CHAPTER 1: GENERAL INTRODUCTION
1.1 AIM OF THE STUDY
This study aims at showing that a Tswana text is made coherent by the relations that according to Halliday (1994 :309) 'may involve elements of any extent, both smaller or larger than clauses, from single words to lengthy passages of text'. The topic of cohesion has been extensively studies in English by researchers such as Halliday (1994), Hassen (1976) and Hubbard (1989). In Tswana, this topic has not yet been researched. Cohesion accounts for the grammatical and lexical relationship between the different elements of a test so as to enable the reader or the listener to derive meaning from the text. The primary focus of this study is cohesion in a Tswana text and in this context emphasis is laid on the classification and description of the five cohesive ties as classified by Halliday (1994). The aspects of cohesion that will receive attention in this study are reference, ellipsis,
lexical cohesion, conjunction and substitution.
1.2 METHOD OF RESEARCH
Data were collected from published language manuals and theoretical works on language, articles, papers and unpublished academic studies of acclaimed researchers. Examples used to substantiate discussions on all cohesive ties have been extracted from D.P.S. Monyaise's Dilo di Masoke (1991) whish is a translation of Chinua Achebe's Things Fall
Apart (1986). English translations of given Tswana examples will be drawn from the
original English text, except for instances where own examples will suit better to illuminate a case in point. For most of the background information the study has relied mainly on the research and views of scholars such as Halliday and Hassan (1976), Halliday (1994) and Gutwinski (1976).
1.3 SCHEME OF WORK
This study comprises of (8) eight chapters.
Chapter One serves as an introductory chapter containing the aim of the study, method of research, exposition of chapters and definition of key concepts.
Chapter Two outlines and describes the different types of cohesive ties.
Chapter Three focuses on reference as a cohesive tie and the different types of reference are analysed.
Chapter Four analyses ellipsis and its sub-categories.
In Chapter Five the focus is on substitution and the manner in which it is used in a text. Chapter Six focuses on conjunctions and the way different scholar classify them, as well as their role in establishing cohesion.
Chapter Seven deals with lexical cohesion.
Chapter Eight is the general conclusion and provides a general overview of the research.
1.4 DEFINING KEY CONCEPTS
1.4.1 COHESION
Cohesion is a text refers to the continuity and the connectedness that exists between the different elements of that text. Without cohesion a text will be fragmented and lose its textuality. Cohesion makes a text consistent, so that ideas flow together and are easily followed. For example.
(1) Kwa tshimologong Ikemefuna o ne a dula a tshogile Ka makgetlo a mabedi a leka go thoba, mme a se ka a itse gore o tla lena kae. Fa a gopola mmaagwe le kgaitsadie wa dingwaga tse tharo, a lela botlhoko. Mmaagwe nwoye a le molemo thata mo go ena,
a motshwere fela jaaka yo mongwe wa bana ba gagwe. ( Monyaise, 1991 :20)
'At first Ikemefuna was very much afraid. Once or twice he tried to run away; but he did not know where to begin. He thought of his mother and his three-year-old sister and wept bitterly. Nwoye's mother was very kind to him and treated him as one of her own children'
(Achebe, 1986 :20)
Continuity is displayed in the above example. The personal noun Ikemefuna is only mentioned at the beginning of the test but it is evident that this extract is all about him. The emphatic pronous ena 'him' and the subjects emphasis o, a … is used to refer to the noun Ikemefuna.
Halliday (1994:309) goes on to define cohesion as follows :
Relations that may involve elements of any text,
both smaller and larger than clauses, from single words too lengthy passages of text; and that they may hold across gaps of any extent, both within the clause and beyond it, without regard to the nature of whatever intervenes. This cannot be achieved by grammatical structure; it depends on a resource of rather different kind. These non-structural resources for discourse are what are referred to by the term COHESION.
Halliday's definition of cohesion is elucidated in the above text. For example, the meaning of ena will only be grasped by referring back to Ikemefuna. The distance between these two words that cohesion is not only confined to words in close proximity but pertains to the entire text.
Donald Ellis, in his "Languages, Coherence and Textuality" (Craig & Tracy, 1983 :223), aligns himself with Halliday's definition because he perceived cohesion as bringing about a relation between sentences. He states :
Cohesion is a tie or a relation between two elements such as that one assumes the other and is at leas partially dependent on it for interpretation.
According to Ellis's definition one can safely conclude that ena 'him' and Ikemefuna in example 1 are related. Ena assumes Ikemefuna and it is partially dependent thereon. If mention of Ikemefuna were not made, it wouldn't be known to whom or what ena refers.
1.4.2 COHERENCE
Coherence of a text is brought about by how cohesive, well organized and consistent a test is. Coherence is established when sentences or clauses in a paragraph relate to a single point, which is represented by a topic or a theme. Coherence is inclusive of cohesion, therefore the meaning of a text is brought about by its coherence.
Scholars such as Givon (1995) and Hubbard (1989) acknowledge that it is very difficult to define coherence because it is a mental phenomenon and it is therefore difficult also to consider one text as more coherent that the other. Hubbard (1989 :26) says therefore that
'Coherence' is, however, a notion that is very resistant to analysis - a problem that is a source of frustration to the student, to the applied linguist and to the theoretial linguist, all of
whom require - a lbeit for different reason- greater clarity on what it is that make
some texts more coherent than others.
Givon (1995 :viii) states that :
Coherence is fundamentally not a property of the test but rather of the mind that produces or interprets the text.
What these scholars are implying by coherence being a mental phenomenon is true only if the test is cohesive, systematically organized and arranged. No mind will be able to comprehend ill-structured and haphazard facts. Coherence is not relative but is a factual attribute of a text; therefore it is popssible to have a text which is more coherent than another. This is supported by Irwin's (1982 :5) definition of coherence, which reads as follows : 'Something the reader establish - or hopes to establish - in the process of readinf connected discourse.
He implies that it is not the components of a text that make it coherent but the interpretation of the reader of the connected discourse that establishes its coherence. Therefore the discourse has to be connected in order to be interpreted as coherent.
1.4.3 DIFFERENCES BETWEEN COHESION AND COHERENCE
The differences that exist between these concepts are brought about by their structures and their functions. Cohesion is seen as a component of coherence, a relationship that exist between words, clauses and sentences; whereas coherence is the meaningfulness of the text and is made up of many aspects of language which contribute simultaneously to coherence.
Ranamane and Le Roux (1997 :79) say that the difference between the two concepts is that coherence is a broader term, which includes cohesion. Cohesion is measured in linguistic items whereas coherence is determined by theme and rheme structure and by given and new information. The table below showing the differences between cohesion and coherence is based on contributions from Irwin (1982 : 5).
COHESION COHERENCE
1. Cohesion is a measures linguistic phenomenon.
2. Cohesion exists within a text and adds to the coherence of text.
3. Cohesion is a text-related phenomenon. 4. Cohesion uses cohesive ties which link
words or phrases with other words or phrases in connected discourse. 5. Cohesion studies things such as the
nature of cohesive elements whether semantic or syntactic, their direction, whether they point to what precedes or to what follows and the distance in terms of number of sentence
intervening between the cohesive item and the element to which it refers
1. Coherence is more global and is not directly amenable to evaluation. 2. Coherence is something the reader
establishes or hopes to establish. 3. Coherence is both a text and a reader
related phenomenon.
4. Coherence views discourse as a process.
Texts are viewed as dynamic expressions of meaning jointly negotiated by particular speakers and hearers located in socio-cultural space and time.
