Claire Moyse-Faurie

Valency

published or not. The documents may come

Introduction

This article provides an overview of valency classes and valency alternations in Xârâcùù1 and tries to describe the main developments which are still perceivable and which explain the great variety and some of the specificities found in Xârâcùù verb classes.

Xârâcùù is spoken by about 6000 people living in the Canala and Thio areas of the Mainland of New Caledonia, and belongs to the Southern subgroup of Proto New Caledonian, itself one of the main subgroups of Proto Oceanic, which is part of the Austronesian language family.

The article is organized as follows: Section 2 summarizes general information on morphosyntactic aspects of Xârâcùù relevant to valency, in contrast to those of other New Caledonian/Kanak languages2 and to Proto Oceanic. Section 3 describes Xârâcùù"s major verb classes, and discusses the sample obtained from the database questionnaire. Section 4 deals with uncoded argument alternations, while section 5 describes valency-changing devices. In section 6, verb compounds stemming from former serial verb constructions are presented. Section 7 raises the problem of distinguishing between adjuncts and oblique objects in a language which does have any anaphoric verbs. A final conclusion summarizes the major results.

Basics of Xârâcùù morphosyntax

According to Pawley & Reid (1979) and Ross (2004a), the basic word order reconstructed for Proto Oceanic is S s V o O ( s and o are the obligatorily person forms that index subject and object arguments and are coreferential with the optional lexical subject (S) and object (O), respectively). Moyse-Faurie & Ozanne-Rivierre (1983), however, reconstructed s V o O smS word order for Proto New Caledonian (sm is the subject marker preceding the optional lexical subject). In Xârâcùù, the basic word order changed to SVO 3 , without any cross-referencing index (1a). The subject, however, can still occur after the verb phrase, if it is introduced by the subject marker ngê 4 . In this configuration, a coreferential argument index must occur in front of the verb (as shown in 1b), and the postposed subject is preceded by a short pause, and has a falling intonation contour, a typical case of topicalization by right dislocation. In Xârâcùù, this type of subject topicalization is available for mono-, bi-or trivalent verbs. Preverbal subject indexes are also compulsory when the subject is topicalized by fronting (1c). 5

1a.

Mûduè-nâ pwâxwâ néxä kèè-xê. young.brother-1SG very know NMLZ-swim "My little brother knows how to swim very well." 1b.

Rè pwâxwâ néxä kèè-xê, ngê mûdué-nâ. 3SG very know NMLZ-swim SM young.brother-1SG "He knows very well how to swim, my little brother."

3 However, existential and non-existential clauses (i), as well as nominal clauses (ii) are still verb initial. (i)

Wâ siè aguu-söö. PFV non.exist sound-song "Songs have stopped." [Songs are no longer sung.] (ii)

Pepe-nâ taa rö difference-1SG FROM 2SG "I am different from you." 4 The preposition ngê also introduces diverse oblique arguments and adjuncts (cf. § 3.2.3.5). 5 Abbreviations (which are not included in the Leipzig Glossing Rules conventions) are the following: ANAPH anaphoric, COLL collective (human), DEIC deictic, DIR directional, IPERS impersonal (pronoun), REC recipient marker, SM subject marker.

1c.

Mûduè-nâ, rè pwâxwâ néxä kèè-xê. young.brother-1SG 3SG very know NMLZ-swim "My little brother, he knows how to swim very well."

In all other grammatical contexts, there is no argument indexing on the verbno cross referencing of arguments on verbs -, although this feature is frequent in Oceanic languages. Xârâcùù has also lost several other major Oceanic characteristics. Transitivity, for example, is not formally marked on the verb, contrasting in this feature with most New Caledonian languages, and Oceanic languages more generally. Furthermore, there is no verbal morphology depending on the grammatical status or the degree of animacy of the object argument as is found, for example, in the Loyalty Islands languages. Thus, Xârâcùù has lost the productive applicative and transitivizing Proto Oceanic suffixes; only one reflex of these suffixes has been retained, the -ri suffix (cf. §5.2.1), which itself fossilized in a few cases. TAMfeatures do not interfere with alignment patterns in Xârâcùù, in contrast with the languages of the Loyalty Islands such as Drehu (Moyse-Faurie 1983) or Iaai (Ozanne-Rivierre 1976).

On the other hand, Xârâcùù shares some characteristics with other Oceanic languages, such as those described by Margetts (2007), which directly concern this valency study:

(i) There are few basic (i. e. non-derived) bivalent verbs, with two participants expressed as direct arguments of the verb, and no three-place predicates occurring with a direct argument strategy (i.e., trivalent verbs with three participants expressed as direct arguments of the verb).

(ii) There is a productive causative derivation strategy, deriving bivalent verbs from monovalent verbs or from nominals; in most of the Oceanic languages, there are, however, very few cases of trivalent verbs derived by a causative strategy, in contrast to the lack of relevant restrictions in Xârâcùù.

(iii) The "extended transitive" configuration, in which the verb takes two direct arguments and a third participant as an oblique argument or adjunct, or one direct argument plus one oblique argument, is well attested. Margetts (2007:88) and Margetts and Austin (2007:400) point out difficulties in making a clear distinction between oblique arguments and adjuncts in these languages. We return to this crucial point in §7.

Xârâcùù has productive serial verb constructions, restricted to verbs with a shared subject; no morpheme is allowed to occur between two or more serialized verbs. This nuclear-layer verbal serialization6 gave (and still gives) rise to (i) prepositions, (ii) to verbal modifiers (directionals, aspectual or manner adverbs) and (iii) to verbal compounds.

A question of terminology remains to be settled. We need to make a distinction between valency classes (= verb classes), which are relevant at the lexical level, and the constructions in which a verb may occur. Valency classes should be differentiated from constructions, since, due to possible alternations, one and the same verb may enter different types of constructions. Malchukov et al. (2010) among others use "ditransitive" for constructions as well as for verb classes,7 though trivalent verbs may occur in transitive and in intransitive constructions. Similarly, monovalent verbs may occur both in impersonal and in intransitive constructions, and bivalent verbs may occur in transitive and in intransitive constructions with only one argument expressed (either the subject or the object), or with different marking on the object, and so on and so forth. The bivalent class assignment is only due to the fact that it may occur with two (but no more than two) arguments. Consequently, I will use "avalent", "monovalent", "bivalent" and "trivalent" as terms for the verb classes ("valency classes" properly speaking), and "impersonal", "intransitive", "(mono)transitive" and "ditransitive" as terms for the constructions in which a verb occurs.

Below are listed the 70 English verbs with their role frame as specified in the questionnaire, along with the Xârâcùù verbs, their basic case frame, and specific alternations (others than the general ones, such as the causative alternation) they allow.

gloss

S V CLIMB A clims (up L) péré S V (loc L) (A)telic COUGH S coughs chéxô (Co) S V BLINK S blinks nimè S V SHAVE A shaves (his beard) xii S V / S V O Ambitr DRESS A dresses P famwâmwâ (Caus) S V O WASH A washes P ngûrû S V O Reflexive EAT A eats P da kê 2 S V O S V O Conative Conative HELP A helps X ciiwi poa (preverb) S V O S poa V O taa X Recip FOLLOW A follows X fèèté (Co) S V O MEET A meets X pùùtè S(pl) V S 1 and S 2 V HUG A hugs P satee (Co) S V O SEARCH FOR A searches for X piicè (Co) S V O THINK A thinks about X nârâ S V O KNOW A knows P néxä S V O LIKE/WANT E likes M xwèrii S V O FEAR E fears M bata S V (taa O) Applic FRIGHTEN A frightens P fabata (Caus) S V O SMELL E smells M bu S V O LOOK AT A looks at P téé fè/mê S V Dir O SEE E sees M xâpârî (Co) téé tara S V O S V O S V O TALK A talks (to X) (about Y) tèpe S V (xù R) (wâ O) ASK FOR A asks (X) for Y nââ nêgé S V O (taa X) S V O xù R SHOUT AT A shouts at X xangââ (Co) S V ngê O xù R TELL A tells (X) Y faxwata (Caus) sömârâ (Co) S V ngê O xù R S V ngê O xù R SAY A says "..." (to X) ché S V (nä)mè O (xù/wâ R) NAME A name X (a) Y xacè (Co) S V O (ngê I) BUILD A builds P (out of X) xwi S V/ S V O (ngê I)
(from X) pè S V O (taa X) STEAL A steals T (from X) pêdè (Co?) S V O (taa X) Dative TEAR A tears P (from X) chètia (Co) S V O (loc L) Recip PEEL A peels (X off) P cee coa S V O S V O WIPE A wipes T (off X) jee S V O (loc L) HIDE A hides T (from X) sûûârâ S V O (taa X) SHOW A shows T (to R) xacië (Co?) S V O (xù R) GIVE A gives T to R xù S V O (xù R) S V O (êê- /ngêê-R) SEND A sends T (to X) nû S V O xù R/loc L CARRY A carries T (to X) pè mê/fè (Dir) S V O loc R THROW A throws T somewhere (L) gwéré tê S V O loc L S V O

Abbreviations:

-Verbs: Causcausative, Cocompound verb, Dirdirectional, loclocative preposition, Nnominal, PreVpreverb.

-Specific alternations: Ambitrambitransitive, Recipreciprocal, Applicapplicative.

Practically all the verbs may be combined with the causative prefix (cf. §5.2.2), and with one or several of the nominalizing prefixes. The object omission alternation is also very frequent (cf. §4.3).

Valency classes

Quite a few Xârâcùù verbs can enter different types of constructions, without derivation; each construction has correlates in terms of the semantic role of the arguments. Such alternations will be considered after a brief presentation of each of the valency classes.

There are no avalent verbs in Xârâcùù, but as we will see later ( §4.1.1), some monovalent verbs may occur in an impersonal construction.

Monovalent verbs

The main two subcategories of monovalent verbs match the actor subject argument and the undergoer subject argument distinction, with dynamic verbs in (2), and nondynamic verbs in (3). In both cases, the subject may refer to an animate entity (2a and 3a) or to an inanimate one (2b and 3b). When causativized, the undergoer argument becomes the object of the derived verb, and an agent is added as subject argument (cf. §5.2.2). Labile verbs, by contrast, do not have to be derived in order to undergo this semantic alternation (cf. §4.1.). Monovalent verbs mainly denote positions or movements 9 (cuè "sit", tââ "stand", pûxûrû "run"), natural events (xwa "fall (rain)", mutu "sink"), physiological or communicative manifestations (nimè "blink", mêrê "be hungry", paii "feel pain", têî "cry", xô "sing", xùpè "feel cold", mwârâ "laugh", "play"), inherent reciprocity (pùùtè "meet"), and qualities (mëtë "be dry"), since Xârâcùù only has a handful of adjectives. 10 Some of the Xârâcùù monovalent verbs are compounds, such as chéxô 8 Xârâcùù does not have specific pronominal forms for different functions (such as object, subject or possessive), except for the tonic forms, and the 2 nd singular subject form (cf. Table 1). Hence, in the glosses, I will only indicate the number and person of the pronominal forms. 9 These verbs, denoting body positions or movements, do not require complements, and most often occur in nuclear-layer verbal constructions: Ru wâ chaga cuè. 3DU PFV warm.oneself.in.the.sun sit "They are warming themselves sitting in the sun." 10 Xârâcùù has no auxiliary verbs. Qualities are expressed by adjectival verbs, which behave as stative verbs but can also directly determine nouns, with the exception of six adjectives (ché "say" + xô "sing") "cough", paiimè (paii "be sick" + mè "completely") "die", nârâyaa (nârâ "think" + -yaa "badly") "be sad", cîchéé (cî-< cîîrî "fly" + chéé "go down") "jump", etc.

Bivalent verbs

Bivalent verbs with direct objects

Let us turn now to non-derived bivalent verbs and look at the meaning of their direct objects. Oceanic languages are well known for allowing direct objects of bivalent verbs referring not only to patient, but also to location, goal, or cause, as long as they have been derived by one of the transitive or applicative suffixes. Xârâcùù, however, has at least two dozen non-derived bivalent verbs, which are still very few compared to Indo-European languages. Such non-derived bivalent verbs taken from the list are bu "smell", cee "peel", ciiwi "help", da or kê "eat", jee "wipe", nârâ "think", néxä "know", ngûrû "wash", pè "take", suè "put", téé "see", cee or coa "peel", xwêê "pour", xwèrii "want", "like"; and also chavaa "pay attention to", fùtù "to make fool of", nèi "lay out", wîjö "drink", xöyö "marry", xwata "hear", tê "throw", etc. Note that some of these verbs do not belong to the prototypical transitive situations. Besides, the Xârâcùù verbs translating the action "to kill" (described as the prototypical verb of the transitive construction) are compounds which necessarily include the expression of the means or of the gesture involved in the killing. These verbs are thus semantically and morphologically complex.

The non-derived bivalent verbs occur with direct objects, referring mainly to location (4), goal (5-6) or patient (7-8) participants:

-location:

4.

Siibù cura bwasituu rè sêgè. rat creep heap POSS stone "The rat is creeping away under the stones." -goal: which specify nouns but cannot occur as predicates, such as dö "true, genuine" (dö ku "yam of value") or mwîî "important" (mwîî aaxa "big chief"), all belonging to the main semantic domains (age, size, value) listed by Dixon (1977).

5.

Nâ and turn+crush IPFV grain-coffee "We used to grill and grind coffee beans." However, transitive constructions with a direct object are mostly attested with predicates resulting from compounding, such as fèèté "follow", fîda "hit", fîgai "beat", jikörö "break", piicè "search for", sakai "touch", satee "hug", söömè "kill", söpuru "cut", xâpârî "see", and such as bikörö in (8), or from a causative derivation, as in fabata "frighten", famwâmwâ "dress", faxûda "fill". I will return to verb compounding in §6, and to causativation in §5.2.2.

Reflexive verbs

A few truly reflexive verbs (reflexivum tantum verbs) only occur in a superficially transitive construction, in which the object can only be a pronominal which must be coreferential with the subject: pètù or pètoa "boast", pitèri "roll on the floor"; and the compound verbs bachëe "be unsuccessful (of a speech)", bagwéré "be successful (of a speech)" and gwébasùù "bump, bounce along". The meaning of these verbs is either reflexive as in ( 9) and (10), or inchoative (11).

9.

Ke pètù rö tiwâ panèè-rö. 2SG boast 2SG LOC father-2SG "You think you're your father?" (Lit. you are boasting up to your father) 10.

Nâ pitèri nâ. 1SG roll 1SG "I am rolling (on the floor)."

11.

Tèpe bachëe è. talk miss 3SG "The talk was unsuccessful."

Bivalent verbs with an oblique object

Among bivalent verbs which occur with an oblique object, one must distinguish between verbs which require such an oblique argument, and verbs which simply allow it. Oblique arguments are introduced by various prepositions, most of them resulting from the grammaticalization of the second verb of former serial verb constructions. Some of these prepositions have other uses than introducing oblique arguments. I already mentioned the difficulty in differentiating adjuncts and obliques in a language without anaphoric/auxiliary verb constructions (cf. note 9). Since there are no such verbs in Xârâcùù that would allow adjuncts to be moved out into a clause, we will see if other criteria can be put forward in order to differentiate adjuncts from oblique arguments (see §7.). I will first present the most frequent prepositions that may introduce oblique objects of bivalent verbs, mentioning their origin12 and different uses, along with examples of bivalent oblique-object verbs.

Xârâcùù makes fine coding distinctions among verb classes due to the availability of different oblique prepositions, each with a specific semantic role and various functions (cf. Table 2). The main prepositions which may introduce oblique arguments (but often also have other functions) are presented below.

Before examining in detail each of these prepositions, I must first consider the following point. As we will see, several of these prepositions can either be expressed in front of the noun phrase they introduce, or be included in the verb phrase, separated from their argument by another argument, a tense marker or an adverb. The question of their status is then raised:13 when included in the verb phrase, are these morphemes applicative suffixes? I would answer no for the following reasons. First, the inclusion into the verb phrase is always optional. Second, there is no difference in meaning. Third, when topicalized, the prepositional arguments keep their prepositions, except for the subjects, as in example (1c). In Xârâcùù, the optional inclusion of prepositions into the verb phrase is merely a morphological cliticization process. None of these prepositions have a genetic affiliation with the Proto Oceanic applicative suffixes, except, putatively, ngê (see note 16 below). When they originate in a verb (xù, tara, nârâ, taa), the most likely explanation of their optional inclusion into the verb phrase is that they keep the position they had in a serial pattern, before they were grammaticalized into prepositions. If these morphemes were applicative suffixes, they could occur even without an overt argument, and this is never the case in Xârâcùù.

Another hypothesis would be to explain the cliticization of the Xârâcùù prepositions as a change from adpositions to adverbs, similar to the one described by Craig and Hale (1988) in some Amerindian languages, in which "relational adverbs" come from postpositions. This explanation is not adequate here, since, as I already said, the preposition can never occur without its argument, and conveys the same meaning whatever its position. When the preposition is included into the verb phrase, the focus is on the noun phrase it is related to, whereas when the preposition occurs with the noun phrase, the focus is on the event described by the verb. I agree that the focus on the noun phrase when the preposition is cliticized is reminiscent of the orientation towards a specific object (generally a non-patient one) induced by applicatives, but I still think that, synchronically, the prepositions that can cliticize are always plain prepositions, whatever their position.

3.2.3.1. Addressee/recipient/beneficiary preposition xù (< xù "give")

In his 1985 article, Lichtenberk mentions several Oceanic languages which have grammaticalized a benefactive/recipient marker from the verb "give", reconstructed in Proto Oceanic as *pani/*pañi. The Xârâcùù verb xù "give" is not cognate with the Proto Oceanic form, but has still undergone a similar development. In all the other New Caledonian languages, the benefactive marker has a different origin, being either identical to a possessive marker, or to a locative preposition. In Xârâcùù as well, beneficiaries may be expressed as possessors in specific noun phrase constructions (cf. §4.2.2.)

Xù introduces oblique objects (mainly referring to the addressee) of some bivalent verbs: verbs of communication such as nîmö "tell a story", ngââ "cry out", yaaru "set riddles", xa "speak" and also baa "show oneself, appear". With bivalent verbs, xù occurs immediately before the oblique object.

12.

Nâ nîmö xù chaa kâmûrû. 1SG tell.story BEN one man "I am telling the story of a clan to someone."

13.

Anyââ xa xù xûûchî a. Mummy speak BEN child DEIC "Mummy speaks to this child."

The use of this marker in combination with trivalent verbs will be discussed later (cf.

§3.3.1.1). In ditransitive constructions, xù can be placed either within the verb phrase after the predicate, or immediately before its argument.

3.2.3.2. Disassociative/disattributive preposition taa (< witaa "throw away, take off")

Taa has a disassociative14 meaning, "off", "away from", the exact opposite meaning of the attributive/beneficiary preposition xù. 15 It may also convey a modal meaning, mainly as a postverb: "once and for all", "getting rid of sth.", denoting the termination of the action of the verb; besides, it is part of numerous verbal compounds, as a second element; finally, it occurs in comparative phrases, introducing the standard of comparison.

A few bivalent verbs require a following object introduced by taa: könyi "avoid something", mawâ "avoid a blow", mwâ "avoid s.th. thrown", mä "be discouraged with", chörè "pass", tecâ "leave someone", mââî "precede", bata "fear".

