The Case Against A-N Compounding in Akan

Abstract

This article questions the status of Adjectives-Noun nominal compounding ([A- N]N) in Akan. Although the A-N compounding is postulated, no single study offers more than three good examples at any time. This is interesting because compounding is very productive in Akan. Again, in all the putative examples, the adjectives bear prefixes that they do not have elsewhere in the grammar, except when they modify plural nouns. I argue that the prefixes nominalize the adjectives which then must occur as the left-hand nominal modifiers in N-N compounds which are predominantly right-headed in Akan. Real adjective constituents of nominal compounds occur on the right. Thus, the morphological make-up and distribution of the constituents of such compounds suggest that they may be better analyzed as N-N compounds with nominalized adjectives as left-hand constituents. However, we may not rule out the existence of A-N compounding in Akan yet, hoping that proponents may succeed, somehow, to adduce real evidence to justify their postulation.