This study charts variation in subject inversion constructions in Bantu languages. It distinguishes between seven types of inversion constructions: formal locative inversion, semantic locative inversion, instrument inversion, patient inversion, (clausal) complement inversion, default agreement inversion and agreeing inversion. Based on a set of nine surface variables, a matrix of inversion constructions is developed which identifies characteristics of the set of constructions overall as well as of each individual construction type. The distribution of the different inversion constructions is documented with reference to a sample of 46 Bantu languages, from which geographical and typological generalisations are drawn. For example, languages with instrument inversion or with patient inversion always have locative inversion (but not vice versa), or if a language has at least one inversion construction, it always has at least either default agreement inversion or agreeing inversion. Finally, underlying parameters potentially accounting for the variation are discussed, such as the status of preverbal locatives as DP or PP, the agreement parameter and the syntactic and thematic restrictions on the preverbal element.
2000The development of person agreement markers: From pronouns to higher accessibility markers. In Michael Barlow & Suzanne Kemmer (eds.), Usage-based models of language, 197–260. Stanford: CSLI.
Ashton, Ethel O., E. M. K. Mulira, E.G.M. Ndawula & A. N. Tucker
1954A Luganda grammar. London: Longmans, Green & Co.
2008The syntax of agreement and concord. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Baker, Mark
2010Formal Generative Typology. In Bernd Heine & Heiko Narrog (eds.), The Oxford handbook of linguistic analysis, 285–312. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Barrett Keach, Camillia N
1985The syntax and interpretation of the relative clause construction in Swahili. Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts Ph.D. dissertation.
Beaudoin-Lietz, Christa, Derek Nurse & Sarah Rose
2004Pronominal object marking in Bantu. In Akinbiyi Akinlabi & Oluseye Adesola (eds.), Proceedings of the World Congress of African Linguistics, New Brunswick 2003, 175–188. Cologne: Köppe.
Bonfim Duarte, Fábio
2011Tense encoding, agreement patterns, definiteness and relativization strategies in Changana. In Eyamba G. Bokamba, et al.. (eds.), Selected proceedings of the 40th Annual Conference on African Linguistics, 80–94. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Proceedings Project.
Bokamba, Eyamba Georges
1976Question formation in some Bantu languages. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Ph.D. dissertation.
Bokamba, Eyamba Georges
1979Inversions as grammatical relation changing rules in Bantu languages. Studies in the Linguistic Sciences 9(2). 1–24.
2009Semantics: An introduction to meaning in language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Carstens, Vicki
2005Agree and EPP in Bantu. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 23(2). 219–279.
Carstens, Vicki & Loyiso Mletshe
To appear. Implications of Xhosa expletive constructions. Forthcoming in Linguistic Inquiry.
Collins, Chris
2004The agreement parameter. In Anne Breitbarth & Henk van Riemsdijk (eds.), Triggers, 115–136. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
Crane, Thera Marie, Larry M. Hyman & Simon Nsielanga Tukumu
2011A grammar of Nzadi (B965): A Bantu language of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Creissels, Denis
1996Conjunctive and disjunctive verb forms in Setswana. South African Journal of African Languages 161. 109–115.
Creissels, Denis
2004Non-canonical applicatives and focalization in Tswana. Paper presented at Syntax of the World’s Languages. Leipzig.
Creissels, Denis
2011Tswana locatives and their status in the inversion construction. Africana Linguistica 171. 33–52.
Dalgish, Gerard M
1976Locative NP’s, locative suffixes and grammatical relations. BLS 21. 139–148.
de Kind, Jasper & Koen Bostoen
2012The applicative in ciLubà grammar and discourse: A semantic goal analysis. Southern African Linguistics and Applied Language Studies 30(1). 101–124.
Demuth, Katherine
1989Maturation and the acquisition of the Sesotho passive. Language 65(1). 56–80.
Demuth, Katherine
1990Locatives, impersonals and expletives in Sesotho. The Linguistic Review 7(3). 233–249.
Demuth, Katherine & Carolyn Harford
1999Verb raising and subject inversion in comparative Bantu. Journal of African Languages and Linguistics 20(1). 41–61.
Demuth, Katherine & Mark Johnson
1989Interaction between discourse functions and agreement in Setawana. Journal of African Languages and Linguistics 111. 21–35.
Demuth, Katherine & Melissa Kline
2006The distribution of passives in spoken Sesotho. Southern African Linguistics and Applied Language Studies 241. 377–388.
