Call for papers -- Special issue
Southern African Linguistics and Applied Language Studies
Volume 30(3), 2012
Subject and object marking in Bantu
Guest editors: Lutz Marten, Kristina Riedel, Ron Simango, and Jochen Zeller
One of the most salient and well-known typological characteristics of Bantu languages is the
marking of NP/DP arguments by co-referential agreement morphemes on the verb, often
called subject and object markers, which are found in the vast majority of Bantu languages.
The morphological and syntactic analysis of subject and object markers has attracted
considerable attention in the Bantu linguistics literature in the last two decades (e.g. Baker
2003, Beaudoin-Lietz et al. 2004, Bresnan & Mchombo 1987, Carstens 2005, Diercks 2010,
Henderson 2006, Marten 2011, Morimoto 2002, Riedel 2009, Rugemalira 1993, SchneiderZioga 2007, Zeller 2008), and empirical evidence from subject and object marking has
contributed to the development of different theoretical analyses of clausal relations between
verbs and their arguments, and the agreement relations holding between them, from a wide
range of different theoretical perspectives (e.g. LFG, OT, GB and Minimalism, Dynamic
Syntax).
Papers are invited addressing different aspects of subject and object marking in Bantu,
including detailed studies of individual languages and comparative studies, from descriptive,
typological and theoretical perspectives. Among the possible research questions for papers in
the special issue are:
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the analysis of subject/object markers as either incorporated pronouns or as agreement
markers, or whether evidence from Bantu rather points to an analysis which
transcends this dichotomy
the co-occurrence restrictions between NP/DP subjects/objects and their agreeing
subject and object markers, for example, whether subject or object marking is
required with certain kinds of NPs/DPs (e.g. those with animate referents), or
disallowed (e.g. with non-dislocated objects)
restrictions on the kinds of NPs/DPs which can be expressed by subject or object
markers (e.g. indirect objects or adjuncts), and the behaviour of subject and object
markers in specific syntactic environments, such as in questions, relative clauses, or
inversion constructions
the use of subject/object markers without co-referring NP/DP, such as in expletive
constructions
the choice of subject/object markers in constructions with conjoined subjects/objects
belonging to different noun classes
the morphological analysis of subject/object markers and their relation to other
aspects of Bantu nominal morphology
morphosyntactic microvariation between different Bantu languages with respect to
subject/object markers
Timeline:
June 2012
Final version of the issue to printers
30 May 2012 Deadline for submission of revised papers
Anonymised reviewers’ comments sent to authors with requests for revisions,
if applicable
Feb 2012
Papers sent out to three reviewers each with request for review within six
weeks
31 Jan 2012 Deadline for submission of completed paper
Oct 2011
Papers to be included selected based on abstracts and notification of authors
15 Sept 2011 Deadline for abstract submission
April 2012
Potential authors are asked to send an abstract of maximally 1 page (excluding references)
outlining the paper to be included in the issue to the corresponding guest editor, Lutz Marten
(lm5@soas.ac.uk), by 15 September 2011. Papers accepted for inclusion in the issue will be
due by 31 January 2012. For further information, please contact Lutz Marten at the email
address above.
Articles must be in accordance with the SALALS Requirements for Authors. They will be peer
reviewed as per SALAS general policy.
References
Baker, Mark. 2003. Agreement, Dislocation, and Partial Configurationality. In: A. Carnie, H.
Harley, and MA. Willie, Formal approaches to function in grammar: in honor of
Eloise Jelinek. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 107-132.
Beaudoin-Lietz, Christa, Derek Nurse & Sarah Rose. 2004. Pronominal object marking in
Bantu. In: Akinbiyi Akinlabi & Oluseye Adesola (eds.), Proceedings of the World
Congress of African Linguistics, New Brunswick 2003, Köln: Köppe, 175–188.
Bresnan, Joan & Sam Mchombo. 1987. Topic, pronoun, and agreement in Chichêwa.
Language 63:741–782.
Carstens, Vicki M. 2005. Agree and EPP in Bantu. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory
23:219–279.
Diercks, Michael. 2010. Agreement with Subjects in Lubukusu. Ph.D.-thesis, Georgetown
University.
