THE VERB PHRASE OF KOFYAR
LANGUAGE
OLADEJI SAHEEDAT TEMITOPE
07/15CB074
A LONG ESSAY SUBMITTED TO THE DEPARTMENT OF
LINGUISTICS AND NIGERIAN LANGUAGES, FACULTY OF
ARTS, UNIVERSITY OF ILORIN, KWARA STATE.
IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR
THE AWARD OF THE DEGREE OF BACHELOR OF ARTS
(HONS) IN LINGUISTICS.
MAY, 2011
CERTIFICATION
This essay has been read and approved as meeting the requirement of the Department of
Linguistics and Nigeria languages, University of Ilorin, Ilorin:
________________
MRS. B. E. AROKOYO
PROJECT SUPERVISOR
________________
DATE
____________________
PROFESSOR A.S. ABDULSALAM
HEAD OF DEPARTMENT
________________
DATE
________________
EXTERNAL EXAMINER
________________
DATE
ii
DEDICATION
This project is dedicated to the Glory of Almighty Allah for his mercies on me,
and also to my mother for seeing me through this great citadel of learning. Also to my
late father Dr. Oladeji Habeeb Olayiwola may his gentle soul rest in perfect peace.
iii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Firstly, I thank almighty God, the creator of the universe for sparing my life,
endowing me with the knowledge to write this project.
Secondly, I am extremely indebted to my beloved mother for her guidance,
support and prayers during my stay in the university. I cannot forget my supervisor for
her tireless effort if not for her the project would have been nothing to write home about.
I can’t forget my lovely sister Abimbola, she is my little angel. I am very grateful
to my friends, Florence, Lola, Tolu, Tinuke, Bola and Yomi. I also want to thank my
neighbors namely, Damola, Kazeem, Kehinde, Khadijat, and Joy, I can’T mention all
names but you guys are the cutest.
In conclusion, I can’t forget my very close friend, Tobi Atoba for being there for
me throughout my stay, all his advice I appreciate them all. Also, Dr. Oseni I will forever
be indebted to him because he contributed into my life.
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LIST OF SYMBOLS, TABLES, DIAGRAMES AND CHARTS
1.2
Locations Of Kofyar’s Offspring
1.3
Kofyar’s Educational Status
1.4
Genetic Tree Classification
1.5
Diagrammatical Representation Of The Theories
1.9.2 Theta Role Assignment
1.9.3 Picture of Case Assignment
2.2
Kofyar Vowel Chart
2.2.2 Kofyar Language Nasal Vowel Chart
2.3
Kofyar Consonant Chart
2.3.1 Description Of Kofyar Consonant Sounds With Examples
Symbols
IP - Inflectional Phrase
VP – Verb Phrase
NP – Noun Phrase
PP – Prepositional Phrase
Adjp – Adjectival Phrase
v
TABLE OF CONTENT
Title page
i
Certification
ii
Dedication
iii
Acknowledgement
iv
List of Table, Diagrams, Charts and Symbols
v
Content page
vi-viii
CHAPTER ONE: INSTRUCTION
1.0
Introduction
1
1.1
General Background
1
1.2
Historical Background
2-4
1.3
Socio-Cultural Profile
4-8
1.4
Genetic Classification
8-11
1.5
Scope and Organization of study
11-12
1.6
Theoretical Framework
13
1.7
Data Collection
13-15
1.8
Data Analysis
15
1.9
Brief Review of the Government and Binding theory
15-29
vi
CHAPTER TWO: BASIC PHONOLOGICAL AND SYNTACTIC CONCEPTS
2.0
Introduction
30
2.1
Phonological Components of Kofyar
30-31
2.2
Kofyar Vowel Syste
31-39
2.3
Kofyar Consonant System
39-45
2.4
Tone System
45-48
2.5
Syllable Structure of Kofyar Language
48-52
2.6
Basic Syntactic Concepts
52-57
2.7
Lexical Categories
57-65
2.8
The Basic Word Order in Kofyar Language
65
2.9
Sentence Types
66-68
CHAPTER THREE: VERB PHRASE IN KOFYAR LANGUAGE
3.0
Introduction
69
3.1
Verb Phrase and Head parameter
69-72
3.2
Structure of the Verb Phrase
72-81
3.3
Classes of Verb
81-88
3.4
Verbs with Sentential Complements
88-98
3.5
Verbs Serialization
98-102
vii
CHAPTER FOUR: TRANSFORMATIONAL PROCESSES IN KOFYAR
LANGUAGE
4.0
Introduction
103
4.1
Transformational Component
103-104
4.2
Predicate Cleft in Kofyar Language
104-111
CHAPTER FIVE: SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION
5.0
Introduction
112
5.1
Summary
112-113
5.2
Conclusion
113
5.3
Recommendation
113-114
References
115-116
viii
CHAPTER ONE
1.0
INTRODUCTION
This study focuses on the verb phrase of kofyar. Kofyar is a dialect of “sura” that
can be found in the northern part of plateau state in a local government called Qua’an
pan. The kofyar are a population in the middle belt of Nigeria numbering around 50,000.
They are majorly known as ‘KOFYARA’ among the speakers but in the local
government they are known as “PAN”. It is also spoken in a part of Nassarawa State.
1.1
GENERAL BACKGROUND
COLONIAL BACK GROUND
Kofyar population comprises of three different tribes as designated by british
colonial officers and the tribes are the Doemark, Merniang and kwalla. The three groups
have a common language, economic pattern and origin myth and had formed into a union
called the kofyar federation in 1940’s. They have therefore been referred to as a single
group by the anthropologist.
When they were first met by early British colonial authorities, they lived in the
rugged hills in the south eastern corner of the Jos plateau and in settlements around
plateau state. They remained at peace with Britain officers until 1930, when a young
assistant district officer named Barlow was killed in the hill village of Latok by a rock
thrown on his head. After this the resident were forced out of the hills making them
spread themselves in different places in plateau state.
1
1.2
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
Kofyar means the home state of the ancestor has grown. There are two kofyar in
Qua’an pan local government area, they are kofyar payar and kofyar doemak, the only
difference between these two kofyar is the distance. The name of the originator is Dafyar
which means a child has grown. He descended from the eastern part of Nigeria.
When he left for the eastern part of the country he moved with tribes like the
Angas, Mahvul, Ankwe, Gwai and the Bokous. When were moving they came straight to
Daika in Mangul Local Government, Plateau State. At that point, they had a
disagreement, the Bokous and the panchi left and headed towards another direction. The
kofyar headed towards Garam, at Garam they had another disagreement on the issue of
chieftaincy.
Mean while, Dafyar had a brother named Daram, they both moved from Garam to
chip, in chip, Dafyar left Daram, Dafyar left and settled in kofyar payer. He gave birth to
so many children among which were a set of twin called Dajan and Dajin, Dajan went to
namu and Dajin stayed in Doemak meaning my movement ends here. The offspring of
Dafyar comprised his sons and grandsons or even great grand sons and so on. Oral
tradition has for long mentioned the fourteen who have been popular due to the
settlements that grew in the wake of their earlier locations. These offspring’s whose
location have created urban and semi urban settlements are as presented below.
2
TABLE 1.2LOCATIONS OF KOFYAR OFFSPRING
S/N
NAME
SETTLEMENT
APPROXIMATE ROUTE DISTANCE
FROM KOFYAR
1
Chikirpe
Kwang
6km
2
Dajan
Jepjan
23km
3
Dajin
Dummak
3km
4
Dawam
Lardang
5km
5
Jefut
Jaknoeng
11km
6
Jipal
Koeper
8km
7
Koenzuan
Fujing
6km
8
Kopgwai
Muduut
6km
9
Longme
Bogot
5km
10
Nugaan
Miket
2km
11
Rundum
Zukal
8km
12
Soekoetko Kwa
3km
13
Wadam
Kwanoeng
5km
14
Yimpan
Fungleet, Njak
12km
3
As a result of civilisation, kofyar speakers can be found in seven districts in
Qua’an pan local government area in seven villages which are Doemak, Kwa, Kwang,
Kwalla, Bwalla, Namu and Doka.
1.3
SOCIO-CULTURE PROFILE
The kofyar are a population in the middle belt of Nigeria. The dialects are Bwal,
Bwol, Dimmuk, Doemak, Giverom, Gworam, Jepal and Nemyang.
The official language in Qua’an pan local government is English language. The
main identity of “KOFYARA’ is their language and beliefs. The kofyar people are rich in
terms of social aspect and cultural aspect such as festivals, dressing, religion, food,
occupation and so on.
FESTIVAL
Ma’ap Festival: The ma’ap festival is mean for the funeral rite of a great person
and it is done by slaughtering a horse.
Ka’atar festival: It is a festival done to thank the gods for making the harvest of a year
bountiful.
