Abstract

ANDRASON, Alexander  and  MATUTU, Haile. The syntax of interjections in isiXhosa: A a corpus-driven study. SPiL plus (Online) [online]. 2019, vol.58, pp.1-16. ISSN 2224-3380.  http://dx.doi.org/10.5842/58-0-833.

This paper examines the syntactic properties of interjections in isiXhosa and their compliance with the interjectional prototype and its extra-systematicity as postulated in linguistic typology. By reviewing nearly two thousand uses of interjections in the comic genre, the authors conclude the following: in its integrity, the category of interjections is internally complex and diversified, containing members with varying degrees of canonicity and extra-systematicity. Although in various uses interjections comply with the interjectional prototype, being thus extra-systematic, in many others, their canonicity and extra-systematicity are significantly lower.

Keywords : African languages; isiXhosa; interjections; syntax; comics; extra-systematicity.

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