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University of Education, Winneba College Of University of Education, Winneba http://ir.uew.edu.gh UNIVERSITY OF EDUCATION, WINNEBA COLLEGE OF LANGUAGES EDUCATION, AJUMAKO THE SYNTAX OF THE GONJA NOUN PHRASE JACOB SHAIBU KOTOCHI May, 2017 i University of Education, Winneba http://ir.uew.edu.gh UNIVERSITY OF EDUCATION, WINNEBA COLLEGE OF LANGUAGES EDUCATION, AJUMAKO THE SYNTAX OF THE GONJA NOUN PHRASE JACOB SHAIBU KOTOCHI 8150260007 A thesis in the Department of GUR-GONJA LANGUAGES EDUCATION, COLLEGE OF LANGUAGES EDUCATION, submitted to the school of Graduate Studies, UNIVERSITY OF EDUCATION, WINNEBA in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of the Master of Philosophy in Ghanaian Language Studies (GONJA) degree. ii University of Education, Winneba http://ir.uew.edu.gh DECLARATION I, Jacob Shaibu Kotochi, declare that this thesis, with the exception of quotations and references contained in published works and students creative writings which have all been identified and duly acknowledged, is entirely my own original work, and it has not been submitted, either in part or whole, for another degree elsewhere. Signature: …………………………….. Date: …………………………….. SUPERVISOR’S DECLARATION I, Dr. Samuel Awinkene Atintono, hereby declare that the preparation and presentation of this thesis were supervised in accordance with the guidelines for supervision of thesis as laid down by the University of Education, Winneba. Signature: …………………………….. Date: …………………………….. iii University of Education, Winneba http://ir.uew.edu.gh ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I wish to express my gratitude to Dr. Samuel Awinkene Atintono of the Department of Gur-Gonja Languages Education, College of Languages Education for being my guardian, mentor, lecturer and supervisor throughout my university Education and the writing of this research work. I wish to also express my appreciation to Kechɛtopowura H. Afari-Twako of the Department of Gur-Gonja Languages Education, College of Languages Education for his encouragement, support, and help and for supervising this thesis. I express my sincere gratitude also to Mr. Alhasssan Dramani of the Ghana Maritime Authority for sponsoring my graduate studies. I wish to express my indebtedness to all the Lecturers of the College of Languages Education for their constructive comments, criticisms, and inspiring ideas which made me muster the courage necessary to produce this research work. They made available the necessary materials that helped me to complete this thesis. I record my gratitude to my mother Theresa Awodima, my brothers, my wife Fatima Nnaa Adams for their love, care and support during this study. Many thanks to Richard Kojo Turkson who typed this thesis. Finally, I express my sincere gratitude to all those who contributed in one way or the other to make the writing of this thesis possible. iv University of Education, Winneba http://ir.uew.edu.gh DEDICATION I dedicate this work to my family who have contributed in diverse ways to bring me this far. My Mother THERESA AWODIMA My Uncle ALHASSAN DRAMANI My Wife FATIMA NNAA ADAMS My Children DIVINE BORESA SHAIBU STANLEY ABARANYƆ SHAIBU v University of Education, Winneba http://ir.uew.edu.gh TABLE OF CONTENT DECLARATION ................................................................................................................................i SUPERVISOR’S DECLARATION .................................................................................................. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ................................................................................................................. iv DEDICATION ................................................................................................................................... v TABLE OF CONTENT .................................................................................................................... vi LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................................................ ix ABBREVIATIONS ........................................................................................................................... x ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................................... xiii CHAPTER ONE 1.0 GENERAL INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................1 1.1 Background of the study ........................................................................................................2 1.1.1 The Speakers and Linguistics Affiliation of Gonja ..................................................................7 1.2 Statement of the Problem ........................................................................................................8 1.3 Objectives of the Study ........................................................................................................ 11 1.4 Research Questions .............................................................................................................. 11 1.5 Purpose of the Study ............................................................................................................. 11 1.6 Delimitation of the Study ...................................................................................................... 12 1.7 Significance of the Study ...................................................................................................... 12 1.8 Organization of the Study ..................................................................................................... 12 1.9 Summary .............................................................................................................................. 13 CHAPTER TWO LITERATURE REVIEW 2.0 Introduction ...................................................................................................................... 13 2.1 General review of Works on Noun Phrases......................................................................... 14 2.2. Modifiers .......................................................................................................................... 20 2.2.1. Pre-modifiers .................................................................................................................... 21 2.2.2 Post Modifiers .................................................................................................................. 22 2.2.3 The Noun Head................................................................................................................. 24 2.2.4 Definite and Indefinite Markers ........................................................................................ 25 2.3 Review of Works on Gonja Linguistics ............................................................................ 25 vi University of Education, Winneba http://ir.uew.edu.gh 2.5 Summary .......................................................................................................................... 29 CHAPTER 3 .................................................................................................................................... 30 METHODOLOGY........................................................................................................................... 30 3.0 Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 30 3.1 Research Design ................................................................................................................... 30 3.2 Population and Sample ......................................................................................................... 32 3.3 Sources of Data .................................................................................................................... 34 3.4 Summary .............................................................................................................................. 35 CHAPTER FOUR ............................................................................................................................ 36 DATA ANALYSIS OF THE NOUN PHRASE IN GONJA.............................................................. 36 4.0. Introduction...................................................................................................................... 36 4.1. The Simple Noun Phrase (SNP) ........................................................................................ 36 4.1.1. The Determiner ................................................................................................................. 39 4.1.2 Functions of Definite and Indefinite Articles ..................................................................... 43 4.1.3. Demonstratives ................................................................................................................. 44 4.1.4. Quantifiers ........................................................................................................................ 50 4.1.5 Non-numerical Quantifiers ................................................................................................ 57 4.1.6 Adjectives ......................................................................................................................... 60 4.1.7 Nouns used as Modifiers ................................................................................................... 66 4.2 The Complex Noun Phrase ..............................................................................................
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