b. wa gëë-
- mɔɔ -bhutuu -kadlükpɔ
taa yi
3
P
light:
CP LOC
house:
OBL
piece_of_wood three
VPC
‘There in the house three pieces of wood had been lit lit. they had lit.’ [devinet 28]
3.3 Dislocated constituents
Dislocated constituents are nominal elements preceding or following a complete clause. They are therefore syntactically separated from that clause. This means that dislocation of constituents is not a
clause-level process like preposing discussed in the previous section but a sentence-level process see Keenan 1985:246.
3.3.1 Left-dislocated constituents
Left-dislocation is extremely frequent in Godié. No restrictions on the type of nominal constituents that can be left-dislocated have been found.
7
If the left-dislocated constituent is coreferential with a core constituent of the subsequent clause— that is, a subject, object, or locative complement—it must have a pronominal trace in that clause. In
example 63a the left-dislocated constituent is coreferential with the subject of the following clause, in example 63b with its direct object, and in 63c with its locative complement. Quite often, the left-
dislocated constituent contains a relative clause, as in example 63c.
63 a.
waa ducifio titi,
ɔ lä ɔ kä
nyie tɔɔ
their village:chief self 3
S
say 3
S XPOT
lagoon cross ‘Their village chief himself, he said he wanted to cross the lagoon.’ [greve 50–51]
b.
nyɩkpaa,
kä plɛ
kʋ siwa
people:
DEF ASF
liver on burn:3
P
‘… “The people, they are really angry lit. liver surface burns them.”’ [greve 70]
c. nyibhlëa
- kʋ
lä -
lɔɔ
nä kuŋnʋklä
- kʋ
- mɔɔ
river:
DEF BE
1:
CP LOP
there
SP
1 ghost:old_woman
BE
1:
CP LOC
‘That river lit. the river that was there, an old woman’s ghost was in there.’ [kazo 7–8] Many sentences in Godié have two left-dislocated constituents, which may be coreferential, as in
examples 64a and 64b. 64
a. nɩ
ɔ yi lä
bʋkʋ -
lɔɔ dä
nyɛ
ADD
1 3
S XFUT
LOP
afterwards
DPF
:
GEN
share give ‘Then he gave the younger one his part.
yikʋgä-lɔɔ ɔmɔ kɔ
- kʋɔ
a yëku
before:beget:
DPF
3
S
:
TH ASF
:3
S BE
1:3
S
:
CP PST
2 beside As for the elder one, he, he stayed with him …’ [filsprod 21–22]
b. -
zёküü ylʋʋ
- ʋ
plöö- bhlä
nä adjacent_day:
GEN
day:
DEF NH
3:
REL BE
2:
CP PST
1:
LOP SP
1 ‘Now yesterday lit. the one day from now that passed,
7
Marchese 1976 calls a left-dislocated constituent the topic and the following clause the comment of a sentence. This view is not supported in this study. For the notion of topic and comment used in this study, see §4.1 and §4.1.1.
ʋmʋ kʋ nä wälɩklё
-bhlogbe -bhlü
bhä
NH
3:
TH
on
SP
1 matter:part one_single fall:
CP PST
1 that day lit. on it something happened.’ [greve 15–17]
If they are not coreferential, the first dislocated constituent has a spatial, temporal, or other circumstantial reference with no trace in the following clause, while the second dislocated constituent
is coreferential with a core constituent of the subsequent clause and a pronominal trace in that clause. This situation is illustrated in example 65. Note in this example that the first dislocated constituent has
a spatial reference ‘on the lagoon’ while the second ‘the canoes that used to transport us’ is coreferential with the non-human pronoun
ɩ ‘they’ in the main clause. 65
- mɔɔ nyiee
klʋʋ gokpüü
LOC
lagoon:
DEF
surface:
OBL
boat:
PL
:
DEF
‘There on the lagoon, the boats -
ɩ tʋ-anyɩ
bhlä nä
[…] kɩ
bʋä
NHP
:
REL
cross:
ICP
:1
PO PST
1:
LOP SP
1
ASF
:
NHP
be_slow:
ICP
that used to take us across, […] they are really slow.’ [greve 18, 21] In terms of information processing, the dislocation helps to package the information in such a way
that the core structure of the clause has less linguistic material and is thus easier to process. Note that in the above example, the spacer nä marks the end of the relative clause and the main clause consists of
only two words.
3.3.2 Right-dislocated constituents
