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Master's thesis
Abstract
This thesis examines the constituent structure of the noun phrase in Ɔkere, with a primary focus on determining the constraints on head-noun modification in the Ɔkere noun phrase and on establishing how constituent (morphological and syntactic) units are distributed or organized within the noun phrase in Ɔkere. The study is descriptive and is based on fieldwork data collected from the Ɔkere-speaking communities in the Eastern region of Ghana. Some of the discoveries made about the noun phrase in Ɔkere are as follows: the noun phrase in Ɔkere has an obligatory head, which may or may not occur with a modifier. Head-noun modifiers exist as pre-modifiers or post-modifiers of the head-noun in the following sequential order: (Pre-Det) N (Adj) (Qt/Num) (Det) (RC) (Possessive Phrase). This distributional structure of constituent units within the Ɔkere NP is evidence in support of the designation of Ɔkere as a member of the Kwa sub-family of the Niger-Congo phylum.
Conference Proceedings
Abstract
Cross-linguistically, some languages make a morphosyntactic distinction between alienable and inalienable adnominal possession, where alienable possession is more morphologically marked, and inalienable possession shows a tighter structural bond between the possessor and possessee. In this paper, I show that Ɔkere violates these cross-linguistic generalizations differently. I also show that two types of mó occur in the language, one is a possessive marker, and the other is an independent pronoun. Again, I show that the nature of the possessive marker and the independent pronoun leads to a pro-drop in inalienable possession. The data and analysis in this paper favor proposing an overt possessive marker and a covert possessive marker. This paper adds to the literature on the exceptions to the cross-linguistic generalizations on adnominal possession by showing that the exceptions to the cross-linguistic generalizations may manifest differently in some languages.