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Studies in Language: Online-First Articles

Valency patterns in Mande

Contact vs inheritance

| University of Helsinki
| HSE University
| LLACAN, CNRS — INALCO
| University of Helsinki
In this paper, we address valency patterns in seven Mande languages with various degrees of genealogical proximity. Our study is based on the BivalTyp questionnaire focusing on 130 two-place predicates (Say 2020). While belonging to two distinct genetic groupings, two languages of the set, i.e. Mano (Southern Mande) and Kpelle (Southwestern Mande), are in intense contact with one another. We found that although Mano verbal stems are virtually unaffected by contact, the patterns of valency expression, including construction types and choice of postposition, but also the semantics of complex verbs are strongly influenced by Kpelle. This study thus adds further evidence for the predominance of pattern borrowing in multilingual settings.
Keywords: valency patterns, Mande, language contact, pattern borrowing, matter borrowing
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Background on Mande languages
    • 2.1Genealogy and sociolinguistic information
    • 2.2General properties
      • 2.2.1Word order and argument expression
      • 2.2.2Complex verbs
  • 3.Data collection
  • 4.Methodology
    • 4.1Data coding
      • 4.1.1Coding construction types
      • 4.1.2Coding verbs
      • 4.1.3Coding adpositions
      • 4.1.4Coding complex verbs
    • 4.2Comparison and clustering procedure
      • 4.2.1General principles
      • 4.2.2Comparison of construction types
      • 4.2.3Comparison of verbal etymologies
      • 4.2.4Comparison of adpositional etymologies
      • 4.2.5Comparison of complex verbs
  • 5.Results
    • 5.1Construction types
    • 5.2Simple verb etymologies
    • 5.3Adpositional etymologies
    • 5.4Complex verbs
  • 6.Discussion
  • 7.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgement
  • Additional materials
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations
  • References
This content is being prepared for publication; it may be subject to changes.
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