Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

The lexical integrity principle: Evidence from Bantu

  • Published:
Natural Language & Linguistic Theory Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The lexical integrity principle has been called into question by recent work which hypothesizes a syntactic phrasal source for inflected words. Bantu morphology provides a particularly rich empirical domain for this issue because it straddles the boundary between morphology and syntax, inviting syntactic analyses in both the earliest missionary grammars and recent theoretical works in generative grammar (Myers 1987; Baker 1988a,b; Kinyalolo 1991, Carstens 1991). In this study we show that the morphology and syntax of Bantu noun class markers strikingly support the lexical integrity principle, once the morphemic structure of words is factored apart from their prosodic and functional structures.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Abney, Steven: 1987,The English Phrase in Its Sentential Aspect, Ph.D. dissertation, MIT.

  • Ackerman, Farrell: 1987,Miscreant Morphemes: Phrasal Predicates in Ugric, Ph.D. dissertation, University of California, Berkeley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ackerman, Farrell and Gert Webelhuth: 1992, ‘Topicalization and German Complex Predicates’, unpublished manuscript, UCSD.

  • Allan, Keith: 1977, ‘Classifiers’,Language 5, 285–311.

    Google Scholar 

  • Alsina, Alex: 1993a,Predicate Composition: A Theory of Syntactic Function Alternations, Ph.D. dissertation, Stanford University.

  • Alsina, Alex: 1993b, ‘A Theory of Complex Predicates: Evidence from Causatives in Bantu and Romance’, paper presented at the Workshop on Complex Predicates, CSLI, Stanford University, May 21–3, 1993.

  • Alsina, Alex and Sam A. Mchombo: 1990, ‘The Syntax of Applicatives in Chicheŵa: Problems for a Theta Theoretic Asymmetry’,Natural Language & Linguistic Theory 8, 493–506.

    Google Scholar 

  • Alsina, Alex and Sam A. Mchombo: 1993, ‘Object Asymmetries in the Chicheŵa Applicative Construction’, in Sam Mchombo (ed.),Theoretical Aspects of Bantu Grammar, CSLI, Stanford University, pp. 17–45.

  • Anderson, Stephen R.: 1984, ‘Kwakwala Syntax and the Government-Binding Theory’, in Eung-Do Cook and Donna B. Gerdts (eds.),Syntax and Semantics 16:The Syntax of Native American Languages, Academic Press, New York, pp. 21–75.

    Google Scholar 

  • Andrews, Avery D: 1990, ‘Unification and Morphological Blocking’,Natural Language & Linguistic Theory 8, 507–557.

    Google Scholar 

  • Baker, Mark: 1988a,Incorporation: A Theory of Grammatical Function Changing, University of Chicago Press, Chicago.

    Google Scholar 

  • Baker, Mark: 1988b, ‘Theta Theory and the Syntax of Applicatives in Chicheŵa’,Natural Language & Linguistic Theory 6, 353–89.

    Google Scholar 

  • Baker, Mark: 1992, ‘Thematic Conditions on Syntactic Structures: Evidence from Locative Applicatives’, in I. M. Roca (ed.),Thematic Structure: Its Role in Grammar, Foris Publications, Dordrecht, pp. 23–46.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bleek, W. H. I.: 1862,A Comparative Grammar of South African Languages, Trubner and Co., London.

    Google Scholar 

  • Booij, Geert E.: 1985, ‘Coordination Reduction in Complex Words: A Case for Prosodic Phonology’, in H. van der Hulst and N. Smith (eds.),Advances in Nonlinear Phonology, Foris Publications, Dordrecht, pp. 143–160.

    Google Scholar 

  • Booij, Geert E. and Jerzy Rubach: 1984, ‘Morphological and Prosodic Domains in Lexical Phonology’,Phonology Yearbook 1, 1–27.

    Google Scholar 

  • Booij, Geert E. and Jerzy Rubach: 1987, ‘Postcyclic versus Postlexical Rules in Lexical Phonology’,Linguistic Inquiry 18, 1–44.

    Google Scholar 

  • Botha, Rudolf P.: 1980,Word-based Morphology and Synthetic Compounding, Stellenboosch Papers in Linguistics 5, Department of General Linguistics, University of Stellenbosch, Stellenbosch 7600, South Africa.

