A Functional Grammar Approach to the Analysis of Gikuyu Emphatic Clauses
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Date
2010-09
Authors
Wakarindi, P.M.
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Abstract
There is need to preserve and popularize African languages and scholars like Momanyi (2007) call for research, documentation and preservation of the languages by the native speakers. This work is a response to this need. It is a work divided into five chapters. The first chapter is the introduction which provides a background to the study and the statement of the problem. The section also shows the need to study the emphatic structures of Kikuyu, being an area that has been neglected in the past. Also noted is the need to analyze the Kikuyu emphatic clauses functionally, another relatively neglected area since many of the past scholars have used a formal approach. The study has established the categories of Kikuyu emphatic structures, described the order of the linguistic elements in them, identified the kind of prominence they achieve and established how they can be analyzed functionally. The chapter also highlights the significance of the study, justifying it in terms of its applied, practical and theoretical significance. It closes with the scope and limitations of the study. The second chapter provides a review of literature relevant to the study. The literature includes studies on Kikuyu and other Bantu languages. Some studies that have applied Functional Grammar theories have also been reviewed. The section then provides a description of the theory to be applied, Functional Grammar Theory by Halliday (1985). The methodology used is described in the third chapter. It starts with the research design, which is qualitative, followed by the sampling size and procedure. Purposive sampling has been applied. Data collection procedure follows. The chapter ends with data analysis and presentation method. The data is analyzed thematically. Chapter four presents and analyses the data. It is divided into two sections. Section one presents the syntactic emphatic categories that have been identified in Gikuyu. They are classified into three broad categories: the reordering class, the postponement class and the dislocation class. Categories under each class are discussed in details, giving the order of elements in the categories and the kinds of prominence assigned to the highlighted elements in them. The second part applies Halliday's Functional Grammar Theory (1985) to analyze the clauses in terms of clause as exchange. The last chapter, chapter five, summarizes the findings of the study. It further draws the conclusion, gives recommendations and finally suggests some areas related to the study for further research.