The morphosyntax of ghomala' verbs: focus on inherent complément verbs and serial verb construction

RÉPUBLIQUE DU CAMEROUN Paix-Travail-Patrie

REPUBLIC OF CAMEROON Peace-Work-Fatherland

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THE UNIVERSITY OF YAOUNDE I

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FACULTY OF ARTS, LETTERS AND SOCIAL SCIENCES

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UNIVERSITÉ DE YAOUNDÉ I
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FACULTÉ DES ARTS, LETTRES ET
SCIENCES HUMAINES

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POSTGRADUATE SCHOOL FOR ARTS, LANGUAGES AND CULTURES

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CENTRE DE RECHERCHE ET DE
FORMATION DOCTORALE EN ARTS,
LANGUES ET CULTURES
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DOCTORAL RESEARCH UNIT FOR LANGUAGES AND LITERATURE

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UNITÉ DE RECHERCHE ET DE FORMATION
DOCTORALE EN LANGUES ET
LITTÉRATURE
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DEPARTMENT OF AFRICAN LANGUAGES AND LINGUISTICS

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DÉPARTEMENT DE LANGUES AFRICAINES ET LINGUISTIQUE

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THE MORPHOSYNTAX OF GH?MAìLAì' VERBS:

FOCUS ON INHERENT COMPLEMENT VERBS AND SERIAL VERB CONSTRUCTIONS.

A dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Award of a Master's Degree in Linguistics

By

Minette Corrine MOKAM FOKO
Bachelor's Degree in Linguistics
Matricule : 13J396

Under the supervision of

Edmond BILOA
Professor

May 2020

DEDICATION

To
The almighty God,
CHOUDJA Marc family,
FOKO Jean family.

II

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This research work could never be achieved without the assistance of many people who deserve my deepest gratitude. I am grateful to Prof. Edmond BILOA, my supervisor, who follows up the writing of this dissertation despite his busy time table and the amount of scientific works he has to supervise each year. To be honest, it is really very hard to turn into words how helpful was Prof. BILOA in the realization of this work. Each time that I have to give up due to daily difficulties, as a mentor, he was there to hammer me to never give up. Thank you Prof!

My deepest appreciation also goes to Prof. Florence TABE, a mother, a permanent advisor and a model. She used to provide me with important documents that helped me to learn more on the Minimalist Program. I am unable to remember how many times she has supported me financially particularly in the most difficult moments. I am so grateful to her.

I also owe a cordial gratitude to Prof. Gabriel MBA who, despite of his busy schedule, has cheerfully accepted to discuss some aspects of the data used in this work. His remarks were very helpful in analyzing the morphosyntactic properties of inherent complement verbs.

I am equally grateful to Dr. Paul Roger Bassong for providing me relevant documentations on inherent complement verbs. The choice of this topic emerges from our multiple discussions. I have benifited from him multiple advices that were useful in the conception of this work.

I would like to thank Prof. Clédor Nseme and Prof. Joseph Mbongue for pushing me to complete this dissertation by daily recalling me with this famous sentence «ton mémoire est à quel niveau?»

The teaching staff of the Department of African Languages and Linguistics also deserves my deepest gratitude namely, Prof. Etienne Sadembouo, Prof Philip Mutaka, Prof Anne-Marie Ndongo Semengue, Dr. Madeleine Ngo Ndjeyiha, Dr. Gratiana Ndamnsah, Dr Ousmanou and Dr Ibirahim Njoya.

Special thanks go to Abass Yiagnigni, Blaise Tala, Christelle Kamno, Achille Ohandja, Rostand Kuate, Franck Fezeu, Franck Ekenguele, Lise Agnoung, and Christian Roger Atangana Tina for their concerns and encouragements that gave me the impetus to complete this dissertation.

I shall forever be grateful to KAMDEM Cyriaque's family who has been the rock of my life. I will never forget all the sacrifices done by my aunt, Mrs Jeanne Kamgno, to enable me to study at the University of Yaounde I. I am also grateful to my uncle Joseph Tagne for his unconditional supports.

