CHAPTER ONE
1.0
GENERAL BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
This research work is based on the aspects of noun Bura noun phrase. The
study forms an important aspect of the syntax of the language. By syntax, we
mean the branch of linguistic analysis which involves the arrangement of words
to form grammatical sentences a rule governed way. It should be noted that
there are many aspects of syntax, but this research will focus on the noun
phrase of Bura language.
A phrase could be described as group of words that forms an integral part
a sentence. There are different types of phrasal categories, for example Noun,
Verb, Prepositional, Adverbial, Adjectival phrases etc. Each phrasal category is
named after the lexical category that
heads the phrase. For instance, a verb
heads a verb phrase, a preposition heads a prepositional phrase.
In this chapter, we will carry out a survey of the historical background of
the language, socio-linguistic profile under which we shall describe the
occupation, marriage, religion, festivals, culture and beliefs, language status and
the genetic classification of the language. Government and Binding theory is
used as a theoretical frame work the analysis of the study.
1
1.1
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
The pabir and bura are ethnically different, but both speak the bura
language. They are the major tribes Biu and Askira L.G.A'S of Borno state and
Gombi L.G.A of Adamawa state. The population of bura people in Borno state is
about 230,000 and there are about 46,000 speakers of the language in
Adamawa state.(.N.P.C 2005).
The Bura's lived north of Biu before being attacked by yata-ra-wara around
the 16th century. The few people yamta brought with him intermarried with the
Bura's and built the Biu dynasty into a kingdom. Those descendants of yamta's
group were called Pabir or (babur),this is why the Pabir and Bura's differ
considerably in culture appearance until today, The Pabir are the ruling class
among e Bura people and the Bura villages pay tribute to the Emir of Biu, the
Bura's still resent the Pabirs.
1.2 SOCIOCULTURAL PROFILE
The following could be observed among the Bura's. The language bura is
seen means of communication in the market and is also used in teaching in
primary schools. The Bura's found in Biu and Askira L.G.A'S in Borno state and
2
Gombi L.G.A in Adamawa state. Their main language is Bura but they also speak
Hausa, Chibok, Fulfude and a few speak Marghi.
1.2.1CULTURAL HIGHLIGHTS
The Bura people did not circumcised their boys until the practice was
introduced around the 1920's. Boys are circumcised around the age of 7. When a
female child is born, a suitor may propose by throwing a leafy branch of a certain
tree in her mother's kut. If he is accepted, he gives gifts as the girl grows up. He
works on her father's farm and makes zana matting for them. When she reaches
marriage age he captures her and bring her to his house, then the remaining
part of the bride price is settled and arrangements for the marriage ceremony
are concluded.
The bride is usually expected to produce a white cloth stained with the
proof of her virginity and it may be displayed with pride, her parents will be
ashamed if she is not a virgin.
Another form of courtship/marriage is for a boy to look over the girls
while they are collecting firewood or fetching water, when he sees the one he
likes he asks her to marry him and if she agrees, he gets about 8 or 10 strong
fellows to capture her and bring her to his house then the marriage ceremony is
3
arranged. As a sign of respect, a man does not eat with his parents-in-laws,
when an old person dies he/she is buried on the second day, when everyone has
gathered in the evening. The grave is wide circular shaft at the top, about knee
deep then a smaller round shaft is dug from the bottom of this into a loor of
cavity. There is a traditional dancing for seven days after the burial, and if the
deceased was an important person it last 14days, during which rituals are
performed. There is dancing with beating of drum and things belonging to the
deceased that show who he was are displayed, such as his/her tools and
weapons. This is done till date, sometimes professional mourners are invited on
one of the mourning days, the Fuinchambwi dance is done. The male dancers
jump from the roof of the hut of the deceased back again until the roof
destroyed. After this the date is fixed for the last mourning or sadaka, which is
held about 6 months later but usually during dry season.
1.2.2
CHIEFTANCY
Originally the Bura's had no central government, now the Emir of Biu
appoints the district heads (Ajia) who then approve he appointments of the
village heads (Lawans). Today both titles belong to certain families. The village
4
heads appoints the ward heads (Bulamas) over small villages and wards of larger
ones. Anyone who has leadership ability ca chosen as a Bulama.
1.2.3
RELIGION
The Bura had their traditional religion before Islam came around 1920
and Christianity later in the 1920's.Today these three religions can found among
the Bura's.
In traditional religion the Supreme Being is called Hyel or Hyel-taku, they
approach Hyel through Haptu. Hyel they claim created everything, but a Haptu is
a personal god who takes care of the individual. The Haptu have shrines where
people worship and offer sacrifices. The gods are represented by various objects
such as water (a lake or river), stones, mountains or forest. Usually there is an
attendant or priiest through whom consultations is made of the Haptu. Most
sacrifices are on saturdays so it is a special day. some gods are for particular
clans, and there is no unified form of traditional religion for the whole tribe. One
of the Haptu(gods) is Dlaminpr Kampeka,a large being living in space. His chief
priest is called Mthakur Haptu, there is a Mthakur Haptu in each village.
The most common of the gods is represented by a covered pot kept by a
family head. At the beginning end of the dry season in times of stress, he offers
5
a chicken to the pot for the health of his household. The practice of traditional
religion has now largely disintegrated before Islam and Christianity. However
witchcraft is still done. The belief that ancestors becomes when they die and still
influence what happens in the world has not really died out.
The total number of Bura Christians is under 60, 000, the percentage of
Christians is actually less than 20%, though more may be nominal adherents. A
rough estimate of the religious percentage is as follows: Muslims-78%,
Christians-20%, Traditionalists-2%.
There is a certain amount of understanding between the Muslims and
Christians which prevents too much religious tension in the tribe, but this does
mean Muslims do not persecute relatives converted to Christianity.
1.2.4
OCCUPATION
The people of Bura are mainly agriculturalists as they engage
themselves in planting of crops like maize, guinea corn, groundnut and rice.
Among them there are also weavers, fishermen, hunters, woodcarvers etc.
6
Fig. 1.2.4 Fishing Occupation of Bura People
7
1.2.5
FESTIVAL
Since the Bura people are mainly engaged in farming all their festivals are
farming related, as they organize harvest festivals before fresh harvests are
eaten.
An example is the maize harvest festival performed before fresh corn can
be eaten, it is believed that it is sacriligious to eat an harvest before the harvest
festival, hence all farmers adhere to this law.
Fig. 1.2.5 Maize Harvest Festival of Bura People
8
1.2.6 CULTURE
The bura people have a rich culture, preserved and handed down from
generation to generation. They are simple country people, they believe in justice,
modesty, equity and fairness. They are accommodating and live in peace with
their neighbours. Talking about their mode of greeting they greet more or less
like Hausa's they bend down or kneel down to greet each other.
9
1.3
GENETIC CLASSIFICATION
Africa
fig. 1.3
Afro-Asiatic
Egyptian
Semitic
Cushitic
Omitic
West Chadic Biu Mandara
Tera group
Kotoko group
Chibak
Kiba
Bura group
Berber
East Chadic
Tligi group
Bura (pabir)
Chadic
Masa
Mandara group Matakaru group Bata group Suko group
Kiba
Mangi
Putai
Source: Comrie, B. (1987).
1.4
SCOPE AND ORGANISATION OF THE STUDY
This research will focus its attention the Noun phrase of Bura language. This
work aims at giving a detail syntactic analysis of the Noun of Bura language.
This work attempts to discuss the arrangement or combination of words
to form phrases, clauses and sentences in Bura. This description will also focus
and some of the peculiar features of the language.
10
This
research work consist of five chapters. Chapter one deals with the
introductory aspect of the work, that is the sociolinguistic profiles of the dialect,
its historical background, socio-cultural profile, genetic classification, scope and
organization of the study, theoretical framework. The second chapter centers on
the basic syntactic concepts, where we intend to analyze the phrase structure
rules as well as the lexical categories and sentence types based on Government
and Binding theory.
