Reflexives and Reflexivization in Kiswahili Grammar

Author: Assibi Apatewon Amidu. Series edited by: Bernd Heine, Wilhelm J.G. Möhlig.

Series: East African Languages and Dialects Volume 14

2004
18 pp. Roman, 527 pp.
numerous tables, charts and diagrams, index
Text language(s): English
E-book
€ 69.80

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Many questions concerning reflexivity in Kiswahili still have not been answered adequately. The intention of this study is to determine what reflexives are in Kiswahili and to understand their nature and functions. The implications of the reflexive study found in this book, have never before been undertaken elsewhere. The work therefore queries the claims of corporate linguistic theories and models on the subject of argument structure, transitiveness, binding and anaphor relations in grammars. It also challenges the salient claims of syntactic theory generally regarding subject versus object relations in Kiswahili syntax and ultimately in general linguistics.

There are four linguistic units in Kiswahili that qualify as reflexive or reflexive-like markers: one adjectival stem, two nouns, and one affix. Because of the diversity of these expressions which are all glossed self in traditional descriptions, the present book is also a work about syntactic patterns and relations, about transitivity, the status of class affixes in the grammar, and the consequences for Kiswahili syntax and the morphology of classes.

This work is aimed at researchers who are interested in exploring the interface between syntactic structures or patternings, on one side, and class morphology and micro-syntax, on the other. It is also useful to advanced students and scholars who are interested in Kiswahili or Bantu studies, or in linguistics in general.

Following the links below you will find further analyses of Swahili grammar by the same author:

Accompanying material:

• Argument and Predicate Relations in Kiswahili (ISBN 978-3-89645-042-5)
• Classes in Kiswahili (ISBN 978-3-89645-022-7)
• Locative and Non-locative in Kiswahili Bantu (ISBN 978-3-89645-713-4)
• Matrix Nominal Phrases in Kiswahili Bantu (ISBN 978-3-89645-550-5)
• Objects and Complements in Kiswahili Clauses (ISBN 978-3-89645-560-4)
• Pronouns and Pronominalizations in Kiswahili Grammar (ISBN 978-3-89645-543-7)
• Reflexive and Reciprocal Syntax Revisited (ISBN 978-3-89645-707-3)
• Semantic Assignment Rules in Bantu Classes (ISBN 978-3-89645-703-5)
• Transitivity in African Languages (ISBN 978-3-89645-726-4)
• Transitivity in Swahili (ISBN 978-3-927620-37-7)
• Transitivität und Verbvalenz im Swahili (ISBN 978-3-89645-712-7)

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