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How to cite this thesis

Surname, Initial(s). (2012) Title of the thesis or dissertation. PhD. (Chemistry)/ M.Sc. (Physics)/ M.A. (Philosophy)/M.Com. (Finance) etc. [Unpublished]: University of Johannesburg. Retrieved from: https://ujdigispace.uj.ac.za (Accessed: Date). RANDSE AFRIKAANSE UNIVERSITEIT UNIVERSITEITSBIBLIOTEEK .A- U Tel. 489-2165

T1R%TAI DATUM

2238

I II Ill HI I HI H 1 00 j 1 RAU BIB GRANNATICAL DESCRIPTION IN SETSWANA:

AN OVERVIEW

by

LUCY HLOHANI MOYANE submitted in accordance with the requirements for the degree of

MASTER OF ARTS

in

AFRICAN LANGUAGES

at the

RAND AFRIKAANS UNIVERSITY Johannesburg

SUPERVISOR: Prof E B Van Wyk

FEBRUARY 1995

(i) ACXNOWLEDGNENTS

I wish to extend my sincere appreciation and deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Prof E B van Wyk, for his unselfish, and excellent guidance, his motivation and encouragement. HIS constructive comments and advice have enabled me to complete this study.

My sincere thanks go to my friends and family, my colleagues in the Department of African Languages of Daveyton College of Education, Judith Nel for typing this work, and to Monky Gabashane for her moral support and encouragement.

A special word of thanks and sincere appreciation is extended to my beloved husband, Gicks Moyane, for the interest he has taken in my studies. Through his support, encouragement and understanding I have been able to make it.

Finally, to God be the honour and glory.

This work I dedicate to my husband Gicks. OPSOMMING

Hierdie studie gee 'n deurlopende oorsig ocr die grammatiese beskrywing van Setswana vanaf 1837 tot en met 1994. As gevoig van verskille en weersprekings in gepubliseerde werke van Setswana Grammatika skrywers is bogenoemde oorsig noodsaaklik.

Die verskille wat voorkom by woordverdeling word ondersoek, asook die probleme met 'konjunktivisme' of 'disjunktivisme'.

Kiasse woorde, soos geldentifiseer deur verskillende skrywers word bestudeer. Daar word na elke kias afsonderlik gekyk, hoe elke skrywer dit probeer definieer het en na waar verskille voorkom in die skrywers se beskrywings.

Met hierdie studie is gepoog om te bewys dat die Grammatiese beskrywing van Setswana nie ooreenstem met die ontwikkelings in linguistieke Wetenskap nie. Die publikasies na Cole (1955) dui nie op 'n verandering van die Dokaanse benadering nie. TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 AIM OF STUDY 1.2 HISTORICAL OVERVIEW OF THE GRAMMATICAL DESCRIPTION OF BANTU LANGUAGES 1.2.1 The traditional period/pre-Dokeian era 1.2.2 The functional/Dokeian era 1.2.3 The structural/Van Wyk era 1.2.4 The transformational-generative period/ modern period

1.3 KOSCH'S ANALYSIS OF NORTHERN SOTHO GRAMMATICAL DESCRIPTION 1.4 HISTORY OF SETSWANA GRAMMATICAL DESCRIPTION 1.4.1 The traditional period/pre-Dokeian period 1.4.2 The functional period/Dokeian period 1.4.3 The structural period/Van Wyk era 1.4.4 The modern period 1.5 PRESENTATION

CHAPTER 2: WORD DIVISION

2.1 INTRODUCTION

2.2 AUTHORS USING A DISJUNCTIVE APPROACH 2.2.1 Wookey, A J 2.2.2 Sandilands, A 2.2.3 Setshedi, J E 2.2.4 Harman, F J N 2.2.5 Other writers

2.3 AUTHORS USING A CONJUNCTIVE APPROACH

2.3.1 Cole, D T

2.3.2 Malepe, A T (iv)

2.3.3 Lesele, F N et al

2.3.4 Malao, J et al 2.3.5 Snyman, J W et al 2.3.6 Ntsime, J N and Kruger, C J H 2.4 CONCLUSION

CHAPTER 3: WORD CLASSES

3.1 INTRODUCTION 3.2 WORD CLASSES AS IDENTIFIED BY DIFFERENT WRITERS 3.2.1 Archbell, J 3.2.2 Wookey, A J 3.2.3 Sandilands, A 3.2.4 Cole, D T 3.2.5 Malepe, A T 3.2.6 Snyman, J W and Mothoagae, N K 3.2.7 Setshedi, J E

3.3 CONCLUSION

CHAPTER 4: THE NOUN

4.1 THE NOUN CLASSES 4.1.1 Archbell, J 4.1.2 Wookey, A J 4.1.3 Sandilands, A 4.1.4 Cole, D T 4.1.5 Ferreira, J A and Malepe, A T 4.1.6 Kopane, P K

4.2 DERIVATIONS

4.3 LOCATIVES

4.3.1 The use of particles

4.3.2 Locative nouns (v)

4.3.3 Locativised nouns

4.4 CONCLUSION

CHAPTER 5: THE PRONOUN

5.1 INTRODUCTION 5.2 THE ABSOLUTE PRONOUN 5.3 THE DEMONSTRATIVE PRONOUN 5.4 QUALIFICATIVE PRONOUNS 5.4.1 The adjectival pronoun 5.4.2 The enumerative pronoun 5.4.3 The relative pronoun 5.4.4 The quantitative pronoun 5.4.5 The possessive pronoun 5.5 OTHER PRONOUNS 5.6 CONCLUSION

CHAPTER 6: QUALIFICATIVES

6.1 INTRODUCTION 6.2 THE ADJECTIVE 6.3 THE RELATIVE 6.3.1 The verbal relative

6.3.2 The nominal relative 6.3.3 The enumerative relative

6.3.4 Other relatives

6.4 QUANTITATIVE

CHAPTER 7: THE VERB: VERBAL EXTENSIONS

7.1 INTRODUCTION

7.2 VERBAL EXTENSIONS 7.2.1 Neuter (vi) 7 . 2 . 2- Apulied

7.2.3 Reciprocal

7.2.4 Reversive 7.2.5 Causative 7.2.6 Perfect 7.2.7 Passive 7.2.8 Denominative 7.2.9 Positional 7.2.10 Intensive/Extensive 7.2.11 Other extensions

CHAPTER 8: THE VERB: MOODS AND TENSES 8.1 MOODS 8.1.1 The infinitive 8.1.2 The imperative 8.1.3 The subjunctive 8.1.4 The indicative mood 8.1.5 The participial mood

8.1.6 The habitual mood 8.1.7 The potential mood

8.1.8 Consective mood (narrative) 8.1.9 The optative mood 8.1.10 Other moods

8.2 TENSES 8.2.1 The present tense 8.2.2 The past tense (pakaphethi) 8.2.3 The future tense (pakatlang)

8.2.4 The perfect tense

8.2.5 Compound tenses

8.2.6 The consecutive tense (vii) 8 . 2 . 7 The narrative tense 8.2.8 The habitual tense

CHAPTER 9: OTHER WORD CATEGORIES

9.1 ADVERBS 9.2 THE IDEOPHONE 9.3 THE CONJUNCTION 9.4 THE PREPOSITION 9.5 THE INTERJECTION

CHAPTER 10: SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS

BIOBLIOGRAPHY CHAPTER 1 INTRCDUCTION

1.1 AIN OF THE STUDY

The aim of this study is to give an overview of Setswana grammatical description since 1837 when the first Setswana grammar was published by James

Archbell. This study will investigate the various approaches used by linguists to describe Setswana grammar, and the word classes that resulted from

these approaches. This thesis will only focus on published grammar books and school handbooks.

1.2 HISTORICAL OVERVIEW OF THE GRAMMATICAL

DESCRIPTION OF BANTU LANGUAGES

The study of the Bantu languages started with the missionaries that wanted to teach people to read the Bible. As they worked amongst the Bantu people they learnt the language and developed an interest in Bantu linguistics.

According to Von Staden (1979:5) as cited by Kosch (1991:1) the study of Bantu languages can be divided

into six periods: The impressionistic period The Latinistic orientated period

The early European orientated period The Dokeian or functional period

The structural period, and

1 6. The modern period.

The first two periods did not produce any Setswana records, and therefore are insignificant. Wilkes (1978) distinguishes and bases his study on the last four.

1.2.1 THE TRADITIONAL PERIOD / PRE-DOKEIAN ERA

This period is also referred to as the classical period (Kosch, 1991:20). During this period European Languages were used as the basis of description. According to Wilkes (as quoted by Kosch, 1991:20) the first linguistic publication on a South African Bantu Language appeared in this era in 1826 by J Bennie entitled Systematic vocabulary of the Kaffrarian language in two parts: to which

is prefixed an introduction to Kaffrarian grammar. During this era Bantu languages were treated as parallels of European languages, and European grammatical classifications and conceptions were used to describe Bantu languages.

1.2.2 THE FUNCTIONAL / DOKEIAN ERA

This era started in 1927 with Doke publishing

The Textbook of Zulu Grammar, and prevailed

until the late fifties. Doke's approach was based on conjunctivism. This era saw a rise of South African Bantuists. According to

2 Kosch (1991: 39) there is no clear boundary as to when this period ended because even during the structural period publications were based on this framework, but decided on 1958 as the beginning of the new era.

1.2.3 THE STRUCTURAL / VAN WYK ERA

This era started in South African Bantu

Linguistics with European structuralism and American structuralism. In 1958 E B van Wyk

completed his doctoral thesis entitled Woord verdeling in Noord Sotho en Zoeioe based on linguistic theories and methods of Prof A Reichling. In it he developed his own method of word division based on the divisibility, reversibility, isolatability and replaceability

of a word. This led him to develop the semi-conjunctive writing system to eliminate

deficiencies of disjunctivism and conjunc- tivism. This theory led to a new classification of word classes based on morphological and syntactical characteristics as the basic criteria, and phonological and

semantic characteristics as additional criteria.

During this era van Wyk's views dominated the

scene of Bantu linguistics. Studies

regarding aspects of the verb, noun, ideophone, the phoneme as a distributional

3 unit, the uuaiificative, w o r d groups and sentence were undertaken.

This period saw a rise of black linguists, and studies in Venda and Tsonga which had been dormant all along. Tone studies based on

Kenneth Pike in his Tone Languages in 1948 were undertaken (Kosch, 1991: 85). The five

tones distinguished by Endemann were reduced to two fundamental tonemes; a high and low

toneme.

This period arbitrarily ended in 1975 (Kosch,

1991: 67).

1.2.4 THE TRANSFORNATIONAL - GENERATIVE PERIOD

/ MODERN PERIOD

This period started in the beginning of the seventies in South Africa. American linguists under the leadership of Talmy Givon, published grammatical studies on this approach the non-South African Bantu languages

in this approach. This was followed by publications by South African Bantuists. These publications included studies on the syntax, and also included the adjective,

pronoun, relative clauses as well as conjoined

subjects in the Nguni languages. It was

indicated that Doke's conception of adjectives

as qualificatives was based purely on their

4 surface characteristics, and that they are

structurally nouns. Auxiliary verb

constructions, and enumeratives in Northern Sotho were investigated. During this era grammaticization and rank shifting were

examined.

The time boundaries between the periods are not rigid, but there is overlapping of the periods. The dates given are only estimates.

1.3 KOSCH'S ANALYSIS OF NORTHERN SOTHO GRAATICAL

DESCRIPTION

Kosch, I M (1991) in her Doctoral thesis entitled A

survey of Northern Sotho Grammatical Descriptions since 1876 analysed Northern Sotho grammatical description.

Her study is divided into two parts: Part one indicates the linguistic periods in the development of Bantu grammar. The four major periods: the

traditional, functional or Dokeian, Structural or van Wyk, and the modern periods were analysed for Bantu

grammar and for Northern Sotho in particular.

In part two Kosch analyses selected word categories as they were treated by different writers since 1876

against the background of the grammatical periods.

She also investigates non-predicative and predicative

categories.

5 This thesis is an attempt to do in a modest way for Setswana what Kcsch has done for Northern Sotho in

the second part of her the sis.

1.4 HISTORY OF SETSWANA GRAINATICAL DESCRIPTION

Setswana grammatical description can be arranged according to the grammatical periods identified by

Wilkes (1978).

1.4.1 THE TRADITIONAL PERIOD I PRE-DOKEIAN PERIOD

Before 1826 only lexicographies by Lichstenstein, H (1812 and 1815), Campbell, J (1815), and Burchell, W J (1824) existed. The following publications occurred during this period:

1837 Archbell,J. A Grammar of the Bechuana Language. This is the first published grammar of a Sotho language. According to Cole (1955: xxiii) this is

an adaptation of Boyce's Grammar of

the Kaffir language (1834).

1841 Casalis, Eugene. Etudes sur la Langue Sechuana. This contained grammar and syntax, French translations of praise - poems, hunting songs, proverbs,

folktales, etc.

1858 Livingstone, D. Analysis of the Lanuaae of the Bechuanas. He devoted some pages to pronunciation, and divided nouns into three classes, and also referred to conjugations (verbal

derivatives) (Doke & Cole, 1969: 37).

1864 Fredoux, J. A Sketch of the Sechuana Grammar.

1876 Brown, J. Lokwalo ba Mahuku a Secwana be Seeneles. This is a dictionary but has six pages devoted to an "Introduction to the Secwana Grammar." This was revised and rearranged by A J Wookey and J Tom Brown and published as Secwana Dictionary in

1923 (even though it is not dated).

1880 Crisp, W. Notes towards a Secoana Grammar. This was revised in 1886, 1900. This has a good phonetic exposition and grammatical analysis.

1901 Wookey, A J. Secwana and English Phrases with Introduction to Grammar

and Vocabulary. It was revised in 1902

and 1904.

1905 Wookey, A J. Secwana Grammar. This was later revised by J Tom Brown.

1.4.2 THE FUNCTIONAL PERIOD I DOKEIAN PERIOD

VA This period also saw publicaricns in Setswana. Doke's views and influence abcut conjuncive word theory are indicated in this period. The

following works emerged:

1953 Sandilands, A. Introduction to Tswana.

1955 Cole, D T. An Introduction to Tswana Grammar. This is the first scientific approach and exposition of

Setswana. It is the most comprehensive grammar book published in Setswana. Cole follows Doke's approach to word

theory.

1950 Van Zyl, J H et al. Thutapuo Standard 3 - 4 and Thutapuo Standard 5 - 6. These are the first grammar

handbooks produced by mother-tongue

speakers.

1.4.3 THE STRUCTURAL PERIOD / VAN WYK ERA

Van Wyk's word theory had no following in

Setswana. Works produced during this period were still inclined towards Doke's word theory, but using the disjunctive writing

system. Mainly handbooks for secondary school

pupils were published. They are the

following: 1966 Malepe, A T. Setswana sa Bcrre (Forms II - III). This was revised in 1977 and published as separate texts for Standard 5, 6, 7 and 8. This publication analyses the basic structure

of Setswana grammar.

1967 Kopane, P K. Setswana se se phepa. Mophato wa 1 Dikole tse di phagameng.

This was revised in 1974.

nd Moloto, E S and Malao, S J. Bua ka Tolamo fomo 1 and fomo 2.

nd Mogapi, K. Thutapuo ye Setswana. This also contains sections on

phonology.

nd Matseke, S K. Setswana sa ka

Metlha.

1968 Ferreira, J A and Malepe, A T. Tswana leerboek.

1.4.4 THE MODERN PERIOD

Doke's word theory is still dominant in this era. Most writers use conjunctive terminology but disjunctive writing system. The following publications appeared during this

era:

1967 Wookey, A J. Puisanyo ya Sekgowa le Setswana, with a shcrc Introduction to Grammar and a Vocabulary.

1978 Landsberg, G A. A Re bueng Setswana Std 6. Ntsime, J M. & G J Rouseau. Puo e e tshe]ang series.

1980 Harman, F J. Pula Taalkunde series.

1980 Setshedi, J E. Ithuteng Setswana.

1981 Mogapi, K. Thutapuo ya Setswana mephato 4 le 5. This contains sections on phonology, orthography,

morphology and style.

1987 Lesele, F M et al. Kitso ya Setswana series.

Snyman, j w (Morulaganyi), Mothoagae et al. Segarona series.

Rarnmutla, P L et al. Setswana se se tihagatihagang series.

1990 Snyman, J W and Mothoagae, N K. Segarona sa borutabana: Thutapuo.

1991 Snyman, J W et al. Tswana for beginners.

1993 Ntsime, J M and Kruger, C J H. E

antswe letseleng series.

1987 Malao, J et al. Setswana sa kwa

10 Lowe series.

1.5 PRESENTATION

As the title of this thesis indicates, this study will concentrate on the grammatical description

of Setswana. Grammatical description refers to all the aspects of a language: phonetics/phonology, morphology, syntax and semantics. Traditionally, grammatical description refers to morphological, syntactical, and semantical description of a

language. As a result, this study will concentrate on morphology, syntax and semantics.

