Additive coordination, comitative adjunction, and associative plural in Tswana

Abstract

This paper discusses the contribution of Tswana (Bantu, S31) to the typology of coordination, in particular additive coordination, with an emphasis on the relationship between additive coordination, the expression of comitativity, and plural marking. Tswana has a strict distinction between the additive coordination of NPs, attributive adjectives, and clauses, but uses the same proclitic le lί‑ as an additive coordinator for NPs (‘and’), as an additive particle (‘also’), and as a comitative marker (‘with’). None of the constructions expressing the additive coordination of clauses lends itself to mechanisms of ellipsis comparable to those found in European languages. Inclusory additive coordination is of particular interest, since Tswana has a cross-linguistically rare type of inclusory additive coordination with the associative plural form of an individual name as the first coordinand, and the analysis of this construction suggests a possible etymology for the Tswana prefix of class 2a.

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