Abstract:
This study presents an analysis of the noun phrase in Gonja. It discussed the noun
phrase structure and all the elements that occur before and after it. Three kinds of noun
phrases were identified and discussed which include simple noun phrase, complex noun
phrase, and other noun phrases which do not have overt nouns in them. The findings in
this study show that the noun phrase structure of Gonja is made up of the compulsory
noun head and other optional elements that occur before and after it. Gonja exhibits a
clear case whereby the noun head of an NP is post modified by a series of adjectives
appearing in their full forms and these adjectives give additional information about the
noun they modify. Also, the genitive marker be is used to express possession however
other elements like determiner, and demonstrative may occur before it. In addition, it is
noted that the adjective and the verb can be nominalized leading to derivation from the
classes of adjectives and verbs to noun class. The nominalized elements in Gonja have
singular and plural markers as their initial segments. In relation to pronominal
possession, there seem to be friction between the separation of the possessive from the
pronoun as putting the pronoun and the possessive together is deceptive. This study
concludes that modifiers of the NP in Gonja occur in a certain syntactic sequence which
is relatively fixed. The data of this thesis was analyzed using the descriptive analysis
approach.
Description:
A thesis in the Department of GUR-GONJA LANGUAGES EDUCATION, COLLEGE
OF LANGUAGES EDUCATION, submitted to the school of Graduate Studies,
UNIVERSITY OF EDUCATION, WINNEBA in partial fulfilment of the requirements
for the award of the Master of Philosophy in Ghanaian Language Studies
(GONJA) degree
May, 2017