The Locative Applicative and the semantics of verb class in Kinyarwanda

This paper investigates the interaction of verb class and the locative applicative in Kinyarwanda (Bantu; Rwanda). Previous analyses of applicative morphology have focused almost exclusively on the syntax of the applied object, assuming that applicativization adds a new object with a transparent thematic role (e.g. Kisseberth & Abasheikh 1977; Baker 1988; Bresnan & Moshi 1990; Alsina & Mchombo 1993; McGinnis 2001; Jeong 2007; Jerro 2015, inter alia). I show instead that the interpretation of the applied object is contingent upon the meaning of the verb, with the applied object having a path, source, or goal semantic role with motion verbs from different classes. The general locative role discussed in previous work appears with non-motion verbs. I outline a typology of the interaction of the locative applicative with four different verb types and provide a semantic analysis of applicativization as a paradigmatic constraint on the lexical entailments of the applicativized variant of a particular verb.