xxix, 918 p. : ill. (some col.), maps / This dissertation is a comprehensive grammar of Kokama-Kokamilla (KK), as spoken by about 1000 elders in the Peruvian Amazon. It presents detailed documentation of the structures of the language and the functions they serve, with rich exemplification. This study is based on significant fieldwork since 1997, allowing the analysis to be grounded in text data. One of KK's most salient typological features is a morphological distinction between male and female speech in several grammatical categories. Major grammatical categories like person, number, tense, and modality are conveyed by positionally fixed clitics. Five tense clitics encode three degrees of distance into the past and two into the future. There are also six epistemic modal clitics, which interact to create a four-way modal system. None of the twelve suffixes is obligatory, but, in language use, as many as four can occur together on a single verb, followed by up to two clitics. Syntactically, KK has intransitive and transitive clauses, but semantically three-place predicates are syntactically encoded by means of transitive clauses. There are six directive constructions that distinguish degrees of pragmatic force. Another noteworthy point is the multiple types of purpose clause which differ in terms of coreference, controlled by the matrix clause absolutive argument rather than the subject. Clause nominalization is a central subordination strategy, particularly in relativization, which is largely achieved via an absolutive nominalizer. Pragmatically, KK has constructions that explicitly distinguish subtypes of focus according to scope (narrow/broad) and pragmatic information (contrastive/noncontrastive). This bears on theories about whether contrast simply emerges from conversational implicature, versus can be explicitly coded by dedicated grammar. Information structure also explains the distribution of alternating pronominal forms and constituent orders. Though long classified as Tupí-Guaraní, recent research claims that KK is the product of a contact language situation and hence has a mixed grammar. Although this claim seems accurate, this study shows the possible Tupí-Guaraní origin of a number of grammatical morphemes. What languages (and families) contributed to the rest of the mix remains to be determined. Thus, this comprehensive description is an important step in advancing comparative studies among the languages of the region. / Adviser: Spike Gildea, Chairperson; Committee members: Doris Payne; Scott DeLancey; Francisco Queixalos; Lawrence Sugiyama

Den teoretiska utgångspunkten i denna studie är den skolnära forskning som bedrivs inom grammatikämnet. Denna har mening först när den tillämpas och syftet med denna kvalitativa studie är att undersöka om och i så fall hur svensklärare i grundskolans senare år tar del av forskning som rör grammatikundervisning samt om och i så fall hur forskningen påverkar deras undervisning. Fem svensklärare i grundskolans senare år har intervjuats och resultatet visar att lärarna främst utgår från kursplan, kollegial tradition och läromedel. De söker inte aktivt forskning om grammatikundervisning och denna påverkar inte deras undervisning på något märkbart sätt. Det framkommer också att lärarna inte fått någon grammatikdidaktik i sin lärarutbildning. Dessutom visar undersökningen att den nya funktionella grammatik som sätter undervisningen i meningsfulla sammanhang inte slagit igenom i svensk grammatikundervisning. / The aim of this study is to examine if and how teachers in Swedish secondary school acquaint themselves with research on grammar education and if this research affect their grammar lessons. Five in-depth interviews with teachers have produced information that show that the teachers base their grammar lessons on the curricula, textbooks and collegial tradition. The interviews show that because of insufficient grammar didactics in their teacher education the teachers support their education with this material. The teachers do not actively look for research on grammar and it does not affect their grammar lessons in any obvious way. The new functional grammar which promotes grammar education in a meaningful context has not yet become generally accepted.

