The Status of the External Coreferent in Bribri Head-Internal Relative Clauses

Rolando Coto-Solano. WSCLA 20. Tucson, January 2015

(1) The Bribri Language (2) Head-Internal Relative Clauses in Bribri (3) Relative clauses with two heads (4) Double-headed clauses versus correlative clauses (5) Tests for correlatives (6) Possible generation sites (7) Correlatives in the Americas

Summary

Maleku (960 speakers)

Cabécar (12200 speakers)

Bribri (9200 speakers)

Boruca (Dormant)

Teribe/Térraba (Dormant)

Source: INIE (2013)

Bribri Approx. 9000 speakers (Vulnerable) Chibchan language Tonal language SOV, overt wh-movement

Bribri Head-Internal Relative Clauses

Bribri has head-internal relative clauses. Ye' tö [XP be' tö ù sú ] e' yö'. I ERG you ERG house.ABS see.PERF DEM build.PERF "I built the house that you saw". (Constenla et.al. 1996) Wilson (1984) and Coto-Solano (2009) have given it generative analyses. Coto-Solano treated the phrase as a case of linearization (Kayne 1994), where the second copy of the relativized noun becomes phonetically null. Ye' tö [CP be' tö ù sú ei] ùi e' yö'. I ERG you ERG house.ABS see.PERF pro house DEM build.PERF "I built the house that you saw".

Repetition of the head of a RC

There is a second structure which was not treated by these authors. In this structure,the relativized noun appears twice in the sentence: [CP Pûs tö skué kata'] e' kie Nini. cat ERG mouse eat.PERF DEM called Nini "The cat that ate the mouse is called Nini". ~ "The mouse that the cat ate is called Nini".

Repetition of the head of a RC

There is a second structure which was not treated by these authors. In this structure,the relativized noun appears twice in the sentence: [CP Pûs tö skué kata'] e' kie Nini. cat ERG mouse eat.PERF DEM called Nini "The cat that ate the mouse is called Nini". ~ "The mouse that the cat ate is called Nini". [XP Pûs tö skué kata'] skué e' kie Nini. cat ERG mouse eat.PERF mouse DEM called Nini "The mouse that the cat ate is called Nini". I will provisionally call this a correlative, similar to those in Hindi (Bhaat 2003), Marathi (Wali 2006), Tibetan (Keenan 1985, Cable 2009), Jamsai Dogon (Niger-Congo; Heath 20008) and Gavião (Tupi; Moore 2006).

Is this a double-headed relative?

This might not be a correlative, but a double-headed relative. The language Kombai (Trans-New-Guinea, de Vries 1993) has been described as having two heads (Cinque 2011). The main piece of evidence is that the verbs in the relative clause use attributive or non-finite morphology: [NP [CP doü adiyano-no] doü] deyalukhe sago give.3PL-NONFUT-CONN sago finished.ADJ "The sago that they gave is finished" (de Vries 1993:78)

Is this a double-headed relative?

This might not be a correlative, but a double-headed relative. The language Kombai (Trans-New-Guinea, de Vries 1993) has been described as having two heads (Cinque 2011). The main piece of evidence is that the verbs in the relative clause use attributive or non-finite morphology: [NP [CP doü adiyano-no] doü] deyalukhe sago give.3PL-NONFUT-CONN sago finished.ADJ "The sago that they gave is finished" (de Vries 1993:78) This is not the case for Bribri. The verbs in the double noun construction have finite morphology: [XP Pûs tö skué kata'] skué e' kie Nini. cat ERG mouse eat.PERFECT mouse DEM called.IMPERF Nini "The mouse that the cat ate is called Nini"

Correlative structure

Hindi [ jo laRkii khaRii hai] vo (laRkii) lambii hai REL girl standing is that girl tall is "The girl who is standing is tall" Correlative structures have been most extensively studied in Hindi (Srivastav 1991, Dayal 1995, Mahajan 2000, Bhatt 2003) and Marathi (Wali 2006).

Correlative structure

Hindi [ jo laRkii khaRii hai] vo (laRkii) lambii hai REL girl standing is that girl tall is "The girl who is standing is tall" Bribri [XP Pûs tö skué kata' Ø] skué e' kie Nini. cat ERG mouse eat.PERF mouse DEM called Nini "The mouse that the cat ate is called Nini". (1) Hindi correlatives have a relative pronoun in the clause. Bribri has no overt relative pronouns.

