Argument-adjunct asymmetries in Ndebele: the long and the short of it
Argument-adjunct asymmetries in Ndebele: the long and the short of it

Summary/Abstract: We propose that the ‘short’ versus ‘long’ form alternation available to the present and recent past tenses in many Bantu languages signals an asymmetry of phasal domains in Ndebele (Nguni, Zimbabwe). Specifically, the short form associates with a phasal, hence Case-licensing, domain and, implicitly, syntactic arguments, while the long form associates with a non-phasal domain which can only engage adjuncts and/or predicates. By looking at quantifier availability, optionality and linearization facts, interactions with object marking, as well as passivization facts, we put forth a syntactic analysis of a phenomenon typically linked to prosody (van der Spuy 1993), phonological weight of vP (Buell 2005), or focusing strategies (Ndayiragije 1999). While not incompatible with former analyses, our approach also has the merit of accounting for previously unnoticed syntactic and semantic idiosyncrasies (e.g. telicity) associated with the short/long split, as well as agreement asymmetries between Bantu and Indo-European.

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