Overt Subjects And Agreement In Zulu Infinitives

This paper explores a surprising interaction of agreement and concord inside infinitive clauses in Zulu. In Zulu, as in many Bantu languages, infinitive verbs are marked with noun class 15/17 morphology. Internal arguments of infinitives are typically unmarked, while the external argument must receive so-called associative morphology and must precede internal arguments. I argue that the external argument in these constructions is realized in Spec,vP, a finding that has a number of consequences for our understanding of clause structure and agreement in Zulu and related languages.

本文探讨了祖鲁语（Zulu）不定式从句内部一致关系与协和现象之间一种令人意外的相互作用。与许多班图语系语言一样，祖鲁语的不定式动词带有名词类15/17形态标记。不定式的内部论元通常无标记，而外部论元则必须带有所谓的关联形态，且必须位于内部论元之前。笔者认为，这些结构中的外部论元在Spec,vP位置实现；这一发现对我们理解祖鲁语及相关语言的从句结构与一致关系具有诸多启示。