ASPECTS OF KANINKON VERB PHRASE
JAMES, VICTORIA JOY
07/15CB061
A LONG ESSAY SUBMITTED TO THE DEPARTMENT OF
LINGUISTICS AND NIGERIAN LANGUAGES, FACULTY OF ARTS,
UNIVERSITY OF ILORIN, ILORIN, KWARA STATE, NIGERIA
IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE
AWARD OF THE DEGREE OF BACHELOR OF ARTS, B.A (HONS)
LINGUISTICS
MAY, 2011
CERTIFICATION
This research work has been read and approved as meeting the
requirements of the Department of Linguistics and Nigerian Languages,
Faculty of Arts, University of Ilorin, Ilorin, Nigeria.
_______________________
DR. B. E. AROKOYO
Project Supervisor
________________
DATE
_______________________
PROF. ABDULSALAM
Head of Department
________________
DATE
_______________________
EXTERNAL SUPERVISOR
________________
DATE
ii
DEDICATION
This research work is dedicated to God Almighty, the Creator of
Heaven and Earth, who in His infinite mercy has made it possible to begin
and to bring to an end this research work successfully, glory be to God
Almighty.
iii
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
Firstly, my acknowledgement goes to God for His love, mercy and
protection over me. Also to my lovely and wonderful family members
especially my mother Mrs. Juliana James who has been very supportive
spiritually, financially, morally to me from the beginning of my life.
Throughout my academy life she has been very prayerful towards my success,
there is no mother like my mother (I pray you and Daddy will reap the fruit of
your labour).
I am also grateful to my valuable and accommodating project
supervisor Dr. B. E. Arokoyo, who despite her tight schedule found time to go
through my work. I pray God will perfect everything concerning you and give
you a safe delivery.
I am particularly recording my deep appreciation to my wonderful and
lovely fiancé Olaniyan Dotun Stephen, who has always been encouraging me
even when all hope seems to be lost, I see him always by my side. I can not
forget also those that contributed to the success of this project work, people
like, Scholar Mayowa, Olajide Dupe, Akindele Atinuke, particularly my
siblings; Segun, Odun, Dunni and the rest of them they have all contributed
iv
financially, spiritually and morally to my success. Having them as part of me
has really given me a lot of hope. Love you all and God bless you.
I cannot forget to acknowledge those who built in me the knowledge of
linguistics and as well gave me sound, moral and academic support, Mr. S. A.
Aje, Dr. Oyebola, Prof. Abdulsalam, Dr. Sanusi, Mr. Friday Otun, Mrs.
Arokoyo more power to your elbows.
Lastly, I want to appreciate the support of my friends; Sherifat
Adewumi, Agbaje Temitope, Olajide Tolulope, Abbey Oluwaseun and the
rest of them God bless you all. Thanks.
v
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Title Page
i
Certification
ii
Dedication
iii
Acknowledgement
iv
Table of Contents
vi
List of Abbreviation and Symbols
xi
CHAPTER ONE
GENERAL BACKGROUND
1.0
Introduction
1
1.1
Historical Background of Kaninkon People
1
1.2
Socio - cultural Profile
4
1.2.1 Occupation
4
1.2.2 Religion
5
1.2.3 Festival
6
1.2.4 Marriage
6
1.2.5 Language Status
7
1.3
7
Genetic Classification
vi
1.4
Scope and Organization of the Study
9
1.5
Data Collection
10
1.6
Data Analysis
11
1.7
Theoretical Framework
12
1.8
Brief Review of Government and Binding Theory
12
1.8.1 X – Bar Theory
15
1.8.2 Theta Theory
16
1.8.3 The Case Theory
17
1.8.4 The Government Theory
19
1.8.5 The Binding Theory
21
1.8.6 The Bounding Theory
23
1.8.7 The Control Theory
25
CHAPTER TWO
BASIC PHONOLOGICA AND SYNTACTIC CONCEPTS
2.0
Introduction
26
2.1
Defining Phonology
26
2.2
The Vowel System of Kaninkon
26
2.3
The Consonant System of Kaninkon
35
vii
2.4
Tone System
44
2.4.1 Co – Occurrence of Tones in Kaninkon
46
2.4.2 Functions of Tones
48
2.5
49
Syllable Structure of Kaninkon
BASIC SYNTACTIC CONCEPTS
2.6
Phrase Structure Rules
51
2.6.1 Lexical Categories
53
2.6.1.1
Nouns
54
2.6.1.2
Pronouns
55
2.6.1.3
Adjectives
56
2.6.1.4
Adverbs
56
2.6.1.5
Prepositions
57
2.6.1.6
Verbs
58
2.6.2 Phrasal Categories
59
2.6.2.1
Noun Phrase
59
2.6.2.2
Verb Phrase
60
2.6.2.3
Adjectival Phrase
61
2.6.2.4
Prepositional Phrase
62
viii
2.7
Basic Word Order
62
2.8
Sentence Types
64
2.8.1 Simple Sentence
65
2.8.2 Compound Sentence
66
2.8.3 Complex Sentence
68
CHAPTER THREE
VERB PHRASE IN KANINKON
3.0
Introduction
71
3.1
Structure of Verb Phrase
71
3.2
Subcategorization of Verbs
73
3.2.1 Transitive Verbs
73
3.2.2 Intransitive Verbs
76
3.2.3 Complex Transitive Verb
80
3.3
Structure of Kaninkon Verb Phrase
82
3.4
Verbs with Sentential Complements
92
3.4.1 Epistemic Verb
93
3.4.2 Desiderative Verb
94
3.4.3 Causative Verb
94
ix
3.5
Phrasal Verbs
96
3.5.1 Transitive Phrasal Verbs
96
3.5.2 Intransitive Phrasal Verbs
98
3.6
98
Serial Verbs
CHAPTER FOUR
TRANSFORMATIONAL PROCESSES IN KANINKON
4.0
Introduction
101
4.1
Transformational Components
102
4.2
Focus Construction
104
4.2.1 The Focus Phrase
105
4.2.2 The Constituents of Focus
106
4.3
Relativization
113
4.4
Question Formation
118
4.4.1 WH Question in Kaninkon
118
CHAPTER FIVE
5.0
Introduction
122
5.1
Summary
122
5.2
Conclusion
123
Reference
124
x
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND SYMBOLS
NP – Noun Phrase
VP
–
Verb Phrase
PP
–
Prepositional Phrase
AP
–
Adjectival Phrase
CP
–
Complementizal Phrase
IP
–
Inflectional Phrase
FP
–
Focus Phrase
SYMBOLS
Low Tone
–
Mid Tone
High Tone
M
Mid
L
Low
H
High
xi
CHAPTER ONE
GENERAL BACKGROUND
1.0
INTRODUCTION
This research work is on the aspect of the syntax of Kaninkon
Language spoken in Jema’a Local Government Area of Kaduna State. By
syntax, we mean the aspect of language which deals with how words are put
together to form sentences and how such sentences are interpreted in natural
languages.
In this chapter, we will be discussing the historical background of the
language, sociocultural profile under which we shall discuss the occupation,
religion, marriage, festival and the language status as well as the genetic
classification of the language. The research methodology used is the frame
technique, while government and binding theory is used to analyze Kaninkon
verb phrase.
1.1
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF KANINKON PEOPLE
According to oral history by his “Royal Highness Malam Bako
Galadima” a native speaker of Kaninkon language, the Kaninkon people are
among the indigenous tribes of Jema’a Local Government and Kafanchan
1
Area in particular. They are indigenous to the area they occupy. The area they
occupy traditionally has borders with Kagoro to the North East, Baiju to the
North, Kagoma to the West, Numana and Mada to the South. They are
brothers with Nindem and Kanufi who are also to the South East.
Oral tradition indicates that the Kaninkon people came to their present
abode from Katsina, this appears to be the Katsina of Benue area (Katsina alla). They may probably descend from Kaita family in the present day of
Katsina State. This might have been made known from oral history passed
down from their forefathers.
The initial migration involved many clans but probably due to interclan
conflicts, only two clans constitute the Kaninkon. These are Turan to the
South and Ngbechio to the North. Turan the ancestor of the southern clan had
two wives, who bore him three (3) sons. One of the wives had two sons while
the other had only one. Kyung was the older of the two sons from one of the
wives, Ngarchem (Gerti) was his younger brother. The only son to the other
wife was Kper (Amere).
The Kyung people were the first in Kaninkon land to have introduce
the Hausa type of rulership by Shabiri Ngom. This was during the reign of
2
Kyop – Ngban – Nikyop Ba’aro Yajod. He was said to have sold out one of
his twin daughters to the Hausa ruling house to be crowned as the first Tum
(i.e. ruler) of Kyung (Bakin Kogi). Later in about 1810 (before recorded
history) after he had been crowned the first Tum, the daughter by name,
Heidiza placed a curse on the family of Shabiri. She said the family will never
give birth to twins. She was not happy with the treatment she met, it is said
that her father’s action was later cleansed by the elders of the clan.
The Kaninkon did not lived in isolation but with other neighbours
namely: Ningom, Numana, Ninzam, Mada, Kagoma, Kagoro, Ayu, Jaba,
Sanga and Bajju. Indeed, when the British administration arrived, it refused to
classify Ningom and Numana as different tribes but as clans of the same tribe
with the Kaninkon. This classification resulted from the similarities in culture,
language and other anthropological parameters. Some of these include;
counting from one to twelve instead of one to ten, the same language, same
dance, settlement patterns, same tribal marks and the culture in general. The
slight different in language spoken might be due to geographic spread and
migration.
3
It is not so difficult to identify a Kaninkon man when he is conversing
or discussing with his kinsmen or some other persons. They also speak the
dialect to their children at home.
1.2
SOCIOCULTURAL PROFILE
Its is believed that every society has its own way of life, this is a wide
variation from culture to culture of values and norms of which Kaninkon also
has.
1.2.1 OCCUPATION
Farming was the major economic system of Kyung people (Kaninkon).
Traditional agriculturist depend not only on labour but also the assistants of
kinsmen and neighbours to clear large farms plough, plant and harvest them.
The Kyung traditional agriculturist involve the division of labour according to
sex and age, it involve the men and women. The division of labour among the
Kyung people shows that men did the work that require more physical
exercise that has to do with direct production and consumption, women
assisted by the way of cooking and other less tedious work.
4
The production of Kyung people were mainly food crops, the principal
crops are guinea corn, aki, cocoa yam. Other minor crops cultivated along
side the principal crops were maize, wini seed, coconut, cassava and pupkins.
1.2.2 RELIGION
In the year 1932, Christianity came into the land and with the advent of
Christianity, traditional religions beliefs give way and at the moment there are
two religions: Christianity and Islam. Islam is restricted to only one district (Dangoma District), the rest of the chiefdom can be said to be about ninety
percent Christians. Only few people still practice traditional religion but they
are not recognized in the society.