14.

Nâ könyi chaapu na taa loto. 1SG avoid suddenly PST OFF car "I got out of the way of the car." The relational noun pepe-"be different" also requires an oblique argument introduced by taa:

15.

Dui, va pepe-è taa Dapé. As a preposition, tara introduces oblique objects with a goal or directive meaning. In (16c), it occurs after the past tense marker which ends the verb phrase: 16c.

Nâ piaxô mwâmwaa na tara dèèri. 1SG whistle long PST GOAL people "I was whistling to the people (to get their attention)."

Other word orders are allowed, with inclusion of the preposition into the verb phrase: nâ piaxô mwâmwaa tara na dèèri as well as nâ piaxô tara na dèèri mwâmwaa are alternatives. Note that if tara immediately follows the verb, the temporal adverb mwâmwaa "long time" is then peripheralized out of the verb phrase.

The variety of positions allowed for prepositions such as tara, along with the fact that most prepositions may still occur as main verbs, shows the difficulty we encounter in differentiating serial verbs from verb + preposition sequences, not to mention the status of the complements the preposition introduces.

Pertentive 16 preposition tùù/-dùù

This preposition means "about", "concerning", "with regard to", "in connection with", and belongs to the set of prepositions for which it is difficult to determine if they introduce adjuncts or oblique objects. It seems to have an oblique use after verbs such as bere "be angry", pia "fight for"; mââ "struggle", tèpe "speak about"; têî "cry for", xati "quarrel for". When following a verb with a final nasal vowel, the initial stop /t/ of the preposition changes to a prenasalized stop /d/ ([ n d]) and the preposition cliticizes to the verb. The last two prepositions mentioned in this chapter each have several uses. Their origin is uncertain, possibly nominal rather than verbal.

The multifunctional preposition ngê

Ngê 17 introduces oblique objects (most often referring to the theme) of bivalent verbs such as jana "to trade", sôôbö "fool with", cîîrî "dispose, set out", etc.

18.

Ri xwi kaasé rè mwè […] nä ri wâ cîîrî ngê döu wânîî. 3PL make heap POSS taro then 3PL PFV dispose INS thing all "They make heaps of taros [they make heaps of sea products…] and then they dispose of all these things."

In this oblique use, ngê may be placed within the verb phrase or immediately before the oblique: In (19a), the focus is on the object of the trading, that is the taros, while in (19b), the focus is on the action of trading. 18 I have already mentioned the use of ngê introducing a postposed subject as in (1b). It also introduces instrumental (means) adjuncts as in (20a, 20b and 20c), and temporal adjuncts as in (20d). 17 Ngê might have some syntactic affinity and phonological correspondences with the Tukang Besi oblique preposition kene "instrument", itself cognate with the applicative "(co-)agent" clitic =ngkene (Donohue, 2001:220 These different uses have correlates and restrictions concerning the position of the argument or adjunct, and the (in)separability of the preposition from the phrase it introduces. As an instrumental preposition or as an oblique object marker, ngê can be separated from its complement, while as a subject marker or as a temporal adjunct marker, it cannot.

3.2.3.6. Wâ "about", "at" Wâ introduces oblique arguments with verbs of emotions (ooro "rejoice at", bere "be angry at" 19 , kwèche "be worried about", etc.), verb of unpleasant attitudes (virè "wrong 19 A verb such as bere "be angry" can have different oblique arguments introduced by different prepositions. Compare (i), in which the oblique argument is the direct cause of the anger felt by the experiencer, with (ii) in which the oblique argument is introduced by the pertentive preposition tùù, being no longer the direct cause of the anger. Both prepositional phrases may occur in the same sentence (iii):

(i) È bere wâ kwêê-rè. 3SG angry AT wife-3SG "He is angry at his wife."

s.o.", gîî "injure, damage", chèfa "disobey", mêmè "be jealous", nêê "be fussy (about food)", etc.), and a few verbs of communication (tèpe "speak about", xanyê "insult", jaxûju "make fun of"). A possible origin of the preposition wâ could be the relational noun wâ-"inner", "form" (cf. §4.2.1). Wâ also introduces different types of adjuncts, spatial or temporal locatives, either by itself (23) or combined with purely locative prepositions such as kè "(coming) from", tö "in the direction of", forming complex prepositions such as kèwâ "among", töwâ "about", etc.

21

23.

Nâ miiri mè ke toa wâ chêêdè. 1SG refuse COMP 2SG arrive AT evening "I don"t want you to come in the evening." 3.2.3.7. Nârâ "for", "in order to" (< nârâ "think", "intend")

The verb nârâ "think", "intend" has grammaticalized into a preposition but still occurs as a verb with a clausal complement: 24a.

Nêmwâ PURP food-POSS.3PL sea.products "They are together walking all over the reef to find shells to eat."

Cè also forms compounds with a few verbs, such as xa-cè "call" (xa "speak"), pii-cè "search for" (= pisi cè), xwi-cè "try" (xwi "exist, make").

Trivalent verbs

Trivalent verbs with two unmarked objects are said to be rare in Oceanic languages: "There are a large number of Oceanic languages that have no ditransitive or extended transitive verbs at all. This tendency may be related to the typological characterization of Oceanic languages as preferring intransitives, which was suggested by Margetts (1999) following Nichols (1982; 1984a; 1984b)" (Margetts 2007:124). Following Malchukov et al. (2010), I will try to distinguish the different types of trivalent verbs according to their alignment types. As already mentioned, there are no three-place predicate (direct-argument) strategies in Xârâcùù, but two oblique strategies (R-type oblique and T-type oblique) are well attested. According to Malchukov et al. (2010:2) "the most typical ditransitive constructions contain a verb of physical transfer such as "give", "lend", "hand", "sell", "return" […], some verbs denoting a mental transfer such as "show" or "tell", […] and less central transfer verbs such as "offer", "bequeath" and "promise"". Xârâcùù has such verbs of physical or mental transfer occurring in ditransitive constructions, with one or the two object arguments expressed as obliques.

One oblique argument in addition to the direct object

Indirective alignment, with Theme(T) = Patient(P) as direct arguments, and the Recipient(R) introduced by a preposition (T=P vs. xù/taa+R) is the most common pattern for this type of trivalent verbs.

The word order is most often V T xù/taaR, but whatever the word order and the syntactic category of the recipient, the alignment does not change.

Beneficiary/recipient argument

The recipient is always an animate being. Whatever its ["its" refers to "recipient", is it ok?] syntactic category may be, it may be introduced by the preposition xù. The following verbs can occur with a direct object (the theme) and an oblique object (the recipient): xù "give", numârâ "offer", "give away", su "write", suè "entrust", xipwèi "announce", xwi "do s.th. for s.o.", "prepare", nêgé "request respectfully", xacië "show", nû "send", xâdùù "pay", etc. The theme is unmarked and the beneficiary/recipient is introduced by the preposition xù. In ( 27), only the theme (kwé) is expressed, while in ( 28) and ( 29 The position of the recipient/benefactive marker may vary. In (30a), it precedes its argument (nâ "1sg"), but in (30b), it cliticizes onto the verb, and is separated from its argument (nû, allomorph of nâ "1sg" when occurring after the past tense marker na) by the past tense marker: 30a.

Ke In these examples, both the verb xù "to give" and the preposition xù are expressed in the same clause. 20

Disassociative (non-beneficiary) argument

This construction, with the non-beneficiary introduced by the preposition taa, is found with verbs such as pè "take", pêdè "steal", fatere "ask", nââ "ask for sth.", sûûârâ "hide", xanöè "ask for permission", etc. 20 Note that the verb xù "give" may have non-predicative uses, and occur after the preposition taa, that is, the preposition just opposite in meaning to the beneficiary preposition xù:

È dii taa xù döu nä. 3SG refuse OFF
give thing DEIC "He refuses to give that thing."

31.

Rè xanöè taa wîrî mè rè bwa ra tö xûâ 3SG ask.permission OFF 2PL that 3SG stay still LOC tribe ngê chaaké daa. during several day "He is asking you for permission to stay in the tribe for a few more days."

The verb xâdùù "buy, pay for", already mentioned above in association with xù in (28a), may also occur with oblique arguments introduced by taa:

32.

Nûnûû kae dönä è xâdùù na tapwaka taa pèèröö? grandfather INTERR DEIC 3SG buy PST tobacco OFF priest "Is it Grandpa who bought tobacco from the priest?"

The ordering of the disassociative recipient and the theme is free, but the disassociative preposition usually remains immediately before its argument, contrasting in this with the recipient/beneficiary preposition xù, which may occur inside the verb phrase, separated from its complement. In examples (33), the recipient is expressed after the theme, while it occurs first in (34): 33a.

Nâ nââ sää-pwî taa rö. 1SG ask.for sucker-banana.tree OFF 2SG "I am asking you for banana-tree suckers." (Lit. I request banana-tree suckers from you) 33b.

Nèxuu pêdè na péci taa afainû. girl steal PST book OFF teacher "The girl stole the book from the teacher."

34.

Nâ fatere taa è xöu rè nâ. 1SG ask OFF 3SG cloth POSS 1SG "I asked him for my clothes."

Two oblique arguments

This alignment resembles the indirective alignment described in the preceding section in so far as the flagging of T and P is identical, 21 each of these arguments being introduced by the instrumental preposition ngê.

The theme in (35b) and ( 36) is flagged as instrumental, as is the patient in (35a) (= 19), while the recipient is introduced by the benefactive/recipient marker xù: 21 In the "Comrian" approach, an argument marked as instrumental would not be regarded as P, whereas it would still be a core argument in the "Dixonian" approach (Haspelmath 2011:542), that is, a case of non-canonically marked O. Since I am having difficulties in defining a major transitive construction in Xârâcùù, I choose to consider such oblique complements as core arguments, also because they are necessarily expressed. 22 The verb xwiri "sell" does not allow a direct object.