Feer: Is a musical presentation for social activities especially during installations, heroic
activities, funerals, station ceremonies, etc. horns are used to produce the music. It is
common with keonoen, Ron and kofyar groups.
4
BELIEF
The kofyar people believe in the almighty God whom they call Na’an. They also
believe in mystical power, they place their belief in lesser gods such as keom Gwar and
the koen toeng Munaan. The work of koem Gwar is to catch evil people and the work of
koem toeng Munaacth orade) is to explore into the future.
RELIGION
The kofyar does believe in almighty God, the only supreme being who lives in the
sky, but that there is no after life. In the ancient days, the kofyar people were majorly
traditional believers but due to the influence of western civilization the kofyar’s are
majorly Christians followed by traditional believers and a few Muslims.
BEST FOOD AND BEST DRINK
Their best foods in kofyar are pounded yam, Lamchik, Guzeh, Baala and Naweh,
their best soups are toomang made from pumpkin leaves, tooklem made from bean seed,
toompur made form mushroom and tookunlung. Kofyar people take a lot of alcohol and
their favorite drink is burukutu which is known as Mous in the area, followed by
Wa’argoebung and Wa’ardachant. One thing to note in their culture is that they don’t
waste food.
5
WEDDING AND DRESSING
In kofyar, the wedding ceremony is called samurang, the bride is called
Namwar and the groom is called Mis namwar, the wedding ceremony is done in the
namwar’s place.
In terms of the dressing, in the olden days, the kofyar have a poenlugut which
means child carrier made from sheep skin. In the western time, they dress to fit
civilization.
EDUCATION
It is beyond the shadow of doubt that, the issue of western education in today’s
society is dominant and nearly unavoidable.
Kofyar a small speech community in plateau state is not exempted from this so
called nomenclature ‘education’. Unlike so many places the main schools in kofyar and
the neigh-boring villages are missionary and government school.
6
TABLE 1:3 KOFYAR EDUCATIONAL STATUS
S/N
LOCATIONS
STATUS
PROPRIETOR
PRESENT STATUS
1
Kwa
Primary
Catholic
Secondary
2.
Kwang
Primary
Catholic
Secondary
3
Chip
Primary
Catholic
Secondary
4
Dafan
Primary
Catholic
Secondary
5
Kofyar Paya
Primary
Catholic
Primary
6
Doemak
Primary
Catholic
Secondary
7
Kwagalak
Primary
Catholic
Secondary
8
Kwagalak
Primary
Catholic
Secondary
9
Ba’al
Primary
Catholic
Primary
10
Chim
Primary
Catholic
Primary
11
Kwagar
Primary
Catholic
Primary
12
Lardang
Primary
Catholic
Primary
13
Bwall
Primary
Catholic
Secondary
14
Jepjan (Namu)
Primary
Catholic
Secondary
15
Kofyar doemak
Primary
Catholic
Primary
Mostly, Kofyar people don’t have problem communicating with people outside
their ethnic group because they understand English-Language.
7
Kofyar language is a very rich language because text books have been written
using the language. It is a language of so many languages.
POPULATION AND OCCUPATION
Quá’an pan is a Local Government area in Plateaus State, Nigeria. Its head
quarters are in the town of (Baap). It has an area of 2,478km2 and a population of 196,
929 at the 2006 population census with Kofyar people numbering around 50,000. The
main occupation of Kofyar people is farming, they provide good farming yields with the
help of organic manure in place of fertilizers. They also do a little hunting and fishing
during their leisure period.
ECONOMIC AND CULTURAL CHANGE SINCE 1960’S
During the 1950’s, the Kofyar began to settle in the fertile plains of the Benue
valley to the south of the Jos Plateau. Pioneering farms over there used extensive slash
and burn methods, but with rising population.
Density and market stimulus, intensive methods were gradually introduced by the
1980’s Benue Valley Kofyar were practicing considerable amount of yams, rice, peanut,
millet and sorghum using intensive but generally sustainable methods.
Although, most Kofyar people now live in the valley (or in cities), the Jos plateau
homeland is still inhabited largely because of the Kofyar’s effort to maintain it as cultural
and economic resource. Many Kofyar people who live elsewhere will still keep
secondary farms in their homeland.
8
1.4
GENETIC CLASSIFICATION
Every language of the world is believed to have or share common ancestors. The
family or the language that can be traced to common ancestors is the language family.
Merit Ruhlen (1987:1) states that the idea that groups of languages that share certain
systematic resemblances have inherited those similarities form a common origin is the
basis for genetic classification.
According to Dr. Uni Seber, a language is a group of language related by descent
from common ancestors called the proto language. The term comes from the tree model
of language origination in historical linguistics, which makes use of a metaphor
comparing languages to people in biological family tree or in a subsequent modification
to species in psychogenetic tree of evolution.
A genetic classification thus makes two statements. Firstly, it affirms that certain
languages are infact relates to each other. (a common ancestor) secondly, if specifies how
the language are interrelated in the form of a branching diagram.
The Kofyar language falls under the afro-asiatic language family because all African
languages can be grouped into four main families which are Niger kordofania, Afroasiatic, Nilo-Sahara and Khoisan.
Kofyar under the afro-asiatic family can be further classified under the chadic
family.
9
The chadic language are a member of Afro-asiatic phylum chadic languages are
spoken mostly in chad republic, North Cameroon and Northem Nigeria because of the
closeness to lake chad. Language of the chadic family make up for about 25 percent of
the total number of languages spoken in Nigeria concentrated in Adamawa, Bauchi,
Borno, Nassarawa, Abuja and Plateau State.
The following classification of the chadic language found in Nigeria is taken from
crozier and Blench 1992. Some medium sized, chadic language include Angas,
Mwaghavul. Most are endangered languages due to the strong influence of Hausa in
Northern Nigeria. The only language of wider distribution in Nigeria is Hausa in
Northern Nigeria with 18 million speakers in Nigeria and 40 million speakers worldwide.
10
TABLE 1.4 GENETIC TREE OF KOFYAR LANGUAGE
1.5
SCOPE AND ORGANIZATION OF STUDY
11
This project describes the Kofyar verb phrase. It examines the structure and
properties of verb phrase in Kofyar language and the transformational processes
involving the structure of verb phrase. It is to make Kofyar language a spoken language
in many places and to make learning and understanding of the language easy for people
who do not speak the language and chanced speakers. This processes and
exemplifications are presented and analyzed using the model known as the ‘Government
and Binding theory’.
Chapter one of the project presents the introductory aspect of the research work
exploring mainly the colonial Background, historical background, the socio linguistic
and the socio-cultural profile, the genetic classification, the data analysis, theoretical
frame work and data collection.
It also presents the research methodology adopted in the project.
Chapter two presents brief review of the sound system and sound pattern of the
language, the consonant sound and the vowel sound, the tonal inventory of the language
and the sound distribution. This chapter also discusses the basis syntactic concepts that
are germane to this area of study such as the phrase structure rules, lexical categories,
basis word order and sentence types.
Chapter three focuses on the verb phrase of Kofyar which is the area of absolute
concentration of this research. It entails exploring deep into the verb phrase of Kofyar
and the phrase structure rule of verb phrase.
12
Chapter four describes the transformational processes involving verb phrases in
Kofyar language with such aspects explaining the deep structure and the surface
structure. Chapter five which is the concluding part of this exercise summarizes the work
form the beginning to the end of the write up and presents recommendations.
1.6
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
Many theories have been propounded for analyzing language data in order to
present a systematic account (or descriptive) of the linguistic knowledge or competence
of the native speaker of a language possesses.
Such theories are used as theoretical framework or methodological tools for
analyzing language data. They include: Traditional or classical Grammar, structural or
Taxonomic Grammar, systematic grammar, Transformational Generative Grammar,
Government and Binding theory and minimalist programme. The framework adopted for
analyzing Kofyar language data is Government and Binding theory.
The government and binding framework have been chosen because it shows the
similarities among the different phases. Government and Binding tried to capture these
similarities by assigning to them the same structure rather than the case of
transformational generative grammar, the government and Binding theory model is
examined in detail in section1.9
13
1.7
DATA COLLECTION
Samarin (1967:43) says the kind of corpus a field researcher obtains is determined
by the purposes and the techniques when collecting linguistics data. According to him;
Research typically begins with example of structured expressions, more precisely
with judgments by speakers (or other evidence) that suggest at least a partial account of
the form and meaning of this expression and thus provide at least a partial account of
their structures”.
The focus of this research is largely and primarily for language description. The
data collection was done through the use of word list and frame technique.
There are two ways of collecting data which are the informant method and the
introspective method. But of the two methods the informants or contact method is
adopted in the research in which the native speakers is the source of the information and
the evaluation of the utterances put to him by linguistics investigator.