ABSTRACT

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This dissertation tackles the morphosyntactic properties of verbs in Gh?maìlaì' with special focus on syntactic behaviors of inherent complement verbs and serial verb constructions. The work is confined within the Minimalist Program as developed by Chomsky (1995, 2000, 2001, 2008, and 2013) though an eclectic approach is sometimes adopted. The data discussed have been gathered beside native speakers of the language using both the elicitation and the observation methods. In doing so, the argument structure of Gh?maìlaì' is discussed by tackling the issue of transitivity. The verbs are grouped according to their argument structural characteristics. The unaccusative hypothesis (Perlmutter 1978) is also addressed. The work reveals that a two-way distinction (unaccusative vs. unergative) of verbs that occur within intransitive clause cannot hold in Gh?maìlaì', and argues for a three-way distinction of these verbs. Looking at the semantic relationship between the verb and its complement, it is argued that most of the transitive verbs in Gh?maìlaì' can select a generic meaning DP as object. However, there are some verbs which require a more specific meaning DP as complement namely, inherent complement verbs. As for the latter, it is shown that both the verb root and its nominal complement contribute to the meaning of the [V-N] complex and this meaning can be either compositionally or metaphorically derived. The study discloses that the inherent complement bears phi-features since it can undergo pronominalization in certain discourse context though it cannot be marked with a question feature. Both the verb and its complement can be focused. However, the focused IC has a predicate focus reading instead of having an argument focus interpretation. This syntactic behavior leads to the conclusion according to which, the IC is not a semantic but a syntactic argument of its verb which is a functional verb. Being a functional verb, the ICV is purely merged under a functional position wherein it fails to assign theta-roles to its arguments. As far as SVCs are concerned, the study shows that they are not instances of covert coordination and distinguishes them from other multiverb constructions. In terms of their composition, they are split into two broad classes, asymmetrical and symmetrical SVCs. It is demonstrated that asymmetrical SVCs are used to express various functions such as direction, aspect and tense, comparison and instrumentation. As for their morphosyntactic features, it is argued that tense, negation, nominalizer as well as subordinator are expressed once per SVC, an evidence of their monoclausality. However, aspect can receive a concordant marking. Similarly, each component of the SVC can be focused or questioned. SVCs components share at least one argument, mostly the external argument. Given the morphosyntactic properties display by Gh?maìlaì' SVCs, it is argued that apparently object sharing is asymmetrical and does not exist in syntax.

RÉSUMÉ

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Ce travail aborde les propriétés morphosyntaxiques des verbes en gh?maìlaì' en s'intéressant aux comportements syntaxiques des verbes à complement inhérent et des verbes en serie. Il puise ses fondations théoriques dans le programme minimaliste tel que développé par Chomsky (1995, 2000, 2001, 2008, et 2013) bien qu'une approche éclectique soit parfois utilisée. Les données utilisées ont été recueillies auprès des locuteurs natifs en utilisant les méthodes d'observation et d'élicitation. Pour se faire, la structure argumentale du gh?maìlaì' est étudiée en abordant la question de la transitivité. Les verbes sont regroupés selon les caractéristiques de leurs structures argumentales. L'hypothèse non-accusative (Perlmutter 1978) est également évoquée. Le travail révèle qu'une distinction bidirectionnelle (non-accusative vs. non-ergative) des verbes intransitifs ne fonctionne pas en gh?maìlaì'^ì, et plaide pour une distinction tri-directionnelle de ces verbes. Analysant le rapport sémantique entre le verbe et son complément, il s'avère que la plupart des verbes transitifs en gh?maìlaì' peut sélectionner un DP ayant un sens générique comme complément. Cependant, il y a quelques verbes qui exigent un DP ayant un sens plus spécifique comme complément notamment, les verbes à complément inhérent. Quant à ces derniers, il est démontré que le verbe et son complément contribuent à la signification du complexe [V-N] et cette signification peut être compositionnelle ou métaphorique. L'étude révèle que le complément inhérent possède les traits phi puisqu'il peut être pronominalisé dans certain contexte discursif bien qu'il ne peut pas être questionné. Le verbe et son complément peuvent être focalisés. Cependant, la focalisation du complément inhérent est interprétée comme étant une focalisation verbale et non une focalisation argumentale. Ce comportement syntaxique conduit à la conclusion selon laquelle le complément inhérent n'est pas un argument sémantique mais syntaxique de son verbe qui, est un élément fonctionnel. Étant un verbe fonctionnel, le verbe à complément inhérent est généré sous une position fonctionnelle où il ne peut pas assigner les rôles thématiques à ses arguments. En ce qui concerne les constructions en série, l'étude indique qu'ils ne sont pas des cas de coordination nulle et les distingue des autres types de construction pluriverbale. En fonction de leur composition, elles sont subdivisées en deux classes, les constructions asymétriques et symétriques. Il est établit que les constructions asymétriques sont employées pour exprimer diverses fonctions telles que la direction, l'aspect et le temps et la comparaison. Quant à leurs propriétés morphosyntaxiques, l'étude révèle que le temps, la négation, la particule de nominalisation ainsi que le marqueur de subordination sont exprimés une fois par construction, une évidence de leur mono-propositionalité. Cependant, l'aspect peut avoir une expression concordante. De même, chaque composante de ladite construction peut être focalisée ou questionnée. Ces composantes ont en commun au moins un argument, l'argument externe la plupart du temps. Au regard des propriétés morphosyntaxiques présentées par ces constructions en gh?maìlaì', il est suggéré que le prétendu partage de l'argument interne est asymétrique et n'existe pas dans la composante syntaxique.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

