A minimalist analysis of obligatory reflexivity in Chichewa

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study deals with the phenomenon of obligatory reflexivity in Chichewa, a language belonging to the Bantu family. Obligatory reflexivity occurs in constructions where a pronominal element – e.g. the reflexive marker (RFM) -dzi- in the verbal complex in Chichewa – is referentially dependent on some other expression in the sentence, its antecedent. Constructions of this type have not received systematic attention in the literature on Chichewa syntax, except in the works of Mchombo (1993, 2004, 2007). The first objective of the study is to fill this empirical gap by providing a detailed description of the different types of construction in which obligatory reflexivity is found in Chichewa. The second objective is to provide an analysis of the relevant facts within the broad framework of Minimalist Syntax (e.g. Chomsky 1995, 2000; Hornstein, Nunes & Grohmann 2005; Radford 2009). More specifically, the study seeks to determine whether the recent minimalist approach to the analysis of obligatory reflexive constructions put forward by Oosthuizen (2013), the so-called Nominal Shell Analysis (NSA), provides an adequate framework for analysing reflexive constructions in Chichewa. The analysis that is set out in this study focuses on three types of reflexive construction, namely verbal object reflexives, infinitival verbal reflexives, and infinitival nominal reflexives. It is argued that an analysis that incorporates the core hypotheses and devices of the NSA can provide a proper description and explanation of the facts of obligatory reflexivity as reflected in these three types of construction. In particular, it is claimed that such an analysis can account for the establishment of a coreferential relationship between the RFM -dzi- and an antecedent, without requiring any special devices or devices that are incompatible with the basic assumptions of the minimalist approach to linguistic inquiry. In brief, according to the analysis, the RFM -dzi- and its antecedent are initially merged into a light noun phrase, nP, with the RFM representing the functional n-head of this phrase. In this configuration, the coreferential relationship between the antecedent and -dzi- is established when the antecedent provides the RFM with φ-values (i.e. values for the grammatical features person, number and noun class). In the course of the discussion, several proposals are also put forward in connection with other, related aspects of Chichewa syntax, including the agreement relationship between the subject/object and their respective markers in the verbal complex.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University