Ekegusii Verbal Extensions: A Minimalist Approach
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Date
2021
Authors
Magoma, Luka, Sylvia
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Kenyatta University
Abstract
The study uses the Minimalist approach to analyse different types of Ekegusii verbal
extensions. Three objectives guided the study viz: to explain the Ekegusii verbal
extension markers with the Minimalist Program, to describe the individual occurrence
of Ekegusii verbal extensions, to account for the individual co-occurrences of Ekegusii
verbal extensions within the Minimalist Program. Although, there are many types of
verbal extensions, this study set to investigate three types of Ekegusii verbal extensions
namely: applicative which is an argument increasing affix, reversive which is a neutral
affix and passive considered as an argument decreasing affix. The incentive for this
study is derived from the supposition that the Minimalist Program can account for all
world languages syntactic operations thus also referred to as a universal theory. Content
analysis research design was used. Ekegusii already existing written sources
supplemented by introspection were the main sources of the data used in the study.
Purposive sampling was used while choosing four Ekegusii competent speakers
believed to be reliable to verify the data. Purposive sampling was also used when
selecting the Ekegusii written sources. The data obtained was analysed using the
Minimalist Program. The findings showed that Ekegusii has a number of verbal
extensions though the study could not exhaustively deal with all. The Ekegusii verbal
extensions were accounted for in the Minimalist Program. As a source of reference it is
anticipated that this study will be resourceful for scholars interested in Bantu linguistics.
Description
A Project Submitted to the School of Humanities Sciences in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirement for the Award of the Degree of Masters of Arts of Kenyatta University, November, 2021.
Keywords
Ekegusii, Verbal, Extensions, Minimalist Approach