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Proceedings of the LFG 02 Conference National Technical - CSLI ...

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(10) a. Kipese ka-swiim-in kit zoon. Kihung’an<br />

Kipese SM-buy-PST chair yesterday<br />

‘Kipese bought a chair yesterday.’<br />

b. Kipese ka-ki-swiim-in kit zoon.<br />

Kipese SM-OM-buy-PST chair yesterday<br />

‘Kipese bought <strong>the</strong> chair yesterday.’<br />

Conflicting Data in Swahili<br />

KiSwahili presents conflicting data with respect to definiteness. Bresnan and Mchombo (1987:760)<br />

note that KiSwahili shows sensitivity to definiteness in addition to <strong>the</strong> effects <strong>of</strong> animacy: an indefinite<br />

object does not require <strong>the</strong> OM while a definite object does. For example in (11a) <strong>the</strong>re is no OM, and<br />

<strong>the</strong> object NP has <strong>the</strong> indefinite reading. As shown in (11b) <strong>the</strong> presence <strong>of</strong> an OM induces <strong>the</strong> definite<br />

reading <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> co-occurring (clause-internal) object NP, displaying <strong>the</strong> same pattern as Kihung’an (cf.<br />

(10)). Additional Swahili data showing that <strong>the</strong> presence <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> OM induces <strong>the</strong> definite reading <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong><br />

object NP are also found, for example, in Vitale (1981) and more recently in Zwart (1997).<br />

(11) a. U-me-let-a kitabu? Swahili<br />

you-PERF-bought-INDIC book<br />

‘Have you bought a book?’ indefinite reading<br />

b. U-me-ki-let-a kitabu?<br />

you-PERF-OM-bought-INDIC book<br />

‘Have you bought <strong>the</strong> book definite reading<br />

On <strong>the</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r hand, Wald (1979) cites examples that contain indefinite objects co-occurring with <strong>the</strong><br />

agreeing OM (discussed in Nicolle 2000:682).<br />

(12) a. a-ka-m-kuta mzee mwingine ndugu wa yule. Swahili<br />

SM-ASP-OM-meet old.person o<strong>the</strong>r sibling <strong>of</strong> that.one<br />

‘<strong>the</strong>n she met ano<strong>the</strong>r old lady, sister <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> first one.’<br />

b. si-ja-ki-ona chochote.<br />

SM-NEG-OM-see anything<br />

‘I haven’t seen anything.’<br />

In (12a), <strong>the</strong> object NP ano<strong>the</strong>r old lady is indefinite specific; in (12b) <strong>the</strong> object NP anything is indefinite<br />

non-specific. These definiteness values are <strong>the</strong> second lowest and <strong>the</strong> lowest elements in <strong>the</strong><br />

definiteness hierarchy respectively.<br />

Seidl and Dimitriadis (1997, hereafter S&D) argue that variable object marking observed in Swahili<br />

is conditioned by <strong>the</strong> information status <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> object—in <strong>the</strong> sense <strong>of</strong> Prince (1992), 2 ra<strong>the</strong>r than definiteness<br />

or animacy. According to <strong>the</strong>ir findings, object markers coreferential with animate objects<br />

2<br />

In <strong>the</strong>ir study, Seidl and Dimitriadis (1997) adopt <strong>the</strong> following cross-classification <strong>of</strong> discourse referents proposed by<br />

Prince (1992):<br />

298

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