Exploring the Syntax of the Mo / Deg Adjective

This study is largely syntactic and descriptive, and it explores the structure of the Mo/Deg adjective phrase. It, thus, provides answers to the question, “What is the nature of the Mo/Deg adjective phrase?” Data was gathered from thirty-five (35) literate native Mo/Deg speakers who were also very skilful in English language using purposive sampling as the ability to speak and write well in both English and Mo/Deg was crucial. Short simple English sentences which have the structure of the adjective were designed and given to the respondents to rewrite in Mo/Deg.This was done to observe the nature of the adjective structure in the language. Some of the sentences were also given to some staff of the Mo/Deg project of the Ghana Institute of Linguistics, Literacy and Bible Translation (GILLBT) to translate into Mo/Deg because they are ones considered to have deeper formal knowledge of the language. This was to make sure that the correct and acceptable order of the linguistic items in the adjective phrase in the Mo/Deg language was obtained. The translations comprised the data which were analysed using the Systemic Grammar concept of the adjectival group (phrase). The results showed that the Mo/Deg adjective phrase has place for the headword (H) and the qualifier (Q) but does not have a modifier (M). It further found out that the qualifier function in the adjective phrase in the language may be realised by the adverb, the prepositional phrase, and the finite clause. The paper, thus, concluded that the adjective phrase in Mo/Deg language is quite a complex one though without a modifier.


INTRODUCTION
and Naden (1988) intimate that the Mo/Deg language belongs to the Gur language family. It is spoken by over 30,000 people within the Brong-Ahafo and the Northern Regions of Ghana, Atta-Akosah (2004: 15 -16). The two regions are divided by the Black Volta River which also separates the two major Mo/Dega towns, New-Longoro (Mantukwa) in Brong-Ahafo and Bamboi in Northern Region. The whole Mo/Degland was within the Ashanti Territory till the British colonial government carved out the Northern Territory in 1908, using the Black Volta river as the boundary without due consideration to the fact that one ethnic group had been divided over two territories.
The Mo/Deg language has two major dialects: Mangom and Longoro. The Mangom dialect is spoken in the south-south western part of the Northern Region of Ghana in places such as Bamboi, Jama, Jugboi, Nepui (Kapinta), Tasilima, and a few other places, while the Longoro dialect is spoken in the northern portion of the Brong-Ahafo Region in places like: Busuama, Kintampo, Old Longoro, Manchala, Fignyoa (Ahenakom), Kandige, Yaara, Tarbang, Soronuasi, Babatokuma, and other places. Within the Longoro dialect is another brand of the Mangom dialect different from the northern Mangom, and spoken in Mansie (Nyamboi). Yet another slightly different form of the Mo/Deg language which is between Mangom and Longoro is spoken in places like Adadiem, Dokachina and Bonakire in the Jaman North District of the Brong-Ahafo region. Furthermore, another dialect similar to the one spoken in the Jaman North District is spoken in Dwoboi, Wireke, and Zagala in L'Cote d'Ivoire.
Of the two major dialects, the Longoro dialect has been selected for this study because it is more indigenous.
The language is one of the minority languages in Ghana and little is known about it in terms of its grammar and syntax.
This study is syntactic in form and investigates the structure of the adjective phrase with the primary aim or reason of identifying the grammatical elements which constitute the structure of the Mo/Deg adjective, and in doing so, it interprets the meanings of the structures in English. However, it does not examine the functions of the adjective phrase in the language. It thus, answers the question, "What are the grammatical units which constitute the Mo/Deg adjective phrase?" Very little literature or none at all exists on the structure of the adjective phrase and, so this work would be in no small way very useful and important to linguists who want to have some firsthand literature on the Mo/Deg adjective. Also, it would be useful and important to the Ghana Institute of Linguistics, Literacy and Bible Translation (GILLBT) which is trying to document the grammar of the language.

Research Design
Being qualitative in nature, the study employs the micro-ethnographic design technique of the ethnographic research design. This is because the micro-ethnographic design gives room for specific aspects of the culture of a people to be studied in details. Particularly, the micro-ethnographic technique has been applied because it allows detailed description, analysis, and interpretation of the Mo/Deg Adjective phrase to be made. Osuala (2001: 176 -182) and Mustafa (2010: 52) are of the view that ethnographic study provides accurate and rich narratives and that the assertion of ethnographic study to high internal validity stems from the data collection and analysis techniques.

Sampling and Population
The purposive sampling selection technique was used to sample and select the population. This was to look for people who could read and write proficiently in both English and Mo/Deg. Consequently, thirty-five (35) participants were sampled and selected and, of this number; twenty (20) participants were selected from five traditional Mo/Dega towns namely: Busuama, Longoro, Mantukwa, Yaara, and Manchala, with four participants each coming from those towns. This was to make sure that a wide area of where native Mo/Deg is spoken was captured and also to have a variety of exact and acceptable presentations of the structure of the adjective phrase in the language. Additionally, fifteen (15) people were selected from among the staff of the Mo/Deg project of GILLBT to ensure further that more precise information was obtained. Short simple English sentences containing various structures of the adjective phrase were given to them to rewrite into Mo/Deg. The Mo/Deg versions of the English sentences were then used as data and analysed syntactically using the concept of Systemic Grammar framework.

