Lunyole Grammar; It Does Not Attempt to Make a Statement for Or Against a Particular Formal Linguistic Theory
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A PARTIAL GRAMMAR SKETCH OF LUNYOLE WITH EMPHASIS ON THE APPLICATIVE CONSTRUCTION(S) _______________________ A Thesis Presented to The Faculty of the School of Intercultural Studies Department of Applied Linguistics & TESOL Biola University _______________________ In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts in Applied Linguistics _______________________ by Douglas Allen Wicks May 2006 ABSTRACT A PARTIAL GRAMMAR SKETCH OF LUNYOLE WITH EMPHASIS ON THE APPLICATIVE CONSTRUCTION(S) Douglas Allen Wicks This thesis provides a general grammatical description of Lunyole, a Bantu language of Eastern Uganda. After a brief description of the phonology, it describes the morphology and basic syntax of Lunyole, following Payne’s (1997) functional approach. This thesis then more deeply describes Lunyole’s applicative constructions in which an argument is added to the verb complex. Lunyole has two applicative marking constructions. The more productive one uses the -ir suffix on verbs of any valence in conjunction with a wide range of semantic roles. The other applicative construction is formed from a locative class prefix and is used only for locative arguments on unaccusative intransitive verbs. Similar locative morphemes may co-occur with the -ir applicative morpheme, but not as applicative markers; instead they clarify the relationship between arguments. TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE List of Tables ..................................................................................................................... ix List of Figures......................................................................................................................x Abbreviations..................................................................................................................... xi 1. INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND ..................................................................1 1.1. Purpose....................................................................................................................1 1.2. Language information.............................................................................................1 1.2.1. Genetic affiliation..........................................................................................2 1.2.2. Demographics................................................................................................2 1.2.3. Dialects ..........................................................................................................5 1.2.4. Sociolinguistic situation ................................................................................6 1.3. Literature review ....................................................................................................8 1.4. Data ......................................................................................................................10 1.5. A functional approach ..........................................................................................11 2. PHONOLOGY.............................................................................................................12 2.1. Consonants ...........................................................................................................12 2.2. Vowels..................................................................................................................15 2.3. Tone......................................................................................................................16 2.4. Syllable structure..................................................................................................18 2.5. Phonological processes.........................................................................................19 iv 2.5.1. Rules affecting vowels ................................................................................19 2.5.2. Labialization................................................................................................20 2.5.3. Palatalization ...............................................................................................20 2.5.4. Nasal + consonant .......................................................................................21 2.5.5. Vowel harmony ...........................................................................................22 2.5.6. Morphophonemics of the third person singular prefix a-............................23 2.5.7. Morphophonemics of the perfective suffix -ire ..........................................24 3. GRAMMATICAL OVERVIEW.................................................................................25 3.1. Constituent order ..................................................................................................26 3.2. Nominal morphology ...........................................................................................27 3.2.1. Noun class system .......................................................................................28 3.2.2. Augment ......................................................................................................31 3.2.3. Pronouns......................................................................................................32 3.2.4. Diminution and augmentation.....................................................................33 3.2.5. Nominalization ............................................................................................34 3.3. The noun phrase ...................................................................................................38 3.3.1. Noun concord ..............................................................................................38 3.3.2. Modifiers .....................................................................................................40 3.3.3. Demonstratives............................................................................................41 3.3.4. Possessives ..................................................................................................42 3.3.5. Associative marker ......................................................................................43 3.4. Predicate nominals and existentials .....................................................................43 3.4.1. Methods of forming predicate nominals .....................................................43 v 3.4.2. Nonverbal predicate constructions ..............................................................44 3.4.3. Existentials ..................................................................................................46 3.5. Verbal morphology...............................................................................................48 3.5.1. Agreement ...................................................................................................48 3.5.2. Tense, aspect, and mood ......................................................................................49 3.5.3. Valence adjusting operations...............................................................................62 3.6. The verb phrase ....................................................................................................68 3.6.1. Adverbs .......................................................................................................69 3.6.2. Negation ......................................................................................................70 3.6.3. Evidentiality ................................................................................................73 4. THE BANTU APPLICATIVE CONSTRUCTION............................................................75 4.1. Overview of the applicative...........................................................................................75 4.2. Definitions ......................................................................................................................77 4.3. Forms of the Bantu applicative......................................................................................80 4.4. Literature review ............................................................................................................81 5. LUNYOLE APPLICATIVES...............................................................................................83 5.1. Applicative morphology................................................................................................83 5.1.1. The -ir applicative ................................................................................................84 5.1.2. Locative applicative -ho.......................................................................................84 5.2. Argument marking.........................................................................................................85 5.2.1. Agreement ............................................................................................................86 5.2.2. Argument order ....................................................................................................88 5.3. The -ir applicative and valency (transitivity)................................................................90 vi 5.3.1. Intransitive verbs ..................................................................................................91 5.3.2. Transitive verbs ....................................................................................................92 5.3.3. Ditransitive verbs..................................................................................................93 5.3.4. Double