# Caritive constructions in Mwan

Elena Perekhvalskaya

► To cite this version:

Elena Perekhvalskaya. Caritive constructions in Mwan. Language in Africa, 2022, 3 (2), pp.181-195. 10.37892/2686-8946-2021-3-2-181-195. halshs-03983676

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# CARITIVE CONSTRUCTIONS IN MWAN

*Elena Perekhvalskaya*

Institute of Linguistic Studies RAS / LLACAN, CNRS elenap96@gmail.com

**Abstract:** The paper deals with strategies for expressing caritive meanings in Mwan (Niger-Congo < Mande < South Mande). The difference between the strategies used in Mwan and in some other languages of the same family (Gban, Looma, Bambara) is discussed. Conclusions are made about the grammaticalization of constructions with the suffix -kle and the postposition *blaan* into specialized caritive means.

**Key words:** Mwan, South Mande, Bambara, caritive constructions

## CONSTRUCTIONS CARITIVES EN MWAN

*Elena Perekhvalskaya*

Institute of Linguistic Studies RAS / LLACAN, CNRS elenap96@gmail.com

**Résumé** : L'article traite des stratégies d'expression des significations caritives en mwan (Niger-Congo < Mande < Mande Sud). La différence entre les stratégies utilisées en mwan et en certaines autres langues de la même famille (gban, looma, bambara) est discutée. On en conclut que les constructions avec le suffixe -kle et la postposition *blaan* subissent le processus de grammaticalisation et se transforment en moyens caritifs spécialisés.

**Mots clés** : mwan, Mandé Sud, bambara, constructions caritives

## 1. Introduction

The caritive is a relatively new “comparative concept” (Haspelmath 2010), which is defined in Oskolskaya et al. (2020: 7) as follows: “caritive describes non-involvement (including, but not limited to
absence) of a participant (Absentee) in a situation, with the non-involvement predication semantically modifying the situation or a participant of another situation”.

The caritive in African languages is practically not studied. I am only aware of studies conducted as part of the caritive research project (Oskolskaya 2019; Fedotov 2020; Mishchenko 2020). It should be noted that, despite the relative genetic proximity of Mwan to Looma and Gban, there are not so many similarities in terms of expressing caritive meanings. More similarity is observed between the means of expressing caritive meanings between Mwan and Bambara.

## 2. Data and methodology

The data were collected by the author during several field trips to the Ivory Coast (2003–2020). The following types of data were used: a) spontaneus narratives and dialogues; b) written sources (stories, book of proverbs); c) elicited data. I used the caritive questionnaire designed by Sofia Oskolskaya (2018; 2020).

The next stage was the analysis and comparison of the data obtained. The proportion of caritive constructions of different types in natural and elicited data was taken into account. The results obtained for Mwan were compared with the materials on Gban, Looma and Bambara. The conclusion about the grammaticalization of the suffix -kle and the postposition *blaan* into a specialized caritive marker was made.

## 3. Caritive constructions in Mwan

### 3.1. Overview of caritive constructions in Mwan

Mwan uses the following means to express caritive values:

- word-level negation (suffix -kle):

(1) nè de-kle nɛɛ-kle
child father-NEG mother-NEG
‘fatherless motherless child’
- combinations with certain nouns or adjectives:

(2) gbàán wɛɛ kpu
dog tail piece
‘dog without tail (it was cut off)’.

(3) À són kló ò.
3SG.NSBJ tooth idle COP
‘S/he is without teeth’

- pospositions blaan ‘after’ and zanta ‘behind’:

(4) À de blaan ga kpà-à à ma.
3SG.NSBJ father after illness put-PFV 3SG.NSBJ on
‘Without his father he fell ill (lit. After his father the illness fell
on him).’

- dependent clauses with existential negation:

(5) Nè é nu-à yaan é lé ké bɔtɔ
child ART come-PFV yam art with and bag
láò (à kɔɔ).
COP.NEG 3SG.NSBJ hand
‘The child brought this yam without a bag (in his hands).’

- general verbal negation:

(6) È jà ké yaa púbɔ wo.
3SG go.PFV and NEG greeting do
‘He left without saying good-bye.’