Since grammar has the word as the most elementary unit of description, this thesis will also concentrate on the word and word classes as identified and described by the different Setswana grammarians. Word division influences word identification and word classes, as a result it will

also be touched upon.

The word classes identified by the different grammarians will be listed, and only those word classes where discrepancies and inconsistencies occur

will be thoroughly investigated. Other word classes will be alluded to.

To achieve this, published works in the form of

handbooks and school textbooks will be consulted.

The works consulted are only representative of the

grammatical description since Archbell (1837) to

11 date (1994), and therefore do not lay claim to completeness.

12 CHAPTER 2 WORD DIVISION

2.1 INTRODUCTION

The problem of word division in the Bantu languages dates back to the nineteenth century when the missionaries started to write these languages. This problem occurred because the writers confused and/or could not differentiate between word division and

word identification.

Van Wyk (1993: 6) states that word division implies

the division of sentences into readable units. This has to do with the way in which orthograpic words should be separated to facilitate the reading process. These orthographic words do not necessarily indicate linguistic words but could, in principle, be

representations of linguistic words, e.g. orthographic words in the Nguni languages. Sometimes orthographic words are misleading representations of linguistic words especially with the conjunctive

writing system. In practical terms ke a tsamaya 'I am walking' consists orthographically of three words but grammatically of one linguistic word.

Van Wyk (1993: 6) further states that word

identification on the other hand has to do with the

way in which sentences are divided into linguistic

units that are called linguistic words. This has

13 nothing to do with the way in which words are written, but with how words function in the grammatical system. Therefore ke a tsamaya 'I am walking' is a linguistic word because it can only be used as a whole, that is, it is structurally fixed.

Two writing systems are identified; the disjunctive system and the conjunctive system. In these writings it is evident that no two writers divided words in precisely the same way. Wookey (1946: 132) writes:

Ke ne ke tia bo ke reka 'I would have been buying, if ..'

While Cole (1955: 257) writes:

Kene ketlabo kereka 'I would have been buying, if..'

It is evident that the same writer did not divide grammatically identical words in the same way, e.g. Archbell (1837: xxii) writes:

mo ligodimong 'here in heaven'

but

mopapalong 'in temptation'

This occured because early writers based their

writing system primarily on that of the European languages especially English and Latin.

14 The disjunctive system where linguistic units (that cccur as words in English) are written secarately from each other, was historically used for the Sotho languages, Xitsonga and TshiVenda, e.g.

Ke a tsamaya 'I am walking'

The Nguni languages adopted the conjunctive writing system where simple linguistic units are joined together to form words, e.g.

Ngiyahamba 'I am walking'

According to Louwrens (1991:3) the Nguni languages adopted this method due to phonological processes such as vowel coalescence, vowel elision and consonantalisation that occur in these languages and therefore makes it impractical to use the disjunctive method, e.g.

ya + inkosi > yenkosi 'Of the chief'

Griesel (1991:72) states that conjunctive and disjunctive are relative terms which depend on the norm applied, e.g.

Mosimane yo montle 'a handsome boy'

Mosimane yomontle 'a handsome boy' Mosimane yo mo nLle 'a handsome boy'

If (1) is the norm then (2) is the conjunctive and

(3) the disjunctive. If (3) is the norm then (1) is conjunctive and (2) is ultra-conjunctive.

15 The distinction between disjunctive and conjunctive is not clear-cut. Trying to eliminate the deficiencies of disjunctivism and conjunctivism,

Van Wyk in his doctoral thesis (Woordverdelinq in

Noord-Sotho en Zulu, 1958) adopted and advocated a third approach which has elements of both conjunctivism and disjunctivism. He termed this approach, semi-conjunctivism.

The difference between the three approaches hinges basically on the status of two types of linguistic elements: Elements that precede the verb stem(verbal elements), which are the subject concord and object concord, and modal and tense morphemes. In conjunctivism and semi-conjunctivism

these are regarded as parts of verbs (words) while in disjunctivism they are regarded as separate words.

Elements which precede other parts of speech, e.g. the copula ke, the possessive concord and the particles ka/le/go, etc. In conjunctivism these are regarded as parts of

words and in disjunctivism and semi-conjunctivism as separate words.

These can be summarized as follows:

16 APPROACH VERBAL ELEMENTS NON-VERBAL ELEMENTS Disjunctivism Words Words Conjunctivism Non-Words Ncn-Words Semi-conjunc- Non-Words Words tivism

Semi conjunctivism has no orthographical representation in Setswana, but may feature in the grammatical terminology. Only conjunctivism and disjunctivism have been followed. of the two writing systems authors may use a combination of both, i.e. an author may write conjunctively but use disjunctive grammatical terminology, or may write disjunctively and use grammatical terminology based on conjunctive word identification. This chapter will investigate how Setswana grammatical description fits into these systems.

2.2 AUTHORS USING A DISJUNCTIVE APPROACH

The disjunctive approach is the official orthography for the Sotho languages, Xitsonga and Tshivenda.

It was made official for Setswana by the Conference representing the education departments of the Bechuanaland Protectorate, the Cape, the Orange Free State, and the Transvaal, together with the Inter University Committee for African Studies, held at Johannesburg on April 28, 1937. The conference said:

The retention of the disjunctive system of word-division hitherto followed in Tswana is recommended. (A practical Orthography for Tswana, 1937: 148).

17 The Transvaal Education Department in a circular no 37909 supported disjunctivism by indicating how words should be written disjunctively with an exception of the following which should be written conjunctively:

- The prefix bo- class 2(a) should be attached to the noun stem, e.g.

bontate 'fathers'

- The e- that preceeds monosyllabic verb stems

should be joined to the verb stem, e.g.

eLla 'come'.

- The adverbial prefix - that occurs with numerals should be joined to them with the exception of lesome 'ten' e.g.

gabedi 'twice' but ga lesome 'ten times'.

- The adverbial prefix ka- should also be separated from the succeeding word, e.g.

ka thipa 'with a knife'.

- The qualifying stems -fe? and should be joined to the subject concords e.g.

ofe? 'which one', and bape 'no one'

- The form sena should be written conjunctively when used as an auxiliary verb but should be separated when used as a negative

form, e.g.

FU fa ke sena go tsamaya 'When I had

1 ..Lei. L

fa ke se na dijo ke ... 'When I don't have food'.

- The present tense formative a must be written separately, e.g.

0 a go rata 'he loves you'.

- The negative se ke should be written disjunctively , e.g.

0 se ka 'don't'.

- The hyphen should be avoided but can only be used in very long constructions. (Van Wyk, 1958: 28).

These guidelines from the Transvaal Education Department were accepted by the Language Eoard and were reprinted in Setswana Terminology and

Orthography no 4 (1988: 20 - 23). In this book the problem of word division is approached on the basis

of word grouping and the following word groups were

identified:

i) The predicative word group - The subject concord must be separated

from verbs e.g.

e rile 'it came to pass'.

19 - The ob-lect concord with the e:ertion of the first and third perscri singular

occurring with verbs beginning with b-, are written separately e.g.

a mc rata 'he loves him'

a mmatla 'he wants him'

- The object concord of the first person singular n- and the reflexive prefix i- are always joined to the verb that follows,

e.g.

a nthata 'he loves me'

a ithata 'he loves himself'

- The objectival concord third person singular, is attached to the verb that

follows it when such verb begins with b- e.g.

a mmona 'he sees him'

The hortative, the habitual, and the narrative constructions with the

formatives ke, be and ba respectively are written separately, e.g.

ke o tie 'do please come'

a be a tia 'he is coming as usual'

ba a tia 'he indeed did come'

The adverbial word group

- Adverbial formatives go, ka, kwa, kwa

20 , ka fa, ka kwa, mc go, k, l and 5a, are written separarey, e.g.

Kwa go Malome 'to Malome'

- The formative - is joined to following adjectives or numerals

except when followed by lesome 'ten' e.g.

gakae? 'how many times'

ga lesome 'ten times'

The conjunctive word group - Conjunctive formatives are written separately, e.g.

ka gonne 'because'

The possessive word group - possessive concords are written separately, e.g.

wa gago 'yours'

The adjectival word group

- The demonstrative formative is

written separately when the base is a proper adjective or a numeral, e.g.

yo moleele 'the tall one'

- When the base is a verb or any other

word-class except the adjective the

21 demonstrative and the sub jecrival

concords are separated e.g.

Lse di tsamayang 'those that are moving'

- The enumerative and quantitative stems are joined to the class/ subjectival concords e.g.

monna ole? 'which man' batho botihe 'all the people'

2.2.1 WOOKEY, A J

In Secwana grammar (1946) Wookey uses the disjunctive writing system and the disjunctive terminology. This is indicated by his

explanation of the verb that:

The noun ...... is always connected with the verb by a pronoun agreeing

with the class to which the noun belong e.g. Kgosi e busa batho 'the chief rules the people'(1946: 85) where e 'he' is regarded as the

pronoun and busa 'rule' as the verb.

Wookey (1946:165) also regards the

ka 'with' and kwa 'to' before

adverbs as words which are prepositions. Wookey (1946:43)

deviates from the official

22 orthography in that he writes the present tense formative conjunctively with the subject concord e.g.

kea raLa 'I love'

2.2.2 SAND ILANDS, A

Sandilands (1953) writes and defines

disjunctively. Like Wookey (1946) he regards concords as words. He refers, for example to: The little word called a possessive concord .....(Sandilands, 1953:41)

Particles such as kwa 'to' and mc 'here'used with locatives are regarded as prepositions (Sandilands, 1953: 48 - 49).

2.2.3 SETSHEDI, J E

In ithuteng Setswana (1980) Setshedi writes and defines disjunctively. According to him concords are not formatives of verbs. This is seen in his definition of a verb, the possessive and adverbs. He states:

Lediri le bopiwa ka dipopi:

modi + mogatlana 'A verb is formed

by a root and suffix' (1980: 81)

e.g. tshab + a = tshaba 'run away'

23 Setshedi (1980: 101) regards kwa and mc used

w i t h locatives, as in kwa go malorne at

uncle's place' and mo gae 'here at home, as dernonstratives.

2.2.4 HARMAN, F J N

In a series of Pula II (1982) Harman writes disjunctively and also uses disjunctive

grammatical terminology. Harman (1982: 6) refers to the copula ke as a word, and calls

it the copulative: The identifying copulative ke "is" or "it is"identifies a noun,

e.g. ke monna it is a

man' (Harman, 1982: 6).

He regards the possessive concord as a word

(1980:16). Harman (1982: 20) treats the subject concord as an autonomous word e.g.

Monna o a tsamaya I I I I noun subject present verb concord tense a

'The man walks' (Harman, 1982: 20)

2.2.5 OTHER WRITERS

Apart from the writers discussed above,

Gabatshwane, (1971), Kopane (1974), and

Archbell (1837) write and define

disjunctively.

NE Disjunctivism has been criticized by linguists

such as Cole and Apleyard (1985: xxix et seq). Cole says disjunctivism is inconsistent in the following ways: - All noun class prefixes are joined to the noun stems but the infinitive noun

class prefix go- is separated from the stem. - No two writers write words in the

same way. Go tswelela pele is sometimes written go tswelelapele. - Disjunctivism is based on English and Afrikaans words which are not the same as those of the Bantu Languages. Appleyard quoted in Cole (1955: xxix) criticises disjunctivism on the basis that word-division should be based on formation,

and that prefixes, roots and suffixes of a word should be joined together.

2.3 AUTHORS USING A CONJUNCTIVE APPROACH

Conjunctivism has been advocated by C Doke in his

Bantu Linguistic terminology (1935: 1-24). He bases his argument on the following aspects: - some elements have fixed positions in a sentence. This he indicates by stating that the subject concord must always precede the

verb stem, and that the object indicator

always immediately precede that verb stem.

25 He further stated that the verb cannot take a final position in a sentence, cannot be isolated in a sentence and cannor receive emphatic stress. - The word has only one main stress on the penultimate syllable.

- Words can be isolated and can take sentence final position. - Mother-tongue speakers divide spontaneously conjunctively. Appleyard cited by Cole (1955: xxx) states that Bantu Languages resemble or have similarities with Latin. Bantu languages are prefix forming while Latin is suffix forming and these languages are governed by similar principles e.g.

Latin: am-o Sotho: ke-a-rata am-as u-a-rate am-at 0-a--rate In Textbook of Southern Sotho (1957: 50) Doke and Mofokeng state that:

all prefixes of nouns, together with their concords (qualificative or verbal)

are but formatives of words, and can have

no separable standing. The same applies to the auxiliary elements of verbs ...... , to

numerous adverbial formatives ....., and to

the conjunctive le.

2.3.1 COLE, D T

26 Cole, D T in An InLroducticn to Tswana Grammar (1955) adopted flake's approach. He amended Doke's theory by stating that Eantu word division is not based on stress, but on the lengthening of the penultimate syllable (1955: xxxiii). He further states that words should be divided according to the way the native speakers of the language speak because they automatically divide conjunctively. Cole (1955: xxxiii) maintains that the conjunctive system of writing is the correct one for Bantu Languages in that all prefixes and suffixes should be joined to the stems or roots.

Units which are regarded as words by Wookey (1946), Sandilands (1953) and Setshedi

(1980) are regarded as formatives by Cole

(1955). Cole (1955: 341) regards kwa and ma as prefixes in the formation of locative adverbs e.g.

Qile kwanokeng 'He has gone to the riverdistant'

Retlasapa monokeng 'We shall swim in the river'.

Cole (1955: 63) states that the verb is formed

by prefixes and suffixes which are joined to the verb stem. Subjectival and objectival concords are formatives and not words, and

27 are therefore written conjunctively e..

Lokwalo 10 lokwadilwe karnang? 'This book has been written by whom' (Cole 1955: 195).

Cole is the only Setswana grammarian that writes and also defines conjunctively.

2.3.2 MALEPE, A T

Malepe (1974) writes disjunctively but uses conjunctive grammatical terminology, i.e. he treats the separated linguistic units as parts

of a linguistic words. In Tswana Lee.rbcok (1968: 22) Ferreira and Malepe say:

hoewel ka em le as aparte woordjies geskryf word en met Afrikaanse voorsetsels vertaal word, hulle nie voorsetsels is nie, maar voorvoegsels wat nie alleen kan staan nie, b.v. ka metlha 'always'

Malepe (1974: 91) refers to ke kgomo 'it is a cow' as a copulative, and refers to ke as the copulative prefix. This implies that ke is a formative of a copulative.

Malepe (1974: 53) regards the subject concord

as a formative of the verb, he says:

Dipopi tse pedi tse, o le-sega, di bopa lediri, 0 sega. 'The two formatives o and -sega, form the verb, o sega (he cuts)'

28 Malepe (1974: 54) regards all elements than

precede the verb as part of the verb.

2.3.3 LESELE, F N et al

In Kitso ya Setswana (1987) Lesele, F M et al write disjunctively but use conjunctive terminology. Lesele et al (1987: 95) regard the elements that precede the verb as verbal

prefixes e.g.

ba tia ho ba jele 'They should have eaten' (Lesele et al, 1987: 95)

Lesele et al say ba tia bo ba is the verb prefix while -jele is the verbal stern.

Lesele et al (1987: 153) regard the possesive concord as part of the possessive. They state

that a possessive is formed by a possessive concord and a possessive stem which is the

possessor e.g.

Sa hone 'of them' (Lesele et al, 1987: 153).

2.3.4 MALAO, J et al

Malao et al (1987) write disjunctively but

use conjunctive grammatical terminology, similar to that used by Cole (1955). Malao et

al (1987: 169) regard fa, mo, and kwa as

adverbial prefixes which are joined to nouns

29 to form averbs, e.g.

Mmapula o fa nokeng 'MmapuTh is here at the river' (Malao et al, 1987: 169)

Malao et al (1987: 149) regard- utiwala as a verbal stem, which means that the subject concord is the verbal prefix. They also regard ka as a formative indicating capability e.g.

Ba ka se reke 'They would not buy' (Malao, 1987: 127).

2.3.5 SNYMAN, J W et al

Snyman and Mothoagae (1990) write disjunctively but use conjunctive grammatical terminology. This is also evident in Snyman

et al (1991). The use of conjunctive

grammatical terminology is indicated by their treatment of verbs, where the different

verbal prefixes are discussed. Snyman et al (1991: 90 - 91) define a verb as being formed by verbal prefixes, verbal root, and verbal suffixes, e.g.

o a le gama 'He milks it' (Snyman et al, 1991: 91).

