The formation and usage of gerunds in Nandome

Abstract

Out of preliminary observation of gerunds in Nandome, it is realised that the gerund marker {-bú} is not realised fully in speech but a split form of it, [-b] or [ú] are realised. Also, the gerund phrase in Nandome distinguishes between sentence adjuncts and adjuncts of a verb phrase. The movement of sentential adjuncts was found to resolve ambiguity in the gerund phrase. It was observed that degree emphasis can be achieved by making a gerund an argument to its root verb. In investigating this, 3 conversations and 2 stories were used. 374 gerunds were formed intuitively and crosschecked by two native speakers with linguistic training. A focus group discussion considered some aspects of gerunds and semantic interpretations. Generative phonology and the X-bar theory were used as frameworks for the research. Findings include the assertion that: the gerund in Nandome is marked by {-bú}, which never occurs fully phonologically. The marker is rather realised as: [b], [ú], [ύ], [fú], [fύ] or [bá], accompanied by tone rising in the verb root, but with exceptions. The gerund has a maximum of ten modifiers. Besides sentential adjuncts, modifiers are leftward of the gerund. The gerund phrase in Nandome is similar to the NP only in its sentential distribution. Negation and HABIT are possible in the gerund phrase. When adverbials are in the gerund phrase, they get negated and not the gerund. It is conclusive that all the preliminary observations are true. In addition, the study revealed etymological evidence that Nandome emerged from the southern dialects of Dagaare.