Asymmetric coordination in Lega

O. Introduction'" Subject-verb agreement is typically governed by the NP functioning as subject. When· more than one participant bear thisthematic relation to theverb, they are commonly conjoined syntactically in a single clause by a coordinating conjunction "and". Thematic ,coordination expressed in this way is said to be syntactically symmetric. Schwartz. in several studies (1989a, 1989b, 1988a, 1985), and others (Black 1991; Aissen 1989) have noted that thematic , coordination may also be"expressed asymmetrically. In such cases, subject-verb agreement is deterniined jointly by the NP functioning as subject of the verb and a comitative phrase· following the verb. Coordination grounded in asymmetric syntax has only attracted the attention o( linguists in recent years, even though it is not particularly rare, isolated, or unusual. The purpose of this paper is to provide a contribution to the small body of literature on this topic by differentiating symmetric from asymmetric coordination in Lega, a Bantu language spoken in eastern Zaire (0.25 in Gunhrie's 1967-71 classification). Lega is a rare example of an eastern Bantu language that permits asymmetric coordination-" Ndali M.21 and Chewa N.31b may be two others-,-and illustrates how it functions in general. The description and analysis developed in this paper are organized as follows. Section 1 provides an overvi~w of the general djfferences in thematic coordination as expressed through symmetric and asymmetric. syntax. In particular, differences in two types of asymmetric structure, Plural Pronoun Constructions and Verb-Coded Coordinations, are presented. In section 2, symmetric and asymmetric coordinate structures, and comitative structures are described for Lega. Section 3 outlines the differences between symmetric and asymmetric coordination in Lega, while section 4 contrasts asymmetric coordinate constructions with simple comitative constructions. A syntactic analYSis of these three structures is provided in section 5, a semantic analysis in section 6, followed by a summary and conclusion in section 7.