Demuth, Katherine & Sheila Mmusi
1997Presentational focus and thematic structure in comparative Bantu. Journal of African Languages and Linguistics 181. 1–19.
Devos, Maud
2004A grammar of Makwe. Leiden: Leiden University Ph.D. dissertation.
Diercks, Michael
2010Agreement with subjects in Lubukusu. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Ph.D. dissertation.
Diercks, Michael
2011The morphosyntax of Lubukusu locative inversion and the parameterization of Agree. Lingua 121(5). 702–720.
Diercks, Michael
2012Parameterizing case: Evidence from Bantu. Syntax 15(3). 253–286.
Dixon, R.M.W
1997The rise and fall of languages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Du Plessis, Jacobus Albertus & Marianna Visser
1992Xhosa syntax. Pretoria: Via Afrika.
Duranti, Alessandro & Ernest R. Byarushengo
1977On the notion of “direct object”. In Ernest R. Byarushengo, Alessandro Duranti & Larry M. Hyman (eds.), Haya grammatical structure, 45–71. Los Angeles: Department of Linguistics, University of Southern California.
Edelsten, Peter & Chiku Lijongwa
2010A grammatical sketch of Chindamba, a Bantu language (G52) of Tanzania. Cologne: Köppe.
Fortune, George
1955An analytical grammar of Shona. London: Longmans, Green and Co.
Gamut, L.T.F
1991Logic, language and meaning, vol. 21. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Gibson, Hannah
2008Half empty or half full: An analysis of subject-object inversion in Swahili. London: SOAS, University of London MA dissertation.
Givón, Talmy
1976Topic, pronoun and grammatical agreement. In Charles N. Li (ed.), Subject and topic, 149–188. New York: Academic Press.
Givón, Talmy
1979On understanding grammar. New York: Academic Press.
Gowlett, Derek F
1989The parentage and development of Lozi. Journal of African Languages and Linguistics 21. 127–149.
Güldemann, Tom
2008Quotative indexes in African languages: A synchronic and diachronic survey. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
2012Argument licensing and agreement in Zulu. Boston, MA: MIT Ph.D. dissertation.
Halpert, Claire
To appear. Structural Case and the nature of vP in Zulu. Proceedings of NELS 42. Amherst, MA: GLSA.
Hamlaoui, Fatima & Emmanuel-Moselly Makasso
2013Object left-dislocation, topicalization and the syntax-phonology mapping of intonation phrases in Bàsàa. Presentation at Bantu 5, Paris.
Harford [Perez], Carolyn
1985Aspects of complementation in three Bantu languages. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin-Madison Ph.D. dissertation.
Harford, Carolyn
1990Locative inversion in Chishona. In John Hutchison & Victor Manfredi (eds.), Current approaches to African linguistics, 137–144. Dordrecht: Foris.
Harford, Carolyn & Katherine Demuth
1999Prosody outranks syntax: An Optimality approach to subject inversion in Bantu relatives. Linguistic Analysis 29(1–2). 47–68.
Hawkinson, Annie & Larry M. Hyman
1974Hierarchies of natural topic in Shona. Studies in African Linguistics 51. 147–170.
Henderson, Brent
2006The syntax and typology of Bantu relative clauses. Urbana-Champaign. IL: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Ph.D. dissertation.
Henderson, Brent
2011Agreement, locality, and OVS in Bantu. Lingua 121(5). 742–753.
Hopper, Paul J. & Sandra A. Thompson
1980Transitivity in grammar and discourse. Language 56(2). 251–299.
Iorio, David.In Progress
Subject and object marking in Bembe. Newcastle: University of Newcastle Ph.D. dissertation.
Janson, Tore
1991–1992Southern Bantu and Makua. Sprache und Geschichte in Afrika 12–131. 63–106.
Kashina, Kashina
2005The Silozi clause: A study of the structure and distribution of its constituents. Munich: Lincom.
Katamba, Francis
2003Bantu nominal morphology. In Derek Nurse & Gérard Philippson (eds.), The Bantu languages, 103–120. London: Routledge.
Kavari, Jekura, Lutz Marten & Jenneke van der Wal
2012Tone cases in Otjiherero: Head-complement relations, linear order and information structure. Africana Linguistica 181. 315–353.
Kawasha, Boniface
2007Passivization in Lunda. Journal of African Languages and Linguistics 281. 37–56.
Kayne, Richard
2005Movement and silence. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Kemmer, Suzanne
1993The middle voice. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Khumalo, Langa
2010Passive, locative inversion in Ndebele and the unaccusative hypothesis. South African Journal of African Languages 301. 22–34.
Kimenyi, Alexandre
1980A relational grammar of Kinyarwanda. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
Kula, Nancy C. & Lisa Lai-Shen Cheng
2007Phonological and syntactic phrasing in Bemba relatives. Journal of African Languages and Linguistics 28(2). 123–148.
Kula, Nancy C. & Lutz Marten
2010Argument structure and agency in Bemba passives. In Karsten Legère & Christina Thornell (eds.), Bantu languages: Analyses, description and theory, 115–130. Cologne: Köppe.
Lakoff, George & Mark Johnson
1980Metaphors we live by. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Lambrecht, Knud
1994Information structure and sentence form. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
Levin, Beth
1993English verb classes and alternations. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
Maho, Jouni
1999A comparative study of Bantu noun classes. Gothenburg: Acta Universitatis Gothoburgensis.
Marten, Lutz
2003The dynamics of Bantu applied verbs: An analysis at the syntax-pragmatics interface. In Kézié K. Lébikaza (ed.), Actes du 3e Congrès Mondial de Linguistique Africaine Lomé 2000, 207–221. Cologne: Köppe.
Marten, Lutz
2006Locative inversion in Herero: More on morphosyntactic variation in Bantu. In Laura Downing, Lutz Marten & Sabine Zerbian (eds.), Papers in Bantu grammar and description. ZASPiL 43. 97–122.
Marten, Lutz
2010The great siSwati locative shift. In Anne Breitbarth, Christopher Lucas, Sheila Watts & David Willis (eds.), Continuity and change in grammar, 249–267. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Marten, Lutz
2011Information structure and agreement: Subjects and subject markers in Swahili and Herero. Lingua 121(5). 787–804.
Marten, Lutz
2013Linguistic variation, language contact and the new comparative Bantu. Inaugural Lecture, SOAS, University of London, 18 April 2013.
Marten, Lutz & Hannah Gibson
2013Passive, locative inversion and subject-object reversal in Bantu: A unified dynamic analysis. Ms. SOAS, University of London.
Marten, Lutz, Nancy C. Kula & Nhlanhla Thwala
2007Parameters of mophosyntactic variation in Bantu. Transactions of the Philological Society 1051. 253–338.
Marten, Lutz & Deograsia Ramadhani
2001An overview of object marking in Kiluguru. SOAS Working Papers in Linguistics and Phonetics 111. 259–275.
Marten, Lutz, Kristina Riedel, Silvester Ron Simango & Jochen Zeller
(eds.)2012Special issue of Southern African Linguistics and Applied Language Studies 30(2) on Subject and Object Marking in Bantu.
Mchombo, Sam
2004The syntax of Chichewa. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Meeussen, Achille E
1959Essai de grammaire Rundi, Vol. 241. Serie 8, Sciences de l’Homme, Linguistique. Tervuren: Annales du Musée Royal du Congo Belge.
1974A study of Kiluguru syntax with special reference to the transformational history of sentences with permuted subject and object. London: SOAS, University of London Ph.D. dissertation.
Möhlig, Wilhelm J. G
1967Die Sprache der Dciriku: Phonologie, Prosodologie und Morphologie. Cologne: Universität zu Köln Ph.D. dissertation.
Möhlig, Wilhelm J.G. & Jekura U. Kavari
2008Reference grammar of Herero (Otjiherero). Cologne: Köppe.
Möhlig, Wilhelm J. G., Lutz Marten & Jekura U. Kavari
2002A grammatical sketch of Herero. Cologne: Köppe.
Morimoto, Yukiko
2000Discourse configurationality in Bantu morphosyntax. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Ph.D. dissertation.
Morimoto, Yukiko
2006Agreement properties and word order in comparative Bantu. In Laura Downing, Lutz Marten & Sabine Zerbian (eds.), Papers in Bantu grammar and description. ZASPiL 43. 161–187.
Moshi, Lioba
1995Locatives in KiVunjo-Chaga. In Akinbiyi Akinlabi (ed.), Theoretical approaches to African linguistics, 129–146. Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press.
Mugane, John Muratha
1997Bantu nominalization structures. Tuscon, AZ: University of Arizona Ph.D. dissertation.
