax
28
Content questions for verbs are constructed by recasting the sentence so that the questioned constituent is the complement of the verb ‘do’.
Ama b-ani-bo
? what you-do-CONT
‘What are you doing?’
29
There is some question as to the exact structure of apparent free relative clauses in Arawak. See the discussion in Section 4.2.
If the landing site for fronted constituents is not COMP, but is a position adjoined to S XP in Figure 17, then antecedent-government would not function in Arawak. This would provide an ex-
planation for the lack of leftward generalized complementizers, the lack of COMP-to-COMP move- ment, and the lack of proper government of a trace in the position of the verb. This solution would
also correctly predict that manner adverbials XP2 in Figure 17 could not be properly governed.
S XP
S NP
INFL VP
XP1 time, location
Vø XP2
manner
V NP
PP XP3
DO IO
subcategorized for by verb
Constituents marked with ‘’ require dummy verb when fronted and adjoined to S.
Figure 17: Positions Requiring the Dummy Verb There is a potential problem with the solution, however. As already noted, the subject posi-
tion, and the adjunct position which is a daughter of S XP1 in Figure 17 in Arawak, do seem to be properly governed. Arawak does not require a resumptive pronoun in sentences like:
30
175 Alikan
› malhithi-fa
no? who
› make-FUT
it ‘Who will makebuild it?’
Nor do any adjustments have to be made in order to question non-subcategorized time or location phrases:
174 a. Alon by-dykha
to kodibio?
where you-see
the bird
‘Where did you see the bird?’ b. Alikha
by-dykha to
kodibio? when
you-see the
bird ‘When did you see the bird?’
Figures 18, 19, and 20 illustrate the proposed analysis in sentences with a fronted ob- ject, verb, and manner adverbial, respectively.
3.2 Sentence Structure 73
30
That the subject in the example has, in fact, been moved can be shown by the fact that other constituents, such as time words, cannot be fronted in such a sentence.
Sø TOPIC
S LSAP
S NP
INFL VP
Vø V
NP PP
husband machete
i
she FUT
give t
i
to him To
the-erethi, aba
kasipara thy-siki-fa
lo-myn. the
her-husband one
machete she-give-future
him-to ‘Concerning her husband, she will give a machete to him.’
Figure 18. Sentence with Fronted Object Sø
TOPIC S
LSAP S
NP INFL
VP Vø
XP V
NP arriving
receive
i
he FUT
t
i
machete immediate
dummy To
l-andy-n-fa jon,
m-othiki-n l-o-fa
aba kasipara abaren?
the he-arrive-SUB-FUT there PRIV-receive-SUB he-dummy-FUT one machete immediate
‘Concerning him arriving there, won’t he receive a machete immediately?’ Figure 19. Sentence with Fronted Verb
74 Noun Phrase and Sentence Syntax
Sø TOPIC
S LSAP
S NP
INFL VP
Vø XP
V NP
arriving immediate
i
he FUT receive machete
t
i
dummy To
l-andy-n-fa jon
abare l-o-fa
othiki-n aba
kasipara? the he-arrive-SUB-FUT there
immediate he-dummy-FUT receive-SUB one machete ‘Concerning his arriving there, immediately he will receive a machete.’
Figure 20. Sentence with Fronted Manner Adverbial