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Chapter 9. Antipassive derivation in Soninke (West Mande)

  • Denis Creissels
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Antipassive
Ein Kapitel aus dem Buch Antipassive

Abstract

Soninke, a West Mande language spoken in Mali, Mauritania, Gambia, and Senegal, provides crucial support to the view that accusative languages may have fully productive antipassive derivations. In Soninke, the distinction between transitive and intransitive predication is particularly clearcut. The alignment between transitive and intransitive predication is neutral in indexation, but accusative in flagging, and accusative alignment is found in constituent order too. Soninke has two verbal suffixes that can be involved in antipassivization defined as a morphologically marked alternation by which transitive verbs are converted into intransitive verbs whose sole core argument fulfills the same semantic role as the A argument of the transitive verbs from which they derive. One of these two suffixes is a dedicated antipassive suffix, whereas the other is a multifunction detransitivizing suffix acting as an antipassive marker with a limited number of verbs. In Soninke, there is no interaction between antipassive and aspect, and there is no constraint restricting the use of the antipassive form of transitive verbs to the encoding of habitual events or stereotyped activities either. Antipassive constructions can refer to specific events, provided no specific patient is mentioned. In Soninke, null objects are not allowed, only a tiny minority of transitive verbs can be used intransitively with a subject representing their agentive argument, and the high productivity of antipassive derivation follows from the use of derived intransitive verbs as the preferred strategy for not specifying the patientive argument of transitive verbs. Diachronically, there is evidence that the multipurpose detransitivizing suffix acting as an antipassive marker with a limited number of verbs was originally a reflexive marker, whereas the dedicated antipassive suffix results from the grammaticalization of a verb ‘do’ in a cross-linguistically common type of antipassive periphrasis.

Abstract

Soninke, a West Mande language spoken in Mali, Mauritania, Gambia, and Senegal, provides crucial support to the view that accusative languages may have fully productive antipassive derivations. In Soninke, the distinction between transitive and intransitive predication is particularly clearcut. The alignment between transitive and intransitive predication is neutral in indexation, but accusative in flagging, and accusative alignment is found in constituent order too. Soninke has two verbal suffixes that can be involved in antipassivization defined as a morphologically marked alternation by which transitive verbs are converted into intransitive verbs whose sole core argument fulfills the same semantic role as the A argument of the transitive verbs from which they derive. One of these two suffixes is a dedicated antipassive suffix, whereas the other is a multifunction detransitivizing suffix acting as an antipassive marker with a limited number of verbs. In Soninke, there is no interaction between antipassive and aspect, and there is no constraint restricting the use of the antipassive form of transitive verbs to the encoding of habitual events or stereotyped activities either. Antipassive constructions can refer to specific events, provided no specific patient is mentioned. In Soninke, null objects are not allowed, only a tiny minority of transitive verbs can be used intransitively with a subject representing their agentive argument, and the high productivity of antipassive derivation follows from the use of derived intransitive verbs as the preferred strategy for not specifying the patientive argument of transitive verbs. Diachronically, there is evidence that the multipurpose detransitivizing suffix acting as an antipassive marker with a limited number of verbs was originally a reflexive marker, whereas the dedicated antipassive suffix results from the grammaticalization of a verb ‘do’ in a cross-linguistically common type of antipassive periphrasis.

Kapitel in diesem Buch

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Chapter 1. The multifaceted nature of the antipassive construction 1
  4. Part 1. Lexical semantics and event representation of antipassive constructions
  5. Chapter 2. Antipassive propensities and alignment 43
  6. Chapter 3. Antipassive in the Cariban family 65
  7. Chapter 4. Aspect and modality in Pama-Nyungan antipassives 97
  8. Chapter 5. Antipassive constructions in Oceanic languages 149
  9. Chapter 6. Antipassive and the lexical meaning of verbs 177
  10. Chapter 7. Unspecified participant 213
  11. Part 2. Antipassive marking
  12. Chapter 8. Variation in the verbal marking of antipassive constructions 249
  13. Chapter 9. Antipassive derivation in Soninke (West Mande) 293
  14. Chapter 10. Explaining the antipassive-causative syncretism in Mocoví (Guaycuruan) 315
  15. Chapter 11. Polyfunctional vanka- in Nivaĉle and the antipassive category 349
  16. Part 3. Diachrony of antipassive constructions
  17. Chapter 12. The antipassive and its relationship to person markers 385
  18. Chapter 13. Antipassive derivations in Sino-Tibetan/Trans-Himalayan and their sources 427
  19. Chapter 14. The profile and development of the Maa (Eastern Nilotic) antipassive 447
  20. Part 4. Fuzzy boundaries
  21. Chapter 15. Indirect antipassive in Circassian 483
  22. Chapter 16. Antipassives in Nakh-Daghestanian languages 515
  23. Chapter 17. Antipassive and antipassive-like constructions in Mayan languages 549
  24. Chapter 18. When an antipassive isn’t an antipassive anymore 579
  25. Chapter 19. Antipassivization in Basque revisited 621
  26. Index 641
https://doi.org/10.1075/tsl.130.09cre

Kapitel in diesem Buch

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Chapter 1. The multifaceted nature of the antipassive construction 1
  4. Part 1. Lexical semantics and event representation of antipassive constructions
  5. Chapter 2. Antipassive propensities and alignment 43
  6. Chapter 3. Antipassive in the Cariban family 65
  7. Chapter 4. Aspect and modality in Pama-Nyungan antipassives 97
  8. Chapter 5. Antipassive constructions in Oceanic languages 149
  9. Chapter 6. Antipassive and the lexical meaning of verbs 177
  10. Chapter 7. Unspecified participant 213
  11. Part 2. Antipassive marking
  12. Chapter 8. Variation in the verbal marking of antipassive constructions 249
  13. Chapter 9. Antipassive derivation in Soninke (West Mande) 293
  14. Chapter 10. Explaining the antipassive-causative syncretism in Mocoví (Guaycuruan) 315
  15. Chapter 11. Polyfunctional vanka- in Nivaĉle and the antipassive category 349
  16. Part 3. Diachrony of antipassive constructions
  17. Chapter 12. The antipassive and its relationship to person markers 385
  18. Chapter 13. Antipassive derivations in Sino-Tibetan/Trans-Himalayan and their sources 427
  19. Chapter 14. The profile and development of the Maa (Eastern Nilotic) antipassive 447
  20. Part 4. Fuzzy boundaries
  21. Chapter 15. Indirect antipassive in Circassian 483
  22. Chapter 16. Antipassives in Nakh-Daghestanian languages 515
  23. Chapter 17. Antipassive and antipassive-like constructions in Mayan languages 549
  24. Chapter 18. When an antipassive isn’t an antipassive anymore 579
  25. Chapter 19. Antipassivization in Basque revisited 621
  26. Index 641
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Heruntergeladen am 21.9.2025 von https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1075/tsl.130.09cre/html
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