The third chapter will examine the noun phrase of
Bura, areas as noun
phrase position, noun phrase function, complementizers and the noun phrase
construction.
The chapter four centers on all the levels of linguistics analysis in the
language, that is the transformation processes. Chapter five will present the
summary as well as the conclusion on the entire work.
1.5
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
Theoretical framework adopted in this work Government and Binding
theory(G.B theory). This Government and Binding theory was proposed by an
11
American
linguist
named
Noam
Chomsky
in
(1981),as
a
reaction
to
transformational generative grammar to account for all and only the
representations that underline the grammatical sentence in a language.
Government and Binding theory is modular deductive theory of grammar.
Proponents of G.B often maintained that there is no such thing as roles of
language. But only the principles and parameters whose values can only vary
from one language to the other do exist with specified units.
Chomsky (1995:15-16) remarks as follows, 'The principles and parameters
approach held that language have no rule in anything like familiar sense
transformation and no theoretically significant grammatical construction, except
taxonomic artifacts'. There are universal participles and finite array of options as
to how such principles apply (parameter) but no language particular roles.
It is also worthy to note that though Government and Binding theory is a
common label of this model of syntax, it is misleading because it gives undue
prominence to the two elements of Government and Binding, whose status was
not fundamentally superior to the other sub-theories like x-bar, theta, case e.t.c.
12
Hence, the 'principles and parameters theory has come to be seen as a closer to
it essence.
1.5
DATA COLLECTION
The method employed for data collection is the bilingual elicitation
approach, involving English and Bura language. The data were elicited with the
use of the Ibadan four hundred wordlist, which consist of basic list simple words.
Apart from the 400 wordlist, phrases and sentences in English were
translated to Bura, by a Bura native speaker. The data collected were subjected
to analysis.
Oral interviews were conducted in English language and answers were
given in Bura language by my informant. The answers to this questions were
used in the syntactic analysis of Bura language.
Below are the full details of my informant
Name: Abdulahi Ahmed
Age: 42 years old.
13
My informant is a native speaker of Bura language.He is from Gombi local
government area in Adamawa state. My informant speaks the following
language: English, Hausa and Bura.
But due to the busy schedule of my informant at the time in which this
research work is been carried out
was unable to provide all required
informations needed to complete this work, hence additional information was
seeked by the researcher online leading to the discovery of a Bura dictionary
prepared following a workshop in Jos, 24-25 April, 2009 and represents a major
shift in terms of orthography and definitions etc. as prepared by Roger blench of
www.rogerblench.info/RBOP.htm E-mail trogerblench@yahoo.co.uk
1.7
DATA ANALYSIS
In this research work,the data was collected form my informant both in
writing and recording an audio cassette then the analysis of the data collected
was carried out using Government and Binding theory of syntax as proposed by
Chomsky (1986). This research work will be
14
limited to the aspect of noun phrase.The informant used was fluent in the
language, his fluency and competence formed the basis of his choice as my
informant.
1.8
BRIEF REVIEW OF CHOSEN FRAMEWORK
Government and Binding theory refers to theory of syntax propounded by
Chomsky (1981,1982,1986). This theory is a radical revision of his earlier
(1965,1987) theories was revised in a minimalist programme for linguistic theory
(1993).
The
name
refers
to
central
sub
theories
of
the
theory.
Government can be referred to as an abstract syntactic relation and Binding deal
with the referents or pronoun R-expression.
G.B was the first to be base on the principle and parameters mode of
language, which also underlines the later development of the minimalist
programme. Government and Binding is a theory of universal grammar, which is
one system of all the principle that are common to all human languages
(Haegeman 1991:13) It is otherwise known as principle and parameter the in the
sense that .GB, the grammar is a continuos interaction between components and
15
sub theories embedding different principles and parameters (cook 1988:31). It
has two levels of representation related by transformation rule move alpha.
Move
alpha is stipulated by movement, that is the syntactic level is
elaborated by the concept of movement (cook 1988:30). G.B requires two levels
of syntactic representation. The deep structure (D-structure) which is the level at
which we obtain all information on the words and their combination, it consists
of base rules, lexical rules, strict sub-categorization, selectional restrictions,
phrase structure rules (yusuf 1997:68).
It is the level at which elements in the sentence are in their original location
(cook 1988:30).
We also have the surface structure level ( S-structure) which is the level at
which some components in the sentence have been moved. The s-structure is
clearly generated from the D-structure by the application of movement rules.
There is relationship between deep structure and the surface structure, they are
related by movement.
1.9
THE SUB-THEORIES OF G.B
16
Chomsky postulates a set of interacting sub-theories each of which deals
with some control area of grammatical enquiry. Each of these may be subject to
parametric variation. That is to say, it is assumed that the grammar of languages
vary in only finitely many ways with respect the domain covered by sub-theory.
All these -theories of G.B theory operates in a modular form, this theory itself is
referred to as modular deductive theory of grammar. The sub-theory assumed
are the following.
i. X- bar theory
ii. Theta theory
iii. case theory
iv. Binding theory
v. Bounding theory
vi. Control theory
vii. Government theory
1.9.1
X-BAR THEORY
17
X-Bar syntax replaces large numbers of idiosyncratic rules with general
principles. It captures properties of all phrases and its bases on lexicon. The
principle is that a phrase always contains a head of the same type.
It defines the possible phrase structure configuration of language in
general. The control notion is that each of the major lexical categories (Noun,
Verb, Preposition and Adjectives), is the head of structure is dominated by a
(phrase, Verb: verb phrase e.t.c) for example Noun phrase (NP) is headed by a
Noun. It comes after possible constituents in the example below.
‘That house’
NP
Spec
Fig. 1.9.1
N’
Det
N
That
house
X-bar encompasses projection principle which shows how head moves
to its maximal projection. It projects the characteristics of lexical entries into the
syntax which link the D-structure to S-structure an LF to the lexicon by specifying
18
the possible context in which a particular lexical item can occur
projection from
the head to the maximal is shown below.
XP- Maximal projection
X'- Intermediate
X - The head
All NPs have the same two bar level structures even if specifiers and
complementizers are not actually present putting the levels of specifier and
complement together, the structure of a phrase consist of two levels, arbituary
using particular specifier and complement positions.
X"
Fig. 1.9.1.2
Specified
X’
X
Complement
G.B claims that these two level are necessary for all types of phrase. Xbar theory proposes that all phrase in al languages share a simple cell like
structure with two levels one of which (X.) consist of the head (X') and the other
of which (X,) consist of the head (X) and possible complements. Specifiers and
19
complements are not themselves syntactic categories but functional labels for
parts of the phrase that may be filled by actual syntactic categories.
1.9.2
THETA THEORY
According to Cook (1988:177). θ theory is concerned with the assignment
of thematic roles to sentential constituents. The Greek letter 'theta' is a
shorthand for thematic. By thematic role, Chomsky (1981) means semantic roles
such as agent, theme, locative, instrument e.t.c. These are roles assigned to the
complement of the lexical property e.g the NP is assigned the roles of patients or
themes while the PP is assigned the role of location.
It is also concerned with the functional relationship between a predicate
(verb) and its argument (agent and patient). A predicate is said to assign a theta
role to each of its argument. Part of theta theory is the theta criterion, a
requirement that each argument of the verb receives one and only theta role and
each theta role is assigned one and only one argument. For example: Tunde
cooked rice
The verb 'cooked' assigns the grammatical argument of the 'Agent' to
Tunde (NP). "Tunde cooked" expresses who (tunde) affected what (rice)
(patient). Such relationship should not be confused with GF's subject and object
20
that have already been introduced and can be seen by comparing. Example:
Kemi played the opening solo
In this case kemi is the GF subject and the person doing the action, and
'the opening solo was played by kemi', The opening solo is the GF in (Sstructure) but does not refer to the person doing the action.
