SOAS Research Online

Abstract

This thesis presents a systematic description of the grammar of the Bekwarra language. The first chapter describes briefly the background to the analysis presented in the thesis and outlines the theoretical framework within which it is set. The system of transcription used in the thesis is explained in Chapter Two, together with a description of the main features of the tonal system of the language. The main body of the grammatical description is contained in Chapters Three to Eleven. Chapter Three contains an account of the sentence, and Chapters Four and Five an account of the clause and its features. The three major phrase classes and their elements and features are then described in turn. Chapter Six contains a description of the verbal phrase and its elements. Chapters Seven and Eight deal with the nominal phrase, the general structure of the phrase and unitary elements being described in the former and complex elements in the latter. Chapters Nine to Eleven are concerned with the adverbial phrase. Chapter Nine contains an account of the structure and the elements of the adverbial phrase, Chapter Ten an account of functionally determined classes and Chapter Eleven an account of adverbial phrase expressions functioning as extensions to the nominal phrase. Chapters Twelve and Thirteen contain respectively a brief summary of the analysis and an analysed text. The thesis ends with a list of abbreviations, a linguistic bibliography and an index.