A Grammar of Kusaal: A Mabia (Gur) Language of Northern Ghana

ISBN-13: 9783631748688 / Angielski / Twarda / 2018 / 284 str.

Agoswin Musah

Opis

Kusaal is a Mabia (traditional Gur) language spoken in north-eastern Ghana. Until recently, there was a paucity of linguistic research on the language, thus, the need for a concise and lucid grammar. The study adopts a holistic linguistic approach to language documentation and description drawing on a corpus of synchronic data collected on fieldtrips. The analysis of the data is guided by a confluence of structural and functional grammar approaches following Payne (1997) and Dixon's (2010) Basic Linguistic Theory. The phonology, nouns and noun class systems, nominal modifiers and relator nouns, verbs, phrases, aspect and modality, clause structure, verb serialisation and pragmatically marked structures are considered together with a speech form similar to "signifying/playing the dozens".

Spis treści

Language profile - Phonology - Nouns, pronouns and the noun class system - Nominal modifiers and relator nouns - Noun phrases - Verbs and verb phrases - Aspect and modality in Kusaal - Clause structure - Serial verb constructions: a prototypical overview - Pragmatically marked structures

O autorze

Anthony Agoswin Musah is a native speaker of Kusaal and a lecturer at the Gur-Gonja Department of the University of Education, Winneba. He holds bachelor and master's degrees from the University of Ghana and received the PhD in African Studies (Linguistics) from the Goethe Universität of Frankfurt. His research interests include language documentation and description and the development of contact languages.