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In Hyman (2003a), I proposed a default pan-Bantu template to account for a recurrent sequencing of the Causative, Applicative, Reciprocal and Passive (CARP) suffixes, in this order. Divergences from CARP were said to result from language-specific overrides where a suffix earlier in the template has scope over a suffix later in the template. In this paper, I further examine CARP in light of data from additional Bantu languages, especially Ikalanga, Ndebele, Runyankore, Ekegusii, and the Tiania variant of Kimeru. I show, first, that although certain pairs of derivational voice suffixes such as Causative and Applicative overwhelmingly occur in the predicted CA order, others, such as Applicative and Reciprocal, occur as RA in some Bantu languages, systematically violating CARP. I conclude that rather than CARP being a template, the ordering properties need to be stated independently for each pair of suffixes on a language-by-language basis. By analyzing constraints on suffix sequences as bigrams, we can not only produce the CARP effects, when they occur, but also suffix orders that neither follow CARP nor reflect their scope relations.

This paper investigates the emphatic meaning of object marker doubling (OMD) constructions—constructionsin which a DP object and an associated object marker (OM) co-occur—in Cinyungwe, a Bantu languagespoken in Mozambique. I propose that OMD has two licensing conditions: first, that an argument DPin the sentence is salient, and second, that the prejacent of the sentence addresses the Question UnderDiscussion (QUD). If these conditions are met, OMD introduces a manner implicature that the prejacent isatypical in some way. I provide original Cinyungwe data to support this analysis. I also discuss a previousapproach to Bantu OMD (as introducing a mirative and/or verum conventional implicature), and I drawcomparisons between OMD and another means of marking emphasis in Cinyungwe, as well as betweenOMD and Indo-European clitic doubling. Cinyungwe is an understudied language; as such, this researchcontributes not only to our understanding of Cinyungwe object marking but also to our understanding ofthe diversity of emphasis marking strategies crosslinguistically.

Cross-linguistically, there are a variety of attested non-phonological conditions onphonotactics and alternations. The extreme end of this are exceptions, whose idiosyncraticbehaviors are unattributable to any morphological, morphosyntactic, or semanticclass. Studying exceptions is challenging because they require a substantive languagedescription to even be identified, and because their identification can appear to subvertdescriptive and analytical generalizations about the grammar. As a result, exceptionalityresearch often focuses on major world languages, and there is considerable contention surroundingwhether exceptions are wholly phonological, extragrammatical, or somethingin between.This dissertation addresses these gaps via an in-depth case study of segmental phonologyin Mushunguli (Somali Chizigula, Kizigua; Narrow Bantu, G.31), an endangered,under-described language spoken by members of the Somali Bantu diaspora. This casestudy, drawn from original fieldwork conducted in 2011-2012, includes a description andanalysis of the hiatus resolution and onset structure conspiracies of Mushunguli, the formerof which exhibits what appear to be four operations (asymmetric coalescence, glideformation, secondary articulation, and elision) in identical morphosyntactic contexts.Situated within this discussion are three exceptional patterns, each representing aseparate typological instantiation of exceptional blocking: a set of high vowel-initial stemsthat exclusively block coalescence, but not other applicable repairs (simple blocking); a prefixand a verb root which unexpectedly undergo otherwise unattested palatalization inlieu of elision (walljumping); and a set of roots that exceptionally block all forms of hiatusresolution (total non-participation). Adopting lexically-indexed constraints in Stratal OptimalityTheory as a means of capturing these patterns reveals complex interdependenciesbetween exceptions and regular forms in Mushunguli, with the form and behavior of oneexception crucially determining the forms and behaviors of other exceptional and regularpatterns. This suggests that exceptions are lexical but not extragrammatical, insteadplaying an important role in the grammar as reifying and reinforcing agents.The study concludes by examining alternative representational analyses of theMushunguli exceptions, including whole-segment absolute neutralization and underspecification.While these approaches are sometimes capable of capturing the exceptionalpatterns, they ultimately struggle to unify or situate them with respect to the grammar asa whole.

This thesis aims to advance the idea that prosody is fundamentally about creating cohesion, that is, signaling the “relations of meaning that exist within the text” (Halliday & Hasan 1976:4). Building on research on the cohesive function of prosody by Wichmann (2000) and Wennerstrom (2001), I show how each of the features generally referred to as prosodic are used by speakers to lend cohesion to their discourse by signaling the transitions from one unit of discourse to the next, the relations that hold between those units, and their relative prominence. To accomplish this, I look at six prosodic cues in Ékegusií, a Great Lakes Bantu language of southwestern Kenya with lexical and grammatical tone (Cammenga 2002; Nash 2011). Those cues are pause, vowel elision, prosodic accent, pitch reset, isotony (intonational parallelism), and intonational contour. For each feature, I exemplify the ways in which it demarcates conceptually cohesive units of discourse, and/or signals the relations between one unit of speech and another. I show that when these prosodic cues appear, they create cohesive ties between one segment of discourse and another by signaling where one discourse topic ends and another begins, and indicating how – and how closely – the new discourse topic relates to the old (Couper-Kuhlen 2004; Swerts & Geluykens 1994). Together with morphosyntactic devices for cohesion, such as anaphoric pronouns and reference, the cohesive ties created by prosody are what give coherence to the text, thus distinguishing it from a random assortment of unrelated utterances (Halliday & Hasan 1976). I conclude by discussing how an understanding of prosody as a means for signaling discourse cohesion complements more interactional approaches to prosody (Barth-Weingarten 2013; Barth-Weingarten & Reber 2010; Couper-Kuhlen & Ford 2004), and provides a language-independent means of examining prosody crosslinguistically, thus laying a foundation for future typological studies.

