Valence in sidaama reflexive and reciprocal constructions

Abstract

This study focuses on Sidaama reflexive and reciprocal constructions in relation to verbal valence adjustment. It aims at describing and analyzing how reflexive and reciprocal constructions are marked in the language. It also examines how these constructions affect the syntactic and semantic valence of verbs. To attain the objectives, exhaustive primary and secondary data were collected from primary and secondary data sources, respectively. To collect the secondary data, published and written materials were consulted first, since they can serve as sources of linguistic data and insight. Exhaustive primary data were collected from the native speakers of the language via elicitation. To gather the primary data, the informants were asked to translate the Amharic sentences and word lists into Sidaama. Then, the collected data were organized, phonemically transcribed (morphophonemic processes are taken into account) and glossed. Finally, the data were translated and analyzed. Based on the data analysis, the study yielded the following findings. Sidaama marks reflexive and reciprocal constructions morphologically, syntactically, lexically or both morphologically and syntactically. Morphological reflexive constructions decrease the syntactic valence of the verbs, whereas syntactic reflexive constructions do not affect the syntactic valence of the verb since the object slot is occupied by a reflexive pronoun. However, both morphological and syntactic reflexive constructions decrease the semantic valence of a verb. Because the action stated by the verb is not transmitted from one entity to another, the verb semantically remains intransitive. As already stated, Sidaama marks reciprocal constructions lexically, morphologically or syntactically or morphologically and syntactically. Syntactic reciprocal constructions do not affect the valence of a verb since the verb remains transitive both syntactically and semantically. However, the syntactic valence is affected when reciprocation is encoded lexically and morphologically since the object slot is left empty.