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DEDICATION i

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ii

ABSTRACT iii

RÉSUMÉ iv

TABLE OF CONTENTS v

LIST OF TABLES viii

LIST OF FIGURES AND MAPS ix

ABBREVIATIONS AND SYMBOLS x

GENERAL INTRODUCTION 1

Objective of the study 1

Motivation and significance of the study 2

Methodology 2

The language 3

The geographic location 3

Genetic classification and dialectal situation 5

Previous works on the language 7

Organization of the dissertation 11

Chapter 1: Theoretical Framework 13

Introduction 13

1.1 The Minimalist Program: an overview 13

1.1.1 Setting the bridge 13

1.1.2 From Syntactic structures to The Minimalist Program: what has fundamentally

changed? 15

1.2 Sentence derivation within the Minimalist Program 18

1.2.1 Merge 19

1.2.2 Move 20

1.2.3 Feature checking within the Probe-Goal framework 21

1.2.4 Phases 23

1.3 On serial verb constructions 24

1.3.1 The ternary-branching account 25

1.3.2 The VP-Shell approach 25

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1.3.3 Aboh's refinements 26

1.4 On Inherent Complement Verbs (ICVs) 28

Conclusion 31

Chapter 2: The grammatical sketch of the language 32

Introduction 32

2.1 Phonological system 32

2.1.1 The consonant system 32

2.1.2 The vowel system 33

2.1.3 The tone system 33

2.2 Noun morphology 35

2.2.1 Gh?maìlaì' noun classes 35

2.2.2 The notion of gender in Gh?maìlaì' 38

2.2.3 Noun satellites 39

2.2.4 The pronoun system 43

2.3 Tense, Aspect and Mood 45

2.3.1 Gh?maìlaì's tense system 45

2.3.2 Aspect 49

2.3.3 The mood system 52

2.4 Negation 53

2.4.1 Negation with present and future tenses 54

2.4.2 Negation with past tenses 54

2.5 Gh?maìlaì' clause structure 55

Conclusion 57

Chapter 3: Gh?maìlaì' verbs 58

Introduction 58

3.1 Classification of Gh?maìlaì' verbs 58

3.2 The structure of the verb in Gh?maìlaì' 61

3.2.1 The infinitive form 61

3.2.2 Derivative verbal affixes and their interpretations 63

3.3 Argument structure in Gh?maìlaì' 68

3.1 Argument structure 68

3.2 Gh?maìlaì' verbs and transitivity 71

VII

Conclusion 88

Chapter 4: Inherent Complement Verbs (ICVs) 90

Introduction 90

4.1 Describing Inherent Complement Verbs and Inherent Complement 90

4.1.1 The Inherent Complement Verb 90

4.1.2 The Inherent Complement 98

4.2 Morphosyntactic properties of ICV constructions 100

4.2.1 Pronominalization of the Inherent Complement 100

4.2.2 Focus in ICV construction 104

4.2.3 Question formation and IC 108

4.3 Argument structure of ICV constructions 109

4.3.1 On the argument structure of ICVs 110

4.3.2 Derivation of ICV construction 112

Conclusion 116

Chapter 5: Serial Verb Constructions (SVCs) 117

Introduction 117

5.1 Serial Verb Constructions vs other multiverb constructions 117

5.1.1 General characteristics of SVCs 117

5.1.2 Serial verb construction vs. coordinate structure 118

5.1.3 Serial verb construction vs. Consecutivization 120

5.1.4 Serial verb construction vs. subordinate structure 120

5.2 Types of serial verb constructions 122

5.2.1 Asymmetrical serial verb constructions 122

5.2.2 Symmetrical serial verb constructions 127

5.3 Morphosyntactic properties of Gh?maìlaì' SVCs 130

5.3.1 Marking of grammatical categories 130

5.3.2 Question and Focus marking 134

5.3.3 Argument structure 136

5.4 Derivation of serial verb constructions 137

Conclusion 140

GENERAL CONCLUSION 141

REFERENCES 144

VIII

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1 : Presentation of informants		3
Table 2 : The Gh?maìlaì' consonant chart (from Domche Teko	1980)	33
Table 3 : The Gh?maìlaì' vowel chart		33
Table 4 : Gh?maìlaì' tones		34
Table 5 : Gh?maìlaì' concord markers		38
Table 6 : Gh?maìlaì' neutral possessive adjectives		40
Table 7 : Gh?maìlaì' emphatic possessive markers		40
Table 8 : Neutral demonstrative markers		42
Table 9 : Emphatic demonstrative pronouns particles		42
Table 10 : Gh?maìlaì' s simple personal		43
Table 11 : Complex personnal pronoun		44
Table 12 : Non-verbal constituent focalization in Gh?maìlaì'		105
Table 13 : Gh?maìlaì' future tense markers		123

