Linguistic Analysis of Word Order Essay

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8). Follow the proceeding examples for a clearer understanding;

A -- Ngi - fun - I zincwadi.

NEG -- 1S.SBJ- want- NEG 10.books

Translation: I don't want any books.

In the urge to attain a shorter gloss, the augment appears separate. However, apart from the class 15 alone, the class prefix is always glommed onto a noun stem.

For the sake of the topic discussed in this paper, only the relevant classes that affect syntactic issues will be discussed; evidently, most of the class 1a and 2a nouns in the table above could either be names of the Zulu people, for instance uSipho, which if translated to English, "siphon" was a man's name (Chandler, 2005, p.10). The nouns could also be kinship terms like ugongo, which means "grandmother." To distinguish between the classes 1 and 1a, then the nominal morphology has to be identified. Agreement morphology is usually comprised of verbs and adjectives. The discussions of this paragraph are also relevant for class2 and class 2a. The glosses, therefore, hardly differentiate 1 and 2 from 1a and 2a.

Class 15 contains verbal nouns (Infinitives) and a few nouns. An example would be ukudla, which possess ambiguity of whether the word would mean 'to eat' which is infinitive or, 'food' which qualifies to be a really concrete noun. Due to the necessity to provide the verb stem like a separate morpheme, then the prefix will would be glossed differently from the clause' stem. An example is provided below. The default verbal agreement is used in agreement failure constructions, for instance impersonal passive. An illustration on the agreement in action is provided below, and one is expected to observe the morphology of classes 2 and 10, including the adjectives and verbs;

A -- bafana a- bancane ba- zo- zi theng -- an i- zincwadi e- Zinkulu.

2- 2.boy REL-2.small 2.SBJ- FUT- 10.OBJ- buy- FV 10-10.book REL.10-10.big.

Translation: The little boys will buy the big books.

Due to the subject abafana, which is translated to "boys," the noun found in class 2 is reflected in the agreement prefix on an adjective, abancane, meaning "small" and also subject agreements on verbs (Chandler, 2005, p.11).

Adjectives in the Zulu language

Where to categorize adjectives has always been a major issue in the previous attempts of language analysis. While Plato and Aristotle viewed an adjective to be a subsection of a verb, Alexandrians regarded adjectives to be a class under nouns. Until the medieval era, the word class for an adjective had not been reached (Posthumus, 2000, pp.3). Copulatives are formed when adjectives are elided from the initial vowel. When the concord (for the adjective) is disyllabic, mostly in class 5 of the noun table, where the concord is monosyllabic, the initial vowel provides space for the vowel i-. Therefore, forms like; izinkomo zinhle, meaning "the cattle are fine" must have been gotten from izinkomo ezinhle which means, "fine cattle." Another example is; inkosi indala, meaning "the chief is old" which was most likely derived from; enkosi endala meaning "the old chief."

For the case of adnominal stems, they can hardly be categorized on their own but are usually constituted in the grammatical construction. Nonetheless, there are three confusing reasons in the analysis of copula constructions as differentiated to adnominal steins. In the first example, both the parts: m (u) and ngim (u) are considered prefixes (such as ngimude and umfana rnude). On the other side, forms like -- de is considered adnominal steins. In the latter statement, the language element is a root and hardly a stem. Forms like ngim (u) are not regarded as a prefix, similar to m (u). For ngim (u), it consists of distinguished morphemes. One is the subject morpheme which is followed by a noun prefix which is either found in class 1 or 1a (Posthumus, 2000, pp.4). Also, copulative construction explains that the grammatical form consists of more than a word. Despite that, the form rnude is one word. Lastly, the in used in class 9 of nouns is a derivation of copula constructions, which is a prefix. The form, therefore, constitutes the subject morpheme i- then followed immediately by n- which is a true prefix, hence is hardly a single prefix. The Zulu adjectives are hence in a separate class of words and should be recognized as a category of "adjectives," comprising real adjectives, enumerative and relatives (Posthumus, 2000, pp.5). Words are, therefore, to be allocated into word categories in relation to distributional, phonological and morphological considerations.

