scholarly journals Phonotactics of noun class disambiguation in Xhosa

2016 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aaron Braver ◽  
Wm. G. Bennett
Keyword(s):  
Native Speakers ◽  
Semantic Context ◽  
Bantu Languages ◽  
Noun Classes ◽  
Noun Class ◽  
Semantic Domains

Bantu languages are noted for their noun class systems.  These noun classes tend to connect to semantic domains: e.g., humans are prototypically in classes 1 and 2.  We present an experiment in which native speakers of Xhosa were shown singular nonce nouns with no semantic context, and were asked to provide the plural forms.  These nouns were shown with the singular class prefix –i, which is ambiguous between class 5 and class 9.  Historically, class 9 had a nasal prefix which triggered post-nasal alternations in stem-initial consonants.  Since class 5 did not historically have a nasal, no such alternations occurred in class 5 nouns.  Because of this, stems beginning with a segment that might have been the output of the historical post-nasal alternation may be interpreted as class 9, while stems beginning with segments that might have been inputs to these alternations may be interpreted as class 5.  We show that speakers follow this pattern: roots beginning with post-nasal outputs were more likely to be assigned the plural corresponding to class 9 (i.e., class 10), and roots beginning with post-nasal inputs were more likely to be assigned to the plural corresponding to class 5 (i.e., class 6).

Agreement with locatives in Kinyarwanda: a comparative analysis

2018 ◽  
Vol 39 (1) ◽  
pp. 65-106 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jochen Zeller ◽  
J. Paul Ngoboka
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Syntactic Analysis ◽  
Feature Location ◽  
Relevant Difference ◽  
Bantu Languages ◽  
Noun Classes ◽  
Noun Class ◽  
Invariant Class ◽  
Marker Class

AbstractIn Bantu languages such as Chichewa or Herero, locatives can function as subjects and show noun class agreement (in class 16, 17 or 18) with predicates and modifiers. In contrast, (preverbal) locatives in Sotho-Tswana and Nguni have been analysed as prepositional adjuncts, which cannot agree. Our paper compares locatives in Kinyarwanda (JD61) with locatives in these other Bantu languages and demonstrates that the Kinyarwanda locative system is essentially of the Chichewa/Herero type. We show that Kinyarwanda locatives are nominal in nature, can act as subjects, and agree with predicates and modifiers. However, even though Kinyarwanda has four locative noun classes (16, 17, 18 and 25), there is only one locative agreement marker (class 16ha-), which indiscriminately appears with all locatives, regardless of their noun class. We explain this fact by arguing that noun class features in Kinyarwanda do not participate in locative agreement; instead, the invariant class 16 marker expresses agreement with a generic feature [location] associated with all locatives. We offer a syntactic analysis of this peculiar aspect of Kinyarwanda locative agreement, and we propose a parameter that accounts for the relevant difference between Kinyarwanda and Chichewa/Herero-type Bantu languages.

scholarly journals Avatime noun classes and concord

1995 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 123-150
Author(s):  
Russell G. Schuh
Keyword(s):  
Head Noun ◽  
Vowel Harmony ◽  
Active Systems ◽  
Bantu Languages ◽  
Noun Classes ◽  
Per Se ◽  
Noun Class ◽  
Low Tone

Avatime is one of 14 "Central-Togo" (or "Togo Remnant") languages, spoken in Ghana, Togo, and Benin. These languages differ from their nearest Kwa group relatives in that they have active systems of noun classes and concord. Avatime has 13 noun classes, each with a distinct nominal prefix. Prefixes (as well as most other affixes) agree in [ATR] vowel harmony with the host noun root. Some classes impose invariable low tone on the prefix while prefix tone of other classes may be any of three lexically determined tones. Definiteness is marked by a set of suffixes. The ultimate segmental shapes and tones of these suffixes depend on the interaction of the respective class prefix shapes and coalescence phenomena with stem final vowels. There are correlations between noun class and nominal semantics, and nominal derivation is done in part through class choice. A number of attributive modifiers show class concord with the head noun. In the variety of Avatime studied here, such concord is only though vocalic prefixes on attributive modifiers, not by full CV prefixes as is typical of Bantu languages. Some attributives also have "tonal concord", which is not class concord per se, but refers to the tone of the head noun's prefix. Not all attributive modifiers have overt concord marking.

