Animacy, objects and clitics in Sesotho

Abstract

In this paper a close look is taken at the object relation in Sesotho. The properties of word order, subjectivization, and cliticization are considered carefully as possible criteria for direct object status. The extreme importance of animacy in determining which argument(s) of a verb will receive direct object properties is demonstrated with respect to utterances with a benefactive and accusative object, as well as sentences with an affected possessor and a possessed (body) part. A refinement in the use of cliticization as a direct object criterion is proposed on the basis of the need to distinguish between different means by which a clitic object marker can come into being (pronominalization, left-dislocation, relativization, object-agreement). It is concluded that the direct object is as much a discouse notion as it is a grammatical notion in Sesotho, as it probably is in (Eastern) Bantu as a whole.

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