THE RELEVÀNCE OF THE NOTIONS “GIVEN” AND “NEW” DISCOURSE INFORMATION IN THE STUDY OF NORTH SOTHO SYNTAX

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
The primary objective of this paper is to put forward the discourse-pragmatic distinction between given and new discourse information as a feasible distinction in the description of certain syntactic phenomena in North Sotho. In this regard the predominant conclusion which is arrived at is that the syntactic behaviour of noun phrases in North Sotho sentences is directly dominated by nouns' status as given or new discourse information. Evidence will be presented from North Sotho texts to indicate, amongst other things, that (a) agreement between noun phrases and verbs is only possible when nouns have the status of given discourse information; and (b) word order in sentences is also determined by nouns' status as given or new information in so far as new information is restricted syntactically to the post-verbal slot, while given information may precede or follow the verb.

This publication has 0 references indexed in Scilit: