Converbs in Borana Language: A Syntactic and Semantic Analysis
Keywords:
Converbs, Aspects, Clause chaining, Foreground and BackgroundAbstract
This paper examines the function and role of converbs within the Borana language, a Cushitic language primarily spoken in Kenya and Ethiopia. Converbs are non-finite verbs that express an adverbial relation, such as temporal, cause, or manner, and are crucial for clause chaining and complex sentence formation. Though converbs are a feature in many Afro-Asiatic languages, no studies have been done on their syntactic and semantic functions in the Borana language. It investigates the morphological markers of converbs in Borana and discusses their syntactic structures and semantic functions in discourse. The data is elicited from interviews with native speakers, recorded narratives, and selected texts to provide a corpus for data analysis. Specific topics of inquiry will be the relationship between converbs and main clauses, the degree of clause dependency, and the pragmatic functions of converbs in storytelling and everyday communication.
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