A Minimalist Approach to Argument Structure of Dholuo Concatenated Verbal Extensions

Abstract

Verbs in Agglutinating languages, Dholuo included, have ability of accommodating derivative morphemes which get affixed to their roots. This affixation alters argument structure of the host verb thus changing the syntax and the semantics of the verb. These derivative morphemes because of their characteristics of extending verbs both syntactically and semantically are referred to as verbal extensions. The verbal extensions under investigation are the applicative, the locative, the reflexive, the reciprocal and the stative in their co-occurrent states. The incorporation of the co-occurrent Dholuo verbal extensions in a template of a verb, according to the principles of MP, causes the creation of derivational heads where syntactic and semantic features in the extended verb are checked. The semantic heads are created in configurations to provide sites where arguments introduced by Dholuo verbal extensions to the host verb are assigned their semantic roles through the merger of the head with the arguments. Data examined in this study was generated by the researchers who are themselves native speakers of Dholuo. In some instances however, consultations were made with other native speakers for cross-checking purposes. This study was motivated by the fact that the writers are Dholuo speaking linguists with in-depth interests in understanding the structure of Dholuo expressions from the linguists’ perspective.