Determiner spreading in Rukiga

Determiner spreading, the phenomenon whereby adnominal modifiers carry an ‘additional’ determiner, has been studied extensively for a variety of languages, most notably Greek, Semitic, and Scandinavian languages. Interestingly, the same phenomenon occurs in the Bantu language Rukiga. We show how the...

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Main Authors: Asiimwe Allen, Kouneli Maria, van der Wal Jenneke
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: De Gruyter 2023-09-01
Series:Linguistics
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1515/ling-2021-0027
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author Asiimwe Allen
Kouneli Maria
van der Wal Jenneke
author_facet Asiimwe Allen
Kouneli Maria
van der Wal Jenneke
author_sort Asiimwe Allen
collection DOAJ
description Determiner spreading, the phenomenon whereby adnominal modifiers carry an ‘additional’ determiner, has been studied extensively for a variety of languages, most notably Greek, Semitic, and Scandinavian languages. Interestingly, the same phenomenon occurs in the Bantu language Rukiga. We show how the Rukiga augment is parallel to the Greek determiner in the context of modification, and how it triggers a restrictive reading when present on a larger class of modifiers than familiar so far: relative clauses, adjectives, possessives, and certain quantifiers. Considering its morphosyntactic and interpretational properties, we propose that the variation in the presence versus absence of the augment on modifiers is due to different underlying structures, applying an analysis of determiner spreading in terms of a reduced relative clause structure.
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spelling doaj.art-3d062e80491449fb8cb1ee83b4df2fd72024-04-15T07:41:57ZengDe GruyterLinguistics0024-39491613-396X2023-09-016151285133910.1515/ling-2021-0027Determiner spreading in RukigaAsiimwe Allen0Kouneli Maria1van der Wal Jenneke2Department of African Languages, School of Languages, Literature and Communication, Makerere University, Kampala, UgandaDepartment of Linguistics, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, USALeiden University Centre for Linguistics, Leiden, The NetherlandsDeterminer spreading, the phenomenon whereby adnominal modifiers carry an ‘additional’ determiner, has been studied extensively for a variety of languages, most notably Greek, Semitic, and Scandinavian languages. Interestingly, the same phenomenon occurs in the Bantu language Rukiga. We show how the Rukiga augment is parallel to the Greek determiner in the context of modification, and how it triggers a restrictive reading when present on a larger class of modifiers than familiar so far: relative clauses, adjectives, possessives, and certain quantifiers. Considering its morphosyntactic and interpretational properties, we propose that the variation in the presence versus absence of the augment on modifiers is due to different underlying structures, applying an analysis of determiner spreading in terms of a reduced relative clause structure.https://doi.org/10.1515/ling-2021-0027augmentbantudeterminer spreadingrelative clauserestriction
spellingShingle Asiimwe Allen
Kouneli Maria
van der Wal Jenneke
Determiner spreading in Rukiga
Linguistics
augment
bantu
determiner spreading
relative clause
restriction
title Determiner spreading in Rukiga
title_full Determiner spreading in Rukiga
title_fullStr Determiner spreading in Rukiga
title_full_unstemmed Determiner spreading in Rukiga
title_short Determiner spreading in Rukiga
title_sort determiner spreading in rukiga
topic augment
bantu
determiner spreading
relative clause
restriction
url https://doi.org/10.1515/ling-2021-0027
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AT kounelimaria determinerspreadinginrukiga
AT vanderwaljenneke determinerspreadinginrukiga