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Reported speech in Kakabe: Loose syntax with flexible indexicality

  • Tatiana Nikitina ORCID logo EMAIL logo und Alexandra Vydrina
Veröffentlicht/Copyright: 18. April 2020
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Abstract

Mainstream approaches to the typology of reported discourse have been based on the notion of a direct-indirect continuum: reported speech constructions are traditionally analyzed as conforming to or deviating from the “ideals” of European direct and indirect speech. This study argues that continuum-based approaches fail to distinguish between two dimensions of variation that are systematically discriminated in a number of African languages and should therefore be treated separately. First, different constructions can be recruited for speech reporting, ranging from paratactic to subordinate structures. Second, languages differ in the way pronouns in speech reports are interpreted. In European languages two different deictic strategies are associated with different syntactic types of speech report (‘indirect’ and ‘direct’ deixis is correlated with subordination and parataxis, respectively). In Kakabe, we argue, the choice of pronominal values is independent of the construction’s syntax. Dissociating the construction’s structural properties from the behavior of indexicals allows us to describe the Kakabe strategies of speech reporting as well as account for the seemingly puzzling behavior of reported commands. Our data shows that speech reporting strategies of Kakabe should be treated as a type in its own right: a type characterized by loose syntax and flexible pronominal indexicality.

Acknowledgements

This project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement No. 758232).

Abbreviations

art

referential article

bnf

benefactive

cop

copula

dim

diminutive

disc

discourse particle

emph

assertive emphasis marker

fp

focus particle

foc.c

focus of contrast

ger

gerund

H%

high boundary tone

id

identificational copula

intr

intransitive

itj

interjection

lg

long form of personal pronoun

L%

low boundary tone

neg

negation

obl

Oblique

of

operator focus

poss

possessive linker

pfv.i

perfective in intransitive clauses

pfv.of

perfective with operator (auxiliary) focus

pfv.tr

perfective in transitive clauses

pl

plural

pst

past

qu

quotative

sbjv

subjunctive

sg

singular

tr

transitive

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Received: 2019-05-25
Received: 2019-11-20
Revised: 2019-11-01
Accepted: 2019-11-30
Published Online: 2020-04-18
Published in Print: 2020-04-26

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