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The morphosyntax of adverbs in Shupamem

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par Abass NGOUNGOUO YIAGNIGNI
Université de Yaoundé 1 - Master en Linguistique Générale 2016
  

Disponible en mode multipage

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THE MORPHO-SYNTAX OF ADVERBS IN SHUPAMEM [991]

A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Arts, Letters and Social Sciences in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the award of a Master's Degree in General Linguistics

By

ABASS NGOUNGOUO YIAGNIGNI

Bachelor of Arts in Bilingual Studies

Under the supervision of

DrFlorence TABE

Senior Lecturer

Academic Year 2015-2016 June 2016

DEDICATION

To my late father, Yiagnigni Ismaila

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

First of all, I thank my supervisor, Dr Florence Tabe, for her commitment in supervising this work. She accepted this difficult task without complaint, and has been the one who guided my first steps into research.

Secondly, I heartily thank the administrative and teaching staff of the Department of African Languages and Linguistics of the University of Yaoundé I, especially Professor Edmond Biloa, Professor Cledor Nseme, and Professor Ndibnu-Messina. They have always paid attention to my work and many other administrative issues concerning me.

I also thank the administrative staffs of the Summer Institute of Linguistics, CERDOTOLA, and the Library of the Faculty of Arts, Letters and Social Sciences of the University of Yaoundé I, who provided me useful documentation. In the same line, I thank all my informants for their contributions in data provision and correction. I heartily thank Dr Laziz Nchare for his support in forms of documentation and his multiple pieces of advice.

Thirdly, I wish to thank Professor Moundi Amidou and his wife, Mrs.Moundi Rikiatou, for their financial and moral support. Thesethanks also go to their children Samira, Awa, Leila and Jabir, who have always created a lively atmosphere around me. I am also grateful to my family in the village for the basic education they provided me, especially my mother Mrs.Ngoumnjouen Fadimatou, my grand-father, Nji Ngoucheme Mama, all my brothers and sisters.

Finally, I thank my friends Zacky, Fadi, Pulchérie, Lise, Peguy, Michelle, Fopa, Florance, Zounédou, Habilou, Anita, Ariane, Christelle and Ismaila. I alsothank Gbayouen Balkiss for her attention and encouragements, and Arsène Kengne for proof-reading this work. I thank everybody whose name is not mentioned here and who contributed, in one way or the other, to the realization of this work.

LISTS OF TABLES AND FIGURES

Tables

Table 1: List of Informants............................................................5

Table 2: Shupamem consonants chart...............................................20

Table 3: Shupamem vowels chart...................................................21

Table 4: Shupamem tone chart.......................................................22

Table 5: Shupamem noun classes...................................................24

Table 6: Shupamem personal pronouns.............................................25

Table 7: Shupamem possessive pronouns..........................................26

Table 8: Shupamem demonstrative pronouns......................................27

Figures

Figure 1: Geographical location of Shupamem in Cameroon..................7

Figure 2: Linguistic map of the West Region of Cameroon.......................8

Figure 3: Classification chart of Shupamem........................................10

Figure 4: Shupamem within the Grassfield Bantu languages.....................11

Figure 5: The Computation of Human Language within MP....................46

Figure 6: Hierachical scheme of the adverbs in Shupamem.....................94

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND SYMBOLS

- A: Adjective

- AdvP : Adverbial Phrase

- AGR: Agreement

- AgrP: Agreement Phrase

- ALCAM: Atlas Linguistique du Cameroun

- Asp. Aspectual

- Aux: Auxiliary

- CERDOTOLA: Centre International de Recherche et de Documentation en Tradition Orale et Langues Africaines

- Cert. Certitude

- Cond. Conditional

- CHL: Computation of Human Language

- Cl. Cleft

- Cond. Conditional

- CP: Complementizer Phrase

- Decl. Declarative

- Dem: Demonstrative

- DES: Post-graduate Degree Diploma

- DP: Determiner Phrase

- Dr. Doctor

- DS: Deep Structure

- Epist. Epistemic

- Evid. Evidential

- Excl. Exclusive

- F1: Immediate future

- F2: Near future

- F3: Remote future

- Fig: Figure

- Foc0: Head of the Focus Phrase

- Force0: Head of the Force Phrase

- Freq. Frequency

- GB: Government and Binding

- GBWG: Grassfield Bantu Working Group

- Hab. Habitual?

- Iff: if and only if

- IMPFVE Imperfective

- Incl. Inclusive

- Inf. Infinitive

- INFL: Inflection

- IntP. Interrogative Phrase

- LF: Logical Form

- Mann. Manner

- Mod- Modality

- MP: Minimalist Program

- N: Noun

- Neg. Negation

- Num: Numeral

- NYU: New York University

- Ø Null morpheme

- OM: Object Marker

- P1: Immediate past tense

- P2: Recent past tense

- P3: Nearpast tense

- P4: Remote past tense

- PF: Phonological Form

- PFI: Principle of Full Interpretation

- Ph.D. Doctor of Philosophy

- Pl. Plural

- PPLE Participle

- Prog. Progressive

- Pst. Past tense

- QM: Question Morpheme

- Recip. Reciprocal

- Rep. Repetitive

- Sg: Singular

- SIL: Summer Institute of Linguistics

- Sp.act: Speech act

- SVO: Subject-Verb-Object

- SS: Surface Structure

- T- Tense

- T0: Head of the Tense Phrase

- TAM: Tense, Aspect, Mood

- Top0: Head of the Topic Phrase

- TP: Tense Phrase

- UG: Universal Grammar

- V0: Head of the Verb Phrase

- VP: Verb Phrase

- Vs. Versus

- VSO: Verb-Subject-Object

- ^ Falling tone

- ì High tone

- Ì Low tone

- - Mid tone

- ? Rising tone

- * Ungrammatical

- + Addition

- > Precedes

- Becomes

ABSTRACT

Thisdissertation, titled The morpho-syntax of adverbs in Shupamem (991),seeks to provide the morphological and syntactic properties of adverbs and adverbial expressions in Shupamem, a Grassfield Bantu language spoken in the Noun Division of the Republic of Cameroon. The study is driven within the framework of the Minimalist Program, a theory initiated and developed by Noam Chomsky in the 1990s. On the one hand, the morphological study of adverbs establishes a clear morphological difference between the adverbs classes that exist in this language, while, on the other hand, the syntactic study provides the unmarked positions and the hierarchy of adverbs within a given structure. Based on empirical data, the results of the study show that Shupamem has both pure and derived adverbs. The derivation processes are affixation, adjunction, reduplication and substitution. The syntactic study shows that in Shupamem, adverbs can be right-adjoined or left-adjoined to the verb. It also shows that some adverbs allow movements through focalization and topicalization, (higher class adverbs and post-verbal lower class adverbs), while for others, movements are impossible or constrained (pre-verbal low class adverbs). The results also show that the hierarchy between post-verbal adverbs is highly flexible, given that a locative adverb can come before or after a manner adverb, a temporal adverb, and a degree adverbetc., this order being reversible. Furthermore, following the Ciquean (1999) Fixed Hierarchy Hypothesis, this study provides the hierarchy of adverbs in Shupamem, a hierarchy that remains flexible as far as post-verbal adverbs are concerned. Itis presented as follows:

Speechact>epistemicI>proximative>progressive>anterior>habitual>epistemicII>continuative>repetitive>

locative>frequencyI>frequencyII>temporal>manner

Interchangeable

RESUME

Cette étude intitulée La morpho-syntaxe des adverbes en Shupamem (991) se donne pour objectif de présenter les caractéristiques morphologiques et syntaxiques des adverbes et locutions adverbiales du Shupamem, une langue bantoue du Grassfield parlée au Cameroun. Cette étude a adopté comme théorie le Programme Minimaliste initiée et développée par Noam Chomsky au cours des années 1990. D'une part, l'étude morphologique ressort les différences de forme entre les classes adverbiales de cette langue, et d'autre part, l'étude syntaxique des adverbes ressort les positions naturelles ainsi que la hiérarchie des adverbes au sein d'une même phrase. A base des données empiriques, les résultats de notre étude montrent que le Shupamem dispose à la fois des adverbes purs et des adverbes dérivés. Les procédures de dérivations des adverbes en Shupamem sont l'affixation, l'adjonction, la réduplication et la substitution. L'étude syntaxique montre que les adverbes du Shupamem peuvent précéder ou suivre le verbe. Certains adverbes peuvent être déplacés par focalisation et topicalisation (adverbes de classe supérieure et adverbes post-verbaux de classe inférieure), tandis que pour d'autres, (adverbes pré-verbaux de classe inférieure), le déplacement est impossible ou est soumis à des contraintes. Nous avons aussi réalisé que la hiérarchie entre les adverbes post-verbaux est très flexible, étant donné qu'un adverbe de lieu peut précéder un adverbe de manière, de temps ou de degré, et inversement. Bien plus, nous inspirant de l'Hypothèse de la Hiérarchie Fixe de Cinque (1999), nous avons établi la hiérarchie des adverbes du Shupamem, laquelle hiérarchie demeure flexible en ce qui concerne les adverbes post-verbaux. Cette hiérarchie se présente ainsi qu'il suit :

Adverbes de parole>epistemiquesI>proximatifs>aspectuels(progressif>perfectifs>habituels)>epistemiquesII>aspectuels(continu>repetitif)>locatif>fréquence I>fréquence II>temporel>manière.

Interchangeable

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DEDICATION i

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ii

LISTS OF TABLES AND FIGURES iii

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND SYMBOLS iv

ABSTRACT vii

RESUME viii

TABLE OF CONTENTS ix

GENERAL INTRODUCTION

O. INTRODUCTION 2

1. AIMS AND OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY 2

1.1. Aims of the study 2

1.2. Objectives of the study 2

2. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY 3

3. MOTIVATIONS 3

4. RESEARCH METHOD 4

5. THE LANGUAGE 5

5.1. Nomenclature 6

5.2. Geographical situation 6

5.3. Linguistic classification of Shupamem 9

5.4. sociolinguistic situation of Shupamem 11

6. STATE OF RESEARCH ON SHUPAMEM 12

6.1. Review of related literature 12

6.1.1. Summary of salient works on Shupamem 13

7. SCOPE OF THE STUDY AND OUTLINE OF THE WORK 15

7.1. Scope of the study 16

7.2. Outline of the work 16

CHAPTER ONE: GRAMMATICAL SKETCH OF SHUPAMEM

1.0. INTRODUCTION 19

1.1. PHONOLOGICAL SKETCH 19

1.1.1. The consonants 19

1.1.2. The vowels 21

1.1.3. The tones 22

1.2. NOUNS AND PRONOUNS IN SHUPAMEM 22

1.2.1. The noun class system in Shupamem 22

1.2.2. The pronouns 24

1.2.2.1. The personal pronouns 25

1.2.2.2. Possessive pronouns 26

1.2.2.2.1. Demonstrative pronouns 26

1.3. THE DETERMINERS 28

1.3.1. Qualifying adjectives 28

1.3.1.1. Simple adjectives 28

1.3.1.2. Participial adjectives 29

1.3.2. Numeral adjectives 29

1.3.2.1. Cardinals 29

1.3.2.2. Ordinals 30

1.3.3. The articles 30

1.3.3.1. Indefinite articles 31

1.3.3.2. Definite articles 31

1.3.4. VERB TENSES, ASPECTS AND MOODS 32

1.3.4.1. Tenses 32

1.3.4.1.1. The present tense 32

1.3.4.1.2. The past tense 33

1.3.4.1.3. The future tense 35

1.3.4.2. Aspects 37

1.3.4.2.1. The progressive aspect 37

1.3.4.2.2. The habitual aspect 37

a. Habitual with «kaì» 38

b. Habitual with «meÌtn?ì» 38

c. Habitual with «?g?Ì?» 38

1.3.4.2.3. The dynamic and static aspects 38

1.3.4.2.4. The reciprocal aspect 38

1.3.4.3. Mood 39

1.3.4.3.1. The indicative mood 39

1.3.4.3.2. The imperative mood 40

1.3.4.3.3. The conditional mood 40

a. The conditional with «k?Ì...mbuì» 41

b. The conditional with «m?Ì j???...n?ì» 41

1.3.5. BASIC SENTENCE STRUCTURE OF SHUPAMEM 41

1.3.6. CONCLUSION 42

CHAPTER TWO: THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

2.0. INTRODUCTION 44

2.1. THE MINIMALIST PROGRAM 44

2.2. THE CARTOGRAPHIC APPROACH 47

2.2.1. The view of the Cartographic Approach 47

2.2.2. The Cinquean Approach to the study of adverbs 48

2.2.3. MP and the Cartographic Approach 49

2.3. SALIENT WORKS ON ADVERBS 49

2.4. CONCLUSION 52

CHAPTER THREE: INVENTORY AND CLASSIFICATION OF ADVERBS IN SHUPAMEM

3.0. INTRODUCTION 54

3.1. SEMANTIC CLASSIFICATION OF ADVERBS IN SHUPAMEM 54

3.1.1. Manner adverbs 55

3.1.2. Celerative adverbs 56

3.1.3. Temporal adverbs 57

3.1.4. Frequency adverbs 58

3.1.5. Epistemic adverbs 59

3.1.6. Locative adverbs 61

3.1.7. Adverbs of degree 61

3.1.8. Adverbs of restriction 63

3.1.9. Aspectual adverbs 63

3.1.10. Speech act adverbs 65

3.1.11. Completive adverbs 66

3.1.12. Proximative adverbs 67

3.1.13. Ideophonic adverbs 67

3.1.14. Comparative and Exocomparative adverbs 68

3.2. MORPHOLOGICAL PROPERTIES OF ADVERBS 69

3.2.1. Pure adverbs (single words) 69

3.2.1.1. Lexical words 69

3.2.1.2. Grammatical words 70

3.2.2. Derived adverbs 70

3.2.2.1. Adjunction process 70

3.2.2.1.1. Preposition+Noun 71

3.2.2.1.2. Demonstrative+Demonstrative, Preposition+Demonstrative 72

3.2.2.1.3. Preposition+Adjective+Noun 72

3.2.2.1.4. Particle+Verb 73

3.2.2.1.5. Verb+Preposition+Infinitive 73

3.2.3. Affixation process 73

3.2.4. Reduplication process 74

3.2.5. Substitution process 75

3.3. CONCLUSION 76

CHAPTER FOUR: RELATIVE ORDER AND ADVERBS HIERARCHY IN SHUPAMEM

4.0. INTRODUCTION 78

4.1. RELATIVE ORDER OF ADVERBS IN SHUPAMEM 78

4.1.1. Manner+Time: Manner>Time (reversible) 78

4.1.2. Manner+Locative: Locative>Manner (reversible) 79

4.1.3. Locative+Temporal: Locative>Temporal (reversible) 79

4.1.4. Manner+Celerative: Manner>Celerative (reversible) 80

4.1.5. Manner+Locative+Time: Time>Locative>Manner (reversible) 80

4.1.6. Manner+Epistemic: Epistemic>Manner 81

4.1.7. Manner+Epistemic+Temporal: Epistemic>Manner>Temporal 82

4.1.8. Manner+Frequency: Manner>FrequencyII, Frequency I>Manner 83

4.1.9. Temporal+Frequency: Temporal>Frequency (reversible) 83

4.1.10. Temporal+Frequency I+Frequency II 84

4.1.11. Frequency+Locative+Time 85

4.1.12. Manner+Place: 85

4.1.13. Habitual+Frequency: 86

4.1.14. Anterior tense Repetitive 86

4.1.15. Frequency+Habitual+temporal 87

4.1.16. Progressive+durative 87

4.1.17. Progressive+repetitive 88

4.1.18. Speech act+Epistemic 88

4.1.19. Manner+Exocomparative 89

4.1.20. Temporal+Exocomparative 89

4.1.21. Locative+Exocomparative 90

4.2. ADVERBS HIERARCHY IN SHUPAMEM IN THE LIGHT OF THE CINQUEAN APPROACH 91

4.2.1. The Cinquean Approach 91

4.2.2. Adverbs linear placement 92

4.2.2.1. Higher class adverbs 92

4.2.2.2. Lower class adverbs 93

4.2.2.2.1. Pre-verbal lower class adverbs 93

4.2.2.2.2. Post-verbal adverbs 94

4.3. CONCLUSION 96

CHAPTER FOUR: ADVERBS FRONTING AND THE LEFT PERIPHERY OF SHUPAMEM

5.0. INTRODUCTION 98

5.1. THE LEFT PERIPHERY OF SHUPAMEM 98

5.1.1. The Focus Phrase (FocP) in Shupamem 98

5.1.1.1. The structure of the focus sentences 99

5.1.1.2. Matrix wh-questions 101

5.1.1.3. Embedded wh-questions 102

5.1.2. The Force Phrase (ForceP) in Shupamem 104

5.1.2.1. Relativization 104

5.1.3. Topicalization 108

5.1.4. Negative Phrase and Interrogative Phrase 111

5.1.5. Summary of the left periphery of Supamem 114

5.2. ADVERBS FRONTING IN SHUPAMEM 114

5.2.1. Higher class adverbs 115

5.2.1.1. Speech act adverbs 115

5.2.1.2. Epistemic I adverb 116

5.2.2. Lower class adverbs 117

5.2.2.1. Pre-verbal adverbs 117

5.2.2.1.1. Aspectual adverbs 118

5.2.2.1.2. Epistemic II adverbs 120

5.2.2.2. Post-verbal adverbs 121

5.2.2.2.1. Locative adverbs 121

5.2.2.2.2. Manner adverbs 122

5.2.2.2.3. Celerative adverbs 123

5.2.2.2.4. Temporal adverbs 124

5.2.2.2.5. Adverbs of degree 125

5.2.2.2.6. Restrictive Adverbs 126

5.2.2.2.7. Frequency Adverbs 127

5.2.2.2.8. Comparative Adverbs 128

5.2.2.2.9. Exocomparative Adverbs 128

5.3. IMPACT OF ADVERBS FRONTING ON THE ADVERBS RELATIVE ORDER 129

5.3.1. Epistemic>Manner 130

5.3.2. Epistemic>manner>temporal 131

5.3.3. Anterior tense>repetitive 132

5.3.4. Progressive>durative 133

5.3.5. Progressive>repetitive 134

5.3.6. Exocomparative>manner 135

5.4. CONCLUSION 136

GENERAL CONCLUSION...............................................................157

REFERENCES 143

GENERAL INTRODUCTION

INTRODUCTION

The general introduction presents the aims, the objectives, the significance of the study, my motivations in the choice of this topic, and the research methodology on the one hand, the review of literature related to the language, the scope and delimitation of the study, on the other hand. It also presents some information on the language under study, especially the name, the geographical situation, the linguistic classification and the sociolinguistic situationof Shupamem. Finally, it gives the outline of the work.

1. AIMSAND OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

This section brings out the general aims of the study and the way it will be carried out, that is, the different steps to be followed in order to achieve its goal.

1.1. Aims of the study

The aim of this study is to bring out the morphological and syntactic description of adverbs attested in Shupamem.In addition, it seeks to analyze adverbs fronting, which will trigger the presentation of an overview of the left periphery of Shupamem.

1.2. Objectives of the study

First of all, morphology in linguistics is the study of the ways in which morphemes combine to form words in a given language. As for syntax, it refers to the ways in which words combine to form units such as phrases, clauses and sentences.

In this regard, the general objective of this study is to bring out the morpho-syntax of adverbs of Shupamem.This will help assess, at different levels, elements that will contribute to the description and understanding of the Adverbial Phrase in Shupamem.

In themorphological part of the study, emphasis shall be laid on the forms and formation processes of adverbs in Shupamem.

As for the syntactic part of the study,it will be concerned with the structure and the place of adverbs within the sentence. Here, Ishall work out the different positions that adverbs andadverbial expressions can occupy in a sentence.

Furthermore, through adverbs fronting, I shall determine whether adverb displacementis licensed in Shupamem or not.This will lead to the identification of the structure of the elements above TP in Shupamem.

Another objective of this study is to make Shupamem better known by linguists, by complementing and upgrading previous studies made on the language.

2. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

In his monograph titledSemantic Interpretation in Generative Grammar, Jackendoff(1972)says: «The adverb is perhaps the least studied and most maligned part of speech, maltreated beyond the call of duty«.

This point of viewseems to be true in the study of African languages in general, and Shupamem, in particular. It is clear that much has already been done in this perspective, but much attention has been paid rather to other parts of speech, namely nouns and verbs, than to adverbs. Thus, my work will providenew data that shall be tested against the assumptions made on the functioningand structure of adverbs in human languages.Also, this work is intended to fill the existing gap and to lay the foundation for further research on Shupamen as far as the study of adverbs is concerned.

Like other previous studies made on the language, it will be a contribution to the development of the grammar of Shupamem. Furthermore, it will help provide data that will be used in the elaboration of teaching materials, all this contributing to the promotion of National Languages as solicited by the Cameroonian government.

3. MOTIVATIONS

The choice of this topic is not at random. In fact, as mentioned above, and in the same perspective with Jackendoff's assumption on adverbs, I realized that less attention has been paid to the description of adverbs, especially in Shupamem.

Therefore, mywish is to make adverbs a subject of interest by describing in detail this class, as it is the case with other categories.

Also,another reason that justifies the choice of this topic is to verify whether the assumptions of the Minimalist Program and other theoriesof Universal Grammarare tenable in Shupamem or not.Concretely, I will verify Cinque's (1999) assumption on adverbs and functional categories, most precisely his advocate for a crosslinguistic fixed hierarchy, and see whether Shupamem licenses the same rules or not.

Finally, the choice of this topic participates in my wish to lay the foundation for upcoming research, given that much is still to be done on Shupamem and even on many other Cameroonian Languages.

4. RESEARCH METHOD

The data provided in this work is partly from me given that I am a native speaker of Shupamem. But each time I judged it necessary, I met many other native speakers for clarifications, confirmations and data provision.This process called upon data collection techniques, mostly interviews and questionnaires. Ialso used data from previous researches made on Shupamem, especially those mentioned and summarized in the review of literature. In this vein, documentation played a significant role during the data collection and analysis. Ivisited many libraries in Yaoundé, many websites too.

My informants are native speakers of Shupamem, and they come from different villages. They are mature men and women, as presented in the table below:

Name

Profession

Average age

Sex

Village of Origin

Moundi Amidou

Associate Professor

50

Male

Foumban

Njoya Chaïdou

Civil servant

50

Male

Bangourain

Nsangou Amadou

Farmer

60

Male

Koutaba

Chichem Zenabou

Farmer

50

Female

Koutaba

Ngoupembie Blondelle

Student

20

Female

Kouoptamo

Njipendi Iliassou

Teacher

20

Male

Kouoptamo

Mefire Zakariahou

Student

20

Male

Foumbot

Njutapmvoui Isamaila

Teacher

30

Male

Koutaba

Ndam Arouna

Farmer

40

Male

Massangam

Ayiwouo Mariama

Student

20

Female

Magba

Mfoundikou Jonathan

Teacher

40

Male

Malantouen

Table1, List of Informants

Finally, the New Information and Communication Technologies also helped me a lot for faster data processing. They eased the elaboration of questionnaires, recording of data and its numerization. These are computer, mobile phone, email, social network and internet at large.

5. THE LANGUAGE

This section presents the language nomenclature, its geographical situation, its linguistic classification and its sociolinguistic situation.

5.1. Nomenclature

Shupamem (?yìpa?m?Ìm) literally means «the language of the Bamun people». It is at times referred to as Bamun, Bamoun and Pamom (Ethnologue, Languages of the World, 15th Edition). However, a clear difference should be established between linguistic and ethnic nomenclatures. In fact, the words Bamun, Bamoun and Pamom are known to be used when referring to the ethnic group which is the native inhabitant of the Noun Division. As concerns the word Shupamem, it is known and accepted by the people as referring to their mother tongue. Therefore, Shupamem will be used throughout this work each time I shall be referring to the language. It should be noted that the language under study is different from «Shumom», a non-natural language which has been invented by King Njoya in the nineteenth century. The latter has a quite different writing system and its alphabet is known as the «A KA U KU Alphabet».

5.2. Geographical situation

Shupamem is spoken in the West Region of the Republic of Cameroon, precisely in the Noun Division. Figure 1below shows the localization of the Noun Division within the West Region of Cameroon.

Fig1, Geographical location of Shupamem in Cameroon,(Adapted from BINAM BIKOI and NDONGO SEMENGUE(2012).

Shupamem is spoken in all the nine Sub-divisions of the Noun Division. The map below shows the geographical delimitation of Shupamem within the West Region.

Fig2, Linguistic map of the West Region of Cameroon, from Binam Bikoi and Ndongo-Nsemengue 2012

As said above, the Noun Division is made up of nine (09) sub-divisions. These are Bangourain, Foumban, Foumbot, Koutaba, Kouoptamo, Magba, Malantouen, Massangam, and Njimom. These sub-divisions have in common the use of Shupamem as Mother Tongue. The people who live here are mostly native speakers of Shupamem. The only Sub-division that uses another National Language alongside Shupamem is Magba. Due to the presence of the Tikar community here, the language Tikari, represented with the code (501) is used as Mother Tongue by the minority.

Out of the Noun Division, Shupamem is also spoken in the Extreme North of the Mifi Division, precisely in the village called Bapi. This village is referred to as «Shupamem Linguistic Island» (ALCAM, Tome 1).In the same light, it is spoken in the Extreme South-east of the Bamboutos Division, most precisely in the village called Bamenyam, situated in the north of Galim Sub-division.

In addition, many Shupamem speakers live in the locality of Kyé-ossi in the South Region of Cameroon. Forthcoming studies will bring out much detail thereon and uncover its characteristics.

In brief, Shupamem is spoken all over the Noun Division, in the Extreme North of the Mifi Division, and in the Extreme South-east of the Bamboutos Division. It is obviously spoken wherever a Bamoun community is present. It co-occurs with Tikari in Magba Sub-division.

5.3. Linguistic classification of Shupamem

Greenberg J. (1963) classifies African languages into four major linguistic families. These are Congo-Kordofanian, Nilo-Saharan, Afro-asiatic and Khoisan.

