The syntax and semantics of phrasal verbs in Nzema

Abstract

The focus of this thesis is to offer an analysis of the syntax and semantics of phrasal verbs in Nzema, a Kwa language spoken mainly in southwestern Ghana and Ivory Coast, by about 330,000 people. This study demonstrated that the Nzema phrasal verb has two compositional elements: a verb and a postposition. It further showed through the principle of transitivity that Nzema phrasal verb can occur in intransitive, transitive and in both transitive and intransitive constructions. In addition, it demonstrated that the possibility of separating the particle from the verb or otherwise is dependent on whether the phrasal verb is used transitively or intransitively. Whereas the particle can be separated from the verb when used transitively, there cannot be any separation when the phrasal verb is used intransitively. Based on semantics, it showed that Nzema phrasal verbs express literal, metaphorical, idiomatic and polysemic meaning. Data for this thesis are drawn from both primary and secondary sources. I use two theoretical frameworks, the X-bar theory by Chomsky (1969) and the Conceptual Metaphor Theory by Lakoff and Johnson (1980) as analytical tools for the syntactic and semantic aspects of the thesis respectively. Key words: Nzema, phrasal verb, transitivity, idiomatic, polysemy, metaphor, syntax.