International Journal of Language & Linguistics

Np-Trace in Ekegusii
Deborah Nyanchama Oyioka, Dr. Benson Oduor Ojwang, Dr. David Ogoti Ongarora

Abstract
One of the prominent cross-linguistic properties of natural language is the presence of phonetically null elements in the sentence referred to as empty categories. An empty category (EC) occurs because of a fundamental assumption which dictates that the thematic structure is directly mapped onto phrase structure rules (PSRs) at every level of syntactic representation. This paper offers an in-depth study of EkeGusii NP-movement within Chomsky's Government and Binding framework which holds that an NP-trace is left when A-movement occurs. The study argues that overt NPs leave traces behind during movement whereas non-overt NPs replace the null subject. The data for this paper is collected from essays and utterances by people who are native speakers of EkeGusii. This paper hopes to enrich the knowledge on the study of theoretical linguistics, specifically Bantu linguistics, and contribute towards a theoretical understanding of syntactic phenomena.

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