LISSIM 6
June 1-15, 2012@ Kangra
Selected Essays
I presented the following paper in LISSIM 5 after discussing it with Ayesha Kidwai and Norvin Richards. During the presentation I got extremely important comments from Tanmoy Bhattacharya and Utpal Lahiri, both of them having worked on the similar constructions in Bangla already. The student participants gave me some interesting variation in judgement.
Left-peripheral Factive Complements in Bangla: a brief description
Ishani Guha
PhD (DU)
The construction:
The left-peripheral complement clause in Bangla typically consists of an obligatorily non-initial ‘je’ inside it. The clause always precedes the predicate that selects it. These traits must be seen against the canonical finite complement clause in Bangla which appears post-verbally and contains an obligatorily initial complementizer je inside it.
Canonical finite complement clause:
1. Robi janto [je mini aSbe]
Robi knew COMP Mini come-FUT
‘Robi knew that Mini would come.’
The left-peripheral complement clause:
2. [Mini je aSbe ] robi (ta/ Se-Ta) janto
Mini COMP come-FUT Robi that/ Dem-cla knew
Lit. ‘That Mini would come, Robi knew it.’
Non-initial positioning of je:[1]
2a. *[je Mini aSbe ] robi (ta/ Se-Ta) janto
COMP Mini come-FUT Robi that/Dem-cla knew
Lit. ‘That Mini would come, Robi knew it.’
An important aspect of the left-peripheral construction is that it is ‘resumed’ by an anaphoric pronoun or anaphoric demonstrative phrase ta/ Se-Ta before the predicate that selects the left peripheral clause. This anaphoric proform (DP) refers to the clause and it can be dropped when it carries null case (nominative, accusative). But when there is overt case on the resumptive proform it cannot be dropped. It must be noted in this case, that Bangla generally allows dropping of overtly case marked arguments.
Overt case on the resumptive pronoun:
3. [Mini je aSbe ] robi *(ta-r/ Se-Ta-r opor) kono kOtha bOleni
Mini COMP come-FUT Robi that-GEN/Dem-cla-GEN about any talk say-perf-pres-3-neg
Lit. ‘That Mini would come, Robi didn’t talk about that.’
Constituency of the clause and the resumptive pronoun:
It is possible to coordinate two [complement clause – resumptive pronoun] sequences, which shows that they form constituents.
4. Benu amake [[robi je aSbena ] SeTa] ar [[mini je baRi gAche] SeTa] baad
Benu me Robi COMP come-Fut-neg Dem-cla and Mini COMP home gone Dem-cla leave
diye ar-SObi bolechilo
give-nonfin everything else said
‘Benu told me everything except that Robi won’t come and that Mini has gone home.’
Furthermore, the distance between the complement clause and the resumptive pronoun is sensitive to islands.
The factive clause and the pronoun placed across finite clause boundaries:
5. [mini je aSbena] ami jani [ je robi Se-Ta boleche]
Mini COMP come-FUT-neg I know COMP Robi that-cla said
‘I know that robi has said that Mini will not come.’
Across Relative Clause Island:
6.??[mini je aSbe] robi bollo [RCje lok-Ta SeTa jane Sei lok-Ta-ke benu dAkheni]
Mini COMP come-FUT Robi said Rel man-cla that knows Dem man-cla-ACC Benu see-perf-
neg
‘Robi said that Benu hasn’t seen the man who said that Mini will come.’
Across Adjunct Island:
7. *[diti je cole gAche] robi bollo je mini aSeni [ADJ ISLkaron benu SeTa jane]
Diti COMP leave went Robi said COMP Mini come-perf-neg because Benu that-cla knows
‘Robi said that Mini hasn’t come because Benu knew that Diti has left.’
Variable Binding:
A pronominal in the left-peripheral factive clause can be bound by a quantifier in the matrix clause, but not vice versa.
8. [tarai/orai je porikkhay fel korbe] SOb chatroii SeTa aSoNka korechilo
they COMP exam-LOC fail do-Fut all students-emph that-cla fear did
‘All students feared that they will fail in the exam.’
9. [SOb chatroii je porikkhay fel korbe] tara *i/ j /ora *i/ j SeTa aSoNka korechilo
all students-emph COMP exam-LOC fail do-Fut they that-cla fear did
‘They feared that all students will fail in the exam.’
Condition C effect:
A pronominal in the left-peripheral factive clause can be bound by the proper noun subject of the matrix clause, but not vice versa.
10. [Sei/oi je porikkhay fel korbe] robii SeTa aSoNka korechilo
he COMP exam-LOC fail do-Fut Robi that fear did
‘Robi feared that he will fail in the exam.’
11. [robii je porikkhay fel korbe] Se *i/ j/o *i/j SeTa aSoNka korechilo
robi COMP exam-LOC fail do-Fut he that fear did
‘He feared that Robi will fail in the exam.’
The island violations and reconstruction effects show that the factive clause is not base generated at the left-periphery of the matrix clause, but it is moved to that position from a position below the matrix subject.
Conjunction of factive complements:
When two factive complements are conjoined, the resumptive pronoun may still retain its singular form only if the two clauses contain related or sequential events, so that the conjunction can be treated as a single event. However, if both the conjuncts contain je inside them, it is difficult to use the singular pronoun for resumption.