The above example is regarded as a verb which

is one word even if it is disjunctively

30 written. Snyman et al (1991: 67) says:

The possessive concords and the possessors form the disjunctively written word called the pos- sessive, i.e. nt]o ya mosadi 'the house of a woman'

2.3.6 NTSIME, J ii AND KRUGER, C J H

Ntsime and Kruger (1993) write disjunctively and define conjunctively except for their definition of a verb. They define a verb as being formed by a root and suffix, e.g.

gama 'milk' (Ntsime and Kruger, 1993: 210)

They further regard the subject concord as a word. They say:

Mafokwana 0, e, ba ke dithuanyi tsa sediri ...... lefokwana a lona le bidiwa popi ya lediri 'The small words o, e, ba are subject concords .....the small word a is called a verbal formative' (Ntsime and Kruger, 1993: 211).

Ntsime and Kruger (1993) regard all other

elements preceding other parts of speech as formatives e.g.

ka beke 'weekly' (Ntsime and Kruger, 1993: 319) - Adverbial prefix.

Though Nguni linguists argued against

disjunctivism, the Xitsonga, Tshivenda, and

31 Sesctho linguists supported it. Berthoud in Grammatical Note on the Gwamba Language says this in support of disjunctivism:

We can only say that if this system of orthography were adopted in English, we would, instead of a sentence like 'he had not told it to you' have the big word hehadnottoldittoyou. There is no more reason to apply it to a Bantu Language than to European languages. (Van Wyk, 1958: 40).

Jacottet (Van Wyk, 1958: 42) in Grammar of Sesuto says:

The Zulu way of writing can be defended by very good reasons. But for practical purposes the Sesuto way is certainly far easier. I have only to refer to the extensive use of hyphens to which grammarians have to resort, when explaining verbal forms.

In van Wyk (1958: 43) G Nel in Simple Zulu, says:

after twelve years experience in the teaching of Zulu to Junior certificate and Matriculation students I am persuaded that "conjunctive writing" which is now the accepted method, is a great obstacle to progress. Where one word is created from four or even five parts of speech, a feature of conjunctive writing which has no perils for the natural linguist, the beginner finds the task of discovering roots or stems extremely trying.

2.4 CONCLUSION

32 The way words are written orthcrahically does not necessarily determine what are words linguistically. The way disjunctivism has developed and is rooted in Setswana, it will be very difficult to change it now. This also applies to languages that have the tradition of conjunctivism. Therefore, disjunctivism and conjunctivism do not determine words, but this can be successfully done by employing a scientific approach as advocated by van

Wyk (1958) to determine which units are words and which are non-words.

33 CHAPTER 3

WORD CLASSES

3.1 INTRODUCTION

Word classes are sometimes referred to as "parts of speech". flake (1955: 161) defines a part of speech as:

a word classified according to the kind of idea or relation it denotes in the sentencen.

Marivate and Mathumba (1989: 11) define it as:

a classificatory unit which groups words on the basis of their structure and distribution.

According to flake words are classified semantically and syntactically but he also classifies

morphologically as stated in Textbook of Zulu grammar (1935: 34). According to Marivate and Mathumba's definition, words are classified

morphologically and syntactically. On the other hand

van Wyk (in Louwrens, 1991: 9 - 10) says words must be categorised morphologically, semantically,

syntactically and phonologically. He states that morphological and syntactical characteristics are the basic criteria, and semantic and phonological

characteristics are additional criteria.

As a result of the different approaches used in the

classification of words, different writers arrive at

different word classes. word theories as advocated

34 during the different grammatical periods influenced and determined the word classes. This is evident in the word classes identified by different Setswana grammarians.

3.2 WORD CLASSES AS IDENTIFIED BY DIFFERENT WRITERS

3.2.1 ARCHBELL, J

In A Grammar of the Bechuana Language (1837) Archbell classifies words into the following nine classes:

Article - Archbell (1837: 7) does not give an example of an article but states that it is included in the word itself, e.g.

Pitsi 'a or the horse'

Noun e.g.

motu 'person'

Adjectives e.g.

- omogulu 'who is great' (with personal pronoun prefix). - wa mogolu 'a great man' (with the sign of genitive case).

- miraru 'three' (with simple

euphonic initial). - waumiling 'that is enriched'

35 (formed from the present perfect tense of the verb) - youmiling (with demonstrative pronoun) - mohumi (formed by prefixing

the euphonic and changing the verbal ending)

- saut.luang 'disobedient' (for- med by prefixing a negative)

- wakutsani 'a short man' (take the euphonic sign of the third person)

- babedi 'two' (numeral adjec- tive)

(iv) Pronoun - (a) personal pronouns

e.g.

rona 'we'

possessive pronouns e.g.

wagago 'thy man'

demonstrative pro- nouns e.g.

yo 'this'

interrogative pro-

nouns e.g.

36 i mang? 'who?'

(e) relative pronouns e.g.

e 'which'

Verb - e.g.

reka 'buy'

Adverb - e.g.

kapili 'once'

Preposition - e.g.

gari 'between'

Conjunction - e.g.

le 'and'

Interjection - e.g.

Haau! 'strange, wonderful'

Archbell does not give definitions of these

word classes because he adopted them from English thus all European grammarians know what they actually refer to.

3.2.2 WOOKEY, A J

In Secwana grammar (1946), Wookey divides

words into the following classes:

37 (i) noun - e.g. moruti 'teacher' pronoun: nominative pronoun - e.g.

ke 'I'

objective pronoun - e.g.

re 'us'

possessive pronoun - e.g.

rona 'ours'

demonstrative pronoun - e.g.

eo 'this'

relative pronoun - e.g.

ec ke bonan 'I who see'

Interrogatives - e.g.

man? 'who?' Adjective - e.g.

chweu 'white'

Verb - e.g.

kea reka 'I am buying'

Adverb - e.g.

gape 'again'

B] Adverbial conjunctions - e.g.

ecwa 'though'

Preposition - e.g.

rare 'between'

Conjunction - e.g.

ebon 'even'

Exclamations - e.g.

Tshikhi! 'how cold'

According to Wookey (1946: 29) there is no article in Secwana as stated by Archbell (1837) but its idea is expressed by the numeral adjective nwe (one). Wookey differs from Archbell in that he identifies adverbial conjunctions as a word class.

3.2.3 SANDILANDS, A

In An Introduction to Tswana (1953), Sandilands classifies words into the following

categories: Noun - e.g.

moruti 'teacher' Pronouns -

(a) Subjectival pronoun -

words used instead of and

39 standing for their re- spective nouns (1953: 29)

e.g.

o 'he'

Emphatic pronoun - e.g.

rona 'we us'

Objectival pronoun - e.g.

ke a di batla 'I am looking for them'

Possessive pronoun - when the possessing agent is expressed as a personal pronoun e.g.

sa me 'mine'

Possessive concord - e.g.

wa morafe 'of the tribe'

Relative construction - is defined as:

a term for the clauses which relate to, or qualify, some previously mentioned idea or things (1953: 100) e.g.

ha ba balang 'who are reading'

(v) Demonstrative - e.g. yc 'this near me'

Auxiliary verb - e.g.

go Lihola 'to go on'

Verb - e.g.

tia 'come'

Preposition - e.g.

mo koloing 'in the wagon'

Conjunction - e.g.

le 'and'

Adverb e.g.

jang? 'how'

Qualificatives: Adjectives - e.g.

yo montle 'a beautiful person'

Adverbs - e.g.

kgakala 'far away'

Interrogatives - e.g.

ke mang? 'who am I'

Onomatopoeic words and ideophones - e.g.

41 purru-purru! 'the sound of flying'

(xiv) Enclitics - e.g.

Hela Lihe! 'now then'

Sandiland's word classes differ drastically

from Archbell's and Wookey's especially on the issue of subjectival and objectival

pronoun, possessive concord and possessive pronoun.

3.2.4 COLE, D T

In An Introduction to Tswana Grammar (1955), Cole classifies words according to their function in the sentence and according to their grammatical relationship to one another. Using this criteria he comes up with six

major categories which are: Substantive Qualificative Predicative Descriptive

Conj unctive

Interjective

These major categories, he defines thus:

(i) A substantive is a word which signifies anything concrete or abstract ...... may function as subject or object in a sentence (1955: 60) A qualificative is a word which qualifies a substantive or modifies its reference (1955: 62)

He further explains that qualifications have a concord which is in agreement with the substantive qualified and a stem. Qualificatives cease to 'function' as qualificatives when they do not follow a substantive but are qualificative pronouns.

A predicative is a word which signifies the occurrence of an action connected with a sub- stantive, or the state in which a substantive is (1955: 63).

A descriptive is a word which describes, or modifies the reference of, a qualificative, predicative or other descriptive (1955: 64).

A conjunctive is a word which introduces a sentence or links up words, phrases, clauses or sentences (1955: 64).

An interjective is a word, exclamatory in character and generally isolated, which is used to express some emotion, to convey assent or dissent, or to call attention or give command (1955: 64).

Cole (1955) further subdivides the six major parts of speech into thirteen ultimate parts of speech on the basis of the form of the

words. They are divided as follows:

43 (i) A substantive: Noun Pronoun

(ii) A qualificative: Adjective Enumerative

Quantitative Possessive Relative (iii) A predicative: Verb Copulative (iv) A descriptive: Adverb Ideophone (v) Conjunctive: 12) (vi) Interjective: 13)

These ultimate parts of speech are defined as follows: The noun is a word which signifies the name of any- thing concrete or abstract (1955: 60) e.g.

Motihanka 'servant'

The pronoun is a word which signifies anything concrete or abstract without being its name (1955: 61).

Three types of pronouns are recognised: Absolute pronoun e.g.

bona 'them' Demonstrative pronoun e.g.

bano 'these here' Qualificative pronouns are qualificaive forms used indecendently of, or pre- ceding nouns or pronouns with which they show con- cordial agreement (1955: 61)

An adjective is a word which qualifies a substantive and is brought into concordial agreement therewith by an adjectival concord (1955: 62). e.g.

babasweu 'white people'

An enumerative is a word which qualifies a substantive and is brought into concordial agreement therewith by an enumerative con- cord (1955: 62). e.g.

osele 'another'

A quantitative is a word which qualifies a substantive and is brough into concordial agreement therewith by a quantitative con- cord (1955: 62). e.g.

rona rotlhe 'all of us' (1955: 155)

A possessive is a word which qualifies a substantive and is brought into concordial agree- ment therewith by a possessive concord (1955: 62). e.g.

bana bakgosi 'the children of the chief' (1955: 160).

A relative is a word which qualifies a substantive and is brought into concordial agreement therewith by a relative concord (1955: 63). e.g.

45 mosimane ycobotihaie 'a clever boy'(1955: 175).

A verb is a word which signifies the occurence of an action con- nected with a substantive, or the state in which a substantive is, and is formed by prefixal and suffixal inflexion from a base which is intrinsically predicative inforce, and is brought into con- cordial agreementwith its substan- tival subject by means of a sub- jectival concord (1955: 63). e.g.

Loabidiwa 'you are being called' (1955: 195).

A copulative is a word which signifies the state in which a substantive is, and is formed from some intrinsically non-predica- tive part of speech by modifica- tion of its prefix or concord or by some other prefixal inflex- ion (1955: 63). e.g.

Keene 'it is he' (1955: 313).

An adverb is a word which describes a qualificative, pre- dicative, or other adverb with respect to manner, place or time (1955: 64). e.g.

Retlasapa monokeng 'we shall swim in the river' (1955: 341).

A ideophone is a word, often onomatopoeic, which describes a qualificative, predicative or ad- verb with respect to sound, colour, smell, manner, state, action or intensity (1955: 64). e.g.

46 ngwee! 'absconding'

Cole's word categories have been adopted from

Doke's in Textbook of Zulu Grammar (1927). The only difference being that Cole (1955) identifies a quantitative as a part of speech thus has thirteen ultimate parts of speech while Doke identifies twelve real parts of

speech. Cole (1955) also distinguishes between qualificatives and qualificative pronouns.

3.2.5 MALEPE, A T

In Setswana sa borre std 8 (1974) Malepe identifies the following word categories but

does not define them:

Leina 'noun' e.g.

setshego 'laughter' (1974: 3).

Leemedi 'pronoun': Leemeditota 'absolute pronoun' e.g.

yona 'it' (1974: 21).

Leemedisupi 'demonstrative

pronoun' e.g.

yole 'that yonder' (1974: 23).

47 Leernedipadi 'enumerative pronoun' e.g.

mongwe 'a certain person' (1974: 47).

Leemedi-tlhophi 'quanti- tative pronoun' e.g.

botlhe 'all' (1974: 45).

Leemedi la lebotsi 'in- terrogative pronoun' e.g.

mang? 'who'? (1974: 25).

Lediri 'verb' e.g.

o sega 'he cuts' (1974: 53).

Kopulatifi 'Copulative' e.g.

ke kgomo 'it is a cow' (1974: 91).

Leamanyi 'relative' e.g.

ha ba bosula 'the bad ones' (1974: 99).

Lerui 'possessive' e.g.

wa me 'mine' (1974: 102).

(vii) Lekopanyi 'conjunctive' e.g.

ME le 'and' (1974: 109).

Letlhalosi 'adverb' e.g.

jaanong 'now' (1974:111).

Malepe (1974: 110) defines an adverb as a word which describes a verb e.g.

sentle 'good'.

Lelatiheiwa 'interjective' e.g.

Ee! 'Yes!' (1974: 117).

Leetsi 'ideophone' e.g.

bib! 'rising to the surface' (1974:119).

Malepe (1974) does not identify an adjective as a word category, but in Tswana-Leerboek (1968) together with Ferreira groups all words he refers to as relatives and enumerative

pronouns with adjectives, and term them adjectives. (Ferreira and Malepe, 1968: 81 -

84).

3.2.6 SNYMAN, J W AND MOTHOAGAE, M K

In Segarona sa borutabana (1990), Tswana for

beginners (1991) and in a series of Segarona Std 5 - 10 Snyman et al classify words into

the following categories. These categories

EM are given with their working definitions: Noun - definition is similar to

that of Cole (1955) e.g.

moeng 'visitor' (1990: 2).

Absolute pronoun refers to a noun or person e.g.

bona 'them' (1990: 15).

Demonstratives qualify subjects or objects that are spoken of and are physically present in the vicinity of the speaker ...... refer to subjects or objects that the speaker has just referred to or that were referred to earlier e.g.

Thipa ele ...... 'that knife' (Snyman et al, 1991: 25).

Adjective is defined as in Cole

(1955) e.g.

yo mosesanenyane 'a thin one' (1990: 28).

Enumerative qualifies a substan-

tive e.g.

mongwe 'a certain person'

(1990:38).

(vi) Quantitatives are not defined

50 MOM

sotihe 'all' (1990: 44). Possessive indicates a relation- ship between the possession and the possessor e.g.

ya monna 'of the man' (1990: 49).

Interrogatives are words by which statements are changed into questions e.g.

eng? 'what?' (1990: 56).

Verb is defined as in Cole (1955)

e.g.

re bala ...... 'read' (1990: 65).

Auxiliary verb is a word that extends/expands the meaning of the

main verb e.g.

o ne a tsamaya ...... 'he was walking' (1990: 76).

An adverb describes a verb e.g.

kwa tirong 'to work' (1990: 131).

Ideophone describes a sound, colour, smell, manner, appearance

51 or the state of an action e.g.

flu! 'dark' (1990: 141).

Copulative signifies a relation- ship of description, association and identification that exists between the subject and the base

e.g.

ke morutabana 'is a teacher' (1990: 146).

Interjective is defined as in

Cole (1955) e.g.

nnyaa! 'no' (1990: 188).

Conjunctive is defined as in Cole

(1955) e.g.

gongwe 'maybe' (1990: 194).

Unlike Cole (1955), Snyman et al do not divide words into major and ultimate parts of speech. Cole (1955) did not identify interrogatives and auxiliary verbs as word

classes.

3.2.7 SETSHEDI, J E

In Ithuteng Setswana (1980), Setshedi classifies words into the following parts of

speech and defines thus:

52 (i) Leina 'noun' is defined as in

Cole (1955) e.g.

mofero 'weed' (1980: 26).

Maemedi 'pronouns' Maemeditho 'personal pro-

nouns' e.g.

nna 'I' (1980: 55).

Maemeditota 'absolute pro-

nouns' e.g.

rona 'we' (1980: 56).

Letihophi 'quantitative' e.g.

yotlhe 'all' (1980: 59).

Lesupi 'demonstrative' is a word that is used to point at something

and also qualifies a noun e.g.

tse 'these' (1980: 62).

Lebotsi 'interrogative' e.g.

mang? 'who?' (1980: 65).

Letlhaodi 'adjective' qualifies a

noun. Setshedi also identifies an

interrogative adjective. This

is a word referred by Malepe as an

53 enumerative pronoun e.g.

yo mofe? 'which one' (1980:76).

Lerui 'possessive' e.g.

tsa me 'mine' (1980: 79).

Lediri 'verb' is a word that signifies an action performed by the subject e.g.

tsamaile 'gone' (1980: 82).

Letlhalosi 'adverb' e.g.

jaanong 'now' (1980: 99).

Leetsi 'ideophone' is a word that describes a predicative in such a way that one visualises the action without having seen it e.g.

twaa! 'very white/bright' (1980: 103).