    Google Scholar 

  • Botha, Rudolf P.: 1981, ‘A Base Rule Theory of Afrikaans Synthetic Compounding’, in M. H. Moorgat, H. van der Hulst and T. Hoekstra (eds.),The Scope of Lexical Rules, Foris Publications, Dordrecht, pp. 1–77.

    Google Scholar 

  • Botha, Rudolf P.: 1984,Morphological Mechanisms: Lexicalist Analysis of Synthetic Compounding, Pergamon Press, Oxford.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bresnan, Joan: 1978, ‘A Realistic Transformational Grammar’, in M. Halle, J. Bresnan and G. A. Miller (eds.),Linguistic Theory and Psychological Reality, MIT Press, Cambridge, pp. 1–59.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bresnan, Joan: 1982, ‘On Control and Complementation’,Linguistic Inquiry 13: 343–434; also in Joan Bresnan (ed.),The Mental Representation of Grammatical Relations, MIT Press, Cambridge, pp. 282–390.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bresnan, Joan: 1990, ‘Levels of Representation in Locative Inversion’, invited address presented at the 13th GLOW Colloquium at St. John's College, Cambridge University, on April 6, 1990; revised and duplicated, Department of Linguistics, Stanford University, California; further revised as Bresnan: 1994a.

  • Bresnan, Joan: 1991, ‘Locative Case vs. Locative Gender’, in Laurel A. Sutton and Christopher Johnson with Ruth Shields (eds.),Proceedings of the Seventeenth Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society, pp. 53–68.

  • Bresnan, Joan: 1994a, ‘Locative Inversion and the Architecture of Universal Grammar’,Language 70, to appear.

  • Bresnan, Joan: 1994b, ‘Category Mismatches’, paper presented to the Plenary Session of the 25th Annual Conference on African Linguistics, Rutgers University, March 26, 1994.

  • Bresnan, Joan and Jonni M. Kanerva: 1989, ‘Locative Inversion in Chicheŵa: A Case Study of Factorization in Grammar’,Linguistic Inquiry 20, 1–50.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bresnan, Joan and Jonni M. Kanerva: 1992, ‘The Thematic Hierarchy and Locative Inversion in UG. A Reply to Paul Schachter's Comments’, in Tim Stowell and Eric Wehrli (eds.),Syntax and Semantics 26:Syntax and the Lexicon, Academic Press, New York, pp. 111–125.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bresnan, Joan and Sam A. Mchombo: 1986, ‘Grammatical and Anaphoric Agreement’, in A. M. Farley, P. T. Farley and K.-E. McCullough (eds.),Papers from the Parasession on Pragmatics and Grammatical Theory, CLS22, Chicago, pp. 278–297.

  • Bresnan, Joan and Sam A. Mchombo: 1987, ‘Topic, Pronoun, and Agreement in Chicheŵa’,Language 63, 741–782.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bresnan, Joan and Lioba Moshi: 1990, ‘Object Asymmetries in Comparative Bantu Syntax’,Linguistic Inquiry 21, 147–185.

    Google Scholar 

  • Butt, Miriam: forthcoming, ‘Complex Predicate Scrambling’ in Miriam Butt, Tracy Holloway King and Gillian Ramchand (eds.),Word Order in South Asian Languages, CSLI, Stanford University.

  • Carstens, Vicki May: 1991,The Morphology and Syntax of Determiner Phrases in Kiswahili, Ph.D. dissertation, University of California, Los Angeles.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cho, Young-mee Yu and Peter Sells: forthcoming, ‘A Lexical Account of Inflectional Suffixes in Korean’,Journal of East Asian Linguistics.

  • Chomsky, Noam: 1986,Barriers, MIT Press, Cambridge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cole, Desmond T.: 1955,Introduction to Tswana Grammar, Longmans, Green, London and Capetown.

    Google Scholar 

  • Clark, Eve V. and Herbert H. Clark: 1979, ‘When Nouns Surface as Verbs’,Language 55, 767–811.