5. Coherence in discourse involves far more than lexical and grammatical links between elements in the text. Coherence involves both the intra and the extra-textual.
1.5 CONCLUSION
The five cohesive ties selected for thus study are reference, ellipsis, lexical cohesion,
paragraphs. Differences between the two major concepts, which are cohesion and
coherence are given. Cohesion is a major ingredient of textuality and it brings
comprehensibility to the test. It is cohesion in a text that makes it coherent. Coherence, on the other hand, has to do with meaning and it is determined by the reader's interpretation. Coherence is inclusive of cohesion. Coherence occurs when clauses, sentences and
paragraphs are related to the main topic or the me of the text. Therefore coherence is
CHAPTER 2 : TYPES OF COHESION
In this chapter attention will be given to the five cohesive ties of Halliday (1994) and how applicable they are in a Tswana test. They are reference, ellipsis, lexical cohesion,
conjunction and substitution.
Reference is a communicative relationship between words and sentences in a text and as a cohesive element has a semantic basis. It functions as a proform which identifies anaphorically or cataphorically a person or a thing stated somewhere in the text.
Anaphora means pointing 'backwards' in the text and cataphora pointing 'forward' in the
text. Within reference, three subtypes of cohesive ties have been attested and they are
emphatic or contrastive pronouns, demonstratives and comparison.
2.1 EMPHATIC PRONOUNS
The emphatic pronouns of Tswana particularly of the third person, e.g. (Ena, bona, lona, ona, yona and tsona ) can be used exophorically i.e. outside of language and such items are anaphoric. Consider for example the following Tswana example:
(2) Okonwo o ne a tumile that mo metsaneng ya ga gabo e e robong le go tlola melelwane. E ne ya re a sa le lekawana la dingwaga di le somerobedi, a lere tlotlo mo motsaneng wa gagabo ka go menola Amalentsi yo o neng a bidiwa Katse… A bidiwa Katse gonne
o ne a ise a ke a usediwe ke ope fa fatshe ka mokwatla. E le ena yo Okonkwo o neng a mo menola.
' Okonkwo was well know throughout
the nine villages and even beyond.
His fame rested on solid personal achievement. As a young man of eighteen he brought honor to his villages by throwing Amalentsi the Cat. He was called the Cat because his back would never touch the earth. It was this man that Okonkwo threw'.
(Achebe, 1986 :3)
In the sentence ' E le ena yo Okonkwo o neng a mo menola', the word ena 'this' refers to Amalentsi who was refferd to as Katse 'cat'.
An anaphoric relationship of this kind creates what is refferd to as cohesion, no matter how long the paragraph or the text is.
2.2. DEMONSTRATIVE PRONOUNS
Demonstratives in Tswana may also function anaphorically. In English there are two demonstratives namely 'this' implying the direction of reference is near the speaker; and 'that', meaning further from the speaker. In Tswana we have three basic spatial
demonstratives, for instance Class 10 tse 'closer to the speaker than to the hearer', tseo
'further away from the speaker but closer to the hearer' and tsele which is 'distant from both the speaker and hearer'. Other examples are ba 'these ones', bao 'those ones', bale 'those ones yonder', se 'this one', and sele 'that one yonder'
(3) "O bona lobota lole," a supa kwa motsheo mo loboteng lo lo ditsweng ka mmu o mohibidu gore lo bo lo sale lo phatsima ….
'Look at that wall,' he said, pointing at the far wall of his hut, which was rubbed with red earth so that it shone …
(Achebe, 1986 :6)
In the above example, the demonstrative lole 'that one yonder' is used anaphorically. This demonstrative item refers to the preceding text.
(4) Yo ena o ka bo a nnile mosimane. ( Monyaise, 1991 :48) 'She should have been a boy'
(Achebe, 1986 :45)
Ezinma was very close to Okonkwo. She brought food to her father and insisted that he should eat. Because Ezinma's name was already mentioned, Okonkwo didn't repeat it but just made use of the demonstrative pronoun yo 'this one'. Therefore, yo 'this one' is used cataphorically since it refers to something that is to come; i.e. 'this one' could have been a boy. 'This one is used cataphorically since the reader does not know what is going to happen. It refers forward to something that is still to come.
2.3 COMPARATIVE WORDS
Halliday and Hassen (1976 :76) see comparatives as doing the following :
Comparative reference supplies information about the similarity of one part of the test to another, with or without respect to a particular quantity or quality.
While emphatic pronouns and demonstratives set up a relation of co-reference when used anaphorically, i.e. 'they refer to the same entity yet again', comparative words on the other hand, set up a relation of contrast, i.e. ' the entity referred to may be the same or
different, equal or unequal'. Examples in Tswana are jaaka, -tshwana, ke, le, and
mongwe. English examples are 'same', 'identical','similar' and 'else'. The following examples illustrate this.
(5) tumo ya ga Okonkwo ya anama jaaka molelo wa phefo ya ledimo
(Monyaise, 1991 :1)
'Okonkwo's fame had grown like a bush-fire'.
(Achebe, 1986 :3)
(6) Ka matlhagatlhaga a a tshwanang le a lengau Okabue a tsapoga mo khuting.
(Monyaise, 1991 :65)
'Suddenly Okabue sprang to the surface with the agility of a leopard'.
(Achebe, 1986 :60)
Jaaka in example 5 and tshwanang in example 6 both mean 'like'. Jaaka compares Okabue's popularity with the 'wild fire' and tshwanang shows that she was active 'like a
leopard'. The two comparative items are used cataphorically because they precede the
nouns they are compared to and they make the two clauses joined by these items coherent.
2.4 ELLIPSIS
Ellipsis is another form of anaphoric cohesion in a text where something is presupposed by means of what is left out.
Halliday and Hassan (1976 :143) put it thus:
In which there is substitution for the presupposed item by zero.
The following example demonstrates the above with regard to Tswana.
(7) Ga le phirime.
'It does not set'.
In the example above, the noun letsatsi ' the sun' has been omitted. Tswana speaking people will understand that ga le phirime refers to letsatsi even when it is omitted.
According to Halliday (1994), ellipsis set up a relationship that is not semantic but lexicogrammatical, a relationship in the wording rather than directly in the meaning. In English there are three main contexts of ellipsis, the clause, the verbal group and the
nominal group. In Tswana text ellipsis is also used especially in idiomatic language.
For example … le dujwa le sa le metsi. '… is mixed while wet'. In this expression the omission of lesepa la ntša 'the dog's faeces ' has been made but a Tswana speaking person will know exactly what is referred to by le dujwa le sa le metsi.
2.4.1. NOMINAL ELLIPSIS
Nominal ellipsis anaphorically presupposes a noun phrase and hence the omitted element will be the head noun plus any modifying items from the presupposed phrase, which may follow the head of the elliptical phrase, (Lieber 1979 :123).
For example :
(8) "Ke banna ba le bakae ba ba go etetseng go tloga fa kgaitsadiake a re o batla go go nyala ?"
"Ga go ope," a araba ka bokhustwane. (Monyaise, 1991 : 103)
'How may men have lain with you since my brother first expressed the desire to marry you ?
"None, 'she replied simply'.
(Achebe, 1986 :95)
Ga go ope 'none' is a substitution of noun phrase ga go monna ope 'there's no man'. With ga go ope we know that it is referring to banna 'men' in the first phrase. The right answer to the question ke banna ba le ba kae 'how many men' should have been ga go bape 'there's none'.