Lelatlhelwa 'interjective' is defined as in Cole (1955) e.g.

tsweetswee! 'Please' (1980: 109).

Lekopanyi 'conjunctive' is

defined as in Cole (1955) e.g.

54 fa 'when'.

Setshedi did not identify a relative, enumerative and copulative as word classes. He differs again from Cole (1955) because

he identified interrogatives and demonstratives as word classes.

3.3 CONCLUSION

The word classes and morpheme types identified by the different writers may be summarised as follows:

55 ------a) a) o a) o - - E-I C a) a) C C > C CI) z E

a) I w a ai E Z a) a) -

C Gla) C c c c C C C Ct) E E E ------Ci a) a) Ca a) a) ) E E E E .0 0 > E a) a) a) Ca I- C a4 I-. 0 1-4 a) Z C 0 0 C CC a) C C > C 0— E E -'- E

E E Ca E E a) a) a) 14 -i-I .0 Il 04 04 04 04 a) C 0-4 04 04 I- 1- 1-4 > 0 . o 0 C 0 0 a LI a) E 1-4 Cl

C Cl) C a) c_I CCI a) a) Cl a) a) .04- -- C .0 .0 0- C C 04 CI cd cc C 04 04 Z 0 0 (1) > (D tn ' 0 14 1- ,cx: 14 1-4 Ic > 0 CI C 0 C Cl) 04 04 04 Ia) 1------o Ca --4 a) C) CI -IJ .- C C — —4 CI Cl C C a) CI) 0 0 0 z a) 04 04 Ci o C C 04 0 1-4 o 0 0 a) (1) C 0 0 rc I-i E It 04 04 04 C o a) CI Cl —4 > > C) .IJ C) 0 0 0 U) 0 0 .0 .0 0 C C C 0 a) Ca 04 1- a) LI 0 0 0 04 a) In 1-4 1-4 C) '0 0 '0 04 04 04 1-4 C Ca) E It ------04 I C'-- o 0' I .0 0 Ca) '0 I (a) U) CI E 41 tn C Ca) .. 4-1 '0 - C 0 . C) 1-4 ' - OCa) C C) Cl o 1-4 C) >4 0 14 - o 0 C) > 0(a) r1 0 I Cl) 0 0 -4 H E Cl o 'Cl (1) Ci .0 0 Ln C) 0 --4 CI 0 > U) -4 IC .0 1- -1-4 Cl) U) a) Ci 1- '- $- 14 41 a) Cia) Cl a) C) a) a) CI IC C U) .0 E 04 > 4-1 —4 a) CI) r a) O .0 '0 0 '0 C 0 a) '0 C CI) 0 04 LI 4 1-4 Z 1 CHAPTER 4

THE NOUN

This chapter will look at how grammarians treat the noun.

It will look at the noun classes that the different writers distinguish, derivations of the noun, infinitives and locatives.

4.1 THE NOUN CLASSES

Nouns in Bantu languages and in Setswana are classified into classes according to their prefixes. These prefixes mostly indicate whether the noun is singular or plural. Writers differ on the number and

the numbering of noun classes found in Setswana.

4.1.1 ARCHBELL, 3

Archbell (1837: 9 et seq) classifies nouns into the following classes; some indicating singular and plural, and others indicating singular, dual, and plural forms. He does not number these noun classes:

SINGULAR PLURAL ma - e.g. motu 'person' > ba - e.g. batu 'persons' mo/ - e.g. molomo 'mouth' > mi - e.g. milomo 'mouths'

II SINGULAR DUAL PLURAL ii - e.g. > ma - e.g. > mi - e.g. liklo 'eye' maklo 'eyes' miklo 'eyes'

bu-/bo - e.g. > ma - e.g. > mi - e.g. bubi 'evil' mabubi 'evils' mibubi 'evils'

57 si - e.g. > li - e.g. > ma - e.g. siait]a 'hand' ilaitla 'hands' maaitla 'hands'

a - e.g. > li - e.g. > ma - e.g. atsi 'world' liatsi 'worlds' maatsi 'worlds' c - e.g. > li - e.g. > ma - e.g. caka 'spear' licaka 'spears' macaka 'spears'

g - e.g. > li - e.g. > ma - e.g. gal 'home' ligai 'homes' magai 'homes' k - e.g. > li - e.g. > ma - e.g. klau 'young man'liklau 'young men'mak]au 'young men' n - e.g. > li - e.g. > ma - e.g. nunyani 'bird' linunyani 'birds'manunyani 'birds'

p - e.g. > li - e.g. > ma - e.g. pino 'song' lipino 'songs' mabino 'songs' t - e.g. > li - e.g. > ma - e.g. tipa 'knife' litipa 'knives' matipa 'knives' z - e.g. > li - e.g. > ma - e.g. zebi lizebi mazebi b/lu - e.g. > li - e.g. > ma - e.g. lumau 'needle' limau 'needles' mamau 'needles'

un - e.g. > li - e.g. > ma - e.g. untwa 'war' lintwa 'wars' mantwa 'wars'

en - e.g. > li - e.g. > ma - e.g. enca 'dog' linca 'dogs' manca 'dogs' in - e.g. > li - e.g. > ma - e.g. ince 'ostrich' lince 'ostriches'mance 'ostriches'

Apart from the noun classes indicated above,

Archbell (1837:9) identifies the

irregularities occuring in the Setswana noun

classes. He states that proper nouns are irregular in their formation of duals and

plurals, e.g.

hara 'father' > buhara 'fathers' mochuana > Buchuana > Bichuana (Archbell, 1837: 10)

Archbell's noun classes have a lot of overlapping, thirteen of the classes take the prefix ii- and ma- in the formation of duals and plurals respectively.

4.1.2 WOOKEY, A J

Wookey (1946: 19) distinguishes ten noun classes, each grouped into singular and plural, e.g. SINGULAR PLURAL Class: 1. mo - e.g. moruti 'teacher' ba - e.g. baruti mo - e.g. molapo 'valley' me - e.g. melapo mo - e.g. motlhware 'olive ma - e.g. matihware tree se - e.g. selepe 'axe' di - e.g. dilepe lo - e.g. lobone 'candle' di - e.g. dipone bo - e.g. bogosi 'kingdom' ma - e.g. magosi le - e.g. letlole 'box' ma - e.g. matlole + - e.g. thipa 'knife' di - e.g. dithipa + - e.g. nche 'ostrich' bo - e.g. bonche go - e.g. go lema 'ploughing'ma - e.g. malemo Though divided in this manner, Wookey (1946: 19) acknowledges that class 9 is a subdivision of class 1. This classification was adopted by Gabatshwane (1971).

There is a lot of overlapping in this classification. There are four plural forms

with the prefix ma-, viz classes 3, 6, 7 and 10. There are two singular forms with the prefix mo- (excluding class 1), viz classes 2

and 3. There are two plural forms with the

59 prefix di-, viz classes 5 and 8.

4.1.3 SANDILANDS, A

Sandilands (1953: 27) distinguishes ten noun classes, three of these with subdivisions. The singular and plural are grouped into one class, e.g.

SINGULAR PLtJRAL Class: I mo - e.g. moruti 'teacher' ba - e.g. baruti II - e.g. malome 'uncle' bo - e.g. bomalome III mo - e.g. mogoma 'plough' me - e.g. megoma IV mo - e.g. mosu 'mosutree' ma - e.g. masu IV(a) ma - e.g. mosu lo - e.g. losu V - e.g. nku 'sheep' di - e.g. dinku V(a) - e.g. nku ma - e.g. manku VI se - e.g. selepe 'axe' di - e.g. dilepe VII lo - e.g. lokwalo 'book' di - e.g. dikwalo VIII le - e.g. legapu 'melon' ma - e.g. magapu VIII(a) lo - e.g. loiwapa 'court' ma - e.g. maiwapa IX bo - e.g. bolwetse 'illness' ma - e.g. maiwetse X go - e.g. go lema 'ploughing'ma - e.g. malemo

Sandiland's noun classes have more overlapping

occurring. Classes III, IV and IV(a) have the

same prefix mo- in the singular form. Classes V and V(a) also are the same with no prefix. There are six plural forms taking the ma- prefix. Two singular forms take the lo- prefix, and two plural classes viz classes V

and VII with the prefix di-.

4.1.4 COLE, D T

Cole (1955: 69) distinguishes seventeen noun prefixes and groups them into nine noun

classes, the first seven indicating singular and plural, and one sub-class. Cole (1955) classifies thus:

SINGULAR PLURAL

Class 1 ma - e.g. monna 'man' ba - e.g. banna 1(a) - e.g. ntshe 'ostrich' bo - e.g. bontshe 2 ma - e.g. morula 'marula tree'me/ma - merula marula 3 le - e.g. leina 'name' ma - e.g. mama 4 se - e.g. selepe 'axe' di - e.g. dilepe 5 N - e.g. nku 'sheep' diN - e.g. dinku 6 lo - e.g. lobota 'wall' diN - e.g. dipota 7 bo - e.g. bosigo 'night' ma - e.g. msigo 8 go - e.g. goja 'to eat' 9 fa - e.g. fatshe 'down' go - e.g. gob 'a place' mo - e.g. moseja 'side'

Cole's (1955) classification was adopted by Setshedi (1980), Harman (1980) and Ntsime (1983) with slight changes or omissions. Instead of the nine classes identifief by Cole, Setshedi (1980: 28 - 36) identified eight classes with the exception of class 9, and that class 2 mo- can also take the plural ma-. Harman (1980: 63) overlooked the fact that class 2 mo- also takes the plural ma-. Ntsime (1983) used the same clasification as Cole (1955) but up to class 7. He overlooked classes 8 and 9, class 1(a), and that mo- can take ma- as its plural.

There is overlapping of classes in Cole's classification of nouns. Class 3 plural form overlaps with class 7 and 2, while the plurals of class 5 and 6 are the same.

61 4.1.5 RRER?, J A AND MALEPE, A T (1963)

They group noun prefixes into a singular and plural class but number the classes individually according to Meinhof's numbering as follows:

ma- ba- kias (1 ma - e.g. motho 'person' (2:I ba - e.g. batho 'persons' mo- me- kias (3 I ma - e.g. morula 'morula tree' (4 me - e.g. merula le- ma- kias (5 I le - e.g. legapu 'melon'

(6:I ma - e.g. magapu 'melons' Se- di- kias (7 se - e.g. selepe 'axe (8:I di - e.g. dilepe 'axes' n- di(n)- kias (9 I n - e.g. nku 'sheep' (10:I di(n) - e.g. dinku 'sheep' lo- di(n)- kias (11 lo - e.g. lonaka 'horn' (10; di(n) - e.g. dinaka 'horns' bo- ma- kias (14:I bo - e.g. bogobe 'porridge' (6;I ma - e.g. magobe 'porridges'

infinitief klas (15;I go - e.g. go bona 'to see' lokatief kias (16 I fa - e.g. fatshe 'down' (17; go - e.g. godimo 'up' (18: ma - e.g. morago 'backwards' (Fe] reira and Malepe, 1968: 9)

This classification was later applied by Snyman et al (1991), Snyman and Mothoagae (1990). Malao et al (1987) adopted a classification similar to Ferreira and

Malepe's but with slight differences. They identified class 2(a) ba- and 2(b) bo-. Their numbering from 11 et seq differs from that of Ferreira and Malepe and they number

thus:

class 11. lo- e.g. lorako 'wall' di- e.g. dinta 'lies' bo - e.g. bogobe 'porridge' ma- e.g. magobe 'porridges'

62 15. go- e.g. go reka 'to buy'

Malao et al do not distinguish the locative

classes.

4.1.6 KOPANE, P K

Kopane (nd) distinguishes eight noun classes grouped into singular and plural. He differs slightly from Cole (1955) in that he does not distinguish the locative class 9, and also distinguishes class 2(a). He classifies thus:

class 1 ma- /ba- e.g. motho 'person' batho 'persons' 1(a) - /bo- e.g. rre 'father' borre 'fathers' 2 mc- /me- e.g. motse 'village' metse 'villages' 2(a) mo- /ma- e.g. morula 'morula tree' marula 3 le- /ma- e.g. lewatle 'sea' mawatle 'seas' 4 Se- /di- e.g. selepe 'axe' dilepe 'axes' 5 N- /diN- e.g. nku 'sheep' dinku 'sheep' 6 10- /diN- e.g. lobota 'wall' dipota 'walls' 7 bo- /ma- e.g. bolwetsi 'illness' maiwetsi 'illnesses' 8 go- /ma- e.g. go fula 'grazing' mafulo 'grazings'

Kopane (nd) differs from the other writers in that he distinguishes two sub-classes which

are class 1(a) and class 2(a). His classification also has overlapping. There

are four classes with the plural ma-, and two

classes with the plural form diN-.

63 4.2 DRI7ATIONS

This term is used to refer to nouns which are derived

from other parts of speech or are nouns not in their true form. Earlier grammarians referred to this as the oblique case of the noun, differentiating it with the nominative case which referred to the true form of the noun. Earlier grammarians distinguished the following cases:

The nominative case Here the noun is used in its true form as the subject or object of a sentence, e.g.

khomo ya goga koloing 'The cow pulled the cart' (Archbell, 1837: 14)

The genitive case This is referred to as the possessive case by Wookey (1946: 39). To indicate possession, a pronominal (possessive) particle is used between the nouns or between the noun and the pronoun e.g.

Mogogi oa morahe 'the leader of the nation' (Wookey, 1946: 40)

The dative case Wookey (1946: 37) refers to this case as the

locative case. The noun is used to indicate location. This is done through the use of

particles or/and the ending -ing, which are affixed to the noun e.g.

kwa mabelen 'at the corn' (Wcckey, 1946: 37)

The accusative case The noun is used as the object of the sentence e.g.

Ki a yala mabeling 'I sow corn' (Archbell, 1837: 18)

The vocative case On this case the form of the noun changes when the person is spoken of. Wookey (1946: 38) states that this is not a true vocative case because in Setswana the vowel ending of the noun does not change when a person is spoken to e.g.

Khama (When spoken to) but

Khame (when spoken of) (Wookey, 1946: 38)

The ablative case This case is expressed through the use of prepositions and the ending -ng. This corresponds to Wookey's locative case. Archbell (1837: 18) uses this to express the

English sense of in, by, from, and through. Like the dative, it indicates locality, the only difference being that the dative

65 expresses the preposition to e.g.

mo masimung 'on the field' (Archbell, 1837: 18)

The cases of the noun identified by these writers are based on Latin grammar because it was the only known grammar then, as a result, most studies of the African languages prior to the Dokean era were based in principle on Latin grammar.

Wookey (1946: 36) also states that there are no declensions in the Secwana language, but prepositions, particles and derivative forms of the verb take the place of inflection.

Cole (1955) and other recent grammarians like

Setshedi (1980) differ from earlier writers in that they do not use the term case to refer to the derivations of the noun. They distinguish derivations on morphological bases and not on syntactical bases as the earlier writers did. According to Cole (1955: 103), other parts of speech are nominalized in one form or another even if they assume other functions in the sentence. Cole's approach is in line with the Dokean approach and the structural approach.

Cole (1955: 102) and Setshedi (1980:25) distinguish between nouns with primitive stems and nouns with derivative stems. New nouns are formed through

W. prefixation and/or suffixation of sterns. The derived nouns are classified as follows:

i) nouns derived from other nouns, e.g.

bonyatsi 'paramourship' < nyasi 'paramour'

morweetsana 'young woman' < morwadi 'daughter'

nouns derived from pronouns, e.g.

bojotihe 'wholeness' < jotihe 'all of it,

bagaetsho 'our people' < gaetsho 'our home'

nouns derived from qualificative stems, e.g.

bosesane 'narrowness' < -sesane 'narrow'

bongwe 'oneness' < -ngwe 'one'

nouns derived from verb stems (deverbatives) e.g.

mohumi 'wealthy person' < huma 'become rich'

moiwetse 'sick person' < -iwala 'be sick'

v) nouns derived from adverbs e.g.

bogare 'the middle' < gare 'middle'

bogaufi 'nearness' < gaufi 'near'

nouns derived from ideophones and interjections e.g.

67 lefifi 'darkness' < fii! 'signifying darkness'

lemme 'small gift' < mme! 'have this'

Compound nouns e.g.

pelonolo 'kindliness' < pelo + nob 'heart + soft'

tauiona 'great chief' < tau + etona 'lion + which is great'

viii) Foreign acquisitions e.g.

gouta 'gold' < goud phaepe 'pipe' < pipe

4.3 LOCATIVES

Traditionally locatives were described as adverbs of

place, though they are structurally nouns but syntactically function as adverbs. Setswana

grammarians overlooked this fact. Archbell (1837: 17) and Wookey (1946: 37) refer to nouns that express location as the locative case because they use the suffix -(e)ng, while Snyman et al (1991: 178) refer to them as adverbs derived from nouns. Different types of locatives have been identified:

4.3.1 THE USE OF PARTICLES

Nouns are locativised by the use of particles, referred to as prepositions by Wookey (1946:

37). These prepositions are ma-, kwa-, kaha-, ha-, ka-, kwa-. The noun also takes n

as an ending, and also change the vowel preceding it e.g.

mo nLlun 'in the house' (Wookey 1946: 37)

This has never been a problem, writers identified the use of particles to express location e.g. Cole (1955: 341).