θ-theory (theta theory) is the part of G.B theory that handle such
relationships. They are part of the contents of lexical entry, we call semantic
properties assigned by heads thematic roles. (θ-roles)
1.9.3
CASE THEORY
According to V.J Cook (1988:143), case theory deals with the
assignment of abstract case and its morphology realization. Case is assigned to
all NP. Nominative cases assigned by the tense part of INFL in S-structure to the
subject. It is related to the traditional syntactic idea elements in a sentence as
being shown by their morphology as well as word order. Latin is a familiar
example: 'Amor' (love)
nominative case.
This is the subject of the sentence in
'Amorem' is the object of the sentence in accusative case,
'Amores' is in a possessive relationship, shown by the genitive case.
21
In some languages such as German and French case figures
prominently. Case in English is confined to the genitive 's' in NP's, 'John's Book'
and to the pronoun system, where there is a greater range, she, He, Hers and so
on. Thus in the sentence: She rides a Bicycle. 'She' can be said to be in the
nominative. In 'she disliked him', 'Him' is in the accusative. And in 'Her piano
playing was amazing'. 'Her' is in genitive. This examples show that case is still
necessary in English even if it manifests itself in the surface of the sentence in
comparatively small number instances.
1.9.4 BINDING THEORY
Horrocks(1987:108), describes this theory as one of the most
important construct in the system, concern primarily with the conditions under
which NPs are interpreted as co-referential with other Noun phrases in the same
sentence. It also explains how the reference of various types of NPs can be
linked to other NPs.
For example: 'Gbemisola hit herself'. "Gbemisola and herself" are co-referential
and it can be symbolized as "I". That is to say "Gbemisola hit herself".
PRINCIPLES OF BINDING THEORY
22
i.
Binding theory exemplifies the close relationship between syntax
and
lexical item already seen in the projection principle.
ii.
Binding theory is not about rules, the properties of isolate syntactic
constructions but about the principles that apply to many areas like
reflexives, pronominals, nound e.t.c.
iii.
Binding theory demonstrates the interconnectedness of theory. In
particular, the binding principle cannot be seated in isolation from the
notion of subject and from government.
iii.
The theory demonstrate that universal grammar is concerned with
information specific to one language. The principle may be used
for
any human language.
Binding theory is one of the most important constructs of the system. It is
concerned primarily with the condition under which NPs are interpreted as coreferential with other NPs in the same sentence. For the purpose the binding
theory, NPs that are arguments are assumed to fall into of the three categories
listed below.
i. Anaphors
23
ii. Pronominals
iii. Referential expressions
Anaphors:-taking each of the categories in turn, we may define anaphors as
NPs whose reference is necessarily determined sentence internally and which
have independent reference. In English reflexive and reciprocal pronouns fall into
this class, for example we have two sentences to explain this.
i. Wonder woman projected herself into the 24th century.
ii. Godzilla and the thing fought each other on sunset boulevard.
From the example (i) "woman" and "herself" are co-referential.
Pronominal:- These are NPs that lack specific lexical content and have only the
features, person, number, gender and case; unlike anaphors, they may either
refer to individuals independently or co-below
'George believes him to be a genius.'
R-E xpression:-( the customary abbreviation for referential expressions with
specific content), as their name implies are noun phrases with lexical hands
which potentially refer to something. Co-reference is here excluded; for example,
'Big says tiny jim should be boiled in oil'
24
Big jim and tiny must denote two individuals even where the same is
used twice, the most natural interpretation is o where two different people are
involved.
In these special circumstance the second R -expression has to be taken as
kind of pronominal. Similar remarks apply to such NPs.
The binding theory three sub-categories of NP argument.
i. An anaphor must be found in its governing category.
ii. A pronominal must be free in its governing category.
iii. An R-expression must be free everywhere, ( Horrocks;1987).
1.9.5
BOUNDING THEORY
This is concerned with the limitations to be place on the displacement of
constituents by the movement transformation rule (move alpha).
Horrocks (1987:128) summits that 'it is a way of constraining the
movement rule (move alpha). Its chief principle is subjacency. It is also
relationship of movement between S-structure and D-structure then restricted
25
word that can be moved, that is say, it limits the distance where an item may be
moved.
For example in the sentence below
D-structure -'I have two mangoes'
S-structure -'How many mangoes did you?
'How many mangoes did you have?
we can see that the NP (mango) has crossed more than one boundary node,
that is to say 'have' and 'you' which makes the second sentence in the Sstructure to be ungrammatical.
1.9.6 GOVERNMENT THEORY
Government is the relationship between two elements defined mutual
commands within a ceiling and floor of maximal projections, provided one
element is a governor, Cook (1988:5). he refers to government theory as a
particular syntactic relationship of high abstraction between a governor and
element that it governs. In other words, it deals with the relationship between a
head and its complements. For example: 'she gave it to him'
Government assigns nominative case to the grammatical function subject
and can be interpreted as government: INFL (tense) (the case assigner) governs
26
the subject NP 'she' since INFL commands NP, INFL governor and there is no
intervening maximal projection.
The assignment accussative to the grammatical function of object involve
the case assigner of verb 'give' governing the NP 'it'. Since verb C-command NP,
verb is a governor and there is no maximal projection between assignment of
accusative to the grammatical function of object of preposition depended to the
government. Since preposition C-commands NP, preposition is a governor and no
maximal projection comes between them.
Therefore case theory depends on government, if the category alpha has
a case to assign, then it may assign it to an element it governs. The example
given above phrase marked below.
IP
Fig. 1.9.6
SPEC
I’
I
VP
NP
TNS(pst)
AGR
V
27
PP
V
V
NP
NP
P
P
NP
Governs
Governor
Governs
The list of governors include the lexical categories noun, verb, adjective and
Preposition everything that can be the head of phrase (Cook 1988:36). However,
there must be a relationship between the governed and the governor. That is to
say, government ensures that the word gets an appropriate case.
28
CHAPTER TWO
BASIC SYNTACTIC CONCEPTS
2.1 PHRASE STRUCTURE RULE (PSR)
To study syntax, is to study various aspects of how sentences are
formed in all languages. No language allows sentence to be formed by stringing
word together randomly. There are observable regularities, such regularities may
be stated as rules. These rules govern how words are put together. This
otherwise called Phrase structure rules (PSR). Sanusi (1996).
Horrocks, (1987:31) defines phrase structure rules as the basic
component to syntax, which are simply a formal device for representing the
distribution of phrase within sentence.
Phrase structure rule is the Rewrite rules, that is the constituents
introduced at the right hand side must occur in a specific order to conform with
the phrase structure of the language. Basically there are four major lexical
categories from which phrasal categories are formed. They are- i. Noun (NP)
ii . Verb (VP)
iii. Adjective (NP)
iv. Preposition (PP)
29
2.1.1
NOUN PHRASE ( NP)
This is a lexical category that codes one participant in the event or state
described by the verb in a sentence or clause. Ore yusuf (1997:8) says, a noun
phrase is usually headed by lexical category 'Noun' which may also be headed by
a pronoun but will be modified.
It is the Noun itself that is the obligatory ,which is the headword and may
consist of satellites like; determiners (Det),adjective (Adj) and sentential
complement or clausal category (S'). It should be noted that these satellites are
not obligatory because a single noun may represent the whole phrase. The
following are examples of Noun phrase in Bura:
i.
