Research Articles (African Languages)

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Browsing Research Articles (African Languages) by Author "Du Plessis, Jacobus A."

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    Comparative syntax of the SA Bantu languages: Transitive and intransitive verbs in the SA Bantu languages
    (2013-09) Du Plessis, Jacobus A.
    Attention has been focused on the syntactic structure in which these verbs may appear, various features specific to these verbs as well as some verb classes in which these verbs regularly appear. The syntactic structure in which the intransitive verbs appear is the one developed within the Minimalist program with two verbal shells where the upper verbal shell is projected from a pjhonetically null light verb. The second verbal shell is assumed to be introduced by the [VP]. Intransitive verbs are distinguished as unergative and unaccusative verbs. They may appear with cognate objects, manner DPs and idiomatic objects. Various verb classes with intransitive verbs have been dealt with e.g. state verbs and verbs relating to the body. Transitive verbs with one internal argument appear in the same type of structure as the intransitive verbs. Various features of transitive verbs have been high-lighted as for instance word order, focus on the object, objectival agreement, stylistic movement, coordinated objects and other issues, as well as specific verb classes in which transitive verbs appear. Lastly, ditransitive verbs appear in structures with the same categories as with other verbs, but each time with two internal arguments. Some features of these verbs are given as well as verb classes in which ditransitive verbs frequently appear.
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    Comparative syntax of the South African Bantu Languages : complex predicates
    (2013-09) Du Plessis, Jacobus A.
    There are four complex predicates in the SA Bantu languages, i.e. predicates with copulative verbs, deficient verbs, the verbs thi/re and probability verbs. The last three complex predicates have been dealt with here. For the copulative verbs see i.a. http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/4468. The probability verbs are related to the English verb seem. It is a deficient verb in these languages which may appear with various complements, in some languages with up to ten different structures and in some cases they are also related to issues of comparison. The verbs thi/re (“say”) have been addressed with attention to its distribution, its complements, its agreement and specifically its use in expressions of time or duration. The third verb in a complex predicate is a deficient verb of which there are quite a number in these languages. They have to appear with a CP as complement. They refer to a variety of semantic interpretations such as duration in time (26 different times have been established) as well as other features such as the continuative, iterative, contrastive, completive, manner, obligation and habitual. Ten such semantic interpretations are thus possible with these deficient verbs.
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    Comparative syntax of the South African Bantu Languages : derived verbs and transitivity in the Bantu languages
    (2013-09) Du Plessis, Jacobus A.
    There are thirteen derivational affixes in these languages of which only the reflexive is a prefix of a verb. Many of these affixes have no syntactic influence on the structure of clauses but they are only semantic changing affixes. Only those affixes which have some influence on the syntactic structure of sentences have been given some attention. The syntactic structures in which these derived verbs appear are related to the structures which are developing within the Minimalist program. Within these structures a new syntactic category has been added for each verbal affix. Thus, for instance with the applicative affix [-el-] a syntactic category “app” has been added as head of a category “applicative phrase” (APP). With each verbal affix such a category appears with various other syntactic categories as complement, or such complements may appear in other positions within the structure as for instance in the passive construction. All these constructions have also been semantically interpreted. Secial attention is also focused on causative alternation or causation where a category “cause” has been postulated as a possible solution to this alternation. The locative alternation as well as the locative category and verb classes with locatives has been examined with regard to transitivity. It has been found that Topicalization from Information structure is deemed to be necessary. Lastly, the verbal affixes may appear in combination with each other and two such combinations for these affixes have been examined. In each case the two affixes retain their specific categories, structures, complements and semantic interpretation.
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    The deficient verb [ba] in isiXhosa
    (2014) Du Plessis, Jacobus A.
    The aim of this article is to establish how factivity clauses such as [ba-lamb-ile] (they are hungry) may appear in clauses which express certainty or consecutive in isiXhosa. For this purpose the influence of the deficient verb [ba] will be examined.
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    The interrogative in the S.A. Bantu languages
    (2014) Du Plessis, Jacobus A.
    The article will give an overview of questions in the S.A. Bantu languages with specific attention to the syntax and semantics of these sentence, i.e. the structure and meaning of interrogative clauses. For this purpose the following issues will be dealt with: (a) The difference between statements and questions with focus on the features of questions; (b) The difference between yes-no questions and specificational questions with interrogative words, as well as between direct and indirect questions; (c) Interrogative words and their functional positions in sentences; and (d) Clefted sentences with questions.
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    Moods and tenses in Xitsonga
    (2014) Du Plessis, Jacobus A.
    The aim of this article is firstly to give an overview of the forms and meanings of the various moods and tenses in Xitsonga, but then to primarily focus on the Dependent mood and its very wide distribution to see in what way Xitsonga may solve the many issues in the language with but one morphological verbal form