Argument coding alternations

Insufficient information and the great variability in the usage of speakers make it impossible for me to answer certain questions concerning the formal marking of arguments as well as the extension of verb classes in patterns of alternations. Below are examples of the main alternations I was able to identify.

Labile alternations

Nichols"s (1986: 156) definition of lability concerns valency on the one hand, and the semantic aspect on the other hand: "Lability is a valence pattern in which a verb can be either transitive or intransitive without the application of formal transitivizing or detransitivizing derivations.

[…] If a language has labile verbs, they will center on those which, like "break", "open" or "fill", refer to changes of state which can either happen spontaneously or be brought about by human agency". This definition of lability corresponds to one of Haspelmath"s non-oriented verb alternations (Haspelmath 1993: 91-92).

Xârâcùù labile verbs have these kinds of semantic alternation, and others.

Impersonal construction vs. intransitive construction

Some Xârâcùù monovalent verbs may enter either an impersonal construction, as in (38a) and (39a), without any argument, or an intransitive one, with a referential experiencer subject argument, as in (38b) and (39b). This alternation concerns non-dynamic verbs denoting qualities or meteorological situations, such as mêgi "warm", "have fever", müü "(be) cold and humid" and xùpè "cold", "feel cold", on the one hand, or verbs related to durative or phasal aspect situations such as xutuè "be a long time" and cokwa "be finished", on the other hand: 38a.

Xùpè "S/he has been here for a long time."

Inchoative vs. causative pairs

Some Xârâcùù labile verbs have inchoative/stative versus causative meanings, such as tëi "be empty, empty, xwi "exist, build", cokwa "be finished, finish"23 , nââbu "begin", kê "be burned, burn", sùù "suffer, treat", xwêê "fall, pour", and English loanwords such as sukwa "be sugared, sugar". Some of these verbs ("burn", "finish", "start", etc.) are labile verbs in many languages including German, French or English.

The intransitive construction has an undergoer subject argument, corresponding to the object argument in the transitive construction, which in addition has an actor subject argument (S = P, A causer). In the intransitive construction (40a) and (41a) the verb takes a passive, resultative, or inchoative meaning, and the subject refers to the patient. In the transitive construction (40b) and (41b), the verb is active, with the agent as subject, and the patient as object: In the case of xwêê "fall", however, only an inanimate object argument can be expressed; otherwise, the verb has to be derived with the causative prefix: 42c.

Nâ fa-xwêê chaa xûûchî. 1SG CAUS-fall one child "I make the child fall down."

Middle alternation

The middle alternation is the consequence of the nearly complete loss of reflexes of the middle Proto Oceanic prefix (see §5.1.2). It differs from the preceding alternation in that the role of the subject does not change whatever the valency of the construction is.

The subject in both intransitive and transitive constructions is an animate actor subject argument, and the situation expressed belongs to the middle domain, such as grooming actions (43a), or inherent reciprocity (44a and 45a). In the transitive construction, the object is the undergoer, whether it refers to an animate (43b, 44b) or an inanimate (43c, 44c) and the causative meaning is other-directed.

-grooming events: 43a.

Nâ This subclass includes verbs denoting inherent reciprocity, which can occur with only one argument, a subject, referring to a plurality of participants. For example, penyi "to take leave" as well as tôôbùtù "assemble", always occur with a dual or plural subject when used intransitively: 44a.

Ri tôôbùtù. 3PL assemble "They are assembling."

44b. Ri tôôbùtù ri. 3PL assemble 3PL "They are assembling them." 44c.

Ri tôôbùtù köfi. 3PL assemble coffee "They are gathering coffee beans."

Whereas the verb tôôbùtù "to assemble" may take a direct object, penyi "to take leave" has an oblique object in an "extended transitive" construction; this otherdirected/disjoint object is introduced by the disassociative preposition taa:24 45a.

Ri penyi. 3PL separate "They are leaving each other." 45b.

Ri penyi kété taa na rî. 3PL separate quickly OFF PST 1PL.EXCL "They quickly left us." (Lit. they quickly separated from us.)

Reflexive inchoative alternation

Some bivalent verbs must always have two overt arguments expressed. Thus, the lability of these verbs is not related to the shift from an intransitive to a transitive construction, but it is related to the degree of animacy of the subject. If the subject refers to an inanimate entity, the pronominal object must have the same number and person features as the subject; the situation falls into the middle domain (46a, 47a), and there is no possible ambiguity.

When the subject is animate, the object does not have to be coreferential with the subject, and the orientation of the event is then causative (46b, 47b). These verbs contrast with the "truly reflexive verbs" ( §3.2.2), for which there is no available choice for the object, and which must always be coreferential with the subject. Nâ fasaa buké. 1SG damage bouquet "I am making the bunch of flowers wither."

Possessive flagging alternations

As already mentioned, some Xârâcùù prepositions result from a grammaticalization process. As far as inalienable nouns are concerned, the change in syntactic category is not totally complete, and in some cases, it is difficult to determine if we are dealing with a preposition + its object, or with a possessive noun phrase. Two cases are described below. The first one concerns the expression of the experiencer, and the second the expression of the recipient or beneficiary.

The position of the argument is one of the main points to be taken into consideration. When the argument follows the verb phrase, we can consider that it consists in a prepositional phrase. When the argument is the subject, however, it still is a possessive noun phrase.

Experiencer flagging as possessor

This alternation concerns a few verbs involving experiencer arguments, whose degree of affectedness changes according to the construction involved. With a nominative experiencer, the verb expresses a descriptive/non-dynamic emotional state while as a possessor, it strongly expresses the experiencer"s deeper feelings.

Xârâcùù verbs having such optional constructions for the expression of the experiencer are verbs of feelings or emotions such as saa "bad, bad looking", "feel bad; kwèti "be tired", "feel tired"; wîrî "disgusting", "feel disgusted"; mârâ "be worried", "feel dizzy". Some of these verbs may derive bivalent verbs with the applicative suffix (see §5.2.1).

The possessive experiencer is in an inalienable relation with the relational noun wâ-"inner". This relational noun very probably is the source of the preposition wâ "at", "about" which introduces diverse complements 25 (cf. §3.2.3.6). The experiencer is totally affected and powerless (example 48b), in a similar way as Creissels"s "affective covert impersonals" (2007:28), while example (48a) is simply objective, with the experiencer expressed as a nominative argument.

48a.

Nâ kwèti ù-sööpö rè xöu. 1SG tired NMLZ-wash POSS clothes "I am tired of washing clothes." 48b.

Nâ sii fè ti nuö döbwa wâ-nâ kwèti. 1SG NEG go LOC bush because inner-1SG tired "I don't go to the bush because I feel tired."

The semantic orientation of the verb itself doesn"t change with the construction; the only difference lies in its scope, whether it applies to a non-dynamic or a more agentive experiencer, which is more or less affected depending on the way (as a possessor or as a plain argument) it is expressed.

When expressed after the verb phrase, wâ has grammaticalized as a preposition, and introduces an experiencer involved in a higher responsibility:

49.

Rè nöö wâ rö mè ke fârâ daa kèwâ kèè-bôô tiwâ kèè-näö. 3SG stay AT 2SG that 2SG count day from NMLZ-dig to NMLZ-plant "It is up to you to calculate the time needed between digging and planting."

Recipient or beneficiary flagging as possessor

25 It must not be confused with the homophonous perfective aspect.

Besides the use of the preposition xù, a recent development from the homophonous verb "give", Xârâcùù exhibits a well-known Oceanic pattern for encoding recipients and beneficiaries, viz. the use of a possessive classifier to introduce them (cf. Lichtenberk 2002, Song 1998, 2007).

The relational nouns ngêê-26 (or its reduced form êê-, very common among speakers under forty) and nèxêê-have the general meaning of "belongings". The exact meanings and status of ngêê-/êê-/nèxêê-are complex. According to some informants, êê-and ngêê-convey a responsibility meaning in addition to the beneficiary meaning, while nèxêê-mostly applies to the possession of object belongings.

The relational noun ngêê-/êê-/nèxêê-"belongings" tends to grammaticalize into a beneficiary or recipient marker when expressed after the verb phrase, but remains a noun when occurring in the different functions listed below.

a

Argument deletion alternation

The omission of the subject does not lead to ambiguity in connection with bivalent verbs, since the basic word order is SVO, and since there is no passive voice in Xârâcùù. With most active verbs, there is no need for the presence of a dummy pronoun, or of an impersonal pronoun, although the latter may always occur. Compare examples (59a) and (60a), with no subject, with examples (59b) and (60b) containing explicit subjects. In both cases, the verb keeps its orientation.

59a.

Wâ The omission of bivalent verb objects is also possible in Xârâcùù, except with reflexive verbs which require a pronominal coreferential object (cf. §3.2.2.); the verb then takes a more stative or inherent meaning (61a and 62a), but in contrast with labile verbs, the meaning of the verb does not change. This alternation often concerns verbs of consumption, or regular activities. "Dapé is catching a parrot fish with a rod."

Most of the verbs which take an oblique object are also only optionally followed by it. They may occur in an intransitive construction, or with an oblique object, as it is the case with verbs such as xuru "flee (from)", mââî "be ahead, precede", or bata "be scared, be afraid (of)", occurring in an intransitive construction in (63a) or in an "extended transitive" construction in (63b

Dative (indirective/secundative) alternation

Three subtypes of dative alternation can be distinguished. a) Some verbs can occur with the recipient as direct argument when no other complement is expressed, as in (64a) and (65a). When another argument is added, it takes the place of the recipient as a direct object argument (65b), or as a complement clause (64b), while the recipient is flagged as oblique, introduced by xù if it is a beneficiary (64b Apêdè pêdè mwânêê taa axwiri. robber rob money OFF merchant "The robber is stealing money from the merchant." b) Another subtype of alternation occurs between a theme, unmarked when it is the only expressed object as in (66a), or followed by a beneficiary introduced by the preposition xù (66b), and flagged with the instrumental when a recipient /beneficiary is added (66c): 66a.

