Open AccessA Comparative Study of the Simple Clause in Akan, Dagaare and English
Author(s) -
Leviyameye Abunya,
Edward Owusu,
Faustina Marius Naapane
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
education and linguistics research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2377-1356
DOI - 10.5296/elr.v7i1.18353
Subject(s) - linguistics , locative case , focus (optics) , word order , computer science , simple (philosophy) , languages of africa , language family , noun phrase , phrase , noun , artificial intelligence , natural language processing , philosophy , physics , epistemology , optics
The paper compares how the simple clause is expressed in Akan (Kwa, Niger-Congo), Dagaare (Gur, Niger-Congo) and English. It examines the simple clause in relation to noun phrase, verbal phrases, adpositional phrases, basic word order in declarative and focus constructions, and the basic locative construction. Basically, the study reveals that despite the differences, Akan and Dagaare have a lot in common as compared to English. This of course shows how distant English is from the two African languages. Certain linguistic features such as serial verb construction and focus constructions were unique to Akan and Dagaare and this, is not surprising since languages within the same language family (Niger Congo) tend to share certain lexical, phonological, morphological and syntactic features. The significant variation between these languages shows where Akan and Dagaare languages diverge into other sub-family groups: Kwa and Gur, respectively.