ニョロ語動詞活用における高声調削除と同一指示目的代名詞

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  • High Tone Deletions and Coreferential Objects in Nyoro Verb Conjugations

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This paper examines high tone deletions (HTDs) in verb conjugations in Nyoro, a Bantu language of Western Uganda. In such cases, a high tone is deleted (without any phonetic reason) when a complement of the verb, a direct object of the verb or an adverb, directly follows it. However, when the object noun of a transitive verb is pronominalized and it moves to a preverbal position (with nothing following the verb), the HTD does not occur. In addition, if the object noun is pronominalized and the noun is still used in a postverbal position (this is how Nyoro expresses the definiteness of an object noun), then the verb form does not undergo this process. It is to be noted that HTDs only occur in the affirmative and they do not apply to negative forms or subordinate and relative clauses. It is possible to better understand HTDs in Nyoro verb conjugations from the perspective of conjoint/disjoint alternations discussed in other Bantu languages. It is known that the postverbal element is focused in conjoint constructions, whereas in disjoint constructions, the verb is the subject of focus. Moreover, the coreferential object prefix construction in Nyoro is syntactically conjoint, since a direct object noun follows it in the clause. However, it is disjointly expressed, since the HTD does not occur within it. It is important to note that the object noun is not dislocated in this construction (i.e., no pause is inserted between the verb and the noun). This seeming paradox is only understood upon realizing that once the object noun is pronominalized, the object is no longer the subject of focus, and the construction becomes disjointed, regardless of whether the object noun maintains the postverbal position. Although HTDs play a crucial role in conjoint/disjoint alternations in Nyoro verb conjugations, they are also involved in other linguistic aspects.

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