Valency patterns in Mande: Contact vs inheritance

Studies in Language. 2025. Vol. 49. No. 4. P. 823–857.

Khachaturyan M., Мороз Г. А., Vydrin V., Konoshenko M.

In this paper, we address valency patterns in seven Mande languages with various degrees of genealogical proximity. Our study is based on the BivalTyp questionnaire focusing on 130 two-place predicates (Say 2020). While belonging to two distinct genetic groupings, two languages of the set, i.e. Mano (Southern Mande) and Kpelle (Southwestern Mande), are in intense contact with one another. We found that although Mano verbal stems are virtually unaffected by contact, the patterns of valency expression, including construction types and choice of postposition, but also the semantics of complex verbs are strongly influenced by Kpelle. This study thus adds further evidence for the predominance of pattern borrowing in multilingual settings.

Ключевые слова: Mande languages, language contact, matter borrowing, pattern borrowing, valency patterns

ПУБЛИКАЦИЯ ПОДГОТОВЛЕНА ПО РЕЗУЛЬТАТАМ ПРОЕКТА: Языковое и когнитивное многообразие в формальных моделях, компьютерных инструментах и образовательных ресурсах (2025)