A morpho-pragmatic and structural analysis of Nzema proverbs

Abstract

This study is a morpho-pragmatic and syntactic analysis of proverbs in Nzema, a Kwa language spoken predominantly in the South-West part of the Western Region of Ghana. Specifically, the study aimed at investigating some morphological structures that occur at the lexical level in the syntactic string of Nzema proverbs and examining how these morphological structures contribute to the general interpretations and understanding of the proverbs. The study further discusses the sentential structures and functions of proverbs in Nzema. It is a qualitative study that combines Chomsky‘s (1965) Descriptive Adequacy Grammar Theory, which deals with assigning structural description to well-formed sentences and Goddard‘s (2006) Ethno-pragmatic Model, which relates to understanding discourse in cultural-context. Data for the study (115 Nzema proverbs) were purposively gathered from primary and secondary sources. Three (3) scholars in Nzema who are also indigenous speakers were consulted to crosscheck and elicit useful clarifications on the data. The discussions at the morphological level focused on word formation processes such as reduplication, inflection, derivation, lexical borrowing and compounding; which are prevalent in the structure of Nzema proverbs. The study demonstrates that these word formation processes manifest in Nzema proverbial structures to contribute to the pragmatic interpretations and the entire messages intended to be communicated through the proverbs. At the syntactic level, the study identifies simple, compound and complexembedded sentences. The proverbial structures were also noted for performing sentential functions such as declarative, imperative and interrogative. Overall, the study shows that the oral constructions of proverbs in Nzema are grammatically insightful; and thus, provide a window to the morpho-syntactic description of the language.