More Evidence of Non-Voice Bundling in Nyungwe

Abstract

While Marantz (1984) was the first to present the idea supporting the assumption that external arguments are not true arguments of their verbs, as has widely been discussed in the literature (Grimshaw 1990, Parsons 1990, Koopman & Sportiche 1991, Pylkkänen 1999, for example), it was Kratzer (1996) who first developed a theory about how Marantz’s (1984) proposal can be executed in syntax.

The aim of the present paper is to discuss non-Voice bundling parameter as proposed by Pylkkänen (2008) using data from Nyungwe, a Bantu language spoken by 457.290 people in two Mozambican provinces, namely, Tete and Manica, (Sitoe and Ngunga 2000).

The study suggests that in Nyungwe Voice° and Cause° are two functional heads projected independently.

The paper is organized in four sections as follows. Section 1. Introduction; Section 2. Pylkkänen’s (2002, 2008) proposal; Section 3.  Discussion of Nyungwe data; Section 4. Conclusions of the study.