Attract F and Verbal Morphology in Kiswahili

Abstract

There are three relative clause constructions in Kiswahili characterized by the distribution of the relative marker. The relative marker appears as a suffix on the relative complementizer, an affix between tense marker and the stem, and a suffix on the verb. The article attempts to account for: (a) the three positions of the relative marker, and (b) the order of morphemes in the verb. Recent derivational accounts suggest that the three constructions result from moving a verbal element to the relative marker, an example of Chomsky’s (1995) Attract-F. This article demonstrates that the movement is triggered by the C° attracting the nearest head with the feature [+V]. Two of the heads are the auxiliary (where tense and negation marker are located) and the verb stem. In tensed clauses, the verb incorporates into the Mood Projection explaining why in VP ellipsis constructions the verb is not eliminated with the rest of the VP. The Aux and the verb stem are attached due to lowering of the Aux and cliticization on the verb stem, a post-syntactic operation.