The expression of causativity in Bantu languages: A case study of Laali (B73b)

Abstract

This work demonstrates how causatives (morphological, lexical and syntactic) operate in Laali, a Bantu language spoken in the South oust of Congo Brazzaville, especially in Lekoumou and Bouenza regions. It also looks at Laali double causative constructions. The analysis is carried out through Chomsky’s generative grammar. It emerges from the analysis that Laali morphological causatives evolve from the insertion of the extensional suffix made up of a vowel and s between the verb root and the last vowel suffix; which vowel is variable because can be realized as -i, -a, -o, -u, and –ü depending on the phonetic environment within which it occurs. What is more, Laali morphological causative verbs are mainly deverbal. With regard to lexical causatives, it is argued that they do not display causative meaning at Phonetic Form but rather at underlying one. Laali periphrastic causative constructions are possible with the addition of the causative verb òsà to the basic sentence. However, if Laali periphrastic causative constructions are biclausal, its morphological and lexical constructions are monoclausal. Finally, the analysis of Laali double causative constructions points out that they are distributed in such a way that the clause predicated by the periphrastic causative sets initially followed either by the one c-commended by morphological or a lexical causative verb.