Open AccessAn argument for ezafe constructions and construct state in Zulu
Author(s) -
Taylor Jones
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
proceedings of the linguistic society of america
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2473-8689
DOI - 10.3765/plsa.v3i1.4353
Subject(s) - zulu , linguistics , construct (python library) , adjective , possessive , genitive case , argument (complex analysis) , noun , demonstrative , variety (cybernetics) , phenomenon , phonology , mathematics , history , computer science , philosophy , artificial intelligence , epistemology , biochemistry , chemistry , programming language
Zulu (Niger-Congo, South Africa) exhibits a complicated interplay between morphological and phonological processes that, combined with an inherited, traditionalist approach to syntactic categories in the Nguni languages, obscures an overt phoneme that is argued to be common to all complex DPs. Here it is claimed that the traditional categories of adjective, relative, compound noun, possessive, and demonstrative can all be unified under a DP approach that takes this overt phoneme to be a functional marker that is analogous to those appearing in Persian ezafe constructions and construct state constructions in Afro-Asiatic languages. This approach reduces a variety of seemingly different Zulu-specific phenomena to a single, cross-linguistically established phenomenon.