D.Litt. et Phil. (African Languages) / The verb categories of Northern Sotho pose a problem which is still vague and controversial, despite the fact that it has often been addressed in the literature. This divergence of opinion concerning verb categories can be attributed to many factors of which the approach towards the description of the verb categories surely is one of the most important. Two main approaches to the problem can be distinguished, namely the universalistic and descriptive approaches. In both approaches the perception of universals plays an important role which proves that it is essential to examine universals beforehand. Firstly, universals are viewed in historical context. The methods to determine universals are examined, clearly distinguishing indu ction and deduction. It was found-however that the rigid application of these two methods, as suggested by Bloomfield and Hjelmslev respectively, amongst others, has proved to be unsatisfactory. The methods followed by Chomsky and Reichling, as inductive as those of Bloomfield, supply a solution as both are concerned with the nature of language. Van Wyk, supporting the views of these two linguists, distinguishes between quantitative and qualitative induction. He also stresses the need for interaction between induction and deduction as well as between the two methods of induction. The following types of universals are distinguished, namely general features, essential features, hypothetical universals, universal principles and categories, absolute and available universals, universal tendencies and simple and complex universals. The essence of these types lies in the distinction between essential and general features. Universals also play a role in the description of verb categories. Thus it is essential to determine to which type of universals the verb categories belong and whether the appearance is similar in all languages. The notions tense, aspect and mood as they appear in the literature, are examined. These notions are not as simple as is generally accepted. The 'present tense', for example, doesn't necessarily refer to action taking place NOW. It can also refer to general and habitual actions. The 'future tense' is more an issue of modality than of tense, because modal auxiliary verbs are used to indicate the so-called future tense. The notion of aspect frequently appears in the Slavic languages. It is a morphological category used to indicate the perfection or imperfection of an action. Mood is a morphological category of the verb being used to express the speaker's attitude towards his utterance. A distinction is made between tense and time, aspect and actionsart and mood and modality. For the purpose of this study, only the first of each group, namely the morphological forin, is of importance. Therefore the universality of each should be determined. It was found that the notions of tense, aspect and mood are not universal, but only available categories which a language may use. When existing views concerning the named categories in the African languages are compared, different viewpoints and a fair amount of confusion arise. Some categories, for example, are classified by certain writers as tenses, while others classify them as moods. The notion of aspect, found in the African languages, has not yet fully been explored. Definitions, concerning the verb categories, lack sufficiency and description. Confusion concerning the verb categories in the African languages can be attributed to the perception and treatment of universals, as well as the methods used to describe verb categories. The universalistic and descriptive approaches towards language description are compared. The conclusion is drawn that the descriptive method is the most appropriate for language description as it is not based on preconceived ideas about language. The verb categories of Northern Sotho are identified, classified and defined according to the descriptive approach. The system of the verb categories of Northern Sotho is as follows: two main categories are distinguished, namely primary categories (consisting of single verbs) and secondary categories (consisting of construction with deficient verb stems). The primary categories are divided into aspects (imperfectum and perfectum) and contingent categories (indicative, situative and relative), clausal categories (subjunctive, consecutive and habitual), and non-predicative categories (infinitive and imperative). The secondary verb categories are the futuritive, potential, progressive and casual categories.

Thesis (M. A. (African Languages) --University of Limpopo,2005 / The study aimsat finding out thecategorical status of copulatives in Northern Sotho. This will be achieved by examining the morphosemantic features of various copulatives. From a morphological perspective, thestudy focuses on the following types ofcopulative verbs: ke, se, ba, le, na, and COP. The study argues that the foresaid copulatives are not particles but are fully-fledged verbs. As far as the semantic nature of the copulatives is concerned, the study discovered a variety of meanings associated with copulatives, such as the following: the identifying, descriptive,locational and associative. Lastly, the study contends that any research on the copulative in Northern Sotho should be a morphosemantic one, as previous studies focused on one and neglected the other.

The main purpose of this study is to investigate the properties of selected monotransitive verbs in Northern Sotho as regard their argument structure and event structure. These Northern Sotho verbs will be examined within the general theoretical framework of Generative Lexicon Theory postulated by Pustejovsky (1996). This theory is in essence concerned with the account of word meaning as it relates to lexical semantic properties of lexical items in composition with other lexical items in a sentence. The arguments of the Northern Sotho verbs examined will include an agentive subject argument, the external argument, and a patient/theme object argument, the internal argument. In addition, a locative internal argument occurs in the sentences, which may have the status of a true argument, a shadow argument, or a default argument, in Pustejovsky’s classification of arguments. The Northern Sotho verbs examined demonstrate accomplishment events in that they entail a change of state and are telic (i.e. they have a logical culmination or endpoint). This telicity property of the verb is often the result of the occurrence of the internal arguments, i.e. the patient/theme argument and locative argument of the verb. The verb classes examined for Northern Sotho include (i) verbs of putting, (ii) verbs of removing, (iii) verbs of sending and carrying, (iv) verbs of exerting force/push/pull verbs), (v) verbs of change of possession, (vi) learn verbs, (vii) verbs of throwing, (viii) verbs of contact by impact, (ix) verbs of cutting, (x) verbs of separating and disassembling, (xi) verbs of creation and transformation, (xii) verbs of communication, (xiii) verbs of ingesting, (xiv) verbs of change of state, and (xv) verbs of motion.

Thesis (MA (African Languages))--University of Stellenbosch, 2006. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The topic of study is ‘go’ and ‘come’ verbs in Northern Sotho, which can be classified as verbs of state or motion. This study examines the semantics as well as the syntactic analysis of these verbs of state of motion within the framework of Pustejovsky’s Generative Lexicon Theory. This study will explore the polysemy of ‘ya’, as shown in the sentences below: 1. Bana ba ya nokeng. (The children go/are going to the river) 2. Bašimane ba ya šokeng. (The boys go/are going to the bush) The verb ya ‘go’ may end with the suffix –ile to realise the past tense of ya as illustrated in the following examples: 3. Bana ba ile nokeng. (The children went to the river) 4. Bašemane ba ile šokeng. (The boys went to the bush) The study also examines the polysemy of the verb –tla in Northern Sotho. The verb tla ‘come’ semantically denotes motion as shown in the sentences below. 5. Basadi ba tla monyanyeng. (The women come to the party) 6. Banna ba tla kopanong. (Men come/are coming to the meeting) The verb tla may end with the suffix –ile to demonstrate the past tense of –tla, as shown in the following sentences. 7. Ngwana o tlile sekolong. (The child came to school) 8. Mokgalabje o tlile kgorong. (The old man came to the headkraal) This study will demonstrate that the agent argument of the verbs –ya and –tla may regularly occur as complement of the preposition le in Northern Sotho. The range of data examined demonstrate that the verbs –ya and –tla exhibit a wide range of semantic selectional properties as regard to the subject argument and the locative argument. The study also analyses the aspectual properties of the sentences with –ya and –tla with reference to the activity and achievement situation types.