Predicate conjoining in Hadiyya: A Head-Driven PS Grammar

502 Pages·1989·18.361 MB·English

by  Ronald J. Sim

PREDICATE CONJOINING IN HADIYYA:
A Head-Driven PS Grammar.
Ronald J. Sim.
Doctor of Philosophy.
Department of Linguistics,
itt' uwwim ee sagara mace' eesa2a wi tt ' i to20. annanniccir.,
itt' gak' suuminne ama2naan woee'u.2uyy macc'ees222
maalal to20. IIneese annanniccim wonice' oom ni gak' suuminne
wocc'u2uyy macc'eensoommok kuk hinkido2ne2i wosa? neese
annanniccim ·waa2ika malaayyaarn bat'o nihaaninne annannicc
suuminnem kuttu2uyy mace'eensoommulla."
y:t82~.
asse2arnaal~ ba~'o =:6-~l.
I declare that this thesis, and the research on
which it is based, is my own work.
Ronald James Sim,
Edinburgh, 1989.
ABSTRACT.
In examining certain structures of the East Cushitic language Hadiyya,
this thesis, in keeping with recent trends, adopts a mono-stratal frame
work, framed in terms of the mathematical operation of Unification;
namely Head-driven Phrase Structure Grammar (HPSG). Chapter 1 is devot
ed to an exposition of the model employing situation semantics.
Chapter 2 discusses the categories of noun, noun phrase, and verb. The
discussion centres on the basic morphological categories of Person, Num
ber, Gender and Case, and the variety of verbal forms which are relevant
to an appreciation of following chapters, and a tentative (partial) fea
ture system is set out.
Chapter 3 deals with the mono-clausal sentence, briefly expounding basic
sentence types, with the focus of the chapter on the issues of subcateg
orisation, constituent order, "pro-drop", and agreement. Several revis
ions of the formalism are proposed, and a general goal formulated.
Part II deals with nexus mechanisms. First is a short chapter, 4, on
canonical coordination as it occurs in Hadiyya, in which an attempt is
made to formalise resolution rules, and a broader, cross-linguistic look
is taken at the categories of Person, Gender and Number in coordinate
phrases. Some of Hadiyya's other lexical connectors are also briefly
considered. In the two final chapters, both subordinative and coordina
tive systems are reviewed, and these chapters provide an end-focus to
the study. Chapter 5, discusses the adverbial clause, and the comple-
mentation system, while Chapter 6 covers clause chaining/ serialisation,
switch reference, and the encoding of simultaneous events, in which
agreement and control questions are addressed.
A short final chapter brings together some of the major theoretical
suggestions arising.
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CONTENTS.
Preface
vi
Maps
ix
Introduction
1
Phonology.
11
PART I.
1. The Model.
19
1.1. An Overview
1.2. Further Discussion
1.3. Evaluation
2. Major Lexical Categories. 103
2.1. The Noun
2.2. The Noun Phrase
2.3. The Verb
3. The Simple Sentence. 169
3.1. The Verbal Clause
3.2. The Nominal Clause
PART II.
4. Canonical Coordination. 270
5. Subordinate VP and S. 303
5.1. Adverbial Clauses
5.2. Complementation
6. Coordinate VP and S. 360
6.1. The Serial Sentence
6.2. Switch Reference
6.3. Simultaneity
7. Postscript 448
Appendices: 451
I. Attributes and Values: a summary
II. Relatives, Clefts and Topics
III. Texts
Bibliography. 471
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PREFACE.
BaCkground to the Present Study.
My own researches into Hadiyya cover the period between October 1980 and
May 1987, when I was engaged in service to the Ethiopian Evangelical
Church of Mekane Yesus, under a work permit granted by the Provisional
Military Government of Ethiopia. Formal research was undertaken as time
permitted, during the fulfilment of my other duties, and informally by
daily contact with a number of Hadiyya friends.
Those from whom I learned most include: Ato Tesfaye Tisoro, Ato Belete
Loriso, Ato Alemayehu Kotiso (all of Lemo-Konteb, the northern Hadiyya
speech area), Ato Daniel Hankore, and Weyzerit Getenesh Bogale (of the
Sooro, or central speech area), and Ato Abraham Lealago (of the southern
part of Sooro, where Hadiyya borders Kambaata and the Kambaata dialect
Timbaaro).
Previous Work.
Hudson(1976) provides a good summary of both descriptive and classific
atory work in the Highland East Cushitic group until that date. This
consists of only a handful of rather sparse references: the only nine
teenth century references being A. Cecchi(1887), and J. Borelli(1890),
who record short word lists. These are followed by Enrico Cerulli(19
25), who includes word lists and some comparative discussion. In 1937,
the British and Foreign Bible Society published the "Gospel of St.
Matthew" in Gudeilla, by which they style Hadiyya; this is not in very
natural sentential form. Plazikowsky-Brauner's contributions (1960,
1961, 1964) are all based on pre-1940 field work, and are not more than
moderately reliable. For example, her recording of both vowel and
consonant length is poor (aakk and a1 for akk' and aa1 respectively,
etc), and the exemplar she gives for verb paradigms, ~1 "go", is to my
knowledge a Libido, but not a Hadiyya verb; her data, however, does not
correspond in any regular way to either my own Hadiyya or Libido data.
Stinson(1965) is a short collection of fables and proverbs. The fables
appear to be faithful transcriptions of original spontaneous oral
discourses and include a few performance errors, as well as reflecting
an economy of expression that is uncomfortable when committed to
