<em>I músu fu woóko taánga:</em> Restructuring in Saamáka

Abstract

This paper addresses FU constructions in Saamáka. FU constructions are composed of a lexical or auxiliary verb and the complementizer/preposition fu. They convey an aspectual or modality reading. FU constructions have a fixed position in the TMA sequence, and they are placed in between the core TMA morphemes of Saamáka. In this paper, I show that verbs in FU constructions are restructuring verbs and therefore they have a mono-clausal structure.

Keywords

• Saamáka
• restructuring
• functional sequence
• TMA