The three informants or language helpers that kindly participated in the
development of this research are Mr. Godfrey K, Mr. Paul Damar, Mr. lale. Mr. Godfery
K.is thirty years and he is a bike rider with a solid secondary school knowledge Mr. Lale
is an old man of seventy two years.
He is a farmer and as well as a retired primary school teacher.
The ward list is equally used in this research. The list is used to collect a number
of words for verification, evaluation and analysis in this project. The frame work
14
technique forms a crucial part of this research work since it is in the domain of syntax. To
this end, the frame technique is normally used in collecting relevant syntactic data.
The importance of frame techniques is 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 “man” in Englishlanguage can be derived if the word is used in different syntactic position. For example,
the subject, the object and the object of the preposition.
1.8
DATA ANALYSIS
Data analysis is based on the forms produced by the native speaker and it is
implemented in order to discover what obtains in the language under study.
The data in this work will be analyzed using the government and binding model
that is the different types of verb phrases and their transformations would be exemplified
using the different sub-theories of Government and Binding like x-bar theory [crucial for
the projection of phrasal categories from lexical categories) and the movement theory
(used for the exemplification of verbal movement from one place to another.
1.9
BRIEF REVIEW OF THE GOVERNMENT AND BINDING THEORY:
Government and binding theory was introduced by Noam Chomsky in 1981. The
model takes its name from two of its sub-theories. Binding deals with conditions that are
15
formally related or bind certain elements of a sentence and Government deals with the
structure content, within which these binding relationships obtains. The approach is also
described by the phrase principle and parameters theory.
Government Binding theory was developed initially by Chomsky and is in a sense
the immediate descendant of transformational grammar. Infact, one feature of
Government and binding theory that distinguishes if from other theories is that it makes
use of transformational operation. Unlike, transformational generative grammar,
government and binding are a modular deductive theory of grammar. The modular theory
or sub-theories are the deep structure and surface structure for they play roles similar but
not identical to the transformational grammar nations of deep and surface structure.
Deep structure
Surface structure
Logical Form
Phonetic form
The sub-theories of government and Binding frame work are; x-bar theory, theta
theory, case theory, Government theory, Binding theory, Bounding theory and control
theory.
16
1.8.1 THE X-BAR THEORY
The x-bar theory is a theory designated to formalize the traditional notion called
head. It was developed in the 1970’s and plays an important role in Government and
17
Binding. The idea is that when one looks at the structure internal to different phrases in a
language, one typically finds a similar pattern with each.
A fundamental and central concept in all contemporary syntax is the concept of a
head. The head of linguistic unit is that part of the unit that gives its essential character.
In the present context, the head of a NP is the noun; it is in virtue of the fact that it is
headed by a noun that the phrase is noun phrase. Similarly, a verb phrase and so on for
adjectives, prepositions and adverbs.
According to Horrocks (1987:100), x-bar theory provides principle for the
projection of phrasal categories from lexical categories and imposes conditions on the
hierarchical organization of categories in the form of general schemata.
In describing x bar theory, peter sells (1987:27-28) explains that the phrase is said to be
projection of the head. Standardlys, two levels of projection are countenanced, the
phrasal level, for instance, Noun phrase assumed to be related to its head by an
intermediate phrasal level.
The x bar scheme for English proposed by Government and Binding is shown in
it’s bare out lines. The phrasal level is characterized by being a second-order project of
the head for instance (x”), this is equivalent to the notation xp (second order (phrasal)
project of any head), and the highest level of projection is called the maximal projection.
18
x“
Maximal projection
Specifier
X1
Modifier
Argument
XO
In the above schemata, XII which is equal to the xp is the maximal projection. It
has a specifier position. The X0 is the head of the phrase and it can sub categorize for
complements or adjacent or adjuncts. For example in kofyar language.
KOFYAR
ENGLISH
PROJECTION LEVEL
Oék wúle nkoe
Goat big that (that big goat)
Maximal projection level
Oék nkose
Goat that (that goat)
Intermediate projection
Oék
Goat
Zero projection level
19
1.8.2
THETA THEORY (Ø THEORY)
The theory of ø roles (or thematic relations as they are more generally known)
was developed in the 1960’s and 1970’s (theory it has antecedents in the work of ancient
grammarians) but has only brought into syntactic description in a general way in recent
years. While subcatergorization in its core description provides information about the
syntactic form of arguments, ø-roles provide essentially semantic information. For
examples while the verb find subcategories for an Np; it has two ø roles: Agent and
theme, these are notionally the one responsible for the action and the thing upon which
the action is performed respectively.
According to Henk van Reimsdik and Edwin Williams (1986:241) ‘The theta
theory is thus another attempt to account for the relation between verbs and their
arguments. It has come to be known as ø- theory because ø stands for thematic.
One of the fundamental tasks of ø theory is to determine the circumstance under
which a Np can be argument of a verb. There are types of argument that is the internal
argument and the external argument. The internal arguments are governed by the verb.
For example (NP (VP (v NP PP PP PP ………) VP)S. The external verb is not only
governed by the verb but by the whole verb phrase. The assignment of ø roles to internal
arguments is known as direct argument and the role of ø to external argument is known as
indirect assignment and in this roles are assigned at the deep structure.
20
DIAGRAM 1.8.2
For example in kofyar language; (1) John soe shim
John eat yam
John ate yam
In this sentence the verb is the main constituent, so we can say that the NP has
been assigned theta role, that is, the verb assigned theta role to John.
21
1.8.3
THE CASE THEORY
According to Horrocks (1988:102), case theory deals with the principles of case
assignment to constituents. Case theory has to do primarily with forms that, Np’s take in
different syntactic environments.
Peter s. (1986:52) says that case theory is responsible for determining large part
the distributions of Nps and possibly other maximal projection too. In Government and
binding each noun phrase must be assigned case, with the possible exception of some
empty categories. For example, if some Np failed to be assigned case or more strictly fail
to be in position to which case is assigned, then the structure rule is ungrammatical. This
is mostly apparently in case filter.
Case filter always occur at the surface structure which has the phonetic content
but no case that is if the noun phrase has phonetic content but no case. Actually, in the
general case, the filter must apply to chains, each chain must have exactly one case
marked position if it has Np as it’s first members.
In the Government and Binding frame work, these cases are said to be assigned under
‘Government’. The common cases types are:
1.
Nominative case-assigned by tense that contains inflection (Np, s)
2.
Oblique case are assigned by prepositions
3.
Accusative case are assigned by Verb
22
The category inflection assigns case to the subject under government if it is
tensed, the infinitival INFL” to does not assign case, verbs and prepositions assign case to
their objects in English, it is the same case, the typically prepositions assign some kind of
oblique case, such as dative.
DIAGRAM 1.8.3 PICTURE OF CASE ASSIGNMENT
However case is further restricted to be assigned under adjacency for in general,
nothing may intervene between a case assigner and its assignee. This is to say that case
assignee and case assigners must be contiguous with no barrier blocking the discharge of
23
the abstract case. The idea of adjacency condition is to accounts for facts like the
following.
a. I like flowers very much
I very much like flower
b. I gave the book to bill
I gave to Bill the book.
These examples shows that there is no ground or arguments such as S’ and PP. An
example from Hausa and Yoruba language each will adequately illustrate the prose
description. Example in Hausa;
(a)
Bala taa ziyaci Lukman a gida.
Bala AGR risit Luman at home.
Bala visited Lukman at home
Bala being the subjects gets nominative case from INFL, which is tense). Ziyara
assigns accusative case to Lukman and ‘a’ a preposition assigns oblique case to Gida
Example in Yoruba;
Olá n bę Ògédé ni oko
Ola Asp cut plantain in farm
Ola is cutting plantain in the farm.
Ade being the subject gets Nom case from INFL, which is + [tense], ‘be’ assigns
accusative case to Ogędę and ‘ni’ assigns oblique case to Ile.
24
1.8.6
GOVERNMENT THEORY
According to Malmjaer [199:495], Government theory deals with the relationship
between a head and its complement and relationship in other sub theories. It is a known
fact of grammar that a verb governs its object where the object could be noun phrase and
prepositional phrase.
Hence, verb like see, kill etc govern their Np objects. The domain of a lexical head, INFL
or poss may then be taken as the element of C. commands that are not protected by a
barrier, However, there is evidence that they should be generated to comprise all maximal
projections in the sense of x bar theory.
XP
X
B
X
Y
In the above schemata, x – C- commands B and other nodes dominate the x. in the
same vein both x and B can thus assign case to each other.
However and can assign case to only B and not x and Y, with this description if is
obvious that crucial to the concept of ‘government’ is the issue of C- commands is the
relationship between an element and these elements if is ‘superior’ to but does not
dominate.
25
Another issue is the issue of S-pruning. In S-pruning, the verb of the higher clause
governs the subject of the lower sentence but nothing within its Vp, since it is the domain
of verb.
