The Syntax of simple and compound tenses in Ndebele

Authors

  • Joanna Aleksandra Pietraszko University of Chicago

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.3765/plsa.v1i0.3716

Keywords:

verbal periphrasis, default auxiliary, c-selection, Ndebele, Bantu

Abstract

It is a widely accepted generalization that verbal periphrasis is triggered by increased inflectional meaning and a paucity of verbal elements to support its realization. This work examines the limitations on synthetic verbal forms in Ndebele and argues that periphrasis in this language arises via a last-resort grammatical mechanism. The proposed trigger of auxiliary insertion is c-selection – a relation between inflectional categories and verbs.

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Published

2016-06-12

How to Cite

Pietraszko, Joanna Aleksandra. 2016. “The Syntax of Simple and Compound Tenses in Ndebele”. Proceedings of the Linguistic Society of America 1 (June): 18:1–15. https://doi.org/10.3765/plsa.v1i0.3716.