Some aspects of the architecture of the possessive noun phrase in Bantu

Abstract

Possessive noun phrases are minimally made up of at least two Noun phrases (NPs) that are possessively related to each other. In this article we argue that the syntactic order in which these noun phrases appear is not as random as it may look on the surface. Semantic constraints, in a large measure, determine the syntactic order of NPs constituting possessive phrases. Some such constraints include the Person-Animacy Hierarchy (PAH), generic and part-whole relationships of nouns among others that will be explored in the article. It shall also be argued that the said semantic constraints are not syntactic rules as such but are strong cross-linguistic tendencies to which the linear ordering of the possessive phrase more often than not conforms and especially within the performance as opposed to the competence domain of language ability.