Word Order Variation: the Case of the Possessive and the Noun in Limbum Nominal Construction

Limbum is one of the Grassfield Bantu languages of the Northern group. This language is spoken by a greater part of the population that occupies the Nkambe plateau in Donga and Mantung Division of the North West Region of Cameroon. This paper examines the constituent structure of constructions which contain the possessive determiner and the noun, and analyzes the word order variations that occur between the possessive and the noun. Given the fact that the possessive can either precede or follow the noun in Limbum, using the semantic criteria, the paper argues that unlike the general assumption for Grassfield Bantu languages where the neutral word order in this type of constructions is NOUN > POSSESSIVE while the focused option is POSSESSIVE > NOUN, the Limbum data, shows the reverse: when the possessive precedes the noun, it denotes the neutral form while contrastive focus is achieved by post-posing the possessive determiner to the noun. Based on the Minimalist Program as propounded by Chomsky (1995), the analysis that can account for the Limbum data warrants a revisiting of the structure for Grassfield Bantu languages as proposed by Tamanji and Tabe (ms) and Kouankem (2010). This reanalysis proposes the projection of a functional phrase: PossP(Possessive Phrase) above the DPwhen it concerns the neutral construction and the projection of a FocP (Focus Phrase) in the case of contrastive focus. Heavy pied-piping of the post possessive elements to SpecFocP will yield the correct word order for contrastive focus. Such an analysis permits achievement of the correct word order, and also permits the possessive to have a focused reading.

Keywords: Possessive Determiner Contrastive Focus Heavy Pied-Piping Word Order

Author

• Gratiana Linyor Ndamsah, Ph.D
  Department of African Languages and Linguistics
  University of Yaounde 1, Cameroon
  gratiana.ndamsah@yahoo.com