Christianity got its first convert in Kaninkon land in the year 1932. The
Late Pastor Tete became the first Christian convert on 8th May 1932 and was
baptized on the 4th October 1934. In the same year three other Kaninkon
people from Ung - fan became Christians they were Mang Kagoro (Makama
Ung Fari), Garba Shuri and Eperi. Their convert was to Sudan interior
mission (Sim) how Evangelical Church of West Africa (E.C.W.A), as a result
of this Kaninkon Chiefdom is now predominantly E.C.W.A.
5
1.2.3 FESTIVAL
On the festivities, the major ones use to be the celebration of the
anniversary of the death of an old person, marriage and initiation. While
marriage could take place at any time most festivities were reserved for the
dry season especially for the month of March to early May. Thus, if an old
person died in the raining season, there would be a normal drumming and
little celebration but the proper celebration would be shifted to the dry season.
There was a big festivity known as “DUNG”, when ever there was
DUNG which is not every year but occasionally it could take place in “Turan”
the Southern part of Kaninkon or “Ngbechio” the Northern part of Kaninkon.
There was no celebration like naming ceremony and like which are currently
influenced by Christianity.
1.2.4 MARRIAGE
On marriage, baby girls could be bethroded right from birth, that is, if a
girl was born in a family, a father from another family could say “this girl will
be a wife to my son” and like joke if interest continued this could eventually
happen and did happen a lot. The Kaninkon people does not marry to a
stranger rather they marry themselves.
6
The celebration of marriage only takes place once in a while, if a
maiden refuses to celebrate her marriage at time of marriage celebration she
will have to wait till another time that marriage are been celebrated in the
land.
1.2.5 LANGUAGE STATUS
Kaninkon language is spoken in the Northern and Southern part of
Nigeria. According to “His Royal Highness Mallam Bako Galadima” a native
speaker of Kaninkon language, gave the population of Kaninkon speakers at
about sixty thousand (60,000) and it is spoken in Kaduna and Katsina State.
The alternative name for the language is Nikyob.
1.3
GENETIC CLASSIFICATION
Murrit Ruhlen (1987:1) state that “the idea that groups of languages
that share certain systemic resemblances have inherited those similarities
from a common origin is the basis for genetic classification”.
A genetic classification is a sub grouping of all relevant languages into
genetic nodes (groups of languages in each of which one language is more
closely related to the other in that group than to any language outside the
group).
7
A genetic classification thus makes two statements; first, it affirms that
certain languages are infact related to each other (i.e. share a common
ancestor). Second, it specifies that languages are inherited in the form of a
branching diagram.
NIGER-KORDOFANIAN
Kordofanian
West Atlantic
Niger Congo
Mande
Bantoid
Gur
Cross river
Plateau 1
Basa Basakomo
Benue Congo
Jukuniod
Adamawa Ubangia
Plateau
Plateau 2
Bushi Dukwa
Doka Kaninkon Jaba Kagoma Lungu
(By C. F. and F. M. Voegelm 1997)
8
1.4
SCOPE AND ORGANIZATION OF THE STUDY
The research work describes the aspect of Kaninkon verb phrase. It
examines the structure of verb phrase in Kaninkon language and the
transformation process involving the structure of verb phrase. These process
and excemplications are presented and analyzed using the model known as
the Government and Binding theory.
Five chapters are proposed for this research essay. Chapter one present
the introductory parts of the research work dealing mainly with sociocultural
profile of Kaninkon language. It also presents the research methodology
adopted in the project. Chapter two presents a brief review of the sounds,
tones and syllable inventory of the Kaninkon language. This chapter
discussed the basic syntactic concepts that are common to this area of study.
Chapter three focuses on the Kaninkon verb phrase which is the focus
of this research work. Chapter four described the transformation process
involving verb phrase in Kaninkon language. Chapter five which is the
concluding part of this research work summarizes the entire work and
presents recommendations.
9
1.5
DATA COLLECTION
Samarin (1967:43) says “the kind of corpus a field researcher obtains is
determined by the purpose and the techniques he adopts in data collection.
The focus of this research work is largely and primarily for language
description”.
The two possible methods of data collection, i.e. “the informant method
and the introspective method” the informant or contact method is adopted in
this research in which the native speaker serves as a source of information as
well as the elevator of all the utterances given to him by the investigator.
The two informants or language helpers that kindly participated in the
development of this research work are: “Mrs. Nicholas and Mallam Bako
Galadima”. Mrs. Nicholas is a native speaker of Kaninkon language spoken in
Kaduna State, she is thirty three years old (33), and Mallam Bako Galadima
who is also a native speaker of the language is fifty five years old. He helped
in given information about the sociocultural profile of the language.
The work list (Ibadan 400 wordlist) is equally utilized in this research
work. The list is used to collect a number of words for verification and
analysis in this research work.
10
The frame technique forms a crucial part of this research work since it
is the domain of syntax. Syntax as a level of linguistics does not deals with
words in isolation but with the mechanism of producing a grammatically
acceptable sentence. To this end, the use of frame technique involves writing
sample sentences and phrases which the informants translate. The importance
of “frame techniques” lies in the fact that it makes it easier for a field
researcher to determine the actual underlying nature of a given constituent as
well as the possible morphological or syntactic context in which such a word
or constituent can occur within a grammatical sentence. For example, the
morphological or syntactic component of “man” in English language can be
derived if the word is used in different syntactic position; subject, object,
direct object, indirect object etc.
1.6
DATA ANALYSIS
Data analysis is based on the forms produced by native speaker and it is
implemented in order to discover what obtains in the language under study.
The data in this research work will be analyzed using the “Government
and Binding” model i.e. the different sub-theories of GB like x – bar theory
(crucial for the projection of phrasal categories from lexical categories) and
11
movement theory (used for the exemplication of verbal movement from one
place to another).
1.7
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
Many theories have been provided for analyzing language data in order
to present a systematic account (or descriptive) of the linguistic knowledge or
competence a native speaker of a language possesses. Such theories are used
as theoretical frame work or methodological tools for analyzing language
data. They include: Traditional Grammar, Structural or Taxonomic Grammar,
Systemic Grammar, Transformational Generative grammar and Government
and Binding Theory.
1.8
BRIEF REVIEW OF GOVERNMENT AND BINDING THEORY
Government and Binding theory was introduced by Chomsky (1981).
The model takes its name from two of its sub-theories. Binding deals with
conditions that are formally related or bind certain contents of a sentence and
Government deals with the structure contents, within which these Binding
relationship obtain, the approach is also described by the phrase principles
and parameter theories.
12
GB – theory has two levels of syntactic structure, the D - structure and
S - structure. At the level of deep structure all elements are in their original
location while at surface structure, elements have been moved. These two
levels of representation are mapped through the rule, Move Alpha (Move - ).
As mentioned earlier, these sub – theories interplay and dictate what
can be moved from where (i.e. extraction site) and to where (i.e. landing site).
The module account for ungrammaticality resulting from violation of rules
and conditions. These modules includes: X - bar theory, theta theory, case
theory, Government theory, Binding theory, Bounding theory and control
theory. The relationship between one sub - theory and the other can be shown
below.
13
MODULES OF GRAMMAR
X-BAR THEORY
D- Structure
Projection principle
Lexicon
Move-
(Bounding)
 - theory
(Theta criterion)
Case Theory
(Case filter)
S - Structure
ECP
Control
Binding theory
Phonetic form
Logical form
Modules of grammar (Adapted from Sells (1985) and Cook (1988))
14
1.8.1 X – BAR THEORY
X – bar theory is part of the grammar that regulates and brings out what
is common in the structure of phrases. Cook (1988:94) says; in the X - theory,
the phrase structure is a comparatively simple system derived from a few
principles and setting of certain parameters.
A phrase always contains a head in X - bar theory, there by showing
hierarchy among the constituents. Heads are terminal nodes that dominate
words. According to Haeigeman (1991:105), two levels of projection are
distinguished in X - bar theory. These are the specifier and complement
positions respectively.
X”
X’
(Specifier)
X
(Radford 2002:229)
15
(Complement)
X” above ranges over all phrasal categories like Noun Phrases, Verb
Phrases, Adjectives Phrases, Prepositional Phrases for X and its complement
where applicable. ‘X’ is category Noun, Verb, Adjective and preposition.
Specifier and complement represent grammatical functions or relations, they
have a status similar to terms such as ‘subject’ or ‘object’. They are optional
constituents for some phrases but obligatory for some other. (Radford,
2002:229).
1.8.2 THETA THEORY
Theta theory deals with the assignment of semantic rules to participates
in a sentences and it is constrained by the theta - criterion. A sentence
contains relationship such as who is doing the action and who or what is
being affected by the action. According to Radford (2002:373) each are
subject or complement of a verb or preposition.
Theta - roles are a part of the lexical entry for a verb or prepositions, they
assign θ – roles to the noun phrases that they strictly subcategorize for. The
verb phrase compositionally assigns an external θ - rules to the subject NP
which is an external argument. According to the Theta - Theory, every
argument must be assigned a θ - rule, hence for a noun phrase to be relevant,
16
it must be Theta – marked. Every Noun phrase must have a role it is playing
in a sentence. For example,
(A) * Olu killed the goat a knife
The NP “a knife” in (A) above does not seem to be relevant in the
sentence above, this is because it has not been assigned a Theta - role as a
result of the absence of preposition that should assign the role.
In (B) below, the NP “a knife” is made relevant with the presence of the
preposition.
(B) Olu killed the goat with a knife.
The preposition assigns the instrumental rule to the NP thereby making
it relevant.
The common Theta - roles are: agent, patient, goal, locative, source,
experience and Benefactive.
1.8.3 THE CASE THEORY
Case theory has to do primarily with forms that NPs take in different
syntactic environments (Yusuf 1986:26). Case account for some of the formal
properties of Noun phrases. Case theory according to Haegeman (1991:180)
is the module of grammar that is concerned with the distribution of NPs with
17
grammatical sentences Chomsky (1986:74) assumes that all NPs with lexical
content are assigned (abstract) case.
Case is a property of Noun phrase. It is one of the modules of
Government and Binding theory that interacts with other sub - theories to
determine grammatically or ungrammatically. These cases are said to be
assigned under “Government”. The common case types are:
Nominative – Assigned by tensed INFL
Accusative – Assigned by verbs
Oblique – Assigned by prepositions.
Adjacency is also one of the requirements of case assignment. This is to
say that case assignees and case assignors must be contiguous with no barrier
blocking to discharge of the (abstract) case. An example from Hausa and
Yoruba languages each will suffice to illustrate the prose description.
