Browsing by Author "Sanusi, Issa O"

Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
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    Bàtɔ̀nū Dative Constructions: A Problem for the Case Theory
    (GSTF International Journal of Law and Social Sciences, 2012) Sanusi, Issa O
    Bàtɔ̀nū, a Gur (Voltaic) language, exhibits SOV word order in its basic clause structure. It is a functional noun class language. The language has ditransitive verbs and dative constructions are permissible in its syntax. However, unlike English where ‘Dative Shift’, as in ‘John gave Mary the book’ (i.e. double-object construction), is derivable from prepositional dative construction - ‘John gave the book to Mary’; Bàtɔ̀nū has no dative prepositions and dative shift is not allowed in its syntax. The problem of abstract Case-marking in double object constructions is cross-linguistic. Despite various attempts by linguists to solve the problem in the past, there remain gaps as well as unresolved issues. The problem appears more pronounced in Bàtɔ̀nū Dative Constructions. The dative NP’s in the language lack overt Case assigners and therefore fail to receive abstract Case. As a further consequence, all such constructions in the language, on the face of it, violate the Case Filter and, by implication, the Theta Criterion. In an attempt to solve the problem within the framework of Principles and Parameters (P&P) theory, this paper proposes a unified approach that merges Larson’s (1988) notions of V1-Reanalysis and Complex Predicate Raising with Baker’s (1985, 1988) notions of Abstract Noun Incorporation (ANI) and Government Transparency Corollary (GTC). In this approach, ditransitive verbs are shown to reanalyze with their direct-object NP’s to form complex predicates. Such complex predicates inherit the Caseassigning properties of their main verbs (via GTC) and thereby govern and assign the required structural accusative Case to the hitherto ungoverned and Caseless dative NP’s. This proposal appears to completely obviate the problem of adjacency between the main verbs and their dative NP’s in Bàtɔ̀nū Dative Constructions.
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    Headedness in Yorùbá: An Examination of the Deviant Value of Determiner Phrase
    (Sino-US English Teaching, 2014-01) Sanusi, Issa O
    The issue of “headedness” is a product of Chomsky’s (1988) notion of UG (Universal Grammar) that led to the development of a framework known as P&P (Principles and Parameters) theory. It is this theory we have adopted for our analysis in this paper. The purpose of this paper is to examine the inconsistency in the value of Head Parameter with reference to the value of DP (determiner phrase) in Yorùbá. As a native speaker of Yorùbá, the author has adopted an introspective method of data collection and used the intuitive knowledge of other native speakers of the language for necessary clarifications. Despite the fact that English and Yorùbá are both head-initial, the structure of the NPs (noun phrases) in English shows that the head noun is always pre-modified, making the NP “head-final”—a violation of the value of Head Parameter in the language. This necessitated the need for Abney’s (1987) DP hypothesis; in which the determiner heads its own phrase, thereby making a NP in English head-initial. This solves the problem of Head Parameter in English. However, since nouns in Yorùbá are post-modified, adopting “DP-analysis” will automatically produce head-final—a violation of the value of Head Parameter in thelanguage. Given the inconsistency in the specification of head-complement order among the noun phrases in English and Yorùbá, this paper proposes to set a parameter for SVO (Subject-Verb-Object) languages with pre-modification (like English) to adopt “DP-analysis”, and those with post-modification (like Yorùbá) to adopt “NP-analysis”. This will ensure “head-initial” value for the two categories of SVO languages
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    Inflectional Morphology of the Ga Verbs and the Infl Movement
    (LIWURAM Journal of the Humanities, 2014) Sanusi, Issa O
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