2.4.2 VERBAL ELLIPSIS
Verbal ellipsis occurs when all or only a part of verb phrase is omitted. Verbal ellipsis may start from the left and involve the omission of auxiliary elements while retaining the lexical verb or start from the right omitting the lexical verb and include one or more preceding auxiliary elements. Verbal ellipsis is also evident in dialogues.
(9) "A ga se Obiagedi yo o lelang?" Ekwefi a goeletsa mmaagwe Nwoye.
"Ee." A araba. "O tshwanetse a bo a thubile nkgo". (Monyaise, 1991 : 32)
"Is that not Obiagedi weeping ?'
Ekwefi called across the yard to Nwoye's mother.
"Yes," she replied. ' She must have broken her water-pot'.
(Achebe, 1986 :31)
The answer ee 'yes' has replaced the verb o lelang and the auxiliary element ke ena. Ee as an answer is somewhat inappropriate for this question. The appropriate answer should have been ke ena 'it is'. Ee would be more appropriate if the question was A ke Obiagedi yo o lelang.
2.4.5 CLAUSAL ELLIPSIS
Clausal ellipsis is most commonly found in question-answer sequences of following a verb that takes an embedded question as its complement. Halliday (1994 :316).
Examples on question-answer sequence are :
(10) "A o feditse borko ?" mmaagwe a mmotsa. "Ee". A re ye.
(Monyaise, 1991 : 87)
'Have you slept enough?" asked her mother. 'yes, she replied. 'Let us go.
(Achebe, 1986 :80)
(11) "A o ne a swa?" ga botsa Ezinma. "Nyaa," ga araba Ekwefi.
(Monyaise, 1991 :77)
'Did he die?' asked Ezinma. 'No, 'replied Ekwefi'.
(Achebe, 1986 :71)
In the examples 10 and 11 the answers given are brief. The clauses are completely omitted. The answers are not ee ke feditse boroko 'yes' I have finished sleeping' and nyaa o ne a se swe 'no he did not die' respectively but just ee 'yes' and nyaa 'no'. these answers on their own are adequate and comprehensive of their clauses.
These two examples account for clause ellipsis which is related to the question-answer process in dialogues. This is called yes/no ellipsis because everything else is omitted and the answer is simply 'yes' or 'no'.
2.5 LEXICAL COHESION
Gutwinski (1976 :80) says:
Lexical cohesion occurs when the lexical item is found in two or more adjacent clauses or sentences in the same sense. Lexical cohesion can also result from the repetition of a lexical item in two or more clauses / sentences which, although not adjacent, are in close proximity.
Lexical cohesion can be recognized in the following, repetition, synonym and collocation. Tswana also has these three le xical cohesive forms.
2.5.1 REPETITION
This is the most direct form of lexical cohesion whereby lexical items are repeated. Repeated lexical items need not always appear in the same morphological form. Morphology means the same form of words. Inflexional variants, i.e. works expressing different grammatical relations belong together as a lexical item.
(12) " Mpatlela pitsa, " a laela, "o bo o katoge ngwana yoo." Ekwefi a ya fo tsaya pitsa mme Okonkwo a tlhopha
Mesukutswane e mentle go feta mo ngateng,… A e tsenya mo pitseng mme Ekwefi a khaunya metsi.
(Monyaise, 1991 :66)
'Get me a pot, ' he said, and leave the child alone.' Ekwefi wen to bring the pour and Okonkwo selected the best from his bundle …He put them in the pot and Ekwefi poured in some water'.
Pitsa 'pot' is repeated three times and this is the same pot that Okonkwo initially ordered. It also appears in two sentences and we know that Gutwinski has said that it can appear in two or more adjacent clauses or sentences.
2.5.2. SYNONYM
Lexical cohesion results from the choice of a lexical item that is in the same sense synonymous with a preceding one. Synonym can appear either with identity of reference or without identity of reference.
Lieber (1979 :14) says :
Synonyms are items which relate through a fair close semantic equivalence, as in pair such as policeman and cop or steal and rob.
In this regard, Lyons (1969 :446) observes :
Synonym occurs when two items have the same sense .
elsewhere Lyons (1981 :148) explains synonyms as 'identity of meaning'. Identity of meaning refers to words which have different morphological structures but have the same meaning. The example below explains this :
(13) Monna o kgwatisa mosimane O mo otla ka thupa
'The man is punishing the boy. He is beating him with a stick'.
In (13) above, kgwatisa and otla thought different in structure, both mean to 'beat'. Kgwatisa in English means to punish and to punish in English does not necessarily mean to beat but in Tswana the only known way of punishment is to beat and that is why Mostwana will always say that ya mosimane ke e nkgwe meaning 'a boy should be
beaten'.
The following examples explain synonym without identity of reference
(14) "Fa ke mo tshwara letsogo A re, 'se nkame!'
Fa ke motshwara leoto A re, 'se nkame!'
Mme fa ke tshwara dibaga lothekeng o dira e kete ga utlwe".
(Monyaise, 1991 :92)
' If I hold her hand She says, "Don't touch!" If I hold her foot
She says, "Don't touch!"
But when I hold her waist beads She pretend not to know'.
(Achebe, 1986 :85)
(15) Moropa wa boela wa lela, le phala ya lela (Monyaise, 1991 : 69)
'The drum sounded again and the flute blew'.
(Achebe, 1986 : 64)
Letsogo 'hand' , leoto 'foot' and letheka 'waist' in example (14) are parts of the body and moropa 'drum' and phala 'flute' in example (15) are musical instruments therefore they are variants of synonym.
2.5.3 COLLOCATON
Collocation is defined by Liber (1979:144) as:
The relationship that holds between lexical items that regularly co-occur.
This relationship occurs between two or more words such as antonym; i.e. words of
contrary meaning e.g. mosesane/mokima 'thin/fat' and opposition; i.e. to be different from or to be in opposite positions which won't meet or reconcile, e.g.
botlhaba/bophiriam 'east/west'. It is very difficult to tell the difference between antonym and opposition because they both display antagonism.
"Collocation is lexical cohesion which does not depend on any generals semantic
relationship but on a particular association between the items in question - a tendency to co-occur." Halliday (1994 :333).
For example :
(16) Ka malatsi le masigo a one ya tsorotla ka makgophola, ya gogola mekoanyana e makwejama a neng a tsentswe mo go yone.
(Monyaise, 1991:17)
'For days and nights together it poured down in violent torrents and washed away the yam heaps'.
( Achebe, 1986 : 17)
(17) Ke ka fa o itsileng ka teng gore tharimpeng ga se fela mosadi, go ka tewa le monna yo o
sa gapang tlota.
(Monyaise, 1991 :9)
"That was how Okonkwo first came to know that agbala was not only another name for a woman, it could also mean a man who had taken no title'.
(Achebe, 1986 :10)
In examples 16 and 17 above, malatsi 'days', masigo 'nights' and mosadi 'woman' and monna 'man' are forms of collocation. They associate with each other because they are opposites. Days won't be there without nights and women won't be fulfilled without men. Therefore this association is a tendency of co-occurrence which is referred to by Lieber (1979) and Halliday (1994) as collocation.
2.6. SUBSTITUTION
Halliday (1994:317) explains a substitute as a place- holding device, showing where something has been omitted and what its grammatical function would be.
Halliday distinguishes three categories of substitution in English as verbal, clausal, and nominal. These categories are also applicable in Tswana.
2.6.1 Verbal Substitution
In Tswana examples are -dira jalo and a go nne jalo. Examples in English are 'do', 'be',
'have', 'do so', 'be so' and 'do the same'.