The Systemic Grammar Framework
Systemic grammar was originated by M.A.K Halliday and his associates. Systemic grammar went through two important stages of development. Morley (1985) intimates that "the early form of the theory was known as scale-and-category grammar... which provides a framework for the analysis and description of any stretch of written or spoken language that has actually occurred." The second stage of the development of systemic grammar started in the last half of the 1960s when Halliday's work was progressively more influenced by ideas on the functional nature of language and as a result assumed a semantic dimension. The theory at this time became known as systemic functional grammar.
The theory, according to Thakur (1998: 146) spells out three levels, four categories, and three scales of how language functions. The levels are form, substance and context, and the categories are unit, structure, class, and system, while the scales are rank, exponence, and delicacy. S e p t e m b e r 1 6 , 2 0 1 5

Structure
Structure, according to Morley (1984: 9), is the elements that are composed of a unit in terms of functional elements and the relationship that exists between the elements. Therefore, to say that a unit has structure is to say that it has a number of places which can be filled by the next smaller units, (Thakur, 1998:148). The structure of a group generally has a place for the modifier, the head, and the qualifier. Elements which precede the headword are modifiers and those which follow the head are qualifiers. The headword element is the most obligatory element on which all other elements syntactically depend and must therefore be filled or present in the group structure all the time. The modifier and the qualifier positions in the group structure exist at the level of potentials and may or may not be filled or realised. Thus, the structure of the group is represented as (M) + H + (Q). This means that the elements in parentheses may or may not be filled while the Helement is obligatory.
This formulaic or schematic representation of the group structure applies to the adjectival group. For instance, the following adjectival groups are presented structurally as follows: a. very glad indeed

SYMBOLS AND ABBREVIATIONS USED
For the purpose of this study, the following symbol(s) and abbreviations have been used.

THE STRUCTURE OF THE MO/DEG ADJECTIVE PHRASE
The adjective is seen as a word "…used to describe or modify nouns or pronouns," Quagie (2009: p 82). Taylor (2004: p 191) and Annan (2000: p 26) see it as a word which specifies "…the attributes of nouns." In the Mo/Deg language the adjective describes the noun or specifies its (the noun's) attributes. For example: The adjectives, pag/paag, lwee, and deege describe or specify the attributes of the nouns respectively.
The structure of the adjective phrase according to Aarts and Aarts (1982: p 119) and Thakur (1998: p 50) is made up of the head and the modifier. Aarts and Aarts are of the view that, "the function of the modifier may be realized by a constituent preceding the head." In the structure of the Mo/Deg adjective phrase we can distinguish only the head and the qualifier (post-modifier). That is, it has the structural pattern, H + Q. The Mo/Deg adjective phrase does not have any constituent preceding the head (modifier). However, a noun phrase or a nominal group may precede it with the adjective in a qualifier or post-head position so that the whole phrase becomes a noun phrase or nominal group instead. For example: All the adjectives: jang, bang, and pong are preceded by the nouns, Nen, Bonoo, and Kaah respectively, but, the phrases in which these adjectives occur are all noun phrases. Therefore, the nouns which precede them (the adjectives above) are not pre-modifiers of the respective adjectives.

The Mo/Deg Adjective Head
According to Annan (2000), the adjective head alone is the minimal form of the adjective phrase. The head is considered by Quirk, et al (1973: p 115) as a "…phrase with the adjective as head,…or as the sole realization…" The Mo/Deg adjective head consists of only the adjective. For example: Greenbaum, et al (1990: p 127) says the adjective "…can take comparative and superlative forms. The comparison may be by means of inflections (-er and -est)… or by the addition of the premodifiers more and most." The Mo/Deg adjective does not inflect to show comparison, that is, it does not have comparative or superlative forms. Rather, comparison is shown by the use of the comparative particle, gwaa (more/than) which always follows the adjective in comparative constructions. Example: (i) Som gwaa (ii) Bori gwaa (iii) Kan gwaa Sweet COM P short COM P big COM P Sweet than short than big than The predicative adjectives occur only after the linking or copula verb BE which is either implicit/implied (absent) or explicit/overt (present). This is to say that any time the Mo/Deg adjective is used predicatively, the verb is, are, am, was, or were is absent or present. The constructions above indicate that kan, too, and bohwaa are adjectives used predicatively. Although there is no overt or explicit use of the verb in all the constructions, it is understood by every speaker of the language that the verbs, is and are, are implied. What it means is that whenever the adjective is predicatively used in Mo/Deg as above, the BE form of the verb is always implied. Syntactically, adjectives which occur after implicit or implied verbs may always appear after a mandatory post-head determiner, usually, la or no, as in (i) to (iii) above.

Woman DET is ADJ Teacher DET is ADJ 2SP look ADJ
Woman the is dirty teacher this is friendly (You look sickly) (the woman is dirty) (this teacher is friendly) In the above constructions, sakpaa, welewele, and pontom are adjectives which occur after the verb, do, in each statement. The verb, do, is a linking verb in those constructions, and it is used overtly or explicitly. It is possible for some of these adjectives occurring after the overt or explicit verb, do, to be used postpositively. In such cases the adjectives are pronounced with high tones or if you like stress.
(i) Nen sakpaa (sakpaa pronounced with a high tone) The adjectives, wer and kan, occur only after implicit or implied verbs. However, in the above constructions which are both imperative and persuasive in tone, they occur after the verb, do.
It is also possible for postpositive adjectives in Mo/Deg to be used predicatively; but such adjectives will need to take on inflectional morphemes. What it means is that postpositive adjectives can only be used predicatively if they change form. For instance, the adjectives in column A below are all postpositive while those in B are predicative as a result of adding inflectional morphemes to the postpositive ones. Column C gives the English interpretation or meaning of the adjective. S e p t e m b e r 1 6 , 2 0 1 5 In (i) and (iii) the adjectives are sweem and jang which qualify the singular nouns Yal and Da respectively. In (ii) and (iv) the adjectives, sweema and janga are plural by the addition of the plural marker, a, although the nouns, Yal and Da, still remain singular. By their plural forms, therefore, the adjectives determine the number of the noun they qualify. Once plural adjectives co-occur with nouns, the said nouns must always be singular in form but they have plural connotations so as to agree with the plural adjectives. Usually, the form of the adjective tells whether the said noun is singular or plural. It is therefore syntactically and grammatically unacceptable to have a plural noun followed by a plural adjective in the Mo/Deg language. For instance, it is wrong to have the following construction: It is observed that most adjectives which end in -ble or -ive can only be expressed as clauses. This implies that the qualification position of an adjective head is realised by a number a number of items which follow it.

Qualification in the Adjective phrase
The qualifier function in the Mo/Deg adjective structure is realized by any one of the following: (i) adverb: tama, kohona, to, kerede, taen, peeh, and kpela.
(ii) the prepositional phrase, gwaa, operating as a comparative element, and (iii) the finite clause. The adjectives, som (sweet), pwere (soft). Jugre (tough) and gbangre (quick/fast/smart) are followed by the adverbs: kohona (so), to (too), tama (a bit), and taen (very) respectively in the adjective phrases above. The adjectives, pwere, jugre, and gbangre are predicatve only and occur only after implicit/implied verbs. Som is the only adjective which can be both postpositive and predicative. However, when it is postpositive, it has a low tone but, a high tone when it is predicative.

The Adverb as qualifiers
Only the predicative adjective in the Mo/Deg language allows the intensifier adverb to follow it.

The Prepositional Phrase, gwaa, as Qualifier Operating as a Comparative Element
The morphology of the Mo/Deg adjective does not have any comparative form. However, to indicate comparison particularly by the use of adjectives, the prepositional phrase, gwaa, is used. It usually occurs after the adjective. The structure is usually, Adj + gwaa + an NG. Example: The constructions, (i) to (iv) have wer, biro, jangre, and wilo as adjectives which are followed by the clauses: ke ba nao, biro nomanta maa n sie na, waa ba yawo, and dekalke he toole bono respectively. In (i), the postmodifier clause is introduced by ke, in (ii), nomanta, (iii) waa, and in (iv) dekalke.
In the syntax of the Mo/Deg language, the subordinators, waa and nomanta are mutually inclusive. That is to say that the two subordinators can co-occur within the same adjective phrase. For example: (i) Gwegre nomanta waa baa looro topere belbwa Weak SUB because 3PPL beat-PROG-him day DET Weak so because they beating him day every (weak that is they beat him every day) (ii) Kpegri waa nomanta tolo la de nyino Strong SUB so girl DET is love-PROG-him Strong because so girl the is loving him (strong so the girl loves him) The above constructions show the co-occurrence of the subordinators, waa and nomanta within the adjective phrase structure. As illustrated in (i) and (ii) above, when the two subordinators co-occur, either of them can precede or follow the other without changing the intended meaning.

CONCLUSION
The paper has so far discussed the adjective phrase structure in the Mo/Deg language, and divulged that the adjective phrase is made up of the headword (adjective only) and the postmodification (qualification). The Mo/Deg adjective has no modification. It has plural forms and thus determines the number of the noun it qualifies. The Mo/Deg adjective has two syntactic functions: the predicative and the postpositive functions. The study also revealed that for some postpositive adjectives to be predicative, they need to change form or take on some inflectional morphemes.
The study further revealed that the postmodification function in the adjective phrase structure may be realised by either the adverb, the prepositional phrase,gwaa, operating as a comparative element, the prepositional phrases, te, ke, and ne, and the finite clause.