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The morphosyntax of mood in early grammar with special reference to Swahili

University of Hawaii at Manoa

Nina Hyams

University of California, Los Angeles

In this paper we explore the development of the morphosyntax-semantics interface by comparing development in 4 typologically diverse languages: Dutch (a Germanic V2 language), Greek, Italian (a Romance pro-drop language) and Swahili (a Bantu language), with particular emphasis on Swahili, a relatively understudied language whose morphosyntactic structure is particularly relevant to the questions we address. We show that children acquiring these different languages all adhere to a morphosyntax-semantics mapping principle that forces a complementarity between the expression of mood and the expression of tense ñ the Semantic Opposition Hypothesis (SOH), following Hyams (2002). Our findings support the hypothesis that linguistic development is guided by universal principles which lie at the interface of semantico-conceptual structure and morphosyntax.

Key Words: Aspect • Bantu • Greek • Italian • root infinitive • Semantic Opposition Hypothesis • subjunctive • tense

First Language, Vol. 26, No. 1, 67-102 (2006)
DOI: 10.1177/0142723706060742


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