Talk:Typological Features Template for Runyankore Rukiga

--Justus Turamyomwe 09:51, 21 April 2010 (UTC)

Nominal specification and modification in Runyankore-Rukiga

Specification and modification are different issues that should not be mixed up. Specifiers generally qualify the head noun. The specification of an item is the set of features it carries (Radford .A 2009:404). Therefore in Nominal phrases, specifiers generally are features which are attached to the nominal to qualify it more. On the other hand, modifiers attribute some property to the head. For example in the sentence eat slowly, the adverb slowly is said to modify the verb eat because it describes the manner in which the speaker is being told to eat. (Radford A 2009:393). Therefore, the head noun may be modified by another noun, by adjectives, by adverbs, or by clauses such relative clauses, prepositional clauses, etc. Specifiers which a head noun can carry include determiners, demonstratives, quantifiers, etc. In Runyankore-Rukiga, a nominal phrase can be modified by determiners which in this case are definite articles and indefinite articles. It is however important to note that whereas in English these two can be marked with distinctive features e.g. the, for definite and a for indefinite articles, this is not parallel to Runyankore –Rukiga because definiteness and indefiniteness is realized in context. Normally in case of adjectives which modify the noun, the definiteness is conveyed by the initial vowel. Look at these two cases below where example 1 shows the definite article and example 2 shows the indefinite article marked on adjective. 1. Buri mushaija omuhango aije aha “Every big man let him come here” Buri mushaija omuhango aije aha buri mu shaija o mu hango a ij e a ha every CL1 man DEF CL1 big 3SG come SUBJ IV here.PROX QUANT N ADJ V DEM

Generated in TypeCraft. 2. buri mushaija muhango aije aha “Evey big man should come here” buri mushaija muhango aije aha buri mu shaija mu hango a ij e a ha every CL1 man CL1 big 3SG come SUBJ IV here.PROX QUANT N ADJ V DEM

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In terms of syntactic arrangement, determiners that mark definiteness can therefore come after the noun and are realized in the adjective modifying the noun. They are inseparable from the adjective and they cannot stand alone. Another category of specifiers that adds more meaning to the noun are quantifiers. Syntactically, quantifiers can precede or follow the noun. Example 3 shows the case where the quantifier precedes head noun while example 4 and 5 show a case where the quantifier comes after the head noun.

3. buri mushaija muhango aije aha “Evey big man should come here” buri mushaija muhango aije aha buri mu shaija mu hango a ij e a ha every CL1 man CL1 big 3SG come SUBJ IV here.PROX QUANT N ADJ V DEM

Generated in TypeCraft. 4. ente ezimwe zisigare “Some of the cows should remain” ente ezimwe zisigare e n te e zi mwe zi sigar e IV CL9 cow DEF AGR some AGR remain SUBJ N QUANT V

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5. Abaana boona bakatunga ebirabo “All the children got gifts” Abaana boona bakatunga ebirabo a ba ana bo ona ba ka tung a e bi rabo IV CL2 children CL2 all CL2 PASTre get FV IV CL8 gift N QUANT V N

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Also, demonstrative is another category of modifiers. In Runyankore-Rukiga, this is marked by deixis where the referent is located in terms of the deictic center which in this case is the speaker. However, an item can be located in terms of visibility to the speaker and the addressee. In short, Runyankore-Rukiga marks deixis basing on distance and visibility to the speaker and addressee. There are 4 deictic entities that are considered when we are talking of deictic reference in Runyankore-Rukiga, namely Proximal, medial, distal 1 and distal 2. Proximal refers to an entity that is located where the speaker and is equivalent to this in English. Medial refers to an entity near the speaker and is visible to both the speaker and the addressee. It is equivalent to that in English. Distal 1 refers to an item that is at a relatively far away distance but visible to both the speaker and the addressee. It may be equivalent to that over there. Distal 2 refers to an entity that is far away to both the speaker and addressee and may be visible or invisible to both the speaker and the addressee. When the referent is invisible to the speaker and addressee, it means that it is already known to both of them. Possibly its already mentioned in the discourse. I terms of syntactic arrangement, demonstratives may precede a noun or come after it. Example 6 and 7 illustrate this point respectively

6. ogwo mushaija akaija hanu “That man came here” ogwo mushaija akaija hanu o gwo mu shaija a ka ij a ha nu IV PROX CL1 man 3SG PASTre come FV CL16 here DEM N V DEM

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7. Ebaruha egi yangwisa kubi “This letter has annoyed me” ebaruha egi yangwisa kubi e baruha egi y a n gwis a ku bi IV letter this AGR PASTim 1SG annoy FV INF bad N DEM V ADV

Generated in TypeCraft.

It is important to note that in all the above cases, the class prefix of the demonstrative has to agree with the noun being referred to. Turning to Modifiers, specifically adjectives, Runyankore-Rukiga has several types of adjectives which can stand alone. However, they have to agree with the noun they are modifying. The morphology of adjectives goes like this: Initial vowel +Noun class marker+adjective . However the initial vowel is only cited when one wants to specify the definiteness of the noun being modified. Otherwise it can be left out. When it is left out, the noun in question is indefinite though indefiniteness is not marked. Example 8 show an adjective which is marked for definiteness while example 9 shows its contrast. 8.omushaija omurungi “The good man” omushaija omurungi o mu shaija o mu rungi IV CL1 man DEF CL1 good N ADJ

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9. Omushaija murungi “A good man” omushaija murungi o mu shaija mu rungi IV CL1 man CL1 good N ADJ

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Syntactically, adjective come after the nominal they are modifying like in example 8 and 9 above. Co-occurrence of specifiers and modifiers It is imperative to note that like in any other language, specifiers can co-occur with modifiers in Runyankore Rukiga. Usually specifiers are more close to the nominal than modifiers. When it comes to demonstratives which are categorized under specification, they can precede or follow a noun, depending on the context you are focusing on e.g. emphasis. Therefore the demonstrative markers seem not to have specific position they occupy in a nominal phrase. This is exemplified in the possible combinations below. For details regarding the full annotation, refer to the link http://typecraft.org/TCEditor/1085/ QUANT+N+DET+ADJ

N+ADJ

QUANT+N+NUM+DET+ADJ

QUANT+ PREP+ N+ DEM+ADJ+ADJ+ REL

N+DET+ADJ+DET+ADJ+REL+DEM

QUANT+ N+ADJ+ADJ+REL DEM

N+QUANT+ADJ+PREP+ADJ+ADV+REL+DEM+EMPH

QUANT+N+QUANT+ADJ+ADV+REL+DEM

QUANT+N+QUANT+PREP+ADJ+ADJ+ADJ+ADV+EMPH