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，过去时或现在时)以及事件发生的不同方式(“方面”)。一些？分析性的？语言通过添加单词来表达这一点，就像在英语中一样，使用两个动词，一个主要动词，如‘Eat’或‘See’，以及一个附加助动词，其中时态(？我确实吃了？)和方面(？我吃过了？)信息是这样的。其他的？合成的？语言通过堆叠前缀或后缀来使用更复杂的动词来构建这些表达式。然而，虽然语言通常可以被描述为分析性或合成性的，但这些表达方式有时以我们尚不理解的方式相互作用，但本论文项目将通过考察它们在特定语言中的使用来说明这一点。本论文项目调查了构词的本质，重点研究了津巴布韦语言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，涉及从母语人士那里获取语言数据。本研究旨在通过对北恩德贝勒地区单动词和多动词结构的对比研究，有助于理解合成与外围结构之间的关系。Ndebele动词表现出高度的综合性，例如，英语中具有三个动词成分的Ndebele动词“It Will be Gave”由一个动词单词“Kuzaphiwa”表示。同时，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，该语言也大量使用了周边词。轻动词是类助词，表达动词前缀或后缀中的信息，甚至在其他语言中作为副词。因此，恩德贝勒提供了一个有趣而重要的视角来研究构词法，因为在一种语言中有丰富的合成形式和外围形式。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.