Déclassement et accords syntaxiques en Bantu

Abstract

This article examines the question of the agreement system in Bantu languages. These agreement concords are based on the correspondence of forms between syntactically linked units. The mechanism of these agreement concords resides in the principle that, when the predicate or the word that governs is omniclasses, the subject or the word adjacent 86 respectively imposes their class. The agreement depends on the class of the noun. It concerns both the substantive phrase and the sentence. The agreement is manifested by the use of morphemes called "classifiers" at the initial of concerned words. The number of classes is not imposed by the language system, but depends on a choice of the descriptor. There is an international convention on this subject which has been used by most Bantuists since the 19th century (Jacottett, Bleek, Meinhof).