Verbal morphosyntax and word order patterns in Zulu language

Linguistic Analysis of Word Order in Zulu Language

Linguistics in most cases deals with the scientific studies relating to languages. Most of the undergraduates are not conversant with linguistics because it is hardly taught in high schools. Most of those who discover about linguistics do it in their college levels. This paper, however, focuses on the linguistic analysis of word order in Zulu language. In particular, the paper will narrow down to discuss the issues of verbal morphosyntax in the Zulu language. Issues of the Zulu language will be critically analyzed, including verbal extensions, stem selection together with suffix selections and the problems experienced when trying to account for dependencies of different parts of verbal morphology. Also, there is a discussion on the construction of Zulu sentences, where the applicative argument which is locative, raises to the subject position, and leaves the agents with properties which are object-like. The prosody and the syntax of dislocation of the Zulu language are also discussed in length, to clearly explain the different Zulu order of words.

Introduction

The history of the Zulu language

Zulu language has a large number of noun classes, well established verb agreements, adjectives and other linguistic elements. The tense and aspects used by the Zulu people in communication are quite rich in content and are expressed in the form of simple tenses, aspectual affixes, auxiliary verbs and also compound tenses. Zulu language is the most spoken in South Africa, with over nine million people speaking the language. The language is been classified within the Bantu language and are linked to the southeast Nguni community. The Zulu language is related to the Xhosa and Ndebele languages, which are also part of the Nguni language. The Zulu language was greatly influenced by the early Christian missionaries. It is the European influence that led to the Zulu writing styles which adopted the Latin-based scripts in their writing. The language has also proved to be a detailed language, both when spoken by the natives and also when written.

The literature involves oral poetic compositions for instance the "izibongo" which is a song that was sung during praises. The written language of the 19th and 20th century was divided into two categories, one that involved traditions of the Zulu life and the other dealt with Christianity (Accredited, 2012, pp.3). Up to the mid-1800, the Zulu language still had the Christian scripture contents. The other fundamental text of the Zulu language appeared in the 19th century, which was a translation of the John Bunyan's: "Pilgrim's Progress." The modern literature of the Zulu people has remained to be cultural, and still preserves the oral traditions of the Zulu people. The language has been complicated since 1939, with an introduction of the 'Oral Narratives and the Ancient Traditions' which in the Zulu language would be translated as "Inziganekwane nezindaba ezindala." In 1958, there were the heroic poems for the Chiefs, "izibongo zamakhosi" (Accredited, 2012, pp.5).

The characteristics of the language are vast, ranging from borrowing of words from the English and Afrikaans languages. The Zulu language is spoken using the clicking sounds, which most linguistics believed were borrowed from their neighboring Khoisan communities. Also, most of the Zulu words end with vowels. Currently, most of the Zulus are located in the Zululand and KwaZulu provinces, located in South Africa (Accredited, 2012, pp.6).

Effects of Mirror Principle and Morphology

When discussing morphology and the mirror principle effects, there are always opposing opinions on where exactly the morphology is located in the structure of the language faculty. When using the lexicalist opinion, then morphology would be regarded as a linguistic component that is discrete and on par with both syntax and phonology (Damonte, 2007, p.338). Otherwise, morphology could also be an element in the syntax, which does not assume any morphological component at all (Chandler, 2005, p.4). However, for the purpose of this paper, the latter opinion will be used.

In most cases, morphemes are just heads that are manipulated and even merged in the same manner as phrases. The order of morphemes is, therefore, a composition of the syntactic structure (Internal) of words hence could be used in the diagnosis of any syntactic structure (Chandler, 2005, p.5). Baker's principle, "The Mirror Principle" explains that, those morphemes that appear closest to any verb roots are usually lower in structure, compared to those appearing further from the peripheries (Chandler, 2005, p.6). Typically, Baker's principle focuses acutely on grammatical function concepts, which explain that the function is hardly primitive and that this grammatical functions are changing phenomena which are accounted for using the hypothesis that, the affixation of X0 level on the original positions in the structures could lead to sensible changes in the case relations in a certain clause (Baker, 1988, p.216). Therefore, the principle's effects are reflective on the compositions of morphemes in most syntax structures. The ordering system of suffixes will, therefore, differ completely with the fashions used in case of suffixes. An illustration is provided below for better understanding.

