Morphosyntactic properties of ideophones

In terms of word class, ideophones have been assigned to different parts of speech in the literature, depending on the language. Dwyer & Moshi (2003: 173) provide examples from different African languages where ideophones are categorized, for instance, as verbs, adjectives, interjectionals, special classes, but most commonly as adverbs. They further specify that ideophones

often differ syntactically from the rest of the grammar. 1) usually occur ei-ther before or after a sentence; 2) often don’t fit into any of the standard categories for parts of speech. (p. 174)

These generalizations also apply in Gyeli. Gyeli ideophones constitute a word class on their own as characterized by their syntactic independence, i.e. outside of the syntactic phrase. Possible positions where ideophones are found are (i) at the end of an intonation phrase, (ii) independently, i.e. outside of an intonation phrase, and (iii) as complements in complement clauses.

Ideophones at the end of intonation phrases

Ideophones in Gyeli frequently occur at the end of an intonation phrase as in (77) and (78). In these cases, ideophones are similar to adverbs in their position and their function, namely depicting the manner in which an action or event happens.

‘So the woman looks with her eyes [depiction of staring].’

(78) bá

‘They also go and put up electricity poles for clay houses [depiction of putting the electricity poles along the road].’

In contrast to adverbs, ideophones also occur in constructions with the deictic elementmpù‘like this’, as shown in (79).

(79) yɔ́ɔ̀

‘So Nzambi comes like this [depiction of walking a long distance], comes looking like this.’

Ideophones asnâcomplements

Similarly, the same sort of signaling happens when ideophones are used as com-plements innâclauses, as illustrated in (80).

(80) Nzàmbí,

‘Nzambi pours the breadfruit into the basket.’

This type of construction is parallel to reported speech, as discussed in Gülde-mann (2008). For more information on Gyeli complement constructions and re-ported speech, see §8.2.2.1.

Syntactic independence of ideophones

Gyeli ideophones occur independently from an intonation phrase, rather forming an intonation phrase on their own. In this, they differ from adverbs which cannot occur as independent intonation phrases. In (81), the ideophone occurs before the intonation phrase it refers to in the discourse. The ideophone is separated from the following intonation by a short pause.

(81) gbĩ́-gbĩ̀-gbĩ́-gbĩ̀-gbĩ́

‘[depiction of disease roaming in his body] He was about to be sick, not wanting to die.’

Intonationally independent ideophones can also follow the intonation phrase they are semantically linked to in the discourse, as shown in (82).

(82) wɛ́

‘You hear like this the other mice take off [depiction of noise made by mice].’

In addition to intonational breaks, the end of an intonation phrase can be in-dicated by the tonal melody. In (82), it is the L tone on tsígɛ̀‘take off’, which shows the end on the intonation phrase. If the ideophone was part of the same intonation phrase, the final tone ontsígɛ̀would be H.

3.6 Pronouns

Gyeli has different types of pronouns, i.e. grammatical free morphemes that can replace a noun phrase. The different pronominal paradigms arise from the nouns’ differing syntactic functions and distributions. I distinguish subject pro-nouns from non-subject propro-nouns. The latter are used in object and adjunct func-tion. For the reader’s convenience, I gloss them simply as obj. Gyeli has further interrogative pronouns, possessor pronouns, and a reflexive pronounmɛ́dɛ́‘self’

that follows subject and non-subject pronouns. Table 3.20 illustrates all pronoun paradigms and, for comparison of forms, the verbal stamp marker (§3.9.1). Most paradigms can be subdivided into speech act participants (1sg, 1pl, 2sg, and 2pl), which are not marked for gender agreement, and non-speech act participants (third person), which are marked for one of the nine agreement classes.

As described in detail in §3.6.4, possessor pronouns reference the possessor by their pronominal root. The pronominal root is the same for all non-speech act participants, as indicated by 3sg and 3pl in Table 3.20. The possessee is ref-erenced by an agreement prefix, which is listed for each agreement class as well.

Some paradigms are specified for tones and marked as such, for instance subject and non-subject pronouns. In contrast, stamp markers and possessor pronouns have different tonal patterns, depending on the tense/aspect/mood/polarity cat-egory they encode or the possessee agreement class.

Generally, agreement class 2 pronouns are also used for impersonal reference.

For instance, active clauses with the impersonalbapronoun are preferred over passive constructions (§4.2.4.2). This pronoun can also be used in impersonal

Table 3.20: Pronoun paradigms

Paradigm Singular Plural

Subject pronouns 1sgmɛ̀ 1plbí

2sgwɛ̀ 2plbé cl.1nyɛ̀ cl.2bá cl.3wú cl.4mí cl.5lí cl.6má cl.7yí cl.8bé cl.9nyì

stamp markers 1sgmɛ 1plya

2sgwɛ 1plbwa

cl.1a/nyɛ/nu cl.2ba cl.3wu cl.4mi cl.5le cl.6ma cl.7yi cl.8be cl.9nyi

Non-subject pronouns (obj) 1sgmɛ̂ 1plbî 2sgwɛ̂ 2plbê cl.1nyɛ̂ cl.2b-ɔ̂

cl.3w-ɔ̂ cl.4my-ɔ̂

cl.5l-ɔ̂ cl.5m-ɔ̂

cl.7y-ɔ̂ cl.8by-ɔ̂

cl.9ny-ɔ̂

Possessor pronouns 1sg -ã 1pl -isi/usi 2sg -ɔ 2pl -inɛ/unɛ cl.1w-ɛ cl.2b-awɔ cl.3w- cl.4 mi-cl.5l- cl.6 m-cl.7y- cl.8 bi-cl.9

ny-Interrogative pronouns nzá‘who’ bànzá‘who’

gyí‘what’

Reflexive pronounmɛ́dɛ́‘self’

relative clauses, expressing ‘who’ in the subordinate clause even if the referent of the main clause is expressed by a different agreement/person class (§8.2.1).