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(Kikuyu) Complex Sentences: a Role and Reference Grammar Analysis

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(Kikuyu) Complex Sentences: a Role and Reference Grammar Analysis Aspects of Gĩkũyũ (Kikuyu) Complex Sentences: A Role and Reference Grammar Analysis Inaugural-Dissertation zur Erlangung des Grades eines Doktor der Philosophie der,Philosophischen Fakultät der Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf vorgelegt von Claudius Patrick Kihara aus Nairobi, Kenya Gutachter: Prof. Dr Robert D.Van Valin, Jr. Gutachterin: Prof. Dr Laura Kallmeyer Düsseldorf, Dezember 2016 Tag der Disputation: 16 Februar 2017 Acknowledgements I acknowledge immense blessings I have received from the Almighty God, especially the gift of life and good health, family, friends and the many good people I met in the course of my studies. I wish to greatly thank Professor Robert D.Van Valin, Jr., first and foremost, for accepting to supervise my research; and secondly, for his kindness, patience, resourcefulness and the generosity he accorded me. Thank you so much for being available for consultation, even at very short notice. Thank you for your prompt email responses. Thank you also for never complaining even when I wrote unclear arguments; you always helped me clarify them through your questions. I will forever be grateful that I met you and learned from you. I also profusely thank Professor Laura Kallmeyer, the second reviewer of this dissertation. I am very grateful to the Kenyan government through the National Commission for Science and Technology (NACOSTI) and the German government through the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) for the scholarship. I thank Dr Helga Schröder and Dr Alfred Buregeya for writing references for me. It is Schröder who made me aware that RRG existed. Buregeya, my teacher and friend, has all along inspired me. I thank my dear wife Catherine for her love and for standing by me throughout the years as I pursued my dreams, without ever complaining. Thanks for taking care of everything when I was away. Your love, words of encouragement and your daily prayers saw me through. Thanks for always being there to help me clarify the data. Cate, you are truly my best friend, God bless you. My dear children, Julie, Stella and Chris, thank you for being there and bearing with my absence and for your prayers. To my sister Wanjiru thanks for calling me on every other Sunday evening. I also thank my mother Juliana and my sister Jane, for their encouragement and prayers. Thank you Gichuhi wa Njomo, my father-in-law, and Maggie, Maish, Fuero, Dani, and Mwash, and your families. My friend Jackson Githu, I will be forever indebted to you and your wife Susan and children Belinda, Sedrick and Willy. The weekends we spent together in Duisburg helped me a lot. Thank you also for your intuition and much more. Thanks Jack for everything, you are truly a friend, and God bless you all. I am very grateful to Idan Moshe, my housemate for the entire period of study. Thank you for your friendship, understanding, kindness, concern, and generosity. I also thank Marcus, Keshet and their children, Levy and Jacob, for their hospitality. Gabi, I also remember you. I thank Mukoya Mwairumba, Mwangi P.K., David Muchiri, Johanna Khoo, Robin Möllermann, and all those who asked about my progress. I also benefitted from the intuition of George Mugo and Geoffrey Njung’e, David Migwe of Augustana University, and many others who answered my many questions.Thank you Erhard Voeltz for the numerous discussions on Bantu; I also thank Ruben van de Vijver, Anja Latrouite and Jens Fleischhauer for their time. Paul Starzmann and Nilgün, thank you for your encouragement and for hosting me in Berlin. Last but not the least; I thank Marion, Pia, Lena, Anna and Tim Marton for all their assistance with office matters at the Institute of Language & Information. Tim, I particularly thank you for your concern and friendship, and for going out of your way to assist me, I will never forget you. ii Abstract This dissertation was motivated by the lack of a study on the morphosyntax of complex sentences in Gĩkũyũ (Kikuyu, E.51) and the need to test the theoretical tools of Role and Reference Grammar (RRG). Hence, this study investigates the morphosyntax of Gĩkũyũ complex sentences within the framework of RRG. The main question investigated is ‘What are the constituent units in Gĩkũyũ complex sentences and what syntactic relations exist between them? To answer this main question, sub- questions are proposed, seeking to reveal the composition of complex sentences in Gĩkũyũ, and how the RRG theoretical concepts and tools can describe these contructions. Also, this study seeks to find out if RRG can account for the interaction of syntax, semantics, and pragmatics in Gĩkũyũ complex sentences. Chapter one lays the background for the study of complex sentences, showing the existing controversy about the notions of subordination and coordination as linkage relations. It is revealed that these notions cannot account for all types of Gĩkũyũ complex sentences. This leads to the statement of the problem, and the research aims and questions of this dissertation. Linguistic features of Gĩkũyũ are also presented. Chapter two contains a literature review and an overview of RRG theory. Chapter three deals with the application of RRG theoretical concepts to Gĩkũyũ simple clauses. Chapter four introduces the RRG theory of complex sentences and applies it to Gĩkũyũ. The Gĩkũyũ complex reference phrase is also discussed. An examination of focus in complex sentences furthermore reveals that subordinate clauses can be within the focus domain. Chapter five is on coordination and cosubordination. Conjunction, adversative and disjunctive coordination is described and illustrated. Core and clausal cosubordination are also illustrated. In chapter six, forms of subordination such as complementation, adverbial clauses and relative clauses are discussed. Based on the RRG theory of subordination, it is shown that the language has core (daughter) subordination, ad-core periphery subordination, and ad-clausal subordination. The interclausal semantic and syntactic hierarchy is also discussed. It is shown that most Gĩkũyũ complex sentences fit into this hierarchy. Chapter seven is the summary and conclusion of the dissertation. The investigation concludes that coordination, subordination, and cosubordination are valid clause linkage relations in Gĩkũyũ. It is also shown that the RRG theory of complex sentences adequately accounts for Gĩkũyũ complex sentences, which are composed of core, clause and sentential juncture-nexus types. This study shows that Gĩkũyũ has eight of the eleven possible types of complex sentences posited in RRG. In addition, focus in Gĩkũyũ complex sentences is explained following the RRG theory. Finally, it is shown that the interclausal semantic and syntactic hierarchies account for Gĩkũyũ complex sentences.That RRG can account for the morphosyntax of Gĩkũyũ is evidence for its universal nature, since in its development data from Bantu languages played no role. iii Table of contents Acknowledgements ...................................................................................................... ii List of tables ................................................................................................................ ix List of figures ............................................................................................................... x Abbreviations ............................................................................................................. xii 1 Background to the study of Gĩkũyũ complex sentences .................................... 1 1.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................................... 1 1.2 Background to the study ........................................................................................................ 1 1.3 Problem statement ................................................................................................................. 8 1.4 Research aims and questions ................................................................................................. 8 1.5 Data collection and analysis .................................................................................................. 9 1.6 An overview of Gĩkũyũ language ......................................................................................... 9 1.6.1 The speakers ................................................................................................................. 10 1.6.2 The language ................................................................................................................ 10 1.6.3 Phonology .................................................................................................................... 10 1.6.3.1 Gĩkũyũ vowels ...................................................................................................... 10 1.6.3.2 Gĩkũyũ consonants ............................................................................................... 11 1.6.4 Morphology .................................................................................................................. 12 1.6.4.1 Nouns in Gĩkũyũ ................................................................................................... 12 1.6.4.2 Pronouns ............................................................................................................... 13 1.6.5 Gĩkũyũ verb group ....................................................................................................... 14 1.6.5.1 Tense in Gĩkũyũ ...................................................................................................
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