Sammendrag
The paper argues that there is a close relationship between grammatical description and language typology. I illustrate this relationship by looking at the impact of translational descriptions on our knowledge of noun phrase syntax and word morphology in Kiswahili. For example, one Bantu tradition describes locative nouns as prepositional nouns or adverbs and their phrases as PPs. The descriptions arise because the nouns translate as prepositions or adverbs or prepositional phrases in l.o.ds. The study illustrates that many of what are called Preps in Kiswahili either generate concords in modifying items, if nouns, or take concords of external or intenral N-heads, or both, if modifiers. The adnominal -A of relationship, conjunctions NA 'and, with, by' and KWA 'with, for, by' are examples of nominal Preps or predicates. The locative KATIKA is another nominal Prep. or predicate. All nominal PPs can function as argument NPs of transitive predicate consitutents (PC) in Kiswahili and generate SM or OM as appropriate in V. Another tradition takes the view that Kiswahili locative nouns are not really nouns but forms of nouns and that the Kiswahili locatives do not belong to classes of their own because they takes a nominal suffix {ni} as class marker. The paper demonstrates that these view reflect a lack of familiarity with morphological and derivational theories and methods, because the locative noun is derived via the principle of noun to noun derivation and are called denominal nouns. These types of noun are found in languages of the world including Kiswahili. I conclude that language description ought to reflect not only the teacher's knowledge of the mechanics of linguistic science but also the typology of the l.u.d.
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