M. Litt. et Phil. (African Languages) / The purpose of this study is to supplement existing morphological and semantic descriptions of deverbative nouns in Zulu and systematically, to describe all relevant facts. The introductory chapter comprises an exposition of the problem and a survey of existing literature and viewpoints concerning deverbatives in the Bantu languages. A definition of the deverbative noun is also formulated. In chapter two deverbative endings are investigated with regard to their formal and semantic characteristics, distribution and their morphemic status. With regard to the five endings only four morphemes are distinguished, the fifth being an allomorph of one of these. Chapter three comprises an investigation of deverbative nouns with reference to their meanings and the noun classes in which they appear. Deverbatives were found in all classes with the exception of the locative classes and with a relatively sporadic occurrence in classes 11 and 14. In general the semantic features of deverbative nouns in a specific class correspond with those of other nouns in the same class, although differences also occur. Infinitive forms (class 15) appeared to have special features. In chapter four deverbative nouns which are derived from verb stems with verbal suffixes, are discussed. All verbal suffixes occur in deverbative nouns and this appears to be a general phenomenon. Research was also done to investigate whether the semantic value of a specific verbal suffix is retained in deverbatives. It appears that the semantic aspects concerned are mostly retained in the formation of deverbatives. In chapter five non-nominal deverbatives are investigated especially with regard to the great degree of similarity between ideophones and verbal stems. The conclusion was drawn that non-nominal- deverbatives in Zulu are mostly ideophones. The general tendency appears to be that ideophones are derived from a verb stem with the (often abbreviated) ideophone retaining the semantic characteristics of the corresponding verb stem.

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

Submitted to the Faculty of Arts in fulfilment of the requirements for Master of Arts in the Department of African Languages at the University of Zululand, 1996. / In this work an attempt is made to discuss a noun prefix in general. Particular attention is given to moving away from the thought that the noun prefix is only the part of the noun that is agreement giving. It also incorporates elements that are non agreement giving. The simple noun prefix is differentiated from the composite noun prefix. Criteria of discerning the simple noun prefix are given, viz. phonological, syntactic, morphological and intergrated criteria. Once identification of the simple noun prefix is properly handled, it is only then that one is able to identify the composite noun prefix. The composite noun prefix has more than one morphological entry. Compound noun prefixes have series of simple prefixes while complex noun prefixes have an additional element bearing some semantic content. The noun ubuntombi and isangoma have composite noun prefixes. The noun ubuntombi has a series of simple prefixes therefore compound, in ubu- (cl. 14) followed by -in-(cl.9) forming a compound ubu-fOn. On the other hand the noun isangoma. over and above the series of simple prefixes isi; (cl.7) and -in- (cl.9), has an additional element ^a-, hence the complex prefix isi-a-in- . The identification of composite noun prefix contributes to a proper identification of the noun stem. From nouns ubuntombi and isangoma the noun stems are -thomb(a)-i (become of age) and -goma (heal), rather than *-ntombi and *-angoma respectively. The identification of composite prefixes is lexicographically friendly, wherein a dictionary the entry would be -goma (heal) rather than -angoma fNkabinde. A.C. (1982:1) Doke CM., Malcolm D.M. & Sikakana. J.M. (1958:4) and Doke, CM. & Vilakazi, B.W. (1990:11)). Of interest, to confirm the importance of composite prefix identification, is a related word to isangoma. viz. ubungoma. At present the entry for ubungoma is -ngoma (Doke,C.M. Vilakazi B.W. (1990:557)) whereas that of -isangoma is -angoma. Infact both nouns ubungoma and isangoma must have the same entry as -soma. The noun ubungoma has a compound prefix ubu- (el. 14) and in^ (cL9), as ubu-in-; whereas isangoma has a complex noun prefix isi-a-in. The dynamics of the (simple) noun prefix is vested on what is termed evolution of the noun prefix in this work. The noun prefix undergoees changes. The changes within the noun prefix is at present literature mixed with morphological constraints brought about by the phonological shape of the noun stem. The noun prefix with [+High] vowels is susceptible to change. The noun umufana has the noun prefix umu- but it changes to urn- as in umfana without being constrained by a vowel initiated stem. This is evolution experienced by a noun prefix. Some changes become permanent and others remain temporary. Permanent changes necessitate sub-classes. The noun ugogo has the noun prefix that evolved from umu- The fact that the changes from umu- to um- to t£ have ultimately caued u- to be a permanent evolutionary form then it sub-classes to umu- Scholars in Zulu have noted the sub-classes but without showing how they came into being. The noun prefix is generally known to play arole of giving agreerfient to other word forms with which it co-occurs. The role of the noun prefix goes beyond agreement giving. This work reveals other roles significant to the noun prefix, viz. deictic, emotive and meaning-structure significances. A fully fledged simple noun prefix signals to a 3rd person, pointing to non-proximate object. Spatially, it points yonder. If a speaker does use a fully fledged noun prefix he (generally) has a reference to the hearer (nearer to him), or even himself. The following utterances will indicate the positions: Umuntu uhambile. (A person has gone.) The reference 'umuntu' is not somewhere near the speaker, because of umu- fully fledged noun prefix. But, if the noun prefix is used without the initial prefix, we have: Sukuma mfana (Stand up boy!) Sengjshiio mina mthakathi wezindaba. (I have said it I of the daring one.) The reference is near the speaker. The reason being that the noun prefix has not been used in its rully fledged form. Non-emotive nouns become emotive if the noun prefix is used without the initial vowel in nouns that pertain to body and belongings. Hamba lapha sidwaba senja. (Away from here you the skirt made of dog's skin.) Woza lapha mhlathi wakho. (Come here you jaws of yours!) The nouns sidwaba and mhlathi are now emotive as against normal nouns isidwaba and umhlathi. The meaning contained within the noun prefixes makes the noun stem to be selective as to which noun prefix to append/affix to give to a particular meaning to the noun. The range of meaning within nouns is falling within the broad spectum of [+ Human] to [-Concrete] vested on the noun prefix. Hendrikse, A.P. and Paulos, G. (1992:195-209) refer to this spectrum as a continuum interpretation of the Bantu noun class system. They visualise the continuum interpretation as ranging from [+ Concrete] to [- Concrete] (abstract). In this work [+ Human] feature is cosidered to be the one that plays an important role as this feature may be found from class I umu- as in umukhwe (father-in-law) to class 11 as in u(lu)hlanva (madman). In Hendrikse and Paulos (1992:203) class II is interpreted as attributive class. In this work [+Human] feature has been used as a diagnostic measure, hence [+Human] and [-Concrete] dichotomy. Also of importance in meaning-structure significance is the interaction of meaning within the composite prefix. This work looks closely how 'noun prefix' within the composite prefix inteact in terms of meaning to effect their composite structure. In the nooun ubunja (dog-like behaviour), we have composite noun prefix ubu-in-. The noun ubunja is derived from the noun inja with only simple prefix JHK The in^ prefix is [-Human, + Concrete], and the ubu- prefix is [-Human,-Concrete]. After preposing ubu- to inja deriving ubunja. the composite nun prefix ubu - in' becomes [-Human - Concrete]. The interaction is that the ubu- features dominates over the in- features. The aspect of'dominance' goes hand in hand with percolation' of Leber (1981), Selkirk (1982), Mbadi (1988). They advocate that the derived word adopts all the feature values of its outermost morpheme.' (Mbadi, L.M. (1988:124) in Nkabinde, A.C. {1988)). The outermost morpheme, inhis case, the pre-posed noun prefix interact with the rest of the noun prefixes' by dominating over them. This work maintains that the last morpheme to be introduced, whether preposed, (post-posed) or imposed dominated over the others. The word abelungu (whites) we have the outermost noun prefix aba- which is [-(-Human]. We have *aba-lungu. as in aba-ntu etc. After the imposing of additional morpheme -e- with its semantic content [+Race] we have now the composite noun prefix ' ab(a)-e- which is {+Human, + Race) as in: which is {+Human, + Race} as in : ab(a) - e - Suthu (Sotho people) ab(a) - e - Nguni (Nguni people) etc.

