Event Semantics, Typeshifting and Passive in Swahili.

This semantic analysis assumes the overall framework of an extended standard theory of grammar, focusing on the lexicon and making a case for semantic mapping. It assumes Chomsky's (1986) theory that the projection of a verb and its arguments into syntax is determined by its lexical specifications. It further accepts the arguments of Williams (1981), Jackendoff (1983, 1990), Pustejovsky (1988, 1995), and Van Hout (1996) that a generative capability of the lexicon is a useful and highly valued strategy that makes significant generalizations about natural languages. Salone (2000) showed that an event-semantic analysis could contribute to the understanding of syntax and semantics of verbal affixes in Bantu languages. This work highlighted the efficacy of introducing semantic rules of verb-frame alternation and semantic typeshifting in order to maximize the generative capacity of the lexicon, thereby allowing the productivity of these affixes to be apparent. It focused on the semantic relationship between the basic and derived forms of the causative and prepositional or applied forms in Kiswahili. It concludes that regardless of the syntactic framework used, the syntactic processes needed for passive will have to coexist with semantic processes: event-semantic argument interpretation, adjustments to the foci on the verb, typeshifting of events, where needed. (Contains 32 references.) (SM)