A Grammar of Tamashek (Tuareg of Mali)

Chapter 9

Verb phrases and other predications

9.1 Voice (valency) types of verbs

9.1.1 Subject and object

There is one subject NP in each clause. There may also be one direct object NP
(with verbs like 'give', the recipient may appear as a second direct object NP
under limited conditions, §9.1.6). Other NP's occur as PP's or as adverbials.
Except when focalized or topicalized, all NP's (and PP's) follow the verb. If
all arguments are expressed as nonpronominal NP's, the order is VSOX, where
X is everything else.
The subject is always expressed as a pronominal subject affix on the verb.
If it is also expressed as a noun (or NP), this immediately follows the verb
(unless fronted by focalization or topicalization). A verb plus a following
subject noun is treated as a single accentual phrase, so if the noun is mono- or
bisyllabic and has no lexical accent, a phrasal accent appears on the final
syllable of the verb. In addition, nouns that begin with a gender-number suffix
(MaSg α-, MaPl i-, FeSg t-α-, FePl t-i-), i.e. the majority of nouns, undergo
Prefix Reduction when in subject function following the verb (§3.5.1). The
reductions, which apply more generally to nouns in "dependent" state (hence
also in possessive constructions or after a preposition), are repeated in (606).

(606) Prefix Reduction in Postverbal Subject Noun

In texts and sentence examples, I use the symbol^1 before a noun to
indicate that audible Prefix Reduction has occurred. These nouns are therefore
either subjects, possessives (in annexation constructions), or complements of
prepositions. The symbol is not applicable to nouns that lack vocalic prefixes,
even in "dependent" syntactic positions.
If an object noun directly follows the verb, the accentual patterning is the
same (verb and object noun form a single accentual phrase), but there is no
Prefix Reduction. The presence or absence of Prefix Reduction is therefore a
key indicator of subject versus object status of an immediately postverbal
noun. Examples in (607).

MaSg

MaPl

FeSg

FePl

α-, e-

i-

t-α-, t-e-

t-i-

—» ae-, 3-

3", 0*

t-ae-, t-3-

—> t-3-, dialectally t-0-