In Zulu: w3 -- a2 -- cul1

2S -- PST- sing -- FV "you sang"

In the above case, the morphemes, including the subject and tense morphemes, are all prefixes. Due to the assumptions made that there is no right adjunction; meaning the adjunction of a lower head moving to the right side of the higher head, then the mirror principle which will have the effect of a tense morpheme being close to the verb root compared to the morpheme of subject agreement, is due to the fact that the verb root retains its lower position compared to the tense morpheme. Precisely, the verb root and the tense morpheme do not adjourn in any manner (Chandler, 2005, p.5).

Clause structures in the Zulu language

Due to the nature of this paper, some complications will be withheld. Therefore, the structures of clauses are divided into three distinctive sections. There is the lowest section referred to as the thematic domain. In this section, the verb is inclusive of the syntactic structure. Arguments are also introduced in the section, together with valence changing morphemes for instance the passive and causative. Thematic domain is commonly referred to as the V Domain. Just at the top of the V domain is the inflectional domain, also known as I Domain. In this section, the tense, subject agreement, negation and aspect are merged. At the far top of a Clause lays the complementizer domain, commonly referred to as the C. Domain. This is the most complicated section, with projections, illocutionary particles and complementizers being merged. However, for the Zulu language, it is arguable that clauses especially those with short verb forms, hardly provide efficient evidence to reach the above positions/sections (Chandler, 2005, p.7).

Adjectives in the Zulu language

Where to categorize adjectives has always been a major issue in the previous attempts of language analysis. While Plato and Aristotle viewed an adjective to be a subsection of a verb, Alexandrians regarded adjectives to be a class under nouns. Until the medieval era, the word class for an adjective had not been reached (Posthumus, 2000, pp.3). Copulatives are formed when adjectives are elided from the initial vowel. When the concord (for the adjective) is disyllabic, mostly in class 5 of the noun table, where the concord is monosyllabic, the initial vowel provides space for the vowel i-. Therefore, forms like; izinkomo zinhle, meaning "the cattle are fine" must have been gotten from izinkomo ezinhle which means, "fine cattle." Another example is; inkosi indala, meaning "the chief is old" which was most likely derived from; enkosi endala meaning "the old chief."

For the case of adnominal stems, they can hardly be categorized on their own but are usually constituted in the grammatical construction. Nonetheless, there are three confusing reasons in the analysis of copula constructions as differentiated to adnominal steins. In the first example, both the parts: m (u) and ngim (u) are considered prefixes (such as ngimude and umfana rnude). On the other side, forms like -- de is considered adnominal steins. In the latter statement, the language element is a root and hardly a stem. Forms like ngim (u) are not regarded as a prefix, similar to m (u). For ngim (u), it consists of distinguished morphemes. One is the subject morpheme which is followed by a noun prefix which is either found in class 1 or 1a (Posthumus, 2000, pp.4). Also, copulative construction explains that the grammatical form consists of more than a word. Despite that, the form rnude is one word. Lastly, the in used in class 9 of nouns is a derivation of copula constructions, which is a prefix. The form, therefore, constitutes the subject morpheme i- then followed immediately by n- which is a true prefix, hence is hardly a single prefix. The Zulu adjectives are hence in a separate class of words and should be recognized as a category of "adjectives," comprising real adjectives, enumerative and relatives (Posthumus, 2000, pp.5). Words are, therefore, to be allocated into word categories in relation to distributional, phonological and morphological considerations. Other scholars like Van consider the so-called adjective to be a word group, which will comprise two words (Posthumus, 2000, pp.7). Words vided below;

u- ku- cula

15-15- sing

Translation: to sing.

The 17th class could be defined as non-productive. The class is locative and usually uses the prefix ku-. Essentially, the importance of this class 17 is the fact that the verbal agreement is defaulted for instance like imbi which has the subject morpheme i- is basically an autonomous word that is to be referred to as participles.

