Vol. 35 No. 1 (2026): NJAS Special Issue: Auxiliary Verb Constructions in Bantu Languages
Special Issue: Auxiliary Verb Constructions in Bantu

Auxiliary Verb Constructions and Decategorialization in Gĩkũyũ

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Jens Fleischhauer
Heinrich Heine University
Bio
Patrick Claudius Kihara
Chuka University
Bio

Published 2026-03-31

Keywords

  • auxiliaries,
  • grammaticalization,
  • bantu,
  • Gĩkũyũ,
  • light verbs

Copyright (c) 2026 Jens Fleischhauer, Patrick Claudius Kihara

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

How to Cite

Auxiliary Verb Constructions and Decategorialization in Gĩkũyũ. (2026). Nordic Journal of African Studies, 35(1), 43–74. https://doi.org/10.53228/h7g2x061

Abstract

Gĩkũyũ (E.51) exhibits several verbs that can be used both as lexical verbs and as auxiliary verbs. We compare the lexical and auxiliary usages of four verbs and show that all auxiliary verb usages display uniform restrictions concerning valency-related morphology (object marking, voice morphology). We interpret these as signs of decategorialization.

Furthermore, we compare the auxiliary verbs with other desemanticized verb usages – light verbs – and argue that they differ in that light verbs do not exhibit decategorialization (compared to the corresponding lexical verb). From this, we conclude that decategorialization is a valid criterion – at least in Gĩkũyũ – for distinguishing different types of desemanticized verbs.

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