This dissertation examines the syntax and semantics of long-distance dependencies involving pronouns in Atchan, a Kwa language of Côte d’Ivoire. In addition to describing a range of morphosyntactic and semantic properties of Atchan, the dissertation takes as its focus two case studies of phenomena in Atchan where pronominal form and interpretation intimately relate to long-distance dependencies. One case study focuses on the syntax of resumption, while the other focuses on the semantics of prominence-sensitive, disjointness-marking pronouns.
The resumption case study focuses on a set of language-internal splits in when resumptive pronouns occur in A’-movement dependencies in Atchan. I show that in certain syntactic positions (like extraction of PP objects), all extraction gives rise to resumptive pronouns, while in other syntactic positions (like extraction of subjects), only extraction of pronouns—not extraction of lexical nominals—gives rise to resumption. I argue that this empirical observation provides evidence that two distinct mechanisms, both prominence requirements (Landau 2006; van Urk 2018; Scott 2021; Georgi and Amaechi 2022) and cliticization (Nunes 2004; Kandybowicz 2006; Harizanov 2014; Kramer 2014), are needed to capture resumptive pronouns in movement dependencies across languages.
The second case study focuses on a disjointness-marking 3SG pronoun in Atchan, which I term the obviative. I document a range of disjointness effects that the obviative exhibits, arguing that it must be interpreted as disjoint from the highest nominal in the matrix clause’s information-structural periphery. I provide an analysis of the obviative’s behavior that is rooted in obligatory semantic binding. In particular, I propose that the obviative introduces a presupposition that its referent not be identical to another variable. This additional variable is semantically bound by the highest nominal in the matrix-clause information-structural periphery. The presuppositional angle of this analysis recalls Bassi et al.’s (2023) treatment of logophoric pronouns as presuppositional in nature; in contrast, however, this dissertation’s case study includes the proposal that presuppositional obligatory-binding effects can have the surface profile of obligatory disjointness.