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

The Pragmatic Functions of the Auxiliary Verbs za ‘come’ and ya ‘go’ in isiXhosa

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Stefan Savić
University of Zurich
Bio

Published 2026-03-31

Keywords

  • isiXhosa,
  • motion verbs,
  • grammaticalization,
  • focus,
  • coordination

Copyright (c) 2026 Stefan Savić

Creative Commons License

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

How to Cite

The Pragmatic Functions of the Auxiliary Verbs za ‘come’ and ya ‘go’ in isiXhosa. (2026). Nordic Journal of African Studies, 35(1), 289–315. https://doi.org/10.53228/btmh2s83

Abstract

This study focuses on the syntactic and pragmatic functions of the isiXhosa auxiliary verbs za ‘come’ and ya ‘go’ when followed by subjunctive or past consecutive lexical verbs. Analysis of the auxiliaries’ occurrence in a 60,000-word database reveals that both auxiliaries introduce new predicates into the discourse. Za links a new predicate to a discourse old predicate in coordinated clauses. By contrast, ya introduces new predicates involving discourse old constituents. The study presents new insights into the grammaticalization paths of itive and ventive semantics of verbs of movement within the area of information structure.

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