[laku ni ]
road the
'The road'
NP---Det N
ii. [mjir ya ra ]
"people who gave birth to me"
parent my
'My parents'
NP---Det N
30
iv. [ tsa na kuthir ]
"he use to walk"
'He walks'
NP----Det N
v. [ mbwa sal ni ]
"house man the"
'The man's house'
NP
Fig. 2.1.1
Spec
Det
NP
N’
N
Laku
ni
road
the
“The
road”
31
NP
Fig. 2.1.1.2
Spec
Det
NP
N’
N
Mjir ya
ankia
parent
my
‘my parent (People who born)’
NP →
2.1.2
Det N
VERB PHRASE.
The verb phrase is made up of the verb and its complement and other
satellites, which ever situation obtains, the verbs serves as the head of a VP.
This is to say that other categories that modify the verb are not obligatory as the
head verb.
32
Yusuf (1997:21) say the verb phrase is traditionally called predicate
because it has the sentence predicator namely the verb. Akere (1990:70) also
says the verb phrase consist of all the verb forms that can occur between the NP
and the complement. The verb phrase is usually headed by its name 'verb'
examples of verb phrase are as follows ( categories like prepositional, adverbial
phrase and clausal category and satellites of VP), examples are taken from Bura
language below:i.
[ thir tsa]
walk he
'He walk'
ii.
[ le kasuku ni ]
go market the
'went to the market'
iii.
[ si tsa ]
come he
'He came'
iv.
[ sim hihi ni ]
eat egg the
'Eat the egg'
33
v.
[ hwi makaranta peta ]
run school to
'Run to school'
VP
Spec
Det
Fig. 2.1.2.1
NP
N’
N
Si
come
‘He
tsa
he
Came’
34
VP
Spec
V’
Fig. 2.1.2.2
V
NP
N
PP
N
P’
P
Hwi
makaranta
run
school
‘Run
to
pela
to
school’
35
2.1.3 PREPOSITIONAL PHRASE ( PP)
Radford ( 1997:268), asserts that a prepositional phrase is a phrase
whose head is a preposition. A prepositional phrase is frequently used to form
idiomatic phrases which function as adverbial of time, place, manner, by a
preposition and comes before a noun in the language under study Bura. This
exemplified in Bura language;
i.
[ hanker tepir ni ]
under table the
'Under the table'
PP → P NP
ii.
[ akwa mbwa ni ]
In house the
'In the house'
PP → P NP
iii.
[ akermanda laku ni ]
on
road
'On the
the
road'
PP → P NP
36
iv. [ ala kasuki ni ]
at market the
'At the market'
PP→ P
NP
PP
Spec
Fig. 2.1.3
P’
NP
P
Det
N’
N
akwa
ni
mbwa
‘in
the
house’
37
PP
Spec
P’
Fig. 2.1.3.2
P
NP
Det
N’
N
2.1.4
hanker
ni
‘under
the
tepir
table’
ADJECTIVAL PHRASE
Greenberg (1973: 115), asserts that an adjectival phrase is a
phrase, whereby an adjective is used or appear as the head of the phrase, that
is, it stands as the head of the phrase.
38
Adjective is also defined as a sole constituent of the adjectival
phrase. It is a phrase that modifies a noun, it is exemplified in Bura language
below.
i. [ nkwa deha ]
girl clever
'Clever girl'
Adjp → Adj N
ii. [ sal dzatu ]
man tall
'Tall man'
Adjp → Adj N
iii. [ kundi kulabu ]
basket old
'Old basket'
Adj → Adj N
39
iv.
[ di bilin ]
town new
'New town'
Adjp → Adj N
v.
[ mbwa ghung ]
house red
'Red house'
Adjp → Adj N
Adjp
Fig. 2.1.4
A’
A
NP
N’
N
deha
nkwa
clever
girl
‘Clever
Girl’
40
ADJP
A’
A
Fig. 2.1.4.2
NP
N’
N
dzatu
sal
Tall
‘Tall
2.2
man
Man’
LEXICAL CATEGORIES
Yusuf (1997:5),says lexical categories are traditionally known as the
existing parts of speech, meaning that they are words or categories which could
be grouped together in deriving sentences.
41
Lamidi (2000:30) says lexical categories are traditionally eight in number
namely-noun,
pronoun,
adjective,
adverb,
preposition,
conjunction
and
interjection.
2.2.1
NOUN
A noun is originally defined as the name of person(Lola), place (Lagos) or
thing (table). It can also be described as symbol for entities, abstract, concrete,
countable or uncountable(mass),human or non-human, animate or non-animate(
stockwell 1997:48 and Akere 1990:67).
CONCRETE NOUNS
Concrete noun as the name implies to name of objects or things generally
that could be held or touched thereby feeling what they are made of. The
following are examples of concrete nouns in Bura- (i) [shishi] - 'feathers'
(ii) [ kungguna ) - 'money'
(iii) [ mbwa) - 'house'
(iv) [ swa ] - 'rope'
(v) [ kwi ) - 'goat'
42
ABSTRACT NOUNS
Abstract nouns are those things or objects that could only be felt but
cannot be touched, they are things that exist around human beings which cannot
be touched. Examples in Bura are as follow; (i) [ kutla ] - 'darkness'
(ii) [ hirhur ] - 'love'
(iii) [ deffu ] - 'happiness'
(iv) [ tliya ) - 'moon'
(v) [ dedukur ] - 'bravery'
COUNTABLE NOUNS
These are types of noun that could be counted or represented by the use
of numbers. These are examples from Bura language:-(i) [ tema ] - 'sheep'
(ii) [ pela ] - 'stone'
(iii) [ kungguna ] 'money'
(iv) [ muva ] - 'year'
(v) [ mbwa ] - 'house'
43
UNCOUNTABLE NOUNS
These are nouns (i.e things or objects) that cannot be counted because
of the way they are; Examples are cited from Bura;
i) [ hwonshaku ] - 'sand'
ii) [ kalo] -
'dust'
iii) [ tlili ] -
'thirst'
iv) [ yimi ] -
'water'
2.2.2 PRONOUN
Yusuf (1997:5),pronoun is a word that is uesd in place of a noun. The
following are examples in Bura languages:Subject
'I' (I'ya)
'You' (ga)
'She/he/it' (tsa)
i.
Object
Possesive
'me' (ra)
'mine'(nina)
'You' (nga)
'Yours' (argiri)
'they/them' (da)
[ I'ya si mbwa ]
I come house
'I came home'
ii. [ Tsa simya doya ]
he/she eat yam
44
'theirs' (arda)
'He/she ate yam'
iii. [ ga simya shinkafa ]
you
eat
rice
'You ate rice'
iv. [ mteka nggeni nina sur ]
chicken this mine is
'This chicken is mine'
Examples of interrogative pronouns.
Bura
English
i.
[ amari ]
‘what’
ii.
[ mi….ri ]
‘what’
iii.
[ wa…ri ]
‘who’
iv.
[ wari ]
‘which’
2.2.3 ADJECTIVE
An adjective is described as a word that modifies a noun, that is a word
that used with a noun to describe or poi out the living thing or lifeless thing
designated by the noun. Huddleston (1984: 9).
An adjective is a category that can tell more about the noun and can
also be premodified by adverbials [Lamidi 2000:73]. Examples of adjectives in
Bura are:
45
i. [ didu ]
‘quick’
ii [ halhala ]
‘old’
iii [ bilin ]
‘ new’
iv. [ dlanggiri ]
‘heavy/ big’
v [ kacakaca ]
i.
‘full’
[ mwala sur halhala ni ]
woman is old the
‘The woman is old’
ii [ kela ni dlanggiri sur ]
dog the big is
‘The dog is mine’
2.2.4
ADVERB
An adverb modifies a verb, an adjective or other adverbs of itself, it
also indicate manner, degree or time (Akere 1990 and Lamidi 2000). An adverb
is to a verb what an adjective is to a noun. Below are examples in Bura;
i. [ kukwali ]
‘quickly’
ii. [ mazamaza ]
‘fastly’
iii. [ yahyahu ]
‘friendly’
iv.
