CHIMANE
SUMMARY
In Chimane, in the context of an applicative suffix on the verb, but not otherwise, the possessor of the direct object can control object agreement on the verb, rather than the direct object itself. Agreement features are person, number, and gender. Inside possessive phrases, the possessor is agrees with the possessed noun in gender (indicating constituency of the possessor and the possessed noun) and a possessive clitic can attach to the possessed noun. Possessors of subjects (other than subjects of passives) or other objects cannot control agreement on the verb.
See also Mi’gmaq, Nxaʔamxcin, Spokane, Tseltal, Tzotzil (Zinacantán).
LANGUAGE PROFILE
EVIDENCE IN SUPPORT OF PIPS
- Dependents within a noun phrase, including possessors, must agree in gender with the head of the possessive phrase, namely the possessed entity.
- Possessors cannot control agreement on the verb if they do not exhibit nominal agreement with the possessed noun.
- External possession constructions exist in which the possessor does not control agreement.
- Possessors of object phrases cannot be promoted to the subject of a passive independently of the possessed entity, indicating that they form a constituent for the purposes of valence changing operations.
KEY SOURCES
Ritchie, Sandy. 2015. Internal possessor prominence in Chimane. PhD dissertation, SOAS University of London.
Ritchie, Sandy. 2017. Agreement with the internal possessor in Chimane, Studies in Language 41(3): 660-716.
Ritchie, Sandy. 2019. Disjoint and reflexive prominent internal possessor constructions in Chimane, in András Bárány, Oliver Bond and Irina Nikolaeva (eds), Prominent internal possessors, 107-130. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
