* Your assessment is very important for improving the workof artificial intelligence, which forms the content of this project
Download MORPHOLOGY SKETCH OF CHICHEWA”
Modern Hebrew grammar wikipedia , lookup
Morphology (linguistics) wikipedia , lookup
Agglutination wikipedia , lookup
Ukrainian grammar wikipedia , lookup
Latin syntax wikipedia , lookup
Spanish grammar wikipedia , lookup
Portuguese grammar wikipedia , lookup
Modern Greek grammar wikipedia , lookup
Ojibwe grammar wikipedia , lookup
Compound (linguistics) wikipedia , lookup
Malay grammar wikipedia , lookup
Arabic grammar wikipedia , lookup
Navajo grammar wikipedia , lookup
Old Norse morphology wikipedia , lookup
Swedish grammar wikipedia , lookup
Old English grammar wikipedia , lookup
Serbo-Croatian grammar wikipedia , lookup
Grammatical number wikipedia , lookup
Ancient Greek grammar wikipedia , lookup
Vietnamese grammar wikipedia , lookup
Esperanto grammar wikipedia , lookup
Sotho nouns wikipedia , lookup
Old Irish grammar wikipedia , lookup
French grammar wikipedia , lookup
Romanian nouns wikipedia , lookup
Yiddish grammar wikipedia , lookup
Scottish Gaelic grammar wikipedia , lookup
Polish grammar wikipedia , lookup
Turkish grammar wikipedia , lookup
Pipil grammar wikipedia , lookup
Musanganya, Philbert The University of Western Ontario Department of French Studies PhD Program (linguistics), 1st year Academic year 2009-2010 ASSIGNMENT: “MORPHOLOGY SKETCH OF CHICHEWA” Course: Morphology 9640a Lecturer: Prof. Chet Creider Tuesday, November 17th 2009 1 I. GENERAL REMARKS Chichewa is an African language which belongs to the Niger-Kordofanian language family, Benue-Congo branch in Bantu group. It is located in Zone N with N 31 index (Guthrie’s Bantu languages classification). This language is spoken in central- east and southern Africa in four countries: in Malawi, Chichewa is the national language; in Zambia, it is the second most used local language after ChiBemba. In Zimbabwe, it is recorded third local most used language after Shona and Ndebele. There are also some Chichewa speakers in Mozambique. Except in Malawi, the other speaking area of Chichewa calls it Chinyanja. In literature, both names are used to name the same language entity. Sometimes, they are even combined: Chichewa/Chinyanja (Mchombo, 2004: 1-2). The only way to make verb derivation with prefix is to use the reflexive pronoun to make pronominal verbs. When this is possible, the reflexive is the nearest prefix to the stem. This and some other aspects of Chichewa are left behind. The verbal inflection is far complex and requires more attention to examine how it works. To be short, Chichewa is prominently an initial inflection language. Underlyingly, Chichewa class morphemes swim to have law tone but some are high toned in realization. In this paper though, data are taken as they are without any critical thinking on that point. This short text presents other prominent morphological features. In section two, the general feature of Bantu languages is outlined. Section three is far bigger than others. It discusses Chichewa morphology (both derivation and inflection). Data and most of ideas developed are from Mchombo (2004) and Watkins (1937). Some pieces of thoughts come from my background as speaker of two Bantu languages (Kiswahili and Kinyarwanda) and I had courses on/in them. In the gloss, the following short forms are used: CL = class; PC=Pronoun Classier; POSS = possessive; SM = Subject maker and OM = Object Maker. In the examples, low tone is not marked. II. GENERAL FEATURES Chichewa is very close to the general patterns of Bantu languages. The former are said to share major features in common. They all group nouns into various classes –a short form of “nominal classes” 2 or “classes of agreement” depending on the focus made (on noun morphology or grammatical general features of the language) -. Beside a particular numbering system of classes initialized by Bleek (in the second part of 19 century) which