Doctoral Dissertation Research: The structure of complex verbal expression in Ndebele

语言描述动作或事件发生的时间（例如，过去或现在“时态”）和事件发生的不同方式（“方面”）。 一些？分析？语言通过添加单词来表达这一点，就像在英语中使用两个动词一样，一个主要的动词，如'eat'或'see'和一个额外的助动词，其中时态（？我吃了吗？）方面（？我吃过了吗？）信息去。 其他的，？合成的？语言通过堆叠前缀或后缀来用更复杂的动词构建这些表达式。然而，虽然语言通常可以被描述为分析或合成，这些表达方式有时会以我们还不了解的方式相互作用，但这将通过研究它们在特定语言中的使用来阐明。本论文项目研究了构词的本质，重点是津巴布韦语言Ndebele中动词编码屈折意义的方式。这项研究将在津巴布韦的两个地点进行，涉及从母语者那里获取语言数据。它的目的是通过调查对比单动词和多动词结构在北方恩德贝莱的理解机制，调节合成和迂回之间的关系。恩德贝勒语动词表现出高度的综合性，例如，恩德贝勒语对应的英语“It will be given”有三个动词成分，由一个动词词“Kuzaphiwa”表达。“同时，这种语言大量使用迂回，在涉及一系列助动词或轻动词的各种类型的多动词结构中。轻动词类似于动词前缀或后缀，甚至在其他语言中作为副词来表达信息。因此，恩德贝莱提供了一个有趣的和重要的角度对构词法的研究，由于丰富的合成和迂回形式在一个单一的语言。 本论文将在语言所允许的词内部复杂性的限度内研究这种跨语言变异的轨迹。

Languages describe when actions or events happened (e.g., past or present "tense") and different ways events can occur ("aspect"). Some ?analytic? languages express this by adding words as in English by using two verbs, a main verb like 'eat' or 'see' and an additional auxiliary verb where the tense (?I did eat?) and aspect (?I have eaten?) information goes. Other, ?synthetic? languages build these expressions with more complex verbs by stacking prefixes or suffixes. However while languages can generally be described as analytic or synthetic, these modes of expression sometimes interact in ways we do not yet understand, but which will be illuminated by this dissertation project by examining their use in a particular language.This dissertation project investigates the nature of word formation, focusing on the way verbs encode inflectional meanings in Ndebele, a language of Zimbabwe. This research will be conducted at two locations in Zimbabwe and involve elicitation of linguistic data from native speakers. It aims to contribute to the understanding of mechanisms that regulate the relationship between synthesis and periphrasis by investigating contrasting single verb and multi-verb constructions in Northern Ndebele. Ndebele verbs exhibit a high level of synthesis, e.g. the Ndebele counterpart of English "It will be given" with three verbal elements is expressed by a single verb word "Kuzaphiwa." At the same time, the language makes considerable use of periphrasis, in various types of multi-verbal constructions involving a series of auxiliaries or light verbs. Light verbs are auxiliary-like, expressing information found in verbal prefixes or suffixes, or even as adverbs in other languages. As such, Ndebele offers an interesting and important perspective on the study of word formation due to the abundance of both synthetic and periphrastic forms within a single language. The dissertation will investigate this locus of cross-linguistic variation in the limits of word-internal complexity that languages allow.