Realizational morphology beyond the lexicon: synthetic and periphrastic verbs in Shona

Abstract

In this paper, I argue that the choice of a periphrastic over a synthetic verbal form in Shona is a strategy to avoid the realization of specific combinations of morphosyntactic properties by the same word form. I argue that periphrastic forms with -nga are formally equivalent to synthetic forms in the verbal paradigm of Shona, based on the assumption that inflected words are not formed in the lexicon, but are the realization of properties specified on the terminal nodes of syntactic structures. The competition between synthetic and analytic forms in the inflectional paradigm of Shona is accounted for in a model of grammar that associates a clause with a representation that is functional and nonconfigurational, similar to f-structure in Lexical-Functional Grammar. But instead of letting lexical items project this information onto terminal nodes, I follow Anderson's (1992) proposals closely by incorporating phrasal realizational rules to the model, the function of which is to distribute inflectional features among the constituents of the clause.