A finite-state transducer for Northern Sotho deverbative nouns: the morphophonemic rules

Abstract

The starting point in creating a lexical transducer that would analyse and generate lexical forms grammatically is the enumeration of morphotactic rules. In documented languages, these can be deduced from the written grammar/s of a specific language. These morphotactic rules have to be supplemented with morphophonemic or alternation rules which would provide for sound changes emanating from the application of the morphotactic rules, to eliminate ungrammatical forms. In this article, the focus is on the morphophonemic rules that apply when deverbative nouns are formed in Northern Sotho. Descriptions in existing grammars are examined and compared to examples from the Comprehensive Northern Sotho Dictionary (Ziervogel & Mokgokong, 1985) to establish whether they cover all the sound changes resulting from the application of morphotactic rules.

Southern African Linguistics and Applied Language Studies 2005, 23(4): 393–403