<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

<p>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. <italic>bi-a</italic> ‘a child’) consists of a bound root (<italic>bi-</italic>) providing the lexical meaning, and a suffix (-<italic>a</italic>) which indicates the singular number of the noun. In plural form, the suffix is replaced by a different one that marks plurality: (<italic>bi-hi</italic>). 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.</p>
</abstract>

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.

The morphological and syntactic functions of Dagbani nominal suffixes

University of Ghana and University for Development Studies

Topics in Linguistics

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

{"article-title":"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...

The morphological and syntactic functions of Dagbani nominal suffixes

Published Online: Dec 25, 2023

Page range: 30 - 50

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/topling-2023-0010

Keywords
Nominal morphology, number marking, suffixes, Dagbani, Gur/Mabia languages

© 2023 Fusheini Hudu et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

The morphological and syntactic functions of Dagbani nominal suffixes

Published Online: Dec 25, 2023

Page range: 30 - 50

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/topling-2023-0010

KeywordsNominal morphology, number marking, suffixes, Dagbani, Gur/Mabia languages

© 2023 Fusheini Hudu et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Keywords
Nominal morphology, number marking, suffixes, Dagbani, Gur/Mabia languages