ABSTRACT

This collection of original essays addresses salient issues in a range of empirical and conceptual analyses, providing detailed case studies of phenomena in Bantu languages and robust and interesting discussions on the structure of the noun phrase. This volume speaks to contemporary debates on the Bantu noun phrase, seeking to stimulate a greater understanding of the true nature of adnominal modification, definiteness, and anaphoric relations associated with it, with respect to various segmental and supra-segmental, noun formation, and noun classification phenomena. The ten chapters take the reader through the Grassfields, North-Western, North-Eastern and Southern present-day Bantu homeland, making important contributions to the documentation and analysis of Bantu languages.

The Bantu Noun Phrase: Issues and Perspectives is unique in its inclusion of so many North-Eastern Bantu languages in its discourse on Bantu linguistics and this important collection will be of particular interest to those researching, teaching, and studying African languages and linguistics.

chapter 1|28 pages

Introduction

Conceptualizing the Bantu noun phrase

part 1|96 pages

Phrase structure

chapter 3|30 pages

Adjectives in the Ngamambo noun phrase

Issues of pre- and post-modification

chapter 5|29 pages

The noun phrase in Nugunu

Nominal structure and internal organization

part 2|56 pages

Tone in the internal structure of the NP

part 3|46 pages

Anaphoric relations

chapter 9|27 pages

Content words and contextual meaning

Lexical NPs as discourse anaphora in Makhuwa and Cuwabo