The
syntax relevant to 'inflectional' morphology on the verb in Bantu languages can
thus be summarized as follows (keeping in mind that individual languages may
differ in restrictiveness):
- noun class prefixes are
functional heads selecting for an optionally empty nominal argument
- arguments that do not
agree with a noun class marker on the verb remain in situ within VP
- agreeing arguments are
adjuncts
- TP and VP are adjunction
sites
- adjuncts can adjoin left
or right
Bantu
languages thus have non-configurational characteristics which is due to adjuncts
that are coindexed with the actual NC arguments in the verbal complex. Insofar,
Bantu sentence structure looks very much like the one proposed by Baker 1996 for
polysynthetic languages. The Bantu family differs from e.g. Iroquoian, however,
in that it optionally allows full non-clitic arguments to be generated within
the VP (under certain interpretive conditions, see 4), while true polysynthetic
languages are limited to adjunction structures. It may thus turn out that the
non-configurational languages par excellence have, in fact, a more
restrictive syntax than other languages from families such as Bantu.