The conjunctive coordinator NA in Xhosa: its categorial status and map of polyfunctionality
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[1] Stellenbosch University
Stellenbosch University
Stellenbosch, Sudáfrica
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- Localización: Italian journal of linguistics, ISSN 1120-2726, Vol. 31, Nº. 1, 2019, págs. 3-60
- Idioma: inglés
- Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
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Resumen
The present paper provides a cognitive-grammaticalization analysis of the morpheme NA in Xhosa, discussing the categorial status of NA as a conjunctive coordinator (CC) and its range of polysemy and/or polyfunctionality. First, the study demonstrates that, when used in a coordinating function, NA approximates the CC prototype to a significant extent, as it complies with most of the features associated with CCs cross-linguistically. Second, the analysis of polysemy/polyfunctionality shows that NA spans large parts of the typological map posited for CC constructions. The conceptual and diachronic center of the map of NA corresponds to a prepositional comitative sense from which the other values (e.g. ‘carry’, possessive, temporal, modality, ‘even’, concessive, ‘also, as well’ and ‘illness’) and functions (e.g. predicative and adverbial) have emerged through a series of semantic extensions connected via family resemblance. In this map, the uses of NA as a nominal coordinator, comitative preposition, possessive predicator, and focal-adverbial ‘also, as well’ are the most prototypical. The results of the research contribute to the typological theory of CCs and their semantic-map modeling.*
