The clitic nature of person-gender-number markers in Naro*. Issue 1 (2nd January 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Kari, Ethelbert; Mogara, Budzani
• Is Part Of: Language matters. Volume 47:Issue 1(2016)
• Page Start: 128
• Page End: 148
• Publication Date: 2016-01-02
• Subjects: Clitics -- Khoesan languages -- morphosyntax -- Naro -- PGN markers -- phonosyntax; Africa -- Languages -- Periodicals; 496.05
• DOI: 10.1080/10228195.2015.1120767
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1022-8195

Abstract

ABSTRACT: This article discusses the phonosyntactic behaviour of person-gender-number (PGN) † markers in Naro, noting that first person singular masculine/feminine, third person singular masculine and third person singular feminine † PGN markers have full and reduced forms, and that full forms of PGN markers are used when the noun in sentence-initial position is the logical subject of the sentence while reduced forms are used when the noun or an element in sentence-initial position is not the logical subject of the sentence. Furthermore, the article notes that reduced forms of PGN markers cannot exist independently but attach as enclitics to a variety of morphosyntactic categories and form a prosodic unit with them, and that such behaviour is not consistent with the behaviour of genuine morphological affixes. On the basis of the phonosyntactic behaviour of reduced forms of PGN markers, the article concludes that these intriguing, prosodically-deficient, hermaphroditic elements are clitics in Naro.