Prepositional and adverb phrases (in Zulu)

A preposition could be defined as a set of items preceding noun phases to compose one constituent of structure. Evidently, the second layer inflectional prefixes found in Zulu nominals are compatible with the provided definition because; they usually are in a set of closed items, precede nouns (phrases) and in most cases form a constituent of structure. Therefore, they are deemed to conceptualize prepositional phases (PP) which is a combination of a preposition (P) with a noun phrase (NP) proceeding it. Extra-nominal inflection factors precisely 'point out the relation between words in a sentence (syntactic relationship)' in Zulu language. The factors also cause varied morphological forms in words; hence they could be indentified to be prepositions (Mathonsi, 2001, p.165). The prepositions in Zulu will include the following;

1. The associative prefix na-

2. Instrumentive prefix nga-

3. Comparative prefixes nganga-, kuna- and njenga-

4. Identificative prefix/agentive prefix y (i) - together with allomorphs w (u)-, ng (u) - and many others

5. Locative prefix ku- together with allomorphs e/o-, ki-, k-, kw-….. (-ini).

6. Possessive prefix -a- together with allomorph -ka-

7. Coordinating conjunction noma "or"

The morphemes mentioned above are considered to be prepositional heads (phases), 'PP'. The PP is analyzed as shown below:

1. PP -- P NP; or PP -- P (NP PP)

This is an indication that P, which is the head, could rule both the simple NP and also the NP which is followed by another PP. However, the morphemes are not to be considered heads of phrases they precede, because they are attached to them (Mathonsi, 2001, p.166).

It is fundamental to note that na- which is translated to "and" and noma which stands for "or" could most likely function as coordinating conjunctions hence cannot be categorized to be prepositions because they hardly mark a syntactic change when using the noun (Mathonsi, 2001, p.166).

2. Ubaba nomama bazofika

Translation: Father and mother will arrive

Ubaba noma umama uzofika

Translation: Either father or mother will arrive

A further complication in the analysis of PP's is the fact that it could be used just like a predicative base if employed with a subject agreement marker, but with differences in meaning. For instance, na- would mean either to be in the company of, or simply to have/possess. For example:

3. Umama ufika nobaba meaning mother arrives with father. That is "in the company of."

Inkosikazi inabantwana meaning the lady "possesses" children or "is with children."

Possessive constructions in most cases provide a concordial marker before a putative preposition - (K) a-, making the PP dependent on preceding NP's and also conditioned by following NP's. For instance:

4. Intombi yomfana (Agr i-; possessive preposition -a-; and the dependent NP, which in this illustration would be umfana).

In syntactic terms, formation of a possessive is inflectional and, therefore, controls the agreement. It does not qualify to be a preposition (Mathonsi, 2001, p.167).

Adverbial phrases

Just like other Bantu languages, Zulu language provides a close relationship between nouns and adverbs (Malcolm, 1960, p.40).VP may either contain only a verb or both a verb followed by objects NP. The verb could also be followed by an adverb (ADV) or even by both the NP and the ADV.

That is; VP -- V [NP ADV]

Any descriptive function that is found within a predicate phase (PRED) could be attained by ADV or P -- P.A description is provided above. An adverb could be defined as a word that specifies the mode of action of a verb in a sentence. For example, 'The fox ran faster than the dog'. Nonetheless, grammarians have identified other words, which they have grouped as adverbs, resulting to a class of words that are heterogeneous (Mathonsi, 2001, p.170).

A basic adverb is one of manner, which in English is one formed by suffixation of -ly (for instance steadily, happily, breathlessly) to corresponding adjective stems. Manner adjectives usually follow VP's immediately and precede adverbs. There is an indication that adverbial classes do differentiate words to groups which may just be adverbial in function and not in any form. Examples of adverbial expressions that are in the class of adverbials include upstairs, in the bathroom among others (Mathonsi, 2001, p.171). The distinction is that, as one group has simple structure characteristics, the other is not single and cannot be as a simple word.

Similar issues are observable in isiZulu, for instance -- ngenduku, which means, by means of and Kabi, meaning 'badly' and many others; appear to be simple words that are single. However, the internal structure of say Kabi differs because the prefix (ka-) is added to the adjectival stem. Ka- is actually a gender class prefix, and there is an assumption that the class changes derivational morphemes, which combines with the lexical group -- bi that is an adjective stem in the production of an adverb manner (Kabi). The preceding discussions focus only on the secondary adverbs. Primary adverbs that have no separable morphemes include adverbs like unomphela, njalo, phela, futhi and many others. Adverbs like manje and phakathi meaning 'now' and 'inside' respectively, portray fossilized prefixes. It is notable that the syllable (pha-) is not preceding any 'primary prefixes'. This means the syllable hardly constitutes the second layer inflection. Other adjectives such as phesheya and phezulu meaning 'abroad' and 'above' respectively create the thought that there is a possibility they could be broken to parts as follows; 'pha+ I (li) sheya' and 'pha+ I (li) zulu'.