Example in Hausa
(A) Tahiru taa ziyara Lukman a gida
Tahiru AGR visit Lukman at house
“Tahiru visited Lukman at home”
18
Tahiru being subject gets Nom case from INFL which is [+ tense] Ziyara
assigns ACC case to Lukman and ‘a’ (a preposition assigns OBL case to
gida). In Yoruba
(B) Ade n je isu ni ile
Ade ASP eat yam at home
“Ade is eating yam at home”
Where Ade being the subject gets Nom case from INFL, V (je) assigns
ACC case to isu and P (ni) assigns OBL case to ile.
1.8.4 THE GOVERNMENT THEORY
Cook (1988:37) remarks that government theory refers to a particular
relationship of high abstraction between a ‘governor’ and an element that it
governs. A lexical head govern its complement and INFL governs its subject.
Verbs and prepositions govern Noun phrases in a sentence.
According to Malmjaer (1991:495), Government theory deals with the
relationship in other sub - theories. It is a long known fact of grammar that a
verb governs it object [where the object could be NP, PP]. Thus, verbs like
see, kill, draw, explain, write etc govern their NP objects. Also where a
preposition is found often, an NP follows, giving rise to the statement that a
19
preposition govern its NP object, only lexical categories can be governors
(Chomsky 1986:162). The configuration for government is as below:
XP


Y
X
In the schemata above, C - commands  and other nodes dominated
by XP. In the same vein,  C – commands .  and  can thus assign case to
each other.
However, can assign case to only  and not X and Y, with this
description it is obvious that is crucial to the concept of “government” is the
issue of C-commands which is the relationship between an element and those
other elements it is “superior to” but does not dominate.
Government theory is extended though the principle of proper
government which non-lexical categories do not.
20
1.8.5 THE BINDING THEORY
Binding theory is concerned with the relationship of NP participants in
the sentence (Yusuf, 1998:145). It is the module of grammar that assigns and
regulates an appropriate interpretation of the Noun phrase. The Binding
theory is concerned with connections among Noun phrase that have to do
with such semantic properties as dependence of reference including the
connection between a pronoun and its antecedent (Chomsky, 1988:52).
The theory deals with whether expressions i.e. in the sentence refer to
the same entities as other expressions i.e. it describes when different
expressions refer to the same person, place or thing. There are three NP types
relevant to the Binding theory. They are;
(a) Anaphors
(b) Pronominals
(c) Referential expressions.
Anaphors are NP types like each other and ourselves, that must have
antecedents that they depend on for their existence in technical sentences.
21
According to Riemsdijk and Williams (1986:279), anaphor must be bound in
its governing category. There are two types of anaphor; the reflexives and the
reciprocals.
Reciprocal: (each other, one another)
Reflexives: himself, herself, themselves, ourselves, oneselves etc
Pronominals are personal pronouns that must be free in their governing
category. They do not have antecedent in the sentence.
Referential expressions according to (Yusuf 1998:148) are ‘NPs that
serve to identify some entity in real world’. They are lexical NPs and must be
free. This is expressed better by the three Binding principles.
Principle A: An anaphor must be bound in its governing category.
Principle B: A pronoun must be free in its governing category.
Principle C: An R - expression must be free every where.
(Haegeman, 1991:233)
A violation in any of the Binding principles result in ungrammatical
sentences.
22
1.8.6 THE BOUNDING THEORY
According to Horrocks (1987:128), Bounding theory present the
relationship of movement from extending too far in the sentence. Kristen,
(1991:497) states that “it is concerned with the way movement rule (move )
can be constrained”. In essence, it is concerned with the limitations to placed
on the displacement of constituents by the transformation rule schema move
-----. Generally speaking, movement rule within G.B theory is assumed to
involve three things namely;
1. An extraction site
2. A landing site
3. An intervening gap
Landing site
Intervening site
23
Extraction site
The move alpha is defined as move any constituent from anywhere to
land somewhere. This theory prescribes that any NP can not cross more than
one bounding node. The basic idea to be captured by bounding theory is that
no movement can move an element too far. Subjacency may best be thought
of as a criteria property of move . Any rule that relates two positions at Sstructure such that one C - commands the other and the C - commanded
position is empty, is transformational, provided that, amongst the other
conditions specified below the C- commanded position is subjacent to the C commanding position. The relationship between the empty position (trace)
and its binder is deemed to be transformational in each of the example below;
1 Bertie í seems [s ti to avoid confrontations]
2 Bertie knows [ s what í [S Barty needs tí]]
3 [A book tí NP] came out yesterday [PPí about Bertie and Barty]
The first involves A - binding, the second operator (Ā) binding and the
third a distinct type of Ā - binding (associated with the rightwards movement
of the pp modifier of a book known informally as extraposition NP).
Chomsky (1965).
24
1.8.7 THE CONTROL THEORY
Horrock (1987:31) in his description of control theory says that it is one
in which verbs takes infinitival subject that have null subjects understood as
being co - referential with an NP in the main clause. Chomsky (1965:131)
says that the transformational analysis of sentences with verbs taking
infinitival complements that have null subject understood as being coreferential with an NP in the main clause was abandoned in favour of an
analysis employing interpretive rules. In the examples below, it is clear that in
the first example the empty subject is controlled by the subject of the main
clause and in the second example by the object of the main clause.
(i)
James promised his wife to drop the divorce suit.
(ii)
James persuaded his wife to drop the divorce suit.
Obviously the complement of promise or persuade is pro-positional at
LF; i.e. the empty subject must be supplied as part of the interpretation,
because the empty subject in each case is an argument which is assigned a
- role (in this case that of agent).
Furthermore, both verb i.e. promised and persuaded may take overtly
clausal complement when the verb of the embedded clause is finite.
(i)
James promised his wife that he would drop the divorce suit.
(ii)
James persuaded his wife that she should drop the divorce suit.
25
CHAPTER TWO
BASIC PHONOLOGICAL AND SYNTACTIC CONCEPTS
2.0
INTRODUCTION
In this chapter, some insight into the phonology of Kanikon language is
presented. These include sound inventory, the tone inventory and the syllable
inventory. We also discuss the basic syntactic concepts viz phrase structure
rules, lexical categories, basic word order and sentence types.
2.1
DEFINING PHONOLOGY
Phonology is the study of sound pattern in a language and it differs
from language to language. It studies the system and pattern of speech
sounds. Oyebade (1988:2) says that phonology is the scientific study of the
arbitrary vocal symbols used in human speech and the patterns into which
these symbols enter to produce intelligent utterances. Specifically, phonology
is concerned with the function, behaviour and organization of sounds as
linguistics items.
2.2
THE VOWEL SYSTEMS OF KANINKON
Vowel systems are built along the parameters of degree of aperture or
sonority. The differences between the vowels is that of quality linked to
26
differences of tongue position, and lip position. Other crucial features are
nasalization and length. Kaninkon language have seven oral and nasal vowels,
they are: /i, u, e, o, ,  and a/ and /ĩ, ũ, ẽ, õ,
,
, ã/.
The oral vowel chart is given below:
Oral vowel chart
Front
Centre
Back
High
i
u
Mid – high
e
o
Mid – low


Low
â
Nasal vowel chart
Front
Centre
Back
High
ĩ
ũ
Mid – high
ẽ
õ

Mid – low
Low
ã
27
VOWEL DISTRIBUTION IN KANINKON
Kanikon allows vowel initial, medial and final position in its
distribution
/i/ - High front vowel
Initial position
Medial position
Final position
[iné]
‘soup’
[ikíòsù]
‘raining season’
[ishe]
‘leopard’
[kikíọ]
‘cock’
[nion]
‘bird’
[nni]
‘elephant’
[shi]
‘mouse’
[zeki]
‘monkey’
/e/ - mid high front vowel
Kaninkon language does not allows the mid high front vowel /e/ at the
initial position but allows at the medial and final position
Medial position - [ríém]
‘tongue’
[lèmum]
‘orange’
[rukiere]
‘cooking’
28
Final position -
[zęré]
‘thread’
[múrísé]
‘town’
[inake]
‘sea’
// - mid low front vowel
Kaninkon language does not allows the mid low front vowel () at the
initial position but allow it at word medial and final position.
Medial position - [zęre]
‘thread’
[sw
Final position -
]
‘song’
[wẹru]
‘animal’
[rẹ]
‘stomach’
[mbrẹ]
‘down’
[ru
‘word’
]
/a/ low back unrounded vowel
Initial position-
[ada] ‘matchet’
[alúrà] ‘needle’
Medial position-
[rat]
‘wall’
[takamú] ’shoe’
29
[tagia] ‘hat/cap’
Final position -
‘grass’
`
[gíà]
‘axe’
‘hoe’
/u/ high back rounded vowel
Kaninkon does not allow high back rounded oral vowel at the initial
position except for high back rounded nasal vowel.
Medial position-
Final position
[núnúkui]
‘door’
[guup]
‘bag’
[wúsìa]
‘tail’
[múntú]
‘river’
[chógbú]
‘mountain’
[ikíòsù]
‘raining season’
/o/ mid high back rounded vowel
Kaninkon does not allow mid high back round vowel /o/ at the initial
position.
Medial position-
[dísíón]
‘heart’
[tóhùn]
‘ear’
30
Final position
[doya]
‘yam’
[chíò]
‘head’
[mọnchò]
‘hair’
[cho]
‘neck’
// mid low back rounded vowel
Kanikon does not allow a mid low back rounded vowel /ọ/ at the initial
position but allows at the medial and final position
Medial position - [wọk]
‘hand’
[mọ kwá] ‘skin’
Final position -
[bọt]
‘spear’
[kikíọ]
‘duck’
[wọ]
‘taste’
[jódọ]
‘fly’
DISTRIBUTION OF NASAL VOWELS
/ĩ/ high front nasal vowel
Initial position -
Medial position-
[ĩchèt]
‘penis’
[ĩhío]
‘fat’
[ĩsĩkuòn]
‘leaf’
31
[vĩyion]
‘calabash’
/ẽ/ mid high front nasal vowel
Kaninkon does not allow the mid high front nasal vowel at both the
word initial and word medial position but only at the final position.
Word final position -
[infiẽ] ‘stick’
[vúẽ] ‘child’
/
/ mid low front nasal vowel
Kaninkon does not allow the mid low front nasal vowel /Ĕ/ at both
initial and medial position except at the word final position.
Word final position-
[unvi
[sw
]
‘nose’
m]
‘stick’
/ã/ low back unrounded nasal vowel
Kaninkon does not allow the low back unrounded nasal vowel /ã/ at the
word initial but does allow at the word medial and final position.