Noun Classes and Plurality in Bantu Languages

2021 ◽  
pp. 538-557
Author(s):  
Lutz Marten
Keyword(s):  
Classification System ◽  
Grammatical Gender ◽  
Bantu Languages ◽  
Class System ◽  
Noun Classes ◽  
Noun Class ◽  
Nominal Classification ◽  
Grammatical Number ◽  
Theoretical Analyses

Noun classes are a prominent grammatical feature of Bantu languages where typically each noun (or noun stem) is assigned to one of between fifteen and eighteen noun classes. Noun classes are often analysed as a form of nominal classification system and seen as belonging to the same domain as grammatical gender systems. Number in Bantu languages is mediated by the noun class system and the intricate interaction between noun class and number in Bantu has given rise to different theoretical analyses. The chapter focuses on three approaches to analysing grammatical number in Bantu languages—approaches based on an inflectional notion of number, those which analyse number as a derivational relation, and approaches adopting notions of polysemy and paradigms for analysing Bantu noun class systems.

scholarly journals Numerals in Akebu

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 344-356
Author(s):  
Nadezhda Makeeva ◽  
Andrey Shluinsky
Keyword(s):  
Noun Classes ◽  
Noun Class

AbstractThis article presents an overview of the numeral system in Akebu, a Kwa language of Togo. The Akebu numeral system is a decimal one and contains simple numerals from ‘1’ to ‘9’ and decimal bases for ‘10’, ‘100’, and ‘1,000’. The former have noun class agreement markers, while the latter do not. Only some noun classes are compatible with numerals, but among them there are both plural and singular classes.

scholarly journals Semantic Categories and Gender Assignment in Contact Spanish: Type of Code-Switching and its Relevance to Linguistic Outcomes

2016 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 405-435 ◽  
Author(s):  
Osmer Balam
Keyword(s):  
Native Speakers ◽  
Code Switching ◽  
Production Data ◽  
Abstract Concepts ◽  
Gender Assignment ◽  
Semantic Categories ◽  
Oral Production ◽  
The Status ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Semantic Domains

The present study examines two aspects of determiner phrases (dps) that have been previously investigated in Spanish/English code-switching; namely, the openness of semantic domains to non-native nouns and gender assignment in monolingual versus code-switched speech. The quantitative analysis of naturalistic, oral production data from 62 native speakers of Northern Belizean Spanish revealed both similarities and notable differences vis-à-vis previous findings for varieties of Spanish/English code-switching in theu.s. Hispanophone context. Semantic domains that favoured non-native nouns in Spanish/Englishdps included academia, technology, work/money-related terms, abstract concepts, linguistics/language terms and everyday items. In relation to gender assignation, assignment patterns in monolingualdps were canonical whereas an overwhelming preference for the masculine default gender was attested in mixeddps. Biological gender was not found to be deterministic in switcheddps. The analysis highlights the important role that type of code-switching has on contact outcomes in bi/multilingual communities, as speech patterns are reflective of the status and resourcefulness that code-switching is afforded at a societal and idiolectal level.

The Bantu Preprefix, Morphology, Phonology or Syntax?

2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Devet Goodness
Keyword(s):  
Bantu Languages ◽  
Initial Element ◽  
Noun Class ◽  
To Come

Bantu languages are characterized with the presence of an initial element that appears after a noun class prefix. This initial element (also known as initial vowel, pre-prefix or augment) has attracted the attention of most Bantuists. One issue of concern with regard to this initial element (hereafter called the preprefix) is related to its form, its distribution and its function. A question often asked is concerned with what triggers its occurrence in Bantu languages. This paper seeks to examine the preprefix in Bantu so as to come to grips with what triggers its occurrence in different Bantu languages. The findings indicate that the preprefix in Bantu may be associated with phonology, morphology and syntactic contexts. It has been revealed that in some cases, the preprefix in Bantu is triggered by its phonological context, morphology in some contexts and syntax in other contexts. It has been revealed that of all these three criteria (i.e morphology, phonology and syntax) syntax plays a greater role in the manifestation of the preprefix. However, in this paper it is concluded that the occurrence of the preprefix cannot be associated with a single aspect. 