(18) Ba ne ba sa gopola go ka nna jalo. (Monyaise, 1991 :115)
'They had not thought about that'.
(19) Dira jalo go nkgopola.
'Do so in remembrance of me'.
According to Hallidday (1994:321) substitution is the verbal group is by means of the verb 'do', which can substitute for any verb provided it is active not passive, except 'be' or, in some context, 'have'. In example 18 and 19 nna jalo 'be so' and dira jalo 'do so' are verbal substitutions. The verb 'do' substitutes go nkgopola 'remebrance of me'.
2.6.2 Clausal Substitution
Tswana examples of clausal substitution are, le fa go ntse jalo and -bua jalo. English examples are, 'so' and 'not'. They can be used with other words like 'even so', 'if not', 'if
so', etc.
For example:
(20) Monna yo no ke sebodu, ga abtale go dira. O bua jalo gonne tsotlhe di go siametse.
'This man is lazy, he does not want to work. You say so because all is well with you'.
-bua jalo 'say so'
2.6.3 Nominal Substitution
A Tswana examples is - ngwe; English examples are 'one', 'ones', 'the same' and 'so'
(21) "Ga a a re sepe", ga araba mongwe wa makawana a ga Obierika.
(Monyaise, 1991 :109)
Obirieka's companions'.
(Achebe, 1986 :100)
monngwe 'one' or 'someone'
2.7 CONJUNCTIONS
Conjunctions are relationa l entities, they are like textual prepositions in that they signal relationships of textual constituents to each other on a textual level. Conjunctions, however, always point outside the clause itself. They link two or more clauses together. According to the study by Halliday and Hassan (1976) conjunctions are not used very often as cohesive devices in texts. They put conjunctions into four semantic categories, namely adversatives, causals, temporals and additives.
Conjunctions belong to the major rod categories in Tswana. There are eight word categories in Tswana according to modern classifications. These are :-
A. substantives 1. Nouns
2. Pronouns.
B. Predicatives 3. Verbs
C. Morphological Heterogeneous Words 4. Adverbs 5. Particles 6. Conjunctions
D. Phonological Paranormal Words 7. Ideophones 8. Interjections
Conjunctions enhance cohesion in a test by means of avoiding redundancy, tautology and unnecessary repetition.
2.7.1 Word groups used at temporal "Conjunctions"
Examples of Tswana word groups include words like morago, pele, nako and bokhutlong, which are normally used with particle word like kwa, ka and ga.
(22) O ne a file mmaagwe diroto tsa merogo di le supa gore a o apee mme kwa morago ga tswa diroto di le tharo fela.
(Monyaise, 1991 :65)
'He gave his mother seven baskets of vegetables to cook and in the end there were only three'.
(Achebe, 1986 : 60) kwa morago 'thereafter'
(23) Bontsi jwa meletlo ya motse bo ne bo tshwarwa ka nako eo ya letsatsi, mo le fa go neng go ka twe moletlo o tla simolola "morago ga dijo tsa sethoboloko" mongwe le mongwe a itse gore o tla simolola nako eo e sa bolo go feta, fa mogote wa letsatsi o fedile bogale.
(Monyaise, 1991 : 68)
' Most communal ceremonies took place at that time of the day, so that even when it was said that a ceremony would begin 'after the midday meal' everyone understood.
that it would begin a long time later, when the sun's heat had softened'.
(Achebe, 1986 :63)
ka nako eo ' at that time'
morago ga dijo tsa sethoboloko ' after the midday meal'
2.7.2 Word group or conjunctive words used as clausal "conjunctions"
Tswana examples are gonne, ka jalo and ka gore.
(24) A bidiwa Katse gonne o ne a ise a ke a usediwe ke ope fa fatshe ka mokwatla.
(Mopyaise, 1991 :1)
'He was called the cat because his back would never touch the earth'.
(Achebe, 1986 :3)
gonne 'because'
(25) Ka jalo Ikemefuna a nna dingwaga di le that mo lwapeng lwa ga Okonkwo.
(Monyaise, 1991 : 8)
'And so far three years Ikemefuna lived in Okonkwo's household'.
(Achebe, 1986 : 9)
2.7.3 Word groups used as Adversative "conjunctions"
Examples are the adverb fela and the basic conjunction mme. They mean 'but' in English.
(26) Fa ele majakane one, go se gone gore o ka a bolaya mme wa se lelekwe mo kgorong, gonne le fa a ne a se mosola ope, ane a sa le ditokololo tsa kgoro.
( Monyaise, 1991 : 122)
'As for his concerts, no one could kills them without having to flee from
the clan, for in spite of their worthlessness they still belonged to the clan'.
( Achebe, 1986 :112) (27) Ke lapile fela ke tshwanetse go tsamaya.
' I ama tired but I have to go'.
2.7.4 The connective particle word 'le' used as an Additive "conjunction"
(28) Batho faba bolela ba re fa a robetse, bomogatse le bana ba mo utlea a gona ba le mo matlwaneng a a kwa motsheo.
( Monyaise, 1991 :1)
' It was said that, when he slept, his wives and children in their out-house could hear him breathe'.
(Achebe, 1986 :3)
2.8 CONCLUSION
The five cohesive ties namely , reference, ellipsis, lexical cohesion, substitution and
conjunction which were initially introduced in chapter one have been outlined, described
and superficially discussed in chapter. Cohesive ties have the ability to function in different ways, e.g. anaphorically, cataphorically and or exophorically. Anaphorically means pointing back in the text, cataphorically means pointing forward in a text and exophoric means an item referring to a situation outside of language. Reference is established by emphatic pronouns, demonstrative pronouns and comparative words.
Ellipsis and substitution are subdivided into verbal, clausal and nominal groups. Lexical cohesion realise in three forms, which are repetition, synonym and collocation. Repetition
is the most used lexical cohesive form. The others are synonym and collocation. Conjunctions are divided into adversatives, causals, temporals and additives. The
conjunctions are one of the major word categories in Tswana. These cohesive ties will be discussed in depth in the following chapters i.e. each chapter will concentrate on a single cohesive tie.
CHAPTER 3 : REFERENCE
3.1 INTRODUCTION
Reference is a relationship that’s id displayed between words in a sentence or a paragraph. This relationship occurs when an antecedent is later referred to in the test. Reference can be expressed anaphorically, cataphorically or even exophorically.
According to Cornish (1986:34) "reference is clearly a communicative function which is performed by speaker/writes in co-operation with their addressees, in terms of both some presupposed discourse context some specific, wider communicative goal."
Consider the following Tswana example :
(29) "O bona lobota lole," a supa kwa motsheo mo loboteng lo lo dutsweng ka mmu …
(Monyaise, 1991 :4)
'Look at that wall, he said, pointing at the far wall of his hut, which was rubbed with read earth so that it shone'
(Achebe, 1986 :6)
the example above demonstrate what Cornish means by reference. The speaker is showing his addressee lobota the 'wall' which is there yonder, lole.
Lyons (1969:404) comments on reference as follows :
The relationship which holds between
words and things is the relationship of reference : words refer to things.
Example (29) above substantiates Lyons's definition. The word and things in this instance are lobota 'wall' and lole 'that yonder' which the speaker is talking about. Lyons further explains that expressions do not refer. Instead it is the speaker who refers by using appropriate expressions. The speaker uses lole to refer to lobota. Without using lole, lobota would mean 'any wall;' but the reference lole distinguishes lobota from all other walls.
With reference to cohesion, Lyons (1986) brings into the picture the phenomenon of 'sticking to the point'. He says that sticking to the point or point continuity means that a pronoun will always refer to the topic/subject initially introduced into the discourse so that it could be traced through the revolving text.
Baumann and Stevenson (1981 :11) say :
Reference occurs when the antecedent and the anaphoric term co-refer to exactly the same idea, although their grammatical functions may differ.
The following example illustrates this :
(30) Mosadi yo mogolo wa ga Okonkwo o tlhokomela bana. Basadi ba bannye ba apaa. Yo mogolo o kaiwa a le botlhale.
'Okonkwo's big wife takes care of the children. The young wives are responsible for cooking. The big wife is regarded as wise'.
The noun ,mosadi 'woman' in the example (30) is an antecedent. The adjective yo mogolo 'big' refers to mosadi 'woman'. Therefore yo mogolo and mosadi co-refer.
(31) Ba tlhoma fa fatshe, mesifa ya kamalala mo mabogong, mo mekwatleng le mo
diropeng - e kete fa motho a ka reetsa sentle o ka utlwa go thwanya ga yone taologa
go fitlha e kgaoga.
(Monyaise, 1991 :1)
'Every nerve and every muscles stood out on their arms, on their back and their thighs, and one almost heard them stretching
to breaking point'.
( Achebe, 1986 :3)
In the example above mesifa 'muscles' and yone 'them', co-refer. They are co-referential because they refer to the same idea of 'breaking muscles'.
Reference according to Halliday (1994 :312 -316) includes simple emphatic pronouns
'he', 'she' and 'they' and demonstrative nouns 'this/that' and 'these/those'.
For example:
Emphatic pronoun
(32) Komosasa a hulara, ena le masole ale mararo kgotsa a le mane.
( Monyaise, 1991 :165)
'The commissioner went away, taking three or four of the soldiers with him'.
Demonstrative pronoun
(33) Ka yone nako eo go lela ga meroap ga utlwala. (Monyaise, 1991 :32)
'Just then the distant beating of drums began to reach them'
(Achebe, 1986 :30)
these referential ties can identity a person or a thing anaphorically or cataphorically in a test. Ena 'he' in (32) used anaphorically to fere to Komosasa. The use of this emphatic pronoun emphasizes the fact that it is referring to the antecedent initially introduced in the text. Eo in (33) indicates that meropa 'drums' started playing at a particular time and not just at any other time.
3.2 ANAPHORIC REFERENCE
Many scholars agree that anaphora forms an integral part of cohesion in a text and to exemplify this a few views are given.
Cornish (1986:34) states that :
Anaphora is one means of constructing,
maintaining or changing a domain of reference within a developing discourse model.
Baumann and Stevenson (1981 :10) say :
Anaphora are linguistic devices which
of two concepts, languages relationships in which a word or phrase is used in place of another word or phrase which has been introduced
In this definition, three important elements are identified:
(i) The referent or antecedent, i.e. the first coreferential concept which is later referred to by a second coreferent;
(ii) The reference item, i.e. the second coreferential item which refers back to the first idea already mentioned and.
(iii) The relationship between the two, i.e. the antecedent and the reference item.
For example
(34) Amalinze e ne e le mokampani yo mogolo go tloga mo Umuofia go fitlha kwa Mbaino. Ka dingwaga di supa, a huparela mokgele wa bomampodi, go se yo kgonang go mo menola. A bidiwa Katse gonne o ne a ise ke a usediwe ke ope fa fatche ka mokwatla.
E le ena yo Okonkwo o neng a mo menola mo ntweng e monnamogolo mongwe o neng a aga a bolela e le nngwe ya dintswa tse di boitshegang
(Monyaise, 1991 : 1)
Amalinze was the great wrestler who for seven years was unbeaten, from
Umuofia to Mbaino. He was called the Cat because his back would never touch the earth. It was this man that Okonkwo threw in a fight which the old men agreed
was one of the fiercest '.
(Achebe, 1986 :3)
the referent/antecedent in the example above is Amalinze and the reference item is ena which shows an anaphoric relationship by referring back to Amalinze the referent.
Halliday writes, 'anaphoric items are inherently 'given' in the sense that their
interpretation depends on identification within the preceding text." Gutwinski (1976 :61).
In example (34), if ena 'he' were just given without us being introduced to Amalinze before, it could refer to any other person the reader/listener would think about. Therefore the interpretation of ena 'he' depends on the preceding text.
Gutwinski (1976 :66) states that :
Anaphora is an item which refers back to something else in the same text.
Referring back to example (31), yone 'them' is used anaphorically because it refers back to mesifa 'muscles', which was already introduced in the text. This anaphorical item bring about cohesion in the text. The reader/listener can easily understand that yone refers to the same muscles mefisa. Whereas if mesifa were repeated, it would appear as if the second mesifa was referring to something else, not the ones mentioned earlier, and that would cause misconception.
3.3 CATAPHORIC REFERENCE
Cataphoric is another type of coreferential relationship. Like anaphora, cataphora involves a cohesive tie between two concepts but, in cataphoric relationships, the reference term precedes the referent or antecedent.
Gutwinski (1976 :67) says :
Cataphoric - an item refers to something coming along in the text.
Fine (1978 :251) says :
Cataphoric bonds are relations in a text that direct the hearer to coming elements of the
text for the information needed to interpret an element.
Cataphora may be seen as a complement to anaphora. While anaphora refers back and is cohesive, cataphora refers forward and is non-cohesive.
For example :
(35) 'Wena' a bua le Ikemefuna, 'a ga lo leme makwejama kwa o tswana gone ?'
(Monyaise, 1991 :24)
'And you, ' he said to Ikemefuna,
do you not grow yams where you come from ?'
The referent item wena ‘you’ which is an emphatic pronoun in this case, is used cataphorically as it precedes the antecedent Ikemefuna. In this example, as a rte occurrence, the cataphoric item is cohesive.
3.4 PRONOUNS
Pronouns are independent words and according to Cole (1979: 128), they may stand along as subjects or objects in a sentence but sometimes may precede a noun or other pronoun. Pronouns provide a point of contact or linkage wit earlier discourse. They can therefore be used anaphorically or cataphorically in a text.
According to Jocobsen (1977: 419) statement is not always true. It is noticeable in example (34) that the pronoun ena ‘he’ does no appear within the same sentence as the antecedent Amalinze but appears within the same paragraph. What is true about the statement is that an antecedent has to appear first in the text so that when the pronoun takes its position, i.e. the position of the referent, the reader should still be in a position to follow what is being communicated. This shows that pronouns provide a point of contact or linkage with earlier discourse, as already mentioned.
Halliday (1994: 312-316) distinguishes three subtypes i.e. personal, demonstrative and comparative pronouns. Cole (1979: 127) distinguishes three main type so pronouns in Tswana as absolute, demonstrative and qualificative. The following demonstrates Cole’s pronoun.
(i) Absolute pronouns e.g Singular Plural 1st person nna rona
2nd person wena lona 3rd person sone tsone
(ii) Demonstrative pronouns e.g this or these
Singular Plural
(Class 7) se (Class 8) tse
that or those
seo tseo
this here
seno tseno
(iii) Qualificative pronouns -: These are sub-divided by Cole # (1979: 135) into 5 categories namely, relative,
adjectival, enumerative, quantitative and possessive qualificative pronouns.
For the purpose of this chapter we shall consider Halliday’s classification, namely
emphatic pronoun, demonstrative pronoun and the comparative pronouns.