Correlative structure

Hindi [ jo laRkii khaRii hai] vo (laRkii) lambii hai REL girl standing is that girl tall is "The girl who is standing is tall" Bribri [XP Pûs tö skué kata' Ø] skué e' kie Nini. cat ERG mouse eat.PERF mouse DEM called Nini "The mouse that the cat ate is called Nini". (2) Both the Hindi and Bribri structures have a "demonstrative requirement", where the main clause needs a demonstrative element coindexed with a element in the clause.

Correlative structure

Hindi [ jo laRkii khaRii hai] vo (laRkii) lambii hai REL girl standing is that girl tall is "The girl who is standing is tall" Bribri [XP Pûs tö skué kata' Ø] skué e' kie Nini. cat ERG mouse eat.PERF mouse DEM called Nini "The mouse that the cat ate is called Nini". (3) Both structures appear in the left periphery. (Hindi relative structures appear in right periphal position noun. Bribri does not have this option).

Correlative structure

Hindi [ jo laRkii khaRii hai] vo (laRkii) lambii hai REL girl standing is that girl tall is "The girl who is standing is tall" Bribri [XP Pûs tö skué kata' Ø] skué e' kie Nini. cat ERG mouse eat.PERF mouse DEM called Nini "The mouse that the cat ate is called Nini". (4) Finally, both structures spell out the head in both the main clause and the correlate. This is optional in Hindi, but I propose that it is the defining characteristics of these sentences in Bribri.

Are there two clauses?

Does Bribri have two different structures, one for HIRCs and another for correlatives? I'll use three diagnostics: (1) Peripheral position (2) Demonstrative requirement (3) Quantificational restrictions

In addition to this, I will look at the potential prosodic differences between Bribri HIRCs and correlative clauses.

Test 1: Peripheral position

Peripheral position: HIRCs can occur anywhere in the sentence. Correlative phrases occur predominantly on the left-periphery of the sentence. HIRC Ye' tö [CP be' tö ù sú ] e' yö'. I ERG you ERG house.ABS saw.PERF DEM build.PERF "I built the house that you saw". Correlative [XP Pûs tö skué kata'] skué e' kie Nini. cat ERG mouse eat.PERF mouse DEM called Nini "The mouse ate the cat that is called Nini". * Ye' tö [XP pûs tö skué kata'] skué e' sú. I ERG cat ERG mouse eat.PERF mouse DEM saw "I saw the mouse that the cat ate".

Test 2: Demonstrative Requirement

Demonstrative requirement: In Hindi, correlative phrases must have a demonstrative word. This is also true of the Bribri correlative. HIRC: [CP Aláköl kie Maria ] [DP Ø] dör buáala. woman called María COP pretty "The woman called María is pretty". Correlative: [XP Aláköl kie Maria ] [DP aláköl e' ] dör buáala. woman called María woman DEM COP pretty "The woman called María is pretty". * [XP Aláköl kie Maria ] [DP aláköl Ø ] dör buáala. woman called María woman COP pretty Intended: "The woman called María is pretty".

Test 3: Maximal Reference

Correlative clauses tend to "maximalize" the semantics of the correlate, leading to connotations of uniqueness or maximal encompassment (Grosu & Landman 1998). Therefore, they'll reject readings that are restrictive but not maximal: HIRC [CP Ala'r tö nimà katèke ] [DP e'pa] túr sulûe. child.PL ERG fish eat.PERFREC DEM.PL run.PL fast "The children who ate the fish run fast". [CP Ala'r bö l tö nimà katèke ] [DP e'pa] tún sulûe. child.PL two ERG fish eat.PERFREC DEM.PL run.PL fast "The two children who ate the fish run fast". Correlative [XP Ala'r tö nimà katèke ] [DP ala'r e'pa ] tún sulûe child.PL ERG fish eat.PR child.PL DEM.PL run.PL fast "The children who ate the fish run fast". * [XP Ala'r tö nimà katèke ] [DP ala'r bö l ] tún sulûe child.PL ERG fish eat.PR child.PL two run.PL fast Intended: "The two children who ate the fish run fast".

Test 4: Prosody

A preliminary study of the timing between the verb in the relative clause and the first element of the main clause reveals significant difference between HIRCs and correlatives (F(2,12)=5.44, p<0.025).

