Cleft sentences in Venda

Abstract

The structure, distribution and semantic significance of cleft constructions in Venda are investigated in this paper. Cleft constructions are varied, but the paper focuses on two major types, namely, clefts and pseudo-clefts. It is demonstrated in this paper that cleft constructions in Venda exhibit their own peculiar characteristics, especially the fact that they are always distinguished by the copulative verb ndi and the relative with an element in COMP. Cleft constructions can be analysed successfully according to the Government and Binding Theory and the Minimalist Programme as proposed by Chomsky, Du Plessis, Visser and Shlonsky.