SOAS Research Online

Abstract

The aim of this thesis is to offer a description of the verbal phrase in Mandinka in terms of its two main constituents, the verb and the verbal operator, and to give an account of the functions of the members of the class of operators. After a short introduction to the Mandinka people and their language (Chapter One) and an outline of the phonology (Chapter Two), the verbal phrase is considered in respect of its internal structure and its position in the clause, and the group of basic clause types set up (Chapter Three). In Chapter Four the constituents of the verbal phrase are described, a syntactically-based classification of the verbs into three sets is established, and a categorisation given of the operators, which serve as simultaneous exponents of terms from a number of grammatical categories. This chapter also contains an outline of the general structure of the nominal phrase. The following three chapters deal with the various exponential values of the operators and the combination of the verbs be and te with certain adjuncts: Chapter Five covers aspectual features. Chapter Six tense distinctions and Chapter Seven modal characteristics. Chapter Eight describes the role of certain items in conjunction reduction, as substitute forms for operators and some verbs within a sequence of clauses. There are two appendices: the first gives a list of the verbs found in the narratives provided by the main informant and the second includes statistical information which summarises the distribution and the properties of combination of a number of verbs. The thesis concludes with a bibliography.