Number, names, and animacy

2018 ◽  
pp. 203-233
Author(s):  
Clarissa Forbes
Keyword(s):  
Functional Projection ◽  
Noun Classes ◽  
Noun Class ◽  
Insight Into

Chapter 10 identifies three distinct types of noun classification active in Gitksan: mass/count, animate/inanimate, and common/determinate. It further identifies three types of number contrast each conditioned by a specific noun class; these are additive, pronominal, and associative plurals, respectively. These plurals, particularly the additive and associative plural, are shown to differ from each other in both their syntax and semantics. The author locates each of the three pairs of noun class and number contrasts in a distinct functional projection, from a nominal AspP, to φ‎P, to DP. By doing so, the chapter provides insight into the articulated projections that make up the Gitksan nominal spine, and exemplifies the variability that noun classes and number contrasts may have even within the grammar of a single language.

Missionary Contributions to Bantu Languages in Tanzania: James Thomas Last (1850–1933) and the Vidunda language

2009 ◽  
Vol 36 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 393-406 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karsten Legere
Keyword(s):  
Noun Phrase ◽  
Sole Source ◽  
African Languages ◽  
Bantu Languages ◽  
Linguistic Data ◽  
Noun Classes ◽  
Lexical Items ◽  
Set Up ◽  
Insight Into

This paper deals with linguistic work by the lay missionary James Thomas Last (1850–1933), who was among the first Europeans to live up-country in what is now Tanzania. In the course of a seven-year stay he was exposed to African languages which have only partly been known outside Africa. Last collected linguistic data that culminated 1885 in the publication of the Polyglotta Africana Orientalis. This book is a collection of 210 lexical items and sentences elicited in or translated into 48 African languages, and supplemented by entries for some other languages. In order to demonstrate the relevance as well as the inconsistencies of this missionary’s contribution, special attention is paid to the book section on the Vidunda language currently spoken by approximately 10,000 people in Central Tanzania. It turns out that approximately 75 per cent of the Vidunda entries are still acceptable today. The data even provides insight into the grammatical set-up of Vidunda (e.g., the noun classes and constituents of the noun phrase). Less relevant are the verbal paradigms. In a nutshell, Last produced material which had for many years been the sole source of lexical and grammatical information about the Vidunda language.

Phonotactic c(l)ues to Bantu noun class disambiguation

2016 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Aaron Braver ◽  
Wm. G. Bennett
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Experimental Evidence ◽  
The Other ◽  
Bantu Language ◽  
Noun Classes ◽  
Noun Class ◽  
Present Experimental Evidence

AbstractWhile a number of phonologists assume that phonotactics can provide clues to abstract morphological information, this possibility has largely gone unconsidered in work on Bantu noun classes. We present experimental evidence from isiXhosa (a Bantu language of the Nguni family, from South Africa), showing that speakers make use of root phonotactics when assigning noun classes to nonce words. Nouns in Xhosa bear class-indicating prefixes, but some of these prefixes are homophonous – and therefore ambiguous. Our findings show that when speakers are presented with words that have prefixes ambiguous between two classes, phonotactic factors can condition them to treat the nouns as one class or the other. This suggests that noun class (and other abstract morphological information) is not only stored in the lexicon, but is also redundantly indicated by phonotactic clues.

Language and Ethnobotany

2020 ◽  
pp. 731-749
Author(s):  
Karsten Legère
Keyword(s):  
Central African Republic ◽  
Democratic Republic ◽  
Democratic Republic Of Congo ◽  
Life Forms ◽  
Folk Taxonomy ◽  
African Languages ◽  
Bantu Languages ◽  
Noun Classes ◽  
Plant Names ◽  
Plant Habitat

This chapter deals with ethnobotany, folk taxonomy, and African languages. In its first part people’s structuring of the plant kingdom with particular reference to life forms, and generic and specific taxa is discussed. Reference is made to relevant folk taxonomic terms and plant names in Bantu languages from East Africa, especially Tanzania, Namibia, to some extent also from the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Central African Republic. It is interesting to note that on top of widespread taxa like TREE or PLANT habitat-related life forms were traced in various languages such as CLIMBER, VINE in Vidunda or BUSH, SHRUB in Kwangali, and THORN TREE in Ndonga, as well as other specific taxa. In this respect sub-life forms were also recorded and examples given. The second part of the chapter focuses on folk conceptualization and the system of Bantu noun classes.

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