Variation in double object marking in Swahili

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Main author: Gibson, Hannah
Other authors: Mapunda, Gastor
Marten, Lutz
Shah, Sheena
Taji, Julius
Format: Journal Article           
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id eprints-38824
recordtype eprints
institution SOAS, University of London
collection SOAS Research Online
language English
language_search English
description There is a high degree of morphosyntactic microvariation with respect to the number and position of object markers found across Bantu languages. This paper examines variation in object marking in Swahili, against the backdrop of variation in object marking in Bantu more broadly. Verb forms in Standard Swahili are well-known to typically only permit one pre-stem object marker. However, here we show that there are isolated cases of post-verbal marking of objects from both a synchronic and diachronic perspective. The paper focuses on two case studies. Firstly, ‘Old Swahili’ – that is, the language of classical Swahili poetry – where examples of typologically unusual emphatic object marker doubling are found. Secondly, we show that post-verbal object marking is in fact also found in Standard (Modern) Swahili, namely in second person plural marking, in post-verbal locative markers and with non-verbal predication. However, we also show that the relationship between these forms, the Old Swahili paradigm of object marker doubling, and post-verbal object marking in Bantu more widely – in particular post-verbal plural addressee marking – is complex.
format Journal Article
author Gibson, Hannah
author_facet Gibson, Hannah
Mapunda, Gastor
Marten, Lutz
Shah, Sheena
Taji, Julius
authorStr Gibson, Hannah
author_letter Gibson, Hannah
author2 Mapunda, Gastor
Marten, Lutz
Shah, Sheena
Taji, Julius
author2Str Mapunda, Gastor
Marten, Lutz
Shah, Sheena
Taji, Julius
title Variation in double object marking in Swahili
publisher Universität Leipzig
publishDate 2019
url https://eprints.soas.ac.uk/38824/

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