A GRAMMATICAL DESCRIPTION OP MBEMBE (ADUN DIALECT)- A CROSS RIVER LANGUAGE Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy of the University of London Katharine Grace Lowry Barnwell Department of General Linguistics University College London 1969 ProQuest Number: 10673257 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a com plete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. uest ProQuest 10673257 Published by ProQuest LLC(2017). Copyright of the Dissertation is held by the Author. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States C ode Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106- 1346 2 Abstract The purpose of this thesis is to present a description of the phonology and grammar of the Mbembe language of the Cross River area of Nigeria. Chapter 1 gives a brief general introduction to the Mbembe language and people and outlines the theoretical basis of the description. It includes a summary of the units of the phonological and grammatical hierarchies. The final section highlights some of the distinctive characteristics of the language with some comments on their interpretation. Chapter 2 describes the phonological hierarchy, focussing primarily on the syllable-piece, and discussing congruence between phonological and grammatical units. Chapter 3 describes the lexical and grammatical functions of tone in the language. There are two discrete tone levels with downstep. Chapter 4 is a brief description of patterning above the sentence, intended to provide a setting to illustrate the function of the sentence. Chapters 5-9 describe the sentence, clause, verbal- group, nominal phrase and word units of the grammatical hierarchy respectively, presenting classes at each rank in terms of a system network relating the features relevant to that class and statements showing the realization of these features in structure. At clause rank the interrelation of the mood, transitivity and theme components is discussed* in more detail. Chapter 9 concludes with a chart summarizing the constituents of the structure of each class and also the functions of each class. The chart also gives cross references to the inventory of closed morpheme classes, Mbembe may be loosely classified as semi-Bantu. Chapter 10 describes the concord-class system of the language. The thesis concludes with some sample texts. 3 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I should like to thank my supervisor, Professor M.A.K. Halliday, for his patient and perceptive help in the writing of this thesis. I have learnt much through the stimulus of his theoretical viewpoint and through his practical approach to specific language problems. I am also grateful to other members of staff both in the Department of General Linguistics, University College London, and in the Department of Phonetics and Linguistics at the School of Oriental and African Studies. Most of my early training in linguistics I received through the Summer Institute of Linguistics and I have deeply appreciated the friendship and help of SIL colleagues. In particular I am indebted to Dr. John Bendor-Samuel, Director of the West Africa branch of SIL, and to Dr. and Mrs. John Callow. Material for this thesis was gathered while I was working under the West Africa branch of the Summer Institute of Linguistics in cooperation with the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. I am especially grateful to Miss Patricia Revill, with whom I lived in the Mbembe area for three years. Without her friendship and encouragement this thesis would never have been completed. Many Mbembe friends have also contributed, knowingly or unknowingly. I am thankful not only for their help in learning and analysing the language, but also for their warm-hearted welcome and for their generosity and tolerance. In particular I should like to thank Mr, E. Oyama and Mr, E. Ogbinji of Ovat, Mr. Egor Oyama and Mr. Odoma Enyam of Ovonum, Mr. Lawrence Ebak of Appiapum and Mr. I, Agbor of lyamayong, and also the clan chiefs of Adun, Olcom, Osopong and Ofombonga. 4 CONTENTS A more detailed table, of contents is given immediately preceding each chapter. Abstract page 2 Acknowledgements 3 Contents 4 Symbolization 8 Chapter 1 Introduction 9 Map 10 1.1 The Mbembe language and people 11 1.2 The present study 13 1.3 The theoretical framework 14 1.4 Interpretation 25 Chapter 2 The Phonological Hierarchy 31 2.1 Introduction 35 2.2 The syllable-piece and phonemeunits 35 2.3 The word-piece unit 47 2.4 The phonological phrase 50 2.5 The phonological sentence 55 2 .6 Phonetic description of phoneme units 56 2*7 Phoneme frequency 59 Chapter 3 Tone 61 3*1 Introduction 63 3.2 Lexical tone 70 3.3 Grammatical tone on the verbal group 77 3 .4 Grammatical tone on items otherthan the 84 verbal group 3.5 Morphophonemic tone changes 89 5 Contents continued Chapter 4 Units above the Sentence 99 4.0 Introduction and summary 100 4.1 The Discourse unit 100 4.2 The Utterance unit 101 Chapter 5 The Sentence 107 5.0 Introduction 108 5.1 The question sentence 108 5*2 The hortative sentence 115 5.5 The sequential sentence 116 5.4 The initiative sentence 116 5.5 The sentence preliminary 117 5.6 The sentence periphery 120 5.7 The sentence complex 125 5.8 The final marker 132 Chapter 6 The Clause 155 6.0 Introduction 158 6.1 The Mood component 140 6.2 The Transitivity components part I 158 Types of process and participant roles 6.3 The Transitivity components part II 190 Circumstantial roles 6.4 The Theme component 199 Chapter 7 The Verbal Group 208 7.0 Introduction 210 7.1 Features specified through the mood features 215 of the clause 7.2 Other features of the major verbal group 221 7.3 The emphatic-action feature 229 6 Contents continued 8 The Nominal Phrase 230 8.0 Introduction 232 8.1 The nucleus of the nominal phrase 234 8.2 Person, concord-class and number 236 8.3 The isolative and exclusive features 236 8.4 Demonstrative, specific and total features 238 8.5 Which-interrogative and general features 240 8.6. The relative extension 244 8.7 Modifications of the nominal phrase in 251 adjunct/locative relation 8.8 The nominal phrase complex 254 9 The Word and Morpheme units 260 9.0 Introduction 261 9.1 Word units 261 9 . H The emphatic particle 261 9.12 The adverb 262 9.13 The noun 265 9.14 The numeral 272 9.2 Inventory of classes 274 10 The Concord-class system 277 O o * Introduction 278 10.1 Realization 278 10,2 Noun sets 279 10,5 Singular and plural pairings 280 10.4 Semantic correspondences 281 10.5 Irregular forms 283 10.6 Consonantal concord elements 283 10.7 Textual examples 284 7 Contents continued Chapter XI Texts 285 T&xt A Punctuality 286 Tfext B The Sun and the River 292 Text C The Tortoise and the Elephants 304 Farm Text 3) The Blind Beggar 3Q8 Bibliography 312 Abbreviations 314 8 symbolization Except when indicated all examples are written phonemically. The phonetic manifestation of phoneme units is described in 2.6. Symbols are used as in IPA with the following exceptionss p voiceless ^ bilabial fricative^ - IPA ^^ b voiced j ^ (3 y palatal semi-vowel j c voiceless j aiveo„pa]_atal affricate = IPA j voiced j ft palatal nasal - IPA ji *t; £ l^p s f consonants with fortis articulation in phonemic contrast with corresponding lenis consonants o back open rounded vowel = IPA X> a is used to mark open transition Tone symbols are discussed on page 65. Boundary symbols<; . marks the boundary between syllable-piece units within the word-piece (used in chapter 2 and 3 only) - marks morpheme boundaries within the word. Morpheme boundaries are marked only where relevant. /// marks the end of a sentence unit / marks a phonological pause, also the end of an intonation contour Underlining Solid underlining ____ is used in examples to indicate the item under focus when it is given in its larger context. Underlining is not used when no context is given. Broken lines ________ indicate the extent of a down ranked unit, including the relative clause*.and double broken lines to show the extent of units functioning in linear recursive relation. Abbreviations are listed on page 314. 9 of contents CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION Map 10 The Mhembe language and people 11 The Present Study 13 The Theoretical Framework 14 Levels of language 14 Rank 14 Class 16 System 17 Selection expression 20 Structure 21 Markedness 22 Recursion 23 Components of language 24 Interpretation 25 10 Sketch map of the Mbembe area showing the main clan divisions and the approximate position of the major Adun villages / /NORTHERN jOPONG Abak^liki M l k : ' 0F0MB0NGA Obubra PONG Aeibem lanura iKfabene \ °KQM to ^XOderega Ugep^' NIGERIA & vOnyadama ADUj .Ofukwa .Arobon 5miles j j 1 approximate scale 11 CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION 1.1 The Mbembe Language and People The Mbemhe language is spoken by approximately 40,000 people in the Obubra division, Abakaliki province, of the former Eastern Region of Nigeria (see map p.10). This area is now included in the South East State of Nigeria. 1 Neighbouring languages are loKo (Yakd) , leGbo (Agbo) and Asiga to the west, kuKele (Ukelle), Ekajuk (Akajuk), Nnam, Nselle, Nta (Atam), lyala and Ofutop to the north and east.