The break and bend verbs in Tshivenda

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The thesis is organized into five chapters: the first chapter deals with the aimsof the study, the theoretical framework that has been assumed in this study aswell as the organisation of the thesis. The second chapter gives an overviewof the assumptions of lexical semantics with specific reference to theGenerative Lexicon. Chapter 3 is concerned with the break verbs whilechapter 4 deals with the bend verbs in Tshivenda. Chapter 5 gives theconclusions of the study.With regard to the break verbs in Tshivenda: these verbs have beenclassified into seven subgroups with regard to specific semantic features.Syntactically, the break verbs in Tshivenda are mainly transitive verbs while alarge group have a transitive-intransitive alternation with the suffixes [-I-/-w-].The break verbs may also regularly appear with the iterative suffixes [Vkan-Nkany-]. Most of the break verbs also regularly appear in two otheralternations i.e. the possession alternation and the instrument-subjectalternation.The bend verbs in Tshivenda are organized into five subgroups with regard totheir semantic features. All bend verbs in Tshivenda are transitive verbs, but ithas been shown that these verbs are in reality ergative verbs which assigntwo internal theta-roles. These verbs also regularly appear in the possessionalternation and the instrument-subject alternation.Both the break and bend verbs have furthermore been treated within themain components of the Generative lexicon, i.e. argument structure, eventstructure, lexical conceptual paradigm and lexical inheritance structure.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University