The Southern Sotho relative in discourse

Abstract

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.