The next section contains the analysis of the presented above means
of transmitting the caritive values in Mwan.
## 3.2. Attributive caritive constructions

### 3.2.1. Constructions with the suffix -kle.

I classify the marker -kle as a derivative suffix which cannot be used independently (for details see Perekhvalskaya 2015). It can be attached to nouns or verbs turning them into words used as noun modifiers.

With nouns -kle forms adjectives which have caritive meaning, see (7).

<table><tr><td>(7) a</td><td>wee</td><td>'tail'</td><td>gbàán</td><td>weèkle</td><td>'dog without tail'</td></tr><tr><td>b.</td><td>gaan</td><td>'foot, wheel'</td><td>sòó</td><td>gaankle</td><td>'bycicle without wheel'</td></tr><tr><td>c.</td><td>winy</td><td>'top'</td><td>fè</td><td>winykle</td><td>'house without roof'</td></tr><tr><td>d.</td><td>tre</td><td>'eye'</td><td>mee</td><td>trekle</td><td>'blind person (without eyes)'</td></tr></table>

It is worth noting that in (7) we deal with inalienable nouns. Examples (8) demonstrate the use of -kle with alienable nouns, in this case the complex N-kle is linked to the preceding NP with the postposition lé 'with'.

<table><tr><td>(8) a. ziè</td><td>'sauce'</td><td>pèbhle</td><td>zièkle</td><td>lé</td><td>'food without sauce'</td></tr><tr><td>b. kulaŋ</td><td>'electricity'</td><td>wàla</td><td>kulaŋkle</td><td>lé</td><td>'village without electricity'</td></tr></table>

This shows that the suffix -kle can be classified as a dedicated caritive means. Constructions presented in (8) may be translated as "with without-N" or probably deserve the lable "anticomitative" (Kämpfe & Volodin 1995).

With verbs, -kle forms attributive constructions with negative meaning (9).

<table><tr><td>(9) a. À</td><td>maza</td><td>ò</td><td>wèèn</td><td>mí-kle</td><td>glóan</td></tr><tr><td>3.SG.NSBJ</td><td>need</td><td>COP</td><td>wine</td><td>drink-NEG</td><td>guy</td></tr><tr><td>do</td><td>ma.</td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td></tr><tr><td>one</td><td>on</td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td></tr><tr><td colspan="6">'He needs a guy who doesn't drink alcohol.'</td></tr></table>
b. Nè yá-kle mu é, ò sélí wo Wàànbhaa ni
child give.birth-NEG PL ART 3PL prayer do god to
ké ò nè srɔ́ wò.
and 3PL child getting do
‘Childless (women), they pray to God to have children.’

These constructions could be analyzed as negative participles or
negative converbs, as in Mwan unmarked verbs cannot be used as NPs.

3.2.2. Combining with the relational noun *kpu* or the adjective *kló*.

The suffix -kle denotes the situation of the absence of a participant as
stable. If it is known or supposed that the NP became N-less at certain
point, it should be explicit.

(10) a. gbàán wɛɛ kpu ‘dog with cut tail’

b. mɛɛ gaan kpu ‘man without leg’

Combinations with *kpu* are genitive constructions as *kpu* is
a relational noun ‘piece, something that was cut off’: cf. bluu lè kpu
‘the end of the bread’; dìŋ yrì kpu ‘a cut piece of a tree’; blàkɔ kpu
‘a cork made of a piece of bamboo’. So, examples presented in (10)
are just particular cases of the use of *kpu*. However, its usage is
obligatory if the way of the loss was known or presumed (11).

(11) a. mɛɛ gaan kpu ‘man without leg (with leg cut)’

b. *mɛɛ gaankle*

(11b) is denied on semantic reasons: it would mean that a person was
born without legs, which is considered impossible.

The adjective *kló* ‘idle, useless’ forms the attributive construction
with the Absentee (12).
(12) Mánì dà-à Bíjàn ké à sónbhe kló ò.
Mani return-PFV Abidjan and 3SG.NSBJ tooth idle COP
‘Mani returned from Abidjan without a tooth.’

In my corpus, *kló* in caritive constructions occurs only with nouns *són* ‘teeth’, *sónbhe* ‘tooth’. Taking into account expressions like *fɛ́ kló* ‘unfinished house’ it may be supposed that *kló* points out to something incomplete that lacks an integral part.

### 3.3. Constructions with postpositions

The meanings of concomitant circumstances, a cause or a condition as well as the absence of a companion and the addition of a participant are most often coded by the postposition *blaan* ‘after’ or much less often by the postposition *zanta* ‘behind’. We deal here with the expansion of the meaning ‘after / behind N’ → ‘without N’.

Consider the following examples: cause (13), condition (14); concomitant circumstances (15); absence of a participant (16); addition of a participant (17).

(13) Nììní ò yrèté blaan.
cold COP sun after
‘It is cold without sun.’

(14) Mɛɛ laa sɔ bo-lè tré ta yì
person NEG can rest-SBJV earth on water
pegéé peble blaan.
and food after
‘Man cannot live on the earth without water and food.’

(15) À neɛ blaan ga kpà-à nè é ma.
3SG.NSBJ mother after illness put-PFV child ART on
‘Without the mother the child fell ill.’

(16) a. ì nu ge-lɛ Bíjàn é zanta.
1SG FUT go-SUP Abidjan 2SG behind
‘I will go to Abidjan without you.’
b. Yaá nu-lɛ é dɛ blaan!
2SG.NEG.COP come-SUP 2SG father after
'Do not come without your father!'

(17) a. Mí blaan mɛɛ sóó lè yàà.
1SG.EMPH after person five FOC COP.PFV
'There were five people besides me.'

b. Yáa sróókpá gbɛ bhɛɛké láò lì **bhé blaan** ɛɛ?
2SG.POSS song manner other COP.NEG ever this after Q
'Don't you have another song, **apart from that one**?'

The example (17b) presents a negative question; the negative copula is not connected with the caritive construction that uses the postposition *blaan* (*bhé blaan* 'besides this one').

The following examples (18a–b) should be interpreted as condition or concomitant circumstances and not as absence of an instrument; as the latter meaning (to do something without NP) is expressed by dependent copular negative clauses, see §3.4.

(18) a. Waa sɔ wi dɛ-lè màfá blaan.
3P.NEG can animal kill-SBJV gun after
'One can't kill an animal without a gun.'

b. Waa sɔ yrì kláá-lé poo blaan.
3PL.NEG can tree chop-SBJV ax after
'One can't chop down a tree without an ax.'

### 3.4. Negative copular clauses

In my data, the meanings of the absence of content, means of transportation, tool or temporarily possessed object are encoded by copular negative clauses with the negative copula *láò/làò*. These clauses are often but not always introduced by the conjunction *ké*. This conjunction has a large range of usages and in this case it denotes an action simultaneous with the action of the main clause. Consider the following examples:
Absense of content (19).

(19) Mɛɛ é nù-à bɔlɔ lé ké bhlɔn láò person ART come-PFV sack with and rice COP.NEG à yì. 3SG.NSBJ in ‘This person brought a bag without rice (lit. The person came with a bag and the rice was not in it).’

Absence of tool (20).

(20) Bùàtí é líí gùà ké wla làò á kɔ́ɔ. can ART mouth leave.PFV and knife COP.NEG 3SG.NSBJ hand ‘He opened a can without a knife (lit. The can was open and he had no knife in his hands).’

Absence of temporary possessed object (21).

(21) È jà Bíjà ké gòlí láò á kɔ́ɔ. 3SG go.PFV Abidjan and money COP.NEG 3SG.NSBJ hand ‘He went to Abidjan without money (in his hands).’

Absence of clothes (22)–(23).

(22) Nè mu é blasan zí ké dunè láò ò ta. child PL ART run PROG and clothes COP.NEG 3PL on ‘Children are running without clothes (on them).’

(23) Ba le mu laa tááwo ké srùŋgbhɔɔ láò ò Jula woman PL NEG walk and scarf COP.NEG 3PL ŋgbhlo ma. head on ‘Jula women do not walk without scarf on the head.’
Absence of material (24).

