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Abstract
In the field of Onomastics, many researchers have delved into the study of personal names, place names, church names and school names, among others. This paper gathers another exciting data, (i.e. names that are ascribed to pets in Nzema society) and seeks to examine the morpho-syntactic features of the ‘pet names’. The paper employs the qualitative research approach in providing a descriptive analysis of the linguistic properties that feature in pet names among the people of Nzema. In this paper, ninety (90) pet names are discussed. Relying on Haspelmath’s notion of Framework-free Theory of Grammatical Analysis, the paper demonstrates that the morphological structures of Nzema pet names include single root morphemes, lexical compounding, derivational and inflectional processes, lexical borrowing, and reduplication. These word formation processes are accompanied by some phonological processes such as vowel elision and harmony. At the syntactic/sentential level, the pet names function as simple declarative sentences, imperatives and interrogatives. Compound and complex-embedded clauses were also prevalent in the structure of the pet names. It is ascertained that these pet names are grammatically insightful and can provide a window to understanding the morphosyntactic features of the Nzema language.
Highlights
Naming is considered as one of the components of a cultural script; which is an important practice in many societies (Caesar, 2019). Mensah and Rowan (2019a) contend that names are conventional sings which help to preserve cultural identity and indigenous linguistic heritage
Suzman (1994) and Agyekum (2006) share the view that personal names serve as pointers which can be given to people based on some circumstances that were relevant at the time of their birth
I find it appropriate and effective to ground the morphosyntactic analysis of Nzema pet names in the Framework-free Grammatical Theory; since it is descriptive and seeks to allow a ‘free’ and ‘unrestricted’ analysis of a linguistic phenomenon
Summary
Naming is considered as one of the components of a cultural script; which is an important practice in many societies (Caesar, 2019). Mensah and Rowan (2019a) contend that names are conventional sings which help to preserve cultural identity and indigenous linguistic heritage. Suzman (1994) and Agyekum (2006) share the view that personal names serve as pointers which can be given to people based on some circumstances that were relevant at the time of their birth. African names have communicative contents (Obeng, 1998; Batoma, 2009) which tell stories about past occurrences, experiences and circumstances of birth This is to say that names can serve as social dialogues and cultural narratives (Mensah and Rowan, 2019b) which provide significant information on historical events, and can largely reflect the beliefs, values and general worldview of a particular cultural group. The paper tries to explicate how these names are linguistically insightful, and are worth analysing from a morphosyntactic perspective
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