3.4.1 Emphatic pronouns
Emphatic pronouns are words used to refer to the speaker “I” and ‘me’, the person spoken to ‘you’ and the other persons and things whose referents are presumed to be clear from the context ‘he’, ‘him’, ‘she’, ‘her’ and ‘it’.
Gutwinski (1976: 68) indicates that only the third person pronouns and their inflectional forms ‘him’, ‘her’ and ‘they’ may function anaphorically while the first and second person pronouns normally do not function anaphorically although there are contexts in which they could be considered anaphoric.
O neng o beotswe ka ditemana
(Monyaise, 1991: 28)
‘The children were also decorated, especially their hair, which was shaved in beautiful patterns’.
(Achebe, 1986: 27)
Bone ‘they’ third person in (36) is a pronoun used anaphorically to refer to the antecedent bana ‘children’.
3.4.2 Demonstrative Pronouns
Demonstrative reference items, according to Halliday 91994: 313) include ‘this’ and ‘that’ and their plural forms ‘these’ and ‘those’, the definite article ‘the’, and adverbs of time and place ‘here’, ‘now’, ‘there’ and ‘then’. Demonstratives may also function anaphorically or exophorically. (NB. Articles like the definite ‘the’ and the infinite ’a’ do not occur in Tswana). In Chapter 2, (2.2) it has been stated that Tswana has three basic spatial demonstratives. For instance Class 10 tse ‘closer to the speaker that to the
hearer’, tseo ‘further away from the speaker but closer to the hearer’ and tsele which is
‘distant form both the speaker and the hearer’.
Halliday (1994: 313) says:
The basic sense of ‘this’ and ‘that’ is one of proximity; this refers to something as being
‘near’, that refers to something as being ‘not near’.
(37) Ke mang yo o bolaileng setlhare seno? (Monyaise, 1991: 28) ‘Who killed this tree?’
Seno ‘this’ in (37) shows that the speaker is next to the tree he is referring to. It is also used anaphorically as it points backwards to the tree, i.e. setlhare sefe? Seno ‘which
tree? This’, therefore cohesion is clearly indicated. An exophoric function according to
Gutwinski (1976: 69) means an item refers to a situation outside of language. An exophoric relation can also be accompanied by gestures.
The following example illustrates what is implied above.
(37) Ke bua ka mosadi yo, ayo o ratang go seba.
‘I am talking about this woman who likes gossiping’.
The relation is existence in example (38) above is that of exophora. The speaker and the addressee are both outside the language and the person referred to is neither within sight nor reach.
Gutwinski discussed other phoric relations, e.g.
Paraphoric – an item refers to something in another text, e.g. another work of art expected to be knows and related to the text at hand in any special way.
(Gutwinski, 1976: 67)
and
Homophoric – an item referring to one’s general knowledge. The reference is cultural.
3.5 Comparative words
Comparative reference devices include any adjectives or word groups or adverbs expressing comparison, i.e. similarity or difference or equality.
(39) Mosese wa me o tshwana le wa gago. ‘My dress is the same as yours’.
The comparative word group o tshwana le ’the same’ as in (39) is used cataphorically because it precedes what is being compared.
Other comparative forms function as conjunctive links, for example:
(40) Lentswe la sega lefifi la bosigo Jaaka thipa e le bogale.
(Monyaise, 1991, 78)
‘The voice then cut the darkness of the
Night like a sharp knife’.
(Achebe, 1986;71)
Jaaka ‘like’( a comparative particle) in (40) is joining two parts of the sentence together. Without this comparative form he sentence would read awkwardly.
3.6 CONCLUSION
Reference is a relationship of communication. It occurs when an antecedent, e.g. a noun is referred to later in the text. The antecedent can be a person or a thin; therefore it should first be introduced into the discourse and it will be traced back throughout the entire text. The noun, the word, clause or phrase may be used together with the pronoun or the pronoun may be used without them as it is an independent word.
CHAPTER 4 : ELLIPSIS
4.1 INTRODUCTION
Ellipsis is a form of substitution whereby omissions can be made in a sentence or passage regarding a noun, or a verb as well as a clause. In Tswana ellipsis occurs in both spoken and written languages. In spoken language it is often used in poetic an idiomatic
language. Different authors have subdivided ellipsis into three subtypes, namely;
nominal, verbal and clausal categories.
Different authors explain ellipsis differently:
Harley (1982: 178) maintains that:
Ellipsis involves the total deletion of an element.
For example:
(41) Pule o tsamaya ka boLabobedi, Mosidi ka boLabone. ‘Pule goes on Tuesdays, Mosidi on Thursdays’.
The verb o tsamaya ‘goes’ is deleted in the second part of the sentence but the reader or the listener will still understand that Tony goes on Thursdays.
Halliday (1994: 316) on the other hand, says:
Ellipsis is where we presuppose something by means of what is left out.
(42) Why didn’t you give him a sweet? - I hadn’t got any.
In the example above ‘any’ implies the sweet referred to in the question. To avoid repetition, the word sweet is omitted but for one to understand what ‘any’ refers to, one has to look into the preceding text and supply the word sweet in order to make sense of the answer.
Halliday’s implication of presupposing something by what is left out is also evident in the following example.
(43) Tsamaya o ye go bona gore a rraago o ntshitse makwejana a maitsiboa. ‘O a ntshitse’.
(Monyaise, 1991: 32) ‘Go and see if your father has brought
out yams for the afternoon’. ‘He has’.
(Achebe, 1986:30)
In (43) above, two nouns are left our, ie. makwejama ‘yams’ and rraago ‘your father’. In o a ntshitse ‘ he has brought it out’, the subject morpheme o refers to rraago and the object morpheme a to makwejama.
According to Halliday ellipsis results in a lexicogrammatical relationship, a relationship which is concerned with words in a sentence rather that the meaning thereof.
Halliday and Hasan (1976: 14) also define ellipsis as a form of substitution by zero.
(44) Le nna ke tla duela melato e megolo, pele ga
ø
e mennye.(Monyaise, 1991: 4) ‘I shall pay my big debts first’.
(Achebe, 1986: 6)
(45) Mewa ya bana ba ba siameng e le mo setlhareng seo,
ø
e letile go tsalwa.(Monyaise, 1991: 35) ‘Spirits of good children lived in that tree
waiting to be born’.
(Achebe, 1986: 33)
In examples (44) and (45) melato ‘debts’ and mewa ya bana ba ba siameng ‘spirits of
good children’ in e mennye ‘small ones’ and e letile go tsalwa ‘waiting to be born’
respectively have been omitted. Their omission is indicated y the presupposed items by zero
ø
. Pele gaø
e mennye andø
e letile go tsalwa on their own cannot make any sense; hence reference to the preceding text where the omitted antecedents are found isimportant.
Ranamane and Le Roux (1997: 76) state:
Ellipsis refers to a deletion of a lexical Items in a sentence or passage. Its deletion Presupposed that its meaning can be captured from the preceding text. Therefore it implies that It is used as anaphoric cohesion.
Looking at the given example, Ranamane’s and Le Roux’s definition is explained.
gago kgotsa mo go wa gagwe?’ ga botsa monna wa ngaka.
(Monyaise, 1991: 60) ‘Where do you sleep with your wife,
in your hut or in her own hut?’ asked the medicine-man’.