    Google Scholar 

  • Corbett, Greville G. and Alfred D. Mtenje: 1987, ‘Gender Agreement in Chicheŵa’,Studies in African Linguistics 18, 1–38.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dalgish, Gerard M.: 1976a, ‘Locative NPs, Locative Suffixes and Grammatical Relations’, in H. Thompson, K. Whistler, V. Edge, J. J. Jaeger, R. Javkin, M. Petruck, C. Smeall and R. D. Van Valin Jr. (eds.),Proceedings of the Second Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society, pp. 139–148.

  • Dalgish, Gerard M.: 1976b, ‘Passivizing Locatives in OluTsootso’,Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 6, 57–68.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dalgish, Gerard M. and Gloria Sheintuch: 1976, ‘On the Justification for Language-Specific Sub-Grammatical Relations’,Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 6, 89–107.

    Google Scholar 

  • Demuth, Katherine and Mark Johnson: 1989, ‘Interaction Between Discourse Functions and Agreement in Setawana’,Journal of African Languages and Linguistics 11, 21–35.

    Google Scholar 

  • Demuth, Katherine and Sheila Mmusi: 1992, ‘Syntactic, Morphological, and Thematic Characteristics of Setswana Presentational Focus Constructions,’ paper presented at the 23rd Annual Conference on African Linguistics, Michigan State University, East Lansing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Di Sciullo, Anna-Maria and Edwin Williams: 1987,On the Definition of Word, MIT Press, Cambridge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dixon, R. M. W.: 1977, ‘Some Phonological Rules in Yidiny’,Linguistic Inquiry 8, 1–34.

    Google Scholar 

  • Doke, Clement M.: 1929, ‘The Problem of Word-Division in Bantu, With Special Reference to the Languages of Mashonaland’,Occasional Paper No.2, Department of Native Development, Southern Rhodesia.

    Google Scholar 

  • Doke, Clement M.: 1935,Bantu Linguistics Terminology, Longmans, Green, London.

    Google Scholar 

  • Doke, Clement M.: 1954,The Southern Bantu Languages, Oxford University Press, London.

    Google Scholar 

  • Doke, Clement M.: 1988,Textbook of Zulu Grammar, sixth edition, Maskew Miller Longman, Cape Town.

    Google Scholar 

  • Doke, Clement M. and S. M. Mofokeng: 1985,Textbook of Southern Sotho Grammar, second edition, Maskew Miller Longman, Cape Town.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fortune, G.: 1955,An Analytical Grammar of Shona, Longmans, London.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fortune, G.: 1985,Shona Grammatical Constructions: Parts 1 and 2, third edition, Mercury Press, Harare.

    Google Scholar 

  • Garrett, Andrew: 1990, ‘Applicatives and Preposition Incorporation’, in K. Dziwirek, P. Farrell and E. Mejías-Bikandi (ed.),Grammatical Relations: A Cross-Theoretical Perspective, CSLI, Stanford University, pp. 183–198.

  • Givón, Talmy: 1972,Studies in ChiBemba and Bantu Grammar, Studies in African Linguistics 3, supplement 3.

  • Givón, Talmy: 1976, ‘Topic, Pronoun, and Grammatical Agreement’, in Charles N. Li (ed.),Subject and Topic, Academic Press, New York, pp. 149–188.

    Google Scholar 

  • Greenberg, Joseph H.: 1977, ‘Niger-Congo Noun Class Markers: Prefixes, Suffixes, Both or Neither’,Studies in African Linguistics, Supplement 7, 97–104.

    Google Scholar 

  • Greenberg, Joseph H.: 1978, ‘How Does a Language Acquire Gender Markers?’ in Joseph H. Greenberg (ed.),Universals of Human Language, vol. 3, Stanford University Press, Stanford, pp. 48–82.

    Google Scholar 

  • Guthrie, Malcolm: 1948,The Classification of Bantu Languages, Oxford University Press, London.

    Google Scholar 

  • Haider, Hubert and Martin Prinzhorn (eds.): 1986,Verb Second Phenomena in Germanic Languages, Foris Publications, Dordrecht.

    Google Scholar 

  • Heine, Bernd and Ulrike Claudi: 1986,On the Rise of Grammatical Categories. Some Examples from Maa, Dietrich Reimer Verlag, Berlin.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hodges, Kathryn S. and Susan U. Stucky: 1979, ‘On the Inadequacy of a Grammatical Relation Referring Rule in Bantu’,Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 9, 91–99.

    Google Scholar 

  • Homburger, L.: 1929,Les préfixes nominaux dans les parlers peul, haoussa et bantous, Institut d'ethnologie, Paris.

    Google Scholar 

  • Inkelas, Sharon: 1989,Prosodic Constituency in the Lexicon, Ph.D. dissertation, Stanford University.

  • Inkelas, Sharon and Draga Zec (eds.): 1990,The Phonology-Syntax Connection, The University of Chicago Press, Chicago.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ishikawa, Akira: 1985,Complex Predicates and Lexical Operations in Japanese, Ph.D. dissertation, Stanford University.

  • Kanerva, Jonni M.: 1987, ‘Morphological Integrity and Syntax: The Evidence from Finnish Possessive Suffixes’,Language 63, 498–521.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kanerva, Jonni M: 1990,Focus and Phrasing in Chicheŵa Phonology, Garland, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • King, Tracy: 1992,Configuring Topic and Focus in Russian, Ph.D. dissertation, Stanford University.

  • Kinyalolo, Kasangati: 1991,Syntactic Dependencies and the Spec-head Agreement Hypothesis in Kilega, Ph.D. dissertation, University of California, Los Angeles.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kiparsky, Paul: 1982, ‘Lexical Phonology and Morphology’, in S.-S. Yang (ed.),Linguistics in the Morning Calm, Hanshin, Seoul, pp. 3–91.

    Google Scholar 

  • Koopman, Hilda: 1984,The Syntax of Verbs: from Verb Movement Rules in the Kru Languages to Universal Grammar, Foris Publications, Dordrecht.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kroeger, Paul: 1993,Phrase Structure and Grammatical Relations in Tagalog, CSLI Publications, Stanford.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kuperus, Julianna and Mpunga wa Ilunga: 1990,Locative Markers in Luba, Annales Sciences Humaines130, Tervuren, Musée royal de l'Afrique Centrale.

  • Lapointe, Steven: 1979, ‘A Lexical Analysis of the English Auxiliary Verb System’,GLOT 2, 215–254.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lanham, L. W.: 1955,A Study of Gitonga of Inhambane, Witwatersrand University Press, Johannesburg.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lehmann, Christian: 1982, ‘Universal and Typological Aspects of Agreement’, in H. Seiler and F. J. Stachowiak,Apprehension, vol. II, Narr, Tübingen, pp. 201–267.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lehmann, Christian: 1988, ‘On the Function of Agreement’, in Michael Barlow and Charles Ferguson (eds.)Agreement in Natural Language: Approaches, Theories, Descriptions, CSLI, Stanford, pp. 55–65.

    Google Scholar 

  • Liberman, Mark and Richard Sproat: 1992, ‘The Stress and Structure of Modified Noun Phrases in English’, in Ivan A. Sag and Anna Szabolcsi (eds.),Lexical Matters, CSLI, Stanford University, pp. 131–181.

  • Lieber, Rochelle: 1983, ‘Argument Linking and Compounds in English’,Linguistic Inquiry 14: 251–85.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lieber, Rochelle: 1988, ‘Phrasal Compounds in English and the Morphology-Syntax Interface’, in D. Brentari, G. Larson and L. MacLeod (eds.),Papers from the Parasession on Agreement in Grammatical Theory, CLS24, Chicago, pp. 202–222.

  • Lieber, Rochelle: 1992,Deconstructing Morphology: Word Formation In Syntactic Theory, The University of Chicago Press, Chicago.

    Google Scholar 

  • Manning, Christopher: 1992, ‘Romance is so Complex’,Report No. CSLI-92-168, CSLI, Stanford University.

  • Matsumoto, Yo: 1992,On the Wordhood of Complex Predicates in Japanese, Ph.D. dissertation, Stanford University.

  • Mchombo, Sam A.: 1978,A Critical Appraisal of the Place of Derivational Morphology within Transformational Grammar, Considered with Primary Reference to Chicheŵa and Swahili, Ph.D. dissertation, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.

