Article published In:
Studies in Language: Online-First Articles

What can be said?

Variation among expressions of modal possibility in a South African language cluster

ORCID logo | University of Helsinki
ORCID logo | University of South Africa
ORCID logo | University of South Africa
ORCID logo | University of South Africa
ORCID logo | University of KwaZulu-Natal
ORCID logo | Rhodes University
We employ a cluster approach to explore the comparative semantic maps of several markers of modal possibility – the “potential” prefix nga‑ and expressions meaning, roughly, ‘know how to’ and ‘be able to’ – in four South African Nguni languages: isiNdebele, isiZulu, isiXhosa, Siswati. We also compare the Nguni results with results from Xitsonga, a closely related language outside of the Nguni clade. The languages exhibit cross-linguistic differences in the expansion of core meanings, some of which do not appear to follow the cross-linguistically common diachronic pattern in which goal-oriented modality precedes deontic modality. In addition, the distinction between inherent and learned ability is salient in several of these languages. Semantic maps of the markers’ functional distributions further show the diversity of modal systems that can be found even in closely related languages in significant contact with one another.
Keywords: modal possibility, South African Bantu languages, Nguni, Xitsonga, grammaticalization
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Background
    • 2.1Nguni and Tsonga languages
    • 2.2Modal possibility
      • 2.2.1Typology of modal possibility
      • 2.2.2Modal possibility and grammaticalization
    • 2.3Studies of modality and modal possibility in Bantu
  • 3.Study methodology
  • 4.Potential prefix ngá-
    • 4.1Form and history
    • 4.2Functional distribution of nga‑
  • 5. know
    • 5.1Form and history
    • 5.2Functional distribution of know
      • 5.2.1Participant-internal
      • 5.2.2Deontic
      • 5.2.3Teleological and other participant-external contexts
      • 5.2.4Epistemic
      • 5.2.5Summary of results and further research directions
  • 6. able
    • 6.1Form and history
    • 6.2Functional distribution of able (positive polarity)
      • 6.2.1Participant-internal
      • 6.2.2Deontic
      • 6.2.3Teleological and other participant-external contexts
      • 6.2.4Epistemic
      • 6.2.5Summary of results and further research directions
  • 7.Conclusions and outlook
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations
  • References
Available under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) 4.0 license.

For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at [email protected].

Published online: 23 May 2024
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/sl.22074.cra
References (70)
References
Auer, Richard Steven. 1977. Proto-Sotho and the Sotho group. Cape Town: University of Cape Town PhD dissertation.
Aunio, Lotta & Axel Fleisch. 2019. Introduction: Venturing into Ndebele language research. In Lotta Aunio & Axel Fleisch (eds.), Linguistic diversity research among speakers of isiNdebele and Sindebele in South Africa. ( Studia Orientalia 120), 1–16. Helsinki: Finnish Oriental Society. Available at: [URL] (last access 8 February 2024).
Bastin, Yvonne, André Coupez, Evariste Mumba & Thilo C. Schadeberg (eds.). 2002. Bantu lexical reconstructions 3 / Reconstructions lexicales bantoues 3. Available at: [URL] (last access 8 February 2024).
Baumbach, E. J. M. 1987. Analytical Tsonga grammar. Pretoria: University of South Africa.Google Scholar
Bernander, Rasmus, Maud Devos & Hannah Gibson. 2022. Modal auxiliary verb constructions in East African Bantu languages. Journal of African Languages and Literatures 31. 22–85. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bible Society of South Africa. 2012. Xitsonga (Bibele). Available at: [URL] (last access 8 February 2024).
