A functional interpretation of some agreement phenomena in Northern Sotho

Abstract

It is shown in this paper that agreement between nominals and verbs in Northern Sotho cannot be explained satisfactorily unless the discourse-pragmatic distinction between old and new information is taken into consideration. It is pointed out that only nominals which carry old discourse information may agree with verbs, while this may never happen in the case of nominals which carry new discourse information. Evidence which substantiates this claim is obtained, inter alia, from rules which govern agreement phenomena in interrogative structures. It is indicated that nominals which agree with verbs in such structures may never be questioned, since they always carry old or known information. On the other hand, nominals which lack agreement with verbs may be questioned, since the information which is carried by them is new.