The first three above mentioned families, namely Congo-kordofanian, Nilo-Saharan and Afro-asiatic are represented in Cameroon. Shupamem falls under the Congo-kordofanian family. It is a Grassfield Bantu language that falls under the Benue-Congo sub-family of the Niger-Congo family. It belongs to the East Grassfield and falls under the Noun group. It bears the code (991) of the Cameroon Linguistic Atlas, (ALCAM Tome 1). This classification is summarized in the diagram below:

Congo-Kordofanian

Niger-Congo adamawa-oubanguienne

Ouest atlantique Benue-Congo

Jukudoide cross-river bantoide

Non-bantu Bantu

Jrarawan tuvoide ekoide nyang betoide grassfield-bantu

Momo Menchum Ring Nyemba Noun Nord

Shupamem

(Fig3, classification Chart of Shupamem, adapted from ALCAM Tome 1)

According to the 15th edition of Ethnologue, Languages of the World, Shupamem is classified as Niger-Congo, Atlantic-Congo, Volta-Congo, Bantoide, Southern, Wide grassfields and Narrow Grassfields.

As far as de Wolf's (1971) classification is concerned, Grassfield Bantu languages are divided into two main groups, which are the West Group and the Mbam-Nkam Group. Shupamem falls under the Mbam-Nkam Group and belongs to the Noun sub-group. This is shown in the diagram below:

Grassfield-bantu

Western Bantu Mbam-Nkam

Mamfé Noun Ngambe Bamilike

Shupamem

(Fig4, Classification chart of Shupamem, adapted from de Wolf 1971)

Shupamem is also classified in Cameroon Linguistic Atlas, Tome1, as belonging to the Ndop Group, alongside Babungo, Bamunka and Bamessing. The Grassfield Bantu Working Group (GBWG) has also classified Shupamem as belonging to the Grassfield-Bantu, Zone 9.

In short, all the classifications so far listed show that Shupamem belongs to the Congo-Kordofanian phylum. It falls under the Niger-Congo, Benue-Congo, Bantoide, Bantu, Grassfield, Mbam-Nkam, and Noun family.

5.4. sociolinguistic situation of Shupamem

As mentioned above, Shupamem is mostly spoken by the Bamun people. It has about 215 000 speakers in the Noun Division, (SIL 1982). It is a highly homogenous language given that no real contact has been identified with other National Languages within the Noun division, except the case with Tikari in Magba Sub-division.

The latter is used by the minority as Mother Tongue, and therefore, has no major impact on Shupamem. Shupamem has no officially recognized dialect, though there are few phonological variations among the speakers. These variations have led to the use of «accent de la capital» and «accent de la campagne» (ALCAM, Tome1) to mark the difference. However, they have no impact at the level of semantic interpretation.

Shupamem is also considered to be related to other Grassfield languages, such as Bafanji, Bamali, Bambalang and Bangolan, (Ethnologue, Languages of the World, 15th edition).

As concerns its use, Shupamem is the language of trade within the Noun Division. In fact, rural people sell their farm products in the local markets using mostly Shupamem. Even traders from other backgrounds are often obliged to use Shupamem in the way they can, so as to be understood by the local population.

Out of its use as language of trade, Shupamem is used in religious ceremonies, in churches and mosques all over the Noun Division. In this line, the Bible was translated into Shupamem in 1988, and recently, the Qur'an in 2013.

Also, Shupamem is used in traditional ceremonies such as marriages, birth celebrations and funerals. It is also used in traditional and modern music and films.

6. STATE OF RESEARCH ON SHUPAMEM

Like many other Cameroonian languages, Shupamem has been subject to many research works which have contributed to its development. The aim of this section is to present not all the literature of the language, but the salient works that concerns its description.

6.1. Review of related literature

Relatively much has been done on Shupamem in several domains, among which literature, phonology, morphology, language learning, lexicology, ethno-linguistics, and syntax. My attention is paid to those that are related to my topic.

As far as phonology is concerned, Ward (1938) published a paper titled «The phonetic structure of Bamun», in Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies. In the same vein, Boum (1977) wrote her Post-graduate Degree Diploma (DES) thesis on «Esquisse phonologique du Bamun». Therein, she studies Shupamem phonology and draws the path to other research on the same topic. It is the case with Ngueffo (1979) who describes the phonology of Bapi in his DES thesis.It is worth mentioning that Bapi is considered a «Shupamem Linguistic Island» (ALCAM, Tome 1).

In morpho-syntax, Djeunou (1981) worked on the VP in Shupamem, in his «Maitrise» dissertation titled «Le verbe en bamun».

In the same view, Ondoua (2004) worked within the generative approach on the sentence structure of Shupamem. Many other works within the generative approach have been carried out by Nchare (2005, 2011, and 2012). These works were centered on the DP, Greenberg's Universals 20, the syntax of body parts and spatial expressions, and the grammar of Shupamem at large.

Moreover, Rojas (2011) worked on «Definite and indefinite Numeral Phrases in Shupamem», which was the subject of an article published at the NYU Press. I give the brief summary of the key projects below.

6.1.1. Summary of salient works on Shupamem

This summary concerns mostly the few salient works done on the morpho-syntax of Shupamem.

Based on truth-value tests and distributional contrasts, Rojas (2011) in her paper entitled «Definite and indefinite numeral phrases in Shupamem»demonstrates that the orders Numeral>Noun vs. Noun>Numeral actually correspond to different interpretations of the corresponding noun phrases. Pre-nominal numerals give rise to indefinite interpretations, while post-nominal numerals are associated with a definite reading of the noun phrase in which they occur. In other words, when the numeral precedes the noun, the modified nounis considered indefinite, meanwhile it is considered definite when the noun precedes the numeral. She stresses the fact that the order between the noun and the numeral is flexible, that is, one can come before or after the other.

But the nuance is that the interpretation changes according to the order of occurrence. The following data from her illustrates both the flexibility of word order between noun and numeral and the change in interpretation:

(1) a. ndì m?ìn «one child»

b. p?ì? p?ìn «two children»

c. t?ì? p?ìn «three children»

d. kpà p?ìn «four children»

e. t?n p?ìn «five children»

f. ntù: p?ìn «six children»

(2) a. m?ìn í mò «one child»

b. p?ìn pí pà «two children»

c. p?ìn pí t?ìt «three children»

d. p?ìn pí kpà «four children»

Source: Rojas Vasquez (2011:18)

The word order in (1) is Num>N and calls on indefinite interpretation, whereas the situation in (2) displays N>Num word order and calls on definite interpretation. In (2), the word order triggers the obligatory presence of an agreement marker «i» for singular and «pi» for plural. Her analysis further goes to measure phrases where she shows that only the order Num>N is grammatical. The N>Num order will make the sentence ungrammatical as shown in the following data:

(3) a. m?ì nà n-z?ìt t?^n kíluÌ

Child IMPFVE PPLE-weigh five kilogram

«The child weighs five kilograms.»

b. * m?ì nà n-z?Ìt kíluÌ pí t?^n

Child IMPFVE PPLE-weigh kilogram AGR five

Intended: «The child weighs five kilograms.»

In brief, her paper brings evidence that, although Shupamem allows a numeral to be placed before or after the noun, the two positions of the numeral correspond to different interpretations. The configuration Num>N can introduce new discourse referents; it occurs in measure phrases and cannot recover previously mentioned antecedents. The order N>Num has only a definite interpretation. These phrases are excluded from measure expressions. They recover discourse-old antecedents. They also have maximal implications and can occur in indefiniteness effects contexts from which the Num>N configurations are excluded.

Nchare (2011) in «The syntax of agreement in the Shupamem DP and Greenberg's Universals 20», describes and explains data from Shupamem that provide significant counterevidence to Cinque's (2005:315) Theory of Greenberg's Universal 20. The said theory argues that only fourteen of the mathematically possible orders of the four elements Demonstrative, Numeral, Adjective and Noun are attested in the languages of the world. Contrary to Cinque's hypothesis, data from Nchare (2011) show that eighteen word orders of the four above-mentioned elements are grammatical in Shupamem.

Nchare (2012) in «The grammar of Shupamem» (a PhD thesis), makes a cross analysis of the grammar of Shupamem. Prominent aspects of the Shupamem morpho-syntax are discussed in this thesis. In addition to providing evidence that many movement operations in Shupamem are highly constrained, he analyzes the internal syntax of the DP, the words alternation between the head noun and its different modifiers, the syntax of negation, the syntax of focus, the syntax of body part expressions, the distribution of lexical categories within the Shupamem clause and many other syntactic issues. His analysis reveals that Shupamem displays a bipartite negation with a wide range of negation particles whose surface forms depend on the status of Tense, Aspect and Mood (TAM). Furthermore, the syntax of focus suggests two focus fields for Shupamem (the left peripheral field and the post-verbal field). It is worth noting here that adverbs are not studied in the thesis.

7. SCOPE OF THE STUDY AND OUTLINE OF THE WORK

This section presents the scope and delimitation of the study. It stresses on the main aspects that shall be analyzed by the work. It also presents the outline of the work, that is, how the dissertation is structured.

7.1. Scope of the study

The focus of this study is the adverb and adverbial phrases. As mentioned above, I shall lay emphasis on the morphology and syntax of adverbs in Shupamem. This study will cover any sentence element that is identified as belonging to the Adverbial Phrase. The analysis is based both on the Minimalist Program of Chomsky, (1993-2001) and the Cartography as mirrored in the works of Rizzi (1990, 1997), Cinque (1999, 2004), Rizzi and Cinque (2008), BenincaÌ and Poletto (2004) and others.

7.2. Outline of the work

This dissertation comprises five chapters. It begins with a general introduction and ends with a general conclusion. The general introduction describes the aims, the objectives, the motivations, the scope, and the methodology used for data collection. It also presents the review of literature, that is, the salient works done on Shupamem.

Chapter one presents agrammatical sketch of Shupamem. It looks at the Shupamem sounds system, the noun classes, the determiners, verb tenses, mood and aspects, and basic sentence structure of Shupamem.

In chapter two, I present the frameworks adopted for this analysis. These are Chomsky's Minimalist Program and the Cartographic Approach as mirrored in the works of Rizzi (1997), Cinque (2002), Rizzi and Cinque (2008),Benincaì and Poletto (2004), and others.

As for chapter three, Iundertake the semantic classification of adverbs, followed by their morphological properties. In other words, this chapter is devoted to the presentation of adverbs in Shupamem, and the analysis of their derivation processes.

In chapter four, I present the order of appearance of adverbs within the structure. Furthermore, in the light of the Cinquean (1999) approach, I present the hierarchy of adverbs in Shupamem.

Finally, chapter fiveanalyzes the structure of the left periphery of Shupamem, with emphasis on the behaviour of adverbs in movements. That is, it looks at adverbs fronting and the left periphery of Shupamem.

The summary of the work is presented in the general conclusion. This concerns its findings, the difficulties encountered during the different stages of the work, and some recommendations for forthcoming studies.

CHAPTER ONE:

GRAMMATICAL SKETCH OF SHUPAMEM

INTRODUCTION

The previous sectionof the work entitled General Introduction presented the aims, the objectives, the motivation, the language and the review of previous studies made on Shupamem. It also presented relevant information on the language, among which the geographical situation, the linguistic classification and the sociolinguistic situation of Shupamem. This chapteron grammatical sketch of Shupamempresentssome aspects of Shupamemgrammar. It is divided into five sections, which are the phonological sketch, the noun class system, the determiners, the verb tenses, aspects and moods, and the basic sentence structure of Shupamem. The phonological sketch involves the consonants, the vowels and the tones attested in Shupamem. I shall also present the fifteen noun classes attested in the language, alongside the determiners. Finally, as far as verbs are concerned, I shall lay emphasis on theirtenses, aspects and moods.

1.1. PHONOLOGICAL SKETCH

As mentioned above, this section presents an overview of the Shupamem sound system. This concernsthe consonants, the vowels and the tones.

1.1.1. The consonants

The previous studies on Shupamemphonology (Boum 1977, Nchare 2005, 2012...) revealed that a total of twenty-eight consonantal elements are attested in Shupamem. The language hasfive bilabials, one labiodental, seven alveolars, five palatals, five velars, three labiovelars and two glottals. Theseconsonants are presented in the table below:

 

Bilabial

Labio-dental

Alveolar

Palatal

Velar

Labiovelar

Glottal

Plosives

p b

 

t d

 

k g

kp gb

?

Fricatives

f v

 

s z

? ? j

÷

 
 

Affricates

 
 
 
 

 
 

Nasals

m

?

n

?

?

 
 

Liquids

 
 

l r

 
 
 
 

Semivowels

 
 
 

y

 

w

h

Table2: Shupamem consonants chart, from Nchare(2005:43)

These consonants are illustrated in (1) below:

(1) /p/: piìn (dance) /b/: muÌm (eggs)

/t/:t(head) /d/: ndaìp(house)

/k/:k(strength) /g/:m?Ì?g?ìp (chicken)

/kp/:kp(four) /gb/:mgb?Ìm (big)

/?/:faÌ?(work) /f /: f (white)

/v/:v??ì(loss) /s/:ns?ìm(farm)

/z/:jiÌnz??Ìm(to smell) / ?/:???ì(those)

/j/:j??Ì (that) / ÷/:÷?Ìm (ten)

/ k÷/:(okra) /m/:m(eyes)

/ ?/: jiÌ?fiì(to sell) / n/:naÌ?(cow)

/ ?/:?iÌ?iÌ(God) / ?/:?gu?Ìm (plantain)

/l/:l(name) /r/:r(chair)

/y/:p(badness) /w/:w(death)

/h/:puì?h(fear)

1.1.2. The vowels

Shupamem displays eight canonical vowels that can be long or short. They are presented in the chart below:

 

Front

Central

Back

High

i

? ?

u

Mid-high

e

?

o

Mid-low

?

 

?

low

 

a

 

Table 3, Shupamem vowels chart, adapted from Nchare (2005:38)

These vowels are presented in (2) below:

(2) /i/:mkp(wood) / ?/:n??Ì (blood)

/ ?/:?k(bone) / u/:f(medicine)

/e/:léraÌ?(teacher) /?/:pu(we)

/ o/:pkériì(good) / ?/:pn(fufu)

/ ?/:mn(child) / a/:f?(work)

1.1.3. The tones

Like the other Bantu languages, Shupamem displays three level tones (high, mid, low). It also has some contour tones, whereofthe rising and the falling tones are the most present in discourse.I present these tones in the table below:

Level tones

High'

Mid

Low `

Contour tones

Rising

Falling à

 

Table 4, Shupamem tones chart

These tones are illustrated in (3) below:

(3) - High ('):p(badness)

- Mid ():jéj?n (yard)

- Low ( `):p(we)

- Rising ():jiÌnda?m(to gossip)

- Falling ( à)nda^m (gossip)

1.2. NOUNS AND PRONOUNS IN SHUPAMEM

This section focuses on the noun class system in Shupamem and the personal, the demonstrative and the possessive pronouns that exist in the language.

1.2.1. The noun class system in Shupamem

Shupamem has fifteen noun classes. They are grouped in the light of the paradigm pair singular/plural, (Nchare 2012: 94). In Shupamem, the noun class 1 is made up of some words which begin with the sound /m/ in their singular form. Class 2 on its part is the plural form of class 1. Words of this class begin with the sound /p/. It is the case with the class 1 noun «m-?ìn» (child) and its class 2 counterpart «p-?ìn» (children). There are also some nouns classified within the classes 1 and 2.

The ones are those which begin with the sound «in the singular form, and which sound disappears in the plural form. It is the case with «n-saÌs?» (elder, class 1.a) and «sa?s?» (elders, class 1.b). The others are those whose singular form is not overtly marked, whereas the plural form is marked with the prefix «pa». This can be illustrated with the words «wa?» (father, class 1.c) and «paÌ-wa?» (fathers, class 1.d).

The noun classes 3 and 4 concern some words whose singular form is marked by the prefix «m?Ì», which becomes «p?ì» in the plural form. The words «m?Ì-mviì» (goat, class 3) and «p?ì-mviÌ» (goats, class 4) better illustrate these classes.

As far the classes 5 and 6 are concerned, their singular form is not overtly marked, while the plural form take the prefix «?». As examples, we have the words «kuÌt» (foot, class 5) and «?-kuÌt» (feet, class 6).

The noun classes 7 and 8 concern words that are duplicated in the plural form. As example, we have the words «nsén» (forest, class 7) and «nse?n nse?n» (forests, class 8).

For the classes 9 and 10, tones are relevant to their classification. In fact, while the singular form displays the tonal combination low/low, the plural form displays the combination low-high/high. This is the case with «?iÌrè» (trap, class 9) and «?i?» (traps, class 10).

Similar to the classes 9 and 10, the noun classes 11 and 12 are influenced by the tones. In fact, the tonal combinations on the word of class 11 are low-high/low, while those on the class 12 are low-high/high. This can be seen from the words «maÌtwa^» (car, class 11) and «ma?twaì» (cars, class 12).

The classes 13 and 14 are concerned with words whose singular form is marked by the prefix «jiÌ», and whose plural form is marked by the prefix «piÌ». This is he case with «jiÌ-mbo^két» (the good, class 13) and «pi-mbo^két» (the good, class 14).

Finally, the noun class 15 concerns the nouns which are derived from verbs and that bear the prefix «n». It is the case with «n-da^m» derived from «la?m» (gossip, verb). The noun class sytem of Shupamem is summarized in the table below:

CLASSES

PREFIXES

EXAMPLES

1-2

m-/p-

m-?ìn p-?ìn

«child» «children»

1a-2a

N-/Ø-

n-saÌs?ì Ø-sa?s?ì

«elder» «elder»

1b-2b

Ø-/pa-

wa? paÌ-wa?

«father» «fathers»

3-4

m?-/p?-

m?Ì-mviì p?^-mviì

«goat» «goats»

5-6

Ø-/N-

Ø-kuÌt ?-kuÌt

«foot» «feet»

7-8

CV-/reduplication

nseìn nse?n nse?n

«forest» «forests»

9-10

low-low/ low-high+low

?iÌreÌ ?i?reÌ

«trap» «traps»

11-12

Low+high-low/low-high-high-low-

maÌtwa^ ma?twa^a

«car» «cars»

13-14

jiÌ-/piÌ-

jiÌ-mbo^keìt pi-mbo^keìt

«the good» «the bad»

15

N-

la?m n-da^m

«gossip»(verb)«gossip» (noun)

Table5, Shupamem noun classes, adapted from Nchare (2012:95)

1.2.2. The pronouns

This section presents the unmarked forms of the personal, the possessive and the demonstrative pronouns in Shupamem.

1.2.2.1. The personal pronouns

According to Nchare (2012), Shupamem displays eight personal pronouns. There exist the first, the second and the third persons singular (1sg, 2sg, 3sg), three first persons plural (1pl. inclusive, 1pl. exclusive, 1pl. duality), the second and the third persons plural (2pl. 3pl.).They are presented in the table below, according to their functions (subject, object).

Persons

Nominative

Gloss

Accusative

Gloss

1 sg

maÌ/m?Ì

I

a?

me

2sg

wuÌ

You

u?

you

3 sg

wiì

He/She

him

1pl incl.

pw?Ì

We

uìpw?Ì

us

1pl excl.

pyÌ

We

us

1pl dual.

taÌ

We

taÌ

us

2 pl

p?Ìn

You

?Ìn

you

3pl

pw?ì

They

aìp

them

Table 6, Shupamempersonal pronouns, adapted from Nchare (2012:239)

The object pronouns presented in the table above are in the accusative form. Their dative form is obtained by adjunction of a preposition before the accusative form, as is the case in (4) below:

(4) a. (accusative)

m?Ì j?e?n -iì

1sg. saw him

«I saw him»

b. (Dative)

m?Ì faÌ paÌm n? -iì (niì)

1sg. gave bag to him

«I gave him the bag»

The example in (4.a) shows the accusative form of the third personal pronoun in Shupamem. As for (4.b), it shows that the preposition «n?» (to) is adjoined to the accusative form of the pronoun to have its dative counterpart.

Let's note that the non-human pronoun in Shupamem is «» (it), used for things.

1.2.2.2. Possessive pronouns

With respect to the number of personal pronouns listed above, Shupamem has eight possessive pronouns. They are not really different from the accusative personal pronouns presented in the table (6) above. Here, the morpheme «j-»comes before each of the accusative personal pronoun to form its possessive counterpart. There is a change of tones, as they all become high.The resulting possessive pronouns are presented in the table below:

Persons

Demonstrative

Gloss

1 sg

jaì

my

2sg

juì

your

3 sg

jiì

his/her

1pl incl.

juìpw?Ì

our

1pl excl.

jyì

our

1pl dual.

juìtaÌ

our

2 pl

j?Ìn

your

3pl

jaìp

their

Table 7, the Shupamem possessive pronouns, from Nchare (2012:239)

1.2.2.2.1. Demonstrative pronouns

Demonstrative pronouns are used to point at persons or things. They vary depending on the distance between the speaker and the referent. Shupamem has two types of demonstrative pronouns which vary in number according to the persons or things they refer to. This is shown in the table below:

Demonstrative pronoun

Singular

plural

Proximal

ji?

?i?

Distal

j?ì?

??ì?

Table 8, Shupamem demonstrative pronouns

The demonstrative pronouns above are illustrated in (5) and (6) below:

(5) a) ji? ndaìp gb?Ì

Dem.Sg. house fell down

«This house fell down»

b) ?i? ndaìp ndaìp bg?Ìke?t

Dem.Pl. houses fell down

«These houses fell down»

These data show that the demonstrativepronouns vary in number. The singular form is «ji?», while the plural form is «?i?». Let's also note that the noun «ndaìp» (house) makes its plural by reduplication. That is why it has become «ndaìp ndaìp» (houses) in (5.b) above.

(6) a. j??? ndaìp bg?Ì

Dem.Sg. House fell down

«That house fell down»

b. ???? ndaìp ndaìp bg?Ìke?t

Dem.Sg houses fell down

«Those houses fell down»

The data in (6.a) and (6.b) show that distal demonstrative pronouns are «j???» (that) in the singular form, and «????» (those) in the plural form.

1.3. THE DETERMINERS

This section on the determiners in Shupamem deals with the qualifying adjectives, the numerals (cardinals and ordinals), and the articles.

1.3.1. Qualifying adjectives

In many Bantu languages, qualifying adjectives are divided into two types, namely simple adjectives and participial adjectives, (Nchare 2012).Thus, Shupamem has simple and participial adjectives.

1.3.1.1. Simple adjectives

They are found in the wordlist of Shupamem and are considered inherent to the language. In Shupamem, some of these adjectives are pre-nominal, while the others are post-nominal. They are shown in (7)below:

(7) a) Pre-nominal

kuìm laìpaì? *laìpaì? kuìm

old shoes shoes old

«Old shoes» Intended: «Old shoes»

b) Post-nominal

laìpaì? siì *siì laìpaì?

shoes black black shoes

«Black shoes» Intended «Black shoes»

These adjectives make their plural forms by reduplication. For instance, «fyì» becomes «fyì fyì» (white), «siì» becomes «siì siì» (black), «kuìm» becomes «kuìm kuìm» (old) in the plural form.

1.3.1.2. Participial adjectives

Participial adjectives are those derived from verbs. In Shupamem, they can come before or after the noun that they determine. Theadjectives in (8) below are respectively derived from the verbs «ji-mbu?» (to be beautiful), «ji-nze?m» (to smell) and «ji-mi?n» (to be dirty).

(8) Pre-nominal Post-nominal

a) p??keìt m?ìn m?ìn mb??keìt

good child child good

«Good child» «Good child»

b) r?Ìmkeìt ?k?Ì ?k?Ì nz?Ìmkeìt

smelling water water smelling

«Smelling water» «Smelling water»

c) miÌnkeìt m?ìn m?ìn miÌkeìt

dirty child child dirty.

«Dirty child» «Dirty child»

1.3.2. Numeral adjectives

Numeral adjectiveshave to do with number. There exist two types of numeral adjectives, namely cardinals and ordinals.

1.3.2.1. Cardinals

They are used to count persons or things. Like the qualifying adjectives, they can come before or after the noun that they determine. The cardinals from zero to ten are presented in (9) below:

(9) nd?ìm nd?ìm (null) iì-m?? (one) iì-pa? (two) iì-t?ìt (three)

iì-kpaì (four) iì-tiÌ?ìn (five) iì-ntuì (six) iì-saaÌbaÌ (seven)

iì-faìm?Ì (eight) iì-vyì? (nine) ??ìm (ten)

Nine and ten can bear the prefix «ko» and remain grammatical. When these numbers are pre-nominal, they all loose their prefixes «i-/ko?».When they are post nominal, they vary in number according to the noun they determine, and therefore, bear the singular morpheme «» or the plural morpheme «piì», as illustrated in (10) below:

(10) pre-nominal post-nominal

a. ndiÌ m?ìn m?ìn iì-m???

one child child sg-one

«One child» «One child»

b. p?Ì? p?ìn p?ìn piì-pa?

two children children pl-two

«Two children» «Two children»

1.3.2.2. Ordinals

They are used to present elements in an established order. In Shupamem, apart from the number one (1),the free morpheme «mbaìr?Ì»1(*)is used in front of the numbers to mark the order. For the ten first numbers, we have the following in (11):

(11) puÌm-iÌ (first); mbaìr?Ì iì-pa? (second); mbaìr?Ì iì-t?ìt (third);

mbaìr?Ì iì-kpaÌ (fourth); mbaìr?Ì iì-ti?Ìn (fith); mbaìr?Ì iÌ-ntuì(sixth)

mbaìr?Ì iÌ-saaÌmbaÌ (seventh); mbaìr?Ì iÌ-fa?Ìm?Ì (height);

mbaìr?Ì i-Ìvyì? (ninth); mbaìr?Ì ??ìm (tenth).

1.3.3. The articles

Articles are words that accompany substantives and precise whether they are definite or indefinite. There exist two types of articles, namely indefinite and definite articles.

