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interpretation. Second, the reduplicant is a copy of the first syllable of the base, rather
than a copy of the entire base.
One use of reduplication in Mono is to mark negation. This involves the
combination of a reduplicated verb and the particle AA AA AA AA in clause-final position.
Examples are given in (22):
(22) Reduplication in Mono
a. >(>(H >(>(H >(>(H >(>(H J( J( J( J( AA AA AA AA
1SG RED-do:NF it NEG
‘I didn’t do it.’
b. A@A A@A A@A A@A =(=(=H= =(=(=H= =(=(=H= =(=(=H= AA AA AA AA
3PL RED-uproot ... NEG
‘They didn’t uproot.’ (Kamanda, p. 116)
Reduplication is used in several other constructions as well, which will be
discussed below.
Modifications in the tonal patterns on Mono verbs indicate different tense, aspect
and mood (TAM) characteristics. These tonal patterns may affect not just the verb, but
also a preceding subject pronoun. This is evidence that subject pronouns may be
considered clitics in Mono, since they are grammatically part of the subject but
phonologically dependent on the verbal system. All three level tones are attested on the
first syllable of a verb root, several tonal patterns are attested on reduplicants (H, HM,
and HL), and a H tone may replace the regular tone on a subject pronoun. Note that
regardless of the tense, aspect, or mood under consideration, the second and third
syllables of a verb root always bear a L tone.
Teasing out the exact semantic notions in a TAM system is a difficult task, and
there has been some discussion in the literature on the precise nature of the system in
Mono and related languages. Several analyses have been proposed for Banda (see e.g.
Cloarec-Heiss 1986, 1995b; Olson & Schrag 1997; Kamanda 1998), but more research
needs to be conducted in order to clarify this issue. In this dissertation, my main goal is to
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