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Article published In: Linguistic Variation
Vol. 25:2 (2025) ► pp.201–224

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Deriving Ewe (Tongugbe) nyá-constructions

ORCiD logo with link | New York University
Published online: 17 May 2024
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/lv.23061.got
Abstract
Ewe (Kwa, Niger-Congo) has a construction known in the literature as the nyá-construction (Ameka, Felix K. 1991. Ewe: Its grammatical constructions and illocutionary devices. Doctoral dissertation, ANU., 2005a. “The woman is seeable” and “the woman perceives seeing”: undergoer voice construction in Ewe and Likpe. Studies in the languages of the Volta Basin 31. 43–62.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar; Collins, Chris. 1993. Topics in Ewe syntax. Cambridge, MA: MIT Doctoral dissertation.; Duthie, Alan S. 1996. Introducing Ewe linguistic patterns: A textbook of phonology, grammar, and semantics. Ghana Univ. Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar; Adjei, Francisca. 2014. Children’s use of nya construction in Ewe. Journal of West African Languages 411. 31–46.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar). The logical internal argument of the construction occurs in subject position and the logical external argument is either absent on the surface or represented in the construction as a for-PP. In this paper, I consider the syntax of the Ewe nyá-construction, exploring data from the Tongugbe dialect. I show that the nyá-construction shares properties with English middles. I demonstrate that the agent or experiencer for-PP that may occur in the nyá -construction is its external argument, projected in Spec vP. Further, I argue that even if the for-PP is not overtly realized, it is syntactically projected in Spec vP, contrary to theories like Bruening, Benjamin. 2013. By phrases in passives and nominals. Syntax 161, 1–41. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar. The analysis I put forward provides support for the Theta-Criterion, which forces all arguments to be syntactically projected.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Distinguishing nyá from other nya expressions
  • 3.The Ewe nyá-construction and English middles
    • 3.1Selectivity
    • 3.2Preposition stranding and purpose clauses
  • 4.On the external argument of the nyá-construction
    • 4.1Syntactically projected external argument
      • 4.1.1Principle A and B of the binding theory
      • 4.1.2Control into without-adjuncts
      • 4.1.3Secondary predicates
  • 5.Deriving the nyá-construction
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
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