Word medial position -
[nzãhùru] ‘sunshine’
[kiãkwan] ‘crab’
Word final position -
[nzã]
‘moon’
[gàrã]
‘story’
32
/ũ/ high back rounded nasal vowel
Initial position –
[ũvien]
‘nose’
[ũbo zàh] ‘thigh’
Word medial position-
Word final position-
[miũkwi]
‘room’
[mũ tú]
‘river’
[unhũ]
‘mat’
[kiuhũ]
‘thing’
/õ/ mid high back rounded nasal vowel
Kaninkon does not allow the mid high back rounded vowel /õ/ at word
initial position.
Word medial position-
Vowel final position-
[ngiõyan]
‘two hundred’
[ngiõyaz]
‘four hundred’
[siokchõ]
‘fifty’
[giõ]
‘hot’
/ / mid low back rounded nasal vowel
Kaninkon does not allow the mid low back rounded nasal vowel at word
initial position.
Word medial position-
[m cho] ‘hair’
Word final position-
[inch ]
‘thorn
33
THE KANINKON CONSONANT CHART
Bilabial
Labiodental
alvelar
Palato
Palatal
Velar
Labiovelar Labializevelar
Glottal
alveolar
Plosive
P
b
t
d
k
g
kp
gb kw
gw
Nasal
m
Fricative
Ŋ
n
f
v s

z
Affricate
t

h
dз
Lateral
l
Approximant
Trill
j
r
34
w
2.3
THE CONSONANT SYSTEM OF KANINKON
Consonants are sound produced with an abstruction of air which may
be total or partial somewhere along the vocal tract. Consonant articulation are
relatively easy to feel, as a result, they are most conveniently described in
terms of place or manner of articulation. In addition, a routine phonetic
description of consonants would involve information about the mode of
vibration of the vocal cords (Crystals, 1994).
In Kaninkon language, there exist a total of 26 consonants. Example of
words containing consonants sounds at initial, medial and final position are
given below;
/b/| voiced bilabial stop
Initial position-
‘spear’
[bọt]
[bi èki è] ‘seed’
‘tobacco’
Word medial position-
[ga ràmba] ‘millet’
/p/- voiceless bilabial stop
Kaninkon does not allow the voiceless bilabial stop /p/ at the word
initial position.
35
Word medial position-
[hapmasit] ‘boat’
[npa]
‘lizard’
‘tear’
Word final position-
‘question’
/t/- voice alveolar stop
‘father’
Word initial position-
Word medial position-
Word final position-
[tum]
‘king’
[ntę̀i]
‘beard’
[ntę]
‘saliva’
[i nchèt]
‘penis’
[pàt]
‘pepper’
[dísíón]
‘heart’
[doya]
‘yam’
[ùndà]
‘okra’
[ada]
‘matchet’
/d/ voiced alveolar stop
Word initial position
Word medial position
‘breast’
Word final position
[zemod]
‘brother’
36
/k/ voiceless velar stop
‘navel’
Word initial position
Word medial position
Word final position
[kwa]
‘body’
[unkwé]
‘fish’
[mó ̣kwá]
‘skin’
[duruwọk] ‘nail’
[wọk]
‘hand’
[gíà]
‘axe’
[gìòn]
‘waterproof’
/g/ voiced velar stop
Word initial position
Word medial position
[guguguh] ‘rope’
[tagia]
Word final position
‘hat’
[ngkarang] ‘snail’
[siong]
‘dwell’
/kp/ voiceless labiovelar stop
The voiceless labiovelar stop /kp/ does not occur word finally in
Kaninkon language.
Word initial position
[kpio]
‘guinea’
37
Word medial position
[kpìpìa]
‘maize’
[nkpa]
‘lizard’
/gb/ voiced labiovelar stop
The voiced labiovelar stop does not occur word finally in Kaninkon
languages.
Word initial position
Word medial position
[gburun]
‘knee’
[gbioru]
‘darkness’
[nmgba]
‘feather’
[ngbęt]
‘chief’
/kw/ voiceless labialize velar stop
The voiceless labialize velar stop /kw/ does not occur word finally in
Kaninkon language.
Word initial position
Word medial position
[kw uọnkwo] ‘fall’
[kwuar]
‘hoe’
[mọkwua]
‘skin’
[unkw uọ]
‘ashes’
38
/gw /voiced labialize velar stop
The voiced labialize velar stop does not occur word finally in Kaninkon
language.
Word initial position
Word medial position
[gwin]
‘feaces’
[gwo]
‘fire’
[ngwu]
‘wind’
[ngwo]
‘ram’
[miyíún]
‘like’
/m/ voiced bilabial nasal
Word initial position
‘break stick’
Word medial position
Word final position
[nmgba]
‘feather’
[zemod]
‘brother’
[zọm]
‘in-law’
[kiom]
‘corpse’
[nonhuk]
‘eat’
/n/ voiced alveolar nasal
Word initial position
‘toad’
[ntọ
Word medial position
]
‘sleep’
39
‘snow’
‘he(s)’
Word final position
‘goat’
[jiọn]
/ŋ/ voiced velar nasal
The voiced velar does not occur at word medial and word final
position.
Word initial
[ŋwon]
‘hundred’
[ŋionyaz]
‘four hundred’
/f/ voiceless labio dental fricative
The voiceless labio dental fricative does not occur word final position.
Word initial position
[fún]
‘catch’
[infien]
‘stick’
/v/ voiced labio dental fricative
The voiced labio dental fricative does not occur word final in Kaninkon
language.
Word initial position
[vinyion]
[vunrí
Word medial position
[nvi ẹn]
‘calabash’
un] ‘male’
‘nose’
40
[unvúkìe]
‘leaf’
/s/ voiceless alveolar fricative
Word initial position
Word medial position
Word final position
[swẹ
]
‘song’
[sìsìt]
‘fear’
[unsẹ]
‘basket’
[múrí
‘town’
[mús]
‘cat’
[kùs]
‘close’
/z/ voiced alveolar fricative
Word initial position
[zik]
‘knife’
[zin]
‘work’
‘cover’
Word medial position
Word final position
[unbózà]
‘thigh’
[siz]
‘cool’
[cho ràz]
‘village’
// voiceless palato alveolar fricative
The voiceless palato alveolar fricative // does not occur at the word
final position.
41
Word initial position
[i]
‘rat’
[at]
‘buffalo’
/t/ voiceless palato alveolar affricate
The voiceless palato alveolar affricate does not occur word final
position in the language.
Word initial position
Word medial position
[tIọ]
‘head’
[tọgbu]
‘mountain’
[mõto]
‘hair’
[ĩtє]
‘palm’
/dз/ voiced palato alveolar affricate
The voiced palato alveolar affricate does not occur at word final
position in the language.
Word initial position
[dзon]
Word medial position
‘dog’
[dзu]
‘hunger’
[nidзip]
‘thief’
[midзa kanan]
‘lose something’
42
/L/ voiced lateral alveolar
It occur word initial, medial, and final position in the language.
Word initial
[Lèmumu]
‘plantain’
Word medial position
[alúrà]
‘needle’
Word final position
[ntel]
‘beard’
/j/ voiced palatal approximant
The voiced palatal approximant does not occur at word final in the
language, but only occur at word initial and word medial position.
Word initial position
[jí:n]
‘teeth’
‘breast’
Word medial position
[doja]
‘yam’
[ijio]
‘mosquito’
/w/ voiced labio velar approximant
The voiced labio velar approximant does not occur at word final
position in the language.
Word initial position
[wọk]
‘hand’
‘animal’
[ũpo
Word medial position
43
ọ k]
‘arm’
[durow
k]
‘nail’
/r/ voiceless alveolar trill
The voiceless alveolar trill occur at the initial, medial and word final
position in the language.
Word initial position
‘husband’
]
Word medial position
Word final position
[ruru]
‘gotten’
[verugwa]
‘female’
[nírí
‘man’
]
[zier]
[kor]
// voiced velar fricative
The sound occur only at the initial position of Kaninkon language.
Word initial position
2.4
[wom]
‘old person’
TONE SYSTEM
Very many languages of the world are tone language. Pike (1948:3)
defines a tone language “as any language having significant contrastive but
relevant pitch on each syllable”.
44
2.4.1 TONAL PATTERN IN KANINKON
Kaninkon has register tones; this include a high tone marked with acute
accent (/), a low tone marked with grade accent (\) and the mid tone which is
either marked or unmarked, when marked, it is marked with macron (-).
Tone chart
High tone
(/)
Low tone
(\)
Mid tone
(-)
Kaninkon language attest at least three types of register tones and are
demonstrated below:
High tone (/)
gwín
‘feaces’
‘breast’
kúp
‘bone’
masí
‘water’
Low tone (\)
jì
‘oil’
45
rìk
‘God’
rì
‘rope’
kùs
‘close’
Mid tone (-)
haz
‘new’
razo
‘lick’
inve
‘swallow’
nonhuk
‘eat’
2.4.2 CO - OCCURRENCE OF TONES IN KANINKON
This is a situation whereby tones select one another i.e co-occur with
each other in word. In Kaninkon language high tone can co-occur with high
tone, for example. (HH)
‘tongue’
[rí
‘ear’
‘navel’
[rúrú]
‘colten’
High tone con co-occur with low tone i.e
HL
46
[Alúrà]
‘needle’
[gi à]
‘axe’
[ro mù]
‘husband’
High tone can co-occur with mid tone
HM
[mijábkanan]
‘lose something’
[kuzó]
‘cover’
[ntába]
‘tobacco’
Low tone can co – occur with low tone (LL)
[sìsìt] ‘fear’
[gìòu] ‘hot’
[kòkòp]
‘old’
[ìnhìo]
‘fat’
Low tone can co – occur with high tone (LH)
[kìkió]
‘chicken’
[gàbó]
‘spit’
[sìsìón]
‘sit’
The low tone does not co – occur with the mid tone in Kaninkon language
47
Mid tone can co – occur with mid tone. (MM)
[īyīo]
‘mosquito’
[kīār]
‘monkey’
[razo]
‘lick’
[monhuk]
‘eat’
Mid tone can co –occur with high tone (MH)
[inhut]
‘dust’
[inshír]
‘star’
[insé] ‘smoke’
[unkwọ́]
‘ashes’
2.4.3 FUNCTIONS OF TONES
Tones perform lexical, phonological as well as syntactic function in
language. In Kaninikon, tones perform all these functions.
Tone is phonemic in Kaninkon as tones are used in differentiating
words that have the same segment or that are superficially similar. For
example
1. [mu:ĩ]
[mu:ĩ]
‘ground’
‘eat’
48
2. [jε]
‘farm’
[jε]
‘bush’
3. [siz]
‘wet’
[siz]
‘cold’
2.5
SYLLABLE STRUCTURE OF KANINKON
Hyman, (1975:189) maintains that a syllable consist of the peak of
prominence in a word which is associated with the occurrence of one vowel
or a syllabic consonant that represented the most primitive in all languages.
