The semantics of the (so-called) clausal determiner n´o in Akan (Kwa)

Abstract

In Akan (Kwa), certain embedded clauses—relative clauses, clefts, temporal clauses, and subject CPs—can be followed by a determiner homophonous to the definite article nó. The prior literature considers this as part of a larger phenomenon of ‘clausal determiners’ attested in several Kwa languages. Some of these approaches analyse them unitarily as event determiners, which mark the event of the embedded clause as pre-mentioned or as mutually known (Akan: Boadi, 1974, Arkoh and Matthewson, 2013; Fòngbe: Larson, 2003; Gungbe: Aboh, 2005; Gã: Renans, 2016a, Grubic and Renans, 2016). Based on original fieldwork on no´ in relative clauses and cleft constructions, we argue against a unified analysis of clausal determiners as event determiners, showing that in relative clauses, the so-called clausal determiner operates at NP level, whereas this is not the case for cleft-nó.