THE FORM AND FUNCTION OF CHIBARWE APPLICATIVE CONSTRUCTIONS – AN LMT ACCOUNT

Abstract

Bantu languages are characterised by a variety of verbal constructions in their morphology due to their agglutinative nature. As such, their verbal extensions are varied and fall into distinct categories such as valency-increasing, valency-decreasing, or valency-maintaining. This study seeks to investigate the form and function of applicative constructions in ChiBarwe. The applicative construction, together with the causative are considered to be highly productive extensions in ChiBarwe, and in most Bantu languages. The argument avowed in this paper is that applicative extensions take a distinct form and performs several syntactic and semantic functions in ChiBarwe verbal morphology. It also argues that the applicative is a valency-increaser, meaning it performs the function of adding an extra argument to the predicate. The researcher collected data through fieldwork, in-depth interviews, Focus Group Discussions (FGDs), and questionnaires. The researcher also analysed ChiBarwe Language Database, literature written in ChiBarwe, digital ethnography (lurking). Findings for this research were analysed qualitatively. Data presentation and analysis are guided by the principles of the Lexical Mapping Theory (LMT) by Bresnan (2001). This study found that ChiBarwe applicative construction is in the form of -er- and -ir- and performs several functions such as the beneficiary, maleficiary, locative and motive.