12. [[Mini je aSbe] ar [benu (je) cole jabe]] robi ta/ Se-SOb janto na
Mini COMP come-FUT and Benu COMP leave go-Fut Robi that/that-all knew neg
‘Robi didn’t know that mini will come and Benu will leave.’
13. [Mini je aSbe ar benu ke (je) SONge niye jabe] robi ta/ Se-SOb janto na
Mini COMP come-FUT and Benu-ACC COMP with take go-Fut Robi that/that-all knew neg
‘Robi didn’t know that mini will come and will take Benu along with her.’
But the resumptive pronoun has to be plural if the conjoined factive clauses express unrelated events.
14. [[Chomsky *(je) gaza-y jabe] ar [ Dhaka-te *(je) niramish pawa mushkil]]
Chomsky COMP Gaza-LOC go-Fut and Dhaka-LOC COMP vegetarian food getting difficult
??ta/ Se-SOb jene tumi ki korbe?
that/ that-all know you what do-Fut
‘What will you do by knowing that Chomsky will go to Gaza and that it is difficult to get vegetarian food in Dhaka?’
It must be noticed that while je can be dropped from one of the conjuncts in 12 and 13, it cannot be dropped from any of the conjuncts in 14. This is a crucial point because in the post-verbal finite complement clause there is always only one complementizer je placed initially. So it is not feasible to conclude that the left-peripheral complement is the raised form of the post verbal complement. They are part of different constructions and are not derivable from each other.
15. robi jane ( je) [[Chomsky gaza-y jabe] ar [ Dhaka-te niramish pawa mushkil]]
Robi knows COMP Chomsky Gaza-LOC go-Fut and Dhaka-LOC vegetarian food getting difficult
‘Robi knows that Chomsky wll go to Gaza and it is difficult to get vegetarian food at Dhaka.’
The fact that je in left-peripheral factive complements can be dropped where it is possible to interpret the conjunction as expressing a single event, but not where the conjuncts cannot be taken as representing a single event, points out that the left-peripheral factive complements need a je for each event in the construction. I would like to propose that the je in these factive clauses is not a complementizer but an operator that relativizes the event expressed in the clause. In Bangla there is no null operator, and this explains why the factive complements must obligatorily have a je in them, while the post-verbal finite complement clause can drop the complementizer je in them.
The resumptive pronoun:
It is important to note that the resumptive pronoun ta or Se-Ta in the factive complements under discussion, is different from e-Ta which precedes the clause it refers to. The former consists of anaphoric pronouns which are bound by the preceding clause and the latter is made up of a proximal deictic pronoun.
16. robi e-Ta/ * ta/* Se-Ta bhabeni [je amra SObai kaj-Ta Ato taRataRi
Robi this-cla/ * that/ * dem-cla knew-neg COMP we all work-cla so much soon
kore phelbo]
do-cp throw-Fut
Lit. ‘Robi didn’t realize it [that we would finish the work so soon].’
17. [amra je SObai kaj-Ta Ato taRataRi kore phelbo] robi ?e-Ta/ ta/ Se-Ta
we COMP all work-cla so much soon do throw-Fut Robi this-cla/ that/ dem-cla knew-neg
bhabeni
Lit. ‘[That we would finish the work so soon] Robi didn’t realize that.’
Assumption:
Based on the characteristics of the left-peripheral factive complements discussed above I will assume that the factive complement is base generated as an adjunction to the pronoun or demonstrative phrase, which is at the argument position of the matrix predicate. The factive complement clause then lands up, through A-bar movement, at the left-periphery of the matrix clause.
Two concluding remarks:
Movement out of the factive clause:
Wide scope of Wh is not possible when inside the factive complement.
18. ke je aSbe robi Se-Ta janto
who COMP come-FUT Robi Dem-cla knew
‘Robi knew who will come.’
# ‘Who did Robi know will come?’
But it is possible to topicalize a constituent out of the factive complement.
19. ei boi-Ta1 robi [mini je t1 poRechilo] ta jane
this book-cla Robi Mini COMP read that knows
‘This book, Robi knows that Mini has read.’
Why ‘Factive’?
Factive predicates presuppose the truth of their complement clause. Even predicates that are generally non-factive require the left-peripheral complement clause to be true for the entire sentence to be true.
20. ?? mini je eSeche robi ta bolechilo kintu mini aSole aSeni
Mini COMP come Robi that said but Mini in reality come-neg
‘Robi said that Mini has come but Mini hasn’t come in reality.’
References:
Bhattacharya, Tanmoy. 2001. Peripheral and Clause-internal Complementizers in Bangla: A Case for Rem-nant Movement. Western Conference in Linguistics (WECOL), 2001, Vida Samian (ed.), Fresno.
Dayal, Veneeta. 1996. Locality in Wh-Quantification. Dordrecht: Kluwer.
Lahiri, Utpal. 2002. On the proper treatment of „expletive wh‟ in Hindi,” Lingua 112, 501–540.
Haegeman Lilian and Barbara Ürögdi. 2010. Referential CPs and DPs: An operator movement account, Theoretical Linguistics 36, 111-152.
[1] It must be noted in this context, that je in Bangla is homophonous between an initial complementizer and a relative pronoun.
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