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In proceedings of Northwest Linguistics Conference 29,

University of British Columbia Working Papers in Linguistics 38,

Zoe Lam and Natalie Weber (eds.), 2014.

Tone assignment on Nata deverbal nouns*

Dayanqi Si

University of British Columbia

Abstract: This paper gives an overview of Nata deverbal nouns’ high tone positions.

Five types of deverbal nouns are discussed: (i) eventive deverbal nouns, (ii) agentive

deverbal nouns, (iii) passivized agentive deverbal nouns, (iv) instrumental deverbal nouns,

(v) passivized instrumental deverbal nouns. I compared the high tone position on

deverbal nouns with the high tone position on the verb stems from which they are derived.

Several patterns emerge: all of the verb stems, passivized and non-passivized, have a high

tone on the first syllable from the left edge; all of the infinitive forms of verbs, passivized

and non-passivized, and all of the non-passivized agentive and instrumental deverbal

nouns have a high tone on the second syllable from the left edge; all of the eventive

deverbal nouns have a high tone on the third syllable from the left edge; and all of the

passivized deverbal nouns have a high tone on either the second syllable or the third

syllable from the left edge.

1 Introduction

Nata is an endangered eastern Bantu language spoken in Tanzania and it is a tone language that

has one and only one high tone assigned to each prosodic word. This paper focuses on tone

assignment on Nata deverbal nouns. Both tone positions and tone locations will be discussed. I

use tone positions to refer to the syllable number counting from the left edge and I use tone

locations to refer to the exact element that the tone is on. For instance, the high tone position of

ku-h-a ‘to give’, C15-VROOT-FV, is the second syllable from the left edge and its tone location is

on the final vowel (FV).

The paper is constructed with six main sections: (1) introduction, (2) research method,

(3) Nata verbs, (4) Nata infinitive forms of verbs, (5) deverbal Nouns, (6) conclusion. The

following five types of deverbal nouns will be analyzed in detail: (i) eventive deverbal nouns,

(ii) agentive deverbal nouns, (iii) passivized agentive deverbal nouns, (iv) instrumental deverbal

nouns, (v) passivized instrumental deverbal nouns. Among the five types of deverbal nouns, there

are three non-passivized types, (i), (ii) and (iv), and two passivized types, (iii) and (v). That is to

say, their base forms include both non-passivized verbs and passivized verbs, which will be

presented in the section of Nata verbs.

2 Research method

All of the Nata data that are used in this paper were elicited from a single native Nata speaker,

Joash Gambarage, at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada. Elicitation sessions

were thirty-minute long and they were scheduled once a week for a period of six months. All of

* This research was the outgrowth of the UBC field methods courses held in 2012–2013 with J. Gambarage

as language consultant and R.-M. Déchaine as facilitator. Contact info: d.si@alumni.ubc.ca

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the elicited forms were written down on a whiteboard during the sessions as a form of feedback

between the language consultant and the elicitor. All of the forms were recorded after each

elicitation session.

3 Nata verbs

There are two relevant types of Nata verbs: a) non-passivized verbs and b) passivized verbs. The

template of non-passivized verbs is VROOT-FV and the template of passivized verbs is

VROOT-(FV)-PASS. Morphologically, they only differ in suffixal morphology.

3.1 Non-passivized verbs

The FV that non-passivized verbs take is mostly -a, which indicates active voice as in (1a)

and (1b). Some verbs are inherently causative, such as (1c) éẹk-i ‘burn’. Inherently causative

verbs always take -i, instead of -a, as a FV. According to the language consultant, Joash Johannes,

(1c) is considered an inherently causative verb because Nata speakers think that people have to

cause fire to burn objects. This shows that speakers’ concepts play an important role in word

formation1.

(1) a. READ so m-a ‘read’

VROOT-FV

b. GIVE h-a ‘give’

VROOT-FV

c. BURN é ẹk-i ‘burn’

VROOT-FV

3.2 Passivized verbs

The passive suffix (PASS) that passivized verbs take is mostly -u and this suffix replaces the final

vowel of a verb stem in most cases. For instance, (1a) so m-a ‘read’ becomes (2a) so m-u ‘be read’.

Nevertheless, there are two cases where the final vowels are retained and another allomorph, -bhu,

is used instead. The first case is when the verb root only has one single consonant, as in

(2b) h-aa-bhu ‘be given’. The second case is when the verb root is inherently causative, as in

(2c) éék-i-bhu ‘get burned’. The -u and -bhu alternation is phonologically conditioned.

Morpheme -u becomes -bhu when it is preceded by a vowel. Both -u and -bhu create forms with

no vowel clusters, which are disfavoured in Nata.

1Abbreviations include: APPL = applicative; C or CM = class marker; FV = final vowel; PASS = passive; PPF =

pre-prefix; VROOT = verb root. Examples in this paper are given using the following orthographic

conventions: bh = /β/; gh = /ɣ/; y = /j/; o = /ɔ/; ẹ = /ɛ/.

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(2) a. READ so m-u ‘be read’ (c.f. so m-a ‘read’)

VROOT-PASS VROOT-FV

b. GIVE h-aa-bhu ‘be given’ (c.f. h-a ‘give’)

VROOT-FV-PASS VROOT-FV

c. BURN é é k-i-bhu ‘get burned’ (c.f. é ẹk-i ‘burn’)

VROOT-FV-PASS VROOT-FV

3.3 Tone assignment on Nata verbs

Both non-passivized and passivized verbs have a high tone on the first syllable from the left edge.

They share both tone positions and tone locations. However, the first syllable from the left edge

does not necessarily correspond with the verb roots. As can be seen from the previous two data

sets, there are verb roots that do not have vowels and Nata high tones can only be placed on

vowels. For example, the high tone of (1a) h-a ‘give’ is on the final vowel, but it is still the first

syllable from the left edge.

4 Nata infinitive forms of verbs

The template of infinitive forms of non-passivized verbs is C15-VROOT-FV and the template of

infinitive forms of passivized verbs is C15-VROOT-(FV)-PASS. The status of infinitive forms of

verbs is controversial. Class markers are nominal morphology and final vowels are verbal

morphology. As infinitive forms of verbs require both of the two elements to work, it is not clear

whether infinitive forms should be categorized as nouns or verbs. In terms of class marker, both

Nata and Gĩkũyũ infinitives take C15, which is used for both infinitives and gerundives. This can

be shown from examples (5) and (6).

4.1 Infinitive forms of non-passivized verbs

(3) a. READ ghu-so m-a ‘to read’ (c.f. so m-a ‘read’)

C15-VROOT-FV VROOT-FV

b. GIVE ku-h-a ‘to give’ (c.f. h-a ‘give’)

C15-VROOT-FV VROOT-FV

c. BURN ghw-ẹẹk-í ‘to burn’ (c.f. é ẹk-i ‘burn’)

C15-VROOT-FV VROOT-FV

4.2 Infinitive forms of passivized verbs

(4) a. READ ghu-so m-u ‘to be read’ (c.f. so m-u ‘be read’)

C15-VROOT-PASS VROOT-PASS

b. GIVE ku-h-aa-bhu ‘to be given’ (c.f. h-aa-bhu ‘be given’)

C15-VROOT-FV-PASS VROOT-FV-PASS

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c. BURN ghw-ẹẹk-í-bhu ‘to get burned’ (c.f. é é k-i-bhu ‘get burned’)

C15-VROOT-FV-PASS VROOT-FV-PASS

4.3 Tone assignment on infinitive forms of Nata verbs

By contrasting verb stems on the right with their infinitive forms on the left, it can be seen that

not only do they differ from each other morphologically, but they also differ from each other in

tone assignment. As mentioned in the previous section, both non-passivized verb stems and

passivized verb stems have a high tone on the first syllable from the left edge. The data in (3)

and (4) show that both infinitive forms of non-passivized verbs and infinitive forms of passivized

verbs have a high tone on the second syllable from the left edge and they are not necessarily on

the verb roots.