is now taken as standard, there are still difficulties to clarify whether class morphemes are meaningful or purely formal. They participate in both processes but their formal use is prominent and most plausible than the semantic contribution. As Watkins writes, “certain of the noun classes are more formal than semantic in application” (Watkins, 1937:19). Another issue related to Bantu classes is that those languages do not have all numbered classes. Chichewa, for example, has 17 classes in possible 24(?) and, in proto-Bantu 18 first classes, it lacks class 11 reconstructed as du-. Also full of meaning is the fact that Bantu languages agreement system rimes with classes. Noun modifiers agree with the head noun. That is to say, two nouns can have the same singular noun prefix but affixing different morphemes in plural or in the agreement with other categories (data and discursion in (16). The verbal morphology has an elaborate agglutinative nature: it may contain syntactic information like negation, arguments, tense, aspect, modals and such alike. The word order is determined in part by information structure. In general, Bantu languages have two tones with complex tone spreading and tone interaction. In this group then, toneless languages, Kiswahili being the most cited in literature, are seen as exception to the rule. The verbal structure of Chichewa is typical of Bantu verb. Its root accepts many suffixes (also named “extensions” if they do not add a special meaning to the base). The root and suffixes form the verb stem. At least in great lakes, eastern and southern Bantu languages, a prefix ku- and a final vowel – a affixed to the verb stem fulfill the infinitive feature. Extensions affect the argument structure denoted in the verb. Morphonologically speaking, verbal stem manifests aspects of vowel harmony. III. CHICHEWA MORPHOLOGY Chichewa has two types of nominal stem: purely nominal stems and a “double face” stem which can form both verb and noun stems -see example in (11) and comments before it-. A noun from a pure noun 3 stem consists of a stem itself and a noun prefix. An illustration of this is given in (1-2). In (1), a. chi‘singular and b. zi- stands for plural. In (2) a. m- is ‘singular’, (2) b. mi- ‘plural’. (1) a. chi- soti CL 7 b. zi - soti hat CL 8 ‘hat’ (2) a. m- hat ‘hats’ kóndo b. mi- kóndo CL 3 spear CL 4 spear ‘spear’ ‘spears’ Data in (3) show agreement. Noun modifiers agree with class feature of the head noun chisoti ‘hat’ in (3) a. and mkondo ‘spear’ in (3) b. : chi- marks the agreement with the former and u- with the later. Phonetically, i in chi is elided when followed by a vowel, and u is replaced by the glide w in a similar environment : (3) a. Chi- soti chi -ángá chi- áCL 7 hat tsópanó chi- ja chí- ma -sangaláts-á 7PC me PC 7 POSS now a-lenje PC 7 that 7SM HAB please fv CL2 hunter ‘That new hat of mine pleases hunters’ b. M-kóndó u -ángá u- á -tsópanó CL3-spear u-a- já u-ma-sangaláts-á a-lenje. PC3-my PC3-POSS-now PC 3-that 3SM-HAB-please-fv CL2-hunter ‘That new spear of mine pleases hunters.’ As well as those in (1-2), data in (4) show number inflection in noun morphology. Words on the left are singular and those on the right hand are plural : (4) a. m- nyamaáta CL 1 boy ‘boy’ a- nyamaáta CL 2 boy ‘boys’ 4 m- lenje a- lenje CL1 hunter CL2 hunter ‘hunter’ ‘hunters’ m- kázi a- kázi CL 1 woman CL 2 woman ‘woman’ b. ‘women’ m- kóndo mi- CL3 spear CL4 ‘spear’ spear ‘spears’ m- kángo mi- kángo CL3 lion CL3 lion ‘lion’ c. kóndo ø- ‘lions’ tsamba ma- samba CL5 leaf CL6 leaf ‘leaf’ ‘leaves’ ø- duwa ma- CL5 flower CL6 luwa ‘flower’ ‘flowers’ ø- phanga ma-panga CL5 cave Cl6 cave ‘cave’ ‘caves’ flower In (4) c., there is no prefix in singular (CL 5) but it is provided in plural. This is the case in Kiswahili CL 5 too. For some nouns of this class, Kinyarwanda and Kirundi have an initial vowel, called augment, prefixed to the class affix. Some researchers say it functions as noun class prefix. The debate is still open to know how operate nouns in class 5 in Bantu languages. 