The Oromo Nominal and Adjectival predicates

Abstract

The term "predicate nominals denotes those predicates which encode the semantic content of the predication in a noun (Payne 1997, 111). As such they are used to present background information in narrative discourses, whereas in stative discourses they are employed to present foreground information (Longacre 1996, 230) thereby making their description worthwhile. The goal of this paper is to explore how nominal predicates are encoded in Oromo. This will be accomplished in four chapters. In chapter one, relevant background information concerning the language will be presented. Since nominal predicates are often encoded by the use of copulas (Payne 1997, 114) the latter constitute a major part of the description of the former. In fact, the discussion of nominal predicate encoding strategy is explained in terms of copulas. These strategies will be treated in chapter two in relation to their prototypical characteristics. The constraints on copula choice will also be examined. In chapter three the Oromo nominal predicates and secondary predicates with be introduced and analyzed. Since the syntactic distinction is not significant 1 , adjectival predicates will not be treated in depth in this paper. Chapter four contains the conclusion and summary. 1 Adjectival predicates behave differently in respect to agreement with the subject but the structure of the two clauses are the same.