It is worth noting that infinitive forms of consonant-initial verbs pattern differently from

infinitive forms of vowel-initial verbs in terms of tone locations. For example, (4a) ghu-so m-u ‘to

be read’ is an infinitive form of a consonant-initial verb root and (4c) ghw-ẹẹk-í-bhu ‘to get

burned’ is an infinitive form of a vowel-initial verb root. The second syllable from the left edge is

the first syllable on the verb root in (4a), but the second syllable from the left edge is the final

vowel in (4c). Examples (3c) ghw-ẹẹk-í ‘to burn’ and (4c) ghw-ẹẹk-í-bhu ‘to get burned’, which

have vowel-initial roots, are the only ones that do not share high tone locations with their bases.

The verb stems, éẹk-i ‘burn’ and éék-i-bhu ‘get burned’, have a high tone on the verb root;

whereas, the infinitive forms of verbs, (3c) ghw-ẹẹk-í ‘to burn’ and (4c) ghw-ẹẹk-í-bhu ‘to get

burned’, have high tones on the causative -i suffix. This is because the vowel in the class marker

ghu- undergoes glide formation when it is followed by a vowel. The underlying class marker of

(3c) ghw-ẹẹk-í ‘to burn’ and (4c) ghw-ẹẹk-í-bhu ‘to get burned’ is ghu-. If the vowels in the class

markers did not become glides, the forms would be expected to be ghu-éẹk-i ‘to burn’ and

ghu-éék-i-bhu ‘to get burned’, which have high tones on the verb roots.

5 Deverbal nouns

In “The Ki-nata Noun Structure”, Joash Gambarage Johannes says that most Nata nouns are

derived from verbs (Johannes 2007: 99). Deverbal nouns may retain some features of verbs and

gain some features of nouns during derivational processes. This is the theory of mixed categories

that Bresnan and Mugane (2006) discuss in “Agentive Nominalizations in Gĩkũyũ and the Theory

of Mixed Categories”. They say that “mixed categories are constructions which combine the

syntactic and morphological properties of two distinct categories, such as noun and verb”

(Bresnan & Mugane 2006: 1). A typical template of a Nata non-passivized deverbal noun is

PPF-CM-VROOT-(APPL)-FV. The FV is an obligatory feature of Nata verbs and (PPF-)CM is an

obligatory feature of Nata nouns. Deverbal nouns are in the grey in-between area, which require

both (PPF-)CM and FV to form. This paper discusses the tone position and location of eventive

deverbal nouns (Section 5.1), non-passivized and passivized agentive deverbal nouns

(Section 5.2), and non-passivized and passivized instrumental deverbal nouns (Section 5.3). For

other types of Nata deverbal nouns that are not discussed in this paper, please see Déchaine, Si &

Gambarage, in preparation.

5.1 Eventive deverbal nouns

The template of eventive deverbal nouns is PPF-C15-VROOT-FV. For example, o-ghu-so m-a

‘reading’ is an eventive deverbal noun. Nata eventive deverbal nouns are translated by English

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gerunds, such as ‘(the) reading’ and ‘(the) giving’. Also like English gerunds, there are no passive

equivalents such as '*(the) be reading’ or ‘*(the) be giving’. The only difference between the

template of eventive deverbal nouns, PPF-C15-VROOT-FV, and the template of infinitive forms of

non-passivized verbs, C15-VROOT-FV, is that the former has PPF and the latter does not have PPF.

This makes Nata different from Gĩkũyũ. Gĩkũyũ infinitives and gerundives share the same form.

(5) kũrĩa mĩanga

15eat 4cassava

‘to eat cassava / eating cassava’

(6) kũrĩa

15eat

‘to eat / eating’ (Mugane 1996: 38)

All of the eventive deverbal nouns have a high tone on the third syllable from the left edge

and all of them share the same high tone locations with the infinitive forms of verbs. However,

the third syllable from the left edge can be located on either verb roots or final vowels. It depends

on the characteristics of the verb roots (consonant-initial or vowel-initial).

