Verbal Extensions in Lulogooli Morphosyntax: A Minimalist Perspective
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Date
2022
Authors
Abaya, Karen Vudembu
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Kenyatta University
Abstract
The current study was based on Lulogooli which is one of the dialects of Luyia, a Bantu language spoken in the Western part of Kenya. Lulogooli has a rich verbal morphology comprising verbal extensions which include the causative, the applicative, the reciprocal and the passive, among others; and whose combination is subject to different kinds of sequential constraints. The current study was guided by three objectives: to identify verbal extensions licensed in Lulogooli; describe their order when they co-occur in the same verbal structure; and account for the patterns using selected tenets of the Minimalist Program (Chomsky 1995). Data for the study was collected using an eclectic approach namely; the 1967 edition of ‘The Bible in Luragooli,’ the Bouquiaux & Thomas (1992) word list, questionnaires and introspection since the researcher is a native speaker of the language. Purposive sampling was used to sample respondents, Bible verses and words from the word list. Qualitative data analysis approaches were employed. Research findings reveal that the verbal extensions in Lulogooli include the Causative, the Applicative, the Passive and the Reciprocal. The Minimalist Program which can account for the syntactic operations of all world languages was the incentive for the study. Selected tenets of the Program such as Phase Theory, Feature Checking Theory, Extended Projection Principle and Minimal Link Condition were adequate in accounting for the occurrence and co-occurrence of verbal extensions in the same Lulogooli verbal structure. The findings of this study will hopefully be of significance to curriculum developers (now that Kenya has rolled out a new curriculum known as the CBC since 2017) in the improvement of existing Lulogooli curriculum material. It will also benefit linguists and scholars who have interest in particularly Lulogooli linguistics, and Bantu linguistics in general.
Description
A Research Thesis Submitted to the School of Humanities and Social Sciences in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirement for the Award of the Degree of Master of Arts of Kenyatta University, June 2022
Keywords
Verbal Extensions, Lulogooli Morphosyntax, Minimalist Perspective