writing. The transcription is unfortunately not completely accurate.
Stinson(1976) is a short but reliable grammatical sketch.
Hudson(op.cit) remains the best introduction available, but is obviously
limited by its nature he summarises the morphologies of five REC
languages in a sketch of some 30 pages.
Abebe et al(1985) describes the verbal morphophonemics of the REC
--
languages apart from Alaba and Libido, and includes my summary of this
interesting area of Hadiyya grammar. Korhonen et al(op.cit) reports on
a dialect study which covered the northern languages (hereafter nHEC) of
Alaba, Hadiyya, Kambaata, Libido and Timbaaro. Various other short
contributions of mine are listed in the Bibliography. In addition, I
hope to complete soon a fuller morphological study than this present
work permits.
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Preface
Acknowledgements.
My appreciation is due first of all to the Government of Ethiopia for
the opportunity to live and work there from October 1980 until May 1987,
and secondly to the leadership of the South-Central Synod of the Ethiop
ian Evangelical Church of Mekane Yesus, under Kes Fikre-Yesus Forsido,
for the original invitation to work under the Synod's auspices, and the
opportunity to assist them in their activity.
My sincere thanks are due to all those who taught me something of their
language; especially Ato Tesfaye Tisoro, Ato Belete Loriso, Ato Daniel
Hankore, Alemayehu Kotiso, Ato Abraham Lealago, and Weyzerit Getenesh
Bogale. My earnest thanks are gladly accorded them for their enthusias
tic and painstaking help, with the hope that they are satisfied with the
results of their labour. Naturally, although I have in every place
tried to make the best use of their linguistic intuitions about their
language, I alone am responsible for every failure to achieve less than
they may have wished. I want to record here my deep appreciation of
their continued friendship.
To my supervisor, Prof. Ron Asher I owe my appreciation for inspiring
confidence when progress was slow, and for stimulation and help at a
number of points. To Ronnie Cann, my appreciation for refusing to let
me away with glossing over difficulties, and for help in following
through the formalisation. To Carl Pollard also, my appreciation for
willingness to share ideas he was still working on.
I was able to check out some ideas by exchange of letters with my
Hadiyya mentors in the later stages of writing up, and I want to record
my sincere thanks to Denise Perrett for her help in this.
My gratitude is also due to the following, for underwriting fees incur
red in completing this study at the University of Edinburgh:
Hans-Juergen Scholz, and SIL /Africa
SIL, British School
International Scholarship Fund, SIL Dallas
The thesis has been typed with the help of SILls software packages Ed
and Kanuscripter, and printed on their Scottish Office equipment, with
the help of Hamish Ralston.
I also want to thank various friends and colleagues for their friendship
and stimulus over the years: John Bendor-Samuel, Klaus Wedekind, Dick
Hayward, Ernst-August Gutt, and Francis Katamba among others, and also
many friends and churches who have supported us over the years.
Karin, Gordon, Shona, Lorna and Gillies are to be thanked for their
exemplary contributions to Chapter 1, and their tutelage in tackling
some of my rough edges.
Above all, to Margaret, who contributes so much to my life, and whose
constant encouragement and willing acceptance of extra responsibilities
made a substantial contribution to my completing this thesis, my deepest
love, and thanks.
Ronald J. Sim,
Inverness, 1989.
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INTRODUCTION •
Hadiyya 1S a language whose syntax is uninvestigated, and even
the Cushitic family to which it belongs is unfamiliar 1n dis
cussions of linguistic theory. It exhibits a number of syntac
tic phenomena which linguistic discussion likes to term exotic.
These need to be amenable to felicitous analysis 1n any grammar
theory that purports to capture in its formalism those general
isations which are significant to an understanding and delinea-
tion of universal grammar. A major aim of the thesis is to
grapple with these issues.
This introduction covers basic information about the Hadiyya
people and language (geographical, demographic, cultural and
linguistic), and the scope of the study. Hudson(1976:232-246)
1S a useful introduction to these matters, and here I want only
to cover briefly similar ground as orientation for the present
study. The opportunity will also be taken to revise or correct
one or two points of information in Hudson (oo.cit), as has been
done also in Korhonen, Saksa & Sim (1986), although I will not
draw specific attention to these points.
Geographical.
The Hadiyya people are located to the west of the Rift valley as
0 0
0
it runs through central Ethiopia, between 7 and 8 Nand 37
0
30' and 38 10' E (Map Ref. ETH 4; see Bibliography), and large
ly within the administrative reg10n of Karnbaata and Hadiyya
Awraja. The township of Hosaina (Hadiyya name Waachamo) lies
roughly in the north-centre of Hadiyya territory, at approx. 235
road kilometres south of Addis Abeba. To the south, Karnbaata
intrudes between the major Hadiyya conurbation and the Baado
waacho section, lying just south of Kambaata-Hadiyya Awraja.
The Libido community to the north, living in Maraqo district