Southern Sotho verbal relative clauses are, on discourse-pragmatic grounds, categorised
as direct and indirect. The pragmatic factors that govern the occurrence of these two
types of relatives within a particular discourse context are investigated.
An analysis of relative clauses occurring in live conversations as well as in the dramas
Bulane (Khaketla, 1983) and Tjootjo e tla hloma sese/a (Maake, 1992) reveals that
direct relative clauses usually modify the reference of predicate nouns (i.e. nouns used
as the complements of copulative predicates), while indirect relative clauses modify the
reference of object nouns.
Theories which suggest that both predicate as well as object nouns generally convey new
information, but that the reference status of predicate nouns is non-specific indefinite,
while that of object nouns is specific indefinite, are discussed. A hypothesis suggesting
that there is an interrelationship between the reference status of a head noun and the type
of relative by means of which it is qualified, is proposed. / African Languages / M.A. (African Languages)
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:unisa/oai:uir.unisa.ac.za:10500/17463 |
| Date | 11 1900 |
| Creators | Mischke, Gertruida Elizabeth |
| Contributors | Louwrens, L. J. |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Dissertation |
| Format | 1 online resource (v, 114 leaves) |
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