Muriungi, Peter
2008Phrasal movement inside Bantu verbs: Deriving affix scope and order in Kîîtharaka. Tromsø: University of Tromsø Ph.D. dissertation.
Ndayiragije, Juvénal
1999Checking economy. Linguistic Inquiry 301. 399–444.
Ngoboka, Jean Paul & Jochen Zeller
2013Locative inversion in Kinyarwanda. Paper presented at the SOAS Inversion Workshop, 25 February 2013.
Ngonyani, Deogratias S
1996The morphosyntax of applicatives. Los Angeles, CA: UCLA Ph.D. dissertation.
Ngonyani, Deo & Peter Githinji
2006The asymmetric nature of Bantu applicative constructions. Lingua 1161. 31–63.
Nichols, Johanna
1992Linguistic diversity in space and time. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Nicolle, Steve
2013A grammar of Digo: A Bantu language of Kenya. Dallas, Tex.: SIL International.
Nsuka Nkutsi, Francois
1982Les Structures Fondamentales du Relatif dans les Langues Bantoues. Tervuren: Musee Royal de l’Afrique Centrale.
Odden, David
1984Formal correlates of focusing in Kimatuumbi. Studies in African Linguistics 15(3). 275–299.
Odden, David
1996The phonology and morphology of Kimatuumbi. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Pak, Marjorie
2008A-movement and intervention effects in Luganda. In Natasha Abner & Jason Bishop (eds.), Proceedings of the 27th West Coast Conference on Formal Linguistics, 361–369. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Proceedings Project.
Petzell, Malin
2008The Kagulu language of Tanzania: Grammar, texts and vocabulary. Cologne: Köppe.
Riedel, Kristina & Lutz Marten
2012Locative object marking and the argument-adjunct distinction. Southern African Linguistics and Applied Language Studies 30(2). 277–292.
Rugemalira, Josephat
1993Bantu multiple object constructions. Linguistic Analysis 231. 226–252.
2001Theoretical approaches to locative inversion. Zürich: University of Zürich MA dissertation.
Salzmann, Martin
2011Towards a typology of locative inversion – Bantu, perhaps Chinese and English – but beyond?Language and Linguistics Compass 5/41. 169–189.
Sasse, Hans-Jürgen
2006Theticity. In Giuliano Bernini & Marcia L. Schwartz (eds.), Pragmatic organization of discourse in the languages of Europe, 255–308. Berlin, New York: Mouton de Gruyter.
Schadeberg, Thilo C
2003Derivation. In Derek Nurse & Gérard Philippson (eds.), The Bantu languages, 71–89. London: Routledge.
Schadeberg, Thilo C. & Francisco U. Mucanheia
2000Ekoti: The Maka or Swahili language of Angoche. Cologne: Köppe.
Stappers, Leo
1967Het passief suffix -u- in de Bantoe-talen. Africana Linguistica 31. 139–145.
Thwala, Nhlanhla
2006aOn the subject-predicate relation and subject agreement in SiSwati. Southern African Linguistics and Applied Language Studies 24(3). 331–359.
Thwala, Nhlanhla
2006bParameters of variation and complement licensing in Bantu. In Laura Downing, Lutz Marten & Sabine Zerbian (eds.), Papers in Bantu grammar and description. ZASPiL 43. 209–232.
Trithart, Mary Lee
1977Relational grammar and Chichewa subjectivization. Los Angeles, CA: UCLA MA dissertation.
Van der Wal, Jenneke
2008Agreement in thetic sentences in Bantu and Romance. In Cécile De Cat & Katherine Demuth (eds.), The Bantu-Romance connection. A comparative investigation of verbal agreement, DPs and information structure, 323–350. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Van der Wal, Jenneke
2009Word order and information structure in Makhuwa-Enahara. Utrecht: LOT.
Van der Wal, Jenneke
2012Subject agreement and the EPP in Bantu agreeing inversion. Cambridge Occasional Papers in Linguistics 61. 201–236.
Van der Wal, Jenneke
Submitted. Parameterising case: Other evidence from Bantu.
Van Otterloo, Roger
2011The Kifuliiru language, volume 2: a descriptive grammar. Dallas, TX: SIL International.
Visser, Marianna
1989The syntax of the infinitive in Xhosa. South African Journal of African Languages 9(4). 154–185.
