Issues in Zimbabwean Ndebele relatives and relativisation.

Abstract

This study discusses issues in relatives and relativisation in Ndebele, a Nguni language that is mainly spoken in western parts of Zimbabwe. The study focuses on four major issues: (1) the status and the position of the prefix a- that occurs in Ndebele relative clauses, (2) the relation between the relative operator/head noun and the resumptive pronoun inside the relative clause, (3) the morphosyntax of predicative adjectives, and (4) the derivation of attributive adjectives in Ndebele. These issues are examined within the parameters of the Distributed Morphology framework (Halle, 1990; Halle & Marantz, 1993; Marantz, 1995; Embick & Noyer, 2007; Embick, 2010; 2012 and others). My main submissions in this thesis are the following: (1) the a- prefix that occurs in Ndebele relative clauses is a complementiser marker. I argue that there is Complementiser-to-Tense head movement that lowers the complementiser head after syntax in the formation of strategy 1 relatives. The lowering of the complementiser head to the Tense head results in the complementiser appearing in an unexpected position in strategy 1 relatives. (2) The relative operator merges as a complement of a resumptive pronoun in an n*P. The relative operator is then extracted and copied to spec C leaving the resumptive pronoun stranded in the relativisation site. I maintain that resumptive pronouns are realisations of the n* layer that selects DPs and that the n* head can be realised as pro, as a resumptive clitic or as a full resumptive pronoun. (3) The subject of the adjective is merged as the argument of the root, and then moves to its surface position. (4) There are three types of adjectives, and all the three types of adjectives are complements of copular verbs. I maintain that the attributive function of adjectives is fulfilled by a relative clause construction rather than by an attributive word mainly because Ndebele does not have an attributive adjective word group.