It has been claimed that in Bantu languages Agree and Move are related, i.e., that Agree has a mo... more It has been claimed that in Bantu languages Agree and Move are related, i.e., that Agree has a movement trigger (EPP feature). Exceptions to this generalisation are languages that have Agreeing Inversion, whereby the verb agrees with a postverbal subject. This paper reexamines the Agreement Parameter as proposed by Collins (2004) and its variants in Carstens (2005) and Baker (2003, 2008), suggesting that it can (at least partly) distinguish between two types of Agreeing Inversion: in the one type subject agreement not associated with a movement trigger/EPP feature (Matengo, Makwe, Matuumbi), and in the other type the agreeing subject is in fact moved, but there is remnant movement of the verbal complex to derive the inverted order (Makhuwa). This has many consequences, influencing word order (VSO or VOS), the form of the verb (conjoint or disjoint) and the interpretation (non-topic or also focus). * I would like to acknowledge and warmly thank a number of fellow linguists for sharin...
The language situation in Tanzania has changed greatly since the overwhelming spread of Swahili, ... more The language situation in Tanzania has changed greatly since the overwhelming spread of Swahili, the national language and one of the official languages of Tanzania. Previous studies have reported that Swahili has encroached on the domains of ethnic community languages (Legère 1992, Meka- cha 1993, Yoneda 1996), and its linguistic influence can easily be recognized throughout the ethnic community languages of Tanzania, even in remote areas. This situation has been described as ‘Swahilization’ of ethnic community languages (Yoneda 2010) or ‘language drift’ (Brenzinger & Marten 2016), as opposed to a clear language shift. This study describes the influence of Swahili on Tanzanian ethnic community languages, presenting specific examples to substantiate the previous studies (e.g. Yoneda 2010, Marten & Petzell 2016, Rosendal & Mapunda 2017, among others). It shows that the language shift that Batibo (1992) expected has not taken place. Instead, people have kept their ethnic community la...
It has been claimed that in Bantu languages Agree and Move are related, i.e., that Agree has a mo... more It has been claimed that in Bantu languages Agree and Move are related, i.e., that Agree has a movement trigger (EPP feature). Exceptions to this generalisation are languages that have Agreeing Inversion, whereby the verb agrees with a postverbal subject. This paper reexamines the Agreement Parameter as proposed by Collins (2004) and its variants in Carstens (2005) and Baker (2003, 2008), suggesting that it can (at least partly) distinguish between two types of Agreeing Inversion: in the one type subject agreement not associated with a movement trigger/EPP feature (Matengo, Makwe, Matuumbi), and in the other type the agreeing subject is in fact moved, but there is remnant movement of the verbal complex to derive the inverted order (Makhuwa). This has many consequences, influencing word order (VSO or VOS), the form of the verb (conjoint or disjoint) and the interpretation (non-topic or also focus). * I would like to acknowledge and warmly thank a number of fellow linguists for sharin...
The language situation in Tanzania has changed greatly since the overwhelming spread of Swahili, ... more The language situation in Tanzania has changed greatly since the overwhelming spread of Swahili, the national language and one of the official languages of Tanzania. Previous studies have reported that Swahili has encroached on the domains of ethnic community languages (Legère 1992, Meka- cha 1993, Yoneda 1996), and its linguistic influence can easily be recognized throughout the ethnic community languages of Tanzania, even in remote areas. This situation has been described as ‘Swahilization’ of ethnic community languages (Yoneda 2010) or ‘language drift’ (Brenzinger & Marten 2016), as opposed to a clear language shift. This study describes the influence of Swahili on Tanzanian ethnic community languages, presenting specific examples to substantiate the previous studies (e.g. Yoneda 2010, Marten & Petzell 2016, Rosendal & Mapunda 2017, among others). It shows that the language shift that Batibo (1992) expected has not taken place. Instead, people have kept their ethnic community la...
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Papers by Nobuko Yoneda