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Circumpositions in Afrikaans present several puzzles: (i) they always encode spatial paths, but spatial paths can also be encoded by prepositional phrases; (ii) they can be doubling or non-doubling, and (iii) they exhibit disharmonic word order of the kind that appears to violate the Final-over-Final Condition (FOFC). In this paper, I argue that circumpositions offer support for the existence of a directional head [dir] in the fine structure of the Afrikaans verbal domain, and that this head is lexicalised by adpositional material in circumpositional expressions. I show that Afrikaans grammar distinguishes Route-paths from Goal-/Source-paths, and argue that whereas [dir] selects a [pathP] in the structure underlying Goal-/Source-paths (circumpositional expressions), Route-paths (prepositional expressions) are ‘bare’ [pathP] structures. I argue that since circumpositions identify structural components in different Spellout Domains, double-insertion of adposition-like material is required to exhaustively lexicalise the structure, and the disharmonic word order is understood as a direct consequence of the fact that [dir] is located in Afrikaans’ head-final verbal, which addresses the concern arising around FOFC. Finally, given that the adpositions in circumpositional expressions are shown to occupy structural positions that are distinct from that of de-adpositional V-particles, the paper also addresses the structural relation between circumpositions and particle verbs in which adposition-like material lexicalises a resultative [res] node in the verbal domain.

Languages like Afrikaans are sometimes said to feature a class of adpositions that can be described as “intransitive” (e.g. binne “inside”, bo “upstairs”, agter “in the back”, buite “outside”, onder “downstairs” voor “in the front”). It is argued that such elements in fact instantiate a “hybrid” category – the locative noun category – which is not missing a Ground external argument but is actually lexicalising the nominal structure associated with that Ground argument itself. Such locative nouns pattern with R-pronouns and home-class nouns and therefore probably share a similar internal structure with these better-studied elements of language.Keywords: intransitive adposition, axial part, locative noun, R-pronoun, syncretism, Afrikaans

Syncretism is the phenomenon where one (phonological) form is able to spell out more than one (grammatical) function. The P(repositional) element van (“from/of”) in Afrikaans represents an instance of syncretism: it is able to spell out many different functions including spatial, possessive and partitive functions. Any theoretical framework seeking to account for how form relates to function ought to provide an account of this phenomenon. Within the broad minimalist approach, Nanosyntax (NS) has yielded the most systematic and explicit accounts of syncretism (cf. e.g. Starke 2009; Caha 2007, 2009). This paper offers a nanosyntactic characterisation of the Afrikaans P element van, focusing specifically on its behaviour in Afrikaans partitive constructions and offering a tentative analysis to account for the seemingly irregular behaviour displayed by van in these constructions. The analysis is based on a modified syntactic decomposition of “the genitive zone” proposed by Caha (2009). The presence of an additional node, Specific (SPF), is argued for in the lowest layer of the structure that is encoded on the lexical entry for van. One merit of the proposed analysis is that it takes into account how van interacts with other word-level elements in the phrase.Keywords: Partitive, Pseudo-partitive, Afrikaans, Syncretism, Nanosyntax

Researchers most commonly adopt a ternary mode of classification when examining passive participles, in which the i) target state passive, ii) the resultant state passive, and iii) the eventive passive are identified. These participles can be distinguished from one another on the grounds of various diagnostic tests. This article examines two recent arguments for an alternative mode of classification: Lundquist (2008) argues for a binary classificatory system which groups the resultant and the eventive passives together; Sleeman (2011) argues for a quaternary classificatory system in which the eventive passive is further divided according to whether the participle in predicative or attributive. It is argued in this article that a ternary mode of classification should be maintained, and an analysis of the internal (sub-word level) structure of the passive participle is proposed within the framework of nanosyntax (NS). The proposed analysis accounts for the empirical observations regarding the passive participle, while still maintaining a more parsimonious classificatory system. Southern African Linguistics and Applied Language Studies 2012, 30(4): 449–467

Nanosyntax (NS) is a new theoretical approach to grammatical inquiry that is intended to be more ‘fine-grained’ than conventional Minimalist Syntax (MS), attempting to provide a method of analysis that can account for the behaviour of linguistic elements which used to appear unpredictable. According to Starke (2009: 1), researchers working in the broad field of MS have, over the past two decades, been making empirical observations that cannot be accounted for by the conventional assumptions governing linguists’ structural representations of these phenomena. NS challenges the widespread assumption that one terminal node in a syntactic tree corresponds with one lexical item. Rather, NS claims that a sequence of nodes is responsible for spelling out a lexical item. Spellout of non-terminal nodes, in addition to the Elsewhere Condition and what has been termed ‘the Superset Principle’ form the basic tools of this new approach. The conventional notion of the lexicon preceding syntax in the language faculty (LF) is disfavoured by NS, which opts for a conception of the LF in which syntax precedes the lexicon. NS remains compatible with conventional MS in most other regards: that is, as far as binary branching trees, merge and move are concerned.Southern African Linguistics and Applied Language Studies 2012, 30(4): 433–447