Nominal mismatches in Swahili locatives
Abstract
According to Carstens (2008), Bantu locatives in general project double DPs. However, recent works have presented convincing evidence for a reduction in nominal size for Bantu locatives (Fuchs & van der Wal 2017, 2018). We argue that the actual size of nominals in Swahili, a language of the Bantu family, depends on the type of locative expression. In this regard, a mismatch in terms of nominal size is observed for Swahili. By means of analyzing such mismatches, we adopt the PP analysis as well as the stacked-n analysis suggested by Kramer (2015). In doing so, we demonstrate that there are two distinct ways of forming Swahili locatives. The first is to utilize a prepositional head, P (e.g., kwa), projected above a full nominal whereas the other is to make use of the head, n (e.g., -ni), projected within a reduced nominal. Such dissimilarity in constructing locatives, in turn, gives rise to mismatches in Swahili nominals.
Keywords
Swahili; locatives; gender; bare nominals; stacked-n analysis
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PDFDOI: https://doi.org/10.3765/plsa.v4i1.4473
Copyright (c) 2019 Soo-Hwan Lee, Doo-Won Lee

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