Bebwa Isingoma

The proposed project aims at revising my dissertation in order to turn it into a monograph (book manuscript). The study examines triadic constructions in Rutooro (a Bantu language spoken in western Uganda) and English from a comparative perspective. Topics of interest include (i) morpho-semantic properties of Rutooro and English triadic constructions (ii) the structural properties of the constructions (iii) depictive secondary predication (how the constructions interact with this phenomenon) (iv) pronominalization, permutation and passivization of the non-subject arguments in the two languages (these observable properties determine the symmetry or asymmetry nature of the languages). The study not only intends to anchor the areas of convergence and asymmetries in the two languages within linguistic theorizing, thereby augmenting linguistic discourse in comparative syntax, but also it intends to correct widespread erroneous assumptions in the available relevant literature on triadic constructions. Ultimately, the study brings to the limelight topical grammatical aspects of an overly understudied language (Rutooro), as well as contributing incrementally to Bantu syntax.