Phrasal movement inside Bantu verbs : deriving affix scope and order in Kîîtharaka

Abstract

This thesis tries to determine the principles that govern affix ordering in Kîîtharaka, an SVO Bantu language spoken in Kenya. The thesis starts by determining the base hierarchy of affixes by using semantic scope. Thus if an affix A scopes over an affix B, A asymmetrically c-commands B in the phrasal structure configuration. The thesis then tries to investigate how the affixes in the base hierarchy are re-ordered to produce the surface string. It is shown that in order to get the surface string, a constituent containing the verb root undergoes phrasal movement past an affix in a mixture of cyclic and roll-up movement. This movement mechanism, which I refer to as dragging movement, is shown to be strikingly similar to the mechanism that derives the typological variation in the ordering of demonstrative, numeral and adjective in the extended projection of the noun (Cinque 2005). The thesis therefore shows that the ordering of the affixes in the extended projection of the verb phrase in Kîîtharaka and the ordering of modifiers in the extended projection of the noun phrase fall under the same generalization.