In hierdie proefskrif is n aantal volgordeverskynsels in
Noord- Sotho geidentifiseer wat sinchronies as problematies
waardeer kan word.
Hierdie verskynsels word teen die agtergrond van die teorie
van taaltipologie en tipologiese verandering betrag, en raak
volgordeverskynsels op drie vlakke in die taal naamlik
(a) die sin : Hier gaan dit primer om die volgorde waarin
die subjek (S) , die objek (0) en die werkwoord (V)
in Noord- Sothosinne optree , sowel as die sintaksis
van vraagwoorde en vraagpartikels;
(b) die woordgroep : Die objek van die ondersoek is hier
die sintaktiese posisies wat naamwoordelike bepalers
ten opsigte van hulle naamwoordelike antesedente inneem,
en die voorkoms van partikels/voorsetsels;
(c) die woord : Hier geniet die morfologiese afleidingsisteem
in Noord-Sotho die aandag, en word daar besin
oor die historiese verband tussen die ontstaan van
pre- en suffikse in die taal.
Daar word beweer dat Noord-Sotho tipologies van dominant SOV
na dominant SVO verander het. Hierdie taaltipologiese veranderingsproses
het sekere veranderings op sinsvlak, en
binne woorde en woordgroepe tot gevolg gehad, omrede tale
neig om tipologies konstant te bly.
Naamwoordelike bepalers ontwikkel vanaf die tipiese OVstrategie
Bepaler:Naamwoord na Naamwoord:Bepaler wat kenmerkend
van VO-tale is. Dit beteken dat tipiese OV-volgordes
binne die woordgroep soos Relatief:Naamwoord, Genitief:Naamwoord,
Kwantitatief:Naamwoord,ensovoorts ontwikkel tot tipiese
VO- volgordes naamlik Naamwoord:Relatief, Naamwoord:Genitief,
Naamwoord:Kwantitatief, ensovoorts.
Preposisies (prefikse en voorsetsels /~artikels) ontwikkel ten
koste van postposisies (suffikse): Naamwoord- en werkwoordagtervoegsels
het ontwikkel op n tydstip toe die dominante
volgorde in Bantoe OV was. Hierteenoor ontwikkel werkwoord en
naamwoordprefikse asook partikels/voorsetsels uit die
huidige VO-volgordestrategiee in Noord-Sotho.
Vraagwoorde en vraagpartikels verskuif posisioneel na die
inisiele sinsposisie wat tipies van VO-tale is.
Pronominalisasie deur voorwerpskakels, wat n kenmerkende
OV- strategie verteenwoordig, verswak ten gunste van n
tipiese VO-strategie waarin objekspronomina soos ' die
absolute voornaamwoorde ' , demonstratiewe, kwantitatiewe,
ensovoorts, post-verbaal optree.
Ten slotte word gesuggereer dat sekere diskoers-pragmatiese
strukture in Noord-Sotho tot neutrale sintaktiese strukture
ontwikkel.
In this thesis certain word order strategies in Northern
Sotho which can be regarded as inconsistent are examined
against the background of language typology and typological
change.
These strategies concern syntactic order at the level of
(a) the sentence : The attention is focused on t he
syntactic order in which the subject (S) , the object
(0) and the verb (V) occur in Northern Sotho sentences,
as well as the syntactic order prevailing in
interrogative clauses;
(b) the word group : The objective of the investigation
concerns the syntactic order between nouns and
modifiers of the noun and the occurrence of pre positions/particles ;
(c) the word : Here the interest lies in the development
of prefixes in opposition to suffixes.
It is argued that Northern Sotho has been subject to a
typological change regarding word order from dominant SOV
to dominant SVO . As a result of this syntactic change in
dominant word order, certain changes in the sentence , word
groups and words occur in order to keep the language typologically consistent :
Modifiers of the noun are being reinterpreted from the
typically OV strategy Modifier: Noun to Noun: Modifier; the
latter being the order in dominant VO languages . Subsequently typical OV strategies at the level of the word
group such as Relative :Noun, Genitive : Noun, Quantitative :Noun
etcetera develop towards typical VO strategies viz. Noun :
Relative, Noun : Genitive, Noun :Quantitative, etcetera .
Prepositions (prefixes and particles) develop instead of
postpositions (suffixes): Suffixes to the verbal word and
the noun originated when the dominant word order in Bantu
was OV . To the contrary, prefixes of the verbal word and
the noun as well as particles are representative of the
current VO strategy in Northern Sotho.
Interrogative words and interrogative particles tend to move
to clause initial position, the latter being typical of VO languages .
Object pronouns , which are bound to the verbal word as prefixes,
reflecting a typical SOV strategy, are being replaced
by post verbal object pronomina such as the so-called absolute,
demonstrative and quantitative pronouns.
Finally it is suggested that certain discourse- pragmatic
structures are gradually reinterpreted as neutral syntactic
structures.