1.3.3.1. Indefinite articles

Shupamem does not have indefinite articles unlikeIndo-European languages. To mark indefiniteness however, it makes use of the indefinite pronoun «m???» (some).This pronoun whose plural form is «?iÌ-m???»provides information about the noun that it determines.Itis always placed before the nouns, as shown in(12) below:

(12) a) Singular

m??? Ìm?Ìn m??? j?ìm m??? ?k?Ì m??? ndaìp

Indef.person Indef. thing Indef. water Indef. house

«A person» «A thing» «Water» «A house»

b) Plural

?i?-m??? p???ìn ?i?-m??? ??ìm ?i?-m??? ?k?? ?k?Ì ?i?-m??? ndaìp ndaÌp

Indef. Persons Indef. persons Indef. waters Indef. houses

«Persons» «Things» «Waters» «Houses»

1.3.3.2. Definite articles

Shupamem does not have a class of definite articles. However, demonstratives, possessives and cardinals can be used to mark definiteness. When the cardinal «(?i?-) m???»(one) is used for this purpose, it comes after the noun. It is also an insistence of relativization, given that relativization in Shupamem can be made through the same morphemes.This is shown in (13) below:

(13) m?ìn m?ì? tuì? n?ì j?Ì p?ìn

child Def.(Rel) came Rel. ate fufu

«The child that came has eaten fufu»

Here, the morpheme «m?ì?» (one) is used to mark both definiteness and relativization (when followed by the morpheme «n?ì»).

1.3.4. VERB TENSES, ASPECTS AND MOODS

This section briefly presents the tenses, the aspects and the mood of verbs in Shupamem.

Nchare (2012) observed that the infinitive in Shupamem is marked by the morpheme «jiÌn»(Inf.) as shown in (14) below:

(14) jiÌn-n??ì jiÌn-nt?Ìr?ì jiÌn-?kaÌm?ì

«to eat» «to jump» «to play»

1.3.4.1. Tenses

There are three main tenses in Shupamem, which are the present tense, the past tense and the future tense. Each of these tenses is expressed in many ways as shall be seen throughout the section.

1.3.4.1.1. The present tense

The present tense in Shupamem is almost not dissociablefrom the aspects. In fact, there are the progressive present, the habitual present and the evidential present (Nchare 2012).

The progressive present is marked by the morpheme «tiì?» (Prog.) placed before the verb. For the habitual present, Shupamem makes use of the morpheme«kaì» (Hab.)placed before the verb. Finally, the morpheme «na^» (Evid.)precedes the verb to mark the evidential present tense. These are shown in (15), (16) and (17) below:

(15) a) Progressive (affirmative)

Nsangou tiì? n?uoÌp ?k?Ì

Nsangou Prog. sing song

«Nsangou is singing (a song)»

b) Progressive (negative)

Nsangou tiì? ntaìp n?u?ob-iÌ ?k?Ì

Nsangou Prog. Neg. Sing-SM song

«Nsangou is not singing (a song)»

(16) a) Habitual (affirmative)

Nsangou kaì n?uoìp ?k?Ì

Nsangou Hab. sing song

«Nsangou sings song»

b) Habitual (negative)

Nsangou kaì ntaìp n?uob-iÌ ?k?Ì

Nsangou Aff. Neg. sing-SM song

«Nsangou does not sing»

(17) a) Evidential (affirmative)

Nsangou na^ n?uoìp ?k?Ì

Nsangou Evid. sing song

«Nsangou sings»

b) Evidential (negative)

Nsangou na^ ntaìp n?uoìb-iÌ ?k?Ì

Nsangou Evid. Neg. sing-SM song

«Nsangou does not sing»

The examples in (15), (16) and (17) above show that the present tense in Shupamem is always accompanied by the aspects. The morpheme «ti?ì» denotes the progressive aspect, while the morphemes «kaì» and «na^» denote the habitual and the evidential present respectively.

1.3.4.1.2. The past tense

The past tense is realized in four ways in Shupamem. There exist the immediate past (P1), the recent past (P2), the remote past (P3) and the remotest past (P4). P1 expresses actions that just occurredand is marked by a null morpheme before the verb. P2 on its part describes actions that occurredminutes, hours ago or later in the day and is marked by the morpheme «peì» (P2). As for P3, it is marked by the morpheme «piì» (P3) placed before the verb. Finally, P4 is marked by the morphemes «kaÌ piì» (P4). It expresses actions that occurred long time ago, and which at times have no clear reference in the past. They are all illustrated in (18), (19), (20) and (21)below:

(18) a) P1 affirmative

maÌtwaì Ø kuÌm m?Ìmviì

car P1 knock goat

«The car has knocked the goat»

b) P1 negative

maÌtwaì Ø ma^ ?kuÌm-iÌ m?Ìmviì

car P1 Neg. Knock-SM goat

«The car has not knocked the goat»

(19) a) P2 affirmative

maÌtwaì pé kuÌm m?Ìmviì

car P2 knock goat

«The car knocked the child»

b) P2 negative

maÌtwaì pé ma^ ?kuÌm-iÌ m?Ìmviì

car P1 Neg. knock-SM goat

«The car did not knock the goat»

(20) a) P3 affirmative

maÌtwaì piì kuÌm m?Ìmviì

car P3 knock goat

«The car had knocked the goat»

b) P3 negative

maÌtwaì piì ma^ ?kuÌm-iÌ m?Ìmviì

car P3 Neg. knock-SM goat

«The car had not knock the goat»

(21) a) P4 affirmative

maÌtwaì kaÌpiì kuÌm m?Ìmviì

car P4 knock goat

«The car had knocked the goat»

b) P4 negative

maÌtwaì kaÌpiì ma^ ?kuÌm-iÌ m?Ìmviì

car P4 Neg. knock-SM goat

«The car had not knocked the goat»

1.3.4.1.3. The future tense

The future tense in Shupamem is divided into three tenses (F1, F2, and F3) according to their remoteness from the present. F1 expresses actions that will take place very soon and is marked by the morphemes «naì ntw?ì» (F1),placed before the verb. F2 on its part expresses actions that will be performed later in the future and is marked by the morpheme «l???»(F2),placed before the verb. Finally, F3 expresses actions that are remote from the present, and at times not specified. It is marked by the use of «ntw?ì l???»(F3) before the verb, that is the association of the F1 and F2 morphemes. These tenses are presented in (22), (23), and (24) below:

(22) a) F1 affirmative

maÌtwaì naì2(*) ntw?ì ?kuÌm m?Ìmviì

car F1 knock goat

«The car shall knock the goat»

b) F1 negative

maÌtwaì ntaìp ntw?ì ?kuÌm-iÌ m?Ìmviì

car Neg. F1 knock-SM goat

«The car shall not knock the goat»

(23) a) F2 affirmative

maÌtwaì naì l?Ì? ?kuÌm m?Ìmviì

car F2 knock goat

«The call shall knock the goat»

b) F2 negative

maÌtwaì ntaÌp l?Ì? kuÌm- iÌ m?Ìmviì

car Neg. F2 knock-SM goat

«The car shall not knock the goat»

(24) a) F3 affirmative

maÌtwaì naì ntw?ì l?Ì? kuÌm m?Ìmviì

car F3 knock goat

«The car shall knock the goat»

b) F3 negative

maÌtwaì ntaìp ntw?ì l?Ì? kuÌm-iÌ m?Ìmviì

car Neg. F3 knock-SM goat

«The car shall not knock the goat»

All these negative forms give way to the possibility that the action occurs or not. In case there is certainty that the action will (never) happen, the morpheme «laì?3(*)» is added to the future morpheme to mark the certitude of the utterance, as shown in (25) below:

(25) maÌtwaì ntaìp ntw?ì l?Ì? laÌ? ?kuÌm-iÌ m?Ìmviì

car Neg. F3 Cert. knock-SM goat

«The car will never knock the goat»

1.3.4.2. Aspects

Aspects inform about the status of the action in discourse. The action maybe progressive, perfective, dynamic, static and others. Here, I discuss the progressive, the habitual, the dynamic, the static and the reciprocal aspects.

1.3.4.2.1. The progressive aspect

The progressive aspect in Shupamem is marked by the morphemes «ti??» (Prog.) in the present tense and «p?Ì m?Ì4(*)» (Prog.) followed by the infinitive form of the verb in future and past tenses. This is shown in (26) below:

(26) a) Present tense

m?ìn ti?? ?gw?Ìn leìr?ÌwaÌ

child Prog. go school

«The child is going to school»

b) Past tense

m?ìn pé mb?Ì m?Ì jiÌn-?gw?Ìn leìr?ÌwaÌ

child P2 Prog. Inf-go school

«The child was going to school»

c) Future tense

m?Ìn naì ntw?ì p?Ì m?Ì jin-?gw?Ìn leìr?ÌwaÌ

child Aff. F1 Prog. Inf-go school

«The child shall be going to school»

1.3.4.2.2. The habitual aspect

The habitual aspect in Shupamem is marked by the morpheme «kaì» (Hab.) followed by the verb in the past tense. One can also use «meÌtn?ì» (use to) and «?g?Ì?» (love) followed by the infinitival form of the verb. This is shown in (27) below:

(27) a) Habitual with «kaì»

m?Ìn kaì ?gw?Ìn leìr?ÌwaÌ

child Hab. go school

«The child used to go to school»

b) Habitual with «meÌtn?ì»

m?Ìn meÌtn?Ì jin-?gw?Ìn leìr?ÌwaÌ

child Hab. Inf-go school

«The child is used to going to school»

c) Habitual with «?g?Ì?»

m?ìn naì ?g?Ì? jin-?gw?Ìn lér?Ìwa

child Aff. like go school

«The child likes going to school»

1.3.4.2.3. The dynamic and static aspects

These aspects, like in other languages, are inherent to the verbs of movement and the verbs of state, respectively. The dynamic aspect can be found in verbs like «jin-?gw??n» (to go), «jiÌn-ntw?ì» (to come), and«jiÌn-nt?Ìr?Ì» (to jump). As far as the static aspect is concerned, it can be found in verbs like «jiÌn-mb?ì» (to be) and «jiÌn-ndieì» (to sleep).

1.3.4.2.4. The reciprocal aspect

The reciprocal aspect includes two participants in the action described by the verb. Crosslinguistically, the reciprocal aspect is expressed by such verbs as «to love, to hate, to help», and others. In Shupamem, one uses «?waÌt» (body) followed the pronominal morpheme that indicates the participants. We have the following in (28):

(28) a) 2 persons (you)

p?ìn naì ?g?Ì?-n?Ì ?waÌt-t?ìn

you Aff. love-pl. Recip-excl.

«You love each other»

b) 2 persons (we)

py? naì mb?Ìn-n?Ì ?waÌt-tyì

we Aff. hate-pl Recip-incl.

«We hate each other»

c) 2 persons (they)

paì naì ?gaÌm-m?Ì ?waÌt-taìp

they Aff. help Recip-excl

«They help each other»

1.3.4.3. The mood

The mood is a category or a form which indicates whether a verb expresses a fact (indicative), a command or exhortation (imperative), a condition (conditional), etc. In the following, I present the indicative, the imperative and the conditional moods in Shupamem.

1.3.4.3.1. The indicative mood

The indicative mood marks certitude in language. In Shupamem, it is marked by a null morpheme. In other words, there is no indicative marker in Shupamem. This can be seen in the data below:

(29) m?ìn juÌ p?ìn

child ate fufu

«The child ate fufu»

The example above, though presenting a fact, has no element marking the indicative mood. It simply presents the subject of the sentence (m?ìn), the verb (juÌ) and the object (p?ìn).

1.3.4.3.2. The imperative mood

Imperative is used when giving orders or advice, and for exhortation. It is expressed in three persons, namely the second person singular (you), the first person plural (we) and the second person plural (you).In Shupamem, the imperativeismarked by the omission of the subject of the sentence, except for the first person plural inclusive, that is, when the speaker is also concerned by the action being carried out. Note that the verb varies according to the person to whom the request, the order or the advice is addressed. This is shown in (30) below:

(30) a) tw?Ìt-?? liÌ ?uì

Write name Poss.

«Write your name»

b) puÌ? tw?Ìt-?ì liÌ ?uìpu?Ì

we write name Poss.

«Let's write our names»

c) tw?Ìt?Ì-n?ìn liÌ ??ìn

write-SM name Poss.

«Write your names»

1.3.4.3.3. The conditional mood

The conditional mood is overtly marked in Shupamem. This is through the use of the discontinued expression «k?Ì....mbuì» (Cond.). The morpheme «k?Ì» precedes the conjugated verb and introduces the conditional clause, while «mbuì» introduces the main clause. In the past tense, the tone on «k?Ì» will change and become high. But in the future tense, it remains low. The use of «k?Ì....mbuì» (Cond.) is only when the conditional clause introduces the sentence. However, if the main clause comes before the conditional, the latter will be marked by the discontinued element «m?Ì j???...n?ì» (Cond.), wherein «m?Ì j???» introduces the conditional clause and «n?ì» comes at the end of the sentence. The conditional mood in Shupamem is illustrated in (23) below:

(31) a) The conditional with «k?Ì...mbuì»

m?ìn k?ì mbg?ì mbuì iì naì ntu?ì k?Ìp pu?Ì-iì

child Cond1. fall Cond2 he Evid. F1 break arm-poss.

«If the child falls, he will break his arm»

*mbuì iì naì ntu?ì k?Ìp pu?Ì-iì m?ìn k?Ì mbg?ì

Cond2 he Evid. F1 break arm-poss. child Cond1 fall

Intended: «The child will break his arm if he falls»

b) The conditional with «m?Ì j???...n?ì»

m?ìn naì nt??ì k?Ìp pu?Ì-iì m?Ìj??? iì mbg?Ì n?ì

child Evid. F1 break arm-poss. Cond1 he falls Cond2

«The child will break his arm if he falls»

1.3.5. BASIC SENTENCE STRUCTURE OF SHUPAMEM

The basic sentence structure of Shupamem is Subject-Verb-Object (SVO), though some transformation can modify this canonical structure. In fact, the subject comes at the sentence initial position, while the finite verb comes at the second position. The objects (direct or indirect) come at the sentence final position. This can be seen in (32) for the unmarked structure and (33) for a marked structure.

(32) m?ìn j?Ì p?ìn

child ate fufu

«The child ate fufu»

(33) aì j?Ì m?ìn p?Ìn

Cl. ate child fufu

«It is the child that ate fufu»

In (32) above, the sentence structure is SVO, wherein «m?ìn» (child) is the subject, «j?Ì» (ate) the verb, and «p?ìn» (fufu) the direct object. As far as the example in (33) is concerned, the structure of the sentence is VSO. In fact, the use of the cleft copula «aì» (it is) has initiated subject inversion. Therefore, the verb «j?Ì» (ate) precedes the subject «moìn» (child).

CONCLUSION

This chapter aimed at presenting a grammatical sketch Shupamem. I presented the synthesis of some grammatical aspects of Shupamem. In the light of the previous studies made on the language, I presented the consonants, the vowels and the tones of Shupamem. In the same line, Ipresented the fifteen noun classes of Shupamem, the personal, the demonstrative and possessive pronouns, the adjectives, and the articles. Furthermore, I discussed verb tenses, aspects and moods. Finally, I discussed the basic sentence structure of Shupamem.

CHAPTER TWO:

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

INTRODUCTION

The aim of the previous chapter was to present the grammatical sketch of Shupamem, in order to familiarize the reader with the functioning of the language under study. As for this chapter, it presents the frameworks adopted for the study. These are the Minimalist Program of Chomsky (1993, 1995...) and the Cartography of Rizzi (1997). The main objective of this chapter is to identify and highlight relevant aspects of MP and Cartography which are adopted in the analysis of adverbs in Shupamem. Finally, I present silent works done on adverbs on various perspectives.

2.1. THE MINIMALIST PROGRAM

The Minimalist Program is a line of thought that has been developing in generative grammar since the early 1990s. It was initiated by Noam Chomsky and is presented by the latter as a program which aims at minimizing the mechanism of description of language phenomena. In fact, MP demands description and most importantly explanation, and it aims at achieving descriptive and explanatory adequacies. It renders simple the linguistic system, through economy both in derivation and representation.

Given that MP is dynamic and universal, it would really be interesting and necessary to test its assumptions against the data from all languages. In this perspective, I think that testing its assumption against the data from Shupamem will be a contribution to the development of the theory.

Furthermore, besides some works done within the generative approach, namely Ondoua (2004), Nchare (2005) and others, it is necessary to extend the research frontier and broaden the syntactic research by undertaking a minimalist study of the language.

As its name implies, the Minimalist Program is a linguistic theory that minimizes the mechanism of language description as much as possible. It seeks to achieve descriptive and explanatory adequacies and most importantly, to ease the language learnability. It comes in as the solution to the lapses of the previous theories that were used in linguistics. In fact, these theories laid much emphasis on language description with very little focus on the explanation of the language phenomena. In the same perspective, previous frameworks displayed an uncountable number of rules that, instead of easing the task, rather made language learnability much complicated. Therefore, some rules in the previous frameworks (in particular, Government and Binding Theory, the Principle and Parameters Theory) have undergone some reconstruction alongside various linguistic phenomena.

MP is centered on the Principle of Economy. In fact, it assumes that one should reduce unnecessary elements from the computational process so as to make the mechanism easy and to ease learnability. This goes in the same line with the Government and Binding Theory, from which it drew inspiration, though a radical change exists between them. In fact, MP advocates for Economy and Principle of Full Interpretation (PFI). The latter claims that no redundant elements, whether semantic, phonological or syntactic, should be included in a structure. Each element should be interpretable and play a given role.

The difference between MP and GB is appraised at the levels of grammatical representation that they display. In fact, GB has four different levels of representation, which are Deep Structure (DS), Surface structure (SS), Logical Form (LF) and Phonological Form (PF). At the level of DS, positions should be filled only if they are semantically active. As for SS, it is the level of representation in which the derivation splits, sending off one copy to PF for phonological interpretation, and another copy to LF for semantic interpretation.

As far as LF and PF are concerned, they are two interfaces which the sentence should satisfy in order to be grammatical. In other words, LF checks the grammaticality of the sentence at the semantic level, whereas PF does that at the phonological level. Within MP, the levels of representation have been reduced into two, (LF, PF), making easier the process of the Computation of Human Language, (CHL).

Within MP, CHL calls in a lexicon (lexical array) from which elements are selected to build the numeration. These elements merge externally the ones with the others to build the syntax, within which another merge operation, internal merge is applied. Internal merge is concerned with movements (copying, raising). From the syntax, we spell out the previously merged elements to the interfaces (LF, PF) for interpretation. This process is presented in the diagram below:

LOGICAL FORM

LEXICON NUMERATION SYNTAX (Spell out)

(Select) External Merge (Internal merge)

PHONOLOGICAL FORM

Fig5, the Computation of Human Language within MP

Out of the above listed changes, much has been brought into the linguistic analysis of the language by MP. Among others are the following principles:

a) Least Effort: also known as Last Resort principle, it stipulates that one should avoid movement throughout the computation. That is, there should be as few movements as possible.

b) Procrastinate: it stipulates that one should not move overtly, unless movement is imposed by some principle of Universal Grammar, (UG).

c) Greed: (do not move X unless X bears a feature that satisfies this movement). This strengthens the significance of Agreement within MP. In fact, for an element to undergo movement, its features should be checked, matched, valued and deleted.

d) Minimize chain movement: movement should be as shorter as possible. Here, long distance movements are to be avoided.

e) Relativized Minimality, RIZZI (1990: 7).

X á governs Y iff there is no Z such that:

(i) Z is a typical potential á governor for Y and

(ii) Z C-Commands Y and does not C-Command X.

Here, movement should be the nearest one to the landing site of the moved element; no identical element should be found between the probe and the goal, in order to avoid obstruction.

Other innovations brought in by MP concern representation. In fact, as mentioned earlier, the Principle of Economy is the guideline followed by MP. Thus, unlike the preceding frameworks wherein one could include traces in the structures, MP advocates for their exclusion. Given that traces are not present in the numeration, their presence in the syntax violates the Inclusiveness Condition.

Furthermore, within MP, phrase markers are binary branching, whereas the X-bar Theory could make use of unary branching or have as many branches as possible. In the same perspective, the privilege is given to the bottom-top merging fashion than to the top-bottom fashion, as was the case within the X-bar Theory.

In brief, the Minimalist Program has brought some amelioration to the previous frameworks, and seeks to achieve descriptive and explanatory adequacies. Most importantly, it aims at easing the learning process of human languages since it discards non-relevant elements and keeps only those that are relevant to the machinery of language analysis.

2.2. THE CARTOGRAPHIC APPROACH

Cinque and Rizzi (2008) argue that «The cartography of syntactic structures is the line of research which addresses this topic: it is the attempt to draw maps as precise and detailed as possible of syntactic configurations. Broadly construed in this way, cartography is not an approach or a hypothesis: it is a research topic asking the question: what are the right structural maps for natural language syntax?»

According to them, this approach aims mostly at bringing out the right map of the syntactic elements in natural languages.

2.2.1. The view of the Cartographic Approach

Quoting Shlongsky (2010), aspects of Cartography have been perceived in the works of Bernicaì (1988), Pollock (1989) with the split-IP Hypothesis, and Cinque (1990). But what can be considered as the first explicitly cartographic study is Rizzi (1997).

In fact, Rizzi (1997) studies the mapping of the elements above TP, that is, the elements of the left periphery. He proposes that fronted topics and foci are articulated as projections of Topic and Focus heads, as contrary to the traditional view wherein all fronted elements should be hosted by CP. Here, instead of allowing recursive CPs in multiple raising situations, the Cartographic approach advocates for the splitting of CP into many functional heads. The resulting functional projections are ForceP, FocP, TopP, AgrP, etc...

Out of the above listed works on Cartography, many other works have been done within the same approach. Among others are Cinque (1999, 2002), Beletti (2004), Rizzi (2004), Benincaì (2001, 2006), Benincaì and Poletto (2004) Cinque and Rizzi (2008), Biloa (2010) and others. The work of Cinque (1999) is mostly the one that concerns adverbs.

2.2.2. The Cinquean Approach to the study of adverbs

In Adverbs and Functional Heads: A Cross-linguistic Perspective, Cinque (1999) posits that adverbs occur in a fixed order in all the languages. He proposes that each adverb should occur at the specifier position of the various functional projections. These functional projections are the Mood (Mood-), the Modality, (Mod-), the Tense (T-), and the Aspect (Asp-). He proposes the following scheme for English adverbs to account for his view:

Frankly Mood-speech act>FortunatelyMood-evaluative>Allegedly Mood-evidential>Probably Mod-epistemic>Once T (Past) [Then T (Future)>Perhaps Mood-irrealis>Necessarily Mod-necessity>Possibly Mod-habitual>Again Asp-repetitive>Often Asp-frequentative>Intentionally Mod-volitional>Quickly Asp-celerative>Already T (anterior)>No longer Asp-terminative>Still Asp-continuative>Always Aspect-habitual>Just Asp-retrospective>Soon Asp-proximative>Briefly Asp-durative>Characteristically As-generic/progressive>Almost Asp-prospective>Completely Asp-Sg.Completive (I)>Tutto Asp P1Completive>Well Voice>Fast/early Asp-celerative (II)>Often Asp-frequentative (II)>Completely Asp-Sg.Completive (II)

Source: Cinque (1999:106)

Though the structure above is not systematically the same in all languages, Cinque's view is that all the languages have somehow a fixed hierarchy in which adverbs should appear.

2.2.3. MP and the Cartographic Approach

There is tendency to consider the Cartographic Approach as a contradiction to the Minimalist Program. In fact, while MP seeks to minimize the language mechanism, the Cartographic Approach seeks to draw the maps of structures of the natural languages. It should be noted that this does not make Cartography an opposition or an alternative to Minimalism. On the contrary, as posited by Shlonsky (2010), the feature-driven approach to syntax, the reliance on simple operations such as Merge, Project and Search pave the way to the Cartographic enterprise whose goal is to draw up a precise inventory of features and discover their structural relations. In that same view, Cinque and Rizzi (2008) clearly argue:

«We believe that there is no contradiction between these two directions of research, and the tension, where real, is the sign of a fruitful division of labor. Minimalism focuses on the elementary mechanisms which are involved in syntactic computations (...) and cartography focuses on the fine details of the generated structures, two research topics which can be pursued in parallel in a fully consistent manner, and along lines which can fruitfully interact.»

According to them, MP is centered mostly on language computation which it seeks to make easier. As for the Cartographic enterprise, its aim is to draw the details of the structures of the languages. In clear, they apply to different domains.

2.3. SALIENT WORKS ON ADVERBS

Quoting Tabe (2015), adverbs have been treated as the least homogenous category to define in language because their analysis as a grammatical category remains peripheral to the basic argument structure of the sentence. Adverbs have been analysed as predicates (Roberts 1985; Rochette 1990), as arguments (McConell-Ginet 1982; Larson 1985), as modifiers (Sportiche 1988), and as operators. Several reasons account for this lack of clarification.

The first is attributed to the fact that adverbs do not present a homogeneous class. Givón (1993:71) sees adverbs as least homogeneous and the hardest to define. According to Payne (1997:69) any word with semantic content (other than grammatical particles) that is not clearly a noun, a verb, or an adjective is often put into the class of adverbs. In the same light, McCawley (1996:664) observes that the diversity of things that adverb has been applied to is in keeping with traditional definitions of it as modifier of a verb, an adjective, or another adverb, which in effect class as adverbs all modifiers other than adjectives. Adverbs cannot be declined and they are often grouped with prepositions and conjunctions as a subgroup of particles. This explains why they form a very heterogeneous group containing numerous overlapping with other grammatical categories.

Secondly, because adverbs demonstrate a correlation between syntactic and semantic structures, the behavior of adverbs has been analysed as inextricably bound to both syntactic and semantic phenomena (Tenny 2000:285-6). However, the analysis of what constitutes a syntactic or semantic underlying representation of adverbs in a sentence structure is unclear. In order to understand the nature of the interface between them, there is need to identify the syntactic or semantic elements necessary in explaining the distribution and properties of adverbs. Different approaches have been adopted for the classification of adverbs. One approach identifies them into distinct groups constrained by their syntactic and semantic properties.