(Achebe, 1986: 56)
In example (46) above the omitted lexical items in mo go wa gagwe ‘in hers’ is the noun motlaagana ‘hut’. To capture the meaning of what mo go wa gagwe ‘ in hers’ is, you have to ask the question mo go eng wa gagwe ‘in her what’ then the answer will be motlaagana ‘hut’. This means you have to refer back to the preceding text in order to find he meaning, and that establishes anaphoric cohesion.
The three subcategories of ellipsis, namely nominal, verbal and clausal are briefly examined individually.
4.2 NOMINAL ELLIPSIS
According to Lieber (1979: 123) nominal ellipsis presupposes a noun phrase. The omitted element will be the head noun, plus any modifying items from the presuppose phrase which can follow the head of the elliptical phrase.
The definition by Lieber is used in chapter two to explain the example from Monyaise (1991:103)
(47) ‘Ke banna ba bakae ba ba go etetseng go tloga fa kgaitsadiake a re o batla go go nyala?’ “Ga go ope ,“ a araba ka bokhutshwane.
(Monyaise, 1991: 103)
‘How many men have lain with you since
‘None, ‘ she replied simply’.
(Achebe, 1986: 95)
The example supports what Lieber is saying because the head noun banna ‘men’ and all the succeeding items qualifying it, i.e. ba ba kae ‘how many’ are omitted in the given answer ga go ope ‘ none’.
4.3 VERBAL ELLIPSIS
Verbal ellipsis occurs when there is omission of all or part of a verb phrase. This kind of ellipsis occurs more often in dialogues.
(48) “O epetse kae sebusetsateng sa gago?” “Kwa ba bolokang bana gone, “
a araba.
(Monyaise, 1991: 63) ‘Where did you bury your iyi-uwa?’
‘Where they bury children,’ she replied’.
(Achebe, 1986: 58)
The verb o epetse ‘bury’ is omitted in the example. The response kwa ba bolokang bana gone ‘where they bury the children’ ke se epetse ‘ I have buried’ has been left our which could have read ke se epetse kwa ba bolokang bana gone ‘ I have buried it where they
bury children’.
4.4 CLAUSAL ELLIPSIS
Clausal ellipsis ocurs in a question-anwer process in a dialogue. Accoridng to Halliday (1994) two types of clausal ellipsis are distinguished, i.e. the yes/no ellipsis and he WH-
ellipsis. Both kinds of clausal ellipsis allow for substitution. In Tswana this kind of
ellipsis is also evident.
The yes/no ellipsis can be explained in two ways, i.e. they yes/ no involving the whole
clause and the yes/ no involving part of the clause.
Yes/No
(i) Yes/No = the whole clause
(49) “A o ne a swa?” go botsa Ezinma. “Nnyaa,” ga araba Ekwefi.
(Monyaise, 1991: 77) ‘Did he die?’asked Ezinma.
‘No, ‘replied Ekwefi’.
(Achebe, 1986: 71)
The answer nnyaa ‘no’ involves the whole clause. The complete and rhetoric answer could have been
“Nnyaa, ga a a ka a swa”
‘No, he didn’t die’.
To enable the reader/listener to be absorbed in what is being said or read, omission must take place. The reader has to go back to the preceding text to capture the meaning of nnyaa ‘no’ and this promotes anaphoric cohesion.
(ii) Yes/No ellipsis = part of the clause
(50) “A ga oa utlwa jaaka monna yo mosweu a gaitse Abame?” ga botsa Obierika.
“Ke utlwile,” Okonkwo a fetola”.
(Monyaise, 1991: 138)
“Have you not heard how the white man wiped out Abame?’
asked Obierika.
‘I have heard, ‘ said Okonkwo”.
(Achebe, 1986: 126)
The answer ke utlwile ‘I have hard’ indicates that not the whole clause is omitted but only prt thereof because o a utlwa is repeated in the answer, ke utlwile.
WH- ellipsis
The kinds of WH-ellipssis are distinguished, i.e.
(i) The WH- sequence whereby he entire clause is omitted except for the WH-element:
(51) ‘Ke banna ba le bakae ba ba go etetseng go tloga fa kgaitsadiake a re o batla go go nyala?’
‘Ga go ope’.
(Monyaise, 1991: 103)
‘How many men have lain with you since
my brother first expressed the desire to marry you?’ ‘None’.
(Achebe, 1986: 95)
This means ga go ope is the WH-element and the rest of the clause ‘wa banna yo o nketetseng go tloga fa kgaitsedio are o batla go go nnyala ‘none (of the men has lain
with me since your brother first expressed the desire to marry me’) is left our.
Ba jele eng?
‘What did they eat? - Food (They ate food)’
(ii) The WH- sequence whereby only part of the clause is omitted e.g.
Ba dira jalo?
- Bo mang (ba dira jalo)
‘They do like that? - Who (does like that)’
Bo mang ‘who’ refers to ba ‘ they’ which is part of the clause, so it means ba is included in bo mang.
4.5 CONCLUSION
Ellipsis involves omission. A noun, a verb phrase or a clause can be completely deleted; hence the three categories of ellipsis are nominal, verbal and clausal. The dele tion of an element encourages one to refer backward in the text; therefore ellipsis also functions anaphorically and it avoids repetition. In nominal ellipsis the omitted element is usually the head noun. The verbal ellipsis omits all or part of the verb phrase while clausal ellipsis occurs in a question and answer process where the answer is only ‘yes’ or ‘no’ instead of first repeating the question and then giving the answer. In such a process, omission can include the whole clause or part of the clause.
CHAPTER 5: SUBSTITUTION
5.1 INSTRODUCTION
Substitution occurs when one linguistic item replace another and adds some information which contrasts with the original ‘antecedent’ idea, e.g.
(52) ‘Baesekele ya me e tsofetse. Ke batla e ntšha’.
‘My bicycle is old. I want a new one’.
E ntšha ‘a new one’ replaces baesekele ‘bicycle’ and also contrasts with tsofetse ‘old’.
Substation also establishes a cohesive bond by supplying an item of the same
grammatical class as the item necessary for interpretation, therefore it is seen as a more pure grammatical relationship. Substitution occurs on nominal, verbal and clausal levels.
Halliday (1994: 317) states that:
The substitute serves as a place –holding device,
Showing where something has been omitted and what its grammatical function would be.
Substitution, just like ellipsis, sets up a relationship at a lexicogrammatical level. Halliday (1994: 322) says that with substitution, the implication is:
Go back and retrieve the missing words.
To clarify Halliday’s definition consider the following example.
(53) Kuane ya gago e kae? Where is your hat?
- Ga ke e bone - I can’t find it. - Tsaya e. - Take this one.
In (53) the answer ga ke e bone ‘I can’t find it’ will only make sense when one goes back to the preceding text and retrieves the missing word kuane ’hat’. If the sentence just started with ga ke e bone , the listener/reader will be confused because there is no point of reference. Now that kuane ‘hat’ was mentioned at the beginning of the sentence, for the answer ga ke e bone ‘ I can’t find it’ to make sense, one has to go back and retrieve the missing word which in this instance will be kuane ‘hat’. The example illustrates that substitution is confined to the immediately preceding clause, unlike reference, which may extend over a long passage as was shown in Chapter 2 (2.1)
The following example also shows that the proximity within which substitution occurs, is very close.
(54) Ke feletswe ke lentswe . I’ve lost my voice.
- Batla le lengwe - Get a new one.
In the above example, the response batla le lengwe ‘get a new one’ follows immediately after the speaker has mentioned that he has lost his voice. Therefore the answer le lengwe
‘ a new one’ is very close to the statement in space and in tike and tat is what proximity
means. This example also shows that substitution occurs mostly in dialogues.