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LIST OF FIGURES AND MAPS

Figure 1 : Linguistic classification of Ghomálá' 5

Figure 2: The model of language acquisition in Generative Grammar 14

Figure 3 : The models of grammar developed within the early generative grammar 16

Figure 4 : The GBT model of representation against the MP style 18

Map 1 : The administrative and linguistic map of the West Region 4

Map 2 : Dialects of Ghomálá' 6

ABBREVIATIONS AND SYMBOLS

1 2 3 4 5 6: noun class 1 2 3: person

ACC: Accusative APPL: Applicative AspP: Aspect Phrase ATT: Attenuative

C: Consonant

CI: Conceptual Intentional system

CleftP: Cleft Phrase

COM: Comparative marker

COMP: Complementizer

COND: Conditional

CP: Complementizer Phrase

DAT: Dative

DEM: Demonstrative marker

DIST: Distributive

DP: Determiner Phrase

D-S: Deep Structure

E-language: External language

EPP: Extended Projection Principle

EST: Extended Standard Theory

EXT: Extension

FOC: Focus marker

FocP: Focus Phrase

FUT: Future tense

FUT1: Immediate future

FUT2: Near future

FUT3:

X

Distant future

FUT4: Hypothetic future

G: Glide

GBT: Government and Binding Theory

HAB: Habitual

IC(s): Inherent Complement(s)

ICV(s): Inherent Complement Verb (s)

I-language: Internal language

INF: Infinitive marker

INST: Instrument

IP: Inflectional Phrase

IT: Iterative

LCA: Linear Correspondance Axiom

LF: Logical Form

MP: Minimalist Program

NEG: Negation

NegP: Negation Phrase

NOM: Nominative

NP: Noun Phrase

PERF: Perfective

PF: Phonological Form

PL: Plural

POSS: Possessive marker

PPT: Principles and Parameters Theory

PROG: Progressive

REST: Revised Extended Standard Theory

SG: Singular

SM: Sensorimotor system

Spec: Specifier

S-S: Surface Structure

SUB: Subordinator

SVC (s): Serial Verb Construction (s)

SVO: Subject Verb Object

TAM: Tense Aspect Mood

TOP: Topic marker

TP: Tense Phrase

T-rules: Transformational rules

V: Verb

V: Vowel

uP: Light verb Phrase VP: Verb Phrase

PRS: Present tense

PRS1: Accomplished present

PRS2: Latent present

PRS3: Immediate present

PRS4: Progressive present

PSG: Phrase Structure Grammar PST: Past tense

PST1: Immediate past

PST2: Recent past

PST3: Distant past

PST4: Remote past QM: Question Marker

REC: Reciprocal REF: Reflexive

ReinP: Reinforcer Phrase

REL: Relativizer

/ : Or

* : Ungrammatical

Ø : Zero morpheme / ì / : High tone

Ì

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/ / : Low tone

/ " / : Falling tone / ? / : Rising tone

GENERAL INTRODUCTION

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Morphosyntax deals with the interaction between morphology and syntax. To be more precise, it focuses on the way in which morphemes are ordered depending on properties of the grammatical system of a language. In fact, it is well known that in producing a grammatical sentence, both the form and the relative order of morphemes that are produced are a reflection of the underlying syntactic representation of this sentence. This interaction between morphology and syntax can be either at the derivational/lexical level or at the inflectional one. This work has to do with the inflectional level. It provides a morphosyntactic description of verbs in Gh?maìlaì' with a particular emphasis on the syntactic properties of Inherent Complement Verbs and Serial Verb Constructions. In this part of the dissertation, the objective of the study, its motivation and significance, the methodology as well as the presentation of the language under study are addressed. This general introduction ends with the summary of previous descriptive works on Gh?maìlaì' and the outline of the dissertation.

Objective of the study

The primary objective of this dissertation is to contribute to the full documentation of Gh?maìlaì', my native language, within the generative enterprise. This language has been extensively studied using both the structural and generative approaches. However, generative studies on Gh?maìlaì' are few (Mamgno (1997, 2000) Mamno (2005, 2006), Bakam (2014) and Tala (2015)). Most of these works have been focused on the C-domain and the D-layer by laying emphasis on the typology of the clause, the different movements that target both the C-layer and D-layer, as well as the structure of the aforementioned domains. As one may notice, the verb, an essential constituent of the sentence, has not received a deep generative attention though Mamno (2005 and 2006) addresses verb movement. To be more precise, the v-domain, the locus of the expression of argument structure, has not received enough attention so far within a generative spirit in Gh?maìlaì'. The present dissertation tries to fill the gap by analyzing the morphosyntactic features of two verbal constructions in this language namely, inherent complement verbs (ICVs) and serial verb constructions (SVCs).