In cases where an adverb modifies another, for instance Kuhamba Kahle Kakhulu, which in English means 'it goes very well', the adverb, which in this case is "kakhulu," will have a "degree" expression because of the fact it specifies extent of comparison of the adverbs.

Pronouns in the isiZulu language

Pronouns replace nouns. For instance, instead of saying "my teacher speaks three languages" one could simply say "he speaks three languages." The words 'my teacher' are substituted by the 'he' pronoun. Pronouns are categorized into three main groups that is; personal, object, possessive and demonstrative pronouns. In Zulu language, absolute pronouns always lose the trailing -- na especially when used together with any prefix. For instance, nga- +mina when combined, come to ngami, hence an elimination of the -na at the end. When translated to English, Ngami means "about me" (isiZulu.net, 2012, pp.1).

Examples will be relevant for better understanding of how to use pronouns in sentences. For personal pronouns, an example would be ngingumngane wakho which means "I am your friend." In the example, the first pronoun I comes before the verb in the sentence. In case of 2nd pronouns, an example could be as follows; ukhuluma usheshise meaning "you speak very fast." In this illustration, the pronoun comes before the adverb. Object pronouns are used as a target by the verb of a sentence. In Zulu, an example of the object pronouns would be illustrated in the sentence; ngizokunikeza imali meaning "I will give you money." The object pronoun precedes the noun in the sentences. A possessive pronoun example in a sentence is; umfowenu uhlala lapha meaning "your brother lives here." The second possessive pronoun comes before the noun, which in this case is "brother" (Learn101.org, 2012, pp.1). The understanding of Zulu pronouns is quite mandatory, for those wanting to converse effectively in the Zulu language. this is because of the role of pronouns in the Zulu grammatical structures.

Relative Clause Analysis

When analyzing the case of relative clauses, it is obligatory to understand that forms of initial prefixes that are attached to the verb stem do change. The result in most cases is that the verb is automatically prefixed with a relative concord (Zeller, 2003, p.3). Examples of the relative concord are written in bold in the provided examples (i) and (ii). The examples also demonstrate that the relative concords usually agree with the subjects of relative clauses. This means that relativisation and all subject agreements are expressed by relative concords simultaneously. The examples are provided below:

(i) (a)Abafana (aba-sebenza esitolo) ba-fik-e namhlanje

When translated: 'The boys who work in the shop arrived today'.

(b) Incwadi (esi-yi-funda-yo isitsundeni) in-de

When translated: 'the later that the student is reading is long'.

From the above illustrations, the relative concords in the isiZulu language result from a combination of subject prefixes of certain noun classes and relative morphemes with underlying forms a-. The phonological form (of relative morphemes) is arrived at by the Vowel Raising rule which causes vowel a- to drastically assimilate in backness and height to higher vowels of proceeding subject prefixes (Zeller, 2003, p.3). The allomorphs e- and o- are then derived. In case the subject prefix begins with a consonant, as illustrated above, the relative concord will have a form which combines the relative morpheme together with the subject prefix. Nonetheless, if it happens that the subject prefix is a vowel, and then it is automatically deleted. When noun classes have vowel subject prefixes, then the relative concord will only entail the relative morpheme. It is fundamental to note that the subject of relative clauses in the example (i) above is extra posed. However, the subject extra-positioning in the relative clauses is optional in Zulu, though many of the speakers of the language prefer it (Zeller, 2003, p.3).

(ii) (a) umfana (o-sebenza lapha) u-ya-gula

When translated: "the boy who works here is sick."

(b) Ukundla (ugogo a-ku-pheka-yo) ku-mnandi impela

When translated: "the food granny cooks is tasty indeed."

In the illustrations, I (a) and ii (a), the head noun is responding to the subject of relative clauses. These constructions could, therefore, be referred to as direct relatives. When the nouns correspond to other constituents in a relative clause, such as in I (b) and ii (b), the constructions are indirect relatives (Zeller, 2003, p.4). If we focus on the indirect relatives, the grammar function of a head noun will be shown using pronominal clitic, which is located inside a relative clause. For example, a head noun corresponding to a verb object becomes the object clitic, which is in agreement with a head noun and is attached to a verb stem. In Zulu, a verb of any relative clause happens in a participial mood that implies subordination (Zeller, 2003, p.4). The relative concords are observably similar to the demonstrative pronouns earlier mentioned in this paper, which is also referred to as first position pronouns (this and these). The only notable difference is the initial lateral consonant (demonstratives), which is lost with all relative concords.

