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Description:
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This comprehensive book provides a detailed description of the major
syntactic structures of Chichewa. Assuming no prior knowledge of current
theory, it covers topics such as relative clause and question formation,
interactions between tone and syntactic structure, aspects of clause
structure such as complementation, and phonetics and phonology. It also
provides a detailed account of argument structure, in which the role of
verbal suffixation is examined. Sam Mchombo's description is supplemented
by observations about how the study of African languages, specifically
Bantu languages, has contributed to progress in grammatical theory,
including the debates that have raged within linguistic theory about the
relationship between syntax and the lexicon, and the contributions of
African linguistic structure to the evaluation of competing grammatical
theories. Clearly organised and accessible, The Syntax of Chichewa will be
an invaluable resource for students interested in linguistic theory and how
it can be applied to a specific language.
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