Verum in Xhosa and Zulu (Nguni)
In this paper we investigate how verum is realized in Xhosa and Zulu, two Southern Bantu languages belonging to the Nguni group. The data for our study were collected through interviews with native speakers who were prompted to produce sentences in discourse contexts that typically license utterance...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | deu |
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De Gruyter
2023-12-01
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| Series: | Zeitschrift für Sprachwissenschaft |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1515/zfs-2023-2013 |
| _version_ | 1797303214726447104 |
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| author | Bloom Ström Eva-Marie Zeller Jochen |
| author_facet | Bloom Ström Eva-Marie Zeller Jochen |
| author_sort | Bloom Ström Eva-Marie |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | In this paper we investigate how verum is realized in Xhosa and Zulu, two Southern Bantu languages belonging to the Nguni group. The data for our study were collected through interviews with native speakers who were prompted to produce sentences in discourse contexts that typically license utterances with verum. We found that the main grammatical strategy for the expression of verum in Xhosa and Zulu involves the removal of phrasal constituents from the focus domain (the VP). This leaves the verb as the sole remaining focus host, and allows auxiliary features of the verb, such as polarity, to be marked as focus. Consequently, we analyse verum in Xhosa and Zulu as polarity focus, which is expressed indirectly, via the backgrounding of potentially focusable phrasal material. We also examined the prosodic properties of verum utterances in Xhosa. Based on findings from previous studies on Nguni intonation, we expected to observe lengthening of the penultimate vowels of phrase-final verbs and utterance-final words in our data. However, contrary to expectation, we did not find evidence of penultimate vowel lengthening in Xhosa sentences with verum, a (preliminary) result which suggests that the expression of verum may have an effect on prosody in Nguni languages. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-07T23:49:39Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-ec93eb5a218d4f9884eb7837f5220932 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 0721-9067 1613-3706 |
| language | deu |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-07T23:49:39Z |
| publishDate | 2023-12-01 |
| publisher | De Gruyter |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Zeitschrift für Sprachwissenschaft |
| spelling | doaj.art-ec93eb5a218d4f9884eb7837f52209322024-02-19T09:03:08ZdeuDe GruyterZeitschrift für Sprachwissenschaft0721-90671613-37062023-12-0142349352410.1515/zfs-2023-2013Verum in Xhosa and Zulu (Nguni)Bloom Ström Eva-Marie0Zeller Jochen1Department of Philosophy, Linguistics and Theory of Science Unit, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, SwedenLinguistics Discipline, School of Arts, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South AfricaIn this paper we investigate how verum is realized in Xhosa and Zulu, two Southern Bantu languages belonging to the Nguni group. The data for our study were collected through interviews with native speakers who were prompted to produce sentences in discourse contexts that typically license utterances with verum. We found that the main grammatical strategy for the expression of verum in Xhosa and Zulu involves the removal of phrasal constituents from the focus domain (the VP). This leaves the verb as the sole remaining focus host, and allows auxiliary features of the verb, such as polarity, to be marked as focus. Consequently, we analyse verum in Xhosa and Zulu as polarity focus, which is expressed indirectly, via the backgrounding of potentially focusable phrasal material. We also examined the prosodic properties of verum utterances in Xhosa. Based on findings from previous studies on Nguni intonation, we expected to observe lengthening of the penultimate vowels of phrase-final verbs and utterance-final words in our data. However, contrary to expectation, we did not find evidence of penultimate vowel lengthening in Xhosa sentences with verum, a (preliminary) result which suggests that the expression of verum may have an effect on prosody in Nguni languages.https://doi.org/10.1515/zfs-2023-2013polarity focusmaximal backgroundingconjoint–disjoint alternationobject markingpenultimate vowel lengthening |
| spellingShingle | Bloom Ström Eva-Marie Zeller Jochen Verum in Xhosa and Zulu (Nguni) Zeitschrift für Sprachwissenschaft polarity focus maximal backgrounding conjoint–disjoint alternation object marking penultimate vowel lengthening |
| title | Verum in Xhosa and Zulu (Nguni) |
| title_full | Verum in Xhosa and Zulu (Nguni) |
| title_fullStr | Verum in Xhosa and Zulu (Nguni) |
| title_full_unstemmed | Verum in Xhosa and Zulu (Nguni) |
| title_short | Verum in Xhosa and Zulu (Nguni) |
| title_sort | verum in xhosa and zulu nguni |
| topic | polarity focus maximal backgrounding conjoint–disjoint alternation object marking penultimate vowel lengthening |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1515/zfs-2023-2013 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT bloomstromevamarie veruminxhosaandzulunguni AT zellerjochen veruminxhosaandzulunguni |