The Structure of a Noun Phrase in Shimwela

Abstract

It is generally agreed that Bantu languages display a high degree of  uniformity in terms of the types of elements which constitute a noun  phrase, with such elements as demonstratives, distributives,  possessives, intensifiers, interrogatives, numerals, quantifiers,  adjectives, relative constructions and associative constructions beingrobust across the Bantu zone. However, the syntactic behaviour  displayed by these noun dependents in different Bantu languages is not  the same as there are significant variations in terms of their order,  flexibility, and co-occurrence and recurrence restrictions. This paper  analyses the syntactic behaviour of noun dependents in Shimwela  (P.22), a Bantu language of southern Tanzania, by looking into their  order of occurrence, their co-occurrence and recurrence restrictions as  well as their saturation point.Key words: noun phrase, noun dependent, Bantu languages, Shimwela