4.3.2 LOCATIVE NOUNS

Grammarians before Cole (1955) did not distinguish the locative nouns of class 16, 17 and 18. Archbell (1837:10) identifies class g- and gives an example of a noun that expresses location e.g. gal 'home' . Wookey (1946: 19) only classifies nouns up to

Meinhof's class 15. Sandilands (1953) too did not distinguish the locative nouns. Only Cole (1955), Ferreira and Malepe (1968),

Snyman et al (1991), Lekala et al (1988), and Ntsime and Kruger (1993) distinguish the locative classes. Ferreira and Malepe (1968: 36) say:

The locative function as an adverb and can be used with other adverbs e.g.

o ya mosate ka moso 'He is going to the capital tomorrow'. Cole (1955: 347) shares the same view with

Ferreira and Malepe (1968) that locative

nouns of classes fa-, go-, mc- may be used as locative adverbs e.g.

re tsile momogo 'we came together' (Cole 1955: 349)

4.3.3 LOCATIVISED NOUNS

Setswana grammarians did not realize that nouns from other noun classes can be locativised by suffixing -ing. Nouns that

have the suffix -ing have been classified as adverbs of place. cf Snyman et al (1991: 178). These nouns are used without the particles e.g.

Re ya toropong phakela 'We are going to town in the morning' Snyman et al (1991: 178)

Snyman et al's view is shared by Cole (1955:

342)

4.4 CONCLUSIONS

The identification of nouns has not been a problem in Setswana grammar. All writers classified the nouns into noun classes but differ in numbering the

classes and on the occurrence of other classes

70 especially the lccaive classes.

Derivations of the noun did not create a problem to writers, but they did not realise that nouns may assume secondary functions and be used as other parts of speech.

71 CHAPTER 5

THE PRONOUN

5.1 INTRODUCTION

The pronoun is defined by Cole (1955: 61) as:

a word which signifies anything concrete or abstract without being its name.

From the publications studied, it is evident that a pronoun is a word that stands in the place of a noun or in the place of a subject or object of the sentence.

Different writers distinguished different types of pronouns. For an example, Cole (1955) identifies three types:

the absolute pronoun e.g. bone 'they'

the demonstrative pronoun e.g. yo 'this' and

the qualificative pronoun e.g. entsho 'the black one'

Malepe (1974) identifies five types:

leemeditota 'the absolute pronoun' e.g. Ena 'He' leemedisupi 'the demonstrative pronoun' e.g. yo 'this'

leemedi la lebotsi 'the interrogative pronoun'

e.g. mang? 'who'

72 leemedi-tlhophi 'quantitative pronoun' e.g. boLhe 'all' leemedi-padi 'enumerative pronoun' e.g.

mongwe 'somebody'

Wookey (1946) identified five types:

the nominative pronoun e.g. ke 'I'

the possessive pronoun e.g. eona 'theirs' the demonstrative pronoun e.g. tse 'these'

the relative pronoun, and e.g. eo ke bonan 'I who see'

the interrogative pronoun e.g. man 'who'

It is evident from the examples above that what is regarded as a pronoun by one writer is not regarded as such by another e.g. Early grammarians regarded the concords as pronouns while the modern grammarians

regard concords as formatives of other parts of

speech. Therefore, this chapter will give attention to the absolute (emphatic) pronoun, the demonstrative, the qualificative pronoun, and other pronouns identified by grammarians.

5.2 THE ABSOLUTE PRONOUN

This is a word used in the place of a noun to avoid

repetition, and to emphasize the noun, (Harman 1982:

89). The asbolute pronoun is identified by all Setswana grammarians even though they use different

terminologies. Sandilands (1953: 67) regards it as

73 the emphatic pronoun because of its emphaoic nature, and Wcokey (1946: 54) regards it as the possessive pronoun. Setshedi (1980: 55), and Harman (1982: 1) distinguish and differentiate between the absolute pronouns 'maemedi-tota', and personal pronouns 'maemedi-tho', while Cole (1955) and other writers regard the personal pronoun as a part of the absolute pronoun.

Setswana grammarians distinguish various usages of the absolute pronoun. They actually do not disagree, but some identified more uses than others, and a summary thereof will be given.

Archbell (1837: 31) indicates that a pronoun just like a noun has many cases e.g.

the dative case - gona 'to me' the accusative case - na 'me' the ablative case - kana 'through me'

The absolute pronoun generates its own concords

(Harman 1982: 1) e.g.

Lona Jo 'you'

They can be used either as subjects or as objects. (Sandilands 1953: 67), (Lesele 1987: 109), (Ntsime and Kruger 1993: 136) and (Setshedi 1980: 56) e.g.

Bona ba rekisa dibuka 'they, they sell books'

74 kgosi e bitsa ena 'the chief is calling him (Setshedi 1980: 56)

It is used to emphasize the noun (Sandilands 1953: 67), (Kopane 1974: 19), (Harman 1982: 89), (Cole 1955: 127) and (Ntsime and Kruger 1993: 137). Ntsime and Kruger (1993: 137) further states that the absolute pronoun only indicates emphasis when used after the noun e.g.

Kgosana yona e a iwala 'the chief himself is sick'

According to Cole (1955: 129) the emphatic significance is lost when the pronoun assumes secondary usage e.g.

Kemoiteile kayone 'I hit him with it'

It is used to indicate certainty when it precedes the noun e.g.

Bana ba nwa ona maswi a kgomo 'the children drink it the milk of a cow' (Ntsime and Kruger, 1993: 137)

It can be used alone in a sentence e.g.

Wena! 'You' (Lesele 1987: 109)

It is used to indicate contrast (Snyman and

75 Mcthcagae 1990: 15) and (Cole 1955: 127) e.g.

Tshwene e rata diphepheng. Legakabe lona le rata

yona Lsie. 'The baboon likes spiders. A white-necked crow itself likes it the locust.' (Snyman and Mothoagae 1990: 15).

The absolute pronoun assumes secondary usage when used with other prefixes:

(a) It indicates possession e.g.

Sediba sa lona 'the well of you' (Ntsime and Kruger 1993: 137)

It indicates locality e.g.

Semumu se ile kwa ga sona 'A dumb person has gone to his place. (Ntsime and Kruger 1993: 137).

Dirukhutihi di fitihile dithunya mo go lona 'the robbers hid the guns at our place'

Modise o ile kwa go yona 'Modise has gone to it' (Ntsime and Kruger 1993: 138)

o ile go tsona 'He has gone to them' (Lesele 1987: 110)

It can be used as a copulative e.g.

ke bona 'it is them' (Ntsime and Kruger 1993: 138)

It can be used to indicate an instrument e.g.

76 ka lona 'with it' (Lesele 1987: 109)

It indicates conjunction e.g.

le yona 'with it' (Lesele 1993: 110)

It indicates comparison 'tshwantshanyo mokgwa' e.g.

Rapule o lebelo jaaka ona 'Rapule is as fast as it' (Setshedi 1980: 58)

5.3 THE DEMONSTRATIVE PRONOUN

The demonstrative has been identified by most

Setswana grammarians as a pronoun. They agree that it is used to indicate distance of objects from the speaker and the addressee and that it is a pronoun

because it can be used as a substitute of the noun e.g.

bana ha reka dinku 'the children buy sheep'

bao ha reka tseo 'those buy those' (Malepe 1974: 22)

Demonstratives correspond to the noun classes and are therefore classified and arranged according to the classes, and also indicate singular and plural.

Demonstratives are classified into different

positions according to the suffix employed.

Traditionally, three positions are identified, but Cole (1955: 129) distinguishes four sets, e.g.

77 yc 'this one' yoc 'that one' yono 'this one here' yole 'that one yonder'

Snyman et al (1991: 26 - 33) identify five sets of demonstratives e.g.

yo 'this one'

yona 'this one here' yono 'this one here' yoo 'that one' yole 'that one yonder'

Malepe (1974: 23), Setshedi (1980: 61), Lekala et al (1988: 150), Ntsime and Kruger (1993: 155) and Malao et al (1987: 180) identify four sets classified into three positions with position one having subdivisions (a) and (b) e.g.

(a) yo 'this one' (b) yono/yona 'this one here' yoo 'that one'

yole 'that one yonder'

Wookey (1946: 59), Harman (1982: 99) and Lesele et al (1987: 106) distinguish three positions e.g.

(1) yo 'this one'

78 yco 'thaL one' yole 'that one yonder'

Archbell (1837: 36) distinguishes three positions but differs from Wookey (1946) and the others on position two. Archbell (1837: 36) classifies thus:

yo 'this' yona 'that' you 'that there'

The three traditional positions will be discussed.

POSITION 1

This is referred to as the basic demonstrative because all other positions are deduced from it by suffixation (Cole 1955: 129). This position refers to objects nearer to the speaker and the addressee

(Snyman et al 1991: 26). It is subdivided into position 1(a) and 1(b) by most writers with the exception of Cole (1955), Snyman et al (1991), Wookey (1946), Harman (1982), Lesele et al (1987) and Archbell (1837).

Position 1(a) has no suffix and has the root -0-, -a- or -ê- depending on the class prefix. Malepe (1974: 23) states that this position may take the suffix -na, e.g.

yona 'this one'

79 Position 1(a) indicates objects next to the speaker

(Ntsime and Kruger 1993: 155). But when these objects are very close to the speaker then position

1(b) is used.

Position 1(b) employs the suffix -no or -na. Cole (1955: 129) refers to this as position three, Snyman et al (1991: 26 - 33) refer to the demonstrative with suffix -na as position two and the one with the suffix -no as position three. While Archbell (1837: 36) refers to the demonstrative with the suffix -na or -no as position 2.

POSITION 2

This refers to objects relatively distant from the speaker and close to the addressee (Cole 1955: 131).

The suffix -o is added to the basic demonstrative e.g.

yoo 'that one'

Snyman et al (1991: 30) refer to this demonstrative as position four.

POSITION 3

Objects referred to by this demonstrative are far

from both the speaker and the addressee (Ntsime and

Kruger 1993: 155). The suffix -le/-la is used to indicate this position (Wookey 1946: 59) e.g. ecle or ecla 'that yonder'

Cole (1955: 132) refers to this as position four, while snyman et al (1991: 31) regard it as position

five.

Demonstrative pronouns have similar functions as the

absolute pronouns. In addition to these functions, Snyman et al (1991: 25) states that demonstratives do not only qualify nouns but are also referential in meaning e.g.

Thipa ele ya maabane e ne e se ya gaqo 'That knife of yesterday was not yours'

5.4 QUALIFICATIVE PRONOUNS

Cole (1955: 61) states that:

qualificative pronouns are qualificative forms used independently of, or preceding, the nouns or pronouns with which they show concordial agreement, and therefore func- tioning as substantives.

Cole (1955: 135) identifies five types of qualificative pronouns and they are:

Adjectival qualificative pronoun e.g.

entsho 'the black one'

Enumerative qualificative pronoun e.g.

efe? 'which one'

Quantitative qualificative pronoun e.g.

II botihe 'all'

Possessive qualificative pronoun e.g.

Wame 'mine'

Relative qualificative pronoun e.g.

eeboga]e 'the vicious one'

Most of the Setswana writers do not identify qualificative pronouns. But some recognised that qualificatives can be used as subjects or objects without the nouns that are being qualified, but do not refer to them as pronouns. Setshedi (1980: 72) indicates this, e.g.

Mogokgo o biditse bagolo 'the principal has called the elders'

5.4.1 THE ADJECTIVAL PRONOUN

Cole (1955: 135) is the only writer who refers

to adjectives that are pronominal as

pronouns. Setshedi (1980: 71) does not refer to the adjective as a pronoun but states that it can be used without the noun qualified. Setshedi (1980: 73) says:

Letihaodi le ka dirisiwa kwa ntie ga leina le le le tihaoiang. 'An adjective can be used without the noun qualified' e.g. C Lsamaile la basweu go ya kwa moseja 'He went with the whites to go overseas'

Like Setshedi (1980), Ntsime and Kruger (1993: 146) also state that the adjective may be used as the subject and object of the sentence without the noun that it qualifies. From this it can be deduced that adjectives assume

pronominal function.

Snyman and Mothoagae (1990:35) state that an adjective may be used without the noun qualified and therefore substitute the noun.

They write:

Matlhaodi a ka dirisiwa a le nosi jaaka didiri kgotsa didirwa tsa polelo Fa a dirisitswe jaana, a tsaya maemo a mama, kgotsa a emela mama mo polelong e.g.

yo mokima a sala fale 'the fat one remained there .

5.4.2 THE ENUMERATIVE PRONOUN

Cole (1955: 135) is the first writer to

acknowledge that if an enumerative is used

without the noun it qualifies, it becomes a

pronoun. Apart from Cole, Malepe (1974: 47)

also identifies an enumerative pronoun. He identifies four stems: -ngwe, -fe, -sele and

-pe e.g.

M. mcngwe o t1ile 'Somebody has come (Malepe 1974: 47)

Ntsime and Kruger (1993: 170) maintain that an enumerative may be used as the subject or object of the sentence, though they do not regard it as a pronoun e.g.

Lo batla ole? 'Which one do you want'

Re bone osele 'We saw a certain one'

Ga re a bona ope 'We did not see anybody'

Ke bona bangwe 'I see others' (Ntsime and Kruger 1993: 175)

5.4.3 THE RELATIVE PRONOUN

A relative is used to stand for the noun. Wookey (1946: 63), Archbell (1837: 40), Cole

(1955: 135), Ferreira and Malepe (1967: 66) identify this type of a pronoun. The relative

pronoun

is expressed by placing the demonstrative pronoun of the substantive or pronoun to which it relates before the ordinary pronoun which stands for it, according to its case. (Wookey 1946: 63)

Ferreira and Malepe (1967: 66) identifies

three types of relative pronouns based on

their stems:

(i) THE VERBAL RELATIVE The relative concord thereof is formed

by a relative pronoun which is similar to the demonstrative

position 1, and the subject concord. Followed by the verb stem with the suffix -ng e.g.

yo o dirang 'who is working' (Ferreira and Malepe 1967: 66)

(i i) THE NOMINAL RELATIVE

The relative concord thereof is similar to that of the verbal relative, and a noun e.g.

yo o botihale 'who is clever' (Ferreira and Malepe 1967: 66)

(iii) THE ENUMERATIVE RELATIVE

The relative concord thereof is formed

by a low-toned subject concord, and is followed by an enumerative relative stem e.g.

ope 'no one' (Ferreira and Malepe 1967: 66)

Archbell (1837: 40) refers to the subject concord in a relative construction as a relative pronoun. He states:

the relative pronouns are o, e, si, bo, ba, i, ii, a, 10

85 5.4.4 THE QUANTITATIVE PRONOUN

Cole (1955: 135) states that a quantitative used without the noun it qualifies becomes a pronoun. Malepe (1974: 45) also identifies the quantitative pronoun 'leemedi-tihophi' e.g.

Botihe ba ile 'all are gone' (Malepe 1974: 45)

Setshedi (1980: 79), Ntsime and Kruger (1993: 164) do not regard a quantitative as a pronoun, but state that it can be used as a subject or object in a sentence e.g.

Malome o batla botihe 'Uncle wants them all' (Ntsime and Kruger 1993: 164)

5.4.5 THE POSSESSIVE PRONOUN

The possessive used without the noun it

qualifies becomes a pronoun. Kopane (1967: 24) states:

the possessive is a pronoun that indicates possession, and is joined with the noun by a possessive concord e.g.

kgomo tsa me 'my cattle' Possessive Possessive concord

Sandilands (1953: 42) states that a possessive pronoun only comes into being when the possessor is a personal pronoun. Unlike Kopane (1967) Sandilands (1953) refers to the concord and the possessor as the possessive e.g.

Selepe sa rona 'Our axe' (Sandilands 1953: 42)

Wookey (1946: 51) and Harman (1980: 95) identify possessive pronouns similar to those identified by Kopane (1967: 24). The possessive pronoun indicates 1st, 2nd and 3rd person singular and plural. They identify the following pronouns:

me 'my'

ke 'I'

ka 'mine' gago 'yours'

gagwe 'his'

Cole (1955: 135) differs from other writers, he states that the possessive only becomes a pronoun when it is not preceded by the noun it qualifies, e.g.

Mosadi wame oalwala 'my wife is sick' is a possessive, while

87 wame oa]waia 'mine is sick' is a possessive qualificative pronoun.

Setshedi (1980:79) does not refer to the

possessive as a pronoun, but states that it may be used alone without the noun it

qualifies e.g.

