Obligatory contour principle effects and violations: The case of Setswana verbal tone
This dissertation is an autosegmental analysis of the tonal patterns manifested in the verb of Setswana, a Southern Bantu language spoken in Botswana and South Africa. Verbal tone in this language is very complex because the tonal patterns fluctuate, depending on many factors. These factors include, but are not limited to, for example, the syntactic environment in which the verb occurs, and the type of morpheme, high or toneless, that precedes the verbstem. The matter is further complicated by the fact that there are two types of verbstems in Setswana, namely, high-toned versus toneless (low-toned). All of these factors taken together result in the variability of verbal tonal patterns attested in this language.
Language, Linguistics, Literature, African, Language, General
University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign
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University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign