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Morphosyntax of Dagbani Nominal Phrase Ziblim Yakubu 2018

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Morphosyntax of Dagbani Nominal Phrase Ziblim Yakubu 2018 University of Education Winneba http://ir.uew.edu.gh UNIVERSITY OF EDUCATION, WINNEBA MORPHOSYNTAX OF DAGBANI NOMINAL PHRASE ZIBLIM YAKUBU 2018 University of Education Winneba http://ir.uew.edu.gh UNIVERSITY OF EDUCATION, WINNEBA MORPHOSYNTAX OF DAGBANI NOMINAL PHRASE ZIBLIM YAKUBU (8160080001) A THESIS IN THE DEPARTMENT OF APPLIED LINGUISTICS, FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES EDUCATION AND COMMUNICATION, SUBMITTED TO THE SCHOOL OF GRADUATE STUDIES, UNIVERSITY OF EDUCATION, WINNEBA, IN PARTIAL FUIFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE AWARD OF MASTER OF PHILOSOPHY (APPLIED LINGUISTICS) DEGREE JULY, 2018 University of Education Winneba http://ir.uew.edu.gh DECLARATION STUDENT’S DECLARATION I, Ziblim Yakubu, hereby declare that this thesis, with the exception of quotations and references contained in published works 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 else where. Signature:…………………………………….. Date:…………………………………………… SUPERVISORS DECLARATION We hereby declare that the preparation and presentation of this work was supervised in accordance with the guidelines for supervision of Thesis as laid down by the University of Education, Winneba. Principal Supervisor: Dr. Kwaku Ofori Signature:…………………………………….. Date:…………………………………………… Co-Supervisor: Dr. Rogers Krobea Asante Signature:…………………………………….. Date:…………………………………………… ii University of Education Winneba http://ir.uew.edu.gh ACKNOWEDGMENTS My sincere appreciation goes to the almighty Allah for granting me good health, guidance, knowledge and wisdom throughout this course. My profound immortal gratitude goes to my supervisors, Dr. Kwaku Ofori and Dr. Rogers Krobea Asante, for their support, direction and guidance that eventually saw the completion of this thesis. I will forever be grateful. I would also like to thank the entire staff of the Department of Applied Linguistics and my lecturers: Prof. Esilfie, Prof. Yusuff, Dr. Akpanglo-Nartey, Dr. Lomotey, Dr. Agbedor, Dr. Akanlig-Pare, and Dr. Amuzu for their kind and valuable pieces of advice. I also appreciate the efforts of my family, especially, my father Alhaji Ziblim Menika, my mother Ziblim Ashetu and my wifes Abukari Warihana and Abdulai Nafisah, and also my children, Abdul-Kayum Wuntuma, Safiya Tipahiya and Subaha Suhuyini, for their patience, love, and consistent prayers that gave me sound mind to complete this work on schedule. Further, I would like to thank my course mates: Jordor Abra Josphine, Boakye Benard and Nakotey Daniel God-Dey, and my childhood friend and colleague Salifu Issah at Tamale College of Education for the encouragement and friendship they provided me during the period. iii University of Education Winneba http://ir.uew.edu.gh DEDICATION To Almighty Allah iv University of Education Winneba http://ir.uew.edu.gh LIST OF ABBREVIATION 1 First person 2 Second person 3 Third person ANIM Animate CONJ Conjuction DEF Definiteness marker DEM Demonstrative DET Determiner DIST Distal FOC Focus FUT Future INANIM Inanimate INDEF Indefiniteness NEG Negative NUM Number OBJ Object PART Particle PDD proximal directional demonstrative PERF Perfective PL Plural POSS Possessive PRST Present v University of Education Winneba http://ir.uew.edu.gh PRO Pronoun PROG Progressive PST Past QUAN Quantifier RCM Relative clause maker SG Singular SUBJ Subjects STAT Stative vi University of Education Winneba http://ir.uew.edu.gh LSIST OF TABLES Table Page 1: Dagbani Noun/Adjective Class System 53 2: Personal Pronouns in Dagbani. 84 vii University of Education Winneba http://ir.uew.edu.gh LIST OF FIGURE Figure Page 3.1 Map of Districts in Northern Region, Ghana 43 viii University of Education Winneba http://ir.uew.edu.gh ABSTRACT This thesis investigates the morphosyntax of the Dagbani (Gur, Niger-Congo) nominal Phrase (NP). The study described the internal components or constituents of the nominal phrase. It looked at the sequential order and distribution of the elements within the NP in addition to the pronominal system of the language. The methods used to collect the data were focus group discussion and elicitation. The Basic Linguistic Theory (BLT) (cf. Dixon, 2009, 2010, 2012) was adopted for this study. The study revealed that the Dagbani noun phrase exhibite the following order: (Reference particle) – Noun – (Adjective) – (Numeral) – (Relative clause) – (Article) – (Quantifier) – (Intensifier). Apart from the reference particle lala ‘that’, which occurs prenominally, all other modifiers are postnominal. The study demonstrated that the cardinal and ordinal numerals differ in their syntactic realisations with the head noun. It is also demonstrated that Dagbani has two demonstratives, that is, proximal demonstrative ŋɔ ‘this’, which indicates that a referent is closer to the speaker and distal demonstrative ŋɔ ha/sa ‘that’ which indicates that the speaker is not closer to the referent(s). The study demonstrated that some pronouns maintain their form regardless of whether they occur in nominative (subject) or accusative (object) slots. It also found that Dagbani speakers do not use resumptive pronouns in their relative clauses. The study will serve as a way of documenting and preserving the knowledge of Dagbani speakers. It will also serve as a reference material which could be used to develop educational materials and written literature for the use of students and lecturers. ix University of Education Winneba http://ir.uew.edu.gh CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION 1.0 Introduction This thesis discusses the morphosyntax of the nominal phrase of Dagbani, a Gur-language in northern Ghana. It aims to contribute to the understanding of the morphology and syntax of Dagbani nominal phrase using the Basic Linguistic Theory (Dixon, 2009, 2010, 2012). It discusses the structure of the nominal phrase, the morphological processes that take place as well as the syntactic relations that exist in the Dagbani nominal phrase. Specifically, this chapter talks about the language and its speakers, background to the study, statement of the problem, objectives of the study, research questions, significance of the study, and limitation of the study, and the organization of the study. 1.1 The Language and its Speakers Dagbani is a Gur language spoken in northern Ghana. It belongs to the Oti- Volta sub group, a major branch of Gur languages within the Niger-Congo family (Bendor-Samuel, 1989; Hudu, 2010; Naden, 1988; Naden, 1989). Dagbani is one of the dominant languages in northern Ghana. It is the mother tongue of two ethnic groups, the Dagbamba and the Nanumba. It is highly intelligible to Mampruli and closely related to Dagaare, Gurunɛ, Kusaal and Waala; hence, the speakers of these ethnic groups call one another m ma bia ‘my relative (lit. my mother’s child)’. There are probably over two million native Dagbani speakers (Hudu, 2010). The population censuses in Ghana put the following related groups, Dagbamba, Nanumba, Mamprusi and Moshe (spoken mainly in Burkina Faso and Cote d’ Ivoire) into one group called Mole-Dagbani (Hudu, 2010). According to Ghana Statistical Service (2000), 1 University of Education Winneba http://ir.uew.edu.gh Dagbamba and Nanumbas who speak Dagbani constitute over two thirds of the Mole- Dagbani language speakers in Ghana. Dagbani has three main dialects, the Western, Eastern and Nanuni. The Western dialect (also known as Tomosili) is spoken in Tamale the largest city in northern Ghana and the administrative capital of Dagbamba and its surrounding towns and villages. The Eastern dialect (Nayahili) is spoken in Yendi, the traditional capital of the Dagbamba ethnic group. The third dialect, Nanuni, is spoken in Bimbilla and its surrounding towns and villages. The traditional and administrative capital is Bimbilla. Among the three dialects, the Western dialect is standardized. It is spoken on both national radio and television, and also taught as a subject /course in schools from basic to tertiary level. A great number of Dagbamba are Muslims and a small number being Christians and few being Traditionalists. 1.1.1 Dagbaŋ The traditional state of the Dagbamba is called Dagboŋ. It covers a land area of about 9,611 square kilometres lying between latitude 9 ˚N and 10 ˚N. Its length cuts across Kubalim in the South East of Zabzugu District to Zantani in the North West of Tolon District, with total distance of about 322km and width is about 161km (Mahama, 2004). Dagboŋ has ten (10) administrative capitals. Out of this number, seven are district capitals, two municipal and one metropolitan which is Tamale. The main towns in Dagboŋ are Tamale, Yendi, Saveligu, Sagnarigu, Gushigu, Zabzugu, Kariga, Cheripuni, Tolon, Kumbugu, Saŋ, Saboba, Nanton, Tatali as well as Mion. It shares boundaries with a highly mutual intelligible dialect Nanumba in the south-east, in the south-west it shares boundary with Gonjas, and in the northern part it shares boundary with Mamprusi. Even though there is no definite figure on the number of speakers of Dagbani from Ghana statistical service, there are probably over three million people who speak the language as their L1. Dagbaŋ is noted to be one of the 2 University of Education Winneba http://ir.uew.edu.gh food baskets of Ghana but a reasonable number of them are peasant farmers and a few are commercial farmers. The main crops they cultivate are cassava, maize, yams, rice, groundnut, millet, guinea cone, soya bean, mango, sheanut, cashew, and vegetables. They also rear animals and birds like cattle, goat, sheep, fowls, guinea fowl, turkey, dove etc. 1.2 Morphology and Syntax of Dagbani These are the basic characteristics of grammatical features of the language, some of which will be discussed into details later (cf. Olawsky, 1999; Bodomo, 2004; Hudu, 2005, 2010; Issah 2013). Morphology: • Nouns and adjectives have the same Morphology. • Like other Gur languages, which show empirical evidence of derivational and inflection suffixes, Dagbani also has only derivational and inflectional suffixes; it does not have prefixes like Kwa languages. • Noun has a pair of suffixes for singular and for plural. • Inflectional suffixes are predominant in Dagbani.
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