ABSTRACT
Ei Ali alilimiwa shamba lake na mwenzake where O1 occurs immediately following the extended radical and O2 follows
it, retaining the status of O in the entailed sentence and preceding the adjunctphrase. There is no doubt that this is a common pattern, and it is possible to state the relationship between the minimal and the extended radical in somewhat more formulaic terms. Given
alilima shamba la Ali then extended radical sentences may be formed according to the following pattern:
Unfortunately there are a number of reasons why such a formula is of considerably less than general validity:-
(a) There are a number of radicals for which the meaning of the extended form —or at least the commoner meaning-differs markedly from that of the minimal form:-
and the characteristic transitivity patterns are more like those for minimal radicals:-
(b) Again, as noted by Guthrie for Bemba, some extended forms may occur both with and without an object-prefix and associated with different meanings:-
mama kanifungia nguo zangu, Mother tied up my clothes for me mama kafungia nguo zangu kabatini, Mother locked up or confiscated my clothes in the cupboard
where the object-prefix appears to be obligatory in the first but not in the second. A similar situation appears to exist for -tand-, paralleling distinctions in the minimal form:-
kanipa vitambaa vya kijani kutandia meza hii, She gave me green tablecloths for covering the table amenitandia dagaa, He caught some ‘dagaa’ for me (‘dagaa’ a general term for small fish, caught by spreading a cloth)
Again, there is the general question of radicals like -um-/-umi-whose meanings overlap to a very considerable extent though two quite distinct connotations can be recognized, e.g. ‘bite’ and ‘feel
pain’, the first being associable with an object-prefix, the second not:-
simba alimrukia akamwuma/akamwumia begani, The lion jumped on him and bit him on the shoulder. Ei
Much further work remains to be done on these extended radicals where specialized meanings have developed.
