Polysemy of the verbs ya and tla in Northern Sotho
Date
2006-12
Authors
Marobela, Refilwe Mmaseroka
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Stellenbosch : University of Stellenbosch
Abstract
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The topic of study is ‘go’ and ‘come’ verbs in Northern Sotho, which can be classified as verbs of state or motion. This study examines the semantics as well as the syntactic analysis of these verbs of state of motion within the framework of Pustejovsky’s Generative Lexicon Theory.
This study will explore the polysemy of ‘ya’, as shown in the sentences below:
1. Bana ba ya nokeng.
(The children go/are going to the river)
2. Bašimane ba ya šokeng.
(The boys go/are going to the bush)
The verb ya ‘go’ may end with the suffix –ile to realise the past tense of ya as illustrated in the following examples:
3. Bana ba ile nokeng.
(The children went to the river)
4. Bašemane ba ile šokeng.
(The boys went to the bush)
The study also examines the polysemy of the verb –tla in Northern Sotho. The verb tla ‘come’ semantically denotes motion as shown in the sentences below.
5. Basadi ba tla monyanyeng.
(The women come to the party)
6. Banna ba tla kopanong.
(Men come/are coming to the meeting)
The verb tla may end with the suffix –ile to demonstrate the past tense of –tla, as shown in the following sentences. 7. Ngwana o tlile sekolong.
(The child came to school)
8. Mokgalabje o tlile kgorong.
(The old man came to the headkraal)
This study will demonstrate that the agent argument of the verbs –ya and –tla may regularly occur as complement of the preposition le in Northern Sotho.
The range of data examined demonstrate that the verbs –ya and –tla exhibit a wide range of semantic selectional properties as regard to the subject argument and the locative argument. The study also analyses the aspectual properties of the sentences with –ya and –tla with reference to the activity and achievement situation types.
Description
Thesis (MA (African Languages))--University of Stellenbosch, 2006.
Keywords
African languages, Northern Sotho language, Dissertations -- African languages, Theses -- African languages, Northern Sotho language -- Verb, Assignments -- African languages, Dissertations -- Northern Sotho language, Theses -- Northern Sotho language, Assignments -- Northern Sotho language