El afijo aplicativo -i- del suahelí y sus repercusiones teóricas para la gramática funcional

Abstract

The present paper discusses how the Simon C. Dik's Functional Grammar (FG) should account for the applicative affix -i- in Swahili verbs. In order to do so, it first summarizes the theory of syntactic function assignment within the framework of FG; and it also shows FG's main differences with the traditional and structural approaches. According lo Dik, the applicative affix -i- expresses the object assignment to a beneficiary term. Nevertheless, there are some empirical difficulties against this hypothesis. It is therefore suggested the possibility of considering the affix -i- not as a consequence of a syntactic function assignment, but as a synchronically productive lexical procedure which builds up derived verbal predicates.