The syntax of the chimakonde noun phrase

The claim by generative linguists that one can generate sentences or phrases of any length has provoked a hot debate among scholars working on Bantu, particularly those working on the structure of noun phrases (NPs). This study investigated the syntax of the Chimakonde NP so as to establish the limit of application of the generative rules to this NP. The study met this objective through an extensive study of relevant literature and implementation of actual research. The latter was carried out through questionnaires and semi-structured interviews with Chimakonde native speakers. The research findings are as follows: First, the Chimakonde NP can take the following dependents, namely adjectives, connectives, demonstratives distributives, interrogatives, numerals, possessives, quantifiers and relative clauses. Second, the distributives and possessives are the only dependents that occupy fixed positions in the NP. The former precede the head noun while the latter follow it. Besides the distributives, demonstratives may also be prenominal, albeit with some pragmatic effect achieved on the whole NP, namely when a speaker is grumpy. Third, the order of other dependents is relatively free; they can swap positions within the NP, but with some restrictions. Fourth, it is not possible to recursively expand the NP as the generative linguists claim; there appears to be limits to the expansion. The findings attributed these limits on expandability of the NP to the performance factors such as the mood of the person speaking and unnaturalness of such long NPs. This study, therefore, concludes that the shape and size of the NPs may vary from one language (family) (For instance, Indo-European) to the other (For instance, Niger- Congo). This study calls for more research on the status of adjectives as a word category and relativization strategies in Chimakonde.