[ abaka ]
‘almost’
46
v.
[ kela ni yahyahu ]
dog the friendly
‘The dog is friendly’
vi. [ kukwali da si ]
Quickly they come
‘They came quickly’
2.2.5 PREPOSITION
A preposition usually has a nominal or pronominal complement and it
shows direction as well as locating the direction as with an NP (noun phrase)
yusuf (1997:53). Examples of preposition in Bura are as follows:- i. [ akwa ]
‘in’
ii [ akermanda ]
‘on’
iii. [ hanker ]
‘under’
iv. [ abaka ]
‘almost’
v.
‘above’
[ amta ]
47
vi. [ ɓaɓi akira tepir ni ]
shoe under table the
‘The shoe is under the table’
vii. [ Tobi ata kasuku ni ]
Tobi at market the
‘Tobi is at the market’
viii. [ femi a vi ]
femi at home
‘Femi is at home’
2.2.6 INTERJECTION
An interjection is a word used in showing one’s state of mind or to
express shock which does not necessarily have a grammatical relationship with
other words in a sentence. Examples for this in Bura include:- i)
“Ah”!
ii) [ Azha ]
“Oh”!
iii) [ Ay ]
“Alas”/Ouch’!
i [ Ah! Mde ni kurumteədzi ]
ah! Man the die
‘Ah! The man is dead’
48
[Ah]
ii
[ azha! kəca tuhum ni]
Oh! Wash cooking pot the
‘Oh! Wash the cooking pot’
iii. [ Ay! tobi ra bu ]
ouch! tobi me beat
‘Ouch! Tobi beat me’
2.2.7
CONJUNCTIONS
Conjunctions as the name implies are lexical categories used in connecting
or joining words or group of words together in a sentence. The following under
listed are examples that can be found in Bura language:i). [ ma ]
‘when’
ii). [ antə ]
‘and’
iii). [kuga ]
‘with’
iv). [ amma ]
‘but’
i. [ wale antə tobi si a vi ]
wale and tobi come home
‘Wale and tobi came home’
iii.
[ kemi kuga olu kasuku lə ni ]
49
kemi with olu market go the
‘kemi with olu went to the market’
2.2.8
VERBS
Verbs can be described as a category that expresses action or one’s
state of being. According to Yusuf (1992:21), a verb tells us what the
participatory roles of nominals are in the sentence. It explains the semantic
positions of nominals in sentences, for instance agent, patient, locative, theme,
source etc. The verb indicates the roles of nominals syntactically either as
subject or object. A verb could either be transitive or intransitive. ‘A transitive
verb selects (or co-occur with) an NP object or two, An intransitive verb co-occur
with or without adverbials’ (Lamidi 2000:80-81 ). Examples of transitive verbs in
Bura:i. [sim ] – ‘eat’
ii. [ wi ] - ‘drink’
iii. [ mtilaha ] – ‘lick’
iv . [dar ] – ‘taste’
Examples of intransitive verbs in Bura:i. [ kurumtədzi ] – ‘die’
ii. [ yabəla ] - ‘give birth’
50
iii. [ suni ] – ‘dream’
iv. [ nji kini ] - ‘urinate’
v.
[tlata ]
2.3
- ‘stand’
BASIC WORD ORDER
Basic word order is a way of arranging the constituent the sentences in a
specific language. Word order is a universal feature. It not only peculiar to
African languages, every human language has sentences and there is always the
presence of subject and predicate in a sentence. Greenberg (1963:73).
The grammatical rules of a language can be interpreted as the
acceptable regular order of words to sentence. while a deviation from the order
will produce ungrammatical sentences. In other words, a sentence in an order
explains how the subject,verb and object co-occur in any basic grammatical
sentence. This issue of basic word order is one the universal features of human
languages. There are six(6) possible word order in any language. They are:i). V O S ( Verb, object, subject )
ii). S V O ( Subject, verb, object )
iii). S O V ( Subject, object, verb )
iv). O S V ( Object, subject, verb )
v). V S O ( Verb, subject, object )
51
vi.) O V S ( Object, verb, subject )
In Bura language, the words are arranged in the order of subject, verb and
object, that is ( S V O). There is a kind of direct interpretation from Bura
language to English language. Below are the examples in the basic word order in
Bura language.
i.
ii.
[ I`ya masta tlivu ]
I
buy
bag
S
V
O
‘I
bought a bag’
[ Amina tsi pwapu ni ]
Amina kill snake the
S
V
O
‘Amina killed the snake’
iii.
[ Tunde sim shinkafa ]
Tunde eat rice
S
V
O
‘Tunde ate rice’
iv.
[ Tsa si avi ]
She come home
52
S
V
O
‘She came home’
v.
[ wale hila kwi ni ]
Wale steal goat the
S
V
O
‘Wale stole the goat’
53
IP
Fig. 2.3
Spec
I’
I
VP
NP
Spec
TNS
V’
[PST]
AGR
V
NP
N’
N
N
I’ya
masta
I
S
‘I
buy
bag
V
O
bought
54
tlivu
a bag’
IP
Spec
I’
I
Fig. 2.3.2
VP
TNS[PST]
NP
AGR
Spec
V’
N’
V
NP
N
N’
N
Tunde
sim
shinkafa
Tunde
eat
rice
s
v
‘Tunde
ate
55
o
rice’
2.4
SENTENCE TYPES
A sentence is a set of words expressing a statement, a question or an
order, usually containing a subject and a verb. Yusuf (1992:116), asserts that a
sentence is made up of goods belonging to parts of speech or lexical categories.
Sentence types can be analyzed in two ways; The function performed by the
sentence and the structure of the sentence. In the conventional treatment of
sentence, these types are identified in Ore yusuf ( 1997:58 ) namely; simple,
compound and complex sentences.
2.4.1
SIMPLE SENTENCE
This is the most basic type of sentence which every learner a language
seems to get first (easily). It is the type of sentence we normally say in our day
to day conversation.
Yusuf (1997:59), says simple sentence is made up of one (NP) noun
phrase, object and predicate, traditionally regarded as a single verb. The
example below illustrates simple sentence in Bura:-
56
i. [ Tobi sosai hara ha ]
tobi well sing
‘Tobi sings well’
ii.
[ kungguna agiri ni ]
Money this yours
‘This money is yours’
iii. [ I‘ ya sim shinkafa ]
i
eat rice
‘I
2.4.2
ate rice’.
COMPOUND SENTENCE
Compound sentence can be described as the combination of either two or
more verbs phrases (VPs) or sentences through the use of a lexical category
called conjunction ( yusuf 1990:61).
Akere (1990:66) says, when clauses are joined in such a way that
each retains an equal and separate identity with none dominating the other, the
result is a compound sentence. The following are examples of compound
sentences in Bura language.
57
i. [ wale antə tobi pazhyeri kita ]
wale and tobi friend are
‘Wale and tobi are friends’.
ii.
[ sal kəga ri amma mai nyggata ni ]
man call him but not hear the
‘The man called him but he did not hear’
iii.
[ ga si antə wuta tolu ]
you come and see tolu
‘You came and saw tolu’
2.4.3
COMPLEX SENTENCE
According to yusuf (1993:63), complex sentence has a sentence
embedded in one of the phrasal categories; either verb phrase or noun phrase (
VP or NP). Traditionally the the complex sentence consist of a main clause and a
number of sub-ordinate clauses. In this type of sentence there could be matrix
clause, although there be moel and a number of embedded clauses. Also
according to Akere (1990:66) when a sentence makes more than one statements
and contains more than statements and contains more than one verb, it is called
a complex sentence. Examples complex sentence are as follows in Bura
language.
