- Title
- Subject marking, coordination and noun classes in ciNsenga
- Creator
- Simango, Silvester R
- Subject
- To be catalogued
- Date
- 2012
- Type
- text
- Type
- article
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/10962/469256
- Identifier
- vital:77224
- Identifier
- https://doi.org/10.2989/16073614.2012.737595
- Description
- Subject marking on the Bantu verb seems to be a straightforward process in clauses with simple subject noun phrases (NP) as the verb only has to agree with a single NP. With conjoined NPs, on the other hand, subject-verb agreement is more complicated as there are three possibilities for such agreement: (i) agreement with both conjuncts (total agreement); (ii) agreement with one of the conjuncts (partial agreement); (iii) no agreement at all (default agreement). This study reveals that in ciNsenga partial agreement with conjoined NPs is not permitted; that total agreement and default agreement are determined by a combination of number, human, and gender features. Total agreement is possible only if the conjuncts denote nouns from the same plural class. Default agreement comes in two different forms: (i) if two conjuncts from different noun classes denote humans then agreement is with Class 2; (ii) if the conjuncts denote singular non-humans or they conflict in noun class then agreement is with Class 8. The study also reveals that default agreement for non-humans is restricted by word order, which suggests that agreement patterns are restricted by a combination of semantic and syntactic factors.
- Format
- 13 pages, pdf
- Language
- English
- Relation
- Southern African linguistics and applied language studies, Simango, S.R., 2012. Subject marking, coordination and noun classes in ciNsenga. Southern African Linguistics and Applied Language Studies, 30(2), pp.171-183, Southern African linguistics and applied language studies volume 30 number 2 171 183 2012 1727-9461
- Rights
- Publisher
- Rights
- Use of this resource is governed by the terms and conditions of the Taylor and Francis Online Terms and Conditions Statement (https://www.tandfonline.com/terms-and-conditions)
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Simango, Silvester Ron (Prof)
RU Department of Linguistics and Applied Language Studies
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