Relative clause formation in the Bantu languages of South Africa.
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Date
2004
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Southern African Applied Linguistics Association & The Linguistics Society of Southern Africa.
Abstract
This article discusses (verbal) relative clauses in the Bantu languages spoken in South
Africa. The first part of the article offers a comparison of the relative clause formation strategies in
Sotho, Tsonga, Nguni and Venda. An interesting difference between these language groups concerns
the syntactic position and the agreement properties of the relative marker. Whereas the relative
markers in Sotho, Tsonga and Venda are clause-initial elements, which express agreement with
the head noun, the relative markers in the Nguni languages are relative concords, which are prefixed
to the verb and agree with the subject of the relative clause. The second part of the article
addresses this difference and shows that there is a historical relation between these two types of
relative constructions. It is argued that earlier forms of Nguni employed relative markers similar to
those used in present-day Sotho and Tsonga. In Nguni, these relative markers underwent a grammaticalisation process which turned them into relative concords. A detailed analysis of the syntactic
conditions for, and the properties of, this grammaticalisation process leads to a hypothesis about the
reasons why relative concords have developed in Nguni, but not (to the same extent) in Tsonga, Sotho and Venda.
Description
This is the accepted, peer-reviewed manuscript of an article whose final and definitive form has been published in Southern African Linguistics and Applied Language Studies 2004, 22 (1-2) pp. 75-93. © 2004 copyright NISC (Pty) Ltd. Southern African Linguistics and Applied Language Studies is available online at: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rall20
Keywords
Bantu languages--Grammar.
Citation
Zeller, J. 2004. Relative clause formation in the Bantu languages of South Africa. Southern African Linguistics and Applied Language Studies. 22(1-2) pp. 75-93.