A COMPARISON OF THE INTERACTION OF PRONOMINALS AND WORD ORDER IN NARO AND GǁANA

This article compares PGN markers, the pronoun system and word order in declaratives in Naro ǁGana. These languages are similar in that (a) nouns are marked for person, gender and number; (b) both have complex pronoun systems; (c) the plural and dual categories distinguish inclusive from exclusive p...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inLanguage matters (Pretoria, South Africa) Vol. 46; no. 2; pp. 222 - 248
Main Authors Letsholo, Rose, Saul, Isaac
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Routledge 04.05.2015
Subjects
focus
nominative case
oblique case of south africa
PGN markers
word order
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Summary:This article compares PGN markers, the pronoun system and word order in declaratives in Naro ǁGana. These languages are similar in that (a) nouns are marked for person, gender and number; (b) both have complex pronoun systems; (c) the plural and dual categories distinguish inclusive from exclusive pronouns; (d) main lexical items in both languages can be focused through fronting. They differ in that ǁGana NPs are marked for nominative and oblique case through the PGN marker, while in Naro this is not so. In Naro if constituents are re- ordered, the PGN marker of the fronted constituent hosts the PGN marker of the subject NP, thus identifying the subject. The use of pronouns in a sentence impacts word order at sentential level in Naro but not in ǁGana. PGN markers are obligatory for subjects only in ǁGana.
ISSN:1022-8195
1753-5395
DOI:10.1080/10228195.2015.1045012