Reported speech in Kakabe: Loose syntax with flexible indexicality

Abstract

Mainstream approaches to the typology of reported discourse have been based on the notion of a direct-indirect continuum: reported speech constructions are traditionally analyzed as conforming to or deviating from the “ideals” of European direct and indirect speech. This study argues that continuum-based approaches fail to distinguish between two dimensions of variation that are systematically discriminated in a number of African languages and should therefore be treated separately. First, different constructions can be recruited for speech reporting, ranging from paratactic to subordinate structures. Second, languages differ in the way pronouns in speech reports are interpreted. In European languages two different deictic strategies are associated with different syntactic types of speech report (‘indirect’ and ‘direct’ deixis is correlated with subordination and parataxis, respectively). In Kakabe, we argue, the choice of pronominal values is independent of the construction’s syntax. Dissociating the construction’s structural properties from the behavior of indexicals allows us to describe the Kakabe strategies of speech reporting as well as account for the seemingly puzzling behavior of reported commands. Our data shows that speech reporting strategies of Kakabe should be treated as a type in its own right: a type characterized by loose syntax and flexible pronominal indexicality.

Mano correlatives are non-subordinating

“…(33) Coreference between Rel-NP and Mat-NP in Mano with mismatch in person specification [ CorC Míá lɛ ́ ō kɛ̄ yī wɛ̄] person.PL:H ATT 3PL.PST be there DEM 15 West African languages, including Mande, are known to have flexible personal indexicality in reported speech (Nikitina & Vydrina 2020), so a person mismatch alone does not constitute evidence for a break in deictic anchoring. The past tense marker, however, is a stronger indication of this.…”

2 The morphosyntax of reported speech and reported thought: A preliminary survey

“…We do not pay much attention to this parameter in this study, because we believe that a Eurocentric direct/indirect distinctioneither binary or gradualdoes not apply to some of our languages (Nikitina and Bugaeva 2021). We adopt instead a stratified typology, as sketched out in (Nikitina and Vydrina 2020): the construction's syntax is considered independently of the use of indexical expressions. The behavior of indexical expressions is assumed to depend on language-specific lexical properties of the words involved (pronouns, adverbs, etc.…”

In memoriam: Alexandra Vydrina (1988–2021)

“…Alexandra's preference for a corpus-based approach to analyzing linguistic data also resulted in a study of reported speech co-authored with Tatiana Nikitina (Nikitina & Vydrina 2020). Mainstream approaches to reported speech tend to model the typological variation in reported speech structures based on a single scale, i.e.…”