A Descriptive Analysis of Nominal Modifiers in Gokana

Abstract

A principled analysis of the form and function of modifiers in the structure of noun phrases is necessary for a proper understanding of language structure. This paper described nominal modifiers in Gokana within a formal linguistic framework. The paper identified ten distinct nominal modifiers in the grammatical structure of Gokana. Six of the modifiers were classified as pre-head modifiers while four of the modifiers occurred as post-head modifiers. The paper found that apart from the co-occurrence of each modifier with the head noun, all the modifiers can simultaneously co-occur with the head noun in the noun phrase structure except the numeral modifier. The study noted that the definiteness modifier is not a suffix as was previously analyzed as it is possible to have an intervening element between it and the modified head noun. The paper showed that the demonstrative modifier co-occurs with the head noun in the maximal expansion of the NP structure in mutually exclusive distribution with either the PP modifier or the definiteness modifier. The study identified the structural categories of the modifiers as grammatical morphemes, lexical items, phrases and clausal elements. And recommended a detailed study of the quantifier phrase.