Categorizing adpositions in Kîîtharaka

Abstract

In this paper, I discuss the categorial status of Kîîtharaka adpositions. I demonstrate that there are two main classes of adpositions(to be referred to as Class A and Class B). Class A adpositions are syntactic heads and they belong to the functional lexical category P. Class B adpositions are a phrasal P category with a nominal component. They therefore spell out a complex structure than adpositional heads do. This bipartation of Kîîtharaka Ps is based on (i) optionality of complements (ii) case assignment (iii) modification (iv) recoverability of content (v) movement and (vi) derivational morphology.

The Emergence of Axial Parts

“…'park the car in front of this'). Finally, an example from Kîîtharaka from Muriungi (2006) shows the same effect: a demonstrative on an AxPart contributes a proximal or distal meaning, rather than picking out a specific discourse referent. For comparison, a noun phrase with a demonstrative and some other modifiers is shown in (37b), showing that demonstratives follow the noun they modify.…”

“…Although the semantics of the first example, with (s-)ba 'top' is more equivocal, I conclude on the basis of general syntactic similarity (discussed in detail in the references cited) that all of the relational nouns in (12) are in fact AxParts. Muriungi (2006) has also shown that Kîîtharaka, a Bantu language spoken in Kenya, has a class of AxParts, which he calls Class B adpositions. Most of them have nominal class marker prefixes, as shown in (14).…”

“…There are examples of what I call AxParts appearing with quantifiers, such as the Kîîtharaka one here discovered by Muriungi (2006), in which a quantifier onthe 'all' can quantify over the AxPart ndungu 'under.' The Korean example in (35), from Son (2006), shows the difference between a demonstrative with an AxPart (in this case mit, 'bottom') and a demonstrative with the Ground DP (in this case oscang, 'chest').…”

“…Some illustrations of typical uses of these AxParts are given below (also from Muriungi 2006). Nouns typically have class markers affixed, though in class 9 the segmentation is not clear (the prefix might be a nasal feature); the verb bears a prefix agreeing with the subject in noun class, and the associative marker a 'as' agrees with the AxPart which introduces it.…”

“…Most of them have nominal class marker prefixes, as shown in (14). (14) Kîîtharaka Class B adpositions (Muriungi 2006) Word nominal gloss prepositional gloss…”