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Classroom:Ewe Noun Phrases

Revision as of 10:44, 12 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



Syntax of Ewe Noun Phrases

1. A noun phrase can be a single word. Eg. [1] agbà “load”


agbà
“load”
agbà
agbà
load
N




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


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



3. Nouns in Ewe are inflected for number. The plural suffix is ‘’wo’’ which is normally attached to nouns as a suffix. For example, Ðeviwo “children”

Ðeviwo
“children”
Ðeviwo
Ðeviwo
children
N


However, anytime there is the presence of definite (la), it 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


Morphology of Ewe Noun Phrases

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
“this small child”
Ðevi
Ðevi
child
N
sue
sue
small
ADJ
sia
sia
this
DEM



Ðevi lolo la “the big/fat child”

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


5. Some noun phrases in Ewe are actually prepositional phrases in English when translated. This is interesting. Find an example below.

Le nukpɔkpɔ me la
“In the video”
L è
l è
PRES
 
nukpɔkpɔ
nukpɔkpɔ
video
N
me
me
inCTed
PPOST
la
la
DEF
DET

Semantics of Ewe Noun Phrases

6. Complex nouns exist in the Ewe language made up of different and unique morphemes. Compound words have this phenomenon. One can do a morphology of these complex nouns. See the breakdown of an example below.

xexeame
“World”
xexeame
xexeame
outsideDEFLOC
N

The example above is made up of the noun - outside, the AFFIRMATIVE (Det) marker - a (this is the contracted form of la and the LOCATIVE- me [2]

6b. The Morphology of some complex nouns. See examples below.

afɔdzi
“toilet”
afɔdzi
afɔdzi
legon
N
gaƒoɖokui
“clock”
gaƒoɖokui
gaƒoɖokui
metalbeatself
N
aba-dzi-vɔ
“bed spread”
abadzivɔ
abadzi
bedoncloth
N
aliblaka
“belt”
aliblaka
aliblaka
waisttierope
N
zikpui
“chair”
zikpui
zikpui
seatshort
N
nuŋlɔti
“pen/pencil”
nuŋlɔti
nuŋlɔti
somethingwritestick
N
aƒe-me
“home”
aƒeme
aƒeme
houseLOC
N


7. Orthography of the LOCATIVE me in noun phrases In one context as shown below:

xexe-a-me agama-agbalẽ-e
“the world is the skin of a chameleon”
xexeame
xexeame
outsideDEFLOC
N
agamaagbalẽe
agamaagbalẽe
chameleonbookFOC
N


Comparison of Ewe and English

locatives

The LOCATIVE me is written as part of the main noun. In another context as shown below:

Le nukpɔkpɔ me la
“In the video”
L è
l è
PRES
 
nukpɔkpɔ
nukpɔkpɔ
video
N
me
me
inCTed
PPOST
la
la
DEF
DET

The LOCATIVE me stands all alone; not attached to the main noun. This is so because orthographically it is allowed and again, the context for their usage is also different. In one context, it helps create a complex noun and in the other context, it behaves as a unique morpheme, standing all alone to make the phrase complete.

8. Some Nouns are polysemous. See examples below

“ear/mountain/pound”
ear/mountain/pound
 
“money/metal”
money/metal
N


References

  1. here
  2. Agbetsoamedo Yvonne Ami Dzigbodi (2006) Syntactic Pattern in the Ewe Noun Phrase & A small computational grammar fragment of Ewe