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Part of
Recent Developments in Functional Discourse Grammar
Edited by Evelien Keizer and Hella Olbertz
[Studies in Language Companion Series 205] 2018
► pp. 89–130

External possessor constructions and Cree relational inflection compared

| University of Manitoba

This chapter presents the results of fieldwork and research on the relational inflection in Cree (Cenerini 2014). This form is functionally and formally similar to External Possessor Constructions (EPCs) in Romance and Germanic languages: they both acknowledge participants who are not syntactically licensed by the verb, but that the Speaker perceives to be topical, or particularly affected by the action, and with which she/he empathises. However, unlike the EPC, the relational inflection is not restricted to cases of possession, and is limited only to third person referents. Also, rather than indirect object marking, the relational is realized as a verbal suffix. Finally, it will be argued that, as both constructions are motivated by pragmatic factors, Van de Velde’s (2013) representation of EPCs as Subacts at the Interpersonal Level can be extended to the relational inflection.

Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The relational inflection
  • 3.External possessor constructions (EPCs)
  • 4.Pragmatic similarities between EPCs and the relational
    • 4.1Possessor affectedness
    • 4.2Speaker empathy
    • 4.3Participant topicality
  • 5.Syntactic similarities between EPCs and the relational
  • 6.Syntactic differences between EPCs and the relational
    • 6.1Noun Phrase configurationality
    • 6.2Cree as a non-configurational language
      • 6.2.1Word order
      • 6.2.2Zero-anaphora
      • 6.2.3Discontinuous noun phrases
  • 7.Interpretation of EPCs and relational within FDG
  • 8.Conclusions
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 22 November 2018
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/slcs.205.04cen
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