Nâ fadù ääda. 1SG share food "I am sharing the food." 66b.

Nâ fadù ääda xù dèèri. 1SG share food BEN people "I am sharing the food for the people." (so that everyone will have food) 66c.

Nâ fadù dèèri ngê ääda 27 . (= Nâ fadù ngê ääda dèèri.) 1SG share people INS food "I am sharing the food among the people." (so that the food will be sufficient for all)

This alternation recalls the one occurring with English verbs such as 'provide' ("I provide food to people' vs. 'I provide people with food').

c) The situation is different with another verb of transfer, xù "give". In example (67b), the verb xù "give" occurs in a tripartite alignment construction (P≠ngêT≠xùR), indicating the desire of the agent to show off. In example (67a) the theme is unmarked, while in (67b) it is introduced by the instrumental preposition ngê. In both examples, however, the recipient is marked by the benefactive preposition xù.

67a.

Ke The girl gave the book to the teacher (to show off)."

Reflexive or reciprocal alternation

Except in a few cases (such as reflexive verbs in §3.2.2), bivalent verbs are generally not restricted as far as the choice of an object is concerned; if the latter turns out to be a pronoun of the same person and number as the animate subject, the interpretation can be ambiguous out of context, between a reflexive or reciprocal and a disjoint (other-directed) interpretation: 68a.

Taiki kèkè è. dog bite 3SG "The dog is biting it/her/him/itself." 69a.

Ri ciiwi ri. 3PL help 3PL "They are helping them/each other."

The reflexive/reciprocal/disjoint alternation requires animate subjects.

It is possible to add the reflexive/reciprocal marker in order to get a more restrictive interpretation. The Xârâcùù reflexive/reciprocal marker is mûgé, which, as an (ad)verb, means "return", "again", and consequently also conveys a repetitive reading: 68b.

Taiki kèkè mûgé è. dog bite return 3SG "The dog is biting itself." or "The dog is biting it/her/him again." 69b.

Ri ciiwi mûgé ri. 3PL help return 3PL "They are helping each other." or "They are helping them again." Inherent reciprocity is usually unmarked: tôôbùtù "gather", pùùtè "meet", xöyö "marry", pia "fight".

Conative alternation

I only found this conative alternation with verbs of consumption. In (70a), the direct object referring to the patient is totally affected by the event, while in (70b), the patient is flagged as an adjunct with the complex locative preposition kèwâ "among", and is only partially affected: 70a.

È da na xöö-dö amû ngê chêêdê. 3SG eat PST egg-hen yesterday LOC evening "He ate eggs yesterday evening." 70b.

Nä wèa bù fè ti mûgé da kèwâ äâda mwîrî. then this.one flying.fox go LOC again eat LOC food ANAPH "Then the flying fox went back to eat some of the food."

Valency changing devices in Xârâcùù

Xârâcùù has several valency changing devices: -the causative prefix fa-, a reflex of Proto Oceanic *pa[ka]-, which is productive with almost all types of verbs; -the resultative prefix mê-, a reflex of POc *ma-, which is no longer productive; -the middle prefix ù-, a reflex of POc "plurality of actions" middle/reciprocal prefix *paRi-, also no longer productive in Xârâcùù.

Xârâcùù has only kept a few traces of the applicative POc *-akin[i] suffix, with the -ri suffix now unproductive. Instead, as I have already mentioned, Xârâcùù has developed several oblique constructions, with various markers of verbal or nominal origin (cf. §3.2.3 above), and a very productive lexical compounding process (cf. §6.2 below), both resulting from nuclear verb serialization developments.

Valency-reducing operations

In this section, I shall examine on the one hand, marked valency reducing operations, which mainly have resultative, reciprocal and middle semantic values and, on the other hand, an unmarked valency reducing operation, the incorporation strategy. None of these operations are still productive in Xârâcùù. Besides, in contrast with what is reconstructed for Proto Oceanic (cf. for example Evans 2003: POc *kani "to eat sth" > *kanikani "to eat"), reduplication is not used as a valency-reducing operation in Xârâcùù. It only has the semantic function of intensity, whether the reduplication is partial or total28 : ngû "move" > ngûngû "wriggle"; xa "speak" > xaxa "speak loudly, speak a lot"; sùù "push" > sùsùù "push with energy"; cemîâ "suffer" > cemîmîâ "suffer a lot". Another uncoded valency reducing operation has already been described, concerning labile alternations (see §4.1.).

The resultative prefix mê-

The POc prefix *ma-is described as being quite productive with verbs high in transitivity such as *liŋi-"to pour sth. out" > *maliŋi "to be poured, split" (Evans 2003:268).

The Xârâcùù reflex mê-is only attested in a few verbs belonging to the semantic field of destruction, but it has the same valency-reducing role, with intransitive S corresponding to transitive P. The nasal vowel of the prefix changes the initial oral consonant of the verb into a prenasalized consonant: pöru "peel, skin" mê-böru "be skinned, scraped" pùtù "paste, crush" mê-bùtù "be crushed, battered" pwéa "bend" mê-bwéa "be bent" tia "tear, split" mê-dia "be splitted, torn"

Bound verb stems also admit the mê-prefixation:

-kai "crush" mê-gai "be crushed" -körö "break" mê-görö "be broken" -nyûû "pierce" mê-nyûû "be pierced"

The middle prefix ù-

Xârâcùù almost completely lost one of the most interesting and productive prefixes found in the great majority of Oceanic languages, namely the prefix reconstructed in POc as *paRi-. This prefix had several uses, and is reflected in most Kanak languages with middle, reciprocal and, more rarely, reflexive meanings. Reflected as ù-in Xârâcùù, it only derives a dozen verbs (a few more in the Xârâcùù variety spoken in Thio), of different classes and conveys in all cases a middle meaning, referring to either generic or habitual characteristics, or grooming actions and sociative situations:

-action vs. habitual behavior:

bë "move to some place" ù-bë "be restless" da "eat" ù-da "bite (fish)" nêê "choose" ù-nêê "be picky"

pè "take" ù-pè "juggle" xù "give" ù-xù "be contagious" sö "to pride oneself on sth." ù-sö "be haughty, be a boaster" -grooming actions: cù "comb s.o."

ù-cù "comb one's hair" mwé "dive, put into water" ù-mwé "take a bath"

Other grooming action verbs are either labile verbs, such as xii "shave" or lexically specific verbs such as pêrê "look at oneself in a mirror".

-sociative:

cuè

"sit" ù-cuè "assemble" ooro "rejoice of sth."

ù-ooro "rejoice together" juu "agree to sth." ù-juu "come to an agreement" xâpârî "see s.o. or sth." ù-xâpârî "meet"

Object incorporation

Object incorporation is a well attested feature in Oceanic languages, inducing valency reduction in accusative as well as in ergative languages. The incorporated object is non-referential and is included in the verb phrase, often leading to compounds which can themselves undergo a new transitivization. In several Kanak languages, verbs vary formally, depending on the grammatical status of the object. This is the case, for example, in Drehu, one of the Loyalty Island languages. Hence in (71a), the verb öj "to press" has an object modified by an article and a plural morpheme. In (71b), the verb changes to öji, the former object is incorporated, loses its determiners, takes a generic meaning, and cannot be separated from the verb: In Xârâcùù, incorporation is a very marginal alternation and it does not affect the verb formally. The semantic and syntactic correlates, however, are identical to the ones found in Drehu. In (72a), the object and its determiner are separated from the verb by the postverbal part of the imperfective tense-aspect marker, required in the transitive construction, while in (72b), the verb phrase comprising the incorporated object forms a non-separable unit: 72a.

DREHU (Lifu,
Chaa kamûrû nä tuu rè chaa kwâ. one man IPFV step.on IPFV one boat "The man is stepping on the boat." 72b.

Chaa kamûrû nä tuu=kwâ. one man IPFV step.on=boat "The man is going on board."

Valency-increasing operations

Valency-increasing devices, which were very productive in Proto Oceanic (Evans 2003), include, in particular, the following affixes: a) the Proto Oceanic *-i suffix (occurring only with consonant-final and *-a final verb stems; otherwise: object enclitics attach directly):

with Actor subject verbs: applicative (P: role of location, goal, addressee or stimulus) with Undergoer subject verbs: causative b)

the POc *-akin[i] suffix:

applicative use, with P in role of concomitant, cause/stimulus, content, product, instrument, beneficiary;

causative use: first with motion verbs and further extended to nonmotion verbs. c) the POc *pa[ka]-prefix:

-*pa-and *paka-causative prefixes: S = P, A = causer participant;

in a few languages: *pa-causative, *paka-multiplicative use with numerals.

In contrast with the various Proto Oceanic affixal valency strategies, Xârâcùù has only one reflex of the applicative suffix *-akin[i], viz. -ri, and a reflex of the causative prefix *pa[ka]-, viz. fa-, for which the multiplicative use has been preserved (see below §5.2.2).