Question structures in isiZulu

Why questions 'Why' questions, particularly the ones in the form of reason questions, have been depicted in many languages to own interesting characteristics that differentiate them from other questions (Buell, 2007, p.1). In Zulu, there are three typical ways of questioning. One is the purpose applicative question, whose example is provided below:

1. U-cul-el-a-ni

2s-sing-APPL-FV-what

When translated to English: "Why are you singing? What are you singing for?"

In the above example, the applicative suffix, which in the example is -- el together with the enclitic -- ni which means "what," both originate the and appear somewhere between the IP. In this particular strategy, only the affirmative questions are questioned. In the second strategy, the basis is on a non-applicative reason cleft that contains the variants; yin' indaba, yingani and yini. Illustrations are shown below:

2. (i) Yi-nga-ni w-enz -- a lokho?

Meaning: 'Why are you doing that?'

(ii) Indaba w-enz -- a lokho?

Meaning: 'Why do you that?'

(iii)Y-ini uSipho e-ng-enz-anga lutho?

Meaning: "Why Sipho didn't do anything"

Derivation of the question constructions above is unclear, because all the three variants illustrated could be used for questioning either negative or affirmative clauses. The last strategy, which this paper is much interested in, is the post verbal ngani. In this case, only the negative clauses are questioned (as in the instances shown below [3]). In the questions that are negative in nature, ngani will be used as 'why'. If the question is affirmative, only 'what about' could be used. Examples include:

3. (i) a-wu-khulum-I ngani?

Meaning: "why aren't you talking?"

(iii) Ni-khulum -- a nga-ni?

Meaning: "What are you talking about?"

In the second illustration, (3 ii) one could assume that ngani cannot mean why. However, ngani cannot be used in the meaning even in unambiguous situations for instance when using verbs such as bhema, which means "to smoke." The verb cannot take the complement that means "about something" (Buell, 2007, p.2). Contrary to the applicative strategy earlier discussed, which in most cases expresses 'purpose why', the ngani questions express 'reason why'. In situ post verbal Wh phrases are common in the Zulu language. These phrases such as the nini phrase which is translated to "when" are usually contained in the verb phrase and also at the high focus projection, which is usually below the inflectional domain.

Use of ngani and junctivity

The conjoint form is mandatory and has to be considered in an environment in which a verb precedes the phrase Wh. For instance:

1. (i) U-bon-e bani? (which illustrates the conjoint form)

(ii) U-bon-ile bani? (This is an illustration of a disjoint)

When translated the above comes to: "who did u see?"

Evidently, the ngani behaves in a different manner, because it only happens to appear in the negative clauses, which is inconsistent with the Wh phrases. The only group of negative tenses, which exhibits the disjoint/conjoint alterations in Zulu is the verbs that end with perfect suffixes, which are -- e/-ile. Instances are shown below, with the negative tenses used.

1. (i) a-ngi-gqok-ile (this illustrates a disjoint)

(ii) a-ngi-gqok-e (illustrating the conjoint)

When translated: "I am not dressed."

From the scenario presented in the examples above, the disjoint form only appears in clause final positions, unlike the conjoint that could be followed by undoubled objects (Buell, 2007, p.3). In summation, it could be seen clearly that, ngani, which means "why" must come after a disjoint verb form (compulsory), whereas all the remaining phrases (Wh) have to come after conjoint verb forms. Ngani is best analyzed and introduced in complementizer domains rather than inflectional domains (it is an Int0 head). Ngani also requires additional complexity filters as it utilizes them in the phrasal movement of IP when moving toward the specifier of Int0 (Buell, 2007, p.57).

Conclusion

In most of the Bantu languages, especially Zulu language, word order has always been flexible, but structures of information dominate in favor of alternative order of words (Cheng & Downing, 2012, p.1). The Zulu language focuses mostly on the factors that occur after verbs, abbreviated as IAV. Specifically in the isiZulu communication, both the answers and words corresponding to questions have to follow the IAV provision. Wh phrases are adjacent to verbs in most cases; however some particular phrases precede locative phrases and direct objects. Though it contains some technicalities, the Zulu language is easy to learn if the student id focused and willing, because of the vast similarities the Zulu language has with English.