ABSTRACT
Our main concern in this chapter is to understand ways in which Bantu languages organize meaningful elements, i.e. words and phrases, to form minimal units for self-contained communication, i.e. sentences. How are constituents arranged in the sentence? Which sequences of words and phrases are most characteristic of Bantu? Are Bantu languages rather homogeneous in respect to word order, as is usually assumed, or does closer inspection reveal typologically significant divergence between them? If there is a basic word order, is it rigidly fixed, or is it permitted to vary for specific communicative purposes? And if the latter is the case, how does word order relate to the context in which verbal interaction takes place, or more generally, to meaning? How do Bantu languages make sense of syntax?
