The Syntactic Structure of the Prepositional Phrase in Kiigembe: A Minimalist Perspective
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Date
2022-11
Authors
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Journal ISSN
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Publisher
Kenyatta University
Abstract
This study focuse: 7
Kifgembey diale cts 2?. tt}:es};\l}[?gml structure otj the Prgpositional Phrase (PP) in t!le
Program. It had three objectives Fflnguage with guidance from the Minimalist
in Kiigembe. Secondly, to ide. t'lm, to descnbe.: the syntactic structure of the PP
sentences and finally u’) detern;l' ify the semantic Toles of the PP in Kiigembe
ascotinted For us; b ctermine whether the Kiigembe PP can be adequately
d for using the Minimalist Program. We che he PP for thi h
because it has not been the focus of - We shose. the FR.for L3 [5520ey
Kiigembe dial s of many studies. Further, the choice of the
SIE lialect stemmed from the fact that it has largely been ignored because it
is not the dialect used in documented Lo 1BRCY
on only the PP. In addit sources. In terms of scope, this study focused
4 *. In addition, the focus was only on the semantic roles and not the
syntactic functions of the PP. The Minimalist Program guided this study. Its choice
was based on the assumption that it is a universal theory, and therefore, it can
30001}111 for the grammars of all languages. The study was carried out in Kangeta
location of Igembe Central constituency, Meru County, where the target dialect is
dominant. The purposive sampling method was used to select a sample of ten
re.spondem.s who included five female and five male speakers of the Kilgembe
dialect. This study employed a descriptive research design. The data needed for this
study was Kiigembe sentences from which PPs were extracted and analysed
according to their structures. For each distinct structure, a Minimalist tree diagram
was drawn for analysis. The data was collected using the informal conversational
_recorder aided in capturing the data. In terms of structure, we
omposed of a preposition, the head, and a
ts take the complement position of the PP.
These include the NP and PP and AdvP. We also observed that the PP in Kiigembe
plays various semantic roles; locative, temporal, agent, source, direction,
accompaniment and instrument. Finally, we found out that the PP in Kiigembe can
be accounted for using the Minimalist program. Besides contributing to the studies
carried out in the Kimeru in general, this study may also offer insights to scholars
of dialectal studies to carry out a comparative analysis of Kiigembe and another
the research findings are expected to
variety of the Kimeru language. Moreover, r te
enhance scholarly understanding of the structure of the Kimeru Prepositional
phrase, and therefore, be a resourceful reference point for other related linguistic
studies in phrasal syntax.
Description
A Research Project Submitted to The School of Law, Arts And Social Sciences in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Award of the Degree of Master of Arts of Kenyatta University
November, 2022
Supervisor:
1. Henry S. Nandelenga