  • Meinhof, Carl: 1906,Grundzuge einer vergleichenden Grammatik der Bantusprachen, Berlin.

  • Mohanan, K. P.: 1982,Lexical Phonology, Ph.D. dissertation, MIT.

  • Mohanan, K. P.: 1986,The Theory of Lexical Phonology, Reidel, Dordrecht.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mohanan, Tara: 1993, ‘Case Alternation on Objects in Hindi’,South Asian Language Review 3, 1–30.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mohanan, Tara: forthcoming, ‘Wordhood and Lexicality: Noun Incorporation in Hindi’,Natural Language & Linguistic Theory.

  • Mould, Martin: 1977, ‘On the Productivity of Derivational Morphology and Lexical Representation: Manner Adverbs in Luganda’,Studies in African Linguistics, Supplement 7, 175–183.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mtenje, Alfred D.: 1988, ‘On Tone and Transfer in Chicheŵa Reduplication’,Linguistics 16, 125–55.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mufwene, Salikoko: 1980, ‘Bantu Class Prefixes: Inflectional or Derivational?’, in Jody Kreiman and Almerindo E. Ojeda (eds.), CLS16, Chicago, pp. 246–58.

  • Myers, Scott P.: 1987,Tone and the Structure of Words in Shona, Ph.D. dissertation, The University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nespor, Marina: 1985, ‘The Phonological Word in Italian’, in H. van der Hulst and N. Smith (eds.),Advances in Nonlinear Phonology, Foris Publications, Dordrecht, pp. 193–204.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nespor, Marina and Irene Vogel: 1986,Prosodic Phonology, Foris Publications, Dordrecht.

    Google Scholar 

  • Netter, Klaus and Ursula Kärcher, 1986,Documentation of the German Grammar, ESPRIT ACORD project 393, Deliverable Task 1.4., Institut für Maschinelle Sprachverarbeitung, University of Stuttgart.

  • Netter, Klaus: 1988,Syntactic Aspects of LFG-based Dialogue Parsing, ESPRIT ACORD project 393, Deliverable Task 2.7′(a), Institut für Maschinelle Sprachverarbeitung, University of Stuttgart.

  • Odden, David: 1992, ‘C-command or Edges in Makonde’,Phonology 7, 163–169.

    Google Scholar 

  • Orr, Gregory John and Carol Myers Scotton: 1980,Learning Chicheŵa, Books 1 and 2, A Peace Corps Language Course Prepared by the African Studies Center, Michigan State University, East Lansing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Perez (Harford), Carolyn: 1983, ‘Locative Pseudo-Subjects in Shona’,Journal of African Languages and Linguistics 5, 131–155.

    Google Scholar 

  • Poser, William J.: 1990, ‘Word-internal Phrase Boundary in Japanese’, in Sharon Inkelas and Draga Zec (eds.),The Phonology-Syntax Connection, The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, pp. 279–287.

    Google Scholar 

  • Poser, William J.: 1991, ‘Japanese Periphrastic Verbs and Noun Incorporation’, unpublished manuscript, Stanford University.

  • Postal, Paul: 1969, ‘Anaphoric Islands’, in Roport I. Binnick, Alice Davison, Georgia M. Green and Jerry L. Morgan (eds.), CLS5, Chicago.

  • Sadock, Jerry M.: 1980, ‘Noun Incorporation in Greenlandic: A Case of Syntactic Word Formation’,Language 57, 300–319.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sadock, Jerry M.: 1991,Autolexical Syntax: A Theory of Parallel Grammatical Representation, The University of Chicago Press, Chicago.

    Google Scholar 

  • Selkirk, Elisabeth O.: 1982,The Syntax of Words, MIT Press, Cambridge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Selkirk, Elisabeth O.: 1984,Phonology and Syntax: The Relation between Sound and Structure, MIT Press, Cambridge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sells, Peter: 1992, ‘Japanese and Korean Morphology from a Lexical Perspective’,Linguistic Inquiry, to appear.

  • Sells, Peter and Young-mee Yu Cho: 1991, ‘On the Distribution of X0 Elements in Korean’, Proceedings of the Santa Cruz Workshop on Korean Syntax and Semantics, UCSC.