Table 1 Tone of eventive deverbal nouns compared to verb stems and infinitives

Verb stems Infinitives Eventive deverbal nouns

VROOT-FV C15-VROOT-FV PPF-C15-VROOT-FV

C-initial

VROOT

so m-a

‘read’

ghu-so m-a

‘to read’

o-ghu-so m-a

‘reading’

h-a

‘give’

ku-h-a

‘to give’

o-ku-h-a

‘giving’

V-initial

VROOT é ẹk-i

‘burn’

ghw-ẹẹk-í

‘to burn’

u-ghw-ẹẹk-í

‘burning’

5.2 Agentive deverbal nouns

The template of non-passivized agentive deverbal nouns is PPF-C1/C2-VROOT-FV and the

template of passivized agentive deverbal nouns is PPF-C1/C2-VROOT-(FV)-PASS. For example,

o-mu-haan-i ‘a giver’ is a non-passivized agentive deverbal noun and o-mu-haan-u ‘a person who

is given away’ is a passivized agentive deverbal noun. Both non-passivized and passivized

agentive deverbal nouns take C1 or C2 as class markers, which are class markers that indicate

human beings. C1 encodes singularity and C2 encodes plurality. The only difference between the

two templates is the presence or absence of the passive suffix. When the passive suffix is present,

FV becomes optional.

5.2.1 Non-passivized agentive deverbal noun

Stegen shows that the Rangi agentive deverbal nouns share the same tone assignments with their

corresponding verbs. This can be shown by his following Rangi data set:

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(7) a. mʊʨúundi ‘moral teacher’ (cf. -ʨúunda ‘teach morals’)

b. mʊkɪ ɪndi ‘sorcerer’ (cf. -kɪ ɪnda ‘bewitch’)

c. mʊʨáandi ‘blacksmith’ (cf. -tçáana ‘forge’)

d. mʊsákaati ‘hunter’ (cf. -sákaata ‘hunt’)

e. mʊlɔ ɔli ‘bridegroom’ (cf. -lɔ ɔla ‘marry’)

f. mwiívi ‘thief’ (cf. -íva ‘steal’) (Stegen 2002: 146)

Since Rangi is also a Bantu language, similarities between Rangi and Nata are expected.

Nonetheless, the same argument that Stegen (2002) proposed for Rangi does not hold true in Nata.

Nata agentive deverbal nouns that are derived from consonant-initial verb roots do not share the

same tone locations with their corresponding verbs; whereas, Nata agentive deverbal nouns that

are derived from vowel-initial verb roots do. This can be shown by Table 2. Tone locations in

column #1 can be compared with that in columns #4 and #5. As so m ‘read’ and haan ‘give away’

are both consonant-initial verb roots, tone locations differ between the words in column #1 and

the words in columns #4 and #5. In contrast, as éẹk ‘burn’ is a vowel-initial verb root, tone

location remains on the verb root in both column #1 vs. columns #4 and #5.

Table 2 Tone of agentive deverbal nouns compared to verb stems and infinitives

Verb stems Infinitives Agentive deverbal

nouns (SG)

Agentive deverbal

nouns (PL)

VROOT-FV C15-VROOT-FV PPF-C1-VROOT-FV PPF-C2-VROOT-FV

C-initial

VROOT

so m-a

‘read’

ghu-so m-a

‘to read’

o-mu-som-i

‘person who reads’ /

‘super educated person’

a-bha-som-i

‘people who read’ /

‘super educated people’

h-a

‘give’

ku-h-a

‘to give’

haan-a

‘give away’

ku-haan-a

‘to give away’

o-mu-haan-i

‘giver’

a-bha-haan-i

‘givers’

V-initial

VROOT é ẹk-i

‘burn’

ghw-ẹẹk-í

‘to burn’

o-mw-é ẹk-i

‘person who burns’

a-bh-é ẹk-i

‘people who burn’

Note: There are no agentive deverbal nouns which can be derived from the verb stem h-a ‘give’.

This is because the expected meaning ‘giver’ and ‘givers’ are assigned to the agentive deverbal

nouns that are derived from the verb stem haan-a ‘give away’.

All of the non-passivized agentive deverbal nouns have a high tone on the second syllable

from the left edge, but the second syllable from the left edge does not correspond to the first

syllable of the verb root unless the verb root is vowel-initial. Because the class marker does not

undergo glide formation before consonant-initial verb roots, the second syllable from the left edge

always corresponds with the class marker itself.