Bloom Ström, Eva-Marie. 2018. Linguistic and sociolinguistic aspects of variation in the Eastern Cape: Complexities of Xhosa language use. Studia Orientalia Electronica 61. 90–120. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2020. The existential copula in Xhosa in relation to indefiniteness. Studies in African Linguistics 49(2). 213–240. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bostoen, Koen, Ferdinand Mberamihigo & Gilles-Maurice de Schryver. 2012. Grammaticalization and subjectification in the semantic domain of possibility in Kirundi (Bantu, JD62). Africana Linguistica 181. 5–40. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bostoen, Koen & Yolanda Nzang-Bie. 2010. On how “middle” plus “associative/reciprocal” became “passive” in the Bantu A70 languages. Linguistics 48(6). 1255–1307. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Botne, Robert. 1983. On the notion “inchoative verb” in Kinyarwanda. In Jouannett, Francis (ed.), Le kinyarwanda: Études linguistiques, 149–180. Paris: SELAF.Google Scholar
. 2019. Aspects of Chimpoto grammar (LINCOM Studies in African Linguistics 98). München: LINCOM.Google Scholar
Burton, Strang & Lisa Matthewson. 2015. Targeted construction storyboards in semantic fieldwork. In M. Ryan Bochnak & Lisa Matthewson (eds.), Methodologies in semantic fieldwork, 135–156. Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bybee, Joan L., Revere Dale Perkins & William Pagliuca. 1994. The evolution of grammar: Tense, aspect, and modality in the languages of the world. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Constitution of the Republic of South Africa [South Africa], 10 December 1996. Available at: [URL] (last access 8 February 2024).
Crane, Thera Marie, Lotta Aunio, Axel Fanego Palat, M. Petrus Mabena & Stephan Schulz. No year. MSA . A sketch grammar of isiNdebele. (Current version available upon request.)
Crane, Thera Marie, Stefan Savić, Rasmus Bernander & Onelisa Slater. No year. MSB. Modal expressions in Xhosa.
Cuenod, R. 1967. Tsonga–English Dictionary. Braamfontein: Sasavona Publishers & Booksellers.Google Scholar
De Haan, Ferdinand & Björn Hansen (eds.). 2009. Modals in the languages of Europe: A reference work. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton.Google Scholar
Depraetere, Ilse. 2015. Modality. In Riemer, Nick (ed.), The Routledge handbook of semantics, 386–402. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Devos, Maud. 2008. The expression of modality in Shangaci. Africana Linguistica 141. 3–35. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Doke, Clement M. 1927. Textbook of Zulu grammar. 6th edition. Cape Town: Maskew Miller Longman.Google Scholar
du Plessis, Jac A. 2009. Distribution and control properties of the Infinitive in Xitsonga. Available at [URL] (last access 18 April 2024).
Einhorn, E. & L. Siyengo. 1993. Xhosa: A concise manual. New (2nd) edn. Cape Town: College of Careers.Google Scholar
Georgakopoulos, Thanasis & Stéphane Polis. 2018. The semantic map model: State of the art and future avenues for linguistic research. Language and Linguistics Compass 121: e12270. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Gerasimova, Anastasia & Ekaterina Lyutikova. 2020. Intralingual variation in acceptability judgments and production: Three case Studies in Russian grammar. Frontiers in Psychology 11.348. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Gluckman, John & Margit Bowler. 2020. The expression of modality in Logoori. Journal of African Languages and Linguistics 41(2). 195–238. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Grollemund, Rebecca, Simon Branford, Koen Bostoen, Andrew Meade, Chris Venditti & Mark Pagel. 2015. Bantu expansion shows that habitat alters the route and pace of human dispersals. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 112(43). 13296–13301 and Supporting Information (SI). DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Gunnink, Hilde, Natalia Chousou-Polydouri & Koen Bostoen. 2023. Divergence and contact in Southern Bantu language and population history: A new phylogeny in cross-disciplinary perspective. Language Dynamics and Change 131. 74–131. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Guthrie, Malcolm. 1971 [1967]. Comparative Bantu: An introduction to the comparative linguistics and prehistory of the Bantu languages. Volumes 1–41. Farnborough: Gregg International.Google Scholar
Halpert, Claire. 2012. Argument licensing and agreement in Zulu. Cambridge, MA: Massachussetts Institute of Technology Ph.D. dissertation. Available at: [URL] (last access 8 February 2024).
