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The two objects of ditransitive locative applicatives in Kinyarwanda display asymmetrical behaviour with respect to syntactic movement. Whereas the applied object (the goal) of a locative can be extracted in relative clauses, become the subject of a passive and incorporate as an object marker, the theme cannot undergo any of these operations, at least not as long as the applied object remains in object position. However, once the applied object has been passivised, relativised or incorporated, the theme is also free to move. We analyse these observations on the basis of the Minimal Link Condition (MLC) (Chomsky, 1995; 2000), which excludes movement of an element α to a position K if there is another element 13 of the same type which is closer to K. We show that the theme cannot move in Kinyarwanda locative applicatives because the applied object is closer to the potential landing site. However, in contexts in which the applied object has been moved ‘out of the way’, the MLC no longer blocks movement of the theme. In our analysis, we discuss a number of key theoretical concepts of the Minimalist Program, such as the Extension Condition, the notion of minimal domain, and derivation by phase. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reports on the results of a pilot study which was carried out as part of a larger research project focusing on the grammatical devices which determine the structure of utterances containing intrasentential code-switching between South African English (SAE) and Afrikaans. The study adopts the principles and parameters and convergence frameworks according to which feature checking is the device that brings about convergence and parametric differences between languages are based on differences in the interpretability of particular features. On the basis of analyses of structural differences between SAE and Afrikaans within this theoretical framework, predictions were made for the structure of 10 constructions in which intrasentential code-switching occurs between SAE and Afrikaans. Experimental techniques were designed to gather data on the basis of which the merit of these predictions could be evaluated. The experimental techniques included tasks requiring judgements of the relative acceptability of sentences presented in both visual and auditory modalities, a sentence completion task, and a picture description task. In each task, stimuli were specifically constructed to gather information on one of the 10 constructions. The results of the experiments are discussed in terms of the two main aims of the pilot study, namely (i) an evaluation of the relative merit of experimental techniques designed to test predictions for the structure of utterances containing intrasentential code-switching between SAE and Afrikaans, and (ii) the gathering of preliminary data about the merit of these predictions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]