M.A. (African Languages) / Zulu, like many other African languages, is characterized by a system of noun classes which is governed by a characteristic prefix with specific morphological and semantic features. Most classes are found in pairs of which one is singular and the other plural. The prefix is also employed in linking the noun to other words which are syntactically -related to it in the sentence by means of a concord which is derived from the prefix and which normally bears a close resemblance to it. The noun class prefixes have thus been subcategorized according to the following principles: (a) the morphological structure of the prefix; (b) the corresponding singular-plural form; (c) the semantic traits of the noun root; and (d) the agreement system generated by the prefix. Although nouns in Zulu are regular to a great extent, many morphological, syntactical and semantical irregularities are found in the class system. Some of these are: (i) the absence of an initial vowel with certain noun class prefixes; (ii) some nouns belonging to singular-plural pairs have singular prefixes but no plural form whilst some have plural prefixes but no corresponding singular form; (iii) similar singular prefixes take different plural prefixes whereas similar plural prefixes take different singular prefixes; (iv) some nouns belonging to a particular singular-plural pair use a particular prefix in the singular but a plural prefix of a different class; (v) two, and even three, prefixes are sometimes found before the noun root. Nouns in other Bantu languages sometimes lack prefixes; (vi) non-mother tongue speakers may easily confuse the initial part of some nouns with nouns of other classes; (vii) the morphologically determined agreement system is sometimes overruled by the semantic consideration animate versus inanimate. Nouns of class 1 (a) which have a prefix /u-/ and the semantic notion inanimate generate an agreement string similar to that of class 3. Nouns of class 1(a) with the prefix /u-/ and the semantic notion animate, non-human, occasionally use some of the agreement morphemes of class (viii) loan words in class 9 which have a prefix /i-/ sometimes take the agreement system of class 5 instead of class 9; (ix) nouns of classes other than 1, 2, 1 (a) and 2(a), denoting humans, sometimes use the agreement string of classes 1.and 2 in following sentences. The same applies to nouns indicating animals in classes other than 9 and 10, but which use the agreement string of the in-izin-classes in following sentences; (x) the meanings of a vast number of nouns do not fit in with the particular semantic characteristics given for each class; (xi) a large number of nouns with a singular form but plural meaning are found in the different classes; (xii) a number of nouns in plural classes indicate abstract or non-count matters or have singular meanings; (xiii) some mass or abstract nouns have singular prefixes but lack a plural form, whereas other mass or abstract nouns have plural prefixes but lack a singular form; and (xv) nouns with similar roots and corresponding meanings sometimes fall into two different classes.