Abstract:
This study is a morpho-pragmatic and syntactic analysis of proverbs in Nzema, a Kwa
language spoken predominantly in the South-West part of the Western Region of
Ghana. Specifically, the study aimed at investigating some morphological structures
that occur at the lexical level in the syntactic string of Nzema proverbs and examining
how these morphological structures contribute to the general interpretations and
understanding of the proverbs. The study further discusses the sentential structures
and functions of proverbs in Nzema. It is a qualitative study that combines Chomsky‘s
(1965) Descriptive Adequacy Grammar Theory, which deals with assigning structural
description to well-formed sentences and Goddard‘s (2006) Ethno-pragmatic Model,
which relates to understanding discourse in cultural-context. Data for the study (115
Nzema proverbs) were purposively gathered from primary and secondary sources.
Three (3) scholars in Nzema who are also indigenous speakers were consulted to
crosscheck and elicit useful clarifications on the data. The discussions at the
morphological level focused on word formation processes such as reduplication,
inflection, derivation, lexical borrowing and compounding; which are prevalent in the
structure of Nzema proverbs. The study demonstrates that these word formation
processes manifest in Nzema proverbial structures to contribute to the pragmatic
interpretations and the entire messages intended to be communicated through the
proverbs. At the syntactic level, the study identifies simple, compound and complexembedded
sentences. The proverbial structures were also noted for performing
sentential functions such as declarative, imperative and interrogative. Overall, the
study shows that the oral constructions of proverbs in Nzema are grammatically
insightful; and thus, provide a window to the morpho-syntactic description of the
language.
Description:
A thesis in the Department of Ghanaian Languages Education,
Faculty of Languages, submitted to the School of
Graduate Studies, in partial fulfilment
of the requirement for the award of degree of
Master of Philosophy
(Nzema)
in the University of Education, Winneba
APRIL, 2019