Noun Phrases in Runyankore-Rukiga
Studies on the structure of the noun phrase in several Bantu languages have been done. Some of these languages include: Kagulu (Petzell 2008), Matengo (Ndomba 2006), Ngoni (Ngonyani 2003), Nyambo (Rugemalira 2005), Swahili (Krifka 1985), Herero (Elderkin 2003) etc. However, from the literature that is available, no reference is made to the noun phrase in any of Ugandan Bantu languages. And yet, it is noted that the structure of the noun phrase across Bantu languages varies from language to language. Therefore the focus now is no Runyankore-Rukiga noun phrase, a Bantu langauge spoken in the South-western part of Uganda with approximately four million speakers. Once in a while, reference will be made to some other selected Uganda Bantu languages, as way of comparing the structure of the noun phrase with those selected languages. Of importance is also the semantics of the noun dependent elements; is there a shift in meaning once the flexible elements are altered? This is a crucial question which this analysis will pay attention to, since most of the literature available on the Bantu noun phrase seem to ignore semantics of the phrase.
Elements in the Runyankore-Rukiga noun phrase
A runyankore-Rukiga noun dependents include numerals, adjectives, quantifiers, relative pronouns, demonstratives and possessives. There are some co-occurance restrictions, as well as free