26
Taking maximal projections (Np, ADJP, VP and PP) are barriers (relevant)
example are ringed. The concept of adjacency means contiguity. It is also one of the
requirements for government theory. This implies, these must be no constraint between a
governor and its governor. Government theory is extended through the principle of
proper government which non lexical categories do not. For example in English
language;
(1).
Ade ate yam
The verb ate is the one governing Ade with nothing blocking there relationship
between the two words.
1.8.4
BINDING THEORY
According to Gert W. (1995:180), Binding theory is the sub theory of government
and binding theory which deals with indexing relationships between nominal expressions.
Horocks (I988:108), says that binding theory is concerned primarily with the conditions
under which Nps are interpreted as co-referential with other Np’s in the same sentence.
The partitioning is effected by three valued features which are:
(a) Anaphors
(b) Pronominal
(c) Referential expressions
27
An anaphor must be bound in the smallest domain of a subject in which it occurs
while a pronoun must be free in the smallest domain of a subject in which it occurs and a
referential expression must be free in all.
Taking each of the categories in turn, we may define ‘Anaphors’ as Np’s whose
reference is necessarily determined sentence internally and which cannot have
independent reference. Reciprocal and reflexive pronouns fall into the class e.g.
(a) Kalu shot himself
(b) Bulu and the animal fought each other on Sunday.
‘Himself’ and ‘each other’ mush be taken as referring back to the individual denoted by
Kalu and Bulu.
Pronominal: there are Np’s that lack specific lexical content and have only the features
person, number, gender and case. Unlike anaphor, they may either refer to individuals
independently or co-refer to individuals already named in a given sentence. For example.
(a)
Bili says he is a genius.
The pronominal ‘he’ may refer to the individual denoted by the name Bili or to
some other individual not mentioned in the sentence.
R-Expressions: [The customary abbreviation for referential expression] as the name
implies, they are noun phrases with lexical heads which potentially refer to something.
Co-reference is excluded here, for example.
Mr. Ojo says Tola should be boiled in oil.
28
The ‘Mr. Ojo and Tola’ must denote two different individuals. Even where the
same name is used twice, the most natural interpretation is one where two different
people are involved. For example:
(a)
Lola slapped Lola in the kitchen.
In special circumstance like this, it is crucial to note that the second R-expression
has to be taken as a kind of pronominal.
Conclusively, 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 an antecedent [Chomsky,
1988:52].
29
CHAPTER TWO
BASIC PHONOLOGICAL AND SYNTACTIC COMPONENT
2.0
INTRODUCTION
In this chapter, some insight on the phonology of kofyar language is presented.
These include the sound inventory, tonal inventory and the syllable inventory. We also
move further into discussing some basic syntactic component like the phrase structure,
rules, lexical categories, and basic word order and sentence types.
2.1
PHONOLOGICAL COMPONENT OF KOFYAR
What is phonology? Phonology according to David (2008:366) is the breach of
linguistics which studies the sound systems of languages. Out of the wide range of
sounds the human vocal apparatus can produce, and which are studied by PHONETICS.
Phonetics is the science which studies the characteristics of human sound making,
especially, those sounds used in speech and provides methods for their description,
classification and transcription.
In phonology, sounds are organized into a system of contrasts which are analyzed
in terms of phonemes, distinctive features or other such phonological units according to
the theory used. The aim of phonology is to demonstrate the patterns of distinctive sound
found in a language, and to make as general statements as possible about the nature of
sound systems in the language of the world.
30
There are various aspect of phonology such as articulatory phonology, atomic
phonology, segmental phonology, dependency phonology and soon. The main thing that
makes up phonology is sounds that is, the vowel and consonant sound.
2.2
KOFYAR VOWEL SYSTEM
Mike and Hannah (1998:38), says vowels are articulated in a manner different to
that of consonants. Vowels are sounds articulated without a complete closure in the
mouth or a degree of narrowing which would produce audible friction, the air escapes
evenly over the centre of the tongue. If air escapes solely though the mouth, the vowels
are said to be oral and if some air is simultaneously released through the nose, vowels are
nasal. In addition to this, there are two variables by which classification of vowels can be
done, that is.
(a)
The position of the lips-whether rounded, spread, or neutral.
(b)
The part of the tongue raised, and the height to which it moves.
In establishing the vowel system of a language, several further dimensions may be
used and the criterion for this is the duration of the vowel, either long or short. Another is
whether during an articulation, there is any detectable change in quality. If the quality of
a vowel stays unchanged the term pure vowel or monophony is used. If there is an
evident change in quality, one talks instead of a gliding vowel. If tow auditory elements
are involved, the vowel glide is referred to as deglitching nd if there are three element it
is referred to as triphthong.
31
Kofyar language has 14 vowel, in which there are eight oral vowels and six nasal vowels.
The oral vowel are / /,/e/,/ε//i//o/э//∂/v/ and the nasal vowels are /ã/, /Î/, ć/,έ/, /ú/ and /ð/.
KOFYAR ORAL VOWEL CHART
DESCRIPTION OF THE VOWEL SOUNDS AND ENVIRONMENT OF
OCCURENCE
[I]-A front, high, unrounded and close vowel.
Word Initial
Thir ‘needle’
Word medial
Yit
‘eye’
32
Shim
‘yam’
Pil
‘thorn’
WORD FINAL
Túkushi
‘basket’
Moébi
‘horse’
Gui
‘horse’
2.
/e/, A front, mid, mid-close, unrounded vowel.
WORD INITIAL
Έés - ‘sand’
Έas –
‘grind’
Έp - ‘open’
WORD MEDIAL
Jép
–
‘children’
Dém –
‘loke’
Shéd –
‘cook’
WORD FINAL
–
‘learn’
Wúle –
‘small’
Goéme –
‘one’
Shé
33
/ε/, A front., mid, open-mid, un-rounded vowel.
4.
WORD INITIAL
Emnoegoen ñnáh-‘mother’s brother’
1.
WORD MEDIAL
yér
-
‘bird’
sép
–
‘axe’
bél
–
‘heart’
WORD FINAL
Káerfé 4.
‘iron’
/V/-A back, high, rounded vowel
WORD MEDIA
Wúfú –
‘new’
Wúfii –
‘dry’
Túzel –
‘spit’
WORD FINAL
Lãfil
–
‘hard’
Fúú
–
‘month’
Lému –
5.
‘orange’
/O/ A, back, mid-close rounded vowel
34
6.
WORD INITIAL
–
ógót
‘close’
WORD MEDIAL
To’ók
–
‘neck’
Kógóm –
‘wind’
Sógóm –
‘horn’
WORD FINAL
Góró – ‘kolanut’
Go’o – ‘matchet’
6.
/O/-A back, mid-open, rounded vowel
WORD MEDIAL
Kóm
-
‘car’
góenók –
‘back’
To’ok –
‘soup’
7.
/ / - a central, low, unrounded vowel.
WORD INITIAL
(i)
Àm – ‘water’
As –
‘dog’
Àas – ‘egg’
35
WORD MEDIA
Kár –
‘monkey’
Chám –
thirst’
Ráp – ‘rubbish heap’
WORD FINAL
Guá –
‘twon’
Súwá –
‘guined corn’
Láwá –
‘meat’
8.
/ / -oe, a schwa sound, a central, mid vowel.
WORD INITIAL
Oégoés –
‘blood’
Oéroém –
‘beans’
oegoet fi’in – ‘grinding stone’
WORD MEDIAL
Doébáp –
‘bag’
Doébám –
‘rope’
Goépang –
‘house’
WORD FINAL
Poéloé –
‘cloor’
Boéloé –
‘wall’
36
‘compound’
LoéChart 2.2.2
KOFYAR LANGUAGE NASAL VOWEL CHART
2.2.2.
DESCRIPTION OF THE NASAL VOWEL AND ENVIRONMENT
OF OCCUR NCE
1.
in – a front, high, unrounded, nasal vowel.
WORD FINAL
Tigin – ‘heavy’
Shin- ‘make
Dádin – ‘bat’
37
2.
en – a front, mid-low, unrounded, nasal vowel.
WORD INITIAL
Έn’mu’ut –
3.
‘forget’
- an word – a, central, low, unrounded, nasal vowel
WORD FINAL
mú’an ‘walk’
man – ‘know’
muán – ‘go’
word initial
Àngwa- ‘ãgwa’
4.
/un/ - a back, high rounded, nasal vowel
WORD FINAL
kún – ‘count’
túgún – ‘push’
súgún – ‘dream’
5.
/on/ - a back, mid-low rounded nasal vowel
WORD FINAL
wugon – ‘big’
kón – ‘pour’
6.
