Locative inversion in Bantu and predication

Datos Bibliográficos

ID3987523
AutoresJochen Zeller (0000-0003-3878-2995, University of KwaZulu-Natal, autor de correspondencia)
Año2013
Volumen51
Número6
Fecha de publicación2013-01-15
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaLinguistics (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0024-3949 • E-ISSN: 1613-396X
EditorialWalter de Gruyter GmbH (PUBLISHER • DE)
DOI10.1515/ling-2013-0046
OpenAlexW2140649553
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas18
Referencias citadas15

In generative grammar, locative inversion in Bantu languages is typically analyzed in terms of A-movement of the locative from a VP-internal position to the subject position. I present an alternative analysis, according to which the locative subject-DP is introduced above the νP/VP, in the specifier of a functional category whose head selects the νP/VP as its complement. I suggest that this category is Pr (for "predication"), i.e., the same category that also introduces the subject argument of adjectival or nominal predicates in non-verbal predication constructions (see Bowers 1993, and especially Baker 2003a for Bantu). In locative inversion, Pr establishes a non-canonical predication relation between a νP/VP that expresses a state or event, and a DP that denotes the location of which this state/event is predicated as a property. My analysis is developed on the basis of a detailed discussion of "semantic" locative inversion in the Bantu language Zulu (Buell 2007), a construction in which the inverted subject-DP is not formally marked as a locative, but receives its interpretation solely by virtue of the locative semantics of its head noun

Bantu languages · Definiteness · Inversion (geology) · Linguistics · Locative case · Subject (documents) · Computer Science · Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies · Mathematics · Natural Language Processing Techniques · Philosophy · Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation