Author
Michael Terhemen Angitso
Affiliation
Department of Linguistics and African Languages, University of Ibadan, Nigeria
Abstract
This paper investigates question formation in the Tiv language. It examines the possibility of Q-word extraction from the subject position affecting the agreement marker in the Tiv language. Do prepositions have inherent stranding features that seem to license or block complete Q-word extraction from the clausal adjunct position? The paper submits that the canonical agreement marker “a” is sensitive Q-word extraction, but more sensitive to the tense of the construction from which a Q-word is extracted. It shows that Chomsky’s multiple specifier hypothesis cannot serve as an escape hatch for all constructions. The paper submits that [+/- complement] feature is an inherent feature of prepositions that come to play from the numeration in the Tiv language: the [- complement] feature of a preposition licenses preposition stranding, while the [+ complement] feature of a preposition cannot license preposition stranding, and might at least require a resumptive pronoun in the extraction site.
Keywords
Tiv; minimalist program; Q-word; extraction; resumption
Publication Date
October 1, 2014
Issue
Citation information
Angitso, Michael Terhemen. 2014. “Question-word movement in Tiv.” Language. Text. Society 4 (1): e41-e59. https://ltsj.online/2014-04-1-angitso. (Journal title at the time of publication: SamaraAltLinguo E-Journal.)
BibTeX
@Article{Angitso2014,
author = {Angitso, Michael Terhemen},
title = {{Question-word movement in Tiv}},
journal = {Language. Text. Society},
year = {2014},
volume = {4},
number = {1},
pages = {41–59},
url = {https://ltsj.online/2014-04-1-angitso/},
}
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