Morphosyntactic Variation in Bantu

Eva-Marie Bloom Ström is Associate Professor in the Department of Philosophy, Linguistics and Theory of Science at the University of Gothenburg. Her research interests include information structure in languages with flexible sentence structure, such as the Bantu languages, as well as language description and documentation. She works primarily on languages of Tanzania and South Africa.Hannah Gibson is a Professor of Linguistics at the University of Essex. Her research examines linguistic variation with a focus on the morphosyntax of Bantu languages of Eastern and Southern Africa. She works also on language contact, language change, and multilingualism.Rozenn Guérois is a Researcher at the LLACAN-CNRS and a Research Associate at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. Her research interests include the description of Bantu languages spoken in Mozambique, morphosyntactic variation, typology, and comparative and historical linguistics.Lutz Marten is Professor of General and African Linguistics at SOAS University of London. He is interested in linguistic theory, comparative and historical linguistics, and questions of language and identity. Most of his work focuses on African languages and he has carried out research in Eastern and Southern Africa.

This book is a welcome addition to a growing field of comparative Bantu morphosyntax, showing how the language family provides many interesting case studies of fine-grained variation which can be used to test hypotheses about diachronic syntax. The chapters are united by this general theme, but vary in method, scope, and topic, and so are most likely to be read separately by researchers interested in a specific topic or by teachers looking to illustrate topics in Bantu grammar in their classes. I can also imagine one of the chapters serving as a useful starting point for a BA or MA dissertation project, which could for example investigate whether the patterns found in the chapter are found in fieldwork on a new language, or alternatively consider a wider sample of languages using descriptive grammars.

• 1: Lutz Marten, Rozenn Guérois, Hannah Gibson, and Eva-Marie Bloom Ström: Morphosyntactic variation in Bantu: An introduction Part I. Morphosyntactic variation across Bantu 2: Peter Edelsten, Rozenn Guérois, and Lutz Marten: Comparative analysis of morphosyntactic variation in Bantu languages: Parameters, data representation, and database design 3: Nobuko Yoneda: Micro-variation of noun-modifying constructions in Bantu languages 4: Justine Sikuku: Reflexive and reciprocal marking in Bantu 5: Rozenn Guérois, Hannah Gibson, and Lutz Marten: A parametric approach to negation in Bantu languages 6: Rasmus Bernander, Maud Devos, and Hannah Gibson: Existential constructions in Bantu languages 7: Denis Creissels: Predicative possession in Bantu languages Part II. Areal and micro-level morphosyntactic variation in Bantu 8: Eva-Marie Bloom Ström and Matti Miestamo: The use of the augment in Nguni languages: A marker of referentiality? 9: Atikonda Mtenje-Mkochi: Micro-variation in the nominal class marking systems of Malawian languages 10: Dorothee Beermann and Allen Asiimwe: Locatives in Runyankore-Rukiga 11: Amani Lusekelo: Morphosyntactic properties of object marking in Nyakyusa 12: Sebastian Dom, Heidi Goes, and Koen Bostoen: Multiple-reciprocity marking in the Kikongo language cluster: Functional distribution and origins 13: Koen Bostoen: Reflexive-reciprocal polysemy in South-Western Bantu: Distribution, typology, and origins 14: Yuko Abe: Morphosyntactic and semantic variation of the persistive aspect in Lake Tanganyika Bantu: A focus on Bende 15: Daisuke Shinagawa: A micro-parametric approach to focus marking ni in Kilimanjaro Bantu languages: With special reference to Rombo-Mkuu and Uru