. 2016. Raising parameters. In Kyeong-min Kim, Pocholo Umbal, Trevor Block, Queenie Chan, Tanie Cheng, Kelli Finney, Mara Katz, Sophie Nickel-Thompson & Lisa Shorten (eds.), Proceedings of the 33rd West Coast Conference on Formal Linguistics, 186–195. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Proceedings Project. Available at: [URL] (last access 8 February 2024).
Hammarström, Harald, Robert Forkel, Martin Haspelmath & Sebastian Bank. 2022. Glottolog 4.6. Available at: [URL] (last access 8 Februrary 2024.)
Heine, Bernd, Tom Güldemann, Christa Kilian-Hatz, Donald A. Lessau, Heinz Roberg, Mathias Schladt, & Thomas Stolz. 1993. Conceptual Shift: A Lexicon of Grammaticalization-Processes in African Languages. (Afrikanistische Arbeitspapiere, 34/35.) Köln: Universität zu Köln.Google Scholar
Iziko lesiHlathululi-mezwi sesiNdebele. 2006. IsiNdebele–English / English–isiNdebele: IsiHlathululi-mezwi / Bilingual and explanatory dictionary. Cape Town: Phumelela.Google Scholar
Kawalya, Deo, Koen Bostoen & Gilles-Maurice de Schryver. 2014. Diachronic semantics of the modal verb -sóból- in Luganda. International Journal of Corpus Linguistics 19(1). 60–93. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kawalya, Deo, Gilles-Maurice de Schryver & Koen Bostoen. 2018. From conditionality to modality in Luganda (Bantu, JE15): A synchronic and diachronic corpus analysis of the verbal prefix -andi-. Journal of Pragmatics 1271. 84–106. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kehayov, Petar & Reeli Torn-Leesik. 2009. Modal verbs in Balto-Finnic. In Björn Hansen & Ferdinand de Haan (eds.), Modals in the languages of Europe (Empirical Approaches to Language Typology 44), 363–401. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kratzer, Angelika. 1991. Modality. In Arnim von Stechow & Dieter Wunderlich (eds.), Semantics: An international handbook of contemporary research, 639–650. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton.Google Scholar
Louw, J. A. 1969. The tone sequences of the potential form in Zulu and Xhosa. In The Ethnological Section (eds.), Ethnological and linguistic studies in honour of N.J. Van Warmelo: Essays contributed on the occasion of his sixty-fifth birthday 28 January 1969, 123–132. Government Printer: Pretoria.Google Scholar
Mberamihigo, Ferdinand, Gilles-Maurice de Schryver & Koen Bostoen. 2016. Entre verbe et adverbe: Grammaticalisation et dégrammaticalisation du marqueur épistémique umeengo/umeenga en kirundi (bantou, JD62). Journal of African Languages and Linguistics 37(2). 247–286. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
McLaren, James, William Govan Bennie, and James James Ranisi Jolobe. 1975. A new concise Xhosa–English dictionary. Cape Town: Longman.Google Scholar
Mini, B. M., S. L. Tshabe, F. M. Shoba & P. N. van der Westhuizen. 2003. The greater dictionary of isiXhosa. Vol 2: K to P. Alice: University of Fort Hare.Google Scholar
Narrog, Heiko. 2005. Modality, mood, and change of modal meanings: A new perspective. Cognitive Linguistics 16(4). 677–731. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2012. Modality, subjectivity, and semantic change. Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Nauze, Fabrice. 2008. Modality in typological perspective, Amsterdam: University of Amsterdam PhD dissertation.
Nichols, Peter John. 2011. A morpho-semantic analysis of the Persistive, Alterative and Inceptive aspects in siSwati. London: SOAS PhD dissertation.
