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Non-finiteness in Saamáka
- Author(s): Marleen Susanne van de Vate 1 and Tonjes Veenstra 1
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View Affiliations Hide AffiliationsAffiliations:1 ZAS Berlin
- Source: Finiteness Matters , pp 189-210
- Publication Date August 2016
In this paper we demonstrate that the creole language Saamáka does exhibit the finite vs. non-finite distinction by analysing the semantic characteristics and syntactic distribution of complementizer fu. We adopt a Klein style analysis of finiteness and argue that clauses embedded under this complementizer lack the features Assertion and Topic Time, and, hence, that these clauses are nonfinite. Based on this semantic analysis, we propose to split up the Fin-head and demonstrate that complementizer fu is base-generated in the higher Fin-position. As a result, we claim that our analysis calls for a richer lower C-domain than previously assumed in the literature.
- Affiliations: 1: ZAS Berlin
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