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Subject and Object Pronominal Agreement in the Southern Bantu Languages: from a Dynamic Syntax Perspective

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Subject and Object Pronominal Agreement in the Southern Bantu Languages: from a Dynamic Syntax Perspective Anna McCormack Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirement for the Degree of Dr. of Philosophy September, 2007 School of Oriental and African Studies University of London ProQuest Number: 10672997 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a com plete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. uest ProQuest 10672997 Published by ProQuest LLC(2017). Copyright of the Dissertation is held by the Author. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States C ode Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106- 1346 Abstract One of the most distinguishing aspects of the Bantu languages is the use of pronominal agreement markers. This thesis examines the nature of these agreement markers, focus­ sing primarily the object marker, with Setswana being the primary language used for illustration due to the unusual feature of it allowing multiple object marker construc­ tions. This thesis is comprised of seven chapters. The first chapter is the introduction and lays out the rest of the thesis with an explanation of what will be achieved in each chapter. The second chapter is an introduction to the Bantu languages and is primarily concerned with their structure, though there is also a discussion on the languages and the speakers themselves. The third chapter is an introduction to Setswana, the language primarily used in the thesis for illustration and examples. Setswana is a tone language and so this chapter includes a discussion on tone in the language, and in particular there is a section illus­ trating the grammatical effects of tone using the conjunctive/disjunctive distinction as identified by Creissels, 1996.1 The fourth chapter looks specifically at agreement in the Bantu languages, fo­ cussing on object marker agreement. It includes a discussion on the noun class system and then a comparison of two seminal works on the subject and object agreement mark­ ers in Bantu: Bresnan & Mchombo, 1987 and Demuth & Johnson, 1989.2 The fifth chapter is an introduction to Dynamic Syntax, the theory within which pronominal agreement is analysed in this thesis. The sixth chapter is the analysis of multiple object marker constructions in Setswana using the tools as provided by DS. The analysis involves invoking a notion of pragmatic inference combined with Local * Adjunction. The seventh and final chapter is the conclusion which summarises the thesis and suggests possible avenues for further study or investigation. 1 Creissels, Dennis. 1996. Conjunctive and disjunctive verb forms in Setswana. South African Journal of African Languages 16 (4): 109-115. Bresnan, Joan & Sam A. Mchombo. 1987. Topic, pronoun and agreement in Chichewa. Lan­ guage 63.4. 741-782 Demuth, Katherine & Mark Johnson. 1989. Interaction between Discourse Functions and Agreement in Setawana. Journal of African Languages and Linguistics 11. 21-35. 3 Contents Abstract _________________________________________________________________________ 3 Contents________________________________________________________________________ 4 G lossa/y________________________________________________________________________ 6 Acknowledgments________________________________________________________________ 7 1 Introduction________________________________________________________________ 9 1.1 Pragmatics________________________ 10 1.2 Thesis Overview _________________________________________________________ 13 1.2.1 Chapter 1_____________________________________________________________________ 13 1.2.2 Chapter 2_____________________________________________________________________14 1.2.3 Chapter 3_____________________________________________________________________16 1.2.4 Chapter 4 _ ___________________________ ____________________________________ 17 1.2.5 Chapter 5_____________________________________________________________________19 1.2.6 Chapter 6____________________________________ ,_____ 21 1.2.7 Chapter 7 ____________________________________________________________________ 22 1.3 Methodology ____________________________________________________________ 23 2 Introduction to the Bantu Languages_______________________________________ 25 2.1 The Speakers of Bantu Languages_________________________________________26 2.2 Classification of Bantu Languages_________________________________________27 2.2.1 Guthrie 28 2.2.2 Johnston __________ 30 2.2.3 Others 31 2.3 Proto-Bantu ____________________________________________________________ 