Complement- adjunct distinction in Shona: paper was presented at the 15th University of Zimbabwe Linguistic Society Postgraduate Conference.

Abstract

The researcher looks at complement- adjunct distinction in Shona, a language spoken in Zimbabwe. The researcher sheds light on the thin dividing line between the two. Complement- adjunct distinction is problematic (Radford, 1988). As an L I speaker of the language, the researcher makes use of intuition to gather data as well as to make judgements on the sentences' grammaticality and acceptability. Five parameters/ properties have been utilised. The research shows that instead of a clear cut dissertation, there is a complementarity continuum. All the range of phrases and clauses serve to complete the sense of the head, though there are varying degrees of cohesion. Thus the researcher notes that phrases and clauses can be placed on a complementarity scale with the NP complement high on the scale and the AdvP complement low on that scale.