Semantic structuring and nominalization processes: the case of agent and instrument nouns in Bantu languages

Abstract

The semantic relationship between derived agent and instrument nouns patterns in significantly diverse ways across human languages. Thus, for instance, in Germanic and Romance languages a correlation is commonly found between the semantic and formal affinity of agent and instrument nouns and processes of semantic extension which result in syncretism or polysemy. In contrast, some languages not only tend to constrain formal identity among derived nouns but also disallow processes of semantic extension. This is the case with the Bantu languages, in which derived agent and instrument nouns are formed in different noun classes whose classificatory function, together with the semantic content of noun prefixes, severely constrains the processes of semantic extension. We suggest that such semantic content, inseparable from the classificatory function of Bantu noun classes, accounts for this peculiarity. The lack of such content in Germanic and Romance derivational suffixes and inflectional endings explains, at least in part, their inability to constrain the semantics of verb bases with similar effects.