/oen/[ã] – a central – mid-low, nasal vowel
38
WORD FINAL
bwoén- ‘waist’
koégén – ‘salt
2.3
KOFYAR CONSONANT SYSTEM
David (1988:103) defined consonant as sound made by a closure or narrowing in
the vocal tract so that the airflow is either is either completely blocked, or so restricted
that audible fiction is produced.
Consonant articulation is relatively easy to feel, and
as a result are most conveniently described in terms of place and manner of articulations.
In addition, a routine phonetic description of consonants would involve
information about the mode of vibration of the vocal cords. Form a phonological point of
view consonants are those units which function at the margins of syllables, either singly
or in clusters.
In kofyar language there are 22 consonants and they are b, t, d, k, g, n, h, y, s, m,
ŋ, f, l, p, r, ch, sh, z, w, y, kw, j,.
39
KOFYAR CONSONANTS CHART
BIT
LABIO
ALVEOLA
PALAT
ABI
DENTA
R
O
AL
L
VELAR GLOTTA PALATA
L
L
LABIALIZE
D
APPROXIM
ANT
ALVEO
LAR
Stop
Nasal
p b
t
m
Fricative
d
f
v
s
z
Trill
ς
kw
?
h
ts
Lateral
g
ŋ
n
Affricate
Approximants
k
dz
l
w
J
r
40
2.3.1
DESCRIPTION OF KOFYAR CONSONANT SOUNDS WITH
EXAMPLES
S/N
SOUND
DESCRIPTION
INITIAL
MEDIAL
FINAL
1
P
voiceless, bilabial
Pip-‘beard’
Kópsóe-‘seed’
Doep-‘penis’
Stop
Pil-‘thorn’
Lépgurum-
Chirép-‘fish’
‘send’
Póelóe-‘door’
Pógópkum-
Sép-‘axe’
‘eight’
2.
b
Voiced, bilabial stop
Bis-‘bad’
Dában‘cassava’
3
m
Voiced, bilabial nasal
Bál-‘strong’
Dóebap-‘bag’
Bél-‘heart’
Dóebám-‘rope
Sham-‘taste’
Mat-‘wife’
Wumúlák-
Sham-‘taste’
‘doctor’
Móemis‘man’
Moémát‘woman’
41
Góeme-‘one’
Dúgúm‘neel’
Kám’war[‘say’ Sa’am’sleep’
4
w
Voiced, bilabial, glide
Wútáu-
Dáwú-‘snale’
‘hunter’
Approximant
Wát-‘thief’
Láwá-‘meat’
Wúrúm-‘lies’
Súwáguineacom
5
6
f
v
Voiceless, labio dental
Furoém-knee’
Doéfis-‘house’
Fricative
Fúú-‘mouth’
Kárfe-‘iron’
Fúliés-
Pogopfáar-
‘facces’
‘nine’
Vúgúm-‘over’
Pogovoel-
Voiced, labio-dental
‘seven’
7
t
fricative
Vál-‘stick
Voiceless, alveolar
Toégoem
Wútáu-‘water’
Boét-‘belly’
Pitwús-
Hig út-‘fear’
‘blood’
To’ok ‘soup’
Stop
‘extinguish
8
d
Voiced, alveolar stop
42
Dóebáh-
Strindoél
‘tobacco’
‘play’
Dip-‘feather’
Yagálgodp-
‘fly’
9
n
Voiced, alveolar
Nóemuat‘foad’
Nasal
Nikógt-gunea
‘food’
10
z
Voiced, alveolar
Zwat-‘dwell’
Góezoem ‘rat’
fricative
Zel-‘saliva’
Wúzúgum
‘cold’
11
s
Voiceless, alveolar
Gúksár ‘arm’
Wús-‘fry’
Lému-
Tugulám-
Diel-
‘orange’
‘water pot’
‘somke’
Wé-
To’oklá-okra
Pil-thorn
Sám‘descedn’
12
l
Voiced, alveolar
lateral
compound
13
14
r
S as in sh
Voiced, alveolar
Ri jaya-‘well’
Wúrúm-‘lies’
Már-farm
Trill
Ráp-‘rubbish
Larép-
Wár-road
heap’
‘daughter’
Voiceless palato
Shán-‘hoe’
Alveolar fricative
Shun-‘make’
43
Stustúk ‘body’
15
Chis-‘s nail’
Ts as in Voiceless palato
Wuchip
‘balck’
ch
Alveolar affricate
Chigin-‘nail’
Nchógór
‘cluck’
16
Dzasin j
Voiced palato alveolar Jágám-‘leg’
affricate
17
k
Voiceless, velar stop
Kú’at- ‘pay’
Takas ‘stink’
‘piák’-‘burn’
Stop
Kun-‘count’
Yákká ‘apait’
Wúmúlak
‘doctor’
18
19
g
N as in
Voiced, velar
Gúi-‘donkey’
Gágáp ‘wing’
Stop
Gwá-‘twon
Dágár ‘star’
Voiced, velar
Mangme
Teng-‘spin
‘choose’
Mangle ‘carry’
niang‘refuse’
20
h
Áht- ‘bite’
Voiceless, glottal
Ñdah
‘father’
fricative
Ñnán
‘mother’
44
21
22
J as in y
Voiced, palatal
Yásár-‘hold’
Wúyon-‘big’
Approximant
Yáká- ‘plait’
Dáguang-‘rab’
Kw as in Voiceless, labialised
Súwá
Kw
‘maize’
Approximant
Kwágáp
toémg
Kom
kwán
kwan-
(back ‘groundnut’
of tee
2.4
TONE SYSTEM
According to pike (1948:3) tone language is any language that has significant
contrastive but relevant pitch on each syllable. Very many of the worlds languages are
tone language. The pitch variation on two words differentiates the meaning of words.
Tone is a function of pitch.
For a language to be qualified as a tone language, at least two level tones must be
attested. At the level of phonology, there are two features of speech. Segmental and
suprasegmental features. At the segmental level, we have the consonants and the vowels.
At the supasegmental level, we have pitch variation.
Tones may be transcribed n many ways. The most popular among the tones are:
45
high tone (/)
Low tone (\)
Mid tone (-)
Other are falling and rising tone: falling tone (^)
Rising tone (v)
The high, mid and low tone can be grouped under the register tone, while the
contour tone is the combination of the falling and rising tone. The register tone is attested
in Kofyar language that is, the high, low and mid tone.
LEVEL TONES
The high tone (/) is marked with an acute accent.
Example of words containing high tone;
Kofyar
gloss
Káh
‘head’
Yit
‘eye’
Kóm
‘ear’
Li’is
‘tongue’
Goén
‘chin’
Yúgúr
‘breast’
Sar
‘hand’
46
LOW TONE
The low tone (/) is marked with a grackle accent.
Kofyar
gloss
Nár
‘skin’
Goézoéng
‘wine’
Nér
‘vagina’
ám
‘water’
moégóer
‘fat’
múr
‘oil’
Mid tone
Fofyar
gloss
To’ok
‘soup’
Chian
‘axe’
Rap
‘rubbishhe up’
bail
‘arrow’
fusbam
‘sunshine’
gam
‘full’
47
2.4.1
FUNCTION OF TONE IN KOFYAR LANGUAGE
Tone performs lexical function in kofyar language. The lexical function is when
tone differentiates the meaning between two words having the some segmental, structural
graphical or orthographical representation.
The kofyar language is an example of language which use pitch differences to
contrast word meaning. For example,
Kofyar
gloss
Sár
‘chand’
Sár
‘ten’
Már
‘millet’
Téng
‘rope’
téng
‘spin’
2.5
SYLLABLE STRUCTURE OF KOFYAR LANGUAGE
A syllable is a unit, a higher level than the phoneme or sounds but it is lower than
the word or morpheme. A syllable will always have a vowel. A number of syllables we
have in a word are determined by the vowel prominent.
Every syllable consists of a core that carries a syllable. We have coda and onset,
the beginning of a syllable.
Code comes after the nucleus both the onset and coda could be optional.
48
Language, that have consonant at the end of the word will have a coda while the
language, for instance, Yoruba does not permit consonant at the end of a word will not
have a coda. Onset is for almost all language that permit consonant at the beginning of a
word.
Traditionally, the major distinctions between syllable types found in language
have been between open syllables and closed syllable. An open syllable ends with a while
a closed syllable ends with a c consonant.
Open and closed syllable are found in the language of the world. While some
language attest both, some at least only one type. Kofyar is language is a language that
attests both. We have the now words, di-syllabic word and the poly syllabic words.
The mono syllabic words are with one syllable, example are
49
Kofyar
gloss
Bit
[bit]
‘day’
Oek
[∂k]
‘goat’
Wάn
[wā ]
‘mud’
Fús
[fús]
‘sun’
Pás
[pás]
‘rainy season’
Sèp
[sέp]
‘axe’
The di-syllabic words are words with two syllable for example;
Kofyar
gloss
Dòebáp
[d∂báp]
‘bag’
Fíwú
[fíwú]
‘thread’
shάgάl
[ςágál]
‘money’
Poèlòe
[p∂l∂]
‘door’
doèbám
[d∂bám]
‘rope’
dágár
[dágár]
‘etar’
The poly syllabic words are words with more than two syllables, that is many syllables.