Nurse, Derek. 2008. Tense and aspect in Bantu. Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Nurse, Derek & Maud Devos. 2019. Aspect, tense, and mood. In Mark Van de Velde, Koen Bostoen, Derek Nurse & Gérard Philippson (eds.), The Bantu languages, 2nd edn., 204–236. London: Routledge. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Nuyts, Jan. 2016. Analyses of the modal meanings. In Jan Nuyts & Johan van der Auwera (eds.), The Oxford handbook of modality and mood, 31–49. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Meeussen, A. E. 1967. Bantu grammatical reconstructions. Africana Linguistica 31. 79–121. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ouwehand, M. 1965. Everyday Tsonga. Johannesburg: Cleveland, Transvaal: The Central Mission Press.Google Scholar
Pahl, H. W., A. M. Pienaar & T. A. Ndungane. 1989. The greater dictionary of Xhosa. Vol 3: Q to Z. Alice: University of Fort Hare.Google Scholar
Persohn, Bastian. 2022. Non-culmination in two Bantu languages. Studies in Language 2022(1). 76–132. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Poulos, George & Christian T. Msimang. 1998. A linguistic analysis of Zulu. Cape Town: Via Africa.Google Scholar
Rolka, Matthew & Seth Cable. 2014. Basketball Brothers. Totem Field Storyboards. Available at: [URL] (last access 8 February 2024).
Savić, Stefan. 2020. Tense and aspect in Xhosa. Makhanda: Rhodes University Ph.D. dissertation. Available at: [URL] (last access 8 February 2024).
Schmidtke-Bode, Karsten. 2009. A typology of purpose clauses. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Sengupta, Dhriti, Ananyo Choudhury, Cesar Fortes-Lima, Shaun Aron, Gavin Whitelaw, Koen Bostoen, Hilde Gunnink, Natalia Chousou-Polydouri, Peter Delius, Stephen Tollman, F. Xavier Gómez-Olivé, Shane Norris, Felistas Mashinya, Marianne Alberts, AWI-Gen Study, H3Africa Consortium, Scott Hazelhurst, Carina M. Schlebusch & Michèle Ramsay. 2021. Genetic substructure and complex demographic history of South African Bantu speakers. Nature Communications 12(1). 1–13. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Taljaard, P. C. & S. E. Bosch. 1988. Handbook of isiZulu. Pretoria: J.L. Van Schaik Ltd.Google Scholar
Tshabe, S. L. & F. M. Shoba. 2006. The greater dictionary of isiXhosa. Vol 1: A to J. Alice: University of Fort Hare.Google Scholar
Treis, Yvonne. 2012. Purpose-encoding strategies in Kambaata. Afrika und Übersee 911. 1–38. Available at: [URL] (last access 8 February 2024).
van der Auwera, Johan. 2001. On the typology of negative modals. In Jack Hoeksema, Hotze Rullmann, Víctor Sánchez-Valencia & Ton van der Wouden (eds.), Perspectives on negation and polarity items (Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today 40), 23–48. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
van der Auwera, Johan & Vladimir Plungian. 1998. Modality’s semantic map. Linguistic Typology 21. 79–124. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
van der Auwera, Johan, Petar Kehayov & Alice Vittrant. 2009. Acquisitive modals. In Lotte Hogeweg, Helen de Hoop & Andrej Malchukov (eds.), Cross-linguistic semantics of tense, aspect and modality, 271–302. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Vander Klok, Jozina. 2022. Revised modal questionnaire for cross-linguistic use. Available at: [URL] (last access 8 February 2024).
Van der Spuy, Andrew. 1989. A reconstruction of the phonology of Proto-Southern Bantu. Pretoria: University of South Africa MA thesis. Available at: [URL] (last access 8 February 2024).
Zeller, Jochen, Sabine Zerbian & Toni Cook. 2017. Prosodic evidence for syntactic phrasing in Zulu. In Jenneke van der Wal & Larry M. Hyman (eds.), The conjoint/disjoint alternation in Bantu, 295–328. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ziervogel, D. & E. J. Mabuza. 1976. A grammar of the Swati language (siSwati). Pretoria: J.L. Van Schaik Ltd.Google Scholar
Ziervogel, D. 1952. A grammar of Swazi (siSwati). Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University Press.Google Scholar