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.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:uzulu/oai:uzspace.unizulu.ac.za:10530/441 |
| Date | January 1996 |
| Creators | Xala, Zweli Effort |
| Contributors | Hlongwane, J.B. |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | application/pdf |
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