Clausal Complementation

Author : Mark Baker and Ken Safir

Publication date : 2012

Questionnaire URL : http://www.africananaphora.rutgers.edu/57-static-content/case-files/235-akan

Goals

"This questionnaire (which we will call the CCQ) is designed to explore the relationship between predicates and the clausal arguments they are compatible with." (Baker & Safir, 2012: 1)

Protocol summary

This questionnaire is made up of English sentences to be translated into the target language in order to analyse the clausal complementation structures. The authors ask for the linguist " to translate all of the model sentences provided as best [they] can and indicate whether the result is acceptable or not in spoken discourse according to the following scale.
* - Not acceptable.
?* - Very marginally acceptable - somehow not totally unacceptable, but you would probably never say it.
?? - Very odd, though you might hear it or even catch yourself saying it.
? - Not fully acceptable, perhaps a little odd sounding, but you would not reject it.
OK - Natural in spoken discourse. " (Baker & Safir, 2012: 1-2)

Development context

The questionnaire was used in Akan to develop the African Anaphora Database, which is part of the Afranaph project directed by Ken Safir.