5 Though not always true, CL 1and 2 denote people and animate things. They even do not have the same morphemes within some languages. That’s why some Bantu languages have an a particular CL 1 a. Chichewa is among the later. Class 1a. in Chichewa groups nouns whose agreement patterns are those of CL 1 but lack the m(u) prefix. Their plural is indicated by prefixing a- to the word (5). In tales, formal CL 2a. bears no plural connotation. It holds a personification meaning when used with a common noun denoting animal, whereas it stands for name when used in normal life and refers to respect when prefixed to people’s name : (5) a. ø- kalúlu b. a-kalúlu CL1a. hare CL2a, PL ‘hare’ ‘hares’/ Mr. Hare Examined in terms of the whole system of agreement, CL markers of the same class may vary depending on the syntactic category of the modifier. In (6) illustration is made with CL1: (6) M- lenje m- módzi CL1 hunter PC1 one a- na- SM1 PST bwél- á ndí mí-kóndo. come fv with CL4-spears ‘One hunter came with spears.’ The Noun stem –lenje ‘hunter’ and the numeral stem -módzi ‘one’ are marked with m- on one hand; on the other hand the verb –bwel- ‘come’ takes a- to agree with the subject –lenje ‘hunter’. Possessives also comprise a stem to which a pronoun marker is prefixed. An example is shown in (7). The glide w replaces u when a vowel follows, regardless of the function associated with that vowel: (7) M-lenje u-á-nú CL1 hunter PC1 POSS u- ja u- you PC1 that á n-thábwala u- a- thyol-a mi- kóndo PC1. POSS CL9/10 humor SM 1 PERF break fv CL4 spear ‘That humorous hunter of yours has broken the spears.’ In (8) a further prefix added to an already prefixed noun marks diminution: ka- ‘diminutive, singular’ and ti- ‘diminutive, plural’ added to nouns convey the sense of diminutive size and then control agreement (in Kinyarwanda and Kirundi, class morphemes are mutual exclusive). 6 (8) Ka- m- lenje k-á- nú ka-ja ka- á- n- thábwala ka- a- thyol-a ti-mi- kóndo. CL 12 CL1 hunter CL12 PC- POSS you CL12 that CL12 POSS CL9/10 humor SM12 PERF break-fv CL13 CL 4 spear ‘That small humorous hunter of yours has broken the tiny spears.’ As illustrated in (9) a.- c., Chichewa locatives are class markers and control agreement patterns: (9) a. Ku mu- dzi ku- á- ánu ku- LOC17 (at) CL3 village PC 17 you ma- sangaláts-á aleéndo SM17 HAB please fv CL2 visitors ‘Your village (i.e. the location) pleases visitors.’ b. N- jóoka CL9 snake i- a- gón- á SM 9 PERF sleep pa fv m- kéka. lOC 16 (on) CL4 mat ‘A snake is sleeping on the mat.’ c. Pa LOC 16 (on) m- kéka pa- a- gon -´a n-jóoka. CL4 mat SM 16 PERF sleep FV 9 snake ‘On the mat is sleeping a snake.’ However, as indicated in (10), locatives may be used as derivational affixes: pa-, ku-, and muare bound to stems -nsi, -nja, and -no : (10) a. Pa-nsi b. CL16 down ‘down’ d. pa-no CL16 here ‘here (at this spot)’ e. pa-nja c. ku- nsi CL16 outside CL 17 down ‘outside of a place’ ‘underneath’ ku-nja CL 17 outside f. ku-no CL17 here g. mu-no CL18 here ‘(the general) outside’ ‘here (hereabouts)’ ‘in here.’ Contrary to purely nominal stems, nouns like m-lenje ‘hunter’ and a-leendo ‘visitors’ have three morphemes: prefix, stem and final vowel. They share stem with verbs. It may act as verbal or nominal: – leénd- means ‘visitor’; (to) visit’. In (11), affixes specify its contextual meaning: 7 (11) a -leend- o CL2 visit ‘visitors’ Nominal ending CL 9/10 nouns begin with a nasal. Nothing in their morphological composition indicates the number. This one is reflected in the agreement markers: Examples of CL 9/10 are given in (12): (12) n-yuúmba ‘house(s)’ ; n-thenga ‘feather(s)’; m-phíini ‘tattoo(s)’ ; n-khóondo ‘war.’ CL 15 ku- consists of infinitive verbs. It constitutes a separate class with minor exceptions. In (13) the agreement with the infinitive marker ku- is exemplified: (13) Ku- ímb- á ku- CL15 sing fv a -anú 15PC POSS you kú- ma- sangaláts -á a-lenje. SM 15HAB please fv CL2-hunters ‘Your singing pleases hunters.’ The infinitive morpheme is in mutual exclusion with a combination of a subject and a tense/aspect maker –see examples in (8) [ka- (SUBJ) a- (PERF) thyol-a] ‘(he/she/it) has broken’ and in (9) [ku- (SUBJ)ma- (HAB) sangaláts- á ‘it (a place) pleases’. The final vowel is meaningful in three morphemes nouns and helps to make the difference with the verb. On verbal morphology, it helps to distinguish a subjunctive/imperative form from the indicative. It even denotes aspects in Kinyarwanda and Kirundi. But the real meaning of the final vowel in noun morphology is still a mater of discussion. In derivation, a Chichewa verb can perform different operations with suffixes: applicative, causative, passive, causative applicative, causative applicative passive… The suffixes are in fixed order : (14) a. ku- tylol- a b. ku- tylol- CL15 break- FV CL15 break applicative ‘ break’ c. ku- tylol- esh- a FV ‘ break for’ a CL15 break- causative FV ‘ make break’ el- d. ku- tylol- tse- el- a CL15break- causative applicative FV ‘ get something breaken for someone’ 8 e. ku- tylol- CL15 break (o )etscausative el-el(d)- w- a applicative passive FV ‘ have something broken for one by’ CONCLUSION The core content of this paper is an outline of some morphological features of Chichewa. As in other Bantu languages, Chichewa is organized in a system of agreement classes. Two famous scholars write about this that: “the basis for this classification of nouns is an issue that still awaits a definitive response” (Mchombo, 2004: 6). The noun prefixes indicate number, with certain exceptions, and together with the agreement constitute morphological systems which divide the nouns into several ‘classes’ or ‘class genders’. They are also employed derivationally, forming words with new meanings (Watkins, 1937:21). In sum, prefix change goes with meaning. This is made clear with data in (15): (15) a. m-chéwa, CL1: ‘a Chewa person’ (15) b. a-chéwa, CL 2: ‘chewa people’ (15) c. u-chewa, CL 14 : ‘the Chewa country’ ; (15) d. Chi-chéwa, CL 7: ‘Chewa language’ Many nouns are identical in noun prefixes or in lack of noun prefixes but require different concord systems. As shown in (16) a. and (16) b., the word tóngo, have the same form but different classes and there for different meaning. On contrary, in (16) c. and (16) d. the nouns have the same system of agreement whereas in (16) e. the noun which on first look is similar to (16) c-d singular forms, has the same agreement system as (16) a.: (16) a. tóngo ‘ball-s of porridge’ (CL 9/10) b. tóngo (CL 5- ‘singular’); matóngo (CL 6- ‘plural’) : ‘pus secreted by the eyes’, c. bwáto, cl 5 ‘canoe, singular’; mabwáto, CL 6 (canoes Class) d. bwézi, CL 5- ‘singular, mabwézi, CL 6- ‘plural’ : ‘formal friend’ e. mímba CL 9/10 'belly/bellies' Watkins explains the importance of taking into account the whole system of agreement when dealing with Bantu classes: The frequent lack of noun prefixes in Chichewa must be well remembered when speaking 9 of noun systems (…) we cannot regard the prefix, nor its absence, as the sole or primary determinant of a noun class. It is rather the whole system of concordances, which (…) may or may not include such affixes that must be taken as the fundamental basis of classification. This systematization is conventional and largely, though perhaps not entirely, arbitrary, as are other types of classification (Watkins, 1937; 22-23). REFERENCES Mchombo, Sam. 2004. Chichewa syntax. New York: Cambridge University Press. Watkins, Mark Hanna. 1937. A grammar of Chichewa: a Bantu language of British Central Africa. Language 13 (2), Language Dissertation (24): 5-158 Annex: Noun classes in Chichewa class Prefix SG PL SG 1 2 3 PL Subj. Obj. Maker Maker SG PL SG m(u)- a- a- a- m(u) wa 4 m(u)- mi- u- i- u i 5 6 *li- ma- li- a- li wa 7 8 chi- zi- zi- chi zi 9 10 *N- *N- i- Zi- i- Zi- 12 13 ka- ti- ti- ka ti 14 6 u- ma- u a u wa chi- ka- 15 ku- ku ku 16 pa- pa pa 17 ku- ku ku 18 m(u)- m(u) m(u) PL 10