THE MAJOR SYNTACTIC STRUCTURES OF XHOSA: A PARTIAL TRANSFORMATIONAL GRAMMAR

Robert Hvitfeldt

Ph.D. Dissertation, 1982

Abstract

Xhosa is a Bantu language of the Nguni group spoken in South Africa. This thesis presents a set of ordered, formal rules based on Chomsky's 'Standard Theory' which accounts for the kernel sentences of Xhosa as well as a set of major transformational rules which operate on those kernel sentences. The transformations include those involving conjoining and embedding (e.g. Relativization, Nominalization, Infinitivization); Passive, Interrogative, Negative, and Imperative; and 'housekeeping' (e.g. Agreement). Data includes unpublished and published works (primarily A. C. Jordan's A Practical Course in Xhosa) as well as elicitation and information from exiled informants in the United States and Zambia.