RAJBANSHI
SUMMARY
Rajbanshi exhibits a system of primary and secondary agreement. Primary agreement is always with the subject of the clause, while secondary agreement can be with the object, dative subject, recipient, and possessor, or addressee (Wilde 2008: 147). Primary and secondary agreement can also co-occur, but this involves a different set of suffixes and appears to be limited to only referencing subject and object combinations. Possessors of the subject, obliques and complements of the copula are all attested as agreement controllers.
When the possessor outranks the subject on the person hierarchy, the verb can exhibit secondary agreement with the possessor, rather than primary agreement with the subject.
LANGUAGE PROFILE
EVIDENCE IN SUPPORT OF PIPS
- Syntactic evidence in support of the internal status of prominent possessors is limited by the extent of their description.
- Prominent possessors appear to occupy the same syntactic position as other possessors within the NP.
- Prominent possessors have adnominal genitive case-marking, indicating dependency within the noun phrase.
KEY SOURCES
Wilde, Christopher P. 2008. A sketch of the phonology and grammar of Rājbanshi. PhD dissertation, University of Helsinki.
