Propositional attitude verbs and complementizers in Medumba

We present the preliminary results of an investigation on complementizers and
their interaction with propositional attitude verbs in Medumba (Grassfields Bantu,
Niger-Congo). This initial sketch of the Medumba C-system opens up questions
about the syntactic distribution and semantic force of the various Cs. There are
two clause-initial Cs, /mbʉ/ and /ndà/, of which /mbʉ/ has three syntactically
conditioned allomorphs: [mbʉ̀ ]-L, [mbʉ́ ʉ̀ ]-HL and [mbʉ̀ ʉ́ ]-LH. The clause-final [lá]
obligatorily co-occurs with two of the clause-initial Cs, namely [mbʉ́ ʉ̀ ]-HL and
[ndà]. Additionally, the inventory of propositional attitude verbs (pavs) is quite
small, with only four identified thus far: two are monomorphemic ([lεn] ‘know’,
[t͡ʃúp] ‘say’) and two are are bi-morphemic ([kwὲ-də̀ ] ‘think-iter’, [bέt-tə́ ] ‘ask-
iter’). We make the case for a syntactically conditioned floating H-tone.
Additionally, we propose a basic structure of the Medumba CP and raise questions about
the scope of polarity and the nature of the clause-final particle /lá/.
Keywords: Medumba, complementizer, propositional attitude, embedding