The Stacking Behavior of Valence-Increasing Verbal Extensions and Their Arguments in Shona
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2014
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Swarthmore College. Dept. of Linguistics
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Thesis (B.A.)
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The Linguistics Prize in Linguistic Theory
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en_US
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Abstract
Most Bantu Languages exhibit several verbal affixes that change the meaning or
argument structure of the verbs to which they attach. Two of the most cross-Bantu
common of these morphemes are the applicative and causative. which are both valence increasing.
making many intransitive verbs transitive and transitive verbs ditransitive. In
addition to having these affixes. most Bantu languages also exhibit the ability to stack
more than one of them at once. creating more complex structures. Shona (a language of
Zimbabwe). however. displays a typologically unusual restriction. allowing only two
postverbal objects at the most. In addition to this descriptive generalization. this paper
provides a detailed account of verbal extensions and their objects in Shona. ultimately
showing that many Shona objects behave asymmetrically. Towards the latter half of this
report. the focus shifts to an analysis of the argument limit and asymmetrical object
phenomena involving case. In order to explain seemingly conflicting data. this paper
hypothesizes the presence of three structural case-assigners in Shona. as well as
proposing several criteria for prosperous case-assignment.