Abstract

This paper examines the particle ko in Niuean (Tongic subgroup). Across Polynesian languages, this particle has been variously analysed as a preposition, a copular preposition, a focus or topic complementiser, a pred morpheme, and a tense morpheme. The paper will detail nine uses of this particle in Niuean, and argue that the best categorial analysis is the traditional one, according to which ko is a preposition. Following Clark (1976), it is argued that ko is a default or expletive preposition, which appears in the left periphery of non-arguments. To account for the use of ko phrases as sentential predicates and focused phrases, it is posited that a ko phrase can be sister to a null light verb, and further, that ko can have an optional focus feature. The paper will conclude with an examination of a tenth ko-construction, the double-ko construction. This analysis allows for a unification of the ten functions of ko in Niuean, which, it is argued that other analyses are unable to achieve.

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