The morphosyntax of Kikamba verb derivations: a minimalist approach

Abstract

The study IS an investigation of the morpholosyntax of Kikamba verb derivations within the minimalist program's framework as outlined by Chomsky. The research problem focused on how the basic sentence structure in Kikamba is affected by verbal derivations with valency changing power and how to account for the mismatch between the logical and natural order of arguments that result from co-occurrence of various valency changing morphemes. To start with verb derivations with valency changing power affect the basic sentence structure by adding an extra internal argument, re-arranging arguments and merging existing arguments. Consequently the logical order of arguments in the sentence is accounted for by implications and this brings the issue of interpretation that involves pragmatics. The study is divided into five chapters. Chapter one gives a general background information of the study that includes language background statements of the problem, guiding objectives and hypothesis in the study and rationale for the study. Theoretical . issues, review of related literature and research methodology are also highlightedhere. Chapter two dwells on the morphological aspects of the verbs in Kikamba. It ha s been noted that a Kikamba verb can have ten morpheme slots and one of the slots is filled by the derivationa-l affixes. The Kikamba verb therefore exhibits an extra ordinary high . development in the conjugation with great wealth of verbal derivations and other inflectional categories. The central concern in this chapter is to show the position of verbal derivations in the verb. Other inflectional categories are also considered in the analysis. Chapter three describes the valency changing processes and presents an analysis using the checking theory of the minimalist program. Valency increasing processes of benefactive and causative and valency decreasing processes of passive, recipricoal and v reflexive are vividly analyzed usmg data from Kikamba. Such processes have been shown to have an effect on the basic sentence structure and in some cases the one to one correspondence between the basic and the derived sentences is not kept at the syntactic and semantic levels. Under the minimalist program all valency changing processes are considered as heads and valency changing processes that add an extra argument build a new Spec- head relationship for the licensed head. Chapter four is a development of chapter three as it discusses the combination of several valency changing processes in the verb. To begin with co-occurrence of valency increasing processes is analyzed followed by the co-occurrence of valency decreasing processes. Further the valency increasing and decreasing processes are combined in a co-occurrence test. Analysis of data in this chapter shows that valency changing derivational affixes do not combine in haphazard manner in the verb but there is an order of co-occurrence. The most complex Kikamba derived verb has four valency changing affixes. The morphological and syntactic information presented by the co-occurrence is well analyzed by the checking theory but implied arguments cannot be represented . .Chapter five provides a summary of research finding and conclusion by giving are review of research problem objectives and hypothesis of the study