Aspects of empty categories in Xhosa within the theory of Government andBinding
Abstract
The main purpose of this paper is to explore various agreement phenomena in Xhosa within the government-binding (GB) framework of generative grammar. The principles of the null subject parameter postulated in (Chomsky 1981), which accounts for the absence of an overt subject in phonetic representation, are shown to extend to the analysis of agreement phenomena in J.nosa which are characteristic of Bantu languages in general. In the proposed analyses the empty pronominal nonanaphor (pro) plays a crucial role. In particular it is argued that, apart from occurring as subject and object., pro can appear as the head of an NP, and as the complement of prepositions, the possessive morpheme ~, and the copulative.Downloads
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