The grammaticalization of direction in Nandi: a cognitive approach
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Date
2011Author
Simotwo, Matutu Kibet T
Type
ThesisLanguage
en_USMetadata
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This study sought to investigate the grammaticalization of direction in the Nandi language. It aimed at identifying directional affixes and lexical items which indicate direction, and at establishing the co-occurrence phenomenon involving directional affixes and some derivational affixes, namely, the benefactive, the comitative, and the reflexive. It also sought to determine the adequacy of cognitive grammar approach as a framework for describing this notion of direction.
The data for this study was intuitively generated by the researcher who is a native speaker of the language in question. The analysis of the data proceeded by the structural method whereby. the verbs and sentence structures were subjected to analysis in line with the objectives of the study. The notions of trajector and landmark, as used in cognitive grammar, played a key role.
The findings of the study show that there are three main affixes of direction in the Nandi language: the ventive, the itive, and the ambulative. They also show that these affixes can co-occur with derivational affixes. However, there are cases of incompatibility. It was further established that there exist lexical items which indicate direction in Nandi and that the cognitive approach can adequately describe the notion of direction.
Publisher
University of Nairobi, Kenya