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Linglib.Phenomena.FillerGap.Studies.Scott2021

Scott 2021: Two Types of Resumptive Pronouns in Swahili #

@cite{scott-2021}

Two Types of Resumptive Pronouns in Swahili. Linguistic Inquiry 52(4): 812–833.

Core Claims #

Swahili distinguishes two types of resumptive pronouns:

  1. Movement copies (personless: -ye, -o): lower copies of Ā-movement chains, reduced by chain reduction at PF. Diagnosed by parasitic gap constructions — the "true gap" position must license movement, and the "parasitic gap" position shows personless resumptives.

  2. Base-generated bound pronouns (person-matching: -mi, -we, -si, -nyi): not copies — syntactically bound by the head of the RC. Diagnosed by adjunct islands — movement is blocked, so only binding is available, and bound resumptives obligatorily match person.

Analysis: Chain Reduction + MaxElide #

Following @cite{landau-2006} and @cite{van-urk-2018}:

DP Structure (Tree-Based) #

Pronouns: [DP D [NumP Num [nP n_anim [PersP Pers:x]]]] Lexical DPs: [DP D [NumP Num [nP n/n_anim [√P √]]]]

Modeled using Core.Tree DPCat String with Minimalism-grounded categories (D, Num, n, Pers).

Vocabulary Insertion (FeatureBundle-Based) #

Uses Minimalism.FeatureBundle and Morphology.DM.VI.vocabularyInsertSimple from the DM theory module. The Elsewhere Condition is structural: person- specified rules (specificity 3) beat personless defaults (specificity 2). Chain reduction removes person features from the bundle, so only the default matches.

Categories for DP-internal structure. Grounded in Minimalism categories but restricted to the four projections relevant to Bantu pronoun structure (@cite{scott-2021}).

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      1SG pronoun mi: [DP D [NumP Num:sg [nP n_anim [PersP 1]]]] @cite{scott-2021}.

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        2SG pronoun we: [DP D [NumP Num:sg [nP n_anim [PersP 2]]]]

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          Noun class 1 pronoun ye (no person): [DP D [NumP Num:sg [nP n_anim]]] @cite{scott-2021}. This is also the structure AFTER chain reduction deletes PersP from a 1SG/2SG pronoun.

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            Plural counterparts.

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                Delete the PersP subtree from a pronoun tree. This is what MaxElide does to movement copies: it removes the biggest deletable constituent, which is PersP (nP cannot be deleted because Num and n form a portmanteau — no VI exists for Num alone).

                Uses mutual recursion with list helpers so that tree operations reduce definitionally on concrete trees.

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                  Deleting PersP from a 1SG pronoun yields a class 1 pronoun.

                  Deleting PersP from a 2SG pronoun yields the same class 1 pronoun.

                  Deleting PersP from a 1PL pronoun yields a class 2 pronoun.

                  Class 1 pronoun has no PersP — deletion is idempotent.

                  Helper: does a feature bundle contain a person feature?

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                    Helper: extract the person level if present.

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                      Helper: is the number singular?

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                        Helper: does the bundle contain animacy?

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                          Swahili resumptive VI rules using the DM VocabItem type. @cite{scott-2021}. Person-specified rules have specificity 3 (checking 3 features); personless defaults have specificity 2. The Elsewhere Condition in vocabularyInsertSimple picks the most specific matching rule.

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                            Whether a pronoun occurrence is a movement copy (part of an Ā-movement chain). Only copies undergo chain reduction.

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                                Full pipeline: tree → (optional) MaxElide → feature extraction → VI.

                                • Bound pronouns: tree is unchanged → full features → person-matching VI
                                • Movement copies: MaxElide deletes PersP → reduced features → personless VI
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                                  Bound 1SG in adjunct island → person-matching -mi.

                                  Bound 2SG in adjunct island → person-matching -we.

                                  Bound 1PL in adjunct island → person-matching -si.

                                  Movement copy 1SG in parasitic gap → personless -ye.

                                  Movement copy 2SG in parasitic gap → also -ye. Person is irrelevant because chain reduction deletes PersP regardless.

                                  Both 1SG and 2SG movement copies produce the same form — chain reduction erases the person distinction.

                                  The complete derivation in one theorem:

                                  1. Start with 1SG pronoun tree (with PersP:1)
                                  2. MaxElide deletes PersP → tree matches class 1 structure
                                  3. Feature extraction yields [number:sg, gender:anim] — no person
                                  4. VI inserts -ye (specificity 2 default beats nothing more specific)
                                  5. The same tree, unreduced (bound), yields -mi (specificity 3 wins)

                                  Parasitic gap judgments per speaker. Each field encodes whether the combination (true-gap-form ... parasitic-gap-form) is accepted. @cite{scott-2021} Table 4.

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                                              All speakers accept ye...ye (Row 1); no speaker accepts mi...ye (Row 2) or ye...mi (Row 4). The parasitic gap requires the true gap to also be movement, and a movement true gap cannot license a bound parasitic pronoun.

                                              Both island constructions have overt resumptive pronouns — the difference is syntactic (movement vs. binding), not phonological (overt vs. gap). If islands were phonological, both -mi and -ye should be equally acceptable inside islands.

                                              Whether a DP layer can be deleted by MaxElide. Deletable iff the remaining material can be spelled out (a VI exists for the residue).

                                              • PersP: deletable (VI [sg + n_anim] ↔ -ye exists)
                                              • nP: NOT deletable (Num and n portmanteau; no VI for Num alone)
                                              • NumP/DP: never deleted (highest copy is pronounced)
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                                                MaxElide: "Elide the biggest deletable constituent." Trying from biggest (D) to smallest (Pers), PersP is the only deletable layer.

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                                                  Bound pronouns retain person features (no PersP deletion).

                                                  theorem Phenomena.FillerGap.Studies.Scott2021.movement_is_subset :
                                                  have fullFeats := extractFeatures pronTree1sg; have reducedFeats := extractFeatures (deletePersP pronTree1sg); List.length reducedFeats < List.length fullFeats (List.all reducedFeats fun (x : Minimalism.GramFeature) => decide (x fullFeats)) = true

                                                  If a language has both types with morphological distinction, the movement resumptive is featurally a proper subset of the bound resumptive (chain reduction only deletes).

                                                  Full pronoun alternation: bound -mi can alternate with full mimi, but movement -ye cannot alternate with yeye. Movement copies exist only to satisfy bimoraic minimality.

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                                                    "If the copied pronouns match in person, they also match in number" (@cite{scott-2021} §6). This follows from the DP structure: Num dominates PersP, so deleting PersP cannot affect Num. Conversely, if person survives (not deleted), then Num — being structurally higher — necessarily also survived.

                                                    The converse does NOT hold: number can be present without person (as in noun class pronouns / movement copies).