The reflexive marker as drawn from authentic texts in isiXhosa

Abstract

The article presents a thorough description of the reflexive (REFL) marker in isiXhosa, one of the Southern Bantu languages belonging to the Nguni group. This work is based on the PhD thesis of the author (Dlayedwa, 2002) in which the REFL marker is treated as a bound, dependent and inflectional morpheme. Therefore, the REFL marker is only meaningful when it is attached to the verb stem as a prefixed affix thereby bringing a change in the verbal form and meaning. It is argued that the presence of the REFL morpheme expresses that the action committed by the subject (SUBJ) is redirected to self. The author adopts a morpho-syntactic framework which shows that the REFL marker contributes both to morphology and syntactical processes and in that manner behaves equivalently to that of Chichewa (cf. Mchombo, 1993). In this article, it is maintained that the REFL marker co-occurs in different sentence constructions but, its form, function as well as the position it holds, remain unchangeable. It is argued that the REFL marker shares the same slot with and performs the same ‘pronominal’ function as the object agreement (OBJ AGR) marker. However, whereas the latter changes form according to the types of noun classes (N CL), the former retains a fixed form regardless of which SUBJ Ns (singular or plural) it refers to. In this respect, the author strongly supports (among other earlier isiXhosa grammarians) McLaren (1933:41) in his view that ‘the particle -zi- is used as the pronominal OBJ for all persons and classes’. Finally, the author examines some literature on the REFL construction and analyses the data drawn from a variety of authentic texts such as the two novels Ingqumbo yeminyanya and Isazela sidl’umniniso by Jordan (1940) and Magadla (1992) respectively, Jongilanga’s (2004) short story Apha naphaya and Mayosi’s (2001) drama book Lanqum’inqatha.

S.Afr.J.Afr.Lang., 31(2) 2011