What the Bantu languages can tell us about word order and movement

This paper offers an introduction to the basic morphosyntax of the Bantu languages, in the context of issues related to the investigation of movement and word order in this large and diverse group of languages. These issues cover three major topics in syntax: agreement, information structure and wh-questions, all of which relate to the relationship between movement and word order. Data introducing the basic contrasts is provided from a wide range of Bantu languages. Furthermore, this paper offers an overview of the state-of-the-art in Bantu syntax with respect to these issues. Analyses of the Bantu languages are related to general syntactic theory, showing where the Bantu languages can make particularly valuable contributions to linguistic theory.