Clefts in Durban Zulu

Cheng, Lisa Lai-Shen; Downing, Laura J.

doi:10.1075/la.208.05che

In:Cleft Structures
Edited by Katharina Hartmann and Tonjes Veenstra
[Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today 208] 2013
► pp. 141–164

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Clefts in Durban Zulu

Lisa Lai-Shen Cheng | Leiden University and Göteborg University

Laura J. Downing | Leiden University and Göteborg University

Published online: 28 November 2013

https://doi.org/10.1075/la.208.05che

In this paper, we argue that clefts in Zulu have a bipartite structure: a copular sentence with an adjoined DP/clause. This structure accounts for the prosody of clefts. Each constituent is parsed into a separate Intonation Phrase by the independently motivated phrasing algorithm of Zulu. It also accounts for the syntactic properties of Zulu clefts. We further argue that the nature of agreement in Zulu copular sentences support a pronominal predicate analysis. Keywords: Prosody of clefts; copular sentences; pronominal predicate

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