Subject and object markers in SiSwati∗ Second draft

In this paper I will present an analysis of the following two generalisations in SiSwati: (i) the subject marker is obligatory both with clause-external and clause-internal subjects, and (ii) the object marker is in complementary distribution with VP-internal object NPs, at least with verbs which are not marked for aspect. Sec-tion 3 will present the basic assumptions underlying the present analysis of these generalisations. The basic unit of linguistic knowledge is a sign consisting of a for-mal and a conceptual unit, signs are combined by modes of combination, modes of combination strictly separate formal and semantic structure, and semantic functions distinguish predicate placeholders in terms of how these placeholders are construed. Section 4 contains an analysis of the two generalisations in terms of modes of combi-nation. The two most important features of the analysis of these two generalisations is that (i) the analysis does not postulate that the subject marker has lost its seman-tic value when it co-occurs with the subject NP, and (ii) it does not conflate formal and conceptual structure. Section 5 contains discussion of the analysis of non-clefted ∗I’d like to thank Nhlanhla Thwala for the many hours he spent introducing me to SiSwati. All mistakes and inaccuracies are my own responsibility