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Locatives in Kinyarwanda By Locatives in Kinyarwanda by Jean Paul Ngoboka Thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Linguistics Programme of the School of Arts, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban Supervisor: Professor Jochen Zeller November 2016 Declaration of plagiarism I, Jean Paul Ngoboka, declare that 1. The research reported in this thesis, except where otherwise indicated, is my original research. 2. This thesis has not been submitted for any degree or examination at any other university. 3. This thesis does not contain other persons‟ data, pictures, graphs or other information, unless specifically acknowledged as being sourced from other persons. 4. This thesis does not contain other persons' writing, unless specifically acknowledged as being sourced from other researchers. Where other written sources have been quoted, then: a. Their words have been re-written but the general information attributed to them has been referenced. b. Where their exact words have been used, then their writing has been placed in italics and inside quotation marks, and referenced. 5. This thesis does not contain text, graphics or tables copied and pasted from the Internet, unless specifically acknowledged, and the source being detailed in the thesis and in the References sections. Signed ……………………………. i This thesis is dedicated to my wife, Berthe. ii Acknowledgements First and foremost my greatest thanks are due to my supervisor: Professor Jochen Zeller. I don‟t have words good enough to extend my gratitude to him. Professor Zeller has been my syntax teacher and my supervisor. As my supervisor, he found enough time to discuss my work, which sometimes resulted in long meetings in his office. Without his comments, suggestions, corrections and those long meetings, this thesis would have never become what it is now. I was also privileged to have an office next to his. I am also grateful to Professor Jochen Zeller for taking an interest in me not only as a student but also as a person; he made sure that my stay at the university was comfortable and enjoyable. He made sure that I did not miss any scholarship opportunities. I will also miss the evenings at the Portuguese Restaurant. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the following people for their contribution to the realisation of this project, directly or indirectly: Professor Laurent Nkusi for his encouragement and guidance on where to find references on Kinyarwanda. Professor Tembue Zembele wa Ololo for encouraging me to pursue my PhD and recommending me for a PhD scholarship, which I eventually secured. Professor Heike Tappe whose encouragement and advice kept my morale high during my stay at the university. Dr Langa Khumalo for allowing me to attend his Corpus Linguistics classes, and his encouragement and willingness to help. The University of KwaZulu-Natal for the doctoral research scholarship in the 2014 and 2015 academic years, which made it possible for me to stay at the university, meet the necessary expenses, and complete my studies. All those who participated in the elicitation process and those who accepted to check some of the data with me during the writing process: Pierre Celestin Kamonyo, Jean de Dieu Munyakazi, Virgie Uwibambe, Joseph Magambo, Louis Gatebuke, Onesphore Majyambere, Jean Bosco Mugisha, Justine Mukagasana, Julienne Mukandayisenga, Jean Marie Vianney iii Bazirake, Modeste Sebera, Denyse Dusabirema, Claudine Muraraneza and 4 anonymous participants. Mrs. Muhle Sibisi and Mr. Njabulo Mnpungose for the discussion of the Zulu examples. My wife, Berthe, and my children, for enduring my long absence during which life became a bit difficult; special thanks to Berthe for her moral support and for successfully playing the role of a mother and father for the time I was away. My friends and former colleagues Juvenal Rubegwa and Patrick Ujwiga for their constant encouragement and regular emails. Innocent Ndateba for accepting to be my host at the university, before I could find my own accommodation. Fellow students for sharing the PhD experience while we were at Howard College: Agness, Rajabu, Donatilla, Clemence, Mado, and Claudine. Last but not least, Mr. Brandon Chetty for editing this thesis. iv Abstract This study, titled Locatives in Kinyarwanda, is about Kinyarwanda, a language spoken in Rwanda and its neighboring countries. It aims to investigate issues related to locatives and locative constructions in Kinyarwanda, namely, locative markers, locative shift, and locative inversion and related constructions. The issues investigated are the following: the syntactic status of the locative markers ku-, mu-, and i- of classes 17, 18, and 19, respectively, and the corresponding locative elements hó, mó and yó; the derivation of locative shift and locative inversion, the question of whether the preposed locative DPs/expressions are base-generated in the preverbal position or whether they are the result of movement from the postverbal position, and whether they are subjects or topics. The study is conducted within the framework of the Minimalist Program, with phase theory and Locality (the Minimal Link Condition) playing a prominent role in my analysis. These theories are complemented by a theory of small clauses as Relator phrases (Den Dikken, 2006, 2007), and incorporation theory (Baker, 1988). The study shows that, despite having the semantic properties of prepositions, syntactically, the Kinyarwanda locative markers ku-, mu-, and i- are determiners similarly to augments and demonstratives. It is shown that the locative elements hó, mó, and yó are clitics and that they are derived either morphologically by combining the locative marker with the pronominal root -ó or syntactically by incorporation of a locative D-head into a functional head that is realized by this pronominal stem. It is shown that locative shift and different types of locative inversion involve a small clause in their derivation. The main claim defended in this thesis is that these constructions are based on the same syntactic configuration and derivational processes: a locative D-head, realized as a locative marker, selects a Locative DP to form a "big" locative DP; when the locative marker incorporates into the functional head that selects the "big DP", the Locative DP moves from the small clause to the specifier of a higher functional head (the so-called Linker in Locative shift constructions, and T in locative inversion constructions). It is also shown that Locative DPs in semantic locative inversion are structural subjects, whereas the preposed locative expressions in formal locative inversion are topics which are base-generated in the left periphery, from where they bind a locative pro in the subject position. v TABLES OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................................ iii Abstract ........................................................................................................................................... v List of tables .................................................................................................................................... x List of abbreviations ...................................................................................................................... xi CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................. 1 1.1 The topic ................................................................................................................................ 1 1.2 Theoretical framework .......................................................................................................... 7 1.3 Background to the Kinyarwanda language ......................................................................... 16 1.4 Outline of the thesis............................................................................................................. 18 CHAPTER TWO: A GRAMMATICAL SKETCH OF KINYARWANDA ............................... 20 2.1 Kinyarwanda phonology ..................................................................................................... 20 2.1.1 Vowels .......................................................................................................................... 20 2.1.2 Consonants ................................................................................................................... 20 2.1.3 Tone and vowel length ................................................................................................. 21 2.2 The Kinyarwanda noun class system .................................................................................. 25 2.2.1 The augment ................................................................................................................. 27 2.2.2 The noun prefixes of classes 1-16 ................................................................................ 29 2.3 The agreement system ......................................................................................................... 31 2.4 The Kinyarwanda locative classes 16, 17, 18, and 19 ......................................................... 33 2.4.1 Locative class 16: ha- ................................................................................................... 33 2.4.2 Locative class 17: ku- ................................................................................................... 35 2.4.3
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