Kofyar
gloss
Kòngwúyòn
[kòŋwujðĉ/
‘sea’
Goenungmar
[g∂nuŋmar/
‘earth’
Tarmangbit
[tarmaŋbit/
‘dawn’
50
bapdoebel
/bapd∂bεl]
‘hawk’
lárepwúmát
/larεpwumat/
‘female’
wúmiskágám
/wúmiskagam/
‘senior’
There are so many syllabic structure in kofyar language such as the ccv, vc, cv,
cvcv and many more.
CVC structure.
The cvc structure is an example of a close syllable. Example are:
Kofyar
gloss
bit
‘day’
wán
‘mud’
fus
‘sun’
yit
‘eye’
kah
‘head’
zel
‘saliva’
THE VCV STRUCTURE.
Kofyar
gloss
Aam
‘pound’
eás
‘grind’
áès
‘egg’
ees
‘sand’
51
‘goat’
oek
THE CV STRUCTURE
A syllable consisting of a consonant plus vowel is the oldest of all syllable types,
only one which is general in all languages. Example are,
Kofyar
gloss
Ka
‘ching’
She
‘learn’
Ya
‘catch’
Gu
‘you’
2.6
BASIC SYNTACTIC CONCEPTS
Having discussed, the phonology of kofyar, we shall now go into the aspects of
syntax of kofyar language namely, phrase structure rules lexical categories basic word
order and sentence types in the language.
2.6.1 PHRASE STRUCTUE RULE (P.S.R).
According to Horrock (1887:1), phrase structure rules are simply formal devices
for representing distribution of the phrase within sentences. A phrase structure rule is a
set of rules which generates the constituents of a phrasal clause category (yusuf, 1997:6).
The phrase structure of the sentence is a hierarchy that proceeds from the largest
constituent in the sentence downwards, each constituents successively consisting of other
52
constituents, until only one item is left.. In this case, a phrase “A may consist of the
constituents B and C as seen in the following tree diagram.
These constituents may in turn 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 constituent on the left consists of the constituent on the rights. It
means that A has two parts ‘Band C with the arrow replacing “consisting of”
53
Chomsky (1986) identifies four types of phrase related to lexical categories VP,
NP, PP, and ADJP. These phrases are the maximal projection (xp’s) of the lexical heads,
(verbs nouns, preposition and adjective) respectively.
2.6.2 PHRASAL CATEGORIES IN KOFYAR LANGUAGE
The phrase categories in kofyar language are the following Noun phrase, verb
phrase, prepositional phrase and adjectival phrase.
2.6.3 NOUN PHRASE (N.P.)
According to Yusuf (1997:8), the noun phrase is the category that codes the
participants in the event or state described by the verb. The NP is headed by the Noun (n)
or pronoun when it will not be modified. The head of a phrase is the single word that can
stand for the whole construction; it is the single lexical item that can replace the whole
phrase.
The NP can be found in different constituents in the sentence, in the subject
position, in the object position, or as object of the preposition Examples of noun phrase in
kofyar language.
1. [jiráp mòep]
girls
those
those girls
2. [ialá
boy
nkòe]
that
54
that
3. [di
boy
báp]
a
book
2.6.4
VERB PHRASE
The verb phrase is traditionally called the ‘predicate’ because it has the sentence
predicator, namely, the verbs. The verb is the head of a verb phrase. It is these lexical
categories that tell us what the participatory roles of the nominal are in the sentence, say
as semantic AGENT, PATENT, LOCATIVE and experience. The verb will also indicate
the role of such nominals, syntactically as either subjects or objects.
As the head of the Vp, it is obligatory present with or without it’s satellites verb
satellites could be complement or adjuncts.
Examples of verb phrase in kofyar language are
1. (swa am)
“drink the water”
2. (sham shoe)
eat food
‘eat the food”
3. na an
see me
55
2.6.5
ADJECTIVAL PHRASE
An adjectival phrase functions as an adjective and its headword is always an
adjective which modifies a noun or pronoun. An adjectival phrase may also contain
adverbs which may, in turn, modify the adjective. Below are some example of adjectival
phrase in kofyar language.
1.
lala
wuyo’on
Boy
The big
2.
big
boy
la larep wudong
the girl beautiful
3.
Toe wuship
sheep black
the black sheep.
2.6.6 PREPOSITIONAL PHRASE
A prepositional phrase is usually made up of preposition and a noun phrase and
therefore has a structure similar to the of a noun phrase (v. Alabi and sola) ed (2005: 47).
which name locations or directions A preposition which is the head of a prepositional
phrase locates an NP,
Example in kofyar language.
(1)
ka bitong
56
on table
one the table
(2)
boedoe bitong
under chair
under the chair
(3)
goenar amr
in farm
in the farm
2.7
LEXICAL CATEGORIES
Phrases are built around a ‘skeleton’ consisting of two level as depicted below:
AP
NP
VP
PP
- Phrase level
A
N
V
P
– Word level
The group N, V, P, A (Noun, Verb, preposition and adjective respectively referred
to as lexical categories or part of speech. Most lexical categories have inherent properties
which can be verified in their various uses. The properties are other fully specified or
only partially so (Yusuf, 1992:117)
Languages have varying lexical categories in terms of number and types. Some
language have more parts of speech than others, however, kofyar has seven (7) word
57
classes which are, preposition, noun, pronouns, Adjective, Adverbs, conjunctions and
verbs.
2.7.1
PREPOSITION.
According to the Oxford English Dictionary (2nd edition, 1987), preposition is an
indeclinable word or partied serving to mark the relationship between two national word,
the latter of which is usually a noun or pronoun. A preposition links a noun or it’s
equivalent of another part of the sentence or to the sentence as a whole. Examples in
kofyar are:
(1) shi
‘with’
(2) ka
‘on’
(3) ya
‘by’
(4) goenar
‘under’
(5) goenar
‘in’
1. shi-“with’
A yagal soeshim shi ko
I eat yam with chicken
I ate yam with chicken
(2) ka-‘on’
Laku ter ka bitong
Laku slept on table
58
Laku step on the table.
3. ya-‘by’
Goe yagal ya kong
She ate by river
She ate by the river
2.7.2
NOUN.
According to stock well 1977:48, Noun as a symbol or symbol for entities,
abstract or concrete, countable or uncountable, animate or in animate, human or inhuman.
A noun names any thing. Countable nouns are detectable in sentence where determiners
like ‘a’ or ‘an’ precede them. Also, common noun which are countable exhibit number
distinction. For example
Kofyar
gloss
Chirep
‘fish’
Shim
‘yam’
Lemu
‘orange’
Val
‘stick’
Uncountable nouns are expressible in terms of quantity. And as a result,
predeterminers which express mass cognition eg much, some, a few, little, are used along
with uncountable nouns for example.
Kofyar
gloss
59
Mur
‘oil’
Toegoem
‘blood’
Nar
‘skin’
Am
‘water,
Diel
‘smoke,
Abstract nouns, on the contrary, are those whose manifestation exist in the mind.
They express general terms attributes feelings idea or concepts. Abstract cannot be seen
or touched but they are part of our existence. For example,
Kofyar
gloss
Kogom
wind’
Lugut
‘fear’
Wurum
‘lie
Soem
‘happy’
Examples of noun in sentence are:
‘money-shagal
(1)
An tang shagal
I want money
‘stone’-pang
(2) Abu pian pang
60
Abu broke stone
Abu broke a stone
(3) wind-‘kogom’
kogom dim bis
wind is bad
The wind is bad
2.7.3
PRONOUN
Pronoun is a traditional part of speech that is used in lieu of a noun or a noun
phrase or as a substitute for a noun or noun phrase. V.
Alabi (2005:26) It is a word
instead of a noun to refer to something or someone earlier mentioned or generally
understood This implies that pronoun are words used to replace some nouns in
grammatical sentence, especially to avoid repetition for example, she’-goe
(1) goe balang’ ka lau
she work hard
she worked hard
‘their’
(2) kamu up bap
their book
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PRONOUN TABLE OF KOFYAR
SINGULAR
SUBJECT
First person
‘I’ An
‘me noe
‘my/mine’ kashan
Secondary person
‘you’ goe
‘you goe
‘your/your’s kasak
Third person
He/she/It goe
PLURAL
SUBJECT
First person
‘we’ moen
Second person
him/her/if mu up
OBJECT
‘us’ mu
‘you’ gun
‘you’ gu
‘they’ gun
Third person
2.7.4
OBJECT
‘them’ mu’up
POSSESIVE
his/her/has/It’s kamu’up
POSSESIVE
our/our’s kamu
your/your’s kagu
their/their’s kamu’up
ADJECTIVE
An adjective is a word that names a quantity or attribute, defines limits or
modifies a noun or pronoun. According to dineen (1967:58)
The class of adjectives can be defined as consisting of forms that can enter into
composition with the bound forms glossed as comparative and superlative. For instance,
small- smaller- smallest.