5.2.2 Passivized agentive deverbal nouns

The passivized agentive deverbal nouns, which are derived from consonant-initial verb roots,

shown in Table 3, have high tones on the third syllable from the left edge. The passivized

agentive deverbal nouns, which are derived from vowel-initial verb roots, have high tones on the

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second syllable from the left edge. All of the passivized agentive deverbal nouns share the same

tone locations with their corresponding verb stems.

Table 3 Tone of passivized agentive deverbal nouns compared to C-initial verb stems and infinitives

Passivized stems Infinitives (PASS) Agentive (PASS) deverbal

nouns (SG)

Agentive (PASS) deverbal

nouns (PL)

VROOT-(FV)-PASS C15-VROOT-(FV)-PASS PPF-C1 -VROOT-(FV)-PASS PPF-C2-VROOT-(FV)-PASS

so m-u

‘be read’

ghu-so m-u

‘to be read’

*o-mu-so m-u

‘person who is read’

*a-bha-so m-u

‘people who are read’

h-aa-bhu

‘be given’

ku-h-aa-bhu

‘to be given’

o-mu-h-aa-bhu

‘recipient (animate)’

a-bha-h-aa-bhu

‘recipients (animate)’

haan-u

‘be given away’

ku-haan-u

‘to be given away’

o-mu-haan-u

‘person who is given away’

a-bha-haan-u

‘people who are given away’

Table 4 Tone of passivized agentive deverbal nouns compared to V-initial verb stems and infinitives

Passivized stems Infinitives (PASS) Agentive (PASS) deverbal

nouns (SG)

Agentive (PASS) deverbal

nouns (PL)

VROOT-(FV)-PASS C15-VROOT-(FV)-PASS PPF-C1 -VROOT-(FV)-PASS PPF-C2-VROOT-(FV)-PASS

é ẹk-i-bhu

‘be burned’

ghw-ẹẹk-í-bhu

‘to be burned’

u-mw-é ẹk-i-bhu

‘person who is burned by

others (not by himself/herself)’

a-bh-é ẹk-i-bhu

‘people who are burned by

others (not by themselves)’

éemb-u

‘be sang’

kw-eemb-u

‘to be sang’

*u-mw-éemb-u

‘person who is sang’

*a-bh-éemb-u

‘people who are sang’

ibh-u

‘be stolen’

kw-iibh-u

‘to be stolen’

o-mw-iibh-u

‘person who is stolen’

a-bh-iibh-u

‘people who are stolen’

5.3 Instrumental deverbal nouns

The template of non-passivized instrumental deverbal nouns is PPF-C7/C8-VROOT-APPL-FV and

the template of passivized instrumental deverbal nouns is PPF-C7/C8-VROOT-(FV)-PASS. For

example, e-ghí-som-ẹr-o ‘the thing that you use read (e.g. e-reader)’ is a non-passivized

instrumental deverbal noun and e-ghi-so m-u ‘the thing that is read’ is a passivized instrumental

deverbal noun. The instrumental deverbal nouns take C7 and C8, which are class markers for

inanimate entities. C7 encodes singularity and C8 encodes plurality. The non-passivized

instrumental deverbal nouns cannot work without applicative suffixes placed before the final

vowels.

5.3.1 Non-passivized instrumental deverbal nouns

Non-passivized instrumental deverbal nouns have a high tone on the second syllable from the left

edge. This corresponds to the class markers of instrumental deverbal nouns derived from

consonant-initial verb roots and the first syllable of the verb roots of instrumental deverbal nouns

derived from vowel-initial verb roots. Thus, the high tone of instrumental deverbal nouns derived

from consonant-initial roots, shown in columns #4 and #5 of Table 4, does not correspond to the

high tone position of the verb stem it is derived from. Only the non-passivized instrumental

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deverbal nouns that are derived from vowel-initial verb roots share the same tone locations with

their corresponding verbs. This is the same for non-passivized agentive deverbal nouns.