However, a syllable consists of phonological units and it consists of
three phonetic parts which are:
i.
The onset
ii.
The peak or nucleus
iii. The coda
Onset is usually at the beginning of a syllable, the peak is the nucleus
while coda is the closing segment. It can be represented diagrammatically.
Syllable
(onset)
(peak)
(coda)
49
A language may exhibit either close or open syllable and we have some
languages that make use of the two syllable, some attest only one type.
Kaninkon language attest both the open and the close syllable system. This
means that words in Kaninkon end with both consonant and vowel.
According to Malmberg (1963:129), a syllable consisting of a
consonant plus a vowel is the oldest of all syllable types, the only one which
is general in all languages.
CV Structure
[ni]
‘elephant’
[dЗé] ‘farm’
[gá] ‘dog’
[gu] ‘eat’
The CVC structure
The CVC syllable is an example of close syllable type. It consist of
consonant, followed by a vowel and a consonant which end the syllable
CVC
[∫at] ‘buffalo’
[mús] ‘eat’
50
[zik] ‘knife’
[bt] ‘spear’
BASIC SYNTACTIC CONCEPTS
Having discussed the phonology of Kaninkon, we shall now go into the
aspect of syntax of Kaninkon language namely: phrase structure rules, phrasal
categories, lexical categories, basic word order and sentences types on the
language.
2.6
PHRASE STRUCTURE RULES
According to Yusuf (1997:6), phrase structure rule is a set of rules
which generates the constituent of a phrasal clause category. Phrase structure
are a way to describe a given language syntax. They are used to break a
natural language sentence down into it constituents parts (also known as
syntactic categories) namely: phrasal categories and lexical categories.
Phrasal categories including the noun phrase, verb phrase, adjectival phrase
and many others.
Phrase structure rules are capable of describing language with infinitely
many sentences, because the rules are recursive or circular (Riernsdyk,
51
1987:1). Hence, phrase structure rules can be written in the following
formular
CP – C, IP
IP – Specifier
I – I.VP
I – Tns, Agr
VP – V(NP) (PP)
PP – P Adjp
Adj – Adj NP
The phrase structure of the sentences is a hierarchy that proceeds from
the largest constituent in the sentence downwards, each constituent
successfully consisting of other constituents, until only one single item is left.
In this case, a phrase ‘A’ may consist of the constituents B and C as seen in
the following tree diagram
52
A
B
D
C
E
These constituent may inturn be made up of others thus B may consist
of D and E.
The ‘consist of ’relationship can also be expressed as rewrite rules. A
formal statement that the constituents on the left consists of the constituents
on the right.
A
BC
Means that A has two parts “B and C” with the arrow replacing
‘consisting of’.
2.6.1 LEXICAL CATEGORIES
Phrases are built around a ‘skeleton’ consisting of two levels as depited
below
53
AP
NP
VP
PP
Phrasal level
A
N
V
P
Word level
The group N, V, P, A (Noun, Verb, Preposition and Adjective
respectively) are referred to as lexical categories or parts of speech. Most
lexical categories have inherent properties which can be verified in their
various uses. The properties are either fully specified or only partially so
(Yusuf, 1992:117).
Languages have varying lexical categories interm of number and types.
Some languages have more parts of speech than others, however, Kaninkon
has six (6) word classes viz: Nouns, Verbs, Adjectives, Pronoun, Adverbs and
Prepositions.
2.6.1.1 NOUNS
Bamgbose (1967:8) defines a noun as ‘a word which can occur
independently or with qualifiers in the nominal group’ while Stockwell
(1977:45) defines a noun as ‘a symbol or symbols for entries, abstract or
54
concrete, countable or uncountable (masses), animate or inanimate, human or
non – human’. Some of the nouns in Kaninkon language are:
i. [ngbok] as in mi ngbok
‘my table’
ii. [nseng] as in wumaun nseng
‘your basket’
2.6.1.2 PRONOUNS
According to Stockwell (1977:56), “pronouns are the complete
replacement of noun phrase by substitute (anaphoric) words”. This implies
that pronouns are words used to replace nouns in grammatical sentences,
especially to avoid repetitions. Some of the pronouns are:
i. wó
as in wó
ii. wamuin
sén
múinràs
as in wamuin gíon
Pronoun table of Kaninkon
Subject
Object
Possessive
1st
I – mí
me – mia
mine – wamua
2nd
you – wo
you – woá
yours – wamuin
3rd
she – wó
him – woá
his - muiwoá
55
2.6.1.3 ADJECTIVES
An adjective modifies, describes or limits a noun or a pronoun. It gives
more information about a noun or a pronoun in a sentence, (Smith 1965:43).
According to Awobuluyi (1978:30) ‘any word or grammatical combination of
words which qualifies a noun is a qualifier’. Examples of words which are
adjectives are
i.
[kwér] as in kwér infiẹn
ii.
[kákán] as in kákán shi
‘white rat’
iii.
[koru] as in koru unvukìe
‘dry leaf’
2.6.1.4 ADVERBS
According to Radford (1988:57) “adverbs denote the manner in which
something is done” examples of Adverbs are:
i.
aseni as in aseni nyanda
‘very friendly’
ii.
aros as in nọ ngwo aros
‘rain heavily’
56
2.6.1.5 PREPROSITION
Smith (1965:46) defines a preposition as any word the relates a noun to
a verb in terms of direction or location. Microsoft encata (2002) defines
preposition as ‘word’ that combine with a noun or pronoun to form a phrase.
A preposition relates a noun to a verb in terms of location, direction, state,
condition e.t.c. that is, it shows the relationship between two independent
objects. Examples include
i.
[icho] ‘on’
as in
icho ngbo
on table
‘on the table’
ii. [ího] ‘at’
as in
ihó múrínsé
at market
‘at the market’
iii. [imuing] ‘inside’ as in
imuing kiororík
inside church
inside the church
iv. [ti] ‘to’
as in
ti múnlú
to river
57
‘to the river’
v. [íma] ‘from’ as in
ima dзε
from farm
‘from the farm’
2.6.1.6 VERBS
Awobuluyi (1978:45) defines a verb as any word functioning as a
predication in a grammatical or acceptable sentence in the language. Verbs
are used to refer to an action, processes, state, events e.t.c. examples of verb
in Kaninkon are:
i. [kut] as in kut kwini
close door
‘close the door’
ii. [tak] as in níríóm tak ju
man shoot dog
‘the man shoot the dog’
iii. [áyá] as in nígwá aya dзε
woman return farm
‘she returned from the farm’
58
2.6.2 PHRASAL CATEGORIES
The phrase categories in Kaninkon language are as following: Noun
phrase, Verb phrase, Adjectival phrase and Prepositional phrase.
2.6.2.1 NOUN PHRASE (NP)
According to Yusuf (1997:9) the Noun Phrase (NP) is the category that
orders the participant in the event or state described by the verb. Stokwell
(1977:55) defines Noun Phrases as “clusters of words in surface strings of
which the nuclei are nouns”. Radford (1981:2) observes that the noun phrases
are those whose major constituent or road is a noun.
A noun phrase is headed by a noun, it is the element that functions as
subject, object and complement of preposition.
Examples of Noun phrase in Kaninkon
i
Vieng
múinràz
Small
house
‘The small house’
ii
yion
sit
Goat
black
‘The black goat’
59
iii
Gwani mẹ aràt
Woman beautiful
‘beautiful woman’
2.6.2.2 VERB PHRASE (VP)
Awobuluyi (1978:45) defines a verb as any word functioning as a
predicator in a grammatical or acceptable sentence in the language. Verbs are
used to refer to actions, processes, state, events etc. The verb phrase
according to Yusuf (1997:21). Is traditionally called the ‘predicate’ because it
has the sentence predicator namely: the verb. The verb is the head of verb
phrase it is the lexical category that tells us what the participatory roles of the
nominal are in the sentence. It expresses or allocates roles on Noun phrases in
the sentence. Examples of verb phrase in Kaninkon are:
i. Ré ton sák
Eat with spoon
‘Eat with a spoon’
ii. Rúp ton nkwén
Beat with stick
‘Beat with a cain ’
60
iii. Kùná ícho bàng
Sleep untop bed
‘Sleep on the bed’
2.6.2.3 ADJECTIVAL PHRASE
The adjectival phrase is headed by an adjective. It is the lexical
category that qualifies the NP. The following are the examples of adjectival
phrase found in Kaninkon language.
i. Siz masí
Cold water
‘the cold water’
ii. Kwér insínkuòn
Strong tree
‘a strong tree’
iii. Kánkán muinràs
White house
‘a white house’
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2.6.2.4 PREPOSITIONAL PHRASE
Radford (1981:2) defines the prepositional phrase as those phrase that
are headed by preposition. The prepositional phrase headed by preposition
function as either complement or adjunct to the noun head or verb. In
Kaninkon, the prepositional phrase codes semantic information like location,
manner and instrument. There are some examples in Kaninkon:
i. ícho ngbòk
ontop table
‘on the table’
ii. ton nkwẹn
with stick
‘with a stick’
iii. nso kiororìk
at church
‘at the church’
2.7
BASIC WORD ORDER
Every language has a basic order. Greenberg (1966:74) describes word
order as the manner the subject, verb and object co – occur in any simple
62
declarative sentences. The arrangement of language must follow a particular
order. The order of constituent varies from language to language and it is
universal. We have four basic word order (Stockwell, 1977:72), SVO, SOV,
VSO, and VOS.
According to Greenberg (1966:76), only three normally occur in
dominant orders. These are SVO, SOV and VSO. It should be noted that no
language rigidly keeps to an order. This is because the order of words might
change as a result of transformation.
These order of words can be written as:
SVO
Subject
-
Verb
-
Object
SOV
Subject
-
Object
-
Verb
VSO
Verb
-
Subject
-
Object
Kaninkon language exhibit the SVO word order, some examples are as
follows:
i.
S
V
O
Aishat
rup
Rahamat
Aishat
(pst) beat
Rahamat
‘Aishat
beat Rahamat’
63
ii.
S
A
O
yun rie
sír
She
love eat
yam
‘She
loves eating
yam’
iii. S
2.8
V
V
O
Blessing
zá
rúkierìé
Blessing
buy
cooking pot
‘Blessing
bought a cooking pot’
SENTENCE TYPES
In the previous sections, we looked at the constituents that make up
sentence and at the order of words in Kaninkon. We will briefly look at the
sentence as a unit.
In the convenient treatment of the sentence, three types are identified
where such analysis depend solely on the number of verbs in the sentence.
