Locative, Presentative and Progressive Constructions in Atlantic Languages

Maximilien Guérin (1)

1 HTL - HTL - Histoire des Théories Linguistiques - UMR 7597

While Atlantic languages are genetically related, the many differences they display indicate that they have been diverging from each other over a long time. These differences show up clearly when one considers the distinctions expressed in the languages’ verb morphology and the markers used to convey such distinctions. However, most Atlantic languages do have a prototypical locative construction which can also be used as a presentative and/or progressive construction. The use of a locative construction to express progressive and/or presentative is not specific to the Atlantic family. Nevertheless, both the structure of this construction and the form of the marker associated with it can be regarded as a characteristic of this family, as both are shared by a large majority of Atlantic languages, but not attested in any language in contact with a member of the Atlantic grouping. In this chapter, I assume that the aforementioned construction is inherited from Proto-Atlantic, and that its marker has grammaticalized from a previous demonstrative determiner.

Mots clés: Locative construction; Progressive construction; Presentative construction; Atlantic languages

Domaines: Linguistique; Linguistique

Maximilien Guérin. Locative, Presentative and Progressive Constructions in Atlantic Languages. Michela Russo. The Emergence of Grammars. A Closer Look at Dialects between Phonology and Morphosyntax, Nova Sciences, pp.305-342, 2021, Languages and Linguistics, 978-1-53619-888-1. ⟨halshs-03353758⟩