Issues in Dagbanli Compounding
Introduction
This paper examines some core issues in the study of Dagbanli compounding. The language has an SVO word order and most of the inflectional affixes occur as suffixes (Hudu, 2014; Olawsky, 2002). The paper focuses on the issues on typology of Dagbanli co...
The Dagbanli Word
Traditionally, Inusah (2016, p. 76) attests, “Dagbanli words can be classified into three major forms: simplex, complex and compound words. The simplex word consists of only one lexical root, which are mostly short in a CV syllable form without a coda or CVC syllable root with a coda, which does not require affix” as in Table I. “Nouns and adjectives in simplex forms consist of a lexical root and a number suffix bound to each other and as free-standing unit, the base is inflected with a singular or plural nominal suffix” (Hudu, 2014, p. 6) as illustrated in Tables II and III:
Theoretical Preliminaries
Aikhenvald (2007, p. 24) observes, “compounding involves word-formation based on the combination of at least two potentially free forms, most frequently members of open lexical classes such as nouns or verbs, e.g., English fox-hunting, station master.” Bo...
Method
This paper explored the sociolinguistic interviews as data collection procedure as described by (Bauer, 2011; Hudson, 2001; Milroy & Gordon, 2003). This allowed the researcher to be part of the speech community. To elicit the data, the respondents were engaged in a natural conversation to collect the initial data while the sociolinguistic interviews were used on one-on-one exchanges between the researchers and the 20 participants who were selected for the interview to cross-check the initial data obtained. The interviews were done in natural settings such as festivals, funerals outdooring, weddings etc., where the participants were more comfortable. Each interview lasted not less than 30 minutes and the whole fieldwork lasted close to a month. The purpose of the interview was explained to each participant before each interview section. The data were collected in Yendi for the primary (solicited through the interviews) and secondary taken from other works (Hudu, 2014; Inusah, 2016, 2017, 2021, 2024; Olawsky, 1999, 2002). A total of 40 compound words in Dagbanli were collected for this paper and every analysis here is based on the data available.
Core Issues in Dagbanli Compounding
There are issues in the study of compounding of a language and for that matter that of Dagbanli where much is not studied in compounding. These issues in the study of compounding have drawn the attention of some scholars who have engaged in addressing them with diverse opinions. This paper discusses some core issues of compounding in Dagbanli focusing on typology, headedness and distinction between compounds and phrases in Dagbanli.
Typology of Dagbanli Compounds
Booij (2007) describes the process as a ‘combination of lexemes into larger words,’ which means a compound may comprise two lexical items put together in which one word modifies the head. This definition of a compound dwells on two major issues, that is...
Headedness in Compounding
In compounding, the concept of headedness has played a central role forming the ‘basis for the distinction between endocentric compounds and exocentric compounds in its formation’ (Scalise & Vogel, 2010).Studying Dagbanli data available for this ...
Compounds and Phrases
There are four ways of distinguishing compounds from phrases: “phonological, morphological, morpho-syntactic and semantic”. This paper discusses phonological looking at the assumption that the application of the four criteria is language-specific since ev...
Conclusion
The paper examined some core issues in the study of compounding in Dagbanli focusing on typology and headedness. The paper described Dagbanli word as lexical items with CV syllable form without a coda (e.g., tú ‘insult’). The simplex form can be inflec...
Conflict of Interest
Conflict of Interest: The author declares that there is no conflict of interest.
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