The work aims at handling the morphosyntactic properties of ICVs in this language by addressing the structural properties of ICVs, their argument structure as well as their derivation. This inquiry will not only help us to situate Gh?maìlaì' vis-a-vis other African languages

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wherein ICVs are attested, but also to see how Gh?maìlaì's data can be useful in a cross-linguistic characterization of ICVs.

As for serial verb constructions, they are contrasted with other multiverb constructions by addressing their typology as well as their derivation. The work also tackles the issue of argument sharing as well as others morphosyntactic features of these constructions. After having presented the objective of the study, its motivation and significance will be addressed in the next section.

Motivation and significance of the study

The choice of this topic has been motivated by a certain number of reasons which I will outline the salient ones below. Firstly, as a member of Gh?maìlaì's speech community, I should contribute, in one way or another, to the promotion of this language. By realizing this work, I want to make my humble contribution to the ongoing process of standardization of this language; especially since Gh?maìlaì', as many other Cameroonian languages, is introduced in the educational system. In this vein, the results of this piece of work can be useful in the designing of didactic materials for the teaching of Gh?maìla' verbs.

Secondly, I realized that inherent complement verbs are not popular objects of linguistic inquiry in Cameroonian languages as it is the case in West African languages (Kwa languages). The desire of knowing if these constructions exhibit the same patterns in Gh?maìlaì' as the ones attested in West African languages gives birth to this dissertation.

Finally, there is the need to find out whether the phenomena comprising ICVs and SVCS in Gh?maìlaì' can be described within the recent theoretical and empirical developments in generative grammar and more precisely, the Minimalist Program and how useful can be the Gh?maìlaì's data in the development of this theory. The following section has to do with the methodology.

Methodology

The data presented in this dissertation deal with the Jo variety of Gh?maìlaì', the central dialect which is spoken in Bandjoun in the Koung-khi division. They were collected gradually during fieldwork especially throughout holidays. These data were gathered via both elicitation and observation methods. The sentences were translated into Gh?maìlaì' by informants who were native speakers of the language. Observation has been mostly used during farm work and familial meetings.

As a native speaker of the language, my intuition was helpful in selecting relevant constructions while observing people interacting. My phone was useful in the recording of

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these data especially when I was in farm for harvesting. In order to rend the data exploitable by everyone. However, the principle according to which mid tones are not marked in the language since they are recurrent is adopted. For a scientific orientation, I also got data and analysis from the existing literature by previous researchers in our domain of investigation. The table below presents the informants.

Table 1 : Presentation of informants

Names	Languages	Occupations	Residence	Sex	Age
Tala Blaise	French, English, Gh?maìlaì'	student	Yaounde	M	30
Kapche Micheline	French, Gh?maìlaì'	Housewife	Bandjoun	F	47
Taghetue Jean de Dieu	French Gh?maìlaì'	Farmer	Bandjoun	M	45
Siego Suzanne	French, Gh?maìlaì'	Retired trader	Mbalmayo	F	72
Djuidje Clémence	French, Gh?maìlaì' Ewondo	Retired trader	Mbalmayo	F	71

In the precedent section, the data collection methods and informants have been presented. The next section presents the language under study.

The language

This section aims at presenting Gh?maìlaì', the language under study. In doing so, emphasis will be laid on its geographic location, its genetic classification as well as its dialectal situation.

? The geographic location

Gh?maìlaì', literally «the language of village people», is an Eastern grassfield Bantu language spoken in the West region of Cameroon. This region is geographically characterized by mountains which altitude varies between 1400 and 1700 meters (Foba 2015:1). The climate as well as the quality of soil render this region a propitious area for the development of socioeconomic activities such as agricultural and pastoral farming. This geographic location is the reason why Dieu and Renaud (1983) assigned the linguistic code [960] to Gh?maìlaì'.

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The language covers five of the eight divisions that form the west region. These divisions are: Bamboutos, Hauts-plateaux, Koung-khi, Mifi and Menoua. More precisely, the linguistic area of Gh?maìlaì' is made up of the following localities: Bafounda, Bamoungoum, Bansoa, Bafoussam, Baleng, Bandjoun, Bameka, Bamendjou, Bahouan, Batie, Baham, Bapa, Badenkop and Bayangam. The following map shows the location of Gh?maìlaì' within the West region.

Map 1 : The administrative and linguistic map of the West Region

Legend:

Gh?maìlaì's area border

Divisions border within the Gh?maìlaì's area

Border of a linguistic area

. Subdivision border

Division border
Region border

? Region headquarter ? Division headquarter

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o Subdivision headquarter

Source: adapted from Binam Bikoi (2012:192).

