Case Assignment in Kisafwa: A Government and Binding Perspective.

Abstract:

This paper focuses on Case assignment in Kisafwa, a Bantu language spoken in the Mbeya region in southwestern Tanzania, including Mbeya Urban, Mbeya Rural, and Chunya districts. The study drew inspiration from Government and Binding (GB) theory, focusing on types of cases in Kisafwa, how Kisafwa NPs receive case and how cases are assigned to the unaccusative constructions and infinitive clauses. It employed a qualitative research approach to explore complex data, to gain insights into people's experiences of case assignment in Kisafwa. Convenience sampling techniques were used to select informants. The sample of 5 native speakers was selected, and data were collected through sentence questionnaires and semi-controlled elicitation. The data were analysed descriptively using thematic analysis. With regard to case assignment, the study confirms that Kisafwa adheres to the Case Filter by ensuring that all overt NPs are assigned an abstract case. The nominative case is assigned by INFL (Tense/Agreement) to the subject NP in Spec-IP. The accusative case, on the other hand, is assigned by the verb to its NP complement, ensuring that objects receive proper case-marking. These findings reinforce the universality of GB’s Case Theory but also highlight how Kisafwa exhibits language-specific patterns, such as the way infinitive clauses receive case in Kisafwa. The data also found that Kisafwa has three case assigners, which are verb, inflection and preposition. The researchers recommend that more studies be conducted on other Bantu languages and non-Bantu languages.