The syntax of weak and strong pronouns in Dagbani and Kusaal

Datos Bibliográficos

ID21398801
AutoresHasiyatu Abubakari (0000-0002-2604-1009, Department of Communication Studies University of Professional Studies Accra P.O. Box LG 45 Legon Ghana, autor de correspondencia), Samuel Alhassan Issah (0000-0003-3479-5406, Department of Gur‐Gonja Languages Education University of Education Winneba, P.O. Box 25, Winneba Ghana, autor de correspondencia)
Año2020
Volumen74
Número3
Páginas584-612
Fecha de publicación2020-12-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaStudia Linguistica (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0039-3193 • E-ISSN: 1467-9582
EditorialWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/stul.12135
OpenAlexW3015323170
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas2
Referencias citadas13

Although studies in Dagbani and Kusaal have distinguished between weak and strong pronouns, their syntactic peculiarities remain largely uninvestigated. This paper aims to fill this gap by presenting a systematic investigation of the distribution of these pronouns drawing data from these two languages. We demonstrate that strong pronouns have dedicated syntactic positions including left peripheral focus, predicate focus, and fragmentary answers where pronominals are required. We further show that Dagbani and Kusaal behave differently regarding the distribution of strong and weak pronouns in two domains (i) conjunct ordering of pronouns in conjoined noun phrases and in (ii) fragmentary or elliptical answers. We contend that the ban on weak pronouns in positions of syntactic focus is attributable to their prosodic deficiency

Focus (optics) · Linguistics · Noun · Noun phrase · Personal pronoun · Physics · Predicate (mathematical logic) · Pronoun · Syntactic structure · Syntax · Computer Science · Linguistic Variation and Morphology · Philosophy · Phonetics and Phonology Research · Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation