1. Toward a Typology of Niger Congo Complementation
Ron Schaefer, Reggie Duah and Francis Egbokhare
SIU Edwardsville, U of Ghana and U of Ibadan

2. Subordinate constituents as verb arguments, i. e
Subordinate constituents as verb arguments, i.e. complement clauses, have attracted some attention in the crosslinguistic literature (Ransom 1986, Wierzbicka 1988, Dixon 1991, Noonan 1985, 2007). Complements take two essential shapes: dependent clauses (that Kofi killed the chicken) or truncated clauses (Kofi’s killing a chicken, to kill a chicken, killing a chicken). Noonan, in particular, has advanced an initial typology, maintaining that while all languages exhibit complementation not all employ equal numbers and types of complementizers. Some languages differentially code sentence-like (S-like) complements, while others do not. Some languages reveal variation in their coding of truncated or infinitive-like (I-like) complements. Whatever the coding, distinctions within and among these types (relative to a matrix clause), reflect dependency relations bearing on independent/ dependent time reference, assertive/non-assertive epistemic commitment or realis/irrealis discourse assumption.

3. Very little investigation within Niger Congo studies has been devoted to verb arguments that are S-like. Some attention has been directed to Africa in general. For example, Creissels (2000) notes the strong tendency among African languages for S-complement markers to be realized by a grammaticalized form of a verb meaning ‘say.’ This condition appears to uniformly affect different verb classes, namely utterance and cognition verbs (say, think, know) as well as desiderative and manipulative verbs (want, wish, tell, ask, order). A similar Africa-wide focus is found in Watters (2000). He presents an initial and general overview of the syntax of complementation. For him, it is the relative frequency of parataxis and coordination as opposed to subordination that is revealing. With respect to subordination, he notes that S-complements occur more often than I-complements and that multiple S-complements appear in some African languages. He also finds that I-like complements in subject and direct object positions, while uncommon (relative clauses being favored), do occur. This complex set of impressions informs but does not determine our pursuit of the nature of S-complements in Niger Congo.

4. Clearly for this presentation our initial reach has exceeded our grasp
Clearly for this presentation our initial reach has exceeded our grasp. Our overarching goal to survey language families within Niger Congo using available grammars, dictionaries and text collections proved more problematic than expected. As the following pages attest, this goal was only partially fulfilled. Nonetheless, we have sought to ascertain the nature of complementation for a sample of Niger Congo languages for which example sentences have become available.
Our analysis of this sample has led us to recognize two competing tendencies for S-complement marking. How these tendencies are distributed across Niger Congo families remains for future study. Also for future study stands any attempt to postulate a complementation system for Niger Congo. With this presentation, we intend to direct attention to two basic patterns for S-complement marking. During the course of our presentation we characterize these contrasting patterns as distributive vs integrative.

5. As a first step toward presenting our modified goal, we review S-complement behavior in several Niger Congo languages. This is followed by an assessment of predication templates in these languages and of data sources that might prove most useful to advancing our understanding of complementation systems within Niger Congo.

6. Indicative pé, Subjunctive kí, ? Conditional pekí
Yoruba, West Benue Congo, Awobuluyi (1979), Rowlands (1969)
Indicative pé, Subjunctive kí, ? Conditional pekí
1. a. ó so pé òjò rò.
he say COMP rain fall
‘He said that rain fell.’
b. mo mò pé òjò rò.
I know COMP rain fall
‘I know that rain fell.’
c. nwón ní kí m máa lo.
they say COMP I should go
‘They said I should go away.’
d. ó gba ki o lo.
he agree COMP you go
‘He agrees that you should go.’

7. e. nwón fé kí e máa lo.
they want COMP you should go
‘They want you to go away / They wished that you would go away.’
f. ó ní kí a wá.
he say COMP we come
‘He asked us to come.’
g. ó so pekí a wá.
he say COMP we come
‘He asked that we come / asked if we would come/ asked us to come.’(face to face)

8. Kabre, Gur, Noonan (2007)
Indicative né (presupposed, implicative), Subjunctive zi (no implicative)
2. a. màlàbá àbàlú né ísé.
press.1SG.PERF man COMP run.3SG:SJUNCT
‘I forced the man to run.’ > ‘The man ran’
b. màlàbá àbàlú zi ísé.
‘I forced the man to run.’ > Ø

9. Indicative na, Subjunctive sí, Conditional ámpyí
Supyire, West Volta Congo, Carlson (1994)
Indicative na, Subjunctive sí, Conditional ámpyí
3. a. mu à jwo na mì à mu bó.
you PERF say COMP I PERF you kill
‘You have said that I have killed you.’
b. mìi a lì nyye na u nyy a cyììge mé.
I PERF it see COMP he NEG PERF be.smart NEG
‘I realized that he isn’t smart.’
  c. mìì lá mpyi sí yíirà àní me.
my desire was COMP get.up there NEG
‘I didn’t want to leave there.’ (Ø subject)
d. u nyye a cè ámpyí pyéérè sí m-pà mé.
she NEG PERF know COMP Pierre FUT FP-come NEG
‘She doesn’t know if Pierre will come.’

10. Indicative uku-ti, Subjunctive uku-ti
Bemba, Bantu, Givon (1972, 1990)
Indicative uku-ti, Subjunctive uku-ti
4. a. John a-a-ebele uku-ti n-ka-isa.
John sg-PAST-say COMP 1SG-FUT-come
‘John said that I will come.’
b. n-a-mu-ebele uku-ti n-a-boombele.
I-PAST-him-tell COMP I-PAST-WORK
‘I told him that I worked.’
c. n-dee-fwaaya uku-ti a-boomb-e.
I-PROG-want COMP he-work-SUBJUN
‘I wished (wanted) that he would work.’
d. n-dee-mu-fwaaya a-boomb-e.
I-PROG-him-want Ø he-work-SUBJUN
‘I wanted him to work.’

11. Indicative koò, Subjunctive koò
Kana, Cross River, Ikoro (1996)
Indicative koò, Subjunctive koò
5. a. m-kéèrè koò bòo é-doó.
I-think COMP rain DF-fall
‘I think it is going to rain.’
b. m-dáàb koò á-lu.
I-MOD:say.FACT COMP he:HORT-come
‘I can say that he should come.’
c. m-gbíí koò kpùgì á-lu.
I-want:FACT COMP money it-HORT-come
‘I want money to come / I wished that money would come.’

12. Indicative sɛ̀, Subjunctive sɛ̀, Conditional sɛ̀
Akan, Kwa, Duah, Agyekum (2002)
Indicative sɛ̀, Subjunctive sɛ̀, Conditional sɛ̀
6. a. Ama kà-à sɛ̀ Adwoa kɔ́ fíé.
Ama say-compl comp Adwoa go.hab home
‘Ama said that Adwoa goes home.’
b. Me susu sɛ̀ Kofi ntena Kumase.
I suggest COMP Kofi IMP.stay Kumasi
‘I suggest that Kofi should stay in Kumasi.’
c. me-pe sɛ̀ wo-nya sika firi adwadie mu.
I-want COMP you-get money from trading in
‘I wish that you get money from trading.’

13. Indicative khi, Subjunctive li, Conditional si
Emai, West Benue Congo, Schaefer and Egbokhare (2007, 2016)
Indicative khi, Subjunctive li, Conditional si
7. a. ólì òkpòsò één-í khí ólí ómóhé é' ólí émàè.
the woman PRP.know-F COMP the man PAP.eat the food
‘The woman knew that the man ate the food.’
b. ólì òkpòsò ò ó hòò lí ólí ómóhé è ólí émàè.
the woman SC C want COMP the man eat the food
‘The woman wants the man to eat the food/wishes the man would eat the food.’
c. ólì òkpòsò ò ó mìàà òhí sí ólí ómòhè é ólí émàè.
the woman SC C ask Ohi COMP the man PRP.eat the food
‘The woman is asking Ohi whether/if the man has eaten the food.’

14. Emai also shows S-complements that are obligatorily extraposed, though only indicative and subjunctive show this condition.
8. a. ò hùnmé khí ólì òkpòsò gbé ólí ényè.
it PRP.be.fortuitous COMP the woman PRP.kill the snake
‘It is fortuitous / good that the woman killed the snake.’
b. ò hùnmé lí ólí ókpósó gbè ólí ényè.
it PRP.be.fortuitous COMP the woman kill the snake
‘It would be good for the woman to kill the snake.’
‘It is good that the woman should kill the snake.’
c. *khí ólì òkpòsò gbé ólí ényè húnmé.
COMP the woman PRP.kill the snake PRP.be.fortuitous
‘That the woman killed the snake is fortuitous.’

15. Emai evinces I-like infinitival complements under a manipulative utterance verb for ‘tell’ and a permissive causative verb for ‘allow.’
9. a. ólí ókpósó ré' é ólí ómóhé è ólí émàè.
the woman PAP.CONC tell the man eat the food
‘The woman then told the man to eat the food.’
b. àlèkè zé ójé è ólí émàè.
Aleke PRP.allow Oje eat the food
‘Aleke allowed Oje to eat the food.’
c. àlèkè zé ólì àkàsán zèzè.
Aleke PRP.allow the pap thicken
‘Aleke allowed the pap to thicken.’

16. Discussion
Overall, our small language sample from across Niger Congo reveals two major contrasting patterns pertaining to S-complement marking. Four languages exhibited multiple S-complementizers. Three showed a single S-complementizer.
Pattern one languages overtly mark an S-complement according to syntactic-semantic function. They distinguish indicative marking with utterance and cognition verbs from subjunctive marking with desiderative and manipulative verbs. A central distinguishing role in these examples was mood, or what Noonan (2007) calls time reference dependency. A few pattern one languages also manifest a distinct marker for another type of complement where epistemic status was conditional or equivocal.
Pattern two is evident in the sample as well. It consists of languages with a single S-complement. It is neutral as to subordinate clause function, appearing with utterance, cognition and desiderative verbs. These two patterns can be discerned in Table I.

17. Table 1. Alignment of S-complement markers with their corresponding functions (IND=indicative, SBJU=subjunctive, COND=conditional) in selected Niger Congo languages.
IND
SBJU
COND
Yoruba (WBC) pé kí ?
Kabre (Gur) né zi
Supyire (W. VOLTA) na si
ampyi
Bemba (BANTU)
uku-ti
Kana (Cross)
koò
Akan (KWA) se
Emai (WBC)
khi li

18. The pattern one propensity for overtly differentiating S-complement types reflects a certain resistance to morphosyntactic integration of the sort advanced by Givon (1980). He proposed a Bondedness Hierarchy, whereby matrix and related complement clauses exhibited varying degrees of syntactic integration according to matrix verb type. Why should there be this resistance in Niger Congo? Why maintain a distributive relation between matrix and subordinate clause when a more integrative relation appears available typologically?

19. One approach to these questions may be to recognize that most of the languages in this sample also exhibit serial verb constructions. In at least one family, Edoid, both verb plus verb constructions and verb plus particle constructions serve as complex predicates. By their nature, serial verb predications do not simply repel integration and unification processes. They overtly recognize distinct relations that participants play in realizing events of various kinds. Verbs in series also overtly recognize distinct aspects of events, particularly those bearing on the articulation of event onset and completion as well as manner and end state. This propensity for distributivity in the articulation of events may be a much more vital and dynamic feature of predication systems than previously assumed. Why should this propensity not be manifest in the relations between S-complement arguments and their utterance/cognition or desiderative/manipulative matrix verbs? If distributivity controls the verb in series coding of noun phrase arguments relative to the expression of location and possession change or the articulation of causative instrument and information addressee, it can certainly control the coding of S-complement arguments.

20. Let us examine more closely this proposed resistance to morphosyntactic integration shown by the preference for distinct complement markers. Is morphosyntactic coding the only way to construe the matrix-complement clause relation? We would like to propose that lexical composition might be equally useful, if not more far reaching. Lexical composition, for our purposes, concerns the packaging of semantic material into an integrated single lexical unit or into a distributed, multi-element lexical format. Across languages, we might profitably compare lexical templates and their constituent elements in order to determine their distributive or integrative character. Through such analysis we could identify languages that lean toward either distribution or integration.
It is thus the lexical items existing or not existing across language types that may be revealing of a broader typological tendency. For example, Emai has no verbs manifesting any of the respective meanings ‘give,’ ‘take,’ ‘bring,’ ‘put,’ or ‘drop.’ Events related to these notions are framed by an object manipulation verb, e.g. roo ‘pick out’ nwu ‘take hold,’ ze ‘scoop,’ and either another verb in series or a postverbal particle. A similar situation obtains with Emai clausal complements. Relative to S-complements, Emai has no verb for, respectively, ‘say,’ ‘urge’ or ‘wonder.’ For states of affairs related to these meanings, Emai relies on the single utterance verb e in construction with markers for indicative, subjunctive and conditional S-complements. Thus where English employs a single verb to express a predicate, Emai relies on a multi-constituent predication.

21. 10. a. ólí ókpósó ré' é khì òjè é ólí émàè.
the woman PAP.CONC say COMP Oje PRP.eat the food
‘The woman said that Oje ate the food.’
b. ólí ókpósó ré' é sì òjè é ólí émàè.
the woman PAP.CONC say COMP Oje PRP.eat the food
‘The woman wondered whether Oje ate the food.’
c. ólí ókpósó ré' é lí ójé è ólí émàè.
the woman PAP.CONC say COMP Oje eat the food
‘The woman urged Oje to eat the food.’

22. To the degree that predications can be characterized as lexically distributive there will be resistance to processes that are lexically integrative. In this regard, one wonders whether such a lexical principle with syntactic manifestations is deeply embedded in Niger Congo or perhaps only in particular branches of Niger Congo.

23. The influence of contrasting lexical templates may have greater depth and scope than initially assumed. For instance, the distributive-integrative dimension is recognizable in Table I equivalents for desiderative WANT. In sample sentence translations, English speakers resist use of a that clause with WANT and so reveal a strong propensity for integration, i.e. want x to rather than want that. Many African speakers see no problem with ‘want that’ translations, thereby revealing their distributive bias. There is also some evidence from Emai that a preference for overt complementation extends to CAUSE predications. Consider the examples in 11 with the cause form ze in construction with Emai’s indicative and subjunctive complement marker. These S-complement structures in addition to the I-complement forms shown previously in (9b-c) are the only predication types that ze allows. Unlike the English example with WANT, these Emai examples reveal the strength and breadth of the propensity to employ a predication template based on distribution rather than integration.

24. 11. a. émé' ó zé-í' khì òjè híán óràn?
what it PAP.cause-F IND Oje PRP.cut wood
‘Why did Oje cut wood?’
b. émé' ó zé-í' lí ójé ré' híán óràn?
what it PAP.cause-F SUBJ Oje PAP.CONC cut wood
‘Why should Oje cut wood?’

25. Assuming there is substance to the notion of contrastive lexical templates, pattern two languages present fertile ground for future investigation of their predications. The lexical template realized in pattern two languages would subtly favor the arrangement of semantic components that are gradually becoming more integrated. If this is so, there are a host of questions. For example, what is the distribution of pattern two among Niger Congo languages as a whole or within phyla families? Is there a consistent correlation in pattern two languages between lexical templates underlying their S-complements and the nature of their serial verb predications? In other words, might the system for serial verbs in pattern two languages differ in some respects from the system in pattern one?

26. Now, let us return briefly to the proposed strength of parataxis in African languages and the assumption that it should be equally strong in Niger Congo languages. On the basis of our sample, including the data from Kana and Akan, we would argue for hypotaxis and against simple parataxis. For us the question becomes, why didn’t we see more evidence of parataxis in our admittedly small sample of languages?

27. One possible answer is that other language phyla in Africa could be the dominant source of the Watters’ generalization regarding the prevalence of parataxis. Perhaps Afroasiatic and Khoisan languages and their descriptive grammars display parataxis more than hypotaxis.
Alternatively, it could be that the supposed dominance of parataxis is a consequence of the genre from which taxis data has been culled. For instance, a language description relying primarily on linguistic behavior evident in conversation might lend itself to parataxis quite naturally. Conversation places a premium on economy of expression, ellipsis and simplicity in the formal outlay of information. One can well imagine that linguistic behavior under a conversational circumstance would contrast along certain dimensions with linguistic behavior obtained from storytelling, especially that of oral tradition narratives, as a genre. In the latter, economy of expression is less favored and stands behind a more iconic presentation of information in order to capture audience attention and to convey complex cultural truth. Whether descriptive grammars of Niger Congo languages rely any more on conversational genre than other genres awaits a rainy day.

28. In fact, however, the parataxis-hypotaxis continuum represents a potentially rich arena for future investigation. Might the morphosyntactic complexity represented by S-complement marking be diluted in conversation? And if so, how do multiple S-complementizers relate to paratactic processes. Are all complements equally susceptible to deletion? Perhaps dialect studies and other forms of language learning would provide insight into this broader question of the relation between subordination and genre type.

29. While our findings at this juncture are extremely preliminary, we would like to advance the notion that the earliest forms of Niger Congo reflected two basic patterns of overt marking for S-complements. How the single marker or multiple marker paradigms are distributed across Niger Congo language families remains for more extensive future investigation. We suspect, however, that certain families within Niger Congo were probably more like Emai and Supyire than they were like Akan and Kana. At the same time, some families were probably more like Akan and Kana than Emai and Supyire. Such a complex impression seems more viable at this moment than postulating a single marking paradigm for the entire phylum. And despite our lack of discussion of I-complements, it is also our initial impression that Niger Congo showed both S-like and I-like complementation. Beyond this, however, we have too little data to determine what grammatical relations are most frequently associated with I-complements and what verb types govern those relations.

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