A Morphological agreement in Xizronga

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.36517/ep16.97202

Keywords:

Xizronga, complex subject, morphological agreement

Abstract

This article discusses the applicability of morphological agreement in Xizronga. It aims to determine whether speakers of this Bantu language adopt this strategy in complex subject agreement whose nuclei are nouns of the same nominal class; to identify the nominal classes in which it is applicable; and to present the markers that are selected in the classes where it is blocked. This is a descriptive analysis, based on Marten (2000) on the concept of morphological agreement. The corpus analyzed was obtained through a structured questionnaire and interviews administered to 18 native speakers. In summary, the analyzed data allowed us to conclude that in Xizronga, morphological agreement is used in nominal classes 1 and 2 and classes 7 and 8. In the remaining classes, speakers select va- and svi- in the contexts of [+human] and [-human] nuclei, respectively. Thus, these results support Marten's (2000) thesis that in LB, morphological concordance is a rather unproductive strategy and does not fully fit.

Author Biography

  • Ernesto Dimande, Universidade Eduardo Mondlane

    Mestre em Linguística. Centro de Estudos Africanos, Universidade Eduardo Mondlane (UEM).

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Published

2026-06-24

How to Cite

A Morphological agreement in Xizronga. Entrepalavras, [S. l.], v. 16, p. e97202, 2026. DOI: 10.36517/ep16.97202. Disponível em: https://periodicos.ufc.br/entrepalavras/article/view/97202. Acesso em: 27 jun. 2026.