D.Litt. et Phil. (African Languages) / The change in function of word categories is a widespread phenomenon in Zulu and can be indicated across the whole spectrum of language elements. The dynamic developing nature of the language entails that units may shift upwards or downwards within the hierarchy, resulting in their assuming either a higher or lower rank. The so-called "class prefix" of class 2a is typified as a specialised and rank shifted variant of the emphatic pronoun bona on account of its syntactic and semantic characteristics. The class prefix of class 1a has not yet completely passed through the development process from Ur-Bantu *Ta and currently shows charateristics of both copula and class prefix. Various other affixes of the noun such as, inter alia, the diminutive suffix and prefixes such as {-50-} and {~nga-} originated from former nouns and verbal stems. A 1arge degree of interaction occurs between pronouns and other word categories. The (abbreviated) demonstrative pronoun a functions as relative pronoun in establishing relative constructions. The verbal suffix {-yo} which functions in verbal relative constructions as nominaliser and with an emphatic semantic value also originated from a pronoun. A few pronouns from the locative classes may function as (auxiliary) verb stems while others serve as "conjunct ions". The distance indicating suffixes of the demonstrative pronouns, with the retention of significance, are employed in other word categori es such as adverbs and interjective demonstratives. Category shifting, therefore, also occurs on the level of morphemes. A mutual underlying composition is disclosed for all relative constructions (verbal and nominal) as consisting of the relative pronoun a as introductory member followed by a complement in the relative mood. This postulation makes provision for the occurence of a underlying copulative verb stem *-(1)i in the relative and situative moods. In the indicative the negative auxiliary verb stem -si is regarded as (underlying) part of the copulative construction. Various particle words such as the connective na and the instrumental nga, the hortative particles (m)a and A(ke), certain "conjunctions" such as uma and qede, the particles be and se and certain enclitic particles find their origin in verbs. It has been indicated within the category 'verb' that the aspectual morphemes originated in former verb stems. Certain verbs can be lowered in rank with specific morphological and semantic changes and then function as auxiliary verb stems. In certain cases the auxiliary verb stems can shift upwards in rank by morphematic elision of the concordial morpheme and be employed as autonomous "conjunctions". Adverbs are mainly derived from other word categories in that noun class prefixes function as adverbial prefixes. The adverbial prefix {ka-} is reduced to the obsolete class 13 of Ur-Bantu which contained mainly diminutive words as well as words with an adverbial significance. The morpheme {-ka} whi ch occurs in words such as kangaka originated in the demonstrative pronoun of this class, namely lakha. Ideophones show formal, semantic and syntatic similarities with verbs and are typified in principle as the complement of the auxiliary verb stem -thi.

M.A. (African Languages) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

M.A. (African Languages) / In this dissertation the copulative in Tsonga is analyzed in all its aspects. The treatment of copulatives in literature on Tsonga is discussed in detail and views of authors on other South African languages compared with it. A theoretical framework for the description of copulatives is offered, including such aspects as the definition of the word, the verb categories of the language, and the terminology needed for the subject. A principled basis for the classification of types of copulatives is then given, after which the identification, descriptive, stative and inchoative copulatives of Tsonga are analyzed in detail.

M.Litt. et Phil. (German) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

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This paper examines two English polyverbal constructions, COME to V2 and GET to V2, as exemplified in Examples 1 and 2, respectively. (1) the senator came to know thousands of his constituents (2) Little Johnny got to eat ice cream after every little league game. Previous studies considered these types of constructions (though come and get as used here have not been sufficiently studied) as belonging to a special class of complement constructions, in which the infinitive is regarded as instantiating a separate, subordinate predication from that of the “matrix” or leftward finite verb. These constructions, however, exhibit systematic deviation from the various criteria proposed in previous research. This study uses the American National Corpus to investigate the statistical propensities of the target phenomena via lexico-syntactic (collostructional analysis) and morpho-syntactic (binary logistic regression) features, as captured through the lens of construction grammar.

This study deals with the influence of other languages on Venda. It begins by looking at the various contact situations and then analyses the adaptation of foreign linguistic forms and their impact on the Venda language. Chapter 1 gives a historical perspective of Venda. The focus here is on the origin of the Venda language and the different contacts it has had with other languages during and after migration. Chapter 2 analyses the adaptation of foreign linguistic forms to the Venda lexical­ semantic system, while chapter 3 focuses on adoptives in relation to the Venda sound system. Chapter 4 focuses on the grammatical (i.e morphological and syntactic) adaptation . This chapter concludes by looking at the impact of adopted linguistic forms en the Venda grammatical system. The final chapter gives a general conclusion on the adjustment of adopted linguistic forms and their effects on the Venda language. / African languages / M.A. (African languages)

Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of MASTERS OF ARTS in the DEPARTMENT OF AFRICAN LANGUAGES at the UNIVERSITY OF ZULULAND, 2000. / Topics falling under evaluative morphology have been wrongly placed in most grammar books dealing with African languages. cf. Doke (1956), Ziervogel and Mabuza (1996) and Nyembezi (1965) have placed diminutives , augmentatives and reduplication of nominal stems under derivative forms of the nouns. They also place the evaluative verbal extensions under verbal derivatives. This situation has led to inadequate and misleading treatment of . such topics. Most scholars have treated these topics in passing. Less attention has been paid to this aspect of Zulu grammar. This study endeavours to highlight important aspects of evaluative morphology. We want to ascertain whether or not the branch of morphology known as evaluative morphology is worth pursuing in Zulu. We shall therefore develop a theoretical basis for Zulu evaluative morphology. This study will attempt to deal with some important aspects of evaluative morphology. These aspects are :evaluative affixes used with nominals, evaluative affixes used with personal names and evaluative affixes used with the verb. Non-evaluative affixes will be excluded from this study.