Aspects of subject conjuction in Zulu

Abstract

Bantu languages have a number of grammatical genders which are paired into singular/plural classes. The purpose of this article is to find solutions for some of the agreement arising from the conjunction of two or more nouns. The research was carried out against the background of the gender conflict resolution rules as proposed by various Bantu linguists. It was found that concord selection is influenced by the semantic content of the conjoined nouns as well as by discourse notions such as presupposition. Accordingly discourse context plays an indispensable role in the interpretation of linguistic data in this study. Bantoetale het 'n aantal grammatiese klasse wat in enkelvoud/meervoudklasse verdeel is. Die doel van hierdie artikel is om oplossings te vind vir sommige van die kongruensieprobleme wat ontstaan uit die samevoeging van twee of meer naamwoorde. Die navorsing is gedoen teen die agtergrond van die reels wat verskeie Bantoetaalkundiges vir die oplossing van die saamgevoegde naamwoorde sowel as deur diskoersfaktore soos vooronderstelling beinvloed word. Derhalwe speel diskoerskonteks 'n onontbeerlike rol in die interpretasie van die feitemateriaal in hierdie studie.