Zoeloepredikaat en enkele verskynsels wat daarmee saamhang

Abstract in EnglishThis study was prompted because the Zulu predicate, and the Bantu predicate in general, is a veritable storehouse of linguistic phenomena. A study of the Zulu predicate is, in fact, a study of the simple sentence. Not everything concerning the predicate could be treated; and certain phenomena inevitably had to be left out. Of these were treatments of moods and tenses, mainly because they have been previously discussed by linguists. In order to come to the handling of the subject the lexicon was divided into the two categories of verbals and nominals. In the first chapter this division is clarified, and nominals are further subdivided into independent and dependent nominals. It is further indicated that dependent nominals are mainly declined when it concerns their shape. An important factor in the study of the Zulu predicate is the cataphoric effect it has on the sentence when it appears in the short form. This results in a kind of binding power between the short predicate and whatever nominal follows after it. This binding power is termed clisis. In the second chapter an attempt is made to determine the syntactic structure of the predicate. It was found that a number of syntactic patterns (word-order) could constitute a single syntactic structure. It was also found that the second concord within the predicate influenced the structure considerably. By applying various tests, the most important of which being the test of transitivity, it is shown that the so-called object noun is not always an object, and the so-called object concord often reflects other relations to the predicate than that of an object. The predicate structure naturally led to a study of emphasis and focus. A clear distinction is made between the two: emphasis occurring through the overt presence of certain lexical elements and morphological formatives, whereas focus is achieved mainly by means of the ordering of the words in the sentence. Instances are also found where emphasis and focus occur together on the same part of the sentence. These phenomena are discussed in the third chapter. The ability of the Zulu predicate to house a variety of pre-verbal linguistic formatives prompted an enquiry into the semantic nature of these formatives. In chapter four each of these is examined with the aim of determining as precisely as possible its semantic function within the predicate. The influence of these formatives is seldom confined to the predicate alone, but usually extends to the sentence as a whole. Apart from the general range of preverbal formatives, six are defined as aspectual formatives and an attempt is made to describe the aspect represented by each. To complete the picture a seventh aspectual formative, but this time a suffix, is also discussed. The verbal formatives are discussed in relation to the verbal predicate as well as the nominal predicate. A paragraph is also devoted to the embedded predicate normally known as the participial. In the fifth chapter the question of transitivity and intransitivity is scrutinized from the point of view of the relationship which holds between the nouns in a sentence and the predicate. Some of the conclusions arrived at in the second chapter are confirmed in this one. In chapter six the relations between nouns and the predicate are discussed in more detail than in the previous chapter. The object here was to show how certain semantic relationships between nominals and their predicate are determined, and how they are expressed in the surface structure. The interdependence of semantic and syntactic phenomena becomes evident. All the findings ~nd conclusions arrived at are summarized in the last chapter.African LanguagesD. Litt. et Phil