Tsa me ga di rekisiwe 'mine are not on sale'.

5.5 OTHER PRONOUNS

Sandilands (1953: 27 & 71) refers to subject concords and object concords as subjectival and objectival

pronouns. This view is also expressed by Gabatshwane

(1971: 12) e.g.

baruti ba a ruta 'the teachers are teaching' (Sandilands 1953: 28)

o bo apeile 'he has cooked it' (Sandilands 1953: 71)

Wookey (1946: 43) also refers to subject concords as ordinary nominative pronouns. These writers

identify the Setswana subject concords and object concords with the English pronoun. As a result

their word identification is influenced by the English words and the disjunctive writing system of

this language and other European languages. Malepe (1974: 25) and Wookey (1945: 65) identify an interrogative pronoun 'leernedi la lebotsi' used when asking questions e.g.

Lona lo bone mang? 'You, whom did you see? (Malepe 1974: 25)

5.6 CONCLUSION

Writers differ in their identification of pronouns

and on which words are pronouns. They differ on the types of pronouns found in Setswana. Early writers were influenced by European languages and thus identified parallels in Setswana and referred to them as pronouns. CHAPTER 6

QUALIFICATIVES

6.1 INTRODUCTION

Qualificatives are defined by Cole (1955: 62) as words which qualify substantives. These words only function as qualificatives when they are preceded by the substantive with which they show agreement.

Different types of qualificatives occur. According to Cole (1955: 62) the adjective, enumerative, quantitative, possessive and relative occur as qualificatives in Setswana. These words apart form having the common function of qualifying substantives, have a common structure consisting of the concord that agrees with the substantive and the

stem.

Writers differ in their identification of these qualificatives. Some, like Cole (1955) identify all the types, Setshedi (1980) identifies fewer, while Malepe (1974) regards these words as pronouns.

6.2 THE ADJECTIVE

The adjective is a word that has been commonly used

to describe the substantive as regards structure,

colour and number. Different constructions have been

regarded as adjectives due to their functions and not

their structure e.g. Mctu cmcccLo 'a great man' (Archbell 1337: 22)

Mou waumiling 'a man he being rich' (Archbell 1837: 23)

Mohunu: 'the rich man' (Archbell 1837: 23)

0 batla ngwana yo mofe? 'which child you need' (Setshedi 1980: 68)

Motho eo o molemo 'a good person' (Wookey 1946: 68)

Thipa ya Secwana 'a secwana knife' (Wookey 1946: 84) Batho ba botlhe 'all the people' (Malepe nd: 25)

The above examples indicate (1) an adjective, (ii) a relative construction, (iii) a noun, (iv) an enumerative, (v) a copulative, (vi) a possessive, (vii) and a quantitative, but have been historically treated as adjectives.

Writers also differ on how an adjective is constructed. Archbell (1837: 22) states that it is formed by prefixing a personal pronoun and the prefix of the noun referred to, e.g.

motu omogolo 'a man he great'

It is also formed by prefixing the genitive case and the initial of the governing noun e.g.

motu wa mogolu 'a man he is great'

It is also formed from the present perfect tense of

the verb, with the suffix -ng e.g.

91 motu waumiling 'a man he being rich'

Sometimes the demonstrative is prefixed to the verb, which has the suffix -ng e.g.

motu youmiiing 'the man who is rich'

Adjectives according to Archbell (1837: 23) are also formed by prefixing the euphonic and changing the termination of the verb e.g.

mohumi 'the rich man'

Some adjectives are formed by prefixing a negative e.g.

sautluang 'disobedient'

Setshedi (1980: 68), Malao et al (1987: 214), Moloto and Malao (nd: 60) state that an adjective is formed by a noun class prefix and a stem e.g.

Monna yo mogolo 'a man who is great'

Snyman and Mothoagae (1990: 28), Ntsime and Kruger

(1993: 142) and Cole (1955: 138) state that the adjective is formed by the adjectival concord and the adjectival stem. The adjectival concord consists of the demonstrative of distance 1 and the noun class prefix e.g.

monna yo mogolo 'a man who is great' where yo- is the demonstrative distance 1 -mo- is the noun class 1 prefix

92 -golo is the adjectival stern.

The suffixes -ana and -nyana may be used with adjectives e.g.

Monna yo mokhutshwanyana 'the man who is short' (Snyman and Mothogae 1990: 28)

Cole (1955: 138) states that an adjective only becomes a qualificative when preceded by a substantive, and is a qualificative pronoun when used without the substantive described. Other writers overlooked this aspect, but indicated that it may be used in the following ways:

It is used basically to describe or qualify a noun with respect to characteristics. (Harman 1982: 176)

When used without the substantive, it is

used as a subject or object of a sentence (Setshedi 1980: 68; Ntsime and Kruger 1993: 146) e.g.

yo mokhutshwane o robegile lengole 'the short one has broken his knee'

kgosi e otlhaile ba baleele 'the chief has punished the tall ones'

it assumes a secondary function

through the use of other prefixes:

- possessive concord - e.g. Diaparo tsa ba bannye ...... 'Clothes of the small ones

93 - instrumental descriptive - e.g. Rakgadi o apesa moiwetse ka tse ditshweu 'Aunt clothes the sick person with the white ones' - connective prefix - e.g.

Kgosi e tsamaya le ba bakima 'the chief travels with the big ones'

Though all writers identified the adjectives the one

to one correspondence thereof could not be found in

English. As a result, Sandilands (1953: 100) states that there are no adjectives proper in Setswana and all adjective qualification of nouns, etc. has got to be rendered by a relative construction.

6.3 THE RELATIVE

The relative is defined by Cole (1955: 63) as a word which qualifies the substantive and is brought into concordial agreement therewith by the relative

concord. As a result of its qualifying function, it has been historically treated or referred to as an

adjective, cf.

Motu waumiling 'a person who is rich' (Archbell, 1837: 23)

Thupa e e shokamen 'a stick which is crooked' (Wookey, 1946: 70)

Nku e e dusang 'a sheep which is pregnant' (Moloto and Malao, nd: 60)

Mosetsana yo o opelang 'the girl who is singing' (Ntsime, 1983: 62) Cole (1955: 171), Malepe (1974: 99) and Harman (1982: 115) identify a relative as being different from an adjective, but they distinguish different types. Cole (1955) distinguishes direct relatives and

indirect relatives, each with subdivisions according to its formation. Malepe (1974) distinguishes five types: the verbal, nominal, adverbial, irregular, and indirect relatives. Harman (1982) distinguishes between the verbal relative and the enumerative relative.

Other writers like Ntsime (1983: 62 et seq), Kopane (1974: 39) state that other parts of speech e.g. the verb, noun and the adverb may be used as an adjective. These are called relatives e.g.

mosetsana yo o opelang o itumetse 'the girl who is singing is happy' (Ntsime, 1983: 62) Monna yo o botihale o a pholosa 'a man who is clever saves' (Ntsime, 1983: 65)

Motse o o kgakala o a hudisiwa 'the village which is far away is being relocated' (Ntsime, 1983: 70)

Different types of relatives have been distinguished. These are based on how each is formed.

6.3.1 THE VERBAL RELATIVE

This type of a relative is distinguished by

most writers (e.g. Malepe, 1974: 99; Harman

1982: 115; Cole 1955).

According to Harman (1982: 114) the relative

is formed by the relative concord consisting

95 of the demonstrative position I and the subject concord, and the verb with -rig relative ending e.g.

Kgomo e e fulang 'a cow that is grazing'

demon- : relative ending strative subject concord

6.3.2 THE NOMINAL RELATIVE

Malepe (1974: 99) states that the nominal relative is formed by the demonstrative, subject concord and the nominal stem e.g.

yo o bogale 'who is temperamental' nominal stem

This type of a relative was identified by Malepe (1974: 99) and Cole (1955: 175). Moloto and Malao (nd: 66), Wookey (1946: 68) regard this occurrence as an adjective.

6.3.3 THE ENUMERATIVE RELATIVE

Harman (1982: 115) distinguishes an enumerative relative. This type of relative is identified as a separate qualificative or

word category by Snyman and Mothoagae (1990: 38), Ntsime and Kruger (1993: 172), Malao et

al (1987: 238) and Lekala et al (1988: 169). Ntsime and Kruger (1993: 172) use a different

term from other writers and regard it as

EM 'letihophi' (a term mostly used for a quantitative), Malepe (nd: 27) and Wookey

(1946: 74) regard it as an adjective, while

Kopane (1967: 27), Malepe (1974: 47) and Cole (1955: 135) refer to it as an enumerative

pronoun.

The enumerative relative is formed by the subject concord and the enumerative root e.g.

Monna ole? 'Which man' (Harman 1982: 115) enumerative root subject concord

Four enumerative roots have been identified:

-ngwe, -fe, -sele, and -pe. Kopane (1967: 27) also identifies -si, and Malao et al (1987: 240 et seq) includes -ng. Setshedi (1980: 62) says that an enumerative may use an adjectival concord as in:

ngwana yo mole? 'which child'

6.3.4 OTHER RELATIVES

Other parts of speech such as verbs, nouns and adverbs are used as relatives. Kopane (1967:

48) identifies an adverbial relative e.g.

Motse o o kgakala 'a far away village'

The relative has been used in many cases as a

qualificative to qualify nouns and pronouns.

97 it is used as the subject and object of a sentence, and has been used with other adverbial prefixes and thus functions as a descriptive.

6.4 QUANTITATIVE

The quantitative has been identified by Cole (1955), Kopane (1967), Malepe (1974), Lesele et al (1987), Lekala et al (1988), Malao et al (1987), Setshedi (1980), Snyman and Mothoagae (1990), Snyman et al (1991), and Ntsime and Kruger (1993).

Cole (1955: 62) defines it as a word which qualifies a substantive and is brought into concordial agreement therewith by a quantitative concord.

Grammarians differ in their classification of the

quantitatives. Malepe (nd: 26) regards it as an adjective but in (1974: 45) refers to the same occurrence as a quantitative pronoun leemedi-tlhophi'.

Writers also differ on the structure of the

quantitative. Setshedi (1980: 60) states that it is

formed by the quantitative concord and the stem. This is also supported by Kopane (1967: 27), Lesele

et al (1987: 119). Snyman and Mothoagae (1990: 45) say it is formed by the quantitative concord and

root. What is regarded as a root by Snyman and Mothoagae (1990) is regarded as a stem by Setshedi (1980)

Two stems/roots -otihe and -osi have been distinguished, but Kopane (1967: 27) identifies -ngwe and -tihe as stems, while Ntsime and Kruger

(1993: 162) distinguish three types -tihe, -Si and numeral adjectival stems ranging from two to six e.g.

boobabedi 'those being two' CHAPTER 7

THE VERB: VERBAL EXTENSIONS

7.1 INTRODUCTION

The verb is a word expressing the process or action performed by the subject and the action undergone by the object. (Snyman et al 1991: 89).

Snyman et al (1991: 89) further state that a verb is built around a verbal root, verbal prefixes, which mostly are disjunctively written, and the verbal suffixes which are conjuntively written e.g.

Monna o sa ntse a kwala lokwalo lo loleele 'the man is still writing the long letter'

Where o sa ntse + a kwala are the verbs. This

definition is supported by Malepe (1974: 55), Snyman

and Mothoagae (1990: 66 et seq), Lesele et al (1987:

97) and Cole (1955: 63).

Snyman and Mothoagae (1990: 66 - 67) indicate that the prefix of the verb may take the following forms:

present tense morpheme -a- future morpheme -tia-

negative morpheme -ga- ref lective morpheme -i--

progressive morpheme -sa-

potential morpheme -ka- subject concord e.g. -o-

object concord e.g. -ba-

100 Kopane (1967: 27), Gabatshwane (1971: 23), Moloto and Malao (nd: 59), Setshedi (1980: 81), Ntsirne and

Kruger (1993: 210) and Lekala et al (1988: 203) differ from the other writers in that they define the verb 'lediri' as a word indicating the action performed by the subject, and it is formed by a root

and a suffix, e.g.

-bela 'boil' (Ntsime and Kruger 1993: 210)

When the prefix or subject concord is prefixed to the verb stem, they regard it as letiro 'predicate'.

This view is brought about by the fact that these writers use the disjunctive writing approach and do not regard the verbal elements as parts of words.

7.2 VERBAL EXTENSIONS

A series of extensions can be added to the verb stem to alter the basic meaning of the verb e.g. the verb stem -rata 'to love' may be altered by adding -an- > ratana 'to love each other'

The verbal suffixes are of two types, verbal extensions and verbal endings. The verbal extensions are suffixes which occur between the verbal root and one of the endings (Snyman et al 1991: 96). writers identified different extensions e.g. Snyman

et al (1991) distinguish 9, Wookey (1946) 8, and

Cole (1955) 11. The following extensions have been

101 distinguished.

7.2.1 NEUTER

This denotes a subject that is entering or already is in a particular state or condition without mentioning the cause (Snyman et al 1991: 98). The suffixes -agal, -eg-, -afal-, -al-, -eseg are employed.

e.g. -diragala 'occur' -dumelesega 'believable' -robega 'breakable'

Only Wookey (1946) did not identify this extension.

7.2.2 APPLIED

This denotes an action carried out on behalf of somebody or in the direction of somebody or a place (Snyman et al 1991: 98). Wookey (1946: 109) refers to it as relative or prepositional. He says it denotes completion of action or finality when followed by rure e.g.

0 Tsamaela rure 'He goes forever'.

Archbell (1837: 50) on the other hand refers to it as objective. The suffix -el- or -ets- is used e.g.

-balela 'read for'

102 -senyetsa 'waste for' (Cole 1955: 20)

7.2.3 RECIPROCAL

This denotes actions performed mutually by separate individuals. The suffix -an- is employed e.g.

-ratana 'love one another' (Snyman et al 1991: 99)

This was not a problem to writers , they all distinguished this extension.

7.2.4 REVERSIVE

Two forms are distinguished, the reversive transitive and the reversive intransitive. This signifies that the action denoted by the infinitive form of the verb is undone or reversed (Snyman et al 1991: 99). The

suffixes -ol- and -olol- are employed to indicate the reversive transitive e.g.

-rola 'remove from the head'

-bofolola 'untie'

The suffixes -og- and -clog- are used for the reversive intransitive e.g.

-tloga 'move away'

-bofologa 'become untied'

103 Archbeil (1837) did not distinguish this extension.

7.2.5 CAUSATIVE

This denotes that the subject causes or brings about the action. The suffixes -is-, -s-, -ts-, -tsh- and -y- are used (Snyman and Mothoagae 1990: 71) e.g.

-remisa 'cause to chop' -Uosa 'cause to move away' -fetsa 'finish' -bontsha 'cause to see' -tsenya 'cause to go in'

Cole (1955: 203) states that there are two suffixes in Setswana, -isa- and -ya other writers like Setshedi (1980: 83) share the same view. But Lesele et al (1987: 96) only distinguish the suffix -is-.

7.2.6 PERFECT

The perfect denotes that an action has been completed, and is expressed by means of the suffix -ii- e.g.

-rekile 'brought' (Snyman et al 1991: 100)

Cole (1955: 192) states that this suffix is now less common in Setswana. Kopane (1967),

104 Wockey (1946), Archbell (1837), Moloto and Malao (nd), Setshedi (1980) and Lekala et. al. (1988) do not distinguish the perfect as a verbal extension.

7.2.7 PASSIVE

This has not been a problem, but Wookey (1946), Setshedi (1980) and Lekala et al (1988) do not include it in their lists of extensions. Two suffixes -w- and -iw- express this e.g.

-bonwa (Snyman et al 1991: 100) -gamiwa (Snyman and Mothoagae 1990: 71)

7.2.8 DENOMINATIVE

Verbs can be derived from nominal and adjectival stems. The suffix -f- and -fal- are used. Wookey (1946: 115) refers to this as the transitional form e.g.

bogale > galefa 'become angry'

-sweu > sweufala 'become white'

7.2.9 POSITIONAL

Suffixes expressing position or posture are distinguished. Cole (1955: 214) includes these under the less common extensions. Kopane (nd), Wookey (1946) and Cole (1955) distinguished this extension. The suffix -ma

105 is used e.g.

-Obaina 'bend over' -rapama 'lie down'

7 .2 . 10 INTENSIVE/EXTENSIVE

Cole (1955: 192) states that the intensive is now less common in Setswana. What is regarded as the intensive by Wookey (1946: 115), Cole (1955) refers to as extensive. The suffixes -ak- or -akak- are employed e.g.

-remaka 'chops' -tlhabakaka 'stab repeatedly'

Kopane (1967), Setshedi (1980), Lesele et al (1987), Lekala et al (1988) and Ntsime and

Kruger (1993) refer to this extension.

7.2.11 OTHER EXTENSIONS

Cole (1955: 192) identifies extensions that are now less common in Setswana and they are: perfective, intensive, repetitive,

contactive, positional, dispersive, stative, causative. He defines them thus:

- Contactive signifies touching or contact of some sort. The suffix -ara- is used

e.g.

