Subject and object marking in Bembe David Edy Iorio B.A. Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Germany (2008) M.A. Newcastle University (2009) Thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne School of English Literature, Language and Linguistics February 2015 Abstract Two notable typological characteristics of the Bantu languages are the phenomena of subject and object marking, the cross-referencing of co-referential arguments via verbal morphology. The cross-linguistic variation with respect to the distributional and interpretational properties of Bantu subject and object markers has led to a dichotomy of their roles between being either agreement morphology or (incorporated) pronouns. Despite an increasing number of explanatory attempts of these phenomena, a unifying formal derivation of this inter- and intra-language variation is yet to be found. This thesis is an attempt towards providing a solution by giving a grammatical description of the under-documented Bantu language Bembe (D54) and presenting a novel analysis that employs an Agree-based approach while still accounting for the pronominal properties of Bembe subject and object markers. Subject and object markers in Bembe cannot co-occur with the arguments they cross-reference, unless the latter are dislocated. In addition, subject marking only occurs with preverbal subjects (A’-position) but not with postverbal subjects (A-position). I demonstrate that these and a number of other facts are explained under the assumption that both subject and object markers in Bembe are pronominal elements rather than agreement morphology. In particular, I treat subject and object markers as defective clitics (φPs), which incorporate into their probe whenever their φ-feature set is a subset of the φ-feature set of the probe. Incorporation is seen as Agree-based phenomenon (Roberts 2010a,b), necessary to satisfy the feature-valuation requirements of heads. Besides capturing the subject and object marking facts in Bembe, the presented analysis is able to give a principled explanation as to (a) the difference in interpretation of preverbal and postverbal elements, (b) the constraint on locative constructions and default agreement inversions to appear only with unaccusative and copular verbs, (c) the ungrammaticality of subject-object reversals, and (d) the variation in subject marking in object relative clauses. i Declaration No part of the material contained within this thesis has previously been submitted for a degree at Newcastle University or any other university. Statement of Copyright The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. No quotation should be published from it without his prior written consent and information derived from it should be acknowledged. ii Odi et amo. Quare id faciam, fortasse requiris? Nescio, sed fieri sentio et excrucior. (Catullus 85) iii Acknowledgements I am most grateful and indebted to Prof Anders Holmberg and Dr Jenneke van der Wal for their supervision of this research. Their patience in debating research methodology, reading numerous unfinished drafts, discussing half-baked ideas, and providing constructive feedback on virtually every aspect of this thesis has been invaluable throughout my journey. I am especially thankful for their constant attempts of motivating me, often at times of near despair, without which I would probably not have finished. I am also much obliged to the School of English Literature, Language and Linguistics at Newcastle University, which awarded me a doctoral studentship funded from the AHRC Block Grant Partnership (AH/J500306/1), without which this thesis would not have been possible. I also thank Georges Kisombola and Iddi Mulengwa, through whose help I was able to find my first language informant Eky Esenga. It was the latter who made it possible for me to establish contact with a large part of the Bembe community in the UK and, to gather together with his wife Yvonne Asha Babilye Esenga and Yassin Toye the necessary language data. I extend my gratitude to Pierre Mmunga Mulengwa (Mas1), Charles Asukulu Mulengwa (Mas2), Jean-Claude Mulanga and Asukulu Ilelwa Etoka for their patience in conducting countless interviews over the phone. I express my gratitude to the colleagues and fellow researchers I have met over the course of four years and which helped a great deal along the way. Ali Algryani, Malgorzata Krzek and Ana Luiza Araújo Lopes, I wish I could have been more often in Newcastle and Cambridge. I also thank Prof Maggie Tallerman, Dr Joel Wallenberg and Geoffrey Poole. Parts of the research in this thesis have been presented at the Postgraduate Conference in Linguistics at Newcastle University, the Fifth International Conference on Bantu languages in Paris in the spring of 2013 and at Cambridge University in 2014. I extend my gratitude to the audiences for their interest, insightful comments and discussions. Lastly, I want to thank my family and friends who have always encouraged and supported me. Mamma e papà, grazie di cuore! Tutto questo sarebbe stato impossibile senza di voi. iv Table of Contents Abstract ............................................................................................................................ i! Declaration ..................................................................................................................... ii! Statement of Copyright .................................................................................................. ii! Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................ iv! List of Tables .............................................................................................................. viii! List of Figures ............................................................................................................. viii! List of abbreviations and symbols ................................................................................. ix! Chapter 1 - Introduction ................................................................................................ 1! 1.1 Aim of the thesis ....................................................................................................... 1! 1.2 Bembe ....................................................................................................................... 6! 1.2.1! Basic facts about the language and its speakers .......................................... 6! 1.2.2! The data ....................................................................................................... 9! 1.3 Theoretical background .......................................................................................... 11! 1.4. Outline of the thesis ............................................................................................... 18! Chapter 2 – A grammatical description of Bembe ..................................................... 20! 2.1 Phonetics ................................................................................................................. 20! 2.1.1! Vowels ....................................................................................................... 20! 2.1.2! Semi-vowels .............................................................................................. 23! 2.1.3! Consonants ................................................................................................. 24! 2.1.4! Syllable structure ....................................................................................... 27! 2.2 Nouns and nominal categories ................................................................................ 28! 2.2.1! Nouns and the noun class system .............................................................. 28! 2.2.2! Personal pronouns ...................................................................................... 47! 2.2.3! Reflexive pronouns .................................................................................... 49! 2.2.4! Possessive pronouns .................................................................................. 50! 2.2.5! Possessive connective construction ........................................................... 51! 2.2.6! Demonstratives .......................................................................................... 54! 2.2.7! Coordinator ................................................................................................ 57! 2.2.8! Noun modification ..................................................................................... 60! 2.2.9! Numerals .................................................................................................... 68! 2.2.10! Quantifiers ................................................................................................. 70! 2.2.11! Prepositions ................................................................................................ 77! 2.2.12! Interrogative pronouns ............................................................................... 84! 2.2.13! Conjunctions .............................................................................................. 85! v 2.2.14! Word order in the nominal phrase ............................................................. 91! 2.3 Verbs and verbal categories .................................................................................... 94! 2.3.1! The structure of the Bembe verb ..............................................................