Advocates of this line of thought (Jackendoff 1972; Travis 1988, etc.) posit that various types of adverbs may select for propositions, speech acts or events, each of which interacts with syntactic principles to produce different adverbial behaviours. The analysis supposes that the nature of the syntactic constituent that licenses the adverb determines its semantic interpretation. The latter is obtained given the semantic features associated with the adverb. In Jackendoff's (1972) analysis, adverbs are semantically classified into four groups. These comprise the speaker-oriented adverbs; subject-oriented adverbs; event-related adverbs and focus adverbs.

The speaker-oriented adverbs such as frankly, unfortunately among others carry information relating to the speaker. Subject-oriented adverbs (including clumsily, carefully...) introduce material relating to the subject of the clause. Event-oriented adverbs comprising manner, time and degree adverbs (like completely, frequently and eloquently...) introduce material relating to the event structure. Lastly, focus adverbs (including almost, merely, utterly...) introduce material which is discourse-oriented for scope purposes. The syntactic distribution of these adverbs relative to the hierarchical constituent structure shows that subject-oriented and speaker-oriented adverbs are sentence-level adverbs, while the event-related adverbs are verb phrase-level adverbs. Focus adverbs, in contrast, are hosted by the Aux. Head, a position dominated by the Aux. node. Travis (1988) fine-tunes the nature of the mapping between the semantic and syntactic composition of Jackedoff's adverbs by suggesting that the speaker-oriented adverbs take scope over CP, the sentence adverbs take scope over IP, the subject-oriented adverbs take scope over INFL, and the event-oriented adverbs take scope over the verb.

Another approach put forward to capture the cross-linguistic generalization on the distributional properties of adverbs is that of Cinque (1999). Given Cinque, there is no direct one-to-one correlation between the syntactic and the semantic composition of the adverbs. Thus the relation between the syntactic position occupied by an adverb and the semantic role discharged by the latter remains essentially non-compositional.Rather, emphasis is on teasing out the distinguishing syntactic properties of each adverb by showing associated positions of each with respect to a distinct functional projection. Recourse to the semantic contribution of adverbs on the syntax is captured indirectly. The adverbs types and their semantic properties are mirrored from an inventory into the various functional projections in the syntax.

Tenny (2000:290) adopts an approach that treads a middle ground between the views that have been projected above (that is, whether there is a direct mapping between semantic/syntactic composition or just a syntactic projection of functional heads with an indirect link to its semantic properties) in determining the distribution of adverbs. Tenny maintains that the semantic composition of the event is mediated in the syntax by a relatively small inventory of functional projections mirroring that composition. If one's observation is right, Tenny's treatment of adverbs is in consonant with that projected by Jackendoff (1972) and Travis (1988) earlier indicated. However, Tenny focuses more on elements lower down in the semantic composition of the clause. In particular, the event structure closer to the verb and internal to the event, rather than issues that appear at the higher level of the clause structure like speech acts, propositions, among others. As for the phrasal projection of adverbs, the literature supposes that adverbs can occupy adjoined positions (Ernst 1997), specifier positions (Laenzlinger 1993; Cinque 1999), can self-project into a maximal projection (Pollock 1989), and as being defective categories without a maximal projection (Travis 1988).

CONCLUSION

This chapter aimed at presenting the frameworks used for this study on the morpho-syntax of adverbs in Shupamem. As shown above, the main framework that has been adopted is the Minimalist Program. This is justified by the MP's view to minimize the language complexity. Also, being an expanded and widely studied framework, it is important to test its assumptions against the data from Shupamem.

Out of MP, I used the Cartographic Approach to account for the structure of the left periphery of Shupamem. Furthermore, a crosslinguistic hierarchy has been posited by Cinque (1999), and it is a challenge for descriptive studies to verify whether those assumptions do work in their languages or not.

CHAPTER THREE:

INVENTORY AND CLASSIFICATION OF ADVERBS IN SHUPAMEM

INTRODUCTION

The previous chapter presented the theoretical frameworks used for this study. In this chapter, I shall present the semantic classification of adverbs in Shupamem, as well as their morphological properties. The latter will be concerned with bringing out the forms of adverbs in Shupamem. Quoting Tabe (2015), data from Shupamem demonstrate that characteristic features of adverbs in Shupamem can be captured from events structures constituting different functional projections in the syntax. That is, the behavior of adverbs in this language is inextricably bound to both syntactic and semantic phenomena. The nature of the interface between them is explained through their distribution and properties in the language. The adverbs can appear left-adjoined or right-adjoined to the verb. From a cartographic perspective, Shupamem adverbs can occupy different functional heads comprising the CP, IP and VP respectively. Each syntactic position affects the semantics of the proposition. The possibility of adverbs stacking is constrained by the pragmatics of the semantic zones and the co-occurring and ordering restrictions in the syntax. The ordering is a relative linear proximity rather than a fixed order.

According to Trask (1993), an adverb is a lexical item that belongs to the category of words that express semantic notions such as time, manner, place, instrument or circumstance. Adverbs are also known to modify verbs, verb phrases, adjectives, other adverbs, clauses and sentences. In Shupamem, like in other languages, adverbs are grouped into classes, according to the notion they express. According to Jackendoff (1972), adverbs are semantically classified into four groups, namely speaker-oriented, subject-oriented, events related and focus adverbs. For this study, Ipresent manner adverbs, temporal adverbs, frequency adverbs, celerative adverbs, locative adverbs, adverbs of restriction, aspectual adverbs, among others.

2.4. SEMANTIC CLASSIFICATION OF ADVERBS IN SHUPAMEM

Semantically, adverbs are classified according to the kind of meaning that they add to the elements that they modify. This section discusses the following types of adverbs: manner, celerative, temporal, frequency, epistemic, aspectual, locative, restrictive, completive, proximative, speech act, idoephonic, comparative and exocomparative adverbs. Hereafter, I give the semantic and the morphological properties of each of these types of adverbs.

2.4.1. Manner adverbs

Semantically, manner adverbs answer the question «how», and describe the way in which an action or an event took place. In Shupamem, manner adverbs modify the finite verb of the clause. Syntactically,their unmarked position in the structure is after the verb. In some constructions, a manner adverb can be fronted in order to mark emphasis. This is shown in (1) below:

(1) a) Post-verbal

m?ìn fa?? faÌ? k?ìnkériì

child worked work tiredly

«The child worked tiredly»

b) Pre-verbal

k?ìnkériì-iì, m?ìn fa?? faÌ?

tiredly child worked work

«Tiredly, the child worked».

Example (1.a) shows that the manner adverb «k?ìnkériì» (tiredly) modifies the verb «fa??» (worked) which it follows in the unmarked position. In (1.b), the adverb has been fronted in order to lay emphasis on the way in which the child worked.

This is tenable for other manner adverbs, such as «puoìtkériì/f??ìkériì» (weakly), «pu?ìtiì» (softly), «n?Ì k?ì» (forcefully), «n?Ì l??ìp» (fearfully) «n?Ì ????» (angrily), «yeìtni?» (correctly), «r?Ìm?i?» (beautifully), «wuìÌm?i?» (carefully), «faÌp?i?»(separately), «pyìkériì» (badly), «f?ì?ì?iì» (calmly), «vuÌ?kériì» (carelessly), «vyÌkériì» (surprisingly), «?aìp?i» (closely), «n?Ì ku?nt?ìm» (deliberately), «l??ìtkériì» (easily), «n?Ì ??ì?» (fondly), etc.

Morphologically, some manner adverbs are derived from nouns or adjectives. Here, the suffix «kériì» is added to the nominal stem to form the adverb. This is shown in (2) below, and shall be discussed details in the section on adverbs morphology.

(2) Nouns Adverbs

«k?ìn?ì» (tiredness) «k?ìnkeìriì» (tiredly)

«f??ì» (weakness) «f??ìkériì» (weakly)

Also, some manner adverbs can be derived through substitution. In this case, the final vowel is substituted either by «» or«é». This is shown in (3) below:

(3) Nouns Adverbs

raÌkaÌ? (stubbornness) raìkeì?(stubbornly)

pu?ìt?Ì (softness) pu?ìtiì (softly)

raÌ???Ì (adj. harsh) raÌ??iì (harshly)

Out of suffixation and substitution, some nouns can be combined with the morpheme «n?Ì» (with) to form manner adverbials. This is shown in (4) below:

(4) Nouns Adverbs

k?ì(force) n?Ì k?ì (forcefully)

jiì (knowledge) n?Ì jiì (knowingly)

???ì (anger) n?Ì ???ì (angrily)

In short, manner adverbs in Shupamem are base-generated after the verb.They can undergo fronting in emphatic constructions and are derived through affixation, substitution or adjunction.

2.4.2. Celerative adverbs

Celerative adverbs are a kind of manner adverbs that describe the manner in which an action took place, in term of speed of movement. The action may occur slowly, gradually or quickly. In this perspective, some celerative adverbs in Shupamem are «l??ìtkéri» (rapidly), «n?Ì k?ì» (rapidly), «m?Ìj?ìt» (slowly), «n?Ìnd??ìr?ì» (quickly). The word «nda?» (very) can be used as intensifier of the adverbial, resulting in the adverbial «n?Ì nda? k?ì» (very quickly).

Like manner adverbs which I discussed above, celerative adverbs are base-generated after the verb. For emphasis, they can be fronted at the sentence initial position. This is shown in (5) below:

(5) a) maÌtwaì j??m n?Ìnd??ìr?ì

car turned rapidly

«The car turned rapidly».

b) n?Ì nd??ìr?Ì-?Ì, maÌtwaì j??m

rapidly -Top car turned

«Rapidly, the car turned»

Celerative adverbs modify the finite verbs, and can come before or after the other adverbs of the structure. They can be formed through the affixation (the suffix «kériì»or «riì» added to the noun or adjective stem) or through adjunction of «n?Ì» (with) to the noun. They can also be single words like «m?Ìj?ìt» (slowly).

In brief, the syntactic and morphological aspects of the manner adverbs are also tenable to celerative adverbs. In other words, they are base-generated after the verb, and are either pure adverbs like «m?Ìj?ìt» (slowly), or derived through adjunction or affixation, as shown in (5) above.

2.4.3. Temporal adverbs

Semantically, temporal adverbs provide information about the time of occurrence of an event or an action. They situate the event or the action within a particular time frame. They can be single words like «ndi?Ì??iÌ» (today), «f??mn??ì» (tomorrow), «?kuÌr?Ì» (yesterday), «nku??n??ì» (morning), and «?aì?a?» (now). They can also combine with other elements such as nouns, numerals, determiners, and other qualifiers to form complex adverbial phrases like: «f?Ìmn??ì n?Ì ?ku??n??Ì» (tomorrow morning), «n?Ì tuì ?ku??n??Ì» (early in the morning), «n?Ì nd???gw?ìn-iì» (this evening), and others. Their use is illustrated in (6) below:

(6) a) m?ìn j?Ì p?ìn ?kuÌr?Ì

child ate fufu yesterday

«The child ate fufu yesterday»

b) ?kuÌr?Ì-, m?ìn j?Ì p?ìn

yesterday, child ate fufu

«Yesterday, the child ate fufu».

The example in (6.a) shows that temporal adverbs come after the verb. As for (7.b), it shows that temporal adverbs can be extracted to the sentence initial position, without causing ungrammaticality.

Morphologically, temporal adverbscan be single words or combinations of words. When used post-verbally, they have scope over the verb, whereas they have scope over the entire proposition when they occupy the sentence initial position.

For instance, in (6.a) above, the temporal adverb «?kuÌr?Ì» (yesterday) has scope over the verb «j?Ì» (ate), whereas in (6.b) it has scope over the entire sentence «m?ìn j?Ì p?ìn» (The child ate fufu).

2.4.4. Frequency adverbs

Frequency adverbs indicate the number of times an action took place or has taken place (Cinque 1999). They modify the whole proposition in which they occur. In Shupamem, they are noun phrases obtained by adjunction of the morpheme «?gu?» (every, all) to a nominal element, as in the case with «?gu? lieìn??Ì» (everyday), «?gu? f?Ì?» (every time), «?gu??kuì?n??ì» (every morning), and «?gu? nd?ì??gw?ìn» (every evening). The intensifier «m?Ìnteìn» (all) can be used alongside the frequency adverbs. Frequency adverbials can also be formed by adjunction of the particle «?kaì» (indicating the number of times that an action occurred) to the numerals. For instance, we have «?kaì iìm?ì?» (once), «?kaì iìpa?» (twice), etc... To mark the difference between them, I use the notions frequency Ifor the first type of frequency adverb and frequency II for the second type. The syntactic property of frequency adverbs is shown in (7) below:

(7) a) m?ìsiìi naì ?k?Ì? ?gu? lién??ì (m?Ìnteìn)

bird Aff. sings everyday (all)

«The bird sings everyday»

b) ?gu? lién??ì (m?Ìnteìn), m?Ìsiìi naì ?k?Ì?

every day (all), bird Aff. sings

«Every day, the bird sings»

c) m?ìsiìi naì ?k?Ì? ?kaì iìpa?

bird Aff. cry twice

«The bird sings twice»

d) ?kaì iìpa?-n?ì, m?Ìsiìi naì ?k?Ì?

twice-Top bird Aff. sings

«Twice, the bird sings»

The examples above show that both the frequency adverbials with «?gu?» (every) and with «?kaì»(number of times)can be raised to the sentence initial position.It should be noted that the intensifier «m?Ìntén» (all) closes the adverbial domain. Its occurrence before the adverbial phrase renders the sentence ungrammatical. This is shown in (8) below:

(8) a) m?ìsiìi naì ?k?Ì? ?gu? lién??ì (m?Ìnteìn)

bird Aff. sings everyday (all)

«The bird sings everyday»

b) *(m?Ìnteìn), ?gu? lién??ì m?ìsiìi naì ?k?Ì?

(all) everyday, bird Aff. sings

Intended: «Every day, the bird sings»

2.4.5. Epistemic adverbs

Semantically, epistemic adverbs convey the attitude of the speaker towards the truth, the certainty or the probability of his assertion. It shows the speaker's degree of confidence about the truth of his proposition, (Cinque 1999). They include expressions such as «m???mb?ì», «m??? ?kaì» (maybe/perhaps), and «k?ÌpuÌ?5(*)» or «k?ÌmbuÌ?» (unavoidably). Syntactically, the epistemic adverbial«m??? mb?ì/m??? ?kaì» (maybe) occursat the clause initial position (I term it Epistemic I),while the other(k?Ì...puÌ?/k?Ì...mbuÌ?)(unavoidably) occurs before the verb, but never at the clause initial position, (Epistemic II). This is illustrated in (9) below and (10) below:

(9) a) m??? mb?ì maÌtwaì tu?Ì n?Ì ?yì?

maybe car came in the night

«Maybe the car came in the night».

b) *maÌtwaì tu?Ì n?Ì ?y? m??? mb?ì

car came in the night maybe

Intended: «The car came in the night, maybe»

(10) a) maÌtwaì k?Ì mbuì? ntu?Ì n?Ì ?y?

car unavoidably came in the night

«The car unavoidably came in the night»

b) * k?Ì mbuÌ? maÌtwaì tu?Ì n?Ì ?y?

unavoidably car came in the night

Intended: «Unavoidably, the car came in the night».

The data in (10) show that epistemic IIadverb «k?Ì mbuÌ?» (unavoidably) cannot come at the sentence initial position. In the same line, the epistemic I adverb «m??? mb?ì» (maybe) is always at the sentence initial position.

Morphologically, epistemic adverbs are formed through the adjunction of the particle «m???» to the verb «mb?ì» (epistemic I) and the particle «k?Ì» to the verb «mbuÌ?» (epistemic II).

2.4.6. Locative adverbs

Locative or place adverbs provide information about the place where an event or an action occurred or will occur. They modify the finite verbs in the structure. Among other locative adverbials, we have «?aÌ jiÌi» (here), and «?aì j??ì»(there), «?kuÌ ?aì, ?k?Ì ?iÌi, n?iÌ naì, n?iÌ niìi,» (over there), «n??Ìm ndaÌp» (behind the house), and others.

Morphologically, they can combine with prepositions like «?kuÌ» (over), «mf?ì» (at), and «n?iì» (at) to form locative adverbials, like in «?kuÌ ?aì», «?k?Ì ?iÌi», «n?iÌnaì», «n?iÌ niìi» (over there). Locative adverbs can also be nouns like «nt?ìn» (market), «ndaÌ ?iÌ?iÌ» (church), «ndaÌ leìr?ÌwaÌ» (school), and others. These nouns can also combine with prepositions to form locative adverbials, like the case with«n??Ìm ndaÌp» (behind the house).

Syntactically, the unmarked position of locative adverbs is post-verbal. However, for emphasis (topicalization), they can move to a pre-verbal position. In the case of locative adverbials made from nouns, their extraction to a pre-verbal position require the use of the resumptive modifier «??ì n?ìt» (there) at the end of the clause. This is shown in (11) below:

(11) a) léraÌ? wu?Ìn mf?ìndaÌ lér?ÌwaÌ

teacher went to school

«The teacher went to school»

b) mf?ìndaÌ lér?ÌwaÌ-n?Ì, léraÌ? wu?Ìn ??ì n?ìt

to school teacher went there

«To school, the teacher went (there)»

c) * mf?ìndaÌ lér?ÌwaÌ, léraÌ? wu?Ìn

toschool teacher went

Intended: «To school, the teacher went (there)»

2.4.7. Adverbs of degree

Adverbs of degree provide information on how an event or an action is performed. In other words, it presents the degree of realization of an action. In Shupamem, we have adverbs of degree such as «m?Ì kériÌ» (a few), «?kwaÌriì», «r?Ìniì» (a lot), «t?Ìt?Ìn» and «??Ìt nduÌu»(too much). The examples in (12) below present the different syntactic positions of the adverbs of degree in Shupamem.

(12) a) m?Ì mviì naì ?g?ì? ?bg?Ìfuìm t?Ìt?Ìn

goat Aff. likes maize too much

«The goat likes maize too much»

b) t?Ìt?Ìn n?ì, m?Ì mviì naì ?g?ì? ?bg?Ìfuìm

too much goat Aff. likes maize

«Too much, the goat likes maize)

c) *m?Ì mviì t?Ìt?Ìn naì ?g?ì? ?bg?Ìfuìm

goat too much Aff. likes maize

Intended: «The goat, too much, likes maize»

The example in (12.a) shows that adverbs of degree are base-generated after the verb and modify the finite verb. As for (12.c), it shows that they do not occur just before the finite verb.It should be noted that the adverb of degree «t?Ìt?Ìn» (too much) can be used as intensifier of other adverbs in the same structure. This is shown in (13.a) and (13.b) below:

(13) a) m?Ì mviì naì ?g?ì? ?bg?Ìfuìm t?Ìt?Ìn pékériì

goat Aff. likes maize too much honestly

«Honestly, the goat likes maize»

b) m?Ì mviì naì ?g?ì? ?bg?Ìfuìm pékériì t?Ìt?Ìn

goat Aff. likes maize honestly too much

«The goat likes maize, honestly, a lot.»

Morphologically, adverbs of degree are mostly pure adverbs, such as «t?Ìt?Ìn» (too much), and «r?Ìniì/?kwaìriì» (a lot). Also, they can be made through adjunction, as in the case with «??Ìt nduÌu» (too much) and «m?Ì kériÌ» (a few).

2.4.8. Adverbs of restriction

Semantically, adverbs of restriction inform on the strict restriction of the action expressed by the verb, (Njike 2009). In Shupamem, we have the restriction adverb «ndùu» (only, just). Syntactically, this adverb is generated post-verbally. Morphologically, «ndùu» (only/just) is a pure adverb. Its syntactic property of is presented in (14) below:

(14) a) p?ìn j?Ì-naÌ nduÌu p?ìn n?Ì ?y?

children ate only fufu in the night

«The children ate only fufu in the night»

b) *ndùu p?ìn-n?ì, p?ìn j?Ì-naÌ n?Ì ?y?

only fufu-Top children ate in the night

«Only fufu, the children ate in the night»

c) ndùu p?ìn-n?ì, p?ìn j?Ì-naÌ jiìr?ì n?Ì ?y?

only fufu children ate that in the night

«Only fufu, the children ate that in the night»

d) p?ìn j?Ì-naÌ n?Ì ?y? po^ nduÌu p?ìn

children ate in the night Foc. only fufu

«The children ateonly fufu in the night»

The example in (14.a) shows that adverb of restrictionis base-generated at the post-verbal position. Its extraction to the sentence initial position is not allowed (14.b), unless there is a resumptive pronoun «jiìr?ì/?iìr?ì» (it/them) at its base-generated position, as shown in (14.c). This also shows that the adverb should move with its noun to the initial position. Also, it can be preceded by other adverbs in case of focalization with «po^» (Focus marker), as shown in (17.d) above.

2.4.9. Aspectual adverbs

Aspectual adverbs inform about the state of an action at the moment of discourse. In other words, they indicate whether an action is recurring, continuing or has been completed. In Shupamem, the aspectual adverb markers include the habitual and frequentative aspects«kaì (mb?ì)»(often, always), the repetitive aspect «piÌt/mbiÌt» (again), the durative and continuing aspects «kaÌ? (?k?ì)» (still), and the anterior aspect «teìt» (already). The progressive aspect is marked by the morpheme «ti?ì» (Prog.), or is lexicalized and marked by the verbal sequence «mb?ì m?Ì jiÌn6(*)» (to be doing) followed by the verb that describes the action. In the same vein, the repetitive aspect can be marked by the sequence «m?ì? ?ké» (once again). Consider the examples in (15), (16) and (17) below:

(15) a) m?ìn kaì (mb?ì) nsuì ???Ì?

child often wash clothes

«The child often washes the clothes»

b) * kaì (mb?ì) m?ìn nsuì ???Ì?

often child wash clothes

Intended: «Often, the child washes the clothes»

c) aì kaì(mb?ì) nsuì m?ìn ???Ì?

Foc. often wash child clothes

«It is the child who often washes the clothes».

(16) a) m?ìn piÌt nsuì ???Ì?

child again wash clothes

«The child washed the clothesagain»

b) *piÌt m?ìn nsuì ???Ì?

again child washed clothes

Intended: «Again, the child washed the clothes»

c) m?ìn suìu ???Ì? m?ì? ?ké

child washed clothes once again

«The child washed the dish once again»

d) m?ì? ?ké, m?ìn suìu ???Ì?

once again child washed clothes

«Once again, the child washed the clothes»

(17) m?ìn paì m?Ì jin-nsuì ???Ì?

child Prog. Inf.-wash clothes

«The child is washing the clothes»

The examples in (15.a), (16.a) and (17) show that the aspectual adverbs occur in the pre-verbal position, that is, between the subject and the verb.

Only the repetitive «m?ì? ?ké» (once again)can appear post-verbally. The examples in (15.b) and (16.b) show that some aspectual adverbs cannot appear at the sentence initial position, while (16.d) shows that «m?ì? ?ké» (once again) can. The example in (16.c) shows that the raising of the habitual aspect marker «kaì (mb?Ì)»(Hab.)is possible through the focalization with «» (Cleft copula focus marker).

Morphologically, aspectual adverbs are mostly grammatical morphemes, that is, they have no sense on their own. They must be accompanied by the verb to mark the aspect of the action. It is the example with «ti?ì» (progressive), «kaì» (habitual), «tét» (anterior tense), «piÌt» (repetitive), and others. Moreover, they can be formed through adjunction, as is the case with «moÌ? ?ké» (repetitive), «mb?Ì m?Ì jiÌ» (progressive).

2.4.10. Speech act adverbs

Speech act adverbsexpress the situation or terms under which the statement is being made. Generally, they have scope over the entire sentence and are used to introduce an utterance. In Shupamem, we have the speech act adverbials «m?Ì ndaì ?gamÌ», «m?Ì ndaì ?gambékét» (honestly) and the adverb «pékériì» (honestly).

Morphologically, «m?Ì ndaì ?gam/?gambékét» (honestly) is made from the preposition «m?Ì», the adjective «ndaì» (good) and the nouns «?gaÌm» (fact)or«?gambékét» (truth). As for «pékériì» (honestly), it is derived from the noun «mbékét» (truth), to which the suffix «kériì» is added.

Syntactically, speech act adverbs are generated at the sentence initial position. They can also appear inside the sentence without making the sentence ungrammatical. This is shown in (18) below:

(18) a) pékériì m?Ì j??ìn ??ìn

honestly I P1 see thief

«Honestly, I have seen the thief»

b) m?Ì j??ìn ??ìn pékériì

I P1 see thief honestly

«I have seen the thief, honestly»

c) m?Ì ndaì ?gam m?Ì j??ìn ??ìn

honestly I P1 see thief

«Honestly, I have seen the thief»

d) m?Ì j??ìn ??ìn m?Ì ndaì ?gam

I P1 see thief honestly

«I have seen the thief honestly».

2.4.11. Completive adverbs

Completive adverbs indicate that the action described by the verb has been completed. In Shupamem, they occurs at the sentence final position. Its extraction to the sentence initial position does not make the sentence ungrammatical. The completive adverbmodifies the finite verb of the clause.An example of a completive adverb is «m?ìteìn» (completely/totally), which is presented in (19) and (20) below:

(19) Sani j?Ì ?kuìn m?ìteìn

Sani ate beans completely

«Sani ate the beans completely»

(20) m?ìteìn-n?ì, Sani j?Ì ?kuìn

completely-Top Sani ate beans

«Completely, Sani ate the beans»

Morphologically, the completive adverb «m?ìteìn» (completely) is a pure adverb.

2.4.12. Proximative adverbs

Proximative adverbs inform on the time of realization of a forthcoming event or action. It modifies the entire sentence and is base-generated after the verb. In Shupamem, we have the adverbials «f??? ?iìr?ì» and «maÌn??Ìm m?Ìkét f?Ì?» (soon, after a little time). Morphologically, they are made through the adjunction process. They can come before or after the verb, without causing ungrammaticality, as illustrated in (21) below:

(21) a) m?Ì naì ntu?ì piÌn piìn f??? ?iìr?ì

I F1 dance (V) dance (N) soon

«I will dance soon»

b) f??? ?iìr?ì-?ì, m?Ì naì ntu?ì piÌn piìn

soon -Top I F1 dance(V) dance(N)

«Soon, I will dance.»

