Kinyarwanda--Locatives.

Abstract

This study, titled Locatives in Kinyarwanda, is about Kinyarwanda, a language spoken in Rwanda and its neighboring countries. It aims to investigate issues related to locatives and locative constructions in Kinyarwanda, namely, locative markers, locative shift, and locative inversion and related constructions. The issues investigated are the following: the syntactic status of the locative markers ku-, mu-, and i- of classes 17, 18, and 19, respectively, and the corresponding locative elements hó, mó and yó; the derivation of locative shift and locative inversion, the question of whether the preposed locative DPs/expressions are base-generated in the preverbal position or whether they are the result of movement from the postverbal position, and whether they are subjects or topics. The study is conducted within the framework of the Minimalist Program, with phase theory and Locality (the Minimal Link Condition) playing a prominent role in my analysis. These theories are complemented by a theory of small clauses as Relator phrases (Den Dikken, 2006, 2007), and incorporation theory (Baker, 1988). The study shows that, despite having the semantic properties of prepositions, syntactically, the Kinyarwanda locative markers ku-, mu-, and i- are determiners similarly to augments and demonstratives. It is shown that the locative elements hó, mó, and yó are clitics and that they are derived either morphologically by combining the locative marker with the pronominal root -ó or syntactically by incorporation of a locative D-head into a functional head that is realized by this pronominal stem. It is shown that locative shift and different types of locative inversion involve a small clause in their derivation. The main claim defended in this thesis is that these constructions are based on the same syntactic configuration and derivational processes: a locative D-head, realized as a locative marker, selects a Locative DP to form a "big" locative DP; when the locative marker incorporates into the functional head that selects the "big DP", the Locative DP moves from the small clause to the specifier of a higher functional head (the so-called Linker in Locative shift constructions, and T in locative inversion constructions). It is also shown that Locative DPs in semantic locative inversion are structural subjects, whereas the preposed locative expressions in formal locative inversion are topics which are base-generated in the left periphery, from where they bind a locative pro in the subject position.