The paper presents an argument for structural case in a Bantu language, Ndebele. Bantu languages notoriously lack typical signs of case licensing, which has led to the proposal that they lack case altogether. A recent claim to the contrary, put forth in Halpert (2012, 2015), has been challenged by Carstens and Mletshe (2016), who argue that the patterns Halpert describes fall under the umbrella of focus licensing, thus undermining the need for an independent case licensing mechanism. Ndebele data invalidate this challenge, revealing a purely syntactic nature of the phenomenon in question.

中文翻译：

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班图案例和焦点的分离

该论文提出了一个关于班图语 Ndebele 中结构格的论证。众所周知，班图语言缺乏案例许可的典型标志，这导致了他们完全缺乏案例的提议。最近在 Halpert (2012, 2015) 中提出的相反主张受到 Carstens 和 Mletshe (2016) 的质疑，他们认为 Halpert 描述的模式属于重点许可的范畴，因此削弱了独立案件许可机制。Ndebele 数据使这一挑战无效，揭示了所讨论现象的纯粹句法性质。