2.4.13. Ideophonic adverbs

An ideophone is a vivid representation of an idea in sound or a word, often onomatopoeic, which describes a predicate, a qualificative or an adverb in respect to manner, colour, smell, action, state or intensity(Welmers 1973:461).In other words, an ideophone is an onomatopoeic representation of a concept, often consisting of reduplicated syllables and not adhering to the phonotactic structure of the given language, Tabe (2015:121). Some manner adverbs in Shupamemare ideophones. They are used to describe the manner in which an action is performed by appealing to some of our senses. They are usually preceded by the manner morpheme «miì» (that). We then have cases like «miì waÌaan?» (describing high speed), «miì gb?Ìmm» (describing the sound of a heavy fallenobject),and «miì kp?Ìm» (quietly). Let's consider the data in (22) below:

(22) a) maÌtwaì jaÌ? maì man?é miì waÌaang

car passed on the road rapidly

«The car passed rapidly on the road»

b) miì waÌaang, maÌtwaì jaÌ? maì man?é

rapidly car passed on the road

«Rapidly, the car passed on the road»

The example in (22.a) shows that ideophonic adverbs are generated post-verbally. They can be raised to the sentence initial position, as shown in (22.b).

Morphologically, ideophonic adverbs are formed through adjunction of the morpheme «miì» (that) to the corresponding onomatopoeia. It is the case with «miì waÌaang» (rapidly), «mi kp?Ìm» (quietly), and others.

2.4.14. Comparative and Exocomparative adverbs

Comparative adverbs are used to compare one thing to another. In Shupamem, comparison is marked by the morpheme «jékaìa» (like). Exocomparative adverbs require an implicit comparison of an entity to some other entity, (Tabe 2015:130). In Shupamem, we have «ndu?niì», (differently)and «?g??? (n?ì) ?g???» (similarly). Consider the examples in (23) (for comparative adverbs), and (24) (for exocomparative adverbs) below:

(23) a) mpkaÌraÌ?m?Ìn k?? jékaìa m?ìn

adult cried like child

«The adult cried like a child»

b) jékaìa m?ìn-n?ì, mpkaÌraÌ?m?Ìn k?? ??ìr?Ì

c) like child-Top. adult cried so

«Like a child, the adult cried (so)»

(24) a) m?ìn k?Ì? ndu?niì

child cried differently

«The child cried differently»

b) *ndu?niì-n?ì, m?ìn k?Ìu

differently-Top child cried

«Differently, the child cried»

c) ndu?niì-n?ì, m?ìn k?Ìu ??ìr?Ì

differently-Top child cried so

«Differently, the child cried»

The example in (23.a) shows that the comparative adverb «jékaìa» in Shupamem is generated after the verb. The example in (23.b) on its part shows that it can undergo extraction. As for (24.a), it shows that exocomparative adverbials are generated at the sentence final position, and (24.b) shows that they cannot come at the sentence initial position, unless there is a resumptive pronoun at their initial position (24.c).

Morphologically, comparative adverbs are pure adverbs, such as «jékaìa» (like) and «ndu?niì» (differently). Reduplication also intervenes in the case with the exocomparative adverb «?g??? ?g???» (similarly).

2.5. MORPHOLOGICAL PROPERTIES OF ADVERBS

The analyses done throughout the previous section show that adverbs in Shupamem are not morphologically the same. Although there is no clear one-to-one correspondence between their semantic and morphological properties, some remarks that need to be mentioned have been done thereon. In fact, some adverbs in Shupamem are single and independentwords, (pure adverbs) while the others are either made of two or more words, or derived through adjunction, affixation,reduplication and substitution processes, (derived adverbs). This section studies the morphology of adverbs, namely the single words adverbs, the adjunction, the affixation,the reduplication and the substitution processes.

2.5.1. Pure adverbs (single words)

As seen above, some adverbs in Shupamem are single words. They are divided into two groups, namely lexical and grammatical words.

2.5.1.1. Lexical words

This is the group of adverbs that have sense on their own. They do not need to combine with other words or to be in a particular context to have meaning. This comprises mostly the temporal adverbs. In fact, some nouns can beused in the discourse to informabout the time of occurrence of an event. Some of temporal adverbs that are lexical words are presented in (25) below:

(25) «ndi?Ì??iÌ» (today); «f??mn??ì» (tomorrow);

«?kuÌr?Ì» (yesterday); «nku??n??ì» (morning);

«?aì?a» (now);

Moreover, some restrictive and degree adverbs are lexical words. They are shown in (26) below:

(26) «nduìu» (only/just) «t?Ìt?Ìn» (too much)

2.5.1.2. Grammatical words

These adverbs are mostly those that need to be adjoined to other words, or appear in a particular context to have sense. This group of pure adverbs is made up of some aspectual adverbs. The latter are free morphemes which, in a particular context, express the aspect of the action described in the discourse. They are shown in (27) below:

(27) «kaì» (habitual aspect) «piÌt» (continuing aspect)

«ti?ì» (progressive aspect) «t?Ìt» (completive aspect)

2.5.2. Derived adverbs

Adverbs in Shupamem have four derivation processes.These processes are adjunction, affixation, reduplication and substitution.

2.5.2.1. Adjunction process

This is a process whereby two or more words are put together to play a given role in the sentence. In the case of adverbials in Shupamem, we mostly have the following cases of adjunction:

- Preposition+Noun (P-N);

- Demonstrative+Demonstrative (Dem-Dem);

- Preposition+Demonstrative+Demonstrative (P-Dem-Dem);

- Preposition+Adjective+Noun (P-Adj-N)

- Preposition+Verb (P-V)

- Adjective+Noun (Adj-N)

- Verb+Preposition+Infinitive (V-P-Inf.)

2.5.2.1.1. Preposition+Noun

This adjunction concerns the manner and locative adverbs. To express the manner in which an action is performed, we adjoin the preposition «n?Ì» (with) to a noun. Some of the manner adverbs derived through Preposition+Noun are shown in (28), while their use is illustrated in (29) below:

(28) «n?Ì k?ì» (with force/forcefully) «n?Ì l??ìp» (with fear/fearfully)

«n?Ì ????» (with anger/angrily) «n?ì jiì» (with knowledge)

(29) m?ìn kiÌem paÌm n?Ì k?ì

child carried bag forcefully

«The child carried the bag forcefully»

Also, some locative adverbs are derived through the adjunction of the prepositions «maì, n?iì, mf?ì, ?kuì», (at, to, in) to a noun. It is the case with the adverbials«?kuì ndaìp» (to the house), and «maì nd?Ìm t?ìn» (to the market).The use of these locative adverbials is shown in (30) below:

(30) a) m?Ì wu?Ìn ?kuì ndaìp

I went to the house

«I went to the house»

b) m?Ì wu?Ìn maì nd?Ìm t?ìn

I went to the market

«I went to the market»

2.5.2.1.2. Demonstrative+Demonstrative, Preposition+Demonstrative

These cases of adjunction are restricted to the locative adverbs in Shupamem. As Demonstrative+Demonstrative, we have «?aÌ jiÌi» (here), «?aì j??ì» (there).

To these adverbials, a preposition can be adjoined for need of precision in the discourse, resulting in the structure Preposition+Demonstrative+Demonstrative. It is the case with «?kuÌ ?aÌ jiÌi» (over here), and «?kuÌ ?aÌ j??ì» (over there). The examples in (31) below illustrated these cases of adjunction.

(31) a) maÌtwaì jaÌ? ?aÌ jiÌi

car passed here

«The car passed here»

b) maÌtwaì jaÌ? ?kuÌ ?aÌ j??ì

car passed over there

«The car passed over there»

2.5.2.1.3. Preposition+Adjective+Noun

This adjunction process concerns the speech act adverbials «m?Ì ndaì ?gaÌm» and «m?Ì ndaì ?gaÌmbekét», (honestly). They are made up of the preposition «m?Ì» (in), the adjective «ndaì» (good) and the nouns «?gaÌm» (fact) and «?gaÌmbékét» (truth). They are shown in (32) below:

(32) a) m?Ì ndaì ?gaÌm léraÌ? tu?Ì

Honestly teacher came

«Honesty, the teacher came»

b) m?Ì ndaì ?gaÌmbekét mb??Ì toì

Honestly rain fell

«Honestly, it rained»

2.5.2.1.4. Particle+Verb

This is the case with the aspectual adverb «kaì (mb?ì)» (habitual).The verb here is «mb?ì» (be) and its use is optional, whereas the particle «kaì» is the habitual aspect marker. This is shown in (33) below:

(33) m?ìn kaì (mb?ì) ?gw?Ìn lér?ÌwaÌ

child Hab. go school

«The child always go to school»

2.5.2.1.5. Verb+Preposition+Infinitive

This is the single case with the progressive aspect «mb?ì m?Ì jiÌn» (to be doing something) in Shupamem. Here, there is the verb «mb?ì» (be), the preposition «m?Ì» (on) and the infinitival phrase «jiÌn», (Infinitive marker). The example in (34) below illustrates this derivation process:

(34) m?ìn paÌ m?Ì jin-?gw?Ìn lér?ÌwaÌ

child Prog. Inf-go school

«The child is going to school»

The expression «paÌ m?Ì jin» which figures in the data above is the conjugated form of «mb?ì m?Ì jiÌn», the progressive aspect marker mentioned previously.

2.5.3. Affixation process

This process is concerned with the attachment of a suffix to a nominal or adjectival stem to form an adverb. In fact, the semantic classification of adverbs (section 3.1) above revealed that the speech act adverb «pékériì» (honestly) and most manner adverbs are formed through this process. These are thesuffixes «-kériì» added to the nominal stem, or «-riì» attached to the adjective to form the adverb. This process is summarized in (35) below:

(35) a) Nouns Suffix Adverbs

«f??ì»(weakness) -kériì «f??ìkériì» (weakly)

«pyì» (badness) -kériì «pyìkériì (badly)

«vuÌ?» (carelessness) -kériì «vuÌ?kériì» (carelessly)

b) Adjectives Adverbs

«poìkét» (good) -riì «poìkériì» (good)

«f??ìkét» (weak) -riì «f??ìkériì» (weakly)

«wuÌmkét» (safe) -riì «wuÌmkériì» (safely)

«??Ìtkét» (perfect) -riì «??Ìtkériì» (perfectly)

«l??ìpkét» (fearful) -riì «l??ìtkéri» (fearfully)

«k?ìnkét» (tiredness) -riì «k?ìnkeìriì» (tiredly)

It should be mentioned that the «t» that is present in adjectives before derivation disappears in adverbs, in order to ease pronunciation.

2.5.4. Reduplication process

In the course of the inventory of adverbs in Shupamem, I have realized that the manner adverb «m?Ìjét» (slowly) can be duplicated in the discourse. This results in the adverbial «m?Ìjétm?Ìjét»(slowly). Also, the manner adverbials formed through adjunction can have their nominal elements duplicated. For instance, we have «n?Ì ?yì?» which becomes «n?Ì ?yì? ?yì?» (in the night), and «n?Ì k?ì» which becomes «n?Ì k?ì k?ì», (rapidly/forcefully). It is also the case with the exocomparative adverb «?g?ì? ?g?ì?» (similarly). They are illustrated in (36) below:

(36) a) ?iÌ-n?Ìn m?Ìjét m?Ìjét

walk-SM slowly

«Walk slowly»

b) ?iÌ-SM n?Ì k?ìk?ì

walk-you rapidly

«Walk rapidly»

2.5.5. Substitution process

As mentioned previously, some manner adverbs are derived through substitution. In fact, a vowel of a noun or adjective can be substituted by another vowel to form a manner adverb. Consider the data in (37) below:

(37) a) Noun Substitution Adverb

«raÌkaÌ?» (stubbornness) é «raìké?» (stubbornly)

«r?Ìm??Ì» (beauty) ?Ì i? «r?m?i?» (beautifully)

«?y?r?Ì» (stupidity)  ?Ì i? «?y?ri?» (stupidly)

b) Adjective Substitution Adverb

«raÌ???Ì» (rude) ?Ì i? «raÌ??i?» (rudely)

«f?ì?ì??Ì» (calm) ?Ì i? «f?ì?ì?iì» (calmly)

In (37.a), the last vowel «» which is found in the noun «raÌkaÌ?»(stubbornness) has been substituted by the vowel «é». This substitution results in the manner adverb «raìké?» (stubbornly). In the same light, the vowel «?Ì» of the adjective «raÌ???Ì» (rude) is substituted by the vowel «i?», resulting in the manner adverb «raÌ??i?» (rudely). The use of these two adverbs is illustrated in (38) below:

(38) a) wuì fuìu liÌ-?aì raìké?

you read name-Poss. stubbornly

«You called my namestubbornly»

b) wuì jaÌ?k?ì ndaÌ lér?waÌ raÌ??i?

you read book rudely

«You read the book rudely»

CONCLUSION

This chapter on the inventory and classification of adverbs in Shupamem has looked at the semantic, the syntactic and the morphological aspects of the adverbs and adverbial expressions in Shupamem. I have gone through fourteen adverbial groups, namely manner, celerative, temporal, frequency, epistemic, locative, degree, restrictive, aspectual, speech act, completive proximative, ideophonic and comparative adverbs.

Their syntactic inventory has revealed that some adverbs are base-generated after the verb while the others are generated before the verb. Speech act and epistemic adverbs in Shupamem are base-generated at the sentence initial position. As for the aspectual adverbs, they appear before the verb, but not at the sentence initial position. The rest of the adverbs come after the.

As far as the morphological inventory of adverbs is concerned, I have identified four types of adverbs. The first one concerns pure adverbs and is divided into lexical and grammatical words. The second one includes adverbs derived through adjunction of elements such as preposition+noun, preposition+adjective, and others. The third type includes adverbs derived throughaffixation. Here, the suffixes «kériì» or «riì»are attached to nominal or adjectival stems to form adverbs. As for the fourth type of adverbs, they are derived through reduplication. Finally, the fith type of adverbs comprises those derived and through substitution of the nominal or adjectival final vowel by another vowel.

CHAPTER FOUR:

RELATIVE ORDER AND ADVERBS HIERARCHY IN SHUPAMEM

INTRODUCTION

In the previous chapter, I made an inventory of adverbs in Shupamem, wherein I stressed on the unmarked positions and the morphological properties of adverbs. In this chapter on relative order and adverbs hierarchy in Shupamem, I explore different orders of occurrence of adverbs and their hierarchy in Shupamem. This chapter is structured into two main sections, which are the relative order of adverbs, and the adverbs hierarchy in the sentence. The first section will, in a step-by-step-like analysis, explore the different orders of occurrence of adverbs, given that two or more adverbs can co-occur in the same structure. In section two, I shall first recall the Cinquean adverbs hierarchical framework (stated in chapter two on theoretical framework), then, look at the adverb linear placement in the structure. Finally, I shall bring out the adverbs fixedhierarchy in Shupamem.

2.6. RELATIVE ORDER OF ADVERBS IN SHUPAMEM

It has been shown previously that two or more adverbs can co-occur in the same structure in Shupamem. This section looks at the different adverbs orders in a structure. I discuss most cases of adverbs co-occurrence in Shupamem.

2.6.1. Manner+Time

When a structure comprises both a manner and a temporal adverb, the unmarked order requires that the manner adverb precedes the temporal adverb. Nevertheless, the temporal adverb can come before the manner adverb without rendering the sentence ungrammatical. This is shown in (1) below:

(1) a) m?ìn lié po?kériì n?Ì ?yì?

child slept well in the night

«The child slept well in the night»

b) m?ìn lié n?Ì ?yì? po?kériì

child slept in the night well

«The child slept well in the night»

In (1.a) above, the manner adverb «po?kériì» (well) comes before the temporal adverb «n?Ì ?yì» (in the night). In (1.b) however, this order is reversed, that is, the manner adverb comes after the temporal adverb, and the sentence remains grammatical.

2.6.2. Manner+Locative

The manner adverb occurs before the locative adverb in the sentence in the unmarked position. However, the reverse is grammatical in Shupamem, as shown in (2) below:

(2) a) Njoya su? taìsaÌ maÌt?Ì kiì??Ìm poìkériì

Njoya washed dish in the kitchen well

«Njoya washed the dish well in the kitchen»

b) Njoya su? taìsaÌ poìkériì maÌt?Ì kiì??Ìm

Njoya washed dish well in the kitchen

«Njoya washed the dishes in the kitchen well»

The data in (1.a) show that the locative adverb «maÌt?Ì kiì??Ìm» (in the kitchen) precedes the manner adverb «poìkériì» (well). As for (2.b), it shows that the manner adverb can come before the locative adverb in Shupamem.

2.6.3. Locative+Temporal

The locative adverb comes before the temporal adverb in the sentence. Like in the previous cases, the reverse is possible as shown in (3) below:

(3) a) Njoya wu??n mf?ì ndaìp ?kuìr?Ì

Njoya went to the house yesterday

«Njoya went to the house yesterday».

b) Njoya wu??n ?kuìr?Ì mf?ì ndaìp

Njoya went yesterday to the house

«Njoya went yesterday to the house».

In (3.a) above, the locative adverb «mf?ì ndaìp» (to the house) precedes the temporal adverb «?kuìr?Ì» (yesterday). In (3.b), the order has been changed and the temporal adverb comes before the locative adverb.

2.6.4. Manner+Celerative

When a manner adverb co-occurs with a celerative adverb within the same structure, the manner adverb precedes the celerative adverb. The contrary is grammatical as shown in (4) below:

(4) a) Njoya ti?ì nsuì taìsaÌ poìkériì m?j?Ìt m?Ìj?t

Njoya Prog. wash dish well slowly

«Njoya is washing the dishes well slowly»

b) Njoya ti?ì nsuì taìsaÌ m?j?Ìt m?Ìj?t poìkériì

Njoya Prog. wash dish slowly well

«Njoya is washing the dishes slowlyvery good»

The example in (4.a) shows that the manner adverb «poìkériì» (well) precedes the celerative adverb «m?j?Ìt m?Ìj?t» (slowly). However the celerative adverb comes before the manner adverb in (4.b) without making the sentence ungrammatical.

2.6.5. Manner+Locative+Time

Let's consider the examples in (5) below:

(5) a) Noya suìu taìsaÌ ?kuÌr?Ì maìt?Ì ki??Ìm pokériì

Njoya wash dish yesterday in the kitchen well

«Njoya washedthe dishes well in the kitchen yesterday»

b) Njoya suìu taìsaÌ ?kuÌr?Ì pokériì maìt?Ì ki??Ìm

Njoya wash dish yesterday well in the kitchen

«Njoya washed the dishes well in the kitchen yesterday»

c) Njoya suìu taìsaÌ pokériì ?kuÌr?Ì maìt?Ì ki??Ìm

Njoya wash dish well yesterday in the kitchen

«Njoya washed the dishes well yesterday in the kitchen»

d) Njoya suìu taìsaÌ pokériì maìt?Ì ki??Ìm ?kuÌr?Ì

Njoya wash dish well in the kitchen yesterday

«Njoya washed the dishes well in the kitchen yesterday»

e) Njoya suìu taìsaÌ maìt?Ì ki??Ìm pokériì ?kuÌr?Ì

Njoya wash dish in the kitchen well yesterday

«Njoya washed the dishes in the kitchen well yesterday»

f) Njoya suìu taìsaÌ maìt?Ì ki??Ìm ?kuÌr?Ì pokériì

Njoya wash dish in the kitchen yesterday well

«Njoya washed the dishes in the kitchen well yesterday»

These examples show that the order of occurrence of the manner, locative and temporal adverbs within a structure in Shupamem is highly flexible. The one can come before or after the others. However, the order in (5.a) appears to be the most used in the structure, while the one in (5.d) is the rarely used. Therefore, Time>Place>Manner is considered as the unmarked order of these three adverbial classes.

2.6.6. Manner+Epistemic

The epistemic adverb named epistemic I, that is, «m?ì? mb?ì» (maybe),occurs at sentence initial position. Therefore, the manner adverb will come after it in a post-verbal position. As for epistemic II adverb «k?ì mbuì?/puì?»(unavoidably) which never occurs sentence initially, it will still precede the manner adverb. In brief, epistemic adverbs occur before manner adverbs. This is shown in (6) below:

(6) a) m?ì? mb?ì m?ìn lié poìkériì

maybe child slept well

«Maybe the child slept well»

b) *m?ìn lié poìkériì m?ì? mb?ì

child slept well maybe

Intended: «The child slept well, maybe»

c) m?ìn k?ì mbuì? ndié poìkériì

child unavoidably slept well

«The child unavoidably slept well».

d) *m?ìn lié poìkériì k?ì mbuì?

child slept well unavoidably

Intended: «The child unavoidably slept well»

In (6.a) and (6.b) above, the epistemic I adverb «m?ì? mb?ì» (maybe) and the epistemic II «k?ì mbuì?» (unavoidably) come before the manner adverb «poìkériì» (well). The reverse is ungrammatical, reason why (6.b) and (6.d) wherein the manner adverb comes before the epistemic adverbs are ungrammatical.

2.6.7. Manner+Epistemic+Temporal

In case the epistemic adverb co-occurs with the manner and the temporal adverbs, the epistemic adverb comes first. The unmarked order will be Epistemic>Manner>Temporal. It is worth noting that the manner adverb may precede the temporal adverb without rendering the sentence ungrammatical. This is shown in (7) below:

(7) a) m?ì? mb?ì m?ìn lié poìkériì n?Ì ?yì?

maybe child slept well in the night

«Maybe the child slept well in the night»

b) * m?ìn lié poìkériì n?Ì ?yì? m?ì? mb?ì

child slept well in the night maybe

Intended: «The child slept well in the night, maybe»

c) * m?ìn lié poìkériì m?ì? mb?ì n?Ì ?yì?

child slept well maybe in the night

Intended: «The child slept well in the night, maybe»

In (7.a) above, the order is epistemic>manner>temporal. In (7.b) and (7.c), the manner and the temporal adverbs precede the epistemic adverb, and therefore, that makes the sentences ungrammatical.

2.6.8. Manner+Frequency

The Frequency I adverbs come before the manner adverb in a structure (8.a), while the manner adverbs come before the frequency II adverbs (8.b) in the unmarked orders. The reverse is possible, as shown in (8.c) and (8.d).

(8) a) Mfangam naì nsuì taìsaÌ ?gu? ?kuì???ì poìkéri

Mfangam Aff. Washes dish every morning well

«Mfangam washes the dishes well every morning»

b) Mfangam naì nsuì taìsaÌ poìkéri ?kaì iìti?Ìn

Mfangam Aff. Washes dish well five times

«Mfangam washes the dish well five times»

c) Mfangam naì nsuì taìsaÌ poìkéri ?gu? ?kuì???ì

Mfangam Aff. washes dish well every morning

«Mfangam washes the dishes well every morning»

d) Mfangam naì nsuì taìsaÌ ?kaì iìti?Ìn poìkéri

Mfangam Aff. washes dish five times well

«Mfangam washes the dish well five times»

In (8.a) above, the frequency I adverb «?gu? ?kuì???ì» (every morning) precedes the manner adverb «poìkéri» (well), whereas in (8.b), it is the manner adverb that precedes the epistemic I adverb. Similarly, epistemic II «?kaì iìti?Ìn» (five times) precedes the manner adverb «poìkéri» (well) in (8.c), whereas the manner adverb precedes the epistemic II adverb in (8.d). All these orders are grammatical in Shupamem.

2.6.9. Temporal+Frequency

Temporal adverbs precede frequency adverbs, and this order is reversible, as shown in (9) below:

(9) a) Mfangam naì nsuì taìsaÌ n?Ì ?yì? ?kaì iìpa?

Mfangam Aff. washes dish in the night twice

«Mfangam washes the dish twice in the night»

b) Mfangam naì nsuì taìsaÌ ?kaì iìpa? n?Ì ?yì?

Mfangam Aff. washes dish twice in the night

«Mfangam washes the dish twice in the night»

In (9.a), the temporal adverb «n?Ì ?yì?» (in the night) precedes the frequency adverb «?kaì iìpa?» (twice) while the frequency adverb precedes the temporal adverb in (9.b). This shows that their order of occurrence is flexible.

2.6.10. Temporal+Frequency I+Frequency II

In some constructions, the frequency I and frequency II adverbs can co-occur with the temporal adverb. In this case, the most used order requires that frequency I adverbs come first, followed by the frequency II adverbs, and lastly by temporal adverbs. This order is reversible, as shown in (10) below:

(10) a) Mfangam naì nsuì taìsaÌ ?gu? lién??ì ?kaì iìpa? n?Ì ?yì?

Mfangam Aff. Washes dish everyday twice inthe night

«Mfangam washes the dish twice every day in the night»

b) Mfangam naì nsuì taìsaÌ ?kaì iìpa? ?gu? lién??ì n?Ì ?yì?

Mfangam Aff. Washes dish twice every day inthe night

«Mfangam washes the dish twice every day in the night»

c) Mfangam naì nsuì taìsaÌ n?Ì ?yì? ?gu? lién??ì ?kaì iìpa?

Mfangam Aff. washes dish in the night everyday twice

«Mfangam washes the dish twice every day in the night»

The data in (10.a) display the order frequency I>frequency II>temporal. As for (10.b) the order is frequency II>frequency I>temporal. Finally, the order of adverbs in (10.c) is temporal>epistemic I>epistemic II. In brief, the order between epistemic I, epistemic II and temporal adverbs is interchangeable.

