Pre-nominal DP modifiers and penultimate lengthening in Xitsonga
Keywords:
focus, penultimate lengthening, Xitsonga, Bantu, syntax-prosody
Abstract
Bantu languages generally have a noun-initial DP word order but they typically allow for demonstratives, and in some languages also the quantifier meaning ‘each, every’, to precede the noun. Beyond this, Bantu languages generally allow changing the relative order of the post-nominal modifiers which leads to subtle (focus-related) changes in meaning but not for adjectives, numerals and possessives to appear before the noun. In this paper, we discuss DP word order alternations that are allowable in Xitsonga and their effects on prosody in terms of penultimate lengthening and show that there is a stable, statistically significant effect on length which can be demonstrated experimentally.
Published
2021-08-22
How to Cite
Lee, S., & Riedel, K. (2021). Pre-nominal DP modifiers and penultimate lengthening in Xitsonga. Stellenbosch Papers in Linguistics Plus, 62(1), 107-134. https://doi.org/10.5842/62-0-907
Section
Articles
Copyright (c) 2021 Seunghun Lee, Kristina Riedel
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