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Other scholars like Van consider the so-called adjective to be a word group, which will comprise two words (Posthumus, 2000, pp.7). Words vided below;

u- ku- cula

15-15- sing

Translation: to sing.

The 17th class could be defined as non-productive. The class is locative and usually uses the prefix ku-. Essentially, the importance of this class 17 is the fact that the verbal agreement is defaulted for instance like imbi which has the subject morpheme i- is basically an autonomous word that is to be referred to as participles.

Prepositional and adverb phrases (in Zulu)

A preposition could be defined as a set of items preceding noun phases to compose one constituent of structure. Evidently, the second layer inflectional prefixes found in Zulu nominals are compatible with the provided definition because; they usually are in a set of closed items, precede nouns (phrases) and in most cases form a constituent of structure. Therefore, they are deemed to conceptualize prepositional phases (PP) which is a combination of a preposition (P) with a noun phrase (NP) proceeding it. Extra-nominal inflection factors precisely 'point out the relation between words in a sentence (syntactic relationship)' in Zulu language. The factors also cause varied morphological forms in words; hence they could be indentified to be prepositions (Mathonsi, 2001, p.165). The prepositions in Zulu will include the following;

1. The associative prefix na-

2. Instrumentive prefix nga-

3. Comparative prefixes nganga-, kuna- and njenga-

4. Identificative prefix/agentive prefix y (i) - together with allomorphs w (u)-, ng (u) - and many others

5. Locative prefix ku- together with allomorphs e/o-, ki-, k-, kw-….. (-ini).

6. Possessive prefix -a- together with allomorph -ka-

7. Coordinating conjunction noma "or"

The morphemes mentioned above are considered to be prepositional heads (phases), 'PP'. The PP is analyzed as shown below:

1. PP -- P NP; or PP -- P (NP PP)

This is an indication that P, which is the head, could rule both the simple NP and also the NP which is followed by another PP. However, the morphemes are not to be considered heads of phrases they precede, because they are attached to them (Mathonsi, 2001, p.166).

It is fundamental to note that na- which is translated to "and" and noma which stands for "or" could most likely function as coordinating conjunctions hence cannot be categorized to be prepositions because they hardly mark a syntactic change when using the noun (Mathonsi, 2001, p.166).

2. Ubaba nomama bazofika

Translation: Father and mother will arrive

Ubaba noma umama uzofika

Translation: Either father or mother will arrive

A further complication in the analysis of PP's is the fact that it could be used just like a predicative base if employed with a subject agreement marker, but with differences in meaning. For instance, na- would mean either to be in the company of, or simply to have/possess. For example:

3. Umama ufika nobaba meaning mother arrives with father. That is "in the company of."

Inkosikazi inabantwana meaning the lady "possesses" children or "is with children."

Possessive constructions in most cases provide a concordial marker before a putative preposition - (K) a-, making the PP dependent on preceding NP's and also conditioned by following NP's. For instance:

4. Intombi yomfana (Agr i-; possessive preposition -a-; and the dependent NP, which in this illustration would be umfana).

In syntactic terms, formation of a possessive is inflectional and, therefore, controls the agreement. It does not qualify to be a preposition (Mathonsi, 2001, p.167).

Adverbial phrases

Just like other Bantu languages, Zulu language provides a close relationship between nouns and adverbs (Malcolm, 1960, p.40).VP may either contain only a verb or both a verb followed by objects NP. The verb could also be followed by an adverb (ADV) or even by both the NP and the ADV.

That is; VP -- V [NP ADV]

Any descriptive function that is found within a predicate phase (PRED) could be attained by ADV or P -- P.A description is provided above. An adverb could be defined as a word that specifies the mode of action of a verb in a sentence. For example, 'The fox ran faster than the dog'. Nonetheless, grammarians have identified other words, which they have grouped as adverbs, resulting to a class of words that are heterogeneous (Mathonsi, 2001, p.170).

A basic adverb is one of manner, which in English is one formed by suffixation of -ly (for instance steadily,.....

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