Woordvolgorde en volgordeverandering in Noord-Sotho

Abstract

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.