The transitivizing/applicative suffix -ri

The Xârâcùù transitive/applicative suffix -ri can only apply to a few verbs. The loss of POc transitive suffixes has been compensated for by the development of several relational morphemes, in relation to verb serialization (Moyse-Faurie 1991). This morpheme -ri is still a suffix, in the sense that it cannot be separated from the verb, and it did not evolve into a preposition, as has been the case, for example, with the applicative suffix POc *akin[i] reflected in East Uvean (Moyse-Faurie, personal data) and Tongan (Churchward 1953:120) both by the suffix -'aki and by the preposition 'aki "instrumental". The Xârâcùù suffix -ri derives half a dozen verbs denoting emotions or feelings: fiö "be lazy" fiö-ri "to refuse, to have had enough of" mârâ "be worried, be upset" mârâ-ri "be disgusted with" muru "be alive" muru-ri "live on" kwèti "be tired" kwèti-ri "be tired of" cara "be ashamed, dazzled" cara-ri "be ashamed of, be dazzled by" nyôô "be foolish, drunk" nyôô-ri "be confused about" nyînyôô "be complicated, merge" nyînyôô-ri "not recognize sth.or s.o."

The subject is an undergoer in both intransitive and transitive constructions, and the object licensed by the applicative suffix -ri is obligatorily expressed; it denotes the means, the source or the stimulus of the emotion, and can refer to an animate (74c, 75) or an inanimate entity (73b and 74b). Since no element can separate the verb from its suffix, the past tense marker na has to be postposed to the suffixed verb (73b), before the object: 73a. To the above list of verbs denoting sensations or natural states, two locative (ad)verbs also requiring the -ri suffix must be added: nûbö-"(be) near of" in (76) and bèbè-(< bè "bottom" as in bè-nâ "my bottom", bè-kùrè "bottom of the pot") in (77a) and (77b):

Pwénîî

76.

È nûbö-ri mwâ 3SG near-APPL house "S/he is near the house." 77a.

È tââ bèbè-ri nâ 77b. È köö bèbè-ri kwââ 3SG stand behind-APPL 1SG 3SG hide behind-APPL tree "S/he is standing behind me."

"S/he is hiding behind a tree."

There is also one case of a nominal derivation with -ri: mwaraa-"shallow light, gleam" is a relational noun (obligatorily followed by a possessor); the derived verb means "be at a shallow light of sth.", as a single predicate in (78a), and as V2 in a serial verb construction in (78b): 78a.

Nâ mwaraa-ri nè. 1SG be.at.shallow.light-APPL fire "I am [staying] by the light of the fire." 78b.

Nâ pètù mwaraa-ri nè. 1SG weave be.at.shallow.light-APPL fire "I am weaving by the light of the fire."

In all probability, a variant form of the applicative suffix -ri has been incorporated into bivalent verbs such as cîîrî (in free variation with cîî) "distribute, share", and in the verb faari (var. faare) "ask for", perceived by the speakers as being an underived form, although it originally is the transitivized form for faa "ask": 79a.

Faa wâ rè nämè xai péci bwa. ask AT 3SG that where book DEIC "Ask him where the book is." 79b.

Aaxa Pokwé faari taa dèèri rèè mè ri dèpuu sùù chaa chief Uvea ask OFF people POSS+3SG that 3PL in.turn push one mwîî kwâdè. big wind "The chief from Uvea asks his people to raise a strong wind." Finally, the verb mwârâ "laugh", "play" becomes bivalent with the suffix -kaciri. It is the only occurrence of this strange suffix: 30 80.

Nâ mwârâ-kaciri tèpe nä 1SG laugh-APPL story DEIC "I am laughing at this story."

The causative prefix fa-

Almost all Xârâcùù verbs, whatever their valency, may take the causative prefix fa-. Exceptions concern semantic restrictions, with verbs denoting inherent properties such as aéé "(be) authentic", afädë "(be) foreign", xwâkètè "be profane", or inherited deformities and diseases such as amè "(be) paralyzed", bëpaii "(be) sickly", dööpwé "be hunchbacked", mèrèdêê "be deaf", or natural inevitable processes such as kèpwiri "(be) high (tide)", pââmé "be toothless", etc.

In Xârâcùù, causativization is used as a strategy for deriving bivalent and trivalent verbs; it occasionally also derives causative verbs from nouns, mainly referring to plants or animals. a) prefix fa-+ monovalent verbs: The undergoer or experiencer subject argument becomes the undergoer object, and an agent is added.

bata

"be afraid" fa-bata "to frighten" sé "big" fa-sé "make sth. big, honor s.o." mëtë "dry" fa-mëtë "dry s.o. or s.th." mwâmwâ "dress oneself" fa-mwâmwâ "dress someone" muru "live" fa-muru "provide the living for s.o." xûda "be full of sth." fa-xûda "fill" 30 Kaci must have been a verb, but is no longer attested. A similar construction occurs with bata "be afraid", to which a direct object can be added as long as it is followed by xwi "exist, make" and cara "be ashamed", deriving the verb bata-xwi-cara "to respect". The causer pa jöösè in (83b) replaces the agent (è in (83a)) in the subject position. The patient (baaru döxöu) is unmarked in the transitive constuction, but is flagged as instrumental in (83b) with the preposition ngê cliticized to the predicate, and separated from its complement (köfi) by the direct object argument (pa Xârâcùù). c) Multiplicative use of fa-In Xârâcùù, the causative prefix fa-, as it was the case with Proto Oceanic *pa[ka], also derives ordinals:

baaru "two" fa-baaru "second (of a series)"; "in two (pieces)" bachéé "three" fa-bachéé "third"; "in three (pieces)"

Verbal compounds

Serial verb constructions are still very productive in Xârâcùù. Most often, they consist of two verbs, referring to different aspects or stages (position, manner, purpose, etc.) of an event, but constructions including three serial verbs are not infrequent, e.g. cuè köö pwâârî in (84):

84.

Ri wâ cuè köö pwâârî sêgè mwîrî gaka nä saù 3PL PFV sit hide pass.round stone ANAPH crow IPFV each.time mê da tixû. come eat LOC "They [turtledoves] lay in ambush around the stone to which the crow used to come and eat on top of."

The valency of the compounds mostly relies on the valency of the second element. If the second element is bivalent, the compound is also bivalent, whatever the valency of the first element. By contrast, a few compounds are monovalent although the first element is bivalent. This is the case with compound verbs such as cipwîrî "roll" (ci-< cii "spread" + pwîrî "turn"), nârâyaa "be sad" (nârâ "think" + -yaa "badly"), chéxô "cough" (ché "say" + xô "sing").

These productive serial verb constructions evolved on the one hand into different types of compounds, and on the other hand, into prepositions, as we have seen in §3.2.3. Two main types of bound verbs must be distinguished: (i) bound stem elements of verbal origin;

(ii) classificatory affixes of nominal or verbal origin. Bound stem elements consist of a reduced verb as first element. For example, the verb xuru "flee" occurs as xo-in compounds, stemming from a former serial verb construction:

85.

È wâ xö-fètaa möö chaa nii. 3SG PFV flee-leave first one penis.sheath "He fled, first leaving his penis sheath."

In some cases, the original verb is unknown, and only its first syllable remains, as it is the case with ta-"shoot at, thrust with a spear", a form attested in a dozen compounds:

86.

Ri wâ ta-faaté è ngê a wââî nä. 3PL PFV shoot-run.after 3SG SM DEIC these.men DEIC "They shot at him and ran after him, these men."

Most compound verbs, however, include classificatory affixes. * Classificatory prefixes are known to be a typical feature of Oceanic languages spoken in New Guinea, but they are quite numerous in New Caledonian languages of the Center and South of the Mainland (Osumi 1995:135-138; Ozanne-Rivierre and Rivierre 2004). The prefixes often have a transparent nominal origin, although they are always monosyllabic, having been reduced to a single mora. In Xârâcùù, as in these other New Caledonian languages, classificatory prefixes mostly indicate the manner or the body part with which the event is brought about.

* The second elements, most often of verbal origin, indicate the result of the action. As described by Ozanne-Rivierre and Rivierre (2004:362), the lexical suffixes "may be grouped around two axes: action on the form, integrity of the object (break, cut, split, crush, tear, etc.); action on the location, position, or trajectory of the object (return, block, tear off, detach, etc.)". Many of the classificatory suffixes reflect former verb forms, and probably stem from former nuclear-layer serialization. Compounds, however, now form a single phonological word stressed on the first syllable. In some cases, both the suffix and the verb coexist in the language, as for example the verb tia "split, tear", and the corresponding bound forms -tia/-dia. In some cases, assimilation processes have led to the change of the initial consonant of the suffixes: bë "move (oneself)" + -körö "break" bëkörö "break sth. while moving" ngî-< ngîrî "rub" + -körö "break" ngîgörö "break sth. while rubbing" kè-"with teeth" + tia 'split" kètia "split with teeth" kê-"with fingers" + tia "split" kêdia "split with fingers"

Both elements forming the compound may have lost their status as independent verbs, as for example bi-< biri "turn" which combines with the suffixed form -chëe "miss", giving rise to bichëe "screw in the wrong way".

As already mentioned, most compound verbs belong to the bivalent or trivalent verb classes, as long as the second element is itself bivalent. Here again, their object can refer to location (87), patient (88), etc.

87.

È tètùrù chaa xwâkûû-purèkwé. 3SG hand+pierce one shard-bottle "He hurt his hand on a shard of bottle."

88.

Xötö söpuru na farawa ngê nea. boy circular.hand.movement+break.in.two PST bread INS knife "The boy cut the bread with a knife."

Among the 70 verbs included in the database, 22 are compounds in Xârâcùù, among which fètaa "leave", chéxô "cough", paiimè "die" and cipwîrî "roll" (monovalent verbs), jikörö "break", fîgai "beat", söpuru "cut" and chètia "tear" (bivalent verbs).

Oblique arguments or adjuncts?

The remaining problem is to account for the use of some prepositions for both oblique arguments and adjuncts, but this is a well known problem that Xârâcùù does not help much to resolve, even if we have seen that different uses of the same preposition often have correlates and restrictions concerning the position of the complement, and the (in)separability of the preposition with respect to the phrase it introduces. For example, we have seen that as an instrumental preposition or as an oblique object marker, the preposition ngê can be separated from its complement, while as a subject marker or as a temporal adjunct marker, it cannot.

