The morphological and syntactic functions of Dagbani nominal suffixes
One of the defining morphological properties of nouns and adjectives of Dagbani (a Gur/Mabia language of northern Ghana) and related languages is the presence of suffixes that mark number (singular or plural) as well as serve as the basis for noun classification. The typical regular noun or adjectiv...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Sciendo
2023-12-01
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| Series: | Topics in Linguistics |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.2478/topling-2023-0010 |
| _version_ | 1797375842730377216 |
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| author | Hudu Fusheini Iddrisu Abdallah |
| author_facet | Hudu Fusheini Iddrisu Abdallah |
| author_sort | Hudu Fusheini |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | One of the defining morphological properties of nouns and adjectives of Dagbani (a Gur/Mabia language of northern Ghana) and related languages is the presence of suffixes that mark number (singular or plural) as well as serve as the basis for noun classification. The typical regular noun or adjective (e.g. bi-a ‘a child’) consists of a bound root (bi-) providing the lexical meaning, and a suffix (-a) which indicates the singular number of the noun. In plural form, the suffix is replaced by a different one that marks plurality: (bi-hi). In this paper, we show that while this broad description is generally accepted, it is much weaker than assumed in previous studies, with many inconsistencies. As our main goal, we offer a much broader analysis of the morphological and syntactic functions of the nominal suffixes. We show that these suffixes are primarily there to project lexical words as nouns and adjectives and should be referred to as nominal suffixes used to inflect inherent nouns and derive nouns and adjectives from verbs. The nominal suffixes are also crucial to distinguishing between different compound nouns and noun phrases. The paper is largely descriptive, with no specific theoretical approach assumed. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-08T19:30:05Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-0cedbd35112e43e69a7c512de2cfd876 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2199-6504 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-08T19:30:05Z |
| publishDate | 2023-12-01 |
| publisher | Sciendo |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Topics in Linguistics |
| spelling | doaj.art-0cedbd35112e43e69a7c512de2cfd8762023-12-26T07:43:29ZengSciendoTopics in Linguistics2199-65042023-12-01242305010.2478/topling-2023-0010The morphological and syntactic functions of Dagbani nominal suffixesHudu Fusheini0Iddrisu Abdallah11University of Ghana, Ghana.2University of Ghana and University for Development Studies, GhanaOne of the defining morphological properties of nouns and adjectives of Dagbani (a Gur/Mabia language of northern Ghana) and related languages is the presence of suffixes that mark number (singular or plural) as well as serve as the basis for noun classification. The typical regular noun or adjective (e.g. bi-a ‘a child’) consists of a bound root (bi-) providing the lexical meaning, and a suffix (-a) which indicates the singular number of the noun. In plural form, the suffix is replaced by a different one that marks plurality: (bi-hi). In this paper, we show that while this broad description is generally accepted, it is much weaker than assumed in previous studies, with many inconsistencies. As our main goal, we offer a much broader analysis of the morphological and syntactic functions of the nominal suffixes. We show that these suffixes are primarily there to project lexical words as nouns and adjectives and should be referred to as nominal suffixes used to inflect inherent nouns and derive nouns and adjectives from verbs. The nominal suffixes are also crucial to distinguishing between different compound nouns and noun phrases. The paper is largely descriptive, with no specific theoretical approach assumed.https://doi.org/10.2478/topling-2023-0010nominal morphologynumber markingsuffixesdagbanigur/mabia languages |
| spellingShingle | Hudu Fusheini Iddrisu Abdallah The morphological and syntactic functions of Dagbani nominal suffixes Topics in Linguistics nominal morphology number marking suffixes dagbani gur/mabia languages |
| title | The morphological and syntactic functions of Dagbani nominal suffixes |
| title_full | The morphological and syntactic functions of Dagbani nominal suffixes |
| title_fullStr | The morphological and syntactic functions of Dagbani nominal suffixes |
| title_full_unstemmed | The morphological and syntactic functions of Dagbani nominal suffixes |
| title_short | The morphological and syntactic functions of Dagbani nominal suffixes |
| title_sort | morphological and syntactic functions of dagbani nominal suffixes |
| topic | nominal morphology number marking suffixes dagbani gur/mabia languages |
| url | https://doi.org/10.2478/topling-2023-0010 |
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