On the Absence of Certain Island Effects in Mende

• Published in: Languages (Basel) Vol. 9; no. 4; p. 131
• Main Author: Smith, Jason D.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Basel MDPI AG 01.04.2024
• Subjects: African languages; Analysis; Dialects; Grammatical subject; Language; Mande languages; Native language; Pronouns; Relative clauses; resumptive pronouns; Rule ordering; Sentence structure; Syntactic islands; Syntactic structures; Syntax; Wh phrases; Sierra Leone

The distinction between weak and strong islands has been extensively explored in the literature from both a descriptive and analytical perspective. In this paper, I document and analyze island constructions and constraints in Mende, an understudied Mande language spoken in Sierra Leone. Mende has bo...