As is the case in many languages, it is indeed difficult to determine the status of prepositional noun phrases. Still, a distinction between adjuncts and obliques may be observed in some operations, such as fronting, nominalization or argument deletion, but is never sufficient, to strictly delimit these two types of functions.

Fronting

One of the possible criteria that could be relevant to distinguish adjuncts and oblique arguments is the position of the preposition when the noun phrase is fronted. Two oblique prepositions, ngê and wâ, can occur sentence-initially: adjuncts keep these prepositions when fronted (89) while oblique arguments are fronted without them, the preposition remaining after the predicate (90b). Instruments are in between since they keep the preposition when fronted, but the preposition occurs a second time after the predicate (91b).

89.

Ngê chêêdè, è wâ toa.

INS

evening 3SG PFV arrive "In the evening, s/he arrived."

In (90b), the fronting of the oblique object necessitates the occurrence of a resumptive pronoun (è); the preposition is maintained after the main verb, cliticized to it, and is thus separated from the resumptive pronoun by the past tense marker: 90a.

Famuru

Object relativization

As mentioned earlier, Xârâcùù has no passive voice. However, a type of object relativization with the nominalizing prefix êê-expressing resultative events often renders French or English passives. Adjuncts, by contrast, do not seem to be possible antecedents in such nominalized relative constructions.

The agentthe subject in the original verb phrase (92a)is expressed as a possessor, reflecting the origin of the construction in a nominalized resultative construction. The agent is optional with some verbs, as in example (92b): 92a.

Aaxa su péci. chief write letter "The chief is writing a letter." 92b.

péci êê-su (rè aaxa) letter [RES-write POSS chief] "letter (which has been) written (by the chief)" It is compulsory with other verbs which require the overt expression of subject (the possessor in the relative clause), as in (93a): 93a.

Kâmîâ chä bwaa-rè. sun strike head-3SG "The sun is beating his head down." 93b.

bwaa-rè êê-chä rè kâmîâ head-3SG [RES-strike(sun) POSS sun] "his head got struck by the sun" If the object as antecedent refers to an animate entity, a resumptive pronoun necessarily occurs after the agent (which is expressed as a possessor); the resumptive pronoun does not have the object pronominal form, but the tonic form (niè), simply juxtaposed to the possessive noun phrase, without forming part of it:

94.

Oosi êê-fawîjö na röö niè, wâ tââtoa mûgé. horse [RES-CAUS.drink PST POSS+2SG 3SG.INDEP] PFV stand.up again "The horse to whom you gave something to drink set himself on his feet again."

Oblique arguments may become the head of such relative nominalized clauses and the oblique preposition keeps its position after the nominalized verb:

95.

döö êê-pia tùù earth [RES-fight ABOUT] "the earth about which [we] fought" If the oblique argument refers to an animate entity, e.g. the beneficiary in (96), the preposition which remains in situ is followed by a resumptive pronoun:

96.

Afädë

Argument deletion

Going through the dative alternation (cf. §4.4), I showed that the addition of a clausal complement shifted the recipient from an unmarked object to oblique marking, as in (98a) and (98b) repeated below: This situation allows us to distinguish, at least in some cases, between adjuncts, which do not require the oblique marking of the recipient, and oblique objects, with which the recipient also has to be introduced by a preposition, as we have seen in §3.2.3.

Conclusion

Xârâcùù stands apart from prototypical Oceanic languages. It has unmarked SVO word order, having lost any person indexation on the verb. It has lost almost all the productive transitivizing and applicative suffixes, with the exception of the causativizing prefix, and it has no productive intransitivizing prefix; it has no verbal morphology, in particular, no verbal inflections depending on the object, and no actancy variation depending on tense-aspect marking. In addition, the pronominal markers almost all have the same form whatever their functions, so this does not help determine their syntactic status. Due to unknown historical factors, most of the argument encoding strategies now rely on the choice between different prepositions, or on the choice between different types of deletion alternations. Xârâcùù has rich verbal compounding patterns, along with productive serial verb constructions, and a number of oblique prepositions of verbal origin. These developments certainly explain the multiplication of small verbal classes, and the fact that valency classes are more differentiated than in other Oceanic languages, partly due to the numerous oblique prepositions, some of which are specific to a small group of verbs. Xârâcùù has indeed several prepositions of (ad)verbal origin, grammaticalized through the development of serial verb constructions. This fact accounts for some cases of indirective alignment. Most of the prepositions have a choice of position, either immediately postposed to the verb, in which case they can be separated from their complement, or preposed to the latter. Consequently, besides the difficulty of differentiating between adjuncts and oblique objects, there is also the difficulty of differentiating in some cases between adverbs and prepositions, as it is the case for example with the purposive cè, or the disassociative taa.

The boundaries of each verb class are not easy to delimit, with certain verbs so flexible that they can combine with several different prepositions (as for example xwiri "sell"), or they belong to different classes across speakers.

Still, I will try to summarize some of the most interesting Xârâcùù characteristics concerning valency flagging and alternations.

Grammaticalization of possessive classifiers as recipient/beneficiary markers has been recorded in other Oceanic languages (cf. Song 2007), and it is not surprising to find such cases in Xârâcùù, such as the use of êê-/nèxêê-/ngêê-"belongings", to introduce the beneficiary. It is the additional use of the preposition xù (< xù "give") which is a Xârâcùù innovation among the New Caledonian languages. The alternation of recipient/beneficiary expressed either by a prepositional phrase or as a possessor has correlates in terms of requirement in favor of the beneficiary. The fact that experiencers and beneficiaries can both be flagged as possessors, as I have shown in §4.2, is the syntactic manifestation of the close relationships among concepts such as possession, gift, and personal experience.

Concerning verb classes, we noted the existence of a small "inherently reflexive" verb class ( §3.2.2), which requires a pronominal object coreferential with the subject; this minor class contrasts with verbs which also require two overt arguments, but which show a degree of animacy alternation ( §4.1.4), allowing variation in their choice of objects.

Other features, such as the existence of some labile verbs with well-known specific semantic orientation are typologically more common.

Some more fieldwork would be necessary for a better understanding of the different Xârâcùù verb classes and alternations, even if the lack of any normative tendency among speakers does not make it easy!

  trading [their] taros."

  Dui really different-3SG OFF Dapé "Dui and Dapé are really different." (Lit. Dui, his difference away from Dapé)

		Dèèri kè	nä	tara	mîâdara.
		people from there see	suffering
		"People from there know what suffering means."
	It may occur in serial verb constructions, as V2:
	16b.	È	mwâbéré tara kwéé-kârâmè	rèè	biri.
		3SG look		note shadow-eye	POSS+3SG move
		"He notices the shadow of his eyes moving."

3.2.3.3. Goal preposition tara (< tara "see, note") "towards" As a verb (16a), tara means "to see, to note": 16a.

  The two following examples are semantically equivalent:

	17a.	Nâ	mââ	na	tùù	döö.
		1SG struggle PST ABOUT	earth
		"I struggled for earth."
	17b.	Nâ	mââ=dùù	na	döö.
		1SG struggle=ABOUT PST earth
		"I struggled for earth."

  With verbs of communication, wâ may replace either the addressee preposition xù (22a) or the disassociative preposition taa (22b), as long as the oblique object refers to an animate entity: In (22a) and (22b), only a recipient is expressed, not affected in (22a) with the preposition xù, deeply affected in (22b) with the preposition wâ:

	.	È	pia,	è	bere wâ dèèri.
		3SG unkind 3SG angry AT people
		"He is unkind, he gets angry at people."
	22.	Ri	gîî	wâ	mwââkè	rè	béé-nâ.
		3PL damage AT	possessions POSS friend-1SG
		"They are causing damage to my friend"s belongings."
	22a.	Kamûrû	xangââ na	xù	nèxuu.
		man		shout	PST	BEN girl
		"The man shouted to the girl." (to say hello to her)
	22b.	Kamûrû	xangââ na	wâ	nèxuu
		man		shout	PST	AT	girl
		"The man shouted at the girl." (the man scolded her)

  2SG give BEN PST 1SG one cloth "You gave me a piece of cloth." (Lit. you gave to me a piece of cloth)

		xù	na	chaa mwanöö xù	nâ.
		2SG give PST one	cloth	BEN 1SG
		"You gave me a piece of cloth." (Lit. you gave a piece of cloth to me)
	30b.	Ke xù	xù	na	nû	chaa mwanöö.

  He is selling fish to the old lady". Some verbs of communication, such as faxwata "tell" or xangââ "shout sth. at s.o." follow this type of alignment.

	35a.	Papêê		jana ngê	na mwè
		COLL+woman trade INS	PST taro
		"Women were trading [their] taros."
	35b.	È	xwiri 22 ngê	nô	xù	sîbêêrî a.
		3SG sell	INS	fish BEN old.lady DEIC
	"36. Nâ	faxwata xù		rö	ngê chaa êrêché.
		1SG tell	BEN/REC 2SG INS one	story
		"I am going to tell you a story."

  It most often occurs with an oblique object introduced by the instrumental preposition. It can also occur with a theme introduced by the adverb/disassociative preposition taa: The man shouted at the girl to scold her." (Lit. "The man shouted with a scolding to the girl.")In (37b), it is the disassociative preposition taa which introduces the recipient of the verb of communication xangââ "shout", due to the meaning of the oblique object introduced by the preposition ngê and expressing the content of the shouting, i.e. a demand. The man shouted at the girl to ask her for something." (Lit. "The man shouted with a demand from the girl"]

	37a.	Kamûrû	xangââ ngê	na	xwâxatii xù nèxuu.
		man		shout	INS	PST	scolding BEN girl
	"37b. Kamûrû	xangââ ngê	na	chaa ùnââ	taa nèxuu.
		man		shout	INS	PST	one	demand OFF girl
		"
	Kâmûrû nä	xwiri taa	mîî	kura	nä.
	man	DEIC sell OFF	ART.PL	shrimp DEIC
	"This man is selling these shrimps to get rid of them."

