Deverbal nominals in Xitsonga

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT:The study investigates the nature of Xitsonga deverbatives that are derived from three types ofsyntactic verbs, namely intransitive verbs, monotranstive verbs and ditransitive verbs .The aim is todetermine the classes in which nominalisation occurs as well as to determine the semantic featureswhich occur with these deverbatives in various noun classes. The three types of verbs are furtherdistinguished into agentive verbs and non-agentive verbs. The deverbatives that are examined in thisstudy are arranged in terms of Levin (1993)'s semantic classification of verbs. The focus of this studyis on the verbs without derivational suffixes. However, few deverbatives with derived verbal formshave been included. The nominal morphology of Xitsonga is also examined in this studyThe study is conducted within the framework of four assumptions in morphology and lexicalsemantics, namely lexeme-based theory, X-bar syntax, lexical semantic properties of verb classesadvanced by Levin (1993), and the Generative Lexicon theory advanced by Pustejovsky (1995),specifically the assumption about the meta-entry for a lexeme. The study illustrates that nominalisationin Xitsonga, in particular, and in African Languages in general occurs through the affixation of theclass prefix and the nominal suffix onto the verb stem.The study found that the deverbal nominals occur in a similar morphological structure to that of nonderivednouns. It was also demonstrated that Xitsonga deverbatives may be classified in terms ofBusa's view of distinguishing between stage-level nominals and individual-level nominals. The studyhas established that nominalisation in Xitsonga is a phenomenon that occurs in classes 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7,8, 9, and 14 with both agentive and non-agentive verbs as verb stems. It however, found that the mostproductive classes are 1, 3,5,7,and 14. The study demonstrated that class 1 deverbatives refer strictlyto humans, while deverbatives in other classes refer to various things. The data examined in this studyrevealed that in general, Xitsonga deverbatives exhibit the following semantic features across variousnoun classes: [Actor], [Experiencer], [Theme], [Patient] [Result], [Event], [Act], [State], [Artifact],[Instrument]. [Excessive act], [Excessive state], [Place], [Expert], [Excessive actor], [Excessiveexperiencer], [Excessive theme], and [Excessive patient].

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University