Lecture | This Time for Africa! series
Reanalysing asymmetry in Xichangana (S53): evidence from applicative constructions
- Date
- Friday 27 March 2026
- Time
- Serie
- This Time for Africa! series
- Address
- TBA
This talk aims to analyze applicative constructions derived from transitive verbs in Xichangana (S53), a Bantu language spoken in the southern provinces of Mozambique. In such constructions, the post-verbal objects exhibit crosslinguistic differences in their morphosyntactic behavior. Following Bresnan and Moshi's proposal (1990), languages are divided into symmetrical and asymmetrical types based on the behavior of the post-verbal objects: the first type allows both arguments to undergo the same syntactic operations, while the second allows only one argument to display primary object properties. Nevertheless, more recent approaches, such as Van der Wal (2022), argue that asymmetry and symmetry should be analyzed at the level of constructions rather than languages. Concerning Xichangana (S53), Chimbutane's (2002) analysis assumes an asymmetrical language behavior based on the restriction that the direct object can neither be object-marked on the verb nor be raised to the subject position in passive constructions; only the applied object is able to undergo these operations. This study, however, aims to show that Xichangana also exhibits symmetrical contexts, particularly in constructions associated with discourse-related properties such as focus and topic. To this end, the analysis divides Xichangana’s applicative constructions into two kinds: those that occur in unmarked contexts, resulting in asymmetrical behavior as predicted by Chimbutane’s analysis, and those that occur in marked contexts, resulting in symmetrical behavior.
References
- BRESNAN, Joan; MOSHI, Lioba. Object Asymmetries in Comparative Bantu Syntax. The MIT Press. Vol. 21, No. 2, 1990, pp. 147-185
- CAROLINO, Clauâne. The behavior of post-verbal objects in Changana’s applicative constructions. Unpublished master's thesis. Federal University of Minas Gerais. 2023
- CHIMBUTANE, Feliciano. Grammatical functions in Changana: types, properties, and function alternations. Unpublished master's thesis. The Australian National University. 2002.
- CHOMSKY, Noan. Derivation by Phase. In: M. Kenstowicz (Ed.), Ken Hale: A Life in Language. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2001, pp. 1-52
- DUARTE, Fábio Bonfim; LANGA, David. Disjoint/conjoint alternation and the focus position in Xichangana. (in press)
- MCGINNIS, Martha. Applicatives. University of Calgary: Language and Linguistics Compass 2/6. 2008, pp. 1225–1245
- PYLKKÄNEN, L. Introducing arguments. PhD dissertation, Massachusetts: MIT. 2002. Republished: The MIT Press, 2008.
- VAN DER WAL, Jenneke. A featural typology of Bantu agreement. Oxford University Press. 2022.