INFLECTION IN TOPOSA, A VSO LANGUAGE IN MORPHO-SYNTACTIC THEORY

Abstract

This paper presents a morpho-syntactic approach to inflection as suggested
under the new Minimalist Program (Chomsky 1993/1995). The language
under consideration is Toposa, an Eastern Nilotic language which is highly
inflectional and derivational. It belongs to the Teso-Turkana subgroup of
Eastern Nilotic and is spoken in the south-eastern corner of Southern Sudan.
Firstly, the paper deals with inflection in a VSO language and suggests that
the order of the tense and agreement heads is alternated. The change in the
order of heads is morphologically motivated by the tense tonal features of
the language. Secondly, it makes a choice between the agreement analysis
and the subject incorporation theory, showing that the latter theory reflects
more accurately the reality of Toposa data. Thirdly, it considers the role of
the overt NP in the subject incorporation theory. It concludes with the claim
that the occurrence of personal pronouns carries a [+focus] feature.