Examples of adjectives in kofyar language are:
Wuyon; (1) Noemuat din wuyon
Lizard is big
The lizard is big
Wuchip ‘black’ (2) Toem wuchip a kamu
62
Sheep black is our’s
The black sheep is our’s
Wudong ‘beautiful’ (3) larep da a wudong
Girl the is beautiful
The girl is beautiful
2.7.5
ADVERBS
An adverb modifies or qualifies a verb as it’s major grammatical assignment. It
also tells more about an adjective or another adverb. According to Radford (1988 57)
“adverb denote the manner in which something is done. Example of adverb in kofyar
language are:
Lale. ‘slowly’ (1) kuburat soe shim lale
Kuburat ate quietly
Quickly ‘vang’ (2) goe vang boer boer
He quickly walk
He walks quickly
2.7.6
CONJUNCTION
A conjunction is a word (or a group of words ) that join words or groups of word
together. Conjunctions essentially perform a linking function. Examples in kofyar
language.
Mu ‘and’ (1) larep mun lala mu’ut
63
Girl and boy died
The girl and the boy died
‘dee’ (2) A dem ni dee lek shar
I loves her, but fight her friend
I have her, but hate her friend
2.7.7
VERB
Alabi, V.A (2005:29), expressed that, A verb is a group of word or words that expresses
an action, an event or a state. That is, the verb is just like a life wire, running through the
whole sentence structure to make complete sense. Example of verb in kofyar include:Left-din (1) din a lutuk vang
Left I marked quickly
I left the market quickly
Shet- cooked (2) A shet chis
I cook snail
I cooked the snail
Pian- broke (3) ladi pian jang
Laki inft break calabash
Ladi broke the calabash
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2.8
THE BASIC WORD ORDER IN KOFYAR LANGUAGE
Word order is the essential arrangement of clause element or words in a sentence
(crystal 19994: 420) The three basic word orders are Svo (subject, verb, object), S.O.V
(subject, verb) and (verb, objed, subject) V.O.S. Syntactically, kofyar language exhibits
the S.V.O. word orders. Some examples are as follow.
(1) A yagal soeshim
I ‘past’ eat yam
I ate yam
S VO
(2) A dem
goro
I
like
tobacco
S
V
O
(3)
Some’noe
a
Audu
name my is Audu
My name is Audu
2.9
SENTENCE TYPES
We usually refer to a group of words which expresses a complete meaning as a
sentence. A sentence also makes complete sense .in the convenient treatment of the
sentence, three types are identified.
65
Where such analyses depend solely on the number of verbs in the sentence, sentence
types include: The simple sentence, the compound sentence and the complex sentence.
2.9.1 SIMPLE SENTENCE
According to Yusuf (1997:59), The simple sentence is made up of one NP subject
and a predicate (traditionally regarded as a single verb). The examples below can
illustrate simple sentence forms in kofyar language.
i.
Nyanya a wúsègee
Nyanga a old’
ii.
Yil din wúbárák
ground was wet
the ground was wet.
iii.
Larep dok mu’an eok
got pot steal goat
The girl stole the goat.
2.9.2 COMPOUND SENTENCE
A compound sentence as it’s name implies, is a combination of two or more
simple sentences or main clauses joined together by a co-ordinating conjunction, ‘like
‘and’, but’, ‘no’and soon. Compound sentences in kofyar language are exemplified
bellow:
1.
A shet soe mun a vang da’a
66
I cooked food and wash the plate
I cooked the food and washed the plate
2.
Din a yagal din’an amu’an little
left the church but went to market
I left the church but went to the market
3.
A dem ni, dee ba an goe shagal ba.
I love her, but I don’t have money’
2.9.3
COMPLEX SENTENCES
Like the compound sentence, the complex sentence contains two or more clauses.
The complex sentence has a sentence embedded in one of the phrasal categories. Vpor
Np, Traditionally, the complex sentence is described as a main clause ands a number of
subordinate clauses (Yusuf, 1997:63). Examples of complex sentences kofyar are:
(1)
A dal lua wu’din young ga shet hoe
I swallow meat which I should
I swallowed the meat which I should cook
(2)
Daguoe wdok dang shagel funoe a la long
man who begged me for money is the son of the king
(2) ko wudok a kang’ka doe Christmas, woe shamoe ya hoe cuad
(3) chicken which (pretcont) rear for Christmas, by friend was cpst steal
The chicken whci I was reaing for Christmas was stolen by my friend.
67
CHAPTER THREE
VERB PHRASE IN KOFYAR LANGUAGE
3.0
INTRODUCTION
In the previous chapter, some basic concepts in syntax were discussed. These
include the phrase structure rules, lexical categories, and basic word order and sentence
types. This chapter attempts to bring out law the verb phrases are formed, as well as their
constituents in kofyar language. This implies processes by which the phrasal categories
known as ‘verb phrase’s denied through the joining of verbs with other lexical units. All
these derivations are explanted using the ‘Government and binding frame work.
3.1
VERB PHRASE AND HEAD PARAMETERS
The verb phrase is traditionally called the ‘predicate because if has the sentence
predicator, namely the verb. Sometimes, when if occurs along with two or more other
verbs, the group is referred to as a verb phrase. The obligatory element in the VP is the
lexical verb.
An important way in which language vary is in the other of the element within the
phrase. The concept known as “head parameters” specifies the order of elements in the
language.
Chomsky (1970), suggest that the position of heads could be specified once for all
phrases in a given language rather than a long list of individual rules specifying the
68
position of the head in each phrase types, a single generalization suffices: heads are first
or last in a phrase”
3.1.1 VERB PHRASE AND HEAD PARAMETER IN
KOFYAR
Kofyar language falls under the category of language in which “heads are first in
the phrase. This can be exemplified as follows,
(1 )
(yong muup]---- call her
(2)
(múά wé túk)
go market
69
go to the market
(3)
seet lawa )
by meat
buy the meat
70
3.2
STRUCTURE OFN THE VERB PHRASE
According to yusuf (1997: 21). The verb is the head of the up, if is obligatorily
present with or without its satellites. Verbs satellites could be complement or adjuncts.
The formal national for the expansion of the verb phrase resources if as an obligatory V
and if is complement where the X variable stand as the complement
Vp
Vx
According to the government and binding theory, the verb phrase can be
represented diagrammatically as
71
3.2.1 THE STRUCTURE OF THE KOFYAR VERB
PHRASE
Lexical items are inserted at the deep structure level in accordance with the subcategorization frame of individual items. Therefore, in kofyar language, the verb (which
is the head of the Vp) subcategorizes for the following complement
A. vp
v(NP)
1. (Kún shágál)
Count money
Count the money
72
2.
(múan goepang)
go house
go home
73
3. dem na’an
love God
B.
Vp
V [PP]
1. ask for snail
moebi da chis
74
3.0
eat with hand
soe shi sar
75
3.
come with me
wagoegi sharnoe
76
(c)
vp_v (NP )(pp)
(1)
break stick with hand
tepkam val shi sar
break the stick with hands
(2)
beat my son for me
nas lal kashan da noe
77
(3)
break stick for me
tepkam val da noe
break the stick for me
78
(D) vp__ v (ADVP)
(1) ter boerboer
sleep quietly.
(2) sóeshim lélé
eat slowly
79
(4)
múán vang
walk quickly
It is important to mention two traditional classes of verbs the transitive and the
intransitive verbs. According to yusuf (19997: 27), the transitive verbs is one that NP
object while the intransitive verb is the one that has no object NP. This simple implies
that a verb will take an NP object when if is transitive that will not take one when it is
intransitive.
3.3
CLASSES OF VERB
V_____ (vt) (t= transitive)
80
(vi) (I =intransitive)
3.3.1 TRANSITIVE VERB IN KOFYAR
According to Brown and miller (1992:262), transitive vers are so called as a result
of the fact that the action of the verb is considered to “ pass over” from the “a gent
subject to the “ patient” object transitive verb cannot typically occur without a following
NP.
Examples of transitive verb in kofyar include the following.
1. (dòk goe na biát)
sew clothes
sew the clothes
(d) (kά toéng)
climb tree
climb the tree
81
(e) ógót póeloé
close door
close the door.
3.3.2 INTRANSITIVE VERBS IN KOFYAR
The structure of the intransitive verbs is represented as
Vi+ (-0)
82
This implies that the intransitive verb does not subcategorize for an NP object.
