Relative clauses in Sesotho

[摘要] This dissertation has attempted to give an exposition of the structure of relative clausesin Sesotho. Firstly, we realized that the process of relativization displays the recursivenature of the Sesotho language wherein one sentence is embedded as a subordinateclause of another and by so doing an infinite number of clauses can then beimplemented to qualify a Noun Phrase.In the introduction I made it very clear that I will restrict myself to the view that inrelative clauses a WH-word is moved from an argument position to Comp. I havedemonstrated that Sesotho data does support this view. Where Sesotho data posesa bit of a problem is in the cases where traces are substituted by resumptive pronouns.I have not attempted to address theoretical problems presented by this because my aimis to demonstrate my understanding of the theory which I was taught in the Courseworklectures and to show that I can do research. I believe that I have achieved thatwhich I had set to do within the scope of this dissertation. I have also not tried to argueagainst the view that critics such as the reflexives and the object clitics are notanaphoric pronominals or non-anaphoric pronominals respectively. This is the viewwhich I was taught during the lectures. It is supported by the relevant literature. Ibelieve that it is possible that future work on these aspects might even prove this viewuntenable.In conclusion I have observed that what the traditional grammarians, Cole (1955) andDoke and Mofokeng (1957) regard as the relative clauses of direct relationship andindirect relationship involve movement of WH constituent from the argument positionto Comp. An empty category is also created in the subject or whatever argumentposition when such movement takes place. Such an empty category always requiresa proper governor to govern it.I have also observed that sometimes when 1fil19 is used in the relative clause of indirectrelationship, resumptive pronoun does not need to appear. Finally, I have noticed thatwhen a compound tense is involved in a relative construction, it is the grammatical andnot the lexical verb which seem to attract the relative suffix -ng. This is also in line withthe C-command principle.

[发布机构] University of the Free State