A Kwadi perspective on Khoe juncture-verb constructions
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Tom Güldemann
Abstract
Kwadi, a now extinct click language of southwestern Angola with poor documentation, was once a candidate for a linguistic isolate in Africa. The historical analysis of its pronoun system and available lexicon eventually led to establishing its genealogical relation to the southern African Khoe family. In this paper, I entertain further evidence for the higher-order lineage Khoe-Kwadi by looking at verbal morphology. I propose that the so-called “juncture” morpheme of Khoe is related to a grammatical element in Kwadi that attaches to verb roots and turns them into dependent forms. This hypothesis also informs the historical analysis of the Khoe juncture itself as well as the possible role of language contact in the development of multi-verb constructions in Khoe-Kwadi as a whole.
Abstract
Kwadi, a now extinct click language of southwestern Angola with poor documentation, was once a candidate for a linguistic isolate in Africa. The historical analysis of its pronoun system and available lexicon eventually led to establishing its genealogical relation to the southern African Khoe family. In this paper, I entertain further evidence for the higher-order lineage Khoe-Kwadi by looking at verbal morphology. I propose that the so-called “juncture” morpheme of Khoe is related to a grammatical element in Kwadi that attaches to verb roots and turns them into dependent forms. This hypothesis also informs the historical analysis of the Khoe juncture itself as well as the possible role of language contact in the development of multi-verb constructions in Khoe-Kwadi as a whole.
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Frontmatter I
- Preface VII
- Contents XIII
- The joys and challenges of contact effects without substance 1
- Causatives and contacts in Chabacano 21
- What is heritage language research good for? A critical discussion, with examples from Turkish language contacts 41
- Remodeling inflectional classes: Strong and weak verbs in Walser German 63
- The convergence of Nalik with Tok Pisin: Two languages becoming one linguistic repertoire 93
- A Kwadi perspective on Khoe juncture-verb constructions 117
- Out of our minds and onto the paper: On the morphological complexity of configurational spatial relations 147
- Aspectual head/dependent marking in relation to verb/satellite framing 199
- The origin of agent markers – Metaphors underlying the extension of spatial prepositions in European languages 243
- Paolo Ramat What(ever) will be, will be 265
- Uilta (Orok) attributive adjective order: Grammar, text, typology 275
- Roots and root classes in comparative grammar 307
- Taf x’naf? A closer look at stative verbs in Maltese 325
- Tabula gratulatoria 349
- Language index 351
- Subject index 355
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Frontmatter I
- Preface VII
- Contents XIII
- The joys and challenges of contact effects without substance 1
- Causatives and contacts in Chabacano 21
- What is heritage language research good for? A critical discussion, with examples from Turkish language contacts 41
- Remodeling inflectional classes: Strong and weak verbs in Walser German 63
- The convergence of Nalik with Tok Pisin: Two languages becoming one linguistic repertoire 93
- A Kwadi perspective on Khoe juncture-verb constructions 117
- Out of our minds and onto the paper: On the morphological complexity of configurational spatial relations 147
- Aspectual head/dependent marking in relation to verb/satellite framing 199
- The origin of agent markers – Metaphors underlying the extension of spatial prepositions in European languages 243
- Paolo Ramat What(ever) will be, will be 265
- Uilta (Orok) attributive adjective order: Grammar, text, typology 275
- Roots and root classes in comparative grammar 307
- Taf x’naf? A closer look at stative verbs in Maltese 325
- Tabula gratulatoria 349
- Language index 351
- Subject index 355
