Phonology-Syntax Interface in Bantu Languages

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Laura J. Downing
• Subject Area: General and Comparative Linguistics, Experimental Linguistics, Typology, Non-European Languages
• Term: from 2009 to 2013
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 92915470

This project aims to make the following contributions to our understanding of the phonologysyntax interface. First, the project will investigate the syntax and prosody of complex syntactic structures - embedded clauses, dislocations and questions. This will allow us to test whether prosodic models developed for simple structures extend to more complex data. Careful phonetic analysis of the data will provide a more detailed description of systematic correlates of phrasal prosody, allowing each prosodic level to be better motivated. Analyzing the data in current syntactic models will allow for a more fine-grained look at the syntactic factors that condition prosody and determine whether non-syntactic factors influence phrasal prosody. Moreover this research will make an important contribution to our understanding of Bantu syntax in terms of description, typology and syntactic theory. Investigating the same structures in several Bantu languages, spoken over a geographically wide area, will allow for a comparative study of the syntax and prosody of these structures that will be of interest both to Bantuists and to other researchers working on similar issues.The following research questions are central to this proposal:• Does the Prosodic Hierarchy provide enough levels to define the domains for different types of phrasal prosody?• Do different prosodic levels have (cross-linguistically) consistent phonetic correlates?• Can one account for prosodic phrasing only by referring to syntactic constituent edges or do other factors (like cyclic syntactic domains, argument-adjunct distinctions or information structure) play a role?

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: France
• Participating Person: Professorin Dr. Annie Rialland