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Classroom:Ewe Noun Phrases

Revision as of 13:37, 7 April 2011 by Mercy Motte (Talk | contribs)

This page was created as an in-classroom exercise in LING 2208, NTNU

By Mercy Motte and Mango K. Bodua

GENERALISATIONS – Some Ewe linguists have already looked at these.


1. A noun phrase can be made up of a single word. Eg. agbà “load”

agbà
“load”
agbà
agbà
load
N




2. A noun phrase can be followed immediately by a determiner. Eg. nyɔnu la “the woman”


nyɔnu la
“the woman”
nyɔnu
nyɔnu
woman
N
la
la
AFFMT
DET



3. The plural suffix is ‘’wo’’ which is normally attached to nouns. For example, Ðeviwo “children”

Ðeviwo
“children”
Ðeviwo
Ðeviwo
children
N


However, anytime there is the presence of definite (la), this contracts to ‘’a’’ and then infixes itself between the noun and its plural suffix. Eg.

Ðeviawo “the children”


Ðeviawo
“the children”
Ðeviawo
Ðeviawo
childDEFPL
N



4. All post noun modifying elements for example, adjectives in the noun phrase precede the definite marker or the demonstrative. The noun phrase is left headed. Egs. Ðevi sue sia “this small child” Ðevi sue sia Ðevi sue sia child small this N ADJ DEM



Ðevi lolo la “the big/fat child” Ðevi lolo la Ðevi lolo la child big AFFMT N ADJ DET