COMBINATIONAL POSSIBILITIES OF ADJECTIVES IN MUYANG

Authors

  • Théodore Bebey Faculty of Arts, Letters and Social Sciences, Department of African Languages, Literatures and Cultures, The University of Maroua, Cameroon

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.46827/ejals.v7i1.516

Keywords:

combinational possibilities, adjectives, Muyang, noun phrase, determiner phrase

Abstract

The present paper outlines the formation and the distribution of adjectives in Muyang. It shows that in general, the suffix –ani is added to some direct adjectives which, for the majority, come naturally in automatic pairs. It demonstrates that in some cases, this suffixation takes place after compounding and reduplication. The article indicates that there is a one-to-one selection of adjectives which constitute a large syntactic zone in the right-hand position of the NP in PF. Departed from this observation, it proposes a split up of the Adjectival Phrase (AdjP) in a number of distinct maximal projections ranged as follows: NP>Religion>Nationality>Material>Poss>Dem>Gender>Shape>Colour>Age>Quality>Size>Num>Rel. As far as their locality is concerned, this paper proposes in the sense of Hawkins (1983), Carstens (1991), Kayne (1994 and 1995), Nkemnji (1995), Tamanji (1999 and 2006), Brugè (2002), Koopman (2003), Aboh (2006), Letsholo (2006), Cinque (2005, 2010), Nchare (2011) and Bebey (2015) that the noun originates in the DP’s right-hand position; so, an upwards leftwards movement obtains the position of both direct and indirect adjectives. Within the DP, it demonstrates that adjectives can appear in adjacency with other materials in the following range: N>Poss>Dem>A>Num>Def>Rel. The present paper also reveals following Letsholo (2006) and as underlined in Bebey (2015) that when motivated by focalization, there are only six possible combinations of the DP contrary to the large range in other languages as proposed by Cinque (2005 and 2010) and Nchare (2011).

 

Author Biography

  • Théodore Bebey, Faculty of Arts, Letters and Social Sciences, Department of African Languages, Literatures and Cultures, The University of Maroua, Cameroon

    Théodore Bebey is a former student of Higher Teachers’ Training College Yaounde. He is holder of Master’s degree and PhD in general and applied linguistics. His research interests concern theoretical linguistics, language planning and language didactics. He is teacher of African languages and general and applied linguistics in the Department of African Languages, Literatures and Cultures of the University of Maroua, Cameroon. Théodore Bebey is author of two books and a dozen of scientific articles.

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Published

2024-04-17

Issue

Vol. 7 No. 1 (2024)

Section

Articles

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