Dependent clauses with the conjunction kṳ̀ ‘and’ in Dinka

Abstract

Dinka, a Western Nilotic language, has a construction in which a clause with dependent syntactic status is combined with a preceding clause of any type by means of the conjunction kṳ̀ ‘and’, which is also used for coordinating both noun phrases and independent clauses. Dependent kṳ̀-clauses, which all have the same syntactic structure, do not express any particular semantic function and normally have fewer markers of tense, aspect and mood than the clause with which they are combined. But they are interpreted as having the same semantic function and generally also the same tense, aspect and mood as that clause.

Keywords

• Dinka
• Western Nilotic
• conjunction
• clause chaining
• cosubordination