58
i.
[ sal wari tsi pwapu didu ni ]
man who kill snake brave the
‘The man who killed the snake is brave’
ii.
[ kəla wari masta kurumtədzi ni ]
dog which you buy die the
‘The dog which you bought died.’
iii.
[ bzer ni wari si naha shiwaksha ]
boy the who come yesterday dance
‘The boy who came yesterday danced’
59
CHAPTER THREE
ASPECTS OF BURA NOUN PHRASE
3.0
INTRODUCTION
In chapter three, this work will focus on aspects of Bura noun phrase, we
shall consider how NP's are generated and categorised. A noun phrase has been
defined by various scholars in different forms. `Noun phrase is defined as a
segment that specifies the noun, it can be expanded to accommodate
complements and embedments'. The noun
phrase may be identified in a
number of ways.
The NP for example, may be seen as the category that refers to the
participant in the event of state described by verb.(yusuf 1997)
The NP is headed by the noun(N) or pronoun(when it will not be
modified). It is because of headedness that the phrase is called Noun phrase.
Examples below will be used to concord the above explanation.
[bzor ni akwa mbwa]
boy the in house
'The boy is in the house'
The NP is headed by a noun (boy) or pronoun for example:
60
NP-N e.g Bola
NP-pron e.g [ I'ya] ‘I’
There are two categories of noun phrases, they are definite noun phrase
and indefinite noun phrase. Moreover, the noun phrase consists of noun and its
satellites which are disclosed below.
3.1.1
NOUN SATELLITES
The noun phrase consist noun and its satellites, such satellites include:
NP→ pronoun
NP→ ( DET )
NP→ N+( DET ) + ( ADJ)
NP→ N+( ADJ)
NP→ N+(DET) + (PP)
NP→ S'
3.1.2
THE HEAD NOUN
The head is the obligatory part of the noun phrase around which other
constituents cluster and it also dictate concord with other parts of the sentence.
This means that, there can be a single word as we have in Bura language below:
[baaba]
'Father'
[zukwa]
'Thief'
61
3.1.3
[kwi]
'Goat'
[kela]
'Dog'
[laku]
'Road'
[hihi]
'Egg'
DETERMINERS
There are so many component parts of determiners, they include:
Articles, Dietics, Adjectives, quantifiers e.t.c. Examples are given below in Bura
language
NP----N + ( DET)
i
[ bzer ni ]
boy the
'The boy'
ii
[ hihi ada]
egg their
'Their egg'
iii
[ mji ni ]
people the
'The people'
3.1.4
COMPONENT PART OF DETERMINER
The class of determiners is little broader. It contains a number of sub-
categories including: Articles, Quantifiers, Numerals, Deitics and possessive
pronoun. Determiners appear at the very beginning of English noun phrase.
62
i. Articles
[ ni ]
'The'
[ nda ]
'That'
ii. Deitic Articles
[ ga ]
[ ni ]
[ nayerinda]
[ nayerini ]
[nda ]
'you'
'This'
'Those'
'These'
'That'
iii. Quantifiers
[ hwada ]
'Some'
[ kwo--mudi ] 'Every'
[ bwa wala ]
'Most'
[ daba ]
'many'
[ codla ]
'a few'
iv. Numerals
Cardinal numerals
[ ntang ]
'one'
[ suda ]
'two'
[ makar ]
'three'
[ kum(a)]
'ten'
[ makerkumari ] 'thirty'
63
Example; [ kwi ntang ]
goat one
‘one goat’.
Ordinal numerals: occur only with countable noun and usually precede
any cardinal numbers in the noun phrase, for example:
[ tsa sim makar cota ]
he win three prize
'He won three prizes'.
Possessive pronouns
[ agiri ]
'your'
[ amru ]
'ours'
[ arni ]
'his'
[ ni ]
'her'
[ nina ]
'mine'
WH-QUESTION
[ amari ]
'where'
[ mi....ri ]
'what'
[ wa....ri ]
'who'
[ wari ]
3.1.5
'which'
ADJECTIVES
64
This is also one of the satellites of an NP that modifies
complements (yusuf 1998:57). Examples in Bura language include the following:i. [ mbwa mwapu ]
house white
'White house'
ii. [ yimi borbor ]
water hot
'Hot water'
iii. [ nkwa magal ]
girl black
'Black girl'
65
N''
Fig. 3.1.5
Spec
N
N
adj
yimi
borbor
water
3.1.6
hot
PREPOSITION
A preposition is define as ' word that indicates a relationship
between a pronoun it governs'. ( Huddleston 1984:91)
According to Radford (1997), He said that a preposition has a
nominal or pronominal complement.
In some African languages, there are post positional satellites that
is, the NP sentence serves as the head in the phrase or sentence. Examples in
Bura language include the following:
[ akwa ]
'In'
[ akermanda ]
'At'
[ Amta ]
'Above'
66
[ hankar ]
3.2
'Under'
FUNCTIONS OF NOUN PHRASE
The noun phrase performs exactly the same function as noun. It
may function as a subject of the sentence, as direct object of verbs, as
complement of preposition e.t.c All these will be exemplified in Bura language.
3.2.1
Article post-modifying noun phrase
i. [ sal ni ]
man the
'The man'
ii. [ mbwa ambru ]
house our
'Our house'
iii. [ Hyel ambru ]
God our
'Our God'
iv. [ nkwa ni ]
girl the
'The girl'
67
N”
Fig. 3.2
Spec
N’
N
Det
sal
ni
man
the
‘The
3.2.2
man’
ADJECTIVE POST -MODIFYING NOUN PHRASE
i. [ nkwa mbam ]
girl
big
'Big girl'
ii. [ bzer mwapu ]
boy white
'White boy'
iii. [ yimi mtatlaku ]
water cold
'Cold water'
68
Adjp
Fig. 3.2.2
A
NP
N’
N
mbam
nkwa
big
girl
‘Big
girl’
3.2.3 RELATIVE CLAUSE POST-MODIFYING NOUN PHRASE
i. [ mwala na kumshi ni]
woman that laugh the
'The woman that laughs'
ii [ ntang na ndabela ]
one that know
'The one that knows'
69
CP
Fig. 3.2.3
Spec
C’
NP
C
IP
Spec
I’
N’
I
VP
N
V’
V
mwala
woman
‘The women
na
kumshi
that
laugh
that
laughs’
3.2.4 NOUN PHRASE AS SUBJECT OF THE SENTENCE
i. [ nkwa dakwi mtemta ni ]
girl beautiful die the
'The beautiful girl has died'.
ii. [ agiri tlivu akwa shar ni ]
your bag in vehicle the
'your bag is in the vehicle/car'
70
NP
Fig. 3.2.4
N
Det
PP
N
P
P
NP
Det
N’
N◦
3.2.5
agiri
tlivu
akwa
your
bag
in
‘your
bag
in
ni
shar
the
car
the
car’
NOUN PHRASE AS A DIRECT OBJECT
i. [ Wale shi kwi ni ]
wale shoot goat the
'wale shoot the goat'
ii. [ nar uzum ra na ]
give stick me the
'Give me the stick'
71
VP
Spec
V’
Fig. 3.2.5
V
NP
Det
N’
N
nar
give
‘Give me
na
uzum
that
stick
that stick’
3.2.6 NOUN PHRASE AS INDIRECT OBJECT NP
i. [ Adisa dlabu kwi ntinta ni ]
Adisa kill goat with knife the
'Adisa killed the goat with a knife'
ii. [ Amina nar khadijat tlivu ni ]
72
Amina give khadijat bag the
'Amina gave khadijat the bag'.