Sentence types include
i.
The Simple Sentence
ii.
The Compound Sentence
iii. The Complex sentence
64
2.8.1 SIMPLE SENTENCE
According to Adegbija (1987:59) a simple sentence contains one finite
verb. The simple sentence is made up of one NP subject and a predicate
(Yusuf 1997:59). The example below illustrate the simple sentence forms in
Kaninkon language.
i. nígwá
woman
nar
wash
‘The woman washed’
ii. nvúèn
kuna
boy
sleep
‘The boy slepts’
iii. ngbuen
aha
children
sing
‘The children sangs’
A simple sentence would have the schematic structure as below:
65
IP
I’
Spec
NP
I
Tns
N’
[Past]
N
Nigwa
Woman
VP
V’
V
Nar
wash
‘The woman washed’
2.8.2 THE COMPOUND SENTENCE
Adegbija (1987:84) defines compound sentence as ‘a kind of sentence
which has more than one finite verb, that is, the simple sentence will be
66
joined by the lexical category called conjunction or comma (,)’. It is the
coordination of more than one simple sentence by conjunctions. This is also
attested in Kaninkon. Examples include:
i.
A kunan dar ran mi
She sleep and dream me
‘She slept and dreamt of me’
ii.
Tope sót biekan Tayo sọ́ masi
Tope cook rice Tayo drink water
‘Tope is cooking rice Tayo is drinking water’
iii. Mohammed to Akeem yung jin ya
Mohammed and Akeem love their mother
‘Mohammed and Akeem loves their mother’
The diagram below shows the structure of compound sentence.
67
Cop
CO’
IP
NP
I
I
VP
Tns
V’
Pron
[Past]
VP
Tns
V’
NP
[Past]
V
N’
Ran
Mi
V
dar
A
She
IP
CO
I’
Spec
Kunan
slept
and
dream me
‘She Slept and dreamt of me’
2.8.3 COMPLEX SENTENCE
Quirk (1972:342) defines complex sentence as ‘a sentence which
contains more than one clause’. According to Yusuf (1997:63), ‘the complex
68
has a sentence embedded in one of the phrasal categories: VP or NP’. The
complex sentence has main clause with one or more embedded or subordinate
clause as stated earlier. The embedded could be in the Noun phrase or Verb
phrase as exemplified below:
i.
veri gwana yẹ reyinne zio yan ra
girl who come yesterday dance well
‘The girl who came yesterday danced well’
ii.
ntó mie woa zane áyam
cloth that you buy tear
‘The clothe that you bought was turned’
iii. nosíò tami a zoine arat
clothe which she buy beautiful
‘The clothe which she bought is beautiful’
The structure of complex sentence is represented below:
69
IP
I’
Spec
NP
Tns
N’
VP
I
Agr
V’
CP
C’
Spec
N
C
Wh
[+pst]
V
Adv
IP
Zio
‘dance’
I’
Gwana
‘who’
Veri
‘Girl’
Advp
VP
I
Tns
Agr V’
[+pst]
V
Adv
reyinne
‘yesterday ’
Ye
‘come ’
70
Yanra
‘well’
CHAPTER THREE
VERB PHRASE IN KANINKON
3.0
INTRODUCTION
The focus of this chapter is to discuss what verb phrase comprises. The
chapter aims at carrying out syntactic analysis of verb phrases as phrasal
constituent, describing and accounting for different possible structures which
a verb phrase may have. The approach of X – bar syntax (a sub theory of
government and binding theory) is used to show the relationship between the
verb phrase and other elements or constituents within sentences in Kaninkon
language. In this chapter, we turn to consider the internal structure of verb
phrase.
3.1
STRUCTURE OF VERB PHRASE
According to Baker (1978:35), a verb phrase may consist of a verb
alone or a verb and a noun phrase, or a verb and a prepositional phrase,or a
verb and a noun phrase and a prepositional phrase. Descriptive statements of
this sort can be formalized in what is known as phrase structure grammar. A
grammar constructed within the phrase structure framework consist of a set of
71
rules, each rule having a single symbol on the right. An example of grammar
based on this framework is given below:
CP
-
Specifier C’
IP
-
Specifier I’
NP
-
Specifier N’
VP
-
Specifier V’
AP
-
Specifier Adj’
PP
-
Specifier P’
According to Yusuf (1997:21) the verb phrase is traditionally called the
‘predicate’ because it has the sentence predicates namely; the verb. The verb
is the head of verb phrase, it is obligatorily present with or without its
satellite. Verb satellites could be complements or adjuncts. The formal
notation for the expansion of the verb phrase rewrites it as an obligatory V
and its complements where the X variables stands as the complement.
VP
VX
According to the government and binding theory, the verb phrase can
be represented diagrammatically as:
72
V
Spec
V
V0 complement
3.2
SUB CATEGORIZATION OF VERBS
Verbs can be classified (sub – categorized) into: transitive, intransitive,
complex transitive verb, phrasal verb, serial verbs or those with sentencial
complements depending on the inherent properties of lexical entry of the verb
in the lexicon. It is interesting to note that each of these classes of verbs
influences and pre – determines the structure which verb phrase takes or
likely to take, since the verb selects the elements or constituent to collocate
with in a sentence.
3.2.1 TRANSITIVE VERBS
The transitive verb is the one that has a Noun Phrase (NP) object
(Yusuf 1997:21). A transitive verb can also be explained to be the verb that
takes a direct object as part of its lexical properties before the complete sense
of the construction can be established. It means therefore that, there must be
73
an argument receiving the action. The following illustrations can be made as a
resultant verb in Kaninkon language.
i.
Kwanu nto
Sew cloth
‘sew the cloth’
VP
Spec
V’
V
NP
N’
N
nto
kwanu
Cloth
Sew
‘Sew the cloth’
ii. Sót pìtát
Cook corn
‘cooked corn’
74
VP
V’
Spec
V
NP
N’
N
pìtát
Sót
Corn
Cook
‘cooked corn’
iii. nar nto
Wash cloth
‘Washed the cloth’
VP
V’
Spec
V
NP
N’
N
nto
nar
cloth
wash
‘Washed the cloth’
75
3.2.2 INTRANSITIVE VERBS
An intransitive verb does not require an NP (Noun Phrase) object. It
can stand alone making complete sense without and argument (NP) (Yusuf,
1997:21, Horrocks, 1987:34). The implication of this type of verb in any
phrase structure is that of one without a complement as exemplified in the
following examples
i. jó
Run
‘Ran’
VP
Spec
V’
V
Jó
Run
‘Ran ’
ii. ku
Die
‘Died’
76
VP
Spec
V’
V
Ku
Die
‘Died’
iii. rang
Sleep
‘Slept’
VP
Spec
V’
V
rang
sleep
‘slept’
It is important to note that an intransitive verb may as well take
adjuncts like prepositional phrases or adverbials which are optional
77
constituents. They are usually referred to as adjuncts. The examples below
illustrate the position at which the adjuncts could be found or used.
i.
zín ton nkwen
walk with stick
‘walk with a stick’
VP
Spec
V’
V’
V
PP
P’
NP
N’
N
zín
ton
walk
with
‘Walk with a stick’
ii.
ré ícho ngbòk
eat ontop table
‘eat on the table’
78
nkwen
stick
VP
Spec
V’
V’
PP
P’
V
NP
N’
N
i.
ré
ícho
ngbòk
eat
onto
table
‘Eat on the table’
Below are the examples of intransitive verb that takes Advp
zín yanra
walk perfectly
‘walks perfectly’
VP
V’
Spec
Advp
V
adv’
Adv
yanra
perfectly
zín
walk
‘Walks perfectly’
79
ii.
zór gunguo yanra
dance sad
danced sadly
VP
V’
Spec
V
Advp
adv’
Adv
zór
dance
gunguo yanra
sad
‘Danced sadly’
3.2.3 COMPLEX TRANSITIVE VERB
This is regarded as an extension of the transitive verb to capture or
cater for those transitive verbs that require not a direct object but also a
locative complement (mostly especially in the form of prepositional phrase)
as part and parcel of their inherent properties (or features). What this means is
that, the additional locative complement is obligatorily needed to ascertain the
complete sense of the construction. For examples:
80
i.
sák
yioní ícho ngbòk
put
cup
onto table
‘put the cup on the table’
VP
Spec
V’
V’
PP
V’
V
P
NP
N’
N
N
ícho
onto
‘Put the cup on the table’
ii.
barí
NP
N’
yioní
cup
sák
put
P’
Spec
nchúm
ti
mi
give money
to
me
‘Gave the money to me’
81
ngbòk
table
VP
Spec
V’
V’
PP
V’
V
barí
give
P’
Spec
P
NP
NP
N’
N’
N
N
nchúm
money
ti
to
mi
me
‘gave the money to me’
3.3
STRUCTURE OF KANINKON VERB PHRASE
Lexical items are inserted at eh deep structure level in accordance with
the sub – categorization frame of individual items. Therefore, in Kaninkon
language the verb (which is the head of the VP) sub categorizes for the
following complements:
A. VP
V NP
82
This can be said formally as verb phrase open up into obligatory verb
and noun phrase. We can have examples as follows
i. míe
rás
build house
‘build the house’
VP
V’
Spec
V
NP
N’
N
mie
build
‘build the house’
ii. rúp
rás
house
vúém
beat boy
‘beat the boy’
83
VP
V’
Spec
V
NP
N’
N
rúp
beat
iii. só
vúém
boy
masit
drink water
‘drink the water’
VP
V’
Spec
V
NP
N’
N
só
drink
Masit
water
‘drink the water’
iv. sén
rás
84
go
house
‘go to the house’
VP
V’
Spec
V
NP
N’
N
sén
go
rás
house
‘go to the house’
B. VP
V(PP) NP
In this structure, verb phrase open up into a verb, and optional
prepositional phrase and a noun phrase
i. inẹ
ti
come to
chógbá
mountain
‘come to the mountain’
85
VP
V’
Spec
V’
PP
P’
Spec
V’
P
V
NP
N’
ine
come
N
ti
to
‘Come to the mountain’
ii. áyag íma gjẹ
return from farm
‘returned from the farm ’
VP
chógbá
mountain
V’
Spec
V’
V’
PP
P’
Spec
P
V
NP
N’
áyag
return
íma
from
86
N
gje
farm
‘returned from the farm’
iii. ré
eat
icho ngbók
ontop table
‘eat on the table’
VP
V’
Spec
V’
V’
PP
P’
Spec
P
V
NP
N’
ré
eat
icho
ontop
N
ngbók
table
‘eat on the table’
C.
