The syntax of Igbo causatives
Subtitle: a minimalist account
By: Ogbonna Ndubuisi Anyanwu.
Series: Landmarks -- 2
Publisher: M & J Grand Orbit Communications
Published: 2007
Place of publication: Port Harcourt
Language: eng
Number of pages: 151
Subjects: Igbo language -- Causative
Description: The book examines causatives in Igbo within the Minimalist Program (Chomsky 1991, 1992, and 1993). It identifies three types of causative: the analytical causative, the morphological causative and the lexical causative.

Both the analytical and morphological causatives constitute what the book has referred to as the -me ‘do’ causatives. This is because the main VP of each of these two causative constructions is headed by the causative verbal element -me ‘cause’. It has been argued that the causative verbal element -me has a dual morphosyntactic status. In the analytical causative, -me functions as an autonomous verb while in the morphological one; it functions as a strong affixal light verb. This is a reflex of linguistic variation, which is internal in Igbo.

Using evidence from topicalization, clefting and pronominal subject clitic strategies, the book argues that the analytical causative construction consists of two clauses: a main clause and an embedded one. As earlier mentioned, the VP of the main clause is headed by the causative -me while the embedded VP can be headed by any transitive verb or intransitive verb. Thus, both the main verb and the embedded verb in the analytical construction are generated at different VP positions and they remain so throughout the course of their derivation. They are also assigned different thematic grids.

The -me morphological causative construction which is essentially monoclausal in overt syntax is however, derived from its analytical counterpart via incorporation or head movement (Marantz 1984, Baker 1988 and Li 1990) and it provides an alternative paraphrase option for the expression of the analytical causative. Hence it is the marked -me causative construction, consisting of the morphological causative verb, which is a product of a syntactically motivated word formation process that results in the creation of the morphological causative verb. In the formation of the morphological causative verb, the causative verbal element -me incorporates an intransitive verb but never a transitive one. Both the causative -me and the incorporated intransitive verb which, before incorporation headed two different VPs end up as a unit in overt syntax with a single thematic grid with their respective arguments becoming the arguments of the derived morphological causative verb.

The lexical causatives in Igbo are expressed through the use of causative verbs. In terms of morphological structure, a lexical causative verb can be bipositional (Hale, Ihionu and Manfredi 1995) or non-bipositional. It has however, been observed that the group of bipositional causative verbs constitutes the majority of lexical causatives in Igbo. While some bipositional causative verbs are just transitive, others alternate their transitivity. As should be expected, the transitive alternant of a bipositional verb is causative while the intransitive alternant is non-causative. The book argues in line with Minimalist assumptions that all the bipositional verbs are products of morphological merger in the Igbo lexicon.

The book is divided into five chapters. Chapter one is the general introduction while chapter two examines in some details the theory of causativity. Chapters three, four and five focus respectively on the analytical, morphological and lexical causatives in Igbo.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [141]-148) and index.