Generation of Correlatives

If the correlatives are a different structure, where are they generated? (Bhatt 2003) (1) Non-local IP Adjunction (2) Demonstrative adjunction (3) IP Adjunction via movement (left dislocation)

Generation of Correlatives

If the correlatives are a different structure, where are they generated? (Bhatt 2003) (1) Non-local IP Adjunction (2) Demonstrative adjunction (3) IP Adjunction via movement (left dislocation)

Generation of Correlatives

If the correlatives are a different structure, where are they generated? (Bhatt 2003) (1) Non-local IP Adjunction (2) Demonstrative adjunction (3) IP Adjunction via movement (left dislocation)

Generation of Correlatives

If the correlatives are a different structure, where are they generated? (Bhatt 2003) (1) Non-local IP Adjunction (2) Demonstrative adjunction (3) IP Adjunction via movement (left dislocation)

I don't have enough evidence to determine whether the phrase is generated through left dislocation or at the periphery, but there is evidence that the phrase has to surface attached to the CP, and therefore cannot be generated by demonstrative adjunction. * Ye' tö [XP pûs tö skué kata'] skué e' sú. I ERG cat ERG mouse eat.PERF mouse DEM saw "I saw the mouse that the cat ate". Island effects will be the next piece of evidence I will elicit in order to distinguish between DP and CP as the base generation location.

Generation of Correlatives

I have a working hypothesis which favors left-periphery generation. HIRCs have a referential pronoun at the head of CP to ensure c-command conditions that nullify the second copy of the noun. HIRC [DP [CP Pûs tö skué kata' ei] [DP skuéi e' ] ] kie Nini cat ERG mouse eat.PERF mouse DEM called Nini "The mouse ate the cat that is called Nini".

Generation of Correlatives

I have a working hypothesis which favors left-periphery generation. HIRCs have a referential pronoun at the head of CP to ensure c-command conditions that nullify the second copy of the noun. HIRC [DP [CP Pûs tö skué kata' ei] [DP skuéi e' ] ] kie Nini cat ERG mouse eat.PERF mouse DEM called Nini "The mouse ate the cat that is called Nini". On the other hand, correlatives do not c-command the second copy, so it can be realized phonetically. Correl. [CP [XP Pûs tö skué kata' ___] [IP [VP [DP skué e' ] kie Nini ] ] ] cat ERG mouse eat.PERF mouse DEM called Nini "The mouse ate the cat that is called Nini". This might be an indication that the CP of the HIRC was not raised. It could also indicate that XP could be a different projection, such as IP or FP (Davison 2009).

Distribution in the Americas

WALS (Dryer & Haspelmath 2013) reports two Indigenous languages with correlatives: Quechua and Sanumá. Lipták (2009) reports one, Quechua, and de Vries (2002) reports three: Diegueño, Mohave and Wappo. Correlative structures are very likely being under-reported in our continent.

Distribution in the Americas

WALS (Dryer & Haspelmath 2013) reports two Indigenous languages with correlatives: Quechua and Sanumá. Lipták (2009) reports one, Quechua, and de Vries (2002) reports three: Diegueño, Mohave and Wappo. Correlative structures are very likely being under-reported in our continent. Gavião (Tupian) [CP ávɨlɨ pí ánéè pa-záp sɨ gɨ dog trail (AUX.PAST.DEF)-NOMINAL 1pl-house close mát] ávɨlɨ máà paderè va-á NMNLZ.CONCRETE dog AUX.PAST person bite-END "The dog whose trail was close to our house bit someone" (Moore 2006:141)

Conclusions

- There are two distinct relativization strategies in Bribri: Head-internal relative clauses and correlative clauses.

- Future work will further investigate the site of generation of these phrases, and examine structures such as islands and multiple correlatives in a sentence, among others.

- Future work will examine whether this structure exists in other Chibchan languages in Costa Rica. (Cabécar, for example, is a close relative of Bribri).

- There might be many more correlatives out there, especially amonst the languages of the Americas.

Acknowledgments

I'd like to thank Alí García, M.A. Samantha Wray, Dr. Heidi Harley, and M.L. Ximena del Río for their helpful comments at various stages of this project. I'd especially like to thank M.A. Adriana Molina, who introduced me to the concept of correlative structures and provided invaluable help in this project. All errors are the author's.