This dissertation aims to characterize the relationship between the temporal and information-structuring functions of tense and aspect marking in Totela, an endangered Bantu language of Zambia and Namibia. To that end, I investigate and describe in detail the semantics and pragmatics of selected tense and aspect markers, showing for each that a purely temporal description is inadequate to explain its range of interpretations and uses.Totela is a typical Bantu language in that it has a vast array of morphemes and constructions to express tense and aspect contrasts. A more explanatory and unified analysis of these forms emerges when not only their temporal semantics, but also their discourse-structuring functions are taken into account. Often, pragmatic functions appear to trump temporal specifications.Privileged distinctions in Totela include (non-)completion of a situation’s nucleus (i.e. the termination of an action or state, or point of transition to a result state for inchoative eventualities) (cf. Kershner 2002), cognitive and temporal dissociation (cf. Botne and Kershner 2008), and relevance (cf. Portner 2003). I argue that these categories, rather than traditional notions such as past vs. present tense, or imperfective vs. perfective aspect, are basic in Totela’s tense and aspect system. Investigations of the above-mentioned categories also reveal strong discourse-structuring functions for each. For example, markers of nuclear completion occur predictably at episode boundaries in narrative. Markers associated with non-completion, in contrast, occur when the narrative structure is interrupted (e.g. by a song) at a point that is not an episode boundary. Non-completive forms also serve to shift between narrative-internal and narrative-external perspectives. Findings regarding the use of tense and aspect markers to structure narrative are confirmed by quantitative analysis using logistic regression.Of particular theoretical interest is the -ite suffix, which shows evidence of being primarily a marker indicating relevance to answering the question under discussion in the current discourse context (cf. Roberts 1998). Its temporal interpretations are determined pragmatically, based on which phase of a situation’s event structure is understood as most relevant to answering the question under discussion. Results are situated both synchronically and diachronically, in order to develop hypotheses about the historical pathways of the markers within Bantu (cf. Bybee et al. 1994). Cross-linguistic comparison of Totela and related languages suggests that while morphological expression of tense and aspect categories may change rapidly, as may semantic and pragmatic particularities within categories, the basic categories of completion vs. non-completion of the situation’s nucleus, association vs. dissociation, and discourse relevance are prevalent. These categories are likely crucial in the analysis of many other Bantu languages, as well, but have been given relatively little attention in the literature.This dissertation offers both basic descriptive facts about the Totela language and a detailed investigation of facets of its tense/aspect system. It is intended to be of interest for semanticist and pragmaticists, as well as for use in studies in Bantu and general typological linguistics.

Author(s): Hyman, Larry M. | Abstract: The purpose of this study is to survey and evaluate the tonal effects of the two Bantu vocalic verb extensions *-i- ‘causative’ and *-ʊ- ‘passive’ in order to determine whether they carried a H in Proto-Bantu (PB).

Author(s): Rolle, Nicholas; Hyman, Larry M. | Abstract: This paper focuses on the issue of ‘prosodic idiosyncrasies’ as it arises in the Bantu language Makonde [kde]. Recently, Bennett, Harizanov, a Henderson (2018) proposed ‘prosodic smothering’, whereby prosodic requirements of an outer morpheme override (i.e. ‘smother’) prosodic properties of inner morphemes. We extend their analysis to phrase-level phonology in Makonde. Previous description has established that whether a nominal modifier forms a single phonological phrase φ with the noun is an idiosyncratic property, e.g. a [NOUN ADJECTIVE] phrase maps to 2 phonological phrases φ(N) φ(ADJ) while a [NOUN DEMONSTRATIVE] phrase forms a single phonological phrase φ(N DEM). Prosodic smothering is seen in [NOUN ADJ DEM] sequences which form a single φ(N ADJ DEM) phonological phrase, where the ADJ has been ‘entrapped’ and its prosody ‘smothered’. We highlight three contributions which Makonde makes to understanding smothering: (i) smothering targets the lexical head, (ii) smothering is both inward-oriented (a morphological relation) and leftward-oriented (a linear relation), and (iii) a limited amount of outward smothering is parasitic on the presence of inward smothering. From the smothering facts in Makonde, we conclude that prosody is established at two stages: first, prosodic idiosyncrasies apply at spell-out (i.e. the mapping from syntax to phonology), followed by default prosodification which is established within the phonological module itself.