-tshwara 'touch'

106 - Dispersive indicates dispersing

scattering or stretching out. The suffix -alala- is used e.g.

-Uhamalala 'go directly' -phatlalala 'spread out'

- Durative indicates that the action is prolonged or its effects are permanent. The suffix -aya- is used e.g.

-bolaya 'kill'

- Stative causative means causing to be in a certain state. The suffix -ega- is used e.g.

-golega 'tie up'

Malepe (1974) refers to suffixes used on ideophones to form verbs e.g.

dike > dikela 'setting of the sun'

107 CHAPTER 8

THE VERB: MOODS AND TENSES

8.1 MOODS

There is a vast difference and inconsistency between

authors in the description of the moods occurring in Setswana. As a result, it is difficult to determine which categories are moods and which are tenses. Snyman et al (1991: 127) define mood as the way of using a verb. Other writers did not define what mood is, and this makes it difficult to determine what criteria they used to determine what are moods and what are not.

Writers differ in their distinction of moods. What is regarded as a mood by one author, is regarded as a tense by another, or is not distinguished at all. Wookey (1946) distinguishes eleven moods, Sandilands (1953) six, Archbell (1837) five, Lekala et al (1988) five, and Snyman et al (1991) six.

The following moods were identified:

the infinitive the indicative the imperative the subjunctive the potential the participial the habitual

These moods are distinguished by most writers, but

Cole (1955) and Sandilands (1953) do not distinguish the participial mood. Apart from the ones above

RM other moods are also distinguished by some writers and they are:

the continuous the conditional the intentional the progressive the consecutive (narrative) and the optative moods.

8.1.1 THE INFINITIVE

This has riot been a problem, all the writers distinguishes this mood. The verb in this category is characterised by a noun class 15

prefix go- and lacks a subject concord. The infinitive may also act as a noun. It occurs in the positive and negative forms e.g.

go ja 'to eat' > go sa je 'to not eat'

8.1.2 THE IMPERATIVE

Throughout the history of Setswana grammar the

imperative was regarded as a mood. Cole (1955: 239) states that imperatives are used to express commands and are syntactically interjectives. Harman (1980: 36) states that it is always addressed to the second person

singular or plural. Like the infinitive the imperative is used without the subject

concord. Wookey (1946: 120), Snyman (1990:

105), Moloto and Malao (nd: 38) differ from

other writers because they indicate the

109 imperative used with the subject concord e.g.

a ba roke! 'let them sew!'

Wookey (1946: 120) identifies different forms of the imperative: the simple, polite,

continuous, and common imperative. He regards

the hortative mma ke roke 'let me sew!' as imperative, while Archbell (1837: 58) refers to what is regarded by other writers as the participial, as the imperative e.g.

fa ki reka 'when I buy'

8.1.3 THE SUBJUNCTIVE

The subjunctive mood is distinguished by all

the writers. It expresses dependent actions. The actions are interdependent or interrelated or consecutive (Snyman et al 1991: 158). It is introduced by the conjunctive 'gore' which

may also be left out e.g.

Tihokomela, osewele mosedibeng 'watch out, you must not fall into the well'

Kebatla gore ankagele ntlo 'I want him to build me a house' (Cole 195: 270)

Tenses are distinguished in this mood. Cole (1955: 269) states that the present, habitual

and past tenses are distinguished. Snyman et

al (1991: 158) identify the past and present

110 tenses as the only tenses occuring in the subjunctive. Wookey (1946: 123 et seq) and Sandilands (1953: 125) distinguish the present and the future tenses and Malepe (1974: 82) distinguishes the past and future tenses of the subjunctive

mood.

The subjunctive mood occurs in the adverbial clause of the sentence e.g.

Mogokgo o laetse gore re tsainae 'The principal instructed that we should go' (Setshedi 1980: 94)

It is characterised by the verb ending in -e in the positive and -a in the negative form (Setshedi 1980: 94). The negative is formed by the negative prefix -Se- and the auxiliary verb -ka- e.g.

Re batla gore ena a se ka a fetsa 'we want him not to finish' (Snyman et al 1991: 168)

Archbell's (1837: 62) subjunctive mood does not display the above characteristics, and is

similar to the participial mood as expressed

by other writers e.g.

Fa ki rekile 'when I bought'

This occurence he also refers to as the imperative (Archbell 1837: 58).

111 Cole (1955: 273) states that the verb in the subjunctive mood also expresses requests, exhortations and polite commands. This is known as the hortative formation. The prefixes a- with the auxiliary verb -ke-, the auxiliary verb -mrna-/-mme are used to

express the hortative (Snyman et al 1991: 161

et seq) e.g.

mrna ke go thuse 'let me help you'

8.1.4 THE INDICATIVE MOOD

The indicative mood has never been a problem in the history of Setswana grammar. It is identified by all the writers. It states the occurrence of an action at some point in the

past, present or future. This mood has the

largest range of tenses in Setswana (Cole 1955: 239). Snyman et al (1991: 134) add that it is used to express questions e.g.

Ba tia boa jang? 'How will they come back'

Apart from the tense forming morphemes the indicative employs the progressive and the

potential aspects.

8.1.5 THE PARTICIPIAL MOOD

This expresses simultaneous actions or an

action that coincides with the main action of

112 each sentence (Snyman et al 1991: 147). Not all writers identify this mood. Cole (1955) does not include the participial in the list of moods. Wookey (1946), Sandilands (1953), Noloto and Malao (nd), Harman (1982), Setshedi (1980) do not distinguish this mood.

This mood is characterised by the fact that the verb in the subordinate clause is the one in the participial mood. The subjectival concord of noun class 1 is -a- and not -o-. The subjectival concords are high toned. The verb in the participial mood is preceded by the conjunctives f a, le f a, ka, e tswa, abo and le mororo e.g.

Fa a goroga o mo nee molaetsa o 'When he arrives give him this message' (Snyman eta al 1991: 151)

Only Snyman et al (1991: 153) indicate that the participial mood occurs in the present, perfect and future tenses. Lekala et al (1988: 261) only refer to the present tense. While Malepe (1974), Ntsime and Kruger (1993), Kopane (1967) do not indicate the

tenses of the participial mood.

The imperative and the subjunctive as

identified by Archbell (1837) are similar to

the participial mood identified by other

writers e.g.

113 Imuerative : Fa ki rekili 'when I have bought' (Archbell 1837: 58) Subjunctive: Fa ki rekili 'when I have bought'(Archbell 1837: 64)

8.1 .6 THE HABITUAL MOOD

This does not feature regularly in Setswana grammar. It is distinguished by Ntsime and Kruger (1993), Snyman et al (1991), Kopane (1967), Sandilands (1953), Malepe (nd), Setshedi (1980), Lesele et al (1987) and Lekala et al (1988).

The habitual mood expresses sequences of habitual, customary or repeated actions or processes (Snyman et al 1991: 172). The verb in this mood is characterised by the fact that the subjectival concord of noun class 1 is

0-/a-, the verb ends in -e, and auxiliary verbs -tie-, -ne- and -nne- are used (Snyman et al 1991: 173) e.g.

Pula e a tie e ne mariga 'rain does sometimes fall in winter'

The habitual mood does not distinguish tense, only Wookey (1946: 139) distinguishes the present habitual and the past habitual tense e.g.

oa tlo o dihe 'you sometimes work' ga o ko o dihe 'you never work'

114 Cole (1955: 270) distinguishes a verb in the

habitual form as the habitual tense of the subjunctive mood.

8.1.7 THE POTENTIAL MOOD

This mood does not occur regularly in the history of Setswana grammar. Only Ntsime and Kruger (1991), Wookey (1946), Kopane (1967), Archbell (1837), Sandilands (1953), Malepe (nd) and Setshedi (1980) identify the potential mood. Cole (1955) refers to it as the conditional. It expresses ability, or opportunity or willingness to perform an action (Sandilands 1953: 96). The verb in the potential indicates that the action CAN be performed. It is formed by the prefix -ka-, which is preceded by -ke/n- when referring to the speaker or 1st person e.g.

Nka lema 'I can plough'

Ke ka lema 'I can plough' (Ntsime and Kruger 1993: 307)

Tense is distinguished in this mood.

8.1.8 CONSECUTIVE MOOD (Narrative)

This is distinguished by Harman (1982: 147) only. It expresses processes following one

another chronologically e.g.

115 Dikgcmo tsa ya nckeng, tsa nwa, tsa bce]a kwa nageng 'the cattle went to the river, drank, and went back into the veld' (Harman 1982: 149)

According to Snyman et al (1991: 167) consecutive actions are expressed by the subjunctive mood.

8.1.9 THE OPTATIVE MOOD

Archbell (1837: 61) distinguishes the optative mood and states that it is usually expressed by the verb -rata, or -bilaela placed before another verb e.g.

Kia rata gorata 'I love to love' (Archbell 1837: 61)

8.1.10 OTHER MOODS

Wookey (1946) is the grammarian who distinguishes more moods than other writers. Apart from the ones above, he identifies the following: the continuous mood

This expresses a continuous action, and employs the auxiliary verb go nna e.g.

Ke nntse ke rema 'I am busy chopping'

the conditional mood

Wookey's (1946: 131) conditional mood

is similar to Cole's (1955: 259). It is

116 expressed by the auxiliary verb -kabo or -ko- e.g.

nkabo ke reka 'I would buy'

This mood distinguishes tense.

the intentional mood

This is expressed by using the auxiliary of the imperfect tense with the future and future perfect (Wookey 1946: 132). The intentional mood distinguishes tense e.g.

ke ne ke tia reka 'I would be buying'

(iv) the progressive mood

This is expressed by the auxiliary -bo- and it indicates a progressive action e.g.

kea bo ke reka 'I am busy buying' (Wookey 1946: 134)

(v) consecutive habitual mood

Wookey (1946: 141) identifies this mood and states that it occurs when verbs follow each other in a sentence, and these verbs end in -e e.g.

0 nesa pula mo lehatshin, me e

117 kolobetse mbu, e tiaLse dinoka le mecwedi, batho ha leme 'He brings rain to the earth, thus wets the soil, fills rivers

and streams, then people plough' (Wookey 1946: 141)

This mood is similar to Snyman et al's (1991) habitual mood.

8.2 TENSES

Writers distinguish different tenses. It is evident that tense is associated with time, completeness or incompleteness of an action. Again, what is regarded

as a tense by one writer is regarded as a mood or aspect by another e.g. Cole (1955) refers to the habitual tense while Setshedi (1980) refers to it as

the habitual mood. The potential is regarded as a

mood by Setshedi (1980) and as an aspect by Snyman et al (1991). Writers do not even define the tenses.

Three main categories of tense have been generally identified, and these have been differently subdivided by the different writers. The following

is a general picture of tenses distinguished:

8.2.1 THE PRESENT TENSE

The present tense was distinguished by all the

writers. It refers to the action taking place now. Two forms have been identified,

118 the long form and the short form. The long

form is characterised by the morpheme -a-, while the short form does not have that morpheme but the verb is followed by an object. This is found when the verb is in the

indicative mood. The verb stem ends in -a. This occurs when the verb is in the indicative, imperative (Ntsime and Kruger 1993: 293), potential (Ntsime and Kruger

1993: 307) e.g.

Basimane ba a gama 'The boys are milking' (long form) Badisa ba ja bogobe 'The herd boys are eating porridge' (short form) Bona! 'Look! Nka lema 'I can plough'

8.2.2 THE PAST TENSE (Pakaphethi)

The past tense in Setswana has been treated as an equivalent of the past tense in

English. The verb in the past tense refers to actions previously performed or completed actions. Malepe (1974: 69) states:

Madiri a pakaphethi a kaya gore tiro e .fedile 'Verbs in the past tense indicates that the action is past/finished'

Nalepe's definition, implies that the past

tense is the same as the perfect tense. All

writers distinguished this tense form.

119 The past tense is characterised by the use of the auxiliary verb -ne (Wookey 1946: 94) e.g.

Ke ne ka reka 'I bought' (Indicative mood)

Ke ne ke ka dha 'I worked' (Potential mood)

Ntsime and Kruger (1993: 273) state that the past indicative mood is formed by the suffix

-ii- and ending -e e.g. -tsamaile 'went'.

What Ntsime and Kruger (1993) refer to as the past tense, is referred to as the perfect tense by Wookey (1946).

The past tense in the subjunctive mood uses a special subjectival concord formed by adding a

morpheme -a e.g.

ra .fetsa 'then we completed' (Snyman et al 1991: 163).

The past tense is usually confused or

interchanged with the perfect tense.

8.2.3 THE FUTURE TENSE (Pakatlang)

The future tense implies actions that will occur in the future. All writers distinguish the future as a tense. It is formed by the

auxiliary verb -tia- e.g.

Ke tla tsamaya 'I shall go'

8.2.4 THE PERFECT TENSE

120 Sandilands (1953: 37) deflnes it as: a tense that indicates an action which took place in past time, but which is, in a way, not finished, in that its effect still persists e.g.

Ke rekile 'I bought'.

On the other hand Malepe (1974: 69) defines it as a tense that indicates that the action is complete.

Malepe's definition is similar to that of Kopane (nd), Wookey (1946), cole (1955) and Snyman et al (1991).

Archbell (1837: 52) and Land.sberg (1978) in A

re bueng Setswana do not refer to the perfect as a tense but the state or condition of an action. According to Archbell (1837: 52), the verb may be in the present, past or future

tenses with the state of the action being

either indefinite or perfect.

While other writers distinguished the perfect and other tenses as separate tenses or the

state of the action, Wookey (1946: 102) is

the only writer that realised and stated that tense in English does not correspond with

tense in Setswana. Where the present tense is

used in English, Setswana uses the perfect

e.g.

121 0 eme ha 'he is standing here'

The general basic tenses are used in conjunction with each other, or other aspects to form compound tenses.

8.2.5 COMPOUND TENSES

These are tense forms formed by two verbs, the auxiliary verb and the main verb. The two verbs are on different tenses and their combination give an extended meaning. The following compound tenses have been identified by different writers.

(i) The pluperfect tense

This is also referred to as the past perfect tense (pakafetileng phethi) by Setshedi (1980) and Sandilands (1953), Wookey (1946), Kopane (nd), Lekala et al (1988) and Ntsirne and Kruger (1993) also distinguished this tense.

The pluperfect indicates that the action was completed or had taken place at a

given point in past time (Ntsime and

Kruger 1993: 286). It is performed by the auxiliary verb stem -ne and the suffix -ii- e.g.

Ke ne ke ratile 'I had loved' (Wookey 1946: 107)

122 Past ccntinucus tense

It has been referred to as 'pakapheti - tsweledi or pakapheto - tsweledi'. This tense is distinguished by Setshedi (1980), Lekala et al (1988), Kopane (nd), Cole (1955), Ntsime and Kruger (1993). It means that the action was going on (proceeding) in the past (Landsberg 1978: 119) e.g.

0 ne a dira 'he was working'

This information is characterised by the auxiliary verb stem -ne. Archbell (1837: 52) refers to this tense as the past perfect tense. Moloto and Nalao (nd: 36) refer to this as 'paka e e sa bolong go feta' referring to an action that has taken place a long time ago. Sandilands (1953), Wookey (1946) and Harman (1980) also identified this tense and referred to it as the imperfect tense.

Past future tense

This tense form was distinguished by Cole (1955: 257). Archbell (1837: 52) refers to this formation as the future present perfect tense. The past future tense is formed by the deficient verb -ne with the

123 future participial as complement e.g.

Kane ketlaraka 'I would be buying' (Cole 1955: 257)

Past future continuous tense

Only Cole (1955) and Ntsime and Kruger (1993) distinguished this tense. It means that the action referred to by the verb would have continued in the past when the other action occurred. It is formed by -tia + bo + the verb in the past tense e.g.

ha ne ha tla bo ha setla mabele 'they would be grinding the mealies' (Ntsime and Kruger 1993: 289)

Past future perfect tense

This tense is distinguished by Cole (1955) and Ntsime and Kruger (1993) only. It is formed by -ne- + deficient verb + -tia- + auxiliary verb -bo- + verb in the past tense e.g.

ha ne ba tia bo ha setlile mabele 'They would have ground the mealies' (Ntsime and Kruger 1993: 289)

Past present perfect

Only Cole (1955) identifies this tense. He defines it as a tense that:

124 sicnifies that the action would have been completed at the present time, if certain past events had been favourablTe (Cole 1955: 267).

It consists of the deficient verb -ne- with the participial forms of the perfect conditional as complement e.g.

Kene kekabo kerekile 'I would have bought'

Future perfect tense

It is distinguished by Wookey (1946), Cole (1955), Kopane (nd), Lekala et al (1988), Ntsime and Kruger (1993). This indicates that the action will have been completed or will have taken place at a given point in future time (Cole 1955: 255). It is formed by the use of -tia- with the deficient stem -bo-/-be- followed by the perfect participial as complement e.g.