? Genetic classification and dialectal situation

Cameroonian languages are classified into three major linguistic families namely the Afro-asiatic, The Niger-Kordofanian and the Nilo-Sahalian phylum. As for Gh?maìlaì', it belongs to the Niger-Kordofanian phylum, the Niger- Congo sub-phylum, the Benue-Congo family, the Bantoid sub-family, the Bantu group, the Grassfield sub-group, the Eastern Grassfield branch, the Central-Bamileke sub-branch. This is schematically represented as follows:

Figure 1 : Linguistic classification of Ghdmaìlaì'

Phylum: Niger-Kordofanian Nilo-Sahalian Khoisan

Sub-phylum: Niger-Congo

Family: West Atlantic Benoue-Congo Adamawa-Oubangui

Sub-family: Jukunoïd Cross River Bendi Bantoïd

Branch: Bambiloïd Bantu

Sub-branch: Jaravan Tivoid Nyang Grassfields Behoid Mbam Equatorial

Group: Eastern Grassfields Western Grassfields

Sub-group: Ngemba Noun North Central Bamileke

920 930 940 951 952 960 970

Language: Ngombale Mégaka Ngomba Ngyémb?? Yemba Gh?maìlaì' Fe'fe'

Source: Adapted from Binam Bikoi (2012:141)

As far as the dialectal situation is concerned, the dialects of Gh?maìlaì' are grouped into four major areas namely Gh?maìlaì' central, Gh?maìlaì' south, Gh?maìlaì' north and Gh?maìlaì' west (Ng?^ mba).

V' The central Gh?maìlaì' gathers together the following varieties: Jo (spoken in Bandjoun), WE (spoken in Bahouan), H?m (spoken in Baham) and Y?gam (spoken in Bayangam).

V' The southern Gh?maìlaì' is made up of the D??kwop (spoken in Badenkop), the TE' (spoken in Batie) and the paì (spoken in Bapa) varieties.

V' S?ó (spoken in Bansoa), M?ìka (spoken in Bameka), Mu^nju? (spoken in Bamendjou), Fu^'nda (spoken in Bafounda) and Mu^g?m (Bamougoum) constitute the western Gh?maìlaì' zone.

The Jo variety has been recognized as the standard dialect by previous studies (Domche-Teko 1978), Binam Bikoi (2012: 116). The following map presents the dialects of Gh?maìlaì'.

Map 2 : Dialects of Ghdmaìlaì'

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Source: Tala (2015:8)

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After having presented the geographical location, the linguistic classification and the dialectal situation of Gh?maìlaì', the summary of previous studies on the language under study will be addressed in the following section.

Previous works on the language

This section aims at presenting preceding works that have been carried on Gh?maìlaì'. Since many studies have been done on this language, I will focus my attention on descriptive works. Special attention will be paid on work that are related to this dissertation.

In the area of phonology and morphology, the following contributions have been made:

V' Nissim, G. (1972) Etude phonologique du parler Jo. Yaounde: SLA, Université Fédérale du Cameroun.

V' Nissim, G (1980) Les classes nominales dans quelques parlers Bamiléké de l'Est, expansion Bantoue. Paris: SELAF.

V' Domche-Teko (1980) Guide pratique de l'alphabet Gh?maìlaì'. Yaounde: SIL.

V' Nissim, G. (1981) Le Bamiléké gh?maìlaì (parler Bandjoun-Cameroun) phonologie, morphologie nominale, comparaison avec les parlers voisins. Paris: SELAF.

V' Mba, G. (1997) «Les extensions verbales en gh?maìlaì'» in Journal of West African Languages, 26 (1), pp 78-101.

V' Mamno, H. (2005) Morphologie verbale du gh?maìlaì': le cas du temps, de l'aspect et du mode. Mémoire de Maitrise, Université de Yaoundé I.

As far as structural grammar is concerned, the following works have been done:

V' Nissim, G. (1975) «Grammaire bamiléké» in Cahier du département des langues africaines et linguistique, 6.

V' Soffo, S. (1979) Grammatologie du gh?maìlaì'. Yaoundé: SIL.

V' Foba, M. (2015) Les adverbes et les ideophones en gh?maìlaì': description, analyse et exploitation didactique. Mémoire de Master, Université de Yaoundé I.

V' Moguo, F. (2016) Setting the bridge between descriptive and pedagogic grammar in the revitalization process of cameroonian languages: the case of gh?maìlaì' . Doctorat/Ph.D thesis, the University of Yaounde I.

V' Moguo, F., and Bessala, G. (2017). The conditional mood in Gh?maìlaì'. Studies in African Linguistics, 45, 142-156.