IP
Spec
I’
I
NP
Fig. 3.2.6
VP
TNS[PST]
V
N
NP
N’
N
Amina
nar
Amina
give
Amina
gave
(Khadijat tlivu)
Khadijat bag
Khadijat the bag’
3.2.7 NOUN PHRASE AS A COMPLIMENT
i. [ni baaba na muzimaku]
his father the hunter
'His father is a hunter'
73
IP
Spec
I’
Fig. 3.2.7
I
NP
TNS
[ PST]
Det
VP
Agr
V
NP
N’
N’
N
ni
his
‘His
báábá
father
father
na
muzimaku
is
hunter
is
a
74
hunter’.
3.2.8 NOUN PHRASE AS OBJECT OF VERB
i. [ I'ya masta surna pazhi mbwa ni ]
I
buy my friend house the
'I bought my friend the house'
ii. [ baaba surna mder kuzuku na ]
father my doctor the
'My father is a doctor'
IP
Spec
I’
Fig. 3.2.8
I
NP
NP
TNS
Det
N’
Agr
N’
V
N
N
ni
my
‘my
báábá
father
father
na
mdərkuzuku na
is
is
doctor
a
doctor’.
75
3.2.9
NOUN PHRASE AS OBJECT OF A COMPLIMENT
[ wale belimta tobi yimi da ]
wale break tobi water pot
'Wale broke tobi's water pot'
IP
Spec
I’
I
Fig. 3.2.9
VP
NP
I
Agr
N’
Spec
V’
V
NP
N
N’
N
wale
bəlimta
wale
‘Wale
tobi yimi da
break
broke
tobi water pot
tobi’s water pot
76
3.3
NOUN PHRASE AS VERB COMPLIMENT
i. [ hwi mbul ]
run race
'Ran a race'
VP
Fig. 3.3
V’
V
NP
N’
N
hwi
mbul
run
race
‘Ran
a
race’.
77
CHAPTER FOUR
TRANSFORMATIONAL PROCESSES
INTRODUCTION
This chapter attempts to discuss all the transformational processes in
Bura language. The transformational processes include the following:
i.
Relativization
ii.
Reflexivation
iii.
Question formation
iv.
Adjunct movement
v.
Focus construction
Radford ( 1988: 401) asserts that, the two levels of (D-Structure and Sstructure) are inter-related by a set of movement rules known technologically as
move-alpha (Move-alpha). This is simplified below to exemplify the relationship
between the two levels.
78
fig4.0
Base
D-structure
Move-alpha (Transformation rule)
S-structure
As shown in the diagram above, the two main components, D-structure and
transformational component are responsible for the derivation of the surface
structure.
4.1
RELATIVIZATION
A relative clause could be a sentence embedded in a surface structures as
modifier of an NP, the embedded in sentence having within it WH-pronominal
replacement for deep structure.
Relativization is a syntactic process which is used to show and make a
sentence more apt andre meaningful. It prevents unnecessary repetition, which
can bring confusion through the introduction of the relative marker (who, which,
that etc), the relative marker have antecedent that is related to NP head.
79
According to yusuf,(1997:100), ’relative embedded sentence modifying an
NP (noun
phrase) as added (adjuncts) information’. In Bura language,
relativization is an important aspect of transformational process because it mark
reference to certain phenomenon for the purpose of clarification, therefore in
Bura ‘wa…ri’ ‘amari’ which means ‘who’ and ‘which’ respectively is some of the
relative markers in Bura language.
4.1.1
SUBJECT-NP RELATIVIZATION
Subject – NP relativization is a syntactic process whereby a relative clause
is embedded in the subject NP of sentence. Examples in Bura include:
i. [ jamiu wari dlabu kwi si ni ]
Jamiu rel kill goat come the
‘Jamiu who killed the goat has come’.
ii.
[ sal ni wari dlabu pwapu ni dəha ]
man the rel kill snake the brave
‘The man who killed the snake is brave’.
1. [ Habeeb wari lə kasuku si ]
Habeeb rel go market come
‘Habeeb who went to the come has come’
CP
80
Spec
C’
C
IP
Fig. 4.1.1
Spec
I’
Rel
I
Tns
VP
Agr
V
NP
[pst]
N
Jamiu rel
dlabu kwi
si
Jamiu who
kill
come
‘jamiu who
4.1.2
V
goat
killed the goat has come’.
OBJECT NP-RELATIVIZATION
1. [ mbwa ni amari muhameed lə mbámba ]
house the rel muhameed go burn
‘The house where muhameed went has burnt’
81
2. [ hihi ni wari sim halimat ]
egg the rel eat halimat
‘The egg which halimat ate’
CP
Spec
C’
C
NP
Fig. 4.1.2
IP
Spec
I
Rel
NP
I
VP
Tns[PST] Agr
N
V
VP
N
V
Mbwa amari muhameed
lə
House which muhameed
go
‘The house which muhameed
4.1.3
1.
went
mbámba
burn
has burnt’.
INDIRECT-OBJECT NP RELATIVIZATION
[ Ganiyat wari surna ni nkwarmaya kwarkwar ]
Ganiyat rel
my
is
sister
‘Ganiyat who is my sister is short’
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short
2.
[ Sal ni wari məngəl ngguta ]
man the rel dark strong
‘The man who is dark is strong’.
3. [ Sal ni wari hila ingghya ni ]
Man the rel steal knife the
‘The man who stole the knife’.
CP
Fig. 4.1.3
Spec
C’
83
C
IP
NP
Spec
I’
I
VP
NP
N
Tns[PST]
Det
N
Agr
V
VP
Ganiyat wari surna nkwarmaya
ni
warkwar
Ganiyat who my
is
short
Rel
sister
‘Ganiyat who is my sister is
4.2
short’
REFLEXIVIZATION
This is one of the syntactic process that is universally attested among
natural languages. The fact is that languages do not normally repeat the subject
in the object position, whenever a reflexive notion is expressed in a grammatical
84
sentence, a reflexive pronoun that is co-referential with the subject is always
preferred in object position. In other words, the subject NP (Noun phrase) must
be in agreement with the antecedent object pronoun.
Reflexive pronoun has the same referent with the subject NP in the object
position, this is indicated by co-indexation, that is attaching subscript letter called
indices to the subject and object NP.
The
distribution
of
reflexive
pronoun
was
formally
known
as
‘reflexivization’. Smith et al (1977:286) describe “ A pronoun marked by ‘self’ or
‘selves’ which is co-referential with some antecedent of NP in the same sentence
as a reflexive pronoun shows numerous properties with noun phrase, their
distribution is somewhat limited i.e there are positions within the sentence where
reflexive pronoun cannot appear without making the sentence unavailable
(Wicover 1979:168).
According to huddleston (1984: 168),in this
process, two identical nouns are co-referential.
Basic form:
i. [Adamu dlabu Adamu ]
85
type of transformational
Adamu kill Adamu
‘Adamu killed Ade’
Derive form:
ii. [ Adamu dlabu kirni ]
Adamu kill himself
‘Adamu killed himself’
Basic form:
iii. [ da ndiga da ]
They divide they
‘They divided them’
Derive form:
iv.
[ da ndiga kirda ]
‘They divided themselves’
86
Basic form:
i.
[ Halimat mpa Halimat ]
Halimat fight Halimat
‘Halimat fought Halimat’
Derive form:
ii. [ Halimat mpa kirni ]
Halimat fight herself
‘Halimat fought herself’
87
CP
Fig. 4.2
Spec
NP
C’
C
IP
Spec
I’
N
I
Tns [ pst]
VP
Agr
V
NP
N
Halimat
mpa
kirni
Halimat
fight
herself
‘Halimat
fought
88
herself’
4.3
QUESTION FORMATION
In questions formation, all positions can be questioned by the W.H form;
we have Yes/No and content word (WH): For this reason, questions are said to
be of two basic types corresponding to their typical answer. The contents-word
question (def: which require new information) is more popularly known as WHquestions, on account of its using question markers that start with WH
graphemes, even in languages that have no WH morpheme to suggest the
name.