Ketlabo kerekile 'I shall have bought' (Cole 1955: 256)

Future continuous tense

This is distinguished by Wookey (1946), Cole (1955), and Ntsime and Kruger (1993). It signifies that the action will be in progress or continuing at a given point in future time. It is formed

125 by using -tia- with deficient stern -bo-

followed by the present participial as complement e.g.

Ke tia bo ke reka 'I shall be buying' (Ntsime and Kruger 1993: 287)

(ix) Future past indefinite tense

Only Archbell (1837: 52) identifies this tense. He does not give its meaning and use e.g.

1(1 kabo ki reka 'I would be buying'

This tense is the same as what he also refers to as the future past perfect tense (Archbell 1837: 52).

8.2.6 THE CONSECUTIVE TENSE

Malepe (1974) and Archbell (1837) distinguishes verbs indicating consecutive

actions. Malepe (1974: 82) refers to this tense as 'pakapheto' past or perfect tense. Archbell (1837: 52) refers to it as the past indefinite tense e.g.

Nna ka bona phiri 'I then saw a wolf' (Malepe 1974: 82)

Ka reka 'I then bought' (Archbell 1837: 52)

126 8.2.7 THE NARRATIVE TENSE

This is distinguished by Wookey (1946) only. He states that: in the narrative the shortened form of the past tense is used after the first use of the full form of the verb, the first pronoun and auxiliary are then dropped, and only the second pronoun used, but always with -a as final letter e.g.

Ka se ka ka reka 'I did not buy' (Wookey 1946: 95)

Wookey's narrative tense is actually the negative of the consecutive tense as identified by Malepe (1974) and Archbell (1837) e.g.

Nna ka bona phiri > Nna ka se ka ka

bona phiri 'I saw a wolf' > 'I did not see the wolf'

8.2.8 THE HABITUAL TENSE

This was distinguished by Malepe (1974). He

distinguishes this as the habitual tense of

the subjunctive mood. He further states that the habitual signifies consecutive actions e.g.

Motho o a tie a bone dinotshe a di epe a di rafe, a di je 'Sometimes a

person sees bees, then digs them, then

127 takes them out and puts them in a ves- sel and then eats them

This tense is identified by other writers as the habitual mood.

128 CHAPTER 9

OTHER WORD CATEGORIES

9.1 ADVERBS Lesele et al (1987: 103) define as adverb as a word that describes the verb in the sentence. They say:

ke lefoko le le tihalosang lediri ma polelong.

Snyman et al (1991: 177) say that an adverb describes the process or action of the verb in terms of: where it takes place, when it takes place, and how it takes place.

Writers in Setswana do not differ much on the definition of adverbs. All writers identified the adverb and defined it according to its meaning and use. Lesele et al (1987) and Setshedi (1980) indicate that it does not have a definite structure

and therefore cannot be described according to its form.

Basically, writers distinguish two types of adverbs: basic (original) adverbs and derived adverbs. Cole

(1955: 340) refers to basic adverbs as primitive, and Wookey (1946: 162) refers to them as pure adverbs. These adverbs do not show derivation from other word classes e.g.

leng? 'when?' (Cole 1955: 340)

129 Derived adverbs are formed from other parts of speech such as verbs, adjectives, nouns and pronouns e.g.

ile toropong 'he has gone to town' (derived from a noun)

Derived adverbs may be used in their original forms as nouns and pronouns, or may change their form through prefixal and suffixal inflexion.

Cole (1955: 340) states that adverbs may function as subjects and objects, thus demanding the recognition of a class of locative substantives with corresponding pronouns and predicative and qualificative concords. He also adds that there is an affinity between adverbs and conjunctives. Thus words may be treated as adverbs or conjunctives according to their syntactical position and function in the sentence.

Cole (1955: 340) and Snyman et al (1991: 177) state that adverbs can be classified into primary and secondary adverbs according to their formation. The primary adverbs are those that are formed by the suffixation of -ing, or by the prefixation of -go e.g.

lie nokeng 'He has gone to the river' (Cole 1955: 341)

gorrago 'to thy father' (Cole 1955: 345)

130 Secondary adverbs are formed from primary forms by the prefixation of fa-, kwa- [kc-] and mo- e.g.

kwanokeng 'to the river' (Cole 1955: 341)

Three main categories of adverbs have been traditionally identified:

Temporal adverbs Locative adverbs Manner adverbs

Temporal adverbs indicate the time at which an action takes place e.g.

Pula e nele bosigo 'the rain fell at night' (Malepe 1974: 111)

Locative adverbs describe where the action takes place e.g.

Ba agile kgakala 'they built very far' (Malepe 1974: 111)

Manner adverbs describe how an action takes place e.g.

re Ha go bitsa gantsi 'we will call you many times' (Malepe 1974: ill)

Overlapping occurs in the above examples because the distinction between the types of adverbs is not rigid.

Other categories were identified by writers in addition to the main categories above:

131 Adverbs of quantity (Archbell 1837: 79 and Wookey 1946: 168) e.g.

gabedi 'twice'

Adverbs of degree (Wookey 1946: 168) e.g.

thata 'much'

Adverbs of interrogation (Archbell 1837: 79, Sandilands 1953: 146) e.g.

Yang? 'how?'

Adverbs of negation ( Archbell 1837: 79) e.g.

Gasi sipi 'none'

Adverbs of comparison (Archbell 1837: 79) e.g.

ikiti 'like'

Adverbs of mood (Wookey 1946: 169) e.g. rure 'truly'

Other categories distinguished by writers are characterised by prefixes. The following have been identified:

Conjunctive adverbs which are formed from substantives by the prefix le- e.g.

ketsile leene 'I came with him' (Cole 1955: 366)

132 Instrumental adverbs are formed by the prefixation of ka- to substantives e.g.

kabonya 'slowly' (Cole 1955: 366)

Agentive adverbs are formed by prefixing ke- to the substantive e.g.

Rebolaliwe ke tlala 'We are killed by hunger' (Cole 1955: 368)

Manner comparative adverbs are formed by prefixing jaaka to substantives e.g.

gofofa jaakanonyane 'to fly like a bird' (Cole 1955: 368)

The differences occurring in the identification of

adverbs are due to the different word theories adopted by different writers. Cole (1955) and Snyman et al (1991) for example use a conjunctive approach

and therefore regard the ka-/go-/le-/jaaka etc as formatives or prefixes while other writers regard them as separate words.

9.2 THE IDEOPHONE

Early writers, Archbell (1837), and Wookey (1946)

do not distinguish ideophones. Sandilands (1953: 295) compares ideophones with onomatopoeia and says:

An ideophone similarly means originally "own sound", or 'sounding by itself'.

133 IdecphCre5 are well identified by Cole (155: 370) have flO parallels in English . and he stateS that they

He defines them thus:

IdeophOfles are descriptive of sound, colour, smell,

manner, appearaflcei state action or intensity, e.g.

1991: 'of heaven rainfal (Snym Pula gwaa 193) - sound of bad smell' (Snyman Go nkga go re phuU 1991: 193) - smell ' of greenness' (Snyman 1991: bojang talaa 193) - colour of 5catteriflg' (Snyman 1991: BatSoffli phatla 193) - actiOfi

IdeoPhofles have been classified according to their original and derived ideophOfles. origin into: Ideophofles are derived from adjectival roots e.g.

'of yellowness' (Snyman Setlhee! < Setlha et al 1991: 190)

and from verbs e.g.

'coming abruptlY to a stop Kgo < kgoflya (Snyman et al 1991: 190)

according to the Writers also classified ideophones

number of syllables:

thu! of banging' Mono_syllabic e.g. of breaking e.g. sutlha! disyllabic out of cover' of getting e.g. nyamedi! trisyllabi lost' 'of flutterin e.g. phapha! QuardriSYllab of flapping

134 The ideohone does nct have a definite structure but exhibits unusual phonetic phenomena:

ultimate length devocalization of vowels syllables ending in consonants exaggerated tonal variations (Cole 1955: 371)

Snyman et al (1991) and Lesele et al (1987) state that ideophones imply the predicate, and when this occurs the subject concord is not used e.g.

Badisa ta! bogobe 'The shepherds finished all the porridge'(Lesele et al 1987: 135)

Setshedi (1980: 106) adds that when used in this way it may have an object e.g.

Motho madi poro!. Motho poro madi! 'the blood was pouring out'

Setshedi (1980) and Lekala et al (1988) state that when ideophones are used without the subject concord, it may be described by adverbs e.g.

Pula gwaa mo go rona! 'the rain was coming down heavily on us' (Setshedi 1980: 106)

9.3 THE CONJUNCTION

Conjunctions have been distinguished traditionally. Archbell (1837) and Wookey (1946) identify the

conjunction but do not define it. Archbell cites -le- only while Wookey has a list.

Snyman et al (1991: 266) define the conjunction as

135 a group of words which are used to join sentences or to introduce sentences e.g.

Tswelela c fetse, e seng jalo re tla bonana gape 'continue and finish or else we will see each other again'

Aitse ga ke ngwana! Se bue jaana be nna 'Remember, I am not a child! Do not talk to me like that

Sandilands (1953: 5) identifies the conjunction -le- only and states that it is used for joining nouns and pronouns e.g.

Podi le nku 'a goat and a sheep'

Conjunctions cannot be defined through their structure but through their use in a sentence. All writers identified a list of conjunctions e.g.

A 'What!' boo 'asif ....' e seng 'not' kana 'by the way' lefa 'even though'

Cole (1955: 381) states that the form of the verb or copulative in a sentence is determined by the conjunctive introducing it. Thus he classifies comjunctives according to the predicate following it. Three types are identified:

(i) Non-influencing conjunctives. These are usually followed by principal tense forms

of the primary moods e.g.

A mosadi yomontle 'what a beautiful

136 woman'

Conjunctives followed by partic±p±al tanse forms e.g.

Abo ole botlhale 'I-low clever you are' (Cole 1955: 389)

Conjunctives followed by subjunctive tense forms e.g.

kebaLla gore omothuse 'I want you to help him' (Cole 1955: 391)

Conjunctions are further divided according to those joining sentences to form compound sentences and those joining complex sentences. Setshedi (1980: 112) and Lesele (1987: 163) e.g.

ke tshaba ntate fela ke tia bua le ene 'I fear dad but I shall talk to him' (Lesele 1987: 164)

Conjunctions in the conjunctive writing approach are inflected to form copulatives of identificative type by prefixing ke- (Cole 1955: 392) e.g.

Fa abua jab, kegore oaikgantsha 'when he speaks like that it shows he is proud of himself'

Wookey (1946: 169) distinguishes words that are used to introduce adverbial sentence and refers to them as adverbial conjunctions e.g. ekete. As a result Cole (1945) states that there is affinity between adverbs and conjunctives.

137 9.4 THE PRPCSITION

Archbell (1837) and Wookey (1946) are the only

Setswana grammarians that identify the preposition. They did not define it, but treated it as the parallel of the English preposition e.g.

ka gone 'because of' (Archbell 1837: 81)

These formatives are referred to as particles which are proclitics by Cole (1955: 407) and are used as prefixes in word and word group constructions. The following were referred to as prepositions by Wookey

(1946): mo, kwa, ha, kaha and ka kwa. As a result he regards them as a word class, and this is because he is writing them disjunctively.

These prepositions are followed by the locative case, and the noun ends in -n e.g.

mo tiun 'at the house' (Wookey 1946: 172)

When names of persons are used the ending -n is not

used, and the preposition is followed by -go- as in mo go and kwa go e.g.

Kwa go malome 'to uncle'

When names of places are employed, the -n ending does not occur, and the preposition is not preceded by

-go- e.g.

mo Kanye 'here at Kanye'

138 Sometimes prepostions are formed from adverbs by using ga- e.g.

gare ga 'between'

9.5 THE INTERJECTION

This is referred to as exclamations by Wookey (1946: 174). These are words used to express some emotion or to express assent or dissent (Snyman et al 1991: 258).

These words are not defined according to their structure but according to their use and meaning in a sentence. Lesele et al (1987: 166) state:

Ke mafoko a a sa kgoneng go kgaoganngwa ka dipopi, e bile ga a na botsalano kgotsa thusano epe le dipolelo tse a dirisiwang mo go tsone.

Malepe (1974: 117) defines them as words that indicate a speaker's emotions or feelings e.g.

A bo! to expresss distress

These words are placed at the beginning of the sentence e.g.

Nxae! ke ne ke sa go bone 'Sorry, I did not see you'

Even though they cannot be described morphologically Setshedi (1980: 109) says some are words and some are speech sounds only e.g.

Nxae! (word)

139 C-c-c-c! (speech sounds)

Cole (1955: 394) and Snyman et al (1991:259) divide interjections into original and derived interjections. Derived ones are from nouns e.g.

Mosimane! 'boy'

In general interjections are classified into:

Original interjectives e.g. Pc! expressing contempt'

Vocative interjectives e.g. rra! 'o father'

Imperative interjectives e.g. Tsamayang! go!'

Idiomatic interjectives e.g. Saia sentie! 'remain well' (Snyman et al 1991: 258 et seq)

140 CHAPTER 10

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS

This final chapter is devoted to summarizing and commenting on the results that were obtained in the study done in the previous chapters.

There are discrepancies and inconsistencies in the way words are divided by the Setswana grammarians. These occur as a result of the word theories underlying their grammatical descriptions. The study indicates that two word theories: the disjunctive and the conjunctive have been followed, even though conjunctivism as advocated by Cole in Setswana grammar did not get a following.

The works investigated show that the disjunctive approach is part and parcel of the Setswana orthography and cannot be changed at this stage, though it leads to incorrect grammatical description.

Grammarians also differ on what are words and what are non-words e.g. Archbell (1837) regards subject concords as words while other writers regard them as formatives. This makes them to distinguish different word classes.

The noun does not create a problem to the writers. The writers differ on their identification of the noun classes, the number of noun classes occuring, and whether a class indicates singularity and plurality together or separately. Some writers followed Bleek's classification of noun classes while others follow Meinhof's. Nouns are

141 classified into the classes based on noun prefixes (morphology) only, the meaning is not considered. Thus when classifying nouns morphology and semantics should be used as the basic criteria e.g. class 1 is a persons class, which means that all persons nouns should belong to this class irrespective of its prefix. That is, flexibility and overlapping should prevail.

Writers differ in their treatment and identification of locatives. Locativised nouns are not regarded as such by most writers. From the analysis it is established that words with noun class prefixes, which can be used as subjects and objects are nouns and should be regarded as such irrespective of the way they are used.

From the publications studied it can be concluded that a pronoun is a word that is used to substitute a noun or used in the place of a noun. There are different types of pronouns, and these can be classified as other parts of speech too. Parts of speech like qualificatives assume the secondary function of being a pronoun when not proceeded by a noun. The emphatic pronoun and the demonstrative pronoun that are referred to as basic pronouns are only pronouns when not preceded by a noun, but become qualificatives when preceded by a noun.

The writing system employed by writers influences the way they identify words. What is regarded as a pronoun by disjunctive writers is regarded as a formative by conjunctive writers e.g. Archbell (1837: 40) regards

142 subject concords in relative constructions as relative pronouns while Cole (1955: 135) regards a relative construction used without a substantive as a relative qualificative pronoun.

Qualificatives and the way they are described by the writers are investigated. Inconsistencies occur in their descriptions and explanations. These inconsistencies also occur within a writer himself. Therefore Cole's (1955) definition that qualificatives are only such when they are preceded by substantives, and are pronouns when are not preceded is recommended.

The structure of the verb especially the verbal extensions, and the moods and tenses as identified and described by the different writers were investigated. The analysis shows that writers differ on the structure of the verb. From this study it can be concluded that a verb like other words is formed by prefixes (that bring concordial agreement with substantives) root and suffixes even though they are disjunctively written.

Grammarians differ on what categories are moods and which are tenses, and which one occur in Setswana. The moods and tenses occuring in English have been imposed on

Setswana, thus the confusion. This problem needs to be studied further to establish the difference between the two and to establish which ones occur in Setswana.

The way an adverb is described by the writers show a lot of discrepancies. The adverb, from this study, was

143 established to be a word used to describe a noun. This word can be derived from any other part of speech. This means that adverbs should be described syntactically and cannot be defined morphologically because they have no fixed structure.

Other word categories like ideophones, conjunctions and interjections did not create a problem to the writers, and therefore do not need revision.

Setswana grammatical description need to be revised. Word classes need to be re-classified and re-defined. Setswana must employ or use word tests that were developed by van Wyk (1958) to determine what words are. Once this is done, the criteria of morphology and syntax, and then phonology and semantics should be used to classify words.

From this study it is evident that Setswana grammatical description was not affected by the developments in linguistic science. Though many publications occurred during the structural period and the modern period, there is no shift of approach. The grammar is still described through the tenets of the functional period.

144 BIBLIOGRAPHY

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