However, some intransitive verbs require to be followed by a pp. The pp typically
indicates a location.
Examples of intransitive verbs in kofyar include the following.
(1)
died-mu’ ut
panmial mu’ ut
panmial died
(2)
slept-ter
Dakan ter
Dakan slept.
83
(3)
gun metgea
they danced
84
gun metgea
they danced
Here are some examples of verbs in kofyar language that take pp complement
Ter (sleep)
Ter ka gang
Sleep on mat
Sleep on the mat
(2) Toe-kill
kill the with a knife
toe noeng shi shik
85
4.
móebi-ask
moebi da lawa
ask for meat
86
3.4
VERBS WITH SENTENTIAL COMPLEMENT
Yusuf (1977: 26), says that among the possible complement of the verb is a full clause,
which has sentential complement such as:
(1)
Appearance verbs: seem, appearance
(2)
Epistemic verbs: know, believe
(3)
Reporting verbs: say, claim, report
(4)
Desiderative verbs : want, desire, expect
(5)
Causative verbs: cause, make
87
3.4.1
VERBS WITH SENTENTIAL COMPLEMENT IN
KOFYAR
The following are verbs in kofyar language which serves the purpose for sentential
complements.
A)
Appearance verbs
Seem /ginayo/
Appear /lańgdoé/
1. A ginayo ńnáh wel
It seems mother came
A langdoe a mán gu
It appears I know you
88
(B) Epistemic verbs
know /mάn
bebere/funoe/
(1)
mάn A larep
know I girl
I know the girl
89
2.
A funoe a goe dina npede
I believe she is a thief.
90
2.
Reporting verb
Say /kámwar/
Claim /mang/
91
1.
Panmial la kάm war goe a vang da’a
Panmial Pst say he wash plate
Panmial said he washed the plate.
2.
A la mang a lálá wúchám
I Pst claim the child
I claimed the child.
92
1.
Desiderative verb
Want /tang/
Expect /mondoe/
2.
A mondoe larep wul
I expect the girl come
I expect the girl to come
93
1.
Á tang shoe a soéh
I want eat the food
I want to eat the food
94
5.
Causative verb.
(I ) make /stun/
(ii) Cause /sán/
(iii) desire/tang/
1.
mòemis dok mu’an a shin goe wál
man was going make her cry
The man was going to make her cry
95
III.
Iang shim
desire yam
I desire yam
96
3.5
VERBS SERIALIZATION
One of the peculiar vps is the one called verb phase serialization verb phrase
variety called serial verbs is a situation whereby there is a single subject NP but a number
VPs ranging from two to possible as many as our meaning will allow (yusuf, 1997:32)
The structure of serial verb can be given as:
1.
VP____VP (VPn )
The superscripted (n ) means we may of VPs: two, there, four and on. A tree
structure is given below as:
97
SERIAL VERBS IN KOFYAR LANGUAGE
Serial verbs are so called because of the way they occur string.
Examples of serial verb construction in kofyar language are
1.Lálie wád mús mún swά
Lalie stial wine and drink
Lalie wine and drink it
98
2.
A séét kon wan mún wúslúά
I buy groundnut and roast
I bought groundnut and roasted if
99
3. Na’an mang lek ka lek
God take fight my fight
God fought for me.
100
101
CHAPTER FOUR
TRANSFORMATIONAL PROCESSES IN KOFYAR LANGUAGE
4.0
INTRODUCTION
Yusuf (1997: 66) said that sentences are derived by mapping one phrase maker
into another with an operation known as transformation.
Transformation
is
on
underlying principle operating on a given string with a new derived constituent’s
structure, identified in the literature as syntactic processes underfed by movement
transformation which are focusing, passivization, question formation and relativization.
However the concern of this chapter is to provide a description of movement or
transformational processes attested in kofyar 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 into some other category, (Yusuf 1997: 74)
The transformational rules or processes consist of two parts, a structure analysis
(SI) specifying the input to which the rules applies and a structural change (SC)
specifying what the output structure will be, (Malmjear 1991: 28). The structure that
emerges after the operation of all the transformation is known as the syntactic surface
structure this will then need to go off to the morphophonemic and phonological
components to receive its final phonological form.
102
Underlying Structure
Transformation
Surface structure
Phonological rules
It is crucial to note here that the trace is a feature of transformational component.
Trace theory came before” Government and Binding theory”. It was in the early eighties
that 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 is represented by the national (t) and to show that
the trace has a co-indexed antecedent (something is refers back to) the co-indexed
identified with the subscripted ( i).
The transformational processes that are attested in kofyar language include focus
construction, passivisation, relativisation and question formation. However, only focus
construction in respect of predicate cleft otherwise known as verb phrase focusing is
relevant to our study. Hence, predicate cleft will be extensively treated using kofyar
language.
103
4.2
PREDICATE CLEFT IN KOFYAR LANGUAGE
What makes focusing a universal syntactic process among human language is the
fact that is normal for a speaker of any language to want to amphimacer a specific aspect
of his message while communicating with his or her interlocutor. The speaker thus
pragmatically assigns prominence to that of his or her message that he or she wishes to
emphasize without necessary changing the substance of his message.
In order to show that focused sentences are derived from a basic sentence, It is
necessary to have a normal construction in mind as the unmarked sentence from which
the worked or focused sentence one derived. Below are examples of predicate cleft or
nominalized verbs in kofyar:
3.
Á dάgú sét loehoe dά paul
The man buy house for paul
The man bought the house for paul
104
Set ndung a dagu la loehoe da paul
Buy foc the man pst house for paul
It was buying that the man bought house for paul
105
(1)
Olu soeh shim goenar a mar
olu eat yam in the farm
olu ate the yam in the farm
106
3.
Soeh ndung la olu soeh shim goenar a mar
Eat foc pst name eat yam in the farm
It was eating that olu ate the yam in the farm
107
3.
Dakam ter gang
Dakam sleep on the mat
Dakam slept on the mat
108
11.
terla ndung Dakam la ter ka gang
sleep foc Dankem pst on the mat
It was sleeping that Dankam slept on the mat
109
110
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION
5.0
INTRODUCTION
This chapter gives the summary conclusion and recommendation of this project
work which is the verb phrase of kofyar language.
5.1
SUMMARY
We have been able to look at the aspects of the verb phrase in kofyar language.
The language falls under the Angas of the west chadic subfamily. As an introduction,
Chapter one presents the socio cultural profile of the kofyar people, there history, the
mode of collection of data as well as a brief review of the chosen framework used for the
data as well as a brief reviews of the chosen framework used for the data analysis.
In chapter two, some insight was given into the phonology of kofyar language, in
which some basic component like tone, syllable, sounds, that is, the consonant sound and
the vowel sounds were mentioned crucial to this chapter is the basic syntactic concept
which is the phrase structure rules, lexical categories, basic word order and sentence
types.
Further more, the third chapter explores the verb phrase of kofyar language the
structure, and the verb phrase in kofyar language minor the verb as the core which is
attached to the complements or satellites it subcategories for both the transitive and
intransitive classes of verb are attested in kofyar language. some peculiar verbs in kofyar
111
language that subcategories for sentential complement were described and we have been
able to at verb serialization in the language.
Chapter four demonstrated how the movement theory account for the various
transformational processes and focusing under which we talk abut the predicate cleft
otherwise known as verb phrase focusing or nominalization of the verb phrase with
specific reference to the language under review.
5.2
CONCLUSION
It is evident that this research work focuses on the verb phrase of kofyar language.
It is an attempt to prevent kofyar language from being a dead language, to resuscitate
dead Nigerian languages. It is an attempt to describe the structure of the kofyar verb
phrase. In kofyar the verb phrase exhibits the head first parameter. One of the peculiar
features of kofyar language is that the preposition is always overtly represented at the
surface structure.
It also looked at the phonological analysis of kofyar language while if discovered twentytwo (22) consonants, six nasal vowels and eight oral vowels. The language through it’s
combinative word use the subject, verb, object as the basic word order. The midtone is
not rampant in kofyar language and it expresses the open and close syllable type.
5.3
RECOMMENDATION
The following recommendation were made based on the research findings and
conclusion above,
112
The government at all levels should ensure that adequate funds are released for
the teaching of kofyar language in institution for performance and speaking of the
language.
The language should be given constitutional recognition so that it can be spoken
in the house of assembly, hospital, churches, and in the public.
Also, the principle of professionalism should be adherent to the government this
implies that those who are expert in speaking and teaching of kofyar language should be
made to head the unit of teaching for better performance.
The orthography of the language can be improved by writing textbooks
notebooks, journals and article in the language. It can further be improved by putting
different articles on the website on the internet.
Conclusion, parent should ensure that they speak kofyar language to there
children at home, tell folklores and folktales using the language to ensure a wider spread
of the language.
113
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