Abstract
This paper examines argument alternation constructions in the Bantu language, Kiwoso. The data demonstrates that alternation is constrained by selectional properties of a root and its combination with different functional heads, which is language specific. The findings establish that external arguments of anticausative, passive and middle alternations are distinct in terms of syntax and semantics. The data indicates that external arguments appear as DPs in causative alternates but in anticausative, passive and middle sentences they surface as PPs, albeit with different interpretations. In passives, the PPs are introduced by a na-phrase and express event participants, while in anticausatives and middles they are introduced by a ko-phrase which denotes event modifiers. It is also established that anticausative, passive and middle verb constructions are related in that their sole subject argument is the object argument of their causative (transitive) variants.
Highlights
This paper examines the characteristic of change of state verbs in Kiwoso1 in relation to thecausative alternation and other related types of transitivity alternations such as passives and middles
This paper examined the properties of externally caused change of state verbs in Kiwoso in relation to the lexical-semantics and syntax interface ofcausative alternations
The paper attempted to answer three questions: 1) what are the meaning components that determine the behavior of individual verbs in anticausative alternations? 2) what are the properties of external arguments ofcausatives thematically and syntactically? 3) what makes anticausatives similar to, or different from, other transitivity alternation constructions such as the passive and the middle?
Summary
This paper examines the characteristic of change of state verbs in Kiwoso in relation to the (anti-)causative alternation and other related types of transitivity alternations such as passives and middles. It examines the suitability and applicability of the syntactic decomposition approach as postulated in Alexiadou, Anagnostopoulou, and Schäfer (2006, 2015) and Alexiadou (2010) on the account of various verbal argument alternations and their interaction with causation, argument realization and event semantics in Kiwoso. This paper examines the causative syntax in relation to the causative and anticausative uses of a verb which exhibit argument alternation properties, as demonstrated for English and for Kiwoso in (2) and (3), respectively. The data examined indicates that verbs suffixed by the stative do not necessarily express a change of state or a condition of a patient/theme argument across languages. The following subsection examines the properties of passive and stative suffixes across semantic verb classes
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