University of Oslo

Department Member, CSMN

Ph.D.

Thesis Title: The Hausa causative and benefactive in a cognitive and cross-linguistic perspective

About

Defended at the University of Oslo June 2010. This doctoral dissertation argues that the verbal suffix -aC in Hausa is polysemous, including both the causative and the benefactive senses. In addition, all instances of this suffix display high transitive features as described in Hopper and Thompson (1980). Causative and benefactive constructions share phonological expression in many languages, either employing the same case (instrumental, dative, etc) or through a shared affix. This fact requires a semantic explanation. The various senses of the -aC suffix are related in a cognitive semantic network, in line with Ronald Langacker's Cognitive Grammar.  Similar high transitivity features are found in causative constructions in other languages as well, e.g. in the Indonesian suffix -kan. It is shown that in Hausa, the -C in the -aC suffix originated in a set of gender based verbal agreement markers, and that this agreement can be linked to topical and affected clausal participants through the phenomenon of attention (cf. Deane 1991), typically the referents of fronted arguments and the (typically animate and human) indirect object argument.