2.6.11. Frequency+Locative+Time

When frequency, locative and temporal adverbs co-occur, locative adverbs come first, followed by frequency and temporal adverbs. In other words, the unmarked order islocative>frequency>temporal. As earlier illustrated, the reversed possibilities are grammatical. This is shown in (11) below:

(11) a) m?ìn wu?Ìn mf?ì ndaÌ lér?Ìwa ?kaì iìpa? ?kuÌr?Ì

child went to school twice yesterday

«The child went to school twice yesterday»

b) m?ìn wu?Ìn ?kaì iìpa? mf?ì ndaÌ lér?Ìwa ?kuÌr?Ì

child went twice to school yesterday

«The child went twice to school yesterday»

c) m?ìn wu?Ìn ?kuÌr?Ì ?kaì iìpa? mf?ì ndaÌ lér?Ìwa

child went yesterday twice to school

«The child went yesterday twice to school «

In (11.a), the locative adverbial «mf?ì ndaÌ lér?Ìwa» (to school) precedes the frequency adverb «?kaì iìpa?» (twice). The latter in turn precedes the temporal adverb «?kuÌr?Ì» (yesterday). In (11.b), the frequency adverb precedes the temporal adverb which precedes the locative adverb. Finally, in (11.c), the temporal adverb precedes the frequency adverb which in turn precedes the locative adverb. All these orders demonstrate that the order between these adverbs is flexible

2.6.12. Manner+Place

The locative adverb comes before the manner adverb in the structure. The reverse is possible as shown in (12) below:

(12) a) m?Ìmviì ?iìi maì ndaìp n?Ì nd??ìr?ì

goat entered in the house rapidly

«The goat entered the house rapidly»

b) m?Ìmviì ?iì n?Ì nd??ìr?ì maì ndaìp

goat entered rapidly in the house

«The goat entered the house rapidly»

The data in (12.a) show that the locative adverb comes before the manner adverb. However, the manner adverb can come before the locative adverb without rendering the sentence ungrammatical, as is the case in (12.b) above.

2.6.13. Habitual+Frequency:

The habitual aspect adverb comes before the frequency adverbs in the unmarked order. This can be reversible, especially when the frequency adverb is raised to the sentence initial position. The examples in (13) illustrate this case:

(13) a) m?ìn kaì ?gw?Ìn lér?ÌwaÌ ?gu? ?kuì?n??ì

child Hab. go school every morning

«The child always goes to school every morning»

b) ?gu? ?kuì?n??ì m?ìn kaì ?gw?Ìn lér?ÌwaÌ

every morning child Hab. go to school

«The child always goes to school every morning»

In (13.a), the habitual aspect adverb «kaì» (habitual) precedes the frequency adverb «?gu? ?kuì?n??ì» (every morning), whereas in (13.b), the frequency adverbs precedes the habitual aspect adverb. This does not affect the grammaticality of the sentence.

2.6.14. Anterior tense Repetitive

The anterior tense adverb precedes the repetitive adverb. This order is not reversible, as shown below:

(14) a) m?ìn t?Ìt mbiìt n??ì paìj?ì

child Ant. Rep. eat. food

«The child has already eaten food again»

b) *m?ìn piìt t?Ìt n??ì paìj?Ì

child Rep. Ant. eat food

Intended: «The child already has eaten food again»

The data in (14.a) show that the anterior tense adverb «t?Ìt» (already) precedes the repetitive adverb «mbiìt» (again). This order is not interchangeable, reason why the data in (14.b) wherein the repetitive adverb precedes the anterior tense adverb are ungrammatical.

2.6.15. Frequency+Habitual+temporal

The habitual adverb, given that it is always pre-verbal, comes before the frequency adverb. The reverse is possible, as shown below:

(15) a) m?ìn kaì n?e???ì n?Ì ?yì? ?kaì ipa?

child Hab. urinate in the night twice

«The child always urinates twice in the night»

b) m?ìn kaì n?e???ì ?kaì ipa? n?Ì ?yì?

child Hab. urinate twice in the night

«The child always urinates twice in the night»

c) n?Ì ?yì? m?ìn kaì n?e???ì ?kaì ipa?

in the night child Hab. urinate twice

«Every night, the child urinates twice»

In (15.a), the adverbs order is habitual>temporal>frequency, while in (15.b), the order is habitual>frequency>temporal. Finally, the temporal adverb «n?Ì ?yì?» (in the night) has been raised to the sentence initial position. It is followed by the habitual adverb, which precedes the frequency adverb.

2.6.16. Progressive+durative

The progressive adverb precedes the durative adverb. The contrary is not grammatical. This is shown in (16) below:

(16) a) m?ìn ti?ì ?k?ì ndié

child Prog. Dur. sleeps

«The child is still sleeping»

b) *m?ìn ?k?ì ti?ì die

child Dur. Prog. sleeps

Intended: «The child is still sleeping»

In (16.a), the progressive adverb «ti?ì» (progressive) comes before the durative aspect adverb «?k?ì» (still). Given that this order is not reversible, the data in (16.b) is ungrammatical.

2.6.17. Progressive+repetitive

The progressive aspectadverb comes before the repetitive adverb. This order is not reversible, as shown in (17) below:

(17) a) m?ìn ti?ì mbiìt ndié (m?ì? ?kée)

child Prog. Rep. sleep Rep.

«The child is sleeping again»

b) * m?ìn piìt ti?ì ndié (m?ì? ?kée)

child Rep. Prog. sleep Rep.

Intended: «The child is sleeping again»

In (17.a), the progressive aspect «ti?ì» precedes the repetitive aspect «mbiìt». As said above, this order is not reversible. That is why the data in (17.b) are ungrammatical.

2.6.18. Speech act+Epistemic

Speech act and epistemic adverbs are higher adverbs. They are base-generated at the sentence initial position. When they co-occur, the speech act adverb precedes the epistemic adverb. It is possible to reverse this order. In this case, the speech act adverb will come at the sentence final position, preceded by a pause. This is shown in (18) below:

(18) a) m?Ì ndaì ?gaÌm m??? mb?ì m?ìn j?Ì paìj?ì

Honestly maybe child ate food

«Honestly, maybe the child ate food»

b) m??? mb?ì m?ìn j?Ì paìj?ì, m?Ìndaì ?gaÌm

maybe child ate food, honestly

«Maybe the child ate the food, honestly»

In (18.a) above, the order of adverbs is speech act>epistemic, while in (18.b), it is epistemic>speech act. It should be noted that the absence of the pause here will render the speech act adverb «m?Ì ndaì ?gaÌm» (honestly) a manner adverb. The sense of the sentence will be «It is honestly that the child ate food».

2.6.19. Manner+Exocomparative

When a manner adverb co-occurs with an exocomparative adverb, the exocomparative adverb comes before the manner adverb. The reverse is ungrammatical, as shown in (19) below:

(19) a) jiì léraÌ? naì ndét lér?ÌwaÌ ndu?niì poìkériì

Dem. Teacher Aff. teach lesson differently well

«This teacher teaches differently well»

b) * jiì léraÌ? naì ndét lér?ÌwaÌ poìkériì ndu?niì

Dem. Teacher Aff. teach lesson well differently

Intended: «This teacher teaches differently well»

In (19.a), the exocomparative adverb «ndu?niì» (differently) precedes the manner adverb «poìkériì» (well). As far as (19.b) is concerned, the manner adverb precedes the exocomparative adverb. This order renders the sentence ungrammatical.

2.6.20. Temporal+Exocomparative

Temporal adverbs follow exocomparative adverbs in the structure. This order is reversible, as shown in (20) below:

(20) a) jiì léraÌ? lét lér?ÌwaÌ ndu?niì ?kuÌr?Ì

Dem. teacher taught lesson differently yesterday

«This teacher taught differently yesterday»

b) jiì léraÌ? lét lér?ÌwaÌ ?kuÌr?Ì ndu?niì

Dem. Teacher taught lesson yesterday differently

«This teacher taught differently yesterday»

The example in (20.a) shows that the exocomparative adverb precedes the temporal adverb. In the same vein, the example in (20.b) shows that the temporal adverb can come before the exocomparative adverb without making the sentence ungrammatical.

2.6.21. Locative+Exocomparative

Exocomparative adverbs precede locative adverbs in the same structure. Like the previous cases, the order can be reversed. This is shown in (21) below:

(21) a) paì léraÌ? wu?Ìn maì Yaoundé ?g??ì ?g??ì

Pl. teacher went to Yaoundé similarly

«The teachers went to Yaoundé similarly»

b) paì léraÌ? wu?Ìn ?g??ì ?g??ì maì Yaoundé

Pl. teacher went similarly to Yaoundé

«The teachers went to Yaoundé similarly»

In (21.a), the locative adverb «maì Yaoundé» (to Yaoundé) precedes the exocomparative adverb «?g??ì ?g??ì» (similarly). The reverse is possible, that is why the order exocomparative>locative in (21.b) does not render the sentence ungrammatical.

In brief, the analysis of the ordering of twenty-one possible combinations of adverbs that I have studied can be presented as follows:

· poìkériì>n?Ì ?yì?: Manner>Time (reversible)

· maÌt?Ì kiì??Ìm>poìkériì: Locative>manner (reversible)

· mf?ì ndaìp>?kuìr?Ì: Locative>Temporal (reversible)

· ?kuÌr?Ì>maìt?Ì ki??Ìm>pokériì: Temporal>Locative>manner (all reversible)

· ?gu? ?kuì???ì>poìkéri: Frequency I>manner (reversible)

· poìkéri>?kaì iìti?Ìn: manner>Frequency II (reversible)

· n?Ì ?yì?>?kaì iìpa?: Temporal>Frequency II (reversible)

· ?gu? lién??ì>?kaì iìpa?>n?Ì ?yì?: FrequencyI>FrequencyII>Temporal(all reversible)

· mf?ì ndaÌ lér?Ìwa>?kaì iìpa?>?kuÌr?Ì:locative>Frequency II>temporal (all reversible)

· maì ndaìp>n?Ì nd??ìr?ì: Locative>Celerative (reversible)

· ndu?niì >?kuÌr?Ì: Exocomparative>time (reversible)

· maì Yaoundé>?g??ì ?g??ì: Locative>Exocomparative (reversible)

· ndu?niì>poìkériì: Exocomparative>manner (irreversible)

· poìkériì>m?j?Ìt m?Ìj?t: Manner>celerative (irreversible)

· t?ì>mbiìt: Anterior tense>Repetitive (irreversible)

· ti?ì>mbiìt:Progressive>Repetitive (irreversible)

· ti?ì>?k?ì:Progressive>Durative (irreversible)

2.7. ADVERBS HIERARCHY IN SHUPAMEM IN THE LIGHT OF THE CINQUEAN APPROACH

The previous section aimed at bringing out the relative order of adverbs when they co-occur in Shupamem. In this section, I present the hierarchy of the adverbs based on the approach of Cinque (1999). I first recall the Cinquean view on the adverbs hierarchy, then, I classify adverbs according to their place of occurrence in the sentence (Higher and lower classes). Finally, I bring out the fixed hierarchy of adverbs in Shupamem.

2.7.1. The Cinquean Approach

As previously mentioned in chapter two, Cinque (1999) posits that adverbs occur in a fixed order in all the languages. He proposes that each adverb should occur at the specifier position of the various functional projections. These functional projections are the Mood (Mood-), the Modality, (Mod-), the Tense (T-), and the Aspect (Asp-). The scheme he proposed to account for his point of view was presented in the section on the Cartographic Approach.

According to Cinque (1999), even if the specifiers or the heads of the functional projections are not realized, the whole hierarchy maybe present in a sentence. This hierarchization is based on the adverb linear placement within the sentence. Thus, in order to establish the fixed hierarchy of adverbs in Shupamem, I first look at their linear placement within the structure.

2.7.2. Adverbs linear placement

Cinque (1999) classifies adverbs into two classes, which are higher class adverbs and lower class adverbs. The higher class comprises adverbs that are base-generated at the sentence initial position. On a domain-based classification, these adverbs are also called CP-adverbs (Njike 2009). As for the lower class, it is made up of adverbs that do not occur at the sentence initial position. These are pre-verbal and post-verbal adverbs.

2.7.2.1. Higher class adverbs

As mentioned above, this is the class of adverbs whose unmarked position is sentence initial position. Throughout chapter three, I noticed that only the speech act and the epistemic I adverbs are base-generated at the sentence initial position. However, some adverbs can be raised to the sentence initial position through focalization and topicalization as will be shown in the next chapter. Examples of higher class adverbs are presented in (22) below:

(22) a) m??? mb?ì maÌtwaì tu?Ì n?Ì ?yì?

maybe car came in the night

«Maybe the car came in the night».

b) m?Ì ndaì ?gam m?Ì j??ìn ??ìn

honestly I P1 see thief

«Honestly, I have seen the thief»

The examples in (22) show that speech act and epistemic I adverbs belong to the higher class adverbs, because they are base-generated at the sentence initial position.

The section on their relative order revealed that the most frequently used order is speech act>epistemic.

2.7.2.2. Lower class adverbs

The lower class is made up of adverbs that occur either before or after the verb.

2.7.2.2.1. Pre-verbal lower class adverbs

Pre-verbal adverbs, as shown previously, are aspectual and epistemic II adverbs. Consider the data in(23) below:

(23) a) m?ìn kaì nsuì ???Ì?

child often wash clothes

«The child often washes the clothes» (Habitual)

b) m?ìn piÌt nsuì ???Ì?

child again wash clothes

«The child washed the clothesagain» (Repetitive)

c) m?ìn paì m?Ì jin nsuì ???Ì?

child Prog. wash clothes

«The child is washing the clothes (Progressive)

d) m?ìn t?Ìt nsuì ???Ì?

child already. wash clothes

«The child has already the clothes» (perfective/anterior tense)

e) m?ìn kaì? ?k?ì nsuì ???Ì?

child still wash clothes

«The has already the clothes» (continuative)

In all the data presented above, the aspectual adverbs come just before the verb. They are preverbal lower class adverbs. The study of the relative order of some combinations of aspectual adverbs revealed the following hierarchy: Anterior tense>Repetitive; Progressive>durative; Progressive>repetitive.

2.7.2.2.2. Post-verbal adverbs

The post-verbal adverbs are the rest of adverbs, such as manner, locative, degree, temporal, restrictive, exocomparative, and others. The hierarchy between these adverbs is highly flexible. In fact, out of the twenty-one combinations I studied previously, there are fifteen cases of reversible orders against six cases of irreversible ones.

The results of this analysis show that speech act and epistemic I adverbs precede all other adverbs in Shupamem. They are followed by the aspectual adverbs, which belong to the pre-verbal lower class adverbs. The post-verbal adverbs are the last in the chain. This is summarized in the diagram below:

Adverbs

Higher class Lower class

- m?Ì ndaì ?gaÌm (Honestly)

- m?ì? mb?ì (maybe)

Include: Manner, Celerative, Frequency, Epistemic II, Degree, temporal, locative, restriction, proximative, Comparative and Exocomparative adverbs

Pre-verbal lower class Post-verbal lower class

- t?Ìt (Already)

- piÌt/mbiìt(again)

- ti?ì (Prog.)

- kaì? ?k?ì(still)

Figure6, Hierarchical scheme of adverbs in Shupamem

After the identification of the adverbs linear placement, the hierarchy of the adverbs in Shupamem is as follows:

(24) [m?Ì ndaì ?gaÌm Mood-speech act honestly

[m?ì? mb?ì Mod-epistemic I maybe

[maÌn??ìm m?ìkét f?Ì? Mod-Proximative soon

[ti?ì Asp-Progressive progressive

[t?ìt Asp-Anterior already

[kaì Asp-Habitual always

[k?ì puÌ? Asp-Epistemic II unavoidably

[kaì? ?k?ì Asp-Continuative/durative still

[piìt Asp-repetitive again

[?aÌ jiìi Asp-Locative here

[?guì lién??ì Asp-Frequency I everyday

[?kaì ipa? Asp-Frequency II twice

[n?Ì ?yì? Asp-Temporal in the night

[poìkériì Asp-manner well

It should be remembered that the order between the post-verbal adverbs is highly flexible. That is why all the structures in (25) below and other possible combinations of their post-verbal adverbs are grammatical.

(25) a) m?Ì ndaì?gaÌm, m?ì?mb?ì p?ìn ti?ì mbiÌt ?k?Ì mbuì?

Epist. Sp.act children Prog. Rep. unavoidably

?kaìam mf?ì ndaìp ?guì lién??Ì ?kaì ipa? n?Ì ?yì? poìkériì

play Loc. Freq1 Freq2. Temp. Mann.

«Honestly, maybe the children are unavoidably still playing well twice every day at home in the night»

b) m?Ì ndaì?gaÌm, m?ì?mb?ì p?ìn ti?ì mbiÌt ?k?Ì mbuì?

Epist . Sp.act children Prog. Rep. unavoidably

?kaìam poìkériì ?guì lién??Ì mf?ì ndaìp ?kaì ipa? n?Ì ?yì?

play mann. Freq.1 Loc. Freq.2 in the night

«Honestly, maybe the children are unavoidably still playing well twice every day at home in the night».

The order of post-verbal adverbs in (24.a) is epistemicII>locative>frequency I>frequency II>temporal>manner, while that of (24.b) isepistemic II>manner>frequencyI>locative>frequencyII>temporal. This shows the flexibility of the post-verbal adverbs orders.

CONCLUSION

This chapter aimed at studying the relative order of adverbs in Shupamem, in order to establish their hierarchy as posited by Cinque (1999). The analysisrevealed that Shupamem has two classes of adverbs according to their place of occurrence within the structure. These are the higher class adverbs, made up of the speech act adverb «m?Ìndaì ?gaÌm», (honestly), the frequency I adverb «m?ì? mb?ì» (maybe), and the lower class adverbs. The latter is divided into two types: pre-verbal adverbs (aspectual adverbs) and post-verbal adverbs (the rest of the adverbs). After a first analysis wherein I tested the order of adverbs co-occurrence, I realized that fifteen (15) out of some twenty-one (21) possible combinations studied are reversible. As for the pre-verbal lower class adverb, the hierarchy Anteriortense>Repetitive, Progressive>Durative/continuative, and Progressive>Repetitive is not reversible. This has led to the mapping of the adverbs hierarchy in Shupamem shown in (24) above. It should be noted that these order gives priority to the unmarked structures. For this reason, I shall examine adverbs fronting in Shupamem in the next chapter,alongside the left periphery.

CHAPTER FIVE:

ADVERBS FRONTING AND THE LEFT PERIPHERY OF SHUPAMEM

INTRODUCTION

In this chapter, I analyze the left periphery and adverbs fronting in Shupamem. In fact, fronting is generally known as a process which can cause raising of a sentence element to the left periphery. Given that the structure of the left periphery of Shupamem is not yet studied, I briefly present its overview, in the light of the Cartographic Approach (Rizzi 1997). The sectiondevoted to this task aims at presenting, with the aid of apt examples, the map of the syntactic configuration of the elements above TP. Following Rizzi (1997), some operations within a sentence are likely to cause raising to the non-argument position. Among others are question formation, topicalization, focalization, and relativization.As for the second section of the chapter, I look at adverbs fronting through focalization and topicalization.

2.8. THE LEFT PERIPHERY OF SHUPAMEM

The left periphery represents the elements that appear above TP in natural languages. It is also known as the non-argument or A-bar position. The major element that enters the left periphery is the complementizer phrase (CP). In order to map up the exact and detailed structures of the left peripheral elements, the Cartographic Approach (Rizzi 1997) advocates that CP splits into many projections. This section looks at the Focus Phrase, the Force Phrase, and the Topic Phrase. It also explores Matrix Wh-questions, Embedded Wh-questions, and relativization.

2.8.1. The Focus Phrase (FocP) in Shupamem

Focus constructions in Shupamem are marked through three (3) different ways, which are the use of cleft constructions introduced by the cleft copula «», the use of the focus morpheme «poì», and verb doubling, (Nchare 2012:461). For left peripheral focus, we have the cleft construction introduced by the copula «» «it», accompanied by the raising of the DP argument to the left periphery. For post-verbal focus constructions, we have the morpheme «poì» before the focalized element (this precedes direct object DPs, PPs, locatives, manner adverbs and others). We finally have verb doubling, for verb focalization.

2.8.1.1. The structure of the focus sentences

Based on what has been said above, we have the following examples, according to the different ways of marking focus.

(1) a) Njoya j?Ì nd?ÌmbuÌ

Njoya ate banana

«Njoya ate banana»

b) aì j?Ì Njoya nd?ÌmbuÌ

Cl. ate Njoya banana

«It is NJOYA who ate banana»

The example in (1.b) above is a case of left peripheral focus. The noun «NJOYA» has been focalized through the use of the cleft copula «aì» (it is).

Focusing a post-verbal element (objects, adjuncts) implies the use of the focus particle «poÌ» as mentioned above. The said particle comes before the focalized elements as shown in (2) below:

(2) a) m?ìn swoÌ l?ìrwaÌ t?Ì paÌm

child put book into bag

«The child put the book into the bag»

b) m?ìn swoÌ poÌ l?ÌrwaÌ t?Ì paÌm

child put Foc. BOOK into bag

«The child put the BOOK into the bag»

c) m?ìn swoÌ l?ÌrwaÌ po? t?Ì paÌm

child put book Foc. INTO BAG

«The child put the book INTO THE BAG»

d) m?ìn swoÌ l?ÌrwaÌ t?Ì paÌm po? n?Ìk?ì

child put book into bag Foc. QUICKLY

«The child put the book into the bag QUICKLY»

e) m?ìn swoÌ l?ÌrwaÌ t?Ì paÌm po? ?kuÌr?Ì

child put book into bag Foc. YESTERDAY

«The child put the book into the bag YESTERDAY»

f) m?ìn swoÌ l?ÌrwaÌ t?Ì paÌm po? ?kaì ji?moÌ?

child put book into bag Foc. ONCE

«The child put the book into the bag ONCE»

It can be seen from the data above that the focus particle «poì» precedes the direct object «l?ÌrwaÌ» (book) in (2.b), the locative adverb «t?Ì paÌm» (into the bag) in (2.c), the manner adverb «n?Ì k?ì» (quickly) in (2.d), the temporal adverb «?kuÌr?Ì» (yesterday) in (2.e) and the frequency I adverb «?kaì ji?moÌ?» (once) in (2.f).

In Shupamem, VP focalization is effective through verb doubling, (Nchare 2012, 489). For instance, we will have the following in (3):

(3) a) m?ìn swoÌ l?ÌrwaÌ t?Ì paÌm

child put book into bag

«The child PUT the book into the bag»

b) m?ìn swoÌ l?ÌrwaÌ swoÌ t?Ì paÌm

child put book put into bag

«The child PUT the book into the bag»

It is worth mentioning here that the focus particle «poÌ» is post-verbal. Putting it before the verb renders the latter ungrammatical. In the same line, placing it before the subject DP renders the sentence ungrammatical. These are shown in (4) below:

(4) a) *m?ìn poÌ swoÌ l?ÌrwaÌ t?Ì paÌm

child Foc. put book into bag

Intended: «The child PUT the book into the bag»

b) *aì swoÌ poÌ m?ìn l?ÌrwaÌ t?Ì paÌm

Cl. put Foc. child book into bag

Intended: «The CHILD put the book into the bag».

In (4.a), the focus particle «poì» has been placed before the verb «swoÌ» (put). Similarly, it has been placed before the subject DP «m?ìn» (child) in (4.b). This renders the sentences ungrammatical.

2.8.1.2. Matrix wh-questions

Essentially, Shupamem uses the following wh-phrases:

a) Arguments

«w?Ì?» (who)

«k?Ì?» (what)

b) Referential Adjuncts

«f?Ì? n??» (when, which time)

«jaÌ» (where)

c) Non-Referential Adjuncts

«?kyÌ n??» (how)

«m?Ì ?gaì k?Ì?» (why, because of what)

Wh-movement in Shupamem is optional. The question element may remain in-situ or move to a pre-TP position, as shown in (5) and (6) below:

(5) In-situ wh-questions

a) Njoya ?g?Ì? w?Ì?

Njoya loves who

«Njoya loves WHO?»

b) Njoya ?gw?Ìn ?kuìt?Ì n?yÌ? poÌ f?Ì?n??

Njoya goes to village Foc. when

«WHEN does Njoya go to the village?»

(6) Pre-TP Position

a) aÌ w?Ì? j??? Njoya ?g?Ì? n?Ì

Cl. who Rel. Njoya loves QM

«Who does Njoya love?»

b) aÌ f?ì? n?ì jé Njoya w?Ìn ?kuìt?Ì n?yÌ? n?Ì

Cl. which time since Njoya went to village QM

«WHEN did Njoya go to the village?

In (5) above,«w?Ì?» (who) and «f?Ì? n??» (when) are in si-tu. In (6) however, they have been raised to a higher position. It should be noted here that wh-movement implies the use of the cleft copula «aÌ» at the beginning of the sentence as can be seen in (6). It is in fact an instance of focalization of wh-item.

2.8.1.3. Embedded wh-questions

In Shupamem, embedded questions are introduced as complements of the verbs like «jiÌ nzi?e» (to tell), «jiÌ ?guìpm?ì» (to think), «jiÌ mbiì??ì» (to ask), and «jiÌ n?iì» («to know). The wh-item here is the particle «miì», (If/whether). This is shown in (7) below:

(7) a) Njoya maÌa n?iÌ miì m?ìn-iÌ ntw?Ì f?Ìmn??Ì?

Njoya Neg. knows whether child-poss cometomorrow

«Njoya does not know whether his child comes tomorrow»

b) Njoya piÌ??Ì n?Ì m?ìn-iÌ miì iì ntw?Ì f?Ì?n?Ì n?Ì

Njoya asked to child-poss that 3sg. come when QM

«Njoya asks his child when he will come»

The data in (7) above show that Shupamem has a lexical complementizer «miì» (that, if) which appears in pre-TP position of clauses introduced by verbs mentioned above.Like in English, its presence is optional. This is illustrated in the examplesin (8) below:

(8) a) Njoya ri?Ì (miì) m?ìn-iÌ j?Ì nd?ÌmbuÌ

Njoya said that child-poss ate banana

«Njoya said that his child ate banana»

b) leìraÌ? naì ntaÌ? (miì) m?ìn-iÌ juì? l?ÌrwaÌ

teacher Aff. wants that child-poss understands course

«The teacher wants his child to understand the course»

Furthermore, focus word can also occur in indirect questions like in Tuki (Biloa 2010). This is shown (9) below:

(9) leìraÌ? ntaÌ? miì aÌ juì? wu?Ì l?ÌrwaÌ juì? n?Ì

teacherwants that Cl. understand. who course Foc. QM

«The teacher wants who to UNDERSTAND the course?»

The example in (9) is a case of indirect question. Itis also an instance of focalization of the verb, hence, its reduplication.

The focus particle «poÌ» can also be used to focalize the wh-items in-situ in Shupamem, (Nchare 2012, 486). This results in the following constructions in (10):

(10) a) m?ìn swoÌ poÌ k?Ì? t?Ì paÌm m?Ì?

