Startseite A description of the Xhosa construction ya ‘go’ plus subordinate imperfective
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A description of the Xhosa construction ya ‘go’ plus subordinate imperfective

  • Bastian Persohn EMAIL logo
Veröffentlicht/Copyright: 8. Oktober 2020

Abstract

This paper offers a descriptive analysis of an aspectual periphrasis in Xhosa (Bantu S41). The construction in question consists of a form of ya ‘go’ plus a verb in the subordinate imperfective paradigm. It is argued that this construction works at the level of actionality (“lexical aspect” or “aktionsart”), rather than constituting an aspectual operator sensu stricto. The overall actional profile of this verbal unit is that of a degree achievement (Dowty 1979) or directed activity (Croft 2012), i.e. a process of change along a property scale. This change is construed as involving a plurality of successive steps. The contribution of the lexical item and its arguments is that of a property scale and/or target state. Throughout the description remarkable semantic parallels to a structure-wise comparable construction in Spanish (Romance, Indoeuropean) are pointed out. These structural and semantic parallels have implications for an oft-mentioned grammaticalization path leading from a motion-based construction to a marker of progressive aspect (Heine and Kuteva 2002, among others). The description of the construction is complemented by a note on a frequent collocation with an instrumental infinitive of the same verb stem.

Xhosa Abstract

Eli phepha lihlalutya ulwakhiwo lwesenzi ya kunye nesenzi esikwixesha langoku lohlobo loqhubeko kulwimi lwesiXhosa. Kwiingxoxo ezikhoyo kuthiwa olu lwakhiwo lubonakalisa inkqubo yotshintsho kwiimpawu zomlinganiselo. Olu tshintsho luqulethe amanqanaba amaninzi. Isenzi esisetyenziswayo kolu lwakhiwo sinegalelo kwiimpawu ezo zomlinganiselo okanye zesimo esitsha. Kwingcaciso le kuqapheleka ukuba isemantiki ingqamene nolwakhiwo lolwimi lwesiPanishi oluphantse lufane. Oku kufana kolwakhiwo lweesemantiki ezingqameneyo kunentsingiselo kuchazo lolwakhiwo lwesenzi olubandakanya isenzi sentshukumo.


Corresponding author: Bastian Persohn, Afrika-Asien-Institut, Abteilung für Afrikanistik und Äthiopistik, Universität Hamburg, Edmund-Siemers-Allee 1, Flügel Ost, 20146Hamburg, Germany, E-mail:

Award Identifier / Grant number: 389792965

Acknowledgments

The author would like to thank Thera Crane and Stefan Savić for commenting upon early versions of this paper as well as for intriguing discussions of all things Nguni, the anonymous peer reviewers for their insightful remarks, and Mary Chambers for proofreading. The present study would not have been possible without the patient help of the language assistants, especially (in alphabetical order) Nomtha Ndyoko, Phumelele Lovisa, Zindzi Nkunzi, and Zintle Nkunzi. The usual disclaimer applies. Research for this paper was funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation), project #389792965.

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Published Online: 2020-10-08
Published in Print: 2020-08-04

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