32 2.3.1 Meinhof 33 2.4 Phonetics and Phonology _________________________________________________ 35 2.4.1 Tone _________________________________________________________________________ 37 2.5 Outline of Bantu Grammar_______________________________________________ 37 2.5.1 Noun Class System _____________________________________ 38 2.5.2 Verb Form Structure ___________________________________________________________41 2.6 Summary______________________________________________________________ 47 3 Introduction to Setswana ____________________________________________ 49 3.1 Setswana_______________________________________________________________ 49 3.1.1 Informants____________________________________________________________________50 3.1.2 Sentence Structure 51 3.2 Tone in Setswana_________________________________ 53 3.2.1 Tone on the Verb 54 3.2.2 Conjunctive Vs. Disjunctive _____________________________________________________ 69 3.3 Summary and Conclusion________________________________________________ 85 4 Agreement Markers____________________ 87 4.1 Agreement _____________________________________________________________ 87 4.1.1 Pronominal A greem ent _________________________________________________________91 4.2 Agreement in Bantu ______________________________________________________ 92 4.2.1 Verb Form Structure ._____ .______ 93 4.2.2 Pronominal Agreement 2 - Conjoined Noun Phrases ________________________________ 95 4 4.3 Bresnan & Mchombo and Demuth & Johnson ______________________________ 99 4.3.1 Topic, Pronoun and Agreement in Chichewa 100 4.3.2 Interaction Between Discourse Functions and Agreement in Setawana ________________ 114 4.4 Summary and Conclusion ______________________________________________ _ 119 5 Dynamic Syntax__________________________________________________________ 121 5.1 Parsing and Context ___________________________________________________ 121 5.2 Basic Tree _____________________________________________________________ 123 5.3 Language of Dynamic Syntax_______________________ 124 5.3.1 Tree Node Decorations_________________________________________________________125 5.3.2 Dynamic Syntax Rules „_____ 127 5.3.3 Lexical Entries _______________________________________________________________ 133 5.4 Tree Structure _________________________________________________________ 136 5.4.1 Introduction and Prediction ____________________________________________________ 139 5.4.2 LIN K ___________________________________ 144 5.5 Concepts of Underspecification __________________________________________ 146 5.5.1 Adjunction Rules _____________________________________________________________ 151 5.6 Summary_____________________________ 161 6 Multiple Object Constructions_____________________________________________ 164 6.1 Pragmatics Revisited___________________________________________________ 164 6.2 Analysis __________________________________ 168 6.2.1 Single object constructions _____________________________________________________ 169 6.2.2 Multiple Object Marker Constructions 180 6.3 Summary and Conclusion______________________________________________ 195 7 Conclusion_______________________________________________________________ 199 7.1 Summary of Findings__________________________________________________ 199 7.1.1 From H ere __________________________________________________________________202 7.1.2 Limitations ____________________________ 203 8 References________________________________________________________________ 204 5 Glossary Below is a list of diacritics, abbreviations and terms found in this thesis, they are pre­ sented in alphabetical order. ' - indicates a high tone ' - indicates a low tone " - indicates a falling tone v - indicates a rising tone * - indicates either a proto- form 0 1 * an ungrammatical example ? - indicates an ambiguously grammatical example APP(L) - applicative AUX - auxiliary BEN — benefactive C - consonant Cl - class COMP - complementizer CONJ - conjunction COP - copula DISJ - disjunctive F - falling (tone) FUT - future FV - final vowel H - high (tone) HAB — habitual INDIC -- indicative INF - infinitive L - low (tone) LOC - locative N - nasal NEG - negative Noun class - akin to gender in the Romance languages (for example) NP - noun phrase OC — object concord/clitic OM - object marker PERF/PFT - perfective pi - plural PRES - present PROG - progressive Proto - refers to a hypothetical language/system, usually an ancestral language/system PST - past REC - recent REL - relative SM — subject marker TNS — tense V - vowel 6 Acknowledgments First and foremost I would like to give my deepest thanks to my supervisor Lutz Mar­ ten, without whose patience, time, knowledge
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