The semantics of applicativization in Kinyarwanda

Abstract

This article explores the role of semantics in argument realization by providing a lexical semantic account of the contribution of applicative morphology in the Bantu language Kinyarwanda (Rwanda). I propose that applicativization is best analyzed through a constraint on the paradigmatic relationship between applied and non-applied variants of a verb. Specifically, I argue that the applied variant requires an increase in lexical entailments associated with an internal argument of the predicate, and verb classes have varying lexicalized strategies for how they satisfy this constraint. Building on earlier work on Bantu applicatives, I argue that the syntactic and semantic contributions of an applicative operate independently but with all outputs being subject to the constraint on applicativization that I propose. Taking these facts together, this predicts a typology of three possible outputs for applicativization: one in which the applicative adds a new argument and associated thematic role (the function that is most frequently discussed), one in which the applicative has the effect of giving license to an unrealized participant entailed by the meaning of the verb, and one in which the applicative does not increase valence but rather modifies the thematic role of an existing internal argument. I describe three verb classes in Kinyarwanda which exemplify these three predicted types of output of applicativization. This approach thus subsumes previous observations about the varied functions of applicative morphology under a single analysis as well as builds on earlier work on paradigmatic argument alternations (such as the oblique alternations) by extending such approaches to valency-changing morphology.