Towards a Morphosyntactic Analysis of Verbs of Possession in Argobba

Abstract

: The paper aims at describing and analyzing the morphosyntactic structures of the
verbs of possession in Argobba. The verbs do not follow the stem formation mechanisms
employed in the prototypical verbs of the language. It also exhibits syntactic deviation in
selecting non-referential subject in structures headed by the verbal word with 3MS subject
agreement and a referential subject NP otherwise. Unlike the classical verbs of the language,
dislocation of the subject and the object is obligatory in structures headed by the possessive
verbal word with non-3MS subject agreement. It is argued that the GB approach hardly
accounts for the structure of the possessive predicates. The Head- Driven Phrase Structure
Grammar (HPSG) approach however can explain it better.