A typological rarum in Mande languages: Argument-predicate reversal in nominal predication

• Published in: Mandenkan Vol. 68; no. 68; pp. 3 - 42
• Main Author: Creissels, Denis
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Paris Llacan UMR 8135 CNRS/Inalco 01.01.2022; Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Langage, Langues et Cultures d'Afrique Noire; Mandenkan, Langage, Langues et Cultures d’Afrique Noire
• Subjects: copula; Copulas; focus marker; inclusion statement; Mande languages; Mandinka; nominal predication; Noun phrases; Syntactic structures; мандинка; именная предикативная флексия; copula; inclusion statement; phrase d’inclusion; copule; Langues mandé; показатель фокуса; marqueur de focus; flexion prédicative des noms; prédication nominale; Mande languages; именная предикация; nominal predication; focus marker; языки манде; Mandinka; predicative inflection of nouns; характеризующая конструкция включения в класс
• ISSN: 0752-5443; 2104-371X
• DOI: 10.4000/mandenkan.2780

After a typological overview of the nominal predication constructions found in the Mande languages, this article describes and analyzes in more detail a phenomenon found in the nominal predication constructions of Mandinka and some other Mande languages that does not seem to have been signaled outside of the Mande language family. In the Mande languages in question, the argument and predicate NPs in inclusion statements involving a non-verbal copula can exchange their coding characteristics in terms of flagging and position with regard to the copula. A functive or comitative adposition flags the predicate NP in the variant in which the term following the copula is the predicate, and the same adposition flags the argument NP in the variant in which the term following the copula is the argument. The status of the focus marker in nominal predication constructions that obligatorily include a focus marker attached to the predicate NP is also discussed.