Masters Degrees (African Languages)

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Browsing Masters Degrees (African Languages) by Author "Bottoman, Ntombesizwe"

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    The adjective in Xhosa
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2001-03) Bottoman, Ntombesizwe; Du Plessis, J. A.; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of African Languages .
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Adjectives in Xhosa represent a small, closed class of descriptive nominal modifiers, which are categorized as the adjective because of their morphological behaviour, i.e. they all have to appear with the prefix of the noun which is the head of the Noun Phrase. There are other nominal modifiers in Xhosa, which may have the same descriptive function as the small class of morphological adjectives. Attention focuses on the relative clauses and descriptive possessives. The term "Adjective" in Xhosa includes the semantic adjective. Various scholars define the adjective as a distinct category by establishing specific criteria for. Semantic prototypes with noun, adjective and verb types, i.e. semantic types according to Dixon (1991) are considered. Semantic types in Xhosa may also have this feature. The following categoreis have been considered: morphological adjective, descriptive possessive, relative clauses, i.e. nominal relative clauses and the verbal relative clauses. With regard to the morphological adjective: Some basic notions on the morphological adjectives, specifically the morphology of adjectives, adjectival phrases, the distribution of the adjectives, comparison and the co-ordinated adjectives, and the definite morpheme are dealt with. The following values have been dealt with regarding the structure of the relative clause, i.e. the nominal relative clause with the definite morpheme [a], the copulative verb and the nominal relative complements of the copulative verbs. Two issues have been discussed in the case of the descriptive possessive: firstly, where the descriptive part is the head of the Noun Phrase with meanings such as groups, nouns denoting quantity, cardinal numbers, the partitives, units of measure and mass, humans with the features of psychological and physical features, the infinitive clause, and secondly, the descriptive part is the complement of the preposition [-a-].