A semantic and syntactic analysis of break and bend verbs in Zulu

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The subject of this study is Break and Bend verbs in isiZulu, which can be classified asverbs of change of state. This study examines the semantic as well as the syntacticanalysis of these verbs of change of state in Zulu. Semantically Bend verbs are dividedinto verbs denoting the bending of body parts, e.g: thoba, khothema, qomfa, bhena,guqa, vosho, and verbs that denote the bending of body parts as well as physicalobjects, e.g. goba, qethuka/qethula as shown in the sentences below:Indoda igobe ucingoThe man bent the wire.Indoda ithe qethu ikhandaThe man bent the head backwards.Inkosikazi igobe amadoloThe woman bent the knees.Uthe qethu isigxoboHe made the pole bend backwards.The study will demonstrate that Break verbs are semantically divided into verbs denotingbreak or fracture, e.g. aphula/aphuka; those denoting break off e.g.nqamuka/nqamula; a verb denoting to smash, e.g. fahlaza/fahlaka; those denoting crack, e.g. chachamba, verbs meaning to tear, e.g. dabula/dabuka; verbsdenoting to demolish, e.g. bhidliza/bhidlika and verbs denoting to break open, e.g.havuka I havula.Syntactically, Break predicates may occur as ideophones, which are ergative withtransitive/intransitive alternation, e.g. aphulaj aphuka, In addition, Break predicates mayconsist of ideophones with verbal suffixes:[-k-] is the suffix of intransitive ideophone[-I-] or [-z-] is the suffix of transitive ideophoneIntransitive ideophone: Intambo ithe nqamuThe rope brokeIntransitive verb with [-k-]: Intambo inqamukileThe rope brokeTransitive ideophone: Indoda ithe nqamu intamboThe man broke the ropeTransitive verb with [-1-]: Indoda inqamule intambo.The man broke a ropeTransitive verb with [-z-]: Indoda iphoqoze intambo.The man broke a boneThe study demonstrates that with Bend verbs there are two ergative verbs, namely thobaand goba.--The study further demonstrates that Bend verbs are mostly intransitive with a shadowargument; there is an ideophone qethu, which takes the transitive / intransitivealternation with the suffix [-k-] for the intransitive and [-1-] for the transitive alternation,respectively.The study provides evidence that Break and Bend verbs are characterised by specificselection restrictions as well as event structures. Some alternations were also investigatedin the study, such as the Possessive alternation and Instrument-Subject alternation.Lastly, the Lexical conceptual paradigm and the Lexical Inheritance Structure of each verbwere examined.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University