Table 5 Tone of instrumental deverbal nouns compared to C-initial verb stems and infinitives

Verb stems Infinitives Instrumental deverbal nouns (SG) Instrumental deverbal nouns (PL)

VROOT-FV C15-VROOT-FV PPF-C7-VROOT-APPL-FV PPF-C8-VROOT-APPL-FV

so m-a

‘read’

ghu-so m-a

‘to read’

e-ghí-som-ẹr-o

‘thing that you use to read

(e.g. e-reader)’

e-bhí-som-ẹr-o

‘things that you use to read

(e.g. e-readers)’

h-a

‘give’

ku-h-a

‘to give’

*e-ghí-h-ẹr-o

‘thing that you use to give’

*e-bhí-h-ẹr-o

‘things that you use to give’

haan-a

‘give away’

ku-haan-a

‘to give away’

*e-kí-haan-ẹr-o

‘thing that you use to give away’

*e-bhí-haan-ẹr-o

‘things that you use to give away’

Table 6 Tone of instrumental deverbal nouns compared to V-initial verb stems and infinitives

Verb stems Infinitives Instrumental deverbal nouns (SG) Instrumental deverbal nouns (PL)

VROOT-FV C15-VROOT-FV PPF-C7-VROOT-APPL-FV PPF-C8-VROOT-APPL-FV

é ẹk-i

‘burn’

ghw-ẹẹk-í

‘to burn’

*i-ghy-é ẹk-ẹr-o

‘thing that you use to burn’

*i-bhy-é ẹk-ẹr-o

‘things that you use to burn’

éemb-a

‘sing’

kw-eemb-a

‘to sing’

i-ky-éemb-ẹr-o

‘thing that you use to sing’

i-bhy-éemb-ẹr-o

‘things that you use to sing’

5.3.2 Passivized instrumental deverbal nouns

All of the passivized instrumental deverbal nouns have high tones on the third syllable from the

left edge, except for the ones that are derived from vowel-initial, monosyllabic and non-causative

verb roots. For instance, i-ky-éemb-u ‘thing that is sang’ and i-bhy-éemb-u ‘things that are sang’

have a high tone on the second syllable from the left edge and they share the same verb root eemb,

which is vowel-initial, monosyllabic and non-causative. In contrast, i-ghy-ẹẹk-í-bhu ‘thing that is

burned’ and i-bhy-ẹẹk-í-bhu ‘things that are burned’ have high tones on the third syllable from the

left edge and the verb root of them, ẹẹk, is monosyllabic and inherently causative. All of the

passivized instrumental deverbal nouns that are not derive from vowel-initial, monosyllabic, non-

causative verb roots share the same high tone locations with the infinitive forms of verbs.

Table 7 Tone of passivized instrumental deverbal nouns compared to C-initial verb stems and infinitives

Passivized stems Infinitives (PASS) Passivized instrumental

deverbal nouns (SG)

Passivized instrumental

deverbal nouns (PL)

VROOT-(FV)-PASS C15-VROOT-(FV)-PASS PPF-C7-VROOT-(FV)-PASS PPF-C8-VROOT-(FV)-PASS

so m-u

‘be read’

ghu-so m-u

‘to be read’

e-ghi-so m-u

‘thing that is read’

e-bhi-so m-u

‘things that are read’

h-aa-bhu

‘be given’

ku-h-aa-bhu

‘to be given’

*i-ki-h-aa-bhu

‘recipient (inanimate)’

*i-bhi-h-aa-bhu

‘recipients (inanimate)’

haan-u

‘be given away’

ku-haan-u

‘to be given away’

e-ki-haan-u

‘thing that is given away’

e-bhi-haan-u

‘things that are given away’

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Table 8 Tone of passivized instrumental deverbal nouns compared to V-initial verb stems and infinitives

Passivized stems Infinitives (PASS) Passivized instrumental

deverbal nouns (SG)

Passivized instrumental

deverbal nouns (PL)

VROOT-(FV)-PASS C15-VROOT-(FV)-PASS PPF-C7-VROOT-(FV)-PASS PPF-C8-VROOT-(FV)-PASS

é ẹk-i-bhu

‘be burned’

ghw-ẹẹk-í-bhu

‘to be burned’

i-ghy-ẹẹk-í-bhu

‘thing that is burned’

i-bhy-ẹẹk-í-bhu

‘things that are burned’

éemb-u

‘be sang’

kw-eemb-u

‘to be sang’

i-ky-éemb-u

‘thing that is sang (e.g. song,

poem)’

i-bhy-éemb-u

‘things that are sang (e.g.