Child put Foc. what into bag QM

«WHAT did the child put into the bag?»

b) m?ìn swoÌ l?ÌrwaÌ poÌ jaì n?Ì?

Child put bag Foc. where QM

«Where did the child put the book?»

c) m?ìn swoÌ l?ÌrwaÌ t?Ì paÌm po? m?Ì?gaÌ k?Ì??

Child put book into bag Foc. why

«WHY did the child put the book into the book?»

In the examples above, the focus morpheme «poì» is placed before the wh-items «k?Ì?» (what) in (10.a), «jaì» (where) in (10.b) and «m?Ì?gaÌ k?Ì?» (why) in (10.c). Like the arguments and adjuncts to which they refer, wh-items can be focused through the use of the focus marker «poÌ». However,their extraction to the non-argument position involves the use of the cleft copula «».

2.8.2. The Force Phrase (ForceP) in Shupamem

According to some researchers, (Agouraki 1990, Biloa 1992, 1995 etc) there is a phrasal projection between CP and TP, called ForceP. As per Rizzi (1990, 2004), CP should undergo a split operation, known as The Split CP Hypothesis. Rizzi indicates that the complementizers should be analyzed as Force markers, heading a ForceP projection because complementizers contribute to specifying the nature of a clause, that is, whether a clause is declarative, interrogative, imperative, exclammative, relative or comparative. To verify the existence of a Force Phrase in shupamem, let's consider the data in (11) below:

(11) a) Njoya ri?ì miì m?ìn j?Ì ndoÌmbuÌ

Njoya said that child ate banana

«Njoya said that the child ate banana»

b) leìraÌ? naÌ ntaÌ? miì m?ìn-iÌ jaÌ? mkpaÌ?n?Ì

teacher Aff. wants that child-poss passes exam

«The teacher wants that his child passes the exam»

The examples in (11) show that the head of ForceP is occupied by the lexical complementizer «miì» (that).

2.8.2.1. Relativization

A crosslinguistic hierarchy was established by Keenan and Comrie (1977)as far as relativization is concerned. This is namely Subject>direct object>indirect object of pre-or post-position possessor. Let's consider the following data in (12):

(12) a) Subject

m?Ìmgbieì j??? iì ?kwaìt mbaÌp m?ì paì ??ìn

woman Rel. SM eats rat Rel. is thief

«The woman who eats rat is a thief»

b) Direct object

m?Ìmv?Ì j??? Njoya juìn n?ì paì fyì

dog Rel. Njoya bought Rel. is white

«The dog that Njoya bought is white»

c) Indirect object

m?ì n??? n-?iìk?ìt niì n?ì paì m?ìn mfoÌn

child Rel. I-talked to Rel. is child king

«The child that I talked to is the king's child»

d) Possessor

m?Ìmgbieì j??? ??ìn j???t ?????-?iì n?ì ti?Ì ?k?Ì?

Wife Rel. thief stole clothe-poss Rel. Prog. cry

«The woman whose clothes the thief stole, is crying»

These data clearly show that Keenan and Comrie's Accessibility Hierarchy is licensed in Shupamem. Relativization in Shupamem is denoted by the use of «n?ì» which closes the relative domain. The morpheme «j???» which varies according to the contexts, opens the relative domain. This suggests that Shupamem uses a discontinued relative marker «j??? .....n?ì».

For me to identify the position of relativization in the left periphery, I consider the following examples in (13):

(13) a) aì w?Ì? j??? Njoya ?g?Ì? n?Ì

Cl. who that Njoya loves QM

«WHO does Njoya love?»

b) leìraÌ? piÌ??Ì miì w?Ì? j??? Njoya ?g?ì? n?Ì

teacher asked that Cl. who that Njoya loves QM

«The teacher asked WHO Njoya loves»

c) leìraÌ? j??? iì kaÌ tw?Ìt?Ì l?ÌrwaÌ n?ì piì kp?Ì

teacher who SM P4 write book Rel. P3 die

«The teacher who wrote a book died»

The constructionsin(13.a)and (13.b)above are represented by the phrase markers in (14) and (15) below:

(14) FocP

Spec Foc'

Foc0 RelP

Spec Rel'

Rel0 TP

Spec T'

T0 VP

Spec V'

V0 DP

IntP

aì w?Ì? j??? Njoya ?g?Ì? Njoya ?g?Ì? w?Ì? n?Ì

In (14) above, the wh-item «w?Ì?» (who) has been focalized, through the cleft copula «». Unlike in English where the focalized wh-item occupies the specifier position of FocP, Shupamem puts itas the head of FocP, so that the cleft copula(which precedes the focalized item) occupies Spec-FocP.

(15) TP

Spec T'

T0 VP

Spec V'

V0 ForceP

Spec Force'

Force FocP

Spec Foc'

Foc0 RelP

Spec Rel'

Rel0 TP

Spec T'

T0 VP

Spec V'

V0 DP

IntP

leraÌ? pres. leraÌ? piÌ??Ì miì aì w?Ì?j???Njoya pres. Njoya ?g?Ì?w?Ì? n?Ì

The phrase marker in (15) above shows that the lexical complementizer «miì» (that) occupies the head of ForceP, like in English. It also shows that RelP comes after FocP in the sentence in Shupamem.

2.8.3. Topicalization

Topicalization is considered by Lasnik and Saito (1984, 1992) cited in Bassong (2010) as being the adjunction to the left boundary of TP, that is, the specifier position of TP. Just like the focus constituents that occupy the Spec FocP, topicalized elements will occupy the Spec TopP position within the sentence, (Rizzi 1997). Let's consider the following data in (16):

(16) a) Njoya piì ?aÌ???Ì m?ìn maì-t?Ì kiì??Ìm

Njoya P3 greet. child in kitchen

«Njoya greeted the child in the kitchen»

b) M?ìn n??, Njoya piì ?aÌ???Ì-iì maì-t?Ì kiì??Ìm

child Top Njoya P3 greeted-OM in kitchen

«The child, Njoya greeted him in the kitchen.»

c) maì-t?Ìkiì??Ìm m??, Njoya piì ?aÌ???Ì m?ìn

in kitchen Top, Njoya P3 greet child

«In the kitchen, Njoya greeted the child»

In (16.b) above, the direct object complement has been topicalized and fronted. In (16.c), the Prepositional Phrase has also been topicalized and fronted. Both sentences display a topic marker, (n??)which becomes «m??»due to phonological assimilation with /m/, the last vowel of the preceding word. The topic marker intervenes in topicalization and follows the topicalized element directly. Given that the topicalized element occupies the specifier position of TopP and is directly followed by the topic marker, the said topic marker occupies Top0. The phrase markers for (16.b) and (16.c) are the following in (17) and (18):

(17) TopP

Spec Top'

Top0 TP

Spec T'

T0 VP

Spec V'

V0 NP

N PP

m?ìn-i n?? Njoya piì Njoya ?aÌ???Ì m?ìn-iì maì-t?Ì kiì??Ìm

In the structure represented by the phrase marker above, the NP «m?ìn-iì» (his child) has been topicalized and moved to the left periphery of the sentence, precisely at the Spec-TopP position. The topic morpheme «n??», thus, occupies the head of TopP.

(18) TopP

Spec Top'

Top0 TP

Spec T'

T0 VP

Spec V'

V0 NP

N PP

maì-t?Ì kiì??Ìm m??Njoya piì Njoya ?aÌ???Ì m?ìn maì-t?Ì kiì??Ìm

In the structure above, the Prepositional Phrase has been topicalized and fronted. Like with the previous case, the topicalized item occupies the Spec-TopP position, while the topic marker occupies the head of TopP.

Shupamem is similar to Tuki in that, topicalization can be characterized by the recursion of topics. In other words, one can have several topics in the left periphery of the clause. This is shown in (19) below:

(19) a) FoÌn fuì p?ìn ? kuÌr?Ì n?Ìl?Ìmnt?Ìm ?kuì ndaìp

king invitedchildren yesterday with joy to house

«The king invited the children with joy to the house yesterday»

b) p?ìn n??, ?kuÌr?Ì-?ì, ?kuì-ndaìp m?ì, n?Ì l?Ìmt?Ìm

children Top, yesterday Top to-house Top, with joy

m??, foÌn fuì waìp.

Top, king invited them

«The children, yesterday, to the house, with joy, the king invited them».

It is shownin(19.b) above that each topicalized element is followed by its topic marker. But those topic markers are likely to disappear in discourse. At times, the speaker usesjust one topic marker after the first topicalized element, and the rest of the topicalized elements are followed by an intonation break. The morpheme «waìp» above is a resumptive pronoun which appears at the trace position of the fronted object.

2.8.4. Negative Phrase and Interrogative Phrase

Another element that may enter into the structure of the left periphery is Negation. In fact, whenever the cleft copula «» (it is) has been used, it can be followed directly by «ndiì?» to mark negation. In short, we will have «aÌ ndiì?»(it is not) in negation, that is, Cl. +Neg. This suggests that if the left peripheral NegP occurs in a sentence, it will dominate FocP. Given that the cleft copula«aÌ» was hosted, as said previously, by Spec-FocP, and given that NegP cannot dominate the cleft copula, (*Neg+cleft), the cleft copulashall be hosted by Spec-NegP, while «ndiì?» will occupy Neg0 . The data in (20.a) below is ungrammatical, while that in (20.b) is not. The right structure is the one presentedin (21) below:

(20) a) * leìraÌ? piÌ??Ì miì ndiì? aÌ w?Ì? j??? iì kp?Ì n??

teacher asked that Neg. Cl. who that he died QM

Intended: «The teacher asked WHO did not die»

b) leìraÌ? piÌ??Ì miì m?ìn n??, aÌ ndiì? wiì j??? iì kp?Ì

teacher asked that child Top Cl. Neg. him that hedied

n??

QM

«The teacher asked thatTHE CHILD, is it not HE who died?»

The left peripheral elements of the structureabove (ForceP, TopP, FocP, NegP and RelP) are presented in the phrase marker below:

(21) ForceP

Spec Force'

Force0 TopP

Spec Top'

Top0NegP

Spec Neg'

Neg0 FocP

Spec Foc'

Foc0 RelP

miì m?ìn n?? aÌ ndiì? aÌ wiì j???

The structure of the left periphery in Shupamem, then, will be ForceP>TopP>NegP>FocP>RelP.

To find out the place of the Interrogative Phrase (IntP) in the Shupamem clause, I explore the nature of «n?Ì». It is clear that the same morpheme is used to close the relative domain within a Shupamem sentence. In the same respect, the same morpheme occurs after question formation. This suggests that itfunctions as the question morpheme (QM) and the relative marker.Therefore, in all the interrogative data, it appears at the end of the clause after the VP. Thus, it does not belong to the left periphery. This is shown in (22) below:

(22) a) WuÌ j?Ì p?Ìn n??

you ate fufu QM

«Have you eaten fufu?»

b) aÌ jÌ?Ì w??? p?Ìn n?Ì

Cl. ate who fufu QM

«Who has eaten fufu?»

c) léraÌ? piÌ??Ì miì m?ìn n??? iì j? p?ìn n?ì po? w???

teacherasked that child Rel. SM ate fufu Rel is who QM

«The teacher asked who the child who ate fufu is»

It is also noticeable here that, if some movement operations are applied, this will generate an instance of heavy pied-pipping, (Nkemnji1995). Consider the data in (23) bellow:

(23) a) léraÌ? piÌ??Ì miì m?ìn n??? iì j?Ì p?Ìn n?ì po? w?Ì?

teacher asked that child Rel. SM ate fufu Rel. is who

«The teacher asked that who the child that ate fufu is»

b) miì m?ìn n??? iì j?Ì p?ìn n?ì po? w??? ?ì, leìra?

that child Rel. SM ate fufu Rel. is who QM teacher

piÌ??Ì

asked

«(That) who is the child that ate fufu, the teacher asked»

The whole ForceP introduced by the lexical complementizer «miì» (that) has been extracted and is now placed at the sentence initial position where it dominates the sentential subject. As far as IntP is concerned, it always comes at the end of the sentence. This leads to the conclusion that IntP is not a leftperipheral element in Shupamem.

2.8.5. Summary of the left periphery of Supamem

At the end of the analysis of the structure of the left periphery in Shupamem, and after the exploration of focalization, topicalization, relativization, wh-movement, I can argue that:

- The head of ForceP is occupied by the lexical complementizer «miì», (that, if);

- ForceP dominates TopP, NegP, FocP and RelP;

- When a wh-item is fronted, Shupamem will make use of the cleft copula «» (it is);

- The cleft copula precedes the fronted wh-item;

- Fronted wh-items land on Foc0, so as to let the cleft copulathat precedes them occupy Spec-FocP, in order to maintain the hierarchy;

- When Negation is used in the left periphery, NegP is found between ForceP and FocP.

- In the presence of NegP, the cleft copula «» which occupies Spec-FocP in positive constructions moves to Spec-NegP, in order to maintain the hierarchy;

- TopP hosts topicalized nominals and adjuncts and dominates FocP;

- RelP hosts the discontinued relative marker «j???....n?ì».

- IntP always comes at the clause final position and thus, is not part of the left periphery.

- The structure of the left periphery of Shupamem isForceP>TopP>NegP>FocP>RelP.

2.9. ADVERBS FRONTING IN SHUPAMEM

This section studies adverbs fronting in Shupamem. As previously argued, focalization and topicalization are likely to cause the raising of the sentence constituents. Here,I shall identify the adverbs that can be topicalized or focalized, and those that cannot. This will also lead to the identification of the syntactic changes that focalized and topicalized adverbs undergo.

Basically, a focus constructionis used to lay emphasis on new information within the sentence. Thetwo focalization methods used for the parts of speech other than verbs in Shupamem are the left peripheral focalization with the cleft copula «aì» and the in-situ focalization with the focus morpheme «poì». As far as topicalization is concerned, it is used to lay emphasis on known or previously mentioned information of the sentence. Topicalization in Shupamem is a left peripheral operation which is made through the use of the topic morpheme «n??» after the topicalized element. Hereafter, I discuss focalization and topicalization of higher class adverbs and lower class adverbs.

2.9.1. Higher class adverbs

The higher class adverbs that I identified are the speech act adverbs «m?Ì ndaì ?gam»(honestly), «pékériì» (honestly) and the epistemic I adverb «m?ì? mb?ì» (maybe).

2.9.1.1. Speech act adverbs

Consider the data in (24) and (25) below:

(24) Focalization

a) m?Ì ndaì ?gam m?ìn j?Ì maÌloÌriÌ

Honestly child ate rice

«Honestly, the child ate rice»

b) * aì m?Ì ndaì ?gam m?ìn j?Ì maÌloÌriÌ

Cl. honestly child ate rice

Intended: «HONESTLY, the child ate rice»

c) m?ìn j?Ì maÌloÌriÌ poì m?Ì ndaì ?gam

child ate rice Foc. Honestly

«HONESTLY, the child ate rice»

(25) Topicalization

a) m?Ì ndaì ?gam m?ìn j?Ì maÌloÌriÌ

Honestly child ate rice

«Honestly, the child ate rice»

b) m?Ì ndaì ?gam m?^, m?ìn j?Ì maÌloÌriÌ

Honestly, Top child ate rice

«Honestly, the child ate rice»

The data in (24.b) shows that speech act adverbs cannot be focalized through the use of the cleft copula «». This ungrammaticality can be justified by the fact that focalization with the cleft copula «» requires movement to the left periphery. Given that speech act adverbs are base-generatedin the CP domain, there cannot be another movement. For instance, its focalization can only be with the focus marker «poì», as shown in (24.c) above. As far as (25.b) is concerned, it shows that speech act adverbs can be topicalized with the use of the topic marker «n?ì».

2.9.1.2. Epistemic I adverb

The epistemic I adverb «m?ì? mb?ì» (maybe) can be focalized neither with «» nor with «poì». Consider the data in (26) below:

(26) Focalization

a) m?ì? mb?ì m?ìn j?Ì maÌloÌriÌ

Maybe child ate rice

«Maybe the child ate rice»

b) *aì m?ì? mb?ì m?ìn j?Ì maÌloÌriÌ

Cl. Maybe child ate rice

Intended: «MAYBE the child ate rice»

c) *m?ìn j?Ì maÌloÌriÌ poì m?ì? mb?ì

child ate rice Foc. Maybe

Intended: «MAYBE the child ate rice»

As far as topicalization is concerned, the epistemic I adverb admits the topic morpheme «n?Ì» followed by a pause, as shown in (27) below:

(27) Topicalization

a) m?ì? mb?ì m?ìn j?Ì maÌloÌriÌ

Maybe child ate rice

«Maybe the child ate rice»

b) m?ì? mb?ì-?Ì, m?ìn j?Ì maÌloÌriÌ

Maybe-Top child ate rice

«Maybe, the child ate rice»

In (26.b), the epistemic I adverb is focalized through the focus maker «poì», while in (26.c), it has been focalized through the cleft construction. As previously said, epistemic I adverb cannot be focalized, reason why those sentences are ungrammatical. As for (27), it shows that epistemic I adverb can be topicalized through the topic marker «n?Ì». The latter has lost its /n/ in order to ease pronunciation.

In brief, the data in (24), (25), (26) and (27) above show that higher class adverbs in Shupamem allow topicalization. In contrast, the epistemic I adverb does not allow focalization, while the speech act adverbs allows only focalization with «poì».

2.9.2. Lower class adverbs

The previous analysis (chapter 4) indicated that lower class adverbs aredivided into pre-verbal and post-verbal adverbs. The pre-verbal adverbs include the aspectual and the epistemic IIadverbs, while the post-verbal adverbs include the locative, the manner, the celerative, the temporal, the degree, the restrictive, the comparative, the exocomparative adverbs, and others.

2.9.2.1. Pre-verbal adverbs

The pre-verbal adverbs are the aspectual adverbs(habitual, repetitive, continuative, anterior tense andprogressive), and the epistemic II.

2.9.2.1.1. Aspectual adverbs

As earlier mentioned in chapter four concerning their morphological property, aspectual adverbs are mainly grammatical words. The data in (28) below show that they can be focalized as part of the VP in which they are found.

(28) Focalization

a) m?ìn ti?ì nsuì taìsaÌ

child Prog. wash dish

«The child is washing the dish»

b) aÌ ti?ì nsuì m?ìn taìsaÌ

Cl. Prog. wash child dish

«It is the child that IS WASHING the dish»

c) *m?ìn poì ti?ì nsuì taìsaÌ

child Foc Prog. wash dish

Intended: «it is the child that IS WASHING the dish»

d) aì kaì nsuì m?ìn taìsaÌ

Cl. Hab. wash child dish

«It is ALWAYSthat the child that washes the dish»

e) *m?ìn poì kaì nsuì taìsaÌ

child Foc. Hab. wash dish

Intended: «It is the child that ALWAYS washes the dish»

f) aì pit nsuì m?ìn taìsaÌ

Cl. Rep. wash child dish

«It is the child that WASHED the dish AGAIN»

g) *m?ìn poì pit nsuì taìsaÌ

child Foc. Rep. wash dish

Intended: «The child has WASHED the dish AGAIN»

h) aì t?Ìt nsuì m?ìn taìsaÌ

Cl. Ant. wash child dish

«It is the child that JUST WASHED the dish»

i) *m?ìn poì t?Ìt nsuì taìsaÌ

child Foc Ant. wash dish

Intended: «It is the child that JUST washed the dish»

The data in (28.c), (28.e), (28.g) and (28.i) show that focalization with «poì» is not possible with pre-verbal lower class adverbs. Meanwhile those in (28.b), (28.d), (28.f) and (28.h) show that they can be focalized with the cleft copula «». It is worth mentioning that this focalization of aspectual adverbs initiates the subject inversion in the structure. For instance, one movesfrom SVO to VSO structure. The new structure will be the one represented by the phrase marker in (29) below:

(29) FocP

Spec Foc'

Foc0 TP

Spec T'

T0 VP

Spec V'

V0 DP

aìkaì nsuìm?ìn kaì nsuì m?ìn nsuì taìsaÌ

This structure shows that for pre-verbal lower class adverbs to be focalized, there should be raising of aspect morphemes alongside the verb. The verb moves from V0 and attaches to the aspectual morpheme at T0, and they are moved together from T0to Foc0. In relation to the other types of focalization studied previously, the cleft copula «» occupies the specifier of the Focus Phrase.

As far as topicalization of aspectual adverbs is concerned, the data in (30) below show that this process is impossible. This is due to the fact that topicalization in Shupamem requires movement to the left periphery of the sentence, and aspect markers cannot come at the sentence initial position. Even their raising alongside the verb still makes the sentence ungrammatical.

(30) Topicalization

a) m?ìn kaì nsuì taìsaÌ

child Hab. wash dish

«The child always washes the dish»

b) *kaì n?ì, m?ìn nsuì taìsaÌ

Hab.Top child wash dish

Intended: «Always,the child washes the dish»

c) *kaì nsuì n?ì, m?ìn taìsaÌ

Hab.wash Top, child dish

Intended: «Always,the Washes child the dish»

Aspectual adverbs allow focalization with «». They neither undergo focalization with «poì» nor topicalization.

2.9.2.1.2. Epistemic II adverbs

The epistemic II adverb that I identified in Shupamem is the pre-verbal expression «k?Ì mbuì?/puì?» (unavoidably). The data in (31) and (32) below show that it can be focalized through the cleft copula, and not with «poì». They also show that epistemic II adverb cannot be topicalized.

(31) Focalization

a) m?ìn k?Ì mbuì? nsuì taìsaÌ

child unavoidably wash dish

«The child unavoidably washed the dish»

b) aì k?Ìmbuì? m?ìn nsuì taìsaÌ

Cl. unavoidably child washed dish

«The child UNAVOIDABLYwashed the dish»

c) *m?ìn poì k?Ì mbuì? nsuì taìsaÌ

child Foc. unavoidably washed dish

Intended: «The child UNAVOIDABLYwashed the dish»

(32) Topicalization

a) m?ìn k?Ì mbuì? nsuì taìsaÌ

child Hab. unavoidably wash dish

«The child unavoidably washed the dish»

b) *k?Ì mbuì? n?ì, m?ìn nsuì taìsaÌ

UnavoidablyTop. child washed dish

Intended: «Unavoidably, the child washed the dish»

With focalizaton, the epistemic II «k?Ì mbuì?» (unavoidably) allows the cleft construction, as shown in (31.b) above. It cannot be focalized in-situ, that is, through the focus particle «poì», reason why the data in (31.b) is ungrammatical. In the same light, it cannot be topicalized, as shown in (32.b), like the case with the aspectual adverbs studied above. This leads to the conclusion that pre-verbal lower class adverbs can neither be topicalized nor focalized in-situ.

2.9.2.2. Post-verbal adverbs

Post-verbal adverbs are adverbs that are right-attached to the verb. In other words, they are adverbs generated after the verb.I shall look at the focalization and topicalization of the locative, the manner, the celerative, the temporal, the degree, the restrictive, the frequency, the comparativeand exocomparative adverbs.

2.9.2.2.1. Locative adverbs

Locative adverbs in Shupamem admit both focalization and topicalization. Let's consider the data in (33) and (34) below:

(33) Focalization

a) m?ìn tuÌ? ?ké t?Ì taìm

child fetched water well

«The child fetched water from the well»

b) aì t?Ì taìm mb?ì?aì m?ìn tuÌ? ?ké n?ì

Cl. well iswhere child fetched water Decl.

«It is FROM THE WELL that the child fetch water»

c) m?ìn tuÌ? ?ké po? t?Ì taìm

child fetched water Foc. well

«The child fetched water FROM THE WELL»

(34) Topicalization

a) m?ìn tuÌ? ?ké t?Ì taìm

child fetched water well

«The child fetched water from the well

b) t?Ì taìm m?ì, m?ìn tuÌ? ?ké

well Top child fetched water

«From the well, the child fetched water»

Examples in (33) and (34) show that both focalization of locative adverbs with «» and with «poì» are licensed in Shupamem. In the same vein, topicalization of locative adverbs is licensed. It is important to precise that focalization with «» is rare in discourse. This makes the structure much more complex. In fact, there should be theexpression «mb?ì?aì» (which is where)to mark emphasis on the moved element,and «n?ì» (declaration) in such constructions.

2.9.2.2.2. Manner adverbs

Similar to the locative adverbs, manner adverbs license focalization and topicalization. This is shown in (35) and (36) below:

(35) Focalization

a) m?ìn tuÌ? ?ké kénkériì

child fetched water tiredly

«The child fetched water tiredly»

b) aì kénkériì mb?ì kaì m?ìn tuÌ? ?ké n?ì

Cl. tiredly is how child fetched water Decl.

«It is TIREDLY that the child fetched water»

c) m?ìn tuÌ? ?ké poì kénkériì

child fetched water Foc. tiredly

«The child fetched water TIREDLY»

(36) Topicalization

a) m?ìn tuÌ? ?ké kénkériì

child fetched water tiredly

«The child fetched water tiredly»

b) kénkériì-neì, m?ìn tuÌ? ?ké

tiredly-Top child fetched water

«Tiredly, the child fetched water»

The data in (35) show that both focalization of manner adverbs with «» and «poì» are licensed in Shupamem.Topicalization is also licensed. As in the case with locative adverbs, focalization through the cleft copula triggers the use of the expressions«mb?ì kaì»(which is how) and «n?ì» (declaration).

2.9.2.2.3. Celerative adverbs

Celerative adverbs allow focalization and topicalization as shown in (37) and (38) below:

(37) Focalization

a) m?ìn tuÌ? ?ké m?ìj?Ìt m?ìj?Ìt

child fetched water slowly

«The child fetched water slowly»

b) aì m?ìj?Ìt m?ìj?Ìt mb?ì kaì m?ìn tuÌ? ?ké n?ì

Cl. slowly is how child fetched water Decl.

«It is SLOWLY that the child fetched water»

c) m?ìn tuÌ? ?ké poì m?ìj?Ìt m?ìj?Ìt

child fetched water Foc. slowly

«The child fetched water SLOWLY»

(38) Topicalization

a) m?ìn tuÌ? ?ké m?ìj?Ìt m?ìj?Ìt

child fetched water slowly

«The child fetched water slowly»

b) m?ìj?Ìt m?ìj?Ìt n??, m?ìn tuÌ? ?ké

slowly Top child fetched water

«Slowly, the child fetched water».