Voisin, Sylvie
2006Applicatif et emphase. In Daniel Lebaud, Catherine Paulin & Katja Ploog (eds.), Constructions verbales et production de sens, 155–170. Besançon: Presses Universitaires de Franche-Comté.
Wald, Benji
1997Instrumental objects in the history of topicality and transitivity in Bantu. In Rose-Marie Déchaine & Victor Manfredi (eds.), Object positions in Benue-Kwa, 221–253. The Hague: Holland Academic Graphics.
Whiteley, Wilfred H
1966A study of Yao sentences. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Whiteley, Wilfred H
1972Case complexes in Swahili. Studies in African Linguistics 31. 1–45.
Whiteley, Wilfred H. & J. D. Mganga
1969Focus and entailment: Further problems of transitivity in Swahili. African Language Review 81. 108–25.
Woolford, Ellen
1995Why passive can block object marking. In Akinbiyi Akinlabi (ed.), Theoretical Approaches to African Linguistics, 199–215. Trenton, New Jersey: Africa World Press.
Yoneda, Nobuko
2008Matengo-go no jouhou-kouzou to gojun. Gengo-Kenkyu 1331. 107–132.
Yoneda, Nobuko
2011Word order in Matengo (N13): Topicality and informational roles. Lingua 121(5). 754–771.
Zeller, Jochen
2004Relative clause formation in the Bantu languages of South Africa. Southern African Linguistics and Applied Language Studies 221. 75–93.
Zeller, Jochen
2012Instrument inversion in Zulu. In Michael R. Marlo, Nikki B. Adams, Christopher R. Green, Michelle Morrison & Tristan M. Purvis (eds.), African languages in context. Selected proceedings of the 42nd Annual Conference on African Linguistics, 134–148. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Proceedings Project.
Zeller, Jochen
2013Locative inversion in Bantu and predication. Linguistics 51(6), 1107–1146.
Zerbian, Sabine
2006Inversion structures in Northern Sotho. Southern African Linguistics and Applied Language Studies 24(3). 361–376.
Ziervogel, Dirk & Enos John Mabuza
1976A grammar of the Swati language. Pretoria: J.L. van Schaik.
2023. Verum in Xhosa and Zulu (Nguni). Zeitschrift für Sprachwissenschaft 42:3 ► pp. 493 ff.
Chou, Chao‐Ting Tim
2020. External Set‐Merge of Heads and Composite Probing: the Case of Locative Inversion in English and Chinese1. Studia Linguistica 74:3 ► pp. 775 ff.
Diercks, Michael
2017. Locative Inversion. In The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Syntax, Second Edition, ► pp. 1 ff.
Dimmendaal, Gerrit J.
2023. Review article: messages from (not so distant) relatives in the Nuba Mountains: on how (not) to reconstruct Proto-Bantu. Journal of African Languages and Linguistics 44:2 ► pp. 241 ff.
Fominyam, Henry & Radek Šimík
2017. The morphosyntax of exhaustive focus. Natural Language & Linguistic Theory 35:4 ► pp. 1027 ff.
Gibson, Hannah
2018. Building meaning in context: A dynamic approach to Bantu clause structure. Transactions of the Philological Society 116:S1 ► pp. 1 ff.
Kruijsdijk, Iris, Nina van der Vlugt & Jenneke van der Wal
2021. Noncanonical Passives: A Typology of Voices in an Impoverished Universal Grammar. Annual Review of Linguistics 7:1 ► pp. 157 ff.
MARTEN, LUTZ & HANNAH GIBSON
2016. Structure building and thematic constraints in Bantu inversion constructions. Journal of Linguistics 52:3 ► pp. 565 ff.
Pietraszko, Asia
2023. Timing-driven derivation of a NOM/ACC agreement pattern. Glossa: a journal of general linguistics 8:1
Schultze-Berndt, Eva
2022. When subjects frame the clause: discontinuous noun phrases as an iconic strategy for marking thetic constructions. Linguistics 60:3 ► pp. 865 ff.
Selvanathan, Nagarajan
2020. The Labeling Algorithm and Kirundi Inversion Structures. Studia Linguistica 74:2 ► pp. 205 ff.
van der Wal, Jenneke
2015. Evidence for abstract Case in Bantu. Lingua 165 ► pp. 109 ff.
van der Wal, Jenneke
2020. Review of ‘The Bantu Languages, second edition’. Linguistic Typology 24:2 ► pp. 399 ff.
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 5 april 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers.
Any errors therein should be reported to them.