Polysemy and the applicative verb construction in Chishona
Within the Bantu language Chishona, spoken in Zimbabwe, there exist a number of other productive patterns with the applicative morpheme where the applicative object is interpreted as a maleficiary, motive, goal, locative and source, and where there may or may not be a change in the valence of the verb stem. Moreover, there are instances in which the applicative is associated with a completely idiosyncratic semantic contrast. Though these lexical pairs seem to be differentiated by the presence of the applicative suffix, they cannot plausibly be so analysed at least synchronically, since the semantics of the applicative verb differs considerably from that of its apparent morphological base. The fact that the applicative construction is associated with a wide variety of interpretations poses serious problems for unitary analyses of the construction by Bantu theorists and hence we find that no attempt has been made to account for the applicative in a unitary manner. Given this difficulty, analyses have generally postulated homonymous applicative forms, a position that leads to a large amount of grammatical redundancy and miss significant generalisations. Yet the very existence of these different interpretations
Mabugu, Patricia Ruramisai
Polysemy and the applicative verb construction in Chishona. Within the Bantu language Chishona, spoken in Zimbabwe, there exist a number of other productive patterns with the applicative morpheme where the applicative object is interpreted as a maleficiary, motive, goal, locative and source, and where there may or may not be a change in the valence of the verb stem. Moreover, there are instances in which the applicative is associated with a completely idiosyncratic semantic contrast. Though these lexical pairs seem to be differentiated by the presence of the applicative suffix, they cannot plausibly be so analysed at least synchronically, since the semantics of the applicative verb differs considerably from that of its apparent morphological base. The fact that the applicative construction is associated with a wide variety of interpretations poses serious problems for unitary analyses of the construction by Bantu theorists and hence we find that no attempt has been made to account for the applicative in a unitary manner. Given this difficulty, analyses have generally postulated homonymous applicative forms, a position that leads to a large amount of grammatical redundancy and miss significant generalisations. Yet the very existence of these different interpretations
polysemy verb construction within bantu_language spoken exist number productive pattern morpheme object interpret motive goal locative source may_may change valence verb stem moreover instance associate completely idiosyncratic semantic contrast though lexical pair seem differentiate presence suffix plausibly analyse least synchronically since semantics verb differs considerably apparent morphological base fact construction associate wide_variety interpretation pose serious problem unitary analysis construction bantu theorists hence attempt_make account unitary manner given difficulty analyse generally postulate form position lead large_amount grammatical redundancy miss significant generalisation yet existence different interpretation