2.9.2.2.4. Temporal adverbs

Temporal adverbs allow focalization and topicalization. Their focalization through the cleft copula «» requires the use of «mb?ì j??ì» (which is when) and the morpheme «n?ì» at the end of the clause. This is shown in (39) and (40) below:

(39) Focalization

a) m?ìn tuÌ? ?ké ?kuÌr?Ì

child fetched water yesterday

«The child fetched water slowly»

b) aì ?kuÌr?Ì mb?ì j??ì m?ìn tuÌ? ?ké n?ì

Cl. yesterday that child fetched water Decl.

«It is YESTERDAY that the child fetched water»

c) m?ìn tuÌ? ?ké poì ?kuÌr?Ì

child fetched water Foc. yesterday

«The child fetched water YESTERDAY»

(40) Topicalization

a) m?ìn tuÌ? ?ké ?kuÌr?Ì

child fetched water yesterday

«The child fetched water slowly»

b) ?kuÌr?Ì-?ì, m?ìn tuÌ? ?ké

yesterday-Top child fetched water

«Yesterday, the child fetched water»

In (39.b), the temporal adverb «?kuÌr?Ì» (yesterday) has been focalized through cleft construction. This has generated «mb?ì j??ì» (which is how) and «n?Ì» which marks declaration. In (39.c), the temporal adverb has been focalized in-situ. As for the data in (40.b), they show that temporal adverbs in Shupamem can be topicalized.

2.9.2.2.5. Adverbs of degree

Adverbs of degree license focalization and topicalization in Shupamem. In focalization with the cleft copula, we have «mb?ì kaì» (which is how) and the morpheme «n?ì» at the end of the sentence. Focalization and topicalization of degree adverbs are shown in (41) and (42) below:

(41) Focalization

a) m?ìn tuÌ? ?ké r??niì

child fetched water much

«The child fetched much water»

b) aÌ r??niì mb?ì kaì m?ìn tuÌ? ?ké n?ì

Cl. much is how child fetch water Decl.

«It is MUCH that the child fetched water»

c) m?ìn tuÌ? ?ké poì r??niì

child fetched water Foc. much

«The child fetched MUCH water»

(42) Topicalization

a) m?ìn tuÌ? ?ké r??niì

child fetched water many

«The child fetched much water»

b) r??niì-n?ì, m?ìn tuÌ? ?ké

much-Top child fetched water

«Much water, the child fetched»

The data in (41) show that the degree adverbs in Shupamem can be focalized in-situ or extracted to the left periphery. As for the data in (42), they show that degree adverbs can be topicalized in Shupamem.

2.9.2.2.6. Restrictive Adverbs

In Shupamem, restrictive adverbs can be focalized, alongside the noun that they modify. In the same vein, they can be topicalized. None of these operations will be allowed if the modified element is left aside. Also, topicalization requires the use of a resumptive pronoun that refers to the moved element. Let's consider the data in (43) below:

(43) Focalization

a) m?ìn tuÌ? nduì ?ké

child fetched only water

«The child fetched only water»

b) aì nduì ?ké mb?ì j??ì m?ìn tuÌ? n?ì

Cl. only water is what child fetched Decl.

«It is ONLY WATER that the child fetched»

c) * aì nduì mb?ì j??ì m?ìn tuÌ? ?ké n?ì

Cl. only is what child fetched water Decl.

Intended: «It is ONLY WATER that the child fetched»

d) m?ìn tuÌ? poì nduì ?ké

child fetched Foc. only water

«The child fetched ONLY WATER»

(44) Topicalization

a) m?ìn tuÌ? nduì ?ké

child fetched only water

«The child fetched only water»

b) nduì ?ké-é, m?ìn tuÌ? jiìr?ì

only water-Top child fetch that

«Only water, the child fetched that»

c) *nduì n?ì, m?ìn tuÌ? ?ké

only Top child fetched water

Intended: «Only water, the child fetched that»

The data in (43.c) and (44.c) are ungrammatical because the restrictive adverb has been focalized and topicalized alone, without the noun «?ké» (water) that it modifies. Also, (44.b) shows that topicalization of the restrictive adverbs and the noun it modifies requiresthe use of a resumptive pronoun «jiìr?ì» (it)which refers back to the said noun.

2.9.2.2.7. Frequency Adverbs

Frequency adverbs allow both focalization and topicalization in Shupamem. This is shown in (45) and (46) below:

(45) Focalization

a) m?ìn suìu taìsaÌ ?kaÌ iìm?Ì?

child washed dish once

«The child washed the dish once»

b) aì ?kaÌ iìm?Ì? mb?ì kaì m?ìn suìu taìsaÌ n?ì

Cl. once is how child washed dish Decl.

«It is ONCE that the child washed the dish»

c) m?ìn suìu taìsaÌ poì ?kaÌ iìm?Ì?

child washed dish Foc. once

«The child washed the dish ONCE»

(46) Topicalization

a) m?ìn suìu taìsaÌ ?kaÌ iìm?Ì?

child washed dish once

«The child washed the dish once»

b) ?kaÌ iìm?Ì? n?ì, m?ìn suìu taìsaÌ

once Top child washed dish

«Once, the child washed the dish»

Frequency adverbs can raise through focalization (45.b) or can be focalized in-situ (45.c), and can also be topicalized (41.b). These operations are tenable both for the frequency adverb I, that is, frequency adverbs with «?gu?» (every) and the frequencyadverbs II, that is, those with «?kaì» (the number of times an action occurred).

2.9.2.2.8. Comparative Adverbs

Comparison in Shupamem is marked by the morpheme «jékaìa» (like). This morpheme, alongside the compared element, can be focalized and topicalized, as shown in (47) and (48) below:

(47) Focalization

a) maÌtwaì jaì? jékaìa ?k?Ì??r?Ì

car passed like motorbike

«The car passed like a motorbike»

b) aì jékaìa?k?Ì??r?Ì mb?ì kaì maÌtwaì jaì? n?ì

Cl. like motorbike is how car passed Decl.

«It is LIKE THE MOTORBIKE that the car passed»

c) maÌtwaì jaì? poì jékaìa ?k?Ì??r?Ì

car passed Foc like motorbike

«The car passed LIKE A MOTORBIKE»

(48) Topicalization

a) maÌtwaì jaì? jékaìa ?k?Ì??r?Ì

car passed like motorbike

«The car passed like a motorbike

b) jékaìa ?k?Ì??r?Ì-?ì, maÌtwaì jaì?

like motorbike-Top car passed

«Like the motorbike, the car passed»

As indicated in the previous cases, focalization of comparative adverbs through the cleft copula «» require the use of «mb?ì jékaì» (which is how) and the declarative morpheme «n?ì» at the end of the sentence, as shown in (47.b). They can be focalized with «poì» (47.c)and topicalized (48.b).

2.9.2.2.9. Exocomparative Adverbs

Similar to the comparative adverbs, exocomparative adverbs allow focalization and topicalization. Let's consider the data in (49) and (50) below:

(49) Focalization

a) maÌtwaì jaì? nduìniì

car passed differently

«The car passed differently»

b) aì nduìniì mb?ì kaì maÌtwaì jaì? n?ì

Cl. differently is how car passed Decl.

«It is DIFFERENTLY that the car passed»

c) maÌtwaì jaì? poì nduìniì

car passed Foc differently

«The car passed DIFFERENTLY»

(50) Topicalization

a) maÌtwaì jaì? nduìniì

car passed differently

«The car passed differently»

b) nduìniì-n?ì, maÌtwaì jaì?

differently-Top car passed

«Differently, the car passed»

It can be seen from (49.b) above that focalization of exocomparative adverbs through the cleft copula «» requires the use of «mb?ì jékaì» (which is how) and the declarative morpheme «n?ì» at the end of the sentence. It can also be seen that exocomparative adverbs can be focalized in-situ (49.c) and topicalized (50.b).

2.10. IMPACT OF ADVERB FRONTING ON THE ADVERBS RELATIVE ORDER

This section studies the changes that occur in the order of appearance of adverbs as the result of their fronting. In other words, I seek to know whether focalization and topicalization can change the order of adverbs that was previously considered irreversible. In fact, while studying the relative order of adverbs, it was shown that six cases out of the twenty-one studied, are irreversible. These are the orders epistemic>manner, epistemic>manner>temporal, anterior tense>repetitive, progressive>repetitive, progressive>durative, and exocomparative>manner.

Here, I proceed by focalization and topicalization the lower adverbs, in order to know whether it can precede the other one. It should be noted that focalization here is concerned only with the cleft copula, given that it is the one that triggers extraction to the left periphery.

2.10.1. Epistemic>Manner

As previously shown, epistemic adverbs always precede manner adverbs in the unmarked structures. This is shown in (51) below:

(51) a) m?ì? mb?ì m?ìn lié poìkériì

maybe child slept well

«Maybe the child slept well»

b) *m?ìn lié poìkériì m?ì? mb?ì

child slept well maybe

Intended: «The child slept well, maybe»

c) m?ìn k?ì mbuì? ndié poìkériì

child unavoidably slept well

«The child unavoidably slept well».

d) *m?ìn lié poìkériì k?ì mbuì?

child slept well unavoidably

Intended: «The child unavoidably slept well»

If focalized or topicalized, the manner adverbscan come before the epistemic adverb in the structure. In fact, its focalization triggers its raising to the left periphery and hence, it precedes the epistemic adverb. This is shown in (52.b) for focalization, and (52.c) for topicalization.

(52) a) m?ì? mb?ì m?ìn lié poìkériì

maybe child slept well

«Maybe the child slept well»

b) aì poìkériì mb?Ì kaì m?Ìn lié n?Ì, m?ì? mb?ì

Cl. well is how child slept Decl. maybe

«It is WELL that child slept, maybe»

c) poìkériì-n?ì, m?ì? mb?ì m?ìn lié ??ìreÌ

well-Top maybe child slept so

«Well, maybe the child slept (so)»

These structures show that, in case of focalization with «» (cleft copula) and topicalization, the manner adverb can come before the epistemic adverb without rendering the sentence ungrammatical. However, this is a complex structure and is rarely used in discourse.

2.10.2. Epistemic>manner>temporal

In the order epistemic>manner>temporal, the epistemic adverb precedes both the manner and the temporal adverbs. None of these post-verbal adverbs come before the epistemic adverb in the unmarked form. This is shown in (53) below:

(53) a) m?ì? mb?ì m?ìn lié poìkériì n?Ì ?yì?

maybe child slept well in the night

«Maybe the child slept well in the night»

b) * m?ìn lié poìkériì n?Ì ?yì? m?ì? mb?ì

child slept well in the night maybe

Intended: «The child slept well in the night, maybe»

c) * m?ìn lié poìkériì m?ì? mb?ì n?Ì ?yì?

child slept well maybe in the night

Intended: «The child slept well in the night, maybe»

The order in (53.a) is grammatical given that the epistemic adverb «m?ì? mb?ì» (maybe) precedes the manner adverb «poìkériì" and the temporal adverb «n?Ì ?yì? « (in the night). In contrast, those in (53.b) and (53.c) are ungrammatical because the manner and the temporal adverbs precede the epistemic adverb.

Through focalization and topicalization, these two adverbs can precede the epistemic adverbs. This is illustrated below in (54.b) for focalization, and (54.c) for topicalization:

(54) a) m?ì? mb?ì m?ìn lié poìkériì n?Ì ?yì?

maybe child slept well in the night

«Maybe the child slept well in the night»

b) aì poìkériì n?Ì ?yì? mb?Ì kaì m?Ììn lié n?Ì, m?ì? mb?ì

Cl. well in the night is how child slept Decl. maybe

«It is WELL IN THE NIGHT that the child slept, maybe»

c) n?Ì ?yì? n?Ì, poìkériì-n?ì, m?ì? mb?ì m?ìn lié ??ìr?Ì

in the nightTop well-Top maybe child slept so

«In the night, well, the child slept, maybe»

With focalization in (54.b), the two post-verbal adverbs «poìkériì» (well) and «n?Ì ?yì?» (in the night) have been fronted and thus, precede the epistemic adverb «m?ì? mb?ì» (maybe). In the same light, they have been topicalized in (54.c) and precede the epistemic adverb.

2.10.3. Anterior tense>repetitive

While studying the relative order of the anterior tense and the repetitive adverbs, it was noticed that the anterior tense «t?Ìt» (already) precedes the repetitive aspectual adverb «piÌt» (again), as shown in (55) below:

(55) a) m?ìn t?Ìt mbiìt n??ì paìj?ì

child Ant. Rep. eat. food

«The child has already eaten food again»

b) *m?ìn piìt t?Ìt n??ì paìj?Ì

child Rep. Ant. eat food

Intended: «The child already has eaten food again»

It should be remembered that neither the anterior tense nor the repetitive adverbs can be topicalized. However, if focalized, the order anterior tense>repetitive remains unchanged. If changed, the sentence will be ungrammatical. This is illustrated in (55.b) and (56.c) below:

(56) a) m?ìn t?Ìt mbiìt n??ì paìj?ì

child Ant. Rep. eat. food

«The child has already eaten food again»

b) aì t?Ìt mbiìt n??ì m?ìn paìj?ì

Cl. Ant. Rep. eat child food

«The child has ALREADY eaten food AGAIN»

c) *aì piÌt t?Ìt n??ì m?ìn paìj?ì

Cl. Rep. Ant. eat child food

Intended: «The child has ALREADY eaten food AGAIN»

The data above show that the anterior tense adverb always precedes the repetitive adverb in both the unmarked and the marked forms.

2.10.4. Progressive>durative

The order progressive>durative, as shown in chapter four, is irreversible. In other words, putting the durative aspect «?k?ì» (still) before the progressive aspect «ti?ì» (progressive) renders the sentence ungrammatical. This is shown in the data below:

(57) a) m?ìn ti?ì ?k?ì ndié

child Prog. Dur. sleeps

«The child is still sleeping»

b) *m?ìn ?k?ì ti?ì die

child Dur. Prog. sleeps

Intended: «The child is still sleeping»

Both the durative aspect and the progressive aspect adverbs cannot be topicalized. As far as focalization is concerned, the order remains the same. In fact, the progressive aspect still precedes the durative aspect. The contrary renders the sentence ungrammatical,as illustrated in the data in (58) below:

(58) a) m?ìn ti?ì ?k?ì ndié

child Prog. Dur. sleeps

«The child is still sleeping»

b) aì ti?ì ?k?ì ndié m?ìn

Cl. Prog. Dur. sleeps child

«The child IS STILL SLEEPING»

c) *aì ?k?ì ti?ì ndié m?ìn

Cl. Dur. Prog. sleeps child

«The child IS STILL SLEEPING»

Like in the previous case, the data in (58) above show that the progressive aspect always precedes the durative aspect, be it in the marked or the unmarked forms.

2.10.5. Progressive>repetitive

In the unmarked form, the progressive aspect precedes the repetitive aspect adverb. The reverse is ungrammatical, as shown in (59) below:

(59) a) m?ìn ti?ì mbiÌt ndié

child Prog. Rep. sleeps

«The child is still sleeping»

b) *m?ìn piÌt ti?ì ndié

child Rep. Prog. sleeps

Intended: «The child is still sleeping»

As mentioned above, both the progressive and the repetitive aspect adverbs cannot be topicalized. As for focalization, the order progressive>repetitive remains unchanged.

In fact, «ti?ì» (progressive) still precedes «piÌt/ÌmbiÌt» (repetitive). This is illustrated in (60) below:

(60) a) m?ìn ti?ì mbiÌt ndié

child Prog. Rep. sleeps

«The child is still sleeping»

b) aì ti?ì mbiÌt ndié m?ìn

Cl. Prog. Rep. sleeps child

«The child IS STILL SLEEPING»

c) *aì piÌt ti?ì ndié m?ìn

Cl. Rep. Prog. sleeps child

Intended: «The child IS STILL SLEEPING»

All the data above show that the orders anterior tense>repetitive, progressive>durative, and progressive>repetitive remain unchanged both in the unmarked and the marked forms. That is, the order between the aspectual adverbs is not reversible.

2.10.6. Exocomparative>manner

In the unmarked order, the exocomparative adverb precedes the manner adverb. The reverse is not possible, as shown in (61) below:

(61) a) jiì léraÌ? naì ndét lér?ÌwaÌ ndu?niì poìkériì

Dem. teacher Aff. teach lesson differently well

«This teacher teaches differently well»

b) * jiì léraÌ? naì ndét lér?ÌwaÌ poìkériì ndu?niì

Dem. teacher Aff. teach lesson well differently

Intended: «This teacher teaches differently well»

If topicalized or focalized, the manner adverb precedes the exocomparative. This is illustrated in (62.b) below for focalization, and (62.c) for topicalization.

(62) a) jiì léraÌ? naì ndét lér?ÌwaÌ ndu?niì poìkériì

Dem. teacher Aff. teach lesson differently well

«This teacher teaches differently well»

b) aì poìkériì mb?Ì kaì jiì léraÌ? ndét lér?ÌwaÌ ndu?niì n?ì

Cl. well is how Dem. teacher teach lesson differently Decl.

«It is WELL that this teacher teaches differently»

c) poìkériì-n?ì, jiì léraÌ? naì ndét lér?ÌwaÌ ndu?niì

well-Top Dem. teacher Aff. teach lesson differently

«Well, this teacher teaches differently»

In (62.b) above, the manner adverb «poìkériì» (well) has been focalized and fronted, thus, precedes the exocomparative adverb «ndu?niì» (differently). In (62.c), the manner adverb has been topicalized and precedes the exocomparative adverb. So, with focalization and topicalization, one moves from the order exocomparative>manner to manner>exocomparative. However, it should be mentioned that these structures, though being grammatical, are rarely used in the discourse.

CONCLUSION

This chapter was divided into three main sections, namely, the left periphery, adverbs fronting in Shupamem, and the impact of adverb fronting on their relative order. The first section aimed at presenting the structure of the left peripheral domain, while the second part aimed at analyzing adverbs fronting, through focalization and topicalization of the different adverb classes.

As far as the analysis on the left periphery are concerned, I realized that the main constituents of the left peripheral domain are the Force, the Topic and the Focus phrases. The data showed that the ForceP dominates the TopP, which in turn dominates the FocP. Furthermore, my analysis showed that there can be NegP and RelP at the left periphery. Therefore, the order between all these elements are ForceP>TopP>NegP>ForceP>RelP.

As far as focalization and topicalization are concerned, I realized with higher class adverbs that speech act adverbs license topicalization and focalization with «poì», while they do not with the cleft copula «». Epistemic I adverb licenses only topicalization, not focalization. For pre-verbal lower class adverbs, they cannot be topicalized. They only allow focalization with the cleft copula «». Finally, post-verbal adverbs allow focalization and topicalization. Their focalization with the cleft copula «» requires additional elements, (mb?ì kaì, mb?ì j??ì etc, and «n?ì» at the end of the sentence). This is the reason why those structures are not frequently used in the discourse. Furthermore, I realized that focalization and topicalization can imply some changes on adverbs orders in the sentence. However, this is not tenable for aspectual adverbs whose relative order remains unchanged in the marked and the unmarked forms.

GENERAL CONCLUSION

The general objective of this research work entitled The morphosyntax of adverbs in Shupamem (991) was to study the morphology and the syntax of adverbs and adverbial expressions in Shupamem. The thesis was driven within the framework of the Minimalist Program of Chomsky (1993, 1995, etc). However, I also drew inspiration from the Cartographic Approach of Rizzi (1997) and the Cinquean (1999) approach, that is, his advocate for a cross-linguistic fixed hierarchy of adverbs. All these methods led me to interesting findings in relation to the aims of the study.

On the one hand, the morphological study aimed at presenting the different forms and the formation processes of adverbs in Shupamem. In other words, the section devoted to morphologylooked at the different derivation processes of adverbs in Shupamem. On the other hand, the goal of the syntactic study was to reveal the different positions that adverbs occupy within the sentence, that is, their unmarked positions. It also presentedthe order of occurrence and the hierarchy of adverbs within a structure, in the light of the Cinquean (1999) approach. Furthermore, Isought to know the structure of the left periphery of Shupamem, and to identify the adverbs that license focalization and topicalization, and those that do not.

Firstly, the study of adverbs morphology revealed that Shupamen distinguishes between pure and derived adverbs. As far as pure adverbs are concerned, there are lexical and grammatical adverbs. Lexical adverbs are those that have sense on their own. Thus, we have temporal adverbs such as «?kuìr?Ì» (yesterday), «f?ìmn??ì» (tomorrow), the exocomparative adverbs «ndu?niì» (differently), and others. Grammatical adverbs do not convey meaning on their own. They are aspectual adverbs such as «ti?ì» (progressive), «kaì» (habitual), «piÌt» (repetitive).

As far as derived adverbs are concerned, Shupamem has four derivation processes, namely affixation, adjunction, reduplication and substitution.

Affixation is the main process through which manner adverbs are derived. The suffixes «-kériì»and «-riì» areattached to the nominal or adjectival stems respectively to form adverbs. This is the case with «poÌkériì»(well), «kénkériì» (tiredly),and others.

The adjunction process on its part is concerned with the addition of some particles, mostly prepositions to nouns or adjectives to form adverbs. Some examples of adverbs formed through adjunctioninclude manner adverbs «n?ì k?ì» (forcefully), «n?Ì ???ì» (angrily), temporal adverbs «n?Ì ?yì?» (in the night), «n?Ì ?kuì?n??ì» (in the morning), frequency adverbs «?gu?lién??Ì» (everyday), «?kaì im?Ì?» (once), ideophonic adverbs «miì kp?Ìm» (quietly), «miÌ waìnn?», (rapidly), and others.

Reduplication process is concerned with the duplication of the word.It is the case with celerative adverb «m?ìjeìt m?ìjeìt» (slowly), the temporal adverbial «n?ì ?yì? ?yÌ?» (in the night) and the exocomparative adverbs «?g?ì? ?g?ì?» (similarly).

Finally, the substitution process concerns the nouns or adjectives whose last vowel is substituted by another vowel, in order to form an adverb. It is the case with manner adverbs such as «raÌ??i?» (rudely) which is made from the adjective «raÌ???Ì» (rude), and «?yÌ?ri?» (stubbornly) made from the noun «?yÌ?r?Ì» (stubbornness).

Secondly,the syntactic study of adverbs revealed that Shupamem has two main adverb classes, namely the higher classand the lower class adverbs. The higher class adverbs includes adverbs that are base-generated in the sentence initial position,such as the speech act adverb «m?Ì ndaì ?gaÌm» (honestly) and the epistemic I adverb «m?ì? mb?ì» (maybe). Both of them license topicalization. As for focalization, the speech act adverb allows only the focus morpheme «poì», not the cleft copula «», whereas the epistemic I adverb allows none of the two focalization processes. In other words, the epistemic I adverb cannot be focalized.

Concerning the lower class, it is divided into two groups, which are the pre-verbal and the post-verbal adverbs. Pre-verbal adverbs include all the aspectual adverbs (progressive, repetitive, habitual, continuative, and anterior tense), and the epistemic II adverb «k?Ì mbuì?/puì?» (unavoidably). They all allow focalization through the cleft copula «», at the condition that they raise to the left periphery alongside the verbs that they modify. Their focalization is not possible with the focus particle «poì», because this particle is used only for post-verbal items.

The post-verbal adverbs include the rest of the adverbs, which are the manner, the celerative, the temporal, the locative, the frequency, the degree, the restrictive, the ideophonic, the comparative and the exocomparative adverbs. My analysis showed that all these adverbs license focalization and topicalization. Their focalization through the cleft copula «» requires additional elements in the structure, such as «mb?ì j??ì» (which is what), «mb?ì jekaì», (which is how), «mb?ì ?aìj??ì» (which is where), and the declarative morpheme «n?ì» at the end of the sentence. For thereason of their complexity,such structuresare rarely used in the discourse.

Finally, as far as the order and hierarchy of adverbs are concerned, I realized that the fixed hierarchy posited by Cinque (1999) is tenable only between the higher class adverbs and the pre-verbal lower class adverbs. In fact, my data showed that pre-verbal lower class adverbs cannot come before the higher class adverbs, nor can they come after post-verbal adverbs. However, between the post-verbal adverbs, the order is highly flexible. Forexample, the locative can precede or follow the manner adverbs, the temporal adverbs, etc, and all this being interchangeable. Based on what has been discussed, the hierarchy of adverbs in Shupamem is as follows:

Speechact>epistemicI>proximative>progressive>anterior>habitual>epistemicII>continuative>repetitive>

locative>frequencyI>frequencyII>temporal>manner

Interchangeable

Furthermore, based on Rizzi's (1997) Fine Structure of the Left Periphery, I have studied and established the structure of elements above TP in shupamem. In fact, operations like focalization, topicalization, relativization and question formation can initiate movements to non-arguments position. It was observed that the order of adverbs of the language maychange for higher class adverbs and post-verbal adverbs,due to focalization and topicalization. However, the order between the pre-verbal lower class adverbs is not interchangeable. In other words, the aspectual adverbs do not change their order of occurrence, be it in the unmarked or the marked forms. In the same light, some restrictions are observed as far as the topicalization and the focalization of some adverbs are concerned.

Epistemic I adverbs cannot be focalized while epistemic II can easily be focalized. Furthermore, aspectual adverbs cannot be topicalized. Out of that, I realized that the Topic Phrase precedes the Focus and the Relative Phrases in Shupamem. In addition, when negation occurs within the left peripheral domain, it must come before the FocP. Thus, the structure of the left periphery of Shupamem is ForceP>TopP>NegP>FocP>RelP.

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* 1«mbaìr?Ì» is derived from the verb «ji-mbaìr?Ì» (follow).

* 2«naì» marks the affirmative nature of the sentence

* 3«laÌ?» semantically means «stay long»

* 4«p?Ì m?Ì» has the sense of «on doing something».

* 5«k?Ì...puÌ?» is used to mark certainty of actions that have not yet occured, while «k?Ì...mbuì?» expresses certainty of passed actions.

* 6«mb?ì» is the verb «be» that must be conjugated according to the subject of the sentence;






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