The Additive -V in Kambaata

International audienceMy paper gives a descriptive account of the functional, morphosyntactic and discourse-pragmatic properties of the coordinative morpheme -V in Kambaata, a Cushitic language of Ethiopia, and thus makes a contribution to the development of a typology of additive particles, as intended by the workshop. My work is based on a corpus of discourse data from fieldwork, elicited material and written texts (Schoolbooks grade 1-8, Gospel of John). Kambaata has two coordinative suffixes, -V and -na, which are placed word-finally after derivational and inflectional morphemes (-V stands for an added final vowel). While -V is used for the coordination of NPs and clauses, -na is mostly found on modifiers in an NP (genitive nouns, adjectives, relative clauses). Both morphemes are not only functionally but also formally different: In coordination, -V needs to be added after every coordinand, while na is only attached to the penultimate coordinand.After the division of labour of the two morphemes has been outlined, the main part of my paper is concerned with an analysis of the multifunctionality of (single) -V, which is used – unlike -na – as an additive morpheme. As such, it marks that what has been said about an element in an earlier clause also or even holds for the element to which it is attached (non-scalar / scalar additivity), e.g. háqqus murammóochch zakkiiní-i ‘even after the tree has been cut down’ (sentence continues: the stump does not dry up but shoots again). If V is suffixed to a conditional verb, it marks the clause as concessive: hoolámus dúubb itumboddá-a ‘even if / although many don’t eat their fill’. (Note that Kambaata is a head-final language.)Interrogatives can acquire the function of indefinite pronouns in Kambaata, if the coordinative –V-morpheme is suffixed to them directly or to the head of the phrase or clause in which they are occur. They may then function as (i) free-choice pronouns (ichcháta ayeehá-a qixxansitée’u ‘she prepared food for anyone (lit. “and for whom”)’) and (ii) negative pronouns (ichcháta ayeehá-a qixxansitimbá’a ‘she did not prepare food for anyone (lit. “and for whom”)’). Furthermore, interrogative pronouns are used as (iii) universal indefinite pronouns in conditional clauses, in which case the –V-morpheme is not added to the interrogative itself but clause-finally (habanká gizzá xa’mmeedá-a ‘no matter how much money he demands (lit.: “and if he demands how much money”)’). Finally, my paper also explores a function less commonly associated with additive morphemes cross-linguistically, namely the function of expressing ‘at least’, see maccaachchisí-i tórrinne ‘Throw at least a part of the ear to us!’ (addressed to Father Hyena who is eating up a donkey all alone)