In the domain of generative syntax, Gh?maìlaì' has about five works. These include:

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y' Mamgno, M. (1997) Analyse syntaxique de la phrase Gh?maìlaì'. Mémoire de Maitrise. Université de Yaoundé I.

y' Mamgno, M. (2000) La phrase gh?maìlaì': Approche minimaliste. Projet de thèse, Université de Yaoundé I.

y' Mamno, H. (2006) Movement operation in Gh?maìlaì': A minimalist approach. DEA dissertation. The University of Yaoundé 1.

y' Bakam, E. (2014) La structure du déterminant en gh?maìlaì'. Mémoire de Master, Université de YaoundéI.

y' Tala, M. (2015) The structure of the left periphery in Gh?maìlaì'. Master dissertation, the University of Yaoundé I.

Nissim (1972) describes the sound system, the syllable pattern in Gh?maìlaì' as well as some phonological processes attested in the language. This work served as a raw material for the establishement of the writing system of the language by Domche-Teko (1980). Nissim refines his analyses in 1981 by addressing issues of neutralization, glottal and tones in relation with Gh?maìlaì' neighbouring languages. Nissim (1980) reveals that six noun classes are attested in Gh?maìlaì'; three classes for singular nouns represented by the numbers 1, 3 and 5. The three others classes are designed for plural nouns and are represented by the numbers 2, 4 and 6. Mba (1997) identifies two verbal suffixes in the language namely -ta and -?a. The study reveals that these morphemes fulfill several semantic functions. -?a generally encodes the reciprocity while -ta generally expresses the plurality effect on the subject or the object. Most of the outcomes of these work in the domain of morphology and phonology are used in this dissertation.

As for structural studies on the language, Nissim (1975) discusses the verb and the temporal setting. Soffo (1979) focuses on tones by looking at the phenomenon of tones interference. He also describes some tenses and interrogative structures. Foba (2015) provides a systematic description of the phonology, morphology and syntax of adverbs and ideophones as well as how to use the results as didactic materials. Moguo (2016) describes the internal structure of the language and gives guidelines for the elaboration of a pedagogic grammar of Gh?maìlaì'. Using a structural approach, she does a fine grained analysis of the sound system, the noun morphology, the verb morphology, the TAM system as well as basic syntax of the language. She also shows how the outcomes of this description can be used by language practitioner to design teaching material. Moguo and Bessala (2017) examine the conditional mood in Gh?maìlaì'. This study reveals that this language uses past tenses for unreality conditionals whereas present and future tenses are used for reality conditionals.

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As far as generative syntax is concerned, Mamgno (1997) uses the principles and parameters theory to analyze sentence. She does a representation of Gh?maìlaì''s clause structure using the X-bar model. Mamgno (2000) analyses the sentence, how it is derived and how movement occur in. She identifies two head movement in the language, namely attraction and adjunction. She argues for the existence of subject-auxiliary inversion in the language under study on the basis of the following data:

(1) a. Si^mo? fiì? n?ì-3û g?ìp Simo can INF-steal chicken «Simo can steal the chicken» b. P?i Si^mo ti 3Ù g?ìp

Can Simo steal chicken

«Simo can steal chicken» (Tala 2015:10)
The following diagram is the tree representation of sentence (1b):

(2) CP

C° IP

Spec I'

VP

V N

P?i Si^mo P? ?û g?ìp (Tala 2015:10)

As shown in the tree diagram above, Mamgno (2000) argues that the p? particle is base-generated under I° and later internally merge to C°. Although Tala (2015:11) refutes this idea by claiming that p? is a lexical mood, he does not provide neither empirical nor theoretical arguments against the subject-auxiliary inversion postulated by Mamgno (2000). If p? is a mood particle as claimed by Tala (2015), it should appear within the I-domain and therefore occupy a position below the subject within the clause. She also claims that verb moves from its pure merged position to a final-clause position in negative structures as illustrated below:

(3) ?wa^fo ka ti muì y?ìi Wafo NEG Child see

«Wafo has not seen the child» (Tala 2015: 11)

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This derivation is problematic. Empirically, it cannot account for the derivation of other types of negative structures. Theoretically, rightward movement is prohibited by modern approaches to syntax.

Mamno (2005) describes how tense, aspect and mood are expressed in Gh?maìlaì' as well as how they are marked and their structural position in the clause. In 2006, she addresses different movements attested in the language using a minimalist perspective in her DEA dissertation. On the derivation of negative structures, she considers that the negation morpheme is a set of «a t?» with a specifier «a» and the head «t?»; or a discontinuous morpheme (t?...aì / t?ì...p?ì). Tala (2015) reviews this proposal by arguing that «t?» is the head of the negative phrase meanwhile the second particle (aì or p?ì) is a negative reinforcer which projects a reinforcer phrase at the final-clause position. This rationale is adopted in this work with a refinement. It is argued that the second particle appears to the final-clause position as a result of the pied-piping of vP to the specifier position of the negative reinforcer phrase which is selected by NegP. The verb and its complement are therefore sandwiched between the negative particle and its reinforcer.

