On the number of object markers in Bantu languages

This paper describes the morphosyntactic diversity among Bantu languages in the number of pre-stem and post-stem object markers (OMs) that are allowed and discusses the factors responsible for this diversity. The number of OMs is sometimes highly restricted and sometimes seemingly unrestricted. Some languages have only pre-stem marking of objects; some have only post-stem marking; and some have both pre-stem and post-stem marking. Person-number, animacy, and locative noun classes are the basis for a number of morphosyntactic asymmetries in individual systems in whether objects are marked before or after the stem, though other factors such as grammatical relations are also involved. A handful of types of OMs, including locatives and the 1sg and reflexive markers, commonly allow languages to circumvent restrictions on object marking, allowing one more OM than usual. The number of OMs is also restricted by certain syntactic configurations such as passivization. A number of other issues that are important general considerations in the syntax of Bantu languages are shown to have at most a secondary role in determining the number of OMs that are allowed.