and the Minimal Link Condition

In this paper, we discuss locative applicative constructions in Kinyarwanda, a Bantu language spoken in Rwanda and its neigh-bouring countries (Kimenyi, 1980; Ngoboka, 2005). Specifically, we are concerned with contrasts such as the one between (1b) and (1c) in the locative example (1) below.1 (1a) depicts a locative applicative which has been derived from the verb teera, ‘throw’, by means of the suffix-ho. The locative takes two DP-objects, the theme argument amabuye, ‘stones’, and the locative/goal argument inzu, ‘house ’ (henceforth the ‘applied object’). As is illustrated by (1b), locative applicatives do not allow passivisation of the theme if the applied object is a ful l DP adjacent to the verb. However, (1c) shows that the theme DP can be passivised once the applied object is realised as an object marker (in italics) on the verb. Kinyarwanda locative applicative