Chapter published in:
Afroasiatic: Data and perspectives
Edited by Mauro Tosco
[Current Issues in Linguistic Theory 339] 2018
► pp. 261–285

The Interaction of state, prosody and linear order in Kabyle (Berber)

Grammatical relations and information structure

The aim of this paper is to show how, starting only from forms belonging to various domains (morphology, syntax, and prosody), it is possible to compute grammatical relations and information structure constructions in Kabyle spontaneous speech.

The study is based on data recorded in the field, transcribed, translated, and annotated with Praat and Elan-CorpA. The methodology consists of systematically retrieving the sequences containing a verb and looking for the presence of a noun (and its inflection) within the prosodic group of the utterance, or outside, as well as studying the linear orders involved. This non-aprioristic methodology reveals the close interaction between grammatical relations and information structure in Kabyle. The study provides evidence to support the claim that the encoding of grammatical relations on nouns is a by-product of information structure constraints in Kabyle.

Keywords: prosody, information structure, grammatical relations, Kabyle, Berber
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
    • 1.1General information about Kabyle
    • 1.2Relevant coding means
      • 1.2.1The state distinction
      • 1.2.2Prosody
      • 1.2.3Linear orders
      • 1.2.4Traditional analysis of the structure of the clause in Berber
      • 1.2.5Constituent order analysis
  • 2.Information structure
    • 2.1Function of [Vsbj (NABS)]
    • 2.2Function of [Vsbj NPann (NPabs)]
    • 2.3Function of [NABS Vsbj (N)]
    • 2.4Function of NABS [Vsbj (N) (N)]
    • 2.5Function of [Vsbj (N) (N)] NANN
    • 2.6Synthesis on information structure
  • 3.Grammatical relations
    • 3.1Grammatical relations are not marked unambiguously by one coding means
      • 3.1.1The state opposition in itself does not mark grammatical relations
      • 3.1.2Coreference in gender and number in itself does not mark grammatical relations
      • 3.1.3Word order in itself does not mark grammatical relations
    • 3.2The interaction of state, position, prosodic grouping, and gender-number marking
      • 3.2.1Nouns outside the prosodic group of the verb
      • 3.2.2Nabs after the verb within the prosodic group of the verb
      • 3.2.3Nann after the verb within the prosodic group of the verb
      • 3.2.4Nabs before the verb within the prosodic group of the verb
    • 3.4Implications
  • 4.General conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 01 February 2018
https://doi.org/10.1075/cilt.339.14met
References

References

Chafe, Wallace
1994 Discourse, Consciousness, and Time: The Flow and Displacement of Conscious Experience in Speaking and Writing. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Chaker, Salem
1988 “Annexion”. Encyclopédie Berbère 5.686–695.Google Scholar
Cruttenden, Alan
1997 Intonation (Cambridge Textbooks in Linguistics), 2nd edn. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.  DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Frajzyngier, Zygmunt & Erin Shay
2003 Explaining Language Structures through Systems Interaction. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.  DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Galand, Lionel
1964 “L’énoncé verbal en berbère. Etude de fonctions”. Cahiers Ferdinand de Saussure 21.33–53.Google Scholar
Givón, Talmy
(ed.) 1983 Topic Continuity in Discourse. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.  DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Izre’el, Shlomo & Amina Mettouchi
2015 “Representation of Speech in CorpAfroAs: Transcriptional Strategies and Prosodic Units”. Corpus-based Studies of Lesser-described Languages: The CorpAfroAs Corpus of Spoken Afroasiatic Languages, ed. by Amina Mettouchi, Martine Vanhove & Dominique Caubet, 13–41. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Kuningas, J. & Jaakko Leino
2006 “Word Orders and Construction Grammar”. Festschrift in Honour of Fred Karlsson. SKY Journal of Linguistics 19.301–309.Google Scholar
Lambrecht, Knud
1994 Information Structure and Sentence Form: Topic, Focus, and the Mental Representations of Discourse Referents (Cambridge Studies in Linguistics 71). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.  DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Mettouchi, Amina
2005 “Discourse-Configurationality and the Encoding of Semantic Macroroles in Taqbaylit Berber.” Studi afroasiatici. Contributi presentati all’XI Incontro italiano di linguistica camito-semitica (Bergamo, 5–7 giugno 2003), ed. by Alessandro Mengozzi, 83–96. Milano: Franco Angeli.Google Scholar
2006 “Anaphoricité et appel à l’attention partagée dans un conte oral en kabyle (berbère)”. Loquentes Linguis, Studi linguistici e orientali in onore di Fabrizio A. Pennacchietti, ed. by Piergiorgio Borbone, Alessandro Mengozzi & Mauro Tosco, 499–507. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.Google Scholar
2007a “Preferred Argument Structure in Taqbaylit Berber: A Preliminary Study”. Proceedings of the XIIth Italian Meeting of Afroasiatic Linguistics, Università di Catania, Ragusa (Italie), les 6–10 juin 2005, ed. by Marco Moriggi & Mirella Cassarino, 295–303. Soveria Mannelli (Cosenza): Rubbettino.Google Scholar
2007b “Word Order in Conversational Taqbaylit Berber: Preposed and Postposed Subjects”. “From Beyond the Mediterranean”. Akten des 7. Internationalen Semitohamitistenkongreßes” (Berlin 13–15 September 2004), ed. by Rainer Voigt, 513–531. Aachen: Shaker.Google Scholar
2008 “Case-Marking, Syntactic Domains and Information Structure in Kabyle (Berber)”. Interaction of Syntax and Morphology: Case Studies in Afroasiatic, ed. by Zygmunt Frajzyngier & Erin Shay, 7–40. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.  DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2011 “Démonstratifs et construction de la référence en kabyle”. « Parcours berbères », Mélanges offerts à Paulette Galand-Pernet et Lionel Galand pour leur 90e anniversaire, ed. by Amina Mettouchi, 469–484. Köln: Rüdiger Köppe.Google Scholar
Mettouchi, Amina & Zygmunt Frajzyngier
2013 “A Previously Unrecognized Typological Category: The State Distinction in Kabyle (Berber)”. Linguistic Typology 17:1.1–30.  DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Mithun, Marianne
1992 “Is Basic Word Order Universal?” Pragmatics of Word Order Flexibility, ed. by Doris Payne, 15–62. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.  DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Pierrehumbert, Janet & Julia Hirschberg
1990 “The Meaning of Intonational Contours in the Interpretation of Discourse”. Intentions in Communications, ed. by Philip R. Cohen, Jerry Morgan & Martha E. Pollack, 271–311. Cambridge, MA: MIT.Google Scholar
Cited by

Cited by 3 other publications

Izre'el, Shlomo & Amina Mettouchi
2015.  In Corpus-based Studies of Lesser-described Languages [Studies in Corpus Linguistics, 68], ► pp. 13 ff. Crossref logo
Mettouchi, Amina
2015.  In Beyond Aspect [Typological Studies in Language, 109], ► pp. 117 ff. Crossref logo
Mettouchi, Amina & Valentina Schiattarella
2018.  In Information Structure in Lesser-described Languages [Studies in Language Companion Series, 199], ► pp. 265 ff. Crossref logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 02 february 2023. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.