References (1/3)

Bhatt, Rajesh. 2003. Locality in correlatives. Natural Language & Linguistic Theory, 210:485-541. Cable, Seth. 2009. The Syntax of the Tibetan Correlative. In: Lipták, A. (ed.). Correlatives Cros-Linguistically. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Pub.Co. Pgs. 195-222. Cinque, Guglielmo. 2011. On Double-Headed Relative Clauses. Revista de Estudios Linguísticos da Universidade do Porto. 1(6):67-91. Constenla, A.; Elizondo Figueroa, F.; Pereira Mora, F. 1996. Curso Básico de Bribri. San José, Costa Rica: Editorial de la Universidad de Costa Rica. Coto-Solano, Rolando. 2009. Reanálisis de las Cláusulas Relativas en la Lengua Bribri como un Caso de Linearización en la Teoría Minimalista. Proceedings of the 2nd International Applied Linguistics Congress (CILAP). September 2009; Heredia, Costa Rica. Pgs. 468-478. Davison, Alice. Adjunction, features and locality in Sanskrit and Hindi/Urdu correlatives. In: Lipták, A. (ed.). Correlatives Cros-Linguistically. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Pub.Co. Pgs. 223-262. Dayal, Veneeta. 1995. Quantification in correlatives. In: Bach, E.; Jelinek, E.; Kratzer, A.; Partee, B.H. (eds.). Quantification in natural languages. Kluwer Academic Publishers. Pgs. 179-205. Dryer, Matthew S. & Haspelmath, Martin (eds.) 2013. The World Atlas of Language Structures Online. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. Available online at http://wals.info, Accessed on 2015-01-26. Grosu, Alexander; Landman, Fred. 1998. Strange Relatives of the Third Kind. Natural Language Semantics 6: 125–170. Heath, Jeffrey 2008. A Grammar of Jamsay. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.

References (2/3)

INEC Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Censo. 2013. X Censo Nacional de Población y VI de Vivienda 2011: Territorios Indígenas, Principales Indicadores Demográficos y Socioeconómicos. San José: INEC. Kayne, R.S. 1994. The Antisymmetry of Syntax. Cambridge: The MIT Press. Keenan, Edward. 1985. Relative Clauses. In: Shopen, T. (ed.) Language Typology and Syntactic Description. Vol.II. Complex Constructions. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Pgs. 141-170. Lipták, Anikó. 2009. The Landscape of Correlatives: An Empirical and Analytical Survey. In: Lipták, A. (ed.). Correlatives Cros-Linguistically. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Pub.Co. Pgs. 1-48. Mahajan, Anoop. 2000. Relative Assymetries and Hindi Correlatives. In: Alexiadou, A.; Meinunger, A.; Wilder, C.; Law, P. (eds.). The Syntax of Relative Clauses. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Pub.Co. Pgs. 201-229. Moore, Denny. 2006. Cláusulas relativas em Gavião de Rondônia. Bol. Mus. Para. Emílio Goeldi. Ciências Humanas, Belém, 1(1):135-143. Moore, Denny. 2012. Relative Clauses in Gavião of Rondônia. In: Comrie, B., Estrada-Fernández, Z. Relative Clauses in Languages of the Americas: A Typological Overview. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Pp. 243-252. Srivastav, V. 1991. The syntax and semantics of correlatives. Natural Language & Linguistic Theory, 9(4):637-686. Vries, Lourens de. 1993. Forms and Functions in Kombai, an Awyu language of Irian Jaya. Canberra: Australian National University (Pacific Linguistics, Series B –108). Vries, Mark de. 2002. The Syntax of Relativization. LOT Dissertation Series 53.

References (3/3)

Wali, Kashi. 2006. Marathi Correlatives: A Conspectus. Marathi: A study of Comparative South Asian Languages. Delhi: Indian Institute of Language Studies. Wilson, Jack. 1984. Relative Clauses in Bribri. Estudios de Lingüística Chibcha, Serie A, Tomo III. Pgs. 179-199. Picture Credits: Bribri blackboard (Jhoanny Peña), canoe with bananas (Red de Políticas Públicas, Panamá), girl eating cocoa (CRR Travels), young man in a house (Anthony Hodges), dancing group (Marcel Evans).