The complement clauses of verbs of speech and cognition in Kikuyu

Abstract

This study discusses complement clauses of verbs of speech and cognition in Kikuyu. The aim is to look at what types of complement clauses these verbs can take. I have achieved this by looking at some Kikuyu data, which I have collected from my knowledge of the language as a native speaker and by using a narrative text taken from a Kikuyu first lessons book. It will be shown that Kikuyu verbs of speech and cognition operate like other Complement-Taking Predicates (CTP), as they allow complementizers [but... there are some differences, e.g. it is not possible for the subject of the embedded clause to be marked as an Object Concord marker in the main verb if that verb is a verb of cognition]. However, this research is not exhaustive and more work remains to be done on the subj ect.