Abstract
For several decades, linguists have arrived at the conclusion that semantic structure is the area in which the well-formedness of sentence is determined in all natural languages. Over these years, the issue of semantic structure in syntactic analysis of Hausa verbs takes a back-seat in the Hausa language research despite the centrality of verb as category that determines the organization of the rest categories of the sentence. The present paper employs Wallace Chafe’s semantic structure theory to analyze Hausa sentences that were generated from the Parsonian seven grades of Hausa verbs to justify their structural consideration within semantic structure theory which specifies verb semantically in term of their semantic units that include states, processes and actions. The findings of paper indicate that the semantic formation rules govern the configuration of the basic semantic element in well-formed ‘semantic structure’ underlying the sentence of the language in which verbs dictate the selection of accompanying nouns and of the relations which such nouns bear to verbs.
Highlights
Various linguistic researches have shown a consensus of linguists that semantic structure is the area in which the well-formedness of the sentence is determined in all natural languages (Katz and Fodor, 1963; Katz and Postal, 1964)
Through post-semantic processes, which are similar to transformation in Transformation Generative Grammar (TGG) of Chomsky, the configurations are transformed into a series of post-semantic representations which eventually lead to a surface structure
Since the concern of this paper is the centrality of the verb in Hausa sentence structure, the study will begin with grade 7 verb which Parson (1972) explains that its semantic values indicate completive of action as you can see in the following structure: 18
Summary
Various linguistic researches have shown a consensus of linguists that semantic structure is the area in which the well-formedness of the sentence is determined in all natural languages (Katz and Fodor, 1963; Katz and Postal, 1964). The central claims of semantic structure theory focus on the centrality of the verb as the grammatical category that determines the main features in the organization of other categories in the sentence construction (Chomsky, 1955) Despite these claims, the issue of semantic structure in syntactic analysis of Hausa verbs takes a back-seat in the Hausa language studies. There is a substantial amount of literature devoted to the investigation of the syntactic configurations of Hausa sentence constructions (Bagari, 1979; Tuller, 1986; Munkaila, 1990, and Yusuf, 1991) In all these scholarly works, Hausaists like all other linguists agree that verbs and their accompanying nouns may be specified semantically in term of the semantic unit of various kinds.
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