A Syntactic Analysis Of The Co-Occurrence Of Stative And Passive In Kiswahili

This study concerns the co-occurrence of stative and passive in Kiswahili. The co-occurrence is only possible with an intervening applicative suffix and in the order st-appl-pass. There are two readings of the stative extension in Kiswahili, potential and resultative. The study seeks to account for the co-occurrence, the order of the suffixes, and the two interpretations of the stative. Our findings are consistent with the [VoiceP [ApplP [vP [VP]]]] structure. We argue that passive and stative share the same essential structure [Voice, Appl, v]. As to the derivation, we propose syntactic head movement where V moves to the stative head resulting in [V-st], which moves to the applicative yielding [V-st-appl], and finally moves to voice to form [V-st-appl-pass]. Last, but not least, our account connects stative with patient-manner predicates to derive resultative reading, and agent-manner predicates to derive potential reading