Possession

Abstract

This paper compares the notion of "possession" as it is expressed in the verbs of Haitian Creole, French, and Fongbe (a West African language of the Kwa family). It is argued that the notion of possession in verbal semantics is best represented as an implicit argument, i.e., an argument that is present in the semantic representation, but not in the syntax. The implicit argument [POSSESSION] is ambiguous, allowing it to be manifested in the syntactic representation in different ways. The properties of the creole verbs are consistently parallel with those of the Fongbe verbs, and they are often in contrast with the properties of the French verbs. Since French and Fongbe are among the historical sources of Haitian Creole (Lefebvre & Lumsden 1989), these patterns have consequence for the evaluation of theories of creole genesis.

The Role of Relexification in Creole Genesis

“…This does not change the fact that the meaning and the c-command relations of Theme/Goal constructions are distinct from those of Recipient/Theme constructions, as demonstrated in Lumsden (1994) and the works cited there. That is, the lexical semantics and the syntactic properties of the French construction are clearly distinct from those of the Fongbe and the Haitian constructions, even though French does allow these (clearly derived) word order alternates that parallel the standard word orders of Fongbe and Haitian.…”

“…13 Relexification Exemplified in Haitian Verbs Lumsden (1994), observes that the French verb montrer 'to show' has a Theme/Goal argument structure, as in (3). (3) J' ai montré le livre à Paul. FRENCH I have show DET book to Paul 'I showed the book to Paul.…”

“…The Fongbe verb has a Recipient/Theme argument structure, illustrated in (4) (cf. Lefebvre, 1993;Lumsden, 1994).…”

“…On the other hand, in the Recipient/Theme construction, the Recipient c-commands the Theme (cf. Barrs & Lasnik, 1986;Lefebvre, 1993;14 These are argued to be Case phrases in Lumsden (1994), but the "preposition" label is provided here so as to avoid a pointless digression in the discussion. 15 These constructions also differ in their word order, as do the parallel constructions in English.…”

“…In Fongbe, however, a syntactic transformation allows a second word order, Theme/Recipient (cf. Lefebvre, 1993;Lumsden 1994). …”