  COLL. soldier CAUS.-plant INS COLL Xârâcùù coffee on ancient-mound "Soldiers are making the people of Xârâcùù plant coffee on the old yam mound."

	81a. The examples below show how the theme, unmarked in a transitive construction Nè xiri.
	fire light (83a), is flagged as instrumental in a ditransitive construction (83b):
		"The fire lights up."
	81b. 83a.	Nâ È	fa-xiri näü	nè. baaru döxöu.
		1SG 3SG plant two CAUS-light	fire pandanus
		"I light the fire." "(S)he is planting two pandanuses."
	The actor-subject argument remains the agent of the derived verb, and an undergoer 83b. Pa jöösè fa-näü ngê pa Xârâcùù köfi töxû mê-nèpärä. 31
	object is added:
		cuè		"sit"	fa-cuè	"make s.o. sit"
		tââ		"stand"	fa-tââ	"stop", "make s.o. stand up"
	82a.	Wîrî cuè xö	tö nèpwéé-kâmîâ nêmwâ.
		2PL sit	à.jeun LOC inside-sun	today
		"Today, you are sitting not eating anything."
	82b.	Yaya wâ fa-cuè chéé xûûchî rè	nâ.
		Yaya PFV CAUS-sit down child	POSS	1SG
		"Yaya made her child sit down."
	b) prefix fa-+ bivalent verbs
	Bivalent verbs may have a derived causative, such as:
	sia "grate (tubers)"	fa-sia	"make s.o. grate (tubers)"
	xwata "hear, understand"	fa-xwata "tell sth. to s.o."; "information, news"
	näü "plant"		fa-näü	"make s.o. plant"
	Bivalent causativized verbs from intransitive verbs may in turn be causativized as
	trivalent verbs:
	xûda "be full" > fa-xûda "fill sth." > fa-fa-xûda "make s.o. fill sth."

  Famuru used to play with it all the time." By contrast, in (91b), the preposition ngê is maintained in front of the fronted instrumental complement, and it occurs also just after the verb, separating the verb from its direct object:

			sôôbö	ii		na	ngê	pupèè rèè.
		Famuru play.with always	PST	INS	doll	POSS+3SG
		"Famuru used to play with her doll all the time."
	90b.	Pupèè rèè,	Famuru sôôbö ii	ngê	na	è.
		doll	POSS+3SG Famuru play.with always INS	PST 3SG
	"Her doll, 91a. È wâ	sa	ri	ngê	kwâdè.
		3SG	PFV	hit	3PL INS	wind
		"He started to hit them with the wind."
	91b.	Ngê	kwâdè, è wâ sa ngê	ri.
		INS	wind	3SG PFV hit INS	3PL
		"The wind, he started to hit them with [it]." (Lit. with the wind, he started to
		hit with them.)

  3SG PFV go PST "The foreigner to whom we had given some fish has left."If the oblique argument refers to an inanimate entity, e.g. the theme in the following examples, no resumptive pronoun is required, as we can see in (97b): The medicinal leaves with which you fed the young girl grow anywhere in the gardens."

			êê-xù	na rè	rî	nô xù è,
		foreigner RES-give PST POSS 1PL.INCL fish BEN 3SG
		è	wâ fè na.
	97a.	Xuu nèèxu êê-fâda	röö	niè	ngê nêkwââ,
		small girl	RES-CAUS.eat POSS+2SG 3SG.INDEP INS leaf
		wâ	pua xöru mûgé.
		PFV stay well again
		"The young girl you fed with medicinal leaves is now doing well."
	97b.	Nêkwââ êê-fâda	röö	xuu nèèxu ngê, tuè cécöö
		leaf	RES-CAUS.eat POSS+2SG small girl	INS	grow no.matter
		tö	nèca.
		LOC gardens
		"

  3SG lie BEN 2SG COMP not.exist key "He is lying to you [saying that] he doesn"t have any key."If a noun phrase introduced by the instrumental preposition is added (ngê xwâvirè "with unkindness"), the recipient (îrî) remains unmarked. In this case, it is clear that the prepositional phrase ngê xwâvirè is an adjunct, and not an oblique object: He is unkindly lying to us." (Lit. he is lying us with unkindness)

	98a.	È	fi	rö.
		3SG lie 2SG
		"He is lying to you."
	98b.	È	fi	xù	rö	mè	siè	kii.
	98c.	È	fi	ngê	îrî		xwâvirè.
		3SG lie INS	1PL.INCL unkindness
		"

Table 1 : Personal markers Table 2: The bare prepositions Verb-like prepositions nârâ

 1

	taa OFF	(< witaa "throw away") disassociative, non-beneficiary (+);
		also adverb
	tara GOAL	(< tara "see") "towards" (+)
	xù BEN	(< xù "give") recipient/beneficiary (+)
	Adverb-like prepositions
	cè PURP	also adverb (+)
	tùù/-dùù ABOUT	"concerning" (pertentive) (+)
	Noun-like prepositions
	êê-/ngêê-/nèxêê	(< "belongings") BEN recipient/beneficiary (-)
	ngê INS	oblique/instrumental (+); SM subject marker (-); DURING
		temporal adjunct (-)
	wâ AT	(wâ-"inner") oblique (+), locative adjunct (-)

FOR (< nârâ "think") "in order to", Lit. "thinking at" (-)

The data, unless otherwise indicated, comes from my fieldnotes, from my grammar and dictionary (the latter written with M.-A. Néchérö-Jorédié, a native Xârâcùù speaker). I wish to thank Martin Haspelmath and the editors of this volume for their fruitful comments on an earlier version of this article.

"Kanak" has become the usual and politically correct term to designate the autochtonous inhabitants of New Caledonia and their vernacular languages. It is invariable, even in French. More informations on these languages can be found on the Académie des Langues Kanak website (http://www.alk.gouv.nc).

Nuclear serialization consists of several contiguous nuclei which share arguments (cf.Foley & Olson 1985:32-34).

More precisely, Haspelmath (2005[START_REF] Haspelmath | On S, A, P, T, and R as comparative concepts for alignment typology[END_REF] and[START_REF] Malchukov | Studies in Ditransitive Constructions. A Comparative Handbook[END_REF] have a semanticallybased definition of transitive and ditransitive constructions. Transitive clauses have a P and an A argument, with verbs such as "kill", "break", "cut", and ditransitive clauses are built on verbs such as "give", "buy", "write", and so on. Such ditransitive constructions involve three semantic arguments: an agent (A), a recipient or goal (R/G), and a theme (P/T). These semantic definitions suppose that the arguments referring to A, P or R are always marked in the same way, at least with the typical verbs belonging to the predefined semantic categories. Xârâcùù, like many Oceanic languages, does not have a single major transitive construction, since objects often refer to several other roles than patient, and patients themselves are often flagged diversely; very few bivalent verbs have two direct arguments, most of them have a direct argument and a prepositional one.

Bounia is a traditional dish with tubers, meat or fish, and coconut milk, wrapped in banana leaves and cooked in the earth oven.

Some of these prepositions are good examples of grammaticalization process well-known worldwide, such as the attributive/recipient/beneficiary preposition xù, formally identical to the verb "give".

Both Martin Haspelmath and another anonymous reviewer were skeptical about my analysis concerning the free word order allowed for some prepositions, and rather see them as applicatives when they are included into the verb phrase. I still opt for the cliticization explanation, and try to provide more arguments in favor of it.

"Malefactive" is the usual term to refer to non-beneficiary recipients. If this term seems adequate with verbs such as "rob", it does not do justice to verbs such as "ask sth. to/from s.o.", "buy sth. from s.o." or "receive sth. from s.o.", and for this reason, we prefer to use either "disassociative" or "non-beneficiary" to refer to such arguments.

German makes a similar distinction between beneficiary and detrimentary participants, with two different prepositions, für and gegen (Ich bin allergisch gegen Nüsse "I am allergic to nuts"). By contrast, French and English use the same preposition (respectively to and à) for both types of arguments.

The term "pertentive" is the term used by[START_REF] Hagège | Oxford Studies in Typology and Linguistic Theory[END_REF] to designate this non-spatialtemporal adposition meaning "about", "concerning", "with respect to".

The verb cokwa "be finished, finish" may occur in three different constructions: in an impersonal construction, it only means "be finished" and refers to the end of a temporal phase. In intransitive vs transitive constructions, it is part of a resultative vs causative pair ("something is finished" vs "someone finished something").

Interestingly enough, French shows exactly the same kind of middle alternation: Ils se sont séparés "they left each other" vs. Ils se sont séparés de nous "they left us".

Or, with the cliticization of the preposition into the verb phrase: nâ fadù ngê dèèri ääda, semantically equivalent, but with a focalization on the food.

If the initial verb is plurisyllabic, or if its first syllable includes a long vowel, the first part of the reduplicated form will only consist in two moras, that is a consonant followed by a short vowel.

Pueraria lobata, has a fleshy tapioca-like tuber, eaten in times of famine.

The other word order, with the preposition occurring just before its complement, is also possible: Pa jöösè fa-näü pa Xârâcùù ngê köfi töxû mê-nèpärä.

Purely locative prepositions (LOC) static tö/rö "at" (-), xû "on" (-) dynamic ti "towards" (-), tù "towards the inside" (-), kè "from" (ablative) (-)

Only the bare prepositions discussed in this article are listed.

(-): cannot be separated from its complement (+) can cliticize to the verb, and hence, be separated from its complement