Henderson, Brent. 2006. Multiple Agreement and Inversion in Bantu. Syntax 9:3, 275-289.
Marten, Lutz. 2011. Information structure and agreement: Subjects and subject markers in
Swahili and Herero, Lingua 121: 787-804.
Morimoto, Yukiko. 2002. Prominence mismatches and differential object marking in Bantu.
In: Miriam Butt and Tracy Holloway King (eds), Proceedings of the LFG02
Conference, 296–314. Stanford, CA: CSLI Publications.
Riedel, Kristina. 2009. The syntax of object marking in Sambaa, Ph.D.-thesis, University of
Leiden.
Rugemalira, Josephat. 1993. Bantu multiple object constructions, Linguistic Analysis 23:
226–252.
Schneider-Zioga, Patricia. 2007. Anti-agreement, anti-locality and minimality: the syntax of
dislocated subjects. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 25/2, 403-446.
Zeller, Jochen. 2008. On the subject marker in Kinyarwanda. Southern African Linguistics
and Applied Language Studies 26 (4), 407-428.
Additional references
Baker, Mark C. 2008. The syntax of agreement and concord. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
Bokamba, E. G. 1985. Verbal agreement as a non-cyclic rule in Bantu. In: D. L. Goyvaerts
(ed.), African Linguistics: Essays in Memory of M. W. K. Semikenke, Amsterdam:
Benjamins, 9–54.
Bosch, Sonja E. 1985. Subject and object agreement in Zulu. MA dissertation, University of
Pretoria.
Bresnan, Joan & Lioba Moshi. 1990. Object asymmetries in comparative Bantu syntax,
Linguistic Inquiry 21, 147–185. Repr. in Sam A. Mchombo (ed.), Theoretical Aspects
of Bantu Grammar (Stanford, CA: CSLI, 1993), 47–91.
Duranti, Alessandro. 1979. Object clitic pronouns in Bantu and the Topicality Hierarchy.
Studies in African Linguistics 10:31–45.
Marten, Lutz. 2000. Agreement with conjoined noun phrases in Swahili, Afrikanistische
Arbeitspapiere 64: Swahili Forum VII, 75–96.
Marten, Lutz, Nancy C. Kula & Nhlanhla Thwala. 2007. Parameters of morphosyntactic
variation in Bantu. Transactions of the Philological Society 105:253–338.
Marten, Lutz & Deograsia Ramadhani. 2001. An overview of object marking in Kiluguru.
SOAS Working Papers in Linguistics 11:259–275.
Morolong, M. and L.M. Hyman. 1977. Animacy, objects and clitics in Sesotho. Studies in
African Linguistics 8, 199-218.
Seidel, Amanda & Alexis Dimitriadis. 1997. The discourse function of object marking in
Swahili. In CLS 33: The Main Session, 373–389.
Thwala, Nhlanhla, 2006. Parameters of variation and complement licensing in Bantu. In:
Laura Downing, Lutz Marten & Sabine Zerbian (eds.), Papers in Bantu Grammar, ZAS
Papers in Linguistics 43, Berlin: ZAS, 209–232.
Van der Spuy, A. 1993. Dislocated noun phrases in Nguni. Lingua 90, 335-355.
Visser, M.W. 1986. Cliticization and Case Theory in Xhosa. South African Journal of African
Languages 6.3, 129-137.
Wald, Benji. 1997. Varbrul and the human/inanimate polarization of the Swahili object
marker. In Towards a social science of language, ed. G.R. Guy, C. Feagin, D. Schiffrin,
and J. Baugh. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Woolford, Ellen. 1995. Why Passive Can Block Object Marking. In: A. Akinlabi (ed)
Theoretical Approaches to African Linguistics (Trends in African Linguistics 1). Trenton,
New Jersey: Africa World Press, 199-215.
Woolford, Ellen. 2000. Agreement in Disguise. In: V. Carstens, and F. Parkinson (eds),
Trends in African Linguistics 4. Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press, 103-117.
Woolford, Ellen. 2001. Conditions on object agreement in Ruwund (Bantu). In: Elena
Benedicto (ed.), The UMass Volume on Indigenous Languages, University of
Massachusetts Occasional Papers in Linguistics 20, Amherst, MA: GLSA, 177– 201.