Bakam (2014) tackles the internal structure of Gh?maìlaì' DP with regard to Cinque's (2005) typology and Greenberg's universals 20. More precisely, she addresses word order variation observed in Gh?maìlaì' noun phrases that combine the demonstrative, the numeral, the adjective and a head noun as well as movement operations that occur within the determiner phrase.

The last but not the least generative work done on Gh?maìlaì' has been realized by Tala (2015). He explores the structure of the left periphery in Gh?maìlaì' using a minimalist approach. In doing so, he addresses question formation, focus strategies, topicalization and relativization in the language under study as well as different movement operations that target the C-domain in this language. Looking at focalization especially the so-called in-situ focus (post-verbal), he argues that it is derived position. He thus projects a recursive FocP in order to accommodate the focused item (see Tala 2015:139). As for predicate focus, he claims that Gh?maìlaì' displays verbal focus in the VP-periphery with a kind of verb doubling. In order to account for this fact, He follows Nkemnji (1995), Koopman (1996) and argues that in Gh?maìlaì' like Nweh, the focused verb moves to the head of low focus phrase, following by the raising of the entire VP to the specifier position of the focus phrase. Since focalization is discussed in the context of inherent complement verbs in this dissertation, Tala's (2015) proposals are adopted here with some adjustments. On post-verbal focus, given the fact that the focus marker (aì or p?ì) precedes the focused element, it is proposed that these particles should be hosted by the head position of

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CleftP, which is above the FocP that hosted the focused constituent in its specifier position. Indeed, these focus markers are different from those attested in left peripheral focus, namely n?^ and té. Moreover, these particles seem to look like cleft markers. As far as verb focus is concerned, Aboh and Dyakonova (2009)'s parallel chains analysis is adopted to derive Gh?maìlaì' predicate doubling structure. It is argued that the focalized verb moves both to the head of the low focus phrase and to the head of the vP, following the fronting of the entire vP to the specifier position of the focus phrase.

Organization of the dissertation

Apart from the general introduction in which the objectives of the study, the methodology, the geographical situation, the linguistic classification of Gh?maìlaì' as well as an overview of previous works have been discussed; the dissertation is split into five chapters organized as follows.

Chapter one deals with the theoretical assumptions adopted in the dissertation. The main focus is the Minimalist Program as developed by Chomsky (1995, 2000, 2001 and subsequent works). This presentation is completed by a review of proposals that have been done on SVCs and ICVs in a sketchy fashion.

Chapter two is devoted to the grammatical sketch of Gh?maìlaì'. It contains a cursory of basic discussion of some essential phonological, nominal and TAM aspects of the language under investigation. Its main objective is to explain some general properties of Gh?maìlaì' that may facilitate the understanding of the constructions investigated in this work.

Chapter three provides an overview of Gh?maìlaì' verbs. The morphological, the syntactic and semantic properties of verbs are discussed. The basic verb structure is addressed as well as the derivative verbal affixes attested in the language. Moreover, the chapter also explores the issue of transitivity in the language and groups verbs on the basis of their argument structural characteristics.

Chapter four investigates the structural as well as morphosyntactic properties of ICVs in order to see whether they are syntactically different from regular verbs or otherwise. In doing so, it tackles the nature of ICVs and ICs by characterizing them. Their morphosyntactic properties are also addressed by looking at their behavior when they are used within some constructions in order to distinguish them from regular verbs. The derivation of ICV is discussed by laying emphasis on their argument structure.

Serial verb constructions are the subject matter of the fifth chapter. Their typology as well as their morphosyntactic properties in Gh?maìlaì' are investigated in this chapter. In doing

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so, they are distinguished from other types of multiverb constructions and classified following their typology. Their derivation is also addressed. The dissertation ends with a general conclusion

Chapter 1: Theoretical Framework

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Introduction

This chapter aims at presenting theoretical assumptions as far as this research is concerned. In doing so, the essential features of the Minimalist Program (MP), the most recent «theory»¹ in the generative grammar enterprise, are discussed as well as aspects of MP that are relevant in the analysis of this topic. Some proposals on Serial Verb Construction (SVC) and Inherent Complement Verb (ICV) complete the presentation. Works of certain authors who put up the setting for the description of SVC and ICV are summarized; namely Baker (1989), Collins (1997, 2002), Aboh (2009), among others. In this vein, the chapter is split into four sections. Section one presents an overview of the Minimalist Program. Section two has to do with sentence derivation within the minimalist framework. Section three deals with approaches to SVCs within generative enterprise. The subject matter of the last section is the general presentation of ICVs.

1.1. The Minimalist Program: an overview

This section aims at giving an overview of MP from its inception up to today. It also presents the different mutations that undergo the generative enterprise since its inception.