A grammar of interrogatives in Tonga.
type: CreativeWork
description: This study examined interrogatives in Tonga. In particular, the current study undertook to understand the phonological aspects of interrogative markers, morphological aspects, and their syntactic distributions as well as the role that semantics plays in interrogative constructions within the broader context of the Tonga grammar. The Basic Linguistic Theory is used as a theoretical framework. The Tonga language under scrutiny in this study is a language spoken by a Bantu group of people found mainly in Zambia and some parts of Zimbabwe and Mozambique. The variety of Tonga considered in this study is the plateau Tonga as particularly spoken in Choma district of the southern province of Zambia. The researcher identified the key informants for the study who are teachers of the language in secondary schools and subjected them to word and sentence list which they provided data accordingly by transforming declarative sentences into interrogatives in Tonga. The data from the study show that there are three types of interrogatives that exist in Tonga, and these are: polar interrogative, alternative interrogative and constituent interrogatives. With regards to interrogative particles in Tonga, Polar interrogatives use hena, tee, na and tonal particles while Constituent interrogatives use Buti, (Ku)li, (Mu)li, (Aa)li, Cili, Lili, Nkaambo nzi/ kai/nzi, Ni, Nzi and the alternative interrogatives in Tonga engage the following disjunctive particles in their formation: Naanka, Na and Na pe. Interrogative particles in Tonga assume different forms; they are either free or bound morphemes. Syntactically, all the interrogative particles in Tonga occur in-situ except for kuli ‘where’, kai ‘why’ and nkaambo nzi ‘why’ that occupy the initial position only. The coordinating conjunction ‘naanka’ is positioned between two polar interrogatives reduced to one, by ellipsis to form the alternative interrogative. In answering polar interrogatives in Tonga, the data revealed that, an addressee may…
abstract: This study examined interrogatives in Tonga. In particular, the current study undertook to understand the phonological aspects of interrogative markers, morphological aspects, and their syntactic distributions as well as the role that semantics plays in interrogative constructions within the broader context of the Tonga grammar. The Basic Linguistic Theory is used as a theoretical framework. The Tonga language under scrutiny in this study is a language spoken by a Bantu group of people found mainly in Zambia and some parts of Zimbabwe and Mozambique. The variety of Tonga considered in this study is the plateau Tonga as particularly spoken in Choma district of the southern province of Zambia. The researcher identified the key informants for the study who are teachers of the language in secondary schools and subjected them to word and sentence list which they provided data accordingly by transforming declarative sentences into interrogatives in Tonga. The data from the study show that there are three types of interrogatives that exist in Tonga, and these are: polar interrogative, alternative interrogative and constituent interrogatives. With regards to interrogative particles in Tonga, Polar interrogatives use hena, tee, na and tonal particles while Constituent interrogatives use Buti, (Ku)li, (Mu)li, (Aa)li, Cili, Lili, Nkaambo nzi/ kai/nzi, Ni, Nzi and the alternative interrogatives in Tonga engage the following disjunctive particles in their formation: Naanka, Na and Na pe. Interrogative particles in Tonga assume different forms; they are either free or bound morphemes. Syntactically, all the interrogative particles in Tonga occur in-situ except for kuli ‘where’, kai ‘why’ and nkaambo nzi ‘why’ that occupy the initial position only. The coordinating conjunction ‘naanka’ is positioned between two polar interrogatives reduced to one, by ellipsis to form the alternative interrogative. In answering polar interrogatives in Tonga, the data revealed that, an addressee may…
author: Haamilandu, Habeenzu
language: en
date published: 2021
date modified: 2026-07-27T22:06:26Z
provider: University of Zambia
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: The University of Zambia