VP
V NP (PP)
Verb phrase open up into verb, an obligatory Noun Phrase and an
optional prepositional phrase. Examples of this structure is given below:
i. ré
kierie ton
sák
87
eat
food with spoon
‘eat the food with a spoon’
VP
Spec
V’
V’
V
PP
NP
N’
N
ré
eat
Kierie
food
‘eat the food with a spoon’
ii. rúp
vúém ton
beat boy
nkwén
with stick
‘beat the boy with a cain’
88
P’
Spec
P
NP
N’
N
ton sák
with spoon
VP
V’
Spec
PP
V’
V
NP
N’
N
rúp
beat
P’
Spec
P
NP
N’
vúém
boy
N
ton nkwén
with stick
‘Beat the boy with a cain’
iii. Sák yion icho ngbok
Put cup ontop table
‘Put the cup on the table’
89
VP
V’
Spec
V’
PP
V
NP
N’
sák
put
P
NP
N
N’
yion
cup
N
ngbok
icho
ontop table
p
‘Put the cup on the table’
D. VP
P’
Spec
V (ADVP)
Verb phrase open up into verb and an optional adverbial phrase
i. yẹ
reyinne
come yesterday
‘came yesterday’
90
VP
V’
Spec
V’
Advp
adv’
V
Adv
yẹ
come
‘came yesterday’
ii. zór
reyinne
yesterday
gunguo yanra
dance sad
‘danced sadly’
VP
V’
Spec
V’
Advp
adv’
Adv
gunguo yanra
sad
zór
dance
‘danced sadly’
91
3.4
VERBS WITH SENTENCIAL COMPLEMENTS
Yusuf (1997:26) claims that among the possible complements of the
verb is a full clause, which has sentencial complements such as:
Epistemic verbs:- know, believe
Desiderative verbs:- wants, desire, expect
Causative verbs:- cause, makes, force
These complements are sets of verbs which select or require
compulsory a full clause as complements (Horrocks, 1989:34, Yusuf
1997:28), if the complete semantic meaning is to be established, the lexical
entry must be accommodated at the surface structure. Examples of these types
of verbs are identified by Yusuf (1997:28).
92
3.4.1 Epistemic Verb: Nogjijiang ‘Believe’
nogjijiang dorik sín
believe God live
‘believse that God lives’
VP
V’
Spec
CP
V’
V
C’
Spec
IP
C
I’
Spec
NP
I
VP
N’

nogjijiang
believe
Tns
N
Dorik
God
‘Believe that God lives’
93
Agr Spec
V’
V
sín
live
3.4.2 Desiderative Verb: Wánà ‘Want’
Wánà
zian ngbok
Want
sell
table
‘Want to sell a table’
VP
Spec
V’
V’
V’
V
V
NP
N’
N
wánà
want
zían
sell
ngbòk
table
‘Want to sell a table ’
3.4.3 Causative Verb
Tallerman (2005:205) claims that, a causative construction is one in
which an event has been caused to come about by some external agent. A
verb denoting a meaning such as to “cause” or “make” lexical verb or via
94
verbal morphology. A causative verb is added to the verbs argument structure.
Example of causative verb found in Kaninkon is:
i.
nchọm
wo
barinẹ
mi
teyin mi
wok
money
you
give
me
make me
happy
‘The money you gave to me makes me happy’
ii.
téyin Audu kúkún
make Audu cry
‘makes Audu cry’
VP
Spec
V’
V’
V’
NP
V
V
N’
N
Audu
Audu
téyin
make
‘Make Audu to cry’
95
kúkún
cry
3.5
PHRASAL VERBS
Palmer (1988:75) states that the essential characteristics of compound
verb is of course, that they consist of two elements, a verb and a particle.
Phrasal verbs have the further characteristics that the particle may take one of
two positions, both before and after the object Noun Phrase.
Phrasal verbs seem to provide counter examples to what was said about
the relation between preposition and adverb. There are two types of phrasal
verbs: Transitive and Intransitive Phrasal Verbs.
3.5.1 TRANSITIVE PHRASAL VERBS
So far, only transitive ones have been considered, since it is these that
have to be distinguished from prepositional phrase. Transitive phrasal verbs
always allow the preposition to be placed after their object NP. These verbs
are single lexical items comprising a verb and a preposition. For example,
break off, turn over, put out, pick up, pull down, switch on etc. Below are
examples from Kaninkon language:
i.
dзoruọk ituku
sú
raise
up
hand
‘raised hands up’
96
VP
V’
Spec
V’
PP
P’
NP
V
N’
P
N
sú
up
ituku
dзoruọk
hand
raise
‘raised hands up’
ii.
tut
ni
etmuima
pull
down tree
‘pulled down the tree’
VP
V’
Spec
V’
PP
P’
Spec
V
P
NP
N’
tut
pull
N
97
etmuima
ni
down tree
‘pulled down the tree’
3.5.2 INTRANSITIVE PHRASAL VERBS
While the phrasal verb that are transitive are followed by a noun or an
object, intransitive phrasal verbs are not followed by a noun or an object, the
adverbial particle can not be separated from the verb. Below are the examples
of intransitive phrasal verb in Kaninkon language:
i. gwani
kwùn
woman break
kwọ
down
‘the woman broke down’
ii. ba
dзo
su
they come up
‘they come up’
3.6
SERIAL VERBS
Tallerman (2005:87) claims that, the type of complementation familiar
from European languages involves an embedded clause which is subordinate
to a matrix clause. Not all languages make much use of subordination, a
different but very common strategy known as verb serialization occurs in
98
many African languages. Verb serialization essentially strings verbs together
in a sequence in which no verb is subordinate to any other.
There are several pieces of evidence that the two verbs in a serial
construction belong to a single predicate and so are in a single clause rather
than two separate clause. The two finite verb must have the same subject. A
sequence which act together as one, each describes what can be
conceptualized as a single event. They are monoclausal, their international
properties are those of a monoverbial clause, they have just one tense, aspect,
mood and plurality value.
Examples of verb serialization in Kaninkon include the following:
i.
Musa
na
anfani
Musa
use knife
tonzik
yiou
cut
meat
‘Musa used knife to cut the meat’
ii.
Tope za
mpat
ine
múrínsé
Tope buy
bag
come market
‘Tope bought the bag from the market’
iii. Mi
I
zik
nkwén
ton
na
cut
stick
to
use
‘I cut the stick to use’
99
IP
I’
Spec
NP
VP
I
N’
N
V’
V’
V
NP
V’
NP
N’
N’
V
N
N
Musa
na
person
use
tonzik yion
anfani
meat
cut
knife
‘Musa used the knife to cut meat’
IP
I’
Spec
NP
N’
N
VP
I
V’
V’
NP
V
V
N’
N
Tope
za
person
buy
ine
mpat
come
bag
‘Tope bought the bag from the market’
100
NP
N’
N
múrínsé
market
CHAPTER FOUR
TRANSFORMATIONAL PROCESSES IN KANINKON LANGUAGE
4.0
INTRODUCTION
Cook (1998:119) stated that just as the development of X – bar syntax
gradually eliminated the peculiarities of individual rules, so the separate
principle of movement subsumed many separate rules previously known as
transformations.
What is common to the grammar of every language is the utilization of
a finite set of rules to derived an infinite set of sentences and again, the ability
of being able to generate novel sentences from a limited set of formal and
substantive universal sets of vocabularies. This is however made possible by
the underlying principles which abstract level of grammatical representation
and this rule is generally reffered to as movement transformation or move
alpha.
Tomori, (1977:66) citing Allen and Buren (1971:35) describe
transformation as underlying principle operating on a given string with a
given constituent structure, identified in the literature as syntactic processes
101
underlaid
by
movement
transformation
are
focusing,
passivization,
relativization, question formation etc.
However, the concern of this chapter is to provide a description of
movement transformational processes attested in Kaninkon language.
4.1
TRANSFORMATIONAL COMPONENT
The major transformational component is “movement”, some element
is moved from its basic location in linear order as generated by the phrase
structure rules and adjoined unto some other category, (Yusuf 1997:74).
Sentences are derived by mapping one phrase maker unto another with
an operational known as transformation. Syntactic level is made up of two sub
– components known as the deep structure and surface structure. The deep
structure is derived by the base rules, categorical rules, strict sub
categorization, selectional restrictions and the phrase structure rules.
In the surface structure, the components are displaced. The surface
structure reflect the more superficial properties of the actual ordering in the
surface strings. The surface structure encodes the result of transformational
movement, it shows that something has happened to the deep structure. This
will then need to go off to the morphophonemic and phonological
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components to receive its final phonological form. The graphic schemata is
represented below:
Underlying structure
Transformation
Surface structure
(phonological rules)
It is crucial to note here that the TRACE is a feature of transformational
component. Trace theory come before GB theory. It was in the early eighties
that Chomsky developed the trace theory. Trace is crucial to transformation as
a result of the fact that it represents the “after movement” gaps. When an
element is moved in the transformational process, it leaves behind a
“syntactic scar” known as “Trace”. Trace is represented by the notation [t]
and the show that the trace has a co – indexed antecedent (something is
referred back to) the co – indexed entities will be identified with the
subscripted [i].
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The transformational processes attested in Kaninkon language are focus
construction, relativization and question formation.
4.2
FOCUS CONSTRUCTION
Jackendoff (1972:230) observes that focus denotes the information in
sentence that is assumed by the speaker not to be shared by him and the
hearer.
What makes focusing a universal syntactic process among human
languages is the fact that a speaker may want to emphasis a specific aspect of
language or utterance while he is communicating with his interlocutors, the
speaker does pragmatically a sign prominence to that part of his or her
message which is to emphasis without necessarily changing the substance of
his message.
Stockwell (1977:57) considers focus as a way of introducing special
marking into their surface structure of the element or constituent that is being
focused. He therefore equate focus with prominence. Prominence in focusing
is phonologically by intonation in language like English. Moreover, it is a
syntactic device used to assign prominence to that part of the message which
a speaker intends to place in the foreground and places in the background,
104
that part of message which nearly provides continuity with what is preceded
or which confirms the pre suppositions that are shared.
Nwachukwu (1988:7) says focus is about now information that is, a
piece of information which the speaker assumes to be unknown to the listener,
therefore focus is all about “non – giveness” (new information).
4.2.1 THE FOCUS PHRASE
The focus phrase like the complimentizer phrase and inflectional phrase
is a functional projection and is headed by a functional head, the focus
marker. The focus marker in Kaninkon is “nọ síò”. The focused constituent is
housed in the specifier of FP position. Awoyale (1990:9) proposes that, ‘we
want to add that focus be treated as a separate projection of a functional
category into the specifier of FP position’.
When a constituent is focused in Kaninkon, it is moved from its
original position to the sentence initial position. The sentence initial position
is what we refer to as the spec of FP. In this G.B account (Yusuf 1983,
Awoyale, 1985, Carstens 1986 and Sonaiya, 1986) the construction is claimed
to be movement derived (Yusuf 1988:59). When the subject NP is focused,
i.e. when the subject NP is moved to the spec of FP, it leaves a resumptive
105
pronoun which leads the cleft sentence, but when the object NP of the verb
phrase or prepositional phrase is focused, it leaves behind an empty category
(i.e. trace).
Focusing is an example of movement transformation, alias “move ”.
The constituent to be rendered emphatic is proposed that is, moved to the spec
of FP following G.B’s account of D – structure and S – structure, it is
assumed that the process of focus constructions, the D – structure is mapped
onto the S – structure by movement. According to x – theory, the structure of
phrases and sentences must be represented at the D – structure.
4.2.2 THE CONSTITUENTS OF FOCUS
The constituents of focus are units that can be focused in Kaninkon.
This is the unit where the new information lies. It is the constituent that is
emphasized and brought into focus. It is the unit that is moved to the specifier
of CP position. Only maximal projections i.e. phrases are focused in
Kaninkon. Noun Phrases are the most easily focused constituent in Kaninkon.
The Noun Phrases could be Subject NP, Object NP or Object of preposition.
When the Object NP of preposition is focused, the preposition which is the
head of the phrase remains at the extraction site if the phrase is functioning as
106
a complement but if it is an adjunct, the preposition disappears totally.
Adjectival and verb phrases can also be focused. In the case of verb phrases,
the verb is nominalized at the landing site while a copy of the verb is left at
the extraction site. Examples are given below in Kaninkon langauge:
Basic Sentence
i.
Ajarat
za
mpat
danok
Audu
Name
buy
bag
for
name
‘Ajarat bought bag for Audu’
Derived Subject NP Focus
ii.
[FP [NP Ajarati] no sió
name
it
is
za
mpat dannok
buy bag
for
Audu]
Audu
‘It is Ajarat that bought bag for Audu’
Derived Object NP Focus
iii. [FP [NP, Audui] no sió
name
it
is
Ajarat
name
za
mpat ti]
buy bag
‘it is Audu that Ajarat bought bag’
Derived Verb Focus
iv. [FP [NV Zaoi] no sío
Ajarat
107
za ti
mpat dannok
Audu]
buying
it is
Ajarat buy bag
for
Audu
‘It is buying that Ajarat bought bag for Audu’
v.
Basic sentence
Aminat
nare inyiap
Name
wash plate
‘Aminat washed plate’
vi. Object NP
[FP [NP inyiap i] no sió
plate
Aminat
nare ti]
it is Aminat wash
‘It is plate that Aminat washed’
The structure of the basic sentences above and those of the
corresponding derived sentences can be shown below:
108
IP
I’
Spec
NP
VP
I
Tns
N’
Agr
V’
Spec
[past]
V’
N
V
PP
NP
P
NP
N’
N’
N
Ajarat
Ajarat
za
buy
mpat
bag
‘Ajarat bought bag for Audu’
Subject NP Focus
vii. [FP [NP Ajarat i] nosio
name
it is
za
mpat dannok
Audu ]
buy
bag
Audu
for
‘It is Ajarat that bought bag for Audu’
109
dannok
for
Audu
Audu
FP
Spec
NP
F’
IP
F
N’
I’
Spec
N
VP
I
Tns
Agr
V’
Spec
NP
V
[past]
Spec
N’
N’
N
Ajarati
name
nosío
it is
za
buy
PP
P’
Front
Centr P
N
e
Front
Back
Centr
e
High dannok
mpat
Back
bag for
High
NP
N’
N
Front
Audu
Centr
Audu
e
Back
110
High
‘it was Ajarat that bought bag for Audu ’
Object NP Focus
FP
Spec
NP
F’
IP
F
N’
I’
Spec
NP
N
VP
I
N’
Tns
Agr
V’
Spec
V
N
[- past]
NP
N’
N
Audui
Audu
Front
Centr
e
Back
nosío
it is
Ajarat
Ajarat
za
buy
111
High
Mpat ti
bag
It was Audu that Ajarat bought shoe
Verb Focus
Zaoi
nosío Ajarat za ti mpat dannok
Audu
Buying
it is
Audu
Ajarat buy bag
for
‘It was buying that Ajarat bought bag for Audu’
FP
F’
Spec
NP
IP
F
N’
Spec
N
N’
I’
I
Tns
VP
Agr
V’
Spec
N
V
[+past
]
NP
Spec
N’
N’
N
Zaoi
Buying
nosío
it is
Ajarat
Ajarat
Za ti
buy
112
PP
P’
Front
Centr
mpat
Front
e dannok
bag
Centr
Backfor
e
Back
High
High
NP
N’
N
Audu
Front
Audu
Centr
e
Back
‘It was buying that Ajarat buy bag for Audu’
4.3
RELATIVIZATION
Relativization could be referred to as the formation or construction of
relative clause. Specifically, it is the process by which one element is
represented by a relative pronoun or its equivalent. Relative clause is a type of
embedded clause which modifies a head noun in the matrix clause.
According to Stockwell (1977:59), a relative clause is described as
follows; a Sentence embedded in such a modifier of an NP, the embedded
sentence having within it WH pronominal replacement for a deep structure
NP which in some sense are identical with the head NP is a relative clause.
A sentence that is embedded in another is known as a constituent
sentence and the one in which it is embedded is matrix sentence. The relative
clause only qualifies or defined head noun.
Examples of relative clause in Kaninkon are given below:
i.
nigwa
rúp
mi
woman
beat my
vuení
brother
‘The woman beat my brother’
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ii.
nígwa
sém reyin
woman
sing yesterday
‘The woman sang yesterday’
iii. nigwa
woman
wani sém reyin
rúp
mi
who sing yesterday
beat my
vuení
brother
‘The woman who sang yesterday beats my brother’
iv. níríóm
man
za
dзion wamúín
buy
goat your
‘the man bought your goat’
v.
níríóm
nọ
ni
té
man
is
my
father
‘The man is my father’
vi. níríóm
man
wani za
dзion nọ
ni
té
who buy
goat is
my
father
‘The man that bought the goat is my father’
The following illustration below now shows how these sentences can
occur independently and how one can be embedded in another
114
i.
nigwa
rúp
mi
woman
beat my
vuení
brother
‘The woman beat my brother’
IP
I’
Spec
NP
N’
VP
I
Tns
Agr
V’
Spec
V
N
zúp
beat
Nigwa
Woman
NP
Spec
N’
NP
N
Pro
ni
my
115
vueni
brother
‘The woman beat my brother’
ii.
nígwa
sém reyin
woman
sing yesterday
‘The woman sang yesterday’
IP
I’
Spec
NP
N’
VP
I
Tns
Agr
V’
Advp
Adv’
V’
Adv
N
V
sém
sing
nigwa
woman
‘The woman sang yesterday’
116
reyin
yesterday
IP
I’
Spec
NP
N’
N
Spec
WH
VP
I
CP
Tns
C’
C
Agr V’
IP
V
I’
Spec
N
WH Tns
NP
Spec
NP
VP
I
Agr V’
N’
N’
Pro
Advp
V
Adv
nigwa wani i
woman who
ø
sém
sing
reyin
yesterday
‘The woman that sang yesterday beat my brother’
117
rúp
beat
ni
my
vueni
brother
4.4
QUESTION FORMATION
A prototypical illustration of the transformational process is the
Question formation. It is a particular type of rule that ask question. Kaninkon
attest only one type of question which is the WH question.
4.4.1 WH QUESTION IN KANINKON
Lamidi (2000:125) claims that WH question refers to the category of
question that makes use of interrogative words beginning with WH element,
usually used by speaker to request information about the identity of an
unknown entity in the sentence.
WH question by definition is the content that sport WH elements like
Where, Who, What, Why, How and so on. All positions like NP - subject, NP
- object and PP can be questioned.
Where - will ask question about the location where an action was performed.
Who - will ask question about an entity, about the person who performed the
action.
What - will ask a question about a particular thing etc.
Wani- ‘who’
Yeni- ‘what’
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Ima- ‘where’
Yeni- ‘what’
Vetami- ‘when’
Examples are provided in Kaninkon language.
Basic Sentence
1.
Ali so masit reyin
Ali drink water yesterday
‘Ali drank water yesterday’
Derived Sentences
2.
Wani so masit reyin
Who drink water yesterday
‘Who drank water yesterday’
3.
Yena Ali so reyin
What Ali drink yesterday
‘What did Ali drink yesterday
4.
Vetami Ali so masit
When Ali drink water
When did Ali drink water’
119
IP
Spec
I’
NP
I
VP
N’
Tns
Agr
NP
V’
N
V
[+ PRES]
N’
Advp
N
Adv’
Adv
so
drink
Ali
Ali
‘Ali drank water yesterday’
120
masit
water
reyin
yesterday
Wani so masit reyin
Who drink water yesterday
‘Who drank water yesterday’
CP
Spec
C’
WH
C
VP
V’
V
NP
N’
Advp
N
Adv’
Adv
wani
who
so
masit
drink water
ø
‘Who drank water yesterday’
121
reyin
yesterday
CHAPTER FIVE
5.0
INTRODUCTION
This chapter is concluding part of this research work. This chapter
attempts to give the summary and the general conclusion of the whole
research work.
5.1
SUMMARY
This project has talked about the structure of verb phrase, types of verb,
sentences and the possible transformational processes in Kaninkon Language.
This research work is divided into five chapters, chapter one started
with the introduction that gave information on the language (Kaninkon) and
its speakers. This introduction also includes the historical background of the
speaker and their socio-linguistics profile, genetic classification as well as the
theoretical framework adopted in the course of this project.
In the second chapter, we examined the basic phonological concept and
the syntactic concept, under the phonological concept, we examined the
sound and tone system of the language as well as the syllable structure of the
language. Under the syntactic concept, we examined the phrase structure
122
rules, lexical categories, phrasal categories basic word order as well as the
sentence types.
Chapter three gives a critical analysis of this research work which is
verb phrase.
Chapter four focuses on the various transformational processes like
focus construction, relativization and question formation that are attested in
the language under study.
Chapter five gives the summary and the general conclusion of this
research work.
5.2
CONCLUSION
Kaninkon Language attested quite a number of verb phrases, among
which are: transitive and intransitive verb, complex transitive verb, phrasal
verbs, transitive and intransitive phrasal verbs, epistemic verb, causative verb,
desiderative verb and serial verbs. Apart from the register tones, Kaninkon
language have a number of syllable types.
This project is written after a very proper research and even though
there will always be more new things to discover in a language, this research
work aims to be a good basis for further research of Kaninkon language.
123
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