2.4 Combining words and grammatical acquisition
2.4.2 Grammatical acquisition
It is beyond the scope of this thesis to discuss the acquisition of all isiXhosa grammar items, and I restrict the analysis to: firstly, grammatical items that appear on the grammar section of the CDI and
17 Function words are words that express grammatical relationships with other words in a sentence, contributing to syntax rather than meaning (cf. content words).
31 secondly, grammatical items that will be explored in the results of this thesis.18 This primarily reflects on the work on the acquisition of Bantu languages, namely:19
1. IsiZulu (Suzman, 1991, 1996, 1999), 2. Siswati (Kunene, 1979),
3. IsiXhosa (Gxilishe de Villiers and de Villiers, 2007a, 2007b; Gxilishe, 2008; Smouse et al., 2012),
4. Sesotho (Connelly, 1984; Demuth, 1988, 1992, 2003; Demuth and Ellis, 2010; Ziesler and Demuth, 1995),
5. Setswana (Tsonope, 1987, 1993), 6. Chishona (Sibanda, 2014),
7. Chichewa (Chimombo and Mtenje, 1989), and 8. Isangu (Idiata, 1998, 2005).
IsiZulu and Siswati are closely related to isiXhosa, all three being Nguni languages spoken in South Africa and Swaziland. Sesotho and Setswana are closely related Sotho languages (Demuth, 1992) spoken in South Africa (Sesotho and Setswana), Lesotho (Sesotho and some Setswana), Botswana (Setswana) as well as some part of Namibia and Zimbabwe (Setswana).20 Chishona is spoken in Zimbabwe as well as some parts of Zambia and Botswana.21 Chichewa is spoken in Malawi as well as parts of Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe,22 whilst Isangu is a Bantu language of Gabon,23 also spoken in parts of Equatorial Guinea. Despite Isangu and Chichewa not being Southern Bantu languages, due to the grammatical cognateness and structural similarity of Bantu (Suzman, 1996), one
18 Phonology will be discussed to the extent that it influences grammatical and morphological acquisition, but I do not provide a review on the acquisition of phonology and the age certain aspects of isiXhosa or other Bantu language phonology is acquired, per se. See Demuth (2003) for a summary.
19 The majority of this scholarship has been longitudinal case studies of a limited number of children for each language. The maximum number of children considered is 11, by Gxilishe, de Villiers and de Villiers (2007a). The minimum considered is two (Kunene, 1979; Tsopnope, 1987).
20 Information on Sesotho: https://www.ethnologue.com/language/sot and Information on Setswana:
https://www.ethnologue.com/language/tsn
21 Information on Chishona: https://www.ethnologue.com/language/sna
22 Information on Chichewa: https://www.ethnologue.com/language/nya
23 Information on Isangu: https://www.ethnologue.com/language/snq
32 can expect them to follow a similar acquisition trajectory to Southern Bantu languages. That being said, in line with the theory of linguistic determinants, Demuth (2003) proposes that different linguistic details (even within the Southern Bantu languages) do play a role in the acquisition of respective morphemes, therefore playing a central role in any cross-linguistic analysis and discussion on cognitive vs. linguistics determinants (in for this thesis or otherwise). Where relevant, these linguistic particulars are recognised.
For ease of reading, I use a table format to organise the literature on grammatical acquisition by grammatical item and age of acquisition, further subcategorizing sections into findings by author. I then provide a more detailed discussion of acquisition processes.
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24 See Appendix A for a full table of the isiXhosa Noun Classes.
Table 2-1 Acquisition of relevant grammatical items in Bantu languages
Grammatical item Examples Age of acquisition
Noun classes
In the majority of Bantu languages, there is a gender prefix, called a noun prefix (NPx) that marks singularity/plurality and determines into which class that noun will fall.
A NPx is a grammatical morpheme that generally marks a noun for singular or plural and for semantic content. Noun classes have their own set of agreement markers that are often phonologically similar to the NPx.
Cl. 1 (singular/exclusively personal)
um- ntwana NPx1-child Cl. 2:
aba-ntwana(children)24 NPx2-children
Cl. 1a: before 2 Cl. 2a: no data Cl. 1: before 2
Cl. 2: between 2 and 2;6
Cl. 3: poorly represented in children’s speech Cl. 4: poorly represented in children’s speech Cl. 5: before 2
Cl. 6: between 2 and 2;6 Cl. 7: by age 3
Cl. 8: between 2 and 2;6 Cl. 9: before 2
Cl. 10: between 2 and 2;6
Cl. 11: poorly represented in children’s speech Cl. 14: poorly represented in children’s speech Cl. 15: poorly represented in children’s speech (Sources: Suzman, 1991, 1999)
Noun Prefixes (NPx)
The shape of the NPx in isiXhosa is VCV (vowel-consonant-vowel). The initial vowel is called the pre-prefix and the consonant vowel element is referred to as the basic noun prefix.
