Abstract
This paper explores the clausal complementation strategies found in Oromo (Cushitic). Recent work by Wurmbrand and Lohninger (2019) suggests that languages distinguish three broad semantic categories of complement clauses, which are hierarchically ordered with respect to their syntactic complexity. Based on newly elicited data and examples from the literature, I propose that Oromo complement clauses also show this three-way split, lending support to Wurmbrand and Lohninger’s (2019) proposal. However, the distribution of clausal complement categories appears to diverge somewhat from what has been reported for other languages, suggesting some flexibility in the way certain states and events can be linguistically encoded. Situating Oromo within the typology of clausal complementation thus sheds light on the diversity of ways in which basic semantic building blocks may be incorporated into the expression of complex meanings and speaks to the import of understudied languages to typological research.
Highlights
Both within and across languages, complement clauses show ample variety in their syntactic and semantic complexity, as well as in their degree of integration with and dependence on the embedding clause
If one kind of complement clause includes the tense/aspect morphology characteristic of main clauses, all the complements that are more left in the hierarchy will likewise include that morphology, whereas if a kind of complement lacks tense/aspect morphology, all the complements that are more right in the hierarchy will lack that morphology
This paper explores clausal complementation in Oromo, a Cushitic language spoken in Ethiopia and Kenya
Summary
Both within and across languages, complement clauses show ample variety in their syntactic and semantic complexity, as well as in their degree of integration with and dependence on the embedding clause. If one kind of complement clause includes the tense/aspect morphology characteristic of main clauses, all the complements that are more left in the hierarchy will likewise include that morphology, whereas if a kind of complement lacks tense/aspect morphology, all the complements that are more right in the hierarchy will lack that morphology Building on this view, Wurmbrand and Lohninger (2019) motivate three broad semantic categories of clausal complements that comprise supersets of Givón’s distinctions (see Figure 1). Situations appear with emotive verbs like hope and strong-attempt verbs like plan and tell They lack discourse-linking parameters, and though they are temporally specified, their tense value is often determined by the semantics of the embedding verb.
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