(24) È fɛ́ é dùà ké làsò láò à ba.
3SG house ART put.PFV and cement COP.NEG 3SG.NSBJ in
‘He built the house without cement (in it).’

The examples (19)–(24) demonstrate the strategy used mostly in elicited examples. In these cases, the exact role of the absentee is specified by the postpositional phrase in the dependent clause. The role of absentee may not be specified, as in (25).

Absence of means of transportation (25).

(25) Lenè nù-à Lroŋla à gaan ma láò.
girl come-PFV Sukuruban<fnref n="1" /> 3SG.NSBJ foot on COP.NEG
ké mótó
and motocycle

‘The girl came to Sukuruban without a motocycle (because there
was no motocycle).’

The dependent clause may be strucutured as a relative one, as in (26) with relativizer lá in the main clause, for relative clausus in Mwan see Perekhvalskaya (2007).

(26) Dɔ́ɔ zi lá glìŋ zí ké glù liì.
1SG.COP road REL look.for PROG and hole on
láò à
COP.NEG 3SG.NSBJ

‘I am looking for a road without holes.’

In (26), the relativizer lá follows the head zi ‘road’, which has the
antecedent in the dependent clause the pronoun à (lì)ì ‘(on) it’.

<footnote n="1">¹ The Jula and official name of the Lroŋla village is Sukuruban.</footnote>
### 3.5. Competing strategies and lexical means

#### 3.5.1. Competing strategies

In many cases, several strategies may be used to encode the same meaning, cf. (27).

(27) a. *Srɔàsémi é dà-à glɔe ma ké à*
soldier ART return-PFV war on and 3SG.NSBJ
*gaan do làò.*
leg one COP.NEG
‘The soldier returned from the war without a leg.’ {a=b}

b. *Srɔàsémi é dà-à glɔe ma ké à*
soldier ART return-PFV war on COMIT 3SG.NSBJ
*gaan do kpú lé.*<fnref n="2" />
leg one piece with

In (27a), the caritive meaning is encoded by the copular clause, and in (27b) the construction with the noun *kpu* ‘piece’ is used.

Rather widespread is the strategy described by Maksim Fedotov for Gban: “Lexical means can also be employed — with a greater or lesser loss of semantic detail. For example, ‘The bus departed without me’ can be rendered in Gban as, literally, “The bus left me” (Fedotov 2020: 190). The same is also characteristic for Mwan, consider the following translations (28)–(29).

(28) [Stimulus: “The Abidjan bus goes without a stop in Kongasso”.]
*Bíjà goŋ é nu ké yaa duláá Kongopla.*
Abidjan car ART come and 3SG.NEG stop Kongasso
‘Abidjan bus comes and doesn’t stop in Kongasso.’

(29) [Stimulus: “He constructed the house without cement”.]
*È fɛ́ é dùà ké pèè lé.*
3SG house ART put.PFR COMIT clay with
‘He constructed the house with clay.’

<footnote n="2">² In (27b) and (29), the comitative frame construction ké ... lé ‘with’ is used.</footnote>
4. Discussion and conclusion

As it follows from the analysis given in the previous section, Mwan
has more diverse means of expressing caritive meanings than Gban
and Looma.

According to Fedotov, “Gban <...> has no specialized markers to express caritive semantics, neither affixes nor adpositions (Fedotov 2020: 18). To encode caritive semantics Gban uses multi-clausal periphrases and lexical means (see §3.5.2) as well as comitative postposition with clausal negation, “for example, ‘He’s working without a hoe’ can be rendered as, literally, “He’s not working with a hoe”” (Fedotov 2020: 19).

Looma also demonstrates the absence of special means of expressing
cartive meanings. “The main way to express caritive semantics is the
use of various constructions, which include negation. So, for example,
sentence <‘Koluma came without a husband’> literally is ‘Koluma
came, her husband did not come’, sentence <‘I went to the market
without money’> is ‘I went to the market, I had no money’. Both
sentences represent the only way to express the respective meanings
in Looma” (Mischenko 2020: 85).

