Volume : 4, Issue : 9, September - 2015

The Nano-syntax of Noun Agreement in Kitharaka

Dr. Peter Kinyua Muriungi

Abstract :

<p>&lt;p&gt;This paper investigates the syncretism found in subject agreement, adjective agreement and object agreement in Kitharaka, an SVO Bantu language spoken in Kenya. Syncretism refers to the similarity in form of different morphological forms of a word. Adopting approaches that argue for late lexical insertion (McCawley, 1968; Halle &amp;amp; Marantz, 1993; Harley &amp;amp; Noyer, 1999), the paper argues that syncretism occurs because the same lexical item, stored in the lexicon as a syntactic tree can be inserted to realize structures of varying sizes in the syntax under the superset principle (Starke Class Lectures; Caha 2007). Nano-syntax is an approach to the study of Syntax developed by Michal Starke. It assumes that terminal nodes are more fine-grained; with many small (nano) features arranged hierarchically in a synctactic tree. This approach has the consequence that lexical items do not spell out a terminal node; but a complex bundle of features, even a phrase&lt;/p&gt;</p>