Halliday (1994: 322) wraps up:
In ellipses-substitution the typical meaning is not one of Co-reference. There is always some significant difference Between the second instance and the first
(between presupposing item and presupposed).
Substitution is subdivided into three groups in English according to their grammatical functions. This division is also applicable in Tswana. The three types of substitution are substitution of the nominal group, substitution of the verbal group and substitution of the clause.
5.2 NOMINAL SUBSTITUTION
The nominal substitutes in Tswana are ope /bape , epe /dipe, sepe and –nngwe may take prefixes such as mo-, di-, se-, to form mongwe , bangwe , dingwe , sengwe , without English meaning of ‘one/ones’, ‘the same’, ‘ the opposite’ and ‘so’. They function as substitutes for the head noun of a Noun Phrase (NP). Modifiers of the head noun may be carried over in the presupposition while the substitute may be accompanied by some defining modifiers, e.g. ‘this one’, ‘some new ones’ and ‘the one you asked for’.
(55) Re lotletlele kgang. Ga ke itse epe .
‘Tell us a story’. ‘I don’t know one’.
Kgang ‘story’ in (55), which is the noun, is substituted by epe ‘one’. As Halliday has explains, for one to understand what ‘one’ refers to, one should go back and retrieve the missing word. In this example, kgang ‘story’ has to be retrieved in order to understand what epe ‘one’ means.
In English the nominal ‘one’ should not be confused with the non-presupposed pronoun meaning ‘person’ as in ‘one should notice’, the numeral as in ‘there is only one piece of
meant in the pot’, and the equivalent to the indefinite article as in ‘I need a sweet. Do you have one?’
5.3 VERBAL SUBSTITUTION
Verbal substitution involves dira ‘do’ and its inflected forms, e.g. dira jalo and dira jang. In English the inflected forms will be ‘do it’ do so’ and ‘do that/this’. ‘Do’ presupposed the head of a Verb Phrase (VP) being it the main verb, the lexical verb or any complement structure present.
Lieber(1979: 119) says:
The verb replaced by a substitute my be an infinitive Complement of another, non-presupposed verb:
For example:
(56) Are ke baakanye radio mme ga ke itse gore ke dire jang.
‘He says I must fix the radio and I don’t know how to do it’.
In (56) instead of the answer being ga ke itse gore ke e baakanye jang ‘ I don’t know
how to fix it’, only dira jang ‘do it’ is used to sbstitute baakanya ‘fix’.
The inflected forms, ie. ‘do so’, ‘do it’, etc. according to Halliday and Hassan (1976:125), contain what they call a “pro- verb” which stands for “any unspecified process” plus a reference item. This combination is referred to as a verbal substitute because of its grammatical function or replacing the whole verbal structure and not just a specified item.
(57) Ga o ise o je. Dira jalo. ‘You have not eaten. Do so.’
Dira jalo ‘do so’ replaces the whole verbal structure because nothing which is said in the preceding sentence is implied by the verb, dira ‘do’.
5.4 CLAUSAL SUBSTITUTION
The clausal substitute refers to ‘so’ and ‘not’ which may occur in reported speech and conditional clauses.
Ø Reported speech
(58) Ao botlhale?
Ke akanya jalo/ga ke akanye jalo. ‘Is he clever?’
‘I think so/I think not’.
Ø Conditional claus e
(59) Pula e ka tsoga ena.
Ga go le jalo/se jalo ke tla busetsa leeto morago ‘it may still rain tomorrow.
‘If so/not I will have to cancel the trip’.
5.5 CONCLSION
Substitution implies the replacement of a linguistic item. Substitution is categorized into
nominal, verbal and clausal substitution. Substitution operates within close proximity,
i.e. within a preceding clause. A nominal substitute replaces the head noun of a Noun Phrase. A verbal substitute replaces the Verbal Phrase while a clausal substitute replaces the whole or part of the clause. The nominal substitute ’so’ differs from the clausal substitute ‘so’ because of the nature of the presupposed item. In nominal substitution all clausal elements are present except those presupposed by ‘so’.
CHAPTER 6: CONJUNCTIONS
6.1 INTRODUCTION
In Tswana it is difficult to identify conjunctives by their structure because
morphologically, conjunctives, except for a few examples, have no uniform or definite structure by means of which they may be recognized. Conjunctives serve as a link between sentences. Words which are identified as conjunctives, are words from miscellaneous word categories that function as conjunctives. Gutwinski, Halliday and Cole’s classifications of conjunctives will be examined.
Conjunctions are used to join or connect sentences or parts of sentences. The following scholars are aligning themselves with conjunctions being a type of connection.
Bauman and Stevenson (1981: 12) state:
Conjunction occurs when semantic connections
are made between two ideas, so that one’s understanding
of the second idea relates to one’s understanding of the first idea
Hubbard (1989: 93) explains:
Conjunctive cohesion is the only type of cohesion That consistently links the meanings of sentences or other textural units as wholes, expressing the way in which what is to follow is systematically connected to what has gone before.
For example:
(65) Unoka o ne a le madimabe. A na le modimoka o o bosula, mme bomadimabe jwa mo tsaya ka
motlhala go ya lebitleng –tota go ka twe, go ya losong –gonne o ne a se na lebitla.
(Monyaise, 1991: 12)
‘Unoka was an ill-fated man.
He had a bad chi or personal god,
And evil fortune followed him to the grave, Or rather to his death, for he had no grave’.
(Achebe, 1986: 13)
Mme ‘but’ connects the two sentences telling about Unoka’s ill fate and gonne ‘because’ joins the last two sentences explaining that Unoka didn’t have a grave.
Gutwinski calls conjunctives ‘connectors’ and he classified them as coordinating connectors and subordinate connectors. Cole classified the conjunctives in Tswana in three categories as non- influencing conjunctives, conjunctives followed by the participial mood and conjunctives followed by the subjunctive mood. Halliday and Hasan, classify English conjunctives as additives, adversatives, causals and temporals. These also fall into Gutwinski’s classification.
Although the different classifications of these scholars show similarities, Cole states that there are those conjunctions in Tswana which lack equivalents in English and express subtle shades or significance which are very difficult to indicate adequately in translation, e.g. abo and naa, which are interrogative in nature. This takes us back to the introduction where we stated that most conjunctives are words from miscellaneous word categories.
The preceding are the following clauses or sentences which are joined by a conjunction, do relate in meaning but not in structure and this the conjunction is not cohesive.
Conjunctive elements are cohesive not in themselves But indirectly, by virtue of their specific meanings; They are not primarily devices for reaching out The preceding (or following) text, but they express Certain meanings which presuppose the presence of other components in the discourse.
(66) Mo pelong, a ikotlhaya, mme e se monna yo o tsamayang a ray baagisani a re ke fositse. Ka jalo batho ba gopola gore ga a tlotle Medimoka ya kgoro
(Monyaise, 1991: 22)
‘But he was not the man to go about telling his neighbours that he was in error.
And so people said he had no respect for The gods of the clan’.
(Achebe, 1986: 22)
The two sentences/clauses above have no structural relationship but the one component gives meaning to the other because of the conjunctions, mme ‘but’ and ka jalo
‘therefore’.
6.2 Classification of conjunctions
The classifications used here are taken from three scholars namely Halliday, Gutwinski and Cole.
6.2.1 Halliday’s classifications of conjunctions
(i) Additives Negative : nor (e sere; e seng) Positive : and, also (gape ; le gone )