In isiXhosa for some classes the vowel of the basic noun prefix is elided. Compare isiZulu u-mu-ntu with isiXhosa u-m-ntu ‘person’.
u- m- ntwana IV1-BP1-child
Overlapping25 stages of NPx development between the ages of 2 and 3:26
1. no prefixes, e.g. twana
2. shadow vowels and nasal prefixes, e.g. mntwana 3. full and correct NPx, e.g. umntwana ‘child’.
(Sources: Kunene, 1979; Connelly, 1984; Tsonope, 1987;
Suzman, 1991, 1996; Tsonope, 1993; Demuth, 2003; Idiata, 2005; Sibanda 2014)
Identificative copulative prefixes (COPs)
Identificative copulatives (copulative from here) are prefixed to nouns and convey the meaning of ‘it is
a…’/’they are…’, for example.
i- bhola NPx9-ball y- i- bhola COP9-NPx9-ball
The copulative in Sesotho appears at 2;6 (Demuth, 2003) but the Sesotho copulative is much less complex than in isiXhosa, not being in agreement with the noun as it is in isiXhosa.
Subject Markers (SMs)
Subject markers are prefixal elements that concord with the noun.
Present tense indicative positive:
1. Disjunctive Ndi- ya- hamba SCp1-DSJ-go 2. Conjunctive Ndi- funa ama- nzi SCp1-want NPx6- water
Similar overlapping stages to the acquisition of NPx between the ages of 2;4 and 2;1024:
1. no marking, e.g. funa ‘want’
2. shadow vowel (usually a or i in place of the first person subject marker), e.g. afuna
3. well-formed morphemes, e.g. ndiyafuna ‘I want’
(Sources: Kunene, 1979; Connelly, 1984; Tsonope, 1987;
Demuth, 1988, 2003; Suzman, 1991; Tsonope, 1993; Idiata, 2005; Gxilishe, de Villiers and de Villiers, 2007a; Sibanda 2014)
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25 Ziesler and Demuth (1995) note that the 3 stages of NPx acquisition are not discrete stages, and at any point in a child’s development they could produce any of the three forms (see also Connelly, 1984: 80), with alternations most likely to be occurring around the age of 2;4 -2;6 (Demuth, 1988: 309- 310).
26 See Appendix B for a breakdown of acquisition ages by author and language.
Object markers (OMs)
Object markers are prefixed directly before the verb root and can be used in the place of an object already referred to or in conjunction with an object. Object agreement is not obligatory when the object is present (Gxilishe, de Villiers and de Villiers, 2007a). Object markers usually occur within a morphologically complex verb, after the subject marker (Suzman, 1991).
ndi- ya- m- thanda
SMp1-DSJ-OM1-love Acquired between the ages of 2 and 3.24
(Sources: Kunene, 1979; Demuth, 1988, 2003; Suzman, 1991;
Tsonope, 1993; Gxilishe, de Villiers and de Villiers, 2007a)
Adjective markers (ADJMs) Bantu languages have very few adjectives (in a grammatical sense of the word), with their function being served by relatives, to a large extent (Suzman, 1991). Adjectives follow the noun that they qualify and require an adjective marker to be prefixed to the adjective stem:
adjective marker + adjective stem, where each adjective marker is governed by the head noun (Connelly, 1984).
Um-ntwana om- khulu NPx1-child ADJM1-big Um- ntwana NPx1-child m- khulu PRED.ADJM1-big
Acquired between the ages of 2 and 2;6.24
(Sources: Kunene, 1979; Tsonope, 1987; Suzman, 1991;
Demuth, 2003)
Possessive markers (PMs) Possessives follow the noun they qualify and are brought into
agreement with the possessive stem by the possessive marker.
Um- ntwana wa- m
NPx1-child PM1-my Acquired between the ages of 2 and 2;6, apart from isiZulu in which they are acquired before 2.24
(Sources: Demuth, 1988; Suzman, 1991) Possessive pronouns
Equivalent to the English ‘mine’ or ‘it is mine’ (possessive pronoun + copulative).
y- e- ya- m
COP9-AGR-PM9-my Not acquired by 1;11 (Suzman, 1991) – at this age
concordially correct possessives were used to express ‘mine’, without the pronoun attached. Possessive prounouns appeared in Suzman’s (1991) data around the age of 2;4.
Locative positions (prepositions) Prepositions in isiXhosa are formed by attaching the locative position + kwa- to the noun. Subject markers often occur as a prefix on the preposition to create predicative utterances.
i- pen i- phezu NPx9-pen SM9-on kwe- tafile POSS17- table
Before 2.24
(Sources: Connelly, 1984; Sibanda, 2014)
Demonstrative (DEM) In isiXhosa there are three
demonstrative positions. All agree in noun class with the head noun (Demuth, 1992).
lo m- ntwana 1DEM1 BNP1-child
Acquired between the ages of 2 and 2;6.24 (Sources: Demuth, 1998, 2003; Suzman, 1999)
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