On subject inversion in Proto-Bantu relative clauses
Domaine:
natural language processingType de record:
paper
Créateur:
Ham
Éditeur:
Hôte:
This chapter concentrates on the canonical position of lexical subjects in
Proto-Bantu non-subject relative clauses. Based on both the geographical and the
genealogical distribution of different word orders (Subject Verb-only, Verb
Subject-only and Subject Verb / Verb Subject), I propose that the Verb Subject (VS) order is
an innovation that came into use only after the split between the North-Western
Cameroonian branch of Grollemund et al.’s (2015) classification and the rest of the
tree, that is, node 2 or 3. I thus argue for a revision of Meeussen’s (1967) and
Nsuka-Nkutsi’s (1982) claim that Proto-Bantu (node 1) non-subject relative clauses were
characterised by a VS order. After expanding Nsuka-Nkutsi’s sample from over a
hundred Narrow Bantu languages to a total of 167 languages (151 Narrow Bantu
and 16 other Niger-Congo languages), we observe that VS-only is still the most
frequent word order. However, the Subject Verb (SV) order is dominant in the
major clades of Grollemund et al. (2015) located in the north-western Bantu area (20
out of 22 languages in our sample), that is, in the languages that are both closer
to the Bantu homeland and more similar to the Niger-Congo languages outside of
Narrow Bantu in our sample. SV-only is also found in a significant portion of our
sample in the Eastern branch (28 out of 57 languages). Together, these facts suggest
that the SV order might be more ancient than previously thought. If this scenario
is correct, Bantu zone A languages would not have lost VS due to their evolution
from more syntheticity to more analyticity, but they would never have had it at all.
Proto-Bantu non-subject relative clauses. Based on both the geographical and the
genealogical distribution of different word orders (Subject Verb-only, Verb
Subject-only and Subject Verb / Verb Subject), I propose that the Verb Subject (VS) order is
an innovation that came into use only after the split between the North-Western
Cameroonian branch of Grollemund et al.’s (2015) classification and the rest of the
tree, that is, node 2 or 3. I thus argue for a revision of Meeussen’s (1967) and
Nsuka-Nkutsi’s (1982) claim that Proto-Bantu (node 1) non-subject relative clauses were
characterised by a VS order. After expanding Nsuka-Nkutsi’s sample from over a
hundred Narrow Bantu languages to a total of 167 languages (151 Narrow Bantu
and 16 other Niger-Congo languages), we observe that VS-only is still the most
frequent word order. However, the Subject Verb (SV) order is dominant in the
major clades of Grollemund et al. (2015) located in the north-western Bantu area (20
out of 22 languages in our sample), that is, in the languages that are both closer
to the Bantu homeland and more similar to the Niger-Congo languages outside of
Narrow Bantu in our sample. SV-only is also found in a significant portion of our
sample in the Eastern branch (28 out of 57 languages). Together, these facts suggest
that the SV order might be more ancient than previously thought. If this scenario
is correct, Bantu zone A languages would not have lost VS due to their evolution
from more syntheticity to more analyticity, but they would never have had it at all.