Although languages vary (within limits) as to how they express
questions, I hope my exposition using the English language will open the eyes of
speakers of different languages to the syntactic processes involved in question
formation.
4.3.1
WH-QUESTION
The prototypical example of movement rule, as i said earlier, is the
question formula. It is even more so with the WH-question (by definition,
content questions that spot elements like: who, when, why, how and so on). WH
questions in Bura languages be exemplified as shown below:
89
[ miri arnga tlim ]
what your name
‘What is your name?
[ wari nda ]
who there
‘Who is there?
[ wa hara ]
how it happen
‘How did it happen’?
[ shar wari jili yusuf masta ]
Car which kind yusuf buy
‘Which type of car did yusuf buy?
[ amari ga si ]
where you come
‘Where are you coming from?
90
4.3.2
YES/NO QUESTION IN BURA
The derivation of the Yes/No question in Bura is not that syntactically
exciting.
For instance in Bura, it is enough to adjoin a ques particle to the
declarative sentence. No movement is involved. Neither is any morphophonemic
rule employed. Adjoined particles are ‘a’a’ ,‘ awo’ and a few dialectical or archaic
from which are question markers (Q-M) Diagrammatically, Yes/No question in
Bura may be given a first approximation as [ a’a] – Yes, [ awo]--No
i.
[ nka labar yeru ]
can talk we
‘Can we talk?
ii. [ kita habeeb si]
is habeeb come
‘Is habeeb coming?
iii. [ nka ga hara ha ]
can you do sing
‘Can you sing?
iv. [ kita arnga tlim jikabəla ni ]
is your name list the
‘Is your name in the list?
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4.3.3
DO-SUPPORT.
Do-support is where a verbal affix like tense is stranded (having no root
verb to attach to). Do comes to the rescue of this affixal orphan. This form has a
rule i.e, where there is no Aux elements in INFL other than tense insert a DO as
a surrogate bearer of the tense affix.
Examples in Bura are:
i.
[ hara ga wuta ni]
do you see her
‘Did you see her?
ii.
[ hara ga wuta mdər kuzuku ni ]
do you see doctor the
‘Did you see the doctor?
iii.
[ hara ga wuta káakádú ni ]
do you have book the
‘Do you have the book?
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4.4
FOCUS CONSTRUCTION
According to Stockwell (1997:157), ‘focus sentences are derived from a
basic sentence through introduction of special markers into surface structure to
set off some element(s) as important.
Focusing is a universal syntactic process among human languages which
entails definiteness and emphasis. A speaker pragmatically assigns prominence
to a part of his/her message that he/she wishes or wants to emphasize without
necessarily changing the substance of the message. Focus sentences are derived
from basic sentence. Examples in Bura include the following:
a. Basic form
[ musa masta mbwa majeed ala]
musa buy house majeed for
‘Musa bought house for majeed’
b. Subject -NP focus
[ musa ni pal wari masta mbwa majeed ala ]
musa foc agr who buy house majeed for
‘Musa is the one who bought house for majeed’
FP
93
Spec
F’
Fig. 4.4
F
IP
Spec
NP
I’
Foc
I
NP
Tns
VP
Agr
V
NP
N
PP
P
mbwa na
musa
masta majeed
house that musa
‘it is house
that
buy
musa
majeed
bought for majeed’.
94
ala
for
Direct Object NP Focusing
[ mbwa na musa masta majeed ala]
house foc musa buy majeed for
‘It is house that musa bought for majeed’.
a. Basic form
[ Raliat hihi sim ]
raliat egg eat
‘Raliat ate egg’
b. Subject NP Focusing
[ Raliat na hihi sim]
raliat foc egg eat
‘It is raliat that ate the egg’
c. Direct Object NP Focusing
[ hihi na raliat sim]
egg foc raliat eat
‘It is egg that raliat ate’
95
FP
Spec
F’
Fig. 4.4.2
F
NP
Foc
IP
Spec
I
I
NP Tns[pst]
hihi
(na)
egg
‘It is egg that
VP
Agr
raliat
raliat
raliat
V
sim
eat
ate’
ADJUNCT MOVEMENT
96
Adjunct movement according to yusuf (1997:92) is a situation where there
a WH-element in comp. but the empty node is not so obvious, in fact other
elements which are not compulsory may added to a Yes/No question to provide
for adjunction.
Echo-question can then be used as the underlying structure for this type of
movement.
Examples of adjunct movement in Bura are:
a.
b.
a.
b.
[ da lə Niger ]
they go Niger
‘They travel to Niger’
[ hara da lə Niger ]
do they go Niger
‘Did they travel to Niger’
[ Halimat masta káakádú ]
halimat buy book
‘Halimat bought a book’
[ hara halimat masta káakádú ]
do halimat
buy
book
‘Did Halimat buy a book?
97
C
Spec
C’
C
QM
Fig. 4.4.3
IP
Spec
I’
I
VP
NP
Tns[PST]
Agr
N
V
NP
N
hara
da
lə
do
they
go
Niger
‘Did
they
travel to
Niger’
98
Niger
CHAPTER FIVE
CONCLUSION
5.0
INTRODUCTION
This chapter concentrates on conclusion of long essay which is basically
on the aspect of noun phrase of Bura language and also includes the references.
5.1
SUMMARY
This long essay has examined various issues in its five chapters, the first
chapter is the introduction aspect, which covers the historical background of
Bura people which make us to know the people’s tribe, culture, their
sociolinguistic profile, population, geographical location and their genetic
classification. In this chapter it is made known that both the pabir and the Bura
ethnically different but both speak the Bura language. They are the major tribes
in Biu and Askira L.G.A’s of Borno and Gombi L.G.A of Adamawa states.
The chapter also contains the rich culture of the Bura people in
marriage, occupation, festival and finally, the chapter examined the sub theories
of ‘GB’ Government and Binding theory.
99
The second chapter focuses on the basic syntactic concepts of Bura
language. This includes the various lexical categories and the phrase structure
rules, it also
makes us to know that Bura language exhibit subject verb object
(SVO) word order, it focuses on how sentences are formed.
However, the word ordering Bura is determined by kind of sentence
intended to be constructed the speaker, or message he wants to pass, as we can
have a (VOS),(SOV), word order but the basic word order is (SVO).
Furthermore, the focus of this long essay Noun phrase (NP) in Bura
language was examined in chapter three with emphasis on the noun satellites
which include determiner, adjectives, prepositions. It also described functions
such in the sentence, object of a preposition, as a direct object and as object of
a verb.
The types of transformational processes that are Bura language were
also examined in chapter four. The processes include the following: focus
construction, Relativization, Question formation, Reflexivization and Adjunct
movement.
100
Chapter five, is the concluding chapter and it comprises the summary,
conclusion and the references. In this chapter a summary of the work is
according to the content of each chapter, the chapter also include the conclusion
and findings discover in the procof this research work.
While the chapter and entire work is concluded with a list of the
references used during the course of this research work to make the work a
great success.
5.2
CONCLUSION
The work concentrates on the noun phrase of Bura language. The
investigation has been able to make additions to the orthography of the
language. Bura Noun phrase also have the following peculiarities. Bura Noun
phrase satellites include:
[ mbwa ghung ]
House red
Unlike in English language a noun in the language is post modified as
given in the above example.
101
Moreover, there is the presence of consonant cluster in Bura language,
just like the way we have it in Yoruba language e.g ‘gb’ and ‘kp’ . There is lack of
distinction between gender which is reflected in personal pronoun and reflexive
pronoun.
102
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Jackendoff, H.R (1997). X-Bar Syntax Study of Phrase Structure.
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Radford,
A
(1981).
Transformational
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A
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