It is worth comparing Mwan data to Bambara, which is perhaps
better described than most Mande languages, see also Bambara corpus
(Vydrin et al. 2011–2018).

There are two derivational suffixes in Bamabara that encode caritive
meaning: the participle suffix -bali and the adjective suffix -ntan. The
suffix -ntan is used in a more or less similar way to the Mwan suffix
-kle (§3.2.1), see (30).

(30) a. tìgi 'master' fàli tìgintan 'donkey without master (masterless donkey).'

b. pɔ̃n 'millet' gàtigi pɔ̃ntan 'householder without millet'.<fnref n="3" />

<footnote n="3">³ These and further Bambara examples from the Corpus of Bambara were
provided by Valentin Vydrin.</footnote>
The participle suffix -bali has no parallels in Mwan. It denotes
"negative agent or patient"<fnref n="4" />, see (31).

(31) Tìle bán-bali té.
sun finish-PTCP.PRIV COP.NEG

‘There are no days without end (lit: non-finishing suns (=days) do not exist).’

Other Mande languages, namely Gban, Looma and Dan (Vydrin, personal communication), do not possess similar caritive means. Still, it does not seem probable that the privative suffix -kle in Mwan would be a loan from Jula which is a widespread trade dialect of Bambara. In fact, being close by the meaning these suffixes (Mwan -kle and Bambara -ntan) are completely different in their forms which prevent us from making assumptions of a possible direct loan.

Another interesting parallel is the use of the Bambara postposition
kɔ́ ‘behind, after’ which also encodes the meaning ‘besides, except, in
the absence of’, see (32)–(33).

(32) Júgu té mɔ̃gɔ́ lá bàna-jugu kɔ́.
enemy COP.NEG man to illness-evil after
‘Man has no other enemy except for a dangerous disease.’

(33) À fɔ̃-rá ní kɔ́.
3SG fail-PFV.INTR 1SG after
‘He came in my absence.’ (Vydrin 2019: 78).

Here again we find a similarity in the way the primary meaning
‘after, behind’ is extended: ‘behind, after’ > ‘in the absence’ > ‘without’
(see §3.3). There is no information about the use of a postposition with

<footnote n="4">⁴ « Il exprime : - la valeur d’agent négatif <et> la valeur de patient négatif » (Vydrin 2019: 232), in other words, V-bali means ‘which does not V’ with intransitive verbs, cf. mɔ̃gɔ̃ kúma-bali ‘silent (non-speaking) person’ (kúma ‘to speak’) or ‘which is not V-ed’ with transitive verbs, cf. jóli fúrakɛ-bali ‘unhelaed wound’ (fúrakɛ ‘to heal’).</footnote>
the meaning ‘after’ in caritive constructions in other Mande languages. At the same time, the Mwan postposition *blaan* and the Bamabara *kɔ́* have no similarity in form. So, it is not the case of a direct loan. It should also be noted that in Mwan the caritive usage of *blaan* is rather widespread, see examples (13)–(18).

The comparison between natural and elicited examples in Mwan shows that caritive constructions with the suffix *-kle* and the postposition *blaan* differ from other strategies. Unlike the latter they are used in natural contexts, including traditional folk tales. On the contrary, in my corpus of natural texts there are no instances of the use of the negative copula *láò / làò* in caritive constructions. In the corpus, the negative copula is used only in existential negative constructions. The fact that the suffix *-kle* and the postposition *blaan* with the caritive meaning occur in traditional narratives seems important. These are functional styles less affected by French or town-styles of speech. The following conclusion can be made: these means are the only true caritive markers used in natural speech. The suffix *-kle* can be classified as a dedicated caritive means.

## Abbreviations

ART – article

COMIT – comitative

COP – copula

EMPH – emphatic pronoun

FOC – focalizer

FUT – future

INTR – intransitive

NP – noon phase

NEG – negation

NSBJ – non-subject pronoun

PL – plural

POSS – possessive pronoun

PFV – perfective

PROG – progressive

PTCP.PRIV – privative participle

REL – relativizer

SBJV – subjunctive

SG – singular

SPN – supine

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