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The Categorical Status and Functions of Auxiliaries in Shona

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The Categorical Status and Functions of Auxiliaries in Shona THE CATEGORICAL STATUS AND FUNCTIONS OF AUXILIARIES IN SHONA By Nhira Edgar Mberi A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE DEPARTMENT OF AFRICAN LANGUAGES AND LITERATURE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ZIMBAMBWE IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY, JUNE, 2002 SUPERVISORS: PROFESSOR ROLF THEIL ENDRESEN PROFESSOR HERBERT CHIMHUNDU Contents Acknowledgements ......................................................................................................... 7 Abstract .......................................................................................................................... 9 Figures and Tables ......................................................................................................... 11 Abbreviations ................................................................................................................ 13 Pfupiso yezviri muchinyorwa chino ............................................................................... 15 CHAPTER ONE 1 Introduction ............................................................................................................. 19 1.1 Th e aim of the present study ..................................................................................... 19 1.2 Background ............................................................................................................ 20 1.3 Objectives .............................................................................................................. 21 1.4 Shona as a Bantu language....................................................................................... 22 1.5 Brief overview of the Shona language situation ......................................................... 24 1.6 Th e organisation of the study ................................................................................. 25 CHAPTER TWO Defi ning Auxiliary ........................................................................................................ 27 2.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................. 27 2.2 Th e term auxiliary ................................................................................................... 27 2.3 Heine’s survey of defi nitions of auxiliary ................................................................... 28 2.4 Auxiliaries in Bantu Languages ................................................................................ 29 2.5 Auxiliaries in Shona ................................................................................................. 34 2.6. Summary of chapter ................................................................................................ 37 CHAPTER THREE Methodology ................................................................................................................. 39 3.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................. 39 3.2. Th e ALLEX Shona Corpus ..................................................................................... 39 3.2.1 Oral material ............................................................................................................... 40 3.2.2 Written corpus ............................................................................................................ 44 3.3. Monitor corpus ...................................................................................................... 44 3.4. Th e Corpus-driven approach .................................................................................... 45 3.5 Use of computers ...................................................................................................... 46 3.6 Th e Concordance Programme ................................................................................... 46 3.7 Limitations of the corpus-driven approach ................................................................ 49 3.8 Intuition .................................................................................................................. 51 3.9 Questionnaires and Interviews .................................................................................. 52 3.9.1 Th e target group ........................................................................................................... 53 3.10 Data from existing sources .................................................................................... 54 3.10.1 Written sources ......................................................................................................... 54 3 3.10.2 Data from internet ...................................................................................................... 55 3.11 Summary of chapter .............................................................................................. 55 CHAPTER FOUR Morphology of the Shona verb ...................................................................................... 57 4.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................... 57 4.2 Infl ection and Derivation ......................................................................................... 57 4.3. Th e agglutinative character of Shona ....................................................................... 59 4.4 Th e conjugation of the verb in Bantu ....................................................................... 61 4.5.1 Th e concept of a word in Shona. ...................................................................................... 62 4.6. Th e verb root and verb stem ..................................................................................... 69 4.6.1 A simplex stem ............................................................................................................ 69 4.6.2 Extended stems .......................................................................................................... 69 4.6.3 Derived verbs ............................................................................................................. 71 4.7. Verb slot system for Shona ....................................................................................... 71 4.7.1 Subject prefi xes (subject concords) and Object prefi xes ............................................................ 79 4.7.2 Th e Negatives formatives ................................................................................................ 80 4.7.3 Th e NEG-TMA slots .................................................................................................... 81 4.7.4. Th e infi nitive forms ..................................................................................................... 81 4.7.5 Mood ...................................................................................................................... 82 4.7.6 Tense markers ............................................................................................................. 85 4.7.7 Aspect markers ......................................................................................................... 86 4.7. 8 Auxiliaries ................................................................................................................ 88 4.7.9 Th e fi nal vowel ........................................................................................................... 90 4.7.10 Clitics ................................................................................................................... 90 4.7.11 Summary of the chapter ............................................................................................... 94 CHAPTER FIVE Th eoretical Framework ................................................................................................. 97 5.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................... 97 5.2 Th e Nature of Categories ........................................................................................ 97 5.2.1 Th e classical model ........................................................................................................ 98 5.2.2 Non-classical categorization models .................................................................................... 99 5.3 Hypotheses and categorization................................................................................ 100 5.4 Cognitive grammar and grammaticalization ............................................................ 102 5.4.1 What is Grammaticalization? ........................................................................................ 106 5.4.2 Synchronic vs Diachronic approaches ............................................................................... 109 5.4.3 Th e concept of clines .................................................................................................... 111 5.5 grammaticalization in Progress ............................................................................... 111 5.5.1 Processes of grammaticalization .................................................................................... 111 5.5.2 Phonological processes ................................................................................................ 116 5.5.3 Morphosyntactic processes ............................................................................................ 118 5.5.4 Functional processes ..................................................................................................
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