A revision of the word categories in Zulu

Abstract

This work is an attempt to revise the classification of Zulu words into their respective word categories. The material used in this research was obtained from publications and fieldwork . Zulu is largely a tone language . However, Zulu tone is not uniform. It appears to be regional . We, therefore, use the tone dialect of the area to the north and north- west of Eshowe district . The distinction of tones or tone patterns is done by ear. Only difficult examples were tested in the language laboratory . Since there is no perfect model for linguistic analysis, several approaches are integrated in this investigation as far as possible. Accordingly, we employed both the structural and the functional approach. Bantu diachronic linguistics as postulated by Meinhof and Guthrie also proved helpful . Very limited use is made of the techniques of transformational-generative grammar . We follow the conjunctive approach to word identification. In this research, Zulu words are classified into various grammatical categories by using the following four criteria: phonological, morphological, syntactic and semantic characteristics of words . The application of these criteria yields the following word categories: 1. Nominal words Noun Absolute Pronoun Demonstrative Quantitative Modifier: Adjective / Relative , Adverbial 2. Predicative Words Verb Copulative 3. Marginal Words Infinitive Verbal Relative 4. Non- Relational Words Ideophone Interjective