  • Shibatani, M. and T. Kageyama: 1988, ‘Word Formation in a Modular Theory of Grammar: A Case of Post-Syntactic Compounds in Japanese’,Language 64, 455–84.

    Google Scholar 

  • Simpson, Jane: 1983,Aspects of Warlpiri Morphology and Syntax, Ph.D. dissertation, MIT.

  • Simpson, Jane: 1991,Warlpiri Morpho-Syntax: A Lexicalist Approach, Kluwer, Dordrecht.

    Google Scholar 

  • Speas, Margaret: 1991, ‘Functional Heads and Inflectional Morphemes’,The Linguistic Review 8, 389–417.

    Google Scholar 

  • Spencer, Andrew: 1988, ‘Bracketing Paradoxes and the English Lexicon’,Language 64, 663–82.

    Google Scholar 

  • Spencer, Andrew: 1991,Morphological Theory, Basil Blackwell, Oxford, pp. 413–417.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sproat, Richard: 1985,On Deriving the Lexicon, Ph.D. dissertation, MIT.

  • Stowell, Timothy: 1981,Origins of Phrase Structure, Ph.D. dissertation, MIT.

  • Stucky, Susan U.: 1976, ‘Locatives as Objects in Tshiluba: a Function of Transitivity’,Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 6, 174–202; revised as Stucky: 1978.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stucky, Susan U.: 1978, ‘Locative Phrases and Alternative Concord in Tshiluba’,Studies in African Linguistics 9, 107–119.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tabor, Whitney: 1992, ‘Auxiliary Coalescence in Chicheŵa: Mismatch Not Required’, in Jonathan Mead (ed.),Proceedings of the 11th West Coast Conference on Formal Linguistics (WCCFL), CSLI, Stanford.

    Google Scholar 

  • Travis, Lisa: 1984,Parameters and Effects of Word Order Variation, Ph.D. dissertation, MIT.

  • Trithart, Lee: 1977, ‘Locatives’, in E. Byarushengo, A. Duranti and L. Hyman (eds.),Haya Grammatical Structure, Southern California Occasional Papers m Linguistics No.6, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, pp. 89–98.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ward, Gregory, Richard Sproat and Gail McKoon: 1991, ‘A Pragmatic Analysis of So-called Anaphoric Islands’,Language 67, 439–474.

    Google Scholar 

  • Welmers, William E.: 1973,African Language Structures, University of California Press, Berkeley.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. CSLI, Ventura Hall, Stanford University, 94305, Stanford, CA

    Joan Bresnan

  2. Department of Linguistics, University of California, Berkeley, 2337 Dwinelle Hall, 94720, Berkeley, CA

    Sam A. Mchombo

Authors
  1. Joan Bresnan
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Sam A. Mchombo
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Additional information

A preliminary version of this paper was given at the Colloquium on Agreement at the Twentieth Annual Conference on African Linguistics at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana on April 21, 1989, and subsequent versions were presented at a UCLA Colloquium in December of 1991 and the Formal Linguistics Society of Mid-America at Northwestern University in May of 1992. We are grateful to Eyamba Bokamba for providing the stimulus and occasion for writing this paper, and to him as well as Alex Alsina, Avery Andrews, Bruce Hayes, Katherine Demuth, Ki-Sun Hong, Larry Hyman, Sharon Inkelas, Jonni Kanerva, Will Leben, K. P. Mohanan, Tara Mohanan, Salikoko Mufwene, Scott Myers, Peter Sells, Whitney Tabor and severalNLLT reviewers for valuable comments on earlier stages of this work, although we alone are responsible for its shortcomings. We are also grateful to Jonni Kanerva for providing and checking tonal transcriptions of Chicheŵa. Our transcription and glossing conventions for Chicheŵa examples follow Bresnan and Kanerva (1989). This study is based upon work supported in part by the United States National Science Foundation under Grant No. BNS-8919880, Stanford University.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Bresnan, J., Mchombo, S.A. The lexical integrity principle: Evidence from Bantu. Nat Lang Linguist Theory 13, 181–254 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00992782

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00992782

Keywords

Search

Navigation