Malagasy Adverbs Andrea Rackowski McGill University August 1996

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In The Structure of Malagasy, Volume II , ed. Ileana Paul, UCLA Working Papers in Linguistics, 1998. 2.1 Order To determine the relative order of adverbs, Cinque uses sentences which contain two or three of them at a time, and shows that they transitively indicate a constant hierarchy of adverbs where each has one and only one distinct base position. This process is demonstrated in the following examples, taken from him. (1)a. Alle due, Gianni non ha solitamente mica mangiato, ancora. At two, G. has usually not eaten yet. b. *Alle due, Gianni non ha mica solitamente mangiato, ancora. At two, G. has not usually eaten yet. (2)a. Non hanno mica gia chiamato, che io sappia. They have not already telephoned, that I know. b. *Non hanno gia mica chiamato, che io sappia. They have already not telephoned, that I know. (3)a. All'epoca non possedeva gia piu nulla. At the time (s)he did not possess already any longer anything. b. *All'epoca non possedeva piu gia nulla. At the time (s)he did not possess any longer already anything. (4)a. Non hanno chiamato mica piu, da allora. They haven't telephoned not any longer, since then. b. *Non hanno chiamato piu mica, da allora. Omitting several more such examples and logical steps of transitivity, the final relative order of adverbs put forth by Cinque is: (5)solitamente> mica> gia> piu> sempre> complemente> tutto> bene usually> not> already> any longer> always> completely> all> well These adverbs are representatives of larger classes, whose members share the same positions and for this reason cannot co-occur. Solitamente-class adverbs, for instance, include generalemente, abitualmente, and normalemente, etc. (generally, habitually, and normally, etc.), and cannot appear in the same sentence together. 2.2 Location of Adverbs Drawing on evidence from various languages, Cinque shows that there exists a similar 'universal' order of inflectional categories in a sentence (i.e. MoodP before TP before ModalP, etc.). Using this in conjunction with the order of adverbs, he postulates that the universal order of adverbs and the universal order of inflectional elements are related and that, in fact, adverbs are located in the Specifier positions of the functional phrases which contain inflection in their heads. The possibility of verb past participle movement to different positions between adverbs, he claims, indicates the existence of a head between the adverbs, into which the verb may move. Since, he argues, the only position possible between two heads (where the verb is demonstrated to appear) is a Spec, the AdvPs must be in the Specs of the functional categories. 2
In The Structure of Malagasy, Volume II , ed. Ileana Paul, UCLA Working Papers in Linguistics, 1998. (6)a. Da allora, non hanno rimesso di solito mica piu sempre completamente tutto bene in ordine. b. Da allora, non hanno di solito rimesso mica piu sempre completamente tutto bene in ordine. c. Da allora, non hanno di solito mica rimesso piu sempre completamente tutto bene in ordine. d. Da allora, non hanno di solito mica piu rimesso sempre completamente tutto bene in ordine. e. Da allora, non hanno di solito mica piu sempre rimesso completamente tutto bene in ordine. f. Da allora, non hanno di solito mica piu sempre completamente rimesso tutto bene in ordine. "Since then, they haven't usually not any longer always put everything well in order." 3. Kayne -- Theoretical Background Here again, I do not offer a complete account of Kayne's book-length theory. What follows is only a sketch of his main points and the implications that these have for phrase structure, particularly in Malagasy. 3.1 Basic Shape of Syntax Using a variety of arguments, Kayne arrives at the Linear Correspondence Axiom, which means basically that syntactic trees may only be right-branching and maximal projections may only have one element adjoined to them. Kayne takes the one permitted adjunction to a phrase to be the Specifier of the phrase, which means that no other kind of adjunction to maximal projection is allowed. Kayne includes many facts and arguments to support his theory, but for the purposes of this paper, I simply assume it. 3.2 Implications of the theory Kayne’s system creates a need for much movement out of the SVO order which is the base in every language. For example, to obtain a language’s surface SOV order from an underlying SVO one, the object must raise above the verb to some empty position that is available as a landing site. S-O-PP-V requires that the object and the PP both raise (together) to a position between the subject and the verb. To get VOS order in a language such as Malagasy, the verb and the object must raise (together in the VP or possibly separately) to some position above the subject. In this way, all non-SVO surface orders are generated, and all are the result of movement. In requiring movement to obtain surface orders, Kayne (1993) forces, by necessity, the existence of a large number of empty functional categories into which other elements can move. Kayne-type trees either need empty FPs between each visible FP to allow movement, or else they need some sort of mechanism by which empty FPs can be inserted in different (perhaps specific and restricted) positions in the syntax for the 3
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Malagasy Adverbs Andrea Rackowski McGill University August 1996

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