songs, poems)’

ibh-u

‘be stolen’

kw-iibh-u

‘to be stolen’

e-ky-iibh-u

‘thing that is stolen’

e-bhy-iibh-u

‘things that are stolen’

6 Conclusion

6.1 High Tone positions

Both non-passivized and passivized verb stems have high tones on the first syllable from the left

edge. Infinitive forms of verbs, including non-passivized and passivized verbs, have a high tone

on the second syllable from the left edge. All of the non-passivized agentive and instrumental

deverbal nouns have a high tone on the second syllable from the left edge. All of the eventive

deverbal nouns have a high tone on the third syllable from the left edge. These generalizations are

shown in Table 6.

The high tone positions of passivized agentive and instrumental deverbal nouns, as shown in

Table 7, are more complex than the high tone positions of the non-passivized ones. The

passivized agentive deverbal nouns that are derived from consonant-initial (C-initial) verb roots

have a high tone on the third syllable from the left edge and the passivized agentive deverbal

nouns that are derived from vowel-initial (V-initial) verb roots have a high tone on the second

syllable from the left edge. The passivized instrumental deverbal nouns that are derived from

consonant-initial (C-initial) verb roots have a high tone on the third syllable from the left edge.

The passivized instrumental deverbal that are derived from vowel-initial (V-initial) verb roots

have two divisions. The ones that are not derived from vowel-initial, monosyllabic, non-causative

verb roots have a high tone on the third syllable from the left edge and the other ones that are

derived from vowel-initial, monosyllabic, non-causative verb roots have a high tone on the

second syllable from the left edge.

Table 9 Summary of tone positions on verb stems, infinitives and non-passivized deverbal nouns

Verb Stems

Infinitives Agentive

deverbal nouns

Instrumental

deverbal nouns

Eventive

deverbal nouns

C-initial VROOT 1st syllable 2nd syllable 3rd syllable

V-initial VROOT 1st syllable 2nd syllable 3rd syllable

140

Table 10 Summary of tone positions on passivized deverbal nouns

Passived agentive

deverbal nouns

Passivized instrumental deverbal nouns

C-initial VROOT 3rd syllable

V-initial VROOT 2nd syllable 2nd or 3rd syllable

6.2 High tone locations

Only the infinitive forms of verbs that are derived from consonant-initial verb roots share the

same high tone locations with verb stems. All of the eventive deverbal nouns share tone locations

with infinitive forms of verbs. The agentive deverbal nouns that are derived from vowel-initial

verb roots share the same tone locations with verb stems and all of the passivized agentive

deverbal nouns share tone locations with verb stems. The instrumental deverbal nouns that are

derived from vowel-initial verb roots share the same tone locations with verb stems, and the

passivized deverbal nouns that are derived from vowel-initial, monosyllabic and non-causative

verb roots share the same tone locations with verb stems. The details are shown in Table 8.

Table 11 Verb root types that share tone locations across paradigms

Verb Stems Infinitives

Verb Stems C-initial

Infinitives C-initial

Passivized Verb Stems C-initial & V-initial C-initial

Infinitive Forms of Passivized Verbs C-initial C-initial & V-initial

Eventive deverbal nouns C-initial C-initial & V-initial

Agentive deverbal nouns V-initial None

Passivized agentive deverbal nouns C-initial & V-initial C-initial

Instrumental deverbal nouns V-initial None

Passivized instrumental deverbal nouns V-initial, monosyllabic,

non-causative verb roots

All roots except V-initial,

monosyllabic, non-

causative verb roots

References

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categories. Intelligent Linguistic Architectures: Variations on themes, 201–234.

Déchaine, R.-M., Si, D. & Gambarage, J. (2014). Nata Deverbal Nominalizations, University of

British Columbia. Draft dated 13 March, 2014.

Johannes, J. G. (2007). The Ki-Nata noun structure. (Unpublished MA thesis). University of Der

es Salaam.

Mugane, J. M. (1996). Bantu nominalization structures. (Doctoral dissertation). The Universiy of

Arizona. Retrieved from ProQuest Dissertations and Theses. (Order No. 9729475).

Stegen, O. (2002). Derivational processes in Rangi. Studies in African Linguistics, 31, 129–153.